There are less than one and a half hours left of the year 2012 as I write this. I just returned from work a few moments ago. I didn't have any plans or parties to go to, nor am I particularly interested in drinking much at all. It hasn't been until now that I've finally felt any relief from a persistent, and excruciating, headache that has been bothering me throughout most of this day. I'm not much interested in inviting it to return after a few pints or shots. Instead, I opted to stay home. I lit up a few birch blocks in the fireplace, and confined myself to my four square meter kingdom for what is the remainder of this year. . . in reflective solitude.
I was trying to think of the little things that helped me to suffer less throughout the year. Out of these moments, I came up with these things to list:
Best purchase(s) of 2012: My hybrid bicycle, X-country skis, and iPhone
Best lifestyle decision of 2012: Getting rid of my TV service, it feels like I woke up a few dormant brain cells because of this action alone.
Best non-fiction book of 2012: The 4 Hour Chef, by Tim Ferriss
Best fiction book of 2012: Carte Blanche, by Jeffery Deaver
Best movie of 2012: Skyfall
Best food creation/innovation of 2012: Tropical Sunrise (a dessert)
Best new local merchant of 2012: Slavianka Eastern European Foods (for the kvas, sausage, and pickles)
Album of the year : Mylo Xyloto, Coldplay
Best App of 2012: Lift®
Fifteen minutes left of the year, So Happy New Year.
Next entry, some resolutions for 2013.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The 2012 Wrap Up, The Year Ahead
The Christmas holiday is ending with this Boxing Day evening with a frigidly cold, -40 degree windchill outside. I've cocooned myself inside since I returned from visiting my family. The flickering flames in my fireplace tonight have kept me in a hypnotic trance for too long now it seems, and I had to reboot my mind again with some writing. I'm actually glad that it is this cold: all the more to dissuade me from getting involved in the Boxing Day sales hype and madness happening earlier today. I had only enough energy to drive back from visiting my folks, and that was it. All the excess feasting has rendered me a bit sluggish. I don't just feel like I ate like a pig; I feel like some python that just swallowed a whole pig that ate like a pig.
I'm realizing that the year is quickly winding down; I'm opting not to waste too much time reflecting on it as I did like last year. Successes were achieved, but not really significantly glorious ones; there weren't any hugely glaring, abysmal failures though either (on my part of the grand scheme of things). My highlights were generally pretty much the personal bests I have recorded already in previous entries regarding my fitness goals. My low points were my failure to find the right mix of time/energy and dedication to follow through with my learning/career enhancement challenges, and not getting to build a better network of more positive and like-minded people. For the past couple of beginnings of the new year, I've been stricken with bad luck in the realm of health problems. I hope the lack of them now will be a signal for a better year for me coming ahead.
For the year ahead, the focus will be on continuing to implement efficiency, and to pick up on those things that I started learning, but lost track of midway through last fall. The key elements are:
Cheers to all of you!
*-Sorry. Ambitions in regards to matters of money, love/sex/relationships, and spirituality are matters too private for me to mention here.
I'm realizing that the year is quickly winding down; I'm opting not to waste too much time reflecting on it as I did like last year. Successes were achieved, but not really significantly glorious ones; there weren't any hugely glaring, abysmal failures though either (on my part of the grand scheme of things). My highlights were generally pretty much the personal bests I have recorded already in previous entries regarding my fitness goals. My low points were my failure to find the right mix of time/energy and dedication to follow through with my learning/career enhancement challenges, and not getting to build a better network of more positive and like-minded people. For the past couple of beginnings of the new year, I've been stricken with bad luck in the realm of health problems. I hope the lack of them now will be a signal for a better year for me coming ahead.
For the year ahead, the focus will be on continuing to implement efficiency, and to pick up on those things that I started learning, but lost track of midway through last fall. The key elements are:
- trying to limiting it more to things that accord with the 80/20 principle (learning/mastering the 20% of the things that control 80% of the whole system I'm learning, or operating with)
- being more mindful to formulate things as a recipe: finding and stationing the right set of tools, establish the variables, and then commit to procedure(s)
- using creative shortcuts with mnemonics
- meta-learning (un-learning, and then re-learning how to learn), and a low-info diet (there is too much useless stuff in the junk drawer of my brain as it is): to break bad habits and acquire better ones
- having sounder worse case scenario strategies/contingency plans when it comes to taking bigger risks
- Completing a full-marathon distance (either through training or racing)
- Keeping on top of staying fit for it
- Getting away for an actual vacation for once
- To implement the stuff I've been studying into a major career shift
- Catching up on those things I didn't get to do/complete last year
Cheers to all of you!
*-Sorry. Ambitions in regards to matters of money, love/sex/relationships, and spirituality are matters too private for me to mention here.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
My Christmas Lists
I'm very much secure in knowing that the dummies who believe in the Mayan Calendar Doomsday thing are quite mistaken.* So, it's time to lighten up a bit and to start having a few happy thoughts for this holiday. Maybe going into a trance and doing a bit of free-association in writing out these lists would help me get into the spirit of the holiday more, and eventually spur me on to finish my Christmas shopping. Anyhow, here it goes:
Top 10 Favourite Christmas Foods
*- It's pretty stupid to put credence into some apocalyptic predictions of a culture's religious calendar , when the same said people couldn't even predict their own civilization's demise.
**- During the holidays, I try to support my local merchants/retailers stores whenever I can.
***- Oddly and surprisingly, even after all this time, I still don't have any of these games around my own home. I'd like quality crafted classic board games, not a cheap plastic facsimile. The lack of knowing more people around interested in playing such things, and having so little time at home to play them are the reasons/excuses. The sad thing about the preponderance of video games is that the simple fun and social pleasures of a board or card game are getting phased out, getting replaced by too much simulated violence.
Top 10 Favourite Christmas Foods
- Buttertarts
- Cabbage Rolls
- Buttertarts
- Turkey with Stuffing and Gravy
- Buttertarts
- Wild Mushrooms in Cream Sauce
- Buttertarts
- Shortbread Cookies
- Tangerines
- You guessed it. . . more Buttertarts
- Rye and Coke
- Big Rock Wart Hog Ale
- Spiced Rum and Coke
- Clamato Juice/Virgin Cæsars (Otherwise, this stuff being dumped in beer, or mixed with vodka is ruined for me)
- Gin and Tonic
- Red Wine (Merlot, Shiraz, Cabinet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Malbec)
- Big Rock Traditional Ale
- Bristol Cream Sherry/Port Wine
- Cranberry Punch
- White Wine (Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Chablis, Pinot Grigio)
- McQuarries' Teas and Coffees (great assortments and gift baskets of coffees, teas, and hot chocolate)
- Bulk Cheese Warehouse (cheese/sausage/deli food to me are like what candy is for everyone else)
- Saskatchewan Liquor Stores (for samples and free magazines, and of course, booze)
- Bill's House of Flowers (the smell in there instantly cures the winter blues)
- McNally Robinson (Canadian owned bookstore, the problem is that I have more in mind as what to get for me rather than shopping for my loved ones)
- Early's (Close by, locally owned, pet friendly, lots of stuff there for the gardeners/pet lovers)
- Lee Valley (Canadian owned, lots of stuff there for woodcrafters/hobbyists and gardeners)
- Chess Set
- Scrabble®
- Go (Igo in Japanese) board
- Risk®
- Wood Block/Jigsaw puzzles
- Domino Set
- Mah Jong Tiles
- Mancala Board
- Dart Board
- Chinese Checkers
- The Remastered Release of the CD, 2112, by Rush (Release date Dec 21/12, same day as the Mayan Calendar Apocalypse thing) to compensate for their concert I missed here earlier in September)
- Cross Country Ski Pants (Salomon)
- Mandolin style slicer/shredder (for my kitchen)
- Windows 8 Upgrade
- Djembe Drum (I may risk annoying the hell out of my neighbours, but had so much fun with one of these at my last convention)
- Ledge planters (for growing more stuff on my deck while conserving space)
- Bamboo Steamer (for my wok, the old one fell apart, two tiers plus lid)
- Gift card from Pier One or HomeSense (I need to spruce the place up a bit)
- Gift card from anyplace that sells f*$^%ing shoes that fit me
- Actual time to enjoy this stuff (or more time to enjoy the cool stuff I already have, and be with the people I like)
- Imagine - John Lennon
- Winter - Tori Amos
- Ring Out Solstice Bells - Jethro Tull
- Gregorian Chants Album
- The Coldest Night of the Year - Bruce Cockburn
*- It's pretty stupid to put credence into some apocalyptic predictions of a culture's religious calendar , when the same said people couldn't even predict their own civilization's demise.
**- During the holidays, I try to support my local merchants/retailers stores whenever I can.
***- Oddly and surprisingly, even after all this time, I still don't have any of these games around my own home. I'd like quality crafted classic board games, not a cheap plastic facsimile. The lack of knowing more people around interested in playing such things, and having so little time at home to play them are the reasons/excuses. The sad thing about the preponderance of video games is that the simple fun and social pleasures of a board or card game are getting phased out, getting replaced by too much simulated violence.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Entry 100
I'm surprised that this will be the one hundredth entry in this space, so I thought I had better make this one especially meaningful.
In light of what recently happened through this past week, I've been struggling hard trying to figure out and focus on what good is left in this world. I need not add extra commentary about the recent events in Connecticut. The news services are over-broadcasting the story and surrounding issues of it enough as it is, and consequently overwhelming us with more fear and sorrow during a season when we are trying to seek comfort and joy.
Above is a picture of a little baby boy; he's not just any baby boy. Currently, he is one that I have the greatest responsibility of caring for, and the one I am trying hardest to not get any further estranged from. I keep this picture of him with the rest of my family photos on a table in my bedroom, so he is amongst one of the first things I see when I wake up, and one of the last things I see when I go to sleep: as a reminder to stay strong enough to keep on nurturing him.
There were/are a lot of challenges in raising this particular human being for his particular needs, but I generally summarize them all to the following matters:
- Not doing anything stupid that would lead to injury, or the death of this human being.
- Not letting him waste his time being too long exposed around senseless, shallow, spiteful, obnoxious, ignorant, arrogant, negative, deluded, destructive people.
- Trying even harder to not allow him to become like the aforementioned types of people when confronted by such beings.
- Doing whatever gives him a sense of wonder and value about life, and making allowances to educate him, and allow him to grow for the better.
- Making sure he wakes up each day with some sense of purpose, or at the very least a productive/mind-stimulating interest.
- Helping him find valuable moments to laugh, be creative, relax, explore, and play.
- Making sure he intends and acts in such ways that (ultimately) do more good than harm for himself and others.
- Keeping him aware that it is ultimately he himself who is responsible for his own happiness and welfare.*
- Reminding him to be thankful and appreciative when he finds people nice enough to provide acts of kindness for him and the sake of his happiness and welfare.
I suppose most of you who know me are wondering now who that child is, so let me introduce him to you. His name is Brian. That is a photo of me taken when I was 10 weeks old. The point I'm trying to make here is that we all have at least one child, no matter who we are, in our life to take care of. The skill sets that I mentioned apply not only to looking after a newborn life; they apply to taking care of our own grown adult selves as well. It all comes down to the question(s), "How could you ever even dare to harm this (little) person?", or "How do I want to help make this little guy or girl grow up right?" Once we do that, and then realize that we all were once that small, weak, innocent, and vulnerable, we (perhaps) empathize more, become a lot more mindful to do more things to nurture ourselves and others better, and to protect ourselves and others from our own craziness and stupidity, and be less prone to developing into some sort of soulless monster. All homes should have at least one baby picture in them, and they should be meditated on frequently: especially if the baby in the picture is all grown up, living alone and independently, and responsible for (and having some unique stressors for) being one's own sole provider of one's household and livelihood.
Some of you may roll your eyes and laugh and scoff at what I just wrote, but I can't help but to wonder if rampage killers of the likes of Marc Lépine (the Dec 6th, 1989, Montreal École Polytechnique shooter), the teenage psychos who shot up Columbine High School in 1999, James Eagen Holmes (the 2012 Aurora Theatre shootings), Anders Behring Breivik (2011 Oslo bombings/Utøya Island shootings, Norway), and most recently, Adam Lanza (the Sandy Hill Elementary School shooter) could have done what they did had they looked at themselves as children in a photo a little more often and asked themselves those same questions.
*- I have more than enough examples for this child of how a woman/girlfriend/wife isn't a static solution, the pretentiousness involved with success/status/fame aren't solutions, and of how money can't buy your way out of some problems. You will be doomed if you are constantly and desperately relying on any or all of these things for your happiness and welfare.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
12/12/12
Other than coincidental order of the date numerals for this day, of this month, of this year, there is nothing especially notable about it, except for feeling perhaps the onset of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) coming on strongly within this past week: given the temperatures falling below -20 C, the wind, and cloudy snowy skies. I'm more de-energized than cold really. Walking to and from work, the bare minimum of exercise that I feel I need to do in a given day, only serves to drain me instead of invigorating and helping me to focus like it usually does. Nothing of significance at home seems to give me interest anymore, or I just can't seem to put my mind into whatever I'm doing: organizing and doing the simplest of tasks are just giving me constant headaches and overwhelming me. I'm totally unmotivated to even leave home, and knowing that I still have holiday shopping to do isn't helping me either. My appetite is gone, and when I do eat, I'm tending to fail to do so mindfully. I'm going to stop the complaining now, before the other myriad reasons, bad news, and negativity in work and life that are bringing me down get subjected to more examination, and start anchoring themselves in my head.
The latest thing I've been researching, since I got into skiing this winter, is Nordic pole walking. I've noted that the skiing has been improving my posture a bit, and I think it's due to strengthening my core muscles by using the poles. I'm hoping that the poles may help to normalize my stance while trying to walk on the icy streets outside may help in curing my sciatic pain. Hunching over, and staring at the feet constantly while trying to avoid slipping I'm sure is doing me no favours beyond fall prevention. Hunching over is also the stance of depression/non-confidence, and I'm desperate enough to try a remove the symptoms/remove the disease kind of logic. Re-posturing myself with this exercise may help reverse some of the psychological symptoms of depression as well.
I wish 12/12/12 would be something really special, since it's the only date that will appear in this form in my lifetime, but as it is, I'm just wishing that it were something else than it is now, or what I'm expecting it to be.
The latest thing I've been researching, since I got into skiing this winter, is Nordic pole walking. I've noted that the skiing has been improving my posture a bit, and I think it's due to strengthening my core muscles by using the poles. I'm hoping that the poles may help to normalize my stance while trying to walk on the icy streets outside may help in curing my sciatic pain. Hunching over, and staring at the feet constantly while trying to avoid slipping I'm sure is doing me no favours beyond fall prevention. Hunching over is also the stance of depression/non-confidence, and I'm desperate enough to try a remove the symptoms/remove the disease kind of logic. Re-posturing myself with this exercise may help reverse some of the psychological symptoms of depression as well.
I wish 12/12/12 would be something really special, since it's the only date that will appear in this form in my lifetime, but as it is, I'm just wishing that it were something else than it is now, or what I'm expecting it to be.
Saturday, December 8, 2012
We Wish You a Nerdy Christmas (or Some Historically Plausible Facsimile Thereof)
Today turned out better than I thought it would be weather-wise: it was warmer than expected. I managed to get a little skiing in. More importantly, I found a very close by source for some well-seasoned birch firewood, which lit up very nicely. All that, plus a lovely beer, made for the most relaxing winter nap I've ever had this year so far. I woke up feeling a lot less Scroogey.
Also, I just finished putting up my Christmas tree tonight. . . Yes, I still call it a CHRISTMAS tree, not a friggin' "holiday tree", not a "winter season arboreal home decorum addition". . . it's a Christmas tree! I'm sure I'd be insulting some Jewish friends during Hanukkah, and looking like some kind of idiot, if I started calling their menorah a "festival candlestick". I'm pretty sure I'd be pissing off more than a few Muslims by constantly referring to the Kaaba in Mecca with some more neutralized term like a "geolithic shrine object". One way we can start showing mutual respect for the respective cultural holiday customs, traditions and practices of everyone else is to call them the names they have been given by that culture; not by whatever other stupidly contrived term that has been assigned for the sake of some ridiculous notion of "political correctness" to placate the whims of the few sanctimonious, ethno-centric, bigoted, idiots out there from some other cultures or religions who actively try to find anything to be offended about. This dumbing down and neutralizing of language only breeds more ignorance and intolerance, and alienates us even more from learning and understanding from each other. If you're so touchy and uncomfortable with the thought of some tradition encroaching on your beliefs, and too ready to affix blame and shame on someone else, it's generally a sign, even while jacked up and pious on your own beloved form of religion, that you aren't very secure somehow within the very core of yourself.
To be honest, I'm quite sure that even if Christmas didn't exist here; if the patterns and forces of colonization had been different both in Europe and this part of North America, and if the social and political history were such that Canada didn't become a primarily Christian cultured country, there most certainly would be some other lengthy celebration, involving some form of sharing, warmth, feasting, cheer, lights, and decoration to counter the depths of the coldness, darkness, and bleakness near or around the winter solstice of the year to make living in this region tolerable.
The Vikings and Norse traders were the first European settlers on the continent of North America. The pre-Christian Norse people had the tradition of Jul (Yule), which fostered a practical tradition of burning huge logs and keeping fires alight for a long time, being close together in fellowship, sharing and gift-giving, and feasting on the abundance of harvested food, and drinking and merry-making to while away the darkest, coldest and harshest part of winter (like Christmas here). Had the Norsemen settled in a more strategically advantageous spot, expanded more, and had their influence remained here long enough to become established, I'm sure that Jul would have been our practice. The pagan Celts and Anglo-Saxons had their own mid-winter celebrations, like Candlemass, and Modraniht (Mothers' night). The aboriginal people here already had their own celebrations for this season before Europeans came. If the Romans managed to totally snuff out Christianity, and had they remained in control over of the majority of Europe, aggressively expanding over the Atlantic, Saturnalia would have been the holiday here for this season, which involved lots of feasting and drinking.
Speaking of gluttony and intoxication, my favourite Christmas related anthropological theory is that of how possibly the legend of Santa's flying reindeer entered into our folklore. I was watching a documentary once about this: it seems that the shamans of the Sami (Saami) tribes, the reindeer-herding, nomadic indigenous people of Lapland, in Northern Scandinavia, had a strange and unique way of communing with their spirit world. While their reindeer herds grazed on lichens and such in the tundra, the odd one would dig up and occasionally consume an Anamita muscaria fungus, better known as the Fly Agaric mushroom. The mushroom itself is quite toxic, but also very psychoactive and hallucinogenic in diluted form. The shamans would collect and drink the urine from these intoxicated reindeer, and would go on some kind of "vision quest" with the wild dreams and sensations that resulted from its use, one of which was a sensation of flying, which was probably intensified as they rode around in their reindeer drawn sleighs with this altered state of consciousness.
Just think of that the next time you are reading T'was the Night Before Christmas to some kids, knowing that some of it is based on a pagan ritual of a piss drinking shroom high.
Also, I just finished putting up my Christmas tree tonight. . . Yes, I still call it a CHRISTMAS tree, not a friggin' "holiday tree", not a "winter season arboreal home decorum addition". . . it's a Christmas tree! I'm sure I'd be insulting some Jewish friends during Hanukkah, and looking like some kind of idiot, if I started calling their menorah a "festival candlestick". I'm pretty sure I'd be pissing off more than a few Muslims by constantly referring to the Kaaba in Mecca with some more neutralized term like a "geolithic shrine object". One way we can start showing mutual respect for the respective cultural holiday customs, traditions and practices of everyone else is to call them the names they have been given by that culture; not by whatever other stupidly contrived term that has been assigned for the sake of some ridiculous notion of "political correctness" to placate the whims of the few sanctimonious, ethno-centric, bigoted, idiots out there from some other cultures or religions who actively try to find anything to be offended about. This dumbing down and neutralizing of language only breeds more ignorance and intolerance, and alienates us even more from learning and understanding from each other. If you're so touchy and uncomfortable with the thought of some tradition encroaching on your beliefs, and too ready to affix blame and shame on someone else, it's generally a sign, even while jacked up and pious on your own beloved form of religion, that you aren't very secure somehow within the very core of yourself.
To be honest, I'm quite sure that even if Christmas didn't exist here; if the patterns and forces of colonization had been different both in Europe and this part of North America, and if the social and political history were such that Canada didn't become a primarily Christian cultured country, there most certainly would be some other lengthy celebration, involving some form of sharing, warmth, feasting, cheer, lights, and decoration to counter the depths of the coldness, darkness, and bleakness near or around the winter solstice of the year to make living in this region tolerable.
The Vikings and Norse traders were the first European settlers on the continent of North America. The pre-Christian Norse people had the tradition of Jul (Yule), which fostered a practical tradition of burning huge logs and keeping fires alight for a long time, being close together in fellowship, sharing and gift-giving, and feasting on the abundance of harvested food, and drinking and merry-making to while away the darkest, coldest and harshest part of winter (like Christmas here). Had the Norsemen settled in a more strategically advantageous spot, expanded more, and had their influence remained here long enough to become established, I'm sure that Jul would have been our practice. The pagan Celts and Anglo-Saxons had their own mid-winter celebrations, like Candlemass, and Modraniht (Mothers' night). The aboriginal people here already had their own celebrations for this season before Europeans came. If the Romans managed to totally snuff out Christianity, and had they remained in control over of the majority of Europe, aggressively expanding over the Atlantic, Saturnalia would have been the holiday here for this season, which involved lots of feasting and drinking.
Speaking of gluttony and intoxication, my favourite Christmas related anthropological theory is that of how possibly the legend of Santa's flying reindeer entered into our folklore. I was watching a documentary once about this: it seems that the shamans of the Sami (Saami) tribes, the reindeer-herding, nomadic indigenous people of Lapland, in Northern Scandinavia, had a strange and unique way of communing with their spirit world. While their reindeer herds grazed on lichens and such in the tundra, the odd one would dig up and occasionally consume an Anamita muscaria fungus, better known as the Fly Agaric mushroom. The mushroom itself is quite toxic, but also very psychoactive and hallucinogenic in diluted form. The shamans would collect and drink the urine from these intoxicated reindeer, and would go on some kind of "vision quest" with the wild dreams and sensations that resulted from its use, one of which was a sensation of flying, which was probably intensified as they rode around in their reindeer drawn sleighs with this altered state of consciousness.
Just think of that the next time you are reading T'was the Night Before Christmas to some kids, knowing that some of it is based on a pagan ritual of a piss drinking shroom high.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
The Four Square Meter Kingdom: My Wintertime Happy Place
I spent more time than I wanted to with kitchen work and cleaning my place up this weekend, which follows with trying a little bit to make it more festive looking for Christmas whilst I had the momentum. I don’t know how it gets in such disarray when it feels like I’m rarely here anymore. It made me pause for thought about how much of my space, or the things in it, that I’m honestly satisfied with having.
With the rate at which technology is shrinking, and access and interface with it is getting more and more user-friendly, I’m coming to realize that the actual physical space we need to make ourselves feel physically comfortable should be reduced as well; or I’m getting more puzzled, or failing more to understand, as to why we think that we should have more expensive real estate than is necessary to claim as “living” space given this trend.* Perhaps this belief comes out of ignorance, since it seems like I’m rarely home enough to actually “live” in my own place anymore. Maybe it’s because I’ve just lived independently alone for so long, and I’m the one solely responsible for my home’s upkeep; I would find the prospect of living in a large spacious house a kind of hell. Having the mindset of a single occupant, it doesn’t appeal to me at all knowing that there would be even more precious time and utility cost wasted keeping such a place tidy, functional, and in order.
Author Tim Ferriss likes to promote life enhancements that can be done in four hours ( The 4 Hour Workweek, The 4 Hour Body, The 4 Hour Chef). I'd like to promote what can be life-enhancing that can be kept within 4 square meters. I figured out all the necessary space, and things in it, that I’d need to satisfy the conditions that could easily keep me comfortably entertained for an entire cold winter's day**. It all can be compacted into an area of about 4.2 m2. If I eliminated the books and papers, it would shrink further still. I took some time to map out my snuggery in the following photo (sorry if you have to squint to see the number labels).
- Fireplace
- Firewood (preferably birch)
- An absolutely hideous, yet super-cozy comforter, which also doubles as a makeshift bed for Ella for her fireside napping
- Backgammon board (for the odd non-solitude moments)
- Free weekend newspaper (for reading a couple of articles, perusing want ads, doing the crossword/sudoku puzzle, and the rest is used for starting fire in 1.
- Non-fiction book(s)
- Fiction book(s)
- E-reader for everything else of random reading interest and trivia
- Wii Controller
- Deck of cards (used more for mnemonic testing than playing games)
- Puzzle books (sudoku and logic problems)
- Tea (or beer/wine/spirit later in the evening)
- Snacky things (in this case, it just literally happens to be soup to nuts)
- Laptop computer
- iTouch (music, podcasts, news, calculator)
- Earphones (to share peace with my neighbours)
- Blu-Ray remote
- Firm floor cushion (meditation, sitting closer to fire)
- TV (not-visible, but would still fit in the four square meter zone)
- Blu-ray player (also not visible, I don't even actually need disks, I can use it to tune into You Tube and Sony's free channels)
- Wii Consule (not visible, used more for news clips than gaming)
Missing from the picture is a pen and notebook/sketchpad (22), my currently rather uncooperative and unphotogenic dog (23), and another opponent to play games with me (24). It all at first glance looks quite ordinary and boring. However, if I ever found myself getting extremely bored given any of this, I would think that there would be something really very wrong with me if I couldn't occupy myself with any of these 24 options during 16 waking hours of a day of inclement weather being stranded at home. I actually look forward to the night during some really bad coldsnap, to really keep it simple: by throwing number 2 in number 1, perching on 18, wrapped up in 3, scratching number 23's head while she sleeps by my feet, while drinking the wine option of 12. Having a 24 join me is about as complicated as I'd allow the scene to get.
I write and post this for the benefit of some people I've been watching lately, who have more space than this to use (who are cluttering up their precious space with more junk they aren't really using), with more access to more toys, gadgets, and other material than presented in my picture, who yet don't use it to get any smarter or to feel or gain any deeper sense of solace; who have lately been driving their other cohorts, and those who assist them, bonkers: getting up each others' asses for no reason with their own spells of being stir crazy. Winter has only really just begun, and it hasn't even gotten that cold yet! What are they going to be like when it does start getting more bitter outside? It's really time to reassess yourselves people (you know who you are).
*- Stereos and CD collections are being reduced to MP3 format and their respective players. Entire shelves of hundreds of bulky, physical books can be eliminated by using a single e-reader. Interactive video screens and game consoles are attracting more sensory attention than the remaining ambience of a room. I would term this trend of relating with digital media more than using physical space, while avoiding the outside world as “micro-cocooning”.
**- When it becomes cold enough to result in having to warm up my car’s engine for longer than the actual time it will spend on the road, or when the dog has the sense to not want to walk two steps outside booted and fully bundled: that’s the kind of day I’m talking about around here. That point is usually around, or below, -30 Celsius (not including some horrific wind chill factor). It's not worth the trouble trying to get around, and it's a day when I want to expend as little energy as possible on unnecessary movement, inside or outside.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)