Rhe Dogg and Stephen Fry: Living the life and being unhappy

Our minds our powerful and our existential weight can be immense if we ponder it. Below is a fascinating look at depression as elucidated by Stephen Fry:

Only the Lonely
But I can still be sad. Perhaps you might go to my tumblr page and see what Bertrand Russell wrote about his abiding passions (it’s the last section of the page). I can be sad for the same reason he was, though I do so much less about it than that great man did. But I can be sad for personal reasons because I am often forlorn, unhappy and lonely. These are qualities all humans suffer from and do not qualify (except in their worst extremes) as mental illnesses.

 Lonely? I get invitation cards through the post almost every day. I shall be in the Royal Box at Wimbledon and I have serious and generous offers from friends asking me to join them in the South of France, Italy, Sicily, South Africa, British Columbia and America this summer. I have two months to start a book before I go off to Broadway for a run of Twelfth Night there.

 I can read back that last sentence and see that, bipolar or not, if I’m under treatment and not actually depressed, what the fuck right do I have to be lonely, unhappy or forlorn? I don’t have the right... 

 Nothing captures existential angst as beautifully as Rhe Dogg’s ’Why must I cry’

 VIDEO: "Why Must I Cry" Tosh.0 Remix

Home Reading: 'Lost at Sea' by Jon Ronson

I've talked about my fascination with the lives and experiences of others. Its the premise of the podcast and is highlighted by the way I like to travel - "Ego-Tripping", the exchange of stories and CouchSurfing.

Jon Ronson is a British writer that is a inspiration of mine. The back of his latest book 'Lost at Sea' aptly describes him as being "fascinated by madness, strange behaviour and the human mind, and he has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people". A man after my own heart.

'Lost at Sea" The Jon Ronson Mysteries' by Jon Ronson

Jon Ronson on the power of the mind, spending time with NLP Co-founder Richard Bandler and TV Hypnotist Paul McKenna

Don't worry, get therapy by Jon Ronson (The Guardian. May 2006)
... The NLP training manual we delegates have been handed is a confusing mix of psychobabble and diagrams marked "submodalities" and "kinesthetics", etc. But from what I can gather, NLP is a way of "re-patterning" the human brain to turn us into super-beings - confident, non-phobic, thin super-beings who could sell coals to Newcastle and know what people are thinking just by their eye movements. It is the theory that we are computers and can be reprogrammed as easily as computers can. You were abused as a child? Forget therapy: just turn off the bit of the brain that remembers the abuse. You want to become a great salesperson? NLP will reprogram you. Our winks, our ticks, our seemingly insignificant choice of words - they all make up a map of our innermost desires and doubts: read the customer and make the sale.

Jon Ronson on Hyperreality, spending time with Real life Superheroes

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's...Some Dude?! by Jon Ronson (GQ. August 2011)
... It's the next afternoon. There's a comic convention in town, at the Washington State Convention Center in the business district. There are something like 30,000 people here, families and costumed comic fans, packing the modern glass building. I spot Knight Owl and another Seattle superhero named Skyman.
He is only semicostumed. He's unmasked and goateed, and he's wearing a white T-shirt with a Skyman logo of his own design. "Ooh, look, the Rocketeer!" he says at a passing costumed attendee. "You never see Rocketeer costumes! That is priceless! I gotta get me a photo of that! Ooh! Lady Riddler! Nice!" Skyman approaches a Batman. "Is that a real bulletproof outfit?" he asks him. "No," Batman replies a little apologetically.
"This place," I tell Knight Owl, "is full of costumed people who would never confront drug dealers in the middle of the night. You and Phoenix and Skyman exist in some shadow world between fantasy and reality." "Yeah," Knight Owl replies. "What we do is hyperreality!"

- Ego Tripping: (A vacation from yourself)
- Louis Theroux, Couchsurfing and Holland
- Other people's stories - Tales of: Adventure
- Trigger: Ego Tripping in Portugal - Sintra, Obidos, Ericeria, Coimbra
- Trigger: Egotripping II - England, on the road again
- Albert Camus on the Writer, the Actor and the Traveller

Sam Harris on Free will and preferences

'Free Will' by Sam Harris

Free Will  by Sam Harris
He played poker not by by accident or while in the grip of delusion but because he wanted to, intended to, and decided to, moment after moment. For most purposes, it makes sense to ignore the deep causes of desires and intentions - genes, synaptic potentials, etc. - and focus instead on the conventional outlines of the person. We do this when thinking about our choices and behaviours - because its the easiest way to organize our thoughts and actions. Why did I order beer instead of wine? Because I prefer beer.

Why do I prefer it? I don't know, but I generally have no need to ask. Knowing that I like beer more than wine is all I need to know to function in a restaurant. Whatever the reason, I prefer one taste to the other. Is there freedom in this? None whatsoever. Would I magically reclaim my freedom if I decided to spite my preference and order wine instead? No, because the roots of this intention would be as obscure as the preference itself.

- Watch Sam Harris' talk at Festival of Dangerous Ideas 2012: The Delusion of Free Will

Young revellers (Schoolies) are corruptible: "Guys don't grow a brain until they're 30"

Girls corrupting guys: Schoolies Week 

Schoolie evicted after high-rise nap 
"Guys don't grow a brain until they're 30, so don't egg them on, particularly when they've got the happy juice in them. They make dumb decisions to show off," Mr Gourley told AAP.

"For the girls, don't yell off the balcony encouraging the boys to do dumb things ... there's an artificial hype around schoolies that you get caught up in ... don't sacrifice your future for a week."

He said it was up to schoolies to look after their mates. "We really put the onus back on the mates that aren't drunk to be looking after friends in case they do something silly like that."