[http://i.imgur.com/TGETlkw.jpg]

Dude...whatever....

Yes, there are plenty of good guys out there. However, good is not really what anyone wants. They don't want bad either, they just don't want one or the other. We should all have some of both in us, good and evil, right and wrong, compassionate and cold. Nature knows not these terms, nature knows balance. We, being of nature, would - naturally - follow suit. A red flag would raise in my mind is a match was nice not only all the time but to everybody and not even in private complained or mocked another. That's offputting. Every time they interview some serial killers neighbors don't they always say something like "He was a quite young man, kept to himself, but always smiling and just a really nice and good guy to all of us." Exactly.

If you seek perfection, you search in vain. If you seek one extreme or the other, you'll find only lies. Find not a good guy, find a balanced one. I am not a horrible person, yet I am not a saint either. I have my moments, like everyone does. The thing of it is is that we put too much importance on preconceived notions and when suitors do not match our desires accordingly, which is impossible the future is never how our brains play it out, they are overlooked, Prince Charming is just a few more profiles over...

Balance, it is the way of everything. Anything else is on a collision course or fake.

That's messed up. I am an actual widower and any guy that uses that story to get money is an *******. Just because we are widowed doesn't imply broke. I think any man, widowed or otherwise, whom attempts to get money from a woman he just met online and never in person, would send up a red flag. Avoid them. that's great, thank you.

What can I say? I have more intellectual conversations, no drama, fun dates and relationships with younger women than those of my age. I don't know if it's because they are fresh from school, college or what? No matter, don't you judge me...I am 37, looking for 25 and under (18 limit of course)..if you are interested and in the Oregon or Washington area, hit me up! \m/

He watched her as she appeared to float across the room. His eyes traced every angle and curve of her body, memorizing her shape for future reference. She radiated beauty and demanded sacrifice for it. He could feel his heart quiver as if it vibrated, a side effect of being in her presence. He swallowed hard and she continued to float across the room towards him. His eyes seemed to focus solely on her while everything else was just a blurry frame that seemed to surround and highlight the object of his desire. Even the busy chatter of the hall became a distant murmur, an echo of the day. His eyes locked on the highly sought prize of his affection and as she neared he wiped his hands across his pants lest he touched with cold sweat. His heart throbbing, his knees weak, she stopped in front of him and focusing her piercing blue eyes on his she said;

"Here ya go, Adam. The new guitar your ordered!"

He almost fell to his knees as the object of his utmost desire was laid in his hands he barely let out a "thank you, here take my monies" as he stampeded towards the exit to return to his home with his new beauty.

Where's my players at?

uh...a lot of those aren't metal bands...just sayin...dude with Jimi Hendrix and Rush...yeah...not metal...

Pantera \m/

I miss walking and breathing where I first saw
The light of your dark eyes shine so deeply.
I miss seeing the waves of the Arabian Sea
Erase the fractured lines of presumed falsity.

I miss my call and It's fifteen til final Curtain.
I take stage left for my useless performance
I miss the way you and I would spend time
Crash and intertwine.

I don't miss having to go to bed
By eight thirty while you ate my rust
I don't miss having empty pocket and you
Making me worry about company's Anti-Trust.

I don't miss the ice and the freezing wind
Or that firery temper that you use to warm me.
I don't miss having to watch you struggle to
Your feign interests in our occasional friends.
I miss warm Summer weather

Up and down the road, days without end.
I miss the way the Sun would light the
Desert floor of the Grand Canyon.

I miss the edge of the bed, Damn it!,
And am hitting the floor now, friend.
I miss how when I spoke you'd actually listen,
You would always comprehend.

I don't miss playing with the knobs trying
To tune in the twisted stations.
I don't miss the endless futile debates or
One-sided veiled abbreviations.

I don't miss Madonna, Courtney Love, or
Any of those old ladies that are fake.
I don't miss your false and baseless
accusations that your mind would create.

I miss the way you took out your clip
and watching as your hair spills down.
I miss knowing that Space Time was relative
Distance and Lacking just a side-effect.
I miss watching your mouth move with words
or curl to lose a frown and form a smile.
I miss having a bond with Gravity
Head in the clouds keeping me here awhile.

It could be worse, it's true, I guess.
I miss all these things actually, you see.
All except Courtney and "Her Majesty" and
Going to bed so early.

I just make a random list to hide the fact
It's all for you and you are what I need.
So, time between us a means to and end.
In years we'll see it was always to be,
And again it will be. Though courses change
Arabian rivers always reach the Arabian Sea.

One night in the dark I had this epiphany
Call it random, fate, nothing or destiny.
I don't mind if you don't mind, really.
We can be together despite our shame
Separated by Seas with mortal names.

I miss using my voice to say your name.
I don't miss you at all.
I miss the wonder of your body and brain
I don't miss you at all
I miss walking up and down that road in hand
I don't miss you at all
I miss your little feet being buried in sand.

Then as it was.
Then again it will be.
Though the course
May change sometimes
Rivers always reach the sea.

(finger snaps)

Where's my fellow guitarists at? What do ya play? I know, guitar, smartass! I meant what kind of music do you play and what kinda ax you grind..

It’s hard to imagine something you have never really seen before, but I am going to ask you to try. Granted you have seen images of your own or someone’s, maybe even a real one from another, but, you have never seen your own, and you have never seen one in action. To view this mass when it is in full operational mode would be to witness a lightning storm on a wide spread yet miniature scale. Thousands of bolts of electricity scattering over the grey squishy surface. What type of creature is this? What is with the lightning show? In this particular case this is how this organism communicates not only with itself but it’s host and other organs. It’s the epicenter of the host, the central unit, the CPU.

Comparing it to a CPU is a stretch itself. In order to recreate this organ we would need thousands of Blue Gene supercomputers, each with a thousands of processors and millions of TB of RAM. The Blue Gene units would occupy the equivalent of a city block, would require it’s own nuclear power plant keep the system running, and the equivalent of a river would have to be routed through the CPUs to keep them cool enough to operate.

What powerful organism is this? What could this be to demand so much energy? It must be a force unknown to us? Actually, quite the opposite, this city of supercomputers is what a simulation system would look like to replicate the human brain.

A 3lb grey matter mass, that sits inside your skull, barely raises your overall body temperature, generates just enough electricity to power a light bulb and really only ask you to down a couple of sandwiches and get some good sleep for a few hours to keep it running.

We are beginning to get a better understanding of at least the functions and areas of the brain than ever before, to think that soon we may be able to not only record our dreams, but, to realize immortality, simply uploading your brain to a computer and thus live forever, or at least until the power runs out.

But, first, how does the brain even come into existence? Well, nine months prior to you being born this mass did not exist. Of course at that stage we are just a single cell hiding in a membrane. The Zygote is a half-breed , 50% biological father and the other half is biological mother. This 50/50 mixture is the unique genetic combination that formed you and after a day, your Zygote splits in two, congratulations your DNA just replicated! You are officially on your way and have been promoted to a blastocyst, which is made up of many cells. Now you are cooking up a yolk sac, an important part of the process those yolks, while I don’t mean to spoil your appetite, the yolk may be the most delicious part of a fried egg, however, in utero the yolk is what will eventually become part of the digestive track and blood vessels.

In addition to your blastocyst forming the yolk it also creates a sack filled with H20, this sack serves as a sort of air bag, a protective layer to keep you safe as you are now an embryo, it is at this point our star begins to emerge, the brain is starting to form. It is inside that H20 encapsulation the process known as gastrulation begins. We all form from germs, about three layers, and these layers form everything that makes you you, including your brain, in fact it comes from the top layer called the echinoderm. Up next the mesoderm and then lastly endoderm.

Your ectoderm makes the neural groove that folds up and around forming the neural tube. It is from that tube that your brain continues to develop and also your spinal cord. As the tube gets longer, and to the technical extreme this tube is categorized in sections, the front, the proencephelon, is what gives us of cognitive abilities. Our smarts.

Then the mesencephalon, which is what sharpens our senses then finally the hindbrain, the Rhomencephalon, this is what ties it all together linking up with the spinal cord. At this point you are now a fetus, eight weeks have gone by and you are well on your way to becoming, well, you. The brain at this point is growing strong and your first sense comes into play, touch. Neurogenesis is in full power producing nerve endings.

The brain is growing, even after your born it will continue to develop until your forties, however, neurogenesis continues, the development of new brain cells, our entire lives. The old adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is proven invalid. Your brain is, more or less, a muscle. Like any muscle when you want it to be stronger, more flexible, and tone you exercise it. The brain is no different. Reading, memorization, new experiences, learning a language, even having a conversation are all stimulations that can produce cell growth.

But, we know how the brain grows, what is it made of?

The brain weighs in at about three pounds and is primarily water and fat. To touch it would feel spongy,it has the same consistency as tofu. As a whole the brain looks wrinkly. Those wiggly hills and valleys are called the gyri and sulci. It is comprised of grey and white matter, neurons, synapses, and roughly 100,000 miles worth of blood vessels. Brain cells as well in abundance, and we kill them in droves on a daily basis. You have more brain cells as a newborn then you will ever have again.

Grey matter accounts for 40% of the brain and white matter is 60%. The grey matter is made up of neurons, which are the transmitters and gatherers of the signals generated by the white matter, where the dendrites and axons reside. They create the network by which the neurons send their signals. These signals are basically little lightning bolts. If you were to see a brain in action it would be like watching a miniature electrical storm, every action, every detail, everything you are experiencing right now is causing these to fire. The brain is constantly busy, it processes roughly 400 billion bits of data a second.

The anatomy of the human brain is split into different sections or lobes. The largest part, the cerebrum, is divided into two hemispheres. It accounts for 85% of the brains weight. Underneath that is the brainstem then directly behind that sits the cerebellum. The out side layer of the cereburm is called the cerebral cortex, this is where the four lobes are; the frontal, the parietal, the temporal, and the occipital lobe.

The sections are labeled the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain. Each lobe is riddled with cavities that contain fluids, these are called ventricles. Starting at the forebrain, it develops into the cerebrum and its underlying parts, the midbrain becomes linked to the brainstem and the hindbrain is responsible for regions of the brainstem and cerebellum.

Something that makes human brains unique is that our cerebral cortex is greatly enlarged compared to other brains, this cortex is thought to be the area where, well, complex thoughts come from. Next is the occipital lobe where visual processing occurs. The temporal lobe is responsible for processing sound and language, and also houses the hippocampus and amygdala, which play roles in memory and emotion. Then finally the parietal lobe integrates input from different senses and is paramount to spatial orientation and navigation.

Brainstem is the communications hub between brain and spine, it connects directly to the spinal cord and also consists of the medulla oblongata, pons and, like we now know, connects to the midbrain. The brainstem’s primary functions are relaying information between body and brain, of course, and it also supplies some of the cranial nerves to the face and head. However, it’s most critical tasks are controlling our breathing and our hearts, as well as our consciousness.

But wait. There’s more! In between the brainstem and the cerebrum you will find the thalamus and hypothalamus. The thalamus is a relay, sending information on sensory and motor functions to the cortex and assists the brainstem in regulating consciousness, sleep and alertness. The hypothalamus is the bridge between the nervous system and the endocrine system -where hormones are created - by way of the pituitary gland.

On now to the cerebellum which plays a critical role in motor function control, mainly coordination and balance. it may also play a role in cognitive function as well.


We will conclude for now with a better understanding of how the brain forms and what it forms into. Thank you very much for reading this, please click the little heart below so I know you liked it and wish for me to continue this series. From here we will delve into how the brain operates and has we continue we will look into memory, dreams, adverse effects of chemicals, illness, pain and disease and much more. It’s a facinateing subject that everyone of us should have a better understanding of. The fact that you are learning about your brain with your brain is at this very moment forming new neural pathways and increasing your brain strength. You can hit the showers, todays workout is over, but, first below are some quick fun facts and debunked myths to make you more brain savvy and to keep that muscle pumping iron!

Brain Facts

-The brain treats rejection as if physical pain.

-Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia is the scientific term for “brain freeze”

-There is no Right/Left divide in the brain, both hemispheres work in tandem.

-The long held belief that we only use 10% of our brains is false. You use the whole brain, all 100% of it.

-Half of your genes describe your brain, while the other half cover the remaining 98% of your body.

-Yawning sends more oxygen to the brain to help it cool down and speed up.

-You cannot tickle yourself because the brain knows what you are going to do so you are expecting it.

-Boredom is brought on by lack of brain stimulation and is largely a product of perception and is connected to our born obsession with curiosity.


*For more fun brain facts visit http://www.brainhq.com

and

http://www.brainfacts.org

hahahahahaha...right on!

Our ancestors understood origins by extrapolating from their own experiences. how else could they have done it? So of course the universe was hatched from a cosmic egg or conceived in the sexual congress of a mother god and a father god, or, perhaps the latest from the creator's workshop, yet another flawed attempt. So, the universe was not much bigger than we see and not much older than our written or oral records and nowhere very different from places we already knew.

We've tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar, despite our best efforts, we've not been very inventive. In the West, heaven is placid and fluffy while hell is like the inside of a volcano. These different realms are governed by hierarchies of gods and devils. Monotheists talk about the king of kings. In every culture we've found something like our own political system ruling the universe. Few have found the similarity suspicious.


If you were to live two or three millennium ago it was perfectly acceptable to believe this, it was what the most learned among us taught without qualification. However, we have learned much since then and to continue further is willful disregard of the evidence and a flight from self-knowledge. We long to be here for a purpose, but, despite much self-deception, none is evident.

What do we really look for in religion? Salvation? Comfort? Therapy? Fear? If the species is to survive the next hundred years do we need a reassuring fable or an understanding of our actual circumstances?

We are burdened under the cumulative weight of the debunking of our conceits. We're Johnny-Come-Latelies, we live in the cosmic boondocks, we emerged from microbes and muck, apes are our cousins, we have yet to gain full control of our thoughts and feelings, there are most likely very different and much more intelligent beings elsewhere and on top of all that we are ****ing our planet and ourselves.

The trap door beneath our feet swings open. We are in bottomless free fall. Whom among us cannot sympathize with those who would prefer to shut their eyes and pretend they are safe and snug at home? That the fall is only a bad dream.

However, once we overcome our fear of being tiny we find ourselves on the threshold of a vast and awesome universe. One that surpasses - in time and space - the tidy anthropocentric presidium of our ancestors. We gaze across billions of years to shortly after the most recent big bang, we plumb the fine structure of matter and the interior of our own star. We redefine agriculture, without which most of us would starve. We create vaccines that save the lives of billions. We communicate at the speed of light and whip around the world in an hour and a half. We have sent hundreds of probes and ships to the cosmos and other planets.

How much more satisfying had life been if we were placed in a custom garden where everything we needed was there for us? There is a celebrated story in Western tradition called The Garden Story. God places his two naive children there and gives them everything they could ever need, all was there for their use. Well, almost everything. There was a particular tree which was forbidden to us. The Tree of Knowledge. Of course, being children in a sense, we partook from that tree. We couldn't help ourselves. We were starving for knowledge - created hungry, you might say. That was the origin of all our troubles. We found out too much. The gardeners became exiles and angels were set as sentries at the garden's gates to keep us from returning. Occasionally, we long for that life, but, to me that's maudlin and sentimental. We would not have been happy as ignorant for long.

We long for a parent to guide us, comfort us, to save us from our foolish choices, but, knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far the hard truth than a reassuring fable.

If we crave some cosmic purpose then let's find a worthy goal.

-A&C S

You guys crack me up, seriously. Oh my god...hahahahaha

eh, what did you think was going to happen?

lmao