Collaborative blog with short, numbered entries.

Johnny McIvor, 3AUG2023

1

There's this idea in our culture that criticism is very important because "How else are you supposed to grow?" But imagine being harshly and incessantly criticized at all hours of the day by a group of people. I think your confidence would dissolve.

2

The reason why we itch when we get a mosquito bite is because the body wants to bleed out the toxins. Notice these facts:

- The itching often occurs downstream from the bite.

- The scratching is incredibly satisfying.

- The sore bleeds with no effort or pain.

- Scratching creates a bump that separates the epidermis from the flesh.

- The itch is relieved when you start bleeding out.

- Often, the bleed-site drips out in yellow suppuration (perhaps carrying the infection).

It seems that the body quarantines the infected blood at a safe location, and then tries to get rid of it in the shortest route possible. It is probably very difficult for the body to destroy all of the matter, meaning that it could pump into the body's vital organs (heart, brain, lungs, etc). So, the body just dumps it.

3

If you pay close attention to your skin -- if you scratch it thoughtfully, you will realize that there are a lot of places that want to bleed. I believe that bodily toxins are kept in orbit along the extremities, away from the vitals -- until they are taken by the hand to the liver. Perhaps this is where bloodletting came from: people began to notice that they felt better afterward.

4

I think the more that you meet people, the more you surround yourself with people who are like you. I notice that I surround myself with very easygoing and sensitive people.

So when you are trying to determine whether or not somebody is pathological, it might be wise to examine the types of people they surround themselves with.

HBD Groyper, 13AUG2023

5

You can tell the Greeks were a noble people because they felt no need to decry or vilify the Trojans. The Homeric account makes the Trojans look comparably better than the Greeks in honour and integrity.

There are many accounts whereby the Trojans are shown more virtuous than the Greeks, such as the feud between Achilles and Agamemnon over Briseis, that the Greeks stole women from the Trojans long before Helen was abducted, but most famously the Wrath of Achilles.

Homer writes of the Trojans in the Iliad, per the Robert Fagles translation, "glorious Hector", "wondrous Hector", "tall Hector", "Zeus gave Hector glory". It is Hector, the prince of Troy, who is the most honourable soldier with the most integrity, not Achilles or Agamemnon. When Hector lies dying, he begs Achilles to not let the dogs devour him, but Achilles taunts him and drags his body across the ground to bruise and mutilate it as much as possible in what is known as the "Wrath of Achilles".

In the end it is the cries of Hector's father Priam that moves Achilles' heart to soften and relent, giving back the body of Hector. He is moved only because he knows too that his own father will cry before his corpse.

Ignoble peoples are compelled to slander. "They cry in pain as they strike you."

Gomer Gomer, 15SEP2023

16

Seems trivial, but have you thought about how often we hate ideas simply because we hate the people who give them, or hate the way they make their argument, or notice them to be personal enemies, etc.? I notice this constantly in day-to-day life, especially at work. I'd say that the implications of this are MANY.