I got to have a conversation tonight about personal philosophies and ethics, which was heartening. It's been awhile since I met someone I could talk to about that on a more equal level. Usually the people I talk to fall into one of a few categories:
-Pseudo-intellectuals who use unnecessarily flowery language to convey poorly-thought-out ideas
-People who haven't thought about things and aren't interested in getting deep into a discussion
-Interested folks who are impressed by my perspective but don't have much to reciprocate with

It turned out that this person and I actually had some fairly similar ideas, but we worded them in different ways, so some of the conversation was a bit redundant until that was pointed out. Still refreshing, in any case. I meet plenty of smart people, but not that many who are also interested in talking about the things I am interested in. It's a particular flavor of thoughtfulness, I suppose. There are a lot of intelligent people, and a lot of people who think about philosophy, but for whatever reason, I don't meet the folks in the middle of that Venn diagram much. Just get all those annoying pseudo-intellectuals instead.

For example, today a guy messaged me and told me he had a thought experiment that could disprove the existence of God, then threw some inane garbage propositions at me that were full of baseless assumptions. His argument was too stupid to reproduce on my blog, but take my word for it when I say that it had more holes than substance.

Anyway, here's a picture I took of an oystercatcher when I visited the Sutro Baths last weekend.

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It's fairly mild this time, at least so far, but I seem to have caught a cold or something, which I can't say I'm particularly pleased about. For some reason I've also been ravenously hungry these past couple days, so maybe that has to do with being sick.

I've been listening to this on repeat:

"56k (song made entirely from dial-up modem sound)" by RAC.

My dad called my name and asked if I was playing a song and how long it was. I said I just had it repeating and he was like "okay, well it's kind of annoying." Guess he doesn't like my beep boop music.

I attended a Mickaboo basic bird care class today, as the first step to potentially adopting some birds. The place it was held at had pigeons/doves and bunnies for adoption, and now I'm thinking about what it would be like to have pigeons as pets. I like pigeons, but they're not as cute as budgies. On the other hand, they are less work apparently, and are more cuddly. I mentioned thinking of adopting a bunny to my friend Henry, and he gave me a load of info on bunny care because he has a bunny. While I wasn't really looking for a ton of advice on the subject, it was helpful stuff to know if I ever do decide to get a bunny.

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Lately I've been thinking about weakness and strength and what cultivates and contributes to each of those qualities. Overall I've been feeling good about myself and my life in general recently, minus a couple things, but I have felt a bit restless. It feels like I've been getting too many vague compliments and not enough (constructive) criticisms, I guess. I want to improve, but I'm in a place where I feel like external feedback would help me out, and I'm not getting enough information in that regard. It's all well and fine for people to say "just keep doing what you're doing," but that doesn't really give me anything new to work on.

Too many compliments starts to create an expectation of praise, and I don't like feeling like I need that. Praise is nice, but I don't want to feel antsy in its absence.

School is going well so far, and I'm having a much better time here than I was at school last year. There are some things I'm still worried about though, such as being pushed to treat people too delicately. I don't want to encourage weakness in other people by implying that I don't think they can handle stuff through my behavior towards them. Not saying that I think everybody should just buck up and deal with bad situations, but like... I generally believe that people are pretty capable of getting through tough times, and I want them to believe that about themselves too. I'm concerned that an overly careful PC culture could undermine people's sense of their own resilience. This hasn't been a problem so far, but I'm wary of it happening.

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The feelings have withdrawn.

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"broken" by lovelytheband.

I like that you're broken, broken like me
Maybe that makes me a fool
I like that you're lonely, lonely like me
I could be lonely with you

I heard this on the radio, so I'm guessing it'll get spammed on the air for awhile, but I resonate with it, so I'm sharing it.

There's something very comforting, very connecting, about being with someone else who admits their brokenness and shows you their scars. It's not about being incomplete and finding someone else who completes you; I think it's just that feeling of kinship. Of not being alone in the darkness. Maybe there's also some security in it. I feel like it's easier to lay all your cards on the table with someone else who feels broken. With someone who doesn't... there's always a fear of hurting them or contaminating them, I guess. As if brokenness were an incurable disease that could be contagious. Better to associate only with those who have already caught it than risk spreading it. That's a qualm I have sometimes about certain people... I don't think I come off broken to most people, but the feeling persists, vibrating at my core, an emptiness that dodges my gaze and hides in the peripheral vision of my existence. It doesn't really go away ever, but I don't look at it when I'm feeling happy.

I don't think I'll ever feel whole, but I can always get closer to wholeness than I am already.

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This is a lovely rendition of "Pure Imagination".

"Pure Imagination tribute in memory of Gene Wilder"

I met up with someone from Reddit (my first Redditor!) today. Nothing too eventful about it, but he told me about kalimbas, so I ended up watching a bunch of kalimba videos on Youtube tonight as a result. Yesterday I also met up with someone (he kept calling it a date...) who had reaaaaaaaaally poor boundaries and kept touching me. It was super awkward. Dude was probably at least 6' tall, but he decided to greet me by hugging me under the arms as soon as I met him. He also touched my legs multiple times, picked me up to gauge how much I weighed, touched my bangs/face, and sang "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins to some goats, all within the span of an hour. Oh, and he took me for a five minute ride on his motorcycle. I can't really say I had a good reason for going along with all of that, but it happened. At the end of it all, the best thing I could say to him was "Well, meeting you has been interesting." In response, he told me that I was more attractive than he'd expected. So... yeah. There were other weird things that happened that I'm leaving out, but I'm pretty tired, so I'm just going to leave them be for now.

One thing he mentioned that stuck with me was that I seemed confident. I've gotten that from a few different people now. It's weird to think about, but I think I do feel confident. I wonder when that happened? I'm just... not very afraid right now, I guess. Don't think I could have fathomed this version of myself ten years ago, when I was an insecure teenager. I feel... settled in myself, I suppose. At least for now. I've met 44 people from the internet now, so maybe that's given me enough experience to feel at ease meeting new people, haha.

I don't know why I've been feeling so... healthy lately. I don't think it's just good feelings from meeting someone I like. Not to say that that doesn't contribute... but I guess it doesn't seem like that's all of it. I've just been feeling pretty decent overall? Getting back into working out, trying to eat a little better, drinking some vinegar every day... (fruit balsamic vinegar diluted heavily with water, not like... straight white vinegar). Things just feel good. Stable. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

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The warm bubbly excitement of something new has finally arrived. We hung out for uhhhh... something like 17 hours, I think. I kept saying "Oh, I should leave" but neither of us wanted me to, so I ended up staying an extra 4-5 hours.

I felt like we bonded more last night. He told me about some personal experiences I hadn't heard in detail before, and I told him some things I rarely tell people. At least on my side, it felt like we were being open and accepting with each other, and I didn't feel judged or like I was judging him. It's such a comfortable feeling, being around each other.

He said I'm much more smiley in person than my pictures online convey. I wonder if that's true, or if I just smile a lot around him.

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I was at school from 8:30am to 6pm today, up in the city. Ran to the train station in the rain to get home in time for my weekly videochat with friends.

So far, I'm liking this program about a thousand times more than my last one. The professors have been good, the readings have been interesting and accessible, and I feel comfortable with some of my classmates. Not all of them, mind you, but enough that I'm not stewing in resentment all the time.

Also, for some reason, I've only been sleeping 4-5 hours a night, but I wake up at like 5am and am awake for the whole day. It's weird, but... nice? I guess? I don't know why I have all this energy.

Highlights from the retreat:
-I woke up really early and went hiking by myself in the woods for an hour in the morning on Saturday and Sunday
-Hung out around a hot tub and one girl went full on naked in there O_O
-A classmate who wasn't in my group told me that he felt sad that he had life experiences that weren't shared by anyone
-I never told that classmate what my name was during the retreat and he ended up just calling me Mandy
-I hiked with a guy in my group and felt a vague sense of connection
-Had a bad time on Saturday afternoon/evening and ended up crying a lot once everyone had left
-Super blank emotionally on Sunday, but as I was leaving, the guy I went hiking with called out my name and ran up the stairs to catch me, then asked if he could hug me goodbye. I was a bit startled but I consented, and something about the hug kind of reset my system and I wasn't as blank afterwards

I am slowly getting to know this guy I've been hanging out with.

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I wrote him a poem. It wasn't my best work, but he found it amusing.

Aaaaaaaaand we might have... cuddled? A little? For several hours?

Ha ha what how did that happen

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Things did happen on the retreat as well, but I just... don't feel like writing about any of them at the moment, haha.

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