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[derien]

I seem to be suffering from excessive writer's block, lately.  I will ramble on about boring and pointless garbage in my LJ, even though I've had all these Thoughts about Topics whenever I'm away from LJ.  And some of them have even made it into my paper journal.  Yes, I have started actually keeping a paper journal again, because Teena gave me the set of little books that fit in my back pocket. :)  I began filling the second one on Thursday - coincidentally, the same day I made my last LJ post. Topics covered so far in the new journal include:

- My thoughts on how our uniforms at work could be redesigned to look more professional.  (Almost anything would look more professional, imho - anything which started with better quality control.  Absolute crap, and horrible materials.)

- The LJ transcription page and the fact that transcription would be a whole lot easier if it would map a button to 'pause.'

- Considering whether I could learn to dictate to myself using my new MP3 player, if I could get the headset from my computer (which has a mic) to work on the line-in.

- Getting up early and getting lots done on Saturday so that I could go to my cousin's house in the evening. 

- A discussion about ghosts, the afterlife, and predetermination (predestination?  Is there a difference?) with a co-worker.

- An article which got shuffled to page three of the Portland Press Herald a few days ago, and has political implications which I can't express my opinion on.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to find it, now, but eor told me about it. 

If there's anything you'd like to see me elaborate on, poke me. :) 

Going to see my cousins last night was fun, but I'd gotten up at 6AM and didn't get home 'til 2330hrs.  Also, we burned things at my cousin's house, and I raked the dead grass away from the fire in a big circle, which was more work than it sounds like.  I've been quite exhausted all day, today.  Must go sleep, now. 

Comments

[phoenikoi.livejournal.com]

Heys :) What thoughts came up in your discussion of ghosts and the afterlife?

[derien.livejournal.com]

Well, my co-worker, JS, has a strong belief that people's spirits continue after they die (she has several examples of stories that happened to her or her family and friends which bear that out), that we have had past lives (she believes she remembered a bit of a past life when she was a kid), and she says our lives are planned out. There is some purpose, although it might not be some Grand Purpose for everyone.

I argued that I don't believe that our lives could be quite entirely planned out - at least I hope not - but also that the things which are being accomplished by the lives we live may not be the things that we, in our conscious mind, see as 'goals.'

I don't know if I expressed it well to her, but I have this thought that a goal for which someone's entire life is actually lived could be something which seems trivial - like, maybe I live to write that one really stupid fanfic which, for whatever reason, sticks an idea into someone else's brain and they can't even remember where it came from, but it changes their mind about how to interact with someone else. Or the goal could seem to our conscious mind possibly even wrong. For instance, we might need to live the pain of causing one of our friends to die accidently, or losing our home and job and family and living on the street. Not as a penance for something bad done in a previous life, but simply as an experience unto themselves.

That's a very hippie viewpoint, though. :) I can't say it comes out of that conversation, but out of numerous similar conversations; she just brought it up in my mind and I got to take it out and polish it a little.

Basically, I believe that agnosticism is a respectful way to approach life. I believe that we can't understand, with the limited power of my corporeal brain, what any supposed Diety(s) (or Force?) might want us to do. Which makes me feel that any religion which claims to understand is quite possibly offensive to said Diety (assuming the existence of a Diety) because where do foolish mortals get off claiming they can understand what God Wants? Sheer hubris.

But ... all that's neither here nor there, really. :)