Never seen it but i think i know the big tunes from it, just from filtered-down exposure.
TNP kind of feels their soul die slowly at family events that dont involve yr own kids n spousepouse.
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Never seen it but i think i know the big tunes from it, just from filtered-down exposure.
TNP kind of feels their soul die slowly at family events that dont involve yr own kids n spousepouse.
Maybe juuuuuust a little. But usually I have an OK time.
TNP has a hated uncle.
Nah, they were all OKish.
TNP has hated in-laws.
No, fortunately, although sometimes my in-laws are just a little... annoying.
TNP will be seeing out-of-state family in the next two weeks.
No. Gross. Bunch of hicks, except for my white cousin who was adopted and deserves some sexual healing. By me.
Tnp has told family things like 'fuck u' or 'i wish u wr dead' under provocation recently.
Never have; hope I never will.
TNP has crossed a bridge on foot recently.
Better man than I, I guess. No, or, I don't know -- not a big roadway-type bridge, at any rate. Between bicyclists and motorheads, it's a losing proposition, IMO.
TNP can name another mainstream anti-car movie, in addition to *The Magnificent Ambersons*, *Death Race 2000*, and *Duel*
Well, certainly not Cars. Or Cars 2. Or Cars 3, come to think of it....
TNP has owned at least six cars over a lifetime so far.
Pshaw. I owned at least one, and I wish I owned none -- PITA fixing mechanical shit. And yet I own two electro-mechanical pianos (a Rhodes from 1976 and a Wurlitzer 720A) that are both real finicky. Hell, even a real piano is a PITA. Just rent 'em and save a bunch of headache, is my opinion. Unless ur a gearhead and enjoy scraping your knuckles every week. Then, more power to you -- I have a lot of respect for shadetree mechanics, it's just not my hobby of choice.
TNP thinks a driver's license should come with the old-school requirement that you know how to fix your shit.
Probably wouldn't be a bad idea, but then I'd never earn one, so no!
TNP has dealt with a frustrating government bureaucracy in the past month.
Hmmm....probably not other than the one I work for.
TNP really loves how the Internet has reduced the number of idiots you have to deal with over the phone.
heh, yes but you forget those same idiots crawl the internet. and on touch screens. to boot.
TNP wants to hear EH's stories about getting in fistfights w agressors.
Heh. The closest I've come is keeping two feuding moms from punching each other on a playground by shouting "Hey!" and glaring at them, and years ago, running over to help a woman who was being beaten up by a guy on a London street; others had already grabbed him and held him by the time I got there, and the police soon arrived to take him away.
TNP has been to London in the past year.
wow. good job, minimal force. no never been to london. i heard the british museum can lose its charm.
TNP has strong opinions re the Elgin marbles.
Not particularly, although until the cash-strapped and politically-unstable Greek government can reasonably show that the marbles would be well-cared-for in Athens, I'd just as soon they stay at TBM.
TNP disagrees with that.
somewhat. except for the part about the limeys keeping them.
TNP has an alarming no pf acqaintances fr the eastern med, despite having no knpwn blood kin fr there
No, I don't think I know anyone at all from there, although several Jewish friends of mine have visited Israel, and another has been to Lebanon.
TNP has been to either Israel, or Lebanon, or both.
Flown over the top, seen people and cars on the ground, but never touched down.
TNP likes Jewish folk music.
Some of it. I like Klezmer a lot, for instance.
TNP likes the Klezmer piece which opens this story (the whole bit, by the late Robin Williams, is worth a listen, too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daWEGRyHHjA
meh dont care. sure, like.
TNP has never leaned back on a mattress and despaired of not reading in some of the anti- or pro-federalists like today. Bonus for multiples.
I... don't understand the question.
TNP has read The Federalist Papers cover to cover.
What like in one sitting? No, but i've seen them all, ovet tjr uears
Tnp hates all holidays, and likes regularity
No, I like most holidays and don't mind any disrupted regularity or routine.
TNP has sent someone a birthday card in the past month.
I was thinking about lighting a bag of hobo shit and throwing it in my uncle's window. Sort of the same idea, I guess.
TNP just sort of ended up the way he or she is, for better or worse.
Yeah, pretty much. To the extent I ever had a plan, I didn't follow it.
TNP likes eggs a lot.
Not a lot, I guess, but yes, I like 'em. Best scrambled and with a bit of salt IMHO.
TNP prefers scrambled eggs with lots of ketchup, like my dad.
Yeah but i'm no chef. Besides, you can have too much of a good thing
Tnp can self-identify w one of the characters in *the misfits*
Never saw the movie, but having read the Wiki plot description, no, I don't think so.
TNP is a big Marilyn Monroe fan.
Probably makes me less of a man, but I don't care about Marilyn. Am sure she was a nice girl, whatever.
Tnp can think of an odder literary translation than jerome's 'adsit' by 'god forbid!' In Romans.vi.15
I guess I can't.
TNP has read George Washington's 1790 letter to Touro Synagogue (esp. the fifth paragraph): http://www.tourosynagogue.org/histor...hington-letter
No, and I'm not going to. I think the western historico-literary canon has had quite enough Dead White Males.
TNP thinks the lady in *Fletch* (dana wheeler-nicholson iirc) would make a good white slavemistress in some elaborate role playing.
As long as it's between consenting adults, whatever floats your boat.
TNP uses too much salt.
Not intentionally, I practically never salt food. Probably use too much sodium, though, it's hard to avoid.
TNP uses a lot of hot sauce.
For the right foods (esp. just about anything Mexican), yes.
TNP loves, as I do, the smell of gasoline.
Just as some people like pipe smoke, perfume, and food smells. NIMBY but amusing on occasion.
TNP has studied so hard they've required chemical stimulation to unfry their brain
Yeah, I had some times like that in law school.
TNP has taken a class about some aspect of the law.
Sort of. I won't name-drop but somebody offered an UG course called "Literature and the Law." There was a grad school seminar on the theories of just wars, reading Clausewitz and so on.
TNP kind of thinks people who are just readers, and not practicing lawyers or legal scholars, are ridiculous self-parodies when they try to talk about judicial decisions and so forth.
Yeah, pretty much, but no more so than when somebody who didn't take high school calculus talks about quantum mechanics, or someone expounds on English grammar with no more research than being made to read "The Elements of Style" in undergrad.
TNP is quite aware that there just isn't going to be enough time to learn everything they would like to know.
Yes, very much.
TNP thinks "lowered expectations" is a pretty good motto to adopt for one who seeks happiness.
Yes, and I would add Abraham Lincoln's maxim: "Most people are about as happy as they decide to be."
TNP is a big Lincoln fan.
Well i gained twenty pounds since Lent ended, but I can still kick your carpet
-bagging ass you yankee troublemaker.
TNP had at least one mutually feel
-good interaction w chain store cashiers today (or recently). Hey it takes two to tango, but it's just nice, like stopping a runner at 1 or 2 base. Way things used to be.
I'll just take that as a "no" as to Lincoln.
But yes, I had a pleasant interaction with a CVS pharmacy clerk a few days ago, so I guess that counts.
TNP always gets some candy whenever shopping at a pharmacy.
No. Pharmacy candy here is stupidly over-priced. I get it elsewhere.
TNP has a funny work story toshare from the past week.
Hmm. No, I don't think so - wish I did. Kind of a blah week at court.
TNP will spend at least ten minutes in the sun today.
I dunno, depends if the clouds break up.
TNP didn't sleep well last night.
Not well, but not especially badly, I'd say.
TNP needs a new pillow.
Yep. I have an old memoryFoam that is deteriorating in an alarming fashion.
TNP can say that the concept of mood is probably not studied sufficiently because of its underspecification. I think Stimmung is the usual, and I don't think there's a French word for it -- humeur, probably is the closest.
That's probably true.
TNP will be traveling this weekend.
I aint traveling no place in no goddamned car. Motherfucker. I already been places, I just want to stay where I am.
TNP discovered something neat in the past week and will elaborate
Yes. In David McCullough's The Path Between the Seas, I learned that enough earth and rock were moved during the construction of the Panama Canal to fill a train that could circle the Earth four times, or that could build no fewer than 63 Great Pyramids of Giza.
TNP has been through the Panama Canal.
No, and having read McCullough's vibrant portrait of that international episode, I (terryThomas) should have rather thought it were a swamp (/terryThomas). Nah, none of that.
TNP despises 80 to 85 percent of current popular culture.
Nah, I'm cool with most stuff.
TNP is trying not to turn into a stuffy old crank, no matter how easy it comes.
Some days it takes a herculean effort, but yes, I'm trying.
TNP has used the word "herculean" in conversation in the past two months.
No,if it's not part of a dismissive comment or an insult, or a summary or citation, it is not spoken.
tnp wouldnt have much of a problem renting out most of an unimportant state, like Arizona, to people like Cubans or arabs or whomever.
Not sure Arizonans would agree with that characterization, but sure, it's a big country, and it was built by immigrants. We've got room for just about anyone who wants to come here, work hard and abide by our laws.
TNP knows someone who moved to his or her country just in the past year.
No, past decade is probably the closest I can think of.
TNP is alarmed by the thought of impairing one's short-term and working memory, and thinks it is prudent to carefully monitor one's repertoire of stimulating activities so that the damage may be minimized.
Haven't been overstimulated in years, so no.
TNP looks forward to being overstimulated at least once this weekend.
Yeah, I wish.
TNP stands a good chance of being at the office this weekend.
Fortunately not.
TNP has been swimming in the past week.
No. Too cold for that now.
TNP has offended someone innocently this (past) week.
Innocently? I don't know about that. I think someone might have taken it the wrong way when I said I'd read the latest chapter of his memoir when I said I'd read it after watching this week's *Twin Peaks*.
TNP is pretty much a total stud when it comes to figuring out how to use modern telephones.
Eh, not so much. I do OK but I'm not a gadget geek by any means.
TNP hasn't seen any of the new series of Twin Peaks.
Negative, I'm up to date. Very occasionally some amusing dialogue. I can't imagine anyone enjoying it very much though, Lynchite or not. Good motivation for people who are conscious of getting older to aspire to look as youthful as Kyle Maclachlan does in early senescence. And also to reappraise the appeal of post-menopausal women on seeing Naomi Watts.
TNP has a project he or she is waiting to be done so as to manilla-up a bunch of papers and clear various notes and whiteboard scrawls from his or her office or workspace.
I doubt my son or daughter is that stupid.
TNP is waiting for The Jizzle to get himself an avatar.
Only for four years now, Man.
TNP saw and enjoyed Interstellar.
Is that a movie?
TNP has/is considering deleted/deleting their Facebook.
Nah. I kind of like it. I like saying a bunch of crazy shit on my own timeline and keeping in touch with people from far away lands (pace Schumann's piece in *Kinderszenen*)
TNP eats beans at least a few times a week, and likes it just fine.
ETA
but never NEVER, unless you're some kind of hippie, accept "friend" requests from people you knew in, like, grade school or high school -- they're not ready, and anyway, fuck them. 99.94% of "friend" requests are from casual acquaintance, old people, and retardeds. Much easier to ignore the request than second-guess yourself wondering what the hell their program is.
And that's a fact, jack.
Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
Yes. Yes, it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LqzF5WauAwQuote:
Originally posted by Trojan Man
TNP wants to see the movie now (again, or for the first time).
No. Never again. I have an imaginary rubber band around my wrist to remind me of that.
TNP knew more than one person who had "bracelets" of rubber band(s) around their wrists, as part of their daily (I guess) regimen, and has/had no idea what that was about, but, optional subquestion, can speculate why. not crackheads either -- in my case, an elder legendarystatesman of jazz piano in NYC and an aquisition librarian in one of NYC's largest libraries.
That being the case, I have neither seen nor enjoyed that particular movie.Quote:
Originally posted by Elendil's HeirQuote:
Originally posted by Elendil's Heir
Yes. Yes, it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LqzF5WauAwQuote:
Originally posted by Trojan Man
TNP wants to see the movie now (again, or for the first time).
I might see if the library has it on DVD.
TNP is concerned for the future of America.
Very much so. Donald Trump is both the oldest and the most immature President we have ever had.
TNP is an American who looks forward to voting next year, and in 2020.
I don't think "looking forward" really fits, so that's a "no." Will vote, am citizen, etc., but just another parade of ass-clowns and little kids yammering on their TV phones. Maybe some sidewalk preacher long-haired hippie types will do something that makes me laugh, but that would be the best case. If that f****** f***** Pence runs I'll shit myself -- that walking turd piece of shit is scum, as is everyone who agrees with any thing he believes in.
TNP usually has the vibrate/ring feature OFF on cell phones at home, because it's fucking annoying as shit.
False. I always have it on vibrate-only, so I don't have to remember to mute it when I'm in a meeting or a concert or whatever.
TNP has been to a live concert in the past week.
No, I haven't. Frankly, I'm not very interested in what other people do or say unless it concerns me or something I'm doing, or is interesting in se, and I can't get anything from a performance I can't get from....what's that line from that movie with Rock and Gene Tierney, something, whatever. I can't resist commenting, jesus h fucking christ, you do know that vibrate on most any phone since 2009 is loud as shit, right? maybe it's just me, but I hate it. The visual cues are just fine for me, and if I'm at home, I'm either at my desk, in which case I'll see the phone light up, or doing a 5-minute micro-session at the keyboard, or at the toilet, or doing something in the kitchen, or sleeping, in all cases I wouldn't hear the phone anyway. I guess the summary is that I think my system is amazing, and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong.
TNP thinks people who think "city people" in various big cities are rude aren't really grasping the basic truth that city and country is a pretty basic divide, however colored by material conditions, pace Raymond Williams. ETA Yes, I know I'm using pace contrary to its sense, however, I like it that way, and also, fuck you, hippies.
Jane Wyman. And it was a Douglas Sirk movie, not the other one, and, no, I still can't remember the title.
As you were, or if you want a bonus TNP, TNP's memory is excellent, but getting poorer by the day.
True, no matter which one I am answering.
TNP thinks hard-boiled eggs make an excellent snack.
True, no matter which one I am answering.
TNP thinks hard-boiled eggs make an excellent snack.
Mine is very quiet. I've never yet had anyone shoot me any dirty looks, even at concerts.Quote:
Originally posted by Jizzelbin
I like hard-boiled eggs OK, but haven't ever had them as a snack.
I like hard-boiled eggs OK, but haven't ever had them as a snack.
TNP is looking forward to the Blade Runner sequel.
Well, I either didn't know or forgot there was going to be one. Sure, I'll probably see it, but as seems to be a trend, "looking forward" is maybe not quite the way I'd describe it. I am curious to know how they're going to figure something out that's cool.
Oh, I'm sure your phone is fine, EH --other people's phones and overhearing them, in general, I don't care about, and am occasionally amused by. I just can't stand sitting at my desk doing something and being jolted by some jackass texting me or whatever, when I can perfectly well just glance at the phone and notice it.
TNP, against popular opinion thinks ex-pope Benedict XVI was, and maybe still is, a pretty cool old dude. Music lover, literate, dogmatic, somewhat intolerant, curt. Say what you will about Europe, but they know how to grow them to a ripe old age out there.
Well, I either didn't know or forgot there was going to be one. Sure, I'll probably see it, but as seems to be a trend, "looking forward" is maybe not quite the way I'd describe it. I am curious to know how they're going to figure something out that's cool.
Oh, I'm sure your phone is fine, EH --other people's phones and overhearing them, in general, I don't care about, and am occasionally amused by. I just can't stand sitting at my desk doing something and being jolted by some jackass texting me or whatever, when I can perfectly well just glance at the phone and notice it.
TNP, against popular opinion thinks ex-pope Benedict XVI was, and maybe still is, a pretty cool old dude. Music lover, literate, dogmatic, somewhat intolerant, curt. Say what you will about Europe, but they know how to grow them to a ripe old age out there.
Yeah he's ok.
TNP is wondering about Jizzboy's obsession with hippies. Like he wants to put flowers in his hair and wash with goat fat or something.
Only every day.
TNP greatly prefers Pope Francis to his predecessor.
From as close to a neutral perspective as one might get, which is probably not very close at all, for anyone, (trying to apply the infamous eidetic variations and reduction and various forms of frame-bracketing, which I don't believe is a technical term), sure, Francis is the more savvy and self-aware pope (especially if one considers his time spent in cathedra as representative of the church in persona, which is an odd view that I'm sure some people hold). Benedict is still more fun, or funny, looking backwards, though, damned the consequences.
TNP thinks "eclipse chasers" are kind of an odd group, probably best avoided in a dark alley after dark.
If I met eclipse chasers, I'd join thier posse whether they were cool with it or not. Eclipses are fascinating.
TNP enjoys feeding the birds (not a euphemism).
Yeah, too bad that so many reputable sources say it's bad for the birds and society, I get a kick out of it.
TNP is kind of wondering how it got to be August, what happened to July?
Yeah, too bad that so many reputable sources say it's bad for the birds and society, I get a kick out of it.
TNP is kind of wondering how it got to be August, what happened to July?
Definitely. This summer seems to be passing even more quickly than usual.
TNP will be away from home for at least a week this month.
I might go out to the coast for about a week to work on my portfolio (automated theorem prover for description logic, a parser for quantified modal logic, some toy code demonstrating shortest-path and spanning tree using the STL, a few machine learning toy programs using support vector machines, Bayesian networks, and temporal difference learning, and, ideally a larger project implementing Basic Formal Ontology using template metaprogramming. I should write some of that in Java or in Python, using some specialized libraries, but probably not -- good, fluent, impeccable use of C++, and maybe straight C using sockets.h and stuff, that's good enough, IMHO, and they can take the pointers, templates, standard template library, and the gcc compiler suite from my cold, dead hands.. My friend might be coming out again in September to spend about a week at the beach, he's always good for a laugh, a good drinking binge, and some chat about classical music and literature, and a game of chess that I'll probably win 60% of the time.
TNP is surprised to know that drinking a few gallons of unfiltered homemade wine can be rough on the stomach and other parts of the gut
A few gallons? No. Depending on how long it takes you to drink that much, I can't say that surprises me.
TNP has tasted actual moonshine.
Absolutely, although only from two different home distillers. That's a rough drink, although the one my folk-rock hippie buddy made was pretty palatable. He used I think some kind of black tea extract to give it color and flavor, and called it "whiskey," which it kind of resembled. The other stuff, grappa made from wine which came from real grapes, and a home-designed still, was not only very rough, but didn't inspire confidence that it didn't include too much methanol. I should start distilling, but only if I procure one of those slick little under-the-counter commercial units my friend had, which he claimed didn't stink up his apartment. Well, the wine is fine, anyway. I never seem to get the potential alcohol to under 5%, leaving about 10% alcohol, so it's a weak wine or strong beer. Probably 25-28 units of alcohol per gallon, I guess, roughly.....wait a minute...nah, never mind, I don't want to figure it out in my head. About that.
TNP is fascinated by some of the fMRI research that suggests some relationships between food composition and quantities, as for example, "binge drinking," and neural adaptations in certain parts of the brain. Not that important an area of cognitive research, perhaps, but still interesting.
Hadn't heard about that before, but yes, it sounds interesting!
TNP thinks some people will live to age 150 within his or her lifetime.
No chance. Brain rot is the limiting factor, in my not-very-knowledgable opinion. It is extremely unlikely to me that neuroscience will progress much in the next forty years (or in my case, likely substantially less), and the blame is to be put squarely on the close relationship between the faithful researchers (their faith is rightfully placed in the useful, but imperfect tools like PET and fMRI, which are epoch-making tools, but only as good as the people who use them, who appear to not always recognize the variety of scales at which the results need to be interpreted and hypotheses tested) and, culturally, in assneck computards who think that their primitive neural network models are "just like" the crude statistical models one can build in a software world. And I say this as a hard-nosed true-believing materialist-scientific formal ontologist, not one of those fairies talking about speculative idealism.
Or if it were possible, through careful environmental controls, systematic replacement of tissue with synthetic or otherwise-engineered parts, and probably super-vitamins or whatever, I doubt the resulting specimens would be identifiable as humans, even to themselves.
And, yes, Bones is the best Star Trek character.
TNP thinks it is inconceivable that an evening news item about anything related to commercial technology is anything but an embarrassment, in the forms of a paean to crude, anti-intellectuals like GoogleMacMusk, or odes to chamber-of-commerce-planted news about Our Cities of Tomorrow, Where Industry and Family Join Hands.
Yeah, most of them do tend to fall into that trap.
TNP has had a significant power outage in the past three months.
No, I would never create a power outage, namely because I am incompetent and uninterested. ETA, jesus h mcgillicutty christ, reading above, WTF kind of person takes two gallons of 10+% alcohol and chugs it? No, I mean over a day or two. Not even that guy with the "Stress Kills" T-shirt from *Revenge of the Nerds* does a beer bong like that. It might, like, attract hippies or something.
TNP is pretty excited about the future of certain industries, which he or she will outline in detail. For example, up-and-coming network "engineers" have a good, lens-grinders view of grunt-level automation, as well as the side-line opportunities to expand the application of formal ontologies beyond the biomedical field.
Well, respond to that if you want to, but it's a little straight for me. Optional TNP: TNP thinks there should be a size less than '0' for size=0 stuff. More granularity.
Sure. Lots of small or small-ish people who would benefit by a more standardized sizing method.
TNP has heard a dog bark nearby in the past hour.
Yes. WC Fields would not have approved, nor do I. Fucking white people. Idiots.
TNP thinks designing websites, using github or Wordpress, or whatever, is a ridiculous waste of time, and should be done only by expending the least amount of time and effort. Unless you're some kind of freak who enjoys writing stupid markup or markdown crap.
Don't know enough to say, so false, I guess.
TNP will go swimming today.
When Hell freezes over.
TNP loves pool, but is slightly distrustful of billiards.
I'm not sure I could even explain the differences between them, so... no.
TNP has been on a university or college campus in the past month.
Yeah, I climbed the tower, and unloaded some into a nasty, bearded hag's quizlet. I fyelt zo setisfyet.
TNP can name one famous person (celebrity well-known through their work in a popular field, like music, politics, etc) who has a hilarious Central-European accent.
Hmm. Dr. Ruth Westheimer is the first to spring to mind.
TNP has a close personal friend from Central Europe.
Good one -- forgot about Dr. Ruth. Not at the moment -- fairly close with some Romanians for a few years (separately: they didn't come in a pack), but haven't kept in touch.
TNP thinks it's remarkable that valuations of the aesthetic work of art are, for some people, not as fixed and stable as appreciations of other objects, like principles or maybe habitually encountered objects like foods or some environmental noises or smells.
Eh, not really. Some people's tastes as to everything can change very frequently.
TNP has been hit by raindrops today (as I was, while swimming).
Yeah, if by raindrops you include strange particulates containing probably quite a bit of moisture, that has been falling; for example, cow-town smog and smoke from those hippies up North,who for all I know got baked and set a bunch of shit on fire. Unless I've hallucinated a a basic fact from organic chemistry, I think small amounts of water are a product from burning carbon, but I don't want to drag out my textbook to find out some nerd little fact, although I probably should do some chemical balancing equations for fun, since I need an excuse to do some easy real-world linear algebra simultaneous equations so I don't get too airy-fairy in the theory of abstract algebra and category theory.
TNP found some hidden talents about a famous person recently. Here's an example: until last year or so, I really knew musician András Schiff as primarily a Bach specialist, but he has a remarkable gift for a variety of early-Romantic composers, like Chopin, Beethoven, and Schumann, and classical composers like Mozart and Haydn. He always seems to have something interesting to say, and his recordings of these other composers are very interesting. I mean, sure, Argerich and the Russians like Ashkenazy and Richter always had a deep bench, but most Bach specialists seem to go the route of another favorite of mine, Angela Hewitt, who, while having many diverse records, is to me still primarily one of my hidden references for Bach and Debussy (which is not nuts -- I happen to think if one became an expert in those two alone, one has covered about 70% of the conceptual history of late Baroque-->Modernist music).
Clearly that was a bit verbose, but just intended as an example in a field which may or may not be of great interest to everyone.
No.
TNP is wondering what's going on re: N Korea and Venezuela.
I didn't know they were buddies. No, I'm not very interested in or curious about North Korea -- that's old news. Venezuela is interesting, and since the cesspool of the Eastern med is without surprises, except for the Arab Spring a few years ago (which, in US news, was nearly overshadowed by that idiot Japanese nuclear crap), it's where attention is given. I think Colombia should annex them, and create one really neat country.
TNP is absolutely unwilling to cheat at card games, but doesn't really know why.
Correct. I always strive to play honestly.
TNP is very pleased to see Jizz's new avatar!
True. He certainly reminds me of cough syrup!
TNP does not enjoy gang$ta rap.
I don't know how to answer that. I enjoy any cultural phenomenon that calls for execution of civilian professional cocksuckers, aka police, and think putting women and anyone in general who is uppity in their place is fine. I think the actual music productions are idiotic garbage fit for retard toddlers. So, while I enjoy the message, the medium sips shit.
TNP should learn some conversational street Spanish or Russian, in case a desire to flee white cracker pantywaist USA is overwhelming. Nothing fancy, just a few thousand words, and a good accent.
I took four years of high school Spanish and retain just enough of it so that, if you parachuted me into Madrid, I could maybe find my way to the U.S. Embassy.
TNP wants to visit Madrid, with or without Spanish fluency.
Sounds a little bright, cheerful, expensive, and European for me. If must go to a Spanish land, more like the settings of *Only Angels Have Wings*, *Sorcerer*, *The Wages of Fear*, *Nostromo*, *Under the Volcano*, *Out of the Past*. Dark corners in sun-baked hellish lands. Hence emphasis on street Spanish -- nothing fancy, just rotten sewer language spit out like a desperado. Plus, those Basque people are fucking crazy. Are they French? Are they Spanish? Who cares, they're fucking nuts. Not going anywhere near them. I'd visit Portugal, though, without having any of the language nor any desire to learn it. Every Portuguese person I've met has been a bottom-dwelling pompous ass or cunt, so that's amusing, and I've heard the countryside is pretty neat.
TNP. when hearing the terms "red and black" thinks of (i) the book/movie(s) (ii) something about computers (iii) something else, and will explain,
Uh... (iii) something else. Red and black were the colors of the Dover, Ohio high school athletic teams when we lived near there. They were very popular and the colors were omnipresent, so that's the first thing I think of.
TNP will tell us his or her most significant or personally-valued school colors.
dp
Yeah, I guess. I recall purple and forest green, and some other stuff. I think there was some red in there later on, but my only connection to the football team was complaining about various deans to like-minded students and academics.
TNP can and will admit to not liking certain European nationalities very much, in general, as a prejudice.
ETA: DEEP Purple! Yeah, baby. I always considered it violet, but apparently it's purple. Great band, RIP Jon Lord, good tune, rocking color.
Nope. "I hate only two things: unreasoning prejudice based on nationality, and the Dutch!" - Nigel Powers
TNP has seen all the Austin Powers movies.
Somehow haven't seen any.
TNP has been to Atlanta.
Yes, just a few years ago for a long weekend with my family. We had a great time, including visits to the Carter Presidential Library, state capitol, Centennial Park, MLK house, church and historic center, Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta History Center, Swan House (beautiful old mansion featured in a Hunger Games film), SkyView ferris wheel, High Museum, Battle of Atlanta cyclorama, touring the CNN studios and taking our first-ever Segway tour (including seeing the POV of this vista: http://ll-c.ooyala.com/e1/8xMDUxYzE6...promo324957740).
TNP has been to Cleveland, Ohio.
Yeah, I can't remember if it's the I-90 or the I-95, that skirts just south of the lakes through to Chicago, but I've been "through" there. I guess I'm a bad man, but I was on a mission and really didn't feel like going stag to stop at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, for the implied reason above, and also because I probably would have hated it on principle. ETA OK I90,east, then take a right at I95 to get to the PA turnpike. That must be my confusion.
TNP prefers the US side to the Canada side of Niagara Falls, and/or has spent time at either.
No preference, really, but yes, I've been on both sides.
TNP refused to wear the goofy disposable raincoat when sailing on The Maid of the Mist.
No, peer pressure ruled the days I went to be a good sport with out-of-towners. So,yeah, I wore the poncho/whatever, I don't know, just because. Truth be told, I think once is enough for Maid of the Mist. If that. But there is some neat stuff on the US side to walk around on, see the river up close before it goes over. The Niagara is one rough old boy of a river, all the way from Buffalo up to the falls -- sort of an awesome little river. I could be misremembering the frequency, but it seems like jackasses were always crashing their car into it, never to be found again.
TNP has noticed that woman who work at animal shelters tend to be total babes, and are probably pretty nice, even if they likely have menageries of foul beasts in their efficiency studio apartments.
I've been to several animal shelters over the years, including getting our current cat a few years ago, and never noticed that.
TNP has heard a church bell ring in the past 48 hours.
No. There aren't any churches in my neighborhood, that I'm aware of.
TNP is very intimate with somebody who has chickens (and, perhaps, some roosters, which, I've heard, is a problem).
My niece has some chickens, and she and I have kissed and hugged in a friendly way many times over the years, but "very intimate" would be overstating things.
TNP has a favorite breed of chicken.
Maybe, I just can't remember all the names and they all seem the same to me. Apparently my diction wasn't that great, re uerbo "very intimate" -- my sister and her family has chickens, but I'm not that kind of uncle brother.
TNP is shocked to learn that many, if not most Catholics, receive communion without having confessed any masses and holy days of obligation they have missed. Cheaters.
No, in this day and age, I suppose I'm not too surprised. Some priests are more stringent than others, I've heard.
TNP has met an archbishop.
Hmm. No, but I used to walk regularly nearby as part of my path to walk up to the highest point (mountain/butte/crest/whatever it's called) within city limits, by where the old Archbishop used to live, I've heard. Pretty nice house, in a pretty old and respectable residential part of town. Apparently back in the late 1960s he used to throw some pretty swell parties. I don't know for what purpose, but that's just what the old timers say. I don't believe I've ever even seen the current Archbishop live and in stereo.
TNP is annoyed when he or she can't put his or her feet up when sitting at a desk (for whatever reasons, too messy, a guest at somebody else's office, too improprer in public, dogshit on the shoes, whatever).
I don't often do it, but yes, it's nice to have it as an option.
TNP is barefoot as he or she reads this.
Yep.
TNP thinks barefootedness is a little bit cleaner in general than bothering with shoes.
It can be, yes, and in the summertime my feet are just happier that way around the house.
TNP owns his or her own house.
I don't live in a house, and if I did, the first thing I'd do is poison all of the decorative plants and cover the lawn with shards of pointy shale, and have roaming attack dogs fenced in. As it is, I have an underground bunker with outside privileges and a real annoying bunch of stupid neighbor jackasses. And I'm a part-owner with my sister, so I can't sell it for cash without going through a bunch of paperwork, which is a hassle because no one in my family thought it would be necessary to cultivate familiar relations with attorneys specializing in contract law. Dumb idiots. I'm enacting a subtle plan to "psychologically drive" one of my nephews into being the family lawyer, and another one to go to West Point and be the muscle, and....I don't know, the other one can be an artist or something.
TNP despises being interrupted under any circumstances while trying to concentrate on a task, but is pretty good at muttering a few obscenities to him or herself and letting the annoyance drift over them like the cherry blossoms floating on the pond.
Yes, when I'm focused, I prefer to remain focused. But life doesn't always allow that.
TNP thinks he or she just might live a hundred years.
Yeah, sure, I guess anything's possible. Not sure life would be worth a damned without being reasonably physically hard and mentally sharp. Probably George Saunders was not correctly assessing his fitness at age....65 I think, but perhaps he wasn't wrong in principle.
TNP thinks focus is easier to achieve if one detaches oneself from pesky emotions as much as possible.
Yes, they can be distractions when one is trying to focus, but life without them otherwise would be barren.
TNP owns at least three staplers.
No, I have one stapler. It works great.
TNP is easily enraged by inferior office supplies.
Annoyed, perhaps; never enraged.
Without Googling, TNP knows who said, "The Mafia cleared an estimated $2 billion last year, which is particularly impressive when you realize they spend very little on office supplies."
I don't know. Cohn or Kefauver maybe. It sounds like a Woody Allen line. Don't worry, I'll be googling presently.
TNP is easily enraged by puzzles.
ETA goddammit son of a bitch! Change that to is very pleased at WINNING! Son of a bitch. Woody Allen. Thank you, Eric Lax, for the biography that made me the man I am today, even though I sold your book years ago to a used bookstore. EETA and that's bing, not google, thank you very much.
Yeah, so it appears both yes and no. BTW I won fair and square.
TNP thinks saying, unaccompanied by any menacing gestures, saying "I'm going to cut your asshole open and show it to your whole fucking family" should be protected speech in the USA.
Yes, I agree that's protected speech, depending on the context (if it was said at the end of an argument with a knife actually at hand, a court might not be quite so forgiving).
And you were right about Woody Allen. Good job.
TNP has seen at least three Woody Allen movies made since 2000.
I don't think so. I liked *Scoop* a lot, and pretty sure that was after 2000. I may have seen some others, but I wouldn't know.
TNP is very aggravated by being stuck with people who don't do car-camping correctly -- as in bringing a lot of junk they don't need, mostly, including unwise foodstuffs. Not knowing how to use a topo map and compass can be forgiven, but is still sub-optimal.
I'd have to disagree. Car-camping is pretty much all about bringing junk you don't need.
TNP has been for at least an hour-long hike in the past month.
Sure, I walked for a few hours around Lost Lake near Mt. Hood in Oregon the other day. I didn't even start a forest fire with my pipe either.
TNP thinks a day without walking is like a fistfight without blood.
I do like to walk a lot, but can't say I do it every day at any length.
TNP has to mow a lawn in the next few days.
Fuck that shit. Some pack of roving nineteen-year-olds probably did to the neighboring apartment complex's invisible, yet highly adjacent lawn or whatever they have over there. Labor Day weekend, so I'm expecting a high level of man-dog interaction from those hicks. I hope coyotes kill every single one of those beasts, leaving their carcasses to rot. Bands of rats and vultures would be preferable.
TNP thinks highway billboard space would be wisely rented by a public-health advocacy NGO, in order that it might feature graphic, horrific displays of automobile "accidents." As a warning to others, and possibly with the side effect of causing some defective drivers to perish or to maim their passengers thanks to their inattention, aka "rubbernecking." Or else just get rid of every billboard visible from any portion of the US interstate system. But my first idea is far more equitable and reasonable.
I'd be cool with either of those.
TNP has talked to an Australian recently.
No, but as a matter of fact I have had an important question that seems especially suited for a Commonwealth sort, about language.
TNP can say if, as a male, it is better to be called (i) a twat or (ii) a cunt.
Slightly better to be called a twat, I think. But only slightly.
TNP has been called either of those in the past week.
No. It's been years since a stranger insulted me in person with a mild vulgarity, that I can recall. But I was very interested yesterday in adding "twat" to my active vocabulary. Always be prepared -- it's the Boy Scout way.
TNP can name a technique that requires extraordinary focus, and is surprisingly difficult, when practiced extremely slowly -- far, far more slowly than even a beginner would attempt to learn the technique.
Hmmm. No, I don't think I can.
TNP has read Frank Herbert's Dune.
Sure. I was just now thinking, it must have been 1985-1987 or so. I recall the impression they made on me, and sort of the experience of reading some of them. Pretty spicy, I guess.
TNP needs to organize his or her desk at home -- papers and stuff.
Always, but things are in pretty good shape for now.
TNP has a favorite among the several TV or film adaptations of Dune.
Well, I've only seen Lynch's. I think I grasped its significance at age 8 as when I last saw it, a few years ago. Big sandworms, some pretty ladies, a fat guy with pimples floating around, and some other stuff. Lynch was robbed at that year's Oscars.
TNP has some half-baked ideas about metalearning, I guess it would be called -- in other words, the most efficient ways to teach, including to oneself, various materials.
TNP thinks he or she knows what a turd on the run is, like in the Stones' song.
Only speculation, and none of it pretty.
TNP thinks the Rolling Stones had, at most, three great songs.
False. I think they had maybe at most three or four great albums, all of them with co-founder Ian Stewart on piano. It's been at least a few years since I've heard them, but very occasionally I'll just play the piano parts to one of their tunes, or as close to I can remember from the rock-and-roll days, since for me it really captures the essence of why they stood apart from the typical limey teenager group. Usually in combination with alcohol use, and accompanied by playing some George Jones tunes and maybe some of Chuck Leavell's parts from that Allman Brothers album............brothers and sisters.
TNP has no interest in listening to any more rock and pop from the 1960s and 1970s.
Well...I still kinda like it, but I am pretty sympathetic when my kid complains that all he hears at public venues is 50 year old music.
TNP takes a daily Aspirin.
No, every other day.
TNP takes a daily multivitamin.
Yeah, I'm kind of devoted to them.
TNP is thinking about trying to getting all micronutrients from foods, instead of depending on pills.
No. I eat pretty healthy, all in all, but with a multivitamin I know I'm getting all the stuff I need.
TNP has had ice cream in the past 48 hours.
No. I can't remember the last time I ate ice cream recently. Rick Sanchez's enthusiasm for it is admirable, but it would be strange and confusing for me to look at the ice cream part of the grocery store. Although I seem to remember a time when I would sometimes buy a box of those ice cream sandwiches -- they are pretty good.
TNP is annoyed by political protests taking place near where he or she has an errand to run.
There've been a few near my courthouse but no, they haven't gotten in my way. Even if they did, they have the right to peacefully protest.
TNP has been in a protest march in the past nine months.
Bwahahaha. Ridiculous. Couldn't resist. No, they're fine and whatever, but people here aren't doing it right.
TNP thinks Americans are doing life wrong 80% of the time. Everyone else, whatever, but it's wrong.
Sometimes I honestly do.
TNP could go for a nice hot bowl of tomato soup right about now.
Not really but yeah, I remember what that is. These super-Christian neighbors out in the country were, astonishingly, really nice to my oddball family back in the day, and they used to swap child-sitting chores with my folks for vacations and stuff. Their mom had a soft spot for tomato soup, IIRC, and since I'm barely managing to restrain myself from making crude jokes, that's it.
TNP rarely has a reason to think about the pre-teen years, but when does, pretty good.
Yup. I had a pretty great childhood, looking back.
TNP has been in the town or city in which he or she was born in the past year.
Yeah, I guess so.
TNP thinks that people talk too damn much.
Pshaw. People don't talk enough.
TNP has a profound, abiding, really horrible aversion to people who don't seem to have an "inside voice." IOW, loud talking == fucking horrible.
It can be very annoying, yes. Just had a guy in court today like that. His lawyer kept nudging him to get him to quiet down a little.
TNP has had to shout at someone outside in the past week.
God no. I tried to abstain from commenting, but the very idea of shouting is so abhorrent I can't resist expressing my displeasure.
TNP defaults to thinking of French kings when presented with names like Henry, Louis, Charles, etc. Never English.
Depends on the context, I guess. Plenty of British men with those names (including two current princes).
TNP has met a member of the British Royal Family.
Are you kidding me? Not even close -- not part of my social circle.
TNP admires the sand of the Irish who recently (some of them) didn't miss a step protesting the Queen of England/Wales/whatever else she is during a recent tour of the Republic of Ireland.
Nah, HM has done well by the Irish (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...t-success.html), and I think they should just move on.
TNP has been in Dublin in the past five years.
No, never been to any of the islands up there, except a layover in Iceland once. Apparently my mother is half-heartedly trying to get an Irish passport, I have no idea why, and while she's spent time over there, I think she's nuts, and will have a hard time finding baptismal records or whatever else. Anyway, I don't much care about Ireland except I'm glad they've prevailed in gaining sovereignty and, all told, giving up the fight for North is probably smart and for the best.
TNP would not take the Chunnel in a million years, because it seems very unsound. Mind you, not is unsound, it just kind of seems that way.
No, having read so much about it over the years, I'd actually be very interested to go through it. You may know there's a British-French cop show about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tunnel_(TV_series)
TNP has a favorite bridge somewhere in the world.
Well, there are a lot of good ones, but I'll stick with the good old Pont Neuf, primarily because it makes me think of good king Henry IV -- like him, it's kind of small in stature and sort of rugged and utilitarian. It's not a particularly pleasant bridge for a pedestrian to walk over, but I'll take it, because of its simplicity, over something like the Ponte Vecchio, which has sort of too much history, too complicated.
TNP thinks about twenty minutes of intense concentration is about a good number of time before taking a short break -- coffee, stretch legs, dink around on the piano, whatever.
Sounds about right, yes.
TNP is watching the new season of Twin Peaks.
Oh, sure, I saw it. I have less interest in following week-to-week many shows, but I made an exception for *TP: The Return*. More of a watch-once affair, I think, to borrow one of What Exit?'s phrases about a category of movies, but if the computer holocaust hasn't yet occurred in ten years, maybe I might watch it then again as an amateur anthropologist. Meh, I'm always interested in the dialogue Lynch and sometimes his writing partner's come up with, but not much of that here. And, no, I really wasn't paying attention to all the minor characters, and probably couldn't describe what exactly happened in any detail, but that's just my approach.
TNP plans out each week pretty carefully, from day to day, detailed schedules for "extracirriculars," like what to work on at a musical instrument, what to read at the limen of pleasure and various works for professional development, and various other skills one desires to add to one's pile of tricks.
No, I'm a little more freewheeling than that.
TNP will be buying a new car before Dec. 31.
No, probably not. Wife would rather do renovations.
TNP thinks nomads have a pretty good approach.
It seems to work for them, but it wouldn't be the life for me.
TNP has met a Bedouin.
No, I don't think so. I rather suspect they exist in their presumptive form like the red Indians from the movie pictures, but who knows, I'm sure they're still out there, defending their wells and learning about sauce blanche from Lawrence, allegedly, reading between the lines in his own writings.
TNP is somewhat curious to know the best precise explanations for the occasional Lackawanna most, perhaps, people, experience, more or less at times. Those who know the town Lackawanna in WNY make, perhaps rightly, suspect the secret origins of the name of the town/suburb.
It never even occurred to me before.
TNP would love to discover the sophisticated cosmopolitan charms of Blawnox, Penna.
Never heard of it. I'm sure it lives up to its name, but I could really pass that one up and not feel too bad.
TNP can't fucking stand cloudy overcast weather.
Definitely not my favorite.
TNP should've used sunscreen today.
No, I'm avoiding going outside until I finish three modest projects. Machine learning, modal logic parser, and music. (Slight reference to that scene in *Coffee and Cigarettes* with Iggy Pop and Tom Waits: "music and medicine!")
TNP thinks a Marlon Brando-in-.........the Fr....*The Island of Dr. Moreau*-style full-body shield, including hat and canopy is more comfortable than oiling up with sunscreen.
Definitely not. You can be less encumbered and more mobile by using sunscreen.
TNP has been in a national park in the past six months.
Don't think so, although I was in a Fort in Puerto Rico run by the Parks Service: not sure what it's status was.
TNP is pretty depressed about Puerto Rico and about how the POTUS is too busy tweeting to work on its problems.
Just one more thing to loathe the current President of the United States for.
TNP has made a donation for disaster relief in the past month.
Sure. I donated some time to thinking about -- praying for, if you will -- the inhabitants of Puerto Rico. Not so much the other.
TNP thinks dishwashing machines are stupid, except for large parties.
Nah, love them.
TNP likes Popeye's fried chicken better than KFC.
Negative. Never had Popeye's. I used to have the Colonel pretty often, back when I was a skinny runt with a hollow leg for food and beverage of all kinds.
TNP can think of a more irritating (or awesome) musical fact than my (AFAIK) discovery that "Happy Birthday" has the same chords in the same places as "Stone Cold Dead In the Market" -- I dare you to sing it without thinking of that fact.
How about... Ulysses S. Grant was tone-deaf and once joked, "I know two songs: one of them is 'Yankee Doodle,' and the other isn't."
TNP knows a tone-deaf person.
Probably, although I wouldn't know exactly.
TNP often assesses the hidden abilities of strangers.
Yes, I do sometimes wonder about that.
TNP has greeted a complete stranger in the past two hours.
No. Past few days, sure. Not past few hours.
TNP: Munsters or Addams Family.
I was always more a Munsters guy, for whatever reason.
TNP: Lily or Morticia.
Lily Munster, without question.
TNP: Disney or Warner Bros. (ETA cartoons!)
Warner Brothers, no question. Gimme a classic Forties or Fifties Bugs Bunny anytime.
TNP: Bogie or Bacall?
You know, but as great as Slim was in (my personal favorite) *To Have and Have Not*, Bogey really carried a bunch of otherwise crummy movies.
TNP: Nicolas Ray e.g., In a Lonely Place, Rebel w/o Griffith Park or Empire State Bldg.
Gotta go with the iconic ESB: http://40.media.tumblr.com/2c6746b37...llqbo1_500.jpg
TNP: Guggenheim or Fallingwater?
Guggenheim, I guess. I've only seen pictures of Fallingwater. Nice picture of the ESB above, though. I didn't know it ever looked anything but kind of grimy and tall with a bunch of scaffolds around the sidewalk.
TNP: panhandlers or bike messengers (category: obstacles)