Generation of possibilities

Peace River, a hill on the move.

I need to do something more. Most of what I know has been written about somewhere. I could put together articles on various little soils related subjects. Would anyone read it? Does that matter? It would be the right thing to do, to pass on the accumulated knowledge specific subjects. There is nothing new, not written about elsewhere, just one more version of the same thing. 

http://www.retirewow.com/retirement-activities-mathematics-engineering/

Would anybody care?

Flourish

Fake pigeons, I do not know why. Is it a statement of what someone (the artist) things of the US Washington Monument? 

Seligman makes the case that in order to flourish in life, we needs positive emotion, but ignores a mission(s) or purpose(s). (Be aware of the newfiism) An expressed mission provide positive emotion so that we may know without any uncertainty if we are on track. The expression of that positive emotion and mission may help. That mission must have meaning to us and we are therefore engaged in it. We have commitment. Achievement, if fate permits, with accompanying satisfaction and stoic mental joy is typical. He also says we need positive relationships. So how does one have a positive relationship with a negative person? And what to do if it is a familiar relationship that we cannot run from?

The Stoics think "virtue" is a suitable mission, or to develop virtue in life. Most any virtues will do. The typical virtues are grouped as wisdom, self control, courage, and justice or prudence, temperance, justice, courage, persistence, compassion to produce orthogonal space sort of. That is all that is necessary and sufficient for a good life.

Is it enough that we have a plan and we are moving toward something rather than away? I was raised poor, and my first objective was to get out. Then, I started to move toward a career. Now that career is over, but I still need something to move toward. 

It is all good to separate positive relationships out, active or passive responses, constructive or destructive responses, but how do we deal with a general negative person, or negative toward me at least? Abandon and walk away? Just shut down around them? Ignore them, shut them out? Avoid prolonged contact? I do not know. We cannot abandon these negative people and consider ourselves to be compassionate, but we cannot let them drag us down either. It is what it is.  

Islam clipings

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/hamza-chaoui-s-islamic-community-centre-won-t-get-permit-1.2939069

The anti-terrorism bill unveiled Friday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper includes a section that gives his government the power "to order the removal of terrorist propaganda" from the internet.

"There are non-Muslims who come to our home and tell us, ‘Really, you cut off heads, you cut off hands?' But that’s religion. It’s our religion in our own country. We decide how we implement it," he said in a YouTube video which has since been made private.

'The teachings, if you will, of this imam, they are totally unacceptable in a free and democratic society." - Kathleen Weil, Quebec Immigration Minister

"Philippe Couillard needs to affirm that teachings of that nature are not compatible with our values, and we won’t tolerate them," said Nathalie Roy.

Mayor Denis Coderre says the refusal is not a matter of religious freedom, but rather one of public safety and order.

Mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, Real Menard, left, and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre, speak during a press conference, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015.

"It has nothing to do with freedom of speech," Coderre said at a news conference Saturday morning. He described Chauoi as "an agent of radicalization and instigator of social tensions," adding that the imam has "his own agenda" for the site.
Real Menard, mayor of the borough Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, said he will not allow Chauoi to set up in his jurisdiction.
"I'm not going to have any move that will give a place to this imam," Menard said at the same news conference.
Chaoui has made inflammatory and sexist comments in the past. He has also declared Islam and democracy "completely" incompatible.

Mr. Chaoui argues that Islam and democracy are “parallel lines that never intersect” because democracy allows for the election of “an infidel or a homosexual or an atheist who denies the existence of Allah.”

And so it begins in Canada. Islam is not logical. Note: Islam and democracy "completely" incompatible.

Islam has a wider definition of what religion is, what the purview of religion includes that Christianity or most other mainline religions. It includes punishment and laws. Islam was all there was when Mohamed (a general sort of person) was riding his camel across the sands.

Religion should be about doing the right things for the right reasons and knowing the reasons. It should be about developing good character, teaching how to identify character, and what is important for what reason. It should lay out the reasons and allow individuals to pick freely or reject freely, but always with reason. It should be logical and within reason for all. The greatest human characteristic is reason, and we should be using it to make judgements for ourselves, not following the dictates of some long dead.        

Weasels

http://suzanneloomscreativity.blogspot.ca/2015/01/lloyds-bank-quaker-founders-turning-in.html

So the bankers are a bunch of weasels. Reminds me of one of my old bosses. To "raise capital" he sold leased cars to a leasing company and leased them back. AKA. fraud. But by paying two leases....

Old Power

How many of you are old enough to remember the sound of a hit and miss elevator engine? They have a unique sound. When they are over speed, there governor holds the exhaust valve open. It sounds like this. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w5OII6h504

In the background, in this tune, I can hear one. 

Hit and miss engine

Tetris effect?

Triune Brain, Triune Memory?

Humans have a triune brain which we can also term as primal, unconscious, and conscious. Our recall memory seems to be connected mainly to the conscious. It is my contention that our beliefs are mainly connected to our unconscious brain. The primal should also have a memory portion, and that may be even deeper burred than our beliefs. We can examine ourselves and find what we believe. There are things like the purpose of life test to discover some of them. I have read enough philosophy to answer some of those very differently that I would have, but yet I have no current mission in my life. As I am more of a process person than goal oriented, a mission fit better than a purpose. Until now, my mission has been to get through to retirement, by doing what looks to be the next right thing. So now that I have reached retirement, I am still trying to understand myself, other people and world around me.

So, getting back to mind, memory pairs, we should have a third memory/ storage which stores reflexes and other trained in actions. Is this where the tendency to overeat is stored?  The primitive usually translate the intake of the senses into something meaningful. Vibrating air becomes sound, light reflections become images, molecule vibration becomes heat or cold, smells are identified, as are tastes. The primitive mind translates this to the unconscious/conscious into something we can interpreter, and our beliefs and reason can make use of these adequate impressions or not. It is amazing that this can happen, and mean something to the conscious and rational mind.

We know that a concept can enter the conscious mind either via visual or sound input. It it has foundation, clarity, importance, and is repeated, it can remain in the conscious mind, actively and then into recallable portions. If it is used enough, it can progress into the automatic belief portion of the mind, to the point it is automatic. Beliefs are usually learned over time by social learning, seeing others do, and say, by actions repeated ad infinitum; to infinity. So is primitive brain accessed in similar fashion, or is the information stored chemically, in diverse locations at the source of the signal. What does it matter if the system is broke; there is a problem, if there is no mission.

So once again we come to the same conclusion. Just as long as one is busy doing something, everything will be ok, until it is not, and then it does not matter anyway. The Last Marigold Hotel. Everything will be all right in the end, and it it is not all right, it is not yet the end. When we are returned to where we came from, it will not matter either. In the mean time, positive emotions on.

http://www.buffalostate.edu/orgs/bcp/brainbasics/triune.html

So what happens when the memory goes? Does it just become inactive, or does it go the way of the alzheimer's, a shortage of fat, too much carbohydrate problem? Do we learn to relate to vegetables better?

PERMA - Fuey

DIY psychology warning

Positive Psychology has a lot to say about a positive emotion state, engagement in life, relationships, meaning, and achievement, acronym PERMA. It takes a positive emotional state as the starting point in the sequence leading to a satisfying life. That is their downfall, they start in the middle, not at the beginning. There is the Losada effect, how flourishing any relationship or situation is as defined by the ration of positive to negatives. When you are starting with a bunch of negatives, it is difficult to see the positives. There are those people which could change any positive into a negative, also to contend with. Some of us are dependent on some of these people; we call them clients or parents.

We need some positive character to take on those negative people we live and work with, to become positive. After a bit, we do not want to be around the negative people. As Harold said, they could suck all the energy out of us at 100 yards. Now what if all we can see is negatives? Now we need to stop seeing the negatives and start seeing the positives, or emphasis the positives, minimize the negatives. In a dangerous situation, we need to identify all the negatives, but to isolate them from us somehow. There is only a simple count in the Losada ratio, nothing about the size of the "charge", but the size should have an impact as well.

How does one generate a positive emotional state?  Positive Psychology does not tell us. Only Stoic philosophy provides the necessary and sufficient direction to achieve mental enjoyment. Epictetus Enchiridion is the place to start. Soon we learn to let go of negative desires, and even positive desires if they are the problem. We learn to separate ourselves from the world, and see the logic basis of all. We learn to understand the adequate impression, the beliefs, the knowledge, the automatic and primal processes separate from the rational processor facility. We see emotions as our automatic reaction to our beliefs, delusions, expectations, frustrations, and learn that we can modify our beliefs, our values, our thinking processes, and a hosts of other things to create a positive mind state, a positive emotional state. This is necessary and sufficient to control our character, and with meaning and engagement is enough to create achievement where fate permits. This is the key to mental joy and satisfaction, which results in a positive emotion. Positive Psychology falls on it's face in the difficult places without the previous understandings. It help successful people to be more so; the bereft and downtrodden are left out.

In the words of Psychology Today,  "Positive psychology is the study of happiness. Psychology traditionally focused on dysfunction: people with mental illness or other psychological problems and how to treat them. Positive psychology, in contrast, is a relatively new field that examines how ordinary people can become happier and more fulfilled." 

Psychology previously was limited to trying to help the people who could not get on with life, usually with limited success. Positive psychology has a much bigger client base, essentially healthy people. It reminds me of the old pharmacy executive who wanted to sell expensive drugs to healthy people to make money. Cholesterol medications were there answer to profits.   

Oh well, life goes on.