Real nice sleep in the morning felt real refreshed, got up at 7, should have went for a walk didn't feel like it. Lunch was toast with hummus tomatoes hashbrowns and fried eggs over easy with hot and sour ketchup.
Real nice nap in the afternoon, slept for two hours.
Ate takis for snacks in the evening, watched kim's convenience rushed a couple of posts. Slept around midnight, half hours after as NG was working throughout. It was as lazy and uneventful of a day as things go.
Some free writing
all the way to the bank laugh all the way they did. not until the governor's order much later from Kathmandu did they have to shut it down but by then it was far too late to stop them or recover the money they'd funneled away. ah the rush the felt in taking money from those fools they thought they were smart they were the ones swindling they had won everything and now they'd take over a bunch of buffoons they couldn't have possibly anything to hide. there was no way to have gotten hold of their treasuries without convincing they were the ones doing the swindling.
Nothing was too big for them to mark too small no amount of money not worth running a whole game plan over it had become a matter of habit start trick trick trick stop turn around open and disappear. The seven step plan they had it was a joke. Lets run the seven step plan they'd say in the middle of something innocuous when they're at a run-down restaurant or a department store they improvise a bit here and there by the end of it they're better off by a couple of thousand and an adrenaline filled adventure.
Nothing harmful we're just a couple of goofballs who like to have fun make a couple thousand here and there while we're at it we don't take too much it's not like we're looting people or the poor ones we're robinhood robbing the ones that have money and filling our poor coffers with the coins they said. Theat's how they began. And then things got complicated.
It was the damn americans it was always the damn americans that made it complicated, they took it up to ten. They got too greedy they had it running it all over the money got too much and they wanted to clear everyone out. That's when the cops got involved big time and they involved the big bank.
Nothing was too big for them to mark too small no amount of money not worth running a whole game plan over it had become a matter of habit start trick trick trick stop turn around open and disappear. The seven step plan they had it was a joke. Lets run the seven step plan they'd say in the middle of something innocuous when they're at a run-down restaurant or a department store they improvise a bit here and there by the end of it they're better off by a couple of thousand and an adrenaline filled adventure.
Nothing harmful we're just a couple of goofballs who like to have fun make a couple thousand here and there while we're at it we don't take too much it's not like we're looting people or the poor ones we're robinhood robbing the ones that have money and filling our poor coffers with the coins they said. Theat's how they began. And then things got complicated.
It was the damn americans it was always the damn americans that made it complicated, they took it up to ten. They got too greedy they had it running it all over the money got too much and they wanted to clear everyone out. That's when the cops got involved big time and they involved the big bank.
Class traitor
I'm suspicious of people by default. When someone new enters my life extended social circle, it takes me a couple of tries several to get to know them, be comfortable with them. Which is not outrageously strange, that's what everyone does. The default option is suspicion not trust, that
s something I'm working on improving, because what kind of person has so little faith in humanity and their friends that they don't let their group expand. It's hard to have your circle expand make friends get to know people or really get into something new. Friend groups are limited and they're great when old friends are around. New friends rarely barely happen if ever. It's a tough choice but that's how things are.
This is a post about N, who I first met some time ago. Didn't know what they were about if they could be relied upon. Then we went on a tour of their neighborhood and their area, heard their stories and what they've been upto. Made me respect them as much as I've ever done anyone.
This post is titled Class traitor because that's been the theme for lots of things. In this story, the thing that made me respect them so much was their courageous act of class treason, of endangering their and their family's place in society for something that transcended themselves. The event was tragic important sad and in the end sort of fine but in the bigger picture it was nothing. Bigger issues could have been left to fight for. But they decided that was it, which was important. It's easy to become a hero when there are great things at stake. It's more difficult when you show heroism for everyday acts of aggression and injustice for which not too many people will see you as a hero. So much respect.
They've made me reconsider what I want out of life and where I want to go. Being what I am, it's unclear if it'll make a fundamental change in me, but this is to you N, for being an amazing person and a class traitor. Even though we're still kind of acquaintances that barely know each other.
s something I'm working on improving, because what kind of person has so little faith in humanity and their friends that they don't let their group expand. It's hard to have your circle expand make friends get to know people or really get into something new. Friend groups are limited and they're great when old friends are around. New friends rarely barely happen if ever. It's a tough choice but that's how things are.
This is a post about N, who I first met some time ago. Didn't know what they were about if they could be relied upon. Then we went on a tour of their neighborhood and their area, heard their stories and what they've been upto. Made me respect them as much as I've ever done anyone.
This post is titled Class traitor because that's been the theme for lots of things. In this story, the thing that made me respect them so much was their courageous act of class treason, of endangering their and their family's place in society for something that transcended themselves. The event was tragic important sad and in the end sort of fine but in the bigger picture it was nothing. Bigger issues could have been left to fight for. But they decided that was it, which was important. It's easy to become a hero when there are great things at stake. It's more difficult when you show heroism for everyday acts of aggression and injustice for which not too many people will see you as a hero. So much respect.
They've made me reconsider what I want out of life and where I want to go. Being what I am, it's unclear if it'll make a fundamental change in me, but this is to you N, for being an amazing person and a class traitor. Even though we're still kind of acquaintances that barely know each other.
Seven types of sounds cats make
- Mew mew mew
- MiaowwwW
- Myaau Myaau
- Hic Hic Meee Hic Hic Oww Hic Mia Hic Ow Meo Hic
- Meee oww oww oww mfking porcupine this is a thorny one oww oww oww
- twee eoww mee eet tweet meow hic meeoww tweet tweet shouldnt have swallowed her whole
- Ribbit rabbat [multilingual cat]
TJ's fruity trip [June 29 Mon]
Slept soundly got up so refreshed and so energetic ready to the day! Work happened did some, chilled some.
Lunch was lowkey hashbrowns eggs fruits and bread.
After work talked to the group of gradstudents I'm managing the software team for. Crap internet connection kept giving away, had to disconnect because of that. Wrote a few posts.
Went to TJ's with NG, got a watermelon a papaya and a pineapple there among other things. Heavy, brought it back. Had lunch late so didn't eat anything except few pieces of fruits. Went to bed at 12. Wrote some. NG was working as I slept.
Did several workouts I'd given up on, hopefully it's starting out again! I've been doing 25 pushups regularly, did 25 in the evening. And lunges. And 20 crunches. Need to get back on this again!
This is as remarkable as a day as it'll ever get.
Lunch was lowkey hashbrowns eggs fruits and bread.
After work talked to the group of gradstudents I'm managing the software team for. Crap internet connection kept giving away, had to disconnect because of that. Wrote a few posts.
Went to TJ's with NG, got a watermelon a papaya and a pineapple there among other things. Heavy, brought it back. Had lunch late so didn't eat anything except few pieces of fruits. Went to bed at 12. Wrote some. NG was working as I slept.
Did several workouts I'd given up on, hopefully it's starting out again! I've been doing 25 pushups regularly, did 25 in the evening. And lunges. And 20 crunches. Need to get back on this again!
This is as remarkable as a day as it'll ever get.
Reorganizing posts
I realized something last evening. Haven't been doing fiction as much because I've lost the old threads, I can't find the old scenes characters tales, nothing makes sense. It's all flash slash fiction floating by itself without any weight or substance. Plastic bags in the large ocean of content, trash. You can chain trashbags to form an island of sorts, sustain the foundations and it could be a makeshift island of sorts of you're okay with something giving up on you at anypoint. Something is better than nothing.
I gotta start organizing. Will put labels on posts, and have a page linking to the major labels. That way when I need an inspiration I'll look up something, go to the page and get caught up on everything I've written on that story/frame. It'll be good. The only problem is there's about a thousand posts between last year and this, so it'll take me a good while to organize most of the posts. It should be good still.
I gotta start organizing. Will put labels on posts, and have a page linking to the major labels. That way when I need an inspiration I'll look up something, go to the page and get caught up on everything I've written on that story/frame. It'll be good. The only problem is there's about a thousand posts between last year and this, so it'll take me a good while to organize most of the posts. It should be good still.
Longing for Boston
The last time I was in Boston in my room was March 10. That was an eight-day stay after return from Nepal and before leaving for VA. The last time I was really in Boston was late January before I left for my trip to Singapore and Nepal. It's been six months since I was in my own room for good. This is wild.
Last night my roommates sent me one of those funny texts with kissy faces and all. I do miss Boston. Things are going to be different now. SS is not coming back to Boston, Sbk might be leaving for good. Roommate SM is gone. It's like we've reset a year to last year when SM was not back yet and when we didn't know SS yet. Bleaker boring black-and-white times they were. Is it going to be the same going forward. Must not be pessimistic. We've met new people in the past. Will keep meeting new people soon once 'meeting' in person isn't a bad word anymore. Maybe the way we interact with people will be reconfigured.
Things I miss. I miss my room, roommates, my strict schedule. I miss my roommates' friends, we had a "Friends"-like thing going on, so many people chillin' in our apartment. I miss the walk/bikeride to TJ's, Wegmans and the quite nice trail we had right next to our house. That you had to cross what was essentially a highway-equivalent street sucked, but it is by the river and quite fun. I miss going hiking to the mountains and the trails right by us. They've opened back up, likely never closed.
I miss my friends in Boston. I wouldn't have met them in these times likely, but with AB's large farm I'd have certainly walked or biked over to check out her chickens and plants. I miss going to work, listening to podcasts and getting my favourite order from my favourite breakfast place downstairs. It'll suck now because when we're back we won't be in the same building we'll have to settle down in a new place, won't be as easy to get quick breakfast fixes as it was. Ahhh.
I miss the streets of Boston and Cambridge and Somerville the streets that I have walked so often. And Boston Common, Chinatown restaurants, the touristy areas near Faneuil Hall, the bars -- fair enough I didn't patronize them for a long time but I'd consider going there just to pay them lots of money to give me non-alcoholic beers -- and even the clubs that I went to only twice in my life and they were alright. I miss allston I miss Longwood and Brookline, I miss the old boston town. I miss the Charles river and the Mystic River by which I live.
It's unclear if things will be the same when I'm back. In the medium term if things go right and this effing election is not a complete and total disaster if there's commonsense from at least one party I'll have at least some certainty in my life. Enough perhaps to be able to commit to buying a house. That's something worth looking forward to. Not it Boston proper nayy, still the area's fine. Worth considering definitely even though shit's frozen for six months of a year.
I miss the potentials that have been lost. I miss the could-have-beens that have been aborted. What's left to do now, what's new how to I become a part of regeneration.
Last night my roommates sent me one of those funny texts with kissy faces and all. I do miss Boston. Things are going to be different now. SS is not coming back to Boston, Sbk might be leaving for good. Roommate SM is gone. It's like we've reset a year to last year when SM was not back yet and when we didn't know SS yet. Bleaker boring black-and-white times they were. Is it going to be the same going forward. Must not be pessimistic. We've met new people in the past. Will keep meeting new people soon once 'meeting' in person isn't a bad word anymore. Maybe the way we interact with people will be reconfigured.
Things I miss. I miss my room, roommates, my strict schedule. I miss my roommates' friends, we had a "Friends"-like thing going on, so many people chillin' in our apartment. I miss the walk/bikeride to TJ's, Wegmans and the quite nice trail we had right next to our house. That you had to cross what was essentially a highway-equivalent street sucked, but it is by the river and quite fun. I miss going hiking to the mountains and the trails right by us. They've opened back up, likely never closed.
I miss my friends in Boston. I wouldn't have met them in these times likely, but with AB's large farm I'd have certainly walked or biked over to check out her chickens and plants. I miss going to work, listening to podcasts and getting my favourite order from my favourite breakfast place downstairs. It'll suck now because when we're back we won't be in the same building we'll have to settle down in a new place, won't be as easy to get quick breakfast fixes as it was. Ahhh.
I miss the streets of Boston and Cambridge and Somerville the streets that I have walked so often. And Boston Common, Chinatown restaurants, the touristy areas near Faneuil Hall, the bars -- fair enough I didn't patronize them for a long time but I'd consider going there just to pay them lots of money to give me non-alcoholic beers -- and even the clubs that I went to only twice in my life and they were alright. I miss allston I miss Longwood and Brookline, I miss the old boston town. I miss the Charles river and the Mystic River by which I live.
It's unclear if things will be the same when I'm back. In the medium term if things go right and this effing election is not a complete and total disaster if there's commonsense from at least one party I'll have at least some certainty in my life. Enough perhaps to be able to commit to buying a house. That's something worth looking forward to. Not it Boston proper nayy, still the area's fine. Worth considering definitely even though shit's frozen for six months of a year.
I miss the potentials that have been lost. I miss the could-have-beens that have been aborted. What's left to do now, what's new how to I become a part of regeneration.
Five reasons to leave your house
Times are tough we know. You don't want to infect your roommates because it would be embarrassing if you were the one who got the whole goddamn household sick for a week maybe even a month. Then there's the friends and family thing. And the general guidance. But masks are a thing six feet distancing with all of that you should be reasonably good. But why you'll ask I can order in the groceries I can order in takeouts there's videochat to talk to friends family and other loved ones I'm never ever getting out of the house again. You're wrong there! There are sO many good reasons to get out of the house, here's five of them.
- Cute people. If you've been holed up in your apartment for three/six months and seen other people only on video chats or on tv you forget that there are attractive people out there and in general people are quite cute actually? It's pleasant to look at other people makes you warm inside makes you smile and giddy for no good reasons. They are strangers who you'll never see again and you still feel so good. That's the power of cute people! This is true whether you are single or occupied. Cute is cute it's got nothin' to do with the status of your relationships.
- Jacked people. We've all gained a pound or two or eight since lockdowns started early march. There's fewer things to do it's tiring to be as physically active and the whole world seems just so gloomy. You'd assume it'd be the save for everyone that everyone looks like a potbellied slob like you are but you'd be so wrong! This is a little related to the first point but also different: you begin realizing once you go outside that the world has not ended there are fit ripped healthy people running about chilling around having fun and you realize hmm maybe I should start doing my pushups again it's been a while. What a great way to get inspired!
- Shits. Once you're hold up inside your place for months and months you forget what other people are like. You know in the general sense from the news and social media but it gets vague and rather technical. By going outside you get to experience the real world with your own eyes ears and noses! And your feet, as you step on a large piece of dogturd that some asshole didn't bother to pick up. Ahhh humanity. Ahh dogs. Ahh dogshit! This is nature and it welcomes you to the real world!
- Obnoxiously loud vehicles. This may not be true of all of us specially those who are city slickers that live in lower floors in cities. But the rest of us have significantly cut down our commutes if not eliminated it entirely. We don't hear too many loud noises or the sound of traffic. We've forgotten what the annoying roar of a large truck whose owner is most definitely compensating sounds like, the rather unpleasant sounds of those skinny mfking bikes that a gang of not very jacked bikers seems to make from their bikes on a regular basis, the honk of a bus or a car as you sit on a streetside restaurant. Well now you can hear them all, the sounds of humanity. Welcome back to the modern society!
- Asshole drivers. Who can ignore our favourite species, the asshole driver who'll honk at you for no reason yell at you not leave an inch of space even when it's your right of way not yield for pedestrians and bikers and just create hell in general for everyone surrounding them. We missed you assholes, but now we're going to be going out in our safe bubbles relatively speaking just to appreciate you again and to make up on all the torture you would have put us through all these months!
Dillydally indoors and Schuylkil walk [Sun 28]
Got up annoyingly early because SL had left his tablet with alarm set at 6am. Annoyed, got up and went back to sleep. Only to get back up ten minutes later because there was a second alarm. Put that down too, ready throw the goddamn piece of glass out of the window if it so much as made a peep. I must have scared it alright because it didn't dare alarm after that.
The day was pretty low-key, the house was full for the entire day. Messed around with the guys, listened to songs watched random series, got a lot written. Spent considerable time chatting with PA. SL used his stethoscope on me...first to confirm that my cranium was 'empty', and then to verify my breathing was probably okay as long as I did make groaning noises while he was listening to my breathing sounds. We did a nice photoshoot of me cleaning their place, I did help them clean the place. Talked to fupu for a solid hour, it was really nice. Tried calling couple of people, SA (Phd) didn't pick up my call.
Brunch was hashbrowns focaccia bread fried in olive oil scrambled eggs and fruits. Nothing too exciting, had brunch quite late.. it was more of a linner. In the evening headed out for a walk, went to the other part of the schuylkill trail, reached the trailend. Took couple of amazing photos, the dark clouds the sunset the yellow sky the bright buildings with rainbow colors reflected on the river, it was surreal. Sent them over to folks all over. Showing off is fun specially when you're not in your place, not in your city.
Back home, got some fruits, cleaned up, hung out with the guys, wrote a lot more, watched youtube, chatted with folks online. Tried writing until late, kept dozing off, NG had work to do late in the evening so was up until later, went to bed at 12-ish. New blanket, heavier nicer more comfortable. Easy to feel asleep. Asleep by midnight.
The day was pretty low-key, the house was full for the entire day. Messed around with the guys, listened to songs watched random series, got a lot written. Spent considerable time chatting with PA. SL used his stethoscope on me...first to confirm that my cranium was 'empty', and then to verify my breathing was probably okay as long as I did make groaning noises while he was listening to my breathing sounds. We did a nice photoshoot of me cleaning their place, I did help them clean the place. Talked to fupu for a solid hour, it was really nice. Tried calling couple of people, SA (Phd) didn't pick up my call.
Brunch was hashbrowns focaccia bread fried in olive oil scrambled eggs and fruits. Nothing too exciting, had brunch quite late.. it was more of a linner. In the evening headed out for a walk, went to the other part of the schuylkill trail, reached the trailend. Took couple of amazing photos, the dark clouds the sunset the yellow sky the bright buildings with rainbow colors reflected on the river, it was surreal. Sent them over to folks all over. Showing off is fun specially when you're not in your place, not in your city.
Back home, got some fruits, cleaned up, hung out with the guys, wrote a lot more, watched youtube, chatted with folks online. Tried writing until late, kept dozing off, NG had work to do late in the evening so was up until later, went to bed at 12-ish. New blanket, heavier nicer more comfortable. Easy to feel asleep. Asleep by midnight.
Beliefs and values in the swarga
The first rule will be as follows, Indra said, as the scribe furiously jotted it down. The demonic races shall never again in the entirety of their existence lay their eyes on Swarga or any of its realms regardless of the justifications. They may not actively participate in the matters of the Earth and hereon will have to gradually decrease their influence with the humans until they remain mere memory, a lost idea, a confused lucid dream for humans.
A bearded courtier cleared his throat, Indra gave him a stern look. He took that as a permission to speak up. My Lord, he said, is it good practice to make that a wholesale statement. Might it not be prudent of us to consider the circumstances for far-away period in time where we are somehow deviated from our beliefs and practices and perhaps they are more representative of what we stand for than we will be themselves. It is a common practice, in the realm of the humans, to write upon rules based upon fundamental values and beliefs than in absolute terms based on who is in-charge of the different realms currently.
Indra paused. He was not someone to take these suggestions -- interruptions! -- lightly. Recent events had forced him to evaluate his behavior. The apsaras and the kinnars had claimed it was that specific behavior, his refusal to consider anyone else's belief while making decisions, that provoked their movement. Despite how wrong these beliefs were, he had to put on an act of considering. A thoughtful wise King, that's what they expected of him which he was, but they wanted someone who listened to just anyone not just those with the best ideas. If that's what they wanted that's what they'd get. Not that it would make any difference in the end.
Your suggestion is worth considering, Indra said, without turning. Who in this court believes that the idea forth considering is worth having a discussion over here in the great halls of the Swarga, stand up, he said. Moment of silence. A tentative rise by a bankbencher, Then a few. And then a wave. More than half of those directly facing the front of the court stood up, the back benchers were more reluctant.
Indra gave a long decisive sigh. So it is decided. We shall have discussion in this court with matters pertaining to beliefs and values, and the result of that shall be included in the final version of the declaration send to the demons.
A bearded courtier cleared his throat, Indra gave him a stern look. He took that as a permission to speak up. My Lord, he said, is it good practice to make that a wholesale statement. Might it not be prudent of us to consider the circumstances for far-away period in time where we are somehow deviated from our beliefs and practices and perhaps they are more representative of what we stand for than we will be themselves. It is a common practice, in the realm of the humans, to write upon rules based upon fundamental values and beliefs than in absolute terms based on who is in-charge of the different realms currently.
Indra paused. He was not someone to take these suggestions -- interruptions! -- lightly. Recent events had forced him to evaluate his behavior. The apsaras and the kinnars had claimed it was that specific behavior, his refusal to consider anyone else's belief while making decisions, that provoked their movement. Despite how wrong these beliefs were, he had to put on an act of considering. A thoughtful wise King, that's what they expected of him which he was, but they wanted someone who listened to just anyone not just those with the best ideas. If that's what they wanted that's what they'd get. Not that it would make any difference in the end.
Your suggestion is worth considering, Indra said, without turning. Who in this court believes that the idea forth considering is worth having a discussion over here in the great halls of the Swarga, stand up, he said. Moment of silence. A tentative rise by a bankbencher, Then a few. And then a wave. More than half of those directly facing the front of the court stood up, the back benchers were more reluctant.
Indra gave a long decisive sigh. So it is decided. We shall have discussion in this court with matters pertaining to beliefs and values, and the result of that shall be included in the final version of the declaration send to the demons.
Ketchup: Heinz vs Maggi Hot & Sour
America loves Heinz ketchup. Love love loves. They put in slather it on everything. It's not the worst.
It tastes too sweet, too tomatoey, there's way too many polysyllabic additives in there. It's monotonic...the sweet-umami note hits hard, and that's all there is. It's not a complex flavor, there's no subtleties. Not that you want your sauce to take away the crown of your dish, but a complex sauce can interact with your food in interesting ways to give a multilayered taste profile. So many things happening on your tongue at the same time. Heinz does not do that. It's got a bit of a dang, a slight funk, barely a note and that's it. It's the least offensive of all dips and sauces I can think of. And that's the best compliment I can think for it: it's so very inoffensive, unless you really dislike the extra unbalanced sweetness in your sauce.
The Maggi Hot & Sour is different. It's beastly. It's spicy actually spicy that will leave burning sensation on your tongue for many minutes after you've had it. It has the sour tang much more pronounced than heinz. It's got a lot less 'rotten tomato' essence than heinz. If there's as much sugar as heinz -- and it most certainly does not -- it is imperceptible, yet the hot and sour are not overpowering. The mildly sweet aftertaste leaves you wanting more, makes many a child lick on their plate of noodle or fries.
American taste palette has adjusted to Heinz, American culinary culture has evolved around it. Chefs will develop recipes to go exactly with heinz, multinational breeders will breed potatoes that complement that flavor the most when deep fried in oil. And Heinz is still not a punch-out winner, with all the unfair cultural advantages it has, not by a long-shot to folks who don't already have a deep attachment to it. It's an American thing of a certain time an era, a food of nostalgia not of inherent flavor.
It tastes too sweet, too tomatoey, there's way too many polysyllabic additives in there. It's monotonic...the sweet-umami note hits hard, and that's all there is. It's not a complex flavor, there's no subtleties. Not that you want your sauce to take away the crown of your dish, but a complex sauce can interact with your food in interesting ways to give a multilayered taste profile. So many things happening on your tongue at the same time. Heinz does not do that. It's got a bit of a dang, a slight funk, barely a note and that's it. It's the least offensive of all dips and sauces I can think of. And that's the best compliment I can think for it: it's so very inoffensive, unless you really dislike the extra unbalanced sweetness in your sauce.
The Maggi Hot & Sour is different. It's beastly. It's spicy actually spicy that will leave burning sensation on your tongue for many minutes after you've had it. It has the sour tang much more pronounced than heinz. It's got a lot less 'rotten tomato' essence than heinz. If there's as much sugar as heinz -- and it most certainly does not -- it is imperceptible, yet the hot and sour are not overpowering. The mildly sweet aftertaste leaves you wanting more, makes many a child lick on their plate of noodle or fries.
American taste palette has adjusted to Heinz, American culinary culture has evolved around it. Chefs will develop recipes to go exactly with heinz, multinational breeders will breed potatoes that complement that flavor the most when deep fried in oil. And Heinz is still not a punch-out winner, with all the unfair cultural advantages it has, not by a long-shot to folks who don't already have a deep attachment to it. It's an American thing of a certain time an era, a food of nostalgia not of inherent flavor.
Seven random cooking ideas to try because where else do you have to be anyway and it's not like you're doing anything useful
- Noodles and egg pie. Exactly what it sounds like, dump in boiled noodles, tonne of eggs, all the veggies and spices you want in your noodles and eggs, bake or fry, and there's your pie! For added noodliness garnish with waiwai raw and sour cream. Wild!
- Watermelon-chicken. Cut a watermelon into two halves, scoop out all the good bit aka the meat. Into the watermelon bowl put in your meaty spices and herbs and veggies and meats. Add a little bit of water, cover with a foil, and put it on a grill, foil side up. The moisture from the watermelon will boil your meats. An hour later, take it all out try eating it. If it's any good let me know because this recipe probably needs lots of modifications and I need to know what they are.
- Rotizza. Versions of this idea have floated around the web, and real restaurants have attempted to sell it actually. It's simple: a roti but also a pizza but also and here's the clincher also a sandwich. A large roti with a large pile of cheese and meats and sauces piled on top of each other, And then a large roti on top. Or shredded. Whatever. It's carbs fat and sour savory sauces. It's going to be good no matter what.
- Vodka sadheko. I've talked about it in the past, and this is a serious idea. It's not a 'cooking' idea per se, and since it's been a long time since I quit drinking it doesn't feel right anymore but by gods this needs some attention. Vodka, orange juice, lime, green chilli pepper, red chilli powder, and maybe a little bit of tomato juice possibly cilantro and mint too. Yum.
- Rice pizza. Unfortunately this is not just a joke creation of mine this is a real thing people have made and turned them into youtube recipes I just wish it were a joke limited to these unread pages. Cooked basmati rice, topped with raw veggies and meats, red sauce and a heckton of cheese on a baking dish put into an oven for 45 mins on high temp, 10 minutes on the 'scorch' setting so the cheese goes brown. This is no good, don't do this guys it's all a joke this is bad this is all some sort of performance art I wish. Yeeeek.
- "Riced" vegetable. Take any dry-ish vegetable, run it in a blender so you're left with small bits of it but before it becomes a vegetable smoothie, fry the result in lots of butter and spices and call it 'your vegetable' rice. Cauliflower rice. Broccoli rice. Carrot rice. So many opportunities to misleading people into thinking they're eating one of their favourite staples! I don't have anything against this necessarily, people do need to stop intentionally allowing others confuse the verb 'to rice' for the noun 'to turn into something that resembles the white grain food that a large portion of Asia and specially Nepalis eat for two likely three meals a day'.
- "Vegan" meat. This is a lie. It's not a meat. It's anything but a meat. A meat has certain connotations. You cannot get people to quit eating animal food by pretending something else is that. But anyway, just cut something into general shape and size, possibly texture but not generally, the same color if you can, and call it vegan version of whatever bs animal food item you can come up with. A tube of spiced rice would be vegan sausages for example. And there are no rules, only your creativity's the limit.
Sleep recovery and at Monks [Sat 27]
This is 10 am on the Monday after, so I'm not terribly behind schedule just a little bit so. Proper sleep cycle's been elusive writing has been suffering as a result. This is going to be a well-oiled machine AND YOU'RE GOING TO LIKE IT.
So this was a Saturday and I took it easy Friday evening by going to bed at...wait for it...5am. Got up at 9am groggy and tired. The four hours were not quality sleep hours, SL had his hospital duty so he got up at 6. Spent the whole day turning and twisting and turning and twisting trying to nap tryina sleep hoping this would finally fix my whacked timetable.
Had a shockingly large plate of fruits, six different kids for lunch. Because I didn't want to eat a lot but also needed to eat them before they went bad. Three hours later and I'm hungry again because fruits are great if you want to keep the doctor away not so great when you want hunger away. Had a little bit of foccacia with hummus, and fruitcake. Remembered there was egg whites in the fridge that N had threatened to throw out if no one ate it by the weekend. Figured I'd save the whites, also discovered a single puri in the fridge from way way back. Turned that into a puri katti rolls, there was so so much so much egg, stuffed it with parmesan from the pasta lunch and had it. Yum. So big so filling. Asked N later how many eggs worth of whites it as. Five was the answer. I felt...tired and drowsy, all of a sudden. And oh so full. It was too much maan.
Since SL had Sunday off the guys decided to out for beers, we spent two hours deciding a good brewery or bar that was open for outdoors seating until we agreed on Monk's which is a Belgian bar two blocks away from us. There was a small incident at the place, SL asked the bartender how expensive a beer was since the menu didn't have prices for all the draughts and he said too expensive to afford, jokingly I'm sure. We took that a little too seriously I think, N ordered possibly the most expensive beer on the menu at 19 bucks for 12 ounces. I'm sure it was great but it couldn't have been that great...it wasn't a pricey place to begin with there Allagash whites were only six bucks. In the end SL ended up ordering two pretty great sours and ended up paying less than N's single beer.
We also got two orders of fries. They have this bourbon garlic mayo dip with the fries, and that is by far the best dip for fries I've ever had. We got our second fries just for the dip it was that good. It was amazing life-redefining dip-wise. So so good. I need to look up the recipe, need to go there again before I depart just for the dip.
The two hours at the bars and the two hours following that we spent trying to set each other up with our friends. It was fun, a little juvenile and also a little sad. A smidgen. In my defense I was the least involved and not a very active participant. We listened to old songs, watched a little bit of the office, SL and N had mixed drinks I had a can of seltzer that I shook hard before opening to annoy SL because he'd poured his beer the wrong way to annoy me earlier. Went to bed sometime after midnight, slept at 1.
So this was a Saturday and I took it easy Friday evening by going to bed at...wait for it...5am. Got up at 9am groggy and tired. The four hours were not quality sleep hours, SL had his hospital duty so he got up at 6. Spent the whole day turning and twisting and turning and twisting trying to nap tryina sleep hoping this would finally fix my whacked timetable.
Had a shockingly large plate of fruits, six different kids for lunch. Because I didn't want to eat a lot but also needed to eat them before they went bad. Three hours later and I'm hungry again because fruits are great if you want to keep the doctor away not so great when you want hunger away. Had a little bit of foccacia with hummus, and fruitcake. Remembered there was egg whites in the fridge that N had threatened to throw out if no one ate it by the weekend. Figured I'd save the whites, also discovered a single puri in the fridge from way way back. Turned that into a puri katti rolls, there was so so much so much egg, stuffed it with parmesan from the pasta lunch and had it. Yum. So big so filling. Asked N later how many eggs worth of whites it as. Five was the answer. I felt...tired and drowsy, all of a sudden. And oh so full. It was too much maan.
Since SL had Sunday off the guys decided to out for beers, we spent two hours deciding a good brewery or bar that was open for outdoors seating until we agreed on Monk's which is a Belgian bar two blocks away from us. There was a small incident at the place, SL asked the bartender how expensive a beer was since the menu didn't have prices for all the draughts and he said too expensive to afford, jokingly I'm sure. We took that a little too seriously I think, N ordered possibly the most expensive beer on the menu at 19 bucks for 12 ounces. I'm sure it was great but it couldn't have been that great...it wasn't a pricey place to begin with there Allagash whites were only six bucks. In the end SL ended up ordering two pretty great sours and ended up paying less than N's single beer.
We also got two orders of fries. They have this bourbon garlic mayo dip with the fries, and that is by far the best dip for fries I've ever had. We got our second fries just for the dip it was that good. It was amazing life-redefining dip-wise. So so good. I need to look up the recipe, need to go there again before I depart just for the dip.
The two hours at the bars and the two hours following that we spent trying to set each other up with our friends. It was fun, a little juvenile and also a little sad. A smidgen. In my defense I was the least involved and not a very active participant. We listened to old songs, watched a little bit of the office, SL and N had mixed drinks I had a can of seltzer that I shook hard before opening to annoy SL because he'd poured his beer the wrong way to annoy me earlier. Went to bed sometime after midnight, slept at 1.
A rebuke to oneself
What does one do when dealt a hand that could have won everything beautifully but ends up with the worst possible draw. Does one go bitter and complain and complain and complain to one's friends about what a shitty draw it was, what a crap player one is to not have optimized the play earlier, that one should never have sat down to play the world is a terrible place what a bad idea etcetera etcetera and just give up. Or should one play with the good hand with the bad draw. The play won't be perfect but it's better sportsmanship that way.
Luck fks us ob the once awhile. It's beyond our abilities, things and events that may look like our responsibility can be attributed dumb luck and random chance a large percentage of the time. The bad thing about bad luck is it's beyond our control. The good thing is it's beyond our control so its easier for a prepared person to move beyond the sad mopey phase to proper execution phase. A player with a good hand can leverage crap draws into an interesting play, if they have the courage to stay in and fight on. The trick is to not give up too early not to fold, one must realise that the game must go in bad cards or not. The game must go on. The cards will keep flowing the one with the hands must optimize what they have. Quitters never win and winners never quit as they say.
Fourty things I'be been eating a lot lately
- Grapes
- Banana
- Watermelon
- Mango
- Pineapple
- Papaya
- Avocado
- Apple
- Litchi
- Blueberries
- Orange
- Blackberries
- Strawberries
- Tomato
- Garlic
- Mushroom
- Ginger
- Onion
- Bread
- Yogurt
- Oats
- Kimchi
- Lentils
- Potato
- Pasta
- Flatbreads
- Chickpeas
- Focaccia
- Cheese, so much cheese
- Eggs, whole eggs and egg whites, egg whites that you find in a container and make an omelette out of all of which you eat, only to find out later it was five eggs worth of whites and now you don't feel like eating anything for the next two days.
- Broccoli
- Eggplant
- Green veggies
- Carrots
- Hummus
- Dominos pizza, ugh, which you can't control maybe you're addicted to it why must you eat domino's pizza when offered even if you're full there's such a thing as self-control and it's worth practicing if the thing involves addictive substance like greasy salty delicious pizza by one of the most successful international chains of our times.
- Timur
- Homemade salsa
- Homemade sourdough, both homemade and bought from the store, because it looked rustic and the folks thought it was just worth a lot less hassle to buy it because it looks just as 'rustic' and 'earthy' as the one you guys made at home for the first two months of the lockdown
- Seltzer water
Walks: Open ears or not
Went on a walk for an hour an a half today. Did something similar couple of days ago. Have been taking walks more often more lately. Of course I have always been an avid walker and a explorer of places for no reason other than to walk.
On long walks I like to listen...to something in my earbuds. It's either podcasts or repeated episodes of the office. Rarely, and I mean very very rarely, will I listen to music while walking. Just not my thing. I'll listen to music with friends or when by myself even when I'm folding clothes and dance all by myself it's fun. Not when I walk though.
The other day I was ready to leave for my walk and realized my earbuds hadn't been charged. N suggested I consider going without them...it's fun to just listen to soak in the world around you, he said. That made me think. Does listening to something that's detached from what you're seeing or where you are reduce the appreciation of your surroundings?
Let's start by looking at the alternatives. Does not having something to listen to in your air automatically mean you are more connected to the surroundings. Keep in mind the earbuds are not completely sealed and you perceive your auditory environment, with a reduced volume. I will suggest that's not the case. On multiple occasions I've walked for several blocks, even for hours without noticing my surroundings because I was so lost in my thoughts. My environment-agnostic thoughts. It's not clear leaving your ears open to your surroundings does make your take in your environment more, let alone appreciate it, by itself.
It is fun though, when there's people around. Conversations to be listened unto, fights to be heard, people to be judged. The ambient environment is worth giving your attention to mostly when there's something worth listening to. Rivers, birds streams people animals fun things. Trees don't talk about how Elena is so rude, how Randy shouldn't have left without telling anyone else. The soft murmur of the wind, the silent symphony of leaves, the pitter-patter of steps, they're fine if there's nothing else going on but you don't need a walk to hear those.
And then there's times when you run out of things to listen to. Lately it's been due to the battery of by bluetooth earbuds dying. I can go on for hours without noticing there's nothing playing in them. Maybe that means I'm not as detached as I might be, and the sounds in my ears are just background noise to distract my brain while I appreciate the beauty of my surroundings.
One important thing. When I'm listening to something, there's definitely a lot less active thinking happening in my head and a lot more 'listening'. It's not bad or good, just something to consider. Sometimes thoughts are tiring you just want to give in listen to something stupid like when Michael makes a fool out of himself for.a stupid reason. And then there are times you do want to think. Even then, having some sort of background noise makes my brain take it easy, not rush at a thousand miles a minute.
Maybe open ears is not as connected as it might seem to be at first consideration. Still, it's fun to listen to nature and the human environment when there's something interesting happening around you. A cop-out to the original question, true, but only supervillains deals in absolutes.
On long walks I like to listen...to something in my earbuds. It's either podcasts or repeated episodes of the office. Rarely, and I mean very very rarely, will I listen to music while walking. Just not my thing. I'll listen to music with friends or when by myself even when I'm folding clothes and dance all by myself it's fun. Not when I walk though.
The other day I was ready to leave for my walk and realized my earbuds hadn't been charged. N suggested I consider going without them...it's fun to just listen to soak in the world around you, he said. That made me think. Does listening to something that's detached from what you're seeing or where you are reduce the appreciation of your surroundings?
Let's start by looking at the alternatives. Does not having something to listen to in your air automatically mean you are more connected to the surroundings. Keep in mind the earbuds are not completely sealed and you perceive your auditory environment, with a reduced volume. I will suggest that's not the case. On multiple occasions I've walked for several blocks, even for hours without noticing my surroundings because I was so lost in my thoughts. My environment-agnostic thoughts. It's not clear leaving your ears open to your surroundings does make your take in your environment more, let alone appreciate it, by itself.
It is fun though, when there's people around. Conversations to be listened unto, fights to be heard, people to be judged. The ambient environment is worth giving your attention to mostly when there's something worth listening to. Rivers, birds streams people animals fun things. Trees don't talk about how Elena is so rude, how Randy shouldn't have left without telling anyone else. The soft murmur of the wind, the silent symphony of leaves, the pitter-patter of steps, they're fine if there's nothing else going on but you don't need a walk to hear those.
And then there's times when you run out of things to listen to. Lately it's been due to the battery of by bluetooth earbuds dying. I can go on for hours without noticing there's nothing playing in them. Maybe that means I'm not as detached as I might be, and the sounds in my ears are just background noise to distract my brain while I appreciate the beauty of my surroundings.
One important thing. When I'm listening to something, there's definitely a lot less active thinking happening in my head and a lot more 'listening'. It's not bad or good, just something to consider. Sometimes thoughts are tiring you just want to give in listen to something stupid like when Michael makes a fool out of himself for.a stupid reason. And then there are times you do want to think. Even then, having some sort of background noise makes my brain take it easy, not rush at a thousand miles a minute.
Maybe open ears is not as connected as it might seem to be at first consideration. Still, it's fun to listen to nature and the human environment when there's something interesting happening around you. A cop-out to the original question, true, but only supervillains deals in absolutes.
Pastamaking and latenight stay [Fri 26]
Morning was lazy and super duper slow. Because I'd napped the evening before for twenty minutes, I couldn't go to sleep until like two which meant I got up super late. Started work at like 9.20. Head hurt. I didn't care for that.
Work was slow and easy got assigned new tasks.
We made pasta from scratch for lunch. My attempts to roll the pasta under babish's instructions failed though I need to give it another try. N rolled them out as I had my 1-on-1 with my manager which went well. N also made cream based mushroom sauce to eat with the pasta, I added a tonne of cheese. Good filling fancy meal. Goodtimes.
Towards the end of the day got a little busy so cancelled the meeting with the mentees. Took several hours of nap, in the evening N made me a watermelon mocktail with lemon and mint. I added the skin of the lemon made it bitter it was just so perfect. Such nice summery drink that you can also munch on because there's still fruit pulp in it.
Because I took such a long nap couldn't go to sleep on time. And looked up various agricultural things, considered farming snakes for the venom discovered really interesting uses of snakevenom in agriculture and made plans for my agri-farm.
Tried sleep several times, failed and failed. By the time I actually fell asleep it must have been five or a little after because I could hear S get up soon after a very short while. Ah that's how it is. It's really bad idea to nap in the evenings unless you plan to do intense enough workout to make yourself go to sleep soon enough again. Can never remember that piece of wisdom for long. Slept super duper late but at least everything else was in order and I had fun doing agriculture research which I shared with family and friends the next morning.
Work was slow and easy got assigned new tasks.
We made pasta from scratch for lunch. My attempts to roll the pasta under babish's instructions failed though I need to give it another try. N rolled them out as I had my 1-on-1 with my manager which went well. N also made cream based mushroom sauce to eat with the pasta, I added a tonne of cheese. Good filling fancy meal. Goodtimes.
Towards the end of the day got a little busy so cancelled the meeting with the mentees. Took several hours of nap, in the evening N made me a watermelon mocktail with lemon and mint. I added the skin of the lemon made it bitter it was just so perfect. Such nice summery drink that you can also munch on because there's still fruit pulp in it.
Because I took such a long nap couldn't go to sleep on time. And looked up various agricultural things, considered farming snakes for the venom discovered really interesting uses of snakevenom in agriculture and made plans for my agri-farm.
Tried sleep several times, failed and failed. By the time I actually fell asleep it must have been five or a little after because I could hear S get up soon after a very short while. Ah that's how it is. It's really bad idea to nap in the evenings unless you plan to do intense enough workout to make yourself go to sleep soon enough again. Can never remember that piece of wisdom for long. Slept super duper late but at least everything else was in order and I had fun doing agriculture research which I shared with family and friends the next morning.
Back where it started
Don't you come calling to me when things don't work out, dontcha come for my help when everything goes south. Don't you don't you call me ever again, don't you don't you. Don't. Black. Black. Clear.
Loud noise bright flash blue and red. Ambulance is it has the whole world gone mad or is it the cops wwhat why cops. Shouts more shouts who's that whose that is they cops. Shouts shouts shouts too many people too tiring too many things happening at the same time. Go back what's happening wait what's happening who are you why are you what's the pain in your ear that's your ear on the right who are you why do you feel drowsy that's that pain on your end what's that sound. Cops cops the last thing you remember loud noises. What's happening nothing makes sense you're floating in darkness you don't know who you are. How much how much to get away from here I can afford anything. Who are they who's the one who has trapped you. Is it possible they are right and you are wrong. What did you do to deserve this. Blink. Who are you and why does the head hurt, where do you go from here.
Floating floating you're floating it's cold cold faraway voices you can barely makeout what what are they talking about you? You want to listen to them what are they talking about they need to help you from this from this what's what's this place what's happening here what how who are they who are you at least you're not falling down anymore.
It's warm, there's everywhere you can't breathe you can't breathe you can't breathe. Why cant you see anything where is your body who are you this is a dream. This is a dream this is a dream this. What was that. Is that a woodpecker pecking on your head. On your head. peck peck peck. Something's pecking on your head you can't change it. You try to shout. Getoffmyhead! Stopstopstop. Your head hurts. It's eerily silent. Your head keeps getting pecked on. Where are you again. Who the fk are you.
Blue, it's a blue it's water it's swimming pool maybe you're drowning you've drowned maybe you're dead are you dead can dead people see do ghosts suffer are you a ghost what kinda bullshit is it who are you again and why is the water so prickly where are you why are they doing this to me this hurts where am I my head hurts what is happening make this stop who are you who am I who am I talking to who are these people this is misery who the hell what the heck why how long. You can't take a deep breath. This is a dream this is adream this isadream. This is a dream. Wakeup wakeup wakeup. Punch pinch slap kick wake up wake up wakeup. This is a nightmare wakeup this over let this be over wakeup who are you what do you have to wake up to.
Strange music. The air is slightly chilly. Lowkey music you can smell weed it's about to be dusk you don't see anyone. It's the goldenhour maybe they've gone to take photos. What a stupidstupid thought. Where is everyone who are you and where are you. What's happening. How come you don't remember anything. It's it's...it's dawn, the sun is coming out, coming out, it's getting redder and redder and redder the thump is getting louder. Tumpathumpthump thumpathumpthump thumpathumpthump.
Red. Red Red.
You can breathe now. You gasp for air air air. You need more air you cant breathe but you can almost. You try to shout. You try to cry and you can. You bawl. Shriek. You gasp for air. You're breathing.
You don't remember anything.
The doctor cuts the umbilical cord.
Loud noise bright flash blue and red. Ambulance is it has the whole world gone mad or is it the cops wwhat why cops. Shouts more shouts who's that whose that is they cops. Shouts shouts shouts too many people too tiring too many things happening at the same time. Go back what's happening wait what's happening who are you why are you what's the pain in your ear that's your ear on the right who are you why do you feel drowsy that's that pain on your end what's that sound. Cops cops the last thing you remember loud noises. What's happening nothing makes sense you're floating in darkness you don't know who you are. How much how much to get away from here I can afford anything. Who are they who's the one who has trapped you. Is it possible they are right and you are wrong. What did you do to deserve this. Blink. Who are you and why does the head hurt, where do you go from here.
Floating floating you're floating it's cold cold faraway voices you can barely makeout what what are they talking about you? You want to listen to them what are they talking about they need to help you from this from this what's what's this place what's happening here what how who are they who are you at least you're not falling down anymore.
It's warm, there's everywhere you can't breathe you can't breathe you can't breathe. Why cant you see anything where is your body who are you this is a dream. This is a dream this is a dream this. What was that. Is that a woodpecker pecking on your head. On your head. peck peck peck. Something's pecking on your head you can't change it. You try to shout. Getoffmyhead! Stopstopstop. Your head hurts. It's eerily silent. Your head keeps getting pecked on. Where are you again. Who the fk are you.
Blue, it's a blue it's water it's swimming pool maybe you're drowning you've drowned maybe you're dead are you dead can dead people see do ghosts suffer are you a ghost what kinda bullshit is it who are you again and why is the water so prickly where are you why are they doing this to me this hurts where am I my head hurts what is happening make this stop who are you who am I who am I talking to who are these people this is misery who the hell what the heck why how long. You can't take a deep breath. This is a dream this is adream this isadream. This is a dream. Wakeup wakeup wakeup. Punch pinch slap kick wake up wake up wakeup. This is a nightmare wakeup this over let this be over wakeup who are you what do you have to wake up to.
Strange music. The air is slightly chilly. Lowkey music you can smell weed it's about to be dusk you don't see anyone. It's the goldenhour maybe they've gone to take photos. What a stupidstupid thought. Where is everyone who are you and where are you. What's happening. How come you don't remember anything. It's it's...it's dawn, the sun is coming out, coming out, it's getting redder and redder and redder the thump is getting louder. Tumpathumpthump thumpathumpthump thumpathumpthump.
Red. Red Red.
You can breathe now. You gasp for air air air. You need more air you cant breathe but you can almost. You try to shout. You try to cry and you can. You bawl. Shriek. You gasp for air. You're breathing.
You don't remember anything.
The doctor cuts the umbilical cord.
My star
My star burns bright
up high
in the sky.
My star is cooler than the moon
Warmer than the sun in the noon
My star fills me up
with comfort and joy
My star melts me away
with the jokes and mirth oh boyy
My star burns so bright
I dare not get near in its sight
They say my star shines
Just for me
I tell them I've got no problems
If that's what it means to be.
My star rises
High up in the sky
And higher and higher
As long as it can try
I dare not but peek in fear
Eyes covered and cowering in proper gear
If there are wishes that come true
Here's my wish to by star
That oh dear I dare to be with you
For as much as I fear
As much I do honestly care
And oh my star do I melt for you.
My star turns the whole world bright
Standing up and setting things right
Oh my star how much I yearn for thee
Don't look at me, just stay there be as you be
My star rises up so high
Now all it's about go away, fly
And in the grand picture now
Without so much as a byee.
My star is going away and now it's gone
And call I can do is sit here
And cry cry cry.
As my star shines up the sky
up high
in the sky.
My star is cooler than the moon
Warmer than the sun in the noon
My star fills me up
with comfort and joy
My star melts me away
with the jokes and mirth oh boyy
My star burns so bright
I dare not get near in its sight
They say my star shines
Just for me
I tell them I've got no problems
If that's what it means to be.
My star rises
High up in the sky
And higher and higher
As long as it can try
I dare not but peek in fear
Eyes covered and cowering in proper gear
If there are wishes that come true
Here's my wish to by star
That oh dear I dare to be with you
For as much as I fear
As much I do honestly care
And oh my star do I melt for you.
My star turns the whole world bright
Standing up and setting things right
Oh my star how much I yearn for thee
Don't look at me, just stay there be as you be
My star rises up so high
Now all it's about go away, fly
And in the grand picture now
Without so much as a byee.
My star is going away and now it's gone
And call I can do is sit here
And cry cry cry.
As my star shines up the sky
Half a kilo posts!
I'm not one for -- hahahahahah I can't I cant even write it okay straight face straight face -- celebrating pointless milestones. As milestones go however this is an important one. This is the first year I exceeded 500 posts. There's nothing special about 500 the number it could be 572 as well, 614 whatever but it's got a nice ring to it, it's half a kilo posts! For someone who's been doing this on and off and hasn't been able to get consistently high energy and motivation, this is a big deal. Yeay the quality has gone through the gutter quickly approaching upper mantle at this point but hahaw you suckazzz if you were reading this for the high quality posts and observations. It's all poorly written barely comprehensible shitposts here. And maybe that's what I'm all about in a hundred year it's possible I'll be known as the shitposter general the worst writer to have written the pages of the internet. And I'll be proud of it, from my space station on the moon as I overlook the world through my immortal body. IMMORTALITY!!! HUUHAAHAAHAHA, I will laugh like a supervillain whose quest of immortality robs him of all humanity, and in the end he's no different than the evil robots who he claims he is protecting the humankind of. In the very very end we will realize that the robots were not that evil after all and it was all a grand old misunderstanding and in the credits you'll also find out that I wasn't as bad as you took me for and I'll give my life (the immortal one!) to save the humans and the robots.
In any case, I'm talking to PA on the side as I type this. What's next she asked me, a thousand posts for this year. And I was like no MORRE MORE because at this pace, of the last two month I should be somewhere around 1300. Which sounds crazy because that'd mean I'll have posted more in this blog this year than every other year combined, including last year, and that was an extraordinarily productive year to begin with.
The personal journal writing in raw text files began about 15 months ago, and when I look back at posts from last June, I was writing several every week. And wow what an amazing record of my days it is, I've noted what I had on the day, who I hung out with how work was, all of that. The idea of keeping journal was an amazing one and it's fortunate I followed through.
Some days are good, some days are bad, some are crap. I get lazy and tired, or I'm too busy having fun. It's fine. I need to be more consistent, take better care of food sleep and workout.
In any case, I'm talking to PA on the side as I type this. What's next she asked me, a thousand posts for this year. And I was like no MORRE MORE because at this pace, of the last two month I should be somewhere around 1300. Which sounds crazy because that'd mean I'll have posted more in this blog this year than every other year combined, including last year, and that was an extraordinarily productive year to begin with.
The personal journal writing in raw text files began about 15 months ago, and when I look back at posts from last June, I was writing several every week. And wow what an amazing record of my days it is, I've noted what I had on the day, who I hung out with how work was, all of that. The idea of keeping journal was an amazing one and it's fortunate I followed through.
Some days are good, some days are bad, some are crap. I get lazy and tired, or I'm too busy having fun. It's fine. I need to be more consistent, take better care of food sleep and workout.
Long walk in Philly [Thu 25]
Really annoyed at the sounds of the streets, woke up several times in the morning to the sounds of rowdy bikers and crazy construction workers jackhammering early in the morning. Annoying annoying annoying. For lunch I made a improvised katti rolls with two puris and eggs, stuffed with potatoes and the leftover broccoli from the day before. Added in glops of ketchup for that old katti rolls feel, and it was such a good meal. I was content and happy. Despite the auditory helll going on right outside the apartment.
Spent an hour or two writing here, or trying to. Went on a walk to the river and the Philly Art Museum. 45 minutes in 45 minutes out. So many fit healthy people all about. Mostly wearing masks and maintaining distance. I liked it. I was inspiration also a little jealous. I need to go out more often. It was a bit muggy but that's how it is here. Took some amazing sunset photos too. Too crowded for me though really really really need to get a better workflow going on.
In the evening we came back faffed about had tonnes of fruits before bed and that was the day!
And with this post I'm only 12 posts behind, including today's. This is bad, I need to be covering up for past posts quicker. There's not enough things for the guys to do, which is a problem. We'll see how this evolves.
Spent an hour or two writing here, or trying to. Went on a walk to the river and the Philly Art Museum. 45 minutes in 45 minutes out. So many fit healthy people all about. Mostly wearing masks and maintaining distance. I liked it. I was inspiration also a little jealous. I need to go out more often. It was a bit muggy but that's how it is here. Took some amazing sunset photos too. Too crowded for me though really really really need to get a better workflow going on.
In the evening we came back faffed about had tonnes of fruits before bed and that was the day!
And with this post I'm only 12 posts behind, including today's. This is bad, I need to be covering up for past posts quicker. There's not enough things for the guys to do, which is a problem. We'll see how this evolves.
Half assing the half-assing
This has been difficult, to catch up. I'm not bothering to half-ass anymore, it's half-hearted attempt to halfass at this point, which is fine, whatever. The fiction pieces have gone or are on endangered list because I don't set proper time and deadline for myself anymore. Again, fine whatever. It hurts a little but this is not the worst that has happened, or could happen.
The original intention, hope rather was to have productive times here in Philly. And generally they have been. Just that I've been unable to direct the productivity in the right direction. General laziness prevails, blocking me from doing anything productive. The brain creaks to a halt refuses to do anything worth doing.
The brain rarely ever wants to do anything useful. It wants to chill and have fun, the cognitive load of a modern day life is taxing enough. Reasonably so. The brain needs to be trained to do a new task, you can't throw it into a metaphorical swimming pool and get it swimming, that's not how brains work. That's not how swimming works either, but tell that to the swimming instructor in the swimming complex that did it when I was in RBS in the fourth grade, the pool wasn't metaphorical at all then. I digress.
Training, how do you get into a regimen for your brain so you can get it working towards a useful task. Fixed times, repetition repetition repetition and don't miss it. Follow the rules. Follow them religiously follow them as if your life depends on them. And maybe it does, for what is life if not following the rules you internalized as a wee little toddler. Getting up early is difficult and mostly pointless as research in recent times suggests but it's something to get started with. Get up early, spend an hour writing, go on a morning walk, to the park and back shower, work out for twenty minutes and get ready for the day. Yabba dabba doo. We're sixty percent there already.
Or are we? Is it just the discipline that matters, our grit and 'lets do it' attitude, or is there something before that? I've talked about this before, how there's more than self-determination to discipline. Your physical needs to be above a base threshold. It's not just about eating and sleeping right either, they're important but not sufficient. Your nutrition intake needs to be right too. That's a big problem. There's a big deficiency of two vits in most people, Vit D and B12.
Haven't taken my vitamins in the last week, since DC really. Not that taking them makes me a more motivated person automatically. It makes it easier to be better, it needs less of an 'innate drive', the push is easy. A friend inside you who helps you become better.
Here's the plan then. It's only 11.15 right now. If I can do this and at least four more posts for today, I can get my schedule in order, sleep on time and get up on time. Take vitamins early, go on a long walk, workout, write and feel good.
Once you get going, it's easier to get going. It's hard, but you have to get going, it gets easier. You have to go for it.
The original intention, hope rather was to have productive times here in Philly. And generally they have been. Just that I've been unable to direct the productivity in the right direction. General laziness prevails, blocking me from doing anything productive. The brain creaks to a halt refuses to do anything worth doing.
The brain rarely ever wants to do anything useful. It wants to chill and have fun, the cognitive load of a modern day life is taxing enough. Reasonably so. The brain needs to be trained to do a new task, you can't throw it into a metaphorical swimming pool and get it swimming, that's not how brains work. That's not how swimming works either, but tell that to the swimming instructor in the swimming complex that did it when I was in RBS in the fourth grade, the pool wasn't metaphorical at all then. I digress.
Training, how do you get into a regimen for your brain so you can get it working towards a useful task. Fixed times, repetition repetition repetition and don't miss it. Follow the rules. Follow them religiously follow them as if your life depends on them. And maybe it does, for what is life if not following the rules you internalized as a wee little toddler. Getting up early is difficult and mostly pointless as research in recent times suggests but it's something to get started with. Get up early, spend an hour writing, go on a morning walk, to the park and back shower, work out for twenty minutes and get ready for the day. Yabba dabba doo. We're sixty percent there already.
Or are we? Is it just the discipline that matters, our grit and 'lets do it' attitude, or is there something before that? I've talked about this before, how there's more than self-determination to discipline. Your physical needs to be above a base threshold. It's not just about eating and sleeping right either, they're important but not sufficient. Your nutrition intake needs to be right too. That's a big problem. There's a big deficiency of two vits in most people, Vit D and B12.
Haven't taken my vitamins in the last week, since DC really. Not that taking them makes me a more motivated person automatically. It makes it easier to be better, it needs less of an 'innate drive', the push is easy. A friend inside you who helps you become better.
Here's the plan then. It's only 11.15 right now. If I can do this and at least four more posts for today, I can get my schedule in order, sleep on time and get up on time. Take vitamins early, go on a long walk, workout, write and feel good.
Once you get going, it's easier to get going. It's hard, but you have to get going, it gets easier. You have to go for it.
First contact: transmission
We discovered we weren't alone and it wasn't a good news. Cynicism, doubt and disbelief. Eventually the weight of evidence was too overwhelming to ignore. The strange signals were received three months after it was generally agreed that there were creatures out there that were more intelligent than us and coming our way.
The nature of the signals was suspiciously similar to ours. That raised a few eyebrows. The encoding format for data was digital in nature, and the transmitters appeared to be using binary encoding. The data was neatly divided into 'packets', separated by long but predictable stretch of continuous 1's followed by a run of 0's of the same length.
The messages had a transmission cycle of roughly 27 days.
The first two days were repetitions of some basic mathematical patterns. Count up to a thousand, multiples of two three seven and thirteen. The first thousand numbers of the fibonacci series. A few other basic 'lists' that would be obvious to a high-school student. There were a few advanced series that would be of interest only to research mathematicians but nothing extraordinary. There were a few series that got cadres of grad students across the globe deciphering the meaning.
The following 'frames' as they came to be called, were more interesting.
The nature of the signals was suspiciously similar to ours. That raised a few eyebrows. The encoding format for data was digital in nature, and the transmitters appeared to be using binary encoding. The data was neatly divided into 'packets', separated by long but predictable stretch of continuous 1's followed by a run of 0's of the same length.
The messages had a transmission cycle of roughly 27 days.
The first two days were repetitions of some basic mathematical patterns. Count up to a thousand, multiples of two three seven and thirteen. The first thousand numbers of the fibonacci series. A few other basic 'lists' that would be obvious to a high-school student. There were a few advanced series that would be of interest only to research mathematicians but nothing extraordinary. There were a few series that got cadres of grad students across the globe deciphering the meaning.
The following 'frames' as they came to be called, were more interesting.
Five signs leaving social media may have been a bad idea
- Linkedin stalking. You find an employee-of-a-friend-of-a-friend randomly on linkedin, check their friends, and their friends. Ooo so cute. Cool job experience too. Damn that's a lot of years at the same job. What, they have a Phd, hott. They're working for an evil company with clear intentions of world domination but they don't care because they're making bucketload of monies? Sploosh.
- Second-degree-instagramming. It's 2am on a Wednesday and you're with your friend. You make them open their instas, have them show you all the cute people in their contact list, zoom into the photos and just...bask. The photos are pixelated -- they shouldn't be this is 2020 and surely they have a semi-decent phone that costs more than a hundred bucks if they're using instagram but that's besides the point -- but they're enough. And when your friend suggests perhaps it's a bit much doing this at this hour seems just so horny, you remind them that you do this once a year and that too barely and there is literally no other place you can check people out, literally no other place.
- Stalking on Google. You search people on Google, find their names somehow perhaps on linkedin or insta of your friends, and try to find any smidgen of information or photos of them. Even if that means going to their college sophomore page in their college website from seven years ago where it's mentioned they did track and field and hockey and look at the blurry team photo where you can barely make their face out.
- General craziness. You're out at a nice restaurant, this was before this all happened with someone cute and you're like eating something whatever. They want to know if you're seeing someone yadda yadda yadda. You suddenly get very defensive and ask them VERY LOUDLY where you would even meet new people people you'd be interested in since you're not on social media anymore it's a poison you left it a long time ago and it's really hard for people to meet new people these days particularly people who can't play the social media bullshit game and it sucks and you leave her right there. You realize two days later maybe she asked because she was interested but now she won't respond to your texts so you begin thinking maybe it wasn't the social media thing with everything. Maybe it's just you. Which is so much worse. Or so you think.
- Face blindness. You don't recognize anyone anymore, not even close family and friends, and they have to remind you where you know them from before you acknowledge them. You tell them that since you left social media it's almost as if people's faces started changing at rates never seen before and by the way did they hear that social media is bullshit and you just quit it and you're having a really tough time keeping in touch with people but it's so fine, so so so fine because it's totally worth it, not having to compromise your personal information and photos for playing a dirty game that only makes everyone involved sadder? Yeah you did? Well it was nice meeting them.
TJ's, watermelon, roti [Wed 24]
Woke up three times, once at 6, then at 7 and finally at 8, tried going back to sleep but couldn't. It was fine, I could handle it, but thinking maybe I'm not meant for downtown living in a big city. I might be able to adjust to it if I bought a house or an apartment but at what cost one wonders.
Work was quite tight. Had been working on updating a cert for our product, and the partners had promised to get it working and validate it, but informed me after our cert had expired that we didn't have the configs right. Had a very stressful couple of hours trying to get things in order, we went for four hours without valid certs.
N made roti for lunch, I made broccoli tarkari with soy sauce and oyster sauce. They were skeptical at first as we all were but it worked out quite well in the end. SL had his day off so we all had homemade roti with broccoli tarkari and potatoes from the day before.
Spent the several hours following lunch watching lets play cities skylines. Wrote a little around 5-ish. Went grocery shopping with N to Trader Joe's, it's a fifteen minute walk from his place right now, and 4-minutes from the place they're moving to later in the fall. TJ's always confuses me, you can find things you didn't think existed but not obvious items that should be there. Saw grits but no oats. Their frozen foods are the bomb though. I got some hummus, paramagiano reggiano, couple of bananas, minor items. As we headed to check out, I picked up a watermelon. We were really excited about the watermelon.
Back at the apartment we cut up the watermelon and had it for dinner. So good, so filling, so healthy, watermelons are like the best version of packaged water out there. The guys played video game football as I wrote and watched youtube. We talked a bunch until SL went to sleep because early shift. N went to sleep, I stayed around watching youtube videos and forcing myself to write. It's not a chore to write anymore, it's just hard to get back into the habit once you've been distracted from it for various reasons. Somehow I ended not sleeping until 1am. Tried to fall asleep, couldn't. Kept thinking about nice things that could happen to be but don't won't. I was up till 2.05 at least, must have passed out at some point after that. Scared about how my mood would be the following day.
Work was quite tight. Had been working on updating a cert for our product, and the partners had promised to get it working and validate it, but informed me after our cert had expired that we didn't have the configs right. Had a very stressful couple of hours trying to get things in order, we went for four hours without valid certs.
N made roti for lunch, I made broccoli tarkari with soy sauce and oyster sauce. They were skeptical at first as we all were but it worked out quite well in the end. SL had his day off so we all had homemade roti with broccoli tarkari and potatoes from the day before.
Spent the several hours following lunch watching lets play cities skylines. Wrote a little around 5-ish. Went grocery shopping with N to Trader Joe's, it's a fifteen minute walk from his place right now, and 4-minutes from the place they're moving to later in the fall. TJ's always confuses me, you can find things you didn't think existed but not obvious items that should be there. Saw grits but no oats. Their frozen foods are the bomb though. I got some hummus, paramagiano reggiano, couple of bananas, minor items. As we headed to check out, I picked up a watermelon. We were really excited about the watermelon.
Back at the apartment we cut up the watermelon and had it for dinner. So good, so filling, so healthy, watermelons are like the best version of packaged water out there. The guys played video game football as I wrote and watched youtube. We talked a bunch until SL went to sleep because early shift. N went to sleep, I stayed around watching youtube videos and forcing myself to write. It's not a chore to write anymore, it's just hard to get back into the habit once you've been distracted from it for various reasons. Somehow I ended not sleeping until 1am. Tried to fall asleep, couldn't. Kept thinking about nice things that could happen to be but don't won't. I was up till 2.05 at least, must have passed out at some point after that. Scared about how my mood would be the following day.
Go outdoors, outdoor is the way to go, outdoors, outdoors
I'm retracting in spirit all the posts that implied folks should avoid going out and having fun. It appears that the quickest way for the disease to spread is to be in close proximity with other folks, who are unprotected, and somehow have unhindered access of air from their nasal passage to yours. When you're outside, not breathing too heavily and have your mouths covered, and so do they, and you guys maintain a healthy distance between yourselves, physical distancing I mean don't need to remind you about emotional distancing sigh but lets no go there it hurts, it's going to be fine and you'll quite likely not give them your air-cooties.
Folks are using all sorts of protective measures. I saw a couple of people use transparent umbrellas that come all the way down to the neck -- they save you from the sneezes and the coughs, remind people to not get too close to you, and also protect you from rain and sun. Win win win. People had solid hand-woven masks on their faces, and layered masks -- a regular mask with a surgical mask inserted within the layers as extra protection.
It's getting weirder. They're saying as long as everyone's washing their hands regularly and wearing masks, public transport can be safe too which is mindblowing to be because I figured that was the easiest way to infect yourself. It's not clear the douchebags who're like panting shirtless and like throwing their aircooties all over as they run are superspreaders or not but it'd be surprising if they were not right?
Here's the thing: we do have limited knowledge, but the framework seems pretty solid and the transmission medium seems to be pretty reasonably understood. Despite that, Americans don't seem to get it. Like at all. There was talk of restaurants somewhere that had been forced by law to reduce their maximum capacity to a third, and now were keeping all their customers in the same goddamn third of their restaurant space, defeating the entire effing purpose. Americans. Don't. Seem. to get it.
One must wonder if it's genuine ignorance, overconfidence, confusion, stupidity, lack of humility, something different entirely or some combination of all of these. Because I'd like to know the ratios. It's confusing. A large percentage of people are careful with masks and distancing and general care, while a significant minority acts like nothing's up it's all cool why are people going so crazy no one's dead yet this is all a big fat misunderstanding that'll get cleared up in a couple of months. It's not even the republican conspiracy theories in Philadelphia, they're rich white people (mostly but not exclusively so) living in center Philly, it's something else, can't quite figure out what's up.
In conclusion, people are generally fine, it's the idiots that we have to fear. Really hope things start improving and people don't take it too easy for the next six months or we'll get the second, third, fourth fifth waves for the next two years. The north-eastern states have got it under control, the hope is that the rest of America wakes up and does the same. A little humility goes a long way, it's been a long way since Americans had to encounter that facet of human interaction. Perhaps they'll learn now that they are not in fact invulnerable, that in fact they are pretty human and susceptible to stupidity disease and death and throwing money at all your problems isn't always a good solution. We can hope.
Folks are using all sorts of protective measures. I saw a couple of people use transparent umbrellas that come all the way down to the neck -- they save you from the sneezes and the coughs, remind people to not get too close to you, and also protect you from rain and sun. Win win win. People had solid hand-woven masks on their faces, and layered masks -- a regular mask with a surgical mask inserted within the layers as extra protection.
It's getting weirder. They're saying as long as everyone's washing their hands regularly and wearing masks, public transport can be safe too which is mindblowing to be because I figured that was the easiest way to infect yourself. It's not clear the douchebags who're like panting shirtless and like throwing their aircooties all over as they run are superspreaders or not but it'd be surprising if they were not right?
Here's the thing: we do have limited knowledge, but the framework seems pretty solid and the transmission medium seems to be pretty reasonably understood. Despite that, Americans don't seem to get it. Like at all. There was talk of restaurants somewhere that had been forced by law to reduce their maximum capacity to a third, and now were keeping all their customers in the same goddamn third of their restaurant space, defeating the entire effing purpose. Americans. Don't. Seem. to get it.
One must wonder if it's genuine ignorance, overconfidence, confusion, stupidity, lack of humility, something different entirely or some combination of all of these. Because I'd like to know the ratios. It's confusing. A large percentage of people are careful with masks and distancing and general care, while a significant minority acts like nothing's up it's all cool why are people going so crazy no one's dead yet this is all a big fat misunderstanding that'll get cleared up in a couple of months. It's not even the republican conspiracy theories in Philadelphia, they're rich white people (mostly but not exclusively so) living in center Philly, it's something else, can't quite figure out what's up.
In conclusion, people are generally fine, it's the idiots that we have to fear. Really hope things start improving and people don't take it too easy for the next six months or we'll get the second, third, fourth fifth waves for the next two years. The north-eastern states have got it under control, the hope is that the rest of America wakes up and does the same. A little humility goes a long way, it's been a long way since Americans had to encounter that facet of human interaction. Perhaps they'll learn now that they are not in fact invulnerable, that in fact they are pretty human and susceptible to stupidity disease and death and throwing money at all your problems isn't always a good solution. We can hope.
Harry Potter: Where are they now?
We've all read the epilogue of Harry Potter where Harry and Ginny are together, Hermione's married Ron, Neville is a teacher at Hogwarts, and the Malfoys are still just as creepy and skulking around. But what if we skipped another fifteen years, and saw what everyone was up to. Here's five major Harry Potter characters, and where they are, fifteen years after the epilogue.
- Hermione: After divorcing Ron, she moved in close to the Weasleys. She's single, but she's busy with the Ministry work. Mr. Weasley hears only good things about her, and thinks she might be the next Minister of Magic in the next ten years. Hermione plans a more functional human-muggle relations to be the highest priority of Ministry of Magic. Hogwarts and other wizarding schools have been taking an increasing number of magically-inclined muggles, the smartest and bravest, thanks to her achievements. She knows of a foreign muggleborn wizard who is interested in her romantically, and they've been exchanging owls on a weekly basis but she's in no rush.
- Ron: Ron moved back with his folks after Hermione left him and is kind of seeing someone twenty five younger. She works at a nearby Tavern and calls him Ronniekins. No one approves of the relationship but they're all relived that he's employed at least and she seems really sweet. She has been growing on Molly who's warming up to the idea of having her as daughter-in-law. She brought it up to Hermione, who approved of it.
- Ginny: After playing for a professional Quidditch team, Ginny left the team to raise her three children, while writing as the senior Quidditch correspondent for the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet. That was then. She quit the low-paying newspaper job and started her own brand of sportingwear for female Quidditch player, inspired by her brothers' entrepreneurship. She has stores in three hamlets in the UK, and two in America, she's expanding to the Far East, and opening more stores in America soon.
- Harry: Harry still works as an auror for the ministry. He's been reprimanded for his brash behavior. The younger cadets have suggested he be put in a committee of sorts that doesn't involve much hands-on work. He trains aspiring Quidditch players in his free time, which works out really well for Ginny because free marketing! He's tried to invent new spells in their shed, not to much success.
- Neville: Neville, a distinguished professor of Herbology at Hogwarts now, is doing so so great. He has a loving caring wife who also works as a staff member in the School, and is redesigning the wizarding system of education. He and Hermione have co-authored several papers on adolescent wizard psychology and improving ways to teach them. The headmaster is all ears, and has given him three senior assistants, former Hogwarts students, to assist him in his project.
Dangerous bikers
On our way back from the German bar, I saw this guy on a bike. He was riding on a pretty busy street, his left hand on the handlebar and his right hand HOLDING A GODDAMN CELLPHONE IN FRONT OF HIS FACE, he was on a videochat with someone WHILE he was riding. It's crazy. Insane.
I got a bit pissed and told that to the guys. SL told me about the other day, and he swears this is true, when he was going to the hospital on the bus. He sees this guy on the bike, holding the handlebar with his left hand, and a cup of coffee with right hand. Like me, he is pissed this man is going to get himself killed or seriously injured and I have to take care of this selfish bastard, divide my time between this asshole and someone else who needs real attention. And he sees something else that absolutely destroys his faith in humanity. The guy takes his left hand, the only hand holding the bike, off the bike, dives deep into his jacket pocket, takes out a packet of sugar, tears it off with his teeth and pours it into his coffee. WHILE HE IS STILL RIDING HIS BIKE ON A BUSY STREET.
Insanity. Insanity, this is insanity. I'm afraid of the bad name this is going to give all of us bikers.
I got a bit pissed and told that to the guys. SL told me about the other day, and he swears this is true, when he was going to the hospital on the bus. He sees this guy on the bike, holding the handlebar with his left hand, and a cup of coffee with right hand. Like me, he is pissed this man is going to get himself killed or seriously injured and I have to take care of this selfish bastard, divide my time between this asshole and someone else who needs real attention. And he sees something else that absolutely destroys his faith in humanity. The guy takes his left hand, the only hand holding the bike, off the bike, dives deep into his jacket pocket, takes out a packet of sugar, tears it off with his teeth and pours it into his coffee. WHILE HE IS STILL RIDING HIS BIKE ON A BUSY STREET.
Insanity. Insanity, this is insanity. I'm afraid of the bad name this is going to give all of us bikers.
Eating out [Tue 23]
First morning in Philly, got up way way too early because it's an old wooden house and SL goes to his hospital early in the morning. Got up at 6am when he got up, and then at 7am when he left for work, finally at 8.30 forrealz. And the noise, oh the noise of the city, that's going to be a separate post here, but staying here in the hard of Philly for 3 days on the third floor has already made me realize maybe city living is not for me.
The day was chill, N and I hung out. Lunch was amaaazing, we made puri-tarkaari, tarkaari of potatoes. I rolled out the puri, N deep fried them in ghiu. So so good ahhh, and I hadn't been part of puri-making before ever, that was an amaahzing experience.
Since this was my first night in Philly with the guys, and SL had his day off the following day, we decided to go eat out. On our way out we saw a man who was threatening to jump from the second floor. He had ended up right in front of our front door and was shouting at the popo. The cops told us to not come out because we didn't know if he was dangerous or not, so we used the backdoor. Phew. City life!
Quite a few restaurants and bars have opened here, with only outside seating. We went to this place nearby but all the six outside tables were taken, and the couple we thought was leaving ordered more food and beer. Maybe it's just me but it's possible they ordered extra just to spite us and not let us in. We waited for two minutes gave up checked out a few more places before finally ending up at Bru this German bar I've mentioned here before that also happens to be really close to the new place SL and N are moving to this September.
We got a seat right away, no umbrella it started raining a bit SL said there was going to be a big storm in 20 minutes, we left, walked over to the other corner, found an empty table with an umbrella and sat down. There was no storm. N and SL got donner kebabs with beers, they said they didn't like them, I got eggplant sandwich. It was good, not too spicy though so a little underwhelming. Boy do they give away a lot of fries with their entrees! So much fries! My stomach hurt for the rest of the evening.
Came back home, hung out a bunch more, gave shit to each other, everyone else went to bed. I wrote quite a few posts late in the evening. Went to bed at 1-ish.
The day was chill, N and I hung out. Lunch was amaaazing, we made puri-tarkaari, tarkaari of potatoes. I rolled out the puri, N deep fried them in ghiu. So so good ahhh, and I hadn't been part of puri-making before ever, that was an amaahzing experience.
Since this was my first night in Philly with the guys, and SL had his day off the following day, we decided to go eat out. On our way out we saw a man who was threatening to jump from the second floor. He had ended up right in front of our front door and was shouting at the popo. The cops told us to not come out because we didn't know if he was dangerous or not, so we used the backdoor. Phew. City life!
Quite a few restaurants and bars have opened here, with only outside seating. We went to this place nearby but all the six outside tables were taken, and the couple we thought was leaving ordered more food and beer. Maybe it's just me but it's possible they ordered extra just to spite us and not let us in. We waited for two minutes gave up checked out a few more places before finally ending up at Bru this German bar I've mentioned here before that also happens to be really close to the new place SL and N are moving to this September.
We got a seat right away, no umbrella it started raining a bit SL said there was going to be a big storm in 20 minutes, we left, walked over to the other corner, found an empty table with an umbrella and sat down. There was no storm. N and SL got donner kebabs with beers, they said they didn't like them, I got eggplant sandwich. It was good, not too spicy though so a little underwhelming. Boy do they give away a lot of fries with their entrees! So much fries! My stomach hurt for the rest of the evening.
Came back home, hung out a bunch more, gave shit to each other, everyone else went to bed. I wrote quite a few posts late in the evening. Went to bed at 1-ish.
What I've been watching on youtube
Have been watching the school of life channel on youtube, contemporary philosophy of living, it's good, worth checking out.
Been watching too many lets play cities:skylines too, I'm not too eager about that because I get addicted to those too easily, that's how I basically spent my sophomore year of college.
Tonne of good engineering videos and pop-sci (ish) videos too, always learning something new and interesting, even if they're not practical in everyday life, help me understand the world better.
Lots of homesteading videos, mostly Art&Bri and justin Rhodes. Subscribed to a few more, but they haven't really grabbed my attention.
So many Nepali agriculture channels on youtube, follow them on-and-off. Once I start watching one it sort of keeps on rolling and all my suggestions get the same, so have been trying to take it easy with that.
So many good cooking channels on youtube, love bon appetit and chef john. They're funny and explain the 'theory' behind the recipes rather than th recipes themselves, help me understand the process of cooking. There's also a 'modern cooking' channel, a guy who makes tonnes of fake meat and the likes, shows how much you can do with really interesting materials and methods.
World science festival videos by the physicist Brian Greene.
And many more!
Been watching too many lets play cities:skylines too, I'm not too eager about that because I get addicted to those too easily, that's how I basically spent my sophomore year of college.
Tonne of good engineering videos and pop-sci (ish) videos too, always learning something new and interesting, even if they're not practical in everyday life, help me understand the world better.
Lots of homesteading videos, mostly Art&Bri and justin Rhodes. Subscribed to a few more, but they haven't really grabbed my attention.
So many Nepali agriculture channels on youtube, follow them on-and-off. Once I start watching one it sort of keeps on rolling and all my suggestions get the same, so have been trying to take it easy with that.
So many good cooking channels on youtube, love bon appetit and chef john. They're funny and explain the 'theory' behind the recipes rather than th recipes themselves, help me understand the process of cooking. There's also a 'modern cooking' channel, a guy who makes tonnes of fake meat and the likes, shows how much you can do with really interesting materials and methods.
World science festival videos by the physicist Brian Greene.
And many more!
The seeds of the robo-rebellion
In conclusion, nothing makes sense. The research aimed to shed more light on the complexity of human-robot interactions and to provide a guidance to program more human attitude into robots. However, our research suggests that the definition of 'humanity' is wildly variable depending on circumstances and societies we wish to start our judgments on. Therefore, programing humanity into robots would be sub-optimal as it could cause unfixable conflict with the machines in the future. We suggest making the robots stereo-typically robotic and abandoning the human-centered approach to human-machine interaction.
Three years of research all to conclude that the premise was hopelessly wrong to begin with. In science negative results are worth as much as positive results, but this wasn't worth very much. Worse, this was untrendy, he wouldn't be able to sell himself to the new robotics companies if his life's work contradicted the fundamental assumptions they were working with. He would have to tone down the message, undersell the thesis and oversell everything else he had done. They'd eventually come around to asking what the conclusions were for his thesis obviously. He would say it's complicated, which wouldn't be true strictly. He had to get a job though, the economy was tight and he was supposed to in the hottest field in the most popular research program in the industry. Stuck between a hard place and a...harder place.
If it were just him he would go into academia, apply for postdocs, get on a tenure-track path, eventually end up at a university somewhere. But a professor's salary cannot support a family of seven. His parents were getting old too, and Sheetal's parents had hinted strongly that they needed help. Eleven people living on an income of two, that was ridiculous even if they were printing money. They were most definitely not. This was before he considered savings for college. A low-key life wouldn't cut it, he'd have to go into the industry, become a high-powered researcher. That's where the money was.
He would lie. He would tell them, not explicitly but through the implications, that the way to go was to make robots as human as possible, give them all the human characteristics. Peace progress mutual-understanding yadda yadda yadda. The worse case scenario was a couple of people getting hurt by their helper robots probably, the government would make rules limiting the interaction and setting standards. That would be the end of the misguided attempt, he'd turn them around. For regulations sake he'd claim at first, and eventually turn the industry attitude around. Infiltrate them to change them.
He couldn't afford to be an enemy to the robotics industry. He was just one man, with a lab and a bunch of grad students. When the grants expired so would the power and prestige. And the money. He would be a nobody, a poor nobody who couldn't afford to keep up a reasonable lifestyle. The shame it'd bring to him, the shame! That was not an option. He was not a rebel. He was an honest ethical man who still needed to make a living. Lies of omission are not real lies, and if they are they are morally permissible to save one's family life.
Three years of research all to conclude that the premise was hopelessly wrong to begin with. In science negative results are worth as much as positive results, but this wasn't worth very much. Worse, this was untrendy, he wouldn't be able to sell himself to the new robotics companies if his life's work contradicted the fundamental assumptions they were working with. He would have to tone down the message, undersell the thesis and oversell everything else he had done. They'd eventually come around to asking what the conclusions were for his thesis obviously. He would say it's complicated, which wouldn't be true strictly. He had to get a job though, the economy was tight and he was supposed to in the hottest field in the most popular research program in the industry. Stuck between a hard place and a...harder place.
If it were just him he would go into academia, apply for postdocs, get on a tenure-track path, eventually end up at a university somewhere. But a professor's salary cannot support a family of seven. His parents were getting old too, and Sheetal's parents had hinted strongly that they needed help. Eleven people living on an income of two, that was ridiculous even if they were printing money. They were most definitely not. This was before he considered savings for college. A low-key life wouldn't cut it, he'd have to go into the industry, become a high-powered researcher. That's where the money was.
He would lie. He would tell them, not explicitly but through the implications, that the way to go was to make robots as human as possible, give them all the human characteristics. Peace progress mutual-understanding yadda yadda yadda. The worse case scenario was a couple of people getting hurt by their helper robots probably, the government would make rules limiting the interaction and setting standards. That would be the end of the misguided attempt, he'd turn them around. For regulations sake he'd claim at first, and eventually turn the industry attitude around. Infiltrate them to change them.
He couldn't afford to be an enemy to the robotics industry. He was just one man, with a lab and a bunch of grad students. When the grants expired so would the power and prestige. And the money. He would be a nobody, a poor nobody who couldn't afford to keep up a reasonable lifestyle. The shame it'd bring to him, the shame! That was not an option. He was not a rebel. He was an honest ethical man who still needed to make a living. Lies of omission are not real lies, and if they are they are morally permissible to save one's family life.
Seven nice things you'll have to start worrying about in 2020
- Flowers. Fart-smelling flowers. The flowers smell like farts, not that they can act all grossed out when they hear fart sounds even though they don't smell it because it was just a noise from the leather couch, okay? Jeez, why won't they let it go?!?
- Trees. Poisonous trees who'll try to kill you. They'll pretend they like you and all, talk nicely in front of you but they secretly hate you and want you dead. They're not above hiring an assassin to take you out either, so watch out! Sneaky buggers, them.
- Cute animals. Have you even seen their teeth, their mouth? Them sharp teeth, they're designed to piece the skin and devour one's innards. The mouths are designed, through millions of years of trials and errors to suck out the victim's blood until it dies in agony.
- Air. Air is great. We breathe it, when we feel like shit we breathe more of it and it makes us feel better. But what IF air was POISON! And just inhaling it would endanger your life? That could happen, with acid rain and other evil airborne thingies.
- Water. We all love water. We drink it, we piss and perspire it, we even drench ourselves in it to get cleaned up. We also ride on various crafts over it for entertainment purposes, and use it to torture each other. But think about water MONSTERS! Godzilla! Shark-Whales! So Scary!
- Weed. Weed is nice. Not for everyone. Some people get too paranoid, some don't even get high and some find it just too boring. It can be overwhelming at times too. But considering the shitty things that are happening in the world right now, I bet something really bad is going to happen with weed too so watch out.
- Watermelon. Gosh I love watermelon. It's like water but like, solid. Great way to hydrate and get in some electrolytes. So sweet, so read. Thank gods for watermelon. Nothing's ever gonna go bad with them, just kidding. Keep eating!
Philly trip, phinally [Mon 22]
I have to take is easy with the Philly puns, it's getting out of control.
Regular work day, not busy at all except couple of small things because we were releasing and there was not a lot of new planned work. N made amaaazing lunch with rice, and some sort of gravy with lots of bell peppers, and green veggie of some kind. It was really good, the green veggie too, I cook them regularly but I don't enjoy them normally, but it was really good.
P left to S's place to chill, got back at 5-ish, we left at 5.15 for Union Station, got there in 10 minutes, spent the next ten minutes looking for parking so they could send me off. Didn't find one, they left, I got into the train to Philly, which left five minutes later.
It was alright. Most people are careful and wear masks. There was a fool, with a poor poor daughter, who took his mask off to sneeze on his hands and then wiped it all over the handles and seats, germs everywhere.
Wrote a bunch of posts in the train ride. As I've said many times here, I do love Amtrak, it's one of the two things about America I really enjoy. It's never disappointed me...besides the lateness, but that's U.S. public infrastructure for you.
In Philly walked to N's place because didn't want to risk public transport or uber. 25 minutes of nice evening walk. Arrived at their place, hung out with SL and N. We watched tv, got caught up, talked about future plans, Nepal, women etcetera. Wrote a bunch before going to sleep, and went to bed in the nice couch at 12.30.
Regular work day, not busy at all except couple of small things because we were releasing and there was not a lot of new planned work. N made amaaazing lunch with rice, and some sort of gravy with lots of bell peppers, and green veggie of some kind. It was really good, the green veggie too, I cook them regularly but I don't enjoy them normally, but it was really good.
P left to S's place to chill, got back at 5-ish, we left at 5.15 for Union Station, got there in 10 minutes, spent the next ten minutes looking for parking so they could send me off. Didn't find one, they left, I got into the train to Philly, which left five minutes later.
It was alright. Most people are careful and wear masks. There was a fool, with a poor poor daughter, who took his mask off to sneeze on his hands and then wiped it all over the handles and seats, germs everywhere.
Wrote a bunch of posts in the train ride. As I've said many times here, I do love Amtrak, it's one of the two things about America I really enjoy. It's never disappointed me...besides the lateness, but that's U.S. public infrastructure for you.
In Philly walked to N's place because didn't want to risk public transport or uber. 25 minutes of nice evening walk. Arrived at their place, hung out with SL and N. We watched tv, got caught up, talked about future plans, Nepal, women etcetera. Wrote a bunch before going to sleep, and went to bed in the nice couch at 12.30.
Open city restaurants
If I were the dictator-mayor of a city, this is what I'd do: make many streets on-way, and use the opened up lane as sidewalk. Then use the sidewalks as open-air venues for restaurants that can't take customers in. That way everyone wins, folks get some semblance of sanity -- not only that, being able to eat out is a great way to de-stress even in normal times. The restaurants get their business back. The city gets tax revenue, doesn't have to spend on unemployment benefits. The local businesses get some folks walking out and about, and can leverage the attention towards their wares. The city live thrives, civic pride increase, people actually start caring about what happens in their surroundings. Cities become livable and walkable. Traffic decreases, because first, why bother, and second if everyone's out in the open it's a good idea to bike anyway. Public health improves due to increased biking.
I bring this up for a reason. Restaurants are opening in large cities with only open-air sitting allowed. It sucks when it rains, but they've got umbrellas, and besides if the rain's not serious enough it's not a big deal. While it's true this won't work for winter months, with nice gas heaters and some padding, it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to keep at it. Let's open our streets, lets open our doors, lets make it happen folks!
Anywho, we went out for dinner last night. After almost four months for me, went to eat out on my Birthday in March before that. We went to a couple of restaurants and they had long waiting times, on a Tuesday evening. Finally got to the German bar that's been mentioned here before, sat down, got rained upon, left, got back in because we found a table with an umbrella and it stopped raining. It felt so nice. So many cute people to look at too. And it's fun to just experience the cool (it was kinda' humid) air, the people, the vibe of the city. So much fun.
The world would be a better place if we kept this up. I'm excited about the future. I'm cynical, it's unlikely it's going to happen, there's enough rich people driving expensive cars using super-duper subsidized parking and road space to stop this from happening. Particularly in large rich cities. But it's a possibility that has opened up. I'm cautiously optimistic.
I bring this up for a reason. Restaurants are opening in large cities with only open-air sitting allowed. It sucks when it rains, but they've got umbrellas, and besides if the rain's not serious enough it's not a big deal. While it's true this won't work for winter months, with nice gas heaters and some padding, it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to keep at it. Let's open our streets, lets open our doors, lets make it happen folks!
Anywho, we went out for dinner last night. After almost four months for me, went to eat out on my Birthday in March before that. We went to a couple of restaurants and they had long waiting times, on a Tuesday evening. Finally got to the German bar that's been mentioned here before, sat down, got rained upon, left, got back in because we found a table with an umbrella and it stopped raining. It felt so nice. So many cute people to look at too. And it's fun to just experience the cool (it was kinda' humid) air, the people, the vibe of the city. So much fun.
The world would be a better place if we kept this up. I'm excited about the future. I'm cynical, it's unlikely it's going to happen, there's enough rich people driving expensive cars using super-duper subsidized parking and road space to stop this from happening. Particularly in large rich cities. But it's a possibility that has opened up. I'm cautiously optimistic.
Not abandonment
Not like a complete abandonment, this wasn't that. He was not a traitor, he would never disappoint the people who had put their trust in him to protect them and look after them. Well...protect them financially anyway. They had enough...accessories to protect themselves from any physical thread that could ever possibly befall them. They had enough equipment in their...well, arsenal was as good a word as it got even though it made them sound like hillybilly gun nuts which he didn't like admitting but knew they were that...they had enough in their arsenal to defeat an army of a small country. His father had been working on his secret project. He hadn't gotten anywhere useful with it, thankfully, or else they'd have a more formidable airforce than most countries too. Having access to all the land and wealth you could ask for helped. Come to think of it, their wealth if it were to be liquidated at market prices, which wasn't realistic because no one wanted vast tract of desert land but an interesting thought nonetheless, they'd be better off than a few of those tiny countries too. They were quite well by themselves, they didn't need him for that.
And yet. Despite their differences, they needed him. They agreed to never talk politics in the house again, and to even vote for the candidates of his choice if he didn't abandon them. Abandon. Such a heavy word, so many connotations. There was no abandonment, he was a person by himself he needed a life of his own, to bootstrap himself like they always reminded him. He didn't care for all the wealth and riches they offered. He wanted to be with his kind of people, live the kind of life he wanted. He was not interested in the life of a hillybilly guerrilla fighter.
And now he was stuck with them. Out of all the times, throughout the history when this could have happened.... Right as he was about to leave them for good. He had found a nice place not too far away from the city center. He'd be sharing it with two other guys he knew from college, not good friends but people he could live with. He was ready to find love, explore his passions! Roam the streets of the city, eat from its foodcarts, struggle be down on his luck and then come back, rise and grow and succeed. And if not that, he always had this, the backup. The place he would come to only when at the threshold of death. That was the plan anyway. Before the thing, whatever you wanted to call it he was tired of how annoying they were getting by the day, before the thing happened. Conspired. Began.
There was escape, if he wanted. Flights hadn't stopped, he could drive, take the train or maybe get there on bus. But no. They were old and gullible. They were coming around in recent days, the difference between what they were told on the tv and what they saw in real life was far too much to dismiss even for them. This was a gradual process and he couldn't speed it up or they'd just refuse to admit. Someone would have to do groceries, stop them from endangering themselves needlessly. This was the worst possible time to abandon them.
I can't come, can't leave my parents while all of this is happening, he texted to Abed. Till when, came the reply right away. Until this gets better. Could be months, Abed replied. Yeah, he typed and sent, could be months could be years worse comes to worse, gotta keep my life on hold, sorry.
And yet. Despite their differences, they needed him. They agreed to never talk politics in the house again, and to even vote for the candidates of his choice if he didn't abandon them. Abandon. Such a heavy word, so many connotations. There was no abandonment, he was a person by himself he needed a life of his own, to bootstrap himself like they always reminded him. He didn't care for all the wealth and riches they offered. He wanted to be with his kind of people, live the kind of life he wanted. He was not interested in the life of a hillybilly guerrilla fighter.
And now he was stuck with them. Out of all the times, throughout the history when this could have happened.... Right as he was about to leave them for good. He had found a nice place not too far away from the city center. He'd be sharing it with two other guys he knew from college, not good friends but people he could live with. He was ready to find love, explore his passions! Roam the streets of the city, eat from its foodcarts, struggle be down on his luck and then come back, rise and grow and succeed. And if not that, he always had this, the backup. The place he would come to only when at the threshold of death. That was the plan anyway. Before the thing, whatever you wanted to call it he was tired of how annoying they were getting by the day, before the thing happened. Conspired. Began.
There was escape, if he wanted. Flights hadn't stopped, he could drive, take the train or maybe get there on bus. But no. They were old and gullible. They were coming around in recent days, the difference between what they were told on the tv and what they saw in real life was far too much to dismiss even for them. This was a gradual process and he couldn't speed it up or they'd just refuse to admit. Someone would have to do groceries, stop them from endangering themselves needlessly. This was the worst possible time to abandon them.
I can't come, can't leave my parents while all of this is happening, he texted to Abed. Till when, came the reply right away. Until this gets better. Could be months, Abed replied. Yeah, he typed and sent, could be months could be years worse comes to worse, gotta keep my life on hold, sorry.
16 creatures that are commonly eaten
- Goat
- Buffalo
- Pig
- Wild Boar
- Chicken
- Cow
- Boar
- Turkey
- Quail
- Innocent voters who don't know any better who you've hoodwinked into voting for you with no intentions of fulfilling a single one of your promises
- Deer
- Poor people
- Mice
- Ostrich
- The consumer in an unrestrained and uncontrolled 'free market' that's not actually free at all and captured by a select-few plutocratic oligopolists.
- Frog
Missed train, last house tour [Sun 21]
It's 7.30 in the evening, Tuesday, which is two days after. Finally getting around to writing this. I'm in Philly and things are looking up. Here's the things I did on Sunday, in whatever order I remember. I'm using the photos I take daily as memory aids for reference.
Got up at whatever time, I don't remember it was a Sunday who cares. For brunch we had the eggplant stew with rice, turned into a Biryani of sorts. So much umami, so much sourness, and not too many spices. Only cumin powder, apparently. The secret in this particular occasion was Rao's sauce apparently. Ahhh.
I cleaned up, packed up, and we set out to check out PN's potential house for the last time ever. Got there right on time, my plan was to chill out under a tree but it was too warm, so we went in, the AC was nice. The deck was cool too. As P shadowed the inspector, N and I talked about their plans for the house, the DIY projects they were planning, and how they were going to make the house their own. I'm excited about the potential with plants. It was supposed to go until 4, but went a little longer. We hadn't had anything to eat since 10, so we went to the nearby Lotte market's food court and got omurice, I got kimchi on the side too. They've now allowed food to be eaten indoors as long as you're staying far enough from others and it was great, we didn't have to worry about anyone else or anything. So we hurried up on the eating, and then packed up the last few bites because we were cutting it close. I ate six spoon-fulls of omurice on the car.
The car-ride was quite an adventure, felt like playing a racing game. We were going to cut it close, always since my train to Philly was at six, and the GPS showed our eta to be 5.55. I'd make it, but only barely. After several missed exits and a confusion over the correct entry for the Union Station, we made it. I made it to my train track at 5.58, two full minutes before the departure time.
I was too late. They closed the train doors right in front of my eyes, apparently they close the trains two minutes before departure. It sucked. I got them to reschedule for the same train the next day, texted PN who were waiting for me outside, and we drove home. Instead of going home, we decided to stop by S's place, where we giggled some more, and destressed. Had dinner there, they had momo again and again I rejected the momos in favor of fruits, and we went home. Slept pretty early, probably, don't remember. Can't do anything about that, it's an expected side-effect.
Got up at whatever time, I don't remember it was a Sunday who cares. For brunch we had the eggplant stew with rice, turned into a Biryani of sorts. So much umami, so much sourness, and not too many spices. Only cumin powder, apparently. The secret in this particular occasion was Rao's sauce apparently. Ahhh.
I cleaned up, packed up, and we set out to check out PN's potential house for the last time ever. Got there right on time, my plan was to chill out under a tree but it was too warm, so we went in, the AC was nice. The deck was cool too. As P shadowed the inspector, N and I talked about their plans for the house, the DIY projects they were planning, and how they were going to make the house their own. I'm excited about the potential with plants. It was supposed to go until 4, but went a little longer. We hadn't had anything to eat since 10, so we went to the nearby Lotte market's food court and got omurice, I got kimchi on the side too. They've now allowed food to be eaten indoors as long as you're staying far enough from others and it was great, we didn't have to worry about anyone else or anything. So we hurried up on the eating, and then packed up the last few bites because we were cutting it close. I ate six spoon-fulls of omurice on the car.
The car-ride was quite an adventure, felt like playing a racing game. We were going to cut it close, always since my train to Philly was at six, and the GPS showed our eta to be 5.55. I'd make it, but only barely. After several missed exits and a confusion over the correct entry for the Union Station, we made it. I made it to my train track at 5.58, two full minutes before the departure time.
I was too late. They closed the train doors right in front of my eyes, apparently they close the trains two minutes before departure. It sucked. I got them to reschedule for the same train the next day, texted PN who were waiting for me outside, and we drove home. Instead of going home, we decided to stop by S's place, where we giggled some more, and destressed. Had dinner there, they had momo again and again I rejected the momos in favor of fruits, and we went home. Slept pretty early, probably, don't remember. Can't do anything about that, it's an expected side-effect.
Colleges are opening
Here's some good news for your consideration, all the small liberal arts colleges are opening up this fall for in-person classes for students. Faculty have the choice of being in-person or remote. They will follow proper guidance and practices, and actually go above and beyond because they need to be protecting thousands of young adults who might not always make the best of decisions. In-person education is of the utmost importance, physical proximity is necessary. My undergrad school has a 74-piece guidance document detailing each minute piece of logistical choice the university has made to accommodate in-person education during pandemic times. And I'm very positive towards that, they really seem to have gone above and beyond. In this crazy times, that's one of the few things I'm looking forward to.
As long as they can maintain proper discipline and convince the young ones to not get drunk and out of control for reasonably long period of time -- it might sound like I'm joking but I'm not -- I believe they'll be able to do that successfully because folks are scared and worried, colleges are going to be places that create a model for how to live with the corona going forward. In America obviously, the rest of the world has it figured out, can follow basic fking instructions and rules that'll help people not die.
As long as they can maintain proper discipline and convince the young ones to not get drunk and out of control for reasonably long period of time -- it might sound like I'm joking but I'm not -- I believe they'll be able to do that successfully because folks are scared and worried, colleges are going to be places that create a model for how to live with the corona going forward. In America obviously, the rest of the world has it figured out, can follow basic fking instructions and rules that'll help people not die.
News from Nepal
News from Nepal gets stupider by the hour. And you'll say fine whatever but whatabout the orange loser, or maybe it's not the worst, but then you think about things. You think that the man, who's the effing leader of a country, a sane man, not a person who is in dire need of medical attention, will literally say anything whatever comes into his tinny head without giving it a moment of consideration about what the impact might be. It might be that he knows he's a clown and no one takes him, or should take him seriously. Maybe he wants to be a clown, and desperately desires to make a fool out of himself so he may act clownish more freely...while acting as the effing ruler of a country. Maybe it's an act, a performance piece, to show the pointlessness of it all, all your institutions and logarithms and what not, in the end an insensible man can bring it all crashing down. Or maybe it's all ego, pure hot foaming pile of hot shit ego, the ego that makes one thing he's the greatest man in every field conceivable, that his words reek of wisdom no matter what they are backed by. Maybe he actually believes the words, he could be delusional. Or delusional in a different way, that he believes what he says will come true, eventually, and therefore what he says is as good as true. I do not understand, I don't care. I do care of course, this is why I write these things. One wishes one didn't care for life is hard and there are so many, way too many things too worry about, and the stupidities of one's prime minister on a daily basis should not be one of them, but here we are. Here. We. Are.
Here we are. Every day it's something new, a new act of gross stupidity or incompetence. That happens everywhere, look at America, they'll say. I fail to understand the argument it's making, terrible things are happening here. Because often it's those who pretend not to approve of the U.S's dealings in world affairs. You cannot claim the public toilet is a dirty shithole, and then point to it when someone points out that your toilet is a stinkin flamin' mess. It's nonsensical. The claim has to be, look at that place the greatest place ever if they can mess up like that so can we. And that's an argument. A stupid argument, but a coherent one, one that can be properly countered. That's besides the point, let us not meander. The point is, you think this is as low as things will go, they can possibly not do anything more stupid and corrupt and the next day you hear a government minister or some second-rate politician one that up. It's a never ending cycle, Sisyphean stupidity.
Some things are fine, most things are not. There's no one to stop the robbers, it's just bigger robbers who want their cut. And it goes all the way up. The counter to that is, not everyone is a robber, there are fewer robbers now. Fine, whatever. They're looking up flights away from the country right now, towards a place that discourages inconsiderate behavior and stupidity, and rewards an honest hard-day's work. It's not that we're lazy or stupid or old-styled. We've just given up. Just. Given. Up.
It's too much, maaan.
What now?
Institutions institutions institutions, I keep telling people. And they reply, no we need a dictator. And I say, how would a hitler help right now. And they say, oh no not that kind, the kind who's worldview and policies are a total reflection of mine. To which I reply, so you want to be the dictator, you don't want to change the system, you want to become the system, as a person, and aim to change it...somehow. Which is like, the opposite of what I said. I'll build institutions, they'll say. Yes, to bolster you, not for the sake of institution-building itself. The conversation just peters out. There's not much to say here. These are not debates, these are desperate conversations to find threads of hope, any thread, about how something might be going well. And some of us have been through the path so many times, we notice the pitfalls. The oasis is a mirage, hiding a deep deep ravine. You're not going to make it. Will we make it? Will. we?
If bare survival is what we care for, likely. If not, what then? How long can this sustain. The world's changing faster than we can adapt. And we refuse change, absolutely abhor it. If you're not going up, you're effectively going down. And that's the bitter truth.
Here we are. Every day it's something new, a new act of gross stupidity or incompetence. That happens everywhere, look at America, they'll say. I fail to understand the argument it's making, terrible things are happening here. Because often it's those who pretend not to approve of the U.S's dealings in world affairs. You cannot claim the public toilet is a dirty shithole, and then point to it when someone points out that your toilet is a stinkin flamin' mess. It's nonsensical. The claim has to be, look at that place the greatest place ever if they can mess up like that so can we. And that's an argument. A stupid argument, but a coherent one, one that can be properly countered. That's besides the point, let us not meander. The point is, you think this is as low as things will go, they can possibly not do anything more stupid and corrupt and the next day you hear a government minister or some second-rate politician one that up. It's a never ending cycle, Sisyphean stupidity.
Some things are fine, most things are not. There's no one to stop the robbers, it's just bigger robbers who want their cut. And it goes all the way up. The counter to that is, not everyone is a robber, there are fewer robbers now. Fine, whatever. They're looking up flights away from the country right now, towards a place that discourages inconsiderate behavior and stupidity, and rewards an honest hard-day's work. It's not that we're lazy or stupid or old-styled. We've just given up. Just. Given. Up.
It's too much, maaan.
What now?
Institutions institutions institutions, I keep telling people. And they reply, no we need a dictator. And I say, how would a hitler help right now. And they say, oh no not that kind, the kind who's worldview and policies are a total reflection of mine. To which I reply, so you want to be the dictator, you don't want to change the system, you want to become the system, as a person, and aim to change it...somehow. Which is like, the opposite of what I said. I'll build institutions, they'll say. Yes, to bolster you, not for the sake of institution-building itself. The conversation just peters out. There's not much to say here. These are not debates, these are desperate conversations to find threads of hope, any thread, about how something might be going well. And some of us have been through the path so many times, we notice the pitfalls. The oasis is a mirage, hiding a deep deep ravine. You're not going to make it. Will we make it? Will. we?
If bare survival is what we care for, likely. If not, what then? How long can this sustain. The world's changing faster than we can adapt. And we refuse change, absolutely abhor it. If you're not going up, you're effectively going down. And that's the bitter truth.
Nine alternative forms of electing a government
We know the Shah kings got their start in Gorkha thanks to the annual Ligligey race where the winner of the race was elected as the ruler for the year. While the system may have been abused, we must laud the folks of Lamjung/Gorkha for their creativity. Let's try coming up with alternative forms of governance and election of representatives since the existing system appears to be going nowhere. Proposals.
- The person who can grow the biggest pumpkin in the land wins, but only for a six-month term. The person who grows the largest watermelon wins for a full one-year term. The number of votes they receive are proportional to the total number of healthy adults that can be fed by one watermelon.
- The best speaker wins. The 'best' is chosen on the basis of their ability to speak non-stop while still being semi-coherent, without the need to use the restroom or eat anything. Keep talkin'.
- Arm wrestling...the winners of a tournament of arm wrestling get chosen to participate in a finger-wrestling competition. Each contender finger-fights every other contender, and the winner with the largest number of finger-fight wins, while minimizing losses and draws, becomes the ruler for a year.
- Biggest unbroken piece of shit. Exactly what it sounds like. Measured both on volume and mass. The creator of the shit becomes the ruler, obviously, and the piece of shit is given the position of the chief minister.
- Grand hunt for mythical beasts. Anyone who can bring one of the more famous mythical beasts of Nepal, including Khyaak, Yeti, Bhakundey Bhoot, Raakey bhoot, etcetera, the first gets elected the ruler.
- Wealth trumps all. The richest person becomes king for the year. They can't compete the following year, or else it'd be like Saudi.
- Doctor, Doctor! The person with the most number of doctorate degrees from legitimate universities wins. The number of high-impact research papers in respectable journals can also be used as a proxy.
- The contenders all have to fight a large snake, without a sharp weapon. First person to make back alive wins the throne for a year.
- American electoral college.
The longest day of the year [Sat 20]
Got up at a reasonably early hour for a saturday. Had rustic bread with homemade salsa and eggs, and orange and apple for brunch.
For late-lunch/dinner N made my favorite of her dishes ever. She made her famous eggplant stew, the persian one, with rice cooked in fried onions. So so good, that eggplant dish is one of the most mind-bending simple lifechanging dishes I've had. There's no doubt I'll write quite a few words on it here in the future too. We ate that with runny saag, which again, so so good, I don't know what saag it was but I've never enjoyed saag and eggplants on rice as much.
Went to S's place, A was there too, chilled a bit, got a little does of the gigglies, so much fun. I remembered it was the longest day of the year so we went on a ride. P drove us to the nearby national park, and ohhh man the drive was so great, it felt like we were on a tunnel inside a rainforest. The trees so goddamn big and lush green, the air so humid, the day so so long. We were out till nine and it was still quite bright, we saw the sun go down at quarter to nine almost.
Back at S's, he offered to make momos, I was full I didn't take up on the offer of veggie momos so they made chicken momos Le Trio style with Le Trio's achaar which apparently uses lots of peanuts. Though I avoid meat and find it quite...not good...I tasted a couple of pieces, and it was quite authentic actually, the sauce and momo and everything, very reminiscent of Le Trio. So juicy and moist, slightly overcooked or it'd probably have been the most perfect momo I'd have had in a long while.
Instead of the momo, I got a large container of cut fruits, and I ate through every last piece. I liked it better that way! I avoid meat, and eat healthy fibrous food that's not unreasonably sustainable!
We got back pretty early, I think I have no recollection because the nights tend to blend into one another, we probably didn't play poker because I have no recollection of it. Maybe we did but it must not have as intense if I don't remember. P played a couple of games of video game soccer, that I remember.
For late-lunch/dinner N made my favorite of her dishes ever. She made her famous eggplant stew, the persian one, with rice cooked in fried onions. So so good, that eggplant dish is one of the most mind-bending simple lifechanging dishes I've had. There's no doubt I'll write quite a few words on it here in the future too. We ate that with runny saag, which again, so so good, I don't know what saag it was but I've never enjoyed saag and eggplants on rice as much.
Went to S's place, A was there too, chilled a bit, got a little does of the gigglies, so much fun. I remembered it was the longest day of the year so we went on a ride. P drove us to the nearby national park, and ohhh man the drive was so great, it felt like we were on a tunnel inside a rainforest. The trees so goddamn big and lush green, the air so humid, the day so so long. We were out till nine and it was still quite bright, we saw the sun go down at quarter to nine almost.
Back at S's, he offered to make momos, I was full I didn't take up on the offer of veggie momos so they made chicken momos Le Trio style with Le Trio's achaar which apparently uses lots of peanuts. Though I avoid meat and find it quite...not good...I tasted a couple of pieces, and it was quite authentic actually, the sauce and momo and everything, very reminiscent of Le Trio. So juicy and moist, slightly overcooked or it'd probably have been the most perfect momo I'd have had in a long while.
Instead of the momo, I got a large container of cut fruits, and I ate through every last piece. I liked it better that way! I avoid meat, and eat healthy fibrous food that's not unreasonably sustainable!
We got back pretty early, I think I have no recollection because the nights tend to blend into one another, we probably didn't play poker because I have no recollection of it. Maybe we did but it must not have as intense if I don't remember. P played a couple of games of video game soccer, that I remember.
In Philllyyy!
Arrived in Philly earlier today (this is Monday), pleasant 1hr50 mins of Amtrak ride, walked from the 30th St. Station to N's place. Nice 25 min walk too. SL (dr from NYC) is here too, last time we talked I was in NYC and we were so very inebriated. Everyone here's doing intermittent fasting, which is perfect because I don't have to eat outside of organized schedule. SL goes to the hospital every day (he's an ICU doctor), which means I can use his worktable too!
The Amtrak ride here was alright except for that one asshole who took of his mask right as he sat down, sneezed several minutes later and then touched every surface he could with his grubby hands. And he's probably one of those people with good intentions! Imagine, bad people, bad things. This is a tricky place to be in, I'm worried the disease is going to be chillin' in America for far faaar longer than anywhere else in the developed world. Or anyway at all, really. Pride cometh before the fall, as they say.
I do love Philly quite a bit, and would very much like to move here. Obviously it helps that I have friends here, but if I were to make my own community and a gang, this would be quite a pleasant place to be.
The Amtrak ride here was alright except for that one asshole who took of his mask right as he sat down, sneezed several minutes later and then touched every surface he could with his grubby hands. And he's probably one of those people with good intentions! Imagine, bad people, bad things. This is a tricky place to be in, I'm worried the disease is going to be chillin' in America for far faaar longer than anywhere else in the developed world. Or anyway at all, really. Pride cometh before the fall, as they say.
I do love Philly quite a bit, and would very much like to move here. Obviously it helps that I have friends here, but if I were to make my own community and a gang, this would be quite a pleasant place to be.
When the animals worked
That was the first time, the first time we successfully trained animals to train other animals. So you didn't have to manually teach every animal to stay within the fences, not go snoopin' around the electric boxes, be careful around the marsh. You could put it all in their social DNA. It was hard, and the gains were not as significant as originally proposed. The harder part was changing the patterns when they formed. What you taught the animals became innate to them, it was nigh impossible to reprogram those habits. A herd of sheep couldn't do two different grazing habits anymore, almost as if there was an upper limit on the amount of information their tiny brains could take.
Training the trainers was expensive, and centralized even quicker than had been predicted. For every pair-combination of animals you wanted the training for, you had three large mega-corporations to choose from, four if you wanted something simple like goat-on-goat. The trainer animals were twenty times as expensive as the best of mating bucks.
And when billions were spent by farmers, governments, research institutions, when those three megacorps had the combined valuation of the top ten tech companies combined, nothing. It wasn't obvious if you weren't looking hard, but folks figured out eventually. There wasn't much productivity gain if you used those specials, unless your herd sizes were far too large. And the expected savings never came. You could train a goat to come to the vet when it got sick, but often it was not worth it because by the time the goat knew it was sick, it was far too late.
Those who saw through made huge sums of money by shorting the smart-trainers, and the ecosystem that had grown around the hype and hot air. Training centers for trainers to train animals that trained other animals, projections of millions of dollars of annual income, to the ground. "Smart diagnostics" systems that promised you didn't even need a vet, the animals would pretty much jump onto your plate, they claimed, revealed to be massive hoaxes as the interest and the money backing them dried up. The research centers made some progress, universities didn't cancel courses entirely, but the excitement was gone, the frenzy dead.
Training the trainers was expensive, and centralized even quicker than had been predicted. For every pair-combination of animals you wanted the training for, you had three large mega-corporations to choose from, four if you wanted something simple like goat-on-goat. The trainer animals were twenty times as expensive as the best of mating bucks.
And when billions were spent by farmers, governments, research institutions, when those three megacorps had the combined valuation of the top ten tech companies combined, nothing. It wasn't obvious if you weren't looking hard, but folks figured out eventually. There wasn't much productivity gain if you used those specials, unless your herd sizes were far too large. And the expected savings never came. You could train a goat to come to the vet when it got sick, but often it was not worth it because by the time the goat knew it was sick, it was far too late.
Those who saw through made huge sums of money by shorting the smart-trainers, and the ecosystem that had grown around the hype and hot air. Training centers for trainers to train animals that trained other animals, projections of millions of dollars of annual income, to the ground. "Smart diagnostics" systems that promised you didn't even need a vet, the animals would pretty much jump onto your plate, they claimed, revealed to be massive hoaxes as the interest and the money backing them dried up. The research centers made some progress, universities didn't cancel courses entirely, but the excitement was gone, the frenzy dead.
Twenty cool things you'll see from inside an amtrak car
- Trees
- Power lines
- Transmission lines
- Houses
- People(some)
- Rivers (cool)
- Lakes, cool
- Other trains
- Train cars
- Oil train cars, yeah there's so many different kinds of trains apparently
- Graffiti
- Graffiti on train cars
- Marsh
- Big cities, rare
- A cute girl you saw in 2017 while going to Boston from your little nowheretown in NH, who seemed to really like you too, you gave her your twitter id even why did she never contact again, hope she's alright.
- Barns, large, with horses potentially
- Large industrial areas with scary monster-like machines moving around, might as well be a scene right out of futuristic alien city where robots rule the world.
- Corn fields
- Mountains, probably. Never seen them in the Northeast, and I'm like squinting my eyes so hard right now, as I look through the windows
- Sky
Juneteenth holiday, pizzas poker and panipuri [Fri 19]
Beginning of the unexpected three-day weekend! Start of some goodtimes!
Don't remember the rest of the day, except it must have been pretty slow because I have no photos or notes from the day even though it's been only three days since. And the sleep must have been sound because gigglies, which again explains why there's not much for this day.
In the evening, at 5-ish, we went to S's place. A and V were there too. S had made a poker-hexagon out of bedsheet and we play-tested a couple of rounds. We ate pani puris. Lots of them.
The poker game we played after was quick and intense, two people were out of their first buy-ins by the time first round was over. The sizes of the stakes increased, and people were more confident about each other's plays. Also I actually learned how to play, and sort of, just sort of figured out the order of the cards. A couple of hands the cards were incredibly close and it was wild how the game turned out.
Later in the evening S ordered pizza from a nearby place that was not Domino's. So many pizzas, of so many types. Regular pizza, thin-crust, goat-cheese, garlic bread, the pizza that's literally all cheese and more similar to a sandwich than a calzone. So full. So so so gorged. I'm fat now, I need to work on getting back in shape, feel tired and lethargic easily.
Also imbibed a lot of the gigglies, the one we'd acquired the evening before. I got quite tired in the evening, N and I fell asleep on the couch as P and S played video games. Some time early in the morning, possibly after three, P woke us up, he'd brought the car at the door, and we left. We got home at 3-ish, I spent the next 40 minutes thinking etc, trying to find people to talk to, before washing up and sleeping at 3.45 in the morning.
Don't remember the rest of the day, except it must have been pretty slow because I have no photos or notes from the day even though it's been only three days since. And the sleep must have been sound because gigglies, which again explains why there's not much for this day.
In the evening, at 5-ish, we went to S's place. A and V were there too. S had made a poker-hexagon out of bedsheet and we play-tested a couple of rounds. We ate pani puris. Lots of them.
The poker game we played after was quick and intense, two people were out of their first buy-ins by the time first round was over. The sizes of the stakes increased, and people were more confident about each other's plays. Also I actually learned how to play, and sort of, just sort of figured out the order of the cards. A couple of hands the cards were incredibly close and it was wild how the game turned out.
Later in the evening S ordered pizza from a nearby place that was not Domino's. So many pizzas, of so many types. Regular pizza, thin-crust, goat-cheese, garlic bread, the pizza that's literally all cheese and more similar to a sandwich than a calzone. So full. So so so gorged. I'm fat now, I need to work on getting back in shape, feel tired and lethargic easily.
Also imbibed a lot of the gigglies, the one we'd acquired the evening before. I got quite tired in the evening, N and I fell asleep on the couch as P and S played video games. Some time early in the morning, possibly after three, P woke us up, he'd brought the car at the door, and we left. We got home at 3-ish, I spent the next 40 minutes thinking etc, trying to find people to talk to, before washing up and sleeping at 3.45 in the morning.
It's been raining quite a lot recently hasn't it?
This is unnatural, and I say that as a lover of rains and cloudy super duper dark days with chilly wind blowing about, shaking the third floor of the wooden house you live in. The days and nights are dark these days, it's been raining every other day or so, ever since March, and we're in solid midsummer. When will this end, if it will ever. One may say this is just only reasonable levels of error bars away from regular rain season, but it's been like this all over the world. News from Kathmandu has been only about the frequent rains, it's been raining like crazy all the time up from Boston to down in North Carolina. Any more south than that, I don't know what's up because I don't have the sources but fairly confident it's about the same.
Wonder what this is about.
Could this be like a supervillain, not the lame stupid loserass like the one we have trying to literally create confusion and chaos with no seeming goal in mind except the destruction and dismantling of those forces he is expected to represent. There could be cool supervillains like those in batman cartoons...a guy wants to just freeeeze the world with superpowers, a woman who wants trees everywhere and I mean every-where. Ambitious people. Creative folks, with new ideas, and technologies to back them up. They're not just about kinetic impact and g-forces and kilotons and megatons, they're about creative destructionism. And that's some quality content.
Maybe nature's responding by creating one of those rain-person villains. Or a hero, but this unseasonable rain and hail is destroying more than it's helping.
Something to consider, you never know what's up with what these days.
Wonder what this is about.
Could this be like a supervillain, not the lame stupid loserass like the one we have trying to literally create confusion and chaos with no seeming goal in mind except the destruction and dismantling of those forces he is expected to represent. There could be cool supervillains like those in batman cartoons...a guy wants to just freeeeze the world with superpowers, a woman who wants trees everywhere and I mean every-where. Ambitious people. Creative folks, with new ideas, and technologies to back them up. They're not just about kinetic impact and g-forces and kilotons and megatons, they're about creative destructionism. And that's some quality content.
Maybe nature's responding by creating one of those rain-person villains. Or a hero, but this unseasonable rain and hail is destroying more than it's helping.
Something to consider, you never know what's up with what these days.
Why I write, on repeat
Writing as a means to get somewhere is fine, great, whatever. You want to get a novel out, so you need to write things. Maybe they're related to the novel directly, maybe it's research work. Maybe it's some other writing totally unrelated to the novel work, but your ultimate goal is the novel. In the back of your mind you have the novel as the ultimate goal, even while writing technical documents you're hoping you absorb all of this and somehow make use of it for your 'actual' writing. I have wanted that in the past, and still do to an extent. I do eventually want to write longform piece of fiction that might be described as a 'novel'.
That doesn't have to be the only goal. One can write just for the heck of it, just because it's fun. Or as a form of disciplined practice. Some people meditate in the morning, some people run, some people take ice-water showers. And some write. Their goal is to not necessarily get anywhere with the written pieces, that the content is in there, out of their fingers, is the end of it. Anything beyond that which comes out of the process is an added bonus that cannot be counted upon.
I started writing as a means, to get to novel-writing. And it's still there I eventually want to get there, no matter how bad the output is. But that's not all. I enjoy writing, kind of. More importantly, and this has gotten more important in recent times, I like it because it gives order and structure to my life. I know what I'm going to do every day, and I don't despise the process. As it happens, I'm also improving as a writer, and I might have potential for a compilation. That's not where I wanted to be necessarily, but I'm not about to look at the gift horse in the mouth.
I bring this up because two posts ago I wondered here why I right here, what the point even is, maybe I should just give up. And all those questions are valid things for me to wonder about. So much uncertainty and confusion, and things not working out in the background. But that doesn't matter for my writing. This is a process, this is a thing all by itself. It doesn't matter if a novel never comes off of this. Yes, I understand the novel was going to be very very bad, but even that may be beyond reach, realistically. And it's okay. It's important to look at some things not for the eventual outcomes, but for themselves. Game for game's sake, craft for craft's sake. This gives me peace and solace, it's a seeding point around my ideas. This is good.
And that's the answer to the questions I raised. I'm here because I want to be. This is growth and learning. It's education. Just by putting these words here I'm turning into someone else, the kind of person I want to be. Other complaints may be valid, but a rejection of writing as a process for me is a rejection of growth, learning and maturity. It's a choice easy to make.
That doesn't have to be the only goal. One can write just for the heck of it, just because it's fun. Or as a form of disciplined practice. Some people meditate in the morning, some people run, some people take ice-water showers. And some write. Their goal is to not necessarily get anywhere with the written pieces, that the content is in there, out of their fingers, is the end of it. Anything beyond that which comes out of the process is an added bonus that cannot be counted upon.
I started writing as a means, to get to novel-writing. And it's still there I eventually want to get there, no matter how bad the output is. But that's not all. I enjoy writing, kind of. More importantly, and this has gotten more important in recent times, I like it because it gives order and structure to my life. I know what I'm going to do every day, and I don't despise the process. As it happens, I'm also improving as a writer, and I might have potential for a compilation. That's not where I wanted to be necessarily, but I'm not about to look at the gift horse in the mouth.
I bring this up because two posts ago I wondered here why I right here, what the point even is, maybe I should just give up. And all those questions are valid things for me to wonder about. So much uncertainty and confusion, and things not working out in the background. But that doesn't matter for my writing. This is a process, this is a thing all by itself. It doesn't matter if a novel never comes off of this. Yes, I understand the novel was going to be very very bad, but even that may be beyond reach, realistically. And it's okay. It's important to look at some things not for the eventual outcomes, but for themselves. Game for game's sake, craft for craft's sake. This gives me peace and solace, it's a seeding point around my ideas. This is good.
And that's the answer to the questions I raised. I'm here because I want to be. This is growth and learning. It's education. Just by putting these words here I'm turning into someone else, the kind of person I want to be. Other complaints may be valid, but a rejection of writing as a process for me is a rejection of growth, learning and maturity. It's a choice easy to make.
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