#43 Simplicity

I saw a sign on a car the other day. "For Sael"

That's what it said. The sign on the back was fine. I took a photo for myself to prove I didn't make it up.

This next trick is called simplicity. All you do is think happy thoughts. Slight problem though is that for me at least, happy thoughts is fully raytraced realtime overpumped dynamic range graphics.

I've been reading a little about human dynamic range. It's a bit like trying to thread a needle with a sausage. Salami would be more accurate. All the stuff that we could see is rather filtered out until we find ourselves left with a washy notion. It'd be nice to see gamma rays, but I'll still find reasons to complain.

So.

Simple it is. Think happy.

#42 Life in lines

I decided to do up a UML diagram of life thus far. It's helped put a few things into perspective. The only problem is that I'm finding it easier to put in a lot of downers, mishaps and failings as opposed to successes, cheer-ups and lucky days. To be without thought could perhaps be to be without unhappiness. Defaulting to glum seems to be a factory mental setting. That has to be a way of adjusting that. As it stands, perfection would fail to satisfy, especially given the imperfect mind perceiving it.

I'll keep at it, trying not to list any major depressing significant events (e.g sackings, heartbreak, financial loss etc.) It would appear that society has an important role in individual happiness. A society of one is unlikely to be happy.

#18 Is freedom a stat or skill?

http://www.owenfitzpatrick.com/meetowen/philosophy/philosophy.php#SlideFrame_1

This guy says "Personal Freedom is your own ability to take control over the way you think and feel and decide to become happier and more successful."

Surely it can't be that easy?

Mind over matter? What about all those external stimuli?

That financial crisis for instance. A whole bunch of people are pretty frazzled after the house of representitives shot down the savey deal. It's not quite the same as congress, but I'm a little fuzzy on that.

Still, the suggestion is that happiness and freedom are linked - not a bad idea. They might even be the same thing.

So maybe personal freedom as an ability relies on mental spam filters. If all the outside stuff bums you out, the only way you can get happy again is thinking your way there. Almost a bit like other skills and stats e.g. long distance running, stamina, patience, origami or dancing.

#15 Shopping around

Looks can be deceiving.


I mentioned before that time buys money.

I thought about this. Money has value. There are many different types of money. The type of money I earn has a much higher value in places like Eastern Europe. In fact, as I go east, the value of my money goes up. There are plenty of factors at play here, far too many to quantify within the system of my blog.

In a similar way, time has value. Just like money, where you are determines what it's worth. What's my time worth right now? Not a lot really. I'm spending it watching TV. Successful people don't watch TV (apparently). Tomorrow morning at work my time will be worth a wage, because I'll be spending it pushing paper.

SO, I suppose economics determines what my money is worth. Does free will determine what my time is worth?

The other thing is that you need both time and money to survive. When you run out of time, you don the wings and head up to the pearly gates (hopefully) . But when you run out of money, bad things happen.

Money buys time, time buys money. Money can buy happiness, or at least the means to attain it. Whoever said otherwise obviously never heard of buying tickets to a comedy gig, or a nice holiday, or even a rigamarole PA to find a date. Courtship can be expensive. The grand objective appears to require significant amounts of time and money, but the return on investment is well worth it.

I'm trading time for money. It's working out. Now I need to find a way of spending my time towards the current objective: Stat increases.