3101 replies to this topic

[pokari]

I don't know why this is attractive to people - i have yet to meet this kind of guy in real life. the closest i can come is the overachiever who actually works super hard, but just acts like it doesnt mean much, i appreciate this kind of guy for his hard work anyway

There's also just people who have unexpected skill and/or talent, in an area that you wouldn't expect.

What doesn't happen in real life (to my knowledge) is the manga trope of the (shounen) protagonist who's amazing at everything (more or less) but normally just can't be bothered; that much falls firmly into the category of fiction. Of course, the flip side is, it's interesting in a story partly because it's so unlikely.

Then again, there probably are a few people in the world who at least come off that way, I suppose, out of 8 billion people...

Well, thanks to the Slice of Life genre, all of us are protagonist material anyway, right? :'D

Is it confusing the happiness from exceeding expectations or does the character just generally have a good face which gets even better when he looks serious...i strongly believe it is the latter

Wait, good face as in good-looking, or as in well-thought-of? :/

On the other hand, there is a nice dilemma in that if you do nothing and work only when it counts, you'll get abused all the time, and if you work hard all the time, you'll get overused and insulted for not caring about yourself aaaahh what should one do..? [not really]

Which is why you should take a third option and be reincarnated into an isekai [not really].

uwu

[penrosecat]

Well, thanks to the Slice of Life genre, all of us are protagonist material anyway, right? :'D

 

as long as you truly believe in yourself

 

 

Wait, good face as in good-looking, or as in well-thought-of? :/

 

good looking

 

well thought of doesnt matter as long as you have looks

 

---

 

I read this somewhere, if you want to be happy surround yourself with people less successful than you, and if you want to be successful surround yourself with people more successful than you

 

really? uwu

[pokari]

I am happiest when I'm the second- or third-smartest person in the room, I've found.

Dunno about success, though. The only way that quote makes sense to me is if I assume it's talking about charity work vs. schmoozing. Personally, for me, surrounding myself with deadbeats and surrounding myself with A-type go-getters both sound uncomfortable and stifling? And it's been determined that the latter has (helped to) lead me to nervous collapse at least once ~w~;

So much for adages. :/

[penrosecat]

A type go getters is pretty stifling, but since I usually work alone I can get motivated by feeling that feeling half the day

 

I feel like I do have to credit them for bringing out the best in me, even though I hate all of them

 

Was this an enviable way of life? Probably not, now that I think about it. I guess I could end up looking into the past and crying about the stubborn, struggling me in the future.

 

Well, whatever...

[pokari]

If the future you is going to keep struggling stubbornly, then I hope that the future, stubborn, struggling you will struggle your way into a good bit of happiness for yourself, too.

*hugs*

Things so often turn out very differently that we expect anyway, though—moreso the farther one goes in life, it seems. So it's probably not worth fretting much about what happens too far in the future; the near future and the now will suffice for everything—except for long-term aspirations, and retirement planning, I think?

[penrosecat]

They really do, and the things we think are big turn out to be not-so-big after all

Kind of like what a child sees when he sees working adults compared to thinking about what he's doing after growing up

It seems like it's too tough, but it usually isn't, as long as you give it some time and be courageous

---

Personally I have begun to feel happiness is in the struggle/journey itself, with watching back on past struggles a close second

[pokari]

An interesting aside to this, from a conversation I had with my sister recently: A study of people's end-of-life deathbead comments shows one of the mosy common complaints is wishing they hadn't worked so hard (and, e.g. spent time with their spouses and children instead), and we were wondering how much of that was the wisdom of a elder and how much was just them looking back with rosy-coloured glasses and underestimating how hard that would have been.

Though in general a lot of the stated regrets when you look this stuff up are along the lines of, "I wish I had taken risks and tried doing what I want instead of listening to other people." Given that my generation instead seems to have been overly-told "go do what you want" it'll be interesting to see in sixty years to what extent regrets are still in the same directions or not? (Though we definitely still often expect people to work to the exclusion of their family, at least)

(There's some less-controversial deathbed "advice" too, though (like, "I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends"))

[PItiful Boar]

I want to die quick and painless and I would have no regrets

Edited by Feishy Pit Boar, 14 June 2019 - 07:00 PM.

[penrosecat]

There was a lot of stuff written before the edit which has been removed in favour of edgier content.

Meh, I dunno about regrets. Be happy and die with fluff around you. I guess medical problems wont let you do that. :/

[pokari]

I woke up at 6 AM to go hiking today, got back after 9, napped, went out looking for leaves (grape or banana) to stick in the bottom of a bamboo steamer; ultimately found pickled grape leaves, frozen banana leaves, and dried bamboo leaves as a bonus, but not without driving all over the valley and incidentally picking up eastern European sweets ("Zefir", and some pudding-like bread of unknown nomenclature), and also Indian sweets (Jalebi, Kaju Katli, Rasmalai, not that I'd be able to tell you what any of those are except perhaps Jalebi (<3) without looking at the labels).

Now I'm exhausted but in a good way ~w~

[PItiful Boar]

where did you go for hiking?

There was a lot of stuff written before the edit which has been removed in favour of edgier content.

Meh, I dunno about regrets. Be happy and die with fluff around you. I guess medical problems wont let you do that. :/

it wasn't edgy really, kinda mean what i say

I don't want a drawn out death. 

Like my uncle, he had liver cancer, and was stage 4 when he found out. Think he died in 2 months. It was short but it must have been the longest 2 months in his life

[pokari]

I intend to cling to life tooth and nail even if it becomes excruciating, but each to their own.

where did you go for hiking?

There's a trail that goes alongside 17, starting from where the suburbs stop (parking for it is literally just streetside in front of people's houses) and ending at Lexington Reservoir, but in the middle also goes off to the side through the tops of the hills north of Lexington, which is where we walked to and then went back.

[PItiful Boar]

Los Gatos nice place
Used to be backwards , for the cats

[pokari]

You say "used to be [...] for the cats" but the hike certainly still had signs posted for what to do when encountering mountain lions (which are the "gatos" in question, I believe :'p)

But yeah, my parents have a story about how my dad's old scoutmaster told them, if they were moving to the area, they should check out this little community of artists nestled in the hills with cheap housing for students called "Los Gatos"—apparently when he was stationed here in WWII, that was a good description of it (instead of, "dear god, people can afford these houses...?"—not that that's not everywhere now)

Edited by pokari, 15 June 2019 - 06:23 PM.

[PItiful Boar]

Bobcats

I went up to the Sierra vista reserve this weekend and it was a blast. Might go onto the trail sometime
Have you been to the San Antonio reserve?

[pokari]

That last hike was actually a toss-up between Rancho San Antonio and the place we did end up going, so I'll probably get there eventually, but in the meantime I don't think I've been...? Not sure though, it used to be that I just went along with other people and didn't pay much heed to where I was going, so there's lots of places in and around the valley that I've been but can't name.

I drove by the parking lot for Sierra Vista earlier this year (or late last year?) in a bout of whimsy, when it had been snowing noticeably up in the hills (though not those hills, quite), and it looked pretty cool (also that day the snow mixed with the observatories over on Mt Hamilton looked kinda sci-fi somehow and that was awesome).

Edited by pokari, 18 June 2019 - 06:27 PM.

[pokari]

I twisted my ankle very slightly the day before yesterday so we haven't been able to take advantage of this nice weather, alas.

Since it seems I am unemployed again after all, maybe this is the time to take a vacation to Iceland and/or Thailand and/or other places I've considered the pros and cons of moving to to as an alternative to living in the U.S.

[PItiful Boar]

why thailand? that's like a third world country

also aren't they under military rule?

the military had to intervene and side with the royalists (yellow shirts) over the ... (can't remember the color) shirts to establish order

[pokari]

Red shirts is the other side—I unfortunately can't help but think of Star Trek which is really quite unfortunate in this case.

Thailand is a relatively cheap place to live, but with decent infrastructure for a "third-world" country, and, to my understanding, is relatively safe if you're uninvolved in politics (which no one expects expats to be involved in, I think), junta rule notwithstanding. And it seems like an interesting place. I wouldn't want to become a citizen, but living there might be fun. Though, honestly, it's probably too hot for me.

Well, Malaysia is actually probably a better match for most of the criteria I described above, but hey.

[pokari]

It occurs to me that if plastic-eating bacteria evolve and our plastic garbage problem "solves" itself like that, the carbon currently held up in plastic will be released into the biosphere and things will get even hotter.