Low-key work, fried-rice and eggs, boys out and about town [Fri 30]

Didn't work too much during the day, spent mostly reading up on the news about the disease in India and Nepal because it's wild out there and I'm a bit concerned.

For dinner we had fried rice from TJ's and fried eggs. The fried rice was really really good, specially the veggie nuggets, I need to get on that game. A took a nice drink at home, we got a ride to the Caphill area. Tried going into three places, didn't make it cos' the lines were too long, for regular bars. Waited outside the shortest line, still spent 40 minutes, by the time we got in, there was only 45 minutes of waiting time left.

I had a virgin margarita, and a beck's beer, the beer was very disappointing. We talked a bunch, A tried to talk to other people, and blamed me when things didn't go well. They closed at 12, we got out, made random Seattle townie college-going friends, and then took the ride back home at 1am. I stayed around for a bit watching shows and listening to podcast because I couldn't sleep but I too eventually succumbed to the grips of the lady night. etcetera. you get what im saying.

Yogurt and rice bkfast, rice and roasted veggy dinner, friends and sibs come over, watching blind-date [Thu 29]

For breakfast I had chiura and yogurt. Had pineapple as snacks for dinner.

The day was pretty decent, except I was in a lot of pressure to write a lot still so I didn't go out a just focused on writing.

In the evening A's brothers came over and I gave them and SK, who'd also come over to hang, the boyer-moore algorithm problem. They spent several hours poring over it trying to solve it out. I helped A's younger brother with his job search, by mostly being mean and telling him he needs to be serious about getting a job if he wants one.

For dinner we had rice, dal, the pork sauce A had leftover from the night before, and roasted broccoli that I made, everybody appreciated the broc.

We watched an episode, or was it two(?) of blind date, A couldn't stand it but SK and I absolutely loved it, we believe we compare favorably to the performers in the show and wouldn't mind going there, while I suspect A identifies with one of the characters.

Went to bed after writing several more posts in the evening, and passing out of exhaustion.

Meeting with friends and family, looking for apartments [Wed 28]

 Everything else was the usual.

In the morning, at 1.30 PDT met old friend and roommate-of-three-years WC, had nice lunch with him in the nearby ramen place I've been to before with I. Got torta there. The torta was great but idk, 16 bucks for mexican sandwich was a bit much. WC is doing really well, got a house, living with his partner, putting together old cars (he put engine and transmission to the body of an old car), and started a new business. After hanging and catching up with him for a few hours, got back home and wrote a bunch, once again. Because the pressure to catch up, remember.

In the evening, walked to caphill to meet SB. Got ramen there, mabo tofu ramen was extremely mediocre, not a big fan. After getting caught up with him on future plans, the situation at the homefront, and discussing the city, we walked down to the roastery where he got coffee. Talked more about job aspirations, and my moving plans, and we walked down to belltown area to explore potential apartment buildings I might want to consider. We walked all around the neighborhood, looked into several place. It was getting really late, so he rushed into his bus and went back home.

A came back later in the evening, fixed himself up some dinner as I'd already eaten, we talked a bunch, and went to bed, at a pretty decent time, I imagine.

Roof chills, dinner and Seattle party at SK's sky palace [Tue 27]

 Spent a lot of time out in the sun on the roof at A's place.

Wrote a lot lot lot in the evening, this is when I started really going at 'making up' for the old posts in this blog, it was wild and intense but somehow I made it? and it's all crappy but in the end the number's are going to look good, I have to remind myself, not doing this for the good writing but just the habit, the number of posts published, and by that metric I'm doing pretty well so hurrah!

In the evening after writing, set about to friend SK's place all by myself. A and his siblings were gone to get the shot faraway. It was a 10-min walk to SK's place. He lives on the 28th floor, and for not that much money. For the money he paid to live on the 28th floor (2.3k), I'd find an ok-ish ground-level apartment in Boston, what a massive disappointment in Boston real-estate market that is. Please improve, city.

They made chicken, dal, achaar and rice. I had dal achar and rice, and a whole lotta snacks. Met a bunch of their Seattle gang, and talked. Talked to folks in home, and expressed about reservations moving to Seattle for the first time in a while because I was unsure if this all was what I wanted. Realized later that yes, this has been a part of the plan for a long time, and you have to make the jump at some point or else life will push you down, and you want things to be in control.

We left his place at 11.30 at night, because A was playing FIFA. Got home at 3am EST and went to bed straight away.

I might have to grow the fuck up

 Ugh, terrible, but true.

K bhanne yaar, I'm stressed out, for the first time ever I'm evaluating my life options, future plans and what I want to do where I want to live, and the sort of people I'd want to be spending time with. And how. It's all serious business.

The last ten years have been chill, easy, by comparison. I've been in the same greater metropolitan area, stumbled from one place to other, but still around the same general region. I live in the same neighborhood I lived ten years ago, in similar living circumstances, with generally the same friends. Roommates have changed, I've gotten two degrees and have grown up emotionally and as a human being, but I haven't had to make tough choices and tradeoffs, haven't really had to struggle.

That era of privilege might be coming to an end and I'm not looking forward to it.

Though I'll be gladly dealing with it, embracing the future and all the baggage it brings, and dealing with it like a champ.

First things first. I might be moving twice over the course of the next eight months, to great expense and social disruption. May not find myself a good crowd in the places I'm moving to. The work situation -- will be staying in the same job -- might not be stable. What about friends, and groups and the things I do. Will I have to start playing football, will I have to make friends with the sort of people whose company I don't enjoy, do things that make me feel tired and super unproductive? Or will this all be a revelation, am I just afraid to go beyond my comfort zone?

Second: driving. I will have to learn driving no matter what very soon. And get a driving license. Will I get a car as well while I go through all of that? Who knows, personally I'd rather really not because of the hassle and the cost involved, compared to the very little use I'm going to make of it. Maybe I'll rent cars in between. There are multiple possibilities.

Third, the different moves. I plan on moving to a new place, until November, when the idea is to go on a mini vacation, to Japan and Nepal, and back to the US, Boston perhaps, at which point things will be back to normal-ish, will need to find a new place to live at that point. And then what, after the gc situation works out? I need to move again to a different place, where and when that's both unclear, but I need to start thinking or at least considering at this point, because every decent place will be in consideration.

Fourth, people. What are the sort of people I want to spend time with, and how do I want to spend time with them? Not just in terms of partner, but also friends, hobbies, and parties, and other passions. My life was in stasis. Things are changing. I need to rise up to the game.

Seattle in the summer

 Seattle in the summer is an extremely pleasant place, I'm told. The temperatures don't exceed 25C, it's a little chilly in the morning and the evenings, which is fine because you'll need a light jacket anyway, and the skies are mostly clear to view the mountains seas and the lakes. The city is exceedingly green because of all the rain and the shine it gets, the fertile soil, and it looks like a literal piece of heaven. The best place in America to live during the summer to live, I've been told on multiple occasions.

So there have been considerations and decisions are being made on whether it would make sense to move to the city for the three summer months and possibly one or two more while the work situation is still flexible. It wouldn't be a longer-term move, but an exploratory expedition, to delve into the possibility of making a more protracted personal investment into the region. Some friends have rooted themselves in this area quite deeply, and any move here would be an extension to that. There is no long term potential, in terms of decades here for me, NoVa will always be in my heart, but something to consider for the middle-term.

First it was because the people here were interesting enough and I wanted to spend more time with them. Then I told my parents about it and they were super duper duper excited about it. Then I discovered it wouldn't work out with the people I was hoping to hang in the summer, which is fine because I already made so many family and friends plan. It's not a certainty yet, still an option that's being evaluated, but one that I'm looking at seriously. At this point the only thorn in my decision is the apartment back in Boston, how to get rid of it for the next four months, because I do not want to be paying through the nose for two places in two cities. I'm not making money anywhere close to be able to do that. 

In any case, options are being evaluated.

Seattle weather is trying to entrap me

I was told that Seattle's got really bad weather.

That's not been my experience in this stay in the city.

Every day I've been here I've seen the Sun, and no day has been completely depressing. Except one when it rained the entire day. And that happened to be the best goddamn day I've had in a long while. So freakin' good, jeeeeeeeeez.

Anyway.

I believe this is all a trap.

Set by the universe. To get me to move to Seattle. Because I'll tell my friends and family that Seattle weather's great, it's more affordable than Boston, and it's a great opportunity to make the move guys, I'll move to Seattle for the summer to chill a bit.

And then when I do, BAM! Shitty weather, nonstop rains for weeks, no sun out in months, gloomy sad cold horrendous weather that makes you want to kill yourself. Just like that. That's how the city devours its victims. By enticing them with amazing sun and scenery and water and hiking activities etcetera, and taking them all away when they take the bait and move here.

I don't know if I should bite the bait or think more carefully.

Strange times, these.

Seattle times

As I'm so SO sooo close to fuckin' bullshit 'making up' for the whole month of April and disappearing from writing in this blog, some observations.

I'm in Seattle, seeing friends, family, near and dear ones, figuring things out. I could get used to the city. The weather's been as good as it could be, the people are nice, and the food's pretty good. House prices are not as crazy as they could have been, specially since the fools working at Amazon aren't pricing everybody else out of the city yet. So it'd be a chill place to live for a bit.

I'd see friends from college, from school, from Kathmandu's college, hang with the fam, go on dates, hang with coworkers from previous jobs. I'd join special hobby groups, meet new people, and just chill. If I lived here. Which is not certain yet.

The one thing that I was so excited about was hanging out with Pk, it has been one of the most memorable chills in recent times. Totally worth the wait. I meant to see jsc and tw, they're not available for various reasons of their own, but I'm sure we'll be caught up soon.

And just like that, 18 days have passed since I arrived to this city first. It feels like much much longer, I don't know, I want to be doing things, going places. And I did do most of that, but I'm afraid maybe if I'm settling down into the same old rut. It makes sense if I had my freedom I'd be able to do things. And yeah some days have been a little bit stressful because of...various...factors, so it's not like this has been a chill no-worries vacation. As stays go, this one's been pretty great.

I still want to explore a few neighborhoods, go to some grocery stores specific to this place and eat out a lot more.

Seattle has been in my sights for a while now, what an honor it was to be here. I hope to be coming here again soon.

State of the covid

The good news is that it's looking like we're in the finishing stretch of the pandemic in the US for most reasonable states. The vaccination numbers are starting to come down, but I'm confident in the power of mass advertising and the capitalist machine to convince the consumers that it's better for everybody if they just got the goddamn vax. Barring some unexpected situation like vax-proof strain, by later this summer, and early fall we'll be masking only in very crowded situations, and movies etcetera will be open. And bars in pretty full capacity, clubs as well.

What is unlikely to happen, I'm starting to think, is the 'summer of love'. There's a lot of suppressed emotions and energy and desperation yes, but once you're over the mountain, people realize ehh it's actually a lot simpler this way, not being out and about all the time. And chilling in your place with close friends and loved ones isn't the worst idea in the world. The true emotional toll of partying hard and being out all the time will have been clear, thanks to the disease and the lockdowns. That's what I'm proposing anyway, it's different from what I said a few months ago, the 'priors' have been updated, and I'll update y'all on what it's looking like

In the rest of the world, it's a different story altogether.

India's situation is literally hellish, it'd be hard to imagine things getting worse when the pandemic began. Now we don't even want to jinx it because things could certainly go down south even more. And the current M*di government and its goons are making the situation much much worse. There's no accurate reporting, everybody is outdoing each other on lying about the infection and death rates, they care more about the optics than the actual death counts. It's incredibly depressing and sad, though not fully unexpected. You need strong, empowered institutions to function well in situations like these. M*di's spent the last seven years mostly dismantling the institutions that were functioning and turned them into loyal personal servants of his.

Nepal's situation is no better, the increase in the infection rates is the quickest there I"m told. Lack of oxygen has been a serious issue already, and I hear the Southern districts are already seeing a collapse of their healthcare system. The government is absent from governing because it's in nobody's interest to do that: it's always about personal power and enrichment, and dirty naked games to get up there. And they haven't stopped doing that while this massacre goes on. The times are terrible, this is awful, but at some point you end up paying for the price of incompetence. Alas it's the poor, sick, elderly who have to pay it, and not those who're responsible for the mess.

Hypoglycemia and other nonsense

 I read somewhere that hypoglycemia causes this block in the head, a cloudiness that doesn't let you make decisions, hinders productivity and general malaise in your life and I'm wondering what if that's my deal, what if I've been that all this time and that's the reason I've not written my novels and the essay collections I keep promising in these pages, the cool projects I start but end up not finishing really, all those things. But then it's clear that's not the reason because I'm often well-fed, that could possibly not be the reason, or could it what if it's not about eating food but something inside and if you told your GP about it maybe they'd do something to fix you up. But like who knows, this is so much work, i really need to get tested, after all this nonsense is over. It's tiring, and we're so glad this is ending, at least here now, need to write a post about the scary situation in India, how they got there and what could be done to fix it.

listening to billie eilish, it's so obvious when you're playing attention that she's really really big, everybody's heard her songs even if they think they've not because it's impossible to escape when it's being played outside, but when you're not really playing attention to the background, you don't think of it actively, and you imagine yourself as this blob of nonmusical goo who's not really into songs or art or some shit but that's because you don't have the tools, logical thoughtwise, kinda', to make sense of the vibrations. the documentary helped me see what was what and now it's starting to grow on me? It's not my favourite, playing in the background it provides me with comfort and a sense of calm.

5 absolutely nonsensical things because I need to fill in the words and running out of ideas

1. A large tub, full of warm butter, where men dip their uhh private parts, as a way to rejuvenate their virility and masculinity. It's gotta have a long an interesting mythology and history behind it, something involving the gods and how they decided to bless then humans with more children but only if they dipped their balls into a vat of cowmilk butter, and how all the great historical generals who had been thus unable to make children had been blessed with a dozen children after visiting the place.
   
   
2. Three cars, one red, the other blue, the third one brown. Driving on the highway between Colorado and Nevada, by each other's side. The trick is to have a propane gas and a pan going on the hood of one of the cars (as they drive), and cook bacon on the pan, while your guests -- seated on the hoods of other cars, strapped tightly to the frame on metal chairs, wait patiently for their food. The onlookers cheer "USA, USA, USA"
   
   
3. A hungry bear who opens a suburban trash to search for food, but discovers discarded papers and photos that prove the infidelity of the man in the house. The bear uses that information to blackmail the person concerned, who happens to be a multi-millionaire and the CEO of a company about to go public to get himself dozens of pounds of fresh fish every day, without putting any extra work besides the regular blackmailing. The CEO doesn't mind much because it's a tax writeoff -- he passes it off as animal welfare donation etcetera.
   
   
4. The city of Seattle on a Wednesday afternoon, nothing's happening, the streets are quiet besides the regular hordes of homeless people ambling about, and then there's a loud shrilling noise, bright red light, people look up and they see a strange saucer-shaped object that's obviously so very clearly piloted by a hairy cryptid who goes by the name of Sasquatch.
   
   
5.  A strange man, of Italian origin in Boston, who finds himself under extremely confusing circumstances at an extended family get-together. The Boston dive bar the family's hosting the annual event wants folks to clear up in two hours, and he just wishes it would come a lot quicker because somehow the conversation about private parts has come up. And they're talking about dipping their dicks into  butter or some shit, he's really freaked out and just wants to leave, he can't cope.

Out to a bar in Seattle, first since the pandemic

 A and I went to a bar last night, the first time in...forever...in Seattle, since the whole thing began, really. It was chill, I got a margarita (virgin) and a bottle of Beck's, which is a non-alcoholic beer that tastes disgusting. The virgin margarita was great.

In the caphill neighborhood of the city we tried to get into three different bars, each of which had  a queue that went around the block. We finally circled back to the second place we'd tried, because it had the shortest line, but ended up waiting for forty minutes anyway. Not necessarily because everyone was out and about, but capacity is severely limited right now anyway.

It was chill, we went to the ground floor, and then the underground. A tried to talk to people but made a pretty serious error in his approach (mistook somebody for someone he'd already met), and things just didn't go our way from there. We chilled outside for a bit, met a couple of college dudes who were just chillin' outside, A shared smokes with them, we talked about a bunch of random shit, and we drove home. I was sober throughout, which made it difficult to be out and about, and the fact that I don't enjoy being out and about with people who are a little too into being 'out there' made it all the more boring for me, but hanging out with friends, seeing human beings and looking at cute faces was fun.

Great night.

Seattle is a really queer city

Seattle is the queerest city I've been to, ever. Even more so than SF and that's saying quite a lot.

There's rainbow flags on restaurants all around the town, not just in the more progressive parts. The sidewalks in some parts are rainbow colored. There are queer events happening all the time, the ratio of queer bars and restaurants versus 'regular' ones around the capHill is very high.

I imagine the demographics reflect the representation in the city as well, I don't know too many people here yet, but one of the podcasters I follow dearly who lives here is a queer woman herself. 

Saw somebody jump off the mountain

While we were at Poo Poo point we waited for an hour watching a guy trying to jump off the cliff.

With a parachute on his back. He was in his fifties, and what a guy, paragliding at the age.

We stayed for over an hour, there were multiple occasions at which he almost jumped but didn't because the parachute overturned in the very last moment, and then the wind stopped. Apparently Poo Poo point is a popular spot for making the jump. You jump from the top and land at the starting point of the trail, right next to the parking, and pack up your gear and then make the climb again. An hour to climb up on the trail and 10 minutes straight down in the air. Sounds fun.

Maybe I want to get into this sort of a hobby, sounds exciting. Something to consider.

The hike to cougar mountain and pupu point

Last week -- exactly six days ago to be precise -- we went on a hike to the Cougar mountain. It started and stopped raining a dozen times, the hike was pretty easy, we ate a bunch of fruits and nuts, and spent an hour on the top. There we played with other peoples' dogs and watched a man paraglide down from the mountain. I'm so out of ideas, that's going to be a topic for a different post.

Apparently pupu point is a really popular hiking destination around these parts and everybody seems to have made the hike.

Our hike back was shorter than the uphill climb by quite a bit. Drove to a nearby burger place for food, it was pretty incredible. The parking lot views were amazing as well.

That's all I got for right now.

The sound, the bay, and the lakes

 Seattle has water bodies on almost all the sides, it's amazing how it can be so surrounded by water.

First there's the Bay, where an ocean or sea enters a land, is surrounded by land on three sides, and that's this region in general. Then there's the "Sound", aka the "Puget Sound" which is when the bay meanders and dances with the land so there's much smaller bays and penninsula etc within a bay, a complex network of land and water. The sound is the most important part of the region. And then there's the freshwater lakes. There's lake Washington, Lake Union, Green Lake, Bitter Lake, and a thousand other lakes in the area, perfect for swimming and having your tiny water craft and freshwater fishing. It's cool, these water bodies define the area. Perfect for folks into water sports.

Working from a different timezone

 I've been working for the past two weeks from Seattle. But still on the Eastern time, if anything, showing my face at work is one of the most important reasons to be at work. Anyways, my hours are from 5.30 in the morning to 1.30 in the afternoon.

The one great outcome from this is that my free time is all bunched on one end, so basically 1.30-10.30, those entire 9-10 hours I get in one bunch. Every day is a weekend, almost, so much time for hobbies, writing, traveling, chilling, and hanging out with friends.

The one downside of this is that if I want to have a good social life in Seattle, it's pretty tough as I need to go to bed by 10.30-11, which is a big hindrance. But not impossibly so. Since I've been crashing at friend A's place, due to our differing schedules I go to bed late and get up early, but that's going to change when I'm by myself. Another point of note is that despite the huge chunk of free time, I do end up taking an hour/two hours of nap in the afternoon, so much time and not much to do. Again, once things start becoming more open, hopefully that'll change.

Sometimes things go up, sometimes they go down, such is life

 I was at a party the other day, things were going well and it was actually my fault not gonna blame anybody else even though technically I did end up blaming others in a conversation with the fam, but conversations got going and I heard how absurdly wildly shamefully annoying people were getting lucky in the lottery of startups and random people who had just gambled thoughtlessly had turned their thousands of dollars into tens of millions of dollars, and it was annoying, I got envious, and reconsidered the entire set of choices I'd made until this point. Maybe I should have been more motivated by money, was it not insanely unwise of me to not have had the need for a lot of savings at all, and why are my compadres doing so much better than I am, I cannot compete with them, I'm an idiot, a failure, etc etc I thought for a bit, and then realized...you know what? I don't care. All I care about is the peace of mind and happiness and friends and family, and they don't come with money. You can't buy affection with money, you can't buy social connections for it. Rather, money gets you drunk on power, you start believing you're untouchable and invulnerable, that you can buy what you desire and everything is for sale. Human emotions connections and relationships start losing their sheen because why bother, you've got all the money in the world, you could buy them whenever you wanted to.

But you can't. Money can't buy you good health: it can buy you great hospital stay, but it can't buy you peace of mind. It can't buy you love, it can't buy you love and care from your near and dear ones. It cannot buy loyalty, it cannot buy friendship, it cannot buy happiness, though it can distract you enough away from happiness to not realize what's missing for a long time. And what when -- if -- it's gone? You have a big fucking gap in your hole, that you can't plug with money, and you'll bleed out to death.

No, you must stay stable and reach out for satisfaction, happiness, better relationship with near and dear ones. Money is not to be chased after. Do what you love and care for, if that makes you wealthy, all the better. If not, earn a decent honest living and that'll bring true happiness.

Etcetera.

E bikes are so popular in Seattle

 I've written about the popularity of bicycles in Seattle before. I alluded to how micromobility in general was quite popular, and theorized that it was likely due to the perfect weather aligned with great regulatory environment -- compared to say Bay Area, where the local governments banned those electric bikes and scooters.

So yeah, the electric scooters are quite popular here, every couple of blocks or so you see a bunch of them. Not just those though, electric bikes, or 'electric assists' are also available for rent, and so are....I don't know what they're called, maybe electric mopeds..but they look like bikes with two wheels but they don't have pedals, instead there's a place to rest your feet down, and they're limited in speed but you can rent them out by the hour, and they come with nice black helmets as well, so that's cool.

It makes sense, the city is quite hilly, and not everyone wants to be sweaty all the time at their destination, so electric micromobility is the ideal use case in this town. As an east coaster, it's just fascinating to see how things could have been in Boston as well.

Fingers crossed, it's still possible though.

On the need for a good workspace

 The reason I didn't write for almost two weeks in Seattle is simple, I've discovered. It was because I didn't have a workspace to work at, and having my laptop on the lap literally was not very conducive to writing thousands of words every day.

Then I realized actually that's been the major reason in the past where I've stopped writing. Singapore: no good place to work. Nepal: no good workspace, and no good time for me to write, with family all about me and what not. Here in Seattle before I got a nice workspace made by putting A's large machine somewhere else: same issue. VA last year: same problem.

Maybe it's about motivation and internal energy and the sun and everything else yes, but also about working conditions. And I know people say if you're motivated enough you can write anywhere, and that's true, but you need a place to sit down, and a surface to put a laptop on, and at least some peace and quiet so you can focus your mind on the material at hand. It's not always easy.

This has been a fantastic discovery. Now I know that if I'm not writing well, or running behind on posts, I just need to get myself in a good environment to inspire myself.

Great lesson learnt in Seattle.

Homelessness in Seattle

Homelessness is a problem in Seattle that's gotten out of control.

If you're from the East Coast, one of the major metropolitans, you'd think you know the problem...people sleeping at major intersections, or begging for money once a while. It's completely different here in Seattle. They've set up their camps across various major parks, intersections, and wide sidewalks, with tents, and tarps and all that, they're more like homeless settlements than one or two people lying about in the cold.

It's a tricky problem I understand, but also it's something cities should be more proactive about solving. The first, most obvious solution is to. Let. The. Houses. Build. Build Baby Build. Remove the restrictions in construction, abandon those bullshit zoning laws. Let the country import lumber from canada, and steel from Germany and the UK and Canada. Make housing more affordable. So more people can get apartments and houses.

And the second problem is better access to healthcare. Brother S tells me he saw somebody out in the streets eat feces, because of their mental situation. It's really unfortunate. Have places for those folks to go to, where they can turn into the best versions of themselves.

The apartment complex I'm looking at for the summer has a small homeless camp on the side, I'm hoping things will improve and they'll find better opportunities elsewhere by the time I make my move.

Seattle is a mediocre city with a heart

This is weird because it feels like I've definitely written about it, but at this point I'm really running out of ideas people, twenty posts to go and the day's ending, the month's ending, there's no reason to freak out but we need to get those damn words out, which is why I'll be repeating this. If I've talked about it, suckiit, I don't care, you'll have read all about it again.

So yeah Seattle. They've got great musicians yeah, and there are big massive global companies that have outsized influence in the US market. The scenery's nice and everything too.

And there's this talk of the west coast 'chill' vibe that doesn't exist in the East. Whatever.

But still, it seems like in general, there's a dawdling, lazy vibe about the place, as if they don't really care about doing things perfectly, but good enough is fine. We've discussed this in terms of food, and public transport up to this point, and I want to generalize this to everything else. Like people seem to be satisfied with a lower threshold, and are okay with not being the absolute best, excelling in anything. Ehh, they seem to tell themselves, I've tried my best, I'm doing alright, there's mountains to explore the sun's out this evening so maybe I'll go on a walk or a run or something, and the sea looks beautiful wondering if the friend's kayak is available, it's a good time of the year to float around the lake.

And mediocrity can go both ways. You can be mediocre with apathy, and you can be mediocre with a 'heart', and Seattle appears to be the latter. Their 'chillness' doesn't stop them from trying new things, or exploring new opportunities, they're not so mediocre they'll stop looking for other jobs or doing interesting things. They feel emotions, and are motivated toward success, but their threshold for success is quite low.

That is all.

The guerilla war of love

Let us
Abandon this
Guerilla war
Against each other,
Lover,
And surrender.

Let's sign a peace treaty
And get together,
You and me,
We don't need the battle
Let's say it out,
Let's make our feelings matter.

An armistice I propose
Between the two of us,
the belligerents
why not lay down our arms
and surrender
to embrace
arms across arms,
hearts across hearts
our bodies entwined,
we are after all,
just one.

Let's take down those
barbed wires and ditches dug
Lets plant the flowers of love
In these fallow lands, lover.

Let's stop fighting
This guerrilla war
Of love.

If you wage a war against yourself, you'll most definitely lose

Note: I don't remember why I put this down as a list of topics. The content sounds like I'm depressed, but I'm just trying to make sense of what I was thinking of at the time. I'm fine, thank you very much.

If you wage a guerrilla war against yourself, you'll most definitely lose.

Don't fight yourself. Don't negotiate against yourself. Don't make an argument against your own self. Do not wage a war against your interests, don't find your happiness and stability, don't fight against your own well-being.

It is easy to hate yourself, or find yourself in a position to work against your self-interests. Avoid that impulse. Remember, passengers in a falling aircraft put on their own oxygen masks before helping anybody else. Your safety security and wellbeing matters the most, above everybody else's, even the people that are the nearest dearest and most loved to you. You can be around for them only when you love and care for yourself, and make sure your needs are met.

You are important. You deserve to do well. You most definitely don't need to or deserve to be involved in an unnecessary battle, against yourself.

Topless house clean up men in front of starbucks

 I and I were hanging around Pike Market the other day, and a couple of really buff and shirtless dudes handed me a pamphlet. It was an ad for their house cleaning service. Featuring shirtless men in shorts who would come to clean up your house.

That's all you need to know about Seattle, and what a weird fucking city it is.

Speaking of which, I need to put out a post about how the city is surprisingly -- maybe for me because I was unaware of it -- queer city.

It's easy option to be an alcoholic

It's easy option to be an alcoholic and I've considered that in the past.

Regular readers of the blog will know that I don't drink. Except for super duper extraordinary special occasions that barely never ever come anyway. There's a reason for me not drinking though.

When I'm two drinks in, on beer, I feel this sense of calm and connection with the world, a confidence I can only dream of when sober, and a clearheaded sense of purpose that I otherwise don't have in everyday life. And I feel like, wouldn't it be so goddamn great if it were always like this? Always on this high that two drinks get me?

This is scary. Because it means that being an alcoholic is a legitimate option, something I would want to explore, because it feels good and that's the kind of thing I want to do. Doesn't seem right.

Which is why I'd rather not drink. Much more peaceful, boring but decent decision.

I've spent a day writing this post, it's lame, so I'll end here. Later.

The second jab

I am, on the second-to-last day of April, almost pretty fully vaccinated against the deadly curse against humanity that is COVID caused by the coronavirus. Go Pfizergang!

It was a happy coincidence how I got the date for the jab. I'd been running out of time to get the second shot, the recommended time was 21 days but since I was away from home scheduling one wasn't easy. It got to 22 days, and then 23. On the morning of the 24th day after the first vaccine shot, I fired up my work computer and got the script to search for vaccine shots going and immediately got the notification there was an opening only 30 minutes of busride away! In the same day. At 1.30 PDT (which was right after work). Which meant I didn't have to take a day off from work.

It feels like I've written this before, maybe in them daily journals, anyway there's not much to write on so you eat this, don't care.

Then I woke up A, and he registered himself for the shot as well, for the following day. And for his two siblings. The three of them hadn't been planning to be immediately vaxxed, but it was right in front of them and the news from India has been quite...depressing to put it lightly.

After work took a nice ride, went to the cvs, got the jab, waited a bunch for the bus, came back and napped. Bought some tylenol in case I had headaches or felt other side effects. Nothing happened besides the sore arm.

They say you're considered fully vaccinated 14 days after the second shot. Which means in 10 days from now, I'll be fully vaxxed, won't have to wear masks or wash my hands after using the bathroom, and it'll be cool and legal for me to sneeze into other people's faces. Ahhh how much I was missing doing all of that.

Things are looking up, in this regard.

Rockwash denim is back and I don't like it

 Those faded jeans torn in the knees and buttside are back. They were big in the early 2000's, I had quite a few of those myself, was teased mercilessly by family about 'torn poor people clothes', back in the day. But I liked wearing those. Not anymore. I don't like that they're back.

For one they don't look great. They do look tattered and they're an easy way to get rid of cheap stock since it's difficult to distinguish between properly engineered tears from structurally compromising rips that will shred your trousers over the course of a dozen wears. And they're quite uncomfortable. At a time when function over form seems to have finally won over in fashion, this regression back to crappy tattered and uncomfortable clothing is a massive disappointment.

Why can't we go back to the recent-ish trend of high-cut denim for women. They looked absolutely fantastic on everybody, didn't force folks to have to see others' underpants, and made everybody feel great about their bodies. They were the perfect uniform for anti body-shaming, positive image, woke times.

These ripped denim trousers are an affront to the good social sense we have developed, and we must reject them.

A look of disappointment is what one looks for in a woman

Just so everybody is on the same page, this is not strictly speaking a very serious thought. Just something that came up to me at a random moment, and I thought to write it down because I was running out of ideas for posts here.

It would be quite disappointing to be the partner who's unanimously, within the context of the relationship, the better or even worse, the best person. On some level one definitely wants the partner to be slightly disappointed at at least some of the things, because then you've got an opening to improve, learn and do better. Disappointment is always better than anger or sadness or bitterness, as well. Because it gives you an opening to change, a desire to be better.

So yeah, people who respect me but are also a bit disappointed in me are kinda' hot, is maybe what I'm saying because i've got all the love and respect etc for my choices from my friends and family. Not a critic who incessantly goes after one's choices, but somebody who says, you know what yeah I'm bad at this but you're definitely better than this, so obviously, this is beneath you, you shouldn't be having to stoop so low as to pick up pieces of candy from the trash and eat it and sure it wasn't really dirty but maaan have some self-respect. Just as an example.

In the past I've said that Bengali women are particularly great in that regard because no matter what your accomplishments are, they're always a bit disappointed by you, or maybe it's the disappointed rest face, but there's something about that look that says, maaan I thought you were so much better I don't understand why you're stuck doing this, just apply yourself dude you know you can do so much better, anybody can do better than this, heck I could definitely do better than this, do it for me if not for you, but like maybe I was being unfair against women of other ethnicities an let my pre-existing biases drive my judgment.

Random happenstance and seeing somebody you know on the streets

 This happened almost two weeks ago I've only gotten around to writing it now because of you know...laziness etcetera, but things are happening and words are being written on a semi-regular basis now so don't complain too much or else. Who am I even threatening, my dream and aspirations? This is so stupid.

So I and I were walking up the street to go to the starbucks reserve roastery. As we were crossing the street somebody tall was coming the other way. Right in the middle of crossing the street, something came onto me and I shouted at the person. The person looked confused, I signaled them to follow me. When we both took of our masks, it was who I thought it was: sb who's my cousin who I'd told I was coming to Seattle but hadn't really given the dates. And by random happenstance we were in the same neighborhood in the right time, crossing the same street. And I noticed him.

We caught up, and he was in a hurry so I let him go, with a promise to get caught up on things soon. Met up like ten days later, yesterday, finally, because he was too busy with work and thought I was around for the long term.

But like what are the chances right? In a city of millions, in such a large place, how likely is it that you would run into one member of your family you have in the city, and recognize them with their mask on, and be crossing the very same street at the exact time. It's wild how often these rare co-incidences happen.

Anyway, it was wild.

Complaints about Seattle public transport

I don't get wtf is happening with Seattle public transit. So many cars, such slow service, such low usage, so much money driving around. Buses stuck behind trolleys etc.

It's like somebody had infinite money in simcity and realized public transport was going to be a problem, and they thought, hmmm I'll just add more buses, that'll solve my problem! And it solves nobody's problem because now the buses are stuck behind one another, and the core problem of getting to places quick and cheap is not solved yet so nobody is using those means, therefore undermining the need for them in the first place. And then another genius comes up with yet another idea: what if we set some streets and avenues to be public transport only, that'll solve our traffic problem! And they do that. And that still doesn't solve the problem because the bottleneck is still in places where regular traffic happens and without giving public transport a traffic light priority nothing changes, but they don't care because they've given up, since nobody will use public transport despite throwing all the money at it. And also the buses are empty and the public-transport avenues remain mostly unused.

Perhaps it's just the pandemic. Fair, I understand.

Wouldn't buses be quicker though, would they not face lower traffic, make fewer stops due to fewer passengers, and have things going on more smoothly? In the time of a pandemic, the public transport would be more reliable, not less so. Which means that as bad as it is right now, it's probably worse under normal circumstances.

Pathetic.

I have so many issues with the Boston public transport yes, but when it works it works, the buses move fast and take people from one place to another at a decent pace. Nobody's complaining about how they stop every other block. Not so in Seattle.

I don't know what the solution to these problems is, but prioritized traffic lights would be a good start.

So many highways and overpasses in Seattle, middle of the city

 They tore up the Alaskan expressway, a major highway that cut through the heart of the city and right by the neighborhood I'm at right now in my friend's place, but Seattle is still disappointingly pocked by large, loud, dangerous highways crisscrossing the city.

Particularly towards the Southern part of the City, there's an absurd number of highways and interchanges and overheads and underpasses. Overhead bridges that'll go on for miles. Giant wastelands that have nothing but concrete and highways. And no people living there because who wants to live in that hot loud dangerous boring hole. Highways inside cities kill civic life, they're like surgical life across the heart of communities.

It feels as if at some point in the perhaps now distant past, some government agency had too much money to throw around and didn't know what to do, and somebody said, heyy why don't we build more roads, expensive roads, everywhere because that looks advanced and futuristic and that's the sort of place we want to be, and everybody agreed, and so unused or uncared, they went into a crazy frenzy of nonstop road construction.

Those neighborhoods are apparently also the most crime-ridden and the least valuable.

They're disgusting. I hope much like the destruction of the previously-mentioned highway, the folks in power come to their senses, and decide to prioritize people instead of chunks of concrete and steel, and tear those structures down and create livable, breathable, family-friendly neighborhoods out of those places.

Or if not, at least overhead parks. That'd be quite sick as well truth be told.

Everybody bikes everywhere in Seattle, the uphill rides as well

 It's not like there aren't serious bikers in Boston, in serious numbers, but it's a different story in Seattle.

The city's got some serious biking infrastructure: the parks have separate lanes for bikes, so do all the streets, and most large avenues have separate signaling for the bikes. The buses hold more of those, and there are racks in every block.

I find this all quite impressive because unlike Boston which is more or less flat, Seattle's quite a hilly city. And despite that people seem to bike everywhere, quite seriously. Guess why they look so fit huh.

Don't know if I have a planned post to mention electric bikes and scooters, but there's used here in absurd numbers, and there's a 'spot' for them every few blocks as well. I don't know how it'll work out in the East coast, but here micromobility seems to be killing it.

Funny story from Sb, family, who I finally met up with. He's apparently had two of his bikes stolen already, both from inside the house, and is on his way to acquiring the third. Friend A has two bikes stored inside his closet on behalf of two friends. And none of these people are particularly sportsy or otherwise bike-friendly people.

Let that tell you everything you need to know about what a micromobility-obsessed city Seattle is.

Architecture and construction in Seattle

The one thing I love about Seattle so much is the architecture. It's a relatively new city so there's no boring architectural standards, no 'heritage' buildings that should have been torn down a long time ago because they're dangerous to live in but nobody wants to spend money to fix them because they're trash buildings in trash part of the town, but some greedy landlord will do some shitty surface fixup and charge absurd rents for the place. No, this place is thriving with cool creative designs, modern architecture, contemporary approach to home construction.

The houses are all new, that's the first point. They're creative and often experimental with the design, so all the houses look different and unique, compared to the pukish uniformity of the Northeast, second. Third, the designs are just 'cooler' and inspired from all over the world than 'traditional American' designs, so there's variety in the designs.

This means better insulation, better soundproofing, sensible approach to bathrooms, places more friendly for the modern living situations.The house prices have apparently gone up by 50% in the last two years or so (and thus our friend PK is a very rich person now, thanks to having invested at the right place in the right time), and they were already not as cheap as I'd originally imagined, but construction is still allowed, and home ownership is still an attainable dream around here, even close to the core city.

One last point. There's so much construction happening in the core city. All the time. So many new skyscrapers being built. Cranes all over in the skyline. Friend A tells me that the skyline has grown considerably since he moved here four years ago. And that seems decent, this is after all one of the fastest growing cities in the Country. Let the building happen! Build baby build!

Amazon, automated store and Seattle

 Amazon occupies a far too large area of Seattle, it's got over 40+ buildings in South Union Lake district of Seattle. All of them are extremely boring, glass monoliths with no retail stores to ground them. This is where culture goes to die, replaced by the machine-efficiency of Amazon's underpaid and poorly treated labor. Stores are just inefficient in the software dudebro's worldview, why get nasty with the randos when everything you will ever desire will just appear at your doorstep. Instead, take all the fuckin' money in the world your bank account can carry and throw it at absurdly priced apartment buildings. Have fun.

And now they've got a few automated amazon stores, you need to have an amazon account and a registered phone to get into those. The machines figure out using cameras and chips what items you picked off of the shelves, and charge you automatically as you walk out, no cashiers required. From this view, people are the problem with the world, without other human beings, the world would be much simpler, cleaner and a better place to live.

I like Seattle the city in general. I fucking hate, despite, absolutely abhor what a large part of city and collective mindspace Amazon occupies. They bring tax and jobs to the city, yes, but it almost feels to me like they're going out of their way to be bad tenants, as if they want to show the publicly elected officials the middle fingers, show them who's the boss, and threaten them with their vision of the grand future where the technocratic kings are the rulers, and all of us mere peasants in their fiefdoms.

They do have sick public art outside the offices though. Don't know if they sponsored those, regardless, at least work driving around once. What a dead neighborhood it is, the Amazon office area, worst place to live I can think of.

Pike place market

 It's like this cool shopping district/plaza in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle. I like it. It's touristy sure, but clearly not targeted just at the tourists. Lots of local grocery stores, flower shops, specialty bookstores and restaurants, and other places where tourists are unlikely to go generally speaking. So many independent crafts people selling knicknacks. Feels a bit like a local farmer's market as well.

It's way too crowded, but I like it, quite a bit. I went into the japanese bookstore and bought myself an anthology on japanese ghosts. Haven't read it yet, will eventually come around to it.

Obviously it's one of the top places you should go to when in Seattle. It needs a solid day of exploration over the weekend, as most of the temporary stores are not around on weekdays. It's like a maze with seven floors and buildings flowing into one another, probably goes on for a few blocks. Has several breweries and at least two chocolate producing factories that I could see. Probably more.

Cool place.

Starbucks reserve roastery

 BY this point I've gone to the starbucks reserve roastery twice. I imagined it was this grand place in Seattle that was special because of Seattle's position as Starbucks' place of birth, instead they're just high-end stores-cum-roasting places where they'll shameless mark up their regular drinks and charge prices worthy of a movie villain for the swag.

The copper tubing and copper-based decor of the place was cool. The food items, not particularly interesting. There were some drinks on the menu -- a separate restaurant runs them technically -- but nothing worth getting excited about.

It's a cool place to see friends and chill once a while, but I wouldn't be particularly inclined to visit one of those places. They're apparently in all parts of the country.

Seattle fliers everywhere

 It must be the relatively decent weather -- sure the lack of sunlight is a major bummer but it never gets as cold, or warm, as the East coast -- that encourages the residents of Seattle or Western Washington in general to experiment around with various modes of transport.

Case in point, there's always a few of those tiny amateur hobbyist planes flying in the skies. There's cool mountains to be explored and flown too, I discovered many local small private airports that are quite affordable, and since things are generally speaking much affordable in this part of the country some extra cash to spare for the hobbies. So that probably explains at least some part of why there are so many folks flying around as hobbyists. As somebody from Boston who rarely gets to see those cute little plans -- the only times I've seen them are in tv or on youtube -- it's great fun to follow them and come up with the stories of where they're going and what they're up to.

To conclude, people probably enjoy flying around interesting terrain worth exploring than boring flat wastelands.

Seattle public transport: don't care about fares and free masks

 I have much to complain about Seattle's public transportation system. I might put that out in a future post, or have it be an ongoing conversation down the road if a planned temporary move happens. But for right now I wanted to bring up the fact that it appears to me as an outsider that Seattle has a LOT of money for its public transportation system, but an unclear strategy in how to spend the moolah.

As a result you see strange things in the trains and the buses. For example, unlike Boston or NYC or any other major city I've been to, the public transport officials including the drivers don't really seem to give a damn about making sure the fare is paid. They won't even glare at you if they see you not tapping into those beeping things, or entering from the wrong door to avoid paying the fare.

And also, they have free masks for everybody on every bus, which is pretty awesome, and quite unlike the East Coast. SO if you get into a Seattle bus, you won't even have to pay, and come out with several bucks worth of free surgical masks.

Strange, strange strange, as I keep saying.

Seattle crosswalks are weird

 Zebra crossings, aka crosswalks, in Seattle are weird. In Boston -- the East Coast generally, and the rest of the world that I've been to -- they're large white stripes on the street. In Seattle they're two parallel skinny strips instead of one large one, meaning there's more thinner white lines in the crosswalks than in the East Coast. Also in some intersections, they're all crossed out and look weird. I dunno, I never thought about this before, why would anybody decide that zebra crossings didn't look good enough and needed a redesign. Here we are though. Strange strange strange.

Yeah Seattle you've kinda disappointed me with food, aka why east coast food rules

 The only good thing I can say about food in Seattle is that there's quite an unbelievable choice of vegetarian or vegan options, even in places you would otherwise not expect. Tofu, or paneer, or seitan or a thousand other alternatives to animal flesh. That is useful, and they all taste good.

Everything else is kinda...mediocre. I'm told fish is good here, and high-end sushi is amazing, I wouldn't know. I ordered bubble tea two weeks ago and asked for the popping bubbles. The tea was very much meh, and they gave me the chewy bubbles instead. As if they didn't know about the popping bubbles. At least with East Asian food I thought this place would be doing good, alas it is not to be so.

East coasters it appears are just so driven about food, they'll try to do the best, outcompete everybody else, and produce the best goddamn version of anything they're working on. In Seattle folks are into the concept of 'good enough'...if your customers like it an enjoy it, stop wasting your time perfecting it and work on something else.

I'll hold my complete judgment until a longer stay, but I've not been particularly impressed by the food in this town, despite my attempts to have an experience to the contrary.

I'm tired but I'll bullshit through the rest of the month anyway

 Even if each post is just three lines, and takes like five minutes, I'll go through it. I have standards to maintain, and they're based on the number of posts I've written, not the word count or the quality of the posts. I'm tired, sad disappointed, annoyed, really really just so...I wish I could say angry, or stronger emotions, but only rarely is one provided with opportunities to just explode. It just saps up energy, there's no real physical reason for me to be sapped and one shouldn't always sound like a complaining sonofabee. So this is just it, like my life, a nonsensical piece of c neither here nor there, nothing anybody would want to read etcetera. The mediocrity continues.

Everything is just fine

 It's an incredible opportunity for me to have a change in life, switch things around, get a better perspective on life, etcetera. It's really cool and I don't want to let go of this opportunity. Obviously. Just that the universe and circumstances conspired against me in the precise way to just gut one's heart, to bring in an emptiness that's not very enjoyable, a pain that's nothing to talk about. Just like a mirage, things disappear, and you begin wondering if it was all a strange feverish dream. This is not about me, the circumstances are beyond one's control, and there are awful things happening right now. It's just that everything in life is so...unsatisfying, slow, life trudges along and won't even have the decency to stab you and hurt you.

The world withers away as we stare into nothingness, unsure where the next gust of wind might come from.

This is not pain, there's no real reason for concern. It's just disappointment with the mediocrity of everything, at oneself for failing to setup base direction.

That is all.

Is it me or is Seattle kinda artsy

 Seattle is very artsy. Here's 7 reasons for that.

1. Historical artisticness. It's got a history of producing great musicians and artists and performers, and people who want to follow in their footsteps. As a result, a likeminded community forms here, and allows art and culture to thrive.

2. Affordable housing. Living is not too expensive here. The dropoff of house prices is immediate as you drive out of the city core, unlike in Boston where even for the 10-15 mile radius of the city, the numbers barely change and poor artists cannot afford to live. Here, even folks doing gigs or selling their artwork at farmer's markets can dream of owning and living in a nice house they own.

3. Diverse industries. The big four of Microsoft Amazon Starbucks and Boeing rule the roost, but there's a tonne of other industries to be employed in here as well. This does not 'crowd out' the artistic talent, so other folks find the city interesting enough to hang around and do what they enjoying working on the most.

4. Institutions, private. The museums, performance halls, bars restaurants encourage a good mix of artists to put out their shows. They provide a great venue for talent. As a result, culture thrives in here.

5. Institutions, public. The Seattle and Washington governments understand that art and culture are assets to the city, and put great investment in public art, performance, and encouraging those that are artistically inclined.

6. Heritage tourism. Tourists come to Seattle for its art and culture. As a result, they are willing to pay money and patronize the local artists and performers. Which creates a market for them.

7. Mass media. Sort of a corollary of #6. Because mass media portrays Seattle as a center of art and culture, people throng here to make a living in the arts. And audiences come here to become a part of those experience.

Seattle is obsessed with seafood

As somebody from Boston this might come off as surprising, shocking even, but Seattle is way wayyy to obsessed with seafood.

Their pizzas have seasfood, their burgers/sandwiches have seafood. A large part of any decent brunch place's menu is occupied by the 'pescada' section. Big and small, slimy or not, all sort of critters of the sea are represented in the menu here.

The one obvious reason is that the city lies by the Ocean, and also has several massive freshwater bodies surrounding it. So you get to have your choice of water-breathing being to eat. The rivers nearby, cold and full of minerals, are full of yummy fish as well.

That's it. It's an unhealthy obsession, and seafood is not sustainable in the long term either. Seeing how folks are otherwise eco-conscious, I'm surprised the water-animal creature is such a big deal here. Maybe it's because the place is called SEAttle so they love the SEAfood?

Too much rice

Have talked about it in the past journals, but I've been eating way too much rice lately. My tummy shows, it's extremely embarrassing and something needs to be done about it.

The fact of the matter is that rice is the lowest common denominator. You go visit people and they like to eat different things from you. They have different preferences, and you have yours, and it gets complicated trying to triangulate on something that's acceptable to everybody. Plus, it's time and energy consuming to cook food every day, twice a day, and maybe you want to be traveling and talking and catching up with near and dear ones doing other things instead of cooking. So it comes down to rice. You cook a whole bunch of it, cook another big batch of veggies, and some achaar, and you're good to go for a couple of days. Two meals a day, all day every day.

And sometimes you don't even need other things. Just rice and dal, quickly fry some eggs, ghee, and that's a fantastic feast right in front of you. It'll fill you up, won't significantly mess around with your mood, and give you the energy to go about your day. It's not something you're likely to remember for the rest of your life, but no tummy problems means you get to focus on things you actually want to remember instead of the 'base' thing that helps you get ahead.

It does get boring though. As I've discussed on numerous occasions on this blog, I'm not a big fan of the food, so it's been a little boring lately. Ohh, rice again, I think, without a hint of excitement in my voice. Eating doesn't exactly become a chore, and it's still great, but there's no exploration discovery or newness. It's comfort food, but sometimes it's easy to get too comfortable in your surroundings.

Rice is like that. You get too comfortable in your surroundings, and the next thing you know, you're five pounds fatter without knowing where it came from, it must be water-weight surely, you didn't do anythin gexxtraa to gain so much wait.

Oh but you know. You knowww. And that's the price you have to pay for the ease and convenience of rice.

Seattle/PNW is a national park

Friend P.K. said to me some time ago that the PNW felt like a national park. Trees everywhere, parks every third block, untouched water bodies, birds and bushes, and grass covering every piece of land. It feels like I live inside a cabin in the middle of a nice forest, she told me.

I've mulled over the comment over the past weeks, and that's a pretty great assessment of the situation. California is dry and dusty, it's a desert wasteland. The east coast is frozen and gloomy. The other places are far too hot to be good. But the PNW gets a lot of rain, is in the right range for trees to thrive, flowers to bloom and plans to really cover everything. And the culture here appreciates that. So suburbs are covered in a canopy of trees, the cities have trees on the sidewalks, parks every couple of blocks, and the parks are urban forests themselves.

With all the opportunities to go hike in the mountains, raft in the rivers, climb the peaks, explore the forests and dare I say do controlled hunting, this area of the country is as close to living inside a national park as it guests. The culture here appears to be quite connected to the surroundings, more so than any other urban region except perhaps Colorado. And people are proud about their trees and the obsession. It's honest, it's endearing.

It's all so lovely.

Seattle workday walks

Seattle in the summer is possibly the best place to live in America, people in the city have told me over the last two weeks. And after being fortunate enough to have lived under fantastic fuckin' weather I think, maybe I buy into that. It's just so great.

Since I've been working on Eastern time, I have my lunch at 9am PDT, and get off of work at 1.30. Over that period, I go to walk in the parks, explore the shops, and see what this place has to offer. So many parks, scenic views, it's a loss to be staying in while the words chatter, the grass glows in iridescent green, fit runners all around, dogs yapping and barking and jumping around. What a pleasure it is to walk after work during the workday.

Haven't written on this yet, probably gonna be a different post, but the fact I'm working an earlier time zone means I'm up early, done early, and the whole long day lies ahead of me every day to explore and exploit. Eight hours until dinner, ten until sleep, all in one large chunk. What a brilliant idea. 5.30-1.30 is a great time slot to be working at, I'll say that.

More on this matter.

Seattle and Mt. Rainier

Mt. Rainier is to Seattle what Mt. Fuji is to Japan. Or Machhapuchhre is to Pokhara. It looms large on the skyline of the city. It juts out from the horizon like a long pointy pimple on an otherwise clear forehead.

It's quite large, compared to the other mountain range visible from the city. Of all the cities and places I've been to where mountains are visible from, this is probably one of the largest, of the big cities. If you're in Ghandruk, yeah you'll find that the mountains basically cover half your horizon. But it's a tourist hillstation. It's not a place where industry and commerce happens. Seattle is. It's a major city with a major personal relationship with one singular mountain.

What I am a little saddened about the mountain and the city is that it appears that the city does not loom large in city's cultural consciousness, it's awareness, as much as other mountains appear in their cities. Mt. Fuji is universally beloved, a religious-spiritual experience. Rainier seems not to be, it appears to be just another place people with an interest in hiking go. That's not a big deal, but the mountain and the city could have such better relation if things were just a bit different.

In any case, if I were to live in Seattle, a nice view of Mt. Rainier would be on the highest priorities for me. Not necessarily from right outside the window, but from the roof.

Pimple attack

Over the last several months I've encountered a few outbreaks of pimples. At first it's a suspiciously red sore point, the next day it gets slightly painful. The two following days it gets gross and white and yellow, before finally bursting (often manually) into a explosion of goo and blackhead and all the general nastiness that lives on the surface of our skins.

Some time in the last year I realized that my face is far too clear...there's no marks or scars or marks of any kind. It's a pretty boy look, if I may say so myself. That's great if one is interested in that look but I'm not. So I started bursting them untimely, making sure my pimples left their marks on the forehead. I earned this scar in Morocco, I'd narrate to the curious listener, as the local innkeeper was fighting a spanish goon, I helped him but unfortunately I was hit by a dart right on my forehead. That's how I got the wound.

Perhaps something's up with my diet, I've cut down on the fruits because of all the travel happening. Maybe something to do with the fat in my foot. Perhaps the weather, my skin is too dry? Either way, I need to start working on a personal skin routine, take care of my face and hands, and have them glowing, while still looking like I've got warmarks.

Entire row opened up for me

Took the flight from Boston to Seattle in Alaska airlines, the flight was pretty tight and I was on the aisle seat with two neighbors. And guess what, they happened to be friends, found themselves an entire row, and left it for me! And I moved to the window.

So many possibilities opened up! I could sleep! Do the disco! Workout! Take photos of the mountains! Put on mustache and fake glasses and get snacks for three different people! Turn one of the seats into my workspace, one into my resting space, and one to a workout seat. It did totally dial up my options on the 6-hr Boston-Seattle flight! Great times were ahead!

And then a random woman decided to take the aisle seat. And she spread out, occupied the middle seat as well. She turned it into her laundry bag, as she spread her flailing legs and arms all over. I was once again a mouse in this massive airline, a mouse with a good view but a tiny rodent nonetheless. What a fiasco!

I had never noticed airplane seats were so narrow, the footspace so little. I'm a short guy I like to joke that I have too much leg space in the plane, but this was pretty wild. Despite being a man of small build I had to squeeze between the armrests, make sure my legs didn't go to the wrong place. It was not a comfortable seat. One wonders if it's just Alaska, or if the pandemic pounds have really added up to my physique and now my body is of a different build. It's wild times.

MBTA Airport stop is the biggest lie perpetrated by the government

This is bigger than 9/11, it's bigger than the lies behind the Iraq war, the russian interference in US elections, bigger than Watergate. This is the biggest lie any government has ever perpetrated to its people and it's ridiculous we just shut up and take it. We haven't complained about it, there have  been no demonstrations, nobody has even thought of opening up an online petition. This is crazy. Wake up sheeple! This is the time for us to strike back, have our say finally.

This is the crux of the matter. The MBTA Airport stop is nowhere near the airport. It needs shuttles that take 25 minutes to actually to get to the airport. You'd think maybe you could walk up to the stop if it says 'airport' but that's not true at all. In fact, the stop is not even in the same 'island' as the Logan airport. The Blue Line "Airport" stop is a lie perpetrated by the government to fool us simple people into believing the government has provided us with decent stop near the stop whereas in reality they just rebranded a random stop in the T system to be called Airport. When will we wake up, when will we fight against the disinformation? This is against good sense, civic decency. When will politicians stop stooping so low!

Ridiculous! We must do something about it! We need to either get a stop at the airport for real, or get the stop renamed, and tell people separately it's got connections to the airport. Because the red line South Station has connections to the airport as well, and nobody calls it "Airport", do they?

Wake up sheeple!

Get your emotional well-being taken care of people!

 Talk to a family member, a close friend, a bartender or even a random stranger if you must. Seek help. Get therapist or doctor if you need to. The pandemic has been tough on all of us, and the state of affairs of the world at large is in no good shape for us to be in a peaceful bliss mentally.

A close friend's close relative passed away recently due to depression. I've heard of several other people who've been having a rough time in recent days. And the advice is the same: get support. Talk to somebody you trust, get professional help. If nothing else, start working out and meditate. Be disciplined, follow a routine. Have things to look forward to. Spend a long time with near and dear ones. Go live with family or friends, if you can, talk to them. Get yourself a support system.

It's not worth suffering. If you have a choice between suffering and not suffering, choose to not suffer, always.

Seattle ahoy!

It's strange writing now, when I've been in Seattle for exactly two weeks and am closer to my departure from the city than arrival. Regardless, here we go. Dunno what it's going to be about. I would write about how excited I was to go to Seattle, and the things I would do there, the people that I'd be meeting. Well, all those things have happened, and are in the process, and now I don't have the excitement, eagerness, the hope and desire. So many options, such future! Such optimism! I miss the me from two weeks ago, but in a way, I'm happy I'm here, wouldn't trade it for the world. In that context, this is going to be a general ramble about what's what with Seattle.

As you know already because it's been yapped about a billion times in these pages I'm in Seattle. The land of many seas, they say. Oceans and rivers lakes bays and sound. Water, water everywhere. And trees. Cute people. Food, lots of food. Asian groceries. Homebase of the first trillionaire. 

So many parks. Such varied experiences and histories of people who live here. Interesting hobbies. We'll talk about all of that in the forthcoming posts.

We're here, an ahoy! post for my Seattle trip. All the things I wished and hoped for have happened. Well...mostly. The meeting friends and family part hasn't, because some are unavailable or too far away, and for some, it's been a challenge figuring out the logistics. I still have eight days, not worried about what will and won't happen. Have to live in the moment.

That's all I got for now, have a lot to write this evening.

Running with a heavy rucksack on is the story of my life

 I thought of writing this on the day I left for Seattle. A heavy backpack on my back, a rush to make it to the airport, and a sprint toward the bus or train or whatever medium of public transport I'm hoping to get into. And it has to be public transportation. That is the story of my life.

It's not like I plan poorly, necessarily. Often I leave hours and hours early, with enough gap in between to fit through an elephant. The world often conspires against me, so the train system will be down, the bus will get a flat tyre, or there'll be an alien attack, localised to the specific terminal I'm heading towards. And it's always a pain in the ass. It works out, always. Well almost, the times it doesn't I end up paying the fees through my nose, like the time I had to buy an expensive amtrak ticket from Philly to Boston, what a bummer that was oh boy.

In any case, I should really learn to travel without a heavy rucksack. Because I end up not using most of it, most places I travel to have laundry anyway, and do I really really need a dozen pairs of underpants and 8 pairs of t-shirts to change? Like am I moving across the country for good everytime I go somewhere or what. Yeah I need the two two laptops because workstuff, personal stuff. And a book, to impress the ladies, always. And a backup pair of hearing device. And several pairs of chargers. A portable battery, obviously. And my quite heavy travel bathroom kit because gimme those vitD's!

That's something that I need to work towards. Yeah there's the 'whoa this is so cool traveling with half my lifetime belongings on my back' factor, but it gets old real quick, and beyond that your friends make fun of you. People will understand if I'm not dressed to my nines, I didn't pack for the party. When the movies show the cool traveler guy, they need to cut that shit. You can't just carry 45lb on your back and run through the globe having wacky adventures spending time with hot models and have that not affect your knees, you know? Not like they're working on their legs/knees anyway those bros, only about the abs ugh. This is an unrealistic representation of people who randomly travel around, and it needs to stop!

This has been the story of my life up to this point and I'm wondering if this needs growth and maturity. Perhaps I need to get a car or a thing of the sort, that'll make my life simpler, take me closer to the mountains.

Evaluating all the options on how I might want to take myself further now.

Things were hosed for the last two weeks but this is still the most productive April ever

 I mean yeah, maybe it's something about the month of April that makes me not want to write, or something. Because last year it wasn't a fully-productive month either. It looked like until yesterday that I'd be completely abandoning this month and going on the 'lazy month' schedule.

Yet here we are. Got my 16 days' worth of journals posted up. And then a few more, just to set things right. Once this filler post is posted, I'm at 65. 20 more of these bad boys tomorrow, and the day after, and the last two days get easy, only six posts. The good news is that I've got a list of topics I want to write on, so it's mostly filling in the blanks. Or so I hope. I've done worse.

This is all bullshit of course, being lazy for weeks and then doing a python or one of them snakes that eat a goat whole and then take weeks to digest it in the sun. Anaconda maybe? Are real life anacondas really that big and scary, as the movies make out, or are they like more, regular-being-sized?

So the motivation is back, the workspace has been going, things are on track, a little bit. Doesn't mean it won't be all messed up tomorrow, but for right now, things look approachable. Just need to force myself to write here and there during the workday. My workday's 6am-1.30pm these days, so the productive hours could be doubled.

In any case, I should be writing more fiction, so tired of the navel-gazing I've been putting forward in the year of 2021.

Love poems, early morning vaccine surprise, lazy workday, dahi chiura brunch, got the shots, tired, to the pharmacy, nap, writing, easy dinner, up too late [Mon 26]

 Had trouble sleeping well in the morning because we'd napped a lot the day before. So got up way too early, didn't have anything good to do, wrote a few poems, posted here and sent them to people. Also wrote here. Freaking' finally, just as my Seattle trip is about to wrap up I've got a good workspace situation going on alas. So much disruptions.

First thing in the morning when I sign into to work and get my CVS vaccine scraper going, it informs me that there's spots opened up in the CVS nearby! I quickly register, at a place only 30 mins away, and tell A too. He gets up at an hour unreasonably early for him, registers himself and his two brothers. He is very impressed by the fact that automatic programming stuff can make life easier, and has apparently told about how amazing computers are to anybody who will listen. It's only funny when you know that he works in an extremely technical field that has more to do with computers and technology than anything I'll ever do.

At work I was stuck by this one seemingly simple problem that I used all the tricks of the trade I knew to solve but it just wouldn't budge. Realized later, after being told by a coworker, that it was a stupid issue of one of the libraries we use, and had nothing to do with me.

For lunch I had dahi chiura kera, because I was tired of roti and andaa. Classic Nepali food.

Before heading for the shots, I took a nice long shower, called up a few folks. Walked to the bus stop, waited an agonizingly long time for it, as the power-washers cleaned the streets, spreading little particles of germ and grime all over in the mist. Took the 25-min ride, 5 min walk. Easy setup at cvs, and took the same bus back.

Back home, wrote a bit, talked to A a bunch. Went to pharmacy to get the meds in case I had side-effects, which I haven't yet besides the sore arm ten hours on. Napped for a couple of hours. Started writing seriously here. A did his work stuff, and then cooked dal and bokchoy. Before that I ate chiura and bhujiya. He also made chicken, but he's not going to eat it apparently.

And now I'm finally caught up with the journals, I'm still behind regular posts by 40 count, which is also the number of days left in this month, so if I did 14 each for the rest of the week, it'd work out fine, but I don't want to create such heavy pressure on myself. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a day even more productive than today in terms of writing and we'll be set soon enough. I already know what's causing this lack of productivity, so it is not going to be a problem in the future.

Serious hike, great food, Indian grocery [Sun 25]

 Woke up at a decently respectable hour, A made the regular roti and egg breakfast. Friend SK texted us to check if we wanted to go on a hike, we said yes. He came to pick us up around eleven. We packed up fruits and juices, and headed out for the drive and hike.

After driving in his low-profile two-door toyota car for 40-ish minutes, we came to the cougar mountains. The skies looked dark but offensively so. It rained a bit but stopped soon after. Through the course of our hour-and-half uphill climb, we took our jackets and put them back on a dozen times at least, because the sun was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds, and there was random drizzle in between. Took photo of some sick pattern on the rock and wood as well.

We spent an hour conservatively at the top of the mountain appreciating the scenery, and playing with friendly dogs who'd come to smell us. Most importantly there was an older man who was setting up his paraglider and about to jump, and it took him forever. We just wanted to see him jump off the cliff and watch how he would soar in the skies. For a moment I was concerned he'd be too pressured by the increasingly large crowd of onlookers waiting for him to fly, and jump even when it was not the right time too. Fortunately he seemed like a patient and experienced man and jumped when the winds were the strongest. After watching him disappear around the mountain -- the landing spot was supposed to be the parking lot where we'd started -- and finishing our supplies of coconut water and fruits, we started the downward hike. It was less than half the length of the climb, and quite easy. The rain-shine had accelerated at this point, and we did get some rain, but it didn't matter, we got into the car right on time.

The boys found a nice place to get burger sandwiches 20 mins away, we stopped there. It was really hot and sunny outside, and the view from the parking lot was incredible! The place was called Grill On! I really enjoyed their food, the vegetarian option tasted no worse than their best meat option they had probably. I'd eat there every once a while if it were somewhere close and accessible to me. After spending a long time reminiscing over the good, strange wild old days, we packed up, and headed to Bellevue, to the indian grocery store.

AS and SK spent like 30 minutes in the grocery store, so many options, way too many frozen foods. And a packet of frozen momo cost fourteen bucks, they got like five of each. I helped out A with his groceries, and it was haha shockingly unreasonably expensive. This is ripe for disruption if I may say so, Boston grocery prices in Indian stores are much more reasonable.

Headed home, my workplace had been setup, so I wrote a bunch. Napped for a few hours. We cooked rice dal and bokchoy and gobbled it up. Tried sleeping at night, but because of the nap it was hard to do so. Until wee hours of the morning we were both up, until somehow I fell asleep. Got up again in few short hours and couldn't go back to sleep. Wrote a couple of lameass love poems, sent them to places where they need to go, and slept again for a while. Got up soon again, early for the job.

The really fun day, like the one in Singapore [Sat 24]

 Talked to parents on the phone in the morning, found out somebody really close might be getting married soon. Lots of confusion. Spent an hour cleaning the apartment from last night's funhaving, and doing the dishes. Put my clothes into the drier to get them clear of creases, and took a nice long shower.

At 11 (PDT), I made a minor mistake and headed out to the bus station. I meant to be heading out at 12, but I misread the text thread that was going on with P.K. so that happened. It was raining outside and I was unprepared, but it didn't matter. The bus crossed lake washington, I was amazed at how low the bridges were and wondered how they dealt with flooding etc. Got off at my stop, but I still had more than an hour to go, and it was raining a bit, so I decided to walk around the town and explore the city of Redmond and its parks. That's when I noticed it's all suburbs and lame houses, and not even many stores. It's a wasteland, comparatively speaking, and I wished there were better things going on. After walking around for like an hour. communicated with P.K, and she came to pick me up, but we couldn't park there, so I walked for another 15 minutes before we finally met up. Hugged and yadda yadda yadda, figured out on the place we wanted to go, and drove up to Kirkland to the place we'd planned on going to. Unfortunately it was closed, so we went to the Irish place next door to it.

Couple of drinks of guinness and many rounds of appetizers later, we bailed out of there, went to a green store and got a pre-rolled joint. Unfortunately they didn't sell any lighters, so we had to go to a gas station but not before ending up at a hobby store. We ended up at a park smoking and giggling. Headed to a previously planned bar. Got a few more drinks.

Drunk and high, we let our inhibitions lose and really talked a lot, perhaps more than one should have. There was some concerning news happening out in the world, but we just wanted to distract ourselves, so we caught up since our last meet, what we were upto and where we wanted to be. It was all in good fun and I really wanted to hang for longer if not the tiredness of having been out the entire day. P.K. dropped me nearby the bus stop, I peed at a microsoft building, annoyed a random lady at the stop with questions, called or tried calling half my contact list, and took the Bus to Seattle. Walked home, got A to open the door despite having the keys. Talked to him nonstop without waiting to breathe for two hours and went to sleep.

Good times.

Rice Egg n' Cheese breakfast, falafel wrap linner, massive h-mart trip, the gang comes over, birthday celebrations, latenight park, blinddate watch until wee hours [Fri 23]

Had egg cheese with rice. Shouldn't have had the cheese, or maybe it was the rice old possibly but it messed up my tummy for the rest of the day.

Bailed out of work early because it was a Friday. Went to get linner with A to the nearby Mediterranean place called Al Basha. On one hand, the food was fantastic, possibly one of the softest breads I've had, amazing fries and all of that. On the other hand, it cost twice as much as it did at the cart near N's place, so it's a big tradeoff. Still, it's something I'd eat once a while.

After dinner, A and I went to H Mart for groceries, since we were having people over. He was quite skeptical of the store -- he hadn't been to the one closest to his place, and instead wanted to go to Target, the lame annoying one I've alluded to here before. Once in though, he was completely sold on the place and I have no doubt hereon it's going to be his regular shopping place.

Got back with with a massive load of groceries. A and his non-birthday sibling made food, while I chilled with his other sibling. Very soon the rest of the guests poured in. We had U&L (the couple from CT, PK from Southern Seattle, A's two brothers, A, and myself, so this was a solid gang. We talked about my walking plans, olden days, future plans etcetera. A lot of the folks who've been working in finance/tech industry are retiring before they get thirty and starting their own businesses and/or going back home. What a privileged position to be in, though I don't know if that is what I want out of my life.

After a massive massive dinner, amazing cauli and dal and rice for me, and added meat for the rest of the gang, we listened to a tonne of interesting songs, and folks got a bit boozed up. We cut the cake and celebrated the birthday into the midnight. Friend SK came over -- he lives nearby and we'll see him again -- and we drove to the nearby park ten minutes drive away, where we saw the wonderful scenery of Seattle in rain at midnight. It was cold and windy, and also a bit rainy, I too a few grainy photos in the dark they turned out fine really. The rest of the gang left, S, A and I came back, and watched two more hours of Blind Date the Nepali tv show until it was 3, and S left and we went to bed.

It was the first group hang in Seattle, with everybody I already knew and was comfortable with. What good times we had! 

Allergies out of control, pharmacy trip, woozy on antihistamines, I shave and turn young [Thu 22]

 I don't have too many photos of this day because it was a mediocre day at its very best. In the morning I made the oats with pb and nuts, my classic. A absolutely hated it, and fair enough I did use weird natural PB and quick oats. Dinner was rice and a bunch of thai and mexican sauces, plus an egg.

My coughing got out of control this day, the seasonal allergies really get to me unless I take steps to get them in control. My lungs were aching, and it was just a bit too much. So after work I went to the nearby Bartel's drugstore and got myself a serious amount of antihistamines, cough medicines, and quality tooth floss because I was running low on them.

High on a dose of two of the antihistamine tablets, I took a refreshing shower and a long and rewarding shave. Tried to figure if there was any way I would look good with a small mustache on, that didn't seem to be the case so now I'm back to the usual look, all well-shaved and naked.

Dozed off a lot, slept a lot high on the drugs, got up in the middle of the night to change and brush and go back to sleep. I must have had something good to eat because I didn't feel hungry the next day, but I can't remember any of that.

The cough drops and the antihistamines completely obliterated the allergy and the cough, so a massive massive win for me, even though my sleep cycle was getting rowdier by the day.

Allergies galore, I walk up the town for several hours, regular brunch, skipped dinner, sleep starts getting messed up [Wed 21]

 Had the regular roti and egg for the brunch.

After work I got super bored and decided to go on an extreme walk, to Discovery park which was like two hours away. On the way I saw cool shit like strange wood, amazing classic cars and trucks you'd never see in the Northeast because of the snow and the salt, and neighborhoods practically the color of rainbow with all the blooming flowers. The neighborhood around Discovery park is really cool, something I might want to take my family to live in.

Listened to the 2-hour james acaster and the other guy food podcast, it was the 100th episode, so they were the ones being interviewed. I accidentally took the wrong way and ended up with a very unscenic and industrial wasteland route, but in the end it was fine. Went to the grocery store by the park to check up on what was up. It wasn't absurdly priced and I discovered later it was a chain. Bought a bottle of 'mountain water', chilled in the park (actually barely touched the real park), and took the bus back home. I talked to friend N on the way. I'd been teasing A about how maybe I shouldn't bee back too soon for various reasons, but things were fine, whatever.

I was also getting real tired and coughing a lot because of the allergies, it was starting to get out of control. Back from the walk, talked to A for a bit, had a small piece of fruit for dinner, and napped for a long time. By the time I got up it was the middle of the night, so changed, brushed and went back to sleep.

Packup and clean, bus and taxi, crashing at A's, pike place shopping, chilling out, great Mexican food, farewell to I at the Airport [Tue 20]

 This was the last day with I, the departure flight was in the evening, and it was the end of a major leg of my journey in Seattle.

In the morning I cleaned up most of the place while I worked. Closer to our departure time, I did the dishes, did the last moment checkup and we were all set to go. I left my work earlier than I'd been doing regularly, because skipping work in the middle of the day, early at 9am PDT didn't make a whole lotta sense.

We took a bus from our place to the large park, from where we got into an online taxi. The Punjabi driver who had been in Seattle for longer than we'd be born, as he said, took us by A's work where he handed us the apartment keys. We went into his place, set down our bags, and got travelling again. Once again we went to Pike Marketplace, and this time around we explored the inner depths of the place. It was cool enough that I bought a few bars of soap as gift for friends, and I bought a book on the japanese folklore of ghosts.

I and I got lunch at a mexican place nearby A's place, it was fantastic, even though we didn't finish most of it despite not ordering much, the achaars they had were exactly like the ones we have in Nepal, the tomato ones. If they sold by the volume, I'd buy them on the regular and eat it with rice dal and tarkari, that's how good it was.

Back at A's place, we just killed a couple of hours talking, making future plans. We found out one of I's friend was in Seattle and single and nobody had introduced us, and folks were sad and disappointed about it. Deep into the evening, we packed up and headed to the airport several hours early because I didn't want time to waste in the security etc. Fortunately it went well and there was more than enough hours to spare before the flight apparently. I took the train back and it was gloomy, sad, a new phase of my stay. Chatted up a bunch with my friend P.K.

Tired and sleepy back home, I went to bed pretty early on. My allergies were getting worse and it was becoming a concern.

Pizza breakfast, two buses to town, MoPop, Interesting Vietnamese Dinner, Bus home, cider, walk in the park at night [Mon 19]

This was going to be the last full day and night with I!

In the morning I had pizza and fruits for breakfast, I had oats and fruits. I wanted to take it easy because we had been having several intense consecutive days, and it didn't feel like I couldn't hold on for much longer. So we left home pretty late.

Instead of going to the sketchy place, we caught a bus nearby to us, which took us across the large Johnson park, and Dr. Jose Rizal park who apparently is a great Filipino hero, to Downtown area. There the bus made us wait like half an hour until the driver changed. We changed to a second bus that took us quite close to MoPop which of course stands for Museum of Pop.

MoPop was cool, if they had rotating exhibits and I lived in Seattle, I'd most definitely get a membership there. It was there that I discovered that this city is quite big in the music industry, particularly with the grunge scene of the 90's. Nirvana, Janis Joplin, Pearl Jam, Kurt Kobain, Foo Fighters, Jimi Hendrix, and more! It's wild. I had a new respect and admiration for the place. The exhibits for fantasy worlds, science fiction, and horror were all fantastic too. If they have rotating shows, I'd definitely go there several times a year. If you're in Seattle you definitely must go to the MoPOP.

After the Museum we took a bus to Chinatown to get lunch. Unfortunately the restaurant we were heading at was not open, and neither were like the next ten of our options, all open only to takeout. Fortunately we found this place called Loving Hut, amazing food and drinks, and I discovered the concept of cybersectarianism. It is a part of chain of tv channels, radio stations and general mass media, including 300 restaurants across the world, that is kinda' cultish but otherwise fine, whatever, and headed by a Vietnamese woman who's a billionaire and resides in Taiwan. Here again we filled ourselves quick on the appetizers and drinks, and had to pack most of the entree to take out. Deep fried mushrooms to die for, I'm telling you.

We took a bus to the stop near us, and walked the rest of the way, it was an extremely pleasant walk in the golden hour, so took a bunch of photos. Bought some local cider at Safeway, and had that with the leftovers of the night, and the leftovers generally, still had a lot of the pizza around. Got very drunk, so very sleepy, sad that it was our last night.

The Gang Does the Needle, misses on the Museum, gets woozy on a great beer, fantastic salad, and generally chills with cool [Sun 18]

 After getting up at 8, we cleaned up, chilled for a while, had oats and fruits for breakfast and walked by the highway to a sketchy-looking bus-stop. There we took a bus ride that took forever to get us to main Seattle City. The plan for the day was to do the Space Needle, attend the Museum of Pop, and whatever else would come our way.

We went to the Needle at 12 ish, and discovered that the tickets were all booked out until 4.15. Which was a bit of a bummer, but we didn't need to worry, we had the Museum! Which actually...we did not. Because it was a weekend and the last day of exhibition for the Minecraft exhibit so it was all sold out. After spending half an hour dazed and confused on what we wanted to do and how much things sucked, we decided to get some food. So we walked over to this local chain called Zeke's pizza where the server and the cashier were extremely rude but the salad we ordered was fantastic. And the beer I ordered, a locally brewed one specially for the chain was perfect. One drink, ten percent, and I felt like the king of the world, as if I could very much rule every being like a benevolent dictator.

We puttered about after Zeke's for a while, and then eventually it was time to go into the Space Needle. We spent an hour in their gift shop before our turn. And the experience was totally worth the cost of entrance, which wasn't cheap. You get a really good sense of where things are at, and what you need to be looking, you see the mountains, the lakes, Mt. Rainier, the rest of the city, and the suburbs. And there's these massive planetary gears slowly rotating the top floor, which is...quite an experience. The lower floor is transparent, so took a few really cool pics in there.

We took the online taxi to the nearest train station, discovered they were having shuttles, so walked couple of more blocks on the shuttle. Changed to a train after the shuttle was over. Spent 20 minutes trying to pay for Orca card to get into the train, but the machine wouldn't take our money at all, even though other people could do it just fine. The transit cop was so frustrated he just let us in.

At Othello we divided tasks. I went into Safeway to get some supplies, I was at Domino's to collect our order. We took the bus back home because it was really tiring and hot and I didn't want the pizza to get cold. We had warmish pizza, and drinks for dinner, watched tv, talked a bunch, and went to sleep, ready to make more limited plans for the following days.