I have only ever seen one musician who could play the harmonica like a musical instrument. The guy from Sister Sparrow, Jackson Kincheloe. It was such a remarkable difference from the way I’d seen it played.
ETA, if you don’t mind a YouTube link, here he is.
Most things. People underestimate the labor, time, complexity, obstacles that most jobs involve. We are wildly optimistic.
I like a small proportion of what I eat to be very very spicy. Not everything, and not every day. But sometimes it’s exactly what I want and some foods are so good that way. Lots of other flavors are sort of learned too - wine, bitter greens, there are foods I tried every year until I could like them (mango and raw tomatoes, and wines, also Swiss cheese) and I am glad I did develop a palate for them. Spicy I’ve always liked, only one of my kids was like that but all of them like it now.
I guess my hot take is that just because I like milk and/or sugar in coffee, doesn’t mean I don’t like coffee. Most people who like chocolate don’t like unsweetened baking chocolate and nobody is gatekeeping that like they do with coffee.
No, for most people there is a low point in their midlife somewhere, then progressively happier once past that.
I’ve never been as unhappy as an adult, as I was when a child. My least happy adult time was my 30s, and from there it’s been all upward. I’m sure once I am old old there will be health shit to worry about, but for now it’s easier to be happy than it was before, and I have seen research showing that is typical.
Such good recommendations so far. If you like comics, I will add:
Saga
Lucifer
And since I don’t see him mentioned here: anything by Ian McDonald is wonderful, and I like everything by Mike Carey too. Not swords & dragons but fantasy books.
Yes, we have community radio here, and I listen & also contribute a little $ each month.
ETA: there used to be one good commercial station too, alternative rock, but they got bought out by a bigger conglomerate and now are a Spanish station, and unfortunately not a Spanish alternative station, that would be awesome but no, just a pop station, a clone of the others we already had!
I never got to the point that jogging felt good. But eventually what happened was that I’d feel better for the rest of the day on a day I ran, than on a day I did not run.
Aerobic dance classes are enjoyable once my aerobic base develops but running is boring and a drag always.
I think I’m too old but my bi kids don’t care and the trans (boy now) one has a girlfriend and the mom wouldn’t let her stay over UNTIL she found out that the boyfriend was trans. Now she is allowed to stay over. I found that interesting.
Brave new world.
For me, non-binary partner would have to be both a male bodied person and one who enjoyed using their OEM equipment. As I am not bi. But beyond that - if they didn’t feel male or female, not sure I would care. It hasn’t come up so not sure.
State marriage, if available at all, needs to be available to any couple. Religious marriage doesn’t. If I am a priest who wants to marry only straight people, only gay people, only groups of 3 or more, that should be fine and protected.
But if the government wants to be in the business of establishing legal protection for family groups, it cannot be allowed to discriminate. Absolutely agree. It is not discrimination to disallow discrimination, no matter how they try to spin it.
I would be fine with your idea, no more “legal marriage” just religious and no option to register it with the state.
I just mean I know logically they aren’t harmful but my mind cannot. I’m not scared of spiders or lizards or snakes but those overgrown roaches strike absolute terror into my heart since I was little. I am so sorry you experienced that. I’ve had them fly at me.
So few of them around now, and my logical & rational fear is that is a bad sign for the world. But it has been amazing to be able to work in the yard without the constant fear of picking up a brick or stone, they used to come out from under every single upturned stone.
Palmetto bugs.
I hate the noodly introspective jazz. But cannonball Adderley Mercy Mercy, and Kamasi Washington Cherokee, so good.
I am kinda like this - I don’t usually ask for things unless I NEED them. If it’s just a request that a no is fine for, feel like I need to make that clear. Like if my hands are full, “could you open the door” but if I have a hand free but am wrangling the dog, “do you think you could open the door, I can if you can’t, I just want Dog to sit while you go in and then while I go in” I do feel like I have to explain it’s not a demand.
Recess. I can’t nap, and am not hungry, but a break is always welcome.
Absolutely not. There is one TV and it is in the living room. We actually have two ‘living rooms’ (spaces that are not bathroom, bedroom, or kitchen) and if it was up to me the TV would be in the secondary one, farthest from kitchen and bedroom. I do sometimes like to watch TV but don’t want it in my face all the time, and think living room looks better without one. But everyone else wants it in the bigger living room, which also holds the kitchen.
I am from the US and went to England for school one year. In the lunch line here, if there is a choice, you ask for it and say thank you, like “Carrots and potatoes” then “thank you!”. But in England they said no, that is rude. It’s “carrots and potatoes, please.” Then “thank you” when you get them. Needed both just to be minimally polite.
I AM polite with my kids, I model it but don’t demand it really. They catch on fine. I have friends and relatives who made their kids “yes sir” and “yes ma’am” them. I don’t think that’s cool. I told my kids to ma’am and sir wait staff, cashiers and teachers but not family, it does seem almost cheeky, somehow, to be too polite with family.
Health, I would like health until I die (I suppose that’s a limit in a way but I wouldn’t want it to keep me alive forever. Just unlimited health for a lifetime)
Money would be the most useful I think. It would be so nice to never worry about it.
Cat yes, dog no. Dogs seem more comfortable with rules, and I don’t like them in the bed. So I train them not to and we are both ok with that.
Cats I can’t control, but they tuck in easily and don’t take up much space, they are kinda relaxing to have in the bed.
Same rules for the couch. So relaxing to have a cat next to me, purring. Dog at feet, or sometimes we get a chair for them, so they can sit up high like us.
That question is too hard, so I will just answer with the latest lyrics I brought up to anyone - was listening to Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls, not a lyrical powerhouse. But the very beginning is one of the best beginnings -
“And I’d give up forever to touch you” is such a strong opening.
Usually for me it’s more a combination of the lyrics and delivery, not just the words.