coldstone order update, 6.8.24

update: the half mint, half cake batter combo at coldstone is still undefeated.

-ratha, 9:21pm, 6.8.24

northside in the summer, 6.7.24

northside in the summer is a vibe. even though there’s only a few streets, it kind of does feel like italy. we got some pasta at antico forno. i thought i was in trouble when i couldn’t read the menu and they didn’t have fettucini alfredo lmao, but i got some red pasta with shrimp and scallops. it was incredible. the only thing was the portions were small. i could’ve ate another bowl, but maybe next time. we walked around as it drizzled, even made our way to td. it was nice to get out tonight, especially after the week it’s been.

next time we’ll have to pull up earlier so we can explore a little bit more.

-ratha, 11:48pm, 6.7.24

bettering the diet, 6.6.24

i’ve been doing well at eating better. i’ve upped my protein intake and been incorporating salads into my lunches. i’ve also been eating more fruit. strawberries, watermelons, oranges, apples, etc. because of this, i went to cfa after the gym tonight. i passed a popeyes and said fuck it, i’ll get a chicken sandwhich. once again, popeyes was oily and mid. i thought it would be different, but hell nah. i lowkey hate popeyes lmao. i’ve never had good food from there. literally my first time eating was at concord mills food court in 2012 and even then i thought it was ass. i might’ve had a decent experience in 2020 during the height of the chicken sandwhich war, but even then, i preferred cfa. anyways, enough of the popeyes hate. here’s to watching game 1 of the nba finals and watching boston lose.

-ratha, 8:09pm, 6.6.24

asleep at the wheel, 6.5.24

they should really refer to a 9-5 as an 22-65. 9-5 sounds decent as 8 hours of a 24 hour day doesn’t sound so bad, but when you break down commutes, the sacrifices made for a job, and the all the politics that come with it, it’s not worth much at all. at least not to me. i don’t get much sleep some nights because of work, the thought of all my potential i’m leaving on the table everyday i’m there, and how my bosses have a negative opinion on me yet tap in with me when they need to get the job done. last night i only got two hours of sleep. i woke up, went to work early, and one of my bosses meets with me. actually, i’ll go into this when i write my book on my time in biotech, but on the way home i fell asleep multiple times. the last time was a curve a street over from my house in front of the golf course. somehow i woke up and i was one wheel in the oncoming lane. i don’t know how, but i swerved right in time to avoid a head-on collision. it shocked me. as i pulled in my driveway, my eyes were wide awake. i was wired. i’m thankful to have made it home safely, but i came to a realization that i’m giving so much of myself to a company that clearly doesn’t care about me, at all. never once have i had the benefit of the doubt with my boss, never once have i had the credit nor the respect i deserve. too many egos involved to tell the truth about it and no amount of smoke and mirrors can fool me into thinking otherwise. if i had gotten into a crash, they would carry on like never before. if i had died, they would’ve sent a company-wide email singing my praises knowing they were the ones witholding the credit. no matter what happens, every couple of months i’m reminded that this job does not give a fuck about me. i’ve been asleep at the wheel for some time now and it’s about time i wake up.

i think it’s a sign.

-ratha, 8:44pm, 6.5.24

the fourth song, 6.4.24

fully loaded dropping next friday. i was supposed to drop it yesterday, but it wasn’t quite ready. i could drop it this friday, but i want to give it at least a week queued up. now that i’m on my fourth release, the final release before my project, i’ve been watching spotify promotional videos. a lot of the videos said to release on a friday because that is when all the other artists drop, and the song will be more likely to be thrown into an algorithm. i was thinking the opposite by dropping on mondays, tuesdays, and wednesdays. i wanted to avoid the wave, but maybe i should join until i can make my own wave.

either way, everything should be ready to go by next friday and i’m excited.

-ratha, 4:32pm, 6.4.24

housekeeping the web, 6.3.24

you know the urge you get to rearrange your room or to reorganize your closet that hits you at 2am in the middle of the night? i get those same urges, too, but every year or so it hits me that i need to reorganize my website. i’m up right now at 2:11am doing some work on the website. i need to add and update my music section, maybe my about me photo, and maybe even post some more photos of events/places i’ve attended. at this point, we’ve got almost a decade of work on there, even more in the archives, and much more on the way.

thank God for self-expression, because without it i would go off a cliff.

-ratha, 2:17am, 6.3.24

5am sleeps, 6.2.24

chan called me today on the way to the grocery store from the rockwall gym. i asked him if he did his 10 climbs, and he said he didn’t because they went to a new gym and he tried climbing one of their arches and ended up injuring himself. it was like a cut/scrape on his hand, which he said was minor. then he mentions how he’s been so tired because he’s been falling asleep at 4am/5am the past two days. literally that’s the same schedule i’ve been on. i haven’t fallen asleep earlier than 4am for 2 or 3 nights at this point. i told him we gotta get some good sleep, especially with the work week upon us. there’s no rhyme nor reason why i’ve been up, just tossing and turning. i’ve been writing a lot, so maybe that’s where all my thoughts go when my mind goes empty.

hopefully tonight the slumber will come easy.

-ratha, 7:12pm, 6.2.24

slow saturdazeeee, 6.1.24

woke up at 2pm. went to the gym. ate some lunch. went to the park with btg. cut the backyard grass. took a shower. getting ready, then heading downtown for the ufc fight tonight.

happy june if you’re reading this!

-ratha, 3:23pm, 6.1.24

bagel on bagels, 5.31.24

there was a girl cashing out with about 50 cans of dry food at pet supplies plus earlier this afternoon. she kept apologizing to me and another lady standing behind her. i told her i was in no rush and the lady in front of me said she had nowhere to be. apparently, there was a sale that was 90% off. she said she paid less than $5 for all those cans of dry food, which was actually an incredible deal. as i was standing in line, i notice there are bagel treats for dogs. then it occurred to me, bagel has never had a bagel. i bought them and plan to give them to him after his dinner tonight. they were on sale for 50% off, so i got a deal, but i hope he likes them!

-ratha, 4:12pm, 5.31.24

sujeet in the sumner, 5.30.24

after a night in the city and trying taiyaki for the first time (okay at best), i was driving in the sumner tunnel. i’m in the right lane and am looking to switch to the left lane to avoid oncoming traffic. as i look to my left, i see a car with a dash that looks kind of familiar. for the next 30 seconds i keep thinking where have i seen that dash before? then i see the color and it looks like transmission blue, which was the car sujeet had been telling me about for the past two weeks he wanted to buy. he actually left work early today to pick it up. so i speed up and look over and sure enough it’s sujeet! i tried honking and he didn’t hear me, but eventually he looked left and we caught eye contact. i started laughing and throwing up my arms as he did the same. i pulled off as soon as we got on zakim. it was crazy because we were talking about how we bought/were buying new cars for the past couple of weeks. then today he picks it up and i see him driving. another part of the irony is we both went from a 2004 to our newer cars.

i still have the sequoia but that’s beside the point, his new car is beautiful and i’m happy he got the one he wanted.

-ratha, 11:02pm, 5.30.24