Cabo / Andrew in Town / Productivity Machine & Release Plan
Buckle up kiddos this one’s going to be a long post.
Cabo
Feels weird to talk about Cabo when it happened three weeks ago but I still want to get it down for future memories.
I tagged along with Mom and Dad to Cabo for Dad’s 30th work anniversary. As someone who’s just about to hit my 3rd year work anniversary, 30 seems like an impossible milestone.
This was my second time in Cabo.
The first time was during Spring Break of my senior year. I don’t know whose idea it was to go (probably Chai’s) but I tagged along because it seemed like something I should do before I graduate. Previous spring breaks had been spent doing very little and this felt like the final hurrah.
Five of us from our group decided to go (me, Andrew, Sam, Chai and Amy).
The trip ended up being slightly disastrous. Some good memories from the trip:
Andrew getting into a polite fight with an old woman at the airport. Apparently she left and he took her seat without knowing she intended to return. When she came back he kept insisting she take her chair back while she insisted he stay. This song and dance happened ~3-4 times
At that point I didn’t know Andrew that well and I walked away from that event thinking he was a super polite guy.
Our shitty hotel. We were on a budget so instead of booking a resort close to downtown we found a hotel far from the action.
Not only was the location bad, but we also booked a single room with 2 beds. The five of us squeezed in and slept in a configuration of sleeping sideways on the bed to fit more people and sleeping on the floor.
Getting stranded on lovers beach island in Cabo. We hired a water taxi to take us out. We first attempted to set terms—half upfront, half when we got back to shore. He declined and appealed to our better natures. Pay me up front. I’ll come get you right before sundown. You can trust me. Don’t you trust me?
He was not to be trusted.
By sunset we were considering sleeping on the island or swimming back to shore. In the end we flagged down a passing by boat and convinced them to take us back to shore
A bit later in the trip we saw the traitor on the beach and Andrew went off on him. Andrew’s usually a calm guy but this was the angriest I’ve seen him by far.
One person in our group wandered off and disappeared while we were out drinking. After a fruitless night of trying to figure out where they’d gone we found out the next day that they’d been arrested!
We went to the jail to bail out our friend using our broken high school AP class Spanish. Charged for drunk and disorderly (probably some bullshit because we were able to bail them out by paying a fee).
This second time to Cabo was far less eventful but way more comfortable. Since we had money this time around we also did a number of excursions.
ATVing on the beach
crossed this sick bridge too
Sunset dinner cruise
Hanging out with the camels and other animals at the zoo
Jet skiing
look at how happy I look. I revved this baby up to 40 mph and my arms hurt from holding on for dear life
hi mom 🤗
Cabo was fun. Good times.
P.S. I spent some time during this trip going through old notes/journal entries. Found something I wrote down that sounded cool:
I went to my seminar to find two randos teaching the class. One was a monk. The last word of advice he gave to us was this:
There are two ways of living: with your heart and with your head. Don’t be afraid if you find yourself using both elements to live your life.
Andrew in Town
The week I got back, Andrew came to visit.
A part of me was worried for this visit. What is there to do in Oxnard?!
Turns out a decent amount.
We started the week with KBBQ on the beach courtesy of Mom and Pops.
We went shopping at the Camarillo outlets three days in a row (THREE!). For someone who rarely goes shopping this was a new way of living.
We also went biking in Ojai.
By a stroke of great timing Raymond and Eileen were visiting Ojai at the same time so we met with them a few times. We got dinner with them once at Lure and dinner a second time at Suvarnaphumi Thai (my new favorite Thai restaurant in Oxnard).
super rainy week in Oxnard. I thought this looked cool
I destroyed Andrew in bowling.
For the latter half of the week we stayed in LA.
god i love coffee with rain
We met with Andrew’s college roommate and went to the Broad for some sick art and got dinner at Grand Central Market.
We also stumbled upon the Last Bookstore—a pretty interesting spot with books/art vendors.
For the last day we got ganjang gaejang (Korean raw marinated crab—one of my favorite dishes) at Crab House in Ktown. Pretty good but damn some big portions.
soft shell crab with crab roe on the left. Banchan on the right
We drove to Griffith Observatory later and got dinner at Izakaya Bizan in Little Tokyo.
LA was fun. Didn’t see that much this time around. Could see myself living in LA for a month or two to test out the waters.
It was a fun week. Very activity packed and by the end of it I was exhausted and took a long nap.
Productivity Machine & Release Plan
A number of converging forces have reminded me lately to stop wasting time.
There were a number of things I wanted to do last year that I didn’t. This year will be different.
I have a new system to stop getting distracted.
First line of Defense
Automator. I’ve set up a new script that does the following in a single click
Start up Logic
Start up Trello
Start up SelfControl
Sets a timer for an hour
Second line of Defense
An amazing app that lets you block specific websites for a set amount of time. There’s no way to bypass this so you can’t weasel your way out of this.
I have Instagram, Facebook, Hacker News and Youtube blocked during this time
This is all so I can release more songs this month.
I’m planning to release 4 by the end of January. Mostly finalizing old songs that have been collecting dust in my hard drive.
I have the first one out already. Second one uploaded and scheduled for Friday. Definitely on track.