This is DJ Sensitive.
Look.
We talked about procuring some Boli.
Yeah.
You know, I started saying Boli because you know I did my IT with like people from Port
Harcourt
And like one day I said I wanted bole and fish and the person I was with said, it’s Boli
I was like, no, no, no.
People from Port Harcourt call it Bole, which means it's Bole
I was like, it’s their food?
And they were like, what?
That is not their food.
That they just appropriated it.
So since that day, like, I don't know my, my, my life is a lie now.
I don't know who owns like Boli and if it's Boli.
I think, I think the person was right.
I think it was appropriated.
Just, you know, modified, made better.
Like it's funny because you know, I grew up in Port Harcourt.
All I knew was the Port Harcourt way.
Like the way you can eat the roast plantain with like ground nuts and stuff.
Yeah.
That was something they didn’t do.
It's not something they approved.
Because it's not, it's not as good.
It's not as good as with the sauce.
Yeah.
It just, it makes more sense.
Roasted plantain.
The plantain should actually be somewhat ripe.
You know, you know the Boli we eat here.
The plantain is often unripe, right?
So it's a very dry, like feels more like a snack.
Yeah.
And a meal when it's like that.
But like when the plantain is actually ripe and you actually use the sauce, then it feels, yeah.
It's nice to eat with the fish, you know, roast fish.
Yeah.
This is the only time I really like fish.
So that means I'm a Boli.
I'm serious.
Yeah.
I've been from every corner of fish in general.
I like seafood, even though I know it's like questionable.
Is it?
Like there's times where I eat seafood and I feel queasy.
Like actually when I, when I had the scallops at the Korean restaurants, when I went that time, I had two.
I felt queasy when I had both of them.
Like it was a very foreign, very complicated, you know, very fishy, oily experience.
But like all of that complexity, right?
And all of that difficulty made it feel like a valuable experience.
Not necessarily like super pleasurable.
Like I don't, I don't find that I would want to be eating scallops like as a regular meal.
A little some value.
But like as something I know I was going to be experiencing very sparsely, right?
It was a, it was digestible.
It was like, it was like an interesting experience.
And I guess that's what it means to be like a foodie is where like, you know, it's kind of like, I guess that's what it's supposed to mean now.
Because, because we are into food.
Yeah.
You have to be, you have to be willing to experience it.
Yeah.
So it's just not things are, it's not just things are maybe immediately part of it.
Exactly.
It's like if you're, if you feel like you, you are a, like a very, maybe you're really into music, right?
Like you've identified as someone that is really, really into music, then it's more likely that you would, you would explore and like give more complex types of music a chance.
The types of music that other people may just gloss over or overlook because they are more difficult to like, is more, is more challenging to understand their appeal, right?
They are not as easily digestible as the general kinds of music that are released.
But then the fact that you are like, you are into the idea and the concept of music as a thing, you are more likely to, to find out exactly.
True.
And consume them until you do find that layer of like, you know, enjoyment, pleasure, value.
There's always something.
There's always something you take away with like lyrics or beats or just the element of surprise.
Also she did dance.
Just, there's always just always something that is positive, I think.
The element of surprise is something that I really appreciate in music, like just as a thing, like, so there's this thing where, you know, because music is about melody, right?
So like you have, generally speaking, human beings, we like, we understand melodies, right?
As you grow up, you kind of form this intuitive understanding of like one note comes after one note, what like tune comes after what tune.
And like a lot of songs adhere to that.
So it's like you hear the first note and then you already kind of know what's coming next.
You know what's coming after that.
And then you have this array of songs where they're essentially just permutations of the same fundamental pattern, right?
And then a lot of people enjoy that the predictability of it, the comfort of it, you like, they sound familiar.
They sound like, they sound easy.
They are easy to digest.
But then there's music that's like, you know, veers away from that.
Exactly, like you cannot, you can't very correctly predict what's going to come next.
You just have to like sit in for the experience.
It sounds, it may sound a little bit chaotic at first, like an early listener.
But then it's like over time, you start to build the ability to not try to predict.
Obviously, once you listen to something enough times, even if it was initially difficult to predict,
you'd get familiar with it and then learn it.
And then you now get also that sense of familiarity.
So you then have both worlds.
So where it's like, you know that there's about to be this unexpected note, but it's no longer unexpected because you know it's there.
So it's like you're now waiting for it.
You're waiting to...
You're waiting to feel the shock or the kick of that.
The difference.
Anyways, that was a fantastic lesson in the beauty of exploring music.
Actually, it's to talk New Year resolutions.
Year resolutions, Avi.
Did you used to do that thing in your church where they tell you to write your resolutions on the fifth and hold it up?
No, man
My New Year resolutions were always things that I thought my parents or adults would think were sensible.
So you're writing them for some other people rather than for yourself.
It just felt like there were a couple of things that I should probably aspire to every year.
Like, yeah, I should do well in school.
And I should be good. I should be neat.
Resolutions were easier back then.
Yeah, they're a little harder now.
The goals of your life were very well defined.
But now it's just...
It's now up to you.
It's like, okay.
You have to choose.
Anyways, like New Year resolutions are...
Are now complex, complicated they get as you grow older is just like a symbol of kind of encapsulates life.
It just gets more complex, more complicated.
But I think they're fun, chow.
I think it's fun to just plan, you know.
Fun to plan.
No, like fun to plan your life.
Fun to have something to look forward to.
Or...
Is fun the correct...
I don't know. I wouldn't use the word fun.
I think for me, it's more...
Okay.
Maybe it's because of the fact that they're not set in stone.
But that's how I now view New Year resolutions, right?
So when I say fun, it's just like the idea of me achieving something that when it happens,
would be particularly nice to achieve as kind of fun.
So it's almost...
It's in some way almost like some kind of narrative experience.
Where you're just creating some kind of narrative about what you could be, what your life could be.
Even though there's a solid chance that that's not going to happen.
But then that's... I've never thought about that.
Yeah, because like New Year resolutions are...
I mean, they're just very fluid, you know.
And I'm always, always aware of the fact that when you...
Just about how fast we can change.
The things that we want to do, things we care about, they can just change very fast.
When I'm setting a New Year resolution in December, I'm very aware that I could not even care about that by March.
Because I may just be a different person, whatever has happened between December and March.
But when I was saying fun, I'm just referring to the fact that New Year resolutions are you trying to manifest something for yourself.
And, you know, the word, you know, manifest probably has some like associations.
But I think it's just sometimes it's fun to just picture and create stuff for yourself.
Yeah, I find myself actually really doing that.
I know, like, I guess I do write down, like sometimes when I just feel it strongly.
But generally speaking, I find myself picking something or a set of things that I want to do.
I want to be in the next coming year, in the next coming five years, 10 years.
Not as a like a must do if like do or die kind of outline.
Like not basically saying to myself, oh, if this doesn't happen, then my life is ruined.
Not in that sense, but just in the sense of like, if I can make decisions that would help me get closer to this, these set of like targets, goals, achievements, accomplishments.
You say I like using synonyms. So there you go.
It would be cool. Yeah, exactly.
I think what you said is really important.
The fact that is it is not a contract.
It's no binding, you know, in your life and all of that.
It's just, you know, it's like a suggestion.
Yeah, you know, kind of guide.
Maybe I think is I think really coming to terms with that is like, I think it was one of the best things I feel like I did for myself growing up was coming to terms with the fact that, you know, things are not things will not always work out exactly the way you you would rather have them.
And like, that is okay. You, your life can be constructed such that you still live, you're still living a fulfilling life, regardless. Right.
Yeah, I think that was a very, very important realization for me. And then what that allows you to do is kind of it kind of allows you to choose. Like, it gives you this, this power that you not have if otherwise right to use this power to choose exactly how much you like how much you're willing to sacrifice like you can make it almost like a concrete quantifiable choice of like, okay, this is how much I'm willing to sacrifice to strive towards these.
Tragic towards these targets, part time, right. And because you kind of already had just have an idea of what the trade off looks like. So it's not an all consuming.
Yeah, like that is just the, that is just the thing to keep in mind about your resolutions.
They can always, you can always change, you can always shift. They can and do change, they can and do shift. And sometimes the moment it feels almost absolute like, this is exactly. And then when it changes, they are like, interested.
Because, yes, there's just so much fulfillment to be found in the shifting shape of whatever your resolutions say. For the last two years, three years, my new resolution has been to eat slowly .
And this is always is obviously successful. That's why. That's why it has been kind of fun. You know, sometimes I remember when I eat a meal, okay, when you chew 10 times before swallowing or something like that.
But it's just not, maybe it sounds trivial, right. There's something that's important to me. Or, okay, maybe not important, but you know, if I did form a habit of eating slowly, it would be nice.
Something to be a little bit better.
Yeah, exactly. But it is not a, again, I'm not going to let it define me. I won't go as far as saying it is some flaw that needs to be absolutely, you know, changed. Or if not, I'm not some ideal person.
I think the ideal person is just something that I like to do. Do you still acknowledge it and like, as we're getting to the end of the year now, are you going to say to yourself, write it down somewhere in your notes?
I don't know. I really write it down. I really write it down.
You write it in a medium article.
Maybe. But like,
yeah, it's probably, it should probably be in my mind. Okay, maybe 2024 is the year that I'll be doing. Maybe. But like, you know, like we're just saying, it's not some kind of, it doesn't have to be enforced. Sometimes I remember it while I'm, I notice myself when I'm eating as normal fast.
I'm like, who cares.
And I'm just working on our food because I love it.
Do you also have serious resolutions?
Well, I guess so. My, my, something that I consider serious is that I want to be more intentional about my work as a writer. And not just as a writer as in like my career right now.
But just the things I like to write, you know, some picture on some poetry, some essays here and there. And, you know, more intentional about it because I feel that as, you know, as I'm getting, really getting into being an adult.
There's so much that's taking away from you. And you have to be intentional about doing things you like or doing things that still matter. It's like, oh, you're caught up just looking for, for work and looking for money and trying to be comfortable.
Ideally, I would like to be comfortable enough.
I'm not going to be comfortable with writing so I can't start writing, but it's not going to get done. I just did something a couple days ago. It was a joke, which I expected other writers on my timeline to get.
So I was like, oh, after this exam, I'll focus on my writing. After I graduate, I'll focus on my writing. After my internship, I'll focus on my writing.
And that's just how it keeps going. You project. Is that how key? I will, I will do this after.
I'm going to be better than Tizennik. That's exactly how she feels. If you don't, if you don't start, you never, never will.
So that's one thing. I want to be more intentional towards the end of this year. I did.
You know, it's like something I want to continue. So it's not something I'm keeping for next year. I started immediately after that about a couple months ago.
I had done some submissions for essays, story competitions and all that. It was more of me just forcing myself. So it wasn't exactly my best work, which is why I was not totally surprised by all the rejections.
I was a little bit disappointed because sometimes you just feel like, hey, your talent coasts you through.
You know, some people could have stokes. But yeah, you know, I think that would be like a serious resolution. Do you have anyone?
Yeah, I guess very specifically is I want to travel. Yeah. So I guess I was doesn't need any more explanation.
Just travel. That would be cool. I do intend or I can't intend, but I would like to travel as well next year. Just go some place.
There's a residency I applied for. I'm hoping comes through because it's a kickstart my travel.
Yeah. And it's also be cool to just, you know, be part of a residence, something that I've always wanted.
You know, you know, resolutions are cool I think as far as you know, you always end by saying whatever the hell is cool.
Almost everything is cool.
There's just always a both side. But you should know this country of life which issues.
You just said everything is cool and then I remembered the Lego movie.
Did you watch the Lego movie?
No I didn't.
Oh okay.
Okay.
What did you remember?
The tagline in it is everything is awesome.
Oh okay.
So everything is cool.
It's just like a more chill.
A more chill version of the glass.
Yeah.
The chill cousin.
But yeah.
Don't, you know, to our millions of listeners out there, don't feel bound by your new year's
resolution.
Yes.
Just make it and move on and allow yourself to accept change so that when it comes you
wouldn't feel wrecked or devastated.
I call it chaos.
Yeah.
Embrace chaos.
Embrace it.
It's cool.
Everything is cool.
Thank you.
You guys are the coolest.
This has been TLDR.
I'm Oluchukwu
I'm Timilehin
Yeah.
Safe.
Thank you.
Have a great week.