How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness)
This week’s book:
Discourses and Selected Writings
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
Epictetus was born a slave around 50 ad. His owner was Epaphroditus, a rich freedman who was once a slave of Nero. Though he was a slave Epictetus was sent to study philosophy under Musonius Rufus.
Epictetus was lame and there are some stories it was caused by his master and others that it was caused by disease.
He was a freedman when all philosophers were banished from Rome in 89 by the Emperor Domitian. He then started his school in Greece, and had many students. He did not leave any writings from his lessons, but one of his students, Flavius Arrian, took notes and wrote the Discourses.
Epictetus did not marry, had no children, and lived to be around 80-85. In retirement, he adopted a child that would have been abandoned and raised him with a woman.
He died sometime around AD 135.
He is my favorite Stoic teacher. I love his bare bones and very straight forward approach.
Following is a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of one of his lessons. Epictetus’s text appears in bold, my replies are in normal text.
That we ought not to yearn for the things which are not under our control Part V
Well, what then? Do you want me to pay court to So-and-so? go to his front-door?[8]—If reason so decides, for the sake of your country, your kinsmen, mankind in general, why not go? Why, you are not ashamed to go to the door of the cobbler when you need shoes, nor to that of the market-gardener when you need lettuce; and are you ashamed to go to the door of the rich when you want something that rich men have?—
Sometimes it is difficult for me to ask for help from others. It is one of the things I am working on even though I know there is no reason to feel embarrassed . Maybe I can look at it the same way I do in getting normal assistance from workers instead of feeling like I am admitting weakness.
45Very true, for as to the cobbler, I do not have to admire him.—Don’t admire the rich man, either.—And I shall not have to flatter the market-gardener.—Don’t flatter the rich man either.—How, then, shall I get what I need?—Am I telling you, “Go like a man who is certain to get what he wants,” and not simply, “Go in order to do what becomes you”?—Why, then, do I go at all?—So as to have gone, so as to have performed the function of the citizen that you are, of a brother, of a friend. And furthermore, remember that you have come to see a cobbler, a vegetable-dealer, a man who has authority over nothing great or important, even if he sell it for a high price. You are going, as it were, for heads of lettuce; they are worth an obol, not a talent. So it is in our life also. The matter in hand is worth going to a person’s door about; very well, I will go. It is also worth an interview; very well, I will interview him about it. Yes, but I will have to kiss his hand also, and flatter him with words of praise. Go to! that is paying a talent for a head of lettuce! It is not profitable to me, nor to the State, nor to my friends, to ruin by so acting a good citizen and friend.
Using flattery to get what I want is not a skill I have ever developed. Trying to do that would not work well for me because I am not a good actor. When I do require assistance, I simply ask without any unnecessary ass kissing. For the most part this has worked for me and I don’t feel as though I debase myself.
50Yes, but if you fail, people will think that you didn’t try hard. Have you gone and forgotten again why you went? Don’t you know that a good and excellent man does nothing for the sake of appearances, but only for the sake of having acted right?—What good does he get, then, from acting right?—And what good does the person get for writing the name “Dio” as it ought to be written? The mere fact of writing it that way.—Is there, then, no further reward?—And are you looking for some further reward in the case of a good man, a reward which is greater than the doing of what is fine and right? At Olympia nobody wants anything else, but you feel content with having received an Olympic crown. Does it seem to you so small and worthless a thing to be good, and excellent, and happy?
My main goal in life is to keep peace in it. I do this by not looking to impress others and keeping my wife happy. I don’t get a reward from other’s opinions like I do from my own or my wife’s opinion. Even when things don’t work out as I had planned, I know that I have done all I could correctly so I am not embarrassed by my effort or methods.
Therefore, when you have been introduced into this city-state[9] by the gods, and find it now your duty to lay hand to the work of a man, do you yearn for nurses and the breast, and does the weeping of poor silly women move you and make you effeminate? And so will you never get over being an infant? Don’t you know that, when a person acts like a child, the older he is the more ridiculous he is?
I do not like childish adults. People that wilt under adversity or feel the need to be celebrate their birthdays with ostentatious celebrations make me question their upbringing or character. My boss’s wife got mad at him because he had to travel on her birthday. I recently had to do the same thing and my wife could not have cared less. When my boss asked me about it, I simply said she understood that things like this happen. I almost said that because she wasn’t a child, she didn’t care, but I remembered his situation in time to stop myself from saying that.
Holy crap this is a long lesson. I really like the points he is making in it. Not sure how many more parts it will take to complete this one, but I try to keep the articles to around 1000 words. I am currently traveling for work, so when this gets posted, I will be flying from Houston to Norfolk.
On the plus side I was able to do the elliptical machine for 30 minutes 3 times this week with no ankle pain, but it is still swollen. It did bother me how easy it was for me to get my heart rate up to 145 because of how out of shape I currently am. I plan on going back to the gym on Monday and I doubt I can do more than 3 pull ups, but I will endeavor to persevere without declaring war on the Union.
“I was able to do the elliptical machine for 30 minutes 3 times this week with no ankle pain.”
If I wasn’t so stoic, I’d be envious. I sprained my ankle 40 years ago, now it seems to be permanently arthritic. I may have to spend some money to get the damn thing fixed so I can workout and hike comfortably.
Yeah. After breaking my right foot a few times I may never get back to long walks and jogging.
I broke both of my feet in college in tae kwon do. They’re mostly fine now, though the little tuning fork thing hurts like a mofo.
I’ve had the great pleasure to be told I have early onset arthritis, I guess it’s better than gout? I’m more irritated that my foot doesn’t fit into most of my boots anymore.
I’ve never sprained anything! I got that going for me.
Gout wasn’t that bad! Well, it was, but not for the reasons one might expect. It was mighty distressing, esp as I couldn’t feel where the pain was actually coming from. I was (at the time) desperately worried that was I was having a ‘pain’ hallucination, rather than the audio, olfactory, and (only one eplileptic) visual hallucinations I’m ‘used’ to. However, when I got to the doc, as *soon* as I took my sock off she immediately pointed and “GOUT!” spurted out. It wasn’t *as* quick a reaction as when I took my shirt off and “SHINGLES!” was diagnosed back in college.
Shingles: VALTREX <– I'd do a (nearly) free ad for that shit. I hate seeing those goddamn Shingrix commercials. ONLY for people 50+?! I was fucking 18! Get Shingrix with some Twix and Kix on the side. Shingles coincided with damn good LSD goin' 'round Bloomington 'round MLK Day in '06. (It was rad, incredible batch.) The hospital was closed for the holiday and I had to wait another day. Shingles: not AS bad, for obvious reasons, but the same realm of pain as my four broken ribs.
Trying to decide which potential plans for 2025/2026 I want to go with. Naturally, it’s not possible to do all of them, and my calculation of how not possible has come down to “It would leave me at negative vacation hours”. Cash to cover it, I could swing, but I try to keep at least two weeks leave banked for emergencies. (I get four weeks a year in accruals).
Bare minimum, any honey harvest is seven workdays (3 out, 4 back), though two weeks is a more pleasant drive.
The Iceland eclipse is a wednesday, and I’d like to see a country if I’m visiting it, so that’s 1 week minimum, 2 ideal.
I have regularly scheduled appointments which eat up 68 hours in those two years. Not quite two weeks, but in the ballpark.
That would eat up all of my accruals before any incidentals or emergencies raise their slimy little heads. And this is all before I ask for the approvals for any leave.
Unscheduled as yet my dad wants to do another road trip together. That’s liable to also be two weeks, now I’m in the red on accruals, since the west coast drive knocked me down to my safety margins and events of this year shaved off what was accrued since then.
what to pick…
Iceland is a slam dunk.
If going during the eclipse, it’s going to be more expensive than usual.
Luckily, I am blissfully ignorant of normal Icelandic rates, so I can book now and deal.
I was mostly waiting to find out if any of the cruisers would want to meet shoreside either before their set out or after they get back to pick which way to skew the second week.
pistoffnick and girlfriend will be arriving in Iceland sometime the week before.
Spend time with your dad.
Take your dad to Honey Harvest! 😃🐝🐝🍯
We have to hash out an itenery, the biggest hurdle is that the current draft theme would be a lot of major cities and neither of us really want to go into major cities. We may change theme.
🤔
I know GT has met my Dad (we stopped by Dayton on the return leg of our last road trip together), but I don’t know whether introducing him to a bunch of internet randos works…
The more I think about it, the more I think I’d have a better chance of convincing him to go to Iceland rather than a Honey Harvest.
Admittedly, HH would be the cheaper trip, but “come meet some folks you don’t interact with regularly” is a harder sell.
Now, THAT could be the trip of a lifetime! 🙂👍
Google news feed is giving me this:
Elon Musk Hits Astronaut With Shocking Slur After Being Slammed Over ‘Lie’
I fall for the click bait and see that 1) Elon says the two trapped astronauts are being used as political pawns; 2) some foreign astronaut says that is a lie; 3) Elon responds with the the “r-word” which I have to look up. Because I can’t think of any race or ethnic group that starts with “r’.
So Elon called the astronaut a retard. And the left is offended.
I put Elon in the win column twice. Once for saying the obvious that NASA has been corrupted by politics. Twice for calling the retard a retard.
I thought maybe the “r-word” was “Russki.”
Romanian?
Redskin.
a good and excellent man does nothing for the sake of appearances, but only for the sake of having acted right
Haha, good one.
Nice. I also like Goethe’s “The work is everything, the glory naught.”
I have made a lot of mistakes, got a few things right, snuggled and suffered an awful lot. In the end I got the only thing that counts right: My son. If I did nothing else right in my life that is the one thing I did and made it all worthwhile. If I leave y’all nothing else I made the world a better place with that. All of the rest of it is just smoke in the wind.
*UnCivil: 1. Your dad. 2. Honey harvest. Again, everything else just smoke in the wind.
Speaking for myself only, I’ll be at HH, if all goes as planned. Expect(hope) to see all the regulars and newbies breaking in.
Outrageous folly
Democrats across the Capitol were outraged Thursday at news that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered senior Pentagon and military leaders to plan 8 percent cuts from the defense budget in each of the next five years.
——-
Democrats say the effort is a sham that will not only fail to save taxpayers money, but also undermine America’s defense capabilities in an increasingly hostile world.
“These types of hasty, indiscriminate budget cuts would betray our military forces and their families and make America less safe,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said in a statement.
“I’m all for cutting programs that don’t work, but this proposal is deeply misguided. Secretary Hegseth’s rushed, arbitrary strategy would have negative impacts on our security, economy, and industrial base.”
Why not just offer to let Putin and Xi split the country between them?
So I guess “we spend too much on war and not enough on poor people” is no longer a thing for Democrats?
Just opposing everything Trump does, no matter what, is not really working this time.
Democrats are outraged. No shit. Who could have seen that coming.
Aren’t democrats the same group that used to put “I look forward to the day schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber” bumper stickers on their Subarus?
Democrat voters, not DC Democrats who collect big campaign contributions from the MIC.
In the memo, obtained by The Hill, Hegseth outlines cuts to military commands in Europe and the Middle East but preserves or boosts spending for 17 priority areas that appear to indicate a shift to defense issues closer to the U.S. homeland. They include border security, cybersecurity, nuclear modernization, submarines, drones and “combating transnational criminal organizations in the Western Hemisphere.”
“President Trump’s charge to DoD is clear: achieve Peace through Strength,” Hegseth writes in the memo. “The time for preparation is over — we must act urgently to revive the warrior ethos, rebuild our military, and reestablish deterrence. Our budget will resource the fighting force we need, cease unnecessary defense spending, reject excessive bureaucracy, and drive actionable reform including progress on the audit.”
Man, talk about having your priorities all out of whack.
Should the administration implement an annual 8 percent cut over the next five years, that will add up to roughly $300 billion less in military spending through 2030.
The sheer size of the cuts, initiated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — which has sought to gut federal agencies under the guise of rooting out government waste and inefficiency — has unnerved lawmakers.
“As a former National Security Council adviser during Trump’s first administration and 25-year Army veteran, I have no doubt the sweeping, proposed cuts to the Pentagon would threaten U.S. national security and weaken our military readiness,” Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-Va.) said Thursday.
The DoD can’t live on crumbs!
Well, if Vindman says….
Good fuckin’ grief, every time Trump takes a stab at the biggest money laundering scams the worst offenders start screaming bloody murder. They really do have an incredible sense of entitlement about their theft.
Deport Vindman.
“The sheer size of the cuts”
Quick back of the envelope, with Wikipedia data.
Current defense budget, $850 billion. Assuming no baseline change, that works out to $4.25 trillion over five years. 300 billion cut over five years. I get about 7%. If the cuts were averaged over the period, the annual budget would go to about $790 billion p.a. which is STILL higher than every fiscal year prior to 2024.
Yes. I think it was a calculated move, just deep enough to spur outrage, so the opposition could be slapped down with exactly what you just stated.
has unnerved lawmakers
They is stealing our gravy train!!!
“I do not like childish adults.”
I know two guys that if you met and spent a little time talking with them you would think they were just two normal guys0. Which they are, except both have one thing in common: They both have spent their entire lives living with their mothers and have never moved out and lived on their own. Both are in their mid 50’s . Would this be considered childish? It’s just plain weird to me.
Unless the caretaker role flipped three decades ago, they should have moved out then.
Meh, it was much the norm for unmarried men to stay in the home for much of history. Of course a lot of that was taking over the Family farm or business or what have you.
Really? I know from watching old films (pre 50’s) that you would often see mutliple generations all living in the same house. But in my experience it is rare to find an adult man who has never moved out his parents home.
@Carp – When you were very poor or very rich, you couldn’t afford to move out of the family home.
My Gma from Hell #1 would have LOVED it if my dad had never married and stayed home and lived with her. She treated him like a sonsband and he didn’t really know how to balance her demands with his wife/kids. He often failed to put my mother first.
Gma from Hell #1’s SISTER had 3 sons. One escaped. The two others never married and lived with her till she died. They waited on her hand and foot, and my gma coveted that so much she was permanently tinged green. Now, one of them (don’t remember which) had a semi-active dating life, apparently, but when you live with your mother and you date, you’re going to go through a lot of women who are going to nope out. The other was an OTR trucker. He was my dad’s age and I never met him. My dad (for whatever reason) gave him my phone number at BYU, and he’d call up and say, “Hi, I’m in town, wanna get lunch?” That’s a HARD PASS, thanks.
That’s not really what I meant in the “caretaker role switching” scenario. I was thinking more of actual disability.
I was responding to @CatchTheCarp.
Living with your parent(s) would definitely cramp your romance game.
“I do not like childish adults.”
I don’t know about that. define childish. I admit it; I never really matured much past college. I don’t give a shit about nice houses and cars and impressing neighbors (or family) with my “accomplishments”. At least I wasn’t dumb enough to get married and settle down.
On the average, Brooks, we came out even. I had 2 trips while you had none. I could have skipped the first time around, other than I got two kids out of the deal.
Cunty Aunt Susie’s Baby Lawyer knows how to stall, that’s for sure.
That is a vital skill for a lawyer – they teach it every year in Law School.
Yeah, I knew he’d stall and he kind of did it the way I expected him to, but with a twist.
He’s claiming that we haven’t proven the property can’t be split equitably. Um. It’s a single-family home in which both owners reside. What does he want us to do? Break out the Sawzall? Anyway, yes. Delaying tactic, which is okay for now. Gives me some breathing room also.
I have mentioned before how oddly culinarily illiterate the kitchen staff is here.
The buffet was bangers with onion gravy, bubble and squeak and mushy peas. The person who was bringing the food out didn’t know which sign went with which tray and the following exchange was overheard:
“Which ones are the bangers?”
“The sausage things. I think it’s a German term.”
🤦♂️
Wait, no mash?
Bubble and squeak is mostly mashed potatoes. Now that I think about it, I wonder what the difference is between it and colcannon potatoes.
The sound it makes?
Not Adahn:
Off the top of my head, bubble and squeak is generally made with leftovers, while colcannon is made from fresh ingredients. Other than that, British vs. Irish?
Yeah, nationality obvs. I did not know that the English version was a leftover-based dish. Probably since I’ve never had it at a household, only restaurants/pubs.
I made colcannon potatoes earlier this week to go with the pork chops. It was fabulous.
He’s claiming that we haven’t proven the property can’t be split equitably.
It’s really quite simple. If your aunts pay your mom half of the fair market value, that would appear (to me) to be an equitable split.
Yeah, but she doesn’t want to do that.
My mom always assumed that if she died, Susie would sell the house and give mom’s kids (us) mom’s half of the proceeds because that’s what my mom would do if Susie died first. That’s what I assumed. That’s what my brothers assumed. We all just kind of assumed that Susie would do the right thing.
Welp.
Mom’s in a bit of a grieving stage right now, that Susie is fighting to take what’s Mom’s.
This will test your stoicism.
lol
At publishing time, Jaxon was trying to tell himself that, just like 13 years ago, no one was reading his political posts anyway.
It’s funny, because it’s true.
“Man feels embarrassed by his former libertarianism right as everything he had been saying is being validated.”
I came here to be Stoic, and chew bubble gum.
And I’m all out of real teeth.
Fun Fact, Santa Anna helped introduce chewing gum to the US, after one of the many times he was deposed as president of Mexico. (Though not the one where he led a coup against himself)
Santa Anna’s one of those historical characters who’s interesting in that the early part of his life (e.g. Alamo) was pre-photography, so he’s shown in glamorous heroic-styled paintings, like a legendary character, while there are real-life photos of him later in life as an elderly businessman in NYC.
See Arthur Wellesley, Andrew Jackson, etc.
Pine_Tree:
You forgot the greatest historical character.
We all just kind of assumed that Susie would do the right thing.
That’s better than living your life in fear and distrust.
When Bro2 asked her directly to stipulate that Mom owns half the property, it took Susie way too long to say “yes” and you could tell it hurt. That’s one thing that’s eating at Mom.
New film called “The Brutalist” is out about the life of Laszlo Toth, Brutalist architect.
Does he get beaten to death with a cinder block?
Shouldn’t that be Brutalized by/with a cinder block?
Anonymized because politeness:
Me: this needs to be done in prod.
Direct Report: It’s already there. *sends a screenshot.*
Me: That’s dev.
Direct Report: So why is it not syncing?
Me: 🤦♂️
Because prod is more buoyant than dev.
Duh.
So remember that caricature of a lesbian fire chief who was stabbed to death? You’ll never guess who the suspect is. Seriously. Ok, maybe you WOULD guess that it was a domestic violence situation, but would you guess that she had stabbed her previous spouse to death too?
https://abc7.com/post/suspect-identified-stabbing-death-cal-fire-captain-rebecca-becky-marodi-san-diego-county/15938236/
How lonely do you need to be to marry someone who’s already murdered one spouse?
The lesbian crazy/hot scale must be different.
Yeah, inverted maybe? As in – you got to be crazy to fuck with this.
Well, it is a four dimensional matrix that will drive you mad just by trying to visualize where they fall on it.
for fatally stabbing her then-husband
Wait, that’s entirely different!!!
How lonely do you need to be to marry someone who’s already murdered one spouse?
Like marrying the woman who cheated on her husband with you. She did it to him, why would you pretend she wouldn’t do it to you?
Because she is fucking hawt.
Apparently Hizzoner’s trial is no longer scheduled, but the charges haven’t been dropped.
In todays local rag a click bait story about Ryan who identifies as a non-binary and transmasculine. Ryan “fled” to Mexico because he didn’t feel safe in Trump’s America. Muchacho or Muchacha?
https://archive.ph/20250221153620/https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/column/aisha-sultan/sultan-when-a-st-louisan-flees-to-mexico-fearing-america-isnt-safe/article_84a9fcf8-eca3-11ef-bf75-eb7f5968d132.html#selection-4847.69-4847.83
A year from now you will read about how an angry mob beat him to death for kid diddling. Mexico doesn’t put up with that either.
I wouldn’t expect someone who is “non-binary and transmasculine” to be a clear thinker.
Just look at the guy. EvilSheldon nailed it. The dude will get his ass beat every time his home town loses a soccer match, and then he will eventually wind up dead. Nobody down there will bat an eye.
You’re either binary or non-binary.
You’re othering the imaginary numbers.
I’ll either feel bad about it, or I won’t.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who divide everything into two groups, and those who don’t.
He (?) fled to Mexico? What the fuck was he thinking? Mexican locals beat the shit out of the local queers every time there’s a soccer game in town.
More than most other feelings, “I don’t feel safe,” needs to be backed up with some cold, detached rationality…
https://despair.com/products/mistakes?srsltid=AfmBOorLUIc_WTey7avEfyagtyOQr-ol4HmCV9xMt9XrEZAWWvc5QzOz&variant=2457302467
It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.
I beat you to it.
Ha! Get it? Beat!
Unintended pun.
“Stunning New Twist”?
Isn’t the spouse always suspect number 1 at the outset?
One of the proggie acquaintances at church was talking about stuff like this. He thinks the trans and gays fleeing America can be equated to the Jews who were prescient enough to flee Germany in the years before Kristalnacht. I mean, what the hell can you say?
“Yer fuckin’ nuts, bro. Turn off the MSNBC and give BlueSky a rest, already.”
I mean, you could say that.
I’d expect it to be the fired federal workers and NGO employees who would be fleeing in that case.
A bald eagle just flew into one of the trees next door.
Don’t see them at our house very often.
Grok 3 talked me into upgrading my iPhone. >.>
I guess we know someone who won’t be surviving the Butlerian Jihad.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/breaking-proud-boys-chairman-enrique-tarrio-arrested-capitol/
I’m thinking dude ain’t too smart.
It looks pretty deliberate.
The report says it was a set up by the police and the leftists.
But, I suspect the police and leftists were actually being setup by Tarrio.
A lady got in his face with a whistle and he made a hand sweep towards the whistle. And got arrested.
Easy button would be have a presser indoors away from potential asshats.
Either he wanted that to happen, or to your point, he’s stupid.
I’m thinking the cops were just itching for a chance to arrest him, on account of they hate him, so they let the “counter protestors” disrupt the press conference hoping for any excuse to bust his ass.