Monthly Archives: May 2018

Didn’t sleep well last night.  My own fault, I stayed up too late watching a meaningless movie and got myself too stimulated to sleep.  Paying for it today.  Slept in and still felt lethargic.

The physical ailments brings philosophical sentiments.  The realization of the temporary and fleeting life span brings the mind to the now.  Really, what do we really have if not the NOWs.  Full participation of the now is the only grasp we can have of the short time we have here.

Life IS short.  Be Merry, Be present, Be Kind.

Today’s word is “character”.  We all hope that we have character and we strive to do the right thing even when people are not watching.  It has an unyielding sense to it and it has the positive connotation.  In Chinese, I found these two words to fit best for this definition.

And we went to the neighborhood eatery “Longitanos” for lunch.  I am alarmed at my “fat” reading going up on the scale so I picked a salad.  I like their Crazing Nut Salad.  And surprisingly, their pita bread is much better than Alladin’s for some reason.  It’s hot and soft.

Think I’m going to finish my daily tasks earlier today.  It’s become my daily routine to

1. Find something to write
2. Write it in Procreate
3. upload to Instagram
4. Upload to the blog and write something there.
5. Write in the journal in Goodnotes with the Apple Pencil and do some minimal planning in the digital planner.

When I do all these things, I feel I didn’t waste my day.  I thought, I created and I wrote.  I’m happy that I have kept this up for a few days now and it is adding positive vibes to my slightly depressing eye situation.

 

Got a late start today,  Just finished this quote and uploaded to instagram.  I am getting more and more comfortable using Procreate.  Still tons of features to explore but I have got a few tricks under my belt.  Another positive out of this inconvenience.

We went to 3 Palms for lunch today to get the meat balls we craved yesterday and missed.  They were closed for Memorial Day and didn’t bother to update their hours online.  We saw quite a few people trying to get in yesterday as we did and the door was locked.

We got the meat balls and a goat cheese pizza to share.  I had a white sangria.  All of them were delicious.

Enoch called and we chatted and I got to see and talk to Esme again.  She is growing into such a cute baby.  He is trying to get her passport picture ready and wanted to print it on 4×6.  So I spent some time trying to collage it.  Haven’t done it for a long time, so it took me a while searching for the right tool to do it.  And finally put together a not so satisfied file using Lightroom to adjust the exposure, magic eraser to get rid of the background, collage on the Mac to put the picture into a 4×6 grid.  Hope it works for him.  Don’t know how well it would turn out still.

Tried two versions of this today,  The first one seems too dull yet it reflects the meaning of simplicity.  The second one seems to pop a bit more but lost that simple feeling.

In the last few days, I found a daily rhythm.  I look for inspirational word to practice calligraphy on Pinterest or google search.  I write it in Procreate.  I upload to instagram then I put it in this blog.  It seems to give me a purpose every day.  Since I’m stuck at home, so to speak, I can’t drive before I get proper glasses for my left eye.  I can’t do strenuous lifting or exercising, I spend a lot of time on the iPad.  It actually gave me the benefit of practicing my calligraphy and exploring new apps.  Got the “graphic” app, but OMG the learning curve.  Really want to learn how to put a word I write on a curve but haven’t got there yet.

We went to Aladdin for lunch and I found some new things to try.  The farmer’s pizza is really good!  And the waitress told me that I can ask them not to add lemon juice to the hummus.  Now it is just right for me.  It has always been too sour for my taste  So yay for two new discoveries.  And I saw tiramisu, so of course I ordered it with coffee. Super full but super good lunch!  Didn’t follow the simplicity vibe for eating though.  🙂  21 followers on instagram.  I’m very humbled still.  And I like the organic growth.  Facebook likes sometimes seem like a twisted arm move.  🙂

This quote jumped out at me on Pinterest today.  Lately, similar thoughts have been on my mind.  Especially when I’m kind of stuck at home now before I can get a pair of glasses to drive with and to know the final result of the surgery, life is on semi hold.  This gives me tons of time to reflect and also to learn and practice more on Procreate and now the Autodesk Graphic app.  LIfe has been pretty full albeit not active.

Made this one yesterday but didn’t Iike it at first.  I just couldn’t get the procreate brush to behave for the second stroke to the right.  The source is a flat oval, I need one that rotates a bit to the left so I can smoothly tapered to the right like when I did with a Chinese brush pen.  But I decided to upload it to instagram anyway.  Surprisingly, I got a couple of likes and a follower.  I like Instagram better than Facebook.  It is meant for the public and you get an honest feedback more than a facebook friend who feels they need to like your post.

I did some search on google to find a proper word for mindfulness.  Found this one but I don’t think it really conveys the meaning.  Still, I didn’t come up with any better word for it so I went to write them out.  Ended up spending more time than I should in Procreate trying to adjust the brush to behave correctly for me.  But back to the mindfulness.  We all need to bring our wandering mind back to the present and stay in the present.  The only thing that a wandering mind brings is usually negative or have nothing to do with the present moment and do not benefit us anyway.

 

Today’s procreate calligraphy practice.

Went to the one week follow up at the eye doctor’s office yesterday.  He was glad to see the Phovia at the back of my eye.  The bubble was less than half by my observation.  And he said the blob has been pushed away a little bit from the center.  I guess they are all good news.  I just struggle to deal with the blurry and confusing vision in my right eye and the slight dizziness it makes me feel all the time.  Doctor said I can sleep on both sides now but not on my back still.  Bummer.  But the up side is both ears can take turns for the abuse.  We went to Sakura for lunch and had some good shushi and sashimi.

We had some sake too.  So naturally, I took a nap when we got home.  And I had the best nap since a week ago.  A deep and don’t want to wake up kind.  Felt rested but with a slight headache.  I guess I can’t drink much nowadays.

I downloaded the “graphic” app on the iPad.  Wanted to wrap the word “content” in an arc at the top of the Chinese word.  But it wasn’t that easy to do.  It probably is easy if I know what to use in the app, but it looks like those Big Mac illustrator kind of software and it isn’t intuitive for me to do what I need to do.  So I spent most of the night trying and not getting anywhere.  Well, another part was spent getting the script brush to be what I want in Procreate.  Don’t have a manual of what the options mean also proved to be challenging.  So I reset it and little did I know I have wiped away what I have done before and spent a lot of time trial and error to get what I had back.  The “joy” of playing with software.

Leo went golfing today and I decide to make the pork chops we bought in March from the freezer.  Spent an hour or so from beginning to end, the dish was good but I wasn’t feeling so well.  This eye thing is really messing with me and without dancing as exercise, I’m sure I also have lost some stamina.  Well, one day at a time.  Be content with whaat I have and be grateful.

  

Found this Chinese proverb after searching for a while on Google.  There are a lot of phrases or proverbs online but very few in a short and meaningful or inspirational sense.  Translation is moderately adequate at best.  There is a lack of it online.  Plenty of inspirational quotes on Pinterest in English though.  I’ll do the best I can if I want to continue doing this kind of calligraphy.

The two versions are slightly different  not sure which one I prefer, actually.

The bubble in the eye is getting smaller.  I can see outside of it.  But the blob isn’t budging.  Blood inside is getting smaller and more transparent.  The yellow blob is still the same since the beginning.

Be Still. God said Be Still and know I am God.  Chinese said, Be Still and Reflect.  Similar I guess.  How little do we quiet down our minds and stay still and pray or reflect.  Something worth devoting time to practice every day.

 

I did the zentangle yesterday in procreate.  Today, it dawned on me that I can make a washi with it by turning it into a procreate brush first.  Then stamping it multiple times with different colors.  So I can use it as is for decorations or use the colored version as a washi.  Here they are.  I am having so much fun!