December Winters - Homebody Living

Hey y’all,

My biggest challenge this month has been picking the right gifts for the upcoming holiday season. I’m new to the art of gift-giving (and it is an art), having only picked it up over the past couple of years - thinking back, I really admire my friends who have an intuitive sense for great gifts. For me, I am a lot more methodical and I really have to rack my brain to think of something that I hope will be remembered for years to come. I can’t wait to see my sister’s reaction when she sees the Subway baby blanket I got for my niece though, which I think is absolutely fucking hilarious.

In other news, I’ve been feeling like a little goblin. Working remotely from a dining room table, I sit with a concave spine for 85% of my waking hours. When I want to go for a walk, I have to scale an meter-high fence with a rusty nail that has already claimed the life of a pair of Lululemon License to Train joggers. Every ten minutes I’ll walk to the fridge, grab a slice of these Laughing Cow cheese slices, envy the happy red cow, and inhale the whole thing in a single bite.

Latest Happenings

• Shit Happens Tax: Imagine this: you’ve been stuck inside for the past three days straight, aligning shapes and XLOOKUPing sales data to determine just how this F500 company should react to Trump’s latest policy plans. Let’s go for a night drive, check out some stars! Only to discover the first flat tire of your life. And you don’t have a spare. 🙃 

• Dog Mountain Winter Hike: Went up on a whim on a blue-bird day for this short, three-hour hike. This is the quintessential Vancouver hike - easy and accessible with a jaw-dropping view. My friend and I tanned, sat in the snow, and ate some Subway. Drove home in 30 minutes and still had the whole day ahead of us.

• Tailbone Resistance Training (snowboarding): Early season conditions have been amazing so far, and I’m finally getting to the level where snowboarding actually becomes fun!

• Apartment Hunting: Did you guys know that there is a neighborhood in NYC where every single East Asian yuppie lives? It’s called Long Island City. Suddenly, moving to NYC doesn’t seem so daunting anymore… So much for getting out of my comfort zone. I’ll be there.

Content for Consumption

• The Time Spent on Daily Routine: Someone had the time to calculate just how much of life is already accounted for by your daily maintenance habits. The conclusion is: life is monotonous, short and worth living.

• Another eye-opening essay on the realities of higher education by William Deresiewicz that just hits: Why I Left Academia

• OpenAI Email Archives: Inside look at how Elon Musk & Sam Altman write their emails, managing relationships, and form companies.

Hou’s Favorite Takes

I’m running out of Hou’s Hacks for now, so here are some tweets that may be of use:

Joint Ventures

1. Share your favorite gifts that you have ever received! Big or small, experiences or things.

2. See all you party animals at Contact ;^)

Rates of nihilism are on the rise! Thanks for reading.