Life's pretty different now from how it was when I posted last time. I'm, in general, a lot happier, even though I still work in retail. I live in Athens. It suits me much better than Seattle. I like the south better than the northwest. I'm really kind of surprised at how unhappy I was in my last post.

Well...I'm going to take a nap.

I stopped updating

because I was homeless in Seattle. I'm not homeless anymore. Instead of talking about my current living situation and what happened between the last post and now, the only thing I want to say right now is, um...I really don't like being a slave to a company that means nothing to me. Retail is not for me. If I don't find a way to make ends meet by doing something I care about reasonably soon, it's gonna...ugh. I have these sort of rough plans for the future (meaning the next couple of years) that involve creative projects coming to fruition, and it IS possible and what little free time I have, I don't feel is being wasted...

and
and
and

...

um

...

I have to go do the dishes.

Jason

I don't wanna be average.

I made those chop sticks (sans sanding) and read two of those Salinger stories like the day after I made that last post.

The psychic-in-training gave me a card for a free aura reading Wednesday. I am excited.

I love my blog. I enjoy typing on keyboards so much more than writing on paper. I could probably write in it all day and all night. But I'm going to bed.

Oyasumi,

Jason

Some Day This, Some Day That....

I felt disconnected today. Part of it had to do with waking up to a warehouse with no people in it. I thought I'd heard that a couple of people were going to the beach, but I didn't know where anyone else was. I was alone for thirty or fourty-five minutes. This isn't that common on the farm. When you're by yourself, it's usually because of a decision you make. You often have to go out of your way. Another part of it was I started the day with night-time activities: washing dishes and watching two movies (Lady and the Tramp and The Life Aquatic). This, to me, is eating the desert before the meal (not that I think there's anything especially sweet about washing dishes). The rest of the day I felt off-key.

There is a new person on the farm who is taking classes to be a psychic or something like that. He has a tarot deck (I've been wanting one myself for a while). He had someone fan them out face down, and then he pulled a card out. It was "ordinariness." At first, he didn't get it, but then he looked closer at the card. There was a picture of a guy in a farmer-type hat, out in the country on it. And before he came here he had spent a couple of years in India, which he thinks is the most amazing place in the world. So, there you go, I guess. I pulled a card out, too. It was the procrastination card. I can't imagine a more appropriate card for me. Some day I will pursue those creative projects on the back burner. Some day I will compile some stories. Some day I will carve that pair of chop sticks I've been meaning to work on for weeks. Some day I will read the rest of those Salinger stories.

I don't feel very accomplished today. I think about accomplishment a lot. I haven't figured out if that is important to me or not. I haven't even quite figured out what I mean by "accomplishment." Arriving in Hawaii was an accomplishment, and so was becoming a little handier in the kitchen. I think I'm looking at things in terms of scale. Coming here and learning a couple of kitchen tricks just doesn't seem big or substantial enough. At times. But at other times, it seems just perfect. Those times when I really like where I am, not just geographically, but as far as what I am capable of at the moment and my psychological fitness.

I have no idea what I am doing tomorrow. But it's okay. I know, essentially, what I am doing now.

Love,

Jason

I Don't Know If I Think About Salinger on a Daily Basis

but I do think about him, or at least his works, a lot. There is a perpetual sticky note in the back of my mind that's there to remind me to go and read his un-collected stories some day. Not ten years down the road, but this year, say, or the year after that. Maybe I'll read one tonight. People are charging hundreds of dollars for bound, pirated collections of those stories:

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/qwork/1244958/used/The%20complete%20uncollected%20short%20stories%20of%20J.D.%20Salinger

See those jokers charging $1,000 bucks? Is anyone paying that much? I hope not. You can find them online for free or in certain libraries.

Franny and Zooey is probably the most beautiful book I've read. Talk about lost youth. Salinger is the master.

I'm thinking about him a lot today because of a facebook comment Ben made.

Also, I'm leaving the island Friday.

Love,

Jason

I Swipe Emily's Picture

This was my first night on the farm.
St. Patrick's Day.

What the Hell, Brown Cow?

So it's like, Brown Cow plain yogurt already pretty much has the cream and the whey separated. The whey just kind of pools up at the top after you scoop away the cream. That diminishes last post's achievement (I used Straus European-style yogurt, which is mixed more uniformly), but only a bit...I guess.

Should I go on about how much I think about yogurt these days? How much I enjoy it and how I think those little single-serving Brown Cows with the fruit in the bottom are the ultimate snack? I tried the raspberry one yesterday...so fucking good. And the cherry vanilla one? Or was it French vanilla? I don't remember. Too amazing. Swallowed it in like two gulps.

Uh...what is this blog about again? I don't know.

Anyway a mosquito just bit my fucking face.

No, that's not what I was going to say. I was going to say something like:

Anyway, there's this greek-style yogurt that they sell at the natural foods store that is the most expensive of all, but I don't want to try it because it has an unattractive logo. And the color scheme on the packaging is really bad. It's like the color of nausea. Fuck that shit. I mean...I have standards. They may be shallow and aesthetic, but they are there.

Oh yeah, I guess this is a good thing to write about: I think I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. No, I don't have a girlfriend. I didn't just get a lot of money. I didn't score a killer job. I just really really like where I am.

And yogurt. I like yogurt.

Love,

Jason