Thirty – Eight Ways to Win an Argument, by Schopenhauer: “36: You may also puzzle and bewilder your opponent by mere bombast.
If your opponent is weak or does not wish to appear as if he has no idea what your are talking about, you can easily impose upon him some argument that sounds very deep or learned, or that sounds indisputable.”

How to Save the World: “So how can we learn to broaden our thinking, to think differently? This is not just a matter of critical thinking, creative thinking, ‘outside the box’ thinking. It is about opening up our minds to the world and all its possibilities. This is one of the essences of the Four Practices of Open Space, (opening, inviting, making room, acting/realizing). But it is not at all easy. Our brain structures are actually formed as we grow, to reflect and accommodate the analytical and ‘one right answer’ thinking that constitutes most of what we are taught when we are young. Broadening our thinking therefore requires us to consciously will ourselves to think about things, and think in ways, that we are not comfortable or familiar with. It is counter-cultural, more of an unlearning than a learning process. It is kind of like the agony that runners who do not regularly do ‘loosening up’ exercises must go through to stretch the muscles that have tightened (shortened, atrophied) in response to the running routine.”

http://www.legrady.hu/sc.html

Screen Cleaner. Go and be horrified.

That means you, Wade.

And the world may be long for you, but he’ll
never belong to you. But on a motorbike, when
all the city lights blind your eyes tonight, are you
feeling better now?

-The Decemberists, Grace Cathedral Hill

And so the question today is whether the fact that you have to accept some things as being true means that you have to be okay with them.

And I think the answer, the natural real truth, is that you don’t.

Wired News: “Because his Jango Fett outfit is no fun to sit in, Michael Koenig won’t wear it to the May 19 Revenge of the Sith premiere. And then there are the social concerns: ‘I don’t like going out in my costume alone,’ said Koenig, who is a member of the 501st Legion. ‘I feel like a nerd.'”

Why do people get drunk when they feel down?

Why do people get drunk when they get lonely?

Me, getting drunk just makes those two things worse, amplified.

Sleep. And then extraction. Whee.

1300 or so words into it.

45,000 – 150,000 defines the novel.

The final tally will be what it will be.

This is how things start to unfold: exactly as they should.

Stendhal syndrome or Stendhal’s syndrome is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when the individual is exposed to an overdose of beautiful art, paintings and artistic masterpieces.

I read about it in DIARY this weekend — yet another brilliant work from Chuck Palahniuk, the author so nice you try to spell his name twice. It sticks with you.

The syndrome, not the name. That totally escapes me.