If their attitude is anything like my cat's - "This is your fault for putting my sour cream in such a narrow container." #observationdeck
Two of the best things on earth. It's like eating a hearty breakfast off a fine, handcrafted table. #observationdeck
I want someone to make this into a tee-shirt print and then for Nathan to wear that tee-shirt and put a picture of it on the internet for me to see. #observationdeck
Oh the Mako. The first time I played the game I actually threw the controller across the room because of that stupid vehicle. But somehow, over the years, I've come to love that little buggy. Dear Mako, we miss you. #observationdeck
Oh don't you know, they put a 'warning explicit images' tag on it now. So all's well.
Sigh. #observationdeck
If all that is remembered of this age of man is our plethora of adorable animal videos on the internet it will be seen as a great age.
You're telling me there is a story out there that will make me not hate Stephanie Brown. I'm both eager to read it and very, very afraid of actually finding something to like about Stephanie.
Nope. Not even a little sad. Can't say I'm happy exactly, but I'm sure not sad.
As I walked into work today I seriously wondered if I had been transported a year into the future. I walked past a car with a worn looking, mud splattered bumper sticker that read -
"Don't blame me, I voted for Romney."
"Don't blame me, I voted for Romney."
I don't know about other states, but here in Wyoming with our paltry population and the no influence it carries, we tend not to get to worked up about nominations, so I can't imagine they have been driving around with this since the last round of GOP primaries. But at the same time one would think it's a little early to admit defeat for 2012. So obviously the only logical explanation is time travel. #observationdeck
I went to the doctor yesterday. They couldn't determine why I fainted, but they are keeping an eye on me. #observationdeck
To say my head was cluttered and noisy would be true, but wholly inadequate to describe the experience. The world, the entirety of it that I could sense and feel, was made only of sound. Overlapping, unyielding sound, like countless radios all playing stations transmitting too much static.
Into this unbearable noise came another thing, a self. The self had to experience this horrid world. The self had no context for this sound, no context for its own presence there; it only knew that what it was experiencing was bad and must be stopped.
I opened my eyes, which at first revealed only more darkness. Soon shapes took form. The self became somewhat grounded. It knew it was a woman, that it was on the floor. Yet these details, all the details coming forth to push back that static, seemed simple, almost irrelevant.
So I am a woman. What of it? So I live in this house. How does that matter anymore than the meaningless static from before? What use is this identity to me? Each detail, my name, my family, my age, all of it was just more static.
If at that moment, instead of my own mind filling in the details of my life, someone had come and told them to me, I would have believed anything. And all of it would have meant the same to me. The specifics of myself and my life were just as meaningless as the noise, and almost as painful to endure.
This moment more than any other was the most frightening, as the two parts of my nature fought. The blankness of my mind fought back the cluttering ego and the complications it carried with it. My ego, afraid of the time, however brief, it had ceased existing, fled from the part of my mind that knew I was nothing more than a heap of meat on the ground.
Soon my right brain kicked in, it not only recalled the true fact of what had happened, that I had been in the kitchen and not feeling well, but it came up with new facts to tell my ego the story of how it had come to rest on the ground. It decided I maybe had sat down, tired and with nothing better to do at that moment. Maybe I had laid my head down for some rest.
Yes, that was probably it, I’d only fallen asleep and nothing more. A bad dream that lingered too long on waking was all I’d experienced. This comforted my ego, as the right brain tries so hard to do.
But then my husband came upstairs and talked to me. He told me while he was downstairs in the shower he’d heard a large crash, and that I’d called out. He’d assumed I’d been yelling at the cats and they had knocked something down. But as a bruise formed on my right shoulder and as whiplash crept up my neck, it became obvious I had fallen, probably hitting the counter on the way down.
I was struck with how quickly my mind had tried to deny this truth, the truth that without my control or even observation, it could fall to the ground like an inanimate object. That during this fall, the truth of my own materialist nature had come to me. So frightened by both these events my mind tried desperately to erase them and replace them with something more comforting.
Into this unbearable noise came another thing, a self. The self had to experience this horrid world. The self had no context for this sound, no context for its own presence there; it only knew that what it was experiencing was bad and must be stopped.
I opened my eyes, which at first revealed only more darkness. Soon shapes took form. The self became somewhat grounded. It knew it was a woman, that it was on the floor. Yet these details, all the details coming forth to push back that static, seemed simple, almost irrelevant.
So I am a woman. What of it? So I live in this house. How does that matter anymore than the meaningless static from before? What use is this identity to me? Each detail, my name, my family, my age, all of it was just more static.
If at that moment, instead of my own mind filling in the details of my life, someone had come and told them to me, I would have believed anything. And all of it would have meant the same to me. The specifics of myself and my life were just as meaningless as the noise, and almost as painful to endure.
This moment more than any other was the most frightening, as the two parts of my nature fought. The blankness of my mind fought back the cluttering ego and the complications it carried with it. My ego, afraid of the time, however brief, it had ceased existing, fled from the part of my mind that knew I was nothing more than a heap of meat on the ground.
Soon my right brain kicked in, it not only recalled the true fact of what had happened, that I had been in the kitchen and not feeling well, but it came up with new facts to tell my ego the story of how it had come to rest on the ground. It decided I maybe had sat down, tired and with nothing better to do at that moment. Maybe I had laid my head down for some rest.
Yes, that was probably it, I’d only fallen asleep and nothing more. A bad dream that lingered too long on waking was all I’d experienced. This comforted my ego, as the right brain tries so hard to do.
But then my husband came upstairs and talked to me. He told me while he was downstairs in the shower he’d heard a large crash, and that I’d called out. He’d assumed I’d been yelling at the cats and they had knocked something down. But as a bruise formed on my right shoulder and as whiplash crept up my neck, it became obvious I had fallen, probably hitting the counter on the way down.
I was struck with how quickly my mind had tried to deny this truth, the truth that without my control or even observation, it could fall to the ground like an inanimate object. That during this fall, the truth of my own materialist nature had come to me. So frightened by both these events my mind tried desperately to erase them and replace them with something more comforting.
Before Christopher Hitchens died he said one of the impacts of his illness had been the realization that "I don’t have a body, I am a body."
#observationdeck
I've been sick for a while now. It seems one of the effects of this particular cold is fainting, something I've never experienced before. I've written up a description about what it was like. I'm putting it in the reply because it is so long. #observationdeck
Yeah, seems more like a 'how to become and expert' guide to me.
I'll be fired otherwise. :(
Finally saw Black Swan.
Loved it.
Loved it.
I missed a lot of talk about it when it first came out because I wanted to go into the film without bias, so I don't know what's been talked about.
I wanted to bring up just how Buddhist the film was in its message. Not just in the straight forward (in what appears to be the Aronofsky) style of just stating the message of the film but in the use of image and reflection throughout.
All in all, every Aronofsky film seems to be better than the last. I'm very glad I didn't just discount him out of hand after his first few films. #observationdeck
When I was in kindergarten my teacher took away a Leia figure I had brought with me to class. I never saw it again. I spent years wising for that toy back. When the new movies came out and they re-released classic figures I finally got a replacement, but it never felt the same.
I also used to have a large supply of Dinoriders, of all shapes and sizes. At some point (probably the move from one house to another) most of them, including my favorite figure, were lost. I still do web searches for how much it would be to replace those.
I also used to have a large supply of Dinoriders, of all shapes and sizes. At some point (probably the move from one house to another) most of them, including my favorite figure, were lost. I still do web searches for how much it would be to replace those.
Your pain is shared. #observationdeck
I can't even start to think of this moment without completely losing it. #observationdeck
*looks at picture*
*almost sneezes*
*feels pain of the un-sneeze*
*looks at picture*
*almost sneezes*
........
*almost sneezes*
*feels pain of the un-sneeze*
*looks at picture*
*almost sneezes*
........
Our state population is 560,000 and we can't even get that group to a D?
Oy vey.
They were studying phobias, but most researchers agree that his work didn't show anything or add to the field of study. It is far more famous for its ethical implications than it is for contributing to our knowledge of phobias.
Conditioning and its relation to phobias is complex. The real issue is not someone getting scared in a situation and becoming phobic of the things they associate with it; that sort of thing is very rare. The conditioning is on the physiological level. You see a spider, your heart races. The next time you see a spider your heart races. Soon, just seeing picture of spiders makes your heart race. Through fear you are conditioning your body to have a more and more elevated response to the stimuli. The same is true for 'de-conditioning'. They don't try to expose you to nice things and associate that with spiders, they try to stop the escalating physiological response, to break the conditioning.
What Watson was studying just feel far short of actually digging into what phobias are and what caused them.
