triple crown goals, 5.7.25

i watched the kentucky derby with my dad this past weekend. i’ve never been into horse racing, but after this weekend, i’m hooked. horses are beautiful animals. not only that, i’m in awe of their physical capabilities. running a 1.25 mile course in 2 minutes is absolutely insane. i went down the rabbit hole these past few days of horse racing and i’ve made it a goal of mine to be an owner of a racehorse. i’d like to be an owner of a triple crown winner as grandiose as that seems. i was doing research and i came across two horses i really love. i remember the name big brown when i was growing up, but didn’t pay much mind. he had to be a big deal because if someone like me who didn’t watch horse racing was familiar with him, he had to be doing something right. he almost won the triple crown, but during the belmont stakes, his horseshoe came undone and he didn’t finish. the other horse i came across was i’ll have another. he was going for the triple crown, but didn’t participate in the belmont stakes due to tendonitis. after the preakness stakes, his mantra going into belmont was ‘i’ll have another.’ thats hard. the best part of it all is he is the only horse to win coming out of gate 19 in the kentucky derby.

besides football, horseracing is looking to be my favorite sport.

-ratha, 10:02pm, 5.7.25

out the back window, 5.6.25

sometimes (a lot of times) there isn’t any parking at binney, where i work. the parking spots are extremely small and parking is a hassle. not only that, some days i park and can’t get out my car. i have to climb out the back window as crazy as it sounds. it’s normal for me, but as i typed that out, that’s actually ridiculous. today was one of those days. i climbed out the back and up on to the the lab, smh. i felt bad though because i parked extremely close to a tesla. luckily, he backed in and his driver side was by a column, so he has ample space to get in. still, it doesn’t make it right for me to park that close to him, but sometimes you ahve to do what you have to do and if you park at binney, most likely you’ll understand. if anyone doesn’t find use for a roll-down back window, i definitely do so kudos and many thanks to the toyota engineers of 25 years ago. sidenote: why did they take away the rolling back window of the new sequoias? when i buy one, how will i get out when i park at binney? but hopefully when i buy one, i won’t be working at binney.

or in biotech in general.

-ratha, 11:32am, 5.6.25

changing aesthetics pt.2, 5.5.25

regarding what i posted yesterday. so i scanned the painted image onto the computer and it looks good, but the font doesn’t look right. something is missing. i created my own font by writing, scanning, and uploading it on a program called calligraphr. i actually had fun doing so, but the font itself doesn’t look right for my purposes. it could be because my handwriting is sloppy, but either way, it’s not working lol. i’ve tried other fonts, but maybe the idea of writing over a painted white square affixed on an old photograph was not a good one to begin with. at least not as good as seemed in my mind, but that’s with most ideas i have. instead of being down, i’m hopeful because a few months ago i heard someone say “if you knew you were 30 failures away from success, how quick would you fail?” it put things into perspective for me. some people get things right on the first time, which is fantastic and i’m happy for them. for the rest of us, we’re not so lucky so we have to embrace failure on this journey to success.

though i’ve accepted success doesn’t come without failure, let’s hope i’m not in this phase for too long lol.

-ratha, 9:09pm, 5.5.25

changing aesthetics, 5.4.25

they say the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over expecting different results. i notice i tend to do that a lot. one of the things in particular is with my rdl365 page. i personally like the aesthetic of manila folders, but after posting twice a day for the better part of a year and half, i’m not seeing the results i would like. i am still thankful for those who followed, messaged, and commented on the writing, but i feel i can reach a wider audience if i dial in on the aesthetic. my thinking is to use my old photographs and put a white square of paint on them to write so today i went to michael’s and bought a brush along with some paint. i did some painting on a market basket weekly ad. i have to let it dry then scan it on to the computer and overlay it on some of my photos. i don’t know how it’s going to look, but there’s no harm in trying something new. i’m nervous, but excited at the same time.

changes are upon us, so let’s see what happens.

-ratha, 7:24pm, 5.4.25

what diet, 5.3.25

mom and i went to costco today to look for another standalone freezer. the one she saw a few days ago was out of stock so we browsed the food and more. we ended up getting some fruit along with some short ribs for galbi later in the week. we both sat down and ate at the costco cafe. I had two hot dogs. they were phenomenal. when we got home, i ate some fruit. later in the night, cravings hit, so i went to taco bell for a 20-piece nugget. it’s a lot of fat and sodium, but at least it was fulfilling.

plus, it was 136g of protein so that’s what i used to justify making a late-night taco bell run lol.

-ratha, 11:32pm, 5.3.25

office transitions, 5.2.25

one of my favorite things that happens when i’m at work is when i drive in and the morning is gloomy, yet after lunch, the sun comes out and everything looks so different. it happened today and i noticed it after my 1:30pm meeting. i walked back to the pods and the sun was shining through the windows in the office space. i can’t describe the feeling, but it’s a good one. especially on a friday. i know i speak on fall and summer, but spring is an underrated season.

perhaps my view on spring is sabotaged by the pollen, but when i sit back and think of the good things, it’s not so bad after all.

-ratha, 3:14pm, 5.2.25

the triple whammy, 5.1.25

may and i aren’t on the same page and it’s only day 1. i had a meeting at 10:00am. i left my house at 8:25am, but there was a bad accident and slow traffic after getting off i-93. then, making my way through cambridge, they shut down one of the roads i have to take to get to the garage. when i get to the garage, there is nowhere to park. this is due in part to ongoing construction/maintenance, but also due to there not being enough parking spots to begin with. i looked for a spot for 20 minutes. there were a handful of spots open, but people love to park over the line, so of course i couldn’t fit. i thought my problems were over when i actually went to work. when i got out around 4:45pm, no car was near me. i thought that was strange but come to find out someone hit my car! i couldn’t believe it. it could’ve been worse, but it’s still a scrape and a deep one at that. i’ll have to walk around in the next week to match what car hit mine, but why can’t people be decent? smh

and the worst part?

there are no cameras…

-ratha, 9:33pm, 5.1.25

on-time messages, 4.30.25

i got a message today on instagram. she complimented my writing and said i should get some more sleep. i appreciated her recommendation because i’ve been needing to fix my sleep schedule for years, but it has yet to happen. she is also a writer herself. i went through her writings and they are excellent. she writes long journal entries by hand, in what seems to be like every day. that’s an actual writer, which is so amazing to me. i’ve also been feeling a little down on my own writing because it hasn’t taken off (yet). my last two tiktok videos have a very low views. actually, the last video only has two likes. one of them is me and the other is me from my personal account lmao. i know these moments are temporary, but i’ve been thinking of switching up the aesthetic for some months, so the time to do so might be now.

her messages made my day and they’re definitely keeping me going right now.

-ratha, 7:21pm, 4.30.25

100 men vs 1 gorilla, 4.29.25

there’s a debate going on tiktok right now debating who would win in a fight between 100 men and 1 gorilla. for me, it’s 1 gorilla no problem. if it’s an aggressive gorilla, there is absolutely no chance. gorillas are too powerful. not only that, i don’t think a human could do physical harm to a gorilla without the use of weapons. what’s crazy about gorillas is they are herbivores. how wild is that? imagine how much stronger and bigger they would be if they ate meat.

100 men vs 1 gorilla?

is this really a debate right now?

-ratha, 3:13pm, 4.29.25

monday evening dinners, 4.28.25

i stopped by sol bol to get my free acai birthday bowl then in went to eat at sweetgreens. this was the best dinner i done had in a while. when i hire a personal chef, i’ll eat this meal twice a day. i was texting t and she said her mom made barracuda. i said like the mammal? she said no like the fish. when i looked it up, barracuda is a fish. i went my whole life thinking it was a mammal. this caught me off guard. this is like when i found out pickles were cucumbers. it blew my mind. then t told me she didn’t eat barracuda because they have toxins in them, but the fish she sent did look like barracuda. you know how they say all chinese people look the same? or all black people or all white people? that’s kind of how i feel about fish. especially after they’re cooked, most look the same lol. for my own dinner, i had the acai bowl with strawberry, kiwi, and pineapple along with a crispy rice bowl from sweet green.

i could’ve ate double, but i left it at that.

-ratha, 9:04pm, 4.28.25