MysterionMuffles

wow that is an excellent point. I didn't even take into consideration how immense the escapism is with them.

DLC is not free. I'm saying stuff that you have to pay for now were things that used to be free from simply playing the game and unlocking them. Hm I did not even take in account the PC industry. Is that chart seriously accurate? Jeez! Guess it makes sense since computers are modifiable through software and installments etc...I dont know too much about computer gaming, my computer is only good for web surfing and writing documents lol. Hm..maybe Gamestop IS the wrong place to shop? I know there are some independant games released on the Xboxlive Market, but please, elaborate more about independant games so I get a clearer picture.

I agree. The crack head who kept interrupting needs his past debunked to see why he's so goddamn abrasive and evasive. I'm half hour into it right now, and I'm trying my hardest to rationalize everything that is being talked about.

Yeah that guy was just normalizing his own abuse. I have no sympathy for whatever shit he had to feel and receive as a child if he hasn't even found a glimpse in his damaged self that could use some improvement. That sounds like such a good idea that I don't care how dishonest it is. All entertainment is falsehood anyway so why not bring the stage to the real world?!

I've been having this idea lately that the video game market will collapse during the next-generation phase. I remember back in the 80's and the 8-bit era, it was a pretty lukewarm market, but then the whole thing sckyrocketed when Nintendo and Sega came into the scene to kinda crush Atari with their better graphics and overall games. The 90's was what I considered the golden age as the companies began pushing the technology further. The graphics were becoming more crisp from 16-bit to 3D 64-bit, the music was getting closer to being actual music than just bleep noises and whatnot. But let's fast forward to today because video games is one of the biggest industries around due to 3 decades of advancements. Now games look almost life like, contain real instrumentation, and of course the programming has become much more sophisticated than the days of yesteryear. But how far could that possibly go with the next generation of Playstation 4 and Xbox 720? How much more life like will they get and how will the quality of the actual gameplay experience be affected? Because it seems to me that the better the graphics, the simpler the games are. Nowadays, games are just too damn easy to beat because most developers focus on flashiness and gimmicks to assault your senses with the best graphics and sound effects possible. That's not to say that there are no good challenging games out there, but they seem to be far and between from the rehashings of say...Call of Doodoo. D'ah I mean Call of Duty. It's a yearly release game with the most minor changes from the previous installments, but it so happens to sell more than anything original coming out. Like let's look at the new Tomb Raider reboot which Square-Enix expected to have sold 7 million copies in the month of its release. They only got 5 million which make them doubt the fruits of their labour was not worth it and unsure if they should proceed with a sequel. (I personally think it was worth it, watching the making of it, they seemed to have a lot of passion into it and it turned out pretty awesome) Since it's a customer driven market, (what market isn't?) gamers are telling companies that they are more than happy with rehashing titles yearly and they'll be more likely to buy them as opposed to any original content. And let's not even mention the Downloadable Content you can purchase to add onto the games you already have. Say you want to extend your gameplay, add a new character to the game, and anything else that would've easily been unlockable in games in the 90's--all come at a cost so that you have to spend a little more than the original price of $70 just to get more out of the game. Sometimes games are so overridden with DLC that it costs you DOUBLE the game's value to get it all, and more often than not, that content wasn't all that worth it. DLC of course is the only way to continuously get paid because when people rent games, or they sell them in, the companies don't profit from used game sales or from rentals, but anyways let's not even get too deep into that ... My prediction is that shallow gamers are going to drive the market in the next-gen phase, so there'll be a huge decline in quality games that aren't just 10 hour movies with a little bit of gameplay thrown in. Or shallow gamers that will just keep supporting the military industrial complex with Call of Doo rehashes year after year and barely challenge the developers to create anything new and refreshing--and the video game industry will meet its inevitable end as they are replaced by the more casual and easier to pick up games you can download onto your iDevices.

Oh, yeah, glad you brought that up. I forgot that's where my mirror perception came from. It comes from Deepak's work. The idea that whatever you like or dislike in others are usually aspects within yourself you accept or deny. I forget which book had this, but there was an exercise where you write a list of people that you love and people that you hate, and you have to write a list of virtues and vices you find in them before looking within yourself to see if you share those same virtues or vices. Pretty eye opening if you ask me.

Not heavily, but I did buy plenty of books of his only because Eckhart Tolle only has two I loved Book of Secrets, but I could barely remember it now, I might give it another shot. One I do sort of remember is Reviving the Body, Resurrecting the Soul and in that one he talks about how certain emotions have specific body points it affects. Also how damn important it is to align the mind and body through proper nourishment, in not just food, but also thought consumption.

I'll keep that in mind next time I hang out with her. I was with her the other day and we talked great lengths about Christianity and she herself was already displeased with how people only go to church for show now and can't even recall the sermon. She was even in boarding school where she had to wake up at 6am everyday to go to church and ahhh lots was talking about. Basically she seems on board with many of my ideas and the facts I presented about how contradictory the whole Bible is. Now I'm not sure if she whole heartedly agreed with me on the points I've made, or if she was doing so just to gain my acceptance or anything like that. She just kept say yes, yup, exactly, which I'm not sure if they're genuine. I'm sure they are to some degree because, again, she has so much skepticism that she might as well become an Atheist soon. I suppose her fear from renouncing her religion is partly in due to her parents. Other than that, she doesn't even go to these church meet ups anymore or anything like that. I feel like I don't have to try too hard, but I do need to confirm if her agreements are genuine is all...because I WAS expecting a bit more of an argument but it felt like I was talking to a mirror lol.

Ah yes I could understand that there may be a part of you that will want to resist therapy. That's just your inner critic wanting to keep you small. I'll provide you with another podcast that I found pretty helpful when it comes to understanding that resistance. 1149 Inner Critic Roleplay is a very helpful conversation I listened to in understanding the dichotomy of our self esteem. It's definitely worth the listen!

Let us know if it provides you with immense insight or if you need more guidance.

yes, yes you are. It is quite noble to take the reigns so to speak with the child rearing. It's becoming much more common these days to have stay at home dads in existence. You can screw all the people who tell you it's the mothers and the mothers job alone to be home with their kids. I don't think it matters which one it is, just as long as someone IS there for the kid to begin with.

What is it about yearning that confuses you?

That's some vile shit. It is disgusting to see the kind of pleasure one would get from snagging more cries out of their victims.

yeah that's not a good idea. Quite offensive I think. What I think is a good idea is to examine your relationship like I originally asked. We need to know how your interactions normally are like before we can determine how you really can have a discussion about this with her.

A couple weeks ago, I posted a status on Facebook stating that I now despise philosophy because it is designed to turn people away from their faith in God. A friend of mine instantly liked it without a moment's hesitation, and we ended up having a conversation about religion once I stated that I was offended by her quickness to agree. After all, it was an Apri Fool's joke! She then reverted to saying everyone has a right to their own beliefs and tried to dismiss it, but I became curious as to why she would behave in such a way. It turns out that her exboyfriend was an Atheist, but the kind that degrades other religious people and so it was a sensitive subject to her. In which case, I decided to approach it with sensitivity (since it's the only way I know how now) and got curious about what she really felt about religion. I recognized that by default, only due to the forceful attempt at converting her to Atheism, she tried to stay firm in her belief in God. However, she opened up to me a bit more and began to confess that there is a lot about her religion that she disagrees with such as the hatred towards homosexuals, as well as the idea that God created the Earth in 7 days. The conversation went a little further to also criticize the discomfort anyone would have with going to confession and exposing all your past vices to a man in a robe. Especially how unhelpful it is to do so since all they do is tell you to say a certain amount of Hail Mary's and BAM you're forgiven! Suffice it to say, this woman has the potential to become an Atheist because of her declining trust in Christianity. She was outraged by a certain action the Vatican took a little while before the pope relinquished his duties, she fears asking questions about her religion with her parents because they're really strict, and lastly, she wants to know the Bible more but can't bring herself to read it admitting that it is boring as hell. I feel like I could really help her come to terms with empirical reality and introduce philosophy to her. I was thinking that I don't argue right away that Christianity is false because of x, y, and z, but I want to get her curious about her own faith and if it's really driven out of true passion, or simple fear out of rejection from the community she has invested a lot of time in. Could anybody help me in approaching this subject with her again and how I could do it without seeming like I'm prying into her life? I'm meeting with her sometimes this week and in case she doesn't bring it up on her own, how can I do it? And how can I go about it to ensure that she can maintain her relationships, but also test them to see if they can stand the test of reason?

That's what she said.

Here's the latest in rape culture. http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/inside-anonymouss-operation-to-out-rehtaeh-parsonss-rapists Same shit happened to this girl, she got gang raped by 4 guys and they sent the pictures around their school...and I can't believe how everyone could clutter her phone with texts asking if they can have sex with her. And all the girls were calling her a slut. I think she comitted suicide, I need to re-read what happened with her.

Does anybody listen to music they would consider as intellectual music, whether lyrically or composition wise? One song I'd like to share with you is one by Protest the Hero called Spoils. Pretty heavy and unstructured (free verse and no chorus, but ketchy nonetheless), and the lyrics are a good introspection on our use of language and domination. [View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqL_JnnOo9k] Endowed with the art of casting names upon its beingsThe humans claimed dominion over every living fucking thingProud as purpose as they began to walk the earth as they arraigned The common creatures caught within the corpus cursed, conscious human brainEvery word ever written will fall short of its intentEven sung or spoke or screamed they will betray what they have meantLanguage is the heart's lament, a weak attempt to circumvent theloneliness inherent in the search for permanenceAll the future ghosts who scratch their names in wet cementDemeaning meaning as they shout out at the emptinessAbstractions are the stake between the anima and animusDeflesh the word as scourge of human destinyBehold the world in other people, life is clarity

Hm I feel like we need to trace back and remove your daughters from the equasion to focus on your relationship. I'm assuming you're Atheist right? How does your wife feel about you being Atheist? Were you always one or was it during the span of the relationship you eventually became one? Like what IS your relationship like as you two individuals in a couple? Are you honest with eachother normally or do you also have to beat around the bush with each other? I ask without judgement of course, why did you get married to her in the first place? What is it about her that drew you to her? What virtues does she possess that resonate with you?

you're gonna have to have a discussion with your wife about honesty and your older daughter. Confirm if she HAS been told to believe in God and keep it away from you. Also remind your wife about the chat you had before about presenting things as just beliefs instead of facts. You need to ask her why it's so important that your older daughter needs to believe in God and why she herself believes so hardly. Or even more important, how she feels about you being Atheist.

What is your field of work? Is it something that you can still do at home at tiny bits and pieces? How come you and your wife have to work so far apart? Do you see each other often? Is it possible to change her hours or her work entirely so you can spend more time together as a family? Oh man your post only makes us more curious before we can answer. I guess those questions and how you answer them would be my answers to you. How to keep your sanity as a stay at home dad...I'm not one, but I could only imagine that you do need to take time to yourself when you can. Whenever Lily sleeps, so should you since babies have sporadic sleep cycles at first. Make sure you get plenty of rest that's for sure, and when you start the day, and you've got the chance to, do some exercise and eat well. Even small stuff like 10 minutes of yoga could help relieve some tension. It's also good that you keep up with friends so you don't develop cabin fever. Basically, you gotta take good care of yourself in order to provide for someone else at the same time. And if you haven't yet, I'd suggest that you listen to Stefan's podcasts on Philosophical Parenting. I have found his ideas to be quite helpful in my babysitting work, as well as understand the dynamics of my own childhood to better understand what would make my own children's relationship with me better than what I had.

ah yeah that's true, though his passion for the over mystical is interesting despite the illogic. He does need a little more guidance but he's on the right path.

The relationship between Spike and Sparkle is like a serrogate mother and son relationship. He's only happy to be a faithful servant because she does parent him in a way since she's the one who used magic to hatch him out his egg. Probably only once did they show her disapproving of him for something menial, but I don't think it brinks on the edge of being the slave like relationship we all know is possible from being indebte to someone who takes care of you. Ah now I see what you mean about the socialism, I never thought of it that way. I'm glad that you brought it up because it does remind me of an episode where they used passive aggressive force to reform a villain named Discord. He's supposed to be undeniably evil, but the Princess puts Fluttershy up to the task to change him. She's the one who's supposed to represent kindness, and for most of the episode she lets him act out all his bad behaviours to gain his trust in order to get him to listen to her. I think that was kind of a manipulative thing to do, and the only thing that softens the blow to that is the fact that the rest of her friends contest her ability to change him, and try to convince her that the only true way to change him is by casting a reforming spell on him. So it's only deemed positive by comparison... It's one of those rare times I felt uneasy about the lesson of friendship being "magic" because probably only once in the show did they ever give the lesson that some people are just unfriendable. Although I do enjoy redeemable villains, you bringing this up reminds me of the truth I buried beneath me about the unease I felt about the Princess making choice FOR the Discord villain to be reformed. Another weird thing about how things are run in Ponyville is that everyone acts like they're at the mercy of Princess Celestia, and that they fear and worship her like people fear and worship nonexistant deities, but she herself does not exude the almighty archetype of such a deity. She's calm and reposed and doesn't really seem to pose any physchological threat in her behaviour, rather it's all in her title.

In that case I am succeeding as a parent, and at least my mom is beginning to. I've opened the line of honest communication with my parents about my history and so far only my mom seems receptive and intellectually competent enough to start opening up. As for my own parenting, I don't have a child of my own, but I do babysit for my cousin. Suffice to say, I think I'm doing a dandy job at connecting with my neice. I let her play as much as she wants to, and give her the space to nonverbally tell me when she's hungry or sleepy instead of forcing specific times that she needs to. I've only yelled at her once and I felt horrible for it, so I've made a point not to do it again. All in all...now I am not a failure. Maybe at least not in the sense I built that story around me in the above post.

Whoa that's cool thaty our son is into it. Tara Strong (va of Twiligh Sparkle) said that it's hard for little boys to get into the show and just don't get it, but I guess that's just an individual case. I would be very interested if you'd elaborate on what you meant about the show's message being a bit socialist, and what the problem would be with wearing your only strength on your sleeve.