very sorry to hear about that mall shooting, i've been in the desert outside san diego all weekend.

also as far as the practices i've been speaking of, in my experience they've only made me more aware of all the idiosyncracies that i think of as myself, and so have made my interactions with others more intricate and interesting, but it is good to be reminded of the importance of our weird and cool differences. something i'm just starting to focus on is that, sure everyone wants love, acceptance, safety etc., but each person, animal, whatever hopes to receive a unique response based on the wholly new experience of any two beings meeting. even if a gave the friendliest smile with the nicest "good morning!" to everyone i walked by on the way to my bus this morning, it wouldn't mean anything if i wasn't feeling and seeing that, the first guy was limping a bit and seemed to have aged roughly but appeared to be in a good mood and was dressed cool, and the little asian woman on the bus was switching between a concerned expression of urgency and a warm, vulnerable smile and made me feel really glad and interested. part of being me, someone who has very strange thoughts and ideas and has never existed before and so on though is that i'm constantly changing and beign changed by society and my experiences and other people, but that doesn't mean i am ONLY the product of my experiences. okay that's my rant! this one maybe doesn't have massive grammatical errors, usually i proofread stuff but i haven't really for this thread