This will be a place to post some of the thoughts I have to share publicly.
Hopefully, some of these thoughts and ideas might be helpful to someone, somewhere. This might be all in vain, but I like the idea of being able to collect my thoughts, ideas, and experiences in hopes of sparking some sort of inspiration out there in the world.
You see, recently, I have been having a lot of communication with a new friend I made not too long ago. She will be referred to as “Bunny Girl” from here on out. Bunny Girl suggested that I start a journal and after starting to reread Zoe Thorogood’s “It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth,” I had this stupid idea to express it all on the internet.
What could possibly go wrong?
Anyway.
I go by the name Stroi here on this internet space. I was the bassist, singer, sysadmin, logo designer, cover artist, merch designer, etc. for the band Carbide. Basically, if no one would to do it, I was there learning how to do it or commissioning someone to help me bring my vision for this group to life. I can discuss how and why Carbide ended in another post, but to sum it up, I got tired of feeling like things would never progress unless I was directly involved in it, because any time I would try to delegate things to other members, things would never get done.
I’m trying to do the whole “streaming” thing now, because it’s another outlet for me to entertain. And how I love to entertain.
About a year ago, I met a small streamer, Tsukki, and what became of that was a spiral into a community where I felt that I could simply be myself without any pressure. Shortly after, for some reason, she had this crazy idea to trust me as a moderator in her community (Funny, right? Who would trust a chaotic person like me with their community after knowing me for such a short time?). So, I took that responsibility and really invested myself in that, finding new friends and integrating with other various communities.
Eventually, after a couple of talks where I expressed interest in the idea of starting a stream of my own, Tsukki convinced me to start streaming, myself. And, honestly, I’ve had a lot of fun doing it.
I’ve been out of work recently, so I should probably be investing more time into streaming… but with the internet connection I have, it’s kind of been difficult. Also, I’ve kind of been spending a fair bit of time talking to Bunny Girl, lately.
We’ve talked about a lot of things the past few weeks. But the one things that has been revived from these conversations is my love of cooking. You see, she is Vietnamese and has been sharing recipes and whatnot with me. Her first recommendation was tofu with this tomato sauce. I had never tried to cook tofu, but I forgot to pat it dry before searing it and… ruined it. I managed to still use the tomato sauce by running to the store and just serving it on grilled chicken.
Afterwards, I had all these leftover ingredients that I never really used (I ended up with a bottle of fish sauce about the size of a wine bottle). So. Naturally, I decided to look into recipes to where I could put these ingredients to use. I had some pork chops and made this recipe (and the dipping fish sauce mentioned) using ingredients I had in my kitchen. I talked to Bunny Girl afterwards and expressed how much of an improvement it would be to the flavor if I had some starchy white rice to go with it and she agreed (although, I’m pretty sure she mentioned it first). So now, I have a rice cooker, ingredients that I’m still getting familiar with, and someone to help guide me through this culinary adventure that I am very excited for.
I still need to try her chicken curry recipe.
I feel like I’m rambling a bit now, so I think I’ll leave you all with this. More context will be added later.
Life is complex. Sometimes you feel miserable, sometimes you feel at peace. But the things that make you who you are. The things that give you a sense of identity. The things that give you that little bit of respite in this crazy, crazy world. Those are the things that make everything worth living.
To vaguely quote the end of “It’s Lonely At The Centre Of The Earth,” sometimes simply asking someone, in earnest, if they were okay, your impact on this world is already phenomenal.
Thank you for reading this mess of an introduction. Hopefully, I can learn to organize and collect my thoughts better as I keep this updated.
I hope you are doing well and take care.
You deserve it.
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