Cantonese Practice: Le Petit Prince 2

 

Cantonese Practice: 粮食浪费指数 Food Waste Index

 

Cantonese practice: 飯寶嘅泡泡糖奇遇記

 from Youtuber MtzCherry

Cantonese practice: Self-introduction

 

Cantonese practice: Le Petit Prince 1

 

Cantonese practice: Testimony

reading from this

Mandarin practice: Testimony

 

Since I’m externally motivated, and with delta (plus a hurricane now?) narrowing the field of things I can do, I’ll post recordings of Chinese reading practice. The calculus is as follows: posting on Facebook, IG, or Twitter is too public, and spamming my friends & family group chats is too spammy. So these will land on the blog, a fitting capsule for different phases of my life anyhow.

reading from this

mindfulness

I had this moment after a counseling session where dots finally connected. My therapist has been recommending a mix of, one, doing activities unburdened by responsibility (time off, non-family hangouts), and two, pausing during the day to be mindful (I think "mindful" is a fancy way of saying "be present"). Then I later thought to myself, "What if those two things actually operate the same way?"

The first category suggests that humans crave new experiences, mystery, and adventure, and much of modern unhappiness stems from our finding artificial ways to pump dopamine, through videos and feeds, to less and less effect. It's the reason why when I went back to the office after a year, poring through my emails became a much more enthralling and delightful thing, just by changing the scene.

The second category of "mindful" practices, from what I understand, involves training the mind to be completely engaged in the present. If you're eating, take in every taste and texture (so eat slowly). If you're walking, before absentmindedly listening to a podcast, first appreciate the surrounding nature and architecture and all it took to make those things come to be. If you're breathing, notice your chest expanding and the air cycling through your nose. It's sort of like being a kid again.

Now my theory is that, practically, the first category of doing exciting things pretty much lends itself to being more mindful. That is, when you're doing something new, you're naturally just much more present. You're more likely to take time and enjoy the sights when commuting in a new city, whereas a dulled local pays no mind anymore. And since it's much harder nowadays to do particularly exciting things (safely), is the takeaway then to simulate a sense of new wonder in routine things?

I tried today, and to a degree it works. My errands seemed less hurried and more relaxed. I let go of future problems, which tend to establish themselves prematurely in my brain.

It's better than the converse: constantly chasing exciting new stimuli. That obviously doesn't scale. Here's an old Instastory when I was traveling; restless and unable to sit still, I found myself *bored* trying to absorb 4 programs at once.

Even without travel, I'm not at a particularly better spot at the moment. A weird thing about quarantine is that, out of a pathological desire to not be bored, I've produced a robust catalog of dozens of activities and goals to keep me busy. But by chasing the stimuli and not savoring the process, the terribly irony is I'm quite bored with all of them.

Tangential NYT article: Feeling Blah During the Pandemic? It's Called Languishing

Recent things that have been good for me

Spring weather

Taking walks enjoying the blossoms

Getting taxes over with

My son enrolling in special education

Reaching out generally to more people for my son

Getting a leftover dose of J&J

Frequent PTO

Anthony Bradley's podcast

Men's group at church

Saying "I love you" to other men

Therapy

DIY home fixes

Neighbor auntie cooking us dinners

Family fun with Pokemon Stadium

COVID + frequent winter storms = cooped inside for long periods of time with a toddler. The principle shifts from “no screen time” to “what quality of screen time?”

Well, I’ve found Pokemon Stadium (N64 ROM via Google TV) to be a good after-dinner family activity for the following reasons:

• It’s easy. No advanced reflexes are required like sidescrollers, RPGs, or even puzzle games like Tetris. You can take your sweet time deciding your next move (of which there are only 4), and it’s nothing more complicated than beating down the other opponent’s health.
  
  
• It’s interactive. The whole family gets involved deciding what’s the next move, or what Pokemon to choose, so lots of opportunity for a child to input towards a shared goal.
  
  
• Learn English. “Agility,” “seismic toss,” “super effective,” “supersonic.” The usage of these words isn’t complicated, but they are still animated in engaging ways to give someone a sense of what the words mean.
  
  
• Learn math. The HPs have some decently-sized numbers as the levels get higher. Pokemon in the end is about math and how to get the biggest attacks, so lots of good math conversation.
  
  
• Learn science. Use electricity to beat water. Use ground to take down electricity. Use psychic against ghosts in your house (..?). Life skills here.
  
  
• It’s fun. My wife and I also get really into it, because there’s a good mix of luck and strategy. And the characters are cute, which kids like.