concerts, travel, and tattoos (and my 50th bear post)
this is my 50th post on Bear, since making an account in February 2023, holy shit I can't believe it. Shout out to the "toast this post" gang.
I haven't made a post in a while due to a combination of being busy, travelling, and being completely tired and disillusioned with life after AI.
But I did a lot of cool shit since July! I saw Pierce the Veil, my favorite band of all time since 2011, for a hometown show in San Diego. They had the best come-out of any concert I've seen in my life, opening with mariachi trumpeters (youtube link), which then seamlessly transitioned to the band's guitars. It was very fucking cool and chilling to watch. There were also a bunch of shops around San Diego selling merch or doing events for the concert, so I got a quick little tattoo of some legs from their album art:
I also saw Beach Bunny, the Beths, Mom Jeans, beabadoobee, and Prince Daddy and the Hyena. I went to 5 concerts in 3 months. On my way to the Beach Bunny / Beths co-headlining concert, I was stressed, racing around the parking lot looking for a spot and almost ran Beach Bunny over with my car, while she was doing a photoshoot in the lot. Sorry about that!
I travelled to London to watch the Philadelphia Eagles completely squander a game they should have won in literally the final second of the game. Like, they were winning with 1 second left on the clock and lost the game. That's what happened.
This was also the last game before Jalen Hurts, the star quarterback, was out for the season with a serious blood clot. He played this game after they found the blood clot, which is some of the most unethical shit I've ever seen in my life. I have no idea how he was cleared to play.
there was a tailgate before the game, where this bus had promotional art for the eagles v. jaguars. fucking cool
nfl in london
I also ducked out of London for a day to go visit Margate, a windy city on England's east coast, next to the North Sea. I went there to go get another tattoo done by an artist I've seen a few times before. The healing process sucked mostly because I was walking 20,000-step days around London, sweating my ass off. And the tattoo extended partly into my arm ditch, an area that apparently takes longer than normal to heal.
zaboomafoo lemur by @goksisdead (instagram link). go visit him!
After London, I flew home to spend 1 night in San Diego, then got back on a plane to Mexico City the next day for a wedding. By this point I was exhausted, but determined to stuff my face with authentic Mexican food.
I didn't realize Mexico City was the most populous city in the entire North America. New York is second with a half-million fewer people. And I could absolutely feel this walking around the city. There were people everywhere. I loved my time there, but I don't think I was prepared for what I was walking into. If I went again, I'd book a hotel in a less-busy neighborhood.
dramatic photo from the rooftop wedding
We did find some unbelievable food, but we also went to some mid places. Sometimes that happens when you travel, but it makes me want to go back and find better spots.
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Other than that, I'm continuing to attend Chinese School every Saturday, watching a couple videos daily to practice my Cantonese during the week, and still trying to find time to sit at my piano and play, even it's for 15 minutes.
basement community also turns 4 years-old next month which is insane, and I can't believe I've kept a website like that alive for so long. Please come say hi on the forums, we don't bite!
I'm tired, man. After all that, I was hoping to lay low before the holidays, but we just signed a lease to a new apartment, so now I must pack-up all my belongings and move them somewhere else. It's a miracle I'm even writing this blog post, frankly.
Pray for me. Thank you.