Amy Poehler

Parks and REc, starring Amy Poehler (aka Tina Fey's best friend/girl crush), has been my last hurrah before delving back into structured real-people responsibility life. And it has been AWESOME! I think I might find Amy Poehler funnier than Tina Fey...I don't know what I'm saying, but I'm pretty sure it's the truth. Something about Amy Poehler's well-intention-ed, over-achieving, idealistic, stubborn steam-roller character resonates with me. I'm also having a hard time writing this post because I'm moving to Boston tomorrow! HOLY CRAP!

I just remembered why I started writing this post. It's because she's in the process of writing a book and I'm really excited about it! Someone get it for me for my birthday in 2014!

The Things I'll Miss about Fort Myers

Saturday yoga by the waterfront. The sign warns yogis taking calming breathes that while everything might seem beautiful and serene, hungry alligators lurk beneath the surface and might eat you alive at any moment.


Going to watch the birds return to their nightly nests. There must be over a thousand ibis, heron, egrets, anhingas, cormorants all up in this tree.

Bossypants

Got the idea from a friend, who read it under the pretense of a "professional development" book that qualified for a work reimbursement (corporate perks yay!). Reading Tina Fey's autobiography only convinced me of how much I love and respect her and obviously, at this point, my narcissism also kicks in and convinces me that we're more similar than I thought! For one, we were both awkward looking adolescents who now look much better as adults. We're are both apprehensive about cruises because both of our first experiences on cruise ships were complete disasters, defined by internal ship failure and near death experiences. Lastly, nothing brings two girls closer together than similar first-time gyno stories! See what I mean, me and Tina, we're like two slices from the same pizza.

Seattle II

Seattle summarized in three good things: seafood, sculpture gardens, and hipness Seattle summarized in three bad things: overcast, rainy, and cold

It was so foggy we couldn't even see to the top of the Space Needle!


Metal tendril sculpture next to the lock


Troll under the bridge: another sculpture. The abundance of sculptures btw, is because they have this 1% rule where every 1% of any public budget has to be dedicated to the arts. Reminds me of how SB once installed larger-than-life painted ceramic fish sculptures on every corner of downtown.


Matching from their expressions, to thick frame-less glasses, to beige overcoat with those loop buttons, to brown corduroy pants, to leather gloves, to...okay, so the subway ride to the airport took a while...


Bad Yoga in Sketchy Places: Namaste, Warrior II, Eagle, Crescent Moon, and Upward Dog

Seattle

Before I left for Seattle a friend of mine said it was basically hipsters and good food while another one said it was just overcast. Both were right.


Tesla shop!

So Good They Can't Ignore You Book Review

A few days before Xmas, I found a surprise present in the mail from Anthony (one of this blog's few followers, so HI!) with a book titled "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport. Cal Newport is a comp sci professor at Georgetown/published work-habit guru, and the book revolved around the thesis that Working right trumps the right work. It fits well with the Asian ethic of hard work paving the road to success. After dispelling the "passion hypothesis" (ie, we all have some kind of natural passion that we must follow in order to have a fulfilling work life), he goes on to propose that fulfilling work comes after we have spent enough time to meticulously learn a craft/skill that is "rare and valuable" (for example, coding).

I have always believed that hard work is necessary for true success that I can be proud of. Passion is also important to me, but I can buy the argument that at the entry-level, very few people have true passions, and the ability to learn interesting new things and become really GOOD at them can lead to very passion-filled work life. In a generation where the passion-hypothesis is prevalent, I can see the contrarian lining of his stance. But having been raised in an environment that's always emphasized hard work in lieu of self discovery, I found it less novel than a good reminder of another side of the coin.

What I found interesting was how meticulously Newport treats his "practice" habit and the type of lifestyle he encourages in order to discover the "missions" that can make work fulfilling. For example, he emphasizes tracking and improving upon your own study/work habits (something I don't do) to become a more efficient and effective worker. He is constantly taking "little bets" to explore new opportunities and to gain experience and insight at the same time. He also proposes setting aside time for "deliberate thinking", the type of thinking where you're learning something new and difficult that makes your brain feel uncomfortable and reluctant to continue. It's kind of like exercising and trying to push a little bit past your comfort zone. Like all good advice, when you hear it, it sounds obvious, but still you have a hard time following it (ie: eat more veggies). While making spreadsheets that track all my time is a big step for me, trying to incorporate more "deliberate thinking" can be useful and a good small step forward.

I didn't have much of a new years resolution this year other than continuing a healthy lifestyle, but with "deliberate thinking" I see a very good opportunity to incorporate learning into my new year's resolution. Here's my resolution:

For each month of the year, I will choose a new difficult topic to pursue that can help me become better at my new job. For the month of January, my goal is to review and master Multivariate Statistics. Perhaps, it'll also help to refresh my memory of R and SPSS.

I had a great time today revisiting Six Mile Cypress, a boardwalk within a few minutes drive from my house. It was a lot of fun to play the "guess the animal" riddles on the boardwalk. They are meant for little kids, but my parents were just as funny as little kids because they didn't know many of the answers (and I was very amused)! I guess the animals you learn about growing up in China is very different from the States/Florida.


The cypress part of the "Six Mile Cypress" boardwalk


Searching for interesting things. The highlight was a 15ft alligator (across the lake) that we spotted with our binoculars and also spotting a black boar (who knew they lived in swamps?!)and chasing him for as long as I could while on the boardwalk.


Awwww


My submission for membership in the elite club, "Bad Yoga in Beautiful Places


Dad, haha

Orange you glad?

Picking oranges with the fam


Two Suns in an orange tree


The guy at the cashier stand asked us if we were with the nail saloon...so racist! lol

A Hip Old Folk Vacation

For New Years, Cecil and I decided to meet up in Clearwater, FL, a beachy retirement town about a hundred miles away from Fort Myers.
We had a great time living it up like hip old folks, including going contra dancing at a senior rec center, gambling at a gritty BINGO parlor, and swinging dancing on New Years.


My boyfriend, the BINGO gambler...check out how old the other people are in this room! The game was also more intense than I thought because there are multiple bingo sheets that you play all at once.


Swing dancing to a big band


Balloon drop



Sometimes our age difference becomes apparent at the most random of times. When the DJ started playing the Electric Slide, I was like say wahhhhat? and Cecil was like all up on it.




Kissing my sweetie on New Years Eve, I guess I can get used to this holiday tradition. :P