Hi, it's Kai

i was in a silly mood wandering around by myself in north beach while drinking a bubble tea from a shop that a stranger recommended to me earlier that day. nothing i had planned for that day was working out the way i hoped—all 4 participants cancelled on me for this journaling circle event i was hosting, gpt-4-vision wasn't cooperating with me, and i couldn't stop feeling bad after saying hi to this person i had a crush on.

so since nothing was working out for me, i decided to take a break from my reality, and just go somewhere random and pretend that i'm a totally different person living a completely different life. i ended up skateboarding to north beach, stashing my board behind a bookshelf in city lights bookstore, and then i just wandered around aimlessly, listening to street musicians and people watching.

soon, i found myself looking at these really crowded chinatown apartment units and imagining an alternate life where my family immigrated to sf chinatown instead of toronto chinatown—and that's when i saw these stairs going up and a little sign that said "psychic". and i thought to myself hmm—i wonder, what would it be like to sit in a psychic's waiting room? what would the decor be like—would there be paintings? or fancy chairs? framed thank-you letters? my curiosity got the better of me, and i climbed up the stairs to investigate. i had been exploring environment design for a while now, and what better way to learn about environment design than to experience new unfamiliar environments?