In "Curious George: What should I do in life?"

That's a great point now that I think about it. I can choose to see the beauty in anything. You can only present others with a choice. This is frustrating, of course, since as a young man I want nothing more than to affect dramatic change in people's every-day life, to wake them up, to allow them to see the world with greater clarity and purpose. I do have a bit of a messiah complex, which is especially ironic considering that I struggle with clarity and purpose myself. expii, when I first read your comment I found it confrontational, but I realize now that it merely confronted my inconsistency. Also, I am fascinated by the common things people find beautiful. For me, mandolins, tupperware, coiled telephone cords and quality knit goods are awesome. What are some more? Chrismas decorations, wire baskets, turntable cartridges and LL Bean duck boots.

First, MCT I appreciate your response. The things you mentioned carry further meaning that cannot be manufactured. I can't design an heirloom, or a piece of art, with your loving it in mind. I have the same exact tastes you do - and like you, I know when I love something, and know when someone made it look like I should love it - real vs. fake. If you design objects you are always imbuing them with impure motivations, to sell, to covet, to talk about. Beauty is created in the accidents, the decisions made by powers higher or lower than ours - drifwood, old junk, animal bones, quilts made from feed bags. I am aware of the craft route. I have some experience making musical instruments. I just don't think I could deal with making really expensive things. I play guitar a little, right? And so I should really consider making really gorgeous guitars, maybe fill a niche in custom resonator guitars with piezo and magnetic pickups (not many on the market). I could do this, I have lots of experience in exotic materials and acoustics. I feel pride in any good craft I have done. But this is the rub: the people who can afford beautiful things are not the people who need beautiful things the most. I admire craftsmen of this sort but I am too holistically minded to become a hermit. This is actually an asinine standpoint. I need to start looking at why there is always a rub.

In "Curious George: Automatons?"

Oh, and the book "Waking Up" is probably the exact text you need to read. It is by Charles M. Tart, a stanford expert on hypnosis and Gurdjieff. Unless you meant the soul in, you know, less practical ways.

So yeah they don't have souls, and you should practice vipassana meditation. (Seriously). Forget the seeing form as emptiness for now, just try to observe your ever changing thoughts and emotions as you breathe.

Man that comment makes me sound like a brainwashed idiot.

Most people live in a trance. They are hypnotized. I recommend reading about G.I. Gurdjieff. I know this because I live in a trance when I do not make an effort to break out of it. The trance is created by conventional society. We think that if we act an automatic, learned way we will be safe and accepted. Accepted, yes, safe, maybe not. Wake up. Pay attention to your body and your breathing and soon you too will realize how out of touch you are with your emotions and true 'self'. Indeed, most people have many selfs - different at work than with the family than arguing with someone on the highway. Different standards of conduct, essentially different people in one body. Gurdjieff says we do not have a soul - we have to create it. I think this is correct. Seriously though, try to pay attention to the minutae of your life and if you do so constantly a world of meaning will be revealed to you, if only for a few minutes at a time. I'm dead serious. Your observation is right. They do not have a soul because they don't have a self - just an 'I' who gets offended when you talk about politics or religion, or and 'I' that wants a PS3, or an 'I' that isn't as nice when it is hungry or tired. I am the same way with one key difference - one of my me's knows that I have other I's and that to transcend this utter confusion I need to observe myself and forge in the smithy of my soul the unborn consciousness of a single 'me'. Experience the clarity and bliss once. I have and although I don't know how to make it permanent I know I need too.

In "Curious George: What should I do in life?"

**NEW'S FLASH** Insight of the day here, monkeys. I just realized that the dull sensation of anxiety that you experience before a nervous breakdown is exactly the same feeling as the dull sensation of nervousness created when you're coming up on a psychedelic drug of some kind.

In "Mark David Chapman Denied Parole"

So the CIA monitors this guy who they hate and fear, they watch him for years, and all of a sudden a lone crazy dude with a blank stare shoots him. Just saying.

In "All Libyan pupils to get laptop and web access "

can you eat porn??

In "Curious George: Love Advice"

Loving is self sacrifice. The amount you love is the amount of yourself you sacrifice. The aim of a relationship is to transcend your own concerns and create something more important to you than your self. This makes a lot of people uncomfortable - these people are uncomfortable with happiness.

In "Curious George: Serif font."

RIP Duane Blehm. I will drop a man into a bale of hay pulled by a horse for my O.G.

Also, I think Adrian Frutiger designed futura and Univers. So they're basically the same? Could be wrong. I know he designed at least two of those. The thing, by the way, about Helvetica/Swiss/Zurich (I assume it is the same) is that it looks like shit unless it's weight is chosen very carefully, the line spacing ditto, and the kerning has to be spot on. If you have InDesign or something, set it to optical kerning and it will look great. Franklin Gothic is an interesting choice. It is used in newspapers a lot. It definitely has a more American vibe. Gill Sans is very british, Frutiger is french if that means anything. Trade Gothic is california-ey. Very Adobe systems 1995.

Arial?? Are you people on crack? I would recommend Optima or Chicago (early Macintosh Finder font) Remember the finder?? Remember when that shit was like a seperate program? Remember the death of Duane Blehm, author of StuntCopter?

Humanist is the only one mentioned here that is suitable for type. Although technically Herman Zapf called it a 'serifless roman'. He designed it for his wedding invitations. Gill Sans is best drawn from the upper case only. Eric Gill was a very opinionated socialist, and sounded best shouting.

In "ART WORKS!"

I like how he uses paint straight from the tubes without mixing it.

In "Curious George: Acoustic Song List?"

Sailor's Grave on the Prarie by Leo Kottke

In "Curious George: Build a Synth"

Native instruments makes an astonishingly good piano, but each piano module takes up about 4gb of drive space and I'm pretty sure it needs more than a pIII. Their B4 is less money, and if you can run it, I recommend it highly. Obviously, an emulation of a rotating speaker is never going to sound as 'cool' as a rotating speaker, but if you get some good headphones or a roland keyboard amp to play through it should sound extremely decent. You might look for a synth that doesn't try to sound 'real' but that is still expresive. You might be able to run an early version of Absynth, another NI product. BTW, their 'Guitar Rig' is the coolest damn software, ever. I guess for the piano you could find one of those old synthesisers that used sample-CDs, and find one of those CDs. Not an expert though.

In "Curious, George: Recipe Hacks"

Oh snap my bad how inappropriate of me I hope the internets can forgive me. BTW I was just making positive comments sorry if it spoil'd your appetite.

Mandyman makes me sport wood Mandyman is a stone cold fox I don't eat much pre-prepared food. Sometimes I get Trader Joe's nan but that's pretty good out of the box. In the summer I get a lot of nutrition from smoothies. I also eat like 7 cucumbers a week. Seriosly though, soybeans. Just dump them in anything. Fish after it's been pan fried. In my fake meats too.

In ""

What attracts people to the bass? I've never understood that. I'm sure there are a lot of good reasons but I don't know what they are. Tell!

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