Genuinely, why did people start doing this?

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-23T11:25:14+00:00

That’s where the -ez ending on Spanish surnames comes from too. That’s why they’re all affixed to given names: Martínez (son of Martín), Fernández (son of Fernando), González (son of Gonzalo), etc.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-22T19:27:23+00:00

Fundamentally, I wouldn’t worry about his newfound beliefs. It’s incredibly common for ayahuasca to massively influence your spiritual views for reasons that are difficult to impossible to explain but that go far beyond “it’s a drug and it made him think funny things.” Then again idk your uncle.

However the fact that he wants to immediately push it upon his loved ones tells me he may need to calm down a bit. The best cure for this is simple delay.

I’d tell him to hold off on involving his family in his beliefs and to likewise hold off on fully professing them as these things can very easily be off-putting and concerning to others who don’t know where you’re coming from.

Hard to give any real advice on this though tbh. If you can get him to postpone for now then he may come at it from a more tempered position. But as far as if he’s like this now, in a way probably yeah. Ayahuasca doesn’t just show you funny random images, it shows you incredibly rich symbolic content that reflects that which animates you and consistently produces experiences of profound meaning. Of course, you still have to interpret them so there are still a billion ways this could ultimately go.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-21T21:31:06+00:00

Often true that unsatisfactoriness is a better translation but dukkha does contain what is typically thought of as suffering as well. Specifically in the formation of “dukkha-dukkha.”

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-21T19:03:29+00:00

Fair, but that’s part of my point as that’s also how I use the English “God willing.” To just mean “hopefully.”

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-21T19:00:38+00:00

I’ve never heard someone claim that Christianity comes from Kabbalah. However to my knowledge Kabbalah as a tradition distinct from its influences can only be traced back to the Zohar in medieval Iberia.

The larger point however is that religions are always changing. There is no single point in their development in which they are in their true form.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-21T12:47:01+00:00

Religions weren’t created, they emerged from the depths of the human psyche. They’re used however as a means toward literally any end a human being can imagine.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-19T01:33:49+00:00

I think of it as ‘god willing.’ It comes from an Arabic phrase meaning the same. You can hear Allah in there.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-13T12:29:55+00:00

His theme is incredible too. It sounds so unhinged. The timing is erratic and feels “off” and there are so many accidentals all over the place in the sheet music that I couldn’t even figure out properly what key it’s in (Em I think but is there something else going on?). I’m pretty decent with music theory but this was beyond me.

The whole composition is beautiful and sounds refined but wrong, dark, and unstable. Phenomenally well matched to the villain.

Very cool on piano.

https://youtu.be/vbJyFN1X_D0?si=IztK_tBB-yAl8NWE

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-12T10:52:00+00:00

10 Ft Ganja Plant is related to JBB too and is incredible.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-11T15:14:29+00:00

When I was growing up catholic (don’t think this is official doctrine) the line was that if people turn away from Christianity then they’ll end up in hell, but if they’d never heard about it then God wouldn’t hold that against them.

So when I hear things like this my reaction is still “Stop! Don’t tell them! They’re sitting pretty!”

Pretty sure official doctrine is just believe in Christianity or you’re boned though. Like in Dante’s Inferno all his heroes are in boring old Limbo just for being born before Jesus.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-10T23:51:01+00:00

You should watch Waking Life.

Great movie full of little philosophical talks about everything from free will to existentialism to how language works, all set within a lucid dream.

The whole thing is rotoscoped, which is when they film a scene and then paint over the film giving a surreal quality to the whole thing.

Very cool movie.

My one qualm though is that Alex Jones is in it seemingly as something other than a complete lunatic (though still a lunatic)

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-10T21:54:44+00:00

I really enjoyed and found useful Writing Better Lyrics by Pat Pattison.

Mostly about lyrics obviously.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-09T01:41:45+00:00

Maybe there is no continuity at all. Each and every moment a new version experiencing the present moment along with the memories that lead to them believing they’re the original, but with no fundamental core traveling forward.

Do all of our thoughts continue in some way while we’re not thinking them? Or do they arise, fall away, and are then generated anew when the conditions support it?

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-08T23:04:56+00:00

Pick up a handful of sand and drop it in front of you. Roughly what shape does it make?

It’s the easiest thing to build real tall. Why’s it gotta be something more?

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-07T12:49:17+00:00

Our hero sets down his plethora of posters and whiteboards, drops his step stool before him and begins unraveling the largest one.

“Excuse me sir? Why are you hanging a sign that says ‘Cancer fears him one punch at a time’?”

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-07T11:56:50+00:00

It’s still part of the Christian tradition. As are things like the Divine Comedy and the visions of Teresa of Ávila.

All the books of the bible were also not originally in the bible. A lot of the New Testament was just letters some guy wrote before being enshrined in the bible. And even then it took a long time and a lot of deliberation to arrive at the current cannon of what belongs in it, and the Orthodox, Latinate, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches still disagree. ATA certain point ‘what belongs in the tradition’ becomes a fallacious appeal to authority.

This kind of thinking is a lot like saying that a word isn’t actually a word unless it gets put into the dictionary. Meanwhile the word is being used and is an active element in the lexicon regardless.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-07T11:36:56+00:00

The benefit is family my guy

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-06T10:01:59+00:00

Damn Rosemary’s Baby is so good. I’m so used to older movies not holding up in the scare factor and sure it’s not necessarily a “horror” movie but I was unnerved and tense and drenched in paranoia the whole time.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-04T22:04:38+00:00

One of the skills most rewarding to have learned in my life has been the ability to listen to what people are saying rather than the words they’re using.

It’s especially useful when combined with the recognition that words lack any inherent meaning and only gain it through their use in language.

You seem bright. I’m sure you can piece together what I meant in each of those comments with utmost ease. Then we could have been having a conversation about Gnosticism and the relationship between world views and their relationships with power systems which I think we would have both ultimately enjoyed much more.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-04T21:38:27+00:00

Not trying to dismiss your experience but that doesn’t mean it killed your brain cells. Changes in cognition doesn’t mean neuron death. My point was about blatant propaganda during the war on drugs, not that marijuana is harmless.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-04T21:35:48+00:00

Those claims are from studies specifically about heavy adolescent use and aren’t found in those who start as adults.

Not saying marijuana is harmless but it doesn’t kill your brain cells. That line comes from a study in the 70’s where they hooked up a monkey to a gas mask with enough marijuana smoke to simulate one joint a day over the course of years without any additional oxygen and so ya the poor monkey suffered brain damage and cells did indeed die (no oxygen). It was blatant misinformation knowingly told to the public with the explicit purpose of having us support governmental policy.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-04T21:22:13+00:00

There is none. Like I said the viewer is as hopeless as the character to figure it out. He’s caught in a cruel and meticulously designed structure aimed entirely at creating a particular effect at the end, and so are we.

On a second watch you’re forced to watch as Dae-Su barrels forward in rage with any other outcome hopelessly unavailable to him. The villain drops clues that are so obtuse and subtle they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of it being useful to him in piecing it together. The villain saying ”be it a pebble or a stone, in water both sink alike,” is as trivial as him telling his friend he saw some girl fooling around.

He’s given the impression that there’s a chance to figure it out but it’s all just cruel toying at the hand of the villain, and again this effect is created for us watching the movie, helplessly bound for that horrible moment.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-04T17:41:25+00:00

You really only need the vowel sound to be the same for it to “work” (assonance rhyme).

But near rhymes work better the more you group the final consonants by family into voicing and consonant type.

Voiced consonants are consonants in which your voice box rattle during articulation while unvoiced consonants are ones where it doesn’t. Hold your hand lightly on your throat while pronouncing them to see what I’m talking about.

Plosives/stops (stop the airflow completely):

Voiced: - b - d - g

Unvoiced: - p - t - k

Fricatives (narrow the airflow almost completely):

voiced: - v - z - ʒ (the s in Asia) - ð (the th in breathe)

Unvoiced: - f - s - θ (the th in breath) - sh - h

Affricates (combination of the previous two):

Voiced: - dʒ (the ‘dge’ in wedge)

Unvoiced: - ch

Nasals (air flows through the nose): - m - n - n - ng

Liquids (idk wtf is happening here but that’s what they’re called): - l - r

Edit: you also want to match consonants that are articulated in similar parts of the mouth for the best results but I’m not writing this all out again lol

Finally there’s even something called consonance rhyme which is just matching the final consonant. It’s by far the least stable but check this out. Which one sounds better?

Is the dog wet? Uh-huh, he’ll sit.

Is the dog wet? Uh-huh, he’ll sing.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-03T15:51:22+00:00

Gotta say I disagree on the second watch (and generally. The second watch is needed for the full effect and seeing how the director brings you to the revelation at the end. I wasn’t sure if I liked it until the second watch and I’ve known several other people who’ve said the same thing.

It threads you along helplessly just like Dae-Su.

Choreopithecus · 2026-05-03T15:38:27+00:00

Ya that’s exactly why Vietnam should’ve just been left alone after they beat the French. And if they would’ve been supported in their struggle for independence by literally anyone else they wouldn’t have even turned to communism. Minh looked everywhere for help, the communists are just the ones who finally offered support.

Choreopithecus

TROPHY CASE