DISQUS

You need to start writing because I'm going to produce your album. We agreed on this. :)

I frakking love that book! I've listened to the audio version like eight times. Amazing!

I remember hearing Sean Carroll on NPR talking about the icefish while I was still a witness. It palpably ramped up the christianity/reality tension in my mind. How can you argue with fossil DNA? Mind blowing.

Incredible stuff.

I totally agree.

Me and the Cind-ster are totally loving this one.

Though HighTV did kind step into the "dance-synth arena" for one song on our album.

For the record, though, we did not use FM synthesis. :)

Not boring at all!

That all sounds very interesting and productive. I'm currently building a Weird Sound Generator. It's my first foray into serious electronics building. Very fun so far!

I like to hear what other people are doing to keep themselves busy. Makes me wanna get off my ass and do something.

Hey Ryan. If you do find a program that trains apostates, let me know.

Oh wait. Now that I think about it, I have seen them. They're called universities. :)

Hey man. I thought of you when I was on this site today: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/av/index.htm

It's MIT's OpenCourseware site. You can watch full videos of most of their classes. It's amazing.

Their math choices are here: http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/av/index....

That's funny. I was going to forward this to you.

This video and your earlier post are the best arguments I've heard against Prop 8.

Wait a second! If there's going to be "NO MORE FREEDOM FOR NO ONE," doesn't that mean that there WILL be more freedom for everyone???

Four more beers!

Four more beers!

Liberated by Judith's magical double-negative!

I saw this:

http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,3195,Earl...

and thought of this post. Thought you might be interested. I'm really tired of religion.

Sound like a great night! Wish I could have been there for it.

No flume?!?

It's a travesty!

Yeah, I agree.

I believe that bush went into Iraq for dishonest reasons. And he gave the american public a load of absolute hogwash to pull it off. I just think it's interesting that there was a valid defense of the idea of invading Iraq from a UN security council perspective, with them having violated so many regulations.

One year later:

Great post! I learned a lot in here. Incredible stuff.

I'm curious if you've heard/read any of what Christopher Hitchens has said about going into Iraq? He actually turned me around. I still think it was executed horribly and under terrible circumstances (lack of armor for the soldiers' vehicles comes to mind).

A question to him:
Was the president right or wrong to go to the United Nations in September 2002 and to say that body could no longer tolerate Saddam Hussein's open flouting of its every significant resolution, from weaponry to human rights to terrorism?

His response:
A majority of the member states thought he was right and had to admit that the credibility of the United Nations was at stake. It was scandalous that such a regime could for more than a decade have violated the spirit and the letter of the resolutions that had allowed a cease-fire after the liberation of Kuwait. The Security Council, including Syria, voted by nine votes to zero that Iraq must come into full compliance or face serious consequences.

I think it's interesting. Though I still think it has turned into the ultimate clusterfuck.

Holy shit, man. There's no comments because no one is done reading this yet!

You'll hear from me next year. :)

(also, happy birthday!!!!!)

My favorite part: "Talk about his ties to the multiple people he has dealings with."

Also, Andy is a poop-face.

That's rough, my friend. It's amazing how quickly things change once you're not a witness anymore.

Hooray for eduring adversity in the name of living an authentic life.

Interesting note: that crazy looking guy who comes in dancing when they're at Solera is my friend Matt, of Solid Gold. Shon, Zach, Adam and Matt were all bartending that night.

And the brave war veteran's response.

Crap. You don't allow embedded stuff.

Here's a link.

Click me.

Hey Ryan, check out this bloodbath:



Sometimes I still love CNN.

Wow.

Interesting stuff. I've been thinking about a lot of the same things, as far as my own life goes.

I picked up a Dr Phil (yeah, yeah) book at the thrift store and I'm a little over a hundred pages in and it's been really amazing. It's called Self Matters. In it, he talks about how we usually have a handful of defining moments in our lives that permanently change our perspective and our response to certain situations throughout our life, often to our detriment.

It got me thinking and I've already had a couple of really valuable insights about how I feel about my family, about creativity, about how I view myself, etc.

Anyway, thanks for posting this. I think it helps everyone when were open about these kinds of feelings.

Lame! Lame! Lame! Fly me home! I'll do it!

I'm sorry to hear that, man. Hella disappointing.

Joe, thanks for opening this stuff up for the public. It's really helpful. What's also amazing to me is how many people started their doubts due to the flood. That was true of me also. I had the same concerns. "How can I go out in service now?" "How could I possibly offer the Require brochure?" Once I realized that there were cave ecosystems that would have been wiped out, that there were ice layers dating back for thousands of years that would have been destroyed, etc. It was very reality-shattering for me. And scary. And amazing. What a roller-coaster ride.

I'm glad you've shared yours with us.

Hey Joe,

This is eric. We met once a long time ago at an assembly in Rochester. I'm friends with Ryan. I just want you to know that I think about you from time to time and I understand how crazy this transition is. Hang in there.

[While I'm here, Eckhart Tolle has been a big help to me, especially A New Earth. That book has helped me deal with the abundance of crazy emotions I've been going through during deconversion. For the record, I read that before it was an Oprah's book club book. :) ]