Chicken Soup For The Soulless

After some thought and evaluation, I think I am going to ditch the Shamrock Half Marathon. Between injuries and interruptions, I am just not going to have enough time to run the race. That isn’t to say that I am giving up on the half marathon idea. I’m simply delaying it until later, when I feel I am ready to tackle a 12 mile run. I could probably push 7 miles if I tried right now, but I want to do well and I want to feel like I met my goal… neither of which I am going to be able to do by March 21st.

Considering my current motivation as far as distance running is concerned, this is probably a good thing. I am always, ALWAYS off peak in the winter. I can push through, but the combination of short-ass days and the cold (and delicious holiday food) make keeping in peak-for-me shape difficult as hell.  It’s a personal issue, and I’m getting better at managing it… but I still have not figured out that magical formula that will push me through the shit winter months without lagging.

So, to summarize: Shamrock Half Marathon <– Cancelled. 12 mile run <– Not cancelled, but delayed. I may shoot for the Rock and Roll Half. We shall see.

So… plan scrapped, moving on, working on training program to fit my current needs.

FIP Exam Tip: Applied FIP Principle in this case is honesty to one’s self and acceptance of personal responsibility. It is a minor personal failure to have to scrap the plan, but a bigger failure would be to continue on and give it a half-assed effort.

FIP Exam Tip 2: Recognizing one’s undesirable traits as undesirable is the first step to fixing them.  The second step is proactive action.

On the bright side, this means I can ditch the current training model and go with what I’ve been planning on doing after March 21st anyway! I’m going to go back to interval / speed training. I’m kinda… really… slow at the moment. I’d like to get back to running sub 8 minute miles, at the very least. I’m no speed demon, but I can be better than I am now.

Enough.

Let’s talk about school and certifications. I am (to reject humility and wallow in pride) fucking AWESOME when it comes to studying. I am about a week and some change ahead of schedule with my “12 in 12″ plan, with two of the planned 12 tests already passed and out of the way. I suspect I might actually be ready for the next one in three weeks, putting me WELL ahead of schedule.  This, of course, leads into my goal of being rich. While tech certs alone will not make me independently wealthy, they work to get me into a place where I have money to risk on further acceleration.

So far, I’ve done the 70-646 course (a harder course in the AD* of life) and Security+ (a test that proved that since I rejected the idea of taking it 3 years ago, I have become many times more awesome) with 70-640, 70-642, and 70-647 in my definite future.

Enough.

Work? Work is work. If you’ve talked to me before, you know you will get fuck-all in the way of complaints or compliments out of me about work… at least online.

More? More later. I have a lot to say, but it has to wait until I have less projects in the works.

Tip #1: You are exactly who you choose to be. If you don’t like who you are, change.

Tip #2: If you find that everything in your life sucks, look at the single common factor throughout. (hint: mirrors help.)

Tip #3: No one is obligated to like you. No one is obligated to humor you. Don’t waste time on people who have to be forced into civility.

Tip #4: Be awesome.

Tip #5: Anyone can tell you that you can’t. Either prove them wrong or accept their analysis.

Tip #6: War and politics are for suckers. The secret to life is sheer unadulterated fun.

Tip #7: As long as it doesn’t harm anyone else, do what you like. (Wicca’s genius.)

Tip #8: Everyone is pretty much fucked up and weird. Don’t concern yourself too much about your own oddity; chances are no one will even notice anything is amiss.

Tip #9: Reciprocate.

Tip #10: No matter what you choose to do in life, strive to be brilliant.

Let me first warn you, should you be reading this entry cold. I am an atheist, more or less. I am a hedonist. I am an anti-control, pro-freedom loon who believes that those left to do as they please will prosper, as long as they are given both the freedom to act and the responsibility to deal with the consequences.

In that respect, I think I’m pretty fucking awesome.

I’m also the creator of the Fuck It Principle (or FIP) which is meant to encourage people to live their lives on their terms, not on everyone else’s terms. It means that one should try to be true to oneself, regardless of what others may think.

Mostly, though, I am a silly dreamer who likes quick and dirty amusement. This idea for a “holiday” was simply one of those quick and dirty amusements… a holiday to cater to something fun, interesting, and (at least as long as it remains an internet joke) pretty much non-commercial.

So, Sinsmas. The mass of sin. Some believe it to be all about sex (it can be,) while others find that Sinsmas is best celebrated by drinking one’s self into a stupor. Others set up camp at a buffet and eat until their 32 inch pants explode. While the activities of Sinsmas vary, there ARE a few rules to the holiday that ought to be observed.

Ready? Let’s go over the rules.

1. Don’t do things you’ll regret. There are enough in the way of depressing holidays to ruin mine.
2. DO push the envelope. What’s the point if you do the same old stuff?
3. Don’t break the Wiccan Rede. That is to say, do whatever you like as long as you’re not harming anyone else.*
4. The holiday allows for “Vegas Rules.” Sinsmas comes with a get out of sin free card. I have verified this will all major deities that exist.
5. If your sin of choice is angst and whining, kindly celebrate something else, like the release of the next Twilight movie.

The specifics:

Where possible, the holiday should be celebrated in a city or place renowned for personal freedom and sin. Vegas is my celebratory city of choice.

The holiday will be celebrated on the last Saturday in August. This date is significant because prices are cheaper and I like greed. Amy K. suggested 6/9 as a date and I dug it, but I like affordability. You’ll have to involve the numbers 6 and 9 in some other fashion, alas.

There are no specific activities that should be planned, but you can try to outdo your peers should you wish. Pride is a sin, but so is laziness! This establishes the principle of contradictory-complimentary sinnage.

Assuming your fellow celebrants are game, you may institute a “no tell/no foul rule” which locks discussion of Sinsmas activity until next Sinsmas, and only allows discussion amongst your fellow Sinsmassers.

That’s all I have. Enjoy.

* – Against their will. If they like it, well… carry on.

I’m taking some time off to reset my life overall. I’ve ceased running for at least a few days, I’m not going to work out… and really, I’m just going to focus on getting my mind cleared of leftovers before I start back up again. Call it silly if you like, but I need to shut down all of those background processes that are left running when life continues unabated.

Sabalo System –> Restart.

Well… I’m not quite done yet. I’m still working on the restart. I mean… I wake up and expect to have things to do. I mean… I DO have things to do, but they’re not the same things I’m used to doing… or… hell. If you get it, you get it. If not, well, you’ve not been between jobs in a good long while.

Me? I’ve not been truly between jobs since 2004.

First interview? Scheduled, so that’s good. I’m spending the day finding solid opportunities, crafting a better resume, and watching that “To Catch a Thief” show.

I mean, uh… being productive for a full 12 hour day.

You want to know a dirty little secret? The “Fuck It Principle,” aside from being a good way to live my life, also serves as a sort of social engineering project. See, the sorts of people who are likely to adopt FIP as a life philosophy are smart, reasoning individuals. If I offer them one good idea, they’re likely to look upon my other ideas with an open mind.

So here’s an idea for you. Laws that protect us from ourselves are evil. Not only are they evil, they stunt the growth of individuals, society, and the entire planet.

Let’s take gambling, for instance. Gambling is illegal in most states… but why? The arguments tend to run along the lines of “it causes an increase in crime,” “people lose everything,” and “it’s just bad.” Okay, fair enough. So we’re willing to punish a vast, law-abiding majority for the irreponsibility of the very few? Are we naive enough to think that those who are inclined to crime, who have a compulsive personality, are likely to subvert those urges because we’ve made a vice illegal?

If you believe that, I have an ancient Egyptian Xbox for you to buy.

When we boil the bullshit away to get to the truth, we get “it’s just bad.” And that, folks, is the truth of the matter. People think that gambling is bad… so instead of abstaining themselves and telling people so, they restrict the rest of us too. Is it spite? Anger? Misguided do-goodness? All of them, I’d say.

This doesn’t just apply to gambling, though. Let’s look at marijuana. Same arguments as above apply, but we get a few more that happen to be hilarious when the big picture is considered. We’ve added to the list “it’s unhealthy for people,” it is addictive,” and “people might do drugs and drive and kill someone!”

Right. Okay. Sure, inhaling smoke into your lungs is bad… but if you’re making that argument (weak as it is) why not make it for tobacco? As for addictive… the only addictive properties marijuana has are psychological… tobacco, on the other hand, has a physiological component. Again, be consistent. Make the argument for both, if any. As for drugging and driving… don’t we have laws that cover that for alcohol? Would it not be child’s play to add to the law to cover additional substances?

Again… it is about forcing others to do what you yourself don’t care to do.

Restrictions on gay marriage? Polygamy? Prostitution? Other drugs? All about force, all about control. All about someone else trying to shoehorn their personal choices into other people’s morality. As a FIP devotee, I detest it. Should I… that is, me, the individual, the one making the choices for me… not want to make those choices for myself, I won’t. As a thinking, reasoning human being, I can make those choices for myself.

As someone who believes in people living up to their own potential, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t let you do the same.

The Wiccan rede, applied in Chad’s Own Fashion, tweaked for atheistic, hedonistic glory.