Open Thread - Friday, April 26, 2019

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Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.
- Cecil Taylor -

I have been treating the Internet like imbibing, and practising moderation. Plus, it has been a beautiful spring week around here. So, I have been playing outside and goofing off. I have not thought of a concept, beyond the usual funkin' stuff, for an open thread. So I am going to improvise.

I read the lively conversation a trois triggered by my statement about death and being alone. I had gone out to play and missed the real time conversation. The passing of time, Sue's passing and my strong agnostic predilection have coalesced my thoughts on the topic. I am certain, I could have catalyzed the conversation. With catalysis comes reaction, so there is no telling what will funkin' happen.

As the decades pass, I think each of our views on the passing of life crystalizes.

I know love and do not fear death, nor the accompanying nothing.

My not fearing death, being a smart ass, having a big mouth and not having a funk to give has not bitten me in the ass, yet. However, a conversation about death that includes a spirituality component has great potential to create conflict. It seems to me, religion is a huge grift and manipulation tool for power brokers and parasites.

Have I mentioned that I am good at stirring up funkin' shit?

So there you have it. Gotta run.

Have a great weekend! The thread is OPEN.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

I must be an improvisational genius! As a young woman in my 20's, I would sit myself down in front of a mirror and have a good talk to myself if it was warranted. I found this to be helpful when I was in distress and no one was home to answer my call. Ah, the world before cell phones.

We've had rain and it's greening up here. The trees are sprouting their leaves. Spring is finally springing around here. Improves my outlook on this wayward world.

Have a beautiful day and weekend, everyone! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

NCTim's picture

@Raggedy Ann A constant conversation going in my head. Luckily, I know it's me.

Sue would think out loud. Sometimes she would be talking, but she did not expect me to answer, nor converse. She was working out something for herself.

It seems to me self talking is a form of thinking.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

NCTim's picture

@Raggedy Ann Just noticed your signature line.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Raggedy Ann's picture

@NCTim
I've read. Then again, I'm not very sensible.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_NGulTmh88]

Cheers, amigo! Drinks

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

NCTim's picture

@Raggedy Ann

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Lookout's picture

Nature helps soothe our distress. Accepting death is an important step because we will all face it sooner or later. Not being burdened with religion is also liberating, and lightens life's fate. Being a smart ass is miles ahead of being a dumb ass.

I got lots done this week. Graded the road, bushogged the big field, planted and caged the tomatoes, set up an electric fence. We're expecting a guest fiddler at tonight's session, and there's a local picking party Sat. night too. So lots of music this weekend.

I hope the rain hasn't totally stopped here. We've had just a couple of drizzles and no real rain this week.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNh87PgHCWw]

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

NCTim's picture

@Lookout While I was having my morning coffee. The forecast calls for some boisterous storms this afternoon.

Not being burdened with religion is also liberating

I triggered my Pittsburgh drinking buddies, when I stated my belief that death is a finality. I can not understand how anyone falls for the promise of an afterlife and then joins a cult. I am wary of any sales pitch based of "faith".

Being a smart ass is miles ahead of being a dumb ass

Sometimes, I think being a thinker can be burdensome. It can manifest as anxiety, anger or other forms of negativity. I think self induced consciousness alteration can be an expression of escaping your own thoughts/conversation.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

mimi's picture

@NCTim

Sometimes, I think being a thinker can be burdensome. It can manifest as anxiety, anger or other forms of negativity. I think self induced consciousness alteration can be an expression of escaping your own thoughts/conversation.

I live with a person who proves your second sentence to be true.

I talk to myself out loud a lot. I think it started after I lost two loved ones, living with me together during the last 35 years on and off. I miss the conversations I had a lot. I don't fear my death, just don't want to go yet, because I have not finished what I had in mind doing. I also don't want to leave my son alone. He has nobody.

Hope your motor cycling tour will be a good one and that the Europeans and the Russians and other Easter folks don't get at your nerves.

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magiamma's picture

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

lotlizard's picture

@magiamma  
That other president whose name begins with T-R-U-M invoked emergency powers to seize the nation’s steel mills. The Supreme Court ruled the move unconstitutional.

http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/truman_seizes_steel_mills

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NCTim's picture

@lotlizard We have the technology to get off of carbon fuels, but the wealth, and consequently power, of mineral extraction is being used to drive the remainder of us toward extinction.

One of Antarctica’s Largest Emperor Penguin Colonies Has Suffered Three Years of ‘Catastrophic’ Breeding Failures

Funk

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

trying to get everything together (including stockpiling some OTs for next month) because we hit the road again in 4 days and hook a red eye for some aventurras. Playing outside, senor Tim, is a necessary part of existence. Part of the western psycho-social malaise is the lack of adequate time spent playing outside, and the playing part is muy importante. It is not enough to be outside, as in working outside, but that helps. Playing is important, but nobody really does it any more because these days it is all structured and organized and competitive instead of simply farting around, which is what it should be. The mind can't grok what it has learned and absorbed until it has some time free of all restraints and confinements, preferably in a meadow near running water or a seaside cliff or beach.

Later maybe, slide on down for some refrescos and have a great weekend.

'cause, after all, as you well know

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

NCTim's picture

@enhydra lutris This week, I bought my plane ticket and gear bag with compartments for motorcycle boots and helmet. Some rainy day I will have to motivate myself to bank a few open threads. Have fun.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

detroitmechworks's picture

Went to my VA appointment for my disability. Was pretty much flat out told I was a lazy, erratic liar who needs to have his disability taken away.

So... that's fun. Pretty much was told I need to be on heavy duty psychiatric drugs and working a manual labor job. Funny how as soon as you actually ask for the help they tell you you NEED to ask for, you're the liar who needs to show some discipline...

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFwvSj8cdS8]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

NCTim's picture

@detroitmechworks

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

lotlizard's picture

@detroitmechworks

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mimi's picture

@lotlizard
just frigging useless advises that help making their statistics lie and help break down the last bit of sanity and dignity a wounded (mentally and physically) Veteran still had.

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detroitmechworks's picture

@mimi was that he decided to tell me "Most people your age find the stability they need in work." Yep, the entire problem that I have is that I am not on meds and working at a soul crushing job. Apparently the idiot believes that a 9-5, 40 hour week is standard in this economy, and anybody who can't find one is just lazy. (Didn't say it, but he might as well have.)

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

detroitmechworks's picture

@lotlizard He Read notes from my psychologist towards me and said that they were proof that I was fine. Not to mention it was a total violation of ethics to do so, he did it anyway, then told me that my flashbacks WEREN'T flashbacks.

Had to go to see my psychologist today just to stop obsessing over it. Was not great. All the great old PTSD symptoms came back. My psychologist decided because of this to start me on a full psych workup... which was just LONG...

I have very good grounds for appeal if they take his word. All documented.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

mhagle's picture

Please ignore that bullshit and appreciate other beautiful things around you today. Like your kids, your writing, and your rituals.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/838246309635819/?utm_source=bronto&utm_med...

A long link but cool.

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

detroitmechworks's picture

@mhagle Was pretty rough today, but I had a lot of help. Just find I'm getting very agitated by way too much, really fast.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

skod's picture

It's good to see a post from you- I haven't been around here in a long time, so I can see that I missed a great many things. Hope you made it to Nawlins, and that music is still feeding your soul- and I'm so sorry to hear the news.

Still scratching the skins as needed as a sub, still trying to teach myself Stick (and have been since '83), and still need to get outside one hell of a lot more.

Speaking of Stick: if you get a chance to see Howard Jones on his current acoustic tour, he's working with Nick Beggs (of Kajagoogoo fame) playing Stick bass. Jones, stripped down to a 3-pc, modernized, and acoustified is one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. And damned if Beggs doesn't wear a freakin' kilt onstage. Can't do that as a drummer, at least without getting arrested.

Do the hell out of, and enjoy the hell out of, everything you do. Peace!

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NCTim's picture

@skod @skod … last two years. Last year was a coast to coast motorcycle trip. This year, I am headed to the Alps to ride motorcycle.

I am glad you stopped by. A bunch of the usual suspects have eschewed habitual Internet, and hence are not around much. Myself included.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

skod's picture

@NCTim I'm on a major internet diet right now as well: it is much better for the sanity. I'm shedding a lot of pounds of other peoples' sturm und drang as a result...

If you're doing the Alps, eat everything: there will be very cool food in every out-of-the-way place! I envy you that trip.

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mhagle's picture

I love everyone and all the great OT's at c99. It just blesses my life.

Grateful for you. I-m so happy

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo

NCTim's picture

@mhagle

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

skod's picture

@NCTim FF to 5:34. Brown/Chambers (in this case with Sparks instead of Lee) at some of their best. Makes me smile, anyhoo. Take This/Solid

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skod's picture

@NCTim FF to 5:34. Brown/Chambers (in this case with Sparks instead of Lee) at some of their best. Makes me smile, anyhoo. Take This/Solid

I know, I know, I'm way too literal... Sorry for the double post. I knew that there was a reason to stop doing this stuff.

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NCTim's picture

@skod @skod

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

lotlizard's picture

Enforcement of the EU’s much-hyped GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is being subverted by Ireland’s insistence on handling Big Tech with kid gloves — are they taking tips from the Obama DOJ and Eric Holder / Lanny Breuer?

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/24/ireland-data-privacy-1270123

And Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, a figurehead known for talking a good game on EU governance, was a prime architect of Luxembourg’s privileged position as a tax haven.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg_Leaks

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janis b's picture

Sure beats fear and nothingness.

Thanks smart ass.

[video:https://youtu.be/CVyJkKKfRFs]

[video:https://youtu.be/8_rvtJWB6xE]

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