Best Of
Re: Good news
We’ve had a number of Good News topics over the years, but I decided to bring back Bunks’ effort from the post-Covid times.
This video really made my morning, if you had a lot of money this seems like a good way to use it. It made my inner ecologist happy…
Jeroen
Re: About control: to pursue it or not?
@Lionduck said:
Put another way, a ship upon the sea has no control over the sea. The ship's pilot, however, chooses the speed, direction and overall relation to the sea to navigate the ship upon the sea.
Thus we see that Control is an illusion, an impossible task whereas Choice is a reality our control is actually our ability to choose, regardless of the circumstance. What we may seek as "Control" is actually Choice - We have the "control" of choice. Control is the illusion while choice is the reality.
I think you are right, after some thought. I like the wording better, in any case… choice is more human, whereas control seems related to power and ego. To seek after control is to seek after a kind of power, which is a fool’s errand.
Control is also a more static impression than choice. Choice is dynamic, and a very much wider beast than the idea of being controlling.
Thanks @Lionduck.
Jeroen
Re: The Plant Medicine Path
@person said:
Just wondering what your takeaway from this path has been in your life so far?
A question worth asking. It’s been a few years since I first heard of ayahuasca, the curanderos who make it, and the indigenous traditions connected to it. I approached it at first with curiosity, and later with reverence for its medicinal properties.
The thing is, I am ‘medically advised not to partake’, otherwise I might have tried taking the tea myself. So you could say I am still ignorant of the core experience of the plant medicine path. I have informed myself as well as possible about it, from videos and books.
Just that much has brought me to realise how divorced I am from nature. I live in a concrete box. I get food from the supermarket. I buy clothes online. At most I bicycle through the park, passing the place where the trees feel welcoming.
Jeroen
Re: Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
Short morning jolk up the back of the property before work ....
The added music is to mask my puffing and wheezing my way up the hill 
Shoshin1
Re: What do you think of modern movies?
I just rewatched The Matrix, and while it is an excellent movie, there is a lot of screen time spent on violence, fighting and very dark themes. And the same arguments could be levelled against Blade Runner, Unforgiven, The Dark Knight and even The Lord of the Rings from my original Top 5. It’s all death and doom and gloom, which drives the story towards a conclusion where happiness prevails. And it isn’t even particularly real, in that these situations actually happen.
So I was thinking about a new Top 5, made of movies which are favourites of mine but which are actually uplifting, fun, insightful films, and which don’t rely so much on peril and strife to move the plot. I realise I’m cutting out large swathes of all the movies which have topped the box office in the last thirty years, but I wanted to see what this list would look like.
The Shawshank Redemption
Spirited Away
Amadeus
Soul
Austin Powers
I thought about including Arrival, The Martian, 2001, A Beautiful Mind, Howls Moving Castle, Finding Nemo, Erin Brockovich and a few others for the fifth entry in the list, but wanted to include some out-and-out laughs because hey, comedies can be great.
Jeroen
Re: Top 5
Hmm, my top 5 video games
World of Warcraft
Diablo 2 and 3
Civilization 5
These have been the games that I played as an adult
Lets add from my younger days
Metroid
Legend of Zelda
person
Re: Top 5
Top 5 Video Games as determined by enjoyment and amount of time sunk:
Sacred 2
Titan Quest
Icewind Dale 2
Pillars of Eternity
Dungeon Lords
Dungeon Lords is an example of a very flawed game but I just played it so much and enjoyed even though there are better games like: the Witcher 1, Morrowind, and Skyrim which are all honorable mentions along with Grim Dawn. Baldur's Gate 2 might also be in place of Pillars of Eternity, but I just liked the vision of PoE and it's more fresh in my mind
Jeffrey