I’ve always wanted to be in a cop car when they slow down traffic like that. Too bad this time I got caught behind him and my dad was just in front of him, in the Budget truck! Almost lost track of him on moving day to my new apt last month.
weaving popo from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
This week has been pretty brutal on me mentally. Early on, I got hit with roadblocks and conundrums that had me wracking my brain and trying to troubleshoot multiple issues. Some were pretty complex problems that required much mulling and consulting with others in the office. It didn’t take long to get a headache trying to figure out the best resolutions to these issues. Just when I thought I knew what was going on and had come up with a decent way to fix it, something else would crop up to complicate it all over again. After awhile, my mind was fuzzy and I felt like a cloud had descended throughout my head.
It took many phone calls, emails, and IMs (along with quite a bit of thinking out loud) to eventually get to a place that I felt good about. And that process lasted a good 2-3 days, finally letting up a bit today. I feel much more relieved now and I can’t wait until the weekend – all the better that it’s a long one! Usually the weeks go by fast for me, but this one has dragged on as my poor brain took a beating. I’ve broken out all over my face, had restless dream-filled sleep, and sometimes can’t muster up an appetite. Amazing that I could have so much stress with hardly anything to show for it. I guess that’s what’s most frustrating – I spent so much time and effort and came up against so many dead ends that aren’t reflected in the final solution. It’s like all those drafts you go through to write a paper. The final product is clean and well-organized, but hides all the edits, revisions, changes…
I’m looking forward to getting a rest and hopefully a truly restful night of sleep soon.
This weekend I finally got the LoveSac PillowSac! I mentioned back in May 2009 that I’ve wanted this thing for ages (about 8 and a half years by now) and now it’s here. Originally I had wanted a SuperSac, the 6-foot diameter LoveSac, but after my friend lent me his indefinitely, I started to focus more on the PillowSac, which is cool because it is quite versatile. I like that you can get the Rocker and set it up to be a rocking couch, or lay it out flat to be the size of a full mattress. In addition, there are the fun shapes like fortune cookie and pea pod. 🙂
I’ve been following the Deals section of the LoveSac site, where they had an entire Fushia Berry Chenille set for $499 (more recently discounted to $399 for Valentine’s Day specials). I liked this set because it came with the PillowSac and cover, a Rocker, and two throw pillows. Purple’s my favorite color and I thought this unique pattern would be fun. However, it’s absolutely tacky and impossible to match with anything, so I held off, not sure about that pattern. Then, about three weeks ago, the Red Herringsuede one showed up for Valentine’s Day, also at $399, but without the throw pillows. Now I couldn’t decide between the two. The purple set had a better deal, but the red set is far easier to put in a room.
Click to see the deals:
So, that’s how I ended up at the LoveSac store with Panda this weekend. I figured I could take a look at the materials and decide once and for all which one made more sense. Thank goodness I did too! I had thought that the Herringsuede is a type of faux suede, but instead it’s actually a herringbone pattern renamed. After seeing that, I would have rather had another more exciting texture. Luckily enough, the store had a black Velvish PillowSac cover that it was selling for a discount because this cover was discontinued and it was their last one. Even more fortunate was that they had an open PillowSac selling for a discount because it was not completely brand new and in the packaging. The reason for that was it was used in a L’Oreal commercial that Beyoncé shot recently. Pretty cool, huh?
So when I heard the price of the PillowSac and cover, I was pretty sold, but I wanted the entire set I’d seen online, Rocker and throw pillows too. I asked the saleslady about that and she was able to offer slight discounts for both. She had a couple of throw pillows to choose from and I thought the Red Herringsuede would actually be a great contrast on the black. Having pillows that don’t match the PillowSac itself made things much more lively and exciting, otherwise those pillows sort of blend right in. In the end, I’d be paying about $27 more at the store for a much more customized set with a cool back story. And so that is how I ultimately got my new PillowSac set!
I haven’t wanted to spend the money to get internet service at the apartment, so I’ve been using whatever signal I can get. Unfortunately, this results in a lot of disconnecting and extremely slow loading. It’s getting to the point where I need to use an alternative solution, or just give up using the internet extensively while in the apartment. My first hope is to find a nice neighbor with enough bandwidth to share their network password with me in exchange for a portion of their monthly cost.
I don’t want to have to deal with a setup cost for internet I’ll only have for a year, so I’d rather split the cost with someone who has already set it up anyway. I just hope I have some nice neighbors who’d be willing to do this. Roomie refuses to go ask, so I wonder if it’s an American culture thing for each unit to stay separate and not share amongst each other. I really hope I can avoid incurring a cost that isn’t wholly necessary by making a new friend with the neighbors! We’ll see how that goes.
It’ll be nice to finally go on Skype, watch a video, and do other things that haven’t been working for me lately. The frustration of getting kicked off AIM just might have to be avoided by paying up, sadly. That’s a good $200 each* if Roomie and I split a service – quite a hefty sum at the end of it all.
*clarification: for the year we’re at the apt, not per month!
The view of a plane from a plane!
plane flying over plane from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Got up just past 5 today to go to the airport and thank goodness I go to work late! I got a nice power nap in before work (nearly 2 hours’ worth!) and felt so refreshed. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had that extra time to rest.
I read once that a 6-minute power nap is just as effective as a 20-minute one, but I wonder if time taken to fall asleep was counted. Sometimes you can’t just crash right away and need some time to drift off. I’ve found that I seem to feel best if I sleep for an even number of hours. Getting 6 is ideal, 8 is hard to come by, and 2 or 4 is not quite enough.
I’m feeling very tired now though and totally ready for a full night’s rest. 🙂
Tonight Panda, Houdini, and I went to a dinner with my apartment mate (I’ll call him “Roomie”) and one of Houdini’s high school friends. When Houdini met my apartment mate, he immediately wanted to set good ole Roomie up with a friend of his who he’d met up with recently. She had told him she was interested in dating and possibly a relationship and hey, Roomie happens to be doing the same! So, Houdini set about getting a blind date arranged (with himself, myself, and Panda as company).
Well, tonight Houdini gets in the car and tells us that she’s not coming. Instead, we’re going to go pick up this high school friend of his, who he thinks might actually be a better match. Shocked and confused, we asked what happened and as it turns out, this whole blind date thing was made into quite a big deal in one of the classes that the original blind date girl is taking. On Friday, one of the people in that class (that she works with too?) actually asked her out because he liked her and didn’t want her to go on this blind date (and potentially get swept away by Roomie!). She said yes, so she wasn’t going to come anymore.
Coincidentally, Houdini had another friend (the high school friend) who is single and looking to date too. He even felt she might be more fitting for Roomie, so he invited her to come instead. She agreed and hence we went to pick her up tonight rather than the other girl. Funny, isn’t it? Houdini’s attempt to set up his friend ended up in her getting a date with someone she already knows. Meanwhile, Roomie and the high school friend had a pretty lively conversation tonight and whether or not they “like” each other, I do believe they had a good time and met a cool new person.
I am infinitely amused by the unintended result of trying to set up that first girl with Roomie. Houdini got his wish and got her and Roomie dates (just not with each other, lol). All in all it’s a pretty hilarious situation. Certainly not how we envisioned or how it was supposed to go, but it’s all good! And this is why we should be open to things that come our way. You never know what might actually happen in the end!
Taking a cable car up to Ngong Ping village, with others whizzing by, the air flowing through, planes taking off in the distance, and finally, a view of the Buddha. Check out other videos from my Ngong Ping visit.
cabin whizzing by from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
crystal cabin ride from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
ngong ping buddha from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Today Sir Lancelot, a little white toy pomeranian, was lost from our office. I really hope that someone found him and took him home for the night, and tomorrow will take him to a place that can scan his chip so he can be returned to his owner. Send good thoughts everyone! I know what it’s like to lose a beloved pet. 🙁
I listened to the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, speak last night at an Oppenheim Lecture and it was pretty freakin’ cool. He’s like the original green business owner. He’s got some great stories to tell and an amazing philosophy towards life and business. Plus he’s a man of my heart, following his idealist dreams until he needs to compromise a bit to not go broke. I find that the companies I want to start and things I want to create do not center around the question of ‘how can I make money?,’ but ‘what can I do to make things better?’ And when I have a great idea, my passion takes over and I swear, I start to glow.
I love his company’s culture as well, encouraging employees to pursue whatever they want when they want as long as they get their work done. They’re free to take off for a few months on some crazy adventure, or take off for an afternoon to catch a great surf. I’ve always wanted to cultivate that sort of environment in whatever company I start, so I paid close attention when he laid out his criteria for hiring: find someone who is self-motivated, passionate, and understands what their job is (and what is expected). Then, let them be! Oh, and the last question he asks himself is whether or not he’d want to have dinner with this person. He’s created a family sort of environment at work, where people bring their kids in whenever they need to and coworkers themselves treat each other like family as well. There are no cubicles and the people sitting next to you get familiar with your job just by hearing your conversations. I think being open and having that autonomy is really what keeps Patagonia employees happy, working hard, and coming back.
I also loved that he has an inquisitive mind and keeps on asking questions. He doesn’t just want to fix the problem at hand, he wants to get to the root of it and eliminate the problem all together, whether that’s completely changing what he makes and how it’s made or trying to start a movement amongst companies to be more responsible. Patagonia’s even starting an initiative that goes in three major steps:
Step 1: Go to a Patagonia store and get asked whether you really need to buy that item you’re considering or not. If not, don’t get it! If so, thanks for your business and please go to Step 2.
Step 2: When you have outgrown, tired of, or just plain don’t want that item anymore, sell it on to someone else who still wants it. Repeat Step 2 as necessary.
Step 3: Finally, when the item is no longer useful and has reached the end of its life, send it back to Patagonia and they will melt down, cut out, or otherwise find a way to use that old item to create a new one.
This is exactly what I had wanted to ask him about going in to the lecture. If only all companies were held responsible for what happens to their products at the end of their life cycle! Then they’d have to adopt the “cradle to grave” approach and start designing things that are more reusable, recyclable, and safely disposable. That’s a piece of legislation that I’d love to see get passed! Unfortunately, as Yvon said, to change government you need to change business and to change business, you need to change the consumer. And consumers are hard to change! We consumers demand, demand, demand, and the businesses respond to that. Why not demand that they also take back our products when we’re done? Companies like Preserve have already started this kind of business and it’s working fantastically!
All in all it was an inspiring experience to hear this humble man talk about how he ended up a leader in environmentalism, sustainability, social responsibility, good business practice, philanthropy, and so much more. He also started up 1% for the planet, where companies who join pledge to give at least 1% of their annual sales (yes, sales, not profit) to an organization doing good out there for an environmental cause. I only hope that when I am older I will look back and feel good about doing things that people respect, both in my personal life and professional life. I hope to also be an inspiration to those who meet me. 🙂
