Red Pill Blue Pill
Good evening everyone, on this fine 1am evening...
I'm fresh from poker at nabster's (4th place thanks to some massive slow-playing) and still sick of being sick. well, at least the fever's gone. now all i have to contend with is my niagara falls of a nose. y'know...i was wondering -- why IS it we get so dehydrated when we are sick? Is it simply from blowing our noses too much? Where exactly does all our moisture go? Strange indeed. Sidebar to come should I ever discover the answer to this oh-so-worthy secret of the universe.
Today's announcements:
If I were Neo, I woulda been stuck at square one. When offered the choice of the red pill or blue pill, the movie would have screeched to a standstill as I evaluated the ramifications of each decision as far as I could possibly foresee. I'd try to figure out the upsides and downsides for each choice, then compare and contrast, slice and dice, and due diligence it to death. they could use that cool Matrix bullet time slo-mo special effect on me as I tried to decide -- only I wouldn't be moving due to decision paralysis. Maybe it was a good thing I passed on the role. Yeah, Keanu, you owe me ...big time.
So what is it about decisions that paralyzes me so? Regardless of the type of decisions-- Thai food or Chinese? -- Sweater or button down? -- Gym or dinner? -- I find myself having to weigh my options and take the best of the lot. Did you catch that? I said -- the best of the lot. That, my friends, is the crux of the issue. Why do I have to always select the best option? How do I know what the best option is? Is there always a best option?
My pal Wencher enlightened me to this quandary during a recent discussion about whether I would choose Kellogg or Stanford if provided both options. I was quite betwixt - on one hand, Evanston would be a tremendous, eye-opening change of pace, on the other hand, Stanford is the holy grail of the Chinese world (souvenirs for all!) and Silicon Valley darling. I anguished over this decision when Wencher (aka She-Yoda) imparted, "It's just a decision. It won't necessarily be the right or wrong decision. It will be just be a decision."
Clouds parted. Rays of light beamed in. Angels sung. Boom - I fell to my knees, blinded by the pure trueness of that statement.
It was just a decision. A million different things may happen after I make that decision, but it is practically impossible to determine the outcome in advance. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure, I wanted to keep my fingers at all the key junctions and flip back just in case I got zapped by an alien or got eaten by a tiger. But life's not like that - and fearing what lies behind the next corner will only add paranoia and secondguessing to every step I take in life.
Ever the do-right by-the-book good-boy, I have wanted to make my choices that my teacher/parents/peers/public would approve of. I wanted to choose correctly -- not wrongly. But, the funny thing is, with many choices (we're not talking pop quizes or open heart surgery, mind you), you'll never know what would have happened if you went the other way. It doesn't matter, you see, because the Pachinko game keeps on going (the marble/buncha pegs game). You hit another decision point and you just choose a direction. And then you just keep truckin' on.
...and only time -- and maybe Morpheus -- knows what awaits you :).
I'm fresh from poker at nabster's (4th place thanks to some massive slow-playing) and still sick of being sick. well, at least the fever's gone. now all i have to contend with is my niagara falls of a nose. y'know...i was wondering -- why IS it we get so dehydrated when we are sick? Is it simply from blowing our noses too much? Where exactly does all our moisture go? Strange indeed. Sidebar to come should I ever discover the answer to this oh-so-worthy secret of the universe.
Today's announcements:
- mark this day, for my friend just got the news of her life. i couldn't be happier :).
- happy bday lizzo fo shizzo! welcome to club geezer. her blog's posted on the left.
- today, my cubemate next door, sansan schadenfreude, asked me for the third time what my blog url was. then, she balked when i suggested she bookmark it. nice peeps, nice peeps.
If I were Neo, I woulda been stuck at square one. When offered the choice of the red pill or blue pill, the movie would have screeched to a standstill as I evaluated the ramifications of each decision as far as I could possibly foresee. I'd try to figure out the upsides and downsides for each choice, then compare and contrast, slice and dice, and due diligence it to death. they could use that cool Matrix bullet time slo-mo special effect on me as I tried to decide -- only I wouldn't be moving due to decision paralysis. Maybe it was a good thing I passed on the role. Yeah, Keanu, you owe me ...big time.
So what is it about decisions that paralyzes me so? Regardless of the type of decisions-- Thai food or Chinese? -- Sweater or button down? -- Gym or dinner? -- I find myself having to weigh my options and take the best of the lot. Did you catch that? I said -- the best of the lot. That, my friends, is the crux of the issue. Why do I have to always select the best option? How do I know what the best option is? Is there always a best option?
My pal Wencher enlightened me to this quandary during a recent discussion about whether I would choose Kellogg or Stanford if provided both options. I was quite betwixt - on one hand, Evanston would be a tremendous, eye-opening change of pace, on the other hand, Stanford is the holy grail of the Chinese world (souvenirs for all!) and Silicon Valley darling. I anguished over this decision when Wencher (aka She-Yoda) imparted, "It's just a decision. It won't necessarily be the right or wrong decision. It will be just be a decision."
Clouds parted. Rays of light beamed in. Angels sung. Boom - I fell to my knees, blinded by the pure trueness of that statement.
It was just a decision. A million different things may happen after I make that decision, but it is practically impossible to determine the outcome in advance. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure, I wanted to keep my fingers at all the key junctions and flip back just in case I got zapped by an alien or got eaten by a tiger. But life's not like that - and fearing what lies behind the next corner will only add paranoia and secondguessing to every step I take in life.
Ever the do-right by-the-book good-boy, I have wanted to make my choices that my teacher/parents/peers/public would approve of. I wanted to choose correctly -- not wrongly. But, the funny thing is, with many choices (we're not talking pop quizes or open heart surgery, mind you), you'll never know what would have happened if you went the other way. It doesn't matter, you see, because the Pachinko game keeps on going (the marble/buncha pegs game). You hit another decision point and you just choose a direction. And then you just keep truckin' on.
...and only time -- and maybe Morpheus -- knows what awaits you :).
posted by dodger | 1:01 AM
2 Comments:
As a True Blue, stanfurd would never be considered ... if my relatives chose to think that Cal was of lesser caliber, I could care less (not to mention I know none of them have MBAs from either). The school spirit/force flows through me so strongly that just the thought of going to school on the farm makes me throw up a little. Kellogg is the right decision. Live your life for you, not for your relatives.
This universe is filled with a million realities. With each decision you make, you live a Dodger reality.
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