Thread 4 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 & 2 & 3.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

My sincere apologies!!!

Blimey, you're brave!

Hahahaha! I bet strumming is all I'm capable of in a few years - small joint arthritis has already produced some convoluted workarounds!

I do know what you mean, though, Steph, and anyone who purposely takes a guitar to anything other than a gig or a rehearsal (say to a party or a family event) should be cast into the outer darkness, where there's a wailing and a gnashing of teeth,

("Teeth will be provided", Rev Ian Paisley).

Armed so strong in honesty that their comments pass me by, like the idle wind, which I respect not. But it is odd that some posters just turn up to be, well, unpleasant. Soc Med, I guess.

Just had to look up that quote - Brutus in Julius Caesar. I could have that on a big telly.

I think YABBU (you are both being unreasonable)

I’m a musician but guitars all over the place would drive me batty. Likewise side tables all over the place would drive me batty, get a coffee table. A 42” TV is too much but YABU for watching on your laptops instead of a TV. Compromise and get a smaller one.

We currently watch on a 26' imac, cyan, on the coffee table.

I mean, I think there's a difference between the very conscious selection/download of things you want to see - like Happy V tonight on telly, or a series on a streaming service - and just switching on the telly.

The bloody things were always on when I was a kid. Turned down for funerals, possibly. I used to do aromatherapy parties, years ago, in people's homes, and it was rare that they turned off the TV, or even turned it down, unless I asked.

The bloody things were always on when I was a kid.

This is a thing in many households. Permanently on, no matter the occasion. Mealtimes, etc. Including when there are invited guests; this is the bit I find mystifying.

I know what you mean. I ditched my TV licence years ago as I hardly watched it and just streamed stuff instead (smart TV), but I recently bought the licence again as there are things on iPlayer I’d like to see. Now that I’ve screwed the aerial back in I get a shock every time I switch it on, it’s so jarring to get blasted with 24 Hours in A&E or whatever instead of a calm blank screen ready to load Netflix. I’m enjoying being able to watch iPlayer but I might unscrew the aerial as it’s so easy to leave it on, and like you the bloody thing was always on when I was a child. For me there’s something depressing about a TV on in the background.

Absolutely.

Your experience reminded me of how there was a time when all Vauxhall's had their radio "on" as default. So you got in to start up and the blasted thing blasted out its blasted rubbish immediately. It's as if someone thinks that constant noise is what we want. Just pollution, mostly.

Same here with it being on all time growing up. I went off telly in the 80s and we stopped having one in 1992 and either read or talk in the evenings. Talk mainly. I can't stand the constant noise of televisions and find it overwhelming. Being stuck in someone else's house, like when visiting family, when there's one going in the background is torture..

I used to live with a boyfriend who wanted the TV on permanently as background. It drove me in-fucking-sane, but it was what he’d grown up with and therefore normal to him.
I loathe visiting homes where the TV stays on while you’re trying to chat.

We have a good-sized TV in the front room and we watch it regularly. But only to actually watch. On-demand streaming has been a particular godsend, because it has meant we only watch what we want to when we want to. So even though we do watch TV, it still spends far more time off than on. (One of the unexpected benefits of painting our front room dark blue is that the TV "disappears" when it is off, instead of being an ominous looming portal to Hades).

The TV in our house is never background noise/annoying flickering. I gather that many people find the noise and flickering somehow comforting, or at least that is how it has been explained to me.

If we invite people to visit, we'd never have the TV on unless we'd invited them specifically to watch TV.

annoying flickering

Yes, this as well! It always drove me crazy how if you pause Netflix for too long or leave it on the Home screen for more than a minute or so, it starts bringing up images of stuff it wants you to watch in a slow-moving fashion that makes me feel sea sick. Even worse, auto-play, but I worked out how to turn that off at least.

We have a big, fuck-off telly in the sitting room, but like Kuc’s, only on if we actually want to watch something. It’s in an alcove so I don’t really notice it when it’s off.

I didn't have a telly for years, when I was single. Not quite true, I had one, but never watched it. It went on sometimes, if I had a mate round, who wanted to watch something, but it went pop and wasn't replaced. I took in a lodger and she wanted one, so I got one, which died, just after I got married (CRT version).

I went to get a new one and the cheapest thing by far was a 50 inch flat-screen. We've still got it, almost 15 years later and I watch it most nights.

macman always has the telly on, or the radio if he’s in the kitchen or bathroom. If he goes away I don’t usually turn the telly on at all, unless something like Happy Valley is on - I’ve never been much of a telly person but since my shitawful sciatica returned a year ago, I can only sit in the kitchen chair, so watch even less than before.

Is happy valley worth watching? I need iplayer recommendations! Just watched frozen planet II which was spectacular.

We also are a streaming-only family. I pay for my son's TV licence so I don't feel guilty for using my VPN to occasionally watch things on the BBC on my computer. Happy Valley isn't available on any of the streaming services I have but maybe it will come on BritBox or Acorn at some point.

Happy Valley is one of the best TV dramas this septic isle has ever produced.

It surely is, crows. We are already excited for tonight's. Are there four altogether? Have I got that right?

I've been reading Dylan's Philosphy of Modern Song, his latest book.

It's not really philosophy at all, but a series of essays about specific songs with some background about the artists or writers. I'm youtubing the songs and listening as I go through. There are some enjoyable rants and a lot of opinions about politics, music, history. Recommended but only if you like Dylan, the old devil.

6 episodes, this is series 3 and the last.

I love Dylan @angelico53 , that book is definitely something I'd be interested in.