Overthinking: The NASA Approach to Life

It seems that some people are genetically engineered to analyze, interpret, re-analyze and re-interpret every action and reaction in their lives. Oftentimes despite their best efforts to halt the ever-turning wheel of thought in their heads, which leaves me to wonder: Is it possible to remove your brain from the equation?



Of course I don't mean literally. But maybe just hold a chloroform rag over that person in your head's face so you can get a few hours of peace. I mean, there has to be a way, right?

Due to lack of funding (and one or two human rights laws) I won't be performing any experiments to get to the bottom of this. What I'll do instead is talk about myself for a little while because I think it's worth your time to read it.

Now for the most part I don't have too much trouble silencing my brain. Usually it's doused in so much alcohol it can barely function anyhow. But every once in a while I get a little worked up and start running down answers, straining the limits of my logical reasoning to figure out why my life is what it is; why Brad Pitt dumped Jennifer Aniston; why I can't get laid; etc. After an hour or two and a pack of cigarettes I get tired and/or distracted and move on. But what if I wasn't capable of that?



What is life without an off switch? Is it efficiency? Surely something that never shuts off must get more done. Or is it just pinging back and forth between two points like a ping pong ball in a static-charged plastic box? Sigh. I have no idea. What I do know is that there is simply no point to curling up in your bed and doing nothing but mulling over possibilities. If you find yourself locked in a quandary about life the best thing you can do is unload on somebody else. Whether you do that in a positive or a negative way is entirely your decision.

I leave you with this kernel: Take a look at something that puzzles you. Spend a minute and consider it. If you can't immediately understand it, change it or deal with it, "Fuck it." Just forget about it and focus on things you CAN understand, change and deal with.

The Digital Age: Integration Of All Your Woes

It's amazing, wonderful, and frightening how everything in your life is interconnected nowadays. When you favorite a video on YouTube (signed in with your Google account, of course) it posts automatically to your Facebook page. Hell, if I wanted I could tell this website to update my Facebook when I post a new blog. But my blogs aren't very interesting and I have more respect for those on my friends list than that.

That doesn't even scratch the surface though. The really important stuff is the digitizing of all your life's worth. The monetary type stuff, the crap everybody tells you not to be concerned about. Yes, your credit score, your driving record, your criminal record, your shoe size and your college degree. It's all part of a big profile that everyyybody with a little "permission" can look at before they decide to hire you, fire you, do business with you, educate you, treat you, arrest you, etc.

I've been in debt since I was 18. Every year it stacks up a little higher. Lose a job here, run up a credit card there. Break a bone here, ditch a collection agency there. Whatever, it's life shit. I can live around it. But for how long? What I fear most is the day they "chip" all of us. No more cash, no more cards, no more wallets, just a forearm with a little microchip in it. The day I walk up to the cashier for a pack of smokes, scan my forearm and get denied because I didn't pay my cellphone bill that month is the day I fucking quit.

This is meant to put a little worm of thought into your heads. Don't take it too seriously, because my interpretation is not literal. But don't immediately shrug it off, either. If you're "in", you're in. If you're "out", you're out forever. Once you get in the pit there is nowhere to go but down.

Baptisms are getting really expensive

Let's discuss something uplifting today, like rebirth. Today I found out roughly how much it costs to live again. Something to the tune of $35,000. Give or take a couple grand, I wasn't really paying attention. To a person in my position, anything over $1,000 is all the same: unpayable. Oh well, I never was planning to own anything ever again anyway.

So because I actually drowned I think this must be the most expensive Baptism EVER. And it's even better because I'm not Christian so all my sins haven't even been warshed away. I think this is God's joke on me after I pulled a fast one on him. That guy's good, man.

Speaking of higher powers and beliefs and whatnot, I watched The Matrix again this morning. Now there's something I could believe in. I would more readily put my faith in all of us living programmed lives as prisoners in a computer than some magical force with super-human powers that's just... there. No explanation, he's just up there pulling strings. Always has been. Don't believe it? Ohhh well there's a special place for nonbelievers, so you best jump on the wagon.

Sigh. Life is nothing but wolves and sheep. Or leets and noobs as the dialect may be.

Just to give you something to read

I personally have little use for a blog, but I do have lots of spare time. So I figured I'd post something up here just so I look like an established member of the community and don't get chased out with pitchforks and torches for being a mere lurker.

In other news, I recently died. Which was considerably more nondescript than I figured it might be. As it happens, dying is a lot easier than waking up after having just died. Especially surrounded with suspicions of suicide (all baseless), medical bills and a tirelessly concerned family.

However, you need fret none, for I am largely the same stunning charmer that I always was and will continue to be until I get busted for cruising on an expired lifecard. Which is liable to be soon (<10 years) unless my luck and body prove to be stronger than I think. That doesn't depress me tho, strangely. I enjoy what I have and I have what I enjoy, what else is there?

K I'm gonna go somewhere else before this gets painfully long.