XXI: A Rant About Coffee Choices & Other Happenings Today

Originally, this is just a simple post about what happened today. But first, I need to get things off my chest.

Buckle up because this is going to be a long post.

Continue reading XXI: A Rant About Coffee Choices & Other Happenings Today

XVIII: Full Circle II (The Diary’s 2nd Anniversary)

2 years ago yesterday, I published my first post here on The Diary. And looking back at those 2 years… oh, man, I have been through a lot.

In my first year of blogging on The Diary, I promised myself to publish 13 posts per month and I will blog every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thankfully, I reached my post goals and schedule mainly because of my Minute Warning series (where I write anything under time pressure under 10 to 30 minutes). And if I were to publish a longer post, I have a writing process that works. You can check my first-year retrospective on this post.

And today, in my second year of blogging at The Diary, I’m looking back and checking if my writing processes still work and if my blogging schedule still serves me well.

Continue reading XVIII: Full Circle II (The Diary’s 2nd Anniversary)

Notes to Self XV

It’s almost a week after New Year’s Day, and my past several days have been memorable. But I don’t want to blog about all of them at once. Why? I just finished my first workout of 2025.

One of my resolutions this year is to keep exercising as much as I want to keep writing in my journal and here on The Diary. Today, I restarted my fitness journey by following Body Project’s 30-minute fat-burning beginner workout. And in the first few minutes, Mr. Daniel Bartlett (the coach in the video) reminded me that I could pick my place in the workout. I can pause, catch my breath, and keep marching in place if I can’t do the workout. But because I truly wanted to push myself, I followed how Mr. Bartlett works out exactly… and then my legs shook and I was breathing heavily. (And this is from following a low-impact workout. It has been so long since I had a proper workout other than walking and jogging.) I just had to pause, rest for a while, and gain the energy to exercise again.

And when I finally gained that energy back, I played the video again and Mr. Bartlett said something that hit a nail in my head. This is my 15th Notes to Self.

Continue reading Notes to Self XV