Tea, Fire and Boredom
Wikipedia Adventures
I love looking at random articles on Wikipedia. It gives me the feeling that I’m doing a constructive activity by learning new pieces of information. However, I greatly (and rightfully) question the worth of knowing the year “Pickpocket” was released. It also gives me the chance to fulfill intellectual whims. Like today, I was looking at the Wikipedia article for pyromania: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyromania. And there are actually some interesting bits here, like that the World Health Organization has a formal classification for pyromania. However it had a bit that concerned me a little:
“A type of mania, is an impulse to deliberately start fires to relieve tension and typically includes feelings of gratification (like sex) or relief afterward.”
It also drew me to another article on pyrophilia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrophilia. Most notably:
“[Pyrophilia] is distinguished from pyromania by the gratification being of a sexual nature.”
Perhaps this should be a moment for personal introspection as I should look at the broader psychological ramifications of my actions. Or perhaps it a moment to go find a lighter. Oh, the things that you can learn of Wikipedia.
In all fairness, I haven’t started any fires while I’ve been at Princeton. I didn’t bring any lighters or matches with me and I haven’t sought any out (honestly). I guess as much as I love fires, I also enjoy not being expelled from school. I suspect that I’m not really a pyromaniac, and just someone who loves watching/playing with fire. Admitably, this is a fairly small distinction. I feel I am more a metaphorical pyromaniac. I enjoy setting fire to people’s ideas and institutions. That kind of arson is, in its own way, constructive to the intellectual foundation of a person’s mind. And I will happily (attempt) to burn down many sacred cows and established ideas.
This talk of fire and potential psychological manias reminded me of a story. I told Bonnie, and she said that it may show I’m a sociopath. When I was in high school, I took AP Biology and one of the so-called labs included a study of behavior of animals. It entailed taking a roly poly (pill bug or pill woodlouse, apparently ‘roly poly’ is one of many terms) and placing it into a Petri dish with sulfuric acid one side and a base on the other. The experiment sought to show that, lo and behold, the roly poly didn’t like the acidic areas and it didn’t like the basic areas. It preferred a wet, neutral environment. Fairly standard, and fairly boring. So thought it would be funny to put a few drops of sulfuric acid on the roly poly. I sort of imagined that its shell would rot away in the same way a slug sizzles when you put salt on it. It tried it out, and it died in a fairly unremarkable fashion. No sizzles or sounds, just a pill bug that stopped moving. While I giggling to myself, I didn’t notice that several of my classmates were shocked and appalled. Students in later sections were explicitly told about some idiot put the sulfuric acid on the roly polies. I’m glad I left a positive mark on campus.
I had a weird dream the other night. I was at a park on a hill, sort of like Hilltop Park, though it was much darker and more menacing. My mom was yelling at my sister because she left the dog out, and I was tasked with bringing him back. I went down the hill and looked around, and I found a dog plant in a pot. It basically looked like a large sunflower with the head of Oscar or some bearded dog. It looked droopy because it had been out so long, so I watered it, and he looked perfectly happy. I carried it back and everyone was happy. Yeah, I have no idea why I thought of a half plant, half dog.
