Fair, but it’s still a big question. When someone who doesn’t know me very well drives me somewhere and offers me to pick songs to play, I always refuse. While that may relate to my not being a very open person, it is difficult for people who don’t “get” my music taste and investment in all aspects of it: it’s like most people who have an active training log here and are asked by an acquaintance if they work out. I’m not suggesting that I am “special” – after all, I’m like any twenty-something American who is into alternative music – or that you are unable to appreciate music in a general or specific sense.
I also don’t recommend music to people unless prompted. I am always a little surprised when people genuinely ask. Right now I am listening to a lot of stuff by Foxing, Phoebe Bridgers, The National, Bartees Strange, Lucy Dacus, Sufjan Stevens, Bombay Bicycle Club, Foals, Bad Suns, and Hippo Campus.
I think it’s a much more difficult question than anything to do with workouts; after all, there are physiological rights and wrongs along with personal tastes in fitness. “I am drawn to running, but do strength training because I like the aesthetic and believe it to be necessary to a well rounded and effective workout routine” is much easier than “there’s something about the Snoop Dogg school of west coast rappers that just sort of appeals.”
I liken it more to the difference between working out and training. Most people here train. A lot of people who go to gyms cannot fathom consistently following insane, seemingly masochistic programs. They’re not willing to make those sacrifices. But they are not sacrifices for many people here. Those decisions alone suggest that these things attract a certain type of person, many of whom inhabit this forum. I’m not suggesting that people here struggle with life balance, but I imagine they would earn some weird looks from “normal” people if they try to reschedule something because they cannot miss their planned training session.
True, it can be more complicated to explain what a piece of art means to you. Yet I approach music in a way not unlike training: I make what others view as sacrifices, and only a niche population empathizes with those decisions. For example, I have camped out more than a few times for several nights in a tent on cement, bracing single digit temperatures – without considering the windchill – among other fans who are just as eager to earn a front row spot at a show because the music means that much to me. Although it’s usually not that extreme, I still queue for many hours before a concert and wait outside afterwards to see if I can meet the artist, even if I cannot feel my toes. I am only able to kill hours on YouTube if I am watching interviews from my favorite artists.
Spent six hours in a cafe with my new really close friend, talking about everything until it closed. Then found $20 on the ground on my way home. Good day.
Renewed my driver’s license recently and just received it today. I actually really like my photo – is this real life? On the other hand, the state that issued my previous license had a much more interesting design. Still, I am pleased.
Hahaha, I actually don’t think it’s that bad. It could be way worse.
I had to take photos for a passport application last year, and I wasn’t allowed to smile. I showed them to my friend and she said to me, “@Bagsy, that’s not simply not smiling. That’s a scowl.”
My current one is way worse. I was sent to a job on a moments notice where I found out while filling out the application that my license was expired, then had to sprint to the nearest dmv to renew, then back to continue the application.
So I have a week worth of scruff, hair like Charles Manson, and grinning like a dork.
The upside was that the dmv was way out in the sticks and the guy there was really friendly and happy to see somebody. Anybody.
Wow, I’m so fortunate that I had no problems with an expired license. I didn’t realize that my license expired last month until a worker checking me in at a hospital told me after I handed it to her.
Also remarkable that you could make that happen so quickly at that DMV. I was pleasantly surprised when I had to wait only twenty minutes at the one by my current place to renew the license. The DMV in my hometown was terrible. You had to kiss your entire morning or afternoon goodbye to wait for your turn, even if you already checked in online or showed up very early.
Virginias were the best. I went in with a piece of mail and my birth certificate, walked out a half hour later with a drivers license. Winged it on a short test and took a little drive around the block with a nice lady, bada-bing, bada-boom, drivers license in Virginia.
Dude, as a NYer who moved to VA I can totally confirm this is accurate. The 3 DMV’s I’ve been to were all super user friendly here and everyone was polite. The ones in NY were where all the jokes about the DMV or references to it in popular culture were born - long lines, irritable and unhelpful staff, etc.
