I’m not much for small talk. Instead of following a formula, I try to find a way to be genuinely interested in the other person, then ask questions without making them uncomfortable. For me this has been the best way to get to know people I get along with.

That’s rich coming from the CEO of the company who brought us the psychotic vending machine manager. Guess he’s overpromising to cash out the last pennies before the bubble bursts.

You doing okay there buddy?

I’ve realized that in my society, more or less, being human in general is worthless. Or more accurately, a person is as valuable as their latest income statement. I don’t evaluate any person this way. Therefore I refuse to evaluate myself this way.

People’s judgments are endless and contradictory. Because of this, many of us make their best effort to blend into the crowd, trying to conceal every part of themselves that doesn’t fit into the norms. I’ve always taken this to mean that I should be true to myself. This makes a lot of people angry, but that just makes it easier to tell who should I avoid.

A few years ago I started a community that has now outgrown me. I made a few close (mostly female) friends, and as an introvert that’s enough for me. I’m now more focused on strengthening those ties, keeping a door open for others who’d like to be part of my life.

In general, I try to live for my values, avoiding all ideologies, belief systems, political systems and other -isms. The more I go into this process, I’m finding my newer relationships more stable and fulfilling, even if not always easy to come by.

We live in an infinite universe. As such, it seems hubristic to me to believe that we have, more or less, nature figured out.

I don’t feel compelled to believe in the soul as some strange sort of object that is continuously reincarnated towards a great purpose. But if we consider consciousness as an energy of its own kind, then it should hold true that it cannot be created or destroyed, only change form. This could mean that the consciousness that resides in the body could move between different life forms like a fluid, freely mixing and melding with others, filling a new vessel as necessary.

Love is the recognition that, on a profound level, the other is part of myself, and I part of the other.