The feelings of death and homelessness

 Something is happening.  Floofy's death brought that feeling to me, of death and having to deal with it, and it hasn't gone away.  Some other incident brought about that feeling of homelessness, and of how unstable reality is.  People are generally afraid of such matters but I have experienced those before, and I am not really afraid of it per se.  It's more like that I don't want to have to deal with it.  But we all have to deal with it, and that makes the feelings of death and homelessness to be spiritual awareness.  Isn't spiritual awareness supposed to be some sort of peaceful feeling?  There is no peace in this life.  The peace is in making peace with what you fear, and confronting it with as little emotion as possible.  Some might say that we cling to the earth over the hereafter.  It's not that for me: I want the hereafter so much more than this world.  But I have so much more work to do to earn my place in heaven.  And you Natty, you are a reason to live.

Let's talk about dinner.  I made chicken tenders for dinner.  Just a simple recipe: slice the chicken into thin strips, coat in flour then egg then breadcrumbs, then fry it up.  Ah, you like chicken tenders!  You can find them at most restaurants in the West.  My difference is that I don't overcook them.  You know what I mean: right when pink turns to white.  Plus, eat them while they're hot!  They're so good!

Here's a really nice snapshot from the last page of the How does your avatar look today ? thread.  It's taken by a newbie, but that only means she's a newbie to the forums.  Second Life noobs seem to be more prepared nowadays.  Check out that hair!  Isn't that nice detail?

Hi Natty

 How are you, my love?  How's sunny California?  I hope you are healthy and enjoying yourself.  Did you watch the finale of AGT?  I have to say that show is no fun without Simon Cowell.  Do you think he broke his back on purpose so he could get away from that show?  I wonder...

I took my mother to the market this morning.  While I was there, I got a big bag of fresh fish balls and a couple of blocks of fresh tofu.  I've been gorging on fish balls and tofu all day.  I must say that fresh fish balls and fresh tofu is a super healthy and tasty combination, and we must feed it to our children.  By the time dinner came around though, I was tired of fish balls.  So I had cheeseburgers and fries instead.  I guess I'm somewhat of  normal guy after all.

Share my fish head

 

Hi Natty!  How are you?  I hope everything is swell today.  How's your health?  Please stay healthy for me.  I want you to know that I love you.  You are MY girl.

Do you like fish?  I'm guessing that you like fish served in familiar ways, but you don't like tuna casserole.  I love fish, especially if I can afford it.  Fish also has a high labor cost though, so I try to stick to the low labor recipes.  I took my mother to the hospital this morning, after that we went to the supermarket.  They always have nice fish heads, so I got one.  I love fish heads!  Actually it was half a fish head, but it was big and made for a great dinner.  I cooked the fish head in my home made hot sauce with bitter beans, and I'm happy to report it was a success.  I ate it with steamed rice.  A fish head is a messy meal, so I started on it with a fork and spoon pulling out the easy parts like the meat behind the head, the liver and soft roe.  When that was done, I had used up the rice so I finished the meal with my fingers.  Oh, the gelatinous texture of the lips!  Oh, the cheek meat!  But my favorite part is the meat behind the eyes.  Oh no, it's only half a fish head so there's only one eye!  It's so good, though.  You must try it.  Here, you can have it.

Potato chips

 Hi Natty!  How are you?  I hope you are staying calm, and keeping those raging emotions under control.  Don't worry my love, everything will turn out right for us inshaAllah.  I want you to know that I love you with all of my heart, and I will marry you inshaAllah.

This morning I took my Dad to the hospital.  Which left me little time and energy to do yard work in the evening.  I had to go to the convenience store.  Well we don't have convenience stores here in the village.  There are 24 hour convenience stores like the ones you would be familiar with but downtown, which makes them inconvenient.  Instead we are sundry shops here, which stock the basic necessities plus junk food.  These shops are privately owned and are open whenever they feel like it, which makes the inconvenient as well.  Sundry shops have come a long way since I was a kid.  Nowadays, they have coolers and sliced bread.  And that's what I got: sliced bread, a sweet roll and some crunchy curry snacks.  Dinner was curry pups and I had some potatoes left over, so I made potato chips.  Potato chips use up a lot of potatoes.  It's like a whole chicken of potatoes would produce a few feathers of potato chips.  I suppose that's an exaggeration, but from 4 potatoes I had a snack pack's worth of potato chips.  Nice and crunchy.  Salt and vinegar.  Want some?

Nasi kandar and apom balik

 Hi Natty!  How are you?  I hope everything is going great for you, and you are feeling marvelous!  It's Monday here today.  That means there is a night market at the crossroads.  Are you hungry?  After I cut the grass, I went and bought my dinner there.  I had "nasi kandar" (er... India style spiced rice, I had mine with fried chicken breast and a lot of mixed gravies) and "apom balik" (sweet pancake with crushed peanuts folded over, looks like tacos).

There are some nice snapshots today on the last page of the How does your avatar look today ? thread:

Mary said she had a frog in her throat today that wouldn't come out.  It sure made her growl though!

Pray

 Hi Natty!  I hope you are doing well today, and keeping healthy and safe.  There's a lot going on right now, from what you can see and from what I can see.  We need God, so please pray.  Please be constant in your prayers.

I cut the grass this evening.  The grass grows quickly here, so I'm always cutting grass.  I made curry pups for dinner.  It's a good batch today.  Would you like some?

The civilized tummy

 Hi Natty!  How are you?  I hope you are well, and enjoying yourself.  How's your tummy?  I'm guessing that you like your food neatly and nicely prepared.  Well I have a little bit of knowledge mashaAllah, I think I can cook some nice meals for you and make sure you are well fed inshaAllah.  With my current budget, I can't buy expensive ingredients or do much experimentation.  Right now, I really want to minimize my time in the kitchen as well as the yard, so I cook up convenient food whenever I need to.  The same goes with my cats.  Floofy's death switched the cat food from chicken to fish and rice.  Fish isn't necessarily cheaper than chicken, but it is when mixed with rice.  You can't mix chicken with rice because it diffuses the scent.  And cats love that stinky stuff.  Poop from eating fish is smellier than chicken and I didn't want to to switch in the beginning, then the logic hit me: poop stinks no matter what.  So this morning I went out shopping, and I got some mackerel for the cats.  I always boil the fish first then fish the fish out to debone it, and use the broth to cook the rice.  Mackerel stomachs dissolve when you boil it, so the broth is extra stinky.  I guess I could always get rid of the guts, but it's cat food.  I gave the cats a raw mackerel each when I got home.  Lily and Bro snapped it up with gusto, being that they are "kampung" (village) cats and are used to eating whole raw fish (I guess).  But Lookie couldn't stomach it, especially the fish stomach.  Lookie has spent her entire life inside the house, and she needs her food neatly and nicely prepared.  Is that what you would call a civilized tummy?  Lily later puked out the raw fish (I suppose she's becoming more pampered), but Bro had absolutely no problems with it.  He even ate up the stuff that Lily puked out.

I have another snapshot from the How does your avatar look today ? thread.  I always like Usagimimi's stuff, I was just waiting for the right one to post.  I think this is the one: