Science, Religion, Politics and in the pursuit of truth – HappyPsychotic

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// February 24th, 2010 // No Comments » // GlenncloseAuthor: Glenn Name: Glenn C
Email: happypsychotic@gmail.com
Site: http://www.happypsychotic.com
About: Glenn is 36 years old and now lives in a small town in Northern Ontario with his wife of 13 years and 2 kids. He has been a foster parent for 10 years in 3 different cities. He graduated from Radio College of Canada (Toronto) in 1993 as an Electronic Engineering Technologist and has been working in the electronics industry ever since with companies like Nortel. Glenn does a good amount of reading, studying and thinking about such topics as philosophy, psychology, physics (Quantum Mechanics), religion and science. Glenn does have an I.Q. of > 140 (as does Chris) which is categorized as genius but hasn't bothered joining any I.Q. type clubs. He is very logical and analytical and always looking for a way to make a better world - primarily through self-improvement and in helping others to improve themselves. Most importantly, he constantly re-evaluates his priorities and ensures his time is spent wisely - like working on this site.See Authors Posts (92)

I’ve noticed a big difference while visiting Costa Rica regarding helping people.  In the little town of Montezuma, we’ve befriended an unofficial taxi cab driver named Max.  Well, maybe it’s more accurate to say he has befriended us…I discovered that the single ATM machine in Montezuma doesn’t like my bank card so I was running out of cash (luckily credit cards are accepted in most places – but not for taxis of course).  Max told me he would drive me to the next town over to try the bank machine there.  While driving, he was dropping off propane tanks, slowing down to talk to people on bicycles, giving free rides to school children (who all knew Max) etc.  This bank machine also didn’t like my bank card (I had successfully used my bank card a number of times already in other cities).  Max said “don’t worry”, and told me he would bring me back the next day when the bank was open and I could go in with my passport and withdraw money…in fact, he wouldn’t even take my last few dollars telling me he would wait for tomorrow to get paid.  Max also introduced me to his wife and one of his daughters, his wife was carrying a small boy but Max told me that it wasn’t his child, the boy’s father had said he didn’t want the boy any more so Max had taken him into his family as one of his own.

Well, I was able to get money out of the bank (I had to pay a whopping $1 service charge on my $200 withdrawal) and Max was very happy for me.

Anyways, I noticed during my trips with Max that almost everyone here seems to help everyone else out without thinking twice about it…if you are struggling with a heavy bag, others offer to help, if you are filling your motorcycle tires with air at a gas station, people will help.  It makes for such a friendly atmosphere, everyone doing favours for others, knowing that they will be helped if they ever need it.

I think that most people in Canada are afraid to ask for help because it’s a sign of weakness…don’t we always say “no thanks, I can manage” whenever anyone offers help?  I think I’m going to try to allow others to help me whenever offered from now on…and maybe I will occasionally be brave enough to actually ask for help even if I don’t absolutely need it.  This can create some more friendships from what I’ve seen here.  I like that.

A New Philosophy of Life

// January 20th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // BarrycloseAuthor: Barry Name: Barry Nobody
Email: happy99999@hotdogs.com
Site: http://www.happypsychotic.com
About: I'm happy to be the first bonus blogger on happypsychotic. I know Chris and Glenn pretty well and they trust me enough to let me blog on their site, which I think is pretty cool. I am also in my 30's, have a couple kids and have been doing internet applications for what seems like forever. The big difference between me and the boys is that I am not a Christian. In this way, I will have some very different viewpoints on most things than Chris and Glenn. Hopefully you'll find it interesting and I won't get kicked out. Hey, I'm smart too! I just don't know what my I.Q. is.See Authors Posts (8)

I think that most children have a simple instinct to find immediate pleasure for themselves whenever possible.  They are unable to make many predictions about the future so they just do what looks good in front of them and that’s it.  As adults, we’re able to make better predictions of the future so we do stuff like go to school to get qualified to get a high paying job or whatever.

I’ve realized now that there is no purpose to life – there is nothing that can make me truly and completely happy.  I think that there are many people in the world that feel completely happy but I think they’re living a delusion.  For instance, many people believe that Jesus is watching them and guiding them daily so they feel completely happy having this ultimately important being concerned about them – but it is a delusion.  Many others keep themselves so busy with “stuff” that they don’t think about the meaning of life or anything else so when you ask them if they are happy they might say “yes”, but they’re not really thinking about it completely.

So if there is no true happiness to be found in life, what do we do?  We can give up and commit suicide and enter nothingness as we cease to exist consciously (the thought of this would have horrified me before, but I can’t get worked up about it anymore).  Or we can do what I think is the only solution now – act like a child and hope for simple and immediate pleasures.  If I can go to a party and laugh for an hour and feel good – then that is as much as I can hope for in life.

I’m not sure how to fit in my loving feelings for my family into this philosophy.  I love them and would do nothing to hurt them but I don’t see the immediate pleasure there…maybe it’s just the fact that I don’t have to be alone all the time?  I hope it’s more than that.

Dieing to Live

// January 3rd, 2010 // 1 Comment » // BarrycloseAuthor: Barry Name: Barry Nobody
Email: happy99999@hotdogs.com
Site: http://www.happypsychotic.com
About: I'm happy to be the first bonus blogger on happypsychotic. I know Chris and Glenn pretty well and they trust me enough to let me blog on their site, which I think is pretty cool. I am also in my 30's, have a couple kids and have been doing internet applications for what seems like forever. The big difference between me and the boys is that I am not a Christian. In this way, I will have some very different viewpoints on most things than Chris and Glenn. Hopefully you'll find it interesting and I won't get kicked out. Hey, I'm smart too! I just don't know what my I.Q. is.See Authors Posts (8)

Way back when I was in high school, I remember my world religions teacher teaching us (the class) about Zen Buddhism and actually, he told us that was his “religion” (if it can be called that).  The only point that stuck with me was that he told how ideally, a Zen Buddhist person would never hold on to any grudge or anything.  Someone in the class even asked what he would do if somebody murdered his son and he said that he would be angry, but that he would try to accept it and move on with life.  I laughed to myself when I heard that and though he was stupid.  I don’t think he’s stupid anymore.

I watched a movie the other day about a mother who couldn’t deal with living after her young child died.  I can understand this to a certain extent (I realize that nobody can really understand unless it’s happened to them personally), allowing the guilt and the second-guessing of yourself to allow such a tragedy.  I’m sure that anyone reading this blog has known the pain of having a friend die and how it affects so much of your life.  But lately I’ve been looking at this problem from a different angle.

Here’s the thing – life is short.  That’s it.  Think of it, whatever age you are now, you will never get that back again.  The year 2009 is gone and never to return, so if you are just coasting through your life, putting in your time doing the same old things every day, me thinks you will regret it.  So what does this have to do with losing a friend?  Simple, let it go, let them go, move on.  I know it sounds harsh but really, if they’re dead, they’re dead and they don’t care if you are remembering them, or mourning them or anything ’cause they’re dead.  I think it’s great to remember the good things about lost friends and take the good parts of their lives and learn from them but just move on and let it go, because Life Is Short.

Really, you should think about death often.  You should think about your own death often and how near it is.  Even if you’re not even 20 years old yet, do you think death is far away?  I remember turning 20 and now I’m closing in on 40 and I don’t know where the years went sometimes.  Think about how short the rest of your days are and LIVE!  Do what you want to do today.  I even think that if you do something stupid and lose all your money and end up destitute it doesn’t really matter does it?  ‘Cause life is short and you gave it your best shot.  Do you really want to be sitting around in your old age home thinking about all the missed opportunities you had in your life?  And they are missed opportunities for no reason except you were lazy or scared to try.

Glenn is thinking about making an early retirement in Costa Rica.  Maybe it won’t work out and he’ll have to come crawling back home after a few years but so what?  He went for it and he tried and he won’t be wondering “what if?”.  If you’ve read my old blogs, you know some of the stuff that I do that is wild and exciting and I want more.  I’m Dieing to Live.

Do One Thing Every Day that Makes You Happy

// December 22nd, 2009 // 1 Comment » // GlenncloseAuthor: Glenn Name: Glenn C
Email: happypsychotic@gmail.com
Site: http://www.happypsychotic.com
About: Glenn is 36 years old and now lives in a small town in Northern Ontario with his wife of 13 years and 2 kids. He has been a foster parent for 10 years in 3 different cities. He graduated from Radio College of Canada (Toronto) in 1993 as an Electronic Engineering Technologist and has been working in the electronics industry ever since with companies like Nortel. Glenn does a good amount of reading, studying and thinking about such topics as philosophy, psychology, physics (Quantum Mechanics), religion and science. Glenn does have an I.Q. of > 140 (as does Chris) which is categorized as genius but hasn't bothered joining any I.Q. type clubs. He is very logical and analytical and always looking for a way to make a better world - primarily through self-improvement and in helping others to improve themselves. Most importantly, he constantly re-evaluates his priorities and ensures his time is spent wisely - like working on this site.See Authors Posts (92)

Do One Thing Every Day that Makes You Happy
This is a great saying that I came across at a friend’s house recently that is great on many levels.  It has caused me to do a little more thinking, which is always good.  Here are some of the ways you can think on this.

1. I believe that the simple and straightforward interpretation here is to take some time on a regular basis to do something enjoyable and this will help you have a happy life.  Thinking about it like this, I would agree wholeheartedly, but there are some caveats…
2. One problem with this saying is that if you take it to its extreme, then you could say that selfishly doing what you want all the time (which are things that make you happy) would be a good thing.  Unless you emphasize the “one thing” part and say you should limit yourself to only one happy thing a day – but I doubt that was the original intent here.
3. I have a real problem defining something that makes me happy.  Are we talking about something that gives me a momentary pleasure like eating chocolate?  Or long term pleasure like exercising daily to promote a long life?  I think most people would think it meant something in the middle, like a medium-term happiness like playing with your kids and them showing they love you.
4. And what about something that makes me happy the first few times I do it, but it becomes less and less pleasurable over time?  Isn’t almost everything like that?  So how could that be a good recommendation?  Should you keep mixing it up and do a different happy thing every day?  Maybe you should start by asking yourself what happy thing could I do 100 or 1000 times and still enjoy?  The list becomes a lot shorter now doesn’t it?
5. Isn’t it also true that “the sweet doesn’t taste as sweet without the bitter”?  So couldn’t we say that it’s healthy to be depressed and down in the dumps occasionally because you feel so much happier when you get out?

Well, I hope I haven’t totally killed the saying for you, because it is a good one.  Be a Happy Psychotic today!

Do You Trust Me?

// November 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // GlenncloseAuthor: Glenn Name: Glenn C
Email: happypsychotic@gmail.com
Site: http://www.happypsychotic.com
About: Glenn is 36 years old and now lives in a small town in Northern Ontario with his wife of 13 years and 2 kids. He has been a foster parent for 10 years in 3 different cities. He graduated from Radio College of Canada (Toronto) in 1993 as an Electronic Engineering Technologist and has been working in the electronics industry ever since with companies like Nortel. Glenn does a good amount of reading, studying and thinking about such topics as philosophy, psychology, physics (Quantum Mechanics), religion and science. Glenn does have an I.Q. of > 140 (as does Chris) which is categorized as genius but hasn't bothered joining any I.Q. type clubs. He is very logical and analytical and always looking for a way to make a better world - primarily through self-improvement and in helping others to improve themselves. Most importantly, he constantly re-evaluates his priorities and ensures his time is spent wisely - like working on this site.See Authors Posts (92)

If someone automatically assumes you are lying, is it because they are so used to lying themselves that they see lies everywhere?  Can there be any other explanation?

If I look at this in the opposite way, I do think that someone raised in a completely honest environment would automatically believe whatever they are told (and get easily taken advantage of by unscrupulous individuals).  Us honest folk (yes, I take pride in my honesty) have to learn to spot dishonest people and learn the scams (often we learn the hard way, typically losing money).  For instance, I have learned that if someone tells me I have to make a decision immediately, (usually to claim a prize or to take advantage of a seemingly great price on something) I know that this is a scam and I always refuse.  (what possible reason could someone have in having you make a quick decision if not to hide something?)  I have also learned that nothing good is really free with regards to business, as the only purpose of a business is to make money.

So, back to lying.  I would assume that a person raised in an environment full of dishonest people would also learn quickly not to trust what they hear, and to always be on their guard for scams.  I suppose it is possible for an honest person to live among dishonest people or vice versa, but it must be exceedingly rare.  So I think the safe thing to do is add this thought to my list of rules…”If someone automatically assumes I’m lying about something, there’s a high probability that they themselves are comfortable telling lies.”.  So be careful around such people!