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Dear Old Love

Saturday, January 28, 2012

DEAR OLD LOVE: Anonymous Notes to Former Crushes, Sweethearts, Husbands, Wives and Ones that Got Away

I bought this book the other day when I was browsing around for discounted books in Stockmann.  The title caught my eyes. That’s simply a girl thing: we are somehow so emotional in relationship games that anything related can arouse us emotionally and physically.

Opening and skimming it quickly, I totally fell in love with this little book. Guess what I saw first!!??

“IT’S NOT YOU. Yes, we had good sex. I have good sex with anyone. That’s me”

This is the damn coolest saying ever! It’s funny, ironic and also poignant.

I highly recommend this little book to those who are  looking back at your previous relationship as a lesson of life. No matter what it gives to you, it’s over! Don’t let this book tear you down and soak you in the sorrowful memories of love.

I would list here my favorites quotes in this book. Mostly they are ironic and mocking. I would love my past crushes/men/dates (or whatever you call those things) to read this …

” LAB WORK. You taught me how long I can handle a relationship based solely on sexual chemistry. Seven months” (Well, trust me it couldn’t last that long LOL)

” RIBBED. I wish we’d been close enough for me to go on the pill.” (Slap! Slap!)

” NEAR MISS. I wish I missed you, so I could do that instead of feeling empty “ ( I guess I know exactly this feeling)

” PERSPECTIVE. No, it’s not the end of the world. But it’s the end of a lot”

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Vintage wannabe in Helsinki

Thursday, January 12, 2012

I am a big fan of flea markets: cheap and fun to see and “sneak” for nice stuff. When I still lived in Vietnam, I usually went to Bà Chiểu market almost once or twice/month with my mom. Here in Europe, flea markets are much cooler. You don’t just find used nice stuff but also sometimes vintage or even antique things.

Ruby and I went to Design District yesterday but then we ended up in UFF and FIDA (two biggest second-hand chain stores in Finland). And I totally fell in love with what I got!!!

10 eur at FIDA Robertinkatu

This phone costs me 10eur. There are two others with different style but more pricey (30eur) so I’m cool with this :)

Then we headed to UFF on the same street Iso Robertinkatu ( this is one of nicest street in town with lots of nice shops and cool bars. I need to write a post about this later ;) )

And there is now a big sales in UFF system: 3eur for everything. That’s amazing!! For the next two day the price will drop down to 2eur for everything (12-13 January 2012) and on Sunday (14 Jan 2012) 1 eur for everything. I will definitely come back :D

This chunky-knitted sweater was picked up by Ruby <3 It’s a bit too big for me (probably it’s a man sweater) but actually all of clothes I got yesterday were inspired by menswear style :)

3eur/each. Both are men styles but I think I can mix and match them well :)

And I got two more shirts: one for man and one for woman. But both are quite loose and definitely fitting the menswear style. Again, I got each for 3eur :)

How much I like these buttons: so lovely and vintage-inspired

me in a man shirt. im lovin' it

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Be independent, be passionate!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

http://pinterest.com/pin/171910910745731653/

Nothing is as great as talking with your friends who clear your mind and calm you down, especially when you are dealing with a mess named “live and love” (I know it sounds corny, but I can’t find a better word :p).

As any girl in this world, I sometimes have problem with relationship/dating thingy. In that case, I am likely to share and hang with a (few) listener(s). Girls generally will talk and earn advises from their girlfriends. So do I! I ask from the close friend who I can trust in her wisdom, sense and experiences. Plus, I also ask a guy friend. What I’ve learnt is “if you want to know a man, ask a man!”. Because girls are so good at guessing, getting paranoid and then panicking @___@ Men are much simpler. To know them, you just need to ask straight away (or him or some other guy)

I have been dating with guys of different nationalities, mostly European. But among all, Finnish guys are always the toughest to deal with. I don’t generalize but they all have things in common.

Some typical facts you may hear about Finn guys:

- They are shy. They talk when getting drunk.

- It takes time for them to trust.

- They keep it to themselves.

The underlying problem here is communication. They rarely talk, share or express what they think. They highly appreciate the beauty of silence. If one day your guy says nothing and disappear, it doesn’t mean he loves you no more: he just needs some privacy.

I wouldn’t guarantee 100% what I assume is true. But at least that’s what I’ve believed so far. In a good way, I learn to accept that fact and make myself an independent and passionate girl (being independent makes you standstill when he is soaking in his private zone and being passionate enough to trust in what you are chasing)

Good luck to me and any girl who is dealing with the same thing <3

 

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LinkedIn Companies: a great tool to find companies and new jobs

Monday, November 7, 2011

We all know the fact about the hidden job market: only about 30-40% jobs are advertised, the rest is usually hidden. Where can we find them then? Networking, as commonly known, is one of the greatest tools. But as a student who doesn’t have many professional connection or career-related network, I need to find another way and work on myself rather looking for help from networking.

So I’ve chosen to attack directly the companies. In almost all company websites I have visited, there is always a career section which is built only only for job recruitment but also for candidates’ self-learning and development. One of my most favorite company website is McKinsey’s career page where all instructions, recruitment process, growth opportunities, roles designed for different backgrounds from (under)graduate students to experienced professionals, etc are clearly stated.

There are millions of companies out there and how many of them do you really know? If I want to work in a small medium sized company in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in media business, do you really think Google will give me a full list? Well, I have to admit that I had tried but failed. So today I would like to introduce a great way I just found by searching on Youtube (nowadays Youtube is not only a video sharing channel anymore but becoming also a searching engine): using Companies list on Linked. And here is how:

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How to survive a hungover weekend

Sunday, November 6, 2011

It is a slight shift today in my blog post. Speaking away from study/work life, let’s throw a topic of life after school/work: How to survive a hungover weekend.

Sunday morning is not always fresh and relaxing (as it’s supposed to be) especially after a fun drunk Saturday night. Some people even take more than one day to recover hangover. These tips are particularly written for girls because guys just simply sleep and do nothing during a hangover :p

First step: Drink water

Estimated time: 10-30 seconds

Effort level: low

This is a common fact: alcohol dehydrates your body. That’s why when you wake up after a drunk night you feel desperately thirsty. So just start the hangover morning with a big glass of water or even more.

Second step: Remove make-up

Estimated time: 5 minutes

Effort level: medium

Coming home from a party drunkenly, you are likely to go straight to bed and sleep like a baby rather than going to bathroom and wash yourself. As a consequence, you find your inflection in mirror with messed up mascara, smudgy red lipstick and disordered hair when waking up in the morning. It’s not only about aesthetics but also your skin health. It severely harms your skin after the whole night of alcohol, smokes, sweat, dust, etc. So girls, please do remove make-up!

Third step: Skincare time

Estimated time: 15 minutes

Effort level: high

This is also a good time to do your skin care. Firstly, your skin needs recovery. Then, doing skincare makes you feel fresher in a hangover morning. At last; 15 minute eye-closing and lying down relaxation really makes you feel at east. You can make face mask with natural ingredients (fruits, yogurt, honeymoon). It depends on how much effort you’d like to spend on it. If you feel so lazy preparing a natural face mask, ones bought from drugstores are nice substitutes too.

Fourth step: Treat yourself with good food

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Effort level: rather high

Some people tend to grab something quickly from the fridge and put to the microwave. Others order pizza or kebab from home delivery service. Both way seem to fill up your stomach, but I am pretty sure that you won’t feel good after eating those. Even sometimes I feel like throwing up after eating those fast food like burgers, pizzas or kebab. I highly recommend to cook yourself. It’s better something with a lot of protein (as much meat as possible, eggs) and also veggies to help you to recover.

Fifth step: Relax

Estimated time: the rest of the day

Effort level: super low

It’s weekend, right? So what bothers you relaxing and being lazy. A nap also makes me feel better because normally I can’t sleep much during the night if I am drunk. A walk for fresh air is recommend too. Just remember to drink water a lot again :)

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Time management: 30mins/day that makes my life easier

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

I’m an hardcore procrastinator. So planning to do something for hours seems less reasonable than splitting it up into 30mins/day task :)

1. Learn a new language. 

The truth is English is widely understood in the world but it isn’t the widely-used language. This fact is noticeably proved in Finland at least. No Finnish no chance at all! So learning a new language is making your career path more promising.

But don’t ask me to intensively learn for a couple of hours per day, especially when I just self-study at home. Well of course if you are motivated enough to do it, keep it up! For me, it’s easier to study French 30mins/day and keep it regular! You will be surprised about the progress only after 2months. Many a little makes a mickle!

Free e-course are always available to be found online. Or even when you’re required to pay, it is just a little amount of money. I usually search for the software recommended for my level and then go to thepiratebay.org to search and download. I am not always lucky to find what I want, but as long as you keep searching from different sources you can find it.

2. Work out or play sports

It really demotivates me when I think of how much time it takes to go to the gym: one hour before getting out of home (well im a girl), around 45minutes for transportation back and forth, and this and that… So it saves me more time to work out at home. I often turn on the video and follow the instruction. And I also change the routine every day not to make it boring for me. Here is one of the 30-minute workout video I like the most http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtYgmDEddug&feature=mh_lolz&list=PLF07A8AA5A1C6D8A6

3. Pursue your hobby

People often complain they don’t have much time for their hobbies. Come on, 30mins/day is indulgent!

 I hope these tips can inspire you guys to manage your time more efficiently and enjoy to the best of your life!

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3 tips to maximize concentration

Sunday, October 23, 2011

I have a serious problem with getting concentration and it takes lots of efforts for me to get focused. I always end up browsing Facebook, Twitter, e.newspapers while doing homework. Here are some tips I just come up with and promise myself that I will start from today. Will you do it with me?

1. Timer:

When starting working, you have to shut down/sign out of all irrelevant, distracting websites or programs. Then, turn on a timer. Try Egg timer! It’s so easy to use. Go go http://e.ggtimer.com/ . Type the amount of time you want in the box “Start a timer” and then go! it starts counting down :)

2. Reminder: 

List what you have to do. I have such a chicken memory. So when I start doing something and then suddenly come up with something else, I just go with the flow of things hitting my mind and can’t remember what I am supposed to do at the beginning. So keep a list of what to do in front of you. Even when you don’t really care about it, I am sure you will a chance of looking at it by accident. By that way, you can figure out that if you’re on or off track.

3. Take a break and a bite of chocolate

In some case, you can’t get focused just because your brain doesn’t work. I haven’t blogged for a week and I had forced myself trying to write down something. But still I couldn’t come up with anything because I am stressed with school work and off track with blogging. I saw the “write a new blog post” in my reminder and even tried to turn on the timer for it. But it didn’t work just because my brain was not functioning.

And I decided to have a little break for several days with it and atesome chocolate to feel happier and less stressful. If you don’t have that much break time as I did with my blogging, it’s good to have a break anyway (maybe 15min or half an hour). Don’t panic because thing will just go ruined when people panic. Instead, take a break and a bite of chocolate <3

 

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Act small Think big – Think big Act small

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Act small Think big. 

A friend of mine keeps complaining about his current job as a casual labor and how bad people treat him. Alright, but it doesn’t help if he keeps complaining like that. I feel better when I can help him to think more positively

- He has to do that shitty job for extra money to afford his study. He has no other choice in a mean time, but he can choose not to do the job for good. Remember that sometimes you can’t decide to do what you want or wish, but you have the choice not to do that forever…

- Learn to appreciate the shitty job you do. “The dots only can be seen backward not forward”. There will be a day you look back and are thankful for what you learn for a shitty job (or at least you think it shitty) or for opportunities you haven’t expected. Let me give you an example. Some of my friends do some basic stuff like babysitting or housekeeping. Then the family they work for recognize their good traits through the babysitting or housekeeping tasks and promote them to their job networks. And my friends got decent jobs as they wished. Plus, starting from the low gives your more encourage and motivation to go further and reach the higher. Last but not least, it helps you to understand and respect underdogs.

via babygorillas.com

Think big Act small.

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days

It’s good to think Big and be ambitious. But it’s better to have things achievable than aspirational. I hope this video can inspired you to start with small things from TODAY.

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No excuse, Mr. Rapist!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

If you haven’t read quotes in two above pictures, please get back there and read carefully before continuing! (Continued)

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Important vs Unimportant: What is there in your to-do-list?

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Let’s open your day runner and check out most of the things to do there are involved with what kind of things? I bet pretty much tasks will be about school and jobs. You feel satisfied if most of the tasks are ticked and would be disappointed when something is unfulfilled??

Stop it right now! A day runner is a tool to make your life easier not to push your life under more pressure!

via Weheartit

I still remembered some kind of thoughts I picked up from the Managing in a Digital Age course by Christ Dodge.

The 2 Truisms of Productivity
1.Doing something unimportant well does not make it important
2.Requiring a lot of time does make a task important

I had always believed that “it doesn’t matter what to do but how to do it”.

But what was mentioned above really made me think. People usually feel efficient if they achieve a task (important or not) in the most economical way. However, they have forgotten that (Continued)

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