MightyPen

Jackpot, fishypoopypants! :)

I thought I'd share this because it has me laughing to the point of tears and has done the same for pretty much everyone else I shared with... so, here we go. If you need a good laugh, check out these videos by Bad Lip Reading, in which the dialogue in videos is replaced with something nonsensical (but strangely well suited to the subject) that fits pretty well with their lip movements. Right now the brief and topical videos are the principals from the Republican primaries in the States. Mitt Romney (currently my favourite): Rick Santorum (my runner up): Ron Paul (honourable third place): But Bad Lip Reading's main gig though is redoing music videos and, in my opinion, vastly improving them. I can now sing "Russian Unicorn" start to finish by heart, and with considerable volume once I get into it: To Michael Bublé's credit, he says in a video response that it's the funniest thing he's ever seen. ;) "Everybody Poops" has grown on me too, but I'll let the interested hunt it down themselves... Enjoy!

Yup, dreams are cool and interpreting them is rewarding. The attachment of symbolism and meaning a dream can happen at different times: - maybe there really is something bothering us and it's expressed symbolically in the dream. Sometimes it's pretty clear that meaning is built directly into the dream as its happening. Our subconscious speaks to us through the dream itself. - or maybe the dream itself is random and not especially meaningful; but in looking back on it the next day, it's our waking mind that projects our internal preoccupations while we try to make sense of the dream's ambiguous symbols. Now, our subconscious speaks to us through the act of interpretation. Personally I think both are true at different times. Some of my dreams have been so clearly linked to real-life concerns that the meaning had to have been built into them. Other times, the meaning is a mystery but, kind of like your mice, I can find real-world events that kind of match, and that act of thinking and connecting is rewarding all by itself. In either case, our minds work on so many levels, some of them normally so obscured, that it would be a shame to waste the chance that dreams provide to glimpse into and interpret our own subconscious stirrings. I've always found them valuable that way.

OHmygod that's weird. I sometimes dream of my teeth all falling out too ("tumbling out" would be more accurate), and I think you're right, it's been at times when I've felt vulnerable for one reason or another. I've have this weird recurring dream over the last year in which I own another house in a nearby neighbourhood that I've forgotten about... and I realize "Oh crap! I have to get over there and mow the lawn/shovel the driveway/pick up the mail!". I have no idea what that means... well, actually, if the house is a stand-in for something else, I think I know what it might be. I often dream abstracted versions of the previous day's events. Or rather, I think as my brain tries to make sense of its own random firings throughout the night, it fits them into the first pattern available -- what I experienced the day before. Sometimes the correlation between dream and yesterday is pretty clear, right down to occurring in the same sequence. Other times, dreams have given me the answers to personal situations I'm sorting out -- usually by putting me in a dream version of the problem in which I can act out one choice. My dreaming mind speculates and portrays how I imagine the world would react to my decision, and how it feels internally. What I learn from the dream experience has helped me choose, or avoid, that same decision in real life. In lots of ways, my dreams are definitely powerful tools for personal insight, often about things I don't or won't think about during the waking day. A really, really interesting subject.

I'm so, so sorry to hear about the loss of your little companion. I know how hard that experience is -- it's full-on honest-to-god grief. Good for you for writing about it here. Big hugs. I'm a huge lover of dogs, and I've lost two in my time... in my case, by having them put down. The first one was a dog I brought home from the Humane Society, a little broken-down stiff-limbed little middle-aged dog who had been in a puppy mill all her life. They weren't even going to put her up for adoption she was so sickly, but I discovered her at the groomer's where she'd been cleaned up after her rescue, and took her home. She had a few good years, with probably the most love and care she'd ever had, before her past caught up with her and her health failed. I thought I was ready for the experience of putting her down, having watched her decline, and knowing it was the right decision... but no, it was much, much more wrenching and sorrowful than I had prepared myself for. Lots and lots of whole-body sobbing. The second time was a dog given to me by a relative, who found her "too mischievous". I got her at age 6, and she lived with me for seven years. Finally she started to fail too -- heart problems -- and while I was able to treat her symptoms and keep her happy for almost a year, things eventually got worse. I made the hard decision, but once again her health was so poor that it was clear it was time, for her own sake. I was a bit more braced this time, and got through the injections and her death with moderate sorrow. But then... I'd arranged to have her cremated, and so I returned to the vet's a week later to collect her ashes. While waiting at the desk for the little box, I found myself looking over at the waiting area where people were sitting patiently with their pets, where my dog and I had waited together so many times over the preceding year during her illness. Felt it coming... and just managed to claim the little box and get out to my car before I totally lost it. Grief for all the years we'd had, and that were now over. I tell you all this not to intrude on your grief with tales of my own... but just to say I really do understand, and feel for you. I waited many years before getting another pet. I have two dogs now, both three (I got them at 8 weeks old from the same litter -- brother and sister!). They're in great shape and I love every hour I get to spend with them. And knowing how the end goes, and that it's inevitable, really does make me value this time I have with them that much more. I hope that, down the road, you can find a new little companion too.

Heh. Not that difficult in these days of post-"Leet" speak. What's cool is that it shows we read by recognizing the overall shapes of words, not by stringing together individual letters. "This message serves to prove how our minds can do amazing things! Impressive things! In the beginning it was hard but now, on this line your mind is reading it automatically without even thinking about it, be proud! Only certain people can read this, Please forward if you can read this." That's why a movie title like "Se7en" works so effortlessly well.

That's cool. The technology is pretty neat. Thanks for the link. Possibly oddball reaction follows, though: Did anyone else find it... weirdly sterile? Like a Disney World version of things. I realize it's an ad, of course, and it's more interested in selling the potential of a technology than being a documentary forecast. But I can't shake this weird feeling that... what... this is the future we're meant to aspire to? The people who made that ad thought that their target audience would respond to it well. They showed an idealized version of a possible future. But I felt myself thinking... what, they made something idealized and it's this? It's a weird ideal I'd actually hate to live in. Not to mention, if the guy had been surfing CERB carelessly, he'd run the risk of finding it plastered all over his mirrors, fridge, and countertops the next morning. "Uh... honey?..." :) EDIT: To expand on that a little, I guess my core response is based on a belief that our culture spends a LOT of time getting excited about "look what we can do!" and far, far too little time asking "who am I, and why am I doing that?" No criticism of you for posting this, though, RG -- it is very cool.

All institutions are corrupt and, no matter how benevolently they start out, ultimately will evolve to serve only their own interests. C'mon, haven't we all watched all five seasons of The Wire? ;) Unions will, eventually, do as little as possible for the workers they represent while enriching themselves at their members' expense. They'll do just enough to make themselves seem worthwhile. Employers will give workers as little as they can possibly get away with, and work them as hard as the law allows, just as they will give their customers as little as they can get away with and charge them as much as possible while doing so. Nevertheless, you can't just take away unions or strike rights, and leave disorganized workers individually subject to the greedy, grasping divide-and-conquer whims of an organized corporate employer. You need to make sure that rights-shackled workers aren't then subject to the conditions that legitimately warrant a strike. If you take away the workers' right to strike, then the employer has to lose something comparable. So... I agree that public transportation is an essential service. I agree we should forbid striking for the sake of everyone who depend on the service. But also put contract negotiations in the hands of an independent arbiter with full access to the transit company's accounts, and enforceable rules for contracts and corporate management. Make sure the employer is tightly bound to live up to its terms. Bind the two sides together in mutual interest. Let neither enrich themselves at the other's expense.

That was an amazing article. Thanks for pointing it out. Some people will stop at the title and make an immediate judgement one way or another. The value comes from reading the whole thing, to understand the fury and devastation behind the statement. She earned the heavy burden of wisdom at a terrible cost, and reading her article gave me new understanding. I second her title.

1986 through 1989. Yeah, I know, it's a bit broad. ;)

They just a couple of weeks ago found planets still orbiting close 'round a post-red giant star, so it looks like the longstanding conventional wisdom that inner planets get consumed when the sun expands was wrong. But you're right, things get much hotter on the planets for a while from the increased radiation. Atmospheres boil away, so do the oceans, and everything gets very, very dry. We've only got about 1B years on earth 'til the water goes away and we resemble Mars today. But then, long term, everything cools WAY down. Either way, all the matter in the solar system, stays in the solar system.

This place is valuable to me. Maybe more than it should be -- its bedrock is just commerce after all. But nevertheless, a great place where I can speak with a unique part of me that doesn't have anywhere else to play in my life right now. Awesome, awesome people. Thanks.

Certainly the matter part is true. The vast, vast majority of atoms more complicated than hydrogen were created at the center of stars. Forged in vast gravity-driven fusion furnaces, then distributed by stellar explosions, recycled in new stars, hurled out again in more vast clouds, until eventually by chance they were caught by gravity in the formation of our solar system. We're all made of that stuff. The energy was largely carried along with those atoms, plus a huge contribution from gravity, and luckily for us the ignition of our own sun. (Future: our own sun isn't massive enough to go nova itself, so everything in our own solar system pretty much stays here, cooling as the sun dies over the next 4B years, until maybe long, long afterward we "bump" into something else.)

Thanks! Ricky Gervais is awesome. Actually, my favourite funny video on the subject is this:

I'd love to believe in an afterlife and all the metaphysical reassurance that comes with it. But there's no good evidence at all to believe there is one. So I must conclude there isn't. There are no reliable reports of near-death experiences that can't be explained by: a) physiological changes to the brain as the body starts to fail; b) our minds trying desperately to make sense of the subjective experience of a); and c) the widespread cultural beliefs that the mind draws upon as it performs b). The mind is a tricky thing, and our experience is highly subjective and unreliable every minute of every day. We continually live life as our brains interpret it, selectively and fallibly, rather than according to the objective facts. We're always trying to make sense and find meaning in the events around us, and string them into a sensible narrative. But the fact is, although the world is ordered, it's fundamentally meaningless. Human experience is meaning-based. The world itself is not. If our day to day experience is that unreliable, imagine how unreliable the reports are of people who have been through a weird and traumatic experience like the brain itself starting to die. On the one hand I'm saddened, because like everyone I have a deep desire for meaning and reassurance implied by an afterlife. But on the other hand I use my reluctant conviction that "this life is all we have" to keep trying to improve the life I'm living, without relying on the promise of another chance after I die. Mostly, that takes the form of being good to the people around me, and treasuring the time I have with the other people on this planet. Statistics say I'm more than halfway through my journey, and I don't want to waste any of what's left with the excuse that things will be better next time.

I'm ready for the Next Big Thing in my life/career, and I think I know what it is. It's been my ambition since my teens. Work is underway. I'm kind of excited.

Clearly the best defense against this kind of entrapment is to leave some of your sperm in as many unlikely places as possible. You can make your own list of places.* That way when the detective has you in The Box and says "we found some of your sperm at the crime scene" you can just say "pfff! Dude. Of course you did. That stuff is everywhere!"** * because I started to make a funny list here, and it immediately became really, really creepy. :) **And then take him on a tour to some of those places to prove it!

Yup! If there's anything you want to check on Wikipedia, better do it soon, or else wait 'til Thursday...

You know, if there's one thing we can definitely conclude from this thread, it's that maybe there's a tendency to perceive "the human race" as too monolithic. Look at how many people here are putting up their hands and saying "no, way, I don't fit the mould". And that's just the ones who posted already; for each person who contributed to the thread, imagine how many others could relate but have so far stayed silent. I do know a number of people who fit the prevalent "mainstream humanity" stereotype: materialistic, narcissistic, driven by consumerism and lacking introspection and insight. They live their lives like people on t.v. commercials. I'm not one of them. Though who would recognize and admit it if they were? But I know a lot of people who have confronted and largely overcome challenges of self-esteem, prolonged social pain and alienation, and from that struggle found their individuality. They're people who have carved out separate social niches for themselves, and these are the folks I find most interesting. There are lots of us here. What a shame we're harder to recognize when we pass by each other out in the world.

Wasn't the California energy crisis all about the disastrous consequences of letting private industry run the production and sale of energy? They had people shutting down power plants for "maintenance" in order to reduce the supply of energy, jack up the price accordingly, and reap astronomical profits from the public who had nowhere else to buy power. And that's just the first example that comes to mind. Then there's privatization of the water supply in Bolivia... Private industry can possibly do a better job than government with utilities, but only if there's competition. With a monopoly, you just create another California. And how to ensure there's no monopoly, or simple collusion between profit-oriented corporations? I'd rather have the government running utilities inefficiently, than monopolies running them to maximize profit. I don't have figures handy, but I seem to recall that the Canadian healthcare system is cheaper and more efficient than the American one. That probably depends how we frame the question and measure efficiency/cheapness, though -- I'm not sure offhand. Somewhat true. A nation of slaveowners might achieve great economic output but not necessarily a good overall standard of living, right? So the one doesn't automatically lead to the other, but I agree it's a necessary precondition. But... I don't think anyone has disputed this, right? Is anyone here advocating less industry, production, or national prosperity? I thought Loopie took a pretty good stab at the answer. Definitions of "socialism" (like "capitalism") vary, but nothing about capitalism is antithetical to socialism. Socialism as a political philosophy ("we should all contribute somewhat to our collective interests") works perfectly well with capitalism as I defined it earlier in the thread. Capitalism is about how a society generates wealth. Socialism is about how a society employs that wealth. I'll be honest though, I'm approaching the limit of how deeply I want to pursue this issue on CERB. It's fun and rewarding to throw ideas out there, but it's not something we're all likely to agree on in the end. We could waste a lot of letters without coming close to a resolution. :) Thanks to everyone for their contributions -- it's been interesting.

That's a great video. I was disappointed at the stony faces in the audience early on, but glad to see that everyone loosened up later on. The speaker is right: lots of people have been conditioned to deny to themselves or others the kind of sex they really want to have. And that's a shame. There are lots and lots of pressures that produce this, both internal and external. Let's hope things get better for everyone.

Heh heh. Yup. Similar problem: the reaction I most often prompt in women is "why, what a nice young man!" and it can be hard to lead them to the darker places I sometimes want to go. Thanks to the women I've met here who have been playful, experienced, welcoming, willing, and more than capable of taking adventures with me all over my personal sexual landscape. And who have taught me that once we get there, I can hold up my part of the adventure pretty darned well. You've done me no end of good.

I like Meg 'cause she always has thoughtful little quotes in her ads! It's that little extra thought that suggests there's somebody very cool at that keyboard. EDIT: D'oh! Ninja'd! If it helps, I like Old Dog 'cause he and I both like Meg!

Yeah... that was bad. Really, really bad. Same thing happened in Quebec City in 2001, by the way. I remember a colleague of mine had gone to join the protests in Quebec and came back deeply disturbed by the needless violence she saw the police employ. Institutions protect themselves. Government + money is a formidable institution. I still hope something can be done, but we'll see. The Internet is changing things; masses of regular people are able to share and coordinate as never before. If things aren't changed soon, there might be an Arab Spring waiting for us around the corner.

I was a Weird Kid; I didn't seem to think like other people and, starting around age 8, I couldn't understand a lot of what people did, especially in groups. This continued in some form all the way into my early 20s. There are some simple reasons for why I grew up like that, but they're not important -- what was important was the lasting sense of separation from the mainstream it planted in me. Through high school it got worse, and dating simply didn't happen. But then in university it started to change as I found my strength and my stride. From then on it eased. But some of that sense never left me; it's built-in, though generally in check. Most people never see it -- I'm good that way -- but I know it's there. So do the people who know me well. Like Berlin, I have a tendency to solitude (but I don't let that dominate my life). One of the upsides is, it's made me independent in thought and deed. That's one of the reasons I'm here. :)