1) I may be getting a little bit too serious and introspective for this blog. My intention was to create something that made my friends smile and kept them up to date on my goings-on, and perhaps, if I was skillful enough, simulated the experience of sitting with me sipping peppermint tea, eating sugar cookies, and chatting pleasantly.
However, I also use writing to think things out, and I'm regularly informed by my writing buddy that my internal 'figuring things out' monolog is a bit boring. So if the rest of you actually want more of that, you'll have to speak up: otherwise I'll try to focus on concrete details, funny tidbits, and uplifting musings.
This consideration brings me back to my college days, when I decided to be totally truthful. So when people asked me, "Hey Isaac, how ya doin'?" or "what's up?" I would reply with the truth, which was often,
"Pretty sucky, actually."
They would then look concerned and ask
"Are you ok? What's wrong?"
And I would have to explain,
"No, no, it's fine, this is par for the course."
Usually they would continue to check up on me, or ask if there was anything they could do to help. I'd have to explain that I often just felt pretty bad, and didn't really know why, or what to do to change it. It created a pretty long conversation out of a simple pleasantry that wasn't even supposed to get a real reply, and seemed to be worrying people, so I eventually stopped.
People aren't used to other people expressing how they're feeling. What would you do if someone replied to your "how are you doing?" with "Well, I'm kind of lonely and feel ashamed of the fact that I've been binge-watching 'Avatar: the Last Airbender,' but I am trying to distract myself from that by hanging around other people, which stops working pretty much immediately once I'm alone again. So, pretty average. How are you?"
Most people would assume that person was edging towards clinical depression and trying to call out for help. Even though it's not that unusual of an experience. Maybe the cheerful way I said it seemed unbalanced. I don't know.
I was also suprised by people's reactions because, when I asked, "how are you doing?" I did genuinly want to get a monologue like that. I like knowing what's stirring in my friend's innermost hearts. When I don't want to know, or don't have time to listen to something long, I will simply say, "hello." Or, "nice to see you." But if I ask "how are you doing," know that I will indeed accept and appreciate a tmi response. ("tmi" stands for "too much information" for those of you not raised on instant messenger.)
Bottom line is I'll try and not make people worry for my sanity and mental health unless there's good cause to worry. Though I myself am often amused these days when I have so much to do that I'd need Hermione's time turner to get it all done. (And oh how I would love to get one of those even if I could only use it for more time studying and sleeping)
And to keep you from worrying: though back in undergrad school life was maybe 90% suck to 10% awesome, the ratio has reversed at this point. Though as I stretch myself to do things I'm not good at in front of other people, some of that awesome is tinted with a thin translucent yellow coating of anxiety.
Or maybe that's just the "flux" software I have on my computer that auto-dimms and tints the screen orange to keep it from inhibiting my melatonin secretion at night. (It works! Give it a try if you have trouble sleeping at night. The software is free.)
Anyways. Man, how do these posts get so long? Back words, back I say! Yah! It feels like trying to hold back lions with a chair and a whip.
2) (remember there was a 1) all the way up there?) For some unknown reason I got like ten times as many views on my last post as on previous posts. I can only assume this is because facebook sucked up a random picture from my blog and posted it along with the link. And it was an awesome picture I had lovingly handcrafted in a photo editing program. (Yes, that's actually my face.) The picture is up on the sidebar of my blog and has been for ages. But obviously you people like pictures, so I suppose I should try to include more of those.
Here a photo I did last summer (I'm a bit backlogged, you may have noticed.) at the request of one reader who asked, "but where are the crumpets?". And at my own curiosity at what crumpets actually were and tasted like. (At some point I'll try to post the video where I try and fail to capture on video my experiments with the butter absorption abilities of the little vacuoles that constitute a crumpet.)
Crumpet Pro Tip: they are like foul cardboard rubbed in baking soda when raw and fluffy delicious sponges for butter when toasted. (A bit like how waffles are genetically engineered pancakes made for maple syrup delivery.)
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