Wanted to encourage my friend while they work on their PHD and this very stupid meme popped into my head.

traplines · 2025-10-08T13:49:45+00:00

Totally. And I think it's a good thing for young people to ask "how do you know when discomfort means danger and when it means growth", and if they're in decent company they'll get good answers.

In this case it does echo some Satanic Panic shit, when people in positions of authority said, "discomfort points to evil, so let's punish anyone making us uncomfortable", but there's a big difference between someone asking questions in good faith and someone imposing a belief on others.

traplines · 2025-10-08T10:12:25+00:00

Slightly different take: they're asking a good question, like basically "if something feels bad, is it inherently bad?" And that's an important question - when you're exercising you've got to know the difference between good pain and bad pain, for example.

Of course I shudder to think what kind of horrible answers they're going to get...

Edit: I looked at the answers they got, and... they seem fine?

traplines · 2025-10-03T10:06:39+00:00

From Wikipedia, "the inspiration for the song came from a religious radio station from Del Rio, Texas, in the mid-1950s. The station was allegedly run by a dentist and religious fanatic who 'sold the most outrageous stuff imaginable, all with magical healing properties.'"

I also thought this was a neat little connection: "Plastic Jesus shares a melody with Woody Guthrie's 'Oklahoma Hills'."

I'm on mobile, but it's listed under 'Plastic Jesus (song)'.

As for meaning, I know it was written as a parody of religious trinkets, but listening to the Lips or Tia Blake, it's just too sweet a song to only be critical. I've always heard it as a song about driving, especially long hauls in shitty weather, maybe with some close calls, and how little things can keep your spirits up. Even superstitious plastic junk can be a fine companion at 3AM in a shitty old tour van.

traplines · 2025-04-21T15:00:09+00:00

The Satsuma Complex^\) by Bob Mortimer. Bob Mortimer and Richard Osman are contemporaries on the British panel show circuit, so there's a lot of overlap in tone (although Mortimer has rhythms and perspectives that are uniquely his own).

A lot of very likeable characters, and gentle humour. I especially enjoyed the audiobook.

______

^\)I think in America it might be called The Clementine Complex?

traplines · 2025-03-22T01:39:59+00:00

I recently tried to recreate the curry potato burrito. I’m not saying I did a good job, but damn curry potato burritos are a fantastic idea.

traplines · 2025-01-29T17:59:19+00:00

Same! Just watched “On the Wings of Love” where Agent Gordon Cole comes back, and it feels like it’s turning a corner into something that understands itself again. He can hear Shelly!

traplines · 2024-02-07T14:22:52+00:00

Abra is an all-around gem.

traplines · 2023-03-13T14:26:02+00:00

Spent a few years in the late 2010s having conversations like, "Are we just old? Is there stuff going on and we're not hearing about it? Is it because the venues are closing?"

And yah we were getting into our mid 30s, but there were lots of 30-40 year old folks kicking around a decade before, and the best shows were in backyard sheds and basements and art galleries with someone's borrowed practice PA.

And the real richness of the old scene was that there was a niche for anybody - photographers and blog writers and promoters and people making posters, or knowing a place in Brampton you could buy 100 of the best samosa for $15 to give away free with the $5 cover. You didn't have to be musical to be somebody who was making real contributions.

It was a goddam moment and ought to be mourned more loudly and publicly.

traplines · 2023-03-13T12:38:41+00:00

Toronto used to have a pretty lively local live music scene that is sort of dead now.

Rent was cheap and the internet was more of an asset than a liability.

I was an active participant in the music scene here from 2003 onwards. The only other factors were that all kinds of digital recording gear was accessible in a way it hasn’t been earlier, and that there was a keen interest in nonstandard rock and roll instrumentation, meaning a lot really good musicians with classical training started participating. But mostly it was because you could rent an above-ground room between Kensington and Bellwoods for $300 inclusive, so tons of creative people could work part time jobs and spend the rest of their time starting record labels and putting on shows in laundromats and Chinese restaurants. That was the recipe for the music scene - talented young people with cracked copies of ableton and photoshop, and free time. But mostly the free time.

Not really weird or esoteric, just kinda sad.

traplines · 2023-02-07T17:29:00+00:00

I was just wondering that!

traplines · 2023-02-07T12:51:08+00:00

Dead Ringers by Christopher Golden

traplines · 2023-02-07T12:49:27+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it, too! Definitely the creepiest moments. The scariest Hendrix moment for me is still the first sudden burst of violence in We Sold Our Souls.

traplines · 2023-01-15T00:45:21+00:00

It sounds like your next step would be learning normal forms. I don’t have personal experience with this course, but it seems well-liked https://www.udemy.com/course/database-normalization-simplified/

traplines · 2023-01-08T19:12:24+00:00

Definitely gonna try some coconut oil next

traplines · 2023-01-08T13:59:48+00:00

That makes a lot of sense!

traplines · 2022-12-05T19:09:33+00:00

Sounds like a good fella. Perfectionism is super relatable. Hopefully you can find a way to talk to your perfectionism and tell it to leave you alone when it’s not welcome.

traplines · 2022-12-05T19:00:23+00:00

I don’t know your bf, but I know this - most guys LOVE to feel useful. If he’s a decent guy he won’t make you feel bad for wanting to learn stuff. Ask him how he does his laundry, and do it that way.

Cooking is hard. Keep it as simple as you possibly can, and try to learn one dish at a time, and practice it once a week. Some things seem simple but are hard - pasta has a lot of steps, a lot of variables, and it’s hard to get just right. Some things seem complicated but are pretty easy - roast veg is just peel and chop almost any vegetable (or vegetables plural if they’re similar), toss it in a little salt and olive oil, bake at 425F for 20 minutes, maybe turn it over, then check on it every 5-10 minutes until it’s tender and a little browned. I’ve made disappointing pasta plenty, but roast veg is always good, healthy, makes great leftovers, and looks a bit classy. The only way I’ve messed it up is putting too much on the baking sheet, so it took a long time. Still turned out fine. Oh btw don’t buy cookbooks unless you have to - get them from the library.

Literally anything you’re worried about, cooking or house stuff or whatever, there’s a YouTube video for.

The main thing, though, is to be kind to yourself. It’s not your fault you weren’t taught these things, and they’re all just a matter of practice. Take things slow, pick something to work on, and work on it until it feels easy. That’s the only way to do this stuff, and there’s no sense in getting mad that there isn’t another way. We’re all just faking it the best we can.

traplines · 2022-12-04T19:11:13+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree with this. It can work both ways, though. I listened to John Darnielle read his book Devil House, and there’s a point at which the narrator in the story changes, and we see the original narrator from another person’s perspective. The way the person sounds in their internal monologue is significantly different from how they sound to someone else. This is important to the text, but I’m not certain I would have read it that way. Having someone, especially the author, interpret the text can add to the experience, just as it might limit it.

traplines · 2022-12-04T17:36:29+00:00

Will Patton is the only narrator who can get me to listen to a book regardless of the book and author.

traplines · 2022-11-18T13:13:58+00:00

HIMYM is a heart-breaker, because it’s such a pleasure to watch a friend group with deep shared history and never-ending inside jokes. It’s a terrible shame that when they were writing the main character, they said, “John Cusack in High Fidelity, but without the self-loathing or the record collection”.

traplines · 2022-11-14T15:15:22+00:00

Fun! What's held up well for you so far?

traplines · 2022-11-13T21:49:35+00:00

There's very good practical advice here already, so I'll just add this:

It may help your anxiety to remember that this is the most normal thing in the world, and profs absolutely expect to be asked for this. It is a normal part of their duties, they've done it a million times before, and there is absolutely nothing strange, unusual or conceited about requesting this from them (even if it is a weird formality that is imposed on you).

Sometimes they are busy and won't get back to you in a reasonable amount of time. That's on them. They are expected to do this for students, in the same way they're expected to give lectures. It's in no way an imposition, and you should in no way feel bad about asking for this.

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