MysterionMuffles

Does anybody get bluesy around the Christmas season? Or is it just another time of year like any other? (Whether you've gotten over initial Holiday Blues or was just never a big deal for you to begin with)

Basically this. Talk is just talk unless it's horribly malicious and are clear plans to harm someone.

That is such a good idea and I really love the ending of that comic. I look forward to more! Edit: ending of the first PANEL, but then I realized there were more pages! As much as I appreciate the content provided, I do feel like it's a little blunt and dry in its delivery. There could be a few ways to spice it up and make it sound more clever, and since you're not a writer, I can at least once again give you some props for this attempt. You got the principles and facts down right, but comic strips usually require some wit and comedy.

I thought this was very interesting and logical. Explains a lot as to how Home Alone really is just an abused child's fantasy of displacing his anger and hatred towards anyone but his family. I just thought it was a silly slapstick movie as a kid, but the fact that it really is so violent, and that most of the violence is caused by a child, it gives me pause.

Pepin: YES System of a Down, part of the reason why I liked them was because of their political message since I've always been an Anarchist. Their goofy songs were a good break too from the hidden anger that was brought from noticing injustice. As for Blink 182 I got into them late into my teens for a little while, just the album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. Their lyrics were simple and graspable, they were catchy, and of course relatable like you said about puberty and stuff. I also like that you mentioned that you didn't start listening to music until you were in the 8th grade, reminds me of how I didn't like the idea of music until I was 8 years old. Everyone around me listened to rap and I wasn't fond of the genre, nor those people and I had completely forgotten or just never considered other genres existed. It wasn't until playing Donkey Kong Country 2 did I start appreciating music. Even more so when I reached the Bramble Blast level where Stickerbrush Symphony, one of the best video game songs EVER, plays in the background. I loved it so much that I even paused the level for an hour just to listen to the song. They were actually gonna remove that song from the game's soundtrack, but glad they didn't, otherwise I would have never enjoyed music at least in the way it happened for me. My interest basically started with ordering the DKC soundtracks from Nintendo Power LOL. Oh man I won't even get into the emo phase I was in when I also used to listen to Hawthorne Heights. One thing I found notable about them was the use of 3 guitars even though thei riffs were simple. Very whiny stuff, didn't like their 2nd album, lost interest in them, but really enjoyed their first album mostly through and through. Glad that Metallica inspired you to pick up guitar, for me I can't pinpoint what band got me into guitar. Guess all of them. But System of a Down was a huge factor because I wanted to learn the whole Steal This Album (WHICH I DID) off the tab book and I even went so far as to get an Ibanez Iceman, the same guitar that Daron Malakian uses. Simple ass riffs, I never had much trouble with them other than perfecting the faster rhythms. It's the mathrock I listen to nowadays that makes me confused as to how they do what they do. FalariusRex: Glad to have pointed that out then about the RESPECT song. LOL not exactly songs about NOT doing those things. But you do bring up a good point about being self destructive while listening to music that tries to (or is perceived as trying to) take you away from that. The drinking song was actually promoting drinking hard and one of the lyrics even being "tonight to hell with everything else, we'll drink hard we'll drink to ourselves." But the first song on the Boys Night Out album being about the change of mind after giving up getting high, I guess that's what propelled me to change. The summer since I graduated up until that winter I started listening to Boys Night Out, I was basically getting burnt out and slowly edging away from blazing far too much. I still did to a point, and I even got my first job solely because I wanted to grab more (yeah horrible source for motivation I know, but that money was put towards better things eventually). I get what you're saying that songs can feed a negative emotion, but sometimes it can also give you perspective like yeah someone else has felt the same way, and thus allows you to feel valdiated. There was also a song on the Boys Night Out album that STILL has a hold on me unlike the others, and it's called Up With Me. It was basically about changing your ways and feeling relieved that you have. The lyrics aren't anything too special, but the chorus and the passion the guy sings with for it propelled me to change as well. "I've made mistakes they keep me company, what's up wth me? Well I've changed, it's comforting." And the bridge "there's something soothing and surreal as hell, about climbing up from where you fell, you finally get over being overwhelmed." To this day I still feel impacted by it, but not so much the songs about getting high, drunk or staying in a dysfunctional relationship.

LOL 98 Degrees, that whole bit made me realize that music can also provide as thought replacement. Like it tells you how to feel sometimes, so in that regard it can be the one affecting your mood. However when you mentioned that thing about RESPECT, it works the other way that we can also actively seek out music that relate to us in order to reinforce those thoughts and feelings. Now I wonder what factors play into being on either side, as I'm sure some people tend to lean on one more than the other when they're not conscious of it. Btw, your mom is more than a couple centuries old? There's also this idea that music can induce nostalgia, as it takes you back to a simpler time. Or a more complicated time such is the case with Korn for me. I've built these associations on Korn with a troubled past so there's a part of me that can't stand to listen to them anymore for that reason. They served their purpose when I was young, but would be irrelevant to me now. However, I think we also have the power to relinquish those associations in order to simply enjoy the music as its eternal being. Seven years ago when I just graduated high school, I got really into smoking pot and drinking. It was the first time in my life that I also actually started hanging out with my brother as we were becoming more friendly towards each other, I think due to our separate self knowledge journeys that began. We would toke up together after family gatherings, with his friends, or even days at home (but usually by leaving the house with a lie for our parents when we just cruised around to blaze). We would listen to a band called Boys Night Out, and particularly their self titled album that has songs about the clarity one has to search for after giving up getting high, drinking another year away (which was very relevant at the time as it was around winter and new years this all happened), and there was even a song about dysfunctional relationships. I believe I broke up with my girlfriend long before he did with his, but either way, that song meant something for me, as well as drinking away the stress I was leaving behind after had graduated high school. To cut a long story short, since I know I can go on forever about this period in my life, basically Boys Night Out for years to come, would be a band I associated with feeling lost and without direction. It was the beginning of a new chapter in my life where a whole variety of possibilities opened up, and that scared me inside. After that year, any time I tried to listen to Boys Night Out, I would get a bit depressed because I'd be in a better place 2008 and onward at an emotional and life situation level, so I just couldn't listen to them anymore. However, recently I put that album back on my iPod with the intention of listening for the sake of listening and it has stood the test of time. I can listen to them again without getting nostalgiac about 7 years ago. Maybe because it was more recent than say 12 years ago when I listened to Korn, I was able to dissociate from it quicker, I don't know. But basically I can appreciate the album for the eternal sound it brings forth now and not feel any unease about it unless I let my mind drift to those memories.

Also does the show Sesame Street mean anything to you? In particular those characters of Bert and Ernie?

Everything by Korn, but they ARE depressing anyway.

When I was 14, I used to listen to a lot of Korn. I was depressed back then for all the crappy changes happening my life upon my first year of high school. Jonathan Davis' lyrics always hit home for me (most of them anyway, while others I kinda identified with because it was all I could get around feeling anything back then), and hell some of them even made me cry. The way he sang his broken heart out about a variety of pains and struggles he has had or was still having in his life really affected me. I can listen to Korn nowadays and appreciate the musicianship, and I don't know if it's just my mind trying to get rid of old associations of feeling lost and alone while listening to them, but I can't get back into them anymore. It could also have something to do with listening to them 95% of the time back then, but that's a whole different topic about excess fulfilling one's needs. When I listen to them now, I start to feel like without Jonatha Davis' vocals (no matter how much I loved them back then) seem like a detraction from the funky grooves the rest of the band produces. The stuff I listen to now usually contain some philosophical perspective (such is the case of Protest the Hero who I really reccomend for lyrics that critique the State as well as religion, and personal integrity), or anything to do with personal growth and freedom like Courage My Love or Reign of Kindo, just to name a few. There's stuff I listen to just because it sounds good, but the lyrics really don't mean anything, while there are some bands I listen to who are even greater to me because there's something in their lyrics I can connect to. I guess that's what I'm trying to get to here: does music affect your mood, or does your mood affect the music you listen to? So I just wanted everyone else's thoughts on this topic of how we connect with music. Is it just a nice array of sound for you, or does it mean anything to you?

RTR WILL do that...it's tough to find someone who can either reciprocate about it or simply apologize. The best I've gotten from RTRing is getting instant apologies and being left alone, and at one point got some curiousity from my mother when it came to opening up about my history. It was a once in a while kinda thing with her, but she's pretty broken so I don't expect any consistency or continuity from her. Even after continuity in our interactions being one of the things I desired. Like how my family get into spats with each other and then just don't talk to each other for a while til each party has swept up their feelings under the rug without bringing up their last interaction and apologizing about each of their own behaviours. Anyways, yes it is at first disheartening to expose crap people through RTR, as it leaves you feeling empty. However, that emptiness when filled by genuine people makes you realize that void wasn't so huge after all as the space the genuine people take up are much grander and less of a strain on your psyche. I RTR'd with a friend I had for a bit more than a decade while he was forcing me to become friends with him again over a very irritating phone call one morning. The guy crumbled and contradicted him self sentence after sentence.

WOW! That is a great observation. I always did find it very unsettling to even have to use these categorizations. Betas do tend to invoke sympathy from women to get their need fulfilled, while Alphas are a bit more obvious in their manipulations. This kind of reminded me of How I Met Your Mother. Take the example of Ted in the first season, he's really creepy. Even though you should be rooting for him to find true love, and Barney is an obvious sociopath depending on charm and deceit to score a multiplicity of women, Ted is manipulative in his own subtle way. There's one episode where he goes to the apartment of a girl he dated from years ago that he broke up with...over the phone, only to resume the relationship from where it left off JUST to break up with her in person AGAIN on her birthday LOL. Sorry, the comedic aspect just kicked in and it is still pretty funny how that one played out. Hell, even worse, he just does a lot of creepy things to meet women that are less obvious than the Alpha Barney. There was even a girl called the Slutty Pumpkin that caught his eye one Halloween party and he never even talked to her, yet he goes to the costume shop to track her contact info down. Anyways enough of those examples, but that's what this topic sparks for me. Alphas are more obvious while Betas have a more subtle approach, but are still just as slimy even though they try to make themselves look like the victim to be nursed into loving. Another thing that comes to mind was a show I used to watch called Keys to the VIP where a 4 man panel judge the pick up skills of two competing men who get secret cameras to track their interactions with women at a club. These 4 men like...who the hell are they to have any authority as to what makes a good pick up? Not sure if it was purely satire now that I think about it, but they really liked critiquing the approaches of these men, and basically it always consisted of Alphas and Betas as you define them. Either they were really douchey to get a woman to feel insecure into wanting to talk to them and give them their numbers, or they were really attracting some sympathy to get the woman's number. Not sure if I ever recall a genuine-ish guy being on the show, nor even the hopeless romantic judge on the panel, but what would I expect from dudes who use bars as their hot spots for scoping women right? In conclusion I just think these categorizations are inhibiting even minus your definitions of them as sadists or masochists, because they're basically designed to invoke insecurity in the Betas, and false pride in the Alphas.

Once again I appreciate your openness in your video journals. I'm really sorry you had to grow up with a mother like that. Any threat from a parent is taken to full on seriousness, like when I was 7, my mom was already threatening me to move out onto the streets if I don't like the rules at home. I can't imagine how scary that must've been to be threatened with death directly though! You're a brave soul to have survived that. It's disheartening to imagine how parents miscontrue a child's behaviour and deem it as negative as to react so strongly against it. Really twists your perception of what's permittable and punishable. After all this self knowledge stuff, it's so hard NOT to see people's wounded inner children now. Like my cousin for instance who freaks out over my two year old niece using only one hand to place a cup of orange juice back onto a table. I get her hand is tiny, but she had a grip on it, and even if she spilled it, it was less than a quarter cup and not that hard to clean up. Yeesh...I can make a trillion guesses as to how "accident prone" my cousin was raised to believe she was, and the shame she must have felt to make her project that insecurity on her own daughter the way that she does. Anyways, I really enjoy your IFS approach to your past two videos, gives me much to draw on with it's benefits and clarity. Like I said in the chat, you didn't really have to say who was saying what since the voice shifts you used, and the context of the dialogue made it pretty clear who was speaking. The dialogue with your child self was my favourite part. It was very heartwarming and gives me quite the inkling as to how beneficial the IFS method can be by providing yourself with the kind of conversations and empathy you couldn't get as a child. My inner-critic likes to say that you look like a crazy person doing this, but my inner-father understands that doing this can give you so much of your power back, as you are simutaneously giving and receiving immense acknowledgement and comfort. I think that prepares you to give so much more of that to other people once you've allowed yourself the same experience.

of who? himself? Eww he did what Marty McFly was trying not to do.

Oh wicked Anarchist pony. Is she based on your gf? You should ponify Stef and Isabella where at the front its Stef saying "taxation is theft." And the back would be Izzy saying "yeah for sure." (Candy Crush video LOL)

Depending on the severity of the abuse and what the individual chooses to do about it is what determines their actions as an adult. If they've grieved their childhood pain by growing out of the justifications kids have to come up with to cope, the better chance they have at self reflection and effort in not emulating destructive behaviour. However, some people remain in that defensiveness and learn how to direct the anger elsewhere where it's not warranted and that's what makes an angry person. Without aiming it at the right target, it just gets pent up and released where it may not be appropriate. People are responsible for their actions and even the most damaged person has at least a split second to reconsider what they are about to do.

I would argue yes. It seems to me everything we choose to engage in and be educated on is an extention of who we are. And I say choose very carefully as I do not count the stuff we're forced to learn in school. Whether it's for utility or pleasure, anything we choose to learn about becomes who we are. I chose to learn guitar, I guess you can call me a guitarist, I studied writing and so you could call me a writer, I study philosophy, so to some degree I'm also a philosopher. What are your thoughts?

Oh that is a very cool idea! I think any form of communication, whether verbal or physical, can be helpful to bridge the gap between the guessing game of what a baby wants or needs. Seems logical since language is harder to acquire and babies already learn how to point at what they want or shake their heads in refusal, it only makes sense that they could learn sign much faster than speaking.

That would be nice, so here's to next time I see them! Thanks once again Nathan, for facilitating the insights I discovered in this thread.

Why is it so offensive to some people? I always rationalize it as it is okay to say some swears as long as you don't use them against others. Like my sister last night, said in passing, "oh so that's what they're fucking talking about," and then my mom got on her case for swearing. We asked her why it was so wrong even though my sister wasn't using the profanity against me, my mom got upset and said "well some people might think you are trash." I was so wrapped up in the moment that all I could say was "when you say some people, you just mean you and you're too scared to admit it." When I realized later that the worst part of that interaction was the difference in context. She used the word trash in a deragatory way towards my sister, however implicitly it was, while my sister was using a swear word in passing just to emphasize her sentence. What are your thoughts on swear words? Are they okay to use in the context I believe in it's okay to, or is it never okay and there are many reasons why one shouldn't swear?

It's actually thanks to this podcast that gave me a huge realization about Brony culture. One common thing they like to think caused Bronydom is because of 9/11 and the apathetic state of the world in the past 10 years, which I can understand, but that doesn't go far enough. I don't consider my self a Brony, but I do enjoy the show My Little Pony, and after this podcast, alongside watching some of John Bradshaw's stuff, I can easily see the childhood voids the show fulfills. I'll probably write a lengthier article about it at some point, but because I came in here out of nowhere about it, in no relation to anyone else's posts here, I'll keep it brief. Interest in such a show that depicts ideas of peace, love, and understanding, in a way that isn't all too girly, I believe stems from the empathy boys have been lacking in our society. Just like Stef says in this podcast, boys are cut off from their emotions and shamed for being sensitive, then all of a sudden when they are grown men, they are SHAMED for being sensitive. With a little bit of John Bradshaw influence and how he talks about how many unmet childhood needs manifesting themselves in adult lives, the cartoon serves as a safe avenue to provide the touchy emotional stuff, that I suspect most Bronies didn't get as children. These grown men can easily be watching any other show and I won't make the case for MLP here, but I think the fact that it's a cartoon that is highly driven by 90's inspiration plays a big role in it as well. The fact that most of the cartoons we had in the 90's although great in their own ways lacked some of the heart that MLP has. To be interested in that show and to watch it is just basically giving back to the sensitive inner child the cartoon they always needed as a kid. Not one riddled with goofy antics and comical hijinx, but something of emotional depth that touches upon the principles of friendship. Anyways just my two cents!

Sorry for the late reply Here's that interview I was talking about. I may have misquoted him, it's been a while since I watched it and can't review it right now, but I do remember he does talk about the violent nature of his films.

I'm my neice's God-father, but I'm an Atheist. LOL at my lack of Catholic duty. I'm actually trying to keep her rational enough so she doesn't buy into that crap. BTW my name is Mysterion Muffles! That Popular Anti-Social Guy is just a title.

Perhaps if you divide your post into paragraphs Ill give it a read. I dont mean to be insensitive but the only headache is the aesthetics of your post. I read some of it and its a bit heart breaking, however its hard to keep up with.

Oh man that was very fortunate for you, sounded like a really considerate hospital. Jeez breakfast buffet, bed for the dad, they need to ALL be like this.

Glad you guys have enjoyed it! Yeah I love that memory device episode. You gotta be more accountable for your actions if everything gets recorded because it's so easy to see memory objectively. Here's my rundown of 15 Million Merits: The facility's power is generated by the inhabitants biking on those treadmills. I think that's a metaphor for how the world runs currently. Everyone basically does mostly the same thing, work to make a living just to go home and watch TV. So in this episode they condense that TV watching culture and conformist employee thing into ONE. You can watch TV while you "work," but of course the main character always preferred treating it as a bike path simulator. People's bedroom walls consisted of flat TV's all around that bombard them with advertisements they have to pay MORE to ignore, kind of like how consumerism might consume us one day. What I found most interesting though was the talent show audience, wherin instead of actual people, THEY WERE AVATARS while the judges were real people. I think that symbolizes how complacent TV obssessed culture is, like the audience just doesn't really consist of REAL people. Rather consumers all around whether they're in the studio or not. As you can see the REAL person was at home, kind of indicative of whether or not you're there, you're just a passive watcher. Making it to Hot Shot (the talent show's name iirc) is kind of like a metaphor for getting out of the rat race. Instead of working that same daily grind of everyone else, just biking mindlessly while consuming TV, you give yourself the chance to EXPRESS your being in front of a panel of judges. The judges of course being a metaphor for the gatekeepers that decide to either accept you as a success or a failure. With the girl he helped, she was just about average, yet unsure about herself. She sang beautifully even though it lacked some emotion. It had a lot of timidness and hesitation so her "upgrade" out of the daily grind is becoming a porn star. Degrading, but still a step up from endless biking to some degree. I felt really bad for her and for the dude when he saw the production she was in. THe fact that you can't close your eyes and ignore it is like how in our face this denegration of the human spirit really is. Finally with the main character, when he did his performance and stopped abruptly to give his speech, I LOVED IT. I loved how he said he had nothing planned to say, just knew that he wanted to be up there and tell the truth. Although I thought people would wake up from it, I was satisfyingly dissatisfied that they just saw it as yet another "performance" rather than something of substance beyond singing and dancing. It was a metaphor for growing up and escaping the rat race by expressing the depths of your being, but we live in a culture where your expression, no matter how strong, must still be evaluated by judges. You still have to prove yourself to harsh critics while passive perceivers get entertained in your struggle. You were once them, but some of them may never reach your level or ever choose to. Some might of course but anyway. His upgrade into a bigger room was that growth even though he has damned himself into a life of honesty that is still overlooked by the people at the end. His message wasn't taken seriously so the cynicism that comes with judging our current culture, it's kind of like entertainment itself when taken at face value, and never really thought about. He got bigger walls sure, and instead of having a cartoon farm it was a vast horizon however artificial it was.