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CynthiaW's avatar

Daughter D won a game of "Under Grove", the tree and mushroom game, against me and her dad. She's pleased with herself. We're still figuring out how to play, so nobody has any strategy, just random actions and, "What does this even mean?" May have to go to the game company's website to figure out some of it.

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Graham Cunningham's avatar

"In our sepia-tinged picture of life before the dawn of mass-media, people used to gather round the proverbial fireside and tell each other stories. These were generally stories of a collective past...real or imagined. Folk tales, salutary tales and nursery rhymes with implicit guidance on how to be and how not to be. A story book of mythic heroic or dastardly deeds ranging across time and from the local to the cosmic. Even if this is a romanticised picture of a by-the-fireside past, it is a warming picture. Fast forward to our civilisation’s 21st c. and we seem increasingly to live a Twittified, Instagramed, TikToked, MSMed (and Substacked) PERMANENT NOW. Leaving less and less head-space for quiet reflection.

Before the age of mass media, most people inhabited a mental universe in which the daily fare of factual ‘news’ was localised and of a comprehensible scale. ‘News’ about the world beyond one’s immediate, intimate environment was scarce leaving plenty of head-space for other ways of viewing reality. So has the digital age diminished our capacity for those longer perspectives, thereby narrowing our mental horizons and impoverishing us?" https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west

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Phil H's avatar

Good Sunday morning. In the 50s when I first woke up, now after church it's 65, with a high in the 70s and sunny.

The Ohio State Buckeyes won their home opener over the Texas Longhorns, 14-7. Because Texas was ranked 31 and the buckeyes were #3, and because OSU beat Texas in the playoff semi-finals last seasons, the game was heavily hyped. But both teams played well and in the 12 game playoff system, both teams are very viable.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Congratulations on your sportball success!

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CynthiaW's avatar

Placido Domingo, everyone. I slept until 6:30. I never do that!

More work on D's room today. Sheldon will probably come over later to do laundry and tell us about his school progress after two weeks.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Morning. Milder this morning, and a bit less dry, at around 51ºF.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I would love to have 51Fs. You're not that far north of me, so it seems really unfair.

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M. Trosino's avatar

You can have any number of our 42 to 44Fs of the last few days, if you'd like. I'm ready to trade up to something with at least a 5 for starters.

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CynthiaW's avatar

That would be great. I'd get my electric blanket out and put it on my short-person chair to stay warm in the morning. It reminds me of Shannon, who would walk up to the chair and hate until I picked her up and put her in the chair. Then she would stand in the chair and hate until I turned the heat on. Then she would curl up in a ball and snore.

Best cat ever.

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M. Trosino's avatar

Short-person chair? Care to elaborate on that?

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CynthiaW's avatar

I am the shortest in my family by several inches. I have my very own Short Person Chair (from the consignment store) that nobody else is allowed to sit in, EVER, except for cats when we had resident cats.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I came in 2nd at Wingspan; my husband was the winner. It was a close game. Thor made a "root beer float" freezer pie and root beer flavored whipped cream instead of apple crumble. Vlad is now looking up more pie recipes.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Today's wedding was a success in spite of the bride's arriving 20 minutes late. We have almost 2 weeks before the next one.

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Jay Janney's avatar

I was an hour late for my wedding to Pam. I arrived 11 minutes before she walked down the aisle. We had to shoot some wedding photos after the wedding, rather than before. Pam was calm throughout it.

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CynthiaW's avatar

If you arrived before she walked down the aisle, that's like on time.

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M. Trosino's avatar

In the future you might insist that prospective wedding parties watch and listen to this brief instructional video and sign an affidavit under penalty of law for perjury that they have seen, heard and understand it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7r2-S1Gw4U

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CynthiaW's avatar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B27dfM8ksf0&list=RDB27dfM8ksf0&start_radio=1

This is from the Era of the Great Mullets.

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M. Trosino's avatar

Ha! I saw and listened to that one while perusing YouTube for the 'Ol Blue Eyes missive about timely church appearances.

Great Mullets, indeed!

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C C Writer's avatar

Car ran out of gas? Wardrobe malfunction? Last-minute reworking of hairstyle?

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M. Trosino's avatar

Maybe it took a while to get her feet warm enough to walk on properly?

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CynthiaW's avatar

Nobody told us. Might have been something involving the child of about two years old who helped walk her up the aisle, along with what looked like the bride's older sister.

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Phil H's avatar

I always marvel at sitcom or movie/TV depictions of weddings whethger the groom (or the bride) gets "cold feet" and doesn't show up. that makes for a good story, but I ever heard of that happening in the real world. If one party wants to back out, that happens before the Big Day.

Or does anyone know of this happening?

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CynthiaW's avatar

I have not ever heard of this happening in real life. I did have a friend back at USAA who said that she probably wouldn't have married her first husband except that so much money had already been spent.

My father told me a couple of days before my wedding that, if I decided not to get married, it would be okay: we'd have the reception anyway. Neither my family nor my friends were the kind to let a party go to waste.

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Phil H's avatar

Wow! Did your dad have reservations about your fiance?

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CynthiaW's avatar

No, he thought he was fine. He just didn't want me to feel like I had to do it because it was paid for.

My mother asked my fiancé why he wanted to marry me. I said, "Yeah, watch out: in 30 years, I'll be just like her." (To be fair, it's taken more like 40 ;-).

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C C Writer's avatar

Sounds plausible, especially as they all eventually showed up.

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CynthiaW's avatar

The priest at the church in Monroe, I hear, will just leave if the people aren't ready to start the wedding on time. Our deacon is not like that, though: he just hangs around shooting the breeze until, eventually, the wedding or Quinceañera occurs.

The next wedding we do will be celebrated by our new priest, and also the deacon, because the priest doesn't know any Spanish. I don't know if he'll be antsy or not.

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Jay Janney's avatar

Am I thoughtful person? Ten minutes before the game today I shut off both the powerwasher and the leaf blower. Did my neighbors thank me? No! 😡

Katie bought a new couch today, they deliver it Thursday. I offered to stay home until it arrives, but I have to go to the office by 1pm (Meeting with the Dean).

I powerwashed the front porch, Katie thought it looked better, we discussed putting concrete paint on it. With the quilt retreat coming up in two weeks, that might be a project! I might also buy some shiny "garage floor paint" and paint much of the garage floor. I don't think i can move out all the shelving to get all of it, but if I get this part done then in the spring we can have all the kids come help finish it.

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M. Trosino's avatar

> concrete paint <

Huh. Do you apply that with a brush or a trowel?

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IncognitoG's avatar

You could do it without either, at which point it would be abstract rather than concrete.

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Jay Janney's avatar

I think you use a brush, unless you get frustrated doing it, then you just throw in the trowel....

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M. Trosino's avatar

Jason Pollock's not available for comment. But Gerhard Richter says he needs concrete proof of the truth of your assertion before he'd be willing to agree with it.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Well played.

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DougAz's avatar

Modern content -- yawn ! It's so trivial !!! :) :)

Written literature - books. About 100 million throughout history - If you tried to read one book a day, it would take you over 273,000 years to finish 100 million titles. And by then, a few million more would’ve been added. It is about 7.5 trillion words. If you read continuously, being served your tea and biscuits, bagels and coffee, it would take you 57,000 years.

Music -

Estimated Total: Between 300 million and 500 million unique musical compositions. It would take a mere 3,800 years. For about 5 trillion unique notes (ie chords, instruments)

We have about 30 billion pages of written literature/writings compared to 1 billion pages of sheet music.

So, online content seems more overwhelming than reading or listening to music - because why ?

I think it is because of ONE thing --- availability and accessibility -

a. Online content is - well "presenented" mostly. More than searched ?

b. People have no idea, of the scale, scope, depth of mankind's writings and music - as noted above it is tetratitanic ! :)

c. IF - people had more exposure and teaching --- to be:

1. curious.

2. ask questions

3. Then discovery would find these riches --- hidden treasures - but

Obvoiusly - we have, and we need - filters to selectively find - and we use that which we know, we like already more than searching for that which we don't know, and we think we do not like - because - we have nano-limited exposure to mankind's cultural outputs.

What do you think ? How often do you go seek that what you do not know ? but may totally enjoy if you treasure hunted it ?

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IncognitoG's avatar

Well. When it comes to numbers, some people just try to claim any ol’ thing. *sniff*

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DougAz's avatar

That's what's fun about numbers! Invariant objective impersonal things used subjectively!!

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IncognitoG's avatar

I work with high-quality imaginary numbers.

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Phil H's avatar

What are you, a mathematician, physicist or electrical engineer?

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M. Trosino's avatar

He's a Quantum Blogger.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Only in my dreams.

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Phil H's avatar

That is, in your imagination? 🙂

BTW, imaginary numbers (based on the square root of -1) are quite real and used by those professions.

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Kurt's avatar

1. I am.

2. Pretty much from the time I wake up.

3. Enjoyment is transient, searching is forever.

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DougAz's avatar

You are of the rare breed of constant curiosity!!

As are we here!

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Kurt's avatar

Folks in China tell me they like me because I'm curious.

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C C Writer's avatar

You could say I'm a fan of that illustration of the cross section of the elm branch

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C C Writer's avatar

I guess I managed to pre-emptively solve that problem a while back, when I realized that FOMO (fear of missing out) was a completely futile reaction to the reality of the modern world of proliferating content. So I just got clear in my mind that there was no point in having regrets about not consuming all the content I didn't consume. A more workable strategy is to just try to optimize the selection of content one does have time for, from such standpoints as quality, truth, positive energy, or an interesting narrative arc. It still requires openness to new things, but one must also be OK with just not worrying about the phenomenon of random stuff flying over your head and landing elsewhere to be picked up by others. Probably a lot of that stuff is also represented in the pieces that I do consume.

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Kurt's avatar

Right. All that stuff hovering around one everywhere can be ignored with no apparent negative consequence.

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Kurt's avatar

It's why I tell friends "please don't send me any more TikTok links". I get cranky when folks send me TikTok links. It's like someone thinking a line of coke is cool, so they want me to try it.

I'm irredeemable, I know.

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DougAz's avatar

I can't even spell tik-tak

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C C Writer's avatar

Are you thinking of little houses made of ticky-tacky?

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DougAz's avatar

too sticky tocky stucky tacky taffy

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C C Writer's avatar

Stuck on Stuckey's?

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Kurt's avatar

I'll take a pecan log roll, please.

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M. Trosino's avatar

🤣

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C C Writer's avatar

Good morning. I was busy yesterday on a copyediting project, in the course of which I did a deep dive into the question of whether there should be a piece of punctuation between the two i's in Hawaii. Turns out that when you see that, it's not even an apostrophe, it's a diacritical mark oriented the other way, and according to some experts it's not even necessary or appropriate, for some reasons I could elaborate that would probably bore everyone, so I won't.

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DougAz's avatar

Per my new post - I don't know this, but i am curious !

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C C Writer's avatar

I was, too! Fortunately I am in a position where sometimes the assignment is to indulge my curiosity.

Short summary: Those who assume the mark must be used because to do otherwise is to fail to respect indigenous cultures, are making too many assumptions. It's a more complicated and nuanced situation on the ground in Hawaii, while the rules governing styling of place names in English are straightforward and politically neutral.

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M. Trosino's avatar

*politically neutral*

I didn't know any such thing actually existed anymore...

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C C Writer's avatar

There are still odd little corners where that's the expectation.

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IncognitoG's avatar

That’s today’s Silent Majority, I strongly suspect.

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M. Trosino's avatar

It would be easier to know for sure if they spoke up, wouldn't it?

Never mind. I'll be content not knowing, if it means less political blah, blah, blah...

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IncognitoG's avatar

I had assumed it was a diacritical mark standing in for (what linguists/phoneticists call) a glottal stop.

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C C Writer's avatar

That is correct. But for several reasons, it's not necessarily appropriate to use it in the name of the state.

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Paul Britton's avatar

Getting it right was important, though.

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C C Writer's avatar

Important to me, and also important to those who pay me to do the work. And best of all, I don't think AI would have been able to get it right.

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Paul Britton's avatar

No, it wouldn’t. And I doubt very much if it ever will.

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John M.'s avatar

'Saturated Attention'?

The solution is to saturate before using:

https://www.greenlivingpdx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/waterbag.jpg

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R.Rice's avatar

Classically cool

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IncognitoG's avatar

Always be sure to moisturize.

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BikerChick's avatar

I’m going outside to watch my son-in-law cook pancakes over the outdoor griddle they got yesterday. On the deck…overlooking the lake.

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Paul Britton's avatar

It is pleasant to watch other people work.

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C C Writer's avatar

Even more pleasant to have someone else fix breakfast for you.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Especially outside. Our procedure on camping trips is that I do all the advance prep of the food at home, and my husband and the boys do the cooking in camp.

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C C Writer's avatar

Seems like a sensible division of labor.

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Kurt's avatar

Pancakes....mmmmmm...

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Jay Janney's avatar

I have an idea for an upcoming post for you. 😏

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Kurt's avatar

Do tell.

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Jay Janney's avatar

I'm working on it....

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Kurt's avatar

"Besides, all that media consumption blots out the steady stream of ideation and talk within our own minds."

Bingo.

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M. Trosino's avatar

What? Say again?

Sorry... Couldn't hear you over all the ideation and talk going on up in the attic... that guy that lives up there, he never shuts up and is so noisy... it's like a college dorm party 24 / 7.

I've called the landlord to complain about it so often that he's stopped answering his phone. And the cops say there's nothing they can do.

I think I'm probably gonna' have to get a lawyer involved at some point...

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Kurt's avatar

Send lawyers, guns, and money, the shit has hit the fan... God Bless Warren Z.

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Kurt's avatar

That's some good stuff.

"Enjoy every sandwich.".....Warren Zevon

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M. Trosino's avatar

I don't care for some of Zeider's stuff all that much, but thought this one was pretty tasty.

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Kurt's avatar

I'm a fan of specific songs, but more a fan of the guy. He was that sort of iconoclast that I'm attracted to.

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Kurt's avatar

This is very good.

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