What if the universe is a solid block of every manifest potential, and causality has weight like neurons that lead us down a causal track that just looks like the expanding of time, which is really just a movement through a dimension of space? In this scenario, genes don't express anything, and are only teleological signposts to the causal track.

@:)

You've been hitting the Kentucky Bluegrass again, haven't you...

I can assure you, Messrs Zircon, Dumpster & Cat, that happiness is indeed possible - but it is fleeting, and after it passes, the rest of your life will be spent in misery, remembering those brief moments of abject bliss, and knowing that you are powerless to reclaim them.

Life is too long to endure the pains of joy. It's better to settle for numbness.

Oscar, nah, that's pure clean living right there.

Homie, you lied to us about being in love. I don't think you realize that the backlash to your love gala will be legendary in the solar system. poe is entering a new time of honed, razor sharp, flint and jade!

What makes you think that?

obviously this video demonstrates that the secret to constant happiness is total detachment from reality.

BTW, this whole thing about her getting you to become ladybeard and wear lipstick may be a not so subtle hint that you could be bumping uglies if you could handle a little cross dressing? That's exactly what I was referring to a few weeks ago with the whole "you will do some crazy ass nonsense when you are young: revel in it". Granted, the whole thing will come to a horrible end, it kind of has to given the situation. But that's just the sort of thing that'll put the evil twinkle in your eye when you hit 60.

OW- Oh yeah, that's another thing I'm well aware of! Holden Storytime: when I was 13, my first girlfriend and I were talking on the phone, and she said said that she always wished someone would come to her window and serenade her, like a Spanish gentleman of old. I thought to myself, "Hey, I have a guitar! I could do that!" Of course, there were three problems with this plan of mine: 1, we weren't dating yet (that was still like 3 years off) 2, I'd just got the damn guitar and didn't know how to play anything except "All Apologies" (and that not so-well), and 3) it was eleven o'clock and she lived four miles away, in the middle of hilly, unlit countryside peppered with graveyards. Also it was raining.

So naturally I spent an hour or two walking there, got to her window, woke up her older sister, and realized I hadn't tuned the guitar. Her dad told me to fuck off and I left with nothing but an exasperated look from my maiden fair.

Last time I saw her, about three years ago, she said I was the only guy she'd ever truly loved.

Also, I'd just like to reiterate that bumping uglies with CA is not really on my list of priorities. I just want to talk to her, hang out with her, play music together, read her Shakespeare and watch our favorite animes on the couch when it's cold outside. I want to see her every evening and every morning, listen to her hopes and fears and simple small-talk; console her when she's sad, make her laugh when she's bored, travel the world together and fight the system and maybe even stick it to her good-for-nothing father while we're at it. I want to offer her what every woman who respects herself must demand: all that I have, all that I am - and in return, I ask only that she be herself, and inspire me to true greatness.


I mean, yeah, OK, uglies would be nice at some point, don't get me wrong, but I can get THAT from a lot of places.

Awesome EvilHolden story, EvilHolden! But my point with CA is that once you do the magic doodle, the scales will fall from your eyes and you'll see she's got warts and problems like everyone else. Then maybe you can be a better friend? Clearly _something_ is getting in the way here, I'm just speculating from a distance.

But Shakey Bill? Jeeze, that's a silo full of queer corn you've got there, my friend. Try Bill Burroughs.

https://streamboat.tv/@Old_Zircon

BEEP BEEP Richie!

Of course she's got warts and problems. The trouble is, warts and problems are one of my "things", and I'd get bored if she wasn't just as insane as me! When I first learned she was a lesbian I figured I'd friendzone her in my heart and move on, but then she started really opening up to me - laying her issues out in the open - and it completely derailed my plans. She's got a great personality, she's fun to be around, AND she's got issues, stuff you almost never find together in a single person. When I say she's perfect, I mean it. :(

And anyways, like I said before, I'm "over her", at least in the sense that I have no immediate goals beyond being the best friend I can be (the neurochemical stuff is still there, of course, and probably won't ever go away). The trouble now is, with her ex back in the picture, we've gone from talking every single day to not hearing from her for the better part of a week. I knew that would happen, too, because it's the sort of stuff I pull on my friends when I get infatuated with someone or something, and I told her it'd be fine if and when it did happen. She appreciated that! She said she's lost friends before, because normies tend not to be understanding when it comes to things like crazy-people-in-love. But I miss her a lot, and I keep trying to crunch the numbers to work out precisely the right amount of time to go between "give her space and let her be happy" and "now you're just ignoring her, and she thinks she's lost another friend". (I'm also a little paranoid that things *didn't* work out, and the reason she's been so quiet is that she had a nervous breakdown and now she's in the hospital and I gotta go see her etc etc) But rationally speaking, I know I don't talk to my IRL friends but once every two-to-four weeks, once a week at the most, so it's all good. EvilHolden's still using his time productively - working out, cleaning the apartment, socializing with other young women - and I trust in Freyja to show me the way forward.