For a fuller view of my writing beyond my recent posts, dive in below and peruse as much or as little as you’d like. I write about a wide range of topics from WordPress to Surrogacy to Photography to Mental Health. Don’t follow me if you want to only hear about a certain topic as I write based on what comes up for me in that moment of time. As always, thanks for reading.
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Thoughts on UX
UX. User experience. User interface. Human focused design. It’s odd – every conference, youtube video, TED talk, etc. I’ve listened to/watched has all talked about how this design is meant to make it easier for a person (user) to complete an action basically. Look at how easy it is to tweet! Look at how many images I can upload to Instagram! Look at how easy it is for me to find the next YouTube video to watch! Look at how much time I’ve wasted. When I was young (late 90s, early 2000s), I remember having dial up internet. What a…
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Why I’m tracking my vacation time part 2
In part 1, I set out to track how many days I took off from work. It’s been successful thus far in that I am tracking the time. It’s been unsuccessful in me actually taking time off though. I took a step back today and have implemented a couple of things to help make sure I remain balanced for the long term. One of these is tracking my vacation time. As of last week, I had officially only taken 10.5 days off (including holidays, sick days, vacation days, etc.). Apparently, I don’t get sick often and must really hate holidays and…
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Make note of this
When I was 16, I witnessed a traumatic accident where a soccer teammate of mine was slammed into a garage door by another teammate at a fundraising car wash. I can’t say I’ve been the same since. Tomorrow, I’m going to the World Cup finals – something I planned on doing for years that’s finally become a reality. I’m not much of a bucket list type person (more of a just-go-for-it type but not in an impulsive way) but if I had a bucket list this would be at the top. To make it even better, the US is playing in…
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A proposal for a new emotion
Inspired by yet another one of these pop culture posts about words that describe feelings that we can’t put into words, I have a proposal for a new emotion/word: The feeling of changing your social media profile picture. I’m completely off of social media but today I was spiffying up my other site when I changed one of the main pictures on there and was struck with that old familiar feeling that I used to have when updating my social media profiles. It’s amazing how much websites and social media can be an extension of the self. You know that feeling… You have a picture…
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Watching the masters at work
The greatest education in the world is watching the masters at work. – Michael Jackson I work on the VaultPress team and just finished trying to clear out a very hacked site. One of my favorite parts of the job has been diving into the security side of things purely because some of the hacks can be so creative and brilliant. Our team had a meetup in New Zealand. While there, we did an pair programming exercise to try to create the Game of Life. At one point, I was paired up with my team lead. Watching him work was incredibly mesmerizing…
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There aren’t any words
At 5:35AM Wednesday morning, I watched my mom climb into the taxi that had just pulled up to take her to the airport. My adventure with her was over but it has been one that will stay with me always. My mom and I have always wanted to travel together. We’ve talked about it like someone on a diet talks about eating a piece of chocolate cake. We craved it. My mom and I haven’t always been close. There’s a generation gap that often has caused us to butt heads. With time and a lot of conversation, we’ve reached a point where…
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A Friday in Vancouver
My mom came into town at the last minute after a friend bailed coming up to Vancouver (she got VERY sick). My mom and I have always talked about traveling together but it’s never been a reality we could reasonably pursue. Coming to Vancouver suddenly became the perfect opportunity to start our world travels. Fortunately, my mom managed to get a flight that perfectly matched my days off. Friday started with an awesome breakfast and a trip to the Vancouver Art Gallery where my art history obsessed mother went nuts over the 500 Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums. I always forget…
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A Day In the Life of a Nomad Happiness Engineer
I didn’t plan to travel a lot this summer. I knew I’d be headed home and to the World Cup but suddenly the list of travel destinations this summer has grown: Vancouver Portland, OR Philadelphia, PA Pittsburgh, PA Washington, DC Boulder, CO Orlando, FL San Francisco, CA Possibly LA or San Diego, CA I’m in Vancouver currently camped out for the month. From there, I’ll spend the next two months in most of those locations listed above. Needless to say, this confounds people including, apparently, border control: Canadian Border Control: “Why are you here?” Me: “For the World Cup!” 🙂 Canadian Border…
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UBC Bike Ride
The owners of the airbnb where I am staying have been nice enough to leave behind a bike for me to use. As a kid, biking was my forte and my go to method of transportation. I’m still too fearful to bike in San Francisco but have heard awesome things about how Vancouver was basically built with bikes in mind. With that knowledge giving me courage, I set out on a bike ride yesterday. I was only expecting to go 6 or so miles and ended up on a beautiful 10.5 miler. Note that this was after a lifting session…
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Japan vs Switzerland
While I want the US to win, I was incredibly excited at the chance to see Japan, the previous World Cup champs, play. In particular, I was itching to see the footwork by the Japanese legend, Homare Sawa. I was expecting a straightforward game where Japan would dominate the play of the ball while running the Swiss team around in circles chasing them. I was also expecting to have decent but not great seats. I got a stadium half pass 9 months ago that was on the cheaper side of the options. I wasn’t sure where I’d be or what…
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The Adventure Begins: World Cup 2015
I couldn’t sleep Friday night. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was nervous about traveling or if I was just too excited for it all to actually happen. Let me give some background information… In March 2011, it was announced that the World Cup would be in Canada. At this point, it was around my birthday my senior year of highschool. I realized then that in 4 years, I would have just graduated from college along with my friends which would make for the PERFECT time to travel across the border to go see our heroes play. Mind…
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A dog and his owner
“She’s adorable” Looks down at his dog as if he’s talking to her. Looks back up at me. “Funny you say that – she was just telling me the same thing about you”
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A perfect evening
Shut my computer at 4pm, threw on running shoes, and headed off to run up 22nd street. 20 minutes later, I was sitting in Dolores park enjoying the peaceful view in the image above. I walked slowly back to my apartment to grab my wallet before heading to the 22nd street market. Half a roasted chicken and a side of rosemary salted potatoes quickly made it into my arms followed up by fresh picked strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries (because how do you decided between them?!). To top things off, I headed to Sidewalk Juice for a smoothie before making my way…
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Dwelling
I’m the master of dwelling. I can think about the same situation over 1,000 different ways and still not move on. It reminds me of a quote by Jonathan Foer: “Does it break my heart, of course, every moment of every day, into more pieces than my heart was made of, I never thought of myself as quiet, much less silent, I never thought about things at all, everything changed, the distance that wedged itself between me and my happiness wasn’t the world, it wasn’t the bombs and burning buildings, it was me, my thinking, the cancer of never letting…
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Public Shaming
Jon Ronson just might be my new favorite author. I recently finished his book “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” and consistently felt like I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough while reading it. It basically deep dives into the world of social media shaming where, for example, one inappropriate tweet gets shown to millions thanks to the ability to retweet, screenshot, etc. It’s hard to know how things go viral but, when they do and when it’s bad, it can have disastrous effects. Have you ever Googled yourself? I just did and, thanks to a semi-famous casting director with the…
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Those are days to rest and to feel.
It’s one of those days again. One of the days where I seek out everything to distract me and to help me cope. I woke up this morning and felt it. I knew it immediately. For starters, I slept way longer than I normal would yet still felt tired. My first instinct: cope. I first tried getting myself to go walk and get coffee. “Fresh air is good for you, right? Getting out of the house is always needed!” After dragging myself to the coffee shop, murmuring my order to the barista, and watching everyone else waiting for coffee stare blankly…
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Koko vs. Happier
Any chance I have to dive into the world of psychology + technology, I jump at the opportunity. Koko and Happier are two apps that have caught my attention as they are similar in what they want to help change but different in their approach. Since I’ve been an active user for both apps, work for a tech company, and have a background in psychology, I figured it would be fun to write up a post comparing the two. Keep in mind, these are just my opinions. Without further adieu… Koko Short summary: An app that lets users voice their…
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Being social without social media
“What! You’re having a baby?!” I wish I was kidding. Rather than finding out through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, whatever, I found out 8 months late that someone was pregnant. Fortunately this wasn’t a close friend but it’s someone I knew well enough that I should have probably known. Put a bit better, if I was still on social media then I DEFINITELY would have known. Being social in a world so centered on social media leaves me in some awkward moments. Like not knowing someone got a new car and almost getting in the wrong one in a parking lot…
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You can never have too many people who love you
“You fight your battles in the world, but you close your door and there’s comfort,” she said. “Now there was no door to close. I wanted to meet another family with a dwarf child, and I wanted to meet a happy adult. I kept in constant motion until I found them. Then I began to breathe again.” Excerpt from Far From The Tree by Andrew Solomon I’m a surrogate baby. To be specific, a traditional surrogate baby meaning that my birthmom is my genetic mother. I’ve never met another surrogate who knew that they were surrogate babies. I have, on one occasion,…
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Being open about introversion
“Why don’t you like Dolores Park? It’s so pretty and alive.” I was asked this recently and paused momentarily before responding. There’s always the initial gut reaction to say something an extroverted millennial would say: “Oh I mean I LOVE it. How could you not? I just feel so carefree and happy here surrounded by all of these people!” It’s much easier to say that and move on with the conversation. I’ve found for me though that if I don’t say something about scenes I like, I get invited to go to places and events that I don’t really enjoy by…
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How to make yourself miserable
Adjusting to San Francisco hasn’t been the easiest for me in some ways. The following post is how I made this transition even harder on myself. As a result, I present to you guidelines for how to make yourself miserable. Unrealistic expectations Don’t eat sweets! Don’t drink caffeine! Try new recipes everyday! Code everyday! Workout everyday! Don’t make a plan about how to do this but just set unrealistic expectations and make sure to set them all at the same time so there’s no way to 1) come up with a plan and 2) truly succeed. Take on too much…
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This sense of a life so extraordinary
These two feelings, this knowledge of a world so awful, this sense of a life so extraordinary – how am I to resolve them? – Richard Flanagan When I was still using Facebook, I used to post quotes rather than personalized statuses about the great sandwich I ate or awesome run I went on. It became something I was known for. What I think a lot of people didn’t realize is that the quotes I would post often were things I needed to hear/read first and wanted to post just in case someone else did as well. This quote above…
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Lesbians Who Tech: personal recap
I’ve gone to a good number of conferences this year and have realized that I haven’t been the best about writing about them. I think it’s important to reflect and share as it allows the conference’s influence to spread as well as me to look back on the quotes and lessons at a later point. I haven’t had the chance to attend a Lesbians Who Tech meet up. Mostly this is due to me being introverted as well as not really enjoying the bar scene. With that said, I was incredibly excited for this conference especially after all the male…
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Flying
Flying for me has gone from a somewhat anxious event to something that always leaves me amazed. To be able to fly above the world and to see things from such a different perspective leaves me in a place of peace these days. It may also be that I’ve started listening to podcasts like The Moth, This American Life, Radio Lab, etc. to help pass the time and make me think. In the same way my clothes fit perfectly in my new automattic bag, the big itself fits perfectly underneath the chairs of the plane. Traveling has changed for me…
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Cats
I’ve always been a dog person or at least have always considered myself to be one. Until this week.. Why? Well just look at these two cuties below. I couldn’t help but fall in love with the little paws and deep purring. I’m officially a dog AND cat person.
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Reflection on habits
I sat next to a woman about my age on my latest plane ride who was headed off to med school interviews. We chatted about a variety of things until an alarm went off on her phone. A bit embarrassed and apologetic, she said she needed to pray and had to do so in a certain direction. I realized then she was Muslim and immediately began to provide some space for her to turn around (the seats seem to get smaller each plane I’m on). This vignette has stuck with me as it proved to be a powerful example of…
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The people of New Zealand
Disclaimer: this is purely based on 10 days spent in NZ and my limited interactions with people there. New Zealand has one of the nicest cultures I think I’ve ever experienced. I’ll highlight my experience in a variety of coffee shops and cafes as I don’t know how else to explain it. Richmond Road Cafe I walked in here with some teammates to get some coffee to go. Within 5 minutes of ordering and sitting down, an employee came and poured water for each of us even after we insisted we were getting coffee to go. From there, the massive…
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Conditioning my willpower
I just finished the book Willpower after a friend of mine gave it to me to read. I took a ton away from it but will summarize main takeaway points below: My bad habits (mainly eating candy when I shouldn’t) are often a result of me using up my willpower elsewhere. I need to have better balance with my usage of willpower. Simplifying your life allows you to make less decisions and helps you conserve willpower. By getting off of social media and changing my relationship with my phone, I can tell that I’ve been able to save energy and, as a…
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21 & 22
To preface this, I just turned 22 years old on March 6th. It still feels weird to say/write 22 but that’s technically my age based on the arbitrary definition of days, weeks, years, etc. I like to reflect when I have a birthday because it’s a natural break in time to do so. I also find that my level of consciousness about my life is raised about a week before my birthday, during, and a week+ after my birthday. I think we can all relate to this. For me, it’s this feeling of “where did the time go?” meets “what am I…
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New Zealand: Day seven & eight
Day Seven The official team meetup ended yesterday but I feel as if so much has happened between now and then. After a run through cleaning up the two houses, a smaller group of us jumped into a car. My teammate, Chris, and I are hanging around in New Zealand for a couple extra days and needed to be dropped off downtown. Here’s the view of the apartments where we’re staying: As we got dropped off, the reality set in that I wouldn’t see my other team members for months. It was an odd sensation that turned into a longer…
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