abminara

I just got the report from FAFSA and it said that my EFC was 437. I know that it is very good, the lower the number the less I need to pay... but does this really mean that I only need to pay 437 $/year for education? Or is it something else like my rank in eligibility table, or smth?

Wow. Thanks. I didn't even imagine the process may be as complicated and in-depth. I didn't even know there were different types of meditation ) All I do is lie straight on a hard surface (usually floor), control my breathing to about one deep breath every 4-7 seconds, relax every part of my body one after another, and "erase" the thoughts in my brain. All but one that I need to concentrate on. If it is relieving headache - then it's that, if it is lowering heartrate after running - it's that. If I need to relax (aka sleep) - I just do not think about anything at first, and in the end concentrate on exciting my brain before coming back to work (sometimes if I cannot concentrate well/other issues arise I may lie at 10 degrees feet up to increase blood circulation in the area close to the brain while not putting too much pressure there.)

My story of meditation started last year. For the past year I have been extremely stressed out for not doing as well in competetions as I wanted, not keeping the perfect grade in all of my classes, plus my widowed mom started dating some guy. So I was running away from reality in meditation. Then everything came back to normal and I just forgot about that period. I started getting all A's again, we won the City Championships in Ultimate Frisbee and got the second place in the state, won the regionals and the states in Science bowl, my ideas and suggestions for the school worked well, and a few were even brought to reality, I started the sudent council (that's why I have an account on Trap) and it is still popular among both parents and the administration. But the day before yesterday I was kinda tired, but did not want to go to bed - I was at a sleepover party and didn't want to sleep through all the interesting part of it (we were playing Mafia, and then, later, displayed our skills on the acustic guitar) - so I remembered that I've read somewhere a while ago that 25 minutes of meditation can provide as much relaxation for the brain as 6 hours of sleep (more than I usually get). So I just separated myself, and started meditating. i do not know how much time passed, it felt like a minute or 2, but I think it was actually significantly more than that - you know - you just don't feel the time when you are meditating/asleep/unconcious - but I did not fall asleep for another 26 hours. I didn't have any coffee, or anything - I just felt that my mind is so clear - it does not need a rest. I don't know, if I am able to do it again... but if I am - is it healthy? I mean... if it is - just think about it, how many advantages do I get - twice the time an ordinary person has in life - like I could study more for college, or do my homework at nighttime and spend afternoons with my friends without worrying about coming home. What do you think? Is it worth it?Thanks

I've been using winamp for past 5 yrs. No complaints. Free, easy to use, and functional.

Thanks. This is actually a way voluntary death is brought to life in several countries (where it is legal and hospitals are allowed to help you die if you want to). But the article said that a person can survive for almost 2 weeks - I doubted that, that's why I asked.

GMail for life Best e-mail I've had so far.

Sorry. But could it all be just a dream? Because from my knowledge unless you are extremely dehydrated, or out of energy (food) - your heart will beat faster as you breath slower and vice versa, in order to keep the oxygen level that reaches your brain stable at all time.

Well, I've been doing some research about this, and some sources said that a man can only live up to 3 days without water, very few said about 5, and one said that a man can live for a whole week without water, then lose conscience, and live in that condition for another week while his heart and lungs still work. What do you think? Notice from opaque: Title and Description changed.Please choose Title and Description carefully. The Title should be to descriptive and should summarize your entire post. The description should be used to add further details/information about your post.

Sit down and analyze - is she really the one? If yes - try finding a common friend (resources such as myspace and facebook are a great place for doing so) and make him (her) accidentally arrange a meeting for you two. And then - take action, become friends with her, get to know her better - give some presents, go together somewhere, etc. You know. All standart. As I understand, your trouble is just starting everything off.

think of it differently. Whan you think of something and it happens - you (and anyone else) say: "Wow! I just thought of that! I must be a crazy psycho and go to some stupid TV show and show them my awesome powers!" When it does not happen you either do not notice it, or do not want to notice it. Thus you fous on the time that this actually happens. Now, consider another situation. You are a fortune teller. Or a "fortune teller", if you wish. You claim that 90% of your customers come back and say that what you told them was completely, or partially true. Let's see. Any human's fate can go 2 ways: good and bad. You have a 50/50 chance of guessing it right backed up by your intuition and/or knowledge of human psychology. You tell a person that this, this, and this is going to happen to them soon. This, this, and this being three most common good (or bad) things - falling in love, making money, marriage, or a desease, accident, relatives' death. You have a 50/50 chance of being right, since you listed such general things. If you are right - you are guaranteed that all the people you told the 'truth' to will come back and thank you. that is 5/10, since the chance of getting it is only 50%. The other 50% got all wrong. Or partially wrong. If it is partially right - they will come to you and tell it, so you can count it in your statistics. If it is all completely absolutely wrong - surprisingly not many people will come back and tell you that by thus admitting being idiots by wasting money on somebody who lied to them and being scorned by their friends, neighbors, etc. Thus you get about 8 people, whose predictions were right, 1 that is wrong, and 1 that did not show up because it was wrong. 8/9 is about 90%. See my point? People tend to notice only what they want to notice.

I was in the hospital today. Just came back. Nothing serious, just pulled a muscle while at work or playing frisbee (first practice this season after the winter break) I went to the hospital. Into the emergency room. Needless to say that the hospitals' emergency parking holds only 150 cars, so we had to go to the parking across the street that does not even belong to the hospital and pay there. Then I was waiting for the receptionist lady for 5 minutes. Though, shethere was no line, she was just too busy typing something that she could not look up and give me the frm to fill in. After filling in the form I had to wait for the nurse to come (another 20 minutes) and verify my birth date. Then I had to wait for another 45 minutes till somebody came after me and asked to follow them to the deepest room in the hospital. In the very end by an extremely loud bathroom. There I was told that the nurse will be with me "shortly". So, I had a good 50 minutes of listening to the secretaries gossiping around about their intimate adventures and who was fired for what, and why is the new guy so weird. Then the nurse came. Asked me my name, checked with the sheet and left. Then came back in 30-35 minutes and told me I had to sign something. I did, then she left again and came in 30 minutes. Another signature was necessary. Then she left and said that the doctorwill be with me shortly. Well, I knew, what that meant. That meant that I had to wait for another hour. Well, I was wrong. I had to wait for an hour and 10 minutes till he came and told me what I already knew - that my pain was due to the pulled muscle - and nothing more. Not how to treat it, or what to do with the pain, or anything of that nature. He just left and asked me to stay and wait for the nurse. I had a scary look slowly rising from inside toward the outside. My smile slowly changed into a look of horror, but he did not see it (or ignored) and left. The nurse came and asked for my blood test and urine test. A BLOOD TEST FOR A PULLED MUSCLE??? WHAT THE HELL? Well, it took another 10 minutes for her to come and do the job. Then she left waiting for the results. Another 1.5 hours later she came back (they did not let me leave) I stayed in the room with a needle in my vein protected by tape. In case myblood was bad and they would have to give me some inner veinal medicine. Why? For a pulled muscle? The neele was put in badly, so I spent the 1.5 hours in extreme pain, the nurse looked too scary to take it out, she was afraid to cut the vein even more, so she told me just to be patient and wait. I did. Then she came back and said that everything is wel and I could go home. All in all that hospital stay took me 5.5 hours and about 1700$ to my insurance company. Though, all they did could have been done in less than 1 hour. In and EMERGENCY department. I hate hospitals that make money by taking people's time and income when they are supposed to help us.

In our school noone is ever stripsearched/has been/hopefully will be. If a drug dog barks/stops/does whatever is is supposed to by your locker, it is searched. If anything is found - you are screwed. I mean, suspended. My friend was suspended for a whole month. If nothing is found in your locker or on you - your name goes on the record, but you are let go. The next time this happens they just take you to the police station. I do not think the school officials have a right to do a strip search in any possible and impossible way.

looks good. very good. in fact, too good to be true.

I guess, I have not clarified it enough. I watched a documental a few weeks ago on the Discovery Channel, and it said that scientists have examined the chapters of the bible and found out that the Book of Revelations was written a few centuries later than the others. And John, the author, was not actualy the John we know, but rather a prisoner that was set on an inhabitant island by emperor Caesar. If you put the name of Julius Caesar into the roman numerals you get a few numbers that end up adding up to 616, and the mistaken number 666 is actually untrue - the book of revelation in its original does not speak of 666, it says 616, but the middle digit was hard to read, I guess. It describes not the Last Day, but the Last Battle. And the description of it is the description of one of the vast valleys near Israel. Of course, you may believe whatever you want but the paragraph above is backed up by scientific data. I'll try to find the name of thet film.

But wasn't the bible written by man? It even has some articles that should have never been in it (like the last one predicting the apocalypse) - then how do you know that all the rest are there because of His will?

I just figured it out in my AP Biology 2 class There was a guy that proposed that every single trait in nature has occured due to natural selection. He had an example of giraffs. He claimed that they used to have short necks, but then the grass extinguished, and all the food left was on the trees, so,with each generation, their necks just grew longer. He made a test - took a pair of dogs and cut their tails, and made them mate. Did same thing to their kidsand their kidsand so on for 52 generations but even the 53rd one had a tail. Thus we nowknow that the physical defects that we acquire during lifetime cannot affect our offspring in any way. P.S. Yes, this is a very weird topic.

not being drunk yourself is good... but once I was driving my drunk friends home from a party - trust me - it was quite an adventure. I almost crashed - they acted extremely distracting, I was driving as if I was the one drinking, not them, though, I am a very careful driver.

Well. if you go into history, then initially the Encyclopedia - I mean - The very first one was nothing like Wiki, or Britannica, or any other big book/online reference website today. It consisted of 17 volumes of handwritten notes and illustrations made by the european philosophes that tried to portray their view of life and human nature. Later all the articles were combined by Denis Diderot and some guy (can't spell his last name, very bad at French) D'Alenbert into the 17 volumes, which were successfully banned by the French Government shortly after being published. So I'd not call any of the todays' encyclopedias encyclopedias if you take the original as a point of reference (as you would do in any everyday situation)

Take a guess. Flip a coin. But I doubt that it is going to help you in answering the following question: Is Wikipedia accurate? If so - how accurate, and in which aspects? Recently I've read an article in USAtoday, it said the following: This information worries me a bit. But then, I looked at the further information about the topic and it said that this scandal was a very rare occasion. As of today Wikipedia is considered to be as reliable as Encyclopedia Britannica. As of now Wikipedia hosts over 3.7 billion articles (yes, that is 3.7 with 8 zeros at the end) in more than 200 languages. It is 37th most popular website in the whole world. And, yet, many people have dropped their opinions about it due to thouse unfortunate incidents. I know, that Wikipedia might be an excellent source for primary and secondary sources for research papers, but could it be a reliable resource all by itself? What do you think?

I am seventeen. I drink on occasions. Not much - a bottle or so of beer, or a couple glasses of vine or champain. Sometimes a bit of Vodka. Nothing more than that. Why do I do this? Not for pleasure. Usually this is only on celebrations, etc, as m whole family drinks while they make wishes, so I have to, too. needless to say, I always finish all the work I need to do before I drink, and I do not drive even after a bottle of beer.Oh... well.. Guess, this topic is not for me. :oP. S. I've read in a health magazine recently - not drinking at all could kill you as well as drinking too much. If you drink too much - your liver gathers all the alcohol, but it reacts with the oxygen in the cells and literally chokes them, creating those scary scars on the surface and on the inside which we have all seen in Health and Biology classes in High School. Despite that, if you do not drink at all - your liver may - MAY - grow too big and hurt other organs that will make you feel and operate regularly uncomfortable (or even touch a rib and cause severe pain). Thus it is estimated that people of 18 and over should drink 1 glass of 22 proof (11% alcohol) red vine (not sure, why red, not white, but it specified so.) with large amount of food (dinner?) per day in order to maintain a healthy liver.

It's complicated.I am now seventeen years old. My father died when I was seven, my father died of cancer. sadly, I do not even remember him. At the time I lived in Armenia with 2 sets of grandparents. Weird things happened at the time: stuff was falling off the cabinets almost hitting me, once a huge bucket of boiling soup spilled on my leg and gave me really bad burns, marks of which I still bear. Sometimes a cassette player started on its own and played my fathers' favorite song, sstopped at the end and started again. My grandparets, being superstitious, thought, that my father was calling me "up" and went to the church with me and christionized me. Without asking me anything. Though, I would not tell them much at the age of seven, I guess. Anyway. Since then I had a feeling inside that this is not what I need. Even though the weird (quite scary now, as I think about it) stuff stopped really soon, I do not think, there is any possibility that my fathers' death and these events were connected in any possible metaphysical way. Anyway. I do not believe in God. I am not agnostic, I do not believe that there is any superior power that is kinda everywhere and governs us. I believe that the Universe is extremely rational all by itself and does not need a push to continue its life and cellestrial evolution. All I believe in is that humans, that is, us, are capable of making too much up in order to gain power initially, and then the people just followed the first believers due to the crowd instinct.Sorry, if I offended anyone. If you wish to go deeper in the discussion, please reply, I will be more than willing to answer.

I personally doubt that Artifictual Intelligence could be created as of this century. And by Artifictual Intelligence I do not just mean a machine that can make decisions after gathering data and operating special programms and running special applications, and outputting the results. I mean a virtual creature that would be able to adapt to ANY envioronment and find its way out using only the resources given (kinda like human. Or a dog. or a squirell. or... whatever you prefer.) The definition of AI is not just thinking, but learning. This is not possible as of now. About the dangers, etc - I think, they are extremely overrated by movies like Matrix, I-robot, the Terminator, and many many of their clones. Yes, if such a creature, as described in the paragraph above were to become reality one day - it could really suck for us if it decided to be mean. But, hey, if it is smart enough that is is like a kid and wants to learn, why would it ever attack its 'parents'? Or, if you prefer to be as annoyingly rational as I am and agree that there is no way a computer generated brain could have feelings or emotions - think logically. If it kills everyone - what is going to happen to it? Living on an empty cold plaet and eventually dying of not having energy? With noone to speak to (If you want to say that there is going to be mechanical sperm cells or mechanical eggs, or that the cybernetic organisms will be able to make kids due to wave interference of their thoughts - please stop, close your browser, open Microsoft Word, write a bad Science Fiction book, make some money and give some to me for giving you the idea) it will soon become depressed (if you assume that they have feelings) or just die in the end (even if it takes millions of years till every single resource on Earth runs out) lieaving a cold piece of rock flying around the Sun, if you are a realist.My point is - Artifictual Intelligence cannot be dangerous. Even if it could be created as of now. Which it cannot be.

I've never heard anyone say that the chaos is happening. you could say to stop chaos from spreading across and reigning our lives. Kinda looks as if you are speaking of a specific society, but not introducing it till later as you are using a definite article. Better to say, that rebellion (or rebelling?) can move any society forward. // I personally disagree - there are a lot of examples out there when the rebellions made societies take steps back and rethink their actions. not "shed's", but rather shines. " 's " means that something is posessed by someone else. The name of the book according to MLA format must be either in italics, OR underlined. Idenify, who the "she" is when introducing her for the first time. I understand that it is, obviously, Amr, but still, it is better to be more specific the first time. All in all the essay seems pretty unorganized, you may consider moving some paragraphs around. Also, when you quote - provide the page number in parentheses after the quotation.

Same thing. I guess, it's that our metabolism genes are weird In past week I ate 17 bagels (had to stay up doing homework couple nights) and have not gained a single pound!

I am fluent in English, Spanish, Russian, and Armenian. I can read and understand 90% of French and Ukrainian.