Hello and Some Flowers

I don’t have much today in the way of a written post. I wasn’t that busy. I’ve been busier before but my mind was all over the place, meaning me=mess for the past days. Haha.

The good thing though is that I managed to insert some nature time. I miss the beaches and blue skies of the Philippines! Lent is actually my favourite holiday because it’s not frenzied like Christmas but it’s still full of time spent with family and food. People go to the beach to celebrate Easter too. Now that is over and May is here! I can’t believe spring is also almost done. Anyway, there’s nothing else to do but appreciate what I have and where I am now.

There’s plenty of hiking trails accessible by transit from Vancouver. The BC province is called Beautiful British Columbia for a reason – awesome mountains, lakes and if you’re by the coast, the ocean!

Here’s photos of flowers and some pics from our little hike last weekend. I hope we all get many chances to be out in nature!

What Do We Make of Influencers?

I called out an influencer once. I used to occasionally read her fashion blog because I liked her style and she was nice with the way she responded to comments.

In this instance though, she had a pretty, stylish photo of herself on IG and on the caption she recounts the accident she encountered on her vacation abroad. She was safe along with other tourists in the bus but the driver of a car that was also in the accident, according to her own words “unfortunately didn’t make it.” On her IG stories, she posted clips and described the accident, “This is insane!” 3 sad face emoticons.

There was nothing wrong with her relief. Of course you would be relieved and you would let your family know you were okay. I imagine one does that privately even as courtesy to the relatives of the man who passed. There were hundreds of comments praising God for her safety and several irrational ones (Pinoy superstitions about not going out or travelling prior to a big event). So what was wrong?

Living Vicariously: Japan Travel Photos

I wanted to post something this week but had no ideas. I realized though that I’m planning my vacations for this year already but I haven’t shared anything about my trip last year.

So here are some photos of my trip with the hubs last 2018. As my co-worker says, you cannot not love Japan. Yas! I have to use the double negative.

It was our first time there so we only covered the most accessible (or touristy) cities – Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka for an “overview”. It’s just one of those countries that you have to come back to and get to know even more.

Since we have a gazillion photos and because these cities are already highly photographed, I won’t categorize chronologically or by type. Wala lang. Trip ko lang ganito pag share. Here are the pics that are giving me cheer right now:

This cute corner of our room in Tokyo

(Kind Of) Freewriting My First Quarter of 2019

On A Roll

I think this quarter has been my most prolific time for blog writing. I published 9 entries in the span of three months. That’s still not the 1x/week stat I’m aiming for but it still is way more than what I’ve done in the past. More than blogs I’d write for even a whole year so I’m still pretty proud of myself.

What made me write more these days?

Favourite Podcasts NPR Edition

Hello!

Yay it’s a weekend! I’m back to listening to more podcasts. I like listening to personal podcasts produced by individuals (like entreps, self-help peeps) but I find that I’m more drawn to NPR these days. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to something professional, well-produced and well-edited.

Below are some that have been my consistent faves over the past few years. If you’re curious and would like to listen to these shows, I list some current episodes with their original blurbs from the NPR website:

Why Minimalism Appeals To Me

Short answer:

It eases varying degrees of anxiety, addresses some of my insecurities and makes me feel in control. It’s also the in thing right now among upwardly mobile yuppies so it feels extra better to do (social approval + free online resources).

Long answer:

I learned how minimalism is a loaded term when I watched YouTube videos about it. Today I’m skipping all that and sticking with a general idea where it means simplifying different aspects of life to get value (whatever you consider it to be).

Pursuits and Permission

I like blogging. I’ve grown to like writing more because of it. I’ve become comfortable with this platform. I love the conversations with engaging people whose blogs I enjoy.

I also continue to learn many things. I learned for example that with blogging, I can write more casually and forego some formal English rules so I sound more human vs textbook.

I notice that I pepper my sentences with lol or start them with conjunctions like and, buts and or (which I try to never do on paper). I also realized that while native English speakers spell worse, my spelling is still bad (ie. when I typed scarey instead of scary or annihalate instead of annihilate).

Puede din ako magsulat ng ganito. Puede magpapalit-palit ng language. Mag-Taglish. O kaya Bisaya kasi hindi naman to isusubmit sa teacher na gusto either straight English or straight Tagalog ang paper. It’s also more natural for me to switch languages like I’m conversing. I learned this from bloggers that I love reading from.

Okay, these are not preambles to an announcement that I am closing the blog. Haha!