Random Thoughts Thread

[Big Blue Sky 206]

This latest hurricane - Hurricane Michael - looks nasty.  All the best if you are in its path & are busy filling sandbags & moving the good furniture upstairs.

[nobodyinparticular 325]

9 hours ago, Big Blue Sky said:

This latest hurricane - Hurricane Michael - looks nasty.  All the best if you are in its path & are busy filling sandbags & moving the good furniture upstairs.

The radio said it might hit my province by this weekend. Unfortunately, the only source I can find online is the Toronto Star, which I refuse to read.

In other thoughts, the longer I'm here the more I feel like I don't really belong here.

[TomFest 381]

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be......it's easy.....All you need is love...

[MaryJanes2ndLastDance 838]

On September 23, 2018 at 7:02 PM, Big Blue Sky said:

Maltese Falcon

Never saw the movie but I'm reading the book.

cheers

[MaryJanes2ndLastDance 838]

On September 21, 2018 at 11:25 AM, nurktwin said:

The more I watch old movies on TCM, the more I think Tom wrote songs about those movies with the movie title as his song title. Example: A Face In The Crowd.

The first time I heard of the movie (with Andy Griffith I think) I thought of the Tom Petty song.

[nobodyinparticular 325]

I got into an altercation with a doorframe. My face hurts now. The doorframe doesn't care, because it is an inanimate object.

[Shelter 1,001]

4 hours ago, nobodyinparticular said:

I got into an altercation with a doorframe. My face hurts now. The doorframe doesn't care, because it is an inanimate object.

I wouldn't be so sure...

Or, to quote Tom Waits...

The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to new york, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone's out of cigarettes, and the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking

 

And the menus are all freezing, and the light man's blind in one eye
And he can't see out of the other
And the piano-tuner's got a hearing aid, and he showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking
 

As the bouncer is a sumo wrestler cream-puff Casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the i.q. of a fence post
Cause the piano has been drinking

 

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
Cause the piano has been drinking.
The piano has been drinking - not me.

[chimera 311]

21 hours ago, MaryJanes2ndLastDance said:

Never saw the movie but I'm reading the book.

I love Dashiell Hammett's novels - I have an omnibus edition of all of them.

[nobodyinparticular 325]

4 hours ago, Shelter said:

I wouldn't be so sure...

Or, to quote Tom Waits...

The piano has been drinking, my necktie is asleep
And the combo went back to new york, the jukebox has to take a leak
And the carpet needs a haircut, and the spotlight looks like a prison break
And the telephone's out of cigarettes, and the balcony is on the make
And the piano has been drinking

 

And the menus are all freezing, and the light man's blind in one eye
And he can't see out of the other
And the piano-tuner's got a hearing aid, and he showed up with his mother
And the piano has been drinking
 

As the bouncer is a sumo wrestler cream-puff Casper milktoast
And the owner is a mental midget with the i.q. of a fence post
Cause the piano has been drinking

 

And you can't find your waitress with a Geiger counter
And she hates you and your friends and you just can't get served without her
And the box-office is drooling, and the bar stools are on fire
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
Cause the piano has been drinking.
The piano has been drinking - not me.

He clearly needs to find a priest, then, or at least some holy water to sprinkle around his piano.

[Shelter 1,001]

Yeah well, I'm sure he can't find a priest with a dowsing rod... He does have problems there, no doubt. I think he's spot on, though, when it comes to the sometimes cunning ways of so called "inanimate" objects. But then again, I might need holy water too, or perhaps preferably "unholy" water.. Can't decide who to trust.. Tom Waits or Jim Beam..

[nobodyinparticular 325]

Or some land surveys. Make sure your house isn't atop ancient burial grounds.

[nobodyinparticular 325]

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/10/winamp-set-to-release-entirely-new-version-next-year/

Hope they don't screw it up.

[Big Blue Sky 206]

here's one of those survey results that state the amusingly obvious!

• "A potential problem for the guitar manufacturing industry was identified by Fender in 2016, when it found that 90% of first time guitar buyers stopped playing within a year."

Another - more optimistic - interpretation of the data might be: a potential bonus for the second-hand guitar market is that those people are buying those guitars- even if they don't end up playing it for long.  Maybe those people will want to sell their guitars? Or leave them hanging around the house as a trip hazard... 

[nobodyinparticular 325]

I wonder how many of those 10% who stick with it are repeat buyers. Not enough to keep them in good business, I'm presuming.

It reminds me of something I read (and am likely misremembering) involving microtransactions in free-to-play games, where the majority of the revenue generated is from a tiny, tiny segment of the playerbase, often referred to derogatorily as "whales." Often it's in the range of thousands of dollars.

[Big Blue Sky 206]

Oh hee hee what I meant was the 2nd hand shops could keep buying the left-overs & re-selling them to more keen newbies who then return to the shop after a few months with the same guitars.  A bit like a constant loop or a library.  

I guess from what you say that They mean it in a derogatory way - but what an animal to choose to use for an insult.  Whales?  So beautiful & smart!

[nobodyinparticular 325]

A few months ago, I read an article in a waiting room magazine about altruistic humpback whales. I think this is the one.

[chimera 311]

18 hours ago, Big Blue Sky said:

I guess from what you say that They mean it in a derogatory way - but what an animal to choose to use for an insult.  Whales?  So beautiful & smart!

It's gambling slang - the habitual gamblers are often referred to by casino staff as "whales."

[nobodyinparticular 325]

That makes sense. 

Not-so-fun fact: Certain dopaminergic medications (mostly dopamine agonists) have been linked to pathologic gambling and hypersexuality. 

[chimera 311]

Yeah I read about that in regards to one particular medication.

[nobodyinparticular 325]

Was it ropinirole? There were lawsuits involving it.

[Shelter 1,001]

^ Would explain the lyrics to "Anything that's Ropinrole"

[nobodyinparticular 325]

At least with dopaminergics you're not Shakin' All Over.

In any case, I'm glad I'm just on levodopa/carbidopa (generic Sinemet) and not a dopamine agonist. There's still other side effects to deal with, though.

[chimera 311]

1 hour ago, nobodyinparticular said:

Was it ropinirole? There were lawsuits involving it.

I believe so, yeah.

[nobodyinparticular 325]

I couldn't think of a good title for this one.

[nobodyinparticular 325]

It's very cold.