Tag: experience

My dating experience on Hinge

Disclaimer: This is from my own personal experience and may or may not reflect the experiences of others. I started using Hinge from August 30th until around mid Oct of 2019.

PROFILE

You can sign up an account using only your phone number. Hinge allows you to choose/upload 6 photos of yourself. It took me a while to choose 6 haha. My friends next to me were so impatient.

  • I picked a selfie with my friend (but I covered her face in case it was confusing).
  • I had another full body image of myself so people would have an idea of my physical size (This was the most popular photo. I got the most hearts from this one).
  • There was a photo of me sitting with a bubble tea in my hand
  • I had another picture of myself as Baby Grace from the snapchat filter
  • There was also another photo of me and my brother in the museum of illusions. I was posing in awesome manner (upside down) while he was just standing straight and being boring
  • I also included another group photo of me and my friends failing in an escape room T_T (I WANNA ESCAPE YOOOOO)

I had to choose 3 prompts for Hinge. Prompts are used as conversation starters. The guy/girl may comment on your prompt. However, they cannot have a conversation with you unless you accept/allow them to.

Here were my prompts:

I’m the type of texter who
loves puns. I love English puns, Chinese puns. As long as they are punny, go for it. XD

Together we can…
compose a song together! I loveeee music!!!

The secret to getting to know me is
read my blog. liveandlearn88.com

I like my prompts because I think it makes me more unique and it reflects me well. I didn’t want to be the typical “I like to eat, travel, and sleep” LOL (no offense if that’s what you like).

If you are confused and needs some help using Hinge, visit https://hingeapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001659533-Getting-Started for more information

 

MY EXPERIENCE

I’m told that guys on Hinge get to swipe approximately 5 people a day if they are a regular user. (I’m not sure if it’s the same for females).

Personally, I didn’t actually click like on anyone’s profiles. I only commented on one profile because I wanted to know what a dank meme was.

I didn’t actually have to initiate anything with anyone because I was getting likes every few minutes on the first day I created my profile. At first, I was open to all. But I had to make it super difficult because there were too many people and some guys were so old, they could be my dad. For instance, one guy was 64… uh…

As a result, I made it much harder for people to discover me since I put a deal breaker on age, no one with kids already, no drugs, and etc.

Hinge made me a preferred member for a month because they wanted to encourage me to use the app more. When you’re a preferred member, you can see everyone that has liked/commented on your profile. Otherwise, you would have to accept or reject one at a time before you can view the next person’s profile.

As a preferred member, you also get preferred preferences and you can customize it even more to fit what you are looking for.

 

LUCK

The reason why I have to filter so hard is because there are just too many people. I cannot talk to everyone. Basically, I accepted those who read my blog LOL (I can tell based on their comments) and if they are into music.

There are definitely a lot of guys with potential, but I have limited time and energy. I can only focus on so many before I lose track of the names and get them all mixed up. I cannot talk to a hundred people. I know that a hundred likes doesn’t necessarily mean a hundred options. However, if I accepted and they messaged me, I didn’t want to ignore them. Hence, I just let them pile up.

So as you can tell, online dating has a lot to do with luck too.

  1. Both you and your match have to be using it during the same time span.
  2. The age range is also a huge factor. I had just turned 31 around two weeks after I created my profile. One of my matches told me his cut off was 30. So technically, if I had started using the app in the middle of Sept, I wouldn’t even have popped up in his feed and we wouldn’t have spoken.
  3. Aside from one other person, I only spoke with those who have messaged me within the first 2-3 days that I was using the app. So it’s almost like first come first serve (Sorry if that sounds bad).

  Continue reading “My dating experience on Hinge”

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I’m on a podcast again!

To my dear readers,

I’m on a podcast again!! Last year, I was on Episode 14 of my friends Jack and Gavin’s podcast! This time, I’m back again on Episode 53.

First, we started talking about how sad I was because Jack and Gavin will be leaving to teach abroad in a month or so. Jack will be leaving for Taiwan, while Gavin will be leaving for Japan.

Then, Gavin brought in his topic of “Graduation speech”. This topic was inspired by Jack because he had recently graduated from George Brown College. Gavin asked us if we felt like the graduation speeches were full of shit. For example: Oftentimes, the speaker will tell the graduates that they’re amazing and all of them will be able to achieve greatness. Is it true? Or are they just being overly optimistic? Gavin asked us what we would say if we were to make a graduation speech.

Jack’s topic was about his near-death experience earlier that day. He nearly got into a car accident as a car was running a red light horizontally while he was heading through a green light vertically. According to him, he was probably 2-3cm from getting hit and the guy’s tires were screeching. Jack shared the thoughts that were running through his mind right after the incident. Gavin and I also shared what we would have thought of as well. What do you think would be #1 on your mind if you were about to die?  Continue reading “I’m on a podcast again!”

Thinking ahead

long or short term planning or thinking

This post is based on my own views and experiences. My mind has grown a lot in the past year or so.

Some of you may or may not know that I translate a Chinese novel into English. Due to my translations, I have managed to gain over 600k views on my blog. Compared to huge sites with millions of readers, 600k is actually a very small amount. However, I’m very proud of what I have built on my own. From translating, I’ve learnt that:

1. People are giving me views because I am giving them something they want

This is a crucial point. The only reason why 95% of my readers come to my site is because they want to read the novel but they cannot read Chinese. Therefore, they have to come to me in order to read the English version.

So, if I want to gain more views or make more ad revenue, I need to give the people what they want.

2. Translating is short term pain but long term gain

Honestly, translating a novel takes hundreds and hundreds of hours. It is extremely difficult, tedious, and requires tremendous amounts of concentration. In fact, it is so hard that most people quit after a couple of chapters. Continue reading “Thinking ahead”

How to tell if a shy girl likes you

Shy.jpg

Okay, this post is a somewhat continuation of my post from last week (The texting game). Honestly, there are only two things you really need to do in order to figure out whether a shy girl likes you or not.

1. Pay attention to the amount of effort she is putting in

This might sound like common sense, but hear me out.

Shy girls do not tend to be very direct. They’re most likely never going to tell you they like you or flirt (either they don’t know how or they prefer not to). Therefore, some people might be wondering, “Does she like me? Or does she only want to be my friend?”

Here are some things that could potentially mean she likes you:

-She goes out of her way to message you when it is not necessary.
-She is open to hanging out with you one on one.
-She tries to carry on the conversation.
-She makes an effort to look nice when she is meeting up with you.
-She likes to joke around with you.

However, even if the girl does all of the above, it doesn’t mean she likes you for sure. To find out, you need to do #2. Continue reading “How to tell if a shy girl likes you”

Unveil: A voice messaging dating app

unveil

To celebrate breaking 500000 views on my blog, I decided to try something new. I downloaded my first ever dating app!! I found out about this app through Lisa. It is called Unveil and I think the concept is very interesting.

Basically, everyone’s pictures start off as blurry. The only way you can see what the person looks like is if you send voice messages back and forth. The more you talk, the more gets unveil.

The reason why I like this is because:

  1. It is less shallow. You are not messaging a person based on what they look like (since you can’t see what they look like). Instead, you are messaging them based on their content from their voice intro.
  2. Voices convey a lot more emotions compared to text. It feels much more personal.

Anyways, this is how you start.

  1. You download the app.
  2. You add your name and your birthday (only your age will show) and your gender.
  3. You state your gender preference.
  4. You record a voice intro.
  5. You can browse and listen to others’ intros. If you swipe, you go to the next person. If you want to respond to a person, you just click the microphone at the corner. The maximum length is 2 minutes.

My voice intro was actually very shitty but it was actually what I was thinking; hence I didn’t change it. This is what I said, “Hi, my name is Grace and I like inspirational things….and singing. *awkward 2 secs pause* What about you? *another awkward pause* I wanted to try this out because it seems like a very cool concept… and…we’ll see. *pause for one more sec*. That’s it.” [end]

I thought about changing it and making it sound more attractive. Or perhaps singing to “trap” some guys. But ultimately, I decided to leave it because I’d rather the person like me for my less-perfect version. I want to be real and not edit my thoughts.

Anyhow, one person did message me. We’ll call him S for stranger. The first message S sent me was, “Hey Grace. You said you like inspirational things. What’s your biggest inspiration and why?” Continue reading “Unveil: A voice messaging dating app”

Conforming to society!?

To my dear readers,

I haven’t written a personal post in such a long time! But I was inspired by my friend Karen’s Social conformity post so I wanted to write one as well.

Karen shared the following video:

 

Honestly, I was shocked by how not a single person asked what was going on and continued standing up after the beeping sound purely because everyone else was doing it.

Although I might have stood up if I was placed in the same situation, I know I would have asked the others why they were doing so.

To me, if it doesn’t make sense, I need an answer. 

If I was told, “I’m standing up because everyone is standing up.” I would personally go up to the front desk and ask why the beeping sound = standing up. Are we being recorded? Is this some type of fitness challenge?

If the front desk cannot give me an answer, I would sit back down even if it was uncomfortable.

People may or may not believe me, but I am somewhat of a rebel.

In the past, I have always tried to conform to society and everyone else around me because I wanted to be treated well. I wanted everyone’s approval because I felt like it would make my life better. 

By conforming, it would definitely make life a lot easier. You would fit right in and no one would challenge you.

It’s kind of like peer pressure. Why do kids smoke? Most of the time, it’s because their peers smoke and they want to fit in. By refusing to follow the crowd, you might get excluded or treated poorly.  Continue reading “Conforming to society!?”

My attention span and Pokémon Go

I haven’t written a personal post in a very long time. But I haven’t forgotten you guys. I just don’t want to write for the sake of writing.

These days, I feel like I have the attention span of a potato. When I was young (before I had the internet), I would breeze through a book in one sitting. 300 pages? No big deal.

Nowadays, reading 50 pages is a struggle. I’m constantly tempted to do something else.

Haha, honestly, I blame the internet and my lack of self control. With so many social media applications nowadays, my generation is constantly checking up on what others are doing or posting something to show others what they are doing.

Deep down, I know the smart thing is to focus on my personal growth rather than see which pokemons my friends have caught. But I guess I enjoy being amused and not using my brain (I know, I sound terrible).
Continue reading “My attention span and Pokémon Go”

Wedding

I have been neglecting my personal blog posts so badly lately… I’m so sorry to my old readers. (I have some readers who only read my personal posts, no translations). If you have been following me since 2014, you will have noticed that I have gone through many phases..

I used to write about a certain topic (Ex. Social Anxiety, Communication, Attention, etc). I would also share random stories once in awhile (Ex. The Glass, The Tiny Frog, etc).

Then, I wrote a bunch of posts on motivation.

Eventually, I moved onto posting some of my personal views on topics such as the Education System, Gay Marriage, and etc.

After that, there were two months where I consistently wrote a bunch of relationship posts (Those were very popular but generated a lot of controversy from my friends and readers).

Now, my posts are more like diary entries.

——-

Last week, my friend Angela got married! Angela and I have known each other since our Undergraduate years. It’s crazy how time flies.

wedding 1

It was a lovely wedding. I love western venues. Personally, I find them much more organized and enjoyable. Although I’m Chinese, I dislike Chinese weddings very much because they never start on time. In fact, the invitation may say 6 or 6:30, but they usually don’t start until after 8 or 8:30.

Continue reading “Wedding”

Hm… thoughts?

Green one eyed monster
This is my profile pic on discord. Haha.
Last Monday, I didn’t write my normal Monday post. I felt bad and I wanted to write, but I didn’t feel like venting or sharing some of my personal issues.

However, I don’t want to skip my post again, so I’m going to share a bit.

If you have read my last original post My Adventures on Discord , you would know that I have found a very fun and interactive online community.

Due to my illness, I am often at home. Therefore, nowadays, I usually go on discord daily.

I really enjoy karaoke-ing and chatting with different translators and editors from all over the world. Sometimes, on voice chat, people would play guitar or piano, and a bunch of us would mute ourselves and listen. It’s like attending a concert, except you can only listen.

A few days ago, Options was playing the piano. Deceptioning made a comment.

Deceptioning: Your girlfriend will be a lucky woman (due to the fast fingers? Haha)

A bunch of people: Options is a girl!

Deceptioning: Oh…lucky guy then?

Options: Well, I do have my options (get it? Her name is Options, so she has her options! AHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHA *insert the laughing crying face emoticon*)

*By the way, this was through text and we didn’t actually hear Option speak, so most of us had no idea she was a female.

But on a serious note, discord also made me learn a few things about myself and people.

If someone really wants to talk to you, he/she will make the effort to talk to you even if there are so many barriers (ex. they’re busy, different time zones, different work schedules, etc).

Continue reading “Hm… thoughts?”

My Adventures on Discord

A couple weeks ago, I wrote on Reddit asking for novel suggestions. I was forced to stop translating Zui Wu Dao because the author had stop writing in the middle of the story. Hence, I was looking for something new to translate.

Originally, I started translating because I wanted to lure readers into my blog so they would read my personal posts. However, that didn’t go as well as I thought it would. The majority of my readers come purely for the translations. That’s it. The moment they get what they want, they leave.

As for my friends, they are not interested in my translations at all. They only want to read my personal posts.

Nonetheless, I still do both because it’s personal development and I am a very expressive person.

So on Reddit, an user told me to message a person called Amery Edge. Apparently, he does teasers on his site and he could give me some suggestions.

I decided to email him (at the time, I didn’t know it was a guy) to see what suggestions he would give me.

Amery was very helpful and specific in his email. He suggested “Your Highness, I know my wrongs” but I was quite reluctant at first because the story seemed really ridiculous and silly. (I mean, c’mon, the title is a turn off LOL) jk

I wanted a novel that would generate more views and donations. However, I didn’t want to be a total snob so I decided to at least read the first few chapters he had already translated.

I was instantly hooked. IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD.  Continue reading “My Adventures on Discord”