August just started and I think for this month I want to continue the optimistic outlook on life that I strove for in April. My life is sweet right now and I’m happy with how things are. I have had so many adventures and there are still many more to come in the next few weeks.
Tonight, I’m just chilling and having ice cream with the boyfriend! Everything is perfect.
I love The Bloggess because she openly talks about her issues with anxiety and depression in a rather funny manner. Not too long ago she shared how she builds random mini ferris wheels as a way to relax. So I hit up Amazon and found my own.
The set arrived in a flat envelope in the mail. It was much smaller than I thought!
Inside were two metal sheets of pieces and instructions. Everything was self-explanatory, just a bit tedious and time consuming.
It took me a while to delicately remove the pieces. There were extra parts of carts but not the main frame of the cart itself, so I broke like 6 while trying to fold them in the exact position for them to hang on the ferris wheel. Halfway through I realized tweezers made things way easier. I had bought pliers prior to receiving this, but didn’t realize everything was so tiny.
This was probably 2 hours into the project. It took a while to properly understand how to delicately fold things so that they stayed in place. Once I got the hang of building carts, I was in a groove. It was hard to concentrate on anything else while holding such delicate pieces so it was such a relaxing activity to do. To literally be forced to forget about everything else!
There may have been missing carts (because the broken ones were impossible to superglue) I thought my final product was a masterpiece! I’m super proud to have dedicated time to building something super random and actually completing it. It was the offline break my mind needed.
I totally want to do this again and am already researching other sets (there are some super geeky ones). They’re inexpensive enough to be okay with screwing one up or leaving them on the sidewalk for a child to find.
Today is the 216th day in a row that I’ve been blogging. I zoomed passed 200 and didn’t even notice. I also happened to have passed the 200 vlog mark!. Both are amazing feats.
Last year, I never would have dreamed to even go one month blogging everyday. Now I don’t really see an end in site. When I started vlogging (though I’ve slowed down a little now) I was very camera shy and didn’t really like speaking to camera, now it comes a bit easier.
I recently read an article about how someone wrote a haiku every day for 100 days and she learned some very similar lessons as I have. I learned to put myself out there even if some posts are dumb and there are frequently mistakes. No longer do I have a notebook or lists full of ideas that went no where. I made them go somewhere, I hit publish, even if part of me thought some things were unfinished.
I’m really excited to continue doing this every day. I feel like there’s enough in me to find something everyday. You really do have time to do the thing you wish you did “more” of, whether it’s writing, drawing, reading etc. Start by setting a goal. To do it every day.
I thought I’d be recovered from Wayhome but it must be the heat here in Toronto. It’s like 35 degrees and I feel like I need to constantly be drinking 10 gallons of water or I’m going to die. I think I may have caught a cold which is also part of it. Blog you later when I’m slightly more alive.. now back to drinking more water.
My little sister just turned 25. I can’t believe it! It makes me feel ancient. We celebrated over the weekend with a Caramel Crunch cake. Here are some random photos of us posing at it:
Blowing out the candles:
We also had dinner at a random Chinese restaurant we’ve never been to and tried their Xiao Long Baos and something called “Sweet and Sour Fried Fish In a Squirrel Shape”. I’m not entirely sure where they get the “squirrel” from, but it does make for some great photos!
Sometimes I’m like a robot. I have a set of tasks I need to get done before I let myself go to bed. I’ll go on for weeks and months like this.
Then eventually like a robot, I break down a little. I get tired, anxious, stressed out, maybe even depressed. It’s awkward to talk about but at times talking about it is the greatest way to fix it. I need to let myself relax, without thinking about the a million things (there are always things) that I could/should be doing. I’m like a robot that needs to stay on the task at hand and doesn’t know anything else.
This weekend, I’m letting myself relax. Some e-mails will go unanswered. Some posts will go unwritten. Walks will be taken. Food will be eaten. Naps will be taken. Robots need to be recharged once in a while, and I do too.
A few weeks ago, I started attending meetups of women in the Toronto music industry. Last night, someone mentioned an article on how women tend to sound less confident than men in e-mails because they use certain unnecessary words. While, some of those theories are somewhat debunked, or anti-feminist (because men should take women seriously no matter what), I think there’s validity in using these words less often. There are times to sound polite, and nice but when you need something done (especially professionally) here are some words to avoid:
Just
Out of all unnecessary words, “just” is a word that is truly unnecessary in most cases. It can come off as too harsh if read in the wrong tone or too passive.
Example, “I want to follow up…” sounds like it will get more of an answer than “I just want to follow up”. You either want to or you don’t. There’s no need for “just”.
There are cases where it sounds too harsh. Example “just go over there”, sounds more pissed/passive aggressive than “go over there”.
Hopefully
In a professional setting you never “hopefully” want something to be done. Sound like you’re in control and less like you are complaining. “I will finish all this paper work” not “Hopefully, I will finish all this paperwork.”
Actually/Literally/Basically
These are essentially the same thing. These don’t help you explain a situation, in fact if you repeat any or all of these words in an e-mail it can ruin the flow and sound very distracting.
Kind of/sort of
It is or it isn’t. There isn’t a middle (at least most of the time). Don’t be vague.
Sorry
Unless you legitimately need to apologize for something there’s no need to say sorry (but even then, a personal call is necessary). “Sorry for bothering you but..” No. Just cut the unnecessary apology and get to the point. You never want to give a person a reason to dislike your e-mail even before they read it.
Bonus here’s a word we should say more often: No. Learning to say no avoids other people’s priorities from taking over your own, and allows you to focus on your true priorities.
Headed off to another meetup today with some cool people so don’t have too much time to blog! Enjoy some photos of Teddy
I have always been afraid of lightning. It’s like an unpredictable deadly thing. The funny thing is I am short so it will probably hit someone else before it hits me. That is a scientific fact right?
When I was younger I was even terrified of thunder. It would roar through the house. Mom would tell me that there was nothing to be afraid of if I wasn’t a bad girl. But what was “bad”?
Then other times she would tell me to be careful. To not go outside, take showers or even sit in cars during a major lightning storm. Apparently even staying in the house might not be safe.
I don’t know why but every time I think of lightning I replay this memory in my head of walking home in a storm and a strike a few meters away. I can’t legitimately confirm if this actually happened or if the event has been twisted and animated with false memories.
A couple of weeks ago, on the Friday of Bestival the weather networks warned of a thunderstorm. Bestival took place on the Toronto island. I thought I was in for my doom this time. While my feet were muddy and my clothes wet, I was fine. There was no lightning, or it just had better places to hit.
I think my fear of lightning has subsided a bit but I’ll still avoid going outside during a storm if I don’t have to.
What’s your irrational fear?
Lately, I’ve been so busy that all my meals were quickly thrown together with whatever the hell I had in the fridge. Sometimes they’d taste weird but I made do because I was busy and headed off somewhere else in an hour (or less). Cooking and eating became more of a stressful mandatory activity than an enjoyable one.
Finally today I had time to plan a meal and actually see it through. I pan seared pork chops, following half of the instructions of a Gordon Ramsay video and my boyfriend helped and made pan-fried eggplant with melted mozzarella in between them. It was a team effort, but it was fun and relaxing at the same time.
On days where I’m not so busy, I want to have more fun with cooking again, seek out new delicious recipes and learn different techniques. Cooking can be rather therapeutic if you let it be!
Tiana Feng 