Some birthday, some angst, some love

[pphaneuf]

Reservation has been taken, a few silly individuals who thought that money was more important to me than seeing them on my birthday party have been enlightened, it's all going according to the program and should be rather nice! Looking at the people who RSVP'd, I'm rather happy, as it is a rather diverse mix of my friends from various places, it should be nice mingling.

Heard from the woman at the Romados take-out counter, while azrhey was picking up chicken (which is awesome, by the way!): "Your husband looks famished, I'll put in an extra leg!". This is wrong on so many levels, but hey, got free chicken and a good laugh out of it, all for the best!

Yesterday, talked with a good friend about stuff, as she was pretty angsty. It's terrible how many people are around us and are just mindless zombies. I was walking downtown, looking at the concrete, steel and glass towers around me, trying to count up quickly... A hundred person per floor, twenty, thirty, fourty, fifty floors, anywhere from two thousands to six or seven thousands for the really dense buildings, many tens of thousands of people working around downtown... And most of them mindless zombies. And they're happy. And they think it's right. I'm scared, and I don't know what to do, sometimes.

Even at my workplace, which is supposed to be a creative place, there's some of these tendencies. It's not so bad, really, it's pretty much one of the best place I've worked at, but you see the tendencies creeping around, people trying to fix problems with "no thought required" non-solutions, lack of proper communication...

I also encountered an issue I don't particularly enjoy, where I would have liked to see two of my favourite people, but it just wasn't possible and I had to pick. I never like doing that, because really, truly, honestly, I like them both! But decisions have to be made. I looked at what I wanted, and figured out that I wouldn't get what I wanted with one no matter what, so I went where I could get what I wanted. And what do you know, I got it and spent a very nice quiet evening for my (actual) birthday. Making choices like that might be difficult sometimes, but I'd rather have to make them than have everything already picked out for me, things to be automatic, assumed, not conscious. I seriously considered both choices, and neither of these persons are "filler", who are "just there". I might not handle it perfectly all the time (like last sunday, for example), but I do my best.

I might be repeating myself, but despite some more practical issues, my life is so great!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/hub_/]

Even at my workplace, which is supposed to be a creative place, there's some of these tendencies. It's not so bad, really, it's pretty much one of the best place I've worked at, but you see the tendencies creeping around, people trying to fix problems with "no thought required" non-solutions, lack of proper communication...

I have another great example of that kind of crap.

[wlach.livejournal.com]

Ah, but even the most mundane human life can be constructed as something interesting and rich. Have you ever seen American Beauty?

I'm fairly certain that the problem is either (1) these people just don't know how to express their inner lives properly or (2) we just can't see what's already there.

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

It's possible. I might put a bet on number 2, but I see them trying so hard to avoid thinking, both individually, and as a society.

In my own life, I can feel tremendous jumps in happiness and richness in my life when I start making more choices for myself, even if they end up to correspond to the choices that would be "made for me". So from my own point of view, I see people basically running away from happiness, which just doesn't compute for me. From my point of view, most people are insane.

[wlach.livejournal.com]

Yes, many/most people don't do a lot of thinking. I agree that's unfortunate, but it doesn't make such people uninteresting, indistinguishable, or worthless.

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Oh, insane doesn't make them uninteresting, indistinguishable or worthless. It just usually makes them unhappy, annoying to be around, or both.

[serendipity-wpg.livejournal.com]

that's one of my favorite movies.
(Amelie is probably my favorite tho)

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Have you seen Lost In Translation? Amélie is wonderful! L'Auberge espagnole is also very good.

[serendipity-wpg.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have seen Lost in Translation!
But I haven't seen L'Auberge espagnole... I'll put it on my list of films to see... Thanks!

[azrhey.livejournal.com]

Romados

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Oops! Oh, memory, in my old age... ;-)

[skjalm.livejournal.com]

Hope you have a great evening. Would have liked to join you, but, yeah, well... The Pond and all that ;-)

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places
Worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going no where
Going no where
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression
No expression
Gary Jules - Mad World

[galialuna.livejournal.com]

Actually...

Just dial(if you can, please):

3 times the number that rhymes with heaven, one hundred thirty two minus 40 and the age jesus was when he died plus 7.

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Um... I don't know the age of Jesus when he died!

Just send me an email with your number at the email address in my LJ profile. :-)

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Oops!

[serendipity-wpg.livejournal.com]

hey pierre,

i think i know what you mean when you talk about 'mindless zombies'...
i think my play kind of addresses that lifestyle, and attempting to break free from it.

it's tough though, finding a way of subsisting in our society while doing something you love and find meaningful and fulfilling...

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

You know, in your play, you point it out, and it's obvious that it's insane, those rules about having to ask your boss to go to a bathroom break (and getting it turned down!). It's difficult going through life while seeing that, either having to work in a place like that to survive, or making a way for yourself like you are doing by operating outside of this madness.

But what despairs me the most is not my own immediate self. I can take care of that. It's the others. Those who find a rule about taking bathroom breaks reassuring, because now, they know what to do, someone will think for them. These people scare me, and I can't do anything about them!

[serendipity-wpg.livejournal.com]

hmmm.. i think i know what you mean... but exactly as you said, you can't do anything to "force" people to change their ways. if you tried to enforce your beleifs or ideals onto others, would that really make you any better than 'the enemy'? it's kind of a conundrum: freedom is essential, and you want people to be free to think for themselves. but simultaneously, that involves letting people have the freedom to decide that they don't want to think for themselves - to have others think and make decisions for themselves, instead. but then you have to wonder if the type of people you are referring to have even realized that thinking for themselves is even an option - it just may have never occured to them, or the possibility was never made evident or clear. just like electricity, it is probably most people's natural instinct to take the path of least resistance. the concept of doing otherwise might not even seem like a possibility!

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

Exactly, you can't force people to be free, that would be contradictory. In the same vein, I think they are in fact free to decide that they don't want to think by themselves.

But what appears to be the case is that they never actually make that decision, and that if you asked them, they'd say that they don't want to do so (despite behaving otherwise). As you say, they just don't seem to realize it's even an option.

Maybe it's one of the many reasons that I occasionally do outrageous or weird things, to remind people that there are other ways, other options, they exist! If half of my coworkers can go to lunch at the Eaton Centre and I can go to hub_ place not wearing pants, maybe one can decide to not wear a tie to work?

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

I have a story for you. At IBM, there used to be a dress code, and it wasn't something friendly, like "wear a three-piece suit with a tie". No, they specified types and colors of socks, tie, pants, shirt and coat. More a uniform than a dress code, really.

One day, in the late 70's or early 80's, they decided to drop the code. At one of the IBM main office, a big presentation was made to the employees in an auditorium by one of the top brass of the, reminding them that the next day, they could wear what they wanted, this would be a new era in making IBM as creative as it needed to be to compete in the new economy, bla bla bla.

To emphasize his point, the executive was wearing an hawaiian shirt and shorts.

The next day, most of the employees showed up in hawaiian shirts and shorts.

What's your theory about how many of them actually liked wearing hawaiian shirts?

[serendipity-wpg.livejournal.com]

hahah!

reminds me of 'office space' and the reference to hawaiian shirt day.

my theory on how many of them actually liked wearing hawaiian shirts? hard to say! i wonder if they happened to be in style at the time and place that they were? or they could have been immitating the boss? if immitation is supposedly the greatest form of flatery, then maybe they were trying to flatter the boss in order to get on their good side...? or perhaps they were being 'sheep'... it's really hard to say specifically. i can come up with a bunch of ideas, but i wouldn't want to put any forward as the likely truth.

but this discussion makes me think of my veganism (or even vegetarianism)... for example, many people aren't even aware of the horrors of the meat industry, the conditions under which animals are raised and in which they live; the hormones and drugs they are given, their impact on the environment, etc. etc. they never question it because they have been brought up to eat meat and to believe that animals are mere commodoties to be used as we please. but, if you inform someone about various negative impacts and facts related to the meat industry, and they still decide to eat meat because they just like the way it tastes too much... i dunno... to me, it seems like there's a similarity between that and the person who "chooses" not to think from your example. although... a large difference between the two examples is that with the animals, a third party is involved. since animals don't have a voice of thier own and can't argue for their own freedom, i have chosen to not impose on animals by choosing to not support the use of animals as mere commodoties and refusing to buy or consume products that related to using animals as commodities.

but then again... more and more, people are viewed as mere commodities in our society; therefore, i attempt to support companies that put into use fair trade practices. similarly, the environment is often viewed as a mere commodity as well, so i try to support companies that practice sustainable methods, buy organic food, etc.

sorry i went on a big long rant. but in my mind, all these things are interconnected.

[serendipity-wpg.livejournal.com]

i just wanted to say sorry if i went over-board there.
i wasn't trying to lecture or anything, it's just what came out i suppose, and later i realized that it might be considered as rude or offensive / righteous, which is the last thing i want to be...

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

That's okay. :-)

[pphaneuf.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly, investigations by the executives that were trying to promote creative thinking revealed that most of those employees just didn't know what to do and what to wear, and figured they couldn't go wrong by doing the same as the executive. So some form of "sheep" thing.

There's a common thread of awareness. You can't really choose anything without being aware of the choice being there. I suppose that's the problem overall, lack of awareness.

But while I understand a bit if you're not aware of how the meat industry works, you need a whole whackload of lack of awareness to miss out on the idea that having bathroom breaks authorized is ridiculous.