Book Review: Victims of Groupthink (1972)

Well this book will certainly teach you how stupid our government is, if nothing else. Most of the worst military and political blunders that the book goes over all feature a few common elements. The group that precided over all the decisions was composed of a bunch of circle jerking, high fiving morons that didn't even consider the negatives so long as they all felt good about each other. 

The book has several relevant pictures, yes I did enjoy them. Thank you for asking. Sometimes I just need something else to look at besides the walls and walls of text that trap my eyes like a prison cell. Though pictures are all in black and white. They aren't the kind of black and white that looks smoky and mysterious. They just look like documentary style photos. So the book loses credit for having boring photos.

The general idea behind the hypothesis presented in the book is that if you are with a group of people that you admire and want to do well with, you will ignore evidence in order to do what the group thinks is best. D.A.R.E. tried to convince us that this was called peer pressure when we were growing up. They wanted to make sure that we didn't start doing drugs or boning because our friends thought it would be cool. But I started doing drugs and boning because I thought it would be awesome. It was awesome! Seems like D.A.R.E. was a campaign against all things awesome.

My copy has a bunch of starring and underlining in it. So somebody thought they were really learning a lot from it. Or maybe I did all that when I was in a scholarly drinking session. Those are rare for me, but they are usually brought on by Scotch.

If you've ever read Ayn Rand then you already know that groups are shit and individuals are the best. This book doesn't find that individuals are the best way to go, but it does show that group ideas and rationalizations will override the individuality of each member of the group.

I think anyone that has ever had to do a group project already knows that groups are shit. Just reduce the amount of workload and giver everyone an assignment on their own. See what we are made of just one to another. Don't test us on how well we can work with other people. Although this book does make me wonder, if you are always making the wrong calls in a group of people that you like, will you ascend to total mastery of the universe if you are in a group with people that you can't stand? I can't stand anyone really, so maybe that's what I need. A group of random people that I can't stand. Or, just a group of random people.

Shot Glass Thought: Waking Up Late

I am never happier and more content than when I am waking up around lunchtime each day. I love that time period. I fucking hate mornings. Midday to late night are my preferred times. I think it's mostly because I know that if I have woke up around 12, then I have certainly gotten enough sleep.
I've struggled with mental illness all my life and sleep has been a big part of my struggles. I can recall once when I worked over sixty hours on only 8 hours of sleep total. That was for one week. The next week was a little better but not much. eventually I just tried to accept that I would have to just live that way. I wasn't partying either, I just could not get my body to go to sleep. My body and mind want me dead I think. They want to feed the good, sane part of me to the angry psychotic beast that lurks beneath the surface. The one that makes me tell inappropriate jokes at work all the time. Actually, I'm not sure what category that part of me falls into. But I'm keeping him around anyway.

I get my sleep nowadays because of the pills I take. So if you're having a hard time then go see the doc and get some pills. Don't be an idiot like me and try to tough it out. It will not work. Let's just be okay with a cabinet full of pills instead of an asylum full of crazies.

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/eyegotskill

Short Funny Story: The Sexiest People at Work

Everyone looks around their work place and thinks about who is the most attractive. We do the same thing in the bar when we are scoping the place out. Scoping out the bar is for who you think you might want to take home to some likely forgettable sex. Work sexiness is for admiration and possible marriage down the road when you two work at different places. 

I move that the sexiest people in the workplace are the ones that work the hardest, but complain the least. They are also the ones that get the most done while doing the least amount of damage. Complaining is super un-sexy no matter where you are. The only time where people want to hear complaining is when it is actually comedy in disguise. Can you imagine trying to have sex with a lady that keeps telling you that her pussy is a little more smelly than usual and she thinks it's because she's forgot to do something with the thing and life is just so unfair and blah blah blah. Nah that wouldn't work. Well, I could do it but that's only because I never listen to women.  

The rules are different for sexiness in the work place. At the bar, or club or whatever, the only rule is who looks like my type while also looking really slutty. Once you find and talk to the person that meets that criteria, you are set. Set to attempt to woo the person. You will hear no a lot. It's just a part of it. When you are interested, you will show at least accidentally that you are a bit interested and that alone could be enough to derail the whole thing. 

Work is about getting things done as well as possible while also doing as little damage/cost in the meantime. The people who are able to do that are doing the best work and they usually happen to also be the hardest workers. I knew this lady that worked her ass off constantly at work. She never did a great job. She always made the least amount of money for the company and she constantly complained. When she couldn't get the most visually appealing man on our staff to bang her she was really shocked and a bit insulted. Instead she had me at the ready because I'm a sadist and I felt like torturing her mentally through a romantic relationship would be the key to her getting what she deserved from life. She wasn't interested though. Oh well, there is always a next time.  

My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/eyegotskill

Shot Glass Thought: What Makes Killers?

Shooting enemies in video games is one of the most relaxing and enjoyable things that I can think of. I almost always customize characters to have bonuses towards head shots if that is an option in whatever game I'm playing. Because head shots are rad. I would rather miss my first 7 shots while trying to score one head shot than to hit all the targets in the chest. Chests are big and we can see them from far away. But most heads are pretty small and you have to really focus in order to pop one off of the enemy. Now this kind of talk would disturb the hell out of me if I was talking to a hitman or national hit man. Also known as an underpaid government killer. Or as it is most commonly known, a soldier. The business of killing pays really well I imagine. So when you get your killing training in the military and then go into business in private later on, it's probably pretty lucrative. But I would never know, because I play video games. I've never wanted to shoot anyone and I never will. I hate war and violence, but that doesn't mean that I don't love a good shooting game. I'm 26 now and I've been virtually killing people since I was 16. In 10 years I've never once wanted to harm someone. I think if you looked into more people like me you'd find that we're all the same for the most part. Video games do not make people violent. But the military is designed to teach regular men and women how to be killers. If you think more or less of it than that, then you are missing the point. If you go to war with an army you go into it knowing that people on both sides will die. That's the whole point of military training, everywhere in the world. To make more killers. 

my YouYube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/eyegotskill

Shot Glass Thought: Journey is Great; Inner Critic

I don't care how cheesy it may be. There is really only one way to start a work day if you care about doing a good job. You blast Journey all the way to work. Separate ways is dope. Don't stop believing is dope. I'll be alright without you is a bit sad but still is kinda badass if you've ever felt the need to burn a relationship to the ground like I often do. Lovin Touchin Squeezin is rad too. I didn't correctly punctuate any of this shit and if you've been reading my more recent posts, you might have noticed that the grammar and spelling have taken a bit of a hit. This is in response to my inner critic that tells me that how massive a retard I am for making mistakes on basic shit. Well fuck you inner critic. This asshole also thinks that my morning ritual with Journey is stupid. He's an asshole, but sometimes he's right. When I want to follow the guy who cut me off in traffic and then slash his tires while he is picking up his prescriptions in the pharmacy, the inner critic argues really loudly that it's a terrible idea. At the very least he argues that it is a poorly planned idea and that if I really want to go around slashing tires, then I need to invest more time and energy in planning and executing the slashing of tires. So he has his uses.

Video Game Reviews: Golden Sun GBA (2001)

This fucking game was and is great. I don't know which consoles you can play it on. But I know that you can still play it on GBA. That's the ultimate nostalgia gasm for all of us millennials from that particular time segment. This game made you have hope. Even though you were a kid and the twinkle of a good, happy life was still in your eye, this game preserved that twinkle. Whereas something like Superman on the N64 just made you wonder why the world was so cruel and unfair. 

The story is rad. It's the expected and typical jrpg style story. Which means that it's perfect. I know it's been said before, but it's not really a jrpg if the main characters don't bond and grow stronger over the course of a long journey and then team up to kill the god of their world, then it's really not a jrpg.

The exploration of the in game continent is rad. Imagine the magic in the eyes of a young babby Austin when I realized I had an entire continent to explore with my ragtag group of pre-teens. They have Ice, Earth, Fire and Wind powers. So basically everything that makes Captain Planet get an erection.

The bosses are rad. The regular enemies are rad too. You also have plenty of towns and dungeons to go walking around. You can capture little magic squirrel/bird things that boost your powers. The game is basically flawless and should have already had a major console release. Oh and the weapons are rad. Almost forgot. The animations of pretty much everything is great. It's either really cute and shows what they were able to accomplish back in the day. Or they are really impressive mini cut scenes that demonstrate the full scope of your badassery. 

No surprises here, if you love games then give this one a try. Treat yourself to a fantastic experience that still holds up today as well as it did back when it was new. The timeless experience of enjoying a classic game. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPywZOYDSrzlPgQnsuMxDXg

Short Funny Story: Advice Sources

Listening to the advice of a friend is totally optional. Friends come in varying degrees of importance and usefulness. If you have a friend that is a lot of fun to hang out with and do....cocaine with. Then this guy or gal might not have the best advice to contribute to your life.  

Listening to the advice of your family is totally optional. Some of us have fucked up families. You should still listen to what they are saying out of respect for who they are. But applying it to your life a whole other story. If your family is fucked up, or you are having to listen to advice from a fucked up family member, then you keep looking like you're listening but don't apply the shit. You don't want to end up like them. When people have done fucked up shit in the past, they are pretty likely to do fucked up shit later on. 

Listening to the advice of your video game mentor is absolutely essential. Without this wizardly old man or whatever he is in the game that you're playing, you aren't shit. Archsage Athos in Fire Emblem 7 was like that. There was no aspect of the plot that he didn't already know. He acted like he didn't know how the whole game was going to play out, but his every prediction was spot on. So how could he not? Dude was just humble. He verbally guides you through the whole game with cracking good advice. When you get to the final mission, he insists on joining your party so that you have a chance of beating the game. He has seen your squad and knows your stats. He knows that you're ass. He knows that your squad is ass. But the game still has to get beat. So if you saved yourself a Luna tome and you have a couple competent healers, Athos will guide your hips right to the ending credits.  

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPywZOYDSrzlPgQnsuMxDXg