dark_templar

Comment Threads

• Dirk Bruere commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
  All these techniques like nootropic drugs, tDCS etc I have referred to as "marginal" in my own experience. However, I only recently realized that on one set of informal tests I did when taking Piracetam it boosted my score by 7%, which was not enough to "feel". However, if that was the 100m sprint it would be the difference between winning and not even qualifying for the race. These techniques are marginal for high performers who want "more of the same", but as the US military is discovering, average or below average people benefit disproportionately....
• April_D commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
  People keep saying running is fun, but the last time I had fun running I was playing tag in the 5th grade. In 6th grade we abruptly didn't have a playground anymore, and after that running became work....
• Bill Arnold commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
  The only time I ever enjoyed running was in a required PE ("Physical Education") class, where we mostly ran on paths in the woods. The uneven terrain made it interesting; every foot landing could be planned in mid-air or even a few landings in advance and needed to be executed carefully (lest an ankle be sprained), which made it more mentally engaging. A bit like skiing a bump slope. (Also, seeing trees and smaller plants and flowers is always good.)...
• Pigeon commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
  Oh, goodness, yes. But you probably have to have had your own schooldays blighted by the experience to really appreciate it. The association is with the big hulking moron who taught games because he was too thick to teach anything intelligent, hitlering around the place in his tracksuit bottoms with highly conspicuous dick bulge, being a complete wanker to everyone and especially to those who would have hated the whole business anyway even without him making it worse. More particularly, with the subspecies of hulking moron who was just devious enough to formulate some inept appeal to my interest in...
• Pigeon commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
  "...the drawing "high"..." The most successful of my (very infrequent and generally crap) attempts at drawing involved the technique of first getting really stoned. This enabled me first to imagine the scene I wanted to draw in photorealistic detail, and then to project the scene onto the paper and draw round it. As far as I remember only one other person ever saw it, but he seemed to think it had worked. Other benefits (of lesser importance) were the avoidance of any discouragement from sensations of impatience or tedium, and the negation of any inhibition from a lifetime of experience...