What's on your mind now?

[Bob]

I'll take a cesium metronome.  Haven't checked prices, but they sound pretty accurate.  Pretty accurate.

[Bob]

If you put food in the microwave, like meat, and then later add veggies, the veggies have more water.  Do the microwaves zap those water-filled veggies more or also keep cooking the meat?  I just did this -- nuked meat, then added veggies in the last minute.  After that the meat still didn't seem to be cooking.

[Bob]

If you locked the Pillsbury dough boy in the oven... 350 for about an hour...

[visitor]

family photos. this one of the lot w/ their beloved cat

[goldentone]

A woodmaker, his wife, and their never-failing marriage. . .

[Bob]

[Bob]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141215094147.htm

Interesting way to test things.

[Bob]

How to have more energy, in the moment and over the entire day.  And yet still be able to be really, really lazy....

[Bob]

Interesting.

https://imaginationstationtoledo.org/content/2011/01/the-tri-zonal-warper/

[goldentone]

[Bob]

Something feels off or at least a little different lately.....

[Bob]

Nightmare time....

You're in charge of a concert.  Students are all waiting (although how you'll get them on and off stage never enters your mind during the dream).  You have a giant pile of music, and you believe the right pieces are in there.  You're vaguely aware that the student have never even seen this music though.  So you're digging through the music, trying to find a piece for the next student or student group.  Students are waiting for you just offstage.  And... The whole audience is seated out there waiting.  Idiot supervisor is getting impatient.   The dream drags on and even you start to wonder if you're actually going to find a piece.  Even if you do find something, the students have never seen or heard the music before.  And it's becoming more and more apparent that now you've made the audience wait a long time while you're digging through stuff, except you're actually not going to find that piece.  Everyone has just sat there waiting and waiting.

[Bob]

Dangerous territory....  If you eat food that's expired, but the food was already meant to be rotten of molded a bit to begin with.... Is that ok?  Say it's four months past the expiration date.     I guess we'll find out....


That, an injury potentially again, and my practicing is sucking.  Not even really sucking.  Just non-existent.  Which sucks.

[Bob]

Interesting.  I've heard of this.  I didn't know it had a name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2012/04/17/ego-depletion/
https://fourhourworkweek.com/2012/08/12/understanding-the-dangers-of-ego-depletion/

[diomedes]

The markup on roses at this time of year.... they really should implement laws on this.

[j_menz]

The markup on roses at this time of year.... they really should implement laws on this.

Or you should grow your own. Then they're free.

[goldentone]

Arthur Revere proclaims, to the hollows and the dens, that many winters are at their ends.

[perprocrastinate]

I can't get any consistent practice time in. Ugh, the downfalls of living on campus.

I feel like such an ungrateful little #$%^&^% for saying this, but why the hell does my residence hall even have practice rooms if they're literally only available four hours a day? They don't trust us enough to not break the pianos/set the room on fire that I have to wait until 8 PM every day for an RA to key me in..

[j_menz]

Have you taken it up with the governing bodies?

[perprocrastinate]

Yes, and apparently this policy is "set in accordance in protecting all school property," or so I'm told.
I've never been more jealous of music majors. (then again, if I was one, I'd probably go crazy within a week)

[j_menz]

I'd probably go crazy within a week

This response is my good deed for the week. 

[perprocrastinate]

This response is my good deed for the week. 

I, on behalf of Pianostreet and all its members, thank you.

On another note, does anyone remember the name of a classical musician a while ago who committed a rather controversial act, causing a little uproar here? I apologize for my extremely vague description, and maybe I'm remembering something else, but this has been scratching at the back of my head because I read something on another website.

[j_menz]

On another note, does anyone remember the name of a classical musician a while ago who committed a rather controversial act, causing a little uproar here? I apologize for my extremely vague description, and maybe I'm remembering something else, but this has been scratching at the back of my head because I read something on another website.

Could you be any more vague?

"[A] classical musician a while ago who committed a rather controversial act, causing a little uproar " could be anyone. Mozart? One of the Bach boys? Haydn?

[Bob]

I was amused.  Looks like it might be part of a series.

[Bob]

Interesting/exciting dream.

I doze off...

I'm standing on a road with another guy.  Nighttime.  We're there monitoring things.  We have some kind of device shows us... where the alien fighter crafts are.  Haha.  And then the battle starts.   It's like Independence Day or Ender's Game.  Us vs. them.  Our part (monitoring) must have been done because we start heading home.  Alien craft, jets, and blue lights start flashing in the clouds.  Some kind of explosion up in the clouds.  I try not to think about it, but I figure it must be one of ours.  And then on the horizon there's a giant mushroom cloud.  Very distant but by the size it's taking up on the horizon it's got to be huge.  Huger and then huge.  Not even really a mushroom shape.  A section of the horizon just goes up in a nuclear burst.  I remember seeing a shockwave in the distance.  We continue heading home.  Get to the basement because what else are we going to do?  And of course travelling west is completely out now.  Once we get home the device shows there's some alien craft stationary in the place we just were, probably crashed. 

And then I woke up and hear the thunder from the rain/thunderstorm youtube video I had left on.  That translated into sounds of fighting in the dream.

Exciting dream though.  Very apocalyptic.  Pretty coherent.  Nothing really off-plot about it.  Progressed along decently.  Special effects were pretty good.  A little cliché overall though too.

[goldentone]

If your dream means anything, it would have to do with the monitoring.  If perhaps tied into the thoughts you mentioned in your depressing thoughts thread.  It's interesting in that it doesn't seem to have any odd elements to it that make dreams strange and unreal.

[Bob]

It was very coherent.  Everything was in line with the plot, made sense in its own dream terms, and there a build up in drama. 

Man... Even whatever would have come next.  Can't go west because of the nuclear explosion.  But if you go east there's a downed alien spacecraft there.  North and south are left, but the road don't travel that way.  If you sit still, you know that alien will probably come along soon.

Depending on the wind, travelling after a nuclear explosion would be a bad idea.  Dang... I guess I'd have to stay in side.  The wind there would blow west to east I think.  The smartest thing still sounds like getting out as soon as possible and heading east and then either north or south.

[Bob]

Dang... Nothing works for this.

https://www.handspeak.com/word/p/piano.mp4


And that kind of gives it away. 

[perprocrastinate]

https://ineedahandjob.com/Handjob/ORDER_YOUR_HANDJOB.html

Oh man, my sides. The link is safe for work, don't worry.

[perprocrastinate]

I think I have a problem. 90% of the music I've been listening to for the last week is comprised of Gould's Bach recordings.

It's just so..good.

[Bob]

Interesting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31604026

[diomedes]

Interesting.

Interesting indeed. After reading some of that, there was a link underneath. Dare i say, even more interesting?

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31589764

[Bob]

Hell no.  Blech...

[goldentone]

[visitor]

[cwjalex]

Interesting indeed. After reading some of that, there was a link underneath. Dare i say, even more interesting?

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31589764

i would try them just out of curiosity.  i used to eat bugs when i was a little kid, but i don't remember what they tasted like.

[perprocrastinate]

Lately I've been stressing out way too much about everything. I overreact about every failure, and everything that goes wrong in my day.

I need a chill pill.

[Bob]

I'm still kind of amazed we breath the stuff fat is made of out when we lose weight.
https://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7257

CO2 and water.

[goldentone]

I believe that would support my theory of late that if we increase our breathing capacity we will lose weight.

[Bob]

Thanks brain.  Nice way to wake up.  Dreaming of getting a really, really good night's sleep.  In the dream I sleep a little longer, waking up even more rested.  Also in the dream, I'm half awake and check the clock.... Does it really say that?  That late?  It dawns on me that it's just at the end of the time it would take to do that performance, the one I was supposed to be at, the one that would just be ending about now.  Factor in travelling time and there's no way I would make it there during that time frame at all, so realistically there's no point on even trying to rush over.

And then I really wake up.  Nothing like a missed performance dream, with the added touch of being aware that the performance window is still happening, but it's at the end so there isn't much point trying to get there anyway.

[goldentone]

The orange juice tastes really sunny today.

[goldentone]

[goldentone]

And no word from the Peanut Gallery.

Onward chugga.

[goldentone]

Done huntin'.  Gatherin' the firewood.

[Bob]

Might not matter, given this timeline.... By the time a decision like this would have to be made, science and medicine may have solved this.

This idea has crossed my mind a few times over the last few years. 

Dystopian horror movies sometimes have the scenario where people are going off to die or kill themselves.  Logan's Run was one I think.  That idea. 

But... What if they're young/early adult/say 25-years-old, healthy their whole life, and their life is something like 80 years or a 100 years long?  But a set end date.

A few times I've thought, "Hey, they've got a longer "young" life.  That doesn't sound so bad.  Definitely not horrific."

So given a choice like this, which would you choose?
Regular life.  You might die earlier or later.  You might physically and mentally fall apart toward the end.  The end might drag out 20 or 30 years now with present medicine.
Or, would you take being a healthy 25-year-old, and be very certain (accidents aside), that you will stay young and healthy, disease free, but the catch is at the end of a set period of years, you're done.  Dead.  Time's up. 

On one hand, it might be horrific that you have to die like that, but on the other... That's still a long, long time of staying younger and healthy. 

Add reality, and I imagine we'll be able to keep people living longer.  I suppose in this scenario it would be a one-time decision (probably on your parents part), where science can keep you young, but can only control the length of your life up to a given point.   And apparently, it's the same given point for everyone.

So, which would you choose?

Also on the reality side, we're looking at disease, dying younger/middle/older, having a low quality of life for decades possibly at the end.  There's not a lot of movie-style drama, but being stuck in a body that's physically broken down or having your mind break down does sound horrific.  And it's real.  Even scarier.

[Bob]

This sounds like turning myself into a zombie, although... I suppose it just is though.

I'm wondering if I could clear out my mind.  And focus it.
And either number up my body... or toughen it up... Something so it's not distracted by movement and usual aches and pains of daily life.
And something with movement.  Either having the heart pumping or being oblivious to that sensation I guess.
And something with -- same thing I guess -- being numbed up to the awkward pinches, etc. when you move in different ways.  Lots with movement here....
...if I could just zone out a bit but half-mindedly and physically.... with the whole goal being to get more stuff done.

It just sounds a bit like being a zombie though.  I suppose the part that this removes is physically and mentally wearing out.  It wouldn't require a lot of willpower either. 

[Bob]

I think I'd like my own book, the Book of Bob.  It wouldn't be too long of a book, but not short either.

[visitor]

Fighting

[Bob]

I find both parts of that gif equally amusing.

[Bob]

Interesting....

If you take a body part, say a tooth...
If it's attached, I care about it.  It's part of me.
But at what point does it become "not part of me?"  And do I still about it?
If it's a tooth, and I'm left in a negative state, then that tooth is still "me."  Although I think that feeling would fade pretty quickly -- It's quickly becoming a dead tooth, and it's not me anymore.
But if I had a replacement right away, then the old tooth would immediately not be me anymore as soon as it's removed.  What would I need that for? 
And if the replacement were better than my original tooth... Then was the original tooth every really me?

And something like a watch, I don't consider it me, but I do expect it to be there nearly all the time.