My clean watermelon lifestyle
Posted on: November 14, 2006I live a clean lifestyle. By that, I mean I don't smoke, I don't imbibe, I don't do drugs. I used to have a horrendous gambling compulsion, but I've been clean of that for over a year too. I don't really like making bets, even in jest. Longtime observers will know that inworld, I used to hit up the roulette tables @ the long-missed Spittoonie Island, to the point where the proprietor had to turn off the machines. If anyone wants to know how I made heaps of L$ back then, well, that's exactly it — tho I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else, unless you intend to be a clone of me.
And that'd involve a lot of watermelons.
Alright, new goal: I get boost my Google ranking for "watermelon" up. My current blog's the 157th match, with one of my Flickr photos and a rather celebratory old blog page coming up even higher.
Friends've mused to me in the past that doing hallucinogens (as in ecstasy, since that's a rave staple :p) would make me boring and cause an inverse effect, because it's like I'm always on 'em anyway. I can be pretty energetic.
You know those commercials, What's Your Anti-Drug? I have several. One of them's watermelons, and another's Second Life. They go well together.
I figure, in this world, if you're going to be a good person, you need to be memorable. If someone doesn't remember you, it's like… you never existed. And that's really depressing. That's why we remember our loved ones who've passed from this Earth. Forgetting them sounds wrong, as if to disavow their existence, or deny that they ever had a place in our lives. Likewise for the heroic, hence Rememberance Day which is coming up. And Christmas, because we want to remember that Santa Claus is actually Colonel Sanders.
What this means to me: I adopted watermelons as my symbol because we make each other memorable. People have busy lives and they can only recall so many facts about other people: it's why we have dayplanners, hipster PDAs, and all manner of gadgetry to act as brain enhancers. Some work better than others, but what works best is when you don't have to reach for them at all, and the info flows.
Good, pure, true.
I'm sitting here, typing, sipping one of my fave drinks: grass jelly. It's a Chinese fave, a smooth, sugary taste with blobs of… jelly bits that smell a little like freshly-cut grass. The tricky part is getting all those bits out of the can after you've downed the liquid. I just wolfed down a bowl of spring rolls with A1 steak sauce and ketchup. And now, gummi worms on the side.
Checking out the ethic foods aisle in supermarkets is one of my fave things. It's how I discovered soan papdi, after all.
I like to stay active. Living in the heart of nature, I take strolls right outside. While I don't have wireless Internet, nothing would trip me out more than being in a forest in Second Life, while walking through an actual forest. Sometimes, I dance. Sometimes, I meditate. Not sitting cross-legged, but slumping over my keyboard.
Why am I writing this? Certainly part of it is, like all my posts, to share with you. Another part is, I want to remember who I was, who I am… and who I will be.
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November 14th, 2006 at 2:52 AM PST
I think it is important to make an impact on peoples lives. Like you said, if no one remembers you, then you become irrelevant, and forgotten about.
Although, sometimes it can be hard to really make an impact on people. Othertimes, just being ones self is all it takes.
I know from my experiences of late in SL, I seem to be quite well known in the circles I hang around in, and much adored by a select few. Why? Did I create some massive must-have contraption? Did I own and manage SLs biggest nightclub? Did I singlehandedly crash the grid over and over and over again for my own enjoyment? Am I one of the communities richest and most evil land barons? Surely not to any of these.. (although, I uploaded the "All Users, All Grids" IM pic from before =P )
Then how do people remember me? Simple - they remember me for me! They remember me as the hypo one who always knows how to cheer people up. They remember me as the cute and cuddly one whos always up for a good snuggle. The one that is always there to stick up for their friends, or to speak out for whats right. They remember me as the one who occasionally puts two periods at the end of thier sentances, and always picks other people up on thier spelling or grammar mistakes. They remember me for the stories I tell, the fun I bring, and the moodyness I can sometimes show without warning. In a nutshell - they remember me, and hopefully WILL remember me for some time to come, simply for the person I am.
And if someone has to be fake, or lie, do something big and famous and attention seeking, just to get noticed, then are they really worth remembering in the first place..?
Also, that sounds like a pretty awesome dinner Torley! =D
November 14th, 2006 at 5:17 AM PST
I quit smoking so I could afford tier. I've saved thousands over the last 15 months.
November 14th, 2006 at 1:16 PM PST
Talking about watermelons, I was reading marketing news about Skol lemon movie and Sony Bravia ad and Dave Letterman rubberballs. Now that was a waste of watermelons why do people do things like that?
November 15th, 2006 at 7:35 AM PST
"I’m sitting here, typing, sipping one of my fave drinks: grass jelly. It’s a Chinese fave, a smooth, sugary taste with blobs of… jelly bits that smell a little like freshly-cut grass. The tricky part is getting all those bits out of the can after you’ve downed the liquid."
I have a great Silly-White-Girl story about this stuff. In my high school asianophile days. I frolicked out to the asian food market and spent about 50$ on random things, including dried salted cured pruns, those things from chinese new years that look like belly buttons but they're fruit, bean 'crackers' with little dried fish that look like ones my dad used to keep in the tank in the basement, some sort of squash juice, and grass jelly drink. I as writing an article about weird asian food. Graciously, I shared it all with my friends, and ate none myself.
The squash/gourd juice was scary, because it's expiration date was in 2006– it was 2003 at the time… but it tasted like corn syrup, so everyone was calm.
Until I poured the grass jelly drink.
And chunks came out.
And we were very confused.
And very scared.
The one person who drank it said it tasted like flat root beer, but we just didn't trust him.
November 15th, 2006 at 6:29 PM PST
As always, thanx for the comments!
I have a certain quizzical objection with wasting food: on one hand, it's because there are people in the world which don't have many (or any). The other reason I forget, my brain's still at work… must rest.
I do know Gallagher used to be an arch-nemesis of mine.
I like the Sony Bravia paint ad a lot.
Hahaha come to think of it, grass jelly does taste like flat root beer! OMG. Take it from my word. What a great story. I like that Japanese trail mix stuff, I don't know what it's called… there's also grass jelly which is more like, uh, Jello, and the chunks are bigger, and… on account of your story, Iris, it might scare you more.
It's like a riddle:
I'm food and drink at the same time, and yet, not a stew. What am I?
November 16th, 2006 at 11:39 AM PST
Nice read and wonderful distraction from my Excel work.
*goes into story mode*
Every summer, me and my family (from Ohio) travel to Georgia to visit my dad's side (mom = white, dad = black) My family there, around 4th of July time like to fit the typical black stereotype of loving watermelon, so we get to eat a TON of it.
I win the seed spitting with my super tounge cannon secret jutsu technique.
"I’m food and drink at the same time, and yet, not a stew. What am I?"
…………….erm…….cantelope? (lol :3 )
November 19th, 2006 at 1:11 PM PST
Great to hear about your heritage, Yumil! Historically, I know there are some Chinese stereotypes about watermelon, altho they really aren't heard of in the west. I never want stereotypes to get in the way of consuming my fave food because WATERMELON'S SO FREAKIN' DELICIOUS!!!