The Lush Life: An Ounce of Pleasure, a Gallon of Pain

The Musings of a Woman Behind Bars.....

I have no idea what I'm doing half the time. Just want to be clear on that. But there are a few indisputable things I've learned that I'd like to share.

The power of toast is greatly underrated.
Your bed is the most accurate psychologist you'll ever have.
And finally... well let's leave that for another time.

I've actually spent way too much time developing an entire "theory of life" around those, one that explains everything except how one fabric softener sheet can sashay around inside the dryer and get every little inch of laundry soft. Just one. WTF? But those deep thoughts are explained elsewhere on the web in random musings I scatter about on other blogs like a cheap, shameless cyber-lawn sprinkler.

"Impossible," you say. "Those indisputable things explain nothing."

Whatever. I bet you're the person who likes to party with the fifth dentist who was overthinking the whole Trident recommendation. So let me assure you, the mysterious third Great Thought explains a lot. Really pulls the whole thing together.

For now, here are some links and 'net finds that I hope will entertain you as they have me. The purpose of this particular blog of mine is simply to serve as an online trough for links people are always asking me to give them. Again. And "once more, please. "

So here you go people. I hope you are able to waste as much time with these as I have.

An Ounce of Pleasure, a Gallon of Pain

From Freakonomics -New York Times Blog:
“Then what, what you gonna do, when the new wears off and the old shines through, and it ain’t really love and it ain’t really lust, and you ain’t anybody anyone’s gonna trust. … When you can’t turn back for the bridges you burn….”

The guy in the song is willing to throw out his marriage, even though he may know that in the future, the affair will come to nothing and he will lose his wife and family. He values the present pleasure much, much more than he worries about the future pain. It’s not just that he has a high discount rate; he values pleasure now much more than he is bothered by pain next year — even though, if he were asked today to compare an affair three years from now to the pain it would cause him the following year, he would choose not to have the affair. We economists call this strange valuation of present and future hyperbolic discounting — people overemphasize current pleasure and pain in comparing actions at different points in time."
Full text

Lottery: A tax on people who are bad at math.
Not all who wander are lost.
Save The Whales. Collect The Whole Set!
Talk only if you can improve on the silence.
Women fly when men aren’t watching.
Little piece of advice. Your honker's cute in person. Peephole? Not your friend.
I'm sorry, did I interupt you eating your baby?
I'm allergic to felt.
While you're at it, why don't you become a superhero? Captain Neck Fat.
Take a SWAG at it- Scientific Wild-Ass Guess.....
I didn't see anything but the Tweetie Bird on his ass.....
Oh my God. It's finally happened. The Botox has seeped into your brain.
Follow the bread crumbs, Gretel.
First I was victimized by a grizzly. And now you.
This is even more disturbing than your bag full of Mommy.
Always be sure they have their meds before you do anything else.
It takes a dark night to bring out the stars.
"If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he and I was I." Michel Montaigne
I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-- things I had no words for". -Georgia O'Keeffe
The mind is like a parachute -it works best when it is open.
"None. None more black...."
If we only used things for their intended purpose, we would not be where we are today.
I knew it was too bad to be true....
"--Love doesn't end because we no longer see each other. People go on all their lives loving God, don't they, without ever seeing Him.
--That's not my kind of love.
--Maybe there's no other kind."
--I'm jealous of everything that moves. I'm jealous of the rain. "The End of the Affair"
A hero ain't nothing but a sandwich.

Where are they from? God only knows. Randomly overheard, uttered by clever (and often inebriated) friends, my own lacking-7 second-delay mouth, Scrubs, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Monty Python.... pretty much a hodgepodge.