A Silly Shirt

(started 7/29/2009)

Hello everyone. I came up with a great t-shirt design last night:

Up with Religion!
Down with Science!

I thought it was funny because two groups of people would comment on it: nutcases who agree and rationalist pro-science types. Since both groups are fun to confuse and piss off, it's the best of both worlds. However, I was under the impression that you have to search far and wide for the first type, but Virgie tried to convince me that there are more nutcases than I previously thought. This hampered my enjoyment.

wickedrobots

Virgie and I watched the Original Series Star Trek episode "Changeling" on Tuesday. Afterward I made some comment about the robot being evil, because it exterminated the inhabitants of en entire star system (unfathomable catastrophes like this are the setup for many Original Series episodes.) Virgie pointed out that it was illogical to blame a robot for its actions, since they are merely the inexorable results of its programming, no matter how complicated that programming may be. I was unable to find a rebuttal to this but I continued to hate the fictional robot. Somebody has to be blamed for such a thing.

ISFJ

I just took the Myers-Briggs personality typography on The Social Utility that Will Not be Named. The result was ISFJ: Nurturer. The two ads that came up immediately were "Love Your Wife? Get her name tattooed on your profile" and "Ant and Elephant Book, by swami Binkinanda and some Cambodian guy." I believe that TSUtWNbN now has me pegged as a pussy. I'm okay with this because, in the real world, loving your wife means exactly the opposite.

I'm not okay with the assessment of my personality. I didn't know anything about the previous result (INTJ) but I knew it made me special. Less than 5% of the population are of that type. Co-dependent nurturers abound, though. I don't want to be one of them. I'm stuck with this result, though, because I'm much too lazy to take the stupid thing again.

TheTweakerWithin

When you need a blog post in a hurry you should remember the the best subject is funny made-up words!

knutervalve (or anything beginning with a consonant followed by a -nuter)
Wapcaplet (surname)
flimjam (my very own made up word)
Bingpickler (another surname)

Where have all the made-up words gone? Clearly my brain has dumped them into the recycle bin along with all your birth dates.

I make up words to conjure The Tweaker Within. The Tweaker Within is a manic persona I have. I've blogged about it before. People assume I'm a tweaker when they see my scraggly unkempt hair, unshaven face, rail-thin frame, veiny arms and ripped jeans. They are wrong to assume this! I am not a tweaker but I have a tweaker inside me and he's like a crazy person, but in a good way. I am not one of those folks who thinks being insane is cool. It is not cool; it's a living nightmare. Look at the crazy people on the street. The only comparison I can make is to a certain type of dream, the kind in which you know there's some kind of task required of you, but you can't do it. All you do is arrange tons of papers or look at endless colums on a spreadsheet or try to sell off the furniture in Frodo Baggins' estate before he heads out for Bree, being, it would seem, in charge while he's gone. Anyway, The Tweaker Within is not crazy. I take it back. He just wants to get a fun reaction out of people by saying things. And he needs to say things to himself (he likes the reaction he gets from himself, i.e. remaining The Tweaker Within.) He also needs to move about in fun ways. The Tweaker Within's primary goal is to make Virgie laugh and laugh and become silly. Our children are going to murder The Tweaker Within. He's coming. Gotta get home.

I think sometime soon there will eventually be a forthcoming blog post. The subject? Pn--m-t-c T-b-s. That's right, John, O first and awesomest and only disciple!

doubts

I am uncertain that I have the requisite skills for actuarial work, particularly the quantitative skills. I've never been an especially good problem solver or arithmetician. This usets me because I majored in math in college (and nothing else) and showing no particular aptitude for my chosen field makes me feel worthless, worthless, worthless.

I however, am not worthless. God gave me worth and I can no more change its quantity than I can drink the ocean dry. I still want to be able to look back at my life and say I did something difficult, and not something I'm supposed to do, per Chris Rock's advice. That rules out "Saw marriage through to the death of one partner" and "scarred children minimally." I want a vocation that rightly affords me a certain amount of respect, but not money. Money makes you want money. Money is poison. Money makes it hard to get into heaven. There's no point to all this studying if it's for money. Ugh, my brain power is spent on this actuary exam I'm probably going to fail. Mope, mope, mope. Soap, floap, dope, Pope? grope. nope.

MakingtheGrade

I'm again considering becoming an actuary and I'm not sure why. Here are some reasons, in the order in which they came to me:

1) I want to have a title that means something, like my dad has. He's a DVM; maybe I can become an ASA or even an FSA.
2) I want to be really good at something.
3) I want to be able to support a family including possibly putting my kids through college, save for retirement, ensure that my family's property isn't turned into a housing development, and give lots to charity.
4) Doing what I "love" has always seemed like a pipe-dream. I don't love work. I therefore may as well make decent money working.

Here are some of the reasons not to do it:

1) Staring at a damn computer all day. Sure, dad has a doctorate, but he also gets to drive all over the place and spend plenty of time outside.
2) I may not be very good at it or enjoy it.
3) The exam sequence takes a long time and a studying takes a lot of personal time, which I would rather devote to family and personal interests.


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