You Can’t Spell SpOoOky without OoO 😱

Dear friend,

Hey, how’s it going? It’s hard to imagine that this is my last month before turning forty 😱! I’ll go more into it next month, but it’s been weighty month to reflect on my life so far. Aside from that, work has been picking up steam as Ian and I are getting ready for what looks to be a tough winter what with the incoming twindemic tripledemic. Honestly, a lot of my colleagues and friends are going through different kinds of flu-like things lately! Please stay safe (and vaccinated), everyone.

Here’s what I did this month:

• 🏃🏻‍♂️ Ran 42.02 miles (average 4.66 miles per run) this month, down from 43.85 in September.
• 🏋🏻‍♂️ Spent 23.31 hours (~8k calories burned) in all workout exercises, same as September.
• 🧘🏻‍♂️ Meditated 26 days (average 22 minutes per session), up from 24 days in September.
• 📷 Here are some of the photos I took in October (link should be viewable in any browser).

Social Gatherings:

• 10/15: Brunch with homies
• 10/29: Breakfast with Chris

As I mentally prepare for the big 4-0, I spent a lot of time this month going on walks and reflecting my current life; in one of these walks I had the idea to create a playlist, featuring forty songs of the most meaningful and representative of my life (so far, I ain’t dead yet!).

🎶 You can check out the entire playlist and a full rundown on what each song mean to me here. 🎶

Speaking of music, it’s really been the one anchor in my life that carries me through the high, mundane, and low points of my life. Coincidentally, a lot of the artists I follow released new music this year, so I thought to highlight a couple of them below (all links are Apple Music):

• 🍄 Fossora, by Bjork: While Vespertine will always be my favorite album of all time, Bjork has consistently taught and stretched the definition of what music can and should be for me. Her albums over the years had abstract themes ranging everything from the cosmos to mindful transandence, so I just knew it’s going to be another wild ride when she described Fossora as a fungi album. While rarely an easy listen, her music always opens my mind up for lifelessons, emotions, and otherwise musical things I didn’t know I needed, and Fossora is absolutely no different.
• 🕺 Homosexual, by Darren Hayes: I have felt a connection with Darren Hayes ever since the very first single of Savage Garden’s To the Moon and Back. In that music video I could tell there was a secret in him, as there was in me, years before acceptance and decades even before having the ability to embrace our own identities. I thought Secret Codes and Battleships would be his last — it’s been ten years, afterall. But turns out he had been working on a new album, mostly by himself (!), and this album is just as imperfect and gorgeous as ever.
• 👬 Profound Memories, by Röyksopp: It all started with a Geico ad where the music was a bit too good to go unnoticed, and before I knew it I’ve been following Röyksopp for two decades. I absolutely loved their last album before their haitus, so color me surprised when they dropped Profound Memories back in April. While that alone would make any fan happy, turns out that was only the beginning — in August they dropped a brand new album as part two, with another part three album come November. From having zero albums to getting three brand new albums in a year — sometimes profound things do happen.
• 🙆🏻‍♀️ Hold the Girl, by Rina Sawayama: If only she was around when I was growing up! Growing up, I’d have to look across the world and basically switch to the Asian side of my brain to find any type of representation in music. Fast forward to now where it’s simply amazing to see such a talented, British-born Japanese artist to kick ass and changing up the music scene. Even then, she’s so underrated and under-recognized as this album is so well-made and polished that it could easily be mistaken for one of Lady Gaga’s.

▶️ YouTube Sundries:

• Every California Proposition Explained
• This “Math Test” Changed How I See Humanity
• Omar Apollo: Tiny Desk Concert
• Architect Explores San Francisco’s Distinctive Styles

🤔 A Moment of Zen: As the cells within our bodies continuously die and replenish, some have said we’re an entirely new person every seven years. So take a minute and imagine who you want to become seven years from now. What kind of person do you want to be? Will you be stronger? healthier? wiser? kinder? What are the steps, big or small, that can take you there along the way?

And that’s about it for the month of October! I hope it’s interesting for you as it was nice for me to recap for the month. Please also share this newsletter if you think other people can benefit from it! They can also subscribe to the newsletters directly below.

Love wins