#omnia mutantur

Gaiman began writing the series in 1989, the literal year I was born. That was the year the Berlin Wall fell and the Eastern Bloc collapsed. That should serve as a good reminder of just how much the world that existed when the series began to be written changed, and in how many ways it did. When Gaiman started the series, the Soviet Union was still a reality and there was no belief the fall of its empire would mean its fall.

Merely two years later the world was unrecognizable.

Culturally, the shifts have been as fast or faster.

Na ficção e também na especulação científica existe esta ideia de que um paradoxo pode acontecer caso uma pessoa viaje no tempo e encontre a si mesma no passado ou futuro. Na série Twelve Monkeys (2015-2018) acontece até mesmo um paradoxo caso um objeto encontre sua versão de outro tempo, provocando uma explosão.

Tal ideia ignora uma verdade cósmica fundamental: todas as coisas estão em constante transformação. Em nível atômico e subatômico, tudo muda a cada infinitesimal fração de segundo. Logo, é uma ilusão pensar que você pode encontrar a si mesmo viajando no tempo. Você encontrará outra versão sua.

Mesmo que você volte no tempo apenas 1 segundo e se depare com seu eu de 1 segundo atrás, já não serão os mesmos corpos. A composição química em geral será ainda bastante semelhante, mas em nível molecular muita coisa já aconteceu em 1 segundo.

Nada é permanente. Toda a matéria existe em um constante estado de transformação. Não só a matéria, mas também a consciência e o mundo psíquico. A pessoa que eu era há dez anos, aquele corpo, aquela mente, já passou por um infinito ciclo de transformações e agora sou outra versão de mim, outra de tantas que vieram e virão.

As mulheres são mais metamórficas que os homens. Elas estão acostumadas à mudança, a transformar-se. A transição da menina para a mulher é muito marcante, com transformações no corpo e no comportamento mais conspícuas. Por meio da maquiagem, acostumam-se a modificar o rosto, tornando-se outra pessoa a cada estilo de adorno e de roupa. Mais do que os homens, as mulheres dominam a arte da dissimulação (o que inclui a arte de negar esta dissimulação), da linguagem indireta; entendem a diversidade de comportamentos que devemos assumir em diferentes ocasiões, diferentes ambientes e interações sociais. A mulher sabe quando se vestir de forma casual, elegante, erótica ou profissional. Homens são mais limitados nestes aspectos, mais monolíticos, a não ser que possuam um forte aspecto feminino, pois andróginos são mais dados à metamorfose, uma habilidade feminina. O masculino é a rocha que pouco muda e que exige muita força para ser modificada; o feminino é a água que molda-se e adapta-se, plástica, elástica, assumindo várias formas e fases.

Theres so much history on this account that I genuinly dont want to use it. I want to keep my vlog as more of a Time capsule for myself.

There are many stages that we all go though in our life, and many dont realize it but they tend to post almost everything on either one social media website/app, or multiple websites/apps, until eventually they stop using a few of them and never look back, unintentionally leaving little time capsules across the web of their own life. Myspace was one of them for me, where I used it constantly on an early stage of my life, until eventually I stop using it all together.

Tumblr, in a sense, was also one of those things I used to use on a daily drive in yet another stage of my life, where ultimately led to the same fate. I came back to it a few more times over the years, posting here and there, but I never had the intention of staying for long periods of time. I guess in a way, I wanted to keep it this way but also, I knew how much of a time waster it was when I already am a person that stresses about wasting time in unproductive ways. However, I always liked Tumblr and the community inside of it, although not so pretty in some parts, in other parts, it was filled with the odd balls and I always appreciated it.

I think its very interesting to go back and look at old pictures or videos that you once made in your youth, and I treat a lot of these social media accounts in the same way, like a photo album that I open up to see what was going on during those stages of my life. I do this quite often really, and I feel like many other people do the same, it gives you a melancholic feeling that you cannot replicate. Seeing all the history you left behind while regaining memories replaying in your head of a past you once experienced is very Bittersweet. But in its own sense, its Beautiful. Growing up is Beautiful, but its also very scary.

I am no longer a reflection of whatever was posted throughout the years of this vlog, I have grown immensely as a person and have learned a vast amount of who I really am.

In a way, you can say, I learned to love myself.

and that's not something easily achievable.

Not everything is perfect of course, but that is part of loving yourself, knowing your imperfections and accepting them. You will still feel sad, and you will still feel anger, and at times, you will still get confused; but how you decide to act on those feelings towards your surroundings, is what's important.

Dear Caroline:

About a year and a month ago I discovered your blog and become very positively surprised by its author, her intelligence, personality and her shared thoughts. Shortly after I starting mining those ancient posts of yours in an archeological attempt at a conversation with you. As I've written time and again, its main purpose was to express my sympathy and support for you, and my confidence in your essential moral goodness at a time when you were being pretty much universally pilloried and had a difficult trial ahead of you.

A year and month have passed, and I have found myself finishing the archeological survey, having practically exhausted all the texts you wrote. This puts a severe cap on the continuance of our (pseudo)conversation, as I will no longer have a text to answer and comment upon every day. I could continue writing thoughts of empathy and consolation, but dried up your vivifying rivers of water, that bringeth forth the fruit in its season, my own words would dry up and wither; they would probably become irrelevant and disconnected from your thoughts, and very possibly uninteresting, like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

And even though your posts are ended, that doesn't diminish the impact your words have had on me. I think I can say with confidence that they have left indelible mark, and opened up new intellectual vistas for me (Rationalism, EA, Economics, Utilitarianism Cryptocurrencies, ratfics). I look forward to carrying these insights into my future ruminations.

I still have your book reviews to fall back on to, and I will continue to read at least one of your recommendations every month, and afterwards posting a reflection about it here. Should further news or texts related to you appear in the future, I will be also attempt to dialogue with you / them in this little virtual space.

Dear Ms. Ellison, you are the most interesting and intriguing individuals I've come across in a long time, and besides, my confidence in your virtue remains unwavering. I can only wish for the best of luck in your near future, when sentencing comes and goes (and hopefully, a light one at that) and when you go back to some semblance of normality and healing. You might have made important mistakes and suffered serious missteps, but you will recover and heal. And I am confident the world will be made a better place for your being and acting in it.

Wishing you resilience, strength, and a future filled with positivity.

Warm regards,

Jael:

2. Do they have any annoying quirks? If so, what are they?

Jael is ever restless. Pacing, finger-drumming, thread-picking…he needs something to keep him busy or he’ll drive everyone within line of sight to distraction.

7. What is the biggest mistake they’ve ever made?

In Jael’s mind, not grabbing Tamlen by the belt and dragging him away from that damned mirror as soon as they lay eyes on it. If he hadn’t indulged his friend’s curiosity, Tamlen would still be alive.

16. Do they have any behaviors and/or beliefs that cannot be adequately justified?

There really isn’t any moral justification to Jael giving certain low-life elves second chances over things he’d flat-out murder a human for. The only time it’s for certain turned out well was with Zevran (though, to Jael’s mind, that’s reason enough to keep attempting the experiment). It’s a point of exasperation between him and Zev, and Zevran has more than once secretly (and fatally) overridden Jael’s moments of mercy when he feels they’re overly foolhardy.

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Jean-Paul (Omnia Mutantur version):

8. What mistake(s) do they continue to make/have not learned from?

His sister is not a delicate hot-house flower, and if she wanted Bobby gone, he would be history. He doesn’t have to hover.

12. At least one thing that they tend to overreact to.

He’s still way overprotective of Simon. It’s not exactly his least endearing trait, but he can be obnoxiously smothering in his concern.

20. What is a self-inflicted misery of theirs? (i.e. something they perpetuate themselves)