Why an impractical hedonist? Well, it wouldn’t be much fun to be a practical hedonist, now would it? Let’s see how that might work:
Don’t bother with the high priced mud bath at the spa, go during the rainy season. The fares and rooms are cheaper, there are fewer tourists so places are less crowded, and there are plenty of natural mud holes that you can roll around in to your heart’s content!
As for food, forget about paying $$$ for a gourmet meal at the expensive restaurant. After nine you’ll find plenty of leftovers in the trash bin out back to choose from. And if you happen to come down with a bout of food poisoning, just consider it a free colonic. After a couple of days, your pipes will be clean as a whistle!
Nah, that’s just not me. I want the full experience of going to the spa, or eating in the restaurant. By declaring myself to be impractical, I’m freeing myself from considering the practicality of anything and everything I might want to discuss. While I might occasionally discuss something that might be practical, it’ll be more by accident rather than on purpose.
As for the hedonist aspect, well since a hedonist is focused on pleasure, that allows me the freedom to discuss anything that I might enjoy. I might discuss travel, food, music, photography, art, drink, you get the idea. In short, by declaring myself a hedonist, I’m giving myself the freedom to discuss anything that I enjoy. Occasionally, a topic might slip in about something I didn’t enjoy, but that will probably be because I had been expecting to enjoy it.
So who am I? I am many things:
- Software Architect and Coder – While this is something that I do enjoy, I’ll stay away from discussing it here. This is something that I do primarily for money, and while I do get some amount of pleasure from it, that is mostly a by-product of solving whatever problem I might be working on at the time. So anything I might feel compelled to discuss in this part of my life, it too geeky to discuss here, so I’ll find other venues for that aspect of myself.
- Composer/Arranger – I do compose and arrange music, most of it outside the mainstream of what most people like. I am likely to post new works here for visitors to listen to. If you happen to enjoy my musical output, great! If not, well, my musical output is not for everyone…
- Photographer – I take a lot of photos. When I’m traveling, my camera is like an extension of my arm. I’ll probably include some of my photos here, but that won’t be a primary focus.
- Gourmet Food Eater – While I don’t do a lot of cooking myself, I do enjoy eating. To me, food and drink are activities to be savored. A good meal is one of the sensual pleasures of life, and should never be something done just because you have to. Now, I do have tastes that are not like everyone else’s. I don’t eat a lot of sweets, so don’t expect me to discuss the decadent desserts that can be indulged in at a particular restaurant.
- World Citizen – I do not believe that a person’s definition of who they are should be limited by an accident of birth. In fact, I think that the more one travels and experiences different cultures from around the world, then the more one’s prejudices drop away and you see that we are all the same.
- Author – I’ve written several books, all (at this point) about various software programming topics. Boring! Maybe someday I’ll get around to writing something interesting. Until then, you’ll never hear me mention anything more about this part of who I am.
I’m also an opinionated SOB with plenty to say about politics, current events, religion, and many other topics, none of which have any reason to be included here, as none of them fall under the category of “hedonism.” So, unless one of these other topics intrudes on my pursuit of hedonistic pleasures in some way, you probably won’t find me discussing them here.
Anyway, who knows where this might lead. While I anticipate that I will mostly be discussing various travel-related topics here, you’ll find occasional musical and photographic entries. You may also find an occasional entry on behind the scenes process involved in my musical and photographic endeavors. Maybe an occasional entry will sneak in on something practical, but don’t expect it to become a regular occurrence. With that said…