Rules Of Life
In keeping with totally stealing other people’s ideas… umm, I mean perpetuating a popular theme in blog posts, I thought I’d hop onto a bandwagon today.
The lovely, jelly-juggling Kate posted her Rules of Life earlier today, having stolen… damn… been prompted by Nicole. I’m not even going to bother trying to trace this one back to its souce, since it’s probably someone in a psychiatric clinic.
So without further ado (or adon’t, for that matter), here are Spike’s Rules of Life:
1. Life sucks, but that’s just life. It’s not fair, but that’s the way it is. Get over it.
2. Judge yourself by your own standards: the people who ridicule you out in the real world are those most afraid of being individuals.
3. Make sure you have someone reliable as a reference, who can tell you when you really are being ridiculous.
4. Never let the inner child grow up. Without it, you’re just a crusty old grump and you might as well buy a big, scary, old house and start keeping snakes and cockroaches to scare the local kids.
5. Never compliment yourself: the people who do so are arseholes – and almost invariably end up looking stupid when they are proved wrong in their evaluation of their own greatness.
6. Understand that you are prejudiced. It’s human and you can’t avoid it. Learn to recognise it and research your judgements to correct them.
7. Never stop learning. It’s impossible to know everything, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun trying to achieve it.
8. Remember that money is just paper and numbers. Provided you can afford the absolute basics, there are far more important things in life. Nobody needs an iPhone, a car, a private jet or even a television. (On the other hand, coffee is a necessity.)
9. Somone is always worse off than you are. They may be in pain or in danger; they may be persecuted or terribly alone; they may be sad, afraid, lost or bewildered. They may work in marketing.
10. Never give up, never surrender!
In the same way as Kate, I won’t pass the baton to anyone in particular, but I’d love to hear yours if you want to steal… I mean, continue the subject. Leave a linkie in the comments!
Totally agree with #9 lol I used to work in marketing, it was hell!
lol yeah I got it from Avitable who got it from someone who got it from someone who changed their blog address so….yeah.
and number 8….I totally NEEDED my iphone. lol I can’t live without it. It breaths for me.
or rather breathes…
that last comment was me, Nicole. I forgot to log out of my WoW blog to comment
A fellow ‘lock? Splendid. I almost miss WoW. Almost.
I can hear all those new age ‘affirmations’ turning in their positive-ion-free graves :- )
Blessed be the cynics! For they shall inherit THE LAST LAUGH. Geez! I hope we do :- P
No ’boutadoubtya’ Spike…you are…what’s the word?…Oh! There isn’t one! Best make something up…just make sure it’s not too self complimentary ;-P
These remind me of a couple of my old favourites like:
“Remember, no matter where you go, there you are!” – Buckaroo Bonzai 1984
and
“Diplomacy defined – the ability to tell someone to go to Hell & have them look forward to the trip!” – The back of the Dunny Door at my old friends house back in the late 80’s.
And my favourite counseling line (which you allude to above): “Get over it by Wednesday” – Ok! That was on the back of a different Dunny Door. Is this painting a picture that I’m full of something other than words? :- )
Nice one Spike…I gotta go…’Out There’!
Cheers
Stephen G
Yep, a lock. Why I didn’t pick an undead rogue like everyone else is beyond me:P
It sounds like wisdom from the wise and toothless one.
For #10 – I think Captain Ishmael would have done well to give up on getting his whale.
#9 – When you think you’ve had a rotten day and that things couldn’t get any worse, this helps put life in perspective: http://raincabinet.blogspot.com/2009/06/prose-locker-59-now-theyre-even.html
When I try to consider how rough my childhood was, I like to look at this picture: http://nynerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/vulture-waits-for-child-to-die.jpg
#7 – People who try to know everything are usually pretentious.
#6 – I’m not prejudiced. I hate everyone equally.
#5 – Michael Phelps, the world’s record holder for Olympic gold medals for swimming would lose to a common goldfish in a race. You have to recognize your strengths and feel free to say what they are. That’s called confidence.
#4 – It’s all good to have the child still alive and kicking within your breast, but it’s also good to also have an adult to supervise. And, as annoying as the neighbor’s kids are, they’re not half as annoying as their parents.
#3 – No one cares if they’re ridiculous at the time. It’s only after sobriety sinks in that the subsequent ridicule comes from everyone, for the rest of your life.
#2 – While I’d love to be the judge of myself, there are people out there who can put me in jail for my actions.
#1 – Lists suck. Life rocks.
DaDuck: I always played Alliance. I found it easier to put up with 15-year-olds rabbiting on about their rogue’s awesomeness than all the back-biting and superiority complexes on the Horde side. Miss some of my guildies, but I’d kinda played out most of the content, since I was never a dungeon-crawler.
Steven: That was all rather negative, old bean! It’s hard to build anything on foundations of darkness, disagreement and perpetual cynicism, you know – and when it’s built, nobody will want to live there.
Ummm, OK. I have to apologise. I just spent four days dealing with a MASSIVE amount of negativity (from a suicidal friend) and it finally caught up with me. Steven, your post wasn’t horribly negative and all that: I just re-read it and realised how off-kilter I was until just this afternoon. Please accept my apologies, old fruit!
So many people believe that life is about being happy or always being in some sort of elevated bliss – albeit not from drugs. But this is the way I look at it: it’s always the hardest parts of my life that I remember the most. And from those moments I learn the most. So, a part of me tries to find a certain amount of joy from the struggles in my life.
There’s Socrates who said that true joy and true pleasure came from the absence of pain. So, if we are not to feel pain, then pleasure will become unnoticeable. Emily Bronte, in her poem “Remembrance,” learned how to enjoy life without the aid of joy. She learned how life could be strengthened and fed without it. I think somewhere in there is a philosophy that can help. Learn to enjoy the pain, not to mention the joy which does rear her pretty head from time to time, and you’ve got life mastered.
Not at all ‘me ol’ mucker’! :- )
I was about to launch in to a nice delicate exploration of subtle cultural differences in humor etc…and now you’ve gone all nice and wrecked it! :- P
Have to save that one for another day then…
Cheers
Stephen G