interactiverobert

I've always been curious about etymology. Once you understand where a word comes from, you have a better understanding of not just that word, but other related words. The same goes for phrases. And just like misheard song lyrics, there are many phrases that are misheard. One I still think of from time to time is "cut and dried", or is it "cut and dry". Another is to "pass muster". Anyway, this one made me laugh, especially some of the comments. It's apparently Georgian. Excerpts from  In my native language, we've this obscene saying - don't take a sh*t in the barrel of honey The question: "The implication is that one must not display a disrespectful behavior in regards to his/her friends or the people you know very well, because as the honey in the barrel won't be eatable anymore after someone defecates in it, so the friendship or relationship can no longer last, in case one of the sides does something totally unacceptable. O...

I love having a blog that no one reads. It's like a tree falling in the woods where I'm the only one there to hear it. So I can post this recording I did recently of Neil Young's Heart of Gold without fear that someone I know will stumble upon it and judge. TBH I am not a very good guitar player, but I like to fuck around at home and it's a good creative outlet. I've owned my guitar for nearly 20 years. I took lessons for a few, but I've only played on and off, practicing in spurts, which any musician will tell you isn't very effective. About a year and a half ago I really started to try to play again. I wanted to play songs I connected with - songs whose spirit I felt like I understood and resonated with. I was looking for easy stuff and settled on a few songs to try to get right. This was one of them. It's a very easy song to play: Em D, Em D C G, standard tuning, no capo, nothing fancy. The lyrics are straight forward and aren't a book, like a...

Form 27B stroke 6 You should be able to tell from the title of this blog that I'm a Star Wars fan. I stumbled across this and thought I'd use it for this week's StackExchange Friday post. I usually pick up on obscure references like these, but I totally missed this one.  Excerpts from “Brazil” reference in “The Last Jedi”? The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson has picked up the baton and drawn on an array of respected cinematic works for inspiration. As was noted by Slate’s Sam Adams, Johnson’s franchise picture owes debts to Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Tales of Hoffmann, and Kurosawa’s Ran. But there’s one milliseconds-long reference point that has largely gone unremarked-upon: Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. There’s a scene in the middle section of The Last Jedi where Finn and Rose find themselves at the mercy of some cops in the gambler’s paradise of Canto Bight. They’ve parked their ship in a tow zone, it seems, a...

Your Vote Doesn't Count I know this isn't a popular opinion. It's certainly not constructive on the surface. But it's a fact. Not really because of the electoral college or district gerrymandering -- although those are downstream problems -- but because by the time you get to exercise your right to vote, the candidates and issues have already been decided by the people with money, before any primary. It's called Tweedism. This is why sensible gun control hasn't and won't happen. "I don't care who does the electing, as long as I get to do the nominating."

I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I liked The Last Jedi, but after several viewings there are some things that don't sit right with me. There are details like: Anachronistic jokes, can you hear me now? Why did the bombers fly so close together that they nearly all got wiped out when one exploded?  Why withhold the details of your escape plan from the clear heir apparent to The Resistance?  Useless Canto Bight  Did PETA pay some production costs?  How does Po know Maz and shouldn't Fin be driving the conversation?  But there are two fundamental themes that I keep coming back to. Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. I find this interesting, and someone smarter than me I hope can explain it. George Lucas once said during the prequel trilogies that Anakin's flaw is that he doesn't let go. The Jedi preached non-attachment. He turned because of his deep fear of losing his mother and wife. The past is the past. If you hold onto it, you're not following t...

When most people think of psychedelics, they think of melting clocks and breathing walls -- of LSD and reefer madness. The truth is that psychedelics work with the same neurotransmitter in the brain as antidepressants, and many know of and appreciate their medicinal value for treating chronic depression and PTSD. Read more here:  https://sapiensoup.com/serotonin  This article also contains many references for deeper reading.

Years later and Magpie & the Dandelion is still one of my favorite albums. "Vanity" I've got something to say But it's all vanity, it's all vanity I found a tune I play But it's all vanity, it's all vanity Call off the guards Call off the search Their heads are chopped off They're running in circles They're running in circles I have a plan for the day But it's all vanity, it's all vanity I've got love pouring out of my veins But it's all vanity, it's all vanity Call off the guards Call off the search Their heads are chopped off They're running in circles They're running in circles Running in circles They're running in circles I've got something to say But it's all vanity, it's all vanity I've got love pouring out of my veins But it's all vanity, it's all vanity