Measures of SuccessEverybody has different measures of success, but I’m only going to talk about the material ones today. For some it’s a house or a nice big salary, for others it’s fame, and for others still it’s a Ferrari or a personal plane. For me, it’s much simpler than that. The Facebook RelationshipOne of my favorite books is The Truth Machine by James Halperin, which details what the future would look like if there was a truth detection device on every person’s wrist that infallibly indicated whether they were telling the truth. Though it may not be worn on our wrist, I think the effect of Facebook achieves the same purpose. In describing our relationship with relationships on Facebook, people might say “it’s complicated.” However, it seems pretty simple to me. The truth is, if it’s on Facebook, it’s truth. An Alien CourtshipI wrote this short story in the fall of 2006, for a class I took called “Linguistics of Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond.” If you’re wondering, the answer is yes, I actually had to learn Klingon. Or, at least enough to finish the Klingon-English and English-Klingon translation exercises we were assigned for homework. Although since the class was, fundamentally, about linguistics, one assignment required us to write about an incident where language causes a humorous or humiliating misunderstanding. My short story involves both. Out of StockA few days ago, I walked into a bookstore, and I was on a mission. I went there to buy a specific book, so I walked straight up to the help counter and asked specifically for it. My sources told me that it was one of those books that a bookstore would have in stock at any given time. The nice woman behind the counter looked exactly like the stereotypical woman-working-in-a-bookstore. She was quiet, mousey, and wearing glasses with a delicate gold chain attached to them. She timidly typed the title into her ancient computer, clicked through a couple of screens, and then furrowed her brow. “I’m sorry ma’am, we don’t carry this book.” EscapismIn the past, both near and far, life used to be a lot harder. Everybody knows the Marx quote, “Religion is the opiate for the masses.” I’m sure in many ways, life was horrible and insufferable, which is why people back then needed religion to help them through it. To help them bear the pain and give them hope. To keep on keepin’ on. I think that, now, popular culture is the opiate of the masses. Because life is “too good,” or perhaps, “too normalized” is more accurate. Meaning that we don’t really have any hardship, but we also don’t have any of the adventure and grandeur that we imagined we would have (and were told we would have) when we were kids. Optimize for HappinessRecently I’ve realized that it deeply irks me that I don’t have a “profession.” Meaning that if a child were to ask me what I did, I would have no idea how to answer in a way they would understand. Although I have lots of bullets on my resume, and I can obviously describe what I do, I cannot say seem to say what I “am.” I am without a label. Or, more accurately, I am without an identity. Defining EntrepreneurJohn Erik and I had a discussion about what it means to be an entrepreneur, and what being an entrepreneur is or isn’t. We had different ideas about this, so we looked up the definition of an entrepreneur. We know it’s someone who runs a business. But this definition could also describe a manager. The definition continues to say that it’s someone who runs a business with considerable initiative. But a lot of people run businesses (their own or otherwise) with considerable initiative. Neither of these points are the defining factor. Practicing GratitudeA few weeks ago, my boyfriend installed a new app on my iPhone for me. And by “for me,” I mean that before I noticed, he sneakily managed to take my iPhone from me, navigate to the app store, download the app, and then all innocently ask me to type in my iTunes password. I petulantly did so, knowing that he had purposely bypassed me in this particular app acquisition process. But, like always, he knows what was best for me. The app is called Gratitude. I know, I know, I had the same reaction. We now need an iPhone app for expressing gratitude? What is the world coming to? The Value of a Network (Or a Net Worth)Sometimes things happen that are completely out of your control, and when these things happen, you need a network. Of people, of support, of whatever it takes. One’s network is invaluable in these invariably shitty situations. Moving TargetA friend once told me that when a girl gets stressed out, she inevitably takes it out on her hair. Whether it be a new color or a new cut, the style or the shape of her eyebrows, or who-knows-what with the nether regions, it’s always okay to make a big, bold change to hair. Because hair is safe. It always grows back, even if you don’t want it to. And when it grows back, it inevitably grows back the same as it was before you tampered with it. You can count on hair. I’ve recently realized that when I get stressed out, I move. Most times to a new apartment, sometimes to a new city, and occasionally to a new country. |
