i dream and i will

| cathy | ENFJ | she/her | slytherin | I track #studyflwr! | my main blog is gnnywesliey

[gymncpdie]

04.29.25. Alright Substack, let's try again. Just released "What I didn't learn from my parents..." & I'm slowly (& painfully) trying to get used to the fact that I write deeply revealing stuff. And that's okay, I guess?

There's a level of detachment that's required for this sort of thing, which I've had many years to practice, & with time I'm sure it'll bother me less & less.

Substack: Lost in interludes

[rongzhi]

i've been considering getting douyin to improve my mandarin but 1. i don't use apple and 2. i don't want my attention span to get any worse than it already is... what other chinese social media is popular that you'd recommend using to learn chinese on?

Bilibili is basically the equivalent of YouTube with longer form videos… there’s also ixigua, kuaishou, Weibo/weibo videos, xiaohongshu, and then I feel like the rest are mostly less popular competitors to those apps/sites.

Weibo, Lofter, and Xiaohongshu are more like social media oriented than just video platform sites, with Weibo being similar to Facebook and Twitter, XHS being similar to IG and Lofter being like IG/AO3/Twitter/tumblr/live journal (I say tumblr there mostly bc of its website format looking like a tumblr blog mirror site lol). Again there is a web version of douyin, though the main issue there will be that it takes a bit of scrolling to get the algorithm working in your favor and not just giving you mindless thirst trap videos.

I use Lofter a lot for reading Chinese (it’s where I’ve been getting my 狂飙 fic fix lolol), but that might not be feasible depending on your reading comprehension level.

I would use a video platform and then read the comment section when you can because there’s a lot of repetition there and casual/daily use vocab you can hammer into your brain.

[slavicafire]

in this new year I want you to be alright. I hope you move out. I hope you have enough money to feel safe. I hope you abandon shame and forgive yourself. I hope you get enough sleep and some good news. I hope you laugh a lot and the heaviness of the world eases a bit. I wish you to be alright.

[noodledesk]

been doing some new year planning, so thought i should document a little and share how i like to plan out my years :) MUCH more detail under the cut 🌱💗

overview 🌱

there are a couple of principles behind why i do this kind of yearly planning in one spot:

awareness — keeping yourself accountable for the goals you set at the beginning of the year

documentation — writing down stuff you’ve done so you can see what progress youve made towards goals. fun to look at

planning — makes it easier to plan your weeks and to be more intentional with how you’re spending time and enjoying life

how it works ✨

my yearly pages are sorted into a "goals" section, and a "records" section. one is forward looking, one is reflecting on stuff that's happened. i usually revisit this page at least once a month.

It doesn't have to be on Notion, but I prefer using a digital tool so things are easy to access. Paper-based is totally fine -- whatever works for you. The main point is to have a structure. Additionally, I don't really need to accomplish my goals, as long as I'm working towards them. However, setting ambitious goals for myself helps me make progress, and gets me excited about working towards them :)

goals 🌻

Whenever I have an idea of something I want to do, I put it down as a goal in this database. But my rule for myself is that, at any given time, I can only have five goals that I can focus on. I give myself double that amount as goals to maintain, to work towards them but without dedicating as much time to them. Then I have idle goals that I want to keep in my head and to work towards when I have the time and energy to, but otherwise don't make any real plans towards them.

After setting my goals (which are not time-bound, i.e. I don't have a specific deadline to achieve them), I set yearly milestones for the ones I want to focus on. These have an end-of-year deadline, and must be measurable so I can work towards them in a tangible way. Then I break the goal into 12 parts, so I have a measurable milestone to work towards each month. Each month, I look at my goal and divide it into weeks, so I know what I'd like to accomplish that week. I keep it pretty open-ended and flexible because life happens and is unpredictable.

I have other goals that I don't focus on as much. They're still important to me, but I want to prioritize the others. To avoid procrastinating and thinking about goals instead of working towards them, I've decided to keep it simple this year.

records ✍️

the next section is about writing things that made the year good — it’s a joy to look back on them every time i open the page and reminds me that there is a lot of joy in every day life, beyond just accomplishing stuff. every month i usually write down what i can think of under the following areas (keeping a diary helps for this):

i’m glad for: people, experiences, accomplishments, things, game changers — things that made your year really awesome

things i’ve been obsessed with — makes it fun to look at the things that took up a lot of your brain space

important things i learned & mistakes i made — for your realizations, understandings. over a year you’ll see how you’ve grown and changed.

that's pretty much it! hope it helps :)

[identityarchitect]

there are like five rules to life and those rules are

1. eat 3 meals a day

2. always have a non alcoholic drink with you

3. never trust anything you think about your life after 8-9pm

4. do a little something for urself every day

5. interact with a Beast at least once a day (human, feline, canine, lizard, bird, etc)

and the secret 6th rule:

6. if you can't do all of those rules, just do the ones you can

[taproot-bread]

[taproot-bread]

To the people in the notes: we are holding hands now

[taproot-bread]

It’s that time of the year again

[thedailypositivityblog]

Redditors crashed the website with donations over $25k and 0 wishes left. via /r/MadeMeSmile

Click here and follow to get more daily positivity on your dash!

[no-mere-mortals]

In response to this event, some redditors created r/charityraid, with the goal of concentrating the power of thousands of users into a single charity at a time to hopefully break a few more sites.

[thefitzandthegeralds]

As of 9/21/21, the site has updated with more wishes. The incredible spike in donations is amazing, but if you want to and are able to keep the momentum going, there are over 300 waiting to be filled at https://www.onesimplewish.org!

[catladyofficial]

a lot of these are very basic, small things. i just spent 17 dollars to buy a kid water shoes for a lake vacation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[thechesterfield]

7/9/22 There are 200+ wishes who need YOU!

[redisfascinated]

I don’t normally tag people but I’d like to send this to @instructor144 to post on positivity day. Maybe it would help crash the site again.

[instructor144]

BOOST.

[seriouslyamerica]

I just bought a slime kit for a little girl in Missouri - amazing site!

[yms1]

🌹 a flower for everyone not feeling their best today

[mud4sludge-deactivated20230205]

cooking while chronically ill

baking with arthritis or other chronic hand pain

living with chronic migraines

adhd meal plan

chronic pain tips

getting yourself to eat

[mud4sludge-deactivated20230205]

foods to eat when nauseous

printable medication log

stretches to relieve back pain

safe foods for sensitive stomachs

heating pads vs ice packs

[magicmoon65]

@puzzleddragon02

[chemuccino]

August 2022 // my favorite days

[gushuwa-deactivated20241004]

31.07.22 - i should probably get back to do something productive, although maybe not

[studynostalgic]

okay i‘m back and i‘m studying for a clinical psychology exam! 🦋

[soft-lovely]

reading mornings

[sheabutterbitch]

If you are beginning your semester of school this upcoming week or sometime soon; I am wishing that you transition smoothly into your academic environment. I hope that you develop comfortable relationships with your professors and instructors. I pray any financial burdens that have arisen be resolved timely and easily.

[apricitystudies]

hello, it’s been a while! i’m still trying to get my life together but i think everything is finally starting to settle into place :^)

[awesomebutunpractical]

Here’s the thing. Practical self-care, such as showering, feeding yourself, talking a walk, cleaning your space, getting rest, ect. will not solve every problem you have. Especially the big, serious ones. But it will solve a ton of smaller problems that are building up, adding to your stress, and using the energy you need to cope with those big serious problems.

You can feel as awful as you want, just eat a sandwich first.

[hestia-and-the-court]

I think there’s this little instinct we have that rejects solutions to our problems if I feel better after getting my sandwich that means my problems are less valid and therefore if I want my pain to be REAL it can’t be relieved in any way which is nonsense the reason why my problems feel smaller when I take care of myself is that I have more energy to cope with them and that’s a GOOD thing The whole “oh must be nice to think that getting outside cures depression” movement is not in my opinion a victim complex so much as it’s a “I’m in pain and when you try to give me an easy solution it feels like you’re not listening to me” reaction 

tags by awesomebutunpractical

[naamahdarling]

Those tags are AMAZING. Someone finally identified what felt so hard about this to me. It ISN’T a victim complex. It’s an expression of profound frustration and pain.

The un-fun self care is really no more than this: giving the “soft animal” of your body (thx Mary Oliver) what it needs to survive. To take actions to give it the basics, so the body itself feels a little better. That alleviates enough some days to feel pretty okay.

[bpd-dylan-hall-deactivated20190]

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again but it is absolutely an example of civilizational inadequacy that only deaf people know ASL

“oh we shouldn’t teach children this language, it will only come in handy if they [checks notes] ever have to talk in a situation where it’s noisy or they need to be quiet”

[raginrayguns]

My mom learned it because she figured she’ll go deaf when she gets old

[manyblinkinglights]

My family went holiday SCUBA diving once, and a couple of Deaf guys were in the group. I was really little and I spent most of the briefing overcome with the realization that while the rest of us were going to have regulators in our mouths and be underwater fairly soon, they were going to be able to do all the same stuff and keep talking.

[tell-the-stars-hello]

The only reason some form of sign language is not a standard skill is ableism, as far as I can tell.

[emoracreations]

For anyone interested in learning, Bill Vicars has full lessons of ASL on youtube that were used in my college level classes. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/billvicars

and here’s the link to the website he puts in his videos:

https://www.lifeprint.com/

[naurielrochnur]

Update: you guys this is an amazing resource for learning asl. Bill Vicars is an incredible teacher. His videos are of him teaching a student in a classroom, using the learned vocabulary to have conversations.

Not only is the conversation format immersive and helpful for learning the grammar, but the students make common mistakes which he corrects, mistakes I wouldn’t have otherwise know I was making.

He also emphasizes learning ASL in the way it’s actually used by the Deaf community and not the rigid structure that some ASL teachers impose in their classrooms

His lesson plans include learning about the Deaf community, which is an important aspect of learning ASL. Knowing how to communicate in ASL without the knowledge of the culture behind it leaves out a lot of nuances and explanations for the way ASL is.

Lastly, his lessons are just a lot of fun to watch. He is patient, entertaining, and funny. This good natured enthusiasm is contagious and learning feels like a privilege and not a chore

And it’s all FREE. Seriously. If you’ve ever wanted to learn ASL