I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
January 08, 2008 - 1:13 a.m.
This should be a fun day to write about. I have not left the house. The only substantial human contact I had was a telephone conversation with Lena. Yet I will still post an entry.
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor having nothing to write about stays me from updating.
I can start with a little cheat. I uploaded the pictures from the house concert and put them in the usual slide show.
Don't you wish you were there? You do even if you don't know it. If you had been there you'd have had a great time.
Now what else will I write about? I could tell you about my dream. I won't go into detail, don't worry. Pat Klink from We're About 9 was the central character in the dream which is weird as I haven't seen or had any contact with him in ages. He just kept popping up in every scene till then end. In the penultimate scene I was in his room talking to him. At the end I found out that WA9 was recording their album while I was there and I had been having a conversation with Pat the whole time. It really wasn't my fault as nobody told me and Pat was talking too. I don't quite know how he was singing at the same time.
The last scene was what made the dream noteworthy. I was talking to somebody else and she showed me the new WA9 CD. On the last track after the title in parentheses it said, Ruined by Gordon Nash. That really was unfair! I'm going to have to have a word with Brian about that. That is when things got interesting. All of a sudden the dream became lucid. It struck me that this could never happen in real life so I must be dreaming. I then took advantage of the fact that I knew I was dreaming by taking advantage of the lovely young woman that had shown me the CD. It told her it was the proof that it was really just a dream. Then the stupid phone rang and woke me up. It is all a vast conspiracy.
This morning I thought of a really elegant way of writing the rest of this entry. Everything fit together so well. It moved seamlessly from the dream to what I'm about to write. The problem is that I forgot all the intermediate steps. So instead this excuse is my awkward segue.
I have often threatened to write about what I think other people think of me. I now have some actual data so I'll do so. It totally backs up my gut feelings. I'll break it down into three parts, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I'll start with the good. First off people think I'm good, in the moral/ethical sense. They also think I'm smart. That really should come first. They have stronger feelings about that. People think I treat other people well, that I'm nice, and generous, and loyal.
The bad is that despite thinking those nice things about me people don't really want to spend time with me.
As for the ugly, people think I'm not attractive.
So what is my data to back up these notions? There is an application on Facebook where people compare their friends. They are giving two friends and they have to choose who is smarter, stronger, nicer, sexier, whatever. For each pair there is one question. Each session you run through about 20 questions about twenty pairs of people. I'll show you how I did in these face-offs. I'll put them into four broad groups. The first is intelligence, the second moral virtues and being a good friend, the third wanting to spend time with the person, the fourth physical attractiveness.
So lets go to the votes. I'll give my won lost record for each category.
| Intelligence | Virtue | Spending Time | Attractiveness |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12-3 | 17-10 | 0-12 | 1-36 |
The numbers speak for themselves. Now lots of questions didn't fall into any of these categories and some had some surprising answer. I am 2-2 in being a better singer? In a random sample of the population I am not a better singer than half the people. My friends list is over-represented with good singers so this is really odd. I am 0-1 in being more talkative. I'm guessing if more people voted it would be more like 95-5. There are two categories that I could have put in intelligence but decided against, better in science and more tech savvy. As you might expect I did well in science 6-1 but as might surprise you I got killed in tech savvy, 1-5. That's because a lot of my friends are actual tech people and I'm a math person. I end up asking them for advice all the time. Unsurprisingly I was 2-0 in has better taste in music.
Oh yes where did I get my one vote each in attractiveness? I was 1-7 in better profile pic.
So what does this prove? Not much. It isn't a scientific study but it shows that I do have a general feel for how people feel about me.
Now if I could only remember the great way I had of putting that all in context. Oh well I can't. It really isn't easy not having a brain.
Don't Miss This Part!
Wait! I almost forgot the most important thing I wanted to write about. January 11 is the sixth anniversary of the arrival of the first prisoners at Guantanamo. This is an excerpt of a letter I got from the NYCLU.
The first prisoners arrived at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay on January 11, 2002. Guantanamo quickly became an international embarrassment. It has made a mockery of our laws and values for six long years. We won't allow seven; this is the year we are going to end the national disgrace.
Nationwide, the ACLU has set January 11th as a day of protest, declaring that it's long past time that we put an end to illegality and close down Guantanamo. The ACLU and organizations across the country are asking people of conscience to wear orange to protest Guantanamo. I hope you will consider standing in solidarity by wearing orange on Friday as well.
Want to sign a petition voicing your desire to close the Gitmo prison? Click on the button following this entry. The button will be there the rest of the week. Don't forget to wear orange on Friday. I'll have to see what I have to wear.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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Horvendile January 08, 2008
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