The Ephemeral Bass Guitar

» I’ve been ruminating on the NPC meme. If you pay attention in this world, you’ve seen it before. It’s nothing new. If you’ve ever tried to do online dating, you’ve seen it. If you’ve ever worked customer service and known the exact conversation you’d have with someone before they even open your mouth, you’ve seen it. I recently moved, yet I see near carbon-copies of people that I knew in my last living environment.

Today I’m wondering if one of the hallmarks of an NPC is the inability to conceive of a way of thinking outside of oneself. Not just the ability to entertain the idea as a “thought experiment,” which most people can and will, but actively cultivating and using other people’s way of doing things to everyone’s better advantage. I feel like many of the people I talk to come from a “but why would you do it that way?” perspective, like any other way of tacking a problem is completely alien and therefore wrong.

I think this is closely related to solipsism.

» Speaking of solipsism, this type of thinking may be why the fashion industry is so insufferable.

Coco Chanel, a winter, once said that “Women think of all colors except the absence of color. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony” – and thousands of editorials ever after never dared to question her. Similarly, a famous Australian fashion editor, also probably a winter, insists that her family all wear white on Christmas Day (which may indeed be a great foil for her, but mightn’t do much for a Soft Summer cousin or Autumn in-law.) A lot of fashion gurus seem to be winters, come to think of it, and perhaps this projection and marketing of personal bests as universal truths is a key point to understanding the industry as a whole.

In other words, people want rules and “universal truths” instead of thinking for themselves and standing on their own two feet. That goes double for fashion people.

Anyway, in my drugged-up, post (minor) surgery state I’ve decided that the absolute best way to spend my time is to do a deep dive into Personal Color Analysis and revisit, once again, the question of “If I’m a Soft Summer why do I look so good in olive green?” Seriously. The 12-step, more nuanced version of the “seasons” color palette makes a lot of sense, but I still can’t really figure out where I fit. I have a lot of characteristics of a “soft,” but have more contrast than the typical Soft Summer palette. I don’t do pastels, but feel at home in jewel tones. Yesterday I thought I could perhaps be a Dark or Deep Autumn, but I’ve never considered myself particularly warm-toned.

My skin has yellow undertones with pink overtones. My eyes are hazel and grey. I prefer wearing warmed-up cool tones (olive green, plum) and cooled-down warm tones (burgundy, brown). Basically I am very confused.

It doesn’t really matter if I fit in a category of someone else’s color system, as long as I find colors to wear that I like, that harmonize with me, and that project an image that helps me to succeed in this world. But I, like the people I grumbled about three paragraphs above, simply seek a set of rules and universal truths that will make me feel better about myself and my place in the universe.

I just talked myself into and out of a hole in the span of a few paragraphs. That is kind of weird.

» Speaking of weird, or maybe just speaking of drugs, WHY DO PEOPLE LIKE THIS STUFF? I do not understand the appeal of being high, aside from the obvious appeal of not being in pain. Especially the type of high that comes from drugs, which is this shallow chemically kind of mind/body change. Maybe it’s because of my extensive experience which I wrote about yesterday, but there is a huge difference between a shallow drug-induced change in your body, and a real, lasting change that you initiated yourself. Energy from caffeine does not equal energy from a full night of sleep. It’s the energy equivalent of fake news.

There are so many other ways to change your state of mind that require little to no effort or money and which have very few side effects or downsides if you get addicted. Like sprinting. Or cream sauce.

Try one of those things before you try drugs, kids.