—Thoughts from My Thalassic Lair—
A Triptychal Update
Body
Full disclosure: I’ve been thriving.
My quarantine’s been quodlibetic [and quadriceptic 🦵🏽]—anything but quiescent.
It’s been a bit under a month. I’m running about four miles per day through redwood forests, along creeks, to rocky outcroppings and long stretches of deserted beach. I hardly ever encounter a person, but the snakes are out for mating season. They’re a bit too well-camouflaged for their own good: I’ve nearly trampled a few underfoot. I’m also strength training: lots of core work, lots of burpees, and making good use of some scavenged 25-lb. dumbbells.
While I can still drill martial arts technique [I’m quarantined with a man who trains MMA and a woman who trains judo and taekwondo], the one thing I’ve really been missing is having willing punching bags at my disposal—to get to be a real jerk about it.
I’ve carried on with intermittent fasting, which had a transformative effect on both my training, and my general experience of being alive, before and during my truncated tour with Nixie. A few have expressed interest in learning more about this, so I may make a post of resources for any of you weaklings out there who’d like to experiment with IF in the [futile] hopes of increasing your chances of keeping up with me during a future session.
It’s been an interesting opportunity to flex new practical skills: everything from DIY turkey hunting-and-butchering to making agnolotti with homeless pasta dough.
Mind
After a decade of reaching far corners of the earth, working a fantastical array of gigs in different fields, it’s stopped feeling so novel—after all, when airports feel more like home than actual houses, even air travel becomes pedestrian. I love martial arts and beating people up, it’s such a perfect application of my natural brutishness, and I’m going to keep doing those for as long as my body allows, but I’m also someone who, at any given time, wants to be juggling several different plates. At this point, I’ve been asking myself…what else?
And I’ve circled back around to the thing I once rebelled against with newfound curiosity; i.e., I’ve enrolled in college courses in programming. The quarter started two days ago, yet I’ve already done all required reading, labs, and assignments due before midterms. Since that’s clearly not enough to keep my brain occupied, I’ve also been working on my Mandarin literacy, reviewing math and science via Khan Academy, and availing myself of a gifted Masterclass subscription.
Currently reading:
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
Made in America: an Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson
Spirit
I’m optimistic [at least agathistic], not only about picking up sessions right where I left off, but of the diagnostic power of this disaster to inform widespread and long-overdue social, economic, and political restructuring, so that capital-We aren’t so easily rocked in the future by unexpected-by-most-but-nonetheless-predicted-by-some-widely-ignored-Cassandras disasters.
It’s been interesting, hearing from those of you who’ve reached out.
A couple of the customs requests I’ve received are for fetishes I’d not heard of before, which I LOVE! The spectrum of human desire is boundlessly creative, and I love when someone’s highly-specific proclivities leads me on unplanned adventures to new amusements. Keep ‘em coming.
Of course, a few have written me long emails, expecting me to return their outpourings in my own free time with no recompense, and I have not obliged these expectations. My time is still precious and comes at a fee. I get that y’all are cooped up, lonely, with desires and needs and compulsions towards escapism. If you want me to indulge you with a longform email correspondence, a handwritten letter, or a phone call, you’re most welcome to consult my list of virtual offerings.
Stay healthy—stay home if you can, for the sake of all those who can’t, and let’s flatten this bitch of a curve so we can get back on the mats sooner than later.
…After all, you’re of no use to me if you’re infirm.