random life update #2

Needless to say, it’s been a while, and I need to work on being more disciplined. Not just in writing, but also in other areas of life, like (as an example) working out regularly. I’m open to ideas or suggestions if people have any, but my intention is to get back to blogging weekly even if it’s a short update.

There’s no shortage of things I want to write about, but it just takes time to sit down and flesh out what I’m trying to say. The sad part is that I actually have various things written in draft form, but have not devoted the time to finish and post them. Anyway, my goal is to post something for next week…if I don’t, I will give $100 to the first person who asks me about it.

In any case, below are some recent life highlights / what I’ve been busy with:

• Sunrise @ Cholla Cactus Garden in Joshua Tree National Park: I went a few months ago on the same trip to Vegas. What can I say, I’m a sucker for sunrise and sunset experiences, and this did not disappoint.
• Yosemite: I haven’t been in over 10 years, and planned a trip there with my mom last month. It was incredible, and I want to go back soon.
• Sensorio in Paso Robles: ever since I saw a friend’s Instagram post on Sensorio I’ve wanted to check it out, so I finally made the trek out to see what the fuss was all about.
• LA: I went to watch the NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championships at UCLA with a couple volleyball friends, and it was a great time. I love the food and beach scene there, and can’t wait to go back this summer.
• Nashville: I visited last weekend for a friend’s bachelor party, and it was super fun celebrating my friend’s upcoming nuptials and getting to know more of his friends. It was also my first time in Tennessee.
• Hasan Minhaj’s The King’s Jester: Homecoming King on Netflix was one of the best stand-up specials I have ever seen, so I had to go see him in person when he came to San Jose.
• Everything Everywhere All At Once: this movie felt more like an experience than a movie, so I’m including it on this list. I love that I watched it with friends so we could talk about it afterwards — it’s definitely more thought-provoking than your average Marvel superhero movie, although I probably would have found the Marvel movie more enjoyable.

I’m thinking about how my expectations affected some of these experiences:

• I was excited and had high expectations for Everything Everywhere (it was 95% on Rotten Tomatoes), but was disappointed and didn’t really like the movie. (Did not meet expectations)
• As per usual I had high expectations for the sunrise at Cholla Cactus Garden, and it was totally worth it to get up at 5 am to see this. (Exceeded expectations)
• Reviews for The King’s Jester weren’t great so I wasn’t expecting much, but it actually ended up being pretty good. (Exceeded expectations)
• I don’t think I hyped myself up for the LA trip since I was pretty busy with work beforehand, but it was a phenomenal time. Note that I’ve always enjoyed LA volleyball trips, so it would have been easy for this trip to not live up to my past experiences there. (Exceeded expectations)
• Instagram gave me super high expectations for Sensorio, and while I’m glad I went to check it out, it was just ok. (Did not meet expectations)

I’ve written about this before but I guess the lesson here is to either not have expectations, or to lower them. Which is pretty difficult to do if you’re human and excited about something, but maybe it’s better to risk disappointment for those things than to deny what you’re looking forward to. I don’t have the answers here on how to balance the two, but as always I’m open to thoughts on best practices in this area.