Random Thought Thread

Due to the time zone difference, I get all my news when I wake up. Scotch might be a problem.

 

50 Shades of Grayskull...

 

I'm suddenly curious if people generally listen to audiobooks of novels they've already read & like, or of completely new stories they're experiencing for the first time?

I've only bought audiobooks of writings I already read & liked (with the exception of a collection of poetry, with only a couple poems I knew but those few I adore & the audio sample had the most exquisite narration)

And right now I'm actually doing a first time reading of a novel, and then just purchased an audiobook that I'm also now listening to from the beginning so that it's lagging 10~ chapters behind.

And all of a sudden I've started to wonder if I'm doing this all wrong?

 

Mostly the former. My attention wanders much more when listening than reading (and I guess the same is true of most humans, as vision is our primary sense) so I miss bits of audiobooks. That's okay if I've read it before and can fill in the blanks, not so much with a completely new story.

I do have some audiobooks that I've never read in print, but mostly non-fiction where there isn't a 'story' that I have to keep up with.

 

Does it count if you only vividly dreamed it?

 

Depends—do you want it to count?

It could also depends on what you mean by "count."

Like was it pleasant wish fulfillment?

Was it something dark or violent of which you dont think you're normally capable?

Or is it a guilty wish fulfillment where it was pleasant for you, but hurts or betrays someone else (someone you care for)?

 

No, not really at all.

It was bizarre, is what it was. Clearly not taking place in any real sort of world. It was a building in the modern sense, but the inside was completely timber and log in a very rustic sense. There was an incongruent elevator that led up to some higher floor where lived. I wore a ridiculously huge, red, 80's hair-band wig, and a coat. Someone asked me about my wife. I said my inclinations were of a different nature. He said his were the same. Fun, I thought. He was just a shadow. I never really saw him. All I thought about was getting out of that preposterous wig and coat because it was so warm inside.

Never mind. Just my brain running its defrag function.

 

Just came here to brag that I totally called Xavier upsetting Arizona last night. In fact I got all 4 of last night's game right.

I know my luck will run out tonight (I've got Florida over Wisconsin, which in retrospect seems like a bad call), but for right now it feels pretty good

 

My brain does that all the time. I blame it on my Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

 

Does anyone else miss defragmenting hard drives? I always found it very satisfying.

 

I must've been born too late; what does it mean to defragment hard drives?

 

it's organizing the data on an HDD to make sure the information can be accessed quicker and with less effort. (making the needle not move around so much for all the data.) If you are not running SDD's it's still a useful practice. But it probably doesn't increase speeds by all that much.

 

This guy knows how to work out.

 

I miss DOS altogether. In some ways, computers were better when you had to know a bit of how they worked rather than just how to work them.

 

Why do we all call planning and outlining planning and outlining?

Alright, that sounds a little... off, but hear me out. What we're doing is figuring out our plot, how it works and fits together, so why don't we just refer to it as plotting?

Benefits:

• It makes us seem like the evil murderous people that we are.
• How ominous.
• Incentive to get a cat that you evilly stroke in between furiously typing in a room only lit by your dull computer screen, binge-eating Doritoes, and crying.
• Referring to planning and outline as plotting would give me more incentive, personally, to do the damn thing.
• More time to practice evil cackling. It's something we all need.

Cons:

• [phone rings] "Hey Barbara, what'cha doing?" "I'm plotting the murder of Scott Johnson." "Do I know a Scott Johnson?" "No." "Oh... I guess I'll... call you later, then..." [click]
• "911, please state your emergency." "I'm scared my friend's going to kill someone."

 

I wish I knew German

As it is, I'm just picking the translation I like best because it fits with my interpretation of the material—which is always bad

I wonder if I could have my mother read the original for me & tell me which appears more accurate?

Sometimes it's such a shame that translation is an art rather than a science, but there is much too much to account for with any exact precision—I feel something is always lost or reimagined/formatted to meet the needs of the new language & culture for which it's being translated

(If any one knows a more excellent translation of Herman Hesse's "Demian," let me know~)

 

So I had a dream last night about the series my friend & I are critically analyzing as well as my own current work in progress

Because the former is–arguably–all about personal agency, personal identity within the social construct, traditional gender roles in general & particular within regards to heroism, the nature of the heroic itself, and self discovery & realization. It's all allegory and motif and symbol and repition with variation and constant stream of allusion and deconstruction of tropes & genres, such as fairy tales & romance.

And the latter has two female protagonists that go on daring quests in attempt to save the other, and it's built upon several fairy tale-esque stories.

My dream brain was all "pss~t, you know their story of two girls with the one trying to become the hero who rescues the distressed damsel? Yours is the same. Yours is the same but you need to do it better. You've seen how it's done, now do it right."

My dream brain's obnoxious and should learn to mind its own business, thank you very much.

 

I'm too afraid to click on it

For several reasons

 

I eat Doritos and cry every time I plot.

 

I work with this Mormon dude, and every time he would swear, he says "freak" in place of the word. Usually, it would be fuck.

I can't, for the life of me, understand the point of changing a few letters. The intent is there; the syntax is similar. Is he saving himself from violating some religious tenant by changing a few letters around?

 

@Homer Potvin that was fucking hilarious.

 

I personally use 'flippin hecktus' because it gives me more time to express my anger, surprise or annoyance. However as a noun or verb I do use the word fuck if children aren't around.

 

@Spencer1990 - Simple, they probably want to express whatever anger they've got, but don't want to offend the people around them.

There's a scene in my head that I want to work on and post for critique. I plan to use it to analyze and examine a character idea that's been floating around -- specifically a character set in our world who goes from being a kind, compassionate soul to apeshit insane with rage.