Good god I finally made it
I finally met my target for postcount for this month, I'm pleasantly surprised impressed excited at that because I'd been running in the deficit for many days now and it was getting to be an insurmountable uphill walk because I didn't seem to have the motivation and the content for it. I'd open this screen up, stare at it for fifteen seconds, think of something, go drink a glass of water and come back open a new tab to check news from nepal for 'inspiration' and I'd be gone for...ever and come back to the page with fifteen written words seven hours later. Still I'd complete the sentence and add a word or two even a sentence if I felt like being productive so that it looked like I was at least half-assing it and not like I didn't care about things at all but that was it, it was so low-effort it was beginning to get clear I didn't care about maintaining the 2-post-a-day average for this month. And now, with this post not only have I not reached that aim but I've also done one better, and reached my goal of not having a 'serious' month with posts fewer than in last September because that was when I really 'started writing' in this blog. So the trend for us is that this blog is not going down, it's on a plateau, at worst guys, gimme the benefit of doubt!
Walking in the bad weather
I wonder what people do, the sort of people who work out and walk and run regularly I mean, when the weather's really bad outside for extended period of time. For example as I've mentioned here before, I started walking in the mornings and/or the evenings a couple of days ago and I was very close to being a daily walker when the curse of shitty really shitty rainy gloomy crappy cold windy stormy weather hit us in Northern Virginia and took away all the will-power I'd generated to go out on fun walks. You really don't want to go on a run or a walk with an umbrella splashing the puddles of water and getting half wet like a floofy dog. I wonder what those people do, on those days and the days after so they can bring themselves to be back on their schedule. It's not the interruptions I mind it's the getting back into the timetable that i have problems with. Hopefully when the weather's back to being alright tomorrow I still have the discipline and the willpower to make myself take at least ten but hopefully more rounds of the block.
In other news I've still not gotten back to my regular indoor workouts, because I don't feel like it and don't have the energy motivation what have you though I feel like I might be getting into a proper form in very short few days.
In other news I've still not gotten back to my regular indoor workouts, because I don't feel like it and don't have the energy motivation what have you though I feel like I might be getting into a proper form in very short few days.
On Wegman's Website
Okay I don't know if I've written in detail about my love for wegmans but I love wegmans because it's got Whole foods quality for trader joe's prices. Anyway this post is not about wegmans at all but their website which I came across yesterday -- we were hoping for an online pickup order and spent like 25 minutes going through it and ohh man what a pleasure that website is to use, you just go across the pages, and add to your card, and the cart is organized by the department the items are from, and things just work so well, it's responsive, it reflects the 'physical' store, the errors are informative, the site is just so friendly in general. I wonder, if wegmans can make such a fun and friendly website, why other retailers can't -- or won't, and what that says about organizational culture when a company that's known for its friendliness and love and adoration from its customers creates a website that can evoke similar emotions towards their digital offerings.
Also, the Cava website is exceptionally good, like suspiciously so, apart from the fact that you need to create account to be able to order from it, but it doesn't matter because you can just put in fake name and all the details, just put your card details write, and then delete your card right after, and then change the fake details of the account, the other unimportant ones, to be even more random so no ones cares anymore it's like you didn't even create the account at all.
Also, the Cava website is exceptionally good, like suspiciously so, apart from the fact that you need to create account to be able to order from it, but it doesn't matter because you can just put in fake name and all the details, just put your card details write, and then delete your card right after, and then change the fake details of the account, the other unimportant ones, to be even more random so no ones cares anymore it's like you didn't even create the account at all.
Thank God for USB C
I was a late convert, a very late convert into the world of USB C. I was told it's just some expensive connector that doesn't even have any benefits and not worth the hassle at all so I held out for the longest time ever. But since I got my new phone last year, I've been using the same charger for my laptop and phone. For those not in the aware, USB C chargers and devices can communicate with each other about their capacities and needs, and so if you use your laptop charger to charge your phone the current flow will be appropriate and won't fry your device. So when I came to VA almost two months ago (yikes!) I brought only one charger because I figured why dilly-dally with two, and since then I've been using my work charger for my phone as well. It's a hassle sometime because often both my devices are low on juice, but it works because it charges my phone real quick, and again, I've not had to worry about connectors not connecting, having to find a unique connector etc etc etc in a long while. So. Totally worth. It.
Watercoloring
Started doing watercolor after like fifteen years, the last time I did watercolor was when I was in school and then I didn't appreciate what watercoloring was and how you could use the property of water and colors to manipulate your shapes. I didn't really 'get' watercoloring at the time, and now we're having lots of fun playing around with the shapes created by the flow of water and paint, the interaction of different paint fluids, and various solids (such as salt particles among others) within the paints. Also the fact that you can dry different parts of your painting at different times using one of them hair dryers to get interesting effects. It's a low-entry fun activity, and then JD turned a crappy photo of my painting that I sent her into a really nice cutout that I could legitimately use as a mobile phone background, so that was quite exciting.
Gotta explore more of watercolors, and art in general. Note to myself.
Gotta explore more of watercolors, and art in general. Note to myself.
Cava order
We ordered from cava the lunch place this afternoon. Such filling bowls, each one was maybe 1200 calories, I haven't had much to eat since except a baaraa from last week with the momo ko achaar and I feel so full, maybe gonna skip the lunch tomorrow too because of the lunch from earlier today. And I didn't even finish all of it, there's at least half of meal in there, potentially another lunch, which would mean a $10 order of lunch from cava would have been a complete meal (yes I got lots of veggies as well as proteins) for me, a grown man, for two days. Wild. Wild wild.
Six more posts, five posts after this, today
So remember that my aim was to get in a comfortable average of 2 posts a day, which I'm five posts away from. I'll do that in the six remaining hours I have for today and I'll have succeeded in my goal.
The point of everything I've been doing here, is to half-ass things, quarter-ass even, just do them for the sake of doing, to begin with. Because intense passion and commitment and talent and knowledge doesn't come instantly you need stamina endurance grit with it. The way to achieve that is to stay consistent, disciplined and ordered. That's where I'm getting at. The posts are all crap, they don't make any sense they're unreadable trash that no one should have written or read. They're also increasing my daily and monthly count and that's all that matters.
Because times are hard. Yes, there were months where I had finally achieved physical and mental discipline. I was posting five pieces daily here, aiming for six, doing hard physical exercise daily, keeping tip-top with other tasks, eating well and planning for a more strict regimen. Then took a month or so off for holidays during which I took things slow and easy. After getting back, and just as I was getting back on track, the thing we must not speak for again for it could drive insanity deep within us struck and everything was in a disarray. It was easy to lose hope, not see the point of doing anything and just lose it.
Under such circumstances I decided that half-assing things, barely getting anything productive done was better than not doing anything sitting around complaining and just generally being annoying. And here we are now, only 5 posts shy of an average of 2 daily posts. Nothing to be sneezed at alright.
Hurray.
The fiction posts will come, the non-journal posts will come, the interesting practices will come. Eventually. For now, I must write, and keep writing and writing and writing until it comes naturally.
G'day.
The point of everything I've been doing here, is to half-ass things, quarter-ass even, just do them for the sake of doing, to begin with. Because intense passion and commitment and talent and knowledge doesn't come instantly you need stamina endurance grit with it. The way to achieve that is to stay consistent, disciplined and ordered. That's where I'm getting at. The posts are all crap, they don't make any sense they're unreadable trash that no one should have written or read. They're also increasing my daily and monthly count and that's all that matters.
Because times are hard. Yes, there were months where I had finally achieved physical and mental discipline. I was posting five pieces daily here, aiming for six, doing hard physical exercise daily, keeping tip-top with other tasks, eating well and planning for a more strict regimen. Then took a month or so off for holidays during which I took things slow and easy. After getting back, and just as I was getting back on track, the thing we must not speak for again for it could drive insanity deep within us struck and everything was in a disarray. It was easy to lose hope, not see the point of doing anything and just lose it.
Under such circumstances I decided that half-assing things, barely getting anything productive done was better than not doing anything sitting around complaining and just generally being annoying. And here we are now, only 5 posts shy of an average of 2 daily posts. Nothing to be sneezed at alright.
Hurray.
The fiction posts will come, the non-journal posts will come, the interesting practices will come. Eventually. For now, I must write, and keep writing and writing and writing until it comes naturally.
G'day.
Pizza from a Nepali place
We ordered takeout from a Nepali place last night. NG and PL got momos and because they didn't have veg momo I got veg pizza. The pizza was alright, a little too sweet for my tastes, but when dipped in the momo sauce, it was heaven. So so good. And the great thing about all of this was they give a really large bucket of the achaar, unlike the other place ravi kabob which gives you these tiny pails of them, and their sauce is not great either. So yeah it was awesome! I do like me some good pizza.
The funny thing is, I don't usually eat pizza, my favourite kind of pizza is the free pizza. Lately though things have changed because if you're eating rice every day all the time day in day out, you don't want to order it in too.
Speaking of which, we're ordering lunch in, which makes it three days in a row with ordered meals. Facts.
The funny thing is, I don't usually eat pizza, my favourite kind of pizza is the free pizza. Lately though things have changed because if you're eating rice every day all the time day in day out, you don't want to order it in too.
Speaking of which, we're ordering lunch in, which makes it three days in a row with ordered meals. Facts.
On Vitamin D
The recommended daily vitamin D intake according to FDA is 650 IU for adults. Researchers have suggested the value is massively underestimated as a result of calculation error in research papers of the past. They suggest a daily value of 7-8000 (more then 10 times the current value!) for an average adult. The vitamin tablets you find at Costco come for 5000 IU per caplet, meaning you'd do well to take 3 of them every two days. Even number of caplets on even days and odd (one) on odd days? Seems reasonable.
Vitamin D deficiency causes depression, results in tiredness, fatigue, and generally feeling shitty. It makes your immune system weaker. Taking vitamin D supplements regularly has been found to change people's personality and outlook on life to be more outgoing and positive. It is the energy booster for the mind.
I've been taking vitamin D caplets regularly for about a month now, months after I ran out of my personal stock of the vits. PL's supply is higher-dose, and it's also smaller, and easier to swallow. I've been averaging one per a couple of days, but will be increasing the intake going forward. They're saying vitamin-D deficiency is related to covid-19 deaths, something I'm a little concerned about.
I need to find more interesting topics to write about.
Vitamin D deficiency causes depression, results in tiredness, fatigue, and generally feeling shitty. It makes your immune system weaker. Taking vitamin D supplements regularly has been found to change people's personality and outlook on life to be more outgoing and positive. It is the energy booster for the mind.
I've been taking vitamin D caplets regularly for about a month now, months after I ran out of my personal stock of the vits. PL's supply is higher-dose, and it's also smaller, and easier to swallow. I've been averaging one per a couple of days, but will be increasing the intake going forward. They're saying vitamin-D deficiency is related to covid-19 deaths, something I'm a little concerned about.
I need to find more interesting topics to write about.
Last lectures
Harka sir's hair was ruffled, his shirt dirty and tattered, he looked like a madman who'd stumbled into our lecture. Is there a goat here, I want goat meat now, someone shouted from the back. We stared him down.
Harka sir continued.
Soo...soo.. soo you see, it technically sees all over, everything -- everything -- that has that has, happened in the place, so long as you...as you process it and have enough res...res...resultation...s-ssorr..sorry sorry resolvation, I mean resolution. SSo it's not it's not about the sensor, no no thi-thiss sensor is perfect almost maybe not perfect remember there's no perfection, n-never perfect anything always remember that no perfection, but but this is good, really good. Soosoo the sensor is -- it's good okay, it works we c-can improve on this later. What is missing is the sensor to i-iintegrate with this, process-processing power we n-need processing power to resolve wh-what this is observing and turning turning into signals we care about. It's in the interpretation part we are llackinlacking, andand you know my students with enough technological progprogress we will we will get there, all to our resolution, andand it will bebecome even more possible to resolve to our interested level, sso so. Andand the device, it looks googood riright sosogood, eveneven the kingking and the queenqueen said theythey were inninnterested in this, there's this very this exact copy but made even more mettimeticulously and sharp bright so bright so great iiin iin the royal palace, yess yess a copy of this wonderful invention is even supported by his majesty and her majesty, we will we will one day reachreach greatness...
Harka sir continued.
Soo...soo.. soo you see, it technically sees all over, everything -- everything -- that has that has, happened in the place, so long as you...as you process it and have enough res...res...resultation...s-ssorr..sorry sorry resolvation, I mean resolution. SSo it's not it's not about the sensor, no no thi-thiss sensor is perfect almost maybe not perfect remember there's no perfection, n-never perfect anything always remember that no perfection, but but this is good, really good. Soosoo the sensor is -- it's good okay, it works we c-can improve on this later. What is missing is the sensor to i-iintegrate with this, process-processing power we n-need processing power to resolve wh-what this is observing and turning turning into signals we care about. It's in the interpretation part we are llackinlacking, andand you know my students with enough technological progprogress we will we will get there, all to our resolution, andand it will bebecome even more possible to resolve to our interested level, sso so. Andand the device, it looks googood riright sosogood, eveneven the kingking and the queenqueen said theythey were inninnterested in this, there's this very this exact copy but made even more mettimeticulously and sharp bright so bright so great iiin iin the royal palace, yess yess a copy of this wonderful invention is even supported by his majesty and her majesty, we will we will one day reachreach greatness...
The best goddarn eggplants I've had in recent memory
NG made persian eggplant stew yesterday, and today we turned it into a 'veggie biriyani' by combining the leftover stew with a cooker full of rice. It was the tomato paste, the perfect eggplant texture, and that it was drenched in oil. So good. One of the best goddamn eggplants, and great lunches I've had in recent memory. Took three extra helpings, and that's saying a lott because I don't like rice, at all. Joked that if PL hadn't gotten lunch easier, there may not have been any for him.
Apparently they make it with beef but we made it without the beef, and barely any spices but turmeric and a very very small pinch of cumin. Khoresh Bademjan they call it apparently, I don't know what it means but 'lunch of the Gods' would be an accurate description.
Was in great mood for the rest of the day. Even though we took out from folks' favourite (ish?) Japanese restaurant for dinner, the homemade leftover lunch was the event of the day. Hashtag memorable lunches.
Apparently they make it with beef but we made it without the beef, and barely any spices but turmeric and a very very small pinch of cumin. Khoresh Bademjan they call it apparently, I don't know what it means but 'lunch of the Gods' would be an accurate description.
Was in great mood for the rest of the day. Even though we took out from folks' favourite (ish?) Japanese restaurant for dinner, the homemade leftover lunch was the event of the day. Hashtag memorable lunches.
Google complaints
This is turning into a full-on journal instead of the blog it used to be, not that there's anything wrong with it.
The difference between amazon and google is this, I think: amazon sells shit products now, and is shit to its employees from what we know from the media but at least it treats its customers like kings. No matter how mad you are at them, they'll say yup our mistake sorry and fix it, just like that. I've not shopped at amazon for a long while now (used to be a Prime member for a few years), mostly because they only have fakes these days, but if I had to I'd be confident the customer service would back me up and help me throughout.
Google on the other hand: pretty good products, treats its employees well, but doesn't seem to care for its customers, even those that are paying for those. And these times with amazon and other companies, the expectation of good customer service is high, but Google doesn't seem interested. It sees itself as an 'enterprise' company that doesn't need to worry about the retail customer ever because that was just a ploy to become a household name until world domination. It'll fail.
Here's hoping.
The difference between amazon and google is this, I think: amazon sells shit products now, and is shit to its employees from what we know from the media but at least it treats its customers like kings. No matter how mad you are at them, they'll say yup our mistake sorry and fix it, just like that. I've not shopped at amazon for a long while now (used to be a Prime member for a few years), mostly because they only have fakes these days, but if I had to I'd be confident the customer service would back me up and help me throughout.
Google on the other hand: pretty good products, treats its employees well, but doesn't seem to care for its customers, even those that are paying for those. And these times with amazon and other companies, the expectation of good customer service is high, but Google doesn't seem interested. It sees itself as an 'enterprise' company that doesn't need to worry about the retail customer ever because that was just a ploy to become a household name until world domination. It'll fail.
Here's hoping.
Horseradish peas
No one likes horseradish but everyone's gaga for wasabi. And wasabi expensive and rare. And they taste similar, somewhat. Apparently. I don't know. Never had wasabi, probably. Maybe once or twice in unexpected places. So the logical conclusion is obvious for capitalism to take care of it, so they market all the horseradish products as 'wasabi'. Still so good.
I used to have a jar of horseradish sauce that I bought from the dollar store, that was the first time I tasted the root, and for an entire year I put it on everything -- my sandwiches, my dips, every thing that it'd be sensible to put horseradish on. As of late though it's been only on snacks and sushi.
Ordered a can of horseradish 'wasabi' peas last week, now ordered three more because everyone likes them so much. I think they're just fine, too much peas not enough 'wasabi'.
I used to have a jar of horseradish sauce that I bought from the dollar store, that was the first time I tasted the root, and for an entire year I put it on everything -- my sandwiches, my dips, every thing that it'd be sensible to put horseradish on. As of late though it's been only on snacks and sushi.
Ordered a can of horseradish 'wasabi' peas last week, now ordered three more because everyone likes them so much. I think they're just fine, too much peas not enough 'wasabi'.
How time passes
Friend-of-the-blog SS (the Phd) who is now Dr. SS joined my school when I was a wee little lad in college, before my senior year. I had to drag him in for the PhD tours, give him class tours, convince to go to my college instead of the one he was considering in the cosmopolitan south or in Germany. And now he's done it! He's completed his PhD with a very reputable professor in the field who's quite popular in general media too now, thesis and everything and he's looking forward for the future with great energy and gusto. Well accounting for where we are right now.
It's been five years now. He started a PhD and completed it, and he's like the eighth person in our year to complete a PhD or something like that. What was I doing all this time, I wonder sometimes.
In very unrelated news, I've been clickity clakety with my keyboard a lot, which is disturbing people, and they're making fun of me. Been trying to type without the clacking it's hard the error rates increase plus there's a significant speed hit. Ugh.
Still, congratulations SS!
It's been five years now. He started a PhD and completed it, and he's like the eighth person in our year to complete a PhD or something like that. What was I doing all this time, I wonder sometimes.
In very unrelated news, I've been clickity clakety with my keyboard a lot, which is disturbing people, and they're making fun of me. Been trying to type without the clacking it's hard the error rates increase plus there's a significant speed hit. Ugh.
Still, congratulations SS!
Productive work day
Got too lazy to go on a productive walk this afternoon because the rice, persian eggplant dish and green veggies was so good I ate so much rice I was drowsy and even though they made me go I only walked around and soaked in the sun and didn't do much.
In the afternoon we had our leftover pita and crepe with potato gravy from yesterday and it was one of the best simplest meals I've ever had! Potato gravy with tonne of tomatoes and onions is my favourite ever.
To come to the original point though, today was super-duper-duper productive work-wise, and I'm really excited at the prospect of doing great at work. The more productive I'm at work, the less guilty I feel, and the more driven I get, the better I get at writing and doing fiction stuff. Things are looking gooood.
In the afternoon we had our leftover pita and crepe with potato gravy from yesterday and it was one of the best simplest meals I've ever had! Potato gravy with tonne of tomatoes and onions is my favourite ever.
To come to the original point though, today was super-duper-duper productive work-wise, and I'm really excited at the prospect of doing great at work. The more productive I'm at work, the less guilty I feel, and the more driven I get, the better I get at writing and doing fiction stuff. Things are looking gooood.
Need a holiday
Work and non-work is difficult to distinguish anymore. Since I have only one laptop, weekdays are tiring and demanding, feels like I'm always on call. It's beginning to feel more and more like a house arrest now.
Perhaps it's the right time to take a holiday soon. NG (Philly) is taking a day of this week just because of all the work things. You'd think if everyone was working from home all the time, in a 'chill' manner, they wouldn't need any more time to 'spend' at home and here we are. At least with 'onsite' job, you know when you're working and when you're not, when you're having fun and when you're not, when you're the master of your own time and when you're not. Even if you don't work onsite, you can go to a cafe or a library or a coworking space to create a distinction between home and work. In this situation, the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in, it's unclear.
Everyone's been saying the same thing. The passage of time feels weird, some things seem to have sped up while others seem to have slowed down. Days seem to have melded into one another, days and night into one, no one can tell what day of the week it is or what the date is. Because nothing matters anymore. You can't leave your home. Yesterday was as today is as will tomorrow all days are the same and why do you even need to care about all those things. Time is illusory, nothing will happen really just sit in your house survive and do all the work you can do. Like, what other options do you have, it's not like you have anywhere to go to anyone to meet anything fun to do really and if you do, it all involves your laptop, might as well work on the side because why not.
And therefore, holidays are needed.
Perhaps it's the right time to take a holiday soon. NG (Philly) is taking a day of this week just because of all the work things. You'd think if everyone was working from home all the time, in a 'chill' manner, they wouldn't need any more time to 'spend' at home and here we are. At least with 'onsite' job, you know when you're working and when you're not, when you're having fun and when you're not, when you're the master of your own time and when you're not. Even if you don't work onsite, you can go to a cafe or a library or a coworking space to create a distinction between home and work. In this situation, the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in, it's unclear.
Everyone's been saying the same thing. The passage of time feels weird, some things seem to have sped up while others seem to have slowed down. Days seem to have melded into one another, days and night into one, no one can tell what day of the week it is or what the date is. Because nothing matters anymore. You can't leave your home. Yesterday was as today is as will tomorrow all days are the same and why do you even need to care about all those things. Time is illusory, nothing will happen really just sit in your house survive and do all the work you can do. Like, what other options do you have, it's not like you have anywhere to go to anyone to meet anything fun to do really and if you do, it all involves your laptop, might as well work on the side because why not.
And therefore, holidays are needed.
Flatbreads
The last week and the week before and several weeks preceding those we baked several kinds of breads and rolls and cakes. The epitome was sandwich rolls which I made last weekend and had with my special enoki 'fried chicken sandwich'.
And so we decided we'd had enough of home-made bread. Got two rolls of bread from the grocery store when SB got them delivered from Wegmans. Both have remained untouched.
And that's because we've been making a lot of flatbreads this week. Not necessarily roti, or one even, but similar ones. The first time, we attempted to make rotis that ended up like papad: crispy. After leaving them out uneaten for two days, I fried them up in hot oil, added salt and tajin, and garnished with mexican cheese. A solid 'nachos'! If I were to do it again, and that's quite likely, I'd cut the rotis to a consistent size and not just crumple them because the small pieces just burned away while the larger ones were not perfectly crispy yet.
A couple of days after that, we (re)made black-lentil pancakes (maas ko baara). The first attempt PL had tried, but he failed due to overcooking. I took the temperature down and added eggs at the very end, and what we had approached what I imagine to be authentic baara, even though I have no memory of having had baaraa myself.
This morning I made crepes with pancake batter. Twice as much as the recommended water, lot of milk (so the batter browns), to make the batter really really thin. To make it look nice, spread the batter around in the pan in circular pattern inside out, so there's nice circular burn lines on the crepe. Or you could just slosh the batter around, at the lowest heat but they look less fun. I still need to perfect the consistency, but ohh man that was one of the better discoveries. Heat on super duper low.
This evening we made something very similar to pita bread without intending to. Since our attempt at roti making at failed due to them not puffing up, we added yeast to our flour and made our dough pancakes quite thick. The result was a chewy texture that was not exactly like roti -- more similar to pita really, but not puffed up enough for pita. It was good, and I've gotten better at flattening them and spreading them out into generally circular shape. The next time, I'm going to be making real pita for sure. Also, the first one I made may have been actually pita.
And so we decided we'd had enough of home-made bread. Got two rolls of bread from the grocery store when SB got them delivered from Wegmans. Both have remained untouched.
And that's because we've been making a lot of flatbreads this week. Not necessarily roti, or one even, but similar ones. The first time, we attempted to make rotis that ended up like papad: crispy. After leaving them out uneaten for two days, I fried them up in hot oil, added salt and tajin, and garnished with mexican cheese. A solid 'nachos'! If I were to do it again, and that's quite likely, I'd cut the rotis to a consistent size and not just crumple them because the small pieces just burned away while the larger ones were not perfectly crispy yet.
A couple of days after that, we (re)made black-lentil pancakes (maas ko baara). The first attempt PL had tried, but he failed due to overcooking. I took the temperature down and added eggs at the very end, and what we had approached what I imagine to be authentic baara, even though I have no memory of having had baaraa myself.
This morning I made crepes with pancake batter. Twice as much as the recommended water, lot of milk (so the batter browns), to make the batter really really thin. To make it look nice, spread the batter around in the pan in circular pattern inside out, so there's nice circular burn lines on the crepe. Or you could just slosh the batter around, at the lowest heat but they look less fun. I still need to perfect the consistency, but ohh man that was one of the better discoveries. Heat on super duper low.
This evening we made something very similar to pita bread without intending to. Since our attempt at roti making at failed due to them not puffing up, we added yeast to our flour and made our dough pancakes quite thick. The result was a chewy texture that was not exactly like roti -- more similar to pita really, but not puffed up enough for pita. It was good, and I've gotten better at flattening them and spreading them out into generally circular shape. The next time, I'm going to be making real pita for sure. Also, the first one I made may have been actually pita.
Walks at last
Went on a walk around the block the day before yesterday -- three rounds of the block, and did a couple more this afternoon. Realized I'd missed so much of the smells and sights and sounds, the cold air on my skin the birds skin, basking in the greenness of the trees, ahh such small pleasures in these extraordinary times.
Funny thing, I made sure to take long and wide strides, to get my glutes and knees working. NG and PL made fun of me because my legs were shaking and shaking the whole goddamn apartment after we were back. Which means those limbs are finally getting the workout they deserve.
Speaking of workouts, the pushups and crunches are out, haven't done them for a week now because...didn't feel like it? At some point when you've not left the house for weeks and been cooped up inside the room, day and night weekday and weekend reality versus simulation stop mattering because it's all the same there's nothing exciting interesting to look out for. What is the point of the workouts even, I figured. Now that I'm walking and having fun with nature, I should get back on the regular workout. It should be fun.
My plan for tomorrow onward is to walk half-an-hour in the morning and again in the working before and after work, as a 'commute' of sorts, to tell my brain I need to separate work from non-work. It's hard to distinguish things from each other, everything's blending in. Hopefully this attempt is better than the ones gone by.
Funny thing, I made sure to take long and wide strides, to get my glutes and knees working. NG and PL made fun of me because my legs were shaking and shaking the whole goddamn apartment after we were back. Which means those limbs are finally getting the workout they deserve.
Speaking of workouts, the pushups and crunches are out, haven't done them for a week now because...didn't feel like it? At some point when you've not left the house for weeks and been cooped up inside the room, day and night weekday and weekend reality versus simulation stop mattering because it's all the same there's nothing exciting interesting to look out for. What is the point of the workouts even, I figured. Now that I'm walking and having fun with nature, I should get back on the regular workout. It should be fun.
My plan for tomorrow onward is to walk half-an-hour in the morning and again in the working before and after work, as a 'commute' of sorts, to tell my brain I need to separate work from non-work. It's hard to distinguish things from each other, everything's blending in. Hopefully this attempt is better than the ones gone by.
Friendships and soppy sentimentalism
If I could redo my life again, since grade 4/5/6/7/8, would I do it again? That's the question I've been thinking over the past few weeks. I've thought about it in the past, but the past few weeks have provided me with abundant spare time to consider pointless possibilities.
When I was younger it was an obvious yes. I'd play the stock market, I'd play other markets, from all I knew about the future. I'd ask my crushes earlier, I'd learn so many things, I'd use my existing knowledge and to grow to prosper. To become rich, successful and liked.
And then I started thinking. I wouldn't end up with the same people, some I would never know. And it'd be weird for me to be familiar with others, because of circumstances. And all that success and wealth, what would I do with it, what do I not have now that I'd have then? A nice house with a large backyard where I could grow my fruits and veggies, a chill life that wouldn't have me working too much. Would would be there to share all of that, besides my family? And even then, if I was focusing myself on 'growing' and 'learning' and being 'rich and successful', what about that even.
And then I realized I wouldn't have the same friends. Because in that circumstance, I'd want to leave Kathmandu at the earliest to be ahead, I'd miss out on those two 'wasted' years, I'd miss out on the time spent in MIT house, the time spent over the winters and summers, NH, DC Virginia and everything that's brought me to this point. I'd lose my connections and friendships.
So my answer is no. Even if this wasn't a trick question I don't want a do-over. I'm happy as I am. I can grow and I'll grow, but there's nothing about where I am that I'd change.
When I was younger it was an obvious yes. I'd play the stock market, I'd play other markets, from all I knew about the future. I'd ask my crushes earlier, I'd learn so many things, I'd use my existing knowledge and to grow to prosper. To become rich, successful and liked.
And then I started thinking. I wouldn't end up with the same people, some I would never know. And it'd be weird for me to be familiar with others, because of circumstances. And all that success and wealth, what would I do with it, what do I not have now that I'd have then? A nice house with a large backyard where I could grow my fruits and veggies, a chill life that wouldn't have me working too much. Would would be there to share all of that, besides my family? And even then, if I was focusing myself on 'growing' and 'learning' and being 'rich and successful', what about that even.
And then I realized I wouldn't have the same friends. Because in that circumstance, I'd want to leave Kathmandu at the earliest to be ahead, I'd miss out on those two 'wasted' years, I'd miss out on the time spent in MIT house, the time spent over the winters and summers, NH, DC Virginia and everything that's brought me to this point. I'd lose my connections and friendships.
So my answer is no. Even if this wasn't a trick question I don't want a do-over. I'm happy as I am. I can grow and I'll grow, but there's nothing about where I am that I'd change.
This is my agriculture mania time
I've spent like seven hours day today minimum, looking up agriculture videos on youtube, doing research, searching academic journals, and generally getting into the feel of being someone reallly into farming. Happens to me like for a week every three months or so. I mean I don't give it up entirely and one day when I'm bored enough it'll sneak up I'll read up get psyched only to be disappointed later when I realize that I don't have the land or physical resources to get any of that done. Even community garden I didn't get a slot after two years of waiting because everything's taken oh man how different would my life be if I'd gotten the community garden slot that I'm still in the waitlist for.
It's the future though, I know it's the future, that's what I want to do, with a lot more on-the-ground experience, but I know for sure that's the direction I want my life to take.
Here's an idea for someone in Nepal looking for a quick business idea. Guaranteed success. Glow lamps that are used to warm up tiny chicks are expensive, dangerous and consume 250W. Heated metal sheets with adjustable wooden legs, short enough that the tiniest of chicks can barely sneak in and pretend they're being brooded over by mother hens and tall enough to accommodate 6-week-old chicks. Look up 'flat electric brooder for chickens' on youtube. Sell it in Nepal to chicken farmers etcetera. They're a lot less dangerous, and consume only about 22W. Which is an order of magnitude better, and probably also better for the chicks. Oh and chicks can stay warm and cozy, or not depending on what they feel like. And the larger chickens, if they're around, won't bother the little ones. Just do it!
It's the future though, I know it's the future, that's what I want to do, with a lot more on-the-ground experience, but I know for sure that's the direction I want my life to take.
Here's an idea for someone in Nepal looking for a quick business idea. Guaranteed success. Glow lamps that are used to warm up tiny chicks are expensive, dangerous and consume 250W. Heated metal sheets with adjustable wooden legs, short enough that the tiniest of chicks can barely sneak in and pretend they're being brooded over by mother hens and tall enough to accommodate 6-week-old chicks. Look up 'flat electric brooder for chickens' on youtube. Sell it in Nepal to chicken farmers etcetera. They're a lot less dangerous, and consume only about 22W. Which is an order of magnitude better, and probably also better for the chicks. Oh and chicks can stay warm and cozy, or not depending on what they feel like. And the larger chickens, if they're around, won't bother the little ones. Just do it!
Went for a walk
Went for a walk around the block with NG last evening. Nature is beautiful! Everything is so green! It had been so long since I walked my thighs were hurting after the 20-minute walk. Since everyone has spent pretty much the entire Spring inside, a lot of people are going to be very surprised when they leave their houses and apartments (if and when ugh) and go out to nature. So much more to love and appreciate, and honestly I didn't think that I'd appreciate things so much but I do. Need to make daily walking a part of my routine now.
Today's dream: some sort of wool-logic
This morning's dream was insanely lucid detailed and almost scarily realistic? Someone 'invented' logic gates implemented in wool and used that to sew sweaters etcetera, so by just moving your arms around or playing around with your clothing you could get a lot of stuff done, stuff that's only possible electronically. And apparently that's how you get 'smart' wearables instead of putting in washable electronics into clothes. It was a good idea but perhaps a tad too optimistic, I dunno.
No redo
I've thought about this a LOT by now, almost every other day even, have been having dreams about it on a regular basis. Almost like I've thought through the entire change of imagination and come to a very stable conclusion that's likely to stay with be for a long time.
...one day later, didn't feel like writing.
...one day later, didn't feel like writing.
Pandemic!
Not the thing that's going around killing everyone scaring the shit out of the rest of the us and just bumming everything in general that's also paused human civilization economics and everything worth doing for several months potentially even years now looking at how things are going. This is about the board game Pandemic.
I was forever afraid about it because what's a worse idea than playing a game called 'pandemic' during these times? After playing it once realized it wasn't the worse, in fact you could pretty successfully remove the 'disease' element from the game, abstracting it to a more 'neutral' version that's a lot funner to play now. I rather enjoyed it, specially the fact that the players co-operate to beat the game dynamics. Cheating is fun too, because everyone wins that way! I'm not opposed to playing it more regularly. Also allows for a buttton of players, like upto eight players I think, for times looser than right now when we're not afraid of friends families and wellwishers physically anymore.
I was forever afraid about it because what's a worse idea than playing a game called 'pandemic' during these times? After playing it once realized it wasn't the worse, in fact you could pretty successfully remove the 'disease' element from the game, abstracting it to a more 'neutral' version that's a lot funner to play now. I rather enjoyed it, specially the fact that the players co-operate to beat the game dynamics. Cheating is fun too, because everyone wins that way! I'm not opposed to playing it more regularly. Also allows for a buttton of players, like upto eight players I think, for times looser than right now when we're not afraid of friends families and wellwishers physically anymore.
This is some nonsense piece of fiction that'll make no sense. Don't you worry about it
Ram and Shyam were friends who hadn't talked for twenty two years. And yet when Ram first saw Shyam's face at the mall right outside the watch store, he knew right away it was his old-time pal Shyam from way back. Shyam felt a light tap on his right shoulder, he turned around his face lit up instantly like a large chandelier showroom during Christmas. "Ohh mann, how are you, long time," he said, hugging the stranger, as he tried to remember the interloper's name. He knew it was someone from way way back, someone he hadn't met in at least two decades someone he knew really well, he just...didn't remember...was this...couldn't be...could it...Yes, yes it was! "Ram! So long it has been how are you man, how did you see me here how did you recognize me after such a long time, where have you been what do you do, you disappeared from the face of the earth entirely, tell me everything, we must get dinner man, come, come to our place after this, let's get some drinks and momos and we'll talk. That must be bhauju yes? Bhauju namastey, I'm his friend from school, way back haven't seen this guy in what, how long has it been...twenty five years? Yeah when was the last time we met, wasn't that like a summer after college when we went to that trek? Long time, yeah, lets lets catch up, this is great, come, come get dinner at our place, we'll talk over dinner drinks on me, let's go, bhauju lets go!'
Updates
One of the reasons I've not written for the past two days is that I've had like seven meetings every day at work, four of them intern interviews. Our final two candidates were amaaazing and I'm excited to working with them going forward, lol.
The weather's bad. Really really bad. When the Sun shines, which it rarely does these days, it's chilly and windy outside. Otherwise it's just cloudy or raining and windy or stormy. All the time. Apparently it's like that everywhere. What's happening with the world. Why is the weather messing with us when that's the last thing we need.
Many people have realized the difference between 'work' and 'not work' is disappearing, it's all the same, every day's the same as the one before, nothing's happening with people's lives when locked inside and they're sad morose disappointed.
The losers walking outside are mostly doing so without masks, at least around here in northern virginia and that scares the bejeezus out of me but that's the way things are and it's not gotten into people's heads yet that things are no longer the say as they used to and I'm sad mad disappointed but what can you do. America!
The weather's bad. Really really bad. When the Sun shines, which it rarely does these days, it's chilly and windy outside. Otherwise it's just cloudy or raining and windy or stormy. All the time. Apparently it's like that everywhere. What's happening with the world. Why is the weather messing with us when that's the last thing we need.
Many people have realized the difference between 'work' and 'not work' is disappearing, it's all the same, every day's the same as the one before, nothing's happening with people's lives when locked inside and they're sad morose disappointed.
The losers walking outside are mostly doing so without masks, at least around here in northern virginia and that scares the bejeezus out of me but that's the way things are and it's not gotten into people's heads yet that things are no longer the say as they used to and I'm sad mad disappointed but what can you do. America!
Need for air
Perhaps I'm lacking inspiration. Haven't left the house the two rooms I stay in at all since we went on that grocery trip and that was six days ago(!) so it could be that nature's the inspiration for writers and I haven't interacted with nature in forever so my mind's empty and I'm just beating the empty drum making loud noise without producing anything substantial. So I need to explore the nature, everyday, starting tomorrow to fill my bucket of creativity, if nothing else.
Bake and shake
It was 420 yesterday by the way, happy weed day, this week was not so productive because I sat down to write, all ready with great ideas for more utter nonsense and somehow got distracted talked to folks here ended up cooking or texting or playing or netflixing and then somehow somehow I got high which took away whatever remaining motivation was there. And it'd make me feel lazy and unproductive for like three days, a vicious cycle it was so it was and now I've given up on it just to improve my productivity we'll see how far it goes but at least I'm taking the vitamins on a super-regular schedule so that's something positive to look forward to.
In other writing progress...
Have reached a stable 500-words daily journaling in my super-secret journal, which is quite an achievement because I was having trouble getting to like 40 words a couple of weeks back. Granted it's only on work days and weekends are just...too chill, it's still progress. It's easier to go from 500 words to a thousand words and then two three thousand public words on this blog than from negative thousand words -- the negative for all the 'debt-days' -- to like a hundred words daily. Progress is gradual and there's ups and downs, mostly downs these days unfortunately, but the direction is the one I need to head towards.
Also, it's been more than a year since I started keeping journals, and nine months since I started keeping them religiously, and I'm at more than a hundred thousand words. The words are crappy uninspiring unreadable gross but they came from my fingers my head and I'm proud of them down to every misspelling dangling modifier and nonsense alliterations. This has been the biggest, most long term project I've done on my own initiative and I'm proud of it.
There's two months to go before we're a year away from the month I got back to this blog, and we're four months away from when I started writing on a daily basis. 8 months of continuous writing with no external pressure or encouragement is a serious achievement, really. As I've said, I'll allow myself a year plus or minus a few months before I start considering actually working on improving my writing. I'll get there folks, it's going to be a slow ride but we're on our way to seeing the progression of a writer. Huzzah!
Also, it's been more than a year since I started keeping journals, and nine months since I started keeping them religiously, and I'm at more than a hundred thousand words. The words are crappy uninspiring unreadable gross but they came from my fingers my head and I'm proud of them down to every misspelling dangling modifier and nonsense alliterations. This has been the biggest, most long term project I've done on my own initiative and I'm proud of it.
There's two months to go before we're a year away from the month I got back to this blog, and we're four months away from when I started writing on a daily basis. 8 months of continuous writing with no external pressure or encouragement is a serious achievement, really. As I've said, I'll allow myself a year plus or minus a few months before I start considering actually working on improving my writing. I'll get there folks, it's going to be a slow ride but we're on our way to seeing the progression of a writer. Huzzah!
Perhaps I should just stop doing this
This is self-reflection.
There's a school of thought that says that you follow your passion projects only as much as is needed to make you happy, and no more. So say someone says they want to write a novel but stop at writing two chapters, what they really wanted out of the experience was to write two chapters of a novel, the rest was just aspirational, they should not feel bad about not following their dreams and what not just move on and do what your mind desires don't blame yourself for flaming out and giving up on dreams and wishes. Etcetera.
Perhaps I've given up on my aggressive writing schedule given up on writing fiction every day, given up on writing 2-3k words every day given up on writings with the writing groups given up on my dreams to write novels is that this is all I wanted out of my writing experience -- a couple of hundred words here and there every couple of days and maybe a lot of words once a week or so and nothing more no fiction nothing perhaps they were all aspirational. Just aspirational, no dreams.
Or perhaps because of all the things happening around and in my life, I'm okay being where I am in my life and a field that's not particularly satisfying interesting as it may be and I'm okay being seen as a technology person etcetera with very few outside interests and I'm okay living that life I don't need the hard work and pressure of actually seriously writing editing suffering feeling guilt depression sadness going back to write and completing my works.
Perhaps I'm just lazy perhaps I do actually want all those things but I can't make myself because I'm lazy. This thought doesn't work out though because if I'm lazy and if my laziness is the thing stopping me from reaching to the stars then clearly my dreams are not powerful enough my aspirations not heartfelt enough for me to overcome them. Clearly then laziness is what gives me more happiness and enjoyment then hard-work dedication and the honing of the craft to get where I want to be.
Perhaps I don't want to hone my craft. Perhaps there is no craft. Perhaps there's only secret shame and desperation and sadness and delusion. Perhaps this is a fear of the delusion being unwound and I want to stave that off, still in the hopes that I might one day write and become an author author.
I need to average two posts a day for this month, no matter what and the time's running out. And thus all the posts from today.
Whoo knows man, whoo knows.
There's a school of thought that says that you follow your passion projects only as much as is needed to make you happy, and no more. So say someone says they want to write a novel but stop at writing two chapters, what they really wanted out of the experience was to write two chapters of a novel, the rest was just aspirational, they should not feel bad about not following their dreams and what not just move on and do what your mind desires don't blame yourself for flaming out and giving up on dreams and wishes. Etcetera.
Perhaps I've given up on my aggressive writing schedule given up on writing fiction every day, given up on writing 2-3k words every day given up on writings with the writing groups given up on my dreams to write novels is that this is all I wanted out of my writing experience -- a couple of hundred words here and there every couple of days and maybe a lot of words once a week or so and nothing more no fiction nothing perhaps they were all aspirational. Just aspirational, no dreams.
Or perhaps because of all the things happening around and in my life, I'm okay being where I am in my life and a field that's not particularly satisfying interesting as it may be and I'm okay being seen as a technology person etcetera with very few outside interests and I'm okay living that life I don't need the hard work and pressure of actually seriously writing editing suffering feeling guilt depression sadness going back to write and completing my works.
Perhaps I'm just lazy perhaps I do actually want all those things but I can't make myself because I'm lazy. This thought doesn't work out though because if I'm lazy and if my laziness is the thing stopping me from reaching to the stars then clearly my dreams are not powerful enough my aspirations not heartfelt enough for me to overcome them. Clearly then laziness is what gives me more happiness and enjoyment then hard-work dedication and the honing of the craft to get where I want to be.
Perhaps I don't want to hone my craft. Perhaps there is no craft. Perhaps there's only secret shame and desperation and sadness and delusion. Perhaps this is a fear of the delusion being unwound and I want to stave that off, still in the hopes that I might one day write and become an author author.
I need to average two posts a day for this month, no matter what and the time's running out. And thus all the posts from today.
Whoo knows man, whoo knows.
Where I get my news fix from these days
From my dad, who'll call me to inform that the price of oil has gone in the negative apparently how could it possibly do that, and what do I think about Trump's immigration ban and how is it going to affect me, an answer to all of which is always always -- maybe sometimes I'm informed, but a lot less than he is -- this is the first time I'm hearing about this, that's strange, nothing serious is going to happen, spend less time watching the news don't trust Indian news channels don't go out and spend the time productively instead of obsessing over news from far away that's unlikely to affect you in any possible way and which you cannot possibly influence anyhow.
The upside is I do get a filtered version of whatever is happening in the world and people's reactions to it, apparently the big news in politics these days is that no one's taking the orange clown seriously anymore internationally and everyone watches press conferences of the New York governor and listens to what he has to say, they're saying he looks very presidential and he should run for the President.
The upside is I do get a filtered version of whatever is happening in the world and people's reactions to it, apparently the big news in politics these days is that no one's taking the orange clown seriously anymore internationally and everyone watches press conferences of the New York governor and listens to what he has to say, they're saying he looks very presidential and he should run for the President.
Sci-fi and politics etcetera
Tools of the trade: you learn the language of analysis, all the dimensions to consider, the comparison against existing work, all of that with an in-depth experience with content of the field and a technical study of the subject. An alternative 'hack' or 'cheat' is to do a comparative analysis where you're basically stumbling through all the factors etcetera and also opening up so many avenues for analysis that a straight-edge analysis would otherwise miss.
The topic is of course sci-fi, 'western' ones more specifically, and there obsession with certain things. Aliens, as in finding them, going to their world discovering new things, or being discovered. Of empires, being ruled and ruling, the implications of that, the moralities of that and so on and so forth. Hard science. And those that consider the social aspects are super-duper modern, it's a relatively recent innovation in western sci-fi that if your societies are so vastly different across time and space, they're probably going to have different social structures from what exist right now. The author of the books I read over the weekend gave an example of sci-fi written in the 50's, where the scientist husband would go to the time-machine factory, his wife cleaning up the house and cooking, waiting for him to come back in their large suburban house with a big yard and two well-behaved kids, and a dog of course. Like the jetsons, actually. Exactly like the jetsons, except the jetsons never pretended to be sci-fi -- it was a family comedy that happened to have strange surroundings.
What confuses, shocks, saddens me is that any attempt to show an evolution of society along with the evolving technologies seem to rustle many Americans' feathers. A large number of reviews for the books complained that they tried to bring 'politics into sci-fi', which is the stupidest complaint I could imagine coming from someone who claims to like the genre. Sci-fi is never about the technology, that they seem to always forget. It's mostly about the society, politics, and their interaction with the changes in technology, but it's mostly politics and people.
In any case, it's clear the mores of our times are getting reflected in sci-fi, a genre that has been mostly male-dominated, as readers as well as authors. That's changing now, and I'm so glad for that.
I bring this up because I want to do a 'comparative study' of the 'space opera' subgenre of sci-fi with 'space opera' subgenre of puranic/vedic mythology. There aren't many similarities, and there seem to be only differences, but I'll argue those difference shed a light on societal expectations and discuss the exact mechanism. In a different post. Because I got distracted by the introduction and i need to sleep. Goodnight.
The topic is of course sci-fi, 'western' ones more specifically, and there obsession with certain things. Aliens, as in finding them, going to their world discovering new things, or being discovered. Of empires, being ruled and ruling, the implications of that, the moralities of that and so on and so forth. Hard science. And those that consider the social aspects are super-duper modern, it's a relatively recent innovation in western sci-fi that if your societies are so vastly different across time and space, they're probably going to have different social structures from what exist right now. The author of the books I read over the weekend gave an example of sci-fi written in the 50's, where the scientist husband would go to the time-machine factory, his wife cleaning up the house and cooking, waiting for him to come back in their large suburban house with a big yard and two well-behaved kids, and a dog of course. Like the jetsons, actually. Exactly like the jetsons, except the jetsons never pretended to be sci-fi -- it was a family comedy that happened to have strange surroundings.
What confuses, shocks, saddens me is that any attempt to show an evolution of society along with the evolving technologies seem to rustle many Americans' feathers. A large number of reviews for the books complained that they tried to bring 'politics into sci-fi', which is the stupidest complaint I could imagine coming from someone who claims to like the genre. Sci-fi is never about the technology, that they seem to always forget. It's mostly about the society, politics, and their interaction with the changes in technology, but it's mostly politics and people.
In any case, it's clear the mores of our times are getting reflected in sci-fi, a genre that has been mostly male-dominated, as readers as well as authors. That's changing now, and I'm so glad for that.
I bring this up because I want to do a 'comparative study' of the 'space opera' subgenre of sci-fi with 'space opera' subgenre of puranic/vedic mythology. There aren't many similarities, and there seem to be only differences, but I'll argue those difference shed a light on societal expectations and discuss the exact mechanism. In a different post. Because I got distracted by the introduction and i need to sleep. Goodnight.
Review: Children of ruin
The sequel to Children of time, it's an outstanding book by itself. The ordering is recommended though a patient reader could put things together without reading the prequel to this. Loved the ending, which like the first one ends on a positive optimistic note though depending on how cynical one is that could be open for interpretation.
The fourth quarter felt tiring but that's the nature of these things -- there's only so many words you can write to describe the frustrating nature of inter-species interplanetary communication without boring the reader. The the characters' desperation and frustration come through easily, to almost a fault I'd say -- the reader's motivation to keep going suffers right until the last few chapters.
The book involves FTL (faster than light travel), explores the nature of sentience and consciousness even further, including an extremely scary sentient slime mold (Spoilers!) that can be convinced to uhh not be evil by just...talking to it, question mark.
Loved it, loved how it ended and setup the third book of the series. I'd probably not read it again (unlike the discworld books which I've read like 10+ times) because it's a bit too much info-load wise, and it's not 'fun fun', just great plotting. I'd read it just for the sciencey concepts and how they interact with their societies.
Read it if you like any of the following: spiders, linguistics, cephalopods, alternative forms of sentience or science fiction in general.
The fourth quarter felt tiring but that's the nature of these things -- there's only so many words you can write to describe the frustrating nature of inter-species interplanetary communication without boring the reader. The the characters' desperation and frustration come through easily, to almost a fault I'd say -- the reader's motivation to keep going suffers right until the last few chapters.
The book involves FTL (faster than light travel), explores the nature of sentience and consciousness even further, including an extremely scary sentient slime mold (Spoilers!) that can be convinced to uhh not be evil by just...talking to it, question mark.
Loved it, loved how it ended and setup the third book of the series. I'd probably not read it again (unlike the discworld books which I've read like 10+ times) because it's a bit too much info-load wise, and it's not 'fun fun', just great plotting. I'd read it just for the sciencey concepts and how they interact with their societies.
Read it if you like any of the following: spiders, linguistics, cephalopods, alternative forms of sentience or science fiction in general.
Review: Children of Time
I hadn't read a good science fiction book in a long while. Hadn't ready any book at all for that matter since...last year perhaps when I read Lord of Light. That book: great start great premise, poor execution and a bad ending. It was great for when it was published, more than fifty years ago, but doesn't stand the test of time. Anyway, the book in question: children of time.
It was good. Lots of concepts I'd half-thought of, considered, discussed when high etcetera saw properly fleshed-out and expanded. Other reviewers have commented the characters were mediocre...I found the (sort-of spoilers) spider characters gripping, pardon the pun. There was a certain discontinuity with the human characters...they felt like pieces of a collage. Which is fair because it may have been intentional, to show the temporal discontinuity they were going through.
The science was solid A+ for hard scifi, the writer spent serious time on researching the subjects of the experiments apparently, the approach towards consciousness and the nature of interstellar travel felt reasonable given there's so much we don't know. The plotting was really good, it kept me gripped. I couldn't put the book down, finished it in one sitting a long long one.
I'd recommend it for folks who're not into sci-fi at all too, just for the taste of it. I have a few 'big picture' complaints that I'm going to summarize in a different post.
It was good. Lots of concepts I'd half-thought of, considered, discussed when high etcetera saw properly fleshed-out and expanded. Other reviewers have commented the characters were mediocre...I found the (sort-of spoilers) spider characters gripping, pardon the pun. There was a certain discontinuity with the human characters...they felt like pieces of a collage. Which is fair because it may have been intentional, to show the temporal discontinuity they were going through.
The science was solid A+ for hard scifi, the writer spent serious time on researching the subjects of the experiments apparently, the approach towards consciousness and the nature of interstellar travel felt reasonable given there's so much we don't know. The plotting was really good, it kept me gripped. I couldn't put the book down, finished it in one sitting a long long one.
I'd recommend it for folks who're not into sci-fi at all too, just for the taste of it. I have a few 'big picture' complaints that I'm going to summarize in a different post.
Everyone's in the same boat at least
The other day we watched John Kransiki's live SGN (Some good new)
live broadcast on youtube. And I realized a silver living (lol) of this
all is no matter how rich or powerful you are, no matter what nation you
reside in (except the stupid ones, see: Sweden), we're all stuck inside
our houses with this uncertainty and fear and confusion and desperation
fear maybe and no one can do anything about it ever and celebrities are
just like us! All their wealth and fame and fortune is of no help to
them in these trying times! The virus doesn't discriminate (well,
besides generally killing the poor) so that's great!
Groceries in the time of Corona
We went grocery shopping yesterday, to the Asian shopping center at the Eden center which is like this strip mall of Asian restaurants bubble tea places bakeries and nail salons. We wanted to avoid the trip but all the online delivery services for groceries have been booked for weeks; those that have delivery slots remaining have nothing worth ordering in their inventory. So armed with simple masks and nitrile gloves, we drove to the store.
It was heartening to see that people are taking this thing seriously actually, almost everyone was in masks and gloves and tried maintaining proper distance. The store was quite empty -- as empty as I've ever seen it -- which was quite sad but we justified it, perhaps people were shopping at weird times to avoid everyone, etc etc. For us it worked out really well there were so few people we didn't really have to do anything to avoid others.
We got almost everything we wanted except I realized after we got back that I'd missed out on a couple of things I should have looked for. No matter, I can always bake dinner rolls for the amazing chicken-sandwich-alternative that I came up with. We also got like eight different kinds of fruits and four different kinds of green veggies because it'd been so long and it's boring just surviving on the 'staples' with long shelf life.
The car ride there felt like what must feel like to dogs when they let their heads out in the car...it was almost like a different way to look at the world, the world beyond the four walls of our rooms. It was, so to speak, siick!
It was heartening to see that people are taking this thing seriously actually, almost everyone was in masks and gloves and tried maintaining proper distance. The store was quite empty -- as empty as I've ever seen it -- which was quite sad but we justified it, perhaps people were shopping at weird times to avoid everyone, etc etc. For us it worked out really well there were so few people we didn't really have to do anything to avoid others.
We got almost everything we wanted except I realized after we got back that I'd missed out on a couple of things I should have looked for. No matter, I can always bake dinner rolls for the amazing chicken-sandwich-alternative that I came up with. We also got like eight different kinds of fruits and four different kinds of green veggies because it'd been so long and it's boring just surviving on the 'staples' with long shelf life.
The car ride there felt like what must feel like to dogs when they let their heads out in the car...it was almost like a different way to look at the world, the world beyond the four walls of our rooms. It was, so to speak, siick!
Yet another zombie comedy
I sent this to the same Boston viber group I've been sending a lot of my recent ideas to. Guys I think this one's good, don't make fun of it okay? I also wrote about this here https://yuppyuppyupp.blogspot.com/2020/04/three-things-ill-write-about-soonish.html
So this is a comedy movie idea, a zombie comedy obviously because what else is gonna happen right now?
The zombie infestation has run for long and it's become a part of daily life, sort of 'priced in' into the society.
So one day your cousin's friend goes to Walamart and gets attacked gets injured by zombies and you hear about it on the phone in videochat maybe and you say 'ohh shiiit apparently the zombies got him too', and he might turn into the undead too you tell your friend to be careful not hang out with him too much and that's the end of it.
The zombies are slow and stupid and don't coalesce so they only get the slowest and the weakest.
One day someone's parents or grandparents get it and everyone's like 'ohh yeah his grandmother couldn't run away from the zombies fast enough so they got her, must suck to suck! That's why you don't let old people leave the house unprotected by themselves!'
But now the zombies are getting smarter so they're starting to attack young people too and you hear about it here and there in the news on the internet so you're starting to get more careful, you're more fearful and you know they might be just on the corner but living in fear 24/7 is not the way to go. You know the cost of freedom is the not minuscle possibility that you may be bitten by the undead and be turned into one of them, turning you friends and family who you interact with to one of them too. But that's a risk you're willing to take.
Because of that society's imposed strict rules around quarantining. If you're coming from somewhere far away, communities have basically quarantine rooms and quarantine houses where you're supposed to spend a couple of weeks. Airports have large quarantine hotels where people can chill and have fun, but need to maintain a certain distance from everyone else or else they're ejected from the country.
And that's the first fifteen minutes of the movie.-
So this is a comedy movie idea, a zombie comedy obviously because what else is gonna happen right now?
The zombie infestation has run for long and it's become a part of daily life, sort of 'priced in' into the society.
So one day your cousin's friend goes to Walamart and gets attacked gets injured by zombies and you hear about it on the phone in videochat maybe and you say 'ohh shiiit apparently the zombies got him too', and he might turn into the undead too you tell your friend to be careful not hang out with him too much and that's the end of it.
The zombies are slow and stupid and don't coalesce so they only get the slowest and the weakest.
One day someone's parents or grandparents get it and everyone's like 'ohh yeah his grandmother couldn't run away from the zombies fast enough so they got her, must suck to suck! That's why you don't let old people leave the house unprotected by themselves!'
But now the zombies are getting smarter so they're starting to attack young people too and you hear about it here and there in the news on the internet so you're starting to get more careful, you're more fearful and you know they might be just on the corner but living in fear 24/7 is not the way to go. You know the cost of freedom is the not minuscle possibility that you may be bitten by the undead and be turned into one of them, turning you friends and family who you interact with to one of them too. But that's a risk you're willing to take.
Because of that society's imposed strict rules around quarantining. If you're coming from somewhere far away, communities have basically quarantine rooms and quarantine houses where you're supposed to spend a couple of weeks. Airports have large quarantine hotels where people can chill and have fun, but need to maintain a certain distance from everyone else or else they're ejected from the country.
And that's the first fifteen minutes of the movie.-
What we've been upto: Catan
This week we've been playing a minimum of one game of catan every day, the three of us. It's mostly PL who wins them and he makes fun of me when I insist it's mostly about luck. In my defense I make the same claim on occasions I win also.
Just to kill time and stretch those games for longer and more fun we've changed the rules around so the games are faster but also take longer to end. So the 'victory points' requirement is higher, but it's really easy to get rid of the robber and there's tonnes of extra ports on the board, we always play on the large board meant for 5-6 players so there's more room for us to stretch around and gain resources.
The dynamics of the game change in the later part when wood and bricks become lot less useful and those that invested originally on ore and wheat reap benefits, if they were able to make it that far. Which sucks for me because I can keep only one gameplay strategy at a times, my head hurts when I think too deeply about strategies to win. PL is always planning and scheming and thinking, maybe that's why he wins -- that would be his argument anyway, but really Catan is mostly about the luck and the rolled numbers. You can do a perfect game and still lose pathetically because you just didn't roll the right numbers.
My suspicion is that the dice we're using is more favorable towards higher numbers so you're more likelier to get an 8 or a 9 or a 10 than 4's 5's and 6's, but they tell me that's just the loser in my complaining. Not true at all. We'll see.
Just to kill time and stretch those games for longer and more fun we've changed the rules around so the games are faster but also take longer to end. So the 'victory points' requirement is higher, but it's really easy to get rid of the robber and there's tonnes of extra ports on the board, we always play on the large board meant for 5-6 players so there's more room for us to stretch around and gain resources.
The dynamics of the game change in the later part when wood and bricks become lot less useful and those that invested originally on ore and wheat reap benefits, if they were able to make it that far. Which sucks for me because I can keep only one gameplay strategy at a times, my head hurts when I think too deeply about strategies to win. PL is always planning and scheming and thinking, maybe that's why he wins -- that would be his argument anyway, but really Catan is mostly about the luck and the rolled numbers. You can do a perfect game and still lose pathetically because you just didn't roll the right numbers.
My suspicion is that the dice we're using is more favorable towards higher numbers so you're more likelier to get an 8 or a 9 or a 10 than 4's 5's and 6's, but they tell me that's just the loser in my complaining. Not true at all. We'll see.
As if things weren't bad already
We ordered from Popeye's last night. Was really excited about that, I generally love the place though I don't eat chicken anymore -- their cajun rice and cajun fries are bomb and totally worth it. We waited for an hour, the online indicator showed our order hadn't been delivered. We went out of the door and realized it had been sitting there for quite some time...the fries were getting cold. So excited. We brought it in and realized the cajun rice was missing. We called the store. They said they don't deliver. We said yes you do, go to your website. They said no we don't no clue what you're talking about, must have used uber or whatever. We said, no no really just go to your website and click on delivery etc. They stood their ground. I didn't want to take on the conversation, they're simple customer service people who the corporate does not update on major policies in the company. Wrote a long complaint on their website and threatened to contest the charge on my credit card.
Ate the fries and the biscuit. It didn't feel right. It was okay but I'm still mad. I'm waiting for them to come back with an apology for royally, seriously effing that up. If not, a chargeback is the path I'm going to take. It's not about the five bucks, if they'd rather lose a longtime fan over that amount, I'm okay with that.
We played a lotta board games in the evening so at least my mind was off that.
Ate the fries and the biscuit. It didn't feel right. It was okay but I'm still mad. I'm waiting for them to come back with an apology for royally, seriously effing that up. If not, a chargeback is the path I'm going to take. It's not about the five bucks, if they'd rather lose a longtime fan over that amount, I'm okay with that.
We played a lotta board games in the evening so at least my mind was off that.
Another animal-related realization: animals training animals, and training templated intelligence
I sent this to a Boston-based viber group, and SBK questioned my mental acuity, and in all honesty I was a little non-sober but the realization I've had when sober too.
So apparently the big problem with ethical animal farming (particularly for non-meat uses, meat-farming would be problematic because of the implications of the following) is that you have to train the animals individually and it cannot scale up in an economic manner. If you could have trained cows train other cows to go to the milking station, you could trust them to be 'free'. If goats could work as 'almost' employees training other goats, there would be a lot fewer goats lost to wild animals, sickness, accidents.
If you could get your herd animals to go somewhere when they don't feel good, you've already gotten several days of head time with illness prevention and care, not to mention an amazing opportunity to catch and nip animal epidemics in the bud.
Think about it, if you can tell dogs to poop at a certain place at a certain time (aka go to a certain place when they feel like pooping, why can't you train them to 'go to a hospital' (aka go to a certain place when they feel hurt?)
PL joked, what if you could train animals to do their own stuff. Like what if you trained Tigers to not bother your pack animals and attack and kill them, but rear their own goats in the forest and eat them. The conclusion was that Tigers would need to learn agriculture...which complicates matter a bit. Still, something worth considering.
So apparently the big problem with ethical animal farming (particularly for non-meat uses, meat-farming would be problematic because of the implications of the following) is that you have to train the animals individually and it cannot scale up in an economic manner. If you could have trained cows train other cows to go to the milking station, you could trust them to be 'free'. If goats could work as 'almost' employees training other goats, there would be a lot fewer goats lost to wild animals, sickness, accidents.
If you could get your herd animals to go somewhere when they don't feel good, you've already gotten several days of head time with illness prevention and care, not to mention an amazing opportunity to catch and nip animal epidemics in the bud.
Think about it, if you can tell dogs to poop at a certain place at a certain time (aka go to a certain place when they feel like pooping, why can't you train them to 'go to a hospital' (aka go to a certain place when they feel hurt?)
PL joked, what if you could train animals to do their own stuff. Like what if you trained Tigers to not bother your pack animals and attack and kill them, but rear their own goats in the forest and eat them. The conclusion was that Tigers would need to learn agriculture...which complicates matter a bit. Still, something worth considering.
If I became a billionaire
Have thought about this on multiple occasions, texted this to friend NK and AB, friends from college, since NK is such a Dolphins fan (not the team) she sorta understood what I meant.
If I became a billionaire, I'd start a breeding program to breed really long-living and social cephalopods. Octopuses, squids, etc. They're already ridiculously smart, with their 3-year lifetimes and the fact their their parents don't teach them anything ever, and they don't spend any time with others of their types. One day, we're gonna develop smart enough technologies, and realize that those poor creatures have an uncomfortable amount of sentience.
Please don't eat seafood folks, particularly octopi and squid. They're smart and aware, for realisies? <3
If I became a billionaire, I'd start a breeding program to breed really long-living and social cephalopods. Octopuses, squids, etc. They're already ridiculously smart, with their 3-year lifetimes and the fact their their parents don't teach them anything ever, and they don't spend any time with others of their types. One day, we're gonna develop smart enough technologies, and realize that those poor creatures have an uncomfortable amount of sentience.
Please don't eat seafood folks, particularly octopi and squid. They're smart and aware, for realisies? <3
Fucked up
Been having really stressful dreams for the last couple of days, and today...today was different for some reason. I woke up stressed and confused why I was so stressed. Had planned on moving to friend SB's place this evening. Delaying that because I don't feel so good. Something's up, I don't know what.
Add to all of that I read this incredibly sad, horrifying but interesting read. Nothing's new, everything I've read about or heard before. Fits in perfectly with all the models of personhood etc etc, and I've thought about this in depth in the past. But coming back to it, understanding the repercussions such changes in one's mind affect the people around them is...gut-wrenching. There are things much, much worse than death, and this is one of them. Highly recommended read, be sure to take care of yourself https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/
Add to all of that I read this incredibly sad, horrifying but interesting read. Nothing's new, everything I've read about or heard before. Fits in perfectly with all the models of personhood etc etc, and I've thought about this in depth in the past. But coming back to it, understanding the repercussions such changes in one's mind affect the people around them is...gut-wrenching. There are things much, much worse than death, and this is one of them. Highly recommended read, be sure to take care of yourself https://www.wired.com/story/lee-holloway-devastating-decline-brilliant-young-coder/
What I want to do after this is over: picnic in the middle of the city
For my birthday maybe, or my farewell party. In Boston Common but I'm okay with any other cool urban park. Order Dominos, have people make things, bring them in their backpacks. Get people to make mixed drinks, have them bring those in large tumblers. Remind people to bring their own covered cups so we don't get caught. Bask in the sun, even if it's way wayy tooo hot. Play frisbee, ball, chase each other around. Play music, sleep on the throw blankets, make fun of each other, tease. Call out random people, offer them food, just talk to them, make friends. A nice goddamn picnic in the middle of the city, sun on my skin, surrounded by people I care about, and among the rest of the city that is also celebrating. Living the fucking life, really.
What I want to do after this is over: go to bars
I want to go to a bar, all the bars, all the time. I don't drink, probably won't who knows maybe I'll drink beer or whatever. Or mocktails or alcohol-less beer. And appetizers. I'll just sit, not even use my phone, I'll take a book with me. And look around. Order another round of whatever it is I'm drinking and just look at people. Smell the grime. Curry fries, that's what I'll get at Elephant and the Castle. And talk way too loud. Nod at people, wave at them, giggle, scratch off the varnish on the tables, maybe even write my name on the grime. Smell the grime and the stale beers of those dive bars in downtown Boston. Not that I go often, but it could be fun. Just myself even if there's noone to go with. Absorb the sounds and the smells and the sights. It'd be cool.
Interesting times
It's 11.10pm Monday. Been more than a month since I left Boston to come to NoVa and have been since living here. Life is a little stressful, confusing, a little unpredictable but that's the whole wide world not just me. Things are...interesting right now. It's becoming clear why "may you live in interesting times" is a curse.
We had a conversation several days ago. I brought it up. It was right about when BoJo the UK PM had been admitted to the ICU because of Corona or whatever. And I suddenly realized, if he passed away, things would get a lot more interesting, even more than they are right now. It would be bad, obviously, and I wouldn't hope ever for it to happen, but things would be hella interesting. The repercussions would last for...ever. We could talk about it for ever and ever and ever. But it wouldn't be good for anyone. It would suck, everything would suck. So glad he's recovered now.
And so came the realization, living in interesting times is um, actually not a great thing. There is only so much 'interesting things' the human mind can comprehend, only so much uncertainty it can take, before it zones out shuts down. Interesting times are a curse, really, like they always said.
The days go by. We eat, talk, use the internet -- lots of youtube -- play board games. Spend way too long cooking and eating because there's not much to do. I'm crashing on the couch, seems like this may go on for a while now. There was an opportunity to make upward-looking lateral move career-wise. Didn't take it. Don't need uncertainty in these serious times.
The stock market rises ever onwards as the death counter rises at an increasing rate. Unclear what the future is. Don't trust the stock market for anything, feel like it could lose the bottom anytime. When a third of the population is unemployed hungry and potentially homeless it's unclear how the economy can be thriving. Who are the companies selling stuff to anyway when there's no one to buy?
The madman is making things worst every day. Does anything even need to be said about that?
Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst, as they say.
We had a conversation several days ago. I brought it up. It was right about when BoJo the UK PM had been admitted to the ICU because of Corona or whatever. And I suddenly realized, if he passed away, things would get a lot more interesting, even more than they are right now. It would be bad, obviously, and I wouldn't hope ever for it to happen, but things would be hella interesting. The repercussions would last for...ever. We could talk about it for ever and ever and ever. But it wouldn't be good for anyone. It would suck, everything would suck. So glad he's recovered now.
And so came the realization, living in interesting times is um, actually not a great thing. There is only so much 'interesting things' the human mind can comprehend, only so much uncertainty it can take, before it zones out shuts down. Interesting times are a curse, really, like they always said.
The days go by. We eat, talk, use the internet -- lots of youtube -- play board games. Spend way too long cooking and eating because there's not much to do. I'm crashing on the couch, seems like this may go on for a while now. There was an opportunity to make upward-looking lateral move career-wise. Didn't take it. Don't need uncertainty in these serious times.
The stock market rises ever onwards as the death counter rises at an increasing rate. Unclear what the future is. Don't trust the stock market for anything, feel like it could lose the bottom anytime. When a third of the population is unemployed hungry and potentially homeless it's unclear how the economy can be thriving. Who are the companies selling stuff to anyway when there's no one to buy?
The madman is making things worst every day. Does anything even need to be said about that?
Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst, as they say.
Happy New Year 2077
Nepali Nepali new year 2077 everyone. May the new year lead to less interesting times, give us all safety sanity peace and prosperity. Please pashupati god give us sanity and sensibility in hard times like this oh man, please please and as G.Shah used to say, may he protect us all. Considering how everything's unfolding in Nepal, that's the only thing we can count upon, sigh. What to do whatToDo.
Three things I'll write about soonish
The first one is my idea for a (of course) zombie comedy, sort of similar to our current situation but wayy moree absurd. Dialed up to a thousand, I'm afraid still that reality may outdo me. I've got it typed up as a series of chat messages to a group in Viber, all that remains is to expand it and clean it up.
The second one is a theft. Friend SB told us the funniest story of miscommunication, a 'comedy-of-errors' of sorts that happened in his family that's a story worth telling. Need to stretch it, expand it, add salt pepper and lemon to it, spice it up, and present it here.
The third one is a realization / dream I had today. It involves going back to the past over and over, and getting everything I want, and yet not finding it as satisfying and happy as my existing life. It's a fable, the moral of which is that all the money in the world cannot buy you true friendships.
Chop chop me, gotta get on it.
The second one is a theft. Friend SB told us the funniest story of miscommunication, a 'comedy-of-errors' of sorts that happened in his family that's a story worth telling. Need to stretch it, expand it, add salt pepper and lemon to it, spice it up, and present it here.
The third one is a realization / dream I had today. It involves going back to the past over and over, and getting everything I want, and yet not finding it as satisfying and happy as my existing life. It's a fable, the moral of which is that all the money in the world cannot buy you true friendships.
Chop chop me, gotta get on it.
Keep writing: a reminder
Just keep writing, that's the solution to all the writing woes they say. I've said it on several occasions too, there's no such thing as a writer's block, only writer's lack-of-motivation. And apparently writing nonstop for like five ten even fifteen minutes if you can pull that off is the solution. Don't worry about what you're writing, how correct it is grammatically, or if people will judge you for it, will this be the end of your goddamn career, this shitpiece you wrote because you had nothing better to do because your motivation was in the dumps because of you know all the global pandemic and everything? But you have to write and write and write for as long as you can, until your hands give up or the clock strikes or the alarm hits or something I dunno, surely you had the good sense to make yourself track the next several minutes so you'd know when the torture would end or not. Or perhaps like myself right now you were being sneaky and not letting yourself look at the clock so you'd look at it later and have to write for much longer than you were expected too.
It's hard okay, that's not as easy as they want you to believe, because of course when you're writing in your blog you care about the spelling, you care about the grammar and ofcourse and does this even warrant saying uggh of courseee it matters how your piece reflects on you. it's not like you're a social outcast that can live on the fringes of society without caring for what everyone else thinks of you. No matter how hard people pretend to not care for it, they do care for others' validation, if nothing else they care about validation from folks who appreciate other people saying they don't care for anyone's validation. So there's that, you're a respectful member of the society and you can't just like vomit out a thousand words or however many words you can type in the given frame and call it a day. No you have to make coherent sentences and phrases and have the general piece make some sense. Even if you've just claimed that you're going to go all experimental from now on because you've not written anything in a while and you need to start writing, whatever it may be, and thus. So anyway, that doesn't work so something better's gotta come up.
Speaking of which, all my friends who left the U.S to European countries cos' they thought they've had enough of this and all have returned back because they've had it worse there. That is apropo of nothing really, just remembered, I wonder why. Weird how the human mind works right?
It's hard okay, that's not as easy as they want you to believe, because of course when you're writing in your blog you care about the spelling, you care about the grammar and ofcourse and does this even warrant saying uggh of courseee it matters how your piece reflects on you. it's not like you're a social outcast that can live on the fringes of society without caring for what everyone else thinks of you. No matter how hard people pretend to not care for it, they do care for others' validation, if nothing else they care about validation from folks who appreciate other people saying they don't care for anyone's validation. So there's that, you're a respectful member of the society and you can't just like vomit out a thousand words or however many words you can type in the given frame and call it a day. No you have to make coherent sentences and phrases and have the general piece make some sense. Even if you've just claimed that you're going to go all experimental from now on because you've not written anything in a while and you need to start writing, whatever it may be, and thus. So anyway, that doesn't work so something better's gotta come up.
Speaking of which, all my friends who left the U.S to European countries cos' they thought they've had enough of this and all have returned back because they've had it worse there. That is apropo of nothing really, just remembered, I wonder why. Weird how the human mind works right?
How experimental will he get anyway, you ask yourself
Here's the answer.
Honh.
Honh honh.
Homh honh honh.
honhhonhhonh.
Like a freaking frenchman
I honhhonhhonh
and honhonhhonh honhhonhonhn
until I can no mo'
no mo' bro, no mo'
says the ahem -- ho
and I ask, so?
I'm not serious, doough'
cos' I know
that ho's like her know
what will do better, grow
and so
I bow
And go
The way of the know
of the hoe
Hoh hoh hoh
Honh.
Honh honh.
Homh honh honh.
honhhonhhonh.
Like a freaking frenchman
I honhhonhhonh
and honhonhhonh honhhonhonhn
until I can no mo'
no mo' bro, no mo'
says the ahem -- ho
and I ask, so?
I'm not serious, doough'
cos' I know
that ho's like her know
what will do better, grow
and so
I bow
And go
The way of the know
of the hoe
Hoh hoh hoh
Eff it this is my blog I'll do experimental things
Like nonsense words, 'experimental' 'edgy' pieces that will most definitely not work I'll try them anyway because I have no better ideas and these are trying times okay, I'm having a LOT of trouble going into a proper ritualistic lifestyle and have been able to bring myself to post one piece a day everyday so anything goes at this point really. I really really really want to average two posts a day for this month, but wishes aren't horses, and also neither of them fly like pigs -- I mean pigs don't fly and neither do horses or wishes for that matter, unless you're sort of communicating your wishes over some wireless air-based medium one figures -- so yeah, things aren't going the way I'd have wished, and I'm trying hard to bring myself to write, so anything goes at this point. No holds barred. Be prepared to be amazed have your minds blown but more likely be extremely disappointed.
Cool things that we did today
Missed out both the posts yesterday because we were too busy doing cool things.
First, we made donuts (NG did) during the afternoon, they were the fluffiest donuts I've ever had and really tasty.
In the evening we made buckwheat rotis, with black-eyed pea hummus, our regular salsa, and I added some kimchi on the side for myself (the rest of the gang didn't). I'd been thinking about this combination for a long while now, and I'm glad it worked out so well. Two things that'd make this even more awesome: really thick goat stew cooked until meat is real dark (screw the meat, don't care about the meat), and some tasty green veggies, sliced pretty thin. And that would be the end of that. yum.
Maybe I should start writing down recipes.
Next on my list is making a dessert from an unexpected ingredient -- I'm thinking using beans for making cookies or brownies or even ice-cream like things. Not sure how the material-sciences part of that would work but I'm hard at work to figure it out.
Also, I want to bake better breads, and do more interesting things with them. Breads with sweet beans in them anyone? They're already done, but I want to play in that field, some exciting potential there. We'll see, dear god this is getting so boring already I'm dozing as I'm writing this. What the what.
First, we made donuts (NG did) during the afternoon, they were the fluffiest donuts I've ever had and really tasty.
In the evening we made buckwheat rotis, with black-eyed pea hummus, our regular salsa, and I added some kimchi on the side for myself (the rest of the gang didn't). I'd been thinking about this combination for a long while now, and I'm glad it worked out so well. Two things that'd make this even more awesome: really thick goat stew cooked until meat is real dark (screw the meat, don't care about the meat), and some tasty green veggies, sliced pretty thin. And that would be the end of that. yum.
Maybe I should start writing down recipes.
Next on my list is making a dessert from an unexpected ingredient -- I'm thinking using beans for making cookies or brownies or even ice-cream like things. Not sure how the material-sciences part of that would work but I'm hard at work to figure it out.
Also, I want to bake better breads, and do more interesting things with them. Breads with sweet beans in them anyone? They're already done, but I want to play in that field, some exciting potential there. We'll see, dear god this is getting so boring already I'm dozing as I'm writing this. What the what.
Raul's money matters
Good liars, the really really good ones, are no liars at all. They have the ability to transport themselves to alternate realities where the version of reality that suits their storyline is true, and it is them that's the truth-seeking fighter, against the rest of the fake loser world, they're the last shining beacons of honesty.
Raul didn't want to become a liar. He wasn't a liar, he wasn't dishonest, and he most certainly was not corrupt. He didn't have to be. His heart was pure, his intentions noble. It didn't hurt that his bank account -- in some form -- was overflowing. Not that it mattered, his wealth and its impact on his honesty was a side-effect. He'd have been as straight-edged anyway. He was out of savings from his banking days. He didn't complain. Because the money wasn't a loan to his future self that'd be repaid by stealing funds from the state or the people, it was a donation to the nation, to make it prosperous and established. With him as their leader, and other folks like him. He didn't mind at all.
It was unfair. They were crooked lying thieving bastards, who would stoop low enough to sell their own mothers at the drop of a feather. No morals at all, and it seemed -- he had come to the realization after many years of interacting with them -- they saw absolutely nothing wrong with their actions. Lying was no problem, that was what the people wanted, stealing funds was okay because it was considered a part of the remuneration pretty much. I didn't get into politics to become a saint, a close companion had told him, implying he had in other to enrich himself.
Raul sighed. Nothing would change with people like these. He would have to bring about the change. He was up to the task.
Raul didn't want to become a liar. He wasn't a liar, he wasn't dishonest, and he most certainly was not corrupt. He didn't have to be. His heart was pure, his intentions noble. It didn't hurt that his bank account -- in some form -- was overflowing. Not that it mattered, his wealth and its impact on his honesty was a side-effect. He'd have been as straight-edged anyway. He was out of savings from his banking days. He didn't complain. Because the money wasn't a loan to his future self that'd be repaid by stealing funds from the state or the people, it was a donation to the nation, to make it prosperous and established. With him as their leader, and other folks like him. He didn't mind at all.
It was unfair. They were crooked lying thieving bastards, who would stoop low enough to sell their own mothers at the drop of a feather. No morals at all, and it seemed -- he had come to the realization after many years of interacting with them -- they saw absolutely nothing wrong with their actions. Lying was no problem, that was what the people wanted, stealing funds was okay because it was considered a part of the remuneration pretty much. I didn't get into politics to become a saint, a close companion had told him, implying he had in other to enrich himself.
Raul sighed. Nothing would change with people like these. He would have to bring about the change. He was up to the task.
Momo party
The three of us made momos (all veggies) with a very very spicy sauce. It was great. I had a can of ginger ale with it. Only 80 calories! The pretzels are not finished yet, PL hasn't even tried one since he was sick most of ht week and last week. I'm baking apples, to be eaten with chopped nuts and icecream later tonight. PL is already asleep but I'll wake him up to eat it. The butter's overflowing hopefully the cinnamon and brown sugar don't burn.
We're watching the office right now. Tried watching the hindi movie Kapoor and Sons and it was a bit too much. Too noisy, shouty and ughhh. So tiring. It's just...too much. It's not a fun family and friends kind of movie, that's for sure, all the critical acclaims be damned. I couldn't write this morning because I was so busy so here I am now writing. Hurrah.
So busy and productive at work, I'm getting used to the hang of the things, the coming days are bound to be even more productive now. Got a new job offer for seattle but without the promotion that was meant to come with it. Rejecting it tomorrow because I would have to be an insane maniac to accept it in times like these, when there's nothing in it for me, at all.
Talking about the Corona has gotten tiring, anything but the corona, dear gods please.
We're watching the office right now. Tried watching the hindi movie Kapoor and Sons and it was a bit too much. Too noisy, shouty and ughhh. So tiring. It's just...too much. It's not a fun family and friends kind of movie, that's for sure, all the critical acclaims be damned. I couldn't write this morning because I was so busy so here I am now writing. Hurrah.
So busy and productive at work, I'm getting used to the hang of the things, the coming days are bound to be even more productive now. Got a new job offer for seattle but without the promotion that was meant to come with it. Rejecting it tomorrow because I would have to be an insane maniac to accept it in times like these, when there's nothing in it for me, at all.
Talking about the Corona has gotten tiring, anything but the corona, dear gods please.
Half-assed attempt at writing
As I like saying, half-assing things is much much better than not doing them or being apathetic to their existence. Doing things just for the sake of doing them still shows a minimum level of motivation, drive and commitment. For every half-asser there are a thousand people who should be doing some thing but don't because they don't have the energy or the drive. From half-assing comes three-fourths assing, and eventually serious attempts. Not that serious attempts take you anywhere close to success, but taking a step toward your destination is a million times better than planning for a thousand hours and taking no steps.
I mention that because that is what this is: a half-hearted attempt to get some words out there so that my checklist looks more respectable, so that the numbers on the right seem better. So I feel better about myself. And here it is. Time to go to bed, goodnight!
I mention that because that is what this is: a half-hearted attempt to get some words out there so that my checklist looks more respectable, so that the numbers on the right seem better. So I feel better about myself. And here it is. Time to go to bed, goodnight!
Order disorder
Yesterday was a great day, did a lot of 'orderly' things, worked on the new checklist etcetera. Came around to the realization that this state of matters is not temporary and this is how it's going to be for the foreseeable future. The new normal, as they say. Got back to my sleeping, working out, eating habits slowly. Need a couple of days to catch up to it, but I'll be there. Things are looking good.
Evening wasn't so good, got a little giggly and slept at 9.30, refused to go to by bed from the couch because too tired and sleepy, forgot the evening chores, and basically took it slow and easy. Same for this morning too, but that's because ahem, there's always a hangover even when they tell you there's no downsides. Drowsiness, laziness, etcetera.
Ate so.much.food last evening, I feel gross and disgusting still. Gonna take it a little more easy for today. Hopefully I can go back to fiction writing soon. Fingers crossed.
Evening wasn't so good, got a little giggly and slept at 9.30, refused to go to by bed from the couch because too tired and sleepy, forgot the evening chores, and basically took it slow and easy. Same for this morning too, but that's because ahem, there's always a hangover even when they tell you there's no downsides. Drowsiness, laziness, etcetera.
Ate so.much.food last evening, I feel gross and disgusting still. Gonna take it a little more easy for today. Hopefully I can go back to fiction writing soon. Fingers crossed.
Domino's party
I love Domino's. In these hard times there's only two places we've ordered food out from in the last three weeks -- from our favorite place in DC and Domino's. We've ordered from Domino's twice now. Last night we had a nice Domino's party -- a medium 2-topping pizza, a cheesy brad with feta and spinach, and a lava cake, delivered to the main door of our apartment, because we were too scared to interact with the delivery person. We ended up eating just a slice each of the pizza and the cheesy bread, and splitting one of the lava cakes, NG and I, but yum. Even their crusts are tasty! The greasiness is the right kind, and there's nothing 'off' or 'gross' about eating those, unless you've had like six of those already I guess.
Made us really happy last night.
Yeah the delivery took an hour to get, and the online tracker kept lying about the status for a really long time, but it was really worth it. 11PM delivered domino's is the best! And apparently they deliver in public places like parks and streets and train stations etcetera too, which is wild and something I want to test after all this blows over. Something to look forward to, hurray!
Made us really happy last night.
Yeah the delivery took an hour to get, and the online tracker kept lying about the status for a really long time, but it was really worth it. 11PM delivered domino's is the best! And apparently they deliver in public places like parks and streets and train stations etcetera too, which is wild and something I want to test after all this blows over. Something to look forward to, hurray!
Went for a walk
NG and I went for a ten-minute walk. The first time we left the house in what, five, six days? Felt good and risky. Wild times right. I've been planning to go on morning walks forever now, but due to one reason or another most of which involves laziness on my part more than the ongoing pandemic it hasn't worked out. Now that the new state of matters is becoming normal life, it seems it's going to be more manageable. We'll see.
Pretzel day!
I made pretzels today and it was great to get back in the kitchen after the break. I looked up several different recipes and combined them in ways that seemed reasonable, made two mistakes that cancelled each other out in the end so that was great. Honestly they look like the pretzel version of bagels, ain't complaining about that though.
The thing is, it took me almost three freaking hours to get it done. My biggest mistake was to divide the same motion into multiple groups, so I was processing the entire flow one or two bagel at a time. Which meant I was dividing my time and attention between stretching out the dough, boiling the dough, and putting the bagels in the oven, while I was working on a different bagel. Some bagels were forgotten and left in the oven for a bit too long, some were boiled a bit too much. If only I'd shaped all the bagels first, then boiled them all, and then baked them in batches in the end, I estimate I'd save upto an hour, perhaps even more, and a tonne of energy in heating and gas costs. Important lesson though. Need to start cooking baking more.
The thing is, it took me almost three freaking hours to get it done. My biggest mistake was to divide the same motion into multiple groups, so I was processing the entire flow one or two bagel at a time. Which meant I was dividing my time and attention between stretching out the dough, boiling the dough, and putting the bagels in the oven, while I was working on a different bagel. Some bagels were forgotten and left in the oven for a bit too long, some were boiled a bit too much. If only I'd shaped all the bagels first, then boiled them all, and then baked them in batches in the end, I estimate I'd save upto an hour, perhaps even more, and a tonne of energy in heating and gas costs. Important lesson though. Need to start cooking baking more.
Zooming through Season 4 of Kim's Convenience
Kim's convenience season 4 was out on April 1 with its 13 eppies, and I was done watching by the evening of April 2. Good show, good season, highly recommend. I laughed out on several dozen occasions over those seven hours. Go watch.
April is here, I guess
Oh hai, april is here. Whoppity doo-dah. I'll start writing again regularly, I promise. Soon. Soon. Soon.
In retrospect, March was better than expected writing-wise
Because I was still writing an average of two posts a day, despite the world around us changing drastically, in extremely unexpected and unpredictable circumstances. And I came back from Nepal, and still recovered well enough. And I've been writing semi-consistently here, more consistently in my personal personal journal. Yeah I'm not in my regular schedule, but harsh times make the best of us make harsh compromises.
I'll get better though. I'm working on a new schedule for the next two months that's gonna be my 'emergency schedule' thing. Learning to organize and adapt is a skill, and this is a great time for me to teach myself that.
Also need to write fiction.
I'll get better though. I'm working on a new schedule for the next two months that's gonna be my 'emergency schedule' thing. Learning to organize and adapt is a skill, and this is a great time for me to teach myself that.
Also need to write fiction.
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