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    Blog Posts by Paul Smetana

    • Adrenalin Rush

      By Paul Smetana | Healthy Living – Wed, Oct 10, 2012 8:45 PM EDT

      Adrenalin RushAdrenalin Rush

      There are some naturally occurring drugs, that our bodies make, which are like Cocaine. They are addictive, short lived and immensely satisfying.

      Lots of things activate the production of these Cocaine like substances. Fear will do it. Threat, uncertainty, pain and suffering. We need our adrenalin rush to help us cope and overcome, recover and live on. It's part of the fight and flight response.

      But Adrenalin can be addictive. I don't know if we are hooked on the chemical or the profound sense of well-being, they produce. But I do know that we humans, are terrific at getting what we want.

      When we get an adrenalin hit, we somehow remember what happened to make the adrenalin flood our bodies, and we practice finding ways to replicate that event, so as to get that bit of high.

      To scratch the itch, we invite into our lives, some danger, some pain, and a variety of fearful situations. And some of that dangerousness, can be induced very effectively and

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    • Inert Education

      By Paul Smetana | Love + Sex – Wed, Oct 10, 2012 12:32 AM EDT

      Inert EducationInert Education

      This is a rant about Education. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for it, but my question is who uses it, and what is it being used for?

      Funny thing to ask I suppose, but how many people in our Western civilised world recognises the privilege we have been given. All of us go to at least 2 or more centres of learning.

      Primary school, high school, and higher education, give us so much access to knowledge. And tragically, so much of all that we learned is consigned to the back waters of our memories, never to be seen again.

      And when education IS used, some of it's use is of a dubious nature. Qualification for career is big, really education's biggest use. And for that, you get a job, a spouse, kids and a car. Was that it?

      Was education designed just to pump up affluence? When will we use education to make the spirit of human existence free. And who currently among us, uses education as a leverage in the drive towards the fresh air of freedom, happiness and

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    • Bloke Culture

      By Paul Smetana | Love + Sex – Tue, Oct 2, 2012 9:56 PM EDT

      Bloke CultureBloke Culture

      That's what we have in Australia. At every sports event, these creatures of beer and dumbness come out with their tough, hard drink, hard play roughness. People get hurt, women gets badly treated, fights break out, swearing rises faster than prices at a supermarket, and men everywhere, yet again, cop it.

      Gone from view is the other man. The gentle and kind, sensitive new age men. Replaced by the modern day Neanderthal in a rugby top, and three day unshaven beard. It's no wonder that women huddle together in groupings to become more supportive of each other.

      There is an almost spontaneous getting together of women for everything from consciousness raising, tapestry making, African drumming, or just to natter over coffee. And I miss not being invited. Being a man seems to invalidate my membership into warmth, kindness, and happiness.

      Men generally get very little of this. The blokes have their drinking holes, football, drunken camaraderie, some mindless

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    • Memories I Remember Seeing

      By Paul Smetana | Healthy Living – Sat, Jul 21, 2012 1:31 AM EDT

      Memories: "I remember seeing"

      The other day I drank a veggie juice that at first tasted like there was apple and pear in it. About half way down the glass, it started to taste like tomato and celery, and stayed that way, mainly because I was making tomato and celery. So what's that got to do with anything?

      Well, why did it taste like pears and apples, when there was none? I made it from scratch, and the machine was scrubbed clean, so no residues were left behind to give that flavour.

      Then it dawned on me. I'd been having a lot of pear and apple in my juices, and I suspected something new; that I was tasting from memory, rather than tasting what was actually there!

      About half way down the glass, and I started to build a new memory of what I was tasting, and so started to really taste just tomato and celery.

      And then it hit me. Is perception a memory thing? Is what we can see, hear, feel, a build up of recent and long term memories. Do we actually perceive what we

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