I'm Crap vs. I'm Unlucky

would it be so bad if you actually did say "because i'm better looking and cleverer than you"?, or, at least, something along these lines. ie, "i'm with this girl because i persevered where you would have given up. DOES THIS NOT TELL YOU SOMETHING?" "perhaps this is the same with other things"

it can be easy though to lapse into this unlucky thing, i got unlucky with a couple things at the beginning of this year, then i let that get me down, and i was a bit crap for a while, which seemed to put me in the wrong frame of mind. then i got a bit of luck with finding somewhere and now its all roses in the garden time again (90% of the way anyway)

when things are good, a bit of bad luck matters less.

Of course, I have a song about that. That's how I tend to react - I just write a song about it. I made this really sickeningly happy song about how silly people are who complain all the time.

One time, a friend of mine in college actually sent me an email saying, "Sarah, Please stop writing to me about how great your life is because it makes me depressed." I was genuinely shocked because I never thought I was bragging about anything, just telling her about my every-day life.

i have a friend who tells me about all the good things going on in his life and how this happened then this happened and how it was all so great etc. - he's basically the spawniest person i know (apart from his girlfreidnwho is even worse!) but i know also that he is smart and adept and just good at reacting and getting himself into those positions where he can take advantage of opportunities and even make them. its true that he grew up in somewhat better circumstances then i did (at least on paper) and it used to piss me off because that kind of thing didnt happen in my own life but now i'm happier myself and maturer so i accept it and get on with trying to 'make some luck' for myself as it were

this is a mix of reality and perception (for most people)

there are always situation in which someone can do something, and someone else could not get away with it. the thing is, why? because different people may do the same thing, but do it differently.

what happens then is, because you realise this is true for certain situations, you become more conscious of it, and you make it happen more and more.

this is what i mean about crapness leading to being unlucky leading to more crapness leading to being more unlucky.

at what point does it become a crutch? at what point does it validate your life? at what point is it an excuse?

the FIRST thing this dude should do is stop smoking herb!

Steve, I've never had any kind of moral guidance from anyone, though I am a vegetarian. I like Gareth's phrase "can get away with", and it is true that me doing something in a slightly different way/tone/context to how other people do something, but without noticing, is the cause of a lot of problems for me.

One of my best friends for years is like your friend x10, sam, and he spends almost all of his time sitting on his ass in his living room smoking mass quantities of dope and complaining about his life, how everyone else's lives are so much better than his, he's been dealt a short hand, etc.

He also managed to blow through a $100k trust fund in three years when I first met him in college, and was working 45 hours a week to keep myself there. Now I'm in grad school and he hasn't gotten his Bachelor's degree since dropping out of undergrad about 8 years ago. True, some are luckier than others. Some just make better decisions than others. However, if someone isn't willing to put in the effort to improve one's lot, luck doesn't have much to do with how crap their life becomes. I sympathize with your frustration; my entire circle of friends feels the same about our above-mentioned resident complainer, and it just gets worse by the year.

I hope it means what I think it does, and I didn't inadvertently imply that you were "On Twenty Mescalines" or "Original Trashcan Material" or "Obsessively Trying Masturbation".

i wish someone had laughed at my "tom is TOM" joke recently. (if only it were funny, i guess)

i was thinking of starting a thread where everyone just said that the previous poster was OTM, but it would probably only be amusing to me, and only for a few minutes at that...