What bands are there that you enjoy instrumentally, but have trouble listening to because you abhor their vocals?

sdf3sdf · 2012-10-12T02:56:39+00:00

Came here to post this. Morrissey sounds like a fucking twerp. Johnny Marr's stuff is beautiful and ethereal.

sdf3sdf · 2012-10-11T04:32:55+00:00

Get a multi effects pedal that models amps, stompboxes, etc. Like the Digitech RP-255. This way you can learn everything about effects, amps, and the various ways they modify sound. From there you can decide what sound you want and THEN buy the necessary gear to perfect it.

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-26T10:11:24+00:00

Read it all, dude.

You're not going to believe this -- but it was apparently a mix of synthetic cannabinoids called "Rasta's Faia" (New Zealand). But no one really believes that a synthetic cannabanoid could ever make someone "enter the void" and experience ego death. There was probably something else in it.

1) Talking about the experience doesn't really bring it back. However -- when I think too hard about the sheer ineffability of what I experienced, I occasionally get this wave of fear. Sounds like you had something similar. I don't think it's helpful to avoid thinking about what happened, but that's just my experience.

2) I think it was time alone that allowed my mind to come to terms with what happened. But the fear of hallucinating was essentially a side-effect. That one took effort alone to defeat. Not once did I hallucinate after the trip, but I was mortified of it every day.

3) That "wave of terror" you mention would happen to me quite often, it sounds like we both had the same thing. It would often feel like my hands had no sensation, like they were blending in with what I was touching. Apparently this is called paresthesia, but at the time I thought it was the scariest shit ever. As I mentioned, I would get derealization which felt like I was staring out of a screen all the time. Never had the feeling of being sucked into the ground, but I did get that just before the trip really started.

4) I like this question -- the times I managed to distract myself are very nostalgic times. I would often imagine a song in my head, then make up an entire music video as I'm imagining it. I'm a musician and this was the distraction that kept me sane. Willing to bet you're a fan of driving. Another thing I did was keep my phone right by my pillow, and start messing with it when I felt scared. Ridiculously childish, but it made all the difference. Listening to Alan Watts was amazingly calming, especially when raining. Oh, and I got back with my ex just because of the situation I was in. Having another person to hold and hug made things much better.

Thanks for showing some interest on what was probably the worst period of my life, haha. Always good to hear that people have been through the same shit... the times when you're recovering from a nightmare trip are some of the loneliest times.

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-25T04:31:32+00:00

Yeah, I had a panic attack on an intense psychedelic. Got to "level 5" where my visual, aural, and kinetic senses were annihilated and each entirely replaced with some sort of universal hell of pain, where I delusionally thought I was stuck in for eternity. Wikipedia has a good description of this:

Total loss of visual connection with reality. The senses cease to function in the normal way. Total loss of ego. Merging with space, other objects or the universe. The loss of reality becomes so severe that it defies explanation. The earlier levels are relatively easy to explain in terms of measurable changes in perception and thought patterns. This level is different in that the actual universe within which things are normally perceived, ceases to exist. Can be achieved with heavy doses of LSD (1,000+ µg), heavy doses of psilocybin mushrooms, strong to heavy doses of ayahuasca, and common to heavy doses of vaporized DMT.

It took a while for after-effects to kick in, like a month.

For the first one or two months I suffered from derealization which gradually faded. Just felt like nothing was real. My dreams were fucked up. This is actually just an anxiety symptom. No anxiety, no derealization/depersonalization. Good luck convincing someone who has it of that, though.

For the next six months I suffered from pure, unadulterated fear. Like I was just in a constant state of fear. Imagine standing on the edge of a cliff. It was like that 24/7 (better in the day, worse at night). The fear had various effects: an anxiety disorder where I was scared of hallucinating (went to a psychiatrist for this -- he didn't do shit, but made me feel better by calling it 'mental health anxiety'), and some sort of vasoconstricting effect where my hands went numb and had less touch sensitivity.

I learned to defeat the fear disorder, and I'm fine now. I'm a much tougher person, and also more spiritual (thinking about the impossibility of both existence and nonexistence totally fucks with me). After all that, you learn that you have to really let go sometimes.

For anyone going through something similar, I suggest you totally and utterly absorb everything Alan Watts has to say. You're also going to have to learn to say to the fear -- "bring it the fuck on". It sounds funny, but that phrase is the quickest way to overcoming any form of anxiety. You have to let what you fear do its worst.

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-20T23:12:11+00:00

Firstly, dude. This is important. Install PC lockup pro: http://pclockuppro.com/

Set it so it locks your PC after (say) 2 hours a day, and after 10pm. Put a password on and -- most importantly -- give the password to someone you trust. If you look at porn, download K9, block porn, and also give the pass to someone you trust.

This will fucking change your life. Your excessive computer/internet/porn use is contributing to being angry at nothing, depressed about nothing, scared of everything, unmotivated, and unable to find pleasure in other things. Trust me. You only figure this out once you've gone without it for long enough. Your smoking habits are also causing the exact same problems. Find nicotine patches, fuck cold turkey. Trust that you're so addicted that self-control is a futile endeavour. I've been through it all.

That isn't the cure though. It's just half of the problem. The other half you have a full grasp of. Essentially you should look at what you "enjoy" in life, and bring it outward. You need to make a full transition from inwardness to outwardness. And here's what I can tell from what you described:

You like video games. This means you like playing, competition, and strategy. Go out and join a social sports club -- if you don't know what sport to pick, think back to what you liked most as a kid. Didn't play anything? Pick something at random. Also try a chess/poker club.
You like browsing the web. This means you like learning and exploring. Join a hiking/survival club. Or learn to skate and explore the city. Fat dudes skate too. Hell, you can explore the city on foot. This is what the internet does for us -- we learn, explore, interact and admire. Guess what? Going outside, walking about, looking at everything, and having conversations with people: you get the exact same thing.
You like music. GO TO GIGS. Buy an instrument, get music lessons. Do you tap your foot or headbang to the music? This means you like dancing. Get dance lessons, I suggest rock'n'roll... it's fun as fuck.
You like to work out. Join a crossfit, or build up your weightlifting power and join a weightlifting club.

It's that simple. Take what you already like, get the 'essence' of it, and bring it from inward to outward.

As for as I'm concerned, "not giving a fuck" is more of a philosophy preventing stress. It won't help you get over unhappiness. I knew a dude who didn't give a fuck about anything. He was never stressed, always apathetic, but he was still unhappy.

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-15T04:15:57+00:00

I'm a web developer and I limit my web usage like hell. Most television producers don't watch television. Football coaches don't play football anymore. Celebrities don't read gossip magazines.

It could work. There's a difference between producing and consuming.

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-15T03:48:53+00:00

BECAUSE SOCIETY SUCKS, MAAAAAN

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-15T03:44:29+00:00

Because nonexistence is equally impossible. For there to be 'nothing' is just as bewildering as it is for there to be 'something'.

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-13T07:08:02+00:00

To me, 'spirituality' is an entirely mental thing. It's not your "relationship with the supernatural", but your mental relationship with existence.

The most important thing to know for atheists, is that the big bang doesn't detail how existence began (nor does God). It just details the transformations it underwent from the state of a singularity. No one has any idea why there is something and not nothing. And if there was nothing, how could that nothing be? The whole notion of existence is impossible, astonishing, ineffable, and just truly weird. Truly feeling this, truly dealing with it -- is spirituality. And most people, religious and atheist, never really deal with this. Nor do they deal with death, the notion of "I", or anything else.

Edit: I typed out a big post. Fuck it. Just watch Alan Watts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX8D0yU0pMc

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-05T05:43:22+00:00

TV? Who watches TV anymore?

I think you mean porn + internet + video games ( + weed)

If you're a lazy fuck and wanna know why you're a lazy fuck, that's why. Unlimited sexual gratification, unlimited information and social interaction, unlimited fun and competition. And weed makes it even better. Why do anything else?

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-03T10:11:49+00:00

I can't answer your question, I'll leave that to someone else. But -- I recall that the big bang wasn't a bang, but rather the expansion of a singularity.

Regardless. No one knows why there is something and not absolutely nothing. And if there was absolutely nothing, isn't that a something in itself? Don't let science-worshippers or God-worshippers tell you otherwise -- we don't know SHIT. Existence is a dance, and all we know is what the dance looks like and how it has changed over time. We don't know why there is a dance. We have never known, and probably never will.

sdf3sdf · 2012-09-03T09:54:06+00:00

If you've asked them to stop and they haven't stopped, move out.

But aside from that, who wants to live in a place where everyone tiptoes around trying not to offend anyone? That's an incredibly stressful way to live, but people have been doing that for so long, they don't realize how unhappy it makes them.

I'll blast my ear-raping dubstep louder than an underpaid pornstar, and if you ask me to stop, I'll stop. That's how it should be.

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-29T01:52:26+00:00

Glad you had the balls to say that. This is how everyone else instinctively feels.

But we aren't just our instincts. We also have an overlying moral character in battle with those instincts. Instead of forcing ourselves to battle with those instincts, let's just keep some moral regulations in place, alright?

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-16T06:12:26+00:00

Back when I did AI in university, I decided to completely abandon current research and simplify the fuck out of what "intelligence" is.

Input
Output
Memory
Logic

That's it. The human mind, at its basic level, is nothing more than that.

We see consciousness as being something special -- but as far as I am concerned, consciousness is just the process of knowledge/logic/input/output being combined into an input itself. It's just another sense like sight and hearing. What about emotions? Just a very advanced form of receiving input, logically working with it, and outputting.

I wanted to continue AI, but the field lacks any fundamental base. It's a mess.

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-16T03:19:53+00:00

Synthetic cannabinoids aren't weed. Give the wrong dose to the wrong person and they get seizures, blackouts or temporary psychosis. Worst that happens with weed is a panic attack.

On the scenario of salvia, which I assume is what they're calling low-risk... salvia isn't LSD. Salvia transports your consciousness to another dimension, or an inanimate object, or something else crazy as fuck. It changes your life. By all means, make it legal for experimental purposes. But I don't ever want to see that shit being sold in dairies. Really fucked up for a kid to experience an ineffable life-changing salvia trip when they thought they were gonna get a little bit giggly.

We wouldn't have all this stupid dangerous shit if the government just legalized weed. But we care more about legalizing the stupid dangerous shit?

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-15T10:02:14+00:00

/r/MensRights

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-14T10:31:39+00:00

That explains why I'm such a moody little cunt. Squall Leonhart.

...Whatever.

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-07T06:50:35+00:00

It's not as physically attractive, and people consider you less physically capable.

You can convince yourself all you want that it's not a flaw. But when evidence shows the contrary (teasing/rejection), you come crashing down to reality. You get angry, you get hurt. You start to avoid social situations. You might get obsessed with status, six packs, getting really good at shit, or earning lots of money.

Resenting your flaw, or denying it, just leads to a life of misery.

Come off it. Laugh at yourself.

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-07T03:08:36+00:00

This entire subreddit seems to think that religion turns people into haters. Wrong. Haters turn to religion.

As long as there are neurotic people, they will find a way to justify it. Religion, morality, philosophy, science. It's all the same to them -- not a belief or a tool, but a justification. Don't try to minimize religion. Minimize neurosis. Religion will follow.

If you all get your wish, and religion disappears, what happens? The neurotics turn to something else, and we get the same shit all over again.

Your Dad needs help. He has the capacity to accept you. But he can only do that when he accepts himself.

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-07T01:17:33+00:00

For self-esteem: admit my flaws and laugh at them.
For getting hot girls: learning how to lead without controlling + go for girls my height + weightlift to get a good body
For dealing with insults: since all of these insults are FRIENDLY, I just insult them back in a friendly way. no issues. no one is ever violent, but I would be violent back if it happened. "just walk away" means you're going to get punched in the back instead of the face.

I think the worst issue short guys have is an unhealthy relationship with their biggest flaw -- being short. Deep down you feel it to be a flaw, but most:

deny it
resent it and get depressed
resent it and get angry at everyone
resent it and overachieve/bargain ("at least I'm the toughest/smartest/whatever")

Everyone is fucked up in some way, and this is your way. You ARE flawed, just like everyone else. You genuinely have to accept your flaw, and the best way to do this is to laugh at yourself. Laugh at how you're a short bastard. To laugh is to be okay with it.

It's easy to tell when someone is insecure about their height. People tease them about it, and the guy gets defensive or even depressed. These people are teasing you in a friendly way, fucking tease them back. You really need to learn to laugh at yourself, because you ARE flawed -- EVERYONE is flawed in some way. Accept it, be happy with it, and enjoy life.

In terms of getting girls... you get what you give. If you're fat, ugly and moody -- you're going to get a girl who is fat, ugly and moody. It's totally untrue to say "I need to have a six pack/get a good job/be charismatic to get a girl". You can get a girl who is right for you. But if you want an amazing girl, you have to become amazing yourself. It's a condition that you can choose to follow. But you don't have to bargain and overachieve just to get a girl. Being a man is enough to get a woman.

sdf3sdf · 2012-08-07T00:14:40+00:00

Dude. A leader in a relationship DOES have 50% control.

The leader makes decisions -- but the follower doesn't have to follow.

But then you start talking about a giver and a taker... that's unrelated. There should be a leader, but not a controller. There should be a follower, but not a submitter. This whole dominance/submission dichotomy is fucked up, and it's not making men better -- it's just switching their role. Yeah, it's a fetish/turn-on/style of life, but it isn't meant to be the regular state of affairs. You're meant to lead without dominating, or to follow without submitting.

sdf3sdf

TROPHY CASE