ALL THE LINKS together for answers and freebies--updated

Did you find what you needed?

Yes	82.4%	[ 2350 ]
No	17.6%	[ 503 ]
Total Votes:			[ 2853 ]

[glengrin]

Haji Demon

glengrin

Haji Demon

glengrin

Haji Demon

glengrin

That's not so far off. mrgreen

Each family has it's own pattern that gets passed down through the generations. Heh, now I'm having imaginary visions of door to door solicitors being invited in and being plied food and drink, lol.

A look through history over the millennia in different parts of the world are quite eye opening how extreme things can get when it comes to fashion, status and ideas of beauty. My avatars may be elaborate, but it's all pixels with no function to consider. IRL function and comfort always come first.

Nah, I tend not to watch that kind of video. It's far more fun to observe nature live up close as for me it's more than just a visual thing. I can sense in all my senses and get a much richer read of situations.

Thanks, but truly I am just an intermediate beginner. True dedicated bird people know over 4,000 different birds in all their forms, male, female, juvenile, breeding or nonbreeding and all the calls that go with them and where and when to find every single one of them. I am not so focused, but much more casual. My husband and I just stroll along and see what we can see. Those he gets pictures of we don't know we're able to identify via apps and sites. Over time, the numbers just added up. There's a great app for bird calls too and I use it a lot.

If you want a great example of a dedicated birder, watch the movie "The Big Year". It's actually a really good movie that I watched a few years before we began the walks.

It would seem so; a matter of learning, passed through the generations rather than instinct.

Lets just hope nothing else big pops up XD Even games these days have too many events and not enough time to play. Speaking of which, I got to start on gaia's easter one...did they ever make an announcement for it, I just read their notification of bug in the event got fixed

XD Even them!! Seriously thats a big issue, these people just want to get a foot in the door and my parents would offer them something to eat and drink without fail!

Same!! Though if armors and capes come back in fashion, I wont say no >__> but other than that, dress to impress is not my thing either. I am not interested in putting on a facade

Makes sense, though it was a video of monkey just messing with tigers, going around pulling their tails as they are just trying to rest and stuff XD

With my memory I cant ever remember. My grandpa was amazing though, he would be able to tell calls of birds and animals, which plant or tree it is. My parents could never answer such stuff and I was like- ehhh....so lame...didnt you learn anything from your parents? XD And today I cant tell fraction of stuff that my parents know XD

Never heard of it before! I shall try to find it, though when I have time for it, I might have to ask you the name again

True...and I guess a bit of both, like an instinct might drive them to a hiding place, but a safe place might be different depending on the area and the 2 groups pass down different things depending on that

There is much money to be made by taking up a lot of people's time with events; it means they spend more on the site and less in other places. So I expect each game you play will add more and more that will demand your time to play. Except Gaia.....

The Easter Event did start without announcement and it's yet another battle event, ho hum. The prizes are cute but when I came on and discovered it'd begun just a few hours after debut, everyone already had at least 580 hp and of course you enter with just 80 hp so I couldn't find a spot to get started. I gave up after a few days and will just buy the event prizes next year--they'll be dirt cheap by then. Happens every year. rolleyes

eek rofl That is extreme. But they know the cost of doing this and feel they get more benefit from it than it costs them I guess. The benefits are emotional for them.

That's what cons and live cosplay are for! Capes and armor. I've always dressed to please myself and even found a way to be comfortable during the few years I had to wear business suits for a job I had. I do dress for occasions, but function always comes first even then. Even at my own wedding way back when, lol.

All you really need to know to get started is how to use online field guides and apps and what they are. They will tell you the rest and if you have to look up the same things repeatedly cause you can't remember, so what? Google lense is a good place to start; it's free as are most things online. Cornell University has a bunch of different things to use like Merlin for calls and i-bird online for looking stuff up. There's more out there for insects, plants, animals, etc.

I suck with names, I just remember that one right now because a friend of mine brought it up a month ago, recommending it to me and I remembered the movie well. I should see where it's streaming at present. The Big Year. I saw it perhaps 8 years ago or so.

It wasn't so long ago that people believed, including scientists that animals mostly operated on instinct and humans on learning. In truth, all multicellular living things and even a few single cell ones (like slime mold and some fungus) are a mix of learning and instinct. But why are possum of the same species aggressive in the east coast and near the ocean on the west coast but totally peaceful here? Why do deer rarely dart out into traffic here but commonly do on the east coast? Why do squirrels in most places chew through wires in buildings but not here? The exact same species! Instinct doesn't account for that and learning only partly may. Another of nature's mysteries.

Yeah, which is so weird that events are the main reason I kept coming back to gaia. Its like sparing even a little bit on freebies is gonna kill them while they churn out new items every day. Even for events we are more likely to get recolors of old items these days

Ahh...I shall participate anyway when I have more time, but damn, I missed the announcement completely O_O

Its very much so..and my grandparents were even more extreme. I on other hand can just feel a bit guilty and let things go

That is too much effort for just special occasions, I would get one if it becomes daily life thing. What did you do for wedding? Us guys have it easy. I would generally whine about having to wear a tie, but for wedding I can do at least that much

If I ever have kids, I suspect that is what I will have to do, and I imagine the next gen would have it worse than me with remembering these things XD

I have few selected obscure ones that stick along with me, but other than that, I mix up names a hell lot

Usually its a bit of both yeah! Specially if the animal raises their young, but for different behaviors, its again, instincts come from experiences, the 2 groups faced different challenges on each side, ones whose instincts proved helpful in one environment likely just passed those down and we got 2 very different groups. Orcas are quite good example of this.......humans are very good example of this

I miss how fun events used to be. However they do still manage to do one good event a year and have at least some of the prizes be original items for at least one huge event, like Halloween or Christmas ones. I don't keep coming back to Gaia; I never left in the first place, lol. It's proven to be a pretty good place to meet people worth getting to know before they drift off again. A good percentage of people here I've come across in the areas I hang out in are fairly intelligent and thoughtful. And I don't get spammed with bots, misinformation posts, etc. It's interesting that even on Nextdoor with strict TOS the flooding of the stream with total irrelevant crap while thoughtful discussions often get taken down.

No, you didn't. They forgot to make one.

So avoiding guilt is a huge motivator for this I'm suspecting for your parents if they don't do this. Interesting.

Mind you I married well over 40 years ago, but my wedding dress was a clearance rack white prom dress I picked up for just $10 (the equivilant cost in today's dollars would be about $75 and the going cost of a wedding gown these days is somewhere around $5000 and back then about $750 or so by comparison), my shoes were white casual sandals that also were inexpensive and I'd had a long while, the veil a hand me down. I didn't wear heels, pantyhose (very much expected in those days) and only a little makeup; just a bit of eyeshadow and lipstick (that lasted maybe a half hour, not long enough for the wedding photos, lol). I've always been quite nearsighted and in those days there were no thin lenses so my glasses were very thick plastic lenses that darkened in sunlight. And my wedding was outdoors so the bride wore dark glasses, lol! My hair was long at the time and it's very curly. Of course there were no conditioners, dyes or hair spray used. My husband wore a traditional tux that he rented. Oh and my ears never were pierced so no earrings and no nail polish, mascara, eye liner nor foundation. I definitely broke all kinds of traditional wedding fashion that day. Yeah, just wearing a tie is nothing to complain about compared to what women go through.

You'd think with such a good linguistic history, fully literate with a huge vocabulary I wouldn't have problem with names. But I actually think conceptually and visually, not in words. They are an overlay. So I remember the experience and the concept complete with visuals but not the names--those fade. I use language as a bridge to try to share what is not linguistic.

..."instincts come from experiences"... That one gave me pause but then I realized that experience can alter genetics and epigenetics that then get passed down through the generations. Perhaps that is exactly what instincts are; learned lessons of previous generations through millions of years. Some of our instincts go back to the beginning of life. It's quite interesting how the line between learning and instincts are blurred. Remember instincts are inborn knowledge and reactions, not learned by the being using them.

I tried to quit various times, donated all my stuff away twice and thus I am so poor XD Honestly, even if an event is fun, I just dont have time for it these days...and wth...which parts of gaia have you been around at?

I am too sleepy to read properly it seems XD

Its not guilt for them, its kind of responsibility and right thing to do. Guilt is all me for not doing that

Damn! You are so cool! I dont like all that fuss at all. Just thinking about a wedding party is enough to demotivate me

I always found language to be very inadequate and deceptive tool of communication, its just the best form we have at the moment. I've been told that I can write very beautifully, its just not something I am interested in at all. Its confusing how different people can think differently about same thing. I myself find myself thinking differently depending on topics it is, but when recalling experience, you can recall the memories of how it felt to be there, but while describing it, its more of- sky was blue, grass was green XD I struggle with recalling even faces. I hold both grudges and gratitude very deeply, but while I can remember the person was, I cant remember who the person is

True, though some experiences in real time can become part of instincts. Like pavlov's condition therapy for example

I actually started right here in my thread plus a few guilds and threads connected to various games on Gaia that changed over time. The game communities have always been pretty good and generally older. Back in the day, it was Booty Grab (remember that?) plus a charity thread or two, usually run by someone I knew from the gaming community. Lake Kindred took over when BG died. Add a few contest and showcase threads and things rounded out. Threads, guilds and people come and go but there's always somewhere.

Still responsibility, obligation is a far cry from doing it because you truly want to. They feel they must or they're doing something wrong. Hence you feel guilt when you don't, as if you're doing something wrong.

Oh wedding parties and receptions--I have news for you on those. Most often, especially back in the day, the parents have more say than the person getting married. I had to fight to get what I did want, most was picked by my mother and she and I did NOT agree. I got enough though to make my wedding day a memorable one for people who came, even if I didn't know most of them (parent's friends and distant relatives on both sides accounted for 75% of the guests). I'm sure I got judged on my attire but I truly didn't care. I made the rest a bit unusual as well and lots of fun. I still get feedback from people to this day on how much they enjoyed it. That's what happens when you strip all pretensions from things, lol. The year I got married, we went to 8 other weddings. Of those other 8, only one made it. All were big, expensive affairs. Before that year, I had never been to another wedding. I sure have since. And every really big expensive wedding ended in a failed marriage (except 2 and one of the couples financed it themselves) while the more down to earth ones had a better chance of making it.

Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words, it can say what words never could. But different languages can express things that another language can't. I fell in love with American Sign Language for being so good at describing so many things spoken English could barely name.

If I know someone well, by name for many years, I won't forget that person's name. If it was for a year or so, I'll always remember the first name, but last names may fade after 50 years or so. I don't forget faces even of chance encounters if there was any kind of connection. If an experience was intense enough, I will remember it for life in full detail, even dreams. I once had a very intense dream of a place that was remarkable, painted it a full 8 years later and then to my shock saw it irl a year after I painted it. It was a premonition dream and I didn't know it. I will remember not just the dream scene for life, but the entire time in that region for life. It was back in the early 80s. It was part of an extended trip and had many stops along the way, some with other intense experiences for me so those are also etched in memory for life too. That's just one example; I can share many stories like it.

You're right in that people don't hear what you are saying in the way you are saying it. They're interpreting the meaning through the lense of everything they have going on so the meaning and subtext they're getting may have nothing to do with what you were saying. Yeah, it makes things "interesting" in a way I could so do without... emotion_facepalm

As for faces fading and other details; I have learned to my astonishment that this is the norm. My experiences of remembering are the exception. How people have continuity in their lives like this is a total mystery to me, yet they clearly do. Also what is remembered is heavily edited by the mind to fit an internal narrative and often is far from what happened. And changes whenever the desired narrative changes too. wtf? It's often 90% below the person's awareness unless that person is very manipulative. Then they will be aware they're doing it for a short time before they're sure it was always that way. My mother was and my sister is that kind of person.

Nope, that isn't instinct. It's a learning so deep it becomes reflex, a muscle memory or an autoresponse that bypasses conscious thought. However it can be etched deeply if it was traumatic enough that it can be passed onto future generations via epigenetics. And since it isn't true instinct, it can be unlearned.

[glengrin]

[Haji Demon]

glengrin

Haji Demon

glengrin

Haji Demon

glengrin

There is much money to be made by taking up a lot of people's time with events; it means they spend more on the site and less in other places. So I expect each game you play will add more and more that will demand your time to play. Except Gaia.....

The Easter Event did start without announcement and it's yet another battle event, ho hum. The prizes are cute but when I came on and discovered it'd begun just a few hours after debut, everyone already had at least 580 hp and of course you enter with just 80 hp so I couldn't find a spot to get started. I gave up after a few days and will just buy the event prizes next year--they'll be dirt cheap by then. Happens every year. rolleyes

eek rofl That is extreme. But they know the cost of doing this and feel they get more benefit from it than it costs them I guess. The benefits are emotional for them.

That's what cons and live cosplay are for! Capes and armor. I've always dressed to please myself and even found a way to be comfortable during the few years I had to wear business suits for a job I had. I do dress for occasions, but function always comes first even then. Even at my own wedding way back when, lol.

All you really need to know to get started is how to use online field guides and apps and what they are. They will tell you the rest and if you have to look up the same things repeatedly cause you can't remember, so what? Google lense is a good place to start; it's free as are most things online. Cornell University has a bunch of different things to use like Merlin for calls and i-bird online for looking stuff up. There's more out there for insects, plants, animals, etc.

I suck with names, I just remember that one right now because a friend of mine brought it up a month ago, recommending it to me and I remembered the movie well. I should see where it's streaming at present. The Big Year. I saw it perhaps 8 years ago or so.

It wasn't so long ago that people believed, including scientists that animals mostly operated on instinct and humans on learning. In truth, all multicellular living things and even a few single cell ones (like slime mold and some fungus) are a mix of learning and instinct. But why are possum of the same species aggressive in the east coast and near the ocean on the west coast but totally peaceful here? Why do deer rarely dart out into traffic here but commonly do on the east coast? Why do squirrels in most places chew through wires in buildings but not here? The exact same species! Instinct doesn't account for that and learning only partly may. Another of nature's mysteries.

Yeah, which is so weird that events are the main reason I kept coming back to gaia. Its like sparing even a little bit on freebies is gonna kill them while they churn out new items every day. Even for events we are more likely to get recolors of old items these days

Ahh...I shall participate anyway when I have more time, but damn, I missed the announcement completely O_O

Its very much so..and my grandparents were even more extreme. I on other hand can just feel a bit guilty and let things go

That is too much effort for just special occasions, I would get one if it becomes daily life thing. What did you do for wedding? Us guys have it easy. I would generally whine about having to wear a tie, but for wedding I can do at least that much

If I ever have kids, I suspect that is what I will have to do, and I imagine the next gen would have it worse than me with remembering these things XD

I have few selected obscure ones that stick along with me, but other than that, I mix up names a hell lot

Usually its a bit of both yeah! Specially if the animal raises their young, but for different behaviors, its again, instincts come from experiences, the 2 groups faced different challenges on each side, ones whose instincts proved helpful in one environment likely just passed those down and we got 2 very different groups. Orcas are quite good example of this.......humans are very good example of this

I miss how fun events used to be. However they do still manage to do one good event a year and have at least some of the prizes be original items for at least one huge event, like Halloween or Christmas ones. I don't keep coming back to Gaia; I never left in the first place, lol. It's proven to be a pretty good place to meet people worth getting to know before they drift off again. A good percentage of people here I've come across in the areas I hang out in are fairly intelligent and thoughtful. And I don't get spammed with bots, misinformation posts, etc. It's interesting that even on Nextdoor with strict TOS the flooding of the stream with total irrelevant crap while thoughtful discussions often get taken down.

No, you didn't. They forgot to make one.

So avoiding guilt is a huge motivator for this I'm suspecting for your parents if they don't do this. Interesting.

Mind you I married well over 40 years ago, but my wedding dress was a clearance rack white prom dress I picked up for just $10 (the equivilant cost in today's dollars would be about $75 and the going cost of a wedding gown these days is somewhere around $5000 and back then about $750 or so by comparison), my shoes were white casual sandals that also were inexpensive and I'd had a long while, the veil a hand me down. I didn't wear heels, pantyhose (very much expected in those days) and only a little makeup; just a bit of eyeshadow and lipstick (that lasted maybe a half hour, not long enough for the wedding photos, lol). I've always been quite nearsighted and in those days there were no thin lenses so my glasses were very thick plastic lenses that darkened in sunlight. And my wedding was outdoors so the bride wore dark glasses, lol! My hair was long at the time and it's very curly. Of course there were no conditioners, dyes or hair spray used. My husband wore a traditional tux that he rented. Oh and my ears never were pierced so no earrings and no nail polish, mascara, eye liner nor foundation. I definitely broke all kinds of traditional wedding fashion that day. Yeah, just wearing a tie is nothing to complain about compared to what women go through.

You'd think with such a good linguistic history, fully literate with a huge vocabulary I wouldn't have problem with names. But I actually think conceptually and visually, not in words. They are an overlay. So I remember the experience and the concept complete with visuals but not the names--those fade. I use language as a bridge to try to share what is not linguistic.

..."instincts come from experiences"... That one gave me pause but then I realized that experience can alter genetics and epigenetics that then get passed down through the generations. Perhaps that is exactly what instincts are; learned lessons of previous generations through millions of years. Some of our instincts go back to the beginning of life. It's quite interesting how the line between learning and instincts are blurred. Remember instincts are inborn knowledge and reactions, not learned by the being using them.

I tried to quit various times, donated all my stuff away twice and thus I am so poor XD Honestly, even if an event is fun, I just dont have time for it these days...and wth...which parts of gaia have you been around at?

I am too sleepy to read properly it seems XD

Its not guilt for them, its kind of responsibility and right thing to do. Guilt is all me for not doing that

Damn! You are so cool! I dont like all that fuss at all. Just thinking about a wedding party is enough to demotivate me

I always found language to be very inadequate and deceptive tool of communication, its just the best form we have at the moment. I've been told that I can write very beautifully, its just not something I am interested in at all. Its confusing how different people can think differently about same thing. I myself find myself thinking differently depending on topics it is, but when recalling experience, you can recall the memories of how it felt to be there, but while describing it, its more of- sky was blue, grass was green XD I struggle with recalling even faces. I hold both grudges and gratitude very deeply, but while I can remember the person was, I cant remember who the person is

True, though some experiences in real time can become part of instincts. Like pavlov's condition therapy for example

I actually started right here in my thread plus a few guilds and threads connected to various games on Gaia that changed over time. The game communities have always been pretty good and generally older. Back in the day, it was Booty Grab (remember that?) plus a charity thread or two, usually run by someone I knew from the gaming community. Lake Kindred took over when BG died. Add a few contest and showcase threads and things rounded out. Threads, guilds and people come and go but there's always somewhere.

Still responsibility, obligation is a far cry from doing it because you truly want to. They feel they must or they're doing something wrong. Hence you feel guilt when you don't, as if you're doing something wrong.

Oh wedding parties and receptions--I have news for you on those. Most often, especially back in the day, the parents have more say than the person getting married. I had to fight to get what I did want, most was picked by my mother and she and I did NOT agree. I got enough though to make my wedding day a memorable one for people who came, even if I didn't know most of them (parent's friends and distant relatives on both sides accounted for 75% of the guests). I'm sure I got judged on my attire but I truly didn't care. I made the rest a bit unusual as well and lots of fun. I still get feedback from people to this day on how much they enjoyed it. That's what happens when you strip all pretensions from things, lol. The year I got married, we went to 8 other weddings. Of those other 8, only one made it. All were big, expensive affairs. Before that year, I had never been to another wedding. I sure have since. And every really big expensive wedding ended in a failed marriage (except 2 and one of the couples financed it themselves) while the more down to earth ones had a better chance of making it.

Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words, it can say what words never could. But different languages can express things that another language can't. I fell in love with American Sign Language for being so good at describing so many things spoken English could barely name.

If I know someone well, by name for many years, I won't forget that person's name. If it was for a year or so, I'll always remember the first name, but last names may fade after 50 years or so. I don't forget faces even of chance encounters if there was any kind of connection. If an experience was intense enough, I will remember it for life in full detail, even dreams. I once had a very intense dream of a place that was remarkable, painted it a full 8 years later and then to my shock saw it irl a year after I painted it. It was a premonition dream and I didn't know it. I will remember not just the dream scene for life, but the entire time in that region for life. It was back in the early 80s. It was part of an extended trip and had many stops along the way, some with other intense experiences for me so those are also etched in memory for life too. That's just one example; I can share many stories like it.

You're right in that people don't hear what you are saying in the way you are saying it. They're interpreting the meaning through the lense of everything they have going on so the meaning and subtext they're getting may have nothing to do with what you were saying. Yeah, it makes things "interesting" in a way I could so do without... emotion_facepalm

As for faces fading and other details; I have learned to my astonishment that this is the norm. My experiences of remembering are the exception. How people have continuity in their lives like this is a total mystery to me, yet they clearly do. Also what is remembered is heavily edited by the mind to fit an internal narrative and often is far from what happened. And changes whenever the desired narrative changes too. wtf? It's often 90% below the person's awareness unless that person is very manipulative. Then they will be aware they're doing it for a short time before they're sure it was always that way. My mother was and my sister is that kind of person.

Nope, that isn't instinct. It's a learning so deep it becomes reflex, a muscle memory or an autoresponse that bypasses conscious thought. However it can be etched deeply if it was traumatic enough that it can be passed onto future generations via epigenetics. And since it isn't true instinct, it can be unlearned.

Oh yeah, I remember that, though I mostly hung around in rally at those times. My first big break was zOmg and then Lake Kindred. Both made me extremely wealthy at the time. At first I didnt even have a lot to quest. I just wanted all equippable hair items and all equippable eyes, so like elemental hair, oculus magica, etc.

I agree with them, its the right thing to do, just because sometimes people would take advantage of you, does not mean that you should not do the right thing. Even if your enemy shows up at your door, you should feed him, I believe in all that and would like to do that............its just so annoying! I dont want to talk to strangers so much, so I would rather they move away quickly XD

Yeah, I get you, if I get married, I think my parents would make it a big expensive thing and I wont have much of say in it. Anyone whom they ever knew would be invited

I so want to learn sign language and you are absolutely right about different languages having words that just cant translate well at all. Its one of the biggest reasons why I want to learn about every language in the world, right behind wanting to read stories and listen to songs without them being translated and understanding them

I wish I had memory like yours. I've forgotten my own name once. And damn!! That dream is almost supernatural kind of thing O__O I dont remember mine at all upon waking up, with a few rare exceptions

Yeah! Plus to me it feels like I am never doing a good job explaining what I mean to say

Have you ever had a dream where you were a completely different person with different life and attitude, you just land into that person's skin running, doing things the way they always do and think how they think. I think our day to day life is like that too, we dont have any continuity in our lives, we just roll with it as thats normal. As you said, these things are heavily edited by our mind, I often wonder how much it is so

Hmm....as a human I dont think I have any instincts strong enough that I cant reason through them or unlearn them. That makes things a bit confusing for me

[glengrin]

Haji Demon

glengrin

Haji Demon

glengrin

Haji Demon

glengrin

There is much money to be made by taking up a lot of people's time with events; it means they spend more on the site and less in other places. So I expect each game you play will add more and more that will demand your time to play. Except Gaia.....

The Easter Event did start without announcement and it's yet another battle event, ho hum. The prizes are cute but when I came on and discovered it'd begun just a few hours after debut, everyone already had at least 580 hp and of course you enter with just 80 hp so I couldn't find a spot to get started. I gave up after a few days and will just buy the event prizes next year--they'll be dirt cheap by then. Happens every year. rolleyes

eek rofl That is extreme. But they know the cost of doing this and feel they get more benefit from it than it costs them I guess. The benefits are emotional for them.

That's what cons and live cosplay are for! Capes and armor. I've always dressed to please myself and even found a way to be comfortable during the few years I had to wear business suits for a job I had. I do dress for occasions, but function always comes first even then. Even at my own wedding way back when, lol.

All you really need to know to get started is how to use online field guides and apps and what they are. They will tell you the rest and if you have to look up the same things repeatedly cause you can't remember, so what? Google lense is a good place to start; it's free as are most things online. Cornell University has a bunch of different things to use like Merlin for calls and i-bird online for looking stuff up. There's more out there for insects, plants, animals, etc.

I suck with names, I just remember that one right now because a friend of mine brought it up a month ago, recommending it to me and I remembered the movie well. I should see where it's streaming at present. The Big Year. I saw it perhaps 8 years ago or so.

It wasn't so long ago that people believed, including scientists that animals mostly operated on instinct and humans on learning. In truth, all multicellular living things and even a few single cell ones (like slime mold and some fungus) are a mix of learning and instinct. But why are possum of the same species aggressive in the east coast and near the ocean on the west coast but totally peaceful here? Why do deer rarely dart out into traffic here but commonly do on the east coast? Why do squirrels in most places chew through wires in buildings but not here? The exact same species! Instinct doesn't account for that and learning only partly may. Another of nature's mysteries.

Yeah, which is so weird that events are the main reason I kept coming back to gaia. Its like sparing even a little bit on freebies is gonna kill them while they churn out new items every day. Even for events we are more likely to get recolors of old items these days

Ahh...I shall participate anyway when I have more time, but damn, I missed the announcement completely O_O

Its very much so..and my grandparents were even more extreme. I on other hand can just feel a bit guilty and let things go

That is too much effort for just special occasions, I would get one if it becomes daily life thing. What did you do for wedding? Us guys have it easy. I would generally whine about having to wear a tie, but for wedding I can do at least that much

If I ever have kids, I suspect that is what I will have to do, and I imagine the next gen would have it worse than me with remembering these things XD

I have few selected obscure ones that stick along with me, but other than that, I mix up names a hell lot

Usually its a bit of both yeah! Specially if the animal raises their young, but for different behaviors, its again, instincts come from experiences, the 2 groups faced different challenges on each side, ones whose instincts proved helpful in one environment likely just passed those down and we got 2 very different groups. Orcas are quite good example of this.......humans are very good example of this

I miss how fun events used to be. However they do still manage to do one good event a year and have at least some of the prizes be original items for at least one huge event, like Halloween or Christmas ones. I don't keep coming back to Gaia; I never left in the first place, lol. It's proven to be a pretty good place to meet people worth getting to know before they drift off again. A good percentage of people here I've come across in the areas I hang out in are fairly intelligent and thoughtful. And I don't get spammed with bots, misinformation posts, etc. It's interesting that even on Nextdoor with strict TOS the flooding of the stream with total irrelevant crap while thoughtful discussions often get taken down.

No, you didn't. They forgot to make one.

So avoiding guilt is a huge motivator for this I'm suspecting for your parents if they don't do this. Interesting.

Mind you I married well over 40 years ago, but my wedding dress was a clearance rack white prom dress I picked up for just $10 (the equivilant cost in today's dollars would be about $75 and the going cost of a wedding gown these days is somewhere around $5000 and back then about $750 or so by comparison), my shoes were white casual sandals that also were inexpensive and I'd had a long while, the veil a hand me down. I didn't wear heels, pantyhose (very much expected in those days) and only a little makeup; just a bit of eyeshadow and lipstick (that lasted maybe a half hour, not long enough for the wedding photos, lol). I've always been quite nearsighted and in those days there were no thin lenses so my glasses were very thick plastic lenses that darkened in sunlight. And my wedding was outdoors so the bride wore dark glasses, lol! My hair was long at the time and it's very curly. Of course there were no conditioners, dyes or hair spray used. My husband wore a traditional tux that he rented. Oh and my ears never were pierced so no earrings and no nail polish, mascara, eye liner nor foundation. I definitely broke all kinds of traditional wedding fashion that day. Yeah, just wearing a tie is nothing to complain about compared to what women go through.

You'd think with such a good linguistic history, fully literate with a huge vocabulary I wouldn't have problem with names. But I actually think conceptually and visually, not in words. They are an overlay. So I remember the experience and the concept complete with visuals but not the names--those fade. I use language as a bridge to try to share what is not linguistic.

..."instincts come from experiences"... That one gave me pause but then I realized that experience can alter genetics and epigenetics that then get passed down through the generations. Perhaps that is exactly what instincts are; learned lessons of previous generations through millions of years. Some of our instincts go back to the beginning of life. It's quite interesting how the line between learning and instincts are blurred. Remember instincts are inborn knowledge and reactions, not learned by the being using them.

I tried to quit various times, donated all my stuff away twice and thus I am so poor XD Honestly, even if an event is fun, I just dont have time for it these days...and wth...which parts of gaia have you been around at?

I am too sleepy to read properly it seems XD

Its not guilt for them, its kind of responsibility and right thing to do. Guilt is all me for not doing that

Damn! You are so cool! I dont like all that fuss at all. Just thinking about a wedding party is enough to demotivate me

I always found language to be very inadequate and deceptive tool of communication, its just the best form we have at the moment. I've been told that I can write very beautifully, its just not something I am interested in at all. Its confusing how different people can think differently about same thing. I myself find myself thinking differently depending on topics it is, but when recalling experience, you can recall the memories of how it felt to be there, but while describing it, its more of- sky was blue, grass was green XD I struggle with recalling even faces. I hold both grudges and gratitude very deeply, but while I can remember the person was, I cant remember who the person is

True, though some experiences in real time can become part of instincts. Like pavlov's condition therapy for example

I actually started right here in my thread plus a few guilds and threads connected to various games on Gaia that changed over time. The game communities have always been pretty good and generally older. Back in the day, it was Booty Grab (remember that?) plus a charity thread or two, usually run by someone I knew from the gaming community. Lake Kindred took over when BG died. Add a few contest and showcase threads and things rounded out. Threads, guilds and people come and go but there's always somewhere.

Still responsibility, obligation is a far cry from doing it because you truly want to. They feel they must or they're doing something wrong. Hence you feel guilt when you don't, as if you're doing something wrong.

Oh wedding parties and receptions--I have news for you on those. Most often, especially back in the day, the parents have more say than the person getting married. I had to fight to get what I did want, most was picked by my mother and she and I did NOT agree. I got enough though to make my wedding day a memorable one for people who came, even if I didn't know most of them (parent's friends and distant relatives on both sides accounted for 75% of the guests). I'm sure I got judged on my attire but I truly didn't care. I made the rest a bit unusual as well and lots of fun. I still get feedback from people to this day on how much they enjoyed it. That's what happens when you strip all pretensions from things, lol. The year I got married, we went to 8 other weddings. Of those other 8, only one made it. All were big, expensive affairs. Before that year, I had never been to another wedding. I sure have since. And every really big expensive wedding ended in a failed marriage (except 2 and one of the couples financed it themselves) while the more down to earth ones had a better chance of making it.

Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words, it can say what words never could. But different languages can express things that another language can't. I fell in love with American Sign Language for being so good at describing so many things spoken English could barely name.

If I know someone well, by name for many years, I won't forget that person's name. If it was for a year or so, I'll always remember the first name, but last names may fade after 50 years or so. I don't forget faces even of chance encounters if there was any kind of connection. If an experience was intense enough, I will remember it for life in full detail, even dreams. I once had a very intense dream of a place that was remarkable, painted it a full 8 years later and then to my shock saw it irl a year after I painted it. It was a premonition dream and I didn't know it. I will remember not just the dream scene for life, but the entire time in that region for life. It was back in the early 80s. It was part of an extended trip and had many stops along the way, some with other intense experiences for me so those are also etched in memory for life too. That's just one example; I can share many stories like it.

You're right in that people don't hear what you are saying in the way you are saying it. They're interpreting the meaning through the lense of everything they have going on so the meaning and subtext they're getting may have nothing to do with what you were saying. Yeah, it makes things "interesting" in a way I could so do without... emotion_facepalm

As for faces fading and other details; I have learned to my astonishment that this is the norm. My experiences of remembering are the exception. How people have continuity in their lives like this is a total mystery to me, yet they clearly do. Also what is remembered is heavily edited by the mind to fit an internal narrative and often is far from what happened. And changes whenever the desired narrative changes too. wtf? It's often 90% below the person's awareness unless that person is very manipulative. Then they will be aware they're doing it for a short time before they're sure it was always that way. My mother was and my sister is that kind of person.

Nope, that isn't instinct. It's a learning so deep it becomes reflex, a muscle memory or an autoresponse that bypasses conscious thought. However it can be etched deeply if it was traumatic enough that it can be passed onto future generations via epigenetics. And since it isn't true instinct, it can be unlearned.

Oh yeah, I remember that, though I mostly hung around in rally at those times. My first big break was zOmg and then Lake Kindred. Both made me extremely wealthy at the time. At first I didnt even have a lot to quest. I just wanted all equippable hair items and all equippable eyes, so like elemental hair, oculus magica, etc.

I agree with them, its the right thing to do, just because sometimes people would take advantage of you, does not mean that you should not do the right thing. Even if your enemy shows up at your door, you should feed him, I believe in all that and would like to do that............its just so annoying! I dont want to talk to strangers so much, so I would rather they move away quickly XD

Yeah, I get you, if I get married, I think my parents would make it a big expensive thing and I wont have much of say in it. Anyone whom they ever knew would be invited

I so want to learn sign language and you are absolutely right about different languages having words that just cant translate well at all. Its one of the biggest reasons why I want to learn about every language in the world, right behind wanting to read stories and listen to songs without them being translated and understanding them

I wish I had memory like yours. I've forgotten my own name once. And damn!! That dream is almost supernatural kind of thing O__O I dont remember mine at all upon waking up, with a few rare exceptions

Yeah! Plus to me it feels like I am never doing a good job explaining what I mean to say

Have you ever had a dream where you were a completely different person with different life and attitude, you just land into that person's skin running, doing things the way they always do and think how they think. I think our day to day life is like that too, we dont have any continuity in our lives, we just roll with it as thats normal. As you said, these things are heavily edited by our mind, I often wonder how much it is so

Hmm....as a human I dont think I have any instincts strong enough that I cant reason through them or unlearn them. That makes things a bit confusing for me

Oh yeah, back in the day zOmg had as big and vibrant community as any ever seen on Gaia, encouraged by people needing to play in teams. What was the draw in Rally? As far as I could tell, it was much the same as wandering towns and having insanely inane talks with strangers, lol. OK, that was and is quite the ambition, given that the majority of items out there have either or both hair and eye poses. Yep, you do need to earn that plat to do so.

I always do what I feel is the right thing. But I don't do it out of obligation but rather because I genuinely want to, no threat of guilt needed. And I decide what is right; it is not an expectation imposed. Your family feeding anyone who drops by is a family tradition though and likely one none of you resents doing. If you ever feel put upon or resentful, that's when you know it's an obligation and not giving from the heart.

Oh yeah, you have that right. I think a child's wedding is a bigger deal for parents and grandparents than it is for the person getting married. In such cases, if you succeed in getting your tastes and preferences in the mix somewhere is a huge win.

I'd love to do all of that too. However being able to draw and paint also goes a long ways to bridging the language gap sometimes, especially with original ideas. I'm amazed though that even languages with little English in the mix can be understood because modern idioms are so similar or even exact language to language. There are also many languages that have enough common history and base with English that they can be half understood at the start and so fairly quickly learned, like many Nordic languages. It's kind of fascinating.

I think that's why people journal, blog or otherwise find a way to record thoughts and memories; they help with remembering and continuity, so memories shifted, changed or faded can be recalled. Plus the very act of recording helps to cross reference memories in the brain so they are not so easily forgotten. So double win and something for you to consider. Even with my unusual memory, I find stuff done when I was under 20 to be useful to recall memories in more detail, even stuff half forgotten and stuff never forgotten but reliving precious memories is it's own reward, triggered by those.

Premonition and I are old friends.... I have had a few dream ones; those are always long term ones. But I have had thousands of smaller waking ones in many forms. So of course I had a great interest in physics, the nature of time and have had periods considering nonlinear time and free will; both exist but how? I don't consider abilities sensing completely in this universe supernatural, like the ability to sense time out of order or life energy and the energy it contains.

There is an art to that, one I am still learning. Stating fact is never enough; the layers under it are needed from emotional, to historical, how you got there. What is obvious to me is rarely to another person and that may be the case for you too. Plus people hear and see through the filter of their bias and expectations.

Yes, I have had dreams like that; I do tend to remember those. Is that how it is for most people in their waking lives? I'm going to have to explore that idea for a time I think.

Pay attention to those vivid dreams you do remember; if they don't fade it means they contain important information. Nightmares count too; it's your subconscious trying to get you to see something. Too bad they're so rarely literal.

While I remember a few dreams nightly, only a tiny portion of those are remembered for more than a few hours and some for a few days. Maybe 5% remain vivid for years or life. Most dreams are pretty inconsequential.

Here are two common examples; the flight/fight response, done before thinking is engaged, and the startle reflex. Think of common responses newborn have before any learning has taken place; those behaviors are inborn, instinctual. Awareness, learning and experience modify instinctual responses of course.

Speaking of behaviors, spring avian aggression goes on. The scrub jays are done, and now mockingbirds, an even more aggressive species are nesting on my property and they drove the scrub jays away. On our walk in the nature preserve we had to observe most birds at a distance because redwing blackbirds had nests throughout the area along the paths in the reeds and wild mustard and they were driving away everything except a tiny very nonagressive bird called a killdeer. We watched them drive away much larger crows, turkey vultures, great egrets and even hawks; usually males teaming up to do so against birds so much larger than they are. One tried to convince people to leave without success. He landed in a tree right in front of us at eye level and proceeded to lecture us in full song, while other males swooped us (no dive bombing though). We just stopped and my husband took dozens of pictures of him while he was doing this, lmao. This went on while he tried to look threatening until another guy came down the path from the other direction. The bird flew off frustrated and disgusted at oblivious humans. rofl Then all the males ignored us after that and we saw quite a few females out and about. I guess the flock felt it was safe enough.