novoAlias

While generally I don't enter into these debates on the general principle that faith is a funny thing, and no amount of logical debate will really sway either one of us, I am interested in your assertion that meditation has to be 'placing my trust in a metaphysical thing' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation I don't see meditation as placing trust in a metaphysical thing, I see it as a skill like swimming or riding a bike, a way to mentally disciplin myself into gaining greater focus and control over my body and mind. Most people live on the very surface of what they are capable of, there is no doubt about that. But to ask me to believe that a greater force is preventing me from obtaining peace is (to me, i'm not trying to be rude) absurd. It is MY life, and even if an individuals context is myriad, success or failiure is part chance and part that individuals choices. Statistically you can fail a coin toss ten times in a row, such is life, it doesn't mean that a metaphysical being is manipulating the results of that coin toss. Similarly just because you have failed so far does not necessarily mean you will fail the next time, unless of course you are doing something drastically wrong and you don't see it. If we were to get into my personal beliefs, I would lean towards bhuddism, my implicit beliefs (that is, the ones that I don't normally think about but on some level hold to be true, if only in a whimsical sense) resonated strongly when I read books containing bhuddism themeology. Ultimately though, I cannot believe that in a multiverse as large and complex as ours there is a reason to alter an individuals life towards some undefined (by us) end. I believe life is a mystery, I believe in fractals and patterns that repeat themselves across existance from the scale of galaxies to the scales of the tiniest insect. I do not believe that these things were created in seven days, but I might believe in some 'force of complexity' of chaos, if you will. Much as there is a force of gravity there is a reason (chaos?) that these patterns exist, and much as I hate to stick my neck out humans are living on the tiniest speck of a speck of a speck, to believe that we are important to anyone anywhere but ourselves except MAYBE as some kind of potential force of change in millions of years seems to me to be... Well, very human of us. The trouble, as you put it, is due to humanity. We evolved (yes, evolved) in times where our entire existance consisted of around 50 people. For thousands and thousands and thousands of years we evolved to have adrenalin when there was going to be a fight, to have sex when there was an opportunity and to kill so that there was food tomorrow. We have moved faster than our evolution can take and that is not good. There is no reason to feel anger behind the wheel of a car, there is no reason to hate your boss. We are so far removed now from what made us what we are that I don't know if we will ever evolve to be perfectly suited to our changing situations. We are not living on instinct backed up by hundreds of generations anymore, we are living on conscious thought backed up on the thoughts and actions of ourselves and others. We are almost entirely culture. Although, I suspect a perfect creature to deal with the modern world would seem as insubstantial to us as a story on the cover of the Morning Sun. To break from materialism, to become spiritual or at least to rely on something other than culture for our wellbeing IS possible, but it is also difficult, un appealing to most and therefore quite rare. For absolutely everyone (from monks to the biggest most materialistic bully you know) to stop living the way we are now would require the next generation to essentially grow up in the literal ruins of this one. And not only that, it would require the new generation to not be curious, to not want to create physical things to improve quality of life, to not (by the definition of humans as having imagination) be human. Desires are driving forces in the world. Would you tell someone you loved them if you did not desire them? In the same way would you attempt to get a promotion if you did not desire that which came with it? Would you place your trust in a metaphysical being if you did not desire the feeling of security that came with it? Desires are a start. Not the only one but certainly one of them. We are humans, while cold calculating logic can provide a solution to most things, it does not provide the urge to pursue them. Hope is an optimistic reading of the future, you need a kind of faith because otherwise you would believe your desire is ultimately for naught. Love is related in a way but if you cannot achieve what you want in that respect right now then focus on something you can change. Personally I place some faith in the concept that everything is going to be okay, because it keeps a good mindset. If i'm right, great. If i'm wrong, It doesnt matter because I have done my best and in any case I only find out at the end. I'm not asking anyone to change their views, I am simply saying that we are all human, and until we understand that being (gritty, emotional, real, creative and most of all amazing) humans is not what society and culture wants us to be, there will be no way for us to combine the two to the very center of who we are. And lastly, I place my faith ultimately in myself because I truly believe that faith in yourself is the ultimate driving force behind being successful. Learn to love and accept yourself for who you are then you will have the understanding to learn to love and accept others. I'm still working on that bit but lets just say I'm happier now than I have been in the past

Steinlager pure for the beerVladivar for the vodka (and redbull!)Malibu and pineapple for the delicious!

I think the answer here is... Yourself. Think about it, if you can go into a downward spiral because of your own mind, then the reverse is true. Positive mental habits are a good start, personally I am thinking about exploring meditation to try and have more control over myself. This is probably because I am a athiest/skeptic by nature, but I don't believe in a higher power that cares in me particularly. But I trust myself to provide the drive to get out of any situation, and if I don't, I probably don't deserve to get out of that situation! So your problems are with motivation/organisation/job and life skills? Believe me, there are faar worse problems to have. Where would you like to start solving them?

I'm sorry, but how many times has the world been meant to end? I would have thought humanity would have quite literally bred the death cults out of itself by now but apparently not.The bees thing is probably a virus/fungus/altered environmental factor that bees need to evolve to deal with. Extinction happens. Alot. But not ALL human food relies directly on bees therefore human extinction is very unlikely.Just my 0.02

Wow getting a bit deep there.. Had your meds lately? Personally we've been playing circle of death lately (look it up) drinking games are always fun, so is twister... Truth or dare even. Really needs more information about what kind of party...

well when she is over and watching movies, try and judge if she is interested in you without being obvious, dont be nervous just try and relax around her. If you have much in common conversation shouldn't be difficult, don't ask her on a 'date' thats just not going to work. Ask if she wants to hang for coffee, or go to that new art exhibition down the road, anything like that...And as for liking two of them, don't do that. Just go for the one you think it will work best with and if you don't *BLEEP* it up and it doesn't work out chances are you will still have a chance with the other one. If you half *bottom* go for one or both then they will both think you are being a *BLEEP* and you won't be very popular among any of them Remember girls can read you like a book, don't be desparate, just... try and be on the same level as her.

Have you thought of trying to take it slow? Rushing into things might be fun to begin with but usually ends up in a 6 heart pile up on state highway 'relationships'.

Thanks for that! I've been trying to find ways to remember my dreams for ages and this sounds like it *might* work, in the same way that telling yourself you have to get up at 6 actually does work after some practise

Recently I had a few people dream about me in a short space of time (like within 3 days of each other) the dreams were all relatively wierd but not about death etc, one of the people hadn't seen me in a long time... I don't usually hold much with interpreting dreams but in the same way that when several old friends that don't know each other get in touch at once, I tend to think these things don't happen by total chance...What do you think?

What you're looking for are known in certain circles as IOI's (Indicators of interest)Here are some:If she plays with her hair, IOI.If she leans into you IOI.If she is holding your hand in a crowd and when you squeese she squeeses back/If she looks at you twice and then brushes up accidently against you while she is pushing / fighting her way to get to the bar (in a crowded venue), it's so on.Playing with hairLooking at your lipsOpen armsOpen PalmsTouching herself.. (brushing her clothes, straightening them etc?)Tilting her head when speakingPosture is facing towards you instead of awaySmile?s a lot while your talkingLaughs at jokes that aren?t that funnyAsk you questions about things you may have said previously in conversation.I know what it's like, if a girl is into you are always the last to know... Heres a fun gambit.IF you are deep in conversation and shes doing the above^ say 'do you want to kiss me?'THIS IS WIN WIN WINIf she says yes: you kiss her.If she says maybe: you say lets find out, and kiss her.If she says no: say "I didn't say you could, it just looked like there was something on your mind"Also if she says no it doesnt mean the game is over, it probably just means you're not quite there yet.

I have never quite understood why global variables are considered to be uncouth in OOP, but it is. However sometimes it is just convenient to have a variable that you can access from anywhere in your flash movie, and this is how you do it.First of all make a folder called testGlobals for your project, all your files will go in this folder.Now we are going to produce a package that holds our variablesThen, open up notepad and paste the following code in: package { public class globals { public static var data:Object = {}; public static var varHello:String = "World!"; } } Save this code in the folder as globals.asCreate a new flash file (as 3.0) create a layer called 'actions' and another one called 'content'In the first frame we want to import the package and produce some variables, so under actions put this code: import globals; globals.data.var1 = "I am variable one"; globals.data.var2 = "variable one sucks eggs"; globals.data.var3 = "variable two is my mother"; gotoAndPlay(2); In the next frame under the content layer put four buttons with the instance names 'btn_var1', 'btn_var2', 'btn_var3' & 'btn_varhello' respectively, along with a textbox called 'txt_main.'Under actions put this code: btn_var1.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, f1);btn_var2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, f2);btn_var3.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, f3);btn_hello.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_OVER, f4);function f1(e:MouseEvent):void {txt_main.text = globals.data.var1;}function f2(e:MouseEvent):void {txt_main.text = globals.data.var2;}function f3(e:MouseEvent):void {txt_main.text = globals.data.var3;}function f4(e:MouseEvent):void {txt_main.text = globals.varHello;}stop(); Now when you press ctrl+enter your movie should run and the text should change to the variables from frame 1 when you move your mouse over each button.Remember these variables can come from anywhere and run as long as the movie does, the latest version I have loads data from an XML file and passes the variables between movieclips on the stage.Hope someone finds this as useful to know as I did

Thanks for the comments, minor edits in order I think =) Not sure I understand what you mean't by a 'scary' background? Hey out of curiosity how exactly does your sig attract more attention? I'm aiming for a fairly classic look that works with my website (still not quite up) so it should make more sense later on. Basically just made it a bit clearer, will probably change the photo later.

Odd considering its true 3D Blur as applied by the renderer... it is a bit extreme though I will admit.

Need to get back into 3D Design, this is one of the last things I did... Got a few more to post when I get an image host EDIT Should probably add... Software 3DS MAX 8 Renderer VRay Time A few hours... Texture cgtextures.com, <3 This site

20 minute job, couldn't really decide what I wanted.One of my photos from europe, think I should use that or something different?