Month: February 2024

Discovery

February 21st, 2024

I discovered something today.

When I was a kid, my mother watched and read romance stuff. Not my thing, but whatever. Gone With the Wind was one of the movies. The Thorn Birds was another.

Interesting story about that, and I just learned this – a character in the Thorn Birds had a very similar name to my mother. I don’t and can’t know if that had anything to do with her obsession, because she is no longer with us, but either way, I can’t help but smile. I don’t even know why — I hated those movies as a kid, and would roll my eyes and go upstairs to get lost in some fantasy book or textbook. I couldn’t understand the draw.

I dunno. just a random thing.
Voices

February 21st, 2024

How many voices to most people have in their mind?

I’m not talking about people with schizophrenia or whatever other mental health issues can cause you to hear voices and such. That’s a different situation than, and I hate to use this word, “normal” people.

At times in my life, and even currently, I’ve definitely had more than one. Different facets of my personality that have input as to what is going on in my life, and how I should handle it. I suppose that could just be me arguing with myself, but it seems that the different voice has its own outlook, priorities, etc. And, it could be that this is just a perception thing. I see it as different voices, because I make a distinction between the parts of me that have different needs or wants for whatever reason, and other people just see it as arguing with themselves.

Either way, I am truly curious about this. Do most people in the world have an inner monologue or an inner dialogue? If the latter, what does this dialogue sound like, who wins whichever argument, and is this a constant state of affairs for them?
RTotD – 2/21/24

February 21st, 2024

I wish it were possible to just absorb knowledge from books like osmosis. Put a book under my pillow at night, and wake up with all that knowledge!
RTotD – 2/20/24

February 20th, 2024

I have seriously considered what it would be like to kill something other than a bug. I’m fine with something that’s already dead. But to actually be the thing that extinguishes that life? I wonder what that feels like.
RTotD – 2/19/24

February 19th, 2024

“Another sleepless night alone, and I can’t do this on my own. I’m reaching out to touch the one just like me. No one seems to hear my voice, it echoes across the void, shattering the noise.

Bring it on, this is a chance for redemption, you don’t have to question whether we’re wrong or if we’re right. (whether we’re wrong or if we’re right)

I’ve come too far to back down now, gotta finish what I started. It’s not over, no, it’s not over.”

-Straight Line Stitch
Law breakers

February 18th, 2024

Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?

In short, yeah, probably. But I have also intentionally broken the law.

I have to wonder the goal of this question is, and the assumptions behind it. Are we assuming that any law is inherently good? If so, that’s a shit assumption in my opinion. Are we also assuming that breaking a law means that someone is a bad person, hence the caveat of “unintentionally”, to preserve someone’s sense of being good? If so, this is another bad assumption.

Everything in life, but especially breaking a rule, is subject to interpretation, critical review, and circumstance.
Truth is contextual?

February 18th, 2024

I read something a few minutes ago in a book that said that “…truth is contextual, and changeable…”

In thinking about this, I agree, to a point. In some respects, especially when it comes to intent or motivation, yes, truth can be contextual. I had an argument not too long ago based on that idea. But I also think that a different, truth, a higher truth, if you will, exists. I don’t know if this means stripping away the complications of emotion-biased perception, or if it entails a level of awareness that biological beings do not and cannot possess. But I do believe that it exists.

I think I will let this simmer a bit, and come back to it…
No one ever died from an emotion

February 18th, 2024

I heard this on a Huberman podcast that I was listening to the other night.

I was thinking about it, and it really is true. Emotions don’t kill you directly, at least as far as I’m aware. In extreme cases, the reaction to emotions can be actions that are harmful, but the emotion itself didn’t do a damn thing to cause that harm. I know first-hand that it can feel in that moment that an emotion is going to kill you – but it can’t.

This sparks a mountain of other questions. What is an emotion, biochemically speaking? Do emotions arise from the body or the mind? What is the mind, and how does it differ from the brain, or is there actually a difference? What is the connection between emotions, the mind and the body? I mean, they do all have to be connected somehow, because they certainly influence one another, so what exactly is that relationship? And, thinking about this, depending on the nature of that relationship, can an emotion actually kill you?

I have another research project, it seems, and I have a feeling it will be related to the one I’ve got queued up, which has to do with neurobiology. I got a couple of case study books recently that were recommended in a blog by a neurobiologist from Stanford. I also found a couple of open-source textbooks from the University of Michigan. I finally finished a big project at work, and now have the time to get started on that.

I seriously wish I could just be a full-time student and get paid for it and not have to work a job to pay bills. Unfortunately, self-enrichment isn’t something that people are willing to pay you to do unless it can be useful for them.
RTotD – 2/18/24

February 18th, 2024

I can’t help but wonder if I can really do this…

Fuck it. What’s the worst that could happen? I fail? Won’t be the first time.
RTotD – 2/17/24

February 17th, 2024

I want to be able to remember all of my dreams in great detail.