Optimystic

I agree that topping makes it easier to control weeds , but particularly for pots, you can still see tiny plants popping through the pebbles (shale I use) .. I didnt' even think of that benefit but it is indeed more annying to see a little weed with a stone background so I find myself spotting them more early on lol... .. I wouldn't recommend top dressing in a cooler climate tho and probably not for plants in the ground... wood mulch is supposed to release terpins which control seed sprouting to some extent but I havent tried that except for mulching herbaceous plants and trees I agree with paradox just change the way you look at it, its just a part of life when dealing with nature... its not wasted time its benefecial time gardening.. .quality time w/ur plants if you will ... its like giving the earth a haircut - you are natures hairstylist don't let them get too big, just make it a regular habit to pinch out the little ones as soon as you spot them...

I use expanded shale and I just get the hang of when I need to water... originally i did it to keep perlite from flying away, but the point for me is its very hot here during the summer and I don't want to water every day or two... in plastic pots I can get away with weekly watering or less often for most plants. im sure that will change as they get huge... it still lasts pretty long in clay pots several days before the top is dried ... the ones that aren't mulched dry out a couple inches deep withing a day or two when its super hot... certainly you don't want to mulch until the roots are well established.. in my hot climate plants are growing better this year with a combination of that and richer soils... fact is I don't always remember to water so i've been doing alot more deep watering on the plants , especially the few that aren't mulched.. I didn't mulch some cause Im planning to repot but everythign got away from me this year due to anxiety and shit I like the shale because its good at holding moisture... great for triches but maybe not so much for other species on the other hand I had a pot mulched with granite stones last year and had a huge PC pach in it... over the winter it was the last PC to rot, but all my outdoor pc's rotted, huge or not... when I removed the biggest plant I discovered that the soil was still wet and im not sure if it leaked/dripped in there or if the pot was just wet all winter lol ...either way if you have a heavy dressing its probably a good idea to check under it during the winter, if you get winter... Shale is ez to check under just like soil almost.. the top will dry but if you make a reasonably thick layer it will maintain wetness just below the surface .. i suppose thats what mulching is for or something like that lol Mulching in the ground I would think is an entirely different set of dynamics

they get bigger quicker under fluoros than with sunlight, but in the long run the look more normal with sunlight.. all my sun growns get a way slower start but a year later they are much stubbier ... with flouros I don't think the saturation is all that balanced and so some might get alot bigger whereas with sun I get more uniform growths... of course everything can vary with intesity and the seedbatch I like how AZS said it but just so you know you can and should start them way closer to fluoros and they'll adjust quicker that way,.. i also just start out with rich fertile soil about a 20-25% mix of compost and worm castings, about the same coir and half sand... everyone has their favorite mixes tho, whatever werx

Psuedo GIF

at least they apologized. if cops here apologized for things i reckon it would make headlines

I agree with that possibility (stetsonia) as well, the ribs seem too rounded at the tips to be most forms of cereus imo... but also alot of plants can be shaped differently a bit in their younger years... I have a few plants I thought were really cool with black spines and a couple of them pach's which 2 seasons to start growing... the new spines emerged as regular pach like brown/yellow spines .. i remember alot of ppl saying in the id threads that they were perhaps oxidized... time will tell ...the other black spined plant (peruvianus) came from the same seller so I figure it had something to do with the conditions in that state/location... that plant above looks like its been in some intense sun... if it is in fact stetsonia it should be easier to tell pretty soon after they've grown an inch or so in prime conditions.. one thing i'll mention is that the aereoles seem a little differently shaped than a stetsonia when tend to be oval or shield shaped

“We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.” ― Henry Cloud -- Pat Mesiti not sure who really said it first but who cares

The largest moves in Africa have been by China and more welcomed I would guess. Ghadafi was in the process of coining a gold back currency that was to be primarily used throughout the african contienent but we all saw what happened.. didn't matter tho, Iran , Russian, China picked up the pieces and kept moving forward with dollar independence and time will tell the outcome im not going to jump on the bandwagon but it is indeed true that Africa is the most mineral rich continent and its the place for the next great boom in development... the short version for dummies this was headlined today on a news site http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-rise-and-fall-of-modern-empires-2014-9

and some are saying more here than reported... http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/09/10/CNN-Report-Pilots-Flying-Ebola-Patients-Says-More-Exposed-People-Brought-To-US-Than-Being-Reported

I had no idea there were impoverished ppl in Berkeley perhaps we should do a charity drive ... we can collect silk ties, gas cards and discarded i phones to help the impoverished ppl of Berkeley Save Berkeley! Berkos can't afford weed? I really think its those making over 500k that should get free weed trickle down smokanomics

well keep in mind he's talking to an audience of money minded college kids about to begin the rest of their lives who have been trained by culture which teaches that money is what makes your worth. My first broker in real estate told me some wise words when i first started... he said... you won't begin making money until you forget about the money. when you are preoccupied with giving great service the money will find you ... The fact is that alot of agents in the business didn't give a crap about their clients, whereas the ones who did make a great living, just from repeat business and referrals from people and families who they were able to earn trust from... and its because they were good at what they did, know their markets, study the activity everyday and thus are able to fulfill their promises... I started out going after listings that didn't sell. agents just wanted signs in yards to generate phone calls. of course they wanted to property to sell but didn't even know how to talk to a client, how to price it right so it doesn't go "stale" on the market... what buyers expectations are in the current market... and if they don't know how to do that, what would make me think they understand the contract? The entire industry was built around lawsuits... seller wanted to take advantage of buyer, or buyer wanted to take advantage of seller, got mad, sued... if this became a regular issue they change the promulgated contracts over time to handle the issues before they are issues... it started with 1 page contracts and now they are 8+ pages with many amendements... but we can thank lawyers too for a bit of self interest in some cases eh... theres a shit ton of gurus in the industry who would teach alot of canned one liners as a sales pitch, but forget to mention the attitude which should accompany the words... especially how important it is to know what you are doing when dealing with someones hard earned money and home... if you are going to start a plant business its the same thing you want to know how to raise a healthy plant... do we not each go through trials and learn from our mistakes? once you've learned most or all of the mistakes you are effectively a master. theres a place in every society for a handyman and someone can make a decent living as a handyman if they are good at many things but consider more complex services... do you ever see a heart surgeon who moonlights as a dentist? how bout a mechanic who mows lawns that are not his own lol when I was in realty there were peeps who made tremendous fortunes but unfortunately the 80/20 rule applies in most cases.... Here in this city according to stats put out by the board, 19% of the agents were responsible for 80+% of the business transactions. so that means 81% of the agents were hanging around for far less than minimum wage (or they just werent working) ... every office I've worked in had a small group of ppl who were busy, on the ball and usually overwhelmed with work all day long, and a larger group who would hang around, conversate, complain, chirp chirp chirp lol it was interesting cause theres ALWAYS new ppl to the industry and you could see which type of attitudes were most likely to hang around.. I didn't make crap for the first year in the business... $3,000 bux approx... I could afford the dues frankly, so i took a job, saved up and came back.. my 2nd or 3rd month back I made about 15,000... I had a crapload of lessons to follow that tho.. ended up doing about 92k the next full year, but I lost myself and it took me literally years to rediscover me. most important lesson of my life I personally think that our values are screwed up in society and we have lots of industries that shouldn't exist... for example I think EVERYONE should be a nutritionist and demand high quality foods but not everyone can be in the lab testing the foods for nutrition so even the nutritionist relies on an "expert" in their field and that is dependent on the quality of information...I think EVERYONE should be a lawyer, to some extent, but its intentionally intimidating because its a business... laywers are in fact translators of the legal language. Not everyone can fix a flat tire and thats okay, that gives way for the handymen to come to the rescue... a handymen might be able to fix 20 small issues throughout a home, but if they will be breaking walls and cracking foundations to get to a pipe you might want to get someone who has experience there too. it would probably help if they are bonded too incase they screw up lol someone who does a major job here and there might mean well but unintentionally leave the individual they were attempting to give great service to, with even more problems and so I think that an important aspect of "Servie to Others" is mastery of your trade. whatever it is you do most, you will get better at.. with each mistake a new lesson.. thats fine if you want to do a bunch of things at once but that won't gain you a reputation for the go to guy and not everyone wants that respoinsibility..on the surface every trade is made to look easy by the folks whom are good at it, but you cannot replace experience, and passion x experience eventually leads to mastery... nothing wrong with a simple life, if it puts the veggies and fruits on the table for your kids, more power to you :D You don't NEED to be a master of anything to have a happy life, plenty of ppl okay with meager lives... but without experts, there would be no internet, no entertainment, no surgeons, no teachers, no pilots, no engineers, no dentists, no scientiests, no astronomists.. etc... what we could do away with and still be okay is overpaid ceo's , gurus, financiers, sales propagandists and career politicians AND ESPECIALLY, wealth inheritors.

well I certainly am not gonna defend the guy on that one .. maybe he's dead wrong or maybe its true in some 3rd world country somewhere I dunno but i'd guess probably not ... not claiming to know either way I just don't screw with table salt but believe that regular unrefined sea salt is healthier than most ppl think... I just saw the vid the other day and was focused on the vitamin C aspect undeniable that its helpful to cancer patients tho.. heres a link from cancer.gov .. personally I'd go with sea salt as its high in minerals.. and really thats the purpose of eating to get all the nutrients, minerals and vitamins that you need... table salt is refined and has additives not that iodine isn't good but I just read its even flouridated in some places? The guy maybe a quack, but so is anyone who threatens huge profits to a well paid scientist.... I couldn't support him on every word hell I jus saw the vid for the first time 2 or 3 days ago maybe but he's not the only one touting positive results from Vit C in cancer studies http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/highdosevitaminc/patient/page2 so minimally, Vit C helps alot? eh, certainly helps with immune function in general.. and I know when one gets the flu , vitamin c is depleted dramatically... the remedy I tried only once, cause I only felt the flu coming on once in the past 3 or 4 years, was drink the apple cider vinegar several times, with honey and water and lemon or whatever it takes to go down... and a shitload of vitamin c pills several times per day... the one time i was bothered with flu symptoms it was almost gone by day 2 and by day 3 I was fucking around again ... years before that I caught something that lasted for days, more than a week and even with antibiotics it was stilll around that long and thats when I tried the ACV but I dont' remember how much.. I know if you are going to do the anti biotics you should also take probiotics to replenish the digestive system with benefecials and ACV also feeds them. This lady (below) talks about alkalizing @ responding to your comment Dreamwalker... even apple cider Vinegar, an acid, has an alkalizing effect when taken I guess it signals to the body that theres enough acid to digest with and so it stops producing but im not sure about its affect on the blood ph... I know that its a pre-biotic however which is EXTREMELY benefecial to immune function and metabolism... She also references Dr Kaufman which comes on the cheap channels here alot my mom watches him... He believes that cancers and several other diseases are fungus related.. its worth paying attention to imho.. theres alot of things related to inflammation and most ppl dont' realize it but fungus is everwhere and taking supplements to fight fungus can make days a little easier.. i can't say for sure that it works but i've been taking Curamed a patented form of turmeric and olive leaf extract for just general parasite cleansing... healthy immune system is the way to go im really not sure how vitamin C affects blood ph with or without the buffer, but I know its essential https://www.ihealthtube.com/aspx/viewvideo.aspx?v=3ce2985243535f62 @ Whitewind... I certainly do think that poor nutrition is the #1 reason for lots of issues such as cancer... I've heard ppl say theres no such thing as a body that is completly cancer free but its whether or not it can thrive or not... We know that places that eat ALOT of untainted fish have low cancer levels but might be related to other factors too.. maybe the omega 3 helps their brain and since they are balanced and their reward centers aren't screwed up, they are making sound diet decisions, where as the typical american is the habitual comfort food eater lol the american diet includes sugar addiction, trans fats , color dyes and tons of dairy stuff, all which have some adverse effects... sure you can get calcium from milk but where do cows get calcium from? I figure its made for baby cows and they should have the milk, but i'll splurge with the cheese here and there kinda hard to give up cheese but i stopped drinking milk a long time ago too though I occasionally will cook oatmeal with it... I really think that made it ez to keep weight off but also the milkfat is said to affect DHA negatively.. I eat alot of greek yogurt too but sort of in phases I get sick of it for a time and then start again and I have to mix stuff with it like fruits and of course I get it without high fructose and add stevia ... it just might be that cancer and other disease is related to fungus and whether not it can succeed in the blood or not but either way getting rid of the fungus has to be the right thing, being that healthy white blood cells attack the little boogers... poor nutrition certainly makes for a good fungus habitat....its nice to see white blood cells knock the fungi dead when they're in a healthy oxygenated stream.. since seeing that vid , i want to know my blood is functioning just like it is towards the end of that vid

I enjoy what I heard today about ego from this perspective: "People say we can't change human nature overnight, you are asking us to give up the ego, and thats the most difficult of all things to do! actually it isn't! Because the ego doesn't exist... but of course, if you try to give up your ego, with your ego, then it will take you to the end of time..."... Alan Watts From:

you can fix ur quack-dar with vitamin L what is clear is that some populations get cancers that other populations don't... things to look at are diets, exposure to elements and industries, and stress levels... again... vitamin C isn't a proven cure but aiding the immune system never hurts with anything :D I also buy into the notion of alkalizing the system, not that you should be taking baking soda all the time but every now and then... so eat ur god damned oranges yO here's another vid regarding a potential breakthrough... I can't guarantee validity but if you are a big fan of eating medicinal foods then Goji might be worth a look @ preVEntative maintenance...

list of 432 Mhz musix: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcUB9EHDNZ457yyzGoJtskbbcxwWlXja2

I know what you mean and how you feel about it Sally but its worth the info in case anyone ever comes to the need... I for one believe in the saying "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food" which was coined by the father of western medicine, Hippocrates. The body is so amazing and I think its always best to give the body the chance to do what it does with all the minerals and nutrients it needs before introducing modern medicine... Its sad but I think most science is effectively sales propaganda and is powerful enough to make the natural lifestyle seem quacky, but i'd rather be in the group that rarely or never gets sick. I used to be quite sickly on a seasonal basis.. I had asthma as a youth, and allergies like hell every winter and spring... used to have major ear problems with each cold etc... I haven't been sick in years for more than an hour or two other then the mental stuff.... I occasionally get headaches and might consume and aspirin here or there but I look to hydration first unless its bad... I started eating alot of healthy foods and almost completely cut out the junk and the stress has been from the dramatic change but the more i've gotten used to it over the years the more im comfortable and even enjoy the healthy choices that I used to think would have been impossible to be used to... I did get sick a couple of times a few years ago and instead of running to a doctor i'd fill myself up with stuff like olive leaf extract, garlic, ginger, turmeric, royal jelly, oregano oil and I even keep grapefruit seeds around as an anit-everything eh... I know for sure that if one gets a flu or cold that the body uses up massive amounts of vitamin C and so when I got any sign of a cold the first thing i'd do is make an apple cider vinegar tonic and down several thousand mg's of esther C a few times per day... this hasalways killed it pretty fast... not long ago, maybe a year ago, I had a toothache and was sorta scared and so I went to my sisters work (a doctor)... he spent most of the time trying to convince me that I needed to get a flu shot and we just argued for a few minutes... I only went to get anti biotics to be safe...I never ended up taking them and I even still have the same tooth with the same hole in it that I should have taken care of by now lol ... instead I've been dousing it with oregano oil and just cleaning it regularly (I have no insurance)... an no further issues other than deteioration.. one other time it got worse and I pretty much took all those things I listed and once again did not need the anti biotics... my sister got fired from there and im glad cause they made her take the flu shot to work there... she's been having alot of health issues but I think its mostly about her diet but I don't think the flu shot helped anything... I heard a doctor not long ago state that 90% of the immune system is in the digestive tract and I am certain that its a crucial aspect of immunity @ probiotics..its just sad to see something like ebola in a place where the nutrition is as it is... watching vids of the voluneer doctors over there im realizing my own phobia for doctors as I don't even trust them.. I do listen to wholistic doctors from time to time and they have been coming across alot of evidence but the type which would conflict with the sale of prescription drugs and in direct conflict with methods of the federal drug agency in the states... im especially cautious due to the fact that I have known family friends who lived very crappy lives on 20 or more prescription drugs and thats no way to live... not to mention that theres rarely any studies for how these drugs work or don't work when mixed... it was enough inspiration for me to change my lifestyle when I finally hit that point in maturity where I began to take my health seriously well anyways... I don't know if Vitamin C is the absolute cure but its on the right track IMO just knowing how the immune system uses it up under stress... I also saw a video just a day or two ago, talking about how intravenous vitamin C injections is how this doctor claimed to rid ppl of tumors, along with other steps.. also very interesting what he is saying starting around 6:16 in the vid (towards the end)

I really like this one

@ Wert - this article is relative to your comment I think http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-memory-trace/ here's another article, sort of unrelated which may or may not conflict with the other findings but i find it interesting http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/sheldrake-morphogenic-field-memory-lashley-collective-unconscious-3486.html @ Rigger, I don't think his observation was exactly accurate... there are plenty of peeps who are arrogant but not well accomplished, parrots if you will. but I think the head pointing thing is more about self esteem... ppl who are confident are more likely to hold their head up while those with low self esteem or even stressed, fatigued, depressed might be inclined to hang their head low... Posture can certainly be indiciative of a healthy self esteem, though not everyone with good grammar becomes a grammar nazi sure, accomplishment is an aspect of self esteem, but not that everyone with high self esteem is well accomplished but perhaps more likely to become so... arrogance I think is a monkey see monkey do attribute, as there are many well accomplished folks who aren't necessarily arrogant... thus I think he is just rationalizing his own views... I think him even bringing that up points to perhaps an insecurity, or even immaturity (was he sorta young?) and classic misuse of the ego IMHO... though I guess you could say that a mind adapting in modern society, not having to hunt for food and protect oneself from the jungle, is likely to become misaligned with the reasons that ego evolved in the first place I'll never forget this one country lady, who was very good at selling real estate.. she used to say all the time "You can't Hoot with the owls if you want to soar with the eagles" ... still its comical to me and I really like the wise owls but anways I think that makes some sense lol I have changed alot just by eliminating a group of friends who were bigots and alcoholics... It sorta too me abandoning those friendships to be able to step back and look at the situation I was in, forgive them and move on with my life as I stated before I think of ego as the operating system of personality.. EVERYONE has an ego and we use it differently.. to completely remove the ego would align ones personality with that of a rock.. just because someone is humble, giving and understanding doesn't mean they are absent of the ego.. I think of "Ego Death" as more of "Ego Cleansing" as there is not a such thing without completely wiping the memory clean from any function of reaction/response. The vid on this page gives some insight into how I look at ego, more basically http://perceivingreality.com/ not that im a full fledged kabbalist but interestingly I find a whole new meaning in the vid having just watched it than when I did several years ago... if anything its worth understanding how other ppl view and use ego for the purpose of conscious development.. its your best friend or worst enemy depending on what you make of it @ OP... I think the obersvation about PTSD is interesting and reminds me of Anxiety, but then again I've never been diagnosed officially and so I wonder if my anxiety is related to some form of PTSD though mine was more of a traumautic life change... the anxiety i've come to understand is when the mind comes up with all sorts of shit worthy of fear but which has no basis whatsoever so I can see how it might be like a defense of some sorts, but out of whack, trying to defend me from something thats not really there... or perhaps in response to viewing information which might cause alot of stress, and thus influencing old memories of completely unrelated events which generated similar feelings i've noticed that when I have an anxiety bout, I will have a thought and immediately the emotional response kicks in and with that comes lots of other thoughts and images in an overwhelming format... but at other time when im more level headed, I may even have scary thoughts but the same emotions do not kick in and without being overwhelmed i feel like I have more of a choice to think about something else or just handle it easily... I think watching a shitload of conspiracy theory type videos can be just as much of a trigger as living through the physical event, depending on the state of mind... and also music seems to preoccupy the sense and sooth stress away, well at least some types of music... I also think some ppl deal with pain and anger by way of rage or rageful music to escape dealing with the underlying cause, not to bash any punk rockers or anything lol when im in more of an angry mood something rough is more soothing to listen to, wheras if i feel overwhelmed I want to hear something softer and peaceful... even those rain vids that Thunderhorse posts have a calming soothing effect on an anxious mind... . I think personalities/self vary alot based on their means for expressing.... some ppl actively express all their feelings, whether openly or through some form of art, and there are others who internalize most of their feelings and I think theres a wide range of study due perhaps to note the differences... Also very intelligent ppl tend more often to be hermits , not that social people are dumb but perhaps at some level of understanding, gratification becomes easier and needs (not all of them) can be fulfilled more easily where as very impulsive people often seem a bit lacking in that category eh I used to be nearly completly internalized into my 20s and then I had some of my own revelations after 9/11 and old part of me came back alive years later.. I went from a complete social butterfly to a hermit in no time flat and didn't give it any thought for years... one thing which was new, was I started writing again, which is something I did in my late teens but didn't put any energy into that until that part of me came back to life (I guess you can say it that way) .. I think alot of it had to do with beliefs I held and grasped onto as I was entering a career and making alot of choices... years later I didnt' feel like me anymore and so I went through a dramatic shift in my beliefs , and thus stopped giving a crap about presidential elections lol I think EVERYONE Should take the Myers Briggs personality test, answer it honestly and understand your own strengths and weaknesses and also update over the years to see if you've changed I know I have... I also used to take another personality test called DISC which is a bit different and reveals ones perception of themself, their "Mask" and whether it aligns with their true self, and it also reveals what one internalized in terms of how they think other ppl look at them... for instance I used to have ALOT of books, I always bought books but rarely read them but I wanted to be known as a reader but a.d.d was my worst enemy and rarely did I finish books I started.. when I took DISC it told me I wanted to project that I had it altogether but realized that I had an internal struggle and so my true self was very insecure... (not exactly in those words, someone who understood the test had to explain it to me) I masked it with books and not that I was dumb but i surely felt that I metabolize information alot differntly than ppl around me and had to read things 2 or 3 times to make sense sometimes... years later I had been through some traumas and my test came out completely different... my "Mask" aligned more with my true self and well I should probably take it again... The test can also reveal when a personality is in a time of transition... Myers briggs test seemed pretty accurate to me too can help you realize if you might actually be fulfilled in a career choice or not not to mention help you choose where you might be a good fit in the long term... some are intiutive feelers and some are abstract thinkers and we might read the same things and receive completely different meanings... I do think everyone shares an aspect of all 16 personality types but over times we strengthen in one category or the other... The Strenghts/Weakness aspect of it can really help one decide what they should be focused on in their life and studies I am still not the best at staying on one topic.. in my mind, everything is practically linked to everything else and my head goes full speed when stimulated intellectually.... I think of it as being more healthy when learning something is exciting, and when depressed one can learn something but lack in the emotion that gives to a sense of adventure/creativity... anyhow i'd love to be that one who could write 12 pages on the same topic but to most it would seem like im all over the place eh I never fit well into a school/college structure and so I think i've adapted the sort of intellect to help me surive the way I need to without alot of unnecessary info, but I see how in our society we give plaques for memorization and regurgation more often than for innovation and challenging the status quo... even worse we have a nation here (usa) of ppl who watch the news and then pretend to be intellectual when debating topics like the middles east and the economy.. so thats a huge factor regarding personalities @ the way attitudes are sold on television and reflected in the bar scene eh well at least in Texas it can be pretty annoying lol well anyways I could go on and on... just food for thoughts laff