Weekly Learnings: Jan 9 - 15

Starting the year, sharing learnings, and cool things to check out

Mar 2, 2023

Hi friends,

I’ve been trying to write for years and last year + a week ago, I wrote my first weekly musing to myself. Going to try to keep up low-effort writing as a way of documentation and sharing. The start of the year has been really great so far actually and I’ve been impressed with my ability to do what I say I am going to do every day (for the most part). I think I got off to a good start and 2023 is already looking better than last year. Lunar new year is coming up soon and normally I wait until lunar new year to reset my life but I actually got all my planning, new habits, routine, and everything done during the new year itself (mostly in 1 day at the mall). By today Jan 16th, I’ve already signed a lease in San Bruno and I’m excited to have our own place where we hope to stay for at least 18 months.

At work last week, I painfully finished the major writing part of a project that I’ve been working on for months as both the client and the consultant. I’m not the best writer and I don’t love the activity, but I focused on getting it done over not doing it which I’m quite proud of. I didn’t get an answer from Criterion about the visa but had the idea of doing it myself and just going on a part-time basis as my priority is to join Ken in the US by Valentine’s Day. Our team meeting last week was particularly interesting because we got to talk about Elon Musk and the systems in place that enabled greed vs solving for greed itself.

At nights, I felt like I had all the time I needed for craft, reading, and talking to Ken. It’s a bit strange doing long distance after we just got married but it was nice to have a proper date night even virtually. I got back into Cricut-ing and made projects I was proud of both for my mom and for friends. The weekend was nice because mom and I got to cook together (eg. made siu mai and boba cake from scratch) after my brief obsession over the Korean drama Crash Landing Into You. It reminded me why I don’t watch dramas anymore - I have 0 self-control and binged until 2AM and while walking inside a grocery store. What snapped me back to reality was the fact that Ken told me we got selected to apply for New Zealand immigration after our Expression of Interest. The next step is more serious in gathering all the documents we need and paying $5000 to make this come true.

Beyond these paragraphs, I’ll share some interesting bits in the following structure every week:

What I learned:

Abundance: I made my first startup investment this year into a company I believe in and want to use. I’ve been in Angel groups all last year but never made a single investment even when I wanted to (eg. $1000) because I didn’t feel like I had the financial ability to given where I was. In the spirit of abundance and believing money will come, I happily wrote my first tiny angel cheque.
Smart scale: One of the best purchases I made last year was a smart scale that auto logs your weight in an app because I can’t cheat my way out of it and the data is automatically sent rather than me reporting the weight on days I feel like it. This is an example of technology aiding our habits and I was happy to find out that I lost more than 7kg last year. I’ve tried all the dieting programs including WW, Noom, and Future, but right before my wedding committed to intermittent fasting (eg. basically only eating one full meal and a small snack meal) and it has been the only method shown to prove results for me. It doesn’t dictate what I can and cannot eat so I don’t feel deprived, just when I can and cannot eat.
Procreate & Goodnotes iPad systems - I switched to digital bullet journaling this year in fully maximize my iPad usage and have been loving it so far. It gives me constant visibility, feels like writing on paper, with the ease of undo and copy/paste whenever I need. Digital colouring is also quite meditative.

Something I enjoyed and want to share:

Lofi.co - I’ve been using it for years but never paid for the subscription because the free version allowed for its main use (lofi music, ambient focus). However, I finally paid because I love the backdrops (especially in full screen) and the ability to mix sounds. I can also use the timer and focus tasks on it as an independent tool
Saje Roll-ons: I only discovered Saje last year through a birthday present and I actually love using their products because they work. The stress relieve roll ons I distinctly remember the feeling of stress melting away. Ken uses the stomach and headache ones and claim their effectiveness. I got the Energy one last year but didn’t really work for me so I exchanged it to the Focus one and it’s what got me through the boring writing parts of the job last week. I just got the sleep one to see if it actually helps - after a few tries, it’s only semi-working
Wax seals: I’m having a phase of wax everything, realizing how much money I’ve spent in justifying this new hobby of wax, tools, and stamps but it’s so fun watching wax melt and creating the seals that you can use over and over again.