Hardboiled

What has 4 letters. Sometimes 9 letters, but never has 5 letters. - A riddle I saw on someone's facebook post, which was also written on a signboard in front of a restaurant. Pretty clever marketing tool, to get people to think for a minute and attract eyeballs. Unfortunately sometimes provocative ones can get negative attention, like a restaurant's signboard here in Durham writing "Veganism is a big mi-steak." This sent off our vegan friend who cursed the restaurant and I'm pretty certain put a hex on the whole establishment, and we won't ever be going to that restaurant. Because of a signboard. Which is also why I take care when I post anything online anymore, including this blog, but especially on instagram and Facebook where anybody in the world can see it within seconds of posting. It's kind of an inhibition on free speech, but also attracts those who have strong opinions to broadcast their opinions, so that eventually only the strong opinions remain, and the moderate opinions stay in the background for fear of antagonism, and all that's left are neutral "I'm doing great!" posts, vacation posts, and pet photos.

MJ and I recently were unpacking in our new apartment and organizing our book collection, and I found books she owns very interesting, including "Hardboiled; Hard Luck" by Yoshimoto Banana. Banana is a great female writer whose works I read when I was just learning Japanese, so I have vivid memories of sitting in the library or at home reading one sentence of English and one sentence of Japanese to match the translations, all the while trying to follow the plot at the same time. Not an easy task if you're reading something mundane or boring. Luckily, Banana's (not her real name) writing really fits my tastes and usually has a very natural way of introducing her characters as well as delving into their mindsets and what they're thinking, as well as a bit of supernatural element (Hardboiled has ghosts and dreams), and also some flaw of the main character that they acknowledge. Great story-telling which makes me keep flipping the pages even when I'm getting tired of having to read the same page twice, in 2 different languages. It's one of the more memorable experiences of my language learning time, first in Japanese and now in Korean. (I once read Jurassic Park like that, which was quite a time trying to figure out all the dinosaur and DNA science names in Japanese).

Also, I like hardboiled eggs. MJ doesn't eat much meat nowadays which has rubbed off on me, but eggs are a nice replacement for protein and just for taste. Hardboiled egg and soy sauce (depending on the soy sauce) is one of my staple meals now. However, just like those vegan meals, they are not improving the smell of my farts any, and I feel like MJ and I have both worsened in that department since we met.