Week Notes 13

08 Jun, 2025

📝June 2 2025- June 8 2025

It's been a decent week, I would say? It was the first week of the new semester, and our thesis proposal submission week. Thankfully, I only had to revise a few small things before submitting the actual thing on Thursday. 

🌱 Highlights of the Week

• Went to the two new classes, and had a decent time. I'm taking two courses this semester, and only two since this is a short 7-week semester. We have abnormal psychology and counselling theories, with the latter being an elective. Many people seem to skip this one as both the classes are 8am, and, there's been a lot of talk on the workload. I went to the first class and thought that it went well. I think that out of the other electives, this would give me the most exposure to something I'm considering: a potential master's in counselling. I've been thinking of doing a graduate/master's program during the last semester, after some reflection on what I want to do soon. It isn't 💯 yet, but this could give me a little more insight! 
• Went back to exercising in the gym! I stopped working out in the gym about midway through last semester, as I felt very overwhelmed with a lot of things that were happening then. With a fresh semester and a more realistic plan, I hope I can get back to moving my body more. Wrote a short post about that here, if you're interested.
• Finished my HSK 1 Course. I've been working on the HSK 1 course on Chinese Zero to Hero, and, I'm finally done with it after starting it around a year ago. I've done one model test and scored 95% and I'll do another two before progressing to the next course. I've gotten back to using Pleco for the characters, and it's been really helpful.

🎬 Watched

Almost finished with the 3rd season of Hacks. I have been binging it over the weekend and I'm one episode away from the last episode of the season. I like the direction of the last few episodes with the focus on Deborah and her estranged (though an intentional estrangement, from Deborah's end) reconciling. I do want to see more of this, and it's nice to see Deborah open up with someone else who isn't Ava. I'm also not sure what the 4th season would look like because Deborah landed her late-night show dream, and I don't know how they're going to use that for a whole other season. We'll see I guess?

🎮 Played

Nothing tbh! Wasn't too much of a gaming week.

📖 Read

• Finished Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. What a book, honestly. This book was written and narrated so wonderfully and courageously. I'm not sure how this book's contents could change anyone's mind about how dismissive and outright intentionally harmful the Meta team has been. At least those that were mentioned in this book. 
  • If you do not want to read the book, this 22-minute-long interview with the author on 60 Minutes Australia is a great summary of some of the main topics in it.
• Started and finished Better Than Expected by Haley Cass. I've been in a romance book kick this week, and this was a decent short read! Not as great as When You Least Expect It, but it was interesting in the sense where it you get to read from the other main romance interest's POV. The last few chapters were also somewhat of a direct sequel to the story! 
• Started and finished Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales. This was a cute YA romance that stars a princess and a non-princess (lol) girl! It didn't leave too much of an impact after I finished it, and it wasn't as whimsical as something like Red, White & Royal Blue, which the author does acknowledge it's similarities, it is still a well written and engaging story. It would make a good movie!
• Finished listening to My Friends by Fredrik Backman. This was a decent listen. As I've mentioned, most Backman books work best for me when in audio (and I've gone through three of them, already) as they are very dialogue-heavy and usually don't have too many characters or things to keep track of that it's a great fit for listening to whilst doing other things. The ending felt very cheesy, but to be honest, most of his books are. I would also watch a movie about this! 
• Started Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I've been seeing this one around Goodreads and I enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo years ago when I picked it up, and I was intrigued by the NASA and space setting. I'm about halfway through this one, and so far it's been keeping a good pace! It does the same as the 7 Husbands book where it alternates between the present timeline and the past, and it makes you get excited to get back to each of them, after every chapter. There's a lot of space talk, but not too much that it feels like a word vomit. I think this is going to be a good one!

🎧 Listened To

Didn't listen to much new music this week tbh! Mostly have been returning to my yearly playlists.

🔗 Noteworthy Links

I'm joining in Junited 2025! Feel free to check that post out for a few links I've added so far, for more links to posts by other fellow bloggers :)

• Overthinking with @Mrwhosetheboss
  • I've been listening to this on and off for the last two weeks, and this is a refreshing interview. Mrwhosetheboss surprised me with his self-reflection, and it was nice to see a YouTuber that I've watched from years ago still remain humble and living a good life.
• An Honest Conversation With @PirateSoftware
  • Had no idea this Youtuber had a controversy at all - this was actually a bit difficult to listen to, but I respect his open-mindedness to go through the conversation with Dr. K. Makes me question whether I do a similar thing as him, in making dismissive comments during conversations.
• Chinese Girl's Unrestrained Opinions on Love, Money and Why She Left China
  • I subscribed to this YouTube channel as I think the interviews are interesting and they have full subtitles (including pinyin) for all the videos, and this one popped up in my feed. This is probably the most controversial interviewee the channel has ever interviewed, and though I think this person would be considered a "red flag", I respect her honestly lol...
    • She has multiple odd and disrespectful takes (some that I can recall are)
      • Poor people are lazy
      • Thai men are flirtatious
      • Men should pay for most things
      • Men should give gifts ranging from 200 ++ for every major celebration (and women can give gifts, but small ones are enough)
      • People who think she is a gold-digger only think that way because they aren't able to pull men the way she does
• The Savings Expert: “Do Not Buy A House!” Do THIS Instead!
  • Despite the clickbaity title, I think this was a great interview with Morgan Housel! His book, the Psychology of Money was a really engaging read and he doesn't give me the vibe that he is in this space to become some sort of money-making guru that's going to sell a course to me.
• a more detailed Kobo Libra Colour review than anyone really needs if we're being honest
  • I'm not planning to get a new e-reader anytime soon but this was an engaging 1-hour review of the Kobo Libra Colour, would recommend it for someone interested in getting a Kobo!

[53/100] for #100DaysToOffload

#100DaysToOffload #weeknotes