If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
What I’m currently reading:
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
December 3
“Philosophy does not claim to get a person any external possession. To do so would be beyond its field. As wood is to the carpenter, bronze to the sculptor, so our own lives are the proper material in the art of living.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.15.2
Studying and trying to follow the Stoic philosophy has not given me a raise. It has not helped me to buy a new car. It has helped with my day-to-day peace of mind. It has even helped my relationship with my wife because she doesn’t worry as much about my anger. I also enjoy working on my truck more because I don’t get rage attacks when the grid heater relay that I replaced was under two other things and my wrist didn’t bend quite the right way to reconnect the last wire. It wasn’t fun, but it wasn’t stressful either.
December 4
“Anything that can be prevented, taken away, or coerced is not a person’s own—but those things
that can’t be blocked are their own.”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.24.3
What do I own? My house? My car? My truck? My health? All of these can be taken away and there is nothing I could do about it. I own my reactions when things happen that I can’t control. I also own my actions and mentality. It is easy to forget how easily I could lose everything. It has happened to other people, there is no reason why it could not happen to me. Obviously I try to do all I can to prevent this, but the final result is out of my hands.
December 5
“Keep death and exile before your eyes each day, along with everything that seems terrible—by doing so, you’ll never have a base thought nor will you have excessive desire.”
—EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 21
If I remember that life is short, I will be better able to handle setbacks. It will also remind me to not be an idiot since there is no guarantee that I will have time to fix my mistakes. I also need to remember that my mom and stepdad are probably closer to the end than I am and use this knowledge to be more gracious and less judging of their political beliefs. It is difficult when their lack of thinking makes my teeth itch, but I am working on it.
December 6
“Don’t behave as if you are destined to live forever. What’s fated hangs over you. As long as you live and while you can, become good now.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 4.17
When I was younger, I never worried about death and thought it was hard to get killed. Then, in Iraq, my eyes were opened as to how easy it is to die as well as how close I came a couple times. These experiences have taught me the above quote is very true. There are things I want to do at a later date, but that later date is not promised to me. I am currently reevaluating a few things because of this fact. I have also been procrastinating with my returning to working out and running after I hurt my back. There is no reason to wait for after the holidays to start again. My jeans are certainly not waiting to remind me that I am getting a little thicker in the middle.
December 7
“Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.56–57
I have thought of myself currently living in “bonus time” ever since Iraq. I have not been living as though this is the case, instead I kept doing the things I was doing before I was in combat. I need to look at my life with fresh eyes and make improvements where possible. Like dealing with my mother, this will be easier said than done.
December 8
“It’s better to conquer grief than to deceive it.”
—SENECA, ON CONSOLATION TO HELVIA, 17.1b
I, like every person on the planet, have lost people I love. Dealing with grief was easy, because they never were people I lived with and dealt with daily. If my wife or one of my kids die before me, I don’t know how well I would deal with it. Pretending I am fine would not be a good long-term plan, but neither would be wallowing in grief and never leaving the house. Instead, I will try to focus on my positive memories and deal with the sorrow. To the outside world this might seem cold, but as my grandad told me after grandma died “Those people don’t understand how much I loved her, and they don’t see the empty house the way I do.” (He was talking about her grown up children being upset he was dating again).
December 9
“Were all the geniuses of history to focus on this single theme, they could never fully express their bafflement at the darkness of the human mind. No person would give up even an inch of their estate, and the slightest dispute with a neighbor can mean hell to pay; yet we easily let others encroach on our lives—worse, we often pave the way for those who will take it over. No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We’re tight-fisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.”
—SENECA, ON THE BREVITY OF LIFE, 3.1–2
I like to think that I am somewhat tight with my time. I do not let strangers waste it, but I will waste it on my own without thinking about it. I watch a lot of diesel and mechanical YouTube channels, I also read a lot of frivolous books. While I don’t think it’s healthy to constantly be being productive, there are many opportunities to improve myself that I am not taking advantage of. If I was a careless with my money as I am with my time, I would be broke.
Finally, last week this question was posed and my work has been really busy so I haven’t been commenting much lately:
westernsloper on November 25, 2022 at 2:16 pm
Wasn’t Marcus Aruelius a warmongering POS? Why should I care what he thought?
The answer is kind of? He was involved in a few defensive wars, but did not go to war to expand the empire. Those defensive wars were to keep control of already conquered areas so Rome could continue to tax them. I would not say he was perfect, but he was better than most.
As far as caring what he thought, is it a logical system to follow? Does it improve my life when I follow the philosophy? To me the answer to both questions is yes.
Also:
Wasn’t Marcus Aruelius a warmongering POS? Why should I care what he thought?
I have a hard time accepting the image of warrior/general/emperor Aurelius as some sort of egoless passive mendicant on the road to enlightenment, myself.
Maybe he was, we don’t know 100% for sure. It seems as though he did not want to be Emperor, and by all accounts he was a good one. If you ask the people he went to war with to keep control of them, I’m sure you would get a very different answer.
Bottom line for me is I think the philosophy works, Marcus Aruelius is not the only one who practiced it, but his are some of the few surviving writings.
I don’t know if I explained that very well, but I should be in the comments if anyone wants to discuss this further.
Music is for the late Christine McVie. She was not my favorite member, most of the songs she sang were more pop than classic rock.
On the question of whether to find a philosophy valuable or not, depending on the actions/characters of the person dispensing it: I often find myself dispensing advice to my son, when in reality I’m talking to myself.
I really just think one should take the philosophy on its face if it has value to one, and leave the deep-dive into the speaker to historians–and then not read what the historians write. It’s not good to know too much about one’s “idols.”
I agree, but it helps to see if the philosophy or advice actually worked for the one originating it.
And if it didn’t work, is it a lesson learned from experience?
An added point would be to divorce the philosophy (if it worked) from the person who created it. Otherwise you are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Is Marcus Aruelius a jerk? Possibly. Why should that stain his good ideas? Throwing out ideas because the wrong person came up with it is something the commies like to do. Don’t be a commie!
My personal daily test bed for stoicism is my commute, and I have to admit some backsliding there. My mouthing off about other drivers makes no difference in what is going on, so I try not to do it.
But jeebus, people, don’t do left turns by successively blocking off lanes of oncoming traffic, ya feckin’ morons. Don’t run up the lane next to the line of cars waiting to turn and then try to jam your way in, ya raging asshole.
Serenity now!
Yup, driving is where I most need the application of stoicism. I’m better than I was, but I still need a lot of work.
I used to be quite calm on my commute.
This morning I was ranting like a madman.
I have to help other drivers, too, UCS.
I was doing okay until this heavily laden pickup decided 10 mph was a good speed, managed to catch the yellow and leave me with the red. From then on out, everyone seemed to specifically trying to impede my progress.
I will endeavor to be calmer on the way home.
Some asshole in a pickup with a lawn-maintenance trailer pulled in front of me yesterday (when I had the right-of-way) and then proceeded to go 20 in a 25. I might have said “asshole” in my truck once, but that was it.
If I get the book Don mentioned for anger issues, I might even do better yet.
YES! People who slow to almost a stop and wind up for turns are my source of anger at the local drivers.
*Your Honda Accord is not an 18-wheeler and you do not need to cut to the right before turning left (or vice versa)!*
Concealed carrying has made me an unwavering stoic while driving. Even if not the one initiating a situation, doing anything to provoke it loses you your right to stand your ground. Not worth losing that just by getting irritated while driving. An armed society is a polite society.
Thanks Ron, for reminding me that I’m past my “Best Used By” date. When I feel sorry for myself I look around, over half my classmates are gone, some for many, many years already. I see my friends way slower than I and I’m grateful, even if the days aren’t quite what I’d prefer.
Mostly I’m happy to have my faculties, such as they are, sort of intact. I just brought in a wheelbarrow load of wood and took out the trash. That’s pretty much my schedule, today I’ll go to the post office and mail off a package to a 78 year old kid, a buddy from VN.
I am grateful for the Glibs but meeting some of them IRL is a real bonus. Always enjoy your stuff, a reminder what has passed when I wasn’t paying attention.
I realized the other day that my husband and I are getting to the age where our contemporaries are starting to die (although I suspect the latest one chose to go her own way).
What you did there…
*waggles eyebrows*
On our trip to the Outside last week, Mrs. Animal and I drove to Rochester to have lunch with my (surviving) siblings. I’m in my sixties; all of them are in their seventies. It was our first reunion since our sister died last year.
We lost our parents a few years ago, and that’s a sad eventuality that you live life knowing it will happen, someday. It’s different, somehow, when it’s one of us kids.
You always put things in perspective, Fourscore.
Thank you.
He was talking about me!
You don’t look 78.
I know. He said he took out the trash.
Oh snap!
Agree 100%. Live life large, because it’s the only one you get.
I’ve always operated on the idea that when I’m old and crochety (a phase that is fast approaching) I want to look back on my life and know that all my sins were sins of commission, not sins of omission.
There are terrible temptations that it required strength and courage to yield to.
(Oscar is the best for quotes about sin! or anything…)
This could help me quit smoking if I can keep it in mind.
My version of this is reminding myself when something suboptimal comes up “We’re not going to miss any meals. We’re not going to sleep on the ground. We’ll be fine.”
So, you don’t want to go camping then?
Not really, no.
Reminds me, I used to take my sons camping and once we brought my wife.
The second morning she told me “I am not a camping lady.”
She never came with us again.
Yep. My wife went camping one time. That was that.
My wife claimed to be “outdoorsy”. I called her on that once about 26 years ago. The outdoorsy claim only ever comes up in jest now.
For her.
“Well, backyardy.”
I’ve learned three lessons about camping with women:
1. Keep ’em warm;
2. Keep ’em dry; and
3. Keep ’em well-fed.
Really makes the camping go more smoothly.
Good luck.
Start running KK, it’ll be a reminder of why smoking may not be the optimal habit. Before you say you can’t run walk for awhile, soon you’ll be trying a few steps.
All of these can be taken away and there is nothing I could do about it.
For some of those things, you can shoot the thieves.
Whether or not that is a good idea (i.e. legal considerations) is another story.
Time for some food and get some outside work done. Temps are above 40 degress Fahrenheit here in NH.
This is true, I was more talking about if things went really sideways and I lost my income or there was a disaster.
It’s typical Epictetus. Just accept anything that might happen ahead of time, and you’ll never be disappointed.
“Hope for the best but prepare for the worst” is still good advice.
If I prepare for the worst (read: expect it), it will probably happen, and if the best actually happens, I am not appropriately grateful/relieved. So I don’t do either.
“The optimist built the airplane. The pessimist built the parachute.”
That’s not really what he’s saying, though.
Bottom line for me is I think the philosophy works, Marcus Aruelius is not the only one who practiced it, but his are some of the few surviving writings.
I don’t know if I explained that very well, but I should be in the comments if anyone wants to discuss this further.
I’m not saying Stoicism is useless. It’s absolutely not. But I think one should be wary of imputing some sort of crypto-Buddhist egolessness to it, based on the life stories of Stoics like Aurelius. There is obviously a strong foundation of what can only be considered an active effort to change and control events and the world around them.
There is always a question of degree, and obvious distinctions between self-aggrandisement and working toward a common good.
I don’t think I do that.
I think that his writings are great, and the historical view might be exaggerated.
It does seem that he was better than those who ruled before and after him, but I know more about the life of Julius Ceasar than I do him.
“Anything that can be prevented, taken away, or coerced is not a person’s own—but those things that can’t be blocked are their own.”
That’s a great one! We work our asses off for things that can be taken in the blink of an eye. Staying focused on the intellectual and spiritual – instead of material – is so fucking hard.
This one is timely, as I’ve been rereading Man’s Search for Meaning. A very dramatic example of real stoicism.
I like Christine’s voice a lot. I was never a big fan of FM, but Gold Dust Woman is a great song.
Also, I never noticed the truck nuts hanging from the dude on the Rumors cover.
Thanks, Ron!
Not a huge Mac fan, but wasn’t “Gold Dust Woman” written and sung by Stevie?/pedant
OK. Save my comment for when Stevie tips!
Ha Ha, me neither.
Firsting is the only practical and applicable philosophy and approach to life. Everything else is…second.
The second morning she told me “I am not a camping lady.”
I’m a big fan of indoor plumbing, too.
My husband’s idea of camping is Super8 and Motel6.
I typically have a better night’s sleep camping than in a shitty motel.
In the morning thread I saw once again people brining up features that word press has fucked up. Then I noticed this : Share Your Experience: The 2022 WordPress Survey is Open
Go forth Glibs and multiply….or divide…I’m not your supervisor.
I choose to derive.
As long as we don’t have to integrate.
There’s a limit as to how far calculus puns can go.
It depends if you come in from the left vs. right.
Before Fleetwood Mac, Christine Perfect was hell of a blues singer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NKJBiTTB3A
I’ll check that out when I get home this afternoon.
Thanks for that.
The Ukrainians will have to be stoic now – they are no longer allowed to be Ukrainian Orthodox Christian.
That just does not seem like a good decision.
Why do you hate democracy R.J.?
Y’know, the whole thing about wolves deciding what’s for dinner and whatever…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM
Now it is stuck in your head too.
Those dancers we’re totally bitchin’
What a dumb cunt.
Even the fucking Soviets couldn’t keep the OC down.
The OCU is doing fine. UOC is the former affiliate of the ROC.
It’s my understanding that the UOC makes no mention of Russia anywhere in its charter.
And besides, every one of these are branches of the same tree. Banning churches/religions is stupid, despotic and pointless.
By affiliate, I mean they fell under the Moscow Patriarch. They formally broke with the MP earlier this year over the invasion and getting fucked out of Crimea. But that hasn’t stopped the Ukrainian government’s campaign of painting them as Russian collaborators and puppets, and probably a desire to support the OCU in their schismatic disputes.
This is why being involved in a church is so challenging for me. The spiritual and the material don’t belong anywhere near each other.
Hard to divorce human failings from human institutions.
A very handsome salt-n-pepper guy just knocked on my door.
He was looking for one of my neighbors, sadly.
You didn’t invite him in for some lemonade?
Now you know which neighbor to become friends with.
Well? Did you buy any of his salt or pepper?
He only thought he was looking for the neighbor. What he found was that he was looking for love.
Here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6QZn9xiuOE
Now go get ’em tiger!
Took a stroll over to my neighbor…he’s an RV repair guy. And I happen to need a minor repair. So I got his card.
/pictures KK walking around her RV with a sledgehammer
LOL…I wouldn’t put it past me
Sounds like the beginning of a 70s porno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKE1tLAH1BQ
“My name is Karl. Ich bein expert.”
He came by to check out the repair (roof ladder).
He said “I’ll just hold onto it til it gets rock hard”*. Oh. Oh, my.
*(he was talking about epoxy, preverts!)
https://images.app.goo.gl/kRmikLKqTi86K4qS9
I’m not looking very cute, though. Today is shower day, which means I’m at my filthiest.
Fans of Laverne and Shirley rejoice for it is the season
Drinker is arguing that the new Indiana Jones trailer is a bait and switch, fueled by rumors that have been circulating for years that he would be replaced by a female Indiana Jones. Set up nostalgia for a classic character, kill him off in the third act and pass the torch to more diverse female counterpart. Just like the rumors with Marvel where they talk behind the scenes about needing the…classic characters to draw audiences in so they can be forced to watch stories primarily about characters Disney knows people wouldn’t pay to go see otherwise.
Kathleen Kennedy is behind it, so it all sounds very plausible.
“The force is female!”
Forget Hitler, someone needs to go back in time and make sure that Kathleen’s mother had an abortion and later brags about it on Facebook.
I hope the rumors about her getting fired soon are true.
She survived ruining a multi-billion dollar property in Star Wars. I don’t think she’s going anywhere, and she most definitely isn’t going anywhere quietly.
“In a
much celebrated eventterrible accident, a thirty-ton lighting rigwas droppedfell upon the car…”Just have Michael Eisner arrange for a skiing trip for her.
Those rumors have been running around for years. I’ll believe it when I see it.
You just don’t like Ironheart because you don’t like strong black women.
I just finished watching Wednesday on Netflix and thought it was pretty good. Nothing too deep, just some decent fun.
One of the things that I liked was that it wasn’t preachy. They had POC and stuff, but it wasn’t forced. There wasn’t some weird gay person that was there just to check a box. And Wednesday was not able to beat up 20 goons with her super kung fu. It was refreshing to watch something where they seemed to do things to make the story better. Not to juke their woke numbers.
We watched the first few episodes of Tulsa King. Also surprisingly good and plenty of poking fun at the yutes of today. Stallone is pretty funny, too.
I don’t see any down side to this movie. If it’s good, we get to be entertained. If it’s bad and loses money, it will be another in what’s turning out to be a long string of losers for Disney. Which might make them finally wake up to what their customers want. I really think the success of Top Gun is going to be a turning point in entertainment.
The rumor mill is that five different endings all bombed with test audiences.
The complaint is that the studio executives appear to have the opinion that gender-swapping a beloved main character is all it takes to satisfy a new modern audience. So putting out an actually shitty movie is supposed to be immune from criticism.
If the product was actually good, most people would go along with the changing of the guard.
They keep trying that thing where they produce a shitty movie, and when it bombs they blame the audience for being sexist or racist or whatever. But that’s not working. You can’t guilt an audience into buying $100 million in tickets to a terrible product. Eventually money will have the last word.
Correct
It seems like the winds have already shifted at Disney. Their stock is down something like 40% and the new CEO, Chapek, was fired by the board. Iger came back. He’s hardcore Left, but it sounds like he has recognized the danger and is trying to nudge Disney back from the woke cliff.
Though, since Iger is the one who originally and enthusiastically steered Disney towards the woke cliff, I doubt his efforts will be anything beyond half-hearted appeasements.
That’s why we have to block user reviews for x days after the movie comes out. The racists keep criticizing the movie/series!
I mean, she can’t be any worse than Shia LaDouche, right?
spoiler alert:
In the past, the studios have turned yesteryear’s young capable male heros into old, weak, failing men. These were replaced by young, mary-sues without a single flaw.
This is problem enough.
IJ5 is reportedly using time travel cliches to have the old, weak Jones go back in time to meet the young, capable Jones, and the young Jones dies causing old Jones to blip out of existence. Thus the first four movies never happened, and the new, young mary sue gets to have those adventures.
If the rumors are correct, it is appalling.
Maverick’s a great example, if they’d gone into the new Star Wars movies with a similar attitude of respect for the earlier movies and characters, they could have been amazing. And that’s all anybody really wanted.
Yep. I prefer my propaganda to at least be entertaining and well executed.
Isn’t another reason for all the garbage that the CCP is pretty intimately involved in the production and distribution of movies?
Kind of. China is a huge market and they make a lot of money there. But ironically they insist on editing OUT some of the woke stuff, for instance they got rid of a same-sex kiss in that Lightyear movie when they showed it in China. You could argue this happened in Maverick too, because they never put a name on the enemy. I don’t see that affecting the plot though, and you could argue it would also help keep the movie from becoming dated too fast.
I was very happy to take my kids to The Force Awakens.
Leia and Han split up, he girl was a master at everything she tried, and it was trying to recreate A New Hope, but there was definitely something missing.
Left the theater bored and confused, never saw another new Star Wars.
If you would have told me 20 years ago that there was going to be a Boba Fett show and a Ben Kenobi show and I would have no desire to watch either, I don’t think I would have believed you.
That’s another problem with Disney. They’ve switched from quality to quantity. Just flood us with Marvel and Star Wars stuff. But that strategy isn’t working either. The people (like me) that at first would never miss an episode, are getting burned out and skipping whole movies and shows.
Don’t forget their genius move getting rid of Gina Carano.
Virginia needs help identifying drivers high on marijuana
Try selling the drivers boxes of girl scout cookies. Anyone buying cookies at a traffic stop is definitely high.
If they’re Thin Mints, that would be entrapment for me.
There are many duplicates one can obtain year-round, ya know.
No, I can’t.
I know that, but then I would buy too many.
I already have a Nutter Butter problem.
I have a nut butter problem.
This is the latest.
Pricey, and I just eat it from the jar. Makes almond butter or sunflower butter seem like a bargain.
Oh wow. I thought maybe it was cashew butter. But Pistachio butter? I best not ever try it to avoid spending thousands getting fatter.
Damn you! I didn’t need to know that existed.
Dollar General sells fake/real Girl Scout Cookies year round and for cheap. I wish my kids hadn’t taught me this.
A couple of different commercial bakeries make the cookies that go in the boxes. Keebler at least sells the same product under their own label for cheaper than the scouts charge.
76% of the money spent on Girl Scout cookies goes to the girls.
You’re assuming I actually want to support the Girl Scouts. (I also haven’t bought Keebler’s offerings in years for dietary reasons)
Without following the link, I know from past experience that the girls that sell the cookies actually get very little of the money. The vast majority goes back to the national organization. Which may be viewable as “going to the girls”.
In my opinion, GS cookies are a terrible racket.
Not true Kinnath, a majority of the money goes to the local council. I don’t think any of it goes to the national organization, that’s what the annual membership fee is for. Cub scouts was the same way.
From the link you didn’t click on:
I stand corrected.
The local Boy Scouts have a better fundraiser. They sell mulch for less than home improvement stores and deliver. As a bonus I don’t gain weight.
“Hello! Would you like to buy a few bags of night soil to support the Boy Scouts? It’s all locally produced!”
Do I look like the saltpetre man?
Walmart has them, too.
Just get more dogs that will alert on a signal from the cop.
Viola! Problem solved.
That’s a lot of lost revenue for the state and some crony organizations that profit off of DUI schools. It couldn’t be anything like ride share services or that kids these days are pussies or anything like that.
How much does it actually impair driving?
It doesn’t matter because it isn’t about safety.
If DUI’s go down, the state will clamp down on other behaviors they can demonize and blame for problems.
Beat me to it. Cops are not pleased that a revenue stream is declining.
Hmm, that isn’t mentioned in the article. I did find Does marijuana use affect driving?
Like a lot of things, the poison is in the dose.
I have driven stoned when I had trouble focusing past the windshield wipers. That’s not good.
Today I just abstain from everything when I have to drive. Not worried about a DUI as much as hurting someone.
What does that have to do with anything? – The Police State
https://twitter.com/_B___S/status/1596306561663926273
That’s quite a pee shiver at the end.
*Insert The More you Know gif*
It’s -17° Celsius (a little over +1° Fahrenheit) outside right now.
Time to take the pup for a walk. Poor thing.
It’s above 40 degrees Fahrenheit here. I was outside cleaning my daily driver. The water in the bucket was black after I got done washing the car. I started claying the car. This is going to be a multi-day process. I’ve let the cleaning go too long.
*runs hand across Mega Jeep
* Layer of skin removed
I might want to wash the tree sap off soon….
Is Swiss alive? His team let in a terrible goal
We’ll cheer him up with an extra large barrage of puns this afternoon.
He won’t be able to miss the pungency!
He might get a kick out of some soccer puns.
He’ll probably just call foul.
They advanced…
I got the ‘vid. Tuesday night through Thursday morning I was shivering like a malaria patient and coughing like a consumptive.
I am merely feverish and weary of coughing now.
That sucks. Get better quick. There’s been a lot of sick puns in your ill-timed absence.
*sigh*
Frickin’ iPhone locked up during the upgrade last night. Took it to a store and had them reset it, now it’s locked up while reinstalling all my junk.
This crap is annoying.
Mine keeps asking me to sign back in, over and over. None of the usual tricks have solved it. I suppose the next update will fix it.
I’m going to end up buying another phone, I can feel it.