7 Reasons the rain was a blessing from the gods

It's early September by the time I write this, and there's heavy rains happening in the deserts of Nevada, near Reno where the stupid moronic burning man festival is happening. Nobody appears to be prepared for it despite being warned of the possibility. So here's seven reasons why the rain was indeed a blessing from the gods.

1. I mean, could there BE a clearer message from the gods than this to let us know that we shouldn't be 'burning' whatever the heck we're obliterating during the festival. The gods want us to. stop.
   
   
2. People attending it will get to experience 'suffering' and 'inconvenience' possibly for the first time in their lives.
   
   
3. Great chance for weirdos do get naked and dance in the dirt, as they have reportedly been doing anyways.
   
   
4. The toilets haven't been cleaned in 24 hours, and are unlikely to be, anytime soon, which means maybe one day the poopies of the poopies of humanity will fertilize and green the desert.
   
   
5. Nobody wants to hear about how life changing and awe-inspiring and incredible that fucking moronic festival was, and hopefully that gives some semblance of a 'reality' to the attendees.
   
   
6. Local bars and restaurants and hotels benefit because most people will likely miss the flights they meant to take back home and will have to extend their trips in nearby towns by a couple of days at least.
   
   
7. It's just so freakin' funny, I'm having such a good time already!
   

I wish I knew how / could run all those LLM models on my work machine and play with them

This is a silly little comment or observation, but it's funny since I work with data scientists and folks who deploy models etcetera, but I myself know very little about deploying those models on my machine, because I really very much want to play around, figure out if I can leverage them to be useful for me, but never get around to doing it. So much to learn, so many risky steps, such confusing topics, can't understand what the right software is, what the right dependencies are etcetera. It's supposed to be a 'quick' project, but in the end all these things feel like work because this sort of installation is literally waht I do for work. So yeah, I wonder if I can ask one of my data scientist coworkers to help me figure those models out and have them install one of those on my laptop at work.

Need to change the dishwashing situation

This summer I've been terrible with washing dishes. As in I've barely washed any, all the dishes have gone into the washer. This is extremely unlike me, I was the opposite until last year. I'd hate for dishes to pile up on the sink, I'd do anything to get them away cleaned, and dried. But this season since I haven't been cooking as much, I haven't had the 'time' to be washing up while something gets cooked, so the dishes pile up on the sink for a couple of days until they get put in the machine. The large pile of dishes is a discouraging factor for me to cook, honestly. And that feeds into me not wanting to wash further, so a bit of a vicious cycle there. Need to fix this situation, this is not sustainable at all, not adult-like at all of me.

Here's a jumble of random ideas I'm putting in writing in my work document as suggestions

1.  Photogrammetry, so we can collect data for future usage.
   
   
2. 3d printing, for customer and employee retention, marketing, and for making winning cases in customer meetings. Start a 3d printing lab somewhere..
   
   
3. serverles gpu usage
   
   
4. Mail to customer includes plantable seeds, using those plantable seed papers
   
   
5. for improving employee retention, send them a cute little trinket worth a small amount of money, every so often.
   

Nine things I wish I could eat on a daily basis with zero consequences

1.  Humble pie, but like in a good way?
   
   
2. Momo, yummy yummy momos.
   
   
3. Taco bell, you have no fucking idea how much I crave, crave taco bell, of all things and if it was in a convenient location I'd be spending an embarrassing amount of money ordering from it!
   
   
4. Honestly, Subway, with the discount code. The food itself is decent, but given the $6 price for the massive sandwich, nothing else comes close to giving me the feeling of satisfaction and 'value for money'.
   
   
5. Mapo tofu. Yum. Yum. Yum. Always Mapo tofu, without the pork.
   
   
6. Actually or anything at all from Sichuanese Cuisine. Haven't been there in recent times, but I've never once, not one time, been disappointed by their food.
   
   
7. Doritos, always and forever. Cool ranch preferred, but there's no flavor I dislike.
   
   
8. Ugh, Dominos's dessert, chocolate lava cake. It's 'fast food chain restaurant' dessert, but IMHO it's better than anything Cheesecake factory has to offer. Unpopular opinion but WHO CARES
   
   
9. newari food, pls : ( If i was a rich perosn or a king of some sorts, I'd have it made every day all the time for every meal.
   

Happy raksha bandhan / janai purnima y'all

Today is gai jatra, raksha bandhan, janai purnima in Kathmandu, happy happy celebrations to you all. I called my sister and cousin abroad, had a long fruitful chat with them and had a good time in general. Good times.

My long-sought Library book is here, hurray for interlibrary loan

The Learning to Learn and the Navigation of Moods book by Gloria Flores that I've been after is here! Went to the library, and checked it out, they didn't have it but I ordered Interlibrary Loan online, and six days later got the email. So easy and simple! The book is almost exactly what I hoped and desired it was, and now I'm a bit intimidated that I might not be able to live up to its standards! Which is ironic because that sort of situation is exactly what it purports to teach against (insecurity and anxiety!) So I'll learn the skill to be comfortable with it only after I read it, but might not have the skill to read it?

Anyway this is such a treasure, I'm eager to read it yadda yadda yadda. I worked at Interlibrary Loan department at my college library, and what a gift from the gods the system is that I can basically request any book that's reasonably available in the country, and they'll get it to me over a course of days and weeks. It's one of the things I'm really grateful for in this country (the other being Amtrak, but that's a different story). And by 'it' I mean the public library system!

More library membership

This will be short and sweet.

I got a membership of a new library system, the King County Library system. Turns out people in Seattle can get membership there, and Seattle public library system is not compatible with them, but you can interlibrary loan from them, and also return their books at SPL. Once you get the membership, in person, you can also borrow books and use e-resources. The e-resources are apparently one of the country's most generous ones, and don't need physical presence to borrow. Plus they have 3d printers and a makerspace and they'll give you trainings etcetera so something worth looking at if I want to explore more into the 3d printer world.

Hoarding library memberships while not reading much has been a bad habit of mine for a while now, but if the membership guilts me into reading even a few books then it'll all have been worth it!

Rice for lunch, sisters-talk, picking up the book from Library, reading so much, popcorn khaja, kefir dinner, evening walk, evening writing [Thu 31]

 I was so tired of eating rice and kimchi, and other vegetables or achar that I didn't even take a photo of it. Remember the disappointment of a boring lunch so vividly even two days after this day though.

Talked to TD and S sister during the day, since it was raksha bandhan. Showed my kitchen and house, talked about future plans, and just chit-chatted in general, why not.

Went to the library in the afternoon and picked up the learning to learn book. Spent a few hours there reading it too. I'm glad I ordered it because it's a solid book, worth its weight in gold, very much worth the effort I put in to acquire it.

Came back home, had popcorn khana, wrote a bunch, quick short pithy posts because I needed to get lots written and didn't want to beat around the bush. Had kefir for dinner because wasn't feeling like a full dinner.

Went to volunteer park (just the entrance) for my very late in the evening walk, while listening to mdwap. I've been listening to the old seasons of the podcast that's now ended and man what a loss the podcast's ending has been. But it's been incredible to re-listen.

Read some more in the evening.

Kimchi-rice for lunch, volunteer park walk, rekindled conversations, lots of reading and writing [Wed 30]

 Had kimchi and rice for lunch. Went to volunteer park for walk in the afternoon. Got caught up with a new friend after disagreements. Wrote like 15 posts on this blog, and read quite a lot, I think this day was Mahabharata by Carole Satyamurthi. Good good stuff. I've been reading a healthy amount, nowhere nearly as much as I should, but an encouraging number of pages every day.

Rice and veggies lunch, makai khaja, the most unhealthy dinner in potato and cheese pesto thing, mahabharat reading, japan plans confounded [Tue 29]

I'm writing the next day because of...lets say...sugar modulation issues, I was far far too tired to sit straight and put my hands on the table to write last night. Also I didn't get much rest anyway. Oh and I've been staring at my plants a suspiciously long time, something might be up there. Have to reduce the screen time, oh!

Had rice and veggies for lunch, that was the last round of veggies form the previous week, thank freaking god.

Made makai for khaja, just a small amount so I don't fill up on it. Like 20 kernels if even that much. Such good option, I'm glad I'm doing this now.

In the evening I thought i could go away without eating much, but no I was spinning, there was no way I'd be able to sleep without proper dinner. Sick of rice, or corn, or whatever I had, I airfried two pieces of trader joe's hash browns, with a thick juicy piece of mozzarella, until it melted completely and actually got crispy in parts. Dumped hot mustard and pesto on it and ate it as a sandwich. So disgusting, so yummy.

Read carole satyamurti's mahabharat in the evening.

Made japan ticket reservations, had second thoughts, and became unsure if I wanted to do it at all. By the time I'm writing this, still a work in progress, we'll see.

Give me my cooking mojo back!

Minor thing, I wish I was more into cooking, more interested in baking, and exploring new techniques and food items and was more focused into spending time in the kitchen. Yes on one hand the pile of dishes growing on the sink is not a great motivator, but on the other, even without that I'm not cooking on a daily basis anymore. How can you tell, because my fridge is mostly empty in terms of groceries, and I haven't gone to buy real foods in a long while. Ramen, and rice, and sandwiches, and breakfast things, and corny things, and whatever is fine, but what's everybody else doing, what are they cooking, I'm curious to know. Like how do I go about feeling passionate and driven to cook, while not cooking large amounts, or burnt out? Ughh what a tough trade to make!

I slept in the afternoon

I slept
In the afternoon
And feel
A bit guilty
but so very fresh
oh so fresh
i could jump
to the moon.
Hope the sleep
doesn't mess up
my evening thing
and doesn't crash
my weekend plans,
but it was just two hours
and it's fine, I'm sure
i feel motivated
and inspired
to write
evermore
evermore!

Answering common questions about the new geopolitical alliance we're part of now

Q: Wait, what's happening now?
A: As you will have surely heard, our country is now a member of a prestigious new geopolitical alliance, that's only going to grow our prestige, influence, and respect around the globe, and will enhance co-operation with allied countries.

Q: Okay, cool, who else is the member?
A: There's a bunch of countries in it, mostly unrelated ones, in fact most of them have their sworn nemeses joining in too so that complicates situation a bit, but isn't it so very great, bringing enemies together in the same forum, getting them to talk things out and accomplish wonderful goals? This is the ultimate dream if there was ever one!

Q: What exactly is the goal?
A: Bringing countries together, and forming alliances, and doing great things. Like other developed countries, who won't let us in because of various reasons, but we have now made our own cool club and nobody needs to let us in, so this is an incredible achievement we should all be very proud of!

Q: What exactly are we trying to achieve?
A: Many things. Progress, Growth, Development. Peace, global peace. Food for all. Eradication of diseases. With such a great alliance, everything is possible all of a sudden, and we are putting more effort than ever before to make everything come true. This was the original dream of our forefathers and we are finally bringing it to fruition. Cause for great national celebration!

Q: What have been the achievements to date?
A: Well we've put out a tonne of press releases, we've met a few times, and we've claimed to be planning to do some great things. Additionally, our group is growing and growing and only keeps growing, and all the kids, the cool ones, want to be our members! Sounds like the greatest achievement of all to us, if there was ever one!

Q: No like, how will we benefit from it in material terms?
A: In various ways, both short-term and long-term, including building alliances, holding conferences, improving international relations, and bringing people from various countries together. By doing this we're aspiring for global peace and harmony. What more could you possibly want, you dumfuck.

Ten unusual things you can do with the new vehicle the great scientist-emperor dreamt of and we're most certainly building

1.  Slice, dice and julienne pedestrians, with our our sharp, sharp corners, designed specifically to penetrate the human body, bones and skin and all.
   
   
2. How 'bout this, you'll be able to stick magnets to it, just like a fridge! A freakin' magnet, can you imagine! You'll finally be able to share li'l Bobby's arts and crafts and other nonsense with the rest of the world, from the comforts of your very own truck!
   
   
3. You could melt it down, with all that steel could make a couple of pots and pans at least for when there's another pandemic or a nuclear fallout.
   
   
4. Mad max fury road, with all the parts separating at high speed, need we say more?
   
   
5. A very slow moving electric pope-mobile, so none of our claims are actually tested.
   
   
6. Testing your bullets?
   
   
7. Temple for celebrating Professor X's genius!
   
   
8. A heavy, dumb, bollard
   
   
9. "Send it to the frikkin' Moooon"
   
   
10. A submarine, a regular one mind you.
    

Rice lunch, popcorn khaja, kefir dinner, volunteer-interlaken walk, lots of reading [Mon 28]

Made mixed-rice with stew from the day before, plus some veggies and frozen spinach, as rice, and had it with the last round of veggie leftovers.

For 'khaja', which I've started eating because I do feel quite hungry in the afternoons and I think it's due to my diabetes, and I need to eat more often, I had popcorn. Plain popcorn using corn from Kathmandu. Simple and filling. Just like they do it in Nepali villages.

Went to volunteer-interlaken walk in the evening, it has started getting dark quite early! A bit spooky, and a hella lazy walk it was, plus it was raining a little bit, but that's what I like about this city!

I didn't feel like eating a big dinner, and there wasn't much in terms of groceries for a small dinner, so I had a cup of kefir, sweet and salty, and it was surprisingly filling? I loved it!

Read a good amount in the evening.

The uncertain japan situation

I booked my ticket to Japan and put it on hold for 24 hours yesterday. And today I'm not so sure anymore if I actually want to make the trip. Here's why.

It would have made a lot more sense if I was going to make a trip out of LA as well, and spent a couple of days crashing at somebody's place there before heading out to Japan. Unfortunately there's nobody in LA who I could crash with. Which would mean I would have to fly to LAX on a separate flight. Which, if delayed or cancelled would supremely fuck me over, so I would have to have an extra buffer of 10-ish hours so I could make alternative arrangements. Add 3-ish hours for the flight, and 3-ish hours to leave home before the flight, and we have me leaving home 16-18 hours before my Japan flight departs. Add the 12 hours of flight time, and the 18 hours of time I lost, and we've got 48 hours to Tokyo from the point I depart home to getting there.

So when I booked my flight departing on Wednesday, and returning next Saturday, I thought I'd be gone for 9-10 days. Nope, it'd only be 7 days, and that too by a smidge. Since it's Thanksgiving time, the tickets are extraaa pricey. 750 for the Japan trip, 300 for the LA trip, and now we're in the 1100's, which is about what would cost me if I flew out of Seattle directly. That option was always available, I didn't want to take it because that's so pricey. And now I've come to the same place.

I really really want to go to Japan, but not at such immense cost, and just for a week. There'd be barely any time to enjoy and then recover. No, the plan might have to be shifted away for later. We'll see how I'm feeling like in a while.

Domestic travel plans are more certain, no concern for work situation

 So a couple of days ago I wrote about how I was not a rebel at work, and I'd be more than happy to make concessions to work, but in the least they'd have to let me go to the East Coast twice a year, because without that what's the point even and that would be even less flexible than what we had back in the day. And now I have the response: they're not going to be painfully stickling on the matter, and as long as I don't make it a regular habit, and go to office for the expected proportion like a good boy, they're not going to be harshly enforcing the rules. SO no need for rebellion, no 'fuck the system' yadda yadda yadda.

Good stuff. The only thing is because my plants have become massive and my projects are taking more and more time, it might be harder for me to leave for long periods at all, so they win in the end, eventually.

Why do I feel sleepy only on nights I need to be productive?

 This is the strangest thing ever. I have written about feeling unproductive on this blog, I have written about having trouble sleeping and getting missed 'cycles' because of lack of sleep. Funny thing is, it seems all I need to do to put myself to sleep is have expectations to write not even a lot, a few posts on this blog and get something useful done, whatever it may be, and my body will absolutely shut down and fall asleep at a moments notice. I even tell myself 'oh it's just fifteen minutes for a power nap' but I'm always always lying to myself it's never shorter than two hours.

One of those 'unfortunate but oh so real things', any attempt at doing something good or useful turns into a quick way to put one into sleep.

Project materials arrive, picnicking with friends at Greenlake, an old friend, worst stew ever, lots of writing, lots of writing [Sun 27]

I read a lot on this day as well, like the rest of the weekend. This was a good weekend reading-wise, if not so much walking-wise.

Got my delivery of sweet rice for chhyang-making and tomato seeds for hydroponics. Unfortunately due to seasons and Dashain, I probably won't be able to plant those now, or I won't be here to take care of them and harvest during the end season, which yes I should have thought about before actually buying the packet, but now that I have it, I have it, and I can plant at my terms.

Read a lot during the day, wrote a lot too. I don't know why I'm always playing catchup these days, five posts a day seem a lot, but they're really 45 minutes of half-assed writing at the very best.

In the afternoon took the train to Green Lake, talked to N from Va on the way, discussed art and my project among other things.

Hung out with SA his wife N, his two grad school friends who I've met before and BT. Loads of fun, we played bananagrams, my chhyang wasn't consumed as much because of a miscommunication on my part.

In the evening we went to the nearby restaurant, the Thai one at first that was super expensive, but the table was hard to come by, so we went to a seafood restaurant next. Worst vegetarian stew ever. I barely had a few spoonfuls.

Walked with everybody to the Link station, took the train home, was almost assaulted on my walk back.

Picnicking well

The picnic blanket that I ordered from my work website gift has served me exceedingly well. I must have gone on at least a...dozen picnics over the last season and this one, using it. It's easy to packup, looks classy, enough space for me and one more friend, and so thick, so there's no grass poking out. Also it's soft and doesn't get dirty easily so I can sleep on it at the park all by myself, putting on my backpack as a pillow.

chhyang has gone well as a picnic gift, and I've been learning to bring in more cheeses and fruits and grapes, and canned drinks. Picnics are awesome because nobody needs to put in a lot of effort, you're not stuck inside a room, you can always pass time looking at the rest of the world, and be involved in fun physical activities if you really want. Plus they're great photo opportunities, and a chance to show off nice clothes or other cool tools and belongings if so desired. And you look sporty, don't have to drink, can choose to go on a hike etc before and/or after. So many upsides, so few downers. It's a winning move to picnic in nature in the warmer months. Maybe even the cooler months, but haven't seen people doing that.

Messed batch of kefir or unrelated tummy troubles?

Day before yesterday I had a large cup of kefir and had a pretty awful diarrhea. Thought it was the messed batch of the milk-based drink. This afternoon I decided to risk it again to make sure that it's indeed the batch, and....nothing. My stomach is fine. Now I'm wondering if it was something else that messed up my tummy, or the fact that my tummy hadn't adjusted to that kind of protein, which maybe caused upset stomach and my stomach learned to digest the protein? It's so weird. Sometime I'm super comfortable with drinking it, and sometimes it's like hell. A large cup of the kefir was basically my dinner tonight, and man I wish I could do it more frequently. It's good for my calories, good for my protein intake, and good for my gut microbiome.

Now I wonder what it was from the other day that gave me the mild diarrhea on friday.

Going to work from next week!

This has been discussed in some detail before, but turns out this is not the first week of RTO attendance. Next Mondy, a week to the day from Today will be my first day over there. Work from 6-8.30, shower and great breakfast until 9, and walk to work and get there at 9.30, and work until 1.30. Come back by 2...ish, get lunch, and my regular timetable continues. Hopefully this will extend my opportunities and my nature to be out-and-about, but who knows, maybe I'll get tired and want to nap in the afternoons every day?

Regardless, one more week.

Days are getting much (much) shorter

Good news, the days are getting shorter! Yesterday was the last day of the year, until the next April, for the Sun to set after 8 in the evening. It's going to be in the 7's, and the 6, 5, and eventually in the 4's. The days will be getting so much shorter, and the darkness and gloom will descend. My favourite weather as I've said in the past, hah!

The most disappointing dinner in memory

We went to the Duke's Seafood restaurant in Greenlake yesterday. I didn't want to raise the issue because we were having an issue finding a place to go to, and the fact that vegetarian food was my preferred cuisine would have complicated everything. Fortunately they did have veggie items on the menu: a caeser salad and a veggie stew. I got the stew.

The most bland, boring, lame soup I've ever had. I dumped half a bottle of cholula sauce on it, and then it tasted like vinegar water. There was no recovering that stupid bowl of stew. I really really hated it, what a big fucking waste of twenty-five bucks it was. I took it home with me anyway, mixed it with rice and turned it into a tarkari of sorts.

Filled myself up on somebody else's sweet potato fries. They were so good, yum yum.

Seven ways you think you're a mega-mastermind but really you're just a rich moron

1.  Is everybody laughing at your multibillion bet that you think was a genius 8-dimensional move that your customers are making fun of you for? You're the moron, oops!
   
   
2. Are most of your supporters and fans mostly young, single men, who women would rather not associate with, mostly due to their association with your brand? You're the moron, sorry!
   
   
3. Do your existing customers absolutely hate your guts, are embarrassed by literally every single thing you do, and beg you to shut the fuck up and not make their lives harder? You're it!
   
   
4. Do your children hate you, not in a parent-child way but in a hated-awful-parent way? Yeahh man, it's probably on you.
   
   
5. Are most of the bots supporting your also sharing online in favor of nazis, racists and other losers, who ain't going that far and whose only claim to fame is that they have not been literally banned from the internet? You're the loser bucko!
   
   
6. Do your employees agree with literally every small brainfart you have, but then leak everything you say to the media and present you in a negative light. guess what?
   
   
7. Does your mommy have to come online to protect you from other people, who you're trying to bully away from the internet? Yeah, you're the loser now dude.
   

More reading, so much resting, bhat-greens-ketchup for breakfast, Japan trip plans, half-walk to Volunteer park, ramen dinner, more reading, sleep early [Sat 26]

 Writing this the next day because why not.

Read a bunch in the morning, napped way more than I should have.

Had bhat-greenonions and ketchup for breakfast because I was tired of everything else. Good stuff.

Saw that tickets to Japan were super cheap, planned trip to go to there, work in progress still.

Went on an early walk out, it was too hot and smoky for a nice fun walk, came back home and figured I'd go out again later in the evening.

Made a ramen dinner, ate and decided I needed some 'rest'.

Woke up three hours later, brushed, read a tonne of books, and went back to bed. Didn't get my 10k steps for the day, what to do, such is life.

SK heads out, dumps his stuff at my place, Argento cafe 'samosa' for breakfast, rice and carrot-muhsroom tarkari for dinner, so so much reading until late at night [Fri 25]

In the morning SK was ready to head out of Seattle, so he dumped his mattress, and a bunch of bags and other things in my apartment. We met up at Cafe Argento, where I got a samosa, it wasn't a real samosa, more of  a puff-pastry-stuffed-with-potatoes thing, and even then they didn't get that right, but whatever. The vibe is super chill though, I should definitely spend the three dollars for tea just to hang out there sometime even if I don't eat anything.

Spent the entirety of the day sleeping and reading Wendy dongier books, didn't feel like leaving the apartment, whatever. felt goood.

Had carrot-mushroom mix from the day before with rice for dinner. Soy sauce added.

Read the book, and finished it, until three in the morning.

My apartment is legit planty now!

I have at least a couple of dozen plants in my apartment, my bird-of-paradise plant is a solid foot taller than I am, there's almost 2 dozen plant pots here, and now I've moved to four tables just for my plants. And that's even before the ferns come in, I swear guys I'll get the ferns in my aprtment as I originally planned for it, but need to get everything else in order before that, because turns out they're quite finicky. So yeah, this summer has been 'gangbusters' for my plants, they're thriving, bright lush green, growing quickly and generally having a good time. As I was telling ED in a call earlier today, living with the heat and the sun during the height of the summer so my plants might thrive was a good idea actually!

Considering a Japan trip around Thanksgiving, but the visa requirements might be too much

Exactly what the title says. Found on slickdeals that there's roundtrip 650 bucks flight from LAX to Tokyo Haneda, and want to buy tickets. But the visa application seems to be tedious, and I need to provide documentation and what not, which is so very bothersome. But then the flights are cheap, my friend sk from Va who's now in JP has been inviting me for the last 2.5 years, and it's country I've always wanted to visit. If I went during thanksgiving time, I could take 5 days off at work and end up with an 11-day break, so that'd be perfect.

The only issue at hand is we don't know what we'll be doing for Dashain and tihar, and might be in Cali, or in Va, or somewhere else, and without figuring that out I don't want to make the jump.

On the other other hand, there's a Japanese consulate in Seattle so I won't have to worry about long-distance travel or delivery or documents to get my visa. I won't even notice my passport gone before I get my Japanese tourist visa!

My apartment is basically the storage for three of my friends at this point

There's not much else to add. AKS(e) left, and all his crap is in my apartment, but at least I've used the nicer things to make this place nice. AK(y) is in Nepal, and his stuff is in my apartment too. And couple of days ago Sk left Seattle for pretty much forever, and he's dumped his stuff at my place too. The 'small corner' of my bedroom that I'd set out for storing bags and boxes and backpacks of friends has increasingly increased by the month, and now occupies not an insignificant portion of where I go to sleep everyday. Which is fine, whatever, because I wasn't using that space anyway but what if I was? And it's kinda...desirable to avoid such scenarios, no?

I need to fill my bedroom more so I have bigger excuses to not turn my bedroom into storage. Oh and half of my outside closet has other people's crap too. But it's not as bad because it's vertical and wasn't being used.

Frequently asked questions about the Earthquake you just felt in Seattle

Q: Was it a real earthquake or one caused my Taylor Swift Concert?
A: If there was a taylor swift concert happening, probably the concert for all we know!

Q: Was it a real concert or caused my Ed Sheeran Concert?
A: If the concert also had like five more surprise guests, we're going to guess it was the concert, and not a real earthquake.

Q: I felt the ground shake yesterday, and a loud rumbling sound. Could it have been an earthquake?
A: Probably the Blue Angels doing their practice run, to be honest, nothing to be worried about.

Q: The ground shook in an excited pattern earlier today, was that an earthquake?
A: Nah, there was a game going on in the Lumen field, don't worry about it!

Q: This morning I felt my bed move slightly, but I thought that was probably my roommate and his girlfriend fucking, but then I realized I don't live with roommates anymore, so is it possible that my neighbors were aggressively having sex?
A: Nah, that was an actual earthquake for a change. A tiny one, nothing to worry about, go back to sleep ya dork!

Return to office might be bothersome, depending on how things go

My work expects me to return to office starting in September which is...like...next week!?! This coming week! My office is like a 20-minute walk from my place, so the actual commute is not a problem. Plus I can head out at 8.30, right in the middle of my work day, get there at 9-ish, and be out by 1.30, which means there will be a new 'lunch' break I'll be taking 8-9 something which I haven't taken during my work-from-apartment arrangements. Additionally I'll get to meet new people, and my commute will also be a part of my existing walking arrangement, thus the extra ~50 minutes added will mostly come out of my work time. Finally, there'll be a clear demarcation between work and home, and I might even be able to drop my laptop at work lockers, therefore relieving me from work stresses. Oh there's more. Because I'll be in a structured workspace, I'll be able to do my work journaling once again, something I haven't done for...almost 1.5 years. Actually finally though, because I'll have to go to work in the morning, I'll have to brush and wash and shower and cook and eat early in the morning, helping me establish a clear daily pattern and ritual I'll have to live by. It's all a win.

Well mostly.

My work needs me to be physically in 40% of the time, which I don't mind. But every so often I do travel around, to see friends and family, and if that 40% is an inflexible 40% and is based on weekly measurement and not monthly or semi-annually, that means I won't be able to go elsewhere for dashain-tihar, won't be able to do all the fun things I'm used to doing. Even before covid times my work was flexible enough to let me go to Virginia every so often, if they stop that now it'll be not great at all.

Talked to my manager about it and he's said he'll figure out what the deal is. If it's not in my favor, I'll be so very very mad, and might consider drastic measures in the mid-term. It's not that I don't support working from office -- I very much do as my above paragraph hopefully explained. It's the inflexible nature of the 40% that I'll have disagreements with. Ugh.

Rice and mushroom-carrots for lunch, so much tea, tired to walk, bombay burger and mozz sticks dinner, latenight walk in the park, cleared conversations [Thu 24]

Had rice mix for brunch. Along with that I dumped the packet of chopped mushrooms in the airfryer, and a packet of baby carrots, lots of tahini, some spices, soy sauce etc and made a paste, and let it air fry for 16-18 minutes. It didn't crisp, but it was well cooked, well spiced, perfect texture and flavor.

Due to issues associated with improper eating and drinking a whole large mug of tea after so long that gave me a headache and a need to pee every fifteen minutes, I didn't feel like going out on a walk during the day, but went to Bombay Burger for dinner. Mozzarella sticks and the paneer burger, yum yum. Went to Volunteer park to walk at 8.30.

Had conversations with a friend and clarified things that had been bugging all parties for a while.

End of a situation

In the end,
Things worked out
for the best,
cos I didn't
want to get in
a situation
that wasn't
for my best
and other parties
cared the most
about
others' happiness.
not the best.
and now
there's a road
to more progress
to be made
that's been opened
things have blossomed
only after the
old unruly structures
were torn down.
my timeline
has been shifted
out the wazoo
and who even cares
as things have
come back to
where they
should be,
all well and good.
Nothing has
spiralled
beyond control.
a massive victory
for all involved.

Top 8 ways to have the King of your land fulfil your every desire

Inspired by Doniger's commentary on how brutal and cynical the worldview of Kautilya's Arthashastra is.

1. Pretend to be his trusted advisor, and feed him information that would work towards your benefit.
   
   
2. Sleep with the King's trusted advisor's wife, and convince her to get him to have the King fulfill your wishes.
   
   
3. Sleep with the advisor from above and get him to get the King do those things that you want.
   
   
4. Poison the King, have your trusted person replace him, and control that moron like a marionette.
   
   
5. Kidnap the king, hold him from ransom, and make the palace do things according to your wishes.
   
   
6. Use special wishes using these special kits that you can buy in our etsy store, the spells are in a separate book that you can buy right now for only 39.99!
   
   
7. Seduce him and withhold sex unless he does as you want, much like Michael Scott.
   
   
8. Hypnosis. They say it doesn't work, but that's only cos they've never put effort into REALLY trying it.
   

I need to eat more often, and plan my meals now, ugh

This is the perfect followup from my previous post. Because I quite very likely have diabetes, and if not it's even scarier because my mood has been highly sensitive and dependent on how I eat, when I eat and what I do before and after. Long story short, my body's sugar modulation is messed up it's quite clear, and the best way to deal with that is smoothen the glycemic spikes. Also known as eating less, but more often.

That's a bit of an inconvenience for sure. And one has to be creative as to what to eat. I've been skipping on breakfast and khaja, and those two might have to come back now. So like eggs and bread for breakfast, bhat-dal for lunch, and then what to eat for khaja who even knows, and then dinner of bhat dal or something similar once again. Maybe popcorn and fruits and donuts or something to that effect. Also need to up my protein intake (to reduce the carbs) meaning more eggs and beans, more veggies, and more healthy foods in general. Less of sugar and less of carbs. I eat brown rice and quinoa on a regular basis, and dals and beans too, but need to go even harder on those, it seems like I need to.

I most definitely have a bad bad case of type 2 diabeetus

I feel tired after not eating, I feel weird after eating, my mood depends on my sugar intake more than it's ever done, I can feel blood gushing around my forehead and legs, I get sharp pain on my feet sometimes, and I suspect my eyesight might be affected by my body's sugar content. There's no doubt at this point, I have reached that age in my life where I have to admit, I most certainly have type 2 diabeetus, whether this comes as a formal diagnosis from the doctor or by figuring out the symptoms by myself. It's surely not the time to self-medicate, but a change in lifestyle is warranted, which means more structured eating, not going for long without food, and making sure I'm well-fed if there's an expectation for me to not pass out.

Yeah it sucks a little bit but this was wholly expected and it's kind of a miracle I've made it safely this far. There's a possibility I might be able to sneak by for a couple of more years with no medication, as long as I avoid stress and maintain a healthy diabetes-compatible lifestyle and food-intake, which will be just incredible.

Tired and hungover, mixed rice in the cooker, eggs hash and rice for brunch, volunteer-interlaken walk, friends chat, rice and greens for dinner [Wed 23]

The day had me lose energy due to the drinks from the night before. Drinking is never ever ever worth it unless you're unemployed and don't care about sleeping and feeling bad for all eternity.

In the morning, I dumped leftover white rice, some brown rice, and quinoa in the cooker, along with random leftover veggies, and some dal, and made a complex 'mixed grain rice'. Had it with fried egg and hash browns, plus soy sauce. Not bad. Not bad at alll. Easy to make and so very quick. I am quite judgmental about one-pot meals, but if I can keep doing this with nutritious veggies and meals, don't mind doing it all in the cooker.

Went to Volunteer-interlaken for walk with Sk and M the doggo. In the evening had a chat with a friend from Nepal after a really long time.

For dinner had the rice from the morning, but with so much onion greens. So many. onion. greens. and they still won't finish. It's getting out of hand, a bit, guys halp halp!

Turns out somebody else has already written the book I wanted to write as the paes de resistance

I've written about this here: how I want to write about the origin story of Kamasutra and how it'd be about the story of this man who really really wanted to write about sex but due to various reasons was quite inexperienced in the actual...act...so to speak, and would write hilarious recommendations because he didn't understand fully the technicalities behind the whole thing. So his knowledge would be based on second-hand and third-hand information, and it would create this whole set of comedic scenarios. It wouldn't have to be about Vatsayana, who supposedly write it, but it would be the archetype.

Turns out Sudhir Kakar has already written that story, and that novel, in the form of The Ascetic of Desire. It's sold tonnes, got a review and a first-chapter published in New York times, and everybody who's anybody has read it or heard of it. It's a small cottage industry, this sub-niche it turns out, and I'd be just another addition to the field.

Two points. On the one hand, fuck I thought I was going to be an innovator, and when I did eventually read it it would open people's minds to this new world and be genre-defining. Well that's not gonna happen. Second, clearly this is excellent news, since this validates there's a solid market out there, an appetite among the readers for something on these grounds. I don't have to be perfect, I just have to satiate the readers' desires, and I'll be golden.

Mostly good news, nothing to lose sleep over.

I was about to write how I was excited about my new laptop, and then...

Yeah, the title is the entirety of it. I ordered a solidly-specced Dell refurb laptop and was expecting it to be delivered anytime now. Hadn't gotten notifications updating the status of it or anything, so I went to their tracking page to check what was up and guess what, they freakin' cancelled the order, didn't even notify me. Now I'm back to not having a spare laptop, which is a bummer, but on the other hand the 150 bucks that I'd spent on something that I very much didn't need is back in my account, little wins in the midst of losses, mostly.

I do need a home server/computer that's for sure, just need to bide for the right time. It could be an android phone for all I care. Wait for the right opportunity, and strike when the iron is hot, that's where it's at!

It's time for me, I've built myself enough, now time for structure once again

I've talked about using up my work hours better, structuring them well and being more organized before. And it's becoming increasingly important because since the past two months I've given up on planning and checklists and any kind of structure in my life. The self-kindness has been incredible for my emotional well-being. On the other hand, that's also undermined my efforts at physical well-being because timetable for meals, or workouts, or anything important (such as taxes!) has been off the table as well. While I'm happy and content, this sort of structure doesn't seem sustainable?

So the plan is to slowly go back into having a flexible structure, but have a timetime, and a to-do list, checklists all of that, increase the amount of things I'm achieving. Don't want to be in the cult of productivity, no no no, but do want to get some things done, just for myself, at some point, and have my life not be a total mess, you know? There's a good balance to be made, and I'm now tilting towards the 'more things done' end, which is never bad!

An old friend, coming in

An old friend,
from way back
in Nepal,
and back East,
has come
to town,
I'm told,
let's all meet them.
Is it me
or is the driving emotion
in the group,
one of fear,
for as fun
and hella smart
they are
there's always
dis-appoint-ment
and madness
lurking
underneath
the sights set
mostly on themselves
but also
on the rest,
so with care
like footsteps
on a field of mines
fun will be had,
I ain't complaining
just
very
very
very
cautious.

Sandwich breakfast, dal lunch, double walk, helping Sk with moving out, arranging the spice cabinet, evening at the comet tavern, first use of my state ID, fries dinner, bar fun [Tue 22]

Had the final slice of sandwich from Sunday as breakfast. I could have eaten one of those every day for a month.

Had dal for lunch with the sandwich, and everything else that was leftover. And just like that, finally freakin, it was over. The food was finished.

Went out for a walk early in the afternoon, had to meet up with SK to help him move, got his stuff at my place. For somebody who barely cooked he had a lot of spices! Arranged spice rack for an hour, it finally looks presentable and is organized by the type of cuisine. Went on a walk, and wrote a little bit in the evening.

At night Sk and I went to Comet tavern, got fries and a drink each, point was to use my state ID, the first one I'd gotten in this country. Good conversation, interesting that the crowd had just started picking up. Good times, loved texting friends slightly buzzed though I know how bad things come out of it when I overdo it!

I knew I'd be suffering the following day, but I was not expecting the awfulness of it. Oh well.

Went to sleep at around 12.30 ish.

I'll need to 'cheat' in my chhyang making by backsweetening a bit

The problem with the latest round of chhyang is it's a bit too boozy, tastes too much like actual liquor and not enough like 'dessert' which is what I'm trying to sell it off to my friends as. Which means I'll have to use the time-tested method of adding flavor to overfermented booze: backsweetening. Adding sugar at the bottling stage because there's not enough sugar in the liquid to make it taste very good. Winemakers do it, serious brewers do it, and now I'll have to come 'down' to it as well. Not like it's not happened in the past, but the hope has always been to learn the craft enough to avoid doing it, but ah well.

This round of chhyang has served me exceedingly well, helped me make friends and maybe even 'influence' people! I'm very much looking forward to finishing it all and starting a whole new batch. Good times ahead for brewer me!

Hydroponics and new batch of rice wine starting

As I write this, on a relatively cool Sunday morning I just had my 10lb sweet rice, and tiny-tim tomato seeds, delivered from Amazon. Which means...it's plantin time!

Haven't been able to start on the hydroponics project due to the lack of seeds, but now that I spent (a ridiculous amount of) money on getting seeds from Amazon, there's literally nothing that's stopping me. Plug the machine in, put the water and the nutrition liquid, plant the seeds in the pods, turn the lights on and let it grow! I'm a little afraid, a bit skeptical because have never actually germinated something (not in Nepal) and this is going to be finicky probably, so there's some fear obviously. But if it works, it's going to be in.credi.ble. Won't take a whole lot of time either. I'm so looking forward to the tomatoes that I've grown by myself!

In other project news, the 10lb bag of sweet rice is here, so after a gap of 8 months, I'll be back to starting a new batch of chhyang. I'm trying to sort out whether I want to do one large batch, or multiple small batches, because it depends if I want to spend 1 hour or 3 hours in the entire process, but I can always make a bunch once, and let it all ripen over the coming weeks and months, so might be that all 10lbs turn into rice wine one lazy day. I had 5 lbs of rice the last go and got about 2 gallons of chhyang. Which means 10 lbs should give me at least 4 gals, if not 5. Paid like 25 buckaroos for the bag, so 5-6 dollahs for a gallon of 'dessert chhyang', plus negligible costs for the other materials ain't bad at all. Not. bad. at all.

Let's get goin, peeps!

More books to read

 After reading Doniger's book, I have a solid list of recommendations that I gathered from it all of which I'm super excited to read. Will research if my local library has any available, and if not, acquire them and read them in a format that's most suitable for my ereader. That's a problem I've been facing actually, the books available online are all on pdf's which is so hard to read on my kindle and nook and are almost impossible to convert to a more readable format. Also looking into a good ocr library that can convert those books into more text-based formats. We'll see.

So, here's a list of 'to-read' books on my list.

1. The Destiny of a King
2. The Destiny of the warrior
3. Ancient Indian erotics and erotic literature (by De)
4. The Palace of Illusions (fiction)
   
5. The Ascetic of Desire (fiction) -- I'll write more on this in a later post because I need content.
   

Against Dharma: A review

I read Against Dharma: Dissent in the Ancient Indian Sciences of Sex and Politics, by Wendy Doniger on Friday night because I was bored and it seemed like a light reading. It was a pretty easy read (compared to Hiltebeitel and co.) and with the context of her other works, it went by super quick. Picked a couple (dozen) super useful references from it to continue my hindu mythology education as well. Loved the book, I always love her writing anyway, and love everything about it. Need to send email to her one of them days appreciating the immense work she's put in the field. She's one of the more incredible researchers in the field, has never let the circumstances diminish her spirit.

Sandwiches for days (and days), lunch and dinner, vacuuming and doing dishes, kombucha and kefir processing, early evening walk, dal and sandwich for dinner, so much green onions, scooby-doo and latenight writing [Mon 21]

 Got up decently on time feeling quite refreshed despite having strange dreams.

Had sandwiches from the previous day for breakfast and lunch, and a bit for dinner, kept nibbling and snacking through the course of the day.

After work I vacuumed my room and cleaned up my kitchen, bottled kombucha and kefir, and started new batches. The cleaning took a long time. Checked my mail and got my new state ID!

Went for a walk earlier than usual, volunteer-interlaken, Sk texted me while I was almost out of volunteer, so we caught up, I played ball with the doggo for a while, we took a long round of Volunteer park and returned home, agreeing to go to a bar the following day (today) so I could make use of my first state ID!

For dinner I had sandwich and dal, some dipping was involved. Dumped a couple of heads of green onions into the dal, and cut half an onion with skinny cuts for the sandwiches. yeah clearly red onions don't go well on tomato mozzarella pesto on ciabatta sandwiches, I get it now.

Wrote 8 posts while watching scooby doo and inbetwweners in the background, felt tired somehow and went to bed late because I'd been procrastinating writing the posts throughout.

I need to learn to make better use of my work hours, for when I'm not actively working

This is a topic I used to write on incessantly during my Boston days, particularly before the pandemic. Haven't gotten to optimizing my work hours in most recent times because I don't feel like I'm losing out on that part of my day anyway, but now that i think about it, my mornings are still valuable because I get up early and I'm paying for those morning hours with my lethargy and lack of energy, sleep, and my evening hours. I'm not getting any time for 'free', so what time I'm left with I must make the best use of.

So here's the situation, I get up at 5.45 in the morning, work until 1.30-2, and done with my work-day, but all that time I'm not fully working. And I don't even take a lunch break which is ridiculous! Like it's nonstop looking at screen, either for work stuff, or wasting my time on the orange site, or slickdeals or reddit or something, because I feel like I'm 'relaxing' from work. Or youtube. This incentivizes me to view those activities as relaxation even though going to those websites I don't find rewarding specially not in my leisure time, but the association made due to work downtime makes me think it could almost be.

What are my goals for this then, and how do I want to achieve them? I want to stop using reddit and the orange site completely, and eventually use minimal youtube for entertainment or shopping during work hours. Instead I want to use that time for reading, coding practice, or looking up technical information, whether it be related to work or not. Additionally, I want to create clear, distinct breaks during work, at which periods i'll go on walks, do my personal relaxation things, chill, and you know not think about work while not looking at the screen either. One more step towards reducing the screen time.

The way to do is to create riches of options for me to do instead, make a timetable, and live by it. If i want to make my work-from-home experience more productive, there's no way around it!

Man's gotta shopping spree

Earlier today I spent some serious time looking at refurbished corporate Dell laptops trying to figure out which model best suited me. Almost bought a $190 one that was probably three times as powerful as my base home machine, quite updated, and as good as something I could ever get, but decided against it, because I didn't really need a second powerful laptop. But it was all so cheap! But 190 for something I didn't need was 190 more than I would have otherwise spent, regardless of how good of a value it was. Thought about it through the course of the day, and about an hour ago ended up buying an older model, but one that cost me 130 buckaroos including taxes. It's not as powerful as my current home machine (technically, though it likely is because it's several several generations ahead) and obviously not as good as slightly more expensive options, but for that much money, which would otherwise have only bought me a crappy chromebook, I got a relatively powerful machine with a decent operating system that I can use as a home server, or take out without fear of it being compromised. Since it's a newer machine, it's also got full-disk-encryption, so there's even better protection. Feeling good about it, but who knows how long it'll take them for this to be delivered.

Yeah, I didn't need need to buy a new laptop, but that was in my sight for a long time, so what if I bought it. Imma buy an android phone and a couple of e-ink devices more, even if I don't need them, and then I'll be done. It's okay to waste sometime and go on a spree, all one needs to be aware of is actual gain/loss, and I'm definitely gonna be 'winning' thanks to the laptop. Can probs host my website in there.

In bed at 2am, eggs hash-potatoes and dal for lunch, double trader joe's visit, picnic preparations, picnicking with friends old and new, heart to heart, Tacos chukis relief, home tired in the evening [Sun 20]

I'm writing this two days later, because well nobody writes at the end of a busy day, and the following day I spent trying to get caught up with all the posts I didn't write over the weekend.

I went to bed early in the morning, after coming back from the park where I'd met my cousin and his friends at 2am. Got up for good around 8ish, and had fried eggs, air-fried hash browns, and dal for lunch. Went to trader joe's to get grocery supplies for the picnic, but forgot to take my phone, or any other equipment to pay with, so had to come back. Cleaned up the apartment a bit, and then went again but my cart had been taken away. I didn't find ciabatta there anymore, so had to do with the ciabatta baguette instead of  roll.

Came back home, prepared the sandwiches, chhyang and water kefir, plus chocolates and other things, and made my way to Volunteer park. I was the first to be there, but A was there soon enough. The day was hazy due to the forest fires, but we didn't specially struggle to be outside. A and I talked for 30 ish minutes, during with both N, and NG called me from the East Coast. Bad timing, told them I'd call them later but haven't gotten around to catching up with 'em yet. Soon enough SA and PG came, and the four of us had chhyang, grapes, other snacks, and reminisced, gossiped, relaxed and generally opened to each other. Good times were had.

At around 815, a solid three hours after everybody had showed up we made way towards the CapHill station where SA too the train North. The girls and I went to Tacos Chukis, I needed to use the loo desperately...their restroom was quite good. I didn't get anything to eat there because nobody had touched the sandwiches I'd taken, so that was to be my evening meal and the meal for the following days. Good toilet usage.

Got home at 9.30 ish, so very tired, must have read a little bit before going to bed. Didn't even think about writing here or nything.

Old friends, new friends, Seattle times

This September,
my friends
visit me
from the far East.
And this August,
somebody I knew once
a long time ago
in a faraway land,
who lost touch
sometime in between
over and over
will be here
and I'm unsure
if I'm ready
to meet her.
A friend from
back in Boston
was here,
last week
and the times we had
were so much better
than I had imagined.
I'm making new friends,
going new places,
doing new things
finally
in the Emerald City,
making it my own,
and every moment
every time
i question
how long will they stay
and how long before,
it's all one big blog,
and I just hope
i don't fuck it all,
you know?

Idea for a a short story collection

I've maybe written about this in the past maybe, but if I've not here it goes. I want to write a collection of short stories, called Arranged (to be) Married, and it'll be about love, relationships, and marriage in Nepali groups and traditions. The first story will be called Buried Treasure, it'll be about a lady who turns out to be a kichkandi who seduces a guy who knows she's a supernatural power who might be more interested in his blood than him, but he doesn't mind, he's willing to give her anything she wants, and be a committed partner, even if to a blood-thirsty kichkandi. There'll be stories about cheating, about unresolved love, undeserved love, confusing love, unbelievable love, all kinds of interesting dynamics between individuals. Because love is about desire, and how it's shaped and how it's met. A study of relationships is a study of a culture's deepest insecurities and strengths.

My state id is here, finally after 12 years in this country

My state ID was delivered today, and so after being in this country for 12 years, I have a legitimate common form of identification that doesn't separate me as an outsider weirdo. And also I won't have to travel with passports on finally because EAD's were never compeltely reliable as REAL ID's, but the state Id's are as real as they get, no?

The plan is to go to a bar or some place that asks for ID's and get a drink tomorrow because I gotta make use of the new government-issued document. So excited about this!

Kombucha and water kefir have gone excellently over the summer

Earlier today I bottled five bottles of Kombucha for second fermentation, and started almost 2 gallons of kombucha. Still have two bottles of water kefir left, those that were pressurized, and man the ones in the end were solidly carbonated, like the home-made soda in Kathmandu. It had never come out to be this well. Really excited about the water kefir. The problem with kombucha has been that I've been oversteeping the tea, and that's killing the community of microbes, making it bitter and strong. Maybe this time I effed it up again, but that seems unlikely. In any case, yeah, started new round of kombucha, bottled the old round, did it all so quick. Hope water kefir gets moving fast too.

In other news, the kombucha base cultures have stabilized so it's time for them to graduate from water bottles to gallon jars and bottling containers. Good times!

Going back to the comedy game

Friend from comedy class SA has apparently gone on open mic nights couple of times since our Comedy class ended last year. He's asked me to come along. I haven't gone yet, because there's no routine to work off of, but I'd be down to do standup on open-mic nights again. For it doesn't define me and it's an easy interesting skill I can work towards improving. So even if I'm quite bad at it, nobody's going to judge the entirety of my existence based on how awful I'm at it. It's a safe outlet for my desire to learn a new skll and get a new hobby. Fingers crossed I don't humiliate myself like how I did it erlier again.

Workouts beginning soon!

This is short and silly post, but yeah I feel like I'm in the right headspace to start working out soon. Maybe this week. Things have been stable, I've been feeling at home, and even the tax-payment time has come, it feels like. Will start with pushups and sit-ups in the beginning, with jumping jacks and squats, and eventually branch out to other simple workout routines that can be done from one's bedroom. And in two months, or upto three, I'll be jacked-up, I have no doubt about that!

Need to buy more cheap kindles so it's impossible to avoid reading basically

I have two e-readers in my apartment. I'm in the process of, or in the market for, acquiring two or three more, so there's always a reader next to be when I'm bored or feel like reading. Make reading the easy thing to doo, the more convenient one. One for the bedroom, one for the workspace, one for the living room, one for the loo, and who knows a few more here and there. With refurbished device prices being so very low as they were on Slickdeals, I wouldn't mind spending a couple of buckaroos on used and or refurbished units.

Five times Super Hans was actually the most sane person around

1.  We all remember how Super Hans offered solid lawyer-level advice to Mark when Mark was stuck with the vanity publisher, he had such good feel for who's a cheat and who's not.
   
   
2. Super Hans sold so well to the customers of the shower store where they wanted a combo of 'old and the new' and Mark outright dismissed them but Hans knew exactly what needed to be done to make the sale.
   
   
3. Wasn't it so wonderful when Jez dumped Han's band and then the band immediately dumped him, and changed the band name right there and then?
   
   
4. Hans talking about his kids when he mentions 'the twins', hahah that was hella funny, so curious on how he gives advice to Mark about children.
   
   
5. Who can forget that terrible scary party in his apartment that absolutely traumatized him, and he warmed Jez to not go in, but Jez did anyway and discovered on no he should have listened to the Hans man.
   

Last of the mung dessert, walk in the park, cactus convention, hearing Nepalis, the most pleasant relaxing walk, subway pickup, laundry and house cleaning, at Sk's, lost lake, chacha's and rhino, meeting cousin and friends at Cal Anderson [Sat 19]

In the morning I had the final fucking bowl of my mung pudding. Phew. It was good but.

Around 11 ish I went on a walk to the Volunteer park. With comedy podcasts on, cool weather, walked slow. This was an indulgent relaxing walk, not a rushed hurried workout walk.

Discovered everybody had pots of cacti on them, so explored that at the volunteer park conservatory. Turns out it was a sales and exhibit event. Walked around, wanted to buy but didn't feel like it.

Walked from there to Volunteer-interlaken. Overheard a group of Nepali young guys and gals talking. It'll be important later.

Got hungry during the walk, hadn't had enough to it in the morning turns out. Ordered subway from my phone, and went straight to pick it up. Came home and finished the entire footlong while listening to podcasts.

Then did laundry, two rounds of it, and cleaned the apartment, all the while listening to podcasts.

In the evening went to Sk's place, hung out a bit, went to Lost lake cafe after getting my passport from whom that I'd not brought. Then we went to Cahcha's after meeting our young dj friend and his roommate and just soaked in the vibes. It's such an ...interesting place Chacha's, quite something.

Went to sk's because people needed to pee and he lived on the same block, then we went to Rhino room where we danced for the next two hours. I didn't really love love the music, but the crowd was alright and we were in a corner so nobody to push or jostle so that was fine.

After it shut down and closed the doors we went to Cal Anderson park to get some air, which is where we met the group of Nepali youngsters I'd heard earlier. Turns out they're my cousin's friends! Talked and hung out with them a bunch, instagrams were exchanged, not with me though.

Returned home at maybe 2.30, and fell sound asleep.

Lazy day with good weather, sleep recoveries, afterwork nap, evening waste of time, large breakfast for dinner, early to bed, relatively [Fri 18]

I'm writing this on Sunday afternoon, which is as good as it gets with me and timetables.

So after work was over I felt so very tired all of a sudden. This was the first day after the insane heatwave ended and my body very much appreciated not being roasted alive. So I wanted to take a short nap. Slept for five hours.

Wanted to go out for a walk in the evening, but making eggs, potatoes, cheese and chilly crisps took forever, that was my first meal of the day, so very big.I felt so lazy after that, and by the time I got the motivation it was 11 already which meant I wouldn't make the 10k steps either way.

So i tried to go to sleep, and suspiciously, somehow did fall asleep at around 12.30.

So much rest and sleep, so happy!

Maybe I'm the person to create the social circle

This is silly but all this time I've been wanting the same sort of social connection and group I had in the East Coast. I've complained in these pages about how the 'community' in this town of Seattle is a group of independent beings that will come together if their interests align and if they really want to, given somebody organizes something and they're free plus only if they're in the mood to which might change at the very last moment. Not a real community, just a bunch of folks who might or might not come together, depending on their convenience. Sort of.

I've been thinking about this, and the problem seems to be that most of those folks are either single and single and on the younger side. They've never organized, they've never created a community for themselves, and due to their singleness a lot of them don't have, to put it colloquially, their shit together.

Now that I have one or two or three or four couple friends, and have generally started hanging out with them not regularly but every so often, maybe I should be the one to organize events and invite them, and be the social glue that holds the group together, the trunk that branches hold off of? So what if they're not independently friendly, as long as they are my friends and my community, it works for me!

With that in mind I'm doing a picnic of sorts in an hour, at volunteer park.

That is all.

Creations of joy vs creations of misery

This I thought of and began writing after being originally inspired by the disco-dancing at Volunteer Park.

It's been nine days since I wrote the topic, and four days since I wrote the previous line and I haven't gotten about to writing my thoughts on the matter because I feel they should encompass so much, should be this grand vision of humanity and a political philosophy describing contemporary matters. It is possible I create outrageously high expectations for myself that's impossible to meet under realistic circumstances.

And now it's been yet another week since I wrote the previous paragraph, it's time I got around to writing this, at least the first draft if nothing else. It's been something that's been ruminating in my mind for a while now, particularly when I'm watching movies or dancing or listening to music.

The thing is, any creation of artistic work is generally sold as creation of misery. It's often compared to birthing a child, in trying to explain the main and suffering and the artistic ennui suffered by the creator until their output was produced.

And there's the myth of the tortured artist. How all works of art are inspired by trauma or misery or some sort of painful experience that the creator had to go through. It's presented almost as if no art can be created without these heavy negative emotions because only they can inspire art or something.

And that's just so straight-out wrong.

The cult of misery, I'll name it, has been ascendant in the last decade, and they've infiltrated our arts, politics, culture and economic thought. The gist of their theory of the world is always this: that the world is awful, there's only suffering and it'll get worse, it's everybody fault for it, and we should all feel very bad for enjoying life, or not constantly being in pain. They seem to have taken the joke epithet, 'life is miserable, and then you die' quite literally. You are not allowed to enjoy, you're not allowed to indulge, you're not allowed to appreciate, because there's so many bad things happening and how dare you!

So there's two related but different movements, if you've been careful up to this point: the concept of the creator as a tortured miserable being, and of the consumer being in the same space. The consequences might be different, but they come from the same space: a myth of creation of misery.

But I've been thinking about it, and there's no reason why that needs to be the case. I know artists and directors and actors who absolutely enjoy their craft, who enjoy creating and who might have issues of guilt and insufficiency while creating but they're nowhere near what one would consider tortured. And quite often, their joy of creation translates to their work and on to the consumer: you can feel how happy they were to write something or sing a song, and you start feeling the same joy. Particularly if you're not in the cult of misery, you realize that the world is a beautiful place that doesn't need constant suffering to justify its existence, and that you can care for about all the important causes without being a depressed downer all the time. It's possible to create with joy, and it's possible to be joyous and indulgent consumers, and there's fundamentally no difference between that an otherwise except you feel a lot better.

Given the two options, why choose to suffer and writhe in agony? Some people feel they must. And it's okay, as long as they understand it's their choice to be miserable and in agony, and that doesn't reflect the real state of the world.

The much-missed Seattle weather is here

Thank god the fucking heatwave is over.

Now when I go out on walks I am reminded once again why I freakin' love this city. Such gentle weather, even in the heat of the afternoon, the shade gives you pleasant cool respite, and there's this underlying 'cool, comfortable' vibe going on at all times of the day. It's never to hot to be prickly and awful, never too cold for one to question why they're living in the hellhole.

Perfecto. Hurray for the return of Seattle's best weather, my favourite one.

Short comment on the less-preferred clubs in CapHill

This will be short. I don't like going to Rhino Room club, despite it being the closest venue to dance. It's really really crowded, the vibes there is that of college students, and just-turned-21 folks, it's known as the 'sorority club', I hate the music they play and cannot figure out the genre, or the beats to dance to, and in general never have connected to it and the people there in a manner I have at other places. I've gone there twice, three times maybe and in neither of those occasions has my experience been notably good. Which is not to say it's been bad: I'd rather go there, much more so than Q or Vue, but I'd rather not go there than otherwise.

That's the situation. There's a limited number of places suitable for dancing around, and Barboza might be the best of the dregs considering Q is absolutely foul, Rhino is so-so, and everything else doesn't really have much dancing. Chop Suey and the likes to, but they also cater to a younger crowd.

That's all I got. My clubbing days are far in the past.

Yesterday I had to go to rhino because my group really wanted to, and I didn't want to bail out since it'd be twice in a row. I didn't find it unpleasant...I danced, and people were accommodating, but the vibes was...not good. The guys were too aggressive, the girls not into dancing as much as I'd prefer. It wasn't a friendly dancing-for-the-sake-of-it mood, that was sad people desperate for love and intimacy hoping life throws a triple-6 at them. Not something one should count on, imho.

What are the chances of running into your cousin and his friends while out and about in Seattle, even?

One of those silly 'omg what are the chances of that happening??' piece-of-life incidents happened to me last night, and it'll be in the journal post, but because of how remarkable it was, putting it as a post too.

Sk, some bro, and I were out and about last night. Went to lost lake, then to cha cha's (after what was surely at least a year?) and eventually to Rhino room (ugh, yes yes, more on that in a separate post, coming out soon). We were done for the night, and heading out, the other bro said lets get some fresh air in the park, and we were walking there, talking loudly. And there was another group of young people (younger than us, I mean) who were also Nepali speakers. The dude caught up with us, introductions, and we went to the park to join his group.

And guess who was a part of his group? My young cousin who I've mentioned previously in these pages! I'd told him that I would connect him to other young guys (and the large nepali gang) in Seattle, but now I didn't need to because they met each other and connected! It was so very fine!

Other random bit of co-incidence: i'd seen this group of guys and girls earlier in the day yesterday, during my walk in Volunteer park when they, high as a kite, were talking about for Elise and ambling about. I asked if they'd been to the park, and they were like, omg did you see us there too??!?

Final point: Sk and I had encountered the same group of Nepalis previously, about 2-3 weeks ago, I must have mentioned finding other Nepalis in the park. And it was them! Crazy right?

What are the chances, even?

I have a small green onion farm now and it's...a bit much?

Several weeks ago I bought a large bunch of green onions from hau Hau market and kept them in the fridge. Ended up not using them due to the excess leftover situation, so they wilted away and were ready to die. About two weeks ago I was setting up new pots and planted the dying green onion plants in a pot to see how far they'd make it. The results are out.

They've made it quite far. As in, I now have about 20 green onion plants, growing aggressively, at a rate far exceeding at which I can consume them. Not every meal I eat needs green onions, but if I don't eat every meal, they'll start drooping down and dying. In a matter of a few weeks, I've gone from being excited at the single green onion plant thriving in the pots, to having an overabundance of them, and thinking of ways to get rid of them. One would be to freeze those, and use them later, but not there yet, though that will probably happen because yeah it's insane.

The good (?) news is that it turns out they don't give out infinite supply of yummy leaves, and eventually they'll stop growing and kinda wither away. After three or four good harvests. That means I'm multiplying my green onion efficiency by several multiples, but don't yet have a perpetual green-onion machine.

Phew.

A super embarrassing confession

As confessions on this blog go, this one has to be up there in terms of the actual content. Here's the deal. Only today, and this is Sunday the 20th, did I completely get done with the veggies and desserts I cooked up two weeks ago. They were stored in the fridge and then the freezer, but my leftovers went on for so long, so very long, that it was getting tiring to eat the same grub every day. And I'd started ordering in and taking out because it was worth eating literally any random piece of unhealthy garbage than the leftovers in the fridge. The good part of the whole situation was that I was well-fed and content. The bad part was I was disgusted at myself and not into eating or cooking anymore.

Little in column a, little in column b.

Life, change and living

Laugh at me,
laugh at me
as if
I were a clown
a goddamn monkey
dancing around,
for what's left
anyway
of my dignity
and self-respect
I'm willing
to compromise
it all
away.
not that it matters
to me.
how is it,
asked a friend
from the land
of Germany,
that you are now
all so set
to settle down
when just very...then...
you weren't?
My answer,
humiliating
and brutally true
was a simple,
I'm not
the same
person
anymore,
and my priorities
have changed.

So.
What now?
Where from here?
the old me would have thought.

The current me
would rather think
let's
keep on
living
one day
at a time
and
love
love
love.

Veggies for lunch, long time at the library, lots of writing, noodles for dinner, latenight walk, evening write [Thu 17]

I'm writing this at 11 at night of the same day. It's started getting cooler slightly towards the end of the day today, and the insane heatwave of last week might be coming to an end. In any case, on with the journal!

I had the potato-sag veggies and dal for lunch. So filling, but without most of the nasty carbs. I think there's one more meal left, and I'll finally be done with that 'set' of meals.

After cleaning up and chilling for a bit went to the Library, where I got a good amount of writing on this blog done, and read some as well.

Came home at 8-ish because I was hungry, made shin ramyun noodles with tahini and eggs, it was filling and not extra hot either. Then put on no such thing as a fish and went on a walk. It had been a while since I'd gone on an evening walk, and in the dark, even though it was after 9, it felt so chill and cool and relaxed reminded me I need to go out on walks later at night because they're more fun!

Came back home, had the vitamins, drank some kombucha and now got those 4-5 pieces written here. Gonna brush and go to bed now, it's later than usual but it's fine, it was a good day. Plus tomorrow is Friday so no early morning meeting.

Meeting a longtime friend, banh-mi lunch and hang, relax in the library, lots of reading, smoothie dinner, limited writing in evening [Wed 16]

Early in the morning, by which I mean at 11, I went to GrainHouse to get lunch with SS. SS had reached out to me the day before to hang out, but things hadn't worked out, so. I'd just finished my therapist's appointment before going to the restaurant. Funny co-incidence, she had just finished her own appointment as well.

With her she had another bro, who was her friend, who had gone to my college, and had been friends with another SS who'd subletted my place here in Seattle to. We got caught up about our life since we last met in Boston Dashain last year, our travels, our relationships and so forth. She's a lot happier and at peace than I saw her last. And it could have been me but she was a lot less guarded too. Regardless, it lasted for only 1.5 hours at best because she was in a rush, and I forgot to take selfies. She might come down to Boston when I'm there in a couple of weeks, but we'll see.

Went to the Library after work, read so much, and kept falling asleep after reading Flow, but fortunately I also had The Nature of Vedic Gods with me, which was a much more interesting read. I hope Flow by Mihalyi has a new edition, because the version I have is kindaa...outdated, and somewhat of a snoozefest. Like I'm 20% into the book, and I don't know when the real meat and potatoes is going to show up.

Came back home early because my tummy was rumbling, as I'd had lunch before my regular time. Had smoothies for dinner, with frozen fruits and a blackening banana kept outside. Filling, healthy, cold, all the things I care for in those doggne days.

Didn't write in the evening yet again because I just...couldn't. It was far, far too hot, intolerable. Fortunately only one day of such heat was remaining.

Tarkari lunch with kefir, interlaken-volunteer walk, heat tires me, evening hang with friend A and catchup [Tue 15]

 I'm writing two days after this day, and I might have written on this day as well, but I don't remember any of it quite well since this week has been so insanely hot and humid and my apartment has been one giant pit. A barbecue pit.

For lunch I had dal, and the two veggies I had as leftovers. Finished the remainder of the kefir I had. Quite sour but not terribly so.

Wrote a bunch I think, because then it would make sense I didn't write in the evening.

Went on a 2-hour walk in the afternoon, felt way more tired than usual, it must have been the heat.

Got back home, rested for a bit, and went downstairs to hang out with friend A. Friend SS had come to Seattle from the East, but didn't reach out on time, so I made plans with A instead. A had been bailing out on us for quite some time as well, so this was a very pleasant surprise. During the day talked to friend N in Philly about his Seattle travel plans.

Got caught up with A at RGB, heard about her new partner, talked about my friends and what I'd been upto. She updated me on her life, and it was loads of fun. Felt like I had a community in this lamo town once again.

Came up to my apartment, brushed etcetera and basically went to sleep after reading a bit because ugh it's been hot hot hot.

I need to learn to make bread

This is going to be silly and simple.

I've been eating so much potato, brown rice and quinoa in recent weeks. Far, far too much. And before that, quite a bit of brown bread from TJ's. I'm tired of those basic breads. My favourite malabari paratha hasn't been around at the nearest TJ's in months. I'm hungry and bored, and I don't know how to make bread.

I want to make pan bread. Not sandwich one, but those thick puffy ones like naan but not necessarily exactly those, that I can use to sponge the veggies and curry soup. Have them be puffy and chewy. And full of flavor. Or maybe not so much flavor, if they're great with texture. Make a dozen or two at a time, in the air fryer and/or the pans, and freeze 'em and eat em when I feel hungry. Without any veggies, or just with hummus if I'm hungry enough.

I've never been good at baking, and specially not so much with 'sandwich breads'. Maybe it'll be better with round pan-breads or air-fryer breads?

I should really really get into this, it would elevate my cooking and eating. Must. Do. This.

Eating my plants

I started planting the green onions bought from the market in flowerpots, and harvesting them when I need to. That makes them last for longer, I get multiple harvests out of them instead of the single I'd get otherwise, get to feel like a farmer, get practice for my hydroponics system, have a 'useful' functional plant in my apartment, and generally get to compete with PN who're growing a bunch of different veggies in their backyard.

This is the first time I've done it at this scale, the harvesting of dying mint plants, and sprouts don't count, and growing mushrooms is a whole different thing for me.

So it's been interesting, and the fact that I get only so many harvests out of adult green obions means I have to time and plan my harvests too. Fun fun fun.

Frequently asked questions about the new disruptive technology

Q: Will it turn lead into gold?
A: Quite possibly! While we can't guarantee your investment will give you the opportunity to transform lead metal into gold, we have successfully done some test experiments where we have observed some conversion of base metals into precious ones. There has been no academic history of that happening elsewhere at any point, and the results are yet to be replicated, but we have full faith in the skills and knowledge of our engineers. However, none of this is an investment advice!

Q: What exactly is the final product you're intending to sell?
A: What we're intending to sell is not a single product, but a platform that can empower our customers and scientists to create and sell the products that are created. Consider it a marketplace of genius and innovation. So say, for example, if somebody finds out the secret to alchemy, we wouldn't be selling just gold, but be a gold for thus-created market for gold, getting a small percentage of commission on every sale. So yes, we're intending to be around for the long haul, making small bets over a large space, and eventually becoming very successful. We don't want to be overnight one-hit wonders!

Q: When will this be profitable by?
A: This is not financial advice, and we are legally not allowed to sell you this as a financial product or investment unless you are an accredited investor. In addition, the timeline of our profitability is not clear and we are legally required to tell you it's a real possibility we will never ever make any money, but where have you heard that before, from Steve Jobs, are we right? With that in mind, we do believe your investment in us, not for the financial rewards but for the sake of technology is going to be worthy, for the feeling of satisfaction, and the fact that you got to be a part of this exciting time in scientific history.

Can these things be considered wasting the therapist's time?

The other day... yesterday, I wasted my therapist's time ambling about general issues. I talked to her about Nepal's history for 20 minutes, related South Asian history to give context for Nepal's history for 20 minutes, spent 5 minutes checking up on how my week had been, and maybe 8 minutes complaining about minor issues that weren't really bothering me but I felt I had to come up with something or else it would be a waste of time. And all this time I kept bringing in the 'oh i'm sure this is going to be relevant to our future conversations, just adding context, you gotta be patient'. In the end, she thanked me for providing historical-cultural-social context of the place I'm from, which made me feel a bit better,  buuuut dunno, I doubt it'll prove useful. Oh also told her about this blog, and my new launcher app for the phone hahah, so that's fun.

What is the perfect use of a therapist time, I wonder, and what is the worst possible way to spend it? With Dr. S, we used to talk about Consciousness and linguistics and things of that nature, and with K, who's the new person we haven't gotten to that stage of our relationship yet. They're people too (I like to think) and it's a more interesting experience for them if the conversations were lighter and more intellectually stimulating than what they otherwise might be? Don't know how I would bring Dennett into our conversations, but I gotta figure out a way!

Oh also, we've generally been meeting every 2-3 weeks, but I'm seeing her 6 days after the previous appointment this time around, which means I'll have less to talk about, which maybe opens up the opportunity to talk about these things?

The Library is the perfect refuge in the intense summer heat

The last week has been brutal, truly awful heat wave that's made living in my apartment basically impossible for large parts of the day. The morning chill is no more, by 10 it's a mild oven in there, at 3 you could cook a hot-dog on the grill without turning it on, and at 7-ish, all bread kept outside gets toasted. It's unbearable, awful. And I would have been in quite a bind if I had nowhere air-conditioned to go.

Fortunately there's the Seattle Library, CapHill branch, it's cool, decently nice and even the homeless people there are decent and respectful. It's a good vibe to be inspired to read and write because that's what people are doing there generally. There's cool water on the fountains, the restrooms are clean and comfortable when not being used by druggies, and the stafff is fantastic

Truly, the public library is an oasis in the summer desert of these August days, and I'm so fortunate to be able to use it. Thanks Seattle public library!

Peace Parade

What. On. Earth,
I thought
is a peace parade?

Who are you talking to,
and what are you asking for,
what are you saying, really
and to what end?

In a world
devoid of guns and bombs,
and sharp sticks and swords,
would you
ask for an end
to hurtful silences, and harsh words?
Would there be
a non-proliferation treaty
to get rid of all the
offensive chords?
Would we decide
-- not that we do it now --
who is wrong and who is right
not with a battle or a fight,
but with poetry contests, and debates?
and what then
to what end,
would we want
to do anything like that?

What's a peace parade,
what's more to it,
who goes in out in the Sun,
because they believe in the cause,
and not just for some weekend fun,
what are their beliefs, and what do they demand,
or is it just a bunch of frenchies
wanting to pretend-act like real adults?

Maybe things are alright

I have complained
and moaned,
oh for so long
have I moaned,
but now I wonder
if the distance,
physical and otherwise,
has made the hearts
grow fonder?

It was a fresh new page,
or so I felt,
as if talking
to an old, dear friend,
and not somebody
I got tired, of?

So maybe,
the world
is not so harsh
after all
and everybody
goes about
their own journey,
the times when
the roads intertwine,
they're the best
because we share
the tales of our travels
metaphorical and real,
and catch up on
the people?

Kindness, I must remind myself,
once again,
to oneself, and towards the rest,
is of utmost importance,
and even more so
when one feels
it's undeserved,
for what are principles
but fantasies unrealized,
if they fail
the first sign of real test?

Love,
love,
love
does indeed
make the world go around,
as the powerpuff girls
so rightly observed.

How to make a BILLION dollars, in eight easy steps

1.  Join a cult of an insane meme so inanely stupid, so obviously wrong, nobody will ever take you seriously once you as much as mention it to them casually.
   
   
2. Then form a victim complex, because they're victimizing you, they don't understand what innovation is, you're a revolutionary, you'll change the world, and it's everybody else who's a moron and you're a visionary, despite actually not understanding the technology you're pretending to care for my gambling for it.
   
   
3. Once things start going south, form complex narratives around grand conspiracies, how it's all a global conspiracy formed my national governments, bankers, financiers, trading apps, random redditors, your friends and family even because everybody wants to take you, the real revolutionary down.
   
   
4. Pretend there's going to be mainstream acceptance of your ideas any day now, and misinterpret messages posted by serious people to mean they support your cause, and use that in your marketing.
   
   
5. See your money double or triple or quadruple, for no reason at all, because other morons like you joined the cause, and truly, really believe you're in the right, and instead of pulling all you earned back, sick in every cent of your spare cash, because you're in it for the tech!
   
   
6. As your 'investment' in the ponzi scheme goes down, keep doubling down, fantasizing about how insanely wealthy you'll soon become, and come up with ridiculous, fantastical, nonsensical multiples for your 'investment', and try convincing everybody that your numbers are in reality quite conservative.
   
   
7. Blame the government for bringing you down when it punishes the straight-out scammers and schemers.
   
   
8. See your 'investment' go up by a million times, and suddenly you're a billionaire!
   

It's so hot, my writing's been handicapped

 Parts of this post were recorded to google recorder and transcribed. The post is based on the transcribe, but not a direct version of it.

It's been so hot lately, particularly in the evenings that writing, or even sitting down to get ready to write, has been challenging. My brain won't work. It thinks it's in one of those crazy life-or-death situations, as if I'm in a sauna.

I do want to write, and during the day it's hard because it's hot and intolerable and I would do anything but write, such as going to the library or napping. In the day I count on the possibility things get better in the evening. But no, because of the location of my apartment the evenings aren't any better. So for the past couple of days, the pace of my writing has reduced, and the posts have therefore bunched up to today. That's how it'll be until the heat subsides.

Oh and by the way I fucking hate google record transcribing for these blog posts. Because it puts fullstops and capitalizations at the weirdest of places. It has no clue about the intention of any of the sentences, and capitalizes based purely on the volume of my voice and the time gap between the words. If somebody is narrating or dictating at a very measured, slow pace, then it's going to be putting fullstops. on. every.fucking.word. And Capitalizing Them. Also it has no concept of commas, but that's a different thing. I've only seen full stops and weird capitalizations, never a 'correct' comma between my phrases. I guess it's the compromises you've got to make.

It's much faster for me to read the transcribe and modify it as I read it then edit it because there's so many errors in the transcription I only get frustrated.

State of my projects

Quick update on all my projects, because the recent heatwave has fried my brain and I can't straight-think nomore.

Water kefir first-fermentation has been quite slow, but on the right path. Next time around I'll put in more kefir grains and make air circulation better. Will setup higher temperature if that doesn't work out.

Bottled kefir second fermentation is amazing, no issues there.

Kombucha first fermentation is finally fixed, it's forming weak pellicles, and tastes super sour without being too yeasty. Ready to go for second fermentation now! The original round of second fermentation didn't get fizzy, but the taste was there.

Milk kefir has been a bit slow because I didn't feel like it, but it's back on now. Will avoid mixing old batches with new ones so the 'cheesy' flavor is more subtle.

No more soy ferments for the moment, but once the heat subsides, probably be on that boat once more.

Plants are doing amazing, no complaints there.

The two projects I need to get started on are mushroomery and hydroponics. I've got the supplies and equipment for both, just waiting for the right time and opportunity. I don't have the seeds for hydroponics either, something else for me to work on.

Chhyang is going amazing, looking to start a massive batch soon, just need to find decently-priced sweet glutinous rice. Waiting for the heat to die down.

4 new things I learned after watching the second quarter of Final Destination movie

I have been watching the first Final Destination movie in 20-minute chunks, and I finally got around to the 30-50 minute mark. The previous observations weren't all valid since my last list, so here's some more!

1. Not only will death try to get to you by going to great ridiculous lengths, it will also do its best to hide tracks and make your....deathly..death...look less suspicious. So if it's trying to get you to slip on a pool of puddle, and you do slip, then the pool of water will rapidly retreat to make sure nobody finds out the death was caused by slipping on pooled water, instead they think it was a suicide.
   
   
2. And sometimes death don't give an eff... Like a bus hitting somebody on a straight residential street, just like that, and splattering them on the street. So strange!
   
   
3. Also, death will try to pin it on somebody else, ideally somebody who caused this series of events by cheating him in the first place, and make him look super suspicious by making them do sketchy things.
   
   
4. And everybody believes that the seer is somehow cursed? Weird.
   

Veggies, rice and egg for lunch, heatwave almost melts me, to the Library!, cool writings, Volunteer walk, smoothie dinner, latenight writing [Mon 14]

 I'm writing this at 10.20 of the same day, and boiii oh boiii I'm melting with the heat. There's an ongoing heatwave, and the heat is tolerable but the humidity is off the charts. Anyway on with the journal.

For lunch I had very little quinoa and brown rice left, had that with loads of dal and chickpea tarkari, plus tiil ko chhop and fried eggs.

Sweated profusely the entire day due to the heat. Went to the Library to avoid it. Did some solid bit of writing there, for this blog, and also got my HSA documents faxed, freakin' finally.

Went to Volunteer park from the library, took a couple of rounds.

Came back, had smoothie for dinner, wrote a bunch, youtubed a bunch, wrote again, and now at 10.25 probably gonna look at the work laptop before going to bed.

All in all, not a terrible day in the life of a dog-food company.

Day of long phonecalls, mung bean porridge for lunch, Volunteer park walk, hot hot hot, early to bed [Sun 13]

Had a 3-hour phonecall with a new friend in the morning. It was an important one to be had, clarified a lot of things. Talked to ED for an hour, and then with PN for another significant chunk. All in all, I was on the phone for about five hours.

Because the weather was so freaking hot, had mung bean porridge for lunch, while talking to ED. Also talked to RD earlier. Had been meaning to call her for so long, finally did.

Went to Volunteer park and interlaken for walk with SK. Talked to N during the walk.

Watched tv and chilled in the evening, so so very hot, didn't feel like doing anything. Went to bed relatively early.

Rest day, volunteer-interlaken walk, simplified phone launcher, potato-saag cooking, smoothie dinner [Sat 12]

 Despite having gotten home early I felt like I needed to rest, and so I did in the earlier part of the day. Still remnants of desire to buy something new and exciting remained. Didn't buy anything. I did, however, change the home screen on my phone to OLauncher, this new launcher app that makes me want to use my phone less. Supposedly. Hasn't worked out exactly but we can hope. I did read a lot later in the day though, so maybe?

Made saag and potato for lunch-ish, because the sag was going bad, and the potatoes have pretty much gone bad already. Apparently there's some sort of potato crop failure happening in this country because it's not just me, everybody has been complaining about how the vegetables don't stay good for as long, and rot quickly and are too blemished or bad somehow.

So so hot it was, I didn't want to eat a hot meal, didn't want to heat the house, so had smoothie for dinner. Yum yum yum.

Rice lunch, snacky dinner, skipped walk, online shopping obsession, Thomas St. Warehouse, kava and gang, nicely dressed, poutin snack, sad Vue, home early at night, latenight texts [Fri 11]

Had rice for lunch, as had become standard by this point. Light dinner. Didn't go on a walk because I was obsessively shopping for either a good e-ink phone, or an android phone. In the end neither was bought because neither was necessary.

In the evening made plans with SK, dressed up well and went to his place. I hadn't put on a jacket and had a T on top, so he gave me his jacket. So swanky and nice, I felt real good. We took an uber to Thomas St. warehouse with two guys, recent college graduates. Didn't talk much because I had consumed Kava and friends before leaving home. Ordered poutine and had it with fries. Pretty good. If I hadn't ended up paying for the people I didn't know it would have been a decent experience. Already wrote about this night, but TSW is such a strange place, I def want to go again.

I was tired and in no mood to go out and about, but the gang did, so I reluctantly walked over to Vue. Sketchy things started happening right as we were in the line. I thought of leaving, but figured I'd explore the place. The bouncers got money off the books from us, and I was hella mad. I went in, people were dressed in shorts and slippers, and the vibe was off. Not my style. I told the gang I was done for the night. Walked to Westlake, took the train to CapHill walked home. A guy and a girl stopped me and asked me to stop. Girl was cute. Thought they were robbers. Didn't stop. Was texting a new friend all this time. What a goddamn waste of time it turned out.

Trip to the license office, I get my state ID made, busride to H-Mart, hella expensive kimchi, Library trip, kimchi smells, volunteer-Interlaken walk with Sk, bhat-dal-tarkari dinner, starting Final Destination [Thu 10]

 It has somehow come to this. I'm writing all the weekend posts on Mondays/Tuesdays, and Weekdays journals on Thursday. It's not the ideal situation, but here we are ugh. Whatever. This is to be avoided.

After work I had quick food and went to the license office. Took the bus in front of the house, waited for a second one in downtown, and it was quite pleasant. A Nepali family in front of me, I helped an older aunty figure out the bus-card tapping system.

Met success, finally, at the License office. Got all my documents in place, and in a week from now I'll be getting my state ID!

From there I took the bus ride back to downtown, went into H-Mart and bought a relatively expensive gallon of Kimchi. Last time I'm buying from that H-Mart.

Went to the library from there, but...issues...were encountered. I was smelling hella like kimchi, couldn't log into the computers there, and didn't know how to setup the fax, I was too embarrassed, so I just borrowed a book and bailed out.

Got home, rested for a bit. In the evening went to the Volunteer-interlaken loop with Sk.

Had bhat-dal-tarkari-achar for dinner, as standard.

Started watching Final Destination on Tubi, since it's apparently going away. Watched until the first death. I'll watch it in 10-minute bits so it won't get to me.

Playing catch up with the veggies

All of my cooking can be summarized as me trying to catch up with the vegetables that are going bad in my fridge or trying to get rid of some raw ingredients that's nearing, or dangerously close to, its expression date. Actually, let me correct that. Playing catch up with a raw ingredient that has long past gone its expiry date and there's the chance it might contain a bacterial civilization. It's a tough game to play, because I don't generally stay in Seattle for extended periods, and I don't end up using all the raw ingredients that I buy. So when I do buy I do so to finish it all and because it has to be healthy. The problem is, I cook in large batches because spending two hours cooking for one, and the meal to not last beyond one individual meal doesn't make sense, specially when it's so hot in the apartment.

And so when I cook, I cook meals that last for six or eight lunches and dinners which means that whatever raw ingredient didn't get included in that meal has now been pushed away for you for a week, maybeweek and a half, which means if I had originally bought three different kinds of vegetables, there's one unlucky piece of raw ingredient or veggie that's will have waited in my fridge for weeks and potentially a month. Terrible. I know. But you know that's the state of life when you're a single person and cooking for one. I guess a potential solution to this could be inviting people over for lunch or dinner.

I've done that in the past and it's a decent solution. The only concern I have with that is that I don't want to feed my everyday grub to my friends and acquaintances. Because you need to put out your best while you're hosting. And what I feed myself daily is not my best. So that's not the ideal way to deal with the issue. I don't know what is. Obviously if stop being single, there's somebody else to share my veggies with and that does solve at least one big problem right there. I guess partnering up does have it's benefits, huh?