Well, what a depressing blog post that last one was, huh?

ha ha. I say "ha ha" because I am laughing at myself in the mocking manner of Bart Simpson, and also because I am kind of amused/bemused about my situation.

I tried out one of the pieces of gear I thought might be ruined. It is not! It does not seem to be ruined! It might even sound better, I don't know.

Ok, the next thing: the cancer thing. It is pretty funny when you go to take a medical test and then you read about debates concerning the validity and usefulness of that test. And then you have another medical test whose validity sort of depends on the medical test that is being debated. So, there is a writeup from a doctor that says I have it, but I've asked for another opinion, and there is the debated test which indicates that I have a *chance* of having it. And, what I have may not kill me ever. Or it may kill me sooner.

In other words, prior to having these tests, I lived in a world where I might die sooner, or later, of any number of causes; let me emphasize ANY NUMBER of causes.

Now, I live in a world where I might die sooner, or later, with some knowledge of the amount of chance that I have to die of a PARTICULAR ONE of those causes.

This means that, henceforth, I will be undergoing a series of tests that will determine, indisputably, which thing I will die of, because I will die of it. In other words, I will continue to experience that which I have found to be "incorporeal life" up until such time as I experience something else.

Glad that's settled. Now, here is a set of thoughts with more entertainment value.

People sign things. In one case, they sign things to certify they agree with something, in other cases they sign things to certify that they understand something. In either of those cases, they are usually signing something with the intent to get things done. And in any other cases with whatever reasons, they are usually signing something to get something done.

There are other times they sign things, also with the intent to get something done, but also they feel confident in their ability to weasel out of anything. That's the funny thing, the classically funny thing, actually: all of the various deals with various nefarious deities, wizards, and so on which give rise to all of those classic tales of clever weasels outwitting death/devil/landlord/loanshark whatever even after sealing/signing/sgreeing/swearing etc.

But in any of those cases the signature works just as well to keep things moving forward until said weaseling begins. It is kind of funny, and kind of scary.

In general, it is a matter of how much bullshit one can tolerate: not just on the receiving end, but in how much one can stand to participate in.

Material things are a great incentive for getting people to agree to things, and then they do whatever they are supposed to keep up with agreement to keep those things. Taken as a sum total, it is that intertwined set of agreements that really keeps the economy of the entire world moving.

Then maybe someone stands outside of that mesh of agreements, to watch it evolve, and s "hey, when these agreements and those happen, this other thing happens" and they create an "investment product" which involves as set of interactions between those agreements. It is all very interesting.

But, (here is the most entertaning/amusing part) when the people signing the agreements in the mesh depend on the investment products derived from the interactions observed from outside the promise mesh to meet the agreements inside the promise mesh, and weasels start to break promises, what happens then?

A short circuit, or a warping, I would think; wouldn't it?

So how much of that can the system withstand?

The answer to that is what we are experiencing.