Furamo

stories about this and that

I really love books. You can find some amazing ideas reading them. Some of those ideas will completely change your whole being, leave an impact until you die. But let’s face it, a lot of books, especially non-fiction ones, could easily present all of their ideas with way less text, maybe as a blog post or an article.

I just remembered a funny thing that happened to me recently. And while I was thinking about it, I realized I could use the strategy that actual writers use, and extend that small memory with a bunch of filler text until it becomes literature. And that is precisely what you are reading at the moment.

So. Most of us have had this happen. You go to a shop, buy cigarettes or a beer and the cashier asks for your ID. Even though you are like 35. I understand that, better safe than sorry. Also, nowadays people wear masks so it is even harder to be sure of who you are dealing with. I also wear glasses and I love to wear a hood, which cover my natural looks even more.

Those kinds of misjudgments due to covered heads and faces can get even weirder. Recently, I was walking down the street, wearing my long winter coat with the hood on. And some guy basically catcalled me in Russian. He then walked up to me, said like “Oh. Not a girl.”, and left. I found the whole encounter funny. Did that dude think that girls normally are 190cm (6’3″) tall? I guess it might have ended up not being funny had I been an actual girl. So I feel sorry for women who have to go through that shit on a regular basis.

Another year successfully wasted

I thought that a fun new years resolution would be to commit to a blog post every week this new year, but I already couldn’t do it last week so might as well not do it at all

Thanks goodbye

Back in ’98 I used to be the biggest fan of the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. It was totally my favorite thing. I owned a life-size poster of Sarah Michelle Gellar, which I was too ashamed to put up on my wall as it showed too much cleavage. I also had a coffee mug with her imagery, up until the time that I had a party with my friends where we got drunk at my place, ran naked around the neighbourhood, and after getting back inside I tried to make a cocktail of coke and fortified wine into the Buffy coffee mug, but alas I was too drunk so I broke the mug, and with that came an end to the era of my fandom for her.

Anyway, where I got that mug from – it was a present from a classmate at a school christmas party. The present I received was amazing, and the party was nice. Being an introvert already then, I took a break from the party at one point and went to get some ice cream. The raspberry ice cream with white chocolate toppings was great as always, it had long been my favorite. I ate it and walked back to school. But before I got back, some dudes on the street grabbed me and pulled me into a side alley, searched me, grabbed my cell phone, and ran away with it. I ran after one of them, into the backyard of a nearby house, and demanded my phone back. He didn’t want to return it, instead he asked what I have in my bag. I guess he was hoping for more valuables. I told him that it’s just a coffee mug I have there. Then he just beat me up and left me lying on the ground. Even though I was a fucking little kid. At least I kept the cup, intact for ten more years. Anyway, that’s why nowadays I always carry a knife with me whenever I go out.

Today was the first day since my childhood that I went a full 24 hours without wearing any socks. What a day, I say.

Some 10 years ago someone suggested I visit some psychic healer lady that supposedly had incredible powers and could look into your past lives. Being kinda desperate to find solutions to my problems, I did as instructed and visited her. Her office was at her apartment, in a poor, shady area of the city. She let me in and asked some questions. I didn’t have an idea what she was gonna do, but I’d had positive experiences before with some masseuses whose hands made me feel like a new person, so I had high expectations for this new healer person.

First of all she asked me when I was born. I told her the date. She then looked the date up in some thick, modern-looking book and told me that according to the wisdom of the ancients my soul has been traversing between bodies and lives and has now reached this point in my current life. And in this current life my goal to advance to the next level of being is to express myself clearly to others, make myself understood.
That’s it? I thought. What a letdown. I guess she was not one blessed with superpowers as the masseuses had been, her only power had been turning pages in a book, which was a severe letdown.

After that I explained some of my issues, and she looked up some stuff in another book, this time checking what points on my body I should be pressing to fix my anxiety and depression. She demonstrated herself how I’m supposed to press them and oh boy that was a painful experience. I could have pressed those points better myself.

After that I paid a rather sizeable sum for her help, and left, dumbfounded. What had just happened? Surely nothing of any help to me. Regardless, even though many years have passed, I still remember the information she gave me, about the meaning of my existence. That I have to learn to make myself clear, to express myself understandably.

I have to admit; explaining your thoughts is pretty hard. I’m super impressed by people who write books and articles about their ideas and manage to make themselves crystal clear to the reader. When I am trying to explain something, I’m fully aware of the topic myself, but I don’t understand what words to use to describe it. I know the topic through and through, but my empathy skills are low, so I just can’t imagine how the reader or listener sees my output. I’m having a hard time even now, explaining that I suck at explaining, rewriting the same sentences again and again but not seeing much improvement.

Anyway, I’m sure this entire business of verbalizing ideas is learnable. Not sure how to practice it though. I guess I might have been practicing while writing this post, but are there any better methods?