May, May, May ~~~!! Everyone. Awaiting summer finally came. I mean it wasn’t that warm until end of June, to be honest but what’s important is always in the minds, as far as I know. To tell you upfront, I didn’t do anything special, I was in Toronto the whole time. Pls read though.

May 1st

May 3rd

May 4th

May 7th

May 8th

May 10th

May 13th

May 14th

May 15th

May 17th

May 18th

May 20th

May 24th

May 25th

May 27th

I cooked on this day two meals. I mean air fryer fried rice is innovative but soy garlic chicken with starch was awesome. Please enjoy me cooking in the video!

May 29th

May 31st

The original recipe said to do with shrimp but I added muscles with pesto and I never regrated. Yogurt cake? oh well.. it was a good try.

June 1st

June 3rd

I started reading a book a long time ago, but yet, I haven’t finished it. It is called 101 essays that will change the way you think. The reason I chose the book was to improve my vocabulary, my always-to-do mission, and to get some philosophical ideas that will help me cope with stress of my life, My goal of reading it was to get positive interpretation of life. I started reading it then stopped and on June 3rd, I finally got back to it in the middle of the night because I woke up early. (I also slept early because I was tired, plus, nothing interested me on TV).

So, mostly, it is for myself but I share with you too. I wrote up some messages from the book in my point of view which is important in chapter 1 of the book. (I read till chapter 7 but I went back because I found myself mindlessly going through pages without getting the message into the heart. Anyways, here’s my take-away of the chapter 1 of the Brianna Wiest’s book.

Chapter 1.

• Monoculture: something everyone seems to believe and accept as true at one point of era. The book suggests what you see at one point of life as true may not be true. They affect an inner story inside of us, what it should be like at that time, without realizing who created for what purpose. I guess the writer tried to touch on societal impact of our lives with this, making you critical about it.
• When you think about what you are deciding what you want in the future, you can only plan with ideas from your own experiences. So, when your ideas are not accepted by people, you think that you didn’t quite reach their expectations when you created something better than they thought. Just because people say so they are not always true.
• Principal of extrapolation in math tells you to think the present will be the future because you believe success in life is one point of time or event. It s like you try to snapshot of life that is video to see if you are happy but life is about process, not result. You think that your great moments define your life and give meaning to your existence. But, in fact, life is meaningful as a whole not as parts and the moment you are born, you are meaningful. It tells us to love the process of things, not always something you head to (the goal). Live in the moment: the writer emphasize on the importance of gratitude in the process of living.
• There are both joy and surprisingly pain associated with doing what you like because you care about things you don’t want to lose. Being indifferent is the worst thing, not feeling fear while doing it. You sometimes create excuses to avoid the reality or work ahead. It’s lazy and evil idea that is preventing you from enjoying your life to the fullest.
• You need to upgrade your beliefs constantly by living out the knowledge through experiences that draw you in reality. Theories are just theories, until you live it and make it relevant to you.
• Problems are not always bad, it may create paths. Running into problems may start off your action from being motionless and indifferent. Thus, trouble makes you smarter by giving you pressure to solve it. Change is good.
• Even things unchangeable like past experiences change in perception of it as you age. Thus, the past never defines the future. Your mind even choose some memories to stand out depending on what you feel at the moment. This might distract you from the whole reality. Seemingly unchangeable past experiences, too, lead you to be where you are right now. You need to accept the past. You need to move forward.
• You get angry at someone else when you are only angry with yourself. You do not admit because it is painful to accept that you may be the cause of problem. “things you love about others are things you love about yourself” you are only capable to see what you learned to see. “things you hate about others are things you don’t know the reality of. fear/pain of uncertainty prevents you from doing so at the first try.“

I plan to go on like this but who knows?/I may be consistently reading it.

June 4th

June 5th

June 7th

June 11th

“Many of us miss little things that makes difference in spontaneous communication” -think fast talk smart

#1 Recognize the problem to poor communication : nervousness. anxiety symptoms are normal. fight or flight response that our body does. When that happens, breathe slowly and hold something cold to reduce symptoms of anxiety. Sources of anxiety by public speaking is fact that you might fail to get the goal. You have to be in the moment to be less nervous. Do activities that distracts you from anxiety. The speaker’s favorite way to reduce anxiety is tongue twister.

#2 Evaluating speech of our own is very bad habit that prevents you from giving good speech. Don’t see speaking in front of people as threat and frightening thing. give somebody’s question as an opportunity. Four mindset tools. It does not mean it will never get it but you didn’t get it yet. Look for commonality even if you disagree and go on from there. If you missed what others have said, move on to next thing. Learning is result of mistakes. Think mistake is missed takes. You are trying to get the best shot/try. Not one scene is mistake but learning.

#3 We don’t listen deeply. It is damaging to our relationships. Figure out the bottom line of what they are saying. pace space grace: we have to slow things down to listen to speech, move away from noise and give some focus to other, grace means to think of your intuition while listening. Don’t respond right away. paraphrase what others say. Show them they are heard. It feels good to be understood. structure your speech. problem solution benefit. give idea, why does it matter to listener, what needs to be done to make idea come true. package ideas well. list of information is hard to remember. Break down into topics so listener can recall better after. Focus! it is much better to be compact and concise. what’ is relevant to audience. what are they hear for.

June 17

June 18th

June 25th

Summary

It was mid summer that hurt but also brought a lot of joy. I hope your May/June was peaceful and fun. Stay healthy and see you soon. (In fact in 2 months lol).