Commentary by James Randi

The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is an educational resource on the (general debunking of) paranormal, pseudoscientific and the supernatural. The following is an excerpt that I found EXTREMELY funny from the 1-17-03 newsletter here.
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Update on eavesdropping

Regarding entry http://www.livejournal.com/users/amberica/20849.html ....

I just can't do it. Don't know what my problem is, but I can't listen to strangers. First, it's just not right, and second, I have overheard people talking in the past about things that were really upsetting to me, and I just don't like hearing things like that when I can't be a part of the conversation.

Music

Gawd, you know what song I really dig sometimes? This one. The one I'm listening to. The Sea. Sometimes I crave it like chocolate. Or cigarettes. No, more like chocolate. The nicotine craving is much more unpleasant, and the craving for this song is kind of a nice one. Can't explain it.

I sure am glad I quit smoking. What has it been now? Six years? Seven? Quite some time since I had my last cigarette. The last pack I bought was actually Djarum cloves. Shane picked them up for me and I paid him back when he got to my house. But normally I smoked Capri Ultra Light 120s (Menthol). When I first started smoking in earnest I was smoking Mistys. After I switched brands, Misty just tasted nasty and stale. Too rough. Capris were much smoother. I remember that I was thinking about switching "up" again to Virginia Slims, but then I decided to quit instead. Good choice. Ha. What a fuckin waste of money that habit was. And it made my fingers stink! The cottonmouth was yucky too. And the cravings. How stupid. I can't believe I even let myself do it in the first place, but I was at the lowest point in my life, and didn't have any reason to NOT abuse my health. I was living with that little pus wad AJ. Sometimes I'm grateful that my life sank so low, because it makes me really appreciate what I've made of myself since then. But I know if I had the choice to go back, I would not have done it the way I did. Then again, I know better now than I did then.

Oh well.

My LJ

OK, when I was younger, I used to journal sporadically. It always felt like a chore. I'd open my little book and write what happened during the day. Bleh. Well, sometimes it's interesting to go back and read it, but kind of pointless. For the last few years, I write when I feel like it, and it usually ends up on a legal pad or in some random notebook that I find laying around the house, or on here. But instead of trying to force myself to just recount the events of the day, I just muse on what I am thinking about or feeling. It's a lot easier to do (sometimes) and definitely feels better. Cathartic. Although I do sometimes just write down the events of the day, it's only when I feel they have been emotionally charged for me in one way or another, and I need to get them out of my head and on paper (online?) so that I don't have to carry all that emotion with me into the night. So.

Sunday night I was SO upset about something, and I couldn't find my little notebook that I try to keep with me so I can jot down things that come to me during the day. That was SO upsetting. So I had to grab a legal pad that I found and just write a couple furious pages out so I could sleep. (The computer was off by then, otherwise I would have written it here.) Sure enough, I felt WAY better after getting it all out on paper, and the next morning I had no worries or frustrations on my mind. I feel sorry for people that don't know the therapeutic benefits of journaling.

Time to go make a tuna melt. With Frank's. Mmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.