Weeknotes: May 3, 2025

I decided to redesign my site again. As of writing this post, it's not quite done, so I'll probably make another post about cool things I learned while doing the redesign.

Currently, I'm enjoying some time at my gramma's house. Right now, I'm sitting on her back porch, and the view is very peaceful. There are a lot of birds to watch.

RTO for my job has been pretty rough. It seems that there's enough desks for everyone, but not nearly enough parking spots. This means that almost everyone tries to get to work significantly earlier. And since over 10,000 people now drive to the building I work at on a daily basis, it means that traffic in Columbus in general has seen an uptick just from my company returning to office, which is pretty wild.

I've been getting to work early - partially to ensure I have a decent parking space in the same general area, and partially because I would rather wake up earlier than sit in an additional 5 minutes of standstill traffic on an exit ramp. Waking up earlier has taken a bigger toll on me than I had thought it would, but maybe I just haven't adjusted yet.

What I'm reading

I'm currently listening to The Perennial Philosophy by Alduous Huxley. To be honest, the core thesis is pretty much the opposite of a book I read last year called God is Not One by Stephen Prothero, a religious studies professor at Boston University. Prothero argued that all religions are each trying to tackle a different problem, and so they each have different solutions to the problems they define. For example, he says that in Christianity, the problem is sin, and the solution is salvation. In Islam, he says that the problem is disobedience, and the solution is submitting to God's will. In Buddhism, he says that the problem is suffering, and the solution is the noble eightfold path.

Huxley argues close to the opposite. He says that within each major religion is the core message of the "perennial philosophy" - basically, a core truth about reality that is the foundation to each of these religions. I'm about halfway through the book, and I have to say, Huxley's argument makes me feel really good, but it also does come across as a little naive. I might make a longer post about these two books sometime soon.

What I'm listening to

Lately, I've been listening to the album Revengeseekerz by Jane Remover on repeat. My favorite tracks are TURN UP OR DIE and Dancing with your eyes closed. I've also been listening to the new Bon Iver album, SABLE, fABLE, and the music video for Everything Is Peaceful Love is one of my favorite music videos ever - it kind of just makes me instantly reflect on how cool it is to just be alive.