“Oh, pity the poor glutton Whose troubles all begin In struggling on and on to turn What’s out into what’s in.” ― Walter de la Mare Clean your plate. Here is some bread to wipe up the gravy. There are starving Africans somewhere. I am ungrateful. I am wasting food, and African…
Year: 2022
More Bukowski
Charles Bukowski. You will probably get sick of me talking about him; fine with me. There is a raw beauty to his work—a brutal honesty. There are too many favourites. Get your hands on two of his collected works, The Last Night on Earth Poems and Love is a Dog From Hell. …
The healthy Unhealthy
The social media algorithm believes I need to see body transformations. I am bombarded with images of men losing weight and getting shredded. These miraculous diets and training programs not only build muscle and drop weight but also provide a tan, strip body hair, and allow for a manly beard. Impressive program. When…
Kids these days
I love a good rant. “We’ve spent so much time judging what other people created that we’ve created very, very little of our own.” – Chuck Palahniuk Every generation believes the next generation is less. We spent a few hundred thousand years on the improvement, only for older people to criticize young people. It…
Socialising
“Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer. Put your principles into practice–now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. This is your life! […] Decide to be extraordinary and do what…
Routines
I food prep for each day. Sunday. For the week ahead. Control. I have always struggled with weight. Food is a coping mechanism. I was at my heaviest in the late 1990s. 148 kg. I went heavier. I just refused to get on the scales after 148. I might…
Genius of addiction
“apart from the wheel, opium is man’s only discovery.”, Picasso. “Do you still smoke?” he asked Cocteau. “No, I don’t, and I regret it as much as you do,” Cocteau replied. “Opium promotes benevolence,” Picasso sighed, wistfully. From the depths of addiction comes the greatest work. I remember the moment art dragged me in. Brett…
Cigars
“Tobacco is the plant that converts thoughts into dreams.” – Victor Hugo Stoicism tells us pleasure is fine, providing it is virtuous. One of the stoic virtues is temperance. Self-control. Discipline. Buddhism tells us not to crave material pleasures. Thích Nhất Hạnh teaches that all material desires bring no pleasure, only sadness….
Gym
“it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that if you are careless, for it will not come of its own accord.’ – Socrates Lifting is a thing I…