Wonky's Land of Nonsensical Musings

Month: July 2016

I Will Not Give up Hope

I actually wrote this shortly after the attack in Nice but didn’t post it. I questioned about what right I had to talk about these things just because I had visited Nice. I’ve decided to post it anyway for two reasons. First, this is my blog and I’ll write about whatever I want. I also think it’s important topic. I’d apologize for it being kinda rambling but if you don’t know me by now….  

I have this habit of falling in love with anyplace I visit. It doesn’t matter if the trip is for work or pleasure. The allure of new place enchants me. This love takes a few different forms. Some places I enjoy the visit. These places I think about visiting again and spending a few days catching up on the things I missed or enjoying the local atmosphere again. But I have no interest in living there.  Rome comes to mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I have spent in the city but I am pretty sure living there would drive me nuts. Other places I enjoy and could actually imagine having a life there. I could see myself having a job, commuting to work etc. I think about London that way.

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Old Town Nice

Then there is Nice France. Nice has imprinted itself on my brain like no other place. I haven’t been there for eight years. In fact technically I stayed in Monaco. I have not been able to get Nice out of my mind. I have bookmarked webcams so I can check what is going on.  Many a night I have fallen asleep while fantasizing about my life there. My fantasies were the most mundane things. I didn’t imagine myself as a rich man riding around in my yacht up and down the coast. I imagined myself in my simple little flat, going to work, getting up in the morning for a jog along the Promenade des Anglais. I have no illusions that Nice is a paradise. I know it has problems.

I am not going to recount the horror that happened their on July 14th 2016. If you are reading this in the future feel free to search the internet. I won’t give it any glory. It seems to be symbolic to do such horrible evil in such a beautiful place.

We live in an age when all the horrible things can be blasted to our screens almost instantly. We can breathlessly await the latest info to placate our desire for horror. Many can be driven to despair by this deluge of evil.  I will not give up hope We should not give up hope. We can grieve but not despair.

Events like this make me think of the line from The Two Towers. “What can men do against such reckless hate?”

Once we’ve passed by despair into hope, eventually we want to do something. What can we do? I will not be an interpol agent tracking down international terrorists. Hopefully I’ll never be involved in an incident and have to intervene like the brave soul in Nice did. What I can do is be a good person. By maintaining hope and love everyone of us can make the world a better place. We can love and be accepting of those we come in contact with.  We can make the world a better place by being better people. In the face of such hate I say love stronger, hope better, and dream bigger.

TWTW July 11th through the 17th: The Karaoke Creeper

The Funny Cat Video of the Week

A lot of really bad things happened in world news this week. And I don’t wanna talk or think about that stuff. If you are reading this in the future just search these dates.

Every once in awhile I go to karaoke with my friends. I myself do not sing. I am sure my friends are very thankful for this. Some of the singer are really good. People sing and have a good time. At some point a guy came in, ordered a drink, and sat at a table near us. I didn’t think much of it. A little bit later he gets up and takes his drink outside. Whatever. You aren’t supposed to take your drinks outside but I don’t care. We are all having a good time. Then I notice the guy is standing right outside the window staring at one of the women in our group.  Just staring right at her. I don’t think he realized we could see him perfectly. When he would come back in to get another drink he wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone. Eventually the bartender told him to stop taking his drink outside and he just sat in a corner not really looking at anybody.  Finally a seat opened up next to my friend and he sat right next to her, but with his back to her. We switched seats and eventually left. SOO CREEPY.. or maybe he was just drunk/and  or high.

TWTW July 4th MERICA till July 10th Never trust Catherine the Great

Funny Cat Gif of the Week

Wise Person Quote of the Week:

 By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.



― Confucius 

I have been really busy lately so not a lot of time to write. Been spending a lot of time working my second job.  If you have read my series on financial stuff you’ll know increasing income can be big part of it. I’ve also been spending a lot of time playing overwatch and civilization 5. NO I AM NOT PLAYING THAT STUPID PHONE POKI WHATEVER GAME.  Been watching students like zombies wandering around staring at their phones.

Monday here was the fourth of July. I had thought I might go up for the day and visit my parents. I stayed up to like 3 in the morning and didn’t wake up till 10:30 am so that didn’t happen. The rest of the week was me working or being annoyed at my heart rate monitor. I am planning a post on that problem. I also got annoyed at the Russians and Catherine the Great who sneak attacked my in 1000 BC.. I got her back though.  Attacked her like 2000 years later. Remember that time you sneak attacked me.. yeah well now your entire civilization is destroyed.. Civ 5 reference. 

So the short version is people shouldn’t like or obsess over games I don’t like.. only like and obsess over what I do 🙂

TWTW June 27th through July 3rd: Oh no I died.. oh wait hrm just doesn’t work

Funny cat gif of the week

You’ll remember that in my last installment I whined about a little netbook being broken. Turned out it is still under warranty.  So I called them up and they have agreed to replace it.  They sent me a box but I haven’t sent the old one back to them. I will be without the netbook for like 3 weeks. I guess I’ll survive.

For the past three months I have been working  out regularly. I work out three to four times a week.  I switch between going to the gym, using the elliptical and some weights, and jogging.  I don’t put my hands on the heart rate monitor thingys all the time but I do check out where I am at from time to time. I know those metal HRMs on exercise equipment are accurate but I assume that are consistent with themselves. During my workout early in the week I noticed that my hear rate was a good 10 beats a minute below where I had been for months.  I thought maybe the machine was broken. A few days later I went for a jog. I wear a chest heart rate monitor when I jog. Mine has become mostly really inaccurate with huge peaks and valleys. Seriously my heart rate is not 170 10 seconds into a jog.. and no it doesn’t drop to 40. Most of the time it is accurate. I noticed again my heart rate a good ten beats bellow where I was used to it being. I must have been at some sort of plateau in heart health. My heart rate, both under stress and resting, had  improved very quickly in the early days, but I hadn’t seen much improvement in the last couple of months.  Then all the sudden it got a lot better.  Actually I am  not going to say all the sudden.  Because of things going on I had a four day gap in between workouts. I wonder if that extra time of resting some extra improvement had occurred.

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