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When it comes to song lyrics, I usually jam on the music while I try out some ideas for the phrasing and melody of the vocals. Once something starts to fit musically, words and phrases start to pop into place. I usually do this untill I've got about 50:50 actual lyrics to filler then I sit down and finish writing/revising them.

That's probably not terribly useful, but it works for me.

It's remarkable how pliable any laws are when the right people want an exception.

When I say "remarkable" of course what I mean is "depressing"

Well sure. I just mentioned planning bylaws because it's something I have first hand experience with. Want to build something that doesn't conform to the bylaws? Just ask nicely and they'll make an exception for you. If a developer asks really really nicely, the city might even create a special control district and write a batch of regulations to suit.

But eh, I work in geomatics and I'm not directly involved with stuff like that. If I actually was working in Dachau I'd be the tailor or something similarly menial.

That would fall under skin cancer. And from my admittedly limited observations, Dok seems to one those deep-seated, nasty cancers that only start showing their symptoms once it's too late.

Well I just started in this position, but frankly the in-house training has been disappointing. Also, I put a Diet Pepsi in the fridge last thursday and it went missing. Not a huge deal, but it's a bit of a discouraging start.

Light pollution? That's ninny shit. We specialize in working over development bylaws so that people can build their very own DREAM HOME. Oddly, most peoples dream home seems to be an ugly, boxy, coffin located ever further into an expanding morass of ring road freeways and overpasses.

I'm being flippant, but it is actually remarkable how pliable bylaws are when the right people want an exception.

Nah, it's much worse. Urban development.

"The rules don't have to make sense. We just follow them. That's our responsibility." – some jagoff I work with.

You come across this kind of thinking (or rather lack thereof) rather often. At least I do. That somehow blind adherence to a set of rules is what RESPONSIBLE people do. This strikes me as really stupid.

Okay, so being responsible is having some sort of obligation. But what is that obligation? I suppose we are constantly bombarded all day every day with the message that we are obligated to be obedient meat bags. But is this really an acceptable choice to people? Is it really that fucking outlandish to, oh I don't know, actually stop to think about what we're doing once in a while? As far as I know they haven't yet amended the DSM to include 'proclivity to ask questions' as a sign of mental illness. But clearly there must be something wrong with me because I thought that being responsible might just possibly be an obligation to being a rational, thinking, decent human being.

Wait a minute what the hell am I saying? Jeez, listen to me ramble. I must be overworked or something. Sorry boss man, I'll be a good drone and go back to my desk. But would you do me one little favour? When I come to you because your stupid project doesn't make any sense don't tell me what the rules are. When I ask why don't tell me 'because those are the rules'. That's not an answer. Or if you are going to, then at the very least don't pretend that you are being responsible while you abdicate your obligation to use your goddamn head for a minute.

But hey, at least you can get a refund on your brain since you haven't voided the warranty by taking it out of the packaging and using it.

I hate it when that happens, but creativity is tricky like that. I can't force songs to happen, they usually have to emerge from the ether. With music though I find you can increase the chances of that happening by working on the technical side, rather than creative.

Practice your instrument. Practice a few different scales or play a cover, just mess around with it. If you're a computer music person, work on creating some new sounds. Download a new synth or effect, play around making new patches or work on production techniques. It's better than doing nothing and every now and then something creative will spark and off you go!

This is awesome! I really like the writing, and the idea itself. When I was pointed toward this thread I was thinking about people creating narratives for their lives, but in a limiting way. People creating (or even passively absorbing) a narrative for themselves, believing it to be definitive version of their life, and getting trapped by it. But it's something everyone does, to some extent, to help give our lives definition.

"The difference is we remember that our narratives are false."

Yes! Love it. I also like the idea of creating a narrative as a way to "move the action forward", as it was put. Great thinking material.

This looks really interesting, thanks!

This is interesting. There are a lot of messages being sent to us that people are unable or unwilling to hear. But there are also messages being sent that people want hear.

Some coworkers were talking (loudly and near my desk) about how much they loved the show Storage Wars and I started thinking about why reality TV is so popular. Aside from the fact they are relatively cheap to produce and people have been trained to gobble them up, they must be sending a message that people want to hear.

That message is a simple one: you can apply a narrative to life. Reality can be dramatized. The more mundane and commonplace the lives depicted on these shows, the more we are encouraged to creative a narrative for our own lives. Sure it takes a bit of creative editing- snip little bits here and there, give more weight to this or that, re-order a few events and ta-da! You've created the story of your life.

The problem is that given how prone to self-delusion people are, the narrative they create for themselves rarely resembles the reality they live in.

Maybe rather than a fluff thread, you need a fluff person. An official forum fluffer, whose job would be to keep everyone randy and ready to post.

Wow, that is sad. Does he have any redeeming traits, or were you just friends with him out of habit?

Well, that sounded like fun. It reminds me of some of the butt hole places I had the misfortune of staying in when I briefly worked in the oil industry. I made the mistake of going out in my civilian clothes while in one particularly odious country outpost, which immediately outed me as city folk. When I went to the local Co-op to buy a notebook and some chips the suspicion was palpable. I remember the woman in front of me at the checkout line had forgotten her loyalty card at home so the cashier asked if she remembered her account number. 'Yeah, it's 34' she answered.

There was quite a bit of excitement that day as washed up Canadian classic rock icons Prism were playing in the local dive next to the motel I was staying at. I rebuffed my cretinous co-workers and hid in my room playing gameboy while they got wasted and rocked out to 'Spaceship Superstar', which I'm pretty sure the band played twice. Apparently I missed a great night- one of my co-workers almost got in a fight and another slept with one of the waitresses, whom he implied was a prostitute.

I think what makes it bad in Alberta is the amount of money floating through some of these places due to the oil industry. Hick locals and bored, overpaid grunts are a bad combination, considering the type of people drawn to that lifestyle are generally of questionable character. I did a summer between years in college but once I got out I never looked back. The money was not worth my sanity.

Yeah, sorry I was being flippant. I'll shut up now.