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I think we've got it all wrong. Learning a language isn't about memorizing vocabulary or grammar rules. I was lucky enough to have learned a bit of Spanish while traveling in Latin America. When I was talking with the people there, I realized that they know a lot more words in English than I know in Spanish; for instance, they knew the English word for "blueberry" but I had no clue what it was in…
I went to Puerto Rico for a week in March 2025 with 4 other friends, and here I'll share the route that we took as well as some photos. Unfortunately most people who go to PR only stay in San Juan and Vieques; I feel that doing this only shows you a glimpse of PR. We rented a car with Enterprise and drove around the island, and it was a lot of fun. San Juan Old San Juan was a lot of fun, but also…
This morning I was scrolling on the Discover page of bearblog, like I usually do. I saw a post titled "the append-and-review note". I thought it was pretty interesting, so after reading it, I clicked on the home tab. This is the first time I stumbled across a blog post by someone I know. My first instinct was that this was someone faking to be him; I went on his own page and it just turns out, he…
I. I journal a lot. Some days I sit down and write for hours, about events on that day and my thoughts on them. Some days I just briefly write down what I did. Why? To me, if I don't remember what happened, it's as if all that time just vanished. This feeling is even stronger nowadays as we spend more time on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. I find that writing things down helps…
it's okay if you don't know what you want to do. life is long. you don't need to know what your first job will be when you enter college. but you can't stay where you are. that's not an option. you have to go somewhere. talk to people. learn. read. try. you'll never know what you want if you stay here. Related: Check out Paul Graham's blog on how to spend (or lose) time; and check out this…
Someone once said, if you talked about something to more than 2 people, you should write about it. I've been asked by many for film recommendations, and below I've compiled a list of films I watched in 2024 that I absolutely adored, in no particular order. Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2002) There is no way to summarize this movie succinctly; to me, this felt like a Brazilian version of the…
Prior to my trip to Baja California I've never driven in any country other than the U.S. and China, both of which are relatively safer for driving. I was nervous about it at first, too. We rented a car with Hertz in Tijuana, because on the website it was 500 bucks cheaper than Enterprise. But when we got to the counter we were charged young driver fees, and in the end it was only 200 bucks…
On a boat trip in La Paz, BCS, I sat next to a 68-years old man from Vancouver; as we shared stories of our travels, he told me he drove all the way down here, alone, and previously he spent 1 month in Loreto. He also revealed that he previously worked in the food industry, for companies such as Coca-Cola (which he was not proud of) and a couple others. I've been curious about foods and health in…
Hey, I'm glad we called last night. You seemed to be somewhat interested in what happened on the trip, though you didn't want to admit it, and I didn't have enough time to tell you everything. Perhaps I never will have enough time to tell you everything - I wish you were here. I traveled with H and R, and as we were looking for one other person, C told me one of her friends is interested; none of…
Here's how it worked in the past: some people use time and energy to produce for others, in exchange for some currency; some people buy these products using the same currency. Most people are both producers and consumers: we produce make what we do best and buy what we don't. In recent years, though, that's not completely the case. When we watch YouTube videos, or Instagram reels, we're not…