Yeah. Those keys on the piano are E and F. You can see those notes in the sheet music for the title track. Those long rows of notes are a bunch of E’s and F’s.
If you hit the play button in the bottom left corner, you can hear a computer-generated version of the song. Real version here.
I started learning a little about music theory. I’ve been interested for a while, but always thought I wouldn’t be able to understand it. But it’s doable, a little at a time.
And I’ve been going outside more. I spend too much time in front of the computer. It’s nice to have fresh air and read, listen to music, or just take in the surroundings.
Good posture also helps you breathe better, which can help you feel more energized and concentrate better. Your diaphragm doesn’t work right when you sit hunched over, so your breath gets more shallow.
If you ever need to talk a lot for work or some other reason, good posture is essential so your voice sounds good and doesn’t get tired too easily.
And it helps strengthen your core, which is good for balance and other things.
I like his earlier stuff when I’m in the mood for psychological horror. Carrie, The Shining, Cujo, Pet Sematary, The Green Mile.
The Dark Tower wasn’t for me. I agree with the other person who thought it was a slog.
Lisey’s Story is OK. I like the idea of it, but it’s taking me a while to finish it.
The Mr. Mercedes trilogy is a nice, fluffy read if you like detective stories.
Here’s the LA Times article. Archive link here.
You get told it’s just pneumonia, but it keeps coming back for years.
Eventually someone figures it out and says you have mesothelioma. You travel the country for a few years, looking for treatment wherever you can. It costs everything you have.
Somewhere along the way, you have to put down $120,000 in cash for a surgery that gives you a few more years. But your last years are still mostly pain and exhaustion.
I wish my uncle hadn’t died the way he did.
For me, it would have to be something nice, but not so interesting that I want to stay awake (Ariadne auf Naxos). Or something I’ve heard a million times (The Magic Flute).
Beethoven has always been calming for me, so maybe Fidelio too.
If you’re looking for beautiful music, maybe Tosca or Rusalka.
There are others that I wouldn’t necessarily fall asleep to, like Don Carlo, Pagliacci, Rigoletto, or La Traviata. This is a pretty good list of some of the best known operas.
Three months isn’t a lot of time, so I would talk to a lawyer sooner rather than later. Google employment lawyers in your area, or “attorney referral service [your state].” You should be able to get a free consultation.
Some lawyers may be able to tell you right away if they’ll take your case, but it may take a little time. And you may want to get more than one opinion. If you have any documents, round those up and hang onto them.
Both ways can work. Looking up words, and trying to guess the meaning from context. I use both, depending on my mood and the situation.
I like trying to guess the meaning because you have to think things through. That helps you remember the answer. Doesn’t matter if you got it right or wrong. It’s not always easy, but it gets better with practice.
You can usually look at the situation and narrow it down to a few possibilities. If my guess seems decent enough to get the gist, I keep going. Usually, you’ll find something that helps you figure out if you were right.
If I see a word several times, I usually look it up. Otherwise, it’s probably not that important (unless I happen to be curious).
And if I look up a word and forget it, no big deal. Happens all the time. I’ll either come across it again, or it wasn’t that important.
It can be slow going, no matter what option you choose. But if you keep at it, you can get to a point where you rarely have to look things up.
Maybe it depends on what you watch. I use Youtube for music (only things that I search for) and sometimes live streams of an owl nest or something like that.
If I stick to that, the recommendations are sort of OK. Usually stuff I watched before. Little to no clickbait or random topics.
I clicked on one reaction video to a song I listened to just to see what would happen. The recommendations turned into like 90% reaction videos, plus a bunch of topics I’ve never shown any interest in. U.S. politics, the death penalty in Japan, gaming, Brexit, some Christian hymns, and brand new videos on random topics.
Yeah, it’s kind of like eating raw flour. But extremely bland and weirdly minerally. Still better than kibble.
And then there’s the different ways to connect verbs in English.
There aren’t rules for that, as far as I know. Just very fuzzy guidelines at best. And word stress is pretty random too. Both of those things can be tricky for non-native speakers.
Gender often comes along with cases, which basically show you what role a noun is playing in a sentence. For example, is someone doing something, or is something being done to them. That lets you change the word order and keep the same meaning. You can emphasize different parts of the sentence, or just be more flexible with how you say things.
Here’s an example from German:
In English, the meaning changes when you change the word order.
Languages do fine with genders and without. They’re just different systems that happened to evolve over time. And languages can even change. English used to have 3 genders, but they disappeared hundreds of years ago. Instead of having like 12 different ways to say “the,” we just have one, thanks to the Vikings and the Norman invaders.
The ones that interest you the most will be easiest to stick with. I find things just through my general interests and poking around.
Favorite music genre? Listen to bands from different countries and see how they sound. TV shows, movies, and documentaries from other countries are another big one. Listen to the original language, see if it sounds interesting, maybe read a little about it.
Or maybe you know someone who you’d like to be able to talk with in their language. It could be anything. Pick one or two things to try and you’ll get a feel for what you like.
Oh yeah, the yellow European style butter was a revelation when I found out about it. It tastes way better and is less watery than the pale American butter.
I never heard of filtered milk. Milk is milk for the most part, but once I made the mistake of buying it on clearance. Grabbed it without looking because the price for a normal gallon freaked me out. It wasn’t spoiled, but it was super watery and had a weird color.
Some people do, yeah. I’ve always used stainless steel cause it’s what I had. Takes a little practice to get it to not stick, but after that it’s fine. I heat the empty pan on medium, medium high until it’s pretty hot. If you add a drop of water, it should bead up and roll. Then add the oil, wait until it shimmers, and add the eggs.
Enameled cast iron is nice too. It’s non-stick and not as heavy as a regular cast iron.
All your basic staples: salt, flour, oil, sugar, pasta, pasta, milk, eggs
It depends. Cheap salt is just fine. And flour, unless you’re into baking. But some things can make a difference and you don’t necessarily have to pay a lot more for it.
Pasta, for example. Bronze cut pasta absorbs sauce a lot better than “normal” pasta. It looks dull, rough, and pale as opposed to shiny and smooth. It usually only costs a buck or two more. I find it’s a big step up taste and texture-wise.
Or butter. The ones without natural flavor taste better. Sometimes it’s the store brand that doesn’t have added flavor.
And eggs. Orange yolks are way better than the pale yellow ones. But those you do have to shell out for.
It’s a lot, but the sandwiches are huge. NYC is the only place I’ve been where the sandwiches are usually big enough for 2-3 people.
It’s also one of the cheaper cities to eat as a tourist. No need for restaurants, just grab a sandwich that lasts all day. Or cheap street food, or something from a hole in the wall. I love it there.