I Had Written 25 Posts For This Blog!

After weeks of stressful hard work and very little sleep, I need an excuse to celebrate.  What better reason than the fact that I had actually written 25 blog posts for this blog during my few nightly hours away from my stressful day job.  Writing on this blog had helped me tolerate my job a little better. So, if you don't like your job, or your boss, start a blog to distract yourself from the misery! It totally worked for me.

Since my short few weeks' absence from this blog, I had gotten my translation service going and I had obtained 2 clients. Yes, 2 clients.  No, I didn't get my clients from this blog or social media or from the new professional website that I built myself.  Yes, I built my business website myself.  I don't know when and how I learnt to do it. But somehow, since I began blogging here, I manage enough to build a professional looking website for my translation service. Yet I got my clients not because of the effort I spent blogging or socializing on Twitter. My clients came to me through the old fashion way, during one of my restaurant visits and during one of my shopping errands.  I started chatting with some strangers there, and then the strangers became clients.  

I also started my own online store recently.  Another website I built myself.  I haven't quite figured out how that will work out for me.  But hopefully it will start generating some sales.  But yes, I still keep my grueling day job because my part-time businesses haven't yet generated enough income for me to quit just yet.  No, I didn't tell anybody at work or even my family about my side businesses.  I just want to succeed and fail on my own terms without the pressure from others' opinions.

Yes, I had done a lot during the last few weeks, both for my day job, and my part-time businesses.  The drawback is I haven't been getting enough sleep.  Naturally, all these hard work of mine deserves the celebration.

What's Always In My Briefcase

Besides my usual laptop, I am now carrying a coloring book and some color pencils in my briefcase.  Sometimes my suffocating work environment can make me feel very irritable.  But to pay my bills and support my current life style, I can't quit.  I'm working on breaking free but as of now, I'm still at the same old job.  I had just realized that starting a business while holding down a job is a lot more difficult than the idea itself.  So I sometimes feel bogged down. Of course the clutter in my small apartment doesn't help to relax me either.  I did try a few days ago to review all the books that are piled up to the ceiling, I was only able to let go of one book that I bought years ago.  I spent my entire weekends reading it, then I wrote a Chinese book review on it and I sold it, surprisingly, for a very nice profit since I bought it for $1 at a closing sale.  I was going to give it away to the library or someone, but I was presented with a good offer in the end.

Now after my success of selling one book, I find it even harder to get rid of the rest of my books.  So the stress from the clutter remains.  Then with another random shuffle of the book piles, I found this coloring book that I bought from my old university bookstore.  I never even flipped it open.  Now that I have it with me all the time, I will pull it out to color whenever I feel upset, angry or negative.  It helps because for the couple minutes when I redirects my focus on coloring the flowers, it gets my mind off whatever unpleasant feeling I experienced seconds ago.  It actually takes a couple minutes and then I feel all right again. To me, it's a quick therapy particularly after being inefficiently bossed around by my supervisor.  After coloring, I can once again face my supervisor with smile and enthusiasm...

Try it if you ever feel like you are going to snap.  It only takes  a couple minutes of color to regain your cool and sanity.  It works for me.

Dressing Up For Valentine's Day

My Dream Valentine's Day Look: Dress: $12.99 + Bracelet $27.33 + Shoes $58.99

If only I can get out of work at 6:00pm sharp on Valentine's day, I will wear the above and go have a fun evening out.  Happy Valentine's Day!

This Is Why I Want To Start My Own Business

At the moment, I'm not feeling what I want to feel at my job.  I want to quit but I need my paycheck too much to be able to quit.  I'm not going to blame myself for not thriving at my job because I don't think it's healthy for me.  Besides, I really don't think it's me....Almost everyone at my company feels the same way. Yes, I asked them and yes, they told me.  Even if they didn't tell me, their face showed it.  I'm not alone.  I'm one of many production line professionals who are under the mercy of an impersonal and out-of-touch management system that fails to inspire or cultivate talents.  

This is why I want to be a freelance translator, I love reading books but I have no time to read because of my job. I love just to be able to work anywhere in the world without being tied down to a particular metropolis that is over-crowed, and over priced.   I think it will be good if one day I get to translate a book, or publish one of my own. In the meantime, I just want to have my own translation service that provides high quality services to English speaking businesses that want to reach out to the Chinese audience, and vice versa.   

If you need professional Chinese to English or English to Chinese translation, please contact me, to help my business get started.  I know one day I will have a thriving translation business and I will be free from my day job.  I'm told I needed to keep faith in getting what I want, because without it, I have nothing but a job that kills my passion and creativity. But thanks to this suffocating job of mine, I'm now exploring other options, which may lead to a better career.

In the meantime, I need help building a professional website for my translation business, separate from this personal blog of mine.  If you are a professional website designer, please contact me.

I Need To Stop Buying More Clothes

My Fashion Wish List: Multi-Color Floral Embroidered Tunic $39.99 + Cutout Flower Bohemian Earrings $7.99

My closet is literally overflowing. Decluttering my closet is one of my resolutions for 2017.  But it's not an easy resolution to keep because  I find it very difficult to part with my clothes, particularly when they are almost like new. I had spent way too much money on clothes and accessories shopping until the absolute end of 2016. This bad habit of mine had not only hurt my savings, it had been creating unnecessary stress on both my living quality and financial situation.  Looking at my overflowing closet, I recognize that I need to stop buying more clothes, if I can't bear to give away some clothes to make room.

I've been on my no-clothes-shopping track and I haven't made my first purchase yet for 2017.  I pray that I can stay strong for the rest of 2017.  To help refrain myself from clicking the "buy" button while surfing the internet, I decide to register the fashion items that I have an urge to buy on my wish list here.  The process of posting the items that tempt me so much takes away my time and focus, and therefore distracts me from clicking on the "buy" button.  Meanwhile, I love that I have my beloved clothes hanging in just right here, ready for me to buy with a click on each item in the photo; if I decide I can't really live without them after reading this post over and over again for the next week.....

Making this post was initially a challenge to me because I was no graphic designer and I was never trained to do graphic or web design.  I had to learn as I went.  I'm pleased that I can now play fashion editor with my new web skill....So am I now one step closer to quitting my nerdy day job in corporate finance?

Appreciate The Beauty Of Nature

I'm not a gardener, I had never done any gardening, unless you consider my 3rd grade science project on sprouting green beans as gardening. Born and raised in the expansive forest of skyscrapers, I never paid attention to any plants.  I just never cared.  My dad had some ugly flowerless plants and bonsai trees in our tiny balcony that he cared for every morning before he left for work.  But my siblings and I never took one glance at my father's solitary hobby. Our flat also had the annual Chinese New Year plants that came and went with the holidays.  My mom just tossed the plants into trash after they wilted and died in the total absence of care or watering. I still remember those pots of wilted yellow Chrysanthemums that my mom trashed every year.  I was never impressed by them when they were alive in our tiny living room.  I don't know why I had no appreciation for them back then.  Now that I no longer live with my parents, I suddenly felt a sense of nostalgia when I spotted the Chrysanthemums last week at a home improvement and supplies store.  Their beauty just struck me at that particular moment and I couldn't resist bringing a 6-inch pot home.  I don't even have the space to put flowers, so I just put the pot on a chair on top of my books.  The Chrysanthemums in the above photo is the first pot of Chrysanthemums I bought on my own.  I had never seen this variety before and I am totally mesmerized by their glorious flowers in bi-colors.  I can stare at them and feel really relaxed and pleased with my discovery.  It cost me $9.79 (including sales tax) , which is 4 times my spending on plants in 2016, and it's not even the end of February.  But this lovely plant is worth my every penny because I really enjoy staring at them when I feel stressed or when I start to lean towards negative thinking.

Reminder to myself: Learn more about the care for Chrysanthemums when feeling down or anxious, because it's better to direct energy and time on things that can give me joy and satisfaction.

Playing With Garden Design

I was just going through a lot of the junks that cluttered my home, and I found a box of software that I bought back in 2008.  I never opened it because I just didn't have time.  I was going to just throw it away because who needs a piece of out-dated software?  But before I threw it out, I installed it on my computer and surprisingly it worked with Windows 10...

I used it to render my rental apartment's tiny patio after going out to take measurement of it.  I suddenly had this idea to offer my landlord an improvement of his horribly empty patio with some plants,  in exchange for rent reduction.  I'm not sure if he is going to play along  just by looking at the above picture.. But I'm going to plant 4 Mexican Sunflowers and 5 African Marigolds.... May be when he sees the real thing, he will agree to reward my effort to beautify his patio... If not, I will add gardening on my resume.  Either way, the flowers will make me really happy.

Reminder to myself: Feeling bored and unhappy? Plant some flowers.

New To-Do List For Chinese New Year

Necessity is the mother of invention.  As the most dedicated reader of this blog, I always come back to look up the little things in my life that make me happy in moments or days past.  Lately, I've been finding the static nature of this blog to be quite boring.  I've been thinking how much nicer it will be for me to come here to find a carousel of things that made me happy before, so I can just click on whatever that catches my eyes at the instance.  To prevent myself from forgetting this blog feature that I want, I therefore put it down on my new to-do list so I can eventually make it happen, when I can find the spare time after my job to learn how to do it.

But if any of you know how I can add carousel to my blog, please contact me, and give me a quote. I'm willing to pay for your help, unless you are kind enough to do it for free, which I will of course appreciate very much.

Reminder to myself:  Problems are good things, because they often lead to better ways of doing things.  So don't dodge it or dread about it, embrace it and take action!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

I find it interesting how the west (like America) labels this Chinese Year as the Year of The Rooster, when the Chinese character itself (雞) doesn't specify whether the bird is a male or female.  In Chinese, rooster is 公雞, hen is 母雞, but the character 雞 is a class that includes all roosters and hens. Somehow I feel the Chinese language itself is less sexist, and therefore less divisive than English... 

Anyway, I wish everybody lots of luck, health, fortune, and love in this year, just like the song says.  The song really sings it all. Today is another chance for me to start anew, another reason to celebrate and share joy and love. Happy Chinese New Year! Enjoy the song. 

So I Don't Have A Cracked Tooth After All

I was told during my consultation with an endondontist that the digital x-ray showed some inflammation at the root of my achy molar.  He recommended an immediate retreatment of my previous root canal at the same tooth. So I need another root canal just like I previously thought I would need.  I hope this end result is not manifested by my constant worry and thinking of another root canal.  I read a book called "The Secret" years ago.  I still haven't finished though because after reading a quarter of the book, I felt the ideas too far-fetched. But I read enough to remember that one of the theories the book stresses is that bad things happen to us because we are thinking of them and the universe operates like a shopping catalog from which we shop.  If a root canal is what I am thinking of, then it's what I will be ordering from the universe and it's what will be delivered to me, based on the universe's law of attraction.

So from now on, I better start only thinking of receiving $100 billions, so the universe will deliver the money to me instead of a root canal.  The good news of my upcoming plight of a root-canal treatment is, the tooth structure of my existing crowned molar looks great under the x-ray and there is no crack. As of now, I'm not going to lose the tooth like I had been worrying previously.  Yes, I was over worrying.

I'm Glad That I Found A Video That Explains Why My Tooth Aches While Chewing

For three days, I've been experiencing pain on my left back molar. I'm surprised because this particular molar had a root canal procedure that took out the nerve several years ago and the tooth is not supposed to be feeling anything now.  My first root canal experience was decent even though I remember the procedure took quite a while. It cost me over US$2,000 because my general dentist back then referred me to his endodontist who wasn't contracted with my dental insurance.  I had changed dentist of course even though the root canal was not as scary as I initially thought.  I was holding a grudge on my dentist back then for causing me to pay more for a procedure when it would have cost me much less if only I had done it with my dental insurance's in-network endodontist.  It took me several more sales oriented dentists before I found my current one who doesn't hard sell procedures or products, who isn't pushy in referring me to specialists, and who always explains to me and gives me the available options to let me choose.  This shows that a negative experience with dentists may very well be what I needed to find a better one, more or less like my situation with boyfriends and jobs.....

For years, I thought that my first and previous root canal was my biggest dental treatment in my life and I wouldn't need another root canal anymore.  Now that this video makes me suspect that I may have a cracked tooth and I may need a rework of my tooth, or a possible extraction if the tooth is too cracked to be saved, I'm feeling all anxious again. Feeling anxious and scared certainly isn't going to help me enjoy my meals more, but I can't help it.  It's easy to want to think positively, but controlling the fear of the unknown is a different matter.  I guess the bright side is, at least I know what is possibly causing my tooth to ache when I chew.  

To help calm my nerve down now, may be I should just remember how I was so nervous and losing sleep days before my previous root canal appointment just to find out that all that worry was pure over reaction. 

Sunday Breakfast With Friends

Today is my first gathering among many future gatherings with friends that I vowed to do on the day of my dear friend's funeral. I'm happy that I got it started and I had a great breakfast as a result.  I'm sure this is how my dear friend would have wanted me to handle my loss of his friendship.  Life is too short to not celebrate everyday with friends.  But since it's really impossible to do so everyday, I want to do a gathering at least once every quarter.  I can't believe I had been so crazy in the past that I literally didn't care to make an effort to see my friends, very often for years.  It was appalling that I spent more time surfing the internet than time with my friends and family.  Having the strawberry cream cheese toasts with my friends this morning, I had just started to change that.

Remembering A Dear Friend

I'm not good at remembering birthdays and anniversaries, but Jan 18 will now be the day I will always remember, because it's the day when I shuffled dirt into my dear friend's grave in tears. I never kept track of his birthdays because like me,  he was the kind of people who didn't care much about his own birthdays. His birthdays always varied during the years when I was working with him because birthday cakes would just show up randomly on whatever day that was convenient for all of our colleagues to gather to sing him a birthday song.  But I will always remember yesterday because it was the day I sent him away. Yesterday was our last get-together since the great lunch we had about 2 years ago, which felt more like 2 days ago.

I never expected that among all my friends, the one whose company I enjoyed the most, the one whom I found to be the funniest, the most supportive and non-judgmental, the one whose assurance I sought when I doubted myself, was this serious looking man with this dramatically deep voice. I was never convinced that friendship could transcend age, race, sex and religion. But now I am a firm believer that people can literally be the best of friends regardless of age, race, sex and religion. I'm the same age as his kids and yet I consider him to be my best male friend and the only platonic male friend in my life.  He was always like a second father to me.  

I feel very sad for losing him.  It just feels weird that he seems to be so alive now that I'm reading his last emails to me.  For these two days, memories of him have been flashing across my mind, like movie trailers.  I just don't have one single bad memory of him.  There was just never a bad moment between him and I, not once.  I had fights with my own father, argument with my own mom. But with my dear friend, it was all comfort, fun and laughter, even when we were working on the most exhausting projects together.

My dear friend was always there for me when I needed help.  Among so many things he had done for me, I can't help but smile when I remember that once he got rid of the 20-pounds bag of rice and other junks that I had carried in my car's trunk for years. I didn't even feel embarrassed when he shockingly discovered that I was driving around with these junks for years.  It was because I just felt so comfortable around him.  This is what real friendship feels like.  I can't thank him enough for cultivating my professional capabilities. He was the one to see the talents in me when I didn't have the self-confidence to see them myself.  He was always being such a good listener. His sense of humor and his positivity lifted my spirits up when I felt down.  I miss him tremendously and I'm sorry that I hadn't visited him enough when I lost myself in climbing the corporate ladders elsewhere.  I felt there would always be time for me to take him and his wife out for lunch again. But I was wrong. 

Yes, I can almost hear his voice now, telling me, "Don't feel sorry! Life is too short for that! We are all short of time to do all the things we want to do. Besides, aren't we on diet?"  So, to honor my dear friend,  I will now regularly schedule a  get-together brunch with his wife and family, our common friends and our old colleagues who used to work with us.  I want to take his passing as an opportunity to build new relationships with the people he deeply cared, and to re-unite with our common friends he so cherished.

This Joke Put A Happy Ending To My Exhausting Day

I bought the hard copy edition of this book when it first came out years ago.  I however hadn't read it until today when I was riding the taxi back to the hotel.  I brought this book along with me for this work trip because one of my resolutions for 2017 is to always keep one of the unread books that I bought in my briefcase so I could at least flip a few pages during my transit; if not to finish reading the entire book.

It was at the end of page 20 that I came across a funny prank that Zappos.com's CEO Tony Hsieh pulled on his boss when he was working as a part-time computer programmer at a software company during his senior high school year.  One time when his boss was heating the water in the microwave to make tea, Tony stopped the microwave right after his boss walked away so his boss returned to find the cup of water still cold inside the microwave.  Unaware of Tony's prank, his boss just turned the mirowave on for 3 minutes again and walked away.  But soon as he walked away, Tony stopped the microwave again.  When the boss returned again to get the water, he found the water still cold. He cursed the microwave for being broken. This time he set the heating time for 5 minutes instead of 3 minutes out of frustration and walked away.  But when he returned 5 minutes later, he found his cup inside the microwave filled with ice cubes.  This was now somewhere on page 21, and I was laughing out loud.

May be you don't find this joke as funny as I did, I just want to share it anyway...

I'll Try To Appreciate Wherever Place I Visit

I've been here in Philadelphia for work for a few days now.  I never liked work travel because I'm a homebody and I just don't have a travel bug like the rest of my family have.  I often feel stressed out during traveling, may be because of the hassle at the airport, and the fact that I am phobic about being trapped in a plane cabin for hours.  One of my 2017 resolutions is to feel more appreciative of the workplace where my employer sends me.  While this is definitely not the best season or weather to be in Philly, I  will try to see the beauty of "The City of Brotherly Love" for as long as I am here.  I will try to find time to do some of the things recommended by the video while I'm here.  I have a relative living in a senior community in about an hour from here, I will overcome my dislike for driving and pay her a visit that has been long overdue.

My New Weekly Detox Mask Routine For 2017

I never had a beauty routine besides putting on makeup in the morning.  But years of wearing makeup without any skincare regiment is now hurting my skin with breakouts and acne.  Since I started working, I had become so busy that I had totally ignored my own skincare.  Before I knew it, such neglect had become a bad habit for years.  So beginning this year, I'm determined to do at least one 10-minute detox clay mask on the weekend. I received this Face Mask Trio as a Christmas gift and I'm now wearing the clay mask while I'm typing.  It smells pretty nice with a sweet citrus scent. The label says the clay mask is crafted with three types of clay, namely the Benetonit Clay Kaolin Earth Clay, and Illite Green Clay. It’s designed to clean the pores and remove excess oils. And it has a blend of essential oils – including orange peel oil, lavender oil, and sandalwood oil – to help relieve dehydration and lend a refreshing, uplifting scent. 

So I will see if this detox mask will help clear my skin.  Meanwhile, it's time for me to go wash it off.

P.S. If you want to join me in maintaining this detoxing facial routine for the rest of the year, (you can use whatever detox mask of your preference), you can copy my routine to your Google calendar, or you can subscribe to my skincare routine reminder to remind yourself of a detox mask every weekend:

I Finally Checked All My Lottery Tickets

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to declutter my handbag which is full of receipts, business cards, restaurant take-out menus, credit cards, keys and beauty products.  So while re-organizing my handbag today, I found several lottery tickets that I purchased during the last 3 months but I hadn't checked them against the winning numbers yet.  I don't know why I've been carrying these lottery tickets for months without bothering to check whether any of them was a winning ticket.

According to the law of attraction, my kind of mindset regarding the lottery is of course the reason why I didn't win. But at least I can now finally lose some clutter in my handbag by tossing those old lottery tickets in trash. I didn't expect to win so I didn't bother to check the tickets. I can't believe that I actually bought those tickets with the expectation to lose.  How negative of me!  

While I had never won any lottery, I will still play whenever a lottery ticket vendor happens to be around one of my errand stops. I won't be playing with my old attitude thinking,  "I'll be struck by lightening before I win the lottery."  I will train my mentality to become more positive while playing the lottery.  

The bible says, "Keep sowing your seeds, for you never know which one will grow - perhaps they all will."  So I will keep buying the lottery tickets, for I never know which one will turn out to be the winner. After all, a lottery ticket costs a lot less than a cup of Cafe Latte at Starbucks.

Let's Have A Bright & Sparkling 2017!

I had a very enjoyable New Year's Eve a couple days ago, even though I had missed the fireworks in Hong Kong.  I didn't celebrate on the eve of 2014, 2015 or 2016 but I danced through to 2017 with fantastic strangers at one of my favorite restaurants full of very nice and hospitable people. Thank you guys for dancing and partying with me even though you don't know who I am.  Your company made my New Year's Eve 2017 really special.  I haven't had so much fun for years, and I think it's a good change for me.

Now, one of the items on  my New Year's resolution list is checked-off, that is, party with complete strangers and just celebrate the moment.  As for the firework show that I missed because of this, I'm watching and enjoying it right now.  (Note: Fast forward to 1:22 to skip all the introductory chatter.)

Happy New Year everybody, and don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone this year. You will be happily surprised by the new friends you will make.