10/1 – 10/7
wondered if climate change is just revenge of the titanic. has anyone ever done a line of sriracha?
compared dictionary definitions. a hair divides the atheist and agnostic. should remain that way. makes the rut easier to straddle.
must remember that dignity and compassion not always two sides of the same coin. prefer the former for yourself and others, said hitchens.
read..
the entelodonts, or “hell pigs,” …would run down entire herds of their prey in an orgy of carnivory, slashing and saving the extra meat for later
european civilization..was built on the back of a heifer.. europe was named after europa, the “cow-faced” one, who mated with zeus in his guise as a white bull
ebola’s reproductive value (r0) is 2 – on average one person infects two others (for comparison, the r0 for measles is 12-18, for sars and hiv, 4).
most transmission occurs during the provision of care.. the body bags for ebola fatalities were black, making them seem no different from garbage bags
if you’re going to lose a finger, it’s the best one to lose! did you know that half your grip strength is in the little finger? that’s why the japanese used to cut off the little fingers of their enemies
10/8 – 10/14
attended one happy chicago wedding. neha showered with gifts, turmeric, hot water – in that order. first and second night dholaks meant complimentary hearing loss with a side of bunions. boomers outdanced gen z outdanced millennials. jhoota chupai turned nine person tug-of-war while newlyweds circumbabulated in background. asked dr. weili zheng for 300, got 1000. in five days, downed four gin and tonics, three long islands, two flutes of champagne, and a partridge in a banyan tree.
read the river of consciousness by oliver sacks.
i have occasionally, it seems to me, lived a whole life between my first alarm, at 5:00 am, and my second alarm, five minutes later.
children… do not need to be told or “motivated” to explore or play, for play, like all creative or photo-creative activities, is deeply pleasurable in itself.
“curing” his migraines “cured” his mathematical creativity, and he elected, given this strange economy of body and mind, to keep both.
when a friend spoke one day about “a big time cuttlefish diagnosed with als,” i felt i must be mishearing. cephalopods have elaborate nervous systems, it is true, and perhaps, i thought for a split second, a cuttlefish could have als. (it turned out to be “a big-time publicist.”)
neither “historical process” nor “genius” is an adequate explanation – each glosses over the complexity, the chancy nature, of reality.
rewatched season one of altered carbon (2018). future humans disenchanted with immortality, dissatisfied with the alternative. gratuitous nudity, violence. no choice in who we love.
a man who never loves gives no hostage to fortune.
a man who never loves isn’t really a man.
i believed i had a line i would not cross.
you lived too long.
eternal life for those who can afford it means eternal control over those who can’t.
10/15 – 10/21
chatted with jason over bonfires.
nobody fucks with maduro off facebook.
it’s an unsustainable business model. they invest in m&a, strip away r&d, hike existing drug prices, and stick the cost to patients. then the patients start complaining so they stick the bill to insurers and everybody’s premium skyrockets.
appreciated british humor.
believe katsushika hokusai the original manga artist.
finished anthony aveni’s star stories. astrology the precursor to astronomy.
our brains are pattern recognition mavens. psychologists call this human knack for visualizing unity among random data pareidolia. the mind tries to resolve the tension that accompanies randomness by attempting to perceive something familiar in an otherwise unfamiliar pattern. these apparitions often exhibit religious overtones: muhammad in a flame, or jesus christ on a tortilla.
to the navajo, black god is the equivalent of the greek prometheus, bearer of fire to the world… he opened his deerskin pouch and withdrew handfuls of crystals and carefully decorated the sky… then he set them aglow by supplying the “igniter stars,” dilyehe (the pleiades), with his eternal flame.
imagine you’re gliding eastward in a canoe along a vast tropical ocean. you’re at eye level with a featureless horizon, no sighting posts or pathways to guide you along your course. you watch the stars ascend vertically in front of you and plunge straight down into the ocean behind you. you might begin to wonder: am I moving, or are the sky and ocean slipping by me as I remain stationary?
being a navigator in the western pacific island of oceania in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was as respectable as being a neurosurgeon today… in eastern micronesia, such an expert was the tiborau, a perspicacious skywatcher and an experienced navigator who could locate and memorize the positions of star-to-star constellations.
beijing is still oriented according to its ancient cosmic plan. if you stand in tiananmen square you can line up the bell and drum towers, the monument to the people’s heroes, even the mausoleum of mao zedong, on a perfect south-north axis. continue that line and you’ll discover it runs through the gates of the old city.
the sighting of aagjuuk, the “stars seen at dawn,” made up of the stairs altair and tarazed at the top of our aquila (the eagle), was the most important event in the Inuit annual dark light cycle… during the extended twilight, people eat and drink to excess; they masquerade and change partners – in other words, they become someone other than themselves.
10/22 – 10/31
convinced we’ve reached the just-winging-it phase of the pandemic.
cozied up to sylvia plath before bedtime.
spent afternoon returning three month old calls, was forwarded to voicemail. few hours later, tried again. where the fuck have you been?
watched dune (2021) after dark. fief overlords fought over spicy sandpit. chalamet more haircut than actor. exited theater overwhelmed and underfed.
margish accepted into md/phd program, spoke oh my god outloud. broken hearts wailed thursday, consoled only by ramen al dente. enjoyed brandy milk punches, imitation empanadas.
dipped my toes into manga. barring voluptuousness, eminently relatable.
am grateful.
Kartika Upadhyaya 