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anonymoustalks · 5 years ago

Text

They also didn't want me to speak Korean outside of the house because "in America you speak only English."

(6-17-20) You both like Politics.

You: hi

Stranger: Hello

You: What is something important to you?

Stranger: My job.

You: Mhm how so?

Stranger: Because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to buy a house, save money, and have dinner every night.

You: Very reasonable

You: and grounded

Stranger: Considering that I grew up low-income, it only makes sense that I skimp and save.

You: ah yeah, that helps gives perspective for sure

Stranger: All I can really say is not having food every day isn't fun.

You: Mhm did you grow up not being able to eat every day?

Stranger: Yes.

You: What was that like?

Stranger: Hell.

You: Yeah I can imagine

Stranger: The savior was USDA subsidized cheese.

You: are you us-based?

Stranger: I was. I relocated to South Korea in 2007.

You: mhm was the food insecurity in the SU or south korea?

Stranger: The US.

You: where were you specifically, if you don't mind me asking?

Stranger: Detroit until I was 8, Denver from 8-22.

You: mhm

Stranger: You couldn't pay me to move back to the US, in spite of the fact that my parents always insisted that it was better than Korea.

You: Mhm I'd love to hear anything that you're willing to share

Stranger: Well, what do you want to hear?

You: well, everything lol

You: but I guess we don't have time lol

Stranger: What parts do you want to hear?

You: I never personally experienced food insecurity

You: or the circumstances around that

You: and what your family did

You: and I guess why you moved

Stranger: Food insecurity is hell. My parents simply lived with it and ignored it.

You: as context, I'm guessing your family were immigrants?

Stranger: I moved for job security and so I wouldn't face discrimination in the US. Yes, they immigrated from Korea.

You: mhm

You: I'm not really that familiar with detroit and things, but I feel like the naive question I'm sure you get is what about food banks?

You: or other stuff

Stranger: Not a thing back in 1980s/90s Detroit outside of churches, which my parents stayed away from.

You: ahh I didn't know

You: so I'm guessing subsidized school lunches probably also weren't a thing?

Stranger: Those were, but my parents didn't apply for those until we moved to Denver.

You: sounds really rough

Stranger: They didn't apply mostly for fear of deportation

You: undocumented?

Stranger: They were documented, the documentation wasn't always fully valid.

You: ah..

You: student visa?

Stranger: Green cards.

You: mhm I guess it's just so different it's hard for me to imagine

Stranger: Needless to say, people who work on private railyards don't make much.

You: my goodness

Stranger: About 50 cents an hour back in the 80s and 90s.

You: yeah... I just can't imagine

You: how did your family end up moving to denver?

Stranger: My father's job at the railyard was replaced by a sensor and they were concerned that Detroit was becoming too unsafe.

You: mhm this was the big crime era too?

Stranger: Yes. And we lived in a housing project that was effectively where you went to buy drugs or die.

You: buy drugs or die?

Stranger: Lot of dealers, criminals, and bait apartments in there.

You: okay, was just slightly confused about the wording if they made you buy or something

Stranger: The people in the apartment next to us were dealers.

You: mhm

Stranger: The Detroit PD raided the wrong unit, not theirs.

You: .......

Stranger: And that's why I don't respect the Detroit PD.

You: yeah that's terrible

Stranger: We did get money from them after it was found that they broke the most expensive thing in the apartment.

You: it's just so hard for me to imagine what your parents went through

You: coming to the US

You: and all of this

Stranger: I can provide some more insight if you'd like.

You: anything you want to share is good

Stranger: They had this twisted perspective on American customs and holidays.

You: meaning?

Stranger: They didn't get any of them per-se "right."

You: huh

Stranger: Xmas? Get up at 5 AM and eat a pack of Twinkies. "We're going to work."

Stranger: New year's? Get up at 5 AM and eat nothing. "We're going to work"

Stranger: They also told me to not get good grades, because "Americans don't"

You: huh that's unexpected to me...

Stranger: I got all A+s on the report cards, and even skipped a lot of grades after moving to Denver.

You: mhm good for you!

Stranger: They also didn't want me to speak Korean outside of the house because "in America you speak only English."

You: I'm trying to imagine things through their eyes

Stranger: What are you effectively seeing?

You: uhh very poor, desperate, scared

Stranger: That about summed them up.

You: yeah.

Stranger: Even now, they refuse help from me.

You: mhm... that sounds kinda vaguely asian

You: are they still in the us?

Stranger: Yes.

Stranger: Still living in Denver, too.

You: what did they do in denver?

Stranger: My mother is a cashier at a Wal-Mart, and my father is a gun salesman, since he became a citizen in 2012.

You: mhm

Stranger: They did let me pay off their mortgage in 2011, though.

You: oh that's good

You: I can imagine your parents being very proud of you

You: are you an only child or with siblings?

Stranger: I'm an only child.

Stranger: I doubt they could ever afford a second.

You: right

Stranger: Hell, they were still paying down the bill from my birth until I was 10.

You: yeah asian-american poverty is just something I'm so removed from it's just I don't even know what to say

Stranger: That was back when Koreans were below Hispanics on the social ladder

You: right... I didn't realize detroit or denver had any kind of korean population

Stranger: Not really, they just ended up in those places because there were jobs.

You: mhm

You: so you went through school in denver, graduated, did college, and then moved to korea?

Stranger: I went through high school in Denver, graduated, college fast-tracked from age 14, medical school from 16-22. Then got the hell out of the US.

You: oh my goodness that's incredible

Stranger: I started high school at age 8 due to the district insisting on testing me.

You: yeah um I didn't even realize that kind of thing was possible

Stranger: It is, and its just not common

Stranger: I learned a lot from the books my parents had around the apartment.

You: yeah

Stranger: Since all that they had were my father's textbooks from college and a few legal help books.

Stranger: And operating manuals, and legal documentation.

You: mhm it just sounds like such a whirlwind of stuff to go through

You: anyhow what brings you to the politics tag?

Stranger: I like politics, always have.

You: on omegle? haha ^^

Stranger: I like most politics.

You: ^^ I guess I would have imagined that most ordinary ppl who like politics would be on reddit I guess or something

You: unless they have something strange going for them lol

Stranger: I have nothing going for me politics-wise.

You: hm, but other things?

You: sorry if I'm prying

Stranger: In the medical field, yes.

You: huh?

Stranger: I'm a general practitioner, and a tenured one at that, so I'm among the ~150 important people at the KCDC.

You: oh what I meant is that I'm just surprised someone like you would be on omegle that's all haha ^^

You: since we're pretty trashy here haha

Stranger: Nowhere near as trashy as other people I've encountered

You: mhm maybe

Stranger: Namely the Detroit police department SWAT team

You: >.<

You: so do you have a list of political issues you care about the most?

Stranger: Yeah, mostly not defunding the KCDC.

You: do you get a lot of koreans on omegle?

Stranger: No, I've never encountered another Korean.

You: oh okay

You: yeah I don't think I've ever run into anyone from east asia

You: many from india though

Stranger: In case you're wondering, the KCDC is basically Korea's healthcare provider, and disease/drug regulator.

You: yeah I googled it

You: I thought korea did very well with coronavirus testing

Stranger: We did.

You: why are they trying to defund you?

Stranger: Because they want to stop covering things that many Koreans rely on, such as vision coverage (I benefit from it), as well as coverage of OTC drugs in hospitals.

You: hmm how is there not popular backlash?

You: I thought there was a general political adage that it's easy to give benefits, but hard to repeal them

Stranger: They've kept it under wraps by putting funding changes in fine print.

You: funding charges as in...?

Stranger: Funneling the money into reserves.

You: oh okay, it might be a bit over my head ^^

Stranger: Basically, the KCDC is funded in USD, so we can buy equipment without exchange rate issues, and they view the USD as a finite recourse. Its not, since saving it depreciates the value for us long-term.

You: huuh I didn't know that at all

Stranger: Meanwhile, I have to fight with a government-paid vision provider to get my new glasses.

You: btw why did your parents dislike korea so much?

Stranger: Korea was different in the 70s and 80s. The leaders were totalitarians mostly installed by the US. The economy was garbage, and it was impossible to get a stable job outside of manufacturing or the armed forces.

You: ah okay, thanks for the summary

Stranger: They were middle class in Korea, too. And they left that all for the US.

You: yeah... I didn't realize the exchange rate was so steep back then too

Stranger: Most of the reason they were poor in the US was because of their limited English.

You: Ah okay

You: What kind of conversations do you normally get into here on omegle?

Stranger: Usually something that ends with "the US owns Korea."

You: what?

Stranger: The Republicans in the US have this twisted idea that America owns Korea.

You: huh

You: and you enjoy talking to people like that?

Stranger: No, but I like trying to talk sense into them.

You: ^^;; it sounds like quite an argument

Stranger: And its hilarious to me.

You: ah yeah, I guess people do like the amusement

Stranger: I have spat out coffee laughing at their stupidity.

You: I think people come from very different places ^^

Stranger: To some of them its a foreign concept that people can make more money in countries other than the US.

You: I think it depends in part on people's skill sets

Stranger: They also don't understand how foreign currency works, since, sometimes if they ask about my pay, I give it to them in KRW.

You: lol

Stranger: They think I'm lying because the number in KRW exceeds 350 billion

Stranger: KRW is counted in a strange manner.

You: hm? how so?

Stranger: 1,000 KRW= 1 USD (one cheap meal). 100 KRW= 10 cents (which is the same cost as a burger here), 10 KRW= 1 cent (half a bottle of cola).

Stranger: You have to know it to recognize it on site.

You: huh...

Stranger: We make western money but don't pay western prices.

You: I'm just slightly confused basically

Stranger: McDonald's is expensive here, with a meal being $8.

Stranger: The only things that really cost western prices are, well... western things.

You: mhm right

You: I feel like cost-of-living in different places is always a little hard for me to grasp

Stranger: I find it amazing that Coke is considered the cheap beverage here and in the US

You: I have a suspicion that in many circumstances people are just buying the bottle

Stranger: Still, I have always viewed it as expensive.

You: I mean if you look at the price of a 2L bottle versus a small bottle?

Stranger: Yes, but, still, too pricey when I was young.

You: the drink itself must be inexpensive to manufacture

You: but the retail price is elevated substantially

Stranger: My parents always viewed it as "why spend a buck on a 2L when Faygo is 75 cents, we can barely afford it as is"

Stranger: Which ingrained it as being a luxury product in my mind

You: lol

You: idk it's cheaper than milk, juice... so many things

You: I feel like it must be bad for public health

Stranger: Faygo is and always has been cheaper

Stranger: Probably because of competition

You: oh we don't have them here

Stranger: Faygo is highly regionalized to Detroit.

You: not distributed in my area

Stranger: In fairness, it helps the cost when its bottled a few blocks from the grocer.

You: I guess that's true

You: but there are always discount soft drink brands too

You: although I was never pressed enough at cash to really look very hard at the difference between a dollar or like 90 cents...

Stranger: My parents had to look carefully at those prices

You: yeah

Stranger: What would be 45 minutes in the grocer for a person who can grab-and-go items would be 1-2 hours for us.

You: mhm

Stranger: Which is why I buy the same three things at the grocer, so I don't need to price compare

You: mhm I feel spoiled because I don't really do much coupon shopping

Stranger: For what its worth, they did get the one symbol of wealth that Korean-Americans viewed as a symbol of wealth at the time.

You: which was?

Stranger: Color television set.

You: oh

You: I think you are around a decade older than me so it's hard for me to compare and contrast

Stranger: I'm 35.

You: yup

Stranger: So, I have faint memories of the 1980s.

You: I was born int he 90's

Stranger: The 90s were a good time.

You: I have faint memories of the 90's lol ^^

Stranger: That was when we got a computer

You: sounds about right

Stranger: My uncle imported KDS systems to the US, so we got that for free.

You: huh

Stranger: KDS became Emachines, a company you might have heard of

You: nope!

Stranger: Your household probably didn't have to buy whatever the cheapest system at Wal-Mart was.

You: uhh I think our first computer was some form of macintosh

Stranger: Which are systems for the wealthy next to Korean imports.

You: yeah it's really interesting to look back at this stuff

Stranger: I sometimes wish I could go back in time, but then I realize that'd effectively be starting from scratch.

You: uh yeah, that doesn't sound very fun

Stranger: There's no real reason to look back on the past for me.

You: yeah I don't really look back this far normally either

You: do you still speak much english in everyday life btw?

Stranger: Yes, on a daily basis. To the point where I still sound American when I speak it.

You: Oh I didn't know that

Stranger: I have no issues with speaking either language, luckily.

You: mhm that really helps

You: how is your social life?

Stranger: Basically zero friends in Korea.

You: aww...

You: is there like a barrier?

You: being foreign or something?

Stranger: No, since I am not foreign in the eyes of either the Korean government nor the people.

You: ah, so you're just saying it's just you? ^^

Stranger: Yes.

You: introverted?

Stranger: Yes.

You: mhm I wish you the best!

Stranger: My parents weren't too hot on the idea of me ever having friends.

You: oh...

You: you're not around them anymroe!

You: seriously, are you doing okay?

Stranger: I'm doing fine.

You: okay ^^

You: I think it's different to be happy and introverted vs. unhappy and introverted, if you know what I mean

Stranger: Not to mention, after I moved to Denver, it became harder to make friends.

You: hm, why?

Stranger: I was 8 and in high school. Take a guess.

You: ah...

You: yeah that threw me for a loop

You: ordinarily I thought most school systems didn't allow their kids to skip too far for well... I guess social reasons?

You: idk if things changed or how things happen on way or another

Stranger: And being Korean in a majority hispanic school didn't help, either.

You: mhm

Stranger: Since that was basically right after the LA riots, which made Koreans and hispanics hate each other.

You: right...

Stranger: I did get bullied for that.

You: :c

Stranger: Metal lunch trays don't feel too good in the back of the head

You: that's terrible

Stranger: And neither does getting tied to a chair with an extension cord

You: I just can't imagine

You: people just...

Stranger: You'd think they'd show mercy on someone effectively half their age and size.

You: yeah

You: also for some reason I thought of denver as kind of like a progressive white place

You: but idk if that's just more recently

Stranger: That's modern Denver.

You: yeah

Stranger: Back then it was a rougher place.

You: mhm

You: I think you have so much in your past

You: it's a lot

Stranger: A lot of people do.

You: mhm

Stranger: Not everyone can have a pretty story filled with bubblegum and rainbows.

You: yeah...

You: it's just sad

You: or well, so many things that America turns a blind eye too

You: even now

You: a kind of semi-willful ignorance

You: in favor of narratives I guess

Stranger: It would've been nice if I didn't have to carry a revolver everywhere.

You: huh you were licensed to carry as a kid?

Stranger: From when I was 18.

You: mhm

Stranger: My parents made me get licensed out of pure fear.

You: mhm

You: idk if it's your generation, your family's socioeconomic status, location, or all of the above, but your story is just so much more raw and dramatic than those of other asian americans I've heard

Stranger: Probably a mix.

Stranger: My experiences are in-line with your average LA Korean in the early 90s.

You: right

You: I just didn't know the differences could be so stark through one or two generations

Stranger: Well, remember, a riot happened that moved the Koreans up the ladder.

You: yeah

You: or maybe there's a rift between asian americans who were hear longer versus the large influx that came in the 90s

Stranger: Probably that, since not a lot came in the 80s.

You: yeah

Stranger: I remember the first time I visited Korea, it was like a different planet.

You: mhm

You: (not that I have any idea lol XD)

Stranger: My uncle took me to Seoul in 1995, which was when I realized that Korea wasn't what my parents made it out to be (they made it out to effectively be a 3rd world country).

You: mhm

Stranger: I'd say it was that visit that made me want to leave the US

You: you went through a lot

Stranger: I do consider some of it to be a lot.

You: have you ever thought about writing it up?

You: idk assembling it into a narrative of some kind?

Stranger: I have, but I'm not comfortable with it being on paper beyond legal documents.

You: mhm okay yeah

Stranger: For example, in the file cabinet next to me I have every single even slightly legal document from when I was born until I was 30.

You: mhm... I should do a better job of getting my paperwork together

Stranger: Just opening it, there's three folders of medical papers.

You: hospital?

Stranger: No, at home. The folders even include every payment on every medical bill from back then.

You: ah I meant, you were hospitalized often?

Stranger: No. Mostly just payments from my birth, as well as vision.

You: mhm

Stranger: The vision papers are expansive.

You: right

Stranger: Considering that I've needed to wear glasses since I was 2.

You: what??

Stranger: Effectively, my vision is garbage, and has been ever since.

You: so it's getting really late for me, but I wanted to thank you for sharing everything that you did ^^

Stranger: Have a nice night.

You: thank you!

You: best of luck with everything and I hope you're able to make more friends!

Stranger has disconnected.

#omegle #race #racism #korean american #korea #food insecurity #immigrant #asian american #bullying #medicine #kcdc #guns

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xmoonlitxdreamx · 7 years ago

Text

J2G Works Charm Review

HEY kind of random but I tried out a different charm manufacturer recently! I haven’t seen any reviews for this manufacturer so I thought I’d talk a bit about my experience. The manufacturer is called J2G Works, and they’re based in Singapore. Here’s their website:

http://j2gworks.com/

More info and pics under the cut! (also tagging @howtobeaconartist in case they want to share w their followers)

***

Since this was a sort of test-run, I only ordered J2G Works’s minimum quantity of 5 charms at 6 cm. I did double-sided printing with some custom parts without a layer of white between the front and back to give a transparent-color look. I also ordered double acrylic charms, but received single acrylic charms. I’ll talk a bit about the printing mix-up first.

***

Acrylic Printing Mistake

So the first thing I wanna get out of the way is that they messed up the kind of charm I ordered. The charms I ordered were supposed to be double acrylic, meaning the image is sandwiched between 2 pieces of acrylic. This is more expensive and protects the image from fading or getting scratched. Vograce is the only other manufacturer I know of who does double acrylic, but I’ve had difficulties with Vograce in the past so I was excited to try double acrylic out with a different manufacturer!

However, when my charms arrived it seems they sent me single acrylic charms instead, with the image printed on the back of one sheet of acrylic. This is how places like Zap! Creatives and Acorn Press do their charms. You can see that my charms aren’t double acrylic from this pic:

Notice how there’s only one piece of acrylic, and no indication of the img being sandwiched between two pieces of acrylic. To compare, here’s what the side view of a double acrylic charm (that I got from a zine) looks like:

On double acrylic charms you should be able to see where the two pieces of acrylic meet. The charms I ordered didn’t have this. Plus I could feel the matte texture of the printed image on the back side like I do w/ Zap! Creative and Acorn Press charms.

I’m used to selling these charms so it’s not a big deal, but it was still disappointing + I paid the extra price for the double acrylic... I’ve emailed them, but I’m still waiting to hear back about getting some sort of compensation/refund for this mistake.

BUT YEAH NOW THAT THAT’S OUT OF THE WAY, l’ll talk a bit about the details working w/ J2G.

***

Packaging

Something that was interesting to me was that the charms came individually packaged in little plastic bags! This was a nice detail and saves the trouble of bagging them for whoever I would sell them to later. The charms also come with a protective film on the front and back that should be peeled:

The protective film on the front is v noticeable and easy to take off, but the one on the back is a more transparent, thicker plastic that’s a bit harder to take off. It’s also not totally noticeable, so I have a feeling that customers who buy my charms may not take off the back film if I give the charm as I’ve received them from J2G Works... so I guess in that sense having them individually packaged could be a hassle if you wanna take the films off before giving them to customers, but eh I think it’s a neat touch.

As also pictured above, it also comes with a keyring already attached. You can e-mail to order charms without the keyring if you want to attach your own (phonestraps/etc) but the keyring comes attached at no additional cost.

***

Minimum Quantity/Pricing/Shipping

J2G Works’s mimimum order quantity is 5 charms at $1.91 USD per single acrylic charm (aka the kind of printing that Zap and Acorn Press does). The default charm size is 6 cm (approx 2.4 inches). Considering the low order quantity and the relatively large size, I think this is a great deal! Zap’s minimum order quantity for 2″ acrylic charms is 25, while Acorn Press’s minimum order is 10. They don’t offer any bulk discounts of orders less than 100 charms, but I think the price is still reasonable for those who want to order in small quantities at a time.

Here’s a size comparison to 2″ charms from Zap Creatives and Acorn Press, btw:

Also, I’m not sure if J2G would split the minimum order of 5 between different designs... their website just says “minimum purchase 5″ and has a location for uploading one file for that order, so probably not. But still, for someone like me who gets worried about ordering in bulk and selling charms bc I don’t do conventions that frequently, being able to order charms at 5 charms per design is useful.

The only downside about pricing and ordering in small quantities is that since they’re Singapore-based and I’m US-based, shipping is v expensive. My charm order for the double acrylic charms was around $12, but the shipping was around $30. The shipping isn’t so bad if you add more things to your order (they offer a lot of other services) but it’s definitely not ideal if you only want to order a small quantity of items.

***

Template/Customization

Based on my past experiences with Zap! and Acorn Press, I thought customization was kind of a hassle with J2G. Here’s what J2G’s Template looks like:

The way their template works is that you literally put the front and back of your charm in the boxes, and that’s it. It’s really straightforward for people who just want acrylic charms of their art, but it makes it difficult for those who want to customize how the charms are printed and cut.

Unless you email them, they do the cut-line and loop hole themselves. I can definitely see this being a problem for people who want to put multiple loops and non-silhouette cuts for their charms. I’m not really sure what the protocol for customizing the cut would be, but I’m guessing you’d have to email them and put the desired cut on a different layer like one would w/ Zap’s or Acorn Press’s templates.

Their template also doesn’t have any indication of where the white in between the front and back layers should go. I asked J2G over email what I should do if I wanted transparent-colored parts of the charm (which is what I wanted for the roses), and they told me to put the transparent-color parts on a separate layer from the opaque-color parts.

Anyway, I think this style of template is definitely nice for those who don’t have much experience with setting up charm files, but for those of us who are used to setting up files I can see doing charm customization via email correspondence as a negative part of the ordering process.

***

Printing Quality

I’m gonna go through a couple things one by one, but as a summary I’d compare their printing quality to Acorn Press. (And I like Acorn’s charms, so overall I’d say that’s a plus)

Colors Like with most manufacturers, the colors are a bit darker and duller than the colors on my computer. One nice thing that I noticed is that the white parts are pure white, unlike the white parts in Zap charms (which are usually a little grainy). Here’s how the white looks on J2G charms:

Notice the white in the eyes doesn’t have any grains in it. On the other hand, here’s a Zap charm:

Here, you can see in the eyes and teeth that the white isn’t pure white.

This isn’t a huge deal bc it’s not noticeable from far away, but it’s something that’s always bothered me about Zap’s printing, ahaha.

Double-Sided Printing From what I can tell, the double-sided printing doesn’t have as opaque of a white layer in between as Zap’s charms. Here’s the back-view of the J2G charm in slightly-strong natural lighting:

The front of the charm is pretty clearly visible on the back of the charm. Here’s how double-sided printing from Zap looks in comparison:

I don’t see the other side of the charm almost at all here. If I hold it against a strong light it becomes visible:

The back is VERY visible against a light for the j2g charm, tho:

That may just be because the back has a lot of dark colors against the light parts of the front.

The colors are actually opaque enough imo, it’s really only noticeable against semi-strong light, especially from the back view. Here’s what the front looks like in the more neutral lighting:

And here’s what the back looks like in less-strong lighting:

I think what’s mostly making the front show through on the back is the texture, which is what I’ll talk a bit about now.

Texture Kind of an annoying thing is that the texture of the front is very visible on the back. It’s like this weird embossed texture on the spots where the front and back don’t align? Here’s a pic that can maybe show how the texture is weirdly embossed:

It’s most visible in strong lighting, but you can feeling just by running your fingers over it. :T I’ve bought charms that have this texture on it before tho, so it’s not a huge deal... I don’t have any double-sided Acorn Press charms, but I think it’s Acorn Press that has this oddly textured finish. You can kind of see it on this single-sided charm I made thru Acorn Press:

People still buy charms like this so it’s not a super big deal, but I just prefer a less textured finish on charms. I think it distracts less from the back image on the charm, too. This might’ve been solved if J2G gave me the double acrylic charms like I ordered, but I’m not sure. :T But yeah, this was the main issue I had with the printing.

***

Customer Service

For me, I found the customer service to be very friendly and flexible! Like I noted throughout, I had some customized parts for the charm and they were very accommodating and polite about that. They normally respond in about 1 business day, but it depends...? I think they actually have 24 hour customer service (?!) which is wild... they once sent me an email at midnight Singapore time, ahaha. Communication was also never an issue, which I know can be a problem for people who use Vograce. (English is widely spoken in Singapore and I spoke in English in my emails, which was never a problem).

Another nice thing about working with them is that it seems like they have a quality control aspect to their process or smth...? I used a chalky/fuzzy brush for this charm so they emailed me to let me know they didn’t think my lines would print well. (I told them I’ve printed w/ these lines before, so I would be fine with the quality.) That’s just a small thing, but idk it’s nice that they reach out to the customers abt printing concerns.

Lastly, they also email you some pictures of the finished charms before shipping! I don’t know if they do that so you can voice any concerns before they ship, but idk I thought it was nice.

***

ANYWAY yeah that was my experience with them. Here’s a quick run-down of the pros and cons:

Pros:

Low minimum quantity (ideal for me personally)

very cheap price per unit, especially considering the charm size

comes with keyring attached

individually packaged

friendly and responsive customer service

relatively decent print quality

Cons:

messed up my order (single acrylic rather than double acrylic) which was kind of a bummer

template not very customizable

texture from front image visible on the back image

shipping is expensive

I think I’ll definitely use their services again because they have some other charm options that I’m interested in... but I’d only use them for the more straightforward charms rather than ones that need more specialized customization for cuts/loops/opaqueness. I’d also recommend ordering a minimum of 25 charms from them considering the shipping price. But yeah, overall I had a good experience with them and I think the charms are of the same quality as other charms I’ve seen sold at artist alleys. :^)

Thanks for reading, hope it was useful!

#review #j2g works #artist alley #artist alley help #acrylic charms #i didn't proofread this so sorry if it's wild

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blueandyellowdiamond · 4 years ago

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NESEDIM-LIETAM-HORE-DOLE!!!!

Miss. Antónia Ficová, Engineer.

district of Humenné,

Slovak Republic,

European Union

To date February 23, 2017

To attention: To representatives and decision makers of Great Britan

Subject:

Complaint on instruments, method´s and approach of Britain´s Government and their representatives since October 2012

First of all, the reason why I have decided to inform you directly is following: providing false statements on my behalf, restrictions, limitations, barriers, controlling, hiding true facts and data, false fiances, managed bankruptcy, opportunity cost, betrayal, etc. Since I don´t need your confirmation or your treatment through your product that doesn´t work for me.

Secondly, take into your consideration that this open letter, complaint, honest statement should be treated with high level of professionalism and strong ethic´s rules with an appropriate action for my personal improvement since no change has been done. In other words, would you like to have a new colony? Do you need new babie´s? Could you please tell your lords, that woman is not only for cleaning and cooking, since is already 2017, you know what I mean?

In sum, I will use level of langugae and style for your better understanding since people are not used to accept me or support me for who I am, as a person, as a human beings, as a woman, but only as piece of meat for sale. In other words, issues like religions, status, male/female, activities, performance, income, social and financial situation, health, after my graduation in July of 2012 should be reported in details for your interest. Due to fact I have experienced a lot of crucial situations because I am selfconfident, self-respect person with higher education and "some of your policy makers" want to marry me? Why now? Look, I am workaholic, and perfectionalist, and due to your actions in SR, in USA, around the world, should be submissive to you? Forget it. And try to find a way for respect to me. Questioning all the time doesn´t make nice light for you, you know what I mean?

Look, I am single, and yes, I am unemployed, but strategy of managed destruction and destroying through corruption of employers, people surrounded about me, gossiping for money in front of me, making pictures and videos and films, telenovelas with my hard experiences and memories, is a such strong cup of tea, don´t you think? Nice 33. hell for me. In other words, everybody made and still makes money on me, and I am poor of poorest because of what? To be another "private bitch" for any married policy maker? Or to be housekeeper for "my biological parents"? Or to be "girl for everything with answer yes" for uni? Yes, there is a such big fraud triangle as another project syndicate but that doesn´ t mean that I should pay for faults of others just for experiments, testing, making research projects, papers, etc. I am not rabbit in the box or that is not reality show. Do you ussualy make fun on poor people or you just used them as free slave? That is a question and answers that has been providing behind my back on my behalf with one goal to either parasit on my results or to put me down beacuse I am better than they and I will always stand for my values and priorities. So what kind of formula did you use for your calculations of LOSS, that you caused me? How much USD, EUR? Show me your bills.

More to the point, how long have you known about me and you did nothing at all, right? However, I do love write, but since a lot of my work, from research papers till reports, articles has been robbed, I am not gonna to provide you my view and my opinions for free, since you already know that everything required some papers, and you didn´t pay at all. Viewed in this light, I enjoy on the beach because of you. Ridiculous, don´t you think?

Nevertheless, what is your suggestions how should I behave or what should I do in terms of my current geograpical location, only internet access and approximately 60,- at hand? Could you please describe me and explain this? I am not your toy, your key, or your property that you will check and test before buying, you know what I mean? Is easy to only shake hands, sign contract, any summits, etc. and than to watch porn or make masturbation on my photos by people at higher positions with dirty conversations with main goal: to make bitch or homeless beacuse that made a large money on me, and I am still so self confident, now without their chemical weapons.

So, kindly consider that I have, I have right for my own life with solid conditions and multicultural environment and appropriate income and healthy relationships for my personal growth. In sum, I would like to have acces to people that have been trying to meet me, but your "safety and security with one goal: don´t me any perspective contacts" are coming from any senator, or from who? Which direction? So, pay attention to my needs, and don´t try to make fun on suffering innocent people that want to live and have LIFE, you know what I mean? And btw. If you gonna still question my qualities or me, as a person, is better to ask me directly because I know myself very well and only I know what is the best for me. That is so simple.

On the hand, that is old typical scenario, to use one talented person and then to isolate her and make her like military prison or free slave, just for fun. In other words, I (live?) in area of Slovak Republic, east part, and should I consider myself as a slovakian? Which nationality and citizenship should be taken into consideration in this case of my results and success? Well, trade marks and patents gonna be registered in usa, eu? What about ouside of eu? Did you already make final calculations of opportunity costs of this "government arrest" through regional, national authorities with high education and international experiences? Look, there is space for obstructions and huge interest about me since secret actions made me poor. So, kindly make sure that you analyzed my childhood, adults and other stages of life. And, of course that pain and negative feelings has been planned a years of ago. Equality, is not something what is respecting by "slovak mans" due to fact that I have no interest in that way. Yes, I am old school, but with modern aspects, so I have right to choose my long term partner, since I am not kissed or hughed for long time, and I am not for sale, clear?!

So, what is my identity? And what kind of responsible people you gonna contact? Well, think about separation of EU countries from your economic integration since there is no common culture, historical aspects, economical differences, atc. Only to get some poor countries and use them as a slaves, so face it and try to handle this asap. Your psychological bully and tyrany can not continue, clear?

And of course, nobody invited me at your summits (you know I have valuable input) or at round tables. Or dou you need only stupid people that will sign whatever you gonna suggest for your advantage? Of my god. Good for you, as a nation. Proportion of responsibility and jurisdiction should be considered as well. And where are my gifts, for birthday, christmas? Who enjoyed this material things? Not me, you know what I mean? You made from poor people wealthy so quickly, why? They listen your instructions? I am absolutely sure, that you should take your products from here, since woman don´t want to be housewives, or to sit in the front of the doors for lazy bullshit mans, don´t you think?

And the most important, I am not conservative to serve man that only want to see me suffer and caused me pain, clear? And you don´t have to teach me how to be kind, I know that without you.

ANTÓNIA

============================

Miss. ANTÓNIA FICOVÁ, Engineer, (Not yet Dr.)

Single. Simple. Self-Educated.

Citizenship: Not British. Not French. Not Russian. Why I should be proud and pride slovakian?!

Email adresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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impurelight · 5 years ago

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Mi 9T

When the OnePlus 7T came out I distinctly remember posting 'Oh, it's the double priced Mi 9T'. Because it is. The Mi 9T is one of the best phones you can buy for 300 USD. So I bought it and here are my impressions using it.

The first thing I noticed when I powered on this phone is the display. It is gorgeous. Just, it looks painted on as you'd expect. But also I can actually use the autobrightness mode. This is my first AMOLED phone. All the rest were LCD's and on LCD's if you lower the brightness the colours also get washed out. Perhaps this has to do with impurities in the red, green, and blue filters. But whatever the case I'd always leave autobrightness off because in dark modes it was too difficult to see anything.

This AMOLED fixes that. In fact it looks even better at night when there's no other light because the colours just pop that much more.

Also about the display there is an oversaturated colour mode turned on by default. I turned it off because although it looks good in most circumstances, if you have a colour that's already really saturated the extra saturation can bump that colour into uncanny levels of saturation.

Oh, and AMOLED displays are not as sharp as LCD panels. It's probably due to the pentile subpixels but if you look closely you can see some diamond stuff going on. Not the actual pixels and in normal use it looks fine but if you stop and stare at it it does look a bit off.

A post about the Mi 9T would not be complete without a talk about MIUI. I really like MIUI. So browsing MIUI discussions the 2 big problems with it are the task management and the notifications not showing up.

First the notifications. Yeah, they don't all show up on the lock screen. But I don't really care about that. When I look at the lock screen it's usually only to control my music as there is a fingerprint icon that displays over the fingerprint sensor. More on this later. So I can unlock my phone without ever seeing the lock screen. Pretty nifty.

And all the notifications show up in the shade so I'm not really sure why people are talking about that. It doesn't bother me that much.

And second there's the task management. MIUI is brutal about killing tasks that are eating battery life. Certain apps will run in the background as long as you opened them manually like the clock. But the official instructions to get something to run in the background are to:

Go into the battery settings and select no optimizations.

Go into the permissions and allow the app to autostart.

Go into the multitasking view (which looks really weird, not worse, just weird. In fact it might even be a bit better than that waste of space multitasking UI stock Android uses. Why they ever moved from the cards UI is beyond me.), long press on the app in question, and select the lock icon to keep MIUI from killing it.

And then I realized there are additional steps no one tells you:

Restart your phone.

Start the app after your phone has restarted.

So it's a bit of a pain. I wouldn't even know this if I didn't have a Mi Band 4. They even put the instructions in the Mi Band app. You'd think the Mi Band would do this automatically given it's made by the same company but I guess not.

I'm not sure if all these steps are necessary but they are recommended.

The upside of all this is that you get fantastic standby time. Like I can go to sleep and my phone won't drop in battery life overnight. There are times I'll go to sleep with my old Android One phone around like - I don't know - 40%ish battery life and wake up with 15% and a low battery warning. It's pretty annoying. I don't know if this trade off is worth it but I mean it's not so bad if you follow all the steps.

As for the rest of MIUI it's pretty amazing. Oh, yeah, people also complain about the launcher not having an app drawer. I don't mind, on my old phone I put all the apps on my home screen anyways. Although I now use Nova just because the default app drawer does not support adaptive icons and some of the icons in the default launcher are pretty bad. But the default launcher has a better swipe animation. When you swipe up the app goes back into its icon. I wish Nova had this but unfortunately not. When you swipe up the app just shrinks into the middle of the screen.

Speaking of the swipe gestures they're pretty cool. Up to go home. Up and hold (not up and to the right like in iOS) to access multitasking (which causes a vibration. BTW the vibration motor on the Mi 9T is really loud). And right or left to go back. Sometimes they do conflict with other things. Especially in Nova launcher (this is more probably due to not being able to go home again if you're already home) and in games but it's not that bad.

My one complaint is you still get that stupid swipe up twice to go home in full screen apps. That means when you're playing a game and you swipe up instead of going home you get a message "swipe up again to go home". It's pretty annoying and I don't know why they do it. But it doesn't bother me as much as having to swipe up to get to a button so I could go home because you're doing the same thing twice. That annoyance of having to swipe up twice is actually what made me never want a phone with on screen buttons. But now all the phones have edge to edge screens so I guess I have to move on.

Also some more notes on MIUI: it doesn't whine about mobile data. On stock android it's like "Oh, you don't have mobile data. Do you want to enable it?" And it's just so annoying. I don't know what sort of fantasy land Google lives in where everyone has unlimited data all the time. Also the clock text is really nice. I mean, it's just a clock but I still really like it.

It only displays like this if you don't have notifications though. It displays the boring normal text if you have a notification. Too bad. I would have perferred it if it always displayed this clock.

Also the battery icon text is too small.

And there's a lot of notification spam. Especially the app updates. Some update through the Play store but others don't. I don't understand why they can't all just update through the Play Store. Oh, well, at least the app update ones can be blocked by the cleaner ones cannot.

And there's this nifty feature called fingerprint shortcuts. Basically once you unlock your phone with your fingerprint you can slide your finger to one of a few shortcuts. This could be really useful if you could customize the shortcuts at all. Oh, well.

Speaking of the fingerprint sensor it's not what I expected. I saw tons of videos and they all had the fingerprint being really fast. And yeah, it's about that fast. But only if you have your finger in the same position you normally unlock the phone with. As soon as you start moving around or you're holding your fingers at a weird angle it can take about twice or even three times as long to unlock and the sensor will occasionally stutter for some reason. And if your hands were recently wet (even if you dryed them) it can even refuse to unlock entirely. I'd still say the fingerprint sensor is pretty good and way better than a back mounted one but I don't like how all those 'reviewers' lied to me.

So I briefly touched on the light up fingerprint icon. Basically there is an icon right over the fingerprint sensor so you know where to press. It's pretty nifty. It's easy enough to know where the fingerprint sensor is as it's usually marked by an unusually oily spot on the screen but it's nice to know explicitly. It's not always on, it appears to light up whenever you move the phone. Also the brightness of the icon doesn't use the ambient light sensor. So in dark locations it'll be fine but in bright locations you can hardly see it.

Also the Wifi is insanely good on this phone. Much better than my previous phone. The connection appears to be much more reliable and the connection is faster.

So let's talk about the camera. I keep on touching it when holding the phone. Because there are three cameras and a flash module. Anyways, it's a fine camera. In a comparison with the stock camera app the Google Camera app gave me much more details so I'm using that even though the HDR isn't as aggressive in that.

Also there is this sky replacement effect in the MIUI gallery app. It is so convincing. It makes the random dual exposure thing Google's doing this year look like a joke. The only problem is that if there's something that looks too much like sky, like a white house in front of some white clouds, it'll try to replace that too.

The last thing I wanted to talk about is the default case. It's really nice. I originally thought it was too thin but it appears to give the phone enough protection. Just be a little careful with it. I love how the buttons are so easy to press unlike other thick cases. Also it's very tight so you won't have to worry about it falling off.

So those are my thoughts on the Mi 9T. I love it. The only question here is, "If I had an equivalent phone running stock Android would I take it?" And to be honest I'd have to lean more towards the 'no' end of the scale. I don't really care about notifications, the closing apps issues is solvable and greatly improves battery life, and the fingerprint icon is a godsend. My biggest problem with MIUI is probably the battery percent in the top right is way too small.

Oh, and PS. Google's migration assistent is a complete joke. Contacts and stuff transfer fine but as for apps it basically use reinstalls them all one by one from the Play store. What a pain.

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kennyoswife · 8 years ago

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FYI THIS HAS NO SCREENSHOTS OF THE POKEMON MERCH TRANSACTION. ONLY OF THE COMMISSIONS MADE IN DECEMBER. I’m only posting this because we share mutuals and saw them rt her commission sales!

First and foremost I’d like to introduce myself and background of relationship between her and I.I have been her best friend/close friend since 3rd grade. (18 years) We have had ups and downs and truly she was an amazing person in my life. We were like fire and ice two complete opposites but never the less an important person in my life. I have gotten commissions from her in the past and she had done fantastic on them. We had just gotten super close recently after she had claimed to have some issues with a group on here and I was only let known after she purged herself from the sight explaining she had changed because of them and only wanted to appeal. Which I can understand some of us are like that. Recently a similar situation has happened with two people to where she has completely changed her attitude and who she is as a person. Wether they forced her or intimidated her to doing it I’ll never know. And when being honest and confronting her on these changes she outright denied it and said she was just scared and being ‘herself’.

@EmmaSwanna on twitter had given Janna a collection of pokemon merchandise valued at the very least of 200 USD in promise she would receive commissioned art pieces including a cover for a fanfiction she was writing. Janna agreed to These terms literally over a year ago and never said or even showed she attempted to work on it.

A year later comes (Present time) and Emma and I send her about 100 each for commissioned art as she was in a rut and needed creativity/update portfolio/and wanted to do charms. (Dec 2016) also sending detailed commission info via email and even poses and references to help as well. only to get about one picture ($20 USD value each) and magically got a refund of 80 each in April Which was 4 months later with no explanation as to why she couldn’t fulfill her commissions only that we were close friends and understood. While it may seem her chibis are cute and cheap I warn you that if she does NOT feel like drawing it she won’t and will attempt to draw herself things. Unfortunately this is not a good way to conduct business especially self promoting your artwork. The fact of the matter is she took advantage of two friends because we would be understanding and patient or maybe forget about it. That’s all I’m saying on the matter. below lines im going to go more into detail about how she WRONGED @EmmaSwanna and I for all of our mutuals that want to know what happened.

------------------------------------------------------

So this is for any mutuals of Emma and I that want to know what happened or are curious.

So this is just in GENERAL what she has done to Emma and I over the course of a year having a group chat together. for the most part she was a good friend and easy to talk to. However we had only recently stopped being friends right before we had all went to Acen (I’ll get into that later) She had first gotten extremely aggressive towards Whitney and I when we were very much hardcore into in the pokemon fandom. She claimed/HC’d the character N was asexual therefore Emma’s OC couldn’t be with him. As well as Janna making her own and forcing him on Emma’s OC as well. Eventually it got to the point of claiming certain canon pokemon characters were yandere and if you had an opposing thought she got angry and would yell at you via chat. This is literally ONLY the tip of the iceberg.

She has made it a point to also make Emma feel bad she hasn’t played or cared much for the Legend of Zelda(just as she made me feel like shit for not caring much for the persona series) saying how the mean so much to her and how dare we have opposing views on the series or generally dont care much for them. Including trying to force us to watch things we didn’t care to or guilt trip us into watching it (ex. constantly asking if we had watched it yet)

Janna has also made it a point to make Emma hysterical on her birthday from our weekend skype movie nights. Watching Once upon a time and seeing a pair of scissors and sleeping drugs, Janna was triggered and proceeded to yell at Whitney and then make her cry making the call very awkward and was only apologizing so Whitney wouldn’t leave her as a friend as opposed to apologizing FOR acting out and yelling. But yet was FINE around these items in Persona and has watched plenty of horror playthroughs with more graphic images. After some time we eventually all started talking again and everything SEEMED fine for at least a while.

What really showed me how much a friend she truly was/thought of me was nearing a month before her Emma and I had planned on going to Acen together. Janna had set RULES for our hotel but primarily me. Such as I wasn’t allowed to drink alcohol period (I’m 22 btw) and Not allowed to leave her alone after 4pm (even if we had opposing panels). Being respectful and trying to understand where all of this was coming from I agreed as she had never been to a big convention before and wanted to help her overcome anxiety in one of the ways i only knew how. I had even offered to refund her badge if she felt she couldn’t handle the stress (which she took as me not wanting her to go) and was making it a point to EMPHASIZE she was nervous. She constantly made statuses about how she was nervous and she was going to have a bad time despite HER setting ALL the rules and regulations. Since I work in the hospitality industry I managed to get our hotel for free and asked she chip in for gas (literally the ONLY thing she was responsible for) and I guess I have no ‘right’ to get angry she didn’t offer to help with anything else but I was. Emma who had spent 400 on a plane ticket and luggage STILL offered to help whatever ways she could and really made it one of the best times ever. Eventually she made Emma and I make a spreadsheet of EVERYTHING and what times they were she could have a guide and reference. only to have her have a breakdown on skype claiming we would leave her and what not. only the very next day when asking her where a specific food she liked was located called me huffy and that’s when i broke down and told her she wasn’t going with me anymore. I had been more than accommodating and trying to be nice. She wanted me to dump her as a friend AFTER we went just so she could still go and hang with Emma at the expense of me being upset. She kept trying to weasel back in and telling me to “reconsider” so she could go and trying to convince me I was making a mistake. Finally after she acccepted she wasn’t going she messaged our group saying “Well can you at least drop off Emma to hang out with me the day before you leave.” NEVER ASKING EMMA WHAT SHE WANTED, and texting her saying that she hoped she had fun and guilt tripping the shit out of her. We decided to leave it alone and not say anything to her and went to the con happy only to receive a message saying “Hope you guys are having fun” and me asking if she meant it in a good or bad. She not soon after removed Emma and I from all social medias and put DETOX as her header name referencing detoxing the ‘internet’ but truly meant her and I.

#janjancolored #StarstruckJanna #twitter #tumblr #comission #art #deviantart

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clothestop · 6 years ago

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Hi, I'm not sure if this will be weird to ask but i've read that you have a math degree and knows how to code so i hope you can give me some advice regarding my career choice. If that's okay. Tbh i'm still not sure if i should take up computer science or pure mathematics. Math is my favorite subject in school and the more i study college-level theoretical math, the more i realize that i would want to do this professionally.

But i also considered computer science because i’m weighing the employability of both majors and i know that i could get a more stable job with comp sci. I’m so confused i’m sorry if my ask doesn’t make much sense but i have so many questions. May i ask what age did you start coding? And like my dilemma, i’m wondering why you went with pure mathematics and didn’t take up computer science. What put you off? Also, how did you start coding/ what made you start learning how to code? Did you take up comp sci classes? I’m a 17 yr old girl heading to university next fall but i just started learning how to code last year so i feel a bit left out. I’m really enjoying it so far but thinking of a possible career with it, i’m also scared as a woc in that kind of field. This may sound silly but like what the tumblr saying goes: i don’t want to be a sell out while i work for something i love. Lastly, i know that even if i’m still a beginner and there are a lot more things that i could learn in university. But in the meantime to prepare for that, what advice can you give to someone like me who is a beginner (words of encouragement, pros and cons, skills to develop etc etc)? Btw i’ve read that you lived in Southeast asian countries and i’m from SE asia currently living in the US so i relate to what i’ve been reading in your blog. Thank you for reading and sorry for

Hello there! No worries, I didn’t think that your ask is weird. And ofc, I’m more than glad to give you my advice :)

Well, I started with basic coding at around 12 or 11, eventually studied it extensively and moved to more complicated programming languages when I was 15 or 16—but I was already in uni during that time (uhm, yes I was younger than most of my peers). I play games a lot, and when I was younger, I dreamt of developing my own video game or website. And as a kid, you wouldn’t be surprised that I even thought of using my knowledge of coding with making cool stuffs™ like robots haha. To be honest, I wasn’t “put off” of taking up Computer Science; it’s just that my head had always been gravitating towards Pure Mathematics ever since. However, I admit that I did fancy taking up that degree because I was opting for another major that would *complement* my Pure Mathematics track, since my mum initially wanted me to have a degree that is “lucrative” to her standards. Basically, even if I didn’t end up pursuing Computer Science, we met at a compromise with me double majoring in Pure Mathematics and an applied maths major which relies on heavy programming as well. Despite being good at maths in school, programming was unarguably one of the most difficult things that I’ve studied. Not to mention that at the beginning, I was self-taught. After uni, I became more serious with my self-study, and even took up few short courses in Computer Sciences just because I’m really interested with it. Never considered to pursue it professionally, though.

If you look at the macro statistics of how students perform in different subjects, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and China (particularly Shanghai) has always ranked really high in maths and sciences. Yet, until recently, most of the technological breakthroughs are happening in the West.. Or perhaps, most technological advancements that happened in Asia (mind you, not only in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries) weren’t relatively discussed and/or recognized in a global scale during the past few years. Furthermore, living in Caucasian-dominated countries, I know that minorities would always have to go through the eye of a needle to have our voices heard and our efforts recognized and properly credited; otherwise the achievements we had produced would never see the light of day, or worse, People in the Position of Power™ would take credit for what we worked hard for. (Disclaimer: I don’t live in the US)

Additionally, two years ago, reports disclosed by large tech companies like Google and Facebook show that females make up less than 20% of technical employees. Unfortunately this figure drops to single digits for the larger tech community. But you shouldn’t be fazed with these facts. Yes, this is a sad reality but we can do something to change the system. At present, females working in most industries (not just in tech companies. Believe me *sighs*) should work twice as hard as a man to get to the same place, and it was made into a norm that we should just be prepared to do that. Thus, at least eventually in the tech sector, the more girls who learn how to code, the less unequal it would get. If you think about it, apps and websites like Instagram and Facebook (and uh well, Tumblr) have a wide female user base. And I truly believe that women need to be part of the voice in creating this technology to serve the users more effectively.

Yes I’m Southeast Asian as well currently living in a Caucasian-dominated country (again, not the US). But I lived in different Asian countries, so I also understand how tech startups in these regions lament the lack of local talent. Universities produce graduates who are well-versed in computer science, yet the latter go after paths that only require an understanding of programming languages suited for banking and finance. Conversely, startups use something much different and more modern—something that tech companies want to see more of. Moreover, a few years ago, tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook, and SAP appealed to the European Union education ministers to tackle skills gap in information and communications technology, saying that an estimated 900,000 jobs in Europe would be left unfilled by 2020 if not addressed. The UK has since implemented computing into the national curriculum. Again, Tumblr Politics™ could make an asinine analogy of this to Destroy Capitalism™, but the reality dictates that we need this to achieve growth in the foreseeable future. (Another disclaimer: I’m very much against classism and capitalism, but I can be level-headed as well to understand the global economic and political atmosphere that we live in. Less whining, more tangible actions to abolish these systems.)

Correct me if I’m wrong (this could easily be googled), but from what I’ve read, the average salary for a good fresh graduate programmer in the Silicon Valley is around 100,000 USD. So you can verify that this is indeed an in-demand job. But I definitely agree with your outlook as well. I quit my last job despite the high pay, advantageous position, connections and opportunities in the corporate ladder™ because I lost my passion and felt like I no longer learn something of value from it. I felt like I was just a small cog of a devious capitalistic machine, operating at an auto-pilot, and can never make an actual difference to society (contrary, I felt like I was actually working against it D:). BUT! Please. Please. Please. Never fully absorb everything you read in this hellsite as a clear reflection of how the world works. Always take everything you read with a grain of salt, because despite of the positive things we could see and the amazing people we could meet here, Tumblr is a very, very problematique™ place to take inspiration from. Of course I’m not generalizing, but sadly, some people here (despite their charisma and very persuasive convictions) proclaim revolutionary™ ideologies that only promote hateful agendas. Thus, even though I would always believe that money should never supersede passion, I also understand that the system is working against us and that it wouldn’t be as easy as we imagine it to be. So, I always seek to find balance in every decision that I make. It would also help to have a concrete plan of how you would like to see yourself in a few years (I know it sounds cliché, but I promise it’ll help), and to choose to work for a company that you know would create progressive measures to aid society as a whole, and would promote sustainable growth for the planet and the human race. Sorry if that sounds so cheesy and pretentious, but I mean it. I would like to think that that wouldn’t make us corporate sellouts™, rather, we are dreamers trying to survive and thrive in this very demanding society. [Hmm. To be honest I think corporate sellouts are the ones who exploit the society, and trample over others just to achieve their goals. Soulless creatures, I tellss ya. But yeah, maybe tumblr SJW vocabulary made another revolutionary™ breakthrough.]

That said, I know that you are already in the right track. And even though you seem to be in a dilemma, I could see that you’re geared towards computer science already :) Both maths and programming are your passions, and I’m glad that you discovered that at an early age. Don’t be afraid to take the leap. And if later on you realize that perhaps the degree you pursued wasn’t where your heart is, I can only assure you that you are not the first and last person who would feel this way—and that’s perfectly okay. Lots of people end up in jobs that are radically different from what they took up in uni, and they excel and feel really satisfied in those fields. And there are others who eventually go back to school to fulfill the academic approach that they had missed. Whatever happens, don’t be afraid to troubleshoot and start again. Don’t think that you had a late start on coding. I’m in my late 20s and I know that I still have a lot more to learn—not just with programming—and that really excites me. Remember, formal education isn’t the only place where we could learn and harness our skills. We’re so lucky to have lived in this digital age where everything could be presented to us with just a click or a tap of a button, so we should take advantage of that.

My last advice to you is to master BOTH the technical and creative skills needed in this science, both of which are essential to be a good programmer—bridging the technical side of coding with the creativity to solve problems. I know I still have a long way to go, but somehow, I think I could consider myself as someone who already has a good foundation and an in-depth knowledge of programming. This skill is something that does not only aid me in my career, but it also helps me with problem solving and thinking about issues structurally. With coding, I can solve problems and think of multiple solutions for the same problem, and can see the pros and cons for each solution. Further, I’m able to challenge my own assumptions in all of these solutions. However, like I’ve said, I don’t think that programming is something that I could do professionally. Despite excelling in the technical side of it, I believe that in this industry, the creative ability of a programmer is the one that is highly sought after. I totally concur that one should never underestimate how HARD programming is, and I guess that’s the beauty and challenge of this discipline. I know that I have the dedication and patience for this skill, but even if I master the complexities and technical skills needed in programming, admittedly, I still lack the creative elegance that I see in a professional programmer. But I hope that you could find the equilibrium in these factors and excel on them.

It will never be my intention to discourage you, on the contrary, I hope that with these information, you could objectively weigh the reality of the field that you would get yourself into. Which is why I’m glad that you did your research because it shows how serious and passionate you are to take time in educating yourself with these details. More importantly, I hope that you could talk to someone you look up to and trust in real life, because choosing a career is a serious life-changing decision. But feel free to DM me if you want to add or discuss something else :)

Thank you for your question, gotshineboc. I really hope that this could help you out. Very best of luck!

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travelforfun99 · 8 years ago

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15 Things we learned from TRAVEL

In the last 12 months I learned a lot about long-term travel, what I need to be happy, and how to survive outside of the U.S. Many of these things can’t be learned at home or in a book, and while reading about them on the internet can only get you so far, a lot of people have asked me to explain how I’ve done it.

Well, here’s part of the answer.

“There’s no substitute for just going there.”

-Yvon Chouinard My trip hasn’t been about sightseeing (although I’ve done that) as much as just being somewhere. The simple challenges of daily routine can be overwhelming: trying to eat, drink and sleep in a place where nothing makes sense, you don’t speak the language, and where none of the basic comforts of home are available. It’s not easy, but if you want a fast-track to personal development, get on a plane.

When I was younger my dad often said, “The hardest part is just getting out the door.” And that may be the most important lesson of all: it’s too easy to get complacent at home and if you aren’t at least a little uncomfortable, you probably aren’t learning anything.

If you’ve already traveled extensively, you may get a kick out of this. If you haven’t, here are some reflections, tips, and advice about long-term travel on my one-year anniversary of life on the road:

#1) Most of the world’s people are friendly and decent. Except for the French*.

Some stereotypes really hold up, but on average, most of the people I’ve met around the world are extremely polite, friendly and helpful. They are generally interested in why I chose to visit their home. They are eager to assist if it’s obvious I’m lost or in trouble. They’ll go out of their way to try to make sure I have a good stay in their country. And, contrary to what most Americans tend to think (see #3 below), they often don’t know much about the United States (or necessarily care).

Don’t be convinced before leaving that “everyone there is _______”. Show a modicum of respect to people and their culture and you’ll be blown away by what you get back. Try picking up a little of the local language. Just learning how to say “thank you” can make a huge impact.

* Sorry, I couldn’t resist. To be fair, France is like everywhere else: most people are decent. It’s just that France has a particularly large proportion of bad apples that give the place a well-deserved reputation. I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in France, but also a disproportionate number of a**holes (not travelers generally, but residents of France). This isn’t based on a single trip nor is it restricted to Paris. Almost every non-French local in Europe agreed with me on this one.

#2) Most places are as safe (or safer) than home. I remember confessing to my mother recently that I had a big night out in Budapest and stumbled back to my apartment at dawn. Her reaction was: “But don’t you worry about being drunk in a foreign country?”

Ha ha, not at all mom! I’ve never felt so safe!

The only place I’ve been violently mugged was in my home city of San Francisco. Many of the people I know there have been robbed at gunpoint, and on more than one occasion there were shootings in my neighborhood.

In one incident just a block away from my apartment (Dolores Park), a man was shot five times and somehow escaped, only to collapse about 10 meters from our front door. You can still see the blood stains on the sidewalk.

Turns out we actually live in a pretty dangerous country.

In over 365 days on the road, staying mostly in dormitory-style hostels and traveling through several countries considered ‘high-risk,’ the only incident I had was an iPhone stolen out of my pocket on the metro in Medellin, Colombia. I didn’t even notice and deserved it for waiving the damn thing around in the wrong part of town. Most people think that in a place like Colombia you’ll still get kidnapped or knocked off by a motorcycle assassin, but that’s not true. According to the locals I talked to (who grew up there), things have been safer there for at least 10 years.

Caveat: This doesn’t give you a license to be stupid, and some places really warrant respect. Guatemala and Honduras, where there are major drug wars going on (and the Peace Corps recently pulled all of their volunteers), or Quito, Ecuador, where everyone I talked to had been robbed, are reasonably dangerous (I had no trouble in any of them).

In reality, based on the sort of mindless binge-drinking that happens in most travel hot spots, you’d expect travelers to get knocked off a lot more often. But if you pay attention and don’t do anything stupid, you’ll be fine.

#3) Most people don’t know (or care) what America is doing. I think the whole America vs. the rest of the world debate has been summed up perfectly in this post:

=> 10 Things Americans Don’t Know About America

I couldn’t have said it better:

Despite the occasional eye-rolling, and complete inability to understand why anyone would vote for George W. Bush, people from other countries don’t hate us either. In fact — and I know this is a really sobering realization for us — most people in the world don’t really think about us or care about us. I’ve met people that didn’t even know that San Francisco (or California even) had a coastline (now there’s a sobering conversation for you. So much for thinking that’s the center of the world eh?).

One thing is true: Americans are not well represented on the travel circuit. It just doesn’t seem to be culturally important to us, unlike say, the Australians, who never go home.

#4) You can travel long-term for the price of rent and a round of drinks back home My favorite question from friends at home has been: “how the hell are you still traveling?”

Well, for what you spent at lunch I can live on for a whole day in Indonesia. That’s all there is to it.

- Monthly rent for a shared apartment in San Francisco could be: $1,100 per person.

- My average monthly expenditure during the last year of travel: $1,200 / month*. That’s $40 / day, and includes some ridiculous and totally auxiliary expenses. For example:

10 days of Scuba diving in Utila, Honduras - $330 Kitesurfing gear rental in Mancora, Peru - $100 for two days Flight to Easter Island (50 percent subsidized by my dad) - $400 Acquisition of 4 Surfboards, + Repairs and Accessories over the year - $750 Purchasing a bunch of gear, like a new netbook ($380), wetsuit ($175), boardshorts ($55), camping gear ($100), a SteriPen water purifier ($125), summer sleeping bag ($55) Riding the NaviMag Ferry through the lake district of Chilean Patagonia from Coyaiquhe to Puerto Montt ($200). Taking a total of seven nearly cross-continental flights (like Brussels=>Greece) during my four months in Europe. And so on. I also went out, a lot, and spent way to much money on alcohol.

Before I left home, my original budget projection was $50 / day, which I would consider lavish in many parts of the world. In some places, I spent as little as $20 / day (including lodging, all meals and booze) while living in relative luxury right on the beach. Generally, I shot for $30 / day which gave me a buffer of $20 for travel and miscellaneous or one-time expenses.

Countries visited on this budget: Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Easter Island (Chile), Argentina, Uruguay, Santa Cruz (California), North Shore of Oahu, Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Turkey

Totals: Six months Central/S. America, two months U.S., two months Western Europe and two months Easter Europe).

Obviously, some places are cheaper than others, like Guatemala, where you can get a room for $4 per night. You have to be a lot more careful in Western Europe, where I got a little bit loose with my budget and spent $2,000 per month for two months. But I also spent less than $900 in the month that I biked (pushbike) through France.

You might be blown away by how cheap some “expensive” places can be. The second cheapest hostel I stayed in (after Guatemala) was in Berlin, Germany, at €6 / night (~$7.43 USD). Beer in Prague was as cheap or cheaper than any other country I’ve been to (it was $1.43 for 0.5L in ultra-touristy downtown Prague). You can rent a decent downtown apartment in Budapest for $200 / month.

Bottom line: If you’re careful, you can travel on $1,200 per month or less. Rolf Potts, the author ofVagabonding (highly, highly recommended whether or not you’re planning to travel) claims to have circled the globe for years on $1,000 per month. Budget $1,500 per month and you should be totally covered. You can do this even in Europe if you go slow, stay with friends or in cheaper hostels, fly on discount airlines (as opposed to taking the train), cook or eat street food, and don’t buy booze at the bar (which I did and somehow survived).

The best budget rule of thumb I’ve learned (can’t remember the source) is to take the price of your nightly accommodation and triple it. That will be about your daily minimum to survive, so $30 per day where a hostel runs you $10 per night.

*Note that my monthly total budget does not include transcontinental airfare (like U.S. to Europe) which was free (see How I flew around the world for $220). Since I typically travel overland and all flights are one-way tickets I haven’t flown as much as you’d expect.

#5) Saving for a big trip is not as hard as you think. Most people think I’m rich because I’ve been traveling for a year. What they don’t realize is that, although I didn’t leave at the time (this was five years ago), I was able to save enough money for this trip within a year and a half of graduating college.

My first salaried job paid $29,000 per year — not exactly ballin’ by U.S. college-grad standards. But by pretty ruthless budgeting , I was able to save $1,000 a month for the 15 months I worked there.

Guess what? That’s $15,000 or 12.5 months of travel at $1,200 per month.

Are there sacrifices to be made? Of course. But it’s worth it.

Btw, I am by no means the first person to discover or write about travel budgeting. This post is from 2009: Travel full-time for less than $14,000 per year. Don’t think it’s just us either, because all of thesepeople are writing about it.

I plan to write more about how to save money in the future

#6) In most places, moving around is incredibly easy. I rode buses from Honduras all the way to Uruguay. With a surfboard. And it was a cinch.

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Unlike the independent car culture of the U.S., people all over the world rely on some kind of bus service to get around.

In most places you can get from anywhere to just about anywhere else, and most of the time it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to figure out. Generally (outside the middle of peak tourist season in popular places) I haven’t bothered with reservations or pre-planning transportation routes. I just show up at the bus or train station and go.

I’ve ridden buses for hours into the middle of the Costa Rican jungle as well as through BFE in the Northern Chilean Andes. There’s almost always a group of locals who needs to get to where you’re going too. And if there’s no bus you can always hitchhike (this only happened once or twice on my entire trip).

It’s an eye-opener to see how some of the poorest countries on earth can still provide better public transportation than San Francisco.

In places like Europe and South East Asia you also have the opportunity to take advantage of discount airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet. I flew across Europe seven times in two months for less than $120 that way.

#7) Every pound over 20 makes life worse. There is virtually no reason to carry more than 20lbs (~9kg) of gear unless you’re going on a major trek or you have some serious sporting event in mind (like multi-day backpacking or cold weather sports). If you’re traveling in the summer you can get by on even less.

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Here’s the first key: Try only to do one thing on your trip. If you are hiking, just hike. If you are surfing, just surf. If you’re party backpacking and staying in hostels, just do that. Packing for every possibility is suicidal. You just can’t carry street clothes and backpacking gear in the same pack and expect to not have a million tons of crap.

I’ve traveled the last year with a carry-on sized 30L day-pack made for climbing (this means it’s made to properly handle weight). Right now, it’s only 2/3 full and loaded with exactly 20lbs of gear (which in my opinion is still too heavy). But I have some serious accessories in there including 3lbs of surfing equipment (for Indonesia), a 3lb laptop, as well as a GoPro video camera (0.5lb).

When most people pack for a trip, they make a list of things to pack and then try to figure out how to fit it all in. But the best way to choose a backpack is to find the bag you want to carry and then see what you can fit inside. Make sure the pack doesn’t weigh more than 3lbs by itself.

If you can get to less than 15lbs (~7kg) it will change your life. Imagine getting to a location and being able to walk around and site-see with all your gear. Incredible.

This is the other key: pack the 20 percent of gear and clothing that will cover 80 percent of possible travel scenarios (yet another manifestation of the 80/20 rule). If you end up saying “I might do _____” then get rid of it. Don’t take anything you won’t use with relative frequency unless it’s really expensive or hard to find on the road.

Get rid of everything you possibly can before you set out, and don’t be afraid to donate things or send them home along the way. Oh, and the easiest way to figure out your pack weight? Buy a cheap fish scale from Amazon.com.

A small pack also allows you to have a carry-on bag, even on super small planes. I can’t understate the importance of this.

Bottom line: Trust me, the longer you travel the less you want to carry.

Bonus: Here is my 2013 Round the World Trip pack list.

#8) Long-term travel is not a vacation (it’s a full-time job). After my first six months of traveling I went home for a break. To the surprise of my friends, I was completely spent, exhausted, and didn’t want to do much of anything.

“But you’ve been on vacation, you should feel great!”

Right. I guess you missed the 22 hour bus-ride where we took turns puking in the back because of altitude sickness and pisco-induced hangovers. Or maybe you didn’t make it to the last 15 hostels where sleeping before being black-out drunk is just not an option. (Sounds glamorous, doesn’t it!)

Planning and logistics also take an incredible amount of time and effort. Most downtime spent in a place when not sight-seeing is typically sucked up in researching the next destination, making reservations, planning logistics, and going through the dreaded ‘time budgeting’ process where you decide what you can reasonably see in the time available (and what you have to cut out).

Overall, it’s exhausting, and a great reason to consider traveling slowly (more on that later).

If you move quickly, don’t have any illusions about all the things you’re going to “get done” in your down-time. Take a good book and just travel, that’s it.

#9) ‘Travelers’ and ‘Tourists’ are different. You know what I mean.

Tourists exchange money for pre-packaged experiences. They consume experiences and move on without engaging with the local culture.

Travelers are there to see things, not buy them.

Travelers tend to be more involved. They may stay with locals, hang out with locals, try to learn the language, or just plain move slowly enough to really live and be where they are.

Sometimes I play “tourist” but that doesn’t mean I see myself as one.

#10) Don’t worry about traveling alone (it’s better). Although I’m a solo traveler I haven’t spent much more than a handful of days on the road alone. That’s because you meet people everywhere: in hostels, on buses, trains, planes, restaurants, trail-heads, monuments, etc. If you’re doing a standard travel circuit you’ll see the same people over and over again (most people don’t leave the Lonely Planet itinerary), and it isn’t uncommon to fall in with a large group of people who are all going the same way.

It’s so easy to meet people that I’m often stuck with the opposite problem: trying to get away from everyone. While I love all my new friends I need some downtime every so often.

Most travelers are uncommonly interested in meeting new people. That’s one of the big reasons they’re on the road. A simple “where are you headed” has often turned into a new travel partner for weeks. And when it stops working you simply set off on your own again.

Afraid to go it alone? Don’t be. Go the the first big city in your destination country and hang out in the hostel lobby for a few days. I promise you’ll make new friends. This is why you should also stay in hostels. Don’t be afraid of sharing a room. It’s a small trade-off for the amazing people you’ll meet.

#11) Movement can be addictive (and this is not necessarily a good thing). The “traveler’s rush” that hits you upon arrival to a new place is like a drug. And like a drug, the more you expose yourself to it the more you want.

This can mean moving too fast or skipping out on places just to experience the ecstasy of arrival again. The results are obvious: less time in places you thought you wanted to see and ultimately, burnout. The tendency to try to cram more places into an overpacked schedule is often hard to control.

One trick I’ve found to deal with this is to have a minimum stay: Three nights in every destination. This is enough time to see the place, relax, and get sorted before the next stop. It also means you’ll have to cut out some places if you’re tight on time. While I’ve had great one-night stops before (I’m looking at you, Belgrade) it isn’t sustainable or desirable to do too much of this.

Of course, some places aren’t what you expected either. If that’s the case, get the hell out of there and spend more time in a place you want to be.

#12) Don’t bank on paradise. 2013-10-08-Image4.jpg

Keep your expectations in check.

This isn’t easy, since you really want that place you’ve been dreaming about to be paradise. But like anything else, high expectations are a recipe for disappointment.

I spent five years in office jobs dreaming about getting back to Utila, the magical Scuba party-island off the coast of Honduras. When I finally got there, I was ready to leave after a week.

Turns out I didn’t really care about Scuba-diving as much as I thought, and there’s only so much you can do on a tropical island before you go nuts. At that time I also had new aspirations and a new skill: surfing. I ended up heading to El Salvador to surf some of the best waves of my life.

Expectations can also make or break a place. Most of the places I knew nothing about before arriving blew my mind. Most of the places I had high expectations for utterly failed to impress me (except for Chicama, the world’s longest wave, and Rome).

The other thing is that as you go through life the rules are always changing. By the time I arrived here in Bali — which has been a dream and one of the pinnacles of the trip — I had a small but growing online business that had become my number one priority. Instead of rushing off to some deserted beach hut and surfing all day I’m obsessed with trying to find a place to live where I can get to fast internet at least a few times a week. Say what you will, but my priorities have totally changed (at least for the moment).

It also turns out that a lot of Bali is a tourist nightmare from hell. Or maybe it’s just getting harder for me to be as impressed by anything.

Also: Take recommendations with a grain of salt. Another person’s paradise might be your personal hell, and vice-versa. A close friend of mine thinks tropical beaches are the reason for existence. Well, unless there is wind or waves on them I’ll crack up after three days. Getting stuck on a deserted tropical island is my definition of hell-on-earth.

#13) Traveling doesn’t get ‘traveling’ out of your system. If you’ve got this bug, it’s not going away (sorry), but the obvious question is: why are we trying to get traveling out of our system, anyway?

Rolf Potts did a great job in Vagabonding of justifying not just travel as a lifestyle, but also a lifestyle that makes travel a non-negotiable ingredient. Whether that means saving for a big trip or just taking a few weeks a year the important thing is to make room in your life to keep traveling.

I was actually told on this trip (if you’re reading this) that I needed to stop screwing around and: grow up.” I think in our culture that means going back to the “real world” of office jobs, succumbing to general complacency, and trying to enjoy two weeks off a year.

If that’s the case you can count me out.

The world is just too big and interesting to not be exploring.

#14) Eventually, you will need something real to do. Most people think that I’ve spent the last year sipping Mai-Tais on the beach somewhere. Well, I tried that and after four days I started to lose it.

The sad and somewhat surprising truth about the myth of the deserted tropical island paradise is this: there is nothing to do on a deserted tropical island. As Harrison Ford drunkenly slurred once in that terrible but entertaining movie, ‘Honey... it’s an island. If you don’t bring it you ain’t gonna find it here.”

Despite popular belief, most people can’t just sit around doing nothing for an extended period of time. Especially Type-A American folks who I’ve been told are “goal-oriented”and always trying to “get things done.” It might be a cultural thing, but it’s more likely just human nature to want to be involved in something larger than yourself. (This also, by the way, is the death knell for the whole concept of retirement, as articulated so well in Tim Ferris’ 4-Hour WorkWeek).

The point of quitting a job to travel around the world is also not to do nothing; it’s to do something else. As Tim Ferris points out, “idle time is poisonous,” and believe me, when you’ve cut your ties with conventional society you’re going to have a few moments of serious self-flagellation. The endless ‘what I’m doing’ and ‘why am I doing this’ loop.

It’s true that the feeling of wanting to build/create/be a part of something can be deferred since traveling itself is a full-time job, and that simple fact can keep you satisfied for a long time. But after six months of moving around I was astonished to discover I was actually bored. I mean, really bored. There are only so many days that you can walk around looking at things, go to the beach, and party all night without starting to think that something’s missing.

For more on working on the road, see the 22 things I’ve learned as a digital nomad.

What it boils down to is that eventually you’ll need need a project. Whether that means studying, concentrating on a sport, volunteering, working somewhere, starting an online business, or whatever, eventually you’ll have to find a creative or intellectual outlet to keep yourself sane. Which brings up the next point:

#15) Long-term happiness is a pretty complicated emergent property that has little to do with money. I will probably kick myself later for publishing this, but what the hell, here goes:

If you studied any chemistry in school you may remember the concept of emergent properties: the difference between the dining-room table and this computer screen is simply the right mix of a bunch of elements. Put together the right pieces and the product spontaneously emerges from the matter it’s composed of.

Similarly, in my experience happiness is not derived from a single point source (although it can be temporarily) like a sudden infusion of cash or arriving at your dream destination. Instead, it takes a lot of things working in concert to keep me happy: it’s really the emergent property of a network of variables..

Unfortunately, most people seem to forget the network effect and focus on a single variable, like money. Sure, money can allow you to do things, but once basic needs are satisfied the correlation between money and happiness seems to drop off a cliff.

A lot of people defer things they might otherwise pursue for the big payout dream. The “if I only win the lottery” or “when I sell my company for $10 million” routine. The problem with the fantasy, besides the obvious deferral of really having to come to terms with what you want to do in life, is that while a big payout would certainly increase the options available to you, but that is not necessarily a good thing. I won’t elaborate on this too much further here, but having more options has actually made me less happy in the past, as was so well articulated in The Paradox of Choice.

And here’s another punchline: most people whose luck or life-stage has allowed them to not be required to work seem to choose to anyway. I know a guy who retired at 26. What does he do now? Runs a firm for fun.

Think $10 million in the bank is going to make you happy? Well, good luck with that.

While I can’t speak for everyone, I’ve learned that I need the nearly perfect concert of three to four major variables before I can say that I’m “really happy.”

These have very little to do with money:

Health: Not just injury or disease-free but fit and functional for everything I want to do. That could mean anything from just feeling good in the morning to being able to easily run five miles. Wealth: I’m not talking about money, but the reinterpretation of wealth as the free time and means to do what you want to do. In my experience, control of my time is the key, and as long as I have enough money to cover basic expenses I’m happy. Relationships: In major cross-cultural studies published by the WorldWatch Institute, happiness has often been primarily attributed to breadth and depth of social connections.’Nuf said. Productive/Creative Outlet: As discussed above, I need something to learn, to do, or to build. If this sounds cliche or too simple, try sitting on a beach somewhere and wonder why you’re not happy for a few weeks. It’s easy to forget the most basic things in life.

(The funny thing about having four simultaneous requirements is the violation of Sun Tzu’s Art of War: Never fight a battle on multiple fronts. Maybe you’ve figured it out already, in which case I’d love to talk to you about it, but whenever I get two things in order the third one drops out of the sky.)

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blueandyellowdiamond · 4 years ago

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PRID ZABIJAT NA VYJEBANU SLOWAKIJU!!!

Miss. Antónia Ficová, Engineer.

district of Humenné,

Slovak Republic,

European Union

To date February 23, 2017

To attention: To representatives and decision makers of Great Britan

Subject:

Complaint on instruments, method´s and approach of Britain´s Government and their representatives since October 2012

And the most important, I am not conservative to serve man that only want to see me suffer and caused me pain, clear? And you don´t have to teach me how to be kind, I know that without you.

ANTÓNIA

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Miss. ANTÓNIA FICOVÁ, Engineer, (Not yet Dr.)

Single. Simple. Self-Educated.

Citizenship: Not British. Not French. Not Russian. Why I should be proud and pride slovakian?!

Email adresses: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

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