This is not an ad, but five minutes in booking dot com really did save me thirty bucks

 This is silly but the posts need to be churned out at a vastly more rapid pace than what I've been producing if I'm to remove this debilitating sense of guilt that's hindering me from doing anything else that is productive in my personal life. So this will warranty a post under present circumstances.

During our roadtrip for the first couple of days I reached out to the hotels directly, or did google books and had the online prices matched. However at one of the motels, right after SLC if I remember that right, the receptionist informed me that they would not match online offers, and the motel prices were at least thirty bucks pricier than the online price available. Thus one sat upon the nearby couch, filled the information as quickly as one's finger's would allow, and five minutes on booking dot com later, thirty bucks were saved. Most of the claims of online being cheaper are true, indeed!

Which, at first sight might be as obvious as daylight to a noob but there's many many people, such as myself, who would not have believed that to be necessarily true. So new things were learned for sure!

Trouble comes with friends, or how I wounded myself in five times in one day

I have very little idea of what I was thinking when I wrote this title, at 11.50 in the evening. Guessing I was super tired and sleepy not thinking straight, and wrote whatever random thought was happening in my head.

Perhaps some of my friends were troubled at the time, and I was worried about that? It's possible, I know somebody very troubled and they're fighting an uphill time spending time in Nepal.

Actually, now I remember what that was.

We went hiking, and I hurt myself in five places. Cut myself on my legs several times when scrambling the brambles in the hike in SLC. The wood was sharp etc and I didn't walk straight. Then in the evening as I was carrying our belongings to the motel room, the knife from inside the plastic bag, which A hadn't packed well tore a long deep line of wound on my thighs. So when trouble came in, it brought along a few other trouble friends.

A quick summary of my views on Salt Lake City after visiting around there for two days

We spent around the SLC greater area for roundabout two days. In that time, we did a bunch of hikes, explored the downtown, went to the SLC Utah Capitol and ate out at a few spots.

So the Downtown is...more vibrant than one would expect from the city, which isn't saying much because there's not a massive downtown but there's high-rise buildings and malls and area. We went to the Mormon convention center, letting the missionaries give us a trip. The grand mormon temple was under construction, we didn't get to see it.

The capitol area is fine, cute little down that is really slow and low (rise). It doesn't feel like a major metropolitan city, possibly because this area is so spread out?

The hikes were incredible, 30 minutes out of town we hiked for a few hours, it was genuinely, an endurance test. We had to take our shoes and socks off to cross the stream in the middle of our hike. That was new.

And we went to Antelope Island, I'll be writing about the rest of the trip, including the Antelope Island state park. What an amazing experience. Bison! Elk! Deer! So fascinating. So much excitement.

Good times were had, stay tuned for more.

Cheesecake factory is just meh

 Aky and I were in Downtown SLC which is cool-people talk for Salt Lake City, we ambled about the mall right in downtown city, and for some reason A wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory. And we did.

He had the impossible burger thing, with fries subbed for salad. He didn't enjoy, or eat, the salad. I had the smores cheesecake. Too sweet, too rich, I had trouble finishing it. What I really wanted was creme brulee, which they didn't have. Bummer.

This is not cutting-edge biting social commentary, nor is it a novel realization. Even in these very pages surely I have written many a word about the fine establishment claiming to mass-produce the cakes of cheese. Regardless once again at another venue did I come to the rediscovery that Cheesecake factory is just...ok, not particularly good.

Review of Sitara India, the Indian restaurant in Ogden Utah

 I should have written this lot earlier, but the road-trip and the following events got in the way.

I'll make this real quick. For fourty bucks the two of us got enough food two last us two meals each, making per-person price of 10 dollars per meal per person, tips and tax included.

The portions were decently sized, the veggies so yummy, the owners gracious and kind. Loved this place, this was probably the most satisfying and relaxing meal I've had in any of my road-trips, just elevated my mood to whole another level.

Highly, highly recommend visiting this place, the Sitara India restaurant in Ogden Utah, 45 minutes from downtown Salt Lake City.

The most filling hotel breakfast of all time, driving to Wyoming and Montana, deciding on YELLOWSTONE!, Jackson Hole, Grand Teton, Yellowstone marvels, missing old faithful, latenight drive, midnight tacos, montana Motel [Fri 30]

The morning of, we got up and had the most filling and satisfying motel breakfast of all time. So freaking' good, I had potatoes and eggs and fruits and yogurt and juice and so on and on. It was also the day I discovered my body is habituated to not eating any breakfast and doesn't care how much it's fed in the morning it'll get hungry again at lunch time right on cue.

We drove to Wyoming and Montana from the motel and the scene was unreal. Snake river, Madison river, all their tributaries, the mountains, the meadows and farmlands, the hillocks and the hamlets, ahhh classic Northern US lifestyle, so wonderful.

We stopped by Jackson Hole, the cutest little town which is apparently super popular elsewhere but it was just another random pitstop that we happened by on our way to the national parks.

We entered Grand Teton, and drove through it, after ogling at its mountains and lakes, the kayakers and well-preserved grasslands. Oh also we got America the Beautiful pass once again.

Then we went into Yellowstone, saw the geysers, the hotsprings, the animals, the steams, the ponds of volcanic water, and this was...otherworldly. Clearly the best way to explore this park in its entirety is over several months or years, small bits at a time. Ideally on an RV. Those were my thoughts that I communicated to ED couple of days later and what a co-incidence because she'd bought her trailer for exactly the same sort of vacation I'd imagined!

Our way out of Yellowstone got kinda' late because we were so busy seeing all the cool geysers and praying, hoping for them to erupt. The way out of the park was curvy and treacherous, it was dark and the speed limit was low. There were no restaurants until midnight, and the motels were all absurdly priced. So we had to keep on driving, which we did.

Stopped by at a Taco Bell in the evening a bit after midnight, gobbled up our foods after being hella sketched out by the whole vibe, then went to our motel, which was clearly a formerly great sports bar and hotel cabin bought by immigrant families and turned into a cheap motel.

Leaving Ogden, daytime hike, hurting, river crossing, lost in the desert, exploring the city of the lake of the salt, cheesecake factory and mormons, the state capitol, mindblowing animals and other beings at Antelope Island Park, leftover indian food at days inn [Thu 29]

 We left the questionable motel of Ogden early in the morning, and drove around a bit as I worked and had my meeting with work manager. After there was a bit of a lull at work, we parked at the parking lot of a popular hiking trail, and started walking. We didn't plan on it, but we must have walked for 2.5 hours at least, in the hot Utah Sun.

Hiking in Utah was not like anywhere else, so different from the NorthEast or the PNW. There were thorny cacti on the trail, you could run around in the mountains and get lost easily, which did happen, and so on and forth. We tried to follow the trail of a river and get to the big waterfall as seen on google, but we got lost, had to cross a pretty big stream on foot, I hurt myself and eventually we discovered...the fall. It was worth it.

We drove straight to Downtown SLC after, where we parked pretty much in the center of the city, which had detached houses with large yards. We explored the Mormon convention center where they tried converting us, then into the shopping mall where Cheesecake factory most certainly didn't win any of us over. I wanted creme brulee, got some other shit instead, it was just alright.

Tired of walking and being out in the sun, we drove over to the State Capitol of Utah and explored it for an hour or so. What I discovered was this: Utah is big on BEES. They're obsessed with BEES and their industriousness. Strange, but everybody's got their own thing.

It was quite late in the evening and I had no hopes of doing anything more interesting, but we drove to this state park called Antelope Island. Again, low expectations, and thinking the day was as good as done.

And then our mind were b.l.o.w.n Antelope Island State park is one of the places you absolutely have have have to go to near Salt Lake city, they've got several herd of Bison, elk, antelope and who even knows what else. We drove around for a couple of hours, and my eyes were never once tired.

Then right around sunset we went by this massive rock formation, and that was probably the best 'right place-right time' that's happened to me, entire life. The photos and selfies I took from the place are...unreal.

Oh yeah as all of this was happening there were billions of small bugs and other critter flying around and bothering us. Particularly A than me because he got bitten real real hard and got bumps all over his body for almost a week from this day.

A wanted to crash by nearby, but I proposed we get as far away from SLC as we could because the following day we could make it to Yellowstone, and so we did, drove for 90 minutes or so and ended up at a pretty decent Days Inn motel where the guy was kind and I saved 30 bucks by sitting down and making an online reservation right on spot instead.

Escape from the sketchy motel early on, I work real hard and well, visiting Shoshone falls, lunch at Twin falls, walk and shopping, at dollartree, Great Salt Lake is here, chill, costco Gas, Sitara restaurant, Motel 6 [Wed 28]

 In the morning we rushed out of the sketchy motel I've written in the previous posts about because man that was scary as f.

Work was very very productive, got a lot of work done, the car days have been one of the more productive work days, shockingly and confusingly enough.

In the day we went to Shosone falls, it's apparently called the Niagara of the West which is demeaning to both the falls truth be told.

Went to the town of Twin Falls, where we went on a trail walk by the river, shopped at dollartree for watermelon-adjacent equipment, got lunch, and A got his shades.

We drove on to Salt Lake City!

On the way we found the Great Salt lake already, and stopped, went into an overpriced state park. A swam a bit, but the water was dirty, the whole thing was a bit of a disappointment for all involved parties.

We filled up on gas, and went to Sitara Indian restaurant, about which I've written in these pages before (or after, depending on when they're published). Highly, highly recommend, it's in Ogden I believe, if you're anywhere nearby, you gotta go to that place.

Ended up at a Motel 6, a suspicious one because the lady in the counter asked for everybody's ID, I thought she was being racist.

New exciting plans for the remainder of our trip

 The original plan for the trip was to go West from Salt Lake City (also called SLC) to San Francisco and up route 1. Aky wasn't sold on it because it'd be too long. So I proposed we go North. We found a town in Montana that seemed like fair game.

Then I found out that the general region is where Teton National Park and Yellowstone national park are. So that's the plan for the three remaining days for our trip. Go to the two of the best National Parks in the country in a slapdash manner, as a sampler of sorts, to get a sense of what's where so we can come back at leisure.

Yes, people spend weeks and weeks on any single of those parks and even that's not sufficient. Some go every year and still feel like they're missing so many things. All valid points. The thing is, either we go back the way we came, or we make the best of the scenario, and get just a taste of those amazing scenic wonderlands. Obviously my vote is on the latter. Let's. Do. This!

The Costco Mango Smoothie, a review

I discovered that the new Costco Mango Smoothie, the replacement of their berry smoothie, has been divisive among the fan of the wholesaler. My review is as follows, though i swear I remember writing it before.

It was cold as heck and stayed cold for a very long time. Check. It was sweet and refreshing. Check. It tasted a lot like mangoes without the astringent off flavor. Check. It looked ice and orangey, even after it had been put outside for extended time. It tasted yummy.

What more is there to say, really? So good. Five out of five stars!

On Motel 6

I used to think that Motel 6 was one of those really crappy awful places with no redemptive value, and it may still be so, but after staying in a couple of motel sixes and many other motels of similar elk, during my roadtrip earlier this month, I have more nuanced opinion.

All things considered, motel 6 is one of the higher-end of the low-end motels. Their rooms are modern, upholstery is updated within the last couple of decades, the rooms have AC and electronic key cards, and most of them have some sort of amenities.

Yeah, the lady in Salt Lake City motel 6 asked for ID's from all the residents of the room, which I found extremely sus and perhaps she was being a tad bit racist. It is true, the room we stayed in didn't have refrigeration. And yes, there was no free continental breakfast despite much cheaper venues offering those. But it was modern, clean, felt safe, and we didn't have to face the parking lot with random strangers ogling by every time we opened our blinds. That's pretty big honkin win in my book. That book is called The extraordinary book of super easy wins.

Morning work, continental breakfast, work from vehicle, Boise Idaho, meeting Apd, viet Pho, watermelon in the park, near-death, drive east, strangest inn in the world, writing [Tue 27]

I worked in the morning right from the hotel room until checkout time. At eight I went for the continental breakfast and had quite a sumptuous feast, relatively speaking. Two boiled eggs, two cups of yogurt, two pieces of toast with jam, two energy bars, a piece of fruit, and a cup of fruit juice. It was filling, what can I say.

Worked during the next couple of hours from our car, and it worked out a lot better than I'd hoped. Actually got more done than I otherwise would, which probably reveals something deep and important about me but ehhh I can't be assed to figure it out.

We eventually got to Boise Idaho, where we picked up Apd, who visited my place in Seattle last year, and went with her to Pho le, the vietnamese restaurant. I didn't want to eat, and definitely didn't want pho on that hot summer day, but I ordered anyway. It wasn't a very good pho and I wasted more than half of it.

Then we went to the park by Idaho river near where she lives, cut the watermelon with knife and utensils borrowed from her sightless neighbor, and really savored the cold juicy red water of the gods' gift to mankind.

Dropped Apd at her lab, and left the town. On our way out Aky didn't see the red light on the highway and cut through it halfway until I told him, and then he backed out. Fortunately nothing happened and nobody honked and hopefully he won't get a ticket but that was an eye-opening experience for him and he's been a different person since. It could have gone in a very very veryy different direction.

We kept driving east until we reached this small town of Blight or Bliss or wherever, and stayed at a super sketchy Inn that I've written in great detail on in a previous post.

Wrote for a couple of hours (!) in the evening before going to sleep. I'm glad the writing is working out, so very proud of myself. This evening is third in a row where I've written during circumstances outside my complete control. Good vibes, good times.

Bailing out of work early, fried rice breakfast, meal with AKY, trip begins, Costco trip with Mango smoothie, amazing vistas and wheat fields, tacobell dinner, pendleton motel, evening writing [Mon 26]

Had fried rice from earlier evening for breakfast, and started packing for my trip.

Left work earlier than usual, as AKY showed up. He too had the meal, quite a heavy one at that, and we set out on our road trip!

First stop was Costco, where we got croissants, an unfortunate 80 pack of 8oz bottles we didn't fully realize we had bought until it was too late, and a watermelon quite a large one. Aky contends it was 20lbs initial pre-consumption weight and that's probably fair. Oh on our way out we had their new Mango smoothie which is controversial among Costco fans. I liked it. So so very cold though.

And so began our trip Eastwards. We saw evergreen forests, deserts of East Washington, and the amazing vista of wheat field in Oregon. Dinner was had at a Tacobell in the evening, I ordered both of my classic favourite burritos.

In the evening we stopped by this motel at a town called Pendleton and relaxed. I wrote a lot in the evening, and feel so good about it because I've been writing throughout this trip, something that's usually not been the case in previous journeys.

We are so ready to eat healthier with the coolers

 We bought one of the styrofoam coolers at dollatree earlier today. At its simplest it's a styrofoam box and...we'll that's it. We put some ice from the hotel, and threw in our leftovers from that pretty awesome Indian place I'll write about in the next few posts, so that's our improvised fridge right there! Also got a couple bottles of water for the road.

I'm pumped because we can do so many things with it...during the course of our trip! I really want to eat healthy, make my own sandwiches instead of eating crap at subway or tacobell, even if it comes out to be a little pricier. And store our fruits in there! Meats and cheese, sauces and veggies, and what not! It's like a...portable fridge...that yeah, needs recharging, but the 'recharges' of ice are free. Yeah we could have carried a real cooler but then that'd have needed planning, a commitment to the cooler lifestyle and a general sort of organisedness we willingly abandoned for this trip.

And if nothing else, it'll keep our watermelon cool and refreshing, that's always something worth being extra pumped about!

More family in the USofA

RG, who's my cousin, third child of his parents, is coming to the USofA, at least for a short time, and possibly much longer, even permanently. With him here, besides the two youngest ones all of my first cousins will be outside Nepal, with nobody having any intentions to go back. And the two youngest ones are really plotting hard their escape. But more family is great, more fun at festivals, more places to crash at, more people to support and be supported by!

The seven different types of motel night-duty people you meet during roadtrips

1.  The mean one who doesn't want to do anything to do with you but will also ask ID from every member of your party even when the corporate policy technically doesn't require it just for the feck of it.
   
   
2. The overly friendly one who will ask you about your career, education, plans, how it's been, maybe even your personal life, so much so that you're worried that maybe they're hoping to set you up with their daughter or something.
   
   
3. The really really confused type who doesn't know what's what, keeps fumbling for the keys, unsure what room you booked and which keys you need and needs four attempts to get everything right.
   
   
4. The lazy and tired young person, possibly a student, who would very much rather not be there at all but has to because of either financial or family reasons and will help you not because it's their job, but because they're just nice human beings.
   
   
5. Suspiciously good looking and well put-together people who you begin wondering about because surely they would find something better than be on the night-duty of a cheap motel in the middle of nowhere town that exists only because people need to shit and piss while they go between cities and towns where things happen.
   
   
6. The excessively old person who's not doing this for the money but as a hobby to leverage it as an opportunity to talk to anybody who they can wrangle into one of their conversations.
   
   
7. Poor migrant families who hope to leverage this into maybe one day owning the whole damn place and into greater upward social mobility.
   

The Great Salt Lake may be great, but salty it is not

 We are in SLC, also known as Salt Lake City. Well...on the outskirts of it, our requirement of a hundred-dollar motel was no tenable within the city limits unless we wanted to compromise pretty significantly on our standards, and we thought this was for the best.

Right as we first saw the Lake on our map it called us. It really did, so we went into a random state park, paid twenty bucks and chilled at the beach. AKy swam, I didn't because the water looked hella dirty and frothy. Not worth the twenty bucks but we did make a significant dent on the watermelon.

We were awed by the size of the great lake, water as far as we could see! So big! Then it turned out we were on a small corner cove of the body and had seen maybe half a percent or less of the waterhole in it's entirety. So truly, without any doubt it's great.

And for reasons very specific to this year, it's been greater than it has been traditionally. Because of various larger scale weather patterns as well as water-rights issues, the lake has been losing a lot of water and is under threat of drying completely in less than a decade. Which means the salinity levels have been way way high up and water levels quite low. This year though because of the heavy snowfall and rainfall in Winter and early spring, the lake has been blessed with an unseasonably high water level for this part of the year. As a result, it is greater than it would be, and less saltier than it has been.

SO yeah, the great salt lake is great but not as salty. For the time being.

Boise, Idaho: My thoughts on

 Boise is one of those spread out American cities from the last century, they've not yet figured out ample vertical construction is the way of the future. It's full of large parking lots with little to show, strip malls and low-rise complexes. The redeeming value lies in their ample public parks and recreational areas, and availability of other adventure activities nearby.

If I were to make recommendations to the city I'd suggest them removing zoning restrictions, allowing multi-usage construction, and encouraging higher density construction with mixed retail, commercial and residential units. And improve their public transport system.

Don't know or remember exactly what I hoped the city would be like, but it's got so much potential, if only people invested more.

One hopes all the migrants coming in priced out of California will drive the city and state towards urban densification.

Rice, tofu-tarkari and yogurt for lunch, interlaken-volunteer loop, I write a lot, fried rice with stringy sprouted lentils [Sun 25]

 Had rice and tofu tarkari that I cooked on the pan with asianish-sauces, plus yogurt because without meaning to the yogurt tarkari became to dry.

In the afternoon went for the interlaken-volunteer parks loop.

Came back home, wrote a lot lot of posts, like more than a dozen, probably twice that. Productive day in that regard.

In the evening I added kimchi and sprounts to rice and tofu from earlier, and made fried rice. Problem was the lentil sprouts got too stringy and stuck to teeth. Next time I'm doing it I'll remember to chop it to small pieces, or to not cook it to death at all so it still holds its moisture and texture.

Bliss, IDAHO is possibly the saddest little town I've encountered

 This will be short because I've described the strange motel we're staying in with all the completely ethereal characters in the previous posts.

This town basically has one mcdonalds and one subway, and a really crappy local burger place at the mechanic's. There's one 'bar' in 'downtown', but we're too scared to go because I feel it could be a hotbed of white supremacists.

There's a couple of hundred households in town at least, but no grocery store to speak up besides the one by the gas station. There is no cohesive downtown. The houses are generally run-down and empty 18-wheelers are parked in parallel through the course of the 'boulevard'. It's like as if AI tried to imitate humanity and human cities, and came up with something it was confident could convince humans of its sentience.

There doesn't seem to be anything to do around here for at least thirty miles. The only motel around is on a gravelled lot, looks like a haunted house, owned by a (dare I say) a dysfunctional family, and looks like it was outdated a half-century ago.

So spookyyy.

Amber i*n mot*l in Bliss, the strangest experience motel experience yet

Here are some random facts about the motel we're in. I was planning on writing it in essay format but it's just too weird.

• Our BEDroom has a fully-filled wall-mounted metallic kleenex dispenser
• The carpet and the dresser area is clearly from the mid-sixties. At the latest.
• It's located in the weirdest place, on a random unpaved lot that doesn't have anything else and looks like a scary spooky haunted house from faraway.
• The doors have one, and only one key.
• They gave us the wrong room the first time around.
• They gave us the keys to the wrong room the second time around.
• They gave me their 'tracking papers' instead of the room key the third time around.
• The entire family lives behind the counter in their 4-room apartment
• The manager claims the owner is such and such, but it's quite clear this is a family-run establishment, and they're all related to each other
  
• Nobody can keep track of which rooms they have open and which they don't
• The only way of tracking rooms is by putting keys in the pigeonholes for the rooms in the office
• The papers with wifi passwords in the rooms all have the wrong password. And multiple wrong passwords.
• The paper in the counter that's supposed to have the *real* wifi password....still has a completely different wrong password.
• The motel seems to be falling apart from the outside
• One of us got the blanket, and the other didn't
• Nobody can keep track for how they're pricing the rooms
• The phones in the rooms are, not kidding here, rotary phones from possibly the fifties
• This entire establishment is at this weird fking town that gives me the creeps
  

Is it possible I might be overworking myself despite being not very hardworking?

This is some bs topic I whipped up yesterday in a frenzy to write a lot that wasn't very meaty.

But here's the situation: it's fun to joke as an engineer that I don't get much done or I'm lazy and I'm not particularly hardworking. In recent days, in contrary to that, there have been evenings where I have had to check the mail and run deployments, lose my sleep over something not working, and generally keep work matters in the back of my mind even outside the hours I'm paid for. Which is to say, it's becoming clear that they're paying me to think and worry about their technology stack and not do the drudge work.

So sometimes it comes as a surprise to friends when I'm spending weird hours fixing work issues, because I'm quite casual about the work situation where in reality it's really one small thing or other that pops up and needs looking at. It's not hard work per se, but just needs time and effort. Which is what I'm here for, at your service!

Is 'continental breakfast' worth it, and how bad is it really: A discussion of sorts

How much extra might one pay for the availability of a free 'continental breakfast' in a motel or inn of not great repute? Is it worth the hassle and potentially the addon to the room costs? Is it really as bad as people make it out to be?

The promise, to a newbie, of the possibilities of what a 'continental breakfast' might entail, and the immediate wave of disappointment that follows on their first introduction with an actual spread is known to all who have stayed at an establishment offering such amenities. The immediate reaction is that of disappointment, disgust, and of anger, at being fooled and baited.

But I ask you dear reader can one really expect a good, home-cooked meal for the price levels the receivers of the continental are paying? And really, is the promise of a couple of hard-boiled eggs, simple but filling fruits, yogurt, jam-butter and bread, muffins, fruit juice, coffee tea, and so forth, is that not an enticing offer for what would otherwise be an empty, hungry morning? And doubly so for those traveling with kids or in large numbers, for a good meal of similar-ish quality should one find those at grocery store cold section would set back one at least a dozen dollars per person. A drink of juice, couple of bars, yogurt, bread butter and jam, eggs, oatmeal, pancakes, wow, when you think of the pricey alternatives, they begin making sense.

To be cynical and reject the continental right away is to refuse to see what the world has to offer, to imprison oneself within walls of expectation and disappointment, and not foresee the warm, content feeling on one's tummy after having filled up on double servings of everything there is on offer as one's truly as done on many an occasion. To travel on the cheap, one must learn to appreciate the continental breakfast, and make the most out of it.

Pho Le: A very okay Vietnamese experience in Boise

This was the restaurant APD, AY and I went to get lunch in Boise.

Truth be told I didn't want to eat, and was definitely not in the mood for some Pho on the very hot summer day in Boise, but APD seemed really excited so I couldn't resist. Not after she insisted we could go to a different place after we'd sat down. That would be disrespectful of her choice, so I went along. So it is perhaps not a review of the place fully as it is of the circumstances surrounding this, what I presume to be a very fine, establishment.

It's a Vietnamese restaurant in Boise. Not terribly expensive. Small menu. Large, renovated, good ambiance. Quick service, due to the limited options of the menu. I got the veggie Pho, which is really not a good standard to measure a vietnamese restaurant by. But here we are anyway.

Didn't like the veggies, they were cut weirdly and crinkled.  Didn't think there was much flavor to the broth. The aromatics weren't added to enhance the food, they seemed to be following a recipe the roots of which had long been forgotten and the corianter leaves seemed ritualistic more than functional. They didn't give me enough lemon. There was no specific taste flavor or smell I could identify distinctly. I dumped a serious amount of the two sauces on the table and was still unable to enhance the experience noticeably. 

In the end, I ate less than half a medium-sized bowl. The vermicelli noodles were mostly untouched. I needn't have eaten this, and having imbibed the meal didn't satisfy me physically or emotionally. It's unclear who is to blame for that, or if that even needs an assignment but here we are.

It's a very okay experience. Go try it or whatever. It should be good, on paper.

Do this eight things and you will literally look like a Queeen

1.  Wear a crown!
   
   
2. Lay thousands of eggs, eat lots of honey, and order your workers around!
   
   
3. Be red and circular, and make it illegal for the striker to touch you unless it's the last piece.
   
   
4. Be that sad pathetic love interest of the character who keeps failing in life after their contact with the protagonist
   
   
5. Have a "Q" written on your four corners
   
   
6. Be a super popular lady star who sings
   
   
7. Wear funny red-and-white makeup on your face, talk in a funny voice and do silly nonsensical things
   
   
8. Inherit the reign of the land from your parent!
   

Some people have expectations that are...not in alignment with reality

This is petty toomfoolery, fights that go nowhere and aren't impactful.

AU was mad at me and messaged saying she wouldn't be disrespected and talk to me ever because I hadn't texted her in two months. Which is fair assessment if she had been, but she hadn't so much as checked on me in those months, when I had to get on antibiotics three times and suffered through, at various points, serious intestinal issues, lungs issues, and throat infection issues.

And in response I said that was fair enough, but at that rate, if my expectation out of people around me, was that there'd be no future contact if they didn't reach out to be every two months, regardless of what was happening to them, I'd have no friends left.

I guess she is popular, she must have a large group of friends family and hanger-ons around her that she can support the aggressive friendship requirements. Maybe with that age comes social connections, maybe it's just the personality, or maybe it's one's station in life when one can afford to make such risky moves. But if that works for them, that works for them, I cannot do that.

So yeah, that expectation of people from everyone is out of alignment with reality, specially if people aren't checking up on others, and what can one say on that but wish them good luck!

Eating well during road trips

This will be a short one.

When I'm on longish road-trips meals are often eaten on okay restaurants or at fast food joints. My tummy's barely in good order, and besides the rare taco-bell meal which gets boring after the second time in two days, there's never relishing the meals. Food becomes very functional...and not necessarily because of the time crunch. Risking a random little shack's food when you have places to be and toilets to avoid becomes a dangerous bet, something that's hard to justify when on the road.

This trip around I promised to us that I'd eat healthier. Buy bread, veggies etcetera, make my own tasty, healthy snacks and meals instead of eating trash. We bought watermelon in Costco for the very same reason. I've already sunk my teeth deep into the melon, for sure. But besides that there's not been much sammich-making and that's a bit disappointing. I'd rather eat food I made than something bought outside. So proud to be saying that.

More on this later as things progress. I'm not a picky eater, I eat whatever is thrown at me (besides meat obv). The bar to impress is just higher. That is all.

Road trip has begun!

 I write this on the second night of our road-trip, I wrote the title on the first night but never got around to actually filling the content because I'd written four posts already it was so late in the night and ugh I just wanted to go sleep.

So yea, the road-trip has begun, AK and myself on our weeklong trip to Salt Lake City and beyond (who knows! we have literally zero clue and zero plans on where we want to be and what we want to do!). We got our basic supplies of...extremely wasteful 8 oz bottles of water (80 of them, in my defence I didn't know they were minis), a dozen Costco croissants, a large watermelon, and 180 tablets of lactaid for me. That watermelon has already made stories, but that's for the future.

The main goal of the trip is to take it easy, not rush from one location to another but take our time appreciating the surroundings, getting to know places and just soaking in the vibe, you know? Well... The vibe I'm soaking right now as I write these very words is that of a motel that's not been renovated since the late sixties, possibly even earlier. My guess about the place is that it was a run-down place that was about to be torn down and bought by a very dysfunctional family, who also lives in there behind the counter mind you!, and they are running it very...poorly. The management is comically...strange. Like the only way they know if they have a room available or not, and the only way, is if they have their keys in the right place. Straight out of the 1860's if you ask me. There are many, many things to write about the place, but I'll save that for a separate post.

We stayed yesterday at this motel-y town called Pendleton. The only thing I can tell about the town is that. It had a lot of motels. That's it. Then we went to Boise Idaho earlier today where we met APM who's AD's sister and who visited me last year. Hung out with her in the park and had watermelon. I don't want to give away too much of the watermelon story yet.

And now we're here. It's always been an adventure.

Lol.

A review of Sangai Cafe in Bhaktapur, the cutest cafe there was

This is the place I went with RK in the evening after hanging out with her in Kathmandu. And lemme tell you, this changed the concept of what a cafe can be, what a tea place can be, and the potential of an alternative way nightlife can be had without booze.

It's floor seating, as is common for those cool types of tea cafes as of late. They sell tea coffee and minor drinks, and I really want to say they don't have cigs or ban smoking, but there's no certainty on that. I effing hated how everything was smoky in Kathmandu and this place felt like a welcome respite, so there's a good possibility it was smoke-free.

The location is great, it's next to one of Bhaktapur's great puhu's. The crowd is young, creative, and loving, without being too...how you say...sticky...of one another, if you get the not-too-sexual gist. They were playing guitar, drinking tea, singing songs, teasing each other until well into 9 and 9.30, and that on a weekday which wasn't a Friday. That's big deal. B.F.D.

It is my dream for cafes like this to be in all places in Kathmandu. Places for the youth of Kathmandu to hangout in their neighborhood without having to worry about going home, where everybody knows everybody and is comfortable in their presence, where safety and fun are paramount at the same time, and where alcohol is not the prime motivator.

A man can dream. And this is my dream.

Twelve times Michael Scott was an awful human being

1. That time he pretended to not be himself after discovering his date was this age-appropriate lady who he considered ugly and gramma like. He didn't have to be so mean, what the hell man!
   
   
2. When he tried to make Jim and Pam's pregnancy all about himself and tried to insert himself into their birthing and what not.
   
   
3. How he screwed Jan over despite understanding the high stakes of the situation and being coached well by her lawyer. Did he really think she was at fault, or could he really not be assed enough to support his partner against her company?
   
   
4. Remember that time, just before he left when he left joke gifts for everybody and thought it was really funny while being fully aware they didn't like him that much. Jeeez man if there's some time to show earnestness, that was it.
   
   
5. Ugh, not even the time, this was many times over, when he'd attempt to grope his classmates with his improv character blind guy mcsqueezy.
   
   
6. Oh how about that time he leaked compromising photos of his partner, and boss at the time, Jan so very carelessly without regards to the consequences?
   
   
7. And him screwing over Jim's promotion because he felt threatened and thought he was on the line despite having absolutely no reason to do so?
   
   
8. Michael acted like a young spoiled brat after getting the leads from corporate, and greatly harmed his salespeople and his branch by organizing that useless treasure hunt to find those contacts.
   
   
9. Speaking of young spoiled brats, did he reallly have to physically assault his nephew, could he just not have reprimanded him in private or warned him, or even fired him?
   
   
10. Oh how manyy times did he screw David wallace over, and took advantage of his misplaced trust, do you remember that because I do and that wann't preddy.
    
    
11. Phillys's wedding, the walk and the announcement, need I say more? Was he not the one and only, the sole, villain of that ceremony and party?
    
    
12. He was a pest to Pam's mom and deserved way worse punishment than just a slap from Pam, that's a fact!
    

UW Kayaking vs SLU Kayaking, pros and cons

 We went to UW Kayaking, first time for me despite having done at SLU a couple of times. Quick summary of pros and cons.

The UW is a lot less crowded and you will never need to wait as much as SLU. I've spent 3 hours waiting for an hourlong kayak thing. On the other hand SLU has a lot more interesting places to go to, and the scenery is more interesting, more crowded place. But UW has a much larger lake washington open to explore and you can really go far away if you want. And it is cheaper, specially if you get the UW student discount.

In conclusion if I'm wanting to kayak for the sake of kayaking I'll go to UW, if i'm doing to to show people around or just chill and hang, it'll be SLU. Also SLU has them hot-tub boats!

Low-key news, sprouty sandwich breakfst, walk to the arboretum, crossing the canal to UW, kayaking, sausage eggs and yogurt dinner, clean up apartment, writing [Sat 24]

 Followed news from the previous evening, to be disappointed partly for it not going anywhere. In the morning made sprout-oil-cheese-tomato salad and ate it between bread slices as brunch, surprisingly filling actually particularly if you add a real bit of oil and lemon juice.

Went to the arboretum for walk, figured I'd do my usual weekend route, but AS(y) called and we made plans to kayak, so I walked to the UW train station, took the train to U District, chilled at his place for a bit and came over to the kayaking place at UW. AR(e) and her friend from college came after a bit and we kayaked for 1.5 hours. The friend was going to airport straight after, and I was very wet so came home, changed, chilled, made sausage and eggs for dinner and ate with yogurt and brown sugar.

Cleaned up the apartment for a bit, watched tv and am writing this until 1.20 in the morning right now!

Slow work day, daytime nap, cheesey sprout brunch, wasting an entire day on breaking news that went nowhere [Fri 23]

 Workday was slow, napped a bit, and wasted so much of worktime.

Made a number of sandwiches with cheese, tomatoes, sprouts hummus etc with bread slices, yum yum, healthy tasty and interesting. So easy to make too.

Napped after work for a bit.

Then spent the next six or seven hours wasting on news websites until two or three in the morning reading about the coup that was happening in Eastern europe that'd change everything forever. Or so i thought. Until it didn't. It was a total waste of time but I had a good time.

Oh also talked to my parents, and sister in the morning, that was particularly super duper productive and good, proud about that!

Kimchi, eggs, rice bowl for lunch, Target shopping pickup trip, heavy load, repotting plants, sprouty dinner tofu sandwich, volunteer park walk [Thu 22]

 Breakfast was rice bowl with fried kimchi and eggs and til ko chhop.

Did very little at work, went to Target to pickup the potting mix and the three auto-watering planters I bought online. Man the soil bag was so heavy! I don't know if I'd have ordered it for pickup knowing it was so heavy but thank god the train was running regularly it worked out.

At home I repotted and replanted a lot of plants, and my plant tables are a lot more cleaner and greener, I've written about that in a post earlier.

For dinner I fried some tofu slices, got hummus, tomatoes and sprouts, and ate them as a sandwich. Great effing idea.

Went to Volunteer park for a walk, didn't see anybody interesting.

Sprouting sprouts

 I've been sprouting black lentil seeds for the last week or so. Got the seeds at TJ's and cooked dal once, the next day one of the seeds washed away in the sink had grown shoots and root and I thought wah that's a great idea and I started doing it. I've had four meals involving the sprouts, it has gone really well. It's been literally the longest stretch of sprouting and sprout-eating I've gone thru. I'm planning on sprouting all the seeds and legumes in the future, if only to increase the nutrition of the seeds.

Also listened to the Sprouts episode of spilled milk podcast which came out a couple of days and started sprouting moong beans too because of course, I've had those seeds for a long time and mung sprouts are the most common. I think this is one of those ingredients I want to keep with me all the time, so I'll always have something either growing or storing in the fridge in the future.

Great mini project to do. Next step is microgreens, and also using it to make rice wine or rice syrup. But that's a little more complex we'll see.

Repotting and readjusting plants

 The day before yesterday I went to Target and finally got a couple of self-watering planters and a large sack of potting mix. Bought the three pots to circulation, and moved a couple of plants around.

The pothos plants I brought from VA right before leaving for Nepal had waited in water for six months. The roots were out but they weren't exactly thriving. And the spider plants I got two weeks ago had started rooting but they weren't doing too good either. Plus the other plant was getting kinda' droopy. Chinese money plant was waiting to start thriving.

So I put them all in new pots. Oh also the five pots of small plants that were surviving still from eight months ago but hadn't begun thriving yet due to not being replanted were replanted finally as well. Which means yes, a lot of plants are sharing the same pot, but that's going to work out alright I think. I'm getting a shipment of saucers in two days, four pots in the apartment will suddenly open up for use then. So a couple of plants will get their own pots.

Still in water: three pieces of pothos I got from PN's place this time around. Planted some in the soil but will wait for these to root before properly planting. The one plant from PN's place with large leaves is not doing so great, it will properly recover hopefully. And then one of the plants from Sb's place from Seattle is still in one of those containers but I don't care for it too much because it's kinda' yucky. If it thrives might give it some good place.

Ten things I could have done to be as rich as some of my friends

1. Gold mining, probably?
   
   
2. Working for early-stage startup that goes public eventually, and get multiple million in my investment accounts?
   
   
3. Marry rich
   
   
4. A complicated series of scams involving an international smuggling ring and money laundering
   
   
5. Get a rich but villainous billionaire to invest millions in my startup without caring for where it goes
   
   
6. Born rich
   
   
7. Dance myself into fame and great riches
   
   
8. Fishing
   
   
9. Bathwater-selling
   
   
10.  Vlogging

Getting ready for the road-trip

We (AS, AR(e) hopefully, and me) are going on a roadtrip! To Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona and California and back. The plan is for me to work in the mornings, then drive and visit places in the afternoon. It won't be very different from our drive back in December honestly because we never got around to leaving the hotel room before 11.30-12 anyway, and between 12 and 2 I can always work with data on the phone which my laptop will connect to.

I'm excited, if a bit concerned about how the blogging situation might pan out. Because it's going to be rough writing 1000-2000 words after a day of 7 hours of working and 6-7 hours of being driven. Or maybe I can do it during work hours? Inshallah.

Concert on the next block, not great for sleep

 Every year over pride month they have concerts playing in the next block in my neighborhood, they close the streets down and have hundreds, sometime thousands of people cheering for their favourite local and regional bands. Every so often, some large renowned artist or other shows up. I haven't gone to the concerts yet, in the two years I've stayed here, but I've enjoyed the post-event festivities a it in the past.

What I've realized is that without the double-glazed windows and this old apartment building, the noise control is not great. It's been rough going to sleep in the evenings. One would think with all this practice of sleeping in the neighborhood it'd have been better but nah, things are same old, disturbing and difficult.

Man I wish the apartment was better sometimes.

Global news takes my time

 This is about the situation in uh Eastern europe which was a very big deal yesterday, it look like it would be a world-changing event, redefining our future maps forever, and political structures of huge swathes of the world. So I didn't do anything yesterday, didn't spend anytime doing anything useful including writing here, because it was so damn captivating, so damn important.

Well turns out it didn't matter, the situation sorted itself out.

Events in the world have been interesting, and regular readers of the blog will remember how I was holed up in the apartment for weeks following the war and worrying about it till I could sleep no more and had to force myself away from the news because it was taking up all of my attention.

In any case, I must...resist...the urge to follow the news that doesn't directly affect me, and I can't change, but want to anyway. Live the life, not read the news, that's not what I need to do.

Lazy lazy day, Yummy yummy potbelly, talking to family, midday nap that lasts forever, potbelly dinner, missed meetings and plans [Wed 21]

This was one sad longest day of the year ever. By longest day of the year I mean quite literally this was the equinox.

Talked to TD and SB, my family in Netherlands in the morning.

During work I was bored as heck because it was taking forever for something I was trying to do to get done. Looked up 2-for-1 offer for potbelly on sd, ordered it for 1pm and went out to get it. Ate one sandwich right there, yuuuum so good, and ate half of the other one after coming home.

After work I ambled about a bit, tried writing some, and decided to get a short nap because I had a 6PM appointment for a writing thing. Well I ended up napping for like four hours and got up real groggy. So I wasted more time, watched youtube, ate the rest of potbelly, and then uhhh wasted time until falling asleep pretty late.

All I did was sleep and eat, besides work. Didn't write, didn't attend meeting or anything like that. This is what I'm afraid my life my end up like.

Yummy dal-bread lunch, volunteer park walk, seeing an old friend and missing another, multigrain rice with kimchi and eggs, passing out [Tue 20]

It rained all day long, except for the bit when I was out on a walk.

For lunch I had the yummy fried-bread-in-butter with buttery dal with green onions and gosh darn it tasted yummy!

In the afternoon I read a bunch, wrote a bunch, missed a friend's comedy event (even though he ended up not performing) and went on the standard walk but at 7.15 in the evening. Toojk three rounds of Volunteer park, and saw an old friend from college whom I've mentioned before and recently wrote a poem about.

Before leaving for the walk I'd left a mix of brown-white and quinoa rice on the cooker. For dinner I ate that with kimchi, eggs and til ko chhop. Again, never a bad decision with that.

The sprouts of lentils continued growing.

I passed out in the evening while writing or avoiding writing. It was mostly writing avoidance because I'd made big plans that'd never have been accomplished.

Deconstructed fritatas for lunch, volunteer-arboretum walk, dal-bread for dinner, sweet sleeps [Mon 19]

For lunch I threw together a couple of potatoes with spices, salt and a little bit of baking soda and a lot of oil into the air-fryer and fifteen minutes later yummy soft potatoes that while not crispy outside were great nonetheless. Ate that with eggs made with onion and cheese, and a mayo-mustard-horseradish compound sauce.

I wrote a bit after work, chilled, read, rushed to my walk, which was the volunteer-arboretum loop, a classic of mine. Felt good, like seeing an old friend after a long time. Listened to so many podcasts, and talked to friends on the phone.

It was a gloomy day, so felt good walking and sweating.

For dinner I took a big dollop of butter, fried two slices of bread in it, then dumped the rest with leftover dal, adding green onions on the top. It. Was. So.Tasty. Like. Insanely tasty.

Also I think this was the day I started with my lentil sprouts.

Perhaps it was the intense walk, or maybe it was my body adjusting to the weekday, but I fell very sleepy all of a sudden at 10.30 in the evening, went to bed and fell asleep immediately, quite a respite from my recent sleep situation.

Morning fruits, farmer's market, train to Chinatown and Daiso run, Samurai ramen lunch, chinese bakery and eat in the park, I write a lot [Sun 18]

Had an apple and a banana in the morning and felt like such an adult because I was combining different fruits in the same meal, guys!

Planned with AS(y) to go to chinatown for brunch but he took forever, so I headed out to the station, explored the farmer's market. If I hadn't been starving and going somewhere else I'd have bought a tonne of things there, but I was running late as it was already, so didn't buy anything.

At Chinatown I went into Daiso and checked if there was anything good...didn't find anything I needed immediately, that I also hadn't ordered off of temu. Which reminds me, my Temu order is arriving sometime this week or next and I'm pumped to see how that goes, willing to order a lot more if it works out. Though I bought something off of Target...their self-watering planters, and it does seem like Target and Temu are not that differently priced? Which is to say in certain matters the prices have near-equalized. I guess that's what capitalism is but I can't imagine who would rather buy off of Temu and pay target-level pricing. The target pots looked so much better too.

In any case, Arun and I had a grand old meal at Samurai ramen, walked around C'town for a bit, found a Chinese bakery where several different sweet baos were bought, we ate a few in the scupture park there.

Got home at five-ish, wrote a lot, read a bit, and went to sleep!

How does one go about controlling the mid-day nap?

 Yesterday was supposed to the day when everything changed, I'd be writing 30-40 posts a day starting yesterday and working towards completing five months worth of backlog. Well...that didn't happen. I didn't write yesterday's posts at all. And didn't attend the writing meetup I'd signed up for. Just napped instead.

In my defense that's probably attributable to the goddamn large Potbelly's sandwich I ate, so many carbs and so fatty but ugh so yum yum yummy. And by the time I sat down I'd just about gotten around to digesting it and you know how it is, you feel sleepy you think you'll take a 15-min powernap and you wake up four hours later groggy confused and a little hungry, only to eat the half-a-sandwich left from the morning and go back to sleep.

To cut the long story short, one of the biggest downsides, if I may say so, of my incredibly favourable hours has been the midday naps that I don't need at all but take anyway and because i'm single and nobody to nag me I can't help but go all the way. The forbidden daynaps are so much deeper and satisfying than the evening sleep, which is often hard to come by. Probably due to the daynaps, but still.

The point is, what do we do about it, it needs to be taken care of, or else Imma be so very screwed.

I donated a lot of money to a random website, and it feels good!

 The other day I was looking for this book that I had multiple copies of in electronic form already, but in really crappy format. I found this lady who'd published the book in a really nice format manually and made it freely available for download. That was so exciting to me, I donated a lot of money to her thru paypal. How much? Well let's say I'd have been able to buy multiple physical versions, potentially the original print published 140 years ago, if I'd paid for the book directly. But it didn't matter, what mattered to me was people were going out of there way to help others by publishing and formatting long-discarded books for free. Such nice beings! So kind. And such kindness deserves rewards.

Also tried donating to the wisdomlib guy, the website was broken, I emailed him but he's not replied yet. Bit concerned he might have the zeal of a recent convert, in retrospect so even if he does get back me I dunno how motivated I'm still to donate to him.

Anyway I donated money with no expectation of anything in return, to a person I felt should be rewarded, and it feels amaazing. Might get some patreon subscriptions too at this point, why not.

I stan Potbelly's: A review of my new-favourite sandwich chain in the whole wide world

 Yesterday I found on slickdeals that Potbelly's the sandwich place had a BOGO offer. Being a, shall we say a connoisseur of good offers, I took up the offer even though there was no plans to eat out yesterday.

And man, what a great decision that was!

At this point Potbelly's is by far my favourite fast food sandwich place. Comes very close to being the overall best sandwich place too! The bread was yummy in itself, the veggy sandwich I ordered had sufficient mushrooms, avocado and the rest, they toasted it just the right amount, and eating my first sandwich right there on the spot as it was warm gave me this incredible satisfying feeling that's hard to come by.

And all that for less than twelve bucks!

Oh wait, there's more! Because it was a BOGO deal, I got two sandwiches for the price.

The twist is, I ate half of the second sandwich right after getting home because I couldn't hold how good the meal was. In retrospect it was a poor choice because I napped all evening....didn't go on walks, didn't write, didn't attend the writing meetup I'd signed up for. Just ate and slept. And then woke up to eat the remaining half a sandwich and went to bed again. So basically all I ate yesterday was potbelly's sandwich(es) and fruits.

Loved it, so so much.

Imma a big Potbelly's stan now.

An incredible backfill barrage incoming

 I've alluded to it for long enough, so here's the meat and potatoes of the matter, the real deal.

I've basically not written anything for the first six months of the year. That's because of circumstances beyond my control (physically I mean, not mentally) but that's by-the-by. The truth is I don't like how it looks on the sidebar, with posts generally remaining constant around 1300 a year for the last three years, until now when it'll see a sudden downshift. Yeah, no-go. I need to make up for it. SO for the next couple of weeks I'll be spending two, maybe three hours every day backfilling blog posts for the lost five months.

And the sad thing is nobody will notice it because there won't be any new blog posts (well besides the regular daily ones) on the front pages. The numbers on the sidebar will be rising up gradually and then rapidly, and I'll be suffering for it, but it won't be apparent. That' what Krishna taught us to do I guess. I must do it because this is my dharma, to write on this blog, and not for the attention or feedback. Write without the expectation of being read, ever.

Yeah ideally I'll be done in three weeks. I suspect it'll take me a tad longer. I'll grow a bit insane in this time I don't doubt. They will be short, curt and all over the place, certainly. Besides the journal posts, which I intend to backfill first, and then go back with personal and creative posts, they won't directly reflect my mindset at the time but the mindset in retrospect. Which is fine, whatever that's how this blog has been working all these years. I'm curious as to how desperate I'll get and what strange things I'll do to get the daily postcount up because oh I'll need the assistance of cheats and hacks! Thinking of writing even during work hours because otherwise...ugh that'll be rough.

Wish me luck, see you on the other side!

Review of Samurai Ramen restaurant, Seattle Chinatown

 AS(y) and I went to this ramen restaurant at 2 in the afternoon on Sunday. It was cold and raining outside, we wanted Ramen. Having explored UW the evening before, and tried most places in CapHill we wanted to explore Chinatown. I got there two trains before AS did so I walked the aisles of Daiso but didn't fancy anything good.

Samurai Ramen is a small ramen place right outside the Chinatown/ID link station. They have limited seating, but the customer turnaround was quick so unless the line outside is long, the wait times are usually reasonable. The noodles are thick and yummy, the broth (i tried vegan tofu miso one) tasty though not very spicy. We asked for hot sauce for our soups. The soup is hearty, that's for sure.

I have not written about this yet, but it will have been backfilled by the time whoever is reading this had read this, but I had Korean noodles in NoVA recently with PN and the noodles there were extremely mediocre, likely just Shin Ramyun, and I thought the soup was way worse than the one I'd make. Well in this case, I'd never make ramen this good, so it was a solid win for me!

The prices were extremely reasonable, I think AS paid 35 bucks after taxes for two of our meals.

Review of Cake House the Chinese Bakery in Seattle Chinatown

After getting our ramen lunch at Samurai Ramen, AS(y) and I ambled about Chinatown for a bit, hoping to find a good Chinese bakery. I looked at three places before finally encountering this bakery.

It's a chinese bakery, so you have your bao buns and cookies and maybe some pastries. All of them were good, the coconut cookies were heavenly. Prices were extremely reasonable, for the time and place, and it was how you say...highly authentic, in that it was clearly run by a Chinese family who was doing it more for the craft than the money, they took cash only, and they'd run out of supplies as the day went by so the earlier you got there the better your options were. Also the place was highly trafficked by Chinese (and possibly other nationalities) customers.

I know where I'm getting my next red-bean bao from, for sure!

Lost Lake Cafe: A review

 After two years of stay on CapHill I finally got around to doing Lost Lake Cafe for brunch. I'd gone there for snacks and dinners and latenight hangs -- it's known for being open for food until late in the night, but never for a brunch.

As I've already written before, the company of PG was great...great people, great conversations. I'd ordered the sandwich, the caprese salad and sandwich. The sandwich was fresh, cheesy, crispy, buttery, so very yummy. The salad was pretty good, nothing to complain about. I also ordered a pie and that was decent.

The prices in the place were extremely decent. Fourteen bucks an entree for brunch in this neighborhood of Seattle is a steal these days, so we must have paid like twenty bucks after taxes and tips. Which makes it one of the best deals...that's only slightly more expensive than a crappy burrito from the smelly sketchy burrito place couple of places up the block from Lost Lake.

Highly, highly recommended if you're around this part of the town.

Review of Chilli's South Indian restaurant in U-District

 AS(Y) and I went to Chilli's South Indian restaurant on Friday night. Here's the review.

It's a cute little place that's likely more known for its rice dishes than Dosas. Because nobody besides the two of us had ordered dosas and they were enjoying there meal heartily. Not to say our meal was bad, for thirteen bucks, our potato-filled crepes from Southern India were filling, decently tasty and very well priced. The ambience was pretty nice, it's a small place, two servers, nothing exciting really. It's a place where you'd go eat, with your parents maybe when they came to visit you during semester.

I liked the ten percent discount we got for paying in cash. For two of us including appetizer, three entrees and tax and tips it was fifty five bucks after twenty percent tips. Pretty good place all things considered, I'd go again if I was looking for a decent fare, particularly from southern region of India. Their dosas are smaller than other places' but just the right amount for me.

Dakinis, who are they?

In Tantric Buddhist tradition the practitioner takes refuge in the Triple Gem which is referred to as the outer refuge. The objects of the inner refuge are said to be Gurus, Istadevas and Dakinis. Dakinis are obviously representatives of Sangha in the inner refuge. They are peaceful as well as wrathful. They
wear bone ornaments. Some are in dancing posture. Some are even nude.

These Dakinis generally travel through empty space hence also called Sky-goers. They help the practitioners by eliminating different obstacles and by guiding to realization of the path to enlightenment. They are able to grant eight great powers (skthastasiddhi) to all devoted practitioners. 

Some Dakinis are animal faced like Simhavaktra (lion-faced), Vajravarahi (sow-faced), Sardulamukha (tiger-faced) and many others. Vajrayogini is said to be Sarva-Buddha Dakini who confers Buddhahood to the practitioners. These Buddha Dakinis are said to be the representatives of Wisdom or Prajna-paramita. 

From: Iconography of Nepali Buddhism.

Yet another stream of consciousness

I need to write like six hundred blog posts in the next month or so and even in the best of circumstances that's a tall order. And is this really the best of circumstances? It's too early to tell, but today when I was full of energy and vigor and had nothing else happening I'm having one hell of a hard time getting to barely sixteen or what not, so getting twenty, thirty posts out in a day is going to be an uphill climb. The more fundamental question of why even bother, why change history and not let things as they are and move on, don't let myself block with this self-imposed block can be answered as follows. That I'm deeply, deeply gravely ashamed embarrassed about the lack of self-discipline and routing and need to make up for it so yeah I'll write write write until my fingers pop off or whatever, and write some more because man otherwise what's the point, what have I achieved in the last couple of years, you know? Yes I know spending like three hours every day for a good portion of a month writing not-great stuff under great pressure is a waste of summer weather in Seattle for one, for another there's not going to be any outcome worth showing and being proud of to others. And also if at the end it just feels painful and numbing like it is bound to, and I'll hate it that's certain, who will have won? Is it not just better to go on from here, abandon that heavy luggage and start with high energy and gusto? Maybe, or maybe it's a form of self-flagellation and the beatings will continue till morale improves so to speak. Until I learn to be better at posting more regularly, this misery is what will keep me straight. That's the way things will work, zzzzip.

Who the hell are you, again?

Who the hell are you and why do you look so green? Where have you come from, and where the hell have you been? Is everything okay, is there a nurse or a doctor that you have been seein'? What's the matter, what's your cause, why do you look all red in the eye and talk with a pause? Do I know you, you look a bit so familiar? Oh are you my father's friend, who I met the year before last year? What's that on your hand, why do you look under the weather? How is your voice is so resonating, that it fills my heart complete with fear? What is your job, what are you hear for? Are you a plumber, or perhaps you are a cop? How did you get in, whoever gave you the keys? Or are you here, to collect the money for the lease? Why am I so happy, so free of fear? What have you done, so I don't give a care? Are you god, and is this heaven, or are you the Yama, and am I just very dead?

The girl at the park

There's a girl
At the park
Oh she's a woman
Who I've known
Way before my
Regular park-walks alone,
From back in the day
When I had a stay
In the town of Bean.
And I smile at her
She smiles back at me
But never have I told her
Hey, you know me and I know you
We went to the same school, miss Daahr-see.

One day I will
Mouth the words
Hi, what's her name
TO which
She will respond
With confusion and a bit of fear
And I will tell
The tale of knowing her
After all the years
It won't be
Very impressive
But at least there's
A story to be told.
Oh and today
I saw her again!

The Jackal and the Mangoes: A Fable

Once upon a time there was a Jackal. He was a smart cookie, and he knew his way around the forest. He may have been intelligent, but humility was not one of his strengths. The Jackal would roam around the forest, making fun of other animals, denigrate them for being stupid and weak and powerless, and tell them how they should be more like him.

One day he discovered a grove of Mango trees with large juicy mangoes drooping down all around. His mouth started watering, he really wanted the mangoes. Unfortunately for him, there were two sheep dogs fiercely guarding the grove, there was no way he could fight them both by himself.

So he came with a devious plan.

He promised them a large pile of bones if they'd let him into the garden. They did not believe his offer, and told him to go away. One sheep dog growled at him, and bared his teeth. The Jackal was not happy, he had thought they would be simple and gullible like the rest of the animals, and go along with his plan. No matter, he thought, I'll give them something to make them happy for a while, eat all the mangoes I can, and then run away, without filling my part of the deal.

Unfortunately for him, the sheepdogs stood steadfast. Show us the pile of bones, they said, and we'll let you in. By this point the Jackal was getting desperate, he considered it a matter of honor to be able to have a try at the mangoes. So he went about, collected a large pile of bones, including ones from his own stash, and brought it to the sheepdogs. The dogs sniffed the air, one made sure there was no trick and that they were all bones, and cautiously approached the pile of bones. After checking, they confirmed it was indeed all bones, and let the Jackal go into the grove.

The Jackal ate all the mangoes he could. He ate mangoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He would eat mangoes if he woke up at midnight. He snacked on mangoes. He drank nothing but mango juice.

And very soon, he had fattened up, gotten diabetes, and gotten progressively weaker. All the other animals noticed how the Jackal wasn't as smart as they thought he was and stopped taking him seriously. THe Jackal rued the day he'd seen that grove.

Moral: Be careful what you wish for, and how your wish for it. Your fantasies might turn into nightmares.

On Chitragupta

From Gods, Goddesses & Religious Symbols of Hinduism, Buddhism & Tantrism (Including Tibetan Deities)

He is the assistant of Yama, the Lord of Death. He is the court recorder. He is especially worshiped on the third day of Tihar or Laxmi Puja. It is observed from the 13th day of the dark fortnight of Kartik.

Chitragupta is rarely depicted in paintings. He is shown wearing good dress and ornaments. He has to hands. He carries a pen on his right hand. He records all the good and bad deeds done my all beings. His mansion lies on one side of Yama Puri, the city of Yama.

There is a group of people in Citragupta's mansion. They are engaged in calculating the life-span of living beings. They take into account the vices and virtues of human beings. To the south of Citragupta's residence is situated "Jvara-mandira" (the abode of diseases). Adjacent to it are the abodes of all kinds of diseases, each disease having its own abode. Yama's home is situated at a distance of twenty yojanas from the abode of Citragupta.

I'm not being defensive, you're being defensive?

What? What do you mean why I'm being so defensive? I'm not being defensive? Don't you think you're the defensive one by asking me that question? Like why would you even consider that being defensive? Like do you not care about peace in the world? Do you want everybody to die? If not, then why are you the one being so defensive about how offensive your world views are? DO you understand that it's people like you that are causing all the harm and violence in the world? And if you just thought for a moment the impact of your actions maybe hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved? But no, you can't can you? Because you think you're soo smart and you're always right, and ohh oh ohh the westernism is so popular you're not ready to give it? Yeah, is that right? You think I don't understand how you work? And you dare accuse ME of being defensive? Have you given a thought that it's maybe not something with the world and everybody else that's wrong but you and your worldview? And that of your masters whose pay you're on? Oh oh you're saying you're not on their payroll and you're doing it for free because you honestly feel those things? Then maybe have you considered the possibility that maybe you're a freakin' slave, doing things for others that benefits only them, without being paid anything/ Have you even stopped for a moment to give your life and your ambitions and your beliefs a mild thought? Or have you always been on the auto-mode, like a robot who does what is told to them and expected of them? Do you not have any individuality? Do you not have your own opinions? Then why are your opinions and individuality the same as so many people, what is it that you're adding by yourself? Huh? Huh? And you, you're the one who dares calling me defensive?

How. Dare. You?

Fifteen things Yama's agents tell their kid NOT to do

1. Don't mention how Yama looks all so green
   
   
2. Don't make fun of his horns, they're strictly ceremonial
   
   
3. Don't play with those large sticks kids, you can hurt yourself, and a lot of other people!
   
   
4. Don't go too deep in the river, and definitely don't approach the people being ferried on the boats!
   
   
5. No, the he-bufflaoes are not for playing
    
6. And they're DEFINITELY not for momo!
   
   
7. Can't use his books to cheat on your exams, they'll find out just as well by checking the same books? So show some good sense and start studying for your goddamned exams!
   
   
8.  Don't ask where PraCanda uncle is and definitely don't tell anybody what we say about him!
   
   
9. Those are official work-fires, not play-fires!
   
   
10. Don't make a habit out of torturing the humans, it's just to show you the graveness of the work!
    
    
11. Don't mess around with the Pitri, they can be rude, and there's nothing anybody can do about them!
    
    
12. Stop hanging out with the Rakshas kids
    
    
13. Don't be mean to bhutas and pretas
    
    
14. Never, ever ever dare say anything bad about Shiva
    
    
15. Don't mess with Indra's people, he's particularly short-tempered and it's a lot of work to clear things up!
    

I've become a very boring conventional person and it's great

Mediocre white guy? Oh it's my dream to become one someday!

That's all, it is unexciting dull and perhaps uninspired as a young person to aspire to live  regular, conventional life in a house, doing boring projects like have your own little fermentation lab or genetics engineering lab and take care of plants and earthworms and what not, and that was how I thought until...embarrassingly late? I wanted to travel, a lot, see the world, and explore everything there is!

Turns out I'm not really that into the exciting wild stuff, too rich for my blood as they say. I'll join, if you're doing a doobie for example gimme a hit and I'll giggle like a goddamn child for hours sure, but too much beyond that and things get a lot less interesting. I don't have the energy, the commitment to keep at exciting cutting-edge stuff and maaan, do I enjoy the stability of having a place to be in and taking care of my belonings.

I will surely have disappointed the 18 yearold me (not very much because this wasn't new, but still) but yeah I'm into boring traditional conventional things and it's okay by me, this is my life, that's my preference, and nobody can tell me otherwise.

Some gross things are just gross

This is a weird and uncomfortable topic to discuss or even bring up. But it's something that's happened in the past so here we are.

As we've discussed before in this blog, some people are very unfortunate with their upbringing, company, their emotional disposition and their interpretation of the world around them and in very much need of attention and validation which unfortunately because of the things mentioned previously they receive the least of, unless such attention comes with strings attached, in which case such individuals shape themselves in such a manner as to be favorable to such strings even though that is uncomfortable and rather not preferred by them. Such individuals don't understand social limits and that other individuals maybe don't find themselves in similar situation and propose things which are less than ideal. I've had to support such individuals and man it's  lot of hard work and patience, and I'd rather not be in that position ever again.

Buying spare phone etcetera to use as extra cameras for vlogging

 I'm thinking of buying cameras or camera phones as backup video cameras for my upcoming vlog which will be releasing...a couple of weeks after I film, and that will be...annyyy day nowww. No I'm kidding, it's going to happen for sure, just need to get like what, 500 posts out of the way, or at least 400, and I can start relaxing and working on other projects. At the rate of 30 posts a day which is an intense rate but not overly so, it'll take me to weeks to get in that state of mind. Until when my cameras and stands and phones will be delivered, and I'll be a-vloggin'!

I really hope this is one of my projects that works out because my creative output has been quite limited in recent days to basically this blog. I want to do more, I want to be more out there, learn more, be seen by people, and liked, preferably, but even if not, I'm happy as long as people are reading and consuming my creative works.

A recipe for disaster

Ingredients
1 aggressive CEO who's bad at PR management
5000 power-tripping moderators who don't understand the nature of their relationship
100, 000 forum users who don't have much to do except get carried away by the smallest of internet drama
100, 000, 000 Users who would rather all this unpleasantness would go away.
10 Big AI companies that basically steal all your data to create a competitors for you, without paying

Steps:

1. Pretend you are an open and free platform so your future competitors feel comfortable in stealing all your data to train their proprietary models that they'll make profit off of, while you make nothing.

2. Realize actually you need to start making profit because the interest rates have increased, and the quickest way to dump this bag is to go public.

3. Start putting unreasonable requirements for API access.

4. Trigger the moderators who are legitimately affected because you didn't communicate clearly, but also they could also have taken a better approach.

5. Really, really trigger the overly-online group of losers whose primary hobby is to boycott all platforms online they use.

6. Become the news constantly, and have your forums be destroyed by the very moderators that created them.

7. Saturate the tech news, and your own pages, with news about yourself.

A hot steaming pile of disaster is ready to be served!

Frequently asked questions from undergrads you need to be prepared for as a teaching assistant

What should I study for the exams?

Can you do my homework?

How do I do my homework?

Can you give me a summary of everything that has been taught upto this point?

Can you give me a better grade?

How do I do better in the class?

Should I drop this class to take an easier course?

Is the professor a tough grader?

How can I get by while studying the least?

Can you do well in the class despite almost failing both the mid-terms?

I haven't submitted any of my assignments and it's finals time, is there anything I can do?

Who the hell are you, I'm looking for TA for my class?

Do we have class on Monday?

Can I get yet another extension?

Is it snow day tomorrow?

It's cold outside, isn't it, and nine other silly questions you should stop asking people already

While we understand your curiosity, we have received an excessively large volume of these common questions that don't really need answering. Instead of overwhelming our large ai-based system on such trivial answers, we have forwarded you to this page. Please pretend to have asked this question and moved on, because you know it and we know it that your question can literally not be answered.

1. It's cold outside, isn't it?
   
   
2. How was your weekend?
   
   
3. How're you doing?
   
   
4. So what are you doing this weekend? Weekend plans?
   
   
5. It looks so good, where'd you get it?!?
   
   
6. Did you eat?
   
   
7. What's up?
   
   
8. It's funny, isn't it?
   
   
9. They'll never finish with the construction, huh?
   

Why was I not sent to heaven and other questions you might ask as a recently-dead

Why was I not sent to heaven? I really did do everything possible to not meet this fate!

Yes, thank you for the concern, we want to assure you that your comfort and well-being is our highest priority. We can assure you that your list of good deeds is impressive, and you definitely clearly did everything within your means to be a good, religious, rule-following person, no doubt. Unfortunately, due to a technical issue, namely you mispronounced the name and mantra of the great lord of death multiple times when you were thirteen, your only fate is to be in heaven for the foreseeable future. We understand how it must make you feel, but such are the rules, and it is beyond our ability to interfere with them.

What sort of amenities can I expect in Yamalok? Is it really as bad as people say it is?

Thank you for the forthright question! Many people coming through here are embarrassed about asking basic questions, and thereon suffer through a rather...mismatch of expectations, which degrades their experience in YamaLok substantially.

To get back to your question, we have been unable to keep up with the popular representation of YamaLok and are therefore unable to address to your exact concerns. Having said that we can certainly provide you with an overview that will help you adjust expectations. Here at YamLok, your stay will be of decently-long eternity, unless you are called specially by other gods, or higher deities. Your experience will also depend on how you act here, it will be better if you act decently here and worse if you don't. There's no hunger here, there is no need of food. Some humans consider it a torture because they're unable to experience the joys of eating and tasting, but some really enjoy this part of their existence. You will not be tortured constantly over stake or burning fire as has been popularized in media, but you will likely meet such punishments if your actions on Earth were particularly...objectionable. You can freely visit friends and family here, those gone long by and those recently departed. We have been informed that it is considered a torture my many-a-human these days, but that is unintentional on our part. If you so choose to, you can participate in administrative duties and help out voluntarily as well. While life in YamaLok is not a vacation for sure, we hope to make it as tolerable as possible, particularly for an underserving individual like yourself!

Top ten people more suited to run a social media website than the bloviating fool

1. Literally, anybody else, any other single human being on Earth right now, including infants and really old people.
   
   
2. That leech I had to throw off my hiking socks on the mountain the last weekend.
   
   
3. The titular character from Bojack Horseman.
   
   
4. Huckleberry Finn.
   
   
5. Ravana the ten-headed Rakshas.
   
   
6. Tiny shrimp, and other arthropods
   
   
7. The round ghost from Monsters Inc.
   
   
8. A snowflake
   
   
9. The rescued children from that underwater cave, if they were still 8
   
   
10. The guy who chopped the branch of the tree he was on.
    

Oh have we talked about how I watch video-game plays on Youtube?

 I've been watching couple of funny youtubers play video games on youtube in recent months.

aussiedrongo is an age of empires streamer, and realcivilengineer does a bunch of games of which a bridge construction game is the most significant. I don't really care for the players or the scores, but the humor in the casts, and generally the entertainment value of somebody commenting over the gameplay.

But also, aussie's free-for-all outback octagon series part 2 that went on for a couple of months earlier this year was absolutely incredible. Really competitive and kept you on the edge of your seat through the course of the entire game. And there were so many unexpected upsets too!

Good times!

I need to join one of those 'dont stop writing for one hour' groups once more to get my writing mojo back

As you, the reader, will remember, the current mania of written posts on this blog began in 2019 after I started attending this meetup group in Harvard square where we'd sit down and start writing, non-stop, sometimes prompted but often not, for an entire hour. We'd share our output if we cared for it, but that was never my cuppa tea.

The fire that activity lit in me let to a desire to create more, write more, and generate anything, however bad it may be, because the very activity of sitting down to write and putting words on the screen is an achievement very few people go past.

That fire hasn't really burnt out, not yet, and at this pace it's unlikely to ever. But the inspiration has been dying, no, the fiction work has gone significantly and this blog has turned more into a journal of my thoughts and diary entries instead of a place to share my creativity, like I hoped it would become.

I'm member of a couple of such groups in Seattle on the app, but never attended those. Maybe I need to start attending them to light yet another fire of inspiration!

To be independently wealthy in Nepal is the absolute best, it turns out

This I've talked a lot with YKD, and possibly written about here before.

It turns out being wealthy in Nepal is like awesome. It does read like a stupid observation I know, but I'd never considered the consequences of having a wealthy family that doesn't expect you to work hard or make money, and hands you the control of an endless wallet basically.

Even if not so extreme, if your family is wealthy enough for you to not have to work in your twenties and thirties, that means you can choose to do anything with your days! Party all the time, go to interesting trainings, do out-of-country trips at the drop-of-a-hat, and just chill with your pals during the day drinking tea chatting relaxing and appreciating the slow pace of life. And comment how life in Nepal is so much simpler and better than elsewhere, not noticing your circumstances are unique and highly privileged.

And to people who are doing well but are embarrassed about it in Nepal, I've started telling them: wealth cures all ailments, make it work harder!

Nepali culture and disappointing cultural changes, a bit of a shock in reverse

This will be quick, it's gossip material about people I know that I'd otherwise maybe not write here but I'm running out of personal information to share.

One aspect of Nepali culture, particular to rich, young guys and gals who are married, that I absolutely abhorred when discovered it this summer particularly sticks out.

It turns out, a lot of people our age, who have gotten recently married, and possibly have kids even, are casually cheating on their partners, and don't consider it a big deal to cheat, because they're 'not serious about cheating, its just a casual thing'. Wish I could say it was just one case, but several situations were discovered and discussed etcetera. Rather unfortunate.

 Apparently it's the most common among workers in I/NGO's, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was elsewhere. Man, it's not cool.

My theory is that it mostly involves rich people who don't have to face the consequences of their actions, and never have had to because they're so insulated from everything happening in the rest of the world that they don't really care what the negative outcomes are. Because they know they can easily ride it out.

Weird, disappointing, strange.

The pushup conundrum

It turns out that I was doing the 'wrong' version of pushups all this time. The same pushup that made me so jacked-up and made me feel amazing about myself, possibly in the best health of my life. You can't tuck your hands to the side apparently, and you need to get it all tucked in.

That was a bummer, I was going to the gym in Kathmandu, and somebody...a nice person I'm sure, kindly suggested a better posture for me. And that made me want to not do pushups anymore because it was impossible for me. They were not going to be my workout of choice anymore, because why bother?

Then I looked it up online and turns out it's not as clear-cut anymore. It appears that the posture of your hands depends on what part of your upper body you want to focus your workout on, and the flare-out focuses on the chest (and not whatever other part the 'proper' way does). The guy, who has decades of trainer experience, claims that if that's what you want, you should rather do it than not do it at all. And the workout matters to me mostly because it makes me look better, by strengthening my chest area. So yeah, it wasn't so wrong after all.

In conclusion I'll start working out again, and the 'wrong' pushups will go on!

I know the best restroom open for public use in Nepal

The toilet is excessively clean, the toilet paper sheets are softer than felt, it smells like fresh flowers, the lights are perfect, the floor is cool, the ambience is as good as it can get. Honestly, it's one of my top ten favourite restrooms of all time. Highly recommended.

This toilet happens to be located in the art gallery (NOT the art museum MONA) attached to Kathmandu Guest House compound. On the bottom floor, right before the stairs to go up to the galleries. So. Freaking. Good. Specially considering the state of public toilets in Nepal, man this might be one of my favourite things there.

Obviously there's a reason why Settle and the PNW has such high density of writers

Because it's so cold and dark and gloomy and rainy all the time even in the summer, so it's not like you can go hang with friends, or barbecue or even go barhopping like they do in NYC or Cali. You're stuck inside the house for most part of the year and need to figure out indoor activities to entertain yourself, ideally without company because ain't nobody coming to hang in this cold and drizzle.

It makes sense, the density of writers in this region. And vampires, because of basically the same reasons. Guess where twilight was based?

The Pacific Northwest is the true Transylvania of the U.S, and not Pennsylvania, like a certain fictional individual by the name of Dwight Schrute might claim. 

I'm a kettle-tea man, but microwave will just work when it's your fifth cup of the day

 I've never ever ever microwaved water for tea, before today. It had to, had do, be done because I'd already meant two batches and a third batch on the kettle was a kettle to far for me, all for one single cup of herbal tea. So yeah I reheated a cup of tea water on the microwave.

Here's my take. I'm fairly certain a microwave is not particularly lacking in heating water, or providing taste or flavor to the drink. Sure, the agitation from a heated bottom might change water physics minorly but I would surely never notice the difference. I ain't no connoisseur, just a guy who chugs cup after cup of herbal tea.

Having said that, tea-drinking and making is rarely about the imbibing of a flavored liquid. It's about the whole ritual, of turning the machine on, waiting for it to get it done, hearing that whistle, putting the kettle away from the heat, and then back in because you remember you don't want the pot to cool. Yes, it's kettles for me, always, whenever I can.

The amazon delivery situation

 This is a little bit of a silly anecdote. The amazon people dropped off my delivery on the ground floor with a photo of the delivery and left. And I couldn't find the boxes, or the location. I was confused for a bit, and then sure that it was stolen. Out of desperation I emailed the building manager asking if they might know where the location from the photo could be, and they suggested I check the laundry room. And it was there! Turns out delivery people consider our laundry room to be mail room!

Which is all the better in my view because sketchy people sometimes nick the goods off of the ground floor so if there's an added layer of protection, even if that might mean our laundry room will have extra sidegig for us to deal with, it's fine. Better a congested laundry room than lost items!

It's late June and I have a heavy jacket on, what's this Seattle?!?

It's so so so cold, here in Seattle, the temperature has consistently been in the low teens for almost a week now, and sunny days have been rare. I know people aren't surprised but Seattle's actually quite hot or even sweltering in the summer, so this has been a bit of a shock. Yesterday I was out and about with my heavy winter jacket on and was quite cosy. There were other people on the train who had t-shirts and shorts on, I wonder what it'd look like to a stranger who didn't know any better and didn't know what the weather was like outside because we.were.allovertheplace.

And it's been regularly raining. It rained on the days preceding the weekend, it rained all weekend long, and it's supposed to rain today as well. I don't mind, as long as we get to see the sun every so often. It does make me lazy and make me not want to hangout with people, but rather this than the killer heat that makes me wish my apartment allowed air conditioners.

The end of Andhak

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

Viscous blood poured
from Andhaka's breast
into the skull the Goddess held,
and as she, Chamunda, sippied it,
her body kept ripening into redness
even as he was changing in himself,
while with her fingers she was rapidlycrushing his clones, the seeds sprouting
out of his male power
in a constant stream.

His blood was boiling
in the trident's flumes
and then, all at once,
he was all ashes.
The gods and demons stared
in wonder. Nothing was left
of that demon's form except
light penetrating the body
of the god who bear's the crescent moon.

- God Inside Out: Shiva's Game of Dice (Handelman et al) Page 133

Late to rise, brunch with a friend, long shameful nap, generating ai images, brown rice fried, troubles sleeping, rainy day [Sat 17]

 Got up at 10.30 in the morning, abouts because I couldn't sleep well the night before. Something's up with my sleep cycle, I go out of Seattle and I'm sleeping like a baby and come home and getting a good night's sleep with decent timing becomes almost impossible. Weird.

Got ready and got brunch with PG and Lost Lake Cafe. Lovely sandwich, great servers, incredible conversation. She's still with Y and I was extremely excited and happy for them to know that they're taking their thing to the next stage, because man he's a good guy and I can't lose him!

Got home, bored, slept for like five hours, it was out of control. TO be fair, it rained all day long and there wasn't much else to do plus insufficient sleep from several days had got me woozy.

After getting up in late afternoon, took care of the plants, and spent several hours generating svarga palace illustrations, posted here couple dozen posts ago.

For dinner I made fried rice with eggs, vegan sausage, brown rice, onions, and the rest, yum yum yum, never thought I'd get along with brown rice so well.

Had trouble sleeping, slept well after half past two.

Productive-ish workday, bhat-dal lunch, afternoon nap, U District visit, amazing apartment, Indian restaurant, walk in the park and UW, trouble sleeping [Fri 16]

 The workday was productive-ish. ON one hand I figured out the root cause of all my problems. On the other hand, I got stuck with something really stupid and couldn't figure out a way to fix it so it's pending until Monday.

For lunch I had bhat and dal from the day before, it was actually pretty good, better than the day before even.

Because I hadn't gotten enough sleep in the morning, too a 4-hr nap in the afternoon. As you can imagine, that is awful because I didn't get my steps and also messed up my sleep cycle.

In the evening went to AS(y)'s place, on the 12th floor of an amazing U-District building where the scenery was fantastic. Literally, the view is something I've fantasized I'd have as an adult. So good. We spent time on the roof chatting and taking pics, went on a short walk, then went to the Indian restaurant where we had dosas. Decently priced, cash-discount, and tasted pretty great, nothing worth complaining about.

Returned to A's place because I needed to clean my cloths, chilled a bit, and walked around UW campus. Got all the way to the UW stop, took the train home and tried sleeping. Couldn't. Really really couldn't. Fell asleep at 2.30 or 3 in the morning, which doesn't bode well for my biological clock.

Brown rice and dal lunch, busy at work, TJ's shopping, Interlaken-Volunteer walk, talk with friends vegan sausage and eggs for dinner, latenight work [Thu 15]

 The workday was super productive and busy, as has been happening in recent days.

For lunch I made Brown rice and dal, ate it with the Nepali achar and ghiu. The Brown rice needed a lottt of water, and needed to be cooked in the rice cooker for way longer to be soft and good-tasting. In the past I've had horrible Brown rice but this was actually edible and dare I say tasty.

Went to TJ's for shopping, then did the Interlaken Volunteer round-trip. Talk to JD during it, then NG, felt so socially fulfillied.

For dinner I had vegan sausage and eggs.

Because I couldn't sleep well at night, I got up and worked until 2 in the morning, told my coworkers I'd be late to show up the next day, and started working the following morning at 8.30 instead of the regular 6. It was worth it. Also man I'm working hard at work eh?

Productive day, new grocery store, rice-paper omlette, lunch at Tacos Chukis, cleaning the bedroom part one, gardening for hours, ready for vodcast? [Wed 14]

Work was super productive, figured the shit I'd been working on for two weeks. This, and the following two days will see me not have a second during work hours because I'm so occupied with actual work.

For lunch I had rice-paper omlette, it was alright, not as good as the videos make it look, but maybe I did it wrong.

In the day, after work I went to Grocery Outlet. I've written a review for that, but to summarize, unless I need cheap seltzer, and...uhh that's it I think, there's really no reason to bother going that far. It looks really sad. Limited options, not particularly cheap, looks really cheap, and uhhh not a great vibe overall.

On my way back stopped at Tacos Chukis because I was starving and needed to eat, no energy to make anything. Got the cactus leaf torta. Review's been out already, but it was extremely disappointing. I'll try the place again though, it's got potential.

In the evening I cleaned up my bedroom, and then spent like three hours gardening indoors, cleaning up the plants and watering them.

Got ready for the vodcast with topics, more research and the AI thing. I don't know when I'll be ready to put one out yet, but I'm getting closer for sure.

Making Europe travel plans

 One of my favourite hobbies is, it turns out, planning detailed and fanciful travel plans and writing about them here, and doing nothing of the sorts ever. Having said that.

It seems increasingly likely there might be good news with regards to the visa situation towards the end of this year. I'm thinking of taking a month of paid holiday if the visa comes through (or even if it doesn't) or taking several months of unpaid leave, and going on a long-ish backpacking trip across Europe. Mostly to the cheaper places, like Italy and Spain and Portugal, plus the Uk and Netherlands where I know quite a few people. If the folks in Germany will take me in, it wouldn't be the worst idea to visit Deutschland either. I'd meet my cousins, see Europe finally, and really travel you know, instead of like just going to people I know and having them show me around.

It depends though. September has Boston confirmed. October-November will likely see me in VA for Dashain-tihar. The same for Christmas-New Year. And then it's the next year, for which I have no plans besides the PCT plan that was made two years ago that may or mayn't happen because my partners in crime don' seem to be prepared for it yet.

Update on the work situation

This will be quick. My manager got promoted, and the new manager is not a technical person even though he really should be. I can't go to him for any technical guidance, or any guidance at all. There's no reason for me to respect him. Since he's a new manager, he's a micro-manager, and doesn't seem to do anything really all day long. I could do a better job probably all things considered. It's fine, I will survive until the visa situation is sorted out, then we'll make future plans. If this situation forces me to seriously upend my life-plans, all the better because I have been getting to cozy and comfortable with where I'm at, even though it's in no way optimal for me.