Memoires of a Sacha

Below I've compiled a list of random thoughts that I've had and things that I've seen and heard over the last three months or so.

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I saw a chicken cross the road. I thought, hmm.

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I talked to a lovely British girl who, upon learning I speak French, said, "bonjour! Je m'appelles Anna. J'ai treize ans." Confused, I responded only with that blank look. She proceeded, "I learned when I was 13."

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I was hiking with a couple non native English speakers. At one point, the conversation went a little something like this:

"Whoa, did you see that snake?!"
"No"
"Haha. How did you miss it? It was right there!"
"Are you telling me that if it were a snake, it would have...never mind"

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If all the lights in the world went out for two months, would a noticeable percentage of the gecko population die of starvation?

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I saw another chicken cross the road. Nothing was chasing it. I thought, how many people had to think that was funny for me to think that this is?

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"My dad says condoms don't work."

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"I just used my last bit of money to buy this wallet."

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"You learn something new every day."
"Yeah, but not as much as you forget."

Lost in Translation

The rooms are a bit boxy.

A thriving elementary school? Then what?

Can I still order a fried peanut and a French fried if I don't get a drink?

I'll take two clean ears please.

If this doesn't sell you, nothing will.

I don't see the correlation between any of those words and that logo. 

Small Family

What is a train toilet really anyway? I say they got it right.

Yes. Make sure you look the right way.

"Grilled Pork" maybe?

We mean it!

Garbage/Recycling Bin/Glory Hole

That's one way to put it.

Easily my favorite sign to date. I'd ruv shum nooldo prease!

For the Sake of Argument

Let's have a conversation. It should be friendly. I explain my point of view. You explain yours. I understand where you are coming from, but I openly disagree. My disagreement tickles some existing neglected negative emotion inside you. You take my opinion as a personal attack. This reaction tells me that in this moment, at least, you are stubborn, ignorant, insecure, defensive, unaware, and overly proud. In a word, vulnerable. So long as I maintain composure anyway. You immediately counterattack me with an argument that is completely unrelated to the original topic of conversation. This only confirms the accuracy of my original assessment. However irrational you may seem, I assume that you're at least loosely following some sequential train of thought. Therefore the content of your argument points to exactly what it is you are so defensive about. Within minutes, our conversation has flown so far off course that we forget what we were talking about in the first place. We are both frustrated now, whether or not we choose to show it. All this, for what? Because we have differing opinions? Not likely. 

Some time in the last three months I wrote this down out of frustration. I felt this way, like I have many times before, towards several different people. Since this keeps happening, however infrequently, I can't help but think I'm at fault to some degree. Reading it now, I can pick out some points that I might criticize as a friend, to my self that day. It's interesting how we struggle with superiority sometimes in such mundane activities and conversation. I often feel like I have something of value to share with people. Unfortunately, when I do, I forget that I don't like it when I notice other people feeling that way. It's one thing to be a credible source. It's quite another to act like you should be. Even if you are. So much of what people communicate lies in how they communicate. Sometimes when I go back and read over my blog entries, I think, "hmmm, this probably annoyed somebody. What made me an authority on the matter?" So I'm a hypocrite. Or is that statement a paradox? 

In the words of Peter Griffin, "Everything I've ever said has been a lie. Except that. And that. And that. And that. And that. And that. And that..."