Rather than work on my novels or do something worthwhile with myself, I've taken to reading "The Best of Craigslist," which on the outset sounds tawdry and lame but is actually some of the most provocative writing on the internets today. Read with an eye towards the zeitgeist and you will notice several themes: sexual dissatisfaction, marital strife, financial misappropriation and resulting fallout, nihilism and anomie, the abominable state of the dating/bar/hookup scene, and A LOT of ugly furniture. I also find it reassuring that there are so many folks out there who are weirder/more maladjusted than I. I come from a total freakshow situation, so it is comforting to remind myself that I've never had a restraining order against me or anything.
There are also a lot of complaints about public transit and hospitals. Clearly, we live in a broken world.
I fear that as a culture, we well-fed Americans have unrealistic expectations about happiness. I know that I have suffered from such illusions and have made silly life choices based on bad messages I have gotten all my life. This is why I respect dudes who quit their jobs to forage for mushrooms in Oregon. Fuck prestige.