A geologist and archaeologist by training, a nerd by inclination - books, films, fossils, comics, rocks, games, folklore, and, generally, the rum and uncanny… Let’s have it!
Elsewhere:
Ahhhh, I didn’t check… Now I feel bad.
It’s an artform, like perfectly baking a poo. If you time it right you can basically fall straight asleep without your brain going “hey, I just thought of something!”
I messed up last night when I hit the wall after 9 days solidly on the go - I thought the bed looked nice and a little lie on it wouldn’t hurt but I still had shit to do before bed. So I dropped off but my brain kept prodding me back to near consciousness and I kept on having weird sleep paralysis/false awakening dreams - including one in which I heard a woman murder a friend outside my bedroom door but I couldn’t force myself off the bed to intervene.
That is going to annoy the Turks too.
You can do something cathartic. After getting dumped, I once pushed a tree down in my back garden and carried it around to the front of the house for disposal. My muscles ached and I was cut and bruised but felt a lot better afterwards. Other times I’ve just gone out drinking with friends. There are sater more controlled ways of doing it - try exercising to exhaustion, get away for the weekend and GI hiking, drive a tank, go to one of those places where you can smash things up, organise a big paintballing session, etc. Something that breaks you out of your routine, preferably gets you out of your local area, needs all your focus and tires you out. It should take your mind off things, get you so focused and tired you aren’t brooding about it and provide a symbolic break so you can leave your baggage behind on the other side.
It’s not an instant cure, this will all take time but it’s a decisive first step.
One Summer I got Paul G Bahn’s Journey Through the Ice Age, stuck some post-it notes in on anything that look interesting and drove down through the Dordogne to the Ariege. The wealth of ancient art is astounding, even if you just branch out from the classics, like Lascaux (which you have to do while in the area).
So the ones that still stand out in my memory are:
Then, when you have the key locations locked down, you can search around for others, via pages like Prehistoric Sites of the Vezere Valley and the Prehistoric caves in the Ariège Pyrenees (which mentions Le Mas d’Azil, which is worth a look as the road goes through the cave but you can only see reproductions of the art, and the Prehistoric Park that might give you other pointers). It’s become a lot easier to research thanks to the Web - this seems a good place to start. Looking through that, I think that holiday I get to most of the ones in the Vezere, Lot and Ariege. They are relatively close by and the sites are usually not far from each other, so you can visit a few in one day.
What I wanted was the social experience of chatting with people about games.
There’s [email protected]
Me too, I’m working on encouraging it. Progress is slow.
It has a huge number of plugins - this is a list of the productivity ones. You’d need to do some reading to see if it has what you require.
As far as I can tell, you can do.
Obsidian has a huge number of plug-ins, that cover a wide range of uses. I also use Zettel Notes as a quick md file editor and that has the ability to capture pages in markdown to read later. And/or you can use Omnivore.
Counter-proposal: Perhaps use Obsidian instead?
I did Google “closest brothels to Canada” and it seems like there are plenty in Canada. Apparently, while it is illegal to buy sex, police don’t enforce this as they have plenty of actual crimes to be keeping themselves busy with.
So, if it means so much to the OP, they should save up their pennies and go somewhere like Vancouver.
Fun fact: just because something is illegal doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
I’d have definitely had a lot less fun if I’d steered clear if anything that breaks the law.
Online discourse tends not to be the kind of place (in the English-speaking world) where “please” is the appropriate response.
My favourite name: Humans Are Space Orcs: [email protected]
As had been said - practice. It’s how native speakers of a language get good at it.
You can improve your vocabulary, comprehension and accent by watching TV shows and movies (I remember meeting Dutch kids on holiday who I thought were American as they learn so much from the screen), and grammar and the like can come from reading. However, that ease of conversation and the speed of your recall of words just comes from talking a lot. Try finding an intermediate to advanced language class where they insist on people talking in that language all the time.
It can be, if you get know someone and find out what gets them off. It can also be a bit rubbish. I wouldn’t worry about it and you’ll find the right person eventually, if you want to that is.
That’s what a dog would say.
I am very laid back (my Dad always said I was nearly horizontal) and I never get angry, I rarely even get flustered or impatient. My Dad was a very good man and I try to follow his example as much as possible. As his health declined and I started caring for him (a real privilege as he helped so many it was only just that he got help in return when he needed it, even if it couldn’t possibly fully pay him back) and, as I picked up some of his slack I did wonder where he found the time or energy. Since he died, I have felt like a sheepdog without a flock and have found myself adopting various people - I helped a friend through her cancer journey and her son start university, I took another friend to hospital sufficiently often that she just told the staff I was her “hospital husband” (which did stop them asking questions, usually with a roll of the eyes) and, as I don’t drink, I ferry people home from the pub.
However, I can be… thoughtless and this can be really annoying, especially to the easily angered - I’ve lost a friend over it and my brother isn’t exactly my greatest fan (the other year, my niece asked if I wanted to know all the nasty things my brother said about me and I declined - if we knew what people thought about us, we’d tear each other apart). I can also be rude to people but just where it’s funny, you just have to know your audience (it can appal any bystanders though). I’m also not very emotionally expressive and I suspect at least one friend thinks I’m a sociopath.
So am I nice? Although it might depend on who you ask, I’d say no. However, I try to do as much good as possible - if anyone needs help, I’ll drop what I’m doing and pitch in.
That was my reasoning.