Slinkachu @ Nuart, Norway

a compelling and morbid socio-cultural criticism in miniature.
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it was a dark and stormy night...

on the way home last night, through the snow that was coming down steadily since 9 pm and about 2 minutes away from home, my front wheel on the passenger side dipped into a sneaky ditch that was pretending to be road thanks to the snow accumulation that made it level to the actual road. naturally, i tugged the wheel to the left just a touch to pull out of the ditch. of course i was going at about 52 km/hr, so that was enough of a differential in wheel velocities to throw the car into a spin.

not a fan of the spinning car on a snowy road at night (especially while i'm in it), i tried to turn out of the spin, succeeding in making the car spin harder. so i let go of the steering wheel and resigned myself to the immutable laws of Physics.

540 degrees and one rather large crunching sound later, i am submerged two-thirds into the same snow-filled ditch i dipped into earlier (86 m further down the road), leaning about 43 degrees on the driver's side and facing oncoming traffic. except that there was no traffic for a minute or two. if a car does a super spinout on an icy road, lands in a ditch and no one is there to see it, did it really happen?

thought #1: that was exciting.
thought #2: i wonder how i'm going to get to school tomorrow.
thought #3: perhaps i can shovel my way out.
thought #4: i should make some phone calls.

to make a long and boring story about standing around trying to get through to Roadside Assistance on a snowy night, making small talk with a police officer and spending almost $200 getting the car unditched by a tow truck, i got home about an hour later than expected -- without a scratch on car or person.

what do you call that?

ah, the sweet, sweet taste of indignation

new learning! when i am tired, not only does my patience disappear, but my inhibition follows suit and lemmings away into the aether; that is not an excuse.

so today, i has double plus angry, and due to the above new learning, i showed it. mm, catharsis. i won't elaborate (because most of my readership was there), but some innocents got caught in the crossfire, and they will receive an apology.

another new learning: when double plus angry, i can whip off some very elaborate, biting, scathing, snippy remarks, but i can hold them back by jumping up and down.

earlier in the year, and quite recently, i was and have been thinking about professionalism and how, as a teacher, it will extend outside the school life and how my reputation will have to be held to a higher standard. in the middle of a double plus angry, that is the last thing on my mind. therefore, to maintain self-control, it would be prudent of me to learn to prevent such anger from developing in the first place (bud-nipping); regular angries that i normally just let slide must be piped off periodically, in private, to trusted, non-judgmental ears who will tell me if i'm wrong.

lately, i've been eschewing the high road in conflicts and just letting the bridges burn because i honestly don't want to be bothered with maintaining them anymore. i am not a people-pleasing kiss-up, nor do i subscribe to the chinese notion of face-saving. if it doesn't bother me enough, i'll let it go. if it activates double-plus angry, bridge-burning and snarking, i will show it and then i will bear the consequences of my actions.

Romeo + Juliet = <3 4eva

The Reduced Shakespeare Company's abridged version of Romeo and Juliet (parts 1 and 2):
The following contains coarse language, scenes of violence and mature subject matter. viewer discretion is advised.




BONUS: RSC's Hamlet

someone has invaded my happy place

someone has invaded my happy place,
where clouds are shaped like medieval weaponry,
and i'm not sure what to make of it.
there in the still, amongst the greens
and blues and browns, the breeze and birdsong
and burbling brook to no where, she is
now here in my happy place.