General Discussion Thread

[Róisín]

Noodles: that's wonderful!

Jhev: years ago I was helping to run a project restoring and revegetating the Athelstone Wildflower Garden, which at that point had been neglected for decades, and one of the delights of working there was that all day Sunday the opera singer who lived over the road from the park would practise. Sometimes just scales, sometimes whole arias. It was amazing. You could hear her half a mile into the park, and it used to really lift the hearts of the volunteers as we struggled to remove the woody weeds.

[OwlsG0]

Noodles: that's wonderful!

Jhev: years ago I was helping to run a project restoring and revegetating the Athelstone Wildflower Garden, which at that point had been neglected for decades, and one of the delights of working there was that all day Sunday the opera singer who lived over the road from the park would practise. Sometimes just scales, sometimes whole arias. It was amazing. You could hear her half a mile into the park, and it used to really lift the hearts of the volunteers as we struggled to remove the woody weeds.

Poetic as these surprise opera experiences are, I think my immediate reaction upon hearing a disembodied opera being sung at me from some unknown place would be to reach for a shovel or a holy book; whichever was closest.

[Kelpie]

Poetic as these surprise opera experiences are, I think my immediate reaction upon hearing a disembodied opera being sung at me from some unknown place would be to reach for a shovel or a holy book; whichever was closest.

My immediate thought was of all of the stories I'd read where hearing random music in the woods=kidnapped by fairies and forced to dance for eternity. Especially since I'd already seen some weird smudgy thing in these woods a couple months prior.

[Juniper]

Hmmm, looks like I missed my forum-aversary by a few days, sooo happy belated forum-aversary to me

[thorny]

Especially since I'd already seen some weird smudgy thing in these woods a couple months prior.

Not necessarily what you saw, but what your description made me think of: An unexpected reflective mylar balloon snagged on some brush can look really weird. Especially the silver ones with no bright color of their own to help indicate what they are, but which just reflect the colors around them from a half-deflated ripply surface, moving in response to the wind.

I spent a few minutes very cautiously sneaking up on one once, until I got close enough to figure out what it was.

[Noodles]

aw dang I missed my second forumversary while on hiatus! I first joined in february 2015.

[Purple Wyrm]

So, ever had one of those weekends where you make all kinds of plans on Friday night and on Monday morning you realise you haven't done any of them?

[Róisín]

Yeah, all too often. Generally when my plans are hijacked by unexpected events.

[FrogEater]

Isn't that the most accurate definition of a weekend ? Works well for holidays, too - and retirement, probably.

[Kelpie]

Not necessarily what you saw, but what your description made me think of: An unexpected reflective mylar balloon snagged on some brush can look really weird. Especially the silver ones with no bright color of their own to help indicate what they are, but which just reflect the colors around them from a half-deflated ripply surface, moving in response to the wind.

I spent a few minutes very cautiously sneaking up on one once, until I got close enough to figure out what it was.

Yeah, smudgy thing I saw looked literally like a smudge of gray paint that darted behind a riverbank when I looked directly at it. It was weird. But I did once stare intently at a mylar balloon that was floating away around sunset for like ten minutes since it looked so weird, so yes, mylar balloons are cryptids confirmed.

So, ever had one of those weekends where you make all kinds of plans on Friday night and on Monday morning you realise you haven't done any of them?

Yep, this weekend, last weekend, the weekend before that....

[Róisín]

Yeah, retirement too.

[Purple Wyrm]

I was quite disappointed in myself, because I spent pretty much the entire weekend surfing the net and doing nothing constructive. But I suppose I might have needed a weekend just doing nothing.

Actually I did do at least one thing. A friend and I have been working (slowly) on a podcast. Over the last few weeks I dropped hints that the first episode was about ready to go, and on Saturday I posted an audio file to my Blog as a sneak preview.

It was not the podcast

(Be warned, slightly not safe work)

[thorny]

So, ever had one of those weekends where you make all kinds of plans on Friday night and on Monday morning you realise you haven't done any of them?

Hey, I've had entire weeks like that.

[Róisín]

Wyrm, that is extremely odd.

[Purple Wyrm]

Wyrm, that is extremely odd.

That was the intention!