Growing Up

[00.dusk]

Ah, shame.  I shall chalk it up to you doing forbidden mathematics in your head, allowing an intersection between this universe and the lower levels of the Mandlebrot set.  That way, you were going crazy but it also really did happen.  All bases covered.

Don't tell the Black Chamber. It certainly wasn't squamous, after all.

If that turns out to be true in your case as well, all I am going to say is that, when the time comes, remember to enjoy it.  Taking pleasure in the small things is one of the benefits of a more stable and secure life, and should not be neglected.

I'm already taking pleasure in the small things. Like caffeine. Did you know you can get riproaringly high if you drink enough of that shit? I did not, but I learned very quickly.

[Cain]

 

And yes, though in my case, I think I'm becomming slowly immune to the effects of caffeine.  The day before yesterday, I was tired enough that I had a coffee (47% pure caffeine) followed by two red bulls, and all it did was make me feel slightly less exhausted for half an hour.

I need to detox, I think.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Looking forward to that.

And yeah, it was reality, but nobody should have to learn that way. A lot of kids think they know it all, but having to go through all that is like a puppy getting smacked with a hammer for peeing on the carpet. No, I take that back, it's worse. I don't even have an analogy.

In the long run, I'm kind of glad it happened. In hindsight, I was in a mentally abusive family that only kept me because the government let them control my money. When I went to jail, the money disappeared and they didn't want me anymore. Also, I was running on 90% industrial strength Idealism, and that's always an ugly way to go.

"Kind of" is probably key here. You gained a hell of a perspective. It's beyond fucked up that things like this happen at all, though.
I'm guessing Poppo will probably be set up with a little apartment now. Face chewed off under bridge: people notice. Homeless since the 70's: nobody gives a fuck. 

Do you have some kind of plan worked out for getting to the EU?

I have nothing. I've been looking into it, but not too seriously at the moment, because there's no way in hell I could ever afford it. My backup plan, though, is Tucson.

Yeah, my backup is Austin or San Marcos. I might stand a chance of making enough money there to eventually get out of the country. If not, those places still have functional humans and things to do. Seguin might be a big step up from a storm drain populated by psychos who collect bones, but it's still solitary confinement. I'm convinced that without the internet I'd have done a Hank by now.

If you ever want an overview of what it takes to move to different countries, you can grab this for about five bucks and shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Out-Leaving-America-Self-reliance/dp/0976082276

You could say I'm a glutton for punishment.

You'll have to write about it, of course. All this Tuscon stuff needs to be compiled into a fat book.

Yeah, everyplace is america now, but I still think some places are more america than others

I need as little America as I can get. If I had the patience to go through the shitpile that is getting a Japanese citizenship, I'd go there in a heartbeat. They have a ton of weird, but at least they don't have as much America as the English-speaking folks.

I'd never even considered living in Japan. I love the weirdness of it, but to me their best weird seems like it was a long time ago, Edo period or something like that. I think of contempory Japan as "that place where so many people worked themselves to death that they have a word for it now."
Both half-baked concepts are probably horribly wrong, of course. The only way to find out what any place is really like is to go.

[Cain]

I can advise on Europe, if you want.

The way things are going, though, I would personally recommend not trying the Eurozone.  Given how Syzria have been locked out of the Greek political system by orders from on high, it looks like the masters of the Euroverse have decided that a fascist backlash to austerity is infinitely preferable to a leftist one.

China is slowing, as is the US.  Oddly enough, it's places like Uganda, Angola and Kenya that seem to be showing the greatest economic growth at the moment.  Angola is actually propping up the Portuguese economy right now.  Of course, they are starting off from a lower level, and are still sensitive to global conditions...but I suspect there is a reason Luanda is now the most expensive city in the world, and you're better off looking for a job there than you would be in Spain, with it's 50% unemployment rate for the 18-24 range.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Welcome back, and congratulations on surviving the world so far.

[00.dusk]

And yes, though in my case, I think I'm becomming slowly immune to the effects of caffeine.  The day before yesterday, I was tired enough that I had a coffee (47% pure caffeine) followed by two red bulls, and all it did was make me feel slightly less exhausted for half an hour.

I need to detox, I think.

Here's a fun experiment I tried.

Don't have any caffeine and, if you smoke, no nicotine for a full week. Then, when the week is up, drink 3 of the strongest energy drinks you can find in extremely quick succession and, if you smoke, follow that with at least three cigarettes.

Document the results. And don't have any more caffeine for 24 hours, for the love of god.

"Kind of" is probably key here. You gained a hell of a perspective. It's beyond fucked up that things like this happen at all, though.
I'm guessing Poppo will probably be set up with a little apartment now. Face chewed off under bridge: people notice. Homeless since the 70's: nobody gives a fuck. 

No, no, he got his face chewed off on the walkway beside a freeway overpass. That's the only reason people noticed. If it had happened under the overpass, they only would have been able to identify him from his teeth a few decades later, if some sick hobo hadn't made off with them for jewelry by then. If it had happened in the maintenance tunnels under a condemned office building, he'd never be found. Ever. By anyone.

Yeah, my backup is Austin or San Marcos. I might stand a chance of making enough money there to eventually get out of the country. If not, those places still have functional humans and things to do. Seguin might be a big step up from a storm drain populated by psychos who collect bones, but it's still solitary confinement. I'm convinced that without the internet I'd have done a Hank by now.

If you ever want an overview of what it takes to move to different countries, you can grab this for about five bucks and shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Out-Leaving-America-Self-reliance/dp/0976082276

That's five bucks and shipping I don't have, but I'm sure there's a way I can get my hands on that much.

I'd never even considered living in Japan. I love the weirdness of it, but to me their best weird seems like it was a long time ago, Edo period or something like that. I think of contempory Japan as "that place where so many people worked themselves to death that they have a word for it now."
Both half-baked concepts are probably horribly wrong, of course. The only way to find out what any place is really like is to go.

My conception of Japan is "Tokyo: Human sardine can. Everywhere else: THERE IS NOTHING THERE" -- partially informed by some people I know who have been there, partially informed by cynicism.

I can advise on Europe, if you want.

The way things are going, though, I would personally recommend not trying the Eurozone.  Given how Syzria have been locked out of the Greek political system by orders from on high, it looks like the masters of the Euroverse have decided that a fascist backlash to austerity is infinitely preferable to a leftist one.

China is slowing, as is the US.  Oddly enough, it's places like Uganda, Angola and Kenya that seem to be showing the greatest economic growth at the moment.  Angola is actually propping up the Portuguese economy right now.  Of course, they are starting off from a lower level, and are still sensitive to global conditions...but I suspect there is a reason Luanda is now the most expensive city in the world, and you're better off looking for a job there than you would be in Spain, with it's 50% unemployment rate for the 18-24 range.

I'm actually considering the EU just because I happen to know some German, to be honest. As for employment -- haha. I've pretty much resigned myself to being a "leech" or a starving artist. Besides, starving isn't all that bad, once you get used to it! Besides which, I'm at about that level of mental illness where there is a 0% unemployment rate. I still am not entirely sure why they allow me to walk around with both hands free and nothing in my system that I don't buy to put there myself, but that's how things go, huh?

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

The way things are going, though, I would personally recommend not trying the Eurozone.  Given how Syzria have been locked out of the Greek political system by orders from on high, it looks like the masters of the Euroverse have decided that a fascist backlash to austerity is infinitely preferable to a leftist one.

Whoa.

Are you saying it's likely to turn fascist in the EU faster than it will here?

[Lenin McCarthy]

I can advise on Europe, if you want.

The way things are going, though, I would personally recommend not trying the Eurozone.  Given how Syzria have been locked out of the Greek political system by orders from on high, it looks like the masters of the Euroverse have decided that a fascist backlash to austerity is infinitely preferable to a leftist one.

China is slowing, as is the US.  Oddly enough, it's places like Uganda, Angola and Kenya that seem to be showing the greatest economic growth at the moment.  Angola is actually propping up the Portuguese economy right now.  Of course, they are starting off from a lower level, and are still sensitive to global conditions...but I suspect there is a reason Luanda is now the most expensive city in the world, and you're better off looking for a job there than you would be in Spain, with it's 50% unemployment rate for the 18-24 range.

I'm actually considering the EU just because I happen to know some German, to be honest. As for employment -- haha. I've pretty much resigned myself to being a "leech" or a starving artist. Besides, starving isn't all that bad, once you get used to it! Besides which, I'm at about that level of mental illness where there is a 0% unemployment rate. I still am not entirely sure why they allow me to walk around with both hands free and nothing in my system that I don't buy to put there myself, but that's how things go, huh?

Sadly, unless you have close relatives living in that country, most countries won't let in likely social service clients. Or you could try to get political refugee status, something you'd be very unlikely to get from any country that has decent relations with the US (in other words, you can still try Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela).

Anyway: Welcome! Great rant. Lots of respect to you.

[00.dusk]

I can advise on Europe, if you want.

The way things are going, though, I would personally recommend not trying the Eurozone.  Given how Syzria have been locked out of the Greek political system by orders from on high, it looks like the masters of the Euroverse have decided that a fascist backlash to austerity is infinitely preferable to a leftist one.

China is slowing, as is the US.  Oddly enough, it's places like Uganda, Angola and Kenya that seem to be showing the greatest economic growth at the moment.  Angola is actually propping up the Portuguese economy right now.  Of course, they are starting off from a lower level, and are still sensitive to global conditions...but I suspect there is a reason Luanda is now the most expensive city in the world, and you're better off looking for a job there than you would be in Spain, with it's 50% unemployment rate for the 18-24 range.

I'm actually considering the EU just because I happen to know some German, to be honest. As for employment -- haha. I've pretty much resigned myself to being a "leech" or a starving artist. Besides, starving isn't all that bad, once you get used to it! Besides which, I'm at about that level of mental illness where there is a 0% unemployment rate. I still am not entirely sure why they allow me to walk around with both hands free and nothing in my system that I don't buy to put there myself, but that's how things go, huh?

Sadly, unless you have close relatives living in that country, most countries won't let in likely social service clients. Or you could try to get political refugee status, something you'd be very unlikely to get from any country that has decent relations with the US (in other words, you can still try Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela).

Anyway: Welcome! Great rant. Lots of respect to you.

HELLO CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE!¹ 

Like I said, though, I could live with being a starving artist. Wouldn't hurt me all that badly. And I have pals (off of PD -- these folks actually have offered, it wasn't me having a Reality Tunnel Fracture and begging for aid from anyone and everyone) who would let me live in their closets or sub-basements.

¹: I am aware nobody lives in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone itself. But it wouldn't be too awfully far away.