Here and Now...What's Happening?

[Lisab]

I thought by now I'd have a laptop to be honest, and so much is going on in my life I can't get it together to phone post! But like Belle and Astrid I find myself suddenly moving. My landlord wants to sell. I've found a 3 bed flat around the corner which is heaps bigger than this 2bed semi and it's really light. I'm losing a garden but gaining a stunning view over the bay. My eldest son wants to move in with me which will help with the rent.
Were also opposite a lovely park so I'm not too worried about the garden situation and my little ones dad has a huge one. To be honest I see it as a change and a step up in my life. The couple who own the place own half of mumbles and Gower where I live and my son works on their properties, maintenance etc. They love my son and knocked the rent down alot for me. Hopefully later on down the line they'll offer me something more suitable.

[meeradas]

Posted by 1inMany (here)
Em is outfitted for school, well except for cowboy boots :/

Sh!t kickers to school?
Texan thing?
Python?

[Carmody]

Watched the NASA curiosity landing live, last night.

I watched the press conference afterward.

I could not believe the level of over the top patriotic, "USA rules', we are best, no one else could do this, we are the leaders, all must follow in our footsteps, we will lead in all things", this complete unmitigated horse****. (I'm trying to say that.... they were informing the world that all others would have to go with or through them, in order to get anywhere. THAT is what was spoken. That kind of insane arrogance.)

If that was true, then all the scientists who worked on the Manhattan project,and then those who formed NASA would be born and bred in the USA, right? Not true, not in the slightest. A very high number almost a majority of all the key players, throughout the greatest moments in space exploration by the USA..those people where from OUTSIDE the USA.

To top it off, their expression of excitement after the landing was like watching a badly run cheerleading performance from a college football game.

Not that I don't appreciate what was done, re the lander..... but the whole mental positioning and the political steaming mess as proclamations of reality... those bits where a bit hard to take.

[meeradas]

Posted by Carmody (here)
... those bits where a bit hard to take.

If you chose these terms, i can imagine what you would have liked to write...

Hats off for being able to put it into forum-compatible language.

[Lisab]

And Ulli I've also had the 555 thing on to the point it was starting to get ridiculous! For me 5 has always been the number of change and movement, sometimes disruptive and challenging. In my job we have a monitor that shows you how many customers are waiting, everytime I look up, all the fives. Customer coming thru, date of birth 5/5/55. 55 car reg plates. House no 5 or all the fives. And of course waking up at 5.55. Been going on for a month.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

So glad to read you see harmony in 5!

[ulli]

Posted by Lisab (here)
And Ulli I've also had the 555 thing on to the point it was starting to get ridiculous! For me 5 has always been the number of change and movement, sometimes disruptive and challenging. In my job we have a monitor that shows you how many customers are waiting, everytime I look up, all the fives. Customer coming thru, date of birth 5/5/55. 55 car reg plates. House no 5 or all the fives. And of course waking up at 5.55. Been going on for a month.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

So glad to read you see harmony in 5!

Five is the middle number between one to four, and six to nine, from where things can turn left or right...the potential movement point...that's if you use a basic number scale from 1 to 9.
If you do a scale going upward from 1 to + infinity, and to -infinity below, like a thermometer,
then the midpoint would be zero.
Which is another way of looking at it, but wouldn't be as useful from a numerology point of view.
On the scale from one to nine five would be the equivalent to point zero.
Glad you are seeing fives.
There, take five.

[ViralSpiral]

[Marianne]

Beach roses in Maine

[ulli]

Posted by Carmody (here)
Watched the NASA curiosity landing live, last night.

I watched the press conference afterward.

I could not believe the level of over the top patriotic, "USA rules', we are best, no one else could do this, we are the leaders, all must follow in our footsteps, we will lead in all things", this complete unmitigated horse****. (I'm trying to say that.... they were informing the world that all others would have to go with or through them, in order to get anywhere. THAT is what was spoken. That kind of insane arrogance.)

If that was true, then all the scientists who worked on the Manhattan project,and then those who formed NASA would be born and bred in the USA, right? Not true, not in the slightest. A very high number almost a majority of all the key players, throughout the greatest moments in space exploration by the USA..those people where from OUTSIDE the USA.

To top it off, their expression of excitement after the landing was like watching a badly run cheerleading performance from a college football game.

Not that I don't appreciate what was done, re the lander..... but the whole mental positioning and the political steaming mess as proclamations of reality... those bits where a bit hard to take.

You are quite right about major scientific achievements not being exclusively American.
The only true American is a native American, anyway.

All others rely on Mind Kontrol to get their beliefs and emotions created for them.
Meanwhile in Europe all self aggrandisation is considered vulgar, especially in scientific circles.
Royalty had that one cornered.

But it was part of the American dream-- to keep people's enthusiasm up, because in the US the sky was the limit, with such huge opportunities, and while people in Europe where becoming more and more claustrophobic for lack of space, the Americans were just getting going.
And once big billboard advertising came along self proclamation became part of the culture.
Every product was presented on a silver platter, to make others believe and invest in it.
The lower the quality, the louder the ad.
Also, the lower the starting rung on the ladder, the higher the ascent....
(hey I just gave the word ascension a new meaning here)
and people from poor background could become the most famous person in the world.
Muhammad Ali, the boxer, was a living testimony to this. His "I am the greatest!!!!"
has become 'We are the greatest!!!!"
Since the Village has become a bit quiet I guess I will have to do another "we are the greatest" dance myself,
and if necessary, by myself.
Ulli, sending punches into the air, tip-toeing in circles,
"float like a butterfly- sting like a bee."

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXzQqqn-rVc

[1inMany]

Posted by meeradas
Sh!t kickers to school?
Texan thing?

Hahaha, you're funny. First of all, we have a special powder for stinkfoot. lol

Where we live, there are a lot of people who have acreage, and some have horses (as our next door neighbors). Getting to my house, one passes a few cattle ranches and there is a farm scattered here or there. So, much to my surprise, some kids wear sh1tkickers to school. I think they are the easiest choice, plus the girls who wear them (don't know about the boys) are not concerned with upward mobility on the social ladder...the popular group being the top. Em doesn't want to be a popular girl, and most of her friends would rather not be in that group either. There are the band geeks, which I think Emma would fit into nicely but alas she has her own ideas, the jocks, you know, the usual.

My confession for the day is that on the first day of school last year, I was sitting in my car waiting for her to come out and was laughing my arse off. All these kids coming out with cowboy boots on. I had never seen such a thing. Then, this clean cut, nice looking older teenage boy pulled up in his truck, got out (apparently picking up a younger sibling) and had on the full garb...hat, belt buckle so big it almost covered up his whole abdomen, skoal can circle in his back pocket, and had some kind of spurs on his boots. I about gafawed myself clear out of the car.

Truly, though, if I might delve into stereotypes for a moment, the ones who dare to wear cowboy boots to school are very...real. They tend to be laid back and kind hearted, respectful, and aren't afraid of hard work. And they don't much care what other people think. They dance to their own drum, and I like it

So, the short answer is yes. Sh1tkickers to school. But I think it is more a live-in-the-country thing than a Texas thing. No idea which style Em will choose...

In my here and now, I am antsy to get home!

Much Love,

and...Carmody, I totally agree that the U.S. is egocentric, and you showed great restraint in your post, imho.

[meeradas]

Posted by 1inMany (here)
... yes. Sh1tkickers to school.

o my. Haven't worn mine for ages...

[Carmody]

The subconscious/superconscious...sets up the conscious mind, it is the support structure for the conscious mind, the filter, the flow control. And so on.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-0...lier-free.html

When people find themselves having to make a decision, the assumption is that the thoughts, or voice that is the conscious mind at work, deliberate, come to a decision, and then act. This is because for most people, that’s how the whole process feels. But back in the early 1980’s, an experiment conducted by Benjamin Libet, a neuroscientist with the University of California, cast doubt on this idea.

He and his colleagues found in watching EEG readings of volunteers who had been asked to make a spontaneous movement (it didn’t matter what kind) that brain activity prior to the movement indicated that the subconscious mind came to a decision about what movement to make before the person experienced the feeling of making the decision themselves. This, Libet argued, showed that people don’t have nearly the degree of free will regarding decision making, as has been thought. Since then, no one has really refuted the theory. Now new research by a European team has found evidence that the brain activity recorded by Libet and other’s is due to something else, and thus, as they write in their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that people really do make decisions in their conscious mind.

To come to this conclusion, the team looked at how the brain responds to other decision forcing stimuli, such as what to make of visual input. In such instances, earlier research has shown that the brain amasses neural activity in preparation for a response, giving us something to choose from. Thus the response unfolds as the data is turned into imagery our brains can understand and we then interpret what we see based on what we’ve learned in the past. The researchers suggest that choosing to move an arm or leg or finger, works the same way. Our brain gets a hint that we are contemplating making a movement, so it gets ready. And it’s only when a critical mass occurs that decision making actually takes place.

To test this theory, the team built a computer model of what they called a neural accumulator, then watched as it behaved in a way that looked like it was building up to a potential action. Next, they repeated the original experiment conducted by Libet et al but added another element, a click noise. Each volunteer was asked to make a decision right away if they heard the click while they were mulling over their choices. The thinking was that for those who had built up a neural response already and were near the threshold, a faster response should come about, and in looking at the EEG data and comparing them to clicks, that’s exactly what they found. This, the team says, proves that it was still the conscious mind making the decision; the subconscious was just doing background work to get ready.

Abstract: A gradual buildup of neuronal activity known as the “readiness potential” reliably precedes voluntary self-initiated movements, in the average time locked to movement onset. This buildup is presumed to reflect the final stages of planning and preparation for movement. Here we present a different interpretation of the premovement buildup. We used a leaky stochastic accumulator to model the neural decision of “when” to move in a task where there is no specific temporal cue, but only a general imperative to produce a movement after an unspecified delay on the order of several seconds. According to our model, when the imperative to produce a movement is weak, the precise moment at which the decision threshold is crossed leading to movement is largely determined by spontaneous subthreshold fluctuations in neuronal activity. Time locking to movement onset ensures that these fluctuations appear in the average as a gradual exponential-looking increase in neuronal activity. Our model accounts for the behavioral and electroencephalography data recorded from human subjects performing the task and also makes a specific prediction that we confirmed in a second electroencephalography experiment: Fast responses to temporally unpredictable interruptions should be preceded by a slow negative-going voltage deflection beginning well before the interruption itself, even when the subject was not preparing to move at that particular moment.



http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-0...lier-free.html


It's nice that they built a mechanical analogy to the brain and then tested it, but I'm not sure how this programmed analogy fits the real world.

They made an analogy based on assumptions and then drew an assumption from that mechanical/programmed thing's behavior. Which does more to illustrate the disconnect in understanding consciousness than the experiment and hypothesis itself.

[dan33]

Hugo is gaining weight. THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH.

------------------------------------------ ...


Roy Stockdill: “But Bowie was convinced their latest home was haunted too, and consulted a white witch. The witch told him - ‘You are a walk-in. You have come from another planet or galaxy. A human being has given you permission to inhabit his body.
‘Walk-ins have a divine mission to bring enlightenment.

http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showp...&postcount=223



Bowie it was said, spent his spare time locked in a trailer scouring his library of 1,500 mystical books, consorting both with then wife Angie and heiress Sabrina Guinness and listening to ‘Young Americans’ played backward on a special turntable which made the recording sound like a Tibetan chant.”

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSHY1_ux8rs

In two days we 're going to Slovenia. A week.

Hugs!!

[Eram]

As long as I can remember my knees are in a lock position when I'm standing.
Problems with the knees as well, on and off, unable to jog because hurting in the knee's.
Several peoples telling me that the flow of energy in my legs is low during the past 15 years.
Rheumatoid arthritis in the right knee 2 years ago and still recovering from the 8 month inflammation damage.
Further... stretching my legs is the only part of my body where I'm stiff as a board for as long as I can remember.

oh... ok... light bulb moment !!!

It must be the life force energy (Chi) then... that is blocked in my legs.
Sometimes it takes some time to come to a proper conclusion

So I have been doing this Lajin-Paida now for some months, but only the slapping part and not the stretching the legs part.
done that stretching now for 7 days and it feels great.
Never felt better in the legs actually.... but there is something that comes with it that I don't understand.
Ever since I've started ... there is this nervous energy rushing through me. It comes from the stomach area and rises up to the chest, throat, and upwards.
I haven't been able to sleep properly, only restless turning and tossing in the bed.
Reading a book (which used to be my favourite relaxation) is also impossible because of this nervous energy.
When I turn inward and ask what's happening... I feel that it is part of a healing process, but it sure may hurry up now, because I sure would like to have a good night of sleep now!

[Swan]

Posted by Wakytweaky (here)
Ever since I've started ... there is this nervous energy rushing through me. It comes from the stomach area and rises up to the chest, throat, and upwards.
I haven't been able to sleep properly, only restless turning and tossing in the bed.
Reading a book (which used to be my favourite relaxation) is also impossible because of this nervous energy.
When I turn inward and ask what's happening... I feel that it is part of a healing process, but it sure may hurry up now, because I sure would like to have a good night of sleep now!

I recognize this.

I have a tenseness in my stomache that I´ve had for as long as I can remember. I am continuously relaxing this area now. Not with any technique, but just my awareness and breathing.

The tenseness turns into nervous energy; fluttering, in my stomache and throat. My plan is to use EFT to diffuse it, although up till now I´ve actually used coffee

I also plan to focus on the tenseness more intensly, and really try and dive into it. But for that I need to be alone for several hours, so it will have to wait a few weeks.

I recognize the light sleeping too. But it doesn´t bother me. Feels natural somehow...things going on....

[another bob]

The fire that Sierra mentioned recently to the northeast of us here in Paradise has grown to 15,000 acres with little containment, and has shrouded us in heavy smoke, so that we must keep the windows closed. Apparently, it was human-caused. We are not immediately threatened, but conditions are very dry and oportune for fire to jump the lines.

Fire is an ever-present danger in this mountain community. A few years ago, wew were forced to evacuate for several days in the midst of a big one that fortunately was brought under containment just shy of the town outskirts. We were forced to decide what was important to take, so we piled the dog and the birds' cages into the Nissan compact, which left little room except for a clothing suitcase and a box of files, some Chinese scrolls Mazie fancied, and a small ice chest with food to carry us over till we got to her sister's place in Napa, where we stayed until the all-clear news.

Experiences like that help to build empathy with the refugees all over this realm, and given the way conditions and causes are developing, the refugee experience may be much more widespread in the coming months and years for many more here on Earth. May all beings be protected!

Here's a view of the fire from our area:




PS: Toek (and Swan), you might try sending a PM to Bear Cow, a member of Avalon here, who is versed in Taoist internal energy configurations, and may have a suggestion for exercises to balance your Ki.

[REILLY]

[another bob]

Posted by PurpleLama (here)

Yama:

[Eram]

Thanks another Bob and Swan,

I'll send an PM to Bear Cow for sure!

Hope you don't have to use this one Bob.


@ PurpleLama.... I googled the word Apocaloptimist and it looks quite fresh yet.
Wouldn't be surprised if this picture will turn up everywhere soon.

[Angel Hero]

I am just staring at my clock on my Dell-Windows-7-laptop. It seems that it is 3:39PM where the sun hovers almost above the house I live in. My father comes in a door from the house's backyard. May father lifts up a serious face staring to the direction at this laptop's monitor as he walks closer to the left of me to check what I am doing. My brother randomly hooted the word "fish" in a weird tone to the right of me as he tries his best to focus on his reading. A nervous smile came across my face as I glanced at my dad who stands behind me. I quickly picked up my pace while hearing a Rice Cooker a few feet in front of me in the kitchen and typing this message. I ended this message with a calm relaxation that basked in my face. All of a sudden, a strange aroma rushed in my nose that crinkled from that stench. It is now 3:49 PM.