Singapore Day 1

Dear Internet,

Getting photos from my phone to this computer is a pain in the ass. I am not technologically fluent at all.

My first day here in Singapore was wonderful. I mean really wonderful. The Singapore airport is gorgeous, complete with butterfly garden.

From there, I arrived at Surabhi's lovely apartment around 2am, and we chatted over green tea for a while before bed. She went off to work in the morning, leaving me to my own devices. Shorty lives well. Her condo complex includes a mini golf situation, jacuzzis, a reading garden, state of the art gym, and some gorgeous swimming pools. So my morning swim happened here:

Not too shabby for the first day o holiday. From there, I wandered into the city via bus. The public transportation system in Singapore is just the best I've seen. The stops are numbered, the drivers are helpful, the buses are extremely clean, and even have seat-by-seat air conditioning. Yes. I took a photo. On the bus. Totally shameless tourist.

There's an insane amount of shopping here. I don't particularly care for shopping, which seems to be a waste here. Gucci, Ferragamo, like 14 Emporio Armani stores in a single bus ride. And people are shopping; these shopping centres are teaming with people loaded with bags. It's amazing. And these are some seriously glitzed out, Vegas-style stores. Everywhere. 

All the store fronts were like this. 

Anyway, I wandered on downtown, and got off near where I was meeting Surabhi and others for lunch. Grabbed a coffee from some friendly locals, exchanged money, and generally just got my bearings. The city is probably one of the least foreign experiences I've ever had. I've felt more out of place in New York than here. Everything is well organized, so it's easy to find your way around. Everyone is from everywhere, and so there's no predominating 'culture' to which I feel I either belong or don't. People are just...chilling. 

Also, they seem to have the right idea for fancy offices. Corner office, meet your match: rainforest balcony.

After pho for lunch, we ran into a few more friends as I walked Surabhi back to her office. One of them, a chatty woman from Mongolia who was fresh from a 10day trip into the wilderness out there, joined me to check out the Boat Quay area and the South Asian Museum there. She had a lot of knowledge about the history and cultural migration that impacted art and culture throughout Asia, so she was a fascinating museum companion. 

That and we both enjoyed looking at the sparkly shit.

I would like someone to buy this bracelet for me and call me Maleficent. For sure.

I headed back to the apartment to wash up for the evening, feeling like a total boss for navigating my way to the right bus back and getting off at the right stop. Then again, I cannot imagine an easier city to live in. I headed back to join Surabhi and still other friends of hers at a bar by her office. The bar is 63 floors up, and is the highest point in Singapore, providing spectacular views of the city. A few highlights below. Sorry, I'd do more narrative, but I'm a shitty blogger and have 10 minutes to make this blog happen.

It was stunning up there. And so many boats. Hundreds of boats dotting the coast. At night, they light up and look like further extensions of the city.

We went from there to a stretch resembling a highly improved version of AdMo called Club Street. It's a street that shuts down at night and is lined with bars. 

This is not a good shot. But I quickly got busy dancing and chattering, so photos fell off the priority list.

A friend was leaving Singapore to move to Melbourne, Australia for his latest venture capitalism project, so he was having a farewell party there. I met another 20ish of Surabhi's friends, including the guy leaving, Chuck. We hit it off immediately, prattling on about very deep things the way only strangers can. We made vague plans to fall in love (in my head. He had no idea we were making these plans.). One thing I'll note about banter here versus in DC. Here, everyone has a story to tell, but unlike in DC, there's hardly any bragging. The friendliness here seems much more genuine, and rooted in the simple fact that people find one another interesting, as opposed to potential sources for validation. It was refreshing. Where I normally find light socializing involved with parties absolutely exhausting, this was effortless and actually fun. Then I got very sleepy and passed out muttering to Surabhi about how I needed to blog.

And I'm out of time. 

Xo,

S

Flying over the Southwest

Ah. Here are the photos from the aeroplane. The southwest is gorgeous. And deserts are my favorite landscape. Yet somehow, I decide to vacay in the most tropical location in the world. Go figure.

Love letters to the Internet: Tokyo

Dear Internet,

So begins my vacation - DC to Singapore by way of Tokyo, a few days in Cambodia, a few days in Myanmar, a few days in Bali, a few more days in Singapore, and back to DC. August 6 through August 28. (Also Internet, if you were thinking of robbing me while I'm traveling now that I've shared this information, please do. I can't afford my debt, I'd like to write off a bit to fraud. I also need a new DVD player, so please take mine. Thank you.)

At the moment, I am underwhelmed in Tokyo. I was excited to arrive in a modern, technologically humbling airport from the set of The Fifth Element. Instead, I find myself in a little cafe by my gate that serves ramen noodles, Sapporo beer, and cigarettes (misplaced modifier expresses how technologically advanced I'd hoped to find the Tokyo airport). Annoying, as I am not in the market for any of those products. After over twenty hours of flying west over the date line (which assures my complete awe at the malleability of time and space), all I want to consume is fresh fruit and ice water with cucumber. This cafe is playing pop music, and I'm on my laptop. Yuppiness is a global way of life.

Speaking of my flight, there's very little to say. I had a window seat, an empty seat next to me, and the aisle seat was occupied by a curious young woman. She managed to be young, thin, well-dressed, and completely unattractive. I mean I know that's not a very feminist observation of me, but it was so odd. How is that possible? Her features were symmetrical, her hair was long and thick and clean, dark eyes, fair skin. Her face was fine. Her figure was fine. She just... wasn't.

Anyway. I took photos of the American Southwest from the aeroplane; the views were stunning. You would see the photos below, except I can't figure out how to get them from my iPhone to my Chromebook on the airport wifi. I'll figure it out at some point, perhaps. None of my photos will be good. Not an exercise in self-deprecation so much as in laziness. The entire premise of this blog is a lie.

Warning: the drivel that follows will suck to read. It will suck badly. It's for me, it's not for you, dear heart, dear Internet.

It will seriously suck. It's a diary entry. You'll hate me and you for it.


Ok. Your issue. I have my own to deal with.


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I hope I don't philosophize on this blog. The point of this blog is to reflect my trip so I can remember one day when my memory fades and life gets shorter. But I want to resist the temptation to get all assholic about seeing a temple in the sunset. Everyone knows what that's like, and if anyone wanted poetry about it, he'd read Rumi or something. Right. Ok. I like the word 'blog' quite a bit. I will note quickly though, a few overwrought thoughts. I feel like, the point of an adventure--and this is an adventure for me, as I've not visited these countries before, and am overall fairly unfamiliar with Southeast Asia--is to live outside your comfort zone and grow into the world a bit. Like a bird or something. So I'm a bird now, apparently. So to give context to where I'm growing, I'll note where I'm coming from. I just finished the phase of life called early adulthood that comprised the last seven years. Career-wise, this means I just went through a few intense jobs, simultaneous with evening law school, entering the job hunt, and most recently, taking the bar (hopefully just the one time). I have sucked down DC into every pore of my being, and I think my glazed eyes and general hum of rage have started to become perceptible, to me at least, which is all I care about. Family-wise, I am slowly becoming a normal family member; that's unexpected but nice. Relationship-wise, I've just left a handful of light friendly relationships at varying levels of destructiveness and productivity like post-parade confetti.  The heavier stuff has settled down, the lighter stuff is still floating around, I think. Financially, I am free as a bird, on the cusp of being utterly broke, but then I hear that's one of the least unique situations in the world. I shan't dwell.

So here I am. Hoping to fall in love a few times, maybe marry a wealthy Brasilian in Cambodia (I love my latinos...they're like my minority, but they deliver misogyny in much silkier tongues than those of my people), maybe be "discovered" for my latent talent in [] and have a wildly successful career I never saw coming. 

I would really like to discover that I can sing. But I don't think traveling works like that. Unless the dateline is more powerful than anticipated.
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You may resume reading here.

I'm going to find food not exclusively comprised of salt.

Xo,
-s.

Biggie Thinks Deep Suburban Thoughts - A Study

just found this photo of biggie that i took some time back when the snow started to fall in an october.

That guy is totally failing at parallel parking. Ha! It's a girl. Damn, I would hit that. I should go down there and offer her my services. Ha, nice one, self.

Daphne wants me to pick up toilet paper. How the hell did I marry someone named Daphne? And how are the kids named Josh and Diana? We're Jewish, for Christ's sake. Fuck. Did Josh just eat a leaf out there? He definitely ate a leaf. Oh for fuck's sake, he's throwing up. DAPHNE! JOSH ATE ANOTHER LEAF! 

The snare cuts in on the off-beats, a slice of ice, and that's what really lights you up. Kenny Clarke really did us a service. Sure symmetry is beauty, but it's so automatic; it's mindless. It relaxes you, puts you to bed, Santayana's sleeping beauty, I'm sayin. Bebop though, that'll wake you up. That'll make you pay attention. Things you do--sex and laughter and liquor and living, man. That's what the snare does; it makes you think yourself awake. Descartes and Dizzy, my man--that's what this is all about. 

Winter is coming.

law school blows

i'm considering becoming a doctor/mathematician/physicist. or maybe i could be like lewis carroll, a mathematician with a propensity for the pen. or dali, drawing dodecahedrons of the last supper. or caravaggio, neoclassical renaissance ridic dramz baroque etc etc etc i hate law school so much. here are pictures of emo tree branches, in progression.

this is what most humans get out of pictures with trees:

yay nature has colors and warmth!

Is that a lone branch?
Against rigid, grey patterns?
Haiku that bitch up!

The Darkness rises. . .

view of nat'l cathedral and setting of the sun from my house.

more trees on mauve and purple

downtown abbey.

darkness wins the battle against the sun every day.

the following five shots = attempt to control hate.

1. Earthquake

2. Tremors

3. Anxiety

4. Deep breaths

5. Not worth it.

The computer is doing a stupid thing where it's not saving my re-orientation of these pictures, which is knocking the narrative here. below, imagine the image rotated 90 degrees. then imagine the ebola virus taking over the sky. thank you.

ebola virus eats the sky.

Below is what that tree looked like before my rage made me see everything in red and use photomanager to make it so. (Note: i manipulated the coloring for the ebola sky photograph; everything else is as the camera took the pic.) Please imagine this image rotated 90 degrees to the right. Also, I hate the world.

this tree has a miniature sun in its vajayjay.

this tree looks like an intricate bruise on the night sky. like a bunch of tiny japenese people punched the sky with their tiny powerful fists with exact aim for centuries until the bruises stopped fading.

rotate this bad boy 90 degrees and you will have a photograph of nature looking tawdry. like when tiffany's made those gross charm bracelets of "silver" aka tin all the rage. thanks nature.

ALL OF THE LIGHTS.

dark mediocre blur. sounds familiar.

intricate, befuddling ladder to success aka inescapable web of failure.

this one is just looks like a fungus and unfriendly. like law school. god i hate law school.

this tree looks fake. the sky might be fake too. just like a fulfilling career practicing law.

ominous emo branch reminds me of something.

the humor was dark today, if present at all. as were the pictures. but twas cathartic. and i really like my last picture. and it makes me laugh when compared to my first picture.

okay.