language lover

I do take the occasional selfie, and while it is easy, you don’t always get the whole background and often it really is too close to look like a flattering photo.

When I travel solo, I do certain things to get good photos of myself. Using the timer-mode on my phone or my camera (I have a little point & shoot Kodak camera), I can set it up on a ledge, bench, rock, or even on top of my shoe/purse/backpack to take the picture. I do have a tiny/flexible portable tripod, but I don’t always bring it with me on trips or out during the day. So I get creative!

Lonely Heart of a Young Girl (寂寞芳心人像计划) by Baozhu Lei (雷宝珠). 2018

Tired of the overly photoshopped photos on social media that seem to render beauty in a uniform way, Baozhu Lei initiated her project which she later named Lonely Heart of a Young Girl. Through this project, Lei aims at capturing the romantic and poetic traits of ordinary girls who are just like all the other girls one might encounter in their teenage years—no makeup, a little blunt, shy yet fantasizes about love. Almost none of Lei’s subjects belong to the mainstream ideal of beauty; they are torn between the fickleness of their ability to love themselves despite all other factors. 

Spending time with all her models extensively outside of photoshoots, Lei documents their life stories and the quirkiness that brings out their  individuality. Lei believes that it is the details that truly bring out the realness of a girl’s life in mainland China. In Lei’s lexicom, the word “可爱” should not be translated as cute. “You might not be ‘beautiful’, but you are indeed lovable”, says Lei.

write 1 or 2 sentences to sum up your day

learn 5 new words

listen to a song

watch short video

conjugate a verb

read and attempt to say out loud a tongue twister

count from 1 to 100

sing the alphabet

but when one of my classmates speaks arabic in public to her family, she gets strange and disgusted looks. no one asks to be taught arabic. no one says its cool that shes bilingual

But still interested in feeding yourself? What if I told you that there’s a woman with a blog who had to feed both herself and her young son…on 10 British pounds ($15/14 Euro) per week?

Let me tell you a thing.

This woman saved my life last year. Actually saved my life. I had a piggy bank full of change and that’s it. Many people in my fandom might remember that dark time as when I had to hock my writing skills in exchange for donations. I cried a lot then. 

This is real talk, people: I marked down exactly what I needed to buy, totaled it, counted out that exact change, and then went to three different stores to buy what I needed so I didn’t have to dump a load of change on just one person. I was already embarrassed, but to feel people staring? Utter shame suffused me. The reasons behind that are another post all together. 

AgirlcalledJack.com is run by a British woman who was on benefits for years. Things got desperate. She had to find a way to feed herself and her son using just the basics that could be found at the supermarket. But the recipes she came up with are amazing. 

You have to consider the differing costs of things between countries, but if you just have three ingredients in your cupboard, this woman will tell you what to do with it. Check what you already have. Chances are you have the basics of a filling meal already. 

Here’s her list of kitchen basics. 

Bake your own bread. It’s easier than you think. Here’s a list of many recipes, each using some variation of just plain flour, yeast, some oil, maybe water or lemon juice. And kneading bread is therapeutic. 

Make your own pasta–gluten free. 

She gets it. She really does. This is the article that started it all. It’s called “Hunger Hurts”.

She has vegan recipes.

A carrot, a can of kidney beans, and some cumin will get you a really filling soup…or throw in some flour for binding and you’ve got yourself a burger. 

Don’t have an oven or the stove isn’t available? She covers that in her Microwave Cooking section. 

She has a book, but many recipes can be found on her blog for free. She prices her recipes down to the cent, and every year she participates in a project called “Living Below the Line” where she has to live on 1 BP per day of food for five days. 

Things improved for me a little, but her website is my go to. I learned how to bake bread (using my crockpot, but that was my own twist), and I have a little cart full of things that saved me back then, just in case I need them again. She gives you the tools to feed yourself, for very little money, and that’s a fabulous feeling. 

Tip: Whenever you have a little extra money, buy a 10 dollar/pound/euro giftcard from your discount grocer. Stash it. That’s your super emergency money. Make sure they don’t charge by the month for lack of use, though.

I don’t care if it sounds like an advertisement–you won’t be buying anything from the site. What I DO care about is your mental, emotional, and physical health–and dammit, food’s right in the center of that. 

The appearance and organization of my notes plays a huge role in the amount of time that I dedicate to studying and my overall performance on tests.  Therefore, I’ve spent the past several years experimenting with various methods, and these are a few of the techniques that I’ve found to be most beneficial.

Cornell Method

The Cornell Method emphasizes identifying the key points of a textbook passage or lecture and consolidating information as much as possible.  

I’ve found that this style works best for literature and science courses that require extensive, dense reading and note-taking.  It allows me to easily and quickly identify what I understand versus what I still need to work on.

Adapted Cornell Method

I’ve created my own adaptation of the Cornell Method by eliminating the summary section at the bottom of the page and incorporating Post-It notes throughout the body of the page to highlight lists and key points.  And, of course, I had to add some color!

Outline

This is, by far, my favorite method due to its flexibility and clean, minimalist appearance.  While the image above doesn’t depict a true series of bullets at varying levels of indentation, you can experiment with different types of bullet points as well as varying spacing.  

I prefer using this method for maths because it allows sufficient space for me to draw graphs, record examples, and solve problems.  

Mind-Maps

Mind-maps are extremely helpful for organizing complex or extremely confusing topics.  There’s no right or wrong way to go about drawing one, and much of the final appearance will be related to the material that you’re diagramming.  Keep in mind that certain topics and information will more readily lend itself to this sort of portrayal.

091818, Monday

Snow Skin Mooncakes in Singapore