Writings and Travels of Lina Em
I have had this topic joy for several months and have never been able to tackle it until now. My main concern with the word joy is whether or not it is a product of the first world? I think yes and no. Joy from watching the latest HBO show or getting the newest iPhone is definitely a first world creation. But I believe that inherently, we all want joy in its most raw form—being alive and having a meaning to that life.
Continue reading “Joy”
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?
As the year wraps up, I start to unravel a whole new list to start the new year. To better myself creatively, aside from my 365 Days of Calligraphy and my annual GoodReads Book Challenge, I will also be writing twice a month to create 24 blog posts for 2016!
Continue reading “Writing Challenge 2016”
This year, Mr. Darcy and I have spent the last month at the bank, the lawyer’s office, moving boxes, buying new furnitures, and overwhelming ourselves with a new home that we didn’t get to do any “holiday” activity except the annual work party. Not that buying a place is not worth it. But it did cramp our schedule. So alas, we did not have time to buy a tree.
Continue reading “Nonna’s Tree”
As the year rolls to the end, I had to remind myself that I’ve been neglecting my blog for half a year! Continue reading “2015 Year in Retrospective”
One rice crispy later, I sat at work staring at the computer wondering if this is all there is to life?
Continue reading “One Life Crispy Later…”
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”.
Continue reading “On Make-Up and Being Myself”
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.
Continue reading “On Education”
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.
Continue reading “Seasickness On the Hudson”
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.