Intro: the why and the how

So the question that everyone inevitably asks when something happens is "why?". It's not an unexpected question nor is it unreasonable. It's simply a part of human nature to seek out explanations and to make patterns out of the world around us and of ourselves as well. It's the reason we do a lot of stuff. Like the names we come up with for things, why we analyse dreams, make up with categories, do science, and even believe in things like religion, spirituality, magic, and so on. In fact, it's one of the defining characteristics that make us human. I read somewhere (see disclaimer at the bottom) that despite teaching apes sign language so that they can communicate with us, there's one thing that they never used it for: asking a question. Apparently, they never considered that we might know something that they don't. Which is an interesting thought if it's true. Is this propensity to wonder why then the one thing that separates us from animals? Some number of years ago, they (again see disclaimer) said that what made us human was the ability to use tools. Apparently, that turned out to be a bunch of bullshit. Just take a look at all the videos of birds, apes, and various other animals that use tools of some sort. And since that didn't make us human, we have been asking that question since... and probably some indeterminate amount of time even before then. But I digress.

To answer the question of why I'm even writing this in the first place... It's quite simple. I want to. That probably doesn't satiate your curiosity though. So to elaborate, I think a lot. Probably too much as you can see by that paragraph you just read. And I want to write it down. Having to keep these things in my head is somewhat annoying and just talking about it can't satisfy my need to introspect. So writing it down allows me to stop thinking about it so much and lets me criticism myself. How fun!

The other question then is how I came to decide to write a blog on it, which, now that I think about it, is just a roundabout way of asking why. Whatever. The reason for this is because I'm cheap. I'd rather not spend money if I don't have to. Just having to register an easy-to-remember web address had cost me more than I'd have liked. I had initially thought to actually create a website to go along with it but apparently that'd have cost even more. So this is my compromise. Now this reasoning only applies to the initial format of this thing, whatever it is, in its blog form. In the future, who knows what I might do with this. And then I'll have a different reason for it at which point I may or may not update this part. Who knows. I certainly can't predict the future.

As for some other things to keep in mind, you will, or may already have, noticed that my grammar is off or that what I write doesn't make a lot of sense. As I've hinted at before, I'm writing this to myself and I am writing it as if I were speaking to myself. Now whether or not the voice doing the speaking is or is not myself or who I think myself to be is a whole nother question. I don't want to get too much into that. Maybe later though.

The name. Why did I come up with that. As with any idea, this was not the initial iteration. I wanted it be unique and original and interesting and easily remembered and a lot of other things. Some of those did not pan out. The original and unique part being a few. If you search/Google/Bing/duckduckgo "house of thoughts", there's a lot of them. There's even a blog already with that name, though it's empty as I write this. So I resolved that issue by adding "a" in front of that. As for the "house of thoughts" part, my explanation for that only came about after I named it. I justified it after the fact because it sounds cool. This blog/whatever is a collection of ideas that generally has little practical use in everyday life. But thinking about some of them too much can actually be troubling, resulting in things such as depression, anxiety, existential dread, nihilism, or possibly unfettered curiosity that might lead to inappropriate and useless life choices. So compartmentalizing these ideas in a mental "house" where you can lock it up and have the choice of entering it or not, can be helpful in dealing with their implications. Sometimes the best way to not stress out about something is not to think about it. 

Now that's out of the way, it's time for the disclaimer.

Disclaimer:

What I write in here are my thoughts and opinions only. Even when I quote other people or experts, they are quotes of what I remember and how I interpret them to be. DON'T TAKE IT FOR GOSPEL. I cannot stress that enough. I am not an expert in any of this. Which is to say that I am making much of this up as I go along. In fact, I might be completely wrong about a lot of this stuff. If anyone wants to know more, look this up and do your own research and make up your mind. This is also part of the reason I'm not bothering to introduce myself. My history and identity do not matter and should not have any influence on what I write in here. If the only reason that you think about the ideas that I'm writing about is that I have a degree or certification or license or whatever, then you're doing it wrong. You should be considering the thoughts and ideas herein on their own merits. The other reason being that I don't like to talk about myself. I know that that's not exactly a satisfactory answer but I'm not budging on that. That's also a part of having good boundaries. If you're still not satisfied and it's annoying you, now's a good time to practice a skill that'll help you with all the weird things I'll write about: don't think about it.

You will notice that you cannot comment on here. The reason being that some of these ideas are confusing, distressing, and controversial. And I don't care to get into arguments about them. Again, if you have questions about them, do your own research and make up your own mind. I'm not here to tell you how to think. I can barely figure out how I should think.

Also, please note that this is always a work in progress. I will constantly update each and every idea as more things come to me, including this intro and disclaimer.

Now that that's out of the way, let's have some fun.