Serein Choo's Blog, page 13
January 10, 2024
Land of Stories 1-6
It’s been some time since I updated my book reviews page haha but here’s one that I really enjoyed. One that I recently finished, it’s not the latest or the current trending books but I got in touch with the book two-three years ago and have been collecting it since then, the set wasn’t available so I have to hunt each and every book in the series (I do like hunting books in bookstore instead of buying them online, it more fun like that – treasure hunting).
“Let’s lay everything out on the table before we go any further,” he said.
“Which table?” the Tin Woodman asked.
“Also a figure of speech,” Conner said. “Not only do we have the scariest villains in literature and slay a mythological creature before it turns us all into stone, but we also have to defeat an evil coven of witches before they use my sister against us.”
The Land of Stories (Worlds Collide) Chris Colfer 2017
I really love this series. Each of the books has its own highlight. I really like how the story progresses and how all the quirky characters make the book even more wholesome. I don’t wish to give out any spoiler but if you really like fairytales, these books are a really good take on it and the twists in it was cool. Other than fairytales characters, we also have pirates, aliens, robots, zombies and the superheroes. It was a great mashup!
Really recommended to anyone who likes a twist of fairytales but still original.
P.s I really love this one book where Conner meets all his characters ( in The Land of Stories (An Author’s Odyssey) (2016).
January 9, 2024
Why are you reading less?
Ever wondered why you’ve gone from reading avidly to slowly losing interest and distancing yourself from books? It might be the onset of a reading slump. I’ve experienced this too and am curious about its causes. I found out a few reason for the lack of motivation:-
Lacking time (the younger you are the more flexibility you have in your schedule, less chores, less work)Lacking concentration and energy (reading requires a lot of focus and energy, to extract knowledge/information from the words (letters into words into text and lastly information)Lack of practice (reading is a habit, if you aren’t reading consistently, you lose the habit and it will take you 7 days to develop it again)Lacking interest (the book isn’t interesting to read).Writing this to inspire myself/others to read more again.
Find your motivation/interest (books are generally for education, evolution or escape) Education – learn something, evolution – a eureka moment/self-improvement and escape – relaxation. Ask yourself why before you start a book. That will help.Start with shorter books, ease back into the habit of reading.Section your books, so that set yourself a goal to finish. Relaxing – don’t force yourself to read (or nestle yourself into a cozy mood for reading, it will help to make reading enjoyable instead of a chore)Turning off your devices (just you and your book)Reward – think of the reward at the end of the book. What will you get? What stories will you learn? What knowledge did you gain from the book?Try audio book? Maybe text isn’t working out. Try something new. New year, new you haha It might work. (Reading while listening – you will read faster too)Reading is rediscovering yourself, remember that you have to pull yourself out from work, disconnect from distraction, be physically present (don’t multitask – focus). Safeguard a time for you, yourself, exclusively as a person.
January 8, 2024
It’s the Year of The Dragon
It’s the year of the dragon and here’s a little doodle that I did. I am deciding what to draw for a free phone wallpaper in celebration of the Chinese New Year and I am just brainstorming some ideas for it.
January 7, 2024
Quote of the Day
“I accept any challenge.”
Jennifer Hudson (Singer and Actress)
It’s time to challenge myself to something new.
Maybe a reading challenge or a new writing challenge.
Hmm let’s see.
#MondayMotivation
January 6, 2024
Convincing you to read Empty Crown
Start scrolling and discover what do you need when reading this book, Empty Crown, a Chinese Fantasy (written in English) by Serein Choo.
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January 4, 2024
Mimosa Flowers
Mimosa Flowers, were mentioned in Empty Crown.
HeHuan, the deity, is a manifestation of such a tree/flower. She is a deity in the heavens, a mimosa tree spirit, growing just outside the cave, where she meets JinYuan, who is a metal spirit. They both manifest around the same time and become each other’s best friends.
She is a yellow mimosa flower tree (as per the image). I choose yellow, because she exudes this positive vibe and aura around her. Always so kind and eager to help.
Hope you learn more about HeHuan now.
°˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
January 3, 2024
Optimizing and organizing your old blog content
Following up with my previous posts, it gave me some ideas and I thought I would also share some ideas on this. Those old blogs that wasn’t relevant anymore we can delete/archiving/make private, but what about those valuable and still relevant posts? Here are three approaches:
Republish Old Posts: Bring old posts back to the forefront by updating their content with new information or visuals. For instance, an annual holiday gift guide could be updated and republished each year. On WordPress.com, easily adjust the publish date in the post editor.Custom Archive: Improve reader access to old posts by customizing your blog’s archive. Create a sidebar display showing posts by year or month. Utilize the Archives Widget or shortcode (the one I mentioned in the previous post ‘/archive’) on WordPress.com to create specialized archives within pages or posts.Summary Page/Highlights: Additionally, consider highlighting your ‘Greatest Hits.’ Craft a new page in your navigation menu, showcasing your top articles with titles, blurbs, images, and direct links.Although blogs automatically archive posts, organizing them optimally is crucial. It’s daunting initially but as I go along, the process is less challenging than I expected. Utilizing the above strategies can significantly enhance accessibility to all your posts for your readers.
I hope that the strategies mentioned might help you too.
Link below on how to archive on WordPress:
https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-editor/blocks/archives-block/
Cleaning up
It’s the new year, and as I was wondering about my plans for this blog post, I realize I want to start by tidying up some older posts. I’m considering refurbishing them into summaries (pages under achieve) before removing these outdated entries. making for new ones too (^~^).
Happy New Year and Hello to 2024!
So here’s a little update on what I did (03/01/2023) :
There’s a few option to cleaning up:-
Deleting my old postsArchieving my old posts (Keep but seen)Changing the status to private only (Keep but not seen)What I think?
Throwing away the old socksKeeping the old socks neatly in the drawerRetaining the old socks at the bottom of the drawer.What I did?
I chose the 2nd option, haha. I just can’t bring myself to delete them; it feels like such a waste. I enjoy seeing the numbers grow from year to year. After archiving the blog posts, I noticed how much more I was blogging in 2023. I hope to maintain this level of activity 
Here’s what I did (more detailed) :
I created an archive page under blog, I keyed in ‘/archive’ and it automatically set it up for me. It’s called archive block. It was so simple and easy to do.
You can adjust to display them as dropdown/filter. I chose dropdown since it’s looks nicer that way (and less empty). I do like to show the posts counts (good for comparison) and also you can choose to group them by day/week/month/year.
And that’s how you archive. Toodles! and have a good day ahead.
January 2, 2024
Cleaning up
It’s the new year, and as I was wondering about my plans for this blog post, I realize I want to start by tidying up some older posts. I’m considering refurbishing them into summaries (pages under achieve) before removing these outdated entries. making for new ones too (^~^).
Happy New Year and Hello to 2024!
January 1, 2024
Happy New Year!
It’s a brand new year and I hope that the year ahead will bring in more good surprises for everyone and maybe I might convince you to read Empty Crown. Haha!
To those who did, I hope you will continue to like this story and support my works/stories&/writings. 
H̥̊ḁ̊p̥̊p̥̊ẙ̥ N̥̊e̥̊ẘ̥ Y̥̊e̥̊ḁ̊r̥̊ 
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