July + August 2025

Life Events

Quick travel hits:

Went to Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Squamish. Absolutely loved it there, the pacific northwest is shockingly beautiful with how mountains are just omnipresent out in the distance. Discovered the perfect hike (Grouse Grind aka 2,830 stairs we did it in an hour 8), ate so many nanaimo bars, rented a kayak from a hulk hogan clone, saw lots of friends, and lifted in the world’s ideal gym which had an open garage door by the squat racks staring straight at a mountain and rowing on the television.
Quick pit stop down in DC for my mom’s birthday celebration, highly recommend Rania if you have $$$ to burn and love an elaborate cocktail presentation. We also got some time with my grandparents while we were down there :)
Baseball tour for my birthday took us to new york for red sox at yankees and 2x phillies at mets.
and then straight on from new york to chicago for a friend’s wedding celebration!! more and more I believe the play is just to get married casually and then throw a party later. plus two more baseball games: yankees at white sox and braves at cubs. Of those 5 games we saw 4 new stadiums and went 1-4 for teams we wanted to win.

For those keeping track (me and my taxes) that is 1.09 metric tons of carbon round trip to vancouver, 0.17 to/from DC, 0.12 new york to chicago, and 0.13 for the flight home. That’s a total of 1.51*$50 or a $38 donation each to CCE and CATF.

ALSO. I quit my job to start a new role at Harvard! I have been talking a big game about wanting to work in the education space for a while and finally found a role that feels like a smooth transition - a lot of the same tech and skills, but a different domain. I will miss my former colleagues so much, embarassingly so, because they are the best, but I also know they will continue to thrive

Making

Moon Set Tee by Ozetta

Margaux Top by Gregoria Fibers with yarn purchased in vancouver! my newest souvenier method

Media

BOOKS

The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin. 4.5/5. See also: N.K. Jemisin on the Borrowed & Returned podcast. N.K. Jemisin does worldbuilding fantastically, I have yet to pick up a book of hers and not be fascinated. The Fifth Season is set in a dystopian fantasy world where societies have evolved to survive through somewhat regular ecological events. This video discussed it well on how the dystopian lens really reflects a lot of what we’re facing with climate change and the legacy of slavery.

Redemptor, Jordan Ifueko. 4.5/5. Loved the first book in the series and enjoyed this one just as much. It did feel as though the central conflict that you’re faced with going from the first book into this one was not actually that central to this story which while confusing meant more time could be spent on anti-capitalist messaging and we do love to see that.

The Burning God, R.F. Kuang. 4/5. Man this book did such a good job of putting me in Rin’s increasingly suspicious headspace throughout the novel and then never confirming anything at all. That being said, I do wish more time was spent with the side characters instead of just in Rin’s head.