I’ve been limping around for the past week, pulling a muscle in my left thigh. No fault other than my own, though.  One evening last week, Jess and I hit the gym together, exercising at the Northgate 24 hour fitness (which is apparently one of the more popular 24 hour fitnesses in Seattle, due to…

We’ve all heard people, including me, say “I’m raising my kids differently” or “I’m never going to raise my kids the way my parents raised me”. I hear that all the time. But, have you ever heard someone say “I’m going to raise my kids just like my parents raised me”. I doubt it. I’ve…

On both my laptop and iPhone, I’ve configured my e-mail clients to disable a setting called “Load Remote Images.”  Although there are a number of benefits in doing so, like reducing network traffic (i.e. bandwidth), my main motivation is this: preventing senders from tracking my e-mail behavior, preventing them from identifying whether or not I’ve…

On Saturday, just before the sun began to rise, Jess and I began loading our luggage into black Mazda hatchback for our Christmas trip from Seattle to Los Angeles. Normally, when packing, we haphazardly shove our suit cases into the trunk and squeeze bags between the front and back seats. But this year, we decided…

For the past year and a half, I’ve disconnected myself from all my social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.  Those platforms still presumably store my data (e.g. posts, images, chat logs) but I no longer log into the system, neither consuming or contributing any content. This disconnect was motivated by several reasons. First, I had…

He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it – George Orwell Are you a masculine man? How does one even define masculinity?  By the American, western definition, a masculine man is someone who carries a heavy beard on his chiseled chin, speaks in a deep Clint-Eastwood voice, commands respect from those around…

Every day for the past two weeks, my friend’s stream of Facebook posts poured onto my timeline, engulfing my entire newsfeed with photos of him and his latest girlfriend, having such a comical time together. They can’t get enough of each other. They really can’t.  They are glued at the hips.  They must share every dish of food.  Pictures…

I’m pursuing a master’s degree in computer science and most of the schools I’m applying to— Seattle University, University of Washington, University of Southern California — require that I take the general GRE (graduate record examination).  Although I don’t necessarily agree with standarized tests, especially the GRE,  I recognize the necessity to establish some sort of bar for…

I was standing outside the car, wiping the dogs’s feet when I overheard a voice. “Are you a young lady or a man?” Did I hear him right? I continued wiping my dogs’s feet and responded: “Well, HER name is Metric. And SHE’S a German Shepherd.” I wanted to make it clear that that we…