Kevin's Watch

What the **** is 'spelunking' Zarathustra - it seems to involve getting down and dirty and as such begins to get my vote already

Infelice wrote:My best moment is a bit too painful to talk about atm. It wasnt a painful experience, its just painful to remember

Infelice, this sounds like a bit of a paradox. Though of course I would in no way press you to tell a story that you are not happy to, could you just try to explain the paradox of your best moment being your most painful (other than perhaps a birthing that was never expected to happen - hey, maybe thats it, no you would talk about that!).

StevieG wrote: the birth of my first (and second) child. You just don't f*cking understand until you've experienced it!

Stvie G the parentheses in the above quote are so revealing. I'm guessing that like it or not the experience of the first child being born to a person HAS to be the best buzz (assuming all goes well at the birthing); the second one does not break the barrier of 'I was childless and now I am not'. The brackets are the parental guilt at admitting such a thing and also tell us of the equal love you have for both of your children.

p.s. I have not, nor will ever experienced it so as you say will never understand it. My loss.

peter wrote:What the **** is 'spelunking' Zarathustra...

Crawling through caves. Think I'll give it a skip.

--A

A couple that come to mind from the recent past:
-I got a job a few days ago. I spent a bit of time spamming facebook and relatives on gmail with the news. Then I realized that while I wanted to share my happiness with others, I was actually glad "on my own terms" to get a job working for a salary at a place I've worked at before and enjoyed working at. It was a moment of realizing I had individual goals that fit in with "societal" goals without really feeling like my individual goals were subordinate to society's. I feel like I fit in to what other people want from me without actually sacrificing much or any of who I am.

-I watched an episode of Dr. Who in which the population of the UK is sailing through space by torturing a "space whale" to move through space. There's a grand conspiracy going on to keep people from finding out what exactly is going on. I can't explain it easily but I empathized with this episode extremely strongly because the conspiracy is, as far as I can tell, a gentle one meant to allow people to keep their delusions (because it's easier than breaking them). During my moments of paranoia I was not afraid of people conspiring against me, but that people were trying to hide a horrible truth from me for my own good. I wanted to "suffer with them" so to speak, but was also scared to do so. I'm convinced that there still is some kind of grand fact of immutability/extreme mutability in this universe that, when fully comprehended, either reduces our actions to meaninglessness or magnifies their importance so greatly that we cannot comprehend the import of a single action. However, I am infinitely grateful that I grasp that truth only as truly as I can handle it moment to moment, and that it may be impossible to do otherwise.

-Played in a musical performance during which I experienced a kind of calming, serene mania during which I was reacting extremely quickly to other performers in the ensemble. I was able to time everything very deliberately and think through my actions with extreme clarity, yet felt as though I was at utter peace. I played the saron, an indonesian instrument that is kind of like a xylophone.

Avatar wrote:

peter wrote:What the **** is 'spelunking' Zarathustra...

Crawling through caves. Think I'll give it a skip.

--A

It also is a term I've heard for gay sex, but I suspect Z is speaking about what Avatar is taking about.

I like caves, but when it gets too tight, count me out these days. I would hate to be stuck like Winnie the Pooh.

Holsety wrote: -I watched an episode of Dr. Who in which the population of the UK is sailing through space by torturing a "space whale" to move through space. There's a grand conspiracy going on to keep people from finding out what exactly is going on. I can't explain it easily but I empathized with this episode extremely strongly because the conspiracy is, as far as I can tell, a gentle one meant to allow people to keep their delusions (because it's easier than breaking them). During my moments of paranoia I was not afraid of people conspiring against me, but that people were trying to hide a horrible truth from me for my own good. I wanted to "suffer with them" so to speak, but was also scared to do so. I'm convinced that there still is some kind of grand fact of immutability/extreme mutability in this universe that, when fully comprehended, either reduces our actions to meaninglessness or magnifies their importance so greatly that we cannot comprehend the import of a single action. However, I am infinitely grateful that I grasp that truth only as truly as I can handle it moment to moment, and that it may be impossible to do otherwise.

(emphasis mine) Wow. I saw "Dr Who" and almost stopped reading (never seen an episode). I'm glad I didn't. That's strangely beautiful.

Getting out of the Tank has been fun. And eye-opening.

Cag wrote: It also is a term I've heard for gay sex,

Shut the f*ck up! It's caving, damn you. Kentucky is karst country (look it up). Mammoth Cave is the largest cave in the world. I grew up 5 miles away from it. I (and all my friends, including one girlfriend) worked as cave guide in my youth. Spelunking is what the teenagers do around there when they're not visiting the bootleggers.

(emphasis mine) Wow. I saw "Dr Who" and almost stopped reading (never seen an episode). I'm glad I didn't. That's strangely beautiful.

Ya. I thought so when I thought about it too. It was kinda a mindfuck though. I was able to handle it during the Dr Who episode OK. However, I recently had a manic episode (my first one, which got me diagnosed as bipolar type 1) during which I wasn't handling it. I was kind of terrified that anything could happen but also really excited about it. I'm not sure whether the transcendental thoughts arose from the manic episode or the other way around. I think it's the former however.

I feel kind of bad about sharing it, simply because I don't think I can explain it in a way that makes much sense. (although I can use parallel structure and antithesis to make the the weird dialectic going on in my brain seem aesthetically pleasing.)

I never expected to have such an emotional experience watching Dr Who, that's all I can say.

Zarathustra wrote:

Cag wrote: It also is a term I've heard for gay sex,

Shut the f*ck up! It's caving, damn you. Kentucky is karst country (look it up). Mammoth Cave is the largest cave in the world. I grew up 5 miles away from it. I (and all my friends, including one girlfriend) worked as cave guide in my youth. Spelunking is what the teenagers do around there when they're not visiting the bootleggers.

I've done some walking about through caves a bit when I lived in Tucson, but thankfully they were never very tight. Geez, I've rewritten this sentence several times to not sound like I'm talking about gay sex, and I give up.

Go make some moments.

Enjoy Every National Park This Weekend For Free

f this is too short notice for you to pack up the family and head to Yellowstone, you'll have some more chances coming up. The National Park Service will also be having free days on the following:

Aug. 14-15
Sept. 25
Nov. 11

Cagliostro wrote:
I've done some walking about through caves a bit when I lived in Tucson, but thankfully they were never very tight. Geez, I've rewritten this sentence several times to not sound like I'm talking about gay sex, and I give up.

C'mon Cag Man - time to come out baby; you're among friends here. You know you want to

High school. Senior year, I think. Cast party after the last performance of the musical. We played a party game: a group of people sit in a circle, and one person stands in the middle, closes his/her eyes, and falls backward. The people sitting in the circle catch the person in the middle, then sort of pass him/her around the circle. (Girls get to cross their arms over their chest so it's not a feel-fest. ) Anyway, it was the first time I'd ever experienced having people there to catch me when I fell, as it were.

peter wrote:

Cagliostro wrote:
I've done some walking about through caves a bit when I lived in Tucson, but thankfully they were never very tight. Geez, I've rewritten this sentence several times to not sound like I'm talking about gay sex, and I give up.

C'mon Cag Man - time to come out baby; you're among friends here. You know you want to

I've come out multiple times here. I'm 5% gay.

LOTs of them! The most memorable...

- My first solo flight & landing.
- My first bungy jump!
- holding my day-old baby nephew for the first time
- meeting the love of my life on a tropical island (well, that wasn't really a 'moment' per se, but it has surely defined my life!)

Cagliostro wrote:I'm 5% gay.

Now which 5% would that be

peter wrote:

Cagliostro wrote:I'm 5% gay.

Now which 5% would that be

The 5% he'll never let you near, I am sure.

peter wrote:

StevieG wrote: the birth of my first (and second) child. You just don't f*cking understand until you've experienced it!

Stevie G the parentheses in the above quote are so revealing. I'm guessing that like it or not the experience of the first child being born to a person HAS to be the best buzz (assuming all goes well at the birthing); the second one does not break the barrier of 'I was childless and now I am not'. The brackets are the parental guilt at admitting such a thing and also tell us of the equal love you have for both of your children.

p.s. I have not, nor will ever experienced it so as you say will never understand it. My loss.

Oh, you're way wrong about that. Each birth is an equally amazing, incredible experience. Watching miracles never gets old, never gets dull. Sure, the first one makes you a parent for the first time. But you don't know shit about parenting. You don't realize all that's about to happen to you; the things you'll be learning about your child, your spouse, your parents, yourself. The next one comes, and you can't wait to experience it again. The crazy cool thing is each kid is different; I have five, and they each stand out as so incredible, so unique. They're amazing; each of them are more than I could have hoped for.

Wow Blondie (mind if I call you Blondie), you are dead right - I clearly did get that wrong and gladly stand corrected.

Ps Love what you have done with 'Furls Fire' in your avatar - man I wish I could do that stuff!

peter wrote:Ps Love what you have done with 'Furls Fire' in your avatar - man I wish I could do that stuff!

(You find a picture anywhere on the web you want for an avatar, and I'm sure someone can help you out.)

It was easy. I was able to do it in Gimp, which isn't necessarily a bad program, but I am very used to Paintshop Pro, and Gimp is very different. I figured I did a good job when I received no PM's from Menolly begging me to return to my old self.......