Among Wretched Mortals

I've Missed You

2011-04-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time. I've been busy. Not truly busy, thinking and doing things I want to do, but doing things that "need" to be done. University assignments and such.

I distract myself from the boredom of everyday life constantly, don't we all? Businesses thrive off so called "entertainment", which in reality is a way to avoid thinking about things, about how stressed we are, how tired, bored, and unhappy.

Why unhappy? Surely we have everything we could possibly need? Or want? In this wonderful western, capitalist world we live in, we can buy things to make ourselves happy. It's so fast, so cheap, so...

Meaningless. Empty. Useless trinkets that clutter up our lives and we use to hide from the truth that so many of us feel unhappy, and that none of this junk will make it any better.

Cheerful, aren't I? Yeah. I'm sorry for not being on more often, I truly am. I've let myself down. I offered you a taste of freedom, from all the things I complain about. And then I allowed myself to be sucked in. Put my head down with the rest of you, and decided to "get on with life". Correction. WASTE my life.

I will be posting here much more frequently. Though the gates of freedom are rusted and unused, they can still be opened. It just takes a little effort. And I'll show you how.

Influence Map

2010-10-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

Quickly posting this up, will number the choices and explain them later.

Faceless Freedom

2010-08-11T08:47:00.000-07:00

Today I spent hours creating this photomanipulation piece. To see the full-sized image, please click on the thumbnail.

Good eh? But it's not just the best piece of art you've ever seen in your life. Oh no. It means something.

Note the slogan, of my own philosophy. "Freedom is faceless".

I find that, despite how much I dislike how the internet encourages anti-social behaviour, and causes people to be plugged in, so they miss what's important, it does have it's uses.

You are anonymous on the internet. People judge you, but nowhere near as much as in real life. And here, they judge you on what you say, what you do, who you actually are. Not how you look.

People spend thousands on designer clothes. Big sportscars. Even on dogs, just to make a fashion statement. I am different. I am better. I am beautiful.

I beg of you dear reader, look beyond the petty fashion items, look beyond the vanity and paranoia, and see people who who they really are.

We wrap ourselves in so much junk to try protect ourselves from people judging us, that we make a prison for ourselves and our fears of rejection. Once in the prison, you will find it very hard to excape.

Only when we are faceless are we free.

Deus Ex Machina

2010-06-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

Loathe though I may be to post work of other people on my blog, I feel that this deserves a special mention.

http://www.thrivenotes.com/the-last-question/

This short sci-fi story is particularly interesting because it combines all of science, all of our dreams for the future, and creationism.

Read it the whole way through. And then just sit back, and think about it.

We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams.

2010-06-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

I had a random discussion in the Chatbox of a site I moderate the other day. I discovered that I am quite unusual in that my wheras my friends there would make a smilie and give it a name, I could make a smilie and give it a name, gender, life story, medical conditions, and personality.

All completely off the top of my head.

Example, you cry? Certainly. I'll quote, actually. Their smilies consisted of things like this:

:) <- This is Joe.

Mine, consisted of this:

^_~ <-- This is Jeeves. As you can see, he had a stroke last year, and now one side of his face hangs down.

x_x <-- This is Teabag. At least, that used to be Teabag. He died. We're not sure how, apart from that it involved racoons.

:B <-- This is Josh. He needs a brace. I mean, seriously, look at that toothy grin. It's disturbing.

:O <-- This is Becky. She's sucked so many guys that her mouth is now permanently stuck like that.

[:L] <-- This is Hamish. He's welsh, and is somehow always unhappy. And kinda square.

Odd, isn't it? I like to think it's my artistic side coming through. I know that Gary Larson for one, cartoonist of The Far Side would have ideas spring to his mind like this.

But is it more? Wheras most people only saw the faces on the page, the brackets and letters and such making an amusing cartoon face, I knew more.

I could tell you interesting facts about them. Jeeves for example, considered retiring from his job as a butler in Westword House, but after his stroke, he wouldn't be able to follow his dream of sailing the world with his wife and son, and so, he continues to work for the owners, doing menial tasks.

Hamish. A ginger child, quiet, and unhappy. Hardly ever speaks, shows no enthusiasm in his classes. He has a talent though. On that thursday before the summer, when the children were given paper for playing with, while the other children struggled with paper aeroplanes, he sat hunched over his paper, and folded creation out of creation, without ever having seen oragami before. A dog. A man. A hummingbird.

Unusual? Hell yes.

And the strangest thing is that they come completely out of the blue. I keep typing, and their story pours out. Their fears, their desires, their lives. Interesting. I shall have to try more of this.

But enough rambling I think, what of you? Had a nice couple of weeks? Taken off your socks lately?

I had a great week, one of my best I think. Went on holiday with my friends, since we've all finished school now. Good times 24/7.

I shall have another task for you soon I think. But for now, think about those people I've told you about.

Jeeves, who will never carry out his dream. Hamish, the boy with an unlikely talent.

Think about what you would do if this was you. It is you. For some of you, one day you will wake up, and be too old to do what you want. Some of you will never try things, and will never discover your talents.

Live life to the full. We've not got much of it, and it never lasts.

Changing The Basics

2010-06-14T12:06:00.000-07:00

So, ladies and gentlemen, apologies for the delayed post, I've been busy with other things. None of which are important to me, but that's life in our modern age; doing menial tasks and jobs simply because we are required to.

My idea for this post is to begin the change I talked about, the "unplugging" in the first post of the blog.

Sounds hard doesn't it. Change.

It's not. All I want you to do for me is to take off your socks.

I, like many of you, have worn socks my entire life, and when I'm not wearing them, I wear slippers, or sandals or whatever. It just seems somehow necessary.

But I know a girl who walks around barefoot unless she absolutely has to wear socks and shoes. The said girl finds this perfectly natural, and I suppose she must have been doing it all her life, unlike me. It intrigued me.

So, I tried it myself. I assume, of course, that you are at home reading this, but if not, then you could just pull off your shoes perhaps, to avoid giving the boss of your office an unwanted whiff of your cheese-scented feet.

Anyway, it's possible that it was only because I was really focusing on the sensations, but I instantly felt more relaxed. Socks tend to be quite compressing, I think, they have to be to stay on, and when you go without, your feet can really relax.

It's strange, but I then walked around the house and garden for the rest of the day with no socks, and lo and behold, I felt much more free, relaxed, and happy. Simply by taking off my socks.

I think that there are many things like this, which just seem necessary because we've done them for so long, and I think that by learning to try out different things, we open our minds slightly more each time. Eventually, who knows, you may become unplugged without even noticing it.

Perhaps more than we suspect is governed by feelings like this, the need to do something simply because we have always done it. Like wearing a tie. Or finding a boring job. Or not standing up for what we believe.

Try it, dear reader, take off your socks for this blog writer who is ever so polite, and enjoy yourself.

I seek to change you, as I have already said. But I think that working from the small things up is the way to go. It makes it easier, and much more enjoyable.

Spread the word. Spend the week without socks whenever you're at home, and see how it makes you feel.

Genesis

2010-06-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

And so we begin.

Ladies and gentlemen, and all of you somewhere inbetween, welcome to my new blog.

Those of you familiar with Homer's Iliad may recognise the title quote. If so then well done you.

In this blog, I hope to post every few days, or more frequently, with whatever I feel like. I tend to have things that I have on my mind for days at a time, and when this is the case, I will share my thoughts with you, the anonymous internet user, to hopefully catch your attention, interest you, puzzle you, maybe even inspire you.

As time goes on, you will get to know me better, my views on the world, and such things.

It may be me ranting for a while. It may be me having found something that made me LOL, and I'm sharing it with you.

But I want more than the usual fan blogs, or where people just repost things others have wrote.

I want to make you think, dear reader, because in our modern society, that is something that many of us fail to do.

I have many interests. As you have guessed from the fact that the blog name is a quote from Homer (not the yellow guy, the other one), literature is one of them. Mainly mythology, fiction, things that capture the imagination.

I am also an artist, and may post sources of inspiration, tutorials, or even my own work.

And, I am a thinker. I am, alas, cursed with the need to think about everything. I am told that I think to much. This is not true, if anything, it is that everyone thinks too little, myself included.

I chose the name Droid, because it means something to me. It symbolises how everyone is "plugged in" to life nowadays. How we cannot seem to do anything without computers, iPods, phones and so on.

But also because of how so many people take what they are told for granted. They believe whatever the authority tells them. They follow orders and rules without question. Like machines.

Through the course of my blog, which I hope will continue for many years, I seek to help you to see for yourself. I hope to help you think more about things. I hope to free your mind from all that seeks to control it.

I hope to unplug you.