Fitness / Koreans / Digital Diet

Sitting on my lobby sofa on this Sunday night having finished almost all my chores. Feels good bud. I’m on this biweekly writing cadence now. Much better than a monthly blogging rate but still somewhat hard to remember exactly what happened in the time that’s passed.

Just diving right into it.

lil cutie that Kelvin’s been cat sitting

FITNESS!

After having returned to office, I’m in an environment where almost everything is taken care of for me.

  • healthy/tasty food served for lunch

  • on site gym

  • on site physical therapist / ergonomist

  • on site dietician

  • free dinner if I stay till 7

All these freebies that make my life a lot easier and healthier. On top of the gym perk they offer trainers on site too so I hired one! The deep power of convenience.

My fitness in the past years has been ad hoc and inconstant. It seems worthwhile / easy enough to pay someone to guide me along. Why waste all this time and effort trying to do it alone?

My goals with fitness

  • have more energy than I normally do

  • get super sexy and attract a lot more girls

  • generally have a good idea of how to take care of my body going forward

My fitness regiment so far

  • Tuesday / Friday training session. My trainer guides me through different lifts / exercises split up into different body parts (e.g. arms, shoulders, back, hips, etc.)

    • We’re aiming to get the exercises solidified, keep them up for a few months and meet up again next quarter to set up a new regiment

  • Thursday I go to my trainer’s group kick box class. The last one I went to no one else was there so it was almost a free training session

  • Sunday I either play a sport or take a fitness class. I’ve been using Classpass and taking boxing classes

Diet wise I haven’t any drastic changes but I generally restrict myself naturally since eating shit will make me feel pretty shit during the training / classes.

Anyways it’s only been a few weeks but I feel pretty good so far and am certain that this is the right thing to do. As long as I stick to this and don’t mess around too much I’ll definitely see changes.

This may be my achilles heel. Had these chips recently from Trader Joe’s and they’re amazing.

Koreans

Simon (workmate) is in a Korean American professional organization and mentions every now and then that single Korean girls come out to these events to try to convince me and Brian (workmate) to come out.

Yesterday we all finally went.

We made the long journey from Queens to a park in Fort Lee and joined everyone else at the bbq.

A half dozen picnic tables full of young Korean adults with a table in the center filled with Korean barbecue, kimchi, rice, salad, etc. My first home cooked meal in about a month 🥲.

Simon introduced us to all his friends and we spent the next few hours eating with them, following them across different spots in Fort Lee.

As someone who’s never had that many Korean friends it was a cool experience.

Stella’s house (Simon’s girlfriend) seemed to be the hotspot for most people in the group and a bunch of different people rolled through. Bourbon was brought out, Simon/Stella laid out the charcuterie and within a few minutes people were drinking, eating, talking, switching back and forth in Korean.

It’s not like it was a crazy event or anything but in that moment I was struck by how differently this group lived from me. If my life had taken just a slightly different turn—stayed in Korea instead of moving to America, or maybe hadn’t grown up in Ohio, or tried harder with my old Korean church mates—would I have grown up with friends like these?

I’ve always been a fringe Korean and given my current friends I’ll likely stay a fringe Korean for a while. But it was fun living meeting everyone out in Fort Lee and imagining what life might look like if I move out there. Given the rising rent I might end up doing something like that.

Digital Diet

It’s been over a month since I moved into my place. My whole plan of not getting wifi to avoid bingeing late into the night is working.

  • If I need to use internet I go down to one of the lounges or roof for the public apt wifi

  • If I want to watch anything in my apartment I download it on my iPad while I’m down here

  • For better or worse my service in my apartment is pretty shit too so I can’t just hotspot my way out of this

  • Another benefit is I produce in my apartment. Not having that wifi on makes it much easier to concentrate on the task at hand

Overall the experiment has been a success. That barrier to entry makes a world of difference. No more autoplay. No more accidentally starting a binge. Almost everything I consume digitally is a conscious decision.

I don’t know how things will change once circumstances change. Hopefully I stay strong(?)

But it’s ridiculous how much out of control addictive shit we allow ourselves to play with. It’s not our fault! We’re like the first cavemen to play with fire. A few of us are bound to burn to ashes.

I wonder how everyone else handles it. Is everyone else as addicted as me?

Everything Else

  • Got dinner with friends at Wenwen. The idea here was to invite a bunch of random friends and get them to hang out with each other. Food was pretty good. Reservation was very hard to get (Kelvin organized us). I think I thrive in a dinner party and aim to go to more. In other words dinner parties are my favorite social event (I don’t like drinking at bars, never had fun in a club) and I should try to do more

the bathroom at wenwen is beautiful

esther, jasmine, millie, steve, will and me after wenwen. Didn’t really know esther and jasmine much before so it truly was a stranger dinner party. Not pictured from dinner—kelvin and chris. As usual Will was the one to insist we come out to the water. Great view

  • I got onto the 7 train recently and noticed an empty seat in the crowded car. Upon closer inspection I realized why people weren’t sitting there—there were literal skid marks on it! Someone had literally shit on that seat and streaked that shit across… We collectively pretended not to notice and gave that seat a wide berth. But a few minutes later something I never would have anticipated happened. A man got closer, tapped a few droplets of hand sanitizer on the seat and wiped it away with some napkins. At first I assumed he might sit on it afterwards but he simply tossed the napkins, got off on his spot and walked away.

    • What a nearly saintly act. Truly not trying to over-embellish how I feel about this but what kind of human being would willingly wash the shit off a public seat for someone else to sit on? In a city like this, in times like these, when does this ever happen? One of the most inspiring things I’ve seen in a long time. To be the kind of man that selflessly wipes shit for the public without desire for recognition or reward. I am nowhere near that kind of selflessness but if I ever get to that point I’d be satisfied.

    • Almost immediately after he left some woman came onto the train and beelined for the seat. She sat down before any of us had a chance to warn her about what had happened. Early bird gets the shit

  • Went to another potluck! Heidi hosted another Asian social organization potluck on her roof. Potlucks, dinner parties—love that shit.

    • Dad loves talking at dinner parties. I love it too. A group of randos in a semi-awkward atmosphere. Running your mouth and hopefully seeing some camaraderie form amongst strangers. Fun.

  • TV

    • Watched Death Love + Robots recently. I was watching at CJ’s place after having had some drinks and taking an edible. Incredible. Mind blowing. Especially inebriated.

      • Watched sober recently and some of the shorts were still incredible

    • Finished The Wire. Pretty good. Not a favorite but glad I finished it

    • Started Succession. I liked the first few episodes but the charm is waning. May or may not finish it

    • Started Spy x Family. Easy to watch, fun, accessible anime. Would recommend.

    • Watched The Platform at Victoria’s movie night. Very interesting concept. A little too gory for me but definitely interesting.

    • TBH I guess I’ve been watching a lot lately. I think most days I watch maybe 1 hour or so. Haven’t read much recently. Just squeeze in an episode before I go to sleep. No regrets but I do wish I had more hours in the day to read (not enough to stop watching tv though).

  • I tried a new app recently. Too Good to Go lets you order food at off peak hours for a discounted rate. Pleasantly surprised to receive three different big slices of pizza for just $5. Taking those slices to the outdoor seating area. Watching the rain come down to the backdrop of a shiny billboard. Z O N I N G out. Great night. Enjoy that night recreated through these photos:

Here’s a daylight pic for contrast. Right outside my apartment:

I oscillate between happy, lonely, angry these days. I’m not exactly where I want to be but I’m definitely on track.

Next steps I’ll be traveling a bit (Korea) and I want to be more proactive about pursuing things when I get back. Pursuing people, activities, travel, etc.

Been sitting on my ass for too long.