Green Tiger

The last King of New England. I personally feel more enslaved by the economy than the government. Although the government has two heavy hands in the economy, so I guess they're one in the same.

What does insanity sound like? To me it sounds kind of like a cross between a running refrigerator and an alarm clock.

Thanks for the heads up! Noticed he's doing a seminar in Minn. (I hope that means Minneapolis) April 11-13. Thinking I may want to check that out . . .

This is for Apech. This band is going to be playing here this summer. I'm pretty sure I'm going.

I'm definitely glad I went to the seminar instead. It was never a tough choice. My roommate went, and he told me all about it. Would have been quite an experience . . . not necessarily a good one.

Thanks for the recap, Brian! I really wish I could've been there. I hope to see you at the next one I'm able to attend!

While I'm here: This song is fantastic!

Damn! They were here last year and I went to a Stillness-Movement seminar that weekend instead. I guess I'll have to experience being sprayed with blood and urine the old fashioned way.

I've been trying to drink more tea lately and less alcohol. I come from a long line of Irish alcoholics and it's something I've struggled with my entire adult life. Recently I decided I was going to quit for 100 days and . . . . it hasn't been going so well. I'm almost to day 50 and I've logged maybe 10 days without drinking. Yesterday I decided my biggest problem is my friends and family. I was hanging out with a friend yesterday and mentioned that I wasn't drinking and he basically called me a pussy. I think, for most of the people I know, being drunk is the greatest feeling they can achieve for under $20. Of course, none of them practice standing meditation.

If you want something that does a pretty good job explaining why fiat currency is a joke: Curency Wars by James Rickards

I used to have some serious-ass pirate problems. Then I got Precious Roy's Pirate Cripplers.

Pirates?

Yeah. It did occur to me that he's the president of a company that wants people to feel safe investing their money, rather than buying guns and gold.

I've got a lot of respect for Ray Dalio's opinion. (He's the guy who made that youtube video explaining how the economy works.) I recently read a short article about him and was surprised by this: So does that mean that the current state of apparent growth is real and not built on a house of cards? Obviously we aren't out of the woods yet, but it was nice to hear someone who seems reliable say that what the Fed is doing is the right thing to do and that it's working. Made me feel warm and fuzzy. EDIT: Bridgewater is Dalio's (insanely successful) hedge firm.

I really like Marblehead and Vortex's metaphorical/allegorical take on this, but I suspect there is some sort of physical analog. Probably something like an OBE. Hard to say for sure though. Might help if you provide some more context. Like, for instance, what book are you referencing? Is this from Opening the Dragon Gate? Also, what is the 'mysterious female aperture?' Might want to start there.

There's a big push (and push-back) to require acupuncturists to get more training. Like . . . PhD-level training. I'm not sure how I feel about that. If they also made it a requirement that all health insurance plans would have to cover it, I might be on board.

Just because a scientist was in the room when the video was being made, doesn't automatically make it "scientific evidence." That's like saying, "Well, there was this scientist at David Copperfield's show last night and he couldn't explain how he made that elephant disappear, so that's scientific evidence that David Copperfield can make shit disappear!" The video might be compelling and perhaps even convincing, but to call it scientific is a step too far.

That's a really nice example of a straw man built into a loaded question, Dorian. Your analogy assumes too much. Where are the decades of scientific study proving that yin chi can only be collected during grounded meditation? Where are the decades of scientific study proving any claims made by Mo Pai practitioners about their results? All I've seen were some blurry youtube videos and a lot of anecdotal evidence.

I think it went down something like this: He talked a lot of smack. People complained. Mods got involved. He talked smack to the mods. He got suspended. He had other people relay messages onto the board for him basically saying "please, please, please ban me," so they banned him. Like so . . .

"A good traveler leaves no trace." TTC, Chapter 27

My curiosity was only strong enough to motivate me to take an online test. I can't really see how knowing your Myers Briggs personality type is any more useful than knowing your astrological sign.

I just took an online version of the test and it said that's what I am too. I was skeptical until I did a google image search for ENFP and saw this: