In between start and end

Last year I posted a 2020 resolutions for the upcoming year, so this end of the year is the perfect time to review them before the step into a new year.

Below is my resolutions listed with the ones that I have and haven't completed:

To summarize, I only achieved 3 things out of 10 of them. Not a great achievement tbh but mainly bcos my interest has just been changing this past year. 

I realized that some of the things listed are actually harder to achieve since I'm still a student and very much restricted. Some other really just went south because of my incompetency and lack of proficiency. Probably expected too much from myself.

With that, here's a 2021 version of it.

1. Graduate degree with at least a 3.5 CGPA

Currently no longer a 3.5 pointer student huhu.

2. Build a micro-habit system

I've seen a video talking about building micro-habits and was totally up for it. However, I haven't been setting up one for myself and feel like I should any time soon. So, I'm looking forward to building that system and incorporate that into my life by the end of next year.

3. Upload more kpop covers than I did in 2019.

I'm gonna re-attempt this resolution simply because I've actually been disappointed in myself of not achieving this in the past year.

4. Rebuild that emergency fund

I was actually close to setting aside RM1000 in my emergency fund back in 2019 but failed because I ended up using it to fund my exchange programme and Korea trip. In 2020, I didn't have much to save and financially was pretty tough. But I've been trying to build my emergency fund back and I'm gonna work harder in being strict about it this time.

2021 goal: RM1000

5. Post at least once in each month

The best feeling is when I read back all my archive and relive each moments long after it happened. It's honestly why I kept this blog for so long even when nobody really reads them. Documenting my life through this blog is probably one of the happiest decisions I've ever made in my life.

I think that would be all that I'm gonna put out there. I'll leave the rest of the resolutions to my journal as they're pretty personal 🤭

Dropping by,

Staying at home has made my days pretty much a routine - class, kpop, kdrama, shopee, sleep, repeat. I've lately been addicted in collecting shopee coins lol. But even so, not one day felt boring enough til I don't wanna get out of bed. 

I think that alone is something last semester me couldn't relate. 

Hence, I decided to analyze a little bit of how things went differently this time. And of course, I'll try focusing on the things that I have control over. 

First, my mindset towards having a "break".

Last time, I used to think that I intensely needed some break every time I get overwhelmed. When my friends tell me I should get some time off, I really did. But that's the mistake, I overdid it. I rested so much that I ended up not doing anything with the actual work.

I gave myself too many reasons for a "break" that made myself very manja and lazy. I was really just running away from my responsibilities - which definitely took a toll on both my grades and mental health (in case you weren't reading my previous posts).

One thing that I learn from that is, I shouldn't have a break unless I've finished some work. I know it should go without saying, but sometimes, you gotta have a strong mind to achieve it.

Next is being time efficient in planning.

I have always loved planning. But do I always stick to them...? Uhh 🙂

Ok, so I suck at keeping up with my own plans. Then that left me with two options, either to build a new planning system or retry the old one.

That got me thinking. I realised that I never truly even keep up with the current system I have, so I decided to turn a new page and have a fresher start. I didn't change anything in how I plan since my diploma days. However, what I did change was my attitude towards it.

I didn't ignore my checklist and frequently updates them. To make sure I am not overwhelmed with work, I always break things down to smaller tasks. Instead of writing "Study Chapter 1, 2 and 3", I break down to 3 separate checklist - "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2" and "Chapter 3". 

Does it make my list longer? Yes. Does it motivate me more? Surprisingly it does. After I'm done with one chapter, I crosses one out and it gave me a great feeling of accomplishment even over something so little. 

From there, I realised that my focus is not about being productive, it should be about having consistent progress. There's no use in being super productive when the thing I should overcome is to just get myself to do something.

Lastly, complaining less.

I noticed that people don't complain when they're doing well. You'd think that is very obvious, but to me, that is a huge indicator that I'm doing well. Complaining less means lesser negativity so it's always nice to vibrate positive energy from within. I don't just mean complaining on social media, I mean complaining in real life - whether to your friends, your family or just whoever you speak day-to-day to.

To stop myself from complaining, I just force myself to do my best. I get myself to face all the work that I know scares me, just so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. I think we tend to complain about the things we worry most and it really shows when I get anxious even after letting it out.

I really hate that feeling so I try to address every single thing that makes me most anxious, soonest. So far, it has left me with more space to breathe. They still sometimes do keep me up at night, but at least it no longer linger more than it should. And I think that is a positive sign.

All in all, I am in my Week 11 of my final semester. Few more weeks until final presentations and final assessment. I'm praying I can get the GPA that I hope for, but most importantly the intern place that I dream of.

My degree life is actually ending soon! I'm not ready be an adult 😲😲

Dropping by,

As someone who love watching k-dramas and listening to k-pop, I feel like VPN is becoming an essential tool for international fans. 

Sometimes, k-entertainment can be very restricting to certain regions that makes it unnecessarily hard for some of us to access them. So in this post I will be showing you how I personally overcome that! 

First, you need to find a VPN that works for you. What is VPN, you may ask?

VPN stands for virtual private network. In layman's term, it's basically used to hide your actual device's IP address with another IP address (thus the name "virtual") to trick the internet into thinking your location is not where you actually are. Some use it for safety purposes (like when using public wifi), others use it for this kind of accessibility purposes.

My personal fav is Psiphon. It was recommended to me when I needed to access restricted contents (like KissAsian to watch kdramas) when using the student's wifi.

Here is the download link https://psiphon3.com/en/download.html. You first need to download and install it in your PC. I personally don't really use the app version, so it might work differently through the app. 

Once you've downloaded and installed Psiphon, you can simply run the application every time you want to access any restricted content.

You can simply disconnect it to get your local IP address back. Easy as that!

However, this VPN do have a limited list of countries you can connect to. For my case, South Korea is not in the list, so Korean contents are still not directly available for me. However, contents that is available to USA is easily available once I turn this on. Most of the time, that worked well enough for me.

I never really had a need to change to other VPN in the 5 years of using this, but feel free to try other software if this doesn't work for you. 

That is it for this little tutorial, hope you could benefit from it.

Dropping by,

What would it be like if we're living a life full of suspicion of the people around us? Well, I'm here to tell you this drama is exactly that! 

"365: Repeat The Year" is a kdrama by MBC aired from March until April 2020 starring Lee Joon Hyuk and Nam Ji Hyun. It consists of 12 episodes, but don't be fooled because this is the perfect length for it!