Do you remember where you were when the Challenger exploded?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 7, 2018:

I was about four months into a new teaching job in Korea, and by the time it reached the newspapers there, the news was already a day or two old. It made me sad to read, but I was busy with teaching and adapting to a very different culture.

Kentucky Passes ‘Don’t Say Darwin’ Bill

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 6, 2018:

As a Kentuckian, I am happy that this is satire. But in a state with embarrassments like the Ark Encounter, a "Don't Say Darwin" bill is entirely believable.

Got behind this guy yesterday. Welcome to the Bible Belt!

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 6, 2018:

Just fix my damn roof, Jacob, and STFU.

I just glanced at my possibilities on SeniorMeet . WHo could lose with 10InchWizard or FunerealDeal?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

You're on a roll!

Are you afraid of heights?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

Yes, I am, and on one road trip out west, I had the thought that if I did the Angel's Landing hiking trail in Zion National Park, I'd cure myself of it. I'm not sure why I had that notion, but even though I completed the hike, it didn't cure me of my fear. I wonder why.

Any Birders..? If so, what last caught your eye.?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

My brother is actually the birder in the family, but I recently went out with him to the Audubon-protected Corkscrew Swamp area in Florida and got some wonderful pictures of anhingas, limkins, and a red-shouldered hawk devouring a catch up on a high branch. I was the one who spotted the limkin, but it turned out to be a "life list" add for him. I'd post the pictures here, but I'm not sure files that large load in the comments.

How proud are you of your state?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

Kentucky is a mixed bag. On the plus side, we have bourbon, beautiful bluegrass countryside, and a fine musical tradition. On the minus side, to the point of embarrassment, we have Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Matt Bevin, the Ark Encounter, and the Creation "Museum."

Am I the only person who cares nothing for football?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 5, 2018:

No, you aren't. I had a Marxist professor in college who said that spectator sports is "a perfect example of false solidarity," and I couldn't agree more, especially with regard to football and basketball. And yes, I know it's heresy for a Kentuckian, but that includes the University of Kentucky Wildcats.

16 yrs ago today I quit smoking so every Superbowl It's celebration time.

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 4, 2018:

I'm celebrating what would have been my mother's 99th birthday. She made it to 96, though the last year or so wasn't pretty--dementia. I think I'll watch a fire in the woodstove instead of the Super Bowl, though. BTW, I don't smoke, and good on you for quitting!

So I decided to join a Grief Share group even though it is held at a church and is based on the ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 4, 2018:

My late wife left these instructions: "Spread my ashes in Forest Lake [Wisconsin] so that everyone will know where to find me." That is what I did in 2011 with her sister and best friend. Every summer since then I go up to the family cottage, take a kayak out onto the lake, and try to get a sense of her presence there. And that is how I grieve these days. Being out in nature, knowing she's a part of it, is a lot more comforting to me than the thought that she's in a crowded fairy-tale heaven with rivers of milk. I hate milk, and so did she.

Going to Black Label Society concert next week.. can't wait. Anyone seen them?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 3, 2018:

Enjoy! Going with my friend Gary to hear the Black Angels (second time in a year!) in Louisville next month.

Who never was religious?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 2, 2018:

Me! I grew up in the Bible Belt and had to attend church and Sunday school every week until I graduated from high school, but I never thought it was anything but one big crock.

What countries have you visited, or would like to visit?

DharmaBum50 comments on Feb 2, 2018:

Let's see, I've visited: All of Western Europe, all of Eastern Europe, some of the "Stans" (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, etc.), Russia, the Baltics, Scandinavia, most of Asia and the Subcontinent, the Maldives (learned to dive there), Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji Islands, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras (including diving in the Bay Islands), Canada, Mexico, and all of the continental USA. I've lived and/or worked in: the USA, Germany, South Korea, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. Travel bucket list: South America (specifically Ecuador and Peru), Cuba, and Laos. Considering for expat life if the USA remains under fascist rule in 2020: Ecuador, Chile, Uruguay, and Portugal.

How many places have you lived?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 31, 2018:

10 -- North Carolina, New York State, Berlin (actually West Berlin at the time), two cities in South Korea (Seoul and Pohang), United Arab Emirates, Japan, Wisconsin, and Kentucky (Louisville and Berea).

This would pertain to the sugar coated turd talk last night by 45.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 31, 2018:

That sums it up nicely!

Pizza and coffee. Breakfast of champions. Hey, don't judge.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 31, 2018:

Only if the pizza is cold and leftover from last night's pizza and beer.

State of the Union Drinking Game [huffingtonpost.com]

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

This is one of those nights when I'm SOOO GLAD I don't have a TV. A chair would be sticking through it in short order.... If I want to see orange tonight, I'm going to watch the window of my woodstove.

If you were asked to submit a song for a porn soundtrack, what song would you add?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

It would depend on the movie the soundtrack were for, but if it's just soft porn with a tad bit of kink, it would have to be Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLQzaLr1enE

Other than John Lennon's "Imagine," is there another atheist/agnostic song.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

Let's see, and then there's the Dead Kennedys' "Religious Vomit".... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBa6YMs-AbY

Other than John Lennon's "Imagine," is there another atheist/agnostic song.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

You couldn't do much better than Marilyn Manson's "Fight Song": "But I'm not a slave to a god / that doesn't exist / But I'm not a slave to a world / that doesn't give a shit." Plus the song kicks ass. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0bWRpK3A2g

I get the sense agnostics/atheists are thought of as amoral nihilists, but I want to believe that's ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

First off, from one Kentuckian to another, welcome! I'm with you--naturalism, humanism, etc.--but the religion that comes closest to my morality would be Buddhism.

I am curious... what are your thoughts on Buddhists?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

My feelings about Buddhism are similar to yours, especially since there is no belief in a creator god. You can believe in one if you want, but it isn't important in the path to enlightenment, so you can be an atheist at the same time. I became familiar with the religion while I was teaching in Seoul and even practiced it to some extent while I was there. Hell, I was even married in a Buddhist temple while there, so Korean Buddhism is the sort I'm most familiar with. Each place the religion migrated to, however, it incorporated elements of earlier local religions, so as a religion, there are many different sects and variations. For example, at any Korean Buddhist temple, you will find a sub-temple to a Mountain Spirit (San-Shin), a holdover from an earlier shamanism. Although I have fond memories of my experience with Korean Buddhism, I have gravitated to a more secular form (minus karma and reincarnation) advocated by a Western former monk, Stephen Batchelor. His book "Buddhism Without Beliefs" is worth a read, explaining that agnosticism is the essence of Buddhism.

OK, here's a topic few understand, the alt-right denies, most ignore because it's not in their ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 30, 2018:

The gender-related part of your post made me think of Jungian psychology, in which the anima (feminine inner personality of a man) and animus (masculine inner personality of a woman) are two aspects of the unconscious. I'm not sure if this theory has ever been used to explain gender identities, however.

Some people say that practicing gratitude is good for your health.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

I am grateful to have been able to travel and see as much of the world as I have. I am grateful to have had the most wonderful travel buddy to accompany me on twenty-one years' worth of those trips, taken from me way too soon. I am grateful to be the human companion of the greatest dog in the world.

Transgender and Bathrooms

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

I was in Asheville, NC, shortly after North Carolina passed its ill-fated HB2 bathroom bill. I noticed during my visits to a number of South Slope craft breweries that there would be no problem at most of them because their bathrooms were not only marked as in the illustration above, but they were also one-holers. One World Brewery, because of its inclusive diversity message, also included the trans icon along with the male and female. I asked about this at several breweries, wondering if they had made a quick transition to avoid problems. No, they said, they have always been like that, mostly to avoid lines at some bathrooms and not at others. Unisex one-holers would render the bathroom "problem" a non-issue, and the Thumpers would then have to find somebody else to discriminate against.

Anyone ever have a DNA ancestry test?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

Never had one on myself, but I had one on my dog. I found out that my very mellow border-collie mix isn't mostly border collie, but rather bulldog. It didn't specify English or American, but either way, it would account for her stubborn streak.

The past couple of years have been pretty tough for music fans.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 29, 2018:

Awesome version, dude!

How many folks here know who this is, and/or remember his presidency?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 28, 2018:

I was in junior high gym class when somebody came into the locker room and told us all that the president had been assassinated. Later on, my mother--a Republican--broke down and cried at the library, where we had gone after she picked me up at school. We watched all the TV about the assassination and funeral and then got the AP coffee table book that came out immediately afterwards. I think it was called "The Torch Is Passed." Although the man certainly had his imperfections and in some respects wasn't all that liberal, I was proud that he was our president, and even my Republican parents thought so, too. How have we come to where we are now from this?? :-(

Liberals

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 28, 2018:

I think there's a logical fallacy involved here (a kind of straw man argument?) that evestrat touched on in an earlier comment. When our constructive criticism of America (i.e., constructive patriotism) acknowledges that the country's reality doesn't measure up to its national mythology, conservative blind patriots exaggerate this criticism to the level of hatred of the country or even treason. However, pointing out logical fallacies is out of fashion these days, especially with the group in question here....

Forced into going to church as a child

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 28, 2018:

I grew up in the South during the 50s and 60s and was forced to attend church. It's just what parents did in that region at that time. I never bought into it and felt like an ass having to kneel down and pray to an Invisible But Omnipresent Sky-Daddy at the same time I was hearing that I was being ridiculous to speculate that there might be life on other planets. My Sunday School teachers hated having me in class because I asked too many questions they couldn't answer. "You have to have faith" never cut it as an explanation to me. But when I graduated from high school and left for college, I never set foot in a church again, except as a tourist or a wedding/funeral visitor. When my parents asked me if I was still going, they were surprised to hear that I never believed in any of it. I told them they hadn't been listening or paying attention--politely, of course, using "sir" and "ma'am" as I had been raised. :-)

Single, divorced, widowed...why does society place such importance on these titles?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Very interesting observation, witchymom. I don't often find myself in a social setting of this nature, but the next time I do (in March), I'll have to play with this like you did, but from the perspective of a widower. After the societally mandated grieving time of one year expired following my wife's death, I started getting asked (mostly, but not exclusively, by men), "Are you dating yet?" When I said I wasn't, men would react like "WTF is wrong with you?" Women generally reacted more sympathetically, concluding either that I hadn't found "the right one" yet or that my wife was The One True Love of My Life and that I would go to my grave without ever wanting to find anyone else. Unlike men's silent ridicule, women seemed to display a weird mixture of pity and admiration. But what would happen next time if I say I'm divorced? Or that I'm screwing every woman I meet? This could be fun.

Greetings and salutations to all out there.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Welcome from a Tarheel who ended up in an even harder-core part of the Bible Belt--Kentucky. I feel your pain.

Do you have wanderlust?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Hell, it's my middle name.

Beer drinkers

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Here in the US, I most regularly drink American craft IPAs, and that's what I voted for here, but nothing beats a cold Pilsner Urquell from a Prague tap.

Have you ever felt depressed and singled out while single on Valentine’s Day?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 27, 2018:

Even when my wife was alive, we never celebrated Valentine's Day. We always figured it was a BS Hallmark-manufactured holiday, so there's nothing to miss now.

How many people here have lived overseas

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I lived overseas for a total of sixteen years. In the early 70s, I was a grad student in Berlin. Later on, I taught English language and literature in South Korea, the UAE, and Japan over the course of fifteen years. During that time, I saw much of the rest of Asia and the Middle East, not to mention stops in Europe. Getting past culture shock can be more difficult in some places than others (like being a nonbeliever in a Muslim country, for example), but all in all, I view my time abroad as the best time of my life. On January 21st, 2017, I particularly regretted having returned to the US....

What kind of snob are you?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I selected "alcohol snob" because I drink only craft beers (any other kind of beer is weaselpiss), but I'm told I'm a snob in so many other ways. What comes to mind just offhand: 1) chili snob (my recipe, pinto beans on the side only); BBQ snob (eastern North Carolina); coffee snob (French press-made, no instant); and grammar snob (hell, I'm a former English teacher, so it comes naturally). :-)

What do you have out there for some good rockin tunes.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

"We're an American Band" ... Rob Zombie version

What Is Your Favorite Genre Of Music?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I checked "hard rock/classic rock," but more accurate would be "hard rock/alternative." And perhaps even some blues and blues rock, too. Classic rock has been played to freaking death since the 1970s, and I can't stand it any more.

Midlife crisis?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I'm not sure if all of the life/career shifts I had beginning in my thirties qualify as "crises," but if they do, I've had several. After spinning my wheels for a decade on several dead-end jobs as a result of a useless masters degree in German literature, I went and got a much more employable second masters in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and headed off to Korea at the age of 35. It was there I met my wife (another American teacher), and we spent the next fifteen years teaching in various parts of Asia. When I was 50, we returned stateside and took up freelance careers in different aspects of the publishing industry. Sometimes I think the reverse culture shock I experienced upon my return was more severe than the shock I had anywhere I lived in Asia, but it probably doesn't qualify as a "crisis." And now in my sixties--kind of a stretch to say this still qualifies as "midlife" (LOL)--I am having to deal with being single again after the death of my wife in 2010. In some ways, I am still floundering from that crisis, but I am trying hard to find and enjoy the positive aspects of my sudden solitude.

Best fictional TV show that features Atheism?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

I don't watch any mainstream TV per se, but the Netflix series "Godless" has been pretty good so far. Frank Griffin's monologue in the third episode (I think) that gives the series its name is awesome.

What is the most romantic spot to which you have ever been?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 26, 2018:

Had to be the overnight trip on a local fishing boat taking us to Komodo Island from Flores in Indonesia. We anchored off an uninhabited islet during a beautiful sunset. During the afterglow, fruit bats flew from the islet to Flores, so many of them they almost blocked out the light. Afterwards, the fisherman fixed us dinner (a fresh local catch, of course), and we all shared a bottle of wine.

How often do you pay attention to your neighbors?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 25, 2018:

As little as possible. It's nice that the two women who live on either side of me are in their 90s and deaf as posts, so I crank up my music super loud with no repercussions. It's also fitting that my two big living-room windows face out towards the woods on the backside of the house, meaning that the ass-end of the house is facing the street--kinda like mooning them all. And when you get down to it, I'm pretty much mooning the whole damn Bible-bangin' town.

Truth be told.... right here..

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 25, 2018:

It very well could happen that if I ever become involved again, she would leave because it's impossible to text me--I'm a proud Luddite who has no smartphone, and I don't aim to change that.

How toxic is your work environment ?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 24, 2018:

I work for myself these days, so my work environment is only as toxic as I make it. LOL Seriously, though, I've worked with some nasty people along the line, and that's part of the reason I'm now self-employed. Good luck in your situation.

Is there a particular spice or seasoning you just can’t do without in your meals?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 23, 2018:

A lot of the food I cook is hot--Cajun, Mexican, Thai, Indian, and Korean chief among the spicy cuisines I like--so I suppose it would be a hot red chile or pepper of some sort.

Has anybody out there ever experienced hallucinations without the influence of drugs or alcohol.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 22, 2018:

I'm still trying to convince myself that the Mango Mussolini currently residing in our White House is an hallucination.

Who here has an obsession with different religions and the reasons why they came to be?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 22, 2018:

I've been interested in the mythology behind world religions since I studied Joseph Campbell while writing my first masters thesis. Later on in my life, while traveling abroad, this earlier interest enriched my experience of the cultures in which I found myself. So it's not an obsession, just a curiosity about the big wide world out there, of which people's religious beliefs are a part--for better or worse.

Happily single—or not?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 21, 2018:

Both, actually. I suddenly found myself single seven years ago at the death of my wife, so this situation was not my choice. However, over that seven years, I have not only become accustomed to the freedom my single status affords, but I've come to embrace it. Sure, I wouldn't mind a traveling buddy for my road trips, and getting laid occasionally might be nice, but I wonder if it's worth giving up the freedom. The hole in my life has a specific shape to it, it seems.

Do you skirt around the issue of out right saying you’re an atheist when people start talking ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 21, 2018:

Most people know where I stand, so the issue doesn't come up very often. However, when it does, I cut right to the chase just to minimize the BS.

What makes you more likely to live to 100?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 21, 2018:

Both of my parents lived until 96, so I have the longevity thing going on--if I really wanted to live that long. However, they led healthier lifestyles than I do, though my sheer orneriness could put me well past 100.

Best Advice on the "Meaning of Life"?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 12, 2018:

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." -- J.-P. Sartre

What song would you want played for your funeral?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 11, 2018:

The angel and heaven references notwithstanding, I'd definitely go with John Prine's "Please Don't Bury Me." And it would be at a memorial celebration or wake--if any of my drinking buddies manage to outlast me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEhqzOeJnto

Does it matter anymore who makes the first move?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 8, 2018:

I had hoped never to have to think about this again, at least not insofar as it concerned me. But here I am, single in my 60s, and I have no frikkin' idea. I guess what happened recently at the Green Parrot, a Key West pub, is emblematic of my approach (or lack of one) to the problem. I was drinking with this rather engaging sous-chef sitting next to me, and on my other side was a nice-looking woman (probably in her 50s) who had come in with a crowd but was now drinking wine by herself. I thought about saying something to her, but I'm pretty shy and didn't want to seem like a jackass, so I didn't say anything to her, and she finally finished her wine and left. The sous-chef told me she had been sneaking glances at me, but there could be all sorts of reasons for that. The bottom line is that I'm shy, never figured I'd be in this position again, and have no idea what to do. Fortunately, given all this, I'm OK with my own company.

If you could travel anywhere for free right now where would you go?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 7, 2018:

Machu Picchu is at the top of my bucket list.

Food—what’s your story?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 7, 2018:

I learned to cook in grad school--it was either that or fast food every day. I lived in this boarding house with a group of fellow grad students who all got along very well, and we ended up forming a kind of dinner club, spurring us all on to find new and interesting recipes. My chili and Brunswick stew recipes have evolved from that time. Years later, I moved to various parts of Asia and the Middle East and learned many of the cuisines of the countries we visited or worked in--Korean, Thai, Indian, and Lebanese are among those I learned to do quite well. Since my wife's death, there's no longer much point in preparing a seven-course Indian dinner, for example, but after a few years of culinary "down time," I'm starting to get back into it.

Just got a call from my 90 yr old mother.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 6, 2018:

I had a horrible relationship with my mother all my life, but at the end of hers, she forgot about it all because of the increasing dementia. We still had some conflicts when I went to see her, but I let them slide. I figured, WTF, she's 96 and either doesn't remember or has completely revised our history, making any recitation of it pointless. I don't know how cognizant your mother is, but perhaps you should do the same.

Hi, are there any Sam Harris fans here?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 6, 2018:

I'm a total Sam Harris fan, have all his books--but Philly is 650-mile drive from where I live in Kentucky. Ask him if he's coming to Lexington. LOL

Who here was never religious?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 6, 2018:

My mother was a Baptist, and my father was a Presbyterian, and they compromised by going to a Congregationalist church that ended up joining the UCC. I never believed any of it--not even when I was a toddler--but had to attend every Sunday until the end of high school. I felt like a jackass praying to an invisible sky daddy and was furious when I had to lie and become confirmed at the age of 13. Sunday school teachers dreaded having me in their classes because I was always asking questions they couldn't answer, and it was very clear to them I thought the whole thing was a total crock.

Badly describe your hobby.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 5, 2018:

I take a little black box with holes, buttons, and dials in it out into nature, aim it at something and push a button. If I do a good job turning the dials, enough light comes into the hole and makes an image that may be somewhat close to what I aim the box at. When I'm done with my first hobby, I come back home and enjoy the fruits of my second hobby. I put a bunch of grains and water in a tank and let them go bad for a while. When it's gone properly bad, I bottle the liquid, let it go even more bad and then drink it.

anybody in the line of fire of the "bomb cyclone"moving up the east coast?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 3, 2018:

I think I'm good in Kentucky. But I'm wondering about my folks back home in NC.

Just for shits and giggles, I went to a christian discussion page and was laughing at all the ...

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 2, 2018:

Welcome! I see you're in LA. Be happy you have to go online to hear this nonsense. I'm in Kentucky--home of the Creation "Museum" and Ark Encounter theme park--and all I have to do is go to the supermarket.

What has been the dumbest religious comment/response/statement you have ever heard personally?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 2, 2018:

There's stiff competition in this category, but the ones that come to top of the list for me are "She's in a better place now" or "God needed another angel" in reference to my wife dying at the age of 52. I just want to take a baseball bat to these people when I hear this shit.

Check out the latest fashion of satanic sports wear.

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 2, 2018:

I love it!!

Living single? Loneliness or freedom?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 1, 2018:

Both, actually. As a widower, I obviously feel some degree of loneliness, but it is no longer the sort that tears you up inside, the sort I felt for the first several years after my wife's death. I am not lonely because there is no woman in my life; I am lonely because *that specific woman* is no longer in my life. I won't rule out becoming involved again, but the longer I am single, the less likely it becomes as I come to appreciate my freedom more by the day.

Are there any New Year traditions that you celebrate?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 1, 2018:

I traditionally get hammered on New Years Eve, this year trying to keep warm in front of the woodstove. And like you, I'm a Southerner, so today I'm fixing a pork roast, hoppin' John, collard greens, and cornbread.

What are your plans for ringing in the New Year?

DharmaBum50 comments on Jan 1, 2018:

Between the cops out everywhere and the atmosphere of forced gaiety at the turn of a calendar page, New Year's Eve is the one night out of the year I'm happy to be home. I got the woodstove going, opened a 15-pack of Founders IPA, and started in on cooking my traditional southern New Year's Day fare of hoppin' John and greens.

happy new year and may 2018 be memorable in a good way for you!

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 31, 2017:

Back atcha!

Would you marry for money or more freedom?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 31, 2017:

Marrying for "more freedom" seems contradictory to me. Whatever, I was happily married for 21 years, but she died, and that ain't gonna happen again. Been on my own too long.

What, not who, makes life worth living?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 31, 2017:

Traveling and seeing as much of nature and the planet as possible. As far as I can determine, that's the only reason it's there.

Are there any classical music buffs out there?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 30, 2017:

I am mostly into super-hard rock these days, but I do like classical occasionally. I find that my tastes have changed over the years, however. I've tired of the old warhorses for the same reason I've tired of classic rock--overplaying--and moved on to composers such as Penderecki and Gorecki.

The unconscionable lack of integrity in media

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 29, 2017:

Just one more reason why I lead a tee-vee-free lifestyle.

Sometimes it's the simple things we tend to overlook everyday that are the most "spiritual".

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 28, 2017:

I agree! I have a screened-in back porch that faces northeast, and sometimes when I'm out there sipping a beer and watching nice sunset afterglows or lightning bugs out back on summer nights, I figure this is as close to spirituality as I get. BTW, lovely picture, Duke!

What is your plan "B"?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 28, 2017:

South America.

Is dating, long-terming, or marrying out of the question for you with a religious person or persons?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 27, 2017:

Depending on the relationship and the people involved, the difference could even be fairly interesting. However, I found all that dynamic discussion changed when it came to end-of-life issues. When my wife, for example, was dying of cancer and expecting me to say that I'd see her again in her fairy-tale heaven, and I couldn't honestly tell her that, it became painful beyond belief--and that's not something I ever want to repeat.

Why did you choose your username/avatar?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 27, 2017:

Biker Dude is my nickname among some local friends, but I don't actually have a bike. I just look like I do. LOL

Anyone else not celebrating xmas?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 24, 2017:

I'll be driving 900 miles from Florida to Kentucky, death metal spurring me on, and to me, that's a fine way to spend the holiday.

Some have alluded to it, but let me be the first to say humbug

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 11, 2017:

I'll second that. I've been saying it since before Halloween.

What is on my mind?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 10, 2017:

Ah, T. S. Eliot, "Four Quartets!" Love it! Welcome from a denizen of the Kentucky boonies and Bible Belt wasteland.

What's your preference for a burial option?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 10, 2017:

Cremation, ashes of my dog and my wife mixed with mine and scattered along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

For Those Who Went To Church In The Past, What Do You Do Now On Sunday Instead?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 10, 2017:

I haven't gone to church since I went to college. Bloody Marys is the Sunday morning routine now.

Isn’t it funny when the religious say they will be praying for you?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 9, 2017:

Living in the Bible Belt, I figure it's just a believer's knee-jerk, pro forma reaction to all sorts of situations. I heard it a lot both before and after my wife died. As you see, the prayers before her death didn't do much good, but in the end, I honestly don't think these people actually do pray for you--it's just a little white lie that fills a conversational gap.

If you could were offered free lessons in a subject of your choice, what would you want to learn?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 8, 2017:

I used to be pretty good as a painter. Oils, expressionistic-type stuff. But I succumbed to years of depression, and now want to get back into it.

Celibacy: How is it working for you?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 8, 2017:

Eight years or so. It is what it is. I haven't killed anyone yet, so I guess it's going well.

There is nothing that happens without a reason. Your thoughts?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 8, 2017:

Again, that depends on your definition of "reason." When a program came on in which a clip of Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign speech was played, for example, in which he asked me if I was doing better than I was four years previously, I was spinning my wheels in Louisville KY, working a dead-end grunt job with one useless masters degree under my belt and almost done with another. I had been applying for teaching jobs in the US to no avail and at the moment I heard Reagan ask me that, I was drunk and his question pissed me off. I threw a chair at the TV and broke it (last one I ever owned). When I sobered up, I decided to expand my job search overseas and vowed to take the first job I was offered. As it turned out, that job was in South Korea. It could just as well have been in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, Colombia, or any number of other places I sent applications to. But that job turned my life around. It began a rewarding teaching career, and I ended up meeting the woman who would become my wife. We married and became a "teaching couple" and saw most of Asia and the Middle East during our careers. Did it happen for a reason? Yes, in the respect that I happened to be watching a TV program that pissed me off enough that it goaded me into action. No, in the respect that I took the first job I was offered--that it happened to be in Korea was just random chaos. Further random chaos was that ten years after our stint in Asia, my died of cancer, with no history of cancer in her family (other than Uncle Bob, who smoked himself to death).

How many men in politics are sweating bullets now ???? :)

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 8, 2017:

Not enough.

Do you put lime in your coconut...lol

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 7, 2017:

I guess my favorite mixed drink is a well-made Bloody Mary. In addition to the usual ingredients, I put BBQ sauce and chipotle peppers in my own. I've also been trying out new concoctions lately, like something I ran across called One Night in Phuket. It's kind of like an alcoholic Thai green curry, with chile-infused vodka, lime juice, coconut cream, and cilantro. (So yes, I put lime in my coconut...LOL)

If they made a movie of your life, who would you want to portray you?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 6, 2017:

We'd have to dig him up for the role, but Dennis Hopper would have been a good match. But this very same question was posed during a drinking session among old friends a ways back, and it was unanimous that Jack Nicholson would get the part.

Do you believe in love.

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 5, 2017:

It happened once, so I know it exists. But she died, and now I'm an emotional shell.

For those who cook even a little what is your favorite thing to cook.

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 5, 2017:

After having lived overseas for fifteen years, I came back to this country with a lot of international recipes--Korean, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Thai, Indian, etc.. But I guess the one thing I keep going back to--and went to great efforts to put together when I was overseas--is something popular in my home state of North Carolina: Brunswick stew. It originally had squirrel in it, but it's usually made with chicken and/or pork these days, and includes all sorts of veggies, but the must-haves are corn and limas or butter beans. I measure the cooking time in numbers of beers drunk. It's served with cornbread or hush puppies and cole slaw on the side, at the very least.

Anybody here like to take pictures?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 5, 2017:

Photography is one of my hobbies. My wife was a writer, and my photographs often appeared in her travel articles sometimes ending up in some pretty major publications. I guess that makes me semi-professional, though since her death, I am back to amateur status, I guess.

Old question. What's your favorite classic song?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 5, 2017:

There are so many! I guess the following would be considered "classic": Stones--"Brown Sugar" and "Gimme Shelter" The Who--"Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Behind Blue Eyes" Led Zeppelin--"Misty Mountain Hop" Jefferson Airplane--"White Rabbit" The Doors--"The End" And even back then, I was looking around for harder and darker stuff, so though these probably aren't considered "classics" (i.e., played to death on "classics" stations), they're from the same time period, and they were faves of mine: Iggy and the Stooges--"Search and Destroy" and "No Fun" Velvet Underground--"Sweet Jane," "Pale Blue Eyes," and "There She Goes Again"

Does prayer work?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 5, 2017:

My wife had bile duct cancer, and during the course of her treatment, she had Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims around the world praying for her. (Or at least that's what they said they were doing...) That included an entire small order of nuns in Milwaukee and a group of Catholic pilgrims traveling to Rome to appeal for the canonization of a Father Joseph Kentenich. She had the local neohippies "sending good vibes" her way. She died anyway. So my opinion of the "power of prayer" is summed up in that Facebook meme that has a picture of two cats, and it says, "I named my cats 'Thoughts' and 'Prayers' because they're both useless."

Does anyone here hate noise pollution?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 5, 2017:

Absolutely. I live in a small town in Kentucky, and I have a great back porch that gives the visual illusion that I'm living far out in the countryside. But that's the end of the illusion--noise-wise, I sometimes feel like I'm living in "the Hood," what with the traffic noise that comes up from down the hill and the non-ending sirens. In the fall, there's the constant WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE of the leaf-blowers that has me thinking about becoming the same kind of anti-noise vigilante Tim Robbins is in the 2007 movie "Noise."

Anyone here live an agrarian existence?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 4, 2017:

Ideally, my front and back yards would be gardens--but I'd have to be around for the bulk of the year to take care of them, and that's where my Ramblin' Man aspect wins out. So no gardens.

Share a photo of you in a special place. :)

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 4, 2017:

Monhegan Island, off the Maine coast.

Does anyone else here sing Karaoke?? If so what songs or type of music?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 4, 2017:

I don't do karaoke these days, and people should be most grateful for that. But when I was teaching in Japan and out carousing with students, "no" wasn't an option, so I worked up a few songs, my best one being the Stones's "Brown Sugar."

My Agnostic.

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 3, 2017:

I had the same thought when I reached 666 points.

Who's child free and over 35?

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 3, 2017:

Me! I'm 67, and my late wife didn't want them, either. If there's one thing in my life I have no regrets about, it's my choice to be child-free.

A Little About Me I know I write a lot of silly, fun stuff.

DharmaBum50 comments on Dec 2, 2017:

You seem cool. I await your tale.