the yak occidental

Here are four random habits I've adapted that have made a difference for me. Wear bobby pins the right way I have a lot of hair and bobby pins are a daily part of my life. I leave them all over the house and places I go like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trail. At any rate, there are two tips I have for improving the efficiency of your bobby pin usage: Bobby pins should be worn wavy side DOWN, facing your scalp, not up! The hold is much, much better this way, though it looks less decorative. Above: Source unknown, but cross your bobby pins wavy side DOWN for max hold! For hairstyles where you require more stability and hold, CROSS your bobby pins over each other, wavy side down.  How to wash the damn peanut butter jar You know what I mean--you love peanut butter, I love peanut butter, or any sort of similar topping to put on toast but you don't want to deal with the remains in the plastic jar. I read this article earlier this year and was determined to figure it out. When...

Presented without comment, here is a collection of quotes on the topic of forgiveness. Forgiveness is acknowledging the validity of our feelings  and then making a commitment to ourselves to release  t he hold those emotions have over us. from  The Great Work  by Tiffany Lazic "The Chinese have a different relationship with their gods  than any of the one-god religions," he remarked.  "Chinese gods do not require adoration.  They would not know what to do with it.  They do not forgive sins." "Then what are they for?" asked Phyrne, lighting a cigarette.  "They take care of things which they are required to take care of," he replied. from The Castlemaine Murders by Kerry Greenwood Through self-examination, any amends we need to make with others,  forgiveness of those who have hurt us, and forgiveness of our own mistakes,  we free ourselves from the past and create a genu...

In this second bonus video connected to A Course in Production , we're going to tackle delegation with a little help from Tiffany Dufu. With the next three bonus videos connected to A Course in Production , I wanted to present a series of thought exercises that you can do to immediately implement some new and useful practices to your everyday work.  All of these exercises are based on the writing of some of today’s top career development writers. For today, I want to offer something from Tiffany Dufu’s book Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less , which I also mentioned in Lesson 8 , which focused on working with your superiors. Tiffany Dufu reminds us in Chapter 14 that "Done is a Another Person’s Perfect," which is the focus of today's thought exercise. To be clear, Dufu is writing about leveraging diversity on the home front with one’s significant other, not Production in Animation per se, but her perspective is highly transferable. Above: Tiffany Dufu, auth...

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin Volume 3 (1923-1927) . Painting above: Woman in an Interior (date unknown) by Agnes Goodsir Delicacy in a woman is in character with her nature; in man it is one of those rare and priceless qualities which make him such a lover as are described in legends and fairy tales and which are entirely unbelieved and unexpected in a husband. p.18 I grow older by the minute---I feel it myself. I see so clearly what I want to write and how I want to write it. I don’t feel indecision about anything, somehow, and I tremble to observe my own assurance, the strength I feel while I create, the determination with which I reach out for certain things, the cool way I regard life when I write, the curious way that my idealism has been mixed with my fatalism, so that I can possess the soul of a dreamer and a cynic at the same time. Mind and spirit no longer quarrel to rule me--they have so closely united that I judge ...

Above: the Toronto Reference Library I recently watched the documentary Magical Imperfection: The Life and Architecture of Moriyama , which debuted on August 13. It focuses on the life of world-renowned architect Raymond Moriyama.  You can watch it any time for free here ! Above: Raymond Moriyama Moriyama is the man behind some of the most iconic buildings in Canada and the world, pictured throughout this post. Moriyama has survived great adversity--when he was a boy in World War 2, his family was sent to Slocan to one of the internment camps for Japanese Canadians.  Above: Toronto Reference Library I have been mulling over many of Moriyama's words and his example since originally watching the documentary: how can you go through something so traumatizing, go on to have a remarkable, thriving career, much of it arguably in service of the government who once threw you and your family into an internment camp? Above: The Canadian Embassy Tokyo Somet...