BrianBrian

Evocative. So cool. Thanks.

Yea that's not an option. It's take it or leave it.

Wanna give you props, Ivan. Very cool what you're doing and progressing.

Winter is coming.

Something I didn't see mentioned is if the company you work for matches 100% of up to x% contributions that means the 401k could lose half its value and you'd still have what you put in it, assuming you only put in up to what the company would match. My employer matches up to 5% earnings so I put in 5% and they match it and I have 10% of my income in the 401k before it's effected by the fluctuations in value of assets.Without the match I wouldn't bother but for now at least I see it as worth the gamble of at least being able to immediately double some money.

I didn't know dead island was two player that rocks. Thanks so much for the heads up all. Will let ya know how it's going!

I'll join up and contribute for sure. I've had social anxiety as bad as facial/mouth twitching after I had cut my hair and trimmed my beard and being so self conscious that I could hardly be in public without this occurring.

I've watched pretty much every episode of this show, which isn't hard to do if you're anywhere near a TV with MTV running all day, which is what I try to keep it on at work to distract and appease the broken who would otherwise flip straight to COPS or some prison based show.I started watching pre-philosophy and loved it, it's funniest home videos times ten with more charisma from the host, Rob Dyrdek. But Stef's arguments and experiences and podcasts on his own intense visceral reactions and ensuing need to avoid seeing things as basic as a guy getting hit in the nuts with a ball have finally got me seeing how sadistic this show really is and how desensitized I still am to violence.Stef was also talking about men in particular taking unnecessary risks to get status in a contrived world like public schools (skateboarding, risky stunts, etc), and this show displays this stuff full on.Might be a good one to do a short podcast on, tie in Ridiculousness the show and MTV and see if it helps draw some attention given how much that show is run on MTV.

My goal of the texts was a precursor that I thought of since I hadn't communicated with her in so long. She was making claims to love me without understanding anything about me, what I value, believe, etc, and I knew my stance on circumcision would be something clear and concise that would instigate a discussion on something concrete. For the phone call that followed I presented my feelings regarding her dismissal and how it didn't make sense to me that she was claiming to love me while dismissing the first thing important to me that I shared with her in years. It was a remarkably dodgy phone call and after all of my assertiveness and honesty about my feelings and perspective and unraveling the logic in what she was saying she belittled me by saying "Brian, what's wrong?"

That's a great point that my girlfriend and I discussed. My friend with the kids and I have had two long conversations in which it was revealed he's been beaten with a branch that drew blood when he was 9 or 10. He had zero empathy for himself and it was a lot of work to get him to recognize how little he felt for himself. He hasn't spanked since October and claims to be done with it, but he was hesitant with the idea of apologizing to his children for it and had an urge to just move forward so I'll be working on the philosophy behind that in our next call.

Ahhhh, great man that's great. I've played TL 1 but totally forgot about it the 2nd being multiplayer! Thanks! Hahahaha yes, yes indeed. I like games like Phantasy Star Online and she likes Oblivion, Morrowind, Zelda, etc. She hasn't liked turn based combat but she thinks maybe she could get into it with the right introduction.

Heard Stef mention in an early on podcast that he and his wife had played Neverwinter Nights together!? Can't remember if it was 1 or 2.This has me extra motivated to take advantage of my girlfriend and mine's passion of games and dig in to a good one. I'm even thinking Neverwinter Nights 2; nothing wrong with old school or dated, especially since it will be that much easier to run it on our laptops.Any success stories for 2 player gaming? Thanks everyone, looking forward to input from philosopher gamers!

Wuzzums that's a great point but I worry that sort of approach or statement might stir up false self defenses and further cement their justifications for hitting. Delicate territory.

There was a documentarian on Schiffs radio show who was soliciting support for his documentary countering all of the arguments against frakking and highlighting the fraud in the documentaries against it as well. Hummed peter couldn't think of him on the spot. Ah, the documentary exposing.the myths of anti-tracking is fracknation. http://redalertpolitics.com/2013/01/18/fracknation-documentary-exposing-the-truth-about-fracking-in-the-u-s-set-for-release-next-week/

"...You don't know how hard it is to be patient and not spank your kids," etc etc. Like the you can't relate so you can't make claims kind of stuff. I heard stef address it but I can't find or remember it for the life of me

I really value your thoughts on the matter. I managed to have a phone call with her that was quite difficult, the metaphor that comes to mind is that she was like a squid littering the waters of our conversation with ink, dodging the honest questions, trying to lose me or more likely make me feel lost in her black clouds of illogic and distraction.

After years of distance I've been scared to make the vulnerable and honest phone call to my sister to talk about how I feel about our non-existent relationship and how it makes me feel that she facebooks or texts me once or twice a year to tell me she loves me despite the facts that we haven't talked in years and she knows next to nothing about me, or how I feel that she calls me at Christmas despite the fact I'm atheist and our last attempt at debate on the topic was bordering aggression and belittling on her part.She called me this Christmas and left me a voicemail wishing me Merry Christmas, and a week later text me asking for my address I would assume to send me a card for my birthday that just passed, and I felt compelled to call her to have the terrifying conversation that would involve me being vulnerable and honest about my feelings and to ask her what she thinks or feels about my feelings regarding our relationship. Despite my knowledge that text messaging is woefully inadequate for these matters, my gut terror at the idea of calling her motivated me to start with text. I have been thinking for months that asking for her thoughts on male circumcision could be a fruitful litmus test for her ability to acknowledge my likely contrasting thoughts and feelings on a topic since she is a registered nurse at a children's hospital. This could have just been my unconscious protecting me from what it knew would come from this kind of interaction or maybe my false self finding excuses to not engage whole heartedly, or my true self preventing unnecessary brutality toward my own feelings, I don't know.I dove in via text, and this all occurred within about twenty minutes via text message. I was physically shaky and terrified as it all occurred and had a hard time texting with accuracy. Separate from our family dynamic I found her responses to be remarkably obtuse with contradictions and defenses abound, but I made special effort to not even take a position or argue the details as that was not the purpose of this exchange, rather to draw out the memories in me of who she was and still is which, given my body's physical responses before this exchange was even underway, was successful and revealing from the get go. But here it is, word for word:Me: Have you seen any of the information debunking the efficacy of circumcision and highlighting that it is actually genital mutilation? Sister: Ummm.. First of all, babies don't even cry when they get it done bc they are given sugar water. Second it's purely cultural not something weird and cruel. I probably would not but (boyfriend) is English so it's not in his culture anyway. Me: Oh that's interesting. I'd be interested in talking about it further with you since you seem to think its all right under the umbrella of culture. Sister: I mean I don't really want to have a discussion on circs I'm pretty unbiased since I see them done often. There is really no point to do it other than "looks" bc it's not really any more hygienic Sister: Can I just get your address Sister: Lol Me: No actually this is very important topic for me and is meaningful to me. It's also very important to me that the people in my life who love me are curious about my thoughts on a matter like this. Me: So I see the extent to which you aren't interested in discussing this with me or being curious about my thoughts on it as very related to your actual interest in me. Sister: (boyfriend) is uncirced you can talk to him about it lol Sister: Brian you don't even fucking call me back on Christmas and you want to come at me over circumcision?? Me: Are you available to talk? Sister: Not at the moment Me: Why not? Will you be available later on? No response. A couple mornings later I had a missed call from her that she would have made at 2am her time on a Saturday night, which leads me to believe she was drunk when she called. This reminded me of an outburst she had while drunk toward one of my brothers that my brother told me about. He said it was terribly uncomfortable and our sister verbally attacked his girlfriend in ways that made him feel like she was jealous of his girlfriend somehow. A little extra background: I'm 30, my sister is 24 or 25, and over the past seven years we have had very little interaction. I am in the preparation phase of deFOOing and have began honest conversations with my three younger brothers regarding family corruption, their experiences, their thoughts and my thoughts on our current relationships with one another and motivating factors for our lack of connection over the yearsMy sister is known in the family for being hateful and bullying toward those who oppose her or those she does not agree with or those she feels have wronged her in some way. She is aggressive in language and volume, yelling, etc.The last time I was around her was about two years ago at a small family meetup with small talk and no substance, I made an effort to be positive and friendly and had not yet been introduced to philosophy. I'm posting this as a window of insight for anyone who is interested in the very beginning phase of these terrifying conversations.

Isn't this akin to every caller asking a host how he's doing when they call in, call after call? So redundant.

This might be a good opportunity to call him and share your confusion and frustration and ask for his thoughts and feelings on the matter. Would be good experience in real time relationships.Exploring all hypothetical angles seems like avoidance. I'm in a very similar position with my high school best friend, where I have been the one to call and check in on him every four or six months for the past years and am just realizing what this likely means. I have texted and facebooked with no response. One thing left to do, and that is to call. Until I call I am just shadow boxing and mentally masturbating and avoiding the next necessary step.

Have you considered calling him and asking him how he feels?

Here is a direct quote from the second link which Rayne, the original poster, claims to have read: So either the author allowed someone who she felt was endangering her children to stay around her children for days following orrr............

Hey, Gabriel, I just sent you a PM.

She was asking which truth would be more threatening to the womans ego and value in a relationship: that the man had masturbated to thoughts of real women in his life or pornographic images of women he will never know. Also your universal claim about porn always winning when a man doesn't have access to multiple women is clearly not true.

Well its quite confusing and makes me feel rather unsettled and suspicious. He said he looks at porn to keep up with the trends them you said.he only looks at average porn. That seems a bit contradictory because what is trending is usually the tail end of fringe as it is in fashion. If he were really wanting to measure the pulse of porn watchers the fringe seems like an important aspect to consider and study. More details and explanation of what he means by morose and why he feels pity feels important. Also how he feels about the sexual relationship between his parents might shed some light on tge issue but it feels to me like a black hole of repression and unknowledge. The part where you are always.the one to engage in meaningful thoughtful topics makes me suspect that whatever he contributes to your topics is based on what he thinks you want to hear or motivated by something unknown. He sounds not at all curious about what is behind this wall of his. This lack of curiousity and lack of initiative in sparking intimate topics makes me wonder how accurately and honestly you are measuring your relationship with him.

His ability to reason is quite poor, evidenced by his comments on the Trayvon Martin case on his Joe Rogan Experience podcast guest appearance. Also I've heard him say that he has given up talking politics on his podcast, not that he's given up on politics altogether. But I think what he really meant is that he has tempered his focus on the subject instead of avoiding it completely. He is still markedly leftist also evidenced in his comments on the podcast mentioned above.