>> ^shinyblurry:

You have a lot more problems than you know about.

Watch your step here, mate. You are drifting dangerously close to being even more of a sanctimonious turd than you already are. Again, any problems that I do have, will not be solved with the addition of more religion. Less religion? Might help things on a global scale, but on a personal level, I have removed it's (negative) influence from my life.

>> ^shinyblurry:

but you said it yourself, youre satisified with a worldly life. You're not interested in God, you don't fear Him, and you don't want to live a holy and sanctified life.

I much more interested in living a good life. I wish to lead an ethical life, be happy and be a good friend and husband.

Also I support that which is good and oppose that which is evil. Kinda like Jesus, or more awesomely, Batman.

>> ^shinyblurry:

Instead of changing or reaching out to God, you want Jesus on a silver platter, to pursue at your leisure. So, it isn't really a mystery why you haven't heard anything from Him is it?

If I had a friend who had a serious problem, but wouldn't acknowledge it, I wouldn't wait for them to come to me. I'd try to help. I think most people would. So that leaves the following possibilities in order of probability (starting at the most likely)

1. Jesus (the man) is dead, if he ever really existed in the first place. Jesus (the "son of god") is a fairy tale.

2. Jesus/God/Allah/Buddah is perfectly happy with the way I'm living my life, and chooses to let me get on with it.

3. Jesus knows I'm screwing my life up(!?), but is such a collossal dick that he can't even be bothered to intervene. And again, don't give me that bullshit of "he has intervened, through the church. blah blah blah". Back to my hypothetical friend with a problem. Let's say he's a heroin addict for the sake of argument. Would I be morally ok with just sending an email to the local addiction centre suggesting they look into this?

We missed Thanksgiving, but a good friend brought over a Thankgiving dinner from the market Sunday, so it turned out OK. Hopefully yours turned out OK too!

In reply to this comment by Boise_Lib:
I hope you guys got over the ickies and had some good turkey.
:

I got my first kitty when I was in third grade. I went to the pet store and my mom asked me to pick one. I couldn't find one that I made a connection with, so I didn't get a kitty that day. A couple trips later and found this one little tabby, meowing really loudly and trying desperately to jump down from her second level cage to get to me. I felt an immediate bond, and the little tabby became my new friend, Natasha. Since she lived a couple years as an only cat, she seemed to believe she was human. She was not afraid of anyone or anything. She even had the power to intimidate huge dogs that walked by our house just by staring them down. And she liked to talk. When ever she would see a new person, she would say hello. Say hello back and she'd meow again. Sometimes you could go back and forth with her a dozen times. Her voice was very loud, and she would use it to get herself fed at ungodly parts of the morning. She also had this thing where she would jump on your bed and kneed your chest and purr for a long time. She had a lot of love in her heart.

She lived 17 years. She eventually got skinnier and weaker and the vet said there was nothing to be done. I remember I knew which night she was going to pass. I was supposed to rehearse with a band I was playing with, but I called them and told them I wouldn't be there. I fell asleep next to her on the couch and woke up just before she passed. She started breathing heavier, and I knew it was time. I gently put my hands on her, comforting her last minute, and then she passed.

Losing a good friend is so hard. My heart is with you, Sheppard.

>> ^Esoog:

>> ^robbersdog49:
It really boils my piss when the police abuse their positions and speed like that. He was an irritating person, but did the right thing calling the cop out. You should be able to do that, they work for you, not the other way round.

There was nothing about what that douche bag did that was right. Which is more dangerous? A police officer that probably has way more driving training, or this moron that's driving 90+ while trying to film it all at the same time? The cop should have given this idiot a sobriety test.
Then to block him in while he's trying to get back to work? "They work for you"? Well tha'ts a big ass waste of time and resources, "boss".
I didnt take the time to look at what area this was in, but a lot of police forces are understaffed. If that is the case, and an officer that is trained in high speed driving needs to drive faster than civilians to service more area, then I'm all for it.


And, they've won. Cops should be beyond question and are awesome. Just let them get on with it. The bigger picture is that we'd all be safer if there was no speeding, and if the cops thought they would be called out more if they did speed then maybe that would help things.

Like I said, they guy's a dick, but what if he could produce a high speed license for you? Would it be alright then? A good friend of mine works for a high end car company and has an advanced driving license, a race license and a high speed testing license (he can drive up to 200mph on a test track). Should he be allowed to speed? If the cop is, then so is he. What the cop was doing was breaking the law. If he had a valid reason to be speeding, as in he had to be somewhere quick to uphold the law which is what you suggest when you talk about under-manning, then he should at least have had his lights on. He did nothing to the guy chasing him because he knew full well that it would get him into at least as much trouble if he did. I'll accept that the guy following him was acting up for the camera more than likely, but I think the bigger picture, where we can call out the police if we see them doing wrong, is worth putting up with that for.

If the right person did this, someone with high speed training, would you still think it a bad thing?

By the way, this particular diatribe was part of the Trilogues between Terence, Rupert Sheldrake on the far right, and (as it is my esteemed honor to share frequently with strangers) my good friend, Ralph Abraham in the middle.

Thank you. I shall check them out later.

In reply to this comment by quantumushroom:
After viewing the 29 things/Creativity video, I remembered these and thought you might like them.

'Oblique Strategies' cards explained

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000008.php

"How to get unstuck. Pick a card at random and either 1) do what it says or 2) let it lead you to another idea. It's amazingly effective. This handsomely boxed stack of cards was created by the lateral genius Brian Eno and good friend Pete Schmidt in 1975 to get themselves and other musicians unstuck in the studio. It's been through four updated editions since."

A link to some cards online:

http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/obli
que.html?message=&obnumber=2

After viewing the 29 things/Creativity video, I remembered these and thought you might like them.

'Oblique Strategies' cards explained

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000008.php

"How to get unstuck. Pick a card at random and either 1) do what it says or 2) let it lead you to another idea. It's amazingly effective. This handsomely boxed stack of cards was created by the lateral genius Brian Eno and good friend Pete Schmidt in 1975 to get themselves and other musicians unstuck in the studio. It's been through four updated editions since."

A link to some cards online:

http://music.hyperreal.org/artists/brian_eno/oblique/oblique.html?message=&obnumber=2

I could see where this might be true. Both players play very cautiously like a dentist prodding teeth for cavities. But, that may be because of the amount of money on the line. Definitely not the best game I have seen but still immensely entertaining. I actually watched this twice all the way through.




>> ^mentality:

The game was a huge let down, very sloppy play by Nestea. He seemed content to just sit back with maxed supply, barely putting any pressure on MVP. Nestea just sat there, mining out the right half of the map even though he had +10K minerals - all that wasted drone supply could've gone towards a larger army. When he finally decides to move out with his 100+ baneling army, after much indecision, does he drop MVP's mining expansions? - No. Does he drop MVP's production facilities? - No. Does he try to take out MVP's army? No - he does a terribly executed drop in MVP's mined out main, accomplishing NOTHING. And in the end, Nestea decides to make a max army of unsupported broodlords even though he KNOWS that MVP has ghosts and vikings.
This had all the features of a showmatch between two good friends and teammates, which has many people in the community suggesting that the game was fixed. Pretty much the worst game of Blizzcon, and one of the worst tournament finales I've ever seen.

The game was a huge let down, very sloppy play by Nestea. He seemed content to just sit back with maxed supply, barely putting any pressure on MVP. Nestea just sat there, mining out the right half of the map even though he had +10K minerals - all that wasted drone supply could've gone towards a larger army. When he finally decides to move out with his 100+ baneling army, after much indecision, does he drop MVP's mining expansions? - No. Does he drop MVP's production facilities? - No. Does he try to take out MVP's army? No - he does a terribly executed drop in MVP's mined out main, accomplishing NOTHING. And in the end, Nestea decides to make a max army of unsupported broodlords even though he KNOWS that MVP has ghosts and vikings.

This had all the features of a showmatch between two good friends and teammates, which has many people in the community suggesting that the game was fixed. Pretty much the worst game of Blizzcon, and one of the worst tournament finales I've ever seen.

Thanks, man. So you've eaten there then? Man, it looks so friggin' good.

In reply to this comment by RhesusMonk:
*promote

(good friend's family owns this joint! it absolutely deserves a place on the sift.)

*promote

(good friend's family owns this joint! it absolutely deserves a place on the sift.)

Haha. That's pretty good. Here's the truth in case anyone cares.

I unfriended DFT on FB a while back, and he's never let it go. I re-friended him because he came to a screening of my film. Later he unfriends me and then takes some sanctimonious position of whatever the hell who knows. He's a nice guy, and I like him, but I have a lot of good friends IRL and losing an internet friend isn't going to make me lose any sleep.

I still thank you for taking the time to drive from OC to LA to watch my film in a theater. Thank you for that. All this "Glenn close in Fatal Attraction" narrative is silly.

This tears my heart out. I was no monster, but I did my share of ignorant bullying in high school. I'm in my 30's now and I have contacted every one of them via peer networks and apologized for my ignorance; however, I learned that one girl that me and some friends picked on has killed herself after she caught her husband cheating on her. In a strange twist of fate, the woman I've been married to for 17 years now is a good friend with this girl's sister and her parents. I was able to apologize to her parents. They assured me that I had nothing to do with her suicide, but I don't care. I certainly didn't help her situation. I live with guilt every day of my life, and I am so sorry for being so wrong back then. I became a psychiatric tech in the 90's and I work with people who suffer from depression and other psychiatric disorders everyday when I go to work. I hope to help heal as many people as possible after causing those few people so much hurt.

Scientists need to do that thing where they hook your brain and show video from your minds eye...then you need to think of this story and record it.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
In '99 my graduating class came out to LA for a week to hold bullshit industry meetings and screenings. Not important. One night we decided to hire the kind of strippers that come to your hotel room. Imagine a class of about 30 or so people sitting in a suite while two chicks, one black and one white, danced for us. Mostly they wanted our money so they held these dumb games - one of them being you pay twenty to eat a Twizzler from their vagina. True story.

So I have this really good friend. We'll call him Giant. Giant was a great guy. The best. To this day I keep in touch with him. Sweet guy, but maybe not the most "experienced", if you get me. But a super awesome dude, just not the kind of dude that's comfortable around strippers. This is key to consider.

So then I had a Twizzler. So did a number of people. It was a rite of passage in a way. But then we all paid for Giant to have his turn. He was apprehensive, but it didn't take much convincing and he laid on his back and awaited his prize. The black chick was hot, and way hotter than the white girl. So lucky him when she straddled his face with the Twizzler embedded so deep only an inch was exposed. She dipped it around his lips, pulling back before getting too close to his open mouth.

All of us clapped and cheered. This seemed to excite and almost inspire her, so instead of letting Giant snatch it in his teeth, she seemed to bait him like how you'd excite your dog with a piece of bacon hanging over his nose. Anyhow, the white chick heard the crowd'd excitement and wanted to get into what the black chick was doing, and so she started unbuckling Giant's belt, and while she pulled it from the loops, he started panicking. Not the serious hyperventilating kind. No. But the "Shit this is embarrassing" kind.

He starts really going for it. Snapping at that small piece of Twizzler just sticking out, but for some reason he just can't quite reach it. True story. So then the girl gets his belt off, and then gives him a gaspedal. That's when someone steps on your junk. Or so that's what someone told me it was called. Anyhow, she steps on his danglies and he freaks the fuck out, snaps the Twizzler like a goddamned ninja from the other girl's vagina, and takes off running back to his seat. All in a blink of the eye. But without his belt, his khakis come down. Exposing his tightie-whities. Yes, it was 1999 and those where tightie-whities.

But the girl behind him, the one who stole his belt, started whipping his ass as he ran away. So. Imagine this, a Twizzler in his lips, he's running away with his pants around his ankles in front of almost the entire class and the girl behind him is chasing him and spanking him in the ass with his own belt. Everyone erupts in this kind of half-laugh/half-scream. And that's when I think about the Twizzler I ate just a couple moments ago, and it was then I asked myself, "What did that taste like?"

"It tasted like what I imagined AIDS tasting like."

In '99 my graduating class came out to LA for a week to hold bullshit industry meetings and screenings. Not important. One night we decided to hire the kind of strippers that come to your hotel room. Imagine a class of about 30 or so people sitting in a suite while two chicks, one black and one white, danced for us. Mostly they wanted our money so they held these dumb games - one of them being you pay twenty to eat a Twizzler from their vagina. True story.

So I have this really good friend. We'll call him Giant. Giant was a great guy. The best. To this day I keep in touch with him. Sweet guy, but maybe not the most "experienced", if you get me. But a super awesome dude, just not the kind of dude that's comfortable around strippers. This is key to consider.

So then I had a Twizzler. So did a number of people. It was a rite of passage in a way. But then we all paid for Giant to have his turn. He was apprehensive, but it didn't take much convincing and he laid on his back and awaited his prize. The black chick was hot, and way hotter than the white girl. So lucky him when she straddled his face with the Twizzler embedded so deep only an inch was exposed. She dipped it around his lips, pulling back before getting too close to his open mouth.

All of us clapped and cheered. This seemed to excite and almost inspire her, so instead of letting Giant snatch it in his teeth, she seemed to bait him like how you'd excite your dog with a piece of bacon hanging over his nose. Anyhow, the white chick heard the crowd'd excitement and wanted to get into what the black chick was doing, and so she started unbuckling Giant's belt, and while she pulled it from the loops, he started panicking. Not the serious hyperventilating kind. No. But the "Shit this is embarrassing" kind.

He starts really going for it. Snapping at that small piece of Twizzler just sticking out, but for some reason he just can't quite reach it. True story. So then the girl gets his belt off, and then gives him a gaspedal. That's when someone steps on your junk. Or so that's what someone told me it was called. Anyhow, she steps on his danglies and he freaks the fuck out, snaps the Twizzler like a goddamned ninja from the other girl's vagina, and takes off running back to his seat. All in a blink of the eye. But without his belt, his khakis come down. Exposing his tightie-whities. Yes, it was 1999 and those where tightie-whities.

But the girl behind him, the one who stole his belt, started whipping his ass as he ran away. So. Imagine this, a Twizzler in his lips, he's running away with his pants around his ankles in front of almost the entire class and the girl behind him is chasing him and spanking him in the ass with his own belt. Everyone erupts in this kind of half-laugh/half-scream. And that's when I think about the Twizzler I ate just a couple moments ago, and it was then I asked myself, "What did that taste like?"

"It tasted like what I imagined AIDS tasting like."