Luoyang, with snow falling.
After lunch, I was stuffed. The outdoor amusement park was closed, so we just walked a loop through the park instead.
There was an older man singing there. His voice was full and steady, with the kind of control that felt genuinely professional.
My kid joked that he could sing too. Just joking, of course. If it were a performance based on playing video games, he probably would not have wanted any part of it.
The older child and I walked over. He wanted me to ask about the setup, so I waited until the song ended.
When he finished, I asked what kind of speaker he was using, because the sound carried surprisingly well. But looking at the small cart beside him, I could not see any speaker at all. He was only holding a microphone. The shape of the other end reminded me a little of the large head of an old flashlight.
He said that was all he had, just that microphone. I told him it sounded good.
Because I was standing close, I could clearly hear the difference between his unmixed voice and the processed sound coming out. It was obvious that a voice can be given a kind of “beauty filter” too—the before and after were noticeably different.
I had played around with voice-changing software before, but I had not really expected to run into someone using that sort of thing as part of a serious singing setup. From a distance, the effect was pretty good. Up close, you could hear exactly what was going on.
Back in the residential compound, the neighborhood loudspeaker was broadcasting announcements. Fireworks and firecrackers are not allowed to be sold, bought, or set off inside the compound. They have to be used in designated places. In the past, doing it out on the road was enough.
I skipped dinner.
Just had a bit of naan from a shop on the street and an apple.
Lately I have been using an old laptop my father-in-law no longer needs. https://app.simplenote.com/ syncs notes between the web version and the phone app. On my phone, I use Obsidian to publish to WordPress. For RSS, I read through tt-rss. Follow requires extra workarounds, and I do not want to install too much software. If something can be handled in the browser, I would rather just use the browser.