books, life, love, relationships, school, solitude, take it easy, work, writing

basic pleasure model

Dedicated to one or two women who maybe liked me.. years ago. and inimitable… Philip K. Dick.

For those of you who skipped their women’s studies classes, first-wave feminism got women the vote; second-wave got them employed and divorced; third-wave is busy making them porn stars. More or less – Kathleen Parker

Someone once told me that I was good enough looking, that if I were just nice to girls, I could probably get laid pretty often. I don’t think I ever actually tried doing it that way.

These are the phases that you go through, I suppose. You’re young. You’re surrounded by people. You’re anxious. and Annoyed. You drink. You’re alone. You’re afraid of dying alone. I think eventually you figure out… alone might be kind of nice. Because you’re so goddamn tired of being nice to people. Would anyone ever really love the real you? Doubtful… Someone wise once said.. what you really want doesn’t actually exist in reality. Now you go and think about that one…

Lucky for me, I was the only one at that fucked up party who actually figured out her costume – Pris. And you don’t dress like that.. unless you want some. Am I right or am I Right?

She wasn’t perfect.. but you know what, she was pretty close. The only question now is, could I actually leave behind this fucking self-pity I had become so addicted to. Senior year. I think I really was doing these calculations somewhere in the back of my mind. Just imagine. If I don’t get laid THIS year.. then shit. I could actually keep feeling sorry for myself FOREVER. I mean look, I didn’t even get any pussy in college. What are they going to say to that? This is America, and there ain’t a worse punishment imaginable.. Look at him. He didn’t even get any pussy in college. Right?

So what’s the plan going to be here? We close. We start talking about our parents.. and the future perhaps… I hope that when I actually have to see these other parents, they’ll hate me enough that I don’t have to feel too bad about the inevitable breakup. Ideally, I can get enough sex out of this and be done with her by Christmas.

So you live in this house? (She jolts me out of the daydream)

Uh.. no, Jerry does. Let me talk to a couple people first, then we’ll get going.

I never said I’m going home with you! I was just wondering. I think the girls and I have other plans.

Whatever. Give her space.

A few drinks later she does wander over to the couch, and again starts chatting.

So you said you don’t live far, is that right?

I like your type, I say…

Which is?

You’re the type who’ll have a lot of regrettable sex because you’re afraid you can’t get the guy you really want to be with.

It took a few seconds for her to start laughing.

She came back with the usual, I guess that’s what college is for, isn’t it?

You wanna watch Blade Runner with me or no?

We do indeed end up at my place pretty soon that night. I never even have to meet the parents. She found some other inebriate between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I guess it’d be worse if she were perfect.

babies, books, creativity, love, relationships, school, writing

Good in small doses… and other stories, perhaps?

So I am thinking of applying to an exclusive fiction writing program in the fall. I’ve got a few half-baked stories and Essays out there… I do read a lot of crap too, and I think my crap is basically as good as anyone’s crap. Over the past few days I was working on this one story. My rule for short fiction is.. Write it.. then give it a week. if it still makes you laugh, it’s not bad. That’s my theory. I hope I can come up with something else that’s new this summer.. but don’t get your hopes up. This theme of a depressed man reconnecting with a long lost child has been used before, I am sure, but I hope I’m giving it a good twist of my own… – Dmitry Dyatlov, 2025.

Waiting in the therapist’s office, I had some time to reflect on what went on this spring… in Ohio.

I almost became a father. Of course, the best time to find out you’re a father is just before you kill yourself.

I believe that you’ve got to have some kind of moral compass or, rather, a guiding philosophy in life. Mine has always been, everything is good in Small doses. I’m a pharmacist. At least, I used to be. I guess that’s where it comes from. I moved up to Atlanta after I got my degree.

Holly got my current number from a mutual college friend and called at the strangest moment. I was preparing to mix a nice little cocktail of pharmaceuticals to permanently relieve me of the pain of.. Life. And out of nowhere.. Holly.

I guess you could say I got exactly what I always wanted at 34. I got married, and divorced. and I still got to keep the Land Rover. Used. Not too used. Life’s good, isn’t it? However, most days I still felt like I was doing a jail sentence.

Opioids. I was beginning to like them too, and I knew that if at some point, someone at that place ever figured out how to count, well, we would have to have a very uncomfortable conversation. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but something about the scripts seemed more and more suspicious the last few years. All these drugs, it just can’t be healthy. I didn’t want to annoy the Boss with every little inconsistency.
“Just give ’em the pills, you’re not a doctor.”

That’s right. I don’t make the rules.. I just work here. Anyway, after a few years of this, the pesky conscience did begin to hit the brakes on me. I just had to get out. Possibly, I could come back, but right now, I really had to leave. A family member was in desperate need of help, I said, in Ohio! And so I got my month off. And, by some miracle, I did have to go to Ohio, after all.

I suppose I just lost the sense that I was really helping anyone there, you know?

Getting married was something I always wanted to do and at the time it seemed acceptable. This was years before Holly’s little intervention, remember. She seemed acceptable. The wife. I met a Brazilian nurse who drank a little too much. Honeymoon was fantastic. But, you know how it is. Couple years go by, a few extra pounds. Then there was the time her mom went off medication. She would call us 3 times a day for a month. She’d get locked out, or she really thought that someone was hiding in her closets. Oh, and finally, the cheating. You know what happens when you marry a cute little nurse, don’t you? She’s gonna try to trade you in for a doctor… probably sooner rather than later. C’est la vie. She said… she said she just got bored and it meant nothing. Just move on. And so we did… Move on. Separately.

She just GREW UP, you see? Nothing makes me want to die as much as people telling other adult people to GROW UP. Would you like to see my birth certificate? Or my college diploma? I suppose they have a point. I seem to be the only one who gets stuck in the past, trying to invent a time machine… why can’t I just move along? Why does every little fling have to be so special?

In the 90s, my small Florida college was a bit like… a sexual wine tasting. I didn’t have to worry about money at the time. I ran the mile pretty fast. Solid scholarship. Track was cool, at this school, apparently. The female entourage on weekends was actually impressive. And once in a while they let you fool around with the snatch. Everyone has to tell you their pedigree before copulation. Well I am Polish-Italian, or German-Irish, or just a Jew… I think I met at least 7 different kinds of Asian and I still can’t tell them all apart. Was there a Latina in there somewhere? I believe there was… we didn’t get very far. Catholic… she says. Virgin. I guess I wasn’t sleeping with the girls I really wanted, but at least I was sleeping, with people, once in a while. I suppose I got enough sex to not have to hate women forever. We should all be so lucky.

Speaking of hating women. That’s kind of how Holly and I met. There was this one Sociology class senior year led by a fervent anti-Misogynist named G. Wallace. Typical academic. Some kind of fancy, flamboyant jacket, large glasses, ponytail. A tad more body fat than optimal, I am sure. I remember one day when some fool asked him point blank why women always seem so capricious. Wallace told him the facts… the truth. Look, girls have a short time horizon, and a huge potential investment from sex. You, my friend, can still fuck around till, oh 45 or even 50 maybe and then still get your shit together, find a feeble-minded Doe outside some therapist’s office, and make babies. You see what I’m saying? We were assigned to groups for a project. It was me, Holly, and a far less attractive female specimen. The three of us would get coffee once in a while.

So, a few months back, mid-March, I guess, Holly called and said she wanted to catch up. I said this is great timing, as I had a vacation coming up. What a strange coincidence, huh?

I did go up to Ohio, not too far from Columbus was where she lived. And here it is. Here she is. The female child that’s about to give life meaning. Holly seemed so certain that it was me. That it was Mine. I guess I do remember that night in ’97. Sort of. Classes were done. We had a few days before graduation. After checking out some dives (bars) in that Florida town, we expressed mutual interest. We did exchange numbers, but never really kept in touch. I had Grad school and she had to fulfill some kind of missionary commitment… for her church. They shipped her off to Peru, or Bolivia, or one of these places.

“May I ask why you thought this would be such a great time for us to get acquainted?”

And she says her parents died. A week apart. Around Christmas.

“and what exactly does she know about me?”

That you were deported.

Alright, fair enough. I guess I’d buy that, if I were 12. Would I stoop so low as to order the customary DNA test? You know, at some point I probably will. But we’ll see how this goes first. There’s no rush. Why not at least entertain the idea? The eyes… Yes, they could be my eyes. Very pretty.

Their suburban place was big and everyone felt it was appropriate for me to stay with the newfound family. Mary, Holly, and I. After a couple days I decided to start dispensing fatherly advice.

“So what is going on with you, kid?”

Lots of people said that Michael likes me, but when I gave him a “Valentine” last month he told me to jump off a cliff.

Well, I suppose that happens sometimes. People actually love feeling sorry for themselves, you know? They call it a Secondary payoff, I think. You don’t get what you really want, but it’s almost like… like a Silver medal, I guess. You get to Sulk all day, and there’s no fear of loss. Imagine… just imagine having absolutely nothing to complain about. We would die of boredom. Maybe his ‘loving’ parents have horrible fights. So that’s what he’s been associating with attraction. Who knows what’s really going on with this Mike kid. Let me tell you this. Give it a year, and if you still like the kid, give him a Psychology book next year. Something by BERNE, Eric. I think he might appreciate it.

Later that week, I found one of those Bumper car places in Columbus… it’s the stupidest thing in the world, but I always wanted to take my kids to a Bumper car attraction. And then Ice cream.

So the pharmacy job was still an option, and I could put in for a transfer to Ohio, I guess. I still had a few days to make up my mind about what to tell these people.

Toward the end of April, Holly said we had to meet another friend.

Holly and I went to a diner nearby. Well, what a surprise. It’s the old Professor. G. Wallace. Explanation? After getting sober, this sneaky asshole also got a divorce… then got hired by Ohio State after Florida. Said he had to track down an old flame for an AMENDS, you see? Of course, he and I were quite surprised to see each other.

Yes, it’s certainly not Okay to sleep with students. It says so in every university manual, I am sure. But this complicates our situation now, doesn’t it? What exactly was the timeline of Holly’s shameful liaisons?

One might ask why Holly didn’t do the test herself. The DNA test. And I suppose, the only plausible explanation is she believed her own Bullshit. She repressed the particulars of those last few stressful weeks of college, maybe drank a little too much. I suppose I must have made a better impression. Who really wants to remember screwing some Icky 45-year old professor, with a ponytail? She said they ran into each other at some kind of concert.

Soon enough, we had the final verdict. I am Not the daddy, after all.

It was all very nice, and now it’s kind of nice that it’s all over. Mary is still the child of someone that I maybe used to love, and I suppose that’s good enough. We can all be Friends, I guess. I gave her some money and a birthday card with that John Lennon quote – If you can’t be happy, then you don’t know anything about life… something like that. I told her to start jogging and think more about Jesus.

The aging academic said he’ll gladly take over relevant duties. And I said I prefer the South anyway.

What else can I say about kids? I just know that if I say too much, they will blame me for everything.

And remember, everything is good in small doses. Especially family.

books, life, relationships, school, society, solitude, writing

Time flies….

So Philip Zimbardo died earlier this month. I also had sort of a near death experience.. if you follow my other publication.. well maybe you know. Seemed like a trap. really seemed like some kind of trap to me. Thought I’d catch a ride on a freight train.. always wanted to do it. anyway. you probably want to JUMP OFF the thing maybe before it starts goin over 20 miles per hour or so. it won’t be a soft landing…..

I do.. I really do have to get going on finishing up this little project. My work.. no, Hobby the past 10 years has been the collecting of quotes.. and Im up to 3230 so far. And I suppose it is time to pare down the list to just the ones.. I really cannot live without. Let’s say Elon Musk figures out how to augment your brain and working memory and stuff.. and really makes us all.. Wiser? let’s say it works out. and I wake up in the morning. And I want to download a list of things TO REMEMBER. every single day. let’s say it’s a list of 365 little reminders.. then I suppose this would be my list. You might have seen these little meditation books that are popular with people who Used to use drugs.. or Christians.. both. anyway.

If you’ve got Strong ties to Hazelden publishing, maybe put in a good word?

I decided to give myself an Education I missed out on.. when I was busy boozing at UM. Didn’t even get laid. Fucking unbelievable. I don’t know how they get away with this shit.

I thought I had KILLER title when I first tried doing this a few years ago. but.. the list grew. this’ll probably be published in 3 parts.. 120 – 120 & 125. perhaps I’ll shuffle them around a bit later. I do realize this first one here is quite a bit biased toward Male authors.. all I can say is.. I sort for powerful ideas.. that resonate (with me). But.. I know. I know I’ll try to add some Diversity later… I think I’ll limit each author to 3 appearances.

So, here it is. Have another drink from my.. Fire Hydrant. heh.

The fact that you have unlimited texts does not necessarily mean that you cannot stop talking: Meditations for recovery from the compulsive behavior of your choice.

  1. If you put good apples into a bad situation, you’ll get bad apples – ZIMBARDO
  2. A sane person to an insane society must appear insane – Kurt Vonnegut
  3. I don’t want my past to become anyone else’s future – Elie Wiesel
  4. A conscience is that still small voice that people won’t listen to – Carlo Collodi
  5. It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society – Krishnamurti
  6. The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history – Orwell
  7. Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it – Orwell
  8. I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion’ – Muhammad Ali
  9. Love is giving something you don’t have to someone who doesn’t want it – J. Lacan
  10. Apparently I lack some particular perversion which today’s employer is seeking – John Kennedy Toole.
  11. You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him – John Kennedy Toole
  12. If reason ruled the world would history even exist? – R. Kapuscinski
  13. How many things have been denied one day, only to become realities the next – Jules Verne
  14. Never attribute to malevolence what is merely due to incompetence – Arthur Clarke?
  15. If you can’t state your position in eight words, you don’t have a position – Seth Godin
  16. Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death – Erik Erikson
  17. Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action – Tim Ferriss
  18. Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it – JK Rowling
  19. A person you excuse from any genuine challenge is a person you do not truly respect – John McWhorter
  20. Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact – George Eliot
  21. To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive – Robert L Stevenson
  22. Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose – Eckhart Tolle
  23. It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living – Eckhart Tolle
  24. He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself, or he loses his labor – St. Ignatius
  25. For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them – St. Thomas More
  26. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts – Will Rogers
  27. The map is not the territory – Alfred Korzybski
  28. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away – Philip K Dick
  29. A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world – David Cornwell (le Carre…)
  30. I never think that I am the one who must see to it that cherries grow on stalks – Carl Jung
  31. One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple – Jack Kerouac
  32. Absence of Evidence is not Evidence of Absence – Carl Sagan
  33. It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when they have lost their way – ROLLO MAY
  34. Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something – Robert Heinlein
  35. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with – Jim Rohn
  36. sooner or later she had to give up the hope for a better past – Irvin Yalom
  37. Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe – HG Wells
  38. What really matters is what you do with what you have – HG Wells
  39. When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice – Andre Gide (or Saul bellow… hehe, I gotta look this one up again)
  40. The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself – Bernard Malamud
  41. All of us are prisoners, to one degree or another, of our experience – Gary Hamel
  42. We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We’re a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don’t really have an explanation for – Malcolm Gladwell
  43. The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men – Plato

44.. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools – Herbert Spencer (that reminds me of something…..)

45. Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself – Adam Smith

46. There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult – Warren Buffett

47. No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true – Nathaniel Hawthorne

48. No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man – Heraclitus

49. Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are a part of the mystery that we are trying to solve – Max Planck

50. If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants – Isaac Newton

51. Integrity has no need of rules – Albert Camus

52. He who loves the more is the inferior and must suffer – Thomas Mann

53. To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment – Emerson

54. Prejudices are what fools use for reason – Voltaire

55. ..our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers – M. Scott Peck

56. To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible – Aquinas

57. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free – Goethe

58. It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness – Tolstoy

59. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light – Plato??

60. To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult – Plutarch

61. To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail – Maslow

62. If the essential core of the person is denied or suppressed, he gets sick sometimes in obvious ways, sometimes in subtle ways, sometimes immediately, sometimes later – Maslow

63. We’re developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won’t be able to think – Rod Serling

64. One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries – AA Milne

65. Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important – Stephen Covey

66. All language is but a poor translation – Kafka

67. Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate – Carl Jung

68. We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without – Kant

69. It is very difficult also to sacrifice one’s suffering. A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering – GI Gurdjieff

70. My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing – Proust

71. No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides – Spinoza?

72. It’s necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live – Dumas

73. If the Martians ever find out how human beings think, they’ll kill themselves laughing – ALBERT ELLIS

74. Humility is the awareness that there’s a lot you don’t know and that a lot of what you think you know is distorted or wrong – David Brooks

75. The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere – Anne Lindbergh

76. Beauty fades, dumb is forever – Judge Judy

77. Non nobis solum nati sumus (I think that’s something about Selfishness..) – Cicero

78. The more we love someone, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that true love shows itself – Moliere

And that’s about it for today. Uh. Yeah, a little short of my goal. But. We’ll see. We’ll see if I can come up with another 290 meaningful quotations from the Master list… Left some question marks when I was unsure about authorship… That might be a challenge if we want to get it all right.

To be Continued.

365… There are only two ways of telling the complete truth–anonymously and posthumously – Thomas Sowell.

babies, communication, environment, life, love, money, relationships, school, solitude, take it easy, work

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

And if there is one sure sign in Hegel’s philosophy that history isn’t over, of course it’s a war. Because there are embodied people in struggle with different views about what freedom is and how to live. RICK RODERICK

well. I guess today I was inspired by a recent publication on Augustine of Hippo (Linked below) to add some more words about my own sad, little life.

I began to pray. what did I pray? I prayed. GOD is there anything left for me to do.. on God’s green earth?

I guess I was a little suicidal. But. I prayed.

God.. God usually tells me to Lie a little less. or never.

You know.. Ma.. ma never lets me down.. I guess.. Ma knows I fucked her like no man ever could. Right? hehehehehe..

Sorry. maybe that’s a little too much. Ma always likes to say Oh we’re just little people from the middle of nowhere.. some little village in Russia or Belarus or Ukraine or some shit.

And I think she sincerely believes it.. Humility is a virtue!

But she knows very well that her parents were Military officers who worked abroad who definitely had some power in the ol’ Soviet system at least. and that’s why they got to reproduce so quickly.. and I had nice bikes and Camels.. where’s the fucking camel? There’s a picture of the camel somewhere.. well. you know.

What is it that drove these people.. my parents to Jump Ship in 1998 and move to America.. perhaps we’ll never know. I think they were just running.. running away from shit. Instead of confronting it. Russia was nice. I had a girlfriend in Russia… when I was.. 10.

Well. they’re employable. I’m not.. apparently. I just write shit on the internet. I donate plasma and get 50 bucks for drink. Hey, that’s not bad pay for not doing shit for an hour. I still try to get some runs in. Still running. Marathons.

Oh, wait. yes. I fell in love. I did fall in love once. and that’s what I get.. from the object of my affection. Shit, I still can’t believe it.. maybe it’s just a California thing? no.. No I think this still makes sense to some people.. here… in Michigan. Just read.

So. by the time you’re 27 you’re up to 4 boyfriends that you cheated on.. and I still didn’t get that pussy. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh. Oh Lord.. what do you want me to do? or say…

What? What do you say to something like that? Except maybe drink yourself to death.. hehehe.

What? No. no no no no no. You’re not gonna make me do shit. People. you see.. PEOPLE used to do things for a reason. The reason usually was you’re trying to start a family.. or something. right? How do you do that.. these days? In this environment… I respect your honesty.. but JESUS.. YOU know. JESUS. what do you say to something like that?

God.. Is there ANYTHING left for me to do.. on this earth.. today..? You just sit back.. Enjoy the show.. I guess?

books, news, religion, school, solitude, writing

Harvey Dent.

Men to whom God is dead worship one another. Harry Crews

Any plan conceived in moderation must fail when the circumstances are set in extremes. – Metternich

what we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts – Thomas Huxley.

Well. how do we begin. I guess I began to seek a God when I finally realized how weak men really are.

There’s a quote for ya. Did I come up with that? hehe.

It used to be WWJD? right? now… now it’s all about AI. I don’t want to think and I never was very good at it anyway. Is there anyone out there?

Let me just ask Google.. or something. How did that Jesus fellow make out anyway? Not so great, right?

HOW’S THAT FUCKING WORKIN FOR YA?? hehe. that’s what.. the Sponsor says. sometimes. After he tries to tell you things.. about Jesus.

We all have little cracks, don’t we? Apply enough pressure.. at the right time. and 98 percent of these fuckers break. Sometimes.. sometimes I guess you get a diamond, maybe. But more often than not.. we just shit our pants. Fail.

I noticed even my father always needs some Dude to look up to. For a while it was Grant Cardone.. then he became a Trump fan. hehe. Likes real estate. No, it never hurts to get a little education, I guess. Are we really going to try this again? hehe. drain the swamp.. and so on.

And we had that one teacher… Family man. Got tricked by one of those Paedophile traps on the internet. It’s sad, but it’s also one of the funniest things in my life so far. The man taught EPISTEMOLOGY of all things. You know what that is, don’t you? I thought something like that should make one a Skeptic.. especially of all the things we read.. on the internet.

Bruce Willis. yep. that’s the guy. that’s the guy I want to get a beer with. Man, I keep thinking I got a real book in me. but.. but I dunno. Days go by.. maybe I’m just meant to be a real good Quotes collector.

Yep. I look. I look at my life and I honestly can’t think of anything Horrible I did.. to anyone, really. Did I? I don’t think I did. But then.. why.. why the fuck am I bored out of my mind all day. There’s fucking nothing to do. Why don’t they just give me some money. I’m such a great fucking guy.

For they are human too…

democracy, money, news, relationships, school, take it easy, war

5500

so. it is a milestone year. 15 years since college. 5500 days or so.

Looks like… looks like I did get an invite to some kind of reunion at that place where they served Bacon wrapped scallops once. Mmmm… Undercommit and overdeliver, right? I guess I should make an appearance.

Time to pause and reflect. I’ve been pausing and reflecting now for many years. Still not sure what I’m supposed to do with myself. and the years ahead…. Texas sociology looks kinda nice. I think I could make a contribution…

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/sociology/faculty/sb49337

Plus my higher Power Joel Osteen works near there. Texas… might be nice.

yes my views changed.. on life. and stuff. I used to think it’s one of the stupidest things in the world to run a Marathon. Now I’m hoping to do number 5 for me. Everything’s addictive. Even pain and suffering I guess.

what else.. what else can I say. Let’s talk about heartbreak. The most heartbroken person I know (sometimes) is my mother who resents that I never wanted to go into medicine. Oh I got plenty of friends.. who chose that path. and I still have Zero envy for them. I just never saw myself doing anything like that. Never felt the Calling. Had a calling to be a philosopher. But there’s no money in it. hehe. and they gave me a C in logic. fucking assholes.

Got an A in Polisci hehe. But… well ya that’s like getting a bad mental health diagnosis.. these days, isn’t it? if THIS makes sense to you.. then… then I don’t know. I don’t know what to do with you, young man. hehe.

No, no I really don’t remember shit from college. I got my job, and off I went. and then there were drugs.. institutions…

Oh, you know I did pick up a useful book this week. I wonder why it didn’t get more attention. Paul Stiles – is the American dream killing you?

it presents a critique of using “THE MARKET” as our higher power. Interesting guy, too. Worked for NSA, but also had a change of heart, I see. nice when that happens.

“While a human being is defined by his ability to distinguish between good and evil, to the Market good and evil are nothing but profit and loss…”

yes, I had some thoughts on the MARKET also. My therapist tried to tell me things about THE MARKET. I think, ultimately, I had to tell him to go F. himself… Market. you know who spends money in the Market? Usually women. and how much sense do they make?? Hahahahahahaha…….

sorry… sorry. that’s it. that’s all I got today, folks.

yes, it’s sad all this shit in Ukraine is still going on. maybe the Market can explain. someone. someone just didn’t get along, I guess. someone just couldn’t get along… I heard another quote about that recently –

everyone discovers that people are not maximizing utility… they’re murdering each other… and so then the Geopolitics gets let back in. – Stephen Kotkin

Oh course we all know that one of the more sinister reasons for war must have been that guys don’t squabble over bitches. It’s that… supply demand sort of thing. sad but true…. you fall in love.. you go to war.. or maybe it’s the other way around. Fools rush in. Now, a seasoned man like myself just drinks and goes to meetings.

books, money, relationships, school, society, solitude, travel, value, writing

If you can’t compensate me for my suffering, then at least reward me for my achievement.

I drank coffee and read old books and waited for the year to end – Richard Brautigan…

Look it’s not funny to me. Some people say.. oh.. my parents seem to get smarter as I get older.

haha. Good for you, I guess. Mine seem to get dumber every year as I successfully dissect more and more of their lies.

Really.

Yes. I want to write a fucking book. a novel. Finally. and go over that stuff from 2011. But Im not fucking doing it here. Not here.

I need a real break. A retreat! a month or two. trying to persuade Mom but I dont know if that will work out anytime soon. These people are idiots.

and yes, I think the University of Michigan should be liable for this catastrophe also. They didn’t give me any pussy. I became an alcoholic. But I get to feel good about myself… I guess. hey. this is what dad wanted. An American college graduate. Right here.

I still fail to see any real Value in this pointless activity. They didn’t even teach me how to Close.

I need a fucking fellowship. or something.

Yes.. every year.. every year I seem to learn a few new things, for now. and I think that’s basically the only thing that keeps me going. what happens when even that’s gone. When there’s really nothing else to know….. what then.. do I do..?

law, life, love, medicine, relationships, religion, school, society, value, work

a process of elimination…

I know I should be doing something… but I just don’t know what.

I really don’t see any good ideas.

yes. half the time I really am just waiting… day dreaming… that some philosophical society will send me an award… or I get the Macarthur fellowship… it’s great. because you don’t even have to apply for those… you can just wait. hehe. and Visualize getting a fellowship. Like I said. I think I deserve it. it’s time.

yes, I’ve said many times, that some of my problem is being lazy, and feeling sorry for myself.

But look how far that got me! I’m 36. Not bad. World marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum just died at 24. Hope he was sober… anyway.

what the hell am I supposed to do with myself?

I think I want to fall in love. hehe. Sometimes I run across the Deb McMillan Bridge in Rochester (MI) and see all these fucking locks hanging off it. fucking pisses me off. that really is a thing isn’t it? If you love someone, you go to the bridge, and you hang a fucking lock on it. Never got to do that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_lock

I’m always really good at coming up with reasons not to do shit.

Where do I start. Sales. Been doing sales since I was 12. Yes, I think that contributed to my depression. I’m more manic than depressive honestly. but. still. I’m not fucking doing sales. No more.

History. Well. you know. I talked about this before. they can’t even figure out what the hell happened on 911. Osama? heh. probably not. There’s Loose change (movie). there’s architects and engineers for truth. look it up. really. that’ll get you started. but… I bet if I open up a history book. it probably just says Osama. osama osama osama. hehe. No. I cannot take HISTORY seriously. Sorry. We’ve got to do better than that. I mean, actually. yes. I would be interested in figuring out what actually happened. but, apparently THEY dont want us to know. That’s why there’s all these fucking theories… and in my opinion… nothing really makes 100 percent sense.

Moving on to THE LAW. I probably wrote about this somewhere. the college friend who turned me on to Balzac all those years ago is actually a lawyer. hehe. LAWS ARE SPIDER WEBS… THROUGH WHICH BIG FLIES PASS. AND LITTLE ONES GET CAUGHT. Yes. there have been some great lawyers. Gerry Spence, I guess. But, mostly… I’m afraid it’s just going to make me even more insane.

Medicine. Well. you know. Some days I actually pray for cancer. hasn’t happened yet.

And speaking of Praying. How about theology. that’s always been big in America. Well. you know the story. I had an intervention. or something. they know. they know what happened. Cute psychiatric nurse starts talking to me about carpenters in Philadelphia. Not far from where Franklin flew his Kite (I just found out). and the Liberty bell. Very poetic. And shit, you know what. I think I saw God. something happened, that’s for sure. And since then, God hasn’t sent me a single email. So. Yes, some people busy themselves going to Divinity schools… but… well… honestly… what proof have you got, really? that God wants this or that. What fucking proof have you got to show me?

they didn’t even give me any pussy in college.

Finding that no religion is based on facts and cannot therefore be true, I began to reflect what must be the condition of mankind trained from infancy to believe in errors.

ROBERT OWEN
babies, communication, love, money, relationships, school, society, value

Yes… I actually like older women.

at that point. they actually start making sense.

I am not cynical. I am just old. I know what is going to happen next

Fay weldon

and I like Ellen Fein…. who was the inspiration for starting this blog…. if you scroll far enough.

Just click Blog roll… and scroll. you’ll find it.

and there’s Kathleen parker… of course… and Heather Mac Donald…. what is it that she said… in her book. Let me find it. yep. here it is —

The new order is emerging as a bizarre hybrid of liberationist and traditionalist values. It carefully preserves the prerogative of no-strings-attached sex while cabining it with legalistic caveats that allow females to revert at will to a stance of offended virtue…

Heather…

so, of course. what I said… is Hold on a minute. hold. on. see, I was paying attention. and My SAT score is… pretty high… and you just said you FUCKED GUYS YOU JUST MET… a few times… and now you don’t want to give me that pussy???

well that’s fucked up. I dont know why we’re still talking… really. go on. go on and have fun….

and for me… well there was Amy… like 8 years ago. Jesus. Amy was really good in bed. she was Super. and now I dont really know what she’s doing. Is that enough for me? Just good in bed. and she gave me food… like she did for her cats…. hehehehehe…

do I want Kids? I don’t know. Like I said. I think the right thing is for me to back to Russia. But. No one is cooperating.

why?

oh… Jesus. really. I just want to live by the Mississippi in the south. somewhere near new orleans. that’s really all I want… like that guy in True Detective… I guess.

books, communication, life, money, relationships, school, society, travel, value, work

LOSS PREVENTION

I really did go back to Dresden with Guggenheim money (God love it) in 1967. It looked a lot like Dayton, Ohio…

Kurt Vonnegut

Guggenheim money is chump change, these days. What I really want is that Macarthur grant. 800k over 5 years, isn’t it?

ya, I think I deserve it.

So the topic here is… Stealing. Theft.

I think it was back when I read the Kite Runner. A character there said… any crime… or sin… can be expressed as a form of Theft. I think that’s about right… as I recall.

Retail fraud. hehe

I think there’s now an entire industry out there for coming up with New words for things that are pretty obvious…. I think I’d be good at that.

Where do I sign up?

Now what about a man’s life? My life, for instance.

I guess if I were a more enthusiastic Sociologist… or anthropologist, or something… I guess I would apply for some grants or some shit… to go back to Russia… track down my 1st grade class (I have a picture somewhere…) in Samara… and I would compare it… to the MS class here (Norup), for instance. Emma Czarnecki. Yep. She died… didn’t she? Why. I dunno. I heard things… But I don’t really know.

I’m just saying. I would track down all the people, and I would ask some basic questions. Like. ARE THEY STILL ALIVE? That’s one. Then maybe I would ask. Did they have a reasonable opportunity to start a family? I don’t know what that means, exactly, but the words sound about right.

God knows I worked a lot. But I don’t think I had a reasonable opportunity to start a family. So I would look at some of these… metrics, and then I would say. Well if they’re pretty close… across the US and Russia… then why the fuck did you drag me here? Why?

Yes… yes I know Russia was kind of Rough in the 90s… but. shit. Look at all the shit I had to go through here… just to get through… College… hehe. and for what fucking purpose? Why?

And let’s go back to Jim Smith, for a minute. Ya. that one. The Labor department Smith.

there was a situation. He wanted me to apply an Exemption that didn’t exist.

Exemptions are narrowly construed, as an employer must prove that the employees fit “plainly and unmistakably” within the exemption’s terms

Wiki??

An employee was supposed to get 5,000 in back wages, by my calculations.

And Jim Smith said no. We’re not gonna make the EMPLOYER pay for this shit.

I think he was serious.

And I say. WHY? Jim, you had me study THE LAW, for the past 3 months. Why are you trying to grant the employer an EXEMPTION that doesn’t exist? Why? Clearly, there’s no exemption here, because, One the employee was paid by the hour, and Two, he was mostly performing manual labor. The fact that he was making 100k alone doesn’t grant an exemption in this case.

That was the law last time I read it.

We’re supposed to be protecting the EMPLOYEES here, aren’t we? What the fuck are you doing?

You’re about to allow 5,000 DOLLARS of wage theft. Why the fuck are you doing this?

and, more importantly, how many times have you Done this, over the course of your career?

You fucking piece of shit.

Well I think eventually I won that argument.

But why was there a fucking argument in the first place?

Why? Are you role playing? You should tell me, Jim, if we are role-playing.

Seemed to me like you were pretty serious about that one, for a while.

Ya. I know. I know you fucking remember. Scumbag.

America is a fucking shithole. Stop dragging people here.

Stop.

but, while I am here, I urge all readers, to writer letters to the WHD at the US Dol, so I can finally go back to doing my work. Please.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd