Life In Limbo

Book Club | March & April

May 19, 2014

One of my new year’s resolutions this year was to read 75 books, like I did last year. We’re 4 1/2 months into 2014 and I’m currently 6 books behind on that goal, according to my Goodreads page. But it’s okay! As I’ve said before, I knew it would be harder to read as many books this year since for a good chunk of last year I was travelling and/or without a full-time job. When I was preparing to come to Korea and after I first got here, my literary life took a backseat. Happily I’m back to it, and I’ve been reading some seriously good books. In the spirit of my reading goal, I’m sharing my favourite reads on the blog every couple months. You can see my favourites from January & February here.

Turning Pro / I’ve read Steven Pressfield before (at the recommendation of one of my idols, Marie Forleo), specifically The War of Art, and I loved his writing and perspective. If you’re somebody that does any kind of creative work, I think reading The War of Art is a necessity. We all need to learn how to fight resistance and deal with other blocks that stop us from being helpful and doing our best work. Turning Pro runs in a similar vein, but it’s about the moment we start acting like professionals when it comes to the work that we do. Professionals meet their deadlines, get themselves the right equipment, don’t make excuses, and treat whatever it is that they’re doing like it’s serious, meaningful work (because it is!). You can see a great interview between Marie and Steven about this topic here.

Bird by Bird / Anne Lamott writes about writing in such a down-to-earth but inspiring way. She talks about how writing is hard, how all writers struggle with so much self-doubt, how getting yourself to write is a battle, how writing is one of the most wonderful things in the world, how there are many beautiful motives for writing, and how getting published isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. She also gives a lot a truly practical, helpful advice for how to get your writing done. This is a book about how to write, but in some ways it’s also about how to live a good life. She writes: “I think this is how we are supposed to be in the world – present and in awe.”

The Art of Possibility / As I was writing this post, I was struck by how much this book was about abundance, so much so that I had to go back and amend my Abundance Ideas post to include it. It’s a wonderful book about changing your paradigm, looking at the big picture, and seeking out the possibility and potential of every person or situation you encounter. Some ideas that really stuck with me:

“Who am I being that they are not shining?”
“How will I be a contribution today?”
“Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view.”
“The naysayers pride themselves on their supposed realism.”

Daily Rituals: How Artists Work / An easy read, and a fascinating one. It’s a collection of the daily habits and routines of a huge number of creative people – artists, writers and scientists. I was struck by how many of them had extremely consistent and often rigorous daily habits, allowing little room for variation. A lot of their days were automated so they didn’t have to spend energy making little decisions about what to wear or what to eat. They made time for all the things they thought were important but didn’t waste time on anything unimportant. It surprised me how many of their routines were similar across all types of creativity: they rose relatively early, ate more or less the same thing each day, spent 3-4 hours working solidly on their projects, took long walks, read a lot of books and spent time with their families. Seems like the perfect life to me! It reminded me of that quote from Gustave Flaubert: “Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”

Looking For Alaska / I absolutely sped through this novel. It’s a pretty sad book and it made me a little angry, but it was so well-written that I didn’t even mind. The premise of kids in boarding school gets me every time, and the book pulled me in really quickly. John Green is such a wonderful writer (and awesome human being) and I’m excited to read the rest of his books. I read The Fault in Our Stars almost a year ago on the plane to Paris and it made me cry and feel all the wonderful nostalgic and perfect feelings, so I have no idea why it took me so long to read another of his books. I’m a huge fan.

***

As always, you can see all the books I’ve read and plan to read on GoodReads. Also, if you have any great book recommendations for me, I’d love to hear them! Let me know in the comments below.

PS. See my favourite books of 2013 here!

Inspiration | May 16

May 16, 2014

This article listing 33 Amazingly Useful Websites kind of blew my mind. Some I knew about, some don’t seem that helpful for me, but some are just awesome.

Some very sage, practical advice for writers. I immediately sent this article to two of the writers I know because it seemed like a must-read.

We all always want to make big drastic changes, but most of the time what we really need are small, baby changes, one thing at a time. An excellent reminder.

Laura told me I was “winning” at this list, which is a huge compliment but I don’t think totally accurate. It’s good advice though, full of things that I think all us 20-somethings should strive towards. I’m definitely trying!

Tips on getting rich quick. It’s not what you think (it’s better).

Such a good, much-needed perspective on not shopping while travelling: “In general, shopping takes us into a mindset of “lack”. We go into a mode of “needing” something, of fear that we’re missing out on something. We can spend an entire day in changerooms and High Streets that could be anywhere, frantically on a mission.” I’ve fallen victim to this kind of mindset while travelling before, and I’ll be sure to keep it in mind next time I’m on a trip.

I listened to another old but excellent episode of the TED Radio Hour this week about millennials and how they (we) might be the next greatest generation. It talked about doing good, meaningful work and making your own jobs.

I liked reading about what mothers want to teach their kids. It seems like stuff we should all keep in mind: get enough sleep, treat ourselves with kindness, be grateful, talk about hard things.

This A-Z of Dance was super cool and well done.

Joy the Baker talked about her new cookbook this week! She inspires me big time, all the time. That title! That cake!

Some things I want to make + eat: best vegan nachos | strawberry rhubarb crisp bars | coconut date shakes.

Two Instagram accounts I loved this week: @cahmun (absolutely gorgeous food photos) and @8ruecaffarelli (a perfect-looking pastel life).

Some oldies-but-goodies: zucchini fritters for what ails ya, a few books for summer.

***

This weekend I’m doing some beach yoga and going to my first Korean baseball game, which should be a ton of fun! You can see photos from my adventures by following me on Instagram @lifeinlimboblog. Have an amazing weekend, everyone!

24 Before 24: Get a Tarot Reading

May 15, 2014

I’m doing 24 fun new things before I turn 24. You can see the rest of the list here.

Getting a tarot card reading has always seemed so fun and exciting to me. Like most people, I am equal parts skeptical and giddy when it comes to mysterious things like having my fortune told or getting my palm read. I always think it sounds a little bogus, but not enough to discount it entirely – there’s always still a part of me that wants to believe in the magic of it.

This was one of the things on my first list that I never got around to, so I was excited to get the chance to have this experience while I was in Seoul! It was kind of fun, but kind of strange, too. It made me feel a little weird afterwards, but it was overall a pretty cool experience.

In downtown Seoul we walked past a whole line-up of tents offering fortune-telling services – apparently they are quite common in Korea. I got excited, then remembered that I didn’t speak Korean. But my friend offered to translate for me, and before I knew it we’d ducked into one of the tents! It was very kind of her to offer, and it ended up being a fun thing for us to do together.

Initially I’d thought to just get the tarot card reading, but after learning it only applies to the next 3 months of your life, I thought I’d go for something potentially more interesting: a reading of my birth chart! I gave the sweet woman who ran the tent (dressed totally normally by the way, and no crystal ball in sight!) my birth date and time, and she typed it all into her computer to find my chart.

The results weren’t overly surprising. According to my birth chart: I can be stubborn, I always have an opinion and I like to get my way. I’m a great teacher, I like learning, and I’m good with languages. I should get married later in life, after age 30. It will be important to me that both me and my partner are passionate and work hard at our respective careers – she went so far as to suggest the possibility of being a “weekend couple”! I should work to build a specialized, professional career (whatever that means).

And that was it, really! Nothing overly dramatic or revealing. The whole time I was in the tent though, I had this sense of forboding, like she was going to say something I really didn’t want to hear. For a while afterwards, I felt a little uneasy and couldn’t put my finger on exactly why. So while I wouldn’t entirely rule out the possibility of doing a tarot reading again in the future, or even looking deeper into my birth chart, for now I’m happy to have done it and am closing the book on this one.

Instagram Tips: How to Geotag a Picture to Your Photo Map After You’re No Longer at a Location

May 14, 2014

One of my favourite things about Instagram is the Photo Map feature. I only really started travelling last summer on my trip around Europe, but since that time I’ve been lucky enough to visit more places than I could have imagined when I set off on that first trip. Of course I remember and appreciate those experiences in ways that have nothing to do with social media, but I won’t deny that it’s cool and rewarding to have a visual representation of my adventures through my Photo Map. Adding a location to your pictures is also a cool way for people interested in a specific place to see your photos – by clicking a location you can see a whole collection of photos tagged from there, for example the Eiffel tower or Angor Wat temple!

One of the problems I’ve run into a few times is adding the location of a photo after I’m no longer in the area I was when it was taken. Sure, it’s called Instagram, but when I’m somewhere truly beautiful I much prefer to take a few photos then just enjoy my time there and post photos online when I have downtime, like back at the hostel or when I’m home. But when you’re no longer at the location you were when you took the photo, sometimes you can’t find the right location to properly add the photo to your map. Yes, I realize there are real, actual problems in the world and this is very much not one of them, but there’s a simple fix so I thought I’d share it in case anyone is running into this issue as well. Unfortunately, if you’ve already posted your photo there’s no way to go back and change the location short of deleting and re-posting.

First, if you use an iPhone to take photos, make sure your camera has Location Services turned on: Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Camera. If you use VSCOCam to edit your photos, make sure location data is enabled for import and export: Settings > Privacy. Turning these settings on will mean that you probably won’t encounter this problem in the future.

If you take photos on your camera, they’ll usually have location data, but that data might be stripped from the photo if you email it to yourself, like I do. Alternatively, if you use another photo editing app, it might strip the location data when you export your photo, regardless of the device you used to take it.

Here’s how this works on Instagram, in my experience. If your photo has embedded location data, Instagram will suggest places “nearby” based on that data, regardless of your actual physical location. For example, if I’m in Korea but I have a photo with location data saying the photo was taken in Toronto, Instagram will suggest possible locations in Toronto where I might have been when I took it. If your photo does not have embedded location data, Instagram will suggest places nearby based on your actual physical location. Meaning that if I’m in Korea trying to post a picture I took while I was in Toronto but that doesn’t have any embedded location data, Instagram will suggest places within a few miles of where me and my phone are currently standing, in Korea.

As an example, the above photo was taken while I was sitting in my apartment in Korea. It shows location search results based on the location data embedded into the photo I was posting to Instagram, which was taken at Shibuya crossing in Tokyo.

Enter Koredoko! This awesome, free app lets you geotag photos that don’t have any embedded location data.

Click the “+” symbol in the bottom right corner and click through to Settings > Extention. Make sure the “Extention” and “Show Ads” options are both turned on.
Click the symbol with three stacked horizontal lines in the bottom left corner to access your camera roll.
Choose a picture that you want to add location data to, then simply drag and drop it to the location on the map where you were when you took it. You might have to do some zooming in and re-adjusting to get it to the right approximate location but overall this is a very straightforward process.
Click the blue “i” on the right hand side of the location data box.
Then click the export button at the top right of the information box that will appear. See the photo above for what it should look like.
Choose “Save with Metadata” from the pop-up menu.

From there, adding the photo to your Photo Map on Instagram should be easy. Just make sure the “Add to Photo Map” option is turned on, then choose “Name This Location” and search for whichever location your little heart desires. When you share the photo, it’ll show up on your map.

Like I said, not an overly important problem by any means, but hey – if it helps anyone at all, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned. I thought my last Instagram Tips post on hashtagging was also a bit trivial, but I’ve gotten some feedback from people who were really grateful for the information, which makes it all worthwhile for me. I hope this can help you too!

I learned most of what I know on this subject through this awesome article on Fatemeh Fahkraie’s website. She does a great job of explaining the concept and introducing the app as well as another app option if Koredoko doesn’t work for you. She’s also updated the article a few times as new information has come up, so it’s definitely worth a look if you’re still trying to figure this out for yourself. In her post, she says that you should turn Instagram Location Services off in your iPhone settings in order to force the app to use the photo’s metadata, but in my experience the location data “trumps” your physical location. If it doesn’t work for you though, try the fix she outlines.

Happy ‘gramming! You can follow me on Instagram @lifeinlimboblog.