This is a part of the homework feature of my blog, which is an ongoing conversation with my mate S.F.

Hey mate. Sorry for the long delay in getting this one to you, I’ve been busy!

The book I mentioned was Overprescribing Madness: What’s driving Australia’s mental health epidemic by Dr Martin Whitely. I haven’t read the whole thing yet but I think it asks important questions.

Begging the question (also known as “assuming the conclusion”) is a logical fallacy that occurs when an argument’s premises assume the truth of the conclusion. Unfortunately this is widely misunderstood and usually when people say something “begs the question” what they really mean is that something “raises the question”, which is different altogether.

We discussed Philip K. Dick, a prolific science fiction author. At least I think we did. My notes actually say “Philip L. Dick”, but my search engine has never heard of him.

When they filmed the Landspeeder in the first Star Wars movie they put Vaseline on the camera lens. Apparently the Vaseline smear was nicknamed “the force field” during editing.

Existential dread (also known as existential crisis) is some negative emotional reactions many people who think too hard about the nature of life and reality often experience when they first come to realize they are living a brief life in an absurd world. It’s a real phenomenon. Actually happens to people.

I have a note here that some people pronounce UTS as “uterus”. Uncultured swine! :)

I’m listening, how can I help?

We discussed neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which is a fun idea, but probably bunk. I dunno. I do believe that what we say to ourselves (our inner dialog) and others does affect our reality though.

GAF = Gay As Fuck. (Let that start affecting your reality.)

I have a note here that “that’s where modernity fails, and postmodernity triumphs”, but what that was in respect to is now lost to time (unless you remember).

How many dead friends? Easily seven good friends lost to suicide.

The Northern Lights are amazing and beautiful. I suspect I will never see them live.