Game nights ended too early this year but look on the bright side; this means we’re saving hundreds of dollars and thousands of calories. Always think positive!

Easter egg hunt in Auntie Katy’s second closet! I told them before I went to work (boo), “makes sure you guys leave me some chocolate!” They ended up taking all the Kinder Surprise toys and leaving me all the chocolates. And also bags and bags of unopened mini eggs. Don’t know whether to love them or hate them.

Things we see on the morning runs with the Run Bugs.

Recent run with the Run Bugs where we ended up at the Running Room and 4 out of 6 of us bought new kicks. I wanted to get new ones too but unfortunately I got mine last summer when I swore that I would start running but ended up only using them three times.

Cyclist problems. Leg warmers or no leg warmers? Full gloves or half gloves? I always get stressed out trying to dress for unpredictable weather.

@ Seasons 2012. Work hard play harder— girls who know how to have fun!

…and April is when all the festivities begin. I’ve been at a club 3 weekends in a row. I feel 23 again. I guess I should be thankful that I don’t have any close friends with birthdays in January-March I’m required to attend because that gives me 3 months rest— which also coincides with my “off-season” when I just cannot resist slacking with my fitness.

Goodbye April, let the May-fun begin!

Home-made macaroons from our favorite bitch.

There ain’t no party without L.A. Chicken! The girl who bought it was the most popular person there.

Diplomat Cake for the birthday, Dark Chocolate-Lemon Cheesecake for the housewarming and Red Velvet just because. From the famous and delicious Diplomat Bakery.

Happy birthday to my BFF!

We had the decency to cut the cakes this time but we usually just dive in with forks.
Yep, that’s how us girls roll.

xoxo

Great words of wisdom from my lovely friends.

When you are down or stressed out, stop and take a moment to think about everything you have to look forward to. Make a list! (Lists make everything so much better. Here’s mine:

Hopefully a couple more Whistler trips! No, I still haven’t found my black pants yet.

Last year was insane at EDC Las Vegas. This year will 10x better!

Summer on the sea wall.

Hopes of frolicking in Southern France and scoping out European living.

Oh yeah, and being able to afford living comfortably in this expensive city.

Stop reading emails and messages and when I can’t reply right away— like on the Blackberry. Because that tends to lead to forgetfulness.

Stop being in a rush all the time. My friends always say that I am constantly in a rush— and they are right. I feel like I have to constantly get things done really fast all the time because that’s just the way I roll. Must. Breath.

Stop talking so fast. Simply because I can’t and the stuttering proves it. I can only talk amazingly fast in Chinese. And walking so fast. But sometime I can’t help that because “I have long legs.” Harhar.

Stop wasting time. Stop peaking at my emails, Twitter and my RSS feeds. Get my work done and get outta there.

Stop being so critical about myself. I hardly blog because I get sick of my entries— I’ll write one and let it sit in my drafts for weeks and then finally delete it. I don’t upload my design work because I don’t think it’s good enough. I’m so use to working for my company where my work gets reviewed internally and getting all my freelance clients by word-of-mouth, thus never having to make an online portfolio and display work to the “world.” When I started MMC with my girlfriend, I was quite terrified because that meant the world will get to see my work (even if it wasn’t polished to my expectations). I’m just going to have to have to step out of my comfort zone and learn that I can’t always be perfect. This is no way to market yourself either.

Stop sleeping so late. This is slowly killing me.

It’s kind of hypocritical that I am writing this entry right now… at 4am and it will probably sit in my drafts folder for at least a week or more. Maybe even un-resolutions are meant to be broken. Let’s see if I can prove myself wrong.

STOP!!!!!!!! Now for a little hehehe nostalgica:

Hey you, always on the run. Gotta slow it down baby, gotta have some fun.

Edit — Only sat in my drafts folder for a week! But here I am, publishing it off at 5am after sending out my last emails for the night. And after this, I’m going to be on Youtube watching old Spice Girls’ videos. Maybe this is why I stopped writing these things down. I will start these… in a couple of hours.

I’m one of those girls with a bitch-face but  don’t judge me! I can’t help it because I was born this way! I’m not one (most of the time) but my friends tell me I look like one and it was worse in highschool when I use to parade around the halls with my bitch-face on and headphones blasting— so that I seem to be ignoring everyone when they called out my name. I’m not going to walk around with a fake and cheesy smile on my face 24/7 like some girls do but I must admit, having a bitch-face really does have it’s perks and it’s easy to un-bitchify it too with a hint of a smile. Bitch-faces are useful, ladies! Know when to use it.

There is one place where I think the bitch-face is 100% appropriate: AT THE GYM.

1. The gym is NOT a place to socialize. A friendly hi is as far as it goes.
2. DO NOT TALK TO ME AT THE GYM. Even if I know you. Because for that hour, I don’t know anybody.
3. I hate it when my workouts are interrupted.
4. Gym routine: in, do your thing & get out.

There I said it.

We have many girls' nights... always stocked with wine, cheese... Goose and lots of other goodies. And they're always filled with laughter, shrieks and unimaginable chaos— I don't think we've ever NOT have a good time.

I'm a lucky girl. My boyfriend makes me fresh salad rolls for dinner and cooks me a ton of other stuff (and even washes the dishes!)... my next mission is to make him love whole-wheat pasta because it's so yummy and hearty. Speaking of healthy, we went for ALL YOU CAN EAT BACON that ended up in a soju-overdosed, fun-filled night. Speaking about fun... nothing is more fun than catching up with super old friends over good bubble tea and Taiwanese food and reminiscing about all the crazy shit we use to do when were still young. Yes, STILL young... I can't party like how I use to any more.

One of our favorite things to do is to get dressed up and EAT. Me? I really just like to eat.

I was ecstatic to NOT get dressed up and party this NYE but somehow got dragged out to a super fun and casual dinner and drinks with my best friends. This was the BEST NYE ever! I even got to wear sweats. AND we somehow ended up with a free beer glass.

And somewhere in between were all the working, eating, snowboarding … but barely any sleeping.
Why sleep when there are fun and productive things to do?

TwentyFourCarat.net has been a record of all the good times in my last year of high school, graduating with all my girlfriends— the “Asian Girls”, as we were cliquishly named in high school (who are still my best friends), sleepless nights all throughout art school till my final portfolio show that landed my first and very exciting career-starting job a couple weeks later, my transition into a lazy to healthy lifestyle and everything in between. Six years later, so many things have changed and I’ve grown and learned so much in all aspects of my life— I feel like I’m at another significant milestone in my life because huge things are going to be happening in 2012 and I can’t wait! I will share it with you all when time is right.

2011 has been an intense whirlwind— an exciting, new high-profile project at work that we are just wrapping up and will be shipping in March, intense night schooling, re-learning how to “study,” miles and miles of training for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, so much intense fitness it wasn’t even funny, lots of freelance projects with new and old clients, months and months of sleepness nights (well 5am nights) and most recently: starting a new design partnership with one of my best and most talented friends:

Our website doesn’t have much up at the moment but we have so many ideas, just not enough time to do them all! We also have some pretty exciting projects and contracts lined up for the new year that we are just itching to start after all these holiday festivities. Everything, including our logo, website and first launch project were cooked up 3 weeks before launch, and we don’t think the polish level of the posters are up-to-par yet but on top of the everything we had to do and went through, I think it’s amazing. The last 3 weeks were the craziest, most intense and wanting-to-die-because-I-was-so-tired-everyday weeks of my life. I still have no idea how we did it but I would happily do it all over again with my Kimchi.

The new year is coming up and I still have a bunch of freelance projects I want to finish and still be able to live my life and do other fun things like snowboarding and girls’ nights, so I probably won’t be posting until 2012.

I know I haven’t been posting entries regularly like I use to and keep saying I will but I’m especially thankful to my group of loyal readers who are still reading, commenting and supporting me, no matter how sparse the entries… since the beginning. Some bloggers like to say they only blog for themselves but if I knew that no one reads my blog, I would not blog at all.

I wish you all a happy and healthy new year!!

I love you all. xoxo.

But as a part of our job, we are required to help others with their dependencies on you, and you must also push them in order to meet your deliverables as well.

My biggest problem when I first entered the industry was that I always felt bad asking my leads for things because sometimes we’d get so busy that we can hardly breathe, and once you lose focus, it can be hard to get back in. This was usually related to asking for advice and feedback and asking them to come over to my desk in person because you know, they’d have to completely stop what they were doing and walk all over to my desk. After managing others, I’ve learned that it’s better to ask for anything as soon as you need it, because your leads would probably be a lot happier if you asked for for anything earlier on, since your work reflects them as well. I’ve had experiences where a workflow could’ve been a lot faster if the designer just asked for feedback earlier, than spend days on wasted work. Not a good reflection on both of you! Now, whenever I need something from anyone (clients, engineers, other designers, etc), I’d do it right away with no hesitation because it’s my job on the line.

Simply an amazing office!

There is a software engineer I always work with, who probably always ask me for the most things ever— questions, changes to this and that, etcetera, etcetera, but I’ve never given him a second and always got him what he needed right away because: his emails and the way he talks is always polite, thankful and apologetic and usually begins with a, “Hi Katy, I’m sorry to bother you again but…” and always ends in a “thank you so much!” (and the fact that he is super nice)— how can you get irritated at that?

My point is, if you want things from other people, always ask nicely and never demand it. If you need something and feel bad for asking, just remember, if it’s going to affect your efficiency, the quality of your work or even your performance review, ASK FOR IT ASAP. Don’t hold off on it!

This entry came into mind after I walked to a colleague’s desk one day while he was eating his lunch and was frantically trying to swallow but hey, it was an urgent issue! I don’t even have second thoughts any more when colleagues interrupt my lunch because no one really does it unless it’s urgent.

If you know the industry, you would know how relaxed it is. We wear whatever we want, we have beer fridges, we attend fitness classes, play games, take our dogs for a walk, eat or simply grab a coffee whenever we want. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not all fun and games here, but this atmosphere is designed to balance out our high-stress work environment.

Some days I’ll come to work all dressed up with my 4” heels, make up on and hair done while other days I’ll arrive looking like I just got out of bed. I’ll go to the gym in the middle of the day and come back to my desk with my hair still dripping wet and my face beet red— my colleague walked by once and asked, “is it raining outside?” I would rather look hideous for a while than fry my hair with the dryer, every single day, okay. With this being said, I swear I am going to try making an effort… at least 90% of the time.

What do you wear to work? Do you make an effort to dress up everyday?

I don’t want sparkly things… I want shiny things.

After trying to come up with a wishlist for Christmas, I realized how different I am from most girls I know. Things I want as gifts (and usually buy for myself) includes electronics, books and appliances. I want a DSLR, an iPad (although I’m sure I’ll never use it), a new Blackberry Bold, these snowboard boots, a set of knives, a Bamix handblender, a carbon-fiber road bike…

If you get me clothes, jewelry, shoes, bags or make up, you better give me the receipt so I can return it and buy something useful instead.

$3000 purse? Uhhhh… someone tell me what I would do with an expensive, designer purse?! iMac please!

Last weekend, we went camping with a large group for a fundraiser but I wouldn’t really call it “roughing it” because we had gas-powered generators, rice cookers, water dispensers, lights, lots of “home-cooked” Vietnamese food, eating with real cutlery… it was more like tent city. It wasn’t until it rained and got soaked that we really felt like we were roughing it because our tent was further out (but Boyfriend’s dad saved us by putting up a huge tarp). If we didn’t go camping with the older folks, I’m sure we would’ve all died and went home early because it POURED on Saturday night until morning— only to see the sun come out as we were leaving. I love you, Vancouver [weather].

Here are my camping essentials:

• AIR MATTRESS. I don’t think I’m THAT prissy, but I am prissy. If I had to sleep on the ground, I’m sure I would hate camping. We bring pillows and wool blankets too… it’s just like sleeping at home and super warm. Yep, that’s how we rough it.
• A good tent. I don’t camp too often so as long as mine has good ventilation and is easy to set up, I’m happy. The tent I have now just opens and snaps/locks into place.
• Tarps. And lots of them, especially if you camp a lot around Vancouver because you will never know when it will rain.
• String/rope. How are you going to hang up your tarp?
• Flashlight/lantern. Good luck going to the washroom in the pitch dark.
• Toilet paper. Trust.
• Deodorant. If you can’t shower, at least try and eliminate some of the B.O.
• Hot dogs & alcohol. What is camping without hot dogs and alcohol?!

If I had all that, I’d rough it out anywhere, anytime. Well maybe if I also had more food, my allergy meds, lip balm, sunnies, music, a book, lots of dry socks, my fold-up chair with a foot rest, lemon-grass chicken wings and more alcohol, THEN I’d rough it anywhere.

Oh wait, I forgot the most important thing to bring when camping: GUYS. So they can do all the work; pitching the tents, cooking the food, starting the fire, cleaning up. Harharhar.

Anyway, I LOVE camping despite not being able to shower the days, wearing the same thing over and over and eating bugs while I sleep. Last weekend was a lot of fun and the highlight was in the afternoon, when some of us decided to go fishing after polishing off a couple cases of beer. You had to jump floating logs to get to the edge of the water and of course,  two of them fell in, one couldn’t swim and her priority was still to save the beer. Good times. Another camping essential: good company.