Ryisnne
thoughts and moments i’d like to rememberI have decided on a career path to follow after college
There are a lot of things to weigh and consider when embarking on a career path. But I think that for most people who find success in their lives, they follow they saying “do what you love and the money will follow.”
With that in mind, I have decided to invest all my efforts after graduation into creating a business to bring the styles of clothing I love from Japan to the USA. I’ll be able to work with fashion, which is my hobby. I’ll be able to create a business, which will give me freedom. And my work will bring me to work with people, which is what I love to do, challenges me, and motivates me. It will also situate me in the USA and Japan, and possibly other locations if I can expand in the future. That will help me use both English and Japanese in my work and allow me to connect with all my friends who will be going to Japan, as well as help me spend time together with Mami should she go to Japan as well.
People change their careers many times in the course of their lives, but you gotta start somewhere, and this is how I’m going to start.
Efficient Shirt Folding
Let’s face it, unless you have enough closet space to hang all your clothing, you need to fold it and put it away somehow. Unfortunately, it does take a considerable amount of time. So, a long time ago someone (Brian?) showed me the “Japanese shirt folding technique.” It’s a good technique that does save time but not that much, even if you do get good at it. Usually if you try to do it fast, you do fold the shirt but it doesn’t come out very well and requires adjustment. It also doesn’t fold long sleeve shirts and the shirts come apart more easily when you move them. However, the main issue with this technique is that the shirts fold into different sizes depending on the original size of the shirt and so they don’t stack very well.
A better way to fold your clothes is to use this DIY shirt folding machine. When I first saw this I scoffed at it, but it actually is worth the time to make. It takes about 30 minutes to make once you have the materials but it’s easier and faster to use than the folding technique above. It also easily folds long sleeve shirts (fold sleeves so nothing extends past the ends of the cardboard) and the shirts all come out the same width (height, unfortunately is still variable). Better for storage, and looks better as well.
How to Win Friends & Influence People
is the title of a book written by Dale Carnegie. He wrote the book over 70 years ago and it has sold over 16,000,000 copies since. Rightly so, because it was the first and I feel is still the best book ever written on communication skills. I’ve been neglecting this blog, and I’ve decided to use it for a different purpose now. I’m going to keep a record of my experiences using this skills in this book to mark my progress as a better communicator. This will be a fresh new start to achieve the dream of improving my relationships with friends and family as well as creating an abundance of new ones.
For this first post, I’m going to list all of the principles taught by the book just to remind me and give anyone reading this an overview of what the book is about. And I’m going to take up a challenge that the author suggests at the beginning:
— For every time anyone catches me violating one of these principles, I’ll give them 25 cents credit towards boba/gelato/yogurt park/goodies. Catch me on a bad day and you might make yourself a few dollars, but not if I can help it =p
I’ve written the Golden Rules of effective communication on one of the text widgets to the right so I and anyone else can always refer to them easily =)
Here is my first experience using the principles in the book.
Five Star Service at a One Star Shop
Paul’s Shoe Repair was not the first shoe repair shop that I had gone to in order to get a replacement heel for the boots I had bought in Japan. The last place I went had replaced my heel, but it had barely lasted the wear and tear of over a month and a half. I didn’t know much about shoes to know that one and a half months is not a very long time, but I did after I went into Paul’s Shoe Repair on Shattuck. I went in and talked to Jim, one of the workers there. I asked about his background in the business (over 40 years and counting) and praised him on the fact that his knowledge and experience could be felt in the way he talked about shoe repair. The service he gave me was stellar. He explained to me all the different materials the boot was made up of, how to care for the boot, and the different options I had for prolonging the life of the boot. Not only that, but when I got the boot back it the job was done flawlessly.
Naturally, when I got a new pair of boots the first place I took it was Paul’s. This time I just went in to get business done without really bothering to say hi to Jim or making much conversation. The lady at the counter took my order with a grumpy face, and avoided any questions I had with evasive answers. I didn’t really feel too good about the transaction afterwards though, so I decided to go back later and talk to Jim. When I looked online to check the shop’s hours I found several reviews about the shop, and all except one gave them one star out of five. The shop had done work that had ruined some shoes and made mistakes like giving boots to the wrong customer.
I went back to Paul’s later on and walked into the shop with a smile on my face and said hi to the lady at the counter, who smiled back. I asked for Jim, made sure to greet him by his name, praised him for the work he had done on my other boots, and told him how I was excited about letting him work on my boots again. I took the time to also talk to the other workers and learn their names. Turns out the lady had made a mistake on my order because she hadn’t cared to be thorough. They gladly apologized and corrected the error, gave the same great service as I had the last time, and Jim went the extra mile to make calls and find out about the material of my boots (I wasn’t sure) so he would be able to teach me how to best maintain them in the future. In a nutshell: a smile, showing appreciation for good work and an interest in others’ work turned a one star service into a five star one!
This is one awesome bag
http://item.rakuten.co.jp/mayhem-041/item04162
Although it’s ridiculously priced as well. It was on sale when it first came out, though it’s still expensive while on sale. I’m pondering what to do if it does go on sale again, though if it’s not at least 50% off, I’m not shelling out the money for it.
Back to blogging!
I’ve been putting blogging off again! So, time to get back into it.
I just got back from a meeting and dinner with Aida and Anthony. Picked out the clothing to present to sellers. Things are actually looking pretty good. Hope things work out, and I might be back to help again =)
A particular book has been changing my life: “The Procrastinator’s Handbook: Mastering the Art of Doing It Now” by Rita Emmett. After reading two chapters of that I got done one week’s worth of work in about five hours. That’s how bad my procrastination was. So I was really excited when I finished it and sent an email off to the author. We’ve been corresponding ever since and I’m working on helping her to come to UC Berkeley as a guest speaker. It’s taking some work, but I’m finding people are really helpful every step of the way, this is my current big project, and I’m going to make this work!
Also preparing for the HKSA Karaoke Contest on Friday. Singing コブクロ – 永遠にともに and Gackt – １２月のLove Song, dedicated to Brian Chio and Mami Asakawa respectively, which means that they have to come >=)
I want to do great things
I feel as if all the people around me are on the way to achieving great things. Mami is on the road to a singing career, Brian seems to be taking his dancing to a new level, Aida is starting a new clothing business, as is Jen who’s creating a business online and Steven who seems to be learning towards his own design and clothing production business. It’s very inspiring. I too want to do great things, yet I feel as if I can’t even get past my daily to-do list even though within that to-do list are items that will help me move towards accomplishing things I feel are great.
I wonder why focus, frustration, and discipline don’t work hand in hand when they should.
the start of a new business
Soran Bushi! Went to practice tonight and we’re performing next Thursday on sproul. Only 10 people this time: Junko, Annie, Jeff, Kim, Katie, Danny, Keith, Renie, Akane, and me! It should be awesome. My legs will not be feeling so awesome tomorrow, but for now they’re ok 
So after getting home, I checked my email and I found some really nice deals on jeans from a new designer in Japan. Along with Mami, we bought about $1150 worth of clothing: jeans and belts. We’re planning to sell them in the US on eBay. Could this perhaps be the start of a new busines? I’ll post more details about it in mine and Mami’s blog in the afternoon, so be sure to check it out =) It’s some really nice stuff.
ここから行こう！
Today is Chami’s birthday! So now I’ll remember the birthday of this blog is on the same day, lol! GENKI CANNON (bOOm!)
I was thinking of getting her a cake from Masse’s Pastries and a matching flower, but unfortunately the patisserie is closed on Tuesdays =/
So I told that to Mami and later she texted me asking why she didn’t get cake or flowers on her birthday. I thought to myself: “wait, that’s not right.” So I checked through my PDA to see what happened on that day. I had my last final, followed by Karaoke at Music Tunnel, and ending with the Christmas party at Yuta’s place. Indeed, there was a cake involved. No flowers though =p
It took me a couple of minutes to remember all of that though, and without my PDA to tell me I had a final that day who knows how long it would have taken me. So I thought I might go back to blogging online so I can keep a record of things like these. I’ve been doing so many things these past years that it’s hard to keep track of everything. I was going to go back to Xanga, but I don’t really like it. Happened that James Luong from my J112 class had the link on his gmail chat status, and that’s where I found wordpress.com.
I think I’ll make a blog for me, a joint one for me and Mami together, and then maybe another for some notes on style =)
Maybe I can get some other friends to move to wordpress as well!
