Rest day, fruitless search at TJ's QFC and Wholefoods, incredible dinner [Tue 31]

 Everybody was super tired due to the trip to the Arboretum the day before, so we didn't get very ambitious about where we wanted to travel. Parents didn't get out.

Since we'd been consuming so much milk kefir, I wanted to make my own, and went to TJ's, QFC and Wholefoods searching if they carried the kefir grains/starters, and was super disappointed to find out none of them carried any. I thought of buying it online, but it was sold out from the most reliable seller. Did however get the groceries we needed from those places.

Dinner was fantastic, mom made moong-bean pancakes, tofu chilli like chicken chilli from nepal, and fried zuccini, yum! We ate it all with chiura.

Walk to the Arboretum, visiting the lake and the islands, rough walk back, TJ's shopping, yummy rice and green veggies dinner [Mon 30]

 I'm only exactly a week behind these posts, so this is a big achievement for me. Also ONLY -- haah -- 28 posts behind at this point, compared to everything else, so this is not awful anymore, my blog stats may be saved after all. The following posts are going to be quick and easy, and then the regular crappy posting shall begin. Do not worry, peeps.

After work we walked to the Arboreturn, parents were impressed how they have such a dense massive forest right in the heart of the city. And then we came to the shores of the lake, and they were blown away. And then we walked on those wooden slats between the tiny islands, above the lotus plants and the swamp and it was fascinating. This was the first Seattle park I hadn't gone or approached, so this was an incredible experience for me too. Also parents really enjoyed the nice rich-people houses we looked on the way, maaan how much would I compromise on my life principles to be able to own one of them with somebody I cared for!

The walk back was rough because parents were a bit tired, and it was all uphill, step after step, and man it's only when you've reached the water do you realize how high of the hill CapitolHill is. It's good fun when you're heading out because it's all downhill and you don't remember what misery it'll be when you're coming back. Somehow we made it back, popped into TJ's to get some groceries and headed home.

By then it was dinnertime, and we didn't order any takeouts or deliveries because we couldn't agree on what to get. Eventually we cooked yummy rice, dal and green veggies, and it was incredible.

Up early, shuttle to the forest, decent hike at Little Si, 20 minute comedy scene, disappointing peak, ride back home, Molly Moon's ice-cream, Indian store walk [Sun 29]

 Got up pretty early, had a quick breakfast, packed our bags and headed to the CapHill station. Waited for like 5 minutes for the trail shuttle. The driver was kind, he didn't ask for any money. We spent the next hour looking at the surroundings as we were driven to Little Si trailhead.

We spent the first 20 minutes of our hike walking between two parking spots several minutes apart several times, trying to figure out where the trailhead was, because my dad was too confident about it without looking up the map. Eventually we looked at the map, followed other people, and walked up the mountain.

The walk was quite easy, not too much of a sharp incline, lots of cute doggoes in there as well. Young children and the elderly were all hiking up easily, and we had phone signal pretty much all the way through.

The peak was small and sharp, and not really a good place to have a picnic, very different to what we, and most other people, were expecting. Spent 15 not very exciting minutes up there, and began our descent. Dad walked way past us, got to the parking area 20 mins earlier than the rest of the gang. Waited barely 2 minutes for the bus back home. The bus dropped us right on our street, it was a pleasant surprise.

On the way to walk, dad and I got Molly Mon's ice-cream. I thought it was okay, the milk-free blackberry, dad liked their waffle cone better than the cream.

Stayed home for a bit, walked near Hau Hau where the Indian Store is, I didn't know about it before, had to go there for some medical reason. It was a miserable walk but I didn't have many options. It's not a well-stocked store but it's not like there's many options around here. They did give me free papad though, so that was nice.

Had roti-tarkari for dinner.

Fruits and breads for brunch, TJ's trip, walk in the park [Sat 28]

We were all very tired this day, didn't do much. Had fruits and pb sandwich for lunch, roti-tarkari for dinner. I went to TJ's to get yogurt and bottles of water, for the hiking trip we were gonna be going for the following day.

So apparently the goingouts haven't slowedown

I figured they had, used that as a justification for not being very motivated to leave the house in the evenings on the weekends but I'm told that's not the case, people are actually surprisingly out and about most of the time, even on Wednesday nights according to my sources from Snapchat, which is a strange thing to say I know, but if you don't have friends who completely match your interests, ya gotta find people who do, even if that means you know them exclusively through their snaps of their nightlives. You share a common...and dear gods this is a bizarre thing to say...hobby, which is going out and hanging out with new people. Etcetera.

Types of snakes

 ...for me, obviously, this is not a scientific paper, ya dumdums.

1. Garden snake
   
   
2. King cobra
    
3. Anaconda
   
   
4. Poisonous snake
   
   
5. Rattlesnake
   
   
6. Leathersnake
   
   
7. Traitor snake
   
   
8. Shiftyeyed snake
   
   
9. Snake that talks
   
   
10. Watersnake
    
    
11. Swampsnake
    

Batman!

 If Robin is angling towards complaining about Batman's cape, perhaps he should have a backup job in the pocket, maybe a few interviews going on, because you never know. There's a lot of unemployed young dudes who want to play the sidekick, that is certain.

How is this even relevant? #politicalPost

Poem about being unable to write

I cannot write
There is no fire
The words don't come
Only fog and smoke
What to do
But to make a lists
Of nonsense things
And poems
Meaningless.

Ten new sports the Olympics should have

1.  Cheerleading
   
   
2. Horsecart pulling
   
   
3. All the existing sports, but fully-drugged version where no holds are barred and you can take whatever drugs beforehand as long as they're not extremely illegal and you're alive for the following six months.
   
   
4. "Competitive weeing" (credit to Richard Herring)
   
   
5. Silly walks
   
   
6. Foo-ball (I'll explain it in a later post, but all you need to play it are pieces of paper and your mouth)
   
   
7. Shooting round objects from various body orifices
   
   
8. Sheep-shearing
   
   
9. Competitive heaving
   
   
10. Farts
    

Yet another list

Because I don't have the head to cheat using shitty poems yet. Also what is a poem even?

1. Podcast
   
   
2. Ainsley Harry
   
   
3. Bob Mortimer
   
   
4. Coffee
   
   
5. Hopes and desires
   
   
6. In-person, fuckin' finally
   
   
7. Mustachioed fascists
   
   
8. Anchovies on pizza
   
   
9. Orange-ootan
   
   
10. Trying to pre-order books at bookstores
    

More random words and connections, I got no time for this

1.  Shampoo
   
   
2. Condensed milk
   
   
3. Eggplant
   
   
4. Bicycle
   
   
5. Youtube ads
   
   
6. Philosophy
   
   
7. Annoying Bostonians
   
   
8. Mattress
   
   
9. Heartbreak
   
   
10. Vegas
    

Funny observation

 Remember how until a couple of weeks ago I couldn't go to sleep at all, and was complaining about issues with sleep etcetera, and I was looking to try all the options etcetera to improve my life yadda yadda yadda?

Well...Now I've got the opposite problem almost, I sit on my 'bed', and I can't keep my eyes open, I have to distract myself with the internet and stupid websites so I can have my daylight days out be productive, and be social and not be sleeping all the time. Even though it's like really sunny outside. I know the reason, it's cos I've been walking tens of thousands of steps every day, and it's all so tiring, plus the standing up for work, but it's funny, to realize maybe this is what I was lacking all along. A bit disappointing as well if I may say so myself.

Gotta get my sleep schedule more straight though, now I'm getting lesser sleep because I'm avoiding sleepytimes ugh.

Some people can't stand things popping inside their mouth

 Like the 'popping' bubble teas, and they burst inside releasing their juices, apparently it's too much for some people. Other things that are food and pop inside your mouth: pop rocks(?), grapes, raisins in puddings, other miscellaneous sweets mostly, because you wouldn't combine the 'ball and pop' texture with savory foods, unless..you were being experimental, I guess. Actually, why don't we, I wonder if there's a combo there that works really well? 

Hmmm....something to think about.

New projects I'll be taking up, now that things are maybe settling down

 Walking, yeah, obviously.

Going out to meet people, duhhh.

Making friends. Idk if it's a project or whatever, but gotta get aggressively with this one.

Making kombucha, hellyeahhh!

Making kefir, if I can get those damn milk grains anywhere. Offline is all sold out, and so is online, who the hellll is finishing the supply of milk kefir grains anyway?

plants, more on this later

sprouts, more on this in the coming days.

Unpopular opinion: adding 'unpopular opinion' tag to otherwise popular opinions doesn't make them any more popular

 You can literally start with: Unpopular opinion -- I know some people will disagree with me, but The Office is a pretty great show, and everyone will vigorously agree with you, tell you how there's losers and haters who don't like the show, and how they, as the viewers of the most popular contemporary show comedy or otherwise are actually the persecuted crowd, etcetera, not realizing that they've been had, and the troll added 'unpopular opinion' before a veryyy popular opinion just to get those free internet points. It's such bullshit. People should learn to deal with this sort of 'hacking' better, because this is not good at all...

Unpopular opinion: Wikipedia should buy encarta and/or britannica and maybe even worldbook

 And create one source of open-source knowledge, contributed by experts with domain expertise and knowledge, but with the freedom to be adopted and adapted for everyday use-case. That way the legitimacy remains, and so does the openness and agility. Sure nobody buys encyclopedia anymore, but that doesn't mean there's no reason to not have experts contribute to the real subject matter. Specially since Wikipedia has changed incentives now, I can see it get formalized even, and be contribution to open-source knowledge-base a requirement for academics in the future.

Where are apricots primarily produced?

It's a fertile crescent situation. Also they're quite susceptible to locusts, so they're a biblical fruits. So the middle east PLUS the locusts. One wonders if the old testament characters had a lot to say about the fruit... And Wenatchee in the US, the hosts are unclear which Wenatchee, but we all live near the one in WA so the assumption is that it's that one, obviously.

I'm under pressure obviously because I'm way way behind schedule, and for all intents and purposes it's pretty clear this blog has been abandoned.

From 'al-barqook`, it comes from, means 'early ripening originally from ancient Greek.

Just like a rooster used to be called a 'roost-cock', 'abri-cock' has changed to 'apricot', inspired mostly by the french etymology.

Rice dal eggplant lunch, trip to Ross, tortella roti and veggies dinner, olmstead and bait shop with the boys [Fri 27]

 Had rice dal eggplant for lunch.

Walked with parents to Ross, where they bought a bunch of knicknacks they didn't really need, and a few they did need. Our first trip into the heart of the city and actually doing something there; they had an amazing time, despite the beggarly problem.

For dinner we had tortella treated like a roti, with achaar and veggies, not bad at all.

In the evening, I went to see Sb and a few guys and Olmstead, chilled there for a while. Then went to Bait shop where they got fries and nachos and I pecked at a few pieces of nachos. I had taken a whole lot of valerian root so I was feeling super duper tired and sleepy, dunno what I was thinking. Bait shop was actually nice, bar for the locals, but the problem with that is the locals don't want to befriend you etc.

Was back at 12.30 ish, too early, tried to not sleep for a bit. Embarrassing that I've been going to bed so early, and not much interest in finding a squad to stay out and about either.

Kratom makes all sleepy, parents go on morning walk, QFC medical trip [Thu 26]

Parents went on morning walk while I worked.

Had rice for lunch, other things for dinner, as is standard in our household.

Gave a taste of kratom to parents, they were extremely sleepy and uninterested in going anywhere, not a surprise.

Went to the QFC to get some medication, it didn't work out unfortunately, but still a great attempt IMHO.

Gym, meeting with Sk, getting the goods back, confusion and resolution [Wed 25]

Since I'm writing this 12 days after the fact, the only data points I have to refer back to this day are the photos I took and the gps markers left by me, so there's not much to talk about, truth be told.

Family was tired because of the nonstop walking trips of the preceding days, so they stayed in. I'd skipped the gym day on Tuesday, so I went to the gym with Sb and did intense workouts. Went to Sk's place after, chilled with him, played with the cute little doggo. Drove with him to my place, got all the goods from As' place.

There was a serious concern about health issues in the family, but turns out I'd overestimated the graveness of the issue, and things weren't as bad as I had feared.

Nepali food, covering up the carpet, my nook is finalized, TJ's trip, journey to Daiso, Uwajimaya, hell of an uphill climb back [Tue 24]

 Had sinki/gundruk with potato in the morning. We used three bedsheets around to cover the carpet because my parents like it very much. Also we wanted to get something to cover the coffee table because it's nice and we're dirtying it. My nook was finalized with bedsheet and a cardboard box and everything, so I had my little bit of privacy around everything else happening in the house.

I went to TJ's to get some groceries because we were lacking a lot fundamental goods.

Went with parents to Daiso where we bought fifty bucks worth of stuff, they enjoyed it a lot. Then over to Uwajimaya, where we got a while chicken, it was great apparently.

The walk from Uwajimaya was tiring and long, so we camped next to Seattle university, had some drinks, and finally walked back. parents had chickens from the two days, I got some basic dinner.

Hau Hau trip, Bok a bok dinner for parents [Mon 23]

Not much else happened this day, as expected, mostly because I didn't expect to, and I wasn't prepared to write, or live, and just chill and stay in.

After work we went to Hau Hau Market on foot. I thought parents were going to be excited at all the interesting fruits and veggies but it was not to be the case. Mom didn't like the smell of seafood.

Walked back, chilled at house, talked, on phones etcetera. In the evening I got Bok-a-Bok chicken for parents, and they enjoyed it very much, but not enough to finish it all in one meal, they really don't have much of an appetite for new food, though the appetite for regular food is quite large.

I was quite sleepy and went to bed early.

Bakery leftovers, walk to the seafront, sculpture park and back, we try electric scooters family is walk-hausted [Sun 22]

We walked for 8 miles this day.

Chilled in the morning, didn't do much, in the afternoon I went to QED coffee to get their leftovers. Something didn't fit me right, I don't think I'm gonna get the leftovers from the app from that place anymore, or in general. It was an alright deal, specially for things I didn't need anyway.

Back from bakery, we walked to downtown where we collected Sb and walked over to Seafront. I'd never been on that tower-roof thing where we spent a good chunk of time taking pictures and looking around. Walked over to the Olympic sculpture park. On the way, Sb got us a scooter and we tried to scoot around, it was fun but I'm unlikely to use it longer term.

Walked back from the sculpture park through Denny way, parents were exhausted, it was an unexpectedly long trip. Rested at Sb's place where parents looked at his apartment. And then walked back home.

For dinner I made Shin Ramyun with my standard addons and parents liked it very much, even though they don't eat that sort of stuff regularly, apparently.

Dal-eating begins, day with the family, farewell to the A boys, loading serious haulage into Sk's car, volunteer park and bruce lee [Sat 21]

Sb came over in the morning, we had rice, dal that I made the day before, the tomato achaar I made many weeks before, it'll last for yet another week or two from this point, and veggies that mom made. Chilled around house, caught up etc.

In the afternoon, I walked over to Sk's place, we drove to the As' place at UW. Loaded up his car with all the goodstuff, he went to Bellevue. Since it was the A boys last day in the city, they were leaving a few hours later, we bid them farewell and made plans to see them again.

Back home, we chilled or a bit, and walked to Volunteer park. Parents marveled at the nice cute houses, we went to the cemetery and took photo with Bruce Lee's situation, there's a lot of assholes who do not know how to behave around where people are buried, maan, lots of people having too much fun.

Walked back home, sb returned, we had dinner, and slept. We put my beddings at the corner of the room, created this nice little nook for myself.

Hash, eggs and bread breakfast, massive batch of dal, to the airport and back in taxi, with parents, new arrangements [Fri 20]

 For breakfast I had potato puffs, eggs, and pan toasted bread.

Because ED told me to cook food for parents, I made dal. Put in so much cumin seeds and butter. A whole lotta butter. And tomato and onion and ginger and green chillies. Mixed red lentils and yellow lentils. Mis-estimated how much I should have put in, and made a pressure-cooker full of dal. Was almost afraid it was going to overflow, that's how wild it got. Cooked it for almost an hour-and-half. Parents loved loved it, it went really well by the crowds, but it lasted for almost ten days, and people were really sick and tired of it, and looking for any way possible to escape from it. In the future posts I'll probably not talk about this dal because you can't take photos of a specific batch of dal, but understand that implicit in the posts for the next ten days will be eating this specific batch of dal.

After work took the train to the airport, parents were already there, got a physical taxi back home because I didn't want to worry about uber and lyft and what not, and not the unpredictable prices, it cost 55 bucks including the tip. Parents unpacked, ate meal in the evening, we had a  lot of pedas, and setup a whole lotta sleeping situations. This will have been the first day in many many days where I'll have written very little to nothing.

Potato breakfast, yucky lunch, Ross trip, TJ's trip, chacha's and havana night out with TD [Thu 19]

 Had hashbrowns and ketchup for lunch. Fried some of those potato pasta (gnocci) I got from tj's after boiling them. I thought they were like pierogi, they most definitely were not. It was so yucky, I had to throw it all out, sometimes my experiments go real bad and I need to suffer because of that. The curse of the adventurer, I guess.

In the evening I went to Ross, and got the King sized comforter stuff that I claimed to have gotten in an earlier trip, but actually it was this trip and I didn't need to call anybody for guidance because I knew exactly what I needed.

Went to TJ's for basic supplies for when parents were here.

In the evening, had TD over, got a bit high and he drank, we went out to Chachas for a bit, and then to havana, where we danced for a long while. TD had a whole lotta fun, got home at 1.30 and went to sleep. Made a new friend from Vegas.

Fried-rice lunch, gym, tamari bar colorful dinner [Wed 18]

 For lunch I had broccoli, mushroom and bokchoy with rice, added a tonne of butter, tasted so good.

Walked to sb's for gym, came to tamari bar near my place, got his promotion treat, it was nice. The dinner was so goddamn colorful, made for a great social-media post, I wish people would focus more on the taste at restaurants ugh.

Sb came over to my place for a bit, had him try the kava tea, hung out until a bit late in the evening. Went to bed after his left.

Cookie making, Uhaul move, gettin' the goods, fixing sk's place, Alladin dinner, longest wait ever, disappointing meal [Tue 17]

 I should write more about the incredible cookie I improvised. Used the packet of choco-chip cookie mix from the dollarstore, added several spoonfull of cocoa powder, a bit of extra butter, and some pink salt, and baked the whole thing for longer than the instruction said. It was a bit too gooey for my comfort, so I put it in the freezer so it got properly textured. And maaan, it was so good, salty and bitter, but not too bitter, and sweet, maybe too sweet because the salt brought the sweetness out, and the texture was just...yum. Who's the geeeenius naaao?

Later in the evening, got to Sk's place, we spent like 15 mins at the uhaul getting the truck, drove it over to the boys' place, loaded up the truck, and the four of us drove back to Sk's place, with the younger A staying at the back. We parked at the empty space for some time, and carried over the goods to sk's apartment while he looked around to return the truck. It turns out the return spot was occupied so he spent the better part of two hours looking for a good spot to park at. Meanwhile, the three of us carried all the goods to his place, the ones that were needed, and the others into his car. Setup his couches, played with M the doggo, put her back in, and chilled. Sk came back after a really long time, we drove in his car to my place and unloaded the few nice things we'd brought, and drove to UW for dinner. We went to this place called Alladin, that made us wait an hour and half for a takeout order and still fuckin' messed up the order. And the actual meal was extremely disappointing, G showed up at the As' place and we all gobbled up the meal. I was hella pissed.

Sk drove and dropped me home late at night.

Rice and many veggies, walk to the volunteer park [Mon 16]

Because I write this exactly three weeks on the dot, I don't remember the specific details. Don't complain, I'm not getting paid for this.

During the day, I had rice with the mushroom and green veggies, sort of a fried rice. And also added a whole lotta fried potato puffs from TJ's because I needed some potatoes in my meal. Great fuckin' idea, I'm a meal genius. Those breakfast puff things, you know what they are!

Later in the evening, walked to volunteer park to get my 10k steps and back.

And that's all the record I have of the day from photos.
I imagine I was getting quite angsty as well since fam would be coming in a few days. It's possible I wrote a bunch, there's no way of knowing.

Cancelled plans, missed uhaul truck, farewell party at Sk's [Sun 15]

 Rested during the day, Sk and I made plans to retrieve a bunch of unwanted items from As' place, we coordinated and went there, but it didn't work out because the parking lot SK was supposed to pick the uhaul from closed prematurely. So I just went on the bus, met SK just as he'd gotten there what a coincidence, chilled a bunch with the boys, and made plans to come back at a later date.

Drove back to SK's place where he was having a catchup with TD and co. It was a nice grilling experience, and then a poker session inside. Also PK beat me in both foosball and pool, though her beating me on pool was extremely technical, Id have won otherwise. TD, Ts, and large part of Alexan gang were there, as was A, and Ts's college friends.

Left SK's place at 11 because I had work tomorrow.

Bokchoy and mushroom cook-in and lunch, watermelon meal, Ross trip, beddings and teapot, TD's birthday [Sat 14]

 I write these after three weeks after the fact, after almost giving up on this blog, so you will understand if I don't feel fully committed to this one. I gotta stop saying "I got things figured out, things are looking good", maaan. But like I'm writing this, so something's going well innit?

Cut all the two pounds of mushroom I had, and a couple of bokchoy I had, and cooked them. Took a couple of hours. The way I did it was cooked the mushroom in oil, with a whole lot of spices, and blanched the bokchoy in salt water, Combined the two, warmed them, and then hard that meal after meal, for the many following days.

Ate watermelon for snacks, good meal, great meal.

Went to Ross later in the day, called JD to get advice on what I should buy, ended up buying a nice little kettle on her advice, and a large bedding set, including a cushion, large pillows and a king-sized comforter.

Went to SRV's place with SK for TD's birthday, thought we were late. Turns out we were the first few people to come there. Met Ts who's TD's girlfriend, she's adorable. Lots of catching up, playing various pong related games, running away from PK because she wanted to punish me for not following the rules that were made, and general merrymaking. Helped clean up the place at 1 in the morning, walked to Sk's place, and then to mine.

You keep your dirty fish to yourself, SIR

 They're invasive species in our island, we do not want the foreign species and the microbiota that they bring within. It's been shown that at death they can be poisonous to local predator population, thus potentially causing a total collapse of local ecosystem with introduction of an otherwise small population of the fish in question. The threats to the ecosystem are not one-directional, it is projected to affect the both ends: these fish have been discovered to devour the local flora, thus outcompeting the local fish at the bottom of the food chain. By attacking both the top and bottom ends of the food pyramid, their destruction of the ecosystem is accelerated, and takes significant efforts to re-establish populations and bring the interactions to a balance.

New self-discovery: I got the stress poops, maaan

 Because of the pandemic and shit, I've been discovering a lot about myself, things I wouldn't have bothered delving deep into my psyche to explore if things had been just a-o-k.

Add to the list of things I discovered about myself over the course of the last year-and-half: I get stress poops. It's what it sounds like, when I am in difficult situations, in the need to make challenging decisions etc, I get the poops, and gotta clear my bowel before I can think clearly. There's a very direct connection between my tummy -- stress and anxiety-wise, and the uhh lower part of my digestive system. Never thought about it before, so weird, right?

In the year 2000

 In the year 2000,

• Apes will ride horses, and horses will ride apes
  
  
• Robots will live in our homes like family, and your family will go work in the warehouses
  
  
• Spice Girls will become the spiciest girls
  
  
• Cats will befriend dogs, and dogs will befriend cats
  
  
• Trees will start thinking and talking to each other

Etcetera.

Top ten numbers between 10 and 20, ranked in order of their goodness

1. Nineteen
   
   
2. Seventeen
   
   
3. Thirteen
   
   
4. Sixteen
   
   
5. Twelve
   
   
6. Fifteen
   
   
7. Eleven
   
   
8. Eighteen
   
   
9. Twenty
   
   
10. Fourteen
    

Top ten numbers, one to ten, in the order of their goodness

1. Seven
   
   
2. Three
   
   
3. One
   
   
4. Nine
   
   
5. Four
   
   
6. Five
   
   
7. Eight
   
   
8. Ten
   
   
9. Six
   
   
10. Two
    

Skincare routine, haircare routine

Couple of points:

* My face will start showing my age and add a few years into my physical years if I don't have a beautycare routine.

* I've been getting outbreaks of pimples every so often lately.

* My hair has thinned significantly over the last year, thanks mostly to the stress of the pandemic, age, and the shitty shampoos I've been using. Pantene gang for the rest of my life, I didn't realize that shampoo made such a big difference.

* The grey hairs have migrated to the front of my hairline, and they're obvious.

With all of this, it's untenable to keep continuing with my carefree 'dude' lifestyle. I'll need to have a skincare routine and haircare routine, daily or weekly or on alternative days, it doesn't matter, but I need a 'thing' to work with. Just like my teeth routine. And my vitamin routine, which I haven't followed lately because it's summer still!

Anyway, need to reach out to PN and figure out where I start from for the haircare and skincare routine.

The quality is in the dumps, everybody knows that

 I've been having trouble not just being inspired, but to sit down and put my fingers on the keyboard and just write. It's hard work, almost unapproachable, I have to coax, force, cajole threaten myself to do it. Not happytimes. So it's not like we're going to be expecting 'experimental' pieces. Things are so bad, even getting the number in the right place will be considered a win at this point.

Wish I'd get better at this sort of situation, discipline wise. And the journals have been long-abandoned as well, ugh. So much rework to do. Let's trudge along, shall we. As long as nobody's giving up, it's still kinda' not-defeat.

The live podcast shows are back, at least in the UK, hurray hurray

 The one interesting, unexpected (to me anyway) outcome of the pandemic was that podcasts got way, wayyy too popular, since performers had a lot of spare time, and the consumers of entertainment had much too much time to spend listening. And oh how the podcasts that were already doing well, or started during the beginning of the whole lockdown situation thrived!

And now that things are getting back to normal-ish, the entertainment situation has made a 180-degree turn. All of the shows that started as podcasts have aggressively expanded into stage shows, in a matter of very few short months and years. Quite remarkable, this. And a lot more podcasts are coming up as live shows in the foreseeable future. Interesting thing to come up.

The jokes and the breaks, more from Aisha and Andy

But I just know from sixty years of being on this planet, forming great connections with new people is hard, it's goddamn hard work. The privilege of having worked in an incredible workplace with smart, funny people spoils you, the standards of people increases, your expectations increase. And you can't just be...into that...you can't muster even a quarter of a boner to talk to them anymore, because you're spoiled by the people who're used to questioning the world and being curious about things in a certain way.

You can cobble together that person, that you now miss, from your friends. You get to do your twenties again, dancing on the tables on Tuesdays afternoons. You can kinda' make back out of the hole now that way.

Some freewriting, because writing's been imprisoned!

 Mew mew mew, because you were married for as long as you were, you sit on the couch and eat pizza and drink whiskey at 3pm after you're divorced because it's strangely liberating. It's sad, it's fundamentally sad, but it's also freeing, there's so much space in your life, so much time for yourself. It's daunting, to have to figure out, what it is that you really want, you know because there's so many people around who tell you what  it is that you want? And you're back to zero, and trying to figure yourself out, and who you are and where you're at.

You've gotta make yourself a wholly functioning adult. You've got a daughter, you can't live a single dad apartment anymore, it needs to be a nice apartment. And you go online on those apps, and you become every LA phonies you've ever been! It all seems like the grossest LA party you've ever been to, and I'm like, let's just leave and go to Astro Burger! There was a woman in there who'd listed her job as a 'denim architect', and then I was like nope nope nope, this is not for me, oh god no no no, this is not for me. I'd prefer to be alone!

I don't need any extra humiliation in my personal life, there's already so much public shame and humiliation in my professional life. I'd rather prefer to be mopey and miserable. What's the option, be hypersocial, to distract yourself? So many horror stories out there, about that fking app, the celebrity dating app, I'm terrified!

There was a rapwriting thing at work and I did pretty well

 My coworker said I'd be good at it, the one who organized it, and I told her I wasn't so sure, but I did win all the contests in a group of five people and won a million dollars in fake money, so maybe I AM good at rapwriting? Who knows, I mean they did help with all that automated hints so maybe their hints are really good, or maybe I'm actually a real good rapwriter, a talented creative who's stuck at a technical job, or perhaps my coworkers are just all crap at writing raps and it's not a very high bar to  cross, being better at writing than a bunch of nerds?

You know what I"m really liking writing these short strange pieces, I'm real desperate mostly but this was how this blog started initially two years ago, remember that, and it feels like going back to the roots. Or just sheer desperation ouchie.

Workspace created

 After eight days of ambling about, not knowing what the future held and unsure about the status of this blog, my other interests hobbies, aspirations for the future and aim in life, I figured out a nice little workspace, made out of a cardboard box, as is the standard for me. And it rocks, kicks off the pants off of everything because this means I won't be disturbed as I write and do my other work, and also the screen faces the wall so nobody to look over the shoulder or ask what I'm up to. But more importantly, now I have no excuse to not write, you know, it's either writing or not doing anything good, and I know where the future lies and what I care for. Whooop whoop whoop.

Salesboi

I have become a salesboi for the therapy industry in this country. Told like five friends to consider seeing specialists because why not, their jobs will pay for those anyway, and got all of them pretty much to make appointments and talk about it. It's not for errybody, and sometimes it's unhelpful and annoying if there's a mismatch of expertise and issue, but like if you're at least working towards fixing yourself, you're on the right path, you've noticed that hey something's up, things aren't exactly how they should be maybe some self-evaluation and external assistance is required. And if you go through the steps, evaluate your options and conclude yeah it's not for you, great. There's a decent chance though that it'll go the other way, so win win win.

And if nothing else I'll stop nagging you after constantly telling you about it, and fighting you over it, for a good part of tenplus years.

Comrades

Comrade M has his own plans, says the man on the radio, maybe he'll get his senses right eventually, our party is going through an eclipse, we've not gone dark, says the comrade who's not anybody's comrade anymore. Two thirds, he mentions for the billionth time, that meaningless phrase so beloved of those with not much to say.

Comrade Woleey has done things that were not strictly on the books, the man says, bringing up the understatement of the century, running around in circles. I've lost count of who is with who, what they're doing and why.

Now he's talking about Comrade Jhallu. Idk man, there's so little substance, no content, it's just talking about internal politics, with no real policy or vision. And it's nothing new, we're the idiots for falling for it, despite knowing it's all sham, soap operas for grownass men who like to think soap operas are not for them.

There needs to be better soap operas for grownass men so this shit gets serious. Or does it ever? With everything else going around the world, one wonders.

Fifteen things, because this blog is a word association game at this point

1. Hike
   
   
2. Cancellation
   
   
3. Sleep
   
   
4. Stomachache
   
   
5. Noise
   
   
6. Calm
   
   
7. Cute
   
   
8. Story
   
   
9. Housebuying
   
   
10. Digital nomad
    
    
11. Stupid idea
    
    
12. Trying to not make a point
    
    
13. Watering plants
    
    
14. Cold weather
    
    
15. Rest

Eff, I didn't want to talk about this at all but here we are, efff the effing world

 The covid situation is uhh making a comeback and things aren't ideal. The idiotic losers who I can't take anymore who didn't so much as bother to use half a brain or to evaluate the expertise of people who know their shit. It sucks, sucks for everybody, you need masks and vax to get anywhere. And even then the counts are getting so ridiculous. What to do, whaaat too dooo? I'll have to write more on this in the coming days, a lot more. Such is life, ah.

Yes yes I'm still writing, and this is pathetic but survival is important

 I'm still writing in my personal journal at work, five hundred words every day except those I'm too swamped to think of anything to write but those are few and far in between.  Not much content and no fiction obviously because I'm the devil's workshop now but fingers move and you know what they say, muscle memory with the fingers is the most important skill one can have. Wait, was that about writing? Hmmm, now that I think about it...Anywho, so yeah this blog situation has been abandoned yadda yadda yadda stfu, I'm writing and staying sane and just putting these words down which is so.much.more. than anything that could be said about former days, so yeeeeee. Also I've started talking like a 13YO, typing wise and it is my understanding that such behavior maybe causing the communication issues I'm having with the ladies, but like IDGAF etc etc.

Mhm, what a short and disappointing post, I should know better I'm a huge disappointment and might as well not write anymore boohoohooo what what what. Bye bye bye, I'm still writing and that's all that mattes. Buhbye.

And a few more things

 About how this guy or that lives in so-and-so city, how they have family all over the country, and ohhh he lives in that city, and it's so-and-so many hours from the other city they might or may not be at some point, and then looking at all possible means of travel to and from there, including but not limited to, driving, taking the train, flights, connecting flights to nearby city, biking, and if possible walking, and how wild it would be.

Also looking at the highways and cars, and how everybody drives, and how you should get a driving license and so on and on and on, it's a good idea to not do the most basic things that make you adultlike because then the expectations are set superlow and you're stuck at the gate. You do everything they tell you, and the next thing you know they're asking you to pop off your sixth child and buy your fourth house. Which is fine whatever if you're into marrying and childbearing and housebuying, perfect actually because things align. They often don't though, innit.

The two things parents talk about times when they're abroad

 Seventy percent of all the conversations are about time zones, and how time zones are different, and how it's night when it's day there and here, and actually you're ahead of one day. And it's not just once, over and over and over again, with the same people. On repeat. Over and over and over.
And again.

The second thing is about time zone conversations, and how adding this to that, and one to three and subtracting will get you that time zone, but you can also convert it by first converting to the Nepali time zone and then doing the other conversation, and how that's easier. You'd think once you talk about this with somebody it'd be over, but no, over and over and over, how to do the timezone math and how  this is crazy.

Wild times, people, wiiilld times.

Three screen setup is here

 Three screen setup is here, the new screen is the largest, highest pixel sickest piece of machinery in my arsenal, this kicks ass, it's awesome, if I could get things in order, it would all be very useful for my non-work productivity, but even now it's not a big deal, not a big deal at all, alright, why are you even messing with me, just listen to what I have to say. It's fuking fantastic, three screen setup with one massive screen rocks, gonna leverage it to make me write more I hope.

UUUUUUUGHHHHHH

 uuuughhh ugh uuggghh ughhhh ugggghhhh uuuhhhh huuhhhh uuuuhhuhuh huhuhuh hgghhghuhuhuhg hghghuhguhguhgugh this htuhuhuh ishuhgughugh hard hughughguhguhguh i need hhghghguhguhghguhguh to wuhuhuhhuh write huhuhuh and huhuhuhuh uuuuuu hhhhhh eee ughhhhh no hhhuuuhhhhugghhhhh gguuuuuhhhhh matter ghhguuuhhhghgh what hhhghghghg is hhhghghgh happening hhhhhggggguuu ughhh ggguhhhh uhhgggg inmylife ggggggggggggggahhhhhhhhhh

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee EEEEEEEEEEE E eeeeeeeeeeeee eeee EEEE eeee EEE eeeeeee ee EEEEE eeee EE E EEEEEE E eeeee EEEEE EEEE eee eeee owwww owww owww owwww oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

AAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

 Aaaaaaaaaaaaa AAAAAAAAAAA aaaaaaaaa AAAAAAA AAA  aaaaa AAAAAA aaaaaaaa AAAAAA AA AAAA AA  AAA  AAA AAAAA   AAAAA AAA   AAA aa aaaaaaaa aa a aaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa eeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Gonna see some interesting posts incoming

 You'll be seeing a hella lotta intersting, perhaps traditionally unconventional posts incoming. NOT JUST because I'm desperate because that's the uhh top two reason, yeah. Just sayin'. Lots to catch up on, lots of pressure etc.

Sean Lock will be missed 😿 😿 😿

 Sean Lock the famous British comedian and one of the team captains on Eight out of ten cats does countdown has passed way of cancer. I got to know is comedy for about a year, and what a glorious year it has been. He will be sorely missed.😿 😿

A list of thirty things I can think of, that's how desperate I am

1. Plastic trash bags
   
   
2. Pawan sweets pedaa
   
   
3. Tv
   
   
4. Japanese mattress
   
   
5. Bonsai plants
   
   
6. The Bay
   
   
7. Lake Union
   
   
8. Avocado
   
   
9. Molly's book
   
   
10. Yeti tumblers
    
    
11. Noise cancelling headphone
    
    
12. Toothache
    
    
13. Nonstick pans
    
    
14. Flakey people
    
    
15. Heartache
    
    
16. Giving too much away
    
    
17. Unclear plans
    
    
18. Buying houses
    
    
19. Renovating houses
    
    
20. Painting walls
    
    
21. Coworkers
    
    
22. Large passenger ships
    
    
23. Urban goats
     
24. Weekly and monthly subscriptions
    
    
25. "where does all my money go"
    
    
26. Hawaii
    
    
27. Podcasts
    
    
28. "shit, I forgot I needed to get that from you"
    
    
29. bath tubs
    
    
30. showermats
    

Ten random things

1.  People you meet at clubs that don't check for vax cards
   
   
2. Cute little dogs
   
   
3. Large multi-million dollar houses next to a beautiful nature reserve, 20 minutes from the city center by foot
   
   
4. Sweet things, and I mean it literally
   
   
5. Going to bars and clubs at new cities
   
   
6. The ocean
   
   
7. Technologies that don't exist yet but their vendors pretend it's a done game
   
   
8. The third shot
   
   
9. Anything that could be misinterpreted as a racist joke
   
   
10. Eggplant
    

From nothing to too much way too soon

 Because the 3A's moved out of their place at UW, there's an excess of kitchen supplies etcetera, waiting at SK's car for me to pick up. Things I absolutely need such as a rice cooker and a nice stock pot, but also those that I maybe don't necessarily need and could do without such as maybe the tenth pair of dinner plate, or the second dozenth cup. But The Boys are gonna be back, or so they believe, because SEA has been their neighborhood for a while, and nothing's gonna change that. So I can't just throw those things out.

Which means in a matter of weeks I'll have gone from being insecure about having an underfurnished apartment to living in an overfurnished place with things I definitely don't need but am keeping around for when people come back to town. And it's not like I've got some free space hiding about, this one's still a tight single bed but now with extra goods.

The future is uncertain as always, but I can see shapes forming in the fog.

I am a robot. This is what I write

Beep bop booop bip beep beeeep. Beeep beep beep, boppity boopidah.
Beepidah bippity booyah, beep boop boop beep. Beep Boopitty boodah.

Bip bop boppin', boppin' on the heaven's door
Zippity doodah, gimme more more more
When there's something good happening
I show up right away,
SO girl, lmk wya cos I'm gonna come running.
Bepp boop bippity boopah.

Bara pum pum pum,
When is this task
Ever gonna get done
Error error error, so much work
When am I gonna have me some fun.

I'm just a little boy
Nobody loves me,
Beep bop boopin', boopin' at the CPU's door
Let's get hoppin' y'all let's not be a bore.

Random sentences that make no sense because you don't know the context, I barely do

Just Seattle things.

Her friends and classmates were on their second and third babies and their second mortgages, she was on her third fully-paid house with her husband, and with his blessing, the third boyfriend of the year.

It was clear what he found in her: the comfort of youth and beauty, the potential in a bright and wide-eyed human being; it was far less understandable what she saw in him...perhaps the vision of a clear guided future where she knew what she wanted in her life, he did seem to know exactly what he wanted after all.

You will like me regardless of who I have become or what I act like...they said...and after a pause...genderwise I mean, because love is uncaring and in the inside I will remain the same loving kind person you kissed in that bookstore so many years ago, nothing's changed yet, babe.

Everybody in her highschool class went to good colleges and universities, everybody in her family had been competitive about higher education, which meant there was one clear obvious direction for her: she would never go to college and spend the rest of her life working in retail, because that was her calling. Probably. It was definitely not what everybody else was doing.

After returning to the city for the sixth time in as many years, he realized he enjoyed the vibe of the city and though the soul of the city was not the same small-town quirky lost land of the late nineties it was a place unlike any other in the most real way. He would stay back and take care of his two houses for good after all. Besides, property prices had increased much faster in California, so it would make more financial sense to sell the property there instead.

10 parks in Seattle I've been to

1. Gasworks park
   
   
2. Greenpoint park
   
   
3. Interlaken park
   
   
4. Olympic statue park
   
   
5. Dr Jose Rizal park
   
   
6. Volunteer Park
   
   
7. Seattle Arboretum
   
   
8. Cal Anderson park
   
   
9. Lake Union Park
   
   
10. Discovery Park
    

Ten questions about the office

1.  Was the IT guy from the office the same character as the person Pam met a few seasons ago at the job fair, and how did he not remember the people at DM?
   
   
2. Jan's lawyer from the deposition, have we seen that guy before, wasn't he supposed to be the corporate lawyer? What happened there?
   
   
3. How come we see the siblings of major characters only when it's convenient for them to appear, and not, you know, when they would 'naturally' appear?
   
   
4. How has everybody at DM Scranton not gotten sued and fired at least ten times over?
   
   
5. The Senator, was he easily accepted by the democrats, or does he feel that the political environment has changed suitably for him to be a hypocrite gay republican politician? The state senator I mean.
   
   
6. How was Michael, otherwise quite sensitive to other people's feelings, so insensitive and mean with Pam's landlady, and didn't realize her dreams and hopes would be dashed due to him being incredibly awful? Also, was Pam's landlord being knowingly boring to talk to because she says she's a 'landlord' for a job?
   
   
7. What the hell are Micheal and Jan gonna be doing in Colorado, Mike is pretty much bankrupt at this point, with his awful money skills?
   
   
8. Whatever happened to Danny Cordray, we should have seen him more, no?
   
   
9. Was there really value in DM after everything happened, or was David wallace being too emotional when he bought the company back late season 8?
   
   
10. Why was charles miner so awful and what the hell is the thing he was looking from Jim? Was he trying to get rid of Jim from the company?
    

How not to pick a chair

That cutie pie
On the swivel chair
From the catalog
Is quite something,
Is she not?

She could curl up in a couch,
Or in a chair -- maybe,
And so easy
To fall in love with, no?

Who put the catalog in one's hand?
Was it fate?

Oh my queen
Of page eighty-five
You are the template
Of my dream.

Love,
Marriage,
Baby-carriage,
That's where we're
Gonna be at
Let's get it poppin' girl
I'll call that Spanish
Photo-taker
Right away
Just hope you're sober
So we can spend
Quality time together.

[Poem based on the episode of The Office I'm listening to right now]

Baby don't hurt me

When we were speaking
Yesterday
And you mentioned,
Jokingly because you knew,
The three-letter d-word,
And I pretended
To throw up
Maybe I did
Throwup a little-bit?

Not physically, nonono
But emotionally absolutely
Stop
Stabbing
Me
Deep
In
The Heart
With those swords
Of clown-shaped
Pool-noodle swords,
Baby.

Ouuuuch.

What's up

What
Is this
Annoying thump
Deep inside of me
What
Is this
Unbearable warmth
All around me
What
Is this
Dizzying lightness
Above me
What
Is the
Pain, or is it
Pricking me, everywhere
And how
Do I
Get rid of it?
Yet another
Self medication
Is it
Or has the time come
For the surgery.
Did they mean it
Literally
When they talked about
Wearing your heart
On your sleeves?
My sleeves
Are so clean,
co-incidentally.
You're laughing
An awfully lot
What's up?

Egg and tator brunch, walk around town, TJ's trip, single night out, chill bar, free drinks, bartender friends [Fri 13]

 Had eggs and tator tots for brunch, slept most of the day. Walked to pike/pine, saw a cool all-women street band playing, it was cool as heck. As always, a bunch of women really seemed to want to dance with me and I didn't seem as interested for some reason, why I don't know, actually because I wanted to get my 10k steps before it was too late, and by the time I got my senses right it was far too late. Went to TJ's because I was around anyway and bought a few things...that I don't remember what I bought but it was like 8.48.

Since I didn't have many other plans, SK was out on a camping trip, AKS was in Nepal and Sb was with friends, I went to check this new bar a couple of blocks over. It was really sow and friendly, mostly a regulars bar. Bartenders were super friendly, it was one of their birthday and I got a free shot. Talked to them about brewing and dehydrated lime and spicy mixed drinks.

Spent a few hours there sipping my single drink rather slowly because I didn't want to call the night early too quick. On my walk back I was accosted by a rather rowdy group of indian men, their girlfriends were extremely apologetic for them. Checked out chacha's, it seemed far to busy and the regular bouncer wasn't there so I went home, listened to a couple of podcasts and went to sleep, at 2.30 in the morning.

Quinoa egg linner, gym and pool, night out with SB, hotdogs, unicorn and chachas, skewed ratio, meeting old bar friends. [Thu 12]

 Had lunch of quinoa and eggs, with so much green onions because I was trying to finish them.

After work walked a bit, and went to Sb's place for gym, as usual. Played pool and ice hockey thing for an hour or so before heading back home from shower and dinner. Waited for some time, and headed out.

We went to unicorn first and it was extremely dead, it was quite disappointing. We chilled for some time, I had taken some kava so felt chill and didn't worry about the disappointing night. Then we dropped by chacha's just to check what was up.

And what was up was that there were way wayyy to many women than men, the ratio was so skewed they went out a lot earlier than otherwise, which was a disappointment. But the two of us boys still stuck around. There was a girl who fist bumped me and maybe wanted to talk to me now that I think about it, but me being me I said hi and bailed. A jacked guy carried me on his shoulders, I'd be more into talking to the girls he was talking to if  I hadn't discovered they were college students and recently 21. I saw them again at the hotdog place later and got really excited about that. Met Andy, who's a friend of a fellow alum of college, whom I'd previously met at the same bar with cute girl friends, chilled with his friend Sam for a while, and checked out the scene before leaving pretty late. Sb got hotdog, we just stared around, and called it a night at 1.30. It was a superb night, wish I'd been more out and about. Ah well.

Milestone post, just to waste your time

Nine hundos is a big number no, and there we are, at this rate we'll be very comfortably way over where we were at last year, and this is despite all the dislocation, disorientation, confusion and uncertainty associated with the various things happening around. So yayyayyayy to me, I need to congratulate myself pat myself.

Here's to hundreds more for the rest of the year, not all at one big chunk but as things move because that's more interesting and reflects my mindset over the course of every day instead of sputtering week on and week of. I've not done this smoothly recently but I haven't given up and that's what matters in the end, does it not?

Ever onwards!

Something was said that touched me really

The other day I was a little high on weed and just ambling about and told PK that I envied her for having all these friends and partner and a close group of people to answer to her every beck and call and never being by herself and she told me that the one friend group was all she had and things look much more exciting from the outside. And I said huhh that's made me feel better about myself because I'm unanchored right now, as I'm in a new place with new people and everything, and she said at least you have other people to hang out with, and could take the chance to jump and move to this place, I could never move to a different place because there's nothing and nobody to look forward to anywhere else in the world.

Things I should maybe cut down on

1. Cookies
   
   
2.  Rice
   
   
3. Mushroom-broccoli-bokchoy veggie that I've been eating for the last four days
   
   
4. Chocolate
   
   
5. Booze, I don't drink much, and I didn't drink for three years before here, and I gotta get back on that
   
   
6. Wasting time on websites and apps trying to meet new people and make friends ugh
   
   
7. Generally wasting my time in my apartment after work instead of writing or doing something productive
   
   
8. Numbered lists
   
   
9. Self-referential naval-gazing posts like these
   
   
10. anxiety
    

Here is the complete list of plants I have in my apartment

1.  One succulent, doing well and thriving
   
   
2. One dead succulent, I overwatered it once and it never came back
   
   
3. The big majestic plant that PN gifted me that's been the pride of the apartment
   
   
4. The nice tree-like plant that I couldn't look up the name of, but which AS brought back from death and I'm excited about the potential of, and how big it can get
   
   
5. The other plant I got from A's that looks a bit like Maize but it's not apparently SK bought three of it and killed the other two, and this one too, almost, and it was brought back to life and has changed life at least four times I'm told, it's only got four leaves though
   

Ten more random words that literally have nothing to do with my life, so eff off okaay

1.  Impatience
   
   
2. Boredom
   
   
3. Ego
   
   
4. Excitement
   
   
5. Potential
   
   
6. Hobby
   
   
7. Giggle
   
   
8. Shower
   
   
9. Similar
   
   
10. Jar
    

Ten random words because that's what this existence has come down to, pure desperation it is

1. Uncertainty.
   
   
2.  Excitement.
   
   
3. Nonchalance.
   
   
4. Warm.
   
   
5. Fuzzy.
   
   
6. Dance.
   
   
7. Buzz.
   
   
8. Confusion.
   
   
9. Smile.
   
   
10. Loud.
    

Twenty questions to some place you'd rather not have been

 Is it your friend?

Is this the same person you spent three weeks with visiting exquisite locations but didn't take any photos together instead choosing to focus on random bugs and flowers, and when asked who you were with you offhandedly replied it was a single, like you, friend, of your preferred gender, who you've spent considerable time with and grown up together but no he's not anything like that you're just friends okay don't worry?

Is it the person you work with who you thought would get better but their situation's only gotten better?

Is it that piece of furniture you picked up from the thrift store, your first time at one and you were so unsure but we convinced you it was the best thing ever and now you're obsessed with it and ready to take it to all the future apartments even though it'd be significantly more expensive to do that compared to just buying it?

It's not your pet from back home is it?

Is it the book that you got on your last birthday that you've only read the first two chapters of and you swear you'll get around to completing the rest of it when you have a better weekend because it's a great book?

Is it a bag of wai wai?

Is it a cheap dull knife?

Is it the nook in your apartment?

Is it the shared memories that you're trying to purge because of the inherent betrayal that you cannot get over from?

Is it a bottle of your favourite vodka?

Is it that weird friend of yours who intrigues you but you're unsure where that might go and besides you don't know if you guys would get along together and who knows what's gotten into him because how are your conversations like that these days what's happened to you?

Is it the electric scooter that you bought used for a hundred bucks fifty that was stolen three weeks on from work and the guards wouldn't give you the security video of it and you thought of quitting but it was too much stress so you just...

Is it your favourite denim dress?

Is it an amphibian?

Is it the cute guy on the dating apps you've been eyeing but he won't reply back what the hell it's annoying once he's replied maybe you'll make the jump and just like sleep with him right away because fuck it who cares about anything anymore nothing matters dear what the hell was he thinking it's awful the world is shit guys are hell?

Is it chicken curry?

Is it love?

Is it a job?

Is it over?

Life goes on

even if you don't squeeze it out, if you don't life it the world goes on without you because it doesn't care and you might be sad but the universe doesn't the sun will rise frogs will croak and ohmygod the cuties at the bar two blocks from here will hang out with other douchebags meaning they're douchebags not that everybody's a douchebag including me they just happen to be other people anyway what a stupid digression podcasts have greatly improved my life and entertainment situation I don't need no youtube or netflix anymore this is a wild new world i'm thankful for but right yeah you need to keep moving towards your goal what you want and in this case it's getting this thing to be in a good place and getting myself in a disciplined situation innit.

some people get sad because the people who they trusted and hung out with all the time even though they were not boyfriends for so long people suspected nothing was happening but they'd be hanging out again and then one thing happens and another and things fall apart and sadness is the way of the realm everything works out don't worry life goes on and if you don't you get left behind.

fin.

Twenty questions to nowhere

Is it an animal?

Is it the boyfriend you thought you were gonna marry but he dumped you two weeks later because he was sleeping with you just to piss somebody else off for no good reason?

Is it a water creature?

Is it a cooking implement?

Is it that piece of cookie you dropped on the street but you picked off and ate anyway on your first date and somehow that was one of the best date you've been on?

Is that the bottle of lotion that you saw an ad for on the drive to work and it somehow reminded you how you hadn't gotten a raise in two years?

Is it your older brother who's married to a beautiful kind generous woman who makes more money than him, could go to the olympics if she wanted to or become a model but she won't because she wants to spend more time with their three incredibly cute adorable children?

Is it your journal underneath your pillow that you've not touched for three months now because you fear there's nothing happening in your life and writing in it will just force you to come to terms with it?

Is it a plant?

Is it an edible plant?

Is it a fruit?

Is it a green vegetable?

Is it bokchoy?

Is it spinach cooked in some salty japanese liquid that you tried when you thought maybe you were lesbian because things weren't working out with men, and the Japanese girl who was going to be promoted to become the ambassador to some country quickly figured out you were in the date basically for the free food and still pretended to be interested and gave a half-hearted kiss and patted you on the head sort of and told you everything was gonna be okay?

Is it collard greens?

Is it recyclops?

Is it green chilli?

Is it a toy?

Is it hurt feelings?

Upset tummy

What was it
That I did
To trip you up
And mess your mood
And now I
Am stuck
Babysitting me.
Oh baby.

Don't hurt me.

Was it the grapes
So juicy and fresh
Or the nuts
Salty and spicy
Though maybe not the best
So late at night
Or was it something else
That I missed
That got you pissed
And now here I am
For the thirteenth time
In two days
Sitting, sitting sitting
All confused and sad
And empty
Grumbling
And tired.
I'm sorry,
Let's make up
White bread and eggs
Is all we'll have
from now on?

How is it that sleep is so elusive yet it's not

 How is it that in the evening sleep becomes an elusive mistress, trying to hide and escape from me yet on weekdays when there's a larger area to talk about at and just hang out, yet when I sit down to write some serious amount of writing because nothing else has been working well to inspire me, I fall asleep at the drop of the headphone? And why does the universe notice my trick when I try to lay down the trap when the evening is nigh?

Alas some people and their attempts to reuse items

 Seen on the packaging of a kitchen faucet extender:
This product is not long enough to be used as a skipping rope or for any similar applications not directly related to the hobbies inspired by the coronavirus lockdowns. It does not hold the structural strength to be tested against. You would be well-advised to look into other avenues for staff similar as myself though somebody who's failed to get into the inner circles, to get their voices heart directly by the bigheads in charge unless they were paid at the nominal value that's on the streets.

Why

You ask me,
Why,
And so I say
It was not for you
That I
Embarked upon this
Confusing, dastardly
Agonizing exploration
Not for you that I jumped
Into thin air, without a parachute
But now that you're here
Mind?
Getting some tea
As we read books
Back to back
On the cool wooden floor
Ah your bright yellow sweater
illuminating,
Oh where was I again,
Because I got lost
In your eyes, deep and curious

What are we doing,
Where are we going
And why this, why...all of this

It's like when the master asks

And then the lord said, Men around
Chirping and humming like bees
And yet she hears only you,
Why is it that she's tuned to your rfrequency

Funny business

No funny business,
Huh?
I know what to do,
I shall tell a joke
To amuse you
Then we shall
Discuss
What's funny
And what's
And what's oh so so so
Hot.
You.

I got Seattle Public Library membership

 I wrote about this in passing couple of days ago, but it's worth stressing over again, so Imma write in detail here. I got the membership because I'd been reading a lot less and buying books a bit specially because I want to support the Elliott Bay Book Company etc, they're good people also publishers and a store, and this awful pandemic hasn't been good for anybody. Still libraries are good because you can request journal papers, and other resources from anywhere in the world. Most importantly though I'm interested in putting to use the laser cutters they have at the West branch of the library system, that'll allow me to put into execution my decoration plans for this apartment, they were aborted prematurely because A had to live for Nepal for not very good reasons.

Haven't borrowed anything yet despite it having been a few weeks by now. Online I could look up but I want the books in person, and the guilt of not having written here, or gone for good walks has been stopping from me doing anything specially productive. After this thing is over, and parents are here, I'm going to be doing that a lot more I imagine because I don't want to be distracting myself on the phone, the vast imaginary worlds of the novels and fiction books will be my places for refuge and distraction during times I don't feel at home in this apartment anymore. Not that I don't enjoy being with family, but one most always seek to diversify one's groups.

The five different natural remedies I'm using to help me with my sleep

 It's no secret I've been having trouble sleeping as of late, due to factors within my control and beyond. So here's five natural remedies I've been using to help me sleep, I'll add more in the future as things progress.

1. Melatonin
   
   
2. Valerian root powder
   
   
3. Kava root tea
   
   
4. Regular non-caffeinated herbal teas and blends
   
   
5. Warm water some time before going to bed
   

My friends are now friends with Miss Nepal and I don't know how to cope

 I've joked here in the pages, in the past, about how it'd be great to be roommates with the Miss Nepal who was going to be in Boston starting this fall (aka right now) but because of situation and circumstances things didn't work out and how much of a bummer it was. I was mostly joking of course, but friend of the blog NSA, who's expecting in a matter of weeks is now a freshly-made best friends with her! Apparently they found her just hanging out and buying something at 7-11, got talking, and N says that MN (miss nepal, because I don't want to trigger google alerts somebody might have put on the name) is a genuinely nice and smart person and she's actually a person worth being super good friends with.

And on my part I've tried to come off as a better person and told her that I wouldn't be that much of a bother as I basically didn't (and don't) know who she is, didn't know what she looked like, and basically think of her just as a nice friend-of-friend and nothing else etc. But then I'd need to go to Cambridge which...seems like a hike...just to meet a fof, at this point.

Alas, such is my fate. Maybe if I'd still been in Nepal they'd ever have met. Perhaps the stars aligned to have me not be there so they could meet and be friends? Questions questions.

Some current news updates and what I'm doing to help out

 I signed up to volunteer to help Afghan refugees resettle in this part of the country. With tuition, setting up their apartment, ESL, and anything else they might need assistance or guidance with in being comfortable and at home in here. Because maaan, things are going to be tough for a lot of people, and all we can do it is commit personally to assist the people closest to us. Please look out for organizations near you who are offering opportunities for volunteers to help the refugees as well.

It only gets harder

 It only gets harder the more I skip, the more I get lazy, the more I push this on. I need to write so much more, I'm hanging by a thread, barely surviving in terms of my goal to write here daily. There has to be a point after which the brain will just give up, and I'm getting there very very soon if I don't follow rules. The advice is, it gets easier, but you have to keep at it, every day, every week, one small act at a time. And not, as I'm doing, writing whenever the heck I feel like it, pretending I'm managing to go with a regular schedule. This won't get easy if I don't follow the rules. Rituals are important. Discipline is important.

The eleven types of oils/cooking fats I've been using

1. Vegetable oil
   
   
2. Sesame oil
   
   
3. Olive oil
   
   
4. Extra-virgin olive oil
   
   
5. Coconut oil
   
   
6. Avocado oil
   
   
7. Grapeseed oil
   
   
8. Peanut oil
   
   
9. Butter
   
   
10. Safflower oil
    
    
11. Lard (pork fat)
    

The different kinds of candles and melters I have

1.  Nepal-bought Swayambhu-themed melter that runs on candles, gifted by a friend
   
   
2. Bell jar candle holder that burns bright, bought at dollartree
   
   
3. Elephant-shaped candle holder gifted to me by JD on my birthday
   
   
4. Electric wax melter, bought at wegmans
   
   
5. Wax melter running on candles bought at dollar tree
   
   
6. Diffuser that runs on electricity
   
   
7. Improvised handle holder based on unglazed clay chinese booze containers
   

Homie and Watts

Sher-lock holmes,
So full of tomes,
But ne'er the human conn-ect.
Dock-torr Watson,
Thick as a rock
Yet so good
In putting folks
Into good mood.

The twosome,
De-tective and the dok-tor
They solve mysteries, and solve crime
Though sherlock does drugs
In his free time.
Doctor Watson,
Full of vive and vigor
Always behind the Holmes,
His biggest supporter.
He gets around, so we are told,
With lassies from across the globe.
From six continents, it is said,
Though descriptions of him,
Are boring and staid.
We don't find out,
How he married
Twice times over, ladies of great breed,
And yet he,
Ne'er talks
Of his private life
Not even a footnote, nothing, naught.

What a duo,
What a group.

Proof of vax everywhere

 This is one of the most unfortunate circumstances where my hopes have been dashed. I was really really hoping the C**** situation would be under control at this point, and that doesn't appear to be happening exactly, wave after wave of new variants are attacking etcetera. As a result people have started masking up everywhere, indoor mask mandate has come back, if not legally from all stores bars and restaurants, and now the grand of all situations. All the bars and restaurants have been checking for proof of vaccination for entry, even the more boring ones. So if you ain't vaccinated, you ain't getting into anywhere cool. It's annoying that you have to produce the document at every point, but on the other hand, it's a great filtering mechanism, gets rid of all the undesirable pro-virus individuals etc so that's great. I don't mind the masks or the proof at all, if this is going to help us control the spread etc.

It's a poem!

 For [redacted initials, because everybody's gonna figure out, maaaan], because why not.

Hey hey, you you
What you up tooo
I'm gonna hold your hands
And see the world
And what are you gonna do?

Ay Ay ay ay,
Let's go to the club
And dance neck to neck
And when we're on the break
All sweaty and hot and tired
I don't know where I'm going
Maybe I over-committed
But you will see that
Things have changed
You think people have,
And find it confusing,
Not really, it's the circumstances
Let's talk about our dances
And do the
dub-a-dub-dub, dub-a-dub-dub

What made me write this,
Confuses me,
Is strange
The words my fingers write
Befuddle me
I can't stop, I can't fight
I hope all that's in my head
Is alright.

EIther there's a bunch of spammers attacking my website, or I've gone viral

 I looked at the stats earlier today and I see this blog has seen 2000 hits over the course of the last month. That's usually my hit count for three months or so, so somebody [in the us it appears but who would, nobody knows this thing, and then each post has been visited multiple times, what is even happening here] has been either really gorging on this, or there are spammer bots attacking this bag of pointless sack that's not going anywhere, nah I'm not going to be writing a novel about young adults in kathmandu it's looking like at this rate because there's no motivation, there's no fire that needs to be burning, I'll write more on this later because I had a longass conversation, and my long.ass I mean a long effing conversation for somebody I've never talked to on the phone before all by myself, where I found out that somebody I talked to and inspired last year has written a full goddamn movie script and halfway through their biography to go with it etcetera and I'm so very envious, I need to get up there, gotta hang with those people more and try to compete etcetera, but yeah writing's not going anywhere is it, if it were I'd be writing here a lot more, alas what the hell is happening this was supposed to be the one thing I cared for in my life through thick and thin and now not even that, so sad, hopefully it'll workout.

Anyway, so how and who and where have y'all been looking up here and refreshing the pages, because those are false stats I'm getting, probably and I'm confused, possibly misled. Ugh. So annoying.

I'm getting my apartment to become real house

 Tomorrow S and I are going to A's place, where the 3A's are leaving from this weekend and getting a bunch of furniture and crap that they'd otherwise throw out. Stuff like TV (full sized), fan fucking finally, rice cooker without which this house hasn't felt like a home yet, couple of plants by the way I've not executed my heist yet, and then a bunch of small things here and there, so when the parents are over this weekend, it's gonna get real. They're bringing the decorations too, so finally I'll have set my butt down, it's gonna get wild and sneaky people!

Some people say fruits are not real meal, I say suck it losers

So I've been eating a lot of watermelon lately.  A lot lot lot. And apple, and peach.

Readers may remember I bought a massive watermelon last friday, with two cucumbers and feta and made it into a salad. And had to eat it through the course of the week all by myself. That was only half the watermelon. The other half I've been eating for solid meals and you know what it's unclear if it's the kava or the sugar content in the 'melon but I've been feeling full throughout.

Then the impossible foods peeps sent me yet another round of fruits that I need to catch up on, or else they'll go bad, so I've been gorging up on that as well. My meals have mostly considered of fruits as of late because I'm being inundated by them.

Somehow, accidentally I seem to find myself in this 'pure/healthy' lifestyle, spiritual in nature somewhat, though it is not my intention strictly speaking. It just happens that my choices and limitations caused by my physiology and social circumstances have aligned to put me in a situation that is indistinguishable from one that a much more spiritual man than myself would find himself in.

Which is, interesting, and curious, because I noted the other day that the feeling after drinking a strong cup of kava is about like how it feels after a solid hour of deep meditation.

Yeah okay Kava is killing it

As I wrote earlier, Kratom was terrible for me, generally speaking, which is not so great because in my greed for cheap products I bought fifty bucks worth of it. I'll still give it a try but gonna limit my experimentation with it.

On the other hand, Kava has been killing it for me. I bought 2 ounces for fifteen bucks which is extravagantly expensive, yes, but it's worth it. Thirty minutes after drinking it I feel calm, focused, and get this general feeling of wellbeing. Like I just got up after a long night of restful sleep. Or just um a medium-great orgasm sort of situation, if that means anything to anybody anymore. Are there categories of sexual pleasure and how does one organize them?

Anyway, I'm considering buying in bulk, several pounds at a time, because I've run out of the ounces too quick. And the blending of the root takes a really long time, so much cleaning involved. I used to think people who were into coffee put in a lot of effort into preparation but kava is another category. Blend, strain, clean, and by the time you're done the tea is already cold. Also, honey and other teas required generally because the taste is awful.

In any case, what a wonderful experience this has been!

More sandwich meals and muffins and kava, lyft to UW with robohelper, departure prep and TJ biriyani lunch, heavy traffic, nap in the drive, farewell to A, trainride home, fruity dinner and croissant [Wed 11]

 For brunch I had the remaining breakfast sandwiches and muffins, with kava. Refreshing. I might be overdoing this, I need to figure out a good balance of where I want to get these things for, or it's likely I'll get tired of this real fast. The kava is definitely helping me with anxiety control, just need to channel that energy into better productivity and not just wasting time now.

After work packed up the robo vacuum cleaner I've written about in the past, whom I've grown to love because vacuuming had been very limited since. Thought of taking the public transport, but considering Seattle's unreliable system and the tight deadline we were working with, ordered an expensive lyft. I was there within eight minutes, versus maybe 45 that would have taken in a bus. There I cleaned the dust bag and realize all the hard work the little guy had done at my place, that was when I felt bad for letting him go so easily.

As A packed, we made sure his logistics were all figured out, since he liked to plan at the very last moment and pretty much dare the universe to mess up his plans. The younger A brothers made lunch, which or me was the veggie biriyani with two fried eggs.

We ordered uber and discovered the traffic was very heavy, there was fear we wouldn't make it on time. I slept through the 40-min ride because I was tired. We got there in time, he made it through the security gates an hour before his flight departed. The boys and I took the train back, I got off at capHill stop, had watermelon and chocolate croissant for dinner, and went to sleep at a pretty decent time, except being distracted by the green site. If I can get the timewasting sites out of my mindspace, I'm going to be so much more productive.

Multiple kava brews, multiple breakfast sandwiches, imperfect food arrives, walk to the library, drive to North Seattle, hang in the park, hang at A's place, farewells [Tue 10]

 Made a kava brew in the morning with the juice from the watermelon salad, because it had oil in the dressing and apparently the good chemicals are heavily soluble in oil. Later in the day had another brew, this time in water. In the evening talked to folks back home, finally, and then cleaned the sink, which was a big mental burden for me.

For breakfast I had two separate breakfast sandwiches I'd gotten from the coffee place the day before. A bit in the evening, I got the delivery from imperfect food, unpacked it and put in the freezer, so much fruits and veggies for now, when I haven't been cooking much. I need to get my shit together!

Walked down to Pioneer Square, to the Seattle public library, just to check the building. I got the membership a couple of days before, and wanted to check if I could acquire the physical cards as well, but they were on limited hours so I couldn't make it. Went to S's place where we collected box for A, and drove over to the Cowen park in North Seattle, waiting for the rest of the party. The rest of the gang took exactly forever to arrive, and S and I played with M, and then the A's and we just chatted. In the end it was A and his two brothers, S, myself, An and her husband Av, who shares his name with the other A, BD, and his friend S. We ate thai food -- I only had Thai tea because I was full -- and watermelon and ice 'cream'. It was great. Everybody (the A couple, really) bid farewell to A, who was leaving the following day. I got desperate and asked the A couple for their number, and begged them to invite me to anything, really any program whatsoever that they were involved in, now that my group was getting smaller and my social outings would decrease seeing as I would be spending time with family.

S and A drove in S's car, the two younger A brothers, B and S drove in S's car and went to As' place. There the rest of the gang played fifa, B and his DJ'ing partner produced music and submitted something to some radio station. G came over and more hanging out was done. We smoked a few rounds towards the end of the night, it was maybe 11.30, and bid everybody farewell. I asked for B's number because I'd definitely need that in the drier days ahead. S drove me home, on the way he had a massive dejavu because we'd made the same trip over a dozen times over the course of the 2 months A had lived in the new place in North Seattle.

Came home, chilled a bit, and went to sleep pretty easily.

Kava revelations, I feel focused, cooking potatoes, potato-egg-bread lunch, potato-quinoa-achar dinner, bakery haul from toogoodtogo, embarrassment and kindness at Daiso [Mon 9]

Had kava tea early in the morning, and really did feel refreshed and not at all tired or anxious, maybe it's the solution to all my anxiety and laziness and confusion problems. Though I'll say, after I've started taking it, I've not gone out that much and my consumption of the orange and green sites have increased my two-threefold. I guess that's on me though. Anyway, I felt super focused and got a lot of work done in the morning and the afternoon.

At lunch I cooked a bunch of potatoes, had potato-egg and bread for lunch. After work I headed out to Daiso, with a stop in a bakery from toogoodtogo. For four bucks I got four breakfast sandwiches, a croissant and four muffins. Granted they were stale at a day old at least, but nothing a little pan-steaming could help I know now.

Went to Daiso, did twenty bucks worth of shopping, discovered I hadn't bought my wallet just the phone and they didn't take google pay, so I was in the process of putting things back when an extremely pregnant lady offered to pay for me, and I insisted only if she gave me her bank details so I could return the money. After she'd paid she said she didn't need the money back, and told me to pass on the good deed, I was so embarrassed but also so very thankful. Showed up at Uwajimaya, didn't feel like I needed anything, so got back home, organized everything, including two new wall-hangings that definitely give my apartment a japanese vibe now. 

Actually I just discoverd the receipt so I'll discuss it here. An adhesive pack for 1.50, to hang small things on the wall without putting in holes. 4 bucks for the SB Golden curry sauce cubes, hot. Cute glass canister for three bucks that I store my cava in now. An aluminum pot for a two bucks. A pack of hundred tea bags for a dollar fifty, that's where I've been brewing my loose-lea kava from. Four cork coasters for a total of three bucks. A charging and transfer usb cable for a dollar fifty that looks really nice, and unlike my other usb cable actually works for data transfer too. And two very japanse tapestries for a total of three bucks that make my apartment look um completely japanese inspired. Even though that was not the goal, the price level made it so.

Got back, had a sandwich and a muffin for dinner, probably dilly-dallied around, before going to sleep.

Salad breakfast, walk to belltown, kava habit, trip to UW, hang with A's, chill at UW [Sun 8]

 Had the watermelon from the night before for brunch.

Had a drink of kava in the morning, did really feel my anxiety seeping away and felt real good, it works, I know for sure, have made a habit out of it. Cleaned the house, recovered from the night before and just lay in bed until the evening, when I went to walk to Belltown and the sculpture park. The guys were texting around, and we made plans to go to UW, so I walked over to S's, and drove to downtown UW. S ordered his meal, we walked for 30 minutes, he collected his meal and tried eating but that didn't work out, so we went to A's place and hung out for a bunch. Stayed until 10/10.30, and headed home, oh yeah and the guys spent exactly 2.5 hours helping me setup a stupid app and looking at other people and messaging them and embarrassing me and it was awful but also fun I doubt if that's going to last long even though N says hinge is fine idk it's just too much pressure, after we ran out of likes and everybody got bored S drove me home.

Headache and hangover, gloomies, scrambled toast, kava shopping, TJ's trip, QFC trip, underattended party, relief, drinks and boys' night out [Sat 7]

Had a terrible headache and hangover for the entire day, felt really gloomy. It was unclear if it was because of the...drinking...(which I didn't really do the night before, it couldn't have been, really), or the kratom, but that wouldn't make sense because that's not how it was supposed to work. Anyway my body felt really tired and sick, and I didn't really want to socialize too much but I'd invited people over to hang out, so I was dreading it.

For breakfast I had scrambled toast. Went out to shop for kava and a nearby herbal store, they had it for not a ridiculous amount of markup which was nice. Went to TJ's for a short prep trip. Decided to make watermelon salad for which I'd need to make dressings. For that I went to the nearby QFC at the last moment. Made it. Lots of watermelon, too much watermelon ugh.

In the end just three people showed up which was a massive relief for me because I was not in very much of a socializing mood. We drunk some, talked a bunch, and then headed out to Comet and ChaCha's for night out. Comet was dead, ChaCha's had a lot of life, and unlike the last few times it was poppin' and not to much of a sausage fest. The gang got some drinks. SB got two hot dogs, bought the spicy mexican snacks and a vegan hot dog for me. We smoked, we had, we talked, and were out until 2.30, maybe even three in the morning, when he went home, and I came to sleep, relieved that the day had gone exactly the way I'd hoped for.

Hot chocolate Kratom, to Dollartree north and back, TJ's chocolate shopping, party at S's, news from home, club cancelled, poker night, win some lose some [Fri 6]

 Still recovering from the day before, figuring out the sleep schedule, things were getting on track. Didn't take pics of lunch or dinner so can't say anything about those. Except maybe dinner...I had a little bit at S's so we'll talk about that.

After work I had some hot chocolate kratom because I wanted to feel something, anything. In retrospect, it's unclear if it was necessarily a good idea. Went to Dollartree bought like twenty-five bucks worth of stuff. Took the bus back home, dropped all the goods, went to TJ's to get the pound bar of chocolate, headed to S's place, where people were already there. Played with M after such a long time. Chilled with people for the next couple of hours, teased A as always. Got news that homefront was not in full health, felt bad about it, A wanted to go clubbing I didn't so abandoned him and stayed with the rest of the gang, and played poker. Id' planned for the outing for weeks, so this was a bit of a bummer since BD was going to be DJ'ing at the club.

Won some money, except A and Av's brother (other A) -- wow there's a lot of A's in this group -- won so much more than I did. Gave my money to the brother because I didn't need the win. We chilled out for a bit, but it was taking forever to lengthen the night, most of the other gang members were not around. We took forever to make it 1, and I headed out, finally for a good night's sleep.

Roti Tarkari lunch, catchup on sleep, quinoa-tarkari-kimchi-achar dinner, hot chocolate, to belltown and back [Thu 5]

 Slept on and off the entire day because I'd gotten no sleep the night before. It was awful I felt all confused and dizzy throughout the day.

For brunch I had bread and the chicpea tarkari leftovers. For dinner I had the same veggie but with quinoa, kimchi and the green achar I made too much of two weeks ago. Also started drinking a lot of hot chocolate. In the evening I walked to Belltown, near the space needle, and back.

Roti-tarkari breakfast, kratom journey, crappiest pizza ever, slow night out, weed in the park and calling it a day, no sleep [Wed 4]

Had roti tarkari for breakfast, tarkari leftover from the day before.

After work went to buy some kratom, they had BOGO offer, so i got fifty bucks worth of them. Tried some with AKS, who was in the park by my house, we came to my place and tried some, it didn't feel like anything. Except we got hungry. We went out for a walk, hoping something would happen, and nothing did. So we went to a pizza place near Cha cha's, and he ordered four slices of pizza. It cost us twenty bucks. Twenty fucking bucks. For four decent sized slices of pizza. They tasted the worst. Overpriced, bland, hard as a cardboard, they sucked overall and I felt very bad about the people of Seattle, and the low quality of sliced pizza they have to live with. I vowed to write about it and avoid pizza at any cost if I can.

We came back to my place, got a small joint we'd bought the weekend before (or was it the same night? memory is vague, and not because we got high later). Smoked some in the park, chilled for a bit, A got lazy and bored, he went home, I came home. Couldn't sleep for some reason, Didn't sleep the entire night, until 9 in the morning when I began working. At least I talked to MK who's not in Nepal rn, so I guess an international friend, for some time.

The lack of sleep would be paid for heavily over the coming days and weeks.

Roti-tarkari lunch, interlaken walk, TJ's trip, Best Day Ever with pod people, gym, P.K call, rain, boiled egg sandwich dinner [Tue 3]

 For lunch I had roti from TJ's and the chickpeas from there as well, with a bunch of veggies I had added to it, including green onion and kefir. It was so very spicy and sour, maybe went a little overboard with that.

Went on a walk to the Interlaken park, got into TJ's on the way back, did a quick grocery trip with bread and a couple of things I needed for the house. Put them down back home, gathered two boxes of nice Nepali tea, called P.K, and headed for the bookstore nearby.

Outside the bookstore, collected the book by podcaster Molly, the host of Spilled Milk podcast, walked around until the program began. Talked to P.K about their plans ahead, what they had been upto the weekends before, and made plans for hanging out in the upcoming weekends, plans we both knew would not be executed.

Attended the awesome funny, poignant, really cool reading by Molly and the discussion with Matthew. Stayed in the line to get the signed copy of the book. Talked to host Matthew for a bit and gave him a decent box of tea, also met WOTSL. Finally got to Molly, gave her the nice box of tea, had a great conversation with her. Just then it started raining. Big, massive, amazing drops of water, as big as lemon. It made me so happy because it hadn't rained around here in a while.

Walked to SB's place, gymmed for a while, came back had a couple of hummus-kimchi-cheese-boiled-egg sandwiches, before going to bed. Dunno what I did for the rest of the day.

Tired workday, Volunteer park walk, nasty discounted pizza [Mon 2]

Pretty tired, didn't feel like cooking anything, so had leftovers for lunch, probably, didn't take any pictures.After work I went to the nearby sliced-pizza place and got two slices:  cheese and a pesto. They gave me a couple of extra slices of pesto because they were done with it. Yikes. So bad. The pizza was very dry and lacking in flavor, it's one of the most awful pizzas I've ever had, so much that I'd very much rather just have the Domino's pizza which I've complained about recently, talked about how it gave me tummyache and how I'm not going to eat it at all. Yeahh, now I'm probably gonna eat it if I absolutely have to because the 'local' places are so very overpriced, for much poorer taste. I'll talk about a different pizza place in a couple of posts from hereon where the prices were ridiculous and the taste was even worse than this place.

Anyway, I walked all the way to Volunteer park and back in the evening.

Rest day, ramen lunch, bread and pb dinner, walk to Volunteer park, Imperfect food order [Sun 1]

Tired after a pretty goshdarned busy weekend, I rested in the house the entire day, listening to podcasts mostly. Had the Shin Ramyun that I'd got a truckload of for lunch, and bread and butter and honey and cream cheese for dinner. Ordered Imperfect food stuff, got stuff figured out because otherwise I wouldn't get the credit for it, had to cancel it and reach out to their service folks who were kind enough to give me the credit. Walked to Volunteer park for my workout.

Muchos muchos unexciting journal posts coming ahead

Because I dropped the ball quite hard, harder than I had been dropping it and there's no way back without sucking it up and getting whatever I can out. Which means looking at my photos, and transcribing them into a narrative, forgetting the crucial details of those days because I won't have noted or remembered them in anyway, and there will have been no memory milestones. Ah well, this is what I get for having a really bad work ethic.

Anyway, 11/12 journal posts coming ahead, they'll be  slog to read, one after another, pages after pages, too detail-oriented and not enough soul, making one wonder what the purpose of this blog is and why don't I find a more interesting hobby. Such questions will be asked, as have been pondered upon in the last many days and weeks now. Some have good answers, others not so much, and it doesn't matter because the show will go on. Just like British comedy shows and podcasts did during the lockdown. With even greater gusto and passion for connecting with their audiences.

My top 8 strategies in getting a lot of posts out when in a rush

1.  Nonsensical, often self-referential numbered-list posts like this.
   
   
2. Rushed journal posts that don't do the reader, or myself any good, because they lack the crucial details for me to remember the day for me, and are too mechanical to the other readers.
   
   
3. Quick 'observational posts' about things happening in life that aren't very revealing.
   
   
4. 'State of affairs' posts where I summarize what's been up with a certain aspect of my life.
   
   
5. Reviews posts
   
   
6. Posts with streams of consciousness
   
   
7. Bad fiction
   
   
8. Poetry
   

Seventeen times the contestants were ridiculously hilarious on Taskmaster

1. The first couple of episodes of S10 on the stage when the contestants would just not stop laughing. Because they'd just gotten out of the first UK lockdown and felt really good.
   
   
2. That time Richard Herring was told "I hate you more than I hate my husband" by the very pregnant Daisy May Cooper.
   
   
3. All those times Johnny Vegas kept falling and tumbling down to the ground, and saying things like 'nooo my sonn' accidentally on purpose.
   
   
4. That one task when Katherine Parkinson didn't bother to remember any of her play lines because she was already working on a different play and didn't want the lines to get 'pushed out', when Richard Herring also played all the five characters for the play.
   
   
5. Joe Thomas trying to make an eraser disappear, and not succeeding very well.
   
   
6. Paul Sinha and his ridiculous attempts with everything, back when we didn't know he was suffering from Parkinson's but viewers could tell something was up before he did.
   
   
7. That time Jessica Knappett fell off the stage.
   
   
8. Jessica Knappett's trumpet/vuvuzela sounds.
   
   
9. James Acaster getting mad at Rhod Gilbert for the group task.
   
   
10. James Acaster and Phil Wang's hula hoop task.
    
    
11. That time Rhod Gilbert tied Alex Horne to the chair
    
    
12.  Charlotte, Jamali and Sarah's direction group task.
    
    
13. Lee and Mike's Swearing contest
    
    
14. That time Mike Wozniak popped his hemorrhoids when trying to fart on command.
    
    
15. Joe Wilkinson's potato golf miss
    
    
16. Richard Osman eating an egg raw
    
    
17. Noel Fielding hiding as a banana in a picture
    

Top 10 things I need for my apartment right away

1. Fan(s)
2. Television
3. Device connected to television
4. More plants
5. More wall decorations, so my rooms are not as echowy
6. All the water features I promised to make and ordered the equipment for but haven't worked on yet
7. Peace and quiet from the ruckus of the street in front of me
8. Back support cushions
9. Pan lids
10. Various stools and small tables for doing 'levels' for plants.
    

Lame 10 reasons why I wasn't writing here

1. I was too lazy
2. I was too tired
3. I was too sleepy
4. I was too busy
5. I was busy talking to all my international friends
6. I was busy with the apps and everything
7. Writing here was causing me stress (false)
8. I was valuing sleep over writing
9. I was valuing socializing over writing
10. I was valuing work over writing
    

The 15 cities I've been to last, in reverse chronological order

1. Seattle
2. Las Vegas
3. Dallas-Fort Worth
4. Boston
5. New York City
   
6. Philadelphia
   
7. Centreville, VA
8. Washington, DC
9. Kathmandu
10. Singapore
11. San Diego
    
12. Bunch of places in NH
13. Upstate NY
14. Los Angeles
15. San Francisco
    

Top 10 pieces of general software I use, not in any order

1. Firefox
2. Sumatra Pdf
3. 7zip
4. VLC
5. Notepad++
6. Python
7. Google Keep
8. Google docs
9. Microsoft Office
10. Google podcasts
    

Top 10 groceries in America for me, not in any particular order

 My favourite grocery chains, not in any specific order.

1. Aldi
2. Trader Joe's
3. Market Basket
4. Wegmans
5. Hannaford's
6. Big Y
7. QFC
8. Safeway
9. Giant
10. Whole foods
    

Top 15 fruits I can remember, and eat on a regular basis

 This is what it's come down to, alas.

1. Apple
2. Banana
3. Watermelon
4. Grapes
5. Cherry
6. Strawberry
7. Blueberry
8. Blackberry
9. Mulberry
10. Orange
11. Mandarin, Satsuma, etc
12. Cucumber
13. Pear
14. Peach
15. Tomato
    

Twenty more British comedians I know, in random order

 Because I'm really, really desperate to get things written.

1. Alan Davies
2. Lucy Beaumont
3. Beck Hill
4. Susie Dent
5. Joe Wilkinson
6. Sean Locke
7. Jimmy Carr
8. Rob Beckett
9. Josh Widdicombe
10. Rob Brydon
11. David Mitchell
12. Mike Wozniak
13. Sarah Kendall
14. Nicola Coughlan
15. Katy Wix
16. Jessica Knappett
17. Noel Fielding
18. David O' Doherty
19. Richard Ayoade
20. Joe Lycett
    

The top twenty British Comedians I know of, in random order

 Not necessarily the top twenty, definitely not in any order. I just need ideas for a lot of posts, and running out. Here they are.

1. James Acaster
2. Ed Gamble
3. Richard Herring
4. Phil Wang
5. Lou Sanders
6. Charlotte Richie
   
7. Greg Davies
8. Joe Thomas
9. Rhod Gilbert
10. Lee Mack
11. Tim Key
12. Jon Richardson
13. Alex Horne
14. Aisling Bea
15. Katherine Parkinson
16. Katherine Ryan
17. Alice Levine
18. Roisin Conaty
19. Bob Mortimer
20. Sian Gibson

This new online service I'm ordering from

I got 80 bucks of credit -- 20 dollars per order for the first four orders -- with this service called Imperfect Foods. JD got me the referral credits. You gotta pay the shipping costs -- about 5 bucks, but you get a lot of variety of fruits and veggies. I'm not sure if it's worth it...for the full price...but at such discounted price, it's most certainly worth it. I might end up ordering more from them once I'm done with all the fruits and veggies but right now there's a lot lot lot of stuff in my fridge that I need to finish first. And I do like the act of grocery shopping, so getting things delivered is a bit of a disappointment. Still, open to giving it a chance and seeing how it works out.