a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
nonapus's comments
activity:

This is sort of a meta comment, but I think it's really fascinating for us to even be having this discussion. In a sense, humans are the brain cells of Earth. Essentially, Earth is kind of mulling over the idea of erasing a species, which it's never done before. I feel kinda bad for mosquitos, actually.

I'd give everyone their money back.

nonapus  ·  3268 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What's Your Favorite Music Video?

I'm not a fan of Danny Brown's verses and the art style isn't the greatest, but it's still a great song/video.

Death Grips - Inanimate Sensations (great in every aspect IMO)

Shabazz Palaces - #CAKE (hedonism, mang)

nonapus  ·  3268 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: ASK HUBSKI: What was your favorite album of the year?

I don't know about my favorite, but Garden of Delete by OPN is definitely up there.

nonapus  ·  3274 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 152nd Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Lonnie Holley - 'Looking for All (All Rendered Truths)'

nonapus  ·  3325 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Would anyone mind reading a poem I wrote? I'd appreciate some feedback on it.

To a lesser degree, yes. I usually wash my hands between one and four times, depending on my perception of how 'dirty' they are.

My right hand usually starts to dry out at this time of year due to the lower humidity. The poem references and exaggerates that aspect of my hand washing.

nonapus  ·  3325 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Would anyone mind reading a poem I wrote? I'd appreciate some feedback on it.

Awesome, I'm glad to hear it

nonapus  ·  3325 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Would anyone mind reading a poem I wrote? I'd appreciate some feedback on it.

Of course. It's about someone with OCD who is compulsively washing their hands.

Want me to go into more detail...?

nonapus  ·  3326 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Microsoft no longer lets you opt-out of a Windows 10 upgrade

I've tried Ubuntu in the past, but always had trouble with Apple's hardware. Probably going to look further into it again at some point to see if compatibility has improved.

nonapus  ·  3326 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Microsoft no longer lets you opt-out of a Windows 10 upgrade

Pretty disappointed in MS. I've been dual booting Windows and OS X for a couple years and I've always preferred MS' file management to Apple's. Apple's feels very dumbed down and limited to me. I'd love to erase my Windows partition, but MS' file management is just too good.

:(

nonapus  ·  3336 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How would you stop mass shootings?

Yeah, I'm aware of the issues with implementation. It doesn't necessarily have to be required by the government.

Not sure why you're talking about the state prescribing morals. Ethics courses wouldn't do that; they would encourage people to think about morality, which is a powerful way of developing a moral compass. I don't see a problem with juniors or seniors learning about Robert Wolff; moral compasses should be as diverse as music preferences, and like i said before, thinking about morality rationally cultivates more considerate behavior in my experience. Obviously this is just my opinion and I could be completely wrong. I think you're probably right about freshmen being too immature. Obviously it isn't set in stone; juniors and seniors could probably handle it.

I'm taking an ethics course at the moment and it mostly revolves around understanding concepts proposed by Kant, Mill, and other philosophers. It has nothing to do with coercing people into certain moral frameworks.

nonapus  ·  3337 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How would you stop mass shootings?

It's a complicated problem that won't be solved with one solution. It needs several solutions implemented one at a time to determine what does and doesn't work.

One idea that I had was ethics and philosophy courses being required for high school freshmen. Young people should be encouraged to think about morality in a classroom setting. Just thinking about morality encourages people to be more considerate of one another (at least in my opinion).

Looks awesome! As a side note, 'vinyl' is both singular and plural. I'm not sure if English is your second language, but I wouldn't worry about it. It's even tricky for people that speak English as their first language. So yeah, don't say 'vinyls.' Vendors might try to rip you off because it indicates a lack of familiarity with vinyl. If using 'vinyl' sounds weird/awkward in a sentence, substitute 'records' for it.

(I really hope this doesn't come across as condescending/pompous. I just wanted to point it out and help you guys out.)

nonapus  ·  3345 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: 142nd Weekly "Share Some Music You've Been Into Lately" Thread

Mostly Charles Cohen for me. He's such a cool dude.

Album:

Interview:

Ah yeah, typo. Don't worry, I know the difference!

Thank you so much for the input! My class rarely provides constructive criticism because people are afraid of hurting others' feelings. Basically, everyone just encourages each other to keep doing what they're doing. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it isn't very conducive to growing as writers. Of course practice is rarely a bad thing.

I think that the more I expand on those paragraphs the more they'll diverge from cliches, at least that's what I think. I've mostly written poetry and short paragraphs so far.

nonapus  ·  3354 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Looking for good reads

The Confusions of Young Torless is brilliant. The description/summary sums it up fairly well, but I would like to point out that the focus of the book is Torless' development through the disturbing stuff he sees.

http://www.robertmusil.net/musil/works/Young%20Torless.pdf

nonapus  ·  3376 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: August 24th: What are you reading this week?

I've been reading The Confusions of Young Törless. It's really, really good. Törless wrestles with some extremely abstract emotions and sensations; I'd highly recommend it. If you like evocative imagery/metaphors/etc, you'll love it.

(Don't let the summary deter you from reading it)

nonapus  ·  3385 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski, what are your favorite Jazz albums?

ULTRA MEGA SUPER POST INBOUND:

Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz, The Shape of Jazz to Come

Kurt Rosenwinkel - Our Secret Place, Star of Jupiter

Miles Davis - 'Round About Midnight, Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew, Live-Evil, Sketches of Spain

Moondog - S/T

Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins

Fire! Orchestra - Enter, Exit

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

Moon Hooch - This is Cave Music

Jacques Coursil - Clameurs

Zs - Xe

Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch

Hiromi - Alive

John Coltrane - Ascension, A Love Supreme, Giant Steps (although Giant Steps is super entry level)

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (more blues-rock than jazz, but there are jazz elements)

_______________________________________________________

If you can't decide where to start, start with one of the Miles Davis albums or Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. Free Jazz is really cool because it's a double quartet with each quartet assigned to an audio channel (one quartet per ear). Essentially, it's like listening to two albums at the same time, except that the albums interact with each other. Plus, it's FREE JAZZ.

nonapus  ·  3390 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Sleeping on your side appears to cut the risk of neurological disorders

I don't know if I sleep on my stomach or my side. The most concise way of describing it is that I use one leg as a "kickstand."

nonapus  ·  3402 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Dear Hubski, what do you want to learn?

Piano and painting.

I'm taking a piano class at my local CC this semester and probably going to take a painting class at uni next semester. I guess I'm on my way to learning!

nonapus  ·  3405 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Are there any websites that provide an art equivalent to Spotify or Last.fm?

This is awesome! Thank you so much! :)

nonapus  ·  3411 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Musical Instrument would you love to learn?

Piano, trumpet, and/or violin.

They're my favorite instruments. I'm planning on learning the trumpet this semester.

nonapus  ·  3412 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why I love the nothingness inside a float tank – M M Owen – Aeon

    In July 2014, Science published a study in which volunteers were placed in an unadorned room and asked to entertain themselves with their thoughts for between six and 15 minutes. Participants overwhelmingly abhorred the experience. In one part of the experiment conducted in the subjects’ own home, a third actually found it impossible, and resorted to ‘cheating’, usually via their mobile phones. In another part of the study, 67 per cent of men opted to give themselves an electric shock rather than simply sit with their thoughts. The mind untutored in meditative techniques, concluded the study’s authors, ‘does not like to be alone with itself.'

This is really interesting. What makes the shower tolerable for people? I spend 20-40 minutes just sitting in the shower and thinking so I'm a little confused. If you want something similar to a float tank, I'd recommend taking a shower like you normally do then turning off the lights. I love taking warm showers in pitch black darkness.

nonapus  ·  3414 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If you wrote a book, would you adopt a nom de plume?

It's a tough question.

Personally, I'd go with a pseudonym. Once you go famous, you don't go back.

The notoriety might be fun for a day or two, but it would get old quickly. Plus, I very much enjoy being left alone in public (which is part of why I enjoy being a guy; I don't have to worry about being hit on, just hitting on qt girls).

Honestly, I think a lot of you guys are underestimating how much you'll miss public anonymity.

Ah yeah, I forgot to flesh out the tree metaphor that I wanted to incorporate. His million arms were supposed to be compared to a tree's branches.

The use of million was intentional; the idea was that each magnifying glass (person) would be compared to a leaf.

nonapus  ·  3420 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Mind giving me some input on this paragraph/story that I wrote?

Thank you very much for the input. I'm glad that the flaws revolve around simple problems rather than the ideas that the story is built around (at least that's the impression I'm getting from the feedback I've gotten).

Luckily I've only taken a couple college classes on writing and they were geared toward argumentation and analysis, not creative writing. With this in mind, I'm thinking that I've got plenty of room to grow.

nonapus  ·  3422 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you reading this week?

The Stranger is on my to-read list. Definitely looking forward to it; I'm really enjoying what Camus has to say.

nonapus  ·  3422 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Colin Stetson - Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun

Me too. I actually meant to mention "Judges" and "A Dream of Water" in the OP. Thanks for mentioning it!

He really is amazing. The range of sound he can make is insane.