One of my favorite lines in any movie ever – Shawshank Redemption.  The next line is, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”.

It’s true, everything does come down to decision.  Having the guts to MAKE that decision is something else, but if you think you deserve to be a KING down to the core, it exudes from you and your actions and it inexorably comes true.

I believe this kind of understanding can really only truly come from a summation of a million experiences and that’s why it makes me so sad when many of my male friends that have otherwise great potential just “don’t get it”.  Maybe it’s a genetic thing, too.

I guess it takes a hundred or a thousand guys to set their bars lower than me for me to put my bar where it is.

This was one of our random MSN conversations arising from him mentioning something about how the Golf TDI which he plans to buy gets AMAZING “mpg”… enjoy;

Fred says:
51 mpg for golf tdi
actually 58 if you’re a real pro
Me says:
lol
I’m tempted to make some really brutal comments about how
I’d really want to missile-launcher you off the road as would most people if you were driving incredibly douchy enough in your already wuss-mobile blocking the flow of traffic trying to get 58mpg
however
given what you have told me about how you drove your legend
I will reserve judgement FOR NOW
and also
diesel mpg can not be compared to regular mpg
because of the difference in price, maintenance, and other factors
like having to let it warm up 10 minutes in the winter
so you don’t ruin your engine
Fred says:
um
Me says:
etc.
Fred says:
wrong
diesel engines don’t warm up
seriously
they’re incredibly thermally efficient and made out of iron
they don’t heat up enough to actually heat the fuel
diesel cycle is about 30% more efficient than otto cycle
the fuel requires 20% more oil to produce but has greater energy content per liter
more than the 20% difference, even
Me says:

binoculars
Fred says:
not binoculars
diesel engines are unquestionably more efficient
Me says:
I’d go into discussing where/why/how about the warming up, or referencing such crazy things as “owner manuals”
but I’m trying to get to sleep
and efficiency wasn’t really what I was disputing
if you re-read above
Fred says:
two words
glow plugs
Me says:
they’re certainly more efficient at SUCKING
and sounding like shit
and making your car a pain in the ass
Fred says:
two more words
Me says:
and being unresponsive and killing driving enjoyment
Fred says:
winterized fuel
if i have academic binoculars, you have consumer blinders
Me says:
consumer blinders?!
dude I’ve driven probably a HUNDRED different cars
how many have you driven?
3?
Fred says:
gasoline engines look great on paper if you use certain numbers
Me says:
4?
2?
Fred says:
you’re a pro consumer
Me says:
I’ve driven lots of diesel vehicles
the main thing here is
Fred says:
diesel = WIN
Me says:
my personal mindset doesn’t really rank efficiency terribly high on the “important criteria” scale
obviously
otherwise
I would TAKE THE BUS
Fred says:
the bus is diesel
therefore i support the bus as well
down with gasoline!
Me says:
for every MPG you save Fred
I’ll burn 3
doing burnouts in my Z06
I just want you to know that.
lol
Fred says:
and in the post-peak world
you’ll be arrested for this
and people will laugh
i just want you to know that
Me says:
we’ll see about that
Fred says:
2012
Me says:
mr. future predictor
Fred says:
mark your calendar
the mayans predicted it
Me says:
go watch 2012 the movie a few more times
Fred says:
THE RECKONINGGGGGGGGGG IS UPON US
Me says:
well
I may have to advance my Z06 plans after all
Fred says:
i may have to advance my tdi plans
and drive slowly and efficiently past your house
Me says:
maybe I’ll disable the CAGS to use more gas
and get it tuned aggressively
Fred says:
and then turn off the engine to save even more gas
Me says:
and get a loud exhaust
that’s less environmentally friendly
Fred says:
that’ll be jailable in 2013
Me says:
I guess I’ll have to do it on all my cars
right before it becomes jailable
then drive them around
all day long
Fred says:
i’ll just drive my tdi briefly in the evenings
Me says:
well I don’t know if you could really call that “driving”
so much as “migrating”
or OOZING
Fred says:
oozing sexuality
Me says:
homo-sexuality
Fred says:
… fail
Me says:
yes, it would be
Fred says:
i think diesels are extremely unpopular with homosexual men
diesels are the engines of truckers, submarine warriors, locomotive operators
Me says:
well you certainly won’t be
once you get one
and start oozing all around the city
Fred says:
oozing pure awesomeness
at 5 under the speed limit
Me says:
omg
if you do 5 under
instead of 5 over
like proper wussies should
I’ll steal your keys
repeatedly
Fred says:
that might cause some corvette operators to go over the MPG threshold revving their engines
i’ll laugh
Me says:
they’ll steal your women
with their badassness
women don’t like 5 under
either
maybe asian women
Fred says:
man
you’ve now managed to successfully turn this into discrimination based upon:
1. sexual orientation
2. gender
3. race
Me says:
lol I crossed the line
three strikes I’m out!
Fred says:
yeah
basically
Me says:
I wondered how many I could get away with
but seriously
people that drive 5 under, and aren’t in the slow lane
should be beaten severely
and whipped
afterwards
for good measure
Fred says:
it’s good for fuel economy
Me says:
NOT NECESSARILY
Fred says:
in the future, everyone will drive 10 under
Me says:
infact
the US just spent millions running ads
telling people to speed up
and that doing roughly 100km/h is the best spot for fuel economy in most cars
Fred says:
… that is utterly stupid
Me says:
NO, fail
it’s not, it’s true, look it up
and weep
you have no actual justification for wussyness
Fred says:
dude… no
Me says:
to offset it’s sheer ultra wussyness
yes, google it
YAHOO it, even
Fred says:
roughly 100 could mean 95 or 105
that has nothing to do with whether you’re 5 under or over
Me says:
and on an 80 km/h road
most people should drive 75?
Fred says:
maybe, it depends on gearing
Me says:
no, they’d be better off at NINETY
Fred says:
the graph of fuel economy vs. speed is totally nonlinear
and depends on car, gear choice, etc.
Me says:
there are many other factors like flow of traffic
Fred says:
since i’ll have a diesel
i can basically run the beast at 1200 all the time
Me says:
once average traffic speed drops below I think it’s something like 45 mph
then traffic jams just “arise”
Fred says:
and probably accelerate at 1500
Me says:
and this is caused by assholes who drive under the limit
Fred says:
epic win
Me says:
in the wrong lane
and need beaten… then whipped
no, epic fail
Fred says:
i’ll also enjoy my zero accidents and zero tickets
while driving 15 under
Me says:
15 under now
if you keep talking this way
I will feel compelled to violence
Fred says:
my conservatism is increasing as i approach peak conservatism
Me says:
and will end up with you wearing assless chaps
Fred says:
just call me voldo

I don’t understand people who take SHIT from other people.  A lot of things have inspired thoughts about this in me lately.  I have a friend who doesn’t know how to set personal boundaries properly or simply believes it’s “sub-optimal” as he would say to have to in certain cases… which is why he doesn’t want his new job to give him a blackberry.  He’d like one, in many ways as he is a techie like me but he doesn’t want to receive emails all the time and have to make constant decisions to enforce his own boundaries and reply to emails when it suits him. He doesn’t want other people to have an expectation or even a possibility of abusing his time.  Essentially, he can’t have a toy and useful communication device that he wants because then he will “have his inbox following him everywhere”.  Oh the humanity.

Clearly, in that case the problem is mostly him.  He doesn’t have the experience, cajones, or believe in the mutual respect and self respect boundary potential in having to occasionally tell someone that “It’s not appropriate to be calling me at this hour.” or “I only respond to emails in queue an during business hours.”.

But he has a point.

Human nature is to abuse other’s time as much as they will allow.  Respect, in general isn’t “earned” so much as enforced.  If you let someone take a nibble it’s just human nature that they will eventually try to take a bite. If you let someone take a bite, then they will eat you up.

Years ago I stopped taking shit from anyone and everyone.  It’s liberating and worth it’s weight in gold. It’s important that this is done with utter disregard towards time, degree, emotion, or circumstance — it’s done purely on principle. I don’t even take shit from close family members.  Human nature is human nature.  If a man doesn’t have self respect, he has nothing.

…

Now I’m in the habit of taking my notebook to coffee shops and getting work done, and then doing some leisure writing, more later…