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Off Key - General Discussion

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A place to talk about whatever you want

  • Pinned threads

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    Great!
  • Switzerland

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    View from the Stanserhorn. Lucerne area [image: IMG-7108.jpg] [image: IMG-7122.jpg] Tiny little shingles used on traditionally styled homes. Each one is nailed on individually. Costs a fortune and takes forever but they continue to use them. [image: IMG-7127.jpg] Carved in to the side of a giant rock in Geneva. The detail on the lions face is striking. [image: IMG-7086.jpg] Story here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Monument
  • If anyone is interested ...

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    An excellent article. Thanks!
  • Thanks a lot, *ssh*le

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  • Word association thread

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    purity
  • New semester starts soon at the music school

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    @Mary-Anna Exactly this! I used to have a Roland digital piano, as well as my Weinbach grand. I never played the Roland because it didn’t vibrate through me like the piano does. So I sold it to a friend. I also love the sound/feel of a cello. We have a new music director at church; she’s been with us about a month and she’s a great fit. I’m learning a lot in choir! We have a new music director for our pop choir, too. Lots of exciting change going on.
  • Be careful with weight loss drugs

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    I remembered that a NY Times columnist, Frank Bruni, experienced vision loss from NAION, as the result of a stroke. He wrote eloquently about it in a couple of columns, but I wasn’t able to find them in a search of the Times website. Bruni did, however, write a book about the experience.
  • Art 2nd Thread

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    @RealPlayer It is art.
  • Tell us about your schools

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    I know I talk a lot especially about this so I'll give you a recap. For thing- New College, my alma mater, has the College Seal it's founders gave it. You can see it at the top of this Wikipedia page. New College of Florida - Wikipedia https://share.google/lkwNvlmkGUrnkw5SO The Founders create the College Seal. It's been this way since the 12th century. Schools create logos; ...use them for different purposes; ...change them; ... get rid of them, ...create new ones, etc. What you don't do is change the College Seal. The College Seal is the prerogative of the founders. I've never heard of this being done in the US. My alma mater has changed the College Seal three times in rapid succession. So, leaving out the two changes in the middle chronologically (and I know what they look like and where they still exist in "monumental" form on campus. Strangely, the one I don't have an image yet of #2 and #3 yet, although I know where to find one of them ("2") on top of the sigh with schools name on it as you drive past it (technically through it) on US41 (Tampa to Miami). So, now they have a 3rd pretend seal. I'm not making this up. The current "seal" is the logo you see at the top of the link for the campus bookstore. Official New College Bookstore Apparel, Merchandise & Gifts https://share.google/sWbuWQrv9FWpDZTFH The "administration" makes up its own rules as it goes along. It's hard to believe but I know it's true. @andyd This is a national news story here in addition to being a local and state news story. This is for two reasons. New College met metrics that could only be compared with a very small group of other schools in a meaningful way for decades. Then, this should tie it together, DeSantis, a Trump ally, our Governor decided he hated New College with a passion because he said it was "woke". He went about destroying the school and hiding its true history. Here is the reference I was making. I'm sorry is was opaque. This history belongs in a library. Its actual history is being deliberately distorted, flat out lies are being told about it, parts of the history (yes, all in writing) has been scrubbed from the official site, the alumni association was ended because every member knows perfectly well that New College is not, and can never be, a Christian nationalist school. First, he famously went after Disney because Disney was "woke". He didn't have the power to harm them. He tried hard and for a long time. His goal is to turn it into a Christian Nationalist school. He can't do this according to our national Constirition. It was private and non-sectarian when it was founded. It's been a public school since the actual school I attended took it over during the inflation crisis. So, his fantasy violates The First Amendment. His thing about having Four College Seals at one time is so strange it's almost funny. But there bottom line is the whole situation is trainwreck. So, @andyd I'm going to try my hand at writing a history and then self-publishing it.
  • Goodbye, Landlines

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    I reduced costs by cancelling my Spectrum Internet account. No landline. That would be equivalent giving back 25% if what I just saved. Hard no. My mobile phone is Verizon via (Walmart) Straight Talk. $50 My phone was locked to Straight Talk but I think there was a limited period Straight Talk could keep it lock. I don't think it's locked no. I have to double check. So my next step is to lower my mobile bill. I don't know. Tello looks like a possibility. I have to read more. I paid my phone bill today and my goal is to change the carrier before this billing cycle ends.
  • Trump, Xi, and the Mid-Autumn Festival

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  • AI Gone Wild

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    @Bernard Corporations avoid a lot. Trying to place accountability will draw the opposition of corporations. That is a lot of money. Makes forcing universal healthcare against the health insurance companies look easy.
  • Not this again

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    [image: FBFD0F3E-5FE8-4B12-A7A8-C8721F1126F4.png]
  • Non sequitur Thread

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    He asked for $5,000. I laughed in his face.
  • Alan might be a robot. The jury's out.

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  • Iran (Disclaimer-- the war, not the country)

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    Clusterfuck
  • What are you watching?

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    One more. I promise. Link to video This generation gap (specifically) is a cultural phenomenon at this. What made some of the younger ones so clueless, ignorant, self-righteous, arrogant and entitled? I don't know.
  • Whoa! I just found a new avatar.

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  • Saving Seals

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    Bump Edited. BTW- This is a great example of the destruction of US education. New College was a public school by the time I went there. It's defacto privatized by now. The money generating potential of New College made it stand out like a lighthouse. The US public education system is generally wing starved of resources. There are charter schools (de facto private) being aggressively supported by policy makers. Then there is home schooling. I only know about home schooling in Florida. The toddler stage of home schooled kids in Florida seems to end between 5 and 6. "Is our children learning?"- George W Bush
  • Written English, Misc.

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    As well you should.