Questions you want answered.

Recent research is showing that gut microbiome has more influence on behavior than we thought. Depresssion, sleep disorders, general mood, all kinds of things are being linked in studies to your bacterial friends.

BadKen wrote:

Recent research is showing that gut microbiome has more influence on behavior than we thought. Depresssion, sleep disorders, general mood, all kinds of things are being linked in studies to your bactieral friends.

I've read about this--fascinating stuff. But I still never have felt like thoughts physically exist in that part of my body the way they can feel like they exist in my head. So I'm inclined to think like Robear, it has something to do with where the eyes are located.

How do people who were born blind answer that question? Although, given that their ears are also on their head it might not be different if they consider their sense of hearing to be their primary method of perception instead of their sense of touch.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

"gut reaction" is an interesting choice of words because we do have neurons in our gi tract but I've never felt like I have thoughts emanating from there.

I am pretty sure there are lots of people who do their thinking from there... mostly because they have their heads lodged firmly up their butts

Thanks! Now I can't get out of my head what people who are born blind imagine/think of with no visual reference to speak of?

I am now going to repost this in the "Random things you loathe" thread

fangblackbone wrote:

Thanks! Now I can't get out of my head what people who are born blind imagine/think of with no visual reference to speak of?

I am now going to repost this in the "Random things you loathe" thread :(

You don't even have to be born blind, because aphantasia is a thing.

My wife has it, along with a raft of other visual processing atypical things; face blindness a.k.a. prosopagnosia and monocular vision / no depth perception.

It's been a really interesting journey figuring out how being wired that way inflects on various aspects of who she is. For instance, porn has never held any appeal to her - which makes perfect sense because she literally can't conjure up an image of what sex looks like.

I am wondering if "internal monologue" spans a spectrum... as I type this I am definitely thinking out the words in my head, but it doesn't go a word or two beyond what I am typing. On the other hand, when I am speaking or playing a game, I have no such monologue. Doesn't feel like I have time for one.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

I am wondering if "internal monologue" spans a spectrum... as I type this I am definitely thinking out the words in my head, but it doesn't go a word or two beyond what I am typing. On the other hand, when I am speaking or playing a game, I have no such monologue. Doesn't feel like I have time for one.

Short answer - it totally spans a spectrum - pretty much any psychological/cognitive phenomenon is going to.

Longer answer - "spectrum" is misleading in that it's suggestive of a single dimension, whereas I think internal monologue can manifest in numerous "personalities", all of whom don't necessarily sit on the same point of the spectrum. Is your monolog a narrator? A commentator? A critic? Cheerleader? All of the above?

Mine's mostly the audience at a slapstick comedy show. Except the performer doesn't realize he's in a show. And I'm the performer.

I like that longer answer, thank you.

I also feel like my internal monologue has become less present with age and possibly medication. Or not exactly less present but less focused. I had depression as a teen and I think my monologue was much more focused during those years, often getting hung up on a single moment or idea for minutes if not hours at a time.

It made for good writing, but I'm generally happier now. Dunno what to make of that.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

I like that longer answer, thank you.

I also feel like my internal monologue has become less present with age and possibly medication. Or not exactly less present but less focused. I had depression as a teen and I think my monologue was much more focused during those years, often getting hung up on a single moment or idea for minutes if not hours at a time.

It made for good writing, but I'm generally happier now. Dunno what to make of that.

Enjoy writing less bad angsty poetry, I guess?

Jonman wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

I like that longer answer, thank you.

I also feel like my internal monologue has become less present with age and possibly medication. Or not exactly less present but less focused. I had depression as a teen and I think my monologue was much more focused during those years, often getting hung up on a single moment or idea for minutes if not hours at a time.

It made for good writing, but I'm generally happier now. Dunno what to make of that.

Enjoy writing less bad angsty poetry, I guess?

ha no I wrote fiction for awhile and I read it years later and wonder how I ever wrote it. Today I can't type out even a sentence of fiction... To be fair a lot of the difficulty is lack of time that comes with being a parent and having an actual job (which involves a lot of "writing"), but I'm not sure I could even with those excuses out of the way.

Blind or not, 3 of the remaining 4 senses are in the head, and sensors for the 4th are there too. Don't get me started on the 5th and 6th, this isn't that kind of discussion!

I'm going to be moving this summer from a teeny, tiny little apartment to an actual, respectable adult's apartment, and I'm going to need some things. Specifically, a sofa and a table and a few other pieces of furniture that do not scream "30-something man furnishes his home like he just graduated from college".

Can anyone give me some decent recommendations on websites where I can begin pricing out actual, decent furniture that will make me look like a goddamn adult for once?

Not a website, but if you do get a sofa that doesn’t match so great or want to keep using one you have for a bit they make nice covers now that can change its look to be more neutral or to match other stuff.

Prederick wrote:

I'm going to be moving this summer from a teeny, tiny little apartment to an actual, respectable adult's apartment, and I'm going to need some things. Specifically, a sofa and a table and a few other pieces of furniture that do not scream "30-something man furnishes his home like he just graduated from college".

Can anyone give me some decent recommendations on websites where I can begin pricing out actual, decent furniture that will make me look like a goddamn adult for once?

I would recommend going to your local furniture stores and sit on everything. Buying furniture based solely on pictures online is a terrible idea.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

I like that longer answer, thank you.

I also feel like my internal monologue has become less present with age and possibly medication. Or not exactly less present but less focused. I had depression as a teen and I think my monologue was much more focused during those years, often getting hung up on a single moment or idea for minutes if not hours at a time.

It made for good writing, but I'm generally happier now. Dunno what to make of that.

Age or medication has done nothing to stop my inner monologue. But listening to interesting music has always made that voice in my head shut the hell up.

Doing a little careful, come-at-it-from-the-side introspection, I find I have an internal voice (that sounds like me, typically, unless I'm thinking of what someone else would say) that allows me to remind myself of things, point things out, and answers questions another me-voice poses, when needed. But I also have images that seem to be processed a bit faster - sometimes I'll think about doing something, picking something up, and it will appear as a vague image rather than "I should walk over there and get that thing". Kind of a gestalt effect, with the images, carrying multiple lines of verbal information.

I also have a set of, for lack of a better word, templates I apply when putting information together to reach a conclusion. These were built when I was learning formal and informal logic, and have helped me speed through problem-solving throughout my adult life. They are like pages with almost slots to put stuff in, and then the operations just fall out of the structure. I don't know how to fully explain that but it's a combo of visual and textual (not fully verbal) info that processes quickly and through multiple layers, each providing a conclusion to compare to the others.

I use music to stop the narration.

Interestingly, when I thought about posting a comment about my own internal voices, my first thought was "Nobody wants to hear about your voices". I don't think I like that very much.

I have my own voice, that sounds like me, all the time. It monologues, berates me, poses weird questions and also answers them. Sometimes I have voices that aren't mine though, and don't sound like me, and usually give me suggestions or opinions very different from my own. I wouldn't say they have any specific identity or agenda. If they did, I might be worried.

I don't think medication has helped with that, maybe it has been a combination effect. One counsellor I spoke with walked me through an exercise where I imagined the voices I was trying to silence were a miniature person and I could hold them in my hands. She suggested they get louder and more insistent when I try to hide or ignore them, but if I just imagine holding them and give them my full attention, I can accept what they're saying and then choose how to react. The room got really dusty all of a sudden when I first tried that exercise, which was kind of sobering.

Prederick wrote:

I'm going to be moving this summer from a teeny, tiny little apartment to an actual, respectable adult's apartment, and I'm going to need some things. Specifically, a sofa and a table and a few other pieces of furniture that do not scream "30-something man furnishes his home like he just graduated from college".

Can anyone give me some decent recommendations on websites where I can begin pricing out actual, decent furniture that will make me look like a goddamn adult for once?

If you want a good mid-tier brand for a couch, look at Taylor King and Bradington Young. A couch from them is probably $1,500-2,500 depending on the fabric / leather. Stay away from the stuff at almost any 'mall' furniture store as you can get better quality for the same price elsewhere. If you want to step up to high quality look at Hancock & Moore.

For wooden furniture like tables, I recommend your local used furniture stores and browsing Craigslist if you want to save some money. You can find good deals, can clearly see if it is constructed well, and most wood is pretty easy to clean and polish to look nice. Stay away from cheap junk that is wobbly or has extremely thin veneers (scratches easily and chips) or is made of plywood. Hopefully you should be able to tell the difference from pictures. If you want to go new, take a look at what the store that you find your couch at has.

I have always thought the voices in my head were totally normal and that everyone must have their own voices in their heads talking to them. It was a real shock to me when I learned there were people out there who never hear a voice in their head!
I have learned that when my internal voice starts to get real negative, like when it's berating me for things, I simply pose the question to myself "What would you do different?" For some reason using that phrasing turns things around for me. It allows me to find solutions or think about alternate options or actions I can take that produce a positive outcome. Now, I don't always follow through with that and often find myself making the same mistakes over and over again, but it's a thought process that has really helped me.

ThatGuy42 wrote:

I have always thought the voices in my head were totally normal and that everyone must have their own voices in their heads talking to them. It was a real shock to me when I learned there were people out there who never hear a voice in their head!
I have learned that when my internal voice starts to get real negative, like when it's berating me for things, I simply pose the question to myself "What would you do different?" For some reason using that phrasing turns things around for me. It allows me to find solutions or think about alternate options or actions I can take that produce a positive outcome. Now, I don't always follow through with that and often find myself making the same mistakes over and over again, but it's a thought process that has really helped me.

That's awesome. Asking that question is what the business world likes to call a "growth mindset", and it's a good thing because it means you're opening yourself up to learn from the experience. And that can be really f*cking hard to do.

One of my favorite things is when I’m hanging with a few friends and we all start busting jokes on this that or the other thing. Just goofing around and trying to get laughs out of each other. My inner monologue will come up with some really funny stuff. It’s a strange mental process because I’m not actively thinking about what I’m going to say. It’s like being in a flow state. It just occurred to me that it’s very similar to playing improvisational music. Everybody’s riffing off of each other and exchanging ideas that are inspired rather than methodically thinking about each response.

I feel like that happens in these forums sometimes. That’s why I love y’alls so much.

Rykin wrote:

I would recommend going to your local furniture stores and sit on everything. Buying furniture based solely on pictures online is a terrible idea.

Noted.

LeapingGnome wrote:

For wooden furniture like tables, I recommend your local used furniture stores and browsing Craigslist if you want to save some money. You can find good deals, can clearly see if it is constructed well, and most wood is pretty easy to clean and polish to look nice. Stay away from cheap junk that is wobbly or has extremely thin veneers (scratches easily and chips) or is made of plywood. Hopefully you should be able to tell the difference from pictures. If you want to go new, take a look at what the store that you find your couch at has.

Y'know what, I'm pretty sure there are some carpenters in my little college town, or in the area. I should see how much a table from them costs.

Question time for those who use wired controllers with their PC. I originally bought a cheapo Radio Shack version, but it is starting to die on me. (Spinning me in place, losing signal, etc) Any recommendations for a good quality wired XBox controller??

The Xbox One controller is great and can connect via USB. I use mine wired on my PC all the time and I'm quite happy with it.

mudbunny wrote:

Question time for those who use wired controllers with their PC. I originally bought a cheapo Radio Shack version, but it is starting to die on me. (Spinning me in place, losing signal, etc) Any recommendations for a good quality wired XBox controller??

to be sure, there is only one official Xbox controller. Are you looking for a third party controller? Because the official one will be the best.

I originally had a generic (pdp brand), but it lasted about 3 or 4 months. Time to get one that is actually, you know, well-made.

I use wireless Xbox 360 controllers on my PC, and they work just fine. The drivers disappear rarely, but it takes all of 60 seconds to fix.

I used a wired 360 controller for ages, until that became a hand-me-down and I switched to an Xbox One controller with the official Microsoft USB dongle, and that's worked flawlessly.

I use an Xbox Elite controller and I love it. The series 2 is out but I have a series 1. Feels great, customizable sticks and d-pad, extra optional triggers, and easily reconfigure the controls on a per game basis with the controller app. Comes with a very nice case.