Yet another milestone post

 Note: I technically wrote this four days ago but never got around to hittin' dat publish button. It's relevant in this post specially.

This has been a productive year in terms of writing, despite the setbacks I've had.

To begin, I haven't been able to inspire myself to write much fiction since late December. I thought that for sure, I was going to be doing really bad by the time I got to late march because the motivation just wasn't there, there seemed to be no time (ironically because I've got all the time in the world for crappy content consumption). 

Despite all of that, I've made it through week after week, month after month. The posts have made it. They've been crappy yes but the words have been dropping out of my fingers and into my screen, and onto your screens.

We're at 90 days into this year, and I've got exactly 360 posts, with this included, averaging four posts a day. Which is the most productive first-three months of the year ever. It's an achievement worth patting on myself on the back for because winters are cold dark gloomy and I'm low on energy, unproductive tired and bored with shit in these months. But no more, it appears. I can just pull myself up by my pants, and do the shit.

Hurray, me. Good things are a-coming!

Unproductive day, ready for departure, insane depart drama, delay, hang in NYC, rain and public transport, back in my room [Wed 31]

 Got up decently on time, was not very busy with work for most of the day, got a manager's meeting that went resoundingly well. Had a very filling lunch that I don't want to remember anymore because how much you people want to eat about what I eat on a daily basis disgusts me so now you've got to live in that creativity jail for some time.

N was busy for most of the day due to work and meetings, so I got done with my meetings, showered and set out to leave at 3.20. It was raining and I missed my train and paid a hundred bucks for another train two hours later. Wrote a serious bunch in the train, by the way, so very proud of that, haven't written that much in a moving vehicle ever before. On the way got off in NYC to change trains, got out of the penn station to take a few photos. Got myself a pretty decent egg salad sandwich on the station.

Got to Boston it was raining here a bit as well...all the way from virginia to philly to NYC. Decided against taking app-taxis because one of them fucked me over in Philly and I didn't want to reward them. Took the train to Davis, then the bus 89, walked for a bit.

Got to my room at 1 in the morning. Set things down, got all the candles etcetera going so my room would stop smelling like farts. Cleaned up and went into a peaceful slumber.

Homemade fresh pasta

N and I have made homemade pasta a couple of times. He's got his dough mixer and pasta roller, and a friend of his has the pasta cutter extension. Boil some salt water, drop the fresh noodles in, let them stay in depending on your preference, retain some water for the sauce, drop in your choice of sauce base, and bam, you've got yourself some pasta and sauce baby! Add parmesano reggiano, olive oil. salt pepper and fresh green herbs of choice, and it becomes a feast!

So easy, N's perfected the process at this point because he's done it so often. In an out in an hour, like PN have perfected their momomaking from start to finish in 45 minutes.

And here's the wild thing: I thought I didn't like pasta at all until I realized it was the shitty dried pasta from the cheapest brands that I despised. Fresh homemade pasta is amazing. Sometimes you need to play around with the textures and shapes, but you soon get a good sense of the proportions and shapes and timings, and you're rolling like a pro.

Even when it's simple it can be great. Aglio y olio is literally garlic and oil. Cacio e peppe is salt and pepper. If you've put enough work with your dough then you've done ninety percent of the work. You're on the path to success. And don't worry about overloading on the carbs, because you decide what flour to use, if you want to make it really protein-rich, and you get to add the eggs to the dough.

Simple yet effective.

To express it using the word I've been throwing out wayy to often these days, Yummm!

The most delicious pulaao I've had in America

 It was a month ago, at the restaurant PS and SB held their engagement.

The most soft and well-spiced rice, so buttery without being nauseatingly oily. Ahh the fragrance, ohh the juiciness. I could have had three more servings of it and still not be fully satiated. The addition of the dried fruits was just right, not too much that it got irritating to bite but also not rare enough that finding one became an occasion.

And the curries we had with it ahh, so freakin' good. I tried a little bit of the goat curry because of course it was a friends' engagement in a known Nepali restaurant and it was goat, and oh gods it was good. Good goat, gods, good goat.

What a feast it was for the senses, an ensemble of smell and texture and taste, the evoking of all the sweet precious treasured memories and the making of new ones.

Braavo, braaavo, Royal spice!

I'm not particularly charming, it's just that the standards are set super low

Let us not mince words here, this has been alluded to in the recent past on this blog so I'll get right to the point: not to brag and it's not even a big achievement, it's something any seventeen yearold would be doing decently well anyway, but I've been uhh how do I put it, killing it, as of late.

This post is to set the record straight on that one.

I'm not particularly charming or exciting or interesting. I don't have an exciting taste in music, don't dance, not sporty at all, don't play any instruments, am short fat and balding, and not particularly funny. I'm easily distracted and spend a huge chunk of my time watching youtube videos and giggling at british panel shows. My interest in literature is limited to pop fiction and basic sci-fi, even on that point I haven't read anything big and girthy in a long while. Not good at sweet nothings, and have a very limited range of decent acceptable compliments that can be given to other people. In addition to that I'm not well-trained at receiving compliments myself and will fumble and freak out at the slightest hint of interest anybody might show towards me.

I have been known to miss my train stops because a cute stranger told me that I looked good.

Where I'm getting with this is, I'm not a well-suited candidate for having successful mutually beneficial fun interesting exciting interactions with women. On the contrary, I can be a bit of a bummer.

And yet, here we are.

So let's get that straight, I'm not a particularly charming lovable likable exciting eligible person, nuh uh, not at all. It's just that the standards are set so incredibly low, the expectations are so little, so disappointing, that it's difficult not to overshoot on accident. Unintentionally. Without meaning to. In the same way a drunk man might stumble into a handcart and roll downhill and stumble out under exactly the right set of circumstances to end up winning a marathon. I'm the drunk person, and there's been quite a bit of stumbling around.

That is all.

I've been inspired by somebody writing a movie script, need to spend more time with the creatives

So SB tells me his sister's completed a 250-page script for a movie, it's in English but meant to be a Nepali movie. My sister who's friends with her tells me that though she (the friend) studied something else for her undergrad and grad school, she's pretty set on taking up writing as a craft for her life, and has put in the work towards that.

That's such an inspirational thing.

Here's the problem with embarking upon creative projects all by yourself. There's no community to inspire you, nobody to make you feel bad because they're writing a lot and you've not produced anything at all recently and how are you going to succeed if you plan on not moving your butt with the novel idea. There's nobody to bounce your ideas against, nobodies to give your hint and tips and tricks of the trade.

So two takeaways from SB's sister's achievements. First, I've been inspired again, to write on this blog, which is why I've gone in with such ferocity here. Second, I should be around more creative people generally. It doesn't need to be all professional artists and comedians and writes, just the sort of people who're more comfortable exploring their creative sides and letting that part bloom out.

That's it.

So earlier this month I proclaimed that I was tired and I'd be taking it easy with the posts, there was no clear direction for the writings and it's all very tiring. Well, the circumstances have changed, the mojo's come back now, and this project will continue as usual.

Uninterrupted.

Yes strange great things are happening and it's good news don't be suspicious

Everybody must be given the benefit of doubt. Everyone deserves to be treated like an adult, and given respect and consideration for their decisions.

Particularly in circumstances where you like the jib of their cut, the way their decisions are tilting.

Everybody deserves to be loved, we as social creatures want people caring for us, worrying a bit about us. We want attention, even if sometimes we may not want it at our face. We need to know people think for us and care for us, worry about us, and a validation that they will come to our help in times of need.

Nobody is perfect with communication. People are so rarely scheming skeevy villainous bastards who don't care about other people. Nobody decent or reasonable has the time to me planning evil things and running strategems and cons, at a personal level, not if you know them as otherwise.

Sometimes people want to feel the thrill of life, be able to test the boundaries of interactions and how people will react to certain things, and test if a certain direction is where they might want their life to go.

It's so much fun. The uncertainty. The wave function being indeterminate because the external observer knows when it collapses the universe disappears, so the superposition of states continues, often for quite long. And with all that quantum certainty you never know, there is a good chance the wave could collapse to a different frequency/amplitude combination. The cat who was alive-dead inside the radioactive box could be living and thriving, it's not in the realm of impossibility.

That's how it is. This is living.

And so what if it seems strange to some people with outdated ideas about social interactions and propriety. Time marches on. Just live your life and see where things go, live your life like you wish to be lived. Don't hurt others, don't cause damage, don't be an evil malicious bastard. If there's enough love and caring and consideration for others, then it is not useful to be worrying about the consequences, if actions have been taken with great sense of responsibility.

To live is to risk dying. A total aversion to risk is a complete rejection of living an interesting exciting risk. Risk can be minimized with insurance.

Have fun living your life, don't worry about what the expectations are. Things will work out, like they always have.

Finding and being with your tribe is the American experience

Note: I thought of this topic more than six weeks ago and now it's really hard to come up with the motivation to write on it. I wish I'd written it earlier.

The idea behind this was this: I don't see American culture anywhere. Specially when I'm working from home, my only connection to the outside reality is youtube and netflix, and rare trips to grocery stores and takeout places. Where are the fun things people do on tv happening, how do people make communities, expand their circle of friends, find interesting cute hobbies that keep on expanding, meet their tribe and just get into this mindmeld with the American way of life, I wonder. It feels like we're floating around in a cultural vacuum with no interaction with the external world, only boosting ourselves.

Then I thought about why I felt that way. Because I've not done most things Americans do. The chief of it being attending concerts and making music friends. Not like there haven't been opportunities there: my favorite podcasts have showed up in town, favorite bands as well, and they weren't expensive to attend. I didn't go, got too lazy and avoided making the commitment. I never got to experience the culture. I've never attended a game in a stadium, not in the North Station Celtics' court, not in Fenway with the red sox, not the Gillette stadium. No mass American experience. I haven't been to any of the popular state fairs. The only large conference or convention I attended was the nerdy tech con two years ago, and that was exactly like being at work but a thousand times bigger and a hundred times more 'tech concentrated'. No fun.

Is it only the outgoing and the extroverted who have designs on the cultural zeitgeist or can more boring people construct a cultural identity that's enviable all by themselves as well? What would that even look like? Or is culture by definition in the territory of those that like to socialize because it needs to transmit to survive?

And then I thought about how that's actually one of the core of American identity. To be able to recreate the person you are. You aren't stuck with the friends and family you were given. You can seek a subculture or hobby or interest, find people like yourself, get into great depths with it and make your own tribe. Be with your own kind of people. Perpetuate your own kind of culture, live in your own mini-bubble. Which I guess I"m already doing with my friends and family, but I want to go beyond. i want to see what's out in the world.

So I need to be more outgoing, see more concerts and festivals and sports maybe learn to drive. Drive, ugh. I just wish I could have access to somebody who would rive me around and take me places. 

Tricky.

If nothing else, I should just publish an essay collection to get over with the 'published writer' designation

Little progress has been made on my goal of writing a novel before a certain age, and I'm getting a little concerned about whether that will ever happen. The willpower might be seeping away.

I'm looking for compromises at this point.

The other night I was thinking, maybe I could write a collection of semi-humorous essays, something about cute girls in my life, and my relationships with the various women I've been friends and otherwise with. But then I woke up and there really wasn't much substance in there to fill fifty-thousand words. There'd be a lot of exaggeration and vamping, no real substance to fill out the pages.

But write I will have to. There's no other way.

If nothing else, my thru-hiking journey could create some real substance for some sort of extended piece of writing.

The problem is this: to write you will need to have experienced life and be able to reflect it in the pages with your words, to have experienced things you will have to lived a long and varied life. To do that you should be at least a little bit outgoing, open to exciting new experiences, be open to talking and interacting with new people, unafraid of going on adventures and trying out new things.

It's not clear where I lie on that spectrum. I'm a little bit outgoing and extroverted, but far too resistant to change, and averse to risk of any kind. Without an openness, you can't open your heart, you can't spill out the ink into the page.

To become a writer is not to find a way to pump out words, it's to become a different person, a better human being who can connect with others better. And that's a journey that is difficult to skip through. Some people are talented at birth, or they've honed various skills necessary for the craft at an early age. I'm not gifted in this regard, and never came around to honing my writing-related skills. I'm doing it the hard way.

And oh how hard it is. A teacher, a guide of some sort can make this journey easier, quicker. Somebody to point out the right direction, and discourage your from taking easy hacks to success or breaking your form.

I'll figure things out eventually, it's going to be a rough journey. If only I could get that essay collection out soon.

It's actually quite easy to write if I know what I'm writing

File this one under 'stating the obvious' section.

The 'write the first thing that comes in your head' method of writing that I traditionally have used for the last two years is actually quite difficult to sustain, if you want to be writing thousands of words every day. Because sometimes it doesn't make sense, doesn't go in the general direction you want to be going, and will easily not work at all. And then there's lots of 'downtime' to think and come up with something else, a long ideation phase. Even then it could go nowhere.

If I make a list of topics I want to write on, adding topics as they come to me, and filling up the substance later, the writing process is quicker. Interestingly enough, when I get really writing and the creative juices are flowing, other unrelated ideas come to me quicker and get written more easily as well. So it's win-win in there.

But perhaps that should be obvious, that it's easy to write something if you know what you're writing on. If you know the topic, you have a general idea of what the substance is going to be. If you know a couple of 'thesis statements' for the piece, the outcome will probably be better, and the piece get written quite fast as well. When the meaty-thinking part of writing has been done, the fill-in-the-blanks work isn't too hard.

That's something I have discovered during this temporarily hiatus, and the strange situation I found myself in over the last three months. An unwillingness to write on a daily basis but a driving need to write and meet the daily quota no matter what else is happening in my life. It's led me to discover how some processes work for me and others don't. 

An important part of the equation I haven't yet brought up is the writing tool involved as well. The blogger editor doesn't offer many grammatical or stylistic suggestions so I barf out the words, aim at the wordcount and am done with it. When I'm using something like word or grammarly and my use of cliches and unnecessary phrases is caught, I'm forced to restructure the sentences. That forces me to actually consider the ideas behind the words and how I want to present. It takes a little longer to write, but it's 'easier' because the cognitive load of organization and 'cleanup' is taken off of me.

I should be generating ideas on the go more often.

Why is nobody happy with regular water anymore?

 It's a bit strange. Three points of data, that suggest a general trend in the populace. I'm a bit concerned.

Though to be fair it is a hobby of sorts for me, this freaking out.

Friend sbk has been drinking bottled water for several year now. It's 'improved' since they bought a house I believe, but generally they have pallets and pallets of plastic bottle water in the car.

More recently, N and SL have been drinking Seltzer a lot. And by a lot I mean a lot a lot a lot. As in, they don't drink regular water anymore, they buy cans of La Croix by the dozens from Costo ("oh it comes out to a bit less than 30 cents a can, so it's not too bad") and just drink it. When I was in Philly last, three weeks ago it was just regular Seltzer, they hadn't gone the path of one of the most premium seltzers yet. Now they're in the upper echelons of fancy water-drinking folks.

Speaking of fancy water, PN have been buying something interesting as well. In their defense it's plain water, and Costco sells them. ON the other hand, it's a 4L jar of bottled water from New Zealand's springs, and it costs only two bucks. The economics of this astounds me. How is it possible to ship that volume for so far away at that price level? Are they filling tankers and tankers of water from NZ, shipping them on giant ships, and bottling them stateside? Because anything else would make very little sense. And it would scare the bezeesus out of me, worries about the environment, carbon footprint and all of that.

Finally, friend SB. Last time I crashed at his place, he'd drink coca cola with every meal. Not that it's been bad necessarily, he works out a lot, probably hasn't had dental issues, and has no other health concerns, but drinking the volume of concentrated sugar solution for every meal...is kinda' iffy to me.

Most tap water is healthy in the U.S. And in places where it's not, putting water through a simple Britta filter or a cheapo electric filter will most certainly clean things up. From a strictly cost perspective, you make your money back with those water purification systems in less than a year. And regular water has no side effects, no acidity, causes no imbalance in the body. And it's actually quite impossible to tell the NZ spring water from regular water.

Why then is nobody happy with regular water anymore?

Hmmm.

Explained: Why people are censoring out letters of sensitive words with asterisk*

PS: I've lost two versions of this post, it's getting to me people, it's getting to me. Regardless, here's my third attempt.

I've noticed a strange new phenomenon in social media websites and web forums recently. People are 'censoring' parts of certain words with asterisks, it's just one letter replaced by an asterisk, so it's not like they're trying to hide the meaning, or not utter a 'bad' word like f*ck. What gives?

I discovered the answer to it last week when I tweeted something about Micha*l Jacks*n being a pedophi*e. I didn't expect it to make any waves. Not many people follow my twitter account, there's nothing of particular interest happening, and my timeline has not seen anything spectacular or viral in over half a decade. So like all of my other tweets I expected it to die out.

Except it didn't. It got a lot of traction, from seemingly random people who appeared to be huge fans of the man. Their accounts didn't feel like they could have been bot accounts either, everything was seemingly good, but I a nobody was being mobbed by Jack*on stans from seemingly nowhere. What tf was happening?

And then it hit me.

There's a certain type of people, whose number seems to only be growing, who search for their favourite keywords in the popular media, find out people who're writing on the topic online, and harass and intimidate them to either delete the posts, or just create a big ruckus. And they're using 'search' features of all the major platforms for that.

As a response, people are 'censoring' letters out of the words so their target audience more-or-less gets what they're talking about, but the randos who want to annoy them from search won't know what's happening.

Interesting, huh?

If you ever have to choose between armor and love....

 A song from midnight gospel.

If you ever have to choose between armor and love

Don't make my mistake, just let your heart break

Better to die on the battlefield of love

Link to the song.

The song's alright, the message is amazing. Sent this to a few people, they were inspired. Need to tell myself it's gonna be alright, there's no reason to fear, better to die on the battlefield of love, etcetera.

Watch Midnight Gospel, btw, give it a shot.

I'm on the train from Philly to SOMEWHERE and I'm bummed out

 It's 5.52 in the evening, and I'm on the train from Philly to New York. The internet connection is spotty at the best of times, and it's pissing me off even more. "Even more," you ask, wondering what the original thing that was pissing me off. Ugh, don't ask. Don't. Ask.

Right. First things first. Why. Am. I. Even. Going. To. New York. Penn. Station?

Readers of the last post will remember I wrote about it being the last day in Philly and how I was going to be taking the train to Boston today. But I just said NYC. What's happening?

Well...

Don't get me started.

But since we're here already and one can consider this a 'safe space' of sorts, lets take a gander at it.

Here's what happened. It rained in Philadelphia, okay, it fucking rained it Philadelphia. Is that enough for you?

Like a normal human being maybe you're still confused. Why would rain in Philadelphia make me want go to NYC instead of Boston.

Well I'll tell you why, I'll tell you why. Because..because...long breath.

Here's the thing, friend N lives 22 minutes of walking distance away from the 30th St. Penn Station, the Amtrak station. I bought the ticket between Philly to Boston two weeks ago for less than twenty bucks. Since it was less than 25 minutes, I was not worried about Uber or Lyft fucking me over, I could just walk, and that'd be the end of it.

Friend N was warning me that rideshares could mess your plans up if you're not careful, so I got all prepared by 3.20 and ordered a Lyft. It made me wait for 15 minutes.

12 minutes into the wait, the driver mfking driver cancelled the ride. So it's about 3.35 now. It's raining outside. I can't walk anymore because it's wet and my laptops will get wet. So I order another ride. And I get another ride. Except it's going to get me there at 4.02 which is three minutes after my train's departed. I get insane, evaluate every other option. Google shows I could take the public transport.

I somehow run to the train station, buy the tickets, get on the train, get down at the right stop, run to the Amtrak station and find that the train's status is 'last call'. The amtrak employee points me to the right track, tells me I'm close to missing it, I'm right on time. I run down to the tracks.

There's no train.

The muthafuckin' train has fuckin' departed, I can see the ahem if I may, hoe's tails riding about, as it's left me. Right on the dot at 3.59. Even though I conquered the heavens and the earth, ran like there was no tomorrow with a fourty-pound bag on my back, and am panting like I might fall down any moment. Amtrak, the service famous for it's lateness is right on the dot. The same day it rained and I couldn't walk, and Lyft bailed out on me after screwing me over by so many minutes.

Here's the wild thing. From N's apartment to the train station in public transport? 12 minutes. Which is shorter than my original wait for the ride. If I'd just taken the train like a regular human being, I'd have reached the stop by 3.35, and be complaining about getting on the train too early.

Anyway, after grumping about, looking at the alternatives, considering staying in Philly for a couple of more days, I decided to get another ticket to Boston. Which, sad news, was not possible. because that was the last train to Boston, unless I wanted to shell two hundos and fifty buckaroos. I didn't.

Here's the catch. If I wanted to go to NYC, and take an hourlong transfer in the Penn station, I could still make it to Boston within a reasonable timeframe. It'd be 1 in the morning, but that's what I was thinking anyway. So I shell about 85 bucks and pay the monies. As a punishment for not trusting public transport. For being dependent on fucking lyft.

I don't have anything against Amtrak. You know I love Amtrak, it's one of my favourite things about America. I'm glad Amtrak got the extra 85 bucks, instead of the FUCKING TWENTY BUCKS I was about to pay to Lyft. This is more painful than I was hoping originally, but at the end of the trip, I'll be in my own comfortable bed. As long as I don't get distracted getting bagels in NYC and miss my Boston train, lol.

And that my dear is why I'm on the train to NYC, and not Boston. I'll get to Boston eventually. I sure fucking hope so.

And add to the pain of all of this, the internet on this train is absolutely terrible. It's not a major complaint, yet another bummer.

Though for comfort at least I didn't take the Northbound train to NYC when I should have taken the Southbound train to Baltimore like the lady in front of me did. This is most definitely not literally one of the worst annoying things that could have happened, for sure.

Meetings at work, footlong brunch, doctor's cup cake, TJ trip, homemade pizza, heavy writing [Tue 30]

 I woke up at 8.45 in the morning because I'd woken up at the middle of the night. Attended a couple of meetings in the morning and a few in the afternoon. Did some light work, some light writing in the work journal, and general chilling about. I'm generally closer to getting rid of reddit.

So right, because of the meetings distractions and work stuff I couldn't get a meal until 2 in the afternoon. Saw there was an offer for BOGO at Subway, ordered the veggie patty foodlong, ten minutes later I had two of those and I was halfway into demolishing one. This household won't eat subway at all, not even taste it and that's fine because I get to eat all the good stuff without sharing. The veggies are healthy, and I don't care about the caloric density of the bread. I should start working out again though. Something to keep in the back of my mind.

Toward the end of the workday, planned for the rest of the week. The hackathon is coming close and we needed to form a team and find a project. We were unclear on good ideas and good teammates, so I took the lead over a new coworker, connected her to somebody I'm on good terms with and we got rockin'. This is gonna be a swole hackathon if I may say so myself.

After work N and I just chilled around discussing various priorities and direction and things, my plans for when I'm in Seattle, the things I might want to do and avoid. I'm generally quite  a risk-averse person and my friend suggested that I go out do more things live my life to the fullest which sounds a tad too tiring, but if it means it can help somebody feel more alive and thriving at a time that's tough like right now, I'm willing to do whatever.

SL came back from the hospital and offered me a cake in a cup. SO much icing, so sweet. I ate it all without questioning the calories. What was I even thinking, my heart hurts right now, at almost quarter to two in the morning. It was so filling there was no way I'd be eating dinner.

N and I went to TJ's to get his groceries and supplies for pizza which we would make for my last night in the city. Got back, I trolled about on twitter and youtube and got ready to write. We made a nice simple pizza with olive oil and mozzarella cheese and basil. It was so good, but I couldn't eat too much of it.

After eating N asked me if I wanted to eat chocolate, I rejected because a lot of writing needed to be done. I postponed it for some other day. And got about writing.

All things considered this is my 18th post of the evening. And it's 10 to 2. I freshened up and got ready for bed an hour ago. All set to sleep now.

Since I have a long trainride where I will likely not be able to sleep very much, the idea is to complete the remaining posts comfortably tomorrow. And not worry about this sort of behavior from the month of April, I can finally go back to an hour/hour-and-half of meditation!

Goodnight peeps.

Wrap lunch, slow workday, midday hike, thru hiking considerations, herb destruction, rice and tarkari dinner, suddenly asleep [Mon 29]

 I write this (and the previous 15 posts I guess) the following night.

Got up quite early, so very fresh, I don't understand what was up with me but I was jumping with joy and full of energy in the morning. As they day went by I got tired and my head hurt and even the smallest of things became irritating.

Not much was happening at work, I was waiting on a few decisions, a couple of reviews, that was it. Oh yeah, I spent the entirety of morning trying to reconnect to the VPN because they threw be out accidentally due to a misconfiguration. Was in a call with IT for 3 hours, they didn't even pick up, but reached out to my manager and he solved my issue in a matter of few short minutes.

For lunch I had the remainder of the wrap we'd gotten from the Indian restaurant the night before.

At about three, I paused working, N and I took an hourlong uber-ride to a nearby park and we walked for about an hour-and-half. I'd insisted on going on it because I want to do one of the longer thru hikes soon and I need to be prepared for it. Preparation time can take from three months to eight months and I want to be on the safer side. I looked up ultralight equipment, evaluated tents vs bivy's and ways to deal with expensive equipment that might not be suitable for you under all circumstances.

The walk was a bit of a bummer because we walked for an hour-and-half, and then took the uber back home, as the trail was a lot shorter than N had anticipated and it ended suddenly by the side of a major highway. We got some great pics though which was a major win.

After coming back we worked in trimming N's hydroponic garden. After trimming most of the dill and other basils, he realized he didn't want the plants even, and destroyed the plants and threw them away. The cuttings still stay in a jar of water, and we're unsure what to do with that amount of herbs. If anybody's got a good usecase for half a pound of dill....

In the evening N was busy with meetings so I took a bunch of selfies. Ate rice and TJ's Indian Mixed veggies. After he was free we talked a bunch, watched the tv. I tried to avoid going to bed at 12 because I wanted to write, like really write but my body thought otherwise and I fell asleep. Like without being aware of it. Without brushing or changing or making my bed on the couch.

Got up at half past four in the morning, brushed, changed into proper sleeping attire, made my bed and went back to sleep, to get back up at quarter to nine the next morning.

Leftover brunch, writing in the skies, yummy potato wrap [Sun 28]

 Truth be told not much happened this day. I wrote a lot, and was super motivated, so that was exciting. And I got chatting with old friends, talked about how they celebrated holi etcetera, exchanged selfies, so that was nice as well.

Don't remember when I got up, perhaps it was 9/10 whatever. For brunch I used the leftover pita from the previous evening with fries and two eggs to make a massive eggroll, which when eaten with ketchup was surprisingly decent.

Since it rained all day long there wasn't much to do. I went to the 'penthouse', and wrote a dozen or so posts as I looked outside. Things were said and revealed and known with potentially long-reaching implications and decisions forever set in stone none of which I will claim any responsibility for, or maybe they won't but I freaked out and wrote a bunch on that. Also I broke the common room tv and a lady who'd just moved in and couldn't get her cable working but was really desperate to get her basketball match fixed it somehow. The persistent unidentified whirring was annoying.

In the evening N offered to get me dinner as a treat. I threatened him with Zahav which is the most expensive restaurant I know of in Philly that we might potentially go to someday, but instead we ordered online from Masala, their amazing potato wraps. I've written about those. They're incredible. We walked over to the place, picked our wraps and absolutely devoured one each, leaving the remainder for lunch the next morning.

I slept quite late, because for some reason I can't seem to make myself go to bed before half past one in this forsaken city.

Amazing farewell lunch, trip to DC, uneventful ride to Philly, walk, furniture setup, halal rooftop dinner and deep conversations [Sat 27]

A lot of things happened this day.

This was my last day in VA!

So N cooked my all of my favourite food things, much like one's parents did when their child was to go to boarding school for months. For lunch we had roti, chickpea-and-tomato gravy, the classic eggplant gravy N makes, eggs, and pineapple juice. So filling. So tasty. We sat in the sun for several hours, soaking in the vitamins and almost sunburning our skins.

After a quick packup, which in retrospect I have discovered was not too through because apparently I missed out quite a few items of clothing there, which means I can go empty handed the next time I go there, we headed out for our drive to DC at quarter to 1. We took the longer scenic route once again and once again we were afraid we would cut it pretty close.

However, we had the experience from the previous trip when we didn't plan our journey right and I had to miss my train (you can search it in the archives, if you search for 'miss' and 'train' it's probably in there, I can't be bothered to do it). So we got there like 20 minutes in advance. We parked right by a homeless camp which was a few blocks away from the US capitol, strolled about went to a nice park took a few selfies. Went to the car, they dropped me in the Union Station and went away. I went straight to the train and settled down in my place. Found a few Nepali girls on my car, I've written about this experience in one of the previous posts.

The journey was uneventful except in how productive it was. I wrote like six or eight posts throughout the course of the 2-hourlong journey. Wish that's how I worked every day.

Got to Philly right on time, walked to N's place, it was a 20-min walk. Felt such a bauss walking in my heavy backpack in a big city, felt like a real backpacker. He was busy with work, so got up into the apartment and set myself down comfortably.

A few hours after resting and catching up, we went down a couple of floors to help his cousins set up their furniture. They've furnished the apartment quite well and it looks cute af. VD made chauchau sadheko.

It was time for dinner, we agreed to go to the halal cart a few blocks from here (I've written the review a few posts previously), and went to the rooftop to eat. On the twentieth floor. It felt incredible. We talked about life, relationships, expectations of future, etcetera, I stayed pretty quiet because I wasn't feeling like having a heavy conversation. The food was fantastic.

Realized while we were getting the halal food that people don't care about the pandemic anymore and everybody is out and about, drunk uncaring and maskless. Hooo boy, this might turn out not too well.

We slept disappointingly early because there wasn't much else to do. I guess it was like, 12 already but still, it was a weekend night and we're young in the middle of one of the most happening cities. Whatever. We're boring people I guess.

Trip to Arlington, Wendy on the way, yummy dinner, poker with the parents, revelations, last night in VA [Fri 26]

 This was my last full day in VA!

For brunch we had alu-chanako tarkaari with eggs.

I didn't get a lot of work done, don't remember what exactly I did I for sure wasn't writing in there lol, but workwise it was quite unproductive. Oh yeah I've been looking on youtube lately searching for videos on making ribbon microphones and speakers. That's probably what happened. If only I had the space to do these things! I need a homebase maybe I've realized, soon enough. Either that, or go completely the other way.

We headed out to Arlington pretty early on. Went to Wendy's where we got a fries and the others got the jalepeno popper sandwich. I had too many fries I'll be honest I'm beginning to appreciate homemade fried potatoes and the fastfood fries seem to be overrated. Far too salty and dry for my newfound tastes.

Then we took the scenic route through that other place I don't remember, almost got delayed because of traffic there but at least we avoided the I95 and I495 which is awful in terms of sightseeing. Got to see the suburbs, the storage container places, etcetera.

At SB's place, fun was had. We had him, PS, his cousin A, and his parents. We had a cheese plate as appetizer...I ate hummus and chips and carrots and fruits. For the main course we had homemade pizza. Then it was revealed to us that other things were available as well, so we ate the most crispy yet flimsy juicy yummy selroti I've had here. We also had muri ko laddu and tiil ko laddu. So fulfilling, so great.

Talked a bunch about our plans, where we want to be, where we'll be meeting again, all of the good stuff. Got invited for the December wedding both from SB's side and PS's side.

We played poker for a few hours, SB's parents hadn't played before so they really enjoyed it. SB's dad thinks it would make it big in the Nepali youtube community if it was presented well. He thinks Nepalis will stop playing whatever traditional card games they currently play and move into poker if it's marketed properly. I said, yeah there's the youtube money, and you could also make monies from selling expensive poker sets!

We played several rounds of poker. SB's dad looked at my cards after I'd folded and figured out my play. Unfair! I didn't win but I didn't lose pathetically like I've done in the past. However poor A, she lost 3 buy-ins and was possibly on her fourth?

We headed out at 11.30/12 since everybody was yawning and we had to drive. There was terrible traffic on the way but it cleared up soonish and we got home in 40 minutes.

Compared notes and caught up, maybe smoked up a little bit as well don't remember that part haah gotcha, before going to sleep.

And that was my last day and night in VA!

Second round of trips, and second set of disappointments, almost, gigglies and staring at the stars [Thu 25]

 Had roti, eggs, achaar, hashbrown and saag for brunch. I was late for the meal because there were too many meetings happening at work, so I heated myself three rotis.

In the evening we went to H Mart's food court again, this time 25 minutes before the closing time. However, our goddamn luck, they'd just closed. N bought slippers to send home. We looked at massive steamers rice cookers and other gadgets that are used in Korean households that'd be interesting to use.

We drove to Lotte Market and thankfully the foodcourt was still open. I bought the dinner for the team. I had omurice with kimchi on the side, P had miso soup with extra egg and N had kimchi-jiggae. I ate most of the kimchi, and a whole lot of raw muu radishes. I forgot that raw radish can bloat one up and make one's breath smell terrible. Oh well.

P and I got the gigglies, I got tired and decided to go to bed, couldn't sleep and got up. Got munchies tried to eat something. We decided to get a carpet outside and look at the moon and the stars at the clouds. And we did, for three hours, it was the most wonderful amazing nature-appreciating moment I've had in recent memory. Such solid good-times, if only I'd been fully sober for it. Or perhaps the experience was enhanced exactly because I wasn't sober?

After watching the moon's craters and crevasses, looking at how the clouds flowed like water in a steam and eating nonstop, I went to bed at half past twelve, so very full and very sleepy.

Disappointing trips, overwhelming smoothies, yucky snacks, wolfwalkers [Wed 24]

 Had friedrice with eggs, and salsa with avocado for breakfast.

For lunch I had a burrito with momo ko achaar. Without the achaar it would have been a difficult swallow.

In the afternoon we tried eating cheese puffs and potato chips as snacks but they were too gross so we threw them out.

For dinner we went to H Mart to eat from their food court, but it was closed. We checked at the Lotte Market and they said the food court was open so we went in there. It had just shut down as well. N did some shopping in both of those, but our dinner plans were aborted.

We came back home, and made smoothies. I've written about the 'going too far with smoothies' in the past. It was too much, P could barely finish half his glass, I had to basically shove it down my throat. Not because it tasted gross necessarily, but it was just so filling and so much of it. I don't want to remember the experience.

Ready to sleep, we watched Wolfwalkers movie. I didn't want to, I tried distracting myself with writing(!), shopping etcetera, but I couldn't do it, ended up watching all of the movie with the fellows and loved it, what a great goddamn movie, I've written a short half-hearted review a few posts before this.

Went to bed pretty easily, with so much food in my tummy.

Yummy salsa breakfast, selroti and samosa lunch, walk in the park, social conversations, rice drowned in ghee for dinner [Tue 23]

 For breakfast we had bread eggs hashbrown avocado, yummy homemade salsa, and mangoes. We really went all-in on the food this day oh boy. Good times, and this was just the beginning of outrageous sumptuous meals.

Work was pretty decent, had a couple of large department meetings, things moving around, got informed about working from work situation, it sounds like going remote in the long term is not going to work out. We'll see. GC application remains in process.

Since Breakfast was so heavy, for lunch we had selroti, samosa and aloo tikki, the aloo tikki and samosa we'd gotten from Bombay cafe. 

In the afternoon we went on a light 'hike' but it was a walk really to Club Run Stream Valley park. It was peaceful and quiet, the stream running through the park was so serene. We talked about overburdening social conventions, why they might make sense, how traditional village values don't directly translate to urban culture but people don't understand that and the contrast creates a lot of confusion and what people would do if they had more time for hobbies. P and N got into quite a discussion and I teased them that it might bring about a big fight between them.

Back home N fried the momos for dinner. P and I fried leftover rice in a pool of ghee in their cast iron pan, with cumin seeds. Not enough cumin seeds, there's never too much cumin seeds in anything I"ve noticed. We had rice dripping with ghee, fried potatoes, sauteed green vegetables (raayo ko saag), and dal fried in ghee for dinner.

It was far too filling for me, I slept soon after the extremely heavy meal though I imagine the physical hike helped sound sleep as well.

Wolfwalkers: A review

 I didn't want to watch this movie.

Because I knew it would be full of the feeelz, and be sad and dramatic but also lovable and adorable, and it'd make me cry. I tried to avoid watching it I really did, as PN watched it I did all I could to focus on something else anything really as long as it meant I didn't have to listen to the sounds and watch the video.

The animation is beautiful, each frame is hand-drawn watercolor painting. The medium is perfect, the level of abstraction showing the town from the sky is adorable.

The political message is quite..heavy. It's an obvious allegory for well..wolves, and animals and how humans have taken over the world of animals. But also it's a not-too-subtle allegory about the British excesses in Ireland and the particular brutality of Oliver Cromwell towards the Irish. I wish I didn't know and didn't have to think about these things.

Which is why the Good Friday Agreement and the American guarantee of the Irish peace process is so important.

What a great story. Just watch it.

I don't want to give away too many spoilers but I was able to watch this movie without too much anxiety, which means that not too many Seriously Bad things happen. Good people don't die.

The ending is morose and unfulfilling I guess, as life is.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody.

Spring is coming finally

 I write this on the second-to-last day of March, and Spring is coming with a great swing.

The grasses have started turning green, the lawnmowers and leafblowers have come out, and suburban complaints of pointless mowing and leafblowing are back in the game.

The Spring cherry blossom is two weeks behind us, buds of flowers and leaves have turned from orange to yellow and on their way to green.

Birds chirp in the mornings even in the suburbs, crickets are out with their full-throated songs in the eveings.

The air is still cool at times but one can go about in shorts if one really wants.

It's running weather again, and more importantly, it's biking weather again.

Outdoors seating is the most fun at this time of the year, without the authoritarian overwhelming force of the summer sun coming down straight upon one's body.

Spring breaks in colleges have begun, and are mostly ending. Not that it matters this year anyway.

The dark days are gone, the unbearably cold weeks are over. Sun's out at six and goes down at seven. And even then it's still bright.

Funtimes are about to begin. At least in the outside.

Now only if the deadly stupid pandemic that's still chilling and growing int he country were to be defeated, this could turn out to be the best Spring/Summer combo ever.

Let's do it people, we are so close!

On joe joe's

This is a review of "Joe Joe's". For those unaware, they're Trader Joe's Oreos, and thus the "Joe's" gettit?

I'll start with the most outrageous comment of all time. They're far, far too sweet. And they don't use enough of the 'good' kind of oil or shortening because the cream will leave a lingering taste and feel on your tongue and the roof of your mouth. They're an Oreo clone, not an alternative.

TJ's also share the 'extra cream' version of those, and they're just an excuse to consume shortening and sugar. The cookies that presumably surround the filling barely hold themselves together. Far too much cream.

Even the 'triple cookie, double filling' double-decker cookies feel a bit too decadent.

They're no Oreos, for sure. But then who does eat Oreos on a regular basis? Is that an unfair standard to hold them to?

Here, I'll say this. If you have like fifteen people coming to your apartment and you know for a fact at least a few of them have sweet tooth and are likely to enjoy these, get a bag. Or two. And put them out as snacks. They'll be a good conversation topic, and hopefully be gone soon.

If you want to have some for yourself, and you're in the habit of...how shall I put it...flying the skies, do not recommend. You don't want to get the munchies and ingest six thousand calories of pure sugar and oil. And feel disgusted later not because of the sugar or the calories, but the gross aftertaste.

I like those, I eat them in an irregular basis, but I wish I had a large group to share these with. It's far far too much for a single person to consume all by oneself.

Ouch.

Why is everything a commentary on how I don't have friends or partner(s) to share things with. Too far, TJ's too far. Cut it out!

Mamoun's falafel restaurant Philadelphia: A review

 This Old City Philly restaurant claims to be one of the oldest running Mediterranean/middle eastern restaurants in the region, tracing it's history to the early 70's in NYC. It is now a small chain spread out across the NorthEast.

For a restaurant with such a heritage, shall we say, it's got updated furnishings and designs. The menu is updated to the latest trend in culinary culture, but also respectful of traditional 'meat and potatoes' offerings that have always worked.

Great mint lemonade, by the way.

The serving size is huge, and you won't be disappointed or hungry by what they have to offer.

They are a bit close-fisted with generosity with giving out the sauces, but perhaps we didn't ask insistently enough.

Good vegetarian platter, great baba ghanouj, decent hummus. Friend N tells me the meaty offerings were quite tasty as well.

The place is quite photogenic and easily instagrammable, though one should not hold those against it, for it does live up to it's proud history.

For decently-priced no-frills counter-serve cafe with a decent choice of drinks and a 'coffee shop' vibe, go to this place. You won't be eating a sultan's platter, but you'll be satiated and happy for a while.

many stars.

Chestnut St. Halal Cart of Philly, a review

This is a review of the Halal street food cart that is parked off of Chestnut Street in downtown Philadelphia, I couldn't be arsed to find out the name for it but if you're really really diligent and want to find it, it's on the corner of Chestnut and S 13th St, in City Center. They're open in the evenings generally, around 5pm to 10pm.

If you're hungry, looking for middle eastern shwarma and falafel wraps, go there.

Amazing deal, amazing food.

For seven bucks, you get a big juicy falafel wrap, a large bag of fries, and a drink of your choice...soda seltzer or water. For one extra buck, you get various meats and meat bowls.

Their pita is soft and fluffy, it tears easily and is dare I say...'smoky'. The falafels are soft, the meat products which I've not consumed are good enough that my friend N eats them for at least three meals a week if not more.

The proprietors, an Afghan immigrant man and his American wife, are friendly and kind and will try their best to accommodate to your needs.

You can pay by cash, card or cashapp, they prefer venmo/cashapp and will trust you to complete the transfer. You should avoid paying with card as it cuts into their already tight profit margins.

Good people, great food at amazing prices. If you're looking for a place to get your daily meal, or you're flat out drunk with drunchies and need something to fill up your tummy to cut down on the abv in your blood, this is the place to go. Make these people richer! 

Chief guested at a friend's engagement, maybe I'm not fluent in Nepali anymore

It's quite sad, the events of the occasion in question happened almost a month ago and I'm getting around to writing it now. No worries, better this than nothing. Here we go.

Astute readers will remember from my journal entries from a month ago when I talked about how I spoke on my friends' wedding. The apostrophe is in the right location, friend SB got engaged to friend and former roommate PS. This is specially great for me because I've gotten wedding invitations from both bride and groom, which means in ceremonies where monetary rewards are involved I can change sides depending on what's the most advantageous at the moment. So I can go with the groom from the janti party, and then instantly change to the bride's side to receive the janti, then quickly turn around to groom's side when there's dakshina involved, and so on and so forth, you get the idea. This is big deal for me.

In any case, the engagement right. So in the engagement ceremony apparently you gotta pretend that the groom and the bride don't know each other despite having dated for fourteen years in this particular case. Then somebody from the girls' side will ask the groom's side on why they've arrived, and somebody from the groom party will have to give an answer. In a funny improvisational sort of way. That was the impression I got anyway.

So SB's dad got me roped in to be the talker from the groom's side, and I took that with great stride. Finally an opportunity for fame and greatness, to practice my comedy skills, I thought! I practiced a bunch and improvised as well. I couldn't remember it all because honestly I couldn't be arsed to but the words that SB's dad had written were long and confusing and it'd have taken some serious effort.

We were a little late to the engagement and I was worried they were all worried for the chief guest aka me. Truth be told maybe I wasn't technically the chief guest but in my mind I was. We waited for another hour before I gave my improvised speech etcetera. Any everybody burst into laughter. It was amazing I felt so good. I was reading generally from the phone but it felt good.

SB's dad wasn't too happy that I hadn't gone by the script, and felt there were some errors on my part, but everybody enjoyed and had a great time and auntie was alright with it.

So anyway in SB's mom's side of the family I was super popular and everybody asked who the guy who'd given the speech was. I was the talk of the town, and I imagined it was because I was so goddamn funny and smart and intelligent, you know?

Apparently it was because my pronunciation was so bad they thought I couldn't read or maybe even speak english, and they felt that the speech was a valiant effort from me to get in better touch with my roots. What a bummer.

Ehh, don't care. A crowd of people laughing at your speech is still a crowd of people laughing at your content. Even if they're laughing at you, they'll eventually come around.

It was fun.

And that is how I started thinking, maybe I should start considering standup as a side-hustle, at least in Kathmandu.

Bombay Cafe Fairfax: A review

Now that we've set the context here, let's get on with the review.

I had the good fortune to be at this place two weeks ago, and what an enjoyable experience it was!

First, the employees were all happy and seemingly motivated women who clearly enjoyed what they were doing and glad to help us, but puttered around doing their own chores when we didn't need to be looked after. Which is a load off one's back because you're not there as a customer to entertain them.

This was apparently a pleasant surprise for my hosts since the last time they'd been there it was a bunch of bored annoying dudes who didn't look too happy to have customers in the house.

In my headcannon they're a collective of a dozen or so women who own the place and they decided to fire the employees because they weren't doing a great job and now are in full control of the situation. They're fully motivated and eager to expand their business, but understand that it doesn't come at the cost of customer service. They've taken training on how to best interact with patrons but will show common sense and empathy when dealing with people. Your work is never a chore if it's something you enjoy and are invested in, and they're both literally and figuratively invested in their work.

We ordered samosas for the hangout later, and a few aloo tikkis. We were hungry so we decided to have the meal in the cafe itself, they've got a few open tables. The folks were not greedy with the sauces, unlike the old employees, a generosity which was appreciated.

P and I had two samosas and an aloo tikki each. The aloo tikki had too much of chickpea flour in the filling, though the crust was perfect.

The NoVa people tell me the samosas from there are the best Samosas they've ever had in the U.S., and potentially they're truly the best samosas in this fast country of three hundred and fifty million, and I think that's a fair argument. I'm not a samosa gourmand, but they were crispy yet soft on the outside, and the filling of potatoes and peas was perfectly cooked without being too spiced. They knew how to hold the spice powders back, a skill that takes a decent amount of experience and courage.

We also ordered jeri and laddus from them, and again, top class desserts, most certainly would order again, would happily support such an establishment.

Another innovation they've got going on is they have an attached grocery store that they deliver from, and they've got it in the delivery apps as well. So you can order groceries and food all at the same time all for the cost of the regular delivery. That's not something I've seen in (m)any other places. Every other place should be following the pattern, really. Sell prepared food if you can, and if not just sell raw materials for a good margin.

Great place, hope my fanfiction of it is close to reality, highly recommend you at least try this place. The samosas and alu tikkis are good, there's no disappointment in the desserts either.

The types of hosts you'll meet at your regular South Asian food outlet in the U.S.

This was going to be a review of an Indian cafe in Fairfax, but it got out of hand, so I'll talk about the different kinds of people I've encountered at South Asian restaurants in the US, as a way to build context for the review. The next post will be the review.

First, a little commentary on my experience with most Indian/South Asian restaurants and cafes in the U.S.

They're often manned by youngish men (and sometimes women) who couldn't give a damn about your experience there, because at best they're being paid minimum wage, they see it either beneath themselves to be working there or see the gig as something of a stepping stone into greater things. Either way, they're not there to make you happy or content because why would they, it's not in their interests to improve the restaurants rating. Sometimes this results in remarkably bad experience but most often it's unremarkable and disappointing. You remember vaguely you had an okay time there, you don't know why.

I've written about this in the past, that time we went to a Pakistani cafe in Queens and seven of their servers men and women all Nepali stood in a line and stared at us as we add, often whispering something to a coworker as they looked at us. It was one of the more bizarre restaurant experiences I've had. If it had happened now i'd make it a point to have a good talking with them in a good way but I was far too timid and unsure of myself then.

The second type of folks manning the restaurants are older men who're often the managers and sometimes the owners. The owners are great, they come up to you check up on you, ask what's up, share their family stories and give you a dessert or a drink, on the house. Even if you're just visiting by the area they wish you all the best and genuinely show affection for your presence.

Related are the managers who've been appointed by the owners to take care of the place. Or it could be an ill-suited owner as well. The moment you enter their establishment they see you as a mark, to be bargained with, to be overcharged and be played with. In their tone of voice and the way they deal with you, they want it to be clear that they're the big boss, the person in charge the head honcho and if you've got a complaint they're the one's you've got to deal with so beware! They're not necessarily unfriendly but will often leave a sour taste in your. Something off you'll think. It gets annoying sometimes though cough cough cough Masala in teele square.

Obviously one would prefer to hang out with the passionate but lowkey owner who is good at managing people and customers. They will give out discounts, when there's a contention with customers, they'd rather give away things for free because the stress is not worth a dozen dollars. Nothing against those hardworking managers folks great with people. But sometimes you just want to sit down and eat. And it's polite to talk to people and socialize, though one will want only to eat because of everything else happening and the energy level is low. So against your full will you engage in an extended conversation, attempts to establish common ground. While the food goes cold.

If only there were an establishment with friendly but more professionalized employees...

The sadness of cheap chocolates this time of the year

Since I came to Philly on this second trip -- on my way back to Boston, I was bombarded with chocolates. Bars of chocolates, bags of chocolates, strewn all about this fancy-ass apartment, boys offering me a piece at every opportunity.

At first I took the fact that the chocolates were heart-shaped to have no special meaning. Chocolates come in all shapes and sizes so what that these were specifically shamed this particular way. Then I noticed the patterns and had my suspicions. I hadn't been told everything. Folks had been up to some sort of personal relationship involvement situation while I had been gone and hadn't thought it relevant to bring it up in our two days' worth of catching up. No worries I thought, I was a grown-ass man I'd give them stuff and allow their people to figure it out. They'd come clean eventually.

Right?

Then at a random moment's notice I asked SL who the chocolates were from since they were all similarly designed and appear to have a consistent working ethic. He said they weren't from anybody.

And it all suddenly made sense.

They were chocolates from the post-valentine candy sale. And the guys had loaded up on that, because these were good but cheap candies.

Is it sad, to buy bulk chocolates after Vday because they're cheaper and you don't have anybody to give them or share them with?

Or are they unfairly imposing societal standards upon me when I myself don't seem to particularly adhere to traditional standards and live by the expected standards from our fore-bearers.

What I'm trying to say it, be this as may be a sad and a bit hopeless situation it's okay at forces like these to have a casual career plan about our inspector for mortgage loans and all the emotional aspects have returned, analysist says, the numbers are gamed to be perfect for tesla. Like one of those dudes is not like the other, explain.

Here's a great idea: like chipotle but for South Asian/Nepali version of the chaaat

 Okay here me through this, I believe this to be one of my better ideas.

Like chipotle, aka the 'production line' version of chaat etcetera. Except you can choose from a couple of 'defaults'. If you don't know what to get, you tell them 'Nepali style', which is in the menu and the server will give you the appropriate mixture of ingredients. If they ask for the 'full treatment' they get a bit of everything.

The chaat is going to be the full meal by itself, not just snacks.

For 'base' you get the option of chauchau, aloo bhujiyaa, and murahi, the recommended is all of it.

For veggies you have: pico de gallo, diced cucumbers, tomatoes, lemon juice, hot spicy sauce, chickpeas, boiled and lightly sauteed potatoes, avocado, onions, fried onions. Oh and peanuts and fried chickpeas as well. You get the option of making it medium spicy or very spicy. Only fresh green thai chilli peppers, none of that chilli powder bullshit.

For oils you get the option of avocado oil, olive oil, and a drizzle of mustard oil.

Finally there's stuff like yogurt etcetera, but that's also quite optional.

Some addons like avocado cost extra.

The base price is really cheap, just the base and pico de gallo, at maybe three bucks, but it can go up to twenty bucks if you add on everything, with the premium addons.

The most expensive option is one of the menu option, to set people's expectations, and have a 'reward' tier for them to give each other during celebrations.

Cold water, no ice by default, provided.

Packets of honey cups of milk etcetera, for when people need to relieve their spicy mouths are charged premium prices. because nobody told you to try to impress your date by ordering the spiciest item in the menu, dumbass.

Crickets and the moon and the outside aka the most connected to nature I've been in a long time

 Last Thursday night P and I got a little high, and the three of us in the VA burb went into their balcony, laid down on their picnic carpet, and stared up at the moon and the clouds.

I'd never been as connected to the night sky.

The moon, did you know you can see the craters and mountains with your bare eyes? And if you use shades, the glow doesn't affect you either, so you can almost see the finer details as well? And it's not just one giant ball of white light with some black specs here and there, it's not hard to make out some of the bigger details, and you don't even need a full moon for that?

We looked at the wisps clouds flow in front of the moon much like water flows over a bright torchlight in the river. We saw clouds crashing against each other, bounding back, sloshing around, and just moving like one powerful river that can never be stopped, whose banks are infinite, one that shines ethereal white on bright cool nights.

It was a magical experience.

Often I'm done with appreciating nature after fifteen minutes, most. We were at it for two hours. And I didn't even sleep like I usually do right after taking the gigglies, no sirreee, I just stared at the skies my mouth agape, wondering about the awesomeness of space and our existence.

Yeah sure there was a brief period when I looked directly at the moon and try to observe myself as an disembodied viewer, picturing the Earth and the Moon and the stars as celestial bodies and myself as an insignificant speck of dust. That was when there was a sudden panic attack about the possibility of an alien attack because of course they would, we're so smart and capable and ambitious, they most certainly want to do something with us and we have no defence mechanism. I communicated my concerns to PL who told me not to worry about such small things I didn't worry on an everyday basis.

I listened to him and that was the end of the worry. We were out for another hour, besides snacking on everything edible in PN's snack cupboard, I gave my full attention to the most amazing art that was in front of us. I don't regret not taking photos of this at all.

Oh and by the way, the crickets were being so loud with their chirps we could barely here each other. Truly made me feel like I was so far away from 'civilization'.

I'm afraid of going back to boston because it's so cold there

 The weather in Virginia was warm, almost uncomfortably so for the final to days of my visit. Far too humid as well you needed to take off your light jacket if you wanted to be not dripping with sweat. After months of gloom and sadness and bonechilling cold it was a welcome respite even if the heat does get oppressive in the summer months. It was the perfect time to be outside, a little bit too warm but the occasional wind chilled the temperatures.

I'm in Philly and it's not as warm here yet, but I can feel the days getting longer and warmer, and sure there's a few days off here and there but the trend is clear. Spring is here, and it's on the cusp of summer. It's okay to walk out in shorts without worrying about having to change later, and you don't even need a light jacket as long as you're willing to do light physical exercises when it gets cold.

But Boston is six hours away. Which means two three weeks away from this weather. So highs in the sixties but lows in the upper twenties and mid-thirties, consecutive days that won't see the sun come out and temperatures averaging in the upper fourties and fifties. For winter those are godly numbers, for somebody who's just been living in better climate that spells frozen h.e.ll.

It's going to suck to worry about going out because it's probably too windy or chilly outside, because I won't know what to wear, because I'll need to layer upon clothes just in case because you never know.

It's Spring enough to be walking and biking outside, almost comfortably enough, but not enough to do that on a regular basis. So it gets the hopes high, but sets you up for disappointments during the days when there's no sun for five days in a row.

And it's the hope that kills you, it's always the hope.

What a bummer that's going to be.

So I'm afraid of going back to Boston because it's so cold there, but go I will have to.

Two more days.

I gotta make the most of this weather while I'm here.

Damn what a good life it is to live on a fancy skyscraper in the heart of the city

 Yea so this is a whole mess I made by turning off the tv in N's rec room as I was writing because stupid Shrek 2 was playing out aloud I  don't have anything against the movie it was not the right time and the right place for it, I wanted to be writing dozens and dozens of posts in this blog which by the way I didn't get very far towards if you don't already know.

And then I looked out of the floor-to-ceiling windows on the seventeenth floor of the building pretty much on the main avenue on the city of Philadelphia, right by the City Hall. All around me massive buildings, old cute buildings, the city shining at me. Down below me the vehicles roaring bleating crying, though I could barely hear that noise over the sound of some unidentified mechanical whirring that lasted all afternoon.

What a goddamn great life it is to be able to live on a fancy skyscraper in the heart of one of America's greatest city. A privilege that I have had the honor of due to my friendship with N. I do really wish I could move to this city and live right inside this building at the prices N's cousins are paying right now. It won't work, such is my fate, that's how I've been fated. No complaints there because of the great blessing of friendships I've been given.

After spending three quiet peaceful and serene weeks in the suburbs where one never heard the roaring of the highway vehicles even on the most quiet of evenings, it was a jarring but not unwelcome change.

I want to live in the middle of the city, preferably on a high floor and live the chill life, even if that means I'm paying through my nose for that ability. Unfortunately in Boston, thanks to all the evil and i"m sorry but that's the only word I'll use for those jerkasses it's not possible they won't allow any construction to happen to preserve their property value. Without realizing that the more demand there is for their city, the more valuable their property gets.

Anywho.

Big city living, I've always wanted that, and in N's place I get the opportunity to live the dream lifestyle.

And it's every god freaking bit as exciting as I thought and hoped it would be.

James Acaster is killing it

 James Acaster is a youngish British comedian who released his show online, Cold Lasagna Hate Myself 1999, a show which was critically acclaimed by all the critics including those at the New York Times. He's a funny dude with a weird style, a rather self-deprecating demeanor and experimental wit. Whatever that might mean.

You need to be watching him. He's on Netflix with his comedy specials and yeah they're not for everybody British comedy is quite dry and I'll admit I sort of zoned out towards the last fifteen minutes of the four hour collection of his shows, but you really get a sense of the sort of person he is and the strange things he does, the justifications behind them. It's strange and alluring and you want to know more explore in greater depth into the mind of the Acaster and you get sucked into this vortex. We want Acaster, we want acaster.

He's also got two podcasts, one of which my sister listens to and the other I listen. Off menu with james acaster (and ed gamble) is the one I listen to, my sister apparently listens to the other podcast which is about music. The show I listed to is great, worth adding to your playlist if his is the sort of humor you favor.

Among other things, he's also played in Taskmaster, Would I lie to you?, eight out of ten cats does countdown. And opened for one of Conan's recent shows.

He's a cool guy, he's a good guy, recommend watching his shows, all available on netflix, and individual available for free on youtube.

It's most certainly possible to overdo smoothies

 As an innovator such as ahem yours truly, you run into discoveries very few have made, and you sometimes relearn the obvious lessons from a different or unrelated field. And it's stupid, you suffer wish things were better but you gotta go through it because that's what life is, learning through your mistakes and drinking the absolutely undrinkable smoothie because you wanted to be experimental despite being warned against it so you have to finish now chop chop.

I shouldn't have put blackberries in the smoothie. The seeds don't get blended and the seeds give weird texture.

Too much dry fruits and granola makes the smoothies too thick to be sucked through a straw which is half the fun of drinking smoothies so you're struggling to ingest them.

Also, if you put too many 'filling' things into a smoothie you'll soon fill up halfway through and won't know what to do with the rest of the tall glass. Storing it is a terrible idea because it's so thick it'll just dry out and be impossible to clean later.

Speaking of which, adding liquids to smoothies is a good thing even though you might feel like you're not getting your money's worth with the water and milk and yogurt. Because without them, the smoothie will barely blend and you'll need to spend fifteen minutes of hard work for what would otherwise have been a simple blend job.

Some risks are not worth taking.

Keep it simple, silly, with the smoothies.

Don't try to throw anything vaguely resembling a fruit or a sweet item into your smoothie because flavor profile is certainly a thing and no amount of sugar can hide the flavor of the thick brown unidentifiable sludge that tastes like...sensory overload you never want to try again.

And digestive biscuits. For some reason it tastes like cold yucky gritty brown digestive biscuits.

Better luck next time.

State of the (he)arts

 This is such nonsense like everything there is, but we're here so we have to talk. I really hate it when I'm under pressure to produce tens of thousands of words in a matter of a couple of hours because there's nothing else to talk about but myself so I'll unwittingly reveal secrets, maybe deep often not, about myself. They're not worth anything run with it if you want to.

I wrote in a published essay eleven years ago that I didn't know how to flirt, despite my friends trying quite a bit to teach me to. And I'm glad to say that's changed. Not over the course of the last decade oh noe noe noe, it's only a matter of the last eighteen months that have gone by that I learnt to talk to women in a potentially flirtatious way to suggest that I might be interested in them in a romantic possibly sexual way and would they perhaps consider thinking or shifting their window of consideration that direction or else we'd be in a disagreement about expectations from each other and that would be less than conducive for the ideal interpersonal relationship situation.

Okay not exactly in those nerdy terms but you get it. I can talk to women now. I think. Like for sure if they're not too cynical I can extend a thirty-second conversation to five-minutes, to thirty minutes, to texts and calls over weeks and months. Even years. Years, yes I've flirted my way into people's hearts over years. Well...That's where we'll stop for the moment.

I've only gotten as far as 'harmless flirting' which is great, awesome really and so much fun. But honestly I'd rather be in a situation to be doing something more...how do I put it without sounding like an asshole or an idiot...more...uhh harmful? Less...harmless? You know what I mean?

How do I close, that's my problem.

I'm stuck, talking to people or chatting them up there's no pressure to actually...do.. anything, you can get guidance and assistance from friends even family and there's a clear direction to go and an even clearer way to avoid. Do. Not. Escalate. It. To. The. Point. Where. Any. One. Of. The. Parties. Get. Uncomfortable. And. If. They. Do. Back. Out. Quicker. Than. A. Kangaroo.

I don't know for sure that Kangaroos back out of conversations quick, but ya' gotta be quick if you don't want to come off as an ass.

They don't call me a "Close-r', I've been called many things, but that's one epithet I'm yet to be given. Something I need to work towards.

This was dumb but the drought of good content is real.

Masala kitchen re-review: they're not at all bad.

 I never reviewed this place though I should have. I first had a dinner here on this day. Then I thought it was an extremely mediocre and overrated place probably favored more by persons who had lesser experience with South Asian food than myself.

I'm changing my opinion.

This is about the Masala Kitchen in Philadelphia City Center, a couple of blocks out from my friend N's place.

They sell mostly katti rolls and biriyani.

Avoid their paneer roles, they lack substance and even if you 'supersize' them they're going to be a massive disappointment. It feels like you've not had anything to eat. That's what I got for the first time, and with all the good reviews online and from friends I had set my expectations quite high. Everything came down falling to Earth.

The other day  -- yesterday to be precise -- I got potato rolls, with added paneer and eggs. The total price was still less than 6.50. It was so cheap we got two of those each, N and I.

And it was good.

So freakin' good. Gosh potatoes are awesome, and spiced potatoes with paneer and eggs inside a thick roti can't go wrong. But most importantly thank the potatoes. Regular readers of the blog will remember I'm the biggest fan of potatoes, a simp if I may, for the vegetable. And goddamn right you are that I am because they are by far the most versatile, easy-to-work-with filling and nutritious foods you can find. And they'll grow in any weather, in any soil conditions. If there were gods, this would be their gift to humans.

So thank the potatoes for the katti rolls at Masala kitchen. Try their potato rolls and egg rolls, if you get the potato ones add eggs and paneer as well, and instruct them to go on the spicier side.

Good decision on my side to have given them a second chance. What does that say about the current political situation in America?

Ultralight is the only way to go

 If I haven't said it in here already...I should actually get around to saying that, different conversation there...I'm planning on going on a long long hike, either the PCT or the APT at the earliest possible time, whenever I can get a few month of break from work.

And the only way to do it is carry less than 20 pounds of supplies and equipment on my back. Because more than that, and my knees hurt, my body collapses and I won't be able to move forward a week into the trip.

That means that I need to do hella lot of research on lightweight mostly expensive equipment, learn to use them properly. It means I need to learn to be 'one with nature', sleep perhaps without a tent, make-do with being friends with cold and heat, with moisture, and learn ways to adapt to them and hopefully avoid them.

It means I'll need means to identify rivers and other sources of water so I don't have to be a camel and carry dozens of pounds of water to last me for days. It means that I can't just throw in whatever I think I might need at some point in the future.

It's not going to be luxury, not at all.

It's possible I'll be doing it all by myself. Alone and possibly lonely save for the friends I make on the trails. It won't be comfortable.

It most certainly won't be 'fun', in any sense of the word.

And I need to start preparing for it. Right about now.

I'm ready for the challenge.

Bring. It. On.

Not only do people not have all the facts, people have none of the facts, and what they do have is grossly inaccurate

and it's so goddamn confusing awfully irritating and misleading, this is in relation to the previous post but life in general, you don't have all the facts decision maker the facts you do have are quite colored themselves, you're not an objective judge of things as they are, the facts don't shape your judgment your mind has been mostly made they color it at best and what about the 'acquirers' of those facts can we just assume they're objective robots reflecting the true state of the platonic universe or are they flawed sensors flawed analytical machines who then miscommunicate with other machines like themselves since everybody's model of the world is different -- slightly if not completely -- and at the end of it you're left with nonsense but you pretend you know everything and try to optimize for this and that, there's so little knowledge and so much information,  you're no different than a blind man trying to cross a maze based off on the crowing of the corvids from a mile away, you think you got this, after all you honed your echolocation skills over the course of decades yadda yadda yada but you know what dude you're all so lost like we all are. stop being all so grumps and start doing things.

it.is.the.worst.

it's all about clear communication and letting people know one's intentions with ability to extract the value, and people are like yess, hiding this or that will make me look better and they're telling idfferent lies to different people the whole barrage of lies keeps on expanding until it fills the whole goddamn world and shows no sign of ever ending until there's no truth reality loses all its meaning and there's only nihilism around because what was what really mattered so long ago lost any connection with reality.

sigh.

in a different life in a different world these things could have maybe excited me, things happening finally in my boring old life i'd say hurray and now we can plan ahead out-think people and predict what they're going to do. bluff and raise stakes and what not.

no. moree. nooo. moreee.

this must end now, all this drama and nonsense, this is unsustainable why don't we all just live a chill nice life and be done with it.

shut it down. shut. it. down.

Ehhh more news and scheming and anti-scheming, not much what's up with you

 yeah so we've talked about this before and it's happening again and we're so goddamn in the middle of it, I didn't even want to hear it, I just want to end it honestly I surely encouraged at the earlier point in time yes but it's getting out of hand and now I find out that the information I knew may have been tainted by the chinese whisper of gossip and now somehow I find myself in the middle of some massive bullshit and sure this may have been triggered by scheming but I was under-informed and unclear and now we're anti-scheming trying to disarm other people's strategems and all of that and I'm like fuck yeah it sounds fun and exciting when it happens to other people and preferably on the screen but when it gets close to you it's no fun because people could get hurt, hearts could be broken, words that shouldn't have been spoken are said and sadness. It could lead to a whole fucking mess of sadness I do not want to condone any of what is happening and most certainly don't want to be there for the mess when it clears or when the spatters of emotion hit every visible surface.

I take no responsibility of anything, I disclaim all my involvement with everything on all matters that may have been related to my assisting the people I know with things, and there is going to be no more guidance going forward.

People need to be given the benefit of doubt. Lots and lots of benefit of doubt. And when they get you on that benefit, you need to come up with a whole lot of bag of new benefit and give it to them. People need it. Except I guess when they're evil, but if you're willing to tag anybody who doesn't exactly align with your views and wishes as evil ah well we're done for here bobby go home and cry about it cos' fuck you and your worldview, stfu.

People need to be given the benefit of doubt, and I'm not the people in question.

Be kind to people, even if they may have unintentionally caused you to be in a tricky situation. People can be stupid and foolish but very rarely are they scheming maniacs in their evil lair like media often makes it sound.

anywho. that is all and I'm sure we're forget about all of this in few short months and when I look at this post in years it'll be total nonsense, bollocks really so as a reminder, a lot of confusion was created by an initial that two people share. That's just the beginning of it oh dear and I won't speak any more of it because none of it has anything to do with me so toodles and gbye.

What I think the noise outside is from

 I'm on the 18th floor of a residential building in the heart of the city of Philadelphia, and there's some strange whirring sound that comes up every so often and goes away whenever somebody goes outside to check up on the source. Here are the possibilities of what I think it might be.

1. Somebody on a motorbike who has a personal vendetta against me and really wants to pull my tail.
   
   
2. The building's heating system is borked, uh ohh, summer's coming soon.
   
   
3. Construction work, the noise is getting reflected by the buildings which is why it sometimes sounds like it's travelling.
   
   
4. A giant strange-looking dog who's so hungry and growls like a demonic creature thirsty for somebody's blood.
   
   
5. It's a social delusion, my friend N and I are just hearing things
   
   
6. Some other non-heating system of the building is being renovated, and they're testing periodically to make sure it's not broken.
   
   
7. The motorized curtains above our heads, they look kinda' funky.
   
   
8. Could this have something to do with...time travel?
   
   
9. A final destination-esque situation where the universe(?) is trying to get my out of the building to check out the source of the noise, then there's going to be a gust of unnaturally strong wind to push me off the building.
   
   
10. A giant bee fluttering its wings.
    
    
11. Massive coffee grinding machine
    
    
12. some sort of fart-situation

10 excuses for why I haven't been writing a lot lately

1.  I got too busy with socializing with people.
   
   
2. I didn't get the personal time, or space to be spending here writing thousands of words every day.
   
   
3. Got tired of writing almost every day for many years and needed a respite.
   
   
4. Depression
   
   
5. Got lazy and it was far too easy to not do it.
   
   
6. I found someone super duper interesting, we got talking, turns out we have a couple of common friends, she talked to them about me and they told her great things, she's coming to see me in two weeks, if things go well we might get engaged and married soon.
   
   
7. My kid got sick and I had to take her to the hospital, and take care of her, there was no time for the blog.
   
   
8. The divorce attorneys told me to not write anything that might reveal my personal state of mind, because that could be used against me at the court.
   
   
9. I ran out of good ideas and needed some time to get recharged, since there wasn't a lot happening there wasn't much to write about.
   
   
10. Meteor shower.

7 alternative careers Harry potter could have had besides being an Auror

1. Quidditch coach. He played it in college, he's got agility, he's got talent, and worth ethics aren't too bad. And he has experience teaching people shit and leading, in general. He could most definitely become a coach for quidditch.
   
   
2. Personal secretary to the minister of magic. He's had experience inside the ministry. He knows the minister quite intimately. He's dealt with many major ministry-related issues. He could most certainly be a decent secretary to his wife, as long as he developed proper scheduling and note-taking skills.
   
   
3. Teacher at Hogwarts. We know the standards for teaching at harvard Hogwarts aren't too high, they'll make just anybody a teacher as long as they like you. And as a recent-ish alum, he must be absolutely adored by the younger witches and wizards. Who better than him to train them defence against mean people, or some important shit as such.
   
   
4. Custodian at hogwarts: If things are rough in the potter household, possibly because he was recently dumped by his wife and he quit his job because it'd be too weird working for her no way his ego could take that, and hogwarts got a competent headmaster who actually looked for qualifications before making important hiring decisions, he would most definitely still make it as a custodian slash groundskeeper. He knows all the secret passageways, the exciting rooms, tricks and tips that students use to avoid authority. He'd be the baddest ass of all custodians. I'd pay good money to read this series. A has-been who's turned into a comedic goofballs getting into ridiculous situations. A sad-sack.
   
   
5. A banker at the wizarding bank. Rich dude. Check. White. Check. Well-known family, check. Good schooling. Check. Great connections in the wizarding society, check. He's the perfect  candidate to get into banking, he can figure out the details of the day-to-day banking work from goblins, if he ever happens to need them.
   
   
6. Muggles liaison officer: For obvious reasons, thanks to his experience of growing up with muggles, having a muggle wife, and his muggle-loving friends.
   
   
7. Operator of a wizarding sex hotline. Role-playing as himself. For obvious reasons.

8 fun roleplaying ideas

1. You role play the priest, I'll be the palm, you pretend to sprinkle water around, and we'll go to all the houses. Sex is strictly optional because we don't want to piss of the gods.
   
   
2. You dress up as Michael Scott dressed as a school girl, I dress up as Jan Lavinson in a schoolteacher costume, and we spend three days doing anything but sex, but maybe I'll bring up inappropriate topics, then suddenly I get fired and it's over and nobody really knows why except people heard rumors and everybody kinda' guessed something was happening but nobody knew for sure but now they do.
   
   
3. You take the role of the fire, I dress up as a bald fat brahmin chanting sanskrit verses while I throw 'ghee' into you, obviously not about sex at all. By the time it's over there's lots of smoke and we're both coughing, all of us are tired and just want to go to bed. Again, there's nothing se about this.
   
   
4. Me: a horse in the Bulgarian steppe who just got sold to you. You: A confused Scottish tourist who's unclear if you bought the horse or just rented it for an hour. You try returning me to the original guy who you paid but he's gone, a stranger reminds you that you bought the horse. Now you're stuck in a remote land owning a beast of burden that you don't want. It'll be a grand journey of friendship, love, separation and revenge.
   
   
5. Me: a buddha, an enlightened one, who seeks peace and justice for everyone, freedom not just from the chains of human bureaucracy but from the circle of life and death. You: a simp who will send me expensive shoes after seeing that I'm barefoot in my extremely well choreographed demonstrations and protests, and will collect tens of thousands of dollars to satisfy my very expensive tastes. May involve serious about of very naughty sexy stuff. Only for advanced roleplayers. May cause permanent psychological damage.
   
   
6. You're an animal, a beast of burden so to speak. Heavy costuming involved. I'm a simp, just for you, and will do anything to make you happy, even if that means pissing off my wife and family. Lots of naughty sex involved between the two parties, implied bovine bestiality.
   
   
7. You dress up as a virus with spiky ends that mutates quickly and causes severe infection of the upper respiratory tract. I dress up as a hugely popular but even stupider President of a large South American country. And we make love. It's not just fucking, it's making love. And then I promise to do anything, really anything in the world to make life easier for you.
   
   
8. You: a technerd with limited critical thinking skills, and a unwarranted confidence in your ability to judge good technology from bad, because they just keep throwing money at you you've come to believe you must be the master of the universe. Me: A manchild edgelord memeking who has nothing better to do but trigger government enforcement agencies. I completely ignore you, harass you and get you in trouble, and you profess your ever-increasing love adoration respect and submission towards me.

There's way too many places with the same name, and somebody needs to do something about it

 Right as I type these words, it's 3.42 in the afternoon and I'm in an Amtrak NorthEast Service train stopped at the Newark stop. Newark, Delaware, that is. And not the Newark, New Jersey which itself is often confused for new YORK, new YORK far too often. Noo yaahk they say you don't know if it was new york or newark but you don't want to be an asshole or the stupid foreigner tourist who doesn't know wth is happening so you politely not and smile pretending to understand and oh how you've played yourself, you've played yourself and you're stuck in the Industrial part of a state not specially known for its scenic beauty. I don't want to be mean to people or places or things but there's a reason that end of the Garden State is called the armpit of the Northeast. 

Cos' it's smellllyyy, gettit?

Back to the original topic, what's up with all those Newarks, and several dozen Springfields, Medfords, Dovers, and what not. There's even Lebanon and Delhi's in here. Cairo, of course, famous town in Ohio or Illinois. And the biggest scam of all, Portland. The settlers in the West missed the Portland in Maine, and named a whole bigass -- was it a mining town, ever? somebody do the research for me here, possibly a logging town in the olden days -- town in the great State of Oregon after it. And now when you say Portland, you have to explain you're talking about Maine and not Portland.

Don't even get. me. started. on the stupid confusion caused by Washington the District of Columbia that happens to house the U.S. government and has no representation in either of the houses -- territory motto, this is true, 'taxation without representation' -- and the state right to the south of Oregon whose major city happens to host four massive bigass engineering and technology companies, but they don't seem to get any sunlight whatsoever. Also I'm going there in two weeks.

Can people not get more creative with the names so we can avoid the confusion? Must we really insist on repeating white dudes' names over and over again in every territory and state and county all over and create this whole big mess. Why can't there be a cleaner way to do things?

Again, I'm not a rebel. I'm asking questions only to make life better for everybody. Don't shoot the messager okaay.

Is it highway robbery or capitalism: $3 for a bottle of water on an Amtrak

On the one hand, it's THREE.FREAKING.AMERICAN.DOLLARS. For a bottle of water. On a government-owned railway system. And trust me this ain't not New Zealand water or La Croix or some fancy spring water or shit either, it's like somebody went to their tap turned it on and started filling the bottles to swindle off those poor suckers on the Acela Express and the NorthEast Regional express. Grrrr.

On the other hand. Well...Amtrak is pretty nice, and it's way cheap for what it is right now, and it's so very comfortable, wish the U.S. government would put more effort into it, but it's great as it is too thank you very much. And besides if you didn't want to pay the three buckaroos you shoulda maybe just brought the water with you, or drank enough water to last your two-hour trip. And if you're really dyin' for some water without the monies to pay for it while having poorly planned before here's another idea...drink the water from the tap that's meant to wash hands. I don't think that's the worst idea in the world. I've done it in other people's homes and I'm here and alive and sure all my innards are probably dissolved or shiny green in color with all the toxic shit but I'm alive so don't be complainin' and just. pay. for. it.

The unfair thing is, everything is evenly priced. So a bottle of plain water is as much as sparkling water which by the way was the first thing I ordered they didn't have it I got handed regular water instead. Juices and sweet sodas, cans and bottles of, also cost the same.

Perhaps this is a conspiracy thing by big Sugar and Soda to convince people to optimize their money's worth...if it was the same money would you rather drink lame ole' water or water with tonne of crap added to it that sure will make it taste better but will also add like a lot of money to your medical expense later on? They don't say the part about the health of course but it's implied and easily understood.

The real deal is this. For seven buckaroos they were also selling hard seltzer beers and cheap wine. If I were the kind top be drinkin', and drinkin' on a 2-hour train ride all by themselves, I'd probably get a nice buzz for the journey. Which would take care of the anxiety about the anxiety about how expensive a bottle of water is.

Last word here: my sources in Nepal tell me considering whatever the hell is happening there, I have it is and all things considered it's pretty cheap bottled water. Yeah, fine, I'll take it!