I am very smart.

I recently finished Atlas Shrugged, which turned out to be the most important book I've ever read. The most important thing I took away from it was the title of this post. I am very smart.

I'm not kind of intelligent, I'm not weirdly smart, I don't just happen to figure things out. It is neither freaky nor scary that I understand, learn, comprehend, correlate, and retain a wide variety of information about a wide variety of topics faster than almost anyone I know.

I will no longer feel the need to make excuses for my intelligence, because I was conditioned to do just that, and never realized it until Ayn Rand wrote about people who intentionally limit your potential by making you feel bad for being better than they are.

At work, I am excelling at my tasks and surpassing coworkers who have been doing for years what I've been doing for 4 months. I knew I was good at my job, but I didn't have enough experience to know just how good I was. Coworkers have asked me to help them with things they should have been able to do. At the time it confused me, but after I realized why, I had to laugh. These people knew I was smarter than them, and I still didn't.

But how dare I think like this? I should hide my talent. I should bury my skills. I should pretend they are an accident. What would happen if I made someone feel bad about themselves?

It is smug.
It is vain.
It is prideful.
It is unseemly.
It is antagonistic.
It is condescending.

But it is the truth.

When I was very young, my mother told me that when the kids made fun of me for being so smart, it was because they were jealous. I rejected that notion immediately, and never revisited the premise. It took decades for me to realize it, but it is completely true. Yet the opposite was what I would have said without a thought before that realization.

What other self-limiting falsehoods lie in the unchallenged corners of my mind, planted long ago by the enemies of my ability?

What buried truths lay undiscovered?

Who have I become with these mental blocks placed in my path?

But more importantly...

Who could I be if I remove them all?

Is there a limit to my potential if I remove them all?

Is there anything that could stop me if I remove them all?


There's only one way to find out.



...by the way; who told you you weren't as smart as me?

Edit after comments: What if the people who are the engines of this world are not that way because of their natural ability, but because of their state of mind?

The royal family's shit stinks.

One of the things that makes America amazing is that the people who run it are not our betters. They are our peers. (technically, they're our employees once they get elected, but I digress) These people are just individuals. They're anyone. They're not a special class, they're not a higher caste, they have no birthright. They're just individuals. And when you have a country full of "just individuals" the only thing that stands out is what each individual does. The accomplishments of the individual. The honor of the individual. The integrity of the individual.

I can't help but cringe when people fawn over people who they think are better than them. Be they celebrities, politicians, or "royalty." Whether or not this actively makes them less than those they fawn over is a question worth asking.

Given the above, you can imagine what hearing about the royal wedding has done to my faith in the people of this country. So I'm just going to state a few facts that I think some people need to hear. Particularly in the UK.

When a member of the royal family get a paper cut; it bleeds.
When a member of the royal family sexually attracted; they lust.
When a member of the royal family is thirsty; they drink.
When a member of the royal family goes underwater; they return for breath.
When a member of the royal family shits in a toilet; it stinks.

They are just people.
They have the same organs as you.
They require the same food as you.
They put their pants on one leg at a time... Just. Like. You.

They are NOT magical.
They are NOT better by birthright.
They are NOT smarter, faster, and stronger.
They are NOT infallible.
They are NOT perfect.

Judge them by their accomplishments, their character, their triumphs, and their personal strength.

Then see where they compare to a single mother working two jobs to keep her kids in private school.

Ronnie Barrett spits on California's gun laws again

First he tells the LAPD that he won't repair the guns they bought from him because they were using them as political pieces to advance the cause of gun control.

Then he developed the .416 Barrett, which just happened to circumvent California's .50 caliber ban.

And now a bullet button magazine release...



Wonder why he developed this...?

At first I was excited about Portal 2

Then I watched all the media and read the comic here.

Now I'm ecstatic.

My most favorite picture

Clicky for etc.

At what point do the TSA failures add up to a conclusion?

I've become aware of a few (additional) instances of TSA agents failing to stop knives from get through their x-ray machines. In one case, an all metal Spyderco Harpy, which this person realized too late that he had left it in the bag. He watched with much apprehension the display on the machine as it painted a perfect outline of the grip, blade, some serrations, and the patented Spyderco thumbhole less than a foot from the TSA agent's face. He then watched with confusion as the TSA agent progressed the bag off the screen and out of the x-ray machine without incident. Afraid of the repercussions of alerting someone with authority over you that they missed a chance to exercise it against you, he kept his mouth shut. On his return flight out of a much smaller airport, he left no knife in his carry on, and was glad because he saw what appeared to be a supervisor reviewing and re-reviewing each bag with fastidious scrutiny.

Given the TSA's abysmal record of failure, and the growing pile of anecdotal incidents of local failures, I can't stop my brain from considering the possibility of accidentally leaving a knife I would not miss in my carry on bag and being prepared to let them toss it.

One related revelation comes from my (long overdue) reading of Atlas Shrugged. (Don't worry kids, all you have to do is make it through that first 400 pages, and it's all rich, creamy, fair-market-value gravy from there.) I realized something about the forced decision between the body scan machines and The Grope (which casually tosses aside the final veil you held over your most private of areas, and affirms that the federal government's reach extends from your income, to your home, to your family, to your body, and indeed, to your penis or vagina. Oh, and that of your child). The villains in Atlas Shrugged refused to name what their power allowed them to do, and relied on the consent of the victim to acknowledge only the compulsory "choice" in the matter. Your assailant's request always ends with the unsaid words, "or I'll have you killed/imprisoned for decades/fined thousands of dollars/touch your daughter in ways that would put anyone else in prison." These threats are never spoken, but the victim knows they're there, and the invader knows they're there. It is only by consent of the victim that these words remain unsaid, the trespasser appears benevolent, and the victim steps into the radiation chamber, seemingly of his own election.

Of course, the frightening thing about these new villains is that they act with the consent, and under the powers of, a vast, nameless, faceless, amorphous bureaucracy. A bureaucracy which is both unaccountable and accountable, guilty and innocent, powerful and powerless, contemptible and... indifferent. It corrupts its employees with authority and impassivity, and comforts its employers with deniability and abdication. It sanctions the worst in the worst people, and overpowers the best in the best people. If humanity is to return, it must be stopped.

---

While on the matter of radiation; given the hyperbolic reactions of the media and (sadly) therefore public to levels of Japanese radiation in America that are exceeded by a banana, I feel a part humanitarian, part capitalistic, part juvenile duty to sell Potassium Iodide pills for $20 a hit in the line to the body scan machines. But then I think to myself, "Just because a fool and his money are soon parted doesn't mean I have to be one of the opportunistic, greedy capitalists who only profits a little bit," so lets make it $60. Step right up folks! Save your children from a slow and painful death! Don't want to bleed out of all your orifices? Then buy ET's Rad-B-Gone! Only $60 a pill, or save in bulk at 4 for $300!

How do I watched ET play nethack ¯\(°_o)/¯

I dunno lol!

ET plays Nethack on Alt.org, and you can watch him play live, look at his old playthroughs, and if you get a login, play the game in a browser (or command prompt) and send him annoying messages while he's playing!

How to watch:

First, you need to connect:

From a browser click here OR telnet to nethack.alt.org.

Once you're connected, click on the terminal screen then press "W" to watch games in progress, and press the letter which corresponds to ET's sooper seekrit username; Aemaeth.

If you register for a login: you send annoying messages to me while I'm playing live! (press "M" while watching).

Is ET playing live, right now? Lets see: