Three Questions

[stoutfellow]

Why is it that memories of stupid things I said or did in high school, thirty-plus years ago, can still reduce me to fits of impotent rage and self-loathing?

How did I manage to eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Crunch today, and then forget that I had done so?

What on Earth possessed me to tell the department's colloquium director that I wanted to give a talk, to be entitled "The Equals Sign: A Curmudgeon's View"?

Comments

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

I've got bad news on the first one and no help on the others. Sorry.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Somehow I was afraid of that.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

OTOH, I can't say I've tried anything stronger than "don't be silly" on the first - maybe there are techniques.

[ndrosen.livejournal.com]

Well, as to the first question, I have similar feelings of rage and embarassment over some of my long-ago misdeeds and blunders, as well as things other people did. I suppose it's for the best in some sense if mistakes we've made remain prominently and painfully in memory; it may save us from doing similar things wrong again. It still hurts, though.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Miles has ghosts of dead people following him around -- I have ghosts of self-inflicted stupidities following me around. I think you have to have something similar following you around in order to be human. Sorry about that.

However. There's something really Wrong about eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's and not remembering that you've done it. I mean, if you're going to have calories, you should be able to remember enjoying them...

As for #3? I was a Literature and History major [g]. Good luck.

[kattsune.livejournal.com]

You aren't the only one.

What else were you doing/thinking about at the time?

Originality and an understanding of subject that allows for humor and a layman's view to be a method of communication rather than only the usual stodgy seventy-two word titles for most presentations and papers?

[filkferengi]

Beware of Introspection Indigestion. That said, it's wonderfully reassuring that other folks suffer the same thing.

Obviously, you need to take more nice walks to burn off the icecream. As an added bonus, during the walk, you can be thinking of what to say in your talk. How's that for a cunning plan?

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

There oughta be a statue of limitation on highschool stuff, there really oughta.

If you hang around teenagers long enough, however, you'll find yourself going steadily easier on your own teenage self...