FUCK livejournal.

This is retarded.

Dear Magdalena,

"It was there that I gleaned the word 'Overhuman' from the way, and that the human is something that must be overcome,
-that the human is a bridge and not a goal: counting itself blissful on account of its midday and evening, as the way to new dawnings
-that Zarathustra-Word of the Great Midday, and whatever else I hung over the human, like a purple afterglow of evenings.
Verily, I also let them see new stars along with new nights; and over clouds and day and night I went on to spread laughter out like a colourful canopy.
I taught them all my composing and striving: to compose and carry into one whatever about the human is fragment and riddle and cruel coincidence-
-as poet, unriddler, and redeemer of the coincidence I taught them to work creatively on the future, and creatively to redeem - all that was.
To redeem what is past in human beings, and to re-create all "It was" until the will speaks: "But thus I willed it! Thus shall I will it-"
-This I called redemption, and this alone I taught them to call redemption.- -
Now I await my redemption, that I might go to them for the last time.
For I want to go to human beings one more time: down among them I will go under, dying will I give them my richest gift!
From the sun I learned this, when it goes down, so over-rich: gold it scatters then over the sea out of inexhaustible richness-
-so that even the poorest fisherman rows with golden oars! For this I saw once and did not weary of my tears in watching.- -
Like the sun will Zarathustra too go down: now he sits here and waits, with old shattered tablets about him and new ones too- half-inscribed."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Book III, 12:3

and then I started to fucking cry.

gadamer was right, poets are incapable of saying truth, but what they do instead is irreplaceable once you recognise what poetry is.

Anyway, I'm off to Spring War in Newcastle for the weekend! Have fun whilst I'm gone, send me emails (all of you!) and I'll let you know how it goes (plus pictures!) once I return.

Yours,
Nick.

Dear Magdalena,

110.5kgs



YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That's right

I'm sexy.

Yours,
Ninja.

Dear Magdalena,

I don't update this enough, to be honest. I always plan these epic mega updates, but I don't actually go through with them, or I start them and lose the (fucking) draft. Goddamnit.

I have therefore decided to discuss one subject at a time. This subject is my home.

xony_kookie and myself have been living in our own home for the last seven months. By "home," I literally mean a furnished room as well as a living room, a balcony, a bathroom and a kitchen shared with our roommate.

At the same time, though, that's not quite what I mean by "home," now is it? By sharing a home, I mean doing pretty much everything together, depending on each other and relying on each other in very real and important ways.

Every up and down, from bad days at uni, to the acquisition of sweet armour, to realising that you can't afford both food and next week's rent, all of it was shared between the two of us. We have grown tired of each other, and more in love with each other, in a multiplicity of meaningful ways.

Soon, however, we will have to cease both forms of sharing our home, for someone in greater need of a place has come along, and since her and I were going to leave in a few months anyway, we thought it best to acquiesce to the powers that be in this case.

Lots of cleaning is going to have to be done. To think that the place was clean and tidy just a month ago! Note that this change from "clean and tidy" to "the ghetto" precisely coincided with The Meat Party (a subject I will have to write an entire entry about.) I'm still finding cans of Jim Beam. Good people - good times. I don't know what I'm going to do with the kitchen. If all else fails, though, the only way to be sure is to nuke it from orbit. Let me assure you - the value of what was lost could not possibly equate to the awesomeness of watching it happen.

Only, probably from a distance.

It's a damn shame I didn't have more parties in it. I was expecting the place to be party central. On the other hand... yeah, uni has kept me busy. Hell, I'd have my diablo party this friday or saturday if I wasn't doing an epicmegafuckton of stuff every single goddamn day. That's right. My activity is roughly equal to one epicmegatfuckton of energy. It's amazing how little time you have if you decide you're going to do everything yourself.

I've learned an epic way to stay fed when the times are bad. It's called Woolworth's Salad.

Woolworth's Salad:

1 x Bag of Leafy Salad shit (Quick Sale. Dismiss the use-by date as frivolous anti-capitalist nanny-state propaganda. Ignorance is bliss.)
1 x Avocado (Quick Sale. Keep in fridge until 12 hours from use, and you can ignore the use-by date.)
2 x Tomato (Quick Sale. Put the crispest ones in your salads, and the mushiest ones in your omelettes - assuming they still possess enough structural integrity for cutting them up to be meaningful)
3/8 of a bucket of mixed kinds of sprouts. (Quick Sale. If they're yellow, and they didn't start yellow, then throw them out. Deliciousness otherwise. By bucket, I mean the buckets they're sold in.)
4 x Mushrooms, sliced (Quick Sale. If you don't pack them too closely, and keep them out of direct contact with oxygen, it should be ok.)
1/2 x Capsicum (Quick Sale. Are you seeing a trend yet?)
Half a packet of firm marinated tofu (If you are an expert in the field, such as I, you may buy this on Quick Sale. Be warned though, you want to consume this quickly or you will regret that your foolish, enterprising little self ever saw those enticing yellow stickers.)
A Greek serving of olive oil (It impossible to imagine olive oil on Quick Sale, but if it existed, that is what we would be using. A "Greek serving" of anything is determined thus: Start pouring. When you think that's enough, continue pouring. When you begin to question why you're continuing to pour, continue pouring. When you start to think this is going to be disgusting, continue pouring. When your sanity creeps out from your spine and starts throttling you, try to get the last drop in before Hades claims your soul a little early - just for being stupd. Only then can you cease to pour.
A quarter of a Greek serving of Balsamic vinegar (Once again, Quick Sale-proof...)
Salt and Pepper to salvage the meal taste.

OPTIONAL:

1 x Carrot (Quick Sale, but if you do, then find new and interesting ways to include them in every meal. 1kg of carrots is more than any man conscionably could need if they're not doing a roast)
2 x Hard Boiled Eggs (Quick Sale, and only free range will do!)

Voila. You have fed yourself for many days on a rich variety of flavours, textures and stages of decomposition.

These days, I have discovered that tofu sausages own my life. High protein, low carbs, non-existent sugar, lowish fat, and kinda tasty once you get used to it. I have these with Woolworths salad in the evening, or with eggs and pita bread for lunch or in the morning.

I also now have returned to the gym! It's amazing how the Month of Meat made me pack on five kilos of dead weight (heh.) Good thing is that I've joined a gym, I have a personal trainer, and I'm already losing it again whilst gaining muscle. I should be down to 22% now. IRL excellence. The amount of running that I can do already is, quite frankly, freakishly unexpected. That HiiT stuff is really excellent for getting fit quite quickly. On the other hand, it makes you want to die every thirty seconds, for thirty seconds. It really emphasises the perspectivity of time, in that the "relaxing" period goes really quickly, and the gruelling clusterfuck afterwards seems to last at least a few minutes on its own. Really, it's 1:1.

What else has happened at North Strathfield? I met and became close with so many new people. I was told several of the most flattering and meaningful things I've ever heard. I said embarassing things under the pernicious influence of alcolol. I became sick several times, and made many protestations about how I will change my life. The problem with these statements is that I seem to forget them later, and when I remember them again, I've already done several of the things which are ruining my life. Thus, I feel upset and angry. I own armour, and a vinegar bath. I've read and written tens of thousands of words, if not hundreds.

Soon, Shona and I will have been together for two years. I'm not sure what I can say about that, so I won't say anything at all yet. It's a bit overwhelming. Together and apart again - how strange.

I shall return to Maroubra, where I shall reside for the shortest amount of time necessary to pull in at least Rent X 3. E.g. If my rent is $100p/w, I require $300 to survive - probably more to live well. My sister talks of moving in with me. This is certainly an idea - no doubts about that.

I'm also trying to resurrect St. Augustine. If it works, it'll be amazing. If it doesn't, that's one more try in the annals of unwritten history.

I'm going to try and be more conscientious about learning material, rather than be so quick to critique it. Sometimes I read things, and various feelings of malaise, happiness or excitement overcome me, and I realise that there is some understanding in the text that deserves my immediate attention for some reason. I get a threatened malaise whenever I read Liberalist writers, disgust towards Communitarians, inspiration when reading about Nietzsche and general approving feelings about Foucault. I wonder what the cause of all this is.

Anyway, I shall leave it alone for now, and return with a story about the Meat Month and the Meat Party.

Yours,
Nicholas.

P.S. At a time when I'm finding honest, real friends hard to come by, I become incredibly grateful for the honest, real friend(s) that I have. Those who decide to hide behind smiling faces, false protestations of loyalty and charming wit have to realise that they can't do this forever and they're likely not nearly as clever as they think they are. More likely, I know exactly the sort of person you are, and I present myself accordingly.

Dear Magdalena,



1. My Dong

Wonders two through seven have been demolished by the First Wonder of the Modern World.

Yours,
Ninja.

Knowledge has a scientific explanation.

There are other things, such as ethics, cultural stuff, etc., which are not knowledge, thus cannot be examined scientifically.

Once clearly defined, or at least somewhat distinct from each other, these alternate methods of finding interpretations closest to truth (whereas truth being defined as objective reality) can be evaluated for their particular (in)capability to arrive at truth.

Furthermore, consistent re-evaluation of the current methods of science must commence immediately, so that basic things like the repetition of experiments are actually done.

I do try, but it generally doesn't work out well - through no fault of my own, of course.

Dear Magdalena,

ATTENTION

In an attempt to further the causes of charity, irony, and knowledge all over the world, I have endeavoured to engage in a particular act for an entire month in order to garner funds for a particular charity.

It is well known to my friends (I should hope so, at any rate,) that I am a vegetarian, and have been so for the past five or six years. It's been pretty cool, and I have enjoyed it mostly.

For the next month, I shall be eating meat for charity. This shall be combined with a decent level of reading on the subject of the treatment of animals in agriculture, as well as other associated ethical issues.

Every single meal I eat, for the next month, will involve some sort of product that, due to my vegetarian ways, would normally be prohibited.

I will then donate the money gathered from kind and generous souls, such as yourselves, to the Taronga Zoo Sponsor an Animal program.

This will mean, at the end of the month, that a vegetarian has eaten meat for a month, in order to further the interests of animals.

( Read on for the FAQ )

If you wish to donate (and I really hope you do) then see myself of xony_kookie and give us a bunch of cash. I will also be holding a party at my place after college war to that end. There will be lots of music, drink, rejoicing, conversation, and MEAT-BASED FOOD. Over 9000 of you will be invited.

Yours,
Nicholas Melas