Madness In My Method

A while back, Lolotehe and I went to see Crispin Glover's Big Slide Show which includes a Q&A after the presentation of his movie (which included the showing of It is fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE.).

The biggest takeaway from the event was Crispin's take on movie endings and the messages movies are trying to convey. It's what started his feud with the creators of Back to the Future and now fuels his own creative juices toward making his own movies.

In Back to the Future, Marty McFly is rewarded with the girl, the awesome family, and most importantly, the truck, representing the materialistic component of the reward both for the character and the viewer. Crispin felt this sent a bad/negative message to the audience.

At the time, I had bad feelings about that scene in the movie, but I never thought too much about it nor tried to put those feelings into words. Crispin nailed it. Not only that, but it made me start paying quite a lot of attention to that aspect of movies - the endings and the message that such rewards present in the denouement.

At one point a while back Lolotehe had also lent me a book called [Strange Minds - I can't recall exact name, but she'll see this and correct me later] which included the philosophical concept that "WE" are nothing but our brains talking to one another. Our bodies are our husks, but the conversation is actually taking place with one brain talking to another brain. The outside is just the shell.

( Deadpool spoiler, so I figured a cut might be in order )

PS - Crispin also mentioned his involvement with the Wolf PAC, to which I'll give a shout out.

"You get in what you dished out"

Not only do I miss this song, but I miss coffee houses where the goal was to go and INTERACT with other folks.

Starbucks is really not that. At least not the ones around here. We don't have "pubs" that provide such interactions like other countries. We have bars meant for folks that seem to get way too loud and flirty and obnoxious. We have sports bars where the focus is on the game screen and folks seem to get way too loud and obnoxious (and obnoxiously flirty with the waitresses).

Now we have Starbucks where people go to either meet up with other specific people and have more separated conversations or to go and have some alone time with a laptop or tablet (I confess, I'm one of those people as well). We don't have internet cafes for those situations, so someone wishing for a coffee and internet time, whether it be for school, work, or just to be alone and away from interactions for a short while, has to "invade" the possibly otherwise social arena of the coffee house.

The difference, I think, is that laptops, tablets, and smart phones didn't exist in the 90s. What few laptops did exist were never brought into a coffee house, because there wasn't widespread wi-fi to connect to. People who showed up at a coffee house might have still been meeting certain folks to go over to a corner for some intimate conversations, but most people went to a coffee house to interact with others. It was easy to start a conversation pit filled with tables and chairs spontaneously brought together. The moment you sat down you said Hi to the person sitting next to you. Ta-da.

I miss those kinds of coffee houses. You know, the social interaction ones versus the social media ones.

~Countless hours~

~Countless dollars~



I do not think that means what you think it means.

From the documentary The Nature of Existence, I just became fascinated with Aha. In particular is his blunt response to the woman asking about her purpose. *snerk*

YouTube video link set to start with the introduction of Aha

I listened through Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance over the past few weeks as my first official audio book for my work commute. I had no idea how deeply interdisciplinarian, philosophical, and overall interesting that book is. I wish I'd read it back in high school, back during the time I was knee deep reading Heinlein, Dostoyevsky, and Nietzsche. I think the book would have quickly and easily prompted me to read some other philosophers which I still have not read as well as finally delve more into the Greek philosophers. Granted, I probably would have found the Greek philosophers overall annoying, but I would at least have a better working knowledge of their fundamental stances over what I have now, which is only that I recognize their names. I now have a brief summary of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle from what was given in the book at least.

My favorite line from the book: "And then to get hit, right off, straight in the face, with an asshole statement like that!"

I don't believe the statement in question could have been called anything better. It's also a favorite line because it sums up so neatly and precisely how I sometimes feel about things that really go against the grain of living, or as Phaedrus in the book describes it, things that go against overall quality.

Funny enough, I was able to combine the description of boredom in the book with Alan Watts' description of boredom to talk with Mom last night about Little Bit always getting bored when his older brother doesn't want to play with him.

I have so many thoughts that have come up from "reading" this book. One in particular has stuck itself in my brain regarding pattern recognition, but it's a bit of a seed right now, so my brain is working on turning it over until it grows into adulthood before I actually will work on writing it out completely. I've at least written down the elements of the seed so I don't forget.

Lolotehe linked an article regarding emotional intelligence to me. I'm not even 1/5th of the way into it, but my brain is already trying to make connections.

( Those connections )

If God is a placebo
and the placebo effect works,
Then God works.

But only if you believe.

After all, both God and the placebo effect require unquestionable belief in order to be effective.

On the other hand, if you KNOW that that pill is a placebo, then it doesn't have an effect. The same also holds true for God. If you believe that God is a placebo, then there is no true belief in The Power Of God (the magical cure-all pill), and therefore God has no affect.

The most interesting part about this is that we have a choice to truly believe or not believe.

Ponder that one for a moment.

Ugh. I think my Benadryl wore off, and I woke up hearing Lynyrn Skynyrd's Simple Man in my head, and it Won't Turn OFF.

I also woke up with some epiphanies about jealousy versus being yourself, about the physical versus mental and verbal self-defense stuff again, about using hope as a protective sheath against truly letting go. I woke up having an idea about something I'd like to try to do with my life, even if it turns into yet another interesting hobby, or just fizzles from my mind come later today.

Damn, brain. When you turn on, you go for full throttle out the gate.

I like these epiphanies. They're helping me get past a very negative mental state. BUT, I'm going to be dead tired at work today, and that was one thing I really didn't want. I have way too much work to get done to be too tired to focus.

I had a great dinner with my friend and his cousin, who's a pretty cool chick. I really needed that. Now I can't wait for Wednesday and Thursday to get here. It's like I'm taking a necessary mental vacation and spending time with people I haven't been able to see in ages. It's slowly getting me back on track.

I've blown my nose about 10 times while typing this up. Must be able to breathe again. I hope I'm not waking my roommate up next door. I really wish epiphanies would stop coming in the middle of the freaking night.

Can this be anymore disjointed? Eh. It's the middle of the night. I should give myself some credit for lack of major typos.