CAT5

Just want to address this first, but I'm a pretty hardcore student and follower of the bible, and "God" never forces anyone to do anything - he simply lays out the consequences and lets ppl know, "hey if you do this, things are gonna work out for you" and "if you do that, things ain't gonna work out so well for you". Ultimately, we make our own choices. If she feels that she has to force or coerce people into her beliefs, then her religion is leading her astray. Nowhere in the bible does it say NOT to drink or smoke - this is just man-made doctrine. The bible does, however, warn against indulging in excess and suggests moderation, but that's about it. Hell, there are even some scripture that suggests a little wine can be good for you. But yeah, this is where religious ppl get the bible wrong. It's not anyone's job to force, or convince, or try to convert anyone into "loving God". Forcing ppl to do anything is never a good idea, and ain't nobody got the power to convert anyone into anything. I mean think about it - do you want someone to love you because they WANT to ? or because they're FORCED to? So why would "God"? If this girl really wants to "convert" someone, she simply needs to follow "God" and let her lifestyle do all the speaking. Your behavior...the way you treat others...how you move in this world...that's all a direct reflection of your relationship with The Most High. Some ppl will be naturally intrigued and want to find out more. Some won't give a fuck. It's not for everybody. As for your work situation.... Here's what I'd do if I were in your situation, sis. And this will take a bit of spiritual maturity, but as bothersome as this girl seems, I'd just let her be. Now obviously, if she's hindering your work in any way, that's something you can discuss with your bosses or whatnot. But I would try my best to not take anything she does personally, and definitely don't let her shitty actions control how you react to her. Remain centered in your character no matter what. Most ppl truly have no idea why they act the way they act....and that's not an excuse for their actions at all....i'm just letting you know that most ppl unknowingly outsource their "inner authority" to all sorts of forces out there that simply mean no good to anyone. So if someone is acting a certain way towards you and you can clearly see that they're full of shit, best to keep it moving and not even entertain that nonsense. Cuz best believe that person is gonna try to toss that bullshit on to you, and probably won't be satisfied until yall are both wrestling in the bullshit together. Best not to get caught up in it.

ONE PIECE is genius

Welcome to the forum! Out of curiosity, what made you finally want to register?

Ya know, as a kid, my parents kept us away from the church and religion in general. It wasn't forbidden or anything...it was just something they practice and didn't push onto my siblings and I. My parents were kinda bohemian in the sense that they wanted us to make up our own minds. So, I honestly never thought much of it growing up, but I didn't realize how much of a blessing that was until these past few years. I'm really thankful to have not been indoctrinated into all of that... But it's interesting because as a kid, I grew up hearing and listening to Outkast and Goodie Mob...and although I listened to other hip hop, there was always something special about these 2 groups to me. Not just because I'm from the same city as them and can relate/connect to them on a lot of levels...but their music always managed to "ground" me, even into my adult years as my taste expanded exponentially. Their music just always had a certain gravity to it....and outside of Andre3000 and Cee-Lo, the rest of Outkast and Goodie Mob weren't incredibly lyrical...but they were raw, and their words still had depth and weight to them. ...so I recently became aware that one of my favorite members of Goodie Mob subscribes to the same spiritual path that has been revealed to me, and things make a lot more sense now. There are definitely no coincidences... but tot only do I understand more of what his lyrics meant from back in the day, but I also understand why I was so drawn to their music now. The spirit of truth...The spirit of wisdom...these have always been beckoning. Goodie Mob's first album being called "soul food", also makes a lot more sense now too. These guys' music was basically my "church" growing up.

Another new ANYO MV. They need a budget Nice song tho.

A new song is up on spotify! Not sure what to think yet. This one is pretty rough sounding!

Great to see a certified OG like yourself grace the forums! Glad to see you still around and I hope you enjoy it here!

Ruki channeling his inner Kiyoharu hard

shalom ✌️

Indeed. Actions > words. Always. You'll know them by their fruits. ----------------------------- On a brighter note, a brief bit from a conversation I had earlier: my future wife: ...so when you were a kid, you taught yourself how to ride a bike? me: yeah, basically. my future wife: so..."by-cicle-ly???" me: .... ...and I thought my dad-jokes were unrivaled until now.

ahaha, you ALREADY know! There's a lot that could be said here, but I'll try to keep things concise: Essentially, I agree with what the author is trying to say. This new-age, "positive vibes only" / positive psychology nonsense is simply not functional. I see this type of stuff parroted in so many different ways on social media and people are just eating it up. It's like sure, it's good to be positive, but you also have to be sober-minded. Being positive does not mean you should just ignore the negative. No, not at all. Being positive is about being able to recognize, assess, and deal with the negative and still be able to move forward and grow inspite of it. In fact, if you can't do that, then you're not really being positive at all. You're just deceiving yourself. In order to heal, you must first correctly diagnose the ill. And if you're reaping bad fruit in your life, you have to go back and look at the seeds that were planted. Doing this takes honesty, humility, bravery, and compassion. You have to be honest enough with yourself to even recognize and admit that you've reaped bad fruit in your life. You have to be humble enough enough to take on the responsibility of dealing with that bad fruit (instead of pridefully claiming victimhood). You have to be brave enough to take on the daunting task of searching for and plucking up all of the roots that bore this bad fruit (cuz it can be painful and hella uncomfortable). And you have to be compassionate enough with yourself to realize that this is not an overnight process, and not beat yourself up for it. But the people who have allowed themselves to be possessed by this "positive only" stuff are doing themselves and others a huge disservice because they negate everything i just mentioned in the last paragraph. As a result, these people are usually the opposite of honest, humble, brave, and compassionate. How can they be honest with you when they can't be honest with themselves? How can they be compassionate towards you when they can't be compassionate towards themselves? If they can't deal with the discomfort of dealing with their own selves, what's gonna happen when you come along and inevitably make them uncomfortable simply by being human? --> These are the same kinds of insecure, feeble-minded, and bitch-hearted people that will cut you off just for having a difference of opinion or a different perspective than they do. The kinds of ppl that get anxiety attacks when you tell them the truth about themselves. So yeah, that whole positive-only nonsense disarms people from being able to competently deal with negativity, or rather things that make them feel negative or uncomfortable. Which is really just disarming ppl from dealing with reality in general. It doesn't help that this bitch-made attitude is being increasingly supported here in western culture. It's like so many people are trying to make the world into one big "safe space", but there's way more of the world than there are any of us individually, so the more functional idea would be to simply get comfortable being uncomfortable. That wasn't necessarily concise

I've found spotify to be increasingly convenient, but I still prefer to have actual files on my computer, as I suppose I'm just stuck in my ways. Tho despite spotify's amazing catalog, there's still a lot of stuff (old and new) that's just not available there. So in light of that, I use google music to upload my own files for streaming too. Whenever I buy CDs, I just rip them and then put them away.

Looking forward to the new album!

updated: 02/06/2020 GREAT (stuff that I TRULY enjoy listening to, and that truly moves me. the question here would be "which tracks DON'T stand out?".) ★★★★★★★★★★ ---> ★★★★★★★★★★ downy - 砂上、燃ユ。残像 single | 2020.02.05 This is not the greatest downy track in existence, but dayum, this band's sound just speaks to my very soul! It's almost like it gets better with each listen. The remix is dope too. Looking forward to the album next month! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DECENT (stuff that I consider listenable, but not particularly compelling. may have potential to grow on me. could have a few of standout tracks) ★★★★★★★★★★ ---> ★★★★★★★★★★ DIMLIM - MISC. album | 2020.01.28 I had very high hopes for this after hearing "what's up", but those hopes were quickly dashed. I honestly can't decide if I want to file this one under "Decent" or "bad". "What's up" is still a great track, and I like "For the future", too. And there are some nice ideas here and there, but everything about this album was handled in such a tacky fashion that it's almost embarrassing. - sleepy.ab - fractal album | 2020.01.29 Stellar production and beautiful soundscapes that are, unfortunately, restrained by boring songwriting. Given their last few albums, I expected this turnout tho. Despite the snoozefest, there are a few wonderfully written tracks here that are well worth it. - tricot - 真っ黒 album | 2020.01.29 I haven't really been into tricot since their early, EARLY material, so I was pleasantly surprised at just how listenable this album is. In fact, this is definitely the best stuff I've heard from them in ages, plus their musicianship is has grown exponentially. Still, they're just missing something. Maybe this one will grow on me? - envy - The Fallen Crimson album | 2020.02.05 I'm a sucker for envy's sound in general, but the excessive, airy post-rock elements here just get really old really quickly. It's like they were playing straight from the post-rock handbook on some songs. That said, I do appreciate the more hardcore moments on the album. "Fingerprint mark" in particular is amazing. Shoutout to Achico for being featured on track 4!!! - 羊文学 - ざわめき ep | 2020.02.05 Typical, run-of-the-mill indie-rock with female vocals. Pleasant, but completely lacking in character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BAD (stuff that doesn't do a thing for me/stuff that I have no desire to listen to again. may have one or two standout tracks, but is irredeemable otherwise.) ★★★★★★★★★★ ---> ★★★★★★★★★★

When people say that they need rational and empirical evidence that God exists, I just imagine one of two scenarios happening: #1. The world's top scientists publishing a study called "Proof of God" with said evidence. or #2. God appearing in a humanoid form and showing the world that he has control over everything by performing various miracles. In both cases, this would completely miss the point of "believing" in God. I guarantee that most of us would see all of that proof and "empirical evidence", and the world would not change a bit. We'd see it and say "oh, that's cool.", then go back to treating each other like shit.

The new single is on spotify: I fuckin love this band. There's something about downy's music that's almost always initially difficult to wrap my ears around...but then when it finally clicks, I just end up loving it. Took about one or two listens for that to happen with this song. The remix is pretty dope too. Sad that Yutaka passed away, but I'm curious how an album without him is gonna sound like. I'm somehwat familiar with SUNNOVA...He's a hip hop producer with an experimental edge iirc, so this should be interesting! edit: i'm not a huge fan of the of drum kit they've been using since the 6th album (i preferred the drums from 5th)...they sound a bit muffled to me, but this is honestly a VERY minor grievance. I LOVE the way Robin's vocals are mixed here tho. Not as dry as on 6th, but not as heavily effected as on 5th.