Lolita

 My stomach actually felt better once I decided to call it a night, but a plan was a plan, so I went to bed early and read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which I'd been meaning to for a while. Needless to say it's a very good book, and while there's a bit of eroticism at the beginning, that's not really what the book is about. 

I still woke up at 4 in the afternoon; so much for shifting my schedule earlier. I had one package packed, and had thought of a plan to go to the market today instead of taking any packages anywhere. 

So that's what I did. I went to Nijiya and bought some things, and got cash back. Since it's so cold (gloves not optional and once I give myself a much-needed haircut, my hat will be required also) the zombies aren't out and staggering around in the numbers they are when the weather is warm. Zombie nests but they're keeping pretty "tucked in". 

I got back here and played with my food - which means I weight out some beef into 4-oz portions to freeze, trimmed the good parts from some salmon "trim" from Nijiya and put the bad parts out for the gulls, and also put some scallops or "scallops" I'm not sure, that I got last week from Dai Thanh and are merely OK and leave a smell in here when cooked. Eh, fail. At least the package was only $5 which was probably the tip-off right there. 

I'm feeling pretty good because I'm saving money pretty well, have my December pledge money set aside for the temple, and there's a school building that I'm going to donate for too. I won't ever see it, leaving for home in two years, but the decision is just whether to donate $50 or more like $100. I they're hoping for a number of families to chip in $5000 each, which is par for the course for private elementary school costs, but they sent the donation form out to everyone. 

I see and hear the news every day and I think, It's amazing I was considering various things like staying here, or moving to New Orleans and just playing my trumpet, or moving to the Pacific Northwest, or any of a number of plans. New Orleans sounded like a good fit, because I can get to everything I need along just one street car route, and being a trumpet player is a real advantage there. 

But then I saw, as we all have over the last few years, how right-wing people are all over the place and even in the places you'd least suspect - like the Pacific Northwest was originally going to be a whites-only "homeland" and they're reverting to that. And as for New Orleans, there's a "cop show" with recent reruns on YouTube, where all they do is send a camera crew out with an ambulance crew there, and in one night they've got enough crime and murder and mayhem to fill an hour's show. If the place isn't the murder capital of the US in a given year, it's not far from the top. 

Israel is out. 120 degree summers and Arabs, yes, if I lived there I'd be as obligated to hate the Arabs as much as I'd be obligated to breathe air. And it's a hustle-y, conniving, chiseling culture, which some like but which is the very opposite of the culture I was raised around in Hawaii. Plus all their ridiculous gods! The Jewish god and the Arab god and the Christian one (which comes with a bunch of weird family members) and they all want you to screw over, kill if you can, anyone outside whatever group you're in. And all waiting for the Apocalypse and many of them hoping to hurry it along. 

This is a huge difference between "Western" and Asian culture. "Western" culture believes, deeply and fervently, in the Apocalypse. That's not a thing in Asian culture which believes in a Universe that's steady-state, or an overall steady-state where Universes come and go. The measure of time, the "kalpa", is described as the length of time of the life of one Universe. There's no one way to attain enlightenment only more and less easy ways. If there's a Hell, you earn your own way there. 

For instance, in Buddhism, there are realms both above and below the human realm most people live in. Below, there's the realm of the "hungry ghosts". A common depiction of this is beings whose stomachs are large and thus need a lot of feeding, but their necks are very skinny and only a tiny bit of food can be taken in at a time. There's never enough. I can't think of a better analogy to a real-life drug addict, who can never get enough of their drug, and who typically can't begin to afford or obtain the amount they want. 

There's a realm of animals, too, and while a good number of the street zombies around here are probably not living the lives of hungry ghosts, they are certainly just existing on the animal level. Drugs are certainly a big thing in their lives, but not "the" thing. There's also fighting, stealing, eating junk food, and the tons and tons of interpersonal drama (and the occasional burning of a rival's vehicle) that I've seen played out around here.