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    1. Interest in a weekly discussion thread?

      This idea came to me last night when I was reading the post over on ~movies asking a similar question. I'm an avid user of ~music and I like to participate in the weekly "what have you been...

      This idea came to me last night when I was reading the post over on ~movies asking a similar question. I'm an avid user of ~music and I like to participate in the weekly "what have you been listening to" threads along with the Listening Club when possible, and I was wondering if something similar could be applied to another media group, and since I love anime and manga, my first thought was this one.

      Basically my questions here are:

      Would a weekly "what have you been reading/watching" thread be something you would participate in?

      Secondly:

      Would you prefer it be something more casual-based, or would you prefer it to be people writing reviews for things they've been viewing?

      I think that one of the ways to spur more interest in media groups is weekly/monthly/whatever interval discussion threads and I'd also just personally like to see what other people here are thinking of the things they're currently watching or reading.

      11 votes
    2. ~music Listening Club 9 - The Man Machine

      Sup yall, we're here in week 9! It's time for another classic record discussion: Kraftwerk's The Man Machine! (or Die Mensch-Maschine) Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your...

      Sup yall, we're here in week 9! It's time for another classic record discussion: Kraftwerk's The Man Machine! (or Die Mensch-Maschine)

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with The Man Machine. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

      Don't forget to nominate and vote for next week's obscure record in response to this comment! Feel free to do something fun, dumb, or special in celebration of our tenth week!

      8 votes
    3. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

      14 votes
    4. ~music Listening Club 8 - Exuma

      Hello all you good people, week 8 it is! Here we've got this week's user-voted record: Exuma by Exuma! Taking @leech's original pitch: I think it's probably one of the most legendary spiritual...

      Hello all you good people, week 8 it is! Here we've got this week's user-voted record: Exuma by Exuma!

      Taking @leech's original pitch:

      I think it's probably one of the most legendary spiritual albums recorded, a look into some Junkanoo, Carnival, and Calypso music with a raw, ecstatic energy behind each song. His music is truly unique and nothing has quite reached it.
      The story of Exuma's music is really captivating and later on in his career he toured with some big names

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Exuma. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on YouTube here or purchased physically here.

      8 votes
    5. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      17 votes
    6. Orkenfall

      This is just a fun little part of a story I put together a little while ago. Might go somewhere later, but probably not. The symbols looking like: [^1] are footnote links. (Pandoc's format, a kind...

      This is just a fun little part of a story I put together a little while ago. Might go somewhere later, but probably not.

      The symbols looking like: [^1] are footnote links. (Pandoc's format, a kind of extended Markdown).

      Edit: It may be easy to read as rendered html


      A leaf was slowly falling towards their face.

      It was golden, three-tongued, and burning with fire.

      Last one wasn't hyperbole.

      Unfortunately.

      It was all sort of their fault.

      But then, everything always was.

      That's why everyone called them Slag.

      The trees hadn't always been on fire, but they had been on fire before.

      That had been their fault too.

      Being the smallest Ork in a tiny Orkin village, reporting to a tiny Orkin warlord who somehow believed he had the brass balls of a god, Slag wasn't exactly well cared for.

      Their name was their job. They were an Ork, after all.

      The blacksmith beat the metal, made the weapons. Tossed the slag in a pile.

      Molten metal twisted and smouldered, and Slag would grab it by the handful, and toss it into a cauldron of water, and when that was full, kick it down the hill into the dumpsite.

      When the dumpsite was full, Slag would summon the demon, who would demand some strange price, then vanish with the lot.

      The demon's prices weren't helping their standing with the rest of the tribe.

      Like today.

      Slag craned their neck, looking up at the red fiery, and rather horned creature, "Say again?"

      The deep earth-rumbling voice laughed, "I want you to sing! Sing like a girl! Like a tiny little human girl!"

      Slag winced, "I am a girl, demon." [^1]

      The creature blinked in surprise, "You? Little squelchling?"

      Slag shrugged, "I'm a girl. I don't got tits... I ain't pretty. But I am."

      The demon winced, "Figure out which god cursed you little girl... After you sing."

      Singing? An Ork?

      Orkcakes.

      The demon would go, and she'd be blamed there was no room in the dump, and then the Orklord would be in her face. Again.

      Then threaten to marry her to his son. Again.

      She blanched.

      The demon laughed, "Last chance, little orkling."

      She coughed nervously, and then a squeaking voice emerged, singing a quiet rhyme she'd overheard one day.

      Something about stars and diamonds. Humans were weird. [^2]

      Unfortunately, her voice was less like a starlet, and more like diamonds scraping across sandglass.

      The demon shreiked and disappeared back into their realm.

      Without the slag.

      She winced, glancing towards the village, "Orkcakes."


      A hand like iron clasped her head, "Slag."

      She smiled weakly up at her father, and at his one eyes staring out from a bushy grey beard. [^3]

      The warrior released her and spoke gruffly, "Was that you singing, again?" [^4]

      She blushed, looking down in shame, "The demon's price."

      The old man groaned and reached for a whip on the wall, "Please tell me he took the slag."

      "I don't lie, father." She answered. [^5]

      He winced and glared at the doorway, unravelling the whip, preparing to hit the next person who came in. "Go to you room, Slag."

      "It's my honour." She crossed her arms, pretending not to notice that her chest didn't show any bigger, "I want to defend it."

      "Now, Slag." He growled through his tusks.

      She turned and moped away into her bedroom.

      She couldn't fight, all she could do was listen to the glorious blood-curling screams as the emissaries dies. [^6]

      Slag picked some metal from beneath her fingernails and flung it into the wall, pinning a fly by one wing. [^7]

      It wasn't fair.

      She wanted a real fight.

      Why did boys get all the fun?

      The guts and the murder?

      All she got was... Slag.

      An axe blade broke through her wall briefly, before being pulled back quickly, followed by a strangled sound.

      She rolled her eyes and flopped onto her straw bed, staring at the ceiling tiredly.

      Humans made life look so simple.

      Find a man, get pregnant, take care of the litter until you died.

      Just cooking, singing and cleaning.

      She licked the edge of her tusk, yawning. This was going to be another, she must get married because she's useless argument with the Orklord. Which would inevitable lead to my son is too stupid, fat and ugly to possibly get married, and then... Ew.

      She didn't want the bastard.

      He certainly wanted her though, all drooling and slurping.

      She wanted to be a Knight. [^8]

      That was it. All of it. Her only dream.

      A glorious warrior, protecting the weak, hunting the monsters that pray on people in the dark. [^9]

      Her sword would have a name, and glow with power when evil was near. [^10]

      She would yell out it's name, and light up the dark.

      Then she'd kill the bad guy, cut off his head, and ride home with it, and stake it to her wall. [^11]


      [^1]: Really? Wow. Never would have guessed... But orks are always hard to apply gender to.

      [^2]: Understatement. What other species looks around themselves in wonder and decides blowing stuff up is the best way to get something out of the ground?

      [^3]: Stories on exactly how he lost his eye vary. Most involve a dragon, a bet, and a gallon ale. And perhaps a wet, old sock.

      [^4]: Oh gods. She'd tried to sing before? Had birds died?

      [^5]: Not strictly true. She did lie, but only about unimportant stuff. Like what she wanted for dinner. Or what job she wished she had. Or who she wanted to marry. Nothing big.

      [^6]: It's an Orkin thing. Send some messenger to die when your upset with your opponent, and then turn up when their bloodlust was sated. Good way to not die.

      [^7]: She was a practiced hand at this now. Sociopath, or bored teenager? Let the public decide! Blast her in this week's Orks magazine!

      [^8]: ... Should someone tell her human knights usually hunt down orks?

      [^9]: So... Hungry orks. Seriously. Someone should tell her.

      [^10]: So, it would always be lit up. Because you're on Ork, girl.

      [^11]: Oh geeze. Are you the hero, or the villain, Slag?

      4 votes
    7. ~music Listening Club 7 - Highway 61 Revisited

      Hi folks, sorry for the late post. @Whom is sick and wasn't able to post this today so she asked me to do it. Hello all you good people, here we are in week number 7! It's time for another classic...

      Hi folks, sorry for the late post. @Whom is sick and wasn't able to post this today so she asked me to do it.

      Hello all you good people, here we are in week number 7! It's time for another classic record discussion: Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited!

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Highway 61 Revisited. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

      Don't forget to nominate and vote for next week's obscure record in response to this comment!

      9 votes
    8. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      25 votes
    9. Self-directed learners of programming, sysadmin topics and so on: what is your approach to material that is too advanced?

      First post: hello Tildeans! In fairness, the title question no doubt applies to those on traditional courses/paths too - such is software. Anyway -- in my experience, reading technical material...

      First post: hello Tildeans!

      In fairness, the title question no doubt applies to those on traditional courses/paths too - such is software.

      Anyway -- in my experience, reading technical material which is too advanced is without a doubt the most intellectually confusing, emotionally damaging, and personally rewarding part of learning about software development. How about you?

      I started basically from scratch last September without any knowledge about programming or Linux except a very brief stint in 2010. I'm a somewhat disorganised person (to say the least), and my learning habits have reflected that: I've followed my nose and impulse, reading pretty much whatever I've felt like. But I've ended up with a presumably ridiculous ratio of hours reading about code vs hours actually coding.

      I'm a lazy person, so I'd rather sit and struggle with something I am definitely not ready to understand than go sit in front of a REPL, working from the ABCs til I can do the A-Zs. But the longer I look into things, and the more I play, the more I realise how much coding is like an instrument -- you really do have to just sit down and practice your damn scales! My experiences also support the argument for that 'T-shape' style of mastery (learn one thing very well, then branch). 20-odd Project Euler problems in a week or two has taught me far more than several months half-reading or half-listening to online material.

      (Though, I think my 'inverse-T' approach simply has it's own set of trade-offs, rather than being plainly weaker, but that's for another discussion...)

      The most ridiculous thing about this field is that there is no end to things you've never heard of: and I hate not having heard of things. My usual style when getting into a new obsession is to read very widely, but it feels like this is at best wasted effort here, if not actively counter-productive. It takes just a few clicks through HackerNews (or say, a read of some of the comments on Systems Programming topics) to find a paragraph that is entirely impenetrable to me. Man, that pisses me off. I think maybe as an ego-defense thing, I've always tried to get a 'gist' of the conversation or topic, but I reckon now this probably just breeds half-formed misunderstandings at best (Alexander Pope, "a little learning is a dangerous thing" etc etc).

      Over the past couple months I've made far more visible progress than in any before, and I think a large part of that is learning how to admit when I am completely unable to access some sentences written in English, and how that's totally fine. My path is a lot clearer, and a visceral notion of sub-goals and stages of learning is a really nice thing to have. It's very relaxing to skim a blog post that goes completely over my head and think 'NBD'.

      So, what are your experiences? Blocked by hubris/a short attention span like me? Or perhaps the opposite problem - finding you could grasp way more than you gave yourself credit for, after sticking too long with what you already knew? (These questions definitely intersect with things like perfectionism and imposter syndrome.)

      I'm really curious to hear how you've dealt with things you feel you 'should' understand -- or how you manage the sheer volume of potentially-useful information out there (RSS, Pocket, something else?). Thanks for reading.

      14 votes
    10. ~music Listening Club 6 - Postcards

      Week six it is! This week we focus on another user-voted record: Postcards by Meadowlark. Pulling @Gyrfalcon's original nomination: I'm going to suggest Postcards by Meadowlark again. I'm not...

      Week six it is! This week we focus on another user-voted record: Postcards by Meadowlark.

      Pulling @Gyrfalcon's original nomination:

      I'm going to suggest Postcards by Meadowlark again. I'm not great at describing why music is good, so I will just leave the music video of the title track.

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the band, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Postcards. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and listen / comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

      4 votes
    11. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      12 votes
    12. A hopefully non-spammy experiment in public self-improvement

      I made an embarrassingly verbose post yesterday attempting to put into words and seek advice on difficulties in executing sustained steps towards building a future. It's something I've struggled...

      I made an embarrassingly verbose post yesterday attempting to put into words and seek advice on difficulties in executing sustained steps towards building a future. It's something I've struggled with all my life, coasting along, with the mirage of action towards goals forever ahead, always tomorrow, or next week, or when I get home. I think Pink Floyd wrote something about missing the starting gun.

      (...Goddamn I haven't listened to Pink Floyd in years. That's some good stuff right there.)

      Anyway reading and replying to the (much appreciated) comments from you lovely people got me thinking and, frankly, a little bit motivated to be an agent for some change. However something I've learned to notice by now is that that initial drive tends to have a nauseatingly short half-life. So how can we regularly stir things up to keep the reaction going?

      So here's what I'm thinking: Starting a short weekly post in ~talk detailing what I've worked on or otherwise accomplished (or not accomplished) from Monday to Sunday open to input, encouragement or criticism. Actually, if other people would be interested in committing to something like this I'd almost prefer to make it a public thing where people (including myself) can log their weekly progress in the comments of a thread dedicated to such a thing.

      Obviously this is a bit rough around the edges so I'll think about it this week and pending suggestions or objection will probably put the first one up next Sunday or Monday.

      I think this might be a Neat Thing, yeah?

      4 votes
    13. ~music Listening Club 5 - A Love Supreme

      Hi everyone, glad to see you here in week number 5! It's time for another classic record discussion: John Coltrane's A Love Supreme! Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your...

      Hi everyone, glad to see you here in week number 5! It's time for another classic record discussion: John Coltrane's A Love Supreme!

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with A Love Supreme. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

      Don't forget to nominate and vote for next week's obscure record in response to this comment!

      12 votes
    14. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      22 votes
    15. What's your favorite metal album right now?

      Mine is Epica - The Divine Conspiracy, been listening to it every day for the past week as I fall asleep. You might not think metal works as sleep-music, but it does for me haha :) Here's a song...

      Mine is Epica - The Divine Conspiracy, been listening to it every day for the past week as I fall asleep. You might not think metal works as sleep-music, but it does for me haha :)

      Here's a song off of the album https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRR-eLW1lXw

      8 votes
    16. ~music Listening Club 4 - Weather Systems

      Welcome to week four! This week we focus on another user-voted record: Weather Systems by Anathema. Puling @deciduous' original pitch : Weather Systems is an interesting album to me because it is...

      Welcome to week four! This week we focus on another user-voted record: Weather Systems by Anathema.

      Puling @deciduous' original pitch :

      Weather Systems is an interesting album to me because it is both immediately catchy, but also very dense. It was specifically created to be an emotional experience that required engagement by the listener and bot does it deliver on that front. Each song flows well into the next and has a different a unique emotional resonance. "Lightning Song" is intense in a way few other songs are and "The Beginning and the End" is one of my favorite tracks ever for its fantastic piano riff that carries throughout the song. If you're at all into post or prog rock, this album is perfect for you.

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the band, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Weather Systems. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and listen / comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

      7 votes
    17. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      11 votes
    18. ~music Listening Club 3 - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

      Week three, everyone! Last week's obscure record pick went well, and here we are with another classic record discussion: Wu-Tang Clan's Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)! Here's the place to discuss...

      Week three, everyone! Last week's obscure record pick went well, and here we are with another classic record discussion: Wu-Tang Clan's Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)!

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with 36 Chambers. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

      Don't forget to nominate and vote for next week's obscure record in response to this comment!

      14 votes
    19. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      13 votes
    20. ~music Listening Club 2 - Dancing Time

      The second week of our listening club is here already! This week we focus on our first user-voted obscure record: Dancing Time, the Best of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77. Here is...

      The second week of our listening club is here already! This week we focus on our first user-voted obscure record: Dancing Time, the Best of Eastern Nigeria's Afro Rock Exponents 1973-77.

      Here is the pitch given by @arghdos :

      I'll nominate The Funkees': Dancing Time. This is some of the best afro-funk that has made it's way to the west. Bandcamp had a great feature on the Funkees a few years ago, they started as a band right at the end of the Nigerian civil war, and became defining proponents of Nigerian funk (along with the Hykkers, BLO, etc.) in the shadow the the giant in the room (i.e., Fela). They were much more influenced by sounds like James Brown and Santana (e.g., check out this ridiculously good cover of War's Slippin' Into Darkness), and present an entirely different side of mid-70's Nigerian music. In 1973, they moved to London and released two albums under John Peel before disbanding under internal strife in 1977. This album collects all their released Nigerian 45's with the best of the London recorded material.

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the band, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with Dancing Time. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.

      16 votes
    21. What have you been listening to this week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others'...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      14 votes
    22. Podcasts recommendations for high performance mindset / habits

      Inspired by @Marszalot 's topic about humor podcasts I would like to see you guys have any good recommendations about high performance mindset topic. Recently I stumbled across Cindra Kamphoff's...

      Inspired by @Marszalot 's topic about humor podcasts I would like to see you guys have any good recommendations about high performance mindset topic.

      Recently I stumbled across Cindra Kamphoff's podcast at Spotify and I've been enjoying it a lot. Most of them are short, which suits very well my time to walk from home to the office (20 to 30 minutes), but it's weekly, so I'm searching for more sources to listen about high performance mindset / habits.

      6 votes
    23. ~music Listening Club 1 - OK Computer

      Here it is, the first album of our listening club: OK Computer by Radiohead. This is the first of the odd week classic-focused posts, and you get get further details on this project here. I'll...

      Here it is, the first album of our listening club: OK Computer by Radiohead. This is the first of the odd week classic-focused posts, and you get get further details on this project here. I'll stop spamming ~music with posts about this now, we'll only have one a week from here on out.

      Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the band, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with OK Computer. Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!

      If you'd like to stream the album, it can be found on most streaming platforms here.

      --

      Vote on next week's album here, we currently have a 7 way tie that needs to be broken!

      27 votes
    24. ~music Listening Club 0 - Outline and Prep

      Alright, so in the ideas thread, several of you expressed that you'd like / it would be more active if we went for a listening club that goes for something more general. As I think ~music is in a...

      Alright, so in the ideas thread, several of you expressed that you'd like / it would be more active if we went for a listening club that goes for something more general. As I think ~music is in a bit of a rough spot right now and needs a little more to bind it together, I'm going to try and have a bit of a hybrid solution that can hopefully be interesting for a lot of us.

      Again, the idea is to come together and listen to the same record each week, discussing our thoughts on that album over the course of that week in these threads. For now, let's make our goal to build a community and become familiar with the thoughts, tastes, and musical histories of each other!

      For every odd numbered week, we will listen to an acclaimed or important album of some kind that will hopefully have far-reaching appeal. I'm going to exercise my own judgement in picking these out of the qualifying albums, but expect them to be the OK Computers, A Love Supremes, and Illmatics of the world. If and when we reach a point where we've exhausted too many of these classics, we can restructure or retire this listening club.

      For every even numbered week, we will listen to a more obscure record as voted on by the participants of the thread. For an initial guide, as stolen from @Eva, we will define "obscure" simply as not being certified Gold (or anything higher, of course). This is of course a very loose definition of the term, but it's at least a concrete starting place. As ~ gives us a raw vote count, we will do this through voting on comments. All nominations must be made as a reply to my top level comment. Everything else will be ignored, and this will help keep things organized once this voting occurs on a thread that's dedicated to its own week's record. If it becomes necessary, we can vote on an external platform.

      I'm open to suggestions on how to change this process, but let's try to run it like this for a little bit. I don't want to get caught in that loop where you have so many tweaks and find so many flaws that you don't end up doing anything at all.

      The first thread will be posted tomorrow (Thursday the 21st here) and will continue on from there weekly.

      When we start our first record, feel free to listen, comment, and vote throughout the week. ~ gives us an opportunity to bump things and keep discussion going for a bit longer than Reddit, so let's take advantage of that where we can.

      16 votes
    25. ~music Listening Clubs: Ideas + Planning

      Okay everyone, so with the grand total of one response (and being informed that it's apparently been discussed before) saying there's interest in setting up a listening club, I'm going to try and...

      Okay everyone, so with the grand total of one response (and being informed that it's apparently been discussed before) saying there's interest in setting up a listening club, I'm going to try and get something going. Even if it's just a few of us, it seems like a fun thing to me.

      For anyone that doesn't know, a listening club is pretty much what it sounds like, we choose an album and all listen to it over the course of the week, with discussion on it occurring in the weekly threads. Over the club's length, the idea is generally to better understand the subject of the club, usually being a genre, movement, or era.

      There's a few ways to go about deciding what to listen for these. We could go by outside lists, allow users running listening clubs to curate their own listening lists (my preferred method just because it's so easy to set up), or vote every week for the next record. The last option seems the most natural, but also requires a certain level of community involvement that may not be reliable, and it gets a little bit awkward before the hierarchy system is running / before we have a trust system or community moderators.

      So, what do you guys think? How would you like to see these organized? What should we start with, since a general "all music" listening club doesn't seem quite right? Do you want to participate in these at all? I'm willing to manage anything yall want to do, but I would personally love to do user-curated ones and run my own hip hop essentials club. Of course, that requires trusting an individual to do their own thing, which may not be where we want to go...up to all of you.

      12 votes
    26. What have you been listening to this week?

      We're at roughly 7 days since the last weekly thread, so here's another! Imo we should have more regular threads like these, if anyone has ideas then drop them here! Personally I like the idea of...

      We're at roughly 7 days since the last weekly thread, so here's another! Imo we should have more regular threads like these, if anyone has ideas then drop them here! Personally I like the idea of doing "listening clubs," where we choose an album for the week, all listen to it, and have a regular discussion thread for every week. If there's any interest, I would love to run a hip hop focused one, though I could definitely do a lot of other genres if the desire was there. Anyway, drop a comment if anything like that sounds appealing to you!

      Shamelessly copying my own prompt for this one:

      --

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      12 votes
    27. What have you been listening to this week?

      hey everybody, looks like it's been NINE whole days since the last one so here comes this week's. also, sorry for not commenting in the last one — i'm garbage :) if you ever notice it's been a...

      hey everybody, looks like it's been NINE whole days since the last one so here comes this week's. also, sorry for not commenting in the last one — i'm garbage :)

      if you ever notice it's been a week or so and nobody's posted one, feel free to post! just steal the description from the last one (credit to @whom for writing it in the first place) and post away.


      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      13 votes
    28. Suicide, and the way we talk about it

      Last night before bed, I was posting about some books that I really liked. One of them is called Stay: A History of Suicide & The Philosophies Against It. Another person noted that it sounded...

      Last night before bed, I was posting about some books that I really liked. One of them is called Stay: A History of Suicide & The Philosophies Against It. Another person noted that it sounded interesting, and I started to reply to that user. I got about a paragraph in before stepping back and thinking, "this isn't something I should write here," and deleting everything.

      This morning, I rolled over and checked my phone. Anthony Bourdain, died by suicide at 61.. This hurts. I loved Bourdain, his work for years was to broaden our cultural awareness and open us up to new worlds. He was, in many ways, a tangible Star Trek. His death will be mourned by thousands, and that he was taken by suicide will be considered by many, many, other people with suicidal thoughts.

      Suicide spreads as a contagion - it can be looked on almost epidemiologically. The way that we talk about suicide is... Telling. It's something that we try to avoid talking about, despite us almost all knowing someone who has died by suicide.

      I have worked in mental health for several years and in high acuity settings the past year. I work with people experiencing suicidal ideation every single day. It is often my job to talk around what I consider to be a monster that lives in our heads. To try and convince or guide people away from their monster and take the day for themselves. Some of the people I've worked with have ideation only, sometimes they have had as many as two dozen hospital-resulting attempts in their history. This work is stressful, it's draining. It's very meaningful, especially when change or at least the flash of change is present. It hurts, too, when it isn't enough.

      A big part of our education attempts is to be able to talk about the monster. It isn't easy for someone experiencing suicidal ideation to talk about it. There are fears that they will be seen as attention seeking - they are! It is a just thing to seek attention when you feel that you're losing the battle. There are fears that they won't be taken seriously - and often they are not. We minimize our problems to bad days or bad weeks or bad years. We say, "Just get over it," and sometimes people simply do not have the capacity to do it by themselves.

      We would never, ever, tell someone with a broken arm to get over it without treatment. We would never, ever, tell someone with a bone protruding from their leg that they were just looking for some attention. And yet, this is how we approach mental health.

      I have been suicidal myself, somewhere in the haze of depression that clung to me for about five years. Even as I write this, I feel the urge to minimize it and say, "but never to the severity of those I've worked with." Simultaneously minimizing my own experience and serving to stigmatize those that I serve. The monster's power lies in its language. The more we refuse to talk about it, the more we isolate, the more control it has.

      I went to counseling for sixteen weeks, and was only minimally invested. It took me another two years after having left counseling to start using the tools. A big part of my own ability to hold on was the book, Stay, because of its humanistic approach to prevention, one that does not rely on religion. An unfortunate thing about working in mental health is that I now understand what it is to plant a seed and not know if it will grow or not.

      Anyway, I wanted to write something about this when I saw the news this morning. One of the major themes of Stay is that suicide is theft not just from your friends and family, but from yourself. I have not felt suicidal or depressed for several years, and I can say that this theft would have been true. Except it doesn't include just my friends or family, but the people that I've interacted with and helped with similar thinking styles along the way.

      I encourage you, if you think a friend or colleague is struggling, ask the questions. "How are you feeling today?" You never know how this might help. Do you feel like someone you know might be suicidal? Ask the question. Asking someone if they are feeling suicidal is not a significant trigger that may cause them to commit - though this fear often stops us from asking. Consider, they live with the monster every day, how welcome it must be to have someone else recognize it?

      I will leave off with Hamlet's Soliloquy. I have never been huge on Shakespeare, lacking time to read. I read this as well in Stay, and now I listen to it frequently. I even had the opportunity to use it in a Group I lead the other day.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYZHb2xo0OI

      20 votes
    29. What have you been listening to this week?

      Looks like it's been about a week since @Flashynuff's post, so I figured I would make one for this week. As seems to be tradition, I'm going to borrow @Whom's description :) What have you been...

      Looks like it's been about a week since @Flashynuff's post, so I figured I would make one for this week. As seems to be tradition, I'm going to borrow @Whom's description :)

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      13 votes
    30. What have you been listening to this week?

      It looks like it's been about a week since the last one, so I'll go ahead and post another! @Whom, your post description was great so I'll just borrow that :) What have you been listening to this...

      It looks like it's been about a week since the last one, so I'll go ahead and post another! @Whom, your post description was great so I'll just borrow that :)

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something!

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      35 votes
    31. What Have You Been Listening To This Week?

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Maybe we can make these threads a thing here. Feel free to give...

      What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! Maybe we can make these threads a thing here.

      Feel free to give recs or dicuss anything about each others' listening habits.

      You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

      http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

      15 votes