tuesday

I had such trouble getting myself going this morning, and I'm not sure why -- okay, I went to bed late, but no later than usual, you know?

Still, it's odd, but I seem to have unwittingly kicked the caffeine habit. I didn't have any caffeine the week I wasn't feeling well, a couple of weeks ago, and after that I just never really got back into my routine (the one where I used to make myself a cup of tea first thing upon getting to the office). Partly that was because there wasn't consistently milk in the fridge (for a while I was buying milk and bringing it in, but I decided I didn't want to be subsidizing milk-in-coffee for the whole office *every* week), but partly it was because I just ... didn't feel like having caffeine.

So this morning, since I was so groggy, I decided to try some caffeine. And it's not agreeing with my system. Nor am I noticing a sudden surge in energy, so why bother? Maybe I'll just be caffeine-free from now on. Whee!!!

I've tentatively decided that I will write that Lex-does-karaoke story that someone on IRC gave me the idea for the other night. I think it was linabean. Of course, many's the time I've said "I'm gonna write such-and-such story" and then it doesn't pan out, but hope (or good intentions?) springs eternal. Or some such cliche.

truth, addendum

One other thing I've been wanting to say about truth, apropos of my post last week in response to jrosehale....

The other thing about truth is that it's subjective, not universal. One person's truth is another person's speculation, wishful thinking, opinion, or just plain outright lie. In almost any situation there are as many different truths as there are involved parties -- possibly more. This is the difference between truth and fact -- facts are objectively provable, such as "2+2=4" or "Earth is larger than the moon" (although I'm also not ruling out the possibility that some things we consider fact are actually not; remember, at one point in history it was "fact" that the Earth is flat).

So what's the difference between truth and opinion? Tough one. A lot of people call things truths that are clearly just opinions -- political beliefs, for example. "George W. Bush is a moron" is an opinion, much though I personally believe it's also fact. ;) Some things are too strongly felt/believed/experienced to be "just" opinions; some people's religious beliefs, for example, qualify as truth in my judgment. But *personal* truth, again; that Jesus Christ is the saviour of humanity may be one person's (okay, millions of people's) truth, but that Allah/Buddha/Elvis is the supreme high power in the universe may be another person's (or millions') truth. The point being that two completely contradictory, mutually-exclusive things can both be truth. (In fact they can both be truth *to the same person* -- this is, IMO, one of the things that make us uniquely human, the ability to fully believe contradictory things.)

But I digress. I'm having trouble putting my finger on the difference between opinion and personal truth, except to say that I know it when I see it -- and that the majority of things we call personal truths are actually opinions. (My statements of which things are truth and which are opinion, are opinions, of course!)

And obviously this leads me to the salient point: Many of the problems that we get into, both interpersonally and within ourselves, stem from considering something truth which is actually opinion. I think this is unavoidable in many cases. The human psyche is a wondrous thing, and sometimes denial is a necessary way for it to protect itself against pain of various sorts.

All of this sounded a lot more coherent in my head, so I guess I need to think about it a bit more before I can continue to post about it.

snippet

I'm sick of this rattling around in my brain, so here it is. If you're not into Smallville, move along now. :)
( Martha dreams... )

I never said it was coherent. Or even complete. Isn't that the definition of a snippet?

I want to cry

There's cruelty to animals, and then there's this.

The link above is disturbing and depressing! Don't click if you don't think you can handle it. Especially if you're a cat lover.

I'd say "people suck," but the creatures that did this don't count as people. I hereby banish them from the homo sapiens genus and species.

There isn't an lj mood icon for how much this upsets me.