Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

More roads to travel

52 weeks had come and gone. We went through 52-plus T-shirts and a lot of memories. Many thanks to all of you for accompanying me in my journey.

I’ve learned a lot about blogging, (managing my presence in) social media, and myself along the way. Here are some random takeaways.

• Getting a weekly post done can be difficult, especially if you have a day-job, a relationship, and your extra-curricular activities. However without those other things, my posts may not be as colorful. Also, I am quite lucky that my husband is my unofficial editor.
• Inspiration cannot come on command and on schedule. I usually set aside Tuesday and Thursday evenings to write, but often times, only an outline of what I want to write comes out, and I cram on Saturdays. I guess that is part of the reason I have not gained momentum on writing my novel in spite of NaNoWriMo.
• I do enjoy writing. Unless you have a photo blog, you almost have to write, write, write. My ideal job would be to writing about exotic places, eating local cuisine, and taking photographs. I do not have a lot of opportunity to do that with my current position. So, this blog gave me a good taste of what it will be like to write for a “living” (yeah, it can be difficult).
• I love travelling. Most of my t-shirts are from my travels. I do miss it and look forward to getting back to it this year (Destination TBD).
• Combining social media with your blogs can also be challenging, especially with normal people stuff outlined in the first bullet. I think my learning will still continue after this project and try to see how I can optimize my social media presence.

In the next few weeks, I will take a break and contemplate my next project. I have a couple of ideas for another blog and some may not require too much writing (I have the material already).

Also, I will not stop buying t-shirts, so who knows…

...Until next blog. 

Week 52: Wolves of The Mountain

I am ending the year with this awesome t-shirt. This one was probably another gift from folks who knew I was in my black t-shirt mode and thought that I like wolves, perhaps after seeing me in my wolf shirt or the I like lightnings, after seeing me in my Grand Canyon Lightning shirt.

I do not remember who gave me this shirt, but this one is quite artistic. If you notice the mountains are also wolf heads and the “rock” that the most visible wolf is standing on is also a wolf. My husband said it’s like one of those 80’s 3D optical illusion posters where there is a hidden image (is it called a stereogram?). Because of that, he decided that this is really a cool shirt (and we should definitely keep it).

This actually reminds me of one of the T-shirts from The Mountain. I saw one of these shirts in our trip to Old Sacramento this week, and my husband and I had a ball finding the hidden animals. It was serendipitous that I was writing about this shirt this week. (BTW, you can also find grumpy cat t-shirts in The Mountain).

I am really not sure when I can wear this shirt. Perhaps over the summer, when we spend more time outdoors.

As long as I don’t see a wolf up-close.

Week 51: Shirts that were gifts - The Eagle and the Moon

I found more shirts that I did not know I had. They were probably presents from folks who knew I was in my black t-shirt mode and that I love animals. Since it is the season of giving, I thought this week would be a good time to write about these T-shirts that I received as gifts.

  

I am not sure who I gave me this shirt or when it was given to me, but these are gorgeous and quite artistic. The eagle in front is quite majestic – with its wings fully spread out and ready to attack. The one in the back is at rest, but still with fiery ferocity.

I probably only wore this shirt once or twice, since I really cannot find the appropriate time to wear this shirt. However, this shirt seems appropriate this week since we just had a full moon (December 17) and it is the weekend of the winter solstice.

Happy solstice, everyone.

Week 50: Shirts I did not know I had - Wolf!

I was very surprised when I found the shirt that I am featuring this week. This is not even from the secondary site, but in the special site where I keep my black special t-shirts (Yes, I have one). There was a phase when my outfit was mostly black t-shirts and jeans and that stack explains it.

 

This shirt is probably one of the few travel shirts that I have in that spot. I do love the wolf design in this shirt. It is a beautiful wolf and also honors the Indian tribes in Canada. I do wonder if I bought this in honor of the lone wolf that we saw from a distance (See my post on Paws). We saw a lot of animals in our trip, and that wolf was definitely one of the more unforgettable ones.

I did have several posts chronicling my trip to Canada, from Banff to Jasper, so I figured that I do  need not too writing in this post. Just enjoy this beautiful and very artistic T-shirt.

Week 49: Shirts I did not know I had - More on the Mayans

I guess the trip to Cancun and my encounter of the Mayan culture had a significant impact on me. In trying to find more t-shirts to blog about, I found a shirt that has a Mayan calendar. I had forgotten that I had this one and found it at my secondary site looking for unusual T-shirts.

Although I am not able to understand it, I love the symbols around the calendar (I am a sucker for symbols and calligraphy). The Mayans were excellent astronomers and mathematicians. To understand the Mayan calendar, you need to understand Mayan math. In researching the calendar, I found that the Mayans had the concept of zero and counted in Base 20 (For math geeks, that is how I will now say my age. It's better than hexadecimal or Base 16... but I digress). Also, I was surprised to learn that the Mayan calendar is very similar to the Gregorian calendar that we use today. Fascinating!

For more info on the Mayan calendar, I found this article on the Mayan calendar on HowStuffWorks.com very useful. 

Week 48: Shirts I did not know I had - New York, New York

Blogger’s Note: I am posting a bit early for next week's post so I can take this weekend off and be with my family. Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hannukah.

Most of the country had their attention in New York this week in a very wholesome way. It ‘s Thanksgiving and most of the country will be viewing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and admiring the gigantic balloons. This next t-shirt from New York City is appropriate this week.

I have only visited New York City twice: first when I visited my friend from college and second when my cousin and I drove to New Jersey for her new job. The first one was rather crazy: New York and Washington D.C. in five days. The latter trip was even crazier trip: three days, five cities, 3000 miles, and only one speeding ticket. At least the first one, I flew both ways.

I probably acquired this t-shirt on my first trip since I had very little time on the second. I suspect I bought this one the tourist traps in Times Square.

That was my first trip to New York City. I remember exploring all the sites while my friend was at work. I went to all the major requisite sites mostly via foot and subway. I visited the Empire State Building, Wall Street, Rockefeller Center, the UN, even the World Trade Center. The only major sites that I did not visit were the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was raining hard then and I did not think it would be an enjoyable experience to take the ferry.

I would love to visit NYC again and go on a Broadway or Foodie tour. On those trips, I was too busy cramming all the sight-seeing to enjoy a good restaurant or go to a Broadway show. I did enjoy a slice of authentic New York pizza and saw some sidewalk entertainers, but that is not quite the same.

Besides, now I want a cronut.

Week 47: Shirts I did not know I had - Hong Kong, Enter The Dragon

Shortly after I started this project, I took inventory of the shirts on the pile and had some sort of a plan laid out. Of course, things changed a bit as the weeks passed. Sometimes, I changed my topic because a different shirt felt more appropriate for the events of that week. During that inventory, I think I did notice that I had this next shirt, but completely forgot about it.

I bought this shirt when I was in Hong Kong in our grand adventure to China. The time in Hong Kong was a welcome stop after the trip in Mainland China.  Our last stop was in Guilin, which was beautiful but somewhat rural. We were ready for some big city amenities and some variety in food.

Our stay in Hong Kong now seems like an episode of The Hangover. It was a blur: We had three nights and two and a half days. We spent part of our visit in a really nice luxurious hotel and one night in the total opposite – a youth hostel. There was the Hotel General Manager with the $1000 gold rim glasses, my friend’s childhood friend and her Austrian boyfriend, the group of American old ladies who thought I was a native (and surprised when I started to talk), the two Chinese teenagers walking side by side on Nathan Road talking to each other on their cell phones, bunk beds in the hostel (we were fortunate, my friend and I got the room to ourselves), and other various tourists and characters we encountered.

Part of the tour package in Hong Kong was a half-day island tour which included a ride up Victoria Peak and seeing Aberdeen’s junk dwelling community, but that was probably the only organized part of the trip. The rest of the time we spent exploring: enjoying the cuisine at Hong Kong especially the dimsum which we had almost every morning, spent time in the Temple Street Night Market, dinner at Planet Hollywood – of all places (My friend’s friend’s boyfriend does not eat Chinese food), hung out with new friends during downtimes and compared travel notes, and of course, shopping. 

I bought this shirt while shopping, of course. I really like this shirt's design. I love the dragon which is considered lucky in Chinese culture. Also, red is considered lucky in Chinese, so it's doubly lucky. I also love the Chinese calligraphy. In addition to this t-shirt, I also bought one of my favorite sweaters there. I still have it, but needs a bit of repair. I am not sure what else I bought, though... but, I do remember that I had a huge suitcase (Sweet!)

I know things are probably a bit different now, but I would enjoy returning and exploring. There is so many things that we did not get to see – like the Giant Buddha and the Bruce Lee Statue. If anything, Hong Kong is a great stop in any trip back to Asia.