Are places like this bad for us?

reply to post by TKDRL


I firmly believe that 12 years of school is a bit much today. You can teach kids all the need to properly enter post secondary education by the time they are 12 if you did it right.

I use everything I learned in school. What it mostly taught me was critical thinking. The math and science I've used extensively, the english of course as well. History, well how could I compare today's world to the last if I don't know anything about it?

Points of reference are required for anything.

So I see where you are coming from, but I think a bit more optimism regarding what you know, how you got it and what you can do with it is required.

~Tenth

reply to post by sconner755


What do you propose I do? I am a master at hardwood floors, a master at tiling, I know how to do basic framing, intermediate sheetrocking, intermediate roofing. For a long time all I needed was hardwood flooring, my company was who you would call if you needed complicated stuff done, like intricate borders, curving borders around spiral staircases etc. I am fortunate to own my own house at 30, 50% of a business with 200k liquid assets, a lot more than I can say for other people in construction in the tristate area. Yeah, maybe I am broke sometimes, but all I have to pay per year up here is a whopping 400 a year property taxes, paid more per month back in NY.

reply to post by TKDRL


I think when you find out about something and then find you are powerless to do anything about it, emotions start to take over. ATS brings together a community of like minds and many of us can't do anything about the stuff we talk about on here.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


My history might be tainted, I hear a lot from my elders about how our culture was raped(native american). I try not to let that hold me back though, if I did, it would be a slap in the face to my grandparents. They lived in a chicken coop while working a farm and saving to get their own place. I guess history is good to know, I know I had it good myself, even living my first 4 years in a drug infested craphole apartment.

reply to post by TKDRL


There ya go

What really sparked this thread, was a disagreement with a cousin. I was telling her off because she spends all her free time watching the idiotbox, and playing video games. I asked her what she did to better mankind, and it was of course, nothing. Then I listed all that I had done, reading, and writing reps and all that. Then she asked me how many times my reps had listened to me, and the grand total was zero times.

Seems like I might have wasted a whole lot more time than she did in 2012, and that really chaps my ass.

Originally posted by TKDRL
I have been wondering lately.......
Being more "informed" feels great at first, but I am not sure it is good. I have been hanging here and a few other places for about 5 years now, and to be honest, I can't think of a single positive thing that has come from it.

The outcome the past few years, I have been more informed sure, but so what? Has it helped any? I have written, emailed, called my "reps", but what good has it done? Every single time they go against my wishes...... I am just an idiot voter, what do I know, right?

Originally posted by TKDRL
reply to post by sconner755

 

What do you propose I do? I am a master at hardwood floors, a master at tiling..............

Thanks for posting, so many very intelligent responses and comments. A number of people have alluded to this already, but, too much information, can just be too much! Overload, saturation, overwhelming. So, one can get 'burnt' out from too much of anything.

So you ask "What do you propose I do?" Well, it's a brand new year. Maybe it's time to take a new approach to life and empower yourself to focus on 'those' things that can improve YOU!! You seem to care about the world and local topics of interest, but, as already has been said, a lot of negativity there, it can bring the happiest person down sometimes.

You obviously have some wonderful skills in building things (i'm a clutz :lol, however, maybe you could branch out into doing something new, creative such as making furniture, creating some types of sculpture/art using your skills. Basically, try working on things that make you happy, improve who you are, focus on things that you can actually affect.

Perhaps try learning a new language. Just some suggestions, but the point is, change! You can't fix the world, or a lot of things, but you can improve yourself. So maybe consider some new activities that will make you grow as a person, learn something new that will bring positive experinces into your life, and your happiness will grow, you'll focus less on the negative, and more on the positive and thus, will resonate around you and make not only yourself happier, but all those around you that you touch in your life.

Good Luck! Peace and Happiness in 2013

I have to ask myself, is it better to see the bars of the cage you're in, or not know you're in a cage?

I have no tv never buy a newspaper so until I joined here, I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the world, and to be honest, I liked it that way! I felt sure that if something should happen that affected 50+yr old women in Yorkshire I would get to know, anything else is irrelevant as there is nothing and I mean nothing I can do about it. What's the point in filling my head with negative thoughts & images? They serve no purpose whatsoever except to depress me, make me feel helpless and generally give me emotions I don't want. Despite the Government's best efforts to ensure everyone in the UK is monged out on soaps, reality tv and alcopops, these are things I don't want in my life and certainly am glad I found the wherewithall to throw out the tv and go back to developing conversation and discussion. Problem is of course, that there are so few people able to discuss anything other than celebrity gossip and soap plots! Kinda makes for a lonely life in a way but boy was I happy. Ignorance really can be bliss

Since being back on ATS after years away I've noticed and so has my partner, that once again I've become rather morose moody and disallusioned. Does my being/feeling that way serve any purpose? It makes my partner sad, I accidentally influence and scare my children, I get wound up and snappy as I feel helpless to improve matters. I couldn't remember why I left ATS before....now I know

Depends how you use it.

Sometimes ATS provides a shining beacon amongst a darkened fog.

Other times you just need to run away, RUN AWAY!! GOOOO

What I mean by this is, sometimes the truth is blatant. And it finds a home here regardless of who says it.

reply to post by TKDRL


Take a look into mindful stress reduction. It sounds like you need to take some time to just be present with yourself in the moment, rather than worrying about future or past events. May I suggest you look into Jon Kabat Zinns work around this type of stress reduction.




Have a look into it and the science behind it. It's something I have been prescribed by my national health service, to deal with anxiety and improve mental well being. It's so difficult to just be present in the current moment, our brains are permantly trying to work out problems from the past or future. Worrying about things we ave no control over.

reply to post by TKDRL


Once you look at things differently it is hard to go back to the same state your cousin is in. Is it better to be stupid and happy or wise and sad but you dont have to be sad if you are strong within yourself. You are bombarded with garbage everyday and you can filter it to see snippets of truth. 90% you worry about never happens. From media to religion everyone is put in constant state of worry once you realize it is easy to block it out or deal with it. Everything has to be in balance if you are not in balance you get in the state you are in. It is good to clear the mind once in awhile.

reply to post by TKDRL


The secret to enjoying ATS is to never, ever log on until you have had at the very least a 1/2 pint of Tequila and [my favorite] a couple of swigs of cherry cough syrup. One of my favorite mods has told me the she favors Southern Comfort on the rocks and an oral infusion of herbal cookie dough. It's been my experience that taking ATS with out the proper preparation can make one lose all faith in your fellow man. Perhaps that's a good thing; I'm not sure at this point as I never had much faith in mankind anyway. And another thing, don't read past page 3 on a thread because by then it has pretty much degenerated into a name calling festival with inappropriate comments on each others personal hygiene habits.

nevermind I'm rambling and my live in house keeper just gave me a bloody nose...

reply to post by ItDepends


Good suggestions, I am actually a digital artist when I have the time, and time I got plenty these days. I am pretty damn good with photoshop, lately I have been into learning blender. It helps I am OK at cinema 4d and pretty good at carrara, so 3d is not new to me. Not sure I will ever make a living off it, but having some extra money coming in selling stuff at like renderosity would be great.

I have also gotten back into fitness and martial arts, two of my long lost loves. Pretty soon going to quit this retarded smoking habit, that will help a lot I think. I am currently building an ice rink in the backyard, the stage I am at now is packing the snow down by walking on plywood. Would be nice to have a fullsheet, but all I got left is scraps, will take a few days

Ever since the mcsame vs nobama election, I have been a part of the liberty movement. I was a part of the tea party, when only RT was covering our rallies. When I go to liberty rallies, see huge crowds, see the dismal crowds of the establishment phonies, I thought, hey we got this. Either the primaries are rigged, or most mainstream supporters are too damn lazy to go to events. It's a toss up between the two. It sure tasted bitter after being elated, and thinking we are going to do it, then seeing the BS numbers the next day.

Once you see the chess board, and notice you are an expendable pawn on it, it is not easy to just sit there and live in the bubble I used to live in. I am not sure yet, wether it is a gift or a curse that I saw the bars on my cage.

On one hand, it is frustrating as all hell. On the other hand, I have learned a lot about how wrong I was before. Like before the construction bubble popped, I used to think poor people were just lazy idiots. Then when I became one of the poor people, after busting my ass for a long time, working my way to the top of the chain, only to have the floor fall out from beneath me..... Well it woke me up I guess.

Going literally from making 800-3000 a week, to nothing in a few months, doing all the "right things", I was 50% partner in a business, "owned" 50% of a house that was about 3/4 paid for in NY, and still losing it all. A house was touted as the only safe investment for the last 20 years, we were almost out of it with a boatload of money when it all went to hell. Pops, my partner, his half was going to be his retirement money. My half was going to be used to go become a child shrink and start my own practice. 250,000 each, but that went down the drain. We had what we thought was plenty saved up for the rainy days, but rainy days turned into rainy weeks, then riany months, we couldn't handle the taxes at the end.

I fared much better than pops, we bought a house up here in canada, which we own outright now. Starting over is not as hard for me, I am only 30 years old. pops is turning 52, and now he needs to start from scratch building up retirement. Not easy when you are doing hard manual labor. As much as it sucks to have my dreams dashed away, it pisses me off a lot more that pops dreams of retirement got snatched away.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Thanks, I will look into it for sure. I have been looking into many things as of late, meditation is one of them. Self hypnosis another. I used to be into meditation a lot when I was younger, and yoga too, helped my martial arts a lot. Recently I tried a program called yogaX, I got a whole 15 minutes in before I collapsed in agony. I think I got a long way to go getting back into fighting shape, I guess 30 years old is a good time to start. I think I am having my quarterlife crisis

reply to post by celticdog


I remember how scared I was back in 1999, with the whole nostradamus end of the world scare. Then Y2K, and a few raptures. I would like to think I am over the apocolypse crap, maybe subconsciously it takes it's toll though. After the last end of the world, the next day I was elated, even though as far as I knew I didn't buy into the end of the world crap. Something to think about I guess, maybe it was taking a toll subconsciously, and I need to guard it better.

reply to post by olaru12


UGH, SoCo, used to be my favorite. Can't drink that now, tooooooo sweet. I don't drink that often now at all, 9/10 times I have a migraine the next day, before I started taking effexor xr, I never even got a hangover. I think I am quitting effexor soon, but I am not really into drinking much anymore. For one, it is taxed heavily here, costs a boatload of money. The biggest "case of beer" we got here is a 24 pack, back in NY the biggest case I got was a 60 pack, and the prices are pretty similar. I paid 42 for the last 24 pack I bought, it is ridonkulous. Liquor, same story, a bottle that would cost like 18 bucks in NY, almost 40 here.

Needless to say, I don't drink nearly as much anymore, I do brew my own, but a batch(about 60 beers) takes like 3 hours to bottle, despite being 22 bucks. Maybe I am just getting old, and losing the desire to drink every weekend. I would like to think so anyways.

Originally posted by TKDRL
reply to post by sconner755

 

What do you propose I do? I am a master at hardwood floors, a master at tiling, I know how to do basic framing, intermediate sheetrocking, intermediate roofing. For a long time all I needed was hardwood flooring, my company was who you would call if you needed complicated stuff done, like intricate borders, curving borders around spiral staircases etc. I am fortunate to own my own house at 30, 50% of a business with 200k liquid assets, a lot more than I can say for other people in construction in the tristate area. Yeah, maybe I am broke sometimes, but all I have to pay per year up here is a whopping 400 a year property taxes, paid more per month back in NY.

Great thread! You know for me... a couple years ago I moved out of the city (Manila) to a mountainous rural country province. I was burned out from work, from city "life", the people in the city, and just about everything else in the world. I was reading various forums like ATS at the time as well... =b

So I said F-it, I'm packing all I can and moving to the country. In hindsight it was the best decision of my life (so far.) I have learned so much that the city and way of the West tries its best to keep people ignorant of (not saying you are.) I have gained so much knowledge of life that I cannot imagine going back to unnatural city life.

My point is... what can you do? You seem to have what sounds like a remarkable skillset that people in many regions around the world lack. You have the ability to leave and setup shop elsewhere around the world, starting fresh in a location you choose. Small villages could use a skilled person like you, and or other places. Just some food for thought from my perspective =D

reply to post by TKDRL


You don't have to be in fighting shape but the mindfulness gained from these activities, should help you clear and calm your mind.

reply to post by TKDRL


Well, you hit the nail on the head. I have been like you, one of the proud informed ones. Well, after a while you have to face the fact that all the big problems that you wanted to fight (different for everybody of course, 9/11, chemtrails, big banks, ww3, fema camps, aliens, jfk, whatever) are not real. That´s it. Take that in. All of that is told by fanatics to fanatics, and supported with facts made up by fanatics.

Most or at least some authors actually believe in what they write, but the majority (wilcock, project camelot, the "super soldiers" that came out, all those guys) is just in for the money and/or publicity. That is the hard truth. Why don´t the Mass media and other parts of society get on board with the big theories here? Because normal and rational people don´t believe crap like that.

Take almost any field or topic that is discussed in this forum, you will find that after further in depth analysis it turns out to simply not be true.

We can´t convince the masses, because we are the idiots. Pure and simple. Once you accept that, you should follow the good ol´ scientific principle and only believe REAL research.

That doesn´t mean that you can´t believe in god of course, I personally believe in god and I do know that evolution is real.

So yeah. Most of the topics here are made up by crazies for crazies. That is the whole secret.

reply to post by TKDRL


Oh and another thing. Frequenting sites like this more often will almost automatically increase your risk of depression and raise your fear level.

You will get more and more lonely, because of course you talk to your friends about this and most of them probably don´t share your feelings and look at you funny.

Isolation, fear and being misunderstood lead to depression and other bad things.

People who don´t worry about quakes, aliens, invasions, shadow governments, fema camps, etc. are simply much more happy!

In short, we are delusional and are frequently scared by our own delusions that we share over the internet, or that we hear from "experts" we all know.

You need to break out from this cicle and seperate fact from fiction again.