Why do people move and when do they move? What drives them to do that? As an immigrant from Singapore, I am not driven by economic reasons to go elsewhere.
Between October and February every year in the northern hemisphere, my brain betrays me and makes me very SAD. Here's a log of some of the things I've tried.
For most of my life, I've dreamed of a life full of weekend wilderness. Something about that just appealed to me. It's part an obsession with camping gear (all of the best innovations in fabric and materials exist here), and part a desperate aspiration for a different life where I could do things like that without sweating too much. Living in California lets me do that: without ants, cockroaches, sweat, or humidity! This past weekend, I went out with a group to Point Reyes' Wildcat campground and did a bunch of trails. The 2 nights I spent without a shower were worth it. The dehydrated backpacker food was not.
Some of you may know that I have spent the last 9 years or so working to support children's education in Jharkhand, India. In better times I visit them 2-3x a year. I want to share something that stuck with me the last time I went: one of the girls we work with showed us their daily schedule.
There comes a time when you might want to leave the Apple walled garden. Or you just want redundant backups. As part of your photo backup strategy, consider running a cron job to regularly backup your iCloud photos using this cli tool.
I returned to Singapore for some essential travel in the midst of a new COVID-19 surge. The hotel quarantine, initially set at 14 days, became 21 days. We were in a fancy hotel and I got a lot of time to work on side projects. From cooking to server work and learning, I am doing it all.
Once I could, I traveled fanatically and obsessively. I traveled all the time. I never wrote about those days as much as I imagined I would, despite minor blogging celebrity status in those days. I’m not sure why. I didn’t feel ready. I didn’t feel like I knew a lot. I was 18, and I didn’t know a thing at all. Maybe I still don’t, but with the passage of time I feel better equipped to tell those stories without only the romance.
My therapist says everyone is struggling with not being able to plan ahead for anything, right now. When your planning needs to involve multiple people, passports and locations, it looks a little bit like this.
I turn 35 tonight. When I was a younger queer kid I used to wonder, "what will life be like at 35?" Somehow, that age became the barometer for how happy I might be as a queer person in a place and time that was not friendly to any of that. So, what is it like?
I recently picked up my film camera again. I forgot how to rewind my film and accidentally leaked light all over the roll. I like the 'spoiled' look, however. In the roll, I have photos from Singapore and San Francisco, both of my homes.