I like this post from artist and author Austin Kleon about how today’s mundane and boring items might become interesting in the future. It’s kind of how I’ve approached my blog for a while now. There’s nothing earth-shattering or click-worthy in my slice-of-life posts, but they may be of interest in the future, specifically to my descendants that I will never know.
Several years ago, I realized that I don’t know anything about my great grandparents besides their names, and it made sad. I would love to know how they lived… even reading some of their journal pages would be super-interesting to me! So perhaps one of my descendants would enjoy reading about our lives from the early 21st century.
In the spirit of this slice-of-life mindset, here’s a little video I made of my morning routine… putting away the dishes and making coffee in the company of our cat, Anko:
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/80 sec, ISO3200 “Green” Cedar Park, 2021
Today’s snapshot if of my Pilot Kakuno and Iroshizuku Chiku-rin ink. I am really enjoying this combination!
For 2021 (and for the previous month) I’ve been writing and doodling in my Traveler’s Notebook. It’s a fun experience, and very different for digital note-taking and drawing for me. I think digital has many advantages over analog, but writing by hand is kind of… heartwarming? Good for the soul? A connection to reality? I can’t explain so well, but I think it adds something positive to my daily life and rounds out my well-being.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO800 “Reading and Relaxing” Cedar Park, 2020
I officially have the entire week off from work, so I’m using it to relax, unwind, and play games. But I also check in with work a little bit which is fine.
In the past I would feel bad about checking my work laptop on weekends or days off, thinking that I needed a hard separation between home-life and work-life. Not just separating it with physical space or actions, but also in my thinking. For instance, if I was doing something mundane at home like taking a shower or folding laundry and a thought about work comes into my mind, I’d feel guilty, as if it was encroaching on my space. But beginning a couple of years ago, I found myself letting go of that guilt… it wasn’t really a concerted effort on my part, but I just realized that I didn’t feel bad about it anymore. And it felt great, as if a weight were lifted off my shoulders. ☺
My work involves visual design, and I find that creativity isn’t bound by the 9 to 5 workday. Some days I am just not that productive creatively, but often when I’m doing mundane things outside of work hours, I think about design challenges and formulate some solutions or things to explore when I do start my workday. Why shouldn’t I take advantage of these moments of creative insight? It’s more stressful to force myself to be creative exclusively during my work hours like I used to do. Now, thinking about work outside of work hours isn’t a negative, but a positive thing.
Letting go of that guilt has been liberating. Of course I still prioritize family at all times, but I can’t deny that work is a large part of my life, so I might as well embrace the fact that it always will take up some of my headspace and use it to my advantage.
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Today’s photo is of Bay, reading and relaxing in the massage chair. He’s on winter break from college and it’s been so nice to have him home!
I was reading a thread in a forum, and one of the commenters said “I don’t see color”, with the intention of conveying that race shouldn’t matter. Honestly, I thought this was an admirable sentiment, but soon learned how problematic this phrase is. I spent some time reading about the reasons why, and I now consider myself a bit more educated than I was a little while ago. I’m linking the articles below:
After 51-years of life, I’m still figuring out what it means to be mixed/multiple-ethnicity. It’s complicated, but fascinating, and surprisingly challenging to find information or groups that discuss mixed-Asian ethnicity (Asian-Asian, not Asian-Caucasian, Asian-Black, etc.).
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On a side note, the original commenter’s reaction to the links to the articles was defensive and hostile, instantly devolving into name-calling and personal attacks. Which reminds me of the saying, “when you resort to ad hominem attacks, you’ve already lost”, as in the entertaining feud between James Altucher and Jerry Seinfeld.
Today there were plenty of clouds and the temperature was only 89° F when I headed out for a run. These cooler conditions let me run farther today than I did a couple of days ago when I wilted under the intense Texas sun. There was also a really nice breeze so I totally enjoyed the run (more of a jog, really) and was able to complete my September 10K challenge early. Yay!
Hitting that milestone again is great, but what is really neat is that I wasn’t tired. I could have gone farther if I had more time.
When I was in my twenties, I used to run a lot and I noticed that there’s a point in your training at which it seems you can just keep running indefinitely. It’s a really neat feeling because you stop worrying about how far from home you can go on your route, and instead are free to wander down different streets and trails on a whim.
I used to enjoy exploring the city of Monterey Park where I lived at the time, and later when I moved to West Los Angeles and the area around UCLA. It’s kind of my goal to keep my legs in just enough shape to stay in this level. When I visited China a couple of years ago I could explore around the hotels without worry, and when we visit my mother-in-law in Osaka, I love cruising around the city. Even visiting my folks in my hometown of Torrance, I can run to the ocean and back. It’s so fun!
I like this kind of motivation for running, rather than something like losing weight. It’s something to look forward to for sure. I guess it’s about the journey rather than the destination. There are lots of cool things to see and hear while running (an bicycling too). I really enjoy it.
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My camera & photos
I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
