clyde

I fell off before February ended, but this was a helpful exercise for me. I quickly remembered some of the things I prefer about this format. I've looked a little bit into possible other forums to join, but as I think about what I want, I'm thinking that a local weekly writing group may make more sense for me. I won't get written responses, but I think sharing medium-length essays and some discussion around them is what I really want. And in-person is so much more attractive to me than online. I currently have that option because I live in a city.

Today is the last day of my 10 day Happiness course. My review is that it focuses on accessibility. I think the low-hanging fruit matched with daily reminders approach is wise. While most computer games focus on spectacle and instant feedback, this one relies on the player to commit to being aware at least twice a day. While that doesn't seem like a big ask, it kinda is. And so the accessibility is a reasonable emphasis. They are going to send me a recap tomorrow and besides an invitation mid-session to join the larger organization that this is part of, I haven't seen references to anything outside of the 10 exercises at all. That is a different experience than I usually have reading non-fiction self-help type stuff. Often when I read I will end up spending a weekend researching something that was mentioned in passing. I'd recommend 10 Days of Happiness for its low-investment potential for significant impact. I think it would ve best to do it with a friend if possible.

I'm going to play this computer game for the next 10 days. They are going to email me things to try like feeding birds or something to make me happier. I'm stoked. I'll report my findings. I kinda love the banal platitudinal vibe of this presentation mixed with the slight feel of "Is this an ARG or a cult?" Seriously though, I think it is probably safe. https://10daysofhappiness.org

Name one thing you learned today. I learned that the guy I was in the sauna with is sleeping on his mom's couch with multiple kids that are not school-age yet getting 4am calls from his ex that he broke up with and that he kinda misses her but wants to get sober and knows he can't if he gets back together with her.

When we are interacting with these large and complex systems that have such alienating influence on our lives, there is a need for play. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday than to see if you could win a local elected position.

You discovered a significant barrier of entry that changed the cost/benefit equation for running. It sounds like you have a good handle on what your capacity for time and effort is currently. Sounds really disappointing and frustrating to find all that out after deciding that there would be some benefit to being in that position. I'm wondering what your motivation for running is.

Today's tip was something along the lines of "If you are berating yourself, pretend that you are talking to a friend and treat yourself as one." I had a nice moment with this when my negative self-talk was "I'm procrastinating." My interpretation of the instructions led me to offer to myself some companionship in doing the task I was avoiding. Since am one person, I kinda assumed that I can't provide companionship to myself, BUT APPARENTLY I CAN in some instances anyway, like today. It totally worked. I was like "We are going to do the thing together." And it was actually better than doing it alone.

I remember someone on this forum asking at some point who our heroes are and that they were dismayed when multiple people were saying that they don't have any. I think this is an interesting topic (though I'm having trouble finding that discussion). I'm hesitant to have heroes because they may... is milk-shake duck still known? But at what cost! I want heroes now and I'll just not agree with everything they do or say. I'm clearly celebrating something they are doing rather than everything they do. And I'm going further and further into the idea that heros are not actually achieving what they are famous for, but they are convenient personifications of a bunch of effort from many coming together. So, for my first hero I'm going to shout out Baba Amte who helped start a leprosey colony that turned into a large commune that seems to focus on accessibility.

Yesterday I learned that just because someone breaks down and starts weeping when you ask how they are doing and if they want to talk about anything, that doesn't mean that you aren't providing comfort and support. It just means that some self-empathy might be helpful as I'm providing non-language empathy to another.

One thing I'm noticing is that I receieve my email which includes an assignment for the day, and my first reaction is something like "I don't need to do this because I already do this all the time." That attitude is kinda suspect though, so I ask myself "What could I do that would show that I am treating this day as if it is especially emphasizing the subject of the assignment." So for instance, the activitu for today is exercise. But I already planned to exercise at 4pm. So I took the assignment literally and came up with an exercise that I would like to do. An extra one. So I'm going to do some light calisthenics like bird-dogs and planks along with already planned strength-training today.

Delighted. I'm thinking of being delighted as a endearing and somewhat whimsical look at gratitudes for local, present connections with others. Like, I'm delighted that I had coffee (decaf) with two friends today and that we talked about our views on death.

In this thread, folks can name an emotion and when they have felt it. Then other folks can share when they felt that emotion as well. I will demonstrate with the next two posts:

Today I learned that a friend and mentor of mine sees self-care well-being body-embodiment type stuff as an act of resilient agency in the context of for-profit medicine and that he wants to learn more about health to be of more use as a radical. I found it inspiring in the particular ways it was presented today which is hard to explain clearly. I'm thinking of this in the context of Tai Chi and yoga at the community center.

I am grateful for y'all's interest.

I did the first activity this morning. It took about 2.5 minutes to watch the video and about 2 minutes to answer the questions. It is suggested to keep my eye out for things that I'm grateful today based on the exercise. I'm skeptical that I will remember to do that without explicit reminders.

This is a bit of a stretch from what y'all are talking about, but your conversation reminded me of this video: Though it does reference the militaristic origins of strategy game design, it is mostly about the cross-over of strategy game enthusiasts and simulation design used for military and government decisions. I found it entertaining and interesting.

I'm thinking of fascinated as kinda being anchored by a string to an object of interest, returninh to it again and again as a reference. Right now, I'm fascinated by the idea of seeing convenience as an inherently good thing. I'm thinking about how much thought and effort and emotion I put into things being convenient for me. I fear that things will one day not be convenient. One place I notice this easily is when I'm generating ai images over and over again for an hour or more. It is like the generation is spoiling me with convenience. I get intoxicated. This could also apply to something like spending a night out on the town purchasing services and goods. The convenience is intoxicating and gives me a false sense of the world and my engagement in it. I'm fascinated by this at the moment.

fascinated

Nice. I'm relieved to see your contribution. I was thinking about some of the reasons I prefer these forums over platforms such as Reddit and Facebook. I think that part of it is that nested replies creates a sense that there is a bunch of cross-talk rather than just having one conversation. Of course sometimes people do that anyway by only replying to one other person back and forth, but I don't think that is as systemic.

I filled out a survey saying that my favorite fruit is "avocado". I'm also now making my own personal supply of seltzer water at home. Kinda silly, but it reminded me of the title of this thread.

We like them, right?

Part of the reason that I game so little these days is because covid taught me that discussion groups on Zoom meet my needs of convenient socialization more than multiplayer team death-matches. I facilitate discussion groups over Zoom as part of my job, but I also regularly participate in discussion groups with my spiritual community. I'll always prioritize in-person meetings, but as we all know, the convenience of group video calls is often the best option. My personal opinion is that hybrid meetings are awful and I would prefer to just have two separate meetings than deal with a zoom-room and a physical room of people trying to be friendly and considerate of one another. I have not seen a hybrid set up be pleasurable. I'm interested in hearing how y'all are using this tool, alternative platforms included. For me, I facilitate discussion groups for evidence-based health interventions on Zoom. I also attend and sometimes faciliate a Buddhist book-study/meditation class. Previously I was involved in political organizing over zoom on local, state, and national levels. The state-level meetings seemed to make the most sense to me, but all of them were effective in their own ways. I have yet to just hang out with a group of people without any particular focus; honestly that doesn't really appeal to me. Having a shared explicit project or set of prompts is important for me and I think that may apply to in-person socialization as well; I don't just go out with folks for example. It has to be a book discussion or something. So how are y'all using it? What works well? What do you see a positive potential for?

I've been making a stir-fry with frozen spinach as the base (even though I add it last). I sautee carrots, onion, celery, a pepper of some variety and tofu and add about 2 tbsp of tumeric, a tbsp of coriander and cumin seeds. Then I microwave a bag of frozen spinach and just dump it in the mix and salt it. It hasn't gotten old. Sometimes for left-overs I add sweetened soy milk and peanuts.

I find it suspect that numerous popular distopian fiction ideas end up becoming realities. Perhaps what is happening is that my way of seeing what is occurring is through the lense of the futures that I have been primed with. It makes me wonder if the world would be noticeably more consensual if imagery and ideas of utopias were more popular than the nihilistic hellscapes that seem to be seen as more real.

In the last couple of years I've been intentionally cultivating a compassionate perspective. As I've been doing so, my experience is becoming more purposeful and joyful even when things are unpleasant. Lately, I've been examining where my distrust and fear of people and institutions comes from and what comes up is the dystopian fiction that I have been exposed to. 1984 Fahrenheit 451 Brazil Soylent Green Logan's Run They Live Hunger Games Lord of the Flies Minority Report A Scanner Darkly In Time (staring Justin Timberlake totally underrated movie The Walking Dead games Sleep Dealer The Matrix The Stand Cerebus X-Men the Neuromancer series Cloud Atlas With the exception of Cloud Atlas, when I look back on how these works have affected me, I think they have encouraged paranoia and distrust rather than some sort of reasonable and helpful skepticism. It is worth noting that Cloud Atlas has a hope that doesn't rely on individualism and also that I was exposed to it when I was older than the other pieces of fiction I've listed here. I'm becoming more and more confident in pacificism and empathy. I'm starting to wonder if the effects of dystopia fiction in an individualistic, capitalist society is for folks to basically exaggerate their disconnection and trust of others---while adding an attractive spectacle that we tend to want to create in reality---rather than to warn us about something that could go wrong so that we can avoid it. What are your thoughts? As you consider where you are and how you got here, how has dystopian fiction affected you?