AccuTron

I read the first book way back when it first came out. This is way before internet, so information sharing was almost non-existant compared to today. I remember virtually nothing specific, except two things, one of which is trivial, but was an example of a mental exercise I've sometimes recalled. The other is not so trivial. Like with drugs, it was a time to explore. I liked the book, and indeed any good author will draw a reader in, bonding to the characters. At the very end...spoiler alert...Don Juan spreads his arms and flies from a cliff, because he really believes. At that point I knew the book was bogus, but it overall had stirred up my thinking, which I was already starting to do via other sources and people. Years later I met a person in a wheelchair, almost completely quadriplegic. She had been a real life example of the scare stories I'd heard long ago: She was on LSD, thought she could fly from an upper floor window, and attempted to do so. As a counterpoint, I was fortunate to take a number of drug trips back then, glad for the memories and discoveries, done with superb companions in excellent surroundings of rural old mountains. Nobody tried to fly. The most stunning observation was that some of them could still play guitar. (One fellow did once humorously accuse me of "trying to liberate the sheep." Honestly, it never crossed my mind; I was just quietly admiring the mountain view. An example of the weakness of perception.) I think these physical drug trips are metaphor for the mental trips of reading. Carlos Castaneda wants you to fly out the window. Many of us won't. But as previous posters have pointed out, why bother with trash when you are already here where you need to be?

Hillary is reported to have said women suffer more at home because of lost male relatives, more than men in battle who actually get killed or maimed. Since male's are so evil according to Modern Moronic Matriarchy, show those males who is boss! Make 'em stay home while the women fight! Maybe I can find that link again...it seems the US Marines are having a very hard time finding qualified females, despite Hillary's magic. How is that working out in Norway? Peacetime is of course not a true test. An officer's test for Marine males had something like (from memory these numbers) an 86% success rate for males, and maybe 6-8% success for females. Is the Norwegian military dumbing down it's tests and training? Would somebody please run this experiment: "Equal women," Norwegian, US, etc., are put in a room standing with various men, spaced randomly such as might be found in many lightweight social gatherings. The false premise for the gathering is something trivial. Then, outside the room, -- local security already given notice that it's false, maybe in attendance -- a quick series of loud phony gunshots is sounded, maybe an actor screams once. Instantly, how many women will react with genetic reflex and hide behind a man? Take a photo of the room a second after the fake shots, and see what it shows. I'd guess nearly all women would be behind a male. I would LOVE that photo to go viral. "Well, my girl DNA was sexist acculturated in preschool."

Algernon notes that the claim of a good relationship now with your parents sounds iffy, and I agree. Tho' we lack details, it sounds to me like you did the work, they are behaving better because of what you did, and you give them credit for doing something, which they didn't. Maybe wishful thinking, which may mislead you later. Your very good post shows you are already doing a lot right in your mind, you have the necessary core determination to work your way to stepping stone victories of mental health. A smaller item which got my attention: the brother that stayed home playing video games when granny went to the hospital. How old is the brother? I'm reminded of way too many times of my childhood/adolescence when mommy dearest insisted on this or that physical presence at something. I could tell when young that it served no purpose, not for a youngster nor anyone else, that it was just social momentum without analysis, and usually resulted in my mental or physical torture of some sort. (Brutal heat, painful knee joints before soft sole shoes were invented, being my fave memories there.) I wonder if your brother had the only realistic view, and there was no point whatever in his being in a hospital where he and granny probably wouldn't even see each other. Not that anyone would listen to him....

With respect to genuine synesthesia, I believe the seeing of supposed aura is because all eyeballs move around slightly and quickly and unconsciously, due to the need to keep each retinal cell with a changing data stream or the cell will more or less gray out. Thus, looking at a person will mean that the person is still but the eyes are moving, and the small area around the person is where the retina is moving back and forth, getting as it were mixed signals, and the subsequent perception of color(s). Staring at a shape with strong color and then moving the eyes to a bland space will temporarily induce the perception of the same shape with the "opposite" color; this is a similar effect. Interpreting the colors is then voodoo.

I just took a quick look at your work...you have a wonderful visual sense.

How do you do that with gold and silver? I've been confused on that topic. For example, a piece of paper saying one holds gold is simply a piece of paper. Jewelry at mark up doesn't seem to make sense. What does?

I just finished "Tom Mix and Pancho Villa, a romance by Clifford Irving" written in the 1980's, set in the very early 1900's. Later to be a silent film star, younger Tom Mix apparently had some historical encounter south of the border, details sketchy. Irving uses known details to then build a very engaging story. Romance is understatement. I fell in love with this book. I fell for Pancho Villa. I would have hugged him but he probably smelled bad. (No campgrounds with showers for revolutionaries.) I fell for the parched hell of northern Mexico. I fell for fictional Rosa, Mexican Indian. Hannah too, oh yeah, that girl could probably cook food with just a look, but I know why Mix went the (fictional) way he did. She was a Texas Jew, but it wasn't that. Just read about Rosa. I also learned quite a bit about the historical situation of Mexico at the time, which is the primary story. I had no idea. I understand much better. The guesswork of insights of Villa's strategy and tactics, his moral thinking, are also fulfilling. Oh, oh, and there's Lt. George Patton -- I love this guy. And an officer named Pershing. Stuck on a Texas border post which for a military career was a serious case of boring backwater. Also a smattering of pointers about cowboys and horses. Not enough to bother you, but enough to intrigue. Just get this book, maybe from a library, and your book problem is solved while you ponder your next selections. Let us know what you think about Hannah and Rosa. And Pancho!

I chuckle at the reference to high humidity...because I'm not in it! When young, in the nineteen-sixties, and part of family trips out of the country, living in S. Florida, I recall coming off that last leg of returning airline travel, the aircraft door opens to Miami atmosphere, and it felt like a damp towel thrown on my face. On one hand, it felt familiar and good to be home. On the other hand, wherever we just came from had an atmosphere a heck of a lot easier to tolerate. For historical perspective, most of the countries we visited either had a bombing someplace while we were there, or a revolution or major earthquake right after we left. And aircraft hijackings were first coming into fashion.

Greetings back to The Very Large And Intimidating American Desert. I grew up and lived in the SE USA, and my sense of scale...and how big the sky is...was from there. The first time I drove (solo, '71 VW Sqbk) across the plains, I was more than stunned. I had no idea what distance really was. "Like Dude, this is a...planet!" (Shortly afterwards, I saw a nineteenth century North American map using the words Great American Desert. I totally get it.) Back East, what would be an afternoon drive, if out West, would be so short that they wouldn't bother driving, they'd just walk. (Canned laughter.) I recall going West on the Interstate, so much openness, the same, sort of, over and over again, then passing over an erosion feature, which I thought was a moderate ditch. I noticed a white smudge on the side and realized it was a junked automobile. Whoa! -- recalibrate eyeballs! I strongly felt that to grow up in such a place would have to affect how a person thought or felt or perceived. I didn't know how, but it seemed almost required. Did you grow up in Nebraska? Have you visited other types of areas, and noticed if you felt or thought differently?

Not saying something called the Holocaust never happened. Saying that a number of claims were tacked on for various vested interests, which are simply not true. For example, the claim that hair from shaved (unclean, smelly, lice ridden) hair from prisoners due to die was sent to Germany to make pillows for the homeland. Ponder that one from a health standpoint. The six million number dead from the total war came from an article written during the first half of the war as a supposition to a train of thought. Actual census numbers don't support it. Dig into the stories, the official concentration camp stories, and they don't make sense. Not saying there weren't horrible work camps, and like that wouldn't be enough for complaint???? The Soviets, in the job of killing Nazis and well into blatant propaganda, and the Israelis pumping for political support to create and finance a country, milked these stories for all they were worth.

Happy Birthday, Stefan. You have given yourself a gift greater than anyone else can give you: You live a life of honor and mission at a level that few achieve.

Good for you, jroseland, at many levels! Don't mention Martha Stewart..."She's a girl!" Anyone with any sense will already be reviled by Hillary. She has lots of support because, ya' know, she's a guuurrrrlllll. It is foundational to feminism that no female is ever guilty of any crime no matter a hot smoking gun in her hand. It will be enough for these minds to handle that even one girrrrlllll is a wrongdoer. Two girls will blow fuses.

Welcome. That is an interesting forum name you use...is there a story there? As to your value in the job market, there are others here far better qualified to comment in depth. I can do a surface pass. Value is what you accrue by doing stuff. As long as you involve yourself with something meaningful, it will add up to something later, perhaps be a tipping point for a job acceptance. I also read that many successful people didn't even go to university, and used those years for what later are seen as very productive times. Again, I'm not an expert, just anecdotal reading. Tho' I add the point that years of trying to talk to people who won't listen is going to wear down something inside you. Was that Sisyphus with the big rock? -- it may feel like that. --------- I know little of Belgium, some historical anecdotes. What can you tell us about being Dutch, or about Belgium or Flanders, from your view?

Re the ice cream, and any other ingestion/health issues -- this is the age of the internet. Prepare a simple group of images or weblinks. Show him the needle the dentist uses, show him pix of decayed teeth, of gum disease. Show him pictures of clogged arteries and people with decaying limbs. These are the real reasons for something. I don't know about the age here, but maybe that kind of warning can't come too soon. Without the "proof" Daddy is just making words, and maybe or maybe not they are completely trusted. Look at a few stunningly grotesque photos of "this will happen to You!" and he will understand the issues. Not completely, but a good gross-out is a very effective teaching tool.

I notice a pet peeve. Somehow money from a male and sex from a female are equivalent. To get money the male has to struggle mightily against the world, with no guarantees. The female simply has to show up. Hardly equal. Reeks of entitlement.

A friend sent this and said to start reading and I'd go thru it at a gallup. He was right. Just start reading. Hugely info dense. Inside The LC: The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the Birth of the Hippie Generation Part 1 -- Society's Child -- Sott.net The amount of military intelligence/cointel presence is astonishing. Just the list alone is stunning of how many music stars had family or other connections in US military probably covert operations. EDIT: This link has further chapters of the above, and plennnnnnty more stuff. Don't dismiss it, dig in. dave mcgowan archive - Futile Work

Hmmm...now that you mention it...I get it. I'll have to ponder that. I suspect a bit (certainly in myself) of visual idealism, a term I just made up, related to wishful thinking. But it would be a shallow mistake to stop my thinking there.

TV: “Astronomical amounts of radiation” found in downtown Tokyo… Directly outside gov’t building — ‘Horrific’ readings where kids playing in Fukushima, ‘extreme’ levels found where food is grown for elementary school lunches — Nuclear expert shocked, upset by discovery (VIDEO) Arnie Gundersen, nuclear reactor expert… “What surprised me at this visit to Japan… is that the decontaminated area is contaminated again,”

"I believe that, with few exceptions and every other quality being equal, I would likely regret for the same aesthetic reasons relating to appearance choosing to marry a woman of primarily Caucasian ancestry" EI, I am temporarily baffled; your pic is a white guy. Do I understand you to say that you are repulsed by (all?) caucasian women?

Cautionary note: a thin guy on a constant diet...what is a diet? We all are on a constant diet, however it fluctuates. A thin guy constantly searching for a dietary plan...that suggests to me an underlying problem that never reaches a satiation. A fat guy w/exercise will look good in comparison, almost no matter what. He's still a fat guy, and it ain't okay.

Drew, could you elaborate on that first point? Could you tell us more about the data you are using, which people, how many, what else they are like, that sort of thing? My question is how many people trying for plant based diet are missing or doing something else, maybe not even food, that is muddling the effects. Using this quick definition from the Google search page: "The Paleo Diet is an effort to eat like we used to back in the day…WAY back in the day. If a caveman couldn't eat it, neither can you. This means anything we could hunt or find – meats, fish, nuts, leafy greens, regional veggies, and seeds. Sorry, the pasta, cereal, and candy will have to go!" The implication is whatever "we could hunt or find" was not a reliable daily source at least in some cases. Mostly speaking meats here. And long term disease might have been cut short by other life ending events or pathogens, which is surely discussed elsewhere. Point being, this echoes what other plant eaters have been saying, that the meat/fish/egg is a once in awhile thing. I am only now going the next step in reducing the animal products, and I like it, and...that turkey BBQ place I haven't been to in awhile is calling my name. Is that source of calling nutritional, flavor, atmosphere with music, getting out of the house? I don't know.

Thanks for the OP link. Looking at Shirgall's link now....

Great news! -------------------- And this just in from wonderland: I'm now realizing the need for a more varied selection of on-hand fruit...and I look out my back door yesterday, at the sky, the tall grass, the little wild bunny, the wooden fence, the plums...WHAT??! -- Plums?!?! -- that tree only made fruit once about twenty years ago, and there it is full, already ripened, and no animals found them. So I have plums. Slightly tart, good overall. This tree is on the other side of a fence, and recently a very mature randomly sprouted tree had been removed. It was obvious that the big tree was heavily competing against the small plum tree for water and sun. I wonder if that's why it's now fruiting. (I also wonder about those two adolescent raccoons that come by at dusk. They are polite and playful. They jump on and off of the rope hammock and swing it, and yesterday I unusually left an old cushion on the hammock, and today it's torn to shreds on the lawn...so cute! Anyway, I saw two small branches and a few plums on the ground nearby, and wonder if that was the extent of their plundering. The plums are hard to pull, and they may have loosed the branches they were gripping and fallen a few feet, where the allure of hammock jumping overrode the desire for food.)

Upvote, and thanks for a perfect clarification. My tirades aside, I do feel sorry for most women, as having terrible role modeling. Also mainstream lies, but there's the element of choosing to believe them. You are a person of faith. I hope you are right. Time will tell.

Beardslastcall, The Protein Fiasco video brought by Invisiblegorilla answers the questions of how I got the protein doubt in the first place...alarmist science AGAIN...and the answer, which is don't worry about it. I had just seen another video, in which the protein question was also negated, since we don't need as much as alarmism suggests, and there are proteins scattered all thru the other plant food. 40 Year Vegan Dies of a Heart Attack! Why? The Omega-3 and B12 Myth with Dr. Michael Greger - YouTube <<Youtube titles can be odd; he does NOT treat B12 and Omegas as myth. (I'm getting my videos in a mental blur and don't always recall which info came from which video.) The video above is worthwhile, don't let the presenter's initial style put you off; he gets into the metabolic chemistry. He asks then answers the question of why when studies of vegan life spans were finally completed, they sucked. Even worse, in vegans, brain degeneration was increased. Two things were found to be the causes, which are blurry in my mind now, so watch the video. I think it was DHA consumption, and Omega-6/3 ratio. Which got me to buy flax seed, and do something else, but I forget which something it was. As to Boss's comments: firstly, in general, I also have a big distrust of any organization that claims to be green, etc. In the OP case however, I saw only good presentation, nothing inherently bogus. He (or another video here) points out that DHA comes from fish, but also an excellent source is ground flax seed, of which I just bought some. Two tablespoons a day sprinkled on something. B12 and other recommendations are covered in my one pill a day vitamins/minerals from Safeway. Notions about fish were firstly that it is animal, and references the various reactions of kidneys for example. Also, that in our modern world, pollution, pollution, that the fishies absorb. He doesn't hate fish, just points out stuff. Likewise with the eggs, etc., and I've noticed things about that, more below. Invisiblegorilla, what is your grain consumption? Rosecodex, thanks for the input. It gels well with what I'm learning...and more importantly, what I'm feeling. It's that "in moderation" aspect again, re eggs and such. Over my life, I wandered around dietarily, good or bad, and in the last two years, and twenty pounds less...that got out of hand...I've been thru progressive iterations of changes. With each improvement, and they usually are no-brainers, I noticed that I felt better overall, and that I became increasingly reactive to junk foods. Anything from the grocery store snack aisle is now sickening, and not really that tasty, as many of you surely know. I take that to indicate that my body systems have cleared out and shaped up; my sensors are unclogged. I have greatly increased veggie consumption. I can cleverly repair stuff really well, but don't talk to me about cooking recipes, you will get a blank stare. Thus, a new standard I can handle is to pan fry some frozen cod...which is to be revisited...and seven veggies plus three nuts/seeds, with lemon juice, turmeric, cumin, black pepper, oregano, paprika. I know that one pan will be my day's and health's foundation. It's a non-stick pan, but I put some olive oil in for grins. One of the videos points out that it's better than other oils, but IT'S OIL, IT'S FAT, and you don't need it! I'll stop that, dropping some calories right there. (I'm thinking of adding kale to that stir fry...which I don't actually stir...does anyone have thoughts about cooking kale?) After that, it's having a variety of fruits that keeps me going without needing heavy food. I used to like the occasional boiled egg, but I realize it was hunger in general I was feeling, not hunger for protein. I'll probably just use them up and not buy more. I used to eat semi-often at good quality brunch restaurants, big meals. If I do so of late, I enjoy them, but at some point afterwards, I'll feel a transient yucky feeling, which I didn't use to have. This is not because I'm getting an odd sickness, but because I'm normalizing to lower or none levels of that stuff. Invisiblegorilla, explain the blood test please. I've had "usual" blood tests...with all the alarmism over high triglycerides and cholesterol, only to find that I'm in flawless* great stamina health, and some of the alarms were disavowed later anyway by medicine-as-we-find-it. (*Three body scans over a number of years show zero defects.) Nothing ever showed up about deficiencies, but were they testing for such things? I have healthy hair, nails, gums, skin color, etc., never had anything unhealthy raise a question. I'm in the habit of soaking overnight then boiling beans, to which I now will include lentils and peas, a good list according to one of those videos. Of note: I hadn't eaten rice in forever, but started again. I know that rice alone will leave me craving, not satisfying. I think fictional detective Hercule Poirot stated that the non-fictional King of Belgium outlawed rice. (I tried to look that up, couldn't find it, if anyone can.) One of the videos showed how with beans, blood sugar doesn't spike, the effect even lasting overnight. Eating "rice with beans" vs "beans with rice" vs "beans with little rice" showed that the less rice, the better the spike suppression, in fact the suppression is pretty much negated with too much rice. I saw this video a few days after I noticed the effect on my own. Too much rice with the beans...this is a small bowl...and I don't feel satisfied. So I take rice as a good food, but in small quantities. How does this gel with Asian habits, anyone know? Thanks for all the help.