31st of August to the 11th of September

I sit here, drinking a nice Rose and enjoying life. At this point in time, I am typing on a mechanical keyboard that I built myself and modded. I even modded the flat mechanical keyboard I bought my wife. I am officially a mechanical keyboard fan, one could say enthusiast. I know that because I got annoyed with the see-through keycaps of the keyboard I am typing on, and now it sounds and looks better with a morse code keycap set from Keychron. Good times. If you want to start with this hobby, I can highly recommend the Keychron keyboards. They are well-built, affordable and to me, they look great, I also find they have the most beautiful keycaps. Let me stop with this unpaid advertisement and let us jump into the stories that I write from prompts from a book.

31st of August: “I remember…”

… the smell of the upcoming thunder. Back then, extreme weather was extreme rare. I was 11, maybe 12. Almost every weekend I spent at my Grandmas. I had friends there. Friends that I met up with after I finished the Saturday morning cartoons. Friends that I played with in the woods, where we built little villages for our Smurf figurines, and we spent whole weekends in the local swimming pool, that was located just down the hill from our little playground, the little alcove of trees that we made into our playground that is. That day was sunny. Like a lot of summer days. But us kids, we knew the smell of oncoming thunder. We went home to seek shelter indoors, and then the rain started. Relentless. It got dark so fast and then the lightning cam down and as fast as the storm came as fast it left. The smell of upcoming thunder was replaced with the smell of rebirth. The smell that tells you that mushrooms are growing. As we speak and smell this. My Grandma knew that Sunday morning we have to head out to pick mushrooms. I remember good times.

1st of September: “Respond to the quote from Junot Díaz any way you want”

In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book. - Junot Díaz

I actually do have friends and acquaintances that have written and published books. I however seemed to not have become the person yet to write a book. It definitely as an idea and something in the back of my head to write a book at some point. I don’t know about what yet. So many things to think about and to consider. I definitely will, but I just keep doing what I am doing. Blogging, writing regularly and gathering my thoughts. That also means that my pile of writing and content just grows without having coherent themes throughout. That is how it is. Maybe I should write about Shanghai. Life in the hood. There or in the ore mountains. Maybe I write a book for kids and my wife draws. Maybe I have some sort of AI go through my content and help me organise. Who knows. I am not the person that I need to be to write a book, yet.

2nd of September: “Are you a sports fan?”

The short answer is: no. I am not a sports fan. I watch the occasional handball game and maybe just maybe a UFC fight or something or a highlight reel. Likewise, I also used to watch the Superbowl in Shanghai to have an excuse to drink in the morning and eat burgers. I think ages ago I wrote a blogpost about not being able to fit into the collective think that is needed to be a fan of any team sport team. If a friend or someone I know or multiple compete in some sport, then I will be engaged. But the “we won” after a game of your national team escapes me completely. I like sports and find it great when people come together, and I do see the appeal. Being a fan of sports is not for me. All that being said, if events take on a more narrative structure, like Takeshi’s castle or Physical 100 where I can feel and identify with one person or more, then it becomes interesting. I love reading about great athletes and their lives, but that is not tied to the sport or the fandom.

3rd of September: “The title and subtitle of my autobiography after living great until 100”

A life according to my terms. - Laughs, Books, Metal, People and China.

The story of someone from a little town at the Czech border that is all over the place.

4th of September: “When was the last time you held a baby and how did it make you feel?”

I am usually not too touched holding a baby. I am rather afraid to drop the baby or hurt it somehow. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable process and there are weird things going on when we do so. We get flooded with hormones, and they really do all sorts of magic. Google that. My own child I often held, and it was and is still a great feeling. Looking at a mini you. Someone that will become a completely own person and someone you love unconditionally. More so than holding her as a baby, I enjoy every hug and every kiss and cuddle session. As soon as the communication between baby and person that held it grows out of the hormone and magic zone, it becomes way more rewarding.

5th of September: “What do you think of the idea of soulmates”

I want to write bullshit. But maybe that is a bit too shallow. There certainly are attractions out there that seem destined. People that seemingly are perfect soulmates often are the opposite. Having mates of all sort requires work. Requires steps you have to take to make anything happen. I am not religious and not a very spiritual person. Soulmates are luck and great coincidences and/or a lot of hard work to be at a stage that we would call soulmates. One can strive for the idea of soulmates, but I think we all have the ability to make our relationships into one that mirrors soulmates. Don’t wait for it or for someone to make that magically happen. Do your thing and there will be a person out there that wants to be with the you, you really are.

6th of September: “Examining transference”

A light. Moths dancing around. The shadows on the wall intimidating. Moving fast, moving slow. The light is unfazed, the walls are victims of the shadow play. Even when the wind is not blowing, the dance continues. Sometimes a shadow grows so large that it seems to drown out the light. This is when a moth quickly turns into a flaming martyr. A warning to the other dancers. But they can’t keep from dancing. Totally enamoured by whatever the light is offering them. Seeing brothers and sisters perish over time seems to not stop them, nah, it attracts more of them that are quickly invited to dance. The dance doesn’t stop until someone turns off the light, and it is not one of the moths.

7th of September: “There is something strange on top of the roof. What is it?”

It’s probably the murder of crows that are up to their usually mischievous doings, or the cats that finally found their way up there, but I am sure it is that fat kid again. Karl? Carlos? Karlson? The guy from the roof. That weird kid is up there again. I can tell. It is beyond me how the dude can fly. He just has that tiny propeller on his round hat. The hat is even too small. All the physics don’t work. How does that little thing lift him up and carry his rotound body through the neighbourhood? A dangerous fellow he is. He makes the kids believe in being able to fly or climb on rooftops. This has to stop. Maybe the neighbours shouldn’t leave their sweets out. I don’t know. The stomping coming from the roof annoys me, and I hope his little propeller hat carries him far, far away.

8th of September: “Which event past, present or future would you physically attend?”

This is such a hard question. I certainly don’t have an innate desire to attend any event that I have or will not be part of. Certainly, I would have loved to be when the wall came down in Berlin. Seeing all these people. Hearing David Hasselhoff! Families reunited. Pure, raw emotions. A peaceful reunification. Yes, I would have loved to have been there. Other than that, maybe a huge feast in the late Middle Ages somewhere. I would also have loved to been to a party in the golden 20s in Germany or 10 years later or so in Shanghai. But not thinking of an event, more so a place, I would have loved to have had a tour through the Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong back in the day. Honestly. 90s to 2000s I would have loved to live in Hong Kong. It seemed back then that nothing could stop this fantastic city on the rise. Fantastic film industry. Great food, water, hiking, Jackie Chan - I wish I would have been there around that time.

9th of September: “Unique flora as an essential piece in a short”

They call me lime tree, Linde, Tilia, 椴樹 or basswood. I don’t want a name. I just want to be. When not disturbed, I stand for multiple thousands of years. In warm months, I welcome honey bees that carry my pollen. In the winter, human children slide down the hills beneath my roots. Once a prince died in my shadow. A sword rammed into one of my roots. I almost forgot them. There are still the names of two humans and a heart etched into my bark, and I already forgot their faces. They have never been back together. I couldn’t care less. I am 879 years old. The last 2 summers have been too dry. I communicate with other tree friends through my roots, and befriended mycelia. Some of them don’t answer any more, and I knew them from my early years. We don’t call each other names. We just listen and check in once in a while. Many a tree stopped responding, and I saw them being chopped down. But recently they still stand, in my sight, just not responding. Our conversations went dry. I blame the ones that chopped us down to make room for stone temples and flat black ground that transports smoking metal. The humans seem to enjoy that much more than the company of us. I almost forgot that prince, but now I miss these times.

10th of September: “To know or not to know about a one-night stand”

A real one-off. What would you do? They never speak or communicate ever again. Would you want to know? I think I want to know. There are a few wild things that would fly either way. So let’s say Henry Cavill knocks on the door, he would be invited by both of us, I think, also wouldn’t count as it would not be a one night stand and I hope we keep in contact. My wife has 1 or 2 Korean actors that she would have a one night stand with and to be honest, I would want to know and nto think less of her or them. We are but people. On a more serious note, I think I want to know. The fact that this was and is a one-off and there is no further contact is okay in my book. It wouldn’t make me feel inferior. Might even be hot to a degree. I mean this also depends highly on what kind of relationship you have. Ours is rock-solid, so I wouldn’t be bothered nor surprised, as it kind of is an understanding that we would tell each other. Likewise I also told my back then girlfirend now wife when I went to a bachelors party in Thailand and that I would behave, but certainly will see and touch boobs and may even see genitals of live people. We are all humans and we have the ability to communicate. I would like to know and here, but in some relationships I can totally see how hiding it and never talk about that makes more sense.

11th of September: “In memoriam of something”

Goodbye Metal-Björn. You have been a good guy, but you have been very near-sighted in terms of your music tastes. You debated in German metal forums about the improtance of taking Slipknot seriously as metal band. They are still around and highly regarded. But you also tried to be special with listening to extreme music. You even disliked In Flames when you first listened to one of their albums. Heathen! You debeted senselessly and wasted time with people that listened to black metal that had to sound like it was recorded in a dimly lit room with a tape recorder. You judged people with different music tastes. Goodbye. You loved Justin Bieber all along. You listened to certain rap songs and enjoyed them. You were a hypocrit. You left a long time ago. Time shows that music is important to you, but it certainly is not you whole character. Good times where had and a lot of senseless time was wasted. It is still part of your life but life is more wholesome with no restrictions.