the fine line between hope and insanity

It is, by definition, insanity to repeat the same action and expect a different result. I have seen this debated by some as a false quote attributed to various famous people...however, I personally saw that as the definition in my friend's psychology book when I was in college. So we will proceed with the assumption (and for the sake of this blog entry) for that to be true.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about this idea. In the physical world, it makes complete sense: i.e, if you stab yourself with scissors, it is not going to magically not hurt the 5th time. Nor will you not bleed if cut deeply enough. However, it the world of emotions, I think there is a fine line between insanity and hope.

How can you not repeat what seems to be the same action when it comes to personal interaction? If a kid gets rejected 3 times in a row for asking 3 different girls out, how can he not hope that on the 4th time someone will say yes? Wouldn't this just continue to be a mental beat-down if he didn't think the outcome would change?

Perhaps if there are different people involved, then it is not truly repeating the same action...for while the motions are the same, it is not the exact same action, for you have changed subjects.

That being said, for those of us who have faced mounting rejections, you wonder at what point it will change, or if you are insane for thinking that it might. I'm too optimistic in general to ever give up on anything, but perhaps I need to truly reassess my actions. I feel as though I have reached a George-Costanza-esque pivotal moment: if everything I have done doesn't work, perhaps I should try always doing the opposite of my instincts...

At this point it certainly couldn't hurt to try...


Song of the Day: All My Friends - Counting Crows

Bitter With Baggage Seeks Pizza

One of my favorite books is by Sloane Tanen - Bitter With Baggage Seeks Same. It's mostly photos so it's just my speed. A friend recently sent me some mini chicks that resemble the stars of the book, so I thought it might be nice to set them up in some scenes of their own...


This was taken at Piecora's in Capital Hill, which is decent Pizza (IMHO, and by Seattle standards). Now, everyone has their own opinions on pizza, and their favorite pizza, and oh you can only get good pizza in Italy/New York/New Jersey/Chicago/wherever. I love pizza, even bad pizza. It just always surprises me that some people actually like the same pizza that I would consider to be my last choice; thick but not-deep dish, more sauce than cheese, kinda chewy crust, not easy to fold. I have actually had Seattleites tell me they would rather have this than a thin, folded-in-half-so-you-can-eat-it-on-the-go slice of cheesy goodness. Really. I guess if they didn't like it, it wouldn't sell? Although that may not be a good example because, regardless, if it's around I still eat it...who lets pizza go to waste!?


To sort this all out, the folks over at SPLOG! are working their way through all the pizza joints in Seattle. Good luck and enjoy your research! In the meantime, I'm still going to eat whatever pizza happens to end up in front of me. And I'm going to eat double that amount when I'm in New York.

Song of the Day: I'm Fat - Weird Al Yankovic