I am pretty sure that bad shit can and does happen, but I prepare myself for said shit and if it does happen I make the best out of it. I do not put a lot of stock into what people say and really only trust them when I see action. So yeah, the glass is half empty because I took the other half to put in my half full glass so when your incompetence breaks that half empty glass I still have a half full glass.
As if it's not obvious enough I'm a pessimist through and through about most things in my daily life. There are always times like when I see a stranger do something nice fort another that I have a shining moment of "Wow that was really cool." And it makes me smile and think people are generally good, as is life. Outside of that though, the thing that tweaks me more than anything is repeated stupidity. I had a lady call me 4 times yesterday within 30 minutes about THE SAME billing question. That kind of shit makes me think people suck at life.
100% pessimist, all the time. I am also able to, with some accuracy, predict the outcome of a given situation with multiple possible outcomes will end in the worst way for that person concerned, and when that happens, I always say "I told you so". I guess I'm a dick, sometimes. I think this comes from me expecting the worst from people generally and towards me personally, all the time and, more often than not, being correct. Not psychic, just completely pessimist expecting the worst and hardly ever being wrong.
Somewhat related to the topic of pessimism, there's a guy named Antoine de Maximy who does a French TV show called J'irai dormir chez vous (roughly translated, I'm going to sleep at your place). He goes to pretty much any country in the world - Morocco, Cambodia, China - and wanders around, meeting people, and staying over in people's houses without warning. The only time he got into any trouble was with some Inuit way out in the north of Quebec; otherwise, people are hospitable. This is something a good number of people would consider pretty dangerous. He did a movie of sorts travelling across the States. I think that says something about people's general disposition and maliciousness.
Hopefully this doesn't sound too angsty, but one part of my outlook that's very pessimistic is the long-term future, as in the future of humanity etc. I've been thinking about it more than usual since recently reading Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", followed by "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman. Long, depressing story short: Spoiler When it comes to my personal life, like TX., I like to believe I'm a cautious optimist. I trust people, but I become cautious when it's my ass on the line. At 22, I'm still young and dumb and have plenty of time to become jaded by experience.
I tend to think that optimism and pessimism are mostly self-fulfilling prophecies. When you go into a situation convinced it will end shittily, it usually does. And when you go into a situation thinking it'll be fine, it usually is. Exceptions happen, but for the most part people have an amazing talent to spin an outcome based on their own attitudes and predictions.
I'm optimistic that my life will always and forever be better than yours - since, from your posts on this board and TMMB, I could be lying in a street gutter begging passing men to let me suck their dicks for crack money, and comparatively I would still be a giant fucking ray of sunshine. Holy crap.
I can't edit the post anymore so I just want to clarify that I mean "spin" in not just a PR sense, but in terms of affecting/influencing the actual outcome.
This is something I always try to keep in mind, though I put more stock in the view that my actions/attitude won't necessarily change the outcome. Influence, yes, but not decide. I try to be optimistic about things, but that's tainted by a heavy dose of jaded cynicism. This is at complete odds with a lot of people I know, who tend to be overly optimistic. As in, if I were to say, "Oh man, my car just blew up the same day my boss kicked me in the balls for no reason", their responses would be along the lines of "Hey, at least you didn't spontaneously combust, and you should be very grateful to have a job." Ultimately, I try to keep my head up no matter what, but based on my admittedly limited life experience, I have no illusions about the tendency of Murphy's Law and human nature to fuck things up.