Thoughts on death

Death is not a gradual process. You are either alive or you are not. All parts of the body do not die at the same rate, but Descartes' sentient being becomes extinct in a moment.

[René Descartes said to his wife, "I think, therefore I am." His wife replied, "I think not!" and promptly disappeared.]

Tsunami, The: December 27, 2004

• The 52nd anniversary of my parents' wedding is
  December 27, 2004. A more tragic event will forever share that date as its anniversary; continental plates at the bottom of the Indian Ocean in or about Indonesia changed their positions, generating a 9.0 quake that killed thousands of people in the vicinity of the epicenter, and the tidal waves (tsunami) generated by the movement of the earth killed thousands more in countries that had shores on the Indian Ocean in Asia and Africa. As of this writing, the count is reported to be over 30,000 and rising, with thousands more people missing.
• Many Buddhists were "taking ritual baths in the sea to mark the full moon" (USA Today, Dec. 27, page 7A), I guess as part of their quest for enlightenment and Nirvana. Going about their ritual, they had no clue that they were about to perish. No matter what their strife in life, no matter their satisfactions, all was rendered extinct in a moment, of no significance to anyone.
• That tells me that maybe there was no significance from the beginning, or, as the existentialists say, each person is significant only to himself, and that only while he lives.
• The universe is impartial, and
• You can run, but you can't hide.

Life and lack of broadband get in the way

I had bought DSL. It sucked so bad that I had the telco take it out. I gave it a trial of a month and a half and many service calls until finally I said "Enough!" and demanded it be turned off and that I get my money back. They would refund only the then-current bill. It was HORRIBLE. Slower than dial-up. So today I had a cable Internet connection installed, and I am flying like a Virgin Airlines spaceship, so now I can post more often. Also, I did have access to the blogspot at work, but the system geeks decided that blogs fit the dreaded "chat" configuration and blocked access. So now I hafta remember what I have been philosophizing about every day and take the time to write some of it.

I have done one thing of note concerning my search for enlightenment; I opened up my book of selections from essays by existential philosophers and am reading that. So far it makes sense, and the existentialists (especially Sartre) mirror many of the conclusions to which I came on my own. With that and an increase in the dose of Wellbutrin, I feel more satisfied with my mind. More on all that later. -NtB