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My Moral Code

[subject to change if it must]

No human has any authority over any other human. Thusly, I treat everyone the way I would like to be treated. This includes telling them things they might not want to hear but need to hear. It also includes not submitting to behavior regulation attempts used by theose in power. Every person can reject attempted authority and should not be criticized or otherwise punished for standing up for themselves. Only cowards would denounce a person for defending their livelihood. Of course, you should also defend yourself in a way that will not get you squished. It is better to run and fight another day.

Nothing is good or bad. It just is. It is our own point of view that makes it either. I choose to view everything in my life as good because I love life and everything about it. You see, all events, good, bad and seemingly unrelated, are contributing to my destiny.

Life is about choosing what you want happening around you. You have the power to change anything about your life so long as you are willing to make the sacrifice it requires. If you are unhappy with what is currently going on around you, you can simply choose to walk away. It's really that easy. Though, as with all abilities, you must too exercise this one with care.

Be mindful of your vibes. Your actions affect everyone else and everyone else's actions affect you. Take care not to make others angry by neglecting your actions, for you would not want them to anger you. Conversely, spend as much time as you can sending out good vibes, actions that will likely make people happy and give them good spirits.

"There's no such thing as problems, Mr. Green. Only situations." - Avi, Revolver by Guy Ritchie

We should explore all possibilities. When these possibilities become power, we must choose to exercise them with care and caution, but always exercise them, even if we are afraid to do so. Making things illegal is a declaration of fear. We must confront our fears and understand them so that we may defeat them.

Only the adaptable survive. Never stop, never quit striving to become better. The ones most willing to respond to change will survive in the long run.

Live for the moment. Choose your future.

Question everything always, especially your own and others' certainties.

Your primary objective is personal survival. If your success must come at the cost of others, you are hurting yourself in the long run for short term gain. A good survival strategy, therefore, is to dedicate considerable efforts toward saving the whole so they will save you. It would suck if you were the only one alive.

The objective of life is to reverse-engineer the fundamental laws of our universe and use them as we see fit. Once we are masters of our domain, we must strive to go further. We must remove all objectives that prevent us from accomplishing this goal of constant advancement.

Be the change.

Comments (0) 05.29.2011. 16:07

What Are We?

Sometimes I wonder what our planet would look like to an outside observer that, for some reason or another, couldn't see humans. How could you explain what is happening on Earth if you can't detect the inhabitants?

What are the inhabitants?

We are organic robots. We carry a complete copy of our source code in all but one of our cell types. This source code, also known as DNA, executes its program under the right conditions (conception), and then continues running until the program terminates (death).

What happens in between is merely a result of our programming. You see, much like the behavior of a computer program is controlled by its source code, we too are controlled by ours.

Our DNA is programmed to output a quadrupedal ape with relatively high thinking capacities. Our brain structure is determined by our DNA. Our actions are determined by the thoughts in our brain. Our actions are consequently controlled by our DNA.

There is one other thing that influences our actions, however. That is our environment. Our inputs, or rather, our sensory organs, feed us information about our surroundings. More importantly than anything though, we influence each other with a subroutine we call society.

As it turns out, it is unlikely that our source code comes with comments. The ironic bit is that if we could read the comments, we probably wouldn't need them anymore. Nor do our bodies come with a built-in instruction manual.

Despite what many would like to believe, no all-knowing entity descended upon Earth to give instructions to its inhabitants. It seems this myth was borne of the human desire for purpose in life.

As a survival strategy, hierarchy formed within human society. Because of this superior/inferior or parent/child relationship between ruling class and citizen class, that is exactly what we have become. As government grew larger, so did the child. Eventually you end up with the United States: a bunch of adult children that are incapable of caring for themselves because no one ever made them.

This is what our DNA has made of us. Is there any hope to be seen?

Of course there is. Like in an individual's life, there comes a time where you sort of just realize that it's time to start acting like an adult. That day may or may not come for the human race. Hopefully it does, and sooner, rather than later.

Our brain has a "layer" of consciousness in it, and this layer acts as a buffer between our subconscious instincts and our actions. This buffer is where we weigh the pros and cons of what we are about to do. This buffer sees every action, even if we do not see the action in the buffer before it happens, trust that it is there.

What does this buffer allow? Analysis. Think before you act. You can be free from the default programming of your brain and your DNA. You must ask yourself: What do I want to be? I would hope this answer does not include "Just like everyone else". Then you must also ask yourself: "What do I want the human race to become?". I hope your answer includes: "A god-like species."

These questions take serious effort to answer, but once you answer them or have a good idea of your answer, program your 'freedom buffer' to act out these goals instead of the directionless goals of gluttony and greed that evolution has programmed you with.

Comments (0) 03.12.2010. 02:54

Control the Inside to Control the Outside

Greed and Fear.

These are two human traits that need eliminated. Nearly every problem we have today is caused by human greed and fear of the unknown. Why aren't there prescriptions for that?

The challenge is control. People are so fixated on controlling things around them, that they do not stop to try and control things on the inside. Once we have control on the inside, it is much easier and much less stressful to control things on the outside.

I feel like this is a useless post because I don't think I can tell you how to achieve inner peace. The only thing I can tell you is how I've gotten as far as I have.

When I was young, my baseball coach asked my Dad to be the GM of my little league team. I got to pitch a lot. A huge part of pitching is keeping your composure on the mound. I started learning composure around twelve years old on the pitching mound. That same year at school, I was taking anger management classes, likely because I was a very emotional kid. Something my birth-mom passed onto me.

At football practice one day when I was younger and less in control of my emotions, I was getting picked on pretty bad. After practice I was crying about it in my garage. My brother of ten years my senior asked me why I was crying, rather, why I was letting them make me cry.

It dawned on me that I wasn't crying because I wanted to be crying. I was crying because the kids that picked on me had control of my emotions and therefore my actions. I wasn't about to let anyone have control of my actions but myself.

As a weird and awkward teenager, I had trouble with girls. My mother disowned me when I was five or so, and created a huge gap in my life. I tried desperately to fill the void with another girl.

It took me until my fourth year of college to understand emotional control, though I have still not stopped learning. I give this time in my life because it is when I stopped letting women control my emotions.

Shortly thereafter, I realized that not only had women controlling me, but my subconscious was controlling me with my emotions as well. A person I have named "Sam Gold" after the main character in the movie Revolver by Guy Ritchie.

My emotions and subconscious still control my actions occasionally, but everyday I realize that another one of my behaviors is caused by either emotional or subconscious influence. Upon realizing, I can determine whether or not this character trait is good or bad. From then on, I am able to slowly disable this automatic behavior.

With time, I will use inner peace to create and become my inner Tyler Durden.

So how do you control the outside from the inside? My first suggestion would be meditation. Each night before going to sleep, sit cross-legged in a quiet room. Close your eyes and concentrate on the rhythm of your breath. As thoughts enter your mind, gently push them out of your head and continue to focus on breathing.

It is slow going and for the first week or so, it will not appear that meditating helps, for the thoughts grow louder and beyond your control. Persistence and practice will silence the din of your mind. This is because your thoughts are like steam and meditating removes the lid on the boiling pot that is your mind. Once the initial pressure has been released, you will notice that your mind is easier to focus during the day.

The next thing you need to do is quit one of your bad habits. I picked cigarettes. You should pick eating and watching TV when bored to quit. Perhaps drinking or some other substance addiction. If you have more than one, just pick the one you dislike the most and quit. Exercise your will power.

After your bad habit is under control, replace it with a good habit. I replaced cigarettes with yoga every morning. Don't get me wrong, I hate exercising just as much as you, but exercise helps build your discipline and increases your will power.

Another thing you can do is learn something new. The less experienced you are with whatever you're learning the better. This will stimulate neural growth and plasticity in the brain. I picked guitar because I don't know anything about playing music. It's very challenging and incredibly frustrating, but the joy of doing something new is awesome!

Continue analyzing your life. Determine what actions or habits of yours have a negative impact on your life. Continue trading negative actions for positive ones. Don't worry about being selfish. If it turns out that there are negative people in your life, they need to go to.

As you begin to gain control of your actions, you will find that life is much easier to navigate while in a clear state of mind. Your inner Tyler Durden knows how to proceed towards your goals. The greater control you have over your actions, the better you will become at achieving your dreams.

Comments (0) 03.11.2010. 19:20

What Makes Us Human

Are the monkeys in the video "dumb"? I might say they are if my fellow citizens did something so silly.

So what is it that makes us better than monkeys? As the video might demonstrate to you, not much. So why do I continue writing this; what is it that I'm trying to get through to you?

We have the unique ability to reprogram ourselves. No matter how many times these monkeys, or other monkeys, or probably even humans, try this experiment, they will always fail at getting the banana. It just goes to show that the monkeys are their own biggest enemy.

We have the power to reject the wisdom of the other monkeys. You know, this kind of gets into the reason I don't necessarily like old people. The monkeys that are in the cage before the new monkey are so convinced that they've seen it all before, that they know exactly what WILL happen because they have seen what HAS happened.

Humans have millions of years of programming hard-wired into our brains to behave like these monkeys do. Yet we have a choice. There is a layer of consciousness that has emerged in humans; between your subconscious thoughts and conscious actions. This very thin layer communicates to our conscious minds the intent of our subconscious minds. However small, there is a tiny message that your conscious receives before you carry out the actions of your subconscious desires. If you listen close enough, you can hear it every time.

How does this make us "better" than monkeys? We can choose to reject our programming. We can choose to ignore the actions that our primal programming strongly suggests we perform. Furthermore, we have the capacity to program ourselves the way we want. Self-programming is a long, difficult and arduous task that few are willing to undertake.

Yet, we must undertake this task if we are to distinguish ourselves from mere monkeys.

Comments (0) 02.28.2010. 18:50

The Will to Live

Life is a funny thing. It was a complete accident, an anomaly, really. It's like we're a plague or a fungus growing on someone's planet collection. In effect, life has no purpose, yet it will do everything in its power to survive. I think that's what defines life; the desire to live. By 'desire', I don't mean the human emotion. From humans to bacteria and everything in between, they all demonstrate this will to live. Bacteria take a strength in numbers approach with simple DNA that can mutate quickly to ensure survival.

Anyway, I'm not really sure where I was going with that. I'm trying to understand the limits of my mind. I know there's a primal part of me that acts on instinct and emotion. This part is needy and nagging constantly. It's very much like a child that never grows up. I guess we'll go along with Freud and call this the id. The id is vastly more cunning than you are. When you have an internal dialogue, you are communicating with the id. It's the patron of the conversation that is asking for something. Id tells you when to eat, when to pee, when to get angry and sad and happy.

Most people just think its a part of who they are and just accept it. I tried to fight my id, to outsmart it. After that it just turns into a nagging contest, constantly irritating you. Any smoker that has quit or has tried to quit especially, knows the power of the id. Poking and proding you until you smoke that cigarette. (I have since quit smoking; it's been almost a month now!)

It's very easy to spoil the id, and much like a child, once spoiled, it's nearly impossible to change its ways. On an aside, it's absolutely appaling how parents fail to take into account how their actions will affect a child.

The reason the id so intelligent is that it makes you believe you are them. It bears repeating that the id convinces you to be its puppet, and you're perfectly okay with that. The thoughts are coming from inside your head, so it must be you, right?

I've learned to recognize the id's attempts in controlling me. Upon realizing this, I viewed my id as an oppenent that must be conquered. I gave up all my habits and I started doing things just because the id doesn't want me to. Look at it this way: every time you say to yourself "I want to," or "I don't want to," it's the id talking.

Again, the id is incredibly powerful. The id also manifests itself in unexpected ways. Certain personality traits are driven by the id. These traits however, are some of the easiest to break. Once you recognize these traits in yourself, it's easy to prevent acting them out.

Some things are more difficult to change. Emotional reactions are, without a doubt, the bane of every human I've ever met. I learned at a young age to control my emotions. I was a third baseman when I played baseball. Eventually they had me try pitching. Throwing a baseball into an imaginary box 1.66 feet wide and probably close to 2 feet high takes a considerable amount of concentration. If you screw up, the id lets you know right away. If you can't learn to silence the id, you can't throw strikes. Being a bit narcissistic, I quite liked pitching because I controlled the pace of the game, so I learned at a young age how to handle the id.

Comments (0) 02.18.2010. 10:02

Slowly Letting Yourself Become.... Tyler Durden

Everyone has an inner Tyler Durden. That's why Fight Club was such a brilliant movie; did anyone actually listen? No. They just thought it was a good movie, didn't think too much about it and watched another movie. The die hard Fight Club fans know what the movie really means.

Having the strength and courage to become Tyler Durden. Jack became Tyler most of the time, but 'becoming' was a complete transformation for periods of time. Normal people only see glimpses of their inner Tyler.

If you asked someone why they weren't the person they wanted to be, they would give you a million excuses. I don't claim to be my inner Tyler, but I am certainly working on it. My excuse is student loan debt and the need for a job that can afford to pay them off. A lot of people have debt along with kids and pets and other random shit they have to take care of. I have two cars, and they most certainly own me. Better than walking though.

So how do you become Tyler? Know yourself. Know how your outer Jack differs from your inner Tyler. It's much easier to know yourself without distractions. Meditating helps; the more silent you are, the more you can hear. This goes for the mind as well.

"Never been in a fight. You?"

No, I haven't either. The closest thing to a fight I've ever had was a thrown punch that partially landed before it got broken up in the locker room. So I'm planning on taking ninjutsu. I have a serious thing for ninjas, but am a total pirate sympathizer as well. I hope one day, pirates and ninjas can unite and fight against the greater evils of the world. This decision is based on the desire to build my discipline and mastery of my physical body.

Until that day comes though, you must strive to be your inner Tyler. Stop making excuses and do it. How? Your super powers.

Little do most know that your super-power is you -- your consciousness. You are, for better or worse, stuck inside of a robot called a human being. You have the potential to have complete control over this robot, if you choose to wield this power. It is certainly not easy to wield though.

A lot of people just go through life on auto-pilot, believing they are unable to change what is, or, more likely, they are afraid to change, afraid of the unknown.

You must shed your fear of the unknown and learn to embrace it.

Controlling your body is no easy feat, however. There are millions of years of pre-programmed reflexes and emotion to overcome, things which can interfere with rational and logical decision making. And these are only your thoughts you must overcome.

Mastery of your body is also necessary. The number of people that stick with an exercise routine pale in comparison to the number that have tried and failed. Overcoming your body's natural tendancy towards laziness is a challenge you must defeat every day.

A healthy diet would probably help, too. Stop eating and drinking sugar. How many five pound bags of sugar-turned-fat do you have attached to you? I have a few. You don't have to go crazy. Just make time to cook your own food and make sure the ingredients are healthy.

Frozen/processed meals do not count. If you do not have time in your life for a healthy diet, then you did not take time in your life for a healthy body.

Becoming Tyler is a slow process. Add or subtract one small thing about your daily routine each month. I have removed cigarettes, I have added meditation, I have removed unhealthy foods, and most recently I have added yoga. Next month I want to add ninjutsu.

In six months, if you're not close to being your inner Tyler Durden, then you can have your money back.

Comments (0) 02.03.2010. 11:50

Depression is Fake

Depression is, in my whole hearted opinion, fake. Now, when I say 'fake', I don't mean fake as in Santa Claus. I mean that depression is fake as in doctors and psychologists love to diagnose it because they can sell more pharmies and get more kickbacks from BigPharma.

There are some things that are real. Moods, lack of motivation, sadness, etc. If you're reading this, I'm pretty sure you've experienced depression symptoms at some point in your life.

So a bunch of people, with their 9 to 5 jobs, 3 kids and not enough hours in the day, go to their doctors and say to them "Doc, I don't have the energy or focus to do all the things I need to do in my life. It's bringing me down." Doctor asks a few questions and after a while (maybe even a visit to a shrink), writes you a prescription for either happy pills or ADHD meds. Why? Because taking pills is so easy and convenient! Problems? PILLS! No more problems.

Except there are still problems, the pills just hide your problems, covering them up, sweeping them under the rug.

My whole life I've grown up with my mother telling me how depressed she was. Recently, I just found out that her father (my grandpa) was also 'depressed'. I told him I didn't want to be addicted to happy pills, and he said you didn't need to become dependent, but maybe to get you 'over the hump'. Seems this depression runs in the family.

Right. The 'hump'. Sad to say, but this isn't a week at the office. There is no 'hump' to get over if you're depressed. This is your entire life that you're depressed about.

Depression is your body telling you that your life situation sucks very badly. If your goldfish shows signs of stress, you change things around to make it happy again. Perhaps changing the water, doing water tests, adding new fishy friends or something else. When people get depressed, what do they change in their fishbowl? Nothing.

Tell me which is easier: changing your own fishbowl, or taking a pill in the morning before work? Clearly, a pill.

To change your fishbowl, you need to take a long, hard, honest look at your own life. This is something people almost never do, either because they are too busy with their lives to notice their lives, or because they are too busy keeping tabs on other people's lives; reality tv, gossip mags, etc.

It takes a lot of thinking and analyzing, but eventually, you will figure out why you are depressed. What about your life makes you sad? What is sucking your life force reserves below empty every single day?

Some people are stuck. They have kids or they have obligations they can't give up. These people are depressed and are too afraid to do what it takes to make them happy again; which typically means doing something drastic. However, if you have children, their happiness is paramount to yours. Do not screw your kids over because you're depressed. You made your bed, now sleep in it; though it's most certainly still possible to take care of your kids and cure your own depression, but it's even more work than not having these obligations.

However, if you do not have children and you're depressed, I recommend quitting everything and go find yourself. A fortune cookie once told me "To find yourself, you must first lose yourself."

Get rid of the things in life that have an overall negative effect on your life force reserves. Even if one of them is your best friend. It's hard to realize that your best friend (or even spouse) of many years is draining your life force.

Depression is letting you know that something is wrong. ADHD is letting you know that you're not being challenged, that your job is uber boring. Pills will cover the problem up. Meditation will set your problems free so you can handle them. Which path will you choose?

Comments (0) 01.30.2010. 10:37

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