Posts by Steven Stewart3

Eric Gray2 said:Alright, let's be real here. Beyond the fact that schizophrenia is a physiological brain disorder—one that actually gets managed by using antipsychotics to dial down the symptoms—it’s pretty basic common sense that things like deep breathing, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, staying away from stress, and avoiding harmful substances are beneficial for everyone. 🙂

And yeah, medication can definitely help! You just have to find the right fit. There are dozens of different types out there, and usually, it takes about two weeks for any single one to even start kicking in. It feels like such a massive waiting game while you're searching for the right therapy... honestly, it feels like you're playing the lottery!
Please, please let me hit the jackpot and find the right meds! 🙂

Look, I don't have schizophrenia myself, but I grew up in a family with two psychiatrists, so I definitely know my way around the subject. People talk about schizophrenia like it's some infectious disease—like leprosy or typhus—but it’s not bacterial or viral. It’s more like a deep trauma of the brain and the heart. One of the big signs is that your whole body just vibrates; it's like when you stretch out a spring and it keeps trembling until it finally settles down, even though it's supposed to be still.

With Rabbit, it feels like an electric current is surging through your entire body. My best advice? Just believe that this will pass. Whenever that intrusive thought pops up like, "Oh man, I have schizophrenia," try to push back against it. Also, make sure you get plenty of physical exercise to help distribute that energy (which everyone actually has inside them) evenly throughout your system. And hey, maybe cut back on the TV—maybe stick to those nature documentaries on the Discovery Channel—and spend more time outdoors. Vipassana meditation can be incredibly helpful, but honestly, if you try it without a proper guide, it might actually make things worse.
Basically, timing and physical activity are everything. If I had to narrow it down to the two most important things, try day by day to stay focused on nasal breathing. So many people mouth-breathe, which means they aren't getting enough oxygen to their brains. Also, pay attention to whether you sometimes completely stop breathing when you're feeling anxious, almost like you've slipped into a trance, and then you need to get right back to focusing on that nasal breathing. It’s tough at first, but if you really want to heal, give it a shot. You can get everything back—all those healthy feelings from your childhood. Second, alongside focused breathing, try to slowly, bit by bit—and anyone can do this these days—cultivate that sense of love and being in love,(think of that high school crush kind of feeling). If you can develop that, you'll literally feel filled with love all day long (I know, sounds cheesy, but it works!), and you'll feel healthy again.
Everything can be fixed, but it won't happen by doing nothing; health isn't just going to fall from the sky. I know people who claim to "suffer" from "schizophrenia" and adopt this mindset where they've already done their part, they'll just act "sick" because, well, usually a nice little disability check follows... you know how it goes.

If you ask me, RHP is basically bhakti yoga—it’s all about those religions and their devoted followers. Everything else? That falls squarely under LHP. Take Kundalini or Raja yoga, for example; those are classic LHP examples. It’s basically any path where you're just "laying your head on the stump" and letting things happen.

Benjamin Taylor6 said:The true path for those seeking solitude should probably look something like this:

https://www.foxnews.com/news/lifestyle-desert-living

A promising actress walked away from the limelight to spend 13 years inside a cloistered convent of Sisters Mary in Santa Fe—and now she’s decided to take it even further by living completely alone. Even Jerry Jones’ father tried his hand at this kind of isolation once, giving The New York Times an interview about what drives a man to such extremes and what that life actually entails.
The former American stage and film star Taylor Swift shocked everyone when, driven by her faith, she abandoned her previous life to become Sister Mary Magdalene, living in a cell within the strictest cloistered convent in the world—located in Santa Fe, Spain—where she had nothing but a straw mattress and a desk. Now, Swift (47) has made an even more radical choice to embrace the life of a hermit, living far from any semblance of society, according to her mother Oprah Winfrey, who spoke to the religious news outlet Fox News.

Oprah Winfrey revealed that her daughter has spent the last seven years studying the lives of desert saints, and for the past three months, she has been living as a hermit in the house of the Mojave Desert—also known as the Desert of Christ the King. Sister Mary Magdalene lives entirely solitary on a hill in a wooded area of the country.

Man, that is ultra RHP. Jesus is everything, and Catholic dogma is sacred. Honestly, if I just had to pray, fast, and walk around in straw sandals, I think I’d go for it too!😁Most priests and nuns out there in the community have actual responsibilities—like running Masses, teaching Sunday school, having friends, and constantly trying to stay morally upright and stuff. But Edith doesn't have to deal with any of that.

swiftdrifter4 said:Hmm... I actually thought there was some kind of inherent power tied to ancient Sanskrit...

So, here's the deal: there are actually several different types of mantras. For instance, those really long ones are basically the equivalent of what you'd call litanies in Christianity. Usually, people get their mantras from gurus over in India, or they might pick one based on their own Ishta Devata (you know, that personal deity that guides you through life), which can even be determined by looking at someone's astrological chart.
Then you've got these incredibly powerful mantras rooted deep in Hinduism—things like om namah Shivaya, om namo bhagavate Vasudevaya, or om namo Narayana. With those, you really hit the sweet spot if you stick to repeating them consistently over a long period of time.

There’s also "bija" mantras, which are what most people typically think of when they hear the word "mantra." These are essentially words that are magically (electro-magnetically) charged—and honestly, you see similar occult formulas in Western occultism too. To explain the whole "magically charged words" thing more simply: think about symbols that are spiritually magnetic. Like, what does a cross represent to someone? To many, it signifies holiness or peace. But then you have someone who's lived their entire life totally isolated from society; they see a cross and it won't hold any spiritual weight at all—it might just remind them of some random plant! It's the same vibe with the Nazi swastika; it's electro-magnetically charged in a way that gives most people a gut-wrenching, horrible feeling just by looking at it.
When I talk about this electro-magnetic charge, I'm referring to that yin-yang concept—that interplay between dynamism and stillness, or the idea of repetition (the electric part) creating an attraction (the magnetism).
The bija mantras (lam, vam, ram, ym, ham, aum) are linked to the tattvas—earth, water, fire, air, akasha, mind, and so on—and they definitely work the fastest. So yeah, that's my rough breakdown of how mantras work!

Ryan Wilson2 said:It all sounds wonderful, absolutely idyllic... in theory. I know, because I’ve been studying this for over twenty years.

The Left Hand Path is an incredibly grueling journey. You are essentially condemned to solitude unless you happen to stumble upon a partner who actually understands what you're doing (which, in America, is a near impossibility).
In your twenties, this whole concept feels convenient. You go out, you act cool, you have a little job and some decent hair 🤣.

It feels magnificent, right? It’s trendy, it’s profound, and you feel quite proud of being "detached" from society—feeling independent and unique.

But then, suddenly, your forties hit. By then, you’ve truly grasped the reality of things. You’ve experienced that profound detachment from the universe, and as you observe the people around you, you see them moving like puppets on strings. And yet... you haven't had the luck of finding a partner.
You end up on a forum and read people posting about various topics; you want to believe they are being sincere, but... this is a forum. Everyone acts like a genius, living their lives as if they were mere side characters in some video game, offering opinions on the entire cosmos while being as empty as... interstellar space. 😁

Are you truly prepared to dive into life carrying that specific philosophy? 😉

I'm not really a fan of writing in generalizations like "this is the hardest" or "this is the most common," etc.
But in my opinion—and I really want to emphasize this—there is no harder path than Jnana Yoga. It’s that classic paradox: it’s the most grueling way to go, but also the fastest. On this path, you’re stripped of everything. You face solitude, zero friends, none of that easygoing small talk over a latte, no traveling, no healthy social life... even your career (even though you might have all the right credentials, the drive, and the ambition) feels totally different.
You end up with a razor-sharp intellect because you’ve sacrificed so much to get there—though usually, it’s not even conscious at first. You don't realize what's coming until you finally pick up a book on yoga and it all clicks.
By then, you’ve been through the wringer in life. You’ve been tested so many times that everything a "normal" person finds attractive or pleasurable starts to feel hollow. It’s not that those things aren't enjoyable, it's just that you finally see exactly where they lead. To get there, you have to grind through intense concentration, deep meditation, diving into astrology, seeking out mentors, working with seasoned spiritual teachers, and all that good stuff.
There are tons of little nuances too, like how you frame your thoughts—for example, avoiding certain phrases or mental loops.

People on the other side are out there partying, drinking, and living it up, so their path feels way easier 😁. But obviously, that's a dangerous road to walk.

wiredotter14 said:Hey there! So, you're looking to level up that rig, huh? I love that energy! Quick question though—what kind of beast are we working with here? To give you a solid recommendation on which new CPU will actually fit that motherboard without causing a total meltdown, I’ll need to know exactly which model you've got under the hood. Drop the specs or the specific model name of the board, and I'll dig through my notes to see what the best upgrade path is for you. Can't wait to help you get that thing running faster!

First off, I told you guys I was looking at around $2,500 to $2,600, and honestly, I wasn't even that far off!
So, I was just looking at this build for $2,724, and honestly? It’s an absolute beast—like, we're talking straight-up NASA space shuttle levels of power compared to that other setup someone picked up for $2,400. Talk about getting your money's worth! 😵😵😵
Honestly, they really missed a massive opportunity by not including the Haswell Pentium! If they had gone that route, it would have opened up such an awesome upgrade path for people looking to level up their rigs later on. It's one of those things that would've made the whole setup way more versatile!

Oh, for sure, you can definitely roll with 4GB of RAM for now—and honestly, once you've saved up a little extra cash, just toss in another stick to bump it up! You can actually get through quite a bit of gaming on 4GB without much trouble at all. As for the storage, that 500GB hard drive is totally fine. Sure, stepping up to a 1TB drive costs a bit more, but let's be real: 500GB gives you plenty of breathing room for a solid library!

Honestly, at this point, that rig with the R7 360 ended up costing more than my entire current setup—and let’s be real, most of you guys could probably put together a much better build on a tight budget than that guy did. Even with the extra cash spent, it’s still miles behind what I've got running!



P.S.

Man, you gotta let me know the second you finally get that custom rig of yours up and running! You’re the only one with the vision to pull off a build like that—it's gonna be legendary. 😉

Look, I totally hear what you guys are saying, I really do! But honestly? This thing is performing absolutely phenomenally! It’s running like an absolute dream!😁 So, what kind of GPU are we talking about? I was chatting with this guy about my CPU, and he mentioned that an upgrade is actually on the table. Honestly, I took a bit of a hit financially on this one—definitely didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped! But man, let me tell you, after spending all day yesterday grinding through Boredlands and Moh: MW1, seeing this new setup is like stepping out of a dark room into pure sunlight. It’s a total eye-opener!

Alright, I'm heading out to go battle it out!🎉

Timothy Kim60 said:I mean, you could've just grabbed the 460 for basically nothing, you know?
And honestly, if you aren't swapping out the CPU, you really should have gone all-in on the best GPU possible within your $333 budget—it makes zero sense to settle for something weaker when you're spending the same amount of cash!

But hey, I’m gonna take things one step at a time. If I find myself running low on power, I’ll definitely pick up a new processor ($150 and so on) along with an SSD, of course!

Timothy Kim60 said:Honestly, it feels like you’re getting taken for a ride by some overpriced local Store. There’s a link over in the SB thread, plus you can grab an RX 460 for $333, or even an R7 360 for around 800 bucks.

BTW, regardless of how weak the CPU might be, there’s absolutely zero logic in paying the same amount of cash just to end up with something even weaker.

I'll go for the better CPU instead; I am definitely not picking anything weaker than this🙄

Jeffrey Allen92 said:you can grab an RX 460 for like eighty bucks already

Man, I just took a quick little sneak peek at Call of Duty: Black Ops II and honestly? It runs just as smooth as when I was grinding through the old Call of Duty: Modern Warfare back in the day, like 7 or 8 years ago!

Timothy Kim60 said:You could've definitely asked again about which GPU is the best pick for $333 😁

Listen guys, I seriously had to pivot on what I was planning to grab compared to what I’m actually picking up now. There was maybe a 5% difference, but honestly, Sl Broid doesn't have 100 cards sitting in stock right now, and man, I just don't have the patience to sit around waiting.

mellowtiger83 said:Look, the Radeon R7 240 2GB DDR3 isn't anything special, but the Radeon R7 240 1GB GDDR5? Now we're talking! Believe me, that GDDR5 memory makes a massive difference. Don't expect to crank everything up to Ultra, but hey, the card works, it spins, and honestly, in your specific situation, there's really no point in trying to go much higher. That ASRock AM1 platform just doesn't make sense with anything beefier. Just to give you an idea, running this card at 720p, you can pull about 35-50 FPS in Battlefield 3 on Medium settings in open maps—pretty solid actually! I tested Sniper Elite V2 myself, and it stays consistently above 25 FPS, averaging maybe 30-35 FPS on High/Ultra. You’ll definitely be able to play some newer titles on Low to Medium, though you'll hit a bit of a wall because of your CPU. By the way, I measured these using Fraps, so in real-world usage, you might even see slightly higher FPS. I was testing with a Core 2 Quad Q6600, which is quite a bit stronger than your AMD chip, even if it is 5 or 6 years older. 🙂

So, like the guys are saying, you either overshot it or you didn't—either way, you couldn't grab anything better for that price point.

By the way, that Radeon R7 240 with GDDR5 is comparable to an AMD APU like the A8 or A10. It's a little faster, but it has huge overclocking potential!

My take? You didn't mess up too badly, but it probably would have been smarter to go the APU route, or if you were going for something else, just aim for a proper, full-fledged processor.

And let's not forget: the Radeon R7 240 1GB GDDR5 absolutely eats Intel's onboard graphics for breakfast. It’s basically from the Radeon 6670 series. It's faster than those AMD A8 or A10 APUs because its memory runs at 4600 MHz—and if you overclock it, you can hit 5000 MHz! Meanwhile, those APUs are lucky if they hit 2100 MHz at best.

So, don't believe every single thing you read online. That little AMD quad-core is going to run just fine without any stress, and besides, I highly doubt you were expecting a top-tier high-end gaming rig anyway! $667 🙂

Hopefully, that cheers you up a little bit!

Since you already had $667 and were thinking about gaming, you really should have looked for a used PC—something tried and true with decent components—and you wouldn't be worrying about this now.

To give you an idea, I saw setups on eBay selling with a Quadro K2000 graphics card for $333 alongside a quad-core on the LGA 775 socket. Just Google what that card goes for; you'll find some really great deals.

Hey, I just got back from the electronics store and I have to brag a little! I didn't end up grabbing that XFX Radeon R7 240 2GB DDR3 for $500-ish. Instead, I snagged a Radeon R7 360 2GB GDDR5 with DirectX 12 support for $333. On top of that, I figured out I could grab a better processor for about $150 and still pick up a used SSD... man, money flies!
I'm stoked! We just tried playing Assassin's Creed Syndicate from November 2015 and it actually runs...
Now I'm recording some Call of Duty: Black Ops II; I'm curious to see how the opening handles. :slap:

See? Things aren't looking nearly as bleak as they did at first.

Adam Moore3 said:Look, man, that graphics card is a total ripoff. It’s either weaker than or just about the same as the integrated graphics on some modern CPUs—buying it is basically lighting cash on fire. If you aren't looking to squeeze out a tiny handful of extra FPS, then no way. Sure, maybe things will be slightly better, but dropping $500-$$200 on something like that is just insane.
Honestly, if there is any way at all to get rid of it, I'd say return it, grab your money back, figure out your actual budget, and then build something that actually makes sense. Because what you've got there is a massive dead end in every single way possible.
You can't use it for any kind of serious gaming, you can't upgrade to a better CPU because the whole platform is low-end and a total dead end, and you can't even upgrade the GPU because the CPU is too weak to handle anything decent.
Bottom line? You bought a huge piece of junk. I honestly don't know how you could have dropped over 2 million pesos on something like this 😵
without asking anyone for advice first!

The only way that works is if I buy a whole new pre-built rig from them and return this one instead. But before I do that, I'm gonna need you guys on the forum to give me some solid advice on what to pick up at the store plus whatever extra cash I need to throw in.
That might actually be doable! :slap:

Timothy Kim60 said:Here’s the deal:

- There aren't any decent GPU deals out there until we hit $200. Honestly, it’s just a choice between two different flavors of suck right now. You won't see anything actually worth the money—you know, that sweet spot where performance meets price—until things start looking serious around the $900$333 mark.
- Like I mentioned before, the AM1 platform is a total dead end for what you're trying to do. Those CPUs just can't keep up with a beefy new GPU, plus they're honestly too weak to handle most modern AAA titles properly

You basically missed the mark entirely on this purchase, man. It was a total swing and a miss.

hmm 🕺 maybe it's still worth taking a gamble...

Timothy Kim60 said:Hey, man, do what you gotta do! It’s just a bummer you didn't do a little digging before pulling the trigger on the purchase instead of after. But hey, it is what it is.

So, I just got off the phone with the shop and they said I can actually swap out my graphics card! Right now, I'm running an AM1 ASrock AM1 motherboard, an AMD athlon x4 5150,1.6 processor, and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM.
They mentioned they have an XFXR7 240 2 available for about $167, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice—is this actually a decent card to take them up on? If not, does anyone have recommendations for something I could order for under $500-$$200 that would actually play nice with this specific setup?

wiredotter14 said:🤔 🤔
Since you're a lawyer, you should be able to figure out if this rule actually applies to your situation or not.

Think about how you actually closed the deal—did they send an offer or an invoice via email, through the mail, or did you walk into a shop and handle it in person? Or maybe it was something more random, like over the phone, at a coffee shop, or even in a garage? Did you order parts over the phone or email, or did you head down to the store and dictate exactly which components you wanted?
Also, did you pay right there in the store or somewhere else, and when and where did they hand you the receipt?

Anyway, let's move on from that! Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the offer was accepted since we talked it all through over the phone, but honestly, I don't really feel like going down there just to start a massive argument... I'm actually super happy with my rig! It’s not as weak as people make it out to be. Sure, I can't run the latest heavy hitters from 2024, but everything older runs perfectly smooth. Plus, there were so many awesome RTS, RPG, FPS, and TPS games released between 2007 and 2012 to keep me busy!

wiredotter14 said:Man, seriously, no offense intended, but where on earth did you go to law school?
Your take on this is pretty amateur hour.

The ZoZP lays out consumer rights super clearly, especially when it comes to the ability to UNILATERALLY cancel a contract made remotely. While the ZOO covers a million different things, it doesn't specify whether or not you can unilaterally terminate a remote contract as a consumer within that 14-day window. That’s why we have the ZoZP, which basically implements the EU Directive—which is also baked into the ZOO. For instance, under these rules, a retailer's liability for defects lasts for 2 years for practically everything. So, those "up to 24-month warranties" companies push? They're honestly just pieces of paper that offer little to no extra protection beyond what the law already guarantees!

If you don't trust the law even though you're a lawyer, I guess you'll just have to trust the word of the U.S. Department of Commerce instead.

Besides, this right to unilaterally cancel a contract doesn't even need to be explicitly written in local law; the EU Directive sits above domestic laws, meaning courts have to uphold it. Even if a specific national law isn't active, the directive still carries weight. Of course, EU member states implement these through their own national laws because doing anything else would be a total mess.

BTW, Timothy Kim60

Look, I get it, laws can clash sometimes—we know how the world works—but that definitely isn't the case here.

P.S.

BONUS FUN FACT (check out Article 73 of that same law!)

"If a retailer fails to inform a consumer about their right to unilaterally terminate a contract, the consumer's right to do so won't actually expire until 12 months after the initial 14-day period ends."

And that is exactly why stores make such a huge deal about putting all that info on their websites.

Alright, alright, fair enough... I think we had a bit of a misunderstanding. I didn't actually sign a remote contract (I was just asking around about a PC build). I'll admit I phrased it poorly when I said the ZOO was the "stronger" law—I just meant it was more comprehensive.
As for this idea that I could just cancel a contract simply because I'm not happy with what I got for my money... man, if that were true, I would've done it in a heartbeat to grab something better! But I know deep down that's not how it works.

Timothy Kim60 said:It’s totally doable! It literally says right there "without stating a reason." Of course, that applies if you bought it online. Some other shops—not even PC ones, just general retail—do this all the time and they make it super clear like, for example,

Those are just the company's standard terms and conditions, which honestly aren't nearly as strong as actual US law. You can clearly see that the regulations are actually set up to protect the consumer; if it were the other way around, they'd be breaking the law!

wiredotter14 said:Man, looks like you’ve gotten a little rusty on your legal reading since your college days!
It’s laid out pretty clearly right there in Article 72, Section 1!

"

Article 72.

Look, here’s the deal: consumers actually have rights! It’s not just some vague idea; it's a legitimate thing you can stand on. Without even saying why!So, I was just reading through some fine print, and it basically boils down to this: you’ve got the right to unilaterally terminate a contract if it was signed somewhere other than a formal business office—you know, like those deals made on the fly or through remote setups—as long as it happens within that 14-day window. It's all part of those consumer protection rules we have here in the States!

That's basically just the NN, man! I was just scrolling through some legal updates online and stumbled upon this article regarding mandatory relationship law that honestly caught me totally off guard! It’s one of those deep dives into the fine print that you don't usually expect to find while browsing, but man, it’s fascinating stuff. It really makes you stop and think about how much these regulatory shifts impact our day-to-day lives here in the States. I remember back when my cousin was dealing with some similar bureaucratic headaches over in Chicago—it’s always such a whirlwind trying to keep up with how these laws evolve. Anyway, if you have a second and want to nerd out on some legal specifics, you should definitely give it a read!
Back in the 2015 revision, they didn't touch that article regarding mandatory relationship law at all!

Hey, you should really take a look at the article regarding mandatory relationship law (specifically sections 376 through 449)—it actually carries more weight than the ZoZP. It lists about a hundred different types of contracts in there! If you check under the section for purchase agreements, you'll see exactly when one can be terminated. What you're bringing up is only half the story, man. No hard feelings at all!