Kitchen hood
My family and I decided to spend the long weekend a few hours away from where we live, so we boooked a homestay (or more like an airbnb, the term is commercialised here) so that we can cook there instead of buying food outside. We came to just walk around, not really for food.
The place we booked looked pretty modern in my eyes, it was situated in a newly-ish built apartment (5 years is still new, right?). Other apartments around also seemed to be also built around the same time period. And they’re pretty tall. 30+ stories tall. I didn’t know apartments can be that high, the tallest apartment I know at my hometown is 16 stories tall (we also have apartments where I live, but I never bothered to look up how high those are. they’re probably higher…).
The place is not big if I’m comparing it with a landed house, it’s a studio room. It’s practically a large living room and kitchen in one big room and a bathroom… that’s next to the kitchen (the bathroom in particular is big. like twice the size the bathroom we have at home. why?). I know back in my uni people who are well off rent this sorts of room. I can see the appeal if it’s compared with a dorm…
After we checked in and put our bags, we went around and bought some food to cook for dinner. It was just sardines, eggs, instant noodles and some marinated chicken (they were 50% off. then again even the place near our home has marinated chicken at 50% off…). Going up 30+ stories each time wasn’t that big of a shock, we just have to make sure our ears don’t pop from the sudden altitude change.
We then tried to cook and immediately encountered a problem. We don’t know how to operate the kitchen hood. There was no physical buttons to press as it was just a slab of metal with the engraving of the brand in the middle. At first we thought it was integrated with the induction stove as it was from the same brand, but even if we turn the nob to max heat it won’t start the hood.
It took around 10 minutes of finding a button that I decided to check over on YouTube to find out how to operate it. Apparently, for this type of kitchen hood… you just have to pull that slab to start it. We were hysterical when we found that out. This was like the time we rented those cars which use buttons for ignition and didn’t know that we had to push the clutch to make it start XD
Modern appliances are very cryptic to understand :P
Tried out decaf
We were just going out for some fresh air from the constant traffic and my parents decided to have a little bit of coffee, which I reluctantly also go and order. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I dislike it, it’s just that I’m a bit wary of my caffeine intake. I’ve tried one of those coffee energy drinks once a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t sleep properly for 2 days due to that. Not the best experience by far.
Everything is loud
!! This is the first in a series of blogposts that I’ve written on bearblog, I’m gonna retire that blog after finishing the migration of posts to here !!
So I’ve been noticing a thing recently in my life, every sound is loud. Not in the way that it hurts my ears kind of loud, but more so that it is loud enough to drown other sounds. If it’s the middle of the night, with barely any other noise than the fan creaking, a microwave or an alarm would be glaringly obvious to me. If I watch a video early in the morning or talk with someone in a quiet place, it would be very clear to me on what they’re talking about.
It has been a while
Hello, I’ve not really been active on this place it seems like. Life happened and stuff; and this place became an afterthought apparently, like so many things. Been well, just tired of all the news and stuff.
Currently in a middle of a hectic semester with delays and stuff. Doesn’t necessarily mean I’m busy all the time; it’s just that I don’t have as good as a skill in time management than I thought I was. Daily traffic probably doesn’t help the cause.
This blog post has been drafted in several places actually. The initial draft was done last week on a standing desk outside of the lecture halls. It was actually quite nice, there was a lot of air circulation around there. The second half, i.e. the polishing is done near the library (not in, there’s a dedicated place outside of the library with desks and chairs that’s open 24/7). It’s crowded by comparison. I’m pretty sure there’s no air circulation here, my mind’s been really slumping being here for extended periods of time, but it has pretty comfortable chairs, so I’m a bit reluctant to change places (the standing desks have chairs, though it’s pretty uncomfortable sitting for long periods of time for me).
Originally, I’ve had a draft for a light novel review that I wanted to put at the end of this blogpost as it’s nothing to write home about in terms of length, but I feel like it doesn’t really sit with me to put it here now that I’m proofreading it. Oh well, guess it’ll be in a different blogpost if I can manage myself to write it. Don’t expect anything too grande from that review, I just wanted to update on some stuff I had been doing instead of studying and stuff. That’s all…
Edit 4th June 2025: changed title because quotes would invalidate the rss feed :P
22nd April 2025
Online prescence
I’m not sure about the allure of instant messaging (or any online communication platform tbh). I’m the type of person to just immerse in some entertainment without any regards of anything happening in the online world. Sometimes I want to see if what I’m immersing myself into has an online community, but usually it’s either that it’s on a platform I’m not in (or don’t use anymore like reddit) or that it has some sort of group infighting that I don’t have the spoons to really know. Sometimes I found someone online that has some overlap with my interests at the time, and follow them on social media, but it doesn’t really amount to anything as I don’t really initiate the conversation (how does one start an online conversation). I’m quite the introvert irl, but I still feel that it’s easier to start a conversation with the person in front of me rather than texting on my phone or laptop.
I mean I do the occasional programming things, seeing that I’m a CS major and all, but online communication just feels like a black box sometimes.
Flying a kite
It’s been a while since my family decided to go to the beach. We brought a few kites with us (one standard kite and another resembling a bird). The bird kite is difficult to control as it has a tendency to lean to the right before falling from the sky. There is a way to balance it, by releasing the string for a while and reeling it back in (that kite uses a fishing rod for some reason). I could sustain that for around half an hour before my hands started aching from the constant reeling.
Despite that, it feels a bit refreshing to be inhaling the salty sea breeze while doing that repetitive, needless action. Perhaps I should be more willing to go to vacation instead of staying in the house doing nothing.
Podcasts on headphones
I’ve never got the trend of podcasts or audiobooks before. I usually set my phone’s volume to the max and try to enjoy it while doing the dishes, but the sound is muffled due to background noise and loss of quality when putting the volume to max.
Some months pass and I have a nice bluetooth headphone gifted to me. It’s miles better than my laptop and phone’s speakers, so that’s something. You can really listen to the bass on songs. I decide to try listening on a podcast to see how it is, and now I can see how people actually enjoy this.
Even without Active Noise Cancellation enabled (my ears feel like it was about to pop with ANC, don’t know how people like it), it blocks background noise decently for me to listen. Plus, being a wireless headphone means that the volume doesn’t diminish while I’m walking as it just stays near my ears, overall giving an immersive experience.
So if you feel like podcasting or audiobooks aren’t your thing, try using headphones to listen to them. You might end up liking them after all.
tags: lifestyle, podcasts, blog
A try on digital minimalism
I had tried minimising my screen time countless times, so I’m trying something akin to an accountability book this time around. In this book: - I have to do an entry I want to open my phone/laptop for any specific purposes - Add other things if I accidentally open it (e.g. YouTube, social media)
Hope that this is going to last. Currently on my second day and it’s getting frustating adding all the entries.