I took a bit of a hiatus from writing in my blog since my old format seemed… stiff. Restricted. They all sounded like book reports, and although the books were interesting to me I don’t think I was very good at relating them to other people who might read them. Looking back on the stats of my blog, I also noticed that a couple posts outnumbered my book posts by an enormous margin. Those posts, funnily enough, were ones where I didn’t even talk about books. My first post received a lot of views and it was just an introduction to what my blog was going to be about. The other post was the one near my birthday when I talked about my fascination with ideas and my awkwardness in the bathroom with my coworker.

With that in mind, I’m going to shake things up a bit. I will start to make weekly entries again, but this time it will just be about whatever I happen to find interesting at the time. I’m sure I will still write about books a lot since I’m still reading constantly, but the posts probably won’t be dedicated just to the books themselves. I want to focus more on my personal ideas and perceptions shaped by my current experiences in the hopes that these posts will be enjoyable to read. I’m assuming most of you reading have met me in person at some point in my life, so maybe adding my current voice to that image you have of me will make this a bit more intimate.

In that sense, this post signals a new beginning for the direction of the blog, but that is also grounded in my actual life situation. Last Friday was my last day of work at Tetra Tech, and in a week or so I will be moving in with my grandma in LA. I don’t have a job lined up, and pretty much my primary mode of existence will be to explore and learn. I want to experience city life, learn about the historical and cultural developments that shaped it, where it fits in the context of California and US politics, and the global economy. I want to meet people, hear their stories, see new perspectives. I want to devour books, learn Japanese, and stretch time to jam all of this into the relatively short period of time that I am planning on remaining unemployed. City life is not all pretty, so I also want to witness firsthand the darker sides of reality without turning a blind eye. It’s a pretty drastic jump in that regard from working in Irvine to living in LA… Suburban boy ’bout to be schooled by life!

I’m beyond excited. It’s a time for figuring things out and witnessing reality as it is. Of course it’s impossible to completely remove my personal biases, but keeping an open yet critical mind while remaining aware has provided me with tremendous insights already. I’ve had a taste, but I don’t think I will get close to fully understanding myself or the world until I take the plunge. Now, I’ll just have to see where or when I come back up.

P.S. This format doesn’t show my description of the picture and it cut off the top portion! The poster says “Human Change, Not Climate Change” and it was from the Science March on April 22.