lol you went to Iceland just to get drunk? wtf man?

I went in January and it was absolutely beautiful. Definitely not much in the way of drunkenness but the beer I had was pretty good.

Russia has been able to nuke American cities on demand for more than 50 years. Who cares?

Exactly, seems the current situation goes something like this:

- We pretend we can somehow shoot down the Russian ICBMs, even though we can't

- The Russian pretend they have some new Nukes which can defeat our fake missile defense system

- ???

idk man, every kid in every picture from that article looks like they're contemplating murder.

LOL at going to Iceland solely to get drunk.

They always backtrack after the stories leak.

There's a certain type of person whose idea of travel is going to hostels in various countries and getting drunk with Australians.

That actually sounds pretty good to me.

Truth. Being a thirsty traveler is half, maybe even 3 quarters, the fun of travelling.

Just want to say that I was wrong on this, I must have confused McMaster with someone else. I thought he was one of the ones cautioning against a first strike on NK, not one of the ones pushing for it.

So who are the ones trying to hold Trump back, cautioning against it? Is it Mattis and Tillerson? Some higher ups at the Pentagon?

Most likely Mattis, but hopefully everyone else is on board too. It's an insane idea.

You can do the same thing locally and save a bunch of money.

At first I was ready to concede that it's just my personal bias (that negative arcs are more likely) and that a positive story arc is also self-reinforcing. But there really are many more ways for things to go wrong than ways they can go right. You could think of it as a kind of narrative entropy.

Technology and the way we live now raises the temperature and increases the entropy- bends the arc, increases the curvature, accelerates the process of making our stories a mess. And many of us are susceptible to having our stories come apart because of depression or addiction (although it strikes me that possibly you can turn this around and define these things as particular ways that stories go wrong).

I like those descriptions. Personally, I'm stuck where I don't know what my story is supposed to be right now. Therapy is expensive, so basically unavailable for me. If anyone has a recommendation for a way to approach meditation with a minimum of extraneous bs, let me know.

Going to Iceland and complaining about there not being enough booze is like going to a desert and complaining about the lack of water.

You go to Iceland for the beautiful nature outside of Reykjavik knowing that it's cost prohibitive to get wasted every night. Go literally anywhere else in Europe for a better drinking experience.

I wouldn't know where JBrochu and I could find drunk Aussies in New Hampshire with whom we could drink.

Yeah I usually go to California to hang out with drunk Aussies.

Intuitively, or logically, I thought the same thing. I just felt that playing the devil's advocate in this spot could be interesting. There's so much chance and randomness involved in our stories that I thought "hey, why couldn't our lives just randomly turn for the better?" Why does negativity have to be the default setting? (I've led a reasonably easy life, never met any real catastrophe or horror, so in a way I'm being naive just pondering this.) Maybe life's default is being solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. And maybe the Pollyanna perspective just doesn't change that reality.

Begin an easy exercise routine, one day on, one day off. Lifting, walking, shooting hoops, anything physical. Exercise improves our brain's health more than anything (something about bloodflow, and the myriad of other pros of getting off our asses.) But keep it easy for starters because most of us will quit or get injured if we just jump into an intense workout routine. This is standard advice, but profound if you buy into it.

Boston and Portland are close. Guaranteed to be Aussie infested hostels in either city.

It's possible that an SSRI or antidepressant could be helpful. The two I'm on work for me, and helped me in getting into a mindset where exercise didn't seem so daunting (not saying that you think it is.) I've read that exercise is even more effective in battling depression than prescriptions, but without the prescription some of us would never possess the mindset and motivation to get out the door to begin with. (I also live in Ontario where seeing a doctor about my depression was free of charge. Arizona is probably a different story.)

Hello ladies,

Reminds me of this:

If you want to take a shot at meditation then Insight Timer is a good app to start with. There are guided meditations on there from all types of people and for different things, usually they are short and easy to follow along with.

It's honestly really simple to get started meditating. Make sure you are seated with a straight back (chair or on the floor works) and you can keep your eyes closed or open but if they are open just stare at a single spot in front of you (do whatever is comfortable). The simplest way of meditating for me is just focusing on your breathe and its characteristics, so look at what parts of your body get a sensation when you breathe. If you have any thoughts that come up just notice the thought but don't get stuck on it, you don't want to actually have no thoughts when you meditate you just want to build your ability to let go of thoughts while also noticing them when they come up. It gets easier to do with more practice and I've noticed doing 10 minutes a day has helped me in regards to my depression plus I've had some very trippy meditation sessions which is fun for me personally.

Real or Onion?

"Police called after cat lurking in tree appears to be holding assault rifle"