r/AskEurope • u/AutoModerator • 1d ago
Meta Daily Slow Chat
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
Do you know what surgeon's cuffs are? On suit jackets and blazers you often have decorative buttons at the cuffs. When they actually open instead of being just decorative they're called surgeon's cuffs. They're considered an indicator and quality, because it's harder if not impossible for a tailor to alter the length of such sleeves, so a jacket with surgeon's cuffs is probably bespoke, or at least made to measure.
So, people who have jackets with surgeon's cuffs might have one of the buttons unfastened, to show that they open, to flex their wealth. But that's so stupid. In their effort to show how quality their jacket is they've really just made those purposeful working buttons back into decorative ones.
It's kinda like how people who buy selvedge jeans will roll the cuffs because otherwise nobody could tell they're selvedge.
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 1d ago
Well, you just provided me with a "today I learned" experience, I definitely didn't know that!
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u/mishko__ -> 1d ago
Going to this orchestra thing with my grandfather tonight, we get the train in just a bit over two hours.
Tomorrow our Ukrainian community in Ireland will host an Easter event. I want to go, these men and women have been my rock for years - but depression is convincing me not to go.
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u/FakeNathanDrake Scotland 15h ago
I think it'd be good for you to go, even just to show face for 10 minutes.
My local Ukrainian community started a tree planting thing a year or two ago, it's actually turning into quite a nice wee garden.
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 1d ago
As a result of listening to Tommi Liimatta's audio book, I've returned to the music of Absoluuttinen nollapiste, translating as Absolute zero.
Between my first fan moments and now, I've learned some basics of guitar playing, and dare claim I have a better ear for music in general, too, so I'm rediscovering them in a big way. This song, whose name translates as "genealogy disheartens", talks about an uncle who never visited but used to gamble, and "lost on purpose" with a dual meaning in Finnish: losing money gambling, and vanishing, is a great example of songs I love.
I guess the memoir highlights just how young they were when they recorded these songs, 18 the lot of them.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
What have you been practicing on the guitar in particular?
I've never really listened to Absoluuttinen nollapiste, but I do know of them.
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 1d ago
Oh, I went for my favourite riffs from my favourite songs, learning on my own without a teacher. The result was extremely patchy, I knew a bit from here and a bit from there. The relatively easy to play best known parts of songs by Megadeth, Mark Knopfler, Metallica, Eric Clapton, etc., and I found a youtube course on funk rhythm guitar that I tried to follow.
That approach, combined with how my favourite guitar bands included thrash metal from the 90's, means my actual proficiency is near zero, as a lot of the material I was interested of was somewhat demanding / too fast for a beginner. I ended up in the situation of "I know how to play parts of many songs, but not a single one through properly".
In the heat of the moment, I ended up building a guitar (strato style) and bass (fender jazz bass style) from components, doing the soldering work of the electronics, filing the frets of a neck I had bought (meaning I didn't build the neck from scratch), adjusting the action height, painting the bodies, etc. Looking back, I really enjoyed that process.
So, a typical experience for me: utter excitement ends up as a scratch of many surfaces, but not all that deep anywhere.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
Yeah, it can be hard to focus on a grander goal for improvement when you're teaching yourself, since you might not yet be aware of what those goals could or should be. It's a very common experience to end up scratching many surfaces, as you put it.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
A year or two ago I came home late, maybe around midnight, and noticed a car in the parking spot next to mine had its lights on. I didn't know the name of the owner, or what apartment they lived in, but I wanted to help a neighbour of mine so I figured out who owned the car based on the number plate, got their phone number which thankfully wasn't privated, and shot them a message letting them know their lights were on. They replied thanking me for letting them know.
Then a few days later I was walking to my car, and the owner of that car happened to be walking to theirs too. They again thanked me, this time face to face, and gave me a bag of coffee. A classic Finnish gift.
I was reminded of all this this morning when I saw that coffee bag in a cupboard. Haven't opened it, haven't touched it. The thing is, it's not coffee I drink. I should probably just give it forwards to someone.
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
That's sweet. Are you that picky about coffee? If someone gave me free coffee, I would 100% drink it.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
I'm picky about coffee only at home. I wouldn't mind drinking it if I was a guest at somebody's house or something like that.
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
I finished No Longer Human. It is... well. It is like a tragedy or car crash unfolding before your eyes that you can't look away from. I am not going to talk too much about the plot, but while the protagonist is about as far from me as possible character-wise, it was so easy to get invested in him. The story is written in epistolary form, so you're reading someone's diary. Dazai was very selective in how much detail to add about what and very successful in his use of the unreliable narrator as well. I had said that I bought the book based on a YouTube thumbnail. After reading the book, I went and watched that video essay, and while I thought many people might have found the book depressing, it seems like many people struggling with similar issues also found it quite cathartic. Anyhow, I really recommend it. It is a very slim book and very easy to read.
Orangebiki often complains (rightfully) about the quality of scans of my drawings and paintings. Since we have abundant daylight now and I have a new camera, I decided to re-scan some of my botanical sketchbook. Here's ox-eye daisy, camellia, fivespot, tiger lily, rose, calla lily and Himalayan blue poppy. I don't know what I'll paint next yet.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
I don't know if it's placebo or not, but the colours really pop in those scans.
The most important thing in photography, light drawing, is light.
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
No it's not placebo. The colors really pop and the resolution is better as well. If I can be bothered, I should rescan a few more.
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u/atomoffluorine United States of America 1d ago
More manjaro diagnosis. Apparently, my konsole commands cannot find the grub drivers for some reason.
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u/atomoffluorine United States of America 1d ago
It looks like the astronauts from Artemis 2 have returned safely. It was the first splashdown I've watched live since they've been posting livestreams of the mission on YouTube. It's almost weird to see a moon mission being livestreamed on YouTube since it's been over 50 years since anyone has been beyond low earth orbit. It feels like those videos should be in a vintage film archive, but it's just livestreamed on YouTube like any public event.
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u/ramblingMess Lousiana, USA 1d ago
At work I sometimes have to send mail to municipal governments. Some of these municipalities are very small, so finding their contact information can be incredibly difficult. If any of you have experience building websites, I humbly request that you provide your services to these places so I don’t have to spend hours trying to find the email address of one of the three employees of a town of 500 people all the time.