I gave two conference papers in the last month, both in a fairly new field to me, having never attended a conference before. I got good responses and lots of encouraging feedback.
I know there are some R Scott Bakker fans on here, and I was thinking recently about the Second Darkness series. Rot13d for spoilers:
Vg'f n funzr gur pbafhyg ner rivy. Vs gurl jrera'g fb pbzzvggrq gb rivy npgf, gurl pbhyq ratvarre n jnl gb tvir rirelbar n unccl raqvat.
Jr ner gbyq gung fbepreref ner qnzarq, naq gung gur hygvzngr tbny bs gur Vapubebv vf gb erqhpr gur ahzore bs yvivat fbhyf ba gur cynarg gb srjre guna 144,00 va beqre gb frny gur cynarg sebz gur Bhgfvqr naq rfpncr qnzangvba. Gur Pbafhyg pbhyq erpehvg nf znal fbepreref nf cbffvoyr, genva gurz gb terng cbjre naq gura rkgraq gurve yvsrfcnaf jvgu gurve Grxar, juvyr hfvat gurve vasyhrapr gb zbir gur phygherf bs gur jbeyq gbjneqf n zber uhznar naq pvivyvmrq zbenyvgl (be, tvira gung gurer ner nccneragyl jnlf gb trg qngn ba ubj gb orpbzr fnirq be qnzarq, ng yrnfg gbjneqf n fbpvrgl gung vf uvtuyl rssrpgvir ng qvfpbhentvat qnzavat npgf). Bapr n fhssvpvrag ahzore bs fbepreref (fbzrjurer whfg orybj gur 144,000 svther) unir orra npphzhyngrq naq gur jbeyq pbafvfgf cevznevyl bs aba-qnzarq vaqvivqhnyf, gur Pbafhyg pbhyq hfr gurve uhtr zntvpny cbjre gb dhvpxyl trabpvqr gur ragver cynarg, oneevat gurve bja zrzoref. Zbfg fbhyf jvyy or fnirq, naq gur qnzarq fbepreref jvyy erznva ba n frnyrq cynarg, univat nibvqrq qnzangvba.
Guvf ng yrnfg nccrnef gb or n jnl gb trg gur znkvzhz ahzore bs fbhyf n unccl raqvat - juvyr jr qba'g xabj jung unccraf ba gur cynarg bapr vg vf frnyrq sebz gur Bhgfvqr, gur Vapubebv frrz vagrag ba npuvrivat fb gurl zhfg oryvrir vg'f qrfvenoyr.
Last month, I visited a school of dance with a number of other composers from my university, to meet students there and explore possible future collaborations. I had misunderstood how the meeting would take place, and so I only realised I'd have to give an informal presentation about my music when I was already at the train station.
I'm an okay public speaker but nervous about presenting on my music, but the hastily-improvised presentation went really well, I got a great response from the dancers, and met several people who expressed an interest in working with me in the future.
I'm feeling more confident about my presentation skills, my ability to communicate about my music, and my music itself as a result.
Survey taken!
I tried it a few days ago and it didn't submit as far as I can tell - in between I looked up the answer to the calibration question, but I answered as I did originally (NAILED IT anyway).
Survey gripe: I answered "left-handed" for the handedness question, but I only really write with my left hand, and do everything else with my right. My left hand might be a little more dextrous but my right is definitely stronger. As such I'd see myself as cross-dominant rather than ambidextrous; is this something that could be included on future surveys or is it not useful for the kind of data you're collecting?
I have a moral question.
Is it better for the last million people of a certain population to die, or for two million people all around the world, randomly selected and evenly distributed, to die? For the first group, their death would not just result in loss of human life, but potentially loss of a lot of cultural information; their language, their religion, their mythology and folklore, their music. I feel like this cultural information has value.
Thoughts?
I didn't have a strong reaction to it. It's gross, I shrugged and moved on.
Ah yes; that's roughly what happens in the film. I see what you mean.
I've not read the books - don't tell me that Katniss figures out it's a story at the end of the last one?
What an ending that would be: Harry uses the Self-Indication Assumption to conclude that he is most probably a character in a Muggle story about magic, then manages to 'blackmail' the author into granting him godhood in order to stop Harry from committing suicide in a literarily unsatisfying fashion, since the author would prefer the former as an ending over the latter.
Am I the only one who thinks that would be a horrible ending?
Does anyone have any good web resources on how to be a good community moderator?
A friend and I will shortly be launching a podcast and want to have a Reddit community where listeners can interact with us. He and I will be forum's moderators to begin with, and I want to research how to do it well.