I have made major life decision about current events

F Me In The Brain

If "No news is good news" than all news is bad news. Right? I read the news online and often skim over things I should likely take more interest in....and linger on stories that I should not give a shit about. But I take it as I feel like taking it. Doesn't change what goes on out there but it tempers my hostility toward much of what goes on out there.
Mr Chadwick, I always like reading your posts, you strike me as one interesting sob. Sorry to hear that the dingbat next door is still driving you bonkers.
OP, if those are truly your wishes I imagine that you can achieve those goals for yourself. Hopefully nobody blows anyone up but I understand taking your toys and heading home. To quote one of my favorite books, I ask myself on days when I get pissed off at a perceived never-ending rising level of idiocy in our world: 'Who is John Galt?"

chadwick

hedonist, thank you for reading my stuff & not bashing me in the face with your snow shovels. in what i write i inject humor, stupid shit, ancestory & real life lessons. burning, melting & smashing video games is a comment i make from time to time as are the comments about dropping televisions from rooftops.

point being... millions of americans watch a lot of fucking tv. millions of americans are gaming their balls off day in & day out. when millions of kids are not in school they are gaming. these are my nephews. it makes me insane.

kids need work skills, kids need to earn blisters on their hands, feet & they need to bleed a bit & dwell in body aches awhile.
shoveling snow for a few bucks is a great lesson
splitting wood, wheelbarrow firewood around the house & stack the stuff
shovel more snow, split, move & stack more wood

detasseling corn - a summer job kids do
a summer job youth should be made to do by parents who are not raising candy asses
hell to the no... two of my nephews are not at all stepping up to the plate of manhood very well

i try
i try
i try
& i try to talk to them about becoming men & leaving behind the boys
i tell 'em it will not ever be easy
life is brutal
life is beautiful
life will slap you stupider than you may already be
you can not ever give up
pain is to be overcame
please go & get a summer job out in the corn fields so you can buy yourself the latest
high dollar PS IV or whatever it is

"but why? mom will buy it for us
each of us get one" - dude

boys should be fighting

chadwick

thanks, F me in the brain
anytime you need a new neighbor or a new love in your life
i can hook you up with this cougar i know

F Me In The Brain

chadwick said:

thanks, F me in the brain
anytime you need a new neighbor or a new love in your life
i can hook you up with this cougar i know

Thanks, but no thanks!
Lucky enough to have the love of my life and I had to dig my 75 year old neighbor's car out of the snow the other day after he foolishly tried to ram his way through the pile the plow left in front of his driveway. At least 2 feet high with 1 foot of snow + the plow buildup and I saw him ram it from my window. Laughed hysterically while I put on my work boots and gloves and ran across the street with my shovel. He was nice enough about it but said "I thought I could make it" -- at which point I stopped shoveling and started laughing again.
To your point about being a man -- when I came back in my 9 yr old nephew, who we are raising, says to me "Uncle Brett, if the old man was silly enough to drive into the snow like that and make you laugh, why did you run out to help him?"

|)

We need to show by doing, many in society today obviously do not do a good job in instilling these common sense things in kids today. He has been with us now for almost 2 years but we have to counter the 'damage' done by weekends with his mother in the white trash apartment complex where all of the bums congregate. :-w

OP -- this is why we cannot withdraw from society...we cannot be like 'John Galt'....we need to try and make the world a little better one brick at a time. Because we can.

backseatLover12

Losiento said:

backseatLover12 said:

I feel the same way about the news. All that bullshit matters little to me, most of it is half truths if any truth at all. And all of it wants us to live our lives in fear. There's a lot to be said for silence and peace.

Not that I don't care but everyone just wants to spin the shit for their own advantage and what really we end up with is... selfishness, greed, war, hunger and all the other horrors we see becomes tiring. I watched a world watch want to march to its own freedom that says enough for me. I saw a bunch of people who went for a ruthless power grab. I know average humans have the power to make the change. The world is in the need of release from the hands of the few with its icy grips holding it hostage. At best, I hope it has been an inspiration for many.

I believe that if we choose to keep seeing the cynicism in the world, that's all that we'll see. Taking a break of solitude does do wonders. But the real change is when we see the beauty in spite of all the nastiness. Hold onto that thought and then spread it, after a time of solitude is over.

chadwick

f me in the brain,

you are doing a wonderful job. nearly nothing else in the world is as feel good as shoveling out one's elderly neighbor who just so happened to run his car up onto & into a well packed/heavily compressed snow plowed snow pile. that is some chore as the snow is stiff as shit, solid & igloo brick ready but in a nice healthy random pile of winter

i'll try & type up a story for ya

shoveling out a lady in her car all lost & stuck on a deserted country gravel road that had just been beat down by blowing drifting snow that grew & grew, taller & taller. the man who lived a few hundred feet down the road was (RIP) Ralph Wiggenjist a old ass farmer who was a retired railroader, multimillionaire & a nutjob basket case who lived in something like a larger style chicken coop in a horse pasture. he raised hogs, cows & made his own butter.

we roll up on the scene & Ralphy is alone working in the drifts with his hog shit scooping shovel & his worn out layered on clothing as this terrified gal sits behind the wheel of her fancy car in her up town attire. we stroll on up there... instantly Ralph's face lights up w/ a warm glow & a twinkle in his eye sets off the afternoon. my brother & i were not dressed for such bullshit but we were there to help & we did.

Ralph's distressed coat had 19 pockets up & down the thing, count 'em... 19 pockets, 1,2,3. all held filthy, sweat stained hole filled work gloves with the newer ones being 7 yrs old. he handed them out with great vigor & happiness as they would help our hands stay somewhat warm while working in this freezer. he was a pleased beast as he quickly made his way up the road to his farm where he collected two more shovels. he returned with wonderment & we shoveled & pushed the car until she was at the highway & back safely on her way.

Raplh Wiggenjist would buy farms (at these estate auctions or whatever) with cash in a grocery sack. fuck meeting at the stuffy ass bank spending all day fucking around with suits signing papers & jerking around w/ those idiots. meet at the farm & call it a day.

F Me In The Brain

Ha! Nice story, I like it! I can picture an old time farmer who helps anyone out at any time...knew my share of good old boys who lived in glorified chicken coops in a shit pasture and were some of the best people I ever had the privilege to know.

When I was a drunken 17 year old my buddy and I put my old Escort GT into a ditch in VT in the middle of the night when it was snowing like the world was ending. 2 huge guys stopped and helped us get the car out and I never forgot that. They didn't comment on the fact that we were drunken idiots out on a dirt road in the snowstorm but followed us back to my buddy's house to make sure we made it. Never forgot that. We nicknamed them 'Sub' and 'Tank' because of how huge they were and I guarantee that if I texted my buddy now (who I speak with 1-2 times per year) with just "Hey, what's up...Sub & Tank rock!" he would laugh and send back a message about those 2 kind guys to help us out in a snowstorm so that we didn't get DUIs or worse. [I am going to text him now, good memory!]

Losiento -- keep doing good things, shit like this has a way of balancing the wackiness that life can deal out on a daily basis.

chadwick

great stuff, man. awesome guys, sub & tank. i know them well i'm sure & have been aided by them as well. they get around quite well & are skilled at helping young drunken dipshits out of snow packed ditches along lonely country roads

good advice given... "keep doing good things, shit like this has a way of balancing the wackiness that life can deal out on a daily basis." - f me in the brain

mickeyrat

hedonist said:

And as I said before, as relates to other human traits-dubbed-sins such as lust, greed, sloth...yeah, I believe it is in our nature. I feel it's better to deal with than deny or suppress.

So there ya go.

We don't have to agree.

I'm curious though - what are those few simple truths?

I think we see the natural expression of humaness in babies and children. Which includes a fair bit of MINE MINE MINE.

rgambs

mickeyrat said:

hedonist said:

And as I said before, as relates to other human traits-dubbed-sins such as lust, greed, sloth...yeah, I believe it is in our nature. I feel it's better to deal with than deny or suppress.

So there ya go.

We don't have to agree.

I'm curious though - what are those few simple truths?

I think we see the natural expression of humaness in babies and children. Which includes a fair bit of MINE MINE MINE.

not just MINE MINE MINE but also violence. children don't learn to hit, they just start hitting. same with biting.
we have to face the fact that as smart as we are, we are still animals. half of us are crap-flinging chimps to this day. we can choose to be better, and we should, but the impulses exist and there is no benefit to denying them.

backseatLover12

mickeyrat said:

hedonist said:

And as I said before, as relates to other human traits-dubbed-sins such as lust, greed, sloth...yeah, I believe it is in our nature. I feel it's better to deal with than deny or suppress.

So there ya go.

We don't have to agree.

I'm curious though - what are those few simple truths?

I think we see the natural expression of humaness in babies and children. Which includes a fair bit of MINE MINE MINE.

Also, the elderly. By then, there's no filter, as well as no interest in others' approval. Children and seniors are the people I am most comfortable with, because there are no walls put up towards other people. It's these phases where we are the most real. It's why I work in a nursing home.

backseatLover12

chadwick said:

we can start healing by turning off the tv
watching a movie from time to time is entertaining
i throughly enjoy learning/discovering new things so the internet is an awesome tool for me
other than that... destroy all video games with hammers & fire
craftmanship builds a seaworthy vessel
sail far & wide
fight everyone
take their women

life is simple

There's a lot to be said for daydreaming. Just sitting, looking out the window, doing nothing and letting your mind wander.

Cosmo

I've been around long enough to know that there is always something out there to freak people out.
For the entirety of my youth and young adult life, there was the spectre of a limited to full scale nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. During those decades, I was certain that 2 realities of the day were going to continue to exist beyond my lifetime... one being the existance of Cold War between us and the Soviet Union and the other being the Berlin Wall.
...
Oh, well... so much for that, right? We still live under a possible threat of a nuclear exchange... but, it becomes less of a probability as it was in 1979.
So, now I'm more of a 'such, is life' type of person. I choose to live within a society of diverse people and their beliefs and fears, hopes and dreams because.. well, just because. I'm not going to let fear run my life. I WILL use caution... as I always have, but I'm not listening to the fear mongers du jour.
You know... IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE END OF DAYS... right? The Black Plague of Europe was the End of Days... and so was the Napoleanic Wars... and the American Civil War... and the Spanish Flu... and World War 1... and World War 2... and the Cold War... and 1984... and Y2K... ever since Christianity was invented, then adopted by the Romans, we have been in the End of Days.... beginning with the fall of Rome.
Just live for today... enjoy the only time that really matters... right now... right here. Focus on that and everything else falls into place.

PJ_Soul

I have to take a break from current events sometimes or else I'll start feeling a bit overwhelmed by how shitty so many things are in the world. It's fucking depressing and so frustrating. But then I'll get back on the old horse, since feeling bad or mad about it is better than keeping my head stuck in the sand permanently.

Losiento

hedonist said:

Losiento said:

The world works this way: There are good people, there are bad people. there are good people who work for bad and bad people who work for good. Then there are those that sit on their butts and complain about how the whole thing works. Have beer, stfu, be an armchair patriot going nowhere but fox news fast with the exception for the chance of achieving great social heights of a beer gut and the growing out of your mullet. Sound about right?

I think I understand where you're coming from, though that last part strikes me as stereotypical.

I believe there's good and bad (for lack of better terms) in all of us; it's what we choose to live by, what we choose to make our rule rather than our exception.

It's quite telling how we act when no one else is around. Whether or not one believes in god - or anything else - in the end, we have to answer to ourselves.

(well, I do)

I was just referencing what I read in the rambling above my post putting it into layman's terms in the last part.

Losiento

backseatLover12 said:

Losiento said:

backseatLover12 said:

I feel the same way about the news. All that bullshit matters little to me, most of it is half truths if any truth at all. And all of it wants us to live our lives in fear. There's a lot to be said for silence and peace.

Not that I don't care but everyone just wants to spin the shit for their own advantage and what really we end up with is... selfishness, greed, war, hunger and all the other horrors we see becomes tiring. I watched a world watch want to march to its own freedom that says enough for me. I saw a bunch of people who went for a ruthless power grab. I know average humans have the power to make the change. The world is in the need of release from the hands of the few with its icy grips holding it hostage. At best, I hope it has been an inspiration for many.

I believe that if we choose to keep seeing the cynicism in the world, that's all that we'll see. Taking a break of solitude does do wonders. But the real change is when we see the beauty in spite of all the nastiness. Hold onto that thought and then spread it, after a time of solitude is over.

So shall we take Pearl Jam's advice and believe the world is "nothing as it seems" ? Lack of permanence, build shaping a world which has been rendered useless otherwise keep fighting those who perpetrate our dreams?

So much has to be said for thread jacking and being humble.

brianlux

PJ_Soul said:

I have to take a break from current events sometimes or else I'll start feeling a bit overwhelmed by how shitty so many things are in the world. It's fucking depressing and so frustrating. But then I'll get back on the old horse, since feeling bad or mad about it is better than keeping my head stuck in the sand permanently.

Just as you've said so well here, I (and probably most of us) feel the same way. It's easy to get overloaded by what's going on in the world. That's why music is so great- that and occasional distractions.

Some reading I've been doing has kind of given a mixed perspective in thinking about current events. I'm reading Ryszard Kapuscinski's excellent book Imperium in which he tells about some of his various travels in the Russia and some of the countries that were part of the USSR. He blends a lot of history with observations and personal experiences. When I read about those times and places (and I understand his books about Africa and Asia are similar this way) I begin to get an inking about how totally fucked up other parts of the world are now and in the past. When I read about the Armenian genocide and the mass deportation of people from Poland in 1939 and other acts of Stalin's reign of terror I'm reminded of how fortunate I am to be living in this time and place. You can read history all the way back to it's recorded beginnings and see the same kinds of thing over and over. But somehow we keep on, even in the worst of situations. I just read about Kapuscinsky meeting with minor in the town of Vorkuta that is located above the arctic circle where days are endless in the winter and temperature normals at a level of cold we consider part of a freak storm and where people usually die by the age of 50 of black lung disease and yet they keep going. My father talked to a man who lived through (and secretly opposed) Hitler's rule in Germany and asked him how he managed to keep it together through those years and the man said you just get up every day and go about your business, you just keep going. How lucky I am that only occasionally have I found myself myself thinking "just keep going". Which reminds me, I just watch this great movie called "127 Hours" about the young outdoorsman Aron Ralston who cut off his own arm to save his life. Talk about inspirational!

The other side of all this, the big thing we all must face that is different from conditions in our collective past histories is the effects of global warming, environmental issues and human over-population on this planet which sustains us. We are in dangerous uncharted territory that way. Nations rise and nations fall but we only get one planet on which to live. Having it become inhospitable for our species, it seems to me, is a far greater concern in the long run than any political, social or economic issues. I don't think our generations will be the last but how many more? Maybe in a few more the crows will get there turn at being the most intelligent species.

Losiento

Exactly, Brian. Sitting on a starseed that will never blossom.... killed. It is in my vision of what a terrible thing has happened here. So justly giving it one last push to see if it can come to fruition. Outcome isn't very hopeful. A salvage job at best. Is why I am retiring and saying do whatever the f**k you want because you are going to do it anyway. Now let me be in Peace.

brianlux

Losiento said:

Exactly, Brian. Sitting on a starseed that will never blossom.... killed. It is in my vision of what a terrible thing has happened here. So justly giving it one last push to see if it can come to fruition. Outcome isn't very hopeful. A salvage job at best. Is why I am retiring and saying do whatever the f**k you want because you are going to do it anyway. Now let me be in Peace.

"Salvage", what an excellent word, Losiento. That is the word for our times. I think you hit it right on the nose- salvage is the best we can hope for.

Losiento

What does it mean to be a Buddhist? I am just wondering what your answer would be?