Back Day, Best Day

I could barely open my car door after this one.

I have been STRUGGLING to find a good back/pull day routine that leaves me weak. I always found that working biceps to complete exhaustion is tough, since its such a small muscle I find it fatigues really quickly. But not because you’ve worked it to failure, but just because its been moving weight. It’s a weird concept to try and explain, but I guess a simple way of putting it is that the mind-muscle connection just isn’t there. Similarly with my back, I don’t know if this is a common experience but it took me a long time before I started feeling real good muscle activation in my back.

The workout I provide you DOES NOT guarantee a shredded back and girthy biceps, I hate to admit. A massive part of how you perform these lifts is super dependent on form and moving with intention, because that’s how you really engage those muscles. I can give you the exercises, but I can’t make you do them right. I offer form cues and tips, but practice makes progress.
So dive in! It’s a long one.

Back Exercises

Exercise #1: Eccentric Pull-ups (AMRAP)

Pull-ups aren’t always the most doable exercise, it took me a long time before I was able to do just one. Even now, I struggle to get through a full set of pull-ups. But eccentrics are definitely doable, and just as effective. I’ve never felt better back activation in an exercise, and rocking the wide-grip really engages your lats. I find the best form cue is to hold your weight on the descent as if you’re trying to lat spread – thinking about this will help with that muscle engagement.

Exercise #2: Bent Over Barbell Rows (3×8-10)

Not much to say here, this is a pretty standard back exercise. I try not to grip the bar too hard so not to tire out my forearms. THUMB OVER THE BAR!! ALWAYS!! Ignore the image above. The muscles engaged that run from your hands, to forearms, to upper arm into your back is directly affected by your thumb placement, and having thumb under the bar will recruit your biceps. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, your arms are likely going to tire out before your back, which may not be your goal. The thumb under grip isn’t incorrect, but you’ll get better lat engagement from thumb over.

Exercise #3: Wide Grip Lat Pulldowns (3×10)

THUMB OVER THE BAR! This is a general rule of thumb for back exercises… hardy har… rule of thumb… quite literally…

Anyways.

It took me a hot minute to start feeling muscle activation in my back in lat pulldowns. My best form tip would be to avoid shrugging your shoulders, and hold the weight at the top of the rep rather than letting it go. Keep your lats engaged throughout the entire movement. You can even try thinking about driving your elbows down, rather than pulling the bar down.

Exercise #4: Face Pulls (3×10)

FACEPULLS!!! <333333333
By far one of my absolute favourite exercises of all time. EXCELLENT for your posture, and really targets the upper back while mostly engaging your rear delts. Once again avoid shrugging your shoulders. When pulling, the ropes should reach eyebrow level, not mouth level. This keeps the focus in your upper back.

Exercise #5: Rear Delt-Flyes + Extension Hold (3×10)

You could argue that this is a shoulder exercise as well, and I recommend implementing it into your shoulder days as well since you’re likely not hitting this muscle group as much as you need to be. There’s a million ways to do this exercise, as it can be performed with a machine, cables or dumbells (like most exercises), and each have their own benefits. For each of these, the biggest tip is to avoid throwing the weight. This is kind of common sense with all your exercises, as you should always control the movement, but especially with this one. It’s better to go light weight, with really slow and controlled reps. Time under tension is key. I even like to hold for a second or so at the end of the extension.

On the final rep of each set, hold the extension position for as long as you can until failure.

Bicep Exercises

Exercise #6: Cable Hammer Curls (3×10)

Using cables for bicep exercises can arguably be better than free weights, as the tension remains constant throughout the motion. I won’t get into the physics of it, but cables can be extremely beneficial for many exercises, especially biceps.

Make sure with these that you’re getting a fullest range of motion, and your elbows stay locked/pinned in place. Try taking a step back or placing a platform beneath you so the weights don’t slam.

Exercise #7: Heavy curls SS Incline curls (3×8-10/10)

This superset is monstrous! BUT it will give you a gnarly pump and some arms that feel like noodles. For the incline curls, drop about half the weight you were doing with heavy curls. Make sure when you’re doing the incline curls, you actually use the incline. Let your arms fully extend at the bottom of each rep. Don’t use momentum to move the weight, but that should be a given. Don’t be like the ego-lifting old men at the gym who are gonna throw their back out because they have no idea how muscles work.

Exercise #8: Cross Body Curls (4×10)

Bicep curls on a diagonal! Slow and steady! Exercising the muscle from different angles will help to target each head of the bicep, leading to greater muscle hypertrophy and killer aesthetics.

Exercise #8.5: Devour a protein shake or protein-rich meal (or both)

EAT BIG, GET BIG, EAT BIG, GET BIG, EAT BIG, GET BIG

She Amore on my Cat till I Black

Meet my new Jellycat: I call her Susan cause she look so Lazy

Every time I tell myself I’m going to take a break from spending so much money on Jellycats, I find reason to get another. Not that I ever necessarily need a reason, but somehow a new Jelly always makes it’s way into my arms sooner than anticipated.

But the Amore Cat Black? Boy, this lovely lady comes with quite a f**king story to tell.

I first spotted her at a bedding store in the mall. I thought she was absolutely lovely, but I had already purchased two Jellycats that day, so I didn’t take a close look. I later thought to check her out on the website, and I only fell more in love. I knew right away that my ass NEEDED an Amore Cat Black. I let the thought slip away, as finals week consumed me and the only thing on my brain was transformations of logarithm graphs, memorizing the symptoms of deficiency and toxicity of 30+ vitamins and minerals, and how the actual f**k I was going to remember the negative feedback loop of estrogen and progesterone production in the female reproductive system.

One day, as I was ignoring my studies, I was browsing Marketplace and stumbled upon this magical oasis of a listing.

AN AMORE CAT BLACK FOR $35!?!?!?!??!
Of course I had to immediately message the seller. After a painfully drawn out conversation, I discovered that this pretty thang was brand new from Christmas, and barely touched since it was purchased. The Amore Cat Black Lady (as I have been calling her) mentioned that her kids didn’t want it so that’s why she was selling it. After learning that this Amore Cat Black was living in a neglectful and unloving home, I realized it was meant to be. It was my destiny, my truth. It was MY responsibility to save her from this toxic environment, and give her a new home where she would be unconditionally loved and surrounded by many Jelly friends. We arranged to meet and she even offered it to me for $25, which was a f**king steal if I ever saw one.

And so after much anticipation, the day finally rolls around…

What an absolute disaster.

Long story short, click here.

After she stood me up, my day was absolutely ruined. I met with a friend for lunch and later with another to go shopping. While I enjoyed my time with my friends, there remained a sinking hole in my chest, carved out by the absence of an Amore Cat Black in my arms.

Do I dare buy a brand new one? They’re in stock at the bedding store in the mall and I’m here anyways…

…Was the only thing on my mind the entire time I was shopping. After parting ways with my friend, I paced back and forth in the mall. The lady at the bedding store expressed how there was only a total of 3 Amore Cat Black left across all of the stores, which was very enticing. I also recalled how the Amore Cat Black was retired, so if I didn’t get my hands on one, I might never ever forever and ever own one until I DIE. I simply could not let that be.

So I copped myself an Amore Cat Black.

Look at her. My precious lovely lazy little lady. She’s plump. She’s voluptuous. She’s handsomely show-stopping. She’s quite large for a ‘small’ Jellycat, and quite chubby too! Her lazy eyes are perfection and she’s velvety soft. God she’s so f**king perfect, f**k I love her so f**king much guys give her a f**king kiss RIGHT F**KING NOW!!!!

I decided to call her Susan, cause she look so Lazy. She has accompanied me in many endeavours over the past few days. She rode shotgun on the drive home, I’m currently editing this post with her in my arms, I took a short nap with her this afternoon… I even brought her with me to a friend’s place Friday night. F**k it! Susan at the function! She was a big hit. All the homies love Susan. I haven’t much else to say other than I love her dearly and you should to0.

And lastly, a gallery of images we took together <3

editing this post with Susan

Final blog

Saying goodbye is never an easy thing to do. It can be an emotional and difficult experience, whether you’re saying goodbye to a friend, a family member, a place, or a phase of your life. But as much as we might want to avoid it, saying goodbye is an inevitable part of life. In fact, it’s often necessary for us to grow, change, and move forward.

One thing that can make saying goodbye easier is to focus on the positive memories and experiences that you’ve had with the person, place, or thing that you’re saying goodbye to. Remembering the good times can help to ease the pain of the goodbye and leave you with a sense of gratitude for what you’ve had.

Another thing that can help is to take the time to say a proper goodbye. Whether that means having a heartfelt conversation, writing a letter, or simply taking a moment to reflect and say goodbye in your own way, it’s important to acknowledge the significance of what you’re leaving behind.

Of course, saying goodbye can also be an opportunity for growth and new beginnings. Sometimes, saying goodbye to one thing means saying hello to something else that’s even better. By embracing change and the unknown, you can open yourself up to new experiences, new relationships, and new opportunities.

In the end, saying goodbye is a natural part of life. It’s a reminder that nothing is permanent and that everything is always changing. But while saying goodbye may be difficult, it’s also a chance to reflect, to grow, and to move forward. So embrace it, appreciate it, and say goodbye with grace and gratitude.

Process Post Week 10

My Google Analytics has shown me that my audience has yet to take off and that people are more interested in my homework post than my content posts. Google Analytics has shown me that no one is interested in my lucid dream blog content and that my main traffic is from my short essay. I was pleasantly surprised that I had eight recurring visitors but my Google Analytics shows that they didn’t hang around long. According to my Google Analytics, I need to up my marketing plan to get more of an audience. The marketing plan I talked about in my last Process Post for week 9 would fix most of the problems with my audience retention and my redesign plans would also help people be less confused with my site.

After reading the required readings for this week I found a solution to many of the problems I have can be solved using SEO. In the article 15 Reasons Why Your Business Needs SEO the author Sam Hollingsworth, says “SEO Builds Trust & Credibility,… is the Best Way to Understand the Voice of the Consumer,… Means a Better User Experience,… [and] Local SEO Means Increased Engagement, Traffic & Conversions.” All of these things are the things my website needs help with. If all of this is true my updated marketing plan will include learning SEO. I will probably not update my website any time soon as I now need to learn some new software and will make a big update later. By the time I update my website, there will be no more confusion about what my website content is and the right audience will be directed to my website because of this. Look forward to the update and I’ll see you later.

Supernatural Hotel from Another Dimension

This dream played out like a movie with my perspective from behind the fourth wall. I believe this is because of all the supernatural manga I have read and the horror movie I have watched called The Shining being the main memories this dream takes from.

It started with my little sister going on a mission In an abounded building that had supernatural anomalies directed in it.

After my sister had gone I found out that this other organization was planning to ambush her so I decided to go after her right away. As I was leaving I messaged the rest of our family about what was going on.

When I got to the site I found out the supernatural anomaly was a portal to a different dimension. In the dimension, it looked as though it was always night when you were outside and there were huge piles of snow and cedar trees all around.

After exploring the dimension a little I started hearing noise from behind me and assumed it was the people going for the ambush. I burrowed a tunnel through the snow and waited for them to show themselves. It turned out to be this large dark shadowy figure that walked on four legs that were long and skinny.

I just held my breath as it walked over me and started in awe of its size. When it was gone and I couldn’t hear anything around me anymore I kept moving to find my sister.

I was extra cautious as I was walking and heard noises again and burrowed, this time the noise came from in front and behind. it was the ambush but at this point, they were only two of them. They must have gotten lost in this dimension and picked off one at a time which prompted them to attack anyone they saw or heard.

I was a little taken aback by how desperately they were attacking me as they started destroying my tunnel from either end. As I was contemplating what movie to make next the giant dark shadow from before came running through and kicked them both far away.

I only noticed this after I finished burrowing out of the snow from the top and pointed my Riffel at the dark shadow. The dark shadow turned out to be a giant moose.

As I confirmed that the moose would not attack me I continued to find my sister when I found an abandoned building.

The abandoned building had to be the cause of the supernatural anomaly and so I entered cautiously. As I looked around the building I found it was a fully functioning hotel. And unlike the outside, you could tell if it was day or night. I found my sister and the rest of my family there.

My family saw me and almost like they were incanted decided to stay for three nights. My little sister on the other hand was adamant about leaving as soon as we could.

My little sister had stayed a night there before and barely survived. My little sister explained to me that you could not leave the hotel at night and night spirits will attempt to steal your body. She also mentioned that if you stayed for three nights you became one of the spirits. She said the spirits were normal guests in the morning and that if you try to leave in the morning the guest will attack you.

I asked how she knew all this if she only stayed one night when she said that the portal takes you here at different times and our family had gotten here first. She said that our family had already stayed here for three days and become mindless spirits.

I then said we need to find a way to save them and decided to stay one night. As I looked around the hotel I saw old pictures of all the guests in the past and a sign that said the slogan of the hotel. The pictures had my family in them. I don’t remember what the name of the hotel was but the slogan was something along the lines of a stay so grand you’ll never want to leave. I also found a list of guest check-ins and saw that there were no check-outs. I also noticed how all my family’s names except for mine and my little sister’s names were not on the list of check-ins however there was a faint line starting to appear in the book.

As I was a person who frequently encountered supernatural anomalies I deduced that this hotel traps its prey by making you forget how many days you spent here and that my little sister had already stayed for two nights. It was an evening at this point and she needed to leave. I took pictures of my family and the check-in book with me. I found my little sister just as it was turning night and all the guests were going to their rooms. I grabbed her hand and ran out of there.

As we left the hotel the scenery changed, we had made it out of the portal and our family had turned back as well.

I then woke up. This was the first time I had a natural end to my dream.

Process Post Week 9

I do not have a marketing plan as I only planned to do this website as a hobby and for school. The only active marketing for my website was telling my friends and family about it. I also made a logo that I thought was cute and put it on my private Instagram. As I did not plan on a lot of traffic on my website monetization did not even cross my mind. If I were to make a marketing plan I would probably post a few of my dream blog posts on Reddit and post my mini assignments on a public Instagram. I would have also made art to go with my post and post those on Instagram as well. The last thing I would have done is fixed my home page to make more sense and not be as hectic. If I had gone with this plan I would have considered monetizing my website with gaming ads and sleep products. This is all theoretical as monetizing my website seems like too much of a bother for a hobby.

In the transcript of a podcast by George Philip, Jennifer Anne Lazo, Rooham Jamali, and Rudy Al Jaroodi they talk about an experiment they ran to see how just about everything leaves a digital footprint nowadays. The narrator at one point during this podcast had stated, “The findings from our interviews made us realize that a lot of people mentioned Facebook or Google Maps as a form of Digital Trail they were creating. But most, like Amanda, were pretty unaware of the extent of their Digital Trails extending to their daily use of contactless cards and the majority of applications on their phones.” I found myself in this sentence as I also had no idea just how far my digital breadcrumbs reached. Before reading this transcript I would have said my digital footprint would just be my YouTube and school work, however, now I would say my digital footprint is all over the place. If my bus card, debit card, and two credit cards are part of my digital footprint as well as my Google Maps searches one could probably map out my entire university life. This podcast opened my eyes to how much of my life is on the internet. I would say I am a private person and have not personally put myself out on the internet so this realization really shook me, as I am really careful when it comes to my information on the internet. For example, I have yet to like or comment on any videos on YouTube because my name is connected to my YouTube and I have never posted a picture of myself on a non-private Instagram account. This podcast made me realize I shouldn’t be so scared of the internet as I aready have a large digital persona.

Reference:

Philip. G, Anne Lazo. J, Jamali. R, and Al Jaroodi. R. (2016). Digital breadcrumbs: the data trail we leave behind us. Published by podacademy.org, http://podacademy.org/podcasts/digital-breadcrumbs-our-data-trail/.

Mini Assignment #5: Media Usage

I spend up to 9 hours on my phone each day

The Social Media platforms I use most are YouTube, Spotify, and Discord. Another nonsocial media that I use a lot is a website called Mangakakalot.com.

I use YouTube every day for up to 6 hours, I like to have a Vod up in the background on YouTube while working on homework and chores. I also watch videos in my spare time. YouTube is my main content platform

I use Spotify 4 times a week for up to 2 hours each time. If I don’t have a Vod up on YouTube while doing homework and chores I’m listening to music. I also Like to listen to Spotify when I am heading to and from places when there is no wifi.

I only use Discord for school and therefore, only use it once a week for five minutes.

I use Mangakaka.com sporadically throughout the week for up to 4 hours a day. Mangakakalot.com is a Manga translator website with thousands of manga on it.

Mini Assignment #3: My Cat

Mini Assignment #2: Tommyinnit

GAAHHHHH WHAT I’M I SUPPOST TO WRITE.

Hey Guys! Today I wrote a guest post imboding my favorite Youtuber. This post was really hard to do so I would appriciate if you could subscribe (to tommyinnit) and leave a comment below.

I’m really trying to think of what to write but I Just Don’t Know. I figured I would start writing and it would just come to me. So I sat down pulled up a new post and waited. But nothing has come to me. That’s when I had the Idea all I had to do was write about how awesome Tommyinnit is and why I chose to embody him. Anyways as I’m sure you’ll be able to tell I’m a big fan of Tommy and this video is sort of like a recreation of his video talking about Ludwig being his inspiration. Tommyinnit has been a major motivator for getting me to do homework, having his streams in the background gave me enough energy to push through writer’s block. I’m even writing about him for homework now. Tommyinnit’s personality and ability to make anything funny have helped me come out of my shell and encouraged me to talk to more people. I have literally watched all of his blog videos and MCC Vods. I really like how he is just his loud, chaotic, comedian/improver no matter where he goes or who he meets. That’s all I wanted to say, however, most people might think this is a Tommyinnit website but it’s not. Tommyinnit doesn’t have a website but you can watch Tommy on youtube on his Tommyinnit channel. He also has two other channels where he posts all his Vlog content and Vods. Anyways I hope you enjoyed the post leave a comment below and go check out his, Tom Simons vlog or his newly formed group channel called Sorry.

Process Post Week 8

I am one of the people who do not support ChatGPT and DALL.E, I find them to be dangerous tools for complacency. I believe in hard work and people who think for themselves. If ChatGPT or DALL.E are only used as starting points, prompts, or idea generators then I would find them useful. However, people are using them to steal content whether it be from the content creators ChatGPT and DALL.E take from or just straight up using the content they create for you as their own. I also believe ChatGPT and DALL.E are widdling away at critical thinking as instead of the person using their brain the computer does the work. Even the people who created DALL.E “Recognize that work involving generative models has the potential for significant, broad societal impacts.” I don’t think people should be allowed to use DALL.E-generated art for anything other than inspiration, reference, or content related to DALL.E.

The many Limitations That ChatGPT shows on its website are why I don’t believe ChatGPT should not be used as independent content. One of which is, “ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.” If people are to use ChatGPT as content I hope they use what’s left of their critical thinking skills to look over and correct the mistakes in the writing. I am a creative writer and believe in the critical thinking skills and creativity to write engaging content myself. I do not need Ai to take over my passion and do not enjoy the writings ChatGPT generates, however, I will not discourage people from using ChatGPT as a tool and not as content.

Process Post Week 7

As digital media continues to rise in popularity, digital literacy, and critical thinking are needed. There is so much fake news, and false stories being told that it can be quite hard to distinguish the truth. I have been taught from a young age not to trust social media and that the news only shows one-half of a story. As an Indigenous person, I was taught that even what I saw in the News could be wrong/fake. According to Jacob Liedke and Jeffrey Gottfried, “Adults under 30 are now almost as likely to trust information from social media sites as they are to trust information from national news outlets, new data shows.” This scares me as I do not trust either of those sources without extra research. Liedke and Gottfried also found that “In a recent Pew Research Center survey, half of 18- to 29-year-olds in the United States say they have some or a lot of trust in the information they get from social media sites.” I do not trust social media but many people I know do and I find this is because they do not do their research before having their own opinion. I find out they are tricked because they do not have the critical thinking or digital literacy skills to question where the information came from and determine if the source is trustworthy. Digital literacy and critical thinking are needed to browse the internet today because of cancel culture.

Canceling used to be reserved for people that were irredeemable like sexual assaulters and people who had sex with animals. Now people are canceled for having an opinion, trying to get the truth heard/out, or supporting people who got canceled with exaggerated truths and straight-up lies. There is a mob of people on the internet who will take one sentence out of context and not even do one search to see if what they saw was true or give the person a chance to explain themselves. Cancel culture used to be used to inform people of terrible things people have been confirmed to have done with evidence to back themselves up. Now you can cancel someone if you have an opposing opinion from them and throw around labels until one eventually sticks as it looks like it could fit. Cancel culture now should not be taken seriously without extra research that breaks past the initial wave of hate. Because of the way cancel culture is nowadays people need to take what they see on the internet with a grain of salt. Digital literacy to me is navigating through fake news and false stories and critical thinking is needed to find the truth and brake past the toxicity of canceled culture.

reference:

Liedke. J and Gottfried. J. (2022). US adults under 30 now trust information from social media almost as much as from national news outlets. Published by Word Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/social-media-adults-information-news-platforms/.

Me? obsessed with polymer clay because it feels like I am being productive instead of just procrastinating… Nooo

I should have posted this about a month ago when I was totally in the midst of an anxiety induced coma/paralysis and all I could do was art. Now I have a small business (insert comical manic laughter).

It all started because I could not get myself to study and so I turned to dear old Amazon and ordered one of those starter kits for polymer clay. I thought it would be a fun activity to do while I was trying to get my life back on track for the X (I lost count) time. And it made me feel amazing creating something with my hands that could also be worn. I started making these cute octopus monster earrings and I could not stop. I went into a full month of hyperfixiation on polymer clay. I made batch after batch after batch. And I bought so much clay and tools that my wallet was definitely suffering big time. My mom kept asking me what the hell was going on with Uni work and I keep lying and saying everything was fine when it wasn’t. 262 pairs of earrings later, I realized that… I love making polymer clay earrings and that I still didn’t have my life together. At least I now have another source of income because I need to sell those suckers.

It has been almost 2 months since I started making the earrings and I have not stopped. I have a lot of them and I keep getting better and better. But now it is a little more balanced. I have time for art and time for studying, which is good considering the state of my grades and pending uni work.

In the end my mom did not understand where the hyperfixiation came from because she does not understand my anxiety but I feel really proud because I did not let the parental disapproval contaminate the joy that making earrings gives me. And sure, it all started because I needed to forget about the world but now it’s just something more that I love, something that is just mine and I will not let the judgement of my parents deter me from making these beautiful earrings that I love so much.

My first market is happening April 22 at Slice of Life in Vancouver and I am absolutely elated. My friends are coming and I have no idea if the earrings will actually sell or if I will manage to make back all the money I spent but the joy I get from this craft is worth it all.

This is not to say that I have my shit together now. I have so so so so so much to do now because of that month I spent hyperfixiating on making earrings, I have essays and final papers and exams and oh am I dying. Half the time I just want the world to shut up and leave me alone but I am running out of time and international tuition fees are a pain so I can’t fail any more classes. If you are wondering how the hell I am going to manage to finish all the stuff I have to do… I have no idea. I guess I just need to take it one day at the time and try not to die in the process. At least I have profs that are very understanding, roommates that are supporting me at home, friends that love me and a family that supports me even though they don’t always understand.

houseonfire_art_

Copyright Statement

This will be a shorter post but I wanted to say:

Because I will be posting a lot of my own art in this site, I want to request people not to copy and pass it as their own. You can repost and tag me or share my content but I work hard on my pieces and I am happy to share them but please don’t copy them without my consent.

Thank you

-Sara A

Reflecting on the Spring Semester and Preparing for a Great Summer

Coming into the Spring semester I was prepared to relax, I thought the semester would be simple and straightforward; however it ended up being quite difficult, and for that I am thankful as that difficulty forced me to grow.

Starting Strong

When the Spring semester began, I was exhausted. Over the course of the fall semester, I had taken four classes, worked twenty hours a week at my family’s business, worked another fifteen hours a week as a teaching assistant, while also spending another twenty or so hours a week training for a business case competition called JDC West, which I attended at the start of this semester.

The fall semester ended mid-December, giving me a little break to regather some energy before the next semester began at the start of January, however this energy was all spent continuously training for the case competition which I was to attend during the second week of January. Resultantly, I never ended up regaining any energy after a draining fall semester.

However, the case competition I was training for was at the start of the next semester and I figured that once I got past that, my schedule would free up as I would no longer be training for twenty hours a week to attend the competition.

So, the competition came and went, and my team won (which was one of the happiest moments of my life). That was it, we had climbed the mountain and now all I had to focus on was school and work.

A Semester of Many Group Projects and Assignments

Soon after school began it became my primary focus, the workload encompassing a majority of my time. This semester I took my first three 400 level courses (in addition to one 300 level course) and was challenged with a large amount of group projects, which included:

  • (Strategic Decision Making Class) a case study presentation and conduct an experiment demonstrating how concepts from psychology can be leveraged in business.
  • (Business Strategy Class) a case competition worth 25% of our grade in which a first place finish meant 100%, while a second meant 80%, and a third 60%.
  • (Consulting Class) three consulting projects with real clients.
  • (Global Business Environment Class) a case study presentation and an in-depth market analysis.

Each assignment was fascinating and fun, but also required a significant amount of work and coordination among the groups.

This semester I had to turn in 50 deliverables over the course of three months, and truthfully turning in a deliverable more often than every other day while also working on major group projects for every class was incredibly difficult and strenuous; yet I did it, and based on my grades I was able to achieve a high quality of work for all deliverables apart of this large workload.

Some Fantastic Things I Learned

Completing as many deliverables and a countless amount of additional readings was a challenge, but I overcame it. And for it, I learned a lot. Below I seek to record some of these learnings.

Academic Learnings

What It Means For a Business to be Strategic (BUS 478 – Business Strategy)

From my business strategy class, there are three main ideas which I wish to capture in this reflection, these learnings are noted below:

  • Business-Level Strategy – Business-level strategy is about how a company positions itself. To achieve above average results a business can choose to produce products at low-cost with reasonable differentiation (cost-leadership strategy), produce products at a reasonable cost with great differentiation (differentiation strategy), or in some rare cases try to do something between (integrated strategy). To develop an appropriate business-level strategy a company must understand its internal resources and capabilities, its external environment, and most importantly its customers.
  • Corporate-Level Strategy – Corporate-level strategy is about how a company manages its portfolio of businesses. With corporate-level strategies, companies should seek to develop a portfolio (through both internal entrepreneurship and M&A) which achieves synergies that enable the company and its businesses to thrive.
  • Entrepreneurial Strategy – Entrepreneurship is about solving real problems faced by real people. When a new venture begins, its founder is the company, for the venture to become successful the founder must move beyond being the business and advance to an executive role. For a young person, accomplishing this is difficult and for this reason, older entrepreneurs tend to be more successful.

Overall, strategy is about being intentional with actions to achieve desired objectives. I note these learnings in particular as I believe they will be foundational to my understanding of and ability to enact business strategy moving forward.

What It Means to be Strategic in Everyday Life (BUS 471 – Strategic Decision Making)

Most of the world has been built on intuition, intuition meaning grounded in processes that might not be seen as logical or rational. Logic and rational undoubtedly is valuable, yet so are biases and heuristics which act as decision making short cuts.

You may immediately think, how can biases and heuristics be valuable when they are not grounded in logic or rationality? Well, in a world where we are faced with hundreds if not thousands of decisions every day we need to be able to make decisions quickly as we only have so much time and mental energy.

Understanding biases and heuristics, is valuable not only because it allows us to debias ourselves, but also because it enables us to effectively leverage and manage them when we make decisions.

To be strategic in everyday life, we must be aware of how the brain works, have an understanding of where we want to go, and act in accordance with the constraints of our own ability and the external environment around us.

This class was particularly interesting to me, because prior to taking of it, I was of the notion that biases and heuristics were inherently bad, yet it seems that is not the case. In addition to this, I often see that many companies claim to be data-driven, however when learning about concepts such as confirmation bias, I have come to the realization that even when you have data to back up your reasoning, it does not inherently mean that the data says that is the right decision to make, meaning that many companies likely are not as data-driven as they claim to be.

Intuition is an incredibly valuable tool, I constantly strive to learn how to better use it and will continue to as I continue to gather more and more experiences.

I Am A Highly Capable Business Consultant (BUS 450 – Managing Emerging Opportunities)

Over the course of the semester, I got to partake in a consulting project for a robotics company, an agritech company, and a reforestation company, each project unique and interesting in its own distinct way.

Through the process I realized consulting is difficult. It involves a large amount of activities including scoping, maintaining client relationships, as well as a large amount of research. It really does require a generalist skill set and a flexible approach to problem solving.

Learning to manage these activities while working in a team was difficult, but it was also incredibly fun as I got to take on leadership roles for three projects which will have real impact for real clients, while learning about a wide variety of industries.

One particular skill I felt helped me succeed in this class was what I viewed as a strong ability to ask the right questions. Asking good questions can be difficult and it takes time to learn to ask them. Over the course of training for JDC West, I learned how to ask these questions and that skill transferred over incredibly well to this class.

Overall, with this class, I realized consulting could be a career path for me because I love talking to people, learning about new industries, and solving unique problems.

A Framework For Understanding International Markets (BUS 346 – Global Business Environment)

Through my strategy and global business environment classes, I learned how to assess international markets across their political, economic, cultural, and geographic dimensions.

Across the specific dimensions, I also learned a variety of frameworks, however as each region and situation is incredibly distinct and requires special analysis I choose to include minimal discussion of them here.

I recognize the ability to understand global markets will be incredibly important as the world only continues to become more interconnected. And I also recognize that although these learnings primarily were focused on differences across countries there can also be differences within countries and that for some contexts its better to group operations into regions as opposed to countries.

General Learnings

Be Conscious With Commitments

I am going to admit this, this semester I signed up for more than I can handle. I am a person who always seeks to deliver excellence and with the workload I was under this semester that excellence was hard to achieve (and I was not able to achieve quite as much as I would hav liked to). In addition to this, I either picked up or began to recognize a habit where I would describe intentions to group mates, then proceed to be unable to achieve those intentions. Resultantly, I am now more conscious of what I say I am going to do or be able to do to others, thinking about what I really can do as opposed to what I desire to do (which admittedly is everything).

Constantly Challenge Your Assumptions

Earlier I mentioned that data-driven companies might not be as data-driven as they claim to be. Prior to this semester, I assumed that they were (as I am sure they do to). Listening to the founders podcast, a constant trope that has come up is that time and time again throughout history, it is the individuals who challenge both their own and societies assumptions that are able to create change. Just remember, it was once (and still is by some) thought that the world is flat.

Be Flexible, Adaptive, and Resourceful

Every problem and every situation is distinct. Being able to organize within these distinct situations and act uniquely to meet the needs of the task at hand is a critical skill for anyone. Historically, I have been someone who is quite rigid, someone who looks solely at precedent when embarking on a new project thinking I should simply do the same things I did before because it was successful once (which is a flawed way of thinking, because one can always improve), but now I am someone who is always looking to adapt to the situation at hand. Working on three consulting projects in industries I had no prior knowledge of, engaging in a research paper which involved creating an experiment, and participating in a traditional academic case competition were all challenges which involved a large amount of unfamiliarity, yet I was able to thrive regardless. The way I was able to do so was by being flexible to the situation, adapting my styles accordingly, and being resourceful in looking to solve the problems at hand.

Always Be Genuine, Do Your Best, and Be Understanding

People appreciate it when you are genuine, they also appreciate it when you do your best, and most importantly they appreciate it when you understand them. Being genuine shows to others that you are just a person, doing your best shows you care, and understanding others shows you care for them. In all future ventures and projects, I will follow this philosophy, as I believe it will allow both me and my teams to succeed.

What Is Next

The Spring 2023 semester has now come to a close. So now you might wonder (though probably not) what is next for Kobe? Well, regardless of whether you want to know or not I have outlined what is next below.

Taking a Rest

First on the agenda is regaining energy. The primary way through which I seek to do this is with rest. I am trying to get lots of sleep, spend time with loved ones, and watch games of my favourite baseball team, the Seattle Mariners.

Establish Routine

While also resting I do want to establish a general morning and night routine to bookend my days with non mentally draining certainty. As I mentioned when discussing my learnings from my strategic decision making class, you only have so much energy every day. Routine is one way to ensure that energy is used efficiently.

Developing Kobe Golfs

I have always loved golf and creating content. Creating golf content is a perfect marriage between the two, and it is something I have experimented with and had a lot of fun with in the past. Recently I think I realized a unique way I can contribute to the golf community, by leveraging my distinct knowledge about strategy and mindset to deliver content that can help people have more fun rounds of golf.

Learning to Build Mobile Applications

Finally, I have always desired to build great things. This summer, I want to learn how to create mobile applications. I do have a little bit of background in programming (though very minimal) and have always been incredibly interested in design, and this semester I want to harness these two interests to learn to build some really fun and great items.

I have also always desired to build a company, and as I mentioned before when you start a business you typically are the business itself, so with this endeavour I hope to learn some fundamental skills that will enable me to do it.

Conclusion

Overall, although it was difficult I am incredibly grateful for my most recent semester of school, after all the obstacle is the way (a great book by Ryan Holiday) and I am really looking forward to having a great Summer.

Social and Cognitive Intro/extraversion

This week I’ll be providing some theories behind the popular scales of introversion and extravertion that have been prevalent on the internet and in real life for years. 

In my early teens, I hinged much of my personality on being an introvert (which was further reinforced by thinking I was an INFP due to typing by letter instead of functions). Although it is harmless to not wish to engage more deeply with personality theory than this, in online forums you might come across discussions which mention “social” or “cognitive” intro/extraversion. 

Let’s start with definitions, since I’d like the rest of this post to be coherent for everyone. The popular understanding of the introversion-extraversion scale is as follows: introverts are quiet and aloof and extraverts are loud and outgoing. On a slightly more realistic scale we would have the approach of energy levels, where introverts are “recharged” by alone time, while extraverts gain their energy through socializing.

In reality, the vast majority of people lie somewhere between introversion and extraversion, typically known as being ambiverted.  

In my opinion, the second definition is more accurate to real life, so I’ll be referencing energy levels when referring to the social axis. This “social” axis will be what the majority of people are talking about in casual language, but there is an additional definition which pertains to cognitive functions.

The cognitive axis deals with your cognitive functions and is therefore more black and white. Unless you aren’t sure of your MBTI type, you will have a dominant function that is either introverted or extraverted, representing your primary method of “communication” with either the internal or external.

Some people might insinuate that an individual’s social axis will dictate your dominant cognitive function, or vice versa, but I feel like that is too strict of a definition. This is especially true given that the social axis doesn’t have a strict definition, and many popular interpretations peg most people as ambiverted anyway.

For example, an ESTJ (Te-Si-Ne-Fi) will always lead with extraverted thinking (Te), making them cognitively extraverted. This hypothetical person could be introverted, extraverted, or ambiverted by the social frameworks definitions, but cognition only has a marginal impact on the social axis. 

I hope that this inspires you to think more deeply about your preconceived notions around intro/extraversion when trying to type people and characters. Someone being withdrawn and traditionally introverted doesn’t bar them from being an EXXX, and the same goes for introverted types. 

☆.

What Would Caffeinated Tammy’s Instagram Look Like?

As I work toward building a following on Instagram, I thought it would be fun to do a drank-peak of the BIPOC and style-related content I plan to upload weekly. Below are some mock posts of what that would look like, made with the help of Canva. 

Monet McMichael features in an Instagram post from an "Influencer of the Week" segment.
Caffeinated Tammy's Insta-blog segment — "Let's Talk BIPOC" with a girl standing on the left and a quote by Cherry Wilson on her side.
Let's Talk BIPOC
Another segment from Caffeinated Tammy's would-be InstaBlog — Style Focus, and this week's focus is Pierrah.
Style Focus
This section of Caffeinated Tammy's would-ve Instagram talks about comments from Instagram and TikTok posts and helps discuss them.
Comment Section Dissection
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Why Only Send PR to White Influencers?

An influencer of colour sitting in front of a big pile of make up PR boxes.

Since the pandemic, social media has become much, much more popular than it was before. This website’s content can attest to that — TikTok becoming big, impacting audiences, creators, and families for the better. There are different communities in TikTok (Fashion Community, Makeup Community, Manga community, etc), and each benefits in different ways. If an influencer gets big, they receive PR, free merchandising, brand trips, and much more.

Using makeup is not only about improving one’s appearance; it is a way of expressing one’s identity and self-expression.It is important for makeup brands to ensure that their products cater to a diverse audience. It is a sad reality that major makeup brands prefer to work with white influencers, leaving them little to no chance to represent individuals of color.

This systemic issue can be seen in the disproportionate representation of white influencers in the makeup TikTok industry. A simple search of popular makeup TikTok influencers will reveal that most are White. This is not because individuals of colour lack talent or interest in makeup; rather, it is because makeup brands prioritize working with white influencers, as they believe they will appeal to a larger audience.

Racism is everywhere if you care to look for it — the TikTok makeup industry is no different. FIT reinforces the idea that beauty standards are exclusively Eurocentric, and therefore, individuals of colour are not as marketable. This belief establishes the decade-long notion that people of colour are not worthy of representation in the beauty industry.

Secondly, it sends a message to young people of colour that they do not belong in the makeup industry. This can lead to feelings of inadequacy and discouragement from pursuing their passion for makeup. People of colour need to feel seen and heard in the beauty industry.

Let’s do a little exercise —

Look at your own ForYou page, whose makeup videos pop up more – a makeup artist of colour, or a White influencer? It is more likely you will see the latter pop up more, and they will have more sponsored content, more likes and more engagement. It is upsetting once you start looking at how prejudice is still alive and well, even in TikTok algorithms.