things i think about while powerwashing 33

People who read this newsletter know that I love travel.

I love going to see friends abroad, going to new places, making vlogs and taking photos. Exploring new places and most of all, organizing trips.

And these are all fun but I really, really miss my cat. Especially when he's sitting on the window sill waiting for me to come home. He's in good hands (looking at you guys, roommates), but I still miss him.

There will be many cats during my journeys, but they won't be Simba. I can't wait to see him again.

And from the previous few sentences you may have also inferred that yes, I am on the road! By the time you all have read this email I will be away from my desk. I was away from my desk last week when I went to go see my sister graduate from Purdue University and got to hang out with esteemed subscribers Alexandra Weliever, Sydney Greenwood and Adrian Gaeta.

As if that four day trip wasn't enough, there are more to come in the following weeks including exciting events like working abroad, communicating asynchronously while fighting jet lag, trying to find time to be a tourist and take photos after work, and delicious food.

This is also a warning that the news letters in the coming weeks may not always be on Saturday mornings. This one is probably going to come out at the usual time (I'm writing this in the airport), but I'll probably just write other ones as I go along and find time in order to hit my one-a-week goal.

an aside on airline statuses

I remember when there was just TSA precheck. There was that and then there was non-precheck. Pretty simple, right? You're a trusted traveler, or you're not. Easy peasy.

But now when you trek into the security line, you hit a labyrinthine cross roads. Are you Clear? Are you Clear with precheck? Are you normal precheck? Are you premier precheck? And the list goes on.

I just find it so odd that all these different services popped up out of nowhere. We could've all just stayed with this neat little dichotomy, why did we have to add all these different services? All they do is make the security process confusing.

Oh well. Just another sign of the times.

books i've been reading

• tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow - just a wonderful book
• babel - a great novel by RF Kuang, who I've been following on Twitter for a while and has written a lot of great Asian-centric novels
• Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom - Great book recommendation by Tanner about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the years after the great opium wars.

pet of the week

I had some submissions but the pet of the week has to be Simba this time. He's so adorable and strong. And the size of a small dog but I love him so much. Send in your pets to ryan@torrtle.co!!! See you all throughout the week!