Project 120 is a success!

This is a part of 'project 110, going back and re-filling', writing is happening 8ish months after the date.

I'm writing this on the third week of Jan 2024, this is the 120th post being published for project 120, and the 1337th post for the the year of 2023. Which means officially, this year hasn't been too wasteful and lazy. The last 20 or so posts were all snippets from sanskrit poetry from various sources, but oh well the requirement was in the number of posts, not in their quality or anything, so it's a win-win!

The only concern is I'm massively running behind on current posts, but that was a tradeoff that had been decided for.

So a very happy year 2024 everybody. May the new year be even more productive for you and for me, and may I get to focus on quality, dedication and editing. Not just the post count.

Hurray! Mission accomplished!

A lime-colored firetruck! What's next!!!

On our trip to taco bell from Giant here in Virginia I Saw one of them smaller firetrucks. No big deal. Except. It wasn't red in color. No, no, no, it was colored lime-Green! Like an awesome savory salty sour snack that you most certainly should not over indulge on, but oh well, life is short and there is not much else to do. But firetruck! In that color! Makes me want to eat the firetruck! Wild, wild! What will they come up with next!!!

State of the blog

The state of the blog is... 'pretty great, not perfect'. In 2023, I started writing aggressively even when away from my home base. The first 4-5 months were terrible as I didn't write anything then, but the second half of the year covered up for that, and more.

In the past year I was able to sustain 5 posts/day and then 6 posts daily towards the end of the year. The 6 post milestone was an 'insane but possible' number I had projected in 2019. Of course, project 100 is still pending, but I'll give myself the leeway.

This was also the year that fiction posts fell flat to a very low number, and poems, lists, and review posts increased. The average word count probably went down too, but not by much. Barring the situation with project 100 which I predict will be done in 2 weeks or so, this was a reasonably productive year in terms of habit and ritual forming. As again, the quality of the written materials remains questionable, but that's for future to fix.

Happy New Year 2024 everybody!

A very happy new year 2024, and Tamu Lhosar to me and everybody reading this. 2023 has been the most tumultuous year for the blog, going from 4 months with 0 Posts to a few with 180, but we're ending on a positive productive note.

May the new year bring peace, prosperity and happiness to you all. I wont be taking any time off for the holidays from the posting schedule. See you all in the New Year!

Random comments on the dictator's dilemma

The dictator's dilemma is about autocratic governments 'need to balance control over their populace's actions, thoughts and words, with receiving accurate, reliable, actionable information from the ground. Be too controlling and all of your underlings will only tell lies to you and you will have a detached understanding of the world, your control becomes fragile when things become heated. Loosen up too much and they start making fun of you and undermine your rule. The situation is made more complicated by the fact that earning trust from an untrusting populace can be hard, so shifting between levels of oppression is a difficult balance to maintain.

This is what rulers in Russia, and now China will be facing. The government wants to put on a good face, and we'll censor ideas and opinions it considers 'bad'. But stopping something from surfacing to popular consciousness is like cutting nerve endings on your body and praying you never encounter a painful situation. Ignoring the symptoms doesn't make the cause go away. It will be interesting to see how the CCP deals with the ongoing unfavorable economic situation...

We are at an age where having written a book is no big deal

Sb's sister S is on the fifth revision of her novel. N's sister is writing a couple of text books. A is a ghostwriter, I has contributed to several books and couple of guys above my year in HS have published full books and translations. In other words I have no more excuses to not write and publish, this is as ripe a time as it gets.

So yeah, book writing becoming more realistic in the near future!

Early morning farm visit, to Giant, Taco bell breakfast, momo dinner, catching up with PN on Chyang updates [Sat 30]

Went to visit a local farm with ED and niece, saw of bunch of domesticated animals. Too smelly, cold and puddley for me. And how do they even make money, without charging the cost of entry? Didn't talk to friends on phone. Went to Giant after the farm where managing my niece was quite an event. The woman working on the counter was Nepali too and she was far too amused by the childish antics.

Then we went to Taco Bell where I ordered 2 tacos, after finishing one and feeling dissatisfied. If you don't toast the burritos they're actually not good.

Chilled for the course of the day, had the final leftover of air-fried momos. I'll most definitely have moms back in Seattle too. Talked to PN in the evening, apparently the ch hang we made together was a gangbusting success!

Pho-nomenal Viet restaurant Ashburn, a review

We went to Pho-women at the Viet restaurant at Loudon Town Center in Ashburn the other day over the weekend. Quick review. Its a place for hangover University students from the nearby University to go.

Lots of young people there, the prices were okay, ambiance okay, serving sizes just alright, and service apathetic mostly. The flavor was very much mediocre for my veggie-tofu with rice, and my table was not impressed with the pho either.

I... don't have anything good to write about the place, maybe we ordered wrong, maybe we didn't order the specialties, but still we got the most common easy orders, and if they can't get that right, what can they get right, really?

Four out of ten, I'd rather get a frozen noodle at the Trader Joe's from the next door, and cook it myself, using the restaurant Stoves. Would not recommend. It wasn't actively bad, but they were not making an effort at all!

Vermicelli noodles are not all bad and deserve a second chance, a new arrow in my cooking quiver

I was done with vermicelli noodles. As sebai in Nepal, the only way I had hard it was as pudding: overly buttery soggy and farfar too sweet. Always overwhelming, way too much work. Slightly stressful. It would never ever be something I cooked with. I never picked the noodles at the Asian stores I saw.

Then ED cooked it. Broken, with rice, some butter, and then heated/toasted on the pan to make it slightly crispy. A fried rice and noodles combo. It was really really good, surprisingly so! I'd considered the field of fried rice to be boring and fully explored but no, here was a novelty that was able to pleasantly surprise me. Brilliant!

What's this mean for me? I'll start buying it from the Viet places I shop at, make fried rice crisped with it, maybe even make yummy noodles out of it. Yeah it's still rice, gotta check the intake, but this puts a new spin on the boring old rice-eating.

Excited!

Mind blowing holiday decorations, a review

After getting Cara Pickups we drove to this house which must have had maybe a couple of hundred blow-up Xmas decorations. They weren't small either, all of them were larger than me. There was a pirate on a ship, reindeer, Olaf from Frozen 2, many forms of Santa including an 'animated' one that would come out of the restroom and go back in. Animals, random creatures, so forth. This was way wilder than anything I'd seen before.. Exceeded my expectations by quite a bit, a pleasure that it was free to view. They must be paying thousands of dollars extra per year in their hydro bills, the toys themselves must be worth thousands of dollars.

Eleven out of friggin 'ten give some more of this, all day every day. This is what life would ideally be like, pleasant surprise, not necessarily profitable, at every turn!

To chantilly with extended family, bhat dal tarkari fun, catching up with everyone, future plans, Cava pickup & dinner, Xmas wonderland blows my mind, millions of dollars 'worth! [Sun 31]

In the morning we washed up, got ready and drove to chantilly to hang with the extended family. There we met up TM, U, DD, and SD. The eight of us were quite a crew and it was times of loud conversations, noisy discussions, and merry-making.

The lunch was bhat, yummy dal, Kauli, aloo to achar, sang and dahi. I accidentally picked up two bits of shrimp too.

With D D and S D, we made mutual-visit plans, I promised I'd oversee the fermentation process for chhyang and help them on the way. Also talked about doing a recruiting agency for nurses. Maybe we can actually figure this out, eh!

On our drive home we made CAVA orders online and picked up the food on the way. The service there was meh... they didn't give us the utensils or sauces as requested, and there were several strips of plastic on my bowl. It was just alright, nothing horrible.

Because my niece was napping on our drive back, we took this opportunity to check out this out that had gone all-out with the holiday decorations. We'd tried it before but the toys had been deflated then. Now however, things had gone alright and I saw it in true glory. Dozens and dozens of inflated, complicated figurines, bright colorful and cheery, placed next to each other as if a genie had granted a lonely young boy's wish to have the best and the most friends of all the boys and all of a sudden a gaggle of popular character from popular media like minions, Santa, pirates, that guy from frozen, Spongebob etc showed up, supersized! Must have been so expensive but this is what they really wanted since forever, probs!

I saw the doings of CCP propaganda troll farm, and it was wild!

The other day I wanted to look up what happened to the restaurant a very popular youtuber had claimed to be opening in Texas a couple of years ago. That's how I discovered the world of a forum dedicated to him but like... making fun of him in a really bad and mean way. He's most certainly not a big enough guy to deserve the harassment and bullying they put him through. After a couple of hours it got clear to me they were CCP trolls mostly because the guy has been vocally anti cap. And then I kept on going to the place. and ugh they're kinda right, he sucks big massive balls, he's stopped putting in the effort and at this point is squeezing out the drops of blood from the goose that once laid him golden eggs but not so much any more because he won't feed it now for some reason. Maybe he's not into keeping birds anymore?

Oh yeah, got carried away a little bit there, hah ah, the point I'm making is, it's weird and mean and possibly liable for damages to shit-talk random people for no good reason!

What the fuck happened to the Indian media?

Two points of data, I'm told a very representative sample of what's happening.

First, basically 9040 of Indian news channels have stopped reporting and have become cheerleaders of Modi's religious-fanatic regime-Watching Indian news channels as an outsider is a surreal experience... it's like something one might expect out of North Korea or China. They are without doubt the worst. Nepali news channels by comparison are so much better.

Second, I was reading reviews of 'Dream Girl 2' on one of the more popular Indian news site, and one of the reviewers, a woman, was complaining about the 'leftist woke stuff 'in the movie. It was unclear to me which woke stuff she had issues with, the non-homophobia or inter- religious marriage stuff, but one thing is for certain: I wouldn't want to be in her household. Yikes, Yikes, Yikes!

The state of Indian media in 2023 was 'bad!!

SAVERS technique for my mornings, a new company

Five minutes of meditation, a place of peace and quiet for me and five minutes of affirmations, reminding I am the greatest another five minutes of visualisation, that the day will be as good as it can be and ten minutes of exercise( if more) to get stronger by the day fifteen minutes of reading, to open my mind to the world and then the last ten minutes of writing, just writing without thinking! An hour a day and so much more productive will I be my mind and body, both fit and sound, ready to breathe no more lazing about, crumpled up on my bed an excuse to take control of one's life and one's time, all said!

For the affirmations, I just remind my own strengths and for meditation, I do nothing but focus on my breaths To visualize, Imagine in the day the greatest of things holding sway And oh the workout routine, pre-covid I'd figured out my way Reading and writing, I got under my belt, not have to worry, Though to be sure, must give full fifteen minutes to the books/ That's the morning SAVERS technique, that is what I'll do..

The potential and possibilities of genAI in everyday computing workflow

At work today I was trying to understand the full scope of how the generative AI models work, so I sought help from one of our data scientists.

He apparently renewed thousands of Pdf files based on their content... it's looking like the boring annoying things that one does can all be automated away. And they don't need to be connected to a large model in a remote place like chat GPT, they can be small, portable models that'll run on any computer.

Which means... actually, the 'AI' and 'ML' can be abstracted away by treating AI model as a black-box function call, and not as a fundamentally different paradigm. We need models that are small and that can run on laptop.

The veggie Momo was even better airfried the next day

I'm on my fourth week away from home, this has been the longest I've gone with my kindle on, so thin picking we'll have here. Whatever.

We reheated the veggie mono from last night in the air-fryer and in retrospect it's so obviously the best way to reheat the dumplings. No oil, easy Kothey, they were better than the dry- dough mono from yesterday. It would be an excellent start to making C- momo too, reheat the mono while I'm preparing the mixture.

Useful discovery, oh dear it's possible I'll be making lots more memos.

Lazy work, phone talk, sandwich lunch, long talk, Momo Rhaja, Dream girl 2, video chat friends, to evening [Fri 29]

I'm writing this like some days after because somehow these poor Journal posts get left to the wayside, tut, tut.

Because this was the last day of work before an extended vacation weekend, I didn't do anything at all for work.. Also, this was the day I met my therapist for the last time in the year. 12ᵗʰ meet, exhausting all the free sessions made available to me. Talked to new friend V too.

Had sandwich of honey and nutella on brown bread for brunch. Afternoon meal was airfried memos which were way more yummy than I hoped.

In the afternoon ED and I watched the silly movie Dream Girl 2. Great cast and dialog, crappy script. In the evening video chatted with PN, as they were having a mega- party the next day that I could not attend.

Watched a lot of Tv in the evening.

The way to get my shit together is time, or getting my morning routine on

After talking to K., I know exactly how to fix the lack of productivity at work problem I've been having. Thing is, I don't start my day with a ritual, a routine, I just start my day, open my laptop and get going. No time to gather my thoughts, no time to get ready for the day.

The idea is for me to take the earliest hour available off, and use it to read, write, meditate and exercise. After washing up and brushing, obviously. I haven't separated an hour in the day all for myself , I need to do that. And in that time I need to prepare for the day. On most working days it'll be 9- 10a.m., but it can be other hours as well. 15 minutes to clean up, 20 to work out, 2.0 in writing and ten for reading. That's it.

That's what's going to change my days, make me way more productive, get lots written, get the project 100 and website update happen, this is how I'm going to end up with a novel.

This is the secret, a proper morning routine, some time separated all for myself, my mind and body!

Movie review: Dream Girl 2

Ayushman Khurana-starring Dream Girl 2, which ED and I watched earlier today because there was not much else to do in the rainy afternoon, is what the Indians describe as a time-pass film. It is not a movie somebody would watch if a better option were available and agreed on, but it is not so objectionable that one might feel the need to turn it off. This is the sort of movie where pauses don't happen for bathroom breaks, and every so often, one of the audiences is bound to comment on the stupidity of the movie and the depths of boredom they must have reached to watch the content.

I freaking love the casting, it's full of talented top-notch bollywood comedy performers, not a single person is miscast. The dialogs aren't exactly crisp, but they're decently sharp and funny. The social message of the movie and the niceness of the characters was refreshingly positive. I loved that the movie was taking big risks and making such wild swings, it misses on certain swings but I applaud the game

It's Just the story, the content of the movie that's weak and disappointing. The cast has been underused, and even the solid dialogs and decent directing cannot overcome the stinker that is the meats and potatoes. In the hands of a different creator, if the movie took itself less seriously and went all-in on the goof, it might have worked. It didn't, and it hasn't.

6/10 overall, 8.5/10 if we are to ignore the storyline.

Innovation, technology, hands on in engineering, and me

I wanna be an innovation consultant for real-world engi­neering stuff. head and manage and co-ordinate across teams of people who know how to design, build and test Shit to solve real-life, everyday problems. 

Connect ideas from different domain by understanding pain-points in completely unrelated fields and cross-pollinate ideas. Fight for funding for research and innovation, leverage past work into getting future offers.

I could be a politician, or an independent consultant, I could be an in-house consultant, or I could lead teams of much capable people by corroding them in the same space, I don't know what I want but these are the things that excite me and inspire me.

More on China, after reading position papers!

I've been writing and commenting on China a lot lately, yesterday I read tens of thousands of words from economists in think tanks about the state of the Chinese economy. Thoughts.

It seems quite clear that the country is in a balance-sheet recession. The households are using their liquidity to pay back loans instead of consuming. To trigger increase in consumption and regain the public confidence is essential right now but it's quite likely the government has seriously misread the situation and has interpreted the failure of government spending to boost the economy. The problem is at demand-side, they consider it a supply side problem and are attempting to fix it by expanding the rate of the government in the market. This will not only not improve the situation, waste funds due to mis allocating in over invested industries, it might also trigger further escape of capital and confidence because it'll look like the government isn't interested in problem solving.

There has to be a transfer from the government to the public, Maybe by sales of local government resources. That doesn't appear to be happening yet, instead the local governments are taking even more debt load. Observers have commented most of China's debt is held domestically, and considered it a strength. That might be, for normal countries, but a default by any institution internally will further depress consumer confidence. You don't want to spend if the life savings you lent to the government might get defaulted on. Either the central must bail everyone out by devaluing and inflating the yuan, an unlikely scenario due to inflation considerations among others, or it must force the periphery to cede resources-and power. my guess is the centre will strengthen its security apparatus tentacles, weaken local Structures, and lengthen the recession as long as possible. The party is over, the good times are done, the government must decide how long it can play the music until everyone notices there's no chairs to sit on.

Ouch ouch, what a guy, they say!

It hurts the most when the friends of yore
of the womanly kind ask,
are you single, oh how the hell, what's up with that,
and all I have for response
is, kind of, preferably not, no girls around, thanks so much.
What is there to say any more than that,
remember that guy who said
-Water, water, water everywhere
but not a drop to drink-?
Oh well...
And then a call with a friend two hours,
we talk about dating and settling situations, and what's up! And most of it taken with... consideration of the girls which makes me realize, actually I'm doing just so fine not specially more awful than anybody of my kind I might not be married yet, and I don't have a house But oh never am I particularly harried,
and neither am I uncomfortably in the apartment roused. All considered, it doesn't hurt at all, oh what a compliment to be told you're a bit of a catch, just not in your perfect element and oh what is there to worry, who is it that I must fear I'm living the life man, chill in 'and making my own rice beer! Life is decent, that is all I can say
No fear for the future, may tomorrow bring what it may!

Chhang without the powerful yeast is sweet! (and other updates)

We started making Chhang at ED's like 2.5 weeks ago. due to various reasons I did not use the wine yeast that I always have. The lack of yeast, and the chilling temperatures inside ED's apartment created the perfect conditions for a very mellow ferment. It's the sweetest, most fragrant ferment I've ever made, there's very little booze in there and the fragrance of apples and other sweet fruits. Such an interesting taste and texture. The plan ahead for me is to try the technique at home, and use this sweet barely alcoholic liquid to back sweeten more strong booze.

Also N tried to make bharti using marcha, didn't add water and left the rice for like ten days and now she has rice mold from the starter growing. Which means I now have a confirmed process to regenerate marcha.

Two different locations, two uniquely new lessons, what a wild and productive journey this has been!

Tried the regular Chang, ten days of age, at PN's, and it was pretty good!

First supervised batch of veggie mono!

We made momos yesterday and I was responsible for the meaty mix for vegetable. Truth be told I've never been a big fan of moms and had never before done the supervision of the mo mo mix. Because it's hard for veg, you need to get the texture and taste right. Besides that, it's a matter of wrapping, which everybody gets the worker drones aka guests to do, the steaming which needs minimal effort, and the mo mo achaar, that takes like five minutes to assemble and finish.

Guys I might actually start making memos on my own! I used to be quite impressed at DN for being in-and-Out with the mono cooking process in less than an hour but now I'm thinking if I plan it right, that seems quite achievable! Only thing is to defrost the wraps in advanced, a bit like soaking beans.
Right on, the recipe.

Nutrilla or soy chunks, hydrated in hot water and squeezed. Same amount of dried mushrooms done the same way. Use the water to cook rice, or veggie soup. Dice them. Add mustard greens, cabbage, onion, ginger and bell pepper all minced. Add oil, salt, and mo mo spice mix. That's it. maybe hard tofu or a bit of potato?

Cook the veggie mix in very hot pot for a short time( before adding the spice and aromatics).

The momos can be frozen indefinitely, and the achaar can be whipped up in a jiffy. It's tasty, cheap, healthy and not super hard to make.

Maybe I might become a mono-making convert?!

Fapar pancake, rice and veggies for lunch, friend talk, Lotte trip, momo making and eating, overfed, evening write, asleep early [Thu 28]

Writing this on the evening of friday. Project 100 seems out of reach at this point, but it's an achievement that it's project 200 and not 240 As it originally was. Two more weeks, and we 'l l be clean!

Talked to my sister on the phone early in the morning, I'd gotten up at 7 and she called right then. What a coincidence it was. Things are pretty good on most fronts it seems like. Talked to friend B in the morning, standard conversation/lecture about the econo­mic situation of China, in addition to regular talk.

For lunch I had fapar pancake, rice, bean soup leftover, and South Indian mutter. A bit after noon we LED myself and the niece) went to Lotte for shopping to make momos. Let's just say going groceries shopping with super young kids ain't a good idea.

In early evening I oversaw the veggie mix, cooked it slightly and mixed it. We rested for a bit and started wrapping memos. I wrapped 30 veggie momos and 40 chicken ones. The fillings were yummy, ED quite liked them! I had like 15 of the large well- filled momos and felt quite tight.

Wrote a couple of posts here in the evening, discovered I was a bit behind than originally anticipated, and fell asleep after only a few posts from the bed because I literally could not take it anymore!

Are you an artist?

Art does not require an MFA. Art does not require a BA. Art does not require a high school diploma. Art does not require any formal education at all.

Art does not require your full-time attention. Art does not demand that you starve in order to afford paint and canvas and brushes, or knitting needles and yarn, or a chainsaw for your badass ice sculptures, or whatever tools may be for your particular medium.

There is more nobility in hard work than in pure luck though every artist can use a bit of that). You'll make better art after a day at the office than you will after a lifetime of ivory tower.

Real artists have day jobs, and night jobs, and afternoon jobs. Real artists make things other than arts, and then they make time to make art because art is screaming to get out of them. Screaming, or begging, or gently whispering.

Don't ever let them tell you you're not a success. Don't ever let them tell you you're not good enough.

Don't ever & them tell you you're not the real deal. ._.

You are an artist, full-time, twenty-four hours a day, , seven days a week.

Now go make your art.
 

-Real Artists Have Day Jobs

Frequently asked questions about the big rock in public

Q. What is the big pointy rock doing in the park, man?

A. The big pointy rock is like a temple to the gods, okay, it took us so long to build, and someday our king, or some rich person and/or their pets that's gonna be buried deep in the vaults of the structure you so glibly describe as a rock. These are consecrated hallowed grounds, show some respect, dammit!

 

Q. Wait, people, and kings buried, right here? With full royal
regalia and royal properties as they deserve in afterlife?

A. Yes, we are burying all those who deserve the respect along with everything they might need in the afterlife. Lots of gold and diamonds, honey and silk too. Beware, though, we have put quite strong spells upon the tombs, robbers and thieves and those even daring to think about defiling the departed s 'resting spot will meet fate much worse than death, here now as well as in the afternoon. It's in your bed interest to be away from them as possible. Give not even a second thought to the evil ideas!

 

Q.Okay fine whatever, I'm just curious who's paying for this and who even has this insane amount of money?

A. Well technically, I am, and you are, and everybody is.. These tombs are funded by the temple grain stores collected in the summer-the workers offer labor in exchange for grain and liquor given by the temple, which also organizes the whole project. This is a project of great national pride and immortality far into the future, and no objections will be entertained!

A matter of some concern

It is a matter of some concern, not too much, not yet, that it's possible I might have to compromise
On what I want out of life, something that matters,
in a very fundamental way, and I'm not ready.
It is worth at least a little worry, that
I don't want my life to be run by diktat of others,
and I have hope, dreams and desires of my own
I am not, never been, an empty canvas ready to be drawn, Instead I dream, aspire, fantasize, about shaping the world In an image, and aspirations, of my very own.
I don't intend to become a marionette, of others 'desires, nay, no money shall be spent where I prefer it didn't An artistic, rebellious fire burns, and it trumps all ordinary fires of social expectations and rules and laws,
Because I'm not asking for much, I'm no rebel, not really! All I ask, is the permission, to be me.
And live for myself, for my giving tree.
A prometheus I am not, not even for humanity do I fight this is not a battle call, only a meek request to do things right Leave me to my desires and expectations and the way of the world No wasteful spendings, no pressured bloomings, no rushed meetings I just ask for a simple thing
To be able to live life at my pace, in my own terms!

How does one go about improving writing

By writing a lot, the untrained writer has gotten in a jam,
with nobody to give feedback, positive or negative, he has practiced his good writing habits, and the bad with no concern for the reader or the Judges,
and now that he feels more prepared and semi-ready to be seen and read, he realizes
he is a writing ascetic, a hermit, hoping to be a celebrity, small and big.
But how does one go about improving one's writing? How much feedback is needed, and at what level,
does a fiction workshop help with non-fiction writing or are they different worlds, unbridged and afar and all the skills he needs are unrelated and hard what if the years of writing he has done
0h the millions and millions of words he has written do nothing but re-en,-or a his bad habits and intuition and by the end of it he's come out a worse writer than before? But the one strength of his, that's underestimated,
his ability and willingness to learn and struggle until he improves and gets to be near the best the destination is not important, the Journey matters and tie's strapped his boots to take the trip
full of unexpected turns and the beasts and the critters a hard road ahead it will be that I understand I'm willing to put in the work according to the situational demand!

More on website and personal brand plans

So I had a long conversation with friend N the other day. He has this really fancy personal website that looks great, and it's clear he has invested a lot of resources into making it look premium with committed high-quality content. He has like seven articles in there and they all show a refined and highly professional side of him. He told me how his grad school staff had commented on the highly professional nature of the website.

That got me thinking. I remember being told one of the reasons I was admitted into my college was due to my blog. And all the advice I've seen online talks about leveraging online content, mostly high-quality written material, into interview offers and job offers and the like. Which means, uh oh, it's that time for me! I've written in recent weeks about making professional writing time at work, updating my resume, and updating my personal website. Now I am thinking I could combine them all, yum yum yum!

That's the next goal for me personally after completing project 100. That initiative will go on for a bit longer than I want... up to the first two weeks of the next year. That's fine, after that comes the content revamp initiative, and then the novel writing initiative.

I would very much like to reduce the number of posts on this blog to a more reasonable daily number after the Numbers for this year look good. Then I can invest the saved time into those projects.

Turns out Seattle is haven for aspiring writers

I'd been looking to find resources to learn writing, and was hoping there would be reasonably priced classes and workshops nearby that I could take. Turns out Seattle is a really good place for aspiring writers!

There's a writing-based nonprofit called thego House that has many many NY Times bestselling authors as teachers and former students. There's other organizations offering similar courses as well. And the community colleges offer really good writing courses taught by actual real published authors too. And the classes are like quite excitingly reasonably priced. One of those I'll be taking soon. And more, hopefully!

Plus there's the fact the the PNW produces a disproportionate numbers of writers and poets and creatives anyway. I am among my kind, and I need to work more proactively towards meeting them and learning from them!

Leftover rice and veggies for lunch, friend talk, veggie soup with rice for dinner, chill with fam, early sleep, no write [Wed 27]

Writing this on the evening of friday because man the sleep pangs are strong these days, how is it that every time I want to even consider doing anything productive I feel so very sleepy?

For lunch I had leftover rice and all the veggies from the night before. Spent an hour or so talking to a new friend V. For dinner we had mixed beans soup with veggie. Hung out with the fam for a couple of hours watching youtube and netflix. They left and I wanted to keep watching tv and write a bunch but my body couldn't take it anymore and I fell asleep on the couch. Got up at 3. 30 in the morning and went to sleep properly. No writing this day unfortunately.

Yet another hurrah for the kindle Scribe writing!

I've hand-written about 400 posts on my kindle scribe to this point, and it's likely the number could be on the comfortable side of 600 for this year after all is said and done. I was worried the device would have been underused and maybe in some ways it has been, but in a lot of other more important ways, I'm so close to getting my money's worth on the device just based on the increased cadence of writing.
On and still haven't changed the pen tip, which suggests it's going to last far longer than anybody expects or can be realistically projected. Surely the material has a lifetime and oh what an honor it would be if we got anywhere close to that!

Reading has gone up a little bit, and writing so much so. Why?

I propose it's due to the lack of distractions and the friction that is introduced by having to change one's device for general media consumption. Besides the farm animals, this is as much old-timey villagers got. The straight, we paid, thru the unta was impatient go get it right for once because I was try to smoothen the ups and downs in business. It's so heart to take that to earth!

Need to backup 550+ days of journal from work computer

There's 550 days worth of journal posts written on emacs from the last 5 years or so, and I need to figure out a way to get them into my personal devices somehow. The word count is around half-a-mil, I believe, which means I can't just copy-paste in a random location, this will actually have to be orchestrated, planned, executed. Once I have it with me, then there's a matter of what happens to them... I'm thinking of creating a private blog and posting them there, but just the act of copying and pasting would take weeks so...

Anyway this is yet another reminder that I need to be writing at work again, a lot more, like I started doing way back when I joined the workforce in 2015. Make work more productive personally, stop watching youtube etc.

Thinking of taking writing and drawing classes, right now!

I have decided! I'll take at least) one writing course from North Seattle community college, and one drawing course( drawing from observation) from Seattle Central college. It's possible I might take more courses, but I'll register when I'm in Seattle. Wanted to take the classes offered by Hugo House( more on that later) but they're almost twice the cost of the community college. Will figure out if the value is worth it for workshop-style classes, and go more upscale if things align.

I'm excited as heck! At least one of those courses is targeted at the elderly, but I don't care, let them stop if they can! Plus I might make older local friends, which would be strange and new and interesting.

I have never taken art instructional courses as an adult, and I'm particularly bad at observational art. I'll probably be bad, worse than teenagers, but I'm competing against myself here! Hope the fiction writing course provokes and inspires me enough to finish( after starting) my novel ideas!

Nobody on at work on the 26ᵗʰ of December

I did the sneakiest thing one can do vacation-wise-not taking any days of before and after Xmas, until New Year. Everybody else is out having fun, uncaring about work, and basically even those who are in are checked out. So you can do whatever you want at this point in time with basically zero responsibility.
So today is the 26ᵗʰ, and I signed into work this morning expecting at least a few people to be logged in, so I could spend the work day chit-chatting and chilling and shooting the skit. Guess what? Not a single person had logged in, even until lunch, even the people who didn't have the day off technically. I thought it was so wild! Everybody out having fun and not bothering you, while letting you earn your salaries! Fun! Easy! To quote Michael Scott once more, I thrive under the lack of accountability!

This is real holidays season, thanks to the good Santa Claus for the whole situation!

Can some people turn into friends?

There wasn't much in there, truth be told, And the things that happened, got pretty old A rapid disassembly of a relationship it was So what's the loss of something that never was?
In passionately, and out equally so, without the tears or the curses or the pathetic love This was easy and painless,
But can the two of us still be friends?
Why not though?
So little history, such cleanly contained tales, The friends and family never to be connected again Such few hard feelings, and no love lost No reason or excuse for foes at any cost!
So friends we will be, those with bit of a history Not a big deal, the hearts and minds stay apart And things are dealt between two mature adults!

Oats-Saatu-eggs soup for brunch, leftover tama-beans- dal for late lunch, packing up, PN drive me to ED's, noodle with veggie soup dinner, playing with niece, evening writing [Tue 26]

It was the last day of my stay at PN's.

For breakfast we had this wonderfully interesting porridge that N made. Saatu and oats porridge, thickened with rice flour, with scrambled eggs on top. Savory not sweet. What an interesting and healthy take on the morning meal, this is gonna be my jam.

For lunch we had leftover tama, long beans with potato, and powdered dad with rice, at about 1.30 pm. I packed my belongings, and P N dropped me at ED's. They didn't stay back for tea.

We had some noodles with mixed veggies soup for dinner. ED and AD are going all-out on workouts and eating healthy lately.

Played a bunch in the evening and night with my niece. Wrote a solid, and I mean a real respectable number of posts in the evening.

I need to quit Sugar and butter

The cholesterol and triglyceride situation is... not great, I want to take action for my health pre-emptively and not suffer a... you know heart attack or heart explosion of some sort. To do that I need to make two interventions in my life.

First, my walks are not enough as intense workouts. I'll need to start doing high-intensity trainings. At the gym or elsewhere, my heart hasn't got enough work out right now and it's weak, untrained and constricted. In other words, it's the perfect target for a heart disease of some kind. Intense workouts are coming in, whether I like it or not!

Second, and more importantly, I'll have to reduce my sugar and butter intake. No more full-fat milk or yogurt, no more indulging in rich food. Sweetness is my weakness and the heart diseases are angling to take advantage of it. I'm not going to let them. I'll fight bad habits, I'll fight heart disease and I'll manage my own impulses!

Bye-bye butter and sugar!

Twelve things I don't understand about Jaane Jaan

1. Was the creepy guy mad for the girl or math?

2. What was the need for showing the cop be needlessly horny for the only suspect?

3. Were there really no other suitors for Kareena, seems hard to believe?

4. Why the hell did they show us the alibis not working and then tell they were ok!

5. So curious why the movie was set in Kalimpong, nice but curious why!

6. Wasn't the woman employee of the cafe-overly... intrusive in Kareena's life?

7. I am fairly confident this was not his first murder-how many has he killed

8. Are the police allowed to be so... informal in dealing with chief suspects?

9. Why are all the Nepali-speaking people, the natives, in secondary positions?

10. Does the sun never shine in Kalimpong?

11. What the hell was that homeless person thinking, yikes, asking for it!?

12. Do all villages have karaoke bars? Or were they in downtown KP?

Eight reasons why Young Sheldon is just meh

1. We already saw the young super intelligent child with TBBT!

2. Can't stand Sheldon's dad to find humor.

3. Sheldon's grandmother is far too young, sassy& cool for the humor

4. Older brother is too annoying without much character to go along

5. Missy the older sister is cooler than the protagonist young Sheldon

6. Aw w shucks country humor in my teenage humor!

7 Don't like the 1980's vibes!

8. Where my brown brothers like Kuthwrappali at?!?

What about more fictions, Maan huuuh?

The good news is I've probably written 400+ pages and/or posts on this kindle scribe on mine, the current piece included. The bad ish news is, for some reason I'm having an extraordinary deal of difficulty writing fiction pieces on the devices. I was already low on ideas and fiction work on this blog as it was, and after the Scribe my fiction writing has gone from rarely to almost never. This is a cause for concern as my desire to write non-fiction and novels has only increased, but the experience, practice and motivation has taken the other direction unfortunately. P suggested I plan the crop out of writing a novel down to individual pages and scene, and that way I could write a novel despite getting only 10, 15,30 minutes session at a time. Sounds like a plan, looking for a good execution.

On a heavily related note, I'm also planning on taking a fiction writing course in a nearby college, hoping that will juice up the fiction cells!

Maybe Manchester City is my team?

I need to select a soccer team to support. Because that's how it works, apparently! And of course I want to be supporting a team that wins, not loser teams. The risk is that trends don't last and a team that's playing well now may soon stop doing so. It would be unfortunate if I got into a team and they start a series of just unbelievable losses. P tells me Manchester city or Man City is at peak performance and it would be unwise to select otherwise though S says actually it's the worst time to bet on their success as they're at their peak. And then there's the practice of selecting a team each season before play starts and see it through. Many options, we'll see what I do!

I really really need to write and think aloud at work

Maybe thinking and writing about it for the hundredth time will change things? There are so many great freaking reasons for me to be writing and documenting my thoughts at work. AR lab of sorts to incubate and discuss ideas. A space for me to plant my flag into new ideas before anyone else gets there. A way for me to create content to take beyond the existing job and position. A better way for me to think through work problems and ideate on solutions. Create a safe un-official space to discuss ideas that are 'out there'.

An easy platform for me to self-market as innovation evangelist, trying to sell new ideas to the organization. A way to start my innovation consultant journey by starting with the current job and position. An easy way to get a leg up during the promotion rounds. Yet another technique to improve my communication and editing skills.

This is definitely something that would serve me well into the long future. It'll be an investment in my present job, into the current company, and my future job prospects. And since I like writing any way, it'll turn an otherwise boring and time pass thing into productive fun thing that'll motivate me to work harder. It'll add an extra interesting and super productive angle to my work personality. It'll give me something else to talk to coworkers about. It'll help me create conference presentation topic( benefits of writing at work). Actually, the last point by itself is useful enough.

I broke my kindle scribe by drawing a lot

This is as silly as it gets! I was doodling a bunch earlier this morning to avoid writing on these pages this morning. The doodles got increasingly complex until I got one that could pass for art. The sands of pen strokes here and there, erasing rounds, recreating and so forth. It was so good I didn't want to erase it, copying it over to a new notebook seemed like a good idea. I whh had trouble selecting the art and eventually got around to it. Then an attempt was made to copy-paste and that's when things went South.

So many issues, but to summarize, any attempt to turn to the page in question would take a really really really long time, if it didn't freeze the device entirely. Didn't understand what the hell was happening.

Eventually it became clearer to me that my device was not designed to load thousands of random points and wives on a page. Deleting Or erasing the doodle didn't seem to work, the page updates were taking forever even after the complicated drawing had gone away. Finally deleted the page and everything was freaking fixed!

The one good thing that came out of this whole situation was that I updated my kindle so I can share pages individually and index hand- written pages!

Veggie patties lunch, homely talkari powder say dat that, write and relax all day long, watch Jaane Jan, driving for Xmas lights, Lemon Cake [Mon 25]

Writing this the day after, an achievement in recent times.

This was the xmas day, super low-key and uneventful, yet so relaxing and satisfying.

We air-fry ed up the veggie patties N had made a couple of days previously and had that for brunch. I had two pieces, and... Yum so freaking good. I need to learn to use puff pastry better!

For dinner we had the ale-bodi tarkali, sang, and powdered green dot from Manang with rice.

The day was a bit rainy so I spent the day writing, relaxing and chilling out with PN-Watched Jaane Jaan the movie on netflix, it was a pretty decent movie.

After dinner, we drove around town and looked at a couple of houses that had gone hog wild on the decorations. Fun festive activity.

In the evening we smoked up, N made lemon cake that might have been slightly under baked but I finished it before even realizing, cos I was so high!

Movie review: Jaane Jaan

I watched the movie Jaane Jaan on Netflix with PN and then talked about it with ED earlier today. Review and response follows.

I'll start with the parts I absolutely hated. The police officer was unnecessarily creepy towards his only suspect and later a bit too flirty? This was as clean out a police procedural as it gets, we did not need a creepy lead character. Second, how is it that all the natives of Kalimpong, the Nepali-speaking ones are the servant class? Fucked up racial dynamics go, that's all I'll say on the matter.

Now for the good parts. Fantastic characters, the plot thins out at point and the characters yay it to the finishing line. The actors, both the cops and the creepy her are great, so is the daughter and I thank the gods that Kareena can now act, because she is amazing. The 'atmosphere' of the movie is to be landed, and the town of Kalimpong is... ugh... almost a character? Like, this movie could as well be a play and what a wonderful play that would be! The plot is just alright, there's a pretty big fucking plot hole( how the hell does one convince a homeless person to do one's bidding so effortlessly?) but ahh yeah nobody's watching this one for the plot, it's all characters...

As I'm writing this, I find the movie is adapted from a japanese novel, and now... all the obsessive parts of the movie and the characters and the holes in plot make sense... adaptation issues.

Speaking of characters, the character of the Teacher is so engrossing and weird, I'd legit be down to see a prequel series of him as a serial killer. Because it's quite clear in the movie... that man in an experienced killer!

Seven point five out of ten for the movie, and 9/10 for the characters and mood!
Recommend watching!

I found about the sphere and am amazed by it!

There's a building large and spherical off the strip of Vegas Giant screens and opulent galleries, it makes the wealthiest envious I figured it was one of those things, rich in glitz and glam But lacking in substance and earnestness, the spirit mostly a sham 

Then I saw the ad, an ad for googles, playing on the sphere, And hence did I come to the realization,
The sphere is the biggest tv screen of them all
An out of power, the biggest marketing fireball ho, I was amazed and awed at the sight of the beast right on the night on which we gathered for Xmas feast On eyes dazzled by the glam and one puny minds befuddled What on earth is this, how does this even work, we wondered One of us, the directing and animating kind, up to the rescue Explained to the rest of us the nuts and bolts behind the view Our slow and doddering minds still played to catch up, And thus we understood the big deal
Behind the wondersome Sphere there at Las Vegas We cheered in awe and cried in joy
In the next trip to vegas, we'd all give Sphere a try, So we planned and the night soon came to an end with our minds having sphere-broadened!

Give me an Apple M3

Oh you old man, god of the gifts,
You get all the credit as your workers toil in shifts,
Not much you can give me as my desires are in check
But if you really really do want to give, there's a thing I will take Yeah it's pricey and it is nice, as it is exquisite
Which is your thing I hear 0 god, so lets get on with it The thing that I desire but will never ever purchase My wildest dream that you can reality a- make It is a tinkerer's toy, a toolmaker's tool, which will bring me much joy The thing that I want is a-gadget from the fruit machine Oh god of the goods, give me an apple, give me a computer The one that has come third in a row of the series 'M'
It is a beauty, it is a beast, it can almost bring back the deceased Let the pitri cry in joy and envy
and make me the happiest man in the county
Old man, just please give me an Apple M3.

Do I know you, a poem

It is not for me to be mean, but let me ask again, do I know you? Have I seen you before and known your likes and dislikes, the way you are? Or are we staring at strangers 'eyes, hoping to revive a connection, unkempt and far? What are you doing and why can't I tell, why we aren't doing so well
did we just fool, ourselves into a web of faux trust, and amble about blindly? What is the time we are having, or had had, if something with us in not clearly... bad..? It is, and we are
But why then do we feel so far
Out and away from the world
floating in an ocean of people
like
two
lonely
Islands
unable to join together
In a massive quake
and form
a
super-continent?

I could do with an indoor fireplace!

I would like,
an indoor fireplace, and a pit
to go with it, pretty pretty please.
And I want an apartment
two floors high, so the floor I cook on
Is different from the floor I lie.
I would like a whole loads of rays of sun
hitting at my place, from each of the eight direction,
and I would like windows in my place so large and lit even an elephant could make through one, in an easy fit.
I would like, for my place
to be amidst all the shops and bars and the coolest hangs in town just so that the trip to have fun would be footsteps away when one is down! I would like my place
to be in the middle of the trees,
Central park to the east and riverside to the west oh what a glorious setting! And let me have that place, oh so cool,
only a couple of minutes from the metro train
and ah can we have it so that it always gets the Seattle rain?
I would like my place to be full
of all the film stars and scientists and makes oh so cool,
and have it so that they think I ain't no fool?
I would like my place to have a thousand amps
Of all ad in, each with its own genie
And a room consisting of a town of gnomes, each bright and tiny! And on an on and on, I would like to have the whole wide world, revolve around just for me
And if not that, make changes in the world we have, minimally! A thousand desires done, a thousand come again,
To be free and happy truly, one must get off of the want train!

Shitty cell phone connections screw us all

At this day and age I encounter phone quality issues due to network weakness, on vibes an I'm like... What is even happening! This should not be happening, at least for the voice calls as they are not too data intensive and ugh, I've been trying to talk to a friend B on the vibes calls for weeks and the best we've gotten is making sense of 40% of what she says and guessing what must have been said in the content I missed out. Sometimes I'll check on what was possibly communicated, but you can't really go 'what? Whatcha say?? 'without frustrating the other party a bit much. I nod and agree and go 'haha' like a nonce on most occasions as doing anything else can be risky or make me look like a fool. No I understand the foolishness of having a conversation where one can barely hear the other party but what are the other options really? Sending a series of audio messages is not the same, it's not the same!

Some silly things

What are some silly things? What, Are. The. Sillier. Things. That I can think of? Silliness is all around us, it envelopes us, it's hard to even think of something that is not at least a little bit silly. One wouldn't have much left if one abandoned all forms of silliness.

What are the silly things, hmm what are they, let me see....

1. Billie Eilish's songs in a good way

2. This whole international politics thing

3. War. What it good for, really?

4. That music video for Narayan Gopal song, makes no sense in any way!

5. Comically large fake mustaches

6. Fart jokes and poop is kinda silly?

7. Nepali politics, very much so

8. Monty python

9. 'Kuiyan jokes'

10." I was late because a Rhino obstructed the way here 'excuse, true but silly!

11. George from Seinfeld

12. 'Eggo waffles'

13 Life, innit?

14. Some crazy people

I'm done here, this is some uninspired poor pathetic hit! Man, I need to get a life!

Fennel seeds (with or withour sugar) for the win!

I am sold on saunff( fennel seeds). They freshen up one's breath after a spiced, possibly pungent and overly oily, Indian meal, give a nice sweet relaxing flavor, and as it turns out, they help with a bloated tummy. Or digestion issues in general. When one does not have bottles of Simethicone and digestive enzymes on one's hand, and is having digestion issues, a handful of fennel seeds mixed with( or without) sugar cubes is a quick fix to a multitude of issues. I like fennel for the flavor, but now I respect it for its medicinal benefits!

Fapar and mula achar lunch, skipping new friends fun, daylong writing, evening hunger, wild high, then yum dinner [Sun 24]

I am writing this the evening after this day. For brunch N made fapar from Manang and mulaa to a chaar.

Yummy and healthy, it was fantastic. PN went out for a couple of hours to meet their new couple friends with two kids. Wrote like a dozen posts because not much was happening and I needed to get caught up on several days worth of posts.

In the evening/became really really hungry and had just one of the veggie puff rolls. So my mood was low for several hours. For dinner N made yummy yummy then think, so nutritious, so yummy, so easy to make! I should make it too. Got high and didn't write as much as I should have.
One more day of Xmas holidays left!

Happy Xmas all, may god Santa Claus bring happiness& prosperity

Happy Christmas everyone! May Santa Claus bring happiness, peace and prosperity in his big bag of goodies and hand them out to us all. Hope the new year begins under Santa Claus's blessings and good auspicious!

Xmas gifts and people not liking them

Gonna be short, SP wanted something, I gave them the most expensive( in budget range) and the most powerful, which wasn't their exact need, but they're gonna exchange it for better goods, the shit they actually need. S said he'd send me the photos of the items they buy and share to appreciate the multiple gifts they'II have made out of it.

All things considered, gift cards are the best gifts of them all!

Review of those massive cookies from Crumble cookies VA

At SP's place the gang ordered us four flavors of massive cookies from this cookie delivery place called Crumble. we were all hungry and high and it tasted fantastic, with an almost fudge-like texture on some of them. The toffee topping I didn't care for, and the minty topping was just meh at best. Besides that, the cookies were great, and we enjoyed them a bunch the following day too. Too sweet for me, which is why they get 7.. 5 stars out of ten, good but not the best by far.

Next in productivity hack: utilizing office hours

This is a short and lazy post seeing as im very much behind the aggressive goals for the year and the worst part is I'm running behind on everyday posts. Even playing catchup has been a hassle. So these are the cheat posts, okay?

The great part of this all is all that complaining is actually relevant-I've often said the most unproductive time of the day is the work hours as work work is unstructured and lacking, while I'm far too guilty to do personal productive things in that time. I've tried to get better at that without much success, and now I spent several hours a day on youtube, wasting, not enjoying and feeling guilty about it all. This is all already brought earlier.

What is new is I talked to my therapist about the matter and this is going to be what we'll be talking about in the next session and in the next year. Man, if she can make me feel okay about using that time more productively, and help me guide towards setting up a routine, then it's game over, pretty much. I could do my novel writing for 2 hours, other writing for 2 hours. head for 2 hours, and work for 2 hours. Giving me extra hours for the rest of the day to walk longer, work out, head, cook and get into new hobbies. Oh but a boy can dream!

Overfed and sleepy

The oily grub eaten in an empty tummy due to the 504min wait, plus the meh food gave my tummy a big bloat yesterday after a night of Ghanaian feast. I was so faking overfed, then chewed a gun( bad idea), and then had warm tea( another bad idea. By the end of the night I had trouble moving around. I would have thrown up too, probably, had I not tried fennel seeds to check my tummy issues and against my expectations, the herb fixed my plumbing up real good, no complaints!

The only downside... or rather the major one, was my inability to write or even think due to stomach matters, a big loss as I'd put many of my 'catching up' eggs on the Friday basket. Had things been only slightly better, I would be the cook of my blog roost but alas the recovery from blowing up like a balloon left no opportunity from writing in these pages.

Ten years since return from Ghana

We went to the Ghanaian restaurant last night, and we got talking about my seven-month stay-abroad life in Ghana, as I had returned back to USA in December 2023, exactly a decade ago. I made many friends then, some quite close, and am in good touch with a rare few. No local friends though and I don't consider it too much of a loss. Maybe I could have made more friends, dated around, but nah I was the person I was and that wouldn't have felt right. Regrets are few and far.

Would I go again? Only if somebody else paid for the trip. I don't know anybody there, my knowledge of language and culture is probably outdated and I would definitely not go for the nature. The food was just okay too. Except Jollof, which was incredible.

If I know everything I do now, I'd have done London, but counterfactual are hard. I might have been a lot more miserable in London. Friends might have been harder to come, the cultural adjustment trickier. For the person I was then Ghana was the perfect choice. Besides, London I will visit anyway, ghana probably never, a net win there for me.

Oh baby what a decade this has been.

And to think I was just as far away from 2004 then as I'm from 2013 -14 is even crazier.

But this is life.

You can choose to live, or let it pass by. It's totally our choice!

Lattey and potato achar... review of sorts

At some point last week PN made us a Nepali dish I hadn't had before - latley and aluachar. Lattey is a lot like dhakani except it's cooked in water, it's supposed to maintain the grainy structure of rice, and uses about the same amount of sugar. It's closer to dry pudding than dhido for sure. The achar was spicy and sour as heck and out through the fat and sugar of Lattey strongly enough.

I wouldn't eat the dish on a daily rota, not even monthly, but eating once or twice in a year during the festivals time would be a treat, specially if one's lifestyle was fit to burn the fats and sugars in it pretty quick. I wouldn't dare making it all on my own, and this would be the ideal dish for big parties where I wouldn't have to eat the leftovers.

9 out of 10 as occasional festival food, would definitely eat again, though probably not make any!

Mai Thai Restaurant Centreville Review

We went to Mai Thai Restaurant in Centreville on wednesday. Quick review follows.

The thing that impressed us immediately upon entrance was the ambiance and design of the place. It had the vibes of a fancy stylish upscale bar, with tables and decorations to match. The servers were nice, helpful and cheery.

The food there was decent. I've had better Thai food and I'm not even a fan of that flat noodles. Their fried rice was quite unobjectionable, the fried tofu pieces that came as protein addons with all the dishes were great. My favourite was the sweet peanut butter sauce that came with the salad. The noodles themselves-we ordered drunken noodles and another noodle with bunch of veggies including boiled baby corn. I liked the greens over the noodles.

PN thoroughly enjoyed the experience and this is apparently one of their favourite places to each out, for me the place was over­whelmingly mediocre. It's one of the places one goes to and has a pretty decent time and never ever things about it again unless somebody else wants to check the place out and you're like oh yeah it's alright... I wouldn't go again if I had a choice!

Samosa pastry puff lunch, good sleep, daylong writing, hangout at SP's, extended gang, samosas momos cookies, smoking up and laughs [Sat 23]

For lunch N made samosa filling pastry puffs and rolls and the trick with puff pastry seems to be to defrost them couple of hours before you wee them in the fridge and not let them dry out. bloke from a really comforting sound sleep, felt remarkably up and energetic the whole day. Wrote throughout the day as I had dozens and dozens and dozens of posts to catch up on, I got pretty close, all things considered.

In the evening we want to SP's, there was 8 of us there, 3 of us, SP, PA, and K who was N and P's friend from way back. Samosa and Kachori snacks, momos for dinner, and Crumb/cookies ordered later in the night. Lots of smokes too. Laughed a lot, had solid conversations, what a great time was had with good friends!

All 12 therapist sessions used this year!

Oh I hadn't used my free therapist sessions in years, let alone exhaust them. The last time I'd used the benefit from my job, I got 10 sessions max. They changed the benefit since and now we get 12 free sessions bet have to use this other app thing instead but that doesn't matter for me since my therapist does all the scheduling, [ last join the calls. And so in a matter of six months I have succeeded in burning through 12 meets. My final one for the year's on the 29ᵗʰ.

On the one hand I feel great about squeezing value from an underused benefit, and on the other I am benefitting from the therapy services themselves. If nothing else they help me organise my thoughts better and make me more comfortable talking about my emotions. But I'm definitely gaining a lot more than that, we've started working on specific issues, which is a new experience in this dynamic for me. My issues are generalized anxiety, lack of ability to confront, and there's something about the work thing as well, unclear what that is. We're working on it!

Here's to many more years of leveraging work benefits to greater personal wellbeing!
 

La Paz Ghanaian restro: a review

Don't want to give this too much ink as I've wrote around the topic in depth elsewhere.

This friggin restaurant was a bit of a disappointment. Mediocre service, food took almost an hour to come, shit ambiance that wouldn't matter if anything else was good but not so which means it counts against them, over-oily foods, forgotten orders, half-assed dishes, and above all, a very mediocre and half- assed menu as well. If I were to take a guess, I'd say the owners of the La Paz Ghanaian restaurant in Manassas are not at all into food and might not enjoy the act of cooking or serving, and have stumbled into owning a cultural food place. They too are trapped it seems.

The most generous I can be is by conceding to the possibility the folks managing and/or running this place are victims of their circumstances, unable to do anything but fulfill what to them fells like pre-determined destiny, and are unable to see a way out. Thus by inhabiting the body of a server and manager, they play their given roles, perform as they're told to, with no life or energy. In the dark deep endless eyes of those people lies a hole to the eternal depth, no chance of getting back-Welcome to your deepest darkest nightmare courtesy of this second rate west-african eatery on a strip market in the middle of nowhere.

Don't forget to wash your hands, and try to tip in cash, thank you very much!

5 out of 10 stars, no I would not go again. To discuss the menu and the items we ordered is not useful.

3D-Printing and ceramics: how to use

I've been writing about wanting a 3d printer for years. And honestly, the time hasn't been right, the technology is just about getting to the point where owning one of those devices is like getting a consumer appliance, one doesn't need to make a hobby out of it. After watching hella lotta youtube videos on 3d printering, I've come to the understanding we're about a year away from highly advanced affordable machines that won't need much repairing and taking care of.

Oh and I've also written about taking ceramics courses. I've missed the Jan quarter once again, which is fine. The reason I'm writing this post is, some people on youtube have perfected the technique of using 3d printed molds to cast ceramics pots and dishes, and those molds can be reusable too. So that would be a great way to combine two of my hobbies without extensive pottery hardware like wheels. Plus, the potential of the ability to cast custom items in clay like dip casting without the need for extra expertise opens up so many future opportunities!

China? China! China.....

More on the China situation, because I can't seem to make sense of the seemingly conflicting news coming from there. I believe there's an intense e power struggle on going within the CCP, one that Xi isn't necessarily winning. It's not to suggest the end of the party rule, but clearly the senior leadership is way more divided than they are letting on, their approach to dealing with the economic situation is scatterbrain, confused and unsure. That may or may not show itself in anything important, but at this point it would be unwise to trust the party leadership in making strong, confident surefooted decisions. The implementation is going to be all over the place too.

What are my predictions then? I belive there will be unexpected wild news coming out of the middle kingdom in the next 3 months, the nature of which I'm unmeof, but it'll likely have a massive domestic impact. The justifications will be made post-hoc, but the root cause will have been a power struggle within the CCP.

'Move' says no movement equals no creativity

This is as obvious a message as it gets and I don't need a book to tell me it really but this was a nice reminder. So the other day I was reading this book called 'More', and it talks about how physical motion, workout, walks and sensory triggers cause increased creativity, inspiration, and perseverance. In other words, you would be hand-pressed to find a successful thinker or creator, let alone somebody in a creative field, who can create inspired pieces while holed up completely inside one's room. Physical movement, workouts, walks, runs, and being out and about in the natural world are as much 'mental' exercises as they are physical, if not more so.

The lesson for me is that compromising physical workouts and walks in favor of writing is a bit silly as the two are related like nail and Shin. One cannot do the latter without the former. Another impact of that is, I'll have to increase my physical activity when I'm traveling away from home if I want to keep up my intellectual output. Good stuff, great stuff!

I hope I didn't overfeed PN's worms

It's unclear to me how well PN's earthworms, from the bin and colony that I gifted about six months ago, are doing. On the one hand, it appears they haven't been feeding the bin, or remembering to look at it all that often. On the other hand, when we went in the other day to clean out the liquids and add more food for the worms, there were quite a few of the wriggles that we found writhing around.

In any case, I fed them a bunch the other day. Couple of slices of bread, some herbs, some brewed coffee beans, veggies I spent 30 mins chopping, bedding material, and other leftover material that would have gone to the trash bin otherwise. It's possible I overfed them because that bin is full. now, possibly the added pressure and humidity might make things uncomfortable. I found couple of worms on the bin below, maybe because of the bad environment I created?

The hope is the abundance of food causes the worms to reproduce aggressively and the next time In here, we can divide the worms into couple of more bins. Fingers crossed!

Getting a guaranteed! old kindle

Friend SK offered me his kindle but didn't find it among his belongings. But friend PL too has a kindle that has remained aggressively underused for a long time and he tells me he feels guilty about not reading more every time he sees it. So I offered a solution that kills two birds with one stone-if he gives me it, he'll no longer feel guilty about not reading, he'll be able to give me a gift, and I'll have yet another kindle in my collection, to read and focus on the intellectual( MAO) lifestyle. It's already in my room, all that needs to be done is to reset the device and then the machine is mine, all mine!!!

A Short Poem

Write a short poem,
Says the set of instruction,
that I have created
for myself.
An imprisoned body, an imprisoned mind lacking in energy and motivation, and rich on time-
there's not a thought
right in my head
that would get me on the
poem-writing way...
So what do I do, except stare,
Stare ahead at the blank page nothing ahead, what to do ahead this is a pity, a sad state of affairs,
not a worth writing, from this head of grey hairs Calling a truce with myself,
there lies the only way
no poem's gonna be written,
not one on this day.
What to do but seethe and cope count on the stroke of luck, and hope for an idea, a senidge of spark,
to hit me...
As Britney rightly called it...
Hit me baby
one more time

Old age ailments now!

I am young, kind of, technically, Or am I, as my arteries are jammed, my heart goes uh oh, not good and the pressure on and off, high and low and honestly, peace of mind
not in the right place either without lots of work
So what's next, can I put myself through a serious health regimen because that's what my body needs to sweat harder, to run faster, to grow stronger to be a lean mean fitness machine...
do I have it in me,
or do I plan on dying
an untimely, unfortunate, short land not very sweet either)
life,
full of regrets
and lacking in achievements and when
I go up there
to the land of the power-mad autocrats, what do I have to show
in deeds that bettered the lives of all? I must act, in haste, right now not a moment to lose
and make this life
one worth living!

Fuck, all the good books getting returned without being read

Fuck fuck fachitty fuck
What the heckin 'shuck
All the great books borrowed
From the library
Getting returned without a read!
Reading has stopped, listing has too
And all the library books in my possession
Are coming up with the date Due
Long list of patrons waiting behind me
Waiting to dig deep the claws
of reading and listening, oh what a zoo!
If only I'd read and heard them all There wouldn't be a return crisis oh so tall
but now I'm losing books to my left and to my right oh but I ain't giving up so soon without a good fight! I will keep renewing and I'll keep going to the reserve list Not getting books is not going to be my problem at least for the past two months oh what a rich venerable bookish feast has it been,
and the possibility of that going forever remains to be seen! No worries, no problem, not a deal at all,
I'll just consider reading and getting back when at the homefront let them dance, let them read, let them joyously feed My time too shall come, one day
( probably between March and May, someday, eh?)
it's okay it'll get around to all of it,
is was not even a tiniest bit o 'defeat!

What I think the book 'Atomic habits' is about

Friend PL is reading the book too I discovered, which makes him like the fifth friend of mine I've found reading it in the last year. For some reason I never felt the need to, I've discussed it with AKS( Y), here's what I think it contains.

1. Some habits are like... atoms, in that you absolutely need to do them to do other things. 01 one cannot do them partially.

2. Good atomic habits let you achieve your goals, bad ones feck your life up and are super bad. The bad atoms are super hard to get rid of, and you need to 'go nuclear' to destroy them.

3. If you make good, strong atomic habits, you'll be set for life.

4. Maybe some habits... help you go... nuclear...?

5 Rituals and daily habits are super important and you need to maintain them.

6. Make your bed?

7. Maybe it's a trick book where you pretend you learned a lot....?

Frequently asked questions about the guy waiting outside the office gates

Q. Who's the guy waiting outside the gates?

A. He is the boyfriend of one of the employees in the office and not much to be worried about. We are told by reliable sources he is completely harmless, do not worry about him!

Q. Why is the guy cooking... and setting things on fire in front of the reception?

A. Do not be overly concerned people of the office! He is there with the management's knowledge and permission, and all of his activities have been officially santimed. We are informed he is making caramelized dessert for the office as a token of appreciation to everyone here!
 

Q. Why is he doing stuff_.. in the employee kitchen.. he is not employed here anymore, what gives him the permission to do all of that?

A- He is doing the dishes people! Leave Andy alone! Says Erin! He's just a guest here and wont bother nobody so can everybody please stop freaking the fuck out and chill and take this like normal people? Yeah? Thank You!

That cranberry juice from Tj's is tart A. F

PN have this cranberry juice from Tj's in their fridge that is pretty much undrinkable. Not a hint of sugar, not a hint of anything but an overwhelming tartness that in unencumbered by a flavor or taste competing for attention. As close to drinking pure vinegar as it might ever get, yikes. I added some sugar and Tajin powder and it got to the edge of an interesting flavor. Besides that, it seems quite likely they're selling the juice as a medication for the elderly than a conventional drink for fun. One of the few things I'll definitely never, ever, ever buys from Tj's, that's for sure.

How does Bri do it alone with 7 kids?

Bri from art & Bri, who has been living all by herself for the last year or so, has seven kids to take care of.

The youngest ones, twins, are a year old, and the oldest child grace is in her early teen years. They are all homeschooled, that's my understanding too. So it's quite crazy how Bri has been able to clothe, feed, teach, and keep safe the entire freakin 'squad.

Though to her advantage, the older kids probably do a good chunk of babysitting and safety duties for the younger ones. But still, it'd be easier to hold together similarly aged kiddo than ones over a range of ages, as they have to be dealt differently.

Good news for Bri lately, Art has been showing up more a more in recent times, and helping with chores around the house, taking the babies off her when she needs peace and quiet all for herself. So that's one thing going well.

To answer the question posed by the title: with great difficulty and lots of assistance from others.

Maybe 'learning to learn' needs to be just a chart?

I've written about the book Learning to learn a bazillion times on this blog, and all in a positive light. Here at PN's where I am situated 2 days pre-Xmas I have been flipping through the copy of the book that I gifted them. The book is 200 pages long, of which the case studies start at page 60-ish. The actual meat and potatoes starts at page 20 ish. Which means 40 pages of actual material. Towards the end of the section, there's 3 pages of charts/table that shows the different stages of learning a new skill, the negative moods associated with learning in those stages, and the positive moods they can be transformed to. That is the crux of the book. The writer insists no amount of reading and theorizing and internalising the concept will be useful if one does not practice them... which seems a bit sus.

The material is really good though, despite all.

It does feel like it's an education book hoping to make into exec leadership field, or the other way round.

Pretty aggressive flogging of their executive trainings, but still, great read, easy to summarize material. Just need to learn a no skill to practice the meta skill of learning.

What. Am. I. Afraid of?

What is it..-
that I'm afraid of?
Why do I live my life in so much fear
what is it that's keeping me living to the fullest So fearful to run, to learn, to write, to live
and just comfortable being me?
There's gotta be no reason to fear, writing like a novelist and having wild adventures like a lively fabulist? What's the weirdness with having your own hobbies
or the strangeness in spending hours doing things at your own pace? where's the courage, oh and where's the strength
to do the things in life that matters the greatest why wont I just do it god dammit!
Just write, dance, date and live,
showing no fear, no worries, your mind in the clear do it man go ahead,
This is your time
this is your victory!

American politics and that bullshit Fucking US politics

If agent orange wins again my goose is cooked but I don't want to find myself overly stressed out until then or after the fact, so the whole situation has to be dealt with extra care. I don't buy the moron will win but this country is full of morons I've learned, so there's never a certainty. And with the opinion polls being overly negative as they have been, how things turn around eventually is a matter of great concern. There's no other, better place to run away towards either so that sucks super dopes. I want to be more political active at the local level.

Anyway the current U.s. politics situation is not moving towards the desirable direction, and dear gods please don't let things go south like they might in this mfking country. It would truly be the end of the grand American experiment, with no escape for one which is the important part.

I'm so, so very tired of American politics& the direction it's taking!

Pau-bhaji-leftover-avocado lunch, day high, La Paz african cuisine, long wait and men, evening write [Fri 22]

In the mornin P and I made pan-bhaji with leftover pea curry, dinner so# buttered and toasted and guacamole. Since the day was off, I got high in the morning and stayed that way, did not write much. Day spent on Tv and relaxing.

In the evening we went to La Paz African cuisine for dinner, the review for which has been written. The food was meh, the service atrocious and everything else disappointing.

Came home, wrote a little bit, had massive turn my troubles solved eventually by fennel seeds. Man, I don't respond well to extra oily food, specially when I'm extra hungry!

Holidays plans hard to make

This is a bit silly as I wrote the title five days ago and came around to writing the filler just now. long story short, I was confused and overwhelmed by figuring out the logistics of moving around at ED's, PN's and SP's places and getting anxious about scheduling the holidays. The concern came to pass though since K, who is N and P's friend from college is staying at SP's, so I have decided to stay at PN's until after Xmas, and then to ED's. Then maybe a day trip to DC for AKS bros. Easy p easy, in retrospect, hah!

Run out to the jungle Sometimes it feels like

I want to run out to the jungle,
far away from this, that, and all,
away from the hustle and bustle and the pressure and the choking from the unreasonable expectation of the world, overwhelming, waiting and eating one from the inside,
when nothing seems to be working
and your way looks foggy and unclear
you don't know the place you want to be at, here or there and your life doesn't seem to be in control...
the only way out is an escape
to the forest...
and then things get back in focus everything Starts making sense
things aren't jumbled anymore,
then one realizes
shutting one's eyes
doesn't turn the rest of the world
dark.
It will be fine,
as it always does.

Home alone, Thai restaraunt leftovers, quick powernap, last full day before the holidays, Tama dinner [Thu 21]

PN had both gone to work, so for brunch I had a big plateful of noodles and fried rice from the Thai place before. My head had been hurting all day long, so took a power nap in the afternoon.

This was the last full day of work before the long break, it was pretty chill. For dinner we had tuna-bhatt and sang.

Poker watching, latley and potato leftover, friend & sister talk, afternoon write, Mai Thai dinner, evening write and chill [Wed 20]

I'm writing this four days later. Lots of stress, so much guilt, such little creativity and inspiration. But the pieces are being churned out and in the ad that's what seems to matters if you aren't specially talented so here we go!

Watched poker all day long, Tony G and Phil Hellmuth and David and Vicky, and all the other fun crazy hands! Good stuff. For lunch I heated up lattey and potato a char leftover and P and I finished 'em. During the day talked to my sister and ✓ and made up for lots of confused convos from earlier!

Wrote a decent amount in the afternoon, still recovering from the backlog of the gloomies. For dinner we went to Mai Thai restaurant, my treat. It was pretty average, nothing worth writing home about but the gang was super content and that's what counts, dunnit?

Chilled on the couch watching TV, hanging talking and writing after coming back from the restaurant.

Twenty one-word things. Let's do this.

1. Smelling like lavender, a lot

2. Evil politician playing poker

3. Cute young nurses

4. Immigration policies

5. Falling out with people

6- Christmas rap

7. Christmas cookies

8. Animating 3-D scenes generated from videos

9. High-speed rail

10. Peep show

11. Dusty Delhi winters

12. Traditional architecture

13. Spooky old-timey ghosts

14. Music videos with confusing, mixed messages.

15. The TV show would I lie to you

16. Ceramics-casting using 3D printed parts

17. Being sleepy way too early.

18 Worrying too much about politics.

19. Friends dating East-African girls who're hella cool!

20. British Royal family

21. Heartburn medication

22. Gangfights

23. Too many issues with contestants unethically lies, or truths.

Going all-in with poker-watching

The last few days I've been watching poker games like crazy on youtube. Tony G, Phil Helmuth, Negreanu, all the other big classic players, plus the. celebrity games with actors and various members of the society Learning so much about sizing bets, reading hands, calling bluffs, and bluffing believably. One part of the gameplay I'm yet to fully understand is calculating the likelihood of wins, and the 'outs' one might have. The other important part of the poker experience is the 'vibe' between the players... some wont stop speaking, some would rather not listen, others hide their eyes and mouths like anything. I think there's a lot more to the game than 'reading' one's opponents., though media makes it the biggest deal of the game as it is the easiest and funniest to portray.

Too much watching, that may be possible even, but that's a part of the fun. I'd be down to spend 50-100 bucks every weekend on a couple of bay-ins if that meant I could meet my old poker gang-make one actually- in Seattle. Maybe there's a poker group that I should look out for?

I haven't been reading or writing

So much to catch up on, in terms of reading and writing ugh. It's been 16 days since I've been away from home, and that's 16 days of not reading anything good basically and being so much behind on writing.

Though still... not as bad as it could be-This is like the 81ˢᵗ post I'm writing in VA and I need to be on 96, which is a bit lacking but not complete end of the world. In fact, this is probs the most I've written in the east coast, or away from home, in... ever, besides the most recent Nepal trip but that doesn't count. To put it differently, this is as good as it gets in tame of my habits and routine and I still manage to turn it into a down side somehow...

Sometimes... it's unclear what one's headed at

This is the part of uncertainty and lack of guidance, caused by the loss of groundedness and lack of physical activity I had a couple of days ago. I already wrote about it a bit in the 'I'm feeling unwell' post but I'll explain more here.

The thing is, I'm single, have a Job and career I find unsatisfying, unable to financially settle down, unclear about long-term settling plans and my goals and ambitions for my future are as open as a child's.

Which means I have little idea where I'm headed and what I want to do. Scratch that-I do know what I want to do... get in politics, have a homelat, do innovation consulting etc., but it's unclear how I can get what I want within any timeframe due to various limitations. In other words, I am stuck lost and unsure where the future lies. The lack of wellbeing couple of days ago triggered this uncertainty.

I'm not feeling well

Well well well...

This is like the 21ˢᵗ and I was feeling unwell on the 18ᵗʰ or 19ᵗʰ, So I'm not feeling unwell anymore. At that point I had a massive anxiety attack, couldn't think properly and didn't know what the fuck was happening with my life and what I was headed towards. Then I talked to friends and family and like chilled and learn to 'watch' the negative emotions and have felt a lot better. It's kinda adorable I felt so bad, almost.

The crux of the matter is, it turns out, writing and walking and physical activities help me relax and in their absence I felt a bit ungrounded. 

I still don't know the answers to the questions in the first paragraph but now I know they don't matter much and I can get to solving them without worrying much. It's the confidence in self that matters, now I have more of it!

Feeling better, leftover lunch, afternoon writing lottery and aloo a char dinner, early to bed no writing [Tue 19]

As I write the material five days later the events of this day have become but vague recollections, impressions on sand swept away by the wind and the air.

The gloomies I'd been feeling earlier had gone down significantly. For lunch I had the leftovers from the night before. Wrote a bunch in the afternoon as I had to cover up for the day before. For dinner N made Lattey, which is like dhakani but different and P made alooko achaar. Hot and sour, so good.

Went to sleep early in the evening, and didn't have enough energy to write. Sound sleep it must have been!

Good lunch, good dinner, no writing, high, Sadeko chauchau lunch, gloomies, veggie burger dinner Poker-watching [Mon 18]

Ugh. I'm writing this a week after, and the memories are vague and not great.

This was the day when I had a sudden panic attack and didn't want to do anything. Which meant definitely no writing. Had oatly tea for breakfast with dips, sad hero bhujia and chauchan, my idea executed by P, for lunch.

Watched so much poker, over and over through the day, in the evening PN deep fried mushrooms and turned them into patties. We had fried vegan sandwiches on dinner rolls. This was my recipe originally but they have perfected it. Again, no reading a writing in the evening because gloomies.

Yikes... H-Mart is priceyyy

I thought A- Mart was an overpriced Korean grocery store just in Cambridge and Seattle, due to its location in high-rent urban areas. Turns out it's universally quite expensive regardless of the location-we went to the H-Mart in Centerville, and the prices there were 20% to a hundred goddamn percent higher than the other comparable Asian grocery stores. Even Lotte, which is also a Korean chain, is significantly more affordable than the H-Mart. I asked PN and they said the store has organic foods and they shop there when the drive all the way up to Lotte intake is too much. Even then, the fact that I noticed massive cost discrepancies in a matter of couple of minutes in each store says a lot! As usual, this would not be my grocery store of choice!

The Palace of illusions: A review

I 'completed' the book The Palace of Illusions by flipping through the pages and surface reading past the first third of the book. Thoughts.

The book seemed to have a lot more potential in the early third and didn't deliver on any of its promises. The longer the book went, the more drawn-out and tedious it got.

I... don't know what changed. For me it's possible the narrating character got too unlikable, and instead of us hearing of how she took steps to take charge of her destiny, we discover she doesn't have control of anything, specially her most urgent emotions. She turns out to have been a leaf flowing down the stream of time... When you take much of agency out of a powerful and interesting character, there's not a lot to look forward to!

The concept was good but I enjoyed fantasizing and planning out a supplement to the book more than reading the novel. No, I couldn't write a better novel, but this wasn't a great execution of a fantastic idea-Mahabharat from Draupadi's perspective.

Seven out of ten stars for the book. It's a meh but not terrible.

Pooritarkari lunch, setting up the sewing machine, chill in in the rain, H-Mart trip, afternoon tea, chhang making [Sun 17]

Deep fried poori with yellow peas and potatoes for lunch, PN are getting better at puri-making. N opened up her sewing machine and set it up a little bit, ply youtube videos etcetera.

It rained the whole day, we stayed in comfy in the blanket watching tv. went to&-Mart in the afternoon where I bought the.... sweet glutinous rice to make Chhang with. Also discovered the concept of Christmas Rap songs in H-Mart.

Had lots of tea in the evening and afternoon. N made yummy rice and veggies, I cooked the sweet glutinous rice, put in yeast and marcha thus starting a new batch of Chhang.

The Nepali deaths wasted for the Muscovy

This is the second time I'm writing about this terrible topic and hoping I'll never have to do it again. The empire of Muscovy is sacrificing poor unknowing tricked civilians as soldiers in their colonial expansionary war against Ukraine. Hundreds of Nepalis have died, their families remain unpaid, and dozens have been captured by Ukraine. If I were a Nepali leader, I would make sure nobody involved in the human smuggling in this chain of human sacrifice ever sees the light of the day.

A muscovy defeat, a complete and total obliteration of the occupying forces is the only thing that can avenge the untimely, unnecessary, and tricked deaths, they were sacrificed to the murderous gluttony of the Muscovy empire.

Gift exchanges getting real

P and S are buying me bolts of grains and agar plates for the holidays. N gave me a PJ set. I gave her a sewing machine. Gonna buy PS a home humidifier. Gave P a small mushroom block and 4 syringe-fulls of spores in liquid. Will probably give ED and AD amazon gift cards, probably gonna get clothes and fun gifts from them.

My liquor-making plans are on the 'nozze' and I'm so freaking excited!

I am your tambourine

This poem was originally published by Landansky AKA Hafiz in this book The Gift.
 

I Am Really Just a Tambourine of God
Poetry
Makes the universe admit a
Secret:I am
Really just a tambourine, Grab hold,
Play me
Against your warm
Thigh

Frequently asked questions about the big red ball of fire hurtling rapidly at us

Q. Is this the end of humanity as we know it?

A. Not if you give me a free bacilli on dollars, all of your underpaid labor and blood and sweat so I may be able to fly away rockets by the dozens to other planets with billionaires and hot supermodels so one day humanity may live again! Send-Me. Tour. Money, Guys! For. Reals.

 

Q. Is there literally nothing to do to save us?

A. Mm maybe take a chill pill there but, don't want to off yourself due to stroke before this becomes a big deal yeah? Like save your breath, save your months and years, and give me all you own and more so I might be able to try to do something Kay? Don't be shy, chop chop get on it man!

 

Q. Can I like at least die in peace? STFU, can you?

A. Dear sir allow me to express my humble opinion that nobody in the world is as oppressed as rich white billionaires who are super geniuses and run multiple companies and basically control the popular culture. Due to those reasons I get the strong reason and urge to be heard, so I'll keep expressing. my ideas and opinions in public. If you don't like them, GT FO!

Gifts galore, sandwich breakfast, chill and relaxed day, sunbathing, daylong write, snacks, night dress kimchi-Jiggae dinner [Sat 16]

Gifts galore happened! P's mushroom block got delivered, N's sewing machine arrived as well and I finally ordered SB's gift-a full-house humidifier after researching on consumer reports that I was able to access through the Seattle public library membership.

For breakfast we had a nice fancy croissant egg sandwich with the yumniest creamiest avocado guacamole. Slept a good amount of time. Sun bathed with PN in the balcony outside, carried my kindle throughout and wrote a bunch across the day. Had a bunch of unhealthy snacks in the afternoon. N washed the new night dresses she'd ordered for all of us, and we wore matching dresses.

N made kimchi jiggae with mixed veggies soup, added rice as cart to eat, I ate far far too much.

More plants to take home and the vermicompost situation at PN's

Earlier today( 16ᵗʰ) I trimmed a bunch of leaves and branches at PN's place. As I did that, I noticed several interesting plants that can be propagated and taken to Seattle. Watermelon-leaf plant, purple-leaf plant, and the Catania(?) plant that didn't propagate well the last time around.

Oh and the worm farm with worms that I gifted six months ago is still trudging along-it doesn't look to be thriving exactly but the little bastards are being fed every so often, and finishing everything they're given, which is as good as it can get.

Things appear to be progressing so well in fact that I'm considering getting a vermi compost setup for my own apartment in Seattle. Specially since feeding them is not that much different from watering the plants!

First Lidl trip : A review

This will be a ridiculously, comically review of my first Lidl trip.

I went to Lidl with PN the other day, and uh hh I don't have much to comment on except to observe that it's quite similar-almost indistinguishably so-from Aldi, save for their bakery section. The bakery section looked pretty interesting and reasonable, besides the super small bites.

Will I go back? Yeah, I couldn't tell it apart from Aldi. That is all. Not much else to add. Finis.

Carol & The End of The World-A review

This is a review of the first six episodes and the final episode of Carol& The End of The World, an animated series that was released on Netflix on Dec 15, and I finished watching it the same damn day!

I love love love the style of animation. It's simple, sufficient and quite befitting the material and themes of the show. The titular character Carol is beautifully animated, and I propose this is the most realistic.. portrayal of a middle-aged average white lady who might be an office assistant at a middle school. Nay, let me go a step further... this show has one f. the most realistic and diverse portrayal of people living in America of all the shows I've watched, animated or not. There's latinos, black folks, Sikhs, Indians, folks from East Asian and 5E Asian backgrounds and so forth, and the amazing thing is it doesn't make a big deal out of those representations, just like that character with a skin disease that makes it patterned who's just another guy.

Since we know the eventual ending of the plot( season 2 perhaps), as the title suggests, all the episodes become fillers until it comes crashing down, which I guess is all series too.. But I love how the show doesn't take itself too seriously despite the broody theme and a philosophy at handling attitude towards life that's-honestly a bit novel and refreshing for my current times.

Nine out of ten stars, yes of course this will be my comfort watch hereon!

Woodland Dosa: A review

This was a trip to the Dosa restaurant-a thoroughly Vaishnav one at that in its menu, decorations, music and possibly staffing- called woodland. The review itself will be disappointingly shallow as all 3 of us-P N and myself-ordered the same dish, the Spring dosa. In short, this will be a review of the restaurant and one of their dishes.

The dish first. Let's cut the story and get to the gist-this was as good a dosa as it's ever going to get. I've had dos as in South India and it got pretty close. Rich. Spicy veggies. Yummy coconut chutney. Not a thing I could complain about. As good as it gets. Nine and one quarters out of ten.

The service was decent, they serve water in small water bottles for which you don't pay unlike in Nepal.

This was interes­ting, first time I ever saw something like that in the US. They took away the mango lassi N was drinking after we were done but ah well.

The prices were quite reasonable, the music highly decent, the vibe quiet, service time was reasonable.
wine out of ten stars.

Fruity pancake brunch, making conversations, dollartree, woodland dosa, LIDL, liquor store, Carol & the world-end [Fri 15]

This was a hella productive day where we did and went to so many different places, has generated dozens of posts possibly but the journal posts are going to be pretty limited...

For brunch we had a pretty heavy meal of pancake, three different kinds of fruits, two different syrups. So very filling. In the afternoon spent an hour or two talking to V.

In the evening we went to dollartree, bought a plastic container, then to woodland dosa where we got three orders of very yummy and filling Spring Dosa. Went to LIDL after that bought a couple of chocolates and knick-knacks here and there. Went to the liquor store from there P left the car and bought 2 bottles of fine whiskey.

Back home I fell sleepy early but still watched Carol& the end of the world until 1. 30. Finished the series in the single sitting. Pretty decent, it was!

Sleeping out of control

This should have gone next to the post about me adjusting to the east-coast hours, but here we go anyway.

I've been feeling sleepy right after five in the evening. by the time we've had dinner and settled down to watch TV at 8-ish, I'm ready to pass out. So when I'm in bed at 10.30, it takes a great amount of self control to write beyond two or three posts every day. On more than one occasion I've fallen in deep stupor amidst my writing. Which is great for my sleep hygiene, but a little unfortunate for my writing habits. Maybe it's the winter urge to slumber and relax that gives me anxiety about not being able to hit my writing targets. But yeah, why must sleep and the need to write be in conflict and not in perfect alignment, I will never understand. Ugh.