Truly like a ninja.
I have a friend, Ninja, who lives his life in such a way that it should be worthy of being made into a movie. In everything he does, that’s how he’ll treat things. It’s quite fitting that everyone sees him as a ninja, prowling around doing all kinds of cool moves and getting into spectacular “fights.” I’m sure everyone would love to have his approach to life. It’s really quite cool, because then he’s always having exciting adventures. It helps that he’s extremely athletic, so he can escape situations if needed. One of the examples was when he went to the midnight showing of Indiana Jones (whichever one just came out in the past year or so) dressed in a leather jacket, leather hat/fedora thing, and (real) bullwhip. After the show ended, he stood up on the balcony and cracked his whip to cheers and whistles until security approached. He then made a run for it and got out unscathed. Now how awesome is that?!
Having too much fun to write about it!
Well, the thing is, if you’re out having such a fantastic time all the time, you never have time to record it for others to enjoy or for it to be passed down in the books. This is a dilemma that I face all the time as I ponder how worthwhile it is for me to maintain a daily journal. It started back in 4th grade, when I wanted a diary from the Scholastic Fair, but my dad would only allow me to buy it if I promised to write in it every day. I did, and he got me the diary, but never again asked about it. It was only in the months and years following, when my parents would find me scribbling away at yet another volume of my journal, that they realized I was serious. Maybe they didn’t hold me accountable for my promise, but I did. They used to scold me that I was wasting my time writing so much and it was just a liu shui zhang, or ‘running water account’. Basically, it meant that my writing was as useless as a bank account where all the funds were drained, or something to that extent.
Nonetheless, I pursued until about a year ago, when I truly started to get behind on my writing. When I can’t find the time to write an entry each day (which has been the case for many years), I’ll keep bullet point notes to remind me of what to write about when I do have time to catch up. I used to be able to catch up on a weekly basis, which then evolved to a monthly basis and now… yearly? I still have tons of notes for all the days I’ve missed, though even those I’m behind on now. I’m not too worried though, since with the brilliance of the internet, I can just check my Facebook, blog, texts, and IMs from a particular day to piece together what happened. Not the best way to keep track of my life, but it works.
Have fun playing with friends or chill out writing alone?
My constant struggle with keeping a journal was that when I had a lot to write about, I had no time to write about it and when I had plenty of time to write, I had nothing to write about. After all, if you’re too busy out doing fun and interesting things, you won’t have time to stop and spend some time writing about it. Conversely, if you’ve got plenty of time sitting around, you aren’t really doing much exciting stuff to mention. So I always question the existence of my journal and whether or not I should maintain it. Even now, being so far behind, I fully intend to catch up on it eventually. But is it worth the time? Should I be doing something more notable instead? I used to write when I couldn’t really do anything else, like when I was on planes or in a waiting room, but that doesn’t happen much anymore, so most of my time I can spend doing something else. I’d like to live a storybook life, but I’d like to document it as well. So where is my balance? I don’t know if I’ll ever find one, but I will certainly always be striving towards one.
When I went to visit Patong Beach, I was delighted to find the sand teeming with live little clams that could be caught burrowing whenever the tide washed away the sand hiding them. I happily spent the next two hours digging them up and taking pictures and videos of them climbing back down again. It was truly an amazing time for me, since I love creatures of most sorts and it was my first time seeing clams in a natural habitat and not at the market. The next day, I went to check out a different beach with the hopes of finding more of them, but the sand was rougher and there was hardly any life to be found.
At the hostel, I wasn’t sure about the policy on bringing back such things, so I quietly took them upstairs and went out to find a container to put them in. I ended up finding a styrofoam bowl and transferred them over. The sea snail with the pointy shell was an active one, always coming out to climb around whenever I put him on top of the sand. He left a little slimey trail with sand clinging to it and made a small indent in the surface of the sand as he moved around. The clam, however, was super boring and just lay there for hours. I guess he was trying to get used to the still water and the little bit of stirring I did was not enough to simulate the ocean’s waves.
It’s a pity I couldn’t keep them, but as a fellow hosteler pointed out, they wouldn’t get through customs. However, Panda is willing to get an aquarium one day, so I can get some then! I also want starfish and sea cucumbers and anemone and sea horses and sea urchins and shrimp! It’s going to be one intense aquarium, I tell you. However, I’m going to have to wait a few years before I can afford to maintain such a thing. So for now, I’ll just enjoy the life that I can find when I go to the beach to play around.
Wow, what an eventful day. It started off quite well, with calls from Mizu announcing a pleasant surprise: I would get company on my way to the airport and even be given a ride! That meant that I could sleep in a little and enjoy some extra rest. By and by it came time to leave, so I took my stuff downstairs and hopped in the car. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and ate some lunch, casually chatting until it was time to check in. Mizu and Zen then went on their way and I prepared my documents for the counter.
Mizu kindly drove me to the bus departure and I got myself a ticket on a nice luxury vehicle. We had some time before its departure, so I exchanged some money and then got some dessert to snack on. Soon enough, it was time to board the bus and Mizu sent me on my way. I settled in to the large comfy seat and watched the landscape whizz by as we headed off. The rest of the trip was scattered with movie-watching and naps on and off, briefly interrupted twice to get off and go through immigration and customs. It was very comfortable save for the cold air blasting overhead, which left me shivering towards the end of the trip.
