Requested by Cat’s Eye, who wrote, “Can we have a Manifesto thread? Just, like, a thread where people post big philosophical statements they try to live their life by, or epiphanies they just had, or thoughts about life they’ve had rolling around in their brain for a while?”
Patience, Please
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We were having a conversation about race and racism in bio. My teacher said that her step father is extremely racist, and she always used to think about how idiotic he sounded every time he opened his mouth. She told us that it was just stupid to hate someone for their race or sexuality- “Life is too short to go around hating everyone on this planet. We have, what? Eighty years here? You’re going to spend that time hating the world around you?”
I respect her so much. She’s just an amazing person.
I posit that high school would go by much easier if it were held from 2 PM to 9 PM in the evenings.
For one thing, a teenagers mind is built to work better at later times, as evidenced by the times raves, parties, and other social events are held at. Aside from that minor bit of evidence, you could stay up till midnight and wake up ready for school in the morning. With a better adjusted mindset, us teens should be getting better scores in school.
Aside from better scores, I also would like to posit that by sending high schoolers to school after hours the crime rates would drop. After all, the people are being picked up at 2 PM (Broad Daylight), and dropped off at their houses at 9 PM, where their parents are almost guaranteed to be home and monitoring them to make sure they do their homework. With Parents monitoring their activities, and a schedule where all free time is in broad daylight, crime is almost certain to drop amongst teens.
Any opinions on my idea?
Ugh, I would hate that. You’d either have to do homework in the morning and worry about time or stay up way too late to finish it. Also I can’t function intelligently after about 7 or 8pm.
or I guess I would have hated it since I’m not really in high school any more..
Disclosure: I am voluntarily taking an 8:30am class every weekday. And I get up at 6:40 so I can run / practice before that.
I don’t think it should be quite that late, but I do wish that high school started an hour or two later than it currently does. My school starts at 8 every day except Wednesdays, when we don’t have to show up until 9:30. You can definitely notice the difference in attitude, alertness, and participation on those late-starting days. With all of the concern about learning and the educational system, it seems like it would be an obvious change to make – it’s hard for teenagers to learn when they’re asleep!
Personally, I think that 9:30-4:30 would be ideal. (As opposed to the 8-3 schedule my school goes by.) When I lived in Spain, I’m pretty sure we started school at 9 every day, (We went from 9-4) and keeping in mind that I was only in the early grades of elementary school at the time, so wasn’t quite in the teenage morning mindset yet, I’m pretty sure I felt a lot more relaxed there then I do here. Waking up earlier every day was definitely an adjustment coming back to the U.S.
That would be my preferred time, too.
I think my enjoyment of getting out of school at 2:30 overrides my desire to sleep a little later ( although it’s pretty strong when I get up at 6 AM ). It’s the same reason I like going to church early on Sunday: I never get anything done in the mornings anyway, so I might as well get something I have to do out of the way so I can maximize my productive hours instead.
Yeah, every morning I decide that the hardest thing ever is to just get myself to wake up. I’m currently sitting in first period and all I can think about is the weight on my eyes…. But by the end of the day I’m awake, and getting out of school early is amazing. Plus, considering how much homework I have… and the fact that I stay at school until 5 for rehearsal anyway, I don’t think I could handle a later time. I up late doing homework as it is.
I think it should be 7AM-10AM, and then 4PM-7PM. That way, you can go home for an actually warm lunch.
My mind wonks out at later times (anything after 9PM, and I’m a cloud cuckoolander.) And I think that the late night parties are more a sign of the teenage mind not working at that time.
I think, but I’m not sure, that there have been studies showing that if school started later teenagers would be more alert and would do better. I know I for one find my first class of the day extremely tiring.
What is the meaning of life?
The only meaning life has- the only meaning it can have is to be lived. Don’t spend your days pondering the meaning of life in your study, or learning history to find a point to existence. No, one must choose what they wish to do, one must go out and live life. Logic will never answer questions about life, it is simply life that will answer that.
You must create your own meaning for life.
That is the meaning of life.
I think I want to be a classicist when I grow up. Is that a job? It’s what Ms. Li told us J.K. Rowling is.
If this were a story, a play, the main character would be out on the stage, alone, with a pinpoint spotlight on his or her face, talking about something.Â
But, see, this isn’t a book. This isn’t a play. This isn’t a musical.Â
This is just me, sitting in the shadows, alone, waiting for someone to remember me and maybe even take the time to say hello.Â
I’m always the one who walks up and says hi, the one who emails friends I haven’t talked to in a while. Sometimes I feel like maybe if I don’t, nobody would notice that I had stopped. Maybe nobody would even care. Maybe they’d be relieved.Â
But I don’t know that, because if I stopped saying hello, I wouldn’t be there to see them, to know how they felt.Â
Is this the way everyone is? Waiting to say hello, waiting for others to say hello, wanting to be alone, not wanting to be lonely?Â
When you’re alone, there’s no one with you but you. And when there’s no one but you, the only thing to do is think. And when you think a lot, and then you think some more, and you start to realize things, big things, beautiful ideas, complexly brilliant concepts, things that you know like nothing else in the world.Â
And I, well I’ve been lonely lately, because I don’t feel like saying hello.Â
And I’ve realized some things. I’ve learned more about who I am, I’ve noticed things about the world, and now…
Now I have my own thoughts, my own perfect ideas, things that I know like nothing else in the world.Â
These thoughts, these realizations, I want to share them with the world.Â
But at the same time, I don’t want to. I’m afraid. Isn’t everyone? I worry that I might sound pretentious, that others might not understand what I was trying to say. And that gave me a question.Â
Is this how everyone is?
Does everyone have their head full of thoughts, ideas, concepts–things that they know?Â
Is everyone afraid of sounding pretentious? Is everyone trying to hide from the world because they think they’re different, because no one really knows each other?Â
Is everyone waiting for everyone else to say hello until nobody says hello at all?
This is something that I don’t know, because I don’t know if others feel the same things I do, because maybe, just maybe, we’re all trying to hide from each other that really in the end we’re all the same.Â
And so it goes on.Â
And if that’s the way things are, when did this start? When did people start wondering if others around them were different from them, and started to hide who they really were in order to appear the same? Am I asking too many questions here?
But in the end it’s impossible to truly tell, isn’t it? Maybe we really are all completely different. Or maybe we really are the same, the world hiding from the world, trying to be ordinary.Â
I wish I knew.Â
(I wrote this a while ago when I was in a philosophical frame of mind… My friends in real life thought it was cool so I thought I’d post it here.
)
I’m usually the sit-back-wait-for-someone-else-to-say-hello kind of person. But I felt rather friendly today and I wanted to say hello.
So, Hello, f&H. How are you? I hope you’re well. I wish I could meet you because we would have so much to talk about, like all of the vague ideas swirling around inside our heads. I guess that’s what MuseBlog is for; that’s why I love it so much: it’s a place where you can talk to anyone about anything and it’s not biased by appearances. It’s brilliant. I’m feeling really philosophical after reading this, and I feel really whole, really in contact with people. I know people. I am the friend of people. I have personally changed people’s lives. It just feels so good to know that there are people whose company I can enjoy, who I can spend time with and laugh and joke with and comfort in times of need and sorrow; people whose spirits I can lift, who can cheer me up when I’m down… I would never be able to say this out loud, or in front of most people, beacuse I’m constantly wondering what they think of me; but here everyone listens, everyone understands… It’s so beautiful.
Well, that concludes my train of thought. I hope this post isn’t too long.
Yes.
So today I was thinking about superhero teams. Specifically multinational superhero teams. And what I was thinking was, “That’s so stereotypical.” Admittedly I haven’t seen a lot of superhero stuff, and I was thinking a lot about Captain Planet, a show I have never watched but only read about on TVtropes. (Which is actually pretty comprehensive)
Anyhow. My thoughts. My thought was, “Africa should really be represented by a white South African.” What. I can imagine responses already, arguing with myself just cause it’s fun. My imaginary detractors are like the editors and executives for the show. “They are really not representative of the continent of Africa! There’s apartheid and all.. We wouldn’t want to give people the wrong idea. Plus, we need a Token Black Teammate.”
So someone from Kenya is automatically qualified to represent a billion people? Even within countries in Africa one person is not necessarily representative of the next. Witness Sudan. At least everyone knows that a White South African is not representative of the entire continent. Yeah, it’d shock people. That’s the point.
So here’s my thought. When constructing a multinational superhero team (let’s say one team member for every continent) Pick the least likely person. The one you don’t think of when you think of Africa, or Asia, or Europe. So let the African Representative be white, or North African. Teh European one Muslim–a child of immigrants, or even better, like most of Europe’s Muslims, indigenous from Albania or something. Or Roma. Have the Asian one be from someplace that’s not Japan. Or China. Or Korea.
In my opinion, Asia has largest area and population and is really deserving of two representatives. Let’s see. Mongolia and Bangladesh. The Philippines and Russia. [hey, it’s technically in two continents] People from two totally different places. If you want to showcase diversity, make it the diversity that no one ever thinks of.
Taht Token Black Teammate? If he or she (and make sure the gender split is equal, by the way) isn’t going to come from Africa, how about Aboriginal Australia. Or the US? How come we’re always represented by a white guy anyhow? (Lest the white guys out there complain about reverse discrimination, have him be from Argentina. Or gay.)
Smash up stereotypes and the stereotypes of stereotypes into little itty bitty pieces. Do your research, otherwise this will turn into a mess. Really, really bad mess.Have it be realistic. Have there be linguistic barriers. (Though it seems like nearly everyone can speak English, if brokenly.) Have culture clash. Have even more cultural harmony. Deconstruct and reconstruct.
Have them fight against aliens because it’s for some reason OK to be xenophobic against people form another planet. (Plus it’s the only thing that can unite humanity) Question that idea as well. Most importantly make everyone awesome just because of who they are. Don’t even resort to stereotyped personality powers, let alone
Captain Ethnics.
And there you have it. “In 2011, strange powers came upon the Earth in an event that happens once a millennium. This team, gathered form around the world, must fight together to save it from destruction…”
…Wait a second. Once a millennium? That gives me an idea…Make it a historical multinational team. How the heck would that work? How would someone from Renaissance Italy react to someone from the Ottoman Empire react to someone from the Ming dynasty? The Incas. The Songhai Empire. (If I’m right, these were all present during the 1500s. If I’m wrong, Wikipedia has failed me.)
No wait…That wasn’t a millennium ago. Hmm… Abbasids, the Pala Empire, the Holy Roman Empire? Don’t kill me if I’m wrong, I haven’t found any maps that show the extent of empires or kingdom or civilizations worldwide that show them all on the same map. One of my history books a long time ago had something like that. It was cool.
So how would this historical team react? At least nowadays due to globalization we know about other people out there…Oh man I would love to see it when the team got together for the first time. They would need to all be magically transported of course, and they’d need a magic translator too. Hmmm, the Italy-Ottoman-China group I mentioned earlier all knew about each other through the silk
Road, at least distantly. But you’d probably only know something if you were rich and educated.
Which brings us to another problem. How would the whole superhero thing work out back when most people where uneducated peasants? Maybe the magic powers specifically picked people who could read, or at least knew useful information(oral traditions, useful trade skills), and the choosing wasn’t’ random at all like they say.
That might explain why the heroes always have the perfect Deux Ex Machina to save the day. They knew, and that’s why they were picked…
Ok, this post has gone on for longer than I meant it to. Please give me some feedback on this thing. I like getting feedback, particularly the positive kind.
Oh, and I feel like I should apologize for the trope speech that slipped in…But it’s ok, you guys get it. Right? I feel like f&h’s post about keeping ideas quiet bc you aren’t sure how people’d react…OH NO STOP RIGHT NOW FF you really don’t’ need this to turn into a philosophical post too. I feel like it’s difficult enough to read as it is.
And what did superheroes wear before the invention of tights?
This is an interesting idea. One thing to consider is that the medieval superheroes would have trouble understanding their own powers as anything other than witchcraft. It would also take them a while to realize how big the world is and the nature of the menace they faced. Even literate, well-educated people by the standards of their time and place would have a lot of catching up to do.
Another interesting wrinkle could be that they would want to leave messages to their successors a thousand years later. How would they maximize the chances that their messages would be preserved, found, and understood?
Rebecca–didn’t medieval Europe have hose?
Robert–I actually considered the witchcraft the thing. The only way I thought up around that would be for the heroes to think that their powers had been divinely granted. Of course, that could cause its own problems, given that different regions had different religions. We really wouldn’t want them to just go crazy and attack each other.
Might solve the problem of size, too. People back then had all kinds of stories and myths about things bigger than them out there. God, the cosmos…What might be difficult is convincing them that there would be something they could do about it. Many people didn’t have as much power over themselves or freedom as we take for granted today.
Teh other question…Well, first they’d need to know that they’d have successors. After that–I guess whichever way they transmitted information back then. Carvings in stone, oral traditions and folk tales, handwritten books painstakingly copied out in a monastery…
If, like you say, people had a poor concept of they size of the world, they might not consider that the language or culture would significantly change and would just assume that whatever they had then would do.
It really is an interesting scenario. I may have to put this on my expanding list of NaNoWriMo ideas to use eventually.
They did have hose in medieval times, but what about the previous millennia? Perhaps I should have said “spandex” or “leotards” since I was really thinking about the whole package and imagining what people of distant times would have thought.
To achieve a similar effect, you’d have had to paint yourself. Woad, anyone?
Could be useful for someone who’s super power was being stinky.
If it were in medieval times, or before then, I don’t think you’d need a special superpower for that.
Ah, but woad dyers raised stink to such levels as legends are made of. It is said that Queen Elizabeth I made it illegal for woad dyers to operate within 5 miles of any of her palaces.
This is very, very interesting, and I would definitely read a story about this group. Or help you write it, but my ideas probably wouldn’t be half as good as yours.
Thought drives action, action drives thought. At all times, both are needed.
In times of action and activity, there must of course be actors- those who build, or run, or fight, those who construct the ships and those who sail them, and those who direct and make sure all of this goes smoothly.
But there must be those who contemplate the meaning and significance of what is being done and communicate it to others in words and pictures. They must capture the moments so that those who come after will be able to know “What did it feel like when…?” For if there is no thought and no understanding, the momentum will vanish and the world will in time grow bored and forget.
In quieter days, in times of thought, there must indeed also be contemplation, for someone must figure out the meanings of the actions that occurred before and the actions that are to be taken next. There must be writers and artists and historians and creators to answer the questions. What did we do? What does it mean? What shall we do next, where shall we go next?
But if there is no action, the world will too easily slip into endless dreams and feel no need to wake, living in the past and never giving thought to the present or the future. There must be those who form networks, who work to ensure that thoughts will become reality, who advocate and protest, who cut the metal for new ships.
Action without thought is reckless. Thought without action is wasteful.
The two are linked, and they feed off each other. But some do not understand this, and they will espouse one and look down upon the other.
“Forget poetry, forget your silly little philosophy. This is real and tangible, let them sit and dream while we build. We’re building for today and tomorrow and they only care about fantastic things that won’t be for a thousand years, if ever. They can analyze it later, I don’t really care about that touchy-feely stuff. Let them come up with a name and sell it to the world once we’ve done the *real* work. They’re no concern of mine.”
“Let them go and work, they don’t communicate well and their words do not interest me. At any rate, their work is boring compared to what I have read of in fiction. If they will do something bold and poetic, and if they seek my help, I shall celebrate them in my art, but as they are now, they hold no interest for me. They’re no concern of mine.”
But the thoughts will so often turn to melancholy if the actors do and plan nothing inspiring, and if the actors do not give a thought to historical perspective or to poetry, all they do will seem soulless and catch the interest of very few- because there is no thought behind them.
And if the actors are such, can the thinkers be blamed if the work they produce does not inspire any young people to join in action? If they write of other things because the real-life deeds of those who act disappoint them, naturally enough, the people will not care when new actions are announced. And if the fantasy becomes more and more outlandish and nothing ever comes of the visions or plans, no matter how beautiful they are, then they, too, will only be of interest to a few- because there is no action behind them.
Thought drives action, action drives thought. At all times, both are needed.
So in school we’re not allowed to express religion or anything. It’s not like I get the urge to pray in the middle of a math test or anything, but I don’t understand the rule. (I’m trying to be diplomatic here.) So, we’re not allowed to… why? So nobody gets offended? By their differences? Oh, is it so nobody makes any insulting comments? Because, if so, I would like to point out that
1) Not a single day goes by in which someone does not insult me.
2) If you try to censor what people say/do in public schools, you will ultimately fail. Public schools are the embodiment of chaos, and the force of chaos is too strong to control. I’m not saying I like trying to learn algebra in the midst of pandemonium, but it’s the fact.
One person wanting to pray is different from the school itself sanctioning or encouraging a particular form of religious expression. Doing so would imply that the government, which public schools are an extension of, promotes one religion above others, which is a violation of separation of church and state. So if you want to pray during math class that’s fine, but if your math teacher asks you all to pray for good results, that’s not.
That’s why you can wear a yarmulke if you want and things like that, but you can’t ask everyone to participate in a religious rite on campus.
For example if I asked my entire classroom to recite the foma and hearken to the pool-pah, i would be pushing my bokononism on them and would probably have to stop.
And boko-maru is completely out of the question.
It’s ridiculous, yes. Nobody can control a room full of teenagers. Our school has a similar rule, which is really quite stupid because we were studying religion in Humanities, and our teacher asked what our views were on deities and the afterlife and so forth, and got put on probation by the office. Also, it’s sometimes unavoidable to express religion. Nobody is going to mistake a girl wearing a hijab for an atheist.
The teacher was asking your views. That was unfair that they got sent to the office- the teacher was simply asking what your views were. He/she wasn’t saying, “Buddhism is better” or “Anything that’s not Christian is wrong” or making the class join each other’s religions. People have a right to express their opinions.
Strictly speaking, the First amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (Italics mine) So what your school is doing is unconstitutional. Pity most people tend to forget the second part of the religion clause. Teh solution is not to ban all expression of religion, or all displays of the ten commandments on public land, or whatever, but rather to make it open for anyone of any religion to be able to express themselves freely. Banning all religion is just another form of tyranny. Although I doubt your school has gone as far as, say, some Communist countries had.
Though those countries are missing the point somewhat also.
like i said though, support of one religion implies establishment of it (as preferred, or however you want to word that)
it all comes down to the fact that the school is public. the ten commandments on public land would pretty much be in direct violation of the first bit there, because if it’s a public project paid for with city money, the city and therefore the government are telling me, as a citizen, that they support the ten commandments. what if i’m having a cool time worshipping athena and hear about that? would you sa,y it’s unconsitutional for me and my polytheistic pals to have the city build a shrine to Zeus where we can sacrifice goats?
there’s no harm in my and my buddies getting together, buying land, and building the shrine ourselves, but there is a huge problem with the government paying for it themselves. people don’t mind stuff like this when it’s Christianity, but if i was pagan and asked the city to make a site for pagan-y goodness, they would be up in arms. do you see the problem?
the schools are erring on the side of caution. i will concede that things like calling it winter break instead of christmas break when we all know that’s what it’s for are kind of lame, but like i said. also i believe choklit orange is going to school in Singapore? (??) i’m not familiar with their government other than it is a tightly run ship so i’m sure they’re even more strict about it.
So this is the deeply philosophical thread? Gotta squeeze my worldview in somewhere so here goes.
Life is like skiing. You’re going downhill rather fast and the only thing you know for sure is that you’ll eventually run out of mountain. Sometimes the snow is perfect power that makes a lovely whooshing sound, sometimes ice sends you sliding down the slope sideways swiftly and involuntarily and sometimes you get stuck in half-melted sludge that’s hard to get back out of.
Sometimes tips of trees and bushes and rocks stick out of the snow and try to trip you up, sometimes there are trees in the way. Sometimes the slopes are flat and easy to speed down, sometimes they’re so steep that you have no idea how you’re supposed to survive. You can follow crowded slopes or blaze your own trail, though you risk getting stuck at the top of a cliff thinking “cake”.
There are signs that indicate the difficulty of the slopes, but they’re not very useful and you have to make your own choices eventually. Friends can help you, but odds are that some day you’ll find yourself at the top of an icy, bumpy ski route with no other way down and that’s when you’ll have to face your demons. You can take breaks but you can’t delay the inevitable.
There’s no right answer to which path to choose, though some are certainly easier than others. Often, you’ll be surrounded by other skiers. There are good skiers and people who are out of control and a hazard to themselves and others, but you can’t spend the whole time worrying if someone will run into you from behind.
It’s easy to ski downhill but impossible to ski uphill. You have one chance to make it count, though you’re the only one to know how. It’s easy to focus on the incompetent snowboarder in front of you and blame him for your troubles but by doing so, you miss out on the slope and on your skiing. Thinking negative thoughts only makes you lose your concentration and it takes a certain degree of mental instability to be able to convince yourself that the tree ran into you.
If you don’t ask any questions or try to figure anything out, you’ll meet a friend of mine called “tree” at the end of the slope, because breaking is a rather valuable idea. If you spend the whole time wondering about the forest, you risk running into a tree right in front of your nose.
Sometimes, you can feel the thrill of going faster faster faster, other times you would really, really like to be able to break now.
In short, there’s no one right way but plenty of wrong ones, almost as many as there are people who give you oh-so-helpful advice that’s great, really, but you were looking for something actually pertinent to your situation. There are good things (parts of the scenery) and bad things (parts of the scenery in your way) but at the end of the slope, it was all exhilarating, terrifying and kinda cool.
…*too tired to read it over, will edit …later*
You really like skiing, don’t you? I just came here from the random thread. As for me, I usually stick to the easy courses, but then purposely take the harder paths off to the side… Both literally and philisophically.
When, while skiing, I find myself at the top of an icy, bumpy ski route, I slide down most of the way on my butt.
A couple years ago I jokingly made a new year’s resolution to make every day a good day. This was the end of the year I really got myself to be an optimist, and I wanted to continue it.
So now, no matter what happens I have to find something good every day. I’m used to it now so I don’t even think about it. Even on days when everything that can go wrong goes wrong, there is something to be gained.
I have a friend who keeps a notebook called “Why Today Was Awesome” and every day she writes something really great that happened.
I guess my philosophy on life has become about thought and appreciation. You can appreciate something and understand its value without liking it. Even if a lot of negative things happen to me one day and I don’t like what went on, I can still find something that taught me a lesson or was useful in some way.
Some days I am just so happy that I have to jump around and sing. Usually it isn’t even a big reason. Just a joy of life.
The other day at lunch someone had left a door open somewhere in the school, so the lunchroom was slightly cool and it felt like spring air. I knew it wasn’t real, but I was so excited because it reminded me of how spring feels, and I felt how close spring is now.
Singing always makes my mood better. If I’m worried or stressed I just sing. If I’m in a good mood, I celebrate by singing. I guess it’s always been like that because when I was little and I was nervous about something I would sing. It was like carrying a light into the darkness. Today I was at the dentist, and whenever they are doing stuff I mumble tunes in my throat to keep myself calm.
I agree with this completely. When I’m lying in bed every night, I think of something that I’m thankful happened, and something I did that might possibly help someone else.
I like that. Does it annoy the dentists?
9- Mmm. Interesting.
Random philosophical thoughts-
-In the interest of ski metaphors…
Some people take it going down the slope so slowly (and yes, I’m one of them.) that when they don’t notice an icy patch and they start going really fast they aren’t prepared for it.
– I finished reading The Giver by Lois Lowry, and it might belong more on the Books and Reading thread, but it got me thinking.
It’s better to experience everything, the good and the bad, because otherwise you’re not really living.
(Off-topic note: I think Lois Lowry may have died without finishing the book and someone just slapped on a quick ending because they wanted it to end. Otherwise, it was good.)
-I used to get freaked out when I started going fast (No matter what I was doing) and I would sit down/crash/stop. I’ve been skiing a bit more, and I’ve gotten to the point where instead of falling on purpose/accidentally (I realize this makes no sense but what I mean is I would get so freaked out I wasn’t really thinking, more like Ahh! Too fasttoofasttoofast!!!! ) to make myself stop I can just turn, and I’ll slow down a bit. Same way with life; if it feels like it’s going way too fast you shouldn’t crash, you should figure out how to slow down. (Although…) (I have no idea if this makes sense. Probably not.)
Re: ski metaphors
Some people just don’t ski at all. They take a different route down the mountain. They might be afraid to go fast. They might not like skiing.
And yes, I’m one of them.
I’m one of them, too.
Some people snowboard.
Some people have inner-ear issues that prevent them from being able to properly balance, which makes skiing utter misery if they even try. So they sit inside the lodge, drink hot chocolate, eat Snickers bars, and read Victorian romance novels.
I wonder if I would like skiing if I could do it?
Some people snowboard.
And in the end everyone gets eaten by the snow monster anyway, so it’s all bunk.
Oh jeez, I might be the only person here who grew up playing SkiFree. :T
*insert fist pumping snowmonster.gif here*
Oh, oh, did anyone every play that educational typing game where one of the mini games was guiding these snowboarders down a slope by typing the letters in a bubbles over their heads before they drove into a wall of snow, got eaten by a snowbeast, miscalculated their jump and fell off the side of the cliff, got knocked out by a snowball or were swallowed by the ground under their feet or or or….
See, that’s my excuse for why I never learned to type properly.
YES.
I loved losing those games…
…Except for those of us who… Wear an F key around their neck? I think I’m beginningto lose the metaphor…
Oh no… I just posted that exact sentence. So here’s an original one:
Some people don’t visit the mountians, they go the the beach and surf. I would waterski if I knew how. I hope to learn this summer.
Hey, I (wind-)surf! The ski metaphor is nice; if life is a mountain. Some people snowboard and some try those weird bigfoot thingys and others… There’s plenty of diversity but only one location because if you add every other kind of sport it’ll give you a killer headache.
Yeah… I fall down the mountain, occasionally getting up to ski and then falling down again.
Vagabond or bag of bones?
They lay out loose atop the soil
They lay out- here comes the sun
And the winds to blow me away
Who- who are you, who am I
Oh, who are we if not the seed?
Fire by the riverside
Learn to swim or no one gets out of here alive
Vagabond, bag of bones
A dandelion blown to a thousand homes
With no place to go
But who’s to say- who’s who to know?
Vagabond, bag of bones
A dandelion blown to a thousand homes
With no place to grow
But who’s to say, and who’s who to know?
Wind in the trees
The rain comes thundering down
It takes some water to make a cloud
It takes some seeds to sow the ground
‘Cause even a seed
Needs to spend its time in the dirt
But it takes motion to make a sound
It takes getting lost to be found
Fire by the riverside
Learn to swim or no one gets out of here alive
Vagabond, bag of bones
A dandelion blown to a thousand homes
With no place to go
But who’s to say, and who’s who to know?
Vagabond, bag of bones
A dandelion blown to a thousand homes
With no place to grow
But who’s to say, and who’s who to know?
Like shallow graves
Return to dreams
It’s over my head
It’s all make-believe
In my mind- my mind…
When my thoughts have gone to seed
I will return them to my dreams
‘Til I return
I return to dreams in my mind
I return to dreams in my mind
I return to dreams in my mind:
I can hear the thunderclouds moving on
You weren’t invited, but you’re welcome to come along
I can hear the sounds of the thunderclouds moving on
You weren’t invited, but you’re welcome to come along
You weren’t invited, but you’re welcome to come along
You weren’t invited, but you’re welcome to come along.
-A
This is beautiful.
It feels like magic. The kind of magic that doesn’t go away when you know where it came from.
I’ve been listening to these words a lot. They are magic, and they are true.
-A
Ok, SFTDP. I said on the Rants and ‘Plaints thread that I would post this story.
So, a few months ago I went to an instructor camp for taekwondo. It was run by some of the local 6th, 7th, and 8th degrees. While we were there, one of the brothers of the Grand Master showed up. We were all really excited. He told us how proud he was that the art his brother loved was living on. He said that sometimes we will feel like there are too many problems in the world, and we might want to give up because it is overwhelming. He told us this story:
There was a man who walked on the beach every day. He walked up and down after the tide went out, picking up beached fish, crabs, and other animals and throwing them into the water. One day, another man came up and asked what he was doing. The man said “I am throwing the animals back to the water, so they don’t die”. The other man said “Why bother? There are so many animals on this beach, and you can’t go all the way down and back every day. The animals are going to die. You can’t save all of them”.
The first man looks out at the ocean for a minute. He then picks up a starfish and throws it into the sea. The other man says “What did you do that for? Are you stupid? You must realize that you can’t help all of the fish!”
The first man says “Well, I helped that one”.
I love that story. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on your local life when it seems like the world has gone mad. Sometimes you feel like “Why bother. People don’t care, so why should I.”
So, you should do anything you can. Even if it seems like you can’t possibly send all the fish into the sea, that one will be saved because you didn’t give up.
A phrase I’ve learned to love is “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.
That phrase has been popping up in my life a lot lately. The original quotation from Voltaire is “le mieux est l’ennemi du bien” — “the better is the enemy of the good.”
In relation to my recent post on the Rants and Plaints thread, I really love that Rebecca says “quotation” and not “quote”.
Voltaire has been popping up a lot in my life lately.
Does anyone else have “theme days”, where everything that happens in that day by some strange coincidence leads back to the same topic? For example, all of your conversations in a day eventually turn to the medicinal properties of various fruits or some obscure topic like that.
Sometimes I have those days where I think “Everyone must be thinking about ____ today, all at the same time!”
Part of the movie Waking Life addresses this. A person in the movie talks about how when you time people doing a NY Times crossword, people get more answers correct in a shorter period of time if it is a crossword that is a day old instead of a brand new one. The person said it’s as if after thousands of people knew the information it was easier for people to come up with the information, even if they hadn’t seen or talked to anyone about the puzzle.
I definitely have those. I’ll hear a word or phrase somewhere that i’ve never heard before, and suddenly i’m hearing it all over the place.
The crossword thing makes sense to. People who have done the crossword will be subliminally thinking about the answers, and if you talk to those people and then do the crossword, what they said will allow your head to more quickly come to the answers. Just a theory.
That kinda makes sense. The person who already did it might just start talking about Marie Curie and not even remember that it was an answer. Then the new person will do it, and the name Marie Curie will be fresh in en’s head.
I love the “Life is Good” shirts and book. They are all so cute and simple.
I guess I’m really into other people’s philosophy. I love to read, and sometimes I wonder if I actually have my ideas or if I’m just absorbing ideas. I think I actually believe my ideas because when I imagine myself believing other things I dislike it. So…does disliking the opposite of something mean you like the thing? I guess in this case it does.
Except NY Times crossword puzzles get progressively harder throughout the week, so one a day old would be easier than the current. Unless you’re doing a sunday one on monday. (I know that Sundays are easier than saturdays, but they’re also much bigger so it’ll at least cancel out, right?)
Re: Coincidences – I’ve always thought it’s weird that when I go to the library and check out five or six books, they all have common themes or similar topics or mention the same thing in them.
And this is the creed of the Hotel Tumbleweed: Give what you can, take what you need.
This pun has been bugging me since I thought of it because it’s so annoyingly funny that I need to share it with EVERYONE:
Name for a star trek convention: Wrath of-Con
I’ve been thinking a lot about God lately. This has shocked a good deal of my friends because while I’ve often thought about god I don’t often talk about god. Anyway, here’s what I came up with.
God is different for different people, and is, on some level, what they find most beautiful in the world. For me, what is most beautiful is that everything in the world is ordered. Everything follows some set of rules, everything averages….to look at a mathematical series, or a scientific principal, and then go outside and see that series in the way plants and animals grow, to see that prinicpal proven, is the most beautiful thing ever. To know that by living I am creating in part a pattern of growth and when I die. I will create a pattern of decay, that is beautiful. So for me, God is the order of the universe. Chaos exists as well, but chaos is just order we don’t understand yet. This means, that since God, and therefore beauty, is present in all natural beings and formations and processes, all of these deserve respect.
I also believe that when natural anything dies, it’s essence, it’s soul, joins god, not as an act of judgement upon the soul but just as something.
This belief in god, for me, means that I feel closer to God when in contact with nature.
Also, since everything follows some sort of pattern or rule (statistical, mathematical, scientific, etc.), and the human memory and lifespan are limited, no one person can fully understand all of god, but the cool part is that collectively, as a species, we can.
Sorry, I would like to explain all of this a bit more clearly but I’m trying to type on a touch screen…
I’m not a fanatical Buddhist — quite the opposite, in fact — but I do think Buddhist teachings are valuable.
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”
“In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.”
Simply put, anger is bad. I’m angry a lot. I’m also trying to change that.
Is it possible to be a fanatical Buddhist?
This made me laugh.
I don’t think it is though.
…what would a fanatical Buddhist be like?
Choose your answer:
Good point. Perhaps I should of said devout.
OR
You don’t want to know.
Perhaps one who meticulously follows all the rules but loses the spirit of the religion.
It’s hard to imagine a violently fanatical Buddhist, though.
(“Meditate or die, infidel!”)
I’m fairly sure that one of the steps of the eightfold path was essentially “Make sure what you’re doing makes sense from an objective perspective.” (I’m not sure, I’m simply recalling from a brief and slightly silly 7th grade class.)
What happens after death?
When someone dies, their family mourns. Their friends cry, for having lost a good friend and a great person. Many, especially young people, are angry, or confused. Sometimes, after death, people who knew the deceased will hurt themselves. But they have to remember- would the deceased want them to die too? No, they’d want to remember the good times. The family will celebrate the life, not let it fade, or become a difficult topic. They remember all the good times, all the not so good times, everything that made the person that they knew and loved that wonderful, marvelous person. Everybody will have someone die. But you have to accept that- remember who they were, and still are, in your heart. Remember all the times you spent with that person, even if it hurts. But keep them with you, not as pain, not as reminder. Just so you can love them
And that is what happens after death.
The title of my friend’s semi-poetic paper about his thoughts on pop culture, the world, and life in general:
“Taylor Swift is Hot
but Her Music is Not”
It’s a pretty good paper, too.
A lot of people try to reconcile conflicts by saying things like, “Hey, we’re all from Earth” or something similar to “We’re all the same in some way or another so we shouldn’t hate each other”. Do we really need to be the same as other people to sympathize with them or accept them? Should we need to be the same? I think, for me at least, having similarities sort of helps me see them as more of a real person instead of just a collection of traits. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, though.
I agree with this.
Even if the only similarity is that we both have emotions, it helps me be more sympathetic.
I don’t think it’s necessary to have major similarities. Just realizing that we are all human and we all have feelings and thoughts, even if the feelings and thoughts vary, is important.
When people start to think of one another as entirely different, things start to get bad. (i.e. slavery. People thought that whatever group they were enslaving was unlike them and therefore less deserving of kindness/dignity)
This is a thing I wrote for another website I frequent.
—
So here we are, in our teenage years, when everyone’s obsessing over who has a crush on who. Everyone has a crush on at least one or two people, and most people have squishes on far more than that, which they mistake for crushes.
A squish is essentially a ‘personality crush’. Maybe you know someone who’s lovely and amazing and sometimes it seems to you that they’re perfect, but you wouldn’t necessarily want to get in their pants, or make out with them, or make sure that the entire world KNOWS that you and this person are ‘a thing’, that you and this person are ‘together’. A squish is often mixed up with a crush, especially by teens, as I’ve discovered, because when the hormones are running wild it’s often hard to differentiate between I-want-to-be-really-good-friends-with-this-person and I-want-to-make-out-with-this-person. Some people (coughmecough) have had their hearts broken because they convinced themselves that they were in love, when really it was a squish and the emotions were more of a brotherly/sisterly kind, rather than a boyfriend/girlfriend kind of affection.
People have squishes, and I know it’s almost as painful to admit as it is for a real crush, because the feelings are so similarly different. Of the four major squishes I’ve had in the past year, three are now my closest friends, and the fourth thinks I’m completely insane and is a bit scared of me, so there’s no hope there.
I agree. I had a squish once, and I mistook it for a crush at the time. Even once I realized that no, it wasn’t exactly that, it took me years to figure out what it was.
I was always friendly with that person, but we never actually became close friends, and now I don’t go to the same school. Oh, well. I got over it, anyway.
You know what? Actually, I’m pretty sure I have had more than one squish. In fact, I think I’ve had lots of squishes. I just… didn’t notice them, probably because they’re almost always on close friends. I can only think of one other that wasn’t, actually. Wait, make that two, but we became friends. Anyway…
I think that brotherly/friendly love (apage) in general really is just not talked about as much as romantic love (eros), especially in terms of teenagers and preteens.
Wait, I thought that was storge? *is probably wrong*
Brotherly/friendly love is actually philios, isn’t it? Agape is selfless, unconditional love.
This reminds me of a romance system from somewhere else that I find makes much more sense than our current one. (I’ve modified it a bit to fit the real world.)
Firstly, there is classical romantic love. This is the type of love you hope your parents have- the type where they really can’t think of living their life with someone else. This involves both an emotional/personality based attraction and a sexual attraction. This is symbolized by a ♥ mainly because it’s traditional and most people understand it.
There is also sexual love. This is one of the more common types of teenage love- where you really just find them attractive, and personality is not as important as with ♥ This is generally what people talk about when they talk about crushes. It is like the ♥ without the personality factor. I symbolize this with a â™ – It looks like a heart, but it is really very different.
Then, there is squish love. This is pretty much what you’re talking about- it encompasses both platonic love and brotherly/sisterly. This is essentially the opposite of â™ – it is the ♥ without the sexual attraction. I symbolize this with ♦ – It doesn’t look like a heart on the outside, but it’s the same color and many of the same feelings as ♥ I think that all MuseBloggers ♦ each other to some extent.
Finally, we have ♣ This is really shorthand for unrequited love of any type, especially when multiple people are involved. This is because you could wind up in a situation where:
A ♥ B
A ♦ C
B â™ A
C â™ B
and C ♥ A.
It’s much simpler to just say A ♣ B ♣ C. This is also very common when you’re a teenager, and you and your friends are trying to figure everything out.
Well, I don’t know if anyone else thinks that makes more sense, but I certainly do.
I think that makes sense, and I actually like it a lot.
…I think I accidentally a new type of government.
The idea came to me and ran away with me. It’s based mostly on debate.
I think that everyone should get the chance to participate in government, but only the people with good ideas should have their ideas used. The problem is that if we just listen to everyone and handpick everything–well, who does the handpicking? If it’s the people, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be logical (“Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, it is the rule.”). If it’s a separate leader, they tend to get to abstracted and lose their empathy, because they just don’t know what life is like (nothing brings about madness like leading a nation). Most countries choose either one or the other or a mix–but wouldn’t it be excellent if there was an automatic system that selected the best ideas? (Oh, cake, I sound like an advertisement! This is really just how my thought process went; I can’t help it). What if a country was governed by debate? If a citizen had an idea, they could announce it publicly–on a website, for example–and explain why they thought it was a good idea. Then, if anyone disagreed, they could explain their reasoning, and the debate would go on until the side whose turn it is (anyone who speaks out of turn should be ignored, and they can try again at the proper time if they want) is silent for a preset amount of time (a week, maybe?). I suppose you can also debate about who gets to be in what you can call a sort of government even though it has no legislative, executive, or judicial duties–government agency starters and income tax determiners (you can’t trust anyone to choose how much tax they pay) and so on.
I’m sure there are flaws in this theory, so will someone please point them out to me?
That’s basically just a minimalist democracy, isn’t it?
That seems like it would only work in very small populations. In large populations, would you really give the ability to propose ideas to everyone? What with the number of people who are uneducated, have mental diseases/disorders, or are otherwise unqualified to propose good ideas? It seems like there would be at least thousands of people proposing ideas every day, which would get pretty confusing.
Besides, debate takes a really long time, and what about issues that need to be decided really quickly? How would this system of government respond to something like, say, 9/11?
Not to mention the usual problems with democracy, which are that a) the interests of minorities may get drowned in the interests of majorities and b) a government by the population directly is essentially a government by the mob.
In really small populations, however, it might work all right.
On the surface, it sounds sort of like a town hall meeting. Only for an entire country. Well, there are reasons why the US does not engage in direct democracy beyond this level and instead has representatives.
How are you going to convince people to listen to debate and its rules? That everyone will be logical, and polite, and not resort to ad hominem attacks? If crazy is the rule in groups, how can debate by itself stop it? That’s my cynical view of humanity reason. You’ve seen town hall meetings gone bad.
The other reason is more pragmatic. If anyone can debate, there would very likely be too many voices crowding the arena. If you limit it, you risk losing good ideas. There really isn’t a good way to sort the chaff from the grain. The problem is that there is no automatic system like you mentioned that can select the best ideas, the best people. There’s just us. And we’re flawed. You just have to deal with it. Your idea sounds good. But in reality, it probably wouldn’t work. And may in fact already be present to an extent.
I mean, we have debate already, at least in the US. And we can have citizen-submitted propositions, at least up to the state level. Which do get debated.
And fundamentally, debate implies a disagreement somewhere. Without voting or some other say to choose, which proposal would be enacted? Like I said, there’s no “Best Idea Choosing Thing.” If there was a Best Idea Choosing person, how is that different form a president with executive power? You also have the same old problems of “is it moral to force the people to do something they don’t want and didn’t have a choice in?”.
Another point–no legislative, executive, or judicial duties. Particularly the lack of a judiciary. I already sort of covered the difficulties with the other two. You can’t trust anyone to choose whether they get punished for wrongdoing wither. So you’d debate over whether they were guilty–well, isn’t that what a jury is?
I went on for a bit. There’s probably more. It actually reminded me a bit of Thoreau. In Civil Disobedience, he proposed that democracy was not the highest level of government, that humanity could still yet improve. Your idea sounds like that improvement. But I was as skeptical when he said it as I am now, for much the same reasons. If humanity-a nation-a state was broken up into smaller units, perhaps, maybe the size of a small town hall. Or if humanity was better in general.
To veer slightly into trope-speak, I’m just not sure Rousseau was Right. I look around at the world and it’s Machiavelli all the way. Perhaps human beings are Rousseau-like in dealings with those they know and care about, and Machiavellian when dealing with things that do not particularly affect them. (That would be another argument for the breaking-down-into smaller groups. If everyone knew each other, perhaps they would feel more connected and be nicer to them. Perhaps not) But my cynicism is my own issue.
Lately I’ve been wanting to compile a list of tidbits by which I try to live my life, because writing stuff down is how I organize my thoughts best. I figured I’d share it here because it might inspire other people to do the same, and that’ll let me learn from you guys.
Okay then. In no particular order. These are some things that I’ve found work for me.
-Assume the best of other people.
-If you make a mistake, figure out why you messed up, and how you can decrease the likelihood of that happening again.
-Be quick to forgive, be it yourself or other people.
-If you feel like you have too much to do and not enough time to do it in, drop everything and read/hike/pray/relax for a while, and then come back to your work.
-Go for a walk outside every day.
-If there’s something you really want to buy, wait three days before buying it, and think about how it would actually affect your life.
-Everyone knows more about something than you do. Figure out what that is and then learn from them.
-Eating well and sleeping well are essential.
-If you feel bored or listless, it usually means you’re trying to avoid something. Go confront that and you’ll feel a lot better.
-If you want to get better at something, you have to practice. Create opportunities for yourself to practice being patient, helping other people, doing without, etc.
-No screen time right after you wake up or right before you go to bed. If you find yourself just “killing time” on the internet, turn the computer off and do something else.
-Everyone sees the world in a different way. Accept that.
-A tidy environment goes a long way towards removing stress from your mind.
-Every day you should try to live a little better than you did the day before.
-Spend a little time each day thinking about how much you have to be grateful for.
-Pick two or three important things to do each day–no more.
-Patience and perseverance will get you everything.
-Courtesy of my patron, St. Pio of Pietrelcina: “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”
I think I’d like to expand and correct my first tidbit with a quote from St. Thérèse of Liseux. Background: St. Thérèse was a Carmelite nun that lived in France in the late 19th century. She died at the age of 24 and has been declared the 33rd Doctor of the Church, the youngest to be given this title and the third woman. This is from her autobiography, Story of a Soul, which she wrote under the orders of the Prioress of her convent. Emphases and EMPHASES are her own.
“When I wish to increase this love in me, and when especially the devil tries to place before the eyes of my soul the faults of such and such a Sister who is less attractive to me, I hasten to search out her virtues, her good intentions; I tell myself that even if I did see her fall once, she could easily have won a great number of victories which she is hiding through humility, and that even what appears to me as a fault can very easily be an act of virtue because of her intention. I have no trouble in convincing myself of this truth because of a little experience I had which showed me we must never judge.
“During recreation the portress rang twice; the large workman’s gate had to be opened to bring in some trees for the crib. Recreation was not too gay because you were not there, dear Mother, and I thought that if they sent me to serve as third party [footnote: The religious who accompanied the Procuratrix when laborers had to work in the monastery.] I would be happy; at exactly that moment Mother Subprioress told me to go and serve in this capacity, or else the Sister who was at my side. Immediately I began to untie our apron but slowly in order that my companion untie hers before me, for I thought of giving her the pleasure of serving as third party. The Sister who was replacing the Procuratrix was looking at us, and seeing me get up last, she said: ‘Ah! I thought as much, that you were not going to gain this pearl for your crown, you were going too slowly.’
“Certainly, the whole community believed I had acted through selfishness, and I cannot say how much good such a small thing did to my soul, making me indulgent toward the weaknesses of others. This incident prevents me from being vain when I am judged favorably because I say to myself: Since one can take my little acts of virtue for imperfections, one can also be mistaken in taking for virtue what is nothing but imperfection. Then I say when St. Paul: ‘To me it is a very small thing to be judged by you, or by any human tribunal, but neither do I judge myself. He who judges me is THE LORD.’
“In order that this judgment be favorable or rather that I be not judged at all, I want to be charitable in my thoughts toward others at all times, for Jesus has said: ‘Judge not, and you shall not be judged.’“
I’d like to contribute something, but I don’t do well with lists. They all seem a little aggressive, like there’s so many things I should be doing. So if you’ll lend me your ears, I’ll just ramble a little instead.
First, see a doctor. I found out about my food intolerances pretty much by accident. It sounds really stupid in retrospect, but I thought having a stomache-ache after you eat a little or feeling nauseous after a full meal was normal. Now I can actually concentrate after eating, I’m feeling a lot more awake during the day and I find in easier to concentrate. I’ve also quit coffee, since it makes me jittery. That, plus getting new contacts- gotcha, mystery headaches- has really helped me feel better.
Second, not everything that goes wrong is your fault. I figured that the nausea was just my own fault for being too stressed, that the headaches were just that I was too stupid to study Math, and that I couldn’t focus so well because I was just lazy or not dedicated enough. Needless to say, that approach didn’t make things better.
Third, accept that you have limits. “Impossible” doesn’t mean “yeah I can totally do that”. If you haven’t slept in 24+ hours, then that paper you have to write will probably be worse. If you’re taking seven different courses, you can’t put in the same amount of work for each one as you would with four. It’s okay if you don’t always excel at everything. What’s not okay is setting yourself impossible standards and beating yourself up when you don’t reach them.
Fourth, don’t compare yourself to other people. It never ends well.
Fifth, if you can’t walk, find someone to carry you. For example, I’ve never been the sort of person who does their assignments on the day they’re handed out. I should, but I usually can’t motivate myself unless they sound cool. But I have a friend, let’s call him MotivationGuy, who always does. So I do my homework with MG. It’s more fun than doing it alone and faster too. Again, obvious in retrospect. When you’re in trouble, reach out instead of retreating.
Sixth, the people who care about you care about you regardless of wether you fail or succeed. Your study friends aren’t going to ditch you if you confess that you still haven’t understood the Jordan canonical form. Instead, they’ll probably explain it to you or say something along the lines of “Oh thank god I don’t get it either”. And then you can all troop off to ask the professor together.
Seventh, life isn’t perfect and neither are you. And that’s okay.
((For those having trouble with 7), go listen to “In my Mind” by Amanda Palmer))
-Know your function. If you are the third of a major chord, play low. If you are the seventh of a chord, play low. If you’re a perfect interval, match your perfect interval buddy. If someone’s holding a pitch, match it, even if you don’t like where they put it.
-Breath together. Mix your sounds in the center of the group. Touch each other’s fingers in your mind.
-Don’t automatically assume you’re correct.
-Know when you have something important and when you do not. When you are important, bring it out. When you are not, support whoever is.
-Treat other’s ideas as if they are your own. Commit to doing them – don’t be half-hearted about it.
-Try all ideas before you reject them, even if your initial reaction is one of dismissal – and give it a fair try.
-Be flexible. Don’t be welded to a certain conception of what you think something should be. On the other hand, articulate your own ideas clearly.
-Don’t take criticism personally. Don’t give criticism with the intention of hurting someone.
-Make sure to state what you liked, as well as what you didn’t like.
-Know when to push and when not to push.
-Be prepared. Learn your part. Always have a pencil. Be on time. Don’t text during rehearsal.
-Actively contribute, even if (especially when) you’re in a supporting role. Cue actively. Take responsibility for phrasing and character.
-Have fun. Show it. If it’s happy, smile.
-Listen to the Cleveland quartet.
And always make sure your reeds are soaked.
But not if you play the violin, obviously.
Or if you have a plastic reed, because plastic reeds are actually really good
If you’re playing a violin and your reeds are soaked, you’re doing something seriously wrong.
Should my spit valve not be stuck, either?
Oh me oh my.