Nov
5
Horrifying Dream: A Grudge-Like Ghost After Me
Filed Under dreams, horror | 3 Comments
I am writing what I can remember about a nightmare I experienced last night especially for a friend who is very interested in the meaning of dreams, and I am hoping she will comment on it – as long as her interpretation of my nightmare is not TOO dark (just kidding)!
I wish I had written this down early this morning when I remembered more of the details, for now it is even more vague than when I first jerked awake in horror. The dream was long and detailed and contained much more than is documented here.
The first part of the dream I remember is a guy sitting on a couch who wanted or offered to show me something important, in a telepathic way. As soon as I made contact with him (I leaned my back up against him in a kind of strange and awkward position), I could see what he wanted or needed to show me. It was a short sequence of the dream like being in a movie, or more accurately, seeing a movie of what HE was thinking or wanted/needed to show me or transfer to me. I remember my body floating and I remember it being creepy and dark. I seem to also remember that he was transferring to me some sort of ability or power he possessed – something that I needed or that might help me. When I leaned back up, I was in my own head again with more knowledge of something I had needed to know.
Other things happened which I can’t remember. Next thing I can recall, I was in an upstairs bathroom of a house and when I moved closer to the open door of the bathroom, the door moved away from me all by itself. I tested this odd occurrence a couple more times, and the same thing happened, confirming I now had some new power to move things telepathically (or something like that). I liked it but was creeped out by it too, as I have always had a fear of things moving all by themselves (from horror shows I watched as a child, I am sure)!
While I was still in that small room (I’m pretty sure it was a bathroom), a dead woman / ghost appeared at arms length, almost in my face, and I think I may have been trying to hold her back or maybe even strangling it (I just remember my arms were outstretched). She was 60-ish and beginning to rot and it was horrifying. Her eyes were looking in different directions – probably due to the decomposition — and the left eye, I think, was looking directly at me, making eye contact. I think I said something like “You love me, don’t you” – not in a pleading way, but in a matter-of-fact way (as though I knew she did and was coaxing her to admit it), which she then did by saying I love you.
That part was scary enough, and I usually wake up when something is that frightening – but it got scarier. I left that room and passed some stairs, and looking down the stairs, I saw a ghost or ghoul or something coming up the stairs in a deformed, creepy, jerky, inhuman way – an Oriental woman, I think, which was directly based on The Grudge and The Ring movies (which I found to be quite scary, unlike most horror movies; in fact, I have always dreaded dreaming of this Grudge curse/ghost thing because I have watched the movies so many times – including a couple of Ring movies in the last two weeks).
The scary Grudge/Ring female ghost caught up to me and the last thing I remember was being pinned up against a wall in the house by her/it, with her directly behind me, either beginning to strangle or bite or otherwise harm me. I attempted to head-butt her by jerking my head backwards against her forehead, and that is when I woke up. Silly as it may sound, it was quite frightening in comparison to most of my previous unpleasant or nightmarish dreams. This was at 4:30 a.m., and I could not get back to sleep after that!
Oct
9
Thursday, October 08, 2009
In a recent quest for a new spiritual book to read, I ended up buying Essential Spirituality: The 7 Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind, by Roger Walsh. It is further subtitled Exercises from the World’s Religions to Cultivate Kindness, Love, Joy, Peace, Vision, Wisdom, and Generosity. Following are some of my thoughts as well as generous paraphrasing from the book.
On the back of the book are some testimonial comments from the likes of Dan Millman (Way of the Peaceful Warrior), Ram Dass (author of many spiritual books on Buddhism), and even Ken Wilber (A Brief History of Everything). And they were right: I have read only the first 20 pages and I’m already certain I made a wise choice in this book.
As a compulsive syncretist, the title alone indicated it was a book I should add to my small collection of spiritual tomes, as the title implies the author does not believe in and is not trying to sell readers a specific religion or spiritual path. These views are the very opposite of fundamentalism (“we are right and you are wrong”) — one of the few subjects that you might find me bemoaning on occasion.
I will share with you what I found to be of interest on the first few pages of Essential Spirituality. The very first sentence definitely sounds like Buddhism:
Life is not always easy, but it can be ecstatic. How to manage the difficulties and taste the ecstasy is a central challenge of life and a goal of any spiritual practice…there are experiences so profound and meaningful that life and the world seem to be nothing less than sacred. There are moments of such bliss that they outshine ordinary pleasures as the sun does a firefly, moments of such love and compassion that we fall helplessly in love with all creation. A single such experience can transform your life forever.
The author then describes life-altering spiritual experience of a seeker named Richard Bucke, a name not familiar to me. The impact of the spiritual experience was such that Richard devoted the rest of his life to researching such experiences. I can really relate to this as a fellow seeker; to me, there is not much that’s more important than spiritual experiences. It is astonishing to me that so many people live their lives with a blind eye to things spiritual!
Richard Bucke is certainly not alone; we seekers are not an uncommon breed. In fact, the new-found dedication of Mr. Bucke reminds me quite a bit of some reading I have done about the early days of AA and what inspired the leaders of AA: nothing short of personal spiritual experiences. There are very few books mentioned as being resources for the Big Book of AA, but one of the best-known is Varieties of Religious Experience by William James, which is a serious examination of spiritual experiences circa 1900. This is a book that surely would have fascinated Richard Bucke.
Funny – I just discovered after some Googling that Richard Bucke’s story can be found in William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience!
His description of the experience:
All at once I found myself wrapped in a flame-colored cloud. For an instant I thought of fire, an immense conflagration somewhere close by in that great city; the next, I knew that the fire was within myself. Directly afterward there came upon me a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness accompanied by or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination impossible to describe. Among other things, I did not merely come to believe, but I saw that the universe is not composed of dead matter, but is, on the contrary, a living Presence; I became conscious in myself of eternal life. It was not a conviction that I would have eternal life; but a consciousness that I possessed eternal life then; I saw that all men are immortal; that the cosmic order is such that… all things work together for the good of each and all; that the foundation principle of the world, of all the worlds, is what we call love, and that the happiness of each and all is in the long run absolutely certain.
Benefits of Spiritual Practices
Next, the book wisely expresses how the author is defining certain terms such as religious and spiritual. While the word religion has many meanings, in particular it implies a concern with the sacred and supreme values of life. The term spirituality, on the other hand, refers to a direct experience of the sacred. Therefore, spiritual practices are what help us to experience the sacred – that which is most central and essential to our lives – for ourselves. It is highly personal.
The ultimate aim of spiritual practices is awakening, or to know our true Self and our relationship to the sacred.
The author lists many benefits of spiritual practice which include psychological and spiritual benefits as well as physical benefits.
The Greatest of All Discoveries
Spiritual practices finally reveal to us the greatest of all discoveries. Within ourselves we find our deepest self, our true Self, and recognize that we are not only more than we imagined but more than we CAN imagine. We see that we are a creation of the sacred, intimately and eternally linked to the sacred, and forever graced and embraced by the sacred. This is the central message at the heart of the great religions and the basis for their ecstatic cries, such as those in the Western traditions:
- The kingdom of heaven is within you (Jesus, Christianity).
- Those who know themselves know their Lord (Mohammed, Islam).
- He is in all, and all is in him (Judaism).
Centuries earlier, similar words were already pouring from ecstatic Chinese spiritual gurus:
- Those who know completely their own nature, know heaven (Mencius, Confucianism).
- In the depths of the soul, one sees the Divine, the One (The Chinese Book of Changes).
Indian traditions offer the same gift: the recognition that, in their words,
- Atman (individual consciousness) and Brahman (universal consciousness) are one (Hinduism).
- Look within; you are the Buddha (Buddhism).
These ecstatic recognitions represent the deepest goal and the fullest flowering of spiritual development. Even though the words used to describe these things are different, the experiences that underlie them point to the commonalities among world religions, and chief among these are what the author calls the perennial philosophy and perennial practices.
Unlike any other time in history, any information you want about virtually any world religion is instantly obtainable, and as a result, more people than ever before in all of history are now sampling practices from multiple traditions. On the down side, such a glut of information can cause a great deal of spiritual confusion as we search for the underlying truth or reality. I suffered from a deep and seemingly interminable religious confusion for years, which to a large degree drove my seeking deeper and deeper. What do these spiritual and religious traditions and beliefs have in common? What is at the core? What is real and what isn’t?
Beneath the hundreds of wildly varying customs, cultures, and claims, there lies a common core of both wisdom and practice at the heart of each authentic tradition. By authentic, the author is referring to those traditions which are capable of offering a direct experience of the sacred and of fostering true spiritual growth and maturity in its practitioners.
Scholars call the essential, common core of religious wisdom the perennial wisdom or perennial philosophy because these profound insights into life have endured across centuries and cultures and have been taught by the great sages throughout time.
It is so much more useful to study the commonalities of world religion and spirituality than the differences, don’t you think? It’s also a good way to help sort the morsels of truth and reality from all the fodder of dogma and tradition with which organized religion is littered.
At the heart of perennial wisdom – mankind’s treasure trove of accumulated wisdom – are four crucial claims or observations.
1. There are two realms of reality. The first is the everyday realm, the practical realm with which we are all familiar: the world of physical objects and living creatures. But beneath this realm lies another realm far more subtle and profound: the realm of consciousness, Mind, spirit, or Tao. This world cannot be known directly through the physical senses but only indirectly through the physical instruments of science. This subtle realm actually creates and embraces the physical realm and is its source.
2. Human beings partake of both realms. We are not merely physical beings but also spiritual ones. Or as the popular quote goes, we are spiritual beings having a human experience rather than just physical beings having a spiritual experience. We have bodies but we also have, at the core of our being, in the depths of our minds, a center of transcendent awareness. This center is described as pure consciousness, mind, spirit, or Self and is described in various traditions as the neshama of Judaism, the soul or divine spark of Christianity, the Atman of Hinduism, and buddha nature. This divine spark is intimately related to – some say inseparable from and even identical to — the sacred ground or foundation of all reality. So, we are not divorced from the sacred, but eternally and intimately linked to it.
3. Human beings can recognize their divine spark and the sacred ground which is its source. This implies that the claims of the perennial philosophy do not have to be accepted blindly; rather, each of us can test for themselves the various claims and decide their validity based on our direct experience. This is accomplished through careful mindfulness practice and introspection, and while simple, is by no means easy. Anyone can be graced with occasional spontaneous glimpses, but a clear sustained vision of our sacred depths usually requires significant, sustained practice. This is the very purpose of our spiritual practices.
4. The perennial philosophy’s fourth claim is that realizing our spiritual nature is the highest goal and greatest good of human existence. Beside this all other goals pale and all other delights only partly satisfy. So say the wise and diverse traditions of the ages.
Pretty good stuff, huh? And that’s from only the first ten pages of the book!
Aug
27
Things I Found Interesting on Wednesday
Filed Under religion, spirituality | 2 Comments
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
The things I found to be the most interesting today were transcendent things, spiritual things; things that rise well above the usual day-to-day concerns of the human mind — especially the business, material, and accumulation-mindedness that pervades Western thinking.
(NOTE: Click your browser’s refresh button to see most of the images on this page change; there are hundreds of nature pics in the folders from which these images are being randomly chosen each time the page is refreshed.)
Before I go further with this, it is very important to be on the same page with regard to the words I am using to communicate. I truly believe that real disagreement is much rarer than most think: most so-called disagreement stems from communication errors arising from coming from two completely different places, or having two different understandings of the same words and concepts.
A good example of miscommunication might be this question: “Do you believe in God?” Why is this question often ridiculous? Because the asker and the asked probably have completely different ideas about what is meant in the first place by the word God. It is sad to think so many opinion polls that are actually given credence, start out with such fundamental miscommunication.
For example, if the asker is a Christian fundamentalist and the asked is a free thinker, if the free thinker answers NO, it might mean a rejection of the Bible God, but it might not necessarily be a rejection of the possible existence of some type of Universal Intelligence.
For this reason, I want to start out by documenting exactly what I mean by spirituality and religion. Most of the time when I use the word religion, I am referring to organized religion and its associated beliefs and dogmas, which, ironically, seem to have terribly corrupted the essence of spirituality through the very attempts to organize it – though the intentions were probably good in most cases (except where state religion was used for political purposes; more on that at another time).
My use of the word religion implies a concern with the sacred and supreme values in life, and especially the organization of such ideas as to make the organization official on some level.
My use of the word spirituality refers to the direct experience of the sacred.
So, spiritual practices are those which help us to experience the sacred – that which is most central and essential to our lives – for ourselves, or on an individual basis.
The ultimate aim of all spiritual practice is being awakened or saved from ego (portrayed in some systems as evil); that is, to know our true Self and our relationship to the sacred on a deep and unifying level, apart from surface or apparent separateness.
Thankfulness for Having Risen Above All Spiritual Confusion
Having been a seeker most of my life (like many other people), I have gained the benefits of a wealth of many spiritual teachings, but the sheer volume of those teachings – and especially the variances within those teachings — used to be a source of even more religious-spiritual confusion. For example, two spiritual books sounded wonderful and even rang true with me on some deep level – but, at the time, I could not yet make sense of the parts that seemed to conflict with each other. At that point, I could definitely see the wisdom of what many teachers advise: choosing a single path and sticking to it, without trying to learn about all religions and spiritual paths and thus risking a great deal of confusion. However, I am now very pleased that I did not choose one and stick with only it!
You see, this type of religious and/or spiritual confusion was the last thing I needed, for I began my adult life with more religious confusion than I could handle at the time because even though I went to church and private school, I rejected the fundamentalist teachings on some very important inner level (though I was too naïve to really understand this at the time, and for some reason so were my parents and the other adults at school and church who raised me, but I place no blame).
Indeed, religious confusion was one of the reasons I turned to very superficial and often unhealthy ways of temporarily making myself feel better and for a time enabling myself to forget that the religious teachings I grew up hearing on a daily basis could not possibly be true because the teachings were full of self-contradictions — such as “God is love” vs. the concept of a literal hell, which was taught to us as being the actual, literal destination of everyone who did not believe as we did (non-Church of Christ).
Indeed, one of the questions I constantly asked myself as a tween and then a teen was this: Why isn’t this bothering everybody else? Am I the only one among the hundreds at our school and church who notices or cares that we are not being taught the right thing?
This type of independent thought was discouraged. Obviously, such thought had to be discouraged.
I am thankful beyond words that I had the sense to spend the months and months of studying that was necessary for me to arrive at my truth. This occurred largely during my early thirties when I lived in the Atlanta area.
Is my truth the same as another’s? To a degree, of course not: in a rather shallow sense, we as individuals are the sum total of all we have ever thought, done, seen, read, and heard. But on a deeper level – and this is a core spiritual truth of which I have no doubt at all – we are all one.
Reality is reality, and that’s hard to disagree with or take opposition to. But I digress; for all is perfect now.
All is Perfect Now.
One of the most difficult yet most important and central realizations is that you – and indeed everything – are already free, already saved, already enlightened, already perfect as is. To see this, you need only free yourself of ego, which lives in psychological time (the past and the future) instead of the present moment. All freedom or salvation or Buddhahood or Christ consciousness is found in the present moment — and nowhere else. (Where else is there?)
Consider the lilies of the field, or the birds of the air, which experience no anxiety about the future and no depression about the past. Be as children – fully present in the moment and free of psychological time.
But what about bad things?
What is bad? As you study the deeper meaning of things, you will see the issues inherent in such dual thinking (good vs. bad). (This is one of those areas in which the West has really learned a great deal from the East, which is not as saddled with duality as Western thinking.)
You will see that bad and good are one. One cannot exist without the other, and both are one – or, two sides of the same coin if you will. While fortune hides within all misfortune (the “positive” way of looking at it), misfortune also hides within all fortune! All newborns have death within them, and this is not good or bad — it just is.
Do you still think of death as being bad? You will get over this, too, if you are to experience enlightenment or salvation. Jesus and Buddha taught us that we must die before we die. Jesus described it as dying and being born again, but it is the same thing: the full acceptance and appreciation of the fact that our present physical forms are as fleeting and temporary as that of a flower. Death is a natural part of all life, but it is only our outer physical forms that will experience death, for we are all part of a single thing, or entity, if you will (God). One way of saying it, is that we are all little pieces of God running around with the illusion of separateness.
After years of automatically rejecting any teaching from Christian fundamentalists (I wrongly held a lot of anger and resentment toward them for leading me in the wrong direction for most of my life, you see!), such as the teachings of Jesus, I finally was able to see the light – or at least, to glimpse more of the light than I had yet been able to before then – for now I know that the proper interpretation of Jesus’ teachings agree with the teachings of all else that is real.
Nothing that is real can be threatened, and in that sense trees and our bodies are not real but the source underlying them is.
Energy cannot be destroyed, it merely changes form.
Surface Living vs. Deep Realization
I must interject another side note here about searching for the truth and finally finding it to reach enlightenment or salvation (which I now believe are the exact same thing). Independent thinkers and seekers like me are always looking for a deeper truth. Some people, those who exist and live mostly (if not 100%) in the surface (I will not call it superficial because that implies it lacks importance, and there are very good arguments for the world of the practical being important) world of ego and practicality, might want to shake me and ask why I am giving importance to these things that do not seem to help one live in this outer Western world of things and saving and accumulating and security.
What could be more secure than enlightenment or salvation? Nothing.
One question I hear from surface thinkers is: Why don’t you just get a job and get health insurance like a normal person? That kind of surface thinking completely ignores deeper reality, either because surface thinkers do not understand it or cannot grasp it. It is more likely they are capable of grasping it, but are on some deep level fearful of going there. Why? Maybe they were raised by families in which deeper meaning either did not exist or was never discussed. But apart from how they may have been raised, they are — like most people — still caught up in ego, or the false self. They treat their ego the way it wants to be treated: as if the ego itself fully represented the person, not even realizing on a conscious level that this stream of thinking is only noise, only ego.
(What do I mean by ego? You surely already know this, but in case you do not, this might blow your mind! You know that constant stream of thoughts you experience in your head — the inner dialogue in your mind that never really stops? Well, that is not the real you, but is only your ego trying to justify itself. You are a great deal more than that!)
Take someone who is a materially successful surface thinker. He has all the money he could ever need or want, and he has all of the material possessions than he could ever need – or if a particular need for a thing arose, he would just buy it. But what about things that are not for sale? There is probably a critical emptiness here.
This person is deeply entrenched in a fundamentalist and surface life at every turn, including the parts that are supposed to show him the deeper meaning of things (religion).
I am not criticizing wealth. Most people would probably admit that they want to succeed on a material level. But at what price? In order to avoid being corrupted by it, such success must be a part of the spiritual path, not apart from it.
One question worth asking is, Why aren’t more seekers FINDERS?
The short answer is that most people never rise above – or get to a level underneath or more fundamental than (however you care to portray it) that incessant stream of egoic thinking.
There is No Such Thing as the One Right Path.
There is no such thing as the one right path. But please do not take that to mean that there is NO right path; all it means is that there is not a single one right path to the exclusion of all other paths. However, a person will not be able to see this truth until his or her fundamentalist thinking is eradicated or eased on some crucial level.
Is there such a thing as a “wrong path”, then? Well, that depends on what level on which we are speaking. Can a given path be wrong, as in not agreeing with truth and reality? Of course — many paths are wrong in this sense.
But on a more important personal level, and for hard-to-explain reasons that I do not have time to get into right now, whatever your current path is, it is the right path for you at this time. But I caution you against thinking of your current path as the final, end-all, be-all path for evermore — or as the right path for anyone else. Even more importantly, you simply must allow your views to be flexible and give them room to grow and evolve as you study and experience new mind-blowing revelations. You almost certainly know this on some level. (I hope I do not sound as though I know it all — far from it! I fully expect my spiritual understanding to keep growing and developing.)
There is a great deal of truth to the old saying, Beware of those who claim they have found the truth, especially if it leads to the closing of one’s mind to all other possibilities, or an unfortunate cessation in seeking truth.
Real Universal Intelligence is not Self-Contained in Only a Single Book.
One of the reasons I no longer suffer from the religious or even spiritual confusion that I used to, is because I have spent such a significant chunk of time investigating such paths for myself from a surprisingly objective viewpoint.
When I first left the fold of fundamentalist Christianity and began to investigate for myself the really tough questions and inconsistencies, I was not so objective. There was a level of guilt involved for questioning what I had always been taught was the indisputable and completely authoritative Word of God. But that guilt basically disappeared when I accepted that I am meant to use my powers of logical reasoning and my intuitive sense of what represents truth — not abandon all this.
The first question I had to answer for myself was this: is the Bible – or any other so-called revealed religion – the sole, indisputable, and completely authoritative Word of God?
After a few weeks of getting used to reading explanations that completely conflicted with one another, and distancing myself from the automatic fundamentalist guilt involved, I surprised myself by being able to look at things from a more objective viewpoint than I had ever thought possible for myself.
After I answered that question definitively for myself, I have been able to move on and grow more than I ever thought possible.
All Genuine Spiritual Teachings are in Agreement.
This has been a more recent revelation, and a very important one in ridding myself of religious and spiritual confusion.
Even though I may not be able to determine the precise proper interpretation of every Scripture or every so-called religion, I still know in my heart that the true and real teachings of all the legitimate spiritual teachings agree wholeheartedly on things we as humans can know. I am very comfortable with what I believe to be the basic teachings of these teachers; I think that, properly understood,
• Jesus agrees with
• the Dalai Lama, who agrees with
• Buddha, who agrees with
• Patanjali, who agrees with
• Wayne Dyer, who agrees with
• Lao Tse/Tzu who agrees with
• Saint Francis of Assisi, who agrees with
• Jack Kornfield, who agrees with
• Albert Einstein, who agrees with
• Khalil Gibran, who agrees with
• Thich Nhat Hanh, who agrees with
• Eckhart Tolle. . .
I also came to believe that any teaching that claims to be the only teaching, automatically excludes all other paths, or teaches anything other than love, unity, interdependence of all things, and impermanence of all material things, is a false teaching.
I have a great respect for what I believe to be the real teachings of Jesus; the problem is, I strongly believe that the real teachings of Jesus started to be badly misinterpreted even as they were being recorded in the Gospel. I believe the ears of most of those who heard Jesus were not ready to hear or accept the truths he was teaching, and that the writers in general did not understand the core teachings of being present and living in such a way as to promote inner peace and love of all others, and to reject anything that divides us.
Sadly, the modern branches of Christianity have fallen under a common spell: they worship the bringer of the message, when in truth it is the message itself that is of extreme importance. What is that message? The central message is that the kingdom of heaven is here in our midst, and if only we cast aside all of our worries about the future and quit fretting about the past, we can live in the present moment — at which point we will experience salvation, the kingdom of heaven, nirvana, enlightenment — insert your preferred terminology here!
One of the problems with some teachings is that they also try to answer questions to which no human could possibly know the answers, and this is probably another major source of false teaching.
But what about channeling intelligent beings, near death experiences, remembrances of previous lives, and other things like this?
I cannot fully answer that one, though I do consider these things sometimes. For now, I am sticking to things we as humans can know, including the things that I seem to intuitively know for myself. I am finally starting to trust my intuition more than I have in the past. This is more than enough for me right now!
Thanks for reading this diatribe — I appreciate your taking the time.
Jul
29
How I Make Legal Copies of my DVDs
Filed Under web tools, movies | Leave a Comment
Tuesday, July 28,2009
Copying DVDs can be tricky; it took quite a bit of experimentation before I was able to successfully make copies of my DVDs, even with all of the instructions available online. I have no idea why an easy-to-follow set of instructions is so elusive; I hope these instructions help you. Of course, this is not the only way to make a copy of a DVD, but it is a way that works and a way that is free.
There are two or three steps in the process of copying a DVD:
1. Ripping (always)
2. Shrinking (sometimes necessary)
3. Burning (always)
Ripping with DVD Decrypter
Ripping means copying; this is the first step: copying the DVD files onto your hard drive. I rip DVDs onto my hard drive using DVD Decrytper. It is a very simple and easy process – virtually automatic. To find a download site, just Google something like “download DVD decrypter” and you will easily find it. Here is a link from which you may be able to download it:
http://www.soft32.com/download_75586.html
Burning with ImgBurn
If, and only if, the DVD files are 4.36GB or smaller, I burn the DVDs from my hard drive using ImgBurn — a free product that is put out by the same folks as DVD Decrypter, I am guessing, since the interfaces are similar and the same jingle is used to indicate the process is complete. Look for download sites using Google as before. Here is one place you may be able to download ImgBurn:
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
Shrinking the Files with DVDShrink
The next problem you will run into is fitting the movie files onto standard blank DVD-Rs, which hold only 4.7 Gb. Often, the files comprising a DVD movie are closer to 7 gigabytes than 4. Anything over 5 GB risks being incomplete, unless you first shrink the DVD files (by lessening the video quality). It will still work, but the last part of the movie might be missing. Fortunately, many movies are under 5GB, and those usually work perfectly.
(NOTE: Again, the DVD files for most movies are usually going to be between five and seven gigabytes, which means that you will NOT be able to fit the feature onto a standard single DVD with the free software mentioned here. There is DVD software out there that can perform virtual miracles of compression, with the ability to fit even 7GB movies onto a single DVD; however, in this article I am sticking with FREE software only.)
With the help of friends, I finally learned how to back up ANY movie, not just the ones under 4.36GB or so: by using the popular and FREE DVDShrink. It’s very simple; you simply open the files (or disc) and DVDShrink automatically shows you the quality reduction calculations necessary to fit the entire movie onto one commonly available, single-layer DVD-R or DVD+R (4.7Gb, 120 min). Use Google to find current download sites for DVDShrink. Here is one site that may have it:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/dvd_rippers/dvd_shrink.cfm
I have heard from some folks that DVD-R is a better format than DVD+R; however, I have not noticed a difference. They both seem to work equally well with my modest equipment and free software.
Here are some of the simple techniques I use with the free DVDShrink application to reduce the size of the DVD files so it will fit onto one DVD with free software:
- You can often make sizable gains by removing parts of the audio – the foreign languages, for instance, if there are any on your DVD.
- Reduce the quality of everything other than the main feature as much as you are willing. I usually reduce the menus and the bonus features to around 51% in order to push the quality of the main feature a little bit more.
Using the Re-author Option (DVDShrink)
When the files comprising a DVD are much more than 7GB or so, then even DVDShrink cannot do the job. This is most often the case with DVDs that contain double features, or more than one movie. I am a big horror fan, and there are lots of double feature DVDs and movie collection DVDs of older movies like The Ghost, Dominique is Dead, Night of the Living Dead, Horror Express, Satanic Rituals of Dracula, and other old movies that are now in the public domain. The best thing to do in this case is to split them up into individual movies, burning one movie per DVD instead of trying to cram multiple movies onto a single DVD.
It is very easy to accomplish this, thanks to DVDShrink; the answer is to use the Re-author option. After you have opened the disc (or files), click on Re-author. The various parts of the DVD will appear in the right-hand panel. If there are multiple movies on the DVD, they will be shown as Title2, Title3, etc. Simply drag the first title file over to the left-hand panel and back it up. Later you can burn it with ImgBurn, and the DVD will contain just that one movie. Repeat the process for the other titles.
Apr
14
Things I Found Interesting Today
Filed Under interests, miscellany | 1 Comment
Of late, the things that interest me the most — in no particular order — are collecting, watching, and writing about supernatural horror movies; learning Sharepoint, an amazingly deep Microsoft evolution of the old, crappy FrontPage; certain facets of Nashville web design and development, namely CSS (cascading style sheets) and Nashville SEO/SEM (search engine optimization/marketing); and finally, hiking and photography at Nashville’s Radnor Lake.
I am constantly getting sidetracked and going off on tangents in various areas, and it sometimes leads to a real enthrallment. And occasionally one of these novel enthrallments of mine will mark the beginning of a new phase or a major kick in my life. Anyone who knows me well can tell you that I have a highly addictive personality, together with more than a hint of obsessive and compulsive type behavior. In other words, when I get into something, man, do I get into it.
Take anime, for instance. When I watched my first anime DVD in August 2008, it started something no one saw coming, nor could anyone possibly have predicted it: an amazing — or unfortunate, depending on your viewpoint – immersion into anime! From September through December 2008, I spent more money and time than I even knew I had on anime DVDs. I had a blast, at the time; I developed quite a lot of knowledge about anime, a large DVD collection quickly took up space on my shelves, and an otaku website was born. But just a few days after I started the Otaku at 42 anime website, my obsession with it reached critical mass and I was suddenly and completely burned out on anime.
Speaking of going off on tangents and getting sidetracked, here I go again! It often happens when I write, so I must take care to stay on point.
I believe most creative, intelligent, curious people probably wonder about more things during the course of a day than even they themselves would believe; most of them are probably only fleeting thoughts, such as “ I wonder how she comes up with that,” “How did he know that,” “Where do they learn to . . .” and so on ad infinitum. They are soon forgotten.
Today I had the bright idea to try to document some of these things in a post I might call, Things I Found Interesting on [enter date here]. Granted, I hope I come up with a much more catchy and creative name than Things I Found Interesting, but nevertheless. . .a new blog topic is born.
But it isn’t new; and a fresh blog topic is NOT born, for it’s exactly what I had in mind when I decided to start this blog. The name captures it perfectly: Assorted Enthrallments.
Apr
11
Wordpress SEO-Friendly Web Page Filenames
Filed Under web resources, SEO, wordpress | 2 Comments
Wordpress & SEO
Wordpress has a fantastic built-in way to make SEO-friendly webpage file names. Note how the default page name includes the year, month, and post number or post title. If you login to admin and look under the Options — Permalinks menu, you will find a way to force WP to use category names instead of year and month. Then you use appropriate category names that include good keywords. The custom setting to do this is:
Custom structure: /%category%/%postname%/
Smashing Magazine
Also, if you want to see some killer Wordpress and other posts, check out this awesome site:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
Scroll down and check out the Popular Posts and All Posts for categories of interest. This is time well-spent!
Apr
11
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Dani Cooper, ABC Science Online
April 8, 2009 — Ancient stalagmites from a submerged Italian cave have revealed sea level rises caused by global warming more than 200,000 years ago, according to a joint European-Australian study.
The finding, which appears in the journal Nature Geoscience, suggests the current melting of ice sheets may happen faster than expected. Their publication adds weight to the release of an international report showing up to one-third of all Antarctic sea ice is likely to melt by the end of the century.
Lead author Andrea Dutton, of the Australian National University, said the stalagmites from Argentarola Cave, Italy, provide an ancient archive of sea water levels because they were formed through two different sources.
When the water level in the cave was high, the submerged stalagmites were colonized by aquatic worms that encased it in a tube made from biogenic calcite.
When the level dropped, the stalagmites formed from water drops from the cave ceiling (spelean calcite).
<h2>Resources</h2>
Discovery.com News - Stalagmites, Sea Rising
Apr
9
320 of Those Great Google Logos
Filed Under graphics, website spotlight, web culture | 1 Comment
As I talked to my dear and delightful tween niece Sarah Dale, the subject of online chatting came up. Her favorite instant messaging (chat) application is Google Talk, she said, but she also likes playing with some of the richer features of Yahoo Messenger.
Anyway, she brought up Google’s special occasion logos which caused us to wonder how many there might be. It is not a subject in which we performed any research other than to look for Google logo images using Google Images, but the collection of special Google logos was such an interesting graphic I just wanted to share it.
Full size, smaller file | Full size, high quality image
Apr
9
Phil Valentine: Entertainer, Not Scientist
Filed Under opinion, politics, Nashville | 6 Comments
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
I occasionally listen to Phil Valentine, such as when I’m in the car and have little else to entertain. This is not meant to disparage Mr. Valentine, not at all; it’s just that I am not a huge fan of argumentative radio – it usually makes me feel worse, not better. Phil Valentine has a great voice — perfect for his medium — and his subject matter is typically preferable to the rancid hatred that’s spread in the mornings by self-professed Christian Michael “Rapture” DelGiorno. (I want to address some of Mr. DelGiorno’s inflammatory comments on another day, and soon.)
I do not agree with many of Phil Valentine’s positions, but that isn’t saying much, for folks who toe their party lines, no matter how ridiculous, will get neither frequent agreement nor much respect from me.
Topics upon which I actually DO agree with Phil include the ridiculousness of the fairness doctrine, which if put into place, might have a negative impact on conservative talk radio. I do not dislike the fairness doctrine for that reason, of course, for I am not a fan of conservative talk radio,
liberal talk radio, or any type of fundamentalist “our positions are the correct ones, damn the rest” programming. It’s just plain staring me in the face that the fairness doctrine is anything but fair; free speech is simply far too important to frack with in such a partisan manner.
Those poor dirt people!
Actually, I am surprised, with so many conservatives now on board with reducing pollution, recycling, green construction, and other earth-friendly moves, that Phil continues to use this kind of name-calling on his show. I know from talking to others that it offends, and the offended ones of whom I speak are not necessarily dirt people themselves.
Back in March, one caller to Phil’s show, a misguided gentleman (we’ll call him Rubel) who obviously felt the need to get back at those nasty greens, bragged about all the electricity he was going to waste during Earth Hour. Rube had even purchased extra light bulbs to burn and was really planning on showing those dumb people (who actually think it is good to conserve energy) a thing or two! Well, I was waiting for Phil to make fun of the guy, but instead Phil gave Rube his solid support and even told Rube to be sure and call the show again later to let him know how it went. I sat in my car, shocked! Wait, no — shocked I was not.
Phil Valentine is in the Entertainment Business
But at least I was entertained. Yes, entertained – a word which brings up another important point. Phil Valentine and others like him are entertainers; they are not meant to be taken seriously, especially when they cover science stories and debates and delve into complex matters which they understand only enough to be dangerous, occasionally sounding to some as though they understood the full implications of the so-called case being made.
These critiques of mine – laughable, I know, for I am a simple man – are not reserved only for the conservative right; they apply to fundamentalists of all stripes (be they monk or Brahmin, Turk or Jew) who believe their own positions are by default the correct ones, the moral ones, the proper ones – when in fact their positions — just like my own, all these things I am typing — are merely opinions. And you know what they say about opinions.
Hatred:Bad. Working Together to Solve Problems:Good.
Harboring hatred definitely does some bad things to good people, and it seems really unfortunate to me that Phil Valentine and some others (especially those more vitriolic than Phil) – people who could do so much good for Nashville, for the country, and for the world — instead use their popularity and their unique positions to influence people in negative ways, increasing levels of hatred toward folks with whom they may have even minor disagreements. Like those damn dirt people. . . 
(I joke, people, because I love — for I am one – maybe a relatively weak dirt person, but a dirt person all the same. How anyone could NOT be a dirt person is a little hard to understand, since whatever happens to our environment ends up happening to us. Or do some folks not see this simple truth?)
A couple of conservatives who are class acts (not that there are only two!) might be Dave Ramsey and John McCain. Dave Ramsey goes out of his way on his show NOT to display animosity toward political figures for whom he may not have voted and with whom he may disagree. Dave Ramsey is a great example of someone who is not divisive; one might say Dave is a uniter, not a divider. Likewise, John McCain was given numerous opportunities to criticize and insult Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign, but he did not stoop to that level despite what was surely burdensome, near-constant pressure to do so. These are, I believe, relatively good examples of conservative class acts.
Are talk show hosts afraid of losing their audiences should they display similar tact?
Patently Weak “Arguments”
Phil Valentine fans — or anyone who takes what a radio talk show host says as fact — must be lacking in some key areas (such as science, law, philosophy, and theology, to name a few). I mean, to believe some of the “arguments” Phil uses to support his positions would require the setting aside of certain realities. I am convinced his adherents, minions, and acolytes are the same people who read astrology and rush to find their daily horoscope before reading real news. Here are a couple of examples (paraphrased, since I do not have the quotes in front of me):
“I think it would be nice for the world’s average temperature to go up a couple of degrees.”
From this and many other statements Phil Valentine regularly makes on the anti-nature segments of his shows, it is easy to see that he does not even begin to understand the subject. I am no expert in the earth sciences myself, but I know enough to see some serious logical flaws here.
“There is nothing wrong with too much carbon dioxide; after all, trees emit it.”
Does he not realize that too much of something, even if it is a natural substance, is bad? What about too much sulfur in the air? That’d be just great. How about too much natural arsenic in the water? That’s cool – it’s nature, after all!
“X (number of) scientists have signed a document saying that global warming is in fact not happening on a scale we need to worry about, if it’s even occurring at all.”
There could be any number of people that would sign any document, but this has nothing to do with the accuracy, or the rightness or wrongness, of the document itself. Come on, people.
It is scary to think that some listeners might actually think radio talk show hosts are scientifically on the ball regarding these matters. It seems clear that Phil takes the sides he does, not because he believes them (how could he?), but because he is paid to do so.
I have just learned that Phil Valentine won an honorable mention for “for outstanding editorial oversight in the pursuit of scientific integrity” regarding his views on carbon dioxide. Thank you, Mary Mancini and Bruce Barry.
And yes, I have heard Phil Valentine talk about separation of church and state. Bruce Barry’s column in the Nashville Scene covered this better than I ever could:
I realize that calling out Phil Valentine for his rhetorical hallucinations is old hat, but he outdid himself in his latest Sunday assault on reality. Yesterday Phil used his Tennessean column to showcase his abject ignorance about constitutional law, rehashing a simplistic and misinformed argument that no legal basis for disentangling government and religion exists since the phrase “separation of church and state” doesn’t appear in the U.S. . .Read more…
Regarding Mary Mancini’s post (What Does Phil Valentine Have to do to Get Fired from the Tennessean?) on Liberadio, I must say OMG and ask — did Phil Valentine actually assert that the ACLU rushes to the aid of someone only if they are not a Christian?” This is unbelievable and underscores my point even better than any of my own statements, Mary – for even I, hackish simpleton that I am, know that the ACLU does not discriminate in that area.
To Summarize and Get Back to Work
I am quite pleased that today, more and more people seem to be thinking for themselves using the tools of logic and reason — in other words, engaging in free thought — as opposed to sporting the old cavalier attitude that one’s party line (or one’s religion, philosophy, or what have you) are inerrant and infallible. (To some, we are known as “free thinkers,” which is all right by me.) With some serious luck (were there but such a thing), we may see fundamentalism on its way out. That may be too much to hope for.
References and Resources – Phil Valentine
The Phil Valentine Show
Supertalk 99.7 WTN - Nashville’s Talk Radio
Westwood One
Blogging about Phil Valentine
Nashville Scene: What Does an Op-Ed Columnist Have to Do to Get Fired Around Here?
Phil Valentine Cares Not For Your Hate-Speech Label
Liberadio: What Does Phil Valentine Have to do to Get Fired from the Tennessean?
Liberadio: More Posts Mentioning Phil Valentine
We Love a Good Phil Valentine-Smackdown in the Morning. Especially when accompanied by a good chuckle or two. Caleb Hannan at the Scene’s Pith in the Wind blog makes our day: C’mon liberals. Let’s give Phil Valentine a break. He spends upwards of 10 to 15 minutes every Friday afternoon texting his column 160 characters at a time to a harried Tennessean editor. The least […]Read more…
Slap a Corset on Bill Hobbs And Call it a Day That’s right, I said a corset. Because while the rest of us move into the 21st Century, Bill Hobbs, press flack for the Tennessee Republican Party is still living in 1909. What else could explain his lambasting of “Earth Hour” as “the latest environmental wacko campaign?” Bill says: On average, life expectancy from birth for the average American […] Read more…
Free and Fair Elections Are Something We Can All Agree On, Right? I’m looking for a little “word up” from anyone on the right about this Voter Confidence Act kerfuffle. Anyone? Anyone? Slater? Gill? Valentine? DelGiorno? Bristol?
Aren’t free and fair elections something we can all agree on? Don’t you guys see the dangers inherent in electronic voting? I can only assume that like us, you want to win elections fairly. […] Read more…
TONIGHT: Liberadio(!) and Drinking Liberally Present “Thirsty Third Thursdays” The Nashville chapter of Drinking Liberally, led by the indefatigable Amie Hollis, has been meeting every Thursday at The Flying Saucer for years and years. (There’s also a chapter in Memphis - every Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm at RP Billiards - and Chattanooga). Starting tonight — and until either Tennessee turns blue or […]
Read more…
Phil Valentine’s Column Watch: Two Down… It looks like Mr. Bruce Barry might have started something with his Pith in the Wind post complaining about Phil Valentine’s Tennessean column (“What Does an Op-Ed Columnist Have to Do to Get Fired Around Here?”). The Wilson County Post, serving Lebanon, Watertown, and Mt. Juliet, has decided to “discontinue publishing” Phil Valentine’s column in […] Read more…
What Does Phil Valentine Have to Do to Get Fired from the Tennessean? Good thing I checked the local blogs before sitting down to quell my frustration and anger by writing about Phil Valentine’s latest pack of lies and obfuscations in Sunday’s Tennessean. Bruce Barry, writing for the Nashville Scene’s Pith in the Wind beat me to it. Thanks, Bruce, for saying exactly what I wanted to say […] Read more…
Steve Gill’s Birthday Suit One of the things most worrisome about last week’s English Only special election was the effect that anti-immigrant right-wing ideologue mouthpieces Steve Gill, Phil Valentine, and Michael “It’s Delivery Not” DelGiorno, would have on the outcome. Let’s face it, two hours a week of us presenting reasoned and well-rounded interviews and opinion opposing the referendum […] Read more…
Plagarism, Talking Points, or Formula? An astute commenter (and Nathan Moore) points out the similarities in Steve Gill’s most recent opinion piece in the Nashville City Paper and an article entitled, “Hillary Clinton’s Fix,” by Al Kamen of The Washington Post. In light of Milwaukee Magazine’s recently published must read by an ex-conservative talk radio program director, which confirms that […]
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Liberadio(!) Podcast: November 24, 2008 - We Are Thankful Summary: Guests include State Senator Andy Berke, Councilman at large Jerry Maynard, Jennifer Buck Wallace, and Elbert Ventura. Part 1 - We Are Thankful For… - Freddie gets a crazy idea for us to say, out loud and on the radio, what we are thankful for. Bet you can guess one of them.
McCain Adviser: Are There Documented instances of voter fraud? “No.” First, let’s establish the difference between election fraud and voter fraud. Election fraud is a systematic effort by those with power to steal an election through vote manipulation and voter suppression. Voter fraud is when a voter attempts to vote more than once or by impersonating someone else. The McCain campaign has been huckstering the […]
Read more…
Apr
5
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Wow, what a shocker! 2008’s Quarantine — respectful remake of Spanish horror movie Rec — is an unforgettable movie in my book, and I can hardly wait show it to some of my friends! Perhaps I will notice a few details I missed during the first viewing, seeing as how I was just a nervous wreck, a pretzel of a man, muscles taut as I sat on the couch throughout the last half of the film.
There are portions of two reviews quoted on the cover of Quarantine. On the front it reads, “Quite possibly the best horror film this year.” On the back it says, “. . .scary as hell.” I agree wholeheartedly with both.
Quarantine was gripping, terrifying, serving up large doses of scream-inducing, edge-of-your seat horror — and it should not be missed by fans of the horror films that increase heart rate. It’s not a slasher flick (thank goodness) and it is not a supernatural thriller (for which I’d partly wished). If I had to quickly select a sub-genre of horror in which to classify Quarantine, I might be forced to utter the word “zombie,” but that too is misleading and might cause some to pass on it, when in fact they shouldn’t miss it. I repeat: Quarantine is NOT a zombie movie.
I shall later post more of my thoughts on and information about Quarantine, but in spite of the rapid arrival of 2am as I write this, I wanted to go ahead and post something without delay. Yeah — Quarantine was that good.
DVD Cover
When a news crew decides to trail a brave fire-fighting team, they never suspect that the first call for help they respond to that night may be their last. Now they’re trapped in an apartment complex sealed off by the government. With no way of escape, they find themselves surrounded by frightened residents who are infected with a deadly mutant virus. What happens next is only known because of the footage they left behind.
More Info
Quarantine was directed by John Erick Dowdle and written by Drew Dowdle and John Erick Dowdle. The film was executive produced by Glenn S. Gainor, Drew Dowdle, Julio Fernandez, and Carlos Fernandez; produced by Doug Davison, Roy Lee, and Sergio Aguero.
Special Features Include:
o Locked In: The Making-of Quarantine Featurette
o Anatomy of a Stunt Featurette
o Dressing the Infected: Make-Up Design Featurette
o Commentary with Writer/Director John Erick Dowdle and Writer/Producer Drew Dowdle
Partial Press Release
CULVER CITY, CALIF. (December 8, 2008) – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment unleashes the most terrifying film of the year when Quarantine hits Blu-ray™ High-Def, DVD and PSP™ February 17, 2009. This edge-of-your-seat horror film stars Jennifer Carpenter (TV’s “Dexter”, Exorcism of Emily Rose), Johnathon Schaech (Prom Night) and Jay Hernandez (Hostel). The bonus materials include three in-depth featurettes that take you behind-the-scenes, stunts and make-up. Running commentary is provided by Writer/Director John Erick Dowdle (The Poughkeepsie Tapes) and Writer/Producer Drew Dowdle (The Poughkeepsie Tapes).