Random Thoughts...or...What's on Your Mind?

[TribbleFeeder]

We have HUGE cicadas in our pool area this time of year. They’re usually like an inch and a half long. They really don’t bother us though so I don’t mind.

We also have a wasps nest. I mind that.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I've noticed a little social phenomenon at the shop I work at. It happens quite a lot that we have several customers who came independently from each other and not all entering at the same time, but they somehow all choose the same time to come to the counter to pay. I wonder if that's a known phenomenon in sociology and/or psychology.

 

[auntiehill]

^ we used to refer to it as the "customer bus." It would be slow all day and then " BAM" --60 people all need help at the exact same time. It's like some large bus just dropped them all off.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Maye he escaped from someone's terrarium?

In the summertime, you can hear the cicadas from the parking lot, so I'm assuming they probably live nearby. There is a wooded area close to the office, so I figure they're probably from there.

Don't be afraid, though

The first thing I did after finding out what they were, was try to find out if they were dangerous in any way. Fortunately, the consensus seems to be "no". However, Wikipedia did mention this little note:

they do not bite or sting in a true sense, but may occasionally mistake a person's arm for a plant limb and attempt to feed.

Strangely, that last part was somewhat less than reassuring!

 

[Gary Mitchell]

It just tickles a little bit.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

ah, now I can see the pictures (stupid firewall at my office blocks all images).
It's a male of Linne's Cicada (Neotibicen linnei). Have you looked at his body? Looks familiar, doesn't it? The army stole their camouflage suits from his ancestors

Some cicadas are really pretty. In a museum I've once seen an art deco brooch in the shape of a cicada. It was lovely! Unfortunately, I can't find a pic online.
There is a range of rather bizarre looking tropical cicadas (but they are tiny). My favourite is the one that looks like a helicopter at the top of this article =)

 

[Sibyl]

I swear one of the guest commentators on one of the morning news programs looks exactly like a Chuck Schumer T-1000.

 

[PureCrimson]

I can't believe some people here.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You'll only look like a stupid tourist if you get stone drunk.

Uh oh...

I can't believe some people here.

At times, we can't even believe ourselves. So it's all good.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I live somewhat near the airport, and have heard military jets flying around every day since the Tuesday after Labour Day.

Either we're hosting an air show, or those NAFTA negotiations have been even more contentious than they're letting on...

 

[Sibyl]

Thought bubble:

How the hell can my car be "too small" to have seen it and you nearly run into me???

Methinks you need to open your eyes. Yes, my car is small, but there are plenty of vehicles out there around the same size. Certainly much bigger than a motorcycle, and yes, my lights were ON.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Eeks! I hope you didn't get hurt, Scribble!

I've noticed a little social phenomenon at the shop I work at. It happens quite a lot that we have several customers who came independently from each other and not all entering at the same time, but they somehow all choose the same time to come to the counter to pay. I wonder if that's a known phenomenon in sociology and/or psychology.

Perhaps a sort of herd instinct /Herdentrieb?

Getting old sucks! I had such a good random thought last night and thought I'd post it here and now I've forgotten what it was.

 

[Sibyl]

 

[Butters]

I have become a nostalgia junkie. I think I may need help.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Ever feel like 90% of the people on the Internet are either racist assholes, or can't wait to call other people racist assholes for pointing out hypocrisies in politically correct culture?

I know, those are just 90% of the people who talk, but it's hard to see beyond the monsters, and the 'You either agree with me on everything or you're a monster' brigade. Reasonable people who want to approach every paradigm with skepticism and have actual debates have to fight a war on two fronts.

 

[TribbleFeeder]

Ever feel like 90% of the people on the Internet are either racist assholes, or can't wait to call other people racist assholes for pointing out hypocrisies in politically correct culture?

I know, those are just 90% of the people who talk, but it's hard to see beyond the monsters, and the 'You either agree with me on everything or you're a monster' brigade. Reasonable people who want to approach every paradigm with skepticism and have actual debates have to fight a war on two fronts.

OMG YES THISS

 

[rhubarbodendron]

10%er reporting in

I have become a nostalgia junkie. I think I may need help.

I think that's fairly normal. We know the past but can at most make an educated guess about the future. Knowing something for sure gives us a feeling of safety, while not knowing tends to make us insecure.
Not sure if that's a general phenomenon or just a personal problem but I find that I get very much thinner-skinned and I increasingly dislike changes the older I get. Perhaps that is because young people have more emotional resilience and a larger supply of inner strength. When we get old, we burn out and have to replace inner strength with stubbornness. Also, we are less flexible in our views and ideals. (LOL funny that joints and soul get stiff at the same time )

 

[Butters]

Ever feel like 90% of the people on the Internet are either racist assholes, or can't wait to call other people racist assholes for pointing out hypocrisies in politically correct culture?

I know, those are just 90% of the people who talk, but it's hard to see beyond the monsters, and the 'You either agree with me on everything or you're a monster' brigade. Reasonable people who want to approach every paradigm with skepticism and have actual debates have to fight a war on two fronts.

I do my best to not get drawn in to political discussions online. I usually end up having to defend points that I’m not actuslly trying to make, and everything gets twisted in to a futile anger fest.

I’ve lost beloved forums that have diminished to naught but echo chambers, as different views are taken to where they’re not shot down. What’s the point of a discussion board without discussion?

One lively board I lived on is now reduced to occasional postings of headlines, and the same few usual users replying to agree how terrible it is. Well done, that’ll change the world for sure.

 

[Butters]

I think that's fairly normal. We know the past but can at most make an educated guess about the future. Knowing something for sure gives us a feeling of safety, while not knowing tends to make us insecure.
Not sure if that's a general phenomenon or just a personal problem but I find that I get very much thinner-skinned and I increasingly dislike changes the older I get. Perhaps that is because young people have more emotional resilience and a larger supply of inner strength. When we get old, we burn out and have to replace inner strength with stubbornness. Also, we are less flexible in our views and ideals. (LOL funny that joints and soul get stiff at the same time )

This is definitely part of it. The security of the past, no surprises.

I’m also becoming more aware of the March of time. It’s written on the faces of everyone I know, the absesnce of those I knew. I used to look at old photographs of the villiage see how things had changed and how something’s haven’t, how life must have changed since then, and how amazing that some could remember those days.

From my childhood bedroom I could see across the valley, now I can’t see the main road. Trees have grown up and obscured everything.

The places I knew are gone. New houses built, shopping centres where factories were. Nature reserves where slag heaps were. And one of my favourite teenage hangouts is on the route of HS2.

Doom was an excellent game, Windows 95 did everything it needed to do, and not everyone needed to have a cell phone.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I do my best to not get drawn in to political discussions online. I usually end up having to defend points that I’m not actuslly trying to make, and everything gets twisted in to a futile anger fest.

I’ve lost beloved forums that have diminished to naught but echo chambers, as different views are taken to where they’re not shot down. What’s the point of a discussion board without discussion?

One lively board I lived on is now reduced to occasional postings of headlines, and the same few usual users replying to agree how terrible it is. Well done, that’ll change the world for sure.

Yeah, but it comes up naturally, especially when things seem to be going completely bonkers and politics have started infecting every aspect of everything. In this case comments on an Onion article. Sometimes it seems like it's too much to ask for people to see an ounce of ambiguity in anything, or consider that other people have different experiences from them that lead to different ideas and viewpoints, and if those aren't the same as their own, it isn't attacking their own, or making a statement of hatred.

Particularly irritating when a person who has an avatar from South Park (Not you) has trouble separating 'Political correctness' from 'Not being racist', when that's pretty much the topic of half their episodes.