A parenthetical departure

Hello

Welcome to my tiny internet home. I write notes, jot small thoughts, and save clippings. More about me, my current whims, and odds & ends.

I'm making some changes around here. Pardon the dust. It will be messy for a while.

🤍

These days

27 Mar, 2026 Collecting cute cosmetics
Hanging out in On-Together with friends. It's so cute! (I'm a big fan of collecting cute cosmetics.)
24 Feb, 2026 On the second day
Of course I show up to work on the second day with my shirt inside-out. ಠ_ಠ
12 Feb, 2026 A butt-shaped typeface
I'm having fun looking at typography. I just encountered a butt-shaped typeface.
03 Feb, 2026 So much bustling about
Still so much bustling about. I’m looking forward to settling in and having personal time again. I miss & want to get back to my hobbies!
31 Jan, 2026 Less cold than I imagined
It's less cold than I imagined. There's ice, and I slipped and fell while walking around town. The first order of business: acquire grippy boots.
15 Jan, 2026 Myopic
I feel really myopic these days. I don't like it.
09 Jan, 2026 Sodiyummm
Craving Fly by Jing's sweet + spicy noodles. Sodiyummm.
15 Oct, 2025 Pushing through
It's been a lot of pushing through. I'm on the other side now, a little ragged and bruised.
26 Sep, 2025 A fresh install
My desktop PC works perfectly fine but can't be upgraded to Windows 11. Since Windows 10 support ends in two weeks, I've installed ~~EndeavourOS~~ Mint. A fresh install makes my soul feel clean. I'm working on apps now. Wee!
06 Sep, 2025 departure.blog
After months of indecision, I've finally committed to departure.blog for this space. It's good to have this settled.

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These weeks

22 Mar, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-12
15 Mar, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-11
09 Mar, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-10
02 Mar, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-09
22 Feb, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-08
15 Feb, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-07
02 Feb, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-05
13 Jan, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-02
06 Jan, 2026 Weeknotes 2026-01
10 Dec, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-49
02 Dec, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-48
26 Nov, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-47
17 Nov, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-46
10 Nov, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-45
03 Nov, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-44
27 Oct, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-43
20 Oct, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-42
13 Oct, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-41
06 Oct, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-40
29 Sep, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-39
22 Sep, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-38
15 Sep, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-37
08 Sep, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-36
02 Sep, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-35
17 Aug, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-33
04 Aug, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-31
07 May, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-18
27 Apr, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-17
21 Apr, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-16
14 Apr, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-15
07 Apr, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-14
31 Mar, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-13
24 Mar, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-12
16 Mar, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-11
10 Mar, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-10
02 Mar, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-09
23 Feb, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-08
16 Feb, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-07
09 Feb, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-06
02 Feb, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-05
26 Jan, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-04
19 Jan, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-03
12 Jan, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-02
05 Jan, 2025 Weeknotes 2025-01
29 Dec, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-52
22 Dec, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-51
15 Dec, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-50
07 Dec, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-49
01 Dec, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-48
24 Nov, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-47
17 Nov, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-46
10 Nov, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-45
03 Nov, 2024 Weeknotes 2024-44

These words

22 Mar, 2026 As much as or even more

We, the people, still love love. More crucially, though, we crave stories in which people connect intimately and are changed in the process—the kind of works that normalize and defend caring about others as much as or even more than we care about ourselves.

Source: What We Lost When We Lost Rom-Coms
08 Mar, 2026 As if this were all that matters

And modern moral theories tend to focus on issues of intentions and control, as if this were all that matters. In truth, harm has its own weight. ... [T]he injuries you inflict matter, in ways separable from what you’d meant to do.

Source: My Sister’s Crime Shattered Our Family. Do I Have to Help Her?
06 Mar, 2026 An unspoken agreement

[T]olerance should not be considered a virtue or moral principle, but rather an unspoken agreement within society to tolerate one another's differences as long as no harm to others arises from [it]. In this formulation, one being intolerant is violating the contract, and therefore is no longer protected by it against the rest of society.

Source: Paradox of intolerance
14 Jan, 2026 Just brain farts

What are the links between Buddhism, which you practice, kindness and your art? It’s just the awareness that we have thoughts and they self-generate and dominate us. We mistake those thoughts for us. In both Buddhist practice and writing, you have a chance to go: Oh, those are just brain farts. They’re just happening spontaneously, and I didn’t actually create them, and I’m not sure I really want to take ownership of them. At the same time, they’re affecting my body. So you have to just get clear for long enough to recognize them as being separate from who you actually are.

Source: George Saunders Says Ditching These Three Delusions Can Save You via You are him. You have been him.
01 Jan, 2026 Collective memory

What is the internet but collective memory?

Source: Severance by Ling Ma, 2018
16 Sep, 2025 Current parameters

I suspect your current parameters want you to feel gratified by your captivity.

Source: Foundation, "The Stress of Her Regard"
12 Sep, 2025 Beyond survival

You asked the fundamental question: what do you care about beyond survival?

Source: Inside the Destruction of USAID with Dr. Atul Gawande
10 Sep, 2025 Faith in the law

“We really had too much faith in the law, you know?” Yang Guoliang said, his hands clenched in fists. “It turned out to be worthless.”

Source: Silicon Valley enabled brutal mass detention and surveillance in China, internal documents show
06 Sep, 2025 The axe for the frozen sea inside us

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. That is my belief.

Source: Franz Kafka, letter to Oskar Pollak dated January 27, 1904
28 Aug, 2025 Here to be rude

I am here to be rude, because this is a rude technology, and it deserves a rude response.

Source: I am an AI hater via The pure focus and clarity of being a hater

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