Windstorm

I woke up a few minutes after four, and I could hear that the expected windstorm must be in full-gear. I get up, take my piss, and check on the cats. I see Ash is on the counter outside the window, looking in rather expectantly, and she is happy to come inside. A few minutes later, Sammy traipses in. I do not think that he is happy to come back inside the house, but he obviously feels compelled to do so. I don’t think the weather is that bad, but the blowing wind does sound ominous and fearsome. I am still waiting for Coco, and I decide to take down the wind chimes, and it is then that I see that Coco is already in the house, in the living room. My first thought is that Pop let him inside earlier, but he seems kind of spooked by the weather too, and I am thinking that he might have quickly zipped inside when I opened the door for Ash. In any case, we are all indoors now, and we can sit out the weather in peace.

Naturally, I tried to go back to sleep, but guess what! That just wasn’t going to happen. And I cannot really blame the cats. They seem kind of traumatized or shaken up and are very quiet. They are not the problem. Yet, I cannot sleep. Again. Sleep just isn’t happening for me. I feel dead tired, but I guess I also feel juiced up. I imagine I will be taking a number of cat naps today.

The Natural World

( Read more... )

Kindle

One thing about using the Kindle more faithfully, it gives me an incentive to cut my fingernails regularly.

Wish List

I finally started to use Amazon's 'wish list'. Sometimes their books just aren't conveniently listed at GoodReads, and I don't want to make a list on my scribble blog. Besides, this will also allow me to keep track of other products that I like on Amazon, such as videos or even magnifying glasses.

Why has it taken me so many years? Aside from being a pretty coy and diffident fellow, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that it is really Pop's account, even if, as a practical matter, I am the only one who uses it. Moreover, I like the GoodReads site, and even though I am not truly active on it, I wanted to keep that account alive by using it for my wish list.

Tolstoy

“You can only live as long as you’re drunk with life; but when you sober up, you can’t help but see that all this is just a fraud, and a stupid fraud. Precisely that: there’s nothing even amusing or witty about it; it’s simply cruel and stupid.”

-- Leo Tolstoy

I found this quotation in a book review for a new translation of Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and "Confession". There was also some discussion about Tolstoy's famous spiritual conversion that led to a re-imagining of Christianity and Tolstoyism, and I want to keep an excerpt from that.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

And so the great man searched. Schopenhauer, Solomon, and Buddha offered no solace. Scientific rationalism was a coffin for his soul. Others of his own class and education had no clue. Then, in a suicidal stupor, he began to see that the supernaturalism and irrationality of faith, and all the vulgate attached to it, wasn’t so stupid after all: “It alone gives mankind answers to the questions of life and consequently the possibility of living.”

-- William Giraldi, "The Way of All Flesh: On Tolstoy and Mortality" in The Virginia Quarterly Review

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Three Journal

I finally got in another batch of entries for the Three Journal. Maybe the flow will be more regular, now that I have it officially slotted in the routine.

I have reversed course about what to write in such entries. Very recently, I was set on pursuing a very minimalist course, writing only very short entries, so that my faults as a writer would be less glaring, and also to make for more convenient reading. However, I am feeling influenced by Knausgaard’s “My Struggle” into letting go more. This is probably a mistake, and I will end up hating the Three Journal because of the ridiculous fluff.

If I were ten years younger, I might start a Journal Four. Of these two journals, one would be an all-out writingfest, throwing into my entries everything and the kitchen sink, while the other journal would be composed of brief versions of those longer entries, the best two or three hundred words., which would be more for my reading bowl, entries that I would continually reread.

Instead, I’m just letting the Three Journal be a compromise of those two approaches. I am keeping out the kitchen sink, but I am not tying myself down to the idea of trying to keep everything down to one page.