Late update.

So, I am done with my first year of college.

I have not been able to update on this simply because I've been very busy for the past two weeks. Pulling the largest workload of anyone I have been aware of, I completed three term papers and took three finals, having taken three classes. I had nearly no time for myself, spending nearly two weeks in a constant state of work. Best of all, I loved it.

I chose the harder final for one class, despite not benefiting as much from it as was necessary. I have never been more happy than I was in those few days. I only wish they could have continued. While I was so productive for that period of time, I have been far less so with the beginning of the Summer. I cannot write, I am behind in my exercise, and I have bounced back and forth between various hangouts, generally wasting time. This is a problem, one I try so very hard to correct. At the moment, I am making progress.

Another recent development is that of my relationship with my girlfriend. I told her, one night about a week ago, that we could not be together, that I did not truly love her, that I was already beginning to grow bored of her. Our sex life is also declining. The only problem, is that she takes it so well. She does truly love me, and this only makes it harder for me to break it off with her. She admits that it will hurt her terribly, yet she still wishes to hold on as long as she can.

The world is such a strange place. My girlfriend has been born with nearly the exact mindset that I require. Her body is lacking. The problem is that I cannot love anything less than utter perfection, and she is not. She is not like me, and therefore I cannot love her. I cannot love anything except myself, and she is not similar enough. Yet, she is similar in mind, which is the closest I have ever seen. It hurts so terribly to hurt someone who is similar to myself, at least in mindset. The world has gifted me with a girl that is not what I need, but is exactly what I want. The choice is so difficult.

One of our discussions on the topic led to an embarrassing admittance; I am gifted with the ability to recognize weakness and stupidity, but not with the ability to be strong or intelligent myself. My life is fraught with failures and weaknesses, and I have not at all lived up to my own expectations. This is especially clear lately, as I have noted.

I am renewing my efforts, but of course, I am behind. I have to work harder than ever. Even now, this is taking longer to write than it should. I am delayed by everything else, distracted by the pretty lights and the cheap thrills. The only place I have to go is up, but the ladder is hard to climb, and I have tired myself out with partying.

What to do except push harder?

Out of great silence.

So, I return.

It has been a month and a half since I originally began the vow of silence. In my second week of silence, I began to feel under the weather, particularly in the throat, which was extremely sore. I also began to notice lumps protruding on my neck, one on the left side and the other just below my right jaw. I visited a doctor, who guessed that I had a throat infection, but could not be sure what it was. I was prescribed antibiotics for the weekend, and told to come back. Over the weekend, my throat only grew worse. Unable to get anything done, I decided to break the silence.

I was eventually diagnosed with mono, which, being a viral infection, is naturally not affected by antibiotics, and explains my worsening over the weekend. I was prescribed steroids, and began to improve immediately. However, I was still far under the weather, so I continued to speak. The talking went on for two weeks, as a matter of convenience, to coincide with a variety of plans that were occurring at the time. Then I resumed the silence, two weeks late.

As I realized, I probably brought that sickness upon myself. During the weeks of my silence, I pushed myself hard in the gym, trying to extend my limits. As a result, my immune system was likely weakened, and so I became sick. But of course, that would mean that I had been carrying mono for quite some time. Looking back, I realized that this was probably true, I had been unnecessarily tired for quite some time, and had been used to taking naps in the afternoon to remedy this. Now that I am over it, however, I am much improved, and no longer need these rests.

Another matter is how I originally got it. Obvious choice would be one of the women that I got intimate with. There were four of them, and the timing of my fatigue means that it could have been any of them. This, I suppose, is what I get for my promiscuity.

In other news, I have also begun playing world of warcraft again, after my original break to begin writing my book. This, of course, was done during my week of sickness, when I needed something to do because I could not truly concentrate on work. I then joined an excellent guild, and have been making progress since.

Of course, this meant that my last two weeks were less productive than my first two. This was not due to rampant and unnecessary playing of the game, but rather due to raiding schedules. My new guild raids three times a week, from 10pm-2am, prime hours for writing. While this is obviously not all the week, it is enough to put a significant dent in my writing times. Still, I worked to the best of my ability, and got things done. Which brings me to the nature of my silence itself.

The silence was simultaneously the most difficult and easiest thing that I have ever done. Completely rejecting people was at the same time exhilarating and saddening. While there were many things I missed, there were others I did not. I would like to say that they balanced out, and silence was no better than non-silence, but that would be a lie. There is a certain type of existence that man leads, free from the will of the mob, which is greater and more glorious. Whatever it is, I valued it more than anything else that they could have given me, had I spoken.

One of my goals, the advancement of my writing, was a huge success. I put many hours into writing, and produced perhaps 150-200 pages of various works, over the course of a month. During the time, I discovered that one published author, who dedicates himself to longer novels, produces in a year what I would produce in six months by the same schedule. There was also the amount that I read; I completed two of Nietzsche's works in the same period.

This is on top of the amount of exercise I committed myself to. In the first half, this was two hours a day. In the second, when I was supposed to be careful in order to prevent rupturing my weakened spleen, this sank to one, but I am prepared to begin ramping this up again, slowly, and soon. On top of both of these things, of course, was the amount of things I accomplished in World of Warcraft, which were numerous.

In essence, the silence was extremely profitable. Even better than this, however, was the way that I felt. There was a certain feeling, a certain sense of self-assurance that I carried during the time that I was separated from others, that i admire. Better, my mind was focused and generally deeper, able to commit itself to stronger and more beautiful tasks. Silence is not simply a state of body, it is a state of mind.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience supremely. I would do it again, and I will. I will not tell anyone else, but I plan top do this again, and again. Perhaps a single month out of every year, this would be a good plan. I feel that it would greatly suffice.

There is only one other thing, however, that must be mentioned. This is that I was not truly separated from the people, as I tried to make myself. Everywhere I went, society still followed me. No matter what I did, the temptation to talk still presented itself to my face. Worst was the cafeteria, where I was forced to find a corner and avoid all friends and acquaintances without discretion. When I returned to my room, I was not alone, my friends were still there, hanging out, talking to me if even if I would not talk back. In short, I did not really accomplish my goal. I blame this for any failure in my silence, in the accomplishment of my goals. In order to do it again, I must seek to truly separate myself, to make myself independent and disconnected, in order to truly achieve my goals. In this college environment, I cannot.

Naturally, there are other things to be said. But for now, it has been too long. I must return to my life, I must go back to my world. I still have things to do, and I cannot be bothered to reflect more on my silence for now. And, of course, if anyone else was reading this, then they would not have ever made it this far, before getting bored. There are still things to achieve, there is still a world to conquer. I cannot ever stop.

The philosophy of silence.

Well, here it goes. In less than two hours, I will be officially on my vow of silence. I will not be writing in this blog, nor talking to anyone. I plan to get lots of shit done, over the next month, and can only think of how it will be for me. It feels strange, talking to people for the last time in quite some time. I've been distancing myself from my friends, much to some of their chagrin. One of my friends now has a passive aggressive hateful relationship with me, his jokes have turned insulting and he rarely speaks with me otherwise. However, the only people whose judgment I truly place stock in have all wished me luck, and I think that I am well prepared.

It will be a strange month, to say in the least. Man only reaches his heights when pushed into the darkest depths. Here I am, at the edge of the precipice, and I am looking back, and it is strange to do so. I see all the things that I am giving up, and I am so strangely ready to do it. I look back and realize that all the things I took for granted were not so important, not so useful. I've been holding myself back, all this time, and I never knew it.

Mankind is strange, in that it cannot do anything forever. We cannot eat the same foods for very long, nor do the same activities, without eventually growing bored of them. In this case, it is our goal to move on, to find something else to occupy our time so that when we come back, we will be ready to do the thing that we loved so much for a second time. I suppose that this is why, in the end, we need to die. If we didn't, then sooner or later we would grow bored of everything at once, and the need to cease to exist would grow until we were forced to end it on our own. But that is not the time that I have reached, not yet. I have grown bored with this world, the one currently live in. I have discovered its nuances, and the ways in which it reacts to my prodding and poking. It is time to move on. It is time to transcend reality.

So here I go.

The letter.

Here is the letter which I published yesterday on facebook. As of then, I have received numerous comments, ranging from awe and wonder to vehement denial that this is a good idea for me, both on facebook, and in real life.

For a very long time, I have been planning to take a month long vow of silence. I am somewhat glad to say that I will finally be putting my plan into action. On Monday, the thirteenth of April, I will be beginning the vow, thus ending on the thirteenth of May. While under the vow, I have decided on the following course of action.

-I will not be speaking for any social reason, however, I will allow myself to speak for academic purposes, participating in class, etc. This also allows me to speak for other small, necessary reasons, as long as they are not purely social.

-I will possibly be eating with others, but I will not speak, and I will not engage in any other social activity, such as events or other things after school.

-I will still be checking Facebook, so feel free to write something to me, if it's terribly necessary. I will respond to anything posed on Facebook, but probably in the most curt and basic possible way.

-My style of dress will become more simple, and my hygiene will probably become less tolerable all around. I do not wish to focus on the trappings of sociality when I am attempting to avoid sociality in all forms.

-My sleep might also drastically change. It is quite possible that I will adopt hours of sleep and wakefulness that make no sense. I will be attempting to sleep less, but this is not as important.

This will be very confusing to nearly everybody, I have only told two people about this idea, and it may seem very sudden. You might also be wondering why. I am doing this because I have to. There are parts of myself that become repressed when around other people, and for the time being I need to focus on these parts. There are also things about myself that I simply have to find out.

I hope that this will not be a problem to any of my friends. This decision has nothing to do with any hard feelings for any one of you, and I trust that when I return next month I will be able to turn right back to the friends I know and love.

Feel free to comment on this note or ask questions. I am telling you all one week beforehand so as to have time to adjust and understand.

Also, I only tagged people who will most directly be influenced by this, for the most part, but of course quite a few people should probably know. Do not be offended if you were not tagged.

The coming storm.

As it turns out, I have behaved admirably since my last blog. I have been writing well, I have kept to a workout schedule, I have remained positive, and I have continued to accomplish what I want in my life. New plans are blossoming, which will soon come to fruit.

The first is my adherence to my plan to take a month long vow of silence. I have planned to take it next Monday, a week from today, on the thirteenth. It will then end on the thirteenth of May. During this time, I have concluded, I will attempt to do nothing except that which furthers my plans. I will work out, eat, write, read, do my assigned schoolwork, and sleep. I will attempt to keep play to a minimum. I am not certain how much of this I can do, but without the influence of the outside world, it will be much easier. I am also allowing myself to speak for purely non-social purposes: participation in classes, basic, necessary communication, and the like. I will still permit myself to use Facebook and the like, but I will not actively work to be social on it.

I have to do this. I am uncertain of why I must do something so extreme, but all that I know is that I have to. Tomorrow, I will be creating a letter to the rest of the world, to be placed on Facebook, to alert them to my intentions. I must attempt to be basic, not flashy, not presumptuous. I will try to tell them what it is that I stand for, what I wish to accomplish. I will try to make them see what it is that I mean.

Recently, my girlfriend called me with a panicked tone. She wished to talk to me, right away. I told her to come down, and she relayed to me that a friend of hers had recently scared her, had revealed that she held depressive thoughts, and my girlfriend was afraid that she might consider killing herself. As she shook, I held her in my arms, and had her tell me about it.

There were many great moments in this conversation, because it was deep and meant, and that is where I excel. I put on a great show, but I consider myself far better when concerned with the real than with the fake. The first moment occurred when I attempted to bring myself into the conversation.

Leaning on each others noses, I told her what it was all about. I told her, that the reason I do everything, that the reason that I write, I live, I exist, is to prevent this. As I told it to her, I cried, because I could not do anything else. This was my statement of purpose, I made it clear to her. The only reason I lived, the only reason I existed, was because I wanted to help people. It was perhaps the strongest moment in my life. Crying as well, she looked up, and told me that I would achieve this, that I would do it. That was pure faith, stronger than any religion, stronger than anything on this earth. This is the stuff that moves planets.

Another moment occurred when I related a story of something that had happened earlier that day. My friends had wanted to play a game of Risk, which I had never played. They set up the board, and I studied the rules. At the end of the game, I won, controlling the entire world. However, I could only complete this victory because of a critical decision I had made, in the middle. I had made truces with many of my friends, around the table, especially one with the player who controlled America, and thus was my choice for strongest, in which I would leave him Asia if I pushed down from Europe, my continent, into Africa. At a critical point, one player controlled part of Africa, but was very weak and ready to be defeated. I had a truce with this player, but I broke it, and killed the player in that turn, taking all of Africa in the process. I honored the deal I had made with America, at the cost of the wrath of the other player. In the next turn, I took South America, and Australia. In the turn after that, I won.

I did what I had to do. I had no regrets, although the player I had betrayed was somewhat angered with me. In the end, because of that decision, I won. If I had not made the decision, I would likely have lost, and if I had made the decision but still lost, then I would have had regrets, and apologized. As it is, I did what I had to do.

I relayed this story to my girlfriend, and then told her, that this was me. In the end, I will always do, exactly what I have to do. I will reach my goals, that is all.

I will be the most famous man in the world.

Later today, I will post the letter, and next week I will say farewell. Then, I will be gone for an entire month.

The storm clouds gather, preparing to strike. The lightning is restless.

Unexpected progress.

I have been the glad bearer of unexpected progress in my life. In my last blog, I mentioned my uncertainty about the status of my girlfriend, and what type of person she was. I was finishing my finals, and I was about to have spring break. I planned to tell the girl my true feelings over this break, and intimate my idea of taking a vow of silence next quarter in order to make more progress in my self perfection.

I am pleased to say that the girl passed the test with flying colors. She is not a mover, but she is perhaps on her way. She understands me, and what I want, in the very least, and she is supportive. This was profound to me, more moving than it should have been. I could barely speak when I made this revelation to her, my heart pounding so much in my chest, and my words quavering when they left my mouth, and tears ready to form. When she told me that she understood, I was struck with a happiness so profound and strong that it should never have happened. Whatever else, I have certainly picked a good woman to serve as my girl.

Also, this break has proven to be especially fruitful in every other way. I got to see old friends, particularly my best friend and fellow mover, and I made great progress in everything. I caught up in television, reading, and other social things, and made it halfway through a re-reading of the berserk manga, which is an excellent work with a great influence on me. Also, I have dedicated much time to writing, and I have maintained a tough work out schedule. Essentially, everything is going right.

That only leaves the future, or the possible vow of silence. The vow, if I do take it, will not be easy. It will be terribly difficult on me, but I will do it because I have to. I need to do it, in order to help recreate the same environment there that I have here.

The problem is people. So many people go through their lives simply wasting time, simply waiting. When you step into a theater, or other crowded area, and you watch the people during a show, there is no emotion on their faces. They are not enjoying the show, they are waiting for a time when they will enjoy it. Thousands of faces, packed into a theater, waiting. It's a strange sight. But then, the same thing happens everyday, to so many people. People move through their lives, simply choosing to be happy, rather than being good. The movers, the people like me and the friends that I appreciate, these are the people that do not enjoy enjoyment for its sake, but rather enjoy the good for enjoyment's sake.

And when you put me in a group of people that are simply waiting, it's easy to join them. The power of the mob is not to be overlooked. All the friends, all the people that I know, all these people help slow me down, by making me enjoy life. But happiness is not everything. I don't need to be happy. Happy is not enough.

This is why I want to take the vow. By severing my connection with these people, communication, I can retain my identity and go back to doing what makes me fulfilled rather than happy. It will be hard, because I want to be like these people, and I enjoy being like them, even though I know that it is pitiful and weak.

Very shortly, I will be returning to school for the new semester. New classes, new people, and everything in between. More things to avoid when I take the vow. But I'm going to do it, because I have to, because there are better things in the world than what we already have.

However, there is another thing on my mind. When I look back at all the things that have happened, I am surprised by the progress I have already made, despite all my failures. I have failed to do many a thing, failed to uphold convictions, aced just as weak as others, and enjoyed it every bit as much, but despite all this, I am far better than many of the people that I know. It is strange, when I hear that ordinary people, people that I know and consider decent people, do such stupid things as drop out of college, as decide to flip burgers rather than continue their education. This scares me, but also reminds me of my superiority. I would enjoy this, except that it is undeserved praise.

I would enjoy my success if it was deserved. I am scared by the world out there, so weak and strange. I do not know how it functions.

Acceleration.

Things have taken their natural course. The good friend who I became intimate with is now my girlfriend. How do I feel about it? Well, somewhat more sure than last time.

Since we have officially started this relationship, true to my word, I have been pushing things, testing her. I have been trying to find her limits. She is not the most attractive woman in the world, if she has an excellent personality. However, there are still limits to how awesome her personality truly is. When I imply that I like another girl that she knows more than her, she becomes somewhat angry and very jealous, and while this is the only limit I have found so far, I am certain that there are others.

Of course, there is much that is right with her as well. She and I enjoy similar sexual antics, and when we are in public we both enjoy playfully insulting each other. She is also somewhat open about the power in the relationship, she understands that there must be give and take, and allows me many liberties in exchange for the freedom I give her. All in all, there is one bottom line. She makes me extremely happy. That is the most important part.

But it's also a problem. I can't afford to be happy. I do not mean to claim to be a depressed man, or anyone else who has mysteriously reversed their ideas of pleasure and pain, but I simply do not perform well when happy. When I become happy, I assume everything is right with the world, and do not strive for higher things. When I am dissatisfied with my life, then I can make actions to improve myself. However, improvement is a constant thing, and therefore I can hardly afford to allow myself to have any free time in there, much like what I am doing now.

I'm not sure what to do. On one hand, I am happy, but on the other I am doing what is best for myself in the long run. And to add more weight to the decision, choosing the long run may alienate this girl, preventing her from wanting to return to me later on when I may truly want her.

One of the big problems is something that I have been planning for some time now, that is, to take a month long vow of silence in the next quarter, so as to have time for introspection and much more work on self-improvement. This would be a great wedge in the relationship, no matter how I look at it. Even if we agreed to postpone our relationship for a month, there is no guarantee that I would return as the same person that she likes.

As I consider this, the winter quarter here is coming to a close. As I look back, I didn't get much done this quarter. I didn't produce anything, didn't make anything worth any value. Even now, when I am busy with finals and final papers, there is so much more time I could be using for writing, that I am wasting on video games and excessive napping.

Whatever I choose, it is going to go down very soon, after my spring break. It is then that I will have to decide how to proceed, and will have to find out how reality reacts to my decisions. It will be tough.