...now that winter is here.

I'm not usually a meme fan, but since Victoire asked so nicely...

• Take a stroll in the forest after it's rained - There are few things as refreshing as being in nature after it's taken a nice bath. That smell of wet bark, the sounds of birds frolicking in puddles of water, the crispness in the air. Love it. Wait, did I just use the word "frolicking"?
  
  
• Catch a sunrise - Yes, it means getting up really early for a change (admittedly a tough thing to do when it's freezing), but then again the tougher something is to get, the more rewarding it tends to be. Preferably done on a day without rain.
  
  
• Read. On the couch. Under a fluffy blanket - Diving into a good book is always nice, but even more so when it's done in plush warmth with the wind and rain howling outside.
  
  
• Slip your feet into a pair of sheepskin wool slippers - I received a pair as a birthday gift last year. Slipping into these puppies after a hot shower is to your feet what a nice warm hug is to your soul.
  
  
• Give a nice warm hug - Need I say more?

So there I was, ripping apart the remains of the top of the cabinet. The detached bottom part was being transformed (by way of some sawing, sanding,wood filling and painting) into my brand new TV unit/stand.

As I pulled the pieces of chipboard and laminate apart, one of the shelves tilted over and fell onto my foot. The series of nails protruding from it flashed through my thoughts as it hit my shoe, puncturing the soft canvas on top and sticking straight through. Oh shit. I felt a sting, and was convinced that one of the nails had gone straight through my big toe. Adrenaline has a habit of numbing pain, apparently... I scurried to remove my shoe and sock, and as I did so (expecting a gush of blood), there was only a slight graze down the side of my toe. The nail had missed it by literally a millimetre.

For the next 30 minutes, I painstakingly pulled out or flattened every single nail and staple on every single piece of wood. Lots of them, in case you were wondering. Even though everything was going to be discarded as building rubble the next day, I felt compelled to remove the danger from this heap of junk. It wasn't someone else's problem to prevent harm to others, it was mine.

Something similar happens every time a taxi drives past me and a passenger carelessly tosses a plastic wrapper out the window. I wonder what they're thinking. It's always puzzled me. Over the last few years, I've come to the conclusion that most people spend less time thinking about things than I previously assumed. I wanted to ask "why?", but then I realised that it might actually be a better idea to ask "why do I think so much about things?"...

You see, whenever I see something out of the ordinary happen, whenever I meet someone interesting, whenever I discover a new concept, whenever I stumble across something I can see has been carefully crafted, I think about it. I don't just think, I consider in-depth. I try to understand the story behind the event, the history behind the person, the logic behind the concept, the motivation behind the craft. If I don't understand it at first, I try to find out more; and then I do a little more thinking. I want to know how and when. I want to know where. Most importantly, I intensely want to know why. It's never-ending for me, this curiosity. It's subconscious. When I'm walking down the road on an average day, I'll be trying to figure out how to better explain point A to Person X, when I walk back I'll be trying to make sure that what I've decided is correct before I put things into action. As silly as it sounds, it's always been this way for me, it's always been a way of doing I've cherished. I don't quite know why, but I do know that I really want to know why. I guess it's simple really:

I do not want to be indifferent, ever.

Right now, I've been told that I need to be indifferent. Something has happened in my life that has prompted me into trying to shift my mindset towards being less curious about the "why", to be less involved. I've been making a serious, concerted attempt to stop this involvement and consideration. I've failed so far.

I refuse to not let things affect me, to disregard them. I refuse to not continue to be curious about the why, even though I know that I may not understand it. I accept the reality of the situation (after all, reality cannot be faked), but I refuse to distance myself from the matter at hand, as much as I've been advised about the wisdom of such a choice. Most of all, with all my heart, I refuse to stop caring just because caring is to my detriment at this point, or at any other point.

I refuse to be indifferent, and will continue to do so.

Seth is not the only one who has a carefully preserved Mercedes-Benz for sale. Thing is just, mine stood boxed for a little while longer than his... Roughly 20 years, in fact... In 1996, it had just 40somethingthousand kilometres on the clock

Interested in driving a classic car in pristine condition, lovingly maintained by only 2 owners over its entire 36 year life? Specs:

1971 Mercedes-Benz 220. Just over 220,000km, quite rare for its age. Cream with tan/black interior, has recently been serviced, runs perfectly.

How much? I'm asking R20,000, but make me an offer and we'll negotiate.

UPDATE: Sold

You know when you're walking down a deserted path, and you can't hear or see anyone else, or even see any evidence of another soul anywhere nearby? You know that quiet isolation that makes your ears sing with silence?

Imagine an entire lifetime spent in that silence.

Not silence of the physical kind, but silence of the interaction kind. No conversations with other human beings, only the hunt for the food you crave. No smiling and being smiled back at, just the crackle of the fire as you cook the object of your hunt. No customary greeting, only the running of water through your hands as you scoop it from the river to drink.

Could you wake up every single day as the only human being on the planet, and be happy?

Does happiness at its core really require others, or can it be had through simple solitary being? The question is not whether you'd be able to answer "yes" right now (having been raised in societal conditions, you probably couldn't), but rather whether it is technically possible to be happy without others. Is it?

I want to believe that it is. I'm disturbed by the notion that another person (or persons) can affect my happiness. Let me rephrase: I'm disturbed by the notion of anyone other than myself having any effect whatsoever (whether positive or negative) on my happiness. It's simple really: rationally, I want my reason to be the only determinant of the purpose of my life, and thus my happiness. It's like Ayn Rand said in her definition of objectivism:

My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

OK, so it's a noble concept (at least, it seems noble; and a concept which I continue to believe in) to be the master of your own destiny, but does being the master of your own destiny imply that mastering can be accomplished without others?

I don't know... Do you?
Oh wait, you're not there.

Doing what I do, I tend to immediately spot crappy attempts at communicating. To be honest, I'm guilty of overstating things myself, quite often really. I guess it's got something to do with not having absolute clarity about an idea before bringing it across - it immediately shows.

These guys hit me in the face with absolute clarity. As soon as I stumbled onto their site, I was hooked on how they've managed to simplify what they have to say down to the core. No wasted words, no space for jargon, no room for misunderstanding whatsoever.

Genius.

UPDATE: It seems like, in addition to all the simplicity, they use a time-triggered script to change the stylesheet (and thus the site's appearance) from daylight to darkness according to the time of day (or night) in their location. Nice.