California here we come

I've been in Berkeley, CA for a little over two days now, and I'm only now finding the time to blog.  Granted, I've found the time to write one journal entry, do some push-ups, and play some cheap addictive computer games, but very little.  I also skipped my planned blogging, e-mailing, journaling and story-writing this evening in favor of dinner with my fellow mentees.  Given my extraordinary budget constraints--the sort that will almost certainly leave me broke (at best) by the end of the summer--I opted for water only and waited, like a circling jackal, until at last two women found themselves unable to finish the gigantic salad they were sharing, at which point I swooped in and had myself a free supper.

I'm here to work on Pace e Bene's Nonviolent Stories project, about which I will blog at a later date--perhaps once I start work the week after next.

Tonight my Indian housemate did some high-end astrology for me (in India, astrology does not mean reading your weekly horoscope or figuring out which signs to avoid, but very complex readings that involve Jupiter looking towards Venus in the fifth house with his third eye and whatnot) and told me some potentially mildly profound things.  I do not place much faith in these things, though I'm open to being demonstrated wrong (all I'd been told previously was that Capricorns love spreadsheets, are bad news for Libras, and don't believe in astrology).  Ketan asked if I got angrily easily (yes), if my last two years were tumultuous (maybe), if I completed something major in 2008 (yes) and if I had a lot of luck (yes).  I tried to evaluate everything for those traps in which everybody thinks things describe them, and while some of the things he said were vague enough to qualify, others were familiar enough to raise an eyebrow.  He said women fall for me easily (hehe) and the next 17 years of my life would be good.  He also suggested I should wear yellow sapphire to improve Jupiter, swim in natural water to balance my mood (by fighting off the sun), that I need many blessings, and he warned that if I get married before I'm 28, especially to someone with a weak Mars, my partner will die.  He was very adamant about this and cited a time his father gave someone the same warning.  She disregarded it and five days after the wedding her husband was hit by a bus and killed.

As long as I'm having readings done, I've also met someone who is audiovoyant--she hears voices that tell her things that turn out to be true, and does readings for people by listening to what the voices tell her about them.  I'll have to get one of those done.

I have always very much dismissed this realm of spirituality, but both of these people seem quite rational and have found startling truth in their skills--Ketan did a reading that told him he would be abroad soon, perhaps in the United States, before he ever found out about Metta Mentors, and now he is abroad for the first time in his life... in the United States.

Actually, I think I dismiss this sphere because I don't want it to be valid.  If astrology and audiovoyancy are able to predict the future, that means I am not able to control the future, and I am not satisfied with that.

Even though, scientifically, I'm still an epiphenominalist.

Many guides to making a living writing suggest blogging to build examples of writing.  I think this post just screwed me out of a job, now that I'm crazy.

I wish fiction writers made money.

As soon as I have time I'm re-launching The Adventures of Nidgin Idberry of Frockleton.

I'm done.