TL: My interview is probably going to be very dark, is that ok.
CD: Sure. Let’s start with your weekly routine. Tell me what that’s like.
TL: The past, say 30 months, with rare exceptions, the day of the week hasn’t had an effect on what I do each day. I wake some time between noon and 3 pm, feeling okay, like without a headache and only a little bleariness, but strongly unmotivated. Like I will only be able to delete spam emails, when after I’ve left my bed and gone to my refrigerator and brought whatever fruit I have - usually grapes or clementines or watermelon - to my Macbook, which usually I’ll move from my bed where I might’ve been using it before, to the floor, where I sit and eat and occasionally delete a spam email, while afraid to open any other emails.
CD: You seem to eat an insane amount of fruit, compared to every person I know.
TL: I honestly feel like, based on experience, my own experiences, and also from reading a lot, and trying different things, one of the only ways maybe the only way I’ve been able to feel a significant long term increase in my energy levels, a resistance to any sickness, no cold sores, no skin blemishes, etc. is by eating a diet of only raw fruits and greens. I never get sick now. My skin never has blemishes. “Zits” are like completely nonexistent to a degree that I’ve forgotten they exist, and I don’t feel tired for no reason. and I think on average I need 2-3 hours less sleep.
CD: Wow. Really?
TL: No one ever listens to me, it seems like.
CD: Now that Taipei is published, what are you up to in terms of work?
TL: The past 3 months my “job” has been organizing my internet presence, answering excruciating interview questions, doing other book-related things like this weekly column for Vice of iPhone photos of Taipei.
My comprehensive everyday schedule, though is this:
So I’m eating fruit sitting on the floor able only to delete a spam email every few minutes. (There’s usually 10-20 emails, 5-10 of them difficult-seeming to answer). And I’ll also have, like at all times, some interview or other book-related thing to do.
TL: So I sit there, and maybe move to my sofa and maybe package things slowly, or clean my room. This lasts until 6 or 7 pm. Then at some point I’ll usually have thought either “fuck it” or “it’s worth it” and ingest a little Xanax, then like 10 minutes later, after I’ve left my room, and am on my way to Bobst library, some Adderall.
I eat the Xanax first, because it makes things taste better. Then I take the 6 train from Astor place and I go to 8th street organic avenue. There I usually buy a chocolate mousse, a coconut yogurt parfait, a green juice, which I usually immediately chug. Then I bring it into the park and sit there eating while reading, recently, White Out by Michael Clune off my iPhone.
At some point I go into Bobst Library. I usually ingest more Adderall, I complete some work, I leave around 10 pm maybe. On the way home I buy groceries like cilantro, coconut water, different kinds of fruit. At home I usually, by now, feel for the first time “awake.” It’s like 11 pm. I put my stuff away, I sometimes write a to-do list.
TL: So it’s around midnight, or 1 a.m., and I’ll ingest like a larger amount of Adderall, excited to do work all night. But Adderall takes 30 minutes to begin working and I guess I have developed a routine that includes masturbating during that 30 min. period. Then I’ll shower and begin working, usually answering emails and email questions.
That continues throughout the night, and then I’ll sometimes masturbate more, sometimes I’ll take more Adderall or Xanax. And I’ll be eating the fruit and usually 1 smoothie throughout the night. Then it’ll be like 10 am and I’ll feel kind of calm, and I’ll ingest Xanax usually and go to the post office and maybe the library. Then like around 6 pm return to my apartment.
TL: At this point, about half the time I’ll use more Adderall and stay up another night. I frequently order from Bareburger via Seamless. Lately I’ve been pretty healthy. I’ve eaten only raw organic vegan stuff for maybe 5 days. So if I stay up a third night, it’s the same, more Adderall, my work gets more incoherent, but I feel calm and fine, then in the morning I’ll relax a little, usually go outside for sunlight, and I don’t think I’ve stayed up for a third night more than 2 or 3 times. Then I sleep for around 12 hours and wake up surprisingly not feeling fucked up.