Philly feels

Yeah I would move to Philly if I could have my current job and/or team in Philadelphia. I could afford to live in downtown and it's clearly an up-and-coming city versus Boston's has-been.

The Philly smell has permeated my t-shirts though and uhhh it's gonna be a problem. Also, yoww unlike Boston Philly's got a solid black middle class?!

What's up with the rolled ice cream trend here though, I thought it went out of fashion a really long time ago? Either Philly's way ahead of Boston and has caught up to the trend coming back, or... It's become a legitimate Philly thing now, I guess.

Philly boys [Friday 30]

There was a long post here that got deleted while I paused to think and I'm Hella mad for Google's @ss blogger app. F this shit. Summarizing everything below.

Work was per the usual, working remotely from friend's place near Philly. Most exciting thing to happen was I ate a full avocado and made two legitimate avocado toasts. Went to Philly in the evening and got stuck in traffic for an hour because we took an uber instead of the train on a Friday evening. Walked around downtown Philly and I found Philly to have more NYC vibes than Boston vibes, in a good way. Philly as a city, though it may be smaller and less affluent, has a lot of interesting stuff going on culinary wise compared to Boston since Boston's so expensive and no one can afford to experiment there. There's a lot of good and affordable places to eat in downtown Philly unlike Boston. I liked how diverse the city is and how distinct the Philly soul is compared to Boston. Girls are nicer here too IMHO. Went to an Indian restaurant and had a really tangy and authentic dosa, and biryani, good times throughout.

Walked to old city and waterfront and I got a pretty good mocktail and friends got beers at a brewery and good times were had. Walked over to this fair playground thing by the Delaware River looking over Camden and considered seriously the possibility there's something about Philadelphia that makes it a romantic city.

Watched a bit of Derry girls at 2am because apparently my friends prof who is Northern Irish had the exact Derry girl experience in the nineties. Too tired, went to sleep.

This post is better than the one I originally wrote. Conciseness and quantity of content can and do go together and I should consider being less wordy when I write here. More is rarely ever better.

Bus and burger [ Thursday 29]

Work was as usual yesterday, perhaps on the slower side.

I ate for three days maybe four during lunch yesterday and it was a bit much... Like maybe after my third sandwich I should have stopped but didn't, because there was a cookie as big as my face in front of me and I had to have it even if that meant I was eating enough for seven kids in Darchula. In the evening everyone was just rushing for home because it was the Thursday before the long weekend and of course everyone was going to be working from home on Friday.

The trip to South station was extremely frustrating (see: yesterday's post) as it took me way longer in the train than it would have me had I just walked the entire way. Which I ended up doing anyway since the train I finally got into showed no sign of moving, or closing the doors for that matter, so I figured I'd just get out and walk, something I should have done all along. And right outside the stop I saw the Burger. King, and you know the story about that from the other post.

The bus ride itself was... Just ok. I keep forgetting how uncomfortable bus seats are, and how much they hurt my back, neck, legs, all of them. Like what it is about them that makes them more uncomfortable than regular seats I don't understand but naive common sense would suggest they would try making it more comfortable than a car ride (whose substitute they are, or should be) but it's almost as if they want to remind you every moment of your existence in the bus that you are in there because you made a series of bad decisions and if you were a better person in any way you wouldn't be suffering through the punishment.

Also, funny stuff, I don't understand how this works, but it seems a lot of fast food messes with my stomach? Like, maybe it's the oil, or potentially several other things, but the whopper I had yesterday made me feel a lot more bloated (read: farty) than usual which was really rough because I didn't want to stink up the bus but then I didn't want to go to the restroom just to fart every fifteen minutes either. Maybe it was just the uncomfortable traveling that messed me up though, I want to give the chains the full benefit of doubt.

So I got in at Phila at 12.15 in the morning, chilled there for like fifteen minutes and got in at my friend's place in the burbs (we took an Uber) at 1.15. We talked for the next two hours and caught up on eight months of conversations, and slept pretty late. Fun times. The house I'm staying on at is so professory. Loving it!

In other news, I'm so so so close to completing my cli blogging tool, really excited about that!

The Burger King Impossible Burger Review etcetera

I'm writing this on the bus to Philadelphia (Philly!! The city I kinda fell in love in, and at, even?). I've had two days worth of calories already today so... this one's gonna be one bloated ride.

A little earlier I went into a burger king and got the famous impossible whopper. It came in at around seven dollars including all the taxes, which is kind of expensive for just the sandwich for a fast-food joint. I wasn't hungry at all when I got it... On the contrary I was quite stuffed and didn't feel like eating anything at all but due to the uhh logistical difficulties caused by the mbta I found myself in front of a burger king. Since I'm like a fast food sandwich expert now (much like most of America these days, damn fast food is really thriving in the social media era) it made sense to try BK's popular impossible whopper. Like, why not, it's not even meat, and it's grilled.

I have never been a fan of the whopper. I've had it, maybe a couple of times, but it has been mostly unmemorable and perhaps even on the slightly disappointing side. I'm more of a Wendy's kinda guy, if you will. So I had pretty low standards to begin with. I carried the burger to my bus -- I was cutting close to the departure time thanks to...you know the drill now -- and ate rather shamefully, facing away from my  seatmate, who I did not want to nasally assault with the various odours.

I noticed white onions, tomatoes, pickles, and mayo, besides the patty and the bread. Nothing was too overpowering save for maybe onions, but I like the crunch and flavor of onions so I'm not complaining about that. The bread was, to use the accurate cliché, pillowy, and not particularly well toasted if at all. It didn't distract away from the patty, which can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how well you like breads.

Now the patty itself: I can see someone mistaking it for a beef patty. Which would be unfortunate because I liked it better than the beef whopper. It has a slight pea-like, rubbery, maybe even sex-adjacent smell, which I much prefer over the stench of oil and beef. It's got the texture of an ok meat patty, and you're unlike to confuse if for any of the existing vegetables burgers. It holds itself well bite after bite and does not crumble like potato patties or bean patties. There's a certain amount of juiciness to it even, which I've read is low-temp plant-based oils kneaded with the rest. It's not mind-blowing but not disappointing either. It's a good mouthful.

Every bite I took, I wanted more, though by the end of if I was quite satisfied. As a kinda-vegetarian, this is going to be on top of the list of things I'd eat at any fast food restaurant, and that's not just because it's not meat either, it's legitimately good. I'm not sure how happy I'm about the price tag though, several 'regular' meat-based burgers could be had at that point, but that's likely missing the lede: it's a burger for people like myself who want to explore vegetarian options and are willing to spend a little money on it

Overall, not a bad burger and definitely worth trying, and eating once a while. Just make sure to be in an open space and not assault your coworkers and friends and family with the strong onion burps.

Update: on the same day I eat at a BK, where I eat like twice a year, my bus to Philadelphia stops at a BK too for dinner. Is this irony?

...and other things [Wednesday 28]

I had other things happen in my day besides the traumatic commute from the last post. Work was work, per the uzzhh. I went on my third(?) candidate lunch this week, which has led me to wonder if it's a good thing to have it happen to me or a bad thing, because... free lunches all week long, and all you have to do is talk to people for a bit sounds like a...scam...or a trick? In any case, there's a table-tennis tournament going on at work and I was matched against my manager and he put in a meeting called the duel and I totally zoned out on the tourney thing and figured it was a regularly meeting. I was kind of impressed he was naming our regular meetings so intensely, but then they told me it was for a game and I was relieved but also kind of disappointed because life is not that exciting and I shouldn't count on life suddenly turning around and becoming like a walls-street type of movie in a day. I've started liking the lunch from the Mediterranean place around work. Who knew falafel pita wraps could be so good, amirite people.

After work, my roommate SM had invited a couple of his friends --actually, people he hadn't seen in a while-- over, and they stayed around for a couple of hours. Very nice, fun people, also all very smart, who are doing a wide variety of different things, and again you realize the two-degree of connection of connected people in Kathmandu is pretty lame, but fun was had, AD was teased, etcetera. PK claims V, who hadn't been in our place before looks like AD's twin (they have the same hairstyle, the same facial hair, the same facial structure, work in the same industry, talk with the same-ish nepali accent, and even have some finance-industry acquaintances between them!) but AD claims that half the bahun men of our age group would look like twins if you took the bar for 'looking like a twin' so low. SM's experiment/demonstration with the balance device didn't go too well, and I was kind of disappointed at other people because I always enjoy a good trick and they let their judgments be clouded by too many critical thoughts. It's a dinner party trick, you're not supposed to try to run double-blind, triple-blind, control experiments on it okaay. Okay fine suggesting it is a good idea, for fun's sake but don't actually be...all...i dunno, science-y on it you know? I understand PK's comment 'do you believe in the laws of physics, cos your mind's gonna bloww' may have set the expectations unreasonably, but regardless of what the overeager showman tells you, you still have to remember dinner party tricks are just those, tricks that shouldn't be looked at too closely.

Rider rage [Wednesday 28]

My commute yesterday took an hour and fourty minutes (which while actually is a gazillion minutes, is mathematically closer to like, 105 minutes) when on a normal day it takes 35-40 minutes. I brag around once in a while how my commute is 35 mins at best and 55 at the worst. Yesterday was... quite something. It was on the way back. It was raining, so I already knew things were gonna be all fucked up. The maps apps told me the previous bus had been like 10 minutes late, which in MBTA parlance is the bus actually coming BEFORE it's due, so I didn't get too hot and bothered by that. Then the counting began, We skipped pass three scheduled buss arrivals, and there still was no sign of a bus. Finally, on the 35-ish minute waiting mark [it was raining outside, I didn't have an umbrella, and the rain protection at the stop was pretty bad, so I was wet as a smelly dog from waist downwards] a steamy icky bus finally rolls in. There's a rush to get in, and somehow I make in, though at that time I was convinced that I'd have to spend the rest of my life there in the Sullivan Station parking lot getting ready for retirement etcetera. We get in, and then the bus barely moves after, because it's raining and the traffic is so bad. We push through, and make halfway through our way, and then the bus stops. For, like a really long time. Like...long time even by Somerville traffic-stop standards. Then people start leaving the bus from the front, and everyone starts wondering loudly what's up so the driver finally tells us the bus is broken af. And it's still raining and hot and humid outside. So we...get out of the bus, and walk in the rain for like ten minutes until the next bus stop. And wait for another fifteen whatever minutes for yet another bus, that was also overflowing with people. On the way home, I see three fking buses of the same route in the other direction driving behind one another, and I was seething like a pot of boiling...bus...material...aluminum. And of course there was still the four minute walk home in the rain after I got off the bus, which was pleasant as ever. Goood times. Goood goood times.

It's just RAAAIIN people, we've had it for years! Like hundreds of years even! WE have the tEcHnOLoGy to deal with a bit of humidity and rain you know? And it's bOsToN where it rains regularly --- often, I might say -- so we should have a better way of dealing with traffic issues when it's raining and not just pretend it's like a natural disaster the likes of which we've never seen before. Yeaa the roads are slipperier, but that doesn't mean the entire public transport infrastructure has to shut down for that!

In semi-related news, Somerville is actively working towards creating bus lanes (bus-exclusive lanes) on busy streets, so I'm excited about how that's going to make the commute a lot more predictable and likely a bit shorter. It's not going to end all of everyone's public-transport woes, but it's a great start and they should just get on it, right now, right here, chop chop!

The most difficult position

[idea towards the Hiranya story. need to work more on it, right here..]

Hiranya was not the kind of person to get swept up by his friends' mischievous antics. While this was mostly due to him getting swept up by his own haawaa hijinks, he did also consider himself to be a proper and well-behaving boy. Besides the things he liked doing which, he argued, were not terrible and illegal and technically would still qualify him to the good-boyhood status. What he was most definitely not was the kind of person who would be convinced to do something not only forbidden but also illegal, that could cause him a lot of embarrassment and some prison time if discovered.

The preceding weeks and months had been challenging for him.. First there was his father, who he felt could have been from another planet and not even related by the way he acted. He wanted Hiranya to go to some camp or another in the mountains. Hiranya had made plans with friends for the year-end holidays and absolutely refused to compromise on those. He ended up not talking to his father for three weeks, and spent his days watching tv on high volume instead of following up on his original plans -- just to spite the man. Then the guilt. He felt bad about the entire situation, since he'd blamed his inability to go to the India trip on his father. He wanted to apologize to his father, and to his friends, and just clear up the air, but couldn't. He had dug himself too far in. All summer he had the looks of an emotionally constipated man.

Then there was this other...situation. There was a girl...from around the neighborhood...who he had started talking to earlier in the summer. He wasn't sure if he liked her, but she was nice to him, and was a girl, and wasn't particularly rude or anything like that, so he was sure there was something going on in there. He was considering asking her out on 'some sort of date-like event', the way he thought about it, the worst she could do was say no and insult him and his entire family or whatever and he'd be right back where he started at the beginning of the summer, which wasn't really a loss. His friends hadn't met her, of course. They could never meet her, ever, or it would be the end of ...well, maybe not the end end of, but still... he would be teased and annoyed to insanity and he wasn't ready for that yet. Not until he had like kissed at fondled around at least, he thought with great conviction. That's when he would be ready telling his friends and extended group about the girl he was -- he didn't want to say date because that might suggest some conviction and responsibility on his side -- seeing...or talking to...or whatever...and who might become his girlfriend one day.

Unfortunately for him, they found out. And it ended exactly the way he knew it would. [Should I explain what happened right here, or at a later location?] He was still pissed at them for that, which was also why he didn't want to go on the trip with them. It's not just about me, he imagined explaining to an intellectual, it's their disrespect for human emotions and sense of self that I wish to punish. Now that the summer was ending he felt lonely.

Painting up, and no cycling yet [Tuesday 27]

Finally got around to putting up the painting I had bought at Rockport. I think of myself generally as a mostly mature, adult human being who's had his fair share of 'being cooked'. And yet with the hanging-of-the-painting, I started from scratch -- I didn't get it done right on Monday (and the painting is riiight above my head when I sleep) and had to redo it. For some reason hanging paintings and command hooks feels like something that should come to one naturally, you know?

The household hammer, which had gone missing for many months, has been rediscovered deep within the piles in the common-room closet, and it was such a relief for me because JD really needs hammers sometimes, and I felt responsible of misplacing it.

Went to the thrift store at Davis after work yesterday, and...you know what...I'm not sure if it's just me or the season or what, and this comes from someone who has traditionally loooved loooved them, but I uhh am starting to think the household section (or the store in general) of the thrift store in Davis is not particularly good or exciting and could use a redo. Like, I know I've found some treasures there (like the claypot baking dish, among others), but it just doesn't feel exciting anymore. Is it me that changed, or the thrift store? Ahh thrift store, how we've dhrifted apart!

The pizza at Oath pizza in Davis is pretty good -- had one yesterday, and it was dripping with the olive oil, but actually quite good. The half-pizza that I got was quite satisfying, and I felt good after eating it, so win-win?

The government finally returned some of the money it owed me, and it STILL owes me quite some money, so it feels like I'm a loan shark now, lol?

Ended up not biking or doing bike-related things last night because there was a department meeting at work that goes on for longer than regular work hours, and then I took the Davis route to get back, so by the time I was home, it was so late there was nothing to do but clean my room finally. Which I did! I got around to it, yay, and I'm almost (almost almost) quite satisfied with it. With the painting up, my backpacks on the wall, and the room mostly-clean, all I need is a nice rack in here, and I'll be rockin' like a...aa...umm.. a villain. Or chillin'. Killin' maybe, idk, as in you're killin' it maan. You know what I mean. Okbyeee

Cycling returns [August 26 Monday]

Started cycling again yesterday, hopefully will last for long this run. Got tickets to go to Phila. for labor day weekend, and it's gonna be fun fun fun. Wrote more than a thousand words on the nature of the khyaa, and the conclusion was: it needs to be treated like a proper human being, so I'll be giving khyaaks the dignity and language reserved for humans. Had a productive meeting at work, though work itself wasn't particularly productive. Did a bit of cooking, and had a solid protein-only dinner last night, which felt filling so I'm leaning towards doing that a lot more. Heard back from the fam this morning, and they're headed towards the destination in India and they're gonna have a fun time, quite happy about that. Need to get back to baking and dehydrating soon, but that kinda' stuff often sorts itself out. Worked a bit (several hours on the writing/blogging app, and the conclusion I've come to with that is : I'm trying to recreate a blog, but with a different interface. I can just use the existing and write to a private blog instead. Still need to figure out weird google authentication stuff, and I should be all set beyond that.

With regards to my posting here, it's been about two weeks since I started regularly posting here. My record (!) for regularly posting here is a couple of months (back in the heyday of blogging in Nepal). If I can get writing down as a inseparable habit, with a short startup time and thought time, and can get the process down to ~15-20 minutes, it's possible i'll be able to break my 'laziness' during holidays and non-work days and still keep posting during non-regimented days. Since my habit-breaking events are always non-regimented days, once I can bridge them too, I'll have a good pace going, and I can finally trust myself as a habitual person, with good habits. Need to work on that more. A quick startup would mean I can do other activities in the meanwhile, so I'd be double/triple as productive as I am usually.

Updates on the Khyaak [lightly edited for clarity and readability]

Hey I read your blog and you know what my great grandma had a seto [white] khyaak as a pet ni

They were considered Laxmi's baahan [vehicles] 
Only the kaalo ones are alacchin ... typical right ??

I know Soo many khyaak stories ... Mero mom ko Didi claims she's seen one of them with her own eyes. Kumari ko khyaak and apparently everyone knew +saw the raake bhoot.. it's like a aago ko golo that Chases u around khichapohari area

 -PA

The Khyaa was a rather diminutive creature. Not much taller than the average sixth-grader, it had long unkempt hair that knotted around itself going reaching down to its navel. It had hairy legs, and a very jarringly hairy chest -- its chest hairs grew in all the directions, and were stubby and curly, resembling a man's pubis. It's pubic area was covered by the belly overhang, but you could make out the ends of a stubby penis. Its legs resembled that of a fat baby. The Khyaa's breasts were pendulous and plump, the nipples were tiny bumps on rather pointy mountains. Most confusingly of all, it had very pretty hands -- long, sleek and clean, and there was significant muscle definition in the biceps and triceps. Its lips were red -- redder than blood and whiny, and appeared to have a thick layer of eyeliner around the eyes. The eyelids were light purple in color, but one barely noticed them against supernaturally thick and well-kept eyebrows. The Kyaah's hair parted right in the middle of its forehead. It had a flat, golden bracelet around its neck, with some sort of shiny round insignia  hanging off of it.

The best fast-food chicken sandwich in America

Last friday over lunch a few of us from work went to Popeyes to get their famous chicken sandwich that's taken over the media  recently. It had been more than five months since I had any kind of meat first, so it was definitely a little disruptive event in the least (particularly for my digestive system). The trip ended up taking us 3 hours in total from start to the end [which led me two staying at work for two extra hours], but the general consensus was, it was worth having spent a Friday afternoon on that just to get ahead on all the plebs that don't want to line up for hours just to get a chicken sandwich at a fast-food chain.

Here's the review I sent to my friends:

Okay so verdict: it's the best fast food sandwich. Chick-fil-e's deluxe spicy chicken comes close, but this is by far the crispiest of chkn sandwiches. It is on the greasier side, but you aren't going to Popeye's if you're watching out for that. At four dollars before taxes, it's worth every dollar. Popeyes has situated itself as a serious competitor to chick fil e (more upscale, more spendy customers) versus McDonald's or Wendy's. It's also a reminder of the huge influence black people have/had over the culinary scene in America, and the general cultural influence black people have/had in America.

 The comment regarding 'black people' wasn't out of nowhere: the entire thing got so big due to something called 'black people twitter', and Popeyes is particularly popular with Black Americans.

The writer's old groove [Saturday 25]

Finally got some of my grooove back and finished all the bs chores I had kept procrastinating for almost a week. Started a new round of kombucha in the morning.

In the afternoon, sbk and pb and I went to Rockport. I ended up spending some amount of money (a lot by my art-purchase standards) buying a nice painting on a dare. The sad thing about buying art in a tourist-town art-shop is that it's a looot worse deal to buy pieces of art less than 10k than those over like 50k or whatever. Literally zerrro resale value. Whatever. It was an exciting time for me, and I got a lot of shopping done at Costco too, so it was a win-win (win?) for me.

Listened to a couple of episodes of tall  and  white podcast, which is hosted by two American women in Kathmandu. It was definitely a different perspective.

Lots of fun plans for the upcoming long weekend... Which reminds me, my daily routine and total planning went completely out of the window over the weekend, which tells me I'm still not where I want to be with regards to my self discipline. It's improving (i did work on checking off the points for like half hour, and eventually got everything done) and I'm pretty proud of the fact that I did put an effort in creating those and detailing those, but still, not there yet -- but getting closer!

Good times, and old times [Saturday 24]

We went to NH yesterday (and yes, since it was a holiday I appear to have lost all sense of discipline) to two places that quite dear to me: pawtuckaway state park (where I went to multiple times as an undergrad to camp at) and to exeter NH (woohoo!).

I was surprised how much I missed Exeter and how fondly I remembered the place, considering I definitely remember having not-so-great time there. I had great time personally there, but not socially, and if I had had or am gonna have, a couple of folks to hang around with (and maybe a car, and a partner), it's actually a pretty sweet town that I wouldn't mind moving back to. We walked through the downtown, and it's still as sweet and absurd as it was (they have a big UFO convention next weekend haa). I had really forgotten how green and nature-y NH is, and how much I enjoyed biking around the countryside, to the beach and all around. There were good times, and there were bad times but ohh man the good times were so good! Oh, and we went back to Las Olas (good ole' las olas) and everyone so loved it.

In any case, yesterday was a good day, spent with friends, in good places. Gonna miss the summer and the fall yooo!

Gone Girl [Friday 23]

Spent three hours in a Popeyes trip yesterday for lunch, which is a tale of its own. Stayed in work almost two hours more than I usually do because my manager did too and I had nothing better to do. Hung out and talked to TK, who's moving to Cali and who has so.many.interesting.stories! I suggested she start a rap band with her friend and her super young cousins. Was there till like almost 12. Got ice-cream at cristine's and it was just okay, at least it didn't trigger my lactose intolerance.

This morning I have been learning about Raake bhooots and khyaak from PA. Gonnaa write that up soon. This post may be updated to explain things in detail. Going to NH/ME soonish so laters!

Out of sync [Thu 22]

My unusual sleep cycle continued till yesterday... I couldn't stay up after coming back home, and then hard a hard time going back to sleep at the right time. I did seriously resist sleeping in the early evening, so I finally got some semblance of a sleep cycle back -- I should have a reasonable sleep cycle starting today hopefully. I'm starting to think whether the 'SAD' that I thought I had all winter was actually a fucked-up sleep cycle which I failed to recognize. Fucked up sleep takes away a surprisingly lot away from you than I'd recognized.

Last night I made a new type of salad -- it wasn't the best ever, but with some modifications it could turn out to be pretty good I think. Need to get back to working on the Kombucha -- I was supposed to do it the day before, and then yesterday, and both attempts were foiled by the messed-up sleep.

Went to the dentist yesterday and things are looking good there. Got two more appointments for next week, and I should be at the pinnacle -- if there's such a thing -- of dental health.

KB from SG was back for a day at work, and she's the funniest. I was giggling like a fool. Hope she's around a lot more in the future. There was talk of personal offices at work yesterday, and everyone laughed when I said how unproductive it would make me.

Roommate PK is very close to figuring his job situation out, though at this point its a do-or-die situation from him.

Discombobulated [Wed 21]

Slept 3 hours straight after work yesterday, and didn't get much sleep at night because of that. Really groggy and discombobulated this morning. My roommate passed his test with flying colors, so to speak, and is very relived. My fasting and food intake plan might need to be de-formalised as it might be interfering with my other plans. Will be starting yoga next week, exciting days ahead. Was moderately productive at work yesterday, though didn't get much written. Good, long conversation with M yesterday, and various innovations might be discovered. Had little time to work on fermentation, growth or dehydrating yesterday because of all the confused and messed up timetable, which happened due to a bad headache to begin with. Really hoping this doesn't give me headache today.

Starting to consider the idea of writing about the khyaak more seriously. Ghost and/or unnatural themed stories based in Kathmandu aren't as common as they should be considering what a big role they play in people's everyday lives in Kathmandu. I want to change that.

The winds of winter

You have been smitten, the Khyaak told Haka out of nowhere one day, as he lay on his bed trying to chat up a girl. Haka had no previous experience dealing with the supernatural. As his knowledge of them was limited to the stories his grandmother had told him as a child, he was not entirely sure what being smitten meant either. What what what, what does that mean, what does that mean, Haka shouted. He was dizzy and lightheaded, for he had rushed to stand too fast. He held his head by the temples to stop the rolling. The Khyaak had positioned itself upside down on the ceiling, it was smoking a dark brown piece of wood. It blew out a long puff of peacock-colored smoke. That means, the Khyaak explained,  you will turn to the side of evil, and I will be there to assist you. It sounded like an old Newar man who had smoked a pack of local cigarettes every until he died from lung cancer, to end up enjoying hell due to all the odors and smoke there. That's nnot n-necessary, Haka stammered as he sat on the bed, his eyes not letting go of the Khyaak once.

Out of ideas?? [Tusday, 20]

I sat down to write last evening, and blanked out. Writer's 'block' is uhh, as exciting as 'rock-climbers block' IMHO, but I did really blank out. I need to have a stash of really amazing and exciting writing ideas for short writing exercises so I can pick one off and write on it at leisure.  I did consider writing for the three novels I was working on, but it was late in the evening, tired, and sleepy honestly, and it didn't work out. It should be a todo for me perhaps: remember to make a list of easily-usable writing ideas.

Yesterday was as uneventful as it gets, got to work on time, had two lunches [a candidate lunch with a candidate who was amazing in Copley square, and pizza from the other, more popular lunch meeting], trudged through work (not because I don't like it, but it's tricky, and I keep getting stuck), listened to several podcast eps on the way back, and cleaned my room and did laundry. Finally. I was up until 12 for that one, but it wasn't an awful experience.

JS was here last night, and they went out to watch movies(?) do moving stuff and got pizza in Davis square. I need to make a note on the productivity on laundry days -- I cannot be over-productive on laundry days, and the only thing that goes with laundry is cleaning up. Besides that, if I try hard at multitasking with laundry, I end up not doing anything particularly well, and don't get very excited for the next time's laundry. Who knew...etcetera. Roommate PT has a difficult exam today and he really needs to pass, and he's pretty nervous about getting there, wish him all the best.

Crisis on the logistics front (Monday 19)

The house has run out of TP and we're resorting to using paper towels... Calamity!
Yesterday I may have unknowingly messed with the production database. Met an old friend and converted her from core product to our product. Su gave business ideas and I unknowingly just pissed him off. Today is fasting day but it's also a free lunch day so probably gonna fast on Wednesdays now. Not enough sleep in recent days, due to lack of device discipline. Need to head to work ASAP to fix things.
Aldi is closed for renovations so these are some testing times! Pr needs a job, really really quick but it hasn't been working out the way he wants it yet. Bb tried setting me up with a coworker and I laughed it off, what was that all about?

Things that happened: Sunday, 18

Yesterday my roommates invited their former boss and current employee of a hot seattle startup funded by Bezos and Zuckerberg. He came over for lunch (and we had extended conversations with him, about business investing, life, and his Nepali edu-tech startup that we have all been involved with one way or the other) and left for his flight at seven in the evening. Su's friend, a person from his law school came over too, since she was attending the same law-ish school that he's attending and we spent the entire day with her for second day in a row -- she must have gotten tired of us already but at least we're helping us figure things out and more particularly the housing situation. Later J.S and A.D came in too, and fun was had. AD apparently came from a swamp run or something, and had a participation medal with him so fun was had at his expense. Later SK and PB came in and even more loud conversations were had and we went to Mint for dinner, we sad underneath a nice park nearby eating our food. After everyone left and we were cleaning up the house, Su summarized his lessons for the day and said he was gonna send them to his girlfriend over email as part of his diary entries, and I figured it was a good idea. I got up the next morning (today) washed up, and wrote two blog posts early in the morning on related matters. The second entry was a diary entry summarizing what had happened the previous day, and towards the end I got too meta and self-referential and started observing that I was writing a diary as a part of the diary entry, and then in the end wrote that I'd written the self-referential meta comment itself because I had not much to write and I wanted the entry to have enough words. I guess I'll be more short and sweet in the coming days...

Cross blogging and verifying reality

One of my roommates Sub tells us last night, he's recording the happenings of the day over email and sending them to his girlfriend in the evening. If I ever want to write a biography, I want it to be accurate and I want to kinda' remember what happened, he says. That's a good idea, but how do you know if he's right if it's only him who's recording the events? Sure, a biography is supposed to be one person's view at a series of events, but if you want accuracy too, two or perhaps three, sets of eyes are better than one, no?

Which is why I'm considering putting more household happenstances here, as I used to back in '12-'13, when my annual blog count was in the hundreds (rather than tens, or dozens in recent years). No value judgments mind, just a quick summary of what happened over the day (or the previous day, as it may be) and a couple of points of light commentary. That would be very close to what many people back in the day used to refer to when talking about the act of 'keeping a diary', as it may be (to translate: so, it'll be like, keeping a diary lol). Why not, yeah, why not? Maybe if things are awful this will go down, but I'm not gonna make rules forcing me to write a diary rigorously -- I'll just write that particular stuff when I'm absolutely feeling it, and otherwise just write the random BS I come up with here anyway. I think that's a good compromise.

Roomies assemble!

My current housing situation is almost a 'where are they now' kinda thing where all the roommates from the past (of this house) are in here, and working together and it's almost television-like? Like, it'd make a good FRIENDS IMHO, haha, but then I keep saying that about everyone's life so I don't know if that's true (here's my argument: if someone took every two weeks of your and your friends' lives and condensed that into 20-something minutes, with some plotting that doesn't otherwise become apparent in real life, isn't literally every person's life worth telling?) but I still feel it'd be an interesting watch.

In other news, after a break of almost a month and a half (approaching two), I'm back in my dehydrating, fermenting, brewing, etcetera projects, and things are cool. I've started plotting out my various novels (the Raul novel plotting is in my other writing section, it's not as fleshed out, but it's the one I feel I can turn the quickest into a novel, so I should pay more attention into that).

Call me like boasty or humblebrag or like flexy or whatever but I'm actually proud of my rudimentary plotting guys!

Completed Hiranya's story, and future writing plans

I just plotted out the entirety of the planned novel for Hiranya Kashyap here. This is the most plotting of a story I've ever done without actually writing any of the story, so I'm pretty excited about it.
Current idea is to write every chapter concurrently (or almost so). So that would be like a hundred words here, a couple of hundreds there, and so on, until I was done with beginnings of all the chapters, and then I'd write the meat and potatoes, and then the ends, all at the same time. Another idea I've been considering is to write every chapter like in steps. So right now I have a very basic outline/summary of each chapter. In the next stage, I'd elaborate each individual idea into about ~100 words, so I'd get about 100-300 words per chapter. It would still be the summary of the larger set of events to happen, and the various threads in a same chapter wouldn't yet be connected. Then in the next phase, I'd expand that ~100 words into ~400-600 words, and get most of the stuff in there, and then have primitive connections to other threads. Finally, I'd add interesting dialog (rather than purely functional one), small observations, elaborate on character etc, and then connected the various threads completely, so the various events happening in the same chapter seem connected to each other. Finally, I'd put finishing touches on it, and have one, straight chapter, after removing the choppy bits. It's a plan, we'll see where it goes.

Biking, bro

Now that my bike is back in, I'm gonna be biking all the time, broo. Biking to the oceans, biking to the lakes, biking to the mountains, and biking for groceries' sake.

It's the fifth season of riding that my trusty but originally cheapo bike has given me. The expenses I've put on it have been many times over the original cost of the bike, but oh dear I still do love my goddarn tiny folding bike.

Weird dreamas

If my dreams this morning were so scary and strange why did I keep wanting to see them?

Weekend uodates

Restful weekend, after a long time in my bed. Pretty productive too, though it could have been better. Went to look at Gisele and her football-playing husband's 45-million USD apartment in Brookline. The absolute lack of any kind of groceries during the last week has been only a mild inconvenience.

Plotting Hiranya's story

Have been 'plotting' my stories a lot lately, because spontaneity and organic story-growth haven't worked out yet. Baby steps.

Story of Hiranya

* The Horned One: Hiranya finds himself getting carried away by his rebellious friends' schemes and gets himself in a difficult position. The girls dare each other into drunkenness in the dorms.

 * New friends, and old ones: The find a beloved classmate has left the school. They are ambivalent about a new one. The girls jump across the wall for a comfortably uneventful all-night adventure.

* Demons of the Past: A story about the school from way back resurfaces in the media, and the guys are involved in various ways. The girls speak out. [Allegations of mistreatment of girls by guys, gang's members have family on both sides, there's an all-out war that's stopped when they agree to change things going forward.]

* Boys, interrupted: A travel plan to the mountains during the holidays is disrupted when a suspected spy outs the secret plan. Hiranya defends himself. The girls bike up a mountain. [Long-weekend plans are cancelled, gang has fun anyway]

* The rebellion: A teacher's actions cause the guys to lead an all-out rebellion against the school. The girls don't want to be involved in the drama. [A student claims to be an innocent victim of a teacher's irrational ire]

* Oops I did it Again!: The guys discover some things are worth pondering over. The girls have a weekend-long bender. [The student from the previous chapter was doing something indefensibly illegal)

* Vindication? : The school administration reveals facts that would vindicate the gang's rebellion. Except the gang doesn't want to accept it. The girls find a chance to be heard. [The activities teacher is removed and investigated on, the gang has close connections with him, and feels being set up]

* Voice of the Youth: Hiranya spearheads a student newspaper, which quickly ends up turning into a gossip rag. The girls back him up.

* Kid me Not: Hiranya's journalistic activities get him to know a new friend close-up. Is it too close for him? The girls and the guys become suspicious friends [Hiranya gets a maybe-girlfriend]

* Turned off: Everyone is gone for Dashain holidays, except a few of the core gang. They decide to experiment. The girls consider the act of kissing.

* I'll be back!: Hiranya is back from holidays, but only for a few days! The gang plans future misbehavior. The girls are interested.

* On fire! : The pressure of post-holiday exams heats things up. The girls and the guys consider pairing up.

 * Submarine: The exam results come out, and the guys find themselves below sea-level. The girls are accused of sabotage.

***halfway***

*  Spooked: Ghosts of dead soldiers are seen around in the school, terrifying the school. The gang decides to investigate. Meanwhile, Hiraya and friends get cast for the annual drama. Disagreements in artistic visions lead to conflict and compromises. 

* Teaser: As the annual drama gets closer, the gang is cleaved. Hiranya has trouble balancing school, friends, and drama. Romantic liaisons are sped up. Arrival of a young American drama director causes much gossip.

* aaand, Action!: Talks of taking relationships to the next stage. Drama finale causes much drama, the gang begins reconciling. The gang is excited at the prospect of newspaper reviews for the drama.

* It's too reel: Unflinched by the critics, the gang decides to take things to the next level by starting a web tv series based off of their own lives. Hiranya defends accusations of journalistic dishonesty. Old grudges simmer up.

* Coaster: Fame is discovered to be corrupting. The gang discovers its friendship tested. Questions whether they are done for good.

* Stuck: The gang goes on an extended trip to the mountains over vacation. They are tested by the trials of traveling together. The gang fear for their lives as they are snowed in on a mountain hut.

* The chills: Cold weather gives the gang the chills, but the approaching exams scares the shit out of them. It's cold and the school is on a pairing season. Warm rooms and cool people abound. The nation braces for bad news.

* Carried away: The nation is swept away by a crisis, the gang is afraid and confused. Emotional support leads to unlikely friendships. The gang gets existential. A friend departs.

* Order, order: The national crisis continues, social dynamics in school changes, while everyone braces for the worst. Relationships are initiated. The administration gives in to student demand, right after the student body rescinds its demands. There is general stress and fear in the air.

* Derry doo: As the new tense situation becomes normal, the gang adjusts to the changed world. Friendships get stronger, enemies become friends, and friends become lovers. The impending arrival of the finals is the least of everyone's concerns as uncertainty of the future clouds the horizon.

* Dhukdhuk: Extraordinary exams in extraordinary circumstances test the school. The gang plans to take action over the holidays. The annual dance competition fails to cheer anyone up. The school gets a new water supply.

* Goodbye good knight: Everyone is ready to go home after the exams, and yet no one is ready. An extraordinary act of kindness and generosity surprises everyone. Hiranya asks for forgiveness. Looming omens regarding the next year.



* Caught! : An unrelated account of the school tells the story of a group of guys that was found in the girls' dorm, how they ended up there, how they attempted to evade, and how their followers planned their capture. As they are suspended or expelled, the reader wonders if it's our gang.

Subplots and arcs

The guys and the girls merge, the guys are tired of being too adventurous, the girls are getting increasingly so. Where will this end?

Some guys are in relationships, same with the girls. Their singles don't want to take advice on relationships and making out.

There's always water shortage in the background, so a lot of action happens either at nights, or when the groups are out in search of water. Or both. Good stories can come out of guys going to girls' hostel at nights for innocent reasons! ("I was thirsty....for water.. I-I me...me--mean, ma'aam")

There's a known pyro in the class, and big accidents are averted when students and teachers just casually extinguish fires and distract the pyro. One of the guys' friends is a pathological liar. 

The eco-political background of the story is based in a post climate-change, lagos-style Kathmandu, with multiple cable car lines. There are water taxis, because Kathmandu gets flooded so often, and they pop once in a while in the story. Ground floors of low-lying houses are abandoned/turned into temporary storage.

Mein Kraft

A version of Minecraft adapted for Trumpy world, run by the Kraft family.

Have been watching Minecraft videos again, after a six year gap, and man things have changed with the modding scene No one plays vanilla Minecraft anymore, and they've created massive mini games inside the Minecraft world. Pretty sneaky sis.

Rules are meant to be ...(?)

They say not too seriously that rules are meant to be broken. You can only break rules, however, when you are bound by a system, and you have lukewarm feelings towards them. It's fun to break the rules, if there's any you follow. If you're a lawless vagrant kinda' person, there are no rules to be broken (tons of bones though if you're into that) so there's less fun.

I'll stop with this nonsense right now and get to the point: there aren't enough rules for me to follow, so my life's generally pretty unstructured and extremely unplanned. When people talk about how awesome it is to be spontaneous, they come from a place of being generally planned and organized and letting go once in a while. When your entire life looks like an ill-organized amorphous blob, there's not much fun in there, is it.

So with that in mind, I'll be making my life more organized and disciplined and rules based, so when I break all the rules and go wild and so forth, I can cherish the feeling of freedom.