A good traveler is not intent on arriving. -Taoist saying
Fuck being normal. -Eminem
Although one should enjoy the process what do you do when you hit a plateau? That’s right. You stimulate your neurons. You try to dangle the carrot in front of you by tempting the rewards of mastery.
So I tried to take my muse from amazing human skills. And although many are complete buffoonery, uneconomically acrobatic, clickbaity and doesn’t really inspire, if and when you are patient, it does reward you. You get to see complete mastery. Total badassery. Luck, trick shots or willpower, it doesn’t matter, but the fact is you are awed by certain feats in table tennis, golf and bowling.
These snippets of timeframe, the strange darshan… are testament to the fact that just for a fighter-pilot’s reaction of a second, miracles and wonders of mankind do happen. Although these occurrences are self-explanatory on why they beguile and inspire the real reason is simple – transcendence.
I will expound.
The table tennis player was not only rallying insane amount of strokes but at the end his attitude was like ‘fuck it, I will even play with myself.’
For the golf shot, well for that slight amount of extended time you get to actually hear yourself say: ‘oh well, wouldn’t it have been just wonderful if it..’ and yes, it does happen. Just like magic, on the things you least expect or wished it happen, it does get fuckin’ realized.
And in the final capture, the bowling ball one, the player not only ‘got rid of the pins on his own fuckin’ lane, but got rid of the other one as well’.
That’s badassery. That’s mastery. That’s what wakes someone up in the morning.
So I woke up at around 8:00 am in the morning having slept on these clips and instead of dozing off to la la land, I dreamt of cleaning shits. Quite literally.
But I promised I would go for a run. No questions asked. So after brief gratitude contemplation and making my bed I head out. I do a 2 mile hybrid-running and stopping and it made me wonder at the end of the course, that if it boils down to a fractal pattern if one were to map the intervals of run and walks. But good thing to note is I sweated. And I actually felt exhilarated whole day due to the run. At least that is why I ascribe to it!
Before shower, I watch some more amazing skills videos but nothing topped last night’s one. Listened to some electronic, goa music and then took shower and drove out to 7-11 for breakfast. (There is also an crocodile called goa.)
Entire day has been fieldwork. In 7-11, I had a snack of “rotini” pasta with a camouflage of Monster that had the word “guarana” in it. At 7-11 spying a word, I wondered airports have “duty free” and hardware stores “heavy duty” but does it have a specific origin that denotes the common place “job” or “work”?
On my way back saw the familiar word “jacaranda” that I first encountered in Pretoria as well as “arroyo” from the street. As I just looked it up, I knew it meant “gully”, but didn’t know what “gully” meant.
Korzybski and Alan Watts warned against confusing “map with the territory” and after I gleaned some more words later on, I’d often find myself on being obsessed on noting them down instead of appreciating the meaning.
I spent some time in the car browsing through Owner’s Manual of Honda (technically ‘guide’) and it seemed our car is equipped with EDR (Event Data Recorder) that records if passenger was wearing seat belt, the speed at which he was going and some other details which only law enforcement has access to. (This is actually how you can get the fuckers in case they lie about the speed in times of accident.) I was delighted to find the familiar words “rack-and-pinion”, “asphalt”, “tether”, learned opposite of latch ie “unlatch” as well as a new term “safing” and “hydroplaning” and that the word “tailpipe” exists as well as the familiar term “strut” as well as collection of “detachable anchor”… but I got bored soon.
Something to note. You must wear your lap seat-belt pressed around your hips with no slack (and not stomach! which I did…) because apparently it the pelvic area absorbs more shock preventing internal injuries.
The perks of my profession!
So, I came home, did my chess thing, and slept and then woke up to do some errands with mom but before that I went to get some wings from 7-11 as well as an energy drink with “yohimbe” and when I finally was driving to the supermarket to do grocery I was ready to dominate it and crush it and buzzing high on caffeine like a fuckin’ buzzard as I remarked to Mom: “I feel so good to do grocery today. I will pick up so many words” which I indeed do as listed below.
Even before entering the Vietnamese fish market, I find the word “leek” and fish names were my deficiencies so I started fishing for as many as I could. This time I came prepared. I was fuckin’ prepared and started jotting down on the back of the cover of 365 Word-A-Day Calendar as much as I could. Then noted even some more from vegetable section and don’t think the one that stood out ie “name” is in OED, but who cares. I don’t think “sambo” gourd is OED either. “Agar-agar” might be.
And Providence, as if just to reward me for my devotion, even gratuitously gave the word “corral” upon returning the cart with the sign saying so…
As we went to visit a family friend of ours who got diagnosed with cancer recently, I made a conscious jot down of the word “gilbert” at the back of mind, and mom explained “love seat” actually refers to a two-seater, which, I guess does seem apparent when you think about it. Earlier she would find mention graviola which I would later encounter in GNC.
Five and half hour of shambolic performance of Bangladesh later -as a stark counterpoint to earlier achievements – I wanted to get the last energy drink of the day. I actually thought of getting doppio from Starbucks but decided against it since GNC promised me cashback. On my way, I thought of continuing my fieldwork at a local fabric store, but upon entering GNC I realized I could just pick up more “explosion-o’words” as noticed from barks, mosses, roots and other herbs from the supplement sections with superfood.
I tried not to give away my game and memorized as many as I could, even though fully knowing had I wanted to jot the names down, the cashier would gladly agree to it since he knows me. But I was honest and confirmed indeed if the products are online and told him that I enjoy learning words. He was busy and didn’t give much attention to it and thought I am doing research…
…which upon returning I did indeed do by browsing the site and Wikipedia. Some triggered others, but here is the list of 100 words that I gained solely from fieldwork:
- rotini
- guarana
- guana
- arroyo
- jacaranda
- duty (think dues!)
- rack and pinion
- tailpipe
- strut
- hydroplaning
- detachable anchor
- safing
- unlatch
- yohimbe
- yerba mate (triggered)
- oolong (triggered)
- asphalt (what is it exactly?)
- graviola
- soursop
- paw paw
- manor (triggered)
- leek
- leatherback (turtle? they sell turtles there? then again they are not known for attention of detail there exactly, and could refer to leatherjacket fish)
- swai
- smelt
- capelin
- goby
- scad
- perch
- trevally
- gourami
- sheatfish
- mudfish
- croaker
- loligo (a type of squid)
- barb
- strainer
- pandan
- agar-agar
- tarp (I wrote taro on the paper, but at home thought wrote this word down)
- opo
- kailan
- galangal
- cherimoya
- name potato yam
- sambo gourd
- shallots
- folie a deux (triggered from a wine bottle)
- durian
- burro
- nappa
- corral reward
- love seat
- gilbert
- maca
- astragalus
- burdock
- moringa
- feverfew
- elderberry
- echinacea
- ginsa
- devil’s claw
- pau d’arco
- cat’s claw
- ashwagandha
- dong quai
- bilberry
- cohosh
- wormwood
- curcumin
- puccoon
- rangoon
- boswellia
- hickory
- bladderwrack
- butcher’s broom/cladodes
- eleuthero
- cascara sagrada
- eyebright
- kyulic
- lutein
- milk thistle
- psyllium
- rhodiola
- senna
- st john’s wort
- passionflower
- reishi
- maitake
- vitex
- uva ursi (fun word)
- valerian
- yellowdock
- mucuna
- suma
- nattokinase
- forskohlii
- arnica
- calendula
Only if I can watch “Final Problem” now, FFS!
Memorizing Oxford English Dictionary 