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the summer of boredom

some months ago, i randomly saw a video of a musician who is doing a year of “no smart screens”. it was a bit extreme and the person made her life really inconvenient in many ways (eg, going to the library for emails and meetings, etc). from what i gathered, she was very much addicted to social media and perhaps that was what was necessary for her to break that addiction.   but by doing this, she eliminated the majority of distractions and things stealing her attention for hours every single day. on her reflections after a few months of this change (recorded on a camcorder and uploaded by a friend), she was realizing that one of the things that changed in her life is that she’s bored a lot — and because she has no easy escape from this boredom, she ends up using the time for reading or doing stuff she needs to do (or even wants to do!) but previously “didn’t have time for”.

it all sounds so logical and simple that it’s even a little silly to write about it… but i think i’m now realizing that in order to have time (and also to have the feeling of having time), you need to be bored and not be constantly chasing away that boredom with quick distractions. and it feels like we sort of killed that kind of boredom these days, in the era of smartphones, internet, social media, netflix, online gaming et al. hence, we’re never bored and we never feel like we have time for the things we really want to do. it’s even worse if those things are a little bit time-consuming or slightly difficult.

i guess i got a glimpse of that during the blackout last year, when i actually did other things for once — things like putting together a video that i’ve had on my to-do list for years, but “didn’t have time” to do. when the internet went away, i was stuck with what i had in my computer or around me, and worked within those constraints to fight the boredom and make something.  it’s kind of wondrous, to have time to be creative and do things like that — or just time to reflect. i think this is the first long blog post i’ve written in years, and it’s part because of this realization that i need the boredom and the constraints more than the quick hit of a distraction. honestly, it’s been a little bit game-changing.

anyway, i’m rambling but i do want to turn this summer into the “summer of boredom”. i want my phone (and the internet) to become a tool instead of a toy that i use to distract myself. i want to be so bored that i read books and long articles, do crafts, clean the windows, research stuff, write letters, draw, take pictures with my dusty analogue cameras… the things that make me “me”. i want to be less distracted, and more looking for things to do.  so… let the summer of boredom begin!

weeknotes

weeknotes, 24-25/26

a couple of weeks back in portugal. the first week was spent in the north, mostly checking in on family and catching up with work.

and then we came south to catch up on friends, vitamin D, the salt pans and their birds, the PO box mail, our favorite restaurants, the neighbors’ spectacular bougainvilleas…

it’s such a beautiful time of the year to be here! the harshness of full-blown summer hasn’t arrived yet, and so the days are just long and bright and (mostly) mild. the city is gearing up for the santos populares next week, and there’s a kind of eager anticipation in the air.

and also, it was my birthday this week! i turned 44, which is not a very lucky number in chinese… but i kind of like the symmetry of it! also, it’s half of 88, and i hope to be so lucky that i get to 88 someday. :)

i got some nice gifts, all bird-themed! they made me happy.

i’m still reading leviathan wakes, but in the meantime i squeezed in a quick read of roald dahl’s charlie and the chocolate factory, in a very battered copy that i picked up from the bakery’s bookshelf. i enjoyed it, and then we watched wonka, which i wasn’t even aware was a musical, but turned out to be the perfect choice for a birthday movie. yay!

just before the week ended, we packed up the car and drove back to aveiro again. we ended up driving quite late in the day, and were pleasantly surprised at how empty the main highway was. if we have to drive, we might do it in the night… but i’m actually hoping we can start taking the train again, using cp’s green rail pass. the only hiccup is that, when you use that pass, you need to wait until the day before to book tickets, which feels a bit risky. but maybe we’ll give it a try, stay flexible, and see how it goes!

birdwatching in the usa

it’s hard to describe how fun birdwatching in a new continent is. every single bird is new and more exciting than the birds you see at home! especially in the “new world”, where birds are often really colorful!

we ended up adding some 20-something new birds on our life list just by walking around the neighborhood in the early mornings of the first week, trying to fix our jetlag. 😅 we’re now up to 186 observed birds, which is cool — almost 200!

anyway, enjoy are some pictures from the camera:

the cedar waxwings (with their “sunglasses” and wind-swept “hair”) were pretty cool, but my favorite of the bunch is the very red northern cardinal, so often featured in american stamps — it was lovely to see it in person, and i knew immediately which bird it was.

i wish we had had more time to explore and see more birds, but alas, it’ll have to wait for next time! :)

foooood in the usa

weeknotes, 23/26

have you heard of the let-down effect? basically, your body performs well in high stress situations for a while, and then, after the stressful period is over, it collapses.

that’s what happened on our last week in boston. after the stamp launch and all the meetings and work things were over, our bodies immediately went on strike and we both spent a week in bed, suffering from aches and fevers that wouldn’t go away. 😩 what a waste of our last week! i had such big plans for birdwatching and museum hopping, and ended up watching crappy american tv shows in bed instead…

on the last 2 days of the week, feeling a little better, we managed to gather enough strength for a couple of outings and went to the harvard natural history museum and the mit science museum — both great!

the harvard one had been recommended by our friend clarisse, who told us to check out the “glass flowers” exhibition. so we went… and wow… what a wondrous thing that was! a whole suite of glass flowers and other plant models, all painstakingly made by hand by a german father and son team over their lifetimes. they were so impressive, so beautiful and life-like! and it was impossible to tell they were made of glass — even while we were looking at them, our brains couldn’t quite figure it out. sadly, no pictures allowed, but you can check them out here. if you’re ever in boston, go see them!

we also had time to grab some last meals, this time chipotle and banh mi sandwiches, which we hadn’t had in years.

and then, it was time to send some last postcards with these gorgeous stamps and fly back home.

bye-bye, america!

foooood in the usa postcrossing

weeknotes, 22/26

our second week in boston was all about stamps! we attended the boston 2026 world expo, a big event that takes place in the usa every 10 years (in different cities). it’s a huge thing, with postal services, stamp dealers, and all kinds of philatelic associations and collectors coming together to celebrate stamps. usps launched a new stamp every day of the show, and the postcrossing one came out on tuesday!

friends, it was such a beautiful thing. there were speeches, pictures and autographs, but also the opportunity to meet and chat with hundreds of people throughout the week — all kind-hearted and full of beautiful stories about postcrossing. it felt amazing to be there and experience this collective joy for something we’ve been working on for over 20 years – and also to see these beautiful stamps start to make their way around the world. i want to bottle this feeling and remember it when i get frustrated in front of a computer.

we even got to chat with antónio alcalá, the usps art director responsible for many of their amazing stamps. and we met graham and laura (from pixpost and exploring stamps) too and they were both so nice! aaaaaaaaaaah! 😍

but it wasn’t just stamps! we also got a little bit of time to go to a diner with our friend addis from puerto rico, and try some other american staples, like grilled cheese sandwiches, lobster rolls, clam chowder, mac & cheese and dr. pepper!

and! we visited a local post office to see one of their historic new deal murals — something that had been on my bucket list for a while now.

sadly (but not surprisingly), after all the excitement was over we immediately became sick… 🙄 *le sigh*.