spirit jade

Playing Immortal Taoist with whales is practicing the mantra that it's the journey that matters not the results 😅

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Two quotations that I jotted down but forgot which book they came from:

We bring to our romantic relationships an almost unbearable existential vulnerability 

Fear makes us curious, sadness makes us philosophize

column

Bliss Foster always makes quality videos, and his latest on Raf's first menswear collection at Prada has a concept of (clothing) uniform that I'd like to remember. Paraphrasing Bliss who is paraphrasing Raf, uniform is clothing that you keep coming back to and that the rest of your wardrobe is built around.

amendment

 I also spoke too soon about not writing reports at work. The first 3 weeks of the year was spent on one massive report. Like other massive reports in my life, this falls under great experience; never again. 

Piston

 Lately, I've not done a good job posting about the books I've read. The last three are Let My People Go Surfing (Patagonia founder’s memoir), Mating in Captivity and State of Affairs (both by Esther Perel) 

I have no direct quotations to share, but here are a few memorable ideas:

• True corporate social responsibility is hard to tack on, it needs to be the in the DNA of the organization. The critic of the response of many company’s support for BLM on social media last year supports this point. 
• Incorporating local practices is crucial to become an international organization. Otherwise you’re just doing business internationally.
• “[any duality] is not a puzzle to be solved but a paradox to be managed”. Not sure if I correctly recall the exact wording, but this can pretty much be my 2021 theme haha. Since listening to the Secular Buddhism podcast few years ago (actually I listened to Esther Perel’s podcast at the same time), I am internalizing that many opposing things are in fact dualities that cannot be separated or have one dominate the other. 

waffle

I wonder if it's just part of growing old that your mental stress directly translates into physical discomfort. It's arguably a good thing that the state of being stressed is more apparent, but it sure isn't more convenient. Being unable to hold back tears at all also falls in the camp. 

we can pretend we're normal people

Song for this week's report writing (in the midst of many meetings, why would anyone willingly set deadlines in early January is beyond me):

Joji · Joji - Normal People (feat. rei brown)

jade

My goal of looking at a screen less is not off to a good start 😅

What happened is: 

1. The scanlator team for my favourite manhua (Spirit Blade Mountain) was promoting a mobile game on their credits page. Since I'm a leeches, I thought I'd at least check out the game to support the scanlator and hopefully they'll release faster.
2. The game is an idle / gacha with xian xia theme (Immortal Toaist). It's pretty fun even as f2p, although I have spent like $10 cumulatively already opps. I find that games by asian companies tend to have a large number of components, to the point that its overwhelming to a new player. I even joined Discord just to access the guides. 
3. One day in the game chat, people were recommending web novels. This one series (Overgeared) elicited very strong responses from a couple of people so I felt obligated to find out why. It's 1200 chapters and I'm a little over 10% through. The MC is really insufferable at the beginning, and I'm finally at the chapters where he starts to genuinely grow as a person.

2021 resolutions

 Is it time to try completing a list of new year resolutions again? Might as well have some explicit goals to work towards:

1. Focus on hobbies with less screen time: something crafty? I do want to do some more embroidery and give kumihimo a try. Also to use all the makeup I bought this year (learn how to do a super clean base)...and get at least 5 wears on all the new clothes. However, I did buy a switch (animal crossing edition!!) so I do predict that my overall screen time is not going to lessen much. 
2. Participate in communities around my hobbies: I did post more in /r/AsianBeauty, /r/FemaleFashionAdvice (patting myself on the back for my ru qun inspo album) and /r/ffacj_discussion this year, and found it more fun than just browsing. Beauty and clothing can be very consuming-oriented hobbies, but one can focus on developing taste and opinion as the primary way to engages in aesthetics. Communication is integral to the development of these taste and opinions, and what better place for that than online forums! Aside: I've managed to evade a lot of report writing for work, and writing for my own blog comes with my self-imposed pressure to express my thoughts as accurately as possible), but writing on forums is quite liberating. Back on topic: would be great if I can make some new friends around common hobbies. 
3. Impose some form of physical activity: it's time to concede that my willpower is lacking when it comes to exercise so the next step is to sink some money into equipment or class that will hopefully motivate myself to keep up whatever the activity is. Before covid, I wanted to do climbing, so hopefully this can resume sometime next year. I'll also sign myself up for some yoga or pilates too? 
4. Make an equal amount of purchases at small or local businesses as large businesses
5. Read 35 books: I have quite a lot of holds left in Libby, and a bunch of books from Adventurous Kate's 2020 list looks interesting. Will also take a look at Bill Gate's list
6. Increase my savings %: I finally get employer match for RRSP! But I'd like to save at least 5% more? It can be much more depending on how much longer I can live rent free and whether Toronto's rent recovers to pre-covid levels.