Guy Stuff, Women Welcome
I'm trying to find ways to co-create our new paradigms here. I'm trying to take what I have learned, and put it into practice. Yes, I am a human BEING...but see, I'm still practicing.
We've talked, and we'll surely talk more, on Sacred Sexuality. It is such an important subject. Sex is eternal duality forever achieving Unity. We here now preserve our duality on many levels even as we seek Oneness, and so we should, so we must. We have seen that it is the presence of both the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Male that provides our totality - and we have all, I believe, glimpsed the many ways in which they both exist within ourselves.
What I now propose is a celebration and exploration of our Sacred Duality. And I propose that we do this by opening a forum for "male" issues, ideas, thoughts etc., and obviously a "female" counterpart. Ladies, please feel free. Say whatever you like. Leave anytime you wish. Just understand, this is the man's side of the house.
Guys, I propose that on the distaff side we wear clean shirts, not spit on the floor, and not stroke our package. They're going to have it fixed up nice, and there's doilies on the chairs, and everyone in all the pictures will be wearing clothes. They deserve this.
Also, there are plainly common areas where we are still attempting to iron out the ground rules. But this here is for the men. Ladies, you are welcome anytime. Just remember where the door is if you decide to leave, and don't blame me because you came in here. You'll probably get brownie points if you smoke cigars.
I like a big, stinky ashtray right at my elbow, and I like a huge dirty mug of cold coffee. Here, I am not going to bother to shave. I don't care if my socks match and I will swear if I feel like it. If I fart, too bad. If I scratch my balls, deal with it. Who knows....stick around, I might actually start to clean up my act. Anyway, that is my proposal.
So what are "men's" topics? I knew someone would ask. Women. Sports. Whiskey. Cars. Horses. Dogs. Fishing. Survival. Guns. Assertive, bold, no-bullshit things. Hell, I dunno...you tell me. It's not my clubhouse. But I will put the first pinup on the wall.
I can think of some, but I talk all the time. I'd really like for some of the men to step forward and say what's on their minds.
8-D
Thank you, Ursula.
Either what I have to say lacks merit and thus will wither on the vine, or perhaps people are saying: Don't encourage him. He never shuts up. Or they just haven't decided what their thoughts are. Maybe it's the pin-up. I kinda like it, myself. A friend of mine's wife has a poster of Fabio in her private bathroom. Fabio?? I gave him a Farrah Faucett for Hanukkah. Never did see if he put it up. But really guys, I'll take it down.
8-D
My Friends, I've been trying to imagine how new paradigms will come into their own where the rubber meets the road. EACH OF US IS PART OF THIS AND HAS BEEN, SINCE BEFORE THIS PORTAL EXISTED. I'm trying to work out new exemplars and prototypes for business, relationships, religion, conflict resolution, atonement, agriculture, the arts, and a few other things before the tides wash over us. Because the tide is coming and it is a tide of fire. Some of us will make it and some of us will not. I wish to proceed as if my loved ones and I will. The day will come when the power will go out, there will be no running water, the shelves will be bare and if we have a roof to shelter under we will be fortunate. We - that is you and I - will have been taken from each other, or so it will seem although what we have created and what we ARE cannot pass from reality.
What we must do then is create community in a new way, and we have a window in which to prepare ourselves. What we have learned here, what we ARE here, is what must be, from Day One, in the forefront when that day comes. Our success depends on what we DO together, and when. This is the framework in which I envision these bold, no-bullshit discussions.
I've been contemplating that day when They really ARE hunting for us and ready to kill us on sight. They don't know it but we are already a virtual nation. New World Order? You betcha. We have beat them to it. They have been sneaking up to grab humanity by the balls. We already cradle their hearts.
But there will be battles, and they will be uneven ones. They have stuff you and I can't even dream of, very little of it dreamed up in pursuit of the Greater Good. The weapons we have - Love, Peace, Intelligence - have powers as well, of which they know little. Lines are being drawn, events loom, and so I propose we think for a bit about hardware.
I'm talking about everything from computers to can openers. I mean crossbows, carbines and lightweight shovels and axes, ways to purify water, and many more things.
First of all, as both true military and paramilitary gangs including our mercenary and police forces (is there a difference any more?) are tooling up with more and better technology, there are tons of bargains on the surplus market. The biggest drawback to surplus military and police gear is that it is comparatively big and heavy. Otherwise, it gives you what they have in some very important areas. And the durability and low-tech of the old stuff gives tactical superiority in some situations.
Weaponry: Can't say enough. Very important. Most important of all: No Violence Unless Forced. There are several reasons why I mention black-powder arms. First, they sail past most firearms laws. If you own a registered gun, then your are in a database and they know where to come and get it if they want to. Go ahead and try to hold them off. They will have it in the end.
Second, for organized personal defense - which is exactly what they were developed and refined for - they work splendly. By the time smokeless gunpowder and the self-contained brass cartridge were invented, the self-made black powder charge and minié ball had evolved into a splendid and refined piece of technology. As projectile weapons, their reliability, accuracy, ease of repair, and versatility had made them the arm of choice, from Daniel Boone's Brown Bess to the Wyatt Earp specials that won the West. And the reason all the other stuff has been invented is not that men need a better way to kill other men or meat for the table, but because the generals want to do it with a bigger boom and from farther away.
Fast-forward a century. Throw in modern metallurgy, machining and composites. Keep the same, centuries-proven system of black powder, ramming the bullet and using a separate firing cap...see where I'm going? Outside the law, deadly and reliable (remember how fast and often the M-16 broke down?)...and in a pinch you can even make your own bullets and gunpowder with the right equipment and materials, all very low-tech. In the hands of an expert of which I am not one, a black powder will givel you three deadly-accurate shots per minute. Your location will be known and their weapons are as follows: unlimited rounds per minute, and one is all it takes.
Their disadvantage is another reason I favor black-powder guns. They are slow to load and shoot, and they puff huge clouds of white smoke that can actually obscure your vision. This makes them far less likely to be used for criminal purposes in the light of alternatives. Keep your powder dry, boys! And while I bring this to your attention, I never said to throw away your Smith&Wesson. In fact, I suggest stocking up on ammo while you can. Just remember: in the end it will be beaten into a plowshare, and sooner is better.
Bows and arrows. Can't shoot one. Great idea if you can. Love crossbows.
Two weapons I favor are the blowgun and the wrist-braced slingshot. The blowgun is easy to improvise: four feet of three-quarter inch CPVC hot-water pipe, with a ten-gauge wire nut in it. One good blow can take a man out, kill him if you hit him in the right place, and make nary a sound. I can also put a rabbit in the pot, which is what I would rather do with it. Instead of a wire nut, use a small cone made of a piece of plastic, tipped with an Xacto blade. This will sail thirty yards accurately and stick in drywall, which means it will penetrate light clothing.
A good slingshot and a ball bearing is likewise silent and deadly, and can provide dinner. A little harder to improvise, a serious hunting slingshot is not an expensive item. Knowing how to use it: priceless.
Bladed weapons and tools: As far as weapons...nasty. I own a short sword, a couple of pocket knives, a Leatherman tool, two large knives suited for everything from skinning to cleaving, a small dagger, and an assortment of kitchen cutlery. I prefer cutlery as tools and not weapons. Nevertheless the carefully - exotic display sword on my wall is actually a small broadsword capable of dicing as well as plunging. It has the weight, the balance, and the carbon-steel blade to be exactly what it looks like - and probably is not.
I also own a sap and one or two items I have not mentioned.
Why all this emphasis on hand-to-hand combat? Because guys, we are not going to blow them out of the water. It isn't just night vision that these guys have. We can get that at the surplus outlet. It isn't just eavesdropping and snooping, we can buy electronics, too. We can even mount some aircraft and kype some grenades, but whoa! This is not our war! Never again must we mount battle as we have in the past. Meanwhile, when it comes to bigger bullets, they have it all. Nuff said. What matters to me is what happens when the lights go off, the cupboard is bare, the windows are either boarded up or broken out, there are shots in the not-so-far distance, and the kids are hungry and scared. That's what I'm talking about.
Why are we nonviolent? Because we men are sudden wusses? Girly-men, metrosexuals? No, Rush you fat hog, you have missed the whole point which is why we don't waste time talking to you. We are nonviolent because that paradigm of dealing with conflict ends with us. You want to shoot me? Go ahead, my brother, you will release me to be what I most truly am. And, I'll be back, with friends. When violence comes we deal with it swiftly, and mercifully. That is the meaning of the Sacred Male, or part of it at least. After, we can talk philosophy.
I'm inviting us all to talk about it now, before.
Because instead of huddling in burned-out buildings, we have to come out. We need food. We need water. We need...each other. And so, communities - of scared, traumatized, and ultimately resourceful people - WILL emerge and be rebuilt. There WILL be gardens to be grown, wounds to tend, and trash to cherry-pick. There will be children to nurture and to bring to new life. There will be many dead to bury.
THEY have thought of this. THEY are prepared, or so they believe. But they won't get us all. We will survive. This I do not doubt. How well, how numerously, and how effectively depends primarily on us.
8-D
And to you ALL!
My personal energy level just lately has been phenomenal, and no I am not like this all the time. Much of what I say here - and only my own words for now - will wind up overat indigodave dot com. Some has already provided good ground on other lists, too.
My schedule and my energy level these last several days have allowed me to do this which is fortunate for my sanity, because the ideas that are coming forth are bombarding me. Soon I too must sleep...tomorrow I work until late and you will not see me...Sweet dreams...
And many thanks for the heads-up...I will rummage around in my animation drawer...I know I have some good polyamorous ones in there I've been saving.
8-D
Hey Dave,
I'll play......men are builders! how creative are we? what do the men here build?.....have built.........anything interesting! anyone got any "free" energy" stuff, I have plans for a machine .....Lol, haven't got around to building it.....
I work in the commercial furniture indusrty, Office screens, partitions. I do a bit of design work on cad....draw extrusions, bracketry, etc
But in my time.....at the moment I am building a 1:250 scale american aircraft carrier from scratch, no plans as such, I'm just building. Have absolutely no idea what I will do with it when I'm finished, it isn't little, but yeah I'll deal with what I am going to do with it later. I just like the building.....I also made a few swords years ago, I wanted to get a feel for working with steel...........
Dave, you spoke once of trouble with meditation, you find it hard to quiet your mind. I find that if I start building something and I am really getting into it I eventually stop thinking. My mind does go "blank" yet I keep building away......at times what I build is wrong, I'm not paying attention. For me building can be a door.....other times my mind will just start wandering etc, I find building very peaceful......relaxing and I often have my most profound thoughts while building.
Jez
okay now...the language that you use is a bit polarizing. i understand that our culture is now saturated with ''woman's superiority'' and that's gotta suck for the guys. you're all dogs, right?? wrong. but two wrongs don't make a right. i like the idea of talking about 'guy' stuff...for a minute you were describing me....right down to the cigar i just smoked and the cold cup of coffee i keep by me in the morning. but i've been told that i'm not a ''typical'' girl. anyway...the idea is great...but don't beat up on the women too much...not all of us play with dollys....and what's the harm if we do. and from the other side...i see where you're coming from and perhaps your'e suggestion could spark up some good conversation.
in the spirit of unity.
misty
i had an idea for a light weight lawn mower that works much in the same way as a weed-eater.......a few months after i thought about it, i saw something similar on a passing tv commecial..... the design that was used was the same idea....but what i was thinking of was larger and lighter.
i've been rolling the idea of perpetual motion using magnets.... and how it could tie into creating a car that runs on it's own energy........i dunno...... never learned much about physics and energy.....but i think about these kinds of things.......
and about the meditation....i find that if i take a looong walk....i can usually hit a nice, clear, meditative state.....whatever works.
Hey Misty,
Have played with magnets myself, seems so easy but I didn't get far with them.
The idea I have is based on water and gravity. Australia has been in drought for years and what they have been doing at one of the dams is pumping water up to the top and running it thru the system. It produces more power than it took to pump it up there but they don't like doing it because it is less profitable. Well what I would do is get a cylinder put a hole in the bottom and get a whirl pool going, mythbuster's made one once. If you then stuck a set of propellers/turbines inside the funnel, you would have gravity + the forces of the spinning water turning the turbine.......the only power you would be using is to pump the water from the bottom to the top......could work? what do you think?
And where are the men?......Lol
Jez
Hey Dave,
I guess I do see a time when we may have to fight! I think we are all hoping it can be avoided but I would like to be prepared just in case.....Lol...I did kendo, japanese sword fighting, for a year and half when I was making my swords,,,,,never been in any physical fight in my life.....Lol...but be prepared I say! Grrrrr
I can remember two of my mates having a heated argument years ago over who would win in a fight, I think it got to being a hypothetical fight from about 10 or 20 feet apart. One had a gun the other a shovel, long handle. Lol.....it was a long argument but I think we all would have backed the guy with the shovel!......Lol
Seriously though, in Australia a few years ago they cracked down on gun laws. What they did was at first not change who could own them, they just got everyone to register them. They only had a cheap license fee. Not to long after that, they put the fees up dramatically, changed the rules for qualifying to own them and because they knew where they all were...the "honest" people all had to hand them in......now only a few farmers, sports people etc and the criminals have guns in Australia. It does leave us open in some way.....swords are also illegal.... shhhhhh!
Jez
Jez
Dave, you spoke once of trouble with meditation, you find it hard to quiet your mind. I find that if I start building something...
I did have that trouble for a long time, and the only way I could shut off my mind was by doing as you do, becoming lost in activity. I also learned to revel in the mental life and not seek to quiet my inner voices as much. Nothing they were saying was weird or insane. I would be writing music in one part of my mind while thinking about southwestern ecosystems with another; working out an ifrared car alarm with yet another, and pining over some girl in still another. All while doing my homework and listening to the radio. Sounds crazy, I know.
But the one thing I could never do was simply be quiet and sit still. I tried for years, and I worked way too hard at it.
Like when I read Catcher In The Rye over and over, trying to figure out what everyone thought was so great about it. I still think it's a piece of shit. I thought it was unnecessarily vulgar and utterly banal when I was thirteen, and I still do. So after a while, I quit trying to still my mind.
I was a Quaker for about twenty years. You'd think after what I just said, sitting for an hour or 90 minutes in silence like that would be impossible for me. The sitting still part was mighty hard - I'm a fidgety guy. But silent worship - that is incredibly hard work. It took constant concentration and mental effort for me not to feel I was foolishly wasting my time. It is NOT meditation. I wasn't a real good Quaker, I have to admit. I did serve in the military (ever see a whole room of people look at their feet at the same time?), and I favor action over silent assent. Also, I paid too much attention to people like George Fox and Thomas R. Kelly. I finally learned I am too honest for religion, and again that's new. But it's over.
But the last two years or so have been a period of continuous and startling changes for me and in me. I absolutely understand why people use the word ascension even though I don't like it. Like transformation, it sounds more like an event than a process. Anyway, one of the things I picked up through the Transformation Course is the technique of filling your mind with your breathing. The only reason it didn't work for me immediately is that I didn't think it would. That simple application has solved every difficulty I had with meditation. I couldn't do it before if you paid me; now I can - and I can even teach others. It's so simple. I haven't had deep revelations or OBEs. I have learned to quickly and easily go within, deeply relaxed even though fully alert, and check with wherever I need to be. I can consult my guides that way, if they're talking to me that day. (They love me dearly, but they think I'm a cocky asshole. One of them prefers not to deal directly with me at all). I can simply relax, and dip down to that level where you're just riding the wave. I don't do it every day, not the half-hour on the zabuton thing. I do use my own two-minute vacation technique daily...morning and night at the very least. Tomorrow I've planned a hike at my favorite spot, where I have discovered a dozen standing stones in alignments and locations that make them obvious - only to me, it seems, and those I show them to. Anyway, there is a hilltop I strongly feel as a very sacred place, not just because it is on an arrow-straight alignment with a huge standing stone and a mysterious mound a mile away. I don't always go up there, but when it feels right, it is one of my favorite meditation spots - in fact, finding this spot - no indeed, for I was led to it - also had a lot to do with me suddenly learning to meditate.
I'm looking forward to a meditation tomorrow...among ancient rocks that are so full of mysteries...perhaps there on the Citadel (my name), perhaps not. There are times when I do not feel worthy of being there. Also, it's prime mountain-lion habitat, and that hilltop is one of several I am positive they actively use. I've almost run into one up there, twice. Fortunately, wild animals and I have a fairly good understanding. I didn't even have to see the big guy to know he was up there, I just knew. I had enough respect to leave quietly, and he was kind enough to let me. Neither one of us wanted the hassle. I practically walked into his wife a couple hours later - again, I never actually saw her, but she was right there in the bushes, and she let me know it. So for a couple reasons, I don't just clamber up there anytime I feel like it. Then there's the Chair of Dreams, and the other end of the line. It's in a grove of ancient oaks on a mound in the middle of a prehistoric lake bed, surrounded by visible earth fault lines. Another power spot. There is a granite boulder shaped like a huge Barcalounger. Lying there, it's easy to drift away. These are some of my magic spots. Both are well off the established hiking trails, and neither is spoiled. Up on top of some ridges I will find cig butts or beer cans...I carry a trash bag. But in these places, they show no signs that anyone has been there - just the lions up on the rock, and the deer in the grove, a mile away.
I thought things were changing fast before. Since the first of the year I feel as if I have been shot from a cannon! I wish I could say it's all Fred's fault. Fortunately I cannot - it started some time back, and through Fred's works I've learned to focus and open up in ways that absolutely seemed impossible before.
I really need to slow down, thought the human cannonball....what color is my parachute, anyway?
Jez, I would love to see some pics of your ship model! That's amazing, just scratchbuilding like that. My thing is model trains. I can't afford them, and I could care less about running the trains around anyway. That gets so boring, so fast. What I love is building the miniature landscapes. Sometimes I will glue together several small sheets of styrofoam into a laminated shape, then use simple tools like my pocket knife to carve the thing into a tiny diorama. I leave a flat stripe through it for a single length of flex-track. Once I have the basic landscape shaped, I paint the thing with several layers of gesso or plaster. Then I can carve out details with dentist's picks, and also add details like rocks and streams. I paint the landscape and then add tiny trees made from the dead tips of fall weeds; little bushes and even grass. I pour resin for water. Maybe I'll put in cliffs and a beach, or a trestle spanning a tiny gorge. Maybe I'll have the train winding round a pasture with itty bitty cows and an tiny tractor. I don't build 'em very often....very labor-intensive. But that's the kind of thing I used to do to keep my mind still. When I'm done, it's a great little diorama, the size of a floor tile. They have a couple at a hobby store nearby...I can sell them easily but not at a price that makes it worthwhile.
When I was a painter I would build models of various objects, painted flat white, so I could study and photograph them at various angles with various light sources. Do you know how hard it is to find plastic models of civilian aircraft? 8-D
Hey Dave,
first let me say, no one rips there resourses off like us Aussie's, italian marble, yeah ours, steel, where do you think the world gets that?, uranium, we got plenty......we sell raw, dig and ship!... and then let everyone else take it to the next step...
In Oz we buy "everything" from overseas...Lol
I like your idea's.....yes fly wheels are good, have you ever seen a press machine? used for punching through steel. The motors on them are small, takes a sec to get the flywheel going but then 20, ton, 40 ton....it's incredible. Outdated now but they still get used.
I am a big nerd.....as a kid I raced remote control cars.....I know lots about little mechanisms, gears, belts, clutches,batteries, motors etc you should see my little shed......all sorts of that stuff, and I do know where everything is and what is there, Lol it can just take a half hour to dig that deap sometimes......
Did you ever look into Tessla? made Einstein look like a moron in my opinion! died alone, shunned.....he was able to build the most amazing things......he understood electricty!
Jez
Dave, if it comes down to this kind of struggle for survival, personally, I hope I will have checked out or been beamed up, or something...
Aquene, I bet every one of us has felt that way. I have, and part of me does. But then I ask: What else am I here for? What was all this odd mentoring, the arcane knowledge, then the sudden thrust thirty, forty years later...what's up with that? I look around and see people who need to know what I know. I'm not the only one who knows it, and there are better teachers. But I see a job that I, little I can do...something that makes sense for me to sink my teeth into. It isn't a passing fancy. I was born for this time. And so were you, dear Aquene. We all were. I think I've had a painful, dysfunctional life...then I read stories of others. I'm so ordinary, outside my training. Of course I'm socially retarded, but that's just because I'm a nerd. This is what each of us has come here for. This - not only the Transformation Team Portal but there are other nexusses...nexi....other clusters of aware people all over the globe, thanks to the internet and thanks to people like Fred who lay out the tools and write the manuals on how to use them, so folks aren't just running around hitting their neighbors with 'em...this is the conclave of spirits that prepares us....the world and the universe have been preparing us, to pass the most important torch in all history. Can I have some music please? No, I'm serious. Many of us will fall in the coming years. I believe it will begin this year, has begun already but not manifested in the public eye. This is the year people start seeing the first big cracks running up the walls...the year chunks start falling down on people from above. It is not going to be pretty. Many of us, maybe even most of us, will be protected. We will still know the anguish of watching many die. That's what I see coming, and there's no need to paint it daisies. We're better off if we look soberly at our options. Each one of us is sorely needed.
...there was a book that came out called "The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris
Yes, I remember it well! Everything you said about it was "right on." It was basically an attempt to float a pretty basic anthropoligical idea on the wave of "sexual revolution," which mostly meant a bunch of horny guys getting pissed off that girls weren't as liberated as they thought they were, or exploiting the fact that they were. Now they had a book by a guy with a degree to back them up. It was a period piece.
Ya know....this whole sex thing is a big power game. Everybody loves to screw. Some like it rough, and some like a slow hand. Some like a different partner every night, some yearn for the same partner forever. Some want a partner who is the same sex as themselves. If I see no damage being done, or even if I do, it's rarely, almost never, any of my business. But the power trips, and the games, the politics and the battles, those do concern me. And it all revolves around the same dance, in all places, in all times, in every era. It's a dance we look pretty dumb doing too, when you really think about it. It's preposterous, is what it is. Do cattle have these problems? Do dogs? Do gorillas? Hell, no! They do their business and get on with living. But us....we can't figure out what to do about our plumbing. Who's better? Who's more powerful? Who wins? Please. We do this together. We can't do it without each other. I give, you give. Forget take. I give, you give. Breathe love. This process works when we step outside our own legends.
One question is: will younger souls and older souls do better to form separate communities, or is it better that they co-mingle, as each has something to offer the other, though lifestyles and philosophies are different? Can each enrich and respect the other, just as they are?
You raise an interesting question there...my vote is for co-mingling, but just like this place for men to talk about whatever we want, I think everyone is entitled to their own milieu. My private world is a place where I'm essentially alone...books, art, writing, and also hiking and biking. These are mostly, not always, things I do alone, and this is where I can get tuned up. For most of the younger folks I know, it's a life of concerts, dates, trips, and constant companionship and noise. I understand. I remember. I don't trespass. I'll come along if invited, and if my old bones can take the stress. During my working hours, I'm constantly surrounded and bombarded by people, and I love every moment...but I have to get away.
Old souls, young souls...there should be a place for old souls to gather. How do we know. Is there an ID card? Does your spiritual hair turn gray? One of the commonest comments heard in southern California is how so-and-so is an "ancient soul." You'd think this was heaven or something. Well, it used to be. Maybe the old souls are moving on nowadays. Who could blame 'em. What's an old soul, anyway? A million years? A billion? Or is it how many lifetimes? No, I'm not making fun. I'm just poking at your idea, which I think is a pretty good one, to see if any stink comes out. I guess where I'm going is, I'm not sure there is any such thing as a soul that isn't ancient. You said yourself, they/we're timeless.What you said about manifesting different levels of awareness in relative time is on the money. Look at Fred. Some people have criticized his behavior or his choices as manifested in one area in particular. maybe the guy has some work to do there. Not for me to say. But I will say that he walks with the titans as far as I am concerned. Do I think he walks on water? Hell, no. I said so. I still think he's more ascended or enlightened or evolved or whatever than I am even if I do talk more. He's a man, a better one than most. That's good enough for me, here and now.
The whole feminism discussion is one I'd rather not have. I know we'll agree on a few big ideas and pick each other to pieces over the little things. I love, respect and adore women - enough to try to learn to do it better. In every way. I'm still a guy, always will be, and trying to change some things is like trying to tell a gay man he wasn't born that way. It doesn't work cuz it ain't true. We are equals, not identicals. What good is a bird with two right wings? Duh. I can't believe we're still fighting this battle. Please, please don't get me started.
I'm not talking to you here, Aquene. I'm talking to that nameless angry woman who's been in my face so many times, and I just wanna say, I see your point already! Wouldja just shut up? I'm trying to watch the game.
You're always a pleasure to talk with, Aquene.
8-D
Did you ever look into Tessla? made Einstein look like a moron in my opinion!
Yeah, Tesla fascinates! Me, I don't understand electricity and magnetism, only the simplest kinds of DC handling and storage. Which is enough to come up with some good stuff. What I love about Tesla is that teasing certainty that he'd found something so simple, it's right there in front of us. The relationship between him and Edison is quite fascinating. Tesla had all the brains, but none of Edison's hard-edged pragmatism. He was an artist, Edison was a son-of-a-bitch.
What specifically gets me going is 19th-century engineering translated into modern forms with state-of-the-art machining and metallurgy. Mainly bicycles and guns. Guns fascinate me as machines even though they horrify me as weapons. The simplicity of their construction and the precision of their individual parts is wondrous. Today, the projectile weapon has been taken about as far as it can go. The new generation of man-killers is made of plastic and won't work without batteries. Ages ago, a friend of mine and I built racing and touring bicycles. I drew the plans and Fred (different Fred) built 'em. I painted them. I built some frames too. This was back in the days of chrome-moly, double-butted tubing and hand-shaped, cast steel lugs - before all this titanium and aluminum stuff. I loved filing and carving the lugs into artistic shapes...seeing how much filagree you could turn the thing into and still keep enough strength for the joint. And then the delicate touch of brazing or soldering the whole thing together with those thin tubes...I burned up so many, learning how to use the torch! I have not made knives, though I love cutlery. I have blacksmithed up quite a few of my own tools, however.
I have a sister, by the way, who was a helluva blacksmith, back in the day. No, she is not a big ape-woman, but a former ballet dancer who looks Damn Good at 50-something. She was a ferrier, for years, expert in making corrective shoes for rich peoples' gait-challenged steeds. Drove her route through the avocado groves in an old Ford flatbed with a small forge and anvil on the back. Quite a gal. Now she does sports massage for the San Diego Chargers.
8-D
I do know how hard it is to find civilian aircraft models......on and off for a little over 10 years I worked in a hobby/model shop! I understood everything you were saying! I never had a train set but I did like the "z"?.. gauge that could fit in a brief case. For my neices and nephew I built a setup on a 5 foot by 3 foot board with Thomas the Tank engine wooden tracks , screwed them down and did all the mini modelling, grass etc....it was for little kids so I didn't go to fine in detail but I did make a couple of buildings and put the fake bricks on, scale coregated alum roof, bushes, car park.... etc Lol...it looks cool, needs repairing but the kids love it!, we used to just push it under a couch and it was easy for them to get to but it has disappeared of late?
Through work and my dad I have been around, interiors, usually commercially but my dad just loves furniture and interior decorating. His favorite and mine is minimalism. The flat white photo's your talking about remind me of that. I make brochure's and I always like that "white" look, really clean and I will always push to have the covers semi gloss or flat. Full gloss is "tacky"!. I also, as I have shown you don't use photo's. In the programs I use I build a little "physical" world with lights and everything else..each thing is doing it's best to copy how things work in "the real world"....I will often find myself somewhere just staring at shadows on a wall, or in a near trance at the way a color on something reacts to the light, reflections and the way they react are particularly awesome..... I try to create the best illusion I can but the bummer is when I can make it look better but it will take the computer too long to render it and I have to compomise...I could always use a faster computer........
Thanks Dave,
Jez
Jez
Hey Dave...there is my ship and my neat! work area Lol, I'm comfy as.....
you so make me laugh......
I like this thread. I like reading about you guys' ideas on energy. i'll sit back and enjoy the conversation and chime in when i feel like it......
I like the 'men thread so far' and thanks for the invite. It's not GO LF. *wink*.
now i'm laughing too....thanks
This seems like a good place to say a few words about beauty. I live in southern California, where physical perfection is an obsession. So is being at ease spiritually. I'm constantly amazed by the dichotomy. We have magazines with names like Enlightenment and Light Source, filled mainly with ads for talks by self-proclaimed masters whose smiling faces positively glow in their little photos. Then there are the everywhere-ads for liposuction, breast enhancement, microdermabrasion, botox, hair replacement, hair removal, tattoos, piercing, and on and on and on. It's sooooo important to be "ascending" and to look good doing it.
Yuck.
A little serious thought about our Beauty Paradigm. Imagine the most beautiful person in the world, someone you would absolutely sacrifice anything for a roll in the hay with. Imagine that person lying in your bed, completely nude and fully compliant. Kind of a titillating thought, isn't it? Now imagine that person just as before, only dead. Freshly dead - not a mark on the body, still warm and pink. Now it's disturbing, right? You don't want to have sex anymore, you are horrified. What was beautiful a moment ago is now something sick and disgusting. Why? Because there is no such thing as physical beauty.
Beauty is within. I learned something years ago when I was travelling down to Tijuana on the weekends. I met a woman there who runs a shelter for abandonded boys. She was raising 18 street children, ranging in age from 3 or 4 up to 15, existing solely on her wits and donations. I used to bring clothes, toys, books and small appliances and such for her. Mona and I became good friends - more than friends. She asked me to marry her twice, and I realized I deeply cared for this woman and seriously considered it. She was and is an angel. The thing is, Mona was butt-ugly by normal standards. She'd had a hard life, in and out of addictions and the gang life. She had been beaten and left for dead for trying to leave the gang. She was skinny and drug-ravaged, and covered with gang tattoos. But these marks of her past became simply invisible to me. All I saw was the loving angel of the street kids.
The beauty paradigm is one of the chief things holding us back in our search for unconditional love. I invite all of us to consider how we hold physical beauty as a standard, and how artificial and thoroughly disempowering it truly is.
8-D
don't beat up on the women too much...not all of us play with dollys....and what's the harm if we do
If I can across like I was beating up on women I deeply apologize. I never have that intent. I severely criticize our gender-paradigms at times. I'm as hard on the guys as I am on the women. Whatever we can do to achieve greater understanding and unity, that's what I'm after.
8-D
Hey guys, guess what. Turns out, I have Nice Skin. Aren't you glad I shared that? You can only imagine how thrilled I am to be the owner of Nice Skin. It makes me feel fresh and confident.
Of course like most men, I have never given my skin much thought at all, other than squeezing a zit. And in all my life, which threatens to become a long one, no one has ever said a word about my skin that I can recall - at least, not since my acne cleared up about 1964. But now, in my hoary agedness, I find myself working in the vitamin and nutrition section of a large natural grocery, and I've been assigned, as my special kingdom, The Wall. The Wall is one long aisle that begins with creams, lotions, serums, cleansers, toners etc. etc. at one end, and ends with women's herbal products (candida, hot flashes, bladder infections, prenatal vitamins, etc.) and finally baby products. In between are hair dye, shampoos and conditioners, suntan lotions, toothpaste, soaps, and plenty of other stuff. They did this to me because I make my own soap and toothpaste, and because I know what most of the ingredients to these products are. This is what I get for working in a department that is nearly all men. No one else would take on The Wall. I was not given a choice.
So I've been spending a fair amount of time talking with women, which is cool. Sometimes a little awkward, but hey, I'm just a leprechaun ;-) And for the first time in my whole life, women have been asking me what I use on my skin and hair - a total jaw-dropper the first time I was asked! The answer of course is nothing at all, except the soaps and balms I make at home - I'm just very healthy. Still, I'm supposed to know something about all these products. And I have a bunch of freebies at home that I took to my wife when I worked at the old place. So I thought, what the hell. We carry some of these same products. There is no way I am going to smear green stuff on my face and put cucumber slices on my eyes. Sorry, boss, I have to keep a little dignity here. But what's the harm in a natural toner, a little moisturizer, maybe even some eye rejuvenating serum? Who has to know?
I don't have to share this stuff. I'm just doing it in the interest of transparency. No, really, it could be useful info. You never know. So, here is my experience with ladies' face stuff.
I get out of the shower - where I shave and use my neti pot faithfully - and having toweled off, pick up a bottle of Aubrey Organics Sea Buckthorn Facial Toner, with cucumber and ester-C. Nafetah says it's too rough on her skin, but I'm a man, I can take it. I read the label; it contains a long list of natural ingredients. I like that about Aubrey, their products really are all-natural. Whose face couldn't use a little toning? I grab a couple of Nafetah's cotton squares and wipe it on. Sure enough, my skin feels tight as a drum. So that's what facial toners do. I think my face felt better before, but in the interest of science, I soldier on.
After a few days of toning, it's clear that I need a moisturizer. I've been out in the sun and there's a tender pink blush on the Nice Skin of my forehead and cheeks. My skin feels too tight and dry. I grab one of Nafetah's favorites: Almond-Aloe Moisturizer from Earth Science. It's unscented, which I definitely like. The label says it offers light and silky facial care with beta-liposomes. I'm not even sure what beta-liposomes are, or what they are supposed to do for my Nice Skin. I'm an optimist, so I assume they're somehow related to alpha-lipoic acid, an antioxidant. I do note some natural but still fairly nasty ingredients like sodium cocoyl isothionate, but hey. It's for the skin. I slather some on. Way too much...about the size of a pea of the white goo is plenty.
Doesn't take me long to figure out that this product is not made for me. Within three days I have zits, a sure sign of toxins. Plus a couple of small spots on my scalp that I've been watching seem to have grown a little, so I back off the moisturizer. And the toner. Now I'm just back to my own natural soaps, which contain plenty of natural oils and glycerin for anybody's skin.
Except for one thing. There's also this little bottle of Avalon Organics Revitalizing Eye Gel. Its label promises firmer, revitalized and radiant eyes. The idea is you pat a couple drops (it's not really a bottle, more of a vial) around your eyes and the dark circles and little lines are supposed to become less evident, resulting in your natural inner radiance shining forth unencumbered by signs of (gasp!) age. Long story short, this stuff actually works. It contains a peptide complex and hyaluronic acid, plus organic licorice and lavender. Hyaluronic acid is a sort of a wonder-ingredient in many skin-care products. It's a natural component of healthy, hydrated, supple skin which decreases with age. Yes, I do read about this stuff.
You'd have to judge for yourself whether my eyes are truly radiant, but the dark circles and bags are definitely improved. This stuff is as good as Preparation H, at only about five times the price. It's a lot nicer to put around your eyes, too.
So there you have it. What folks go through to have Nice Skin. I guess I should say a few words about rough hands, since I've spent a lifetime dunking mine in all kinds of solvents and working with wood. A little emu oil goes a long way. It's about all I've ever used to heal and soften dry, cracked hands. Now because I'm not longer restoring furniture but selling, I actually pay attention to my hands. They have Okay Skin. Maybe one of these days I will try Reviva's Age Spot Serum.
I am so grateful we don't sell makeup. I was a clown for ten years - I won't go there again.
8-D
Hey Dave,
you metrosexual you......they do have skin products for men!....stop pinchin it from your mrs!...lol.....just kiddin..
I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder.......
For the record, I had cosmetic surgery last year. lol......not a boob job tho.....wouldn't have suited me...lol....I had two "growths" above my eyes....a choleterol build up. They didn't present any "medical" problem, my cholesterol is fine.....it is a bit of a genetic thing and my sister and auntie get them as well. They were slightly "puffed" and very pale. I am very dark around the eyes. At some point as they grew they started to annoy me?...just did.....when they got to the size of my finger nails I found them affecting me...I was conscious of them at times. So I had them removed.....it was no big deal, did cost me about $800 but ....whatever, I had the money at the time, ......does it make me "vain", I don't think so....I have another one now below my eye, hasn't bothered me to date and I'm not really expecting it to.
I have "ripped" out warts, roots and all, back when I was a kid, I do pluck the hairs from my nose and ears..lol......?.........don't really brush my hair, when it was long it was always a mess from my motor bike, now, as soon as it is long enough to need a brush I shave it all off, raw clippers......?....try to only shave my face once a week, shaving sux.....I should be shaved for work but...I can get away with it..just!......I'm going to get a tattoo, will be a very "spiritual" thing for me, not for my "beauty" at all...
I think it is all about what makes "you" feel comfortable.....I think "comfortable" people "shine".
Thanks Dave although I didn't really need the image of you climbing out of the shower...lol...I'm sure it's all beautiful but....lol
Jez
you guys are so funny.
now your'e talking about beauty creams. I must say that I never ''use anything'' on my skin because each time i try....i get the same reaction that you had dave. it makes my skin too tight or too oily.... people are alway asking me what I use because my skin is so soft and ''radiant''.....lol.....it's just the glow of gladness.
in the words of tom petty..''I don't know, but I've been told, you never slow down, you never grow old.''
lol....that's hilarious. love it! thanks.
ok so i've been found out- reading in the men's room! just a quickie comment on the skincare regime-
i'm 50, have nary a wrinkle and no one ever believes my age (until they notice the silver streaking thru my honey colored hair) and i chalk it up to this-
tons of good , pure water, loads of fresh unprocessed real fruit and veggies, only glycerin based soaps and the only moisturizer/serums i use are by Reviva (hyaluronic acid which Dave mentioned) a drop around the eyes,
and another couple all over, slick a couple drops of pure extra virgin olive oil if i need moisture.
for years i spent tons on moisturizers/etc full of chemicals and never had perfect skin. i have never worn makeup.
i make my own scrubs when i need them. for shampoos, the only thing i use anymore is by Jason-Biotin Shampoo and conditioner means i need nothing else on my hair at all. goodbye goop. i save a ton of money and my medicine cabinet isnt full up.
it's lovely to be a silver-haired fox when your sexy old dinosaur is whispering it in your ear! *smiles*
oops sorry i forgot i was in the men's room there for a minute!
Location
Looks like I am the first one who is prepared to post a comment! I see there have been seven reads, but nobody has bothered to say anything. I think your suggestion has great merit and I agree with you that it would be of great value for men and women to learn more about what motivates us. There is quite a block to understanding the other sex and where they come from, so this kind of forum should be stimulating and informative.
Go for it!
I will gladly put in my ha'penny's worth!
Love U