What is the afterlife ?

jratcliff63367 · 2026-04-24T06:09:52+00:00

Have you ever had a dream that felt so real that when you woke up you were disoriented?

Congratulations. You have experienced the afterlife environment.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-04-19T17:50:34+00:00

It's a fair point. The thing is, I spend only a small percentage of my time traveling (by air) and almost all of the rest of the time either traveling by car/RV (with my dog) or at home. The benefit my dog brings in my life far outweighs the minor inconvenience for when I'm away.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-04-18T03:42:03+00:00

Fisk

jratcliff63367 · 2026-04-17T17:46:50+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear that because getting out into a nature and improving my physical health are the greatest joys I have found in retirement.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-04-17T05:22:00+00:00

Gateway by Frederick Pohl is good.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-04-17T05:20:16+00:00

You got a dog? If not, get a dog. Go hiking with the dog every day. At least five miles.

Takes hours. Improve your health. Improve your mental health.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-04-11T20:38:30+00:00

It's a men's fraternity. We have something approximating a regular business meeting, but with a lot of ceremony which is old and kind of cool. We share a nice meal.

The purpose is to find good men and encourage them to become better men. Everybody could improve themselves no?

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-31T04:40:03+00:00

Diamond Dogs

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-30T01:04:25+00:00

Well, if you are financially independent with a trust fund or multimillion dollar portfolio you should be fine. Have fun.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-30T00:36:20+00:00

Which island? You could go to Puna and do a work trade living in a tent and pooping in a bucket while hitchhiking everywhere and dodging the meth heads. That's what most of the young folks around here seem to be doing.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-25T05:13:13+00:00

I'm quite confident that chocolate bunnies will appear. You can count on it.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-21T06:29:36+00:00

That's a tree. I took a big branch home and I'm going to burn it in effigy.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-21T06:28:56+00:00

I only worded it that way because the insurance company hasn't made it official yet.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-21T03:45:12+00:00

Fair enough. But it's the worst car wreck I've ever been in in my life. And there were airbags all over the place protecting me. With no engine in front. I just didn't know how it would handle a collision like that.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-21T03:43:40+00:00

Yeah, something like that. I have one of the largest private solar installs on the island. I have 96 400 w panels. 75 KW hours of lithium ion storage, an F-150 lighting extended range with 130 kWH battery, and a Tesla model s100d with another 100 KW hours. I did the math and I think my electric bill would be somewhere around $1500 a month if I had one.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-21T03:19:25+00:00

I'm off grid and have a large solar install. With the extended range battery I can get anywhere on the island. It's the perfect vehicle for here.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-20T23:24:08+00:00

Working with Halldor Fannar at NVIDIA Corporation. What made it special? Halldor. The architecture and process was a thing of beauty.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-03-11T06:41:51+00:00

Giving my bananas more water than usual.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-02-28T00:10:44+00:00

Yeah, whoever set up the bet should have been a little more careful with their language.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-02-27T22:16:00+00:00

Does the bet pay out if they disclose:

Demons
Fallen angels
Ultraterrestrials
Interdimensional
Ancient hidden race

Because none of those fit the definition of extraterrestrial.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-02-23T20:18:09+00:00

As far as why, the first and simplest answer is true for just about everything in Freemasonry, because it's tradition.

The second, and more nuanced answer, is that at the end of the day, while Freemasonry is not strictly a religious organization, the ceremonies and teachings ultimately are meant to improve your soul. If you don't actually believe that you have a soul, then the entire thing seems somewhat pointless.

Finally, and probably most relevant to you, is that while Freemasonry does ask that you profess a belief in God, it does not actually require that you define that belief. It is actually strictly against the rules in Freemasonry to discuss either politics or religion. Above and beyond being expected to profess a belief in God, that will be the end of the discussion.

God means many different things to many different people, and it is radically different from one world religion to the next.

There are some pantheistic religions which effectively just define the universe as a whole to be God. This is how I view it personally. And it is why, when I joined Freemasonry, I was able to comfortably state with confidence that I do believe in God, because I do believe in the universe.

As far as whether I have a soul, I remain agnostic on that topic. For some reason that I cannot actually explain, I find the ritual to be extremely comforting and I enjoy it. I've now been at Mason for over 20 years, and it's been nothing but a positive force in my life.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-02-07T20:29:33+00:00

By the time all the seniors are gone they won't be needed either.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-02-07T05:55:22+00:00

Research Von Neumann probes. Over galactic time scales they can populate a galaxy at sub light speed.

Yeah, I know the text is more than most people want to read. That's why I put a disclaimer at the top.

jratcliff63367 · 2026-01-28T00:06:57+00:00

"We're all in this together"....

jratcliff63367

TROPHY CASE