Went to my first ever live sporting event. Caught the finals of the Chennai Open this evening. Was fun watching tennis live for a change. Don't think I'd enjoy something like cricket or football with all the crowds and noise. Tennis is an anti-social friendly sport fortunately, so it was nice.

@vvganesu Will try this next time. Regular podcasts also usually work for me.

@mislexic I've heard others also recommend melatonin. Just a bit wary of sleep aids for some reason. But many seem to swear by this so should try it sometime maybe. I ended up sleeping through most of Friday and Saturday and am back to normalcy for now (I hope).

One small cup of tea at 2pm and I'm still struggling to fall asleep at 4am. Fuck my oversensitivity to caffeine. 😵‍💫

Anyway, I've pretty much given up all hope for a just world and surrendered myself to an obsessive Naruto rewatch. So back to the binge it is.

This is an especially infuriating day because the babri masjid demolition is my earliest memory of injustice in the world at large. Even as a little kid it made no sense to me to destroy something precious to someone to avenge what their forefathers supposedly did. One of the pivotal moments of my life. And one of the reasons I shunned religion so early in life. I've never forgotten the sheer sense of injustice I felt back then and to see that become a cause for this repulsive celebration, ugh.

A bit off target but still

Managed to largely keep away from the raging lunacy and evil of the day. Just went on twitter for a bit and even the second hand accounts there riled me up enough to wish for the earth to open up and swallow that blasphemous monstrosity. And right after making that wish, saw a tweet about an earthquake in Delhi. Freaky.

TIL that the Australian Ibis (aka bin chickens) have learned how to eat the invasive and poisonous cane toad. They do this by picking the toad up, shaking it around to get it to expell its poison and empty is poison sacs, then washing the poison off with water.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-23/ibis-find-way-to-eat-toxic-cane-toads/101683596
#til #todayilearned
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/192uqla/til_that_the_australian_ibis_aka_bin_chickens/

This is a thread with quotes from South Africa's application to the International Court of Justice to hold Israel charged with genocide of the Palestinian people.

#EndIsraelsGenocide

The full 84 page document can be found here:

https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192

It is worth reading in full.

@mislexic What makes you think these aren't self portraits? 😋 🐉 🐸

The face should've been a little bigger maybe.

No back to back excellence but this still turned out looking mostly nice.

@mislexic Thanks! 😁

I did something cool just now. Took inspiration from a bsky mutual who's sketching every day, picked an instruction video, followed along, and BAM!

It is nice to be back in my own place again and have my space after a week in dorm rooms and shared bathrooms. But I also miss the daily adventures - figuring out where I'm going and how, what I'm eating and where, meeting random fellow travellers and the one off encounters with kind locals. My travels are always of the exhausting rather than relaxing variety but I still somehow always feel better after.

I mainly chose Malaysia because I found cheap flights and they'd waived visa for Indians but I was also glad to visit a country that actually took an official pro Palestine stand. Was heartening to see video ads in support of Gaza at metro stations in KL and these posters all over the streeets of Penang.

Took off to Malaysia for New Year's after a miserable, mopey couple of months. Very last minute and wasn't enthused up until the day I was to leave. Even 2 days in, I wasn't really feeling it. Body was letting me down big time and I was almost wishing I was back home and in bed. But things got better from the 1st after a visit to KL bird park and then shifting base to Penang. Extremely beat but also feeling somewhat upbeat now. Hope it lasts. Happy new year all!

Still good in a crisis. Especially when in service of others. Something to feel good about, I guess, in the middle of all the madness.

Yanis Varoufakis: "Those who are trying to extract from people like me a condemnation of Hamas will never get it. And they won't for a very simple reason: Apartheid is always going to procure violence. The criminals here are not Hamas. It is the West." #gaza

https://twitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1724272686325452908