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Embrace the Suck.

#41
biguglyman said:
I'm "essential" personnel so I still have to show up for work...but the commute is much easier! How's that for an embrace? :cool::thumbsup:
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My commute time has been cut in half with the lack of traffic. I can make the 20 mile drive from 531 in Spencerport to 104 & Culver in Irondequoit in 20 minutes.
 
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#42
Lagado said:
"The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted." Aldous Huxley - Brave New World Revisited. The truth hurts, but I'd rather that.
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i enjoyed reading huxley when i did (i was a youngster, in college). but 'bleakness' is a POV i left behind...raising babies into adulthood always opens the door to a 'fresher' perspective...even if you weren't expecting it. funny how chance can trump a world view! ;)

but you're a fan of A.H. --- good luck with his take! :thumbsup:
 
#43
JRA said:
i enjoyed reading huxley when i did (i was a youngster, in college). but 'bleakness' is a POV i left behind...raising babies into adulthood always opens the door to a 'fresher' perspective...even if you weren't expecting it. funny how chance can trump a world view! ;)

but you're a fan of A.H. --- good luck with his take! :thumbsup:
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What do you think of his 'take'? Compared to Orwell:

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Huxley vs Orwell

It wasn't a 'take', it has happened...
 
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#44
Our gardens have never been better. My work has not really changed much, but I don't have as much to do running errands the same way so I've gotten that time back. I thought I would get to play video games more, but that has not materialized.
 
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#45
Lagado said:
What do you think of his 'take'? Compared to Orwell:

Amusing Ourselves to Death: Huxley vs Orwell

It wasn't a 'take', it has happened...
Click to expand...
i'm not willing to derail this rather 'positive view' thread indulging you. if you want to discuss such stuff i'd recommend your own thread for such matters. but it sounds like loads of fun! :laugh: i'd gladly participate! ;)
 
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#47
I work in the IT department of a dental equipment manufacturing company, and with the shut-down of dental offices early in this event, orders reduced dramatically. Medical devices are an essential industry, so the shop floor was kept working for a time on order backlog, with a small portion transitioning towards manufacturing PPE... Information workers began working from home (completely unheard of in my company) and proving that it was a viable way to function. Though I live within a few miles of work and actually find it a bit more difficult working from home, some of my teammates have a long commute and hopefully this WFH will continue in some fashion after the crisis has passed

I am currently on week one of a two-week furlough which is a mixed blessing... My wife and I are having quite a bit of work done on our house, so it has been nice to be able to be here for the last-minute contractor questions as well as a lot of the stuff that we are doing ourselves. The difficult part has been being 100% disconnected from work during this time, (first time in 32 years!!), not conversing with co-workers, etc. That disconnected-ness leads me down the path of doubt and worry, which is always hard for me to get off of...

Playing bass has also taken a bit of a backseat lately... During the first few weeks of "no band practice", I was motivated to learn songs that we on our "get-to-it" list, but I seem to have lost that. Gotta pull myself out of this doldrum and play again just for the joy of it. Usually, I would be down in the garage putting something together, but it has turned into a storage/painting/fab space for at least the next two months.

I HAVE been getting some house-painting chops back from my days of doing apartment maintenance when I was a kid... I can still cut in a line and paint trim without TOO MUCH bleed, which is satisfying in it's own right!!

-robert
 
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#48
Oh the Fingers family is loading up my vehicle and heading for the beach house this weekend! Kayaks and bikes. Sunblock. Groceries. If the beach itself is crowded we'll go put the kayaks in and paddle around the inlet.

I'm about to embrace a change of scenery!!!
:hyper:

In fact, I'm not allowed any overtime right now so I have to clock out in about 5 minutes (2:50 p.m. local). We'll be pointed southeast by 5 p.m. at the latest. I'll be sipping a beer on the dock by sunset.

My ladies (wife and two daughters) are afraid of gators so they don't like to do sunset kayaking with me. So I'll likely be paddling around by myself (still sipping a beer) at sunset. Pics to follow! Stay tuned.

Embrace THAT. :cool:
 
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#50
two fingers said:
Oh the Fingers family is loading up my vehicle and heading for the beach house this weekend! Kayaks and bikes. Sunblock. Groceries. If the beach itself is crowded we'll go put the kayaks in and paddle around the inlet.

I'm about to embrace a change of scenery!!!
:hyper:

In fact, I'm not allowed any overtime right now so I have to clock out in about 5 minutes (2:50 p.m. local). We'll be pointed southeast by 5 p.m. at the latest. I'll be sipping a beer on the dock by sunset.

My ladies (wife and two daughters) are afraid of gators so they don't like to do sunset kayaking with me. So I'll likely be paddling around by myself (still sipping a beer) at sunset. Pics to follow! Stay tuned.

Embrace THAT. :cool:
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Nice!

If we hadn't sold our lake house last year, I would have been up there permanently in one hot second. Sounds like the opposite of your beach house though - we had close to 1000' of private lakefront/beach, so no crowding likely! And only about 5 people per square mile on average.

Edit: that's another thing I'm embracing. I was originally kind of down on selling it (although we got a very good price for it - it was time to sell), I am so glad not to have another property to maintain. Anyways, we would not have been able to get there even if we wanted to as it turns out. Interprovincial borders are locked down and locals are encouraging out of towners to stay away. So kind of a "reverse embrace the suck" - no lake house anymore, but no lakehouse to worry about anymore! And zero hit to the equity if the property values plummet.
 
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#51
DirtDog said:
Nice!

If we hadn't sold our lake house last year, I would have been up there permanently in one hot second. Sounds like the opposite of your beach house though - we had close to 1000' of private lakefront/beach, so no crowding likely! And only about 5 people per square mile on average.
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This is on a regular residential street about two blocks from the ocean. We'll walk down to the beach. If it's crowded, we'll walk back and wet the kayaks. The house is on a canal that is connected to a huge marsh and the intercoastal waterway. So we can paddle until our arms fall off and still not see half the scenery around there. I imagine there will only be a few families on that street. But the beach itself might be packed being that this will be the first weekend they're open in a couple months. All of the public parking and restrooms are still closed. So it'll mostly be people who own, or have access to, a house nearby.

Either way, we're going if we sit on the couch all weekend. :D
 
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#53
two fingers said:
This is on a regular residential street about two blocks from the ocean. We'll walk down to the beach. If it's crowded, we'll walk back and wet the kayaks. The house is on a canal that is connected to a huge marsh and the intercoastal waterway. So we can paddle until our arms fall off and still not see half the scenery around there. I imagine there will only be a few families on that street. But the beach itself might be packed being that this will be the first weekend they're open in a couple months. All of the public parking and restrooms are still closed. So it'll mostly be people who own, or have access to, a house nearby.

Either way, we're going if we sit on the couch all weekend. :D
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Ah, I had visions of something like Daytona Beach/Myrtle Beach/Virginia Beach, non-stop traffic with everyone on top of each other. Have fun, stay safe!
 
#54
JRA said:
i enjoyed reading huxley when i did (i was a youngster, in college). but 'bleakness' is a POV i left behind...raising babies into adulthood always opens the door to a 'fresher' perspective...even if you weren't expecting it. funny how chance can trump a world view! ;)

but you're a fan of A.H. --- good luck with his take! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Well said. Optimism doesn't suck. :D
 
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#55
two fingers said:
I can't understand a word that Ozzy-meets-Dylan singer is saying.
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I’ll try it again with some visual aids...

Think about the things that we should have done before
The way things are going the end is about to fall
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago

Look around and see the warning close at hand
Already weeds are writing their scriptures in the sand
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago

The morning sun is rising, casting rays across the land
Already nature's calling, take heed of the warning
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago

Think about the things that we should have done before
The way that things are going the end is about to fall
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago
We took the wrong step years ago
 
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#58
Jefenator said:
I've been practicing like never before and putting out video clips on FB to keep my friends & local fans entertained.
​
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I've been posting videos on Facebook too. Some musical and some culinary.

Jefenator said:
Producing those has been a humbling experience. (My guitar playing - talk about embracing the suck...)
It's not like the low key bar gigs I'd been doing where all the sloppiness just evaporates into the past. I listen back to what I do and realize how much tighter things would/could/should be. (Interestingly, the material with lots of chords & tricky forms & modulations usually goes pretty easy and the simple blues & 2-chord stuff just kills me...) Hopefully when the gig scene finally does revive, I'll be ready to dive back in as a much stronger performer.
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Recording/videoing yourself is a great exercise to improve your playing. Keep doing it!​
 
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#59
Bass Viking said:
There's the secret to longevity! :laugh:
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Well, there was a certain looseness to mortality when the threat of Taliban attacking was a daily reality. "Another cigar? Don't mind if i do!"

Had to sort myself when I got back though. That was even harder than the deployment in some ways. That's why I know I can handle whatever this pandemic throws at us - and handle it with a smile on my face. Aldous Huxley be damned!
 
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