how-to – Page 11 – deydreaming

who’s talking in my head?

March 11, 2018March 10, 2018AuthorLeave a comment

Hear that? the silence. the rhythm of your heartbeat, the ebb and flow of your breath…

No brain noise here, no mind gremlins, not an ounce of monkey chatter, mitotes, head static, or incessant inner-talk…we are focused on ONE thing.

One thought.

One mantra.

One PHRASE.

THIS space.

Grow into it.

Enjoy this day. Make the best of it. Namaste.

asl-abc — The most useful language that’s ever existed: Sign Language.

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7 traits that will help you make the best out of life in China

August 8, 2015August 8, 2015AuthorLeave a comment

Alright, so you heard that China is a great place for foreigners right now and you wanna give living there a shot.

Before you begin packing any bags, check out the following seven traits, see if you have what it takes to go to the PRC and really make the best out of your time spent living there.

Determination — you need lots of determination to even make the trip. To begin with, it takes a lot of paperwork to get a Chinese visa. Then there’s not much info on the internet about China, or the info that is available is in Chinese therefore unhelpful, so you gotta be determined to continue your journey then once you get to China and the culture shock finally hits you you gotta be determined to stay there.
Endurance — living in China is not easy, there are many strange Chinese habits that are really unusual for foreigners. Some can get very hard to stand, so just endure through those “classic China” moments and you’ll give yourself the chance to enjoy another day.
Curiosity — you have to be really curious about China to make the best of of your time here then you have to maintain your curiosity specially strong through the tough times. Things may get challenging or frustrating but you must remember that everything around you is still unknown, so you cannot use your typical way of thinking to judge what you see and experience. When you’re in China you must see everything through your lens of curiosity, things are very different here.
Positivity — $#!+’s bound to happen, you’re bound to get annoyed, you’re bound to begin complaining. When you see yourself start to do that you must engage your positivity. Remember that there are actually many cool things about living in China, about being a foreigner in a monocultural country, about just living in a different country.
Drive — you definitely need drive to make the most out of life in China. Sure, you can just endure through the initial opportunities China grants you or you can make life even better for you. There are many opportunities for foreigners in China, but they need to be active in pursuing them.
Humor — you definitely need to use your humor to help you deal with some of the things that you experience in China. For example, China is actually a very safe place for people but if you’re not careful you’ll end up paying the foreigner price for nearly everything you buy. Just learn the standard pricing for the things you need otherwise you’ll be getting ripped-off too much to be able to use humor to laugh it off.
Patience — always use your patience and stay relaxed, specially through the “classic China” moments — stress is no bueno.

How to start a blog, my version.

July 15, 2015July 15, 2015Author1 Comment

First. Have desire to start blog.*

*You hear yourself saying often, “oh, I wanna start a blog”.
If you do you can begin your starting-a-blog journey.

Sit down and brainstorm a suitable domain name.

Decide on a suitable domain name.

Wait around for months and months before actually going to register the domain name.

Log on to a blog hosting site and find out that someone else has already registered the domain name you want.

Sit down again with a pen and pad to brainstorm new domain names ideas.

Settle on one domain name.

This time hurry, log onto hosting site and register the name!

Complete registration for domain name.

Don’t log on to the server for months and months — the domain name is yours now (for a fee).

Finally sit down to design your blog — or pay someone that’s better at making beautiful things to do it for you.

Have a nice looking-blog with a bunch of empty pages! Maybe even your “about me” information is non-existent.

6.After a few months come back, full of inspiration, and start filling up the pages of your blog.

7. Take a long, long, time to write, and upload, just one post.

8.Go on another break from “writing” on your blog.

9. Start actually writing on your blog again.

10. Write, write, write.

11. Take another months, and months, break.

12. After a while realize that you have only two options, A) keep going or B) give up.
Option A: keeping going.

Repeat steps 6—12 then continue to choose this option every time.

Option B: give up

Never come back to your blog, probably continue to pay for it, and always wonder “what if”.

Getting a Chinese bank account…

January 30, 2015January 30, 2015AuthorLeave a comment

There’s a bunch of posts online that will tell you about how to get set up with a Chinese bank account. I found some of them useful though most of them just complain about how getting a Chinese bank account can be so difficult, so I’m here to break that trend.

Getting a Chinese bank account just takes patience. That is to say, if you don’t speak Chinese then you need to bring along your big supply of patience when you head over to open a bank account, but really aside from your passport and the cash deposit that is all you need to bring.

The Chinese are really friendly and accommodating to foreigners. I opened my first Chinese bank account at CCB (China Construction Bank) using my very limited Chinese speaking skills, and Google Translate on my iPad. I think the process was way more grueling — requiring of patience — for the representatives but they were very nice about it. Oh yeah, I say representatives (plural) because if you’re not in a big city like Shanghai, Beijing, ChengDu, or even Xiamen, or Shenzhen then foreigners are very foreign and they’ll gather up a crowd.

Going back to opening a bank account, there is a bunch of paperwork that the representatives will help you fill out. It’s all in Chinese so you gotta be extra careful and have them explain everything — one should always be cautious about what they sign, right? There will be more than a handful of forms that you’ll have to “sign” — actually you just write out your name, a real signature will not be accepted. The Chinese rep. will stamp your documents and give you copies in the end. They will also need to make a copy of your passport and visa page that you will then have to “sign” so that they can file it away.

I ended up getting another bank account at ABC (Agricultural Bank of China), I am still happy with CCB I just wanted to check out this other option. The reps at ABC were even more helpful since one of them spoke pretty good English. The steps were similar to what I did at CCB. Both banks have Chinese only forms to fill-out, they both require to see and photocopy your passport, they both have an annual fee of 10 yuan, however CCB charges 30 yuan for their Debit Card and at ABC it was free. Though that might be because at ABC I also got, and paid for, online banking (30 yuan). In order to online bank at both of these banks you need to buy a special USB that you need to insert into your computer each time that you log-on to the bank’s website, so that you can log-on to your account. It’s suppose to be an added security feature — for me it’s an added hassled, but oh well. I got the online banking for ABC because they actually have their online banking website available in English, CCB does not.

And that’s pretty much it… In the end I spent about 2/3 hours each time I opened a new account. So it takes a while, but it’s not something that you have to do over and over again. Once you have your debit card you don’t really ever have to go back to the bank. You can deposit and withdraw money at the ATM — which is great because the ATM is in English. You can also withdraw money at any other bank’s ATM for a 2 yuan fee (within the province/city that you opened your account in). Oh, and one last thing, you can withdrawal money from foreign ATMs, if you’re abroad, as long as the ATMs have a Union Pay logo, the fee for that is 1% of the withdrawal amount plus a flat fee of 12 yuan at both ABC and CCB — it may be different at other banks.