Oddbean

When I was growing up in middle school and high school, I had a next door neighbor trailer park friend named Jordan, who is quite a character and has showed up in detail in some of my long-form Nostr posts from a while ago. He ran a series of sand-pit fights in his backyard that I participated in. Sadly, he had the most broken and crazy home, like him and his younger sister were often alone and figuring out life for themselves, with their mom coming back like every other day barely, but Jordan was so charismatic and funny and smart that I hung out with him and his sister a lot at home and at the bus stop. Their trailer was an absolute mess, but it had a chaotic warmth to it from the people there. Jordan basically ran the place. When his absentee single mother came home from time to time after work and whatever else she was up to, she'd be like, "Oh Lyn, hi! I've been out today due to motorcycle lessons. (???) Do you want a bagel? I've got bagels. Jordan, you should be more like Lyn, she's polite. She always says thank you. Stay as long as you want Lyn, sorry for the mess." And I'd be like, "uhmm, thanks!" Jordan, who was two years older than me, taught me to play Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, and got me into anime via Trigun and Cowboy Beebop; all sorts of nerd stuff at a time when I was kind of otherwise aimless. I was living alone with my 60+ year old single father at the time. We then became a funny duo as teenagers; him as the charismatic outlandish guy who usually got into trouble, taught me all sorts of nerd stuff, got his girlfriend pregnant at age18 and started a family with her, barely got out of high school, and me as the total opposite introverted bookish polite one next door that would play Magic the Gathering or Dungeons and Dragons with his friends group, and that he'd trick his friends into fighting in his sand pit as a joke since they didn't know what they were getting into, but that was like clean as a whistle in terms of schoolwork and relationships. Anyway, the point of this rambling post is that I first watched Fight Club in the best possible setting. I went over to Jordan's house one evening, and we started watching it. But then his mother called him and said to come to help with some shit she was dealing with, so he was like, "hey I got to go Lyn, but you can keep watching it, no problem." So I was there at night, in his messy trailer alone (???), watching Fight Club. The place was a mess, I felt weird that I was the only one in their home despite not living there, and Jordan was basically a more benign equivalent of Tyler Durden. So actually the movie hit a bit harder because I was both enjoying it but also constantly on edge because I was in a weird environment that didn't quite feel right, and yet felt oddly on-brand for the movie. Can't really replicate that. And it's burned into my memory better than most movies. nostr:note1h5x4u6ndv6r2p90qje05tehsxv2qajmludvrwafmwr472xaed3eskk9jrw

Not everybody likes the slow-burn longform stuff, but for those that do, that's why I write all that stuff. It hits fewer, but for those that it hits, it hits deeper. https://m.primal.net/KbcY.jpg nostr:note19x4zghcrs2k2qe8knd5mlkkl46rrgrxc6x3pn87zndkeygwlujfsyl68j6

I had a lot of friends like Jordan. Spent a lot of time in the kind of environments you’re describing. It was sad because you could tell by observing home environments like those that your friends didn’t really have a chance. Their unconscious conditioning had too much gravity and it would be too hard to escape it. I don’t know anyone who did.

My friends and I were debating who of the main characters got it the worst in the end. And we were all kind of picking characters closest to ourselves. The ones we could relate with the easiest. Felt terrible.

People like Jordan are a product of chaos and the beautiful reaction of humanities instinct to find humor and imagination as a natural reaction to turmoil. Joy is our natural state. I can relate. Cheers to charisma and rolling with the punches. 🤙🏻

This is an excellent story. Just the type of stuff I love reading from you! You have an aware perspective on your upbringing and past, and after reading this I just wanna know more! Hearing about your old D&D campaigns with Jordan would be so fun.

Such an interesting story. Thanks for sharing such a personal part of your past. Bitcoiners are so damn interesting. I grew up in a neighborhood called Flower Valley and never got in a fight. 😂😂😂😂

Sweet, I'd love a friend like that!☺️ I have no memories of friends around highschool age, our mum hated visits and banned us from sleepovers. And later on we were just drunk whenever it was possible. It's so nice to have a thing to cherish! Also Trigun and Cowboy Bebop are excellent way to onboard someone to anime. So silly, so rich, so dark.👌