Grim Realizations

[ThatLankyBastard]

I have only ever asked out 5 women...

...out of those 5, 4 of them considered me in the "Friendzone"... and 1 thought I was gay...

It is my grim realization that I am destined not to have an actual meaningful relationship with any of the women I want to have one with. I'm still friends with all of them, and none of them have any interest in me...

[sub]Even though they all have had string after string of abusive, selfish, and just plain asshole boyfriends and always came to me to talk about how they hate them so much...[/sub]

 

[Kriptonite]

There are none greater than "If I don't do my work NOW, I'm actually going to be fucked."

I wait to do my work until I have this realization.
Every. Single. Time...

 

[A Satanic Panda]

snip

even moar snipping

snip.

Life isn't about what happens after it's over any more than a movie is about what happens after it's done and you've turned off the TV. Yeah, it's nice if there is some lasting effect, but it's not about that. Not in most cases anyway.

I don't get why people get so bent out of shape about the fact that everything is transient. So what? People get so worked up about finding The Meaning of Life. They're doing it wrong. There is no meaning. They're like COD fanboys complaining about how there's no goal in Minecraft. Fucking make one. This is the ultimate open-world non-linear experience; you shouldn't treat it like you're supposed to do anything. Come up with your own purpose and achieve it. You'll find that working toward a purpose also has the effect of reducing your depression and your dependence on addictive behaviors.

Ditt - fucking - o

When I grab my phone to listen to music while I walk to school, and the battery is low. And that I, no matter how hard I try, will probably never fly a jet fighter. Flying one is undoubtedly the most badass thing to do, ever.

More serious note: That I may be a ticking time bomb, and at any moment could have a stroke and die. Or be diagnosed with a lethal form of cancer. Or any day I'm in a car or airplane it could crash and seriously injure or kill me. Pretty much the awing fact that at almost any point in time something can kill you. Not that it bothers me, it's still a scary thought.

I'll bet that chicken thought that too.

Edit: that I made my 200th post and didn't realize it

 

[Mr.PlanetEater]

My grim realization,
I left my only gallon of milk out on the counter last night.

Damn you cruel gods!

 

[Muspelheim]

That I'm unemployed, will be for quite some time, and virtually at the bottom of the massive bucket of available manpower. Oh, dear... But there's always some way out. I hope...

Also, I've got pyromanic tendencies. Thankfully, they're under control, but I'll have to keep an eye on myself.

And, of course, that some people out there are prepared to wrap themselves up in semtex and blow themselves and me, a total stranger, into tiny bits for the sake of some dysfunctional iron-age laws. I mean, at least the Baader-Meinhof league and similar terroristgroups had real, political reasons to do what they did. It's just all so pointless.

 

[Brandon237]

Big arse snip right here.

I suspect that the new big bang wouldn't turn out exactly the same as the old one, we were lucky enough in this one that the amounts of matter / antimatter were not the same (or maybe they are an we are looking at antimatter galaxies on the other side of the universe and now my head hurts), so things don't seem to go so perfectly when you have a singularity of such mass that it explodes... or who knows, maybe there is enough matter and even excess to crunch again, but NOT enough to get the singularity to go critical, and the whole universe is slowly leaked out as incredibly violent hawking radiation...

You know what, it is easier to just not know than to try and guess, for one as uneducated as myself (who is still vastly more educated on the subject than most my age) such speculation can only end in headaches.

Wouldn't an antimatter galaxy essentially be made of explodium for us? As in, we'd almost instantly die if we ended up in one? Yeah. That does make my head hurt. As does the whole concept of positrons and the like...
The haking radiation thing went over my head a bit but here's a thought:

If there is enough matter in the galaxy for it to 'crunch' then surely there must be enough for the singularity formed to go critical again, on the basis that the singularity that formed this universe did?

It would, however at this distance is would appear exactly the same as a normal galaxy. And because the 4 fundamental forces act exactly the same on matter and antimatter, we couldn't tell otherwise. If matter and antimatter do not meet, it takes some pretty involved experiments to actually tell them apart. And we are almost certain that antimatter was created in the big bang, so that could lead to interesting scenarios...

Nah, positrons are easy, for all the basic components of atoms (quarks and leptons) just reverse the charge. And make them annihilate when they meet their opposite.

As for that last one... when matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate into photons. High energy ones at that. If, in the initial big bang, enough of these were permanently released (as in, the mass of the normal and anti-particles is now moving at the speed of light in the very outskirts of the universe beyond where the super-blackholes could pull them back in the big crunch) to change the balance, then all of the rest of time would be one big singularity and a lot of very very very dispersed photons. Although this is purely my speculation

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I just completed a 11 hour work day, I feel like crap and I have 2 more weeks of this before my jobs settle back to normal.

And I have a "Personal Goal Setting Meeting" with my line manager during this period, who apparently locked himself in a bathroom once.

 

[Something Amyss]

I just realised this thread was about mayonnaise. That was pretty grim.

 

[Voodoomancer]

I realized the other day that I can get through an entire carton of milk in two days. Now my girlfriend is pissed and wants me to cut back. I need my milk but if we keep buying it so often it'll cut into our grocery budget.

...I may have just defined "First world problems."

You think that's bad? I can go through an entire carton in one evening.

 

[FrostyChick]

That I will never know who was phone?
That I'm hungry but forgot to bring money with me to college?
How about that one time I ran out of ice cream?
Or that there is really nothing grim in my life to be realised?

Oh, and ITT: First world problems.

 

[Thistlehart]

Borg Wall'o'text inbound! Prepare to be soap-boxed! Resistance is... simple?

My grim realization came some months ago when I realized I was in a dead-end job and wasn't really able to do anything about it, having no prospects. I had plans and ideas for the future, but no way to achieve them. Also I had the same sort of soul-crushing revelation that anything I do is meaningless in the bigger picture. The Universe (and to a lesser extent Humanity) doesn't care about me or what I do, and will never notice my existence nor my passing.

However, after some mulling over I had an epiphany: The Universe (and to a lesser extent Humanity) can go fuck itself.

Two years ago, I was the best agent at my workplace because I had made a decision: They don't pay me enough for how hard I work every day, so I'll work for myself, and they can pay me for my time. It made no difference in my financial situation, but then every supervisor and manager over me started taking notice.

I've recently been promoted to Supervisor, after having been first bumped up to Trainer (they thought I was so awesome they wanted me to impart my badassery to new hires, three of which went on to be promoted quickly and one became the new trainer), then to Dispatcher (which made my Supervisor nervous because she was afraid I'd take her job), and my Manager is now wanting me to come along to meetings with clients.

I took that resolve and applied it to the rest of my life.

I'm currently relearning math from the ground up (it was always the subject that kicked my ass in school) since I'm aiming to become first an electrician, then an electrical engineer. During my retirement I'll be doing two things: being a foster parent and doing my best to give those kids a good home, and working on electrical experimentation to try to sort out a few ideas I have (make some science fiction reality).

When I am lying on my deathbed, I hope to be surrounded by a family I built out of abandoned souls, having given society technology only dreamt of. The sweetest part will be that I will have done this not for the good of anyone, but for my own personal satisfaction; because I felt they were jobs that needed doing, were worth doing, and I refused to do anything less than stellar.

I hope to die with that pride. Nevermind that the Universe (and to a lesser extent, humanity) won't care. I did, and that will be all that matters.

 

[TWRule]

When I am lying on my deathbed, I hope to be surrounded by a family I built out of abandoned souls...The sweetest part will be that I will have done this not for the good of anyone, but for my own personal satisfaction...

This part about a family sounds noble at least, but I am curious how you expect to do that when admittedly living entirely out of self-interest?

 

[Thistlehart]

When I am lying on my deathbed, I hope to be surrounded by a family I built out of abandoned souls...The sweetest part will be that I will have done this not for the good of anyone, but for my own personal satisfaction...

This part about a family sounds noble at least, but I am curious how you expect to do that when admittedly living entirely out of self-interest?

You say self-interest like it is a bad thing, but that is an excellent question.

Here is your answer.

Because that is what I want to do, and I will do it to the best of my abilities. If my best is not enough, I will endeavour to do better.

All that we do, we do because we choose. There is no duty, there is no task, there is no choice we make that is something we must do. It is all of our own volition.

We all live only for ourselves. Some of us are just better at lying to ourselves about it.

Someone volunteers at a soup-kitchen for homeless youth? They don't do that for the youth. They do that because they want to. They want the satisfaction of knowing that they're making a difference in someone's life in some small way. Please understand, that this may sound negative, but think of it like this...

"All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany's Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours! Protect them! Save them! Bring them into the sheepfold! Walk the gale for them! Keep away the wolf! My dreams! My brother! My family! My land! My world! How dare you try to take these things, because they are mine!" --Sir Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

It serves me to serve others. It serves my interests to build a better world. I will make it better, because it is mine.

 

[JCBFGD]

"Scientistic delusion"? I think that's kind of an oxymoron, since science actually has evidence behind it, whereas delusions are caused by mental instability. So no, that doesn't make any sense or help at all. What I said will, according to myriad scientists and their myriad evidence, eventually and inevitably happen.

It didn't make sense because you misunderstood me . I said "scientistic" - referring to the perspective that places science on a pedestal as that which hands down the Truth and will deliver humanity to salvation - not scientific. The delusion is taking such things for granted (not in the psychological sense).

Yeah, I'm not really "worshipping" science or putting it on a pedestal, or whatever. Although I do concede that, in a way, science will "deliver us to the Truth" in that science's main purpose is to answer questions about our world and universe using research, evidence, and fact. Here, though, I'm merely accepting fact as fact; the facts being that the memory of you will fade, the human race will die out, and the universe will end.

 

[TWRule]

Yeah, I'm not really "worshipping" science or putting it on a pedestal, or whatever. Although I do concede that, in a way, science will "deliver us to the Truth" in that science's main purpose is to answer questions about our world and universe using research, evidence, and fact. Here, though, I'm merely accepting fact as fact; the facts being that the memory of you will fade, the human race will die out, and the universe will end.

I'm not saying you do worship science but am wondering how you came upon these 'facts' then if not through some acceptance of science's story for our future. A scientific fact only makes sense within the context of the methodology of science. However, it is not by any means the only possible method to select when examining the human condition. So what I've been trying to tell you is that you should try to set aside your preconceived notions of what the future of humanity must be and start exploring other methods that might lead to more tractable dilemmas, start thinking about what the future of humanity *should* be.

 

[TWRule]

Here is your answer.

Because that is what I want to do, and I will do it to the best of my abilities. If my best is not enough, I will endeavour to do better.

All that we do, we do because we choose. There is no duty, there is no task, there is no choice we make that is something we must do. It is all of our own volition.

We all live only for ourselves.

I understand your view, but I don't believe you adequately addressed my question - maybe I should rephrase it.

Creating and maintaining a true family, based on my understanding at least, seems to be something that one can't will others to participate in regardless of the effort put forth, in the first place, nor could one consistently maintain pure self-interest insofar as you were a true family, I'd say. This may not be because of some self-sacrificial altruism (certainly everyone is gaining some benefit from being part of this family I would hope), but because there is something shared between the family that didn't begin in the possession of any of its individual members. In other words, that which founds familial bonds. If a member begins to turn inward to their own world and concerns, they will inevitably turn away from/lose sight of the common concerns existing between the family. It sounds to me like the family you describe is more like a utilitarian organization, where no one has any genuine ties/relationships to each other beyond group gains, than a family. I think its pretty important to make this distinction.

So my question was really - how do expect to form and maintain genuine family ties without ever genuinely sharing the concerns of others?

 

[Dalek Caan]

Pouring out a bowl of cereal and then find out there is no milk is traumatizing. It happened last week and I am still getting over it.

 

[JCBFGD]

Yeah, I'm not really "worshipping" science or putting it on a pedestal, or whatever. Although I do concede that, in a way, science will "deliver us to the Truth" in that science's main purpose is to answer questions about our world and universe using research, evidence, and fact. Here, though, I'm merely accepting fact as fact; the facts being that the memory of you will fade, the human race will die out, and the universe will end.

I'm not saying you do worship science but am wondering how you came upon these 'facts' then if not through some acceptance of science's story for our future. A scientific fact only makes sense within the context of the methodology of science. However, it is not by any means the only possible method to select when examining the human condition. So what I've been trying to tell you is that you should try to set aside your preconceived notions of what the future of humanity must be and start exploring other methods that might lead to more tractable dilemmas, start thinking about what the future of humanity *should* be.

M'afraid I'm gonna have to reply with

Spoiler: this.

Okay, you're right, the ultimate end of the universe isn't currently known. It will most likely end, though. And the chances of humanity being somehow wiped out of the universe is pretty high also. It's also nearly impossible for you to be remembered for the entire span of the human race.

Now what sort of other methodology besides science is there? Science is the only thing which actually provides answers with evidence; it makes claims and supports them. You can't seriously be asking me to have a little "faith," can you? Faith is accepting what you're told, without verification, because you lack the will to do anything else. Unless you have a good reason to ignore science in this case, I'm afraid I can't ignore research and mathematics.

And how, exactly, "should" the human race be? There's no point to existence. We have no given purpose. Life is what we make of it. You can give yourself a purpose, sure, but there's been no one to give humanity a purpose; no human can really do that. And anyone who "gives" us a purpose is just giving us a suggestion for our purpose, or, more specifically, their purpose, not the purpose.