Last weekend we celebrated my grandmother’s 85th birthday. My grandpa had passed away 2 years ago and grandma had some difficult times afterwards (including a stroke) but she is a strong woman. She has a crazy memory for her age and also an appetite for food that I totally inherited.
Seriously though, she lives for gatherings with people that involve going out and eating. It doesn’t matter what sort of physical ailments she goes through, the fact that we’re all there is enough to put a smile on her face!
This weekend when I was home, I weighed myself on the scale and I realized that since moving out I have gained a little weight. It’s nothing detrimental but it made me realize that I need to make an effort to be more active if I want to stay healthy without changing my eating habits. I’d rather die than do that.
Instead, this June I’ll consciously include more physical activity. June is busy as it is with music festivals so that will already involve a lot of standing and travelling by default. I’ll take longer walks and avoiding taking the bus when I’m heading to places that are a reasonable distance away. Maybe I’ll even take the stairs at work (to my 6th floor desk). I’m not about to go to the gym but it doesn’t hurt to make tiny little improvements!
Last night, two of the houses across from my parent’s engulfed in flames. This happened at around 5am in the morning. The cause of the fire is still unknown, though I think lightning (there was a storm last night) was ruled out.T he weirdest thing was none of us even had a clue until around 11am when my piano students told us they had trouble getting into our street. We had slept through a serious fire which burnt down two rooftops.
Maybe it was for the better that we weren’t awake. What would we have done? Maybe we would have needlessly packed up our stuff and fled to a safer area. Or idiotically stood around the fire scene taking photos while worrying if the fire would spread onto further houses.
We were thankfully safe from the fire and I’m kind of glad we all slept through it.
Today I stumbled across Mark Manson’s article about the Subtle Art Of Not Giving a Fuck. Something about it really struck a cord with me (maybe it was the 127 instances of the word fuck screwing with my brain). Anyways, what I learnt from it is that I give too many fucks, that I care too much about too many things, something we all do.
An important point that Manson made was that “not giving a fuck” is not the same as being indifferent. Choosing to be indifferent still requires conscious effort to tell people you care indeed indifferent and therefore you are “giving a fuck”.
The goal instead should be to only “give a fuck” about the things that matter. For example, do more things to satisfy yourself instead of considering too much about what others might say. Or taking risks without thinking too much about all the consequences. It’s about being comfortable with being different.
I find I care (or at least use to) too much about things I read on the Internet: slactivist petitions, news stories, debates etc. In reality putting too much thought in these is a waste of time and energy if my heart isn’t truly in it. How many times have you signed a petition blindly just because your friends are doing it? Or became outspoken about something you don’t even completely understand just because it’s “the thing to do”?
For now on, I want to give less fucks about things. The events I am missing, the things other people are saying, gossip, small useless details. I don’t give a fuck about the things people think I should give a fuck about.
Instead, I will focus all my energy in the things that I do give a fuck about including passions, family and friends.
Started working summer hours today, meaning longer hours 4 days a week to get Friday off. Time for a quick video round-up before I head off to the next thing.
Lately, I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of autobiographical books/memoirs from female writers like Lena Dunham, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Jenny Lawson, Julie Klausner and my reaction to all of them are always “man, their lives seem so interesting and inspiring.”
But when I think more about it, I’m satisfied and happy with my own life and it gets interesting too. Though it’s fun to occasionally live through the eyes of others in books (and I guess social media), it’s important to carve your own paths, interests, adventures. I’m constantly obsessed with trying new things whether it be food, music or experiences.
This blog has been an awesome way to document some of these things and I thank all my readers for making me feel like a star of my own life.
The past few weeks have been a little bit crazy. I’ve hardly had more than 20 minutes to sit down in my apartment before heading out to a another event or going to work or working at an event. As summer is approaching, this isn’t really going to change much for the next three months.
My friends like to ask me “How do you do it? How do you have the energy?” There’s one simple answer:
I just do it.
If I had to question my energy levels or give up on things because I was too tired, I would literally never do anything. Thinking too much about things like that is a literal waste of energy. I would become overwhelmed with the things I need to do instead of actually doing them.
That’s not to say that I don’t value rest. Rest is important. It’s needed. I always take a coffee break during my lunch hours, forcing myself to get up from my desk and take a 10 minute walk to Timmies. It clears my head and also allows me to soak in some sun. I also enjoy the occasional Netflix binge or a good sleep in.
However, if I have blog posts to write, places to go, photos to edit, I don’t think much about how I am supposed to do them. I just do it.
In the past 2 weeks I have hardly had time to sit down before going out and shooting more bands! So quick selfie before I am off again tonight. Follow Ride the Tempo’s concert adventures here.
My week has been insane! Going out while having a full-time job is super difficult. I’m alive though! But most of my sleep has been counting down until I wake up. Except it’s like half of what Milhouse is counting down from.
Tiana Feng 