What would you do if you lost all your possessions?
Simple. Start over, and focus on what’s actually important, which does not include the material bullshit.
Category: Random
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Wow. Came across a video…. here.
I have issues with Neil deGrasse Tyson because he demoted Pluto, but the man is amazing intellectually, without a doubt.
This is… insane. Light has no clock, no age. I just…. I can’t even process this right now, being almost midnight, but I have to get into this more. Einstein was right, and in a way that corresponds to the absolute core of how the universe operates. How does this impact things that I’ve been thinking about? What might this mean for life in general? What are the implications? The faster that you move, the less time exists for you. What!? The existence and impact of time is based on a condition.
My mind is reeling, I can’t write right now, I need to process.
Have a great night!
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What’s a topic or issue about which you’ve changed your mind?
So many things to choose from here. Beer, steak, education, politics, medicine, God. Viewpoints evolve through life experiences, proper research, and intelligent discourse. It’s a natural and necessary thing for growth.
Simple example – I hated steak as a kid. My mother always cooked steak for herself, my sister, and me well done, and it tasted horrible, and was difficult to chew. My father ate his steak rare, and I could not stomach that. The sight of the blood (which isn’t actually blood) on the plate made me nauseous. It didn’t help that he would make a mooing sound when poking it with a fork. lol Now, give me a big, medium rare, properly seasoned steak, and I’m a happy camper!
Complex example – I was raised as a devout Catholic. I had real, almost unquestionable faith in God. For various reasons, I wound up questioning that faith, and began reading all about different religions. I settled at the time on the idea that whatever you believed would be your truth and reality in life and after. I even went so far as to take a comparative theology elective in college. From there, I became an atheist, then an agnostic, and now I am again questioning existence in general, not really sure what to (or not to) believe.
I think that we have to understand that our views on pretty much any topic can, and perhaps should, evolve. I mean, if you held the same views on life that you did when you were 16, how much have you really grown as a person? And is it good to hold beliefs that can’t be challenged, or modified by the introduction of new information? That may be something I have to delve deeper into in a different post… stay tuned!
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Random memory time!
When I was in college, I had to write a research paper, the subject matter had to be something from the 60s. It was the final paper for the class and would account for a ridiculous portion of the final grade. The professor was extremely conservative, and didn’t appreciate an outspoken, pierced, tattooed chick with a purple mohawk in her very distinguished honors English 101 class. Let’s just say we would butt heads often. So, being the sarcastic, somewhat vindictive rebel that I was, I decided to fuck with her and write a kick ass paper on how the use of LSD became popular in that timeframe and imagined the mental pain it would cause her to have to give me an A on the paper and in the class all because of a paper about illicit drug use.
I started researching. The main topic was going to be Timothy Leary, his impressive education and career, and the fact that he would encourage people to do acid. However, my research took a turn in a whole different direction when I came across something about classified CIA experiments with LSD. (They were declassified in the early 2000s) I dug into it, and oh my, the things I found!
During the project code named MK-Ultra, the goal was to find an effective method of mind control or a type of truth serum. Initial efforts focused on LSD, and included sometimes unwitting subjects from both the US and Canada. The “research” also employed other hallucinogens, as well as shock therapy, and various forms of torture. They expanded to include some crazy shit with barbiturates and amphetamines administered back to back in an effort to produce an uninhibited state where the subject would just answer questions truthfully. They also would tape therapy sessions, give the subject LSD, then put them in a sensory deprivation tank or solitary confinement and play back the most horrible moments from the taped therapy on a loop, just to see how that would impact the person. Seriously sick shit – several people died as a result of this fucking insane quest for mind control.
I wound up writing a killer, scathing research paper about this project. And yes, I got an A, albeit with some disparaging comments from the professor about the opinions insinuated in the paper.
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Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.
Moving around so much as a kid basically made it so that I was almost always “the new kid” and would feel horribly out of place until I was able to make a couple of friends. Jumping from job to job until my late 20s only served to perpetuate that dynamic.
I got to a point early on where I simply stopped letting feeling out of place bother me so much. Does it suck? Absolutely. It’s incredibly uncomfortable and anxiety inducing. But at the same time, it is just a feeling, and can be overcome by treating people with kindness and respect, trying to get to know them, or simply doing what I was there to do and leaving. The latter is especially easy when it comes to a job or a class or a random errand.
Even still, I have spent most of my life never really feeling that I actually belonged anywhere that I was, except when I am lost in a book or my own thoughts and my surroundings become irrelevant. So, unless I am in that place, I feel out of place and somehow disconnected. I can still build meaningful and strong connections with people, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that I don’t feel a strong sense of belonging in many situations. And that’s ok.
Perhaps the lack of “belonging” is from a flawed process in my mind, I don’t know. It’s just something that has always been that way, and I never really questioned it, because I always have that space and those moments to fall back on. I don’t necessarily need to belong somewhere to be happy. I’m content with my ability to float from situation to situation and place to place.
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Your life without a computer: what does it look like?
As in, I couldn’t own one? Not much different, because I could still use one for work. I would just have to revert back to pen and paper writing, and would likely draw more, which would be a blessing.
As in, I can’t use one, ever? Well now, that’s a different story. I would have to rethink my profession, for sure. I would also go back to being a bookworm and spending hours on end in the library, happily reading about any number of topics. I would draw more. I think, maybe, I might actually be happier.
Ya know, thinking about this, I have to wonder if that’s not a better way to do things.
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What skill would you like to learn?
I love learning new things, so this is a bit of a loaded question.
I would love to learn more SQL. I want to be able to cook a perfect steak every time. I would like to learn how to shoot. I want to learn how to do experiments with a particle accelerator. I would love to be fluent in at least three languages, and have one of them not be Latin based.
I could go on and on….
I have said before that I’d be a professional student if someone would pay me to do that…. A girl can dream!
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Fun fact!!
Sometimes, a statement truly is just a statement. It’s not an attack or a judgement, it’s simply stating a fact.
For example, if I say, “You weren’t able to attend (insert event), so here’s what you missed…”, there is absolutely no reason to get defensive or explain yourself. If I wanted an explanation, I’d ask for one. If I was upset or mad that you weren’t there, I’d say so.
Just chill. Not everyone is out to get you!
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What details of your life could you pay more attention to?
This is an interesting question.
What could I pay more attention to? Plenty. There are hundreds or even thousands of things in a given day that I simply dismiss because I don’t believe it’s worth my time.
What should I pay more attention to? My wellbeing in general.
And for the record, I believe the second applies to lots of people.
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What’s your #1 priority tomorrow?
I don’t have one and honestly can’t have one. I haven’t made it through today yet, and as long as I wake up, who the hell knows what insanity the day will bring?
A Peculiar Cerebral Tangle 