things i think about while powerwashing 154

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This week I have been at home, which means using my car. My poor old faithful 2003 Infiniti QX4.

It has its quirks. To start it gets 15 MPG. The suspension is soft — it rolls with every deviation in the road. The radio antenna has since lots its ability to retract, which I found out right before I entered an automatic car wash in June. And finally its defining characteristic: the passenger window’s inability to close.

And on top of all that, the battery was dead when I got back.

Jumping it showed some signs of life, and right when I was ready to give up on the lil guy my dad said: keep it.

Twenty-four hours and one Walmart trip later, the bad boy was running.

In the span of this car’s 22 year lifespan, it’s been to camping and hiking spots all across the Bay Area, carried so many things that it would bottom out, navigated the hills of San Francisco, carried friends to parties in the hills, the airport and back to their homes.

It’s a strong car. It handles weeks of disuse and abandon. It rolls gently with the potholes of 101, and most importantly it brings its occupants to their destinations — albeit a little dissatisfied.

So let’s close out this year to bring in the 2003 Infiniti QX4’s 23rd year of existing! Hopefully it’ll get donated next year but it is seeming more and more unlikelyyyyy.

museum of the week

Closing out the year strong! Let’s get one of these in~

Usually when visiting modern art galleries, my head starts to hurt. Nothing makes any sense, and I’m usually just trucking my way through with pure will. Why the lines? Why the shapes? Nothing makes any sense without reading the description. After reading some descriptions, things make even less sense.

But it finally clicked for me when I walked into the Singapore National Gallery’s Fernando Zöbel exhibit with esteemed subscriber Keith Chia (who I would also consider an artist!). In particular was his series of works titled La Vista as can be seen below.

With these I finally get a bridge between the tangibility of classical art and how the inner workings of the mind are portrayed. To be specific: the vistas drawn are all of real landscapes that the artist has seen in real life, but has blocked out or simply not drawn the portions that he does not remember. Which honestly is a pretty fair move.

But it’s curious to see what parts he remembers and does not. In La Vista XXVI, a whole portion of the middle is missing — which you would think is probably the most important part of a view. You can find more of his works on this website!

Regarding Singapore‘s National Gallery itself — it’s kind of a fun experience walking through what used to be the national courthouse(!) complete with its own holding cell in the basement. That you can pretend to be locked in!

anonymous subscriber news

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• anon lives out their romcom dreams: anon appears to be in a friends to lovers arc 3 years in the making
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animal of the week

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Steph Curry could be compared to esteemed subscriber Emi Chan in that they are both MVPs, but I guess Steph is not an esteemed subscriber NOR a prolific animal person so Emi has that on him.

A black bellied whistling duck duckling! It was removed from outside a simulator training building after it and its 19 siblings were spotted loitering unsupervised. (Don’t worry they went to a wildlife rehabber).

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