From winnielim.org
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A few weeks ago my host emailed me that for some reason google bot was hitting my site so much that it slowed down the entire server – since it was affecting other people they had to stop google bot from crawling my site. I thought about trying to fix it for a while, but...
15h ago
From winnielim.org
in the mountains at chiang mai
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After spending a while in the city we moved to the mountains for a bit. Previously I had avoided any trips that involved long vehicle rides because of covid risk, but I think I'm now relatively comfortable wearing a zimi kn95 mask during these rides. The filtration of these masks are great (and I like...
on Dec 15
From winnielim.org
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Sharing some straight out of the camera and phone shots from Chiang Mai. It is known for the coffee scene, but what I didn't expect was that it has excellent matcha too, served koicha style which I haven't encountered yet in Singapore. What I really appreciate about Chiang Mai is that there is no work...
on Dec 8
From winnielim.org
103 months: because someone like her loves me
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for most of my life i have never felt like i could fall back onto anybody if something goes wrong. till she appeared. even so i thought it would be temporary, as i kept telling her, how is it possible for love not to decay and be diluted? all of us have experienced the disintegration of a...
on Dec 2
From winnielim.org
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In 2011 in a desperate attempt to change my life I went on a trip to the US with only enough money to last me for a month there. I did not buy travel insurance. Back then the idea of buying travel insurance never popped up in my consciousness. I don't think I had any...
on Dec 1
From winnielim.org
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It probably sounds obscure to write specifically about dining in open air in seoul, but when I conducted my own research prior to the trip it was challenging for me to find out what are the options available since most of the data is actually in korean and google maps are not widely used. I...
on Nov 25
From winnielim.org
the ability to our selves as who we are
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My tcm (traditional chinese medicine) appointment a couple of weeks ago was postponed because my physician was sick. I thought it would be fine to go a couple of weeks without, but my recovery from my alternate-day-exercise-routine worsened gradually until I had a POTS flareup. Just mere walking...
on Nov 24
From winnielim.org
why i turn to books on buddhism in times of suffering
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Over the past decade I tend to turn to books on buddhism whenever I feel down. I wouldn't consider myself religious or a buddhist, and I don't really fully agree wth much of buddhism especially the religious aspects, but I like parts of the underlying philosophy. I appreciate that it...
on Nov 17
From winnielim.org
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Last week I wrote a post about nothingness. I get well-intentioned responses every time I write a seemingly depressing post like this. That one day I will find meaning in all of this, or I should find a new purpose to give me meaning, that I will emerge from this darkness into bright light, etc....
on Nov 8
From winnielim.org
thoughts after the 2024 US election
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Sometime midway through the pandemic I felt like if I had any hope or optimism for humanity prior, I had lost it all witnessing how we responded towards a disabling virus. If we couldn't rally our selves against something that is so acutely damaging, I am not sure how we can rally against...
on Nov 7
From winnielim.org
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I just had my period, so I am feeling a little more fatigued than usual. Every month around this time I tend to wonder why the body finds it so difficult to overcome this blood loss when it is part of our inherent biology. Shouldn't it account for this potential blood loss instead of leaving...
on Nov 3
From winnielim.org
102 months: what is it like to spend almost a quarter of my entire life with someone?
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what is it like to spend almost a quarter of my entire life with someone? i feel like it is one of life's greatest gifts to be known so intimately, that we can utterly be ourselves in each other's company, it is a sense of complete relaxation in the other's presence. after having decades of...
on Nov 2
From winnielim.org
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Last year around this time I had my first strength training session with a personal trainer. I had only 3 sessions with them, but due to a fundamental incompatibility – they had issues with me wearing a mask – I decided not to renew the contract. It was difficult getting another trainer at the same...
on Oct 27
From winnielim.org
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After visiting the tokyo art book fair last year we were both excited to visit the one in Singapore this year. It is being held at the Singapore Art Museum, which is now located at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, near a former shipping container port. Hence the giant cranes: Knuckles & Notch – where we had...
on Oct 25
From winnielim.org
matcha & photography: calligraph coffee
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I've developed an obsession with matcha lattes some time early this year, after having a really good one in Hong Kong. I've avoided them for years because of caffeine sensitivity, but somehow they don't affect me like coffee does. Later on I discovered they have anti-viral properties, so I drank...
on Oct 24
From winnielim.org
endure: book notes and thoughts
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In recent years I've begun to develop an interest in the concept of endurance, be it psychological or physical. This is a response to a combination of recent world events, the imminent grief that is part of ageing, and that I am aware that I have been lacking the capacity to endure since I was...
on Oct 20
From winnielim.org
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came across this quote on twitter and it was attributed to Frida Kahlo: "I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do....
on Oct 18
From winnielim.org
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...is a celebrity chef in South Korea. He also owns multiple restaurant franchises with thousands of branches mainly in korea with some splattered all over the world. I first knew of him not through tv but through his restaurants which opened in Singapore a few years ago, and I got slightly...
on Oct 6
From winnielim.org
101 months: how can a person like me who spends half her lifetime drowning, be loved?
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i may be smiling in this photo but i had barely slept with unexplained elevated heart rate in the middle of the night (thanks to covid 1.5 years ago still affecting me in unseen ways) - she was inevitably awakened by my insomnia. i kept apologising, and she kept trying to soothe me back to...
on Oct 2
From winnielim.org
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I tend to forget about my photos once too much time had passed, so today I deliberately dug into the archive from my korea trip a couple months ago. It is an interesting experience: trying to curate a set of photos – what is the criteria for my selection? I don't have a concrete idea...
on Sep 29
From winnielim.org
why I refuse to learn drawing properly
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When some people want to learn to draw, they do it the "right" way. They take a drawing class, watch youtube videos, or buy a book – starting from the basics. I did no such thing and hopped straight to simply drawing what I see, even if the drawings turned out nothing like the actual...
on Sep 22
From winnielim.org
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Been practicing drawing on my ipad recently: Trying not to obsess over the details so I can keep it light, rough and fun. I used affinity designer (versus procreate) for this, it feels much better for someone like me who has terrible motor skills but is familiar with controlling vector points...
on Sep 17
From winnielim.org
the compression of our experiences
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My partner and I were both born in the early 1980s which is quite fortunate for our relationship because we can talk about some shared experiences we have had while growing up. I consider being born in the 1980s a special time – though I am sure everybody considers their generation special – we got...
on Sep 15
From winnielim.org
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(cw: addiction, but not from me) Yesterday I chanced upon a reddit thread documenting a guy's experience of using heroin and how it destroyed his life (but he did get clean later on). I came across this insightful comment in response: Life is all about novelty. It's the novelty of our...
on Sep 12
From winnielim.org
obsessively compulsively thinking about death, loss and existence
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Some time ago while reading a blog post on autism I learnt about the concept of existential OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder): Existential OCD involves intrusive, repetitive thinking about questions which cannot possibly be answered, and which may be philosophical or frightening in nature, or...
on Sep 8
From winnielim.org
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celebrating 100 months together! i have learnt that life can change in a split moment so it is important not to take mundane inconsequential days for granted. sometimes it is just so nice to have a day when nothing happens and there is no significant weight weighing us down. ageing — whether the...
on Sep 2
From winnielim.org
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My partner pitter patters around the house constantly, always looking for something to do, always scheming up some new creative project of hers. Being with her is an ongoing lesson and reminder how someone else can operate on a totally different mental sphere. Without her, I may be tempted to...
on Sep 1
From winnielim.org
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been trying to get back to regular cooking again after a long hiatus. i guess the relationship between exercise and nutrition is tightly intertwined, so it seems like a matter of time that i have to pay more attention to nutrition if i want to exercise better.
on Aug 31
From winnielim.org
my multi-decade journey with migraines
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Writing some of my recent posts made me reflect on how far I’ve come with regards to my chronic migraines so far, so I thought it’ll be fun (to nobody except myself) to document my ongoing journey. Perhaps it will be helpful to someone out there. timeline prior to 2007 I remember having some migraines...
on Aug 25
From winnielim.org
sharing my protocol as a moderately covid cautious person
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There may be a misconception that all covid cautious people are the same, but it is pretty wide spectrum. Some covid cautious people may frown upon my behaviour because I still travel and I mostly don't mask outdoors when it is not crowded, whereas people who are not covid cautious may think I am a...
on Aug 11
From winnielim.org
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The first couple of days in korea we stumbled into a 3-storey stationery shop called Object. There was a particular section where they sell stationery and stickers by a particular artist with a distinct style I now call "ugly drawing". By ugly I don't mean it in a negative or derogatory way, I...
on Aug 4
From winnielim.org
first photobooth photo after 99 months
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he always wanted to take one of these photo booth shots, but me being the perpetual grinch i’d always said no (esp since we can’t unmask), but today i just thought why not even in a mask (i must be growing up) so we took our first ever photo booth photo together after 99 months! we usually plan...
on Aug 2
From winnielim.org
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Travel enriches me in many ways. Apart from novelty and discovery, new surroundings help me to temporarily forget things that usually weigh me down. Certain familiar things back home trigger uncomfortable feelings in me. I guess that is why I had a multi-year respite when I moved to SF for a...
on Jul 28
From winnielim.org
gyeongju, the city of beautiful tombs
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Spent a few days in gyeongju. I knew there were going to be tombs, but what I didn't expect was them to be everywhere, not just concentrated in one area. I didn't know tombs can be so picturesque. There are restaurants and cafes popular just because they offer a good view of these tombs. According...
on Jul 23
From winnielim.org
what we pay for wanting to be healthy
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We are in Gyeongju now, a place full of cute hanoks and rolling green hills that are actually tombs which are thousands of years old. The weather has been rather unpredictable: searing hot sun for a moment, and then torrential heavy rain. This morning we almost had to plead with a restaurant...
on Jul 20
From winnielim.org
photo: food delicately balanced on their heads
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in korea markets we can often see people delicately balancing food on their heads to deliver food to another part of the market. i'm always in awe and wonderment when i see them.
on Jul 20
From winnielim.org
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I've had an affinity with the beach since I was young. Every time I had the opportunity to take a vacation, it would almost always be the beach. My younger self would spend hours alternating between tanning in the sun and taking a dip in the waters. The first time I attempted to travel alone,...
on Jul 13
From winnielim.org
scenes from a morning jog at haeundae, busan
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did a slow jog this morning from haundae beach to the busan green railway coastal walking trail. felt grateful to my body for carrying me: that my aerobic fitness is allowing me to relax into an effortless jog while enjoying the scenic views.
on Jul 12
From winnielim.org
happy birthday to my favouritest person
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Every year on our birth days we'll try to make a trip overseas – Singapore is about 50km from east to west so we can't do any local travelling. Travelling is vital to us for the growth of our minds and souls, and it feels exceptionally meaningful to be in a different frame of mind...
on Jul 7
From winnielim.org
almost straight out of the camera
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I have learnt from my previous trips that if I don't do something about the photos on the day itself, the likelihood of me doing anything with them decreases as the days go by. But it is a chore to edit them, so this time around I decided I'll post photos that is almost straight of the camera
on Jul 5
From winnielim.org
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i didn’t know this when i was a bit younger, but it is so important to be witnessed in our lives. she has witnessed me through health and through sickness, a lot of sickness actually — days when i can’t even get out of bed. it is difficult to have an invisible illness, but at least there is one...
on Jul 2
From winnielim.org
my experience on starting exercise from zero
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I don’t know if people know this, but I used to be extremely sedentary and I hated any form of physical activity. Only upon hindsight I realised it was probably related to a combination of factors which included adhd, depression and diet. Back then, I didn’t know that activity breeds energy. So...
on Jun 30
From winnielim.org
what a physical notebook provokes
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I’ve been a digital-first person for as long as I can remember. Typing words on a keyboard onto a screen had always felt more intuitive than moving a pen with my hands. Even before the computer’s arrival into my life, using my hands made me feel clumsy. So I have never related to people who...
on Jun 26
From winnielim.org
to develop compassion is to develop thinking in systems
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I had a lot of self-hatred when I was younger. But over the past few years it gradually eased up as I embarked on a journey of self-understanding. This journey wasn't voluntary, it was forced upon me after a physical and emotional breakdown. I guess that is what happens when our bodies are encased in...
on Jun 23
From winnielim.org
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Last week I briefly wrote that the push for humans to be good is a net negative for this world. There were a couple of comments asking me to elaborate, so I am writing this post in response. I think this is a very complex topic and I am not confident of articulating my personal...
on Jun 15
From winnielim.org
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we’re both people who default to routines and being at home, so without conscious effort we won’t venture out of our comfort zones. celebrating our monthly anniversary is a ritual that attempts to take us out of that familiar zone, and in that process we get to know our selves and each other...
on Jun 2
From winnielim.org
drawing & painting as a form of meditation
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I just started drawing and painting again last week after stopping for a couple of months. Since then I've been trying to do it more regularly, hoping to incorporate it as a daily practice. Previously I was hoping that drawing would be my hobby, so I was waiting to like doing it. So when things...
on Jun 1
From winnielim.org
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Someone left a comment on my note about age, time, and art – went over to look at his art blog and subscribed to it. It is encouraging and comforting to see someone working on their art at a later age too. I also enjoy seeing people's work-in-progress. This is why I like having comments,...
on May 31