Kit Peridot

January 17, 2025

I went to the house of my grandfather's widow today to celebrate my uncle's birthday. When I returned to my home, an old friend called me to catch up and we spent three hours talking on the phone.

January 16, 2025

I felt restless today. In the night I was plagued by unsettling dreams where I could not recognise my actions as being my own.

January 15, 2026

Yesterday was my beloved girlfriend's birthday, and also my uncle's. I was feeling unusually tired yesterday which is why I did not write in this journal. Today something strange happened. I went to a Chinese restaurant with a friend of mine from college. They had an affordable meal consisting of white rice, General Tao chicken, soup, and tea for only fourteen dollars. This is not what was strange, even if the affordability was rather exceptional. What was strange is that I thought I recognised a woman at the restaurant. As I was about to leave, she said to me: "Aren't you going to say hello?" At first I thought she was merely an exceptionally social person so I greeted her, and she said she recognised me and that she thought she saw me at the library. On a hunch, I asked if it was M Library, and she said yes. I had briefly met this woman in 2018 at M Library and we somehow both managed to recognise each other nearly a decade later. We had a very pleasant chat, reminiscing over local restaurants near M Library that had since closed. My friend, of course, stood there bemused. She only interacted with the woman on occasion, as she did not have the same memories which the woman and I shared. She spoke kindly to both of us, however. It was a very pleasant interaction.

January 13, 2026

I got two of my books and I need to order a third. The book store is downtown, so I took advantage of my long break between lectures to wander around the old part of the city and marinate in my reverie. I tried Kam today, which is like Spam but with chicken. I was looking for Spam, as I had not tried it and was intrigued about it, but I could not find any. I also purchased a pack of 5 Gum, whose packaging bears a notable resemblance to a pack of cigarettes. Perhaps this could be a breakthrough in trying to cease that nasty habit for good.

January 12, 2026

The semester began today, and the first two lectures were nothing out of the ordinary. I finally finished the audiobook of Dostoevsky's Village of Stepanchikovo I had been listening to. Tomorrow I purchase my books.

January 11, 2026

The reason for my absence these past few days as it pertains to my journal entries is because I was spending time with my beloved. She was in town for the week and we had a very splendid and rather uneventful time. The two are not mutually exclusive. The winter semester begins tomorrow and I do not yet have all my books. I should be alright for tomorrow, but on Tuesday I will have to stop by the book store during the break. The book store's opening hours are rather absurd. 10 o'clock in the morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon on weekdays ! It is absurd ! I have never had a good experience with college book stores. In the first two colleges I attended, the book stores were awfully Kafkaesque. Book an appointment, print out the receipt ... it was absolutely dreadful ! The book store at the second college I attended was so bad that it went bankrupt ! The college is still without a book store, as far as I am aware. I don't know how they manage.

P.S. I got my first guestbook message today ! Yay !! Thank you Tanuki !

January 4, 2026

I began listening to an audiobook of Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You. It presents some compelling arguments but also has worrying implications. The Doctrine of Non-Resistance to Force appears noble but suicidal. How can one submit to a Saviour who implores that one throw their self-preservation to the wind, particularly when evil appears to prevail and one is continually beaten and robbed?
At first, I was concerned by the following implication: If one is to do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 6:31), and one should wish to submit to evil, should one not wish that evil should in turn submit to him? Then I went and read over Matthew 5:39 from the Sermon on the Mount, a pillar of the Doctrine of Non-Resistance to Force. Note that Jesus says "Resist not evil" rather than "Submit to evil." Since a Christian must do no evil, no Christian should want his fellow man to submit to his evil for that evil should not be done. I will continue to listen to the audiobook, as I find much of Tolstoy's anarchist analysis of Christianity to be quite compelling, but I do have some concerns as well which I may elaborate on later, but for now I am growing weary and I should very much like to rest.

January 3, 2026

Two of my friends came by today and we played music together and were merry. My friend who is an accordion player taught me how to make a classic Slavic Christmas dish called Olivier. We went out to get bologna, potatoes, pickles, and mayonnaise. I already had hard boiled eggs and peas at my home. We boiled the potatoes and diced the rest of the ingredients and threw it all together in a delectable hodge podge of the most exquisite nature. We thought we'd hardly have enough for three people, but we ended up making much more than we needed. Even then, I still had no leftovers afterwards because we were all such fans of the Olivier that we ate it all in one night. Everyone helped themselves to seconds.

January 2, 2026

Regrettably, I had to part from my beloved today. Before my bus was scheduled to depart, I went shopping with her and her roommate. They needed yarn for a rug they are going to crochet. I bought a notebook for my mother with a cover that was encased in yarn with little flower ornaments adorning the front cover and a similarly themed bookmark dangling from the bottom. To my delight, she was rather pleased with it.
The bus that took me back to my hometown was a noticeable downgrade from its predecessor. Gone were the collapsable tables in front of the seats and the digital clock in the front of the bus. I was a bit miffed, but it was nothing to make a fuss about. Still not worth a $90 round trip in my view. Conveniently for me, the bus stopped in the town where my friend lives, just across the river from me. I was thereby spared the extra burden of going to my hometown only to go back the other way to where my friend lives.
I was able to make it to the potluck earlier than I had anticipated, but still a great deal later than the other guests. Despite my tardiness, I was able to insert myself into the conversation with relative ease. My quips were appreciated. I made it home quite late in the evening and I am very much looking forward to retiring to my bed.

January 1, 2026

I spent the dawning of the new year away from home, at the residence of my beloved. After purchasing a rather overpriced ticket ($90CAD for a round trip), I boarded the bus on the 30th of December and spent the two and a half hour voyage in relative comfort, with a collapsable table in front of my seat which I made use of to put down the can of Redbull, the bag of beef jerky, and the Three Musketeers bar I had bought for the journey. Most notable among these is that last item, which I had been unable to find in any store for just about half a decade. They are sold at the convenience store in the bus terminal in my hometown; I will make a note of this. I am departing tomorrow at five o'clock in the afternoon. I will return briefly to my hometown to collect my bearings and then I am crossing the river once again to visit a friend who is hosting a potluck. I will be late, but hopefully the potluck will extend well into the evening. My only concern is finding a ride home afterward.