MARCELLUS NEALY

Today is New Year's Eve here in the Shonan beach area of Kanagawa Japan. Soon, 2020 will be a memory. So much has happened this year. It feels like five or six have gone by. I know that time is arbitrary and that a year is actually a meaningless chronological marker set by us humans. But, I do hope the new year is a lot less chaotic, a lot less hate filled, and more beneficial for everyone. To mark the occasion, I went to the beach today to take the last sunset of this year.

Ice cream has always been one of my favorite desserts. Wait! Let’s hold on for a second. Did I say dessert? I meant to say that ice cream has been one of my favorite foods since I was a boy. My favorite flavor has always been anything that has fruit in it. My least favorite flavors are those they don’t have fruit, like caramel or chocolate. Of course, because it’s ice cream, I would eat it, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. The only exception to this rule is butter pecan. T

I love where I live now. It’s peaceful and idyllic. The sea goes out in one direction as far as I can see. In another direction, the majestic Fuji sits tall above the other mountains. There are numerous hiking trails within walking or bike riding distance from my home. I prefer walking through woodland areas that are flat like Ohio. Here in Japan, hiking can be a bit like mountain climbing. It feels like you are continually climbing up until you are ready to climb down

I was trying to think of happy moments in my life. Actually, this is the beginning of the story, so I was trying to think of happy moments in my childhood. For some strange reason the not so happy moments are the ones that have the strongest impression. I can think of an endless line of unhappy moments but it's hard for me to think of happy ones. Of course, I was happy. I remember snippets of that happiness. The first pet I ever had was a mixed German Shepherd and Husky. Mayb

Today's entry will be a short one. It's 12am and I have just come home after drinking most of the day. The people in the photo are the people from my neighborhood. We gathered for drinks and a few stories. I love these guys and the community we have built. Today was Matt and Aya’s vegan pop up restaurant. They are the two on the right side of the photo. I never imagined myself a vegan before, but I now know that I could become vegan if there was someone to make delicious

Every time I write an entry I try to remember my childhood. I switched away from simple comments about pictures. Doing that for 284 days or so would have driven me insane. Instead I'm using the remaining entries in this year-long project to write out my own autobiography, or at least to make an attempt at one. I do realize the some parts of it I have to leave out because I'm not the only one in the family who will be reading this. Although I don't mind telling my own story,

Christmas was one of my favorite holidays. Every year we gathered at my grandparents’ house to celebrate. My grandmother loved to spoil us with candy canes and Christmas presents. Their house was always warm and inviting. My mom moved around a lot. We lived in many different houses and apartments throughout my life, but my grandparents’ house always remained. It was the house that my mother grew up in and the still point of the turning world, as TS Eliot described it. It rem

My mom gave birth to the four of us at a very young age. She was 20 years old when she had the first and 25 when she had the last. She was a tough single mother with a mission to survive and raise us the best she could. Only after becoming an adult and having children myself did I finally understand the burden she carried. Because she had to care for us, she never had her own youth. She was locked in 23 years of indentured servitude until the last of us had left home. I supp

It is getting more and more difficult to write daily entries about nothing. But, I cannot give up. I still have more than 200 days left to go. I am thinking of using some of the remaining days to write an autobiography. It means these posts will be a lot longer. That should give me plenty to write about. A friend of mine posted on social media that some things don't belong on social media. They should remain sacred. I guess that would depend on how one defines what sacred

There used to be a saying that went “boys are made of snips and snails and puppy dog tails. Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice.” I think they forgot to add the ice. This is the 10th or 11th girl I saw today wearing no stockings or tights and a super short skirt in this cold December weather. I had on jeans, a sweater, a long sleeved T shirt, and a down puffer jacket and I still was cold. What superpowers do these girls have? Did they go through some sort of