shaping perception

/ Pistachios / Leave a comment

One morning when I got out of bed and went to brush my teeth, a random memory resurfaced from the depths of my brain. As I stood in front of the mirror, I remembered a random quiz I took when I was younger – maybe in early adolescence or at some point in my teenage years.

It wasn’t anything academic – far from it, in fact. It was one of those personality quizzes that seemed so popular back in those days (perhaps because no one really knew who they were and hence grasped at anything that might tell them, or that might affirm what they hoped to be true)  Continue reading →

obligatory Instagram post

/ Pistachios / 6 Comments

I only joined Instagram in late April this year. I’d been avoiding it for so long because I was convinced it’d only be another distraction, another implement in the procrastinator’s toolbox. But I joined this year so that I could more easily “follow” my nephew.

The only other people I followed initially were friends of mine who exclusively used Instagram, and did not have Facebook accounts; friends who were on holidays at the time; and friends who happened to find me, so I followed them back.  Continue reading →

learning English by learning Persian

/ Pistachios / 2 Comments

At the end of July, when I was waiting at Cairns Airport for my flight back home, I had the idea to translate my “rationalising my commute” poem thing into Persian. It was going to be my next project/assignment to help prod me along with my studies.

This idea came to me because I was re-reading it for some reason (I occasionally go back and re-read things I wrote months or years ago), and it occurred to me that I probably knew a lot of the words in Persian. I jotted down some of these, which wasn’t really that much, but it was enough to give me the feeling that this was an achievable goal.  Continue reading →

the invisible 280

/ Pistachios / 4 Comments

The other night, this article popped up on my FB feed, shared by someone I follow. Intrigued, I read it, and thought it was worth sharing.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/a22615380/mental-health-suicide-survivors/

Basically, it says that for every person who dies by suicide, there are about 280 people who contemplate or attempt it but do not go through with it. Abigail Jones, the article’s author, calls these the “invisible 280” because their stories are rarely talked about.

Since the article is quite long, I won’t elaborate too much on it. I just want to mention one thing: One of the people in the article “abruptly stopped taking her medication” (antidepressants) because she thought she had been “cured”. It’s kind of implied but, unless I missed it, nowhere in the article then says it is not ok to abruptly stop antidepressants if you’ve been taking them for a long time (most of them need gradual tapering, and supervision/monitoring by a healthcare professional).

Ok, one more thing: This article made me think of Anna Karenina, and that fateful day at the train station… It still fills me with sadness. Makes me wonder how many people change their mind at the last second, when it’s already too late…

three percent

/ Pistachios / 8 Comments

Back in April, on a day like any other except it really wasn’t, I had an interesting encounter. I’ve been meaning to write this post since then, so I figure this week’s as good as any.

I had decided to drive to work that day because I’d planned on visiting a couple of friends that night to collect some cheesecake. However, as luck would have it, there was so much traffic on my drive home. We moved along at a ridiculously slow pace.

By the time I got near home and filled up petrol, it was getting kind of late, so I decided on a whim that I should have dinner before going to visit my friends (my original plan had been to collect the cake and then go have dinner). And that’s how I ended up at Taco Bell.  Continue reading →