under the influence
This post began on some Sunday, inspired by a Vuori ad I saw on Instagram that came the morning after someone mentioned the brand to me during a fleeting party conversation. The suspiciously timed ad led to “Shop now” where I proceeded to scroll through pages of women’s athleisure, deciding whether or not the brand’s aesthetic was one I wished to adopt. Truthfully, I didn’t understand what was so special about their look/brand/clothing, so with one click I left the rabbithole of performance joggers and continued my way. While I didn’t end up shopping then, the brand name did end up in the glossary of my brain. After all, I’m writing about it now and consciously-subconsciously influencing you by microscopically increasing their brand awareness, so perhaps they still win somehow. A few Sundays later, I still continue to get the ads on a semi-regular basis, so maybe it’s just a matter of time before I decide to betray my Outdoor Voices joggers (which I was obviously influenced into at an earlier date). And who knows. Maybe you’ll get the ads now, too.
Anyway, it makes me wonder how limited our free will is in the internet age. What moisture-wicking soft knit joggers would Nietzsche wear? Would he be more of an Alo guy? To exist is to be susceptible to influence, and in the modern day that influence is through media. It’s inevitable that I end up lounging in some pair of joggers, and some brand had to get to me first.
an entire playlist
Megha stumbled across this playlist I made for myself and loved it so much she asked me to made a playlist for her, which would become sunday morning mixtape #1. Turns out, she liked the first one more than the commissioned one. But then Adam stumbled across the one I made for Megha and he liked it more than the playlist I made for him. So as goes circle of life, I’ve made this sunday morning mixtape #2 for all of you, though you probably won’t like it as much as something else.
If you desire to be influenced more:
to make, eat, and share
blueberry cornmeal tart: Angela recommending an Alison Roman recipe! How original and unexpected!
taiwanese beef noodle soup: this was an instant pot recipe Adam and I made on the stovetop in a dutch oven; another modification to note was that we seared the beef instead of boiling. The most strenuous part about this was finding the right ingredients at the Chinese grocery store.
a long read
Ordinary Monsters by J.M. Miro: I hadn’t been so engrossed in a book in so long — I experienced the post-book blues after this and was absolutely devastated to find out that the next book in this trilogy won’t be available until next August. To be fair, Steph W. influenced me to read this book and specifically told me “Ok don’t read too fast bc it’s the first in a trilogy and he hasn’t written the other two” and I didn’t listen to her and I regret it.
Still depressed re: Ordinary Monsters