A Field Guide to Buying Gear in Thamel Thirty shopfronts in a single block, every one of them claiming to be selling real North Face, real Patagonia, real Mountain Hardwear. Jackets hang from awnings in colors no mountain has ever produced. A shopkeeper watches you thumb through a rack of down jackets and after a …
Cranes and half finished concrete and mud brick frames are going up faster than the town’s water table can handle.
I deleted Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube off my phone. Not the accounts. The apps. That may sound like a not very important thing to have done, but I think it is very important. Here’s why.
Jeju was repeatedly labeled a “red island” by U.S. officials, with estimates claiming 70–90% of the population was communist or sympathetic. This ideological framing justified a campaign of “cleansing” the island of “Reds.”
I’ve been acting like I have a salary. I don’t. I have books. I have ideas. I have a body of work that exists to reach people who need it. And every platform I abandon in the name of ethics is a limb I’ve cut off to prove I’m fighting fair.
If you’re a GenX or older millennial creator who built something real in the early internet days, poured years into honest work, and then watched the numbers slowly die while newer, more optimized accounts took off — you’re not alone and you’re not crazy.