If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool, H/T mindyourbusiness:
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
May 21
“But what is philosophy? Doesn’t it simply mean preparing ourselves for what may come? Don’t you understand that really amounts to saying that if I would so prepare myself to endure, then let anything happen that will? Otherwise, it would be like the boxer exiting the ring because he took some punches. Actually, you can leave the boxing ring without consequence, but what advantage would come from abandoning the pursuit of wisdom? So, what should each of us say to every trial we face? This is what
I’ve trained for, for this my discipline!”
—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.10.6–7
I won’t abandon the Stoic philosophy because I am having a rough week. After a couple of weeks with anger under control, I have relapsed this week. It is mostly due to not sleeping enough, or trying to do demanding tasks while hungry. When I let the anger get in control, it is because I am not setting myself up for success and then not using the tools I have learned to get in a better state of mind.
May 22
“You get what you deserve. Instead of being a good person today, you choose instead to become one tomorrow.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.22
“I don’t complain about the lack of time . . . what little I have will go far enough. Today—this day—will achieve what no tomorrow will fail to speak about. I will lay siege to the gods and shake up the world.”
—SENECA, MEDEA, 423–425
it is entirely too easy to say to myself “I’ll do that next week”. I started working out again, but it was a week later than I planned. This is because I stayed up too late on a Sunday and decided to sleep in instead of waking up early enough to go running in the morning. I went running in the afternoon instead of going to the gym. I have been doing better in the 2 weeks since then and need to continue to make good use of my time.
May 23
“Show me that the good life doesn’t consist in its length, but in its use, and that it is possible—no, entirely too common—for a person who has had a long life to have lived too little.”
—SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 49.10b
This is another reminder that there is no guarantee that I will live any length of time. It is a guarantee that I control how I spend my time. Not everything I do is productive, but I try to make sure it is mostly good for me. Making my wife happy is also a big part of how I spend my time, but she’s pretty simple so that’s one of my easier responsibilities.
May 24
“You say, good fortune used to meet you at every corner. But the fortunate person is the one who gives themselves a good fortune. And good fortunes are a well-tuned soul, good impulses and good
actions.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.36
This quote reminds me of Frederick Douglass describing his Grandmother as having a reputation for good luck with plants. He also described how she took roots into the cabin in the winter and was very diligent about where and how deep she planted them. The same is true in life, I could be called very lucky to be in my current marital situation, but I was very careful about who I married and was very intent from day one on ensuring I did not get divorced.
May 25
“Joy for human beings lies in proper human work. And proper human work consists in: acts of kindness to other human beings, disdain for the stirrings of the senses, identifying trustworthy impressions, and contemplating the natural order and all that happens in keeping with it.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 8.26
The best way for me to be happy and have piece of mind is to do what I am supposed to. That encompasses my job, home life and taking care of my physical health. If I neglect any of these it is easy to get in a cycle of anger and stress.
May 26
“I’m constantly amazed by how easily we love ourselves above all others, yet we put more stock in the opinions of others than in our own estimation of self. . . . How much credence we give to the opinions our peers have of us and how little to our very own!”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 12.4
I know people at work think I am weird. I’m sure people I don’t know make fun of me for being a 50 year old man with long hair. I also don’t dress like your average office worker. These things don’t enter into my thinking when I make decisions about my life or what I think is important. If I tried to impress others, they would probably see through this and then they would still think I was weird and not worthy of respect.
May 27
“Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.”
—ZENO, QUOTED IN DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 7.1.26
Small choices add up to a big change. If I sleep enough, it makes it easier to get up and either run or go to the gym. If I workout in the morning, that encourages me to eat healthy through the day and drink enough water so going to the gym after work is easier. If I’ve done all my planned workouts for the day, it is easier to sleep on time and set myself up for another day.
Music this week is The Dead South, I know I’ve put them up before, but my wife and I saw them in Richmond Tuesday night. We were front row in front of the banjo player, with my wife at the fence and I was directly behind her holding the fence on either side of her. If you like their music and have the opportunity, they put on a hell of a show. The opening act, The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, really brought the energy as well.
The Dead South started with Diamond Ring.
They finished with my favorite song, Banjo Odyssey
Good Times.
Ron,
I bought my own copy of “The Daily Stoic” based on your posts here. Also, the book “How to be a Stoic.”
Thanks for these!
Cool, another convert!
The Daily Stoich:
H2O(g) + C(s) ⇌ CO(g) + H2(g)
2CO + O2 ⇌ 2CO2
CO + H2O ⇌ CO2 + H2
2H2 + O2 ⇌ 2H2O
^
|
|
Chem Nerd!
I like to think of myself as…a producer.
The Suburbs – Chemistry Set live 09-26-81 The Cabooze Mpls
https://youtu.be/25IG9OnJRdY?t=88
Great stuff.
Did you ever go to any of those drunken messes at the Cabooze or the Longhorn?
Too young. Too hayseed.
I had friends who somehow got in.
You are either part of the solution or you are the precipitate.
Semisonic – Chemistry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgCVR2pjXc0
Chem nerdistry pt 2 – I was asked once about what I do, and I said that most of what I did was to be a catalyst for changes vice directly producing much myself. It was only later that I realized I had characterized myself as something caustic and unstable.
I like chemistry puns, but only periodically.
What is the most important rule in chemistry?
.
.
.
Don’t lick the spoon.
The Daily Storch: https://youtu.be/xknBQvt5jSI
I’m having a few philosophical problems with that.
I’ve always preferred to phrase it as, “You get what you put up with.”
It’s more like, “We get what a whole lot of stupid, selfish idiots put up with.”
DEMOCRACY!!
Yep.
-Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
It means internally from what’s in your control.
Unfortunately the world could not care lass about what you deserve.
I put a lot of effort into avoiding my just desserts.
I’ve heard that while the young may want justice, but the old tend to want mercy.
I think you’ve located my problem(s). Three strikes and I’m out.
“I will lay siege to the gods and shake up the world.”
Wow. I need to put this entire quote somewhere where I can see it every day.
Big banner in your gym?
Yeah, that’s where my mind went. Speaking of which, we are waiting on financing and still looking for the right space, so things aren’t moving as well as I’d like. This is the quote I needed to see today.
Keep at it. Make it real.
Making it real
Are they still moving forward?
Hope it still happen for you.
Yes. The big loan is still in processing, but I did get a smaller short term loan so we can put a deposit on the equipment and perhaps secure some space. The equipment has to be out of the old gym next weekend so we either have to rent a storage unit, or hopefully get a building so we can just move it straight there. We’re looking at buildings but still haven’t found the right one yet. So a few things to deal with or wait on that aren’t really in our control.
I’ve been down that road. Deal progress ebbs and flows. Keep on truckin’.
Same. Best one I’ve read.
Agreed. It’s definitely going to be the wallpaper on my PC for a while.
I like it, definitely a reminder to get off my ass and do things.
Sounds like something a leftist/SJW/antifa/etc. would heartily agree wtih.
not sleeping enough, or trying to do demanding tasks while hungry…
I like to go through life believing my mind functions like a computer operating on pure logic within a moral framework independent from chemistry and nerve impulses. Then I get sick, or tired, or a headache and it all goes out the window and it’s just a skull full of random chemistry with no relationship to logic or morals at all.
I suppose accepting my biological limitations and doing the things to keep my brain working correctly is an aspect of stoicism.
Your fan is clogged and your heat sink is running hot.
MA’AM! This is a family friendly chat room!
Yep. Sure is. Uh huh. Totes.
Speaking of chemicals
Roxy Music – Love Is The Drug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3OepDn5GU
“I don’t complain about the lack of time . . . what little I have will go far enough. Today—this day—will achieve what no tomorrow will fail to speak about. I will lay siege to the gods and shake up the world.”
—SENECA, MEDEA, 423–425
Wow. That’s a good one.
I find myself on autopilot way too much. I have a good life that really doesn’t require me to throw down with the gods. I think that’s wrong, somehow.
Thanks, Ron! A modern stoic for you.
Jordan Peterson says often that you just need to be a little better than you were the day before. It doesn’t matter HOW little, just that you are better than you were the day before.
He’s right. It’s really why I love weightlifting so much. Tiny increments of improvement, but it’s fin to look back a couple months.
I need to apply that same attitude to other parts of my life.
So much this. Same thing with shooting. Same with the guitar. Not so much with the job.
Memento mori
Sic transit gloria mundi
Is it bad I read that in Geddy Lee’s voice?
Peart near.
Oh, you wrote NEAR.
The singer is near?
Yes
No, no it isnt.
Peart should always be read in his voice, as was intended.
Not at all.
That may be my favorite Rush song of all.
My favorite version. I like it because the tempo is slightly picked up from the studio album (but not much — it’s only a few bpm faster) and his vocal performance really gets across the emotion and tension of the subject matter.
I have a whole article I’m writing on this and the other two songs of the “Fear” trilogy, but it’s a long way from being done. I want to get it right.
OMG they look so YOUNG. Well, Neil (with his cute little braided rat tail) and Alex do. Geddy looked old when he was young.
Plus lasers!
This should give a couple laughs to the 80’s kids.
OMG, that was fucking brilliant!
That was well done!
American Psycho -Business Card Scene
“Good coloring.”
“That’s bone.”
Can we still say this?
Just when I thought I was getting sick of media being meta, someone produces the most amazingly meta thing I’ve ever seen. So good.
Matt says he’ll be doing his weekly car shows at Gourmeltz starting in June – Saturdays 11-4. On the plus side, those times (vice Friday nights) means less chance of late afternoon wet weather messing things up outside.
Damnit. That Sunbeam Alpine is still parked outside the gym…
“You get what you deserve. Instead of being a good person today, you choose instead to become one tomorrow.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS
easy to say when you don’t care your son is an asshole
Why didn’t you offer to babysit?
Could have turned the poor kid’s life around if you weren’t so busy partying with all of your undead friends.
You think they’d have trusted a Dacian?
I am a quarter Greek on my mothers side and an eighth Scythian on my fathers
“You get what you deserve.” Reminds me of my high school math teacher. When handing back the first test of the year he would say, “Now some of you are going to look at your grades and say ‘The teacher gave me a C or he gave me a D. I didn’t give you anything. You got what you deserved.'” He’d be problematic these days.
That’s an excellent quote.
I dunno, there’s plenty of high school teachers who give out arbitrary grades while drunk on authority. I had an asshole math teacher in high school who would deduct a letter grade on exams if we didn’t structure our equations so that the equal signs all lined up precisely going down the page. He wouldn’t have lasted in a free market environment.
I had a math teacher in HS that was happy to grade us fairly easily as we were his first class in the day and he was usually nursing a hangover. If we were quiet, we had it made.
The lowest grade of my high school career (C) was from Mr. Hatlili, the glass-eyed art teacher. Not because I didn’t make passable art, but because I questioned the utility of having to draw 5 pages of ellipses by hand.
My pet peeve in school was teachers who’d grade you based on some notion of ‘ability’ or ‘effort expended’ rather than objective criteria.
My favorite high school story — 1968, battle-ax senior English teacher. I had English right after home room, where report cards were handed out. So, she starts class by telling us all to get out our report cards and put them on the upper right side of our desks. She proceeds to march down the columns, examining cards, gets to me (next to last in 2nd column), points to my B- in English and demands “Is that what you were expecting?” It wasn’t, I’d done borderline A-/solid B+ work, but I instantly caught on to her game, so I looked up at her, smiled, and said “yes.” She glared, thumped me on the head, glared at the card, glared at me again, thumped me on the head again, and stalked back to her desk, examining no more report cards. I carefully did B- work for the next quarter, then earned and got A’s from her for second semester. We wound up becoming friends, but I still cherish her outrage at my not acknowledging the injustice she had inflicted in an attempt to ‘improve’ me.
Cherish the wins, even the petty ones 😉
The English teacher I had for my Freshmen and Sophomore year did not like me. She didn’t seem to like men or boys much at all (and would routinely say things about when the sperm banks had enough deposits, men would no longer be needed). I took great pleasure in writing in the year end review my Sophomore year that I would have had much more respect for the class if she hadn’t given me my highest grade of the year on the one book I didn’t read. I had put together the paper based on the flyleaf, and the biases of the teacher.
I had a math teacher in high school (AP Calculus) who graded based on personal biases. For some reason he loved me and gave me an A+ (I may have deserved a C at best). My girlfriend at the time hated him and snarked at him in class, so while she did A+ work (legitimately), he gave her a C.
What a shithead.
Mrs. S was a bit weird that way. I had her as a Junior, and she hated the Junior class. Then as a Senior, and while she was tough, and occasionally a bit unfair, she loved her Seniors.
It always struck me as odd, as it really did come down to which year you were in.
I had a few math teachers that were cunts about showing your work. I can understand why, but some steps were completely unnecessary.
The best was the trigonometry teacher who accused my friend and I of cheating because we finished the tests quickly…in a class where you used a graphic calculator. She thought the Super Mario game I would play after finishing the test was some kind of super trig program, when again, we were allowed to use a graphic calculator.
She left us alone when we used the school calculators for the next test and still finished before everyone else.
You get what you get.
Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.
/Will Munny
You get what you need
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUqSNbJuGOw
“…a well tuned soul…’
Mine barely runs.
There have been days when I’ve felt like my soul is broken.
I thought you were a redhead?
/ducks
There is that… I guess a soul that doesn’t exist can’t be broken.
I know at least 3 of us glibertarianettes have red hair. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of us do.
The girlfriend has bottle red hair.
I had red highlights… back when I had hair.
I have… hair.
Long, beautiful hair?
Nope, short, stubbly hair that looks like I cut it myself (because I did)
My soul needs an Italian tune-up. Where’s that 47 year old blonde MILF when I need her?
Banging a 23 year old footballer?
Tesla down another 8%.
They really are trying to sink Elon.
Revenge for exposing Twitter as a fraud? [I mean Twitter hasn’t been able to answer or shut down the question about the fake users.]
Part of that may be requirements for passive ESG funds and ETFs to divest.
The loss of the ESG designation was an open and obvious attack on Tesla’s share price as it provides cover for the equity firms to divest.
They’re trying to scuttle the Twitter deal and bury Elon at the same time. His financing for the acquisition was a loan secured against Tesla shares.
Agreed.
Elon doesn’t put his stock up as collateral until the deal closes. As things currently stand, he has said the deal is dead unless Twitter opens the books on how they identify bots/fake accounts. Twitter has refused.
I think we all know Twitter is massively under-reporting those, and ripping off its advertisers. This deal ain’t closing at the tender offer price. If it closes at all, it will be at a lower, probably much lower, price. If it doesn’t close because Twitter refused to allow ordinary due diligence by the buyer, Twitter will be buried by the plaintiffs’ bar.
Who will begrudgingly settle for roughly the limits of its D&O cover. They will take their third and investors will get $2.96 share to offset the $30 or so they lost.
Win. Win.
Serious question: would this be a good time to buy Tesla? I don’t follow this stuff closely, and don’t have a big money to play with, but I wouldn’t mind owning part of a share (M1 Finance let’s you buy partial shares)
Not unless you like to gamble.
Asset diversity and risk tolerance is really a better approach.
I haven’t looked at either set of financials, but I’d think about buying Target first. But as a retail investor unless you play stocks like people play the ponies I’d look at ETFs and low expense mutual funds.
But as a retail investor unless you play stocks like people play the ponies I’d look at ETFs and low expense mutual funds.
^ Reading A Random Walk on WallStreet dispelled the notion for me that any stock picker can beat low cost-indexes over the long-term. The 1 in 10k oddity is just random selection bias that then too underperforms as the decades stack.
We celebrate the PM (portfolio manager) who flips a fair coin heads 10 times in a row. The guy who only got three tails was tossed out on his ass after the third time he got tails.
But with a large enough group size, and minimizing talk between the
clientsmarks, you can make sure you have at least a subset that will believe you can predict anything.An analyst picks a stock and mails letters to every household telling half to buy and half to sell. Each week another stock is picked and letters sent to the households that received the correct advice. After awhile he sends letters saying they will have to pay for further advice.
Exactly.
Obligatory.
On one hand, don’t bet against geniuses.
On the other, don’t bet against all of the ESG giants.
Tesla split 1->4 last year. (so did Apple – 4th or 5th time in 30 years). With some companies…you’re not likely to really lose out too much if you can afford the risk.
I’m waiting for the Twitter deal to settle out. Until then, I expect pressure.
I saw a headline in my news feed earlier this week that was mentioning that Twitter may force Musk to follow through with the purchase. I’ve been unable to find the story again though.
I believe Musk can exit by writing a $1BB check. If Twitter tries to force the issue, they will wind up in court, and Musk will be able to force them to disclose everything they know about bots/fake accounts in the lawsuit. Twitter might as well play Russian Roulette with a semi-auto.
Yeah. I don’t know what the termination fee is. But all the non-financial sites have been all over how Twitter was going to “force” Musk to complete the deal.
That’s not the way it works.
OT:
It’s Davos week, so of course we will be inundated with insane shit. Exhibit A: The Pfizer CEO trumpeting how totally awesome it would be to tag meds to assure compliance.
I like Martyr Made’s take.
I know they like to fuck with us, but come on. Also relevant from Twitter:
Great, a bunch of people who think being rich and connected makes them morally superior to the rest of us and gives them the right to dictate how everyone else on the planet lives.
I blame Ayn Rand
/tongue firmly in cheek
“You get what you ask for. Whether you want it or not. And whether you even know you’re asking for it or not.”
Kevin Cullinane at Freedom School in 1993. My first employer required us all to take his 1-week class. My first intro to real hard-core libertarianism. Mrs. Cullinane brought muffins.
I’m eating my current go-to breakfast: ersatz honey nut cheerios topped with Tillamook peach yogurt and milk.
After that, maybe I’ll try to shake things up. Make an effort to get out of this rut I’m in.
Was expecting this one: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K3SA5Z-cbC8
… but I guess NOT posting that one does shake things up…
Server Error Server Error Server Error – let me comment!
That! gets through?
Commenting gloves?
It seems to like some comments more than others. I tried to post an identical comment 4 times the other day and it wouldn’t take it. Then I posted something else and it was all good. That happened to me today, also.
I was trying to celebrate that we finally fixed the application that’s been down all week, just in time to not work the weekend.
Oh, and that it’s given me a headache.
I can’t be the only one perusing this website and thinking of sending a gift to a truly “special” person, can I?
https://bagofdicks.com
I’ll give them some points.
That’s just wrong, but so right.
https://bagofdicks.com/products/the-evil-singing-bag-of-dicks
One of my friends sent me a Christmas card that played a carol as sung by a bunch of mewing cats. When you open the card, it pulls an insulating strip from between the battery contacts and begins playing. There is no way of turning it off short of tearing the card open (the player circuitry and battery are glued in between two sheets of card stock.
If you just tear it open, you’re in for another surprise: the player circuit is packed in with a bunch of glitter. I suspected something like this, fortunately, and was careful to open it as gently as possible.
“Friend”
You could be ever more evil, and send them a glitter bomb.
They should team up for a dick bomb.
That was nickname in my frat!
I’ll never spend the money for this.
This @!#*%! backgammon game is making it very hard for me to maintain stoicism. If the computer player gets the exact role it needs one more time I’m throwing this effin’ monitor out the GD window.
Paging Randy Marsh…
Photo posted online of 6 Florida middle schoolers holding up letters to spell slur, community members irate
The should be pissed – only 4 letters in “slur”.
Nice!
G I N G E R ???
It is well past time to end blonde jokes.
Naturally there is no picture of said photo to determine if it was offensive or not, so I will assume this is a nothingburger.
Patrick Lancaster – the guys has balls. Walking around the battlezone in woods and fields. Fighting holes, minefields. avoid the open fields…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XykxIFiDbiY
Dude always looks like he’s about to have a stroke from anxiety.
I can’t say for certain I would be any better in that scenario.
Interesting. The police could find and release this video, but still nothing about the body cam video at the gas station. Funny about that.
Video shows chase before Florida biker was tased, ‘cooked alive’
He stopped to fill up his bike in the middle of a chase?
It’s Davos week
They finally figured out how ridiculous they looked raving about global warming while wearing fur?
I don’t think optics are terribly concerning to them..
But of course….
Fuckers
The Cars- I haven’t heard them in a long time. Reminded me of this one.
Mook is testifying today because of his travel plans to fly to Europe, where he will have a tragic and fatal accident.
Never get into a cab with a driver named “Dodi.”
So they lied to poor Hillary too! She’s as much a victim in this as anyone! /mainstream media
What I find most interesting about all this is nobody (including especially the FBI) seems to have asked the most basic questions:
“How did you acquire this information?”
“Who gave this to you, and why?”
“What makes you think this is solid, credible information?”
Of course, that is because they were all in on it. So maybe what is most interesting is that Durham isn’t pressing these people on what they did to find out the provenance and reliability of the information. Because he knows, I suspect, that if he does press them, it will become obvious they were all in on it. Including the FBI, which he is trying very hard to protect.
And the Bee closes the week strong!
I’ll take things that didn’t really happen for $100, Alex.
Texas Parents Sue Apple, Claim Loud Amber Alert Through AirPods ‘Tore Apart’ Son’s Eardrums
TW Gizmodo
Dude, when my phone spits out an amber alert, you better believe my ears are bleeding.
I really object to those amber alerts. I’ve received them in the Bay Area for something that happened in LA, 400 miles away. Thankfully I soon after found out how to disable the alerts.
I have those turned off on my phone.
I only have to be reminded once per phone to turn off all emergency alerts. I happen to have a new phone so I was recently reminded.
Warty’s cat.
Nice Puddy! *backs away slowly*