NurStack Volume #1: A new variety newsletter series + WoofStack!
Animal Chaos, cooking new dishes, Hercules at the Crossroads, WoofStack, and introducing guest #5 of the Humble Homies Podcast!
Welcome to the first volume of NurStack! I’ve been dying to put out a weekly/biweekly series where I chat about a range of different topics. They’ll include an array of what I’m currently learning, new dishes I’ve made, what I’ve been reading and listening to, and new free tools I’ve discovered that make my life easier! They’ll also include philosophical quandaries I’m working through, a mini Woofstack (this is in place until how I decide what’s next for Woofstack), and more!
This was supposed to be an introductory post, but whatever, let’s get right into it!
Animal chaos and cooking new dishes.
It’s been a hell of a week in the chronicles of the BOYS (the pets). On the top left, you’ll see Bear being a great sport while my mom tries out different headbands on him during Mother’s Day. I prefer the pink and white one posted here the most, but he looked pretty chic in the yellow and white, too. It was a tough call!
On the top right, you’ll see my attempt at making ‘Jamaican Shrimp’. It was actually one of the most delicious dishes I’ve made recently. Only when everything was eaten together, though. I totally overcooked the shit out of the shrimp but hey, Chef Nur is a work in progress.
The backyard has recently become home to a new family of bunnies, and given that it’s Spring, this means, you guessed it, baby bunnies! Now, as much as I love watching them eating grass back there, it’s also Bear’s domain. The domain in which he is notorious for murdering countless rats. Yesterday, I let Bear out and joined him. Bear sprinted into the yard, and I instantly noticed a tiny baby bunny paralyzed with fear. He was standing right next to the door, and I was praying that Bear wouldn’t see him. Unsurprisingly, Bear spots him and runs towards him. I grabbed him just in time for the baby bunny to jump in this semi-circle hole we have attached to a basement window.
I brought Bear inside, much to his dismay, and went to look for the little guy. I removed all the yard tools I had stored there and had no luck in finding him. Right as I had decided to leave good enough alone, I spotted the little guy. He was hiding inside a large black dustpan I had out there, and he was once again, paralyzed with fear. Now, I’m okay with Bear killing whatever he finds out there, rules of nature all that; however, there’s no way I could let that baby bunny get bit. He was way too cute and there was just no way. Anway, I knew the bunny family lived under the shed, so I carried the dustpan baby over there and he refused to move. I had to reach in there, grab him and drop him right next to the shed. If he was paralyzed with fear earlier, can you imagine how he felt when I grabbed him? Whoops!
The cat, Boor (3mbaarr, we use numbers to account for missing letters when writing in Arabic-English, is his real name but I’m sparing you), has been desperately begging to go outside in his old age. He’s newly 13, but living in the woods means coyote central. The number of times I’ve seen or walked by a coyote or two must be abnormally high. They keep us awake at night with their howling, too. I’m not complaining, but it’s certainly not an environment to have an outdoor cat. Unfortunately, smaller dogs in our neighborhood have been killed by coyotes, so I can’t even imagine what they’ve been doing to the cats. I don’t let him out, but that certainly does not stop him from trying, as you can see in the picture on the bottom left.
The bottom right shows one of Bear’s new toys. A sushi chef octopus next to a dog cookie based on a Japanese dish, but its name is eluding me right now!
Philosophical quandary of the moment
Quick disclaimer: I cannot say Hercules without hearing Eddie Murphy clapping and saying ‘HERCULES, HERCULES!’ every single time.
Good ol’ Hercules at the Crossroads. The story has been invading my mind for hours upon hours, day after day. For those who aren’t familiar, the story is as follows. Picture Hercules walking down an old dirt road when suddenly, a fork appears. On both paths of these symbolic crossroads, there is a woman waiting for him. On the right was Kakia, the goddess of vice, and on the left was Arete, the goddess of virtue.
Kakia was dressed beautifully and was very seductive in manner. She offered Hercules an easy life of pleasure and indulgence. She promised that he would gain everything he wanted without effort. Fame, luxury, you name it. Arete, on the other hand, was dressed modestly and had a more intense demeanor. She offered Hercules a challenging life of struggle, discipline, and hard work. According to Arete, greatness was the result of hard work and moral strength. Only through these means could he achieve true fulfillment.
Hercules chose the path of Arete (also the Greek word for virtue). As we all know by now, this resulted in Hercules enduring the infamous Twelve Labors and becoming known as a hero of legend.
This past weekend, I attended a gaming convention: Penny Arcade Expo East. I’ve been attending on and off for about ten years now and I absolutely love going. Unfortunately, something felt different this year. I wasn’t walking around with the childlike wonder I’d had there in the past. Everyone was having a blast, and I was to a certain extent, too, but I couldn’t shake this intense feeling that was practically gnawing at the back of my brain. I even asked the cute Irish bartender working there if the convention scene was dying. She laughed and reassured me that the whole weekend was sold out. It didn’t take much longer to realize that it was not only that I had changed, but the convention was a massive, tangible representation of my own Hercules at the Crossroads moment. I was struggling with the concept of playing video games.
I’ve always loved gaming. I was raised with it, I’ve made incredible friends through online gaming, and I genuinely enjoy my time playing. My attitude towards it is basically: as long as it isn’t interfering with other things I need to get done or be doing, then it’s fine. Lately, however, it’s been challenging to play even under those parameters. It feels too much like I’m playing the actualized dream of other creatives instead of working on my own. Do I think that quitting video games will all of a sudden make me a productivity fiend? Not really, no. I don’t think there’d be much to gain at all, but the struggle persists. I won’t be solving this now or providing solutions, as I’m not there yet, but I wanted to put it out there.
WoofStack
WOOOOOOOF! I’m interested in bringing back WoofStack. In the meantime, I’ll be including a pup in every volume of NurStack.
For Volume #1, we have the legendary Charlie (aka Prince Charles, Charles Darwin, Charlie Sheen, Charles Manson, Charles de Gaulle, etc.)
was gracious enough to submit Charlie as well as one hell of a description! In her own words:“Charlie, much like Natalia, is a lover and selective fighter with a penchant for dreams––though his occur primarily in his sleep. He is an idealist who loves chasing rabbits and his vision of a utopia filled with lean cuts of meat and ice cubes to beat the onset of L.A. heat. He reads dogs and people like Natalia reads books...with a rapid delight! He has one arch-nemesis, Ale. It takes a lot to vex Charlie, but if you cross the line: watch out.”
Would you like to see WoofStack return? Let me know! If you’d like to submit your dog, make sure to send at least 3 pictures and a description of your pup to nur.nadar@gmail.com.
Introducing Humble Homie #5
Next week, Mindy Kurtmer, will be joining me for an awesome discussion on the Humble Homies podcast! Mindy is a Harvard Law graduate who left Big Law in NYC to pursue her soul’s passions. She currently writes and illustrates the well-known Ego Cat webcomic. Her webcomic does an incredible job teaching psychological, philosophical, and spiritual concepts through the medium of comics. She’s also currently working on her journey to take on the pop world as a musical artist. Make sure to check it out!!
You can find Mindy and her work on Instragram at: https://www.instagram.com/miiindy___/
Thanks for reading Volume #1!! If there’s anything you’d like to see in future editions of NurStack, please do not hesitate to let me know!
Ayyyye! Love this. The poor bunnies. I found 2 dead squirrels in my yard today, just glad the dogs didn’t bring them to me 🫣
I clap my hands to Hercules too