His name meant destroyer. Not the destroyer as in The Destroyer, but in a more downmarket way. He had come from a family of rebels -- they liked calling themselves rebels anyway -- whose main business was in pirating, pillaging, dacoiting, and otherwise causing problems for the various Kingdoms around. A kingdom would send its kingsguards at them, and they would go lay low to a different kingdom and pop back within a few months. For that reason, they had maintained bases in various villages across different states. They were friendly with the villagers and helped them in the hour of need. Their primary source of income was robbery and dacoitery regardless.
As the states around them grew richer, so did their loots, as did their ambitions. There came a point when the convoys started employing well-armed soldiers to protect their goods; in response they bought better arms and grew the family, so to speak. Their prowess matched those that of the less mightier states. Still, it started getting impractical to move around with a large number of soldiers, their supplies, and the arms and the ammunition. A raiding party was beginning to turn into a small-scale invasion, outlaws about had started robbing them here and there instead. They could no longer act like dacoits. They decided to settle down into a mostly-unclaimed area around their bases, and began setting their own laws.
Despite having settled down, they were mobile people at heart. They had little interest in governing or administering, or justice, for that matter. What they cared about was wealth -- acquiring it with the littlest possible work, and blowing it away with no considerations. There was a certain thirst for violence involved -- being feared and bowed down to had a certain charm being respected didn't get close to. So when their son -- the third one -- was born in these times of relative peace, they decided to name him Bidhvansak, the destroyer, the violent one. It was a nostalgia for the times gone by as much as wishful thinking for the time yet to come.
As a boy and later as a young man, Bidhvansak was a rather well-behaved prince for someone of his family background. Somehow he considered himself to be of a respectable and noble royal blood, and failed to see the signs to the contrary. He was educated with the neighboring princes, and learned the arts a King must learn to rule. There was nary a doubt in his mind that once his respected parents were past their heyday, he would rule the land with a kind and gentle hand, make alliances and wars with the neighboring states, marry into a royal family and form into a large alliance. That is what was expected of proper Kings, and that is what he was to do. It wasn't until that fateful day that the world of his imagination turned about.
Catch up [Monday 30]
Got up well-rested this morning, to a warning from roommate B who heads out a solid half-hour before we do -- the orange line was effed up. Despite getting up early and well-rested, decided to spend a good chunk writing (thus the morning post), so was pretty late by the time I left for work. Walked to Davis instead of taking the buses to Sullivan -- it was actually a fun walk, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed this walk in early Spring. With this mode of commute, there's also nothing to complain about, the red lines are pretty regular and the walk itself has no disruptions. It's an uneventful but pleasant commute, although the best-case scenario for this mode is about as long as one of the best-cases for the other commute. Still, if I'm in no hurry, this is something I should consider doing more regularly.
Work was tiring and annoying. It took me an entire day to reset my password and get everything working, which also involved three calls to the IT, and a trip to the main building to use their wifi. One would've imagined at this day and age resetting your password would be easier, but ah well. When the robots take over, I guess we can judge their efficacy by checking how good they are at resetting passwords and making sure everything worked.
By the time I left, I was pretty tired and hangry, though my mood appeared to have improved when I got home. I tried listening to a podcast in my room, but I fell asleep for about half an hour. Got up to find my roommates making fun of me getting back to my napping habits. Watched a bit of black mirror with them, and then had oatmeal pancakes with the mushrooms I made over the weekend. I love those mushrooms no matter what anyone says about them. They're pretty gd great.
Caught up with NG and his Seattle & NYC trips. Apparently there's a restaurant in NYC called while in Kathmandu that's pretty great, and the persons there are all pretty awesome people. He was visiting RD, and apparently they got caught up well. Also met PB (the other one) and PR for brunch, and good [but hungover] times were had apparently.
Caught up with PLNG and the travels in the west coast, east coast, and the southeast. They appear to have had a great time, and a semi-vacation to take a rest from their real vacation. Going to VA this Saturday and catching up with them.
I bought my VA tickets for this weekend finally! The busride (eugh!) is going suuck so much, but it's a lot cheaper than the plane ride, and if I can reasonably get myself to sleep, it shouldn't be the worst trip in the world hopefully.
KM texted for catching up, need to reply and make plans for either this weekend (going to the Golang event on Thursday, and out on Friday, so it's either tomorrow or Wednesday, but there might be other things going on, need to figure that out).
Got back to running after a three day hiatus. Not sure if it's the habit of running regularly that's increased expectations, but it feels more like I'm jogging than running. Nothing against jogging per se, I just don't want to fool myself into believing I'm running when I'm really not. Two laps around the block are pretty doable now, I should consider upping that reasonably after I'm back from VA. Also, can do 10 proper pushups now (woo!) without breaking a sweat, so should start upping it to 15 (or 20!) during my time down 'south'.
Need to shower and go to bed soon. If I shower quick enough, I'll probably want to write something short later today before sleeping. We'll see. It's the last day of September, so need to get those postcounts in order!
Work was tiring and annoying. It took me an entire day to reset my password and get everything working, which also involved three calls to the IT, and a trip to the main building to use their wifi. One would've imagined at this day and age resetting your password would be easier, but ah well. When the robots take over, I guess we can judge their efficacy by checking how good they are at resetting passwords and making sure everything worked.
By the time I left, I was pretty tired and hangry, though my mood appeared to have improved when I got home. I tried listening to a podcast in my room, but I fell asleep for about half an hour. Got up to find my roommates making fun of me getting back to my napping habits. Watched a bit of black mirror with them, and then had oatmeal pancakes with the mushrooms I made over the weekend. I love those mushrooms no matter what anyone says about them. They're pretty gd great.
Caught up with NG and his Seattle & NYC trips. Apparently there's a restaurant in NYC called while in Kathmandu that's pretty great, and the persons there are all pretty awesome people. He was visiting RD, and apparently they got caught up well. Also met PB (the other one) and PR for brunch, and good [but hungover] times were had apparently.
Caught up with PLNG and the travels in the west coast, east coast, and the southeast. They appear to have had a great time, and a semi-vacation to take a rest from their real vacation. Going to VA this Saturday and catching up with them.
I bought my VA tickets for this weekend finally! The busride (eugh!) is going suuck so much, but it's a lot cheaper than the plane ride, and if I can reasonably get myself to sleep, it shouldn't be the worst trip in the world hopefully.
KM texted for catching up, need to reply and make plans for either this weekend (going to the Golang event on Thursday, and out on Friday, so it's either tomorrow or Wednesday, but there might be other things going on, need to figure that out).
Got back to running after a three day hiatus. Not sure if it's the habit of running regularly that's increased expectations, but it feels more like I'm jogging than running. Nothing against jogging per se, I just don't want to fool myself into believing I'm running when I'm really not. Two laps around the block are pretty doable now, I should consider upping that reasonably after I'm back from VA. Also, can do 10 proper pushups now (woo!) without breaking a sweat, so should start upping it to 15 (or 20!) during my time down 'south'.
Need to shower and go to bed soon. If I shower quick enough, I'll probably want to write something short later today before sleeping. We'll see. It's the last day of September, so need to get those postcounts in order!
.... Complaining Imps [2]
Among all the superhuman beings -- the gods and the demonic races of humans and gods, the all-powerful ones, the demigods, and other minor celestial entities, the imps were surely the ones who had existential crises in most. They tended to think about their own existence, the duties assigned to them, and options to explore around the most. It wasn't that they were necessarily the wisest [for surely that would go to the great Sages who had access to all the knowledge there ever was], or the most critical of the existing system [that went to certain families of danus who had taken to living within rather restricted means and maintaining a very low profile, for they questioned the validity of existence of their own people as well as the Gods, something that made them rather unpopular and likely to be victims of unfortunate totally natural events], or even the most hardworking [metalsmiths and cobblers of the heavens never so much as got time and energy to breathe in air properly after work]. What made them so interested in the affairs of the celestial-kind -- they were also not the most curious -- was the fact that they were the only ones who understood in total completeness the workings of the entire system. They realized that despite the declarations of the Gods that implied otherwise, there was no one -- they were pretty sure of that, or else that someone or something would have them fix their broken systems too -- who had complete control of fate and destiny. Despite what the Gods wanted everyone to believe, there was no predestined fate, and you could, by and large make your own future -- as long as you didn't catch the interest of micro-managing Gods. The universe followed a set of rules -- bidhan -- set forth by the original system or process, the bidhi, and everything chugged along with that. The Gods were just cogs in the system, the Imps knew, despite claiming-- and perhaps believing-- a privileged access to the inner workings.
That's what made the Imps so different from every other race and kind of being in all the Universes. They were not resigned to preordained fate or destiny, like most, or given up in face of overwhelming absolute monopoly on force by the Gods and demonic races, like all the remaining ones, despite the knowledge that fate and karma and afterlife could be all fixed just by bribing the right entities. No, they were not overwhelmed by the miracles of the Gods, for they understood the underlying secrets, the knew how brittle the foundation for various grandiose creations were. They were just to lazy to do anything else. Rebellion was not an option, because it was too much work. As it were, they had good hours, they were given anything they desired, the realm they lived in was the most peaceful anywhere since everyone understood that any harm to the imps would break down the entire Universe, and they had flourished with their friends and families. They were given respect and admiration by all the celestial beings -- outside work hours anyway -- and the only thing that could potentially be problematic was the fact that the humans could never ever know of their existence. The imps knew of course why that was the case, but didn't spend too much pondering over such matters because it made their heads hurt. The Universe was an unfair place, they justified, and it was by sheer luck they had made to the right side -- they didn't want to dare it to put them on the other side.
The only thing the Imps could reasonably complain about -- and frequently did -- was their treatment at work hours. The gods and demons and everyone else was almost terrified of coming in to get things fixed-up. They were short-tempered and angry, obviously, but worked really hard to suppress those emotions and made up the most fake-nice faces and voices they could. The imps didn't understand the urgency entirely, and the fear was a little confusing. They had all eternity ahead of themselves, so it was unclear why they looked like they were always in a hurry to be somewhere else. As for fear -- it was clear that they weren't completely comfortable in the knowledge that the basis of their powers depended on such diminutive creatures with frail bodies, but that shouldn't be a cause for fear. Pity maybe, but fear was completely unwarranted, the Imps thought. It wasn't as if there ever had ever been an Imp rebellion in the entirety of all of history, and none was going to happen in the entire eternity. Even in case their was rebellion, it would be quickly crushed, and they would always find less-restive and almost-as-smart beings looking for the perfect life for their families for the entire eternity to replace them. It would just mean a disruption of a couple of days -- at most -- or so before things got back in order.
What the Imps failed to see was the relationship between order and disorder, and the celestial Universe's attitude towards it. The Gods and the Demons absolutely loathed disruption of any kind good or bad. For disruption meant changing the way you do things, learning and processing new knowledge, failing at new things and realizing you aren't good at something, and slowly getting back to where you were. The gains weren't always clearly or obviously visible. You had to concede that you were not the best, you were still a frail being slave to the rules of the Universe as you failed over and over and figuring things out. Impatience was not an option as being angry didn't oblige the Universe to suddenly change its rules, no matter who you were. There were systems in place, systems that were the basis of the Godly powers, that could result in the rules of the Universe appearing to act differently, but they were jiggered up somewhere, and managed by the imps. They didn't change reality, they simply modified it to work according to one's wish within constraints. The Gods were unwilling to abandon that, even for a very short period. They had mastered within the rules of the existing system, and had no plans to accommodate for a disruption of any kind.
That's what made the Imps so different from every other race and kind of being in all the Universes. They were not resigned to preordained fate or destiny, like most, or given up in face of overwhelming absolute monopoly on force by the Gods and demonic races, like all the remaining ones, despite the knowledge that fate and karma and afterlife could be all fixed just by bribing the right entities. No, they were not overwhelmed by the miracles of the Gods, for they understood the underlying secrets, the knew how brittle the foundation for various grandiose creations were. They were just to lazy to do anything else. Rebellion was not an option, because it was too much work. As it were, they had good hours, they were given anything they desired, the realm they lived in was the most peaceful anywhere since everyone understood that any harm to the imps would break down the entire Universe, and they had flourished with their friends and families. They were given respect and admiration by all the celestial beings -- outside work hours anyway -- and the only thing that could potentially be problematic was the fact that the humans could never ever know of their existence. The imps knew of course why that was the case, but didn't spend too much pondering over such matters because it made their heads hurt. The Universe was an unfair place, they justified, and it was by sheer luck they had made to the right side -- they didn't want to dare it to put them on the other side.
The only thing the Imps could reasonably complain about -- and frequently did -- was their treatment at work hours. The gods and demons and everyone else was almost terrified of coming in to get things fixed-up. They were short-tempered and angry, obviously, but worked really hard to suppress those emotions and made up the most fake-nice faces and voices they could. The imps didn't understand the urgency entirely, and the fear was a little confusing. They had all eternity ahead of themselves, so it was unclear why they looked like they were always in a hurry to be somewhere else. As for fear -- it was clear that they weren't completely comfortable in the knowledge that the basis of their powers depended on such diminutive creatures with frail bodies, but that shouldn't be a cause for fear. Pity maybe, but fear was completely unwarranted, the Imps thought. It wasn't as if there ever had ever been an Imp rebellion in the entirety of all of history, and none was going to happen in the entire eternity. Even in case their was rebellion, it would be quickly crushed, and they would always find less-restive and almost-as-smart beings looking for the perfect life for their families for the entire eternity to replace them. It would just mean a disruption of a couple of days -- at most -- or so before things got back in order.
What the Imps failed to see was the relationship between order and disorder, and the celestial Universe's attitude towards it. The Gods and the Demons absolutely loathed disruption of any kind good or bad. For disruption meant changing the way you do things, learning and processing new knowledge, failing at new things and realizing you aren't good at something, and slowly getting back to where you were. The gains weren't always clearly or obviously visible. You had to concede that you were not the best, you were still a frail being slave to the rules of the Universe as you failed over and over and figuring things out. Impatience was not an option as being angry didn't oblige the Universe to suddenly change its rules, no matter who you were. There were systems in place, systems that were the basis of the Godly powers, that could result in the rules of the Universe appearing to act differently, but they were jiggered up somewhere, and managed by the imps. They didn't change reality, they simply modified it to work according to one's wish within constraints. The Gods were unwilling to abandon that, even for a very short period. They had mastered within the rules of the existing system, and had no plans to accommodate for a disruption of any kind.
Springtime [Sunday 29]
It's fall out in the world, but it's springtime for me.
Got a good night's sleep at SK's place and got home around midday. Caught a few hours of sleep, cooked the oyster mushrooms and went to Aldi. Had a few people over including SM, and su's married couple friends. SM is about the same, just as fun and nice with her Harry potter glasses. Made fun of that. Aldi was out of tomatoes so got mad at that.
By the time everyone left it was ten already and 10.30 by the time I was in my room. Not gonna run tonight for the same reason or shower even. Brushing and pushing up and then straight to bed it is. Good night world.
Well rested finally
If last weekend was marked by my lack of proper sleep over several nights, this one's marked by me sleeping quite properly each night, with a proper workout every day. It's true, I didn't stick to my regular exercise regimen, but I did make a lot more out of it by working hard. And now my knees don't even hurt anymore. I can't think of funner things to write about right now, and it appears writing any kind of fiction on mobile is actually pretty hard. Huuh. Perhaps I need to look more into that
Had a good hike [Saturday 28]
Will post updates to it tomorrow because need a lot of search and replace in my personal notes to protect the innocents
---
10.50. Sb left his glasses went down to get them, twenty minutes of downward walk. We'll Stop for Sb at 11.35
10.50. We stop at 11.42, no sign of Sb. It's gonna be a long climb at this pace. PB s jacket is causing her to be sweaty and making her cold. Hopefully Sb has t shirts
Sb got in at 11.46 it's 11.50 now, still a couple of minutes to go
1.55. Reached a major peak at 1.30, think we'll reach up at 2.45. planning to take the shuttle down. We're in a strange high altitude forest. My stomach hurts and I know why.
3.50. Got to the top at 2.50. it's 3.50 now. Sb met his MIT brother who lives on Highland ave and his friend the husband of classmate ES's sister BS. We had pancakes and chiura and Sb PB had other things. I got a small Coke -- only 140 calories! -- but I can't finish it
It started raining fifteen minutes ago, just as Sb and the brothers started heading down. PB and I are waiting for the shuttle to the parking spot, Sb and the brothers are walking down. I told them the rain was gonna be bad, Sb said it's only gonna rain in the peak. I said yes and your body will be wet throughout, and the downhill climb will be slippery. They laughed and left. I said I'll make fun of them by laughing when they come down all wet.
3.55. and PB and I are just chilling at the visitor center. It's cold outside but warm in here. The shuttle is at 5.30, all the previous shuttles were sold out. There is no internet here so we can't even YouTube or listen to podcasts. PB says she enjoys ambient noise sometimes. I have nothing to do. I wish I had an ebook or something. I'm gonna guess Sb is going to get to the car sometime between 8 and 8.30. What are we gonna do about the dinner, I wonder, not yet hungry.
4.03. it's foggy and cold and swampy outside. Sb and the brothers are gone. PB s trying to take a nap on the table. This was a good climb! And I bet I made people jealous with the pics!
4.53. it's getting cold even inside. I napped for maybe twenty minutes, PB a little more. The kids here are really noisy and disruptive. Also how are there so many Indians here??? And how come none of them walk up?
4.57. there's internet now! Cell connection anyway. I sent a bunch of pics to Shivani Pratap and Sabrina to make them jealous. I'll take a photo in the fog, that'll just killl them haa.
5.05. the network connection is gone?!? I went outside to take a couple of pics and I could barely see my hands. It's so cold and goddamn foggy outside. Dirty and noisy as the inside is, at least it's not outside.
5.10 forgot to mention earlier, I met the cutest 8 year old girl and her father who was making her climb to the top. She came up with the most ridiculous of my excuses (my legs are gonna breaaakk noww) and he saw right through them (well the helicopters can't land here, so you'll just be stuck here). I took a couple of photos for them and texted it to him, since he was out of battery for his phone.
5.13 The shuttle's in 17 mins now and PB wants to go near the shuttles. The drive downhill is apparently 30 mins long. And kinda expensive for what it is. Still better than getting wet in the rain and dying of pneumonia or breaking head on the sharp wet rocks after slipping on them.
5.33. gonna be an interesting ride down in the fog. The roads are closed but apparently some people are coming up to see the foliage which makes the life of shuttle drivers hard. This is by far the foggiest ride in the US that I've had, and the foggiest ride without fog lights ever.
6.02. Got to the parking lot. Didn't tip the driver cos no cash. Whatever.
6.08. in the car safe and sound, still no signal. PB thinks sbk and the brothers are gonna be back 7-7.30, I'd be impressed if they were back by 8.30. we discovered on our downhill ride that it had been raining on the entire mountain and not just the top. So it's 1) fog and related visibility issues 2) rain and related coldness related issues and 3) slipperiness of the rocks, that's going to cause problems. Hope they take it slow and easy.
6.36. Sb is back! Pretty ridiculous. He screwed his knees up, but damn that's pretty damb impressive! Lent my shorts to him because he's wet to the bones. Apparently his top half isn't wet with water, so that's great. I didn't laugh, by the way.
6.42. We're heading out already! Gonna get dinner at someplace -- Sb really wants to get to get Thai and has been getting vetoed for the past three months, we'll see. Probably gonna end up somewhere in Conway.
7.24. we're at a full Thai restaurant in conway. Sb and I ordered different kinds of fried rice w tofu, PB ordered curry with tofu. This place looks legit, hopefully the food is good.
7.30. Used the restroom for the first time today, and feel several pounds lighter. The restroom was really clean and comfortable. Highly recommended.
7.55. the best thing about this Thai restaurant, by far, is their clean and comfortable restroom. I can count in fingers of one hand how many times I've seen such a comically bad service. sbk and I forced through our last few spoonfuls, just to not waste food.
8.05 At least I made a long and great use of their toilet (again). Super satisfied by the toilet experience honestly. This bumps up the rating for this restaurant by at least a star in my book.
8.57. On the drive back and I desperately hope my intestinal integrity has not been compromised by the Thai food. I'm starting to think there might be evidence to the contrary.
10.41 Got to Sbs apartment complex. His knees are wrecked and he can barely walk. So are his heels too.
10.49. Settled down and getting ready for sleep. Might be the last post.
---
10.50. Sb left his glasses went down to get them, twenty minutes of downward walk. We'll Stop for Sb at 11.35
10.50. We stop at 11.42, no sign of Sb. It's gonna be a long climb at this pace. PB s jacket is causing her to be sweaty and making her cold. Hopefully Sb has t shirts
Sb got in at 11.46 it's 11.50 now, still a couple of minutes to go
1.55. Reached a major peak at 1.30, think we'll reach up at 2.45. planning to take the shuttle down. We're in a strange high altitude forest. My stomach hurts and I know why.
3.50. Got to the top at 2.50. it's 3.50 now. Sb met his MIT brother who lives on Highland ave and his friend the husband of classmate ES's sister BS. We had pancakes and chiura and Sb PB had other things. I got a small Coke -- only 140 calories! -- but I can't finish it
It started raining fifteen minutes ago, just as Sb and the brothers started heading down. PB and I are waiting for the shuttle to the parking spot, Sb and the brothers are walking down. I told them the rain was gonna be bad, Sb said it's only gonna rain in the peak. I said yes and your body will be wet throughout, and the downhill climb will be slippery. They laughed and left. I said I'll make fun of them by laughing when they come down all wet.
3.55. and PB and I are just chilling at the visitor center. It's cold outside but warm in here. The shuttle is at 5.30, all the previous shuttles were sold out. There is no internet here so we can't even YouTube or listen to podcasts. PB says she enjoys ambient noise sometimes. I have nothing to do. I wish I had an ebook or something. I'm gonna guess Sb is going to get to the car sometime between 8 and 8.30. What are we gonna do about the dinner, I wonder, not yet hungry.
4.03. it's foggy and cold and swampy outside. Sb and the brothers are gone. PB s trying to take a nap on the table. This was a good climb! And I bet I made people jealous with the pics!
4.53. it's getting cold even inside. I napped for maybe twenty minutes, PB a little more. The kids here are really noisy and disruptive. Also how are there so many Indians here??? And how come none of them walk up?
4.57. there's internet now! Cell connection anyway. I sent a bunch of pics to Shivani Pratap and Sabrina to make them jealous. I'll take a photo in the fog, that'll just killl them haa.
5.05. the network connection is gone?!? I went outside to take a couple of pics and I could barely see my hands. It's so cold and goddamn foggy outside. Dirty and noisy as the inside is, at least it's not outside.
5.10 forgot to mention earlier, I met the cutest 8 year old girl and her father who was making her climb to the top. She came up with the most ridiculous of my excuses (my legs are gonna breaaakk noww) and he saw right through them (well the helicopters can't land here, so you'll just be stuck here). I took a couple of photos for them and texted it to him, since he was out of battery for his phone.
5.13 The shuttle's in 17 mins now and PB wants to go near the shuttles. The drive downhill is apparently 30 mins long. And kinda expensive for what it is. Still better than getting wet in the rain and dying of pneumonia or breaking head on the sharp wet rocks after slipping on them.
5.33. gonna be an interesting ride down in the fog. The roads are closed but apparently some people are coming up to see the foliage which makes the life of shuttle drivers hard. This is by far the foggiest ride in the US that I've had, and the foggiest ride without fog lights ever.
6.02. Got to the parking lot. Didn't tip the driver cos no cash. Whatever.
6.08. in the car safe and sound, still no signal. PB thinks sbk and the brothers are gonna be back 7-7.30, I'd be impressed if they were back by 8.30. we discovered on our downhill ride that it had been raining on the entire mountain and not just the top. So it's 1) fog and related visibility issues 2) rain and related coldness related issues and 3) slipperiness of the rocks, that's going to cause problems. Hope they take it slow and easy.
6.36. Sb is back! Pretty ridiculous. He screwed his knees up, but damn that's pretty damb impressive! Lent my shorts to him because he's wet to the bones. Apparently his top half isn't wet with water, so that's great. I didn't laugh, by the way.
6.42. We're heading out already! Gonna get dinner at someplace -- Sb really wants to get to get Thai and has been getting vetoed for the past three months, we'll see. Probably gonna end up somewhere in Conway.
7.24. we're at a full Thai restaurant in conway. Sb and I ordered different kinds of fried rice w tofu, PB ordered curry with tofu. This place looks legit, hopefully the food is good.
7.30. Used the restroom for the first time today, and feel several pounds lighter. The restroom was really clean and comfortable. Highly recommended.
7.55. the best thing about this Thai restaurant, by far, is their clean and comfortable restroom. I can count in fingers of one hand how many times I've seen such a comically bad service. sbk and I forced through our last few spoonfuls, just to not waste food.
8.05 At least I made a long and great use of their toilet (again). Super satisfied by the toilet experience honestly. This bumps up the rating for this restaurant by at least a star in my book.
8.57. On the drive back and I desperately hope my intestinal integrity has not been compromised by the Thai food. I'm starting to think there might be evidence to the contrary.
10.41 Got to Sbs apartment complex. His knees are wrecked and he can barely walk. So are his heels too.
10.49. Settled down and getting ready for sleep. Might be the last post.
Hiking
Didn't write anything this morning because we left early in the morning. Doing mt Washington climb so it's gonna be nine hours of good walking. Will post more later this evening or tomorrow.
Ready for Saturday [Friday 27]
Got up reasonably well-rested this morning, so was in a good mood to write the two pieces of fiction writing that I did. Skipped showering that I'd delayed from last night because I didn't feel like it. Had a peach before leaving for work along with my vitamins, and I'm not exaggerating too much when I say that one piece of peach moderate my mood considerably and limited the morning grumps I've been having this week. Well... That and the good night's sleep.
Can't complain too much about morning commute, I caught up with my roommate at Sullivan even though he had left home ten minutes and two buses earlier than I had. Work was ... Just ok, lots of rework so I didn't really feel like doing it but did it anyway, but not gonna complain too much. I was too distracted by avoiding it so I missed out on writing at job. Rest of the folks went for an hour and a half long lunch, I stayed around reading and talking to the remaining coworkers.
I had a online meeting with my manager at 2 -- he worked remotely today, and we had a good conversation about various projects and what I want to do. I was actually pretty tired by that point. Just as I was talking to him PA messaged me, and we got talking. After my meeting with the manager, I multitasked between finishing the rest of the tasks, and having a conversation with drunk PA. It was a good talk, and I'm looking forward to the commitments that have been made. I'm really happy she's reconsidering her geographic positioning. We talked about our mutual friend SS who we agreed is one of the most fun persons to be around (there was a mention in a post sometime last week I think), and one of the more successful ones too. When it rains. Ah well. I had to end the conversation, because work was ending.
After spending an hour and a half completing my word count (ISH) for the day and reading up on certain companies with crazy CEOs and cultlike following, I had the folks come over, our usual gang. I texted our new friend if they wanted to come, but got no response, so we just spent a low-key time doing puzzles and zenga and catching flies so to speak. I had almond milk. We were all very tired, SSh (as usual) was ready to go home to see her cousins, and P had his friend's housewarming party. The remaining three of us had to go to bed early to prepare for mt Washington hike tomorrow. So we abandoned SSh right there (her friend was stuck in the traffic for hours), and left for prabhus place. We had already made an order at Domino's (my idea, I love Domino's and think their 8-dollar 3-topping large pizza is an incredible deal, Pra likes it too, so we decided to split it into 2 sides of 3 veggies), so we picked it on our way back to their house. The entire trip including getting the pizza took 22 minutes.
After we got in, we ate the pizza and started making buckwheat pancakes and other snacks for tomorrow. Pra is just done making the achaar for it. I also tried their new bidet and I give it 9.5/10. It's got a dryer, different water pressures, angles, etcetera, but it's likely ideal for private homes rather than shared bathrooms because I'd never want to leave the commode at that point. It's also a got a seat-warming feature!
I got ready for bed, and did my pushups (gonna do it now actually), and am writing this just as Pra is clearing out for the day. Gonna watch some TV as I go to bed, need my zzzs and be well rested for the hike! Exciting times.
Complaining imps
It was obviously not all magic or miracles all the way down. The imps wished everyone knew it better. When you pray for a God for a thousand years, and when they come down to ask for a boon, and you cannot ask for immortality, why is it that no one wondered where that rule arose from? There was no curiosity from anyone on how the Universe implemented the boons, or Godly powers etcetera. How was it that Agni dev had only fire powers and nothing else. What if he tried doing something with water, that no one wondered. Or why is it that whenever Demons asked for watertight almost-immortal boons, the granter always worded the grant-wish a particular way so as to leave an opening for later. No one cared who came up with those wordings, who researched their way through the loopholes, and made sure the celestial Universe ran as it was supposed to.
Take those vats made of gold in the palace of heaven that oozed out clouds constantly. There had never, ever been a single celestial being who had wondered where all that cloud came from. They truly believe it was all 'magic', and anything they, or someone wished would just happen, by itself, without someone making sure things were good to go behind the scenes. If only the gods showed the tiniest flick of interest in the machinations of those cloudmachines. Oh the horrors! No, the Gods seemed to have little curiosity about the world, all the wanted was it to work just like that, and would get mad when it failed to do so. There were a few Gods who were legitimately interested in the workings of the Universe and experimenting with new forms of mystical powers, but their interest was also curiously circumferential. They did not seem to care about the fundamental blocks and their workings at all, but only higher levels of abstractions. And how they could leverage those interactions to create new weapons, defense mechanisms, elixirs of life, etcetera. There curiosity was not really about understanding the world around them, it was about leveraging it. So when sometimes things broke, as they invariably do, they would often abandon the entire thread of research rather than dig deep to understand what was happening at a more fundamental level. They considered themselves above the fundamentals, the imps assumed.
Of course when something broke, they were the ones to face the ire of the Gods. They would come in, impatient and angry, not eager to wait for their turn, and then go on longwinded stories about their conquests and greatness. Only towards the end would they come to the point, which would almost invariably be something simple that they could have fixed themselves, or figured it out, if only they had bothered understanding of the workings. If your bolt is too hot and keeps glowing, it would be logical to think, the imps considered, that perhaps it was overused at needed to be given some rest. The gods thought it to be ridiculous that inanimate objects such as their celestial weapons needed rest and being taken care of like mortal weapons. It wasn't that the gods never used the mortal weapons that needed maintenance and regular checking -- they did, but they just had a different level of expectation from celestial objects. The imps had learned from thousands of years of experience that the best way to approach was to show complete servility and subservience, and assure them that everything was fine, and would be fixed immediately, and hand the object of concern to someone else, while listening to the patron's tall tales. They were so repetitive and predictable, the imps found it quite annoying, but there was no escape.
Take those vats made of gold in the palace of heaven that oozed out clouds constantly. There had never, ever been a single celestial being who had wondered where all that cloud came from. They truly believe it was all 'magic', and anything they, or someone wished would just happen, by itself, without someone making sure things were good to go behind the scenes. If only the gods showed the tiniest flick of interest in the machinations of those cloudmachines. Oh the horrors! No, the Gods seemed to have little curiosity about the world, all the wanted was it to work just like that, and would get mad when it failed to do so. There were a few Gods who were legitimately interested in the workings of the Universe and experimenting with new forms of mystical powers, but their interest was also curiously circumferential. They did not seem to care about the fundamental blocks and their workings at all, but only higher levels of abstractions. And how they could leverage those interactions to create new weapons, defense mechanisms, elixirs of life, etcetera. There curiosity was not really about understanding the world around them, it was about leveraging it. So when sometimes things broke, as they invariably do, they would often abandon the entire thread of research rather than dig deep to understand what was happening at a more fundamental level. They considered themselves above the fundamentals, the imps assumed.
Of course when something broke, they were the ones to face the ire of the Gods. They would come in, impatient and angry, not eager to wait for their turn, and then go on longwinded stories about their conquests and greatness. Only towards the end would they come to the point, which would almost invariably be something simple that they could have fixed themselves, or figured it out, if only they had bothered understanding of the workings. If your bolt is too hot and keeps glowing, it would be logical to think, the imps considered, that perhaps it was overused at needed to be given some rest. The gods thought it to be ridiculous that inanimate objects such as their celestial weapons needed rest and being taken care of like mortal weapons. It wasn't that the gods never used the mortal weapons that needed maintenance and regular checking -- they did, but they just had a different level of expectation from celestial objects. The imps had learned from thousands of years of experience that the best way to approach was to show complete servility and subservience, and assure them that everything was fine, and would be fixed immediately, and hand the object of concern to someone else, while listening to the patron's tall tales. They were so repetitive and predictable, the imps found it quite annoying, but there was no escape.
Agni dev [2]
[Sidenote: It feels strange to not be writing yesterday's journal this morning, but it's all for the better. My memories are not clouded by a night's sleep at least. Sidenote: what a restful sleep I had last night. This is going to be a good day]
Agni dev's eyes glowed like fire. He could turn them down if he wanted to, but he had discovered a long time ago that he was taken more seriously if he kept them burning. The color of his eye-fire were good indicators of his mood. Fiercely red-white, and the person in front of him was on their way to being vaporized. Deep orange meant sadness, cool blue meant he was restful. The temperatures of the fires themselves didn't mean anything: blue flame is one of the hottest, and red one of the coolest; he had chosen those colors to signify his moods, much like a human being might choose an earring, or a T-shirt.
The oft-repeated rumor about his bronze manacles was completely untrue. They were not, as it was claimed, the source of his powers, nor did they have any kind of special abilities or emotions. They were just regular super-strong metal alloy. Made by the highest and the best metallurgists in the land, true, but still only lifeless metal. Besides the bronze iridescence, it wasn't particularly flashy. The story behind how he had obtained it was a long and troubled one, and he wore it to remind himself of his past follies. He wanted to be a better pers-- God, and the manacles kept him humble and down-to-earth, figuratively.
When angry, Agni dev had the voice of a thousand roaring forest fires, ready to burn anything on its path to a crisp. You could even hear the crackling and breaking within if you could stand the fierce intensity of it. His regular voice was hoarse and commanding -- not ideal when you're the leader of the pack. He had been trying to tone down his voice to become more approachable. It took great energy and patience to rein in his pitch, but he had been getting better. He could almost talk to a regular celestial being without appearing to want to murder him immediately. He had even been practicing a neutral tone, to not give away his emotions through his voice, and had generally succeeded at it.
Agni dev's eyes glowed like fire. He could turn them down if he wanted to, but he had discovered a long time ago that he was taken more seriously if he kept them burning. The color of his eye-fire were good indicators of his mood. Fiercely red-white, and the person in front of him was on their way to being vaporized. Deep orange meant sadness, cool blue meant he was restful. The temperatures of the fires themselves didn't mean anything: blue flame is one of the hottest, and red one of the coolest; he had chosen those colors to signify his moods, much like a human being might choose an earring, or a T-shirt.
The oft-repeated rumor about his bronze manacles was completely untrue. They were not, as it was claimed, the source of his powers, nor did they have any kind of special abilities or emotions. They were just regular super-strong metal alloy. Made by the highest and the best metallurgists in the land, true, but still only lifeless metal. Besides the bronze iridescence, it wasn't particularly flashy. The story behind how he had obtained it was a long and troubled one, and he wore it to remind himself of his past follies. He wanted to be a better pers-- God, and the manacles kept him humble and down-to-earth, figuratively.
When angry, Agni dev had the voice of a thousand roaring forest fires, ready to burn anything on its path to a crisp. You could even hear the crackling and breaking within if you could stand the fierce intensity of it. His regular voice was hoarse and commanding -- not ideal when you're the leader of the pack. He had been trying to tone down his voice to become more approachable. It took great energy and patience to rein in his pitch, but he had been getting better. He could almost talk to a regular celestial being without appearing to want to murder him immediately. He had even been practicing a neutral tone, to not give away his emotions through his voice, and had generally succeeded at it.
Agni dev
If all words were fair game to be used to describe Gods, Agni dev's physical appearance could be described by hunk. He stood tall, even for a minor God, and held a strong stance. His veins bulged out of his arms through his wrists, as if in fear of his core self. His skin was slightly light brown, with a tinge of fierce pink -- he was after all the God of fire. When his emotions flared up, he would turn red, and would start radiating heat of a thousand suns, or so they said. When he came to his full power, he did glow hot and white, and any unprotected mortal entity near his vicinity would be instantly vaporized.
He wore a crown of pure gold, inscribing precious rubies and diamonds. It was said that only the glow of his crown was enough to blind a human, that night would turn to day in its presence. The gold itself cast a bright yellow-orange hue around him, warming the temperature in any occasion. The crown wasn't too large -- it fit his head exactly well, and was slightly shorter than the width of his palm: he had noticed that while putting it on every time he headed out. The inscriptions on the crown that were too small to read were written in an ancient language lost to the mortals, only reading aloud those holy hymns was said to grant the reader with immense power. The detailing work done around the gems portrayed scenes from the seven realms from an era as old as the Kailash mountains, the ability to force the particles of Gold to submit to such artistry had been lost with the great metallurgists of the bygone era. All -- mortal or immortal -- had attempted similar manipulation of the metal, to no avail. Gold was too soft, too malleable to be detailed in such agony anymore. It was unclear if the knowledge of detailing that had been lost, or that Gold particles of the past had just acted differently, but it was common knowledge that the mastery of Agni dev's crown couldn't be duplicated.
On his neck Agni dev wore a flat-plate gold jewellery that he had been awarded for a certain battle against the demons. The battle itself had been inconsequential in the large picture -- it was no different from the other countless battles of heaven, earth and the underworld the gods had involved themselves in. The necklace had caught his eyes because it had a certain...primitiveness in it, a hand-hammered look that almost looked beneath someone who lived in the heavenly abode. But no, each individual hammer strike had been exquisite and well-calculated, the rusticity was the intended look and not accidental. Between the hammered-in dings, there were micro-beads of pearls and opals too small to be seen. In the sun they glittered and shone like drops of water, giving the necklace an eternally-wet golden look. Away from the sunlight, they soaked up the light, making the necklace look wooden. The gold itself reflected peacock colors when hit by it, making its wearer look like the lord and caregiver of all fowls and fauna like he was. The necklace was of earthly origin, but sufficiently impressed the seven heavens.
Agni dev had two heavy circular earrings, that gave him a intimidating look. His ears were pulled heavily by them, for they were heavier than many a mortal man. It was joked, not unreasonably so, that his earrings often caused formidable damage to his enemies during hand combat. They were not always the most comfortable to wear, but any serious occasion warranted them being put on. Many a minor demon had run away at the mere sight of those. They glowed devilishly red in the dark, further adding to Agni dev's redness and association with heat.
He wore a crown of pure gold, inscribing precious rubies and diamonds. It was said that only the glow of his crown was enough to blind a human, that night would turn to day in its presence. The gold itself cast a bright yellow-orange hue around him, warming the temperature in any occasion. The crown wasn't too large -- it fit his head exactly well, and was slightly shorter than the width of his palm: he had noticed that while putting it on every time he headed out. The inscriptions on the crown that were too small to read were written in an ancient language lost to the mortals, only reading aloud those holy hymns was said to grant the reader with immense power. The detailing work done around the gems portrayed scenes from the seven realms from an era as old as the Kailash mountains, the ability to force the particles of Gold to submit to such artistry had been lost with the great metallurgists of the bygone era. All -- mortal or immortal -- had attempted similar manipulation of the metal, to no avail. Gold was too soft, too malleable to be detailed in such agony anymore. It was unclear if the knowledge of detailing that had been lost, or that Gold particles of the past had just acted differently, but it was common knowledge that the mastery of Agni dev's crown couldn't be duplicated.
On his neck Agni dev wore a flat-plate gold jewellery that he had been awarded for a certain battle against the demons. The battle itself had been inconsequential in the large picture -- it was no different from the other countless battles of heaven, earth and the underworld the gods had involved themselves in. The necklace had caught his eyes because it had a certain...primitiveness in it, a hand-hammered look that almost looked beneath someone who lived in the heavenly abode. But no, each individual hammer strike had been exquisite and well-calculated, the rusticity was the intended look and not accidental. Between the hammered-in dings, there were micro-beads of pearls and opals too small to be seen. In the sun they glittered and shone like drops of water, giving the necklace an eternally-wet golden look. Away from the sunlight, they soaked up the light, making the necklace look wooden. The gold itself reflected peacock colors when hit by it, making its wearer look like the lord and caregiver of all fowls and fauna like he was. The necklace was of earthly origin, but sufficiently impressed the seven heavens.
Agni dev had two heavy circular earrings, that gave him a intimidating look. His ears were pulled heavily by them, for they were heavier than many a mortal man. It was joked, not unreasonably so, that his earrings often caused formidable damage to his enemies during hand combat. They were not always the most comfortable to wear, but any serious occasion warranted them being put on. Many a minor demon had run away at the mere sight of those. They glowed devilishly red in the dark, further adding to Agni dev's redness and association with heat.
Home early [Thursday 26]
This is the first journal to be posted on the day-of, because a night's gap between the day's events and journaling them causes me to forget the minor details. I begin thus.
Morning commute was really annoying, and I went in by myself. Work was not particularly productive -- I lost a lot of time in internal discussion about a feature I was working on, and there were a lot of conversations on what it should be rather than actually implementing it. Since I was feeling really really unwell in the morning (as I have for the past several days, mornings and days have been pretty brutal lately, my guess is due to lack of proper sleep), I left for home during lunch.
At home I worked for an hour or so, and talked to a good friend M for several hours, good times. I gave life guidance, and joked that I should be paid hourly for the job of a therapist, and a good advice-giver. A rate of a rupee an hour was established, and I doubt if I'm ever going to collect that money.
After, roommate P and roommate B got in, and I chilled out with them. P's friends came over, and I caught up with them. They ordered from Himalayan kitchen, which I'm boycotting currently because they used to give out water for free, but they've started charging for it now, and I'm not that into paying for something they were giving away for free. Additionally, the quality of their products is not that great, so it's not a big loss to be quite honest. In any case, I considered ordering from outside too, but it was raining, and I was tired and lazy, so I decided to cook instead.
I made many of fapar ko roti (buckwheat pancakes) in butter, and made them buttery. For the first couple of rounds, I cooked without eggs, but added butter to the last few rounds so they held better. The egged rounds held better, but I liked the texture and flavor (and the butteriness) of the eggless ones, so it's a tossup. I had dinner while folks were still talking, and decided to do a little workout (ten pushups, they should have been easier than they were this evening, but my hands were pretty tired, so that could be a reason why it wasn't a smooth ride. I need to figure out why my wrists hurt too, and figure out my posture). Then, it was a tossup between either going for a run, or writing this post (and potentially not running), and I decided to not go run because this way I can just get this out of the way.
Going forward, I'm going to run (maybe), take a shower, and go to bed right away, because honestly I should be sleeping and catching up on sleep. Need to head to work early tomorrow, and catch up on what I missed today due to the illness. Hopefully tomorrow morning I can get some productive writing done too.
Morning commute was really annoying, and I went in by myself. Work was not particularly productive -- I lost a lot of time in internal discussion about a feature I was working on, and there were a lot of conversations on what it should be rather than actually implementing it. Since I was feeling really really unwell in the morning (as I have for the past several days, mornings and days have been pretty brutal lately, my guess is due to lack of proper sleep), I left for home during lunch.
At home I worked for an hour or so, and talked to a good friend M for several hours, good times. I gave life guidance, and joked that I should be paid hourly for the job of a therapist, and a good advice-giver. A rate of a rupee an hour was established, and I doubt if I'm ever going to collect that money.
After, roommate P and roommate B got in, and I chilled out with them. P's friends came over, and I caught up with them. They ordered from Himalayan kitchen, which I'm boycotting currently because they used to give out water for free, but they've started charging for it now, and I'm not that into paying for something they were giving away for free. Additionally, the quality of their products is not that great, so it's not a big loss to be quite honest. In any case, I considered ordering from outside too, but it was raining, and I was tired and lazy, so I decided to cook instead.
I made many of fapar ko roti (buckwheat pancakes) in butter, and made them buttery. For the first couple of rounds, I cooked without eggs, but added butter to the last few rounds so they held better. The egged rounds held better, but I liked the texture and flavor (and the butteriness) of the eggless ones, so it's a tossup. I had dinner while folks were still talking, and decided to do a little workout (ten pushups, they should have been easier than they were this evening, but my hands were pretty tired, so that could be a reason why it wasn't a smooth ride. I need to figure out why my wrists hurt too, and figure out my posture). Then, it was a tossup between either going for a run, or writing this post (and potentially not running), and I decided to not go run because this way I can just get this out of the way.
Going forward, I'm going to run (maybe), take a shower, and go to bed right away, because honestly I should be sleeping and catching up on sleep. Need to head to work early tomorrow, and catch up on what I missed today due to the illness. Hopefully tomorrow morning I can get some productive writing done too.
Music presentation [Wednesday 25]
Just as I said commute had become so regular it was not worth talking about, it got pretty irregular. It's definitely worth talking about. Yesterday morning roommate Pr and I got to the Sullivan station already pretty late (101 was excruciatingly slow -- we waited for 4 light changes at O Brien highway crossing). We figured at least we'd get into the trains, not heeding warnings of our other roommate B who had gotten in thirty minutes ago and had warned the train situation was pretty bad. The crowd at the station itself was pretty scary -- several layers and layers of people waiting for the train. If the train came in empty-ish, we'd make it we figured. The train came in as packed as ever, and barely anyone at Sullivan got in. The next train was nine minutes away and the train to the other direction was a minute away. We figured if we went to the other station for a stop or two, we might make it. So we took the train to the station over at Assembly station. After waiting for a solid five minutes for the train there, we realized it was just as packed and hard to get in there too -- this is the second train we missed -- so we figured we might go in a couple of stops. We got in yet another train to the other direction, and in a few stops saw two trains go in the other direction, one of them quite empty. Just as we were about to get to the last stop of the wrong end, we saw yet another train miss us by a few moments. We stayed around in the train we were in, and it eventually turned around and we were finally on our way. We were 30/35 minutes late, but at least most of it had been due to our own choice to explore the options, so it wasn't awful. On the way, we saw that Assembly and Sullivan stations were still pretty bad and people could still barely get in, so we felt pretty good about our choices.
In all this confusion and hullabaloo I had gotten pretty hungry. Also remember that I hadn't really had a dinner the evening before, since I'd been so hooked to The Good Place. I got a large breakfast sandwich at work [added tomatoes this time. They should really name that sandwich after me, considering how consistent I'm in getting it, and the fact that it's probably one of the more efficient protein to price combos without meat]. So when it was lunch, I was pretty full, so I didn't get anything to eat.
My sleep debt was still not completely paid, so by the end of the day, I was still pretty tired and my heart was still beating rather too fast for my comfort. On the way back, I stopped at Kendall and brought an expensive tiny box of raspberries and couple of fruits (averaged out to 1$ a fruit -- while I do support local farmers, I'm not sure I'm completely down for really expensive berries. Not into berries enough to be worth it), and went to building 32 (the stata building) to attend a talk by a Nepali speaker. He's the head of KU's music department, and the talk was on renovating the temple at Tripureshwar and using it as a venue for the University's music department, as well as organizing more musical events there.
The talk and the socializing after (the young bhais and bahinis at MIT and their friends are always fun) was quite refreshing, and I gave the plastic I had my fruits in to a Humfrey fellow who had a 9-year-old daughter waiting for her at her apartment. The dinner was excellent: I really enjoyed filling up on the pita, falafel, hummus, tahini, cheeses, Mediterranean chips, grapes, etcetera, that they had there. The young'uns were going to go for dinner after [someone there had been offered a rather hefty moving bonus from Oracle for moving five blocks on an uber], but prabhu and I declined, because *pats at stomach*. Sbk and I talked about our Saturday plans, and it's getting likelier I'll go to Mt. Washington in addition to attending my friend A's housewarming, for which I might get in too late.
Back home, I was so tired I passed out for an hour without getting a chance to settle down. I tried moving my evening schedule up so I'd get more sleep, but didn't get it too far ahead -- still, a lot better than nothing. The sleep was quite restful, once I did fall asleep, and this morning I feel refreshed, though perhaps not yet a hundred percent satisfied with the sleep satisfaction. Need to sleep more this evening.
In all this confusion and hullabaloo I had gotten pretty hungry. Also remember that I hadn't really had a dinner the evening before, since I'd been so hooked to The Good Place. I got a large breakfast sandwich at work [added tomatoes this time. They should really name that sandwich after me, considering how consistent I'm in getting it, and the fact that it's probably one of the more efficient protein to price combos without meat]. So when it was lunch, I was pretty full, so I didn't get anything to eat.
My sleep debt was still not completely paid, so by the end of the day, I was still pretty tired and my heart was still beating rather too fast for my comfort. On the way back, I stopped at Kendall and brought an expensive tiny box of raspberries and couple of fruits (averaged out to 1$ a fruit -- while I do support local farmers, I'm not sure I'm completely down for really expensive berries. Not into berries enough to be worth it), and went to building 32 (the stata building) to attend a talk by a Nepali speaker. He's the head of KU's music department, and the talk was on renovating the temple at Tripureshwar and using it as a venue for the University's music department, as well as organizing more musical events there.
The talk and the socializing after (the young bhais and bahinis at MIT and their friends are always fun) was quite refreshing, and I gave the plastic I had my fruits in to a Humfrey fellow who had a 9-year-old daughter waiting for her at her apartment. The dinner was excellent: I really enjoyed filling up on the pita, falafel, hummus, tahini, cheeses, Mediterranean chips, grapes, etcetera, that they had there. The young'uns were going to go for dinner after [someone there had been offered a rather hefty moving bonus from Oracle for moving five blocks on an uber], but prabhu and I declined, because *pats at stomach*. Sbk and I talked about our Saturday plans, and it's getting likelier I'll go to Mt. Washington in addition to attending my friend A's housewarming, for which I might get in too late.
Back home, I was so tired I passed out for an hour without getting a chance to settle down. I tried moving my evening schedule up so I'd get more sleep, but didn't get it too far ahead -- still, a lot better than nothing. The sleep was quite restful, once I did fall asleep, and this morning I feel refreshed, though perhaps not yet a hundred percent satisfied with the sleep satisfaction. Need to sleep more this evening.
Broken gears of the heavens
Please repeat your problem, the short imp said to the angry hunk with fiery eyes and a golden crown on his head.
A boon I gave to a follower is not working properly, and he thinks I'm tricking him, he said, in a rather irritated voice.
Thank you for your co-operation, Mr...err..Lord..., the imp said, straightening himself, and checking the credentials. Thank you Agni dev for your cooperation. Let me pull up your boon profile just now, and see if everything's working fine, he said, in an annoyingly restrained voice.
It appears, the Imp began, that you gave the boon to one Bidhvansak, of the Earthly realm, over two years ago, is that correct, he said, looking into a blackish polyhedron with 33 faces. It glowed red and blue and green as the imp moved its hands about the polyhedron in complex patterns.
That is correct, my follower Bidhvansak meditated for a thousand years with no food or sleep or water, doing nothing but chanting my name, praying for me. It was then that I decided to give him the boon of setting anything that he wishes to on fire, barring obvious exceptions such as water. Now that he has the boon, he has been trying to make use of it, but it appears it often doesn't work as it should, so he's been complaining. His complaints have hurt me greatly as the earthly beliefs in my powers are diminishing, since he's been telling people I'm not a reliable protector or a good giver of boons, said Agni dev, trying to maintain his composure.
Thank you. Let me check what the problem could be, the imp said distractedly, as he played around with the polyhedron. It was now floating above his head, making a high-pitch noise, as he made several more complex motions. It looked as if he was dancing to the cacophonic pitch of the device and its disco-like lights. It paused. And beeped. "Ahhh," said the imp. "It appears that Mr. Bidhvansak has unknowingly been trying to use the powers on beings and objects that lie on the exception zone. Two months ago, he tried turning a being made of 99.98% water into a ball of fire. Since the non-water substance was so little and well-hidden, he couldn't get too far away with it. Then a week after, he tried to burn a -- hmm let me make sure I got this right -- he tried burning a water hippopotamus, which had just finished drinking a bellyful of water. It appears he barely singed it, and then used his powers to turn a swarm of bees into a crisp. Interesting, interesting. I'm seeing a lot of interesting facts here. It seems that the longer he has had this power, the more he has been encountering water-based beings. Hmmm...," the Imp said, speaking to himself at this point. He was furiously manipulating the polyhedric orb now, touching its various faces and poking and pushing the various ends. At one point, he blew his breath into one of the faces, and wiped it with his sleeves.
"Ohh, I see, I see," said Agni dev, unsure how to react. "Would you know what the solution to this would be, or how I can fix this," he said, in his most positive tone. Maintaining your composure was the most important in situations like these. Lose your temper once and these Imps would make sure you had to go through the most bureaucratic process to get the simplest of things done. Cajole them, bribe them, or even flatter them, but never ever anger them, he had learned.
"Ahhh, it all makes sense now, yes, yes, perfect. Good, good, now I can help you, " the Imp finally said, looking away from the orb to Agni dev. The polyhedron slowly grew dim and landed in front of the Imp's legs. "So this isn't anyone's fault, but it might be a little difficult for you going forward. As it appears, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the boon you gave, or the powers that Vidhvansak has and his abilities to use those, within the given constraints. It's just that... as he has been abus-- I mean... making use of his powers, his enemies and contemporaries appear to be learning the weaknesses and limits. As you know, the type of boon you gave has severe limitations under certain circumstances, particularly in the presence of water. So he has been encountering more and more water-based entities lately because they know that's one weakness of his, " the Imp said, informing Agni dev in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I see, I see," he said, rather annoyed, "is there anything I can do to fix this, or help with this," he asked, in his most neutral voice.
"As far as I can see, within the limits of your boon, absolutely not. Either you can upgrade your boon -- we'll need to have your details and his consent and assorted materials for that -- so it can work more effectively against water. Or you can grant a modifier boon to somehow undermine the water -- and again I would need to check your credentials and privileges for that. As of right now, without using any powers or resources, there's not much you can do, except perhaps letting him know why it's not working, " the Imp said, quickly moving through the various options given to him by the orb. He had other patrons waiting, he was trying to hurry through the conversation at this point.
"No, no. No modifier or upgrades for the boon, " he said, adding "not that I have privileges to undermine water anyway," under his breath. "Is there absolutely any other way you can get me out of this bind," Agni dev said, in a rather dejected tone for a god of his stature.
"Well -- I can arrange for a celestial announcement that goes out only to him every time his power fails, explaining to him why it's not working. Or make a one-time announcement and wait for his acknowledgement. In either case though, we need his pre-approval -- we can't just go around announcing anything we want all the time unless there is something that involves immediate response or some kind of emergency. And this one's not it. Do you want me to arrange for his approval and work on either of the announcement options?" the Imp said, in a definitive tone, hoping to clear out the conversation.
"No, no it's fine. I'll take care of that issue," said Agni dev, rather disappointed. "Thank you for your help," he said.
"It was my pleasure and honor serving you O lord of heat and light, let me know if I can help you with anything else for matters of celestial operation. If you will allow me, I will now have the opportunity to serve other celestial beings," the Imp said, hoping to end the conversation.
"Yes, yes, Okay, fine, I'm done," he said, looking around. This wasn't very helpful. He was afraid of precisely this. Now he would have to go down to Earth and just play some drama or create a complex scenario so that Vindvansak's effects would be reduced. Might even have to take him out, and make it look like he was looking out for the realm. It would need some serious planning and thought. As if he didn't already have enough going on. He sighed in resignation.
A boon I gave to a follower is not working properly, and he thinks I'm tricking him, he said, in a rather irritated voice.
Thank you for your co-operation, Mr...err..Lord..., the imp said, straightening himself, and checking the credentials. Thank you Agni dev for your cooperation. Let me pull up your boon profile just now, and see if everything's working fine, he said, in an annoyingly restrained voice.
It appears, the Imp began, that you gave the boon to one Bidhvansak, of the Earthly realm, over two years ago, is that correct, he said, looking into a blackish polyhedron with 33 faces. It glowed red and blue and green as the imp moved its hands about the polyhedron in complex patterns.
That is correct, my follower Bidhvansak meditated for a thousand years with no food or sleep or water, doing nothing but chanting my name, praying for me. It was then that I decided to give him the boon of setting anything that he wishes to on fire, barring obvious exceptions such as water. Now that he has the boon, he has been trying to make use of it, but it appears it often doesn't work as it should, so he's been complaining. His complaints have hurt me greatly as the earthly beliefs in my powers are diminishing, since he's been telling people I'm not a reliable protector or a good giver of boons, said Agni dev, trying to maintain his composure.
Thank you. Let me check what the problem could be, the imp said distractedly, as he played around with the polyhedron. It was now floating above his head, making a high-pitch noise, as he made several more complex motions. It looked as if he was dancing to the cacophonic pitch of the device and its disco-like lights. It paused. And beeped. "Ahhh," said the imp. "It appears that Mr. Bidhvansak has unknowingly been trying to use the powers on beings and objects that lie on the exception zone. Two months ago, he tried turning a being made of 99.98% water into a ball of fire. Since the non-water substance was so little and well-hidden, he couldn't get too far away with it. Then a week after, he tried to burn a -- hmm let me make sure I got this right -- he tried burning a water hippopotamus, which had just finished drinking a bellyful of water. It appears he barely singed it, and then used his powers to turn a swarm of bees into a crisp. Interesting, interesting. I'm seeing a lot of interesting facts here. It seems that the longer he has had this power, the more he has been encountering water-based beings. Hmmm...," the Imp said, speaking to himself at this point. He was furiously manipulating the polyhedric orb now, touching its various faces and poking and pushing the various ends. At one point, he blew his breath into one of the faces, and wiped it with his sleeves.
"Ohh, I see, I see," said Agni dev, unsure how to react. "Would you know what the solution to this would be, or how I can fix this," he said, in his most positive tone. Maintaining your composure was the most important in situations like these. Lose your temper once and these Imps would make sure you had to go through the most bureaucratic process to get the simplest of things done. Cajole them, bribe them, or even flatter them, but never ever anger them, he had learned.
"Ahhh, it all makes sense now, yes, yes, perfect. Good, good, now I can help you, " the Imp finally said, looking away from the orb to Agni dev. The polyhedron slowly grew dim and landed in front of the Imp's legs. "So this isn't anyone's fault, but it might be a little difficult for you going forward. As it appears, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the boon you gave, or the powers that Vidhvansak has and his abilities to use those, within the given constraints. It's just that... as he has been abus-- I mean... making use of his powers, his enemies and contemporaries appear to be learning the weaknesses and limits. As you know, the type of boon you gave has severe limitations under certain circumstances, particularly in the presence of water. So he has been encountering more and more water-based entities lately because they know that's one weakness of his, " the Imp said, informing Agni dev in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I see, I see," he said, rather annoyed, "is there anything I can do to fix this, or help with this," he asked, in his most neutral voice.
"As far as I can see, within the limits of your boon, absolutely not. Either you can upgrade your boon -- we'll need to have your details and his consent and assorted materials for that -- so it can work more effectively against water. Or you can grant a modifier boon to somehow undermine the water -- and again I would need to check your credentials and privileges for that. As of right now, without using any powers or resources, there's not much you can do, except perhaps letting him know why it's not working, " the Imp said, quickly moving through the various options given to him by the orb. He had other patrons waiting, he was trying to hurry through the conversation at this point.
"No, no. No modifier or upgrades for the boon, " he said, adding "not that I have privileges to undermine water anyway," under his breath. "Is there absolutely any other way you can get me out of this bind," Agni dev said, in a rather dejected tone for a god of his stature.
"Well -- I can arrange for a celestial announcement that goes out only to him every time his power fails, explaining to him why it's not working. Or make a one-time announcement and wait for his acknowledgement. In either case though, we need his pre-approval -- we can't just go around announcing anything we want all the time unless there is something that involves immediate response or some kind of emergency. And this one's not it. Do you want me to arrange for his approval and work on either of the announcement options?" the Imp said, in a definitive tone, hoping to clear out the conversation.
"No, no it's fine. I'll take care of that issue," said Agni dev, rather disappointed. "Thank you for your help," he said.
"It was my pleasure and honor serving you O lord of heat and light, let me know if I can help you with anything else for matters of celestial operation. If you will allow me, I will now have the opportunity to serve other celestial beings," the Imp said, hoping to end the conversation.
"Yes, yes, Okay, fine, I'm done," he said, looking around. This wasn't very helpful. He was afraid of precisely this. Now he would have to go down to Earth and just play some drama or create a complex scenario so that Vindvansak's effects would be reduced. Might even have to take him out, and make it look like he was looking out for the realm. It would need some serious planning and thought. As if he didn't already have enough going on. He sighed in resignation.
The good place, and my lazy place [Tuesday 24]
Morning commute has gotten remarkably well, and the evening commute -- at least on the route 101, if the buses arrive on time -- has gotten so good, when I took the other route yesterday, a route that had traditionally been much faster, it was actually ten minutes faster than my regular commute. With it stabilizing, I'm not sure if I should talk about it so much anymore.
Work was pretty good and happy, and reasonably productive -- lots of meetings though. Got lunch with K, from previous job, at the Copley Square farmer's market. Got a grilled cheese sandwich with onions that looked good in the photos, but the serving size was small and it tasted just okay. We sad by the pond and talked about our old job, and new jobs etcetera. Her new office was exactly on one corners of the square, so that was an interesting or exciting piece of news.
Back at work, I did get a lot more done, work-wise, and writing-wise, than I regularly do. Got to almost 900 words. In the afternoon, I helped figure out a few issues, and quash a series of small annoyances that's been bothering out team for a while. Got an email from someone I knew from college, and that made me really happy.
After I was back home in the evening, I got all set to go to Aldi and make pancakes later, but I was stopped by the potential for a massive rain. My roommates showed me the weather forecast, so I decided to not take a chance (I've been already burned, or drowned rather, a few weeks ago the last time I bike to Aldi with my friend). As it happened, it didn't end up raining, and I came out looking like the goat of dover. I watched a few youtubes to chill before I cooked dinner, but my roommates were going to watch The Good Place, so I decided to watch a couple before cooking. This was at 7. It was 11.30 the next thing I knew, I hadn't made or eaten my healthy planned dinner, instead sustaining myself on roommate's fries, and I knew I was addicted. I quickly wrote down the thoughts the 12-or-so episodes we'd watched had made me think about and turned them into yesterday's post, and went on to do my weekly routine stuff. By the time I went to sleep, it was slightly past twelve, but I wasn't too worried.
Plan going forward is to front-load this daily journal to the end of the day instead of the next morning, so that there's a strict 'go to sleep' time. Additionally, if I can go to bed at 10, and be asleep by 10.30, I will have had a nice, restful sleep of 8 hours of sleep by 6am, at which point I can get at least two pieces of non-journal writing done, and perhaps go on a run too. Also, I'll be reading a little, and eating slightly more healthy going forward from today, so there's a lot to look forward to.
Work was pretty good and happy, and reasonably productive -- lots of meetings though. Got lunch with K, from previous job, at the Copley Square farmer's market. Got a grilled cheese sandwich with onions that looked good in the photos, but the serving size was small and it tasted just okay. We sad by the pond and talked about our old job, and new jobs etcetera. Her new office was exactly on one corners of the square, so that was an interesting or exciting piece of news.
Back at work, I did get a lot more done, work-wise, and writing-wise, than I regularly do. Got to almost 900 words. In the afternoon, I helped figure out a few issues, and quash a series of small annoyances that's been bothering out team for a while. Got an email from someone I knew from college, and that made me really happy.
After I was back home in the evening, I got all set to go to Aldi and make pancakes later, but I was stopped by the potential for a massive rain. My roommates showed me the weather forecast, so I decided to not take a chance (I've been already burned, or drowned rather, a few weeks ago the last time I bike to Aldi with my friend). As it happened, it didn't end up raining, and I came out looking like the goat of dover. I watched a few youtubes to chill before I cooked dinner, but my roommates were going to watch The Good Place, so I decided to watch a couple before cooking. This was at 7. It was 11.30 the next thing I knew, I hadn't made or eaten my healthy planned dinner, instead sustaining myself on roommate's fries, and I knew I was addicted. I quickly wrote down the thoughts the 12-or-so episodes we'd watched had made me think about and turned them into yesterday's post, and went on to do my weekly routine stuff. By the time I went to sleep, it was slightly past twelve, but I wasn't too worried.
Plan going forward is to front-load this daily journal to the end of the day instead of the next morning, so that there's a strict 'go to sleep' time. Additionally, if I can go to bed at 10, and be asleep by 10.30, I will have had a nice, restful sleep of 8 hours of sleep by 6am, at which point I can get at least two pieces of non-journal writing done, and perhaps go on a run too. Also, I'll be reading a little, and eating slightly more healthy going forward from today, so there's a lot to look forward to.
Functional equivalence of different belief systems
I need to be writing more fiction and inspired work, but I've spent the last six hours on (my third) The Good Place marathon with my roommates, upending all my plans for the evening. So, thoughts.
The only real difference between different belief systems is in the framing, not in the proper substance -- in effect, they're functionally the same. I'm not arguing about Jesus Vs Buddha, Mohammad vs Ram, no. The larger belief meta-system they're part of can be generalized, and I'm arguing that such a system is functionally equivalent to a lot of systems proposed more recently that don't involve any such deities at all. Despite that, despite the fact that these different supra-systems of belief and thought-organization prioritize different values, and understanding about the world, in their substance they are all the same. In fact, I could go as far as to say (without much confidence here, because I haven't given this as much thought as I have to other things), it is quite difficult, if not completely impossible to come up with a belief framework that would be strictly exclusive from all of those systems.
Let me explain. The religious/spiritual belief system involves believing in supernatural entities, invisible forces undetected by humans, and beings that may or may not have anthropomorphic forms. This also involves different 'realms' of existence for various entities, to explain why they don't interact or encounter each other regularly. Additionally, there are various forms of interactions between the different realms under certain circumstances, and it can be argued that agency can be assigned to various agents for those interactions. In other words, gods and goddesses live in heaven or whatever planets or mountains which we cannot easily see or go to, have interesting powers we cannot easily perceive, but these beings will occasionally interact with us. They have wildly varying explanations on the origins of such entities, but most origin stories do describe a common point of origin between humans and super-entities going back to some point.
Consider aliens. Or artificial intelligence, as described in various Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke stories. The exact stories or fictional worlds are not relevant here. What we must consider is the fact that such Universes describe exactly the sort of forces and entities as the religious ones describe. Unidentified entities that may or may not have humanlike forms, who have access to powers beyond human control or knowledge, who can work through an invisible realm, and influence the human world when they desire. They can be physical or corporeal, and some agency can be ascribed to them. To quote Clarke's beaten-to-death saying, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, that's true. What I'm arguing is it's not the question of distinguishing between the two because the two are functionally the same, there's no effective difference. Magic or gods are sufficiently advanced technology, if you want to think about that in such a framing, or technology is magic, if you want to change your frame of thought.
Here's the point I'm trying to make: these belief systems have strong proponents on each side, arguing for their vision of the super-entity, trying hard to prove the others' vision is wrong. However, there is no question of vision -- it's just a matter of framing, and if a party's exact vision of the world were framed differently, it would very accurately describe their opponents' points. There's absolutely little substantial difference, the distinguishing points are in the framing themselves and how you want to perceive the world. It's not clear that the proponents realize that their disagreements are limited only in framing and not the actual substance of the argument.
That's all.
The only real difference between different belief systems is in the framing, not in the proper substance -- in effect, they're functionally the same. I'm not arguing about Jesus Vs Buddha, Mohammad vs Ram, no. The larger belief meta-system they're part of can be generalized, and I'm arguing that such a system is functionally equivalent to a lot of systems proposed more recently that don't involve any such deities at all. Despite that, despite the fact that these different supra-systems of belief and thought-organization prioritize different values, and understanding about the world, in their substance they are all the same. In fact, I could go as far as to say (without much confidence here, because I haven't given this as much thought as I have to other things), it is quite difficult, if not completely impossible to come up with a belief framework that would be strictly exclusive from all of those systems.
Let me explain. The religious/spiritual belief system involves believing in supernatural entities, invisible forces undetected by humans, and beings that may or may not have anthropomorphic forms. This also involves different 'realms' of existence for various entities, to explain why they don't interact or encounter each other regularly. Additionally, there are various forms of interactions between the different realms under certain circumstances, and it can be argued that agency can be assigned to various agents for those interactions. In other words, gods and goddesses live in heaven or whatever planets or mountains which we cannot easily see or go to, have interesting powers we cannot easily perceive, but these beings will occasionally interact with us. They have wildly varying explanations on the origins of such entities, but most origin stories do describe a common point of origin between humans and super-entities going back to some point.
Consider aliens. Or artificial intelligence, as described in various Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke stories. The exact stories or fictional worlds are not relevant here. What we must consider is the fact that such Universes describe exactly the sort of forces and entities as the religious ones describe. Unidentified entities that may or may not have humanlike forms, who have access to powers beyond human control or knowledge, who can work through an invisible realm, and influence the human world when they desire. They can be physical or corporeal, and some agency can be ascribed to them. To quote Clarke's beaten-to-death saying, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, that's true. What I'm arguing is it's not the question of distinguishing between the two because the two are functionally the same, there's no effective difference. Magic or gods are sufficiently advanced technology, if you want to think about that in such a framing, or technology is magic, if you want to change your frame of thought.
Here's the point I'm trying to make: these belief systems have strong proponents on each side, arguing for their vision of the super-entity, trying hard to prove the others' vision is wrong. However, there is no question of vision -- it's just a matter of framing, and if a party's exact vision of the world were framed differently, it would very accurately describe their opponents' points. There's absolutely little substantial difference, the distinguishing points are in the framing themselves and how you want to perceive the world. It's not clear that the proponents realize that their disagreements are limited only in framing and not the actual substance of the argument.
That's all.
Catching over sleep [Monday 23]
Spent most of the day yesterday groggy and trying to catch up sleep lost over the weekend. Went to bed at 12, and got up late today, so while I'm not completely caught up, feel a lot better.
Commute was surprisingly pleasant and on time, they gave us breakfast at work, and I ate the french toast in the savory way, with spicy sauce. Work was pretty reasonably busy too, but not enough so that I didn't get any time to write. My coworkers went to chilacates for lunch, but I was too tired and groggy, so I ended up eating a lot of snacks instead. Because I felt so not-good, I left work at 3.40, and got home at 4.20. I fell asleep at about five, and took an hour-long nap. I tried for the following hour to go back to sleep, but couldn't, so I fixed up dinner, did lots of pushups, went on a run, talked to roommates (the remote control for our firestick has been discovered by Su inside our couch), and went to sleep. I should have tried to go to sleep earlier, but by the time I was asleep it must have been 12.15. Going forward, I should really try sleeping earlier, and maintaining a strict sleep cycle. At this point, it's sleep that's hindering most of my plans, as I get eating situation more in control.
Last night's writing wasn't particularly well-thought-of, because I was confused and the heart was palpitating, so I forced myself to write. I've never realized the importance of sleep as much as the last few weeks. Previously, since nothing else in my life was controlled, it was difficult to see what were the hindrances in making my life more stable, organized and discipline. I originally identified the causes to be food, sleep, and physical exercise. Since I've been working on the first and third not unreasonably, I can confidently say that sleep is the most important variable that I haven't been able to control yet. At this point, if I don't have it under control, my already-boring life is going to get even more boring, as all my days are bound to be spent on my attempts to catch back on sleep, with no success.
Commute was surprisingly pleasant and on time, they gave us breakfast at work, and I ate the french toast in the savory way, with spicy sauce. Work was pretty reasonably busy too, but not enough so that I didn't get any time to write. My coworkers went to chilacates for lunch, but I was too tired and groggy, so I ended up eating a lot of snacks instead. Because I felt so not-good, I left work at 3.40, and got home at 4.20. I fell asleep at about five, and took an hour-long nap. I tried for the following hour to go back to sleep, but couldn't, so I fixed up dinner, did lots of pushups, went on a run, talked to roommates (the remote control for our firestick has been discovered by Su inside our couch), and went to sleep. I should have tried to go to sleep earlier, but by the time I was asleep it must have been 12.15. Going forward, I should really try sleeping earlier, and maintaining a strict sleep cycle. At this point, it's sleep that's hindering most of my plans, as I get eating situation more in control.
Last night's writing wasn't particularly well-thought-of, because I was confused and the heart was palpitating, so I forced myself to write. I've never realized the importance of sleep as much as the last few weeks. Previously, since nothing else in my life was controlled, it was difficult to see what were the hindrances in making my life more stable, organized and discipline. I originally identified the causes to be food, sleep, and physical exercise. Since I've been working on the first and third not unreasonably, I can confidently say that sleep is the most important variable that I haven't been able to control yet. At this point, if I don't have it under control, my already-boring life is going to get even more boring, as all my days are bound to be spent on my attempts to catch back on sleep, with no success.
Momos are good only in Nepal, or when [some of] my friends make them
Listen, I have nothing against momos okay. I've been called names -- momo-hater, not-a-nepali, white-guy, foreigner, etcetera, only because my excitement for momos and momo parties is not as great as everyone else's. I have nothing personal against momos, again. It's just that...I've been spoiled, and momo parties are overrated, and most people don't make good momos, no matter how much sweat (literal too) goes into making it. I'm not judging the lovers of momo parties and those who enjoy making those, no no. All I'm saying is, I, personally, don't find them as exciting as other things. A good cheese plate for example, even if it did come from a mediocre grocery chain based in the northeast.
It's simple. In Nepal I ate a lot of momos. Three years ago, the last time I was home, I had it for breakfast lunch and dinner -- figuratively, but it's not too far from reality either. And I loved most of those. There were sesame based sauces, and peanut-based sauces, and pure tomato-based sauces and I enjoyed all of them! There was an art in those -- whoever had made those had thought about what profile of flavor and texture they wanted, and what ingredients would get them there. Good or bad (and obviously there are bad momo places in kathmandu) there was a method to the madness.
My friends in DC, PR and NG, now they know how to make momos. They've perfected the process down to the pat -- they'll make momos on a random weekday night, from scratch, in the same time it takes anyone else to cook chicken and rice. One starts the sauce, the other works on the meat. One works on wrapping, the other works on --whatever else remains. And in an hour/hour-and-half, they're full and burping the classic momo burps, a couple dozen momos each in their stomachs and a couple dozen more in the freezer for the following days. They know how to do the meat -- with lots of pork fat, mixed minced meat, just the right amount of spices, and a lot of fresh veggies too. The sauce is spicy and tangy, and complements the momo in the right way -- the two of them don't share any of the spices. The wrappers are just the right thickness too -- they don't break away in the cooker, but they will submit easily to your mouth, thus releasing the flavorful pork juices. Those momos really remind me of momos of my youth from Bakery Cafe, back when they made those huge filling momos that made you want to sleep but you couldn't because the garlic breath was so strong. The momos warm the body up, and the soul too, and are amazing even on a hot summer evening. More recently they've started making a fresh light soup to go with the momos, and ohh man, what can I say, I could eat this combo forever. Find yourself a partner who can make and perfect momos as well as the two of them, I say. I do love them momos. Even though I have quit eating meat, I will compromise just for the sake of them momos. Not even a second thought.
So, when someone organizes a momo party -- someone else I mean -- I sigh a long, resigned sigh, and go on. Apologies to all my friends and people I really care about -- the truth is, most of the veggie momos absolutely suck. The chicken+pork momos are better but they're inconsistent, even across the same batch, in all the elements. The wrappers are not well-considered, the meat and the sauce are worked-on by different people with their separate recipes, so there's no proper coordination in flavor and texture profiles. And the shapes are a disappointment. I realize a large part of momo parties is the social aspect of it -- getting along with friends and making them together, but could we not teach people to make actually good momos that don't break apart on contact with the steamer? Because eating steamed dough and meatballs is a bummer and that's what a lot of those batches turn out to be. Again, it's not the friends or the parties or the people or the social aspect of it that I have problem with. It's just...I really like momos, and I think calling those dumplings momo is an affront to the name of momo.
I don't know where we go on from here. I doubt people will suddenly start paying more attention to everything. Sadly, many people organize momo parties because they consider it to be the lowest-effort way to organize and feed large groups of a diverse set of people. There is little consideration about maintaining the good name of momo, and the respect and adoration Nepali people have for it. It's sad but it's true: such momos always play a second fiddle to other kinds of dumplings, because people do not put enough effort, despite claiming to love momos. And I, as a not-a-lover of momos am willing to admit that. You should too.
It's simple. In Nepal I ate a lot of momos. Three years ago, the last time I was home, I had it for breakfast lunch and dinner -- figuratively, but it's not too far from reality either. And I loved most of those. There were sesame based sauces, and peanut-based sauces, and pure tomato-based sauces and I enjoyed all of them! There was an art in those -- whoever had made those had thought about what profile of flavor and texture they wanted, and what ingredients would get them there. Good or bad (and obviously there are bad momo places in kathmandu) there was a method to the madness.
My friends in DC, PR and NG, now they know how to make momos. They've perfected the process down to the pat -- they'll make momos on a random weekday night, from scratch, in the same time it takes anyone else to cook chicken and rice. One starts the sauce, the other works on the meat. One works on wrapping, the other works on --whatever else remains. And in an hour/hour-and-half, they're full and burping the classic momo burps, a couple dozen momos each in their stomachs and a couple dozen more in the freezer for the following days. They know how to do the meat -- with lots of pork fat, mixed minced meat, just the right amount of spices, and a lot of fresh veggies too. The sauce is spicy and tangy, and complements the momo in the right way -- the two of them don't share any of the spices. The wrappers are just the right thickness too -- they don't break away in the cooker, but they will submit easily to your mouth, thus releasing the flavorful pork juices. Those momos really remind me of momos of my youth from Bakery Cafe, back when they made those huge filling momos that made you want to sleep but you couldn't because the garlic breath was so strong. The momos warm the body up, and the soul too, and are amazing even on a hot summer evening. More recently they've started making a fresh light soup to go with the momos, and ohh man, what can I say, I could eat this combo forever. Find yourself a partner who can make and perfect momos as well as the two of them, I say. I do love them momos. Even though I have quit eating meat, I will compromise just for the sake of them momos. Not even a second thought.
So, when someone organizes a momo party -- someone else I mean -- I sigh a long, resigned sigh, and go on. Apologies to all my friends and people I really care about -- the truth is, most of the veggie momos absolutely suck. The chicken+pork momos are better but they're inconsistent, even across the same batch, in all the elements. The wrappers are not well-considered, the meat and the sauce are worked-on by different people with their separate recipes, so there's no proper coordination in flavor and texture profiles. And the shapes are a disappointment. I realize a large part of momo parties is the social aspect of it -- getting along with friends and making them together, but could we not teach people to make actually good momos that don't break apart on contact with the steamer? Because eating steamed dough and meatballs is a bummer and that's what a lot of those batches turn out to be. Again, it's not the friends or the parties or the people or the social aspect of it that I have problem with. It's just...I really like momos, and I think calling those dumplings momo is an affront to the name of momo.
I don't know where we go on from here. I doubt people will suddenly start paying more attention to everything. Sadly, many people organize momo parties because they consider it to be the lowest-effort way to organize and feed large groups of a diverse set of people. There is little consideration about maintaining the good name of momo, and the respect and adoration Nepali people have for it. It's sad but it's true: such momos always play a second fiddle to other kinds of dumplings, because people do not put enough effort, despite claiming to love momos. And I, as a not-a-lover of momos am willing to admit that. You should too.
Nihil [Sunday 22]
Got up at [insert an embarrassing hour of the day here] after going to sleep at 2am. Roommates went to the beach and asked me if I wanted to go, but I decided to chill at home instead. Ended up not following most of the daily rules. The biggest thing I did was probably transferring the various flours I'd bought for pancakes from their plastic packets into hard plastic containers.
Napped for several hours during the day. The easiest way for me to fall asleep has been turning out to be to listen to podcasts. I put on a youtube show or a podcast -- I forget which one -- and fell asleep, just like that. After getting up, I stumbled around, creeped old friends on twitter and google, got a dinner which was chiura and potatoes which my roommates had made, and ... that's it actually. I talked to MK for a few hours in chat in the evening, but there' nothing notable I can think about the day. The roommates came back right about when I got up from my nap too, so that's the biggest and most important part of the day. The evening was per the usual -- did my pushups, run, shower, writing, etcetera. Went to bed at 2am due to talking on the phone and general distraction. I should really improve the the time I go to bed at.
Saturday night and yesterday morning to afternoon, I was feeling little zoned out and confused, for apparently no reason. Started feeling better last night, and as of right now, it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say I'm in tip-top shape.
Wrote the post about making bed last night, because the reason I felt so unproductive could (I'm not saying it definitely is, just saying it could) be attributed to the fact that my bed remained unmade most of the day. Because of that (possibly), none of my daily chores ended up being done, until late in the evening, when I finally decided to gather all the energy I had and just make it. Soon after that, I got right down to cleaning up my room, and catching up in the rest of the daily tasks too. Except taking my vitamins. Should take my vitamins more regularly.
In conclusion, yes I got a nap that might have helped me catch up on sleep. But I slept in so late last night, it's not going to happen. Oh well. I should at least complete the weekly todo list for last week today, so I can start a new one for this week.
Napped for several hours during the day. The easiest way for me to fall asleep has been turning out to be to listen to podcasts. I put on a youtube show or a podcast -- I forget which one -- and fell asleep, just like that. After getting up, I stumbled around, creeped old friends on twitter and google, got a dinner which was chiura and potatoes which my roommates had made, and ... that's it actually. I talked to MK for a few hours in chat in the evening, but there' nothing notable I can think about the day. The roommates came back right about when I got up from my nap too, so that's the biggest and most important part of the day. The evening was per the usual -- did my pushups, run, shower, writing, etcetera. Went to bed at 2am due to talking on the phone and general distraction. I should really improve the the time I go to bed at.
Saturday night and yesterday morning to afternoon, I was feeling little zoned out and confused, for apparently no reason. Started feeling better last night, and as of right now, it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say I'm in tip-top shape.
Wrote the post about making bed last night, because the reason I felt so unproductive could (I'm not saying it definitely is, just saying it could) be attributed to the fact that my bed remained unmade most of the day. Because of that (possibly), none of my daily chores ended up being done, until late in the evening, when I finally decided to gather all the energy I had and just make it. Soon after that, I got right down to cleaning up my room, and catching up in the rest of the daily tasks too. Except taking my vitamins. Should take my vitamins more regularly.
In conclusion, yes I got a nap that might have helped me catch up on sleep. But I slept in so late last night, it's not going to happen. Oh well. I should at least complete the weekly todo list for last week today, so I can start a new one for this week.
Making beds is important
Making beds is important. I didn't make my bed today, and didn't get anything done. I was talking the same with HK, and he said the same. I made bed later at 9PM, and got everything done, which was great. Now need to do my run and pushups, and I'm all set! It's hard to believe small things can make such big difference, but it's true! Need to work on my cli blogger tool to this week, and the weekly timetable, but I can work things as they go, so I'm not too worried about these.
I was surprisingly tired and bored today, for having done literally nothingg. Did get a good nap, and likely got caught up on sleep, so can't complain too too much. I shouldn't get too distracted by minor failures.
I was surprisingly tired and bored today, for having done literally nothingg. Did get a good nap, and likely got caught up on sleep, so can't complain too too much. I shouldn't get too distracted by minor failures.
Hiking and (no) momo Party [Saturday 21]
Got up at 8 yesterday morning, and tried unsuccessfully for the next two hours to go back to sleep. Hiking plans with HK kept getting moved forward until 11.30, so I was ready by 11.45, but he got in earlier than that, so there was a bit of rushing.
We drove to the Fells, and walked around that area. A hike is such a great way to catch up with people, because if you go out to eat, or just hang out at some place, you either 1) are bored and want to make an escape, because there's nothing better to do, or 2) are the target of such previously-mentioned escape, and feel bad about yourself because you couldn't keep your guest well-entertained. With hiking, both the problems solve themselves because 1) you don't need to keep someone entertained because hiking is an activity anyway happening in the background that keeps everyone entertained, and 2) you don't get bored because again, this activity is what you came in to do, and you're doing it an enjoying it. It's such a great way to catch up with someone. I guess walks are the same, but they're less interesting, so there's something that's lacking. Another thing: how do you handle walks and hikes in the winter? You can definitely do it upto December, but the following months are way, way too snowy and cold to do that.
In any case, had a solid hike with HK. We talked about his new job, his opinion on healthcare in America and how it could be improved (he has somewhat of an interesting opinion because he's worked for insurers as well as vendors insurers pay money to), and how interests could be aligned to actually improve public health. At that point, we agreed the sort of ideal public-facing healthcare we were talking about (that mostly already exists for 65+ people in Florida apparently) is mostly science fiction and fantasy, and was unlikely to ever happen in America due to vested interests. We talked about how intense hikes they took him and his scout troops to, and families and their preferences for their children's partners. I shared with him the work I'd been doing recently to improve myself, and he was happy I shared those with him. He wants to explore music more, but hasn't gotten around to it yet. I also almost convinced him to buy a bike, and I wouldn't be surprised if he got one really soon and started biking everywhere because he's that kind of person, and also in probably the best physical shape as anyone I know. Also got caught up on the AA friends from college through him, and I'm glad everyone's doing well.
For the last half hour, we were effectively lost because there were multiple parking lots on the side of the park, and we kept on going to the nearest one, until we realized that the one we had parked in was the one furthest away from us. It was actually quite tiring for this part because we were walking pointlessly and it was annoying to have so many false starts. We were truly relieved when we got to the right parking lot -- our fourth one.
We planned to go on a swim after to the mystic lakes, but I was actually quite quite tired, and HK seemed distracted too (we must have missed at least 10 different turns, and took the wrong abouts in the roundabouts about half the time). We went to the lake after collecting towels from my place, and ended up parking in the wrong spot. HK suggested we call it a day, and I agreed. Back home, I let him try all the things I'd been working on, and he probably wasn't being polite when he appreciated the various brews and asked for second helpings!
Back from the lakes, I rested for maybe 20 minutes before I got ready for the momo party for the evening. I took my bottles of Kombucha (half of one bottle among the three I took in were consumed, and I'm not complaining because it didn't seem like an appreciative crowd) and my roommates bought booze. My other roommate -- the one with the car -- took corn-hole equipment to the place. Our friend J's place is up in oak grove, right next to the Fells, and it's got a large back yard. We played the 'hole, and ate cheese plate and grapes and zucchini breads that A&A had brought. A has started driving again, so everyone was very happy because now he can drive people around. Since there was no vegetarian momo, I filled myself on the appetizers, and honestly probably had just as good time as I would have had.
I danced by myself a bit when everyone was wrapping the momos (my take on momo parties: overrated but I understand why they exist, and I don't have any fundamental problems with it) -- they were chicken and didn't want to touch them. SS turned up late -- she had spent the day mostly searching for three succulents for her house, always a good reason to make fun of people -- and was a little intimidated by all the new face. I told her I too knew only about five people there, and had no clue who the other fifteen were.
There were two long and drawn out games of mafia that everyone enjoyed. SM is improving as the showrunner. It was more fun than I imagined, but part of that may have been due to me exchanging my interesting cards with anyone who would care to have one. At the end, when we were about to leave, I had a couple of people try the kombucha, and they seemed to like it.
We took the orange line to assembly with SS who took the orange and the green lines back home, and took lyft home. Went to bed at 2 in the morning. I need to get better with that.
We drove to the Fells, and walked around that area. A hike is such a great way to catch up with people, because if you go out to eat, or just hang out at some place, you either 1) are bored and want to make an escape, because there's nothing better to do, or 2) are the target of such previously-mentioned escape, and feel bad about yourself because you couldn't keep your guest well-entertained. With hiking, both the problems solve themselves because 1) you don't need to keep someone entertained because hiking is an activity anyway happening in the background that keeps everyone entertained, and 2) you don't get bored because again, this activity is what you came in to do, and you're doing it an enjoying it. It's such a great way to catch up with someone. I guess walks are the same, but they're less interesting, so there's something that's lacking. Another thing: how do you handle walks and hikes in the winter? You can definitely do it upto December, but the following months are way, way too snowy and cold to do that.
In any case, had a solid hike with HK. We talked about his new job, his opinion on healthcare in America and how it could be improved (he has somewhat of an interesting opinion because he's worked for insurers as well as vendors insurers pay money to), and how interests could be aligned to actually improve public health. At that point, we agreed the sort of ideal public-facing healthcare we were talking about (that mostly already exists for 65+ people in Florida apparently) is mostly science fiction and fantasy, and was unlikely to ever happen in America due to vested interests. We talked about how intense hikes they took him and his scout troops to, and families and their preferences for their children's partners. I shared with him the work I'd been doing recently to improve myself, and he was happy I shared those with him. He wants to explore music more, but hasn't gotten around to it yet. I also almost convinced him to buy a bike, and I wouldn't be surprised if he got one really soon and started biking everywhere because he's that kind of person, and also in probably the best physical shape as anyone I know. Also got caught up on the AA friends from college through him, and I'm glad everyone's doing well.
For the last half hour, we were effectively lost because there were multiple parking lots on the side of the park, and we kept on going to the nearest one, until we realized that the one we had parked in was the one furthest away from us. It was actually quite tiring for this part because we were walking pointlessly and it was annoying to have so many false starts. We were truly relieved when we got to the right parking lot -- our fourth one.
We planned to go on a swim after to the mystic lakes, but I was actually quite quite tired, and HK seemed distracted too (we must have missed at least 10 different turns, and took the wrong abouts in the roundabouts about half the time). We went to the lake after collecting towels from my place, and ended up parking in the wrong spot. HK suggested we call it a day, and I agreed. Back home, I let him try all the things I'd been working on, and he probably wasn't being polite when he appreciated the various brews and asked for second helpings!
Back from the lakes, I rested for maybe 20 minutes before I got ready for the momo party for the evening. I took my bottles of Kombucha (half of one bottle among the three I took in were consumed, and I'm not complaining because it didn't seem like an appreciative crowd) and my roommates bought booze. My other roommate -- the one with the car -- took corn-hole equipment to the place. Our friend J's place is up in oak grove, right next to the Fells, and it's got a large back yard. We played the 'hole, and ate cheese plate and grapes and zucchini breads that A&A had brought. A has started driving again, so everyone was very happy because now he can drive people around. Since there was no vegetarian momo, I filled myself on the appetizers, and honestly probably had just as good time as I would have had.
I danced by myself a bit when everyone was wrapping the momos (my take on momo parties: overrated but I understand why they exist, and I don't have any fundamental problems with it) -- they were chicken and didn't want to touch them. SS turned up late -- she had spent the day mostly searching for three succulents for her house, always a good reason to make fun of people -- and was a little intimidated by all the new face. I told her I too knew only about five people there, and had no clue who the other fifteen were.
There were two long and drawn out games of mafia that everyone enjoyed. SM is improving as the showrunner. It was more fun than I imagined, but part of that may have been due to me exchanging my interesting cards with anyone who would care to have one. At the end, when we were about to leave, I had a couple of people try the kombucha, and they seemed to like it.
We took the orange line to assembly with SS who took the orange and the green lines back home, and took lyft home. Went to bed at 2 in the morning. I need to get better with that.
On the resurgence of fried rice
I won't want to write too much on this because I don't want this to be a hill I could die on.
Fried rice has made a come-back, and in a big way. There was an era, that lasted perhaps upto several decades in America, until early to mid 2010's, when the fried rice was the most basic, boring, and lame thing you could order at an Asian restaurant. If you didn't want to take any chances, and/or also wanted to order the cheapest item on the menu, you'd get the fried rice. If you didn't really want to be there but had been dragged by your friends, family or partners, the fried rice would be the thing to order. It would be a way to show the restaurant that you didn't really care for them that much, but were buying the rice anyway because it was a social obligation and you'd pay them the monies but not give them the respect for the craft of food that they deserved.
I discovered the changing wave in maybe 2013/14. I don't know where it started -- like all things these days I wouldn't be surprised if it had started in modern Chinese cuisine and made its way to America. I discovered in several Chinese restaurants as well as the Thai place in Cambridge that shut down recently (I'm so mad about that). The Fried Rice was suddenly not the most basic thing on the menu. Rather, it had started costing as much as anything else. Restaurants had begun experimenting with throwing in an interesting combo of meats, vegetables, and other sauce and additives in there. My favourite was the Indonesian Fried Rice in the aforementioned restaurant that served with a well-fried egg with an option of one extra. The rice was well fried, garnished and served, and it was pretty clear a lot of work had gone into that.
And thus started the trend of 'house fried rice', which was now not only as expensive as any other entree but rather actually more expensive than them. They put in a bunch of extra items in there -- sometimes sampler plates, sometimes ingredients that were rarer and harder to come by, and thus fried rice came to be the food item that we know now: the way for the chef of the restaurant to really show her creativity and talk to the customer. The rest of the menu is the restaurant owner talking to the customer : I know what you want, you know what I want, our prices are such and such, either you'll like these, or you're not meant for this place. The fried rice is the chef talking to us: this is quite unreasonably priced for fried rice, I know, but I've spent a lot of my time and energy coming up with this recipe, and the ingredients are different than what you would find elsewhere. I know this is not going to be a moneymaker for this restaurant, but if you like this, you'll keep coming to this restaurant for all eternity. If there's a connection in fried rice, there's a connection with the restaurant, and you will keep coming back even if you like nothing else in the menu -- because you can feel the work of a master in the rice and its accompaniments, and enjoy the experience. If the fried rice experience of the house is bad, you know that the owner doesn't give the chef any leeway, and either the chef is a boring hack who's in it just for the money, or the owner doesn't care about your experience or flavor, but thinks only in terms of profit and loss, and the next thing on the chopping block could be your favourite item. Time to rethink your orders and presence here!
Fried rice has made a come-back, and in a big way. There was an era, that lasted perhaps upto several decades in America, until early to mid 2010's, when the fried rice was the most basic, boring, and lame thing you could order at an Asian restaurant. If you didn't want to take any chances, and/or also wanted to order the cheapest item on the menu, you'd get the fried rice. If you didn't really want to be there but had been dragged by your friends, family or partners, the fried rice would be the thing to order. It would be a way to show the restaurant that you didn't really care for them that much, but were buying the rice anyway because it was a social obligation and you'd pay them the monies but not give them the respect for the craft of food that they deserved.
I discovered the changing wave in maybe 2013/14. I don't know where it started -- like all things these days I wouldn't be surprised if it had started in modern Chinese cuisine and made its way to America. I discovered in several Chinese restaurants as well as the Thai place in Cambridge that shut down recently (I'm so mad about that). The Fried Rice was suddenly not the most basic thing on the menu. Rather, it had started costing as much as anything else. Restaurants had begun experimenting with throwing in an interesting combo of meats, vegetables, and other sauce and additives in there. My favourite was the Indonesian Fried Rice in the aforementioned restaurant that served with a well-fried egg with an option of one extra. The rice was well fried, garnished and served, and it was pretty clear a lot of work had gone into that.
And thus started the trend of 'house fried rice', which was now not only as expensive as any other entree but rather actually more expensive than them. They put in a bunch of extra items in there -- sometimes sampler plates, sometimes ingredients that were rarer and harder to come by, and thus fried rice came to be the food item that we know now: the way for the chef of the restaurant to really show her creativity and talk to the customer. The rest of the menu is the restaurant owner talking to the customer : I know what you want, you know what I want, our prices are such and such, either you'll like these, or you're not meant for this place. The fried rice is the chef talking to us: this is quite unreasonably priced for fried rice, I know, but I've spent a lot of my time and energy coming up with this recipe, and the ingredients are different than what you would find elsewhere. I know this is not going to be a moneymaker for this restaurant, but if you like this, you'll keep coming to this restaurant for all eternity. If there's a connection in fried rice, there's a connection with the restaurant, and you will keep coming back even if you like nothing else in the menu -- because you can feel the work of a master in the rice and its accompaniments, and enjoy the experience. If the fried rice experience of the house is bad, you know that the owner doesn't give the chef any leeway, and either the chef is a boring hack who's in it just for the money, or the owner doesn't care about your experience or flavor, but thinks only in terms of profit and loss, and the next thing on the chopping block could be your favourite item. Time to rethink your orders and presence here!
Food friends and food [Friday 20]
Got up reasonably on time, and wrote quite a bit. Had to wait for the toilet for quite some time, but there was no real urgency so it was fine. Commute was as usual, in that it was pretty unremarkable, except for the fact that I told my roommate P that I'd see him later at work.
Work was actually quite busy -- not as busy as Thursday but remarkably so, so I had little time to do my own writing stuff. I managed the interns a bit too, and got most of our things working, which has taken a lot of time. I'm proud of having brought the product this far. For lunch, since it was our last lunch with one of the managers, we went to a popular fried chicken place in Boston, and everyone ordered chicken. I ordered stir fried tofu and it was pretty great. There was a lot of memorable conversations about WWE, WWF, wrestling, wrestlers, the life of the spanish-languge wrestling federation, and so forth on our way back. I discovered a bug that was preventing one of the parts from working, and began working on the fix. By this time, it had been like 3, and everyone was beginning to head out, so I started working a bit on my writing ideas. One of the ideas I've come up with recently (and have been thinking about in a while, including posting here) is about a post riverified Kathmandu and how it would change everything. It has been my secret fantasy for a while, and since I can't do anything about it I'm turning it into a novel.
Everyone was out by 4.30, so I waited a bunch until my friends were over and then they got drinks as I drank almond milk (review: just okay), and shot the shit. SSh went to hang with her other friends, as we tried figuring out what we wanted to do. It took us a really long time to figure it out actually because competing factions had competing interests. In the end, we ended up taking two trains to Lechmere, an uber from there to tasty momo and spending two hours there eating momos. I got the vegetable momo even when I thought I wasn't really hungry. I discovered that I was really actually pretty hungry. The we went to our place, and hung out for a couple of hours, and then three of our other friends showed up. PraBhu left because they had to drive down today, and soon later, the other guys left too. At this point, the night should have ended but no, the three of us roommates were up until 3.
It was really Su's fault, for he was really sleepy but wanted to talk anyway so he was provoking us by BS arguments and make us talk till really late. We kept trying to explain to him that the supply-demand equation does not have anything to do with blackmailing, fraud or death threats, but he kept insisting that's all it was. He also suggested (later admitted that it was all a ploy to let us not sleep either) that a good way to save the environment would be for everyone to work in the environmental field, and the laws of supply and demand wouldn't work there. Anyway, I went to sleep at maybe 3.30, and then somehow got up at 830 in the morning and man I was pissed.
I gave Kombucha to all our guests last evening, and there was a large general appreciation of the 'booch, and I was really happy about that because I didn't like the jalepeno, ginger, tomato, banana-plut flavor of kombucha myself, but whatever.
Also, someone saw a mice in our apartment, and we didn't really believe them yesterday, but someone saw it again this morning, and saw that those buggers had eaten some of our breads, so now we believe that and we need a way to fix that shit. More on that later.
Also, someone saw a mice in our apartment, and we didn't really believe them yesterday, but someone saw it again this morning, and saw that those buggers had eaten some of our breads, so now we believe that and we need a way to fix that shit. More on that later.
As a sidenote, due to sleeping really late yesterday and getting really late/early and really tired today, combined with the rest of the activities for the day, I didn't really get to complete this, or anything for the day today, so I'm writing this late at night, 12/16 hours after I normally do.
Shri Harigya
A man should woo and marry"That is awfully specific and awfully generalized at the same time...no? What if the girl is ten years younger and also happens to be a virgin? What if I want to woo a young girl as an old man, because there won't be any virgin old women left. What if, what if --"
a recommended virgin who is
four to eight years younger,
or else she is too old.
"Okay okay, I understood your point, what change do you want me to make?"
"A virgin seven years younger is the perfect...something... Also, remove the virgin there, what if I want to marry a courtesan?"
"...you realize you don't have to follow these rules right? These are all words, to go out to the Princes, not rules of the religion we must live by," he said
"Still, what if the goddamn Princes get too carried away and start enforcing those rules on us, it's going to be bad for me. I might want to marry the courtesans, I don't see why not?"
"Fine, fine, fine, I'll remove the virgin part too. I'm telling you, this is not going to make for a very good book. What will the princes read if we set no rules and just tell them to keep doing what they are doing anyway."
"Perhaps we should had more points on spycraft. Arthashastra have added several chapters on spycraft and sex -- they even lifted the pages off of us. We can take a revenge by adding details about spycraft..."
"You know anything about spycraft?"
"I doubt if the Arthashastris did,"
"What do I write then?"
"Write... A good spy is a courtesan... Or a beggar. Or a monk woman who has converted to Buddhism and taken a vow for celibacy, for no one will suspect them for harboring deep secrets underneath."
"No one trusts the followers of the Buddha though..."
"No one trusts beggars either, but here we are. We haven't done any spycraft, or much of the several deep topics we have written about. Why stop at this point. If we do, we just come off as a bunch of cowardly liars..."
"...and instead we should be confident liars...is...that what you---"
"Exactly! Be more confident. We need to communicate what we're saying is the truth, and the absolute truth! Do you not read the purans my friend!"
"The purans are a historical evidence of a a long time ago in a place many thousands of years walk away..."
"--whereas they are exactly what people like us wrote and disseminated amongst their acquaintances and got picked up by powerful princes. I know four different people who are helping modify and create puranas, I can put you in touch if you want to contribte."
"What is truth if the the word of vedas and the puranas then?"
This! He patted on the back heavily.
"I see."
"Lets look at the next stanza"
A man should engage in group games such as"So I cannot marry a princess?"
completing verses and in marriages and alliances,
only with his equals,
not with people above or below him.When the man marries a girl
and lives with her like a servant,
they call this an 'upward alliance'
and wise men avoid it.
"So it would seem, yes."
"Lets chance it to say, and lives with him like a hmm, not a servant, but something who helps around. A...helper. and lives with her like a helper, and the part about wise men avoiding it, lets change it to them... dance around it. You know, considering doing, but never really doing."
"Dance?" he rolled his eyes.
"Play around it..." he began, "that sounds right. So our benefactors think it's like a game of big hunt."
"Okay done, what's next?"
"Hmm let me see..."
The man should not mount any woman,
if she is very ready to be taken,
in a place where the husband
has been seen to stray toward another woman
"Is everything well with this?"
"Heh heh heh, you are a wise, wise man my friend. Husbands are as wives are, and their mistresses are as you are. Which is why the safest place is to be in your own home grounds, or so say the books."
"Which ones?"
Skanda Purana.
"Ahh. I haven't gone into great depth, that one"
"You will find, when you do, my friend, when you do!"
Fairwell, coworker, and the raspi[Thursday 19]
The morning commute was pretty bad in all forms, and all the buses and trains were late and outrageously full. Work was very busy, and I didn't get any time to write at work at all. In addition to that, I woke up quite a bit later than usual, because my alarm didn't go off/I didn't remember the alarm going off. My roommate's alarm didn't go off either, and I considered the possibility of it being some sort of global/Google conspiracy on the part of phonemakers to measure the impact of the entire world being late due to their failed alarm. Didn't take the morning vitamins because was still fasting technically, and didn't want strong vitamins on an empty stomach.
Lunch was a feast. An external team was training our space, and they had ordered enough for 40 people, where there were only 16 trainees. I gorged so much on the Greek food, I was pretty full until dinner. We talked about stolen bikes and workouts and China over lunch. There was a fair-well for a beloved coworker, and we talked for 45 minutes generally, about the rise of hard cider, how you can carbonate anything if you really put your heart in it, bad/good food ideas, and various other topics that may or may not be related to our coworker. Again, it was one of the busier days, and I had very little free time. I might be in trouble with one of the teams I volunteered for, because I don't attend their meetings anymore -- they have way too many meetings for meetings for meetings, so I need to clear the air today.
Felt pretty bad after getting back home for not writing much, and tried to start up my trusty old raspberry pi, so I could get automated journal templates created for every day. I spent maybe three hours trying to set it up and get it connected to wifi, but all in vain. I've done everything I've ever tried yet to set up the wifi, but it hasn't showed any signs of working yet. I'm worried it might be dead forever. Regardless, that made me even more self-conscious and concerned about why I had wasted so much time in not writing anything. And I didn't end up making rice-wine as I had originally planned to. I went on a quick run, too a quick shower, and wrote up yesterday's piece on the Khyaak. By now P my roommate was here from his college alumni fundraising event, and we tried figuring out if our sick roommate was home yet. As it turns out, he had always been home sleeping, it was just that the other two of us didn't know, because he had been sleeping. Did five proper pushups, and did my core burrn! Later in the evening before going to bed, I tried writing something again. Read a tonne of old posts here for inspiration. Wasn't very inspired. Paused to think about what would be a good topic to write, didn't come up with anything good, except perhaps a workable idea for the bad novel in October. In the end, I just gave up -- two posts a day are good enough I figured. Went to bed listening to MDWAP.
Mushroom is coming up really well, and I finally completed the templated daily checklist for personal well-being that goes into my journal. I can hear my roommate humming songs, so it's fair to say he's well this morning. I need to fight the cold and darkness better if I want to maintain this burst of discipline and self-motivation.
Lunch was a feast. An external team was training our space, and they had ordered enough for 40 people, where there were only 16 trainees. I gorged so much on the Greek food, I was pretty full until dinner. We talked about stolen bikes and workouts and China over lunch. There was a fair-well for a beloved coworker, and we talked for 45 minutes generally, about the rise of hard cider, how you can carbonate anything if you really put your heart in it, bad/good food ideas, and various other topics that may or may not be related to our coworker. Again, it was one of the busier days, and I had very little free time. I might be in trouble with one of the teams I volunteered for, because I don't attend their meetings anymore -- they have way too many meetings for meetings for meetings, so I need to clear the air today.
Felt pretty bad after getting back home for not writing much, and tried to start up my trusty old raspberry pi, so I could get automated journal templates created for every day. I spent maybe three hours trying to set it up and get it connected to wifi, but all in vain. I've done everything I've ever tried yet to set up the wifi, but it hasn't showed any signs of working yet. I'm worried it might be dead forever. Regardless, that made me even more self-conscious and concerned about why I had wasted so much time in not writing anything. And I didn't end up making rice-wine as I had originally planned to. I went on a quick run, too a quick shower, and wrote up yesterday's piece on the Khyaak. By now P my roommate was here from his college alumni fundraising event, and we tried figuring out if our sick roommate was home yet. As it turns out, he had always been home sleeping, it was just that the other two of us didn't know, because he had been sleeping. Did five proper pushups, and did my core burrn! Later in the evening before going to bed, I tried writing something again. Read a tonne of old posts here for inspiration. Wasn't very inspired. Paused to think about what would be a good topic to write, didn't come up with anything good, except perhaps a workable idea for the bad novel in October. In the end, I just gave up -- two posts a day are good enough I figured. Went to bed listening to MDWAP.
Mushroom is coming up really well, and I finally completed the templated daily checklist for personal well-being that goes into my journal. I can hear my roommate humming songs, so it's fair to say he's well this morning. I need to fight the cold and darkness better if I want to maintain this burst of discipline and self-motivation.
Total submission
Thick rainbow filled the room, pooling over the floor and rising up to the ceiling. Thick gluggs of concentrated smoke swirled around violently, and disappeared in a puff, only to reappear somewhere else with greater vigor. It was hard to see despite the bright sunlight outside: light could only just barely penetrate through the multicolored haze.
The khyaak sat on the revolving chair, thinking. The piece of wood between its forefinger and the middle-finger burned bright red on one end, yet there seemed to be no direct path between it and the smoke that had filled up. It was as if the air around the room had decided to impress by turning into its most interesting form. The khyaak took a hard puff, and blew out the smoke in slow, considered breaths.
You, it said in its characteristic hoarse voice, pointing the forefinger holding the smokestick at Haka, have great tasks ahead of you. You will need to steal, you will need to kill, and you will need to blackmail, you should be ready for all of that. I don't want you wasting my time later crying like a baby about how you can't do so and so or are busy or setting your pandiths or pujaris on me. I'm the only power you will ever see, you will have to listen to me, it barked at Haka.
Yes, I understand, said Haka rather meekly. He cleared his voice. I will do as you wish to the best of my abilities, if I cannot do something, I cannot do something and I cannot do anything about that. I am a simple person, I don't want to get in trouble with you -- I know all about your powers. I cannot fight you -- I will do as you wish, with hope that you can save me if the time should come. I cannot do your bidding if the police throw me inside prison, or if I die, or if I get kidnapped, or if I die of hunger, or if a car hits me, or if I die of sickness, or someone shoots me, or I fall down from the balcony and die, or a snake bites me, or if a mosquito bites me and I die of dengue, or if I eat street food and I die of gonorrhea. I am your servant only as long as I am able to serve, and I count upon you to protect your servant from earthly powers and the powers beyond, he said, in a monotone. He surprised himself, he had considered this for a while, and played around with all the various situations, and it all came down to this: this was a power way beyond him, and he wanted to live. In fact, life was unpredictable, it could go in unexpected places at rather unexpected times, so had decided to use this opportunity to protect himself. Rather a somewhat evil man forced to do bad acts by his circumstances than a good man dead, he had explained to himself. Beside, if serving this creature would win him victory over forces of nature, time, and death, there was a lot he wold be willing to compromise for that. He wasn't a bad man, no there were some things -- obviously -- he would never ever do no matter what, he was just sure that the Khyaak knew his limits and would never test them. I will jump to death the day if it makes me harm a child, he reminded himself after ingratiating himself with the Khyaak.
The khyaak laughed. A shrill laugh that would raise anyone's back hairs. The laugh turned into an incessant wheezing as it blew out the smoke it had held inside itself throughout Haka's total submission speech. It wheezed for a while before it recovered. You have chosen well, I see you are a wise man, it said. I will appear again soon, and you have to be prepared for me. Know this, your weakness and meekness won't protect you. I don't pity, and your inability to complete a task will only be your suffering. There have been many before you who hurt themselves to save themselves from me -- broke their arms and legs and backs, just so they wouldn't be in a physical ability to do my bidding. That won't help you. It was their suffering, and only their suffering, and they were by far the ones who suffered the most. And in the end, still had to complete their tasks. You make your choice, would you rather be a competent person, or suffer through life. You are fat, it said, as it massaged its potbelly, you will have trouble. Exercise, and get in shape. Become strong, your strength will serve you well, and your suffering will be less. You will see me soon, it said, and disappeared into a puff of purple cloud.
The khyaak sat on the revolving chair, thinking. The piece of wood between its forefinger and the middle-finger burned bright red on one end, yet there seemed to be no direct path between it and the smoke that had filled up. It was as if the air around the room had decided to impress by turning into its most interesting form. The khyaak took a hard puff, and blew out the smoke in slow, considered breaths.
You, it said in its characteristic hoarse voice, pointing the forefinger holding the smokestick at Haka, have great tasks ahead of you. You will need to steal, you will need to kill, and you will need to blackmail, you should be ready for all of that. I don't want you wasting my time later crying like a baby about how you can't do so and so or are busy or setting your pandiths or pujaris on me. I'm the only power you will ever see, you will have to listen to me, it barked at Haka.
Yes, I understand, said Haka rather meekly. He cleared his voice. I will do as you wish to the best of my abilities, if I cannot do something, I cannot do something and I cannot do anything about that. I am a simple person, I don't want to get in trouble with you -- I know all about your powers. I cannot fight you -- I will do as you wish, with hope that you can save me if the time should come. I cannot do your bidding if the police throw me inside prison, or if I die, or if I get kidnapped, or if I die of hunger, or if a car hits me, or if I die of sickness, or someone shoots me, or I fall down from the balcony and die, or a snake bites me, or if a mosquito bites me and I die of dengue, or if I eat street food and I die of gonorrhea. I am your servant only as long as I am able to serve, and I count upon you to protect your servant from earthly powers and the powers beyond, he said, in a monotone. He surprised himself, he had considered this for a while, and played around with all the various situations, and it all came down to this: this was a power way beyond him, and he wanted to live. In fact, life was unpredictable, it could go in unexpected places at rather unexpected times, so had decided to use this opportunity to protect himself. Rather a somewhat evil man forced to do bad acts by his circumstances than a good man dead, he had explained to himself. Beside, if serving this creature would win him victory over forces of nature, time, and death, there was a lot he wold be willing to compromise for that. He wasn't a bad man, no there were some things -- obviously -- he would never ever do no matter what, he was just sure that the Khyaak knew his limits and would never test them. I will jump to death the day if it makes me harm a child, he reminded himself after ingratiating himself with the Khyaak.
The khyaak laughed. A shrill laugh that would raise anyone's back hairs. The laugh turned into an incessant wheezing as it blew out the smoke it had held inside itself throughout Haka's total submission speech. It wheezed for a while before it recovered. You have chosen well, I see you are a wise man, it said. I will appear again soon, and you have to be prepared for me. Know this, your weakness and meekness won't protect you. I don't pity, and your inability to complete a task will only be your suffering. There have been many before you who hurt themselves to save themselves from me -- broke their arms and legs and backs, just so they wouldn't be in a physical ability to do my bidding. That won't help you. It was their suffering, and only their suffering, and they were by far the ones who suffered the most. And in the end, still had to complete their tasks. You make your choice, would you rather be a competent person, or suffer through life. You are fat, it said, as it massaged its potbelly, you will have trouble. Exercise, and get in shape. Become strong, your strength will serve you well, and your suffering will be less. You will see me soon, it said, and disappeared into a puff of purple cloud.
Tamper, run, fast [Wednesday 18]
The morning was as usual, P and I caught the supposedly-7.55 bus which got in late, and I somehow ended up at work right about the same time I always get in. The train was suspiciously empty at Sullivan, and we wondered what was up -- summer is over and the trains are supposed to be packed like a can of...tightly packed food items that don't involve straining our natural environment beyond its capacity.
Since I was fasting, I didn't eat anything during the day but two tiny pocky's by mistake. Work was per the usual, except we made a big headway with our deployment, and I got to manage two mionions...I mean co-ops. I tried bailing out after pushing my changes and before testing, and my manager was confused as to why I didn't check the results, and I told him I was going to the entrepreneurial thing, which he was okay with.
Talked to family in VA, and dashain plan is set, I need to buy tickets soon after talking to my manager, look forward to the goodtimes.
After work I took the red line and then the bus -- now this one was packed tightly to the brim -- to the cafe in Somerville. At first it was a lot of people I didn't know talking to other people, about things I was not intimately familiar with, so I felt out of place. As the event turned into an networking event, and people started becoming more perceptive to talking to other folks, I had the chance to talk to a lot more people. I had to kind of make myself do it so -- since by bus was farfaraway, I had no option but to stand and chill, and the next obvious thought was, I'd rather be talking to people having potentially interesting conversation than what I'm doing right now. Which was twiddling my fingers and drinking water. And I'm pride I talked to maybe half a dozen folks, most of them weren't maybe in my field of interest, but one or two definitely well, and it kind of worked out.
When I got home, I was a little tired having walked for half an hour, and really cold. And pretty weak because I hadn't eaten anything for more than 12 hours. I watched The Office with my roommate to 'settle down', and kind of fell asleep on the couch. I ended up sleeping for almost 45 minutes, and was slightly disoriented and still very cold when I got up. I tried hiding in my comfy comforter, but it was no point, I was still cold. This reminded me of the awful winter days when I'd come back home, be too cold to do anything, and so just nap. I didn't want to get into that schedule...yet, anyway, so I did the only thing I knew would help here -- an early run. This is something I'm rather proud of, for it was the first time I've run during a fast, and also my first-ish time running after I've napped and too cold and ready for bed. It was a good run, I can definitely feel myself gaining stamina little by little, and will increase the lap count soon sometime next week.
After the run, and the accompanying shower and the rest, I took a look at the oysters, and wow, they're growing up really fast! I'm really excited about those! The soybeans aren't doing as well -- this is the second time they might end up failing, but at least I know what the controlled variable is here, and can fix that the next time around. Went to bed even before 11, fell soundly asleep, save for the one bathroom round, and got up a little to late because I don't know what happened with the alarm, but I never heard it or remember disabling it.
Since I was fasting, I didn't eat anything during the day but two tiny pocky's by mistake. Work was per the usual, except we made a big headway with our deployment, and I got to manage two mionions...I mean co-ops. I tried bailing out after pushing my changes and before testing, and my manager was confused as to why I didn't check the results, and I told him I was going to the entrepreneurial thing, which he was okay with.
Talked to family in VA, and dashain plan is set, I need to buy tickets soon after talking to my manager, look forward to the goodtimes.
After work I took the red line and then the bus -- now this one was packed tightly to the brim -- to the cafe in Somerville. At first it was a lot of people I didn't know talking to other people, about things I was not intimately familiar with, so I felt out of place. As the event turned into an networking event, and people started becoming more perceptive to talking to other folks, I had the chance to talk to a lot more people. I had to kind of make myself do it so -- since by bus was farfaraway, I had no option but to stand and chill, and the next obvious thought was, I'd rather be talking to people having potentially interesting conversation than what I'm doing right now. Which was twiddling my fingers and drinking water. And I'm pride I talked to maybe half a dozen folks, most of them weren't maybe in my field of interest, but one or two definitely well, and it kind of worked out.
When I got home, I was a little tired having walked for half an hour, and really cold. And pretty weak because I hadn't eaten anything for more than 12 hours. I watched The Office with my roommate to 'settle down', and kind of fell asleep on the couch. I ended up sleeping for almost 45 minutes, and was slightly disoriented and still very cold when I got up. I tried hiding in my comfy comforter, but it was no point, I was still cold. This reminded me of the awful winter days when I'd come back home, be too cold to do anything, and so just nap. I didn't want to get into that schedule...yet, anyway, so I did the only thing I knew would help here -- an early run. This is something I'm rather proud of, for it was the first time I've run during a fast, and also my first-ish time running after I've napped and too cold and ready for bed. It was a good run, I can definitely feel myself gaining stamina little by little, and will increase the lap count soon sometime next week.
After the run, and the accompanying shower and the rest, I took a look at the oysters, and wow, they're growing up really fast! I'm really excited about those! The soybeans aren't doing as well -- this is the second time they might end up failing, but at least I know what the controlled variable is here, and can fix that the next time around. Went to bed even before 11, fell soundly asleep, save for the one bathroom round, and got up a little to late because I don't know what happened with the alarm, but I never heard it or remember disabling it.
On writing a well-structured story
I've realized much too late -- though thankfully before it's too late, that structures don't just happen to stories, sometimes it takes a conscious action on part of a writer, or an editor to impose a well-crafted structure to it. A house can be made one brick at a time by a visionary architect and a builder, but strong and well-lasting structures are made by those who plan the general structure. Where the beams go, where the support structures go, what the foundation will look like, and what materials the structure will be built off of. The fun, quirky things that are on-the-moment are important, but by themselves they would just be random junk of a homeless person strewn about, not additions to a wonderful structure.
A story or a novel is like that. You have to have a plot, some dialog, perhaps some description, character description, and so on and so forth. If you're an amazing writer, they might come to you as you write, and the words could just assemble themselves into a perfectly-created structures. For the rest of us mortals, however, sometimes you can think of dialogs but not character-building. Sometimes you can go on days of plot-writing, but nothing to spice it up with some quick dialog. Or you can slog through pages and pages of exposition with no clear plot in sight. What I'm saying is, normal writers cannot just evoke the structural elements of writings by wishing them in, even though they realize they need those. Instead, what they do is write a story in parts. A piece of dialog here, some character description there, a thousand words of plot there, all strewn about. In the end, you assemble those, organize it together to make the most interesting, captivating read and then you get a coherent structure.
Perhaps my misconception was born when I was much younger, in school days when the various departmental story-writing competitions were an hourly affair -- write as well as you can in a couple of hours, and some weeks or months later, you may or may not win a prize. Sure, if you're an amazing writer, you can use that time to come up with all the various elements, organize them together, and then rewrite the entire piece so it's a well-crafted garland of words. But that's not what the two/three hours were for -- they were to spew out words the fastest, the wittiest you can in that short timeframe, and the lucky winner took the prize, a certificate, perhaps a medal, and a couple of books to read from the english department.
The way I discovered it today was rather roundabout. At work I was thinking of coming up with an easy structure for my novel, because I can't go on writing plot for pages and pages. Then I thought of dividing the novel into certain number of parts, each with about an equal number of chapters. I started thinking about the organization of each part, and figured one chapter would have dialogs, one chapter would have internal monologue, one chapter would have general overview, and so on and so forth. The more I planned, the clearer it became to me that writing several thousand words of the same thing over and over, just for one part would get tiring quick. What if -- and let me walk you through this so you understand what an amazing realization this was -- what if I reduced the length of each section by a certain amount, so that I'd have to write only a small proportion for a story. And what if I connected those small segments together into a coherent structure, calling it...hmm..maybe a chapter? And, and, here's the kicker, what if those separate segments -- dialog, monologue, descriptive writing, etcetera, weren't all disparate but integrated into a single structure, stitched across each other so the reader could barely tell the difference?!? Mind-blowing, right? It was to me, so please don't make fun of that.
At this point, what remains to figure out is how I'd write the disparate parts, and how the stitching would work. Perhaps it's even harder to write dialog for a chapter now, the plot next week, and other stuff next month, and integrate them all together? Maybe they won't be that coherent after all? Or perhaps realwriters write it all in one big gulp, screw all the theorizing? They do say, those who can, do, those who can't, theorize.
Here's the approach that'll likely work the best for me: first, figure out what the chapter is about, and the general outline (open to deviations) on what events/occurrences would happen in it. Then, for each element of structure, identify what characters/events would be best represented by it. Then, in your mind -- or in commentary text -- explain how those various elements would interact with each other...how the dialogs would intersect with the storytelling, how the character-description would fit with the monologue, etcetera. Just a very rough sketch, to give a pointer to the future me so I'm not lost. With those guiding marks, I'd start writing each individual part, at separate times, generally on track, and at the back of my mind preparing for the integration. Once I feel all the parts are more or less there, I first rearrange them -- no editing at this point -- so the flow is there. Then, I just add a sentence or two or three so there's some kind of transition. And that's it! I don't have to worry about editing (obviously!), and there's not much overhead. The major advantage of this approach versus 'write as you go, a sentence at a time' it it's much harder to get lost here, and I have a really good vision of where I want to be at every point.
I am thinking of writing a crappy practice novel in the month of October, and I should consider using this approach. My angle is going to be -- So and So, a novel in 15 parts. Each part will be 2000 words long, so the entire novel would be 30k words. Each day I write a thousand or so words, and every two days I complete a chapter -- different parts of the structure, so I don't have to worry about losing the thread of the story. This way, if I get bored or get writers-block, I can just switch to writing a different structure while pausing the story, and come back to it when I feel more able to tackle it. That could be a real approach on a dummy novel! I'm excited, but no promises, and please lets not get too far ahead of ourselves.
A story or a novel is like that. You have to have a plot, some dialog, perhaps some description, character description, and so on and so forth. If you're an amazing writer, they might come to you as you write, and the words could just assemble themselves into a perfectly-created structures. For the rest of us mortals, however, sometimes you can think of dialogs but not character-building. Sometimes you can go on days of plot-writing, but nothing to spice it up with some quick dialog. Or you can slog through pages and pages of exposition with no clear plot in sight. What I'm saying is, normal writers cannot just evoke the structural elements of writings by wishing them in, even though they realize they need those. Instead, what they do is write a story in parts. A piece of dialog here, some character description there, a thousand words of plot there, all strewn about. In the end, you assemble those, organize it together to make the most interesting, captivating read and then you get a coherent structure.
Perhaps my misconception was born when I was much younger, in school days when the various departmental story-writing competitions were an hourly affair -- write as well as you can in a couple of hours, and some weeks or months later, you may or may not win a prize. Sure, if you're an amazing writer, you can use that time to come up with all the various elements, organize them together, and then rewrite the entire piece so it's a well-crafted garland of words. But that's not what the two/three hours were for -- they were to spew out words the fastest, the wittiest you can in that short timeframe, and the lucky winner took the prize, a certificate, perhaps a medal, and a couple of books to read from the english department.
The way I discovered it today was rather roundabout. At work I was thinking of coming up with an easy structure for my novel, because I can't go on writing plot for pages and pages. Then I thought of dividing the novel into certain number of parts, each with about an equal number of chapters. I started thinking about the organization of each part, and figured one chapter would have dialogs, one chapter would have internal monologue, one chapter would have general overview, and so on and so forth. The more I planned, the clearer it became to me that writing several thousand words of the same thing over and over, just for one part would get tiring quick. What if -- and let me walk you through this so you understand what an amazing realization this was -- what if I reduced the length of each section by a certain amount, so that I'd have to write only a small proportion for a story. And what if I connected those small segments together into a coherent structure, calling it...hmm..maybe a chapter? And, and, here's the kicker, what if those separate segments -- dialog, monologue, descriptive writing, etcetera, weren't all disparate but integrated into a single structure, stitched across each other so the reader could barely tell the difference?!? Mind-blowing, right? It was to me, so please don't make fun of that.
At this point, what remains to figure out is how I'd write the disparate parts, and how the stitching would work. Perhaps it's even harder to write dialog for a chapter now, the plot next week, and other stuff next month, and integrate them all together? Maybe they won't be that coherent after all? Or perhaps realwriters write it all in one big gulp, screw all the theorizing? They do say, those who can, do, those who can't, theorize.
Here's the approach that'll likely work the best for me: first, figure out what the chapter is about, and the general outline (open to deviations) on what events/occurrences would happen in it. Then, for each element of structure, identify what characters/events would be best represented by it. Then, in your mind -- or in commentary text -- explain how those various elements would interact with each other...how the dialogs would intersect with the storytelling, how the character-description would fit with the monologue, etcetera. Just a very rough sketch, to give a pointer to the future me so I'm not lost. With those guiding marks, I'd start writing each individual part, at separate times, generally on track, and at the back of my mind preparing for the integration. Once I feel all the parts are more or less there, I first rearrange them -- no editing at this point -- so the flow is there. Then, I just add a sentence or two or three so there's some kind of transition. And that's it! I don't have to worry about editing (obviously!), and there's not much overhead. The major advantage of this approach versus 'write as you go, a sentence at a time' it it's much harder to get lost here, and I have a really good vision of where I want to be at every point.
I am thinking of writing a crappy practice novel in the month of October, and I should consider using this approach. My angle is going to be -- So and So, a novel in 15 parts. Each part will be 2000 words long, so the entire novel would be 30k words. Each day I write a thousand or so words, and every two days I complete a chapter -- different parts of the structure, so I don't have to worry about losing the thread of the story. This way, if I get bored or get writers-block, I can just switch to writing a different structure while pausing the story, and come back to it when I feel more able to tackle it. That could be a real approach on a dummy novel! I'm excited, but no promises, and please lets not get too far ahead of ourselves.
Boat away, boatay
What a fiasco.
The rivertaxi companies were blocking all the major rivers of the valley, trying to push the government to take back its deregulation on river traffic. Anyone --registered or not-- could operate a human-powered floating device of reasonable size, for recreational or transportation purposes, the regulation basically said. There was some leeway for minor commercial operation -- if you're going from Sundarijal to Balkhu anyway, and found two people who were doing the same, it was okay for you to charge them money. Additionally, if the boat was small enough, use of silent electric motors to tow it against the flow was allowed -- it would be pretty ridiculous if all the small boats and kayaks were abandoned in Chobar if the owners weren't allowed to power it back to base.
The rivertaxi association claimed it impinged on their rights as the sole commercial operators of such crafts, and could be a safety hazard. Allowing little kids and young teenagers out in the river on their own, they argued, the government will have blood in its hands if something happened to them, and we will be left cleaning the mess up afterwards. The only reason for their protest was -- if people could operate their own crafts, the demand for their services would go down, and they couldn't make people pay through the nose as they were doing previously. There were some legitimate concerns -- Dhobikhola, Bishnumati, and other tributaries were indeed too small to accommodate a lot of water traffic, but their concerns were solely for very selfish reasons. All the studies done had suggested the deregulation would significantly bring down the costs for consumers without increasing the traffic significantly. They knew that, and they were very much against the former.
The entire kerfuffle became moot eventually. As the apps started coming online, they facilitated 'all you can ride' passes for the valley. Catch a boat or a steamer from anywhere, be dropped anywhere you want to, all for a fixed monthly price. The app companies started seeing considerable usage from regular commuters. It wasn't the price or the convenience as much as the fact that going to the regular boat companies made them feel like they were being taken in for. Even if I'm being squeezed, I want to exactly where the squeezed money is going to, and what I'm being squeezed for. I like the transparency in the apps, the rivertaxi association never explains why the prices are what they are like, and it's hard to predict how much you will pay. Too much tension just to get on a boat to go across the valley, was how an elderly man interviewed by the papers explained. More boats with the apps, and more apps led to more independent boat owners working with the apps. Soon the boat-owners realized that they didn't need the apps anymore if they could create their own network of some kind. As more saw the benefits and savings in owning their crafts, boat ownership in Kathmandu went up by 800% over three years. And that's how the real estate on the riverbanks, otherwise one of the cheapest due to the odors, got to be one of the most expensive in the world.
The rivertaxi companies were blocking all the major rivers of the valley, trying to push the government to take back its deregulation on river traffic. Anyone --registered or not-- could operate a human-powered floating device of reasonable size, for recreational or transportation purposes, the regulation basically said. There was some leeway for minor commercial operation -- if you're going from Sundarijal to Balkhu anyway, and found two people who were doing the same, it was okay for you to charge them money. Additionally, if the boat was small enough, use of silent electric motors to tow it against the flow was allowed -- it would be pretty ridiculous if all the small boats and kayaks were abandoned in Chobar if the owners weren't allowed to power it back to base.
The rivertaxi association claimed it impinged on their rights as the sole commercial operators of such crafts, and could be a safety hazard. Allowing little kids and young teenagers out in the river on their own, they argued, the government will have blood in its hands if something happened to them, and we will be left cleaning the mess up afterwards. The only reason for their protest was -- if people could operate their own crafts, the demand for their services would go down, and they couldn't make people pay through the nose as they were doing previously. There were some legitimate concerns -- Dhobikhola, Bishnumati, and other tributaries were indeed too small to accommodate a lot of water traffic, but their concerns were solely for very selfish reasons. All the studies done had suggested the deregulation would significantly bring down the costs for consumers without increasing the traffic significantly. They knew that, and they were very much against the former.
The entire kerfuffle became moot eventually. As the apps started coming online, they facilitated 'all you can ride' passes for the valley. Catch a boat or a steamer from anywhere, be dropped anywhere you want to, all for a fixed monthly price. The app companies started seeing considerable usage from regular commuters. It wasn't the price or the convenience as much as the fact that going to the regular boat companies made them feel like they were being taken in for. Even if I'm being squeezed, I want to exactly where the squeezed money is going to, and what I'm being squeezed for. I like the transparency in the apps, the rivertaxi association never explains why the prices are what they are like, and it's hard to predict how much you will pay. Too much tension just to get on a boat to go across the valley, was how an elderly man interviewed by the papers explained. More boats with the apps, and more apps led to more independent boat owners working with the apps. Soon the boat-owners realized that they didn't need the apps anymore if they could create their own network of some kind. As more saw the benefits and savings in owning their crafts, boat ownership in Kathmandu went up by 800% over three years. And that's how the real estate on the riverbanks, otherwise one of the cheapest due to the odors, got to be one of the most expensive in the world.
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