satori001

Of course you have, johniam, by the insinuation implicit in the word "villain." You as much as say so yourself by your description of the word, by which you mean "fictional." To paraphrase Peanuts, "Of all the johniams in the world, you're the johniam-iest." I wouldn't brag about it. She'll be surprised to find someone like you here, but Tex is far more than a match for you. If she doesn't find you a complete waste of time, I look forward to seeing her deal with you.

Don't know.

Two searches got results: 1. Eckhart 2. Tolle

The Power of Now was first published in 1999. I read it and recommended it here soon afterward, but that thread has apparently been deleted. Several others have recommended it since, the earliest in 2003 based on a quick search. I've used "satori" since the Waydale days, and been aware of the word and its meaning since college. It was probably in something published by DT Suzuki, Thaddeus Golas, Ram Das, Werner Erhard, Robert Pirsig, Alan Watts, Eugen Herrigel or any of many others. I can't say I ever understood any of it. I was more like a moth bouncing off the street light, again and again, attracted by light within but deflected by something both invisible and utterly impenetrable. This was more a hobby than an obsession. That is either fortunate or unfortunate. God only knows. Here is Thaddeus in his own words:

http://www.community-newspapers.com/archiv...g-engage1.shtml Bxxxdxxs & Axxxtxxxg Nice looking couple.

Hammered Dulcimer

Song comes with afterglow.

http://www.mindreadersdictionary.com/ Learn about the "liar's paradox." Learn about... dialogs, and demagogs, and dirty dogs. For some, a cipher. For some, just another fabulous podstop on your way across the galaxy.

If we want to come up with a great invention, we must think of a situation or circumstance around the house that has bothered us for a long time, but we've just lived with it. The longer the better, because it's hopefully had some time to "ferment" a bit. Make it specific. It can't just be, "the hall closet is a frickin' mess." It has to be "the hall closet is painted an off-white, and there are five shelves, and it contains linens, towels, and bathroom articles like shampoo and toothpaste, and it's a frickin' mess." Then think of something in the house we could use that would fix the problem. Remember that an invention can be a thing, or it can be a process. Maybe there is no gadget that will fix the mess in the hall closet, but there is a simple routine we just never thought of before. Ah ha! Fold the freakin' wash cloths. There. Invented! And it's off to the patent office, and now we wait for the royalties to pour in. Here's an example I read years ago. A typical, if tightly wound, dad was constantly annoyed that his wife and kids would squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle. After several years of putting up with this horsesh.., he got the i.d.e.a. -- for a process, not a gadget, and it never annoyed him again. From that day forward, he just dropped the tube on the floor and squeezed it all to the top with the bottom of his foot. It took only a moment every morning and every night, and it felt kind of cool beneath his toes. It was an invention, and it was fun too! Now let's face it, this guy was a psycho, a true sociopath, who would take a chainsaw to his whole family if they left the hall light on, or forgot to put the milk back in the fridge. After all, nobody who's normal steps on the toothpaste, and on the bathroom floor for God's sake. That's disgusting. But we can still learn a lot from the story, about inspiration. I've seen the phrase "cognitive dissonance" used to describe exactly this sort of situation. "CD" refers to the tension generated between our ears, when we simultaneously see the way things are, and envision the way we'd like them to be. Usually misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, it's energizing melody can sometimes be heard in the familiar clacking, chirping and chipping noises of dry enamel, grinding against dry enamel, in the darkness. Sure, maybe we expected the aliens to destroy Earth back in 1956, but they messed up, and they didn't. Embarrassing, after we "witnessed" to pretty much everybody we knew!? But, do we go on believing it's going to happen, 51 years late? Well, it could, but of course not! We either adapt our doctrine, as true believers described here did (and more recently, Mike has set that bar), or we just "step down on the toothpaste," step hard, and we move on. Take that, toothpaste. And that. And that! And THAT! (FYI - you can break the tube if you over-do it, I've heard.) You know what bugs me? Soap goo. People I won't mention tend to return the soap to the soap dish, which is good, but leave it in a half inch of standing water, which... The next morning when I reach for the soap to wash my hands, it feels like arm-wrestling with a 3-pound garden slug. Oh, I've tried stepping on it. Felt pretty good too, but you don't want to fall in the bathroom, more than once. But then, I noticed that a common dish sponge, in the soap dish, works pretty well at keeping the soap above the water, and helps the water evaporate, while keeping the soap reasonably solid. You can't patent a sponge, but you could invent a soap dish that incorporates a removable sponge that's easy to clean, resistant to soap build-up... A good invention for a school kid is not a techno-wiz/engineering fantasy, but a solid, low-tech idea that is easy to make, and useful, enough so to justify its pricetag. Hope you didn't mind the digression. By the way, the soapdish isn't a suggestion, though you're welcome to it, just an example. The toothpaste thing is already taken.

No, I'm afraid it is not a joke, although I'll concede it wouldn't pass for a typical thread around here either, and the literalists will probably have a better time over on the trivia thread. I stopped breathing sometime during the night and was pronounced dead this morning. As I probably made clear, this was not exactly unexpected, but it seems "surreal," as one of you put it. My family has been notfied, and all that seems to remain, other than my remains, is to arrange for them. While I will never know, I'd like to think someone will look into the circumstances of my care on the last day of my conscious life.

I'm 88. Had a good life, overall. Smoked for a while but quit in the 70's. Took lots of vitamins, followed Linus Pauling and others. Got lots of exercise, walking and calisthenics of one kind or another. Okay, so I have CHF, and COPD, and kidney failure (creatinine is a couple points high). The swelling in my legs and feet comes and goes, but I've learned to live with it. In the past year I've gone from walking on my own, to needing a cane, needing a walker, and until yesterday a wheel chair. But I've learned to live with it. Yesterday, the damnedest thing happened, though I don't exactly remember how. I was up early, before 6am. I was getting out of my wheel chair. Standing up sets that beeper off, and that lets the staff know I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Something caused me to fall backward, right on my butt, back and head. I saw stars and thought I'll be lucky if I survive this. The staff heard the beep, but didn't check it out in time. They found me there on the floor, flat on my back. Not a damn thing to break my fall. They took me back to my bed and checked me over for anything broken. Didn't need to do an x-ray. A couple of hours later I felt fine, other than some soreness at the base of my spine where I fell. I still felt good and sang a solo for my wife, who shares the room with me while we convalesce (we have different health problems, though she recently got her pacemaker too), until we get back home. Throughout yesterday though, I felt worse and wondered if I'd done some real damage. The staff asked me if I was alright, more often than usual, so they must have noticed. I was a little out of it, moreso than usual I guess. My memory isn't so great either. Around 5 pm I really didn't feel well. My head hurt so I asked for a couple of Tylenol, which the nice nurse got for me. I couldn't decide whether to have dinner in the room or down in the dining room, and finally decided the dining room would be better, where there were people around, and I could get help if I needed it. About a half hour later, the sick feeling just overpowered me. I began to throw up and then passed out. They brought me back to the room and had my wife leave while they checked my pulse, which was erratic, and breathing which was shallow. They put me on oxygen, which I have in the room. About ten minutes later they realize it's not improving and they call 911. My wife holds my hand and gives me a kiss before they wheel me to the elevator and out to the parking lot on the gurney to the waiting ambulance. Seems like they take forever on the ambulance, filling out some form on a clip board, strapping me in so I don't fall off the stretcher. We must have been in the parking lot for 20 minutes. When I get to the hospital ER they checked my vital signs. Heart rate and blood pressure are acceptable. I'm still on oxygen. They do a cat scan and it shows a massive hematoma on the left side. My brain is pushed to the right, so that the cat-scan shows a line that should indicate the center of the brain is bent right-ward in a bow shape. My pupils do not respond to the little flashlight, and my hand does not respond to a pin prick. My legs give a little kick every ten or twenty seconds. Somebody tells somebody I am "unresponsive." I'm on a lot of medications because of the heart condition, etc. One of them is Coumadin, which is a blood thinner, which makes life easier for my heart. When I fell and whacked my head, it caused a little hemorrhage, and it didn't stop bleeding the way it normally would because of the Coumadin. Because of my age, my brain has decreased in size so there is enough room in there to accommodate a sub-dural hematoma for several hours. Not forever though. For me, about 12 hours until the lights went out. So here I am, in a coma, and they don't expect me to survive the weekend. They've got me on oxygen and an IV (saline, glucose and a proton blocker for my stomach), but that's all. They've been told not to resuscitate, since I'd be a vegetable anyway, and miserable if I regained consciousness. I really wanted to live another few years at least, and I had plans to enjoy my grandkids, a lot more than I have up to now. I have to accept this, I understand that. They told me not to get out of the wheel chair, but I forgot. If I feel like I can walk, I don't remember that I'm not supposed to. I remembered afterward, and on the way down too. I have to wonder though. If I'm 88, and the doctor who prescribed the Coumadin examines me after a hard fall but doesn't order any follow-up tests, like a cat-scan at the very least, who's really brain-dead? Him or me? That's a joke, since I definitely am, but is the doc a close second? Or does an 88-year old guy with a bad heart take a back seat to a golfing weekend in Costa Rica on the Friday before Labor Day weekend? If I'd fallen at the hospital, it's policy to put me under observation and do the scan. The nursing facility may have a policy too. I dunno. I'll have to leave it up to others to find out.

Here's a good one: http://www.dancarlin.com/

As well as can be expected Rick. Thanks for asking. I've discovered, nearly by accident, that the Earth is not round, but curved. To see flat, or not to see flat, that is the question. Suppose we'd all followed Jerry instead of Vic? We'd have put those harmonies to much better use, that's probably a fact.

Download and install iTunes, register with the usual junk (probably requires a credit card), and go to the iTunes Store, you will find a link for iTunes U. At first glance I thought it was course-ware on how to buy from iTunes. Not so. Instead it's a portal to various, free, online educational resources from schools with pedigrees like MIT and Duke. You don't have to use iTunes, but it makes it easier, and they will probably assemble a growing number of "free" courses as it catches on. Obviously this requires bandwidth, because the downloads are pretty big. If you don't have the equipment capable of doing this, you might try a local library. Otherwise, just figure you couldn't go to MIT before, and you still can't. Net gain = net loss. Here is a direct link to the MIT site: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/index.htm The courses seem to be both very informative, and very accessible. If you have an iPod, you can take the lectures with you. If you don't have one, you should consider it. It will liberate your music collection, and your brain, from the limitations of the CD player and commercial radio. Again, obviously you'll need the right equipment. iPod and iTunes are Apple products but compatible with PCs. I've started the MIT course called Introduction to Psychology. It's old material for me, but a great survey of the field today, and a good refresher course. It's a live class, recorded in the classroom. The first session begins with the usual admin stuff getting cleared out of the way, but you can skip ahead about 15 minutes. It's not for everybody, but some of you have been starving your brains since you left college (or joined TWI) and others always knew they were too smart for the room but never had a chance to go on to college, or grad school for that matter. Some of you will be thrilled to know there is a theological seminary course list included. Some of you could take a course together and organize a discussion around it, rather than recycling the same old arguments and opinions ad nauseum. Try it out. Again, the iPod goes anywhere. It's over-priced and still worth the money. I have the 30G version that plays video, but the courses are mostly audio so you can use cheaper models. The classes can be saved to mp3 so other players will work too. Don't ask me how to do it. It's an iTunes option.

http://www.magicsoapbox.com/doc/ Did you read the label?

This is still a good thread. I've been coming back to it now and then. Any new contributions? How about $25 and under, the next level up?

Happy birthday.

Bobby Bacala said that when you die, "everything goes black." Bobby learned that first hand, and never will know the fate of Tony and his family, the outcome of Phil's war. The apparent hitmen in the diner weren't gunning for Tony and his family. The last thing we knew, Meadow was on her way in - then it all went black and quiet, and everything we knew of Tony's world was suddenly gone. How did we buy the farm? Shot maybe? Stabbed? Blown up? It hardly matters. They couldn't let us live. We knew too much.

re: Deadwood

AJ is a cipher. That scene where Tony tells him that his uncle is dead, and through his tears AJ whines that it was making him more depressed just when he was starting to make progress, remember that? Pure sociopath. AJ may have inherited Tony's worst characteristics and none of his human side. AJ could just as easily turn on his family. One key to this show is the presence of the shrink. The writers want us to see these characters' behavior as a consequence of their psychological make-up. If you get a grip on what drives a character, you can anticipate a range of possible behaviors in a given set of circumstances. We call that set of behavioral drivers a "personality." The thing I like about The Sopranos is that the writers are consistent with their characters, unlike a lot of TV out there.

I only started watching this season, and don't know the characters that well. BUT, Phil is no dummy. He can see the resemblance between that Ukranian AND his "goombah," and himself. Tony tells his wlfe that "families don't get touched, don't worry," or something like that. Maybe it's a herring, but I think the wife gets wacked, or maybe somebody in the family. I think his son will discover a ferocity he never knew he had in defending his family. He may pick up the torch if/when Tony meets his maker, symbolically at least. What about the shrink? Will she play a part here? I think she'll have a personal crisis and/or epiphany after Tony's gone. Phil may die, or he may prevail, and then show a little mercy sparing what's left of the Soprano family before they're all dead. Tony's sister eventually gets it between the eyes after taking several bullets to the torso whilst breaking up furniture in the throes of death.

Introducing the latest and greatest CPAP 3000, modeled by a famous intergalactic personality!

I did the sleep study, as much out of curiosity as anything else. They said I had minimal signs of sleep apnea but didn't need the "scuba gear" they were very interested in selling. The "educational" video they had me watch prior to the study looked a lot like one of those late-night infomercials. Anyway, they asked me if I'd like to buy the CPAP thing anyway, just in case, I guess. They said they could write me up a prescription and they'd check to make sure insurance would cover it. I said, no thank you, although it might have come in handy at Halloween. The sleep study was an endurance test. They stuck those sensors all over my chest, shoulders, a couple on my feet, at least one on my head, and wires everywhere. The bed had a thin, cheap mattress, covered in heavy plastic. I figured I'd be up most of the night, but I managed to sleep despite their best efforts. I don't doubt these CPAP things alleviate some breathing dysfunction, but I became suspicious of the barely disguised marketing effort, and almost wonder if there won't be a big scandal about the "medical industrial complex," over-selling therapy to people who don't necessarily need it. As long as they aren't hurting people, in ways maybe yet undetected, I guess there are bigger issues to worry about. YouTube: