I'm wondering what sort of things you can do to see the shape of your cell.
(http://www.poee.co.uk/bip/images/e/ea/Prison_bed.jpg)
One of the dangers of a successful jailbreak is complacency. You escape into a better cell and then rest there. This is not to say that it's necessary to
constantly reinvent yourself and your environment, but one should be careful not to think that their escape is ever
over. The best time for a jailbreak is often the time you need it the least.
So what's my cell made of? For me, it's the place I live, the goals I have, the language I use to describe my world. It's the Colbert Report every night at 11:30. It's my body and its drives. It's my hobbies and interests. It's my sense of static self.
But I
like a lot of that stuff - how can I tell what parts of it to cut out? How can I distinguish the bars of my cell from the things I use to decorate it?
For me, a change of scenery is the most effective tool. I like to take off for one or two weekends a month and spend time doing something else entirely. I need to go away and be somebody other than me - then when I come back to myself I can look around with a fresh perspective.
It's a ritual that I reccommend to everyone. Go be someone that's not you. Hang out with new people. Do something unusual, something out of character. Challenge yourself in a new way. These small reinventions of self give you a sense of the shape of your cell. If you're staring at the bars all the time you often forget what they are. A good self-liberated prisoner eagerly anticipates the discomfort of novelty.
So what about you guys? How do you know it's time to escape?
until you detect harm you cant react to it
also
there is no sense causing a fuss where there is none
a lot of times - the best you can do is ride your hunches
try not to sacrifice tomorrow in favor of today and find enjoyment in today at the same time
maybe 'enjoyment' is the wrong word
Superman never seemed to enjoy things much - and he was Superman for fuck sakes
maybe the key is excitement more than enjoyment
exploring unknown uncharted regions and sending messages back to base
amongst all the wrong delusions out there
there is a right one
Quote from: LHX on June 05, 2007, 10:40:48 PM
until you detect harm you cant react to it
also
there is no sense causing a fuss where there is none
a lot of times - the best you can do is ride your hunches
try not to sacrifice tomorrow in favor of today and find enjoyment in today at the same time
maybe 'enjoyment' is the wrong word
Superman never seemed to enjoy things much - and he was Superman for fuck sakes
Well, Superman was concerned with a lot more than just himself. It strikes me as no surprise that he didn't enjoy things much. How can you really enjoy things when you're always trying to look out for everyone else's enjoyment more than your own?
Quote
maybe the key is excitement more than enjoyment
exploring unknown uncharted regions and sending messages back to base
I endorse this message.
Maintain a constant in-flow of stimuli. As soon as you cease receiving stimuli, having new experiences/learning new things/allowing yourself to consider alternative perspectives and/or the possibility of change... Then you have become static. There's no point to staying static. I'd rather be uncomfortable than static.
A jailbreak becomes imperative when you have become so comfortable that you stop taking input from the outside world and work just in a closed system.
Cram's idea of stepping outside of yourself, spending time out of character, is a very good way to not only jump-start yourself back into absorbing and reacting to external stimuli, but also a good diagnostic tool. "Have you gone static? Follow this simple program to test!"
Quote from: LHX on June 05, 2007, 10:40:48 PM
until you detect harm you cant react to it
also
there is no sense causing a fuss where there is none
true in some sense, false in some sense...
I spent months on my couch, jobless, stoned, content. It wasn't until I started to run out of money and pot that I realized I needed to ignite myself - while there was still time.
I easily could have remained motionless and happy. but in the long run I think the risk was worth the reward.
that and the fact that your ass wouldve got beat worse than it will now that youve stepped up
I try to see what my bars are by seeing where they aren't.
Try to learn something new:
Learn a new language.
Take up cooking.
Figure out how to build a guitar and an amplifier.
Study a scientific discipline.
Spend an entire week painting 30 minutes a day.
Get high.
Don't get high.
Go to a part of the town/country/globe you've never been before.
Eat a kind of cuisine you never have before.
Do something that makes you vaguely uncomfortable (talk to strangers, buy an expensive suit, go to a republican convention).
But most importantly, after you do these things, think about how they are different than what you normally do, and think of how you might be limiting yourself.
My daughter is my vehicle for this sort of thing. (Who's driving the bus?)
I see this as an opportunity for me to kind of vicariously see the world through another set of eyes. Seeing how she encounters different things and how she reacts. To watch what brings her joy and happiness, to see what makes her eyes light up with intrigue and interest.
Because I still vividly remember being that kid. I remember the unabashed joy I had out of pretend and make-believe. I remember walking down the old abandoned train tracks in my neighborhood and just exploring the environment. Noticing small things, big things, things I'd never seen before.
As an adult, for myself, I am continuing that exploration. I am fortunate to be in a place in my life where I can afford to do this, and not just financially. I've decided I want to expand my musical horizons. (and thanks to Mang I have a supplier now). I want to learn new instruments from different parts of the world. Go beyond the guitar/drum world of rock and roll.
Anyway, I'm rambling.
Quote from: LMNO on June 06, 2007, 01:08:27 PM
I try to see what my bars are by seeing where they aren't.
Try to learn something new:
Learn a new language.
Take up cooking.
Figure out how to build a guitar and an amplifier.
Study a scientific discipline.
Spend an entire week painting 30 minutes a day.
Get high.
Don't get high.
Go to a part of the town/country/globe you've never been before.
Eat a kind of cuisine you never have before.
Do something that makes you vaguely uncomfortable (talk to strangers, buy an expensive suit, go to a republican convention).
But most importantly, after you do these things, think about how they are different than what you normally do, and think of how you might be limiting yourself.
Cheers to you, sir. I raise my cup of coffee to that.
I like the more positive tone of this post. In general I find the BIP to be accurate, but often phrased in a really negative light. I get tired of doom and gloom. It's nice to take an approach that is active and attacking the bars of the BIP, as it were, but in a positive way.
Well, it's also a lot more effective than saying "Waaaah! My BIP has these bars that make me hate math! Waaah!"
Find a way not to hate math, even if it's from a conceptual angle.
Quote from: LMNO on June 06, 2007, 04:35:53 PM
Well, it's also a lot more effective than saying "Waaaah! My BIP has these bars that make me hate math! Waaah!"
Find a way not to hate math, even if it's from a conceptual angle.
I agree with that.
But I'd also say that if you keep looking for a way to not hate math and it isn't working, move past it. Move on to something else. Don't get hung up on it when there is so much more to it. It's as important to see the bars of the BIP as it is to be able to look through/around them, sometimes.
Shaking your life up works as long as you do it in the right way (and LMNO, that's what I call your list above, a sort of "shake up" of the same-old same-old).
What do I mean by the "right way"? What I mean is: if you're going to a place you haven't been to before, explore it. Eat the food the indigenous people are eating. Go to THEIR places of entertainment. Don't carry your own home environment around WITH you.
I've seen this happen before: people take up a new "hobby" or adventure and turn it into something familiar.
You mean kind of like going to France for vacation and eating at the McDonald's?
Ding ding! Yup. Nevair fails. Americans go to Mexico eating...Taco Bell. :lol:
But it's a ROYALE with cheese. That makes it foreign!
(http://www.lesjones.com/www/images/posts/BBC_Choice_Event_Pulp_Fiction_06032002_4.jpg)
Regarding the OP, I'm still ruminating over this and will probably go in-depth later (been super busy lately).
i got more to add on to this as well
I try out different belief systems.
Read some philosophy, it can be religious or political. Don't criticize, just absorb. Then try living while thinking in that way for a few days. Christianity, Islam, NeoCon, Anarchist, vanilla Discordian, Subgenius etc etc
Its very eye-opening. And gives you an edge in dealing with such people in the future.
:mittens:
Quote from: Cain on June 12, 2007, 12:56:11 PM
I try out different belief systems.
Read some philosophy, it can be religious or political. Don't criticize, just absorb. Then try living while thinking in that way for a few days. Christianity, Islam, NeoCon, Anarchist, vanilla Discordian, Subgenius etc etc
Its very eye-opening. And gives you an edge in dealing with such people in the future.
Well said.
There's a passage in RAW's Schr??dinger's Cat trilogy where a character does this through printed media. The every word in, say, an issue of Reader's Digest, is like a signal from another universe. He tries to 'become' the target audience by seeing what attitudes and mindsets are implicit in their language.
I had a module in political ideology last semester. 10 weeks, one ideology a week. Set texts provided.
It was almost too easy.
That's a pretty cool module, though. You seem to have lots of political/philosophical knowledge stuffed in your brain, Cain, but I bet it was a real eye-opened for a lot of people. I endorse that notion.
I went through something like this when I took a philosophy class a while back. I'd be sitting around spazzing out about different philosophies, trying to compare them all, trying to imagine assigning each one to my life... I'd experiment with the idea of subscribing to each philosophy, then I'd freak out about how it clashed with some other philosophy I liked, etc... I'm sure everything I was coming up with was pretty elementary (it was an intro level course, and my thoughts were accordingly intro level), but it was nonetheless a fun, horizon-expanding experience for me. Probably would've made anyone I tried to tell it to gouge their eyes out with rusted grapefruit spoons, but that's why some monologues are best kept internal. :p
-DC
Really likes philosophy. Really likes listening to other people about philosophy. Really likes keeping her damn ig'nant mouth shut about philosophy!
It was pretty fun.
My problem was I took philosophy with a very cynical and quite brilliant man from when I was 16-18, so I got a pretty good crash course in this stuff, much earlier than most people. Its also given me a very twisted outlook and dismissive attitude to many of the arguments, which is partly why I gave it up as my degree for politics.
As for philosophies, the only thing that ever struck me with metaphysics was Nietzsche. The rest seemed intent on totalizing their systems of thought, and there are too many implicit assumptions in doing that for my liking. Apart from that, I just cherry pick. Politics and science I go for the enlightenment, metaphysics the German romanticists, ontology from the Existentialists and so on. The fact they probably conflict actually helps, as tension in a system means it is still dynamic.
Quote from: Professor Cramulus on June 05, 2007, 09:53:10 PM
So what about you guys? How do you know it's time to escape?
Escape from myself? Escape from the monkey wiring in my brain? How do you do that? What if I just want to have a good time and try to forget that I am on a railroad car that is going off a bridge, like in Bridge Over the River Kwai? What if I just want to drive fast and get laid and laugh a little? Does that make me a trustee or something?
Looks like Fred gets it.
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 06:37:27 PM
Looks like Fred gets it.
If I got it I would have a better avatar.
Aw, crap. That's Alanis, isn't it?
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 06:41:16 PM
Aw, crap. That's Alanis, isn't it?
Yes. It was the first one on the list of musicians, so I took it and now I feel dirty.
You can always as Prof. Cramulous to put a moustache on it.
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 06:46:05 PM
You can always as Prof. Cramulous to put a moustache on it.
Okay.
It's kind of small to moustache and have it look like anything
Incidentally the Wrath Of MSPaint cabal, offers high quality moustache rides for twenty five cents American. Post a pic of yourself and the first one's free.
Quote from: Professor Cramulus on June 20, 2007, 06:51:58 PM
It's kind of small to moustache and have it look like anything
Incidentally the Wrath Of MSPaint cabal, offers high quality moustache rides for twenty five cents American. Post a pic of yourself and the first one's free.
I don't have a digital camera. :cry: Maybe you could put muttonchops on Alanis?
Or, you could get a new avatar entirely.
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 06:57:22 PM
Or, you could get a new avatar entirely.
But then Alanis would be all alone with the ashes of her career. I would feel guilty.
That's ok. Kevin Smith still thinks she's God.
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 06:59:38 PM
That's ok. Kevin Smith still thinks she's God.
Who?
Dogma by Kevin Smith = the best religious movie evar shot!
(http://photos21.flickr.com/27343405_8a772c790a_o.jpg)
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 06:57:22 PM
Or, you could get a new avatar entirely.
Is this better, sir?
I don't really care one way or the other. I thought it was you who didn't like the Alanis avatar.
Stock avatars suck smelly wino ass!
Make your own, 100x100 pixls then upload it to photobucket and link from there.
Then and only then will you be considered cool enuff to post here.
(Giggles is the exception to this rule)
Quote from: SillyCybin on June 20, 2007, 07:04:57 PM
Stock avatars suck smelly wino ass!
Make your own, 100x100 pixls then upload it to photobucket and link from there.
Then and only then will you be considered cool enuff to post here.
(Giggles is the exception to this rule)
:sad:
here I made yuo an avatar:
(http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a95/discordman/avatar/moranavatar.jpg)
I was just putting that in and I saw what you called it.
Sorry, SC and PC. I'll go now.
Pay no attention to those assholes, Fred.
what? oh, the filename moranavatar.jpg
all the files I've made of that kid today start with "moran" - don't take it personally
see like this one: (http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a95/discordman/bin/morankidcontra2.jpg)
Okay. I thought I made everyone angry or something.
Around these parts, we fling insults around as compliments.
You'll know for sure if you piss someone off.
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 07:24:49 PM
Around these parts, we fling insults around as compliments.
You'll know for sure if you piss someone off.
How will I know?
Damn you LMNO! That was the first person in the whole wide world who evar paid attention to me and you went and wrecked it :mad:
Quote from: Wrecked Fred on June 20, 2007, 07:25:58 PM
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 07:24:49 PM
Around these parts, we fling insults around as compliments.
You'll know for sure if you piss someone off.
How will I know?
Trick is - it doesn't really matter.
Welcome to the internets :lulz:
Quote from: LMNO on June 20, 2007, 07:24:49 PM
Around these parts, we fling insults around as compliments.
You'll know for sure if you piss someone off.
Screw you, my grandma was killed by someone who was pissed off by someone on the internet.