Konmari and Capsule Wardrobe

I've decided to try the Konmari method of decluttering this month but it took me forever to get started and longer to get my head once I'm into it. Thus, the pile of clothes stayed there for how many nights.

After piling everything on the floor, I was at lost on how to actually to do it. Oh boy! I've managed to remove a few pieces which I can truly say "don't like" but I still got more "maybes" which I thought I would be happy to wear if the color or size changed. So for now, I have to put them somewhere else where I can still consider how to "fix" them up.

Then, I remembered this "capsule wardrobe" thing. The idea is good, moving to minimalism route but what I saw with most blogs means 33 or 37 pieces per SEASON! That will still total to more than 130. And some doesn't even include base stuff as they categorize other more activity-specific items. I have to rethink this a little bit more.

Ideally, I would love an all-season set just like how it can be possible if I live in the tropics. But sadly, that will be impossible. I have to be extra warm for winter but at the same time be mindful not pile up a lot of these thick stuff. I've bought a couple of pieces that made me doubt now if it was the right one. Buyer's remorse.

As much as I dnt want to think about those mistakes, I might as well take what I've learned from those buys. Never buy Uniqlo down because the fillers shed sooo much. My first down didnt shed that much within the first few months that I had it. This one, on the other hand, is a pain to wear next to anything dark and clingy textile. Ugh. My 40k should last for at least 3 winters. I can even stretch it for fall and spring as cold breaker and as layers during winter. 

I'm sure I still got a few more items that I wasn't that happy after using but let me just focus on the lessons I've learned about acquiring clothes and stuff.

Stick with my colors, and my shopping list. I have a shopping wish list that runs about twice a year, summer and winter. Fall and spring is pretty short here so I find it wiser to lump up fall with winter. As for spring, well, is there really one here? It's still cold for me until May so my fall and spring will pretty much be the same. I really don't mind the colors theme much as long as I am warm.

Learn to say no or let go. Growing up with limited budget (poor), I had always had hand-me-downs, and thrift shop clothes. Beggars can't be choosers. This is maybe why I had never developed my own "sense of style." I've never really cared much for clothes. I do remember a few items I really liked and was able to buy but these were few and between and I realized that shopping for style does not really come natural for me. My taste, or lack thereof, has led to a lot of buyer's remorse too often when I was in my teens. I always had to bring a friend with me to help me choose clothes when I actually had the money to buy one.

This has been my solution for a while but things change, I can't have stylish friend to drag all the time and shopping alone has become the norm for me. I have actually come to like it. I have to learn how not to commit the same mistakes again now that I'm older. This would mean doing my research.

Some realization came early like as much as I love the color yellow, it doesn't really look good on me. I've had this BH90210 over-sized yellow shirt back in my teens that I thought looked nice but not on me. Then there was this bright pink flower-patterned button-down top which doesn't really fit me and has wrong placement of buttons that it was just so annoying to wear later on. And I had to beg my mom to be able to buy that! Goodness!

This brings me to the current situation. I tend to get a few hand-me-downs because I am still on the slimmer side but I have to train myself to be able to remove things that just doesn't go with my theme because it just messes up stuff. One thing though is I still shop at thrift stores until early last year and still ended up with a few odd ones. What was I thinking? I knew I had to learn to say no and let go.

And finally, live with as little as possible and don't think about what other people would say as long as I am not hurting anyone. That's about it for now.

Let me go back to actually doing this clothes decluttering now. Another post for my plan!

My First Out-of-town Drive!

I drove out to the department store in the nearest town with P today!

It was definitely more than 35 minutes, well almost an hour for me. I checked out the route online since last night and there were just too many to choose from. I've learned that Daum and Naver  maps online have different features. Naver map shows other routes and these are highlighted just by dragging the cursor over the choices. Daum map, on the other hand, would only have one but I can add stopovers anywhere on the map and the route will be updated. I kind of prefer that one so I can customize the route I prefer to take. It's like a puzzle in my brain as to which ones I have already tried, then just add new routes and thus expanding my mental map.

This time, I planned on starting off at the KTX station and extend on to the bus terminal. It didn't turn out that way going there. We chose to go straight and follow the car GPS nav. We managed it alright without much glitch until we reached the parking lot. That always tricky parking at that department store.

Heading back home started out a bit lost after a few turns from the store block. I made a wrong turn somewhere but managed to change the destination to KTX again and figured it out back to the familiar intersection. I just tried to follow the car GPS again from there and emerged at my favorite bulk store. I feel better driving from there on. I felt hungry and tired already going back home so I chose the more familiar route. It will be less stressful and less possibility of mistake.
It took us around 45 minutes or so and my lower back bone was starting to hurt.

There's my out-of-town driving. The car GPS can be tricky but I can follow as long as I did my homework beforehand. At least, I'll have an idea on the layout of the area and notes on some landmarks.

Now I need a short power nap since I only had 5 hours sleep since 3:30 early this am. I still have a lot of stuff to do but I really need my nap!

 

Grad proj: Chocolate Bouquet

The idea came up to me last weekend to get something like a bouquet for my son's elementary graduation. I would generally skip stuff like this but I've asked him about such recently and I found out that he would also want to get something like that. So, even if I really don't subscribe to these kind of stuff, I had to consider. 

Instead of buying flowers, I thought about channeling my inner creativity and make it fun. I won't go for flowers, nor sweets like lollipop. I found the perfect match for what I want to give and my son will also love! The graduation themed chocolate pops! I got the perfect bouquet holder which P got on White Day last year, a dozen of Chupa Chups. That's a very good place to start creating my first chocolate bouquet. 

The initial plan was to find Flat Tops or Curly Tops coz I find Reese's way too sweet for my taste. Unfortunately, there wasn't any at the foreign mart. No choice but to settle for the Reese's. I got 6 pieces of BonBon instead. I also picked up a couple of chocolate bars, MnM's, chocopen, white straw and some plastic and paper for wrapping. 

On my second store run for some stuff I missed, I saw this lovely set of stickers perfect for people who likes to read like me and my son. 😊

It was very tricky to wrap the papers and plastic around red holder. I had to use a stronger tape not to let it slide down. I also had to staple the colored papers together. 

Feb Finance and Shopping...Week 2

BTC gone at 6k profit over the weekend.

Bluedio T2 Headset bought @ around 27k after the 10% discount. 

After almost a month since I looked into sending bitcoin by buying it @ around 1.126 then having it go down to 890k the next day made me think harder on how the BTC works. I couldn't touch that for a while until I have learned more about it. It's not something for the fainthearted. I left it there in BTC currency for a while. 

It started to hit the same levels late last week and I held on until it reached 1.2 until finally deciding to let everything go. Whether it goes up some more, I should be happy with the 6k profit for my trial purchase. I never really intended to trade but circumstances led me to it. I would have to think about it more and wait for it to go down again before trying to get a slice of the pie again if ever I decide to do so later. 

As for the other finance related thing, I finally decided to buy my second bluetooth headset to replace my faltering 2-year-old one. That one actually just lasted for about a year and the other months were spread over some "battery rest." It didn't work for a few months then suddenly comes alive after a tricky charging session. Totally unreliable. Totally no-brand phenomena so I thought about looking into a brand that has more google search results. Not a real fancy one as prices can go crazy when it comes to headsets and alike but just a decent one for my budget.
This one has been in the back burner since November last year weeks before the Black Friday. Why? Well, changing economics plus other priorities came up: my Woori installment savings ending, buying a Windows based computer, my son's uniform cost and stuff. 

With all these done, I can now get down to this headset. It certainly pushed me to do so since my husband has been complaining about my audios as I hang out and work around our small apartment unit. 

I've started researching for this last year and has found a brand that fits my budget. It was the first part. When I finally looked into it more specifically as I am about to buy, I was faced with the many models and confusing terms in buying such. It was a little overwhelming at first just reading the reviews and all. They are all flawed in this way or that. I couldn't really decide until I finally put them down on paper, disregarded the reviews, looked into what each model has and of course, the price.

There were about 4 in my budget range: HT, T2, T2S, T2 Plus, and T3. Since the reviews turned out to be mixed regardless of the prices, I had to use the prices in my elimination process. That still brought me down to two similar prices, T2 and T2S. I would have wanted the T3 since it's supposed to have a more sturdy built (non-less plastic) but I've also read some not-so-good reviews so maybe not the one to get for now as my first buy into this brand. I should just have to take good care of this plastic one (fingers crossed.) 

Comparing the T2, T2S and T2 plus was pretty tricky. The Bludio infographics on facebook helped. This one below plus a few more research on some terms like over ear, on ear, noise isolating, and noise cancelling gave me a clearer picture of these.

Infographics for comparison

T2 plus has both the SD slot and FM radio features which I would have liked but maybe next time. It might be a toss between T2 Plus and T3. For my first buy, I'm down to T2 and TS2.

T2S - on-ear, noise canceling, 223 g
T2 - over-ear, noise isolating, 224 g

So the questions that I have to figure out on this hunt are:

1. price range? -- Need I explain?
2. over or on-ear? --- Over-ear is bulkier than on-ear one. I would have preferred the on-ear but both having a foldable part evened it out a bit.
3. Noise canceling (NC) or Noise isolating (NI) - This last bit wasn't exactly on the top of my criteria before because I didn't really know better. I learned that isolating is more manual thing while cancelling is a bit more techy part. What worked for me was that NC works best with a continuous noise source and the other one is in a more varied/flexible environment. READ. Flexible. My kind of thing. Plus the info that low-end NI > high-end NC had me zero in on T2.

T2 is over-ear, has noise isolation feature and fits my budget. It is made of fragile plastic but can hopefully last for at least two years. Since I'm buying from gmarket, fixing and returns might be out of question. I just have to hope for the best and make the most of it. Just like my life's motto. ^^

The 15 day wait starts now. 

Last Week of Elementary for my Kiddo

This is the last one week that the kids go back to school as 6th graders and my son has finally decided to get his haircut.

We went for about 15 minute drive to B area just to get that 7k haircut and the Dunkins which also cost me with almost the same price. I really don't know why we decided to drive out there being a little far from our place but faster to get to since it has no traffic light at all along the way.

It was pretty cloudy and there was a bit of rain when we started out, not to mention that it was cold as well. We got there past 5, waited for a few minutes, and finish the haircut and buying donuts at almost 6 pm. We got to our apartment parking lot at around 6:15 so roughly 15-20 mins. (And I've become more familiar with the nearest exit to home.)

There's just this little "hiccup" with the hairdresser. She doesn't listen to the parent but the kid sitting on the chair. hahaha..I'd better be more tough next time if we ever go back there. Why they always think that "bangs" or "fringes" are the only way for the kids here? Duh! If everyone wears that haircut, then why is it difficult to be different? Pleeaase!! (Rants)😒

(Note: I've just discovered how to insert videos and smileys today. Well, I do know before but just didn't bother to do it.😀 )

DIY Pumping Gas (Korean Self-service Gas Station)

It took me two tries to fuel up today at this self service gas station nearby.  First was around 2 pm after lunch but there were just a more cars coming behind me than I can handle. Plus I was in a bit of a hurry so I drove in and out right away. Another chance came up later that night after I took the highway to the KTX station.

Luckily, the station was empty. I was almost afraid to step out since I had been warned recently that I should be careful in that area. Thinking rationally, there should be a lot of CCTV in the area so that got me settled. I can take my time to figure out the touch screen. I almost did it all right except for the pump itself. Duh! I inadvertently closed the pump when I chugged it in the tank. That's one more thing to practice on for me.

So basically here's what I think I should do.

1. Do the screen. Select 

a. what kind if gas or diesel maybe - GAS

b. how much by liter or amount - _ _ Won

c. mode of payment (cash, card, point etc.) - CARD (debit or credit will do)

Then I will be instructed to insert my card. 

2. Next instruction is to put the hose in the tank. The suspended lever means that the tap is closed. Let it go and the fuel will flow. (I hope I remember that right) Wait while it fills up. 

The last part here is to remove the hose, close the tank lid, and replace the the pumping hose on the right on the higher holder coz the lower one is where the handle rests. 

3. Finally, go back to the screen to get the card and receipt. 

I think, one or two more try soon and I'll be more confident in this Korean self-service gas station. It's usually cheaper and still more fun for me. 

I just found a couple videos on youtube which are almost the same with what I've tried. 

Here's another one filling up his tank full through an SK gas station. 

And finally, an English one from John Erskin at Woosung College.

How come I didn't find this the first time I ventured to fuel up at that self-service station? I remember that there was this nice ajumma who helped me through the whole thing at that time. Then on the following ones, an ajussi was there as well. But with time, I needed less help from them. One day, I'll get there! ^^,

Driving Log (Jan. 31, 2017)

Second time to go to the KTX station last night through totally new routes!

I had to give my dear SIL a ride sometime around past 9 so I decided to take the small road going to the highway. We took the longer but faster route without stop lights, and the new alternate loop going to the station. It was a bit winding but not bad. I managed to get her to the station anyway. My next thing was where to go after that. I was not planning to go to Emart like last time but that's the only route that I know where to go to turn around. (Note to self to find any U-Turn lane in the area.) 

I found myself at the unusually spacious parking lot at the other side of the station. I pulled over, checked the not-so-helpful Navi/gps and decided on my route. Instead of going my usual route on the north, I took the counterpart of how I got there in the first place. I could've turned left, and double right to get to the big road but decided to make a whole circle of the station and went right, then left and another right. From there, it was all straight ahead and a matter of getting into the right lane of my destination. The next dilemma was where to get off. I needed to fuel up so I had to decide where. I went for the tried and tested Uni exit to get to the DIY gas station. (That pumping gas is for another entry.)

If I had opted for the non DIY station, I would have to exit at the next one which I had only taken once, and which will need to make a U turn to fill up and go backwards of sorts to take a more complicated road back home. Both not very desirable at that time so DIY I did, with some trepidation. 

The ride back home along the highway was pretty boring and creepy since I was alone on the mist of the time. it was cold and dark so the i had to figure out where i was with limited light. To add to that, my front lights are a bit busted this making my lighted vision more limited. i really have to get those lights fixed.

I left our place at about 9:40 and came home at almost 11. it took an hour, give or take 25-30 minutes on the road both ways, plus at least 5 minutes for figuring out my route and fueling up on the way home. It was a long drive for me and I felt tired when I got home. 

Driving can be fun but can also be tiring if your used to it OR maybe because u got used to it? Ironic. one good thing is u can change your route every now and then to make it less boring. 

So far, my SIL was surprised that I can manage the smaller roads nearby now. And I can also take the highway as well, even though shorter distance. She mentioned that I can try driving to her place next time. Haha! That will need a lot of homework in figuring out the route beforehand and the car GPS as well. 

My nearest target destination to practice maybe Suwon or Gunsan to visit a friend. I've seen that driving thru the interchanges in Suwon can be complicated so I have to prepare well for that.