Sluggishness

May 25, 2026

After the church’s 3-day retreat, I anticipated pulling myself together and get busy with work in the studio. But things turned out rather sluggish this past week. I still spent most of my time during the day at home trading stocks even though there weren’t many daily transactions. It’s an addiction that’s unnecessarily using up the precious free time I was gifted. I could have better used the time setting up the studio and starting new projects than staring at the screen all day looking at my portfolio value going up and down.

A little bit of accomplishment did however result in this sluggish week. My paper artist friend in HK needed some custom “cookie cutters” 3D printed for a workshop at a museum, I managed to create and print the items remotely from Canada and had my friend pick up the prints at the HK studio. The project was a bit rushed and I was glad that my HK colleague and I managed to pull it off the last minute! Another accomplishment that I managed to pull off was the completion of a (near) final draft of my church’s annual report after much delays. I felt a huge sense of relief after the draft was sent off for approval yesterday afternoon!

A friend from HK was in town for his son’s high school graduation, he didn’t let us know his visit in advance, but we did manage to arrange a spontaneous meetup. Spending time meeting up friends is definitely more rewarding than staring at the screen watching the stock values going up and now.

I’ve returned from HK for more than 2 weeks already, time can really slip away slyly without being noticed. I really need to stop lavishing the time away so easily, may God help me. 🙏🏻

Studio Setup and Church Retreat

May 19, 2026

Returned from HK for about 10 days already. My immediate task after returning to TO was to set up the studio I started leasing in May. After buying insurance, getting the key to the studio, a quick “orientation”, and many rounds of moving stuff back and forth from home to the studio, I had managed to complete the setup of a little corner in the studio to focus on my work. The studio space is much bigger than what I needed to start, I’ll slowly add in equipment, furniture, and artworks as needed.

Before I attempted to start any serious work in the studio, I joined my church’s annual 3-day retreat during the long weekend. This year’s retreat was relatively relaxing. I was arranged into a residence with 3 other guys and 2 extra beds. I took over an entire room and slept quite well in both nights. That made a big difference throughout the entire retreat! With restful sleep at night, I was able to sit through 5 seminars/ workshops without feeling sleepy. I also seem to be more observant, saw many beautiful cherry blossoms, squirrels, a hare, geese, robins, red-wing black birds, and even a beaver swimming back and forth along a stream building a dam! Now that I think about it, earlier I was a bit like the beaver moving stuff between home and studio 😂.

With the church retreat over, I felt like I had officially ended the vacation that was started more than a month ago when I visited HK. I now feel well rested and ready to move on to start a new chapter at the newly leased studio this week!

Blessed HK Trip

May 10, 2026

Managed to pull off a month-long trip to HK to see my parents before getting busy with setting up a studio in TO starting May. I was worried at first about needing to stay with my parents and causing all kinds of unnecessary conflicts during the short stay. To my surprise, my parents didn’t nag me at all this time around about finding a gf and getting married. I guess they were trying to avoid the unnecessary conflict as much as I did, or maybe they had simply given up nagging altogether which is good because I can’t see it helping one bit.

I also managed to stick to a rather strict routine of sleeping and waking up early during the entire stay. In most mornings, I left home for the studio at 7-ish before my parents even woke up from bed. This of course helped with avoiding opportunities of being nagged unnecessarily. Even though I was out and about during the day, I had dinner with my parents almost every other day, most of the time in the neighborhood restaurants near home with my sister and brother-in-law. My parents moved back to the WTS neighborhood before LNY and we all agreed that mom seemed happier in this new environment.

Besides seeing my parents, I accomplished a few less important tasks which included helping a friend bring back her passport and (unknowingly) celebrating her birthday, moving out some old stuff from my previous home in Kln Tong, completing a few adhoc projects at the studio and settling its finances, helping my mom with some online banking issues, drafted the annual report for my church, and meeting and catching up with some good friends.

The month-long trip was also blessed with good weather. Aside from a little rain, the temperature was mostly comfortable enough that I can wear shorts without sweating and didn’t need to turn on the AC during sleep.

Unlike my earlier trip to HK in December which felt drained to the last drop of energy, I felt re-energized and ready to start things anew here in Canada this time around. I am thankful for this blessed month-long trip. 🙏🏻

Wrapping Up Q1

Apr 5, 2026

Time really passed by too fast, just realized it had been nearly a month since I last posted. Many things, mostly happy things, happened in March. A friend was in town for work and I had a chance to meet some of her close friends here, it brought back some fond memories of my UW days. Finished the last class of a month-long weekly linoleum printmaking workshop, didn’t acquire a lot of new skill set, but it did trigger some new 3D printing design ideas. Had a couple of birthday meetups with a couple of friends separately, the meetups were a good reminder of how long our friendships have been as well as how old we have become all too quickly.

3 families (7 adults and 6 kids) visited my tiny condo one Sunday afternoon. It took me a few days to rearrange my home furnishings to comfortably fit all 14 people in such a small space. Everything seemed to have worked out at the end and I was happy with the newly reorganized living space setup which I would never had put in so much time and effort without the challenge.

Assessed my investment performance for Q1, despite a drop of about 1% in March, I still had gained more than 6% overall. That’s more than double my target of 1% gain monthly. I attribute the decent performance mostly to luck and grace from God as I still am very dumb regarding economics and finances and I don’t think I’ll be interested in learning about it any further at this point.

One of the happiest news for me in March was being approved to lease a subsidized studio space that I had been eagerly wanting for a long time. That will be a great stepping stone for me to establish and grow a creative career here in Canada. I thank God for the opportunity and pray that He will continue to guide my new life here.

Fresh Start

Mar 9, 2026

LNY had quickly come and gone. Temperature returned to double digits last week and the clocks had just sprung forward for an hour overnight. It felt like Spring has returned.

Last Monday I started the first class of a workshop focusing on linoleum relieve prints using a Vandercook press. I enrolled in the course to motivate myself to get out of the home to do something creative and social. On my TTC ride after class, I took out my sketchbook to sketch some travelers busy staring at their phones. It felt good to be picking up some art again after a long time.

Met with an Art group on Friday to discuss about an opportunity to lease a studio space they’re making available for local artists. I brought along with me some of my past projects and my vision for utilizing the space. I hope I had properly conveyed how much I wanted to lease the space without being too pushy. Leasing the space will certainly be a big step forward in kickstarting my creative endeavors in Canada.

It certainly felt like now is the ripe time for a fresh start in life. May God continue to guide my steps forward to live a meaningful life that’s worthy of His praise. 🙏🏻

LNY 2026

Mar 1, 2026

One of the perks of being Chinese is that you get to celebrate New Year twice annually. However in recent years, in midst of all the political persecutions happening in HK, I find it difficult expressing joy during festive days when I know so many people are imprisoned unjustly and are separated from their families and friends.

LNY is the biggest celebration in Chinese traditions each year. We are supposed to greet family and friends joyfully and wishing everyone good health and wealth for the year to come. I find it especially tough to be in HK during this time. I’m no good in pretending to be happy and greet people unanimously everyday during the long holidays. In that respect, I feel much more comfortable to be alone in Canada where LNY celebrations are much toned down and I can genuinely be myself and not be caught up by the many Chinese traditions.

Aside from the LNY celebration I was invited to from my church, many of my friends decided to meet up in February. It was good to see and catch up with friends without being tied down to the many traditions. Now I feel ready for a fresh start in Canada for the second year of returning, may God continue to bless my journey ahead.

Art

Feb 8, 2026

After moving back to Canada for more than a year, I finally started picking up doing some art again. The Print Studio 101 course I enrolled at the beginning of the year did provide the motivation I was hoping for. Weekly class and assignment was of great help to move my lazy butt away from the couch to do something creative.

I also unpacked some of my Chinese calligraphy supplies and started practicing and writing LNY fai chuns. Felt a bit rusty at first, but slowly got back my touch for the art medium after writing ten or so fai chuns.

Was asked to help design a poster for my church’s upcoming evangelical meeting which led to an opportunity for me to pickup some cartooning again. I decided to invest in a Wacom drawing tablet (MovinkPad 11) to further motivate myself to learn doing some digital art.

Doing art also seems to be helping me move away from my stocks investing addiction, I was able to focus on carving out my linoleum stamp for hours without feeling the urge to check on my portfolio performance during market hours. Art is good and I should do more of it in 2026!

One Month Back

Jan 26, 2026

More than 3 weeks had passed in 2026 and I had returned to Canada from my HK trip for about a month already. Time flies.

I started picking up doing some art and design again in the past couple of weeks. Spent a lot of time on the second week of January to work on a proposal for a temporary sculpture. Rushed till the last minute to submit the work before the midnight deadline and didn’t have enough time to do a rendering of my proposed CUSMA Ball. I only found out afterwards that the deadline was extended for an extra week.

Enrolled in a 5-week Print Studio 101 workshop. My hope was to motivate myself to pickup doing some art again. The travel to downtown for the class once a week was a bit of a pain, but it did push me to finally pickup doing some art again. There was heavy snow all day today, I decided to stay safely at home to participate my church’s Sunday worship via a livestream. The extra time at home on a Sunday afternoon got me to pull out some inking accessories and do a little cartooning after more than a year. I hope to pick up doing more art in 2026 now that I have more time and am not too concerned about my finances.

Tagged along a friend to see my first ever live concert on Friday evening. It was quite a refreshing experience. I started to get into the vibe about 3 songs into the concert and enjoyed it till the end.

First Week of 2026

Jan 12, 2026

Trump’s administration surprised the world with the capture of Venezuela’s dictator last weekend. I had been pouring a lot of time watching news trying to grasp the implications for Canada, HK, and the entire world’s geopolitical environment. I feel worried and couldn’t quite know how to react.

The stock market reacted positively and the TSX index continued to break new record highs. My portfolio did exceptionally well because I didn’t hold any petroleum related stocks which took a little dip after the weekend Venezuela raid. The optimistic stock market outlook without much positive news to back it up made me worried even more. I really don’t understand how the economy works and really should spend less time messing with my investments.

Bought 2 cases (6 blind boxes each) of a new Lego minifig series that I really liked. Was worried that there would be repeats in the blind boxes and that I would have to waste extra money trying to collect all 12 figures. To my surprise, there wasn’t a single duplicate in the 12 blind boxes! That brought me a little delightful moment amidst the tumultuous times.

Started playing pick up bball again on Saturday with my friends. Felt good to start exercising once again. Felt just a little sore in the muscles waking up this morning, and that’s nothing to worry about because I have the entire week to recover.

New Year 2026

Jan 4, 2026

Returned to Canada for just over a week, I’m slowly adapting to the slower and quieter life here once again. Started meeting and catching up with some friends here. Seems like not a lot have happened in Canada while I was away for a month.

My friend gifted me an air fryer and taught me how to bake yam that taste extra sweet. I finished a whole bag in one week and bought another bag yesterday. I also tried air frying some chicken wings, they tasted pretty good with sriracha sauce. Really loving the convenience of the air fryer. I’ll likely be experimenting and cooking much more at home this year.

I’m starting to cut back on my time on trading stocks. Even though my investment earnings for the past 5 months was more than enough to cover my expenses, I feel a lack of meaning and purpose. This year I hope to restart the plan to setup a satellite design studio here in TO, may God continue to guide my steps ahead.

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