LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 2
Nick’s Lifestyle Newsletter
THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION
Thank you for reading last week’s e-missive. It was delightful to have you, (insert first name), sign up.
- I had a wonderful week, thank you for asking. It is a rare weekend I get to spend most of it with Melonie, so I really enjoyed it.
- 50% done on our 100% run of Super Mario Galaxy 2. UPDATES TO FOLLOW.
- Johnny LOVES his new heated cat bed. If I had something warm on my ass all day, I may enjoy life more as well.
THIS IS THE END OF THE INTRODUCTION.
2 THINGS THIS TIME:
ITEM THE FIRST: Most of my freaders know that I am learning Japanese. Or, 日本語 if you want to have funny characters involved. I’ve been doing it for a little over two years at this point and have found continual ways to disappoint myself with my progress. Last year I slowed down a bit after dealing with the whole Emily situation, but I’ve been back on the train since November. They say Japanese is a hard language to learn. Yes and no. Yes, because it is a very different way of thinking and their are lots of different concepts to learn and remember, along with different levels of formality which heavily modify the words themselves. I literally have a flow chart for how to use particles. No, because it is super easy to pronounce with defined sounds. This also makes it hard because the same sound can mean 10 different things. It is all about context. Either way, learning Japanese is harder than any academic thing I have done. I have put much more time and effort into it than my MLIS.
My favorite thing about the language is kanji. Kanji are the complex characters you think of when you see Japanese. They represent words, but mostly concepts. It is wonderful to see how a different language classifies things through language. Like dolphin. The kanji for dolphin is this: 海豚. The first kanji is open sea or ocean. The second kanji is pig. Thus, in Japanese a dolphin is a sea pig. I love that.
I was learning new kanji yesterday and came across this: 理. That is the kanji for logic. Pair that with the kanji for life: 生. 生理 is the word for menstration. THAT IS PROFOUNDLY BEAUTIFUL.
ITEM THE SECOND: I feel like I have failed humanity.
I went to the usual new years party with the usual people as I do every year. People were intoxicated as they are every year. One of the people is a male named Nic Paulus. I have never been a fan of him since high school, so I don’t really interact with him. This year he was especially drunk. I was in the kitchen with a few people late in the evening and he said something about taking selfies with some people. Before he did this, he said “I’m going to grab your boob” to a friend of mine. Then he did. He then repeated this a few more times with other people in the same area. I was standing with my wife and ready to punch this fucker if he came close to us. I was getting enraged and my instinct to protect my wife was at 3000%. On the drive home I started to process this event in my buffers and I feel like I did something wrong. Part of me thinks I should have said or done something. Part of me thinks that after the first one, people knew this was coming and could have said something. I want to assume people have agency and the ability to stand up for themselves in a group they have been in for 10+ years. THIS IS MY PRIVILEGE.
I want to think my mind was cloudy because my allergies were killing me, but I just focused on protecting my wife. (And did she even need protection?) I just hit tunnel vision on that dude and keeping him away from her. FUCK. I JUST DON’T KNOW. I need better internal decision trees for this.
His name is Nic Paulus. He may have sexually assaulted my friends. My name is Nick Lavely. I let it happen.
GRATITUDES
I would like to thank Adrianne for meeting me for tea and the conversation. It is always exciting to see people light up when they talk about things they are passionate about. It reminds me I wasn’t dead inside at some point.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (please mark submissions as “ok to print”)
None.
FAVORITE THING TO GO IN MY EARHOLES THIS WEEK
The After On podcast. https://after-on.com/podcast/
I love the future. I want to live in it SO BAD. The podcast is a companion to the book, which I wanted to love. Thankfully, Audible has an easy return policy…
Back to the podcast, it is the author talking in-depth with specialists in some future leaning area like augmented reality, synthetic biology or quantum computing. They are conversations that go deep into the core matter and project where it will be in the near future. It’s giving me hope that maybe we can get through this and I can die in a glorious teleportation accident instead of a nuclear war based on dudes comparing their missile penis size.
I HAVE TO DO BETTER.
YOU HAVE TO DO BETTER.
BECAUSE WE HAVE PRIVILEGES THAT OTHERS DO NOT.
THAT IS ALL.