Write what is on your mind

Notices THIS. If anyone notices THIS. Heh. Fucking Freudian slips.

Why can't I relax and cherish the simple pleasures in life? I'm too obsessed with politics and philosophy. I hold too many controversial opinions and I hate that most people disagree with me. I don't know how to become at peace when the world is so different from how I want it. I have a deep desire to pursue politics, to change the winds of the nation, but I know how unlikely my success will be. I know how easy it will be to attain a comfortable career, but surely I will soon be bored. I really think I have a problem. I want to be famous. I want to be honored. There are too many career choices out there. Sometimes I wish we lived in an anarcho-primitive state without technology and order. Ted Kazcynski was too right. I have little autonomy over the world around me and it's causing feelings of powerlessness. I overreact to everything and overthink my memories. If I ever have a memory that is too strong and upsetting, I imagine myself jamming a pistol into my temple. Not shooting, but hitting myself over and over to make the bad memory go away. I really don't like this world. But I have no faith for any religion to comfort myself. I have so many negative feelings for everyone and everything, and I just feel alone. I know that I am intelligent ( 36 ACT) but I don't know if I am insane. But what's really sad is that I don't even know what would make me happy. I feel as though I'm forced to live a life I don't want, but I don't know how to get what i want.

I can't stand my mom. Everytime I'm around her I want to shoot her. She's lazy, dumb, and rude. To top it off, I have misophonia, so everytime she makes a sound I get angry. Her heavy, loud, breathing; her nasty, blowfish, smacking mouth, and her deep, southern voice. If I had a nickel for everytime she said the word "um," cleared her throat, made a smacking sound with her mouth, or said "right" over the phone in the most lazy, southern, way imaginable, I would buy an RPG and shoot her fucking throat. She says the dumbest things and has horrible money habits. God, I hate her.

>Why can't I relax and cherish the simple pleasures in life?
Because the simple pleasures in life don't exist. You feel at ease when you deal with things, with the difficulties of life on their own ground and don't let tomorrow bother today when it shouldn't. Let yourself make a mistake or two if only to see the difference. As you are, you're letting your desire to enjoy get in the way of enjoying.

>I hate that most people disagree with me.
Stop pretending you're nice and just joke about it. People will lower their defenses when you lower yours. Just say what you mean without being an asshole, you know how to do it.

That fucking ending though.

I'm literally Hitler though

On one end I am still actively fighting the haunts of my existential crisis, along with all the difficulties that come with -- on the other, I have two dates in the next few weeks and want to enjoy living. How do I end this weird void inside me so I can get on with the process of being a normie and being-in-the-world? I wish I was just a full fledged answer seeker or a full-time normie, but juggling both is philosophically distressing. Wish there was something I could read about this.

After ep 4 nothing phased me. The more I think about it, the more bullshit it gets. It's almost impressive.

Have you ever joked about gassing Jews? I wonder if Hitler ever about gassing Jews.

Steppenwolf?

I've read Steppenwolf but it just shows how if you're not ready (self-actualized) you'll still lose everything and go back to being a dirty 50 year old man (please tear this critique apart)

I dunno. I alaways thought the ending of Steppenwolf was him going out into the world to live the rest of his life. But then I didn't care much for that book myself because everyone in it annoyed me. I don't think there's any way to be ready however. You can be prepared, but to be prepared you have to know what you're doing. You can be informed (by someone else), but you can't be actual-ized and be already ready.

tfw no jc gf

people will always find something to segregate & divide each other… If it’s not race, it’s gender. If it’s not gender it countries. If it’s not countries it’s states. If it’s not states it’s neighborhoods, schools or sports team. It’s a way for small, weak-minded indivduals to feel bigger than they really are. I know it sucks to think about it but trying to get everybody to treat each other equal is impossible. With that being said, Sororites & Fraternities are for lames who were never socially accepted in life.

That’s what you get when you keep expanding the neocortex. You open up potential. Not all potential is nice and neat and good for the world. You get Genocide, Financial Ruin, Rape, Murder, Gluttony, Greed and processed food. But you also get cities, language, culture, jazz, philosophy, computer programming and theoretical physics.

I don't think the processed food is that bad. In a weird way, despite being very poor, it's kind of beautiful. Human beings have made all these systems that somehow manage to coincide into bringing pseudo-fruits into most everyobody's houses. I find malls to be strangely captivating; I don't even care about buying anything, I just want to look at things--it's not like there's anything to them other than surfice, most of the time anyway. As much as people hate capitalism, part of the reason they want to get out of it is because it'll be a pity when it goes down.

Why should unique things be treated uniformly?

One must order mind.. I took a walk the other day for about an hour and a half at sunset. I was thinking about death, not in the depressing way like 'I want to die,' but just exploring the idea of non-existence. I returned home at about 10:30 and took off my headphones (I had been listening to vaporwave) and at that moment I entered into a new state of consciousness, I was overcome with a sense of confused curiosity, like finding yourself on an alien world looking through the eyes of a new life form.

I've had a similar experience while meditating. For a couple of weeks I decided to concentrate on the feeling of my eyes and face, attempting to erase their tension (just an exploration mainly) and I began waking up at night with that confused curiosity about the sensation of my face. It was like experiencing a deeper realness of the actual oddity of feeling a face (cheeks, sensitive lips, my tongue) they felt foreign and I completely dissociated myself from the tension behind my eyeballs which I had spent a lifetime associating myself with 'i'.. The me. I Became my body and not some abstract consciousness. I felt like an actual body and not a spirit.. I'm not sure how to explain it.

After my walk I felt similarly.. But it wasn't my body that was experienced as a deeper realness but mind itself.. Or rather, I saw the reality of the unreality of the world that mind creates. I saw the completeness of the body and actual purpose of mind.. Which, Like the mechanism of movement of a flower, moves the body in alignment with that life giving energy... No.. I didn't see that.. But that would be cool.. I saw a machine with a mind as a tumor.. An overgrowth which my body hates.. Because it has not been a good Shepard for this body. No.. I saw the most horrifying thing of all, the reality most terrifying and beautiful at bottom.. I just saw the machine.

Have you ever played on a real sports team, not little league? It's a unifying experience. I get that you're talking about spectators and not players, but cmon a little. Sports are a primal, deeply interconnected thing

Nick Land is Rick and Morty for people who want to feel like they are intellectuals or edgelords.

yo quoted user what music do you listen to

tao, easy on the cannabis

Who else is up?

i too am once again being reborn. it's a beautiful world, keep digging :)

That is a dangerous way of looking at things
Agreed

If we're lucky this rebirth will be the last

Not to say I get what you mean but I can identify with maybe that sort of mental place. You had me until the last bit, but all very interesting.

Sometimes I walk to work and returning in the evening often generates that sort of feeling.

In this way, for this reason, I have always really enjoyed airports.

Yes.

youtube.com/watch?v=CVNy1p3CrVM
youtube.com/watch?v=SONSaoP5V0w
youtube.com/watch?v=JjIiK9VcIsA
youtube.com/watch?v=7OUHUnOAxaA

Wageslaving to earn less than a minimum salary, such is life.

Started the summer with the goal of writing the fast draft of a horror novel.

Failed. Tried writing a decent short stories. Failed. Reach the hard realisation that my IQ might be too low for me to be a good writer.

Bitter pill to swallow.

...

From the thumbnail, I thought that was the CIA guy.

>Go to family gathering yesterday
>YA part of the family (cousin+boyfriend, sister+husband+children) is watching first season of GoT
>Littlefinger comes around
>Oh no
>Must fight temptation to tell someone "es la CIA" as I know none of them are initiated into the flight plan
It's hard being a big guy.

On that note, I didn't know GoT was filmed in 60fps--it looks like ass. But it fits in a way since the thing is incapable of any subtlety or refinement. God, just listening to the characters speak is disgusting. It's like reading a comic book. No work on the language at all, could have made something interesting with court language and the medieval setting to but that was clearly not Martin's aim.

>sigur ros
I think I'm missing the joke here

The apex of current Japanese eroticism appears to me as this: the full female. In the full female there is a reconciliation of power/production and will/control. Domestication, infantility, nymphetism, humiliation, submission and dependence, all have been overcome. She is exclusive of all that is male, and so, deals with it on her own terms; therefore, cuckolding stops being elopement. There's no cruelty or irascibility, but brutality in her; there's no revenge, subversion, redemption, she is unadulterated feminine essence; therefore she's not a dominatrix or a seductress. As overwhelming to the male, she approaches the motherly, yet without any of the safety the mother stands for, nor the excessive horror of a devouring mother. She’s cultured without being delicate, independent without being competitive. She’s the consummation of the collective anime project toward the perfect girl; although out of that project has come something that can’t be a waifu—in the pursuit of the best, the girl ¬–the part that is vulnerable/open to the male¬– had to be left behind. There is designated male counterpart to find as of now.

youtube.com/watch?v=2cAxLZpelmQ

good taste, I recognize only 6 artist
watchu got in ur weeb folder

Im too shy to give my opinion on anything.

Think more of you when i read comments like these, but they would be your friend and legal troubles. The combination of that and it was the nationalization of private debt acrued by bad loans from these parasitic financial systems and the development of art styles after the sixties, the hair on your arms stands on end, lay in the chair 'going over' the story. It's cool though actually. Not to mention the live prey.

I have some pretty repulsive fetishes. Sometimes I wonder if I was always destined to have them, or if growing up online gave them to me where they wouldn't have developed otherwise.

More or less random intros/outros/inserts from anime and vidya. The Openings folder contains all Super Sentai openings from '75 to '13.

2 L8

You're making we blush, that's why I chose to be an artists. It's really something that the state is more borders than content which makes me wonder against what will things will develop from now on, surprise is the things that keeps it all going, one day we might be capable of simply reading books. Thanks. It is so sensual.

What's the worst thing you've wanked to? I'm sincerely ashamed of some of my wanks.

yo quote whats ur favorite anime

Be prepared for commonality:
Evangelion is the only work of fiction which I'd let myself call my favorite, because it was the pretty much the first thing I found to be personally meaningful (there's also KoF02, but the fiction part's not relevant there). Though to me there's simply too much good stuff out there to be attached to anything in particular, outside of what I find in myself that I can't get anywhere else.

commonality is not good nor bad
I dropped it cuase I hated the MC, fucker cried every single episode plus can't stand mecha
I'm more into slice of life and iyashikei
you watching anything rn?

Self improve
Self improve
Self improve
Self improve
Cheat
wallow in despair
regret
motivation
Self improve
Self improve
Self improve
Self improve
Self improve
find a qt
love
love
love
love
cling
cling
cling
cling
heartache
heartache
self destruction
despair
despair
despair
overload
rest
meditate
inspiration
motivation
self improve
self improve
self improve
nibbana
death

I'm writing a review about the alchemist for this girl I've been with for a while, feels like i'm betraying lit but I can't get over her, here goes

As I started reading and going through the pages about the life of Santiago, I began to see in every 3 different words, a direct notion or a nudge towards an idea that I've long contemplated. Much of the beginning of the book reminds me of how we, as people 'going on about life', begin to indulge our thoughts into that plane that is beyond what our every expectation of the world ever was. Slowly, and defiantly, we submerge into a flood of thoughts that keep on coming, but unlike Santiago, most of us would turn their back to such ideas. Unlike us, with curiousity and intrigue lightning up his path, he starts to journey through his thoughts, not as the shepard he always was, but as a wandering soul, looking for its 'personal legend' as the book referes to it. We experience that sentiment of growth as we follow through with our main character, as he meets with what the universe had prepared for him in order to help him realize his treasure, his deep-burried gold, that only throughout his relentless pursuit, and the choices he had to make, was he ever able to fill his soul to the brim with what he hadn't had in mind. Almost everytime our character was about to settle, a pulse had occured, an interaction with someone or something would shape the future in an entirely different way, it wasn't the old king, it wasn't the woman of the desert nor it was the Alchemist, it was the heart of the universe, beating at the right time for Santiago to be able to breathe life into his mind once again.

To be cont'd

>nibbana
Tryhard

As he starts to explore the world, it was not knowledge of the world he gained, but knowledge of himself, of his inner sanctum. The emphasis on the language of the world, or the language of the soul, or that unspoken language that just simply exists, has raised a thought in me,for a language to be called so, it has to be spoken by a different entity or form of existence, yet with ones thoughts, it is as if it's spoken to and by the person themselves, not to say it is a language of seldom, but in actuality, it's on the other side of the meaning of the world, a complete opposite, for although it is spoken from within one's soul, it is as if the world in its entirity, past and future, have fused into the present of those thoughts, and as if all creatures of that which exist, have telescoped into the carcass which the soul manifests itself in. As if all the wild and irrational, for a few moments, was eternally and forever was contained into ones being. Anyhow... our hero, or champion, or god, I'm not sure it matters to him what he's though of, but what he knows of himself when he looks at the stars and sees his reflection, has started his journey looking for his treasure, his gold, and is driven by how many new sheep or how well-off he and his children and their children will be for the rest of their lives, and as we near the end, we notice that his seek of that treasure has brought him the grand prize, it had taught him the language of the world, and as we analyze every step and every word that was said, we see that not only did he not understand the world, he did not understand himself.

I'm confused as to why your gf wants you to write a book review

I just finished Suisei no Gargantia, which addressed a ton of current social/philosophical baggage I'd been thinking of. Check it out, it's pretty short and you might be surprised--I was.

Now I was thinking of starting watcing Neo Ranga daily so I could start emptying my anime backlog and see if I can get to LoGH this lifetime.

>I'm more into slice of life and iyashikei
Hmm, what're your bests?

>I dropped it cuase I hated the MC, fucker cried every single episode plus can't stand mecha
Yeah, it's not supposed to be pleasing. I wish we'd seen Shinji from other characters' prespective more, not because he's a bad character but because it'd help the audience put him in perspective.

I have refrained from poisonous books like the alchemist my entire life. She was btfo by my knowledge and ideas of the world and loves me to the stars and back because of it so she asked me to read it... I couldn't say no after she asked for the third time and bought me the book. So I finished it a while ago and she was so excited to know what I thought of it and wanted a full-blown review she'll probably share on her social media because I usually wouldn't.
I felt the book didn't much to what I had in mind which was a bit saddening, every 'deep' or 'enticing' thought in the book I had already expressed with her and I guess that's where she was impressed the most. I spoke of the language of the world and the unspoken language and the heart and the soul and evolution and all that shit not knowing a single page of the book that she fell in-love with during her growing period.

I'll continue writing I haven't finished yet, but I hope this clears up why.

I rewatch aria and mushishi every couple of months
more recent shows I've enjoyed a lot are kimi to boku and flying witch
I still need to watch a lot of the SoL classics though, hopefully I'll empty my SoL backlog in december
currently watching mokke, very very comfy once you get going

>Suisei no Gargantia
does it have a lot of action? might watch it when I'm on the action/fights mood

anything from recent seasons you enjoyed?

I'd been thinking of watching Mushishi since I never really got a chance to do it properly outside of catching it on TV.

Oh, I'd also been slowly reading Noragami since a friend recommended it to me. It's okay.

>does it have a lot of action?
Some bits here and there. It's sort of a reverse The Day The Earth Stood Still where the MC has to stop being an unconscious warmonger.

>anything from recent seasons you enjoyed?
Not really. I've never been the kind to follow the seasonal stuff. I was watching Little Witch Academia but left it for later when life came in the way. I'm more or less expectant for the new Yamato movies, you could check out 2199 if you want some action since it has really good production values.

>poisonous
Seems a little strong to me, but I've never read it. Thought it was just a philosophical novel or whatever. I though Siddhartha was pretty superficial too, but people here love to jerk off to that. Think it just depends on when in your intellectual development you encounter that kind of stuff.

mushishi is a well made supernatural slice of life, you get a nice idea of what shinto is all about plus the landscape designs and OST are GOAT
youtube.com/watch?v=1YoYbpBGaJM

I watched noragami anime while it was airing, it fell off a little towards the end but it was nice overall
never been an avid manga reader desu, but I'll probably get on the habit when I run out of anime

as for movies, I hope that with the popularity of current movies (KnK, KnNW) the industry gets bigger and releases more stuff like that

The ending holds a mystery in and of itself, while stories are usually about what happens in someones life, the Alchemist does the mirror-version of that method, in all the events of the story, all the interactions and encounters Santiago ends up having, it was never Santiago's life events or actions, it was never something he went ahead and did, it was the culmination of every little detail in his life, leading him on a path he unconsciously let happen. The mystery in it is that nowhere does Santiagos life begin, anywhere other than the ending. For what was his life before he learned what his body had always known?

"You ever count the stars? I can't ever get the same number, they keep changin' on me.
I don't even know what a star is, exactly...
Well, your body knows, it's your mind that forgot." - The Assassination Of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Done, I'll do some proofreading and working at this and show it to her sometime. Thanks Veeky Forums for providing the creative space to do these things, I'm not close to being a good writer but I like these threads anyway.

Their goal is to teach or preach the reader about the human existence and what ones goals and dreams are about and how to go on about them. The problem is it neglects reality in such a way that makes it seem not slightly related to what real life is. I feel two things towards people who have adapt the viewpoint of the book, sometimes I feel a bit of disgust as to why anyone with a sane healthy brain would simple give in to the thoughts and contemplation of someone else? To me, even the crap I write out is more valuable to my fulfillment than 98% of everything out there. The second feeling is that I feel maybe I'm the irrational and irregular, and maybe I should just give it a shot.

It was a pretty good read, but all in all, I would've preferred just sitting down gazing at the sunset and thinking about life till that pink haze falls from the sky.

>all in all, I would've preferred just sitting down gazing at the sunset and thinking about life till that pink haze falls from the sky.
just put that at the end of your review and add "[...] sitting down _with you_ gazing at the sunset [...]. Then, we'd contemplate the nightsky full of stars until a new sun rises again"

I hope it means animation will get higher production values and becomes less disposable, at least in some places. There hasn't been a real artistic movement in anime since, what, the '80s? I liked Gargantia because it was pretty clearly made to be self-contained and had an ending and point in sight through all of the show. People oughta be trying to be doing less, not more nowadays.

i make people around me feel uncomfortable because i refuse to laugh at shitty jokes and say stupid things to keep the conversation flowing

>To me, even the crap I write out is more valuable to my fulfillment than 98% of everything out there
What do you read? And you can read philosophy without giving yourself over to it completely. I think you'd be missing the point if you did, honestly.

I often wish I lived at a time and place where I might feel as though there were some stakes to being alive, so as to compel me to accomplish greater feats than waking up at 3 pm and spending a whole day watching family guy clips on youtube.

Ah, that's a sweet add. Thanks.
Here's how I'll word it:
All in all, dear life, reading this book has reminded me of something. Nothing in the world I'd rather do more than sitting down with you, gazing at the sunset and thinking about life till that pink haze falls from the sky. Then, we'd contemplate the nightsky full of stars until a new sun rises again.
You, I love you.

I love you too

I'm not sure if you're playing 3d chess with me haha but thanks.
I'll be attaching this image I took as well, it has something to do with us but I'll post it here anyway. Glad you're into it.

Or this, not sure which

This one has better proportions. I'm not playing chess unfortunately.

Awwh user.. I'm speechless. Thank you. You just made my week worth going through.

There's this first ever video I made about the sun, idk why but something in me just wants to show it to you haha. Hope you enjoy it!
youtube.com/watch?v=Mh1EtXV_YrE

>tfw was listening to this snog while watching the video
I dropped a couple of tears
youtube.com/watch?v=8lM2MYSM8VA

The description is what makes it worthwhile tho! Make sure you check that out as well.
I have to go to sleep it's pretty late(~2AM)

I'll be checking this thread tomorrow too though. Anyway, good luck and goodnight! Sorry for blogposting but you user, you're lovely, take care.

I find myself in Hoboken, in mid commute, at the ungodly hour of 8PM,forced to scurry about in the sun for an early start at work. But I am strangely wakeful,ponderous of mind,at peace,with time to kill and a notion to make use of it on Veeky Forums,if such a thing is possible,if such an idea is probable.

What shape shall it take? Advice for the lost and lonely Robots on /rk900/,who wrap themselves in angst and tilt at the windmills society has placed before them, enticing will'o'the'whisps that wrack their souls with unrequited want,and leave them scarred and unwilling to even try what most do unthinkingly? Or do I float about in /ic/,and guide another species of lost soul to some revelation, even if it's merely to lead them to a mirror and whisper,"Behold. Thou seeist? Thou knowest".

Or,do I come into Veeky Forums,and see this thread,and truely write what is on my mind?

It is done,it is so.

And here is my train. Goodnight.

>write what is IN your mind
FIXED

gay nigger storage desu

I like putting my gummy bears in the fridge for a few minutes to harden them first.

Also I hope the Titans don't choke an 8-8 out like the Colts do every year.

I want gummy bears

I finally listened to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in one listen, today. It's actually pretty good. I always thought it was just a meme.

Jeff Mangum is the meme
youtube.com/watch?v=BYKJ05MD-QQ

F1
F2
F3
F4
F5
F6
F7
F8
F9
F10
F11
F12

>tfw no qt /mu/ gf

I had a mock job interview a few days ago and I was told that I sigh before answering questions. I don't even do it to be rude, it's just a reaction. I just do it to give myself a moment to gather my thoughts. So that's another thing to be self conscious about.

I want to read more than go out with friends. I need more balance. And I need to find other people. My circle of friends is too small.

I need a job.

I'd rather have a /mu/ gf than a Veeky Forums one desu

Have any of you dealt with Anhedonia before?

I've had it for at least two years now, but it's impossible to make peace with. Every day is the same, and every activity is as exciting as watching paint dry. My life has changed completely in the past few months, but my emotional state hasn't moved at all. It's like purgatory, and I just want it to be over.

i'd rather an /a/ gf or maybe a Veeky Forums gf

Speaking from the experience of my roommate, you definitely do not want either of those

I just want to die, I'm too boring and anxious to meaningfully connect with other people.

You meaningfully connect with us :)

it's a biological trait that exists in everyone, everyone has the capacity to think exactly like this given the correct circumstances - although I think the divide between the sexes is slightly different, something has gone seriously wrong if you are segregating the sexes in a genuinely harmful way (since this is not in human nature), which really does not happen at all in the west if we're being honest. The other points however, are true, and those feelings of division are amplified in uncertain and hard times.

In terms of all divisions excluding race and nations that can be taken seriously, I think it's unfair to consider these people weak minded. Do you know why people join gangs? do you know why people defend the honour of their neighbourhoods? usually these people have really really hard lives

As for nations, of course there will be divisions, there is a difference in culture. No reason for this to escalate to hostility but I believe this to be a perfectly reasonable cause for some division.

Race is the real big one though. This is not only again, a question of the division in culture but also a question of human nature. And that aspect of human nature accounts for a huge deal and it exists within everyone. When you are a child growing up in a white family in a white only neighbourhood you see white as your own. And then when you see a person of another race you're primal brain will tell you that they are not you're own and they are in fact you're enemy. And you can try and stop it as much as you like but it will always be there, it's for the same reason you don't want to fuck your sister. Now is this a redundant trait as far as modern society is concerned? of course. But you cannot deny it exists. In fact, I think ethno-nationalists make a good point that this is an inevitable part of human nature and it would greatly improve social cohesiveness if their were only one race per nation.

I think it is weak minded to think in such simple terms as division and segregation. But that is wrongthink and must be stopped at all costs.

Which is fine, but, you know, not in flesh and bones.

I think I get what you mean. Whenever I'm around other people, it's like I've got on a mask that I can't remove. I'll try to be friendly and honest, but there's always a huge distance between us, and I don't know why.

I literally stutter and get sweaty. I either don't say anything most of the time or if I do, I look like a mess.

I work near a college and literally every single person there disgusts me. I can't write explain but the students and professors all have this aura of vanity, aloofness and stupid consumerism that just disgusts me.

Ahh, yeah. There's few things worse than anxiety in public. If you don't already meditate, I'd recommend giving it a try. Once you're an anxious person, it's very hard to dispel that and become like most people, but I think it just takes time.
Reminds me of that one passage in Heart of Darkness when Marlow arrives back from the Congo into Europe and describes his frustration with all the people hurrying through the city and spending their lives doing frivolous things for quick pleasure. The passage's strength is amplified because this is a very common sentiment that people still express after extended time in the non-Western world. The line of thought ends there, but it's an interesting one.

I was raised in a poor family so I guess that's that.

How poor? Explain what disgusts you about it.

The Flagpole

At first, few of us could believe him. He was up for a Herculean task. Our friend, Michael, decided that he would try to attempt a flagpole exercise on the campus flagpole for six hours. Six. Whole. Hours. My delirium tremens set in when I heard him exclaim, “And this one will be for the record!” Funny, as I thought they didn’t normally keep track of things that stood erect for so long.

Michael had been a soldier. After coming up with some horrific wounds in battle, he became one of the first veterans who qualified for an experimental new bionic musculoskeletal system. Having lost much of the nervous function in his arms, Michael essentially had brand new muscles, joints, and ligaments. Outwardly, he appeared normal as any of us, but the bionic Michael’s arms were powerful machines: big, mechanized instruments. Fairly lightweight, too. Apparently, Michael only weighed a few pounds more than he would with both arms blown off. But enough of that. The trauma was too unsettling for us to think about, and for an upbeat guy like Mike, it was even more unwelcome. We couldn’t bear to have him relive that pain.

It was in this vein that Michael took up all sorts of extreme activities. Bungee-jumping, rock-climbing, and parasailing. He had an insatiable lust for life. Nothing diminished his vigor save the prudence of his friends. We however, supported him in his feat. Six hours would be difficult for an android, but not for our friend. We knew he had it in him. It was only a matter of setting the pieces in motion.

No one enjoys anything.

All self help diatribe is psychopaths congratulating themselves for overcoming the challenge of the occasional unexploitable person.