Do you actually enjoy life?

[Frinky]

Damn TimmAy's quoting of my terrible typing there. I'm tired. And I really, really need a wee.

[Rats]

I think some people are anti-mainstream, they never lose that inbuilt chip they get at sixteen which makes them rebel against their parents, other kids, everything. I think that's what you're getting at. It was healthy back then but not so healthy now you've grown. Well I think you're confusing that with taste. Turn it on it's head and I like, for example, the fall and david lynch. Liking those things reaks of trying to be alternative, the fall and david lynch are like the mainstream of the alternative if you like so it's exactly the same as trying to be normal, you could call me a student.
It's just prejudice, making asumptions about someone on the basis of what music they listen to, where they eat, what they like to do socially, what they like to read. I take the piss out of timmy, calling him an empty lad but I'm sure he knows I don't mean it, I mean how the hell could I know the bloke by reading a few throw away comments he posts on a message board in his leisure time. I'm just suprised that threads like this come up, it's like you're saying people who accuse people of being stereotypes are stereotypes. Are you being ironic? You student :)

[Cerys]

I enjoy life.  There were times when I didn't.  Most of my secondary school years were spent in a state of self-pitying dissatisfaction.  My university years were spent merrily pogoing between vague contentment and utter drama-queenhood.  My mid-twenties were largely lost to chemical enjoyment and trying to cope with having developed MS.  I kidded myself that I was dealing with it, whereas what I was actually doing was being a more controlled variant on the drama-queen theme.  And then I grew up.  These days, despite the fact that my social life consists largely of posting to Verbwhores, my body is getting less and less co-operative, and I've accepted quite how many of my life plans just aren't going to happen - I'm happy.  Possibly this is symptomatic of my condition.  Frankly I don't give a shit if that's the case.  I love being in the world.  If the world doesn't feel the same, I'll run over its toes.

[Rats]

I actually envy you cerys. I'd love to have MS, knowing that all the things I want to do aren't going to get done but it's not because I'm a lazy cunt. It's funny isn't it? There you are with a ruddy good reason to be misserable and you're as happy as larry. I think people are like that. They seem to fight against the cards they're dealt.

[Cerys]

Bah, rumbled.  Okay, most of them wouldn't have been done because I am a lazy git, but walking the West Country Coastal Path, and climbing the pyramids would have happened, eventually.  I'm just glad I climbed Ben Nevis before everything went pear-shaped.  There's so much I want to do that just isn't going to happen, and sometimes it does get to me, but essentially I think you're right - it's the nature of people to be unpredictable.  Maybe.  Although now I've said that, for people to be unpredictable, they'd have to be predictable, so ... I'm going to stop now before my brain leaps into Mobius mode around my head and asphyxiates me.

Actually, you know the funny thing?  A year or so before I was diagnosed, I found myself thinking it'd be quite cool to get something like MS, because of all the attention it'd get me.  (See, told you I was something of a drama-queen.)  Be careful what you wish for - you just might get it.  Mind you, people are always lovely to you if you're in a wheelchair.  Cars stop to let you cross, and everything.  Result!

[Rats]

You see, I'd never climb ben nevis but I think if I couldn't, I'd want to. To be honest, I couldn't I'm so unfit but that's beside the point.
You can do anything Cery's, the world's your oyster. Why don't you write a book you jelly legged bastard? Patronising? Moi?

[Cerys]

I already have....

[Smackhead Kangaroo]

Not having looked very closely it seems like everyone 'enjoys their lives' but this is hardly surprising is it? There are very few people that would come to this board and genuinely I mean genuinely say that they hated life. People who would otherwise post that they hate their life would most likely be your standard posing teenager. or osmeone with a trendy teenage mentality.  Hopefully most people will agree that no matter how into your alternativeness or individuality there's always a level where you're acting up because your a tosser who's being self indulgent and twatty.
Even if your life is absolute;y terrible most of the time people will fool themselves into thinking it bearable at least, it's only when you've finished not enjoying your life (at a guess, say the end of a relationship that was abusive for example) that you realise that you life WAS shit.
Similarly with enjoyment it's hard to say that right now I enjoy my existence, It'd be much easier after this phase has passed.
As a lecturer of mine once said
"there isn't a single moment of happiness "ooh there it is" that we can pick out  when we are happy with life"


(obvious contextual ambiguity but you know what I mean)

[TraceyQ]

By the way, that wasn't saying that all people who go on 18-30 holidays don't think about things and are ignorant, I was saying I'd sometimes like to be a person who goes on 18-30 holidays AND is ignorant AND doesn't think about things.

Can I just say as someone who books these "idiots" to go away that 18-30 customers are not cunts (yeah, ok, you get a few, but you get a few everywhere), 18-30, 2wenty's, Freestyle and the like actually make their holidays cheaper than everyone else, in fairly basic acommodation to attract younger people that want to just be out, with friends having a laugh. All the bad press about Faliraki last year was crap. Let me put it into perspective. In the whole of Faliraki on any given July night there was the same amount of people that an average Blackpool nightclub gets at the same time of the year. Cocks are cocks are cocks are cocks doesnt matter where they go.... Dammit, I went to a four star hotel in Crete with a premium operator last year and had a family of cocks next door all week.

Anyway. Life, yes. I enjoy it, but only because I dont sit around waiting for it to be fun, you have to go out and get yourself happy.

[Timmay]

empty lad

Fucking cunt. You've never called me that before. Tosser.

C'mere and gimme a snog you fucker!

[vladyeti]

Pythov wrote:

I suppose without the 'downs' in life, the 'ups' would be less enjoyable.

This is very true in my experience.  I had an eating disorder since I was a baby (kind of a phobia of certain types of food, which caused a gagging reaction similar to Alex in 'A Clockwork Orange').  I did my best to hide this from people, but I felt like a freak and knew that I would never be able to have a relationship because of it.

When I was at University I overdid the hedonism side of things, which made me very emotionally unstable.  I self-mutilated, nearly killed myself twice, and went on Prozac.  After I graduated I hit rock-bottom, and ended up in a treatment centre for 9 weeks.  This was at the beginning of 1999.

The good news that ever since then my life has improved immeasurably.  I am truly content with my lot now.  I can eat relatively normally now, I've got a good job which I'm enjoy,  I can have nice holidays (I could never travel before), and the icing on the cake is that I got married last year - something I never though I would do.  My previous longest relationship was three weeks, but I've been with Mrs Yeti for over two years now.  Because of what my life was like before, nothing seems to bother me now - I'm really easy-going and don't seem to worry about things.

[The Culture Bunker]

When it all comes down, I hate life: I'm 23, unemployed, lonely as hell and wake up every morning with that internal fear and dread that just says "oh, not another fucking day."

But I don't actually mind as I know it's all my own doing I'm in this state. I'll sort it out eventually, probably.

[DonkeyRods]

No...because despite putting years of effort into trying to change the things about me that I dont like (and there are lots of them), nothing has changed. There are some things I cannot change, which are only going to get worse. Those things I can change, dont seem to make any difference, and with each failed attempt I loose something else. I loathe who I am and cannot accept myself, but I cant change it.

But I know plenty of people who are happy with their lives. A lot of it comes down to how they get their happiness. If you complement someone, buy them a gift, spend some time with them, they will be happy for a little while, a few hours maybe. But if you tell just one person, every now and then, all of the reasons why you like them and why they are important to you, it will put both of you on a high for days or even weeks. Its sceintific fact, that!

[gazzyk1ns]

Hello all, nice to get up and see really good replies here. Just thought I'd make a couple of quick points after reading my post back this morning:

1. It wasn't inspired by any particular threads, expecially recent ones... I wasn't getting at any of the "I hate Moyles" topics or anything like that

2. I wasn't calling anyone 'sad' or anything else, I mentioned the 'clubbing' and 'going out on the pull' things just because they seemed relevant here, especially in light of recent discussion.

3. I'm not saying I'm happier than anyone else, far from it - just that I seem to worry about a lot less than some posters here and I'm still not particularly happy! Hence me wondering how some people live/think every day.

Right, some replies:

RE: Frinky:

Yeah I know what you mean completely, there are some things you can't say on here because it will come across... undesirably, one way or another. This is kind of why I said "Put me right.." or whatever at the end of my first post, I accept that clearly I know nobody on here and so my view of them is simply their "Verbwhore persona" - I suppose what I was trying to ask was if anyone was actually like that in real life, or if anyone stuck to the stringent moral/ethical guidelines they set themselves and others in some of the more political threads.

I think that what The Unicorn is trying to say is that religion gives your life meaning, i.e. is a context  within which you can understand and interpret the world.

I would agree 100%, that is clearly why it was 'invented', and that's why I think religious people are so ridiculous in their beliefs. It's like being mentally ill, not being able to deal with the world how it actually is and so believing in things which don't exist to deal with that. Well, mentally ill people believe in things which don't exist, religious people worship them.

I'll come back to that, but right now I'd like to concentrate on your statement that a belief in religion is madness. That may well be true, but why is it any more insane than a belief in democracy or capitalism?

Well I think 'believeing in democracy', for example, is realising that a society must have some type of structure to avoid descending into chaos, "Lord Of The Flies-style", and that democracy is the best viable solution that anyone knows of for now. That's being logical and wanting to avoid living in madness, surely? I can't see how you can compare that to centering your life around fictitional beings.

As an aside, I see that you aren't a fan of rabid anti-americanism. I entirely agree - stones are indeed easy to throw. However, since you think that religious people are insane, what are your opinions of George W Bush's use of religion?

An example - He said this ...

The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

... in his speech to Congress that heralded The War On Terror on September 20 2001. The subtext seems to me to be that God is on the side of the USA. And that George W. Bush believes in God. By your reasoning, he is mad. He also happens to be self appointed 'leader of the free world'.

Bush is a politician and like all politicians he has to say what people want to hear. He also knows that to get the American public on his side he has to play "the god card" - that's being fairly calculated with his 'public line'.

Having said that, I do think Bush is a bit of an idiot, for me that much is clear. But...

Doesn't that worry you?

Nah. I'll admit (not that I have to, I'm sure it's apparent) that most people here who post regularly about politics know more about it than me. But I know that one man doesn't run the country in this case, he'll have lots of different experts and advisors to consult. The thing which reassures me is that I'm pretty confident Bush knows he's not the brightest pube in the plughole. Which in turn reassures me that he'll listen to said advisors/experts when it comes to important decisions. The fact that he can't speak English to a particularly good level, or that he's faltered in interviews when asked the names of certain foreign politicians is completely irrelevant to me.

I think some people are anti-mainstream, they never lose that inbuilt chip they get at sixteen which makes them rebel against their parents, other kids, everything. I think that's what you're getting at. It was healthy back then but not so healthy now you've grown. Well I think you're confusing that with taste.

Yup, well put, that's exactly what I meant. But I'm not confusing it with taste, I wasn't referring to anyone's musical or film preferences here; like I said at the start, I think some people make their day-to-day lives more difficult because of some... 'unnecessary ways' which they have. The McDonald's/fast food thing being the most crude and obvious example I can think of at the moment.

Of course it's Nazi-like to go around telling people which views to hold, but I would say that ideally, people would evaluate themselves, i.e. try to see why they have the views they do - and if they come to the conclusion that those views simply stem from an ignorant or nonsensical (i.e. the typical teen thing which we all went through) base then... maybe it's time to let those go now, in order to make your life more enjoyable.

Wow, long post.

[fum]

When I was a teenager I hated life, but now I'm older and settled with my hubby and the kids I must say I love life.

Why dwell on the crap, shit happens.  The way I see it make the most of life while you have it, because the worst word in the english language is regret.

[Rats]

I already have....

Is it about the space/time continuum you drooling wheel arsed mutant?

[Frinky]

...because the worst word in the english language is regret.

I dunno... "cunt" is probably high up on the list.

[mcbpete]

No i disagree, 'Cunt' is one of the best inventions in the English language ever. It's   certainly the best swear word to use :D

[Cerys]

I already have....

Is it about the space/time continuum you drooling wheel arsed mutant?

Nope.  And that's Miss Drooling Wheel-arsed Mutant to you, gobshite.

[fum]

I already have....

Is your book published?, me and davey would love to have a read.

[Cerys]

Is your book published?, me and davey would love to have a read.

Nope.  I had a couple of rejections, and I'm not submitting it again until it's had a major redrafting.  In the meantime I'm working (yeah, right) on two others.

[daveytaylor]

Is your book published?, me and davey would love to have a read.

Nope.  I had a couple of rejections, and I'm not submitting it again until it's had a major redrafting.  In the meantime I'm working (yeah, right) on two others.

What's it about?

[Cerys]

Death, paranoia and numptyhood.

[El Unicornio, mang]

By the way, that wasn't saying that all people who go on 18-30 holidays don't think about things and are ignorant, I was saying I'd sometimes like to be a person who goes on 18-30 holidays AND is ignorant AND doesn't think about things.

Can I just say as someone who books these "idiots" to go away that 18-30 customers are not cunts (yeah, ok, you get a few, but you get a few everywhere), .

BY THE WAY, THAT WASN'T SAYING THAT ALL PEOPLE WHO GO ON 18-30 HOLIDAYS DON'T THINK ABOUT THINGS AND ARE IGNORANT, I WAS SAYING I'D SOMETIMES LIKE TO BE A PERSON WHO GOES ON 18-30 HOLIDAYS AND IS IGNORANT AND DOESN'T THINK ABOUT THINGS

Just to clarify yet again. Sorry for shouting....

[TraceyQ]

Well don't make stupid sweeping generalisations then. Yeah, you *think*, but we all do too. You're not so special and neither am I. Who says people who do those things arent miserable?

[El Unicornio, mang]

I wasn't making a sweeping generalisation. I was saying that sometimes I'd like to be someone who goes on 18-30 holidays and doesn't think too much, I wasn't connecting the two, although the two often go hand in hand.
Anyway, everyone makes generalisations. If I said I was into playing dungeons and dragons you'd probably picture some sad little geek in a darkened room with other sad little geeks.

[TraceyQ]

Yes. And I'd be right. <grin>

[El Unicornio, mang]

Think again....

[TraceyQ]

Ew. Americans.

[pretty dead boy]

chad, walt and unabomber timothy mcveigh prove the link between cards and mentalists.