I feel fine, just need a little more coffee these days

The parents came and Max is no longer my responsibility.  I am back in my apartment, happy to be alone without any barking dog and TV.  It's quiet and that's awesome.  It was quite a busy day at work: first few hours I was not able to get my hand off the phone, one call after another, several calls at same time and so on.  Volunteers came later and helped a lot.  For dinner I ordered Chinese take-out food.  Lately, my weird "alien" dreams resumed...I thought I am not going to have those again.  It's a mind's escapism, I guess.  Maybe subconsciously I don't feel that I belong on this planet.  But then I think about all the great food and I want to stick around longer.  Life's still good.

the world in the head: that's no blessing...

There was a movie I liked when I was a young boy in another country.  I don't recall the name.  It was about a small group of people who were faking moving gold in a train to get the bandits after themselves and take their attention away from real train...or maybe they just wanted to shoot them all...  So there were many interesting characters who all got shot one by one.  Only two remained, commander and a young soldier.  By the end of movie the young soldier was using lexicon of all fallen soldiers in a group, plus expressions of his commander.  I think that showed a real character development for me and the aging process.  For some reason I feel like that young soldier lately.  Without any reason.

Perfect Afterstorm

Just as I thought few days ago, the Storm of the Century was compared by local residents to last week's regular rain that made more flooding damage than this one.  I did not check my apartment yet, but grandmother's and parent's apartments are fine, streets are relatively clean, no flooding around the area.  It appears that if it wasn't for administration's decision to shut down MTA and 5 hospitals in the area, things would be even less stressful for residents.    It was frustrating to find a gas station: the TV was warning to fill up on gas, but almost all gas stations were closed.  However, there seem to be some damage mostly outside the area I live in, especially other states, so maybe it wasn't a Drizzle of the Century after all.  I am progressing in Castle Empire, but slowly.  They opened a shop and I already spent 35 bucks in it.  I guess it's a very addicting cute game.  Max is very needy, barks every time I step away.  Just eats and shits most of the time.  I could not go to work during the storm, because my grandmother's home attendant did not come, so I had to spend the whole weekend attending to her needs.  Parents should be coming back in 2 days, if airports will open.  When I went to my apartment to get valuable stuff in case of destructive hurricane, I realized that I have nothing of value except my computer and suits, which all together not going to sell for more than 2K.  Actually, pretty much all I possess could be valued on the market under 2K.  So, I took the US Passport: because it's a valuable document for travel and I am still planning to visit Machu Pichu this November. I didn't take my Emergency Bag, with my Emergency and Travel Pants, which indicates I wasn't under impression this would actually be a destructive tropical storm.  I am progressing as expected in chi balancing.  Now I will need to lose up to 10 lb.  The good news of the week is that Alice called and said that my insurance now covers unlimited services of acupuncture.  This makes my wish to lose at least 5-7 lb more realistic. 

y.w.e.z.

Parents left for vacation.  I moved to their apartment where I currently reside with Max.  I have to feed and walk him.  I am level 22 in Castle Empire.  This are all the news. 
Nothing really new is happening right now.  I am completing my chi balancing but to be totally honest with myself, I don't really see how I can shorten it even by a year.  I think I will need to go through a whole routine to get things in their place.

Perseid meteor showers yesterday.

I am still enthusiastically playing Castle Empire.  Almost done with level 20 and tomorrow I should be getting to level 21.  Eating my hand-made sushi sticks.  Had fried cauliflower and coffee for dinner.  Had a lot of coffee today.  It's raining since morning.  I ordered a solar powered cell (cheap, less than 20 dollars) to charge devices like film camera, GPS unit or cellphone.  It's the cheapest available and most likely will not work for long, but I don't feel like spending 140 bucks for something I would use only in emergencies.  If I would need to charge these devices most likely I am not in real emergent situation.   Water smells of iodine.  Decided not to take potassium iodine.  Could be a mistake, will know later.

Guilt-Free Balancing

I am still enthusiastically involved in playing Castle Empire.  Still on level 19.  Today I had couscous at lunch, as well as split pea soup.  Both were very well prepared.  I also ate macaroni salad.  It was "ok".  Things are going great lately.  My eye allergies are getting less bothering, even though allergy don't go away.  I feel better as in physically better.  I am concentrating on balancing my chi and I think I am doing good.  I found the reason for my previous lack of progress in balancng chi: I was living with a conception that my life energy will eventually not be sucked out of me, while the correct thinking would have been adjusting to living all life-long being "sucked".  Correct philosophy creates better defense mechanisms and prevents health problems.  However, it is not known yet how long I will be able to maintain balance, since it seems to be a casual challenge to everyone.  At this time, I feel good.  If not good, than definitely better than before.

The Castle Empire from creators of Settlers is occupying all of my free time.  It's very addicting even though it's a simple online game.
The dreams have been softer lately, without much dying or persecution.  I attribute it to eating less before going to bed.  Also, I noticed that I am eating rice more than pasta for the past week.  I put the rice in seaweed paper and roll it into a giant hand-made sushi stick (with various spices).  Then I place it in refrigerator and have a filling snack.  I gotta buy more seaweed paper, since I ran out of it.  Next time, I will prepare Goya yellow rice and "sushimize it"