Taomeow

The single rarest and most precious ability in today's world is to be normal. It is WAY easier to learn to emit, transmit, transmute, whatever, qi, ki, prana, light, heat, shit... it is easier still to grow big meat armor around your bones and big smartass know-it-all armor around your mind... big big big whatever you need to grow big so as not to feel so small and powerless inside... which is still how you feel after you've added all those big abilities on top of all your other defenses... I don't mean you personally, obviously... ...much MUCH easier... ...than to normalize any of the damaged, destroyed, twisted things in a human being who is chasing something a normal human being wouldn't begin to need. Someone who is not hungry does not dream of an eternal dinner. Someone who was a normal baby having a normal life doesn't dream of being a baby forever -- only those who missed out do. Someone who was loved from the start doesn't grow up to seek compensatory love from the whole world. Someone who truly loves doesn't love the whole world -- only those to whom it matters. Normal is not impressive. Abnormal is. However, if you're after something tremendously challenging, unconditionally rewarding, uniquely hard to find, and largely unavailable to everybody else (which seems to be what the seekers of "something impressive" are all after -- they don't want it if someone else can have it too, they want exclusivity), if you want to hunt down the biggest game in the jungle, go for normal. I'm not kidding. And... oh... one thing to keep in mind... If you can't really get a definition, much less a demonstration, of what "normal" is from someone "super-normal" or "paranormal" or "enlightened" or "on the true path" and so on -- if their power of internalizing/embodying tao, nirvana, kundalini, tortellini, whatever, stops short of being able to internalize and embody normality -- stay as far away from them as possible.

http://www.primordia...kans-interview/

Based on what I know of history, and the way the overlords exploit anyone and anything who has something to "show," I would expect the immortal to hide her abilities. "Her" because women have been doing just this for thousands of years. Taoist immortal females are famous for having cultivated in complete secrecy -- hiding from the husband, first and foremost, and other members of the family, and making the ability known only in a huge crisis when they HAD to use it. Lady Chang-O the moon goddess only intervened when her powerful husband was going to extend his cruelty into immortality, making a bloody tyranny last forever. Sun Bu-er only told her husband what she'd been up to when she was ready to leave him behind, considering all her worldly obligations (family, children, household) fulfilled, at the age of 57. Another one (don't remember the name off the top of my head), when discovered at cultivation by an abusive husband who was so enraged when he learned that she had something he didn't own that he was going to kill her, fled by turning into a crane. But the interference from a family member is only a hint of how much the powerful people would interfere grabbing the "abilities" for themselves if a master started flaunting them in the human society. In fact, I know masters of extraordinary abilities who are tied hand and foot into treating what ails the powerful... and THIS comes first in their lives, that's the set-up. Freedom that could have been theirs, isn't in this set-up. There's rewards in that, of course, in serving the powerful... and there's peril in that... and sometimes a master no longer has a choice once the ability is discovered. The best he or she can do is at least not show and tell "it all."

Actually, you're right, I transposed 2010 and 2011 somehow -- yin and yang numbers (of the Heavenly Stems) still hold true as the rationale behind a yin or yang year polarity, but in 2011 the Heavenly Stem is the eighth not the seventh I mistook it for, and the Earthly Branch is the fourth rather than the third... so, yes, yin numbers both places. Sorry for the incorrect correction, I was multitasking and the results are always pathetic -- at least for me and on a San Niang day. (Actually, I feel better now that I know WHAT it is that I screwed up today. Something "always" gets screwed up on a San Niang day, so sacrificing something minor to the "three killings" energy -- like making a mistake by looking at a wrong entry and looking stupid -- is actually beneficial, the sacrifice is made but no one is really hurt.)

Well, let someone who knows Western astrology answer this, I only know Chinese astrology. Chinese astrology is all about phasing in all the changes taking place in the fractal of time, down to its smallest features (two-hour periods of cyclical change are not the limit -- you can narrow down the flow of change to literally minutes, even seconds if you like... and if you are going to, e.g., study nanosecond-long processes, you might want to know the pattern of change on that level too -- and it's doable!) and up to the huge stretches of time that are, however, as periodic as sunrise following sunset following sunrise... and therefore predictable, on unimaginably huge scales. (The roughly 20% of utter unpredictability, however, that is built into the nature of reality according to taoist astrological sources, is what makes this science stochastic -- you can't make exact predictions as to "this will happen" and "that won't happen," only "this has a very high chance of happening" and "that has a very low chance of happening." If you do it 100% right you have an 80% chance to be correct in your predictions -- and you can't improve on that... and no one can, even gods.) Chinese astrology is different from astronomy in that it is a simultaneous study of space and time, with emphasis on time. Western sciences that are beginning to notice time at all are very young. Astronomy is not one of them. I.e. it notices and can theorize about what time has done, is doing, will do... but not what time IS and WHY it behaves the way it does. Which is why they can't apply their own "scientific method" to time phenomena -- they can't, in other words, give you repeatability of their results. So they are limited to theories they can't prove with their own method of choice. No one can create a Big Bang and repeat it experimentally enough times to convince the skeptics. Western sciences that are beginning to get the first idea of the possibility of "different kinds of time" in different places in space-time exist in pockets here and there not exchanging their "pocket change" with other pockets of knowledge. E.g., astronomy could benefit from applying the mathematical theory of fuzzy logic, fractals, stuff like that... An interdisciplinary genius will come one day and do it perhaps... and will be praised for centuries to come for finally inventing that old taoist bicycle...

From predictions (accurate ones) flow actions, which is their only value, if they are for tongue-swinging exercises, these are a dime a dozen... but taoist assessments of the energies of the world manifesting in a particular year are pretty darn accurate far as probabilistic sciences go. So one has a choice... knowing that the year is about cutting down the oak tree with a chainsaw... sharpen the chainsaw and fell the tree is one option... break the chainsaw is another.

Hi Sifu Garry, yes and yes. Western zodiac is originally derived from taoist astrology -- "zodiac" (ζῳδιακός, zōdiakos) is the Greek for "circle of animals." From Western astrology, however, one of the two interlocking processes analyzed by Chinese astrology was eliminated. In Chinese astrology, the flow of qi of Heavenly Stems interacts with the flow of qi of Earthly Branches. Earthly Branches are the source of the "zodiac" -- i.e. animals are "earthly," not "heavenly." From Western astrology, earthly qi was removed, and "animals" (patterns of earthly qi) were incorporated into "heavenly signs," renamed, and their properties (types of qi) were simply "added" to those of heavenly phenomena. Western astrology reflects Western ideology (in science and religion alike) -- i.e. no power is supposed to originates from below, the below is a mere recipient of the heavenly rule, of the will of the overlord -- whether constellations, god, the pope, or the CEO, the important thing is that it is "over" your head, "above" you. That's how the circle of animals of Chinese astrology wound up in heaven in Western astrology. A "sign" of Western astrology coincides with the Month Pillar of Chinese bazi ("eight characters" or "Four Pillars of Destiny") reading. You need to calculate the correspondence though, since the new year of Chinese calendar is movable and in the Western calendar it is fixed, so the same Western sign (like Aries) might correspond to two different animals for two different people, depending on when that particular year started in the Chinese calendar. You can run your dates through an online calculator -- the Month Pillar will show your animal sign corresponding to your Aries. A bazi reading typically looks at four animals (a more comprehensive one, at six -- "conception" and "life" animals may be included), but I don't find it tremendously useful compared to what a Wuxing analysis of the same reading offers. However, the animal of your Month Pillar is your main one (unlike in pop Chinese astrology that looks at the "year of birth animal") and is the chief contributor to your personality, your idiosyncratic psychological traits, etc..

The literal translation of the first two lines is this: Tao can be told Tao is not eternal While someone who so desires can indeed read this as "the tao that can be told is not the eternal tao," one needs to imagine and then insert special prepositions and conjunctions of one's own choice and change the word order accordingly so as to contribute this particular meaning to the words that are actually there. It "can" mean what it is usually translated to mean. OR it can mean something diametrically opposite. In fact, since Laozi TELLS, by writing the book about "the way and its power," I think he might start telling by justifying the act of telling, by saying it can be done. "Tao is not eternal" may signify something meaningful in this context too. This is not the denial of its absolute nature. This can be read as the denial of its untouchability by human cognition. This can be read as another way to say "tao is all about change." This can be read as "tao does not stop, does not cease, does not arrive at a destination of any finality." This, in other words, is very taoist, very un-untaoist. Most translators were not taoists, and many were un-taoists. A non-taoist or an un-taoist is very likely to break his or her teeth on the very first pit of the very first of Laozi's peaches.

When I was about four, I was normally too shy to sing, but one day I learned a song I liked very much, so I worked up enough courage to sing it so as to share its beauty with my dad in the next room. I was hoping to please him. I was really getting into singing, pouring my heart and soul into it, when my dad's voice came from the other room yelling, 'Oh for the love of god, stop it already, it's unbearable!" I stopped for many years -- I was a sensitive child. When I started learning to play the piano I eventually developed an absolute pitch but never sang. I only started singing a bit when I worked through all the blockages of my childhood and removed most of them. But this one is not removable to the extent I wish it was -- meaning, I can't manifest physically the awesome singing voice I hear in my head that I should have practiced cultivating when the window of opportunity was developmentally timely, AND I can't forgive anyone who ever said, hinted, or showed in the body language that they would like for me to "stop it." I can forgive almost anything, but this, no. I hope you find my story helpful when making decisions about your situation.

Devil's Club?.. for a moment I thought you were talking about the Bilderberg group... ...but then realized you mean what I call Zamanikha in my native tongue. The tincture is part of Russian pharmacopoeia. Herbalist and shamanic uses abound. Devil's Club has many indications similar to those of ginseng and some that are different -- e.g. it is used for diabetes and schizophrenia. It is indeed a "cousin" -- like in a family, cousins can have some familial resemblance but different personalities and tempers. It's a bit more straightforward and, in an overdose, occasionally harsh compared to ginseng which is a good-natured, forgiving sage. Due to ganying phenomena a taoist might notice, this shows even in the outward appearance -- Devil's Club is thorny and difficult to handle. You need a special touch... and a pair of sturdy gloves.

Yes, good idea, and congrats on the new forum! So... I had this in my personal forum section, but now that we have a special place... here goes: -------***-------- The tao that can't be told is the taoless narrator's excuse. The tao just can't be told by a tongue-tied, uncouth storyteller. The tao that you can't tell because you don't know her language is not the tao you say -- you expect me to take your word for it?.. The tao that can't be told is the earwax sufferer's tao. The tao that can't be told is the tao of the dumb and the numb. The tao that you can't tell from the contents of an empty eggshell after eating your hard-boiled egg defies your power of speech? Why am I not surprised by this?.. The tao that can't be told is only silent on the pillow where your head seeks its rest from the empty nest inside its midbrain where "I love you" never hatched like an egg that your mother forgot to lay there and your father did not fertilize. Do you want me to help you?..

Wow, I'd go foraging if I were you! Put your name -- A Seeker -- to good use! It was used traditionally (I mean American ginseng, not your name) by Native Americans as a stimulant, also for headaches, indigestion, and infertility. It was also used for fevers, and is safe to use this way unlike Asian ginseng. It was not as "special" to Native Americans as Asian ginseng has been to Asians for thousands of years, just useful. I would say today they are closer than before, since American ginseng is still possible to find in its wild (more potent) version while Asian ginseng, which has been grown as a cultivated plant for at least 4,000 years, is probably next to impossible to find in the wild anymore. The cultivated variety is of course far less potent. Still, Asian ginseng would be my choice for anything heavy duty, while American ginseng is just, um, useful. When there was a very serious illness in my family, I bought "wild" ginseng from China, but I had no way of checking if the claims were true. The seller asserted he owns a forest in the mountains, forget the name of the province, and employs gatherers. But like I said, there's no way this could be verified -- and I wouldn't be paying what it cost if it wasn't for dire need. The roots did look pretty good though, and pretty old (I know how to determine their age) -- I was buying 16--20-year-old roots. I made my own tincture out of them that was used continuously for 6 months, with very good results.

Ginseng is "human root" ("gin" in its name is actually the old pre-Pinyin rendition of "ren," human) and is thought of as corresponding in its properties to a human being. As such, it has both yin and yang properties, and can enhance either depending on who takes it, when, and what for. It is VERY useful in many yin-deficient conditions, it is only bad in cases of false yang manifestations of yin deficiency (e.g. fever accompanying a chronic or acute yin-deficient disorder.) Besides, there's different varieties, different methods of preparation, and most importantly, different-age roots that act rather differently in the body. Like in humans, younger age in ginseng is associated with more yang, older age, with more yin.

An example of modern use of feng shui for qi-level warfare is, e.g., the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong -- a structure designed to radiate sha' qi at all its neighbors, competitors, constituents, everybody and everything outside it, cutting them down energetically. The style of futuristic expressionism in architecture was developed for this specific purpose (you'd be surprised what an "architect" is esoterically... "builder," "mason," all that jazz...). Whenever you see angular, prismatic, sticking-out, asymmetrical, mirror surfaced, sharp, taller-than-thou structures in the environment, you are looking at militarized feng shui. Of course feng shui is a taoist science (I mean the real thing, not the mickey mouse versions popularized for public consumption) -- it is based on hetu and luoshu, like all taoist sciences.

In TCM there's a class of herbs and formulas known as "tonics" -- ginseng is the number one in this category. Russian scientists came up with the term "adaptogen" studying several of the herbs of this category. Meaning, it has the ability to make the person systemically stronger and more resilient to stress regardless of the nature of the stressor -- physical, chemical, or psychological. Just like "stress" which is a generic, "intangible" description of many different kinds of adverse forces acting on the whole system, ginseng counteracts it by acting on such "intangibles" as "stamina," "endurance," "vitality," "vigor," "immunity" (not limited to the immune system -- "protective qi" in TCM terms). It is "smart" and acts on what's in need of action, so, e.g., it can raise blood pressure when it's too low or lower it when it's too high -- including in the same individual. It is age-sensitive and acts differently on people of different age groups -- young people may find it's a stimulant (including its aphrodisiac effects), older people may find it's a "rejuvenator" that does nothing much other than make them feel the way they did ten, twenty, thirty years earlier. The older the ginseng itself, the greater its power; the older the person who takes it, the greater the benefits; the greater its benefits, the more it costs, up to record figures (the price going up to its weight in gold for very old roots, and over that border for museum-old ones.) Aside from the price, there's very few contraindications. People who are finding that it is too stimulating and experience wired-up, oversexed, jittery, etc., states while taking it are perhaps too young to take it; other than that, it is not to be taken in elevated-metabolism situations like an illness accompanied by fever, hyperthyroid conditions, and periods of summer heat.

I think it's mostly a "modern world" issue. Too much stuff in the environment that exhausts our energy, not enough of what replenishes it. I'm told lower dantien practices of the kind that increase jing help with energy. It has been my experience too. But there may be more mundane (though sometimes even more hidden) causes for chronic tiredness -- in the diet, water, air, habits (e.g. sleeping and being awake at times that do not match natural circadian rhythms), and ultimately in the deficiencies, toxicities, and blockages we contract as we go, the three roots of all evil. I'd examine for those first. The lower dantien may actually tell you if you're on the right track -- what we know as "the gut feeling" -- nonverbal, non-logically obtained, immediate knowledge, resides there too.

Always a pleasure to get to the bee's knees of it all -- thanks for supporting them, dwai and rene! Well, e.g., the human eye. At the center of the macula, a single neuron connects to the optic nerve, and all the input filters down to a single point -- the rest of what you see is interpretations by the brain, which gets its whole scope of what you are looking at moment to moment in single-point entries (but VERY fast, which creates the illusion of continuity of your seeing). This is what a "point of view" really means: it is not panoramic, it is reduced to a single "point of oneness" -- the "one" being you when you're observing from "your point of view," or me when I'm observing from mine. This narrows down a voluminous and expansive reality to something that can fit a single point -- the observer -- at a single moment -- while you're looking. This reality is never real, because an infinite number of other points of observation exist simultaneously and independently of whether this particular observer is looking, and each of them registers a different "point of view" because it actually IS -- no two observers can occupy the same point of observation, no neuron at the center of the macula feeds into two brains simultaneously. Which to me challenges the whole "we are all one, and the only real time is right now" line of thinking tremendously, because it is blatantly a "point of view" (something that reduces to oneness and immediacy by anatomical default), and reality is not. But I digress... Another example of a point that is not, under normal conditions, "voluminous and expansive" is an acupoint. It sits on a particular meridian and its mobility and "expanse" are limited to a fraction of a millimeter. If you suffer an injury that cuts a meridian, the whole meridian will move to circumvent the scar and position itself elsewhere, but it will move together with its acupoints, like a necklace -- you move it, all the beads on it move together. Of course the needle you stick into an accupoint is an antenna that can connect it to other parts of reality if it is positioned correctly so that it starts to "receive" or "transmit." With acupuncture, you can turn a point "voluminous" and "expand" it to reach qi where it previously couldn't (whether inside your body or outside of it). If you need to keep it in this state for a length of time, you have to leave the needle in, however (this is occasionally done with auriculoacupuncture) or, to avoid the obvious inconvenience of having a needle stuck in you, use a tiny gold pellet instead to press on the point continuously. So an acupoint is "expandable" into "real reality," but not "expansive" by itself. So... saying that the lower dantien "has volume and expanse" is another way to say "it is a phenomenon of real reality, not of the point-of-view kind." I agree.

Great question. Here's a few, in no particular order: It is the field of manifestations and transformations, the alchemical "yellow court," "elixir field," "cauldron," "utensil for cooking the pill," "the field of yellow sprouts," to name a few. It is the essence of one's humanity positioned in between heaven and earth, connecting both and partaking of both. It is the field of interactions between heaven and earth, macrocosmically and microcosmically. (It is not a "point" and it is not a "vortex," it is better described, or rather hinted at, by the terms used classically -- "field," "cauldron," in other words it has volume, expanse, and these are not fixed.) It is the seat of miaotao, the mysterious border between yin and yang. This S-shaped mysterious border is crossed when yin transforms into yang and vice versa, but in itself it is neither, being of the nondual nature and properties, of Earlier Heaven. This is the border crossed by Earlier Heaven unmanifest potentials when they become manifest Later Heaven phenomena, and vice versa. It is isotropic, i.e. can go both ways. Things can appear and disappear in and out of manifest existence via crossing this border. It is more yin than yang in the human body, and is naturally more accessible in the female than in the male. The physical organ within the space of the physical human body corresponding to the location of the lower dantien, the uterus, partakes of some of its nonphysical properties and makes them visible as the actual ability to conceive, facilitate growth, nurture, and bring forth new manifestations into the world. In the male, who has no uterus, the first years of developing the lower dantien are aimed at creating a "virtual" one that is independent of the actual physical organ (the advantage of having the actual one is that it makes the sensory comprehension of the process whereby the nonphysical field of manifestations is accessed a tad easier and faster; other than that, the rest of one's success with internal alchemy depends on the virtues of the practice and the person, not on the gender.) Now this is not "classical" but I have noticed striking similarities between some of the properties of the lower dantien and those of the stem cells. Stem cells are uncommitted to being this or that, they can turn into anything, they are full of potentials for everything but without being accessed, don't manifest into anything. "The immortal fetus" of taoism is not a virtual baby -- it is the process of activating one's stem cells (normally inactive in an adult) to the extent they are active in a fetus, and then directing them consciously to manifest as new vitality infused into the system. That's what I think anyway...

Excellent set, thanks. You are right, it is quite advanced -- in the very first video, the moves at 1:03 and 1:17, e.g., will be quite challenging for a beginner, asking for spinal flexibility, balance, coordination, the ability to open the knee and hip joints, and pliable hamstrings to be executed properly. By the way, no one is wrongfully "throwing around" the word Kunlun, to my knowledge -- the name is not, and cannot, be copyrighted, like all other geographical names. You can register "Kunlun Wild Goose" or "Kentucky Fried Chicken" as a trade name, but you can't lay claims of ownership or "authenticity" on "Kunlun" or "Kentucky" and expect no one else to use them for their own product. Historically, the name "Kunlun" was used hundreds of times in conjunction with hundreds of practices.

Stories get chewed up in transition, as a rule, and a story with "more details" or a story with "fewer details" is not necessarily a different story. Besides, it is my impression that the English-Japanese interpreter was having some difficulties. E.g., to the question "what practices were you doing before meeting Max that prepared you for Max" Kan answers with a list of practices he got from Max. This means (to me, who has translated/interpreted and watched others do that too and knows how it goes) that the question was mistranslated and misunderstood, rather than evaded. Doesn't make sense otherwise. Kan's medical story is another interesting point -- I don't believe anyone would lie about having a broken spine and being paralyzed, people normally don't project situations of this nature onto themselves in any context whatsoever. Except for someone quite mentally unstable (not the impression I'm getting from Kan), one doesn't lie this close to the body -- there's a deep taboo on that in the human psyche. Also, we recently (relatively) had a poster who asserted that he knows Kan personally (if I'm not mistaken -- my apologies if I am, I don't remember exactly if "personally" was mentioned) and that Kan is a wonderful master of great integrity who has nothing to do with Max, that Max wrongfully exploits Kan's name while Kan's real teachers are someone entirely else and Max and kunlun gave him nothing, and so on. So there you have another version of the story circulating out there. So now again we have two conflicting stories, right?.. Which one of the two seems more plausible to you though, the story "about Kan by someone who asserts he knows him" or the story Kan himself tells?.. One of them is a lie. But then if it is Kan who is lying, then the true story the other person is telling also can't be true -- for how can a wonderful master of great integrity who is not Max's student lie through his teeth saying he is?.. See, it gets complicated, like a sophism... "a man from Crete asserts that all Cretans are liars, is he telling the truth?"

The dominant element (or as I usually prefer to call it, phase of qi) in your chart simply determines what particular family (of phases) you are born into, i.e. which phases are in which family relationships to you. Much like in your actual family, the bare basics are determined by where you appear in space-time in relation to your blood relatives: you are born someone's son, someone's grandson, and so on, and this position you find yourself in in relation to your blood relatives only tells you who is whose mother, father, son, grandmother and so on, in this family. Your personal place in a particular family is what your "dominant phase" means. It is simply a relational positioning that determines once and for all that you are your mother's son rather than your mother's grandfather. In and of itself, it tells you nothing else. So with the Five Phases, it is exactly the same. When an online calculator informs you of your dominant phase, e.g. Fire, all it means is that you are, in terms of your phase of qi, born into a particular family of phases, one where you are Wood's child, Water's grandchild, Earth's parent, Metal's grandparent. Whereas if your dominant phase is Metal, it means that you are born into a different kind of family, one where you're Earth's child, Fire's grandchild, Water's parent, Wood's grandparent. To determine anything else, you need to analyze your chart, i.e. consult a bazi reader, not just run the dates through a calculator...

The first part, from the beginning to 3:15, got me really worried... http://watchtvshowsl...the-fool-monty/

Scotty, I hope I didn't go overboard, I was rushed and in a hurry to put in a good word for Mal, is all. I did't call anyone a 3-year-old though, I am pretty sure I never do, I usually say "behave like" -- which describes a moment in time, a description of a particular act as perceived by me, not of personality. In any event, no disrespect was intended. I'm prone to metaphors, is all. (I'm a slightly published author... that's my excuse for the use of metaphors.) Rene, thank you, your perceptiveness shines. Inquest, thank you, you hit the nail on the head!

I'd like to invite some of you to put some things in perspective. Mal got singled out for one thing he did months ago. We may agree or disagree about the merits of that particular action. How about a bunch of other things Mal did in the interim, between the cheerleader comment and today? 1. He kept you all happily spam free. You won't believe what you are being sold on a regular basis by spammers. From "sweaters that grow a face on the buttocks down to the knee" to "glass coffins" -- I'm not kidding. Mal is the one who, being techno savvy, catches and removes most of this flack. 2. He kept you all happily free of blood on your hands. There were members who threatened mass murder and suicide and what not. I'm not kidding. (Incidentally, one of the mods, not Mal, but since we're on the subject I'll mention it anyway, had to go to police in his very own spare time to find out how much trouble we're in if someone posting threats of murder actually means it. None of you had to deal with this. Most of you wouldn't know how. I didn't.) 3. He kept you all happily free of slurs that would go to the core of your values -- he made it safe for you to be black, Asian, Jewish, female (some porn had to be thrown to the pit to make it safe for women, grossly underrepresented on this forum as it is, for us to keep finding it acceptable), gay, anything at all other than insulting to other members. I've seen many forums where this is not the case. I've seen many forums where you are left unprotected if a bigot, a hatemonger, a psychotic stalker decides to pick on YOU PERSONALLY. Here it was made amply clear that it won't be allowed. Did you notice?.. 4. He created personal forums for anyone and everyone who has ever asked for one. That's techno expertise, personal time, attention to people, meeting their needs in a timely and friendly and efficient fashion. Did you notice how personal forums appear out of nowhere? It's not out of nowhere. Mal did it for you. 5. He helps other mods with any technical issues. Sometimes people have trouble subscribing to the forum. I usually don't know how to help them. Mal usually does, and in some cases it proves longer and more difficult than normal, and he never quits till it's done. Did you know?.. There's more, way way more, but I gotta go for now, and while I'm gone, I hope the silly animosity over the silly cheerleader "issue" might, just might, fall into a proper perspective for at least some of you. As for others, noticing this and not noticing the rest is the kind of tunnel vision usually encountered in three-year-olds who want candy and can see nothing but what they want -- not the health benefits of a piece of fruit instead, not the fact that they're growing overweight, not the harmful additives in the candy... give me my candy now, mom Mal! or else you're a bad mom and I don't love you! So... I do hope by the time I come back in a few hours, at least some of the three-year-olds will have grown up a couple decades to catch up with their biological age. I have faith in you.

Which sort of reveals the true purpose of "reporting" things by syndicated media -- to make people lose perspective of what's important, feed off snippets of gossip here and there that go nowhere, never get a full story on anything of any consequence... a brain-snip here, a mind-fuck there, your consciousness is in tatters, your ability to assess reality is a foggy "something or other and it doesn't matter anyway and I can't do anything about anything in any event and there's nothing out there worth doing anything about... yawn..." -- = mission accomplished.