Category: Musicpervs Week

Gpa 4.0

Published June 22, 2023 By 8ijay.shrestha

Grades don’t measure tenacity, courage, leadership, guts or whatever you want to call it. Teachers or any other persons in a position of authority should never tell anybody they will not succeed because they did not get all A’s in school.
Thomas J. Stanley

^{Patrick Watson – The Great Escape}

Yes, that’s straight A for my Masters in Computer Science Program.

This Thursday, I wanted to write about Gpa 4.0. Not so much about the grades though.

Not at all to brag about how great I am.

For the record — I am not!

Looking back.

To me Gpa 4.0 is a story,

of so many sleepless nights,

of so many sacrifices,

of so many nerve-alarming exam preparation days,

of so many ‘on-repeat’ Joker track I’d listen to compose myself before every exams,

of so many nerve-wrecking exam hours,

of so many results published days too.

To me Gpa 4.0 is a story,

of so many spell-binding Professors,

of so many kind colleagues who I have learned from; and more importantly of so my pals who supported me and helped me in the heartfelt and most selfless way possible,

To me Gpa 4.0 is a story of

of so many little victories,

of crazy losses too,

of my fears,

of all those relieved days,

of tears too (hmm.. did i cry at any point? .. Sure, I did)

Had I not sealed my Masters program with Gpa 4.0, would the narrative of my story have changed?

No.

Does the grade tell anything about me?

No.

Gpa 4.0 is not about the grade for real.

Gpa 4.0 is all about this beautiful, bitter-sweet experiences I was fortunate to have lived.

Namaste.

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Good egg, Bad egg

Published May 18, 2023 By 8ijay.shrestha

We all want to be ‘The Hero of our own story’.
~author

^{Patrick Watson – Je te laisserai des mots (Cover by Marianne BL}

Whenever possible, ask yourself –

Am I a good egg or the bad one?

Let the question guide you.

Let the question be your north.

Let the question help you earthen.

Let the question inspire you to soar.

Let the question, question your true utility in someone elses’ life other than yourself.

Let the question un-naked, un-burden, un-stress you.

Am I a good egg?

Namaste.

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I’ve Smoked. Alcohol was a bliss.

Published March 9, 2023 By 8ijay.shrestha

At the end of the day, if i can say i had fun, it was a good day.
Simone Biles

^{Tommy Ashby – Closer}

I’ve smoked twice in life.

Once, while I was barely hitting my puberty. I was perhaps 10 years old and wanted to try the thing. I have to confront I already knew it was a bad thing to get into but we do crazy things all the time.

That time, I remember taking a long, unbeknownst puff, swallowing shit tons of smoke into my lungs, which led me to vomit my soul out, and then I was done. I could barely breathe!

The second time I smoked was perhaps two years ago (though I’m not sure about the timeline).It was when I went to Pokhara with few of my friends for a 5 days trip. And, since I had always wanted to experience first-hand how it feels to be high on cannabis (marijuana), I didn’t know until that time that you had to smoke that thing out ‘again‘ to be able to fly.

I vividly remember, I really really didn’t like the feel of keeping that cigarette butt between my fingers while I was being taught the skill of smoking by the few around me. I wasn’t surprised, I failed that time around as well. I fxckxng couldn’t learn how to smoke and thus, didn’t get high — after multiple, multiple tryouts on act-of-smoking.

Which is why, my bucket-list of having an experiencing of being high on marijuana is still unchecked.

One thing is for sure, I will never smoke in my life… ever!

Likewise, Alcohol was a bliss. I purposefully started to drink it (be it beer, wine, whiskey, whatever that gets you high) just to have the feel of having grown up. Just to signal people around me that I am old enough to rock and steer my own boat.

Truthfully, I never, never liked the taste of the Beer or Vodka. Wine was an exception because it was sweet mostly, and yes so was Jack. Contrarily I enjoyed the height of high it can get you into. Plus, If I am not wrong, the last time I drank was perhaps a month ago with Sam and his wife at their apartment while we played cards and b.a.s.i.c.a.l.l.y enjoyed. They didn’t drink much but I know I was the one who poured in the last glass. On the inside I felt like I was as drunk as the Bear on the trailer of Cocaine Bear, on the outside I tried pretending as cool as a perfectly plastic wrapped cucumber.

The next morning I decided, I am done with drinking alcohol too!

Let’s see if this intentional resolution remains a resolution.

Namaste.

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Sleepwalk

Published February 9, 2023 By 8ijay.shrestha

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement”
James Clear

^{Dimple – Sickflip, Mismatched}

The one mistake we often make is to sleepwalk in the name of living. Mostly unnoticed, unaware.

Sleepwalk could be many things: Passively scrolling, scouring, vulturing on social media. Movies. Soaps. Youtube videos. Porns. Impulsive shopping. Wishful thinking. Bitching. Sleeping (or to be precise — pretending to sleep in the name of taking rest). We might as well give it a puff if we smoke. We might as well go partying, drinking if we’re outgoing.

Let’s be honest — we’ve all been there.

We’ve all wasted, we’ve all wearied ourselves a little more, a little less, a little too much exploiting, overspending, undervaluing the only non-renewable currency — Time!

Well, now we know, let’s change that :-

Let’s try to be as much unpredictable.

More demanding of time.

Challenge(s) hungry.

Pain thirsty.

Always grinding but enjoying the restfulness too.

Disciplined. However, at times throw ourselves into healthy recklessness that is good for our mind and spirit

Deliberately awaresome of our choices.

Purposeful.

Responsible.

Lastly, as in the words of James Clear, “The best way to break a bad habit is to make it impossible to do. And the best way to create a good habit is to automate it so you never have to think about it again.”

Let’s try to automate our life bit by bit, step-by-step.

No pressure.

Not tomorrow.

Namaste.

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Finance

Published January 26, 2023 By Bijay Shrestha

It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.
Charlie Munger

^{Saar – Osho Jain}

Did this come with the age?

Because, I really don’t know why I’ve been caring so much about financial literacy these couple of months or roughly a year.

I really don’t know why I think that having wealth of real-information about money, investments, savings, strategies, or generally speaking being the best with numbers — is a fc*ki*g super power!

And, I’ll be honest, I suck at managing my finances.

I am horribly, horribly poor at managing my money although I had always been careful about it. But then, caring about the money and managing it are two separate things; while caring for the most part is firmly tied to the emotional response, whereas managing is a different ball game of mind cum intellect for sure.

Which is perhaps why I’m trying to be less of a sucky on this one noble domain.

Trust me, even my youtube search-tree recommendations have be populated with mostly five things these days. One Messi or things that has to do with him. Two finance videos. Three chess. Four Jordan Peterson. And, five Joe Rogan.

I wonder where have my programming video recommendations disappeared.

Furthermore, as I was growing up, I read somewhere that said something along the line that It takes a great deal of skill and wisdom to save and to spend money. Well, without-a-doubt, I do both but at the end of the day I always struggle in having enough information about my own self-made silos where I put my money in — be it groceries, HSA, recreation, shopping, et cetera.

Definitely, my banking app does tell me where I’ve been spending bunch but I’ve been realizing that to be the best at the game of money — forethoughts and access to the right information (resourcefulness per se) is imperative!

Which … I clearly lack.

I am committed to Learning. Unlearning, and Re-learning Finance.

Let’s see.

Namaste.

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Follow the pretense of accident

Published January 5, 2023 By 8ijay.shrestha

I truly believe that everything that we do and everyone that we meet is put in our path for a purpose. There are no accidents; we’re all teachers – if we’re willing to pay attention to the lessons we learn, trust our positive instincts and not be afraid to take risks or wait for some miracle to come knocking at our door.

~ Marla Gibbs

^{Dean Lewis – How Do I Say Goodbye}

It’s a good thing that you can temporarily die

— in social media verse.

I just unplugged my instagrams this week after two weeks of trip to DC and New York to wrap 2022 and welcome 2023.

After a year of everyday journaling via ‘potatoshrestha’

It feels peacefully light to live the way I was used to.

To live an underdog lifestyle.

To be non-existent.

To be caught up in the moment — without judgement, un-enforced, un-fabricated, and

To follow the pretense of accident — without expectations, wholly, heartfully, and cheerfully!

Namaste.

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Mum and Dad Cried

Published December 8, 2022 By 8ijay.shrestha

Crying is misunderstood. It’s really not bad.
~ author~

Mehmaan | Raitila Rajasthan | Mismatched

This evening (morning in Nepal), I had roughly 2.5hrs of long conversations with mum and dad.

They both cried.

My heart sank…. almost, … almost cried. But, then them seeing me cry here would have made them feel terribly awful . I held back tears.

We had not talked for almost 10 days because both of them, specially my mom had been busy arranging for a feast back home.

The feast’s over and lots of hardships and heartbreaks were culminated as residue.

They cleansed.

Tides calmed.

Lessons learned.

Perspective retrofitted.

Understanding made.

Baggage let go.

Liberated.

Namaste.

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Commitment is tough

Published December 1, 2022 By 8ijay.shrestha

You’re in a ship and it’s sailing across the stormy seas. If you’re hacking holes in it with pickaxe, you should probably pay attention to that before you sink. So, it’s a good idea to keep what stupid you’re doing in mind that you can stop doing it.
Jordan B. Peterson (on Why be virtuous?)

^{Joji – Die for you}

To love truly,

is to commit fully.

Brainfully.

Heartfully.

Soulfully.

Beautifully!

If relationship-tree is to have the trunk, branches, leaves, flower and eventually the fruits — commitment gives it the vitality; commitment transports the essential minirals to nurture it; commitment inflates the breathe of life inside it.

For, commitment is the root, and true love (whatever it means to you) is the whole tree I know.

Alas, commitment is tough. Because, in the world where we live today the road to lust; the path to momentary cravings; the alleyways of impulsive desire; the address of loud, irresistible sexy-ness around is without-a-miss silky and icy. It’s proxy solid. It’s slippery. It’s frictionless. It’s bewitching. It’s bewildering.

At the same magnitude, real love for real is scant.

That, real love for real is limited to only the virtuous which unfortunately, there aren’t many.

To say the least:

Commitment is through which virtues such as trust, loyalty, kindness, sincerity, honesty, care, love, gratitude, gentleness, purity, tolerance, understanding and all the likes flows out and about!

Questions.

Are you committed?

Are you afraid of commitments?

Are you pathologiz-ing your love with lies and fabrication?

Are you for real?

Namaste.

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Seek Discomfort

Published November 3, 2022 By 8ijay.shrestha

“He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.”
– Ben. Franklin (Poor Richard’s Almanack), 1733

^{Sajjan Raj Vaidya – Dhairya}

Part 3

Who stopped me from quiting?

Who got me focused into my prime senses?

Who grounded me from the weightlessness I was experiencing?

Who unfucked me from all the brain swells I was going through?

Who rescued me from my afraid self?

She’s my girl!

And, I call her ‘Solution’ for reasons!

My 2 cents: While you’re in pursuit of something really meaningful and important, while you’re navigating through the course of the goals and ambition — you have magnanimous self-doubts, anxiousness and fear; Now, all we have to understand is that it is at this unique pivot of time itself that — you must believe and embody the fact that self-belief & perseverance is the virtue that’s called for; without exception!

Today’s my birthday. And like any other years I’m writing a small note to myself. So, here we go.

I came to the US on October 3, 2021. And, it’s precisely 13 months since I’ve been here. Well ought I compress the gap between these times, I say I am grateful for everything!

Been through so, so … so many ups and downs.

So many sleepless nights,

so many exams,

So many potatoshresthas’

so many ramens’

so many sodas’

so many microwaves moments,

so many codes’,

so many airports,

so… so many pure, serendipitous beautiful moments,

Eventually to the point where I went as low as having only $5 on my bank account to show up for and still I had my homies backing me up.

Most certainly, looking back, everything was worth it!

And, I would like to extend my deepest, sincerest and earnest thanks to those few who’ve helped me on my journey. You know who you are!

And, please know I don’t forget kindness … ever!

Lastly a note to myself, “Seek More Discomfort”

Namaste.

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