#ULTIMATE SPECIES EUPHORIA REACHED

[puppydroolz]

"You're like my emotional support dog :)"

[merakiui]

when asked if he prefers cats or dogs, jade leech says, "the one who resists the collar most."

this response, coupled with jade's usual sharp smile, raises eyebrows. there is no argument to be had on which wears a collar worse: a pet will wear a collar if its owner deems it necessary. pets may resist, but ultimately the owner can and will condition them to wear it without defiance. and though this may be fact, jade is not one to agree so easily. he likes to challenge normalcy; he likes to break facts down to the very basics and determine whether such "facts" are actually just socially accepted opinions in disguise.

so the question is reframed: would you rather have a dog who always slips out of its collar or a cat who tills the tops of your hands with scratches when you attempt to collar it?

jade likes the idea of both, but there are only two choices available. he cannot say he likes both, otherwise it will defeat the purpose of a "this or that" inquiry. but then a slippery hound allows for the euphoria of a chase. a hunt. a chance at gambling freedoms to see which will triumph: the dog and its insatiable thirst for the world beyond the confines of the collar, or the owner and his determination to keep the hound shackled, lest he find himself locked away with a sentencing as heavy as that same collar. on the other hand, the cat in this scenario reacts on instinct. rather than run, it fights. its violent actions are a testimony to its fear. an animal only ever shows its claws if provoked or cornered. therefore, the cat will shred him bloody when he reaches out with an unclasped collar. jade doesn't mind blood and pain, but then most people are not like jade.

most people do not answer the "this or that" with, "in this case, i'd prefer a cat. because then, after i've succeeded in collaring it, i can return the favor."

there's that eerie smile again. somehow, the air shudders alongside the one who asked the question, stifling and thick with an unsettling dread. jade scratches idly at the bandages wrapped around his hands.

though both species in this scenario react differently, they will, eventually, exhaust themselves. the dog's flight will become wingless after countless failures. the cat's fight will simmer after each clawed lash ends in a wild grin and dilated pupils, in which the owner leans in and whispers, sickeningly sweet, "do that again," because he wants it. because pain is the prettiest gift the cat can give him.

so the question is reframed: regarding the cat, how will you "return the favor"?

he plays innocent this time, pretending to ponder even though he's crafted his witty reply in advance. "no more gourmet tuna."

that's enough chatting. he excuses himself with a pleasant simper and off he goes, down a stretching hall, far from the one nosy enough to pose such a peculiar question.

cats and dogs... really, does the distinction in who wears a collar worse matter? in the end, both are housebound.

later, after setting a homemade meal in front of a large, human-sized crate, jade leech peels the blanket covering it to reveal his cat. he bends down, pushes the plate towards it, and the paw that once slashed so angrily at him before shakily reaches through the bars.

he smiles, tilts his head, and offers a question: "do you prefer cats or dogs?"

the cat meets his mismatched gaze, horrified and cold all over, dressed only in undergarments. silence stretches between pet and owner. he's not surprised or upset when no response follows.

it doesn't matter because the cat is caged, and it is not a physical collar that binds it but rather the presence of the owner who keeps it confined.

[sporadicenthusiastcat]

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[nrobbins673]

(Ir)rational investing

Summary

Human beings are generally not rational, and as an extension of that, they often do not make sound choices.

Emotions do have a place in successful investing.

Our emotions are all-encompassing and need to be acknowledged in our investment-making decisions.

 INVESTORS (AND HUMAN BEINGS) ARE NOT ALWAYS RATIONAL

In particular, those who invest purely on how they feel emotionally about an investment, not an objective assessment by a trained analyst, a witty television personality like Jim Cramer, or even a Wall Street Journal article with a certain hell-bent opinion on your garden variety S&P 500 sector. And the fact that many of our decisions in life are based on our emotions, it can be extrapolated that many investment decisions are driven by emotions as well.  To be sure, ad nauseum, this could be seen in the late 1990's and early 2000’s when by the mere fact that a particular company had a presence on the Internet, which was still considered a new and exciting idea, meant that it was worthy of huge commitments of capital both by retail and institutional investors alike (yawn).

The psychology of rational and irrational investing lies in some concepts such as fight or flight.  Or, more specifically, our adrenal glands which help regulate our response to stress.  An awareness of the fight-flight-freeze response, and thus how our adrenaline helps and hinders our judgements, is important on so many levels, inside and outside of the daily grind of the stock market.  For example, how you deal with your temperamental ten year old not wanting to do his homework every night or trying nicely to ask your significant other to scooch over on the couch so you can stretch your legs a little more.  Both subtle, but real, examples of how we deal with our brimming emotions.  Fight or flight is an unconscious physiological reaction to stress. Basically, most of us are not always aware that we are reacting to external stimuli. At the office, whether it is someone we don’t care for walking by our desk, in the summer, an annoying yellow jacket buzzing around our head, or the dizzying daily events like seeing analysts’ reactions to disappointing guidance by Salesforce and then the stock plummeting 20 points after the session close. We react to these things in different ways, depending on the event, and depending on the person. For example, some folks do not care who walks by their desk at 9 am every morning or whether or not that person is someone they’d like to invite out for a drink after work. Others brood when a colleague of whom does not share the same political views about tax policy or climate change saunters past their cubicle with that same, annoying, shuffling walk at lunchtime every day. That is the essence of fight or flight. An event that causes an emotional disturbance due to our primal nature to save ourselves from being harmed or killed. Yep, that’s the one. When you’re watching Squawk Box one morning and Joe begins (again) to expound on why bond yields are headed upward, your fight or flight response could be: Hyperinflation! Oh geez, let me log on and sell 90% of my position in Tesla, move that into an Aggregate Bond Index fund, and put on a total return swap to hedge myself against a global depression. Is that rational? This investor doesn’t think so, but it’s all relative.

Other market watchers experience that same stimuli and react to it in different ways. It is likely due to a number of factors, including biology, nurture, and nature.  If you’ve been a trader since the 1980’s, your environment has conditioned you to experience stimuli such as this and have a certain, relatively muted, reaction. This could be said even in the event of a terrorist attack, another pandemic, or even a nuclear exchange (potentially). So, what some folks view as rational or irrational, others see it differently.  And rightly so.

Some may remember theGlobe.com which went public in November of 1998. The company was originally founded for programming the website itself. The day of the IPO the share price climbed from $9 to as high as $97, and at the end of the trading day, the company was valued at $840 million. The high valuation did not come from an objective or quantitative assessment. It was based on little more than the excitement and emotions investors had about making a quick buck based on a novel idea, with most not even knowing what the novel idea was, and to an even lesser extent, how the company was going to turn a profit. After the euphoria of the new Internet economy subsided, theGlobe.com stock eventually traded down to 10 cents a share in 2001, thus shrinking the valuation to a mere $4 million in the span of three years. Everyone knows that the dot-com bubble burst, the stock market crashed, and the S&P 500 index went negative for three consecutive calendar years from 2000 – 2002.  Conversely, who could've known the NASDAQ would rebound in 2003 and rise over 50%?  Probably more than you think.

This is not to say that factoring in emotions into investment decisions, or into life in fact, does not have its merits. In mid-2007 Apple released its first iPhone with a similar euphoria to the dot-com era.  The stock has since appreciated from a split-adjusted $5 per share to its current $116 price.  A great long term investment.  Is Apple the exception to the rule?  You could argue both sides.  Many will also remember a certain Mr. Blodget exclaiming that Amazon is on its way to $400 a share (gasp!).  That was December of 1998.  At the time, many said that would never happen and we're headed for a bubble, which we were.  However, we really couldn't have known at the time that Amazon's far reaching influence would include Wholefoods, a streaming service, and selling golden glass roses targeted towards Valentines Day.  And most know that although it took several decades, Amazon stock now trades around the $3,000 per share mark.  So, an extremely (or what seemed to be) emotionally-charged recommendation by a new analyst at the time, made many savvy long term investors a lot of money.  But not necessarily considered savvy investors at the time.  Cisco is a another dot-com survivor.  Their stock price declined 86% from its peak during the bust.  It currently trades at a 14x's multiple with a 3% dividend yield.  Hardly a high flyer.

We can agree on how important our emotions are in our personal lives.  We care deeply about our loved ones.  Some harbor distain for past and present politicians.  Depending on who you ask, is any of this productive? Or, just a plain waste of thought that lasts all of ten seconds.  

As we all know, the emotions leading up to the housing bubble and financial crisis of 2008 caused banks to lower their lending standards.  The bubble came from lenders and homebuyers thinking that real estate would always go up and the exuberance surrounding that.  If a home doubled in value in two years, would you buy it?  The resounding answer was "yes".  Same idea time and time again.  Ultimately real estate went down and the bubble burst. Many large lenders and small homeowners went bankrupt.  Moreover, the left over carnage resulting from our exuberance often goes unnoticed.  Nomadland is a recent movie that won best picture for drama at the Golden Globes.  During the opening it states that in 2011, due to a falloff in demand for sheetrock, a plant was closed in Empire, Nevada after 88 years.  Within six months, "the Empire zip code....was discontinued."  A tragedy for many of whom relied on real estate construction just to stay alive.

The reality is that most investors know they invest at the wrong times and for the wrong reasons, and still do it.  In The Behavior Gap - Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things with Money, by Carl Richards, the author states, "....friends and colleagues...know their impulses to buy and sell are dangerous."  And during market downturns, Mr. Richards opines, "It's okay to be scared, but it's a bad idea to act on your fear."  Fear may be our most important emotion when it comes to affecting our investing mindset.  How else do you account for such extreme market volatility?  Certainly part can be attributed to fear.  Fear is a byproduct of our fight-flight-freeze response.  Fear was essential to our ancestors for survival purposes.  Faced with a rattlesnake, our fear caused us to do something, instantaneously, preserve our lives, and perpetuate the human species.  A survival mechanism.  But is it still useful?  When it comes to investing, not so much.

So what can our emotions teach us about investing? If we're too exuberant, we can cause bubbles. If we are too fearful, we may burst bubbles.  Maybe too many of us watch too much CNBC (fact), and our emotions may get intensified sitting on the couch as helpless spectators.

The question for most of us? Where are our emotions taking us now?  Are we bubbling up at this very moment?  When is this bubble coming and what will be the focus?  Government debt?  Student loan debt?  According to some, maybe it's a Tesla bubble bursting.  The more we understand our own emotions and how they affect our daily functioning, the better our investing decisions will be.  Keep in mind that we're all different and many folks have the utmost control over their emotions.  Consequently, those who can do that will earn higher incremental returns and live a longer, healthier life, with more fruitful finances. -Neil

[lazarusisgogo]

The chronology of Star Trek absolutely makes me want to die because while in terms of episode order This Side Of Paradise is right before Devil In The Dark, the actual order is City On The Edge Of Forever, then a number of episodes including Return Of The Archons, Errand Of Mercy, and Devil In The Dark, all episodes in which we see some of the best teamwork and camaraderie between Jim and Spock, and then Operation Annihilate. 

Okay, so we have City On The Edge Of Forever, where Jim falls for a Spock surrogate, where Jim talks to Edith about how helping others and the phrase “let me help you” is more powerful even than “I love you” and then chronologically we have several episodes in which Spock literally embodies the concept of “let me help you” because we have all these episodes that are totally centered on the teamwork between Jim and Spock, culminating in the episode that actually aired next, which is Operation Annihilate where Spock literally says the words “Jim, let me help” even as Jim is mourning Spock’s blindness, the thought of losing Spock, of having hurt Spock, caring more about Spock than his own family, etc. Okay, great. 

So to recap: in The City On The Edge Of Forever, Jim falls in love with a surrogate for an unavailable Spock, worries that he and Spock won’t end up together, and Spock struggles with his feelings for the captain (”Captain -- even when he doesn’t say it he does” hmm I wonder what else is going unsaid). Then technically there are two episodes in between Operation Annihilate and Amok Time. 

One of these is Metamorphosis, in which Jim and Spock encounter Zefram Cochrane and the Companion, a sentient creature composed largely of electricity that has a “female” personality and is in love with Cochrane (to Cochrane’s dismay). Jim spends the episode trying to convince the Companion to let Cochrane go. He argues that Cochrane and the Companion are too different. He argues that humans need obstacles to overcome. Meanwhile, the Commissioner who is down on the planet expressed confusion over Cochrane’s attitude -- that someone would reject love when it is offered to them. Jim argues that if the Companion loves Cochrane, it will let him go -- a sacrifice of its happiness for his. But the Companion is what has been keeping Cochrane alive all this time. Without the Companion, he will die. Ultimately, the Companion inhabits the body of the Commissioner as she finally succumbs to her illness. The Companion now has a human form with which to love Cochrane, and the two of them stay on the planet. 

Cool, so we have a direct fucking parallel to Jim and Spock: the refusal of love freely offered out of fear of what is different, strange, and unknown; love bridging difference and species; conforming and sacrificing an alien identity for the love of a human; etc. Also, in this episode Jim is hung up on ideas of femaleness, arguing that maleness and femaleness are universal constants that seek each other out in love. Clearly Jim is still hung up on Edith -- more accurately, what Edith represented to him i.e. an attainable love that reminded him of his relationship with Spock -- and deals with this by projecting his loss onto Cochrane, urging Cochrane to leave the planet, to reject the Companion’s love. Which, of course, Spock sees, and interprets as Jim rejecting the idea of love, rejecting the idea of a love that is foreign, not human, sees Jim emphasize the importance of femaleness in love and knows he can’t have Jim. Meanwhile, the episode ends with Jim, referring to the Commissioner’s death, saying "I'm sure the Federation can find another woman, somewhere, who'll stop that war." Hmm, I wonder if Jim could be referring once again to Edith, once again to the idea that he will find a woman who could stop his internal war, his feelings for Spock.

And then, finally we have Amok Time. Jim shocked to discover that Spock is engaged, and to a woman no less. Jim, shocked by Spock’s vulnerability, rawness, emotion. Jim, willing to do anything for his friend. Spock, fighting the pon farr that very obviously wants Jim. Spock, letting Jim in, as hard as it is. Spock, whose plak tow vanishes after his “fight” with Jim. Who cares far more about Jim than about T’Pring’s rejection. Spock, who says “having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting.” Spock who finally “had” his captain....and killed him (or so he thinks.) Spock, who perhaps is thinking about Jim and Edith, about Jim’s heartbreak. And then, of course, learns that Jim is alive and well, shows his true emotions, his joy and love.

But wait! It doesn’t end there! Because, chronologically, Amok Time is immediately followed by This Side Of Paradise. Where Spock is affected by spores that make him happy, emotional, loving. He “falls in love” with Leila Kalomi, who he had met several years before the mission, who loved him and who he had feelings for but could not reciprocate her affections. Leila, who is honey blonde with soft eyes, much like someone else we know. Spock tells Jim that the planet it “a true Eden” and Jim once again retorts (just like in Metamorphosis) that without struggle and challenge, humans stagnate. “I don't know what I can offer against paradise” Jim laments in his Captain’s Log. What could he possibly offer Spock that is better than this untroubled euphoria? So Jim has to break Spock out of his bliss, attacking him, insulting him, insulting his heritage, calling him a half-breed, a computer, telling him he could never truly love Leila, telling Spock that he is a freak who belongs in a circus. As Spock is about to kill Jim in his rage, Jim’s touch on his bare wrist stops him. A direct parallel to Amok Time. Spock tells Leila that he cannot stay with her, that he has a duty to the ship and his captain. “I am what I am, Leila. And if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.” 

In fact, let’s break down some exact quotes from this episode:

1. “Emotions are alien to me. I'm a scientist.” - Spock

Spock, deep in denial about his emotions, despite the fact that his clear emotions for Jim were made clear in Amok Time, preceding this very episode.

2. When Spock is in pain after being hit with the spores Leila says: “It didn't hurt us.” Spock replies: “I am not like you.”

Spock, who is in pain as his emotions are ripped from his control and forced to the surface, all the pain, rejection, disappointment, and loss he’s felt associated with attempts at love and happiness.

3. “I love you. I can love you.” - Spock, to Leila, after the spores

Spock, shocked to realize that he feels no shame in his emotions, no impediment to his ability to feel love and, moreover, to feel loved. Free from repressing himself, from hiding, from shame.

4. “Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is.” - Jim, talking to Spock about the drawbacks of an “Eden”

Jim, referencing the fact that he needs Spock and Spock needs him, that they are better together, challenging each other and bringing out the best in one another. Sounds familiar: Ma etek natyan teretuhr lau etek shetau weh-lo'uk do tum t'on // We have differences. May we, together, become greater than the sum of both of us. (Surak)

5. “And you've got the gall to make love to that girl!” - Jim, mid-rant, taunting Spock into violence

Why would Jim bring this up in his criticism of Spock, in trying to make Spock angry, if not in reference to Spock being a traitor? He refers to Spock being sub-human, and implies that such a lowly being should not be with a human, but reading between the lines clearly indicates that this, to Jim, is a betrayal as much as Spock’s mutiny.

6. “I have little to say about it, captain. Except that for the first time in my life, I was happy.” - Spock, when Jim asks him about the spores and the experience

Spock, acknowledging that he understands what it is to be happy; that is, he understands what it is to be able to express him emotions, to love and to be loved without judgment or shame. Spock has experienced happiness before, although he would not allow himself to experience it for long, or to enjoy it, but this particularly is a form of happiness Spock has never known. The spores did not make him happy, but they allowed him to experience the happiness that he has so long denied himself: love.

So, to recap: Jim and Spock both fall in love with surrogates for each other that are ultimately ripped away from them and they return to the ship and to one another, realizing that no one can replace or be an adequate substitute for each other while simultaneously feeling more than ever like love is out of reach for them, an unattainable fantasy.

There is.........so much more to discuss but the arc from City On The Edge Of Forever to This Side Of Paradise is extremely and absolutely cursed thank you for your time.

@spoko @swishyspock i blame these blogs for making me think about this last night and type up this cursed post this morning

[daisypricilla27-blog]

Reach High

If a child is your ultimate goal, ask Awaken the Species Review yourself why you want to be a parent; if it's a way of finding unconditional love then you need to wait, you need to work on who you are, you need to confront your own demons before offloading them on a baby; if it's because you want a mini-me, then you should go buy a handbag; and if you flatly refuse to adopt under any circumstances then you should never breed because all you are looking for is an ego boost and that's not fair to the child or the world.

A child is an enormous responsibility, a child is all consuming, a child is a financial disaster and an environmental one as well, a child will push you to the limits of your patience, a child will radically and irreparably change your existence - don't get me wrong here, this could be a good thing, if you have thought about what you are truly letting yourself in for; you are not having a baby, you are creating a life that will concern you for the rest of your life both emotionally and financially; you will want to do the best you can for your child I hope and that will require accepting that child for what it is, not for what you want it to be - a child is not an easy lesson, it is a lifelong responsibility that will not necessarily get easier with time.

If you feel you are ready to breed then consider all the aspects of your life that will change, accept that you are dedicating much of who you are to another being's existence and think about the end result. If marriage is on your mind, if conditional love is your goal, then consider the truth - consider that change is a natural and unavoidable part of life, consider that infidelity is a probability, consider that children will radically alter your dynamic, consider that you might one day no longer love your partner the way you do now and they may no longer love you in the same way either, consider that divorce will ruin your children and consider that as much as you may wish to deny each of these things, they are common place problems faced by all married couples.

Think about your dating life so far, think about the relationships you have had and lost and remember the initial euphoria you might have felt that slowly died, think about that lucky escape or that devastating loss, think about it and consider that these things may happen in your marriage, for life is full of change and marriage is riddled with divorce - do you need this marriage to control someone.

https://dietsheriff.com/awaken-the-species-review/