I like them for opposite reasons. The Black Forest is smooth and perfect for cursive. The Pearl gives me tactile feedback as it marks the paper.

A writing utensil for every occasion.

My dispute forms were never acknowledged. 10 months later I received a letter from collections, and my credit tanked by over 100 points. I contacted the collections people, explained the whole thing to them, sent the same dispute documentation to them plus National Grid again, and heard nothing back. Six months later, my credit went back to normal.

*I wrote a thing here but it was full of *#^$*^@ so I censored it.*

Along with this followup, I had intended to document additional house things I previously couldn’t bear to post, but my elevated blood pressure from writing the above tells me I should let some more time pass before I revisit whether or not to write about the other stuff.

Back to not talking about my house for a while.

* Noting that I called this the “happiest little song” when I first heard it. After you hear it twenty or so times it starts to become absurdly long.

The ethical portion of this theme is the following: Be a good person. Do the right thing.

Having trouble making a decision? Be a good person. Do the right thing.

Sounds reasonable, but we all know good and bad, right and wrong, are not clear dichotomies. That’s a topic I’ll save for a much different, much longer post.

The discipline and self-mastery part of this theme is something I really like:

1. Decide who you want to be.
2. Act accordingly, consistently.
3. Your actions shape who you become.

This reminds me of:

• Make Yourself, one of the most formative* songs of my 20s.
• The following quotes:
  • “Every single day you’re the result of what you did on the days prior,” from Chris Hadfield. Sometimes I’ll say to myself under my breath, “Every single day,” to keep myself on track.
  • “You can control what you think. You can control how you think, and therefore you can control who you are… I can literally become exactly who I want to be,” from Eileen Gu.
  • “How you do anything is how you do everything.” I don’t know where this quote comes from, but I live by it and use it to collect data around me.
• What I do when I want to become better at something. See 30 Days.

Also see 365×2.

Some notes on 1, 2, and 3 above:

1. Center yourself and decide with clarity, free from external influence.
2. Make the person you want to be a habit. I am all about removing friction with habits.
3. My biggest project that will never end is me.**

A few additional notes I took this month:

• Time without action is wasted.
• Action without direction is wasted.
• Learnings are nothing without action.

I am simultaneously in violent agreement with this month’s lessons and giving myself grief for not spending every moment with intention and direction.

* My journal from 2004-2005 has this sticker on the cover:

** I’m a completionist and now that I’ve written it this way I’m not sure how I feel about it.

That ends today. It’s great low-consequence EDC to pair with my Field Notes, but it’s a noticeably rougher journaling (in cursive) experience compared to my latest fountain pen addition – a Hongdian 1851 starter pen from Amazon.

And so evolves my foray into fountain pens. There are a couple pen events coming to town later this year and I’m super looking forward to discovering more of this world.

Earlier this month, I spent a week in Basel for work. Because long flights and time zone difference and jet lag, I bookended my office days with exploration days. This led to the following adventures, roughly in order:

Germany: Vitra Campus

After landing in Zürich Sunday morning and taking a train to Basel, I dropped my stuff off at the hotel, ate a quick lunch, and hopped on a 15 minute tram ride across the border to Germany. Destination: Vitra Design Museum. I’d soon find out on my walk to the museum that I was in for a treat: An entire Vitra Campus!

I had thought I was visiting a museum, but instead I found myself on the campus of a design forward furniture company. The entire campus itself was imbued with design; every building was meticulously and uniquely imagined. The campus actually hosts two museums, multiple bookable tours and activities, three food establishments, several showrooms and shops, a dedicated workshop for Eames chair customization, a 100 foot tall clock tower twisty slide, a soundscaped Zen walk, plus a multitude of delightful structures sprinkled throughout.

I’m sure I’ve neglected to include a key feature, likely because I haven’t yet discovered it. I had an amazing afternoon sliding down the Slide Tower, pacing through and sitting zenfully in the Doshi Retreat, taking in the views from every showroom of the VitraHaus, and wandering through an exhibition of furniture from science fiction movies. I discovered at the end of the afternoon that they offer a bookable tour of their robot and space toy collection. I will have to come back.

I walked back to the tram station, descended the stairs to the train platform, and took a 5 minute German train ride back to Basel Badischer Bahnhof. This is the station for German trains coming through town, not to be confused with Basel SBB, for Swiss and French trains.

France: Statue of Liberty

We’d originally been asked to plan for a full M-F in the office, but most of my teammates flew home on Friday so I took the day off to go to France. This involved an 8 minute tram ride to Basel SBB followed by a 45 minute train ride to Colmar, a.k.a. La Petite Venise for its canals. I wandered the streets, peeked at the waterways, picked up some peppercorns from Marchée Couvert, and ate a freshly made street side crepe.

Next, it was off to the bus stop, where I tapped my phone for a 12 minute ride, followed by a 5 minute walk. And there it was, Roundabout Island, home of Colmar’s very own quarter-scale Statue of Liberty. Fun fact: Colmar is the birthplace of Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. They erected this replica in his honor in 2004, the 100th anniversary of his death.

I ran across the street to the airport, took a different bus back into town, and ate a Tarte Flambée, a.k.a. Flammekueche, for lunch. It’s shaped like a pizza but much thinner and way less filling.

Next I spent some time at the Musée Bartholdi, birth home of Bartholdi himself. I enjoyed learning more about his process, his prolific career, and the French version of the story behind the Statue of Liberty.

I walked back to the station, hopped on a train, and found myself back in Basel 45 minutes later, with plenty of time for dinner.

Switzerland: Lucerne & Rigi

I booked my flight home the following Sunday, intending to use Saturday for exploration. After consulting with various colleagues plus Gemini, I decided to visit Lucerne and Mount Rigi.

Lucerne was beautiful and Rigi was breathtaking, but the real star of the show was the transit system. Saturday, in order, I took the following:

• Tram from Messeplatz (starting hotel) to Basel SBB
• Train from Basel SBB to Luzern
• Ferry from Luzern Bahnhofquai to Weggis
• Cable car (like a giant gondola) from Weggis to Rigi Kaltbad
• Cog wheel train from Rigi Kaltbad to Rigi Kulm (the peak!)
• Classic cog wheel train from Rigi Staffel to Arth-Goldau
• Train from Arth-Goldau to Luzern
• Bus from Luzern to Ebikon
• Train from Ebikon to Zürich HB
• Train from Zürich HB to Zürich Flughafen (ending hotel)

Switzerland is a transportation nerd’s dream.

And now, the details! It was an easy tram ride from the hotel to the main train station, followed by a train ride that got increasingly more crowded as we approached Lucerne. Rail travel over distances both long and short is the norm here.

At Lucerne station, I easily located banks of lockers for storing my luggage. They come in different sizes and all accepted NFC payments. Super fast and easy!

I had a bit of time before the ferry, so I wandered over to Kapellbrücke, a.k.a. Chapel Bridge, “the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe.” Ship of Theseus, anyone?

As it was midmorning on a Saturday, there was a farmers market on both ends of the bridge / both sides of Reuss River. There were the usual produce and baked goods, eggs of every color, a most delightful cheese stand, and a variety of seedlings for spring planting.

After a wander, I went back to the station and hopped on a ferry to Weggis. I took this route because my worker told me he took it after learning that Mark Twain once called it, “the loveliest and most satisfying in the world.” I enjoyed a serene view from the banks of Lake Lucerne upon disembarking, and shortly after a most breathtaking view of Lake Lucerne from the incredibly steep cable car ride up Mount Rigi.

The cable car deposited us partway up Mount Rigi, at Rigi Kaltbad. As I waited for the cog wheel train at the other end of the plaza, a mini cow drive came through.

These cows sported some serious cowbells, which are apparently necessary because even with all the noise once of the handlers had to rescue a small child from a wayward cow.

More beautiful views from the cog wheel train to Rigi Kulm (the summit). When we arrived at the top, I marveled at the full bars of 5G on my phone. Then I looked up and saw the burliest radio tower I’ve ever had the pleasure of double summiting.

I climbed the tower, ate a snack, watched paragliders launch and gliders soar overhead, and discovered a cloud factory.

After taking in the view I hiked downhill to the next station and took a different cog wheel train down to Arth-Goldau. I picked up a lost tourist along the way and from there we transferred to a train back to Lucerne.

After an afternoon snack, I wandered over to Museggmauer and climbed the Zytturm (clock tower). To my delight, the inside of the clock tower doubles as an ancient clock museum. A mechanical timekeeping paradise! I descended the tower partway and walked along the top of the wall, taking in the views. I heard voices in the distance. A sporting event?

As I approached the train station, I found the source: a MASS-VOLL! protest and Antifa counterprotest. The US is not alone in dealing with Nazi-leaning nationalists disguised as patriots.

The protests led to bus delays for my connection to Zürich airport. Our bus from Lucerne pulled in to Ebikon station two minutes before our train transfer in front of a large crowd of also-delayed bus passengers. I picked up my suitcase and ran, through the crowd, across the bus platforms, down the tunnel, up to the platform. We all made it.

After one more transfer at Zürich HB I found myself at the airport, where I had a hotel booked for the night. I was so tired I almost got myself run over by a tram on the final stretch. What a day!

Basel Bonus

A week in Basel without a car was sooo easy. Most people there bike, walk, and take public transit on a regular basis. Trams always have right of way, followed by pedestrians in crosswalks, then bicycles and cars. Everyone follows these rules. Bikes will come to a complete stop for you in a crosswalk even if you wave them on. The bike share bicycles are equipped with helmets and a cover for both the helmet and seat when parked. There are supermarkets in the neighborhoods along with restaurants, cafes, bus and tram stops all over town.

People paddle and swim in the Rhine River. They do yoga along the shores. There are wide trails on either side for walking, running, and commuting. There are also cable ferries that take you across for a small sum. They’re powered entirely by the river current. I want to ride one of these on a future visit.

There are locks along this part of the Rhine. I want to take a lock cruise on a future visit as well.

Just like in Zürich, there are fountains all over town with drinkable water. Some of these fountains are in the shape of a Basilisk, a.k.a. rooster serpent, which I gleefully called chicken dragons.

The hotel tap water was delicious as well.

Contactless payment is everywhere. Air conditioning is not. Litter is non-existent. Ovomaltine, the original name of the misspelled export Ovaltine, comes in every possible form. (I noticed because I grew up an Ovaltine kid.) The SBB app takes care of everything you could possibly need for transit. Trains and ferries have first and second class sections. They aren’t that different in terms of luxury, but first class provides a much better chance of getting a seat. Floor …, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, … makes so much more sense than the US system. Smoking is still a thing here, though probably less prevalent than when the now-decrepit neighborhood cigarette machines were in use.

I had a three hour block open during the week, so I walked down the street and visited Museum Tinguely. The internet describes it as a museum of kinetic art; I think that’s too mild. If you like machines, if you like art, if you like machines that are art, machines that make art, machines that are art in the process of making art, you’ll like this museum. It’s quirky and I would totally go again.

Random outings:

• Bouldering on Monday evening with some colleagues. I’ve now gone bouldering in multiple countries (Singapore, Shanghai, Switzerland) and while space dynamics are different, they’re all supportive hangout spaces where people climb and have a good time. What I found most interesting was the post-bouldering conversation. Most people in Basel are expats and our conversation touched on various cross-border topics.
• A post-dinner pit stop at Les Trois Rois on Wednesday evening. One of my colleagues grew up in Israel and he talked about the significance of this hotel in Jewish history. We made our way to the balcony below the one in this famous photo of Theodor Herzl and recreated it with my coworker.
• The Street Food Festival on Friday evening at Messeplatz. They had sooo many vendors (45, says the internet) with cuisines from all over the world. I really enjoyed stumbling across this.
• Friday night “dessert” with one of my last remaining US colleagues in town. My Dad had raved about the white asparagus truffle soup in Basel after I told him I was coming here, and since it happened to be asparagus season, I ordered and enjoyed an asparagus soup in his honor.

I mentioned the Messeplatz. It’s an exhibition hall, fairground, and wicked stylish tram stop.

Zürich Airport

I spent my final evening and morning at Zürich airport. In the evening, I went to one of the two supermarkets for dinner. Grocery shopping at the airport is totally a thing here, especially on Sundays when many shops are closed. In the morning, I went for a walk through the airport’s Circle Park, complete with an observation area, forest, wetlands, trails, picnic platforms, campfire ring with wood, exercise equipment, pavilion, and funicular.

Nothing to do with Switzerland

I took a Waymo to SFO because we live in the future.

SFO has an aviation museum and a library in the International Terminal. Concourse G also has an outdoor terrace with weird statues. While I was there I talked to a woman who took a picture of one and remarked, “I might sketch this for my postcard club.” It turns out she’s part of a group of people who draw their own postcards and mail them to each other.

Maybe I’ll draw a postcard from this trip.

: I got into a random conversation about fountain pens today and learned that you can have nibs customized by grinding the tip. I also learned of the local Pen Posse in the process.

: I watched Sneakers for the first time and at the end of the movie I felt annoyed because it was yet another happy ending. I haven’t been annoyed by the happy ending trope since before COVID. Rooting for the villain, I feel like myself again!

First, we address external bias. Society assigns a value to things that may or may not reflect their worth to you. It pushes opinions on what’s good and bad. It hypes with glamour, fluff, and veneer. Identify these externals and don’t let them bias you.

Next, we address internal bias. How do you know what you perceive, believe, and think is real? Audit your thinking, learn to identify your biases, welcome being wrong. Be humble. Seek the truth.

Then, with a clear mind, know your character, set your compass, and choose your actions accordingly.

On the surface, I like the external bias bit a lot. I like to think of myself as someone who doesn’t jump on every bandwagon.

In reality, my choice not to get on the bandwagon often has more to do with bandwagons than what’s inside. I hold a blanket bias against bandwagons and justify my decision not to board with judgements I make about their contents, regardless of how little I actually know about them. Sometimes I make myself get off a wagon after being on it peacefully for years because too many band members hop on. That thing I used to love, I don’t love it anymore, and never will again.

Soo… I hold a deep internal bias best described as a violent reaction to external bias. I’d like to say these cancel each other out, but I sadly I think this makes me doubly biased.

In the Stoically rational world, I would correct this now that I’ve named it.

If only feelings were rational.

1. It’s a pain in the butt getting the butt end off.
2. Maaaybe the top screw was loose? I had to take it off anyway to get at…
3. Two more screws holding the solenoid in place, so I could loosen them, regap the magnet, and retighten.
4. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

I now have a less buzzy toothbrush (I assume because something was loose) with adequate flex (because I increased the solenoid-to-magnet gap). Thanks YouTube!

I took no pics, but it definitely did happen.

– – –

Update: 2026-04-24 @ 10:47 PM

My toothbrush feels like new! What a difference. I can’t believe I put up with loud ineffective toothbrush for so many months.

Related, but much more simple, last month I thought my matcha whisk was dying and it turned out it just needed new batteries. (Though maybe dead batteries equals dying? )

I don’t have a story to tell, just documentation as I think back on my visit.

Dad is getting noticeably older in terms of energy level. He falls asleep the moment he sits and there’s a lull in conversation. It’s disturbing how quickly it happens. He’ll literally finish dinner and fall asleep sitting there. At the same time, he’s the one keeping the house physically in order, and he still golfs four times a week completely on foot.

Mom spends a lot of time on screens. She consumes video content nonstop, sometimes watching a show while doing something else on her iPad or phone. On the upside, she makes time for the exercise bike as well as other movements she comes across in internet videos.

Staying with them for 10 days meant we had many long conversations into the night, randomly during the day, and on walks with Mom. I don’t remember everything we talked about, but I do remember appreciating our time talking.

Doing my best to remember:

• Sixty-something years ago, my maternal grandfather returned for a visit from Peru because he didn’t have a son. For some reason he wasn’t allowed to stay in Hong Kong so he and my grandmother lived in Macau for a couple years, until my uncle was born. My Mom remembers this because she got to visit them in Macau during this time.
• Mom shared this story while she was talking about how she believed in calculating fortunes from birth date and time. They used to visit a blind man who specialized in this. She gave this story as an example: My grandmother asked him when she would have a son, and he answered it would happen when she was 36 years old. And indeed, it took until she was 36 years old for my uncle to be born.
• The other example she gave was when my grandmother visited this soothsayer to ask about a lucky wedding date for her friend’s child. Supposedly, he volunteered accurate information about the bride and groom’s past before providing the date.
• Because of messed up family reasons, my Mom, aunt, and uncle don’t talk to each other anymore. Mom seems sad about it, but she’s resigned to things being this way. For my part, I have sworn never to repeat any of what I consider the causal behaviors I’ve observed in her family to avoid a similar fate.
• As a kid in the village Dad would catch little frogs to dangle in front of big frogs, and he would enlist his little sister to help him with the bucket for the big frog. They’d take it back to their grandmother (?) to prepare for dinner.
• Dad spent three years as an apprentice tailor. He made thirty Hong Kong dollars a month, never got a raise, and wasted his time running errands instead of learning to be a tailor. He left to become a watch salesman when he completed his apprenticeship and immediately started making two hundred a month. In good months, he could make five hundred.
• Dad’s happiest period in his life was the few years after I was born. He had a job, a lovely wife, and a kid and it felt like everything was going right.
• Dad’s saddest day, as he remembers it, was also Mom’s happiest day. It was the day they left Hong Kong for the US. Mom was happy because she would finally reunite with her family. Dad was devastated because he was leaving all his family, friends, and happy life that he’d built in Hong Kong.
• Dad’s first few years in the US were really, really difficult. He worked a full time job from 9-5, then as a waiter until 2am. He found himself wondering if this would be his life forever, and whether he wanted to keep going.
• Then he changed jobs and became a traveling jewelry salesman. He was able to earn more, but this job was both challenging and dangerous. On multiple occasions he was robbed, narrowly escaped being robbed, or worse. He’s had run-ins on the street, armed car chases, and international detainments. Somehow, he survived. He’s resourceful like that.
• His three most exciting moments in recent years are riding a bicycle again, going skiing again, and going on an Alaska cruise. I’m glad I was able to do that for him.
• Dad and I shared our shared quirks with each other. He still hurts over his first guitar, which he saved and saved and spent five Hong Kong dollars to buy. His cousin promptly asked to borrow it to impress some girls at a party, got into a fight, and smashed it. One could imagine this being a funny story so many decades later, but I could feel his pain as he was telling it. I asked him if it still hurt, and he said yes, very much. I’m the same way about items I care about.
• Mom is super annoyed about how Cantonese is evolving in Hong Kong. In particular, she can’t stand how kids these days are too lazy to pronounce the “ng” sound. Many words that start with ng are pronounced as if the “ng” wasn’t there, e.g. “ngaw” (me) becomes “aw”, “gnap” (duck) becomes “ap”. She was also peeved over the disappearance of the “gn” sound, “gnay” (you) becomes “lay”, “gnam” (south) becomes “lam”. This conversation came about because I was feeling confused about pronunciation since I hear the “lazy” version so much in media these days.

During one of our conversations, Dad showed me a picture his classmate sent him of a picture from way way back. I asked him to send it to me and now I have it forever.

Conversations aside, we went out for dim sum a couple times: once to try a newly reopened place in Quincy, and once to try a newly opened place in Chinatown. I don’t love dim sum, but it’s nostalgic in that “this is what we do on weekends” kind of way.

What we do on the weekends now is all hang out together when I’m in town. We play with the niecey poos’ toys and on this particular weekend Mom threw a bullseye on her first try.

Sis is her usual self, running and planning all the things. They’re off to Florida for April vacation, and later this year they’re taking Mom and Dad on a cruise! Dad is both excited to cruise again and apprehensive about the cost and the kids and my Mom. At the same time, he’s looking forward to trying every chocolate cake to see if he can find something as good as the one he tasted in Alaska.

Paige is a more socially conditioned version of herself. She knows she’s adorable and uses it to her advantage. She mostly keeps her Paigezilla tendencies to herself, but we catch her in moments like this:

Paige: *playing with dolls*
Sis: Paige, what are you doing?
Paige: Murdering them!
Paige: *strangles one doll with the other*

Penny is growing! She’s taller and stronger and super into manga and Rubik’s cubes. (She solved a 12-sided pentagonal cube this week, after trying for two years.) She’s always looking to learn new things and after I showed my sister a new stretch I learned she kept asking me to teach her more stretches. Amusingly, none of them felt like a stretch for her because she is a young Gumby. Eventually, I decided to teach her Crow Pose. She learned it in just a few tries.

At dinner the other night, Penny mentioned her friend was doing some song and pantomime thing with pens and apples. This led to a family viewing of PPAP. The next day, Penny was obsessing over hanami dango, which turned into jokes about dingos, and after a couple iterations with Nano Banana we ended up with a dingo dango dango dingo.

Both niecey poos are currently into Roblox, so I created an account and played with them. It’s a fun group activity when you can team up on things. On multiple occasions I got myself stuck and had to hand my phone over to Penny so she could get me out of my old person jam.

I mentioned in my JoCo Cruise post that I’ve been getting into fountain pens. I now have a couple cheap starter pens, and I’m starting to feel curious about nicer pens. There’s a cup full of random pen sized things on my parents’ desk, and in it there is a pen that I’ve stared at since I was a kid. I picked it up, took off the cap, and… it’s a fountain pen?! As it turns out, it’s not just any fountain pen, it’s a Parker 75 Ciselé. I’ll need to clean it up, potentially replace the converter, and detarnish the silver body. I’m excited to have a project and my first nice fountain pen, especially one with an origin story: this pen was a parting gift to my Dad from a friend when we moved to the US.

And here we all are now, forty three years later, almost to the day.

I also got to see a bunch of friends and had a surprise run-in with a couple former classmates!

• Hiking with Trish, Matt, Kim, and Aaron at Hale Reservation
• Walking around the neighborhood with Becky during her daughter’s dance class
• Running into high school classmates Karen and Mandy while waiting for Becky
• Visiting Liz at her studio to pick up some fun prints
• Friday muffin chat with Kim
• Brunch with Siggy, Becky and Kim at Friendly Toast

Ten days is a long time. By the time Friday hits it feels like a long time. And also it’s not long enough.