Simpsons Avatar

This is the best thing in the whole world.

I get sick about once a year

This year it happens to be in July. I can't be sure what brought it about, although I have suspicions about a place I went to that had 99 cent breakfast. I'm not sure what it actually is, but the symptoms are sore throat, excessive mucus, and a general low amount of energy.

It didn't help at all that the entire country decided to have a heat wave at this time, which made my room literally too hot to sleep in for most of the time. That means that over the last four or five days I've gotten about 10-12 total hours of sleep.

I am of course at work right now. I walked to work in the pouring rain, and I got thoroughly drenched. My clothes might be mostly dry by the time I go home, and assuming I get home at the usual time I will have gone over 24 hours since I woke up yesterday. Again.

Perhaps people were never meant to live here; perhaps New York belongs to the tourists and robots.

Moral of the Story

Today, or rather a few hours ago yesterday, I learned a strange and important lesson in one of the most direct ways I ever have. Over the last couple of days I've been feeling very unhappy, which is somewhat odd as I am usually either a manic gigglebox or a stoic observer of the world around me. The bad part is that I was feeding myself more unhappiness, to the point where I had basically hypnotised myself into believing that I had been perpetually unhappy throughout my entire stay in this time zone. And it was just at the point where I was ready to just give up entirely and retreat to whatever safe little hole I could find that I get a phone call out of the blue from Anna Maloney. I make a move that is odd for me when I'm feeling down and be honest with her, and suddenly I am almost literally bombarded with words of encouragement (you know, the kind that are actually encouraging).

I would have found it hilarious had I not been awed at the transformation a few words invoked. I mean here I am with a problem I don't quite understand and the things I need to hear appear magically in my ear. It is reassuring that weeks of disquiet can be dispelled by ten minutes of honest affirmation.

I'm not sure if Anna reads this blog, so I'll probably have to find a more direct way to thank her (incidentally, I'm not sure anyone reads this blog, not that I can blame anyone because I wouldn't read it either).

Victory thy name is Anthony

Like all logical people, I admit that Tetris is the greatest game ever created. While I do not believe myself a true expert, I nonetheless always took a bit of pride whenever I got past level 11, especially when I made my record of level 14. In recent years I found myself diminishing, unable to reach what I could once achieve. I feared that my gaming skills were rotting away.

Tonight, however, those fears were destroyed like a 4 x 10 stack of bricks vanishing into points. Tonight I got the following results: Score 140884, Level 18. Lines 189.

I am so happy, I'm going to have dinner to celebrate (yes, I don't always have dinner).

In New York they're called Growth Groups

You know, as apposed to Small Groups. Yesterday was my first one, as part of my becomming more intertwined with The Journey. I was partially terrified, believing that I would be the only stranger among a bunch of people and it would be very awkward for me, but the reality was quite different.

The first thing was that very few people showed up for the first meeting. Five, to be exact. I can remember three of their names (but in all fairness one them is me). The second thing is that out of the five people who showed up, only one was a veteran. The rest of us had only started going to the Journey within the last month. Third, instead of awkwardness I managed to get quite a few laughs with my humorous...ness. One guy described my humor as comparable to The Simpsons, and then quickly clarified that he meant the older, better stuff. The new crap I occasionally see is, well, crap.

Of course I was the youngest, but that seems to be a regular thing for me. Someday, though, I shall be the old man! Mwa.