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rude 'n' ridiculous rants + polite but painfully-slow prattle with passers-by

Started by rick957, June 23, 2012, 08:50:16 PM

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rick957

@ Ryu

No no, I think about this kinda crap all the time, so it's very enjoyable to talk to anybody about it, and I would not want you to be anything other than honest and candid about your impressions and opinions and responses.  I mean, civility is very important to me, but you strike me as quite civil even when you're being very candid, so I'm good.

Ten Commandments, let's see ... *scratches head* ... The Ten Commandments were some of the many old rules that God gave the Jews to follow in order for them to know him, for them to have a relationship with him.  The commandments no longer matter the way they originally did, because God made a totally different way for people to know him, and it replaces all those old rules.  The new way is to believe a few specific things about Jesus; a simple choice.

Morality gets in the fucking way of everything.  So many people get misled by this.  Christians are not under orders to follow a long list of rules.  Some Christians think they are, but they're completely wrong.  Here's how Christians are supposed to behave:  they each trust God to take care of them, because he wants to take care of them, and he is the only one who is actually able to fully take care of them.  People can't take care of themselves.  People can't be happy on their own.  Everyone who tries to take care of themselves or be happy on their own fails. 

People can enjoy all sorts of wonderful things without knowing God or believing in Jesus.  But they can't be happy.  They can feel good sometimes though, lots of times.  Most of them believe they're happy because they assume that they must be happy even though they're not.

What does God have to offer you?  E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. 

Every wonderful pleasure or accomplishment or experience that any human being has ever experienced adds up to squat compared to knowing God.  None of that shit will ever make anyone truly happy.  Never has, never will. 

You and I were born for a reason, and that reason is to be loved by God.  It's the whole reason we each exist.  When we fulfill that reason, finally, for the very first time, we become happy and fulfilled and complete.  It is so much more than a feeling.  There are good feelings sometimes, many times, astonishing good feelings; but the truth is that Christians do not feel good all the time.  I'm a Christian who feels bad a lot of the time, because I have a mental illness, among other reasons.  I'm also completely fulfilled and truly happy, in the real, big, broad sense. 

People use lots of names for it.  Mick Jagger called it satisfaction.  You could call it fulfillment or peace of mind or wholeness or joy or happiness.  I like to call it happiness for the sake of simplicity, but then I have to explain that I'm not talking about a mere, momentary feeling, but a deep and profound and permanent thing that means everything to me.  It means everything to everyone who gets it.  It's that good and that important.

This is all that life is about.  If you become the most successful person who has ever lived, with billions of dollars and a different lover every night, you got nothing on me, man.  I wouldn't trade you five minutes of what I got for all that shit.  I got something way better.  Lots of people don't believe me.  That's okay though, because I got mine.

If that sounds selfish, that's because it is selfish, and that's how it's supposed to be.  God wants to dump absolute bliss into your lap, just because he loves you and wants to.  When he does it, you won't give two shits about anything else, and you'll have it forever, period.  There are no words for it.  It's beyond language.  It's everything.

About morality.  Everyone seems to get this totally the fuck upside down.  It goes like this.  I believe in Jesus and what he did; then, I connect directly with God; then I become a totally different person.  Yes you read that right.  The new person who I become enjoys doing lots of good stuff, and it's not hard, because the work is done by God, not me; never me; never ever me.  I sit back for the ride.  I play.  It's what I am supposed to do.  I'm supposed to be like a little child who gets to play all the time, forever.  That's what God gives me.  Whenever I do a good thing, it's not me following some fucking rule or list of rules.  It's God acting through me.  The transformation into the new person starts immediately and progresses slowly, and that's where a lot of people develop all these misunderstandings.  They think that they need to start depending on themselves again, that they need to go memorize rules and work real hard and follow them.  That is exactly what God does not want.  He doesn't want us to work.  He wants us to be happy and play.

It's the shit.  But most people don't believe it's real, so they miss out and settle for other kinds of lives.  They can still have nice lives and feel good and even be good moral people, some of them.  But they don't get to know God or be happy, unless they believe in Jesus.

It's really wonderful, it's the best thing ever, and you or anyone anyone can have the best thing ever, bam just like that. 

It's weird talking about all this stuff.  I suppose I avoid talking about this stuff or else I kind of skip over it, because it's hard to talk about this stuff without sounding like you're trying to sell people a bunch of bullshit.  It's totally not bullshit, and I'm totally not trying to sell nothing to nobody.  Ack.  So many damn Christians want to sell people on stuff, manipulate people for the wrong reasons, for selfish reasons. 

Anyway, that's how it goes; I hope I explained it okay.  I'm such an unqualified and crummy person to talk about this stuff.  There are people who do this right and do it a lot.  You wouldn't necessarily believe this considering this insane fucking blog thing, but I don't normally talk about this kinda crap.  Instead I talk about ordinary everyday shit that doesn't matter much to me.  At some point I stopped talking about all the stuff that really matters to me, and this blog has been a huge step towards fixing that and going back to opening up with people I care about, about the things that really matter to me.

@ Josietta

Hi Josietta.  Sure, I could use some baby-makin'.  Come on over.  You can teach me better composition afterwards.  ;)

ManyMindsManyVoices

"See the problem is, I feel that feeling, the one you're describing. You would probably argue that I don't, or something, but it's a pretty damn close description to what I'd say it feels like. I'd call that feeling enlightenment or epiphany, and I'd say it comes from a sense of a greater connection, rather than 'God'. See, you call it 'God', but in absolutely no way will you ever be able to prove that you don't feel that way because you've convinced yourself that God is the answer so well that it fills you with the same feeling I get from believing something completely different. The only difference is, in mine, I never once have to convince anyone else that enlightenment must be found my way. In fact, I'd happily argue that it is specifically found only when a person comes to terms with their own personal beliefs. In fact, if you took what I am saying right now to heart, and it cause you to lose your belief in God, I would say you could just as easily become unenlightened and find your way to enlightened again down another path."

"Lots of people have described that feeling, from all kinds of different things. That just helps me better affirm that my path is right, and that it may or may not be right for others, but that I honestly don't need to care about that."

"I'm not sure I have any place left to go with that, so I'm happy to respond to whatever else you have to say, answer any questions, or broach any other part of this topic, or simply return to our regularly scheduled programming of you trying to play catchup."
My O/Os * Everyone should read 1/0

This is the Oath of the Drake. You should take it.

Josietta

Quote
@ Josietta

Hi Josietta.  Sure, I could use some baby-makin'.  Come on over.  You can teach me better composition afterwards.  ;)

Hah! I thought you might! ;)

We could do some serious composing! Drafting! Editing! Then do it all over to make sure that final draft is damn near perfect!

      ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤍💖                    ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤍💖
                                 O.Os   / A.As / Ideas 
                           Warning:  Finicky Muse Ahead!


rick957

Quote from: Ryuka Tana on December 12, 2012, 01:28:50 AM
"See the problem is, I feel that feeling, the one you're describing. You would probably argue that I don't, or something, but it's a pretty damn close description to what I'd say it feels like. I'd call that feeling enlightenment or epiphany, and I'd say it comes from a sense of a greater connection, rather than 'God'. See, you call it 'God', but in absolutely no way will you ever be able to prove that you don't feel that way because you've convinced yourself that God is the answer so well that it fills you with the same feeling I get from believing something completely different. The only difference is, in mine, I never once have to convince anyone else that enlightenment must be found my way. In fact, I'd happily argue that it is specifically found only when a person comes to terms with their own personal beliefs. In fact, if you took what I am saying right now to heart, and it cause you to lose your belief in God, I would say you could just as easily become unenlightened and find your way to enlightened again down another path."

"Lots of people have described that feeling, from all kinds of different things. That just helps me better affirm that my path is right, and that it may or may not be right for others, but that I honestly don't need to care about that."

"I'm not sure I have any place left to go with that, so I'm happy to respond to whatever else you have to say, answer any questions, or broach any other part of this topic, or simply return to our regularly scheduled programming of you trying to play catchup."

Yeah I'm trying lately to sort of finish catching up on old posts but simultaneously do a better job of replying to newer posts, except I don't get 'em all, but generally I'm keeping up better.  Still got some old catching up to do though.  It's really cool having comments and visitors and stuff.  :)

What you say here sounds wonderful, Ryu, and I hope it's completely true.  The problem is that people can be fooled completely; no, I take that back; almost completely, like 99.9 percent.  In fact it's the most natural alternative, it's the most natural way to be.

Each person has good things in his or her life, and they are meant to enjoy those things.  God put those things there for each person to enjoy; all the good things in every person's life were made and put there by God.  It's good to enjoy them.  But if you believe that's what life is about, and you convince yourself that you've got it -- happiness, joy, peace of mind, enlightenment, fulfillment, wholeness, whatever you call it -- if you convince yourself that you already have it, then you stop looking for it.

This is what almost everyone does, and it's the worst mistake anyone can make, and it's also the most natural thing anyone can do.  It's totally natural; in fact it's in your blood, it's in the cells of your body.  Mine too.  This isn't figurative or metaphorical.  We are each born with bodies that want to believe false things about reality.  Our human flesh fights against the truth.  It keeps doing it even after a person becomes a Christian.  It fights every single day, all day long. 

If we give in to our natural instincts, we stop seeking the truth that is real and is outside us.  Instead we settle on something lesser and very easily become fully (almost fully) convinced that there is nothing else out there.  If you look around and become well-educated, you will be taught a system of belief that reinforces this self-deception with such complex and impressive logical and scientific arguments that I don't know how on earth anybody digs out from under all that shit.  That's the problem; it's not true.

Modern academia tells us that truth is what you make it; my truth is as valid as yours; there is no objective universal truth; every religion is another path to the same endpoint; every god is another representation of whatever is out there, if there is any god out there, but our best science tells us that it's nothing more than comforting mythology we use to feel a little bit better when certain hardships arise like the death of a relative or a serious illness.  Books upon books have been written by people way smarter than I'll ever be.  Christianity is laffable nonsense, or -- perhaps worse yet -- and yes this probably is worse -- Christianity is another nice "faith tradition," a quaint set of rituals that people observe for no better reason than because their relatives did it too, and each family seems to have a "faith tradition," and who gives a shit they're all the same nonsense anyway, but they teach us nice morals and stuff.  Ack.

It is possible to see through even that much bullshit.  It does happen; it can happen.  But the bullshit is thick indeed and cannot be underestimated.

Anyway, down to brass tacks:  I say tomaytoh, you say tomahtoe.  I think all the people who believe in any enlightenment or happiness outside of Christianity are tragically deceived and mistaken.  Many of those people believe the exact same thing about me, that I am the one who is mistaken.  Then there's an even worse, third alternative, and this is the most popular one nowadays:  a bunch of people think that we're both equally right, or both equally wrong; that we actually believe the same stuff, and it might all add up to the same thing, or it might all add up to nothing.

Who's right?  Who's wrong?  Is anyone?

Here's what I believe.  There is a truth, and there's only one, and Jesus is it.  No other real happiness.  No other real enlightenment.  No other way to reach the only real God.  Every other path or prescription is a lie, and yet, other paths or prescriptions will always seem more attractive to us because our bodies themselves are damaged and are eager to believe in lies.  Fuck!  What do we do?  :)

I believe with all my heart that every person who looks for the truth will find it. 

I believe with all my heart that the only people who don't find the truth are the ones who stop looking for it.  Maybe they think it can't be found.  Maybe they think they've already got a nice life and don't need anything better.  I don't know all the reasons.  But this seems to be what most people do.

No one has to do that.  Every individual gets to choose, and as long as you choose to look for the truth, you will find it.  That's what I believe with all my heart, so I hope people keep an open mind and keep looking and don't settle for anything less than real happiness, because it is out there waiting to be found.

I found it, and it wasn't because I deserved to, or because I'm even a tiny bit better than anyone else.  I'm the least deserving ever and much worse than you.  If I got it, surely you (whoever you are) can too.








It's been a pleasure to dialog with you and learn a bit more about your beliefs, Ryu, and I thank you for allowing me to ramble on at such ridiculous length about mine.  I hope we'll have other opportunities to exchange views.  We may not end up agreeing with each other beforehand or after, but the process of dialog is invaluable to me, it's so rewarding as an end in itself.  You've said things I find quite fascinating and will ruminate over and hopefully learn from.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, or nearly so.  :)

@ Josietta

Yes of course, the more drafting the better; let's draft and draft and draft away ... haven't had me a good draft in far too long.  :)

Oniya

Quote from: rick957 on December 11, 2012, 11:43:59 PM
I didn't know there was body chemistry involved.  I just figured I was being evil and cool by saying lots of four-letter words.  :)

Mythbusters proved this one ;D

http://mythbustersresults.com/no-pain-no-gain

(You can also find video of the actual tests on YouTube, but they seem to be all uploaded separately.)
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

rick957

Yay, Oniya visit.  Classes up the joint.  :)

Wow, "Mythbusters".  What is that, a TV show?  Website?  Both?  I don't watch TV these days, but that sounds like a concept that was designed for me.  I'm obsessed with popular misconceptions, large or small.








@ Ryu

Thanks for the back and forth yesterday, dude.  Really made me think.  Fun too.  I appreciate it.








LOTR movies and the agony and ecstasy of having unpopular opinions and not keeping my mouth shut enough

I'm hearing bad things about "The Hobbit" movie.  I don't watch movies hardly ever any more either (yeah I'm a real blast at parties, can't you tell?  heh "the man who does nothing all the time"), but I confess that I would feel just a tiny teensy itty bitty bit pleased if that movie was a big ole' bomb.  That's a nasty thing to say or think, isn't it?

I love Peter Jackson but that's based on some older movie of his that I saw.  I hated the hell out of the LOTR trilogy.  I admitted that once at Elliquiy someplace else already.  I figure that's a real dumb thing to do around here.  Oughtta make me about as popular as gangrene.  :)  At least I'm not down on the Harry Potter books, that would be even more of a guaranteed pariah thing.  I haven't read those so I've got no reason not to assume they're as good as everyone says they are. 

Anyway, let me dig myself deeper into this hole, now that I've started.  :)  I thought the stories sucked.  (Not the Tolkien stories; I haven't read those but they sound amazing and I assume they're amazing.  The movies' versions of those stories, was what I thought sucked.)  It took me three movies and over six hours of my life to figure that out.  I watched the first one two or three times, I think, so that's even more hours.  I kept thinking, wow, the first movie isn't great by itself, but once the next movie comes out, wow, suddenly this will all seem absolutely brilliant, even though right now it doesn't.  Saw the second movie and had the same response:  lackluster, but wow, if that third movie turns out great, then this could be exactly what everyone wanted it to be, which was an epic movie trilogy that could compete with the first Star Wars trilogy as the greatest fantasy adventure movie trilogy ever.  Saw the third movie.

Yeah, that blew it, big time.  Then I was done.  Also more than a little annoyed that I got snookered into playing along for all that time.

I'm just full of unpopular opinions that I won't hesitate to share in public.  I feel like that should be okay to do, which is why sometimes I do it.  I totally respect anyone who loves those movies -- one of my best friends does -- and I enjoy hearing about why people love those movies; in fact, I'm even interested in hearing about why, because I feel I might learn things from those people, and I love that.  Having unpopular opinions can make you unpopular here and there, though; take it from me.  ;)

Heh, you don't even wanna hear about all the mega-popular films I thought were crap.  This is how much of a jerk cynic I am:  sometimes a movie comes out and as soon as I hear that so many people think it's great but the movie sounds dumb to me, I'll skip seeing it on purpose, assuming that it's another crap movie that most people love.  Of course I shouldn't assume that without seeing the movies, but I'm a cynical jerk about stuff like that.  (I figure it's okay because I try really hard not to be a jerk about stuff that's way more important than movies, so why not be a jerk about unimportant stuff?  That's my deal, personally.) 

Do I love some popular movies?  Oh hell yes.  I even love the idea of the mega-blockbuster as a cultural phenomenon.  Except when the movie sucks.  Then it's just a shame.








Unfairness.  I'm obsessed with it.  Seriously.  It can't be healthy!  Also more philosophical and personal stuff, because I know you can't get enuff ... ;)

Sitting here trying to work something out in my head.  Trying to remember something I think I already know, but it's not at the front of my head.  I keep forgetting incredibly important shit over and over again.  I hope I remember everything I need to remember at least when I need to remember it.

Spent at least an hour, maybe two, writing an RP post today.  (Hey, congratulate me:  I have two active RPs nowadays and maybe one more soon.  Makes me happy.  Mucho fun.)  It's a good RP post, by my standards, which means that it's okay.  I think -- I think I'm gonna trash it though.  Because I worked really really hard on it, and I'm sick of working hard on stuff, even stuff I care about -- especially the stuff I care about.  RPing is just a silly hobby of course but the literary aspects are what really interest me, and I care a lot about those, even if I'm no great shakes as a writer.  You never know, maybe I'll get good someday.  Gotta have yer dreams, man!  Anyway, my theory is that this is the trap you fall into.  You could grind it out; you could force everything in your life to turn out more or less how you want it, if you bust your freakin' ass 80 hours a week and let go of any dreams that seem impractical along the way.  No.  No thanks.  I know it's a rare self-indulgence to even have the circumstances that make it possible to say "no thanks" to that and still be able to eat and live, but I've had that much good fortune, which is a lot.  What the hell is it worth if you don't spend it?  Gonna bury your gifts in a deep hole and never risk losing them in order to gain anything?  Naw.

Lou Reed:  "I want all of it / All of it / Not some of it / All of it / All of it / All of it / Not just some of it / But all of it".  Yeah, me too, Lou.  Man can turn a phrase, can't he?  heh

Trying to remember.  So many reasonable people reject Christianity.  So many smart people.  So many likable people.  So many courageous, caring, admirable people.  Kind people.  Wise people.  Beautiful people.  Reject it.  Right and left.  Look around.  If you're going to accept it, as I have, and accept not just the cute-doily parts with the flowers and ponies and shit, but the real hard parts that break you into pieces, then you gotta figure out what to make of that.  How is that okay?  I'm not saying, it's not okay for other people to decide to reject Christianity; I couldn't force them to accept it if I wanted to, and I wouldn't want to.  I'm saying, how can I -- or anyone else -- seriously, think about this.

This is pretty close to the top of the endless conundrums that bug me about life and about Christianity (which is my life).  If we're all equal.  If we're all the same.  If we all deserve the exact same outcome.  How can it be okay for anyone to get a worse outcome than anyone else?  It seems unfair.

I hear that there are many people who reject Christianity for reasons besides it seeming unfair.  Personally I can't come up with a better reason to reject it; not even close.  There are some dumb reasons out there too.  But most people have pretty good reasons, from what I can tell.

How do you make Christianity seem fair enough to be acceptable to you, if you have any kind of a conscience?

The answer is that you don't.  You reject your conscience.  It's broken, and that's why Christianity seems unfair; because I can't tell what's really fair or unfair. 

Now it sounds even more unfair, right?  It does to me. 

You're not supposed to tell anybody that it's hard to believe Christianity if you want anybody else to believe Christianity.  Fuck that.  I want everybody on the planet to believe the truth, but not at the expense of honesty and openness, because that don't make no sense.  We're supposed to run towards the truth, not away from it.  We're supposed to have our eyes open and help others do the same, not close our eyes and encourage that in others.

I was communicating with someone else at Elliquiy not long ago who was talking about how love is the whole point and the whole center of Christianity, and it's way more important than anything else.  That person was totally right.  I suppose I don't talk much about positive stuff like that because maybe it's because I have depression, I'm sick in the head.  Fortunately, however, I still get to experience the love and practice the love and know the love and share the love.  I just don't talk about it much here.  I figure it's not too hard to find others who will.  Or I hope it's not hard, at least.

Believe with your eyes wide the fuck open, or don't believe at all.  That's what I do.  That's what I want, for me and for you.  Maybe there are other ways I can't get through my brain or something.  Hope so, because this makes it seem hard, and it's not supposed to be hard, not at all, not ever.  Okay maybe sometimes.  But not for much longer.

I think I ran into somebody who just thinks I'm lying about believing Christianity.  I found that kind of funny and utterly perplexing, because I can't figure out the motivation for doing such a thing.  I don't talk about all the hard parts and all the difficulties and all the problems with Christians because I'm rejecting all of it.  I talk about it so much because I cannot and will not let go of Christianity, so somehow I gotta live with the whole magilla, good and bad.  There are people who think you can chop out the bad stuff and just keep the good.  I don't believe that, not really.  I want to.  But my gut says it's not true that way, and I want what's true, not just what feels good or seems fair to me.

Does anyone really read this blog?  I honestly don't know that.  I mean, I see the comments, and that's amazingly cool, but even those people, I assume they don't read everything, because if I were them, I wouldn't.  Here's a better question:  would it be a good thing for anybody to read this blog?  That one bothers me.  I don't want to cause any harm to anybody.  If I thought I was doing more harm than good, I think I would stop.  I hope that being honest and real with people is a good thing in and of itself, if for no other reason than because so many people are full of shit.

Heh.  I told a dear friend of mine recently that I think the vast majority of people live their whole lives based on stupid bullshit.  (I do, by the way.)  She didn't say one word in response; she just looked at me like I had just killed her puppy or something.  hehehehehehe Boy did I feel awful afterwards.  Like I destroyed her dreams, man!  Nobody should do that!  Believe in Santa Claus, Virginia!  Wow I'm a cynical ass.  :)


Oniya

Quote from: rick957 on December 12, 2012, 05:29:37 PM
Yay, Oniya visit.  Classes up the joint.  :)

Wow, "Mythbusters".  What is that, a TV show?  Website?  Both?  I don't watch TV these days, but that sounds like a concept that was designed for me.  I'm obsessed with popular misconceptions, large or small.

It's a production by the Discovery Channel, but there's a massive amount of stuff available on the Web.  Basic idea, these two guys and a group of interns set out to prove/disprove urban legends and other bizarre things, using [echo effect]SCIENCE[/echo effect] and usually a fair amount of explosives.  Their first show took on the 'man straps rockets to his sports car and turns it into an unguided missile (because steering and braking become impossible)' myth.  They've also discovered how many balloons it takes to lift a small child, made a lead balloon that actually lifted a small payload, launched a hot water heater through the roof of a building, and investigated the activities of both MacGyver and James Bond.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

ManyMindsManyVoices

"On movies: I love movies, movies are my jam. I watch the fuck out of all the movies, at least when they interest me. The LotR trilogy was alright, nothing spectacular, but better than the books. Yes, that's right, BETTER THAN THE BOOKS! Why would I say such a thing? Because the books were so boring it took me years to get through them. At least 2, maybe 3, years, spent on the same three long boring ass books. I read every Harry Potter book within days of starting it, but holy shit could Tolkien describe the shit out of a tree."

"Really Tolkien, it had bark and fuckin' leaves? No shit... Tell me more!"

"Tolkien wrote the Hobbit as a kids' story, though, and it's fantastic. When he's not writing about every goddamn tree in all the goddamn lands, he can weave a brilliant story. In this case, I'm thinking Peter Jackson's going to tank, for the same reason that asshole didn't think Tom Bombadil was 'important' enough for the story (even the extended versions). Fuck you, Jackson, if you don't get why Tom Bombadil's important, you missed the point of the story (beyond the original purpose of entertaining Tolkien's son during a war, or so I've heard)."




"On the topic of fairness and Jesus, and whatever: This cuts pretty far to the point of why religion (all religions) feel like a whole big load of bull to me. They are based in the principle that everyone needs some outside force to make them feel whole. If I have to 'reject' anything about me, I'm definitely going to be less happy as a human being, and I don't care what anyone has to say about it. I'm a fuck of a lot more important, to me, than any god will ever be, and that's how it ought to be."

"Then again, I guess I never mentioned that I believe I am god. Not 'Capital G' God, but god, the creator and controller. Crazy people show me that's pretty true. See, everyone seems to have this belief that 'truth' is true for everyone, and to those people, I say, go talk to a schizophrenic person. Those people don't give a fuck what you think you *know* because they'll tell you they saw a purple elephant yesterday, and ain't shit you can do to convince them they didn't. Why? Because that motherfucker saw a purple elephant yesterday. That's the actual thing that happened."

"That guy is god, manifesting purple elephants from crazy. Good for him. Hell, if purple elephants make him happy, and they aren't telling him to murder everyone who wears pink or some weird shit, let him see all the purple elephants he wants. They are his truth, they are his world, and not a single person can prove there wasn't a purple elephant there. If you think you can, you're full of shit, because you can't prove a lack."

"So yeah, God speaks to you and makes you happy and whatever the hell else. I don't care, as long as God shuts the fuck up about what makes me happy, you can believe all the God you want. That's a general 'you', by the way, this message applies to anyone and everyone. I'm sorry for using your blog like it's mine, but honestly, I don't have much interest at talking at no one. So your blog at least has the audience of you, and as long as you like hearing (whether or not you accept it) what I have to say, I'll be happy to say it. Even if I only reinforce your belief in God more, good, fine. As long as you're happy, and you aren't making me less happy."
My O/Os * Everyone should read 1/0

This is the Oath of the Drake. You should take it.

rick957

Rock on Ryu.  Your posts and opinions are always welcome here, although I think you could make a very interesting blog of your own too, but I'm delighted to have any intelligent people stop in here and add their thoughts and make the whole blogging thing seem less lonesome.  I always wonder how a lot of people do big long blogs without any discussion or comments at all; that's cool and impressive, but I'd go nuts if I tried that for long. 

I'm a needy motherfucker!  Yecch!  It's true.  I like chatting with folks here.  Probably wouldn't use Elliquiy half as much if I had a decent social life to keep me busy, or a girlfriend, or something.  Truth hurts! 

I assume most Elliquians have ordinary healthy social lives and just like using the site because it's fun.  I do that too.  Life's complicated!  Doesn't everybody have multiple reasons for doing most things they do?  Or maybe that's just me.

ManyMindsManyVoices

"I've tried to start a blog, not here, but I have. I did in High School, because highschoolers always think they have shit to say. I mean, not to say I feel like I had nothing to say, but I've read a few entries and gone, 'man, you're stupid', like it wasn't me. Then again, apparently, another interesting brain fact, your brain does not treat you from the future or past as the same person as you now. That is to say, when you think about yourself, a certain part of your brain fires, but if you think about what you'll do tomorrow, the part of your brain that relates to other people fires. So your brain thinks future rick is not the same person as today's rick."

"Yeah... that's right, I'm rockin' the random trivia."
My O/Os * Everyone should read 1/0

This is the Oath of the Drake. You should take it.

rick957

So this evening I discovered, much to my surprise, that my internet connection is fast enough to stream live video without breaking up every few seconds.  Why didn't I know that already?  Because I haven't even tried to watch live video on my computer in, like, a decade or something.  Is that something other people do?  I wouldn't know.

I should be eating dinner right now, but instead I'm sitting here with the 121212 Hurricane Sandy benefit concert from Madison Square Garden in a little bitty box on my Macbook screen, and I just got a dumb idea, and I'm just dumb enough to try anything once, so here we go.

I have no idea who will see this or will have any desire whatsoever to join in, but ANYONE and EVERYONE who sees any of this is invited to join in.

This should probably happen in a proper IM machine thing.  I can't stand those though.  So.

It occurs to me that while I'm sitting here watching this yecchy concert (sorry, so far it's been a little underwhelming), here's a great opportunity for me to ramble about music and pop culture stuff.  So I'm gonna sorta do that thing they call "live blogging"?  Where you post stuff while stuff is happening?  People do stuff like that, I hear. 

Can you tell I'm a million years old and a total Neanderthal Luddite?  Yeh, that's me!

So anyway, I'm gonna post stuff here to my blog every so often while I'm watching all this nonsense, and maybe somebody will read some of it, and hey, maybe somebody will join in and leave your own comments.  About ANYTHING.  I don't care, talk about the concert or the bands like I will, or just talk about anything on your mind!  Fun right?  Why not?

Or if nobody joins in and I get bored with the concert, I'll go eat dinner instead.  :)  But I'll let ya know if I do that.

So post something already!  Don't just read this crap, because I have nothing interesting to say!  You knew that already, right?  So your help will be appreciated.

Ooo, look, a new post!  Okay, I'm about to cheat.  Ryu posted here about other stuff, but I'm gonna reply to that too, because why not?  But my next post will be about the concert, I promise! 

Right now Eddie Vedder and Roger Waters are doing "Comfortably Numb," and it's by far the best song yet on the show, but I'll tell you what I thought about all the previous shit too, in a minute, 'cause I just know you wanna know, right?

Quote"I've tried to start a blog, not here, but I have. I did in High School, because highschoolers always think they have shit to say. I mean, not to say I feel like I had nothing to say, but I've read a few entries and gone, 'man, you're stupid', like it wasn't me. Then again, apparently, another interesting brain fact, your brain does not treat you from the future or past as the same person as you now. That is to say, when you think about yourself, a certain part of your brain fires, but if you think about what you'll do tomorrow, the part of your brain that relates to other people fires. So your brain thinks future rick is not the same person as today's rick."

"Yeah... that's right, I'm rockin' the random trivia."

Wow check out the long weirdly homoerotic hug and handholding between Eddie and Roger.  After the song.  That was weird.  Did I just sound like a homophobe there?  I really don't mean to sound that way if I did.  I like people of all flavors and preferences, although I don't know anywhere near as many people as I'd like to, including people with a variety of sexual preferences.  I've had only one close friend who was gay so far and he wasn't "out" until after we mostly lost touch.

Oh, sorry, Ryu.  Yeah, highschoolers do like to blab about stuff.  I did all kindsa depressing bleak mega-pretentious mega-crappy poetry and journaling and shit in high school, but I couldn't share most of it with anybody, 'cuz there wasn't internet places where you could do that kinda thing before. 

The internet has been a wonderful revolution in exhibitionism.  :)  I take full advantage.  Why not?

I think I heard that random brain trivia thing somewhere once before; at least it sounds familiar.  I used to be slightly educated, I mean, like college courses and stuff, but I never graduated.  hehehe Can you tell? 

More coming.

Hey you!  Post too!  ;)  But nobody's obligated or nothin.'  Just if you have nothing better to do.  Yeah that's meeeee.......

rick957

Alright let's see.  121212 concert.  Live blogging.  Visitor participation requested.

First let me put in this caveat.  Hurricane Sandy was and is serious shit.  It's wonderful that this concert thing got put together to maybe raise money and provide needed help for people dealing with a serious tragedy.  I'm about to talk shit about people at the concert, but I don't want anybody to think that I'm making light of the Sandy tragedy or looking down on all the great work that all these people participating in this concert are doing.

Oh man I've never been happier to hear this Bon Jovi song.  Thank God.  Something that rocks.  Boy did this concert need that.  "Wanted Dead or Alive".  Yes!  THank you Bon Jovi!  Rock the fuck out!  I mean, it's downtempo, but at least everybody knows this song!  Unlike most of the songs so far.

rick957

Okay, so if I admire this concert as a charity effort, how come I feel free to rant and talk shit about it here in my blog?  Well, because it's a giant cultural event of sorts, besides being a charity thing.  Lots of famous people involved.  It's on, like, a zillion TV channels and websites right now, reaching 20 billion people or something, so I figure it's fair game for some rantitude. 

rick957

Let's see.  Still live blogging while watching the 121212 charity concert thingie.  Just for the hell of it.  Say hello or chat with me here why doncha.  Post!  You got nothing better to do.

Alright, it's 9:06 P.M.  This concert started an hour and a half ago, so I got some catching up to do, rant-wise.  That's okay though, it's not like there's a lot happening at the moment.

Bon Jovi just brought out Bruce Springsteen, returning the gesture since the Boss did the same with Bon Jovi earlier.

Damn, I don't even know this song, what is this?  If you know, let me know.

rick957

I'll try and respond to any posts anybody else makes, in between all this talking to myself.  :)

Okay, this fucking song and all the "Zalright!" stuff is annoying me.  Is this a Bon Jovi song?  Is it supposed to be funny and a little dumb?  Huge apologies if anybody out there likes this song.  I'm not thrilled with it.  But hey, Bon and Da Boss are giving it their all, and I respect the hell out of that, I really do.

hehehehe It ain't easy giving it your all with a mediocre song, so in that way, it's even more impressive.

Ooo, is he gonna play Livin' on a Prayer?  I hope it isn't just a tease.

rick957

Hope Kythia is out there somewhere seeing the Bon Jovi stuff.  She's an old visitor to this blog who I'm pretty sure loves Bon Jovi.  Yes, they're playing it!  I'm a big music snob, like way worse than almost anybody else, but I love big dumb arena rock, and I love lots of popular stuff.  As long as it's good popular stuff.

I'll tell you why I respect Bon Jovi when I'm generally not into much of the 80s hair metal thing.  Bon Jovi have, or at least had, a major rep for being an absolutely killer live band.  I respect the hell out of that.  Been told that by lots of folks, including old friends who knew their way around live music, so I assume it's true, or was a long time ago.

So far it's the best set, ya gotta admit.  Sorry Bruce and Roger.

ManyMindsManyVoices

Quote from: Louis C.K.I stood in the wings behind a leg of curtain, about 8 feet from her, and watched her tell a stunned audience "hi. I have cancer. Just found out today. I'm going to die soon". What followed was one of the greatest standup performances I ever saw. I can't really describe it but I was crying and laughing and listening like never in my life. Here was this small woman standing alone against death and simply reporting where her mind had been and what had happened and employing her gorgeously acute standup voice to her own death.

The show was an amazing example of what comedy can be. A way to visit your worst fears and laugh at them. Tig took us to a scary place and made us laugh there. Not by distracting us from the terror but by looking right at it and just turning to us and saying "wow. Right?". She proved that everything is funny. And has to be. And she could only do this by giving us her own death as an example. So generous.

"I agree with the sentiment here, which is that everything is game for comedy. There is no 'too soon', there is no 'you can't make fun of that'... No. Not at all, not in my book. The only caveat is that it has to be funny, if it's not funny, like even a little bit, you messed up. Bring on the  jokes about Anne Frank getting raped, if you can make that funny, you'll get a laugh from me. However, if you just use 'Anne Frank gets raped' as shock value, you're going to fail."

"Anyway, I just thought that was relevant to your point about making light of tragedy. If it's funny, it serves the purpose of making lives better, and that negates the awfulness of the topic. It takes a bad thing and uses it for good purposes, because the bad thing exists either way. If people get all offended, they need to pull the giant sticks out of their puckered assholes and grow up."
My O/Os * Everyone should read 1/0

This is the Oath of the Drake. You should take it.

rick957

Alright holy shit here comes a big-ass rant.  :)  Shield your ears!  Put the kids to bed!  Hide your daughters!

When did it become totally acceptable for stupid motherfucking megacorporations to not only sponsor concerts (bad enough) but ADVERTISE throughout the charity concert?  "Sponsored by Chase."  I think it's part of the concert name or something. 

Is anything not for sale these days?  Am I the only doofus old-fashioned enough to think that if you're gonna do charity, you shut up and do it and don't try to SELL shit to people in between the charity?  That's just disgusting and embarrassing and tacky as fuck!  IMO.

Hey Jon Stewart came out, 9:20ish.  Kewl.

Yay Ryu posted!  Thanks Ryu!  I'll respond in a sec.

ManyMindsManyVoices

"Well, you have to weigh the issue. If they're putting money into the charity, or to make the concert happen, who's to complain? Personally, I don't care for charity, I think it's a way for people to feel better about themselves that takes as little effort as possible. If we made changes to our society, active, important changes, we'd be far less in need of charities. I realize a disaster isn't the same thing, but you know what I think is evil? That the people who suffered a disaster need to worry about money. Why don't we go offer them something real? Like food and water and help, for free... Of course, that would require humans to be decent, and not just a few humans, but the majority of our species. We just can't manage that."
My O/Os * Everyone should read 1/0

This is the Oath of the Drake. You should take it.

rick957

Wow Ryu, the Louis C.K. quote is pretty heavy and moving.  Who's it about?  Do you happen to know?  I'm just curious.

Yay Clapton at about 9:30 P.M.  Check out the finger picking from old Slow Hand!  He's supposed to be the Best There Ever Was, according to some people.  Me, I don't think anybody ever beat Hendrix, not even close, but to each his own.

Takes balls to get in front of that many people with nothing but your voice and your acoustic guitar.  Oh!  Oh!  Check out the solo!  Can't mess with that.

Ryu, you and I are doomed to frequently disagree, it seems, but I'm totally good with that as long as you are too.  :)  I respect your views and love to hear about them whether I agree or not.  I take your point about how crucial it is to bring the funny.  There's no humor more embarrassing and revolting than "topical" humor that comments about social issues or politics and then fails to be funny.  It can work though and work very well.

Oh, where I gotta disagree is with the "anything goes as long as it's funny" part, Ryu.  I've seen humor that offended the hell out of me and was still funny, but it offended me so deeply and personally that all I felt like doing was killing the sick motherfucker instead of laughing along with him.  I don't get offended easy, I don't think, so it's a very rare occasion, but when it happens, I tend to raise hell.  Privately, that is.  :)

I don't know this Clapton song.  He's playing as a rock trio.  Yes!  That's the way ya do it, man; that is rock and roll right there.  None of this five hundred motherfuckers standing around playing instruments you can't even hear and looking like fools.  Effing E Street Band. 

Sorry Boss lovers.  I like some Springsteen, I do.  But his live stuff always always always sounds like the worst arrangements humanly possible.  He sings and plays his guts out, and that is all that really matters if you're at the show, but man that shit sounds awful to me.

"Crossroads."  Real rock and roll.  Good stuff.  Standard blues rock, but you couldn't ask for a better guy to play it.  He's cookin'!

Ryu, our conversation is going to be all mixed up because we're posting over each other, but I guess that's how this "live" blogging experiment thing is bound to go.  No big deal!  I'm still having fun with it.

ManyMindsManyVoices

"The woman he's talking about is Tig Notaro, I believe. I'm like 99% sure, but only because I always have a nagging feeling like I'm wrong. I'm pretty damn sure I'm right, and I could check, but I don't honestly want to, that's effort-y."

"Anyway, I don't get offended by shit people say most of the time, why bother? Louis CK defended Daniel Tosh when he made a joke about how it would be funny if a bunch of guys raped a woman who was heckling him about making rape jokes. I support Daniel Tosh in that, because I feel like, if you go to his show and then talk shit about his material, you asked for it. Maybe if it came out of nowhere, like Michael Richards getting all racist (but that falls under, 'it wasn't funny anyway'), but Tosh is known to be offensive. He's hilariously offensive, and I genuinely think he's actually a pretty decent human being. He's just a decent person who's willing to say awful things for a laugh."

"Either way, and I mean this with no disrespect, you're just a guy on the internet. A guy on the internet that I respect and would call a friend, but nonetheless just a guy on the internet. I don't mind disagreeing with you, because I don't disagree on anything that would make me think you're a bad person, just maybe a dumb or uptight one on occasion. You've said the same thing yourself, and you seem pretty self-aware. Self-awareness is a great trait in a person, and more important to me than being 'not dumb' or 'not uptight'. Notably, I define 'dumb' differently than 'stupid', and both by different measures than most people."
My O/Os * Everyone should read 1/0

This is the Oath of the Drake. You should take it.

rick957

On the topic of charity and the importance of helping people ... Ryu, it sounds more like you believe in charity that actually helps people in need, but you don't believe in charity that fails to address the real needs.  Maybe?  I dunno.  It's hard to picture why anybody would oppose the whole concept of charity altogether.

Fucking bullshit, man.  Jimmy Fallon is giving a big "shout-out" to the corporate sponsors, all of whom need to have their names listed so that people will remember their selfless acts of charity!  Maybe that'll help sell some fucking cell phones later on, eh?

I know, I sound like a dinosaur.  Everybody these days thinks it's perfectly okay to stick advertising up people's bungholes and there's no conflict of interest or ethical issues of any kind. 

Roger Waters played "Money" earlier.  Irony is apparently lost on the corporate sponsors.  Hell, maybe it's lost on Roger Waters too, for all I know.

Real charity shouldn't come with personal benefits for the charity givers, because that gets in the way of the charity and also turns it into non-charity; then it's just about self-interest, but it's pretending to still be charity, which is hypocrisy feeding off of human tragedy in order to make fucking money!  Sorry.  Some shit just pisses me off.

I'm not any better than anybody and don't mean no disrespect to anyone, but I'll talk as much shit as I want to about fucking bloodsucking corporations.

ManyMindsManyVoices

"I don't accept the concept of charity as it applies to modern society. I don't give money to people for shit like that. I help people who need and deserve it when I am offered the chance. Again, this falls into the area of what I do versus what I believe, and again, it's because of modern society. I would be more charitable in an ideal world, but since we live in our crap society, it's not worth it. Helping people 'get by' in a shit society, that's just not enough for me, and if I can't do more than that, I'm just going to focus on making the lives of myself and those close to me better."
My O/Os * Everyone should read 1/0

This is the Oath of the Drake. You should take it.

rick957

So far I've had only two moments in this 121212 concert thing that gave me the chills up and down the spine like real live rock and roll is supposed to.  Don't get me wrong, there's been plenty of stuff that sounded good, and a few things that sounded great, but the real mindblowing shit?  Eddie Vedder's vocals, and Keith hitting those first chords of Jumping Jack Flash.

Holy fucking shit, the Rolling Stones just out-rocked everybody else who's been on the stage.  You gotta respect the FUCK out of that.  These guys all belong in rest-homes sucking on oxygen tanks.  I'm so damn impressed it's ridiculous.  YES!  Yes!  ROCK and ROLL.  I would not have expected them to have it in them.  Holy shit.  Props.  God I wish they'd played longer.  Why didn't they close the show?  Who the hell is going to?  Oh, McCartney I guess.  Well, can't necessarily complain about that.

My God!  McCartney and the Stones are both at that show!  That's rock royalty right there.  What a thought.

rick957

Colbert's out there right now; 10:05 P.M.  Wow I'm amazed I've been doing this for so long. 

Oh, hey, if anybody is out there and wants to post and chat, whether it's about the 121212 concert or not, please join in.  Just for fun.  I'm watching the show and ranting in between stuff.

Wow, Puff Daddy (or whatever he's called this week) comes out, and suddenly I'm reminded of how incredibly white the performers have all been so far.  Are there any rap performers at this show at all?  That's odd, isn't it?  It must be intentional.  Usually at these big charity deals they try to represent a variety of styles, at least popular ones.  Maybe this is supposed to be all rock? 

Oh wait, there have been many non-white performers in the bands, just not the frontmen.  Shoulda noted that.

Alicia Keys came out.  Is she still any good?  I haven't heard her stuff in forever.

Quote"Anyway, I don't get offended by shit people say most of the time, why bother? Louis CK defended Daniel Tosh when he made a joke about how it would be funny if a bunch of guys raped a woman who was heckling him about making rape jokes. I support Daniel Tosh in that, because I feel like, if you go to his show and then talk shit about his material, you asked for it. Maybe if it came out of nowhere, like Michael Richards getting all racist (but that falls under, 'it wasn't funny anyway'), but Tosh is known to be offensive. He's hilariously offensive, and I genuinely think he's actually a pretty decent human being. He's just a decent person who's willing to say awful things for a laugh."

I'm a big believer in pushing limits and tearing down bullshit traditions and the like.  But I do believe there are lines that shouldn't be crossed.  Performers who like to take risks will sometimes make bad judgment calls and fall over the line unintentionally, but that doesn't bug me too much.  I dunno, I guess it's a case-by-case thing.

Live comedy is closely related to art, and art should consider no topic off-limits; there are no cows too sacred for artists to fear responding honestly to it, and I suppose that may apply to comedy too, but it's all about how it's done.

Wow.  Props.  Alicia Keys just went into a bridge and ... Oh my god.  Wow.  WOW.

Best moment of the show so far.  Wow.  Whodathunkit?  Unbelievable.  Wow.

Quote"Either way, and I mean this with no disrespect, you're just a guy on the internet. A guy on the internet that I respect and would call a friend, but nonetheless just a guy on the internet. I don't mind disagreeing with you, because I don't disagree on anything that would make me think you're a bad person, just maybe a dumb or uptight one on occasion.  ...

You got some balls, Ryu.  :)  You're right of course, we're just strangers on the internet, and it's not like it costs us much of anything to behave in any old way about any old thing in front of anybody at Elliquiy.  Still, even in this virtual space, courtesy and respect still come through in the way people conduct themselves, as does the lack of those things, sometimes. 

I'm impressed that you take the kinds of chances you do in being as open and forthright as you are.  I respect that.  It's hard to do without offending people sometimes by accident, as you probably realize.

Wow, Alicia Keys.  She's the real thing.  Fuckin' impressive as all get out.  I heard great things about her early on but would never have imagined she was capable of this much at this stage in her career.  Hell, I can't believe she's even still around.