A good message to follow Christ :-)

The existence of self

I got this from 

http://themindunleashed.org/2014/07/10-mind-blowing-theories-will-change-perception-world.html

"Solipsism is a philosophical theory, which asserts that nothing exists but the individual’s consciousness. At first it seems silly – and who generally got it into his head completely deny the existence of the world around us? Except when you put your mind to it, it really is impossible to verify anything but your own consciousness.
Don’t you believe me? Think a moment and think of all the possible dreams that you have experienced in your life. Is it not possible that everything around you is nothing but an incredibly intricate dream? But we have people and things around us that we cannot doubt, because we can hear, see, smell, taste and feel them, right? Yes, and no. People who take LSD, for example, say that they can touch the most convincing hallucinations, but we do not claim that their visions are “reality”. Your dreams simulate sensations as well, after all, what you perceive is what different sections of your brain tell you to.
As a result, which parts of existence can we not doubt? None. Not the chicken we ate for dinner or the keyboard beneath our fingers. Each of us can only be sure in his own thoughts."

My thoughts on this are simple. There is no other proof, other than that of your own feelings, that something exists. You can use your 5 senses, or your internal feelings. That's about it. Nothing else matters. If you weren't here, you wouldn't experience anything, but you are here, so your experiences matter to you, because you feel and think them. The only way to change anything, according to this theory, is to change your way of thinking and doing things. Everything else just happens to us. We can only change ourselves and be an example to other selves with their own observance, and listenings, of you.

Trippy huh? I think this is a cool theory. It settles a lot of questions regarding all the complexities of life and brings them to one simple truth. The truth that you are the only one responsible for your actions, thoughts and feelings. To eat healthy or not to eat healthy, to take medications for serious problems, or not to take medications, to exercise or not to exercise, to farm or not to farm, to gather or not gather, to hunt or to hunt not, to accomplish tasks or to not accomplish tasks, to read or to not read... etc. 

Flixter saved me

Post by Russel Hartwig.

Watching Lots of Movies Lately

I've been Watching Lots of Movies Lately.

Three of those movies are Avengers, Expendables and Hercules. Soon I'll be watching Lucy and then Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Avengers is a classic!

I can't wait for The Avengers: Age of Ultron to come to theaters!!!

I watched a newly released Expendables 3 on Zmovie. It's not out in theaters yet, but it shows in very good quality online. It was about a group of mercenaries on a mission. One of them dies and they are cut off from going on the next mission because Silvester Stallone is sentimental about his crew. He chooses a new crew, they get caught and are being torchered. The old group of mercenaries goes out and rescues them. That's the whole plot. Not much to it, but lots of fun action!

Next I watched Hercules at the theaters. It was real good, and kind of corny/funny.

Hercules never accepts his Godhood, but has marvelous acts of strength. Lots of action, and good humor.

Lucy looks very cool! I'll be seeing that today. It's about a girl (Scarlett Johansson) who gets abducted and has drugs in a sack put in her stomach. She gets beaten and the sack opens. It lets her use 100% of her brain, and strange things begin to happen. She has powers like telekinesis that allow her to defeat her abductees. It seems like a good film. I heard that it doesn't have much of a plot though. The box office is at the top of the list right now at $44 Million with Hercules in second place at $29 Million.

Next I'm going to watch Guardians of the Galaxy. It seems funny, cool and action packed. It doesn't star anyone very famous and looks like a good entry level film for some good PR. I think some of the actors will be cast in future films due to this film. It's about saving the universe of course. I don't know much about the plot accept that four or five characters are called on to defeat a foe that is too powerful for a big army to defeat. I bet that they need to quietly take down the leader with their small group of mercenaries unbenounced to the evil genius. So far the previews look funny and exciting as seen below, but don't lead into the plot very much.

Going everywhere

Over the next few weeks me and my wife, Cherub, will be going to a resort in Scottsdale, lately I've been going shopping at jack in the box for burgers, joanns so that Cherub can make a bunch of sewn and crafted stuffed animals and blankets. She is really good at that! She will be selling the hand crafted stuffed animals for $80. She doesn't have a price set yet for her blankets, but I'm sure it will be a reasonable one.

Later today I'll be going to my grandpa's house to ask if I can borrow the car tomorrow. We will use it for grocery shopping and maybe a movie! :-). I also owe him a little money, so it'll be good to get that to him.

Right now I'm at an appointment with my doctors. They say my blood pressure is a little too high for how old I am. I need to get an at-home blood pressure cuff. That way I can do my own blood pressure monitoring. After that I can chart how well or bad my pressure is over time.

There are lots of good ways to get around in the city of Phoenix and the metro area in general. We have a phenomenal bus system that runs up and down the grid of streets. Phoenix and the metro area have streets in a East, West, North and South grid. The street almost perfectly run perpendicular to each other. That makes it really easy to get around. There is a bus for almost every street on that grid! In Tempe, they go a step further and provide a free ride service called Orbit. It's pretty good, and it goes to neighborhoods where the buses don't go. They are little busses with blue paint jobs on the outside. There are nine Orbit Busses and they are named after the 8 plus 1 planets in the Solar System. The plus one is Pluto. Pluto is now a dwarf planet, and not considered a regular planet any longer.

That's all I have to say today...

Flow state youtube videos

Right now I'm getting into the art of "flow." For me flow comes to me when I'm contemplating and visualizing ideas. All sorts of ideas. Not just a specific category. Yes, I have categories that I like i.e. inventions in 3-D design, art in photoshop, and thought processes that bring those types of ideas to life. But, other than that, I like the gathering of information in the form of videos as an inspiration to my thinking processes. I would say that one of my favorite things to do is to get inspired from motivational and informational speaking. To me informative and motivational speaking is the ultimate idea seeking form.

ENJOY:

Church, Home, Facebook, and Cooking Cookies

Today I woke up, got dressed and went to church! Yay! During church they talked mostly about being like Christ. They said things like, "If a man asks you to walk with him one mile, go with him twain." Or go with him twice as far. I personally take that as a metaphor to do twice as much as asked. Or, to converse with someone about the gospel twice as long. I would do that during the times that I do missionary work by going with the full time missionaries.

I went home, and luckily Dad let me borrow the truck for the week, so I didn't need to ask for a ride to church, or to work. At home, I was expecting one of our home teachers from church to come by and give us a short lesson. He did. It was about not procrastinating. I vowed not to procrastinate the things that I need to do today (like work, church, prayers, service to other church members, or scripture studies). He said that he would text us to make sure we're doing our part. It's good to be accountable to someone. After he left, we started baking cookies (for us). I feel like I should give them to someone, but to whom, I don't know. Our friend Jessica should be invited... I just called her and she is busy right now.

And here's what I saw on Facebook today:

Post by Amazing Photos & Videos.

Now we're having family home evening... Gotta go,

~ D. Russel Hartwig