inquiry

        people are strange
      when you're a stranger
         faces look ugly
        when you're alone
          - The Doors

I mean, like, did Jim Morrison invent blogging or what?!

Anyway....

> In my experience, once I tried writing to an audience, > it felt like I got a new job. I'll stick to writing for > myself as a fun hobby.

Bravo! Bravo!

(and lots of inner “Hear! Hear!“s as well)

> Decided (on impulse, but a good impulse) to throw away > the tobacco pipe + the small amount of tobacco I had + > the few pipe accessories I had. They are at the bottom of > the dumpster now, and I have nicotine lozenges to replace > it. I am getting a new fill of lozenges tomorrow, too, > so that is good.

I'd sort of started smoking again more often than was wise, and just the other night handed about half a pack of Newports to a much younger fellow in the casino, which earned me what seemed a rather heartfelt “God bless you!” :–)

I'm sipping a glorious 92 proof white whiskey to this brief posting session.

<next morning>

> Right now, there are a lot of people who would > consider themselves “influencers” on the WWW. Some > (few, in fact) work very hard for their hard-earned > “status”. But others, I call PRIVFLUENCERS are nothing > more than rich people who are using their income (usually > sourced by their parents) to play the influencer game, > but have no “story” or “credits” behind them. It is > more a game of “I’m rich! Look at me go!” and people > all watch and sing along and post quotes from the person > on Facebook or Snapchat or wherever they waste their lives.

Egos and ego-aka-i-dolaters thereof? Old game, really. Even the old book (or collection of books) that lots of the most self-proclaim-edly “woke” egos love to hate (i.e. “The Bible”) mentions it a few times.

> What would it be like to live under the control of > a regime?

I only know what it's like to live under an alternating two. ;–)

> Minimalism is partially about ridding oneself of the > outward signs of success.

And perhaps mostly about minimal want (i.e. inner sense of lack)?

Jury duty in a couple weeks. Looking forward to it! It'll be a nice, refreshing break from judging others online. :–)