Tag: perspective

Beware of Online Love + Crypto Scam. Personal experience included!

I was going to write this post several months ago, but I got lazy. But this issue happens too often, so I believe that it’s important for me to write a post about it to warn you all.

Nowadays, the younger generation spends most of their time online and on the phone. It isn’t uncommon for people to have various apps to stay in touch with friends, family, and even to meet strangers/potential love interests.

However, because you may be exposing yourself to the “world”, you really need to be careful. Sometimes, you’re not even actively searching, but they will find you.

For example, I received a random text from this dude who messaged me on Whatsapp a few months ago.

Translation:

Guy: Hi, Gwen. Nice to meet you. Auntie Wang gave me your phone number.

Me: Hi. My name is Grace. Who is Auntie Wang?

Guy: Auntie Wang said she already told you about me. Aren’t you Gwen? I have already messed up once. *angry face*

Me: You found the wrong person. I don’t know any Auntie Wang.

Guy: Forget it. I won’t keep searching. I’ll tell Auntie Wang I’ve found you. Nice to meet you, Grace. My name is Louis. Oh wait, you know Chinese?

This guy is clearly a scammer. First of all, I don’t know any Auntie Wang. And let’s say this “Auntie Wang” did exist, why the heck would she introduce me to someone that doesn’t even LIVE in Toronto? The phone number was from the U.S. And this person sounded surprised I know Chinese. Does he think I’m stupid? He is getting “introduced” to someone without knowing that person actually knows Chinese, but he messages me in Chinese?

Omg. I got so mad that I blocked him after a few more back and forth. I wanted to know how he would try to scam me, but it’s not worth my time.

And it’s also quite obvious he stole the picture of a random handsome “western” looking guy and is pretending to be him. I don’t know how he got my phone number, but I know of a few people who’ve also received messages from random strangers on Wechat and Whatsapp. My guy friend got a message from someone who claims she’s from Hong Kong. He told her she got the wrong person, but she kept talking and started talking about investing and etc. BEWARE. Continue reading “Beware of Online Love + Crypto Scam. Personal experience included!”

Luck

These days, I have been thinking a lot about luck.

I am currently reading a Korean novel called, “The Second Coming Of Gluttony” and it really inspired me to write this post.

In the novel, the main character, Seol Jihu, basically gets a second chance at life. He gets recruited and is given the Gold Mark in which he is given a lot of cheats.

The MC basically starts off with more money/items than the rest, and has an ability to see colours. Red signifies danger, orange – do not approach, yellow – take caution, green – safe (there are still more colours to be unlocked, I’m only 100+ chapters in).

However, as I keep reading, I really feel like it’s so unfair. Yes, he works and trains hard, but he had all these abilities/things that others didn’t. In my opinion, he already had a huge unfair advantage against everyone else.

Next, I thought about how all the MCs in dramas are usually rich guys who are already hot, those who already have power, status, and money. They don’t even have to do shit and all the women just flock to them. It is so unfair.

I can’t help but feel, “You’re just born lucky.”

Then, I thought about myself. How much of my accomplishments were based on my abilities alone? Am I just born lucky too?

I want to take credit and say I got to where I am with my hard work and persistence. But there are actually a lot of things that played a factor. For instance:

I mainly grew up in Canada, so English is the language that I studied in school. English happens to be an international language, which is used worldwide. This made it easier for my translations to get popular. Imagine if I had translated into Russian or something; most likely, only Russians would be able to understand. Continue reading “Luck”

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”

The Art of War

The Art of War

The Art of War

Yesterday, I was on amazon.ca browsing through books. I happened to come across “The Art of War”. I’ve always heard a lot of great things about the book, so I decided to give it a try. I noticed it was free to read on kindle, so I downloaded a copy and read it on my laptop (I’m not sure why it’s free, but yay for free stuff!! :D). But since it was relatively short, it’s probably not the full version. However, I thought it was rather powerful so I wanted to share some of my interpretations with my readers.

In this post, I’ve only chosen 5 quotes from the book that resonated a lot with me. If you like what you read, head on to download the free copy on amazon and read it yourself!

Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards.

There must be a purpose for your men. Why would they risk their lives for their country unless they feel threatened? It is crucial to drive emotions into them. If they don’t see any benefits of their sacrifices, they are not going to fight. Fear and anger are powerful forces. As my ex-student Johnson says, “They took everything, and they’ll do it again.” (His slogan for his propaganda poster). You need a strong purpose to carry on.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

Oftentimes, we may believe that in order to win a war, we must fight. The more men, weapons, machinery we have, the more superior we are. But, your goal shouldn’t be to use up all your resources. Instead, aim to win your battle with ease. If you’re able to crush your opponents without fighting, you are truly skilled. Continue reading “The Art of War”

Heartache

I’ve neglected my personal posts for over a month now. I’m so sorry… I know, I’m always apologizing. However, I honestly don’t have motivation to post. I have thoughts but I don’t want to share them.

Today, though, I want to share a song that has moved my heart. I have translated some of the lyrics. It’s not exactly 100%, but it’s close enough. Please listen to the song as you read it. The song starts around 0:22

By the way, the thoughts were inspired by the song. This post is not a depressing call for help or anything. lol

At night, is there someone to help you light a lamp?
When you’re dreaming, is there someone to help you unfold your hands?
When you’re upset, is there someone to help you wipe away the tears?
When you’re down, is there someone to wrap you in an embrace? 

Could it be
You truly don’t know
How much you mean to me?

Could it be
You honestly don’t feel it? 

There’s nothing more my love needs to say
Until the end of time

Honestly, this is one of the most touching performances I have ever seen/heard. From his voice, I could hear heartache, sadness, vulnerability, and defeat. It makes me want to tear up.

I think in general, we all want to find a partner who will be there for us in times of need. Knowing you are loved is comforting. Seldom would we choose a path of loneliness.  Continue reading “Heartache”

Guess who is featured in an interesting podcast!? (me)

To my dear readers,

Last week, my ex neighbour Jack picked me up and we recorded an interesting podcast with his friend and co-host Gavin in his “studio” (his room). Haha.

I haven’t seen Jack since 2002. He was 9 at the time.

It’s crazy how time flew by and we recently reconnected through facebook because he was trying to promote his podcast. Ahahahahaha.

Anyhow, the podcast is super interesting so you should listen.

Here’s briefly what we talked about: Continue reading “Guess who is featured in an interesting podcast!? (me)”

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”

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”

Controlling your mind

controlling your mind

Sorry I’ve been somewhat neglecting my personal blog posts. Recently, I have been out of ideas. For the longest time, I’ve been debating on what to write. I even googled “Interesting topics to write about”! Haha.

Anyway, today, I want to talk about controlling your mind.

Has it ever occurred to you that most of the pain we suffer from are caused by our thoughts?? Most of the time, when we are dealing with negative emotions, it is because we allow those emotions to grow.

Some may say, “I couldn’t help it.” True, to some extent, we do not have control over our thoughts. But in my opinion, we could change our state of mind if we allow it. 

When I was little, I always saw myself as a victim. I always blamed everything on everyone else but myself. I felt like I didn’t have any control and life was just super unfair.

Continue reading “Controlling your mind”

From the bottom to the top

started from the bottom.jpg

This post is a collaboration post I did with my friend, Alex. Instead of always talking about my own opinions from my own perspectives, I thought it would be interesting asking someone else. In the past, Alex and I would have very meaningful and deep conversations over coffee. Although he currently resides in Thailand, the internet has made it easy for us to stay in touch. I really like his answers, and hope you will as well.

Me: Alex, I want to write a post in regards to confidence because I think it is so crucial if you want to succeed in anything. Tell me, what does confidence mean to you? 

Alex: I think confidence is being fully comfortable with yourself as a person. Being comfortable with all of your flaws and insecurities and not being afraid to show them. Caring less about what others think and doing what makes you happy instead.

Me: How would you define it?

Alex: Being 100% your true self and not being afraid to express it wherever you are.

Me: I like that!! Everyone’s definition is probably different. To me, confidence is knowing that you’re capable of succeeding if you put in the work. Was there a person who has contributed to your confidence? If so, what did that person do or say to build up your self-esteem and feeling of self-worth?

Alex: One of my good friends living in Korea. He has this never-ending drive to improve himself and I just really admired his determination. Whether it was mastering Korean, starting a business or getting a better job, he made it happen. No matter what. Seeing his drive for being the best motivated me to be the best I could be as well.

Continue reading “From the bottom to the top”