Month: January 2022

New stamps arrived… On Tuesday actually. And I was hardworking and got my letters and Chinese New Year greeting cards all prepped and sent out on Wednesday.

Look at the cute tiger stamps! And the fishes… There are freaking fishes in the middle of the east tear dot grid thing. What a nice touch!

It’s Chinese New Year in two day’s time. My room is still in a mess. I did pack all of yesterday and cleaned up some mess. But it’s really only the tip of the iceberg. I am NOT going to have a sparkly clean room before CNY and I don’t intend to… But I hope to pack up my desks more and have proper, usable table space by the end of today. And do it quick enough to edit the video for today too. I don’t know. I might end up missing this week’s video again, we’ll see.

Also bought some new gear from Taobao. Some phone stands and holders, and a mic. Hopefully will perform a lot better than the Apple AirPods I’m currently using… Like at least eliminate wind noise so that I can have my fan blowing at me while I film. I did buy some lapel mics but the background noise I got from those were even worse than the AirPods. Geez!

Ok, just a short post for today, till next time!

I finally got myself to writing letters again. In fact I managed to write like 7 or 8 letters yesterday… It’s been too long since I last wrote for sure… Embarressingly I found a letter from freaking March last year, which I’m clearly missed out on! I try to answer letters that I’ve gotten earlier. First in first out kinda thing… But clearly the system gets messed up at times. The other letters are like from June or later. Still an embarressingly long wait to get a singular reply… But it is what it is.

Perhaps I did go a bit too crazy and got myself too many penpals… But more likely I just need to get into the habit of writing again. Even if I only do 1 letter a week, it would be way more than 10 letters in one sitting every half a year! As it seems to be the case now. I did write a few more times in between, but each time it was only like 2 or 3 letters… I think.

I used to take photos of each incoming and outgoing letter… Well it’s definitely good for when/if the letters go missing, or gets destroyed in the rain. But alas, it was taking up quite a bit of time and effort. Effort to take the photos, and add in into Evernote. And I’ve decided to just break down that barrier to entry and just not keep track anymore. After writing the reply, the letters go to another pile so I’d not have them out on my writing desk (which is piled with stuff 30cm high so it really isn’t a writing desk anymore…), and I won’t reply to them again. If a letter goes missing… That’s just too bad and I’d have to write it again.

And I’m trying to overcome my hate for handwriting addresses too. Just freaking write it by hand… Which is a ton faster than having to print it out afterwards, cutting the stickers, and finally pasting it. That just added another layer of complexity. Andothe barrier to sending out the letters… And as a result I had letters that sat on my desk for 2 weeks before getting sent out. Away with all of that…!

What I am waiting on now, is spanking new stamps. I still have a TON of stamps… But since I’m sending out Chinese New Year cards, they gotta go with Tiger stamps since it’s the year of the tiger right? I mean I still have Ox and Rat stamps from last year and the year before… But it just seems a little weird to put those on CNY greeting cards for the year of the Tiger… No? Just an excuse to buy those stamps for sure… Just ordered them yesterday, I guess they’ll reach my mail box on Tuesday or Wednesday. And hopefully by then I’d have more CNY greeting cards and letter replies ready to head out!

I definitely want to organise my stamps better. Right now they are in various plastic bags (that the stamps came in), and all put into a folder. I already tried to organise the little baggies by value. All stamps of the same value in one baggie. But it’s still so frustrating to look for each small baggie everytime… And sometimes I have large sheets of stamps that are the same value elsewhere… I still haven’t a clue how to organise it… But I really want a better system for it! Maybe tear out all the stamps from the sheets first and put them in ziplock bags by value? It’s such a frustrating exercise each time I want to look for stamps, and letter writing is supposed to be a fun experience! Besides the matter of my desk and chair being permanently filled with stuff that I need to clear before I can do any proper writing… The matter of the stamps is probably one of the last barriers that I want to tear down in order to make letter writing an easier and more fun experience.

As for my desk… Sigh. I don’t know how to handle that mess of stuff that has nowhere to go… I just need more room, room that I don’t have. I wish I had special gaming powers and a magical inventory in another dimension or something of that sort… Alas…

I don’t actually have anything planned… And lately it’s truly all been Fp related videos. By FP naturally I mean fountain pens. And all unboxing videos too. It’s not that I’m purposely becoming an unboxing channel but… I just do have a bit too much new stuff. And a lot of stuff that arrived a long time ago but still sitting around unopened…

I’m not sure… Not really decided which video to edit and put up this week…

But for now. I guess I’m going to have to head to bed early. Was exhausted going into the staycation, and even more so coming out of it. I had a terrible sleep that night at the hotel. Not anything bad about the hotel in particular. The bed was nice and firm the way I like it, and the pillow was pretty solid too. The way us Singaporeans like it perhaps? I don’t actually know how the other hotels in Singapore are like, because this is the very first time I stayed in a hotel in Singapore EVER. I’ve stayed in chalets before as a kid/teen. But that was it. I mean. We aren’t dripping in money and Singapore is so tiny so there’s no need.

But well what happened was… The aircon got a bit too cold so we had to adjust the temperature a few times. And somehow I just felt really thirsty – I guess all that sweating in the hot weather does that to you. So well. Drank lots of water. Had to use the toilet numerous times during the night as a result… And tada! Bad night’s sleep. Sigh. And then Monday was back to work. And then I had to get to work earlier today… Overall… Still very exhausted I guess.

(And no it’s not covid because we are back to weekly self administered nose pokings aka Antigen Rapid Test.)

The infection rates here are nowhere as high as most places… e.g. US, UK, Europe. Omicron wave is starting up here but rather slowly. Just crossed 1k cases a day today. That’s way fewer than what we had previously during the Delta wave… For sure restricting gatherings to just groups of 5 has a lot to do with it. (And the other usual stuff like masks… I bought a ton of masks from Taobao recently… The masks aren’t gonna let up till next year at least, most likely beyond that even is my guess.)

Ahhh I’m getting side tracked here. What’s this blog post about again?

No idea. Oh yeah. No idea what’s coming up on my channel this weekend. I guess you’ll find out on Sunday, when I’d presumably have made the decision AND edited the video.

Alright. Ciao!

Hello, it’s me!

Coming from the hotel! Yeah, it’s a one night staycation! Fancy eh? What I really love about this is… AIRCON! Coming from hot, humid, and very sunny Singapore… The weather here is constantly in the high 20s to low 30s. All year round. Degree celcius by the way, because metric is how we roll. And that means extremely hot weather all year round. 30 degrees celcius coupled with ~70% humidity is no joke I tell ya. And when all you have is a single fan…

Yeah. No aircon in my house. Which really sucks when the weather is hot. And when I’m filming, even when it’s cold season, it sucks. I have to shut the door – because there’s people in the house and well, people make noise. I have to shut the fan because it’s hellya noisy. And all that wind blowing into the mic does not make for a good video. And sometimes I need to close the windows too because the kids are playing in the pool and shouting till their lungs fall out. And the temperature just climbs in the room and I’m friggin’ dripping sweat all over.

So yeah. Aircon is <3.

It’s been a while since I stepped into a hotel room. Not since 2019 in fact. Yeah, my first staycation. All I can say is that I’m dead tired.

We were outdoors a lot of the day and it’s just been SO HOT.

And yeah… I may or may not have stayed up till about 3+am editing my video for this week.

Thankfully I did finish it in the end. Yeah. I should have started editing earlier but… Motivation/drive/energy levels were lacking.

Ahhh… This bed headboard is fantastic. I wish I have a friggin’ headboard. But alas. My bed is a custom built bed, that’s right beside a computer table… So there is not headboard, just a bit of a board that makes up the table sticking out. So like, a literal plank of wood that takes up maybe less than a quarter of the area a proper headboard would. It’s only up till like half the width of the bed, and too low to actually lean on. Sigh. At least it’s right next to a wooden panel + shelf so I lean there instead… But you can’t stretch out your legs and all since you’re facing sideways on a single bed.

Oh wells. I would love to have a proper headboard. And no that has *absolutely nothing* to do with my tendency to bring my bolster high up the bed and whacking anything from my essential oil diffuser to my phone or spectacles or even my rubik’s cubes off the table.

But yes. Staycation. And video editing.

Video is done and up. And I’ve even set it as a premier this time. Honestly I’m not sure which is better. Just scheduling it… Or setting it as a premier. Does it even make a difference for a tiny channel like mine? I really have no idea.

Either way, it’s done and up. My thumbnail making skills sure leaves much to be desired. Overall, all my skills are in desperate need of levelling up. Speaking a little faster. Better editing. Better thumbnail. And all the nitty gritty details in between.

Alright. I shall end this post here. If you’ve not subscribed to my YouTube channel… What have you even been doing with your life? Go subscribe to my channel now!

I shall make a post about my vanishing points and what not another day. For now it’s past midnight and I should get some sleep…

No video last week. I just ended up reading webnovels and what not and didn’t finish editing my videos. Opps. And then I decided I deserve a week off so here we are.

Video coming up tonight! An unboxing video. Probably another unboxing video next week as well, which I’ll have to edit before next weekend, since I’ll be on a staycation.

I also have a ton of new stuff to unbox and film, and it’s like a catch 22. My table is too messy to film anything, and so I can’t unbox, and all the new boxes lying around is adding to the mess. And then I have to edit videos. But sometimes I just don’t have the motivation to edit anything and so instead I’m procrastinating and reading books…

The only thing that’s going well is my goal to read more books.

I finally reread the first three books of Trials of Apollo, plus finished the last two. That’s 5 books down for the 15 books reading challenge that I set. Plus I finished a book that I started last year, so I’m already 6 books in. Cool stuff. Granted a lot are teenage books but hey, they are books right? I even count comic books so. Cheater much but I don’t care. With luck (and reading) I’ll crush my goal this year again. We’ll see. At the same time it depends on how many webnovels I read. I didn’t hit my 12 book goal last year but I did read a ton of webnovels. Way more in length than the 12 books, so I’m giving myself a pass for that.

Alright. That’s all for this post. I gotta videos to edit. Ciao!

I’m not sure what to say about the next year. Grant it’s just 30 mins in… But unlike 2021, I don’t get the sense of still living in 2020, but I also don’t feel any excitement for the new year either.

I guess because 2022 will probably be more of the same, with Omicron lingering over our heads, and quite frankly, that won’t be the last of Covid-19. More new variants will come for sure… The only thing we can hope for is that new variants have more desirable traits – for us and the virus. Spreads better, but cause weaker illness. So that slowly but surely, the virus will be attenuated and become no worse than the common flu.

It’s been so long… I can’t even imagine how and when the world will return to ‘normalcy’. The norm as we know it has been so greatly changed… I feel naked if I change to going out clothes at home, and don’t wear a mask. Like when I’m still preparing to get out of the house before work. It’s like if I don’t wear a watch when I’m out. I feel naked.

Yes. Mask wearing is still mandatory here in Singapore, and I don’t expect that rule to go away anytime soon. Not even by the end of this year.

I’ve already gotten used to wearing a mask everywhere… Only thing is that weather here is really hot and I definitely need a change of mask after say, reaching the office. Because my mask would be drenched in sweat. I already have a cluster of pimples on my left cheek, ever since the mask wearing begin last year, never to clear. It’s right at the edge of the mask, where all the sweat dripping down my forehead accumulates…. I just got some tea tree oil products to hopefully help with the mask pimple situation. Let’s hope it helps. And that I can keep up the skin care routine…

Well anyway. A little late perhaps, but let’s look back on the year 2021.

It’s been a year of many changes. For me at work, I started working on new projects, started working with new colleagues… And also have to deal with manpower changes as my bestie did a job change. Lol. Job change sounds like some RPG game but yeah… You get what I mean. (I hope?)

Outside of work. I started my TheMessyDesk.xyz instagram account last year… I mean, in late 2020. But tried to continue working on it throughout the year. Well, it did kinda stop with the starting up of my YouTube channel. I also started this blog, well, paid for the domain name and stuff, sometime last year. But finally decided to actually start using it like yesterday.

I’ve only properly been on YouTube for too short a time to say much, other than a big thank you to everyone who has subscribed to my channel thus far. There hasn’t been all that many of you, but I still want to thank you from the bottom of my heart nonetheless. Starting up is always the most difficult thing, and I’m far from settling into a routine with filming and editing the videos. Everything is still too new and I also have a lot of issues to overcome. I’d love to be able to film myself and not just my table someday. But that would require me to have a complete revamp of my room, which is rather impossible at the moment. Partially owing to how full of *stuff* my room is. And considering that I am *still* buying yet more stuff… I don’t know what to do lol. More new fountain pens, art supplies, twisty puzzles…

So yeah, don’t expect to see a change any soon.

As for New Year resolutions…

Well, I’ll just call them goals for the new year.

My goals are simple.

1. I hope that my YouTube channel will continue to grow. Gain more subscribers and more views and watch hours. And to that end, I will continue trying my best to put out one video a week.

I keep wanting to do 2 videos a week but at the same time, I don’t have the mental energy to do that much editing… Trying to put out content that people actually want to see is really important too. Like the latest How to Use the Pineider Pen Filler that was such a big flop. Oh wells. We can only live and learn.

2. I want to keep this blog, as well as TwistyRoads active. I’ll probably do a post a week at least, but most likely more, especially if I’m on a roll. I take to writing so much more than editing videos, I’m afraid. I’d love to have an editor but… Right now my video qualities aren’t even that good, it’s kinda embarrassing to have someone else edit them. Not to mention that I obviously don’t have the money to pay anyone. I’m still so far from being even able to monetise my videos.

3. I’d like to use my fountain pens more, and do more art. And that means that I would need to have a better work life balance, as well as a lot more discipline. Not sure how well this would work out. But hey, at least I gotta try.

4. Read more. I didn’t met my meagre target for 1 book a month in 2021… But I did read A LOT of web novels so… Well I’m giving myself a pass. But yeah, if I could read 1 book a month that would be good. And I JUST bought myself a new kindle to read on too. A fancy Kindle Oasis at that too.

5. Get better at cubing, but still continue to enjoy myself.

Well… That’s mainly it I guess. I definitely want to improve on my video making skills and editing skills. It’s going to be slow and tough road for sure. I can tell you I’m the typical artist who is an introvert and not very eloquent. I write way better than I can speak. I pause a ton, stumble over my words, can’t pronounce things right…

But still. I love working with my own hands, doing some sort of crafty stuff… And I would love to turn my hobbies into something that I can make a living from. For now, I’ll have to get those 500 subscribers, before I aim for 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours – the bare minimum before you can monetise your videos. It’s going to be a long time yet before I can make living wages but still, I really hope that someday I’ll be able to make it.

Alright. It’s getting late so that’s all there is for now. No, I don’t have any new year special for my channel or my blog. As much as I have recovered mentally, also, not quite so. I don’t have anything special lined up at all, unfortunately. Maybe, hopefully, things will be very different when I’m posting about 2023 in a year’s time. We shall see…