Morning or Evening Person

One dinner last week, someone asked me when I wake up/sleep and I answered 6AM/1030PM to which she respond, that is so early! 

To be honest, on my own, I would stay up way too late and would have to drag myself to get to work on time. I know I’m definitely not a morning person or a night person but more an evening person. It started me thinking about whether one being a morning or night person has to do with one’s birth time because I was born in the evening!

So I did a very unscientific experiment and begged all my friends to tell me birth time versus their productive time. You can also tell I have very limited friends due to my antisocial tendency.

It turns out that my hypothesis was 62.5% correct (if you can call data from of a pool 10 people data-worthy). Most of the people who weren’t born near midnight and midday seemed to have a birth and productivity time correlation. Since being an evening baby, I found not only is my productivity time around evening, it is also when I’m mentally awake, alert, and most active without the need of caffeine.

If we are ruled by our birth time on Earth, how would it work if we were in space then?

Birth and Productive graph

On Make-Up and Being Myself

Make Up
I’ve toned my make up kit down to 3 pieces: chapstick, salicylic acid and benzoyl peroxide

This topic came to me when I saw all these articles about “This is Renee Z?”, which of course, I clicked because I love her role in Bridget Jones. And they were right. She was almost unrecognizable. But no matter how I looked, I couldn’t see where they could have done surgery work. I closed the browser and didn’t want to think too much because I try my best not to read celebrity news. But it bugged me all day. So I did a quick sampling on Photoshop, a stamp clone here and a brush here, and voila, it was the same Bridget (I will always call her Bridget). What was revealed was simply lack of heavy make-up (I added some rosier lipstick, some blush to hide the shine) and also, most importantly, I “tweezed” and “shaped” and “colored in” her eyebrow. Aside from make-up, it was age. She was gracing age “au natural”.
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On Education

On Education
An illustration I did for an ad in college. As you can see, education has been one of my leading causes.

I had an ex-coworker say many times, “I don’t believe in education, especially college. I think it’s a waste of time. Everything I learn, I can learn in the real world.”

This is coming from a man. He’s privileged. He comes from money. He’s white. He is European, French to be exact.
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Seasickness On the Hudson

IMG_7347-0.JPG

The past few months, I had taken up a semi-full time freelance position with an ad agency, allowing myself 3 days weekend, never exceeding 8 hour workdays, and also learning how to balance money for insurance, taxes, rent, and savings. It feels like being an adult while still enjoying my time. I went into the job feeling quite burnt from the last one; weary and heart sickened, I kept my distance and just went about doing my work and not wanting to get too close to the people there.
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Cutting My Hair

My Hair

For a lot of us, hair defines a person. It is our vanity and downfall but it is our pride and joy. The thought of going bald, going grey, or not having the “perfect” hair worries us and often sends us into a manic stress, researching and buying anything to make it better. Even for women who tie their hair up or hide them under wigs and scarves, this is a sort of vanity. We are embarrassed by its unruliness and hide them. We are told by religion to hide our real hair because it’s sacred. We try to fit into society by wearing a wig something that’s not ours so that we don’t stand out.

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On Leaving My Job

Still Life in Complementary Colors
“Still Life in Complementary Colors” –acrylic painting from high school

From the age of 16, I knew I wanted to be a designer, specifically graphic. I couldn’t imagine myself otherwise. So when things had gone downhill the past few months and interviews were few and far between, my conviction as a designer started to waver. Was I even good enough to be a designer? Or will I ever find a job that will make me happy?
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Are You Ever Ready?

Dancing in the Stars

It seems apropos that I read an article by Sasha Sagan on her father, Carl Sagan, the day before learning of the death of someone close to me and my boyfriend. I think, in part, we knew that her time was coming to an end. We both know time is not a fixed object, aging and death is part of a mysterious cycle that we’ve yet to explore. Is there an after-life? Is there reincarnation? Or do we disappear into energy, scattered back into the universe? With all the various ways we try to comfort ourselves by the passing of our loved ones, are we ever ready when the time comes? The real question is, must we be ready or do we play on with the age old rituals of births and deaths with tears, doubt, disbelief, laughter, and acceptance?
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