Thor seems ok, as long as he doesn't speak in advice bullets in real life. Most of that stuff is pretty sensible.
You have boredom issues--this is also the problem with playing with toddlers for you, right? I don't really get it. Just...think about something: either what you're experiencing, or a memory, or a daydream. It's a big brain in there! I'm sure you can do it, but maybe you're stuck on the perceived lack of autonomy/freedom do something else?
I can drift off while walking or driving and enjoy myself, without the radio or anything on. And I could walk for four to six hours and probably enjoy that. But the lack of change of scenery, and nothing structured to read or think about, and no pencil and paper to write stuff down, would drive me nuts. I could drift doing yoga (if I did such things) for maybe forty minutes? And then I can't imagine hanging in there for five more hours.
Playing with toddlers is much, much worse, though. I've adopted LB's strategy of entertain-myself-first, and that is helping.
And I can't imagine choosing to spend six hours like that, daily. I think that's what's blowing my mind.
But yes, I do have a whole thing about boredom. Can't handle long movies, or baths, or massages, or I forget a whole long list of things that other people seem to tolerate without freaking out.
There's plenty of scenery in yoga class, if you choose wisely.
If Thor were truly all that confident in his advice he wouldn't have to shout.
You liberals and your Facebook problems. I've prudently pruned some folks, including close family members, from my news feed and it still sucks. I bet Thor would have some good practical advice for me on how to deal with that.
He seems like a decent enough guy, and in the realm of Facebook advice, he's at least the one-eyed man.
I could probably muster a little contempt for him if he hadn't included the advice about not having kids. I wonder if he appreciates how much materialism is a direct result of the desire to be a good parent.
Swans were great if you're into that sort of thing (and time was when I was) though he's a very recent member.
"...with contributions from....Amanda Palmer"
Why is there no mention of using Kickstarter to fund yourself?
"...with contributions from....Amanda Palmer"
Go home, Neil Gaiman. You're drunk.
What makes Thor a prick is not the content of his suggestions, but his delivery.
I find it surprising that someone edited that list. Was it first written out on old napkins?
10: I don't think so. I can concentrate fine, even on things I don't love. And I enjoy structured thinking about something. It's more like the massage or bath or background music interferes with my ability to let my mind wander, like I'm being forcibly distracted from what I'd like to be thinking about by this stupid person kneading my stupid muscles.
This is not the complaint about yoga, however. I think I could enjoy a yoga quiet state just fine. But for forty minutes, not four to six hours. Four to six freaking hours!
10: I don't think so. I can concentrate fine, even on things I don't love. And I enjoy structured thinking about something. It's more like the massage or bath or background music interferes with my ability to let my mind wander, like I'm being forcibly distracted from what I'd like to be thinking about by this stupid person kneading my stupid muscles.
This is not the complaint about yoga, however. I think I could enjoy a yoga quiet state just fine. But for forty minutes, not four to six hours. Four to six freaking hours!
It sometimes seems to me a problem for the left-liberal coalition that it contains both a Thorian stop-producing-more-materialist-bullshit wing and an Yglesian what-we-need-is-cash-redistribution-plus-ever-more-Chipotles-and-other-efficient-scalable-enterprises-producing-more-ever-more-stuff wing.
He's also the drummer for Shearwater, which is a great band.
16: Labor unions are certainly quite materialistic.
Quiet, heebie - I'm in child's pose for another two hours.
18: Someone just linked me to this cover of "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Sharon Van Etten and Shearwater. Definitely worth a listen. (Music starts at 1:30.)
You all are being pretty harsh on Heebie. I also boggle at the idea of four hours of yoga or similar, and background music uses up all of the parts of my mind I need to do anything besides driving (so I pretty much don't listen to music, because I have plenty to do, and don't drive much). An hour of massage is about all I can take, and I usually try to strike up some conversation about exactly what is being done to me, or yeah, I would get bored. And finally, I am writing this while nominally watching my toddler, who basically just wants to pick things up and throw them down again.
He's being jerky and clueless if he thinks all STDs and abortions are preventable (plus, don't have kids means use s approved methods of birth control, I guess?) and that live music venues will stay in business if everyone brings a flask to redirect money toward the musicians. The drinking-yay/ drugs-boo stuff seemed eyeroll-worthy even to this person who follows those rules.
"Don't get sick." Thanks, dude!
I find it surprising that someone edited that list. Was it first written out on old napkins?
I appreciate how the advice to "Drive old Japanese cars" goes along with how all the other advice will apparently be enhanced by your new bikes-not-cars lifestyle.
I don't think you're supposed to be letting your mind wander all hither and yon while doing Serious Yoga, are you? I'm definitely signing up for 4-6 hours a day of walking around a city, though, for my happy retirement plan.
I DON'T ALWAYS DRIVE, BUT WHEN I DO, I DRIVE OLD JAPANESE CARS.
And now I've clicked through and read the link.
Hm. Some of those seem harmless enough, but overall they are pretty tone-deaf to many people's circumstances, seems to me. And overall they all assume a certain amount of available TIME that just seems unrealistic when I think about the lives of most people I know.
Sure, you can bike more places -- if you live somewhere sufficiently compact that that is it's practical to do so, and if your life allows for the extra time in transit, and if you're comfortable traveling through the places you have to go through, and if you don't have (too many/inappropriately sized) dependents you have to cart around with you.
The thrift store recommendation is not bad, but again assumes a certain amount of time. Also, a perennial problem for some women I know is that that thrift and especially consignment stores have clothes donated by (wealthier) women of (smaller) sizes/body types than them, and therefore it's hard to find clothes that fit. It can be pretty hard for me, and I'm fairly average sized.
Calling STDs and especially abortions "preventable expenses" makes me very uneasy. Like, sure, you can reduce your risks, but birth control fails, dude.
Not seeing how "bring a flask in" [therefore cheating the venue of one of the few ways it has of making money off your patronage] is consistent with the list's otherwise fairly support-your-local-whatever ethos.
Overall the list makes me cranky because it assumes away a lot of the circumstances that cause people to make the choices he's disagreeing with.
Also, there's a lot of blaming the victim. Don't get sick!!
Oops, on preview I've been pwned.
And plenty of ways to get lung cancer other than smoking.
18 He's also the drummer for Shearwater, which is a great band.
Oh. Yes. I think I picked up a Shearwater album because of something neb wrote here once?
I'm not very committed to defending Thor, but it seems more a list of helpful tips than a series of rules. And the "don't get sick" is preceded by "if you live in America," so at least in part a commentary on our health system. And your health isn't *completely* out of your control. And I'll bet King Thor would totally give you a break if your birth control failed!
In addition, Thor has a sword for a penis, so I think he's due some respect.
Now that I've watched the video on that page, it's clear that Thor Harris is actually a Brad Neely character.
I think my life would be improved if people called me "Thor."
I think Thor's advise can be discounted based on his choice of typeface.
1. ALWAYS KEEP THE MJOLNIR IN GOOD WORKING CONDITION.
2. TREAT YOUR SHIELD MAIDENS RIGHT AND THEY'LL TREAT YOU RIGHT.
3. TEST YOUR STRENGTH AGAINST FROST GIANTS EVERY WEEK AND YOU'LL STAY STRONG.
4. THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY TO WASTE MENTAL ENERGY ON THAT DICK LOKI.
As with most countercultural manifestos, it's obviously stupid as universal advice. It's not going to be deeply reasoned or fair to most people's circumstances. But for a certain subset of people who aren't made for the straight world and whose risk aversion is the only thing keeping them in a deeply unsatisfying, crazy-making way of life, it's not necessarily a bad message to hear.
25: I know. I guess some people don't worry much about self-contradiction.
I wonder if Thor is really countercultural, or more an apologist for the culture we have. But I know nothing about him.
I have a hard time believing that's real.
Not for the opinions themselves -- I think I know a guy who would say all those things -- but for the fact that they were expressed in a non-anonymous public forum. While it is true that many women are attracted to assholes, it kind of ruins things for the asshole to illustrate exactly the kind of asshole he is on the internet.
I suppose there is Tucker Max. But he's consistent at least. I think most people would be aware of the smarm plus asshole combination.
I think I want to kill Halford and take over his cartoon character persona for the blog. Okay, done. Halford, you're dead now.
I think my life would be improved if people called me "Thor".
Perhaps he is actually spending four to six hours a day stoned (or drunk, or high) but feels that "yoga" is a more socially acceptable activity.
Or maybe he's doing yoga to forget the troubles of his estranged children. It's awful difficult to fully understand the motives of people about whom we know nothing.
Can't handle long movies, or baths, or massages
No longer twinsies! Twinsies! No longer twinsies! I'm getting dizzy!
23, 28: Yeah, the list of preventable expenses of a medical nature is obnoxious as well as clueless. It puts the rest of the list in a different light as a result, though I don't think it makes the entirety irredeemable.
People who are offput are presumably responding to the whiff of sanctimony, but in all honesty, I'm not sure how you offer up such advice without raising some people's hackles. (Except that the all-caps is asking for it already.)
48: perhaps you could get out your typewriter and put the disorientation to use.
You know, on the friend who does yoga for 4-6 hours daily, I'm wondering if he's doing, say, 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening.
I can see that, though I would absolutely not have time for it. For comparison: when I was in physical therapy for lower back problems, the arrangement segued, once hands-on PT proper was done, to permitted access to the facilities up to three times per week for as long as I liked each visit. I was easily there for nearly two hours each time, despite my actually prescribed routine taking just 45 minutes. I did extra things. I asked the staff to demonstrate the rest of the equipment, and added that to the routine. I added reps (repetitions) to my time on the weight machines. I added weight to the weights, doncha know.
What remained engaging about it: tracking my progress, and, as should be so with yoga, feeling the, um, feelings in the body while the work was being done. It was a total high.
51: I said I think your girlfriend would like to join us in viewing a fantastic film about sexual awakening and vampires.
I've done some yoga. My favorite was kundalini yoga, which was fast-paced, exhausting, and very different from other forms. There was a place in my old neighborhood which offered it, but then they changed management and switched over to the regular kind.
Oh hey, I was reading the wiki page on Breatharians and Wiley Brooks borrows some words from kundalini.
On his website, Brooks states that his potential followers must first prepare by combining the junk food diet with the meditative incantation of five magic "fifth-dimensional" words which appear on his website, some of which are words from Kundalini yoga.[32][33] In the "5D Q&A" section of his website Brooks claims that cows are fifth-dimensional (or higher) beings that help mankind achieve fifth-dimensional status by converting three-dimensional food to five-dimensional food (beef).[34] In the "Question and Answer" section of his website, Brooks explains that the "Double Quarter-Pounder with Cheese" meal from McDonald's possesses a special "base frequency" and that he thus recommends it as occasional food for beginning breatharians.[35] He then goes on to reveal that Diet Coke is "liquid light".[35] Prospective disciples are asked after some time following the junk food/magic word preparation to revisit his website in order to test if they can feel the magic.[33]
I'm also loving this from his site.
Wiley has had past lives as: ADAM, ZEUS, ENOCH, JESHUA (JESUS THE CHRIST), JOSHUA, ELIJAH, JOHN THE BAPTIST, ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI, KUTHUMI, BALTHAZAR (KING OF SYRIA), MUGHAL EMPEROR SHAH JAHAN (Builder of the TaJ Mahal in Agra, India), JOSEPH SMITH AND WILLIAM MULHOLLAND.
I have a hard time believing the Breatharian movement is anything but a joke, a confused attempt to discredit its purported influences. But really I have no idea about it. I did like kundalini yoga a lot. I came out of it feeling extremely focused.
56: Wait, I thought Jesus and John the Baptist were contemporaries. He had more than one past life at the same time?
58: Do you mean to imply that she wouldn't? Or that I really said something entirely different? Maybe you could write a poem about it with interesting spaces between the words.
60: I would NEVER! And I think we all know what you really said.
Why is text being dadaistically mean to some completely imagined version of Smearcase?
It has something to do with opera libretti, I think.
I'm HYPOTHETICAL, not IMAGINARY. And I think we all know what it is that I'm contra.
63: I'm not sure, but it's been going on well past long enough.
I'm not even sure trolling is the right word for this anymore. At least I sort of get what people are up to when they troll. I don't understand what text is up to.
It's like when there's a bunch of smart smarmy guys mocking/bullying the dumb guy by asking questions with no clear answer. But text appears to only be one smart smarmy guy. Who's his audience?
I've completed a scientific study of his interactions on the blog; turns out he's a total fucking dick!
It was annoying in the opera thread because I thought he was actually trying to have a conversation at first. At this point it's just kind of sad and weird, but I did break the "do not engage" rule so I can't really complain.
Geez, people. What's the big deal about going to the movies?
Oh come on guys, the opera thread went really well, aiding me in remembering and clarifying a whole bunch of interesting things. Don't I deserve nice stuff too?
I don't think it's fair to call me smarmy. Years ago I suppose I started out ingratiating but I've been a pretty straight-forward dick for a good time now. And I don't think ingratiating necessarily entails smarm. A person can be genuinely ingratiating, coming from a very sincere place which wants to please.
Before all y'all got here, or changed your names or whatever, I was a beloved member of this community. You see now that my feelings are quite hurt.
I will say one thing more. Smearcase, you remind me so much of a middling poet I once knew that it's astonishing. And I could swear he and I had the same opera discussion as that included below, which involved his failure to understand the implications of reducing a text to meet opera's musical conventions, in which single notes are held for a very long time.
And I think we all know what it is that I'm contra.
sexual discovery?
Yes, so you've said, twice. This is three. Next time will be four.
I might have actually noted your similarity to a middling poet more times than that, but I'm not counting.
are you, in your estimation, a good poet?
are you, in your estimation, any kind of a poet?
Nope rhymes with nope but nope.
Then I don't see why you'd take offense. Being a middling poet is better than being an awful one.
Could everyone please make sure that their attention is focused squarely on text at all times? For a few minutes there, some people were paying attention to things other than text, so text had no choice but to become a jerk. I think if we can all just agree to focus on nothing but text, he might promise to be odd and discomfiting rather than the outright jerk he becomes if he's not the center of attention.
Before all y'all got here, or changed your names or whatever, I was a beloved member of this community.
Yes, that's true, and since you've returned you've done an impressive job of blowing through all of your accumulated goodwill from that era and then some.
Tonight's episode of The Good Wife is apparently inspired by Pa/ul Fram/pton. This is awesome.
This season of TGW is great fun, though the jokey revelation at the end of last week's made me roll my eyes.
And what is up with the end of the Kalicia stuff, Smearcase? I have yet to see a single episode and yet the obvious shippers had better be onto something, from my perspective.
Based on what the creators have said, Kalicia is over. This makes me very, very sad.
Poor Kalinda has been given nothing at all to do this otherwise fun season. I wonder if she's leaving. I'd be so sad. Also her three new cute coats per episode top Buffy's.
There are other shows that have had one or two seasons that were outstanding, but I can't think of any other TV show that I've enjoyed as consistently as I have The Good Wife. The longer it runs, the more I love it.
Heebie doesn't know the music of Swans?!
how come you dont delete my comments, nosflow?
must be he is happy, and i dont like happy nosflow cos prefer him to be miserable i guess
What does 94 mean? Were they thinking about turning Kalicia into an actual romantic relationship? Or does this mean we'll continue to see very little Kalinda/Alicia interaction on screen?
Agh maybe I will check out of this thread as I don't want to know if they're writing anyone out of the show. (I don't mean that huffily.)
100, 101:Smearcase said something in the other place. It's never been canonical or expected to be canonical. AFAIK Archie Panjabi still has a job. She's been fucking someone new (What? I read recaps) and there's still a role for her in the firm she's in. I was just curious about Smearcase's take, but mostly jokily. Sorry for adding drama!
102: But it seemed like J, Robot was saying something else? Maybe not.
103: No, no, just that Alicia is unlikely to ever return to her former closeness with Kalinda, which means that 'shippers have nothing to fantasize about.
Partly because it looks and sounds so confusing. Carinda?
104: Don't worry about us. We'll do Spock/Hermione.
I guess they must since Spock was born of a human mother by a Vulcan father.
Oops I forgot I flounced out of the thread and came back but there were no spoilers so all is well. I have to wait 1.5 hours for it to click over to tomorrow so I can watch the show on the CBS site because, I'm not kidding, we don't have a television. Well, we have a television, we just doing have a television have a television, which is to say I got it before the digital conversion thingy and if you plug it into the wall it doesn't get any channels so I think I have to get a box or something? Oh who knows.
You have a television-shaped white noise generator.
The sky above the port is the colour of Smearcase's television.
You know who didn't have a television? Hitler.
to pay 20 dollars a month for not watching it is too rich of me should be donating it somewhere instead
but stupid optimum wouldnt allow me to have internet only, seems they sell their services only in bunches
OT: Why wasn't local government more prepared for a huge toxic spill? Because any other way to look at the issue would suggest that maybe a private company that called itself "Freedom Enterprises" (for fuck's sake, why not just have "Proving that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel" be the slogan) was entirely at fault for its own actions and the resulting environmental catastrophe.
It's unclear whether the West Virginia American Water Co. was aware the chemical was being stored there but the company did acknowledge it was unprepared for MCHM with a spokeswoman saying that "this was not a chemical we were familiar with."
That makes it sound as though they knew the MCHM was present, they just didn't know what it was.
I went to a Swans show last summer. It was interesting and loud.
oh bother, i rather dislike mr selective censor nosflow when he deletes my comments not rabidly but selectively
