https://ask.metafilter.com/ The past 24 hours of questions at Ask MetaFilter Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:03:08 GMT Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:03:08 GMT en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60
In 2026, understanding that the answer to these music production questions is constantly changing:

What is it not possible to do on a laptop+audio interface alone that it possible to do in a studio?

What is it not possible to do in a bedroom studio that it is possible to do in a professional recording studio?

What is it not possible to do in a small professional recording studio that it is possible to do in a high-end, Beyoncé records there kind of top-of-the-line recording studio?]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389516/What-was-a-studio-made-for tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389516 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 21:03:08 GMT umbú daw musicproduction recording https://ask.metafilter.com/389516/What-was-a-studio-made-for/rss
Organizer Otto, is a very kind scatterbrain who I've known for years. He's always been supportive of me, and compliments me warmly. But, he also offered me a rate that's 14% (!!!) of Bill's rate, so I don't feel quite as good about him right now!

Otto contacted Bill's agent, who asked $27,000, and came down to $13,000.
Otto contacted me directly and offered $1,500 to start, and came up to $2,000.

Comparisons:
There's no discrimination at play: Bill and I hold all the same demographics.
Bill's education and role are more prestigious worldwide, but I do have excellent national-level credentials and some international acclaim as well.
Bill's social following is 6x higher than mine, but Bill won't be promoting this on social.
Bill is a low-energy presenter, I am a more dynamic presenter.
This event is meant to be practical. Bill's work is abstract; Mine is more practical.
Bill is doing less work - he's present for 1 hour, I'm present for 4 hours.

I have done some press interviews for the event already, which were highly praised.
I have not signed a contract. Asking for a raise the week before the event is short notice, but the event was only finalized 2 weeks ago, so the whole thing has been short notice.

I don't want to burn a bridge with Organizer Otto, but we don't really move in the same circles, so it wouldn't be a huge problem if I did. Otto's first message to me was so casual and disorganized that I actually thought he was asking me to volunteer, so I assumed they had no budget at all! I feel badly that asking a raise now puts Otto in an awkward position, but I also feel hurt and lowballed by the 14% offer. I should have negotiated harder, lesson learned.

Can you help me write Otto an email to ask for more money? Or, try to talk me out of it, if you think that's better.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389515/Leverage-a-raise-fast tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389515 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:01:30 GMT Anonymous negotiation https://ask.metafilter.com/389515/Leverage-a-raise-fast/rss
I'm looking for all-cotton underwear with a wide crotch that will work better with pads. Most underwear has thin crotches that just aren't holding up.

I need to fasten wings around this thing. We need coverage. How are other people handling this? Thank you.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389514/Good-underwear-for-periods-Not-period-underwear tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389514 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:01:23 GMT Anonymous periods underwear https://ask.metafilter.com/389514/Good-underwear-for-periods-Not-period-underwear/rss
Organizer Otto, is a very kind scatterbrain who I've known for years. He's always been supportive of me, and compliments me warmly. But, he also offered me a rate that's 14% (!!!) of Bill's rate, so I don't feel quite as good about him right now!

Otto contacted Bill's agent, who asked $27,000, and came down to $13,000.
Otto contacted me directly and offered $1,500 to start, and came up to $2,000.

Comparisons:
There's no discrimination at play: Bill and I hold all the same demographics.
Bill's education and role are more prestigious worldwide, but I do have excellent national-level credentials and some international acclaim as well.
Bill's social following is 6x higher than mine, but Bill won't be promoting this on social.
Bill is a low-energy presenter, I am a more dynamic presenter.
This event is meant to be practical. Bill's work is abstract; Mine is more practical.
Bill is doing less work - he's present for 1 hour, I'm present for 4 hours.

I have done some press interviews for the event already, which were highly praised.
I have not signed a contract. Asking for a raise the week before the event is short notice, but the event was only finalized 2 weeks ago, so the whole thing has been short notice.

I don't want to burn a bridge with Organizer Otto, but we don't really move in the same circles, so it wouldn't be a huge problem if I did. Otto's first message to me was so casual and disorganized that I actually thought he was asking me to volunteer, so I assumed they had no budget at all! I feel badly that asking a raise now puts Otto in an awkward position, but I also feel hurt and lowballed by the 14% offer. I should have negotiated harder, lesson learned.

Can you help me write Otto an email to ask for more money? Or, try to talk me out of it, if you think that's better.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389513/Leverage-a-raise-fast tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389513 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 17:01:13 GMT Anonymous negotiation https://ask.metafilter.com/389513/Leverage-a-raise-fast/rss
I'm open to any languages, but in particular Spanish (as used by people in Western US States), Farsi, and Arabic.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389512/What-is-playdate-in-other-languages tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389512 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 15:14:16 GMT Toddles children languages play https://ask.metafilter.com/389512/What-is-playdate-in-other-languages/rss
I sometimes ride my bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, which has a shared cyclist/pedestrian area. It has a lot of ambient highway speed traffic noise, pedestrian tourists who sometimes step into the marked bike lane directly in front of oncoming bike traffic without looking first, tourist bicyclists who are frequently stopped in the bike lane, and several entirely blind turns where close call head on collisions are the norm. I'm looking for a bike horn that can be heard above the ambient traffic noise to beep at pedestrians and cyclists when I'm going around the blind turns and when a collision is imminent because someone has stepped into or stopped in the bike lane without first checking to see if it's clear.

This question was asked previously a decade ago about bike horns for car traffic. While I would occasionally find it useful to honk at cars, I'm much more concerned about signaling to pedestrians and cyclists and probably don't need something nearly so loud for that.

(Also if you are planning on walking across the Golden Gate Bridge anytime soon, this is a PSA to look both ways before leaving the pedestrian area. Thank you, it will keep us all safe.)]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389511/Bike-horn-for-warning-oblivious-pedestrians tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389511 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 02:11:00 GMT A Blue Moon beepbeep bicycle https://ask.metafilter.com/389511/Bike-horn-for-warning-oblivious-pedestrians/rss
I love birds and frequently give the crows on my street a few nuts when I pass by. They know me by sight and almost always glide down and land a few feet away, and come as close as within reach to grab a cashew. I like to think we're at least on the bird-human friend spectrum.

These crows never attack or act aggressively toward me, as I know they do when they think you're threatening their chicks or something.

The crow in question is a known street crow, one of three pairs I regularly see. (I can't tell them apart by sight but by their location and behavior.) Normally it and its partner will swoop down from one of a few locations and meet me about at the middle of the block. (This was the more assertive of the two, for what it's worth.)

This morning, as I walked down the sidewalk in the normal way, it swooped in very close from directly behind me, dropping a very big poo dead center at the top of my back, absolute bullseye. Then continued its cruise to land some feet ahead of me and to my right, looking at me quite normally (until I realized what had happened and ran back inside to clean up).

My question is this: does this act have meaning to the crow, and if so, what is that meaning?

I know crows are intelligent. This one is friendly and playful - it will follow or hop along, or sometimes do a little dip or caw to get my attention. I know they play with one another, chasing and bumping one another and so on - I'm careful not to cause squabbles between the groups on the block but I see it happen anyway. And I know this crow knows me in particular as an individual, and has for at least a year.

Is pooping on something a playful thing for them, like chasing each other around? Is it an aggressive thing, like swooping people or biting? Is it a territory thing, like certain caws?

Or am I overthinking it (well - obviously I am) and this means nothing? I just can't bring myself to believe that the crow waited for me to come out, lined up, did a direct over-the-head pass, opened up at the perfect moment and landed a direct hit just by total chance. If it was a chickadee I would assume it was meaningless. But crows are dog-level entities. If a dog pooped on your bed (let alone head), would you assume it was an accident? I think you would suspect a motive!

So, again, my question to fellow crow enthusiasts and nature lovers is, what did this crow bombing run mean, if anything? Thank you for your indulgence.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389510/Did-this-crow-poop-on-me-deliberately tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389510 Tue, 21 Apr 2026 23:38:56 GMT BlackLeotardFront bird birds birdwatching corvids corvus crow crows ornithology https://ask.metafilter.com/389510/Did-this-crow-poop-on-me-deliberately/rss
This is a new role, so no one knew wtf they were doing.

I basically supervise trainees as they come onto the job. They can train for up to a year and hopefully, if they're successful, get promoted within the year. Previously, a senior manager supervised this group, but he was too swamped with his huge team that they didn't actually get supervised. So, it moved to the field supervisors, who actually do interface with the trainees at least weekly.

My role became the hub where trainees would formally fall under me, but my role is primarily within the office, not the field. They want me to systemize things because it's a huge organization, but to me... even as a first time manager, trainees and humans need some kind of supervision and guidance. I tried doing 1:1s at first, but then I started running out of time to do my other work. So I decided to do group quarterly meetings and offer to have them reach out to me whenever they needed. I broke them out into cohorts and saw each new cohort at least once a week for their first month and was able to connect with them.

When they're out in the field, I built a system where the field supervisors could provide me feedback about the trainees' performance and if I needed to shore up things with training. This worked for trainees who are pretty self sufficient, but those that need more guidance and management are not doing so well. So I thought that I should try 1:1s with those that aren't doing so well.

However, I don't really see/do their work enough to give them great feedback or help. The field supervisors should be doing that, but they're also overwhelmed with work, so they're not doing it that often.

If the solution is pick back up 1:1s with those that are struggling, I question if my time with the trainees will be helpful. I'm very much a first-time middle manager with not that much power, so I feel the only thing I can really do helpfully is tell them about the nuances of our culture and the red tape that lines leadership, and advocate for them for promotion. Is that even helpful in a 1:1? I also feel awkward because the few times I've shared feedback (that came from the field supervisor... that they didn't share with the trainee but expected me to) I didn't have enough context to adequately share feedback in a helpful way. When I did, I get an upset trainee that wants to talk to the field supervisor and hear it straight from them.

I just... I don't know what to do. My boss doesn't want me directly supervising the trainees because "that's what the field supervisors should do and you have other things we hired you to do" but they're not doing it. I'm still their manager in title and thus will be expected to follow up on these things. If field supervisors are not doing supervising/managing, the trainees are suffering or in the dark and don't have an opportunity to do better. Then it reflects poorly on their training (which is what I manage.) I also feel an obligation to the trainees. At least to know I tried to do what I can so they have the opportunity to move up, if they're doing well. But I feel like this is a formula for failure except for those that are already strong self-starters.

How in the world should I approach this? I am losing sleep over this. Or do I just let them fail because the system sucks?

I am also looking for a job where I don't have to be a manager. When I accepted this job, it was not a managerial role. But they switched it after I accepted it. I'm still pissed about that, but for now, I am working with what I got.]]> https://ask.metafilter.com/389509/I-am-your-manager-but-Im-not-your-manager tag:ask.metafilter.com,2026:site.389509 Tue, 21 Apr 2026 21:38:43 GMT socky bottoms direct indirect manager reports https://ask.metafilter.com/389509/I-am-your-manager-but-Im-not-your-manager/rss