There's a few things about the world that are bugging to me...

[GreenDestiny]

- First of all, why don't we ever see wild vegetables? I mean think about it; you never go walking around in the wild, and suddenly "hey! There's a patch of carrots/potatoes/beans/peas/radishes/beats/etc" Conspiracies are afoot people. :wtf:

As for the other stuff in your rant, yeah I agree, etc etc etc...
But damn I never realized that about vegetables. I've always found fruit trees growing in the wild, or black walnuts, chestnuts... things basically growing on a tree. But never vegetables, except for wild onions. Around where I live, they can be found in many places and they're good too. Peppermint and spearmint I've also found, rarely, but those aren't veggies.... still an awesome find.

[Born To Stone]

True, but the problem isn't their influence on science, it's on public perception.

Yes this did occur to me when I was typing my reply, probably why this is still a pet peeve of mine

Anyway hope you cheer up, maybe your just stuck in a rut and things will gradually fall into place. You could try and take up a hobby or sport to get some variety in your life, a new skill and a way of meeting new people. I know it sounds a little cliche, but maybe that's because it works for a lot of people. I've made a lot of new friends recently through sports.

And if all else fails listen to That's life by Sinatra over and over (at least it shows even the coolest cats on the planet get bummed out too!) :rastasmoke:

[illnillinois]

Thanks for those words of wisdom Gandalf :thumbsup:

Sorry man, You lost me about 3 lines into it.. No pictures!!
Im not trying to be a funny guy.. Just a ADD head and i lost interest..

"Keep on keeping on".. in the wise words of Good ol Justin "spag daddy"spagnolo

[Coelho]

Well... seeing as I've been more and more depressed and kind of suicidal over the last several months, anybody have a suggestion as to how a guy is to find hapiness? Any ideas on a life-change I should make, something I should take up, a change in my routine? You know, a big reason I took up the username "Gandalf" is because it reflects how I feel inside; like an old man, worn and tired with the world.

But much thanks to all of you for your constructive comments! You guys really are all awsome.

During one of the darkest ages of my life, i did read a book called Journey to Ixtlan, and it changed my views of life... after reading it, i decided to stop to be a victim and become a warrior... i would recommend it to you... in fact, i have a pdf copy of it... if you want, just say so, or email me... :thumbsup:

And, indeed the people are becoming stupider... stupidity IS a very contagious disease, which is spreading around the entire world like a plague... anyway, i think it is an advantage... as more people becomes stupid, more intelligent (compared to them) you become...

[krazy chino]

yea man the world in general is Bullshit........one thing i hate is how we took this beautiful land and made it into a weird land of stores and cement its all F'd up we're overbuilding over nature and nature is gonna fuck us all up and yea all these religions and laws and government is all bullshit too

[dragonrider]

- First of all, why don't we ever see wild vegetables? I mean think about it; you never go walking around in the wild, and suddenly "hey! There's a patch of carrots/potatoes/beans/peas/radishes/beats/etc" Conspiracies are afoot people. :wtf:

Wild vegetables are rare, but they can be found. I have found wild patches of artichokes and asparagus. Technicaly they are not "wild," they are "feral." They are formerly domestic artichokes and asparaguseses who have escaped from captivity and now live free on their own terms. Approach with caution --- they are no longer tame.

- Secondly, is it just me or is the world getting stupider? Or has it always been this stupid? It frustrates me to no end. Most people don't even want to analyze the logic of various claims, they just get easily impressed and instantly believing by phrases like "studies show".

Well, Gandalf, studies show that people are getting stupider. It's scientifically proven that the world on average gets a bit stoopider every day. The world started out really stupid, then it started to get smarter, but now it's back on the downswing and getting stiupider by the minute.

- Chronic pain sufferers are not treated as well, by the medical system or just people, as you might think. Stigmas abound, completely contrived and uninformed in their nature. I've done my research, and we (folk in harsh chronic pain) all face the same roadblocks and predudices. That being:

This I think is very true. I've had several episodes of severe pain that have lasted for a week or more, and I was surprised at how much the pain took out of me. The conditions were not medically serious or severe in other ways, but were extremely painful. The pain just wore me down. I can't imagine what it must be like to have to live with chronic pain, but I've had enough of a taste to know it can suck the life from you.

- Is it really such an outrageous notion that we stop pumping all our food with monosodium glutamate and corn syrup? We could incure massive health care savings just by phasing these two things out; but ohhhh no, gotta keep feeding the North American obesity addiction.

I think the answer here is probably high-fructose monosodium glutamate. Once we get that perfected, we won't even need other forms of food. We'll be able to just pump it directly into our fat asses.

- You know why we have such an epidemic of depression and anxiety? Because we live in a hedonistic, selfish, consumer-driven, instant-gratification society where we try to buy our hapiness, smother it in useless crap and food, and judge each other through narrow views of acceptability. This is an unhealthy society, and it's only gonna get worse.

I agree that most people think they can buy their way to happiness and are mostly unfullfilled by that approach. Every day we are bombarded by thousands of messages that reinforce the idea that products make life better, faster, easier, and happier. It's not true. What makes people happy are things like knowing that what you do in life matters, being around people who you care about and who care about you, doing nice things for others and having them do nice things for you, learning new stuff, making things. There are a lot of things that make people happy, but buying products is not really one of them. Not having enough money can make you unhappy, but beyond the point of having enough, money and the things it can bring you do not add to your happiness.

- People's understanding of spelling, grammar, and punctuation these days is just atrotious. Just read the comments on youtube, you can barely understand what these nitwits are trying to write. And they just keep getting dummer...

This has always bugged me too. I think the decline in speling and grammar has to do with the amount of texting, emailing, and online posting people do now. It used to be that most of the written communication you would see day-to-day was written by professionals. Now everyone texts, emails, and posts. You are exposed to the written communication of a lot of people who you never would have been exposed to before. Some of them are just not very good at it. And even the ones who are good at it take shortcuts because of the volume of writing they have to do and the casual nature of most of it. I hope it gets better.

- On that note, I have no friends spare one that lives very far away. Know why? Because all anybody wants to talk about is mindless dribble, chit-chat about nothing - just whats goin' on today, who's doing what social thing with who, and that wretched media media culture that gets everybody obsessed with mindless dribble like American Idle and what celebrity's cheating on who. And so here I remain alone still, because I can't find anybody who doesn't give me a blank look and slink away as soon as I say something that might present the threat of having to work a neuron or two.

There are a lot of ding-dongs out there who would rather not use thier brains, but there are a lot of smart people too. You've re-enrolled in college, so you should meet plenty of very intelligent people. Some of the smartest people I knew were in college and plenty of them liked to have deep conversations.

I've also known many many smart people at work. I've worked at software companies and met the highest concentration of geniuses there, along with people who were not geniuses but just extremely competent, which is almost better than genius really. My wife is in consulting, and those folks are sharp. I recently had my kitchen redone, and the contractor was a really smart, competent guy. Being in the professional world focuses and sharpens people. You are a very young guy, and a lot of your peers are probably still sort of doofuses, even the smart ones. You'll meet the people you are looking for in the professional world.

But no matter how smart people are, everyone likes to talk about drivel now and then. Small talk and chit chat are social lubricants. You can't launch straight into quantum physics --- talk about a movie or some music first. Or something else that you are interested in that is accessible to most people.

[chastity]

I really enjoyed your thoughts. I have many of the same type of thoughts myself. Sometimes getting smarter makes it worse. The more I know, the more I study, the more I realize the many catostrophic ignorances that abound. You are the first person I have put on my "buddy list". Your speaking of all these many issues created several engaged readers.
I did want to say...
the world is getting more stupid. Could this be because there is so much more to know now days. Could it be because of lazy minds. Could it be because people are struggling to be happy however that might occur and this occupies a majority of time for them. Could it be that intuitively people know that the more they learn the more they wish they had not set out to learn.
I agree with everything you said and it is angering. I was not the least putoff by your knowledgeable venting. People are hedonistic. Debates are good stuff.
I was studying the other night and a psychologist said something so neat. He was talking about the mentally ill and crime. He said that he believed mentally ill criminals were simply dealing with this world the only way that seemed reasonable because the world was so unreasonable. I'm not saying your mentally ill by any means. What I'm saying is that smart people (weather they are criminals or not) could not possibly see this world as being anything other than odd, crazy, irrational. I think you are smart and normal. I suffer from depression. Many times people ask me about life and why I do not want to live, as I have children and a husband. I reply...
I think it's crazy to actually want to stay in this world. I do not see myself as the crazy one. I see a majority of humanity as the odd ones.
Who can close off hearing from monocultures, earthly destruction, religious domination, corrupt government, the mistreatment of people and a hundred other injustices that could make one sick. I can tell you who, most everyone. I am doing a painting right now that deals with many of these issues. It is a painting of what society would concider a perfect 10. The woman has french manicured nails, long highlighted hair, much makeup, a tiara on her head and she is wearing a red evening gown that hugs tight to her wafer thin body. She is reaching, but will not find. She has turned away from balance, the earth and hands are webbed and laced. This is to say she is still wanting for material posessions and her hands are laced with guilt. The caption at the bottom of the painting reads...

There is an ignorance collectively sublime
it is taking over both heart and mind
fearfully reaching through webbed fingers laced
the evidence of consequence on the face

It is not just you who feels the pressure and the sting. Many people like you don't have friends not because they are hidden. No No you have no friends because of the very reasons people bother you. You make a brain think and as you have said people are too lazy to do that anymore. I get more blank stares when I speak to people. I simply can't see the virtue in talking about fashion and superstars when there are obviously so many other topics that need to be spoken of.
For the record I never thought your thread was for the purpose of making yourself smarter than anyone else for an ego boost as one person commented. Always remember what mandela said about the fact that there is no virtue in making yourself small so that someone else can feel comfortable. We are all to manifest the glory in us that is God given.
With all that said my mom has to remind me constantly to "keep it light Shan" because she knows the intensity of my thoughts and how this can affect my depression. When I really need a vacation from what is happening in my head or in the world I paint, write short stories, write poetry or HUNT FOR WILD VEGETATION.
There are many blackberry bushes where I live. I juice them, add water and sweeten it, I make preserves out of it YUM. I also hunt blueberries to put in smoothies and bake with. I hunt mushrooms also. These are all activities that I can do even though I am in pain often.
I am sorry you experience pain so consistently. Very few people understand pain espessially when your not bleeding. With chronic fatigue, fybramyalgia, depression and countless other conditions I think it will be getting easier eventually. Too many people are walking around in too much pain to ignore the collective nature of it all. This includes doctors. Numbers are powerful.
Thanks. Please excuse any spelling or typo errors it is sooo late and I don't have a spell check downloaded for online spell check and I'm too tired to even go back over the document. I hope you enjoy the post anyway.

[dragonrider]

anybody have a suggestion as to how a guy is to find hapiness?

You could watch "Dancing with the Stars."



Well, maybe that might not be the right thing for you. One thing I would suggest is to not DWELL on all the horribleness of the world. I don't mean to ignore it, but the kinds of problems you are talking about out there in the world are too big for you personally to fix, so it does not do you very much good to FOCUS on them, especially if you are depressed. Maybe try to find one small thing in your life that you don't like and try to fix that one thing.

It's good to have a big-picture perspective, but when you are trying to solve something, you need to break it down into smaller pieces and do one at a time. For now I would just acknowledge that many people are stupid, there is a lot of bad spelling, monosodium glutamate and corn syrup are poison, and society is hedonistic --- and then just move on from those things because there is so little you can do about them. Pick one thing, like how to communicate to people about chronic pain, or how to meet people with common interests, or the wild vegetable connundrum, and then break THAT problem down into smaller pieces that you can maybe do someting about.

[40oz]

- First of all, why don't we ever see wild vegetables? I mean think about it; you never go walking around in the wild, and suddenly "hey! There's a patch of carrots/potatoes/beans/peas/radishes/beats/etc" Conspiracies are afoot people. :wtf:

Oh you didn't know? Vegetables were domesticated close to 1,000 years ago.

- On that note, I have no friends spare one that lives very far away. Know why? Because all anybody wants to talk about is mindless dribble, chit-chat about nothing - just whats goin' on today, who's doing what social thing with who, and that wretched media media culture that gets everybody obsessed with mindless dribble like American Idle and what celebrity's cheating on who.

Well don't forget that the present is the only thing that is real. The past and future are just figments of our imagination. Some people have an easier time with not worrying about the future or past and just having a good time living in the present. I do agree with you that a majority of the population never even seems to think about stuff that matters and instead is worried about celebrities or sports teams, but those things are ok in small doses and there are millions of other thinkers out there. Just look at these boards.

Yep, I'm thoroughly dissolutioned with life at this point; quite miserable with it in fact. Nothing ever works out, no hope for humanity, and good things happening are just those rare little moments that give you a quick breath before holding your head under water again. "Life is suffering": Buddha was right.

I feel you, and Buddha was right about some things. Desire creates suffering. I believe he also had a point when he suggested people should abandon hope, because hope is desire. But I would disagree that "Life is suffering". I see the world shrouded in darkness, and all living creatures as lanterns. Humans have a great opportunity to choose if we will resist the darkness. Life comes down to one simple choice really, either be the light in a dark world or wander in darkness. Either way you may find yourself alone during some parts of the journey, but as long as you are in the light you can see some of the beauty in the world around you.

[stinkyattic]

I disagree that humans are becoming more stupid; however, I feel that we (at least in the society to which I am privy) are becoming excessively COMPLACENT and unwilling to put in effort for what we want. When a packet of ramen noodles is 25 cents, and takes only a stop at the gas station, why grow a field of wheat? When American Idol is on, why put aside the time to read a book?

Our brains still work; we simply choose to be ignorant. You can choose to empower yourself through knowledge. You don't have to hold yourself in higher regard than you hold others, just to a higher STANDARD. Find solace in that you carry the secrets of whatever it is you have worked to educate yourself on, and that is a treasure, and a gift you can give if you wish.

This is a neat discussion, and I'm so happy to see how polite it is! That, in and of itself, should be enough to give you a glimmer of hope that there's still people in the world, and even in your [virtual] community who have NOT chosen complacency, and can still form an intelligent argument without resorting to bickering!

You guys are the best.