Archive for March, 2005

You Bring the Fun with You

Wednesday, March 30th, 2005

You Bring the Fun with You
 
A few weeks ago I was at a conference, party-hopping the night away with my crew. One of them, a young college graduate, commented that the parties weren’t that fun.
 
I knew I was having fun, and saw no reason she shouldn’t be. “You bring the fun with you,” I told her.
 
To which she replied, “Then why go to a party at all?”
 
She gets full credit for a snappy comeback, but she missed the point. A couple of points, actually, but since she doesn’t drink, the phrase “open bar” wasn’t much of a draw for her.
 
Snappy comeback aside, the truth is that you can’t look to other people to entertain you, to make the world “fun.” That really is up to you. If you don’t make yourself happy, no one else will.
 
As for why you should go to a party, we humans are a social bunch. We prefer to have fun in groups. Which is, whether she realized it or not, why a non-drinker was rolling through the night with us, from open bar to open bar.
 
If you’re going to be there anyway, why not have fun?
 
-Demonax

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The Greatest Ever

Tuesday, March 29th, 2005

OK, so I don’t intend to normally post to this area, but I just had to say something about this matter. I was surfing the net today and I ran across a site which actually claimed that the Greatest Love Story Ever was….the Buffy/Angel story. While this claim would be expected from some 13 year-old posting to a Fan-site…I was shocked to find a whole website dedicated to “proving” this claim to an unwitting public, some of whom are so mis-informed as to think that something else might qualify for the title of Greatest Love Story Ever. While everyone is entitled to their opinion (ludicrous though it may be), some people need serious psychological help before their opinions should be openly stated. Since I couldn’t ever get back the time I spent on that site, I figured I should at least make productive use of this experience and let other people know “Surf at your own risk”. Maybe disclaimers need to be posted near computers “Some websites may be hazardous to your sanity” or perhaps “Management is not responsible for the content” or maybe even “The views expressed on these sites do not necessarily represent those of any sane individual”

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Great minds think

Sunday, March 27th, 2005

C’mon, this is an easy one. We all know that great minds don’t think alike, they think for themselves. If great minds thought alike then the patent office would be gone. Great minds are something that society as a whole opposes, specifically because they don’t think like everyone else. They don’t fit in, they don’t “toe-the-line”, they don’t play ball by the rules. How do we know they’re great minds then and not some crazy whacko? Real simple – they succeed. If its a stupid idea, but it works…then it wasn’t a stupid idea. Success excuses virtually any fault. The poor man’s crazy is the rich man’s eccentric, and vice versa. So if you think you’re a genius and no one appreciates you just remember this, if you really are a genius they won’t appreciate you and if you’re actually just a nut they won’t appreciate you either, so learn to enjoy being on the outside.

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Frustration Part 2

Saturday, March 26th, 2005

Frustration Part 2
 
Saying that the solution to frustration is to “Give up” is, as the name of the Web site proclaims, rather flippant. It’s a lot like the old advice for how to deal with temptation: “Give in.”
 
But I like the simplicity of the flippant, the truth presented as a purloined letter left in plain view. Anyone can see it, and so somehow it is never seen.
 
Trying to deal with frustration through a stubborn refusal to quit sometimes works. Much like banging your head on a wall long enough might bash a hole through it.
 
More often, though, applying willpower to a frustration only generates further frustration. Your choice of actions becomes more and more limited as the frustration closes tighter and tighter around you. Your focus becomes narrower and narrower, seeing only the source of the frustration.
 
If instead of repeatedly throwing yourself at the wall, you had realized what you were doing and taken a step back, you might’ve noticed the door just to the left.
 
You have to learn when you’re getting frustrated, and when that’s beginning to cloud your judgment. And then you need to “give up”. Until you give up the attempt to win, to beat down the frustrating obstacle in front of you, you’re unlikely to consider other, potentially more useful, more creative alternatives.
 
Recognizing frustration allows you the option to choose not to continue a failing line of action. And realizing that you’re about to do something because of frustration is a good reason to seriously question doing it. As I said before, “Frustration is its own worst enemy.” Any action taken because of frustration is almost guaranteed to generate more frustration.
 
By taking the time, even a few seconds, to realize you’re acting out of frustration and to examine what it is that’s causing the frustration, you have disrupted the vicious, downward cycle.
 
Of course, you may discover that you’re already on the best possible course. In which case, welcome to willpower. The difference, though, is that now you know (at least more than you did) that you’re on the right track. You’re not reacting out of frustration. You’re not fighting. You’re following through on a decision. A decision made with a clear (or clearer) mind.
 
Sometimes, to win, all you have to do is surrender.
 
-Demonax

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Frustration is Its Own Worst Enemy

Friday, March 25th, 2005

Frustration is Its Own Worst Enemy
 
Frustration is one of those self-fulfilling, vicious cycle things.
 
You try something and it fails (being merely human, after all). You try again. It still doesn’t work. You get frustrated, swear a bit, and then you try again. But your frustration makes you screw it up somehow, so you’re back to trying again. You get more frustrated. Ad infi-painful.
 
And if the frustration leads to desperation…well…it’s basically over at that point. You should just pack it in. You won’t, of course, because you’re frustration won’t let you. Sucks to be you.
 
The solution is simple, of course: Give up. ;)
 
-Demonax

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He who hesitates is lost

Thursday, March 24th, 2005

We have heard this encouragement from others to essentially “hurry up and do something”, usually to do what it is that they want us to do. Is it really in your best interests? If they are encouraging you to act before you have had time to think it through completely, then the odds are that they are less concerned with your interests and more focused on their our interests. The other time we hear this is when we’ve missed a deadline of some sort, and we are criticized, usually by someone who acted and succeeded, for ‘overthinking’ when we should have acted. However, if we would have acted hastily and failed, then we would have been criticized and told we need to remember to “Look before you leap”. So no matter if you leap or hesitate, the simple answer is Success is good and failure is bad.

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Forgotten Conditionals

Thursday, March 24th, 2005

Forgotten Conditionals
 
“If you live, you learn.”
 
Most people forget the leading “if”, but it’s the most important part of the whole equation. Not that the “you learn” part is guaranteed. Some people just “live”.
 
-Demonax

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Maybe There’s Hope…

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005

Maybe There’s Hope…
 
In recent years I’ve become rather…cynical…about the US’s copyright and patent system, as it has become employed as a club by corporate giants to beat innovation out of the American public.
 
Xenophon sent me this image today:
 
His caption: “And not a bad idea either.”
 
I have to agree. Maybe there’s hope yet.
 
-Demonax

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Welcome to the Flippant Philosopher.

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

Welcome to the Flippant Philosopher.
 
We’re flippant, we philosophize, and sometimes we quote song lyrics.
 
“All we are…is dust in the wind, dude…”
 
-Demonax

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