Messages

[Ulster.]

Don't believe the hype. Everything south of Carlisle is England. Including especially fucking Wales!

Balls.  If you are from one of the following areas, you are English:

England.
Wales.
Cornwall.
Scotland.
Ireland. Ulster.
Canada (HAH!  I was born in Michigan, spags!  169% OWNED.  I mean me.)
Australia.
Gibralter.
Any of those little fucking islands off of England.
Belize.
New Zealand.
Anywhere within 1 mile of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island.

Fixed.

If you can't beat em,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7movKfyTBII

Then watch it with no volume. Dwarf abuse never looked so appealing.

What's wrong with this video again? It's got a hot dude in it.

It's my favorite flavor of 80s cheese. I find no fault with it either.

 

Louisiana Extension Cord

Did no one think to take pics of him?

Not sure. He had glasses and crazy hair.

Now that I think of it, I think that I've seen him at shows around Boston and Cambridge.

If only Carl Sagan had been black, none of this would have happened.

We have Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Unfortunately, I'm going to be getting my queer on in PTown.

Have a great show, though!

Will do!

Sorry Cainad but you asked.

That said. This song can be covered in a decent fashion. Let's face it. It can't be done worse.

Just a reminder to any Mass Spags, this Saturday, Dodge St. Bar and Grille, Salem, MA. I'm in Anarchangel, last band to go on.

Hope to see you there!

muhahahahahaha!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YvyXu7coXA

ACK!!!! They look like greys!!!

SRSLY.  In addition to the normal meetup fun, it was awesome to meet Dok in the flesh.  He didn't expect a nonstop manic spree of WEIRD, we dodn't expect it of him, but we fell into it now and again.  He's a gracious guest too and was fine with shooting the shit and gaming as much as the rolling around seeing sites, or the weird, when it happened.  (We watched a bar fade form yankee to America to Tucson voer the course of several hours.)

Boston was a 10 hour streak of lulz on my brain.  Goddamn.
I'm left with one hell of a reading list, a bunch of pictures to upload,  horrible SCIENCE to commit, and a bunch of crazy experiences for the trouble. 

Well worth it all.  Shit's going down again next year.
 

Roger commenting on the ambiguity of "Jesus saves from Hell" was hilarious. It was great to meet him too, since he came all the way from Arizona. The coolest thing though was that even though I am a noob, he was the first to recognize and greet me. I'm a bit shy around new people, so my regret is that the night didn't go on longer, since it would have gotten me more talkative (as I'm sure Pope Tom,  and on a different occasion, dimo and LMNO can attest). But it was definitely cool to put some faces to names (recognized others from pics posted here, like Suu, Roger and Cram). I think I've run into a great group of people here, and I appreciate the opportunity to have met some of you IRL.

Kinda going with what NotPublished said, one could argue that all the world international politics that we are dealing with now are a result of World War I (and even farther back, I know, but it's a good point for reference).... For example, if WWI didn't happen, it could be argued that there would not be a fascist strain in Europe, and therefore WWII wouldn't happen. If WWII didn't happen, maybe there wouldn't be a Cold War, since if WWI didn't happen, there might not be a Soviet Union (no Revolution), and there might not have been brief cooperation that went sour. No nukes because no Hiroshima and Nagasaki... no catalyst. No UN, no Israeli-Palastinian conflict (no Holocaust, no strong push for Jewish homeland), no break up of the British Empire, etc, etc...

We're still feeling the effects of what happened 100 years ago, let alone everything else that happened before even that. I chose WWI as a reference point for near-term modern perspective (without commenting in depth upon all of it).

Whether or not we would be better off is a matter of "what if" conjecture, but I think it's a good example of the original understanding of karma. One thing opens up a whole different can of worms.

I have religious beliefs. Maybe (probably) this puts me in the minority here, but I really don't care. I'm not here for my beliefs, but for Discordia. I don't have children at the moment, but when I do, and they start asking questions, I will tell them, "look, I believe that when you die, you kinda dream for awhile and then come back and forget everything from before. This is not what my father and mother and step father believe. My father believes you go to heaven and spend eternity with Jesus. My mother believes it doesn't matter as long as you're good, and then you go to heaven and have happy fun time until the universe dies too, and you still have happy fun time. My step father believes that this is it and that's all there is to it. I broke away and chose my own beliefs. I expect you to do the same and evaluate for yourself what you find the most comfortable. In the meantime, know that there is anecdotal evidence for and against (Hawk) afterlife. Ultimately what matters is that you live this life well and to the fullest. I think you get another chance but I could be wrong. Live like there is no tomorrow and hope for the best." Maybe I'll put it in more understandable terms, but I think that's the tack I'll take: I don't know but this is what I think. Look into it and tell me what you think.


On a side note, Hawk's experiences got me thinking. It seems like people have different NDE's. Sorry if this is threadjacking but it seems relevant. Does what you expect to happen color your experiences when dying? Like, some people see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm presuming that they are afterlifers. I'm going to assume Hawk expects nothing, and got nothing. Maybe I'm not explaining this well, butdoes one see what they want to see?

FTR I haven't clicked a single link for about 3 pages now

I click them to see what they are at least. Sometimes I'll put myself through the whole thing.

good question!

I think that people make meaning for the world using narratives.

When somebody's personality changes, there is usually a narrative to "explain" it.

"He's been much friendlier ever since his kid was born."

"She just hasn't been the same since the car accident."

"He hasn't been getting a lot of sleep since the new job started."


I think the answer is somewhere in there -
- you create a narrative in which change is possible

Effect precedes cause 

there's definitely some truth to that

there's one lady in my office who is ALWAYS smiling, ALWAYS helpful, and in turn, ALWAYS having a good day. It's infectious!

There's definitely a law of fives kind of filter in place there, which works like this --


If we go back to our discussions about Shrapnel, the idea is that we are constantly being bombarded by shrapnel, and some of it will become a part of us. And meanwhile, we are constantly blasting out shrapnel with everything we do.

So if I believe in Karma in any sense, it is that you tend to identify / experience / not filter out the kind of shrapnel you send out. If you go around bitter and sour, you will find more bitter and sour shrapnel stuck to you. If you go around being awesome, you will encounter more awesome stuff. I think it's the best argument for optimism.

This.  There's been a couple studies lately that show that attitudes and moods really are infectious--humans being social creatures, they pick up others' moods subconsciously, and react subconsciously.  (Side note--I wonder if it's related to how people can't think about an emotion without making the facial expression associated with that emotion)  To put it simplistically, you teach people how to treat you.  If you're constantly negative, other people will associate you with negativity, and subconsciously treat you negatively, which makes you even more negative.

I do think a lot of what's being called karma (in this thread even) is just the westernized trope of god punishing the wicked, with god replaced by karma.  I don't think karma has much to do with punishment at all, unless it's generalized punishment of the entire human race.

That's the kind of karma I can buy into. Makes more sense in its original context rather than the My Name is Earl thing.

Though, aside from it being a great show it does kinda go with the change in attitude posts ITT. Earl starts off doing good things because he's afraid of bad karma, but throughout the progression of the show actually becomes a good guy independently of karma.