Daily Slow Chat

4 comments

1. There is an auditory illusion psychologist Diana Deutsch called a ”scale illusion”, where material is played in stereo and the listener’s brain hears it differently from how it’s actually presented. She had ascending and descending scales, alternating notes in each ear, and you end up hearing the upper parts of the scale in one ear and the lower in another.

   I did a quick study piece on that idea last night, which actually ended up working really nice. I took this one symmetrical 7-note scale, and then using the two middle notes (when you include the octave too) as anchors multiplied the remaining intervals by 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, and 2, just to have some movement. Surprisingly the illusion remained even when the intervals got larger, up to a major 3rd. My main idea however was to gradually increase glissandi, ideally to eventually get to a moment where the illusion is shattered.

   And that ended up working too. I still want to make another version with better sound design, I’m thinking an octave lower and with a bit more shape to the sound, and also automate (well, ”automate”, it was me turning a knob) the glissandi a bit better. But anyway, [here](https://vocaroo.com/1fgCUctZttYc) is v1. If you want to listen to it make sure you have great stereo separation, preferably headphones, otherwise the illusion doesn’t work.

2. For yesterday’s prompt “hike” I drew [a group of late 19th Century hikers.](https://www.deviantart.com/tereyaglikedi/art/Inktober-2024-Day-8-Hike-1107813271) I still have roam AND expedition AND camp. Someone really had wanderlust when they made the prompts.

   My husband shaved off his beard yesterday and became the epitome of the famous shaving meme. I really like it, actually. Clean-shaven men are like unicorns these days.

   Both my parents are civil servants. Up until recently, the dress code for government workers was very strict (I guess it’s still much stricter than in other countries). My dad was in uniform anyway, but my mom also had to wear a skirt suit (even trousers only became allowed much later) and all men at her workplace had to wear suits and be clean-shaven (moustache was okay but beards not. For soldiers like my dad, moustache was also not allowed.). I think my dad must have shaven every morning since he was 15 or so. The same also applied to teachers. Suits, clean-shaven.

   It was only at university when I regularly started seeing men with (usually not so well-kept) beards. I think I never quite got used to it.

   How strict is your country when it comes to dress codes for civil servants? Has it changed over the past years/decades?

3. Do you eat peas?

   If so, how? Balancing them on a fork? Crushing them on the back of the fork? With a spoon? Or crushed on the knife?!

4. I used to work remotely two days a week in order to reduce my weekly car usage, but now my lab’s keeping tabs on people being onsite in preparation for what appears to be a round of layoffs (in the US, productivity and presenteeism seem to be mutually inclusive), I’ve decided to take a public rideshare service into lab twice a week instead.

   While not the most convenient service in the world, I’ve found that it can actually be a nice way of feeling less isolated and coming across people from different walks of life. The rideshare service basically consists of a van that can hold about 5 or 6 passengers at a time, and while it usually only has about 1 or 2 other passengers at any given time including me, sometimes it can be full and occasionally people get chatty with the driver. I generally don’t participate in the conversation and just listen to what they have to say, and try to learn something about Angeleno society in the process.

   Many of the people who use the service are poor black people who can’t afford to drive, so as you can imagine, much of the conversation involves money and the rising cost of living. Man, things goin up an up, you can’t buy nothin for less than a dollar no more. Man, you can’t live in this city without spendin money, the other day I decided to go for a hike in Hollywood and then what do you know, I spent 65 bucks. That’s why I never go out no more. Man, look at those Halloween decorations, she remortgaged her house for that or what?

   I think I might actually make it a habit to take this service more frequently, and earlier in the day when more people use it. I’ve been struggling a bit with isolation and disconnection from society since I moved here. On LA subs people tell you to become a regular at a local cafe and befriend people that way, but why would I want to waste money on overpriced coffee like that? A counsellor I saw for a couple of sessions suggested I just casually chat with the cashier at the supermarket or with the people behind me in the queue, which is considered a fairly normal thing to do here (I told her doing this in Southern England would make you come across as really weird. Her jaw hit the floor. *Wait, you’re not allowed to talk to strangers in England? Oh my god that’s awful*).

   But honestly, a rideshare service is probably a cosier environment for something like that and it doesn’t even matter if I engage in the conversation myself. A weird thing I’ve learnt since I’ve been here is that isolation isn’t just about a lack of close friends. It can be about how connected you feel to your environment *in general*. If you spend time alone in nature, or in a crowded public space, you’re going to feel less isolated than walking along a busy road with just the sound of traffic to keep you company.