powerwashing 15: im back losers

What’s up ladies and gentlemen I’m unironically back to writing. I lost all motivation to write for a bit but I found myself writing a photography blog post and remembered how Ellie really liked the weekly update posts (maybe not but we’ll see) so I’m back with some music to get you through the day, funny Simba stories and a plug for my Youtube.

music to get you through the day

It’s not the loud power ballads, but a mix between lofi and depression. That’s right, this is Keshi. The soft blue evening colors after the sun has set reminded me of this tonight, so I’ve been silently vibing while playing with Simba. I think it’s a great little playlist to unwind to at the end of the day after a looooong week or two of work.

Other Keshi songs you should listen to include Pillows, which features Jae of my favorite K-Pop group DAY6. Also: drunk, a fun little song that takes a heart-wrenching turn.

simba getting situated

After a few months, Simba has finally gotten used to my apartment! I’ve been watching a lot of Jackson Galaxy, a so-called cat expert who used to have his own TV show on Animal Planet. One of the things that he said would happen when a cat was comfortable in its environment was that it would start to get territorial and wiggle its butt when playing. When Simba started playing with the laser pointer and going after the fish on a stick, I was beyond happy.

He is starting to get a little too comfortable though. Whenever I sit on the edge of my seat, he likes to slip in and sit in between my butt and the back of the chair. It’s cute for about ten minutes, and then it starts to hurt. Also he tries to bite me when I try to push him off. If anyone has any recommendations on how to handle this, please let me know.

self-developing film

I’ve recently become somewhat of an analog film enthusiast. I don’t leave the house without a camera, and always have a backup roll of film in my little fanny pack. I knew this hobby was going to be slightly costly so I decided that I would try to cut down the cost by developing and scanning the film at home.

My first roll of of film that I developed was this black and white roll of film shot on Ilford HP5. It’s not the best dev job, but watching the negatives show up on the strips when I pulled the film out of the reel may have been one of the coolest things ever.

I got so excited that I decided to develop color film (C-41 process).

This photography thing has taken over a huge part of my life — but mainly has helped me find purpose in my daily and weekend activities outside of work. They said “everyone needs a hobby after college” — but I really didn’t know how important it was.

Here’s one of the best photos I’ve taken, self-developed and self-scanned. You can find more at https://ryanjchen.com/film.

im surely a youtuber now right

After my trip to Seattle where I got to see my favorite liberal arts major, Alisa Reynya, I decided to piece together a vlog for YouTube inspired by my sister of “DAY IN MY LIFE PURDUE CS” fame.

I tried to model the vlog after videos from grainydays, which are half an extended lofi video and half a depressed man trying to explain his artistic exploits. It makes heavy use of sound while displaying some very aesethetically pleasing photos. Anyway, check out the video, I’ll try to make more as I continue to travel.

And that’s all I have this week! I think I’ll slowly work back up the newsletters. I’m going to start with doing my best to post these, then get back into the security learning train. Thanks for reading this far, and as always feel free to email me at [email protected] if you’re big mad, big happy or big sad.

See you next week,
Ryan and Simba