Year: 2015

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Gabor Maté on “What is Addiction?”

I paraphrase and summarize the most important points:

  • All substances are actually pain killers, some are specifically pain killers.
  • Emotional pain and suffering triggers in the same brain areas as physical pain.
  • Addiction develops because of pain and distress. Addiction, when acted upon provide pain killing effects to numb and escape the pain.
  • Quoting Eckhart Tolle: Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain
  • Because of too much distress and pain one cannot be with oneself.
  • From the Tibetan Book of the Dead: “Whatever you do, don’t try and escape from your pain, but be with it. To attempt to escape from pain is what creates more pain.”
  • Running away from pain bring more pain. Running away is not the solution.
  • Getting the sense of compassion through companionship, one can start to free the self from pain.
  • We have to be with the pain until it passes and know what it is really about.
  • We now live in an age of instant gratification. Our society is not designed to support us to be able to be by ourselves. There’s always the quick getaway.
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Dissecting the “Jupiter Ascending” movie

This past weekend I got to watch Jupiter Ascending movie. I was amused by the visuals and the universe constructed by this movie. In this blog post, I will share with you some of the interesting things I observed.

Spoiler alert: do not continue reading if you plan to watch the movie.

Here we go:

  • The movie theme: the movie sets a very futuristic theme. In that theme, traveling between galaxies is not an issue. Earth is nothing in the bigger picture
  • Big and powerful dynasties own planets. Earth is portrayed as a farm to grow humans. There will be a harvest period where humans are harvested
    • Human harvesting is used to product a youth elixir, that is very profitable when sold. It is in high demand because it can regenerate cells and make you look young again
    • Earth was seeded by those superior rulers from other planets and galaxies
    • People live for millenniums. One character lived 91 millenium.
  • Crop circle: They show us a scene where a spaceship lands in a field on Earth and then when it takes off, we can see its shape burned on the ground, thus forming the “infamous” crop circles.
  • Aliens have cloaking and memory altering/erasing machines where they can come, anesthetize you, run some experiments then erase your memory of what just happened and then wake you up.
    • When an alien occurrence or mishap take place, the aliens may chose to erase the memory of a whole city if they have to. If a few escape, then no one will believe their story.
    • Aliens can morph into human shapes
    • There are “space cops” and they live among us
  • Reptile aliens
    • Reptiles are portrayed in the movie. Is this a reference to the infamous “Reptilians“
    • They are like humans in functioning but have the skin and looks of a lizard
    • Those reptiles have wings and tails. They can fly.
  • Ascension technology is portrayed with a cylindrical tube filled by a blue ray with small floating particles inside of it. When one steps in the light beam, he or she will be transported up towards the spaceship above.
  • Jump Drives: in the movie, they jump drive a lot to go from a galaxy to another
  • Attachable wings: the hero is shown with two round marks on his back then they drop a hint about attachable wings.
    • At the end of the movie, we see the hero with black wings and wanting to fly and play with his date.
    • And who said angels are magical? what if they were a technological advancement as portrayed in this movie?
  • Reincarnation: In the movie, reincarnation is referred to as re-occurence and they define it as:”the re-occurence of the same genetic make up”
  • Bureaucracy: even in such an advanced empire, bureaucracies still are an impediment. We see how the heroes get bounced from one place to another when they were trying to do some paperwork. At the end, they even bribe the clerk.
  • Marriage is portrayed in the movie as a contract. The ceremony remains but just for the shows. There is no love but just a business contract
  • Time the most important asset: it is stressed in the movie that the most important asset is time! That’s why the youth elixir is important

I hope you enjoyed this list. It is far from being complete. Please write me your comments below.

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“I went to heaven and came back”

Today, I was at the park walking. I ran into a guy trying to recruit people to save the planet from global warming. I stopped and chatted with him.

He was not paying attention to the discussion all the time, for example when chatting he would look behind me and shout to the people that are passing by. Anyway, he told me that once he had a spiritual experience. To make a long story short, he told me he went to heaven, other galaxies and came back here because he wanted to be back.

He started to describe one planet he found, where he said it resembles earth but only much more peaceful and technologically advanced. There are talking trees there, animals talk and everything is harmonious and peaceful. There is no killing on that planet.

Later he told me, that he also witnessed the end of our world here on earth. Everything will be burning, and only the good people will be saved.

**************************

Dear readers, I shared this story with you because it tells us something about the human mind’s imagination and its recalling ability. Remember, not every person that goes to heavens and comes back, or gets to talk to God gets the attention of Oprah Winfrey or the main stream media. While many have profited from claims like that, many others have been labeled as crazy people.

It is ironic how we choose who we want to believe and who we don’t want to believe, right? In my previous post, “Jesus Sells“, I gave an example of how claims of supernatural nature can make you good profit.

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9 Important Facts to Remember as You Grow Older

Today I received these funny words of wisdom through a chain email. They are funny and insightful, enjoy!

wisdomNumber 9 – Death is the number 1 killer in the world.

Number 8 – Life is sexually transmitted.

Number 7 – Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

Number 6 – Men have two emotions: hungry and horny, and they can’t tell them apart. If you see a gleam in his eyes, make him a sandwich.

Number 5 – Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks, months, maybe years.

Number 4 – Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in the hospital, dying of nothing.

Number 3 – All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

Number 2 – In the 60’s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, and people take Prozac to make it normal.

Number 1 – Life is like a jar of jalapeno peppers. What you do today might burn your ass tomorrow.

And, as someone recently said to me: Don’t worry about old age; it doesn’t last that long.

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PUA: The “who lies more” opener

Hello readers,

In this blog post, I share with you a PUA (PickUp Artist) technique that I learned many years ago (around 2005). It is about an opener or a way to break the ice and talk to girls in coffeeshops especially if you are a shy guy.

The “Who lies more” opener is called an indirect opener and said to be originated by Style, author of “The Game” book.

I got to use this opener as soon as I read about it. Basically, all you have to do is find a girl or group of girls you want to approach and ask her or them:

Excuse ladies, my friends and I were chatting the other day and were wondering about something. I want to ask you: Who do you think lies more? Girls or Boys?

This opener will not get you in trouble, but nonetheless, be ready to hear some unexpected or cold replies. Here are some replies I got from some of the girls I approached in coffeeshops:

What a weird question, are you doing some sort of statistics!?

Or:

Well, I don’t know, sorry can’t help you answer this one.

Or simply cutting the conversation short and answering me coldly:

Men

For me, after some field tests, it appears that you should have more openers and try to guess which opener to chose before approaching a girl.

Or you know what? Just be natural, smile and say “Hi” 🙂

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The 4 types of Spiritual Fasting

Today I received the following diagram, because the Christian believers entered the lent period, a period of spiritual fasting.

[skip to the meat (pun intended)]

About the Lent period, I quote from officeholidays.com:

The season of Lent is regarded as a time for when Christians should clean up their spiritual house, coming to terms with their lives and rededicating themselves to a more holy and righteous way of living.

and about “Clean Monday”

This first day of Great Lent is called “Clean Monday” because Christians should begin the holy season with “clean hearts and good intentions.

Now let’s cut to the action!. Continue reading “The 4 types of Spiritual Fasting”

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And then what?

Hello,

Today I am going to share with you a story about life, work and happiness.

One day, John was walking in the street and he saw Mike, the neighborhood guy that sits around and relaxes all day long.

  • John then told Mike: Mike, I see you here everyday sitting and doing nothing. Why not get some chewing gum and put them next to you?
  • Mike: what for?
  • John: Like this, people will stop by an buy from you so you can make some money.
  • Mike: and then what?
  • John: with that extra money, you can then not only display chewing gum but also some chocolate and potato chips
  • Mike: and then what?
  • John: with enough money from that you can open a small kiosk and sell more stuff and beverages
  • Mike: and then what?
  • John: you can then open a small grocery store and make more money
  • Mike: and then what?
  • John: from that small grocery store, you can expand to have a bigger shop
  • Mike: and then what?
  • John: you can then aim for a supermarket
  • Mike: and then what?
  • John: you can then buy a house and let the business run itself
  • Mike: and then what?
  • John: you can then sit in your house, relax and worry about nothing
  • Mike: But John, I am already doing that! Can’t you see I am sitting here and relaxing everyday!

— Story heard from: Jihad Naaman

 

And so my friends, often times we keep participating in the rat race, always aiming for more when the simple things are often times already within our reach.

 

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In My Darkest Hours – A music album review

Hello readers,

Yesterday I had the chance to listen to the new album released by James Ludwig Stark on Amazon:

in-my-darkest-hours

I don’t want to talk much about the album except that I really liked it and the songs live up to their names. I can easily imagine this music being used in movie sound tracks!

These are the songs in the album, see for yourself:

Anna 1:33
Rise 2:54
Teardrops On My Piano 2:40
Into The Darkness 2:37
The Woman Standing In The Dark 3:31
An Untold Story 3:07
Dark Side Of Gloria 2:56
Burying My Grandma 2:35
Goodbye My Friend 2:09
After 64 Consecutive Rejections 3:08

You can listen to samples on Amazon.com or just buy the whole album!

…and by the way, if you notice the last song’s name “After 64 Consecutive Rejections”, I cannot but think “64 bits” in computer terms! 🙂

Enjoy!

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First trip to Lebanon: The untold tips and tricks

First trip to Lebanon
First time To Lebanon? The Untold tips and tricks

Hello,

This week I released my first eBook, part of the PassingTheKnowledge series, on Amazon’s Kindle publishing platform also known as KDP or Kindle Direct Publishing.

What I published is a pocket guide full of tips and tricks useful for your first trip to Lebanon. The contents of this pocket guide is assembled from interviewing various people and from my own personal knowledge while living in Lebanon.

I cover important topics that give you practical idea on what to expect: how people drive in Lebanon, how to avoid being scammed or fall for tourist traps, etc…

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I Think I Could Turn And Live With Animals… – By Walt Whitman

I think I could turn and live with animals,
they are so placid and self-contain’d,
I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their possession.

I wonder where they get those tokens,
Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?

Myself moving forward then and now and forever,
Gathering and showing more always and with velocity,
Infinite and omnigenous, and the like of these among them,
Not too exclusive toward the reachers of my remembrancers,
Picking out here one that I love, and now go with him on brotherly terms.

A gigantic beauty of a stallion, fresh and responsive to my caresses,
Head high in the forehead, wide between the ears,
Limbs glossy and supple, tail dusting the ground,
Eyes full of sparkling wickedness, ears finely cut, flexibly moving.

His nostrils dilate as my heels embrace him,
His well-built limbs tremble with pleasure as we race around and return.

I but use you a minute, then I resign you, stallion,
Why do I need your paces when I myself out-gallop them?
Even as I stand or sit passing faster than you.

By Walt Whitman from Song of Myself

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AT&T: That is what happens when you forget data roaming setting on!

att-atrocities

So I went to Vancouver by car and forgot my phone’s data roaming setting on!

An hour later I realized that and turned it off…It was too late because my phone downloaded 12MB (luckily)…but AT&T charged me 188$ for 12MB of data 🙂

What can I say!! We are in the 21st century and in the USA (and not some 3rd world country) and yet AT&T charges 188$ for 12MBs! What a shame! Sometimes paying high bills for cellular data, often higher than some 3rd world countries, make me really feel sad about how technology is there but greedy people benefit from it!

Oh well….Isn’t T-Mobile better with its free data roaming plans?

Do you have other “horror” stories related to AT&T to share? Please post your comments!

UPDATE 02/25/2015

I got to contact AT&T customer service by phone and the representative did not help me: “Sir, per our policy, we cannot do anything about that”.
I tried the online chat and explained the situation. The representative asked his supervisor what can be done in this situation. They explained because it was by mistake and the first time that this happens, they will credit me back 50% of that amount.

Better than nothing.

I still believe they can do better than T-Mobile when it comes to cheaper or free data roaming in North America.

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2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 78,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.