Recent content by JPS

Humankind is very, very thrifty. It tends to keep the bathwater even after it's thrown out the baby. What does this mean? Although most of today's cultural values were born long ago from specific, often material, needs, the needs themselves are long gone. These old needs have been replaced by...

Thank you! My mother gave me the flowers, and I was encouraged to go talk to her; I was never too subtle about my crushes.

To follow is a detailed report of my romantic life from age six onward. All names have been changed, for reasons of privacy or whatever. Let me start by saying that every one of my romantic encounters, from my blushing pursuit of the cute girl in first grade all the way to my most recent...

Grandmaster Ferret drags boulders to charities, Shows up an hour too late; They’re shutting it down, so he plasters his frown To the sky overlooking his fate. Conscience, you’ve bitten enough of your stones; Payment—it’s not a rent or a loan. Sisyphus Wannabe, fat as a honeybee, Cries...

I feel you, man. My diagnosis came in the second semester of senior year. All my life I had pretty much done what I wanted, meanwhile sliding by with average grades. But after high school began, I felt awful. My grades plummeted. Turned out I had a long-untreated mood disorder, for...

Thank you both for the advice. I like to think I don't waste time comparing myself to others—but sometimes I do. This is unhealthy. You each recommend I go to college; do you have any recommendations for what I should do in the meantime? Half a year without school, for my part, is...

I hope to write a summary of my present circumstances. After reading it, you can give me as much advice as you'd like. I'd appreciate any at all. Here goes. Note that the first five paragraphs are exposition. I live in one of many small towns that orbit Washington, DC. Much of my time...

- stop wallowing in self-pity - work on screenplay - start ADHD medication - keep up with schoolwork - work on a website I've been conceptualizing - start waking up early - get band together - get better at guitar

Life is the intersection of wrong and suck.

I should mention the whole alcohol ordeal was a shitty joke, and I would never try alcohol because of familial dependencies. I think it's neither. I've confidence in my ability which isn't misplaced. I understand that if I push myself I could become great in whatever field, scientific or...

I slept on it and I feel much better, if a tad embarrassed and regretful. I guess I failed in part to elaborate my main concern, which wasn't really the rejection itself so much as the fact that my competence and my performance seem to be two very different things. In other words, what I'm...

I'm seventeen and in the past half month have experienced more rejection than I've ever experienced in my life. My coping mechanisms are fried like a computer in a swimming pool and in consequence I'm not really sure what to do besides write about the experience. I don't know what anyone can...

I'll have a go at this. First of all, conflict, essentially, is "an incompatibility between two or more ideas, principles, or interests." Story itself is "an account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment." I'd argue that it is metaphysically impossible for there to...

Ironically, I'm just going to cannibalize another post I wrote at the beginning of this year, also about originality and what it really is to be original. So don't be afraid to reinvent the wheel. Nobody ever reinvented the wheel the same way as anybody else, and so if you think long and...

Fear of death is something I experience on occasion, but that's about the extent of it. I wouldn't in any way consider it "crippling" or debilitating for me, except in the sheer moment when I experience it. There's actually a logical flaw in my own, if not in everybody else's, conception of...