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Q2 Transitioning
Started executing my ambitious Q2 plan after the Easter holidays. Managed to keep up my weekly calligraphy goals while adding a new 5-class seal carving course. Picked up my order of handcrafted paper yesterday, will try to setup an online store to offer my calligraphy works in coming weeks.
The calligraphy work, which I still treat as a hobby rather than work, did not impede my regular studio work. After a little hiatus in Q1 from digital fabrication work, I picked up the slack and started cleaning and fixing stuff in the studio in preparation for projects planned for Q2. I also resumed 3D printing again and spent extra hours in the studio one night to finish up a 7.5 hour print for a friend.
My social activities also started picking up. I met up friends on Mon, Wed, and Fri. this past week. Next week will have meetups from Mon. to Wed.
Besides calligraphy, studio work and social activities, I also picked up my running practice again. My last recorded run was already a month ago. I managed to run for two nights this past week, seemed like I wasn’t too out of shape.
It had been a busy yet purposeful week, need to keep up this momentum for the rest of Q2! Add oil!! 💪🏻
Easter
After more than a week of gloomy days, the sun was finally spotted today before it sank below the horizon. This weather is actually a good reminder of Easter in that it was all gloom and doom when Jesus was nailed on the cross, and it wasn’t until the resurrection that light and hope finally reappeared to all mankind.
One of my two long time calligraphy classmates suddenly told us she will stop going to our weekly calligraphy classes. I will definitely miss her presence. Her leave seemed to have triggered a reflection of my near 7-year calligraphy journey. As I planned for new projects to do in Q2, I had included some ambitious goals involving calligraphy. If attained, the hard work would become meaningful milestones for my seemingly never ending calligraphy journey.
If I were to follow through all the Q2 projects as planned, this quarter will demand many long hours of deep work, more so than the previous KOKB.site web project. If I can endure the challenge, the reward shall be proportionally fruitful. A bit like Easter when light and hope is attained after long hours of gloom and doom. May God guide my work this quarter. 🙏🏻
KOKB Launched!
Ran the last mile and felt relieved after finally launching a website I had been working on since LNY holidays. The site is far from perfect, sometimes it doesn’t even load at all, but it’s a WIP and should be good enough at this stage. The site can be found here: KOKB.site
The web project combined many of my skill sets like programming, design, cartooning, calligraphy, etc. It wasn’t straightforward and required just the right amount of challenges and creativity to keep me motivated. I think it has the potential to become one of my lifelong STEAM projects!
Happy that I was able to complete this website project just before Q1 ended. I’m now planning and looking forward to more similar creative projects to work on in Q2. It’s good to have something to look forward to when there’s not much else to hope for in a deteriorating city. I have to remind myself to broaden my horizons and to see the world beyond a city that has lost its glorious days. May God continue to guide my steps forward. 🙏🏻
Bye Bye Friend
After a short ~10 days stay at my apartment, I farewelled my Canadian friend off to his next destination on early Friday morning. Thanks to his visit, I finally cleaned up my apartment, a task that was scheduled before LNY but was put off due to busyness and my never ending excuses at the time. I hope I had shown good hospitality to a long-time fellowship brother.
Coming to the last week of Q1, I need to put in some extra effort to finish up a website project that I had started during LNY holidays. I was really excited about the website idea at first and had shown my close family and friends an early prototype. But as time dragged on, my spark of joy for the project seemed to have faded. Now I just wanna finish it up and have the website launched next week so that I can move on and put my focus on the next project in Q2.
Will try to put in my 110% effort this week to finish off the website, add oil!! 💪🏻
Post-COVID Plan?
Had dinner at one of the usual restaurants near the studio on Fri. The restaurant owners seemed especially happy seeing me dining-in, they mentioned that it had been 3 years since I last dined in. It felt strange but true, having lived through the long years of pandemic still seemed like a surreal experience.
Have never stopped asking myself (and praying to God) about my long term plan since returning from my summer vacation in Sept. Had been talking with my Canadian friend who is temporarily staying at my apartment about this, no conclusion was reached, but I seemed to be more certain about the possibility of moving back to Canada.
So what’s the plan? I don’t know (yet). I just know that the city is deteriorating rapidly and it’s sucking up much of my joy to live in an unjust dictator regime. I can’t envision a happy future here. But what would I do if I move back to Canada? What about my elderly parents staying in the city? I need to think harder. May God continue to guide my steps. 🙏🏻
