#91 Marlborough Nights
01 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Baseball came back today.
It seems like the simplest thing, but it’s giving me a ton of joy.
Of course it doesn’t hurt that the Phillies’ nailbiter of a game went the way I hoped and I’m happy about that.
It feels good to have stuff to get excited about again.
#92 Fifteen Freway
02 April 2021 // San Diego, California
It’s been two years since I last left the country. I never imagined I would stay put for this long.
I realize I’m extremely privileged in all sorts of ways to travel as much as I have. But I still miss it.
Travel fills my bucket. And it’s not just about the selfies at famous landmarks, the escape from my normal life, or getting to live in luxury for a bit on someone else’s. If I’m honest, those are the mindsets around travel that sometimes bug me. It’s always been less of an escape from MY life and more of a deeper engagement with LIFE.
While I’ve been deeply missing it and hope to hop on pretty much any plane once it feels reasonably responsible and ethical, I’ve managed to still find a few ways to keep appreciating, supporting, and learning from the world’s cultures at home.
#93 Torrey Pines Trail
03 April 2021 // La Jolla, California
Something I’ve needed to hear, and that I suspect many others need to hear as well:
One day, one day soon, you will travel again. You will stand in some mindblowing spaces. You will taste incredible foods. You’ll meet people who change the way you see the world, all for the better. You’ll go to a city for the first time and it’ll feel like somewhere your heart has known all its life. You’ll get lost without feeling lost. You’ll find stillness in motion. You’ll find confidence in uncertainty.
Just remember, travel is a privilege. We are very fortunate to have traveled. And we’ll be fortunate to travel again.
After all, travelers adapt. We assess where we are, and how to make the most of our time in the place right in front of us.
#94 Easter Reemergence
04 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Church in person, on the lawn. Rhys’ first egg hunt. Playtime with Cousin Zara. Hanging with Very New Cousin Ollie. Getting to settle down and watch My Octopus Teacher before bed (which is a profoundly beautiful film that makes you so thankful for nature, btw.)
Easter this year was unforgettable.
Life the past year has been full of question marks, heartbreaking losses, and changes in plan. But one thing my life has shown me is that you never know what joy might be lurking just out of sight. One thing I love about Easter’s Resurrection story is that there’s always more going on than our eyes know how to see.
I’ve been really feeling the words shared by Austin Channing Brown today: “This is an anxious time. There is so much grief and disappointment. But maybe. Just maybe the impossible has already happened. What if new life has already happened- and you just don’t understand it yet. Maybe hope has already returned. Maybe something special, something miraculous is already stirring. Maybe the pain and confusion is only part of your story. What if this isn’t the end, if you don’t understand what could possibly come next.”
#95 Enda
05 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Need something to feel good about this morning? The Sedona dog park exists!
We’ve taken Beignet to some good ones in her life, but this one may have taken the title from one outside Seattle as our all time fave.
This is in Sedona, Arizona and it offers views of the red rocks everywhere, an extension to the run-and-fetch area where the dogs can explore the natural woods, and an adjacent running trail.
#96 Bench Rhys
06 April 2021 // San Diego, California
I recently learned that one of my favorite anti-human trafficking organizations is doing a deep reworking in how they talk about the issue they work with. The big one being that they’re moving away from framing the issue as “modern day slavery” and their work as “abolition.”
Framing human trafficking as "modern slavery" and responses as "abolition" describes a lot of the language that I used when I first got really engaged with the issue. It energized me, and I repeated it. But there were issues there.
It co-opts the language of another cause. It decontextualizes it from the root of racism, which has not ended.
It also paints the work that needs to be done as strictly rescue, rather than prevention and reworking the systems that lead to trafficking.
I’m thankful for organizations that allow their practices to evolve, and who do so in a way that invites others to evolve as well.
#97 Lapatet
07 April 2021 // San Diego, California
What cities in the world seem to be doing things right?
I’ve got a short list:
+ Amsterdam
+ Taipei
+ Vienna
+ Vancouver
+ Barcelona
+ Kigali
+ Montevideo
+ Singapore
There are American cities I like, but I think that the U.S. context doesn’t let cities be as well running as they could be. I also think Montreal could maybe make this list, but I need to spend more time there.
#98 Bubble Chaser
08 April 2021 // San Diego, California
I haven’t been able to travel like this in a while. In the time since my last trip, I became a dad, we entered a global pandemic. I know that travel is a lifelong love of mine, and its a matter of time before I go out there, but I’m trying to be intentional around this hiatus to think through what role travel plays in my life.
See, I’ve started to discover that I really don’t like the aspect of travel where it’s all about the visitor’s comfort and excitement, getting the cool Instagram pictures, all while treating the local culture, the local people like a backdrop. Yes, I travel to enrich my life, to add value to my family’s life. But I hope I do so in a way based on connection.
I know, just by nature of how I now have kids, and how the world has totally changed since my last trip, travel won’t be the same. And that sounds scary sometimes, because I’ve loved the trips I’ve done so far. But I think it can be made even better, by going slower, focusing on more local connections, doing so more sustainably, and with a better focus on storytelling and learning.
#99 Salt & Straw Del Mar
09 April 2021 // Del Mar, California
1️⃣ We went to Arizona for some hikes and exploration the other week and it was Rhys’ first time out of state. Never imagined it would take this long for that to happen, but it was a great time. Here’s a highlight reel.
2️⃣ Absolutely mesmerized by the red soil we encountered on this trip. From the hiking trails to the dog park to the spaces best left untouched. Cryptobiotic soil and cyanobacteria is endlessly fascinating.
3️⃣ I think high deserts are becoming one of my favorite ecological settings.
4️⃣ We ran into just about every climate on the way out- from a pit stop in Yuma that already felt like summer, to the hikes we went on north of Sedona that came with some thick, fluffy snowfall.
5️⃣ Best purchase on the trip? We didn’t have adequate warm gear for Rhys, so we hopped into a thrift shop and got him a puffy down jacket so big it’ll probably still fit him in a year. The entertainment value of watching him float around in that big puff was well worth the six bucks.
#100 Auntie eLLA’S 88TH
10 April 2021 // Carson, California
I’m 30. I read between 20-50 books per year, which over the course of my lifetime amounts to a ton of books. I’m also Filipino American. So how many of those books have been by Filipino authors?
Three.
Jose Vargas’ Dear America, Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror, and Elaine Castillo’s America Is Not The Heart.
That’s why I was extremely happy to see that Bel Canto Books inside The Hangout in Long Beach had a whole Filipino writers section. It was the first time I’d seen anything like it. And it had novels, kids books, cookbooks, graphic novels.
Best believe I dropped over $100 on books in one swoop, and I feel really good about it.
#101 Wildflower Piecer
11 April 2021 // San Diego, California
First time in five years, but I finally upgraded my phone.
I hope that devices I own, like a phone, can have a lifespan of at least five years.
I also hope to only replace them with refurbished devices, and to still have old versions around as “backups.”
#102 Money With Melinh
12 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Angelo Quinta was a Filipino American veteran of the US Navy. He suffered from paranoia and anxiety. Two days before Christmas, his family called police to help deal with a severe episode. One of the responding officers knelt on his neck for five minutes while the other restrained his legs.
His family is waiting for the Antioch Police Department to respond to a legal claim.
I barely finished some art for Angelo Quinto featuring the words of his stepdad when I learned about Daunte Wright’s death this morning. Another Black life taken by law enforcement in Minnesota. There’s a lot more to be learned, but there are things we already know.
Like the fact that regardless of the circumstances, his son should still be able to be held.
Like the fact that we’ve seen these stories come up over and over again.
And the fact that we shouldn’t.
And the fact that there rarely seems to be any accountability for such things.
And the fact that these episodes happen in the name of public safety tell us who “safety is for” in our cities.
And the fact that the exhaustion of seeing the same story over and over, rehash the same debates over and over, without much change is a tactic of the forces that seek to keep it going.
But every act that sends the message that we’re still here, we’re still seeing these things unfold is an act of resistance. From protest to phone calls to art to amplification.
#103 pLAYGROUND pIECER
13 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Classically conditioned to think the Magic School Bus theme whenever honked at.
Despite having my own one-and-a-half year old, my mind still registers expecting/pregnant parents as way older than me. I know people half my age can be expecting parents, but still. Psychology, man.
#104 mISSION trails Evening Run
14 April 2021 // San Diego, California
In my mind, the two biggest compliments a piece of creative work can get are these:
This made me so thankful to be alive. It made me feel like I gained a new sense, and everything right now feels significant and precious.
I feel seen by this. I’ve never seen myself or my story reflected in a show/book/story/song so vividly as I have right now.
#105 Kain Na
15 April 2021 // San Diego, California
I’ve found it helpful, whenever facing a major decision, to take some time to think about how it moves you towards your ideal life… and to define what that life looks like.
There are a number of ways to do this, and they’re usually fun. What is your ideal day in the life? Week in the life? Year in the life?
I’m facing a few big decisions right now so I’m finding it helpful to look at my ideal dream week:
Family pizza and movie night every Friday
Starting each day with at least an hour of writing and deep work
2-5 days a week of childcare for Rhys, ideally at a language immersion preschool
Running 3-4 times a week, weights twice a week
Either filming/producing a video for my channel, or releasing it
Either planning (or going on) another trip/adventure!
One social activity Deanna and I do individually, one we can do as a couple/family
A hike, camping trip, beach day, etc.
Working twice a week at a co-working space, twice a week from a coffee shop
#106 Evening Run Crew
16 April 2021 // San Diego, California
The way things used to be is no longer.
The way things will be is not yet here.
🌚
Sounds a bit spooky and mysterious and maybe sort of promising, but also a little scary, doesn’t it?
Liminal space is a location of transition, somewhere in between origin and destination. An empty hallway of lockers two weeks before school starts. An empty King’s Cross Station in Harry Potter. And also my life lately, and probably yours as well.
🌀
For the past year, we’ve been doing things pretty unsustainably. Almost every project in my life has been a multitask. The childcare juggling when no other options in a pandemic exist is a lot. And strangely, looking at day care and other options right now also feels a bit unsettling and foreign. Sometimes you get used to what was, and even unambiguously positive change is an upstream swim. And that’s just one of many liminal areas for us right now!
I typically love change, and The past year has made me hungrier than ever for certain changes. Systemic changes. Personal life changes. STILL, I recognize the resistance. It’s real. Leaving the familiar-even one with many flaws-is always a push. It’s no excuse for why we should allow ages old injustices to exist, but it is a bit of a clue as to what we’re up against.
There’s eerieness and optimism. Anger over the worst of the ways things have been. Hope in imagining what could be different. Exhaustion over all the moving parts and the struggle to find footing.
I’m not even sure if this will seem like an ambiguous rant or if it’ll resonate with so many people who I suspect are looking at a similar thing.
#107 Oak of Ojai
17 April 2021 // Ojai, California
Once again at a crossroads of so many possibilities and so few certainties. So much is both exciting but also a little unnerving.
It kind of feels like we’re at a good cliffhanger spot of an interesting TV series.
How do we resolve our childcare situation? What will work look like when the world opens up? Where will we live by the end of the summer? End of the year?
These questions are lingering. Trying to enjoy the present time despite all the uncertainty, but also, I’d love to get some answers!
#108 Club Cocomelon
18 April 2021 // Los Angeles, California
Here’s an odd thing I do... poke around on Google Maps for fun. Sometimes I humor my curiosity about what life looks like in extremely northern towns in Canada, or as remote as street view let’s me go in Mongolia.
Occasionally I do this in places closer to home, and that led to me getting really interested in Greer, Arizona. Google let me see that:
🌊 It was at the fork of two rivers
🌄 User uploaded photos were great
🚶🏾A few hiking trails ran through
🧂 Most businesses were lodged
So how was it? Eh. But part of the fun of exploring is finding out for myself.
#109 wrAPPED rICE
19 April 2021 // San Diego, California
The past two to three weeks have been full of so many moving parts-particularly when it comes to my job and wondering how we’ll be making everything fit together or if we’re making the best decisions possible.
I loved actually getting to slow down enough to hear the verse lyrics to the song We All Have by Julia Stone–
Don't be concerned about your car not working
Boy you're losing it
Don't be confused about these games you're playing
You are choosing it
Leave it alone now just need time
This fit so well.
#110 The Hidden Life of Trees
20 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Derick Chauvin was guilty on all three counts of George Floyd’s murder. This week, the jury affirmed it.
Like Brandi Miller says, “there is no good outcome in a racist policing and justice system, but there are better ones.”
As much as I want to say justice was served, justice looks like a world where Floyd is still here and where millions of Black Americans don’t have to worry about the same outcomes.
#111 Bookshelf Vlog
21 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Tomorrow is Earth Day, thus I thought I’d share some of my favorite recent reads on forests, trees, and moss that I’ve loved.
These are all members of nature that are easy to take for granted because we see them all the time. But there is so much we don’t know about these pieces of plant life that even the smallest slice of recent research and ancient knowledge can be astonishing.
If you’re wanting to step up your sustainability game, wonder is a great place to start.
🌲
The Hidden Life of Trees underscores some of the amazing ways trees behave in a community. Not only does this book underscore the importance of old growth forests, but it offers the reminder that we can learn so much from trees.
🌳
That book was actually the inspiration to The Overstory- an expansive novel that follows at least twelve characters, often through multiple generations. The connectedness of trees is clearly the inspiration of showing how connected we are as people, and our connection to the Earth. And somehow Richard Powers manages to do this without feeling preachy at all.
🌿
And then there’s moss. I’ve shared my appreciation for moss here before and Robin Wall Kimmerer (widely known for Braiding Sweetgrass) is behind so much of that appreciation. Her book on moss was the starting point to this recent obsession.
#112 Little Italy Walk
22 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Happy Earth Day everybody!
🌎🌍🌏
Over the past year, I’ve found myself more fascinated than ever with life on Earth. I’ve gone through phases of deep curiosity around mosses, maples, cryptobiotic soil, bears, waterbears, and junipers.
Why now? Can’t say. But I’m loving what I’m learning... not just about nature but from nature.
🌿🌿🌿
I’ve been learning that life isn’t about maximizing your resources as it is about optimizing them. Living in a culture that seems to only prioritize MORE kind of makes you underestimate the value of ENOUGH.
🌲
I’ve been learning from the way trees rush in to help other trees in need- rerouting nutrients underground. I recall the way many of you rushed in To get over $1000 sent to AAPI groups last month off of one post! Mutual aid and support is a core component of community development and organizing and the forest is a fantastic example.
🌲
I’ve been learning that no fancy bit of carbon capture technology can rival the optimization of an old growth deciduous forest... let alone it’s beauty. While we’re often mesmerized by what’s new, our most innovative ideas are almost always something ancient made new for a current generation.
🌲
I’ve been learning that the path to restoration isn’t just about rescuing every single plant or creature from the brink- it’s about healing the ecosystem. In a society full of misinformation, racist beliefs, and toxic ideas, We don’t need to enter each debate. Our focus can be on taking care of the broader ecosystem where these ideas and different ideas can take root.
#113 Playground Piecer
23 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Happy Earth Day! Getting to work as a climate communicator really is a gift. While things can feel heavy often, I do get to spend about half my time learning about how life on Earth connects, and the other half inspiring people with those connections.
To celebrate Earth Day, I thought I would share a bunch of recent stories, pieces of media, art, etc. related to the environment that I’ve been inspired by over the past year.
First up- the documentary My Octopus Teacher (available on Netflix). It’s beautiful, mesmerizing, and awe-invoking.
Completely Arbortrary is perhaps my new favorite podcast. Every episode is an accessible, playful, but richly informative look at a specific tree species. Unsurprisingly, my favorite episodes thus far tend to correspond with my favorite trees: sugar maple, gingko, lodgepole pine
How To Save a Planet is a podcast by Alex Blumberg (Planet Money) and one of my favorite current climate communicators, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Some of my favorite episodes: Is Your Carbon Footprint BS? The Beef With Beef and Party Like It’s 2035
GreenWave is an organization that focuses on promoting regenerative kelp farming that How To Save a Planet introduced me to. Regenerative farming is all abuzz right now, and its amazing potential for good applies to seaweed very well too.
Our Changing Climate is a YouTube channel that does an excellent job of unpacking certain concepts in environmentalism. Some of my favorite episodes of his include the ones on Evo Morales, planned obsolescence, and eco-fascism.
Future Earth is consistently one of my favorite social media accounts and I love how they turn data and complex information into pretty sleek visuals.
Of course, the best way to celebrate Earth Day isn’t in front of a screen, but out and about in nature.
Before you do, though, do check out The Problem With America’s National Parks on The Explainer. No, this one isn’t going to make you feel guilty about camping in Sequoia, but it’ll add nuance to all the glowing histories you read about the National Parks written by the agency.
#114 Run Bird Park
24 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Here’s an odd thing I do... poke around on Google Maps for fun. Sometimes I humor my curiosity about what life looks like in extremely northern towns in Canada, or as remote as street view let’s me go in Mongolia.
Occasionally I do this in places closer to home, and that led to me getting really interested in Greer, Arizona. Google let me see that:
🌊 It was at the fork of two rivers
🌄 User uploaded photos were great
🚶🏾A few hiking trails ran through
🧂 Most businesses were lodged
So how was it? Eh. But part of the fun of exploring is finding out for myself.
#115 Salted Egg Chips
25 April 2021 // San Diego, California
I never think I’m gonna have opinions about the Oscars but then the awards start and I realize who I’ve been pulling for all along (you go, Octopus!)
This week, Halmoni won an Oscar.
I loved Youn Yuh Jung’s acceptance speech. I mean, we all did pretty much, but I loved the ending acknowledgement of ‘mommy working so hard.’ It struck a note of both playful and brutally honest at the same time that felt so familiar. So often you hear of how migrant parents, women of color, or other underestimated people need to work twice as hard to make it half as far. It’s an understatement if anything.
I grew up hardly ever seeing anyone who looked like myself on a screen, let alone my grandma. And while celebrity accolades aren’t usually of much interest to me, I will celebrate every accomplishment that makes that less true for my kid.
#116 Upper Balboa
26 April 2021 // San Diego, California
I watched a screening of Minari about two months ago, but I still think about it quite a bit.
One of the things I really love about the film is how specific it is to the family’s experience, and yet somehow in it’s specificity, it manages to feel very universally relatable. So many Korean American friends and Asian Americans have talked about how familiar the movie’s world felt.
For example, the family we follow tries to revive a farm in rural Arkansas to make a living. That’s an extremely specific scenario, but people can relate to so many themes, like intergenerational relationships or feeling out of place.
I love the ecological metaphors in the movie, largely because I work to promote regenerative agriculture.
In one of the scenes, you have Paul, a hired American farmhand tell the Korean dad to space his crops out further, because otherwise they’d compete over resources. He notes it’s an American way of planting.
Interestingly, in nonindustrial, regenerative farming practices, it’s more beneficial to plant diverse crops in a shared space strategically, so the relationships between them, their roots, and the soil can all be mutually beneficial.
More recent scientific discoveries have found that while sometimes parts of an ecosystem “compete” over resources, they’re just as likely to “cooperate.” We’re just less likely to see this in a culture that prizes competition.
One of the big losses you see throughout the movie is the loss of community solidarity, and how that’s something so many migrant families experience.
Regenerating community solidarity is one of the most valuable things to invest in.
#117 Crib Kidddd
27 April 2021 // San Diego, California
Growing up, I would always hear my relatives reference Filipino mythical creatures- mostly aswangs, which they told me were witches, but I’m now realizing that they’re completely their own category of spooky beings.
Just recently I’ve taken a deeper interest in these mythologies, and I’m realizing one thing I want to do sometime in life (whenever time exists again) is to write a YA fantasy story largely incorporating all these beings.
I know I have a lot to learn first about all the creatures I’ve only heard described in part. But I have the feeling this research is going to be really fun.
#118 A Pizza With Everything On It
28 April 2021 // San Diego, California
I went into the new decade with one big intent—to make sure I was taking the time to love the process.
In the book The Practice, Seth Godin does a pretty stellar job of explaining how in an industrial world, we’re conditioned to value outputs. This leads to us being so motivated by checking stuff off our lists that we no longer enjoy the actual moments where we’re doing those things.
This can be true in day-to-day things-like being so motivated to finish writing an article that you’re no longer getting pumped over the process of choosing words, giving life to ideas, or creating a narrative. This can be true in bigger picture things like being so rushed to get married that you don’t enjoy the sweet early stages of dating as much.
I run into it all the time with my creative work and I run into it all the time with Rhys. It’s easy to be allured by the promise of a new age or milestone and the bits of independence that brings. But I don’t want to be asleep to the fact that I’m currently living in one of the sweetest seasons of my life.
I get asked about productivity a lot, but I honestly don’t value productivity as much as I value process. I like reminding myself that a lot of the things I make or do, I do largely because it’s fun!
#119 Woah
29 April 2021 // San Diego, California
My life is not normal, and I get that. There are so many ways my life just doesn’t fit the script of what you’d expect from someone my age living in my part of the world-good or bad.
Deanna’s health challenges. The long wait and low likelihood of Rhys’ birth. The challenging family environment I had growing up. These are all things that didn’t go the way they’re “supposed to.”
But same with the way I’ve wound up with a dream job that’s part of a dream life. Or the way I’ve gotten to see nearly 50 countries. Or have the family life I do now.
With all the unlikelihoods that have become my reality… I guess it’s tempting to think I’ve already met my quota. But who ever said anything about a quota.
Today I’ve learned about a 1-in-500-million kind of thing that just happened to me that will forever alter the course of my life.
I’m thankful but also, just astounded.
#120 Balboa Trail Run
30 April 2021 // San Diego, California
I made a new video where I:
🗺 Talk about using Google Maps to explore the world.
🏘 Share literally everything I know about an Arizona town with a population of 40 people.
🪱 Obsess over cryptobiotic soil and high deserts.
🌊 Ford a barely unfrozen river with a one year old strapped to my back.
Video has been my creative outlet lately and I have a lot of fun making these. Enjoy! And find me on YouTube for more.