February 3, 2026 5:44 PM
Funemployed
So are you still funemployed?
Yeah, I guess you could say that. It kind of feels like I'm working two jobs right now. Two...volunteer jobs 😵 Almost every morning I write a little bit in my journal and I make this whole checklist of everything I want to get done that day. Honestly, I really like writing my daily TODO list. And since I hate working from my apartment, I've just been finding different places to work: the library, coffee shops, The Space. (I was feeling very blah being cooped up from the snowstorm) Today I'm writing this blog post from the climbing gym.
I felt very emotionally exhausted on the first day of the year, and my emotions have been aaalll over the place during this month, partly because stuff with The Space has been so up in the air. Right now, I feel pretty good though.
So we are going forward with the whole turning The Space into a nonprofit thing and I am trying to make sure we do everything that we're supposed to do. Honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing. But I'm trying to do a lot of research and reach out to more knowledgeable people (and man it always feels like I'm bothering people 😬). I spent two weeks writing bylaws. I've already made more phone calls and emails than I'd like. I'm consulting with a lawyer for the first time in my life. But it finally feels like we have a clear path forward, and things are coming together.
Speaking of The Space, we held LEFTS, and despite the fact that I got attacked by inanimate objects twice in one day, I still had a great time.
Working on what I'll call "admin submission mode" for WhatTCSay has been a lot. It's probably more work to add this one feature than it was to do every other code change I've done for this project all combined. And I've even started tracking how long I spend on this project. It's good to be able to make incremental changes and get feedback on them though! Every time I make one change, I get three more suggestions on things to improve and I just file it all away for now because I'm trying to get an MVP out.
I've been working on WTCS so much that I haven't had time to actually, you know, practice my teochew. I am trying to squeeze in just a little bit of teochew flashcards (from my own website!) every day. I think it does help a little, but I'm itching to do more! Today I added two new words to learningteochew! If I even just added one new word a day, or spent a little bit of time watching a teochew video, I could learn so much more.
As for an update on my clean-everything-out-of-my-kitchen goal, I'm down to 19 ingredients! (and two of them are cayenne 🥵) I've crossed out a lot of items, but I think it'll still be months before I get through everything. For the most part, it feels really good to be able to get through an ingredient. But there was one night where I tried to make a microwave cookie in a mug (with my last bit of chocolate chips!) and the microwave literally DID NOT TURN OFF after the timer was up. I ended up with an extra burnt cookie. 😩
Dan and I did spend a week in Philly, and I will admit that it was really nice to not feel any obligation to cook things for a few days. During one of the days I tried to find my favorite instant noodle (Mama mi, flat rice noodles, clear soup, green package). We went into every single grocery store in Chinatown, and we did not see it anywhere 🙃
I'm really looking forward to it getting warmer, so I can get out to the clothing store, because I'm in desperate need of new clothes. Two of my jeans ripped in the crotch area last week! I'm down to only one pair of non-ripped jeans! I've also got this huge pile of laundry that I need to do. We did laundry last week. I think there's two loads worth of clothes that need to be washed now, but the washing machine at the apartment building is currently broken. There's always some issue with the laundry at least once every other month. I know I've said in the past that I like doing laundry, but no, not this much 😑
But to end on a positive note, one of my friends started making this really cool online game that I won't name since it's just in beta testing, but it's made me so happy to play a little bit each day, and I'm even hoping that one day I'll be able to contribute to it! (once I'm a little less busy with my adult responsibilities)
January 4, 2026 7:49 PM
Happy New Year
Man, 2025 was absolutely nothing like I expected it to be. I was looking forward to a year of relaxing, a year of doing things for me. It didn't really feel that way. And I want to get my thoughts out, so buckle up and click on Continue Reading if you want to see a recap of my past year, and what I'm hoping for the year to come.
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.
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