Now

A record of what I’ve done recently and what I am focused on right now. In other words, this is my “now page.” (Huh?)

November 2024–March 2026

In November 2024, shortly after finishing my internship and doing the last bit to secure my graduation, I packed my life into a suitcase, a carry-on, and a backpack, and left Toulouse, France, where I lived for eight years. I spent three months of winter in Tokyo (post Coming Soon™). After a plan to go to Chicago fell through (last minute, very stressful, though honestly for the better), I changed course for Vancouver. After two months of spring in Vancouver (post Coming Soon™) and some soul-searching, I decided to visit my family home in Stavanger, Norway (for the first time in five years), where I’ve been since.

A suitcase, a carry-on and a backpack standing by the door. A longboard is leaning on the suitcase. View towards Shinjuku and Shibuya from TOKYO SKYTREE® at sunset: tall buildings with lights stretching towards the horizon. View towards Downtown Vancouver from a hill in West Point Grey at sunset: between nearby trees and faraway mountains, skyscrapers glow red in the Sun.
(i) My worldly possessions (yes, I did carry my longboard literally around the world—I couldn’t leave it behind); (ii) Looking out towards Shinjuku and Shibuya from TOKYO SKYTREE® at sunset; (iii) Looking out towards Downtown Vancouver from West Point Grey at sunset

I spent the summer helping Dad clean and paint the exterior, do some yard work, trim some trees. I volunteered to weed the driveway. Literally back-breaking work, and then new shoots would spring up two days later. Here is an image illustrating how I felt about it. In the in-between I worked on Parrot, a fun audio record-and-playback Web app (Coming Soon™). Otherwise, I went on walks and did some thinking.

In October, I went to visit my brother in Oslo. My visit happened to coincide perfectly with Better Lovers playing a show there. It was thrilling to see in-person the people who wrote the music I listen to every day playing it live, in a way I haven’t felt at other concerts. (My workout is timed to their Highly Irresponsible.) A pleasant surprise was Greyhaven, one of the opening acts, who went unexpectedly HARD (in a way that doesn’t translate on their albums).

One evening, I was telling my brother about the sad state of hair claws, which are all made to break due to the same design flaw. (We were looking for a present; I have no use for a hair claw.) We got brainstorming about designs that could avoid the flaw. I came up with an improvement, but my brother suggested two radical alternatives unlike anything currently existing. So, we got thinking about them. In the first two hours of the train ride back, I solved a remaining question using all the design and manufacturing knowledge I could muster. I kept researching into materials, manufacturing techniques, and manufacturers for a while after. Though, due to priorities, that design is unlikely to see the light of day.

Winter of ‘25–‘26 I spent broadly and curiously reading (lots and lots of Hacker News, I’ll be honest), walking, thinking, feeling the seasonal coziness. As my post-grad gap year was coming to an end and the future was looking clear, I was getting ready to start looking for work.

Better Lovers performing in Oslo under purple-pink lighting. A passenger train approaches a station from the left. Two stuffed bears surrounded by confetti. One is sitting slouched with an arm around a champagne bottle. The other has fallen over to the side, as if very drunk, and their crown has fallen off their head.
(i) Better Lovers in concert in Oslo; (ii) The very train aboard which I solved the hair claw design; (iii) These bears went extra HARD into the New Year

But, oh! In February, Discord made headlines for their global roll out of age verification. That spurred more articles and discussions about online age verification. People aren’t happy about it, but governments keep pushing it forward. “There is no safe, privacy protecting age-verification technology,” says the EFF. Yet, here I am, sitting for almost a year on one such technology.

I previously shelved it as a curious but flawed idea to maybe write about one day. Now it feels urgent and important. So, I got thinking about it again. First came one breakthrough, then a second; idea flawed no more. Now, here I am thinking: “There is a serious problem coming to the Internet, and I have a proposed solution for it.” I have to do it, right?

And so, right now:

  • I’ve put everything in life on pause to work on making private age verification on the Internet a reality.