Still, it's not.
Things that make me happy:
This essay about how transit-oriented development is not just liberal wackiness. (augh, I said no politics, I know... maybe this can slip by because it's about uniting behind a cause that will help everyone and not just "left is right and right is wrong"?)
"Undeclared" by the Dodos. This album ("Visiter") is RIYL Death Cab meets Animal Collective, and this song is fully on the Ben Gibbard side of the spectrum, and if you don't like it you probably have no feelings. (a song I like without electricity! shocking!)
Biking biking biking!
Ignite Seattle. This was the coolest thing. First, there's a contest for how to build the tallest tower out of five sheets of paper, plus tape, in like a half hour. Recalling my 8th grade science class failure, I shied away at first, but eventually decided to try it anyway. (with Sarah, Daniel, and this other guy named Adam who needed a team). Our result: 37 inches. It looked like a sad giraffe.
But then like 20 people gave 5-minute talks on pretty much just "something that is cool. (and nerdy.)" Everything from "how mitochondria work" to "how we'll manufacture things on small scales in the future" to "people geek out about legos a lot" to "stick maps of the Marshall Islands". Super great stuff. They say they're having this quarterly, and I'm going to the next ones for sure.
Japan tomorrow! (well, I will arrive on Saturday. But I'm leaving tomorrow.)
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Dear The National Fearmongers, ahem, The Media
You have made someone I care about very worried about swine flu.
Getting swine flu is like getting the regular flu.
Under 2000 people have caught the 2009 swine flu and under 100 have died. We're still talking a death rate comparable to being struck by lightning. (756 deaths / 13 years = 58 deaths per year.)
In the best case scenario, you're actually very concerned about this, which just means you're all gullible or you don't understand statistics or there are other psychological things going on inside your heads. In the likely scenario, it's a slow news week and you need to sell papers. In the conspiracy-theory scenario, you're all in cahoots trying to keep us afraid so that we channel all our energy into fighting Eastasia or something else sinister.
Whatever. Just shut the hell up.
Getting swine flu is like getting the regular flu.
Under 2000 people have caught the 2009 swine flu and under 100 have died. We're still talking a death rate comparable to being struck by lightning. (756 deaths / 13 years = 58 deaths per year.)
In the best case scenario, you're actually very concerned about this, which just means you're all gullible or you don't understand statistics or there are other psychological things going on inside your heads. In the likely scenario, it's a slow news week and you need to sell papers. In the conspiracy-theory scenario, you're all in cahoots trying to keep us afraid so that we channel all our energy into fighting Eastasia or something else sinister.
Whatever. Just shut the hell up.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Hunger challenge: recap
In case you missed it, I was doing the Hunger Challenge last week. Dramatic as that sounds, all it amounts to is feeding myself using only $7/day (which is the maximum food stamp benefit). No food from other people or anything either. (That means no Google food. I did drink their coffee and tea, though. Call it necessary medication for the office lifestyle. If you really want to split hairs, next time I'll buy a bunch of cheap tea for a dollar.)
I went to QFC, to prove that any of you can do this too at your local grocery store. I could probably do better at Trader's Joe, maybe I could do better at the Pike Place Market, and I could definitely do better at an International District Asian grocery store (a small one, not Uwajimaya). I only charged things that I actually ate, and if I used something that I already had in the house, I approximated how much it would cost.
Here's how my expenses turned out:
A honeydew melon: 2.23 (on super sale, 40c/lb)
1/2 dozen eggs: 2.89/2 = 1.45 (not the cheap eggs, these were somewhat "free range" or something- whatever, if you're at QFC you're not going to get humane eggs anyway. you can pay more, but all you get is "organic" or "omega-3".)
1 1/2 lb onions (about half a 3-lb bag): 1.99/2 = 1.00
Tofu: 2.69 (why is tofu so expensive at QFC?)
1 green pepper: 1.50
2 apples: 1.01
1/2 bulb garlic: 0.72/2=0.36
about 5 carrots: 0.88 (fact: actual big carrots usually cost about half of the "baby-cut" kind)
2 broccolis: 0.89 (on sale)
1 c. brown rice (1/50 of a huge $20 bag): 0.40
2 c. groats, barley, quinoa, and millet: about 2.00
3 c. whole wheat flour: 0.70
1/2 bunch spinach that we already had: 1.00
1/2 cabbage that we already had: about 1.50
1/2 stick butter: about 0.50
about 1/2 c. peanut butter throughout the week: maybe 1.00? I didn't track the peanut butter so well...
1 tsp caraway, 2 bay leaves, some marjoram, thyme, and an occasional glug of soy sauce: about 1.00
1 package whole wheat orzo: 4.00
2 more apples: 1.30
maybe 1/4 c. tahini? 0.50?
3 beers (rolling rock/henry weinhard): 3.30
1 beer at a bar (rainier): 2.00 + 1.00 = 3.00
= 32.34.
We'll call it even at $35, to allow for error in the spices and stuff.
Things I made out of all this include a loaf of bread, orzo and broccoli soup, a tofu scramble, cabbage and spinach with eggs (which was great), and a big thing of mixed grains (like oatmeal but better). I did pretty well for 4.5 days.
Friday, work was rough. (To be fair, Thursday, Wednesday, and Tuesday were also rough. To be even more fair, it was I who made them rough. But still, no fun.) So by Friday, they announced at work that they were bringing in ice cream because we (previously) donated the most to a food bank, and goddamn if I'm not going to eat ice cream. So I had that. And then I drank more beer that night too which was not in the budget. So I guess I didn't quite make it.
But the point is, you can make it. You can eat cheaply and not eat crap. You will probably eat more cheaply if you don't eat crap. Also, it doesn't really take that much time: I cooked on Monday for a few hours, and then made the tofu on I think Wednesday. AND, I'm not a super chef blogger. This goes out to all you "starving" college students. (not to actual poor people. I mean, I hope they can eat well and cheaply too, but if they don't, I'm not going to say it's their own fault. being poor is not easy.)
And the further point is just that! Being poor is not easy! $7 per day doesn't sound so bad, but then it's $2.33 per meal. No other food. (maybe your grocery budget is less than that, but what about restaurants and takeout?) And when you're looking at that, even a teaspoon of a spice can become a significant fraction of the meal. I did eat a little grainier than I would have liked, and not so vegetableful. And a couple times, I was actually hungry (imagine that). I guess 4 beers/week fits in with this budget, or maybe like a thing of ice cream instead or whatever, but there is not much room for luxury.
That's all! Enjoy your food, and maybe pause for a moment and be like "it is nice to have this."
I went to QFC, to prove that any of you can do this too at your local grocery store. I could probably do better at Trader's Joe, maybe I could do better at the Pike Place Market, and I could definitely do better at an International District Asian grocery store (a small one, not Uwajimaya). I only charged things that I actually ate, and if I used something that I already had in the house, I approximated how much it would cost.
Here's how my expenses turned out:
A honeydew melon: 2.23 (on super sale, 40c/lb)
1/2 dozen eggs: 2.89/2 = 1.45 (not the cheap eggs, these were somewhat "free range" or something- whatever, if you're at QFC you're not going to get humane eggs anyway. you can pay more, but all you get is "organic" or "omega-3".)
1 1/2 lb onions (about half a 3-lb bag): 1.99/2 = 1.00
Tofu: 2.69 (why is tofu so expensive at QFC?)
1 green pepper: 1.50
2 apples: 1.01
1/2 bulb garlic: 0.72/2=0.36
about 5 carrots: 0.88 (fact: actual big carrots usually cost about half of the "baby-cut" kind)
2 broccolis: 0.89 (on sale)
1 c. brown rice (1/50 of a huge $20 bag): 0.40
2 c. groats, barley, quinoa, and millet: about 2.00
3 c. whole wheat flour: 0.70
1/2 bunch spinach that we already had: 1.00
1/2 cabbage that we already had: about 1.50
1/2 stick butter: about 0.50
about 1/2 c. peanut butter throughout the week: maybe 1.00? I didn't track the peanut butter so well...
1 tsp caraway, 2 bay leaves, some marjoram, thyme, and an occasional glug of soy sauce: about 1.00
1 package whole wheat orzo: 4.00
2 more apples: 1.30
maybe 1/4 c. tahini? 0.50?
3 beers (rolling rock/henry weinhard): 3.30
1 beer at a bar (rainier): 2.00 + 1.00 = 3.00
= 32.34.
We'll call it even at $35, to allow for error in the spices and stuff.
Things I made out of all this include a loaf of bread, orzo and broccoli soup, a tofu scramble, cabbage and spinach with eggs (which was great), and a big thing of mixed grains (like oatmeal but better). I did pretty well for 4.5 days.
Friday, work was rough. (To be fair, Thursday, Wednesday, and Tuesday were also rough. To be even more fair, it was I who made them rough. But still, no fun.) So by Friday, they announced at work that they were bringing in ice cream because we (previously) donated the most to a food bank, and goddamn if I'm not going to eat ice cream. So I had that. And then I drank more beer that night too which was not in the budget. So I guess I didn't quite make it.
But the point is, you can make it. You can eat cheaply and not eat crap. You will probably eat more cheaply if you don't eat crap. Also, it doesn't really take that much time: I cooked on Monday for a few hours, and then made the tofu on I think Wednesday. AND, I'm not a super chef blogger. This goes out to all you "starving" college students. (not to actual poor people. I mean, I hope they can eat well and cheaply too, but if they don't, I'm not going to say it's their own fault. being poor is not easy.)
And the further point is just that! Being poor is not easy! $7 per day doesn't sound so bad, but then it's $2.33 per meal. No other food. (maybe your grocery budget is less than that, but what about restaurants and takeout?) And when you're looking at that, even a teaspoon of a spice can become a significant fraction of the meal. I did eat a little grainier than I would have liked, and not so vegetableful. And a couple times, I was actually hungry (imagine that). I guess 4 beers/week fits in with this budget, or maybe like a thing of ice cream instead or whatever, but there is not much room for luxury.
That's all! Enjoy your food, and maybe pause for a moment and be like "it is nice to have this."
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
If you were 1000 years old, what would you do with all those years?
First, let me just do one thing:
Hey? Hey? You can see the rest on jluxenberg's photostream.
Topic switch.
I had a funny dream last night. I was hanging around with Luke Skywalker, and we were going to fight some big villain, like a big showdown thing, and we both knew it was a big showdown, and we were walking into the villain's lair, but the villain and his henchmen thought that we didn't know, so they disguised the whole place as an airport. We were like going down underground and it was all "okay, here's the concourse, here's the gate, we'll check your bags". At one point we stopped by some lockers and picked up our lightsabers. Uhh, you know. Eventually we got to the room where the big showdown was supposed to happen, and it was a big stadium, like a basketball arena, but we couldn't fight yet, because a girls' college basketball game was taking place. We could hear the announcer saying "she's going up for a slam dunk, and... holy shit!" as the girl herself ended up in the basket somehow. But I was bummed because I knew I wasn't going to be asleep still when the fight happened, and I wanted to beat Darth Vader. Or whomever.
The interesting thing is, though, I had a real sense that time went all wonky. I knew that I was going to wake up before the fight happened, even before I woke up. It's like at the very instant I woke up, a huge flurry of brainwave activity happened, and I only later "remembered" it as a sequential story. Maybe that's what people mean when they say time is just an illusion, or that it's as bendy as the other three dimensions, or that the afterlife is outside time, or something.
Topic shift.
I got hit with a blast of rampant existentialism on my bike on the way home. I was feeling particularly like "what's the point of existing?" (oh my god disclaimer don't get me wrong i'm not all depressed and jumping off a bridge or something oh my god) I mean, I used to say "my life exists to make things better for other people," but now I'm not so sure. I was all about "making life better" but in a pretty impersonal way, like if I could develop better routing algorithms to get food to starving people or something. All this "I want to do great things," it's all kind of just so I can feel better than thou, or at least as good as thou. Not that I don't want to do great things; just... it seems like the whole mountain climber thing, like I'd have to keep climbing higher and higher mountains and I'd never be satisfied, so why bother climbing any mountains at all?
You know "It's a Wonderful Life"? Where, if this guy never lived, his town would be Pottersville, taken over by the rich evil tycoon, and his brother would be dead, or whatever? If he never lived, things would be worse. If I never lived, well, things would be different. My spot at CMU, say, would have been taken by another kid. So my friends there would have met another person instead of me; maybe they would have gotten along better, maybe worse, whatever. Some people might be sadder because they had one less fun guy to goof around with; some people might be happier because they got one of my roles in a play or they weren't shunned by me so hard. Google Analytics might not be so pretty. Or maybe it would have; Google's not hurting for applicants, they could have just hired someone else.
Nevermind, it's the whole voting argument. "You have to vote, it really does make things better!" Similarly, "it's good that I exist, I really do make things better!" I've convinced myself of both of these at one point, and I've convinced myself unimpeachably, like "if you ever think these things are false, you're wrong", or at least "you better really rewire your head really friggin hard if you're going to try to convince me that those are false, and to do so, you'll probably be moving in a direction that you don't like, so you probably shouldn't."
Pity party pity party! Maybe it is. Maybe I should accept more sympathy, and give out more sympathy too. My party line has been, if you're feeling like this, "shape the fuck up, Charlie Brown" (inside joke with, err, one friend from high school) but maybe that's not a good way to live.
To take one more mental leap which makes perfect sense to me but might just be so many words on my blog, this line of thought leads me to something I've wondered for a while. How do you be loving to everyone but still maintain the ability to pick and choose your friends? If I read the stuff on this blog post, and I didn't know who wrote it, I would say that's fine for that person, I'm sorry he feels that way, and all the same I don't want to be this person's friend because he sounds whiny. But if one of my friends wrote it, I mean, I would feel supportive to my friend. It's not like I'd want to end our friendship. But if he/she was always like this, maybe I would. So I don't love that friend unconditionally. But if I did love everyone unconditionally, like you're supposed to, how could I make time for the people I like the most? How could I even like anyone the most?
Topic shift.
I might sign up for Twitter.
Hey? Hey? You can see the rest on jluxenberg's photostream.
Topic switch.
I had a funny dream last night. I was hanging around with Luke Skywalker, and we were going to fight some big villain, like a big showdown thing, and we both knew it was a big showdown, and we were walking into the villain's lair, but the villain and his henchmen thought that we didn't know, so they disguised the whole place as an airport. We were like going down underground and it was all "okay, here's the concourse, here's the gate, we'll check your bags". At one point we stopped by some lockers and picked up our lightsabers. Uhh, you know. Eventually we got to the room where the big showdown was supposed to happen, and it was a big stadium, like a basketball arena, but we couldn't fight yet, because a girls' college basketball game was taking place. We could hear the announcer saying "she's going up for a slam dunk, and... holy shit!" as the girl herself ended up in the basket somehow. But I was bummed because I knew I wasn't going to be asleep still when the fight happened, and I wanted to beat Darth Vader. Or whomever.
The interesting thing is, though, I had a real sense that time went all wonky. I knew that I was going to wake up before the fight happened, even before I woke up. It's like at the very instant I woke up, a huge flurry of brainwave activity happened, and I only later "remembered" it as a sequential story. Maybe that's what people mean when they say time is just an illusion, or that it's as bendy as the other three dimensions, or that the afterlife is outside time, or something.
Topic shift.
I got hit with a blast of rampant existentialism on my bike on the way home. I was feeling particularly like "what's the point of existing?" (oh my god disclaimer don't get me wrong i'm not all depressed and jumping off a bridge or something oh my god) I mean, I used to say "my life exists to make things better for other people," but now I'm not so sure. I was all about "making life better" but in a pretty impersonal way, like if I could develop better routing algorithms to get food to starving people or something. All this "I want to do great things," it's all kind of just so I can feel better than thou, or at least as good as thou. Not that I don't want to do great things; just... it seems like the whole mountain climber thing, like I'd have to keep climbing higher and higher mountains and I'd never be satisfied, so why bother climbing any mountains at all?
You know "It's a Wonderful Life"? Where, if this guy never lived, his town would be Pottersville, taken over by the rich evil tycoon, and his brother would be dead, or whatever? If he never lived, things would be worse. If I never lived, well, things would be different. My spot at CMU, say, would have been taken by another kid. So my friends there would have met another person instead of me; maybe they would have gotten along better, maybe worse, whatever. Some people might be sadder because they had one less fun guy to goof around with; some people might be happier because they got one of my roles in a play or they weren't shunned by me so hard. Google Analytics might not be so pretty. Or maybe it would have; Google's not hurting for applicants, they could have just hired someone else.
Nevermind, it's the whole voting argument. "You have to vote, it really does make things better!" Similarly, "it's good that I exist, I really do make things better!" I've convinced myself of both of these at one point, and I've convinced myself unimpeachably, like "if you ever think these things are false, you're wrong", or at least "you better really rewire your head really friggin hard if you're going to try to convince me that those are false, and to do so, you'll probably be moving in a direction that you don't like, so you probably shouldn't."
Pity party pity party! Maybe it is. Maybe I should accept more sympathy, and give out more sympathy too. My party line has been, if you're feeling like this, "shape the fuck up, Charlie Brown" (inside joke with, err, one friend from high school) but maybe that's not a good way to live.
To take one more mental leap which makes perfect sense to me but might just be so many words on my blog, this line of thought leads me to something I've wondered for a while. How do you be loving to everyone but still maintain the ability to pick and choose your friends? If I read the stuff on this blog post, and I didn't know who wrote it, I would say that's fine for that person, I'm sorry he feels that way, and all the same I don't want to be this person's friend because he sounds whiny. But if one of my friends wrote it, I mean, I would feel supportive to my friend. It's not like I'd want to end our friendship. But if he/she was always like this, maybe I would. So I don't love that friend unconditionally. But if I did love everyone unconditionally, like you're supposed to, how could I make time for the people I like the most? How could I even like anyone the most?
Topic shift.
I might sign up for Twitter.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Blogging: way down; a lot of great food; and the Hunger Challenge.
Things have been quiet around here. First I decided to cut out politics, because it wasn't doing me much good. (for the record, I feel a lot better politics-free.) Then I decided to cut out even food-politics, because that'll all go in another site I make someday. (I'm making slow but sure progress.) Then I slowed way down on that because I realized I don't have to save the world immediately. I'm working on the whole happiness thing, but when I say that, it sounds like I'm just moving right along like I have been the rest of my life. It's different; I feel like I'm doing better than before. A few key points, and I'll try to make it not sound sappy, because it doesn't feel sappy to me, but it might come across that way: (if you want, jump down for info about Portland or the Hunger Challenge.)
- I am a great person. Self-worth is intrinsic. It doesn't depend on what you think of me, or what dumb things I do.
- To believe that, I have to believe that YOU are a great person too, whoever you are, and that's a little harder for me to believe, but I'm getting there. One hangup is "if everyone is so great, how can you decide not to hang out with someone?" I don't mean the people who are mean to you (it's easy to avoid them; just say "I like you but you don't like me, that's your problem"), but what about the people who are kind of annoying? The people who might want to like you, and you can like them back as a person, but you don't want to be around them for whatever reason? This seems like a minor problem. It's just a "social graces" sort of thing.
- So I'm already great, so I don't have to save the world in order to be worth other people's affection, so there's less pressure. Even if all I do is go to work to earn some money, then spend it on housing and food, and you know, love people n'at, that's enough.
- Given that there's less pressure, it's not so bad to just take time out sometimes and say "I am having fun now!" or "that tree is pretty" or "boy it feels nice outside." (formerly I would sometimes think "man, I hate how it feels nice outside, because it makes me feel guilty to be inside"... that is ridiculous.)
- Oh, speaking of how I'm great, I have feelings and stuff. Yeah, really, even though I joke about being a robot because I dig the logics a lot, I am an all-around human being. 's true. So I can use those sometimes. That's okay.
- Plus Buddhism! I got in a traffic jam today. There was nothing wrong with that. I was in no big hurry to get home. I was with Sarah and Daniel. So I tried mostly successfully not to attach suffering to it, and that worked pretty well.
- and by the way, I can be happy. All this idealism isn't just another failed bid that will end in disillusionment. My life is pretty good.
So day-to-day life is more or less the same as it ever was, but I'm shifting my focus bit by bit. I'll keep you posted. When I reach enlightenment and attain complete control over mind and body, I'll post "omg totes levitating right now" or something.
Speaking of life, went to Portland this weekend! Stayed with Daniel's friend Henry and his roommates. Cool folks! Cool city! Cool comic convention! (does it make me a super dork if I went to two comic conventions in the same month?) But this was less nerdstock and more "I draw a comic online." I liked the comics here more. Also, unrelatedly, cool Saturday Market!
And cool food. Man. We ate at four places there, all of them stellar for 22-year-oldsmen. First night: Hopworks Urban Brewery, with a great Belgian-style Dubbel for $3.50. (also a "pint of pretzels", which means three meter-long freshly-baked pretzels in a beer stein.) Second day: Pine State Biscuits, which will clog your arteries for sure, but man biscuits are maybe my favorite white bread. Plus, a lot of interesting-sounding topics for said biscuits. (big sandwich plus coffee: like $9) Second evening: Saburo's sushi. The biggest and tastiest nigiri I've ever seen, and rolls the size of small burritos. Had a great squid nigiri (2 pcs, $3.50) and an eel roll. (thing I've unfortunately found out since: you shouldn't eat unagi (freshwater eel). another site agrees. anago is a "maybe". if you just order "eel" and you don't know which one you're getting, it's probably unagi.) Third day: brunch at Gravy. Literally enough food for two generous meals. Three would be reasonable. Including super good french toast and a scramble with tofu.
In short, thanks Henry for the choices, thanks Portland for being cool, I'll have to visit again. (but nope, not moving there, I heart Seattle, which is nice)
Finally, it's time for the Hunger Challenge! The plan: to eat for $7/day. To see what it's like to only get $7 food stamps and have to feed yourself with it. My viewpoint: whatever! That's easy! One rule I've made in addition to the other rules: I can use existing food that I own, if I count out how much it would cost. I'll let you know how it goes. (and hey, join me if you want!)
(for the record, I think it's ridiculous that having $7/day for food is the "hunger challenge." sheesh. how about a handful of rice per day? that's hungry and challenging.)
Finally finally, in the category of things that make me happy and corporations not always being evil, shouts out to Cigna, for covering me for one doctor's appt I made without realizing it would not be covered (b/c it was in cleveland, derf) and to Zipcar, for not hitting us with a late charge when we drove back late and another person had rented the same car.
- I am a great person. Self-worth is intrinsic. It doesn't depend on what you think of me, or what dumb things I do.
- To believe that, I have to believe that YOU are a great person too, whoever you are, and that's a little harder for me to believe, but I'm getting there. One hangup is "if everyone is so great, how can you decide not to hang out with someone?" I don't mean the people who are mean to you (it's easy to avoid them; just say "I like you but you don't like me, that's your problem"), but what about the people who are kind of annoying? The people who might want to like you, and you can like them back as a person, but you don't want to be around them for whatever reason? This seems like a minor problem. It's just a "social graces" sort of thing.
- So I'm already great, so I don't have to save the world in order to be worth other people's affection, so there's less pressure. Even if all I do is go to work to earn some money, then spend it on housing and food, and you know, love people n'at, that's enough.
- Given that there's less pressure, it's not so bad to just take time out sometimes and say "I am having fun now!" or "that tree is pretty" or "boy it feels nice outside." (formerly I would sometimes think "man, I hate how it feels nice outside, because it makes me feel guilty to be inside"... that is ridiculous.)
- Oh, speaking of how I'm great, I have feelings and stuff. Yeah, really, even though I joke about being a robot because I dig the logics a lot, I am an all-around human being. 's true. So I can use those sometimes. That's okay.
- Plus Buddhism! I got in a traffic jam today. There was nothing wrong with that. I was in no big hurry to get home. I was with Sarah and Daniel. So I tried mostly successfully not to attach suffering to it, and that worked pretty well.
- and by the way, I can be happy. All this idealism isn't just another failed bid that will end in disillusionment. My life is pretty good.
So day-to-day life is more or less the same as it ever was, but I'm shifting my focus bit by bit. I'll keep you posted. When I reach enlightenment and attain complete control over mind and body, I'll post "omg totes levitating right now" or something.
Speaking of life, went to Portland this weekend! Stayed with Daniel's friend Henry and his roommates. Cool folks! Cool city! Cool comic convention! (does it make me a super dork if I went to two comic conventions in the same month?) But this was less nerdstock and more "I draw a comic online." I liked the comics here more. Also, unrelatedly, cool Saturday Market!
And cool food. Man. We ate at four places there, all of them stellar for 22-year-oldsmen. First night: Hopworks Urban Brewery, with a great Belgian-style Dubbel for $3.50. (also a "pint of pretzels", which means three meter-long freshly-baked pretzels in a beer stein.) Second day: Pine State Biscuits, which will clog your arteries for sure, but man biscuits are maybe my favorite white bread. Plus, a lot of interesting-sounding topics for said biscuits. (big sandwich plus coffee: like $9) Second evening: Saburo's sushi. The biggest and tastiest nigiri I've ever seen, and rolls the size of small burritos. Had a great squid nigiri (2 pcs, $3.50) and an eel roll. (thing I've unfortunately found out since: you shouldn't eat unagi (freshwater eel). another site agrees. anago is a "maybe". if you just order "eel" and you don't know which one you're getting, it's probably unagi.) Third day: brunch at Gravy. Literally enough food for two generous meals. Three would be reasonable. Including super good french toast and a scramble with tofu.
In short, thanks Henry for the choices, thanks Portland for being cool, I'll have to visit again. (but nope, not moving there, I heart Seattle, which is nice)
Finally, it's time for the Hunger Challenge! The plan: to eat for $7/day. To see what it's like to only get $7 food stamps and have to feed yourself with it. My viewpoint: whatever! That's easy! One rule I've made in addition to the other rules: I can use existing food that I own, if I count out how much it would cost. I'll let you know how it goes. (and hey, join me if you want!)
(for the record, I think it's ridiculous that having $7/day for food is the "hunger challenge." sheesh. how about a handful of rice per day? that's hungry and challenging.)
Finally finally, in the category of things that make me happy and corporations not always being evil, shouts out to Cigna, for covering me for one doctor's appt I made without realizing it would not be covered (b/c it was in cleveland, derf) and to Zipcar, for not hitting us with a late charge when we drove back late and another person had rented the same car.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
That I haven't posted photos yet from last weekend or even elaborated much besides "I bought a coat and then last weekend was cool."
So Seattle has conventions, you know, like big cities do, right. Last weekend was the Emerald City Comic Con. Sarah and Daniel suggested that we go, because they've read a couple of the webcomic authors who will be there. (I have since too, and I like them too)
So it'll be like nerdfest, right? (I mean, I say this in a self-mocking way, not like "I'm going to go hang out with all the nerrrrddss"... even going to a comic con makes you lose all rights to make fun of people for nerding. Besides, who am I trying to kid? Thank god there are no pictures online of when I went to see the Matrix Reloaded dressed as Agent Smith. On second thought, that was hella fun, and I don't care what you say.) Now, when you're going to a nerdfest, you can act all hip and above-it-all and like "oh, I'm just cultural slumming" (or "I'm going LARPing to write a story about it"), or you can geek the hell out. And Sarah and I, we go big or go home.
Now what's nerdy that we like? Hint: it's British, the villains have plungers for arms, and the spaceship is a police box.
Yes, we were Doctor Who and Rose Tyler. Sadly, Jared has most of the good pictures. In the meantime, here's this:
EDIT: hi-res here. you know, because you'll probably want a poster of this for your wall.
So Seattle has conventions, you know, like big cities do, right. Last weekend was the Emerald City Comic Con. Sarah and Daniel suggested that we go, because they've read a couple of the webcomic authors who will be there. (I have since too, and I like them too)
So it'll be like nerdfest, right? (I mean, I say this in a self-mocking way, not like "I'm going to go hang out with all the nerrrrddss"... even going to a comic con makes you lose all rights to make fun of people for nerding. Besides, who am I trying to kid? Thank god there are no pictures online of when I went to see the Matrix Reloaded dressed as Agent Smith. On second thought, that was hella fun, and I don't care what you say.) Now, when you're going to a nerdfest, you can act all hip and above-it-all and like "oh, I'm just cultural slumming" (or "I'm going LARPing to write a story about it"), or you can geek the hell out. And Sarah and I, we go big or go home.
Now what's nerdy that we like? Hint: it's British, the villains have plungers for arms, and the spaceship is a police box.
Yes, we were Doctor Who and Rose Tyler. Sadly, Jared has most of the good pictures. In the meantime, here's this:
EDIT: hi-res here. you know, because you'll probably want a poster of this for your wall.
Monday, April 06, 2009
A coat story, in which I posit 10 as the next funny number after 3
On Saturday Sarah and I set out to find a coat. A trench coat, really. Any long brown coat would do. A suit would be nice but not necessary, cheap Converse All-stars would be nice too but we knew where to find those so no problem, but the trench coat was the tricky one. I had done some investigation beforehand and found maybe like 12 long coats at the Value Village, but they were all way too big and not the right style, so I didn't buy any. I figured I'd spend about $20 at a thrift store somewhere.
So we started at the Crossroads Trendy Resale Shop near my house. No long coats. Up to the U District (where soulja boy and electric six hang out) to the Buffalo Exchange Trendy Resale Shop. Again, no long coats, but some pants that looked promising. Over to the Red Light Vintage and Resale Shop; some kinda neat suits but they were priced at like $100-150 and had rips and stuff. Goodwill had a similar lack of long coats. Argh! Despair starts to worm its dirty little fingers into our minds. Express bus downtown to the Ross Discount Clothes store; no winter coats. Out of season. Duh. H&M Trendy New Clothes: again, out of season.
At this point, we are standing outside Nordstrom. Well hey, a department store, right? They'll have some coats, anyway, even if they're out of my price range. We waltz in, past the pianoman (because you see it is classy), down to the men's department, and I stride confidently up to a salesman and proclaim "I would like a trench coat!" He points me over to the wall a little bit like the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. Aha! Look at those coats! Perfect! And now, mind you, my price range had crept up steadily with each failure, from $20 to $40, to $60, and was at this point pushing $80.
I pick a coat and look at the price tag. Eight hundred ninety five dollars! Harh! I am off by an entire order of magnitude! This is funny! Because, you see, had the price been $100, I would have bought it; $200, I would have wishy-washed a lot; $500, 'fraid not. But being off by a factor of 10: that's funny.
The thrilling conclusion: we leave, wander around and look for some more thrift stores that aren't there because they're not the best at making sure their Google Maps listings are up-to-date, we almost fight, Sarah suggests we go to Macy's, I say no way they won't have anything we want for sure, she says let's try anyway, I agree to take a quick look, I ask a man while she looks around, the man says they have no coats but Sarah finds some anyway, there are exactly three styles left on a clearance rack and exactly one coat that fits a man as small-chested as I, and that coat is the brilliant shining paragon of coat-that-I-wanted for 75% off and I walk home $100 poorer but 1000% more awesome the next day.
What happened the next day? Stay tuned, dear reader...
So we started at the Crossroads Trendy Resale Shop near my house. No long coats. Up to the U District (where soulja boy and electric six hang out) to the Buffalo Exchange Trendy Resale Shop. Again, no long coats, but some pants that looked promising. Over to the Red Light Vintage and Resale Shop; some kinda neat suits but they were priced at like $100-150 and had rips and stuff. Goodwill had a similar lack of long coats. Argh! Despair starts to worm its dirty little fingers into our minds. Express bus downtown to the Ross Discount Clothes store; no winter coats. Out of season. Duh. H&M Trendy New Clothes: again, out of season.
At this point, we are standing outside Nordstrom. Well hey, a department store, right? They'll have some coats, anyway, even if they're out of my price range. We waltz in, past the pianoman (because you see it is classy), down to the men's department, and I stride confidently up to a salesman and proclaim "I would like a trench coat!" He points me over to the wall a little bit like the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. Aha! Look at those coats! Perfect! And now, mind you, my price range had crept up steadily with each failure, from $20 to $40, to $60, and was at this point pushing $80.
I pick a coat and look at the price tag. Eight hundred ninety five dollars! Harh! I am off by an entire order of magnitude! This is funny! Because, you see, had the price been $100, I would have bought it; $200, I would have wishy-washed a lot; $500, 'fraid not. But being off by a factor of 10: that's funny.
The thrilling conclusion: we leave, wander around and look for some more thrift stores that aren't there because they're not the best at making sure their Google Maps listings are up-to-date, we almost fight, Sarah suggests we go to Macy's, I say no way they won't have anything we want for sure, she says let's try anyway, I agree to take a quick look, I ask a man while she looks around, the man says they have no coats but Sarah finds some anyway, there are exactly three styles left on a clearance rack and exactly one coat that fits a man as small-chested as I, and that coat is the brilliant shining paragon of coat-that-I-wanted for 75% off and I walk home $100 poorer but 1000% more awesome the next day.
What happened the next day? Stay tuned, dear reader...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Umm... other good things?
Spurred on by encouraging friends, here are some more things that are good:
Truckasaurus. (warning: myspace burns your eyes and is loud) If you can deal with the occasional Gameboy, you might like this. Try "Ain't No Danbo Copy Remix".
Owls. (warning: this is the creepiest thing on the internet.) But I actually find it kind of cute. And creepy.
Biking? Sorry to be a broken record here. Sometimes I don't enjoy biking and it's just transportation and a trip to the gym like everyone else grumbles and does, but sometimes it's quite nice. Today was the latter.
Seaweed and fancy mushrooms and brown rice. Cooking for people who don't mind if you take a long time.
Oh! I know. My job. It's great! Even when you spend all day fixing a bug that's not really a bug because it works on every browser except yours. It's just "make a cool thing" for a living.
Why God Won't Go Away. Have I talked about this book yet? It's super good. I don't want to get all into it now, but the thing I got out of it is: nirvana/ecstasy/moksha/whatever is actually an observable mental state, and people can get there.
This is all sort of working. I can kind of deal with the fact that life is pretty good. That's an improvement. And I can deal with the fact that I'm already good enough for anything or anyone, and that I don't have to do anything else amazing to prove myself.
And, speaking of good things, I'm coming to Pittsburgh the week of May 11-17. If you are reading this, I probably really want to see you. Will you be around?
Truckasaurus. (warning: myspace burns your eyes and is loud) If you can deal with the occasional Gameboy, you might like this. Try "Ain't No Danbo Copy Remix".
Owls. (warning: this is the creepiest thing on the internet.) But I actually find it kind of cute. And creepy.
Biking? Sorry to be a broken record here. Sometimes I don't enjoy biking and it's just transportation and a trip to the gym like everyone else grumbles and does, but sometimes it's quite nice. Today was the latter.
Seaweed and fancy mushrooms and brown rice. Cooking for people who don't mind if you take a long time.
Oh! I know. My job. It's great! Even when you spend all day fixing a bug that's not really a bug because it works on every browser except yours. It's just "make a cool thing" for a living.
Why God Won't Go Away. Have I talked about this book yet? It's super good. I don't want to get all into it now, but the thing I got out of it is: nirvana/ecstasy/moksha/whatever is actually an observable mental state, and people can get there.
This is all sort of working. I can kind of deal with the fact that life is pretty good. That's an improvement. And I can deal with the fact that I'm already good enough for anything or anyone, and that I don't have to do anything else amazing to prove myself.
And, speaking of good things, I'm coming to Pittsburgh the week of May 11-17. If you are reading this, I probably really want to see you. Will you be around?
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Other things that made me happy over the last couple days
Don't worry, this won't become a habit. The last thing I'd want to be is cloying. But shut up, I have liked the following things:
Dinner last night at Quinn's. I mean, a fancy restaurant, right? (but still in the "very good beer" category, not the "wine" category, and naturally pretty hip- welcome to capitol hill.) It was great. And I kept going "hey, I am actually enjoying this." That was easy.
Shopping at the Pike Place Market today. This is consistently a thing that makes me happy. As such, I have built it into my routine.
Exploring the U district today. Wandering into a shop that sold gargoyles.
Fixing my bike fender with duct tape (because it's absolutely a job for duct tape, and that is the high point of my mechanical skills)
Going to St. Mark's Cathedral to listen to their men's choir. It was sort of chantey and sort of hymney, and filled with young people! How interesting.
Deciding to buy a gray pinstripe (or plain blue) suit, a brown overcoat, and converse all-stars; the nerdier among you may know why, and the rest of you don't get to learn exactly how nerdy I am.
My bed! Now taking up a lot less room. It's like I gained a bunch of square feet! PS. don't tell my mom and dad I have a mattress on the floor now. they think that I would do such a thing to save money and that I shouldn't because it's depressing. but the truth is, it's not to save money; I had a bed frame and it just took up a lot of space, and I really like the way it is now.
Worrying still (for example, I didn't cook at all this weekend! oh noes! my mad sauteing skills are atrophying as we speak!), but a little less. Hey, it's a process.
Dinner last night at Quinn's. I mean, a fancy restaurant, right? (but still in the "very good beer" category, not the "wine" category, and naturally pretty hip- welcome to capitol hill.) It was great. And I kept going "hey, I am actually enjoying this." That was easy.
Shopping at the Pike Place Market today. This is consistently a thing that makes me happy. As such, I have built it into my routine.
Exploring the U district today. Wandering into a shop that sold gargoyles.
Fixing my bike fender with duct tape (because it's absolutely a job for duct tape, and that is the high point of my mechanical skills)
Going to St. Mark's Cathedral to listen to their men's choir. It was sort of chantey and sort of hymney, and filled with young people! How interesting.
Deciding to buy a gray pinstripe (or plain blue) suit, a brown overcoat, and converse all-stars; the nerdier among you may know why, and the rest of you don't get to learn exactly how nerdy I am.
My bed! Now taking up a lot less room. It's like I gained a bunch of square feet! PS. don't tell my mom and dad I have a mattress on the floor now. they think that I would do such a thing to save money and that I shouldn't because it's depressing. but the truth is, it's not to save money; I had a bed frame and it just took up a lot of space, and I really like the way it is now.
Worrying still (for example, I didn't cook at all this weekend! oh noes! my mad sauteing skills are atrophying as we speak!), but a little less. Hey, it's a process.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The next life lesson
I remember hearing some theory in some psych class about how there are stages of life, and they're something like ages 0-1, 1-2, 3-5, 5-13, 13-21, 21-30, 30-50, 50-70, and 70-whatever. Or something like that. And in each stage there's a thing you have to learn. Like in the 0-1 stage, you have to learn trust. If your parents abandon you, and you don't ever trust them, you'll be kinda developmentally stunted. And like in 5-13, it's that you have to learn to play well with others. Whatever. Anyone know what this theory is called?
Anyway, I can buy it, except I don't think I agree with those age divisions, and I'm not sure how they know what the lesson is in each stage. Maybe it's different for every person. For example, in my 18-22 stage, those college years, the most important thing I learned was "if you're in a group of people and you're worried that you're not as cool as they, you're incorrect." and its sidekick, "if you're in a group of nerdy people and you're afraid that you're a nerd like they, you're also incorrect."
I think the lesson I learned in the 14-17 block was "you should be outgoing." (Note that these lessons are not necessarily the same for everyone.) You only learn these things after the fact.
Now I'm in the next block, the one that starts at age 22 and continues until... I don't know. Maybe you only learn when the group ends after it's over. And you only learn the lesson then too. But I have a sneaky suspicion that the lesson is going to be "it's okay if you don't save the world." Or maybe "become a complete person, not just an intellect." I've worked out the following things:
- You know, sex drugs rock and roll, the ol' dumb-hedonism is textbook not-worth-it
- I will not be remembered long after I die, even if I'm awesome (you know, Ozymandias n'at), so trying to be famous is not worth it
- I am a pretty good person, so trying to be like a superman because it will make women want me and men fear me is not worth it (this I believe probably 90%; sometimes I still want to be a superman but I'm mostly over it)
- Living "the good life" is not such a bad thing- I can easily go on to a pretty fulfilling job, a comfortable living place, hopefully a good family; these are not easy, but definitely doable if I work at them
So, you know, this is okay. The one niggling doubt is: what about all the other people? Living the good life is fine if everyone else had the opportunity to live the good life too. But they don't! Shouldn't I be helping them?
Anyway, besides that, I'm mostly doing okay. But I think the answer to that is sort of Beej's question to me a few months ago, which goes sort of like this: I want to be happy. How do I think I will be happy? By helping other people to be happy. But if I'm not happy, how will I show other people how to be happy?
Or the monks' response to the people's question "how are you helping others by just meditating all the time?" They're purifying themselves. How do you get rid of anger, clinging, attachment in the world if you're full of these things yourself? It is not so easy!
So anyway, point is, I'd still like to save the world, but becoming happy myself is also a worthwhile goal, and one that will be more fulfilling to me in the long run. If I'm anxious because I haven't saved the world, there are two ways out of that: save the world, or stop being anxious. The trick is, if I then save the world, I might still be anxious, because people who keep striving for more keep wanting more. Stop being anxious, stop wanting, stop craving, etc.
Enjoy the little things in life! Enjoy enjoyment! Don't be all like "well this is nice but I have to go do laundry."
I might start posting things that make me happy, either incidentally or on purpose. Studies show that makes you happier. Burmese people keep photo albums of good deeds that they have done, like if they're going to do a charity thing, they hire a photographer and save the photos so they can look back later and be all like "yeah I did a good thing."
So. Some things that made me happy today. Warning: you might find these very tiny and not worth reading and you might think I am dumb. If this frustrates you, the problem is with you, not me.
Trees have blossoms on them now.
When I rode my bike home I got in a good pace behind someone.
I had some mushrooms, onions, eggplant, and spinach. I put the onions in butter and let them fry until they were a little burnt, quite accidentally. They turned out tastier because of it. I think I "deglazed" them.
Sarah does not think I'm a basket case, even though my mind was going in circles and I was lost in thought a lot this evening.
I like these pants that I am wearing.
Anyway, I can buy it, except I don't think I agree with those age divisions, and I'm not sure how they know what the lesson is in each stage. Maybe it's different for every person. For example, in my 18-22 stage, those college years, the most important thing I learned was "if you're in a group of people and you're worried that you're not as cool as they, you're incorrect." and its sidekick, "if you're in a group of nerdy people and you're afraid that you're a nerd like they, you're also incorrect."
I think the lesson I learned in the 14-17 block was "you should be outgoing." (Note that these lessons are not necessarily the same for everyone.) You only learn these things after the fact.
Now I'm in the next block, the one that starts at age 22 and continues until... I don't know. Maybe you only learn when the group ends after it's over. And you only learn the lesson then too. But I have a sneaky suspicion that the lesson is going to be "it's okay if you don't save the world." Or maybe "become a complete person, not just an intellect." I've worked out the following things:
- You know, sex drugs rock and roll, the ol' dumb-hedonism is textbook not-worth-it
- I will not be remembered long after I die, even if I'm awesome (you know, Ozymandias n'at), so trying to be famous is not worth it
- I am a pretty good person, so trying to be like a superman because it will make women want me and men fear me is not worth it (this I believe probably 90%; sometimes I still want to be a superman but I'm mostly over it)
- Living "the good life" is not such a bad thing- I can easily go on to a pretty fulfilling job, a comfortable living place, hopefully a good family; these are not easy, but definitely doable if I work at them
So, you know, this is okay. The one niggling doubt is: what about all the other people? Living the good life is fine if everyone else had the opportunity to live the good life too. But they don't! Shouldn't I be helping them?
Anyway, besides that, I'm mostly doing okay. But I think the answer to that is sort of Beej's question to me a few months ago, which goes sort of like this: I want to be happy. How do I think I will be happy? By helping other people to be happy. But if I'm not happy, how will I show other people how to be happy?
Or the monks' response to the people's question "how are you helping others by just meditating all the time?" They're purifying themselves. How do you get rid of anger, clinging, attachment in the world if you're full of these things yourself? It is not so easy!
So anyway, point is, I'd still like to save the world, but becoming happy myself is also a worthwhile goal, and one that will be more fulfilling to me in the long run. If I'm anxious because I haven't saved the world, there are two ways out of that: save the world, or stop being anxious. The trick is, if I then save the world, I might still be anxious, because people who keep striving for more keep wanting more. Stop being anxious, stop wanting, stop craving, etc.
Enjoy the little things in life! Enjoy enjoyment! Don't be all like "well this is nice but I have to go do laundry."
I might start posting things that make me happy, either incidentally or on purpose. Studies show that makes you happier. Burmese people keep photo albums of good deeds that they have done, like if they're going to do a charity thing, they hire a photographer and save the photos so they can look back later and be all like "yeah I did a good thing."
So. Some things that made me happy today. Warning: you might find these very tiny and not worth reading and you might think I am dumb. If this frustrates you, the problem is with you, not me.
Trees have blossoms on them now.
When I rode my bike home I got in a good pace behind someone.
I had some mushrooms, onions, eggplant, and spinach. I put the onions in butter and let them fry until they were a little burnt, quite accidentally. They turned out tastier because of it. I think I "deglazed" them.
Sarah does not think I'm a basket case, even though my mind was going in circles and I was lost in thought a lot this evening.
I like these pants that I am wearing.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
I am so f***ing lost right now! India: the confusing list.
EDIT: censored the title. I'm okay with irritating my parents, but I remembered my grandma reads this too, and I think being a rebellious foul-mouthed young blogger is only funny about one generation up. Not that I think my grandma would shake her head in disapproval or anything. I guess it's just, the more you think about swear words, the more it's like a big deal to use them, and thanks to my parents, I think about them a lot now. It's like watching a Bruce Willis movie or something, and then after he shoots a dude, stopping the movie and sobbing because oh my god he's dead and his wife and kids will have to go on without him. My position on the issue of "swear words" (they're silly) still stands, but if people I care about are going to stop reading and wag their fingers at me, I mean, it's not worth fighting over.
ANYWAY, the sentence in question comes from a (super american) kid we saw in an alley in Varanasi. We had been wandering around a bit, vaguely trying to find our hotel, and apparently he had too. We made eye contact and it's like the whole charade just dropped, like he finally found someone who would understand not only his language but also his predicament, and the exasperation came tumbling out. Hope we pointed him in the right direction.
India was super confusing! Mostly in a fun way. Occasionally intriguing, or just plain old noteworthy. Here's a sampling:
- Addresses. You might think a hotel would have an address that you could tell a cab driver, who would then take you directly to that address. Wrongo! My hotel was at A27/1 Road No.1, Mahipalpur Extn, New Delhi. "Road No. 1"? It took us about five tries.
- Taximen let you share a taxi. Like it's Rs900 for the two of us to get from Guwahati to Shillong with one other passenger, but only Rs600 if there are two other passengers. (and even then, Indianmen sure don't pay the same price as whitemen.)
- All around Shillong, you can buy tickets for the daily sweepstakes. Here's how it works: twice a day, a whole bunch of guys shoot a whole bunch of arrows at a target. You bet on the last two digits of the number of arrows that stick in the target. Sadly, never saw this happen.
- At one point it got all muddy when we were walking on the road where some kids were working. So they built a rock bridge for us. Really, we can walk through the mud, it's okay! But, um, thanks anyway!
- Handwriting is held in higher esteem in India. And by that broad generalization, I mean I saw one guy with really great handwriting.
- We got white-person gawked a lot! Kids would say stuff to us. My conversations were decidedly one-sided; I'd just sorta go "khublei!" (which means hello, goodbye, have a good one, peace be with you, uh, a penny saved is a penny earned, red sky at morning sailors take warning, etc.) a lot.
- At the orphanage, we played games with the kids. I ended up playing pick-up sticks a lot. You can imagine it's difficult to agree on the rules when most of the players don't speak your language. And by that I mean they all speak Kid.
- If you have three pots, what would they be? Would one of them be a pressure cooker? In India, yes.
- Milk comes in a little pouch. That just kinda sits out. I mean, no fridge. So you boil it. Then it has a skin.
- In Kolkata, we went to the Kali temple. I explained how cool this was. But we were trying to put our shoes in the shoesplace (in every temple there is a shoesplace so you don't wear your shoes in the temple) and we got bamboozled by a fake shoeman. He asked us to put our shoes under a little corner of a store, so we did, and then he proceeded to take us for a tour. Hey, there's a Shiva lingam. Hey, there's a tree that's good for your family or whatever. Here's a flower, throw it at Kali. Here's a string that I'll tie around your wrist, more good luck. Now come over here and make a donation. Of course I "didn't have any money," so after some badgering, I was sent to set on a step and "meditate." But first I was asked to write my name, country, and the number 2100 in a book. Whatever, I'm not giving you money, I'll write whatever number you want. I soon found out they tried to use this "fact" to persuade Catie to "donate" because "look, Dan donated 2100 rupees." (of course she is too shrewd for this nonsense.)
- EDIT: As if our evening wasn't bewildering enough, we proceeded to wander around the darkened grounds of the Victoria Memorial, ignoring a groundskeeper who tried to tell us it was closed. We had heard tales of a "sound and light show", you see, and if there's anything better than viewing an old vainglorious British colonial-era monument in the middle of India, it's viewing the same* with bright lights and music. I guess. Er, we were bored? Anyway, we found our way in, sat in the rs20 "front" section (about 10 feet in front of the rs10 "back" section) among a bunch of oldmen, and were immediately blown away by a rollicking Caribbean-inspired tune called "I am Calcutta". Not only were the pictures of the accompanying slideshow taken in approximately 1970, the lyrics were inane. I mean, "I am the memory of years/ I am the laughter and tears/ I am Calcutta!" sort of inane. Then we snoozed through 45 minutes of a terribly Anglocentric history of Calcutta (with some bright lights) and got bitten by mosquitoes. All in all, well worth the price of admission.
* Like my use of "the same" there? We saw that all over India.
- Taking a domestic flight from Kolkata to Gaya, we had to fill out a "declaration of goods" form where we said we weren't carrying certain things. You know, money, guns, etc. And also cameras and "zipper pulls".
- Being white (and therefore, apparently just puking money all over the place) is weird. We wanted to take an autorickshaw somewhere in Bodh Gaya, I think it was. We saw one filling up with people and we figured we could share the ride, you know, because we could save 40 cents or something, but the point is, it'd be fun or authentic or something. So everyone started talking in Hindi and then the other passengers started to get out. Apparently he was going to boot them out and take us. We hastily explained, no, it's okay, please continue, you know, taking these people who were already in the car. Sheesh.
- And then in Varanasi, the aforementioned white dude who was soooo lost. He had started out looking for an internet cafe. We tried to point him to a shop owned by this guy who had an excellent marketing pitch: he stood outside, and as we passed, called out "Yes, madam, we do have internet here!"
- At one point we hit a dead end. Kids laughed at us.
- At a few other points, our way was blocked by a bull. I think the bull was laughing at us.
- Did I mention the kids playing Holi? So Holi is this holiday where you throw color at each other. It was on Wednesday. Starting about the Friday before, there were kids with colored water balloons out on the streets. I mean, these were super stainful- we each lost a pair of pants. Could be worse- we saw one dude just get pasted with a big green splotch on his back. Some had plain water balloons (and in fact Catie got walloped with one in a rickshaw), but still. For about four days, we were pretty frightened of kids.
- Train ride to Agra was fun. At one point, this friendly Muslim student joked that we couldn't speak English. "You're in India, you have to speak Hindi." We could not even say that we could not even say anything.
- Also, we got booted from our seats a couple times. We thought we were in the right place, but these Muslim students had our bunks, so we just took theirs (or so we thought), but then someone else arrived to claim them, and blah. Around 2AM a couple guys asked us some questions and then everyone started getting involved and duking it out in Hindi (this is a common occurrence)*. Eventually they got it figured out.
* At this point, Catie noticed the station we were in. "We're in Lucknow", she said. "Yeah," I said, "these guys seem like they can help us." SUPER PUN!
- When I got to Hemant and Gaurav's house, I went to take a shower. I had been out of shampoo for a while, but I thought, no problem, they'll have some. They did; it was called "Black Shine" and looked smooth, silky, and pitch black. I debated whether to use it, read up on how it would make your hair so beautifully black, and decided against it. Le sigh.
- According to everyone we talked to, there are two kinds of Holi colors: dry colors (in a powder) and "water colors", which are universally evil. Okay.
- Also, sometimes they call shorts "half-pants"!
- Things that are okay in India, or at least okay with Hemant and Gaurav, part 1: commenting on people's bodies. They've outright called Catie fat (ludicrous) and she was pretty excited to see if they would do the same to me. Nope: instead they told me I needed to work on my figure. You know, buff up a little bit. I'm too skinny. (to be fair, I'm pretty skinny. However, I absolutely don't mind.)
- Things that are okay in India, or at least okay with Hemant and Gaurav, part 2: the word "chink". As in, "the people up in the Northeast are kind of, what would you say, chinky, right? They look a little bit Chinese?" Even better: Saturday nights at the "disc" (disco) are "Chinky Night."
- Even better sales pitch than the Internet guy: "Hello. Beard?" (from a sidewalk beard salesman.)
- Finally, on our last day in Delhi, everywhere we end up it's all fancy and posh. We just wanted some food! Eventually we asked a guy where was good to eat and he sent us to Pandara Rd. At Pandara Rd. there are about 4 buildings, each of which has a restaurant. We see some Indian guys going into one, so we follow them. It turns out it's called "Havemore restaurant", it's super fancy (like white tablecloths), it's super expensive (like $5 each!), and the stereo features a Celine Dion soundalike singing "Run" by Snow Patrol.
- Have I mentioned what a mess Indian pop music is? I mean, the Indian pop music that is actually Indian is cool. But the American pop they get is abysmal. It's like the post-grunge of 5 years ago (hello, Nickelback and Three Doors Down) with the occasional odd bootleg mashup (like that mix of "Wonderwall" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", or "In the end" by Linkin Park plus some crummy Garage-Band drum beat).
- Going to a coffeeshop in the fully middle-class Defense Colony Market: I order an Americano. The response is "With Irish flavoring?" as if that is the most natural thing in the world. "Of course!"
- And then, some 30 muddled hours later, I board a bus from Sea-tac airport to my home, only to hear some lady talking loudly on the phone, dropping not only an "I'm gonna whoop your ass", but also a "You're gonna get a Whopper shoved up your butt." It's great to be home.
ANYWAY, the sentence in question comes from a (super american) kid we saw in an alley in Varanasi. We had been wandering around a bit, vaguely trying to find our hotel, and apparently he had too. We made eye contact and it's like the whole charade just dropped, like he finally found someone who would understand not only his language but also his predicament, and the exasperation came tumbling out. Hope we pointed him in the right direction.
India was super confusing! Mostly in a fun way. Occasionally intriguing, or just plain old noteworthy. Here's a sampling:
- Addresses. You might think a hotel would have an address that you could tell a cab driver, who would then take you directly to that address. Wrongo! My hotel was at A27/1 Road No.1, Mahipalpur Extn, New Delhi. "Road No. 1"? It took us about five tries.
- Taximen let you share a taxi. Like it's Rs900 for the two of us to get from Guwahati to Shillong with one other passenger, but only Rs600 if there are two other passengers. (and even then, Indianmen sure don't pay the same price as whitemen.)
- All around Shillong, you can buy tickets for the daily sweepstakes. Here's how it works: twice a day, a whole bunch of guys shoot a whole bunch of arrows at a target. You bet on the last two digits of the number of arrows that stick in the target. Sadly, never saw this happen.
- At one point it got all muddy when we were walking on the road where some kids were working. So they built a rock bridge for us. Really, we can walk through the mud, it's okay! But, um, thanks anyway!
- Handwriting is held in higher esteem in India. And by that broad generalization, I mean I saw one guy with really great handwriting.
- We got white-person gawked a lot! Kids would say stuff to us. My conversations were decidedly one-sided; I'd just sorta go "khublei!" (which means hello, goodbye, have a good one, peace be with you, uh, a penny saved is a penny earned, red sky at morning sailors take warning, etc.) a lot.
- At the orphanage, we played games with the kids. I ended up playing pick-up sticks a lot. You can imagine it's difficult to agree on the rules when most of the players don't speak your language. And by that I mean they all speak Kid.
- If you have three pots, what would they be? Would one of them be a pressure cooker? In India, yes.
- Milk comes in a little pouch. That just kinda sits out. I mean, no fridge. So you boil it. Then it has a skin.
- In Kolkata, we went to the Kali temple. I explained how cool this was. But we were trying to put our shoes in the shoesplace (in every temple there is a shoesplace so you don't wear your shoes in the temple) and we got bamboozled by a fake shoeman. He asked us to put our shoes under a little corner of a store, so we did, and then he proceeded to take us for a tour. Hey, there's a Shiva lingam. Hey, there's a tree that's good for your family or whatever. Here's a flower, throw it at Kali. Here's a string that I'll tie around your wrist, more good luck. Now come over here and make a donation. Of course I "didn't have any money," so after some badgering, I was sent to set on a step and "meditate." But first I was asked to write my name, country, and the number 2100 in a book. Whatever, I'm not giving you money, I'll write whatever number you want. I soon found out they tried to use this "fact" to persuade Catie to "donate" because "look, Dan donated 2100 rupees." (of course she is too shrewd for this nonsense.)
- EDIT: As if our evening wasn't bewildering enough, we proceeded to wander around the darkened grounds of the Victoria Memorial, ignoring a groundskeeper who tried to tell us it was closed. We had heard tales of a "sound and light show", you see, and if there's anything better than viewing an old vainglorious British colonial-era monument in the middle of India, it's viewing the same* with bright lights and music. I guess. Er, we were bored? Anyway, we found our way in, sat in the rs20 "front" section (about 10 feet in front of the rs10 "back" section) among a bunch of oldmen, and were immediately blown away by a rollicking Caribbean-inspired tune called "I am Calcutta". Not only were the pictures of the accompanying slideshow taken in approximately 1970, the lyrics were inane. I mean, "I am the memory of years/ I am the laughter and tears/ I am Calcutta!" sort of inane. Then we snoozed through 45 minutes of a terribly Anglocentric history of Calcutta (with some bright lights) and got bitten by mosquitoes. All in all, well worth the price of admission.
* Like my use of "the same" there? We saw that all over India.
- Taking a domestic flight from Kolkata to Gaya, we had to fill out a "declaration of goods" form where we said we weren't carrying certain things. You know, money, guns, etc. And also cameras and "zipper pulls".
- Being white (and therefore, apparently just puking money all over the place) is weird. We wanted to take an autorickshaw somewhere in Bodh Gaya, I think it was. We saw one filling up with people and we figured we could share the ride, you know, because we could save 40 cents or something, but the point is, it'd be fun or authentic or something. So everyone started talking in Hindi and then the other passengers started to get out. Apparently he was going to boot them out and take us. We hastily explained, no, it's okay, please continue, you know, taking these people who were already in the car. Sheesh.
- And then in Varanasi, the aforementioned white dude who was soooo lost. He had started out looking for an internet cafe. We tried to point him to a shop owned by this guy who had an excellent marketing pitch: he stood outside, and as we passed, called out "Yes, madam, we do have internet here!"
- At one point we hit a dead end. Kids laughed at us.
- At a few other points, our way was blocked by a bull. I think the bull was laughing at us.
- Did I mention the kids playing Holi? So Holi is this holiday where you throw color at each other. It was on Wednesday. Starting about the Friday before, there were kids with colored water balloons out on the streets. I mean, these were super stainful- we each lost a pair of pants. Could be worse- we saw one dude just get pasted with a big green splotch on his back. Some had plain water balloons (and in fact Catie got walloped with one in a rickshaw), but still. For about four days, we were pretty frightened of kids.
- Train ride to Agra was fun. At one point, this friendly Muslim student joked that we couldn't speak English. "You're in India, you have to speak Hindi." We could not even say that we could not even say anything.
- Also, we got booted from our seats a couple times. We thought we were in the right place, but these Muslim students had our bunks, so we just took theirs (or so we thought), but then someone else arrived to claim them, and blah. Around 2AM a couple guys asked us some questions and then everyone started getting involved and duking it out in Hindi (this is a common occurrence)*. Eventually they got it figured out.
* At this point, Catie noticed the station we were in. "We're in Lucknow", she said. "Yeah," I said, "these guys seem like they can help us." SUPER PUN!
- When I got to Hemant and Gaurav's house, I went to take a shower. I had been out of shampoo for a while, but I thought, no problem, they'll have some. They did; it was called "Black Shine" and looked smooth, silky, and pitch black. I debated whether to use it, read up on how it would make your hair so beautifully black, and decided against it. Le sigh.
- According to everyone we talked to, there are two kinds of Holi colors: dry colors (in a powder) and "water colors", which are universally evil. Okay.
- Also, sometimes they call shorts "half-pants"!
- Things that are okay in India, or at least okay with Hemant and Gaurav, part 1: commenting on people's bodies. They've outright called Catie fat (ludicrous) and she was pretty excited to see if they would do the same to me. Nope: instead they told me I needed to work on my figure. You know, buff up a little bit. I'm too skinny. (to be fair, I'm pretty skinny. However, I absolutely don't mind.)
- Things that are okay in India, or at least okay with Hemant and Gaurav, part 2: the word "chink". As in, "the people up in the Northeast are kind of, what would you say, chinky, right? They look a little bit Chinese?" Even better: Saturday nights at the "disc" (disco) are "Chinky Night."
- Even better sales pitch than the Internet guy: "Hello. Beard?" (from a sidewalk beard salesman.)
- Finally, on our last day in Delhi, everywhere we end up it's all fancy and posh. We just wanted some food! Eventually we asked a guy where was good to eat and he sent us to Pandara Rd. At Pandara Rd. there are about 4 buildings, each of which has a restaurant. We see some Indian guys going into one, so we follow them. It turns out it's called "Havemore restaurant", it's super fancy (like white tablecloths), it's super expensive (like $5 each!), and the stereo features a Celine Dion soundalike singing "Run" by Snow Patrol.
- Have I mentioned what a mess Indian pop music is? I mean, the Indian pop music that is actually Indian is cool. But the American pop they get is abysmal. It's like the post-grunge of 5 years ago (hello, Nickelback and Three Doors Down) with the occasional odd bootleg mashup (like that mix of "Wonderwall" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", or "In the end" by Linkin Park plus some crummy Garage-Band drum beat).
- Going to a coffeeshop in the fully middle-class Defense Colony Market: I order an Americano. The response is "With Irish flavoring?" as if that is the most natural thing in the world. "Of course!"
- And then, some 30 muddled hours later, I board a bus from Sea-tac airport to my home, only to hear some lady talking loudly on the phone, dropping not only an "I'm gonna whoop your ass", but also a "You're gonna get a Whopper shoved up your butt." It's great to be home.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Happy Journey! or, India: The Awesome List
"Happy Journey" is a thing they say a lot in India. (Well, as much as we say "Bon Voyage", I guess.)
And so it was! A whirlwind tour through 8 cities in 13 days, in 3 parts. First, I met up with Catie in Guwahati and took a taxi to Shillong, where I hung out with her host family in Shillong, their parents in the nearby village of Kharang, and the orphanage she's working at (also in Kharang). Next, Catie and I set off for a quick trip through Kolkata, Bodh Gaya, Varanasi, Sarnath, and Agra, tourist-style. Finally, we ended up in the outskirts of Gurgaon, just south of Delhi, where we spent a few days with her friends there and a couple days in Delhi itself.
India is awesome, gross, enlightening, and confusing. We decided that we'd both be happy if the "awesome" or "confusing" list won, and indeed, the latter did. So I'll share with you the awesome list now, interspersed with the gross and enlightening lists as appropriate. And I'll split it into three parts, so it's a little shorter for you to read, but so I don't have to lose out on completeness.
AWESOME LIST (aka a quick summary of our trip), which I will split into three parts:
PART THE FIRST: Northeast India
And so it was! A whirlwind tour through 8 cities in 13 days, in 3 parts. First, I met up with Catie in Guwahati and took a taxi to Shillong, where I hung out with her host family in Shillong, their parents in the nearby village of Kharang, and the orphanage she's working at (also in Kharang). Next, Catie and I set off for a quick trip through Kolkata, Bodh Gaya, Varanasi, Sarnath, and Agra, tourist-style. Finally, we ended up in the outskirts of Gurgaon, just south of Delhi, where we spent a few days with her friends there and a couple days in Delhi itself.
India is awesome, gross, enlightening, and confusing. We decided that we'd both be happy if the "awesome" or "confusing" list won, and indeed, the latter did. So I'll share with you the awesome list now, interspersed with the gross and enlightening lists as appropriate. And I'll split it into three parts, so it's a little shorter for you to read, but so I don't have to lose out on completeness.
AWESOME LIST (aka a quick summary of our trip), which I will split into three parts:
PART THE FIRST: Northeast India
- flying to India. It was nice, even! I had two flights, with a 3 hour layover; total travel time maybe 24 hours? In the first one, they had the little seat-back movie screens, and those make a heck of a lot of difference. You almost want the flight to take longer so you can watch more movies. I watched "Finding Nemo" and "Speed", two movies I had really missed out on. Plus, first flight I've ever had free beer!
- more interesting travel: taxiing through hilly Assam and Meghalaya (with a stop for tea, of course)
- staying with the wonderfully kind and hospitable family of Barri and Nangroi, although Nangroi wasn't there; it was sort of the family of Barri, Dari, Khlur, Banjop, and many others who would be there sometimes or not. They were super nice! Apparently I was too tall for their spare bed, so they made me a bed on the floor. I was kinda the tallest person in the entire state.
- the markets of Shillong. Well, the markets of anywhere, you know? Sprawling webs of narrow alleys, unusual things for sale, uh, fake American goods. Whatever. Markets are neat and Shillong's were no exception.
- taking a sumo to Kharang. A sumo is a big van-truck that seats about 12, which means it seats about 24. It leaves at 1:00, except it usually doesn't actually leave until 2:00, but once in a while it leaves at 12:00. We got there at 1 and it left at 2. Which gave us time to sample...
- Indian sweets. It's a thing. Sweet shops are abundant, but instead of stocking prewrapped candy, they sell freshly-made really interesting stuff. And, you know, for like Rs5 each. ($1 = Rs50) We had some ladoo and barfi there, but neither was as good as the soan papdi we had a couple other places. I'm a fan.
- the countryside around Kharang. It's some really ideal combination of rocks, hills, trees, rivers (or riverbeds), and crops. And the occasional mysterious prehistoric monolithic stone. No lies.
- the family in Kharang that we stayed with. Mei and Pa, we called them; Nangroi's parents. (or Barri's? I don't know) Again, super nice. Made us food and tea all the time. I felt like a lazy guest in these places, but they insisted they didn't need help with anything.
- Cell phone internet. Do you have an iphone or something? Can you "tether" it to your computer? (connect your computer to the internet through your phone when your phone gets 'net but your computer doesn't) No, I can't either. But people in rural India can! American phone companies, get on that.
- Bucket baths. Try it sometime, get a bucket of hot water, a bucket of cool water, and a little dipper cup, and take a bath. It's not hard, and it probably saves water.
- Tea and biscuits. Or at least tea. We drank tea often, as a thing to do when not doing anything else. It's nice. Relaxing. Downside: the tea was always full of milk and sugar. (or maybe that's an upside, your call.) Upside: tea was always accompanied by "biscuits"... they're sold like cookies, but they're not as sweet; they walk a line between cookie and cracker, and there are tons of varieties. Downside: I mean, these things are just white flour, sugar, and hydrogenated vegetable oils. But you only eat a little bit. This is cognitive dissonance: I hate unhealthy packaged things, but I like things with lots of varieties. Well, tea's good, anyway!
- Flights from Catie's magic travel agent from Guwahati to Kolkata, then Kolkata to Gaya. He got us to Gaya relatively quickly. Gaya has a tiny airport. How did we fly there? I'm telling you, magic travel agent. (he wears a turban and makes you feel very much at ease. I liked this guy.)
- I mean, Kolkata (Calcutta) was cool too. It wasn't on our original itinerary, so we didn't know what to do really, but we spent a good day there.
- Gross +1: Kolkata was super hot and sticky. Way a lot.
- Gross +1 more: saw a roach in our hotel room. I note this because it was the only one we saw the whole time we were in India. Even when you're staying pretty cheap, the rooms are generally bug-free. This is nice!
- Coolest thing in Kolkata: the Kali temple. It was super kinda nightmarish. We got there at night, there were bells ringing, and the center of the temple was surrounded by walls except for one place you could see this sorta evil-looking face. Unfortunately, we were ushered through by a temple scammer, but more on that later.
- Enlightenment +1: it was a Hindu temple. Only 28943 other religions to go!
- The Mahabodhi temple. With a descendent of The Actual Bodhi Tree! Where the Buddha reached nirvana! +1 enlightenment for sure!
- Giant 80-foot statue of Buddha. Partially hollow. Filled with 20000 more Buddha statues. +20000 enlightenment, although I'll settle for +1.
- Varanasi: home of the Ganges. Enlightenment +1 more.
- Did I mention how alleys and markets are cool? Varanasi sure has them.
- At one point we wandered into an ashram. The people welcomed us in, showed us around, gave us some food (a really tasty turmeric rice thing) and a book about yoga. We kept waiting for them to badger us for a donation. They never did! They weren't like everyone else who showed us sudden and surprising kindness! How nice!
- There's a temple there too that has the Hindi translation of the Ramayana on the walls. That's cool.
- Night train to Agra. We met a few very friendly Muslim students. They gave us food and we all laughed at our inability to communicate. Good fun for all. An overnight trip on a train: $5 per person.
- And then okay the Taj Mahal. Yes it is really that big, and yes you should see it. I mean, no religious experience or anything, but it was pretty cool.
- We spent our day in Agra with a Swedishman named Alexander. I love befriending solo travelers. It makes things more interesting for you and much better for the traveler. I suppose I have a little empathy. (but not like this guy: he was spending a month and a half in India by himself! I don't have that kind of guts...)
- Und zo... we took the "chair car" on the train to Delhi. (the cheap seats were full.) Apparently "chair car" means you get a comfy chair and they feed you a meal, even on a 2 hour trip.
- We spent two and a half days near Gurgaon. It is the new India. Huge fancy swanky new apartment buildings tossed into the desert like big rocks. And then, huge fancy swanky new office buildings. But if you have a place to live and a place to work, where do you hang out? Answer: at the huge fancy swanky new malls. (and I'm serious about these. They're like something from the Jetsons.) Ugh.
- Catie's friends Hemant and Gaurav, and their mother (whose name I never caught, we just called her "Ama"), lived a bit outside this swank, in an old "colony" built by Maruti-Suzuki for their workers. They were really cool! 20 and 22 years old, they work in call centers. Talking about work was a lot of fun. We're all techies, just on other ends of the globe! Well, maybe not techies: Hemant is sort of an HR manager at a Capital One call center. But Gaurav is a call center guy at Dell and he wants to learn more about server management. That's neat.
- Holi! Where you put colored powder on people's faces and throw colored water at them! We celebrated in their village, it was really fun. Lots of dancing and ceremony too.
- In general, a couple days relaxing was well-needed after the long trip.
- I'm running out of steam here; this is a long post.
- The Jama Masjid is the biggest mosque in Asia.
- The Chandni Chowk is a market in Delhi. Again, markets, cool, wish I had spent more time here.
- The Lotus Temple is a Baha'i temple. And it's pretty like a lotus.
- Then we went to the ISKCON temple... more about that later.
- Last on the monuments list: Humayun's Tomb, which was a little like the Taj Mahal, except smaller and brown.
- Took a cooking class with an Indian lady.
- Finally, whittled away our last few hours before I had to catch a flight at the Defense Colony Market, which is just like the US.
- Why did I just list things that I did here? I'm just going to do it again in the photo album I will post... er... later.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
T minus 4 days
I'm going to India. This is very cool. Most of my free time has gone towards preparing for that; not so much for blogging. Other cool things I have done include get a haircut and go to the Pike Place Market. But that's not so interesting; you're here to read about India.
Here's the proposed itinerary:
Saturday 2/28-Sunday 3/1: fly Seattle-Amsterdam-Delhi
Monday 3/1: fly Delhi-Guwahati, meet Catie, take a taxi-jeep to Shillong, go to the orphanage up in the Khasi Hills, hang out there and in Shillong for a couple days
3/4 or thereabouts: get back to Guwahati, fly to Kolkata, meet Catie's friend there, then the next day fly to Gaya, then get to Bodh Gaya (where the Buddha sat under a tree and got enlightened).
The next few days: go to Varanasi (it's The Holiest!) and Sarnath (it's like the third holiest!), sleeper train to Agra (it's the Taj Mahaliest!), then go on to Delhi
Tuesday 3/10- Friday 3/13- hang out in Delhi, meet up with Catie's other friends. Holi will be happening. Throw colors at people.
Saturday 3/14- head home via Amsterdam, meet up with Daniel and Michael in the Netherlands on the way.
This is neat! I am excited!
Here's the proposed itinerary:
Saturday 2/28-Sunday 3/1: fly Seattle-Amsterdam-Delhi
Monday 3/1: fly Delhi-Guwahati, meet Catie, take a taxi-jeep to Shillong, go to the orphanage up in the Khasi Hills, hang out there and in Shillong for a couple days
3/4 or thereabouts: get back to Guwahati, fly to Kolkata, meet Catie's friend there, then the next day fly to Gaya, then get to Bodh Gaya (where the Buddha sat under a tree and got enlightened).
The next few days: go to Varanasi (it's The Holiest!) and Sarnath (it's like the third holiest!), sleeper train to Agra (it's the Taj Mahaliest!), then go on to Delhi
Tuesday 3/10- Friday 3/13- hang out in Delhi, meet up with Catie's other friends. Holi will be happening. Throw colors at people.
Saturday 3/14- head home via Amsterdam, meet up with Daniel and Michael in the Netherlands on the way.
This is neat! I am excited!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Positive definition
I feel like this turned up somewhere in my computer science education. Maybe it was one of those classes I took off to the side. Some logicky philosophical thing which is like super important because it proves that computers can't solve the halting problem or whatever, but which is like not important because it doesn't tell me how to like run a server, but which is like super important because I'm a Computer Scientist (oooh!) and not a server runner.
Positive vs. negative definitions. Where you have some object that you're trying to define, and a positive definition is where you say what it is, and a negative definition is where you say what it isn't. Like "what kind of car do you want to buy?" "A yellow camaro, because it's so fast and pretty and Brian Bell of Weezer wrote a song about it once." That's a positive definition. A negative one is "Well, not a truck or minivan or other big thing, because I don't like driving big cars, and not a sports car because I don't want a gas guzzler, and not an American car because they suck, and nothing too unsafe or flashy or expensive."
They can both be useful, but positive definitions are almost always more fun, Weezer or no. How many times have you been around people and said "what do you want to do today?" and they say "well, not go to a movie, and not go to a park, and not go here, and not there" and you end up sitting inside and rereading Reuters's "Oddly Enough" because it's all that comes up on the little bar across the top of your gmail. That is so frustrating! Maybe there are psychological reasons that people do this (they don't want to be responsible for bad decisions, etc., but I'm not going into that here because I don't know.
I do know that defining yourself and your life positively is a good way to go. I negatively-defined myself into a career (no humanities because I don't like to write, no sciences because I hate decimal points, not business because I don't like suits, no math or finance because I hate decimal points and integrals and derivatives, not arts because I don't like to draw... CS it is). That's turning out well so far. I mean, plus I really like programming, so there's that. But now I have to define the rest of who I am and what I like to do, and it's difficult to do it positively. But here are two more pieces of information:
- I saw Coraline the other day and it was so good. I mean, the story was weak (and it would have been so much better with no dialogue), but it was so goddamn sonically and aurally pretty. The garden scene alone is up there with the opening sequence of Paprika and the fight with a bunch of Agent Smiths in the Matrix Reloaded (shut up) as "entirely worth the price of admission alone." (and then the other father's playing the piano and oh shit this guy is John Linnell!)
Self-definition point here: I freakin' love dark kids' beautifully-animated wonderland-adventure stories, or anything that blurs the stylistic line between movie and video game. If it were possible, I would have already bought a ticket to 9. And not just because The Knife opens the trailer.
- Self-definition point #2: I love food and markets. I wandered around at the Pike Place market for like 3 hours today. Found dinner. I love putting things together. It's a big algorithmic puzzle that can't be solved trivially. And every piece you get to buy a thing. Buying things is fun, talking to market-shop-owners is fun, looking around and gawking at all the colorful things is fun. Exclamation point!
Positive vs. negative definitions. Where you have some object that you're trying to define, and a positive definition is where you say what it is, and a negative definition is where you say what it isn't. Like "what kind of car do you want to buy?" "A yellow camaro, because it's so fast and pretty and Brian Bell of Weezer wrote a song about it once." That's a positive definition. A negative one is "Well, not a truck or minivan or other big thing, because I don't like driving big cars, and not a sports car because I don't want a gas guzzler, and not an American car because they suck, and nothing too unsafe or flashy or expensive."
They can both be useful, but positive definitions are almost always more fun, Weezer or no. How many times have you been around people and said "what do you want to do today?" and they say "well, not go to a movie, and not go to a park, and not go here, and not there" and you end up sitting inside and rereading Reuters's "Oddly Enough" because it's all that comes up on the little bar across the top of your gmail. That is so frustrating! Maybe there are psychological reasons that people do this (they don't want to be responsible for bad decisions, etc., but I'm not going into that here because I don't know.
I do know that defining yourself and your life positively is a good way to go. I negatively-defined myself into a career (no humanities because I don't like to write, no sciences because I hate decimal points, not business because I don't like suits, no math or finance because I hate decimal points and integrals and derivatives, not arts because I don't like to draw... CS it is). That's turning out well so far. I mean, plus I really like programming, so there's that. But now I have to define the rest of who I am and what I like to do, and it's difficult to do it positively. But here are two more pieces of information:
- I saw Coraline the other day and it was so good. I mean, the story was weak (and it would have been so much better with no dialogue), but it was so goddamn sonically and aurally pretty. The garden scene alone is up there with the opening sequence of Paprika and the fight with a bunch of Agent Smiths in the Matrix Reloaded (shut up) as "entirely worth the price of admission alone." (and then the other father's playing the piano and oh shit this guy is John Linnell!)
Self-definition point here: I freakin' love dark kids' beautifully-animated wonderland-adventure stories, or anything that blurs the stylistic line between movie and video game. If it were possible, I would have already bought a ticket to 9. And not just because The Knife opens the trailer.
- Self-definition point #2: I love food and markets. I wandered around at the Pike Place market for like 3 hours today. Found dinner. I love putting things together. It's a big algorithmic puzzle that can't be solved trivially. And every piece you get to buy a thing. Buying things is fun, talking to market-shop-owners is fun, looking around and gawking at all the colorful things is fun. Exclamation point!
Monday, February 09, 2009
My morning, in not so many words
I was going to give you some explanation of what happened today, and it'd be kind of clumsy because it involved a streetcar rut in the road, you know, like where the streetcars go, and I ... oh, nevermind. Here's what happened:
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Shots
I just got shots to go to India. I got shots last year for yellow fever, tetanus, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever (actually a series of four pills you have to take every other day without food and keep refrigerated. hardcore!) before going to Ecuador. That left only the second hep A shot and then the polio shot for my upcoming trip to India. I'm now immune to hep A and polio! For life! This is neat! I never have to worry about them again! Add that to chickenpox and hepatitis B. I'm slowly becoming some kind of superman. This is great.
Oh yeah, did I mention I'm going to India in, oh, 3 weeks? Yeah. I'm going to visit Catie. And travel. This will be neat.
Oh yeah, did I mention I'm going to India in, oh, 3 weeks? Yeah. I'm going to visit Catie. And travel. This will be neat.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
The SECOND SCAREDEST
One reason I run this blog is to give you guys an insight into my mind, so I offer you this animation that is scary. (makes noise) The same way that Michael Pollan's books are a pretty good summary of my thoughts about food, this is a pretty good summary of my fears about life (albeit from a female perspective).
I'm not sure which is worse. Okay, okay, the dream was worse; drama aside, going stark raving nuts and being surrounded by faceless people who cannot help me is worse than having a boring useless life. But if you multiply chance that it will happen times how awful it would be, the boring useless life is way worse.
(Disclaimer: Not self-pitying here! I know it's up to me to avoid this kind of life! Am pretty sure I will! Not getting all deep and stuff! Offering you a short summary of things that scare me, just because I think about them sometimes!)
Thanks to Beej for the link.
I'm not sure which is worse. Okay, okay, the dream was worse; drama aside, going stark raving nuts and being surrounded by faceless people who cannot help me is worse than having a boring useless life. But if you multiply chance that it will happen times how awful it would be, the boring useless life is way worse.
(Disclaimer: Not self-pitying here! I know it's up to me to avoid this kind of life! Am pretty sure I will! Not getting all deep and stuff! Offering you a short summary of things that scare me, just because I think about them sometimes!)
Thanks to Beej for the link.
Monday, February 02, 2009
The SCAREDEST
One thing that's frustrating about our modern urban adult everything-is-nice lives is that things are seldom the best or the worst of anything. I suppose it's not fair for me to expect life to be one big x*sin(x) curve, but whatever. I rarely get a chance to experience anything The Most.
Last night I had the scariest dream of my life.
I mean, it was on a whole 'nother level from most nightmares. And I've been mildly frightened before, you know, scary movies or roller coasters or the dark or bugs and needles, but I've never been just unstoppably terrified. Wow. I am glad that I got to experience that dream. I am WAY MORE GLAD that it's not reality.
But I am still glad I got to experience that dream. So in the interest of posterity, here's an outline. In real life, I had just had a bout of insomnia, I probably woke up around 4:30, checked the clock at 5:40 and it was probably 6:30 by the time I drifted off (I think). Maybe it was later, because I woke up at 7:50. I had a little of that pre-sleep time where things don't make sense but it's okay because you're going to sleep.
I thought up some painting ideas. The one I could remember was like a lady flying across the sky, except her face and upper body was a lady but then she sort of morphed into one of those Persistence of Memory shapes. I thought I would write a quote on it: "We don't want to lose ourselves in time." I thought this was a brilliant thing to do. Those sort of ideas cross your mind when you're drifting off to sleep.
Next thing I know, I'm in a classroom. It was some kind of computery class, and I was in the back, working on a project with someone I knew. Two people shared a computer. I thought I was making up really great ideas, and I thought, man, if I could improv like this, I'd be on fire. I have to remember how to do this!
I soon found myself towards the front of another classroom. I was talking about my great ideas, but I knew class was about to start, and I was in the wrong room. It must have been high school, because I was thinking "I have to get to my 1st period class." Then I realized I didn't know where that was, and I didn't know how to find out. I wandered outside.
Once I got out there, I started to realize I was not in control of... things. I couldn't remember stuff very well. I thought I was going crazy. (In real life, I read an article yesterday that mentioned how schizophrenia only onsets in the 20's.) I thought, well, I'll call my mom. She's someone real who can tell me what's going on. But I kinda knew it wouldn't work. Sure enough, my contacts list had 6 names, none of which were my mom. So I tried to dial her number, thinking "aha! even if I'm crazy, there's no way this can't work!" but then the numbers started disappearing about halfway through. Damn.
It seemed no big deal, though. I was still all right. But then, I remembered someone in my class had said my nose was bleeding. I looked in a mirror and realized it sure was, and I had stitches on my nose, and they were bleeding too. When did I get stitches on my nose? And then my ear was bleeding, and I don't remember when or why, but I was kinda not all right anymore. I started panicking; I didn't know anyone, or anything. So I started realizing, oh shit, I'm not just take-some-pills-and-manage-it crazy, I'm like crazy-guy-on-the-street crazy; no, I'm stretcher-and-padded-cell crazy. But I had to get help anyway. Maybe I was still just pills crazy. It was nighttime, there were some people around, I walked up to them and yelled "help!", but they couldn't talk to me. Their faces were half deformed and half kinda sewn-up, like stitched, and leathery, not quite like shrunken heads, but like some kind of orc-ey thing.
So I ran away from them and I saw a clear window leading into a spiral staircase, and there were people wearing colorful clothes and carnival masks, walking up the stairs in rows of three, zombielike. I knew they couldn't help me, so I think I ran past them up the stairs. I then was almost at the top and a girl was behind me; she was someone I knew, or had seen before. She looked like Saffron from Firefly. I said, "you can help me!" And she seemed to agree. I said "who are you?" and she said "I'm a bumper." "What?" and then she took a big bite of me! (in retrospect, this is hilarious. It was not at all funny at the time.)
I got to the top of the stairs and walked out the door. I was by the same corner I was at back when I walked outside the first time. Sarah was there, and I thought, thank god, I know you, you can help! But she wasn't her either. She had a forked tongue.
This is when I woke up. Oh my god it was the scariest. And I'm going to work now.
Last night I had the scariest dream of my life.
I mean, it was on a whole 'nother level from most nightmares. And I've been mildly frightened before, you know, scary movies or roller coasters or the dark or bugs and needles, but I've never been just unstoppably terrified. Wow. I am glad that I got to experience that dream. I am WAY MORE GLAD that it's not reality.
But I am still glad I got to experience that dream. So in the interest of posterity, here's an outline. In real life, I had just had a bout of insomnia, I probably woke up around 4:30, checked the clock at 5:40 and it was probably 6:30 by the time I drifted off (I think). Maybe it was later, because I woke up at 7:50. I had a little of that pre-sleep time where things don't make sense but it's okay because you're going to sleep.
I thought up some painting ideas. The one I could remember was like a lady flying across the sky, except her face and upper body was a lady but then she sort of morphed into one of those Persistence of Memory shapes. I thought I would write a quote on it: "We don't want to lose ourselves in time." I thought this was a brilliant thing to do. Those sort of ideas cross your mind when you're drifting off to sleep.
Next thing I know, I'm in a classroom. It was some kind of computery class, and I was in the back, working on a project with someone I knew. Two people shared a computer. I thought I was making up really great ideas, and I thought, man, if I could improv like this, I'd be on fire. I have to remember how to do this!
I soon found myself towards the front of another classroom. I was talking about my great ideas, but I knew class was about to start, and I was in the wrong room. It must have been high school, because I was thinking "I have to get to my 1st period class." Then I realized I didn't know where that was, and I didn't know how to find out. I wandered outside.
Once I got out there, I started to realize I was not in control of... things. I couldn't remember stuff very well. I thought I was going crazy. (In real life, I read an article yesterday that mentioned how schizophrenia only onsets in the 20's.) I thought, well, I'll call my mom. She's someone real who can tell me what's going on. But I kinda knew it wouldn't work. Sure enough, my contacts list had 6 names, none of which were my mom. So I tried to dial her number, thinking "aha! even if I'm crazy, there's no way this can't work!" but then the numbers started disappearing about halfway through. Damn.
It seemed no big deal, though. I was still all right. But then, I remembered someone in my class had said my nose was bleeding. I looked in a mirror and realized it sure was, and I had stitches on my nose, and they were bleeding too. When did I get stitches on my nose? And then my ear was bleeding, and I don't remember when or why, but I was kinda not all right anymore. I started panicking; I didn't know anyone, or anything. So I started realizing, oh shit, I'm not just take-some-pills-and-manage-it crazy, I'm like crazy-guy-on-the-street crazy; no, I'm stretcher-and-padded-cell crazy. But I had to get help anyway. Maybe I was still just pills crazy. It was nighttime, there were some people around, I walked up to them and yelled "help!", but they couldn't talk to me. Their faces were half deformed and half kinda sewn-up, like stitched, and leathery, not quite like shrunken heads, but like some kind of orc-ey thing.
So I ran away from them and I saw a clear window leading into a spiral staircase, and there were people wearing colorful clothes and carnival masks, walking up the stairs in rows of three, zombielike. I knew they couldn't help me, so I think I ran past them up the stairs. I then was almost at the top and a girl was behind me; she was someone I knew, or had seen before. She looked like Saffron from Firefly. I said, "you can help me!" And she seemed to agree. I said "who are you?" and she said "I'm a bumper." "What?" and then she took a big bite of me! (in retrospect, this is hilarious. It was not at all funny at the time.)
I got to the top of the stairs and walked out the door. I was by the same corner I was at back when I walked outside the first time. Sarah was there, and I thought, thank god, I know you, you can help! But she wasn't her either. She had a forked tongue.
This is when I woke up. Oh my god it was the scariest. And I'm going to work now.
Friday, January 30, 2009
If this isn't nice, what is?
I read a blog* earlier today** about this quote. Apparently it's from Kurt Vonnegut, from Timequake, and of course like all Vonnegut books I enjoyed that one immensely and then instantly forgot all about it, so I had to read this post again to remember the quote. When I read it earlier today, I grumbled a little and went back to work***. Now I am agreeing with the line and in fact rather basking in it.
* this isn't the blog I read it in. I forget which one it was. This one just came up first on google.
** I read a lot of blogs at work! I have a lot of reading time, because every time I want to compile, it takes about a minute. Plus, I use IntelliJ IDEA (which is one too many words for the name of a piece of software), which often just seizes control and "parses files" for a few minutes. This is very frustrating. Hey, any of you programmers, you must have experienced this minute-here-and-there downtime. Do you just read blogs too?
*** Not that work makes me grumble right now! On the contrary! I am at a point where I wish days could be longer even if it only meant the work day could stretch out longer. I mean, right now days are 24 hours and I work 8 of them; if days were 28 hours and I worked 12, that would be fab. I enjoy working; it's sort of like Rubiks-cubing or knitting or whatever else you do that makes you content for long periods of time. I know work-life balance is important and all that, and I like to do a lot of other things, so I haven't been working a whole lot more, but like I said, if I had more hours to work, I'd enjoy that.
Anyway, I am a coding wizard, I finished exactly the task I set out to complete (which I set out to do without knowing if it could be done or was worth it), I'm pretty content, and now it's the weekend! And, more importantly, Sarah and Daniel are both arriving tomorrow! Ergo, thusly, quid pro quo, cafe au lait curriculum vitae: if this isn't nice, what is?
Finally, if you have too many hours instead of too few, why don't you waste a couple playing Space Pips? Thanks to Gerrit!
* this isn't the blog I read it in. I forget which one it was. This one just came up first on google.
** I read a lot of blogs at work! I have a lot of reading time, because every time I want to compile, it takes about a minute. Plus, I use IntelliJ IDEA (which is one too many words for the name of a piece of software), which often just seizes control and "parses files" for a few minutes. This is very frustrating. Hey, any of you programmers, you must have experienced this minute-here-and-there downtime. Do you just read blogs too?
*** Not that work makes me grumble right now! On the contrary! I am at a point where I wish days could be longer even if it only meant the work day could stretch out longer. I mean, right now days are 24 hours and I work 8 of them; if days were 28 hours and I worked 12, that would be fab. I enjoy working; it's sort of like Rubiks-cubing or knitting or whatever else you do that makes you content for long periods of time. I know work-life balance is important and all that, and I like to do a lot of other things, so I haven't been working a whole lot more, but like I said, if I had more hours to work, I'd enjoy that.
Anyway, I am a coding wizard, I finished exactly the task I set out to complete (which I set out to do without knowing if it could be done or was worth it), I'm pretty content, and now it's the weekend! And, more importantly, Sarah and Daniel are both arriving tomorrow! Ergo, thusly, quid pro quo, cafe au lait curriculum vitae: if this isn't nice, what is?
Finally, if you have too many hours instead of too few, why don't you waste a couple playing Space Pips? Thanks to Gerrit!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Big announcements on the 500th anniversary of this blog!
It's post 500! I would be embarrassed if I told how you long I've delayed writing anything because I wanted to write something special on post 500. In fact, I have for you two special things:
1. The Seattle Grocery Store Survey. I did this! I'm done with it! The results probably apply to you, wherever you are, because there's probably a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods there.
- Trader Joe's is about 9% cheaper than your average grocery store (QFC, in my case). And most of their food, besides their produce, is pretty good.
- Whole Foods is only about 5% more expensive than your average grocery store. 5%! That's nothing!
- Farmers' Markets are still the best, and co-op markets are the next best, but I have no data to back that up, it's just true.
In short, you have no reason to shop at your average grocery store. (unless it's two blocks from your house, like me. sigh. so why did I even do this survey at all? I don't know. hope you find it useful.)
2. I'm starting a cooking show! On the internet! This is something I'm quite excited about.
The goal is to teach non-cooks how to cook. This is not a hoity-toity cooking show. This will ideally take you from "never cooking ever" to "better than average." I want to do this because I think it's good for all involved: everyone eats healthier, more cheaply, and more sustainably. Plus, maybe you can slow down and enjoy your food and your life more! That'd be neat. And it'll be fun for me to make, too.
I may ask for your collective advice a few times in the next few months. I'm planning to "go live" in May, and post one video per week, more or less.
First advice question: In addition to videos, I plan to write about food, recipes, grocery shopping, cooking, food sustainability, etc. It's all basically blog format, plus some videos. Any of you have experience with this? Not sure if I should use Blogger, or Wordpress, or even just host it somewhere and roll my own blog format. (the latter kinda appeals to me for the geekiness and just so I'd know how to do it.)
Follow-up to first question: If I'm hosting it somewhere, I'll need to host it somewhere. Anyone have any experience with hosting companies, or have any suggestions there? I figure I can just post the videos on Youtube. But yeah. For the rest of the stuff. How do I do this?
Second question: Any of you ever used a digital video camera? I mean, of course you have. Any recommendations? I'm looking for pretty good picture and even better sound. If the video is hard to see or hear, nobody will ever watch it. However, still, I'm posting to Youtube, so it's not going to be super killer quality anyway.
Third question: Any suggestions/recommendations/wishes for the content? I am open to these, in any form, at any time. Send them along.
If you have any ideas, please post or email me. Otherwise, sit back and wait a few months for the antidote to fast food and frozen pizzas!
1. The Seattle Grocery Store Survey. I did this! I'm done with it! The results probably apply to you, wherever you are, because there's probably a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods there.
- Trader Joe's is about 9% cheaper than your average grocery store (QFC, in my case). And most of their food, besides their produce, is pretty good.
- Whole Foods is only about 5% more expensive than your average grocery store. 5%! That's nothing!
- Farmers' Markets are still the best, and co-op markets are the next best, but I have no data to back that up, it's just true.
In short, you have no reason to shop at your average grocery store. (unless it's two blocks from your house, like me. sigh. so why did I even do this survey at all? I don't know. hope you find it useful.)
2. I'm starting a cooking show! On the internet! This is something I'm quite excited about.
The goal is to teach non-cooks how to cook. This is not a hoity-toity cooking show. This will ideally take you from "never cooking ever" to "better than average." I want to do this because I think it's good for all involved: everyone eats healthier, more cheaply, and more sustainably. Plus, maybe you can slow down and enjoy your food and your life more! That'd be neat. And it'll be fun for me to make, too.
I may ask for your collective advice a few times in the next few months. I'm planning to "go live" in May, and post one video per week, more or less.
First advice question: In addition to videos, I plan to write about food, recipes, grocery shopping, cooking, food sustainability, etc. It's all basically blog format, plus some videos. Any of you have experience with this? Not sure if I should use Blogger, or Wordpress, or even just host it somewhere and roll my own blog format. (the latter kinda appeals to me for the geekiness and just so I'd know how to do it.)
Follow-up to first question: If I'm hosting it somewhere, I'll need to host it somewhere. Anyone have any experience with hosting companies, or have any suggestions there? I figure I can just post the videos on Youtube. But yeah. For the rest of the stuff. How do I do this?
Second question: Any of you ever used a digital video camera? I mean, of course you have. Any recommendations? I'm looking for pretty good picture and even better sound. If the video is hard to see or hear, nobody will ever watch it. However, still, I'm posting to Youtube, so it's not going to be super killer quality anyway.
Third question: Any suggestions/recommendations/wishes for the content? I am open to these, in any form, at any time. Send them along.
If you have any ideas, please post or email me. Otherwise, sit back and wait a few months for the antidote to fast food and frozen pizzas!
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