Wednesday, February 21
Feb. 21st, 2024 11:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Getting some solid sleep lately. The world just feels more possible when you're rested.
I tried talking to Sister E, and today's attempt wasn't much better than yesterday's. She's always in the middle of something, but I can't find a good time to call her when she ISN'T busy. I suspect that the moment she's done for the day she doesn't want calls, either.
I ended up talking with Trainwreck, which sometimes is nice, but most of the time I don't know why I bother. I try to stay connected with family, and she is often available to talk and can still hear me (other sister N really can't have good phone calls).
Anyhow, today was a trying phone call day.
She talked about how our brother and his wife of 20 years are maybe separated, though I'm not going to buy into that until I get the news from him. If it's true, then I am sorry for both of them that they're going through this, as I know they care/d very much for each other and built a nice home together. I'm hoping that maybe they can work things out, but if not, then I am sad for them.
Trainwreck though, is acting like this affects HER life, she's saying how upset SHE is that this is happening, which is just mystifying. THEN she says "Don't you two break up, I don't think I could take it".
Well, if we did break up, it would be something that probably wouldn't be spontaneous or frivolous, and we would probably have exhausted other options. If it came to that, then it would probably be a sad but necessary choice.
It would also have no reason to affect her life one bit.
It's also kind of insulting that she would say that to me. She often does treat me like my life MUST be as chaotic as hers has been; and that our marriage is always teetering on the brink of destruction because her relationships have always been like that. I get tired of her asking me if "I'm okay" or making it sound like I have to use sexual favors to get my husband to work on the house.
I'm sorry her life has been like this, but she fails to see that maybe things are different for other people.
Then I mention that we're getting a vehicle, and right away she's assuming that "there's likely something wrong with it" for us to be able to buy it, or after I say that it's pretty new and has been inspected and still has warranty, you can tell that she's confused about how we can buy it. Like, are we idiots spending money we don't have?
She can't wrap her head around us A) not buying a POS truck from "some guy" who says I probably can get "another guy" to write up a fake safety for it B) that we actually budgeted for this vehicle and can still pay our regular expenses.
Then she talks about some old vehicles she STILL has (apparently parked in different people's driveways "for now"). She thought they were still worth a lot of money, in spite of them sitting for five years or more out in the weather and never being driven anymore. Her son who is a mechanic, saw them and told her they could no longer pass an inspection, so they're more or less scrap. She says "she won't sell them for a couple hundred bucks for scrap because they're worth a lot more than that".
I said, so where are they, if you aren't going to sell them, "one is parked in a friend's driveway in town, and the others are still out at the trailer, and the tractor is parked at another friend's place". I said maybe those people don't want your derelict vehicles parked in their yards? She replies "they've only been there a few months....".
Then she says she still needs to go back to the trailer, you know, the one she SOLD three months ago. She left a few "very precious" things there. So precious that she couldn't pack them and take them with her in the couple of months she had to collect her important belongings.
She apparently also hasn't had ANY CUTLERY or useful kitchen utensils in her new place where she's lived for three months, because she was somehow unable to bring any kitchen things with her. Wouldn't THAT have been important to pack?
Anyhow, she's ridiculous. She's talking about going back to the trailer, that is SOMEONE ELSE'S house now, to "look around in case he didn't empty her bedroom", because he's gone back to work up North and there won't be anyone at the trailer. I told her that might be considered to be trespassing, and theft.
Moving on.
River and I had a decent lesson, not the painful mess we had last week.
Still, I feel like we're really in a rut right now. Every lesson turns into MORE work on the Liberty circles at a draw, even though at one point R said we were doing well with them. NOT WELL ENOUGH apparently.
I think it's going to have to come from me, to try to find new goals. Everything we've been doing for weeks has been going back to things we learned ages ago, without them being applied to new goals. To some degree we are refining our work, but it feels very stagnant.
River did well though, working very hard for me.
My Sweetie briefly met with the guys who are making a regular thing out of meeting for wings at a place in the city not far from where he works, but I think it's getting old already. He's like me in that he tends to try to eat healthy, and beer and chicken wings aren't usually something he eats. He also misses his rock climbing night if he stays long.
Tonight he stopped in with the guys long enough to say hi, and was able to still go climbing.
Then we came home and caught up on our day together.
Cambodia is right next to Vietnam, and is a "kingdom". It is mostly Buddhist (almost no religion in Vietnam from Socialism frowning on it), and is considered a "least developed nation" by the U.N.
There has been civilization in this region for a very long time. The Khmer Empire (Hindu-Buddhist "god king" kind of government) ruled here from 802 to 1431. That empire crumbled, and Wikipedia doesn't say much about the leadership during this time, but it probably fell into many smaller "kingdoms" or tribes again.
There is evidence suggesting that an ecological breakdown (failure of the extensive canal system for growing rice) and plague contributed heavily to the fall of the Khmer Empire.
The famous temple of Angkor Wat was built during the height of the Khmer Empire.
This is complicated, so I'm just pasting this section:
in 1863, it became a protectorate of France. After a period of Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Cambodia gained independence in 1953. The Vietnam War extended into the country in 1965 via the Ho Chi Minh and Sihanouk trails. A 1970 coup installed the US-aligned Khmer Republic, which was overthrown by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. The Khmer Rouge ruled the country and carried out the Cambodian genocide from 1975 until 1979, when they were ousted in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. The Vietnamese-occupied People's Republic of Kampuchea became the de facto government. Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords which formally ended the war with Vietnam, Cambodia was governed by a United Nations mission (1992–93). The UN withdrew after holding elections in which around 90% of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 coup d'état consolidated power under Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). While constitutionally a multi-party state,[16] CPP dominates the political system and dissolved its main opposition party in 2017, making Cambodia a de facto one-party state.[17]
So, it was affected in many of the same ways as Vietnam by being occupied by Japan, and part of the Vietnam War.
They now have a Monarch, as well as an elected Prime Minister.
The country has high mountains, as well as low-lying plains with river deltas or seasonal flooding. They experience a very wet monsoon season followed by a dry season annually.
Though there is of course wonderful biodiversity, it is under threat by logging (that is happening illegally even within protected areas) and hydroelectric energy production that is disrupting the movement of the Mekong river, which normally brings fertile soil to the delta for farmers.
Human rights: A US State Department report says "forces under Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party have committed frequent and large-scale abuses, including extrajudicial killings and torture, with impunity".[157] According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, an estimated 256,800 people are enslaved in modern-day Cambodia, or 1.65% of the population.[158]
There have been land seizures that displace thousands, as well as restricted media access, corruption, and vote fraud.
Though it's economy is still largely based on agricultural exports, textiles and tourism are growing, and they have undeveloped fossil fuel reserves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia
An interesting video about village life, which seems pretty nice, except it's kind of incredible that people still live this way. Probably no education, no participation in their government, no access to medical care or family planning, and no understanding of the rest of the world. In some ways beautiful and peaceful, but also very vulnerable to exploitation, and very ignorant.
https://youtu.be/lJBQALrMUGo?si=ehMEgEEDXXpmlq3h
Getting some solid sleep lately. The world just feels more possible when you're rested.
I tried talking to Sister E, and today's attempt wasn't much better than yesterday's. She's always in the middle of something, but I can't find a good time to call her when she ISN'T busy. I suspect that the moment she's done for the day she doesn't want calls, either.
I ended up talking with Trainwreck, which sometimes is nice, but most of the time I don't know why I bother. I try to stay connected with family, and she is often available to talk and can still hear me (other sister N really can't have good phone calls).
Anyhow, today was a trying phone call day.
She talked about how our brother and his wife of 20 years are maybe separated, though I'm not going to buy into that until I get the news from him. If it's true, then I am sorry for both of them that they're going through this, as I know they care/d very much for each other and built a nice home together. I'm hoping that maybe they can work things out, but if not, then I am sad for them.
Trainwreck though, is acting like this affects HER life, she's saying how upset SHE is that this is happening, which is just mystifying. THEN she says "Don't you two break up, I don't think I could take it".
Well, if we did break up, it would be something that probably wouldn't be spontaneous or frivolous, and we would probably have exhausted other options. If it came to that, then it would probably be a sad but necessary choice.
It would also have no reason to affect her life one bit.
It's also kind of insulting that she would say that to me. She often does treat me like my life MUST be as chaotic as hers has been; and that our marriage is always teetering on the brink of destruction because her relationships have always been like that. I get tired of her asking me if "I'm okay" or making it sound like I have to use sexual favors to get my husband to work on the house.
I'm sorry her life has been like this, but she fails to see that maybe things are different for other people.
Then I mention that we're getting a vehicle, and right away she's assuming that "there's likely something wrong with it" for us to be able to buy it, or after I say that it's pretty new and has been inspected and still has warranty, you can tell that she's confused about how we can buy it. Like, are we idiots spending money we don't have?
She can't wrap her head around us A) not buying a POS truck from "some guy" who says I probably can get "another guy" to write up a fake safety for it B) that we actually budgeted for this vehicle and can still pay our regular expenses.
Then she talks about some old vehicles she STILL has (apparently parked in different people's driveways "for now"). She thought they were still worth a lot of money, in spite of them sitting for five years or more out in the weather and never being driven anymore. Her son who is a mechanic, saw them and told her they could no longer pass an inspection, so they're more or less scrap. She says "she won't sell them for a couple hundred bucks for scrap because they're worth a lot more than that".
I said, so where are they, if you aren't going to sell them, "one is parked in a friend's driveway in town, and the others are still out at the trailer, and the tractor is parked at another friend's place". I said maybe those people don't want your derelict vehicles parked in their yards? She replies "they've only been there a few months....".
Then she says she still needs to go back to the trailer, you know, the one she SOLD three months ago. She left a few "very precious" things there. So precious that she couldn't pack them and take them with her in the couple of months she had to collect her important belongings.
She apparently also hasn't had ANY CUTLERY or useful kitchen utensils in her new place where she's lived for three months, because she was somehow unable to bring any kitchen things with her. Wouldn't THAT have been important to pack?
Anyhow, she's ridiculous. She's talking about going back to the trailer, that is SOMEONE ELSE'S house now, to "look around in case he didn't empty her bedroom", because he's gone back to work up North and there won't be anyone at the trailer. I told her that might be considered to be trespassing, and theft.
Moving on.
River and I had a decent lesson, not the painful mess we had last week.
Still, I feel like we're really in a rut right now. Every lesson turns into MORE work on the Liberty circles at a draw, even though at one point R said we were doing well with them. NOT WELL ENOUGH apparently.
I think it's going to have to come from me, to try to find new goals. Everything we've been doing for weeks has been going back to things we learned ages ago, without them being applied to new goals. To some degree we are refining our work, but it feels very stagnant.
River did well though, working very hard for me.
My Sweetie briefly met with the guys who are making a regular thing out of meeting for wings at a place in the city not far from where he works, but I think it's getting old already. He's like me in that he tends to try to eat healthy, and beer and chicken wings aren't usually something he eats. He also misses his rock climbing night if he stays long.
Tonight he stopped in with the guys long enough to say hi, and was able to still go climbing.
Then we came home and caught up on our day together.
Cambodia is right next to Vietnam, and is a "kingdom". It is mostly Buddhist (almost no religion in Vietnam from Socialism frowning on it), and is considered a "least developed nation" by the U.N.
There has been civilization in this region for a very long time. The Khmer Empire (Hindu-Buddhist "god king" kind of government) ruled here from 802 to 1431. That empire crumbled, and Wikipedia doesn't say much about the leadership during this time, but it probably fell into many smaller "kingdoms" or tribes again.
There is evidence suggesting that an ecological breakdown (failure of the extensive canal system for growing rice) and plague contributed heavily to the fall of the Khmer Empire.
The famous temple of Angkor Wat was built during the height of the Khmer Empire.
This is complicated, so I'm just pasting this section:
in 1863, it became a protectorate of France. After a period of Japanese occupation during the Second World War, Cambodia gained independence in 1953. The Vietnam War extended into the country in 1965 via the Ho Chi Minh and Sihanouk trails. A 1970 coup installed the US-aligned Khmer Republic, which was overthrown by the Khmer Rouge in 1975. The Khmer Rouge ruled the country and carried out the Cambodian genocide from 1975 until 1979, when they were ousted in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. The Vietnamese-occupied People's Republic of Kampuchea became the de facto government. Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords which formally ended the war with Vietnam, Cambodia was governed by a United Nations mission (1992–93). The UN withdrew after holding elections in which around 90% of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 coup d'état consolidated power under Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP). While constitutionally a multi-party state,[16] CPP dominates the political system and dissolved its main opposition party in 2017, making Cambodia a de facto one-party state.[17]
So, it was affected in many of the same ways as Vietnam by being occupied by Japan, and part of the Vietnam War.
They now have a Monarch, as well as an elected Prime Minister.
The country has high mountains, as well as low-lying plains with river deltas or seasonal flooding. They experience a very wet monsoon season followed by a dry season annually.
Though there is of course wonderful biodiversity, it is under threat by logging (that is happening illegally even within protected areas) and hydroelectric energy production that is disrupting the movement of the Mekong river, which normally brings fertile soil to the delta for farmers.
Human rights: A US State Department report says "forces under Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party have committed frequent and large-scale abuses, including extrajudicial killings and torture, with impunity".[157] According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, an estimated 256,800 people are enslaved in modern-day Cambodia, or 1.65% of the population.[158]
There have been land seizures that displace thousands, as well as restricted media access, corruption, and vote fraud.
Though it's economy is still largely based on agricultural exports, textiles and tourism are growing, and they have undeveloped fossil fuel reserves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia
An interesting video about village life, which seems pretty nice, except it's kind of incredible that people still live this way. Probably no education, no participation in their government, no access to medical care or family planning, and no understanding of the rest of the world. In some ways beautiful and peaceful, but also very vulnerable to exploitation, and very ignorant.
https://youtu.be/lJBQALrMUGo?si=ehMEgEEDXXpmlq3h
