Being freshly laid-off and in the midst of a pandemic/recession is worrisome, to say the least. We can't help but worry. From the stoic point of view, it's all out of our control so there's no point in worrying. What we do have control of is doing the best we can under the circumstances. You've got valuable skills, good credentials, and work in a field that can be done online (with social distancing), so you're actually in a position with a lot of potential for employment, freelance work, or entrepreneurial endeavors. We can worry and see opportunities and move forward.

I hate the idea of being born in debt. On the other hand, my current credit rating is 848. :smile:

If I see Amanda on the street and wave to her and wonder why she is looking oddly at me, I have not come any closer to reality when I realize she looks a tiny bit like Amanda, but isn't her at all.

No, in both those instances, I was being just as realistic. One can never gain deeper insight or get closer to a realistic understanding of something. — Coben

In both instances, you were consciously aware of and had a connection to someone that you believed to be real. It was a prediction error, simply.

Insight and understanding have value because they help us do 'realistic' or practical things. What I'm suggesting is that our reality is shaped by our intents and purposes. In the absence of all intents and purposes, can real or unreal still be distinguished? I guess that's a silly question because discernment requires purpose.

I see one guy petting and training his dog and I see another guy petting nothing and actively training nothing in the same park. I suspect the latter probably is less connected in those activities. Of course, maybe I'm dreaming, maybe the latter is making a film. — Coben

I don’t follow, whatever the guy without the dog is doing he’s consciously aware of and interacting with something that must exist for him, unless he’s pretending.

In the following picture, do you see a young woman or an old one? Does seeing one or the other mean that you’re more or less aware of and consciously connected to reality? It could mean that you failed to correctly see the image that the drawer intended, if that were their intention. It wasn’t of course.

Dogs**t, ultimately, isn't funny or worth any more comment, time, or trouble than is needed to solve it as a problem. After all, finally, dogs**t is just dogshit. — tim wood

It seems to me that the bigger problem is in how such a person could be elected. That problem won’t go away anytime soon, but meanwhile, it may serve a less than shameful purpose to express solidarity in our shared dislike of dogshit.

It's a deeply shameful, embarrassing piece of writing that illuminates more about the writer than it does of Trump. — StreetlightX

Right, it was an explanation of why some Brits dislike the man, so of course it says a lot about the writer. It actually doesn’t illuminate anything about Trump. What the writer mentions has always been painfully obvious.

Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment,mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.
— Dogen

Yeah, but it's not as if that Zen thing is saying one is in the same boat, in that third level as one was in the first. In Zen that second mountains are mountains you are, according to that tradition, much more aware of and consciously connnect to reality than in the first. — Coben

What does that even mean, being much more aware of and consciously connected to reality?

I think we simply tend to be less anxious the closer we get to realizing that there’s no difference between illusion and reality.

This prevents the idol worshiping of the immoral gods, that the mainstream religions are prone to follow. This makes Gnostic Christianity a superior ideology. — Gnostic Christian Bishop

So Christ was just an ordinary dude?

Here's an idea: stop whining and do something to help someone. Some person who lives near you. — frank

My wife is making masks. I’m making stupid paintings (surely unhelpful). What are you doing?

It's obviously difficult to see my point with your politically partisan glasses on. — Harry Hindu

I’ll admit your point is foggy. State government decided when to impose restrictions so if they did it too late for an optimal outcome that’s their fault, although perhaps not entirely.

The criticisms directed at the White House regarding corona span a variety of issues, many of which aren’t really comparable to state government.

Campaign ad, propaganda... potato, potato.

Speaking of con jobs, did you see the campaign ad that he aired during a coronavirus briefing the other day?



When a reporter pointedly asked who made the ad, Trump replied that it was made by a few people in his administration, apparently oblivious to the fact that it’s illegal to use public resources for campaign purposes.

It’s the art of the deal. “Never take anything off the table”. Trump likes to tout his power and authority for leverage and ambiguity in deal making. — NOS4A2

It’s the Art of The Con, and you appear to have bought it hook, line, and sinker.

If the governors don't have access to the intelligence resources that the WH has, then why are they saying that they have the power (which would include the resources) to re-open their own states, and not the WH? — Harry Hindu

They do have the power, regardless of der Führer’s claim of “absolute” power in the matter. The framework they’ve outlined is based on “principles that residents' health comes first, health outcomes and science dictate decisions and states need to work with local and community leaders.” Would it make more sense for the White House to dictate how and when restrictions are rolled back in each state?

One last total distracted fact but relevant all the same: an dozen chicken eggs is about the same quantity as what you get out of an Ostrich or Emu egg. — ArguingWAristotleTiff

Google says two dozen. No Ostriches on the ranch, I take it?

Are you saying that ostriches don't make giant eggs? — frank

No. We should probably verify this with your mom though.

Tens of thousands of American lives is like chicken feed to you?! What a monster. :scream:

I was just being a smart ass. — frank

Bungling a drone strike could cost a handful of lives. Bungling the National response to a pandemic could costs tens of thousands.

I assume wrongly then?

I assume that state governors don’t have access to the intelligence resources that the White House has, for one thing. Also, the criticism isn’t just about not closing things down.

Why would you say such a thing? — NOS4A2

Sanctimoniousness is like chicken soup for his soul.

If I understand you, you might want to use a term like forced austerity or minimalism rather than essentialism.

Or maybe it reacts differently to covid, Dr. Nos4a2.

Speaking of Sweden, hospitals in there have stopped using the malaria drug chloroquine on coronavirus patients after reports it was causing blinding headaches and vision loss.

Another tough break for POTUS.

Americans are trained from birth to be good producers and consumers. Retraining would take a very long time, and it would require a desire to change.

My suggestion is that the primary lesson of this slowed pace of life isn't that we now have been shown that we can reconfigure our world so that remote learning and working, for example, can now become the norm, but it's that we might want to rethink how important the busyness of our lives was to our overall well being in the first place (which I do not describe in simplistic hedonistic terms). — Hanover

But that would destroy the economy. :scream:

In no way or manner does it imply that these are womanly qualities. — Merkwurdichliebe

So you’re a felinist then.

Yeah that’s messed up. Worst possible time to quit and try finding another position also.

Anyway, hope things improve.

Seems like you should be paid for every hour worked, and depending on you situation, perhaps even earning overtime pay.

If they cut your hours doesn’t that mean you’re being paid hourly now? What do they say when you point out the situation to them?

It sounds like you are implying that fear is a womanly quality. Kinda sexist dont'cha think? — Merkwurdichliebe

... pussies and cowards. — Merkwurdichliebe

Kinda hypocritical, me thinks.

"If" you're a carrier? It is a very dangerous thing, to base your life around "ifs". And when the state begins to base its policies around "ifs", then systemic tyranny is very close at hand. — Merkwurdichliebe

It’s not very manly of you to have such fear of uncertainty, Merk.

Face masks cannot stop healthy people getting Covid-19 — Merkwurdichliebe

Like social distancing and the rest, it’s not just about fear of infection but fear of spreading it to others. If I’m a carrier a mask should offer those around me some protection. I understand masks are more effective in containing the virus to the wearer.

I wore a mask for the first time in public at Wholefoods the other day. It wasn’t as embarrassing as I thought because about half the people there were using them and also, with the help of a cap, the chance anyone could recognize me was slim.

overhyped boogey-virus, that is for pussies and cowards. — Merkwurdichliebe

Studly brave dudes don’t practice social distancing or wear masks etc?

:razz: I like the idea of including a dog.

For being a second rate NOS?