To Moor The Moon

Blog

  • Lunisolar musical intentions

    I am writing this 3 days before Lunar New Year (February 17th) from my hotel in Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung is the last leg of my travels in Taiwan. Tomorrow I head to Hong Kong, where I will enjoy the LNY theatrics before heading home after three weeks away.

    Home is a strange word for me to type, speak, or think at this moment. There are three distinct “homes” I feel a significant pull towards at present: (1) Massachusetts (broadly), where I grew up, and where my parents and other relatives are clustered around, and my only true “permanent”(-feeling) residence, (2) Los Angeles, where I spent the last four years + change working on my PhD, and (3) San Francisco, the home of my immediate future—a lease has been signed.

    When I arrive back in LA after Lunar NY, I am only staying the night before driving up to SF to begin this new chapter of my life, folding home (2) into the past (for now, anyways), and firmly arriving in home (3).

    This year, I have decided to follow the lunisolar calendar for my goal-setting “quarters”. In 2025, I had already decided to begin my first quarter well after the Gregorian New Year. January 1st is just too soon mentally to begin a new year; I need about a month to just increment the year digits in my mind. Plus, the December burnout in academia is real—and I will likely continue experiencing it in the corporate world—and then the following holiday vacation time (“play hard”) inevitably spills into January.

    Tonight I settled on one specific goal for this first lunisolar quarter: produce and (independently) release my first song as a single on major streaming platforms. I decided on the specific song as well. Its most concrete form at present is a rough demo consisting of a verse and a chorus, but all the bones are there, in my head at least.

    The end of this first lunisolar quarter is May 16th—roughly 3 months from February 17th, Lunar New Year. Three months feels like an overly generous eternity to grant myself for finishing just one song, but I am simultaneously scared shitless by this timeline. It feels impossible. I think this might mean I have found the sweetspot.

    This past Fall, in the final semester of my PhD, I was faced with a timeline I felt similarly towards. I needed to finalize one more project for my dissertation. This final push was the most intentional and focused I had been during my entire PhD, except perhaps for my first paper (which I finalized and submitted just after suffering a knee fracture and undergoing surgery—that era of Robby had a level of focus and determination I still reminisce about).

    I aim to carry some lessons from this final PhD push over to my music ambitions. The first part is done—the scope and deadline are settled.

    Another practice that was successful from my PhD push was the quasi-daily and weekly check-ins I conducted, in which I wrote brief status updates to myself (my advisor was on sabbatical, and I was not collaborating with others on this project, so I was essentially on my own to keep on top of things). At the time, it occurred to me to possibly publish these check-ins as blog posts, but I didn’t have the “infrastructure” in place (more of an excuse, really), nor did I feel comfortable sharing details of my research online (I’m hearing another excuse, to be honest…).

    But now that I have this little website, which I created as a sharable creative sandbox of sorts, and because somehow my music struggles seem easier for me to stomach publicizing, I figured this quarter’s music goal—a published single—would be a fun thing to blog about on a weekly basis (and if not fun, maybe still useful).

    However, publishing just one, solitary song on streaming platforms is a prospect I find unnerving. That’s a lot of pressure to put on one song.

    Or, it would be if I made a big stink about it.

    So I plan to not make a big stink about it—and save the stink for when I release a collection of songs, which is a goal I am tentatively setting for the next quarter (ending in August), although this feels incredibly ambitious from my current vantage point. And maybe I’ll indefinitely save the stink—keep it casual—who knows (I’m only thinking that I’ll probably feel the same about just one, solitary album, but at least the songs themselves will have friends).

    And it’s fitting—or so I find it—that May 16th, and the rest of the quarter demarcations in my lunisolar system, fall on a new moon. Among the possible demarcations, it is a quieter symbol of passing time, certainly compared to a full moon, which is a much bigger (and brighter) stink.

    Anyway, these cycles are something I intend to play with in 2026.

    There’s much more to say, but saving it all for next week.

    再见👋

  • Taipei Day 2 (Sunday 2/1)

    Taipei Day 2 (Sunday 2/1)

    Another slick drizzly day in Ximen

    I had a quick breakfast consisting of 7-11 bread-items and an orange juice. For lunch—not long after, since I woke up late—I walked to a vegetarian buffet restaurant (果然匯 台北新光站前店).

    It was packed!
    Snagged a window seat
    One of my helpings
    I sampled every single vegan dessert 🤭

    In the afternoon, I spent a few hours at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum—I decided to do this today because museums are closed on Monday.

    I was first greated with these fellas
    And then this fella
    From one of the many horny exhibits

    In the early evening, I visited the popular Dihua Street Lunar New Year night market. I was too overwhelmed to purchase anything—plus, as I found was the case in most night markets, the food is very meat-heavy and/or fried, neither of which is my cup of tea.

    Dihua Street Lunar New Year Night Market

    I wandered towards the Dadaocheng Wharf Container Market (大稻埕碼頭貨櫃市集) from Dihua, and found it to be quite small and fairly quiet, but was worth it for the views along the water.

    View of mountains from Dadaocheng dock

    I had heard that Ningxia Night Market (寧夏夜市) would have more hot food options for me. In particular, I sought out stinky tofu, which I tried—and fairly enjoyed—for the first time.

    Stinky tofu
    Pretty lights

    I next walked towards the Taipei Main Station, where I checked out the underground mall and little shops inside the building. It was very crowded.

    Outside the station, I also saw a large concentration of unhoused people—the first such sight I had seen so far in Taiwan. I was struck by the relative cleanliness and composure of the homeless population here, compared to what I am used to in the US, which, as far as I understand, has something to do with the much harsher laws and enforcement surrounding drug use, as well as higher general cleanliness standards in Taiwan (but I am sure there are other factors).

    Made my way back to the hotel in Ximending:

    Little arts market near Red House
    Friends, not food

    In the evening, I checked out one of the more scandalous gay bars. I had considered going on Saturday, but I figured an off-night was more my speed (and yesterday I was too tired anyways). I ordered an orange juice and made conversation with the bartender and a Singaporean regular, from whom I learned some nuances in Taiwanese (and Chinese, more broadly) slang, and some pieces of travel wisdom.

  • Taipei Day 1 (Saturday 2/31)

    Drizzly mood all day

    Today was my first full day in Taipei! I am staying in the Ximen neighborhood my first few nights.

    In the morning I was hungry and disoriented, and attempted to order breakfast at a local spot, but left when I realized there might not be any vegan options (and otherwise became socially anxious).

    I noticed I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to effectively navigate social situations in fluent Mandarin, despite knowing full well—but perhaps not accepting—that my current speaking (and listening) abilities would make this impossible.

    I decided to check out 上頂皇家, a vegetarian to-go spot just around my hotel. I simply asked “what’s good” in English, soon had some pot stickers in my system. Having successfully used cash to pay for food, I was emboldened. I ate like a 豬 (🐷) the rest of the day.

    Next stops included Ximen Mango Shaved Ice, where I grabbed some warm soy milk and a bready thing whose name escapes me (both of questionable veganity). I continued my rampage at Popcorn Chicken King Ximen 台灣鹽酥雞 西門直營店 where I ordered vegan fried chicken and fried oyster mushrooms.

    “Popcorn chicken king”
    Fried oyster mushrooms

    I continued wandering around Ximen the rest of the day.

    I accidentally stumbled into a cute market (東三水街市場、新富市場) on the way to Lungshan Temple.

    Relatively empty mid-afternoon
    Lots of cute whimsical murals

    I found Lungshan Temple after navigating the closure surrounding Bangka Park (I needed to go underground; not sure if this is normally required).

    Waterfalls just outside Lungshan
    Inside the temple
    I love this type of maximalist ornamentation

    After Lungshan, I wandered through the Bopiliao Historical Block (剝皮寮歷史街區), where the most notable sight on this rainy afternoon was a mob of children breakdancing, which I watched in delight for a few moments with a handful of other onlookers.

    Bopiliao
    Get it!

    I wandered through some more side streets as I made my way back to the hotel for a brief rest before dinner. I happened to pass through yet another night market (Huaxi Street Night Market 臺北華西街夜市)—no photo, but below are a few others I took along the way.

    Fancy tree-lined bilingual school
    Resourceful construction

    I also stopped in a music store, where I shared a cute moment with the shopkeeper and his young son (~8 years old), who was keeping watch at the counter. When I came in, and the father emerged from the back, I said in English that I would just be looking around (I was curious to see if they had any smaller instruments I could take with me the rest of the trip—sadly, they did not), and I was met with a dismissive wave. Just as I was about to turn around and leave, I heard the son quietly say to his father, “…看一看…”, which I recognized as a translation of what I had said, so I said “谢谢” (thank you) to the son, which roused a bit of a chuckle from the father; this sudden warmth made me feel comfortable lingering for a few more moments before heading out.

    For dinner, I returned to a Sichuan cold noodle place I had discovered in my earlier wanderings (Sichuan style cold noodles 四川涼麵).

    Hundred layer tofu (I expected layers? but this one was just extra firm)
    Sichuan cold noodles

    I then took a brief post-dinner nap at the hotel before making a visit to check out The Red House (西門紅樓), where there are a number of LGBTQ+ bars. I felt quite out of place as most people there were in groups, and it was less the fluid mingling vibe I had come to expect from my travel guide (Gemini), and more a bunch of pre-existing groups chatting and (presumably) pregaming for more happening spots later in the evening.

    It was also still raining (and more heavily now), so I concluded my night early and got some much-needed sleep at the hotel.

    When I randomly awoke at around 4am, I grabbed some snacks at the 7-11 nearby before heading back to sleep.

    The cat who oversaw my safe passage to 7-ELEVEN