As a very curious person with very wide interests, it is so easy to access really hard-to-find information. In the past five years I’ve satisfied my curiosity more than adequately on hundreds of topics I’d wondered about all my life … from home. One plus side of Covid.

On the darker side, there were plenty of predictions (from science and fiction) in decades past that are becoming very real. Too many heads buried in sand.

Yeah! Did that once, many years back. took a couple weeks. Used a ripper program that went out on the net and got all the metadata, saved to a HD (now on the third one). Put the CDs in Logic cases (no-wear), recycled the jewelboxes.

Over time, started to drop album folders into VLC, save the playlists, at ur fingertips.

FLAC is good, but not necessary for background listening. At 192k the average song is ~ 5Mb. 100k x 5 = 0.5 TB.

With a long, varied list of select internet radio stations, you can choose what genre (or special weekly show) you want to listen to at the moment. Picked by people, not algorithms. Keep a playlist of the stations you like best, startup your player (like VLC) with the list, and pick the one you’re in the mood for.

Or you could just collect mp3s locally for choosier days, dump a bunch of them into VLC, listen to them in album or random order. In either case, at no cost.

KInda stupid question, innit? If I still have it, I don’t think it’s a misconception. You’d have to tell me.

But then, anyone can make a mistake. Doesn’t make you a bad person. I make mistakes every day. I shouldn’t have said stupid, I should said… whatever they call it now. Meathead?

Don’t respond in any way to whatever they say about each other.

Not until there hasn’t been any for a century. P.S. Best of luck.

Close, I liked Marvin. It IS all so depressing.

The better the film is, the less likely it gets a sequel. (Or an Oscar.)

Blade Runner, for example. Released in 1982. Oh sure, it got one in 2015 … because the slo-mo’s had 33 years to catch up. And half the original audience was no longer around to mock it.

Try this: first, give me (mere offers are refused). the cold hard cash. This experiment will cost you, oh, $1000. Cash in advance. Per hour. Second: see what you get.

One word solution: tolerance. If you expect others to live and believe as you do … or else … there’s no solution. Just centuries of feuding.

Historically, tribes, city-states, they all had problems just as or more severe than ours.

We have living examples - today - of countries in the world which are faring very well. (Oh of course, some would say, they’re all doing something wrong. Uhm, no.)

This guy is visiting many places all over the US, month after month, spending his time (often for days) talking to the natives and really digs into that diversity.

https://www.youtube.com/@PeterSantenello/videos

I’d guess, with all the veterans living here, that the ‘near future’ isn’t so dangerous.

Me too. Especially more at home weatherwise that my old one. (Stayed too long … just becuz my ancestors made a mistake.)

Get a very warm jacket, and far enough north that there are still fish to catch and critters to snare.

I won’t call wearing suits, talking on the phone, and lying work.

What would happen if politicians hat to work?

When we humans are feeling powerless (usually, we’re right), we often do those things.

When we move somewhere else, for a while we’re relieved. Slowly we realize everywhere has problems.

Makes sense. I can get away with material I know sometimes… but if it’s a different performance, that’s enough to spoil the effect.

Save up a stash of Interesting audiobooks, podcasts for times you’re feeling like it’ll take an hour or more. (Not -too-interesting.) Boring ones once you feel like keeping your eyes closed.

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