Kick-ass quote
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. We must see the world anew. – Albert Einstein
Words from me
Here are useless facts I found and didn’t fact-check:
NASA had to rename the sizes of the apparatus used for male astronauts to pee, from small, medium, and large, to large, gigantic, and humongous, because no one was willing to pick their true size.
The lint that collects in the bottom of your pockets has a name—gnurr.
Scientists accidentally killed the world’s oldest animal while trying to do research on it.
Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard tossed a coin to determine whose name would come first in the name of the company.
Sigmund Freud once believed that cocaine could be used to help treat morphine addiction.
I took these facts from this Quora page: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-useless-facts-you-know-that-came-in-handy-at-some-point-in-your-life
Something I’m thinking about
A story about an asshole, a lady, a gentleman, and a whore:
It was a dark, shabby bar filled with smoke. An asshole was sitting at a table. And drinking. He was drinking in the way a man drinks when he is trying to run from something. In this case he was running from the demons in his head, unsuccessfully. Yet he kept trying.
The asshole had seen a lot of bad people in his life. Bad situations, too; he’d been in plenty himself. But no situation had ever gotten to him as only his mind had. It tormented himself more than anything else ever could have.
Which had a sort of crooked justice to it.
“I probably deserve it,” he thought. He had done bad things. And he had paid the price for them.
“Damn it,” all this thinking angered him. “I’m too fucking sober if I’m still capable of thinking this much.” He ordered another drink. And then another.
He was feeling lonely tonight. Later, he was going to buy himself some company. “Better to deal with some demons in the real world than with the ones in my head,” he thought.
…
It was an elegant, beautifully designed restaurant. A lady and a gentleman sitting at a table. Conversing. Each playing their role with the comfort that comes from having done it a thousand times.
“I must say, you look rather lovely today, my lady.”
“Why, thank you, sir. That is most kind of you.”
These words they had each spoken to different people many, many times. Which they were both aware of. However, they both pretended as if they had heard them for the first time. Such rules must be followed. After all, they are what separates us from the animals.
Each taking up their role, the lady and the gentleman talked pleasantly. They talked like civilized people do. About things mildly interesting that neither of them cared for too much about. Which was good. Because the things people really care about—I mean really, really care about—those are dangerous things.
“What do you mean?! How can such topics be dangerous?” Well, they don’t have to be. But they often are.
The gentleman, for example, the one wearing an elegant suit, sitting upright and smiling courteously at the lady, had a thought that consumed his mind. Two nights ago he had—on the suggestion of a friend—visited a particularly curious lady of the night. She had absolutely rocked his little world. She had also taken his wallet.
The thought that consumed his mind, however, was that strangely enough, he wasn’t angry about it. The wallet bothered him little. The thought of not seeing her again was what pained him. How could he, such a strong and noble man, long after a common whore? It was ridiculous.
…
The whore who had taken his wallet hadn’t been a whore all of her life. In fact, once she had been a lady. Once she had been young. Back then, she had believed all the tales of knights in shining armor. She had dreamt of a strong prince who would come to save her.
And one day he seemed to arrive. She was positively giddy with excitement. What a dashing man he had been. And a gentleman too. He had talked to her so sweetly…
Believing she had found the one meant for her, she admitted to him, blushing all the while, that she had been hoping for a strong man to ask her hand. He had smiled and said, “Well, the wait is over, my lady.”
And she had believed him. She had fallen. Only that he wasn’t there to catch her. Instead, once she was asleep, he let his friends in. They robbed her blind. Then they threw her out of her house.
Now with no money, she didn’t know what to do. She hadn’t learned a craft. How could she survive?
By selling the one thing she did have. Her body.
Years had passed since then. She had grown calloused since then. She smiled at men, and at the same time she took her wallet. She made them fall in love with her and then took everything she could get. After all, why not? That’s what men had done to her. It seemed only fair to repay them.
Challenge
No challenge today.
PS—Some extra wisdom
