Monday, December 5, 2016

THE question

In the beginning... in the very very early days of my life, I spent alot of time listening and believing the things my family told me. About everything, everyone, and especially each other. I still do.

     No worries necessary, because in my life everything explained its self, and there was no need to doubt. Every year or so things would change, people would move in and out of my circle of existence, no need to question why, when, where. I don't question because I don't care, because I have no need to care, and therefore nothing requires care.

I don't care about problems because problems are a constant variable, so are solutions, and so is life. 

As I have aged I've found that people around me have a need to question and have a purpose. They question the life without purpose, and question the thought of stagnation and constant variables.

     Being the type of person I am, I accepted the questions as a constant variable. I accepted this so much that I began to question the need to question. I eventually asked myself THE question. 


Query: Why do I not feel a need to have purpose?



     I believe I have asked myself this question my entire life.
It is the most paradoxical loop that has caught my brain for nearly 25 years. It is a question which leads to all questions, which requires so much purpose to answer, that I have accepted it as a constant variable, which may very well be the answer to the question in the first place!

     Yet I do not know... and that is a constant variable.

It will remain a constant for my entire life, and that is constant. The only unknown value is that I cannot know the answer until my life is over (which is another paradox for me personally, as Christians do not believe in death... an ironic force of injustice that has forced me to ask the question in the first place. Omnipotent beings are simultaneously hilarious bastards, and I love His bitch ass.).

I began to write this article because I was thinking about my family today.

My family as a whole is an equal embodiment of love and hate. Ironic love and hate. More questions...

     My mother and father are the same person. They are collectively one, yet are polar opposites, and while they are separate, they are the same person. They are so similarly difficult to interact with that they initially (my, theory as I am too shy to ask either of them) lead them into each-other's arms. As they embraced they began to learn about each other, and themselves. How unfortunate, but productive.

They are so similar that they realized why they found each other to begin with.

      They are such difficult people, that nobody can live or work with them. They are so difficult that they cannot even live or work with themselves. Its a f***ing wonder, truly.

They are the epitome both their families, and that ultimate equality became manifest. 

                                  (My name is Ivan, pleased to make your acquaintance) 

And thus began THE (my) 25 year expounding question (EXPONENTIALLY EXPOUNDING), which continues to be asked as you read this.

So I begin.

And as I begin, I learn. As I learn the question encompasses everything I discover. As I discover more and more pieces to the story, more articles on this blog, more tools to the metaphysical toolbox (I said metaphysical again [I know you were waiting for it...]). 

I think this is a constant with troubled minds, how they receive more pieces to the puzzle, and each piece brings more question, which answer and they begin to question the original answers.

I don't think im troubled, I think I am constant, and I have no worry, which forces me to ask THE question, and the question is constant. Does that make me constantly troubled? Or constantly worry free? Maybe the worry-free is the trouble-maker, but why do I need to question my free feeling? This is all very troubling, but I am ok with it.

     I have listened to my entire family, how they feel about each other and why they feel that is ok.

I have listened and learned from every one of them. Both sides of the whole. And each side has its own sides, and those sides feel about each other as the collective sides feel similarly toward themselves and each other.

My mother is a lawyer, my father is a teacher. My grandfather is a priest, and my grandmother is a homemaker. My uncle is an accountant, and my aunt is a psychotherapist.

They all feel differently about each other, and I have listened to their feelings (and still do). My mother judges my father, who lectures my grandmother, who cleans up my grandfather's mess, while he preaches to my aunt, while she insists on helping my uncle as he decides the correct decisions that my mother and father refuse to make.

^This was all an allegorical metaphor based on my real life situation, but I think its very representative of the lack of trust the individuals of my life have in each-other.

     It is a very passively negative setup, I hope you are aware.

But this loop remains constant, and even positive from another angle.

And I somehow connect the two sides to form the constant loop I am dealing with.

IT makes it very hard to understand what I should be doing in my life (the real reason I am writing this one...)

I am surrounded with all these skilled individuals, and have learned everything from them, and listened to all their stories about each other and themselves.

   And yet they cannot live with each other or work together.

My mother is a lawyer, my father is a teacher, my grandfather is a priest, grandmother is a home maker, my aunt is a psychotherapist, and my uncle is an accountant.

All these skills, and they spend their time casting judgement on each other, and deciding why the others picked the wrong paths in life.

     Yet somehow through all this negativity, they managed to teach me their skills.

Through my mother I learned rational thought, my father taught me understanding, my grandfather taught me how to listen, my grandmother taught me self reliance, my uncle taught me how to make good decisions, and my aunt taught me how to help people in need.

SOMEHOW THEIR LACK OF TRUST BECAME A LESSON IN ITS SELF!

HOW!?!?!:! 

IDK.

But it manifested, and here I am.

HOWEVER I have been given all of these skills, and have spent nearly 25 years listening to why my people were wrong to acquire them. 

     And with all of these skills, I harbor a guilt toward specializing any of them.

I cannot specialize and pick any of them, because I have nearly 25 years experience learning why someone else was faulted to being any of them.

This forces me to answer THE question without favoring one of these skills over the other.

                                  Have you ever tried to hammer, screw, weld, saw, glue, measure, balance, sand, and paint a piece of wood at the same time?? Damn near impossible.

SO here I am trying to build the entire dang house in a single instance. This omnipotent bitch ass bastard here is laughing his ass off at me, and the sad part is I see the humor and value it.

So im nearly 2 years out of university now, am on my second full time job (holy shit I actually did something), but I can't specialize in any of the skills that got me here. Literally running before I walk. (fun fact, I never learned how to crawl as a baby, just stood up one day and started walking.)

So now I have to repeat it again, by teaching myself a NEW skill, that hasn't been done before. So every time I learn something new, I am basically asking myself "Yea... but did Diddy do it?"

I am so done with these questions. 

I just want to play some video games, that's all I ever asked for. This is the only question I have ever wanted to care about.

(Here I go with the questions again... why do I even care.)

Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Next Star Wars Films Will Never Be Cannon



                                                                          NEVER.
Disney wrote its own movies. 

The next Star Wars films will be nothing more than high budget fan fiction that didn't have to debut on YouTube. 

"But Ivan, George Lucas is still consulting for it!"

Ya... but if you watch any recent interviews with George Lucas, he never answers questions about the movies directly. 

PROBABLY because he doesn't endorse them... because he doesn't like them... because they aren't using his ideas, and because THIS ISN'T REAL STAR WARS AND IT WILL NEVER EVER EVER BE CANNON.

Even the storm troopers aren't real storm troopers! They have smiles on their helmets! That't not scary! That's not dark! Storm troopers are supposed to reflect the strength and unmerciful power of the empire! Not smile at you from across a sea of blaster rounds and make you feel like the freshly cauterized hole in your chest is OK. 

SCREW YOU MICKEY MOUSE.

Like something out of hunger games. Since when does Star Wars need to draw from other pop culture pieces? Even Family Guy got the storm trooper faces right!

The holiday special is more cannon than this crap!
AND I LOVED EVERY MOMENT OF MEETING CHEWEY'S FAMILY, DON'T YOU HATE ON MALLATOBUCK AND LUMPAWARRUMP CUZ THEY AIGHT. 

The new movies are so far from the cannon that they aren't even Expanded Universe... they had to be given their own category 'Legends', because names that reference poop aren't family friendly language.

Thanks Disney.
On another note, have a look at the storm troopers right now, in the second released trailer for episode 7.


Be sure to pet my wolf pet to the right of this post, and leave me more reasons why the next Star Wars films ARE NOT REAL STAR WARS. The more we talk about this, the sooner we can go back to a normal lives.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Paying For A Job

Sounds like something out of a Spongebob episode right?
                   "When I started working at the Krusty Krab, I had to pay 8 dollars an hour! :D"
This is how I feel being a college student.

I am unquestionably fortunate to have a family that is paying for my education, but as the years go by, I feel like they are not paying for the results that they are expecting. I started in a community college, and after 2 years I transferred to a state school. When I got to the state school I had no guidance from a counselor on which classes to take and when. I am in my senior year and to graduate on time I am forced to take 2 senior level classes, and 3 freshman level classes, and 2 freshman labs.

                                                       Why?
I am in the final semester... Let me take my end game classes and ill be on my way!

                                 "Nah, you have to take these courses or you wont earn your degree."
                                           
   But... I'm a business major... what is Life Science and a science without a lab going to do for me?

                                  "Nah, you have to take these."

                      But... shouldn't you be showing me what jobs I should be applying for?

"Nah, Life Science is more important. You can figure that out after you graduate, so you can waste more time, but not on our time."

I take 5 classes and 2 labs. thats 17 credits this semester. I live in an apartment with utilities to pay. On top of which I have a car with monthly insurance payments.

I have maybe 20 hours a week to allocate to working, and I only get 11 dollars an hour at the Krusty Krab. (still more than good ole' Squarepants though...)

I could be taking the 2 classes that actually matter at this point, and working 30 hours a week, but instead I am spending precious time being retaught the various stages in cell cycles by a TA that doesn't care enough to wear anything other than jeans and a fitted T-shirt to the lab session. This guy is practically Larry the Lobster with that bling-bling arab-money mentality.

On top of all this, zero hours of all semesters were reserved for career guidance. Oh, there is a career services in my university, but they are only available during day class hours... you know, when I'm in class. Also, I am applying for jobs in my field, but my direction has been derived from my friends.

Had I not met these friends in college, I would probably be graduating undeclared...

      ... That is not possible, but there is no way I would have even thought about a job until a month after graduation. What is my family paying for again?

Life science. Good thing I surrounded myself with considerate individuals, who care about where their friends will end up in 10 years.

I'm searching for jobs, but I'm still blindly throwing my resume out there at anything I qualify for. I've also developed a rough plan for what I am doing for the next 3-5 years (with the help of Google, and LinkedIn). However, the only factor preventing me from STARTING MY EMPLOYMENT NOW is that damn college degree.
                                     never the less... IIII'M READYYYYY!!!!!!!!!
Instead of producing for an organization and earning a decent salary and work experience, I'm sitting here complaining to you about my homework. How old am I? read my other posts and try to figure it out, but lets say I should be at least a year out of school by now.

Life Science...  you can kiss my sclerenchyma.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Late Night Fix

For the past 3 years or so, I have found it somewhat difficult to fall asleep at a reasonable time. Those who know me attribute this to my need for late night gaming sessions.
   
     I'll reason with that assumption, and say that night is the most convenient part of the day for me to find time for my hobby (I use the term hobby very lightly because that is just not a heavy enough word to describe my addiction), because between 9:30pm and 3am I have no responsibilities to devote my time to.

It is entirely probable that I trained myself into a late night sleep schedule due to this "fixation" I have had with interactive entertainment from years 1-4 of my college career, with consecutive nights of World of Warcraft and League of Legends sessions, but I feel that I have reached a point where these factors no longer drive me to my insomnia.

      No see, as I sit here typing now I feel more like I am frantically grasping for an excuse not to go to sleep. Yeah, sleep is AMAZING and if I could marry the damn thing I would but from 9:30pm to 3am I feel so relaxed and unmoved by the rest of the world that I cannot help wanting more of this fabulous dead zone.
I have come to the realization that I love this part of the night because there isn't anyone else awake to bother me.
                                                 THEY ARE ALL ASLEEP :D

Nobody texing me, telling me they need something, causing problems that affect my regularly scheduled activities, NOTHING.

...And I'm sitting here fighting to stay awake, because once I hit the pillow, my day is done. I have to wake up to some wanker nagging me about they can't pay the utility bill till next week because they are incapable of life within the societal constraints, but its my fault for not paying it ahead of time with money that I don't have to begin with.  (I'm not saying I'm perfect at paying bills on time either... but I'm more perfect than they are damn it! And I am not paying anything until I have the other shares of the bill in my pocket.)

Hell I could care less about video games at 3am because I'm so tired that I can't play them right anyway! So I'm sitting here right now typing to you because I don't want to deal with you in the morning. You suck. All of you, however I do need you to keep reading these things because I like watching the numbers go up unexpectedly when I do little to no work keeping readers entertained.

Please me. Appease me. Don't make me go to bed...

Friday, August 8, 2014

I Have More Toys Than You

If a person were able to watch a complete recording of my life from beginning to present, they would discern that I have a strange affection for toys, so distinct and refined that I could be labeled a toy savant.

If you think you are too old to play with toy's then you are a liar and I pity your closet lifesyle.

I keep every toy from my childhood in bins in my basement. I don't play with all of them, but I like to keep them around. When I was young I used to imagine that all those Batman's and Beanie Babies had feelings and opinions, but were unable to express them because they were toys. Toys can't move. Yet I made sure to play with each one equally over the course of a week... so they wouldn't become lonely, of course!

My two favorite movies from back in the day were Toy Story, and Indian in the Cupboard. Why?
Because how freaking awesome would it be to open a cabinet in your house and see mini Darth Vader going blade to blade against a Fisher Price knight?! I KNOW RIGHT?!

I'm in my twenties now and I know none of that could ever happen, but the old me trapped within my drained and addled mind still has hope that one day his Lego's will come to life, build a colony in my basement, and wage war on every other being in their land of boxes and old clothes. Essentially becoming like the Moria goblins in LotR, using mice and squirrels as cave trolls, and I will live among them. An honorary and well renowned member of their society, like a village shaman... but the corrupt kind, that uses the people to bring him all the luxuries in the world for free... because they fear me and my knowledge...

If heaven was based on materialism that would probably be an accurate description of what my section would look like.

This being said, it can be assumed that I like to spend my free time doing absolutely nothing productive, and I feel that's how all people truly want to spend the end of their day after work or school. Even if someone says they love their work, or going to school, or doing endless amounts of research for their own personal benefit which happens to benefit a paying organization; again, anyone who says that they love to work is a liar. Nobody likes to work, work isn't fun. That's why its called work, and not called fun. It should be called not-fun. "Hey honey, im off to not-fun, so if u need me, I wrote my private not-fun number on a piece of paper and stuck it to the fridge, byeeeee!"

Clearly more descriptive and accurate than saying work.

I imagine a perfect life having a moderately productive job, 9-5 with two days off a week at least that will send me home each day feeling as if I've accomplished something, or helped someone. Then going home to my own house, to see my wife and give her an affectionately light kiss on the cheek, then prepare to make/help make dinner. After dinner relaxing in a hot shower followed by watching tv, playing a video game, surfing the web, or going out to meet friends for some shenanigans, but most days would be sharing these activities with my wife.

I believe that my inner child would be satisfied in life, if he could share his toys with the inner child of my future wife. 

It sounds silly, but if you think about it everyone is driven by that one thing they they couldn't have when they were young. For me that would be someone to share in the joy that my action figures and video games brought me, then and now. Its not actually the toys that make me happy, but the innocent pleasure that made me, still makes me, feel whole. It's not enough to experience that feeling though, I want to share it with others to make them happy, and when you use your innocent pleasure to give others pleasure, that's a whole other level of enjoyment man.

Why wouldn't you want to tell the world when something makes you happy?

I read it somewhere once that the biggest turn on a person could experience is knowing that they turn someone else on. ( don't ask me where I read that, its not for the ears and eyes of the public... yes I realize I've been talking about how much I enjoy toys this whole time, but its not like that. You're reading too much into it! Innocent pleasure! Think innocent pleasure!!)

Well, I probably just ruined this whole thing, but whatever it was good till you got down here, right?

Lol... gimmi sum feedback bros and brahs.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Time Management in the Eyes of a Procrastinator

I view the world as a giant video game. 

All the world follows a general script, and each decision changes the script as they play. Joining an organization allows for new quests, reputation, and automatic faction alignments while new acquaintances and potential party members phase in with each click of the imaginary cursor i see in my head. 

I also like to think of that oh-so-linear path we all take down the general script like Bizzaro at Six Flags. 

If you don't understand that, Google Bizzaro and come back to my page to read the rest of this thought. 

I like to think of myself as an overall happy person. I enjoy my life and most of the people in it. 

                                                                  HOWEVER
Every so often i'll feel like the world is coming down around me. 

Being a full time student is not as difficult as it is portrayed to be. Being an outstanding academic is the hard part (which I am no where near close to being). 

Owning a car is not difficult either. Paying the insurance and keeping up with the maintenance is where the challenge lies. 

And working part time is not difficult at all. Working part time to pay for the car insurance and maintenance for the car you need to get to the part time job, and the classes for the degree you need to qualify for a higher paying job, is moderately difficult. 

        This mix of responsibility leaves very little room for studying, homework, and much desired past times. 
This mix makes it difficult to show the world that you are trying in school, yet your lack of time to study comes back to haunt you during the first, second, and final exams EVERY. DAMN. SEMESTER.

The frustration builds upon you with each pointless class where the concepts make it into your head but don't hang around for long themselves, because they too must start driving to work, to pay for the car insurance for the car they need to get to class, to qualify for a higher paying job!

AND WHEN YOU FINALLY DISCOVER A CLASS THAT CAN TEACH YOU CRITICAL SKILLS FOR A CAREER YOU MIGHT NOT FIND BORING, the tightly fitted weekly schedule that you willingly signed up for (because it allowed for the most efficient management of your time) says NO YOU MAY NOT STUDY THIS MATERIAL BECAUSE YOU MUST GO TO WORK!

WHERE YOU WILL WASTE YOUR TIME STANDING AT A DOOR FOR PETTY CRIMINALS TO TRY AND ABSCOND WITH MERCHANDISE THAT HAS NOT BEEN PAID FOR...

AND. The worst part about it is that they might not even come. Not even with an invitation! Why?!

Because THEY TOO must get to work, to pay for the car they need to get somewhere else which may lead to higher pay.   (of course they don't do that, because they are petty criminals and don't want to take the simple path to improve their ways of life) 

BUT WHY DO THEY INSIST ON LETTING YOU DO NOTHING ALL DAY!?!?! 

I want to go back to doing nothing all day. Maybe I should settle and attempt to be a trophy husband to a wealthy hard working woman that don't need no man... Nah, id rather waste my own money. 

I need a break.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Assumptions Built Into This Question

How often do you sit around and wait for something to happen?

If you are a gamer, then the answer for you would be ALL THE DIDDLY DARN TIME! Yea you might be up in arms thinking of a defensive response to my answer because you spend your day managing which daily quests need to be completed in how much time to leave room for your raid, or some time for grinding mobs for a rare drop and "Hey Ivan you suck because I'm doing alot of things to get this really awesome set of armor for my toon so it can look better than your stupid hunter!"

                    Well yes metaphysical viewer stereotype, you are doing lots and lots of work to make  that helmet worth the time investment.  

 But think about it...

         In all that time you've been killing tigers for reputation, you're banging out a good 10 rep per kill. You're now in a grinding groove, completely mindless until its time to log off for work. You're a a grinding machine. So now that you have a steady inflow of reputation, are you not simply sitting at the computer waiting for the job to be finished?

What about farming for a rare drop? Are you not waiting for the right bird to come along so you can cut a broad sword our of its unusually large stomach?

 Both of these scenarios are time investments. What is an investment? "An investment is an asset or item that is purchased with the hope that it will generate income or appreciate in the future" (Investopedia.com).

                   Something that will be worth something else IN. THE. FUTURE.

What am I getting at--- FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK.

While I was sitting around today waiting for life experiences to cross my path I decided to pick up a book I found in my basement a year ago, and decided not to read till now. I do that.

The book is titled Motivation: Theories and Principles and I am only one chapter into it, so this is a premature opinion on one of its ideas, but  I want to share it anyway:

The book starts out by comparing the mind and body and whether or not our behaviors are free or determined. It talks about this opinion called Mentalistic Monism: The view that we do not have to assume any external world if our only knowledge of it is from our experience (pg. 5).

Rephrased: There is no external world outside of our minds and there is no proof  that things exist outside of our minds except for what we experience.

If you believe this, then not only is this game we're playing not real, but the things that are real also arn't real! Trippy, yah. Too bad someone couldn't have added a mini map to our "real world" UI's.

Then there's this guy name of David Hume who took this idea and said there is a possibility that there is only one mind and that any other apparent minds are only the experience of the one mind, like other objects are all experiences of the one mind.

This guy pretty much just called you an idea. Who does he think he is, saying you're no greater than an idea?! You know what Mr. Hume, YOU'RE an idea!

 So he re-branded Mentalistic Monism as Solipsism.

Let say you stubbed your toe on the foot of your bed. The first experience you have would be *SONOFAB@#$%!*  The second experience you have asks "If this pain is only an idea why am I experiencing pain, unless this bed must exist?" To answer this question, the existence of the bed has to be assumed. IF you are a solipsist, your argument would be that neither the bed or the pain actually exist unless you can prove that they are separate entities from your mind.

Why would my mind pain its self, Ivan?

This is because we do not pick and choose experiences; they just happen. Or you're a masochist.

You could argue this, but ultimately your arguments do not exist outside of my own mind, because there is no separate "you" outside of my own mind. So you could rage all you want but I don't care because you're not there! HAH!

Let this be a lesson to you if you see me on the Fields of Justice.


                             COMMENT BELOW AND SURVEY TO THE RIGHT.