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. 

bee

Holy I didn't realize how poor my concentration is during the evenings until I watched this and could not compute the results at all. No wonder I felt I've been glossing over the latest books that I've read.

3Blue1Brown is such a gem of a channel

2021 clothes r1

 r0 / plan from beginning of year / covid sale check-in

Since I already set the theme for 2021, this will be a short check-in of everything I purchased in 2020 and comparison of the results against my plan from the start of the year. I have no wear count to update because switching phones made my lose the little data I had from barely getting dressed during covid. 

1. Abercrombie & Fitch lace dress - $52.83
2. Burberry two-tone trench - $1717.60
3. Sandro lace shift dress - $218.40
4. Frank&Oak wide legged pants - $76.35
5. Proenza Schouler PS11 chain bag - $545.30
6. Stuart Weitzman  lonnie boot - $484.87 
7. Babaton leather wrap skirt - $105.74
8. Vickyoung pleated pants*
9. HM x Giuliva pleated pants - $49.94
10. PH5 knit skirt - $220.50
11. Rebecca Vallance silk backless dress - $283.27
12. HM cotton backless dress - $39.99
13. Skye band collar dress*

*from Taoabao, waiting for me when I can make it back to China

**overflow from last year

Total: $3794.79 (guess this is where all the wfh savings went)

So I'm obviously over the 8 item limit that I set for myself, which really is ok but I can justify it as I decluttered several pieces of clothing when I moved. But the question I'm really asking is what is the point of setting a purchase limit? Is it because I want to spend less money? Not grow my closet? I don't actually know how useful it is to stick to a hard limit, but I will continue to choose a number as a guiding post. So let's try 8 pieces again for 2021.

I am pretty consistent in the styles that I buy, I guess I've settled into the elusive ~personal style~. Most of the items are also what I planned to buy, although the list of planned purchases at the beginning of the year is almost entirely irrelevant (aside from a different pair of Maguire loafers that I'd like).

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.

fluff

 I think I broke my own record of longest time spent sleeping last night: 15 hours.