Poll

Now, be honest. Have you?

Yes
6 (50%)
No
6 (50%)

Total Members Voted: 10

Voting closed: January 02, 2007, 03:37:31 am

Author Topic: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?  (Read 1780 times)

Lord J Esq

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2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« on: December 29, 2006, 03:37:31 am »
The year 2006 has come and gone. Looking back, this is your chance to reflect on the 525,600 minutes that have made (and will yet make) this year what it is.

I remember a backpacking prologue to Lake Ross and almost beyond. I remember building lasting relationships. I remember being given the beginnings of a chance to do the sort of work I love. I remember kicking the elephants out of power in Congress. And I remember a great deal of writing, which is, after all, my strongest suit.

All in all, a good year...but I'd be lying if I said I didn't waste much of it. A year is a long time, but fast--fast and long. I have much to learn, yet.

So...where have you been this year?

ZeaLitY

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2006, 04:03:09 am »
I climbed a mountain of my own, though the peak was too challenging, considering it required a Rock Lee effort to get there (4 hours of steep hiking). I was in bed the rest of the night at the cabin upon returning home, save for a trip to town to inundate myself with candy. I learned the hard way that all the quick energy trail mix and beef jerky goes through your intestines badly.

Overall, I lived at the beginning and end of this year. There was something major I should have done much earlier. But no regrets; sunk costs are sunk costs.

grey_the_angel

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2006, 07:48:48 am »
I was shot at, broke 3 mp3 players, made cash off my artwork, found this place, masturbated furiously till I went semi-blind....

yeah I think I've lived.

Hadriel

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2006, 10:47:43 am »
I had relentless sex with a beautiful Asian woman, had a Romeo and Juliet breakup, restored my desire to be a scholar, got high, and played Twilight Princess.

Yeah, I've done OK.

Ramsus

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2006, 11:03:02 am »
No.

nightmare975

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2006, 11:55:13 am »
The fact that I've still not told the girl of my dreams that I love her makes it a no.

ZeaLitY

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2006, 02:39:27 pm »
The fact that I've still not told the girl of my dreams that I love her makes it a no.

She'll truly be the girl of your dreams when she loves you, too.

Romana

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2006, 05:24:42 pm »
Hm... This was probably the most interesting year of my life. A few of the things that happened to me:

- began watching Naruto, developed a Rock Lee, 'dauntless' attitude because of this;
- discovered my love for J-Pop and J-Rock;
- started writing a lot more, including my Radical Dreamers story, a Star Ocean fanfic, and a few others;
- began training and exercising a little;
- started going out with a girl I really like;
- got a Wii and Twilight Princess, heheheh.

ZeaLitY

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2006, 05:53:23 pm »
Yes, damnit. We must internalize and crystallize the ideals of living like you mean it and feeling the passion of youth as you run towards the sunset. We must unleash our will with grace and power as we become beautiful green beasts ourselves.

SMF has an image limit, so these won't break any layouts, and they're not very big files:





Romana

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2006, 05:57:55 pm »
^ Inspiration!

Yes, damnit. We must internalize and crystallize the ideals of living like you mean it and feeling the passion of youth as you run towards the sunset.

More inspiration! SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH!!!

ZeaLitY

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2006, 08:07:40 pm »
I removed the Naruto spoiler and banned grey for the better part of the month. I do not fucking care what we're talking about unless it's the Chrono series. No spoilers. He may have prefixed it with a spoiler tag, but he put the message right next to it so there was no chance of me avoiding it. I will not have fucking Naruto spoiled for me. I don't care about administrative abuse. Someone should have known fucking better, because I've said on various occasions that I don't read the manga. That's the end of that.

If Ramsus, Lord J, or Radical_Dreamer lessen or drop the ban, I want to hear a good reason. It is largely of a personal nature and there isn't an explicit rule for spoilers in our charter. But that is a stupid, gross violation of common decency. I don't walk into threads on other games and spoil something just for the hell of it in a throwaway one-liner post that can't be avoided.
« Last Edit: December 29, 2006, 08:09:55 pm by ZeaLitY »

Romana

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2006, 08:47:46 pm »
Yeah, grey was basically telling us to walk into that one. It was immediately unavoidable for me as well, so I'm pretty pissed off, too, and grateful to see the ban. I hate spoilers so damn much.

Lord J Esq

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2006, 12:24:55 am »
Wow...don't mess with the Z! Remember what happened to the last schmuck who tried to spit on the Kingdom of Zeal:

Lord J: Have you really lived?
Saddam: Yes!
ZeaLitY: Not so fast, bitch!
Saddam: Ahhhh--

Daniel Krispin

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2006, 01:44:48 am »
Nope.

And that's not self-depreciating. I've got a very high standard of what truly living is, and I don't think it's ever possible for anyone, let alone me, achieve it in its fullness. There have been short times where I would say, for that time, I have - when I was sitting with my father in a cafe in Paris, waiting for the train to Frankfurt, and I phoned back to North America to ask a girl I liked to coffee - and, having secured a yes for that, smoked a cigar and talked to my father for several hours on the topics of philosophy and theology. Well... in those few hours I truly lived. But until every waking moment is so, I cannot honestly say I have really lived.

Of course, I understand that it is humanly impossible to achieve the standards I hold before myself, so it is not so much that I have regrets, but a hope that I can always do better. So it is an optimistic no. So long as there is room for improvement, it must be no, so as to provide a motivation to improve. If I said 'yes', that would be resting on my laurals.

There is also the idea of being truly one's self. Truly being as you are meant to be. I'm not sure I've done that yet to the right extent, and until I have, that is another reason I cannot say yes. It is, well this is a negative example, but the idea is the same. In the play Medea (I think it's Seneca's I'm thinking of), the heroine has done many terrible things on behalf of Jason. Now that he abandons her, she resolves to things that far outmatch all the others - and she names those earlier exploits child's things to accentuate this. When she does all she intends, she has truly become 'Medea', the destined Medea in all her fullness of her character. Like I said, a negative, in that it was doing nasty things that she was destined for, but the idea is still the same. Doing what you are meant to do is truly living. From the way I see it, being a teacher is that purpose, and until I come to that point, I'll not have truly lived. When someone calls me 'professor', well, I think THAT might be something. Or, then again, maybe not. Maybe at that point there will still be more.

I will say, however, that I think I've come closer to living than the majority. My studies, the simple desire to want to know one's self and know the world, contribute to truely living (to borrow the idea off Seneca, that they who engage in study and thought are the ones who are truly living.) Experiences, doing things... I wouldn't count these as true life unless they are deeply considered. You see, an animal can 'live', and an animal can have experience, and do things, but that is not considered true life in the human sense. It takes more, it takes doing things with thought, that makes human life.

Lord J Esq

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Re: 2006 Is Almost Over. Have You Really Lived?
« Reply #14 on: December 30, 2006, 01:57:59 am »
That is awfully well-put, Daniel--especially your first paragraph. (Although the third one is a bit pretentious.) In any case, you've hit this thread on the head. And that is why I have not answered my own poll.