Happiness is a Warm Bed

My net access is back. I just don't know why. One of those cases where you try out cables, hubs and drivers until it mysteriously starts working.
-----
In 2001 I was getting interested in downtempo electronic music - triphop and ambient, which later spawned the chillout movement and dozens of hybrid genres. In March of that year I spent a few days downloading some of the more interesting songs in the 'Down Tempo' category of MP3.Com, and putting them on two CDRs - 324 of them, as a kind of time capsule.

It wasn't clear that at the time that MP3.Com was going to become progressively unfriendly and unusable, but it seemed possible.

The discs have turned up, and the tracks sound pretty good and inspired.
-----
I now have an electric blanket. The instructions warn me sternly to unplug it before putting it in the washing machine, and implicitly not to wet the bed.
-----
Carrying the blanket home, I let myself be stopped by a Dianetics stall in the market.

I asked about Thetans and auditing for repressed memories, which made the nice bespectacled young man at the stall nervous. He explained that those things are part of Scientology, not Dianetics. Because Dianetics is therapeutic ("It enables you to gain control of your life"), while Scientology is a whole philosophy, aiming at spiritual rebirth.

He clarified the difference by saying "Dianetics is 1950; Scientology is 1951".

I had a go on the stress measuring device, which apparantly is nothing at all like a lie detector. A lie detector measures electrical conductivity of skin surface, wheras the stress measuring device (he didn't call it an 'auditor' is...erm...completely different.

It wasn't terribly good at detecting untruth or stress though, because I told a pack of lies and the needle only moved when I wasn't talking.

No comments:

Post a Comment