Akolia's Avenue

Hello, welcome to my little corner of the internet!

I’m Isha. 22. Oldest sibling. Only girl among three boys. I grew up in a house with ten people! A bit chaotic. Dinner feels like a debate club with no moderator. Somehow, it works. I’ve learned to navigate it all with selective hearing and split-second diplomacy. I’m grateful for it, though; everyone is doing great, and the character development is impressive.

Anyways, this blog started because my NJ Transit train was late too many times, to the point where I started to keep track, causing me to spiral. When the train’s delayed (which it is, often), I walk down the platform, head into the Metropark waiting area, and go to Dunkin’. And guess what?

The iced oat milk latte is $7.50 (:0). At Dunkin’?!?! Where oat milk is allegedly free. I was literally paying third-wave prices for a beverage in a transit center that’s been here since 1971. 

So I started Googling while waiting. Why is my train late literally every day? Why does this iced coffee cost almost double what it did just two years ago? Why does functioning seem like such a cognitive burden these days? The answers were out there, technically, but scattered across Reddit threads and outdated websites. That’s when I thought, I should start writing this stuff down. Without writing it down, it just passes by, annoying but unprocessed.

This is basically where I’ll write about the topics that linger as half-formed thoughts, weird patterns, and things I notice twice.

And since starting this blog, I’ve caught myself paying way too much attention to the systems around us. More than just coffee and transit… Tech, health, policy, weather, stuff that’s easy to ignore until it messes with your day. Why lettuce follows gas prices (actual excuse from a halal cart to increase their platter by 3 dollars). Why your flight to Newark Airport is delayed an entire day. Why the rent price feels like it’s being set by the outcome of Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s weird public feud. It sounds chaotic, but there’s always a thread. I have begun tracing things back to their source, those inflection points where small shifts at the micro level turn into bigger and stranger consequences at the macro level.

That’s why I think I enjoy medicine. Not just the biology, but the chain reactions. A hormone out of balance, a protein misfolding, or a vitamin deficiency, and suddenly, the way someone moves through the world changes. That same principle plays out in public health, in policy, and in tech. A single policy update, a design flaw, or an algorithm slipped into a workflow, and entire populations shift in response. That kind of ripple effect through these systems. 

And if I’m going to analyze systems, I should probably mention the ones I build for myself. Just to give some context for the things I’ll probably write about here.

I’m big on inputs: caffeine timing, lighting temp, playlist tempo, and skincare absorption speed. Not for optimization really, but to see what shifts the mood. I believe in morning routines, not for discipline, but for chemistry. That first dopamine hit, which sets the tone for your day. I change things constantly: light, sound, sequence, and pace. Some things stick. Most don’t. But the process maps. 

And when something clicks, it becomes a personality trait, lol.

Right now, it’s iced lattes with lavender syrup and oat milk or Thai red curry with crispy tofu and extra bamboo shoots (comfort disguised as ritual), but that’s just food.

1. DJing lasted a month. The hobby didn’t stick; but house music did. Still the ultimate nervous system regulator.

2. Obsessed with supplements, but not in a wellness influencer way. More like in a controlled-substance-log kind of way. L-theanine, magnesium threonate, spearmint oil, chlorophyll, vitamins A through E, B1 through B12… whatever ends up in the cabinet.

3. 120,000+ photos. No storage. Nothing gets deleted.

4. Skiing stuck early. So did horses. Not curated, just consistent.

5. Restoration Hardware, Architectural Digest, and National Geographic = reference materials for the future.

6. Dual monitors are non-negotiable. So is room symmetry.

7. Lip product inventory could probably cover rent.

8. Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, Kai Cenat, the Avengers, and Smiskis live rent-free. Dostoevsky and Kafka were attempted. Not everything needs to be that deep.

9. There was a C4 phase. Not casual. Addicted.

10. A few people may now be unintentionally dependent on ashwagandha.

11. Too many tabs open: Reddit, Pinterest, and, regrettably, LinkedIn.

Inputs get tracked. Outcomes get logged. The goal: the full system.

Anyway. That was a long intro. Enjoy lol!!!!