The Alternative To This: Wilderness or Prison

The title may seem like a lousy copy of one's pursuit of a perfect life. Far from it. It is the pursuit of a bummer  to live a comfortable life. I had a thought the other day, when I was really fed up with everything about life and was terribly fatigued from doing too many things. How nice if I can just relax and not do anything. I mean to sustain myself I need to work. Even to be alive costs money where one would expect to live is a basic human right. Obviously in a capitalist world it is not. To eat, you need to pay. To sleep you need to pay...well if you want a roof over your head. So think of it like this, just to sit in your own home, you need to pay for every minute, be it the rent or the 30 year mortgage. And if that was not enough, there's the bills.

So I got to thinking, isn't there anywhere I can live to not have to care about any of these things? One thought that came to mind was like in Into The Wild, you go out into the wilderness and live off the land. But then I enjoy the company of people too (occasionally) so that is not really a viable option. And truth be told, I am never that much an adventurous person. I mean I don't think I can distinguish between a perfectly edible mushroom and one that would cause me to keel over and choke on my tongue in 30 seconds flat. Also, I have no idea to hunt for animal, skin them and eat them, nor do I know how to find suitable shelter in the wild, not can I fish. If I were in the movie Cast Away, it would have been a really short movie. It would be of a man landing on an island disoriented, walking around for several hours, getting hungry, walking aimlessly  to find something to eat, give up and then wrapping his arms around his legs and start rocking back and forth. After that I would just get faint from the heat, roll over, faint and die of dehydration. At the end of the day, the wilderness is just too much hard work.

Okay another thought is I could go to prison. This I believe has a few more pluses than the wilderness idea. Firstly, in prison you get served food and you get a bed to sleep in, free of charge! You can sit there doing nothing whole day and no one could care less! Secondly, you need to get caught to go to prison. So, simply go rob a bank or steal a huge was of cash from a rich person, they don't need that much money anyways. IF you don't get caught, then great! You're all the richer for failing at your actual objective of getting caught and getting sent to prison. It's a win-win situation. But then there is also the down side. In prison, the people are not likely to be your typical Tom , Dick and Harry. You are in prison after all, and there are there for a proper reason. Not like your lala-land reason of wanting to live a piss easy life. So from all the TV I have seen, prison may not be such a pleasant experience.

All in all, prison and the wilderness may not be such good ideas after all. I shall think of more alternatives to this great paradox of life (That I should work to live comfortably?!? Ridonkulous!!!) I shall get back to you on this matter. Making fairy tale arguments is a strenuous undertaking.

It is Friday

Hey, a post for the 2nd consecutive day. I really am doing this just to get me to spend about half an hour to an hour every day to actually write something of substantial length. At this point I am not even really concerned to write anything meaningful or deeply though provoking (well, actually perhaps all I have ever done was provoke my own thoughts and no one else's).

Well, first things first, today was a great days for research. So was Wednesday, I did get a lot of work done this week and if I carry on in this vein for the next week I should be in good stead for the conference to come.

Bought 3 books today, from the 3 for 2 offer. I got What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Caldwell, Catching the Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort and Commited by Elizabeth Gilbert. The reason I bought any books at all to be perfectly honest is to get Commited. I read about 20 pages a few weeks back when I was in Borders and quite liked it so I really had to finish it. I read the first Wolf of Wall Street book and it was good, so I decided to get that too. Malcolm Caldwell, I actually read his book so good time as any to branch out and read something new. Though I have several ongoing books now. Reading The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson, Tales of Love and Loss by Knut Hamsun (His stories are very unique), The Good Soldiers by David Finkel and How to Practice: The Way to a Meaningful Life by the Dalai Lama. I have so many lovely books I would love to read. Wish I had more time. But it was good that for the past week, I got a few solid hours of reading time a day, whilst still being productive with research and able to exercise about an hour before work. So the balance is good now, I do not feel fatigued every day like I used to. So I really should tone back on the tutoring next semester. On top of the Swedish lessons I'm doing Monday evenings. Hopefully by next year's end I can read, write and speak quite proper Swedish. And perhaps I can blog in Swedish too!

So as this intermission of seriousness end, I say to you, may the nonsense recommence.

Let the drivel commence

As this blog would attest to, I have been rather busy and have not been as forthcoming with the writing as I would like. This being pressed for time very much in the past month or so. Let this not be a prelude of this to come for I really do need to again ignite the flame for writing and write more every day.

Writing is like delicate but resilient plant. If one does not tend to it, it becomes frail and pitiful. And whence one looks at it after some time of neglect, it bears no semblance to what it formerly was. It has mutated beyond recognition. Not that it has changed to something ugly, just that the words are read that seem to be written by someone quite not myself. I do not recognize myself in the words. But to come up with new words for new stories, these do not come easily now that writing has ceased for such a long time. But here is where the resilience come into play, that when you force yourself to write again, words do come eventually. These words are not beautiful, they do not flow, it is like a river clogged by dust and debris for running dry too long. But as the small drops of water seep through the barrier, then comes a small drivel of water. Then sooner than you can say your granny has a fat ass, the barrier bursts and the blockage has been destroyed. Then the question you ask, what of my grandmother? Well, obviously if her ass was any larger it would have acted as a second barrier. But it was not of that magnitude yet, so were are all safe and the river runs free again.

Here is a story.

In times to come, my never ending search for I don't know what will continue, and I shall present said drivel to a bunch of drivel enthusiasts in 2 weeks time. And they shall probably ask,"What is this person driveling on about?" Then I with all conviction shall reply,"If you do not know, why are you here?" To which a reply,"To listen to new knowledge of course." To which I retort,"And since my drivel is not understood, is that not new knowledge?" which beckons a response,"No, it just means you're full of crap." "Indeed." "Touche."

And that story be a lesson to you. Never user the word touche, obviously it is wrongly used here. But when one counters with a clever retort, never acknowledge it with a touche. Acknowledge it by punching them full in the face.

So what is my point again? That it is this. I have not written for quite a while, and there is crap in my brain that needs letting out. So this blog has been re instated as my intellectual toilet bowl. I need to write up more fibre so the words come out smoother because obviously I have been having a mental constipation for the past few months. And yes, I did just go there, I used taking a dump analogies.

Swedish Class Commences!!!

So finally the anticipation's over and I started Swedish night classes today. Today, we learned the alphabet. So the alphabet are basically the same except there are the extra A's, and most of the letters are pronounced a bit differently to English. Spent 2 hours getting the pronunciation up to scratch and I really need to go over them over and over so they burn into my brain and make reading easier for next week.

Maybe going to find some Swedish movies to watch and get the intonation and slang burned into my brain as well. Lots of burning in. Hope I can move fairly quickly through this stuff and start reading basic children's book by the end of the semester.

The Dots Ensue

Feeling a bout of melancholy coming along. Going back to Perth tomorrow afternoon and with that back to work. I still feel sort of holiday-ish. The food, I am so going to miss the food...And I hate packing. Well, a few more hectic weeks and things should die down again. Hope I can continue being motivated to do the stuff that needs doing and also the stuff I want done. Pushing through to the end of 2010. And no more getting sick pretty please.

Great, Hectic Weeks

This has been and will be the few most hectic weeks ever! So last week wast the week before the non-teaching week and I had to clear a gazillion student reports (exaggeration) before I came back for my sister's wedding this week. Well, so I worked night and day in that week trying to sort everything out and lo behold I got sick for the seventh bloody time this year. I think it's just the coping with stress and not knowing when to stop because I think I can just weather through the slight sickness which always just gradually gets worse. Anyways, was also finalizing my conference paper submission.

Ok, so. The wedding itself was on Tuesday, 28/09/2010. Lots of preparations went in beforehand and Lydia was super stressed and my mom too, so it was great that everything turned out wonderful. The church reception was in the morning and everything went rather smoothly. Except for one thing which is the father that was supposed to conduct the ceremony was on leave and a stand-in father came in at the last minute. And man, this father was crap. I think even he wasn't believing the bullshit sermon he was giving. He sounded like just reading from a piece of paper. Also, the father looked more like the devil's minion or something. He had a nice goatee going on, exactly like how you would picture the devil. But other than that, everything was good.

And the wedding dinner in the evening was great, very glitzy. Well, also I must mention at this point my heads were in the clouds, not only from being deliriously happy for my sister but also because I had taken flu meds and allergy meds which I know now should not mix, because the ceremony might as well have been on a cruise ship and I would be none the wiser. The floor was literally going up and down and swaying side to side, I had trouble keeping vertical. And add to the slight alcohol intake to go with it, yes, I was pretty much knocked out by the end of the night. So I think it's a combination of all that and exhaustion, because I did 2 hours of gym at the hotel the day before, because I thought I was all better. Well, I'm just rambling, still dizzy from all that.

But yes, the ceremony went great without a hitch and by the end Calvin was drunk and KO'd as well, Lydia was alright, she and Cynthia and the rest of the lot went to have drinks after which I did not join, too busy being horizontal on the bed. Well, it was a wonderful day overall and went of with not even as much of a hitch, don't think Lydia could have asked for anything more, and even my mom was sobbing that her daughter's being 'given away' so to speak...

Oh yes, and the next week. With no respite, I need to finish off more corrections of my conference paper tomorrow because it is so very due! And when I'm back I need to prepare for the SUT technical evening which is in 2 weeks time. AND I start Swedish classes coming Monday, get back to Perth Monday morning. So yeah, life is very much super-filled to the brim, and I don't think I'd have it any other way. Give me POMODORO POWER!!!

this week in food

Well, this week was very liquidish, and next week's probably the same because I only cooked half the things I planned to cook.

The first one is tomato and spinach soup. This was great, even though it looked all green and stuff, but that's due to the spinach. Well, it tasted wonderfully refreshing and you didn't get sick of it because there's no cream in it, lots of herbs.

Ok, second one is butternut squash and cumin soup with herb dressing. This tasted good too but you get sick of it if you have too much, because there is cream in it. But I'd totally make these two soups again.

And the last one is a sort of dessert, honey and orange rice pudding. Warning, do not make this! It is fucking disgusting. I hate you Brian Turner, your recipe sucks ass. I feel like puking now, having just made it just now. And I can follow instructions, I made it exactly as you said. The amount of double cream and milk you use is sickening, and the honey just compounds the nausea. Fuck you. I will never make this again. How funny it is that it looks the best of the three but it tastes so awesomely bad, I cannot even describe it properly. Do not make it, I did not even finish this thing. It is going down the drain.