What blows your mind?

[skcin]

And I do mean your MIND, not other body parts. Preverts. :rolleyes:

I watched that "Into The West" miniseries that was just on TNT. It wasn't exactly stellar (although I was impressed with much of the acting, esp. the woman that played Margaret Light Shines and the older Jacob Wheeler & his wife.)

But I kept thinking "wow, this was only 125 years ago!" Not very long at all. I find it almost impossible to comprehend how different things are (good and bad) in the U.S. now compared to then. To think that people did not even have running water & electricity, and suddenly (well, pretty suddenly) here we are with computers & phones & Ipods & cars & movies & paved roads & refrigerators & TVs....the list goes on & on. Amazing. It also amazed & saddened me that way American Indians were pushed off of their land & out of their homes & treated like dirt. I am ashamed.

A few other things:

The natural beauty of the earth. Whether it be bodies of water, or rock formations, or dense forests. Weather blows my mind to.

The fact that the human body is so intricate, and that a sperm & an egg can form a human being. So many things can go wrong during development - sometimes they do, yet they usually don't & there you have it, a perfectly developed baby.

Numbers of people. It doesn't matter if I'm thinking about the entire earth's population, or India's or even Buffalo; or the number of people killed in disasters, or how many have died of AIDS or how many are starving right now. I simply cannot fathom such enormous numbers of people.

Racism & bigotry. So many people have so much hate in their hearts & minds. I can't understand it.

Stuff. The amount of stuff we have, so much of it useless. Look around at all the stuff you have - what's it for? Think of all the people who have just as much stuff as you do, if not more. Where does it go when you get rid of it - won't we eventually run out of room to throw out our stuff? And at the same time, more people/factories/companies are making MORE stuff! AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH! I can't think about it anymore.

What blows your mind?

[DrummerDeanna]

I totally know what you mean about the history thing - when I watch Little House on the Praire (shut up ;) ) I just think about how all that stuff that they so inaccurately portray was not that long ago in the grand scheme of things....it's crazy.

Also - the amount of stuff we have - I think about that a lot - and how pretty much all of it is useless in the grand scheme of things - I have things around to entertain myself - but I try not to get too materialistic.

The night sky always blows my mind. I can sit/lay and stare at the sky forever...

Airplanes and the whole flying thing blows my mind...and fightens me - how they keep a multi-ton hunk of metal full of people in the air is beyond me - and I LOVE flying through or over clouds...BLOWS MY MIND!

[wondergirl9847]

I agree with what ya'll said. I sometimes cannot even wrap my brain around things. The fact that everything in our body has a certain job to keep us alive, even nose hair has a purpose. LOL

About the hatred/racism thing too, I cannot even fathom how you can hate a human being so much ONLY because of their race/because they are not the same as you. We are all sooooo different, yet the same! Our bodies are only shells for our souls. I didn't choose my body, nor my soul....God granted me this body/soul/life. I DO however choose how to use it and I wanna care, I wanna love everyone. It's extremely difficult to love all humans because of their hatred/violent ways, but I know it's the right thing to do. :)

Airplanes. I hate being in a plane, but it's a necessary (evil LOL) thing. It's still mind-blowing to be in one though.

The fact that our planet is suspended, just hanging there. The sun and moon are there for a reason, for control. The universe and everything in it blows my mind. God created the most amazing stuff. :nod:

I'm always amazed at how music touches my heart and soul so deeply. It can make you cry, laugh, feel anger, it's awesome.

[GateandGarden]

The human body really blows my mind as well. I've always been particularly intrigued by the heart. Its persistence and strength baffle me, as well as the mystery of what makes those muscles begin to contract and expand and work together so precisely. The sounds of the valves have always captivated me, too.

I'm also blown away by people who can draw and paint very well. It's something I can't even begin to do so it amazes me.

The idea of living medieval times blows my mind. Feces all over the streets and entire families sleeping in beds together...oh, and no one has properly showered. Also, very, very few people have any grasp of science, and not only is religious fundamentalism prevalent, it's even more ridiculous than the kind we know today. Superstitutions we consider asinine were valid beliefs. But those who were not rich spent so much time working for so little pay and no real rewards that they didn't really have time to ponder other belief systems, I don't think. (I had to read A World Lit Only By Fire a few semesters ago for a history class, and it blew me away).

Prejudice really befuddles me. How one can't realize that his or her reality is not the same as everyone else's and rightfully so is beyond me. For example, the fact that someone can say that the only valid sexual orientation is heterosexuality is really something to me. It's hard for me to believe that people can't see that they are partial to their own realities because it's easier to see things from your own point of view and that is what makes many prejudiced statements flawed.

The night sky blows my mind. Before I took an astronomy class (which was horribly, horribly difficult but at least I got a couple of things out of it) I had no real concept of the vastness of the universe. The distance of the stars outside my window is unfathomable to me. How tiny Earth is relative to the universe itself and many of its bodies is an enigma to me. It's obvious to me that we can't possibly be the only creatures in it.

[WildInTheWind]

THe universe blows my mind. The thought of never ending....it just keeps going. Back in my acid days that thought would keep me entertained for hours. Just trying to fathom the thought of endlessness. It still blows my mind, I just don't let it get to me or try to make sense of it anymore!
The ocean gets me, too. When I sit and look at it at night is when I am really amazed by what a power it is.

[xxxmx]

technology blows my mind. why does a cd play music? how does that burner put music onto a disc? how does it know what to burn? i don't see anything, what happened? who came up with that? who came up with tapes? vinyl? it's a needle scraping over vinyl, how does that make music? if i scratch circles into vinyl, can i play it? mindblown just typing it out!

water. i sit at the marina at night and just look out at nothing. there may be a few lights out there somewhere coming from a boat, but aside from that there's nothing. and it goes for forever. forevah. much too creepy to sit on the beach at night.

math. blows my mind in a very negative way.

[WildInTheWind]

technology blows my mind. why does a cd play music? how does that burner put music onto a disc? how does it know what to burn? i don't see anything, what happened? who came up with that? who came up with tapes? vinyl? it's a needle scraping over vinyl, how does that make music? if i scratch circles into vinyl, can i play it? mindblown just typing it out!

water. i sit at the marina at night and just look out at nothing. there may be a few lights out there somewhere coming from a boat, but aside from that there's nothing. and it goes for forever. forevah. much too creepy to sit on the beach at night.

math. blows my mind in a very negative way.
I agree on the math thing. I never understood it. No beach at night?! I love the beach at night.

[xxxmx]

No beach at night?! I love the beach at night.
very scary if you go it alone. plus, clearwater beach is lightning-strike central. two people were struck last week alone. if i'm sitting on a beach getting zapped, i want to know that someone else saw it happen.

[GateandGarden]

math. blows my mind in a very negative way.And mine too

[WildInTheWind]

very scary if you go it alone. plus, clearwater beach is lightning-strike central. two people were struck last week alone. if i'm sitting on a beach getting zapped, i want to know that someone else saw it happen.

Yea getting zapped by lightning wouldn't be much fun! The beaches I've been to at night I didn't see any lightning, execpt waaaayy out in the ocean. And I was never alone.

[AliceLover]

And mine too

math is an absolute nightmare for me. I had such a nightmare this year which math. I had to switch out of classes and levels it was terrible. I just don't get it. My guidance counselor and teacher don't seem to understand that I am terrible at it and I need extra help. They think when they explain it once everyone has it. And if you need extra help that you need to come the day after they teach it. WE HAVE LIVES ABD 6 OTHER CLASSES WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF. I hate my school. I wish I was at public school. So far private highschool has been terrible. Im so depressed all the time just due to school. :distress:

[GateandGarden]

math is an absolute nightmare for me. I had such a nightmare this year which math. I had to switch out of classes and levels it was terrible. I just don't get it. My guidance counselor and teacher don't seem to understand that I am terrible at it and I need extra help. They think when they explain it once everyone has it. And if you need extra help that you need to come the day after they teach it. WE HAVE LIVES ABD 6 OTHER CLASSES WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF. I hate my school. I wish I was at public school. So far private highschool has been terrible. Im so depressed all the time just due to school. :distress:That's pretty much how high school was for me, too. I failed Algebra II the first time I took it and that was awful because I generally made good grades. My report card that year literally had straight As and an F in Algebra. It seemed that no one had much sympathy other than my parents. The math and history teachers were the worst at my school. The people who needed help in math weren't really getting it. I can remember being confused every single day. I just sat there not having any idea what was going on. I literally wrote complete bull**** on my tests because I had no idea how to do anything. It was a nightmare. I was at a public school, not a private one, but I think my experience has probably been quite similar to yours. But don't worry, Jimmy, because these things do get much better. The nightmare is over now that I'm in college. Math is much easier now (and more elementary because they don't require much math of English majors) and when I've needed help I've been able to get it. It does get better. :)

[WildInTheWind]

math is an absolute nightmare for me. I had such a nightmare this year which math. I had to switch out of classes and levels it was terrible. I just don't get it. My guidance counselor and teacher don't seem to understand that I am terrible at it and I need extra help. They think when they explain it once everyone has it. And if you need extra help that you need to come the day after they teach it. WE HAVE LIVES ABD 6 OTHER CLASSES WE NEED TO TAKE CARE OF. I hate my school. I wish I was at public school. So far private highschool has been terrible. Im so depressed all the time just due to school. :distress:

I was the same way when it came to math. It just didn't make sense. I almost failed summer school I was so bad at it! My private school sucked ass, too.

[littlecricket2]

I was wondering when math would show up on people's lists. Well, I'm a high school math teacher and I'm working on a master's where part of my degree requires graduate level math courses, and I can tell you that even if you're mathematically inclined, certain aspects of it will blow your mind anyway, LOL. Hillary knows how much topology is blowing my mind, :D . By the way--I just got back from a 7-hour topology homework marathon! (Hillary and some others on here will know what I mean).

Let's see, other things which blow my mind:

Aeronautics is a good one! Also how there can still be so many unwanted pregnancies (ones that aren't the result of rape) in this day and age when there are so many methods of contraception available.

People who seem to draw from an unlimited well of creativity blow my mind: people like musicians, artists, etc., who can seem to make something out of nothing.

The fact that the media can so successfully pull the wool over our eyes with regards to the Bush administration's antics, and feed us crap like what Lindsey Lohan's latest temper tantrum was about instead, blows my mind.

[GateandGarden]

By the way--I just got back from a 7-hour topology homework marathon! (Hillary and some others on here will know what I mean).Yes, add that to my list! Those topology notes of yours that I've seen definitely blow my mind! :shocked:

[Johnny Stew]

Bigotry, violence (in general, but especially when it's directed at women, children and animals), aggression, cynicism, and just plain ol' negativity... they all blow my mind.
Sure, this world sucks sometimes, but I don't relate to wallowing in that or becoming hardened by it. Life's too short... why waste time grousing about all the stuff that you don't like, when you could be focusing on the stuff that you do?

[gldstwmn]

The synchronicity of life.

[dissention]

Many different things and people blow my mind.

-Philip Glass' Einstein On the Beach
-Cybernetics
-Hare Krishna (and their cute little finger cymbals)
-Performances from Judy Davis and Christian Bale
-Organized religion
-The way our government disregards the effects of depleted uranium
-Joan of Arc
-Carl Sandberg poems
-Our national budget
-The bump on Shrub's back during the debates
-Hugo Ball's sound-poems
-Woody Allen movies
-Republican values
-Books by J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury
-Animal hunting
-Musical artists that never stop experimenting
-Bigotry and ignorance
-Jude Law cheating on Sienna Miller with the hired help

[GateandGarden]

-Hare Krishna (and their cute little finger cymbals)"And all those Hare Krishnas turned out to be a joke."

Bob. <333333333

[dissention]

"And all those Hare Krishnas turned out to be a joke."

Bob. <333333333


Radha will get both of you for that, Hillary. :p

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

*taps finger cymbals together*

[greatdarkwing]

I'm surprised no one else has posted about this...

but what about death? For instance ok, you die, then what?! Nothing? Does your soul just kinda meander around? Doesnt that just freak anyone else out...that one day you just STOP EXISTING?!

[pianogirl04]

Four year olds blow my mind. Their innate intelligence, their innocence, their ability to absorb everything that goes on around them and learn and adapt. I wish my mind was half as versatile as theirs. One of my four year old students was trying to grasp the concept of time signatures a while back and after spending five minutes trying to explain it back to me all within the concepts of 'same' and 'different', she looks at me and goes, "Miss Kortni, am I a good 'splainer?" :angel: Blew my mind. She's a very good 'splainer, by the way.

Special needs children blow my mind. I still remember when I was working with autistic kids and I wore a new jacket I had... the nonverbal girl kept trying to get my attention and she kept signing "girl" to me and I couldn't figure out why. Then it hit me -- she associated "girl" with the concept of "pretty" and she was telling me my jacket was pretty. She was very happy when I acknowledged that. A couple weeks later, the last time I saw her, she kept playing with my ID tag... so I took it off and gave it to her. She held it up to compare the picture with my face, kissed the tag, and gave it back to me. I will never, ever forget that as long as I live.

The way the concept of harmony evolves is fascinating. The way harmony exists blows my mind, the way it works. The workings of a song, from the way the music complements the words to the emotion it evokes to how it's created... What really gets me is how music as part of an industry works, and not in the negative way... but how people work together as musicians, how concert tours work, how so many people can be touched by music during a concert... it blows my mind just to be in the audience, let alone to imagine being somebody on stage and being a part of that experience, and music is something you can't even touch. Gets me every time and I keep coming back to it in absolute wonder.

[amber]

I'm surprised no one else has posted about this...

but what about death? For instance ok, you die, then what?! Nothing? Does your soul just kinda meander around? Doesnt that just freak anyone else out...that one day you just STOP EXISTING?!
No.
Anyways, when random good things happen to me, or a bunch of stuff works out, that blows my mind.

[sparky]

The sheer number of human beings on this planet blows my mind. The thought of all those people...I can't even fathom it.

The killer mind blower for me is the concept of time. Where does it go ? Is it something that can ever be controlled ? Are there parallel universes ? Will we ever be able to travel through it ?

On the other hand, death doesn't bother me at all. Or blow my mind. Not my own anyway. The death of people I love or animals I love is horrific (ugh...the loss of my pets has in some ways been WORSE than the loss of people). My own death ? Feh. What an adventure it will be. Or just rest. I like rest.

[macfanken]

Flight. I fly all the time, normally I don't give it a second thought, but every once in a while the whole concept blows my mind. :shocked:

[wondergirl9847]

I'm another one of those who had an extremely difficult time with math in school. My dad would help me with my math homework, and I ended up crying every freakin' time! :laugh: I was such a good student otherwise, loved Science and English, History, eh, whatever and HATED math with the fire of a million suns.

Teachers can make a difference in the way you understand things, but dayum, math just sucks.

[StevieNicksEO17]

I'm another one of those who had an extremely difficult time with math in school. My dad would help me with my math homework, and I ended up crying every freakin' time! :laugh: I was such a good student otherwise, loved Science and English, History, eh, whatever and HATED math with the fire of a million suns.

Teachers can make a difference in the way you understand things, but dayum, math just sucks.

I love Algebra, but Geometry was a bitch. The only reason I passed (With exactly a 60.0, mind you) was I cheated. I know, it sounds horrible, but I was not about to take that class again. I'm not a science or a history person either. I almost failed history, too. Hmm. I'm not a school person in general!

[littlecricket2]

I'm surprised no one else has posted about this...

but what about death? For instance ok, you die, then what?! Nothing? Does your soul just kinda meander around? Doesnt that just freak anyone else out...that one day you just STOP EXISTING?!

Actually, you're not alone. Death kinda blows my mind too; I'm fairly curious about it. There are so many possibilities for what actually happens to your "essence," your soul, whatever you call it, when you die.

The idea of not existing, like, not being aware of the world around me in any capacity at some point, blows my mind.

[DrummerDeanna]

Death doesn't blow my mind in the sense that people "Stop existing" because I don't think that happens.

I mean - true the person who was once walking around and alive is no longer able to do that - but that doesn't mean they don't exisit - there are still lots of memories and legacies left behind - and I, for one, am excited about the possibilities of what can lie ahead after death - after we leave the human shell we are in....crazy!

[GateandGarden]

I'm surprised no one else has posted about this...

but what about death? For instance ok, you die, then what?! Nothing? Does your soul just kinda meander around? Doesnt that just freak anyone else out...that one day you just STOP EXISTING?!Yes, it blows my mind too. It's an unknown. I've tried to imagine how it is to not exist and to feel nothing. It would be comparable to being numb all over, and that is pretty much impossible for me to imagine. And if death is not the end (which is what I believe but don't consider a proven fact or anything) then how strange is it to exist in another form? Do you watch over the living and feel frustrated because you can't make things better for them?

[GateandGarden]

[COLOR=Blue][SIZE=2][FONT=Microsoft Sans Serif]I'm another one of those who had an extremely difficult time with math in school. My dad would help me with my math homework, and I ended up crying every freakin' time! :laugh: I was such a good student otherwise, loved Science and English, History, eh, whatever and HATED math with the fire of a million suns.
Oh, I know! Whenever my dad or my brother helped me with math, I always wound up in tears. :(
Teachers can make a difference in the way you understand things, but dayum, math just sucks.As an undergraduate, I've had two really great math teachers and I actually pulled off a B in my last math class. Sometimes good teachers make all the difference.

[wondergirl9847]

In the fourth grade, I had a teacher from h*ll and was failing in some subjects. Of course, at the time, I needed braces for my jacked up teeth and glasses for my jacked up eyes, so I had issues anyways. LOL The teacher I had was horrible and my mom asked them to move me to another teacher, and when they did, my grades improved. It was a variety of things, but still, teachers make the difference a lot of the time.

Also, I had a terrific Algebra teacher in college. He was soooo nice and cool, and I didn't hate it as much.

[Serendipity]

Death definately blows my mind. Just the idea of the person I know as me and the world I live in suddenly not existing...too much for me to handle. I used to lie awake at night trying to get my head around it, but it upsets me too much and I have to go on pretending it just isnt ever going to happpen. For the most part I believe theres something after this life, but when I think too hard about it...scares the crap outta me!

Flying also: how can a mechanical cylinder just be suspended in mid-air? And move? I know its all about mechanics and stuff, but since I dont understand all that, it blows my mind.

Racism and alll prejudice - how can people be so ignorant as to judge someone who is just another human being based on something they cant control like race, gender or sexual orientation?

Mess - No matter how much I tidy up, everything is a mess again almost straight away. How? Why? Argh!

~Nicki

[skcin]

Oooh, yeah, death freaks me out too. I mean, what happens after you die? I don't think about it too much, I just can't.

The whole life cycle is mindblowing - we're here for such a short time. For what?

[jadegypsy]

That i am from the last generation that will ever write out school reports by hand, and know what life was like before the internet, cell phone, DVD and CD...

And yet at the same time future genrations will still be loving the same music and movies that i once loved...

In a word how much stuff changes and yet how much is still timeless. I saw Yellow Submarine in the Park a few weeks ago and the kids who were seeing it for the first time were just as enthralled as i was twenty years ago :woohoo:

And then again it disappoints me soooo much that with all the progress we have made I will possibly be showing my children animals in a Natural History Musame that went extinct b/c we could not save their environment due to increasing demands for more and cheapers stuff...

Ans as someone mentioned earlier it does amaze me how much ppl have in common and yet how they let such little things turn into such issues of strif, be it religion, race, sexuality, or stance on certain issues, why, why do we care so much about what others think or do that we are willing ot kill for it? :distress:

[GateandGarden]

Death definately blows my mind. Just the idea of the person I know as me and the world I live in suddenly not existing...too much for me to handle. I used to lie awake at night trying to get my head around it, but it upsets me too much and I have to go on pretending it just isnt ever going to happpen. For the most part I believe theres something after this life, but when I think too hard about it...scares the crap outta me!

~NickiYes, I feel the same way! It's one of those things I can't sit around and think about too much because it winds up being really stressful. It's one of those gigantic unknowns.

[irishgrl]

I am constantly amazed at the intricate interconnectedness of nature. Life forms are connected/dependent upon each other in ways we havent even yet begun to understand.

Space and time amaze me.

life/death cycle amazes me. I dont believe death is the end, I believe in reincarnation. I also believe in Karma.

oh yeah: Jason's cah ray zee posts blow my mind too! :rolleyes:

(Diss, I almost fell out of my chair after reading your bit about the lump on Bush's back--too funny! :eek:

[Mari]

Sometimes it just blows my mind how incredibly big the universe is and how small we are in comparison.

[eclipse]

I have read all the post up to now and everyone has covered all the mavels/mysteries that seem to capture our imaginantion....The vastness of space, how many people exist on this planet, the questions of death's meaning, the ocean's magnitude, the moon's magic....

All more or less add up to the main question of:
WHY??
I think philosophers have been thinking about that since they could think ;)

How can we even be sitting here and discussing this topic, all of us in different places/spaces all over the world?
The technology blows my mind-
Intolerence to race/religion/sex/gender-blows my mind
and I can't forget---
The look in my dog's eyes when he gives me a kiss, and wags his tail-blows my mind :nod:
Just a few thoughts-
~~eclipse~

[DrummerDeanna]

and I can't forget---
The look in my dog's eyes when he gives me a kiss, and wags his tail-blows my mind :nod:
Just a few thoughts-
~~eclipse~

awww...cute - and I agree - when I am sitting petting my dog it blows my mind - thinking about this other living being who is dependent on me for care - and I wonder what she's thinking etc. Then she'll put her little head on my lap or something and smile....it's just really cool.

------------

Now onto math - I HATE math - I am STILL having nightmares about damn math. It's not a recurring dream - but a recurring theme - like in all these dreams I have there is always this math class that I haven't gone to in like months and I am going to fail and not graduate (I've been out of school for more than year - and I'm STILL having this damn math dream).

I remember the day in fourth grade we had to take a math placement test - I sometimes got really lazy and would purposely NOT do things -and that was what I did. I knew how to do the multiplication and division - I chose not to because I was lazy. Therefore I was put in idiot math. lol - I always wonder what would have happened had I actually did the test and wound up in a more advanced math class...:shrug:

Anyway - the lowest grades I got throughout school were always in math.