So today, I went outside.
I had to deliver some packages to the post office. I had bought and resold two items from a local store on eBay - bought a TI-83 for $10, sold for $40, bought a toploader NES for $50, resold little over $100 to a Canadian...who turned out to be Bassaren, the GM of <Gwen Stefani>, the guild I raided with during T10. It was Bassaren who had sold me head as a means of getting me to sign on. He had since quit WoW, and going through his purchase history he had apparently started a collection of old NES games.
I hadn't seen the guy at the USPS desk today before. He seemed a bit aloof and hasty with me, so I decided to be friendly. "I haven't seen you here before." "I've been working for the post office since 1996, but I just transferred here three days ago." "Oh? Where from?" "The Harvard Business School desk." "Oh, you meet a lot of obnoxious pedants there." "Eh, it has its ups and downs." He seemed friendlier. Business completed, he said, "Have a good day, my friend."
People say I have no social skills and no ability to empathize with others.
The bill was $21 exactly. I paid with cash and left.
I headed north down the street. Across the street was a Chinese restaurant I wanted to eat lunch at. Coming towards me was a homeless person with a cart. It would be faster to jaywalk, but I would not want it to appear I was disdaining this person, so I instead decided to go the long way around. I have poor eyesight, and as I got closer to the cart I saw it was loaded very high with meticulously packaged bottles and cans, pushed by an old Chinese woman who was dressed in sitting clothes that it looked like she had been wearing for the last ten years. I made a gesture with my hand for her to stop, and handed her a five-dollar bill. She gave me a really, really surprised look, and said, "No, no it's alright..." "Are you sure?" "Yes!"
She seemed to have this tremendous optimism and happiness about her life, as if she was never happier to be doing anything but what she was doing. And it seemed truly surprising to her that someone would volunteer to help a homeless person that helps themselves rather than abjectly begs. She appeared to be of peasant birth - I guess pushing a cart full of cans in America is paradise compared to carrying buckets of water and shit around in China. In fact, if you think about it, it's exactly the same thing, except the cans weigh less and there's less physical abuse.
I arrived at the Chinese restaurant. Two very homely Chinese girls were at the desk. I ordered a substantial amount of food. "You're going to eat all that?" "Yes." I didn't say, but I hadn't eaten in days. They both kept staring at me and sighing hard. Non-Americanized Asian women tend to find me very attractive because of my ethnic features and bearing. I sat and read my book
People's China, about the rise of Mao. It's very interesting. The bill, again, was exactly $21.
OoooOooo... They did not provide chopsticks so I asked for some; they seemed surprised by this.
I finished the meal and went down the street to this second-hand store. Although the secondhand store is less than a kilometer from Boston University and directly adjacent to a student area, it gets very few student patrons, being as it is run-down and on the middle of a block; the patrons are mostly poor blacks, hispanics, immigrants, and other socially marginal persons. As such, it is a treasure trove for me.
Today had many interesting finds. Apparently, some angry lesbian bitch died, or simply decided she had manged to spew her hate to enough people that she didn't need her dogmatic materials from the 60s anymore, and
donated her book collection, which I bought up. I had been meaning for some time to procure a collection of feminist literature, intending to read them to understand the movement better and
use their own hate speech against them.
Someone else died too - some educated European Jewess, who left behind her collection of books and artifacts from globe-trotting. Amongst these artifacts were a
pair of earrings. These earrings are done in an early Israel style (c. 1930-1960 AD), using green copper-based paint and bronze setting. Such items have become rare and collectible; back in California I had acquired a collection of menorahs done in this style from San Francisco; I assume they are now sitting in Sacramento on the menorah shelf in my parents' home. I bought the earrings for $3; I will probably be able to sell them to some Zionist, or perhaps simply keep them for myself to use to seduce a Jewish girl or something.
I also bought some of her old books about
class and European history. Contrary to what many people believe, you can in fact judge a book by its cover. Note that the cover of the history book features an abstract picture of Hitler next to Einstein, Churchill and Chamberlain. The juxtaposition is significant: the book treats Hitler not as the personification of supreme evil, like some sort of comic book villain, but as just another character in history (albeit a very evil one). What interested me in the book
is its apparent focus on the nuts and bolts of European history and policy and the efforts of figures that have fallen into obscurity. That sort of detailed, useful information is very wanting in contemporary history books. I want to better understand how the Nazis, Communists and feminists came to power and implement their ideas.
I bought some of her other artifacts as well.
This coaster may not look like anything special, but it is historically important. As you can see, it is crudely manufactured. As with the early Israeli earrings, odds and ends like this one
were produced by post-war Japan in response to the need to raise capital without industrial base. When Japan managed to recover from the war, and Israel managed to establish an advanced economy, they stopped making such pieces of artisanship, which are no longer obtainable and sought after by collectors. Presumably both these items were obtained by the same dead Jewish woman.
She also obtained something else - shortly before she died, she obtained this
very nice wall tile of Faenuil Hall Marketplace here in Boston. I know she bought it recently because it has a web address on the back, and I know it was her who bought it because the content and style is contiguous with the rest of her possessions. This, too, I bought for $2. I will put it up on my wall next to some other artisan wall tiles I own.
I like buying one-of-a-kind objects taken from dead people because, to me, mass-produced goods are trite, common and pointless, and taking objects from the dead is a way of establishing continuity in one's life - giving a sense of purpose and existence bigger than the self and the here-and-now. Having a sense of continuity is very important to me.
Oh, and I also bought
this happy fellow for $1. Even has the original tag attached. I'll check eBay to see if he can be resold profitably. If not, I'll just put him away until he appreciates. Eventually someone will want him as a collectible.
(I just checked eBay. There are a bunch up. They're not selling. Perhaps in 50 years people will change their minds.)
So having bought all that for $15 - less than the cost of a decent meal, or a date, or a month of WoW, or a DLC, or a new book or movie - I headed home. I noticed a poster on a lampost - someone offering to teach modern Hebrew. I despise the Zionists but I have nothing to do and am always interested in acquiring new skills. I took one of the tags on the poster with me. I will call the person tomorrow. Stay tuned!
