2019-nCoV: observations from the trenches

• first of all, the iPhone face recognition fails in the face of a mask
• eyeglasses and surgical masks do not co-exist comfortably
• masks are anti-social. plus they kill lip-reading
• in a situation of fear and panic you discover who is evidence-driven and who goes by his gut
• the gut is more prevalent than the evidence
• while some are driven by guidelines and directives

- to be continued, as the situation evolves

the museum of innocence - orhan pamuk (2008)

i chance upon this book in the playground and hunt it down in the library. 

it is un-put-down-able for the first half. pamuk has a style that effortlessly conjures up floating leaves fragile branches and autumnal smokiness. his descriptions of Kemal's distress furtiveness and hopelessness are merciless and compelling. 

but a doomed relationship can only throw up so many numbing details before it starts to drag, is what i say. at chapter 54 i give up and start reading backwards from the end. 

i must say the story ends quite elegantly, with its delicate musty atmosphere intact. although that could be because i am speed-reading by then.

i also say Kemal Bey must have had some OCD trait in him. 

people who work in open-plan offices

should speak in softer tones.

an afternoon at the library

• i visit, seeing as the cellphone battery is running dangerously low and i'm not due to meet HOM yet
• it's a modern place with lots of different levels for variety and plenty of computer terminals with flat screens and screens embedded in tabletops. i just wish they had more seats with backrests 
• lots of middle-aged and elderly folk there
• with a rather significant proportion of them catching forty winks, myself included
• some people talk rather loudly on their cellphones. i wish they wouldn't. one really does not wish to know that that gentleman made his payment the other day already
• in addition to my forty winks i catch one-and-a-quarter forgettable books. but that's ok. one's got to read a lot of nonsense to get a gem or two, is wot i say, mixed metaphors be damned

gibberish

this is your captain speaking. cue an incomprehensible conflation of swallowed consonants and flat vowels delivered without prosody. thank you for your attention.

why even bother?

that time of the year

it's all aggressively cheerfully festive and if i hear gongxigongxigongxini one more time i am going to want to hit somebody on the head with it.

shall we have some seasonal decoration? HOM asks. gah.

looking back, 2010-2019

J1 ends high school and begins military service

then J2 finishes high school too

G the Dog crosses the rainbow bridge

we repatriate

i painfully rebuild a career

we get E the new Dog

J1 and J2 graduate college

we meet Y

J2 is done with post-grad school

J1 moves to a second job

i co-write three books, to my (still) great bemusement

we pass the twenty-nine year mark together

i learn that God is bigger kinder and gentler than i knew

this is my song

this is my song, O God of all the nations, a song of peace for lands afar and mine;
this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:
but other hearts in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

- lloyd stone

what is truth? Pilate asks the Christ. 
grant that my truth may not blind me to yours.

for the year that is to come 2

my quasi-resolutions, as part of the annual exercise:

• be interruptible
• be kind. or at least, be kind as my first response
• be interruptible
• be kind. judge slowly
• gripe less readily

specifically,

• have dinner with more friends
• dust off the old DSLR
• keep reading. it's been good going
• listen to music more
• facebook less

there! a restrained list and i hope a partially realistic one.

for the year that is to come

sola scriptura sola fide sola gratia

solus christus

soli deo gloria

portals to fantasy

bangkok all bedecked in commercial christmas finery.

budget travel

when the hotel does not provide bedroom slippers and the floor feels sticky.

what i say is, these look like bikini for the feet.