Looks like I’m up to one post a year with somewhat fewer actual readers. I haven’t actually publicized this thing, since I’m not all that sure I like having everybody and their next door neighbor rooting around in my cerebral cortex. So I didn’t go home over the holidays this time, just stuck around the ponderosa. My daughter stopped in twice, once with her new french boyfriend. Seems like a nice kid. Brother John did make it back to Colorado, and Mom’s sounding pretty good, almost over that broken hip last August. Today I’m rather listless. All week in fact I haven’t been able to motivate myself to do anything at all. All those new year’s resolutions, but then no resolve when push comes to shove. It is hard spending all my time working on other people’s projects. The wife’s started on a suicide mission to remodel the basement room. This has necessitated my intervention for all heavy lifting and any critical wiring. Most of the drywall’s up, but I must confess that I could give a shit about the whole project. It’s supposedly to improve the marketability of the house, but considering that there is no market the whole exercise seems pretty pointless. I feel no sense of ownership in this place and have spent the last year being resentful of being enslaved by a piece of property that I don’t want, in terms of expense to the tune of $38k per year for mortgage, property tax and insurance, plus endless hours doing yard care, home repairs, and now this downstairs room project. I haven’t done something productive that was my idea for over five years it seems. At work or at home. So instead of doing anything about it I’m spewing stream of consciousness onto this blog that no one will ever read. Unfortunately that’s how I feel about publishing anything resembling science. No one’s ever going to read it so fuck it all. I do believe that the death of my father followed this past December by a favorite author of mine has done something to me, not in a good way. It appears I need to decide what I want to be when I grow up. So this particular post is just one of those things that I don’t know why I’m even doing it. Then I read about all the bad stuff happening in the world, which should cheer me up, since my situation isn’t exactly dire. It is easy to see how things could be much much worse. I suppose the emotional isolation I’ve had for most of the past eleven years isn’t helping. I can count the number of people that I can carry on a meaningful conversation with on one hand. Maybe I’ll go on a bike ride and try and snap out of it. dammitall. gd
I was bummed by Hitchens’ death too (I assume that’s who you are referring to). I spent much of the weekend after I learned of his death watching “Hitchslap” videos on Youtube. If you haven’t watched any of these, they might brighten your day.
I used to feel isolated in my nonbelief, but found the internet helped. Lots of interesting authors and videos. (If you like George Carlin, check out Eddie Izzard, Ricky Gervais, Tim Minchin, Louis CK, and Pat Condell.) I found that by being open with my relatives and friends, some of them came around to my way of thinking. I was pleasantly shocked this Thanksgiving to hear my nieces and nephews expressing well-thought-out disdain for religion.
Also, I started joining secular organizations (FFRF, ALCU, Secular Coalition, Americans United, etc.) and giving them money to fight bigotry, ignorance, etc. I don’t always agree with everything they do, but I agree with enough of it.
I concluded a while ago that about 10 years after I kick the bucket, no one will remember my name or work. Meanwhile, I try to do interesting stuff that serves some near-term purpose. In a few billion years, the sun will die and Andromeda will gravitationally collide with the Milky Way, setting off all kinds of supernovae. It doesn’t really matter in the long run, so cheer up and enjoy life.
Here’s something else to cheer you up: pictures of my cats, who are named after famous scientists.
http://stinky-tofu.smugmug.com/Friends/Maxwell
http://stinky-tofu.smugmug.com/Friends/Darwin
Actually, the meaning of life can be found at the follow web site
http://icanhascheezburger.com/
Thanks for the kind words Michael. I’ve decided to buy a motorcycle, and my mood has improved immeasurably. It’s a 2008 BMW R1200GS Adventure, fully loaded, for an obscene price; $6k less than a new one. I’ll be informing the wife today and probably give my present unit to my brother. Then I can go visit and tool around Colorado with him. I’m thinking he needs to do castle valley canyon near Moab Utah before he dies. Holy shit it’s a great ride. GD
I was going to suggest something more manly, like a fluffy kitten.