My Regular Mind, posted on March 14, 2010 at 06h36
Yesterday was a plentiful day. During, we went as far as Vancouver’s transit system could for Daiya and new shoes from Karmavore. Then we walked up a few hills to a Vietnamese restaurant and walked down them again to the train home. Finished the second issue of the Great Big Project, the revised and extended version. Delicious quesadillas for dinner and then we hurried off to the Biltmore to see Mike Doughty. Sleep. Lose an hour. Wake. Breakfast Dragon Bowl from the Naam, a nap, and now here to write. (This is also known as the idiom, “case in point.”)
The Vietnamese restaurant we went to was interesting. The front of the menu read, “all items on menu are 100% vegetarian and contains no meat, fish, egg, or MSG.” So basically the menu items were things like Spicy Lemon Grass Chicken and Grilled Pork Over Rice. As someone who doesn’t consume animals, I found it troubling to order any of these items even though it was imitation meat. I didn’t have this trouble when I first became vegetarian. Back then I bought a lot of these products, and now I eat a mostly whole foods diet. In the end, we enjoyed our Vegetable Wheat Noodle Soup and Sesame Eggplant Tofu, although neither was overwhelmingly delicious.
Mike Doughty was an amazing show, better than the last time I saw him. I’d previously only known the Biltmore as a loud venue, so I was surprised to see chairs out around the stage and candles on the tables. We found great unobstructed seats center stage and enjoyed the entire nearly two hour set. Some of my favourites from the evening were Rising Sign, Sunkeneyed Girl, and Bustin’ Up A Starbucks. Towards the end of their set, he announced that the evening’s show was being recorded and copies would be available to buy afterwards. I decided then that if he answered my question from the Question Jar, I’d buy a copy. He didn’t, so I didn’t. I’ll have to remember it was a great show.
There are a couple things I want to add to this site soon. In particular, an e-mail subscription option and some razzle-dazzle for entry previews. But for now, I really want to start writing the third issue. So please, excuse me.
Briefs of Fiction, posted on March 11, 2010 at 09h29
The drive was a batshit crazy I-want-to-scream tensionfest. Alan made it in six hours. Vegas was supposed to be fun. Like Hell it is. Maybe if the Devil –- in this case, the beloved Mrs. Alan Johnson — isn’t there. You could say that their trip went badly. You could also say that the Grand Canyon is really just a little crack.
“Really Alan. Do you have to drive that fast? Why do you insist on getting us there dead. Slow down. I swear to God, Alan. You slow this car down to the speed limit or I will get out and walk!”
Alan gritted his teeth and drove a little faster. Funny, the Devil swearing to God like that.
When they got home, his wife hurried to the bathroom and Alan hurried to the garden. In one of the far corners he started to dig. Alan didn’t want to hear one more damned time about Gamblers Anonymous, or about Alcoholics Anonymous, or any of the million other Anonymouses that his wife so-lovingly suggested. He had a bad night at the tables, that was it. It’s not like they won’t be able to get it back.
Continued…
Recently I began reading the Bible, and only a dozen pages in I’m surprised by my misperceptions. I went to Roman Catholic schools my entire life so I’d read certain excerpts here and there and figured I had it all summed up. This naivety is what made me never look deeper, but now I confess I’m curious.
And indeed, there are some curious things in there.
For example. King James version. Genesis 1:26 reads, in part, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Immediately following that, Genesis 1:27 reads, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.
Did you catch that? I cross-referenced this passage with another version too. In both, God refers to himself as “us” and “our” whereas when God is referred to, he is an individual. This is well prior to Jesus ascending to Heaven, so we can exclude the Holy Trinity, although perhaps the “us” in question refers to God and the Holy Spirit? The dualism is a possibility. But I don’t think so, I think it’s a concession that man created God. And I think it’s an admittance that even if man didn’t create God, man interpreted him how we could.
Continued…
Recipes, posted on March 7, 2010 at 05h55
The word ‘chai’ is Hindi for tea, so if you ever hear anyone saying ‘chai tea’ you should beat them with your club of redundancy club. This recipe makes about 6-8 cups of delicious hot chai, great for cold evenings or spicing up hot ones!
1.5 L water
8 slices fresh ginger
8 cardamom pods (split and seeded)
13 whole cloves
1.5 sticks cinnamon
2 black peppercorns
4 bags black tea
400 mL soy milk
Combine first ingredients in a slow cooker. Leave to simmer on high for 8 hours. Add the bags of black tea to steep for 5 minutes, then add the soy milk and serve hot!
My Regular Mind, posted on March 3, 2010 at 02h01
This morning I sit thankful to have gotten a full night of uninterrupted sleep. It’s been a rare thing since Sunday when a was urgently overrun by some kind of virus determined to take over the world. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I may have finally beat it. A standing ovation, please.
This was without question the worst flu I have ever experienced. It hit around 10 Sunday night, and until 8 the next morning I was lucky if I ever got 25 minutes of rest. It eased up on me Monday, thankfully, with a few hours between bouts, but that night I was back to about an hour of rest in-between. I haven’t eaten anything since Sunday other than the most delicious saltines yesterday. Who knew saltines would be the greatest food ever?
I’d originally set to write more in this post, but after writing the first few sentences have realized that my mind isn’t working as well as I’d like yet. Days without food have left me with little energy to write, which is a shame since time off from work is best spent working on my writing.
So instead, saltines. Mmm. Save the world, saltines, save the world.
Crime of Life, posted on March 2, 2010 at 05h16
We supposed there wasn’t anything to do but pack a night’s worth of clothes and drive North. Just suddenly, on impulse, at six o’clock. I was reckless then, in many ways, and we made it there by ten-thirty.
In nearly ever sense, I was trying to impress her, and when we finally arrived, much too late to do anything, the evening fell apart like anything but romance.
There wasn’t enough time to see the sights and not enough daylight to accommodate our desire. Much sooner than we expected, the trip was over. We left for home, and on that drive began the end of whatever we were.
