My First Disneyland Day

For me, magic doesn’t usually require waking up an hour before my work day morning routine, but when you save an hour waiting in line for Space Mountain, it definitely feels like the right decision.

Since moving to the Bay Area just over 10 years ago, I have made many trips down to LA but never quite made it to Disneyland. We typically would leave at earliest on Friday afternoon and drive back to be at school or work on Monday morning, so we never found the time to make the price of admission worth it. However, my cousin Owen’s high school graduation was on a Wednesday, so since we had to dip out in the middle of the week, we extended our vacation through the following weekend and cut out a day to spend at Disneyland. Continue reading “My First Disneyland Day”

Watching Tape

I spend a lot of time preparing for my Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) games. Not only do I plan the adventures themselves, but I also watch, read, and listen to advice about being a better Dungeon Master (DM). And for fun, I watch streams of other D&D games, which is also preparation because I am studying what the DM is doing in their game. Some DMs are amazing, and some are only okay. I can tell by watching them, and that made me wonder: which one am I? Continue reading “Watching Tape”

Avengers: Infinity War Reaction

I had originally planned to write a movie review, but frankly, my opinion doesn’t really matter. You were either stoked and already saw it, or you don’t care and will not be convinced by me to go. Instead, I will provide my spoiler-filled thoughts to the movie covering morality, death, and cinematic determinism, but mostly just random thoughts Continue reading “Avengers: Infinity War Reaction”

Rewatching the MCU Phase 2

The marathon continues! Here are my hot takes on Phase 2 of the MCU. Of course, there are spoilers everywhere, not only for the movie mentioned but also for other MCU movies. Beware.

Iron Man 3 (2013) – 5/5

I like this movie more than consensus, though I’m not sure why. I liked the twists in this movie. I like Tony having to go MacGyver and the glorification of the engineer. I like Ben Kingsley‘s role. I like seeing Tony have to work through things after the Battle of New York. And it is still funny and appropriately over-the-top to be fun.

Continue reading “Rewatching the MCU Phase 2”

Way Too Much Detail About My Oatmeal Ritual

Since I started working about 7 years ago, I have eaten oatmeal for breakfast before work about 4 out of every 5 weekdays. Just recently, Julie and I decided that she would take over oatmeal-making duties to better align our morning schedules, and I had to show her how to do it. Continue reading “Way Too Much Detail About My Oatmeal Ritual”

Rewatching the MCU Phase 1

In anticipation of Avengers: Infinity War, Julie and I have been rewatching all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Since we started late, we started by needing to watch a movie roughly every two or three days, which is way faster than my typical screen viewing, which is probably a movie every two or three weeks and a TV episode maybe once or twice a week. Although we love Agents of Shield as well, there’s no way we are going to watch all MCU TV shows in time. Continue reading “Rewatching the MCU Phase 1”

Kevin’s Cooking Tips

I started cooking during the summer after my freshmen year at college. Growing up, I had watched my mom cook steak, stir-fry, salmon, and countless other home cooked meals. However, my own experience was primarily expert microwave timings and occasionally baking desserts. Needless to say, the first summer was rough. Continue reading “Kevin’s Cooking Tips”

Tasting the “Impossible Burger”

A few years ago towards the end of college, I went mostly vegetarian. Like most diets, my rules were byzantine, and I made plenty of exceptions, but it was largely effective. My meat consumption went way down with one simple trick: I didn’t buy meat. Since I was no longer on a meal plan, I was only tempted to eat food as far as my fridge, and I was similarly disciplined in my grocery shopping because the primary reason I went mostly vegetarian was because I was cheap and didn’t want to pay for meat. Continue reading “Tasting the “Impossible Burger””

Rooting for the Patriots Without Being a Fan

Let’s start with something we can all agree on: Super Bowl LII was a great game. It was close but high-scoring game with disputed calls, trick plays, missed kicks, a brewing comeback, and a dramatic turn that all came down to the last play of the game. Despite catching up on chores like laundry and cooking during the game, I really did enjoy it without having any allegiance to either team. However, it’s hard to watch any sports impartially, and although I don’t particularly like them, in my heart, I was rooting for the Patriots.

Continue reading “Rooting for the Patriots Without Being a Fan”

Discarding Anything That Didn’t “Spark Joy”: 8 Months Later

I’m in a book club called “Big Yak Mountain,” and we don’t read anything in particular. We’re 43 books in, and have read books from Ready Player One, which is going to be a Spielberg movie soon, to Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem, which is definitely not coming to theaters near you. Some are thought-provoking. Others are mindless. Many books would never appear on my bucket list but ended up being fantastic reads. One of those books was Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. Despite the long-winded title, the book itself was surprisingly short, and it did in fact help us tidy up.

Continue reading “Discarding Anything That Didn’t “Spark Joy”: 8 Months Later”