It's that season again. That season when little yellow caterpillars repel from the trees on thin strings, aiming for my head, and the sun rises higher and higher for each day that goes, fueling me with enough energy to ponder becoming a shungite reseller, and post 42 movie reviews in one week.
Elite shungite. 98% carbon. The miracle stone from the Karelia region of Russia, billions of years old, and one of few materials with fullerenes, which a group of researchers were given the Nobel prize for back in the nineties.
It's pretty cool. I'm wearing an illuminati pendant of it (that's the name the shop gave it) as I write this, right at the end of that 42 review writing spree.
Did I mention I posted 42 reviews this week? Feeling pretty proud of myself right now. Just gotta revise them a bit. Didn't do so right away since: time.
And speaking of time, I guess I made the mistake of writing a way too long post back at the time when I wrote this.
It's been a while now. It took me over a month and a half to finally backtrack through recent posts and revise the ones that needed revising, concluding with the one mentioned above - in non-chronological order.
So if you wonder why I haven't been around the blog so much lately it's because I have, I've just been going through old posts instead of writing new ones.
I really should make it a habit to review everything before I publish.
I'm having a hard time focusing these days though. It's probably a lot of different things that factor in. Warm weather. Bad priorities. Bad shape. Procrastination habits that have been getting worse and worse. Constant high-frequency radiation from neighborhood WiFi and cellphone towers that I'm all the more conscious of right now. Enhanced by nocebo? Placebo? All of that. New rant on the latter bit here btw.
Whether it's the shungite stone I now wield that bestows upon me the power to finish projects I previously left abandoned, or the recent surplus of sunshine (the weather's been so warm I actually ordered a couple of fans - I'll probably be picking them up tomorrow but now it's cold again), or my currently very high-carotene diet since I ordered a batch of 60 x 120g jars of carrot puree with an expired best-by date and have been eating them at an increasing pace since, with a more and more easily tanning skin but also growing constipation as a result: I feel like I'm back on track now.
Hopefully it's not the peak of the wave with the fall right behind it, but you never know. Better ride the wave while it's here!
I also helped fund this thing, so that feels pretty good.
A month back now I was having some tech related troubles, but since then the technical bits have been going alright too.
I'm not doing so much strange tech-related stuff right now. I'm backing up files and making my way through the third RAID stage in RE: Revelations by night. That's pretty much it. I'm still tuned into One Punch Man (almost wrote One Piece Man there) too, and enjoying the ride, but for some reason they didn't put out an episode last week.
I was ready. I was just waiting to watch it.
The one week where I was actually waiting on the episode: no episode.
Otherwise life's been going good. I haven't met that Mormon again (not that it wouldn't be good if I had - wonder if he's moved onto greener pastures), have felt no after-effects of the by-now-ancient iodine poisoning case (I'm hoping my daily 240g compact carrot minimum won't bring me anything similar), really enjoyed the Endgame (finally posted that review too), am still hyped for the ChutneyGlaze collab, renewed my driver's license (first 10 year anniversary woo!), have been to the first few concerts of the season, am staying up-to-date with all new ice cream, voted in the EU Parliament election (wish I could vote against the EU, but better some vote than no vote), celebrated Pico Day with just a simple post (even though I had a verse written for it - no time this year), and at the end of May I took my first trip up North.
It was hella great. I had a rental car this time, a brand new VW Golf all to myself, and drove around on forest roads while the rain pelted down outside. Rabbits everywhere.
Had to keep both the fire burning and the heater on in the combined kitchen/living room (open door to the bedroom) the first couple nights, but towards the end of my visit it started warming up.
Needless to say it was nowhere near as warm as it was last year, when I had to carry out the extra windows and keep the doors open to let a cool breeze sweep through every afternoon, but it's always great to be there. In the wild and free.
Took a detour to visit a good friend on the way, had a great time overall, and flew back straight to work after six days, tired but happy. If it was warmer I might've been rested...
Had some adventurous moments up there too. Lemme share those:
1.) On the first day - as I was bringing up water to the sauna - I dropped my cellphone in the lake. Snatched it up quick and dried it as well as I could, and it still worked (its definitely not waterproof)! Lucky.
This is the same cellphone I accidentally dropped, from two meters up, onto a hard stone floor back in Budapest (I thought I had a post about that hmm... can't find it - feel free to search). Needless to say though this is one lucky/tough/possibly very smooth/slippery and accident prone phone.
2.) We had hail one day. In other words: it was pretty cold.
3.) Finally, just as I was about to leave for the airport: the key wouldn't turn in the ignition. I couldn't start the car! Middle of nowhere. Cold morning. Alone in the woods.
I tried again and again and again, started Googling (imagine if that phone had been dead at this point), learned that other people had similar issues but no solutions, kept trying, and again, and finally: it worked.
The rest of the ride went fine, and for some reason I didn't take a single break along the way. Talk about a stressful morning.
I also took my first swim of the year on the 28th of May, fixed up the garden, and that was that. Did what needed doing. Weeding/grooving. Good trip. Defective weather, but I did what I was there to do and better!
Played some more RE: Revelations too. I usually never game up there. Not particularly proud of that, but some nights were cold, and long, and some days rainy. Sometimes all of those things together.
There's so much I could've read instead though! I could've sharpened some blades, or done some other types of maintenance. It's in part a bit inefficient a start to the season, but I'll get back on track again. Next time it'll be back to basics: outside. As much as possible. No matter what. Summer's short.
That was actually what I was plotting to write most about in this post. The first trip. The plotting trip. The shortest but earliest. A little preview of the great things (hopefully warmer things) to come this summer.
The next weekend my parents drove up to finish what I'd started, I joined in on the maybe-first-ever Swedish cellphone strike (no cellphones on for a whole day - they're trying to make it a thing on the first of every month), I started eating that carrot puree like crazy and on the 6th we celebrated Sweden. And I got a new bike!
Actually it's a bit old, and used, and rusty, has a couple dents and a scar on the seat, but it rolls well, it was cheap, and hopefully nobody will feel a need to steal it this time.
I'm not even using a security lock now since the lock would be worth about half as much as the bike. Would be a shame to get one more of those destroyed too.
Needless to say I won't be getting any insurance money on this particular vehicle if someone does something with it, but I'd be losing a lot less either way. The only caveat is that I just don't feel as proud when I'm on it. That 55'' perfect black, elegant, light, swift and comfy, classy Monark Karin was something else...
No time to get depressed though. Gotta workout, eat some more carrot puree and revise these posts before they start sapping my motivation; keep me from keeping up with more relevant tasks.
Summer's coming up quick! So much to do. I'll see y'all soon.
