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MY WEEK IN PHOTOS: MAY 28–JUNE 3, 2018! (DECLUTTERING, FAMILY FEUD, AND BRINGING BACK LIVEJOURNAL SURVEYS)
Decluttering and organizing my workroom, binging Great Interior Design Challenge, a taping of Family Feud, and slowly losing my voice to an annoying and rude cough.
Enjoy!
I want to sincerely thank so many of you for your words on my last post weekly photos post. I’m blown away by the kindness, and that you would spend time crafting encouraging words for me.
There are a few things I’ve been thinking about, and forgive the ramble in advance. The Internet seems much less personal for me now than in the LJ days (happy to see many of you are so-called ‘lurkers’ from LJ haha). It makes sense, your Internet presence in many cases is an extension of you. And people don’t want to be super vulnerable every day of their lives online, cuz…that’s exhausting and you know there’s more embarrassing fodder for your future self to regret posting. And, more people use their real name and real identity online, so the fun mystery of anonymous communities are a bit lost. Seems like there is less room for being rough around the edges, or appearing unhappy, or for unfinished thoughts in a LJ post that only a few people will see on your friends’ list. Maybe that’s just my feeling though.
I’ve also been thinking about what it means to be just ‘average’ or ‘normal’ in this world where we aren’t all just journaling our teenage thoughts anymore and where attention is a commodity for brands and “influencers” to capitalize off of. I don’t know the answer—so I’ll leave at the fact that I’m just trying to connect with other humans.
Anyways. Just rambling! I thought it might be fun to bring back LJ-style ‘surveys.’ (You know the ‘survey’, a huge list of questions where you would pick something like, this or that, or answer an embarrassing question, etc.) But I don’t want to be in this alone—at the end of the post I’ll pull some questions from real Livejournal surveys and I’ll answer…and so should you in the comments if you feel so inclined. I’ve done a lite-Googling and there’s a LOT of survey material up from the past 10 years.
Okay! Wow. So I’ll just get to my week.
Memorial Day. We got the day off of work. I spent most of the day on my computer, going through photos and posting my last post with the ramblings of my disorganized brain.
I also sat next to a pile of laundry for a while. I decided to do something productive with this day off and at least do a little cleaning.
Zach’s cousins headed back to Utah the day before. (Miss you, Chris and Margie!) So it was time to reclaim my workspace.
This room is pretty spacious when it’s not stuffed full of my crap.
How about some decluttering action?
Tweedy just has to sit right near by and watch.
In fact, nearby wasn’t good enough for him. He had to *become* the clutter.
Might look the same, but there’s less stuff for sure.
Time for my other cabinet
Sorting sorting sorting
Everything cleaned and sorted and put back in its functional place. I’d like to thank the Great Interior Design Challenge for sponsoring my cleaning spree. I wish there was more than one season available on US Netflix.
And now, for the most stylish outfit you’ve ever seen. Perhaps could be called, a ‘light clash.’
I did indeed go outside like this. We went to see Solo: A Star Wars Story. My review (since you asked): first half, pretty fun. Second half, not so sure. Was it terrible? NO. Was it worth all the money they spent? Not sure.
Went to pottery, and when I came back there was puke all over the floor and on to the curtains. We had to do some wash and somehow the apartment looks bigger with no curtains.
Dinner, thank you for picking up some cuban for me, Zeen.
Zeen sets up coffee, and I mourn the first fallen flower from my orchid family.
Fresh curtains to go into the rest of the week.
Tuesday, it’s a gloomy day. I like.
I woke up and realized I was going to be late for a CPR training I signed up for months ago and rushed into the office.
CPR and first aid class. It was offered through work, and now I’m certified. I hope I’ll never have to apply this knowledge.
*Frazzled CPR newbie*
Fog drama in the skies
Can’t get enough
Last one, I promise.
I got home, Zach was at rehearsal but had left some chicken in the crockpot. I made some rice and finished off the recipe.
Chicken cups
I started playing Pokemon Go again. I saw that a new pokemon game was announced for the Nintendo Switch that has capabilities to connect to what you catch in Pokemon Go. That was enough motivation for me!
A new ramen place in the neighborhood. I’ve been having some congestion/cough issues, and warm soup felt like the cure.
Look who is back in Los Angeles! My baby Marie.
It’s officially June. Woke up feeling…not great. Stayed in bed with Tweedy for most of the morning.
Thought maybe some fresh air would be good for me, so I followed Zach to Kenneth Hahn park. He went on his run (he’s training for another marathon) and I just walked around and caught some pokemon. A modern romance.
Put on a face and joined Zach at a friend’s birthday part in Sherman Oaks. The night started at a bar and ended at a Cheesecake Factory.
Tamago nigiri pillow
Editing photos from Rome
Where is Sufi?
Can’t conceal those eyebags
I have a socks problem.
Wearing clothes, ready for life.
My throat still scratchy, perfect opportunity to try out this nice tea infuser bottle that was a lovely gift.
Yeah…hard to stop once getting back into it. There’s so many new pokemon to catch, and new elements to the game that I love.
On the way to Universal Studios. I pass this restaurant kinda frequently going through Hollywood, always been so curious.
Learned a new double exposure mode on my camera by accident.
Summer is here, everything is dry.
Entering the parking lot at around 3:45 pm to join James and Dan for a taping of Family Feud. I signed up for a newsletter that sends out when studios need audiences to fill seats for shows, so I decided to grab seats at Family Feud a few weeks back. I LOVE Family Feud. Whenever I was sick, my mom would have the Game Show Network on. It’s like comfort food. It was a long taping though, two different shows across like…5 hours.
Marie met up afterwards for some Korean fried chicken.
Sweet James gifted me two new puzzles. Can’t wait.
Hi, it’s Sunday. A combination of Family Feud clapping and shouting and having a constant cough for a few days left me with no voice.
In from a walk
Met up with my parents and auntie and uncle for Hawaiian breakfast.
Huge lemons
*Drama* Took a long nap, feeling ~weird~
Peeled myself out of bed to shoot a freelance job. More beautiful jewelry made by Grayson Taft.
After I finished shooting, Zach and I walked to get a cold snack. Remember when in high school you would just hang out with your friends at a fast food restaurant? Yeah…good times.
I’ll leave this week with my pride and joy, my Sims4 dog creations of Tweedy and Sufi.
Okay, it’s survey time. My favorite thing about hunting for surveys on old livejournals is that these are all definitely written by teenagers in the mid-2000s, so many are about angst or crushes or exploring sexuality, attending school, imaging the future (which is so sweet), and IM and VCRs…maybe this is a bad idea.
Three questions borrowed from myriad_mirrors on Livejournal, posted April 29, 2008 at 8:39 pm. THIS is a weird idea, isn’t it. Well, let’s roll with it. I’ll leave these for you to copy/paste and answer if you want…
- If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
- Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
- Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
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- If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
My first instinct was to throw $1000 at those little toy vending machines that put cartoon characters or erasers into little plastic bubbles. Usually, you pay 25 cents. I could…buy out…the whole…machine. Infinite joy. (I tried to google what the machines are called and learned you can buy your own for less than the $1000 in this scenario). - Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
I’m terrible with math, I would never want to hold somebody’s life in my hands…so…taxi driver! - Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
I used to be really into clay. I had a clear plastic box (I think meant for jewelry storage) and I’d store all my colored polymer clay and tools. I liked to sculpt my pets, my basketball team, and family. I also loved making beads. Sadly, these skills don’t translate to my job.
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Much love friends.
SLEEPY WALDO 
If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
– I’d go to the dollar store. It’d be one EPIC trip. I’d get like off brand nail polish, PENS! Stickers! It’d be like I’m 11 again.
Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
– I’d totally be a doctor. I’m very motherly by nature. All I want to do is help people.
Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
– My absolute favourite art project I did was a drawing of Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts. I was an anime nerd when I was wee. I only really had access to Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball. I’d draw Sailor Moon all the time. There was just this one perfect that was just amazing.
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For some reason my reading comprehension struggled and I thought question 1 was $1000 to buy only inexpensive items but they all had to be the same item. Dohhhh.
💕 Sailor Moon!
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If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
– I would go to Target with a list of things to buy. Probably dresses and a new pair of nice-ish headphones, to be honest.
Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
– I wish I could be a doctor so that I could help people of colour who aren’t believed when they go into hospital (sorry to go political).
Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
– Do you remember Perler/fusion beads? It was a little plastic board that you put plastic beads on and then ironed them? I loved that. Mum still has magnets that I made her and so do I!
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I appreciate that you are super practical with your $1000. And hell yes, I admire that you’d advocate for folks whose pain is often minimized. Not exactly what you said, but in the same ballpark—I remember reading a really horrific piece about a woman who was made to wait 14 hours (and used words like, emergency, excruciating, 11/10 pain) and was brushed off as having cramps from a kidney stone but really had ovarian torsion. So upsetting.
Perler beads ftw! The worst thing was setting up your piece, very carefully…and then accidentally knocking it and having the beads pop off and go everywhere…*wahh*
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I’m lucky that I’ve always been believed when I go to see a doctor or to hospital, but I don’t want that to have to be about luck. But I don’t have the science or maths skills.
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Love these survey questions! So fun. I’m hoping to get a new bookcase soon so I can organize our house better (we have a lot of crap just laying around…) – this post is making me anxious to go pick it up!!
If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
Do books count as small and inexpensive? If so, I would totally buy a bunch of books. If not…probably a ton of snacks to share with coworkers.
Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
I’m not at all good at math, but I’d prefer to be an accountant. I work in marketing at an accounting firm, and it seems like it would actually be fairly interesting!
Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
Oh man…I did a “research” project on chameleons when I was in second grade that I loved. It wasn’t very crafty, but I did draw a really great chameleon for the cover art.
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I found the introduction of this post really interesting. Ever since I started reading your Livejournal ADIMLs, way back when in the high school days, I always wanted to do some big ADIML blog thing like you. I posted some from way way way back when (they’re lost somewhere on the internet). Then I got older and felt the need to be anonymous. And then I got even older and realized none of us (like you mentioned) are really anonymous anymore. So now it’s like what do I do with myself? I have all these pictures I want to share. And sharing pictures leads to taking them, which gives me a creative outlet. But how do I avoid all that giving too much of yourself, exhausting yourself, and putting too much out there to be embarrassed about later? It’s really confusing. Half of the people I see and follow and think are interesting are also loaded up with advertisement after advertisement and that’s really difficult. I want to put myself out there and share, but I’m a *worrier* and worry about all of these things. Then I’m exhausted just thinking about it. I feel like this is way too much to be leaving in your comment section but here it is. lol
Anyway here’s Wonderwall (err, the LJ survey)
If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
I would probably just buy a bunch of clothes because I have a hard time spending money on myself and clothes and such.
Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
A doctor
Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
I enjoyed arts and crafts but I always had a difficult time with the end result – I was really hard on myself and didn’t like most of the things I made. I enjoyed those little “painting” books where you dipped a paintbrush in water, ran it over a page, and the page “magically” colored itself all the right colors. Haha. It’s like anti-art.
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I am genuinely shocked by the size of those lemons!
–If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
Is there MUJI in America? It’s a Japanese shop that sells various useful, bits and bobs. I would go to that shop and buy all of the stationery and underwear and kitchenware and it would be amazing. They have so much cheap, practical stuff that nobody elsle seems to think of, like scissors that are sort of folded into a tube shape and can therefore slot nicely into a pencil case. Or little pouches and bags for keeping your stuff tidy.
–Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
Doctor, I think. I’m quite a caring and considerate person!
–Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
Hmmmmm. I use to keep regular diaries and I would also do some small paintings in there. Looking back on them is wonderful. It reminds me that I had the capacity to be creative and spend time making art. I feel like I don’t have the time or the skill to do anything like that anymore !
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We do have MUJI! But only a FEW so they are a rare treat.
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Hello! I am *cough* one of the LJ lurkers :p Late to the game but here goes…
If you were given $1000 upon the condition that you spend it on small, inexpensive items what would you buy?
I will spend my money on stationery! Pens, markers, paper, uuugghhh. Tokyu hands take my money.
Would you rather be a taxi driver, a doctor, or an accountant?
A doctor, for sure. And a surgeon specifically. Cristina Yang is my heroine.
Describe a favorite art/craft project you worked on as a child.
Super entry level, I loved potato printing. I also loved painting, and I think one of my best works was a watercolour painting of a swimming pool lol. I also remember I had this magical book that made pigments appear with just application of water. No paints involved! I was so mesmerised by it. Can’t seem to find it anywhere anymore.
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What’s up, Lurker! 🙂
POTATO PRINTING!!!! Totally forgot about this. Yesss. And Dr. Yang was also a huge inspo for me in high school! I never finished the series though…have you watched all the episodes?
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I didn’t finish it either! After Cristina left, I kind of lost interest in the show. I try going back to watch but I’m always stuck on season 11 haha.
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I totally understood what you were saying! The internet has definitely changed. What was once a safe haven is now a place for influencers! influencers! influencers! So much art and authenticity has been lost, or so I think…
I didn’t like Solo very much 😦
I love the pacing of this entry, and Sims! Tweedy and Sims! Sufi are the best 😀
1 – I would blow it all off on clothes/bags at a night market. We have so much of those in Southeast Asia!
2 – A doctor!
3 – In preschool we were required to do okra paintings, I remember it fondly because mine was so messy my mom had to do the rest of my project haha.
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What is an okra painting! Is it painting with an okra? Or painting an okra? So intruiged…
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Painting with okra cut outs!!! It can get really messy tho :((
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