| #301: | In a clever act of programming, I have archived all of my Twitter tweets in chronological order: http://bit.ly/18Yh8s |
| #302: | The philosophy of EXISTENTIALISM says the answers to life's questions come from life itself, not from any outside authority (God, etc.) |
| #303: | Existentialism isn't an atheist philosophy but an agnostic one. We don't know what lies beyond this life. All we know is this one. |
| #304: | Existentialism suggests that no one knows more than you do about what life is all about. All priests and gurus are just as lost as you are. |
| #305: | Existentialism says everything you need to know about life is right in front of you. Life itself provides the data. |
| #306: | To figure out how life works, you conduct experiments and try to deduce the underlying mechanisms. What works? What doesn't? You decide. - #existentialism |
| #307: | Existentialism is seen as a very lonely philosophy. There's no father looking after you, just you and your own choices. |
| #308: | You could argue the life is an illusion. Existentialism says, "So what?" It's the best illusion we have, so we have to respect it's rules. |
| #309: | Existentialism is big on CHOICE. That's all you have. You can choose wisely or poorly, but you are always responsible for what happens. |
| #310: | Will there be a reward in Heaven? Don't count on it. You do good on this planet because it makes sense, not because of what God might do. |
| #311: | Under existentialism, there can still be evil. Evil arises from an inconsistency between one part of you and another, called "bad faith." |
| #312: | "Bad faith" is when your actions don't match your words. You know something is wrong but you do it anyway. |
| #313: | Bad faith, practiced over time, eats you up inside and twists you into a scheming villain in a black hat with a cackling laugh. Really! |
| #314: | Bad faith requires lying to yourself, then more lies to cover up the original ones. Soon your brain is a mess of short circuits. |
| #315: | Someone living in bad faith survives only by becoming more and more isolated from the world around him. Then he retires to Florida. |
| #316: | Under existentialism, no matter what circumstances you're in, you are going to look for choice. How can you improve things or limit damage? |
| #317: | Under existentialism, there's no giving up. Fortune or misfortune, you soldier on, because life is all you've got, and you have to use it. |
| #318: | So where did life come from? Did God make it? I don't know, but it's irrelevant. All that matters is what you do, what you choose. - #existentialism |
| #319: | Stardate 2009.141, Las Vegas, early 21st Century. I am torn: Should I reveal to the humans the doom that awaits them or keep it to myself? |
| #320: | The terrifying truths behind 24 classic nursery rhymes http://bit.ly/8ESN4 (Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, etc.) Brainz via @absolutelytrue |
| #321: | What you don't know CAN hurt you. NY Times (5/20) http://bit.ly/crz1n - The point: People live best with resolution, not uncertainty. |
| #322: | "An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way." - Charles Bukowski |
| #323: | Thanks in part to YouTube, most public discourse on the internet is little more than a never-ending episode of "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" |
| #324: | Spam followers are easily detected by the huge increase in followees since they friended you. Just block 'em! |
| #325: | Once I blocked spam followers, I lost half of them. That means celebs who claim 1M followers probably only have a fraction of that. |
| #326: | "The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself." - Saul Alinsky (via @linkibol) |
| #327: | "Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you're free to live." - Saul Alinsky. More quotes from him: http://bit.ly/eYjZ0 |
| #328: | Human relations are a constant struggle between loneliness on one side and engulfment on the other. |
| #329: | Engulfment is when you lose control of your own life in service to others. It feels like you're drowning. - #existentialism |
| #330: | Loneliness is an absence of contact with others, but it's compounded by a lack of mission, which others can't really provide. |
| #331: | Life is inherently lonely. There will always be a limit to how much you can merge with others, so get used to it! - #existentialism |
| #332: | Lonely people seeking a relationship often fail to see the other side: how quickly you can get swallowed up in another and lose control. |
| #333: | What seems to be loneliness is often just the pressures of not knowing what to do with yourself. With a mission, loneliness fades. |
| #334: | Loneliness/engulfment creates a cycle. You're desperate for attachment, but when it happens you say, "Get me outta here, I can't breathe!" |
| #335: | Successful relationships require a balance between loneliness and engulfment, which is a hard spot to find. |
| #336: | No matter how intimate you may be with someone, you must define and actively defend your boundaries. "This is the line you can't cross." |
| #337: | Boundaries are the subject of one of my songs: "This is Where I Begin" http://bit.ly/Cm1tj No you can't come over this side. |
| #338: | Airline lingo: "lapchild" - an infant under two sitting in a parent's lap and not requiring an extra seat. "M'am, control your lapchild!" |
| #339: | Airline lingo: "arrival pastry" - a cellophane-packaged pastry served to overseas air passengers about an hour before arrival. A good sign! |
| #340: | If my "gaydar" is working correctly, male flight attendants are overwhelmingly gay. Deceptively simple question: Why? |
| #341: | It is the nature of society to create rules. It is the nature of the individual to evade them. |
| #342: | It is not a sin to have money in the bank, only to spend it frivolously. |
| #343: | "The only good divorce is a fast divorce." - Judge Gerald Hardcastle. I agree. You MUST get everything resolved as quickly as possible. |
| #344: | I erred in my own divorce by not resolving it quickly, by giving too many second chances and by letting my ex continue to depend on me. |
| #345: | Once you know your marriage isn't gong to work, the most humane thing you can do for everyone is to cut the cord quickly. |
| #346: | People can't move on with their lives until the future is clearly resolved and there is no more room for negotiation. |
| #347: | There is no problem in the world that will be resolved by creating a Facebook page for it. Virtual protest is worth nothing. |
| #348: | The trouble with growing up in wealth and privilege is that it is impossible to meet the standards of your parents without feeding off them. |
| #349: | Most adults have little curiosity about the world around them because it might threaten the value of their own investments. |
| #350: | To protect the delusion that we made all the right choices, we suppress any other alternatives. |
| #351: | It's easy to say, "I love my town/career/spouse," if you never experience any other. All is fine when you stay within your comfort zone. |
| #352: | One tool of supression is paranoia. If you can imagine a threat in an outside alternative, it won't threaten your own investments. |
| #353: | If you're married to X but meet up with Y, you will look for flaws in Y to justify your investment in X. If none, you make them up! |
| #354: | After divorce it's easy to accept the flaws in your ex. When married, though, you suppress this knowledge and make excuses for it. |
| #355: | A doctor can't accept that medicine isn't the best career for him because he has already invested so much. Any other data is suppressed. |
| #356: | There is a certain satisfaction in watching gays make all the same relationship mistakes as heteros. Nothing really changes. |
| #357: | Funny Obama/Spock cartoon: http://bit.ly/aXq5j - A little too close to the truth, re deficits. Via @aedison |
| #358: | People believe what they need to believe to protect what they have already invested in. |
| #359: | When we hurt someone else it's called guilt. When we hurt ourselves it's regret. Same thing really. |
| #360: | Best desert sun hat: any t-shirt put on upside down. With neck opening, cover ears but not eyes. Drape shirt on neck. Looks Egyptian! |
| #361: | The patented Egyptian T-Shirt Sun Hat modeled by yours truly. http://bit.ly/R0Ttg |
| #362: | I'm in Reno to see Europe's #1 Britney Spears impersonator - and kill all the other B.S. impersonators. No one will suspect who's behind it. |
| #363: | I seem to be missing something. What is the point of a high-res TV screen that exceeds the resolution of the human eye that's watching it? |
| #364: | My free accommodations in Reno consist of a sleeping bag, a tarp and a secret spot of wooded land identified on Google Earth. |
| #365: | Marriage, or any other "forever" commitment, assumes that you have your life all worked out in advance. It's an arrogant position. |
| #366: | It is fine to choose for the short term - days, months - but once you start choosing for decades, your choice inevitably becomes a prison. |
| #367: | Sometimes I wish the 49-year-old Glenn could go back to advise the 20-year-old one, but that would be cheating. |
| #368: | For most people, the early 20s are the prime of ones personal freedom, but with an overwhelming pressure to give it up. |
| #369: | In an urban environment, it is truly amazing where your own feet can take you at 3 mph! |
| #370: | The 49-year-old Glenn can't go back to advise the 20-year-old one, but the 20-year-old can still inspire the 49-year-old. |
| #371: | In every city in the world in the summer: Boys on skateboards in the city square practicing their moves. Girls on cell phones. |
| #372: | Life's most narcissistic act is to bring a new child into the world when so many already here are in desperate need. |
| #373: | Field observation: Sagging (wearing ones pants below the hips) and not tying ones shoelaces are incompatible with the best skateboard moves. |
| #374: | THREE tribute bands are playing for FREE outside Harrahs in Reno tonight at 8pm. BE THERE! (My camera will be.) |
| #375: | The creation of music and its performance are two different things. Most "musicians" are only capable of the latter. |
| #376: | Random factoid: It's "There's a bad moon on the rise," not "There's a bathroom on the right." |
| #377: | Kathmandu, that's where I'm really really going to. (If I ever get out of here.) |
| #378: | I'm enjoying my first-ever gay nightclub (in Reno). Actually my first-ever NIGHTCLUB! Thank God I brought my handy-dandy foam earplugs! |
| #379: | Even my foam earplugs, suitable for the airport ramp, are hardly adequate here. Young people these days! When I was a kid, we had HEARING! |
| #380: | When I stand in front of the giant speakers (earplugs installed), every hair on my body vibrates. |
| #381: | I didn't have to kill any Britneys tonight, 'cause Brit #1 showed 'em who's boss! |
| #382: | Back on a plane after two (2) hours of sleep in Reno. Ah, the gay life! |
| #383: | Sometimes, aboard a flight, I may enjoy the illicit pleasure of a caffeinated cola product, but only if it is free. |
| #384: | Airline lingo: "carrion item" - the rotting carcass of a dead animal stored in the overhead bin or under the seat in front of you. |
| #385: | Best line from Scooby Doo movie: REPORTER "What's the secret of your success?" FREDDIE "Teamwork! I do a tremendous amount of teamwork!" |
| #386: | I suspect everyone involved in music performance is already hearing damaged, so they have to turn the volume up even more. |
| #387: | I've just discovered the WORLD'S GREATEST COMEDIC TALENT @aedison Her tweets are good, but her "Weekly Show" is fantastic! averyedison.com |
| #388: | We shouldn't get too hung up on comedy. Comedy is a medium, not an end. We should be focused on finding meaning and purpose. |
| #389: | Little known fact: Airline flight crews are paid hourly but only after the aircraft leaves the gate, so they aren't being paid to greet you. |
| #390: | "Folie à Deux" is a mental illness shared by two or more people. My 2007 philosophy essay: http://bit.ly/RZcpt - More common than it seems! |
| #391: | All porn is ridiculous. Even if you're turned on by it, you have to admit, "This is stupid." |
| #392: | My April essay on TRIAGE, a cornerstone of my philosophy http://bit.ly/ON2PE (Kilroy Cafe #38) Doing what you can with what you have. |
| #393: | My Facebook page has it's own rules, and here they are: http://bit.ly/13PxIK - To be my friend, please sign and notarize in triplicate. |
| #394: | I have hidden my list of Facebook friends from all my Facebook friends! Explanation: http://bit.ly/8sg0p Philosophy: http://bit.ly/ZnrXu |
| #395: | Here are my new photos of EUROPE'S #1 BRITNEY SPEARS IMPERSONATOR performing in Reno http://bit.ly/u6B8u - my friend @kimberleydayle |
| #396: | New photos from my FIRST-EVER VISIT TO A NIGHT CLUB http://bit.ly/K1P5s (at gay @undergroundreno) - As Spock would say: "Fascinating." |
| #397: | The law is not a precision instrument, like a scalpel. It is more like a sledgehammer that breaks as many things as it fixes. |
| #398: | My photo of the tiny home in Gary Indiana where MICHAEL JACKSON once lived http://bit.ly/gbKAi from album http://bit.ly/gc3rb |
| #399: | A "straw man" argument is distorting your opponent's position then knocking it down. Is Obama doing it? NY Times: http://bit.ly/1FpNtH |
| #400: | Most of us SAY we want accurate feedback on what we are doing, but if it turns out negative, we'll usually suppress it. |