aaaaand... done

A day after I returned from SXSW someone asked if I'd go back. Exhausted, I distinctly remember saying I had a lot of fun but probably wouldn't go back unless I was playing. (Yes, I really said that... douchey, no?) Two weeks later I realized it was the best thing I've done in years and planned to go back every year. (not going this year. sad.)

I finished Infinite Jest late last night. It was as good as everyone says. It was as hard to stick to as everyone says. It was as much work (8 1/2 months for me) as everyone says. I'm exhausted and afraid what I say about the book today will sound horribly wrong to me next week. I need time to kind of figure it all out, develop.

I'm confident this will be my favorite passage forever, though:

That most Substance-addicted people are also addicted to thinking, meaning they have a compulsive and unhealthy relationship with their own thinking. That the cute Boston AA term for addictive-type thinking is: Analysis-Paralysis. That cats will in fact get violent diarrhea if you feed them milk, contrary to the popular image of cats and milk. That it is simply more pleasant to be happy than to be pissed off. That 99% of compulsive thinkers' thinking is about themselves; that 99% of this self-directed thinking consists of imagining and then getting ready for things that are going to happen to them; and then, weirdly, that if they stop to think about it, that 100% of the things they spend 99% of their time and energy imagining and trying to prepare for all the contingencies and consequences of are never good. Then that this connects interesting with the early-sobriety urge to pray for the literal loss of one's mind. In short that 99% of the head’s thinking activity consists of trying to scare the everliving shit out of itself.