The Chat Thread

[EigenUser]

Classes canceled today due to impending snow...

...which is actually disappointing. I like both of my classes (finite element analysis and especially dynamics), plus the gym is closed.

[Moonfish]

Classes canceled today due to impending snow...

...which is actually disappointing. I like both of my classes (finite element analysis and especially dynamics), plus the gym is closed.

Now you have no choice but to listen to Ligeti....        0:)

Hmm, but there could always be a power failure!!!   

[San Antone]

Didn't know to put these, but here's a couple of articles that might be of interest around these parts:

How Music Hijacks Our Perception of Time

And one that could've been written about this place:

Why I've Posted 27,000 Times to One Online Forum

[EigenUser]

Now you have no choice but to listen to Ligeti....        0:)

Hmm, but there could always be a power failure!!!   

Actually, this kind of stay-at-home-day seems to go well with the music of another Hungarian -- Haydn!

Currently Symphony No. 31, Harnoncourt, to be exact (the one with the loud, braying horns!). Now that you mention it, though, I may spin Melodien later.

[Moonfish]

Didn't know to put these, but here's a couple of articles that might be of interest around these parts:

How Music Hijacks Our Perception of Time

And one that could've been written about this place:

Why I've Posted 27,000 Times to One Online Forum

Great articles, San Antonio! I enjoyed both quite a bit. Perhaps you should post the first link in the Schubert thread?  It is certainly true that music alter perception of time and I suspect that we all could share moment of that kind in our long journey through classical music.

The article about the 27,000 posts definitely has a point as we live in a time of media transition. I suspect that most people here will go down with the "Titanic" board.... 

[PaulR]

I'm throwing a party tonight.  I'm scared.

[listener]

need to vent, but not terribly upset
An e-mail from UPS arrived this afternoon telling me that the computer I was expecting had been delivered and signed for.... by "Adrian".  That's not me, and I was in at the posted time of delivery.   It appears that the new owner is incredibly stupid and signed his own name rather than mine.  The shipper is a major UPS user and is investigating.  It was a points redemption so I am not out cash and the points will come back.

[Henk]

The non-classical music threads are gaining territory / momentum.

A threat? I definitely want to listen more new classical music stuff as I discovered much of it, thanks to posters here. I find the old stuff increasingly uninteresting. But that may be just me.. or not?

[EigenUser]

Now that it is getting warmer out, I decided to get some stuff for my balcony. I've always wanted a balcony (seriously, since I was 5 or 6) and now that I have one I never used it because it was too cold out. It's a really nice one, too. 2nd floor (no risk of theft), spacious, faces the woods, private (no other balconies in sight), porch light, etc. There's even a nice little picnic table on the ground 15 feet in front of the building. I do wish there was an outlet, but I can run a cord from the door or from the bathroom window if I need to.

I found this chair at Home Depot for $50 -- a deal! I'm sitting in it right now (though it's a bit chilly/windy out). Possibly the most comfortable piece of outdoor furniture I have ever sat on. It has multiple positions so it can be a normal chair or a full lounger. Seems pretty solid, too, but it is too early to tell.


I also got an outdoor clock, a table, and a cushion for the cheap plastic chair I've had. I need to get a few plants, but I have to figure out exactly what can live well in a planter and in shade. Not much, I assume. And I'll need these, of course (though they are expensive -- maybe I'll ask for my birthday):
http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-Chimes-Rite-Spring-Chime/dp/B00DNWW2NA

It's so weird sitting outside here, though. I'm not used to it at all. I feel like I'm not even at my own apartment!

[Ken B]

Now that it is getting warmer out, I decided to get some stuff for my balcony. I've always wanted a balcony (seriously, since I was 5 or 6) and now that I have one I never used it because it was too cold out. It's a really nice one, too. 2nd floor (no risk of theft), spacious, faces the woods, private (no other balconies in sight), porch light, etc. There's even a nice little picnic table on the ground 15 feet in front of the building. I do wish there was an outlet, but I can run a cord from the door or from the bathroom window if I need to.

I found this chair at Home Depot for $50 -- a deal! I'm sitting in it right now (though it's a bit chilly/windy out). Possibly the most comfortable piece of outdoor furniture I have ever sat on. It has multiple positions so it can be a normal chair or a full lounger. Seems pretty solid, too, but it is too early to tell.


I also got an outdoor clock, a table, and a cushion for the cheap plastic chair I've had. I need to get a few plants, but I have to figure out exactly what can live well in a planter and in shade. Not much, I assume. And I'll need these, of course (though they are expensive -- maybe I'll ask for my birthday):
http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-Chimes-Rite-Spring-Chime/dp/B00DNWW2NA

It's so weird sitting outside here, though. I'm not used to it at all. I feel like I'm not even at my own apartment!

Excellent. I need to put in a patio at my place to have a better place to sit outside.
Any nursery can tell you which plants do well in shade.

[EigenUser]

Excellent. I need to put in a patio at my place to have a better place to sit outside.
Any nursery can tell you which plants do well in shade.

It is very nice. When I was in high school my parents put a nice stone patio outside of our dining room. There was a pair of windows that overlooked a small grassy/muddy area. We had the windows taken out and French doors put in with a stone stoop/steps. It really looks nicer even though we don't use it too often (we have a big deck which gets used more).

[Jubal Slate]

I've been listening to jazz and classical lately, a lot more than any other genre.

[Karl Henning]

I've been listening to jazz and classical lately, a lot more than any other genre.

Groovy.  What from each genre?

[Jubal Slate]

Groovy.  What from each genre?

The usual for me: Classical/Romantic and Armstrong, Ellington and Coltrane. That sort of thing.

[Jubal Slate]

Also Fitzgerald, Holiday, Vaughan and Sinatra.

[Karl Henning]

Sweet

[Jubal Slate]

Happy birthday, Duke Ellington! 

Wiki:
Martin Williams said: "Duke Ellington lived long enough to hear himself named among our best composers. And since his death in 1974, it has become not at all uncommon to see him named, along with Charles Ives, as the greatest composer we have produced, regardless of category."

[Henk]

Just renamed a thread started by me.

[ibanezmonster]

Absolutely incredible the amount of decrease in my stress level today. All thanks to this being the first day of the end of the semester (last final exam was yesterday) and I have today and the next two days off from work.

Over the last two or so months I'd say from 1 to 10, my stress level would be an 8.5. I could barely talk to people. Just indescribable, probably over 9 most of the time.  Today it couldn't possibly go any lower, so I'd say about a 1. Woke up at 10 (got 10 or 11 hours of sleep) and did nothing but play video games and watch DBZ all day. Didn't even think about time. Who cares about time when you don't have to do anything?

For me, personally, less stress equals greater happiness. It's really that simple. So yeah, retiring in my 40's so I can stay home and play video games all day until I die is definitely going to stay my goal. And can only work with no kids. Kids = stress, mandatory work. Imagine if I lived until 80, and half of my life I could safely say my stress level was an average of something like 2. 

[EigenUser]

Absolutely incredible the amount of decrease in my stress level today. All thanks to this being the first day of the end of the semester (last final exam was yesterday) and I have today and the next two days off from work.

Over the last two or so months I'd say from 1 to 10, my stress level would be an 8.5. I could barely talk to people. Just indescribable, probably over 9 most of the time.  Today it couldn't possibly go any lower, so I'd say about a 1. Woke up at 10 (got 10 or 11 hours of sleep) and did nothing but play video games and watch DBZ all day. Didn't even think about time. Who cares about time when you don't have to do anything?

Does this mean that you now have time to go to the gym?

I am really excited for the end of the semester. My last final exam is the day before I leave to go see Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie in Chicago. Then I come back and have a week to study for my PhD qualifying exams (which I'm not too worried about, so it should be pretty low-key).