Sharing a tiny review of my experience at Collision Conference 2022 in Toronto
What is Collision Conf: It’s the leading tech conference in North America. The conference is made up booths, several stages for speakers/panels/fireside chats, master classes and workshops. The topics are wide ranging from human centric AI, diversity in tech to purpose-led products.
What I like best about the conference? The energy by far was a vibe. Idea sharing, Innovation and creativity was everywhere from the conversations between people, the talks on stage or the information learned at booths.
My favourite master class/workshop: I attended a talk about table talk exercises – which delivered both standard IT practices but also innovative testing methods (great information for my current role). I also really really enjoyed a talk about purpose led business (good people doing good people).
My favourite booth? The Women in Tech lounge – obviously! Although technically not a booth it was just a great space to hang out, grab a coffee, meeting people or catch up with colleagues. It was my home base!
I’ve always been interested (read: obsessed) with the night sky. However, since we’ve been home more the last few years, I found myself staring at the night sky more often. I began to recognize the location of the moon in the sky at different seasons. We as a family would appreciate the moon phases. On clear nights, I’d also try to locate the constellations
And obviously with my eyes looking up, my camera and all my lenses soon followed.
Learning about astronomy, naturally led me to astrology, which led me to other wellness tools (meditation, journalling). Enter crystals. *nervous laughter*
I would normally not share something that is considered so woo woo, but with age comes wisdom (and the awareness that “everyone is more concerned with their own lives to care what you think” and I’m learning not to care about people’s opinions)
I recently learned that Jun 28th (10pm EST) is the new moon with influence from Jupiter. The new moon itself is another time to set goals/intentions and just to generally harness new moon energy to support yourself (look it up: indigenous & asian culture, time keeping, and all things famine). From an astronomy standpoint, the new moon occurs when the sun is positioned behind the moon so with no light on the moon, it is not visible on earth.
But with Jupiter: it’s all about bounty and abundance.
If you don’t believe/agree with any of this – just remember: Energy is every where
So with this new moon I’m setting intentions/re-focusing on my goals, starting something new and make detailed list. If there is good energy out there – why not tap into it :)
Give yourself a goal. Give yourself a deadline. Give yourself a challenge. Give yourself a nudge. When you’re acting with a purpose you’re acting with clarity, discipline, and effectiveness. When there has to be a way, you find a way. Want to get more done? Give yourself more to do. Give yourself some ambitious and realistic expectations. Give yourself the effort, discipline, passion and persistence necessary to meet those expectations. Give yourself a clear and compelling direction. And discover for yourself just how much good you can do.
— Ralph Marston
Even the most organized and inspired individuals feel demotivated and overwhelmed at times. I love setting goals (yearly, quarterly, even daily), I get excited to reach milestones and check things off my list. One thing I’m learning to appreciate more – is the journey.
Today is one of those days … I just didn’t feel productive or excited about what I had set out to accomplish. Well …..that’s not entirely true – I’ve been feel like this for a few weeks now.
So I’m writing this post as a reminder…
It’s not about the destination, but the journey. I’m reminded to enjoy the process, both the highs and lows.
It’s totally okay to have quiet days, off days or days where your feel like you are just in a funk.
On those days, learn to take a break, find rest and lean into your emotions. When you don’t want to work, instead journal, try meditation, take hot girl walks, listen to podcasts and make art. But if that’s too much, read in bed, drink lots of coffee (++ water) and binge your favourite show.
I’m trying a new thing with my workouts, including using a paper journal to write down my fitness routine. Staying optimistic but hoping that using a different strategy to track my workouts (ie: not digital) will keep me more honest and consistent with resistance training and challenging myself.
And I feel that holding power over my workouts, romanizing it and even disrupting my usual exercise regime (within a controlable “blast radius) makes me feel like I have a little moe control in my life given the current socio-economic-politico environment…
But it’s more than my workouts, I feel like I have control when I take the time to put on a cute outfit to have dinner with the fambam. Annnndd because I loved all the depth and texture of the outfit, I took a little more control by taking a whole bunch of pictures of me in said outfit #FashionBlogger :)
May sound a little cheesy but it’s all about that #MainCharacterEnergy – and we all need to acknowledge that energy in our own life now and then…
If you are feel like not yourself, that something is just off or need to change things up a bit because you feel like you are just being tossed around …consider taking control of what you can to feel more like yourself…and to start…here are some ways:
Your thoughts: Replace negative self talk with the action of writing down positive affirmations or statements about about yourself!
What you eat Eat When was the last time you ate healthy whole foods, drank a full glass of water or switched up your coffee with an herbal tea.
How we spend our spare time: Give you mind a break from work/Netflix/unproductive activities (scrolling, gossiping etc) and do something creative, active, journaling (ie: to do lists, gratitude, brain dump)
How you react to things: Before immediately giving someone or a situation your attention give yourself a moment to pause before immediately reacting, it might actually change how you respond.
What content you consume Put down your phone and pick up a book. Unfollow and mute accounts that don’t lift you up. Learn or study instead of mindlessly watching. Create more than you consume.
Who you spend time with Surround yourself that build you up and inspire you. And it’s OK to spend time on your own as much as you need.
How we treat others Don’t waste energy treating people badly. Use that energy to focus on improving your well being or hanging out with people who matter to you.
This reminds me of blogger me circa 2011
Boots – Amazon | Dress – Joe Fresh | Vest – M Boutique | Purse – Aldo
Well I took it a little easier with February and decided on a fiction read that I knew was already streaming ;)
Little fires everywhere by Celeste Ng
Usually when I start a book, it takes me a few pages or at least a chapter before I start to connect the dots and actually start to “listen” (read: pay attention) to what’s going on. Which means I don’t always get the story line right away. I also didn’t follow the story until Moody was watching Pearl from afar after biking to her new home. What really drew me to the story initially was Mia’s story line. I loved that she is a mixed media artist and a photographer in the truest sense. This book was full of little twists and turns but in a way that wasn’t too abrupt or aggressive. Seeing the juxtaposition between privilege and humble family lives was both lovely and painful. I enjoyed how the author made little links between Mia and Elena’s life (as mothers, women creating careers/pursing their life’s work and as humans living a traditional and not so traditional North American life). Another small detail I love about this book – it’s set in the 90s!
In my head I imagined Mia/Pearl to be Asian (in the book their race is unspecified but not in the show adaptation). And it wasn’t until we learn that Lexie is in an interracial couple that I noticed that race was an underlying theme of the book. I really appreciated that the novel talks about race, biases and the way a community my think they are “doing better” than the rest of the world/country.
If you need a weekend read or a vacation read. Or just a break from the business/strategy/self development books (like me) I would definitely suggest picking this book up!
I’ve had my DSLR for about 10-11 years. And although you’ll find me with my “big camera” glued to my face – I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t always [insert: *G A S P*] shoot in manual.
I did take a photography 101 course around the time I bought the camera, and the settings I learned about in that course are the most important and particularly the only ones I will use to this day.
So in the spirit of “sharing is caring” I’m sharing – here are the TOP TWO camera settings explained.
ISO– let there be light!
This setting is so great to create drama (less light) or to add more calm to a photo (more light). The ISO is a number, if you need more light select a higher number, when you lead less light, turn the number down.
Shutter: The thrill of speed
This is probably my favourite setting. I use it (with a tripod or steady hand) to capture motion (like water or fast lights) or even the craters of the moon. Here we are working with fractions of a number to large whole numbers (ie seconds). The higher the shutter speed (ie: a whole number) the more crisp the photo. The lower the number (ie: a small fraction) the more crisp the picture will be. You have to play around the ISO here, meaning if you want to keep the shutter open for longer, you may want to reduce the ISO to prevent overexposure.
