Hello everyone,
I saw last night the film "The Thirteenth Floor" and found it to be excellent. This is not a special effects extravaganza like "Matrix" but instead is a very clever, well acted and plotted science-fiction mystery film. With all the discussions regarding uploading and artificial worlds this film for many of you is a must see. It is not surprising that the screenplay is based on actual science-fiction literature rather than a hack job by a Hollywood screenwriter.
I read on the MSN hotmail news site that "Hercules" the t.v. show is being partially replaced by a half hour program that involves cryonics. The storyline has an actress/singer who is cryonically suspended in 2001. She is reanimated in the 26th century to help a band of beautiful amazons fight evil robots that control this subterranean world. Of course this is what we all hope to do when we are brought back, right guys! The name of the show is slated to be "Cleopatra 2525!" So it is a female Buck Rogers concept. I don't know if it will be meant to be as intentionally funny as "Futurama."
I am honored to have John de Rivaz put my posting of my observations and life experiences in his Longevity Journal. Considering the number of years his journal has been on the web I probably will be in the future I feel like this is almost a time capsule for me to look back on as the years go by. I'm not sure how old John is but he must have a number of decades left in him. I'm an old man of thirty-two myself.
I realize this is off-topic but I would like some advice from intelligent individuals that I respect. I suppose for me we should have a "advice for the lovelorn" extropian list. I have met two different women on the net.
One lives here in Anchorage and is a kind and intelligent person who runs a party and wedding design business out of her home. Donna is seven years older then me and is overweight by thirty pounds (5'3 at 160 lbs.), divorced, and has five children, three of whom are still at home and elementary school age except for the eighteen year-old daughter who is still at home and dating a guy in the military. She has had a rough life due to a lazy and heavy drinking husband and looks older then she actually is. This woman can no longer have children. I do want to have children one day.
Her mother who is in her seventies lives with her. She has alzheimer's and is in the advanced stages. But my friend takes care of her without complaint.
The ex-husband who is unpleasant and ex-military lives very nearby. She is angry with him for not visiting the kids enough. Despite all this I do care for her because she is very caring and amazingly positive about life. Of course she is lonely and somewhat desperate though not financially. She is open with me and wants there to be honesty between us. But she is clear that she wants a boyfriend, lover and eventually husband if possible.
The other woman Becky I have never personally met. She lives in Australia and just graduated from college (I am only halfway done). This gal is very bright and recently started teaching. My aussie friend is twenty-four and stunningly beautiful. When we traded pics she fortunately liked what she saw. For a month when we first met we spent tons of time chatting and emailing each other. She told me I made her feel like no other man had. It was heaven on earth for me at that time. We are of the same faith (mormonism) and this was a major linking factor between us.
One night she implored me to call her up on the phone but I did not because I thought for some reason we might not connect as well over the phone. Also I was concerned that we might talk all the time and my phone bills would go through the roof bankrupting me. This was such a huge mistake! I should have called her up and I dearly regret it now. Right now the two of us might have this overwhelmingly strong connection between us had I done it than.
She lives with her folks and at the time her family took in a girl who had left the Jehovah's Witnesses for our faith. The parents and their congregation threw rocks through windows and made threatening phone calls without break over the months! Even the police could not get it to stop.
So my beloved left home and found an apt. with this girl to avoid the craziness. She has no computer so we were cut off from each other. Only every few weeks would I hear from her. But she emailed me yesterday saying things are getting back to normal and she has access to a computer again. But I feel the special connection between us may have been lost. But perhaps it can be reignited.
I realize that she is probably out of my league. With her brains and beauty she could have almost any man she wanted. I somewhat did back away from her because I have been rejected by woman before who I was in love with and had dated a long time. I did not want to go through the torment of rejection again.
We had originally talked of her visiting me in Alaska or me going to Australia but the trouble started and that was at least for than forgotten. And also ticket prices are so expensive. But I may be getting a three of four thousand dollar windfall soon that could finance such a trip. But to blow so much money on a wild attempt to court a gal so out of my league seems a waste of money. But I don't want to be an old man regretting my never having done my best to marry her.
Here is where I have been a fool and a liar. I told her when we first met that I was only twenty-five when actually I am thirty-two! But I am told all the time how I only look twenty-five but still my lie was wrong and stupid. I just got tired of women in their twenties rejecting out of hand because I was so "old!"
I also lied about my weight. I said that I weighed one-hundred and seventy-five pounds but actually I only weigh one-hundred and fifty. I have had women mock me for being so thin. She told me she was not perfect because she considers her build too thin being five foot six and weighing only one-hundred and ten pounds. She seems fantastic to a thin guy like me! I am six foot one and like I said only one-hundred and fifty pounds.
I should have told the truth to begin with. I never thought I could meet someone so incredible on the net so it didn't seem to matter. And here I am barely half done with college if that really. I had a friend tell me I should only level with her when and if she gets here. Maybe in person we would not click like we did on the net but I doubt that.
One reason cryonics and extropianism appeals to me so much is that I see the unfairness in this world, the highly uneven playing field of life. I want a world where everyone gets to be young, good looking, intelligent and well cared for. I honestly believe that a hundred years from now the technologies will be here to make that present fantasy an economically feasible reality for people. Either through the second coming of Christ and/or human technology this world will one day be.
I just had the misfortune of being born in 1967! But I could have been born centuries earlier and had no chance at all compared to what I have in the year 1999. But should I make it through I will appreciate things infinitely more than those born in the easy living 22nd century.
The mating game is so damn hard and painful. I have read about darwinistic psychology and it both bothers and fascinates me. If I just had a much bigger balance in my "social currency account" I know I could marry this wonderful aussie girl.
I look forward greatly to any feedback any of you may have to offer. I really need some advice on these matters. I thank you all for reading this, take care.
Sincerely,
John Grigg