Letter to Erin 20150613

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

What, you're mad at me again?  Because I complained about doing a little house cleaning?  I'll admit that I loathe house cleaning, but I'll do some.  I like a clean house, but I hate house cleaning.  That's not hypocrisy- it's laziness.  You have no idea how many tasks I have on my plate, plus I need to relax, so I am able to work.  The day will come when I will have to focus on studio work, and I won't be able to do much of anything else.  Right now, I don't have the musical instruments and studio equipment, plus the means of duplication and printing.  But when Allah grants me thus inshaAllah, I'm going to be trapped inside the studio.

I'm having chicken wings tonight.  Wanna join me for dinner, Sweetheart?  Squid freezes up well, so I'll just save it for later.  Maybe fried calamari.  Right now it's time to make a batch of dough.  I like making my dough hard lately.  So it would be ready to use in 3 days.  I don't work in a restaurant anymore, so I don't have to feed any patrons.  Right now I'm watching "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes"- the old one, from 1969 I think.  Snake Plissken looks so young and clean cut!  Wanna snuggle up to a movie?  I love you Erin, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150612

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Gag!  Seafood stinks.  Even when you buy it fresh and you smell it and there's no smell, when you open up the guts, it reeks.  It's because of all the things they eat, and ferments in the stomach.  Crabs and shellfish don't smell so bad.  Big fish is generally easier to deal with, because you can pull out the guts easier.  But squid?  There's no other way but to rip and shred out the guts, especially if you want to save the liver and the eggs.  And the ink sac- for something so small, it makes a huge, black mess.  Cuttlefish is stinkier than regular squid, but it has more meat.  The squid family is mostly made out of water, so it shrinks like mad.  Today cuttlefish was on sale, so I had to process that today.  I still have the scent on my fingers 3 hours later, after doing gardening, after driving around looking for cooking gas, after taking a shower.  the good thing is that the cats hate the smell of squid, and they totally leave me alone.  You wanna gut these cuttlefish?  Oh, I have to do it?  AND do the house cleaning?

I didn't want to go to the market this morning, but I had to waste some time before the stores opened so I could buy a new regulator.  SO I got the cuttlefish, some tofu, and some won tons.  So for dinner, it's going to be fried won tons.  The won ton skins are small though, so it's going to be a pain to shape them.  I think I'll blend the stuffing today.  The blend turned out really tasty, but the won tons were too small and tedious.  The best approach was to spread the paste on then fold it over, but frying it up created a lot of splatter.  Tasty, though.  Want some?

I must say it's already getting weird (er than usual), and it's even Ramadan yet.  Well, alhamdulillah.  You take sweet care of yourself, Sweetie.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150611

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin!  Dahlink!  I'm sorry if I didn't talk all that much yesterday.  Actually, I don't talk much at all usually.  Believe it or not, I talk most to you over everyone else.  Well today I had to get my cesspool cleaned out, so I was thinking about that all day yesterday.  It was just too damned full, and it hadn't been emptied in years.  I went to the toilet more than usual, in anticipation.  So now that it's all cleaned out, I went to the toilet more than usual to check it out.  It's like getting a new car, you just want to keep driving it.  Well, it doesn't have that new car smell.  Actually, it doesn't smell of anything at all.

I was checking out the truck that they used to clean the cesspool, and it occurred to me that the hose that sucks the shit up has a limited length.  The old cesspools at your house inshaAllah are way over on the southwest corner of the house, at least 20 meters away from the driveway.  There's no way that hose runs for 20 meters.  We're going to have to dig a new sewage container system on the northwest corner of the house.  To dig it on the opposite side of the house is right next to the street- it depends where you want your master bathroom.  I'm going to put your bathroom on the west side of the house in my plan, inshaAllah.

Then came dinner time, I was about to cook when I had to change the gas cylinder.  Then my gas regulator refused to work.  Well, there it is.  Of course I had to empty out the cesspool AND buy a new cooking gas regulator right before the fasting month.  It makes complete sense.  There's no such thing as coincidence.  People who believe in coincidences do not think that there could be a mini Mandelbrot 10000 magnifications away.  Or so.  Anyway Erin Sweetie, you are MY girl, and I love you with all my heart.  And I need you.  Apologies for the mundane old sewage talk.

Letter to Erin 20150610

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi Erin.  How are you today, my beloved sweetheart?  I'm just hanging out here with my cats, and dealing with the mundane as best as I can.  ---- is still in heat, and howling her her heart away.  There's nothing all that special on the menu from what I'm making.  My Mom gave me some of her famous bamboo shoot sweet pickle, and I'm having that for dinner with rice and chicken.  I pray you are taking sweet loving care of yourself in my absence, for I wish to be with you always.  Please maintain your prayers.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150609

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hey, Erin Sweetie.  How are you feeling today, my beloved?  I saw you in that new Victoria's Secret video, and you are so beautiful.  At first I didn't think it was a new video, because you look exactly the same as you did 5 years ago.  Oh, it isn't new.  Duh.  I did like that black outfit you had on at that NY sports thingy.  You are so beautiful.  But you are so beautiful to me, regardless.  Because I love you, and I need you.

Nothing all too special happening today.  I slept in this morning (after the dawn prayer, of course) and I also took an afternoon nap, so I had plenty of rest.  Alhamdulillah.  After Asr, I cut grass.  Lunch was plain old chicken nuggets, and for dinner I rolled out 2 tortillas.  For the stuffing, I fried up potatoes, onions, peppers and salt, and sliced up some leftover steak.  Seems ordinary, doesn't it?  Tasted good, though.  Alhamdulillah.  Maybe after the night prayer, I'll play guitar a little.  Or just relax.  Alhamdulillah.

Letter to Erin 20150608

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Oh, you're mad at me?  You are not amused?  Well, you may be pleased to know that I was immediately punished for my act of posting a photo of hairy cat balls on the Internet.  The morning after I blogged, Bobby was strutting around the compound with his chest puffed up and peeing on everything.  Oh wait, he always does that.  Then he picked a fight with his brother.  Then ---- went back in heat, and was screaming all morning.  Then while I was cleaning my mother's bedroom, someone dumped a whole pot of cooking oil on my kitchen floor.  It was covered, and I thought it was stable enough, but apparently it wasn't.  I suspect it was a certain someone wanting revenge for not allowing her to spawn at will.

I was never much of a Joy Division fan.  I had all their music on cd a couple of decades ago, and it made me drowsy.  I get drowsy anyway listening to music I like and my own music, but I wasn't all that interested in Joy Division.  Then a few days ago, I saw a video of them live on BBC's "Something Else".  I was totally blown away.  The live mix was powerful, and that lead singer was SCARY.  Joy Division has been long associated with gothic music, but they didn't look like any goth I had ever known, and I've known quite a few.  They looked more like civil servants.  You know, the type of people you would meet if you were applying for a business license.  The hair, shoes, shirts, neatly creased pants, and no jackets.  To me, they were definitely more of a live band than a studio band.  I wish I had produced their studio albums, I would have given them a more aggressive sound.

It turns out that Ian Curtis was a full time civil servant before he was a rock star, working with the unemployed and the disabled.  When I watched the interviews with his wife and closest friends, I got the impression that he was a resilient, secretive and stubborn man, rather than the whimpering ninny which was his portrayal in the movie "Control".  He could have overcome his illness and other problems if it had been his intention.  I observe that he wasn't born with epilepsy: he acquired the disease.  Which means he was subjected to brain damage, substance abuse, and overwork.  I rule out bacterial infection because no other illnesses were mentioned.  It could be that he studied the motions of epileptic fits so precisely, that his "Epileptic Dance" was equivalent to a first seizure.  And once one has a first seizure, it becomes easier to get more and habitual seizures.  If that be correct, it could be that epileptic fits can be doctored with an "out-of-phase" epileptic dance, like a sine wave is neutralized by another sine wave which is out of phase.

Anyway, it seems to me that Ian Curtis was a calculated man with a secret agenda.  His sickness became part of his public image as a rock star.  It could be that financial success for Joy Division or anybody else associated with Joy Division was never his intention.  He probably understood music and mass media well enough to know that Joy Division would have a tremendous influence because of his death.  And even when things spun out of control, he stuck with the plan.  I see a distinct possibility of a secret agenda of becoming some sort of martyr for the sick, whether his intention was noble or selfish.  They could always have dressed up as goths or punk rockers instead of civil servants.  But not just that.  If this is the case, then his suicide is an injustice.  Because the rock star most qualified to champion the sick was murdered by Ian Curtis.

Oh dearest, I'm spewing out a whole lot of crap when I should be saying, "I love you."  Erin, please take sweet loving care of yourself.  I love you, and I need you.

Letter to Erin 20150607

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hi there, rich girl!  Oh, don't worry- I'm not hitting you up for cash.  I am your husband inshaAllah, and it is my responsibility to provide for you.  I don't want your hard-earned money.  Just do me a favor and please buy yourself some nice suits for work, OK?  And please try to dress modestly when you're off duty.  I love you, and I need you.

I was busy all this morning with my baby mangoes as usual, but I ate too much for lunch.  It's my fault!  Not only did I make 2 portions, but I wanted to finish off that pea and potato stuffing.  I felt too lazy to do anything active after the Asr prayer, so I just lay down in front of the TV, put on the headphones, and listened to music.  I took a photo of Bob Cat this morning and I posted it here for you to look at.  Isn't he a handsome fellow?  He almost looks embarrassed.  I had to follow him into the motorcycle cage to get this shot.  It's not the best quality- damned low resolution cell phone camera!  I also took a photo of his balls.  Is it pornography to post a fuzzy photo of hairy cat balls?  I don't think it's going to sexually arouse anybody.  Certainly not me.  I just wanted to amuse my wife.  From an animalistic perspective, a cat with big balls is the master of his territory, thus the photo is a statement of his supremacy and warning to other cats who would happen to view this blog.  Sorry, I can't post a video of Bobby doing the ball dance.  I need someone to hold the camera.  When we are married inshaAllah, we can make that our pet project.