Apologies if I haven't been saying much here. I've been visiting family for the holidays.

That sounds super neat! Do you talk about cognitive tests for that, or is it mainly like a brain processes thing?

@Tlazolteotl well I'm sure there might be a linguistic theory or two out there that could probably translate to writing capabilities but I haven't a clue unfortunately.

hmmm yes and no. the stuff we've been doing covers a broad range of stuff, so it's not rlly one thing. I like morphosyntax, all the dissecting of language is pretty darn cool. computational linguistics though... I can't with the coding 🤧

the dictionary sounds VERY cool. perchance could you namedrop it for my perusal?

I've been seriously considering trying out "sentence diagrams" on authors whose writing style I really like to try and understand what I like about it...

oh hey that's a p nifty idea! they're normally used to discern the grammar rules of a languages, so you could def use 'em to pick apart the patterns behind the writing styles you like. it's better than my method of brute-forcing it anw (writing garbage until I come back later and make it look passable 😋)

@BaronOBeefDip no worries! happy visiting :)

@BaronOBeefDip No worries! Did you have a good time?

@silver21 It's a combination of tests/experiments and a whole lot of analysis 😭, but my main focus is mostly brain stuff.

Oh random question, but what's a good source to learn about music therapy stuff for beginners?

@Stanifly Do you specialize in a specific language/region?

Let's see... well there "Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World," "A New Look at Old Words: Street Slang from the 1600s-1800s: A Writer's Categorized Guide," "The Little Book of Lost Words: Collywobbles, Snollygosters, and 86 Other Surprisingly Useful Terms Worth Resurrecting," "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows"... etc. etc. (I could quite literally keep going). I also like reading books on etymology and idioms. Do you have any books that you refer to often?

Ohh that makes sense! I've been also trying to look into videos of people actually breaking down the technical aspect of writing, but most of the time I just realize how much I don't really think about how I write 😂

I don't think there's that many people out there who can just write perfectly at the first try, it's the multiple revisions that makes it better. So the best we can do is just write SOMETHING cause I think getting started is actually the hardest part of writing. And if brute force can get you there, then it's an effective tool in my books 😆

@Tlazolteotl
That’s still cool! I love brain stuff. My focus in grad school was brain stuff with music and learning.

Do you mean to learn about what music therapy is like, or to do music therapy? To be a music therapist you need a degree in music therapy and board-certification. To get some general info about music therapy, you can check out these links!

musictherapy.org/research

musictherapy.org/research/factsheets

Our association website is unfortunately quite terrible to navigate so if there’s something specific you want to know about, ask away and I can point you in a more specific direction lol. If you’re curious about research, you can check out Music Therapy Perspectives of the Journal of Music Therapy through your university’s library if they have access to them.

You might also be interested in Neurologic Music Therapy since you like the cognitive stuff 😜

nmtacademy.co

@Tlazolteotl Yes, I had a really good time. We went to have Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and brother-in-law so that was nice.

@silver21 Thanks! I'll take a look over this weekend! I know there were a few students/interns in the lab I study/work at who were focused on the relationship between music and cognition, so those books might be in one of our bookshelves.

@BaronOBeefDip Great! I keep hearing horror stories about family gatherings, so it's nice to hear when people actually have a good time 😁

Oh, @Auragreedia, @silver21, @Stanifly, if you guys are stuck, I'll be happy to give hints!

@Tlazolteotl
Cool! With that in mind, Music in the Human Experience: An Introduction to Music Psychology by Hodges (2020) might be best to check out as well for looking more into just music and cognition. Feel free to hmu with any additional questions about music therapy or music and cognition, I love that stuff 😁

Also I'm really just waiting for more people to respond in IC before I keep going lol but I'm happy to jump in quicker! I just don't want to leave people behind

Sorry, just taking awhile to write something, been busy lately! I'll try and get something out tomorrow when I can

Let's see... well there "Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World," "A New Look at Old Words: Street Slang from the 1600s-1800s: A Writer's Categorized Guide," "The Little Book of Lost Words: Collywobbles, Snollygosters, and 86 Other Surprisingly Useful Terms Worth Resurrecting," "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows"... etc. etc. (I could quite literally keep going). I also like reading books on etymology and idioms. Do you have any books that you refer to often?

!!! thank you for the delightful selection. it's way more than what I read for fun - The Cambridge Grammar of The English Language. a lot less flavourful, I know, but there's just something so satisfying about reading grammars. now if I could just hunt down a good one for Malay...

Do you specialize in a specific language/region?

Nope! But when I get the opportunity, I'd probably pick Javanese or something. The Malay language family needs a lil' more love!

Survived the presentation 😭

@silver21 Thanks for the rec! I'll add it to the list

@Auragreedia It's no problem! Getting slammed at work?

@Stanifly You're very welcome, let me know if you end up like any of them, I point out some more 😁 (I'll also keep an eye out for Malay)

... but there's just something so satisfying about reading grammars.

On the flip side, is it frustrating to see bad grammar? ... Cause I may be guilty of that 😂

Is there not that many people specialized in the Malay language family? Why's that?

@Tlazolteotl yeppp, it's been rough lol. By the way, could we get a hint for this catharsis? I can only mildly piece it together atm, but I'm still unsure as to how to solve it

Hint: @Stanifly Teresa's on to something about the music

Survived the presentation 😭

Hooray!!! 🎉

Well, I can add "GIF of a man dancing in a kilt" to the list of things I never thought I'd see.

Also, got a new furnace this week. My old one was just starting to get worn and it was time to replace it. Just in time for a snowstorm of about six inches. Yay.

Well, I can add "GIF of a man dancing in a kilt" to the list of things I never thought I'd see.

Isn't the internet a magical place? 😂

That really is good timing! Do you get snow storms where you live often?

Even though I'm going to be moving in a few months, I gave in and decided to buy a new blanket cause it's... just way too cold at night 🥶

Hint: @Stanifly Teresa's on to something about the music

HA! Knew it. (I did not, in fact, know it.) I'll catch up on everything tomorrow, having a killer headache rn 🐝

@Tlazolteotl I live in South Dakota so snow is pretty standard during the winter.