Immigrant Experience on Og Maciel's Journal

Who Wrote This? (Spoiler: Apparently Me.)

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Who Wrote This? (Spoiler: Apparently Me.)

I’m not a pack rat. At least, not in the way people usually mean it. But the first memory I have of being interested in collecting anything goes back to when I was around eight or nine, and I first learned about stamp collecting—philately. I was fascinated by the idea that these tiny pieces of paper had traveled through towns, across states, over oceans. They were carried by people, planes, and ships, and each one arrived with a little bit of another place attached to it. Through stamps, I felt like I could glimpse other cultures and countries in a way books hadn’t yet offered me.

My Origin Story: The Job That Broke Me

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My Origin Story: The Job That Broke Me

Photo by Rudi Endresen on Unsplash

You can now read My Origin Story in order — from the very beginning — on its dedicated page:

👉 Read the full series here

There are moments in life when you don’t notice the ground shifting beneath you until it finally cracks. Leaving Synaptic wasn’t a dramatic exit. Nobody threw a chair. There were no fireworks, no screaming matches, no dramatic firings. It was quieter than that. Heavier than that. It was a slow unraveling.

The Day I Was Rescued by Firefighters

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Day I Was “Rescued” by Firefighters While Learning to Code

Photo by Nik on Unsplash

I guess I must be going through a nostalgic spree or something, because yesterday, as I wrote about keyboards and my experience with Linux — and even the project I’ve been working on, trying to write a few words every night — is also part of a memory from my childhood. And today, I find myself thinking of the day when I had to be, quote-unquote, rescued by the firemen after being stuck in a hotel room once.

The Student in Me Never Left

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Library in the morning hours

This morning I started work late because I had to run a couple of errands. First, I was supposed to pick up my dad and take him to the mechanic so he could get his car, but it turns out the place only opened later and I couldn’t wait for it. So it was on to the second task of the day: taking my 18-year-old daughter to her school for an in-person exam.