things i think about while powerwashing 149

Shortcut to anonymous subscriber submission link: https://forms.gle/2MABf8jNr2V8kEY87

In a way, it was a bit of a typical weekend. I saw people run, I took a train, I went to a museum.

The only difference is that I did all this in Philadelphia, PA.

I decided to show up in support of esteemed subscribers Harish Bhaskar (who ran the half-marathon) and esteemed subscriber Vic Dong and her non-subscriber boyfriend (they ran the full marathon together). Personally, half marathons and marathons seem to be crazy feats of human athleticism. And since Philly is so close to New York I figured I’d come through!

It’s a very cute city — described by a non-subscriber as a mix between Indy and Chicago. I do think there’s a lot more brick than those two cities combined which contributes quite a bit to the charm. As I hopped off the Amtrak and walked through Drexel, I thought for a moment that maybe I could live here. Maybe!

The cold cloudy morning felt great, but as I stood at an intersection waiting for Harish to pass by I started to feel very cold. I looked at my phone. He was like 6 miles away.

I decided to hide in a coffee shop until he got close. But when I saw him he was too locked in to hear me or see me.

When he finally acknowledged me, he was limping along the final mile. Unfortunately he had developed some runner’s knee along the uphills and his pace had slowed by quite a bit. But he was able to walk to the finish!!!

Learning from my mistakes, I headed out the next morning for a coffee shop to wait until Vic’s corral started the marathon and had a very nice conversation with a couple from Central Jersey whose kids were running the marathon as well. The coffee was great, the bacon egg and cheese was delicious, and the area was filled with cute brick townhouses. I was ready!!!!

I set up at one of the spots where’d I’d be able to get to see the runners multiple times very easily but almost missed her before she came over to give me a high five. At the second spot … I missed her. But I saw her at the third spot a mile away from the finish!!

Honestly if you’re going to do this being a chair and some friends. Maybe even a book. You could do this OR you could spend a large amount of time cheering and reading people’s shirts trying to figure out how to cheer them on (the only person wearing Purdue gear was walking).

Congrats to my esteemed subscribers for finishing their respective races!!! It was super inspiring seeing all their hard work come to fruition and has motivated me to train for my Philly bike ride some more. Now enjoy the next few weeks of rest!!!!!

But honestly it’s a very cute city. There’s a very local feel to all the places you go to and it didn’t hurt that the fall colors were in full force when I was there. Add in a few beautiful moments of sunshine and I was almost sold. There was also just so much history in such a dense area that I had a field day walking from one NPS historical site to the other. And I got to see the Liberty Bell!!!!

Some interesting points:

• There was a lot of fuck Dallas go eagles songs, t shirts, and cheers. The Dallas Cowboys beat the Eagles on Sunday night 24-21.
• The Philly art museum was AMAZING and I can’t wait to write about it!!!!

museum of the week

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I have the most appealing museum of all time: the Hell Museum in Har Paw Villa. In Singapore.

If you ever wondered where Singapore’s strict moral laws and social order comes from you can probably draw a direct line to childhood experiences at this museum and park. The garden — if you can call it that — was built by the sons of the founder of Tiger Balm who decided to eventually open up the garden to the public of Singapore to learn about Chinese mythology.

Now you might be wondering why on Earth someone would learn about Chinese mythology in a garden. That is because the garden looks like this:

There’s a lot of references to Chinese mythology in here which all culminates in the Hell Museum. Once you get into the museum you’ll be invited on a free guided tour by one of the extremely cheery guides who will show you all the details of the afterlife. For free!

The museum itself is actually quite informative in terms of the afterlife — they’ve decided to cover all religions in the world and also classify them into two types: ones where the spirit has a cyclical lifespans and one where it is linear. Example: in Hinduism, there’s a cycle of rebirth known as samsara. So when one dies they get reborn depending on the actions of their past. In Christianity, once we go to Hell (or Heaven but let’s be real) our spirit stays there. And in Mormonism, once we die we get our own planet with our many concubines (only if you are male, which Joseph Smith divined during an argument with his wife).

But the guided tour includes a whole movie on the afterlife and also a stroll through the moral backbone of Singapore: the Ten Courts of Hell. Based on the Chinese Buddhist tradition, at each court of hell you’re judged for certain actions and punished for it before being brought before the final court to see as what entity you would be reborn as. If I were to be brought here, I would have been an upstanding citizen FOR SURE.

I did find it interesting that the very last stage of the process was drinking soup that made you lose your memory, which I thought was super similar to how there’s the River Lethe in Greek mythology that causes you to lose your memory. What is it about drinking things that makes you lose your memory? What about eating a protein bar of amnesia? Anyway highly recommend this museum while you’re at Singapore — I’m sure they also have a mini-exhibit on the Tiger Balm bros somewhere in there but I was just really excited to go to Hell.

anonymous subscriber news

Yeah sorry I did not bring the banh mi last time! Someone I did not know did lol. And it was indeed very good the sour taste of the pickled veggies cut through the creamy taste of everything else.

Submit here: https://forms.gle/2MABf8jNr2V8kEY87

• anon vacations: It’s been 2 weeks since I increased shareholder value
• anon mourns: rest in peace Sophie, i can tell you were very loved and will be missed dearly <3
• anon yearns: if there was banh mi at the friendsgiving i would lose my mind. amazing. pls drop the recipe
• anon explains: the something else in the cornbread casserole was hot sausage! gotta hit as many flavor profiles as possible in one dish

animal of the week

SEND IN ANIMAL PHOTOS TO THIS GOOGLE FORM! https://forms.gle/NT3nSkKVbpkjCr1u8

Back to posting your animal submissions! Here’s one from my sister esteemed subscriber Carolyn Chen from her Hawaii vacation:

"pua’a - hawaiian boar in mythology, kamapua’a is a shapeshifting god who turned into a boar 🐗 "

Send me your animal photos at ryan@torrtle.co OR at this form https://forms.gle/NT3nSkKVbpkjCr1u8!