September 28, 2005

  • I’m learning.

    Don’t misunderstand – I love to learn.  Now that my consumption of
    psychoactive substances is curtailed, that little jolt of dopamine my
    body produces each time my brain makes a new connection is one of my
    few remaining highs. 

    I never really know where my next dopamine is coming from.  I can
    study for days before the penny drops and I “get” one of those new
    concepts I’ve been trying to
    learn.  That’s the typical pattern of my learning in the tech
    field, where my self-education was long neglected and the AHA! moments are now hard-won, and in some of the
    humanities, where there is relatively little ground I haven’t covered.

    There is always a more abundant source of those shots of pleasant
    neurotransmitters for me in accidental discoveries.  I opened up a
    virtual flood of them when I discovered a calendar of September events
    that listed “Ask a Stupid Question Day” for September 28, between
    “Crush a Can Day” and “Poisoned Blackberries Day.”  (And what in
    the world, I ask, is that?  I think I’ll
    leave that search for another day.  All I know now is that Poisoned Blackberries Day
    coincides with the Festival of Tezcatzonctl, Chief God of Intoxication
    in Mexico.)

    I
    have learned that the apparent intent of Ask a Stupid Question Day was
    to encourage people to overcome reticence and ask questions, presumably
    to encourage learning.  (Ironically, my father, exhausted and
    exasperated from my flood of questioning, used to tell me that I’d
    learn more if I’d just shut my mouth and open my ears.)  What
    I have not been able to pin down with accuracy is precisely when Ask a
    Stupid Question Day is.  Every source I found agrees that it is
    sometime near the end of September:  today, tomorrow or the next
    day.
     

    Today is also reportedly Bird Day,  Teacher’s Day
    (China),  National Hunting and Fishing Day,  Confucius Day
    (Old China), Fiesta of San Miguel (Mexico),  Thailand Independence
    Day,  National Strawberry Cream Pie Day and  Drink As Much
    Beer As Possible Day.  Please, please, please, for your own sake,
    try to avoid over-celebrating either of those last two, and don’t try
    celebrating them both.

    Perhaps my most delightful discovery resulting from the present effort has been Wilson’s Almanac.  Here is today’s entry in Pip Wilson’s Blogmanac from Oz:

    Study says belief in God may contribute to society’s dysfunctions

    “There’s
    a new twist to the evolution versus creationism debate. A new study
    from America suggests that widespread belief in God may contribute to
    the dysfunctions of a society …”
    The World Today

    A curious theory that might or might not have any scientific basis, but it does strike one right in the “I just knew it!” nerve.

    Of
    course, saying that the USA’s greater religiosity than other nations
    explains its higher crime rate, and so on, is rather like saying that
    unmarried old women have fewer birds in their gardens because they
    shoot them, when it might be because they own more cats. Of course,
    they might shoot the poor little birds, who knows? American spinsters,
    anyway. More study on all these hypotheses must be done.

    As for
    this bloke with the new theory — I wonder if he just took a mortgage
    out on his house, or wants a European vacation or something. Because he
    can always defend his belief by saying “more study must be done”
    (meaning he wants some money) and no one will disagree with him. Don’t
    you just get the feeling a lot of scientists do this?

    I think
    America has a high crime rate because they have too many birds in their
    gardens, and we all know what they can do about that.

    I totally agree with this.  Too damned many people believe in God and far too few of us know the divine presence within.

    I have learned something about myself through this searching and
    questioning.   I may have a gift for asking spontaneous
    stupid questions, but when I try to think of one, I draw a blank. 
    Likewise, when confronted with a question (and I’m not even going to
    try to judge whether one is smart or stupid) my mind simply does not
    gravitate toward stupid answers.  I tried.  I failed. 
    Forgive me.  The comments sections of my last two blogs contain a
    multitude of questions, and I have failed utterly to come up with
    adequate answers.  You overwhelm me.  I am in speechless awe
    of your unfathomable curiosity.

Comments (13)

  • Perhaps they put the poisoned blackberries day right beside the ask a stupid question day in hopes that you will ask what poisoned blackberries day is… I think I might stay away from the blackberries, though!

  • So when exactly is Ask a Stupid Question Day?

  • Walsh goes into this in some detail–i.e., the idea that, say, God wants us to kill Commies or gays or whatever.

    BTW–Ernie brought in a new fridge–a HUGE one–I think it runs on 220 volts, however, which the cabin is not wired for.  I’ll have to check.  Meanwhile the cats are having a ball exploring the new stuff in the cabin.

    Bitch dept–I just tried to order new business cards (really good deal–500 deluxe jobbies for $5.99), the confounded comp timed out just as I was finishing theorder, so I don’t know if they got the darn thing or not, and the last time this happened, the hapless service rep I called was, well, hapless.  And clueless.  Sigh.

    The good news is that I have my emails down under 100 now.

  • Hi again–halfway through a triple-dip, woo hoo!  I just signed up for a pagan board; I think I may fit in better there, I’ll see.

  • Living where you do, you’ve probably known plenty of folks who could wander off into the boonies, stay gone for weeks, have a grand and safe time of it, and reluctantly return to silly-visation with big smiles on their faces. They know how to stay alive, and take adequate precautions. Take the average city dork out, and to him it’s Disneyland where nothing bad can ever happen to him. He’ll race right up to a blackberry patch for a snack, never even thinking to look for brother bear who thinks it’s his berry patch. If he does notice brother bear, he’s going to haul out his auto-wind SLR camera without any concern at all for how the noise of it will affect brother bear’s attitude.

    Our society operates a lot like that city dork. Nothing bad can ever happen to us because our invisible friend loves us and wants us to be happy. The whole planet is one big Disneyland, and the only people who suffer are those who are not right with our invisible friend — and they deserve to suffer, the heathen bastards.

    ‘Nuff of my ranting. Be well!

  • strawberry cream pie/beer day?

    (that sounds like a combination just waiting to be thrown up.)

  • strawberry craem pie day…uummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…huggs…Sassy

  • “Not enough of the divine presence within”, so true! Too many who think they have it and want to force “their view” on everyone else!

  • “Too damned many people believe in God and far too few of us know the divine presence within.”

    right.

  • Daily Xgram–I gotta remember to get that extension cord–the one I am using is too filthy to bring inside, so I am running it through the edge of the sliding door, which means1) the door is ajar at night–not good and 2) I have to unplug the fridge if I wanna lock the door, also not good for a couple of reasons.

    The storm is still hanging around, this looks like another off day, may get some laundry done, and should probably go shopping now that I have tons of storage space for perishables–besides, my lettuce and salad stuff froze in the little fridge, and is turning into compost in the big fridge as we speak.

    Oh, and I’ll post the PLR stuff privately now.

  • Okay, PLR posted. 

    Thank you a zillion times for the atstropulse link, they do not do the email confirm thing, I have one post already–I’m a newB again, woo hoo!

  • Oogah, oogah–battling NPD alert on 11:11.

    Seriously, I won’t be there much more, if at all, I thinnk–the other boards are much more interesting to me.

    On the avatar (picture) thing, could you gimme a URL for the neat pic of me to post?

  • Dopamine is in Tea…

    :)

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