It's Not My Birthday

[pshaw_raven]

I keep coming back here and apologizing for not posting as much. Now that I realize I'm doing it I feel a bit foolish. But, here I am!

I mentioned that I was writing more lately, basically developing stories for my comic, Muna. That's actually going quite well, but the story that's more ready to go isn't the one I expected to make so much progress with, where Feather & Bone is coming along more slowly. The story I think I'm going to go ahead and start has no name yet, and since I'm terrible at giving things names and titles I guess I'll just find something to crib from Bob Dylan. I mean, if you need something that makes you sound smart, you steal it from either Dylan or Shakespeare.

We canceled an upcoming Disney trip for August. We don't really believe it's a good idea for us or anyone else to go, and since we're still somewhat convinced we've both had Covid 19 already and can't be sure we wouldn't be spreading it, it feels very dishonest and uncaring to go gallivanting around at a theme park. Since it'll be my birthday, I'll probably make cake here at home. I'm kind of leaning to a vanilla cake with orange frosting for a Dream Bar or Push-Pop type flavor, or the matcha butter-cream frosting I already know is amazing but make a lemon or yuzu flavored cake.

We have also been discussing it off an on for a few months, but today I went ahead and ordered myself a Japanese floor futon. I have a cover I can use, so I just bought the mattress itself, and will probably put it on top of a memory foam pad I already own. I'm just tired of my regular Western mattress. It squeaks when it rubs against the wall, and it was never particularly comfortable since it was like a guest room mattress that Fox and Kitty bought at BJ's. There's a reason I have the thickest foam pad on the market.

I'm also just having one of my phases where I want to get rid of things. I feel like I have too much STUFF. So I may take another pass through the house and look at discarding/donating again, if donation centers will take things right now. I found myself sort of resisting the idea beacuse, "Well, I LIKE this stuff." Oh yeah? When was the last time you took it out and looked at it, or did anything with it? Probably the last time you tidied up. If that's the case then I strongly suggest (to myself) that you consider letting it go.

I don't want to just embrace minimalism for its own sake, or as an ego stroking thing of "look how much stuff I don't need." I think it becomes a real trap for some people, and they wind up living with just a backpack's worth of items not because they travel a lot, but because they're invested in this image of themselves as Minimalists. But as I mentioned in the above paragraph ... if I haven't used it or even looked at it since this time last year, I probably don't really need it.

Comments

[draculard]

"Crib it from Dylan or Shakespeare" ACK I feel so conspicuous right now. I do the exact same thing. And like ... I like Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave both better than Dylan, but you can't steal shit from them. It ends up sounding way too pretentious and flowery. IDK why it doesn't work that way with Dylan or Shakespeare; they're just magic like that, apparently.

[pshaw_raven]

It's kind of funny how something sounds incredible when Leonard Cohen says it, but then you repeat it and sound like a dork.

Someone recently seems to have sat down and started tracing all the different references and stuff in Dylan songs that HE stole from other people, which just sounds like a lifetime of work to me.

[draculard]

I like to imagine Dylan going "I'll just sneak a cool little reference to Random Poet #23 here. People will love that" and then being baffled out of his drug-addled mind years later when people notice the reference and accuse him of plagiarism XD

Did you ever listen to his old midnight radio show? I had a cousin who stayed up late to tape them every night and chased me down in a Kroger parking lot 14 years ago to hand me her entire collection -- somewhere around 40 shows -- in a big black box. They're trippy as hell. As I remember them, it's just Bob Dylan, clearly high or drunk, rambling for an hour while he plays tenuously-connected 30-second clips of songs from all sorts of genres, and occasionally shouts over the music.

I don't think I'm giving it enough credit -- it's a great artistic listening experience, tons of poetry-quoting and impromptu fiction, and it's all based around a specific theme, like "Sunshine" or "War."

[pshaw_raven]

Theme Time Radio Hour? http://www.themetimeradio.com/

I would have loved to have listened when it came out, but didn't have satellite radio. So when you reminded me of it I took to Google to see if anyone had collected those shows. It's going to be great working my way through these!

[draculard]

Awesome! And yeah, that's the one!

[we_are_spc]

What are the Japanese Futons like? I didn't even know there were differences between western and Eastern style mattresses, though I should have.

-T~

[pshaw_raven]

A Japanese futon is maybe three or four inches of padding sewn inside a cloth cover, like a big rectangular bag. So there aren't any springs or coils like a Western mattress. Typically you'd put it right on the floor. Then when you get up, you can roll it up and put it away. In Japan we often saw people airing their futons outside by hanging them over porch railings.

[we_are_spc]

OK now I want one. ... But maybe later. xd

(I'm actually looking for a new mattress to buy in the near future, but we're in a loft bed (Because some of us are...well you know. :) so there's that.)

[dorchadas]

What kind of pad do you have to put underneath it? I just plop my shikibuton directly on the floor, but sashagee finds it incredibly uncomfortable so I've been looking into something to give it a bit more cushioning.

[pshaw_raven]

https://smile.amazon.com/subrtex-Gel-Infused-Ventilated-Relieving-Protector/dp/B082VQ4HN5?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

That link is similar to the pad I have, though "cooling" and "memory foam" don't seem to go together. Memory foam is insulating and can be really warm. So having it under the futon instead of directly under me will make me personally more comfortable.

I didn't mind the futon directly on a hard surface that I slept on in Japan, but I'm also a side sleeper, and keeping the foam layer may help me out there.

[dorchadas]

I finally ended up getting something very similar and now sashagee can sleep comfortably! Thank you.

[expandranon]

""Well, I LIKE this stuff." Oh yeah? When was the last time you took it out and looked at it, or did anything with it? Probably the last time you tidied up."

I feel so called out right now. I, too, carry the burden of Too Much Stuff. I've thinned it on occasion, but still have a lot, and most of it sees the light of day every 5 or 10 years when I go through it all and thin it out again. Almost all of it is useless stuff with only sentimental value, objects that evoke memories of times long ago. Do I really need all that, especially with me pondering an escape to Germany if Das Gropenfuhrer lands himself another term?