Venting thread

[hwhatting]

@raphael @W.E: I don't want to be the old guy who tells how stuff was better in their youth, but it is possible to organize a better rail service in Germany, because we had a good one 40 years ago. I used trains much more than nowadays, but had less of the kind of mayor delays than I experience now, even though I use the train relatively rarely.
The reason is well known; the railways were privatized in the 90s and were both starved of investment and subjected to cost cuttings, which now shows by decayed infrastructure not working anymore and lack of qualified staff, so when we had waves of sick leaves in the past years, there is noone to replace the absent staff (train drivers, signalmen, etc.) and problems pile up.
This was tolerated by several governments, both from the left and the right, who wanted to a) make the railways attractive to private shareholders and b) receive dividends out of the share the government still holds. Everyone (except those who generally don't think public transport is necessary) sees that it can't go on like this, and the railways are another example where past greed and stinginess have come back to bite the current government, requiring money while it doesn't have enough to fill all the holes in other areas.

[Raphael]

@raphael @W.E: I don't want to be the old guy who tells how stuff was better in their youth, but it is possible to organize a better rail service in Germany, because we had a good one 40 years ago. I used trains much more than nowadays, but had less of the kind of mayor delays than I experience now, even though I use the train relatively rarely.
The reason is well known; the railways were privatized in the 90s and were both starved of investment and subjected to cost cuttings, which now shows by decayed infrastructure not working anymore and lack of qualified staff, so when we had waves of sick leaves in the past years, there is noone to replace the absent staff (train drivers, signalmen, etc.) and problems pile up.
This was tolerated by several governments, both from the left and the right, who wanted to a) make the railways attractive to private shareholders and b) receive dividends out of the share the government still holds. Everyone (except those who generally don't think public transport is necessary) sees that it can't go on like this, and the railways are another example where past greed and stinginess have come back to bite the current government, requiring money while it doesn't have enough to fill all the holes in other areas.

Interesting take. Especially given that Germany is still full of people who think that the problem with Deutsche Bahn is that they used to be public.

[Ares Land]

Interesting take. Especially given that Germany is still full of people who think that the problem with Deutsche Bahn is that they used to be public.

The French railways are in a weird, in-between state that's not unlike the German situation. They separated the underlying infrastructure (the actual railways) and the company that runs them; also set things up so that SNCF (the train company) shares could be sold to private investors.
I think things are about similar in Germany.

All in all the move towards privatization had pretty poor results. Similarly, there were a lot of cost-cuttings in the 2000s and the 2010s and generally I remember the train service being better run in the early 2000s. (Before that I was too young to tell!)

[Raphael]

I might have eaten a bit more food for dinner than I should have.

[Kesshin]

I feel like I'm stuck.

More: show

I am a self taught pianist. I taught myself the note names on the piano keys, so I can remember chords, but sheet music wise I have no idea what's happening. I started to learn after someone in my family I was close to died, in order to help with the grief. I eventually learned to improvise, which helped a lot since i now had the ability to lay exactly how I felt... but this is also where the problem lies. My improvisations have been getting more and more similar to each other, to the point where it's like I can't think of anything else to play. I'm taking a class in music theory in the fall, and that will hopefully jostle my style enough to force the similarities out, but I don't even know if that can help. I've been trying to learn new songs by ear, since that's how I started developing my style, but it just doesn't seem fun anymore.

It's almost like my style has been simplified into a caricature of itself, a boiled down, monochrome blob of notes.

I don't know why this is happening... you'd think that I could just play something different, but it's like my fingers keep gravitating towards the same concept. The thing that I keep replaying is usually a waltzy thing(3/4, but sometimes 2/4 or 5/4) with a key of Bb minor, the chord progression chromatically descending from the root. It sounds great, but it's a little grating the 237th time around...
I'll start in like, D minor, trying to improv somewhere else, but it's like fighting against a steadily flooding river. Eventually, I'll do the chord change, and then Bb.
Improv piano is a major coping mechanism of mine, and without getting too into it, playing the same thing over and over makes me feel more stuck than I already do. The whole point of playing is to stop feeling stuck, not amplify it!
It's frustrating having your own fingers disobey you. Maybe it's just me going on autopilot, maybe since I feel stuck I play stuck, I don't know. I can still play songs I already have learned without too many hitches, but if I try to improv a medley of multiple songs, you KNOW something in Bb is gonna jump out.

Am I cursed or something? I should just be able to play what I want! Why does this melody keep reappearing?

[bradrn]

Am I cursed or something? I should just be able to play what I want! Why does this melody keep reappearing?

What it means is this: you’ve gotten to the point where you need to start actively seeking out new things.

Drill yourself on all the different scales, until you can play them without thinking. Learn to read sheet music, so you can more easily learn music beyond what you know. Then find that music and learn to play it. Try to play over new and different chord progressions, to jump out of your comfort zone. Taking a music theory course is a great idea, in that regard. I suggest also finding a piano teacher who can guide you on all this — it will help a lot. Playing in a band is also helpful, and great fun. None of this will be easy, but it’s how you learn.

To be honest I’m not really one to talk here… my drumming also has this problem. The above advice is what I’ve gathered from my teachers, and from my own reflections on how I play. I particularly recall one time that my teacher got me a book with endless lists of slightly different rhythms, and told me to play through them all. I argued at the time — what use would it be? It seemed boring and pointlessly easy. I now realise that the simple ability to play these things isn’t enough: to avoid getting stuck in a rut like you describe, it is necessary to train my muscle memory to play different things without even needing to think about it. But I haven’t done that yet, so I’m still in the stage you describe. (At the moment I have other priorities which get in the way, but I’d still like to focus on improving my playing some day.)

[zompist]

if I try to improv a medley of multiple songs, you KNOW something in Bb is gonna jump out.

Am I cursed or something? I should just be able to play what I want! Why does this melody keep reappearing?

I think it's pretty typical for art. The first struggle is to have a style at all; the second struggle is to not have everything look/sound exacty the same. I notice this with comics artists: it takes them 5 to 10 years to be able to stay on-model, and then if you watch them draw their characters seem to emerge perfectly right out of the pen. Then they draw exactly that way for twenty years, and avoid drawing anything they've never drawn before.

Now for the tough love: if you're not satisfied with all these Bb songs, you have to do some things that aren't initially fun. Brad already mentioned a bunch of them. You have to get back to the struggle stage in order to grow your toolkit.

[Raphael]

Why does it sometimes happen that works of fiction which deal with really long timespans in the lives of their characters - several decades or more - basically make me weep? When that happens, am I, perhaps, weeping for the decades that passed in my own life? I'm not sure about that; I think I remember that, decades ago, when I was a lot younger, works of fiction of that kind already had a very similar impact on me.

[Ares Land]

Why does it sometimes happen that works of fiction which deal with really long timespans in the lives of their characters - several decades or more - basically make me weep? When that happens, am I, perhaps, weeping for the decades that passed in my own life? I'm not sure about that; I think I remember that, decades ago, when I was a lot younger, works of fiction of that kind already had a very similar impact on me.

Or it's just good fiction I don't know if we know why get so involved with good fiction, but we do.

[doctor shark]

I found out that I was getting a Marie Curie grant on 12 February, and I thought it would be fine to then start in Luxembourg on 1 July.

Well... today is 25 June. I still don't have the last two documents I need from my future employer to apply for the residence authorization! Our tentative starting date is now 15 August, but that even seems like wishful thinking at this point!

[Raphael]

Messed up. Sorry to hear.

[Travis B.]

I found out that I was getting a Marie Curie grant on 12 February, and I thought it would be fine to then start in Luxembourg on 1 July.

Well... today is 25 June. I still don't have the last two documents I need from my future employer to apply for the residence authorization! Our tentative starting date is now 15 August, but that even seems like wishful thinking at this point!

Ugh.

[rotting bones]

My roommate says the right side of my face is inflamed. I should go to the hospital. But the last time I did, they lost my insurance information and sent me 4 bills that added up to over $4k for a single routine checkup in which they didn't find anything. I don't know if it's safe to have another medical visit while that fuckup is still being resolved.

[Raphael]

My roommate says the right side of my face is inflamed. I should go to the hospital. But the last time I did, they lost my insurance information and sent me 4 bills that added up to over $4k for a single routine checkup in which they didn't find anything. I don't know if it's safe to have another medical visit while that fuckup is still being resolved.

Good luck.

[rotting bones]

Good luck.

"I don't need luck. I need inspiration. There are no easy answers, you must understand. You've got to think a little, get your head out of the sand..." - A Theory of Justice: The Musical!

... Never mind, thank you.

[Ahzoh]

My mum got laid off again. Seems cursed to always get fired over bs that's not her fault or can't fix.

[Raphael]

My mum got laid off again. Seems cursed to always get fired over bs that's not her fault or can't fix.

Same kept happening to my mum. Sorry to hear.

[Raphael]

Lack of motivation makes Raphael a lethargic boy.

(Then again, at least I have a bit more motivation than an hour ago. An hour ago I probably couldn't have motivated myself to write this post.)

[Travis B.]

My roommate says the right side of my face is inflamed. I should go to the hospital. But the last time I did, they lost my insurance information and sent me 4 bills that added up to over $4k for a single routine checkup in which they didn't find anything. I don't know if it's safe to have another medical visit while that fuckup is still being resolved.

Uck.