Using adjectives to describe music

I’ve been focusing on growing my Instagram presence and wanted to share some tips that have really helped me increase views on my Reels and gain more followers:

1. Create Engaging Content: Make sure your Reels are visually appealing and provide value, whether it’s through entertainment, education, or storytelling. 2. Use Trending Music and Hashtags: Utilizing popular music tracks and relevant hashtags can help your Reels get discovered by a wider audience. 3. Post Consistently: Consistency is key. Try to stick to a regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged and attract new followers. 4. Engage with Your Audience: Respond to comments, ask questions, and interact with your followers. The more you engage, the more likely they are to engage back. 5. Collaborate with Others: Partnering with other creators can introduce your content to new audiences. Look for collaboration opportunities with influencers or users in your niche. 

Additionally, if you’re looking for an extra boost, I highly recommend insfollowpro.com. They provide real, active followers, which has significantly improved my engagement and follower count. It’s been a game-changer for my growth strategy.
Hope you find these tips useful! Feel free to share your own strategies or ask any questions

She was interviewed on the Dutch tv-show tonight, about a new (beautiful) documentary. And she was asked about her backstage Eurovision experience because there are scenes in the documentary where she complains about how demanding the crew is. Even the people that were responsible for her in earmonitors asked for her photo’s and videomessages for personal use, on very inconvenient moments. She also shared that they had to file an official complaint with the EBU the day of the Grand Final. And then she was escorted by an assistant to shine a flashlight into the camera’s of all the crewmembers that unprofessionally tried to make content of her.
She told the presenter she’d always felt a little shame about complaining a out it but described the immense relieve she felt when Joost turned out to be having the experiencing the same and more.

Today, I put together a TroubleShoot Assistant app using the Lyzr SDK and OpenAI's model. Setting it up with Streamlit was a breeze, and I quickly had a functional interface up and running. The app asks users to describe their issues and then provides clear, step-by-step solutions to fix them. The Lyzr SDK made it super easy to integrate AI and handle all the tasks smoothly. Overall, it was a really satisfying and efficient project to work on!

Today, I put together a TroubleShoot Assistant app using the Lyzr SDK and OpenAI's model. Setting it up with Streamlit was a breeze, and I quickly had a functional interface up and running. The app asks users to describe their issues and then provides clear, step-by-step solutions to fix them. The Lyzr SDK made it super easy to integrate AI and handle all the tasks smoothly. Overall, it was a really satisfying and efficient project to work on!

DISCLAIMER: This is a RANT that's going here as someone who just graduated from SOA, and I'm sure there's discourse that's already been going on for a while around what I have to say that I'm just new to it but what I have to say just feels urgent to shout at a bunch of people, but specifically people who might be receptive/interested in taking action on it/at least thinking through it and debating it. SO while there might be a better space for this post, we'll see what moderators and anyone else on here might think.
SO:
As title states. IMO Big Tech has really truly gotten out of hand in controlling and having influence over every aspect of human culture and society globally; way, WAY too much power. I think this is real bad and a lot of us aren't vibing with it, and we should be trying to disrupt Big Tech's power.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibMd_Jx9daw&t=1s
This conversation about AI in music/Spotify sparked a march larger chain of thought in me about something that I took for granted but didn't realize the scope of. Across nearly every industry, Big Tech is running mass/macro culture into the ground. Movie studios don't take risks on things because all profits rely on streaming services (no more Blockbuster rentals to make up box office losses). All forms of media, entertainment, even journalism or information, the whole game of content--
I don't know if anyone else has felt this way, but I feel like the algorithms feeding me content every day don't even work at hacking my lizard brain anymore like they used to; I mean most of the shit they show me on social media and other apps these days just doesn't hold my attention or interest me any more. It feels like, no offense STEM peeps, your services and function in society and humanity is vital, but seems like fueled by the structures of capitalism, a bunch of STEM peeps in Silicon Valley thought they could reduce the human spirit to math and engineering, and the feeling I have of cultural stagnation seems to me to prove the overstep of Tech Companies incentivized to grow ceaselessly with no greater reason than higher stock prices.
Has anyone else not felt like art and culture has been kind of stagnant lately? Art and culture has been taken over my tech companies and on the macro level, shit is just bad an uninspired and I feel like we're all really in need of many kinds of revolution, but also one that's more a humanistic creative artistic and cultural revolution.
Does Tech really need to just keep advancing? I'm not convinced humanity is doomed unless Tech companies just keep expanding and exploding and completely shifting the entire nature of the human experience in a single human lifetime. I'm not convinced that's necessary or inevitable. I'm not anti-tech either, but I think the version we've gotten of monopolized capitalist tech corps turning our digital commons into a deeply surveilled Digital Disney World is not inevitable.
I'm speculating here, but I'm day-dreaming about young creatives, inspired STEM peeps, perhaps even some of YOU, who might be trying to figure out how to make new decentralized internet, how to create more new micro internet culture. Create hardware systems that people can access and allows them to communicate with other people in different ways than devices created by corporations; DEI software and hardware not owned and controllled by corporations, almost a vision of anarchist tech, with clever people using the comms systems already in place to let the masses know and teach them about these new spaces forming on new internets and new systems that massive corps can't control. Make virtual meeting spaces and modes of communication that aren't owned by Musk, Bezos, and Zuck.
I know shit like this already exists and it immediately gets targeted (and i'm sure sometimes fairly when it's actually used by criminals and terrorists)--but I believe the right people are clever enough to design something that could be innocent and benign enough to really break through and disrupt the monopoly of the tech corps.
We can do better tech, better internet, and we can disrupt the power of these tech companies, because a handful of these assholes have just been going to town on human civilization for the last decade and these mfs need to be put in their place. I don't believe we have to inevitably plow into a cyberpunk dystopia; I think the last few months on campus should have everyone here in agreement that if enough people feel strongly enough about something and choose to resist it together, things can happen.

Hi all! After a crazy, but incredibly fun and rewarding year earning my pilot certs, I wanted to make a write-up of my experience in hopes that it’ll be helpful for any other aspiring or current pilots. To summarize, I went from zero aviation experience to CFII in 13 months, Part 61, paying as I go and on the pretty cheap side. I do want to emphasize that I was ~incredibly~ lucky and had some very generous people who helped me out, and I could not have done this as efficiently and cheaply if it weren’t for them. I’m going to list all my takeaways below, but I think my biggest piece of advice is to network as much as you can because there are some amazing, generous people in this community that want to see us all succeed.
Background:
For context, I’m in my mid to late twenties and have been in the workforce for about 5 years. Through a combination of factors I decided to make a career switch to professional pilot but was hesitant because I did not want to take on debt. I have a family member who is an airline pilot who helped me devise a plan. I moved home and kept working my job remotely so I was able to put all my paychecks towards flying.
Private Pilot – 3 months, 75 hours TT, $12k
I did my private in a Piper Archer owned by my local FBO. The owner allowed my family member to be my instructor and gave me a small discount for pre-paying hours. We flew almost daily. I also took ground school at another local FBO in-person, and that was much more helpful than having to learn everything on my own because I was brand new to aviation. I took the private written exam as soon as my ground school concluded which was also the week of my checkride (bad idea in hindsight, but it worked out).
I solo’d around 25 hours and took my checkride with about 60 hours in the Archer (15 additional hours were in a friend’s airplane). The checkride was challenging, but straightforward and I was well prepared. The DPE said good things about me afterward and I was officially a private pilot! I’d be happy to answer questions or do a writeup in a separate post on any of my checkrides but for the sake of brevity I’ll skip that for now.
~Key takeaways from private:~
Fly as often as possible and make sure your instructor is aligned with that. Also stay on top of ground school. Also, don’t rush to take the checkride before you’re ready, it’s okay to have a lot of practice first. Lastly, I know DPE availability is a big issue in lots of areas and can cause people to have to wait on a checkride even though they’ve been ready for months. In my experience, if you try hard enough and call around, you will find someone. However, it might mean you have to travel a little bit which I know is not possible for everyone.
Instrument – 2 months, 150 hours TT, $14k
I was feeling a little fatigued after private so I was slow to start studying for instrument. I started by doing a lot of flying for fun, mainly flying in the Archer by myself on little cross countries to check off some of the requirements (in hindsight I should have found someone to split time with).
I did my instrument at a flight school in one of the adjacent states. This particular school specializes in accelerated programs, but they do not have a formalized instrument course. I went in-person and spoke with the director of flight operations to discuss my options. Since I had to take PTO to do this, the goal was to finish my instrument in one week with the checkride at the end. I paid a flat rate for the airplane and instructor time. I also stayed over there during that week so I had to pay for housing as well.
Before I went over there, I did some prep in the Archer that I did my private in and took the written exam (Sheppard air). I also purchased Sporty’s Instrument course and used that to prep and for the endorsement needed to take the written. The week I spent at the flight school was honestly a blast, and I was able to take my checkride on day 7 with 20 hours in the plane and about 4 hours of sim time. Again, happy to discuss the checkride in the comments or another post.
~Key takeaways from instrument:~
TAKE THE IRA, FII, AND IGI EXAMS AT THE SAME TIME. You only have to purchase the IRA Sheppard course and can take all 3 exams back to back. Also, again stay on top of ground school because instrument flying requires a lot of technical knowledge. But it honestly is really fun!
Commercial – 3 months, 263 hours TT, $8k
The biggest challenge for commercial was time building, of course. This is where networking saved me. I made friends with another instructor who frequented my local FBO who also owns a plane. He needed the time as well so we flew together a lot and I paid for the fuel. I also had another friend at the airport who owns a plane that he doesn’t fly often and offered to let me time build in that (again, I’ve been so lucky to come across some very generous people).
I did my checkride in the Archer that I learned in with my family member signing me off, and with the same DPE who did my private. Commercial was probably the easiest one I had done so far, but it still was no joke! I will say I was amazed with how much easier things came to me by this point versus when I first started, which was a great feeling.
~Key takeaways from commercial:~
Network, network, network. Spend as much time as you can at your local FBO or flight school and make friends with everyone. Like I’ve said, there are some very generous people out there who love to help out new pilots, and I could not have made it this far without them.
Also, in retrospect, it would have been a really good idea to have done commercial from the right seat. I’ve heard of a lot of people doing that and if I had, I would have been able to knock out CFI a lot sooner and cheaper.
Multi-engine add-on – 1 week, 298 hours TT, $4.3k
Shortly after getting my CPL, I had a week of PTO and decided to knock out my multi add-on. I found a flight school with a Seminole and got ahold of their MEI, and we figured we could knock it out during that week. I contacted the DPE who did my private and commercial and we scheduled my checkride for the end of the week. This flight school was about 2 hours driving from home, and I was able to stay with friends while I was there.
This one was a little challenging because this was in January in the midwest and we were seeing a lot of low IFR days. We ended up getting weathered out the first half of the week, but luckily the Seminole was an easy transition for me and we got me trained up in 3 days, 8 hours of flying. I took the checkride as scheduled and passed (I will say I have had extremely good luck with weather for all of my checkride days so far).
Sidenote: Prior to this checkride, I also took the AGI and IGI exams and asked the DPE who did my multi checkride to sign off on the ground instructor certificate at the same time. I did this because I’ve heard it helps when applying to CFI jobs (shows a little extra effort) and it was easier to do it this way versus having a FSDO issue the cert. Cost me $50 to the DPE.
~Key takeaways from multi:~
Do your research to find an airplane at a good rate. I paid $395 per hour which included the instructor, but I’ve seen some schools charging a lot more. Also, I looked into schools with accelerated courses that you pay as a package, and based on my experience I would not recommend because I was able to do it much cheaper my way.
My instructor did a good job of making sure I knew all the aircraft systems well enough to teach them in case I go for my MEI (which I would like to do soon). Since the MEL is light on material, I highly recommend this. Also, when I was doing research I was told to look for a Seminole or DA-42 because they’re easy trainers, which I would agree with based on my limited experience.
CFI – 1 month (on top of all my experience thus far), 316 hours TT, $5k
This was the scariest one for me. I had heard all along that CFI is the hardest and longest checkride and for the most part I would agree. I originally was planning on going to a school with an accelerated program for this, but after asking around I decided to do it on my own (with my family member signing me off).
This one was heavy on ground school. I got some lesson plans from various people as I heard that’s what everyone has prepared for the checkride, but I hardly ended up using them. I also had a friend send me PowerPoints he made for the technical subject areas. I edited them/made them my own and these are what I ended up using for the checkride along with a couple props.
As far as studying goes, the thing I found most helpful was watching random YouTube videos before bed every night. Although it was all review, I picked up a lot of tidbits that weren’t quite drilled into my brain as I still feel new to aviation overall. As the DPE described it, to be a good CFI you basically need to be a nerd about everything aviation and that’s what I tried to do. I would guess that I studied a few hours a day for a month and a half or so. As for the flying part, I had a little bit of right seat experience prior to buckling down for CFI (probably under 5 hours), so I’d guess it took me about 5 more hours to feel comfortable in the right seat. I took the checkride with the same DPE who did my private, commercial, and multi and passed! The checkride was 8 hours total so definitely a long day. As we were debriefing, I went ahead and scheduled CFII with him as well.
~Key takeaways from CFI:~
Start nerding out now (if you aren’t already). Keep a running collection of links and videos that explain concepts well or teach you something interesting, they will be useful for the checkride. Also, don’t buy lesson plans. As my DPE put it, there are really only like 5 lesson plans for any given topic and we all steal them from each other, so no need to reinvent the wheel or pay for them if someone else can give them to you. I’d also recommend really getting to know the PTS, because it lays out very clearly what you are required to do on the checkride (for example you know you’re going to need to teach runway incursions so it’s a good opportunity to be really prepared). I’m sure my last point is most applicable to those doing CFI on their own since you won’t have a school telling you exactly what to expect.
CFII – 1 month, 368 hours TT, $1.3k
CFII was possibly the easiest checkride to prepare for. I did this one in a friend’s airplane – a Mooney with a G750 and GFC 500 autopilot. It probably took about 10 hours of flying (I already have lots of time in this plane) to be ready. For studying, I reviewed Pilot Cafe, YouTube videos, and obtained some lesson plans from a friend. I did not use PowerPoints or anything for this one. I also had already completed the written exam back when I did my instrument rating. I’m not sure what else to say about this one, but I did it with the same DPE again and passed. It feels amazing to be done with checkrides for a while!
~Key takeaways from CFII:~
Select an airplane with a good autopilot. This made the flying portion of the checkride super easy. For the oral, I highly recommend working with instructors who send students for a lot of instrument checkrides. I feel like there are so many very specific questions that DPEs like to ask on instrument/CFII checkrides, so it helps if you have someone who knows what those questions are going to be. Also, FlightInsight on YouTube and Boldmethod were my favorite resources for this one. Lastly, make sure you know your avionics and autopilot really well, including reading and being able to teach all of the limitations that are in the user manuals.
Notes regarding cost:
I did a decent job of tracking all my expenses throughout this process. I noted in the title that the total cost to me was about $50k, which consists of the ~$45k that I discussed above plus some additional expenses. I also did my commercial ASES rating at Jack Brown’s seaplane base which cost me about $2.5K total (of course this was just for fun). The remaining amount consists of things like buying a headset, books, random accessories, and even some things I called “unnecessary expenses”. I temporarily paid for a membership at a flight school that I barely ended up using, so I put that in that category. While I did everything pretty cheap, I was definitely not perfect!
Here is a further breakdown of my expenses:
Airplane rentals/fuel - $36.9k
Instructor fees - $2.5k (bear in mind I got a lot of free instruction from friends & family)
Ground school - $1.3k (includes actual ground school and books)
Flight accessories - $1.2k
Written exam fees - $1.2k (8 exams total)
DPE fees - $5.8k (7 checkrides; this includes seaplane)
Medical fees - $290
Housing - $900
Misc/unnecessary expenses - $1.2k
Total: $51.7k
Overall Takeaways:
- For those doing Part 61/pay as you go, I highly recommend finding an independent instructor with a flexible schedule. This was key for me because I had a work schedule to work around.
- NETWORKING/MAKING FRIENDS. Go to every fly-in you can, always stop into the FBO to say hi to people, etc. etc. Having friends in aviation was monumentally helpful for me and saved me SO much money. Cannot stress this enough!
- If you are on a timeline, make sure you set specific milestones and when you are going to hit them. Make sure your instructor is on board too.
- Do your research! Reddit has been a fantastic resource for me throughout this process. Talk to people who have achieved the things you want to achieve. I really cannot thank you all enough for all your help and insights on your experiences!
Again, I am more than happy to answer any and all questions. I also apologize if anything is jumbled or confusing; this took a long time to write and I’m sure I missed things. I will also disclaim that while I did a good job of tracking all my expenses, I was not perfect and YMMV for sure. I just hope this gave a somewhat helpful picture for those hoping to do something similar to what I did.
As for next steps, I am aiming for the airlines one of these days! I have a couple interviews at flight schools coming up so I am planning to quit my job and finally start flying full-time soon. I want to do my MEI sometime soon as well but I haven’t figured out how I’m going to pay for the PIC time yet.
I also want to say that I absolutely love general aviation and hope to always be involved in it. I have made so many friends, had some incredible experiences, and learned way more than I could have ever imagined in the past year. For anyone thinking about flying, hopefully this is your sign to just do it! Feel free to comment with questions!

I bumped into Suno AI today and played around with it a bit. I tried giving it a few prompts for EDM and it simply killed it. Not in the sense that the songs were actually working properly, but even with all their flaws, they were pretty much better than 99% of what's out there made by humans.
This reminded me of the status of machine learning a few years ago when computers alone could detect cancer with 90% accuracy from x-rays, human doctors 80% accuracy and combining humans and computers led to 95% accuracy. The percentages aren't correct but points to the gist of it. If I remember correctly, now machines alone have surpassed the combined effort of humans and machines in these use cases. There are other similar examples from chess, poker etc. where at one point computers were inferior, then combining humans with computers became superior and then computers alone became superior.
So then I thought that what Suno AI produces just needs a human hand to make the stuff it produces really good. How that would be done is a topic for another day, but then that points to the status of these AI tools being in the middle state described above. This probably is applicable to many other current AI solutions too where humans are needed to fix the output. But I believe eventually the machines will surpass us in this field of creativity too.
Which leads to my question: is creativity actually this huge sign of human exceptionalism we've been thinking it is and AI having caught up with humans (or soon to be) is another proof of human ingenuity? Or is creativity just meh and has never been anything really special, and us thinking it was, was just a sign of our hubris and ego? After all, machines can be creative too...

Hello, I (48M) am a newly single local crackhead looking to meet other single crackheads. My beloved wife recently passed away after battling me stabbing her. I've been in Austin's CH scene since either 2002 or 1996, whichever the two, and I especially love the artwork and live music here, although this town could use fewer pink and purple condors constantly pecking at my neck, but who wouldn't agree lol. My hobbies include going on a nice morning jog on the greenbelt chasing after people, hosting bonfires with good friends that sometimes burns down the whole camp (we like to get rowdy and have fun ;) lol), screaming and throwing rocks at pedestrians, and of course smoking that sweet, sweet C 😍
If any other emotionally available CH here is interested in possibly finding love, DM me 🥰😘
FUCKYOUYOUMOTHERFUCKERBITCHILLKICKYOURFUCKINASSGODDAMNITILLBEATYOUUPYOUMOTHERFUCKERMOTHERFUCKERMOTHERFUCKERMOTHERFUCKERAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!111

Sorry it’s my first time on Reddit Me (23M) and my gf (22F have been together for 2 1/2 years. For context, my girlfriend we will call her Amy does a lot of hunting, fishing etc. Amy’s family goes out to the woods every year and does a big fishing event with the whole family. Lots of her family I have not fully met, like her aunt and her cousin who I will call John. Now for the story; I was at Amy’s house and we had a disagreement, we do not argue much but we figured everything out together. This disagreement was about her not wanting to do stuff for me like a back massage or something along those lines. She used the term “manipulation,” to describe how showing I was in pain instead of just asking her for a massage, we discussed it all and she eventually apologized. I was about to leave her house when she asked to come with to my house to stay the night. On the way back she seemed off, I asked her what was wrong and she told me about last Summer when she was at camp. She said that she had been intoxicated and sat in John’s car (her cousin). They talked and overtime he began to pressure her into kissing him, they kissed and she got very uncomfortable and left the car. After that I kept asking her questions about it and the story began to change. First, it was she got out of the car right after it happened, next she froze and didn’t know what to do then left and eventually it ended at her waiting until he fell asleep to leave the car. All of these changes made me insanely suspicious that there was more to this story. I still had her over to stay the night, while here I said I would text John to get his side of the story if something did not align with what Amy told me I told her we would have to to break up because she lied more than once. I asked her what she thought he would say. She replied “ I don’t know how he will see it, it seemed different to him I don’t think he got the message I was uncomfortable very well,” again I had more concerns. If she had made it abundantly clear that what he did was not okay, why did he not leave her alone? I also asked why he was still on all her socials, she answered, “ we are family it would be weird,” I’m sitting in my room completely shaken, I have been with this woman for over two years and we had our ups and downs but I have done everything I can to make her feel as special and treasured as I could. Am I the asshole for thinking maybe I should still break up with her?

Sorry it’s my first time on Reddit Me (23M) and my gf (22F have been together for 2 1/2 years. For context, my girlfriend we will call her Amy does a lot of hunting, fishing etc. Amy’s family goes out to the woods every year and does a big fishing event with the whole family. Lots of her family I have not fully met, like her aunt and her cousin who I will call John. Now for the story; I was at Amy’s house and we had a disagreement, we do not argue much but we figured everything out together. This disagreement was about her not wanting to do stuff for me like a back massage or something along those lines. She used the term “manipulation,” to describe how showing I was in pain instead of just asking her for a massage, we discussed it all and she eventually apologized. I was about to leave her house when she asked to come with to my house to stay the night. On the way back she seemed off, I asked her what was wrong and she told me about last Summer when she was at camp. She said that she had been intoxicated and sat in John’s car (her cousin). They talked and overtime he began to pressure her into kissing him, they kissed and she got very uncomfortable and left the car. After that I kept asking her questions about it and the story began to change. First, it was she got out of the car right after it happened, next she froze and didn’t know what to do then left and eventually it ended at her waiting until he fell asleep to leave the car. All of these changes made me insanely suspicious that there was more to this story. I still had her over to stay the night, while here I said I would text John to get his side of the story if something did not align with what Amy told me I told her we would have to to break up because she lied more than once. I asked her what she thought he would say. She replied “ I don’t know how he will see it, it seemed different to him I don’t think he got the message I was uncomfortable very well,” again I had more concerns. If she had made it abundantly clear that what he did was not okay, why did he not leave her alone? I also asked why he was still on all her socials, she answered, “ we are family it would be weird,” I’m sitting in my room completely shaken, I have been with this woman for over two years and we had our ups and downs but I have done everything I can to make her feel as special and treasured as I could. Am I the asshole for thinking maybe I should still break up with her?

What was it like?
I used to live in the building and eat greasy breakfast fare at the Reese Coffee House that later took over part of that space in the 80’s, but the legendary music venue was just a bit ahead of my time.

I love when videos of this trend pops up on my fyp, I feel like I’ve watched all of them at this point. The trend is basically, each person takes turns describing the situation where their SO/bestie would use a specific word/phrase and they would have to guess what it is. what are some of yours?

I don’t know what happened. Maybe it’s because so many people think they can do what other people do because this generation is so “forgiving”, if so it bothers me.
First off the actors/actresses are pathetic. None of them can act. 1: it’s because they aren’t casting talented people, they casting either attractive people or people with big followings. 2: The actresses and actors who used to be good are now being cast in films that don’t let them showcase their talents. 3: most of the characters they act as aren’t complex.
Second, the film directors don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. Most of the films look uncanny and too perfect. Back then the early 2000 films looked natural and so were the characters. For example “mean girls” characters in early 2000 are way better compared to this generation not because it’s the original but because Regina was intimidating. This new Regina is trying to appear mean but she isn’t intimidating. She gives off an I know it all vibes. Then the lighting was too bright. The people are too animated. The actresses aren’t portraying the characters right. There’s no feeling, no emotions, just perfection that makes it so boring.
Third, Writers are horrible. They don’t know how to write therefore they keep re-making movies. And if they don’t re-make movies, they steal a movie and make it into their own. Then they force things into it like slang, wokeness, etc. They try to appeal to Gen-Z instead of writing a fucking movie. “American horror story” used to be good now look at it. They try so hard to be funny that it’s uncanny, they even have Kim Kardashian to make it popular, that’s a tactic. I mean they did have Ariana Grande but she’s actually an actress. Kim sounded so fake when she was saying her lines.
So many influencers are stepping into the film industry, they already ruined music industry. So many easy access. No one is actually working. No one cares. They just want money and popularity. They don’t care about the vision, they don’t want art.

My grandmother passed away and I went to her funeral today. I don’t know how to describe it but when I think about her she’s still alive in my mind.
It’s like I cannot accept she’s dead. Maybe it was because I only spoke to her through the phone for a while so I was used to not seeing her in person? It’s such a bizzare feeling and I’m unsure how to move forwards with it, it’s been a month now.

Hello, here I am once again! First ever Fan-Fic.
Last week I opened a poll about the type of Fan-Fic I should write (or try to), and after a good 4 days I took a look at said poll, and the overwhelming majority went for Option 2. And so I shall try my hardest to deliver, and give you all a story about Humanity entering on the Galactic stage later and being more prepared for eventual hostile encounters, and acting as such.
Let's see what I can cook up in my tired state- Some creative liberties are to be expected.
Still thinking of a Title- but this is the one I came up with.
... Also consider this a proof of concept for now, a WIP if you will, as I'm still new to writing (and not a native English speaker either) and wanting to learn as much as possible while writing anything at all- so expect word vomit. Any and all feedback will be welcomed.
Lastly, all love to for having made such an amazing universe.
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Date [Standardized Human Time]: January 1st, 2300, 00:00
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Memory Transcription Subject: Alan Voor-hein, UN Secretary-General.
Date [Standardized Human Time]: January 1st, 2300, 11:00
It has finally happened. A fellow space-faring civilization has been found, something we thought would happen one day- Never in my 40 years would I have guessed it would happen in my lifetime. But I guess that is the thought process for everyone who are now involved.
I had gotten the first message out of anyone. It was now up to me to head to the HQ and get everything ready for the Emergency meeting. We'll have to "discuss" our next course of action on this situation. And I use the term "discuss" lightly, because there is not a lot to discuss, rather there is much to think about as a potential next step. I'll be having these discussions with our diplomatic and military advisors. Civil advisors will be left out, as to not make the public aware of this discovery ...at least, not yet.
I have an hour to get everything ready... and I still need to travel 20 minutes to get there. Luckily I have my own companion who can be my chauffeur- who is always ready at a moments notice, essentially 24/7.
I was speed-walking.. or speedily descending more like it, down the stairs of my house. ...Don't ask me what I was doing upstairs. My hastiness almost caused me to trip while going down the stairs because I was in a such rush to get outside, I did not have a lot of time on my hands.
After reaching the ground-floor I sped-walked past the kitchen, and I took a second to contemplate about taking a quick bite from a snack, but I decided against it. After-all, I could eat at the HQ... not that I'd have the time too, but at least I could give it a shot if I arrive in time.
As my journey to the front door continued, I was met with a familiar face- namely Heluni. Heluni is my Android companion. Android technology has gotten far over the last few decades, and Androids have become more Human than ever before.
"Good morning Alan!" Heluni spoke up, her voice as smooth as the calmest oceans. I looked towards her, and greeted her in return.
"Morning Heluni- Sorry to be a bother, but I gotta use your driving expertise again today. Emergency UN meeting. It's at 12, but I would like to be there as quickly as possible. Can you do that for me?"
"Of course I can, sir. Right this way." She led the way, opening the front door, waiting on me to follow behind her. I took my place behind her as she led me towards our car that was parked outside. A classic unmarked "not noticeable" vehicle, one everyone knows screams "here is someone important" but no one seems to care about in their daily life.
And like always when walking outside, my mind wandered to the flowing shoulder long hair Heluni has, her hair was always a beautiful sight to behold. How she- an Android- managed to have the hair of a Goddess remains a mystery to me. But I learned to never question our technological prowess.
Before I knew it, I was standing next to the car, Heluni having already taken the drivers seat. I took my seat in the back. And before I even sat down, Heluni look back at me. "Ready sir?"
"Floor it." was the only thing I responded with.. and Heluni took off like it was the end of the world.
... And I'm suddenly reminded why I only used her driving skills in Emergencies. This type of driving is gonna make me sick- but it's to late now, I suppose. I gazed down to my watch, and it's 11:15. If Heluni keeps driving like this, we'll be there in about 10 minutes.
...
I'm just gonna try and keep myself calm, as to not make myself sick with Heluni her driving.
...
We drove through the city towards the UN Headquarters. Heluni was cutting through the traffic wherever she could- you'd think we would get pulled over. But the only reason we never were, was because the only symbol on this car (to at least mark it somewhat) was that the UN symbol was put in place of the car-manufacturer logo. Any officer knew that, if a UN car was speeding like this, there was something going on.
But since I still did not want the public to know about the discovery made earlier today, I'd have to come up with some excuse for this... I think I'll wave it off as a training exercise for my Android.
Noticing that I was rather quiet, Heluni chirped up. "Sir, is everything okay?"
"Hm? .. Oh yeah, just thinking about stuff. Don't worry about it."
"Sir, is it about the upcoming meeting? What is it about?"
"..Heluni, that's confidential information-"
"I know sir, but perhaps.. whatever it will be about, is making you nervous?"
... Am I nervous? I don't think I am- maybe subconsciously I am??
...
"Well, I can say it's something I have never planned on doing."
"Is it bad?" Heluni asked me, trying to inquire more out of me.
"Depends on future circumstances...."
"Will I be allowed to know more about this meeting?"
"One day you will, Heluni. But for now, that's gonna be a negative."
"I understand, Sir."
...
For the rest of our journey, no words were spoken. I was deep in thought again. Like.. what does this mean for my career? I will be the first leader in UN history who may lay the ground-works for an eventual "First Contact" between Humans and an Alien species.
I'm nervous thinking ahead that far, for all we know, they are those type of Alien we have seen in pop-culture. Either fun and loving, or utterly ruthless and genocidal. What would they think of us? ... What will we think of them? Is there a potential for a future war?
We have that last one covered at least. Humans being Humans and all- we already have a decent Space going fleet of roughly 8000 ships of various sizes. ... Just in case a Colony gets any funny ideas with their local security forces. But now knowing we might have to face off against Aliens as well, I think it's about time to ramp up the ship production tenfold.
More importantly, we have to spy on them. Luckily that probe we sent is close to their planet, so we'll just use that for any surveillance and intelligence..
My thoughts were shaken back into reality from plausible scenarios once we took a tight corner a little too fast- but before I could scold Heluni for it, there it was, the UN-HQ in the distance. A few more minutes, and we'll be there.
...
===---===
There we have it! I think I did well in my tired state for this first part. I'll keep looking through the text itself from time to time. So if any feedback, grammar, etc, is thrown my way. I can implement them right away.
I hope this is setting a decent stage for what's to come. Hope you had fun reading this!
For now, Imma chill with some music.

I've been inspired by two things to consider how we can be most productive within specific time windows:

1. Firstly, as an off shoot of the pomodoro method, if we recognize that tasks come in all different shapes and sizes (perhaps fruits and vegetables other than just tomatoes) but that nevertheless, if we decided that a task must be completed within 25 minutes, then we must do our best to finish before that time window is over, and
   
2. Secondly, most people know that musical cues can incentivize you and create associations that get you in a certain headspace. That's why car chase sequences frequently leverage Nina Simone's sinner man or similar music - and that as an individual you can _condition_ yourself to get in to a higher gear by listening to certain pieces of music as they play out to their crescendo.
   

To combine both of the above, I have been experimenting with categorizing tasks by how large they are, within certain boundaries - for example, 5, 10, 25 minutes, an hour and so on - and then starting work on that task while keeping certain music playing in the background - I find that tying this music with the task's duration makes me subconsciously more focused - and more attuned to blocking out distractions.
Your head basically knows that you are 45 minutes into Carl Orff's Carmina Burana and you are now in the final stretch, so it rallies your A-game and helps you get to the finish line.
I'd like to know what others think of this idea, and invite people to try it out and see how it works for them.
I'd also like to ask people if they can suggest certain segments of music that we can associate with different time blocks, especially along the longer durations (15, 20, 25, 30, 45 and so on) ... This way we can help each other source a library of suggestions for people to select from and benefit, and possibly tailor according to their preferences/mood - in case some people are inspired by blues and others by rock or whatever.

Watch: Garmin Forerunner 165 Music.
I mainly use my garmin at the gym while I lift. The most useful item that I check is the countdown timer so I know how much time i have left at the gym. I just prefer this over elapsed time. I managed to get the general countdown timer on the watch face screen. However now I would like to toggle between the watch face and activity while in the weight training activity mode. Does anyone know any easy way to do this?

Hi all, I’m very new to producing (about 3 weeks) and I have basically zero knowledge of music theory. I’ve spent a couple days trying to learn music theory to play chords but it seems like everything I do sounds horrible. (For additional context I am trying to create house music). I just folded and bought a Midi chord pack online hoping it would get me off the ground a little quicker, but it definitely feels like cheating given I could never make these chords myself. What’s the general consensus on this among producers? Is it wrong to use chords someone else made? Or is that just part of music production to save time from reinventing the wheel?
And if it is acceptable to use packs, to what extent do you guys use them? I could see how it feels more acceptable if the chords are modified / compressed / paired with other original elements etc. Just trying to follow best practices here so I have a solid foundation to go from. Thanks!

Inscriptions made by sailors wishing for safe voyages in ancient Greece often included the words eúploia ‘good sailing / fair voyage’ or eutukhía ‘good luck’ and variants. Thus, the roughly 2,000-year-old inscription cut into a cliff on the desert islet of Vryonisi in Eastern Crete which contains euplous ‘good sailing’ (an adj., not a noun) should be easily regarded as another example. However, Martín González takes it as a name (since some people were named Euplous) because there is “a crucial obstacle: there is no parallel for the use of the adjective eúplous, instead of the ubiquitous substantive eúploia, among the related inscriptions”. Now, many words known from inscriptions only appear once, yet they still exist. Since most inscriptions were probably lost, it is not odd that, even if many of this type once existed, only one (or none) of its kind might now remain. For instance, if only 20 welcome mats remained 2,000 years in the future, how many would have ‘welcome’ vs. ‘we welcome you’? If only one verb remained, would some future linguist say it was impossible because “there is no parallel for the use of the verb welcome, instead of the ubiquitous interjection”? I see no reason to take this as evidence against the obvious. For her reading:
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Euthu-
timos
Khrusip-
pos
[dolphin]
Nikanoros
euplous
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I would translate it, “Euthutimos (and) Khrusippos (wish) a fair voyage for Nikanōr”. This would be a very simple and undestandable expression of good wishes, whatever the frequency of one of the words.
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This still leaves the question of the meaning of the carving of the dolphin (see image in the link below). It is directly among the words, not above or below, so it’s not certain that it is merely an addition used because dolphins were said to save sailors in need (Apollo’s connection with dolphins is probably folk etymology, really from Delphi). It seems like it might be homophone used in a rebus, since the Greek word for ‘dolphin’ was delphī́s (from *gWelbhiHn-s, derived from délphax ‘pig’, formerly ‘*young animal / piglet’ < delphús ‘womb’, probably related to Go. kalbo, E. calf, and maybe also E. whelp) it would start with the same syllable as :
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*(e)gWela > Mac. izéla ‘good luck’, G. bále ‘oh that it were so!’
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Though this alone is possible, there is more to my idea. It is possible that the entire pronunciation of ‘dolphin’ in Crete might have additional meaning. The origin of *(e)gWela is not clear, but it greatly resembles
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*gWhel()- ‘wish / want / will / be/make willing’> OCS želja ‘wish’, ON gilja ‘allure/entice/seduce/beguile’, G. (e)thélō ‘be willing’, (e)thelontḗn ‘voluntarily’
​
Not only is the meaning the same, but the optional e- matches optional 0- vs. i- in Macedonian (which might come from *gWhelH1- > *H1gWhel-). The difference in *gWh vs. *gW could come from a dialect with PIE *gh > g, etc. (like Macedonian). Such variation is seen on Crete (G. dáptēs ‘eater / bloodsucker (of gnats)’, Cretan thápta, Polyrrhenian látta ‘fly’), so the needed features all exist there. Also, words like (e)thelontḗn often appear in inscriptions as formal parts of various requests or sacrifices. These supposedly show that the deed was done ‘voluntarily’ or ‘of one’s own free will’, but some might also retain the older meaning ‘wishing (that it comes to pass / that it is pleasing (to the gods)’, etc. This allows further comparison to be made for *(e)gWhelont-s ‘wishing’ and *gWelbhiHn-s ‘dolphin’. Since these words are already quite close (with regular *-nts > *-ns), and I suspect that the changes in *(e)gWela > Mac. izéla were matched in parts of Crete, other changes in dialects might have made them even closer. Some have alternation of ph / w, like *swe-es > spheîs ‘they / themselves’; the centaur Márphsos & the satyr Marsúas (Whalen 2024a). This could produce *gWelon-s and *gWelwi:n-s, possibly with later *on > *un (which might be supported by the lack of Linear A syllables with Co vs. many with Cu, see Chiapello) and *wi > *wu (then *Cwu > *Cu). With this alone, *gWelun-s and *gWelu:n-s would be nearly identical, and maybe exactly the same if *-onts became *-o:ns first (attested as -ōn in the nominative for nt-stems). I would ask for all such images to be examined carefully, and considered in the context of known changes in Greek dialects, even down to Cretan Hieroglyphs (Whalen 2024b). Younger’s claim that the cat’s head symbol stood for MA (compared to Linear A and B signs for the syllable MA) is supposedly imiation of “meow”, but many IE words for ‘cat’ and other noisy animals come from *maH2- ‘bleat / bellow / meow’ (Skt. mārjārá- ‘cat’, mārjāraka- ‘cat / peacock’, mayū́ra- ‘peacock’, māyu- ‘bleating/etc’, mayú- ‘monkey?/antelope’), and it would not be possible to name all symbols after the sounds made by the things represented (like mountains, stocks). It seems many of these symbols start with the sounds found in the Greek words for them, and continuing to examine the evidence could lead to proof of their Greek origin.
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Chiapello, Duccio (2024) The Linear A inscribed idol of Roccacasale: authentic, forgery… or both? An analysis based on the “Minoan Greek” hypothesis
https://www.academia.edu/112932884
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Martín González, Elena (2017) A Sailors' Inscription Revisited
https://www.academia.edu/33135646
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Whalen, Sean (2024a) Linear B *79, e-wi-su-zo-ko, e-wi-su-79-ko
https://www.academia.edu/114741659
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Whalen, Sean (2024b) The X’s and O’s of Cretan Hieroglyphic (Draft)
https://www.academia.edu/114973571
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Younger, John (2023) Linear A Texts: Homepage
http://people.ku.edu/~jyoungeLinearA/
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