NEET

Been a good boy lately, did some exercise, inspired a few people, seeded most of my torrents most of the times, but still don’t feel like I’m making any difference.

I learned the words “chigeopi eopseoyo” something like “I’m unemployed” in Korean, to answer people’s questions. And I remember when I was in Japan and learned the acronym NEET (neeto) which stands for “Not in Employment, Education or Training” so I could accurately explain what my status in the society is.


And I got many laughs, because Japanese and Korean always see foreigners as wealthy and successful, or at least brave enough to leave their countries and make a living abroad. So when they hear some foreigner is unemployed and living abroad they think it’s funny! And most times they say “cool, same as me” and we can laugh together about it or just blame the economy.

I found out it works something like this: when you are in your home country, or where you grew up you have all this pressure, from family, friends, governments and the Illuminati, to make a living, be successful or at least do something, when you’re abroad is the opposite. You are expected to be relaxed because you don’t really know what’s going on, you don’t understand the news or the politics and usually can barely manage to get around.

You can do whatever you want and it’s cool because you’re “traveling” and no one really cares much about what you do or don’t do.

Unemployed in your home country = loser
Unemployed abroad = funny!

And yes, sure, you don’t feel like you contribute much to the society, you don’t pay taxes to support all the corrupt politicians, their armies, and nuclear weapons.
You don’t contribute much to the waste of resources for the production of useless goods we don’t need and the destruction of our planet.
You don’t get stressed and give away your life, your time and your health, so that other people above you can get even richer than they are.


But it’s still cool, you get to hang out with other unemployed people, usually at odd times of the day in odd places, you get to read lots of fanfics and you get to write stuff like this so that in 10 years from now you can read it and say: “Bruno, what a waste of talent! What were you thinking? You were so smart, you should have been inventing a time machine or something!!!”

ajumas and the bibimbap

Some months ago I stumbled upon the works of Dr. Bass, and the natural hygiene diet, and I found it quite interesting, especially the part about sequential eating: http://drbass.com/sequential.html

So I read it, it made sense. I tested it, It worked, and have been trying to practice it, basically it says that different food is digested differently, the order in the one we eat is important,  and it’s better to eat the more watery food first, that is digested faster to conserve energy.

So when I go get bibimbap (which is one of the few vegetarian dishes at local restaurants) instead of mixing it, which is how you are supposed to eat it according to ancient Korean traditions, I’ll eat first the veggies and then the rice.

But this practice seems to upset the local old ladies (who, I suspect, haven’t had the chance to read the works of Dr. Bass) and they always mix it for me, when they see I eat it separately.

Explaining in Korean can be challenging, and even my English speaking friends would have problems understanding how the stomach or digestive system works. So I found some ways to trick them. Either sitting where they can’t see my plate or pretending I mix things up but actually only mixing the rice.

Sometimes I have to play with the lights and mirrors to make the illusion of mixing, which has made eating out a bit more challenging than it already was.

Anyway,  I love the 2900 won bibimbap across the street from my place and the ajumas who just want to teach me and make it more tasty for me.

And it’s open 24 hours, so it gives me the chance to find out who goes for bibimbap on a Tuesday at 4 am.

If you’re ever around Sincheon I’ll show it to you!

Traveling: part 1

When I thought about writing a blog, I had no idea what to write about, but knew what I didn’t want to write about. It shouldn’t be me complaining about something I don’t like and it shouldn’t be about trying to convince people to think like me.

It should be fun and make people think at the same time. Easy to read, and to understand. Not so long and not so smartassly-written

Sex, religion, politics? Still, a bit taboo and chances are, if you’re reading this, you know me and you know my views already.

My daily life? Ok, here we go: I woke up at noon, ate some rice, went for a walk. done.

Love? not sure what it is or how it works, I know how oxytocin works, but that doesn’t sound very romantic.

Peace and happiness? Yeah, that sounds good. That’s what people need at the end of the day, no matter where you’re from, where you are or what you think; we all just want to be happy. So that’s something that brings us all together. We all want to love and be loved, we want affection and kindness.

That could work.

Some years ago, while in China, I found myself in front of a class, lecturing on business for some reason. Sometimes more than 50 university students per class. My lectures were usually about business related topics, such as marketing, negotiations, customer service, product development, etc.

I always prepared thoroughly and tried to make it fun, but I found out that it didn’t really matter what I said in the lecture, when I ask them if they had any questions, either during or after the lecture; the questions will NEVER be about business.

Questions would be something like: *Can you tell us something about your travels?* *Have you ever been to Africa?* *Have you been to other countries in Asia?* *How many countries have you been to?* *What’s your favorite country? *Where are you going after China?* *How can I make money to travel?* *How much do you spend while you travel?*

Of course there was always some odd ones too, like: *Do you have a girlfriend?* *How many girlfriends have you had?* *Do you like Chinese girls? *Can you sing a song for us?*  *Why are you not wearing trousers?*

But usually, most of the questions were about traveling. My students were not interested in business at all. They just took business English because they thought would help them get a “good job” and that way they could save up some money to travel.

That made me realize I had much more in common with my students that I thought. We all just wanted to be free, travel, and be happy. And the reason why they were taking that class, was the same reason why I was teaching it in the first place!
I also couldn’t care less about bussiness, but if I got into the rat race for a few months I would be rewarded with some freedom tokens that could be later exchanged for leisure time.

I was lucky that I seldom got a curriculum and was usually told to do whatever I wanted as long as the students were happy, THEY didn’t care about business, and I didn’t care about business, so we usually ended up talking about travels or silly stuff for the rest of the week.

to be continued

 

Ideas 1: no-violence

Due to the recent events in the US, protests, police brutality, arrests, pepper spray, etc. I found myself forced to re-analyze my own thoughts, as systematically, and objectively as I’m able to right now to see if I can understand them better.

STEP 1:  Where do I stand now?

As for today, I’m 27 years of age and in my mind*, I can’t just justify engaging in any kind of violence, not physical nor verbal. Can’t justify it under any pretext either (like as a sport/entertainment, on self-defense, punishment, retaliation, etc).

* yeah, I know, there’s no mind (not yet at least), there is the brain, and we sometimes call mind to some functions the brain performs.

STEP 2: Why?

Makes sense, if no one is violent there’s no reason to fight or hate each other and we can just be happy.

STEP 3: Where did I learn about the idea?

Gandhi, Dalai Lama??

STEP 4: How long does it take for an idea (once proved effective) to get implemented in our daily actions and thoughts?

Ok here’s the tricky part, we all know the theory for many good ideas like this one, we know it makes sense and we should implement it. but yet we don’t.

In theory, we know we shouldn’t smoke, drink, gamble, get stressed, be violent, etc, but yet we keep doing it.

We know we should be nice to people, eat healthily, exercise, but we don’t. So what’s wrong with us?

It seems it takes a long time for our brain to assimilate something we haven’t learned in our childhood or contradicts something we have learned as children.

Some ideas can’t be incorporated unless some other idea is already learned. something like updating a software.

in my head at least, this non-violence idea can’t run unless I had previously learned or seen the disasters that violence caused, recognizing the violent patterns in our society (understanding why was I violent) and know or at least imagine that there’s another option, and then make the change. This slow process took me something like 6 years.

STEP 5: How is this related to the violence on the occupy movement?

Well, now traveling back in time and paying a visit to the 15 old me. I would justify and engage in violent actions literally every day.
I would think the penal system. army and police forces are a good thing, and punishment is the only option to “solve crimes”.

And going back a bit further to when I was 12 and younger, I remember fighting with toy guns, army men, playing violent video games and watching violent movies, getting beaten up and bullied at school, at home and living in a stressful, violent city where I had to watch my back constantly.

Had I chosen a different path along the road, I would be the one holding the baton or the pepper spray right now.

We are who we are now not just because of our upbringing, but because of a billion different variables.

I think I got caught up in my own thoughts and couldn’t make the point here, the point was learning to incorporate ideas into our lives and the difficult process of it. I’ll follow up soon.

Winter is here

 

Some time ago I realized if I wanted to keep having this lifestyle I would have to make some sacrifices and clothes was one of them.

Long distance walking/cycling/hitchhiking, trespassing, dumpster diving, squatting, treasure hunting, outdoor sleeping, and changing CS hosts every week for a year or more couldn’t be done with a 10 kg backpack or luggage.

For optimum flexibility, it had to be reduced to 4 kg or less. And it had to be a day pack, so I don’t look like a tourist and can blend in places like libraries, shopping malls, restaurants, parks, or anywhere you can find free food, bathroom, internet and a place to crash, which is usually everything you need.

 

But the laptop is already 1kg, and if I didn’t have it I wouldn’t be able to send couch requests, that means I would have to sleep outside. I usually also need water which is like half a kilo, that leaves 2.5 for 3 pairs of underwear, 2 pairs of socks, a spare shirt and some mortal combat action figures.

FINISH HIM!!!

 

In winter I would have to wear everything I have and in summer I would have to get rid of the winter stuff.

Small price to pay for the flexibility of going anywhere, anytime, sleeping everywhere and not damaging my spine. Sounds Smart, logical, practical, and the most important thing is that it fits my lifestyle.

When this winter came in Korea, I had to find some winter clothes, right? But I couldn’t buy them new, because that would be adding more pain to the planet, because of the massive waste of resources it is required to produce and transport all those new stuff, while most people have many jackets and things they don’t need and don’t use. Everyone has a spare jacket or jumper and are usually happy when I ask them because it means I trust them. Is not that I’m broke or anything, just trying to save the planet you know.

In the downside, being flexible means you have to wear anything you can get your hands on, either you like the color, or not, it’s too big or too small or infested with fleas. This year was good though, I asked my friend Taekyung which I had known for a while so I knew would be happy to help me and was quite clean, so hopefully no body lice this year.

 

See you guys next year!

So she showed up with a jacket and a pullover, I tried them on and was like “how are YOU doing? 😉 ”

People started to notice me more, especially female people, on the street and on the train girls were looking at me, and when I noticed it they would look away or look down shyly. I knew what that meant because that’s what I’d do when there’s very cute girl, and if they were in groups they would look at me and giggle.
It was the jacket! it had to be the jacket, right?

I think it was the fact that it was quite fluffy so it did a good job in hiding my skinny arms, so when I looked in the mirrors of the subway station I thought “so handsome!!” and then I came back to myself and realized how shameless I was. Always preaching about spirituality and self-development, saying I want to be more modest and humble and beauty is on the inside and then admiring myself in the mirrors, so hypocritical!

but now I’m feeling myself again, kinda, or maybe I think too much.

 

Intro

You: Hey Bruno, how are you?  How is Korea?

Me: Hey! Yeah, not bad. korea’s awesome!

You: so… what’s up with this, you decided to write a blog? How come?

Me: well, It often happens that I meet someone new and after we talk for a while, they ask me if I have a blog or I write about travels or about me, a diary or something, and usually my answer would go something like:

  -“not interested, have no time”

 -“my life is quite boring actually, I just play video games all day”

-“can’t read, I’m illiterate” (then ask for some spare change)

-“I’m not good at writing, wouldn’t know what to write about”

-“who would care about my life” and then they say -“I would care, that’s why I’m asking you, duh!”

And they have a point of course, but I think I wouldn’t read about someone like me, so why would they?

Lately, though many people who read my comments in forums or groups said I had a gift for writing and I should work on it, so I decided to give it a try.

You: cool! And what do expect to get out of it?

Me: Maybe something like a therapy– to let things out, you know, so new things can come in–try to take an objective look at my life–self-criticism (hopefully)—maybe learn to laugh at myself a bit more—kill some time—improve writing/editing skills—avoid responsibilities (like I needed an excuse for that!) and maybe even get to know myself a bit better.

You: What is a morphing jar?

Me: a card in yu-gi-oh

You: What is yu-gi-oh?

Me:  an anime, trading card game, video game

You: what’s an “anime”???

Me: Japanese cartoon, like Pokemon.

You: oh, you’re a bit of a geek aren’t you?

Me: well… a bit.

 

You: are you gonna write about Pokemon on your blog?

 

Me: probably yes, sometimes, but not just about Pokemon.

You: are you gonna write about your sex life?

Me: probably not.

You: why not? Are you gay?

Me: what??? No, what makes you think that?

You: well, every time I see you, you are wearing pink, giggling, talking and acting like a girl. You don’t like sports, you hang out with girls, wear accessories, you like pop music and I think last week you were wearing makeup.

Me:  Makeup? No way!

You: ok, I made the last one up, but the other ones are true.

Me: I get that a lot actually, but maybe I’m confident enough about my sexuality that I don’t need to play by society standards or stereotypes and I can just do whatever I want.

You: ..or maybe you’re gay.

Me: maybe.

Note: Morphing Jar was the name chosen when I decided to write, but then I changed it for Bruno’s public diary, anyone knows why?