Sometimes you get weird synchronicities on the internet. I had just had a minor writing epiphany and had written it down. It goes something like this, "Okay, Buchheit, you know music structure and know the (key, tempo, phrasing, volume, sound presence, etc) that can make a song a hit, an anthem, a summer song, k-pop, etc. Find these keys in story and use them." You might know what I'm talking about, such as a rock anthem starts slow and low and builds to a crescendo and then usually has a small denouement. A summer song starts fast and keeps snappy. Those things (without going into key structure, where the bridge occurs, tempo choice…) I know and you probably do as well. Music is a direct line to emotions. And even knowing this doesn't mean you're immune. Many times I'm watching a movie and I start tearing up and I'm thinking, "Gorram it, they did the fucking music swelling thing again and it got me, this scene isn't that emotionally moving." And then Daniel Hogan tweets a link to Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit done in a major key (in case you don't know, the famous Seattle Alt-Rock sound was basically pop done in a minor key, that was the gimmick and it's what kept me from appreciating it for a decade). Here's the original in case you forgot (which I now recognize as some pretty good music). Notice how you feel different with the different presentations of the same song (this is also the same with the current soundtrack trend of replaying 70's and 80's rock hits at half or third speed to create a nostalgia and "deep thought" feeling). I know some of the levers for story (word choice, phrasing, pacing), but there's something deeper in there that I think I'm missing. I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us. Something about story structure. And I can feel the power of that knowledge by the electric buzz that surrounds it when I get close to the answer.
"As part of Morning Edition's series, What Makes Us Click, here are some words and terms in the online dating lexicon." The words all the cool kids are using (or, in reality, because the news media is reporting on them here are the words that are about to die).
XKCD explain SPECTRE. (Grokked from Dan)
"The Meltdown and Spectre flaws—two related vulnerabilities that enable a wide range of information disclosure from every mainstream processor, with particularly severe flaws for Intel and some ARM chips—were originally revealed privately to chip companies, operating system developers, and cloud computing providers. That private disclosure was scheduled to become public some time next week, enabling these companies to develop (and, in the case of the cloud companies, deploy) suitable patches, workarounds, and mitigations." A little deeper into the technical aspects than what you're probably seeing on the news.
The environmental disaster no one is really discussing as much as they should. "What he's found is a trend in the nutritional quality of grasses that grass-fed cattle (and young cattle destined for grain-heavy feedlots) are eating. Since the mid-90s, levels of crude protein in the plants, which cattle need to grow, have dropped by nearly 20 percent." Our food (not just grasses) is becoming less nutritious. The unintended and unforeseen consequences of our industrialization and the industrialization of our food production.
"The goal is to learn how the Arctic will react when its soil is pushed to the limit."
"Your privilege is showing." Jim Wright on privilege, integration, power, and optimism.
"Last night, the city council in Fort Collins, Colorado, voted to move ahead with a municipal fiber broadband network providing gigabit speeds, two months after the cable industry failed to stop the project." Companies really don't like municipal cable TV and internet (no, really, I have first hand experience here). Why? Because if you knew how cheap and easy it is, you'd rebel against the prices charged. (Grokked from Dan)
"A white supremacist accused of stopping an Amtrak train in Nebraska has been charged with terrorism." Finally. (Grokked from Chuck Wendig)
"More than 200,000 people seek addiction treatment on the phone or online every month. Few of them realize that their pleas for help are a valuable commodity — one that is quietly fought over by those angling to turn a distress signal into cash."
"Roy Moore accuser Tina Johnson lost her home Wednesday in a fire that is now under investigation by the Etowah County Arson Task Force." Gee, why don't women report all the sexual assault in this country? (Grokked from Jim Hines)
"Coyne-McCoy has been training candidates since 2001, but she's a lot busier these days than she was just over a year ago. In 2016, prior to Election Day, just 1,000 women had reached out to Emily's List saying they were interested in running for office. Since Election Day, 25,000 women have reached out to the group. And this year, Emily's List has already trained 2,500 women." Please, dear Brid, educate and groom these women (and all candidates throwing their hat in). This past year many of them were on local elections and (this is just anecdotal stories I'm hearing) most only had their anger at Trump and very little else. Not surprisingly, many didn't make it. Anger is great for political motivation to get you involved and that's great. Please, be involved. But if all you bring is your anger, you're not going to get far. And it's great they're getting training on campaigning because it's not something you pick up along the way (some people do, but you'll see there is some experience in their background that they based their skills on). But they need training on how government actually runs. Some of this should happen before the election (at the very least attend the meetings of the elected body you want to serve on, learn all the issues). A lot can wait until the weekend after the election (how to hire staff, what staff will you need, how do you run an office, how do you propose legislation, get committee seats, etc). There's a lot to learn (fuck, it took me a few years to get the budgeting and appropriations processes down). Hell, just basic Robert's Rules training is needed.
"Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a senior committee member, told the Justice Department they had reason to believe that a former British spy, Christopher Steele, lied to federal authorities about his contacts with reporters regarding information in the dossier, and they urged the department to investigate." Kill the messenger.
"In a move that appeared to have the success of Michael Wolff’s tome Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House firmly in its crosshairs, the organization (WikiLeaks) tweeted out a link to a full PDF of the book in a move that may have constituted copyright infringement." WikiLeaks is not your friend. (Grokked from Matt Staggs)
"White House senior adviser Stephen Miller was booted from the set of CNN’s 'State of the Union' when he refused to leave after his fiery interview with Jake Tapper ended."
"President Trump's legal team has had specific discussions with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team about the legal standard for interviewing a president and the form such an interview could take… The discussions have involved, for example, whether the interview can be written questioning as opposed to in-person questioning." You know, for a "stable genius" and someone who has nothing to hide, they keep acting like they can't trust him and that there's a hellofalotta stuff to hide.
"For a few minutes Sunday night, President Donald Trump claimed his has been an 'enormously consensual' presidency." Uh, yeah.
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