EPTPhew, I just wrote a very long, very intense, post, elsewhere on the site, so I thought I would write a list of nice little things I find pleasant, to relax from that a bit. So, here are a handful of small things I've gathered that I find just make my day a little bit nicer, feel free to add your own, in the replies, if you wish. I'm not looking for "lifehacks," I have no interest in that, just some feel-good things, which you thought of yourself, that can happen/you can make happen.
1. Stickers. I know it's a bit effeminate, but I found a sheet of stickers I had bought years ago, of colorful little fruit-chunks, i.e. grapes, watermelon slices, peaches, etc. The stickers happened to be lying next to my marlboros, so I've been putting a little fruit sticker on my additive-laced smokes, with each new pack I open, and it makes them seem much "friendlier"!!! I also sometimes put them on a song or poem I'm working on, or some sheet music I'm working on, since there are actually quite a few stickers on the sheet.
2. Talking on kakaochat with Koreans. I now have a smartphone, and I installed kakaochat, and find myself exchanging id's with koreans I meet with on battle.net. It's very nice to be able to talk to the once-faceless korean who you just played a match with, and they are awesome, heartfelt, lads! Another plus, is it's not as big a deal as giving out your actual phone number, it's like a modern-day AIM or something, its intense to talk to a red-blooded korean lad face-to-face! Lots of fun.
3. Posting on a forum. I have been a lurker of a forum (not tl.net) for a long time, but I was feeling excited this morning, so I made a post on a retro-video-game forum about som2, this is kind of a bad example, because the people who responded ended up being jerks. It's a bit like opening pandora's box to make a post online, very intense to read the responses as the roll in over the day. A better memory was a maladroit experience I had with a lass I was trying to pick-up, where I made a post asking for advice, most of the replies were jokers, but I got the cold-truth I needed to hear, which was interesting, and nice.
4. Catch-all Broodwar zvz build. Most people think zvz in broodwar has no safe build, but a while ago, I watched a player, who I won't name, because he's infamous here, who did a brilliant zvz build, and I usually do it now, and now zvz is my best matchup. I build a 12 hatch, right next to my main hatch, then make a creep colony, which morphs into a sunken precisely when my spawning pool pops, which is planted in such a way to protect all my drones. If you do it right, it stops a 9-pool, and is quite a powerful, and perhaps undiscovered, zvz build. Its makes zvz feel very comfy, because I usually find myself ahead, even against gosu koreans.
5. Having a nice conversation with your parents. When I visit home and see my parents, sometimes I make the effort to use my most-productive hours to just chat with them. I have a strict rule not to say anything remotely argumentative, critical, or non-nice as we talk, lest I bring-about their ire. They're a handful, to be sure, but it leaves me in a good mood, a bit better than grinding non-stop on the current big project I'm working on. And the sad news is, they're getting old, y'know, and they won't be around forever. Best be on good terms while they're here!
6. Fantasizing. I like to daydream about writing an article for the economist or any sort of wild-ambition that could be possible. It's true, acedia often kicks in, and I don't feel like doing any such thing, but these thoughts can keep me in a good mood for a long time.
7. Being able to translate what a korean says in his native tongue. A Korean lad was texting me, asking me if I knew 영국남자 was, and I actually understood that literally meant "england man," which was nice, because I usually don't recognize Korean words. Learning korean is hard work, but its always heavenly to recognize a little bit of what you come across. No meme-spam-pics in the replies, please. Original replies only, please, whatever they may contain.
8. Buying nice pens. Having good pens/note cards/note pads, is an awesome feeling. I currently have like 20 different colored gel-pens, it's nice.
9. Taking aspirin when you have a headache. Aspirin type medicines are powerful! Sometimes they can fix you right up!
10. Writing a poem. Geez, these are kind of girly suggestions, I'm realizing, oh well, I am a piano player, I guess. Anyway, writing a 1-3 page poem can be very relaxing when you're hyped up on your morning coffee. Sometimes they come out well, and you can read them before you go to sleep that night. Lately, I've been writing a happy poem, then a sad poem, then a happy poem, then a sad poem, etc... It's a good trick.
11. Cooking whatever you can throw together. The other night, I found some boca burger-type thing in the freezer, so I threw them in the pan with some oil, cut up a spare roma tomato, put some half-and-half in the pan, and cut up the veggie burgers into little bits, then scrambled an egg in there, topping it all with garlic salt and other spices. Then I microwaved some tortillas, salted on their outsides, and put it all on a plate, with a bunch of mexican shredded cheese, and ate it like fajitas, it was actually pretty good!
12. Calling your call-dodging out-of-state sibling. Self-explanatory. Siblings can't ghost you, generally, so you don't have to feel guilty for calling them more than once every six-months... He/she should love you, so you should eventually get through. To hell with texting!! I fucking hate texting!
13. Purchasing some starcraft proleague soundtrack pop-song mp3s. There's a nice list on tl of the osl, msl, and proleague soundtrack, I was going through it and picking up a dozen or so tracks that appealed to me. I really like the new asl theme, blind and frozen, it's fun to have broodwar music in your headphones!
14. Cleaning your room. I cleaned my room crazily a month or two ago. It took about three hours, cuz I had to organize my bookshelf, piano sheet music, and closet, then ended up cleaning two other rooms I used, thoroughly examining all my books and writings from over the years. It was very fun, too bad you can only do it once, basically.
15. Reading the korean bible. A korean girl that's a friend of mine gave me her korean bible, and I worked on translating it into flashcards to study, and ended up reading a good bit of the old testament in the process! It actually uses a lot of interesting writing traits, like "sweet-smelling" "veritably" and "prepare a holocaust". A bit heavy, yes, but interesting from a writing-perspective. And it's good to worship God and Jesus!! Don't be cynical!
16. Going to a small town. This is hard to make happen, but I think most people live in some kind of a city (200,000+ people), but when I go to a small town (2-5000 people) it's just so heavenly. Open, and quiet, I'd like to live in one, some day, I think.
17. Getting a random call. This just happened as I was writing this, It was related to my bank-account. I was very nice to the lady, calling her mam and being friendly, it was kind of stress-inducing but still nice, this isn't a very powerful one.
18. Arguing with your parents. This is the opposite of the earlier advice, but if you just are in a mood where you don't give a fuck, bring your logical responses up when your parents are rambling about politics. Still, don't take it far, or you WILL incur their wrath, but if you keep it playful, it can be fun, especially if you win.
19. Setting up a live-journal. I have a blogspot account, but I've been meaning to switch to livejournal, just haven't gotten around to it, something I could do, though, I'll follow my own implicit advice and try to get around to this, later today.
20. Talking to a real, living, girl. Disregarding the off chance you're a lass, reader, I find it can be quite nice to talk to a girl, however brief. Nowadays, this can actually be difficult, but messing around with lassies on Tindr is the next best thing, still nice, but "safer." I actually was introduced to a nice phillipines girl by my korean friend on kakaochat, and sometimes I hit her up when I'm bored.
Well, gosh, I'm pretty much out of ideas, like I said, I have no interest in "lifehacks," but I had no one else but teamliquid to share these little nice things in my day with, the stickers on my marlboro really stand-out in my mind, I see a cute little watermelon everytime I light up, though I know I should use my vape, or even quit.
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