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Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on December 3, 2011 at 12:10pm

Hey Eric-

You still around?

I never noticed your last post and dropped off the earth for a while. 

Hit me up if you still wanna chat!

Comment by Eric Youngstrom on June 29, 2011 at 10:08pm

 I’m jealous; I would love to see the UK. Well technically I have but it was in Ireland and at the airport on the way back from Iraq in 2007. I did have Irish whiskey and a Guinness in Ireland at least. I also have to say that Ireland is without a doubt one of the greenest countries I have ever scene. It was morning when we were landing there and every thing was so bright and green. Granted this could have been due to the contrast of coming from the Middle East where tan is the color of norm.

 

I do get what you are saying about how the country (The USA) is fucked up. At least from what people conceive of as tough times or how the rest of the world is or how they see us. Some, not all, people are fucking blissfully ignorant. As much as I want to bash into these Idiots brains what is right and wrong with their stupidity. We need to take the more controlled and careful approach of education and sound logic… .As boring and drawn out as it can be. My only fear is like what happens in the movie (Idiocracy ) we may be bred out of existence. Evolution is survival at those that adapt the best, not necessarily the strongest survive.

 

I too am far removed from the hive way of thinking or behaving. I am much more akin to the big cats (Puma, Leopard, ect..) I can work with groups and others fine but I am evolved and adapted to work as well alone.

 

Hope all is going well in the bay area…. Jordan, well.. .Jordan sucks ass to put it mildly.

 

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on June 28, 2011 at 10:51pm

SEA was an eye opener. Best years of my life, seriously. But there were some experiences that changed me, that's for sure.
My husband's a Scotsman, so I've seen a lot of the U.K. I'm a globe hopping fool, so it's not like I don't have a baseline to compare it to, you know? I see how the rest of the world lives. Not just the tourist destinations but the conversations around their dinner tables. When I look back at America, hell, every day there isn't something that makes me realize just how fucked up we are as a nation. It scares me. It really does. That's what I love about the Manifest Destiny Project. It's escapism. It's a game of perfect pretend with other intelligent minds. I mean, who cares and who knows if anything would ever come to fruition. It's the fact that we -atheists- without the constraints of dogma could fashion a society that would be hypothetically perfect. It's nice to at least imagine a place where I wouldn't have to drive by my favorite traffic screaming hobo every single day on my way to a job that I hate. I feel like I'm going through every minute of every day looking at life and screaming "WE ARE DOING IT WRONG!" and I don't even know why. Hell, I don't even know what 'right' is.
All I know is that everything we are told to do in life, from education to work to sex is enforced upon us by society in a ass-backwards way because a couple of goat herders scratched on some parchment 2,000 years ago. I mean it. We don't even realize just how much damage religion does to the lives of even the most rational-thinking household every day in America.
Our behaviors as primates are very largely based on notions of modesty, shame, virtue, purity, honor and other concepts that are not always the most altruistic or beneficial to the unit as a whole.
I mean, when these douche bags were hammering out the rules, they were doing it with no consideration for the massively complex global ecology, let alone their very insignificant place in it.
So we re-write the rules. We do it from the bottom up.
Obviously we can't retire from the world overnight. I mean, we are all evolutionists, aren't we? Gradual progression is the safest, most stable way. We make changes here and there in our lives.
So hypothetically speaking, how do we few like minded folk retire from Society and instead focus on Community.
I feel more like a pack animal than a hive insect.

This is my own intellectual version of SIMS:Let's do this life thing as best befitting our nature. It's a pretend game that helps me keep from killing a co-worker now and again. :)

Comment by Eric Youngstrom on June 28, 2011 at 10:26pm

South East Asia is rough too. I did a JPAC (MIA recovery missions. Looking for remains to bring home) in Northern Laos and while it wasn't as poverty stricken as Djibouti it was poor 3rd world country.

 

I couldn't even imagine having someone trying to sell me there baby. It had to be a hard thing to deal with. Heck all I can think of now is that mother without means to help her child and seeing no way out but to sell her child. in hopes of a better life for it.

 

Once I get settled in Oxnard (Ventrua County) I will e-mail and be more proactive on the site. Alehouses will fall!!!

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on June 28, 2011 at 10:18pm

Man.. Ethiopian border?
That's hardcore. Seriously hardcore.
I spent four years in Thailand and traveled extensively through South East Asia...and I mean some of the bad parts of town, baby. It schooled me.
I know the exact minute in my life when I grew up. I can tell you the exact second I became an adult.
It was the day a lady tried to sell me her baby in Malaysia.
I had never seen the human condition so intimately until that moment. It was just.. instant loss of innocence, you know?
I mean, I've never been a stranger to violence. That I can handle. But the slow, decaying infection that is poverty? It's so much crueler. Give me a clean death any day, you know? Anything over that.
It's a win-win for me over there. I get to feel like I've served my time for the carbon footprint I'll leave just by existing plus I'll get some freaking awesome war stories and a damn fine resume for when I want to retire and start a commune. :)
Email me when you're in the area. We will shut down the

Comment by Eric Youngstrom on June 28, 2011 at 9:57pm

Cool on wanting to do that, working in 3rd wold countries as a nurse/ paramedic/ ortho/ ect.. I did a tour in Djibouti (Africa) as a Network/ SatComm guy for a Army Civil Affairs Team. We were in a small town near the Ethiopian boarder and I have never seen poverty like that.

 

Very cool as well on the homebrewing and I may take you up on the offer if I am up in the Bay area. I haven't been there in awhile.

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on June 28, 2011 at 9:36pm

Eric-

Oh sweet. I'm just above you. In the bay area right now. 

Just passing through to do some big critter diving (Migrating sharks, whales, ect) and mapping some kelp forest stuff around Monterey. 

Just passing through California right now. I must say, my home state is a lot greener than when I left it. *ahem* so it's not that bad. It's a stop over so I can get together a bit more money before heading East. 

I'm actually doing a program that allows you to double major in nursing and paramedics. I'm a commercial diver now but screw this offshore crap. I really, really want to focus on rescue work, the grittier the better. Might do a few years volunteer work overseas when I finish my degree. 3rd world countries always need another pair of hands and they aren't very picky about whether or not you're an orthopedic specialist. They just want the bone reset, you know? GREAT experience potential if you aren't feint of heart. 

Well, if you're ever kicking it around the bay, give me a yell. I know a ton of great bistros and microbrew places. My husband and I are homebrewers. 

 

 

 

Comment by Eric Youngstrom on June 28, 2011 at 9:06pm

A Coastie, cool! I tried to get in the Coast Guard back in the day but they said I was too short. (I’m sure you heard the joke that applies and I assure you it is all in good fun)

 

My school is actually a Navy one, well sort of. It is 2M (Micro-miniature Repair) fixing circuit cards with microscopes in such. I am still Active Duty, 3 years until retirement and I am stuck out here due to money… Well that and the location I am in the country won’t fast track visas for us to get home so the ship is scrambling. I say due to piss poor planning but what do I know.

 

I will, sooner than later I hope, be back in SoCal. San Diego for the school and I am getting stationed in or at NAWS Point Mugu. It is just north of Malibu in Ventura County.

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on June 28, 2011 at 8:58pm

Eric- No need to apologize!
Thank you for your service and welcome home!
(I'm former Coastie.)
I am also trying to get back into school, though I'm currently stateside after about four years abroad.
It's a bitch over here, mate! Consider carefully.
California is ass out. Everything has a waiting list. I was in line for a nursing program and got bumped back three years because of budget stuff.
Luckily there was a better school in PA that could take me.
If there is anything I can do to lend a hand, just let me know.
Until you're home and settled, no worries, mate. This is nothing more than a very scattered brainstorming exercise for me. I can't wait for your participation, but I understand that the real world comes first.

Cheers!

Comment by Eric Youngstrom on June 28, 2011 at 8:52pm

Sorry I haven't really added much of anything (other than a quote) but I am on deployment and dealing with the logistics of trying to get back stateside for a school. The US Navy is broke BTW so this is causeing undue stress.

 

Other than that nugget, how are you all doing?

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