Life Sucks: AJ's Philosophies and Ramblings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Author: Robert Alan Seace (Agrajag/AJ) Publisher: Rlunatic/Jhayden Pro-ductions Introduction ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Let me introduce my wonderful (and absolutely true) book with a wonderful (and absolutely true) poem, which sets the proper mood. Life - by AJ (based on a theme by Hep/Jhayden) ~~~~ Life sucks Sewer rats. Big ones, Wet ones, Lithe ones, Gaudy ones. Life sucks Sewer rats... This poem brings up an important notion, and one of the major foundations of my philosophy: sewer rats. What exactly are sewer rats? What is their cosmic significance? And, why does life choose to suck them? These and other questions will be answered in the following chapter... Those Sucky Sewer Rats ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ As many of you may already know, the concept of the sewer rat having some cosmic significance was first introduced by one of the great thinkers (and co-publishers) of our time: Hepzibah, AKA: Julia Hayden. Upon hearing her thoughts and beliefs about the relationship between life and sewer rats, I adopted them as part of my own philosophy. The rest of this chapter details my own interpretations of the original Sewer Rat Doctrines by Hep. For more information about her original statements, see the chapter entitled "Hepzibah's Sewer Rat Doctrines". I'm sure many of you are asking, "What exactly IS a sewer rat?" If you aren't asking that, please do so now, before continuing. Well, a sewer rat, quite simply, is a disgustingly dirty rodent who inhabits basins of human waste. If you think about it, this is actually a very deep and meaningful metaphor for us. That's right, US; human beings. "How so?" you may ask. "That's obvious, you moron," I might answer. We are nothing more than disgustingly dirty rodents, ourselves, who are forced to live on this chunk of rock we call the Earth. In this case, it isn't WHERE we live (the Earth) which is represented by the metaphorical human waste, but rather the act of LIVING, itself. Essentialy, life is one big pile of shit. So, to say that "Life sucks sewer rats" is really a very complex and meaningful phrase. It is sort of a multiple-layered metaphor, which would take far more than this one book to examine in complete detail. Suffice it to say that the general gist of what is being said is that life is not a very fun experience... AJ's Life Experiences and the UEF ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ By now, you are probably wondering why I have such a negative outlook on life. If you aren't wondering this, please do so now, before continuing. The reason why I have this negative outlook on life is actually rather simple: because life does indeed suck sewer rats. I realize this is a rather recursive argument, but I don't care. Why do I believe that life sucks sewer rats? Because, everything I have experienced in my 21 years of life has proved to me that this is so. Sure, there is the occasional bright spot every now and then, but life on the whole still remains as horrid as ever. Usually, after any Good Thing which happens in a person's life, something of a Magnitude of Badness at least double that of the Magnitude of Goodness of the previous Good Thing will inevitably occur. I have witnessed this phenomenon countless times in my own and others lives. I have labelled this phenomenon the Unequal Equalizing Factor (UEF) of life. I hypothesize that it is impossible for any human being to experience a total lifetime Magnitude of Goodness greater than one-half (1/2) of their total lifetime Magnitude of Badness. In fact, I have never yet come across a person who has experienced even that much Goodness, but my experiments lead me to the conclusion that such a Magnitude of Goodness is actually possible under extremely lucky conditions. However, the chances of such conditions occuring are very VERY small. The average human Magnitude of Goodness is approximately one-millionth (1/1000000) of their Magnitude of Badness. The lowest recorded UEF ratio was my very own: one-quadrillionth (1/1000000000000000). So, this may explain why I'm writing this book... Love Sucks, Too ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ah, yes, love. That odd, mystical, indescribable state of being, which can either be the most wonderful thing in one's life, or the most horrible thing in their life. Since love is a part of life, then, by default, it must suck, too. But, in fact, love actually has an SI (Sucking Index) which is much higher than any other aspect of life. Let's examine why this is so. While in a state of love, one is blinded to the Suckiness of life. I have labelled this phenomenon LIBAL (Love Induced Blindness About Life). The cause of LIBAL is unknown, but it is suspected that love is actually a very powerful, telepathic drug, which numbs various parts of the brain, including the areas responsible for noticing the Suckiness of life. As a result, the subject in love sees everything as wonderful and great. Of course, if one is continually subjected to this love drug for long enough, it's affect will fade as the subject builds up a tolerence. And, just as with any other drug, if taken away suddenly, it causes drastic affects to the subject. Suddenly, the subject sees life clearly again, in it's full Suckiness. Often, subjects can't handle this transition back to a love-free mind, and either go insane, kill themselves, become Internet BBS'ers, or a combination of the above... I could go into a very long and detailed explanation and proof of the above, using my own and others' life experiences as evidence. However, that would take up far too much time and space, and is a subject worthy of it's own book. (In fact, if this book is profitable for me, I may write a book about that very topic: "Love Sucks, Swallows, and Bites".) School Sucks ^^^^^^^^^^^^ We all know this one to be true, and I'm sure I won't get much dispute. Whether you are in High School, College, or Grad School, the universal fact remains that school sucks. You are forced to do tons of inane homework, take pointless tests, and get little or no sleep. And, all for what? A piece of parchment paper with your name on it, which you might get after several years of this torture, if you are lucky. Why do we put ourselves through this self-induced torture? Because we are greedy, and we want jobs where we can make lots of money when we finally graduate. Typical human nature... Humans Suck ^^^^^^^^^^^ Yes, human beings themselves suck. We are the proverbial Sewer Rats. We are useless, arrogant, ignorant, violent, and just generally not nice guys. If you don't believe me (and, if you are like most humans, you don't believe me), then just take a look at some of the things we humans have done: We have started wars over such stupid things as religion (see chapter "Religion Sucks"). We have killed millions and billions of people for no apparent reason. We have destroyed our own planet, and other life forms we share it with (which we automatically assume we are better than, by the way). Etc... Perhaps this explains WHY exactly our lives do suck: it is some sort of payback for our whole species being such dicks... Religion Sucks ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Religion. Those useless, time-wasting, archaic beliefs which people use to help them deal with life and death (see chapter "Death Sucks Even More"), since they just can't handle the reality. They need to believe that there is something wonderful waiting for them after they die. Otherwise, they just couldn't deal with the fact that life sucks as much as it does. They usually view life as some sort of trial they have to go through in order to make it to the Wonderful Afterlife... Poor, deluded bastards... They just can't accept the fact that this is it, this is all there is to life, and it sucks. And, there are no refunds or exchanges... Death Sucks Even More ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ By now, I've probably depressed you to the point of considering suicide... Well, don't do it, because death sucks even worse than life. At least while you are alive, you've got a chance (however slim) of having something good happen to you. But, when you are dead, you are... well, dead... Nothing good will happen to you, in fact NOTHING at all will happen to you; or, if it does, you won't know about it. You are just buried in the ground to rot, and become food for various creatures. Not a fun thing to have happen to you. So, my advice is just to learn to deal with the suckiness of life, and hope you have a high UEF... Is There Anything That Doesn't Suck? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Not too damn much... But, there are a few things in this life which actually are good. Among them are: Internet, computers, and Quartzers/Prismers/Sunseters... Now, I'm sure many of you have had bad and Sucky experiences with some of the above, but those things are not the cause of the Suckiness, but rather it is just life's Suckiness which is causing them to malfuntion. (Note: There are exceptions to this rule. Among those exceptions are Macintoshes, Toilet Bowl, and Bert.) But, there is little else in life that doesn't suck... Conclusion ^^^^^^^^^^ Ok, you are most likely saying to yourself, "What a whining imbecile. Big deal; what is he trying to prove?" Well, nothing, really. I just wanted to bitch a little bit, and let the masses know how much life really does suck. Try to wake up the ignorant and/or blind and/or braindead optimists (I hear rumors that some of these still exist; it's sad, really). Life is not a fun experience, and should be avoided if at all possible. However, if you are reading this, you are most likely already alive, and so Life is the lesser of two evils in that case. My only suggestion for dealing with Life is to go completely crazy every now and then, whether you need to or not. This helps immensely, and can prevent a complete, total, and permanent loss of sanity at a later date. Other than that, just shut up and deal with it... And, always know that no matter how bad your life is, at least you aren't me... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Appendix ======== Hepzibah's Sewer Rat Doctrines ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I owe much of my philosophy to Hep's Sewer Rat Doctrines, and so I include them here for the reader's enjoyment and enlightenment... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Begin Quoted Text +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thu Oct 22 21:54:07 1992 from Hepzibah well. as some of you know, I am renowned through the internet for my way with words. (not spelling them, but for linking them in a charming intelligent manner) many of you may have seen the evolution of "...sucks dead sewer rats" (c) Hepzibah 1991,1992. FreeWords with proper acknowledgement. into a more complex phrasing such as todays version: "it sucks wild wet siberian sewer rats with amex cards." What follows is a brief group of adjectives that could be used in place of the various adjectives (and adjectival phrases), or in conjunction with the ones above. The more adjectives the greater the sucking. red headed poodle-skirt wearing Elvis-impersonating Vegetarian Toga-clad self-confident Pocket Protector wearing Hep-Quoting Rumabing Glove-keeping Big-footed black-toed cross-dressing golden-locked Monarchist gaudy angst-ridden postage pre-paid evildoing delusional deathly ill jingoistic Orthodox Reaganesque lithe marxist Merovingian --- from Amherst from Hell in spandex with PhDs in Operas like nobody's business fourfold on Mars --- there are of course many more, but you get the idea BLATANT PLUG: Use em! Use em! They are GUARENTEED to get people talking about YOU. Papers! Theses! Exams! In Class! To your Parents! To my parents! In a store! In the paper! On-line! To your friends! To your enemies! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ End Quoted Text +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Simply amazing, isn't it? Is it any wonder why Hepzibah was voted Best Internet TeleCommunications Historian, as well as Magnanimous Enlightened Above Normal Internet Educator, and Internet's Amazing Most Dauntingly Erudite and Adept Demigod (narrowly beating the only other nominee: Harriet)? ;-) I hope you have enjoyed this book, and will send me tons of money, and that a beautiful naked woman covered with... *ahem* Nevermind that... Always remember: Life Sucks! ||======================================================================|| || Robert A. Seace || Senior at UNH || E-mail: ras@kepler.unh.edu || || AKA: Agrajag || CS major || || ||======================================================================|| "No, no, Marvin, that's just fine, really...just part of life." "Life, don't talk to me about life." - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy