I woke up with the opposite of a hangover, whatever that is. I think it's a manic depressive thing that happened to coincide with the morning. I never, ever feel good, until early afternoon, and that's including the mornings without hangovers, of which there have been many lately, because there is no time for skating or drinking or happiness or satisfaction or fulfilment, when there is money to be made in Taipei. Having lived without money for most of my adult life, I've learned to grab the opportunity by the throat and drink the well until it's dry. Then it'll be time for more skating.
It's been raining for weeks, and the last few days have been clear. This morning was extra clear and the golden sun through the window was like a drug experience. I dreamt of lzyk, who I have met up with a few times, siren that she is. I did my pushups and threw on clothes and walked halfway across the city, coffee and 7/11 microwaved meat and melty cheese sandwhich consumed en route, and had class with the d. I've spent more time with him than almost anyone else in my life; we've been working together for almost four years now, one on one. You tend to learn a lot about a person in that kind of setting, and miss them when they're living the good life, snowboarding in japan. I had a few minutes for a lunch break and marched home back across this sunny, windy, lovely city, through throngs of people who aren't really my people and consider me an outsider, but who I now identify with more than americans. I dropped by a goop soup stall for a $1usd lunch, read my new book while I waited (Bill Bryson, 1927) and went upstairs to change clothes.
The only complaining I'll do here, other than capitalism and all its alternatives suck, is that the worksmanship in Taiwan is fucking embarrassing. My rooftop has been slowly painted, over the last month or two, and by that, I mean someone bought watery paint and slapped it all over everything. I came home to find the end of the project. There is a mural, on one wall, which is actually pretty rad, but the back wall is just yellow jizzsplatter, much of which ended up on the floor. The artist tried to not get it on my new wooden grilling deck, but many many many dribbles are on the floor. This paragraph makes me miss the early internet.
I think I forgot this part: on the way back from the d, I went by the electronics plaza, and bought a new battery for my beloved phone. I'm an antimaterialist, if I'm feeling douchy, or I'm not the sort of guy who buys a lot of electronics, if I'm just feeling like a loser. My electric brain is from 2013, and I spent at least an hour at Guanwa looking for a new battery. The manic stage of the day began when I finally found a hovel on the four or fifth floor, with at least 1,000 species of battery, who gave me a very decent and good price for it, so I also bought an external charger that is solar powered. I have no idea anymore if that is a thing in the west or not. I have never seen it before. The motherfucker can charger from my overhead lights. Seems too good to be true. Impulse buy: $1500. At least I barely made profit on the day.
I did so because I went to teach teens in the evening. This is usually the worst job in Taipei, after toilet cleaning and anything to do with customer service. My coworker was furiously arguing with his ct about why he couldn't hold a bad student 5 min after class. He wanted to help the student improve, she wanted to please the parents. This is why Taiwan is fucked, in the long run. Anyway, I taught some kids about asceles and anopheles, and albopictus, who is just a flying asshole, and then I marched home across the city and found that I had two bottles of jinro in the fridge, so although I am grossly over budget for the day, I can nurture a buzz and then type these moronic thoughts out.
No shit, I have a student named Adolph, which is maybe the first name I've ever posted here, but it's out of the need to tell people not to use the name Adolph, when picking an English name for their kid (which is weirdly pretentious and imultaneously pathetically insecure, but almost universal in Taiwan. I mean, I even have a Taiwanese name on my ID card. Why do we have to make up new names? I hope if I ever meet extraterrestrials, they won't asked me to give them a trendy new name to give to their genetic descendents).
I taught mosquito class well, but no one was really into it, because pneumonia is a more trendy topic (#3) and they (all of society, not the class) have instantly forgotten what used to kill 60-80% of people here (ATM disease, and mosquitos).
I marched home and got into said jinro. tomorrow is gonna come early.
Any drug that would make me wake up feeling like I did 19 hours ago; I would take that, without hesitation, every night. You don't get to start off ahead of the game very often.
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