My Stuff - Observations - Time

     When you are young you live for the future, drivers license, drinking.

When you are old you live in the past. And what do you find in the past you might ask, Regret. Big old steaming piles of Regret. Every missed opportunity every opportunity passed over, every gift rejected every choice made. There is a such a thing as The paradox of choice and the Cost of opportunity.

    I think that as a corollary this is also true. If you are planning a luncheon meeting and want to provide lunch for ten people and leave the choice of the lunch meal up to the invitees you will get ten different choices submitted in the rsvp,s. That presents a big problem especially with the wide variety of food allergies and preferences today unless you have a tremendously skilled and outfitted kitchen to hand. The thing to do to counter this conundrum is to limit the choice of the meal by stating the meal to be served or offering a select choice of meal, in many situations like this in a casual setting a choice of meat and non-meat pizza. Those with bread or any of the ingredients in bread allergies will have an issue and then there the holler-than-tho vegans who will take issue with everything and anything including the very air being breathed in your luncheon environment the seat covers; leather or cloth or even plastic, the tables ethically and sustainably sourced materials made by people making a living wage in countries that have good human rights practices. There is a never ending list of things to rail against and along with that ever growing list of things to rail against there exists the higher and higher likelihood that you will invite one of those individuals to your luncheon. If there exists a choice there exists a person that will make that choice unbearable.

                                          but I digress.

    Regret. At this moment I can think of nothing more insidious than the omnipresence of regret. Regret for choices made and regret for the missed opportunity for having made the choice the way you did.

    I have found a simple way to avoid this every increasing din and cacophony of missed and pissed away opportunity is to involve yourself with hobbies and other things to occupy your time.

    I think that perhaps the new generation zed or alpha or what ever we are at by now by the addiction to the interwed has found this out as well. Keep yourself entertained at all times at all costs. Keep your ears full of music or audio-book or pod-cast. Keep your eyes in front a screen, large or small portable or fixed flat or curved. We used to be fixated on getting flat screens then we got flat screens now we are fixated on curved screens again but concave instead of the convex curvature of the CRT screen of old. Now there are screens that are flexible and can curve to an arc of your choosing. There is the big giant video globe in Vegas. I an absolutely certain that the Chinese will build a bigger one with finer resolution very soon. And this globe has it all; convex on the outside and concave on the inside. Everybody wins.

                                       but I digress

    But as with anything contrived by man these things can be taken to extremes and that is where the trouble begins. First we had beer then wine but that wasn't mind altering enough. Then we discovered the science of distillation and presto we have spirits, booze. (I dont mention the other mind altering naturally occurring plants and fungus and the things that are out there that I dont know about because that is a topic for another time. There is thought that the Manna from Heaven (food of the gods) may have been of this mind altering variety of mushroom or 'shroom which allowed thew Hebrew people to See God)

                                       but I digress

    But we aren't even happy enough with 80 proof we pushed that to the 151 rum and to the 190 proof of Everclear or Moonshine. I don't know too very much about backwoods distilled moonshine but the "legitimate" moonshine that you can buy is a much watered down 128 proof. There was "back in the day" a medical condition called 'Jake leg' caused by the consumption of outrageously overly distilled moonshine. Kids become consumed by their addiction just like any other addiction that addiction will turn on you in dark ways if you are not careful. The rate of suicide among young girls who chase the peer approval online is horrible. There are warnings on cigarettes and booze and just about everything now-a-days but many things don't have warnings. There is a country song lamenting the lack of Warning Labels on sad country songs. 

    Regret is a cruel and bitter bitch. She is everywhere. She haunts your every non-occupied moment. And you arent even safe if you are busy with some hobby or craft work she creeps in. She is insidious. She can paralyze you with FOMO. She can push you into things you aught not be involved in. She can keep you from things that you aught be involved in. As I said at the outset of this essay the paradox of choice and the cost of opportunity are everywhere. I guess that is the hope of age and experience and knowing yourself. knowing yourself enough to help you through these choices. Know thyself. I hope this helps someone.

                                I hope it but I doubt it

                                     Have a fun day.

 

 

 

Society - Observations - Pets and animals

    I was watching a great comedian woman from Ireland Katie Boyle. She got to a place (roughly 38:45) in her bit where she relayed a story about her cat had become some how ill and her father had killed the cat. At which point the entire audience gave the obligatory sigh ahhh in commiseration. Her response, being a comedian was that every body was sorrowful about the cat being put down but its so much more acceptable to kill people. Cant kill the cat, but people, just another day at the office. The comedian/daughter asks if this was the father's first response to the cats illness and that maybe he should have taken the cat to the vet. His response is that he is not going to pay somebody to do a thing that he himself can do. Again a collective ahhh. You really need to give her your time and watch. You will not be disappointed.

    And I have noticed this in a few (You guessed it YouTubes). I have found that I enjoy the movie reaction videos. Where a content creator watches a movie reacts to it and edits it down to the 'best' bits. There are several movies where killing an animal gets cries of pain from the 'reaction person'. John Wick is a perfect example. The Russian fuck off tries to buy Mr. Wick's car. Mr. Wick declines the offer to buy. The Fuck off Russian comes back some time later to Mr. Wick's home. Breaks in brutalizes Mr. Wick and kills the puppy. Touching of a four film fourligy. Plus an up coming spin off "Ballerina". The Fuck off Russian kills the one puppy but Mr. Wick kills 77 guys throughout the first movie alone. Nobody bats a single eyelash or comes even close to shedding a tear for those guys but the puppy. Well you have all likely seen the movie so you know.

    Another favorite show of mine "Firefly". There is a scene where our "Big Damn  Hero's" are being shot at and in the ensuing battle several people get killed. No problem. But near the end of this altercation a horse gets shot and presumably killed. I love the show and love to watch along with the reactor people. But there is not a single reaction person that isn't viscerally upset by this horse killing. As was I but again loads of people get killed in action movies ALL the time and not a tear is shed. Off an animal and waterworks ensue. 

    (Except in LA where there is apparently a VERY serious water shortage as evidenced by there being NO water in the fire hydrants to put out the now famous LA wild Fires. Obviously a much worse water shortage than when I lived there through out the 80's.)

    I suppose the Most famous example of this is the Old Yeller book and subsequent movie. I imagine Cujo is another example of this. Cujo even became somewhat of a meme before memes were memeing. Sort of how there were a slew of crazo postal employees that went on killing sprees at 'the office'. And the meme "Going Postal" was born. Cujo was a similar thing. Cujo for those who don't know a Steven King book turned movie involving a large Saint Bernard dog on a farm that got rabies and started in on a killing spree of his own. There is all manner of people drama and initially Cujo is killing off the villains of the movie as I recall but then Cujo goes completely off the rails and it becomes apparent that he is very ill and must be put down.

My stuff - Observations

    I saw a thing at the Costco the other day. Its that time of the month and I can afford to go to Costco. Plus they were out of eggs when I went the other day so I was back.

    I saw the most unlikely couple that I think I have ever seen. I saw a pasty soft-body ginger boy being loved up by a remarkably hot young Goth Girl.

    In general I love the red hair. I say that, but I love the red hair on women, Not men. I don't know why red hair looks so wrong on men and so hot on women. Just me I suppose.