The h Bar

Danu

12:58 AM

@DanielSank Sounds like you're not really interested... I'll back off.

Yashas

1:20 AM

I have never seen this room this empty :O just 2 people here

DanielSank

2:43 AM

@Danu I'm traveling. It's not that I'm not interested. I just have little time to actually think for the next few days.

user228700

5:18 AM

Hello, everyone :-)

user228700

An excellent video with a message I'd love to have heard two years ago;

user228700

Some Rough Advice for the "Real World"

►

John Rennie

Morning :-)

@Kaumudi.H the thing about being old is you have all this useful experience that you think would be really valuable to the young. So you try and tell them, but they won't listen. Then you remember that when you were young you wouldn't listen to the old either :-)

John Rennie

5:36 AM

Actually I suspect it's a fundamentally human trait to think you know best, regardless of your age.

Balarka Sen

Really? That's a strange impression you have acquired through the ages.

user228700

Oops, sorry about that! Was devouring a packet of potato chips!

Balarka Sen

Not saying it's wrong, it might even be the general trait for a large class of people, but I don't think every single person on earth thinks he knows the best when he's giving an opinion.

John Rennie

@BalarkaSen trust me on this, I know best :-)

Balarka Sen

meh

user228700

5:40 AM

I linked to that video because hearing that message (which took me some misery to figure out for myself) two years ago would've saved me a lot of trouble and I know that there are more than a few people here who are preparing for JEE now...

user228700

I'm finally on my way back to familiar ol' Thrissur, BTW! Phew. No more journeying for me now!

Balarka Sen

This is closer to my perspective of life.

user228700

user228700

Actually, we have just reached! :-)

John Rennie

Aha, travelling by train today. Better than the bus?

user228700

5:46 AM

@JohnRennie So. Much. Better geez.

John Rennie

So another week in Thrissur then back to Chennai?

user228700

Not Thrissur, the city, but a village in Thrissur. But yes. We go back on Friday.

John Rennie

I've just checked today's weather forecast for Chester:

user228700

@BalarkaSen Spiritual progress?

John Rennie

Ah, that looks lively :-)

user228700

5:52 AM

@JohnRennie Whoa!

user228700

Nice. It's been ages since we had any rain :'-(

John Rennie

Actually it's been very dry in the UK. There is already talk about water rationing being necessary later in the year.

Balarka Sen

@Kaumudi Well, that's a one dimensional view of it, but sure.

Understanding the spirit is one of the major themes of human life in general.

John Rennie

I have a plum tree with a large crop of plums growing on it, and it needs a bit of water. So the rain isn't unwelcome.

user228700

I see :-/ Water rationing started here many months ago.

user228700

5:54 AM

@BalarkaSen One dimensional view? What dyou mean?

user228700

@JohnRennie Ooh, you do?! Nice!

Balarka Sen

I mean the thing you said is only just a part of what Tarkovskij says in that 5 minute thing. There's a lot more to it.

There's no uLtImAtE tagline to "the meaning of life"

John Rennie

The temptation to analyse the meaning of life is almost irresistible, but I'm unconvinced the exercise has ever achieved anything useful - except provide entertainment I suppose.

user228700

5 minute? It was only 2 minutes long and for the most part, he only spoke of art being a tool to help us in our quest to spiritually progress.

user228700

@JohnRennie Perhaps but that sort of analysis helps us to know how to live our lives well.

Balarka Sen

5:58 AM

That's not a good summary of what he said.

But sure, why not.

user228700

...OK. What was he saying, then?

John Rennie

@Kaumudi.H maybe and maybe not. There's a lot to be said for just getting on with life without worrying too much about the eternal verities.

user228700

Oh, yes, certainly. I stand by my original point though; pondering the meaning of life can lead to figuring out what gives our lives meaning, which is definitely a fruitful exercise.

Balarka Sen

Pondering on meaning of life can also lead you down paths dark and deep and destructive (depending on what you consider dark and deep and destructive).

I just recommended you a book about that :P

user228700

^ Also true.

user228700

6:01 AM

@BalarkaSen I know, I know :-P Haven't gotten to it yet, man. I will.

user228700

Actually, I don't know if I will. It depends on how fast my to-do list shortens...

Balarka Sen

Re:what Andrey said. First one has to understand what spirit according to Andrei Tarkovsky is; it's not some religious, Christian thing, although it does have such connotations. This is hard to explain without watching his films.

The other main theme of that little talk is that knowledge, according to Tarkovsky, is unattainable and a human construct merely. Any meaning of life based on "quest for knowledge" is bound to be based upon human construct, which begs the existential perspective of the question

It's fine. I don't think it's a book for everybody and nothing much will be lost without reading it.

user228700

Ah, that comment about knowledge. Right, right.

user228700

Anyhoo. I have to get off this train in a few minutes. See you both later, bye!

Dawood ibn Kareem

6:21 AM

@JohnRennie At the small scale that your graphic appears in, in this chat room, it looks like they're forecasting a swarm of giant bees over much of north-western England.

John Rennie

@DawoodibnKareem :-) In fact it looks likely that we'll have swarms of wasps this summer. When spring is warm and dry two years in a row that allows the wasp population to boom. I've already seen (and killed) six queen wasps, which is far more than usual.

A friend, who is a lumberjack and therefore more likely to run into wasp nests, confirms that there are far more queen wasps around than usual.

Dawood ibn Kareem

Ooh, that sounds unfortunate. I've never been to England, and it's never occurred to me that it would be a country with a wasp problem. Interesting that it can be correlated to weather patterns.

John Rennie

Wasps are really just a nuisance rather than a hazard in the UK. Unlike in the Americas the wasps here have a painful sting but not a dangerous one. But they are unwelcome and can spoil an outside meal.

Dawood ibn Kareem

I suppose the populations of most insects would vary with weather patterns. It's one of the aspects of global warming that people don't tend to give a lot of thought to.

Mithrandir24601

8:01 AM

@Kaumudi.H It seems that I'm one of the lucky ones :P :D Although I'm still working on the 'getting good at it' bit...

@JohnRennie ::sigh::

@DawoodibnKareem It's not just insects - I've been told that birds (not sure if all birds or just some) lay eggs at a very specific time of the year that seems to depend on the weather, so if we get some really good weather, really early, that lasts a couple of weeks, a number of birds would lay eggs, only to have their chicks hatch without any food being available, so they die :/

user228700

8:23 AM

@Mithrandir24601 Ah, I see :-) That's great!

user228700

@JohnR: The list contains "Wallace & Gromit"; which one is it?

user228700

While sifting through the list, I also found this:

user228700