Nard Life Part II / New Habits / Old Friends

I’m writing from my bedroom desk in Oxnard. My bedroom is cluttered af and I definitely need to clean. Mama’s comin home tomorrow from Korea! She’s been gone a month so pops is scrambling to get the house in order before she gets back.

It’s been a great day. Finally got a good night’s sleep after taking melatonin and nodding off after a few hours of Wild n Out and The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

Spoke to my manager earlier today and she cleared my workation! Europe here we come! Still very much up in the air but will probably be in Europe for a few weeks during Autumn. Haven’t decided exactly where we’ll (me and Harry for now) go but I definitely want to hit up Portugal.

Besides that I got my new computer from work. Moved the majority of my music samples/plugin data to my new SSD. Samsung T7—idk why I love it so much but I do. This small hunk of metal brings me joy every time I look at it. The thought that I have so much portability… AHHHH I love it. Also stuck on this sick new sticker that Glo sent me. They’re starting a new sticker business which is awesome.

New Habits

Not much of an update this week. Didn’t do much besides work and hobbies. Over the weekend we went to Gen BBQ to hang out with papa’s friends (old friends from Cincinnati that moved to California).

hot cheeto esquites (butter, corn, mayo, hot cheetos, cheese) at La Michoacana Azteca

Besides that just tumbled around the house and walked around the neighborhood.

I think it was a decently productive week. Spent a good amount of time practicing singing.

Besides that I’ve been trying to revamp my habits.

Set hard time limits of 10PM on Youtube/video games so I don’t stay up too late
Installed a dedicated porn blocker
Changed my eating habits so I block out processed foods and generally eat healthier/less during the day. These days I end up eating
- 2 eggs for lunch
- 1 avocado snack and/or smoothie
- Whatever papa cooks for dinner

Old Friends

Feeling pretty good so far. I’ve noticed that in the absence of TV post 10PM I end up going through old photos and reminiscing a lot. Reminiscing to the point where I can’t fall asleep because I think about all the people that have entered and left my life.

It’s hard to hold onto people. But at the same time it’s easy to change that.

What’s the statute of limitations on an expired friendship? At what point does it get too weird to reach out? 5 years definitely seems ok. Anything past that is pushing it.

But then again you never know who will re-enter your life. Never thought I’d see Brandon again—a childhood acquaintance from Cincinnati that I ended up reconnecting with at my office in NY.

Also wouldn’t have guessed that I’d reconnect with Sherry and Frank—two friends I met at a summer camp before Junior year in high school.

I am not great at keeping some friendships alive but I’m working on it. The biggest issue is neglect more than anything else. You get busy or distracted and distance or time wilts the relationship.

Would be cool to have a tool that periodically reminds you to reach out to certain friends. Say you list out n friends you don’t want to lose and the tool occasionally notifies you to say hi or send a meme if you haven’t talked to a particular friend in a while.

Maybe I’ll build it out at some point.

In any case I’ve been reaching out to old friends in the bay. See them before I head over to NY. CS friends, roommate friends, theater friends. Everyone who will see me.

Music Update

Getting better for sure. Michelle said I’d definitely worked on my vocal runs. I’m able to hit the high notes in Hate Everything (Golden) but I want to work on consistency.

Michelle mentioned she’s going to film me next week so I definitely want to not embarrass myself on camera.

Besides that I sent in an audition recording to Young New Yorkers’ Chorus and was waitlisted for the next audition stage :\

I don’t know if a choir is feasible this season if I’m doing my workation but I’ll try again next semester.

Also struck an accountability deal with Andrew where I have to reach certain milestones by specific dates

Have lyrics finished for my demo song by 15th
Finish recording/producing by 22nd
Finish mixing of demo by end of month