I like this a lot. It’s a totally different vibe from the original soundtrack though. Much darker.
Energy
While I thought for a long time that talk about people have vibes or some kind of energy would be crazy-hippy talk. However, over time, I’ve gotten to trust my gut feeling about people a lot more and it’s true — there are people who just have something about them where a little alarm bell goes off in the back of my head.
I especially notice it at the gym, because you work so closely with the other person you are simply exposed to a lot of their energy. Are they agressive, nervous, anxious…and there are a couple of people that just have something off about them. There is one person in particular whom I actively try to avoid. He seems like a nice enough person, but he doesn’t control his kicks or strikes very well, mixes different arts (which is really one of my pet peeves), and — of all the people — managed to kick me in the nuts more than any other person I’ve worked with.
Actually, he is the reason why I finally started wearing a cup to all the classes I go to.
I do have a suspicion that he might be high, or at least chemically altered, because there definitely is something going on there.
Anyway.
People a weird, man.
Sauerkraut Check-in
Tried the second batch of kraut and it turned out okay. I left in in for four weeks this time and unfortunately there was some mold situation during the last week. Apparently you can scratch it off or remove that layer and, sure enough, the kraut was totally fine. However, the thing stank up the whole apartment and it looked and smelled gnarly.
I’m not sure what the problem was; a lot of the liquid evaporated very quickly for some reason and adding some water probably caused the problem.
It’s still too salty for my taste, so I’ll reduce the amount again for the next batch.
Oysters
The first time I ate oysters was probably how most people should (and maybe are) be introduced to oysters — at gunpoint. Not literally but pretty much in the same vein. I went out to dinner with The Wife (at a time when she was not yet The Wife) and her parents and it was the first time I’d met them. We went to a seafood restaurant at the coast somewhere in New England and they ordered a plate of oysters as a starter. I’ve never had oysters before and didn’t really know how to feel about them, considering that I’m not a fan of clams and other shellfish, but I didn’t want to be picky or unappreciative (while oysters can be expensive here, too, they’re really expensive in Germany, so I had that in the back of my mind, as well) so I just went for it.
Turns out I like oysters! There is still a little apprehension and, because I somehow got it in my head that every time you eat a raw oyster you’re toying with your life or at least some kind of nasty worm infestation of your guts or food poisoning, fear. And I learned to stay away from large or jumbo oysters, because there is such a thing as too much oyster and it put me off eating them for almost a year.
Be that as it may, some buddies of mine and I drove to an oyster festival, collected oysters, ate oysters (raw, barbecued, and fried) and had a pretty good time.
Tidal flats with oysters and snow-capped mountains in the background — how cool is that?
Thousands and thousands of oysters.
On boxing
While wandering around in a used bookstore this afternoon I came across this book by Joyce Carol Oates. I had no idea that she was into boxing.
I’m really looking forward to reading this one.
