George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
The things you lean on / are things that don't last
User ID: 107
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1d ago
That's a healthy novel length already. Get it finished then edit.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1d ago
Do it.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
1d ago
Golden lemon thyme, blueberries, lavender mint. I should probably just tear down the deck and plant some proper vegetables.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
6d ago
Part of me is reassured that society is not yet so corrupt that someone didn't just somehow funnel the money to their own coffers.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
7d ago
Interesting. I've heard others imagine it as a compliment as well. I always took it as a slight --the obsessive who can see no other perspective than his own. One of those quotes you can read however you want, I guess.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
7d ago
I believe that's usually attributed to Aquinas:
"Cave ab homine unius libri."
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
9d ago
Chopin, Prelude 4, Op. 28 in E Minor
Rachmaninoff, Symphony No. 2 in E Minor
St. Saens, Aquarium from Carnvial of the Animals
DeBussy, Arabesque 1: Andantino con moto
and Clair de Lune ..sometimes depends on whose version.
And Ravel, Le jardin féérique from Ma mère L'oye Yes it is a fey title.
I'd put Wagner in there as well. particularly Tristan und Isolde.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
16d ago
There's an area called Shinsaibashi and also Namba that are in that area, Dotonbori is basically a famous bridge over the river. Lots and lots of Chinese/Korean and now Europeans. I know it fairly well. Even if you have something arranged I can meet for a beer if you're available. I've sent DM'd you my info.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
16d ago
Seconded. This sounds like bullshit.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
16d ago
I didn't remember that I had followed you but I got the notification that you had posted this. So, following people does have some value.
Immensely enjoyed reading this. Do post photos. If you haven't come through Osaka yet I am still here and would be happy to meet, or buy you a beer (unfortunately as you will see there are no Slurpees in Japanese 7-11s.) If you've already passed through, well, next time.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
16d ago
In the first song there in your link, there is a lot of end rhyme, though in Japanese end rhyme of that sort is less the word and more the word ending, e.g. だ and さ. True, it's slant rhyme (there is no intentional insulting pun there goddamit) but it is rhyme.
I don't read Japanese poetry in Japanese, and J pop songs now are mostly background noise to whatever dance routine there may be. Unless one listens to indie or alternative, which I will if exposed to it but don't seek out. I don't even hate American pop songs as a whole, but at some point in the early oughts I started hating both rap and hip hop, though until then I had mixtapes of both (actual cassettes). Something happened somewhere in there with those genres, or maybe I just got old.
Generally my tastes run eclectic in music and my Spotify playlists are all over the shop. On this train ride at the moment I am listening to ambient. for no reason except Tuesday.
I'm sure there are differences in Japanese and English rhyming, but I don't know what they are. Even Japanese literature I tend to read in English. Yukio Mishima is not difficult to read in translation but apparently very hard to read in Japanese. Murakami is easy in both. Literary translation is an interesting field, and I wonder how well LLMs do it. Or people, for that matter. As an aside, I only realized a few years ago that Yoda, in Japanese translation, has no distinctive way of speaking. That's a small point and not literary, and now I'm way off topic.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
16d ago
Anyone who's been seriously hungry and slept hard should at least have some feeling there for a refugee (not one, of course, being housed in a hotel on taxpayer money). And some see a wounded bird and all they see is unanswered pain. Somebody else can see that same bird....and feel the glory. That last of course is a Terrence Malick line.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
16d ago
Knowing nothing about it I tossed a few queries into ChatGPT including your question. I won't just post it but I find LLMs useful for this kind of thing, in particular if you're willing to fine-tune questions.
Unfortunately I'm in no way literate enough about it to converse in any interesting way
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
17d ago
Best of luck to you!
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
17d ago
For me it certainly depends on the rhyming. Most supposed "non-rhyming" poetry does have internal rhyme and slant rhyme.
One of my favorites from a few decades ago, note the rhyme, which is very easy to just miss:
The Beautiful Changes
One wading a Fall meadow finds on all sides
The Queen Anne’s Lace lying like lilies
On water; it glides
So from the walker, it turns
Dry grass to a lake, as the slightest shade of you
Valleys my mind in fabulous blue Lucernes.
The beautiful changes as a forest is changed
By a chameleon’s tuning his skin to it;
As a mantis, arranged
On a green leaf, grows
Into it, makes the leaf leafier, and proves
Any greenness is deeper than anyone knows.
Your hands hold roses always in a way that says
They are not only yours; the beautiful changes
In such kind ways,
Wishing ever to sunder
Things and things’ selves for a second finding, to lose
For a moment all that it touches back to wonder.
--Richard Wilbur
Wilbur was poet laureate in 1987, and deservedly so. Many of them have boggled the mind, but Wilbur was solid. I saw him read once, back in the early 90's. I did not drink white wine but I did get drunk at the reception.
Anyway compare the rhyme there to a poem like this:
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies. I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
--Maya Angelou
Angelou was never poet laureate, though she did PL things, like read at inaugurations. I thought her poetry was undergrad level tripe, though her book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is, from what I remember of it, very good. MY point is Angelou's rhyme here is clunky and obvious, and even in its clunky and obviousness, it is simplistic and dull. It makes me feel stupider by reading it. It's like a pop song on the page.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
20d ago
Chewing. In particular my wife chewing, a moment in which I feel as if I can hear every muscle in her mouth, movement of her tongue, excretion of digestive saliva, all the way to the swallowing. Caveat: I do not always notice this. Could it be the TV? She often has the television on as well so I think the mouth noises are muted usually, but when they aren't, all the sounds set me on edge. Or maybe it's just sometimes that it's so audible--meaning not always, but only some times, and at other times my mind switches off. I do not notice chewing in other people, though just recently my son ate a doughnut there at the table as I was typing something and it was as if he were suddenly chewing just like his mother. I nearly said something, but didn't--because really it's not his problem, it's mine.
Again, is this just me sometimes? Or is it them, all the time? Do people notice their noisy mouth-noising? Do I also do this and annoy other people? SA writes:
But some misophoniacs say that they’re only triggered by specific people - usually those close to them. If some rando chews loudly, they’ll be mildly annoyed; if their brother does, they’ll flip out. Probably there’s a reasonable explanation here too, but at this point maybe we should also be considering a larger-scale update.
He also writes in that article about background noises. Something odd I've realized is that while background noise is ubiquitous in Japan--my rice cooker plays music when it's done, my bath plays an electronic riff of Canon in D when the bath is full, you hear announcers saying: "こちらは、男子のトイレ". THis means "This is the men's toilet." It goes on and on. In some train stations there are fake bird noises. I still don't know why (Someone here will probably tell me.)
None of it bothers me. But put me on a plane to the US with a bunch of Americans, or in a public space with Americans yakking on and on, or some random person yakking in English on their phone in Cleveland, and it's very annoying. Because I can understand every word, and have forgotten how to tune out the way I can subtly tune out Japanese speakers.
Also I had never heard of the McGurk effect mentioned in that article. Weird.
Anyway the chewing thing, maybe it's something bizarre about me, my wife, and, now, my son. Thankfully I don't worry about things too much, so I tend to just let it go because fuck it.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
21d ago
I cannot rise to your cynicism. It would feel like trying to reason with KulakRevolt, who I do not admire and will not engage with (this is not true of you). I appreciate the long, considered response, but as a rule I dislike tribalism, and your talk of tribe loyalty flies by me. You're entitled to your wholesale rejection of everything, of course, I will not deny that to you. But I am far from that. An ocean away, as it were.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
21d ago
This is the law in Japan for any non-Japanese. You must carry proof of your status at all times--the 外国人登録証 or popularly-known "gaijin card," which indicates your visa status. Everyone here who stays longer than 3 months gets one (students, those employed, etc.) except maybe diplomats. This is in lieu of carrying your passport, which visitors (under 3 months) are required to do. In the US, if I'm not mistaken, visitors can carry a paper photocopy of their (foreign) passports. Those who are born here but are not Japanese (e.g. Zainichi Koreans) have a 特別永住者証明書 card or "special permanent residency" card that they also must carry.
That said, Japanese nationals are not required to do this. The fact that all Japanese do not look exactly alike aside, it is obviously different in the US to some degree--American citizens cannot be easily dentified simply on what they look like (though jeans and a t-shirt isn't a bad profiling protocol). I would personally be at least wary of a law that by default would require everyone to carry not just ID but proof-of-citizenship.
"Reassessing the realities of the present situation" is a vague pronouncement, of the kind that is not your habit. It's also not a phrase that engenders trust. We should at least acknowledge the fact that all manner of shackles can be added in the name of "realities of the situation."
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
21d ago
One has to wonder, though, if those who do the downvoting are those same users with whom you are debating. As you must realize, having been one, there are many lurkers here. I find that almost any civil reply, even if it is in extreme disagreement, is preferable to the smug dismissal, or the silent downvote.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
21d ago
A bump of that sweet, smoking gun, as you write in your bio. I sense you're here not exactly as a troll, but that you don't particularly feel you're among like minds.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
21d ago
I find it oddly bizarre that you've been down voted here for answering a question sincerely, without rancor.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
21d ago
From your data set though the AI wouldn't be looking at how the player grips the bat, but how the player writes about gripping the bat, if he does at all, or how he texts about the game, etc. I believe @pbmonster 's point is that while "text game" may be one data point (and as far as it might get one in the proverbial door, an important one) but it doesn't read body language (gripping the bat), tone of voice, eye contact, scent, speed of talking, whether you shake your knee up and down, how she holds her hair over one shoulder, etc etc. To say nothing of moments when the two of you laugh at the same thing, or other, small but deep indicators that may not be very legible in text interactions.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
24d ago
I accept this take, except point 5. While a fit of depression could explain suicide--- and that wouldn't necessarily be surprising--Epstein had (cough) gotten off before, and with considerable leniency.He couldn't expect the same freedom this time, obviously due to the high profile nature of his case, but the whole nature of the "Epstein didn't kill himself" bit isn't that depression is impossible, but that he was capable of naming names and thus too inconvenient to allow to live. Until that is put to rest the suspicion that he was eliminated will persist. And I'm not sure exactly how it could ever be put to rest.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
24d ago
Are we considering Jewish-Christian bi-racial??
I wish this were more surprising to me. One of the weirdest things about reddit (when I used to frequent that site many times daily) was the seemingly ubiquitous acceptance as completely normal the enjoyment of what was called, to everyone's apparent satisfaction, "butt stuff." Now given that the male prostate has nerve endings and thus stimulation of the perineum can result in arousal, I suppose ramming objects into one's anus is, in the list of degenerate behaviors, probably not the most incomprehensible. But you'd also have girls (on reddit you never know if every single thing is a lie, mind you) discussing how they would wear something called "butt plugs." To say nothing of anal beads (I think "butt beads" would be more catchy). And whatever else those are in the illustrations for that list, which I did not read.
This forum is generally much younger than I am and probably I sound quaint or naïve or similar. I do not understand the pull (or push) of ass play.
Edit: I do not know why I wrote "male prostate" instead of just "prostate."
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