Things I love lately

I haven’t written one of these in a long time and I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in quarantine, thinking about life, stressing about the uncontrollable, and spending as much time as I can taking care of myself. 

Time has taken on a different phenomenon during these last three (almost four) months in quarantine. Days have grown increasingly longer. Time passes like a thick lotion filling a thin spouted flask. But the weeks have gone by like grains of sand falling through that same flask. Nonetheless, with these long days and short weeks, I’ve spent some time doing things I otherwise would not have the time for. 

Coursera.org. This has truly been a joy for me during the last couple of months. Coursera was founded by a Stanford professor years back and provides a platform for college courses online. There are courses in literally every imaginable field. I’ve found classes ranging from standard to specialization courses. I am particularly fond of taking online business/economic courses, which I find have substantially expanded my knowledge base in an area in which I already had developed an interest. But what I love more about Coursera is how it’s helped me expand my own interests. I’ve found courses on topics I never even knew people studied in such depth, such as war, game theory, and political morality. I think this platform has kindled my curiosity switch in a way I hadn’t felt before about coursework. 

Podcasts. I run every morning on the treadmill for about an hour. It gives me a natural kick and honestly isn’t as painful as running in the afternoon (maybe because I’m still a little groggy in the morning?). While running, I always listen to music at some point. But other days, if a new episode of a podcast comes out, I’ll give it a listen. Most podcast stations come out with around two new episodes every week, which gives me something to listen to on some days but all seven. I’ve generally been a pretty consistent Planet Money and WSJ Future of Everything listener. Lately, I’ve gotten into Freakonomics Radio, though their episodes are usually an hour-long so they only produce one a week. Podcasts have been really helpful in keeping up with the current economic situation and coronavirus pandemic. There’s a ton of news about the virus, US-China tensions, etc. on the news every day and I find it difficult to scout the best articles to read. I think podcasts summarize numerous sentiments in one neat, well-organized structure. An essential these days. 

ASMR Youtube Videos? These are no-talking videos that compile natural sounds that are super satisfying to listen to. I’m not sure how I first stumbled across these videos. I believe one with soap carving showed up on my feed one day and now I sometimes play ASMR as background noise. They induce relaxation and if you’re still not sure how they make you feel, it’s the opposite of how nails running down chalkboard makes you cringe :). I can’t say I’ve always been sensitive to sound. I have fairly sharp ears but I never honed my listening on such passing sounds, such as cutting soap, squeezing shampoo out of a fresh bottle, or tapping fingernails on a phone screen. Quite a way to relax!

Quarantine has been a time of lockdown undoubtedly. But it’s also been a time of discovery and rediscovery, just as there are two sides to everything. I hope you all are staying safe!