Look at this puddle
This site is going to shit as usual. Between five official bloggers, we are able to muster about three new blogs a month. Even worse, Taj is using words like "didactic" and "proliferation" (apparantly, UPenn has made him a fancy boy). The only readers we have are the unemployed (which makes two readers). And if it wasn't for the comforting warmth that cold, crisp Sierra Nevadas bring to Kenta, he wouldn't read at all. The only people who comment are Taj's random-ass friends like Isabella, aka "Boss Lady" (as an aside, Taj knows the most random fuckers in the history of random fuckers. You know when you leave a job and send everyone your contact info just to be nice, full-well knowing that you will never talk to any of those people again? Well, Taj actually talks to those people again. And former doctors, grocery baggers, subway riders, zoo animals. In college, Taj actually made people cards, which are like business cards, only without the business part. All they had was his name, his email, and his phone number, so he could pass them out to random people he met while cruising the sweet streets of Santa Clara. I think that is how he ultimately got connected to that great Excel Telecommunications gig. To this day, I cannot believe that Taj actually walked around the AMC Mercado putting Telecommunications flyers on people's windshields. You know when you get back to your car after eating dinner and you start driving and then realize there is some annoying shit clinging to your windshield wiper? Yeah? Well, that was Taj).
Part of the issue for me life has become as exciting as a tawainese cricket match. Unlike some of my friends, I haven't spent the past few months getting rich off of internet companies, laying out on the beach in Marbella, getting new jobs at the world's best ad agency, or playing Empire Earth. I sit all day and write hideously bad advertisements. As another aside, I have become disgusted by the misuse and abuse of the English language. Fucking politicians and advertisers have hijacked language to make it devoid of any meaning whatsoever. They (and i consider myself one of them) have perfected the art of stringing words together in such a way that they mean absolutley nothing. I write statments about cars, newspapers, french fries (the product is irrelevant) that you've read so many times they literally don't even register in your mind any longer. "The new (insert any product here) is unlike any experience you've ever had. The (enter feature here) will provide thrills to your heart and keep you wishing for more. The (enter second feature here) is the first ever, and will revolutionalize the way you look at (insert any product here). The (enter random product benefit) will certainly (enter verb, such as excite, entice, improve, reenergize) your senses so much you'll wonder what you ever did without (insert any product here)." I think the problem is twofold. First, capitalism has created too many products and not enough buyers. How many toothbrushes, sodas, cars, trail mixes, phone cleaners, does a society need? Which leads to the second point. Companies actually belive that their generic products are somehow different than those of their competitors. They truly believe you when you show them copy that says "Our product is the best in the world and will change your life" Even if it is a roast beef sandwich. They are unable to recognize that their product is like every other, won't change anything, and is nothing but a product. So they make up bullshit and tell you it will change everything and is different than the others. Let me help you out. It isn't. Just come out and say we have a product, we think it is cool, we want you to know about it, thanks and good night. Don't bullshit people. People don't trust bullshitters.
Politicians are worse. At least all I am lying about is cars and sandwiches. They are actually dealing with important shit. They are lying about wars, economies, and people. With this handy equation, you too can speak like a politician: "The (enter hot topic here) is absolutely going as (well/poor) as can be expected given all known circumstances. (Enter political name here) is completely (qualified/unqualified) for the challenge ahead and all of us should be (proud/disgusted) of the work (he/she) is doing. I am looking for a better America, and only I, (enter political name here), can bring that to you."
Right. Anyway, to continue this randomness, I have a few things I want you to know. Firstly, were you aware that "solipsistic" was "a theory holding that the self can know nothing but its own modifications and that the self is the only existent thing"? Secondly, I want to make a commentary on Sisyphus (you remember, that mythological dude who stole secrets from the gods and was punished by having to endlessly roll a boulder uphill only to have it come crashing back down once he reached the top. He was sentenced to this for eternity. The gods reasoned that there is not worse punishment in the world than hopeless and futile labor). Well, I think we all can relate to this. Since all of our jobs, to some extent, is hopeless and futile labor. I also always liked this myth cause it is kinda like life. Often times putting a lot of effort into things and getting nowhere. Life, when examined, is kind of absurd. Most people wrongly deduce that the myth of Sysphus is depressing. The beauty is that it is the exact opposite. It sums up my world view perfectly, and explains why many people have wrongly pegged me as a pessimist. I am the opposite. Let me borrow the words of NY Times reporter, much more eloquent than I, to explain:
" ... in Camus's reading, Sisyphus, the existential hero, remains upbeat despite the futility of his task. The gods intend for Sisyphus to suffer. His rebellion, his fidelity to self, rests on the refusal to be worn down. Sisyphus exemplifies resilience, in the face of full knowledge of his predicament. Camus says that joy opens our eyes to the absurd -- and to our freedom. It is not only in the downhill steps that Sisyphus triumphs over his punishment: ''The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.''
Isn't that perfect? Life is always trying to bring you down, and the best thing you can do is give life the middle finger. Give me what you got, you arrogant fucker. I'll take it and keep going, even knowing there is no end goal. Therein likes the freedom. Happiness is knowing that life can't conquer you. People talk about the meaning of life. Fuck meaning. Existence is enough.
The final thing I'll leave you with is a word dump. A word dump is something I do to remember that the English language can still be cool, despite the best efforts of advertising and politicians to change that. All you gotta do for a word dump is sit down and type all the words that come into your head (but they should form some sort of sentence structure, even if it ultimately doesn't make sense). Here is mine for today:
Dripped keyboards, roam the pleaded farms, clouds made of yarn, courderoy voices of confusion flutter in a jar, a simple glance informing all the world has had enough. Desperation aside, the worn-out thumb flicks a rubber bell down the playground slide of existence. Eyes bright and wide, make haste, that "thing" you've always talked about is right now.