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Main Junction: ASK WHITECHAPEL - the You Can Haz Help Now Thread (Oct 17th - Nov 13th)

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      CommentAuthortaphead
    • CommentTimeOct 23rd 2011
     (10293.61)
    In fact...

    #apartmentswap

    Has anyone here heard of (or, heaven forfend, actually USED) some sort of system for swapping apartments for a few months, internationally? I'm looking to relocate somewhere sunnier for the winter, and I suppose there has to be someone who'd enjoy this season up here in Finland.
  2.  (10293.62)
    #winterblues -- I'm with the people that are suggesting vitamin D. I know a decent amount of people that suffer from S.A.D. that have tried various things, most say that the daylight lightbulbs did nothing (yes, they did use the right ones), some tried a few different natural medicines (a couple of them liked specific ones but none of them liked the same as any of the others), all but one (that I can think of) say that vitamin D works the best and usually, but not always, helps them.
    • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeOct 24th 2011 edited
     (10293.63)
    #winterblues

    The trick with those 'natural daylight' lamps is you use it in the morning to wake up, you *don't* use it in the evenings. A normal day does not have that kind of light at it's end, only it's beginning, so sticking a 'daybreak blue' light in your face in the evening just confuses your bodyclock even more than having to get up in the dark does.

    Some recent new science shows we have a third receptor cell type in the eye that has little to do with vision that responds to a particular frequency of blue light, and it uses this to set your body clock each day.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeOct 24th 2011
     (10293.64)
    # Winterblues - provided you get a fair number of clear days spending aroudn 10 minutes a day just looking at the sky can make a signficant difference.

    Bascially blue-tinged light tells body systems its morning and time to get going, red- or yellow-tinged light tells your body its tiem to get red for bed.

    Try gettign a pair of blue-tinged sunglasses and wearing them in the morning. Get a red night light and use it for a few minutes at least before bed.
  5.  (10293.65)
    "A normal day does not have that kind of light at it's end, only it's beginning"

    The light at sunrise and the light at sunset are indistinguishable. The two times of day feel different, but they look the same.
    • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeOct 24th 2011
     (10293.66)
    There's less of this particular frequency of blue. It's pretty narrow apparently, you wouldn't visually be able to tell, you have to get the lab equipment out.
  7.  (10293.67)
    How is this frequency of blue filtered out when the sunlight is coming from the left, but not when the sunlight is coming from the right?
    • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeOct 24th 2011
     (10293.68)
    It's more to do with what's in the atmosphere etc... But to be honest what I really meant was that it's not meant to be light in the evenings, and that a normal house bulb *doesn't* have this blue in it so doesn't cock up the body clock like using one of these natural light ones does if you use it in the evening.

    Apparently someone is developing a bulb that changes it's frequency output gradually during the day.
    • CommentAuthorArgos
    • CommentTimeOct 24th 2011
     (10293.69)
    It has to do with the way different wave lengths are refracted by the atmosphere and the curvature of the earth. Different light frequencies appear at dawn and disappear in the evening at different times, depending on how far the sun has risen or set. When the sun sets, red disappears first, and so on towards purple, which disappears last. In the morning when the sun is rising, it's the reverse. Purple, blue, and green appear first, and then yellow and orange and red as the sun finishes rising.

    Anyway, I haven't heard anything about this special frequency of blue that doesn't exist at night, but I've heard that the above explanation is why green flashes occur, so I'm throwing the info out in the case that it might apply here.
  10.  (10293.70)
    "The light at sunrise and the light at sunset are indistinguishable. The two times of day feel different, but they look the same."


    I don't know where you live, but this is certainly not the case anywhere I've ever experienced, nor is it the case according to any art / color theory I've ever encountered.
  11.  (10293.71)
    It's not a question of color theory, but of physics. It may not match our intuition or the way we experience them (i.e. we rarely sit down to watch a sunrise), but sunset and sunrise are exactly the same physical phenomena (light getting filtered thru a mass of air at a changing angle)... but with one happening in the opposite order of the other. As Argos describes, a sunrise played in reverse goes thru the same process as a sunset. On a given day sunrise will usually be colder than sunset, so that can affect the atmospherics (what Flabyo is referring to), but a summer sunrise is warmer than a winter sunset so there's no way you can generalize sunrise vs. sunset from that.
    • CommentAuthorDC
    • CommentTimeOct 24th 2011 edited
     (10293.72)
    #winterblues-You could try something like Philips Living Colors to simulate the colors of sunrise and sunset. It's not perfect but it's probably cheaper than those special light bulbs?
  13.  (10293.73)
    dudes, I already asked and self-answered this one last month

    As a ray of white sunlight travels through the atmosphere to an observer, some of the colors are scattered out of the beam by air molecules and airborne particles, changing the final color of the beam the viewer sees. Because the shorter wavelength components, such as blue and green, scatter more strongly, these colors are preferentially removed from the beam....

    Sunset colors are typically more brilliant than sunrise colors, because the evening air contains more particles than morning air

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunset
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeOct 24th 2011
     (10293.74)
    I always just assumed people tended to get up after sunrise and stay awake after sunset through most of our evolutionary history so blue light was associated with mornings and red with sunsets.
  15.  (10293.75)
    Flashback!

    So, in the previous month's thread, I'd asked about what to do about not getting my #collegebooks from Disability Services (which I am only getting now, at midterms), and was told to go to the dean of students, which I did, and now I'll be given a chance to catch up, an extended ability to withdraw if I can't hack it, and the possibility of being refunded if my profs think it's too late. So... YAY! and thank you.

    Also, I'd asked about #adultaging and the possiblity of a retarded aging process in body AND brain, as I don't seem to be advancing like others around me, mentally or physically. I found this article: Brain Aging: the Truth is Skin Deep. I guess I got SOME good genes at least.
  16.  (10293.76)
    All right - here's a weird one for you. Let's call it #CONTROLLINGIDEA

    The C.I., to the uninitiated, is a phrase, concept, moral or philosophical agenda which, some writers believe, should underpin and inform every line, every scene, and every plotline within a story. It can be as vague or as precise as you want, and the writer needn't even share it with people. It's not even the same thing as a subtext: it's more like the "shadow" of a story than its soul. It doesn't even need to be particularly *true* or axiomatic, as long as it satisfies the writer's need to include something meaningful or aspirational at the root of their story.

    The best example I can think of, as described by the writer of WALL-E, is "irrational love overcomes life programming." Five words which, once you know 'em, infest and inform every single aspect of that movie. Every character's personal arc is a different version of that story, every scene is a different take on it, every line of dialogue exists in service to that Idea. In other words the Controlling Idea is the motivating force which keeps a waffly writer On Target.

    Generally, I keep them to myself. They're pretty personal things. But I'm working up towards starting a new project - something a bit experimental and weird - and I figured it'd be interesting to share my proto-controlling-idea before it's completely set in stone, to see how people feel about it. To discuss it, to tweak it, to debate it.

    The aim, simply, is to create something as elegant, as concise, and as [true/idealistic] (delete as appropriate) as possible.

    Here's my starting point, which (to me) is a bit too clunky and feels a bit leaky:

    THAT WHICH CHERISHES LIFE WILL EVENTUALLY OVERCOME THAT WHICH UNDERVALUES IT.

    Discuss.
  17.  (10293.77)
    ' #CONTROLLINGIDEA

    That sounds like something I'd like to be true, but can't help thinking it's got no real reason to be? Maybe because I read The Road last year and now can't stop seeing every single thing I see in terms of its post-apocalypse use/uselessness or its calorific value...

    Thinking about it, not sure I fully understand the idea... What is the 'that'? What is capable of 'cherishing' life other than a human, or some sort of relentless reproduction machine (selfish gene?)? What would undervalue life - and what life would it undervalue - its own, assuming it's a form of life that's doing the undervaluing or just other life that's in competition with it?

    Think that statement raises quite a few questions of its own...

    NEW HELP REQUEST:

    #personal finance management

    I am rubbish with money. Putting me in charge of money is like putting George Best in charge of an off licence. It's a bad idea. I want to be better with money and I want to get in control of my finances. Really I do. I promise not to be scared of them any more.

    Is anyone using any good software to manage their finance (particularly UK people)? I can't seem to find something that could be described as a market leader here?
    • CommentAuthorOrpheus
    • CommentTimeOct 27th 2011
     (10293.78)
    #CONTROLLINGIDEA
    I've not herd of this technique to writing before, unsurprisingly, and seems to make sense.
    Having a bit of trouble getting my head around the 'idea' of the sentence, as if its trying to be too general in a specific way.

    Without knowing the basis of the story, its hard to say how to direct the sentence. Some of the words you use are almost intentionally specific towards an entity, where as you said the idea needs to proliferate though all levels of the story. The term overcome also suggests that there is some form of rivalry where there may be no connection.

    Either way, this is my take on the CI:

    THOSE WHO CHERISH LIFE SHALL TRANSCEND THOSE WHO [DERIDE/UNDERRATE/BELITTLE] IT.

    It feels more smooth to me anyway. Am I going in the right direction?



    #personal finance management
    When I first moved out I put together a sheet of income and regular bills on a spreadsheet. From there i just kept an eye on what i could spend between things (food/comics). If you're with Lloyd's TSB, they have a fantastic online banking system with £5 a month money manager categorising spendings and such, which im finding really helpfull.

    Hope that helps!
    • CommentAuthorallana
    • CommentTimeOct 27th 2011
     (10293.79)
    #controllingidea

    There are definitely some writers (Heinlein; Ayn Rand) with whom this is obvious. The former pulls it off; the latter makes me jaw-grind. (Oh man is anyone else pulling down those "Who is John Galt?" posters whenever they see them? Fucking awful.)
    Mostly I would say "less cheesy plz?" I think Orpheus's change is poignant; making "THAT WHICH" a "THOSE WHO" is at least more structurally sound in my head, if not consequentially more cliche. You'll have to be more specific about your "THAT" if you don't want your morals embodied in characters.
    I read an article about what being goth meant, back when I was an impressionable kid, that was all "Goths are more alive than regular people because we are constantly reminding ourselves of how close and looming death is" something something. Your controlling idea is reminding me of that. Sorry!
    •  
      CommentAuthorBeamish
    • CommentTimeOct 27th 2011 edited
     (10293.80)
    #controllingidea

    I haven't heard of this tool either, and it's clear why a writer would keep it private, but I'd say it's a good idea idea as long as you don't lose your story to the idea.

    #finance
    There are probably good apps for finance management, however, and I cannot imagine I'd recommend this due to its high level of cheesitude, but check out Dave Ramsey's material. His approach is more of a fix the problem and less find a way to control it. Also, the best advice I've gotten for finance is, don't finance a bag of M&Ms, or if you don't have the cash you probably don't need the _____.

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