Taomeow

The problem I see is that once others have quoted your post which you've thought twice about and decided to edit or hide, you're stuck with it. Strangely enough, the way it happens to me is, if I do change my mind, I usually change it almost immediately -- I don't let a post sit there for a day and then decide to remove or edit, no -- I re-read what I just wrote and decide I don't want it there after all, for whatever reason -- and more than half the time I'm too late, someone looking to... er... stir the pot jumps on it immediately and insists on quoting and discussing precisely the part I've just edited or the post I've just removed. Literally within a minute or two. And then I'm stuck with having to drag on an unwanted discussion of exactly the part I decided I don't want to have a conversation about, to the detriment of the part I did hope to have a conversation about. All in all, this "gotcha!" set-up stifles spontaneity -- too much thinking in advance what to say, what not to say does, when there's no recourse to changing your mind. Maybe it's possible to appeal to the members to edit someone else's quotes from their own posts (and maybe posts themselves made in response to the edited out ones while at it?) upon discovering that the part they are addressing has been removed by the OP? I always do that for others, incidentally. Don't like playing "gotcha!" and find it pretty annoying when someone plays that with me. What do you think?

Yup, they work exactly the way you noticed they do, those hitlerjugend/hongweibing reincarnations refurbished and repackaged under new management. I don't know if the moron attempted reporting but I doubt the words "good eyesight" -- the only suspicious words I used -- would raise a red flag, not yet anyway, I don't think they've been included in the list of hate speech yet (perhaps soon, but not yet). And the f word was his contribution, not mine, so the bots monitoring for crimespeak have nothing to go on in this case. Although who knows. Sometimes they react to just the fact that someone reported you, much like the teacher in elementary school will automatically punish someone snitched on because figuring out who's really right and who's wrong is too bothersome and time consuming. And I work exactly the way you hypothesized too. Except I blocked the moron first, deleted the group for tolerating this level of morondom in its member, and then took a walk on the beach.

I was perhaps one of the first users of Amazon, way back when it was only selling books. An online book seller, how cool is that. I used to buy many books. I feel as though I'm signing the contract with the devil now every time I check out an Amazon item. But what stops me from dropping that account is the same thing that stops me from voting: I believe we are light years away from any situation where any individual decision by a private citizen makes a realistic dent, and I'm not a believer in symbolic gestures. If there was a slightest chance that real action will be undertaken... but it would have to be undertaken by millions, if not billions, agreeing all at once that it must be undertaken. I don't see it happening, given the current state of division between everybody over everything. "They" knew what they were doing when they skillfully divided everybody over everything. To wit, they were making money and power for themselves. Expertly and successfully.

What have they done to education. What have they done. A discussion I had in a Western alchemy group. Not my cup of tea but I like to stay informed beyond my cup of tea. So, the OP says, the eye is just like the camera and the brain is just like a TV, so who is watching? A philosophical question. To which I give a physiological answer: the metaphor is faulty, in reality the eye is nothing like the camera and the brain is nothing like a TV. Some product of "education" as they apparently get it today tells me that there's no difference, and proceeds to praise technology. I say, technology externalizes human perceptions and thereby diminishes rather than expands them. (Right or wrong, that's how I see it.) He says, but glasses! What would we do without glasses! I say, we would have good eyesight if our development was not thwarted, in particular by technology. (Scientific fact.) He says I'm a fascist. And launches a foaming-at-the-mouth rant that is inspired by whatever he thinks I meant when I said that humans are not in need of glasses by design, that it's something brought about by our lifestyle. He is propelled into an absolutely deranged extended rant about how saying that makes me a fascist. How what I said discriminates against people with differences and I am the one who is discriminating against people who are different and therefore a fascist. What the fuck did they do to people. What the fucking fuck did they do to people. What have they done.

Wang Yiguang

Mikhail Likhachev, "The Troubled 20s," 1967

Forgot to share what this Volume 3 is about:

Got an awesome present!

_/\_ Don't see how any of that could work for Ganesha. He might need an old-fashioned Soviet gas mask.

Beg for an exemption. I shared experience, not "beliefs." I have energy healers up the yin-yang in my own extended family, in my lineage, and among close and distant acquaintances, from humble but talented healers to world famous masters, with all in betweens. Not one of them, including my taoist teacher who had seen lines of thousands of people to his door way back when he was still doing the healing work for the public (know it from people who stood in those lines, not from him), claimed what you claimed. Do I "actively despise" those who make such claims without providing any evidence? I despise the message. But if the messenger and the message can't be separated... which is often the case in online communications... you bet I do. On behalf of those who suffered and died from this illness -- who are presented by you as clueless ignorami for not retaining your peerless services. Yup, despise that crap with all my heart. Nothing to do with my beliefs. If you don't include my belief that people who make self-aggrandizing claims of this nature wrongfully discredit the real thing in the eyes of those who could truly benefit from it and thereby do a lot of harm. That is, indeed, a belief of mine.

But I did.

You can't tell me to "read up" on anything, do you understand what I mean? You could have a friendly discussion with me over whatever you disagree about and why and wherefore and maybe learn something in the process, but instead you spectacularly opened with "This is not true"and proceeded to lord it over to me as though you're appointing yourself my teacher or Bob my uncle or whatever else you think you are that is above and in the position to talk down to me. Got enough mansplaining out of your system? Scratched that itch? Feel better now? Good for you. Now please stop already.

Not irrelevant if I don't think you are prepared for this conversation. You are guided by a burning desire to win an argument you created out of thin air, and in all likelihood by your extensive experience of taking all those multiple choice tests in school where you had to mark the "yes" or "no" answer in a designated square. This is your most familiar and most handy hammer, so the I Ching looks like a nail to you. Fine. Keep hammering away. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Edit: double post

I actually deleted the sarcastic part because I felt you wouldn't draw the conclusions I was hoping for, but you beat me to it and quoted faster. If you don't understand the difference between a beginner asking a question (which was what was being addressed -- I was trying to help a beginner find a useful and comprehensible approach to working with the oracle) and a seasoned, experienced, lineage taught diviner and scholar using the I Ching in multiple ways toward multiple purposes as part of a routine relationship established with the oracle, you are, correct me if I'm wrong, of the former category.

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Hmmm... Semantics much. It can answer "any" question if you ask it correctly. Whether you are able to ask it correctly is a different matter. Is last Friday faster and more syphilis enabled than a purple wolf from the library of Alexandria's grand piano? Yes or no?

Maybe I'm just used to it. The devil you know and all that. Folks on their phones -- yes, those are something else, but I'm guessing they're everywhere. A while ago, just after dark, a neighbor showed up at my door to inform me that my car had been involved in an accident. She was all shaken up and said that it was "a big accident." My car was parked in the street the whole time and it took me a moment to fathom how it could possibly get involved in an accident when no one was driving it. Turned out a teenager using his phone while driving plowed into a whole line of parked cars along the curb, badly damaging five or six (maybe seven, don't remember exactly) in one fell swoop and, in particular, taking the driver's door clean off mine while jamming its front into the car parked in front of it, and that one into the next and so on, like dominoes. The kid was, as it turned out, headed home -- which was a full one minute of driving away from where that happened, just down the street. Couldn't wait, apparently. Urge to text too irresistible.

Which part of the country are you comparing it to? I came here from New York/New Jersey and was amazed at how positively balmy people's behavior in traffic is compared to what I was used to. So relaxed and polite. Well, mostly. Shit happens of course. E.g. no one here knows how to drive when it rains because it never does, so when it does, they just lose it and speed up -- the way you would run from the rain on foot I guess. But other than that... easy peasy.

It was an illustration to our resident white cat's statement and I was about to post it as a comment under that statement but someone beat me to it. So the statement and the illustration got separated.

And the war on pandemic small businesses rages on. Large chains gained tens (some, hundreds) of billions in 2020 -- small businesses collectively lost $200 billion so far, and counting. RIP all the Out-of-Business-2020 permanently closed small and mid-sized places to eat in San Diego (so far, and counting), the city that fed, only a year ago, funky or hearty or healthy or artsy or just handy meals 34 million sun-starved and otherwise hungry tourists and a million and a half local regulars: 85°C Bakery Cafe - Point LomaAmarin Thai - HillcrestApollonia Greek Bistro - La Jolla UTCArtisan Noodle Tatsuki - DowntownB-Mo's Sandwiches - Pacific BeachBang Bang- GaslampBanzai Bar - MidwayBar Pink - North ParkBeach Grass Cafe - Solana BeachBerkeley Pizza, DowntownBibigo Kitchen - Fashion ValleyBo Beau Kitchen + Cache - HillcrestBrick & Bell Cafe - Pacific BeachBurger Lounge - GaslampBuster's Beach House - Seaport VillageCabais Mexi-Deli - HillcrestCafe 1134 - CoronadoCafe on Park - HillcrestCasa Sol y Mar - Del MarChampagne Bakery - Del MarCold Beer & Cheeseburgers - Carlsbad & GaslampCoyote Ugly - GaslampCrab Catcher - La JollaCraft Burrito Company - Del MarCrush - Solana BeachCulture Brewing - Ocean BeachDecoy Dockside Restaurant - San MarcosDonovan's Steak & Chophouse - GaslampThe Dubliner - GaslampEbisu Sushi - HillcrestEl Jardin - Liberty StationEscondido Brewing - EscondidoFive Guys - Pacific BeachFuddruckers - All LocationsFuraido Premium Chicken Company - PowayGabbiano Pizza - Mission BeachGaya Gaya - MiramarGrater Grilled Cheese - Del MarGreen Acre - La JollaHacienda de Vega - CarlsbadHammond's Ice Cream - Pacific BeachHeart & Trotter - North ParkIB Public House - Imperial BeachIl Dandy - Bankers HillIndigo Grill - Little ItalyIron Fist Brewing - Barrio Logan & VistaJayne's Gastropub - University HeightsJuice Crafters - Little Italy, La Jolla, Hillcrest, CoronadoJ/Wata Temaki Bar - Kearny MesaKen Cinema - KensingtonLa Torta Cafe - La MesaLil' Farmers Cafe - Kearny MesaLivingston's Chicken Kitchen - Ocean BeachLumberyard Tavern - EncinitasMartinis Above Fourth - HillcrestMcCormick & Schmick’s - DowntownMelvin Brewing - East VillageMexican Village - CoronadoNaPizza - All LocationsNewport Pizza - Ocean BeachNorth Park Breakfast Company - North ParkThe Oceanaire Seafood Room - GaslampOn The Border - Mission ValleyPhil's BBQ - San MarcosPrepKitchen - All LocationsPrimavera Ristorante - CoronadoRamen Menma - OceansideRock Bottom Brewery - La JollaRosie's Cafe - EscondidoRoyale - Point LomaRoy's Hawaiian Fusion - La JollaSalvatores Cucina Italiana - DowntownSan Marcos Brewery & Grill - San MarcosSapporo Japanese - Ocean BeachSearsucker - GaslampSicilia Bella - La JollaSign of the Whale - GaslampSister Ray's - Sherman HeightsSlaters 50/50 - San MarcosSmall Bar - University HeightsSouplantation - All LocationsSurf Rider Pizza - Ocean BeachSushi Yama - CarlsbadSwami's Café - PowayTacos Libertad - HillcrestTamarindo - North ParkTe Mana Cafe - Ocean BeachThat Pizza Place - CarlsbadTiger! Tiger! Tavern - North ParkTin Room - HillcrestTocaya Organica - Downtown & La JollaToronado - North ParkTreelogy Cafe Restaurant - Pacific BeachTroy's Family Restaurant & Coffee Shop - ClairemontTwo Paddles Fish & Grill - HillcrestTwo Roots Brewing - Ocean BeachTwo Seven Eight - HillcrestUltrazone Laser Tag - MidwayUmi Sushi - EncinitasVolcano Rabbit - GaslampWaypoint Public - North ParkWhisknladle - La JollaWinston's Beach Club - Ocean Beach

OK, you just convinced me to go to our local Sunday farmers' market to look for eggs. Usually I don't shop there on a regular basis, alas, not because of lines but because of parking problems (which is the same thing if you think about it, but I have less tolerance for this kind of line than for any on-foot line) -- and on occasion, when I do get there, I typically get distracted from my shopping plan by a French chef who sells his homemade carnivorous fares and chats me into spending all my money at his stall every time with utmost ease... Gonna go see if I can resist this time. ))