{"id":10673,"date":"2024-09-21T20:22:46","date_gmt":"2024-09-21T12:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nutritional-humility.me\/oxystaging\/?p=10673"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:30:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T03:30:46","slug":"about-me-part-4-what-i-have-lost-and-starting-anew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nutritional-humility.me\/oxystaging\/about-me-part-4-what-i-have-lost-and-starting-anew\/","title":{"rendered":"About Me (Part 4) What I have lost (and starting anew)."},"content":{"rendered":"

Here Following from Part 3 ~ is my \"passion\" long before I got into nutrition.<\/p>\n

I am writing this with some hesitance. But at some point, people will always ask what my \u201chobbies\u201d are.<\/p>\n

In short, something I invested for about eight years. Then (almost) nine years, at a loss.<\/p>\n

Live it forward,<\/p>\n

AW.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

My Definition of a \u201cHobby\u201d.<\/h2>\n

As preface, I\u2019d like to define what I think a \u201chobby\u201d is. We all have our own \u201cescape\u201d, one way or another from the world of work.<\/p>\n

Suffice to say, mine is a little esoteric. <\/b>Rewarding at one time. Disappointment on another.<\/p>\n

\n

So what is it, exactly? It involves a lot of listening<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cMusical fidelity\u201d, or simply Head-Fi. Headphones, \u201cvintage\u201d vacuum tubes. Power cords. DACs. Burn-in CDs* and more.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

* Yes. A compact disc. Containing nothing but whites, brown, pink noise, and sweep tones. $40<\/strong> ~ was the price I remembered, ordering all the way from US. A little crazy, I know.<\/p>\n

Another obsession followed. Vinyl collection (think of 2000s ~ golden era of soulful house, and deep house). Then more equipment. Buying a used Technics 1200MK2<\/a> and swapping its tonearm myself literally required days<\/strong> worth of trying. Then, patiently recording each and every vinyl I hand-picked \/ ordered from all over the world, including all the (however few) vinyl record basement stores here in WA.<\/p>\n

Just like nutrition and \u201cfitness\u201d this hobby often projects a divisive conversation. Divisive, as in it is at first easy to ridicule because people they'd readily stereotype it all as a \"lifestyle\". Fuelled by \"irresponsible\" financial decisions. And thereby \"character\".<\/p>\n

I don't blame them. Because it is after all very costly lifestyle for either\u00a0keeping or breaking<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>~ <\/strong>your significant relations. <\/a><\/p>\n

But I do have a counter question readily in my head whenever I'm questioned at odds. \"What \"other things\" you have wasted<\/del> spent on, offering little back, if at all ~ to the way you think, express or do throughout daily motions?\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Opioids? Drugs? Booze? NFT tokens? Or ~ even more crazier that so few people don't even ask - entire cars? and\/or Boats? <\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Welcome to another side of me ten years undisclosed. Then another ten years losing it all almost everything (involuntarily).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Beginnings.<\/h2>\n

So where did it all began?\u00a0 I grew up listening anything that is alternative. That includes foreign music. <\/strong>Japanese anime, movies and music in particular.<\/p>\n

I became interested about \"remastering\", or in the audio world ~ \"Sweetening\"<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 I took existing music and retone, re-equalize waveforms and burn them onto a disc (or Minidisc\u00ae, back then).\u00a0 Without knowing one iota about any of the tools - I found parametric EQs<\/strong> and \"FFT\" \/ Fast fourier Transform<\/strong>, and Notch filters<\/strong> within Cool Edit ~ were the only things I spent the most time with.<\/p>\n

But call me guilty. I simply had no idea what I was doing. Completely void of patience, I was looking for anything, tools, effects\/filters that provide the most instant and tactile feedback to my ears.<\/p>\n

But what comes next, is both embarrasment and regret. Listening to my \"work\" the next day\u00a0sounded atrocious<\/strong>. Horrible.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But I knew I was \"chasing\" for a sound signature I was after.<\/p>\n

More importantly ~ listening to foreign music showed me what \"distortion\", \"clipping\", \"warm\", and \"fatigue\" really meant not just to my ears. But also ~ my entire reaction, emotion, as a whole. And that taught\u00a0me something unique.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music ~ is first and foremost a foreign language. I firstly hear (or encode) the melodic tonality first<\/strong>. Then (decoding) the lyrics, second. I tend to prioritize the first being more important than the latter.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Call me strange. The way I perceive \"speech\" is different than most people. I tend to notice the Tonality<\/strong> of someone's voice first<\/strong>. Then, the decoding the Content<\/strong> of that conversation, second.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In any case I spent days, weeks, months patiently burning album after album, one \"remastering\" edit after another. Churning out numerous failed CDRs and CDRWs. Hours sitting down in front of my old Sony multi-disc changer\/deck (and on Minidisc\u00ae). Listening for cues. Writing notes whether I should tweak certain regions. Or just restart my process all over again. Rinse and repeat.<\/p>\n

And thus began - my audiophile journey.<\/p>\n