Buster McLeod

desiderata

A new book I picked up, The Reasons of Love (same author as On Bullshit, now one of my favorite current philosophers), has so far been very informative and clever, helping sort out exactly what it is about wanting and caring for things that is so complicated.

He separates things out into at least three layers: the object (say, an ice cream cone), the desire for that object (mmm... i love ice cream!), and the desire for that desire (i love loving ice cream!). The second two layers in particular are fun to think about. It's an interesting chart to make... things you both like, and like liking (sushi, live shows, a soft bed), things you like but don't necessarily like liking (drunkenness, porn, one night stands), things you don't like, but want to like (salads, exercise, volunteering), and things you both don't like and don't want to like (SUVs, sports, war). This little chart, and the unique differences between your chart and other people's charts, might actually go a long way to capturing personality. We are oftentimes defined by the things we like, and the things we like to like, and the things we don't like, and the things we don't like to like.

In any case, this book talks about how you can be said to "care" for something if you both desire it and want to desire it. And to act on that emotion is something that brings out happiness. I haven't gotten very far yet, but I'm guessing it's going to take this a few more steps further and say that we often find ourselves manufacturing new things to care about in our lives as previous cares are no longer as actionable. We all care about surviving, and if we had to spend a significant portion of our lives fighting for survival, and succeeding at the challenge, that might be a very satisfactory life indeed. But the truth is that we don't have to fight for that care anymore (as much) and therefore generate new cares like "finding the perfect rug for the living room" and striving for that in turn works as a substitute for the other cares that are already taken "care" of... haha. Anyway, here's a play on a saying by Confucius that I can't think of the end for:

To want what you want to want, and not to want what you do not want, that is true..."

True what? The Confucius quote ends in true knowledge, but this is something different. True awesomeness?

the perfect car

The perfect car is a taxi. Or even better, a network, equidistantly placed all over the city in anticipation of your need for them. You call a number, and one arrives. But taxis can be improved and here are my thoughts.

Let us know when there's a vacant taxi

Some occasions call for hunting down a taxi rather than calling on on your phone. I'm not sure what differentiates these occasions from one another, but they are clearly distinct in my mind. I never hesitate in deciding between the two... the answer is always clear, even if the method of arriving at the answer is not entirely clear.

Better paid drivers

Being a taxi driver shouldn't be such a huge gamble for a career. There should be part-time taxi drivers, drivers who are going through college, pregnant women drivers who still want to hear what people are doing out on the town (this coincides with my idea for a pregnant woman designated driver network... but I can't tell if that's offensive or not), even highschool drivers. Drivers should determine their own pay and when finding a taxi both the vacancy of the car and the price of the car should be made apparent. A free market for taxis. Likewise, it should be easier to get a particular driver when ordering a taxi... maybe there's a menu when calling to put in a particular driver's number... and you can make a decision based on that.

Better taxi technology

RSS feeds for everywhere a taxi has picked you up and dropped you off. In-taxi "rate your ride" display. Statistics on your driver's rating. Better credit card integration. Perhaps there should be a button for "need to get there fast", "want to take the scenic route", and "would prefer not to have conversation".

Serve Alcohol

Taxis need to serve alcohol, for one very good reason: why not? Limos serve alcohol, so what's the big deal? Whether it be little bottles of alcohol, or a bartender in the front passenger seat, I don't really care.

A new "passenger seat bar" contraption may need to be invented. One that holds ice, tonic, soda, limes, cherries, and an assortment of essential liquors: vodka, gin, whiskey, beer, and wine. The market for these new contraptions may be small (given that most people don't have need nor license to have a full bar in the passenger side foot area, but it would definitely be fun to design and could be an appropriate challenge for someone like the guy who designed the Aeron chair, or the guy who designed the Palm Pilot.

On-board Psychologist

I often get in a taxi and find myself in need of advice. Who better than a taxi driver, or rather on-board psychologist/mentor/psychiatrist to give this to you? They are impartial, must resort to brevity, and completely wise. They have been on a million taxi rides, been privy to a million different situations but in such a way that they were able to find patterns in the variety, increasing their wisdom beyond normal human means. You give them a 2-minute run-down of the situation at hand. They draw immediate conclusions about your condition "you seem like a nice guy", "don't be too nice", etc. They ask a for a few key details that are necessary to paint the entire picture, "how much do you make?", and "was the woman in the taxi earlier your girlfriend?", and then they pause... what are they thinking!... until finally, "no, I don't think it's right", or "yes, you should do it." And then, voila, you've arrived at your final destination and he whips up a prescription to take your nerves down, and hands you a whiskey on the rocks as you step out.

On-board Private Detective

Some cases may be too difficult to solve during the duration of the car ride. This is where the on-board private eye comes in. They can look further into something, tail someone, bribe someone, get tickets to a sold out show, and find out where your friend goes for happy hour. In serious cases, they can even be hired to tail you... observe from afar and figure out why people don't like you, pinpoint the exact moment that your days take a turn for the worse, and let you know when the best time to "happen by" the bar is.

I do see that the front seat is getting crowded. Some people may be able to fulfill the psychologist and detective roles together, others may need to take advantage of that uncomfortable third seat belt area where the stick shift often goes.

That's all I've got for now. This idea is evolving by the day though. What am I missing?

name the moon

I'm in one of those change periods. Every few years a new dictator takes control of my brain and replaces old axioms with new ones. Actually, every 1.5 years. I guess it's been about that time since the last one, and it was a doozy... but I think this one is going to be the opposite of a doozy. This one is about alignment... or at least that's the word I just came up with for it. Tires.

A few themes in my thoughts include: taxis, whales, the moon, hot air balloons, kittens, the french, suits, seersucker, text messaging, romance, hopelessness, booklets and manuals, choose your own adventure, swimming, vodka, personality, money, statistics, and games that you only play 10 minutes a day.

Romantic vs. Hopeless

Maggie told a story the other day about how hopelessness is romantic. For example, when a poor old woman describes to her poor old blind husband on his deathbed how one day they will be living in a beautiful cottage on the water. Hopeless promises, white lies essentially, can be romantic but primarily because they reveal the vulnerability of desire in our souls and also the weakness of our actual selves to achieve them. Somehow weakness, in this case, can be beautiful, and sweet, and romantic.

But I think this kind of romanticism can be really dangerous. When we find aesthetic something simply because it is impossible and futile... what are we doing to ourselves? Is that itself a weakness or a strength? Now I'm not so sure. Everything is futile in a sense... and I have equal prejudice against opposites: wanting things, and not wanting things. I need to find new ways of talking about happiness because I really don't like the cheesy tone of that word. But really, I think I'm obsessed. When in college I was obsessed with the idea of beauty, and that is an equally cheesy word. I wish I had an accent or spoke German because then it wouldn't seem so cheesy.

Seersucker

I've been watching Francois Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series and love it. I love the suits they wear. And the looks on their faces, and the way cars move down the streets, and the sound of their fighting. I've been reading Jonathan Ames's books--all of them, hungrily, chewing on the pages. Both the movies and the books make me long for the days of scrappy, well-dressed, well-read, grumpily happy, beautifully something, people. Now it's all too postmodern and it's impossible to escape. Though, I think there's a loophole at the very end that takes you to the very beginning. All I have to do is never look another person in the eye or else I would not be able to refrain from cracking up.

The Mooooon

Why doesn't the moon have a name? Why doesn't the sun? Why doesn't our fucking solar system have a fucking name!?!? I know that there are tons of science people out there that want to be immortalized on the canvas of the universe... why look deep into the telescopes naming specks of dust in your eye when you can name the bloody MOON? Until someone challenges me and kills me, I'm naming it Wisky.