Kelly Bennett
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Posts posted by Kelly Bennett
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If you're like me, you like seeing human greatness, even if it's displayed in a venue you're not generally interested in. For example, I have no interest whatever in basketball, however I love watching clips of Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. I'm not interested in boxing, but it's very enjoyable to watch clips of Ali and so on. It can give you sense of exaltation to witness true greatness embodied in a man - to see someone who has utterly mastered their art and their body. For that reason I love to watch Fedor Emelianenko fight. I'm not an MMA fan by any stretch of the imagination, in fact generally I find the sport pretty barbaric, but this man is truly great at what he does.
His record is 32 wins 2 losses which is absolutely unheard of in the sport. And his sportsmanship is unparalleled. He is unfortunately extremely modest and mystical, but none the less, really great to watch. If you're interested here is a video:
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If you do plan on pursuing your dream of music, you can do it while working a low paying job, or working a high paying job. Wouldn't it be better to tough it out for the few months that you have left, secure a good job, and work from there?
If you really are finding it hard to motivate yourself to finish the degree because of depression, perhaps you should consider anti-depressants to help you survive the last leg of the battle. That's what I would do If I thought I might be incapable of getting through it otherwise.
From what you said, I really think it sounds like you should get the degree before you decide to change course. If the music thing (or whatever else you decided to do) ended up not working out, I imagine you would really regret having not finished.
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Oh there are so many good ones. The first one that comes to mind is from Iron Man 2:
Senator Stern: My priority is to get the Iron Man weapon turned over to the people of the United States of America.
Tony Stark: Well, you can forget it. I am Iron Man. The suit and I are one. To turn over the Iron Man suit would be to turn over myself, which is tantamount to indentured servitude or prostitution, depending on what state you're in. You can't have it.
…
Tony Stark: Because I'm your nuclear deterrent. It's working. We're safe. America is secure. You want my property? You can't have it. But I did you a big favor.
[stands and turns to face the Senate]
Tony Stark: I've successfully privatized world peace. What more do you want?
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Very nice stuff
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Kelly, can you tell me what emotions are NOT justified? As far as I know, emotions simply are. We may respond differently emotionally to some event, but does that mean that one set of emotion is not justifie? Also, when are feelings "wrong?"
One need not act on feelings, but they are a fact, they exist, and they should be acknowledged. What is your example of a "wrong" emotion?
An unjustified emotion? Easy. Say I come up to you and say "Hi", and you feel that you are being attacked or threatened. Or say you're girlfriend says she is going to go hang out with her mother and you feel that she is actually going to go cheat on you even though you have absolutely no evidence whatever that she ever has or would cheat. These emotions would be a result of some personal psychological problems. Emotions are always caused, but they are not always a good or proper response to what is going on. Emotions, as I'm sure you know, are caused by your fundamental values. But this idea that feelings are some mystical guide to action or excuse for any action comes from the belief that feelings are primary. And she explicitly believed that feelings were primary. To the point that she believed that if she was mad enough at someone that she wanted to kill them, then that would be justified because feelings are never wrong.
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If the problem is (a.), I'd say you can expect many arguments and heated disagreements about many things (not just politics) over time.
I totally agree. I've had a couple of similar relationships and I've always found that opposing political views are usually the result of a different philosophy. What seems at first to be a problem that can be easily avoided turns out to be something that represents a much more fundamental difference. And after a couple months or a year, arguments and differences starts springing up all over.
I once met a democrat, Obama supporter - very left wing, but I couldn't believe that her philosophy was that bad because he sense of life was so good. Her sense of life was very pro-individual, very pro-justice as opposed to pity very positive on life and so on and so forth. (I can't explain how a sense of life like that can go with such a bad philosophy, but somehow these things can happen… ) After a couple discussions about philosophy it turned out she was totally mystical
And deliberately so! (She said things like "all emotions are justified", "feelings can never be wrong", "context doesn't matter" 
)Anyway…
I wouldn't say it was an impossible relationship, except that you being on these forums probably means that philosophic ideas/principals are important to you, and that you know yours explicitly. For me this makes it impossible, personally, to be with girls who have irrational philosophies because so much of what you say and do eventually comes back to these principles, and ultimately leads to fighting about a great many things.
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www.muldisdesigns.com/AtlasShruggedWalls/509d2c3dfd924626a5c91e5a6b587157.jpg
www.muldisdesigns.com/AtlasShruggedWalls/bb94f5560eedbf183999221c2992d5b6.jpg
Here you go
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Just stumbled upon these while surfing the internets, thought I would share them
If anyone is interested in the fullsize versions just let me know and I'll host and post links
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Have any of you heard of Dr.Aubrey de Grey? I'm hoping he's right.
I say HELL YES we should seek immortality. There is absolutely no reason that we shouldn't, provided that we can live in a healthy, comfortable state physically.
I can't imagine running out of things to learn / see / do!
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I should have taken pictures of the disgusting posters that were all over the University I attend. They were written in red paint that was dripping to symbolize blood, and they were spouting all kinds of hate. Crap like "Celebrating 500 years of RAPE"
It was almost unbelievable. But I've come to expect these things at my school… we even have an official club called "Anti-civilisation club". No joke.
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Oh my god this man is horrifying! This reminds me of that film that came out many years ago called "What the bleep do we know" which proclaimed that you could be healthier if you made your drinking water listen to classical music! That would be hilarious except for how frightening it was for me that many people I knew actually loved the movie.
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Be forewarned though, both Pillars and World are 1000+ page reads. Fall of Giants is just under that. He likes long books.
haha, I'm an Ayn Rand fan, I can't be too opposed to long books ;-)
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Never heard of him, but thanks for the tip. It's always hard to find fiction with a good theme
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Music calls for such an emotional personal response, I don't see how one can really say right or wrong. I think so much depends on one's personality and, more importantly, what one has been exposed to. I notice so many young people today have never been exposed to classical music and enjoy listening to whatever rap-crap seems to be popular. For a lot of them, it seems to be a lack of knowledge then an indictment of musical tastes. Personally, I think good art is so important to our well-being i'd like to see the classical music piece and classical plays taught regularly taught in school. The same deprived kids who don't know either Ramaninoff or Bach haven't heard of Ibsen either.
As to whether Rach or Bach is "superior" I really think it's a matter of taste. bach lived two decades before Rach, so he would have totally different influences and knowledge of music. It's probably not fair to say Rach was better. He just had a lot more musical knowledge to work with and lived in a different time.
I think you mean 2 centuries.
Of course you're right, it's personal taste, and that's the problem with teaching it in school. If you force children to read novels, for example, they might begin to see it as work (and if you force them to read in front of a class, the might associate it with shame and stress), and you are not likely to subject them to ones that they actually like, seeing as how tastes very so much from person to person.
The same is true of classical music I would guess. I know that in my opinion, much of it is just unbearably boring. You wouldn't want them to think that is what all classical music is like.
God how I hate ©rap. I really hope I never have a child who likes rap.
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I love this discussion!
I think it's fascinating how people seem to either really love or really hate Rachmaninov and Chopin. Kind of like how people either really like cilantro or they can't stand it. Very little middle ground in my experience.
Personally I listen to Rachmaninov and Chopin and I hear a mad man. The music seems totally random and really stresses me out --- actually it's almost a nightmare like feeling. Then I listen to Bach and I get the chills. For me, no one compares to Bach. Concerto V, en Ré Majeur, BWV 1050 - I. Allegro is as close to perfect as I ever expect to hear. The harpsichord in this song is mesmerizing!!
(amazing harpsichord action solo starting around min 7 blows my mind)
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hahah, nice
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I also like some of Yann Tiersen (the stuff that's a bit more uplifting like La Noyee), Haven't heard of Joe Hisaishi, but I'll check it out.
EDIT: Oh he did spirited away! Thats a great movie.
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Nice sense of action and purpose.
If I may add a bit of criticism - It looks like the woman is about to get smashed by the train.
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Why did you even mention Kant? There were lots of philosophers playing there.
Hahaha, I don't know. I guess seeing "Kant plays soccer" just sounded a lot more interesting and absurd than "Philosophers play soccer"
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Also:
Some of the songs from Yann Tiersen are good. but many are too defeatist. This one good.
Amazing display of human potential in martial arts
in Miscellaneous Topics
Posted · Edited by Kelly Bennett
It may look like it from this particular video. But it is not true actually. Many of his opponents have been very well respected Collegiate and even Olympic medalist wrestlers and he has beaten them - not by knock out - but by submission. He is definitely a "thinking man's" fighter. Tons of tactic and skill. He essentially won 31 fights in a row, you can't do that by flailing your arms, lots of much heavier/stronger men have tried.
And by the way your comment:
is a ridiculous and dogmatic thing to say. Are you suggesting that Kasparov isn't a great chess player?
That Dostoyevsky wasn't a great author? (regardless of wether you like his books)
That Rachmaninoff wasn't a great composer?
That Plushenko isn't a great skater?
You should probably take it back.