#60 Hipster Blend
01 March 2022 // San Diego, California
We need to talk about the way we talk about war. Like a lot of you, I’ve been watching stuff unfold in the Ukraine, and it hits hard.
But notice the logic behind why a lot of people think this one feels heavy.
“Europeans with blond hair and blue eyes are being killed.”
“This isn't a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan who has seen conflict rage for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European - I have to choose those words carefully - city where you wouldn't expect that or hope that it was going to happen."
The word civilized is a weird one, given that human civilization pretty much began in Iraq and Afghanistan, but-
Pay attention to what’s being said here. We can’t stomach the violence because it’s happening to people who look like us, whereas in Africa or the Middle East, it’s to be expected.
To me, this contrasts so sharply with one of the most famous quotes by the humanitarian doctor Paul Farmer– The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.
This is why we talk about implicit, unconscious biases, and all that.
I’m not trying to take away from anybody’s struggle, Ukrainian or otherwise, and I know it’s impossible to be fully process every single global tragedy equally.
But I think we can learn to be less selective with sympathy. And I think if something about the invasion in Ukraine is perhaps the first time someone has really thought about the effects of war and what it looks like, maybe that can open up a desire to prevent it in Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, or anywhere else.
#61 Kai on the Ball
02 March 2022 // San Diego, California
The declining price of solar will just never cease to amaze me.
In just TEN YEARS the price of solar energy went from $359 MwH to just $40.
And that's with fossil fuels still being subsidized and installations mostly happening among early adopters... meaning there's still a lot more room for demand to drive down pricing even more.
#62 Kalsada Roasters
03 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Can I be honest with you for a sec?
Honest, honest.
I see the deaths of Michelle Go and Christina Yuna Lee, and I don’t exactly know how to respond.
How am I supposed to respond to murder?
I’m a big solutions guy. When faced with global scale problems, I naturally look at the solutions that are out there and explore how we can promote them. How we can scale them up.
But when it comes to the spike of threats to Asian lives, women and elders especially… there is no quick and easy solution.
I can’t think of a law one could pass or a verdict that could come down that makes this all go away.
I don’t mean that to say there’s nothing we can do. On the contrary, there’s so much to be done. A lot of work ahead.
But for now, I think it’s important to remember Michelle Alyssa Go, and Christina Yuna Lee, who were so much more than their tragic deaths.
They were friends. They were loved. Yuna was a creative soul, a music lover, with great artistic taste. Michelle was active. She was a coach. A volunteer.
They were here. Their lives were meaningful. Like Grace Lee Boggs said, the only way we survive is by taking care of each other.
#63 Caterpillar Raincoat
04 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Why are rainy days often my fave? This is the vibe I’m really into.
Kind of brings the place to life a little bit more.
#64 Winter Jacket Rhys
05 March 2022 // Julian, California
Want to nurture curiosity?
Get used to learning things with no practical value.
Not every bit of knowledge needs to give you some career advantage. Wonder is enough.
#65 DJ Ukraine
06 March 2022 // San Diego, California
“I’ve witnessed many horrors in the past twenty years of covering war, but the intentional targeting of children and women is pure evil.”
— Lynsey Addario
I haven’t seen quite as much as Lynsey Addario, an amazing photojournalist who took the rest of these photos. But I have seen more than I ever thought I would.
I have an uneasy relationship with how to show the extremes of human suffering, and the way I’ve explained it in ethical storytelling courses I’ve led is that there’s no “perfectly right” way to present something so wrong.
I’ve worked a while in a nonprofit industry that’s a little too prone to exploiting images of suffering. But I also know that the right response isn’t to omit that part of the story, romanticizing a culture or a group, while turned away from suffering.
So much human discretion is required. Be present with people and remember that they are so much more than their worst day, and you‘ll be better positioned to be with them on that day.
Taking in some of the images and stories from a shelled maternity ward makes me a different kind of angry. It takes me back to learning about Darfur in the early 2000s, hearing about child soldiers and razed villages. Documentaries. Books like What Is The What. I felt like I couldn’t go on with life without knowing I was doing everything I could to prevent that level of suffering.
I’ve done a lot of stuff since then, and often I wonder if it’s enough, or if it’s directed in the right places given everything that’s going on. But I believe so much in the importance of the stories we tell. If today must contain horrors, maybe they can at least shake the souls of others into doing all they can to prevent tomorrow’s.
#66 A Bubs Walk
07 March 2022 // San Diego, California
I started processing my visa for Burundi this week. Another story trip is on the horizon!
I’m amazed at all the places that’s taken me. Both literally- as in, some remote parts of Haiti, Tanzania, or Thailand, and more poetically, as in, I can’t believe the lessons about hope, creativity, and our relationships to one another that I’ve picked up along the way.
I very much feel like this adventure is just getting started and I’m looking for the stories to tell ahead of me.
#67 Bubs in the Grass
08 March 2022 // San Diego, California
I try to keep some time open for creativity.
With three very young kids and a pretty full work schedule, it’s hard to find time to be creative sometimes.
Inspiration can’t be scheduled, and sometimes you’ll have a great idea but when you finally get the chance to act on it, it’s just not the same.
I’ve been pushing back against the busyness by making sure at least once a week I have scheduled open creative time.
I’ll escape to a coffee shop with my laptop. I might free write, draw or design something more spontaneously, or take the time to look up and learn about the random things that have caught my curiosity throughout the week.
I really believe that creativity starts with curiosity and if you aren’t taking the time to feed or follow that curiosity, it’s like trying to get a fire going without oxygen.
Sometimes I might not end up getting much work done. Sometimes an afternoon of stillness is the most important thing your creativity needs. Other times I might strike up a conversation with people I meet when I’m out.
#68 Outside Time for Twins
09 March 2022 // San Diego, California
It’s incredible the way dogs usher us between different stages of life and different versions of ourselves.
1 year old Beignet would be surprised at how that whole adoption thing worked out
3 year old Beignet can’t imagine herself ever slowing down
6 year old Beignet is wondering how many more times we’re gonna move (a lot)
7 year old Beignet has grown into the best big sister of three
#69 Turtle & Elephant Watch
10 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Turning Red this weekend, Umma in a few, and the Pachinko series by the end of the month.
March ‘22 is so exciting for Asian/Asian-Am film & media.
#70 Babu & Kai
11 March 2022 // San Diego, California
I’ve been a climate storyteller for five years. It’s taken me to places like Tanzania, Colombia, Haiti, and Thailand.
You know what I love about telling climate stories? In a way, it allows me to tell stories about just about everything.
See, there isn’t an aspect of life on this planet that isn’t affected by climate change somehow.
I initially started focused mainly on human rights and international development, but quickly found out that climate change was a root cause to so many issues from
Peace and conflict to Human trafficking to Refugee Crises Gender Issues and Racism
I used to think climate was a niche issue, but really, whether your interest is
Food or Urban design or The outdoors or Technology or Mental health or Physical health
A lot of my next goals as a climate storyteller are to help connect even more of these dots, and help people realize that they probably already care more about this issue than they realized.
#71 French Oven Date
12 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Something happened five years ago today.
I started telling climate stories. Stories from parts of the world facing the challenges of climate change most directly, and stories of what people are doing to protect their traditions, their families, and their futures.
As someone whose interests are often too many to contain in one pursuit, one of my favorite aspects of telling climate stories is that they’re simply everywhere- engrained in each aspect of life.
#72 Mob Boss Kai
13 March 2022 // San Diego, California
When you grow up the way I did, in relative comfort, war seems abstract. It’s a plot device in certain movies, or maybe the premise of a video game. It’s this thing to understand just well enough to pass a test- who fought who? When? Who won?
It was in the middle of some mid-2000’s movement around Darfur that reality started to sink in. I saw a documentary about the way children were being used as soldiers. I read the way Dave Eggers described the raiding of Dinka villages in What Is The What. It was so unthinkably awful. I didn’t know it then, but that’s the moment where I think my future in international development started taking shape. I was furious and deeply bothered that something that brutal could just be happening on Earth at the same time I was distracted by my comforts. I wanted to be part of whatever was out there that could stop something like that from happening.
I try to keep that feeling of urgency and outrage in my back pocket. It’s intense to carry it out in front all the time, but I want to always be able to access it. The work of peace building doesn’t always look like an action sequence that matches.
#73 Sunday Family
14 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Now that they’ve finally gone public with it and everything I can post the oldest photo in my camera to congratulate Daniel and Joy for doing the thing and getting all engaged.
May the birthday roast we did for Daniel last year be just an early taste of that lifetime of bliss.
#74 Gas Surge
14 March 2022 // San Diego, California
“Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with the existential problems of our times.”
–Maria Ressa
I did this drawing back when it was announced that Maria Ressa would be the first Filipina Nobel Prize winner, but never got to sharing it.
I decided to share it for, International Women’s Month!
And also, I’ve been doing deeper research on media manipulation and can’t help but agree with her take in an interview: “I don't think we have wrapped our heads around how much technology has allowed the manipulation of individuals and democracies.”
The calamity of the past few years have kind of helped me better understand the power of storytelling as a force for change. We need storytellers who are committed to using the craft to promote truth, protect people, and restore imagination.
#75 Gazebo
15 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Baseball’s lockout was the second worst thing that happened this offseason. Worst one was having to bid farewell to Cutch. An unusually classy ballplayer and the most fun guy in the game.
#76 52 Remedies
16 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Five years ago, I got to visit Tanzania.
Incredible place. I got to explore the area around Mount Kilimanjaro, and even hike a bit of the mountain.
The people were incredibly warm and inviting, but I soon learned that they were dealing with the effects of climate change pretty severely.
Most of them grew their own food. The melting ice of the mountain was creating soil runoff. Rainfall patterns were getting unpredictable.
Before this, I thought of climate change more abstractly. But this visit made the human cost much more real.
It also showed me how these communities were becoming resilient. By planting trees and practicing regenerative agriculture with Plant With Purpose , they managed to restore their ecosystems to health.
Climate has a serious human impact. But the people of Tanzania taught me it doesn’t have to be a horror story if we’re willing to act.
#77 To The Hoop
17 March 2022 // San Diego, California
I try and prioritize being present over being productive. Of course, these aren’t mutually exclusive, but don’t we all know that feeling of going through a day with your head down, buried in tasks, and by the time you look up it’s over.
That’s not what I want. I get the treat of doing work I enjoy, so I want to make sure I’m actually enjoying it. And I want to make sure I soak up all the time I get with family and other people.
Here’s a peak into the more practicality-oriented part of my brain and how I *try* to plan a day around the goal of being present.
If I get roughly 16 waking hours, I can splice them into four 4 hour blocks. A time to get stuff done. A time to stretch my creativity. A time to spend with others. And a time to refresh.
I don’t adhere to this rigidly and I think flexibility is important too. But having a strong sense of what mode to be in helps me reduce the rush, savor the days, and everything that needs to get done, gets done.
#78 Banyon Twilight
18 March 2022 // San Diego, California
We have lots of solutions, many based in nature, that just need proper investment.
We have thousands of communities vulnerable that can best implement those solutions. We just need to center their stories.
Climate action is compassion at a global scale.
#79 Slot Canyon with Kids
19 March 2022 // Borrego Springs, California
Today fed them babies from the inside of a slot canyon. Thought it was fun surprising the other hikers on their adventure with a taste of the domestic life lurking behind the narrows.
#80 Breen Park Rhys
20 March 2022 // San Diego, California
That split second after you swing a bat and make really good contact and just know it is one of the most satisfying athletic experiences.
#81 Hendrix Inlet
21 March 2022 // San Diego, California
This month I’m celebrating FIVE YEARS as a climate storyteller. Back in 2017, I started applying my creative skills to the crisis that defines our generation, and it’s been a wild time.
I’ve been doing this through years of wildfires, hurricanes, and heatwaves, a new IPCC report, the student-led climate strikes, and climate consciousness entering the mainstream.
Climate change is urgent and devastating and is already wreaking havoc on millions of lives. Having that narrative as part of my daily work should be overwhelming, right? Some days, for sure! But there’s also so much more to it… more than I would’ve thought just getting started.
I’ve learned so much, and I get excited about how there’s much, much more to learn.
Here are a few:
You can’t talk about climate without talking about the Global South… or better yet, talking WITH people living there, mostly listening. And you’ve got to use present tense, too. It’s not some projected threat. For Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America, South Asia, and a host of other places, climate change is already messing things up. International development was sort of my pathway into climate, and those realms are completely inseparable.
You meet the coolest people along the way. I’m talking about my colleagues. I’m talking about biologists. I’m talking about farmers. Sometimes climate scientists get portrayed as over-serious. Their subject matter is serious, they’re some of the coolest people I’ve met. Every time I’ve interviewed someone with an ecological research background, it’s a whole bunch of adventure stories in epic locations. On the days that climate work seems the most draining, the people are the best pick me up.
Speaking of people and experts, nobody knows EVERYTHING. The field of climate is simply too broad. Different solutions require knowledge in technology and engineering, others in biology, but also city planning and design, policy, advocacy, communication, education, food systems, animal behavior, psychology, and for me… storytelling. It’s not so much about top-level experts, but people applying their little zones of passion.
#82 Little Bear Drumhead
22 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Did they just add my mom as a character in Molly of Denali? My kid loves that show and theme music slaps!
Okay that wasn’t specifically my mom, but the show creators did a brilliant job of nailing the look of a mid60s Filipina Lola- from the Lola cut to the glasses to having to go to ‘dance fractice.’
Arielle Tuliao did the voice and told me she just channeled her own mom.
This episode itself was a really cool look at a part of the Filipino diaspora that you don’t see featured very often- Filipinos in Alaska, many of whom share and mix traditions with native Athabascans.
It’s the first time I’ve seen a show- especially a kids show- go deep enough to recognize the diversity within Filipino cultures, using culturally specific details like a Kapampangan flag.
This show’s pretty next level with their representation game.
#83 Very Normal Night
23 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Creativity does not thrive in isolation. There are all these images of an artist retreating into a cave to come up with her masterpiece, but in reality, to make something that relates to people through this absurd experience of life, you kind of need to experience it yourself. So much of that experience is through relationship with other people. It’s very possible that your creativity is suffering as a result of isolation, and I’m pretty convinced that’s at least part of my own recent rut.
In the case of pears and apples, those need to be cross pollinated. You need to plant them alongside other varieties. Not only is it important to have those interactions and connections with others, but diversity of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives is extremely important.
#84 Triple Stroller
24 March 2022 // San Diego, California
There’s a line in Min Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko that I love so much. It goes “We cannot help but be interested in the stories of people that history pushes aside so thoughtlessly.”
I love that so much because a lot of my storytelling is more interested in the strength and persistence of ordinary people rather than the accomplishments of rulers and the powerful.
This novel is maybe my favorite from the past decade. For sure a top five. In some ways it tells the story of intergenerational trauma and imperialism- I guess the better way to say that is the Korean concept of Han, if you’ve heard that before.
At the same time it also tells the story of intergenerational strength and love, especially for the women of the family it follows throughout a century.
This one made me really proud of the strong Asian women I have in my family line.
Anyways, Apple TV is adapting the book into a series this month and it has a stacked cast. It looks really good from the promo stuff I’ve seen. I know what I’m looking forward to this weekend.
#85 Corbyn’s Visit
25 March 2022 // San Diego, California
There’s been no shortage of words written and things said about disinformation and media manipulation, and for good reason. False perceptions and narratives about our world have created an environment where problems are a lot harder to solve, and people are a lot more likely to turn on each other.
But in spite of all this attention, most of it focuses on how bad the effects of disinformation are and how to recognize it. Rarely do I see people ask why disinformation has been so widely pursued as a strategy, especially by big actors like Russia. The point isn’t so much to spread one particular lie, but to create an environment where people can no longer distinguish truth from lies.
Turning the tide here isn’t easy, and it’s not an individual-level effort, exactly. But there are a few basic things we can practice to not just avoid being manipulated, but to create a broader environment where it’s harder for deception to bloom.
#86 Cousins & Babies
26 March 2022 // Villa Park, California
Humans are a part of nature, so I think ecological metaphors often serve us well. When a tree isn’t producing fruit there can be a lot of different reasons for it.
The most common reason a backyard fruit tree doesn’t produce fruit, at least in the US, is overfertilization. This is especially true in a landscaped backyard with grass because people will fertilize the grass without realizing that the tree will take all that in too. The tree ends up spending all those nutrients on growing its wood rather than fruit.
Our world makes it so easy to be overstimulated and uninspired. We have so much content, so much good content coming at us all the time, it’s hard to get to all of it appropriately. Maybe it’s time to step back from the noise, fast from one or two sources of the stimulation- maybe social media and Netflix or something, and reset.
#87 Daniel Tiger Live
27 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Oscars Night and we’ve got some prime orchestra seating over here…
**At the Daniel Tiger Live show
Guess that’ll be the way I break my two years of hiatus from concert-going that goes back to Vampire Weekend in 2019.
#88 Wooded Walk
28 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Life is so freaking domestic right now! But I’m happy.
I heard Laurie Santos talk about how many young parents experience life on two separate tracks- on one hand the minute by minute experience is kind of rough. Taking care of littles is demanding. On the other hand, it does give you satisfaction on a totally different level.
This window in my life is such a wild paradox, it’s hard to know how to even start talking about it. Living in survival mode has made it harder to stay creative, inspired, and present.
The hardest part of having three kids under three for me? It isn’t the lack of sleep, the rising costs of everything, or the fact that at all times, I’ve got to be changing somebody, feeding somebody, or holding and consoling somebody… it’s the Groundhog Day-ness of it all. The adventures, diversions, and breaks from the routines have all been a bit out of reach for the past few months, and if you know me, you know I feel the most alive around the unfamiliar.
But talking about it that way doesn’t seem to do justice to the fact that it’s also the sweetest season of my life and I’m continually astounded with how much of a distinct personality I see out of each child. I almost physically feel some invisible happiness meter start to surge whenever I’m reading books with Rhys, or simply holding Kai or Juniper against my shoulder.
I guess it’s simply a lot. And that’s kind of what’s beautiful about it.
#89 Juniper’s Balcony
29 March 2022 // San Diego, California
A few months ago I did a bit of a reading immersion into Octavia Butler’s work.
It was my first time reading her books but I’d known for a while that I needed to.
I started with Kindred which let me know how skilled of a writer she was, keeping the pace of the novel flowing and bringing the character’s inner processes to life.
Then I got to the Parables series and that was a look at the level of visionary she was in her writing.
The crafting of a world ravaged by climate change, a plague, war and lawlessness, and a United States that has clung to an authoritarian leader pandering to religious nationalism and a nostalgia for past “greatness” seemed too spot on for a book written nearly 30 years ago.
Here’s a PSA to stop putting off diving into the works of a writer, filmmaker, or creator you’ve always wanted to.
#90 Octavia Butler Books
30 March 2022 // San Diego, California
Esperanza showed me all the varieties of corn products she grew- from red corn to blue corn and huitlacoche. I told her she had the same name as my grandma, and she told me about how her community was able to curb deforestation.
“Our friend said that we never really understood the importance of planting trees before. We didn’t understand that we needed a large number of trees to breathe. We thought as long as we had air around, it was fine. But in order for one person to have life they need trees.
For one person, we did the math. If there are 4 or 5 people in a family, how many trees do those family members need to breathe? We counted how much we were planting, and also the rate at which we were cutting down trees. Raising awareness is a big task. But people saw there was a big need and they started planting trees.”
Shortly afterwards, she started to get emotional. “Thank you for hearing my story,” she added. “I am just one woman and I have not gotten a lot of formal education. People don’t listen to us very often.”
And yet Esperanza has worked with her neighbors, and together they’ve done more to reverse deforestation in their area than I’ve seen well-equipped, well-educated PhDs accomplish.
We often scam ourselves by thinking people need some sort of status to make a difference. Identify a need, start doing what you have to, and you’ll be surprised where that takes you.