I was raised to rely on my intelligence and figure things out on my own. The only praise I ever got was for schoolwork. Other than that I was just expected to be a "good girl." Mainly that seemed to mean doing whatever adults told me and not having a personality. Strangely enough, I rebelled, but all that got me was locked out of the house. Those of you who had loving, affectionate, supportive parents, I hope you realize how lucky you were.

You just contradicted yourself.

Found him, lost him -- twice. He's a slippery one. The only way I could not let him go was to turn into a stalker.

The only two I know are one that sounds like gombai and means bottoms up (you say it when you're drinking) and of course gung ho, but that apparently isn't an actual phrase in any Chinese language. He said other words came in between them, but I guess he didn't know what they were.

I hate the way "ghetto" is being used now, I guess just to mean poor or low-class. It seems racist to me. On the other hand, I suppose someone could think I was racist for even thinking that. But then again, that's the whole problem with it. If you know what I mean.

Wow. A 13-word sentence with, count 'em, four exaggerations in it. May be a new record. But I admit I haven't been keeping track.

I worked at a drive-in for a few weeks and I don't miss them AT ALL.

Won't eat sushi (and banana slugs, whew, got to add that to my not-to-do list!)

Won't jump off the 11th row of a 12-high bleacher stand again (this may explain the old fracture doc claimed he found in my back)

Won't jump out of airplanes or bungee, but DO want to do the hot air balloon thing and DO want to zipline.

Can't make my left knee touch the floor in lotus position the way my right knee will.

Won't ever trust my favorite ex-lover again after being let down twice.

Hell must be pretty cold today, because I agree with you.

Or you could just say, "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Fantastic waterfall you got there, buddy. Too bad it's in Alabama.

Um, you do know you can be married and not have to wear a ring . . . right?

Allergies.

So we're going to become biobots because of a failure of technology? No thanks.

Well, I've thought and studied a lot about these topics, but I'm still not at all sure I understand where you're going with it. No, I wasn't trying to make any point about weakness of will. I was trying to separate out definitions. You did point out all the negative connotations of the word "will," which I'm aware of and did make me hesitate to bring it up. If you're thinking of will as negative and intent or intention as its positive manifestation, I can accept that. I pretty much agree with your Demosthenes quote, which is why I tend to opt out of many of the more nitpicking arguments on here. Do I know anyone who rails about everything they don't like??? Haha, do I know anybody who doesn't, is more the question. I often wish that people would just honestly TRY to be accepting and nonjudgmental for even one week. I think they would be astonished at the reduction in their level of stress. But maybe that value system has to be in place before you can succeed at it, I don't know.

If someone "loosely intends" to do something, then I think they are setting themselves up for failure. In my experience, successful action requires a focused intent.

It's interesting that you mentioned meditation causing people to become unbalanced. I've had some in-depth conversations with a Zen priest friend who brought up exactly this subject. It hadn't occurred to me before, but then I've never made meditation a way of life.

In my book, greed, stubbornness, etc., are forms of ignorance--ignorance about what it is that truly makes us happy. Ignorance about what happiness really is.

If your hair is premed, then it should already know how to keep itself healthy.

Sorry, just had to do it!

I hope they have Mensa for kids in England. The social half of the person has to be nourished as well. That's where most highly intelligent people have their weakness. Also I think it's a lot harder for girls in general. There's still a lot of social pressure for women not to display their intelligence. I wish her the best of luck, she seems like a cute little thing.

Well if it is, although I appreciate the intention, India is a heck of a long way, and also 58-year-olds don't seem to be willing to put up with me.

Mr. Shy has moved on, or possibly even away. Not much of a loss under the circumstances.

I would think after the Y2K flop you would have found something more productive to do.

Where I worked, the Y2K effect was that dates on our reports printed out as 1900 instead of 2000 for a month or so.

Well it seems to me that we are ALWAYS products of experiences we can't overcome, or at least can't pretend don't exist. The wisest find ways to integrate those experiences into what is called personal growth. I'm not sure where intention fits into all of this, and I'm especially not sure I think of intention the same way you are. How is intention different from intent? or from will?