Posts by hiddenpuma75

I’m actually a little surprised you didn't realize this was the answer to your question

42

🎉

How many people actually showed up?

Paul Campbell3 said:😲
It’s just not fair!😠 I had to step out onto that stage and be totally exposed to everyone's eyes:

So, was there any booing?😁 And did you give them a little wink?🙂

Chris Ruiz10 said:By the way, Simona got a massive round of applause when she stepped up to accept Shadyev’s award and shared that joke he had sent over. Honestly, I think our crew really outshone everyone else there.

Oh, come on, Chris Ruiz10, what kind of journalist are you?

You write all about something and then fail to actually show us the details! 😢

What was the joke? And I had no idea Shadyev even won an award??
And what was it for, specifically?

What kind of prizes were they handing out, and is there a link where I can actually see some photos?

Also, did IL win an award 😁 and/or the clones
?

Paul Campbell3 said:😁

Oh, look at these little troublemakers, Paul Campbell3 and Wilma. 🙂

They’re acting all high and mighty, refusing to share what happened with us in the true spirit of the internet and open-source culture.

If you two don't start being reasonable, I might just have to call in a favor from my local librarian to come give you both a stern lecture!
🙂 🙂

It’ll be good to hear more about this -

Who ended up being

What actually went down

What kind of prizes did the winners walk away with?

Was Il and his crew there?😁

How long did the whole thing last?

Roughly how many people showed up?

And who was missing?
😁

I’ve been falling down some fascinating internet rabbit holes lately, and I stumbled upon a few tidbits that would be perfect little conversation starters over coffee.

It took radio about 37 years to build up an audience of 50 million listeners.

Television needed roughly 15 years to hit that same milestone.

But the World Wide Web? It reached its first 50 million users in just three short years.

********
There are actually more phones on Manhattan than there are in all of Africa combined.😲

*****
Dyson describes the internet as a globally networked, ELECTRONICALLY SENSITIVE BEING.😲

The web is essentially a self-organizing system where order exists without any need for external control, government oversight, or centralization.
👋

Most of what we know about the net is an American invention.

At its core, the internet actually challenges the very concept of ownership—even if, ironically, it currently generates the most massive profits and wealth opportunities in history.

I was scrolling through the movie list on this forum and noticed that PLEDGE isn't even listed here.

Well, I just finished watching it, and honestly, I am still reeling from the absolute shock of how it ended.

I’m curious—has anyone else seen this one? Do you feel the same way I do?

I checked some reviews on Amazon, and it looks like I'm not alone; tons of people gave it a 1-star rating specifically because they hated the ending.

And man, the cast is absolutely powerhouse.

Jack Nicholson
Mickey Rourke
Vanessa Redgrave
Sam Shepard
Helen Mirren
Robin Wright Penn

Produced by Seann Penn

Based on a book, too.

It’s such a brilliant story with incredible acting, but then... ali KRAAAAAAAAJ. That ending.

😲 🙄 🙄 🙄 🙄

Good grief, what a massive letdown.😢

It felt nonsensical, absurd, unfair, illogical, and just completely unnatural.

What a total rip-off... I mean, how is it even possible to ruin a movie like this? It’s so gripping, intriguing, and intense while you're watching it, only to be sabotaged at the very last second.
??????????????????????????????????????????

Chris Ruiz10 said:hiddenpuma75!!!!!

How am I supposed to do what I love when I don't feel like doing anything at all?

Well, this is just lovely...🙂

You're clearly on a whole different level than us mere mortals who are still stuck in the phase of actually enjoying work and obsessing over goals and achievements.

Just go meditate.

Or just be who you are.

After all, didn't the great sages say—

DON'T JUST DO SOMETHING.

SIT and be quiet. 😉

Everything is just pure consciousness, and pretty soon, it'll start revealing its secrets to you.

Because honestly, everything is fine. 🙂

The truth is, you love doing NOTHING, which means you've finally found yourself...
you've liberated yourself from the need to be productive.

You're basically a future Bodhisattva in the making. 😵
Bravo to you!

Ronald Castillo5 said:Please, don't feel like you owe us any more advice or life lessons... I really hope this was just your opening salvo.

I’ve already shared my main piece of advice: everyone should just pursue what they love.🙂

However, I honestly don't think my specific experiences would be useful to anyone else because my profession is incredibly niche, both here in the States and globally.
It's so rare that my biggest struggle in life was actually dealing with my own family, who tried everything in their power to steer me away from it.
The reality is, this line of work doesn't typically bring in money, fame, or even much respect from the public.
(But I loved it, and I'm genuinely happy that it took me thirteen years to finally realize exactly what I was meant to do.)

I am fairly certain there are only two people actively working in my field in the entire country—myself and one other guy I know personally.😁 But you just can't make a living doing this in America; we had to move abroad to make it work.
If you count people who dabble in it professionally (on their own terms or occasionally), there are maybe ten people scattered across the US with varying levels of success.
There are no specialized schools, no university degrees, no training programs... nothing.
It is pure risk. You essentially have to be born for it—much like a professional gambler. (Now, I'm not a gambler, but conceptually it's very similar; the inherent risk and unpredictability are so central to what I do that, fundamentally, there isn't much difference between my job and gambling.)

That's why I feel my advice and my journey are ultimately misplaced... and impractical for most people.

My take on this is actually quite simple

DO WHAT YOU LOVE AND THE MONEY WILL FOLLOW 🙂

That’s exactly how it played out for me.
(The real issue is that most people just can't handle the wait—it's an ego thing. They want their big payoff in one year, maybe two, or at most five years tops)😁

To some, my timeline—which was more like a 15 to 20-year grind—might seem absolutely terrifying, way too slow, or just plain impractical.
But I started doing what I truly love most in the world when I was just 13 years old. I wasn't chasing a paycheck; I was driven by pure passion.
I faced brutal crises, massive setbacks, and periods of real poverty, but I pushed through it all.

So, now that the fruits of that labor (the money, in this case) are finally ripening, I can honestly say there was no other way it could have happened.

However, if there's one thing I've learned about having wealth, it's this:

IT MEANS I NO LONGER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT MONEY. It means I am finally free from the constant pressure and anxiety that usually comes tied to financial survival. 🙂

Solaris said:Giving up.

1) Is it time to throw in the towel when we feel like we’ve exhausted every possible avenue?
Is there any point in fighting a battle you already know is lost?
Why bother?

2) How do you actually recognize that line—that moment where you need to stop, let go, and just surrender to the flow?

3) And what happens after we give up? What comes next?.....?🙂 🙂 😕

1) I think the real question isn't whether one *should* give up, but rather WHO wants to give up,
and what exactly are they walking away from—is it the goal that was set for them in the first place?

My question is this: WHO set that goal?

2) Regarding that approach—viewing everything as part of a larger process—that's something we really should have embraced from the very beginning.
IN OTHER WORDS, WE SHOULD WORK WITH THE DRIVE OF AN AMBITIOUS PROFESSIONAL, while remaining completely indifferent to the final result of our efforts—since that outcome is ultimately out of our hands and belongs to whoever set the target.

3) Once we finally let go, we are left with reality as it truly is. And only then will what we actually need find its way to us.

THE BIGGEST ISSUE FOR 99.999% of people is their inability to accept reality. They refuse to embrace what is right in front of them in the here and now; instead, they are constantly chasing
what might happen tomorrow, things that don't exist yet but could, or simply what they wish were true (even when it clearly isn't).

Ryan Wilson2 said:Just wanted to chime in with a little quote of my own:

"Every man and woman is a star."

Shouldn't we be saying "dickhead" instead of "star"? 😕 🙂

777 represents perfection—the total sum of all paths on the Tree of Life. It signifies Christ, God, and the ideal human being.

111 stands for the Aleph, symbolizing pure unity.

If you subtract 111 from 777, you get 666.

The "perfect man" minus "unity" equals 666—which is just humanity, stripped down.

Isn't it possible that the "number of the beast" is actually just the number of man? Someone once mentioned that to me.

By the way...

Aganore, I really hope ideas like "the internet is the antichrist" aren't actually making their way through those little gray cells of yours.😲

Does that mean Bill Gates is our new Messiah or something?😁 😎

It’s actually pretty fascinating when you think about how impossible it would be to just pull the plug on the internet!!

Has it ever crossed your mind before?

The way I see it, the web isn't just some standalone machine anymore; it’s more like this deep symbiosis between humans and technology.

We’re basically living like cyborgs.

It isn't easy to spend 1 or 2 hours every single day doing absolutely nothing😲 while sitting in a "lotus position"
(meditative posture)

- Doing nothing isn't about being lazy; it’s actually about how we avoid
any kind of attachment—even when it comes to so-called spiritual goals or big ambitions.

Because whether you're chasing a brand-new BMW or chasing "spiritual enlightenment," they're both just ambitions...

Ambition inherently implies an impatience with the present moment.

Ambition is rooted in the future, yet the future—much like the past—exists only within the mind; it isn't real.

We really ought to stop yearning for these unreal things that act like sirens, pulling us away from the only true reality: freedom (or reaching the other shore).

And freedom, much like truth itself,

is happening RIGHT NOW.🙂

Or perhaps it doesn't exist at all!

After all, Buddha's final words were essentially:

PRACTICE DILIGENTLY TO ACHIEVE FREEDOM😲 👍

adriatic said:Well, hiddenpuma75 is a Southerner, but I’m actually surprised by you!😁

If people like

the Spanish Inquisition
Stalin
Hitler
Mao
Saddam
Maddox
or even some obscure cult leader😛

had been "lazy"—or rather, if they hadn't been such massive ego maniacs—

"I want, I want,"
"I will, I will,"
"I must, I must,"

"We need,"

"We want,"

"We shall achieve..."

"We shall fight..."🙄

the world would be a much more harmonious place.

To do nothing, but instead simply surrender to the flow of life and react naturally to whatever comes your way... that is the ultimate skill.

It means being in sync with the Tao.🙂

And the Tao is the true way things unfold.

Our own willpower and rigid plans are really just disruptions in that harmonious flow.

(Go ahead, admit it: I probably deserve a Nobel Prize for providing the most poetic defense and tribute to "Languor" ever written!)🙂

Honestly, it's the kind of laziness everyone wishes they could master... mmm, delicious.

DOING NOTHING IS THE FINEST FORM OF ACTION.😉

That wasn't me talking, though—that was Lao Tzu.👍

I am "trying"

to simply refrain from

DOING 😲

but honestly, that is the toughest discipline I’ve ever had to face 😲

It’s actually staggering how hard it is to just sit still—to not meddle in every single thing under the sun just because we feel this frantic urge to achieve "SOMETHING."

(Because really, WHO is this "someone" inside both of us driving that need for achievement, and what's actually fueling those motives?

Adding more information—more mental clutter—doesn't actually help us level up
(which is where a guy like Steve Jobs would already be waiting for us, by the way 🙄 ))

The real question isn't about how to learn something new, but rather how to deconstruct our logic and let go of the illusion that we have to accomplish these things we keep manufacturing. We end up just spinning in circles, like a dog chasing its own tail.

😉

10 things you might not know about the Internet)

1 Just how old is it?

While the version of the Internet we recognize today really took shape in 1983, its roots go back to ARPANET, a research network that sent its very first messages on October 1, 1969. So, if you're counting from those early days, you could argue the Internet is already 30 years old this year.

2 Who actually invented it?

The development of packet-switching technology was independently pioneered in the 1960s by Paul Baran in the US and Donald Watts Davies in the UK, but in reality, it's more accurate to say it's the result of massive cooperation among thousands of dedicated scientists and engineers.

3 Was it designed to survive a nuclear strike?

Actually, that's a bit of a myth. The real motivation behind funding the ARPANET project was much more practical: finding a way to get expensive, incompatible mainframe computers to talk to one another. This allowed researchers funded by DARPA to share computing resources more efficiently.

4 How long has the World Wide Web been around?

It’s hitting its ten-year anniversary this year! 😛 It was originally created back in 1989 at CERN by the software engineer Tim Berners-Lee.

5 How many people are actually online?

It’s impossible to give a definitive number since the count shifts every single second, but back in the spring of 1999, the best estimate was upwards of 160 million people. If you want to see the most current estimates, check out this link.

6 Is it truly the fastest-growing medium ever?

Without a doubt. To put it in perspective, it took radio 37 years to hit 50 million listeners, and television needed about 15 years to reach 50 million viewers. The World Wide Web managed to grab 50 million users in just over three years.

7 Who owns the internet?
Technically, nobody—which means everyone owns it. Much of the foundation relies on open source software. While the physical Internet infrastructure (like the cables, servers, and switches) is owned by various corporations, the Internet itself serves as our collective digital commons.

8 Where did the term 'Cyberspace' originate?

It actually comes from the novel *Neuromancer*, released in 1984 by the American author William Gibson. He famously characterized it as a "consensual illusion."

9 Isn't the Internet just flooded with pornography?

That depends on your definition of "flooded." The internet is the first uncensored medium, so it makes sense that adult content exists there. There is a massive global market for it across all formats—from print to video. In the US alone, for instance, the print pornography industry is worth about $8 billion. However, while it certainly exists, it's actually dwarfed by the sheer volume of everything else available. You probably wouldn't realize that if you only ever looked at the tabloids!

10 Is the Internet basically just television with a billion channels?

Not even close! Television is what we call a "push" medium. A handful of big networks and studios decide what gets produced, and then they push that content toward an audience that can only choose from what's being broadcast. The Internet, however, is a "pull" medium. Users actively decide what they want to see and then request it. Because publishing is so accessible, the variety is staggering. The internet is an active medium, whereas television is fundamentally passive.