I didn’t write yesterday. Maybe I needed time to recover, or I was busy doing other stuff around the house, but I’m also thinking a lot about why do I write this and why post stuff online. Finishing the podcast got me thinking about this stuff, it’s all for fun and to work on my creative skills, but they’re questions of do I want to put work into this. The conclusion I came to is that I do want to put work into writing everyday. Writing is a valuable skill that I don’t want to stop doing. The other place I’m active is Instagram, that came about because I was taking pictures of my garden and sharing them with friends. Eventually I felt weird constantly showing them pictures, so I share them in an appropriate space now. I’m going to continue taking pictures of my garden and pictures in general, so it’s not like managing my Instagram account is extra work. I’m also grateful that I have been practicing photography because we got this Google hub that displays the photos on my phone and 95% of the photos it shows are pretty regardless of the subject because I now make an effort to take good photos. I’m thinking about framing, lighting, and clutter in the shot even if I’m only sending the photo to one person. My plan is to continue writing and taking pictures regardless. I’d rather share this stuff than have no chance of anyone seeing it, so for now I’ll keep posting online. If it gets annoying to where I’m asking myself why, I’ll reevaluate things. “Read and write”, is a philosophy I live by, for me that means that we should be taking in information and produce something with it. Until next time.
Praise Gilgamesh
Today was the death of my podcast. There has been a problem with the last two episodes I’ve tried to record and the files disappear. That’s enough of a sign for me to be done with it. The podcast worked out to provide us with Christfest IV, so it served its purposed. I’ve got so much other stuff going on that would better serve my time and energy. The ball is starting to get rolling with settling into the new house, I’ve set up a hose for the plants and this evening we put away all the kitchen accessories. There was even a bird outside of my window as I write this, it couldn’t have been more than eight feet away from me, sitting on a branch high above the sky. I’ve also started uprooting plants I don’t like. The mattock has been moved over and is getting put to work. There are stubbing weedesq trees growing all around the property, no matter how much they get cut back they won’t die unless the roots are dug up. I was fantasizing about going to the neighbors to discuss what they consider the property line. It doesn’t matter where the line is, there’s more than enough land, but I’d like to know basically every tree I own that’s older than 10 years. Then I’m can play connect the dots and clean out all the brush. The permanent battle is against things that grow uncontrollably fast, and things that have pointy parts, this goes for plants, insects and animals. I probably want to keep all insects away. I’m gonna want to cover every piece of earth around the house with stones or something devoid of life. Then I’ll plant some delicious plants to attract them away. This is my fool proof plan.
Lies in Weight
The month has come to an end and today I’m walking through the old house with the landlord for a final inspection. I will be so happy after all this is done. Someone is also coming to mow the lawn today, which isn’t a big deal, but it’s another appointment to juggle and the days of me juggle appointments are about to be over. I’m going to start saying to people, “No, I already have something scheduled that day.” because it never works out. I will inevitably need to be in two places at once, it’s a tale as old as the Flintstones. Along with getting back to normal life, now that my birthday is over I really need to start watching what I eat. Being locked up in the house for close to five months has not been good for my physic. There’s also been a lot of stress eating this last month. A note on staying home for months, it’s been five months and people are still saying, “A little longer and then it will be over” or, “If everyone did it right, it wouldn’t last this long.” If you think the easiest solution to a problem is to get 300 million Americans to do the same thing, you must not be from here. In a Phillies baseball game the crowd will boo a dog if it drops the frisbee; people push back. There’s a reason Microsoft bailed out Apple in the 90’s and why Coke needs Pepsi, it’s impossible to get everyone to do the same thing since some people want to do “the other” simple because people aren’t doing it. Microsoft wasn’t helping Apple, they were hedging their bets. If people don’t go to option 1, they go to option 2. That might be an important idea to remember around election time.
Climb to Glory
Whew wei, Christfest was a good one. When I was a kid, I would like to plan a day of my Summer vacation to walk to the park and spend the whole day there without saying a single word. Those were the types of experiments I ran with my mind and what I enjoy. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday. I own acres of land where I can shout at the top of my lungs and I can completely unplug. It’s a strange techno-natural balance I’m trying to work with. I’m plugging so much of my life into smart devices and wanting to live in the woods. That’s where I fall back on being able to defend myself. If someone wants to take this hill, they better bring an army and I pay my taxes to keep that from happening. It was even raining all day; that’s my favorite weather. I’ve always thought about moving to Portland or Seattle to be somewhere with a ton of rain, but I’ve been quite pleased with how much rain I’ve been seeing at the new place. Being out of the city makes the rain feel fresher, it doesn’t travel through a layer of smog to get to me.
My wife is planning on bringing me Hibachi for dinner. The first time I ate Hibachi was when I was taken to dinner by my brother and his now wife. It’s one of the few meals I remember as a kid, so I guess it’s important to try and make those special memories. I was wondering why they would take me out to dinner, I’m not their kid. I thought maybe it’s a test couples do to rent someone else’s kid. That way they know how each other performs. That does make me want to do special things for my nephews every chance I get.
Amor Fati
Today I’m 32 years old. That seems crazy to say, I’m just a kid. I remember sitting on my parent’s front stoop grinding Ritz crackers on the concrete to make them square, and only last year I ate dirt for fun. Being in my thirties makes me an adult, how did this happen? I’ve been divorced, was in a war that no longer exists, and now I have a mortgage. I guess growing older sneaks up while you’re out playing games. I’m not the same person I was when I was younger, thank god, but I’m not even the same person I was three years ago. I love learning and building because those activities over time make for a powerful combination. Hopefully my past makes my progress down this road exponential, but learning how to learn saves a lot of time when I jump around to different hobbies. I’m sitting here asking who I am at 32, but I’m just getting started. I’ve finally been able to buy land this month. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be “getting started” for probably the next five years, but “You’ll always over estimate how much you can do in one year and under estimate how much you can do in five.” Maybe I’ll start to think of myself as an adult and pay people to do back breaking work instead of doing it myself, that would be good growth. Who I am is someone that will keep throwing myself at a task until one of us collapses. I think everyday is an opportunity to be a better self, that the only way to grow is to learn from my mistakes and avoid them in the future. I’ll be put in situations to make mistakes again, that’s for sure. I can have all the knowledge in the world, but if I don’t use it, then I haven’t learned anything. I believe the world is a beautiful place, well the world is an indifferent place, but humans can choose how it’s perceived. I do my best to love fate.
All money is make believe
Crypto Currency has been booming lately if you weren’t aware. I guess the economy must be on the brink of collapse or some other reason, I don’t subscribe to any news. Although it’s probably harder to know what’s going on for those who do consume the news. As Mark Twain said, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do, you’re misinformed.” I trust my own judgement and ability to read in-between the lines, and that’s why I got back into crypto last month when unemployment filings went over 40 million. I’m not too heavily invested, what do I even have to invest? I’m more interested in collecting data and speculating what it might mean. Every morning I write down the price of three coins, or at this point we might as well call them stocks, so I can see what’s going on and can easily look back on my notes. What happened over the last week is what I would call a mini boom, and the prices dipped last night. I suspect there will be one or two more mini rise and falls before the media is all over the price of crypto and that will send it sky rocketing. To me that looks something like Bitcoin above $15,000. Bear in mind that BTC peaked in the 20k range before so that isn’t an unheard of price. If you don’t know anything about crypto currency, do not take this news as a reason to invest. There are scams everywhere and you will lose money. I’ve been tracking that price of BTC since it was at $300 a coin, that was sometime in 2015. I’ve lost money on poorly timed purchases and have given money to scammers, that’s part of the game. Crypto is still the wild west in some sense, but it’s getting domesticated. For the average person, they don’t need to worry about all this. What they should know is that switching to a digital currency is going to happen. Most people make purchases with a credit card or smart devices already and as we deeper into the “internet of things”, we’ll need crypto. Which coin or combination will win is uncertain right now.
Let Jimmy Take Over
The start of a new week, there’s potential for anything to happen. Well it’s more like the opposite of potential, I know what needs to get done and by the end of the week I hope to have brought those tasks to null. I’ve moved on to moving over my garden. Hopefully it’s not too hard, there are only two plants that are heavy for me to pick up: a Boston fern and blue Italian cypress. That cypress will need to be strapped down, even sitting in my yard on the ground it gets tossed by the wind. Today should be the deconstruction of the old green house and probably the reconstruction too. I took a photo of mimosa tree flower yesterday, it was the first plant photo I’ve taken in the new place. There have been opportunities for beautiful shots, but I haven’t had the energy for any creative endeavors. Today is the first day in weeks that I’m doing some pleasure reading. I know I’m getting back to my normal energy levels, but it’s only Monday. I still have to take it slow and finish the week strong. My goodness, I even have Christfest on Thursday, so may Mary grant me strength. I’ll probably be moving stuff until the last minute to avoid working on my birthday and then it’ll mark the beginning of my life as a mountain man. Someday someone will ask me to help them move and my only response will be a slap. Next we’ll still have to unpack our garage filled with stuff. We weren’t even able to properly place things while moving in because the previous owners left a bunch of furniture. Our couch is currently sitting in the middle of the room to provide some normalcy and comfort during this time. Although at this time, can anyone say what normal is anymore?
For fear of fowl I fight the howl
I have the most beautiful view from where my desk is now. All my life I’ve never had a pretty view from where I work. I suppose that’s why I focus on beautiful things so much now. I learned a long time ago that any argument can go back and forth forever, so if I was to dive deeper into any subject it should be the sublime. I suppose that’s how we see human beings, as a divining rod for free thought. How deep does the well of the spirit go? It’s unknown, probably unknowable because like Gilgamesh trying to win the secret to immortality, we too are limited by our humanity. I hear the trees telling me a storm is coming, I’m going to want a front row seat. Maybe my pond will even flood, but I don’t think I’ll want to walk down there today. I’m in rest mode until Monday. Even the dog wants to watch the rain, he’s begging to go out. It’s a pleasant past time of our’s to watch the rain together. This is going to be a good one too, the most perfect part is I can watch the rain while typing now. What more could I ask for than a recording of my thoughts during the most beautiful moments of my life. My brain is soothed, there’s the rub. Mixing beautiful words together is work that requires focus and living in the moment is getting lost in the senses; returning to animal hood. Perhaps we journey back and forth getting information and documenting it; as the pendulum swings. The rain has really set in and I need to go watch it so I’ll focus for a couple minutes and wrap things up. Everyday bring me closer to my birthday which I treat very ceremonial, I’m really into numbers.
News Flash Brews Cash
Tomorrow was the originally scheduled date for Christfest. I don’t think I’ve talked about it here, but it’s my made up holiday that coincides with my birthday, so we can have a big Summer party. There’s Christmas in December and Christfest in July. Obviously I’m not having it this year, but it’s crazy how it snuck up on me this year. I only noticed because it was written in my calendar at the beginning of the year, usually I’m preparing for the party about three months out. I like there to be a build up of teasers to get people interested and make it feel like this isn’t a normal party. There’s also a rule for people not to have their phones out because I don’t want photos or videos recorded. People will relax more and worry less about how they’re acting if they don’t have to worry about it being brought up again. We can all say, “People were drinking, who knows what happened.” My crazy antics aid in the night seeming like a fever dream. I like to wear red, white and blue outfits. I had a red, white and blue singlet and wrestled someone one year. There was also a wedding where the entire bridal party wore these crazy masks I own. I’m thinking that I might return my podcast on my birthday with a Christfest episode because that’s at the end of the month and I would be able to celebrate Christfest IV this year anyway. I was a little worried with it being the fourth year that I don’t want to go too big since I have to top it the next year, but also wanted it to be valuable on it’s own. It will certainly be interesting. Well I suppose you should look forward to the return of my podcast Being Chris Cooper on July 30th, with Christfest IV.
Weed wackers will wander
My legs feel like they’ve been doing a bunch of squats. I’ve got to make sure to stretch my hamstrings before I get started today. Hopefully walking up and down the hill is a pretty good workout as well. I think this place is going to be even more enjoyable when fall comes. Right now it’s stinking hot, so we can only be outside during the day for a couple minutes at a time. I mean I could stay out longer, but it saps my energy to stand in the shade. My brain has been so scattered, I almost completely forgot to feed the dog yesterday. I only remembered at the end of the night when he was acting weird, he should have told me his bowl was empty. That actually has me thinking that I might teach him when his bowl is empty to sit and bark, then I fill it up. That’s just another project though, I don’t have time for new projects right now. I can see the finish line of the move at this point and if I ever move again, I must be certifiably insane. I was thinking about my first real move, the first time that I realized how much I hated moving and how people accumulate stuff unbeknownst to themselves. I was moving to college with the help of my brother and friend. Basically I moved everything important out, like this time, but then the house was still so full. It was like a mystery, every time I loaded up the truck, more junk appeared in my house. Eventually I got sick of it all and kept saying, “Leave it, we’re done.” The beauty about being on your own in life is nothing is lost by walking away, but life is better with mild restrictions.
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