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The World Needs You

The World Needs You

In a world with so much suffering, in a world where few are happy and many are troubled, how can I be so concerned about myself? The world needs you, needs your love and sympathy and generosity. This site formerly called "The End is Near." While I still believe that, the new title is a response to that belief. This site is monitored by the federal government.

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  • Home
    • Archive Index
    • Hemlock Club
    • Dream Journal
    • 2020: The Worst Year of My Life
    • About
      • Finding Oliver
      • Ingratitude
      • Three Oldsters on Thanksgiving
      • I am Racist, a chapter of Kick Me
      • Thoughts About Seventeen Dead Children
      • Kick Me, Part 3: I am the World’s Worst Clown
    • Doom, Camus, and Breakfast
  • Fiction, Misc.
    • Hap: The Story So Far
    • Hap the Crystalwright: Part One
    • Hap the Crystalwright, Part Two
    • Hap the Crystalwright, Part Three
    • Enchanted House
    • NO-SEE-UM
    • Classical Music We’ll Never Hear
  • Books, Reviews
    • The Stranger, by Albert Camus: A Consideration
    • My Best Books
    • Book Thoughts 1: Meaning of Life and Self Development, part 1
      • Book Thoughts 2: Meaning of Life and Self Development, part 2
      • Book Thoughts 3: Philosophy
      • Book Thoughts 4: Politics, Economics, History
      • Book Thoughts 5: Psychology, Mind, Human Nature
      • Book Thoughts 6: Novels and Plays
    • Four Books: Prison Diary
      • A Stack of Books: Prison Diary Excerpt
      • More Book Thoughts from My Prison Diary
      • Prison Diary: Books and More Books
      • Prison Diary: A Potpourri of Books
    • Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes and the Value of Literature: Prison Diary
    • Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth (Prison Diary)
    • Dobyns on Metaphor, and Henry James. Prison Diary Extract
    • A Discussion of To Kill A Mockingbird
    • On Reading Charles Bukowski
    • Prison Diary: Hemingway’s “Macomber” Story
    • Email to a Classics Book Discussion Group
  • The Bleak Philosophy
    • The Ten Percent Solution
    • Getting Started in Philosophy
    • A Cog in the Machine
    • Philosophy Today: Diary 9/11 to 9/12/21
    • Epistemology: Models & Mysteries
    • Know Thyself: A Personal Essay
    • What is it Like to be Me?
    • Knowledge and “Christopher Columbus”
    • Religion, Morality, and the Meaning of Life: Prison Diary
  • On Writing
    • Astronomy for the Writer
    • Notes of a Novelist
    • Expressing Thoughts in Fiction
    • Metaphor Examples
    • “You Need an Angle”
    • The Subjective Microscope
    • “She was angry.”
    • Good Mornings
    • Character Names, Expanded
    • Tasty Words
      • Tasty Words: Other
      • Tasty Words: Verbs
      • Tasty Words: Nouns
    • Why I Write
  • Poetry
    • Recent Poems
    • Old Poems, Mostly Awful, and Thoughts about Poetry
    • Poetry Sketchbook
    • Amateur Haiku

Category: Hemlock Club

Timmyted, Whining, and Self-Destructive Weirdness

Diary 8/27 to 8/29/22: Caitlin Johnstone; insomnia; Wittgenstein's Notebooks; Caroline Winkler; dead Sequoias; bacteria and suicide? Feeling needy; current reading (maybe).

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Alan Carl Nicoll Authors, Book Reviews, Diary, Doom, Environmental, Hemlock Club, Internet links, Neuroscience, Old Age, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes Leave a comment August 29, 2022 5 Minutes

“Nonsense” Questions and “Operatic” DVDs

Diary 8/25 to 8/27/22: Wittgenstein quotes and Hawking radiation; the riddle of existence; A Deadly Place DVD package; Caroline Winkler again.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Authors, Diary, Hemlock Club, Internet links, Movie Reviews, Opera, Philosophy, Quotes Leave a comment August 27, 2022 5 Minutes

Japanese Movies on TCM, and a Bit About “Free Will”

Diary 8/19 to 8/20/22: Climate terror; Toshiro Mifune; Hemlock Club; hygroscopic vs hydroscopic; a puzzle unsolved; quoting myself; the striatum overwhelmed? A curious dream.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Authors, Diary, Doom, Dreams, Environmental, Hemlock Club, Movie Reviews, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Quotes, Science Leave a comment August 20, 2022 6 Minutes

Getting “In-Shape,” and MSM Letting Us Down Bigtime

Diary 8/12 to 8/14/22: Cognitive fatigue; sex education; Hunter Killer DVD; dreams; Hemlock Club; Camus; Chris Hedges and the collapse of civilization; signing up for tour of a gym.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Doom, Dreams, End of the World, Environmental, Health, Hemlock Club, Movie Reviews, Neuroscience, Politics, Quotes Leave a comment August 14, 2022 4 Minutes

Sayonara, Patricia Highsmith

Diary 8/8 to 8/10/22: Simone Weil; Demonic DVD; "Creativity is mine!"; a dream; feeling unmotivated; exercise plans; downloading audio files; this diary; "duende"

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Alan Carl Nicoll Authors, Book Reviews, Creativity, Diary, Dreams, Hemlock Club, Horror, Literature, Movie Reviews, Novelist Notes, Quotes, The Writing Life Leave a comment August 10, 2022 5 Minutes

Quotes from Albert Camus, and “A Sign”

Diary 8/6 to 8/7/22: Hemlock Club; Minority Report; whining about buses; efficiency and time; better DVDs; Dr. Suglia's blog; Highsmith at HC; and so on.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Authors, Creativity, Diary, Health, Hemlock Club, Neuroscience, Novelist Notes, Quotes, Self-guidance, The Writing Life Leave a comment August 7, 2022August 7, 2022 5 Minutes

Be Deliberately Naive; and A New Friend?

Diary 8/4 to 8/6/22: Green tea extract; self-reflection; "I wish I was..."; Fritz Perls; thoughts about Kick Me; I need exercise; neglecting priorities; learning from children; stop waiting for the perfect moment! The blood is the life?

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Hemlock Club, Movie Reviews, Neuroscience, Old Age, Psychology, Self-guidance Leave a comment August 6, 2022August 6, 2022 5 Minutes

My Real Problem, and Violette Leduc

Diary 7/29 to 7/31/22: The joys of polygraphs; losing Dr. Hill; better than a funk; the perils of pee bottles; Social Security is my hero; Cinemondo; Hemlock Club; Russell

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Alan Carl Nicoll Authors, Book Reviews, Depression, Diary, Hemlock Club, Movie Reviews, Novelist Notes, Probation, The Writing Life Leave a comment July 31, 2022July 31, 2022 5 Minutes

Bartlett’s, The Conjuring, and “Qua”

Diary 7/10 to 7/12/22: Torey Hayden books; Zirin article from The Nation; Bartlett's Quotations; Truthout on "abortion activists"; The Conjuring Universe; a dream of the Hemlock Club.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Authors, Book Reviews, Diary, Dreams, Hemlock Club, Horror, Movie Reviews, Novelist Notes, Politics, Quotes, The Writing Life Leave a comment July 12, 2022July 12, 2022 6 Minutes

Sundry Weighty Matters and Jellyfish

Diary 7/2 to 7/3/22: Mumblecore; Johnstone on Ukraine etc.; Hemlock Club meeting; General Semantics; Frank Harris: My Life and Loves; cyclic reality and Nietzsche; reasons for religious belief; grumpy moods.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Doom, General Semantics, Hemlock Club, Literature, Movie Reviews, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Quotes, Science Leave a comment July 3, 2022July 3, 2022 5 Minutes

Hemlock Club and Socrates Cafe

Diary 6/25/22: Interesting articles from Nature, including Roe; Alan Watts poem; no doom and gloom; my bleak philosophy; poetry challenge; annoying flies; misery of heat; MLK quote and Christopher Phillips.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Hemlock Club, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Poetry, Quotes, Science, The Writing Life Leave a comment June 25, 2022June 25, 2022 5 Minutes

Conversations, Hemlock, and Sherlock

Diary 6/10 to 6/12/22: Two-year-olds; dementia; Hemlock Club and Jan 6th; talking with Nog; BBC's Sherlock; Hedges on the Committee; diary clutter; A Dangerous Method.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Hemlock Club, Movie Reviews, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology Leave a comment June 12, 2022June 12, 2022 5 Minutes

Observations on the Public Hearing

Diary 6/8 to 6/10/22: Ignoring my optometrist; self-guidance; House Hearings and Tucker Carlson; Caitlin Johnstone quoted; world oil reserves; popcorn way to health; Taibbi, FAIR, and other sources.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Health, Hemlock Club, Nonfiction Book in Progress, Politics, Psychology, Quotes, Self-guidance Leave a comment June 10, 2022June 10, 2022 5 Minutes

Shakespeare and “Spirituality”

Diary 6/3 to 6/5/22: Ninja Fit; gut and brain link; Truthout articles; Karl Popper; my lame fiction; more wasted food; Johnstone quote; Jesse Ventura; Poor Peoples Campaign; a dream; Aussie movie; pushy Pablo.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Depression, Diary, Hemlock Club, Literature, Movie Reviews, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes Leave a comment June 5, 2022June 5, 2022 5 Minutes

Believable Fantasy, Surprise Gifts, and Good Movies

Diary, 5/17 to 5/20/22: Ghostbusters: Afterlife; better fantasies; fabulous Turandot; McAfee woes; Natalie Belikova artwork gift; praising Highsmith; turn inward; Hitchcock and Chomsky.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Art, Authors, Computers, Creativity, Diary, Hemlock Club, Movie Reviews, Probation, The Writing Life Leave a comment May 20, 2022 5 Minutes

The Odds of Friendship and Other Jokes

Diary 5/14 to 5/15/22: Blog name change; Rosetta Stone package; social isolation; I'm 1 in 1000; trackpad problem solved; crazy kids; Hemlock Club meeting; future prospects; a couple of jokes.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Computers, Diary, Hemlock Club, Humor, My childhood, Neuroscience, Quotes, Self-guidance, Veganism Leave a comment May 15, 2022 7 Minutes

“Bans Off Our Bodies” and “Against Mysticism”

Diary 5/12 to 5/14/22: Protest planned in Bakersfield; empathy; dreamlets; "Charles Adolphus Spree"; fiction writing and contentment; Wittgenstein; WordPress stats; The World Needs Me; philosophy club?

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Dreams, End of the World, Fynn novel, Hemlock Club, Neuroscience, Novelist Notes, Philosophy, Probation, Self-guidance, The Writing Life Leave a comment May 14, 2022 7 Minutes

Curtains, Hemlock, and Quotes

Diary 5/7 to 5/8/22: McAfee expensive; stupid about groceries; Hemlock Club w/photo; dark night; Zen and analysis; not believing fantasies; another smoothie; Frankl quote and doom; Dostoyevsky and grief; Gibran and pain; "repugliKKKan"; opening the curtains.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Diary, Doom, Hemlock Club, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology, Quotes, Recipes, Self-therapy, Veganism Leave a comment May 8, 2022May 8, 2022 4 Minutes

My Legacy, and Other Nonsense

Diary, 5/4 to 5/5/22: Rant about Roe; free lists; smoothie experiments; Marvel and Terminator; notes and journaling; what every intellectual wants? Actresses, drooling. Coming to take me away!

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Alan Carl Nicoll Bullet Journal, Diary, Hemlock Club, Humor, Movie Reviews, Philosophy, Psychology, Recipes, Veganism Leave a comment May 5, 2022May 9, 2022 6 Minutes

Highsmith and Wittgenstein

Diary 4/12 to 4/17/22; US hypocrisy; an emotional crisis survived through self-indulgence; "shrunt" defined; neurosis? Wittgenstein and Highsmith quotes; the essential essence.

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Alan Carl Nicoll Book Reviews, Diary, End of the World, Hemlock Club, Philosophy, Psychology, Quotes, Self-therapy Leave a comment April 17, 2022April 17, 2022 6 Minutes

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Categories

PAGES

  • Home
    • Archive Index
    • Hemlock Club
    • Dream Journal
    • 2020: The Worst Year of My Life
    • About
      • Finding Oliver
      • Ingratitude
      • Three Oldsters on Thanksgiving
      • I am Racist, a chapter of Kick Me
      • Thoughts About Seventeen Dead Children
      • Kick Me, Part 3: I am the World’s Worst Clown
    • Doom, Camus, and Breakfast
  • Fiction, Misc.
    • Hap: The Story So Far
    • Hap the Crystalwright: Part One
    • Hap the Crystalwright, Part Two
    • Hap the Crystalwright, Part Three
    • Enchanted House
    • NO-SEE-UM
    • Classical Music We’ll Never Hear
  • Books, Reviews
    • The Stranger, by Albert Camus: A Consideration
    • My Best Books
    • Book Thoughts 1: Meaning of Life and Self Development, part 1
      • Book Thoughts 2: Meaning of Life and Self Development, part 2
      • Book Thoughts 3: Philosophy
      • Book Thoughts 4: Politics, Economics, History
      • Book Thoughts 5: Psychology, Mind, Human Nature
      • Book Thoughts 6: Novels and Plays
    • Four Books: Prison Diary
      • A Stack of Books: Prison Diary Excerpt
      • More Book Thoughts from My Prison Diary
      • Prison Diary: Books and More Books
      • Prison Diary: A Potpourri of Books
    • Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes and the Value of Literature: Prison Diary
    • Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth (Prison Diary)
    • Dobyns on Metaphor, and Henry James. Prison Diary Extract
    • A Discussion of To Kill A Mockingbird
    • On Reading Charles Bukowski
    • Prison Diary: Hemingway’s “Macomber” Story
    • Email to a Classics Book Discussion Group
  • The Bleak Philosophy
    • The Ten Percent Solution
    • Getting Started in Philosophy
    • A Cog in the Machine
    • Philosophy Today: Diary 9/11 to 9/12/21
    • Epistemology: Models & Mysteries
    • Know Thyself: A Personal Essay
    • What is it Like to be Me?
    • Knowledge and “Christopher Columbus”
    • Religion, Morality, and the Meaning of Life: Prison Diary
  • On Writing
    • Astronomy for the Writer
    • Notes of a Novelist
    • Expressing Thoughts in Fiction
    • Metaphor Examples
    • “You Need an Angle”
    • The Subjective Microscope
    • “She was angry.”
    • Good Mornings
    • Character Names, Expanded
    • Tasty Words
      • Tasty Words: Other
      • Tasty Words: Verbs
      • Tasty Words: Nouns
    • Why I Write
  • Poetry
    • Recent Poems
    • Old Poems, Mostly Awful, and Thoughts about Poetry
    • Poetry Sketchbook
    • Amateur Haiku

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