bowl

December is nearing its end and I really haven't posted at all. 

2020 is nearing its end, and it feels like not much has happened but actually a lot has happened?

• Career is progressing: civ is one of those fields where you can experience by doing your tasks. I can clearly see how the expertise I gained from finishing a large restoration and forensics project apply to my work on other projects. I am immensely lucky that covid didn't negatively impact my job in any significant manner, in fact working from home has been great aside from ergonomics. 
• I'm not sure if wfh has made my sleeping habits better or worse, but it does seem that I need to sleep more hours compared to before. Now days I try to get 9 hours on weekdays and still end up sleeping more than 12 hours on weekends, and feel lacking in energy everyday. I wonder if this is something a long vacation will fix, if I just spend a whole month sleeping in everyday... but everyone wisely recommends that exercising is a far likely fix. All I can say from several failed attempts at consistently exercising is that it's not the most horrible activity, but I've also felt none of the joy that people describe from doing so. 
• Wfh has definitely reinforced my introverted tendencies. Just let me hibernate. 
• Hobby wise I've engaged the most with my interest in clothing and beauty. What this really means is I've watched a lot of youtube videos on these topics, mostly by mandarin speaking youtubers which has the added benefit that my chinese is a little better (at least vocab). I find there is several high-level differences between the content of fashion & beauty videos catered towards chinese vs western audience. For clothing, english speaking videos focus a lot on finding your personal style whereas mandarin speaking videos focus on how to pock clothing within a style that is flattering. Like picking a pant shape that makes your leg look straight. Extrapolating from this, it is reflective of the east vs west cultural difference of individuality and conformity. 
• A good habit I've picked up again is reading before bed, thanks to the Libby app. It has about 80% of the books I want to read, which is far sufficient to tie me over until covid ends. Aside from Alain de Botton and existentialism, I read several books on the subject of a minority group's experience in Canada/US, such as undocumented immigrants (Children of the Land), indigenous people (From the Ashes, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, All Our Relations), and queer people (I'm Afraid of Men, We Have Always Been Here). I'm not sure how much reading about their experiences has impacted me, but at least I know about the injustices these people have suffered and will speak up against the bias against them. 
• Aside from books, I read (both present and past tense) a lot of manga. The current series is dominated by the reincarnation theme, either in isekai (with the villainous sub-theme) or to take revenge. There's a lot of really mediocre stories in this theme, and they all have the same fault of the over-powered main character just blazing ahead, and if there is a love interest, s/he is instantly smitten. The better ones retain some vulnerability to the main character and have him/her develop meaningful relationships with the side characters. I suppose this underscores that relationships are the most meaningful part of existing.