The Scrapyard --or-- CNO's brain dump

[chaotic neutral observer]

A month ago, a friend of the family passed suddenly.  He was diagnosed with cancer, and then shot himself in the head.

He was a small-town resident handyman, someone everyone knew and liked.  He was the kind of guy who, given a problem, would immediately grab his tools and tackle it, without thinking it through much.  Sometimes he made a mess, but he got the job done.  In the end, he applied that work ethic to himself.  So it goes.

He and I weren't more than acquaintances, but he was good friends with my mother, and she's pissed--not that she expresses it much.  I'm not sure what I feel about all this, or what I'm supposed to feel about it.  Am I supposed to be angry?  That doesn't make sense, no one exists to be angry at.

My last memory of him was last fall, when he helped me remove the stump of a plum tree.

This is all very stupid.

[chaotic neutral observer]

I drive a coupe.

If we were meant to drive vehicles with four doors, God would have given us four arms.

[chaotic neutral observer]

You can make lemonade out of your lemons, but the acid remains.

[chaotic neutral observer]

Trusting you
Doesn't mean believing you will catch me if I fall.

Trusting you
Means knowing you well enough
That I won't be surprised
When you don't.

[Doktor Howl]

A friend is someone who has not yet had sufficient motivation to throw you under the bus.

[chaotic neutral observer]

After people make a decision, they have a predisposition to believing it was the right one (also see: Sunk Cost Fallacy; Brand Loyalty).  I took the road less traveled by, which, in hindsight, was the correct choice, and proves my intellectual and moral superiority.

This type of bias is often present even when the person didn't actively make a decision, and their state is a result of external factors, or an accident of birth (My food preference/skin colour is superior to your food preference/skin colour).

Naturally, this extends to the country of one's birth.  On average, the citizens will show a natural tendency to construct and amplify a narrative that "this" is the best country in which to live, and other countries' way of doing things is evil/wrong/backward/barbaric/inefficient.

If a country's narrative is broadcast widely enough, and loudly enough, they attract immigrants.

I don't know where I'm going with this.