Randa Sakallah, Substack
💭 Thoughts on surfing at Ocean Beach, Nol Collective, and thoughtfully organized gatherings.
Randa Sakallah is a writer, social engineer, co-creator of goodhang.org and employee of substack.com. Previously, she created Hot Singles, a New York Times-featured project and Seeing Someone, a dating advice column in New York Magazine. When she’s not doing internet stuff she is probably getting consensually waterboarded by the Pacific Ocean.
🎯 Current focus
My friend Harry and I have been working on Good Hang, a newsletter about hanging out and chilling, for about a year and a half. We started it as a way to work on something creative together and now it’s grown to almost 3k subs despite often getting feedback like “I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” One of the most fun parts of GH was throwing a party. I think every Substack should be having parties. Thought Enthusiast should have a party. If you’re reading this and you have a newsletter you should have a party.
I just came across these beautiful photographs by Xuebing Du and I keep going back and staring at them. I honestly don’t really understand photography. I don’t get what makes a photo “good.” But the way she uses light is so insane and it just makes me want to keep looking at her work. I got a print and I am excited to look at it forever.
A couple of my friends performed Stan by Eminem at karaoke recently. Ever since, I have been repenting by listening to "Thank You" by Dido and then whatever Spotify plays after. I don’t really know what she’s talking about or who she is thanking but it moves me and also is perfect for every situation – ripping cold emails, looking out the window, getting ready, screaming by myself in a driverless car…
I have been surfing more at Ocean Beach in San Francisco which is a lot scarier than where I usually surf. I often hesitate because I’m afraid I’ll hurt myself in the process of getting yeeted off a big wave. When I feel scared I think to myself, “if you can’t take the yeet, get out of the ocean.”
🎊 Thoughtfully organized gatherings
My friends are having a friends-only party to celebrate their marriage (they already got legally married and did a family-only wedding). It’s at a bar in San Francisco, they’re having a bunch of DJ sets, and the dress code is “don’t be boring.” Thoughtfully organized (but not corny) gatherings are hard to come by these days, so I really appreciate being invited to stuff like this.
I am NOT just saying this because I work there but I’ve basically replaced Twitter with Substack Notes. I used to use Twitter to find articles to read. Now Twitter is only good for memes, so Substack Notes is where I discover new brain-enrichment. If we can get better memes on Substack I won’t need Twitter at all.
I am Palestinian, and I love how Nol Collective has translated traditional Palestinian embroidery to more modern, wearable styles. They’re making beautiful stuff that keeps our culture and history alive.
🤳 Little surprise joke texts
Lots of people are saying phones are bad and yeah I think phones are bad too. But my favorite part about having a phone is that my friends can surprise me in the middle of the day with a little joke in my texts. I could be having a bad day and then my friend will send me a meme and I will feel like I’ve been defibrillated.
Follow Randa on Substack & Linkedin and check out her newsletters Good Hang and Hot Singles.
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