Beep boop gabagoop.

Welcome! How have you guys been? It’s been another mixed bag for me this week, more than usual, but im doing okay. Let’s talk about it.

For one, I’ve joined the book club :0.

Now I know, I said I’d do english club, but hear me out, it’s basically what I meant by english club anyways.

Looking into the club further, I found that englush club was much more than just the book, literature, and poetry fest (with creative writing sprinkled in) than I thought it would be.

For one, they have their own netball team. If your thinking “what’s netball?” — good. Me too :v, that’s kinda the point.

It’s both a chance to learn a new sport, but also a bit redundant for my purposes, which is to read and delve into my english further, right?

This point of contention stems from a different point though, and that it isnt really a regular club at all — it’s an academic club, meaning it’s for english majors. Paraphrasing what they say on the club page, its basically a club in which english majors can do their english off hours.

SO, both very important, but they change things. The schedule is technically easier for me, since they finish stuff in the morning since the english related stuff aligns with their timetable, with the only fixed time being after a math lecture for me >:), but then it brings in the issue of IT BEING TIMETABLE RELATED, YOU KNOW?

Cause now, since its made for an english majors timetable, what if I just have classes when there are events? This already happened btw its not even hypothetical, a reading event they had this week was timetabled in such a way to where I just couldnt go. Not to say it couldnt happen with the book club either, but the book club tends to do things off hours since its more of a hobbyist rather than academic club.

AGAIN, not a good or a bad thing, if anything I WANT to do academia MORE, delve into literature in ways I wouldnt, but it comes with the downsides of being so tailored. The timetable, the netball being more of a english major thing probably, then again the very nature of joining a club made for english majors that allows all walks of life rather than a group that’s focus from the jump is just people who want to read, it could be a bit alienating to choose the former you know?

Then, there’s the book club.

The book club’s main weekly meeting is as simple as it is mind bendingly puzzling.

For context, im quite straightforward in my schedule. I walk to class, finish, walk home, do homely stuff, presto pronto. If I have to do stuff on the way like get snacks I will, but that confiens me to just my route on the way home and stuff cose by it. Honestly speaking, I could probably count the number of times I’ve went to the city center after moving out on both hands.

It saves money on the bus (though im sure ill probably go back to monthly bus passes when I get a job), and it gets me walking a healthy amount everyday.

That, and I try to sleep at around 9 pm every night. Early I know, and I often fail that goal anyways, but it makes for a nice morning to get ready and make breakfast, with ample time to walk to class afterwards. A walk, that ill remind you, is 40 to 45 minutes one way.

Now, why give all that context?

Well, simply put, the one, ONE weekly event for book club is that you meet up every wednesday to read books, simple enough, right?

Its at 7 to 9:30.

P.M.

n_n.

SEVEN, TO NINE THIRTY. NINE THIRTY???????????????????

Do yo- DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW LATE THIS GETS? IN THE WINTER, THE SUN SETS AT LIKE 4, WHAT DO YOU MEAN 7 to 9???????????

DAMN. Wow.

Look, I knew I’d have to accomodate in some sense trying to join a club, especially time wise, but its kinda nutty, right?

Thing is, its not even that bad, and ill spend some time telling you why I was basically overexaggerating, but we can both agree its still a definite shock to the system of being home by at most 5 pm every day.

For one, its only really one day anyways, one in which I can just get myself ready before heading out, so I can crash the bed right when I’m home.

That, and the fact that im a night person over a morning person anyways, I wouldnt mind the excuse to stay up late :p. Thankfully, class on thursday isnt at 9, so while I WILL be a teensy bit behind my personal ideal of sleeping 12 hours before class,and getting typically 3 hours to prep for the day, we can both agree that its a bit excessive anyways. It wouldnt be bad to live a little.

Besides, im up late now x)!

That, and one more really nice bonus IS the aformentioned bus tickets (and in this case, a daily pass), and traversing the city. Although I dont pass by anywhere im not used to at this point — though theres still much to explore even just in my usual route home n_n — this gives me a day where I can go ANYWHERE in the city again, like how it was in foundation year (before I cut out the monthly pass cuz of the price increase with me being over 18 now :’)). I’d have full rein to go to the city center WITHOUT walking 15,000 steps that day, or even needing to pay the 2 pound ticket for that day. Instead, Id have one day I can sort of allocate my free time to doing dumb shit that I wouldnt do on other days on, and it perfectly fits in the time between after the first (and only) lecture of the day and the time till book club.

Also, it has the knock-on effect of me not having to walk all the way to and from my house to the uni from a day, a nice break of pace and an excuse to stay up late on tuesdays if I want (and totally will >>>:)).

It’s Perfect. That, and I already know where I wanna try out first.

COSTCO >:).

YEAAAAAAA, so we’re visiting costco this week, and that’s also why I joined the book club. It’d feed my desire to read more without any of the extra unintentional downsides from the english society, and I get to repurpose an otherwise random wednesday into a day where I get to fuck around a little.

Cool stuff.

On the reading bit btw, it’s been a while since I’ve read anything, right? I havent mentioned purity, or the book of disquiet in a while. Honestly, im just gonna drop purity since im tired of it, both out of a sense that I dont REALLY enjoy it all that much, its an informative but hard read, and the sense that I’ve already learned whatever it is that the book ought to teach me. I learned that dirt is matter out of place, an cool wau of charecterizing what was otherwise just social nonsense.

Each religion, each social structure has its own rules and values, since life doesnt come pre-loaded with an ethics manual, and although a lot of the rules that these structures make dont wholly align with a egalitarian ethos, they expose themselves through their adherence to purity. What is “good” and”clean” for a structure can often just be ways of reinforcing the structure that espouses it.

That’s what I take from islam personally, many of the rules around cleanliness dont really matter in the same way that they did before. I would argue that the people of today are FAR cleaner than the people of the prophet mohammed’s time by virtue of technological advancement, so given that, why do we still do wudhu the same?

Another example, why is it that women on their periods are regarded as dirty? I mean sure, maybe it got messy back in the past, but I assume it’s much cleaner to clean up after yourself given tampons and the like (please ignore this example if its stupid, or feel free to correct me, im a boy mentioning girl thigns afterall :p).

It doesnt even just exist in islam, with you not being able to pray, but also in other religions where you cant enter temples and stuff, why?

I would argue its less about the ethics and more about the structure itself, the one GIVING the mandates. It doesnt have to do with it being bad hygiene, it stems from it being out of place.

Like how a fork doesnt belong in a bathroom, or how in the old testament an animal is only fit to eat if it is cloven and chews its cud, it’s about keeping the structure itself intact, for making clear boundaries between right and wrong, correct and incorrect behavior. Sometimes religions do it to keep some sort of clear distinction between us, divine human beings, and animals, other times its Patriarchal in nature (one could argure many of the verses espoused by these religions of that nature towards women are sexist, though im not qualified), point is, it never had to do with health in the first place. At least, not at the origin of this thought.

And I find that quite interesting :p.

Then again, maybe theres more to learn from the book but i’ll come back to it some other time if I feel that’s the case. Right now? I picked up a new book, western ficiton, called butcher’s crossing.

Im trying to move away from the idea that the books that I have to read should be tailored to my identity, like I used to think as a kid. That’s pretty silly :p.

Its a medium, and a really cool one at that, so what better way to start than a western?

Ill be honest, im not into westerns, saloons and cowboys and the like, but I hear the book is good, and it has me suprisingly hooked, so I ll keep reading till im bored. Maybe i’ll finish it, maybe I wont, who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Thankfully ill have a lot of time to read now, since I’ve also deleted youtube and instagram off of my phone.

Yea, I dont really like how much time I’ve been spending on them doomscrolling. I was also looking into some articles about social media use, and given all the negatives to my time, energy, and even (according to studies) BMI :v, I figured it was time I dropped them.

Ive been doing a lot of other stuff anyways. I applied to volunteer at oxfam (which is nuts, IM GONNA BE EMPLOYED), im working more on my comp sci modules, wanna join the book club and read more, even hopefully finally get back to playing the piano and drawing.

But to do all that, Ive accepted that I should probably break this bad habit of mine of constantly gobbling up several hour long video essays.

Dont get me wrong, I LOVE THEM, and dont mean to say social media itself is bad inherently, its not! Honestly, Ill still occasionally open it up on the browser anyways, and will DEFINETELY keep watching hour long video essays on games, politics, and whatever else, as well as just finding cool art projects. But instead of doing that on my phone, Ill keep it mostly on the laptop, which’ll help me from binging too hard. At least till the habit is broken and I can download it in my phone without sinking so much time on it.

Also, instagram just had to go, I already have another app to message my instagram dm’s anyways so the app is literally ONLY for the doomscroll and occasional notes and stories now, so screw that.

So yea, more me time, and hopefully itll pay off. I mean, Ive already done cool stuff with the time, check this out:

I tried crocheting for the first time yesterday!

It was honestly more stressful than I’d like to admit, given im not that dextrous or experienced, but I can only imagine myself overcoming that if I were to try more n_n.

So yea, I think it’ll pay off. Life is already much more still without the two apps, a good bit quieter, and its for the better.

I love youtube, it damn near raised me, and made me a much smarter person than I wouldve been without it. Im happy for all the cool shit ive found on it.

But its time to pull back a little :).

AGAIN, I make it sound like im quitting but IM NOT, thatd be silly. Ill still watch shit on my web browser on the phone, but this makes it easier to sink into, and gives me the push to do other stuff.

Like crocheting, apparently >_>.

I think that’s all from me for today though. A pretty big post given how late it is, and I STILL havent gotten to so much stuff that I wanna talk about, but life is plentiful so who cares :p. Go listen to the moon cave, the new gorrilaz track from their album, then go check the animation they made for the album, ITS SICK.

We’ll talk about that, and hopefully temporex, some other time.

For now, goodnight.

Luv u <3.