November 8, 2025 3:02 PM
purge
I was at dinner with some friends, and I was telling them about how I'm trying to use up every ingredient in my kitchen. It seems like I've been trying to do this for the past two years, but now I'm being really diligent about not buying anything that will last more than a couple of weeks.
So you're trying to Marie Kondo your kitchen?
I'm trying to Marie Kondo my life.
Some people tend to hoard things, but I have the opposite problem: I just want to get rid of my possessions. Every time I obtain something new, I worry about how I'm going to have to dispose of it one day. It just feels bad to put something in the trash because I feel so wasteful. So I'm trying to donate as much as possible. I had a bunch of board games, and I asked my family if anyone wanted them, and most of them were claimed within minutes. I recently dropped off a bunch of clothes at a clothing swap, and it made me so happy to see people pick up my clothes and take them. That's the best outcome, knowing that someone else wants the things I want to get rid of. I even jumped on the opportunity to give away my couch to someone because they were interested and willing to pick it up themselves.
I want to own only enough so I can fit everything in my car. And while I'm pretty sure I have much less stuff than the average person, it's still kind of hard for me to get rid of something I've owned for years that I never use today.
Like my foam PlayStation DDR pads. I've had these since middle school. The last time I touched them was during the start of the pandemic and after someone told me I was making their ceiling shake, I figured I should stop trying to play on them. So they've just been sitting in my apartment, and I haven't had the heart to throw them away.
Well, I finally did decide that it was time to get rid of them, and then Dan had the idea of turning them into costumes. I thought it was a great idea, but I'm not crafty. Luckily I have a friend who is very crafty and he offered to costume-ify the DDR pads. It was pretty incredible and I'm so glad the pads were briefly given a new life.
October 26, 2025 4:52 PM
what I want: pt 2
I've been feeling kind of tired and a little unhappy lately. Like the cold air hit me and I just want to be like a bear and hibernate.
October 12, 2025 7:24 PM
My mind is B U Z Z I N G
Yeah, that's probably why I can't sleep. I don't go to bed particularly early, but I often wake up way earlier than I want to. My mind thinks about a lot of different things, and I still want to do all the things. So I've been trying to get back into journaling, on physical paper. I've been writing a little every morning, keeping track of how I'm feeling, what I've done the past day and what I want to do the current day. I think it helps to write it all down.
October 7, 2025 4:36 PM
Fantastic Mr. Fox
A few weeks ago, I watched Fantastic Mr. Fox, and I found it to be the most enjoyable Wes Anderson film I've ever seen. I read Fantastic Mr. Fox when I was in second grade, and I think I enjoyed it. I mean, it was one of the first Roald Dahl books I ever read, and I ended up reading a whole bunch more after that.
But now, as an adult, I barely remember the book, so I decided to re-read it last week. And I have to say, it was delightful.
/\___/\ / \ {=.a a,=} `._ w _.' `~'
September 30, 2025 3:21 PM
Allegheny Observatory
When I was visiting my sister, she told me that she's always surprised by new things that she discovers in her city. I thought about that, and it honestly felt like nothing in Pittsburgh surprises me anymore. It feels like I just know the area.
Last week, one of the local rhythm gamers organized a meetup at the Allegheny Observatory. I had always known about this place, but I've never really been into astronomy so I never thought about checking it out myself. They were hosting free tours of the place, and I figured I'd join mainly so I could hang out with people.
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Google told me that the observatory gets pretty busy so I should arrive early to get a parking spot. So I left way earlier than I thought I needed to, but getting there was a little ridiculous. There was construction on the highway so I had to drive way past my exit and loop back around, and I ended up at the observatory with only a few minutes to spare. And parking was MADNESS. I think there might be fewer than 10 actual parking spots around the building, and it felt like there were at least 30 people in a single tour (so many rhythm gamers showed up!), so people started parking wherever they felt they could without fully blocking anyone from going around the driveway. It was extremely tight just trying to get around the building.
The tour itself was fine enough. Learning about the history of the observatory was interesting. (Pittsburgh used to literally sell time!) There were some people there that worked there, and a bunch of student volunteers who seemed very overwhelmed by the amount of people that showed up to the tour.
As part of the tour, we got to look at Saturn through an old telescope, and then we got to look at Saturn again through a much bigger and newer telescope! It looked exactly the same to me both times. Saturn was just a small speck, and if you looked closely you could see two moons, which were even smaller specks.
_ . -=(_)=- . Yup, that's what it looked like. kinda
I'm not sure if seeing Saturn was supposed to be the main feature of this tour, but for me the absolute highlight of this tour was meeting Diane Turnshek, an astronomy professor at CMU. Someone asked her what the coolest part of her job is and she said with a smile,
I'm world renowned!
I set out on a mission to make the world a darker place.
She gave a TEDx talk ten years ago about light pollution, and since then she's continued to spread awareness of it. How it affects so much more than just being able to see stars in the sky. She told us about her favorite places to look at stars and what books she's currently into. She was so freaking cool, and I felt like I could listen to her talk all day.
After the tour wrapped up, the group of us explored the building a little more and then we just talked outside for a little. Because we were the last tour group of the day, the parking situation had cleared up considerably and so there was a nice calmness to the air. The observatory is such a chill place, and we stayed there until about 12:30am.
I'm really glad that I attended this tour. I guess Pittsburgh still does surprise me sometimes.
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