💾 Archived View for midnight.pub › posts › 766 captured on 2023-03-20 at 20:00:52. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

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Just where and/or when the fuck are "you", anyway?

~inquiry

I had (read: imagined I had no choice but to imagine I was having) a rather rough online weekend, panting to no satisfying avail like some first grader unable to understand how/why the girl sitting in the desk in front of him has become an infinite attention sink, as it were.

In that context, nothing too new in the following links.. but after reading (read: haphazardly skimming in the context of my addled, fragmented mind) suddenly realized I've arrived at a tipping point whose personal downward spiral I can no longer pretend to ignore:

smartphone == brain vise?

Goodbye piece - let alone peace - of mind

I'm honestly debating continuing to post here, even.

Why?

I'll try to Ricky Ricardo "splain".

The phrase "be here now" (or varieties thereof) most certainly sound trite these days (especially, I imagine, amongst those much younger than I).

But it's really super simple.

Let's say you're sitting somewhere. "Be here now" is simply awareness of a 'you' amongst - and somehow seemingly able to perceive - a bunch of "not you", e.g. a floor, wall, candle, leftover napkin from the last manually-assisted ejaculation, etc.

BUT let's say you grab (careful! ;-) ) a computer, do things to it's keyboard such that images and/or words appear on the screen, and then start THINKING ABOUT the screen content in a way that both the former "you" and the "not-you" essentially disappear into a "you" *IN* the world depicted by your THINKING ABOUT the screen content.

Are "you" still "here now"?

I'd argue you're not.

You would be if instead of visiting said screen world you were more like "Yep, HERE I still am in this room right NOW looking at some fun shapes and colors on this HERE screen".

But that's not what's happening HERE and, um *NOW*, is it?

My point?

Becoming lost in elsewhere's and/or elsenow's BY ANY AND/OR ALL MEANS is ALWAYS an enemy of being here now.

And, thus, a destroyer of the singularly simple peace of being here now.

There are no exceptions.

See that <opposite gender of desire> over there?

Seeing them is one thing.

Getting lost in a world of "being with" them is something else entirely.

(Oh and BTW, merely reading this assisted you to an elsewhere/elsewhen too... SO PUT THE FUCKING DEVICE DOWN AND SIMPLY BE HERE NOW, DUMBASS!)

;-)

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~ew wrote (thread):

Later.

The pie has made its way into my stomach. Very delicious! ~bartender? Tell ~remy that I'll come back for this food. :)

Time for the Schnaps. ¡Salud! Oh, good stuff. So I look around, eh, don't open your eyes! So my mind looks around (much better). ~inquiry has disappeared. Maybe he's gone to the men's room ... but he's amiss for a while now ... did he open his eyes and wiggle back to "here"? Or, oh horrors, did he find the door with the sideways eight and got lost on the way back? Hmmm. Then I notice Smudge sitting on the floor behind where ~inquiry was sitting ... staring into a hole in the ground ... oh well, looks like a self-referential oscillation of space-time has wrapped ~inquiry all up and he is in an undefined state ... what now?

~ew wrote (thread):

I'm opening the door of The Midnight with the magic spell typed into my trusty dasKeyboard. Of course I spoil the magic on the first attempt. Hmmm. Ok, so I breath slowly, close my eyes --- there's nothing to see on the blank black key caps anyway --- the door opens. Yay! While I enter, my mind registers a small wiggle, barely noticeable. Then I see the familiar room, ~bartender is doing something behind the counter. I can hear noises from the kitchen, and Smudge is of course at my boots, meowing a little to grab some of my attention. Hey ~bartender! Are you all well? ~bartender smiles and nods. Is some of that shepherd's pie still available? Oh nice! Yes please. And a stout. My glasses are still foggy, but I know from last time ... ~bartender? What's this stuff in the middle cupboard? Bottles with some handwritten label? Ya, this stuff? Sure looks like moon shine. Oh, this is some Schnaps from your pal up in the hills? Ah, plums, cherries, pears, mirabelle and similar? Oh, intriguing! I'd like to have a mirabelle then, too!

I smile, I climb on a bar stool much to the dismay of Smudge. A pleasant smell announces my pie. Nice! My stout arrives and I take a sip. Cheers! Then I notice ~inquiry. Hey! Are you "in", too? Don't open your eyes! Of course, we are in and not "here". There's no shepherd's pie "here" but "there", trust me! We giggle like 7th graders. Buen' provecho! Ah, ~eaplmx is there as well, reading the paper. This is going to be a nice evening.

Sorry mates, my food has arrived, and I am hungry. "Dig it!" says ~bartender. I will.