Duolingo

18 October 2020

So, I’m almost 2 months in to my dream job working for Mark Manson, and I’m loving it.

I’m part of a small team of just really awesome humans behind his website MarkManson.net where we try to put out an article every week, doling out “life advice that doesn’t suck”.

To be part of this team behind the scenes, working passionately to churn out content that could go on to influence and make the lives of a bajillion people better, it’s unreal.

And the job itself is pretty sweet. It’s a remote role and very flexible. I have set targets and a content manager who helps manage deadlines. And I just focus on churning out research on a variety of intriguing subjects. So far I’ve done (among others): self-conscious emotions, cognitive biases, the impact of social media on mental health.

I also get to give input to new articles in other ways. Even mundane-sounding things like catching typos I’m pretty psyched about. Just to know I’m contributing to making Mark’s content top notch is like, whoa.

Oh, did I mention he’s one of my all-time favourite authors? So yes, pretty sweet.

I’ve been spending the last 2 weeks refining my approach to the job: both the research side of it and (probably more) the time management side. The freedom with which to manage my schedule comes with responsibility. And even with a job I’m this passionate about, there is always the temptation to stop working a little earlier, take it easy.

It’s been a constant battle with that. Not an insurmountable battle, but something I always have to keep in the back of my mind. In this crusade against procrastination, I’ve enlisted the help of a time tracker, which I’ve found fascinating. For the first time I’m literally seeing how I spend my day. It’s an awesome tool.

Almost 2 months in, I think I’ve pretty much got it down. I know how to manage my week, how to manage my day. I know my way of working effectively: 1.5-2 hour spurts, with short breaks. So far I’ve hit all bar one of my deadlines, some of which mildly challenging, and delivered research I’m proud of, that has gone towards a couple of articles.

An unintended side effect of this awesome new job, however, is that I’ve focused so much on doing a good job at it that I’ve somewhat neglected my own endeavours. I haven’t blogged or read for pleasure for 2 months.

A 2-month break from my blog, however lamentable, is something I’m used to. I had gone for months without blogging before, so that doesn’t surprise me.

A full 2 months without reading a single book, however, is just… In the last 1-2 years, I’ve consistently read 2-4 books a month. So to realise the other day that I haven’t finished a single book since the end of August… not a good feeling.

I’ve been carrying around Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments with me (the hardback version even) for 2 months, but I’ve only read maybe 5 pages on one single afternoon. I just haven’t felt the desire to read otherwise.

This could be because I’ve been reading so much as part of my work that I don’t want to read more in my free time. But it’s not a trend I’d like to continue. So will do something about that. Maybe 30 minutes in the afternoon in between my work spurts. Yes, that could work.

Not in the morning as my morning routine already lasts hours: read the news (the Economist and the New York Times), learn Vietnamese on Duolingo, meditate (not always, but usually, in this order).

Now, where do I fit in blogging? Hmm…. that’s another question entirely. I haven’t touched my new business blog since the beginning of August. Damn.

Ah well, I’m here now, and that’s a start.

That’s enough of an update for now. How are y’all doing?

Love,

Val

10 June 2020

I can’t believe it’s been over 3 weeks since my last post. And here I thought not having a 9 to 6 would give me ample time to blog.

How wrong I was.

A lot has happened on my end, so I thought I’d give you a quick summary of the past two weeks since I quit my job. I know you haven’t asked, but I’ll do it anyways.

  • First things first – I officially left my job. On Friday 29th May I went to the office (which I hadn’t set foot in since leaving for the long weekend on Thursday 12th March – little did I know…) to pack up my things and adopt (I asked, so it’s not stealing) a good number of Agojis

One of said Agojis now lives with my Kindle – how cute is he!

  • I had coffees and dinners (plus one sleepover) with a bunch of people, mostly from Agoda. In the process I was plied with much delicious home-cooked meals (beef tongue tacos, bouillabaise, peach crostata – the list continues)
Never had I tasted so much lush in so few days
  • I had 3 job interviews – 2 for Bangkok and 1 for Ho Chi Minh City – one of which I think went pretty well (fingers crossed I hear back within the next few weeks!)
  • I delivered 4 subtitles translation projects
  • I taught 2 students and experienced 1 gone AWOL
  • I started my cross stitch project which I bought almost a year ago and hadn’t touched since
Almost an hour later, this was as far as I got
  • I started a new blog because I had only 6 (3 of which active) and that’s clearly not enough
  • I bought some business books and started reading one
  • I started learning Vietnamese! Today marks Day 7 of my streak
You’ll be glad to see that Duolingo is as random as ever – Everyone knows you’re supposed to take your goat to the water slide! None of this ferris wheel nonsense… pfft

Okay, now that I see everything listed down, no wonder I didn’t have time to update this blog.

In short, it’s been a pretty good, but busy 12 days. Starting to wind down a bit these past few days though, which is good. What would be the point of quitting a job to have more time if you don’t take the time to rest and enjoy being leisurely?

How have you been in recent weeks?

Love,

Val

20 November 2015

I’ve got news. I think I’ve got myself my first English student. *fireworks*

It’s not easy trying to find students when you’re starting out in unfamiliar territory. I never had a problem when I used to give lessons to friends and acquaintances who are aware of my skills. But with strangers it’s a different matter. I can’t exactly present them with a miniature talking version of myself as a preview.

Nor would I want to, now that I think about it. It would be weird having mini copies of myself out there doing things completely outside my control.

Anyways, the first lesson is to happen this week. Here’s hoping that all goes well and the student is pleased with my unique(?) teaching method.

I’m at the mental hospital (gosh that sounds so wrong) right now waiting to see my doctor. It’s my monthly psychiatric appointment. (For those who don’t know, I was recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Details here.) It’s always a long wait. Most happily the hospital now provides free WiFi so here I am writing this post. I did bring a book (Catch-22), but it gets boring after a while and writing makes the time go by much faster.

I’ve written about Catch-22 before on this blog and on my other blog so I’m not going to go into it again. I’m just going to repeat here that I find it a most wonderful book and I’m happy to be re-reading it. *happy sigh*

Oops. Doctor arrived twenty minutes early and got called in to consult. It’s all done and now I’m waiting for my prescription. I think today’s hospital visit is going to be the shortest yet. The only thing left is paying for and getting my mood-altering drugs. Hmm.

Before I go, I just wanted to report that my learning German is still going strong. Happily I have mastered die Öffentlichkeit and moved onto tackling other tricky words (so many of them!). Duolingo informs me that I am now on a 50 day streak. This is very good. I am pleased. So pleased that I am considering learning a sixth language (after Thai, English, French, Spanish, and German). I won’t say just now what language it will be. I will be back to let you know once I’ve actually started.

Love,

Val

p.s. Re: the novel… *radio silence*

11 October 2015

Boredom is a curious thing.

You get bored when you do nothing. And you get bored when you do too much of something. Isn’t that weird?

For me, boredom comes from monotony. It’s the brain’s way of protesting that it is being used too monotonously – doing nothing all the time and doing something all the time.

Most curious indeed.

Why am I suddenly speaking of boredom? It is because, three weeks into writing my novel, I have reached that curious state of boredom. It’s sad but undeniable. Each day I find myself procrastinating, thinking “this evening I’ll do some writing” and, when evening comes and I cannot find the inspiration to write, “tomorrow morning I will feel refreshed and then, I will write”. Needless to mention, the same train of thought continues the next day, and the next.

The novel has been frozen for a week now. I have almost finished the second chapter; there is one scene left.

I wonder why I’m suddenly bored of it. I don’t usually get bored of writing. When I started writing my main blog back in 2013, I was writing every day and yet I always found something I wanted to write about. I remember my brain overflowing with entry ideas. In fact I had so many of them that two years later I still have a long list left.

For some reason, stringing words together to create my fantastical universe no longer gives me the thrill it did one chapter ago. I have two theories to explain the situation. One, the quality of my writing has dipped and I am no longer satisfied with what I am producing, hence the boredom. Two, I am dreading having to come up with new ideas. As I write, I am inching closer and closer to the point at which I stopped writing nine years ago. As it happens, the one scene I have left in chapter two is a pivotal one. Maybe I am scared of writing it, in fear that I would make a fatal mistake and set the novel on a course I cannot see through. Maybe.

So yes, for either of these reasons or for another unknown to me, I have been procrastinating. It does not help that I have been glued to a novel I’m re-reading, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind – one of my favourite novels of all time. So instead of writing my own novel, I have been happily immersing myself in another’s. I’m currently on page 593 of 1011. It’s a long book – perfect for the purpose of procrastination.

You know what I need to get the novel going? A gentle yet persistent daily warning like Duolingo‘s. I find the mechanism highly effective. I am currently learning German (you guessed it – another way to procrastinate from my book) on Duolingo, and I am doing the exercises every day without fail. The more days I accumulate in my streak (I am currently on ten), the more determined I am to keep going. It’s really quite fascinating how easy I am to trick.

Öffentlichkeit

That’s the most difficult word I’ve had to learn so far. German is notorious for long words, and though this is not the longest word I’ve learnt (that’s privatunterricht I think), it’s the trickiest. I find the arrangement of letters extremely unintuitive. I mean, what kind of a word is that? (It means public or the public sphere, by the way.) If only German words could be short and easy like English (it’s such an easy language I cannot help but think that people who find it difficult are just extremely lazy).

So yes, I think I need a system like Duolingo’s to get my novel going again. I wonder if anyone has thought of it. It could be a very useful tool for undisciplined writers everywhere, moi included.

Hmm… I should read a French novel next. There’s this book an old friend bought me from Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport (a strange location for buying a book, I know, but he was only passing through). It’s called La vérité sur l’affaire Harry Quebert. Not the most enticing title, but I’ve flipped through it and it seems like a fun novel. Now and again I pick up a French book to keep the language fresh in my mind. Plus, I really love the flow of French and reading anything written in French always puts me in a good mood. I hope to be able to do that one day with German – that’s the plan. It’s an ambitious goal, but by no means out of reach. I am certainly as enthusiastic about German as I am of French; I have been for a long time.

But then again I just dug up my third copy of Catch-22 (I lost the first copy, and I don’t know where I put the second one). I might read that instead. I’ve been reading it for three years, and still I have not finished it. Not that I find it boring (ha! how about that for going back to my supposed topic). I really like the book. It’s not easy to read, but it’s so laugh-out-loud funny I put in the effort to follow the novel as it jumps back and forth in time in the most random way. Or maybe I’ll just read both at the same time. I’ve been doing that lately. After a while I get bored of one book and jump to the other, then I get bored of the second book and come back to the first one. It works for me. Stops me from being bored.

Coming back to the novel, maybe what I need is to start writing a second one so I can jump between the two. Oh God no. That would be a nightmare. I can hardly muster up the effort to write one. I can’t imagine doing it for two.

So yes, boredom. It’s a curious thing. I’m hoping that at one point I will miss my novel and come back to it naturally. Maybe I just need a break, break the routine a bit and indulge my brain in a little diversity.

In the meantime, I shall go back to my novel (the one I’m reading, not the one I’m writing). I’ve done my German for the day (die Öffentlichkeit, das Publikum, der Bürger, etc.) and I think it’s now time I enjoy myself a little. (German is fun, but reading is even more fun.)

I’ll be back to let you know what happens with the novel (the one I’m writing, not the one I’m reading). Most likely when I’ve got it going again. I really don’t want to come back a second time and report on my ineffectiveness. I like to think of myself as disciplined, and writing this entry is shattering that self-image.

I hope you’re more disciplined than I am and succeeding in your endeavours.

Love, as always,

Val