Du5t1n

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Posts posted by Du5t1n

  13. Posted · Edited by Du5t1n (see edit history)

    What's the most important thing to you right now?

    Very hard question... I've thought on it a bit and still unable to answer any better than saying something like friends/family/my cat. All physical belonging are pretty dispensable compared to anything else.  If I am limited to picking a material item then I'd likely say my laptop as it allows me to connect with online friends such as you Saha. :D

    Obligatory small-talk favourite colour question (o;

    I'm partially colorblind so I see a few less colors or can differentiate from them less... but I like blues a lot. I'd say this blue is my favorite. I'm going to paint my room in my attic that I'm building this color: 

    Do you still love me like I do you ;-;

    This is my 11111th post

    More than you could imagine. :D I remember when you first showed up in the chat years and years ago. Nevar forget.

    What's your take on this zeldanig person? Do you agree that he is, in fact, a menace?

    I don't think he's necessarily a menace or came just to cause trouble.  I think when questioned about his name he became obtuse which only aided in escalating the issue.  I can understand both sides of the controversy with his name.  I'm insanely anti-censorship though.  What I WISHED would have happened would be something like him being approached and explained why his name might bother people and him responding with an understanding that while that wasn't his purpose that by changing his name everyone could move on happier.  Since that wasn't the case things got messy.  I'm not saying him not wanting to change his name was wrong, but that it certainly did make things more difficult.  I think he then became obtuse and difficultly passive agressive which Saha reacted strongly too. I haven't seen what he's done since then.  Anyone that remembers me from the earlier days here knows that I'd fight like hell to defend free speech here even if offensive.  I still think that's important.  While free speech should be allowed in my opinion, I don't think that necessarily means it's a <i>good idea</i> to always exercise it to the fullest. In short, freedom of speech is important but just try not to be an asshole because that just makes the world shitty for all of us...

    You created Hnet right? Why did you make it?

     

    I really liked Zelda and saw that a lot of other people liked Zelda too.  I found the #zelda chatroom and a lot of people started going there and I discovered the hyrule.net domain was available.  I made the site and put up a forum.  It really became a home for me and over the years I literally made hundreds of friends and met people from all around the world from all walks of life.  Rich, poor, straight, gay, Christian, atheist, people with crazy fetishes, old people, young people, children, teens, very strange people, people with anger issues, drug problems, depression, etc. Most of the in depth relationships occurred on chat. I loved everyone I met.  It kind of ruined me for in real life interactions though because I always felt people more 'real' online and more 'themselves'.  When interacting online people were less afraid to show their true colors and be vulnerable with sharing themselves.  Many people told me things that I don't think they would in person due to fear of rejection / repurcussions.  I feel I really got to know a lot of people in real true ways.  I found out things about many people still here today.  I love them for it because they shared a bit of themselves with me.  I got to hear people's stories and it provided me with a great deal of empathy for humans and all the troubles everyone has in life.  I found out that everybody suffers, everybody wants to love, and everybody is fucked up in one to many ways.  We all are trying in our own way too.  I met many assholes / trolls and when I got to personally know many of them I got to see the real person behind the troll mask and saw wonderful people.  I will forever cherish those relationships and getting to know those people.  I find it hard to hate anyone even if they act like terrible people because I see what's beneath all of that through my past experiences with others like them.

     

    You can kind of say that I was selfish... I made hyrule.net because I couldn't find the community that _I_ wanted to be a part of so I made my own community.  It grew well beyond me of course and around the time I went off to college I got busy with non-internet things, made friends offline, and drifted away from it because I felt like internet relationships were less real to me than in-person ones.  I later realized that wasn't actually the case.  They weren't less real, just different.  I really liked the in person relationships though as there's something special about seeing the person you're interacting with, laughing together, exploring the world, and building experiences in person.  But that doesn't make the online interactions any less real.  I kind of feel like I've met a balance now in life having had more of both types of relationships and interactions.  Until college the majority of my friendships were online-based so I felt I had missed out on that aspect of life for a while.  I really cherish this place now though and hope to never leave it again and hope it continues on indefinitely.  I absolutely love that I was able to create a place / community that allowed others to become friends.  I kind of feel like that's my greatest accomplishment in life: creating a place for friendships to be made... if I die having done that I feel like I did something worthwhile for sure...

    What is your favorite dance move.

    I don't know much about dancing and I can't really dance... I mean I guess I can fake basic dancing like if I was at prom or something but nothing fancy.  I like cats so if a cat was dancing I'd probably enjoy it.

    I know that you and I don't have a relationship, but do you want to hang out IRL??

    I saw that you want to go on adventures

    (I live in north Texas)

    That might could be cool. :D Tell me more about yourself! I love exploring.  I also see you like Adventure Time!!!! I love it...

     

    I've had proposals to hang out before IRL in the past but didn't end up taking people up on it mostly because I was like 20 and it was a 12-13yo boys wanting to hang out and I didn't want to get arrested... Granted we'd still probably have had fun playing games or hiking or something but older guys meeting up with kids makes people assume it's something shady going on which is a darn shame for everyone involved.  I understand the issues with it, especially with strangers online but I do feel a little sad for kids these days at least for people that aren't so much strangers because adults can't really even talk to kids without people questioning their motives.  Kids really need adult relationships & role models and parents are busier than ever to spend time with their kids.

    dustin can i be you please

    I'd let you if I could! I'd love to be you! Also, I miss you.

    pheonix561 and Sahaqiel like this

  14. Posted · Edited by Du5t1n (see edit history)

    Dustiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin.

     

     

    Anything? What is the true key to understanding women?

    Understand that they grew up with different lives from you.  Much of the way children are raised, their experiences, and how they are treated is based on their gender.  We gendertype people strongly.  Much like it not being "manly" in our culture for a boy to cry or express his feelings, it is not "womanly" for a girl to not play her role as well.  This unfortunate aspect of our culture greatly shapes us, especially women as expectations can be quite high.  They are expected to maintain physical aspects (makeup, shaving armpits & legs, etc), see negative role models in movies (only 30% of movie roles are female, only 11% are protagonists; most female roles are negative stereotypes) which can result in statistically higher likelihood of low self esteem (not feeling good enough, needing more re-assurance, overly worrying about appearances, if they are loved, etc).  This is NOT a natural aspect of their gender.  Women are not inherently this way nor are all women still this way.  There are physiological differences between men and women of course, both body and mind, but they are not binary nor always to the extent we stereotype.  It is a trend that is sadly backed by statistics and is seen in our stereotypes of females. This is a sad side effect of our broken culture, which has very much been tampered with by media, marketing, and billion dollar corporations for cold hard profits.  Here's an example of how culture can change the way people think and feel about their own bodies: For hundreds of millions of years it was normal for females to have body hair.  Then corporations selling men's facial razors realized they could make a killing if they could more than double their market by selling to females. Corporations through marketing determined that if they could convince people that shaving body hair was attractive then they would be fucking rich -- but they didn't stop there.  They realized that a much more powerful motivator than becoming more attractive was that if they made it so not shaving would be seen as neglectful or disgusting, they would have a captive market that could not be swayed.  They succeeded beyond their wildest dreams in that they utterly changed the culture of expectations in less than 65 years so that body hair on females went from 100% normal to actually disgusted males. Things got even better for the shaving industry.  This expectation expanded to even other females.  It was not seen as shameful to not shave oneself and you would be judged harshly if you did not shave. Natural was no longer an acceptable state for the female body if she did not want to become an outcast by both males AND other females.  Now all females must buy razors and other products to maintain their ability to be not only attractive but prevent being seen as a disgusting animal.  In short, who they are naturally is not only no longer attractive or sexy but GROSS.  They require purchasing products and performing tedious acts as a bare minimum just to fit in.  This is an obvious example of how culture (and false culture such as marketing) can completely change and set expectations and shape the way someone thinks and acts.  This also shows how small differences in culture can shape the way we think beneath the veil of the mind.  Us men can't understand how this shapes the way we see our bodies, minds, or thoughts.  But it does show us that our lives are indeed different.  And that difference is just one of many so it takes times and communication to understand each other.

     

    So in short, what is the true key to understanding women? I think it's the same as understanding any human:  We all experience life from our own bubble of existence.  We all want to love.  We all want to be loved. None of us wants to be alone.  We all pretend that's not the case though as none of us want to be seen as vulnerable.  But in the end we are all vulnerable.  We all have secrets.  We all have dirty thoughts.  We all anger.  We are all horny and want to fuck someone.  We all want to trust and be trusted but often fear the pain that may come if it all fails.  We all have different desires and needs though on top of that.  And we all have experienced lives through different viewpoints and experiences.  Communication is the only way to truly understand women or ANYONE.  Open, honest, talking.  Don't lie to anyone and don't try to mislead.  Be a simple kind of man. Straight forward, no bullshit.  Be considerate to how your actions impact others and practice empathy.  Ask questions, explain, try to be clear. We are all equal.  All humans. Male, female, in between, trans, gay, straight, taco maker, doctor, slave, janitor, teacher, furry. Just different.  Anger is often described as one's lack of ability to understand or control a situation.  That frustration when you are angry at someone because they don't understand you or where you are coming from for instance.  Listen and try to connect.  Try to understand where others are coming from and try to connect.  The biggest problem in communicating is understanding due to lack of common ground.  As women live different lives from us men sometimes we struggle to find common ground to connect with.  If you communicate, get to know each other, listen, and be patient, you will go far.  Do this with anyone you care about, both male and female, and you'll go far.

     

    There is no shortcut to understanding women or any other humans.  But it's possible.  Just keep at it because we all have one thing in common, both male, female, and everything in between:  we all some day will die. Every member of this site will die some day.  We all want to find happiness before that happens. That's one bit of common ground at least.

     

    A note on empathy: Humans have what are called mirror neurons.  When you 'put yourself in someone elses shoes' for example, your brain fires neurons in the same way that it would be active if that were actually happening to you.  This is how you feel someone else's pain -- it's literal.  Your brain literally emulates what others feel when you experience empathy.  Most people are excellent at naturally empathizing with others.  If you see someone crying and it makes you sad, others smiling and laughing making you happy and smile, etc.  Unfortunately we learn growing up that this can hurt us or keep us from getting what we want (sadness seeing others bullied, feeling others pain when we steal from them because we want that cookie, etc) so we shut off this instinct and try to block it so we won't get hurt and so we can get the things we want without the negative side effect.  We see those around us hurting or getting in our way so we ignore it and don't think about it and numb those feelings.  This can make it additionally difficult to relate to others and empathize.  There is a lot of research done into studying the psychological aspects of politicians and many higher ranking officials and business people.  Frighteningly many seem to have severe lack of empathy, often to the level of being diagnostically psychopaths.  It wasn't that these positions made them this way though.  It was that being a psychopath provided the traits that worked well in getting them into the position they are in.  For example a cut-throat politician that lies, cheats, and steals can cheat his way to the top, while the honest guy gets screwed in the process.  Be human.  Humans are supposed to feel negative things sometimes.  Pain is normal.  Sadness is normal.  It's only a problem when the scales are tipped and we don't feel those things or it's all we feel.  Balance is important.  We are complicated creatures, but also very much still animals.

     

    So that is kind of a weird AMA answer... I'm sleep-deprived and it's late so I may be being a bit 'weird'. :)

  16. Posted · Edited by Du5t1n (see edit history)

    Feeling lucky?

     I wasn't until you came along.

     

     

     

    Of the few years that you have been away from Hyrule.net, what were you up to? Anything exciting?

    Graduated college (Computer Engineering), friends came and went, got a good job & created a multi-million dollar piece of software (working for a company of course so I only got a small fraction of that pie) at an amazingly fun company (for a while I described it to friends as like the hyrule.net chat; yeah, it's was intense and crazy!), went on work trips around the country, went to SXSW, met famous tech people such as people from Google, Dropbox.com, Static.com, hung out with some guys that host ebay.com, etc.  Now I work from home a lot, got a house & put in security cameras all around it to keep shady people away, partook of grass in vast quantities for a while, made a weather website http://precipitationstation.com/ , explored around walking 30+ miles in search of a cave -- when my friend and I were just about to give up we sat down to rest and saw something weird in the distance: the cave! As soon as we exited the cave I encountered a rock slide then immediately upset a bee nest and got stung and ran for my life ... I spent much of my younger years hanging out mostly on Hyrule.net so I kind of binged in experiencing the "real" world.  After sampling both, I feel that I got to know people in a 'real' way more online as people are more free to be themselves.  I greatly enjoyed those special moments when I really got to know people really well in person as well though.  I wish I could take my online relationships and port them into real life hanging out.  Going on adventures is super fun.  I discovered I enjoy hiking around exploring, much like Link.  I enjoy it most friend friends though.  Currently none of my IRL friends enjoy outdoors though unfortunately which is a shame. I need to find some people that like that stuff since Spring is almost here! :)  So yeah, nothing too extravagant, at least to me. Living the dream I suppose.

    pheonix561, Sahaqiel and Michael like this

  19. Posted

    There are a lot of new faces.  I've been on the chat a lot more. Less on the forum but some.  Hyrule has always had a place in my heart and and also some in the x-rated hidden corners of my mind.  Some of you know what I'm talking about.  Good times...

    Sayubie likes this

  21. Posted · Edited by Du5t1n (see edit history)

    wut wut in the butt.

     

    Zeldanig, you may not have intended to be offensive with your name but some people obviously are going to take offense.  It would be pretty cool if "nigger" or similarities were not associated with the negativity and hate that came to be associated with them.  Sadly we do not live in this world because assholes like to use words to convey an idea of hatred and spreading of pain.  The word isn't the problem, it's the ideas that have been tied to them.  This is very unfortunate but that is our inheritence from our shitty forefathers.  We need to keep that in mind with what we do now as we will be leaving things for the young people of the future such as yourself and your kids some day.  Be cool.  Please just relax and pick another cool name that you feel at home with. Even if you disagree with Saha I hope you can see that he has good intentions and really cares about this place and is trying to do his best to keep this a good place.

     

    Keep Calm and Carry On

    pheonix561, Cascade, Sahaqiel and 4 others like this

  25. Posted · Edited by Du5t1n (see edit history)

    That's a really good point Teto. We really have placed quite a lot of "higher level" morals, ethics, rules, culture, etc on top of our natural ways.  I don't have much knowledge in the area of modern day sociology compared to how we evolved.  I do have expertise in the similar situation with regards to food and it's well known scientifically that our modern food (well here in America at least where it is anything but food) is quite literally killing.  We evolved for over 10 million years with a diet that was completely different from what we eat now, resulting in type obesity, 2 diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, hardening of the arteries, depression, etc.  We KNOW it's the food as we can control for that variable and when modern humans are fed a paleolithic diet all of that improves and even goes away*.  I could certainly see that our mental health could be directly tied to all that we've burdened ourselves with in trying to conform to certain standards that push us against our natural ways.

     

     

    * If anyone is interested in learning about how our diet is killing us and how much of current young people will have these diseases by the time they are 30, I can share what I know on that in another thread.