That's Gneiss! #155 ~ In which my memory fails me
Plus: measuring happiness, and Disco returns!
Spooky stuff
I’m sitting here looking at this note I wrote days ago when I opened the draft of this newsletter, and I have no idea what I intended when I wrote “Spooky stuff.”
Obviously, I meant to write about something spooky to fit the Halloween mood. But if there was a specific thing I had in mind, that idea has gone elsewhere. So I’m going to go elsewhere as well. If I remember I’ll let you know! In the meantime, pop over to the Creepy Confab post to see what gives folks the heebie jeebies.
The last few months have been pretty rough - I think we can all agree on that. There is a collective gloom that can’t be overlooked. We all knew 2020 was going to be a bit tough with it being a big election year. The racial injustices have been going on for years (waaaaay too long) so the massive protests aren’t really a surprise. Something was bound to finally push people to the edge - they have had enough. And rightly so. Then there were the fires and smoke, which sadly weren’t totally unexpected. The scale was overwhelming though, and many are still burning today. Toss a global pandemic on top of all that and now you’ve got a heaping plate of misery. Not one person has been unscathed.
If only there was some way to measure the mood!
Enter the Hedonometer. From their “About” page:
Our Hedonometer is based on people’s online expressions, capitalizing on data-rich social media, and we’re measuring how people present themselves to the outside world. For our first version of hedonometer.org, we’re using Twitter as a source but in principle we can expand to any data source in any language.
Take a look at the ratings for over 10,000 individual words. The list is searchable - you can see where different words fall on the scale.
What does this look like in practice? Here’s 2015, a fairly stable and relatively happy year. some nice jumps up on holidays, and no big dips into sorrow. In fact, most of the years previous to 2015 are pretty consistent with minor ups and downs.
Then 2016 happened, and our tenuous grasp on relative happiness started to crumble. Now let’s take a look at the last 18 months. Even before the pandemic began the dips related to various events were much lower than similar events in previous years.
We are tired, sad, and angry.
It’s to be expected, so be kind to yourself and to others. We’ve got a ways to go yet.
I still haven’t remembered what spooky stuff I was thinking of a few days ago. No matter! I’m seeing plenty of spooky Halloween decorations popping up as we get closer to the 31st.
For example, I was terrified by this pumpkin in a cage.
It must be very dangerous. If left unchecked it will end up like this!
That’s all for today my friends! I’ve got things to do, including dropping off my completed ballot and prepping some things for the mail.
VOTE EARLY! Just once.
Cheers!
Tidbits
How is your state doing with COVID-19? Spoiler alert - probably not too great
Is your mind wandering more these days? That might not be a bad thing.
The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time - how many have you read? 18 for me!
Making: the coveted and hard to find indigo paint arrived yesterday, so I got to work making many little squares for the “Big Sky” lesson. I’ll make more, then spend some time rearranging them to find the right layout before glueing them down into one piece. As is always the case, the lighting is not quite right - but you get the idea! I also finished the first round of colors in my crocheted blanket.
Recently eaten: Beef & Onion piroshkis from Piroshky Piroshky! They’re the best, perfect for a weekend lunch.
Reading: too many work emails, somebody please make them stop. I love the emails and comments I get from you though - don’t stop those! Send more in fact.
Eye Candy Corner
Ahhhh, here’s something on the spooky side! This wasn’t what I was thinking of though. I still haven’t remembered.
patternedstudio
For the last few weeks Alexis Lesnick of patternedstudio has been making some fun classic movie monster block prints along with a variety of other creepy (or not) designs.
Videos of the Week
Disco? I’ll take it. Brand new tunes from Róisín Murphy.
Current Temperature: 58.8F (14.9 C)
Current Humidity: 99%
Wind (max gust): 13.6 mph
Precipitation: 0.76 in
Air Quality Index: 13
I never did remember… if you made it this far, please click “like” and hop over to say hello!
That hedonometer is wonderful. I'm not going to say too much, but let's just say it would be fun to see when something *really* celebratory happens that the whole world is invested in. 🙌 I want to see that ticker move into the 7's!
Related to spooky, in both subject matter and price, I give you this: https://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/products/drake
Seeing as our latest project has us sleeping in the basement, I'm distracting myself by fake shopping for insanely expensive and/or slightly batty (sorry) lighting design.
Obviously with these for the nightstand: https://www.hayneedle.com/product/designtoscanodarkshadowsgargoylesculpturallamp.cfm
Not really the aesthetic I'm going for, is it?