shelly

Trump is bad. But so is Hillary. Voting turnout in 2016 was all-time low. People just didn't show up to vote, so it made it seemed like the racists/bigots turned out to vote. There was really no viable choice because people don't vote third party. I don't know why? Maybe Americans watch too much football and can only think of the world between two teams, between God and Satan, between good and evil. And it is standard divide and conqueror tactics. 

[...]

 

People don't vote third party because we know it is useless, not because of the beliefs you listed.

I had a bad/gross dream a few days ago, that there was something wrong with one of my knees.

I hate when people get offended that you dont want to smoke with them.

I mean, seriously? It's a choice thing, acting mad about it is stupid.

Finals done, therefore, good day \o/

I'm the opposite, I just really love the smell of old books. 

Exactly this.

Reason? It's just good.

I actually dislike the smell of the new ones, they have too much of a chemically smell for me.

I love Arizona Iced Tea, the green tea flavor. Its really great on a hot day, it heals* me.    (*lifts my mood)

I like the taste, the design on the can, and the feel of holding it too.

Spoiler

 

If there are any libraries near you, you might find some useful things there.

I've found books, CD's and computer programs for learning languages, free to borrow at the library.

A lot of them were outdated though.

So, my advice, check the library and sift through whats there.

Otherwise, there are always online resources.

I've tried learning tiny bits of Mandarin (I havent gotten anywhere though. .... I keep putting it off)

But because of the fact that I'm at least planning to learn some eventually, I bookmarked a bunch of websites that I saw other people recommending in forums and chatboxes whenever I came across it.

Because I haven't really used any of these resources yet, I don't know how useful they are, and because I was mainly on the lookout for the very basics, it may or may not be useful to you, depending on how advanced you are.

Anyway, here are the random bookmarks I have:

• http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-21f-003-learning-chinese-a-foundation-course-in-mandarin-spring-2011/ (online course. I think it asks you to buy a textbook, but the exercises and lessons are probably free. Probably. I really don't know.)
• http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/ (table of sounds)
• http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com/ (learning the characters)
• http://www.learnchineseez.com/characters/learn-to-write-chinese/ (writing the characters)
• http://www.chinese4.eu/chinese-for-you/ (basic things like hello, goodbye, etc)
• http://yupnet.org/languages/wheatley/ (textbook)
• http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php (dictionary)

I have been feeling unwell, so I've been sleeping a lot the past few days, a few hours at a time. So I've been dreaming a lot. I can't remember most of the dreams well enough to write them out (I forget them right after I wake up) but here are two from today that I remember a little better:

--> I had a dream that I reconciled/made-up with a family member I've been sortof fighting with for awhile.

I was walking around an empty area paved with asphalt in front of my house picking up dirty plates from all around, like there had been a party and I was cleaning up. Then that family member came by and started apologizing. But for some reason.... they apologized while singing   @_@  and doing costume changes mid-performance like a pro.  @__@

Though it really wasn't an apology, but more of a "Yeah we disagree, but hey, we're family, lets not fight anymore"

-->  I dreamt I dressed up like a teenager and snuck into my old highschool (which I figured would work because people used to mistake me for a teen a lot). It was P.E. exercises all day, everyone in the school, in one huge, gray, low-ceilinged auditorium, doing group exercises like jumping jacks, and that was the whole reason I went, because of the exercises. No one suspected I wasn't a student. The school day ended and I went home. Then I went to the school again a few days later, and did the exercises again. Then, when I decided to leave early, I realized the whole school was built like a prison, and I had to find some way out without people getting suspicious and checking whether I was really a student. I spent the rest of the dream and awhile after I woke up thinking of unneccesarily complicated escape methods.

I think the dream was caused by me thinking to myself that I should try catching up on the manga "Re:Life" again, and that I also needed to go to the gym. Also, probably... because I have become very unfit, but back in high school I did a sport, so maybe I was thinking I need to start doing something physical again.

My question: Can anyone else actually read things in their dreams?

I don't think I ever have. In my dreams if I look at an open book, I just get a feeling about what the book is about, but I don't actually read it.

It used to work that way for speaking too. I would just know what someone wanted to say without them actually making any sound. Either through a look they sent me, or them opening their mouths like they were going to sing, and suddenly I understood their message.

Even in my head, the message didn't come out in words ^^;;

Even when I concentrated on listening, I pretty much only heard the rustling of the speaking persons clothing at most.

But that has changed, now I can sometimes hear speech(or singing) in my dreams, which is pretty cool.

[For some reason, my nightmares always had sound though :/ ]

So I think it could change for reading too.

--TL;DR:  I can't, but I think that can change.

Edit:

I'm sorry to hear that. There's nothing worse than feeling bad and only being able to sleep in fits and starts.

Mind you, I always sleep that way. I'm up every couple hours, whether I want to be or not. I got into the habit back in college and never broke out of it.

I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks a lot for the well wishes, it makes me happy, receiving that

The situation is actually a little different though. I sleep plenty at night, but during the day I get a weirdly deep tiredness, think "I'll just lay down for a few minutes" and sleep a few hours. So its 8 to 10 hrs at night, and around 6(?) hrs during the day.

Its different, but it still feels bad, so...      

.... so I'm not returning the well-wishing! *holds it tight*

... I'm not greedy!

I washed my covers and sheets the other day.

When it was time to sleep, I realized I had forgotten to re-dress the bed.

So I slept on the couch.

The same thing happened the next day.

On day three, I finally re-dressed the bed, because I got annoyed that I couldn't sleep 10 hours on the couch without someone waking me up.

Do I win? What's the prize?

Oh, also, I figured this would be relevant:

http://vatoto.com/comic/_/comics/tanaka-kun-wa-itsumo-kedaruge-r10167

My pants knees smell like dirt from gardening. My jacket smells like half-faded scent of regular scent fabric softener.

My hair smells like 3/4's faded smell of rosemary shampoo + rose conditioner, mixed with the smell of "it's time to wash the pillowcase". My shirt smells like sweat... (That's what I get for wearing a jacket inside on a warm day.)

The rest of me smells like my almond-oatmeal soap.

That soap is the best.

The Best.

Some odd foods I've cooked include: boiled fresh tongue (yum!), brains in black butter (too rich), and broiled veal kidneys (very good, but tricky to prepare just right). [These days I can't readily find the ingredients for any of those.]

Cow tongue tacos are really great!   Better than regular beef tacos by far.

I've eaten that, cow intestines, ants, fish eyes, and fried weevils.

Not really much weird stuff.

My brother seems to think that the weirdest thing I've eaten would be eating butter, salt, or sugar. Just grab a small piece of butter and eat it by itself. Or a teaspoon of salt or sugar. 

I don't think its all that weird. I stopped doing it anyway because I figured that its probably not healthy.

I feel like I've posted here before, but oh well.

The other day I dreamt I was a janitorial worker for some kind of one-floored office building in a totalitarian country that controlled everything, with police constantly patrolling, checking for rule breakers. I had a burger that I bought for lunch and had somehow gotten ahold of an extra set of burger buns. In the dream, I knew that even the amount you ate was controlled, and they wouldn't let me eat any scrap of food more than the original burger I bought. But I was starving to death, and the money from the job was so horribly low that I couldn't afford to buy more food under-the-table. So, I stood in a deserted hallway in a less visited part of the building and hid the extra buns inside the burger and desperately squished it to make it look normal, while eating as fast as I could. I could hear the sound of police footsteps in the hall and knew I didn't have a lot of time. Even within the dream, I thought "this desperate because of some burger buns?" and thought the whole scene was silly, but I immediately thought to myself, that it doesn't matter if it looks silly, I've become that desperate, so I don't care what it looks like.

Halfway through eating the burger I woke up, and stared at the ceiling in a daze for awhile.

Then my cousin came by and told me "Hey, I made some pancakes. Go eat some if you want them."

"Burgers?" I asked, amazed.

"Pancakes!" he replied.

>.> Now. Replace all instances of Pancakes with Burgers, and you will know what I heard.

That dream was powerful...

The ability to naturally walk in the blind-spot of whoever I'm walking with, without intending to.

I won't say I believe it, because I haven't decided what I believe yet, but this idea is an interesting one:

Say I believe in parallel realities/many-worlds/multi-verse; the one with the branching realities.

Then I would say that I believe in fate, because every possible result/fate is fated to happen to some version of you.

   No matter which path you choose, the end result is pre-determined for that path.

(I say "no matter which you choose" because I believe in free-will, so fate would have to be defined as: "Something that is fated to happen no matter what you try to do to avoid it" because free-will means that your thoughts and actions are not pre-determined.)

This also means that fate, even if true, would be meaningless because by being able to choose which path to walk down, you choose what fate you end up with.

So, even though every result is pre-determined, you can choose any of the possible results based on what you choose to do at moments when there is a choice.

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,