Just Bought Some Ink

This is quite sadistic: I like to watch cars stuck in traffic while walking home from work. It gives me the most satisfying feeling of relief because I’m not one of those cars anymore. I used to live 30mi from my job. I’d wake up at 6am, leave at 7am and sit in traffic until 8am. On a weekend, this drive would only take half an hour, but the highway is jam packed during rush hour. As you can imagine, I really hated this commute. I tried going to work at 10am to escape the traffic which helped a bit, but at the end of the day, I’ll have to drive for an hour to get home. My second solution was to wait for evening rush hour to pass; however, who’d want to stay at work until 8pm? I commend the mental fortitude of those who have worse commute times; however, I don’t have the tolerance to drive in rush hour everyday. Shortly after adopting this almost daily routine of driving 2 hours to and from work, I noticed a few changes in my mental state: When I arrive home, I’m so tired all I want to

If my resume showed my real experience, it would say: Media Content Consumer with 10 years of experience. The "Skills" section of the document would celebrate my proficiency in "browsing and curating hundreds of hours of content on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube." I'd be Senior-Staff in whatever company I applied for. Sadly there is no market for social media content consumer, because that's what everyone will do anyway, without monetary incentive. To change my habits, I wanted to attempt an internet detox. However, my background indicates low follow-through odds. I am an average 20-something with an iPhone. I like salivating to Instagram food porn, scrolling through my YouTube recommended list without actually watching any video, browsing weight-loss advice from reddit, and finally, watching League of Legends players complain about Riot Games on Twitch. I don't do all of those consistently but have had phases these past few years where that's all I&

How can one be grateful for unimpressive things like a can of tuna? In Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore -- the chillest citizen of the Hundred Acre Woods -- has a birthday party. Pooh and Piglet brought gifts: a jar of honey and a birthday balloon, respectively. Unfortunately on the way to the party, all the honey in the jar was eaten and the balloon was punctured. So Eeyore received an empty jar and a deflated balloon as gifts. However, instead of sulking over lackluster presents, Eeyore is delighted to be the proud new owner of a useful pot and an object which he can store in said useful pot.  On the other hand, I take many things for granted from the bath towels that keep me warm and dry to the rain that washes piss off the sidewalks. Gratitude comes from one's mindset, not from the object of affection. If I expected a gourmet breakfast buffet at the Ritz-Carlson, but only had a can of tuna, I'd be very disappointed. I could choose to focus on the fishy chalkiness of the tuna and yea

I would argue water is the best element out of all the elements available in the Pokédex because water is infinitely adaptable and it embodies the human experience more than fire, wind, or earth. One that adopts the philosophy of water will be unfazed by the ups and downs of life and find inner peace. Water is infinitely adaptable because it adopts the shape of the vessel that contain it. Anything that cannot adapt is bound to break. Most things aren't immortal because at one facet or another, they're unable to adapt to one or more changes in the environment. In humans, aging is the gradual erosion of the body's ability to adapt to stressors. For example, as one ages, their skin loses elasticity over time, making it vulnerable to wrinkles and tears. I practice the art of accepting the impermanence of all circumstances of life by embracing uncertainty in my day-to-day life. Instead of planning every minute of my day, I outline a few of the most important tasks I must get don

Imagine walking along a trail in the early morning. You see a beautiful sunrise in the distance and hear the calm lapping of water from the river next to your path. You feel calm and content for a moment. But your brain begins to obsess over how good the moment feels. You worry about your emotions returning to baseline after the experience ends. Intrusive thoughts enter your mind, "what did I do to feel so calm and content a minute ago?" and "how do I remember this feeling and process so that I can experience this happiness again?". When your mind begins to stray from the present moment and spiral into a rabbit hole of worry, you should take a break and journal. This is the perfect situation to write down your emotions and necessary cues to remind you of this experience and, most importantly how this experience made you feel. This is a process I call snapshot journaling because documenting experiences immediately after the fact is like taking a snapshot of one's

There’s nothing more calming than running around “lasvegas,” my quaint Animal Crossing town. I love zooming past the trees to chill, whimsical background music and heading to the Museum for some coffee at Brewster’s. These are the simple joys I cherish in Animal Crossing.  The game focuses around a human, the player, who moves into a town with talking animals. Typical game progression involves buying a house from a rich racoon and taking out loans to expand said house. However, upgrading your house doesn’t unlock much more new content, so one can forget about paying loans to Tom Nook the racoon and enjoy small town life. One lesson I’ve learned from Animal Crossing is how to enjoy random encounters. When I walked, I used to be solely focused on the destination; however, I realized I could encounter pleasant surprises along the way.  In Animal Crossing, I could be walking to the store, and a beautiful butterfly could cross my path or a balloon with a gift box could be floating in the sk

Do you want to relive the experience of being absorbed in your favorite book? Do you feel like your emotions control you? You can take back control over your emotions and mental state through conscious application of music. For example, gyms always play fast, up-beat music to get their lifters pumped and ready to beat PRs. However, music can actually be used to illicit very specific emotions depending on your experiences.  Any song can be encoded in your mind to represent any emotion or personal experience. This might be absurd, but here are a few examples of song and mental state pairs that I have. Kordhell "Murder in My Mind" is the single-pointed focus I feel when walking briskly through an airport, hell-bent on getting to my gate on time. Billie Eilish "Therefore I am" represents the contemplative state of mind where I can create ideas to write about. Palaye Royale "No Love in LA" reminds me of the struggle and perseverance needed to read papers that I