Kish’s Blog

Today is Black Friday, which means there's even more messaging than usual reminding us of how much we "need" and pressuring us to buy. I've definitely seen a lot of ads on social media that put me into a scarcity mindset and make me feel stressed out! As I mentioned in my previous blog post , I've been grappling a bit with consumerism and my place in the capitalist economy. One internal move that I've been trying to cultivate in response to these ads (this week and before) was to remind myself of how the products being advertised to me were just fixtures aimed at making me feel dependent on my job and thus trapping me in the loop of consumption and exploitation. However, on many levels, this wasn't actually a helpful thought. People have many reasons for wanting to do something. When it comes to consumption, there are external reasons (e.g., advertising, social pressures) and internal reasons. Often the external reasons will create/feed into the internal r

How busy should I be? When I first moved to Pittsburgh and started working, I didn't really know what to do with my weekday nights, but I knew that I wanted to make the most of my free time. Now, I have recurring events 3 out of 5 nights during the week (improv class, therapy, and Chinese tutoring), and I usually have some other type of appointment or performance a day out of most weeks. As I've started trying to establish a workout routine and meet up with more people outside of work, I wonder what the right balance between scheduling things, leaving room for spontaneity, alone time, and personal work time (doing chores, personal errands, etc.) is. Senses of self that are Not Helpful: A fungible being/a worker A person completing a list of tasks every day Input/output machine where the output is how something makes me feel Positivity generator Looking to the past as a reminder of what kinds of ways of being are possible, while not being constrained by/stuc