If men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.
-Ulysses S. Grant
The Man Without a Home
I went to the library to return some books. I met a bum. I let him sit in my car and roll a cigarette. It was really cold and windy. He didn’t want money, and I had no food to give him. I figured giving him a few minutes out of the cold was the least I could do. We talked for about a half-hour, and he kept repeating one phrase to me over and over again, especially as we were leaving. He said to me: “Take care of yourself, be nice to yourself.” That got me thinking. The things we find important, and the ones that we really stress to express to others around us are deeply affected by our current circumstances. Here is a man that has almost nothing; he’s cold and hungry and just needs someone to treat him with a little respect. The one thing that he really wanted me to do was to be nice to myself.
Perhaps it was because he found that if you weren’t nice to yourself you couldn’t expect it from anyone else. Perhaps that was his way of expressing gratitude. I don’t really know. But I do know this: his statement meant something to me, but it meant something very, very important to him. His world was completely different from my own, and that has obviously affected his values and priorities. I wonder how mine would be different. Thoughts?
Other Thoughts
- Health Journal
I’ve started a new journal/notebook. It’s in one of my blank Technical Journals, which is very sturdy and made for archiving. I’ve yet to decide what to call it, so right now it’s labeled something along the idea of ‘Workout Journal.’ Whatever. I just figured if I want to be healthier, which I do, I should actually put some effort into it. This creates the problem of me losing focus, or forgetting to be healthy. So, I figure if I write down things such as food intake (calories, micro/macronutrients) and my activity (weight/strength/cardio, sleep cycles, etc) I’ll be able to reflect on what I’m doing well, and what would be good for improvement. I’m hoping that once I get this down into a habit I’ll feel much better physically and be able to do some things that have always attracted me. Mainly, I want to do cool stuff and not look stupid doing it.
- Progress on Riot Events
For those of you who don’t know, Charlie McCowan and I are starting a business. Think of a company that will do LAN parties (if you don’t know, google it) in cities around the area, possibly moving around the country. These parties will be big (starting around 200 people/event). We just met with AllCity, a local company, to discuss our website design and management. We’ve made some managerial decisions, and things are coming along nicely. Possibly shooting for early June for our first event.
- My Personal Archive
I’ve started a new project. Every time I write something I will archive it into a document. At the end of the year, I will convert that document into a PDF, and send it to Lulu Publishing (lulu.com). It will contain essays, blog posts, journal entries, bits of stories I want to keep, and possibly even bigger things. Anywho, I’ll keep this book on my shelf so that I can go back to it in the future and be glad that I got older. This will only be for digital things, but since so much of my life is on the computer I think that will be a large proportion of my musings. Often, I’ll write something on paper only to copy it over into Journler (a favorite Mac application). If this year goes well enough, I might continue it throughout my life. That way, when they realize that I’m really the next Bukowski, Cobain or Rorty, they’ll be able to write a biography about me.
Wow, I just realized how narcissistic this is. Honestly, it’s for me, and not some sort of ego stroke. I promise. Oh well…
- Facebook Memes
I am now beginning to write most of my notes on my blog (karlstrope.blogspot.com) rather than Facebook. This makes it easier for family and friends that don’t use Facebook (mostly family) to keep up with my thoughts. I’ve linked the two together, but this will make the things I write more accessible to anyone, rather than my Friends list on FB. The reason I do this is that I think there are a lot of people I would love to read my stuff if they were interested, but don’t want them seeing the stuff I do on Facebook. I am constantly tweaking my privacy settings and lists to make FB more of a walled garden for my online life. I don’t want people to know that much about me unless I let them.
This goes back to my main point. Most of the things I write here will be suitable for public digestion. Not everyone will care, and in fact, few other than close friends and family will read this. However, if some stranger did stumble across this blog, I wouldn’t be worried about it. Some things, though, I don’t want getting out anywhere. I don’t want to worry about future employers, romantic relationships, or anyone else. Anything that would not be best said in a crowded room, those things will be written and kept exclusively on FB. This includes stupid, inane crap (90% of Facebook memes) and my odd sense of humor.
- Facebook’s Honesty Box
This application has a lot of potential. If everyone installed this, and occasionally updated it with thoughtful, non-generic questions we would all know a lot more about ourselves, probably be easier to deal with, and a lot more humble. Just because it is anonymous doesn’t mean people need to, or will be, brutal or mean. In fact, if you’re not and you’re just honest it could do a lot of good for all of us. Seriously. Consider adding it. If you do, send an invitation to all of your friends to do so too. Then, ask a half-way decent question, and wait for the responses.
Questions you could ask:
(I’ve asked some of these myself)
- How do I best express myself? How could I improve my interaction with people?
- What is one thing that really bothers you in the way I dress?
- Are there any certain speech patterns or annoying ticks that I have that you can’t ignore?
- Is there a time when it is really easy/really hard to deal with me?
Anyway, you see the point. We will get answers not worth reading, we will get pure hatred coming from our enemies. But unless you’ve made friends with an unusual amount of assholes, you will get a few responses that will make you think. That’s a good thing.
