evergreen Newsletter Entry
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After spending many of my weekends in May hiding inside & drawing 
digital nature for the Garden, it was about time to go outside and appreciate real nature.
My primary goal for the month of june was to spend the majority of my weekends offline and outdoors. I am happy to report great success!
- (i was oncall most of the month. i did bring my laptop everywhere. i did not get paged even once. we’re just cool like that
)
While I’m not here to exposit any life-shattering revelations, there are a few things worth getting out of sharing what I was up to this month. Notably two things:
- I’d like to make it easier for others to organize similar fun events in the future— it’s hard but so rewarding to pull off; I’m assembling a toolbox to make event/trip organizing feel possible to those of you who haven’t tried it before.
- Northern California in June is one of the most beautiful times and places on the planet and deserves more recognition, especially from bay area folks like me who are stuck in front of computers all day :)
huge shoutout to everyone i had the wonderful opportunity to camp/golf/hike/climb with for dealing with my shenanigans and making this month’s adventures so memorable 
️
01. santa cruz beach camping
went camping the first week of June at New Brighton State Beach, just a few miles south of Santa Cruz off hwy 1.
This was my first time camping in a very long time; I’d forgotten how awesome it can be to just exist and appreciate the bare-minimum creature comforts of survival, like making food, building a shelter, and having a warm place to sleep.
~highlights
- kevin
escaped his leash and and terrorized the campsite. he did not get eaten by a bear, and we all collectively got some great cardio in chasing him so i consider it a win overall. - attempted a push up circle with mild success.
- had an incredible nights’ sleep. the temperature was literally perfect, and there was a delightfully comfortable sea breeze + mist.
campfire talk, like chatting during a long car ride, can get refreshingly thoughtful. One particular conversation I had that stuck out to me was a meta-reflection on how well-organized this camping trip ended up, and how different of an experience being in organizer-mode was compared to participant-mode. There are just so many things to consider and keep you on your toes if you feel a sense of ownership over an event you’re helping to host! I’d been slowly assembling a guide to organizing fun events with friends, and this evening around the campfire made its ideas feel that much more real and alive.
Many MASSIVE enormous thank you’s to Peter for organizing and getting all of this together. he’s my hero.
next stop: big sur ?? (hope to publish a camping guide soonish too)
02. golf at crystal springs
I’ve had two major obsessions this year. The first few months were filled by Balatro; more recently, it’s been golf.
After playing all four years of high school, I went close to 6 years without playing a round. For the past few months I’ve started getting back into it (seems like it’s getting more and more popular; lots of my friends either have started playing or want to try it out!). While I don’t consider myself to be particularly good at it, I can at least hit the ball straight and it sometimes goes the right distance. It’s a really hard sport, after all.
I’m not sure whether my enjoyment of walking or of golf came first. regardless, I view a good round like a chill hike with friends and family, while having an optional side quest (of hitting ball with long stick) to give your meandering some sense of purpose.
Crystal Springs Golf Course is genuinely such a beautiful place to be, especially near sunset time when they offer their 50%-off Super Twilight rates. It’s nestled along the mountains next to the Crystal Springs Reservoir, and feels like wandering around a hillside meadow with amazing views. (The course itself is just fine; hitting balls up steep hills can get frustrating..) I sometimes go to their practice area after work and sink putts, while the sunset-time fog rolls over the mountains, as some contrived form of meditation.
While golf can be expensive and time-consuming, it’s also possible to have a great day out on a budget (both monetarily and time-wise). If you’re looking to give it a try, first let me know- i’m happy to organize a tee time and let you borrow clubs- but secondly, here are some tips and tricks:
- The Bay Area has really nice courses open to the public (like TPC Harding, Half Moon Bay, Coyote Creek…) that offer world-class golf at reasonable rates. They’re often even cheaper for local residents and/or during hours past 5pm.
- At the cheapest, you can get a great round at Shoreline (or a par-3 course like Mariners Point) for $20.
- You don’t need good clubs, especially if you’re a beginner. You can assemble a perfectly serviceable 4-club set (putter/wedge/iron/3-wood) for less than $100. I’ve had good luck at the Golf Mart’s bargain bin; FB marketplace and Nextdoor also have some great deals for used clubs.
- If you’re under 18, you might qualify for Youth On Course and be able to play on most courses for $5.
shoutout to kian for the INSANE pitching wedge skills \o/
03. hiking (2x)
for the third week of june I went on two hikes at some nearby spots i’d somehow never been to!
A relaxed saturday morning hike with family brought me to San Bruno Mountain, with incredible views of SF a short walk from the entrance.
San Bruno Mountain is especially cool because you can walk most of the way around it on few hours of moderate terrain and get 360-degree views of the Bay Area (with SF to the north, the airport to the south, the Pacific Ocean to the east, and the bay itself to the west).
A cloudy sunday afternoon took me to the coastline near Pacifica for the Old Colma Road Loop. Travelers in the late 1800s used to take sections of this trail to get around, before Highway 1 (and the nearby Devil’s Slide Tunnel) were constructed. There’s a bunch of cool artifacts around like old rail ties, an abandoned farmhouse, and the oddly-constructed Devil’s Slide Bunker.
The classic evening fog took no time at all to roll in, and by the time we got to the top of the mountain we were properly inside of a cloud which was quite cool (both literally and metaphorically).
If you’re looking to go out on a trek, I wrote down a few of my favorite hikes in SF and around the Bay (both of these made the list!).
shoutout to shruti for the very well-timed misty mountains cold.
04. climbing at castle rock
To end off the month I got a small bouldering trip together to Castle Rock State Park.
Castle Rock holds a special place in my heart, having grown up so close by. I feel so grateful for having one of the best climbing spots in the world practically in my backyard.
Coincidentally, the park exists at the intersection of two of the most beautiful roads in northern california - highways 9 and 35. It’s hard to get there without running into parades of supercars and biker gangs appreciating the incredible driving alongside you.
Although I didn’t send any projects today, lots of other folks certainly did (and/or sent their first-ever outdoor routes!!) and it was just such a wonderful relaxing day outdoors hanging out on top of / on the side of rocks.
Bringing a picnic blanket + camp chairs + picnic food ended up being a fantastic idea, too. Even after my arms gave out I found it hard to leave because of how vibey it all was, and ended up staying many hours past when I’d expected to head out.
This isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, time I climb outdoors! I wrote a little bay area outdoor bouldering guide if you’re looking to get a better sense of what to expect if you’re looking to get out as well.
some other garden updates from this month
- Opened the Internet Trails section to collect my thoughts about digital spaces. Currently pretty barebones; I intend to turn this into a more substantial project towards the end of the year.
- Browse my list of Cool places on the internet! If you have a website of your own, let me know so I can add it here :)
- Started writing out Everything i know about keyboards. Should be more readable towards the end of this month; I’ll share more once it’s ready for general consumption.
- Continuing to update music i’m listening to. Send me song/album reccs!
- Started a garage sale page for objects I am slowly trying to find new homes for.
- Made a list of things to do in SF for the newcomers: A local’s guide to SF (and, a more silly edition: sf bingo)
- Finished the Balatro naneinf guide. More game guides coming soon, when I get time to write them.
- In the process of figuring out how to best use my 2025 Highlights and Goals page.
what’s next?
I don’t have any super concrete goals for the upcoming month, and hope to spend large chunks of it just relaxing/vibing. However, a few thoughts:
- I have a few music-related projects in the works. I hope to start using the Garden to house more non-writing experiments/creations, and this will probably be the beginning of that!
- A weekly newsletter cadence feels too rapid; I’m back in the mode of doing-things-then-writing-about-it, which means taking time off to do non-writing things. Newsletter entries will come when the time is right (hopefully at least once a month, but no guarantees)
- considering renaming this newsletter to ‘whimsical whensdays’ because it now updates whenever i feel like it. (s/o to tenzin for the wicked naming skills)
have a wonderful day y’all! don’t forget to put on your sunscreen.
