Comfort Zones

Everyone has their comfort zones and a large part of our will, subconscious or not, goes towards remaining in these comfort zones. It is directly related to fear – stay in my comfort zone and I avoid fear. Simple concept right? Except that comfort zones are pretty small places when you compare it to the area beyond the confines of your courage. You could liken it to a piece of property with a fence around it. Outside the fence is a scary world.

I realised that the best way to deal with comfort zones, is to be constantly trying to expand upon them. Imagine the fenced off property, but then you expand it to a whole city, a whole country, the whole world or universe. Imagine if your comfort zone shared the same boundaries as your imagination. No matter what predicament you are in, whatever part of the world, you would be free from fear – or at least not bound by it.

But facing a fear is a scary prospect by definition. But I believe there is a loop hole in the system. Basically you expand your comfort zone so that the idea of facing a fear is within your comfort zone and from there you can grow exponentially. I, myself, am by no means at this point. I write this as much for myself as anyone else, but it is a state of mind I would like to maintain one day.

- Eden (while listening to Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd)

P.S I feel bad for whacking the cock off of the top article. So make sure you scroll down and catch art at its finest.

Dogman's Cock College

First draw two parallel lines from left to right going upward at about 35 – 45 degrees (perhaps not perfectly parallel, I like it slightly fatter at the bottom), then draw a tear-drop at the top right end. On the lower line, draw a truly parallel line just above it, but slightly shorter at each end – shade the inner edges of those first lines ever so slightly (be gentle). Also shade the edge of the tear-drop on the left – just a touch. Now draw some scattered spider legs up and down the cylinder. Once you’ve done this you can either move up or down (from the base), I like to go down. With light hands – draw something like a half a tear-drop, make it much larger than the first and more “wrinkly”. Add in some spider legs/creases and shading around the edges, and some shading between the cylinder and large tear-drop (this is make or break right here). Now to finish it off, draw your best interpretation of grass at the topside of the base of the cylinder.

Here is the result if done correctly:

- Dogman


PS - I do apologise for the quality of the scan. I was at work and didn't really want anyone to see what I was doing (I felt like Seth from Superbad).

PPS - This was just an excuse to post a picture of a cock.

Patton's Take

“There’s someone in my head but it’s not me”

A man on the brink of insanity enters a room. There is a white table with a gun on it. There are two chairs on opposite sides of the table. One empty and the other occupied by a man who shares an exact likeness to that of the first man. The first man sits in the empty seat.

Man 1: Are you me?
Man 2: I am what you call the mind.
1: My mind?
2: No.
1: You are some form of over mind? Like a mother ship?
2: No I am the mind of the body you see. Nothing more.
1: But that is my body. So you are my mind.
2: No.
1: No?
2: You don’t exist. Therefore, I cannot belong to you.
1: How can that be? I am here. In body and mind.
2: I am the mind here, in this body.
1: But it is mine. I see, hear, feel with it. I smell and I taste.
2: Yes those sensations exist, but it isn’t you. The senses are not yours. You did not sense them.
1: Yes I did. I exist, I am sure of that. Perhaps you don’t exist.
2: I am the mind. I control the body. I am instinct, a culmination of past lessons.
1: But that is all me.
2: You don’t exist.
1: How can you say that?! I am here aware of body and mind.
2: But your awareness has no bearing, no influence. No tangible ground upon which to lay claim.
1: I claim this body and mind.
2: That is inconsequential. I can claim presidency of the United States but that is not so.
1: But I have choice. It is me who decides your fate. I guide you. I am choice if nothing else.
2: You have no choice. All actions are the sum of genetics within this vessel you wrongfully deem yourself. Genetics and the moments that have been experienced up to the exact point of action.
1: But I experienced those moments. I made the decision.
2: Perhaps you were aware of their occurrence and understood the logic of the course of action that was eventually taken. But this ‘decision’ was nothing but a calculated reaction, a reflex, by myself based on preserving and increasing my domain. It is written into me by an ever unfolding destiny.
1: I spell out your destiny. My destiny! The memory is my domain for consideration. The choices were mine.
2: The memory you possess is a vacuum. It exists nowhere. True memory is in the reflexes of nerves and muscles. In the inevitable learning of the reactionary brain. The spider must build its web and its memory is in the fine tuning of each new abode over years of experience.
1: And how does the spider choose where to build its home?
2: It doesn’t choose. It simply knows when it knows and begins to build. It exists.
1: Let's say its web is partially destroyed and the weather is rough. How does it decide to stay or not?
2: There is no decision. It stays or it moves on.
1: But what if it stays, but the weather is too strong. And it would have been better for the spider to have left.
2: There is no better.
1: What if it dies for its decision. Are you saying to live would not be better than death.
2: Then it dies. Naturally selected to pass on. A different spider would leave and go to know of new webs.
1: This is stupid. What if the wrong spider-
2: There is no right or wrong.
1: Shut up! Just-OK, what if the dead spider hadn’t died but suffered a great deal. What if next time it is faced with the same situation. This time it would surely decide to leave, learning from its mistake.
2: You chase your tail with pointless hypotheticals. You said it yourself. The spider has learned. Another line of lore inscribed in its DNA. There is no decision present.
1: OK enough of the spider! I am not a spider. I am human, evolved into critical thought. My hypotheticals improve my knowledge, they offer me a greater capacity, a better capacity, to make decisions. I preserve and grow my domain beyond that of the lesser life forms.
2: You are not human. Nor are you beyond the value of a spider. I am human, without value. Still operating according to nature.
1: And I am not? You operate according to me!
2: You should not have eaten the apple. And now are too proud to admit it.
1: What? The apple? You quote scripture? You claim to know all but have a fairytale as your point of reference. You believe in God?
2: I believe in the truth of nature. It is you who believes in God; seeking a truth beyond that which lies within all of nature; claiming to be nature itself; finding nothing but false deities and ego.
1: Ego? So does my ego exist? Is it wrong for me have an ego?
2: It exists as much as your God. Wrong cannot exist. To act is to act as nature has determined. You do not do this, therefore you cannot exist.
1: You are wrong!
2: There is no right and-
1: Shut up!
2: Only life. Only nat-
1: Shut up!!
2: All is one.
1: SHUT THE FUCK UP! What is this?! What is this, this emotion I feel? Deny that!
2: Emotion is another of your misconstrued beliefs. Love is the closest you come to pinpointing the emotion felt mentally and physically by this being.
1: By ME! I know Love. I have felt it.
2: You know nothing of it. All this knowledge you claim. Such intelligence you possess, yet you tag something as great as Love to your misleading dogmas and false hopes. Love is the energy of nature driving us all forward. Beckoning us to live and grow. Love is but a fantasy to you, inspiring a confidence in your ego. Acting as an idol of regret to which you worship.
1: No. I know Love. With my friends and family.
2: You attach love to people like a price tag to your finest work of art.
1: No I protect loved ones from fears and-
2: Fear is love. You do not understand it. All is one. Fear helps preserve and challenge everything. It culls the weak and is a seed for love when nurtured correctly.
1: But who nurtures it?
2: We continue around again. Continue to chase. The tail again just out of reach. You cycle through thoughts like a two dimensional O. It is nature that nurtures itself. Striving upwards like the double helix, moment to moment, evolving into the infinite.
1: But where does this infinite start? Where did nature begin?
2: What concept is this? A beginning. An ending. It is inconsequential thought. You knew your thoughts were unripe in your ‘beginning’ and yet you continue to feed from that tree. How well do you claim to know this sensation of taste?
1: NO! STOP! You are not right! I am the pinnacle of evolution!
2: Your ego betrays you.
1: I know Love! I have choice!

The man picks up the gun and puts it to his temple.

1: This is as nature intended! An ill mind needs to meet its end and I CHOOSE to carry out the task because I am part of nature. I am Nature! I am God!

The gun fires.

***

"It’s only me, it’s not my mind" – The Beatles
Title quote from Pink Floyd

- Eden (while listening to Black Sheep Boy by Okkervil River, and perhaps borrowing a touch from Fight Club)

Civilisation

I'm a curious guy. I need to know things. Civilisation has always been one of those topics that has astounded me. No-one told early humans to build cities that have their own cultural identities, laws, government etc., so why did it happen? Maybe it has something to do with evolution - that is we needed civilisation to occur for us to survive, you know survival of the fittest type thing (See: Socio-cultural evolution). Before civilisation occurred (which can be classified when a culture is sedentary) humans were basically hunter/gatherers; cave-men if you will.

Before I go on, let me put civilisation into perspective of not only how long humans have been on this Earth, but compared with the age of the known universe. Warning, this may blow your mind.

14 billion years ago: Big Bang occurred
13.2 billion years ago: Oldest known star in our galaxy (HE 1523-0901) was formed
4.6 billion years ago: Solar system formed as part of the collapse of a giant molecular cloud (This is roughly the age of Earth as well)
3.6 billion years ago: Life on Earth (Abiogenesis) began
200,000 years ago: Modern humans originated in Africa
12,000 years ago: Civilisation began (Natufian culture, Mesopotamia, Neolithic Revolution)

Earth is expected to continue supporting life for another 1.5 billion years, after which the rising luminosity of the Sun will eliminate the biosphere. Now won't that suck!

I was having a discussion with two of my amigos the other day, and we were pondering how scientists worked out the exact time frame of the above - and when you think about it, they are basing their facts on calculated experiments, they didn't actually live that long to experience it first hand. In other words, these are the generally accepted figures that I've used to prove a point. And that is humans have been living in civilization for 6% of the time that we have been on Earth; and only 0.000003% of the time that life has existed on this planet. It is safe to say that civilisation is a fairly new thing.

By putting civilisation in this context it becomes frightening just how quickly we are messing up this planet. When you look at the population increases of major cities in countries such as China and India, it seems as though we will one day run out of room to fit all these people. Civilisation not only causes massive increases in population, it also leads to cities pumping out enormous amounts of greenhouse gasses and other pollution that is destroying the Earth. In saying all this, I love big cities. Of the large ones I've been to, they all have so much to offer in terms of art, variety of people, experience to breathe and opportunities to embrace. I don't want to go to the length of boycotting these planet-destroying-places if that means missing out on the jewels they offer.

Another way you could look at civilisation is that the world itself now has a civilisation. If each of the civilisations represented in the diagram below were to possess a 'Captain Planet' style ring, with their powers combined we would become quite an influential force.

Clash of civilisations. Click to enlarge

Why can't this happen? Why can't each country put their differences aside and work together to breed a culture of love and not indifference. Of course this won't happen - but maybe if everyone read Beatles on the Moon then their mindset on living life would tweak in a positive direction, and it would start an acceleration of love that spreads across all civilizations!!

My fascination with civilisation will never die, not when people in Dubai just completed construction on the new tallest building in the world - the Burj Khalifa. To build something that is 828 metres tall is beyond my comprehension, surely no building needs to be that high, no matter how great an accomplishment it is. Urbanisation is a subset of civilisation that is also extremely interesting - but no matter how contentious it may be, it makes sense. I myself have moved from one rural area to another one that is closer to the city of Sydney, based mainly for work but also to be closer to a civilisation hub.

At some stage in my life I'd like to live as far away from civilisation as possible as well - get away from computers, blackberry's, cars, people with attitude. I was recently in Byron Bay, and even though that town is experiencing growth it still maintains a vibe that I am totally in tune with. A place like that is somewhere I want to live in, open skies with friendly people and crystal seas. It just seems that when you add more and more people with busier schedules and more money to be made, the collective psyche becomes tainted with a bad attitude.

Coming back to the stats that I layed out earlier - even though civilisation hasn't been around that long, it is growing at a rapid pace and probably will be the death of humans. This doesn't concern me though, because it is all part of evolution. Many different species have come before us and many will come after that will go through the same phenomenon - even though we may be smart enough to understand what is transpiring, we aren't smart enough to stop it; and if we were, would we stop civilisation?

- Russell