March 1, 2026 5:26 PM
Go go go
Oh man, it's already March. Time flies when you're...sick I guess. Seriously, I caught some sort of cold this past week and after a few days I completely lost track of which day of the week it was. Usually that means you're not doing any work, but I feel like I've been working this whole time. I keep telling myself that I'm going to take a sick day, but it just feels like I'm taking a lot of "work-from-home" days.
I've just been go go go with my projects and with all the other paperwork and phone calls that I had to do. I logged about 80 hours of work on WTCS in February. I worked on it every single day. I recently watched this ConcernedApe video, and he talked about how he pushed really hard during the last 6 months preceding the launch of Stardew Valley. That's kind of how I feel about WTCS. We had a meeting, and the project manager asked me if it was possible to get the admin editing mode working in 5.5 weeks, and while I never promised him that I would do that, I said that it is possible and now I'm just like "I GOTTA GET THIS DONE"
Some people procrastinate. I feel like I'm the opposite. I see that I have a deadline and it eats at me until I get whatever I need to done. Speaking of deadlines, I did my taxes! And even though they were a bit more complicated than I'd like, I got it all done in one day.
The non-profit stuff is...progressing. I think. I will admit that I have moments where I start to panic a little inside and think "I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing-what-if-I'm-doing-everything-wrong" as I'm googling and reading lots of articles and reddit posts. But eventually I take a deep breath and remind myself that I'm doing the best I can.
I feel like I'm so close to getting rid of all the kitchen ingredients I'm trying to use up. Really, I just need to be done with my ground cloves. Everything else that I have, I know I can find a use for. But these cloves expired in 2017 and I can only make so much chicken shawarma. Once I'm done with the cloves I think that I'll officially say that my quest is over.
I bought a sweatshirt the other day. I want to buy more clothes that are cozy or make me feel good. I scheduled a haircut for later this week. I haven't had a nice, professional hair cut in like...8 years? But I think it's time for one.
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)
August 7, 2025 7:22 PM
My year so far
Life is pretty good right now.
I think I had been a bit stressed out for a few months. I had to handle a never-ending stream of paperwork for my dad and aunts. I was worried about my finances and my relationship. I seemed to go on a lot of trips and it was getting to be too much for me. But after I got back from my family's annual vacation about a month ago, I've felt a lot more calm.
I've mentioned that I'm trying to cut back on caffeine. Being at home for our camping trip set me back a little bit, but since then I've been really good about not really having any caffeinated coffee, and I think my body feels better because of it. But honestly, I still really like coffee and in my ideal life, I'd be sipping on coffee all day. My non-dairy decaf iced coffees have been pretty good at satiating me though.
I started working on Teochew stuff again. I was worried about jumping back into it, but I think I needed it, for my own fulfillment. First it was just my own site, but now I'm part of the WhatTCSay web team! It honestly feels really good to work on a project that I care about. And it's nice to have a small team to work with again.
Of course that means my food blog has not been updated in a while. That's okay. I'll get back to it when the inspiration strikes. I have been cooking regularly, but I'm trying to not worry so much about always having food ready to eat. It's okay if I buy grocery store sushi or indulge in fun limited time offerings at Aldi.
I want to do more dance gaming and bouldering and crocheting and reading and exploring. I have so many ideas in my head, and I know I'll never have enough time to do everything. But I'm still choosing to take things as slow as I can, because it feels good to live life inefficiently.
March 14, 2025 3:18 AM
People watching
I walked outside at 2am today to look at the moon because, well, it's a clear night and these are the things I quit my job to be able to do. Not to specifically look at a lunar eclipse, but to just take advantage of a moment to stare at the sky late at night and not feel bad about it.
As I was walking, I saw someone climb out of their window and sit, probably to stare at the moon. I saw a few people standing at the neighborhood green space, probably staring at the moon. I saw a girl walk by me, and then I saw her walk back past me in the other direction, and I knew she wanted to look at the moon too. I later passed by her a third time, and she was leaning against a pole, looking up at the sky.
I looked up as well, but I kind of enjoy observing the people observing the sky more.
February 10, 2025 11:45 PM
One month in
How's retirement?
I don't think I ever mentioned this earlier, but there was one morning late last year where my right eye started twitching. I was pretty upset the night before and I had been crying, so I figured it was just a side effect of that. But even after a few days, the twitching did not go away. My right eye would twitch many times every day for over a month. And I think that my left eye would twitch occasionally as well.
Well, I realized a couple of weeks ago that my eye stopped twitching. I think it's because I have more sleep and less stress.
And less coffee! I've noticed in the past that if I have a day where I don't drink any coffee, there's a very good chance that I'll get a headache that just lasts all day. So I wanted to slowly remove my dependence on caffeine. I did get a few headaches this past month, but I think I'm actually past the withdrawal headaches now. I'm currently drinking it every other day-ish, and man, I can really feel the difference. I didn't realize how big of an effect caffeine had on my system, and it affects me all day. When I don't have it, it's like I never truly wake up.
Don't get me wrong, I love coffee. But I just want it to be a nice treat and not some habit that my life depends on.
So to wake up every day, I've been trying to have a really solid morning routine. I make sure to put on moisturizer (with SPF!) every morning (even on cloudy days!). I'll leisurely make myself breakfast (by that I mean a real balanced breakfast with vegetables and protein). And I'll either read a book or the paper (yeah, I get the neighborhood paper delivered).
And then if I have time, I'll try to write a journal entry. Not a blog entry, but a handwritten page in a physical journal. Of course I've been trying to blog more as well. I've already written so many food blog entries this year! I'm happy about that, but I already feel like I might be adding them (as well as cooking) at an unsustainable pace. So I'm trying to figure out the right balance for that. Oddly enough, mixing blogging with doing more technical updates makes it a lot more enjoyable. I'm currently working on getting all my active projects on github!
Right now my focus is mainly food and finances, but I'm also trying to make sure that I socialize with others. (I really feel like this was lacking for me all of last year.) It's been really good to be able to eat out or cook with a friend, to attend game nights, and to talk to people at meetups. I'm still pretty quiet most of the time, but even the smallest interaction with someone makes a big difference to me.
I definitely have some down days and sometimes it's hard to get myself to do the more "productive" things that I planned to do. So I'm also trying to be kind to myself. I know I don't have to cook every day. It's okay if I waste an hour (or more) watching youtube or browsing social media.
And so last night, after I had spent a couple of hours watching highlights of the Super Bowl and reading reactions on Reddit, I decided to make myself some hot chocolate and play some Stardew Valley. It was already past midnight, but I knew I didn't have to wake up early the next day, and I had a pretty cozy time just rearranging my farm.
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