pH Balance

The first month of 2023 gone, just like that! If you haven’t been keeping up with your New Year’s Resolutions (or if you haven’t made any attempts at self-improvement at all), consider February a do-over. Instead of New Year’s resolutions, see if you can stick to a habit for just a month. Now that everyone’s…

I’m a terrible storyteller at parties. They often go like this: “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence, and I don’t even know where it’s going. I just hope I find it along the way. Like an improv conversation. An improversation.” Michael Scott, The Office (Season 5, Episode 11: “The Duel”) I often include either too much…

I often read Wikipedias of movies, TV shows, and books I enjoy. It’s a great way to keep engaging with a piece after I’m done with it, and to learn more about the stuff that I enjoy. My favorite parts are often controversies and misconceptions regarding the pieces. Over the past week or so, I’ve…

Pro tip: if the first of the month is a Sunday, then that month will have a Friday the 13th. Pause and think back to a female hero you grew up admiring. If it takes you more than a few seconds, then stop reading this post and Google “Angela Davis,” “Grace Hopper,” or “Minerva McGonogall.”…

When I was younger, I always thought I would be a writer. It was probably because I liked reading so much—I could go anywhere and meet anyone. Eventually, reading wasn’t enough, and I began writing my friends and I into our favorite stories. The wide-ruled pages are still in my closet, complete with chicken-scratch handwriting…

End of year lists— if Obama does it, it must be a good idea. Not all of these came out in 2022, but they’re things that made 2022 a lot more interesting (and fun). books movies & tv music

I find it amazing that Angela Davis is still alive and still an activist. She made professor and the FBI’s most wanted list at 26, so I have something to work towards in the next year or so. In a recent video, Davis urges us to think about the artistic components of activism as more…

Listening to Dissect always reminds me that much of the music we listen to is a bricolage of beats, sounds, and lyrics of music. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that: standing on the shoulders of giants is a given in any field. Furthermore, sampling builds upon culture and creates conversation with past artists and producers.…

Side note, if you’ve ever wondered what the official, linguistic name for the syntactic, repetitive phenomenon in the title is (i.e. mad mad), it’s called contrastive focus reduplication release the kraken 🦑 Much of being able to control your temper comes from not really having anything to be angry about. Sure, there are people who…

I’ve been slowly but surely making my way through the latest season of Stranger Things (no spoilies!). When watching the show, which is set in the ’80s, I think about the things they choose as cultural references: Eggo Waffles, Kate Bush, Ted Bundy. Things they would understand, and things that we, the modern-day viewers would…