Unemployed and not (completely) depressed about it
Jobless and no future plans again for the second time in my life. Having been in school for most of my life, looking for a job again is a little scary. But it’s exciting too! I’m unemployed, and not completely depressed about it!
Thankfully, I’ve had some travels or future travel plans to distract me. Spoken like a true travel addict, right? Here’s how the past ~6 months of job searching has been for me. (Holy crap! It’s been half a year already?!) I am not yet depressed about the job search, and hopefully I can keep it that way!
Cool bike outside of a taco place I went to recently. More details about it below!
Check this map before your next trip
If you are concerned about getting an infectious disease while on your travels, there’s is an easy tool called HealthMap to track current disease news around the world. You could find the travel health report from your government, but on this website you can see all the reports that have been released on a pretty map!
The global map
HealthMap main page
This is the main page of the website where you can see pins for all of the current reports for disease cases this week. This includes many different categories of diseases, which you will find in the box on the right of the map.
Disease categories
Disease categories include vector borne diseases, respiratory alerts, animal alerts, neuro alerts, and others.
You can click on a disease category to see the locations of reports, or you can click on each disease name to find data for that specific disease. You can also click on the time series button in the menu in the upper right to see the chart of cases over time.
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[Travel Gear] Iguaneye shoes review #freemyfeet
It’s been about 2 years since I’ve worn flip flops, and much longer since I bought a pair. I find they usually don’t fit my feet that well, and they aren’t so good for my feet in general. Until now, I had’t found something to replace them. This is my Iguaneye shoes review for an alternative to flip flops or sandals.
Updated on 31 December 2016, 12 February 2017, and 22 March 2017 from my 3 month trip! See below.
Enjoying the ocean view on Kangaroo Island in Australia
2015 #AnnualReview Part 1
Seeing as this next year will be the last of my PhD, it is as good a time as ever to do my first thorough #AnnualReview a la Chris Guillebeau and get prepared for a big year in 2016. This is my first annual review blog post!
Major decisions will be coming up, like where I’m going to apply for jobs and what I’m going to do in 2017. It’s been a good process for me to think through what’s happened these last 12 months and think about how I want the next 12 to go.
The first part of the Annual Review process is to list things that went well and things that didn’t go well. Things that can go on these lists are things that I have control over. Continue Reading
One year post operation: Tiny scar and a numb face
A year ago last month, I had surgery for some facial fractures. This injury included some nerve damage on the right side of my face. I wrote about when it had just happened. In the last year, I’ve had to change some of my expectations for recovery. This is my follow up on post operation recovery.
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Pirate face, my recent surgery, and healthcare in Singapore
Sorry I haven’t been around the past few months! It has been a bit of a strange period of time, but I’ll explain later.
I’ve had the pleasure of experience healthcare in Singapore, now on 2 occasions. I fractured a few bones in my right hand last year, and a few weeks ago I suffered a collision during an ultimate tournament that resulted in facial fractures.
My face is broken
It’s called a zygomaticomaxillary complex fracture. Basically, there were some fractures in the parts of my skull supporting my eye and the tissue around my eye. The tissue under my eye was shifting or falling downwards because the bone there (orbital rim) had some slight displacement. Some of the bones to the side of my eye were fractured, and then there were some fractures in the lower part of my cheek (at the level of the bottom of my nose).
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New food habits and food shopping in the city
When it comes to food, I’ve been shifting towards a whole-food, plant-based diet over the past 3 or 4 years. The first few changes were to stop forcing myself to eat mean (or animal protein) when I didn’t feel like it, and to start eating more different types of greens than the ones I grew up with. Now that I’m in New York City for a few months, I’m also really excited to try local products like Granola Lab. There are so many cool things coming out of New York, Brooklyn especially!
What I have trouble with is how to balance all of the possible adjectives: seasonal, local, sustainably harvested, whole, unprocessed, unrefined, fresh aka not frozen or canned, non-GMO (genetically modified organism, usually corn and other plant products), no preservatives, organic, raw, natural
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[Recipe] Not exactly fried rice (a somewhat healthier rice dish)
This dish is my take on a traditional Chinese dish that my dad makes. It involves leafy veggies, some variation of bak choy usually, and rice. Although you end up putting the rice in the wok with the veggies, it isn’t exactly the same as fried rice. This is because you cook the rice in a pot simultaneously and then when it is almost done but still wet, you add it to the wok and cook it the rest of the way with the vegetables. So in a way, it is a wetter fried rice than your usual fried rice. Continue Reading
Hey, I'm Chewy! I'm a science journalist currently living in New York. I'm an introvert who likes to see new things and learn. Here I write about my travels and musings about food, places and cultures. Check out my photos, reviews, and random thoughts!