#oops chatter

did a couple more loads of laundry & folded it all

brought my office chair out of my car (it's been sitting there since i grabbed it from my parents' house)

unpacked some terrarium bugs i bought & put them in a temporary housing

cleaned out the trunk of my car

i then went to a friend's house and helped with a lot of stuff there, since she's currently healing from some stuff and isn't as physically able:

cleaned a bunch of dishes (multiple loads, plus some hand-washing of pots n pans)

helped with outdoor chores

moved two shelves to new locations; moved the stuff on those shelves

watered all the plants

this naclyoho differed from the last pretty heavily; i moved out (i'm in a new apartment, and not even fully moved in 4 months in... and knowing i'll move out at 12), and i have friends that came to help me with tasks and whom i went over to help.

it's easier to get things done with company, and it's easier to do things for others than it is by myself. as i was helping friends this weekend, i mentioned that i don't buy used furniture often because it's usually too heavy and i can't move it by myself. my friend scrunched up her face and said that i have friends that could help me move it, and if she was in town she'd help me too.

it's been a pretty rough week, and i'm glad it's saturday. i'm going to a birthday party for a friend later this afternoon, and in the meantime i'm trying to get a bit done... and go to bed early after the party is over!!

naclyoho day 22

switched the laundry that i put in last night + did another load

did a BUNCH of dishes, put some in the dishwasher

someone at work spoke highly of me to another engineer -- he described me as the best person to work on the review and "very detail oriented" :) yay!

naclyoho day 12

i'm joining this late -- i've had a houseguest recently and haven't been able to post. i moved a few months ago but haven't really settled in, and i'd like to have my home in a reasonable place before winter really hits. :)

over the last 10 days, i haven't been able to post, but these are the things my friend and i have gotten done:

cleaned up my office

set up my tv & nintendo switch on top of my dresser!

(my friend) set up my desk and monitor

(my friend) strung an extension cord across the room

(my friend) assembled a bookshelf

did some laundry

ben says he "built a life where chinese was unavoidable" and treated himself as a "chinese learner." when i've been the most successful with chinese learning, i've been treating learning chinese as a central part of my life, and i'd like to make a shift in my life where it is more central again.

anyway! my notes from this vid:

make things as frictionless as possible! "consistent microinteractions"

surround yourself with chinese -- chinese social media presence (speaking and interacting with comments!), screenshotting stuff to add to flashcards later that night, practice with real chinese people!

treat the hsk as a goalpost rather than a roadmap. focus on real world chinese rather than textbook chinese. this will get you actually using chinese and not just learning boring stuff (which makes you rely on discipline and motivation)

fluency is understanding general ideas rather than having to know every character