281 - response to 'letter to 32' ✍🏻
hey 30 year old me, how you been?
Long time, no chat - it's been, what, a year or so? And what a year it's been!
I guess I could say that about any given year of my life, but this one has seemed very long. Or maybe my memories get hazy quicker these days, so I think it's further in the past than it is.
Are there any studies on this? The years are long but the days are short? I dunno.
Anyway, let's go through a few things in review of a year of 3️⃣1️⃣:
🐓 The Zodiac last year, and this year, bodes well. I think the Chinese feng shui master just thought 'yknow what, we should give it to Vince this year for all the great work he's done translating my work in the last few years'. When I was in Hong Kong I also went to Temple Street to talk to one of those feng shui masters on a whim to see what my Four Pillars said about my life - and lemme tell you...we used DeepSeek afterwards to corroborate the analysis and it kinda expressed it better LOL regardless, this year and next are apparently real good so let's freakin' GO.
✈️ PHEW my gosh 30-year-old Vince, it's been a YEAR for travel and 🌟 finding yourself 🌟 - since the last time we chatted I been to Europe, went to the London, Paris, Edinburgh, Portugal, Berlin, Seoul, and Hong Kong. You went to see Steph and had a GREAT time, saw the Paris Olympics, went to the Edinburgh Festival, had some great afternoons in the Portugal sun and in the distilleries, ate some LOVELY food in Seoul and Hong Kong - what else could be better? Didn't make it to Singapore unfortunately, but you definitely went out and solo travelled, tried it out, did some more agentic things with your life - s l a y k i n g <3
🤵🏻Wowee you quit! your! job! That wasn't on the bingo card for last year was it? A big change to be honest - after 7ish years at Deloitte you went out to try something completely new...which has been a great new adventure in itself. Trying new things, learning new things - what's better than that? You've learned that learning new things is fun, even if it's stressful - probably keep that going, yeah? It was definitely a daunting thing to contemplate - leaving a whole bunch of people you loved hanging out with, and doing something novel and new. Honestly, great display of courage for ya. GOOD JOB.
🐈⬛Don't worry, Gandalf's still with you. He's being a bit annoying these days after having had a holiday at his grandparent's place where he got FED any time he wanted, but he's still a lovable fluffball, handsome to the nines, just an all round lovely boi. He is likewise just claiming my lap as his territory - nothing's changed.
🏡The house is here, the home is settlin' in. I did some of the things from the list you had - we got a new couch, we sorted out the spare room (by...well, just switching the office with another junk room lol), upgraded the printer to a Bambu Lab P1S which is SO MUCH BETTER omg past Vince you had such a shit 3d printer. The art...is all ready to be hung but we just have to HANG it. DO IT. DO IT. Or, well, I'll just tell 33 year old Vince to do it. Or 32? I don't know how this time thing works...
💏Celebrancy is still in progress - unfortunately I'm not registered yet, but we're GETTING there. It's definitely been a heavier burden than I thought it would be - I don't regret any of it, and I'm still super excited to become a celebrant, but just like any student, hate going through the slog to get to the fun bits. You recently went to an asian wedding vendor event which was kind of inspiring? It was definitely good to meet all these people who had the same kind of energy that you did for celebrancy; you nearly didn't even go! It's okay - the celebrancy powers will be here soon.
💖Love is still elusive, but people who love are not. We went through a year of much more consciously reaching out to people, enjoying their company, and setting up activities that were mutually enjoyable. I think most importantly was slowly finding more comfort in yourself as well, and just being more, er, open? If that's even possible for a chronic oversharer - I think it was just reaching down and more uncomfortably to just...say stuff. It's okay to have desires and it's okay to have free will to pursue them. It's been a great road to go down, good luck to you, past Vince.
💬 This year was good - I give it a solid 8.5/10. I might not be recalling some shit stuff that happened,, but I think the memories I've had from this year are much more weighted towards good change. New job, side job, travel, Gandalf, movie nights, weddings, celebrancy training, fashion upgrades, house upgrades, GANDALF, feeling more me. It all just...sorts itself out, I guess?
(P.S. I feel like you didn't plan out this format in advance because technically I'm not 32 yet but I'm NEARLY there but how am I supposed to write back to you at 32 and then also write my 'letter to 33' to the next year?)
Love ya.
📋Today's Question
I realised I should have just asked this in the post when I wrote it, but anyway:
✔️Real Life Recommendations
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Parlor Room - technically it's part of my constant recommendation for the Dropout network (formerly CollegeHumour) but they finally added a board game tv show to their lineup and I'm in HEAVEN. They are absolutely killin' it with the content they're releasing, and I'm here for it. Get on that nerdy shit WEW.
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A Dictionary of Color Combinations - fully influenced by some instagram or twitter post, but it's a really cool book. It goes through different 2-, 3- and 4-color combinations; ostensibly for fashion, but I reckon it's just a good reference for all kinds of color combinations. I used to try and use Adobe Kolor to pick these kinds of things, but it's nice that it's just all wrapped up in a little book. I'm trying to use it to match colors with what I've already got...but it just highlights all the colours I don't have HAHA. Ah well, small steps.
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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What is HDR, anyway? - a great explainer for the difference between SDR and HDR and how different phones have dealt with picture quality.
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Bus Stops Here: Shanghai Lets Riders Design Their Own Routes - I loved learning about this. China is just so streets ahead!
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I'd rather read the prompt - it's something I'm trying to get better at articulating; I don't care what the output of the AI is, I think the thought put in to writing the prompt is more important. This piece said it much better than me though.