In Motion

It's the second last day of the year, so I should write something poignant and sentimental here. (Anyone who knows me would probably snicker at the mention of "poignant" and "sentimental". =P) I won't lie: I get most of my impressions of the world from my Facebook feed. There goes my reputation for being objective and intellectual. xD Now, I know that my Facebook feed is skewed heavily by the data Facebook gets from things I tend to click on and post/repost/share, so it's not the most reliable or holistic indicator of what the world is like. Still, from impressions alone, I get the idea that most people think 2016 was a crash and burn type of year, not least due to the US election. If you ask me what I think, I'd like to share something that I read a long time ago first. I first came across this concept in a book by Pastor Rick Warren, but I couldn't find the exact quotation online so I settled for something similar he said in an interview.

First off, let me say I'm glad to be back with the hubs and doggy. Being away from them for a month has made me appreciate them all the more, and I am thankful to be reunited with them. My trip back to Malaysia was a productive, albeit tiring one. It just so happened that I had chunks of chill time alternating with chunks of hectic time, which meant that I was bored, then crazy busy, then bored, then crazy busy again. =P The first week I was back, my parents were still not out of school yet so I was pretty much left to my own devices. The second week, Ray, his girlfriend Chinnoi and Rene descended upon the house and the next 10 days went by like a whirlwind. Once they left, I had my wisdom teeth removed, so that was one week of lazing around trying not to exert myself. The final week of my stay in Kuching, Amy and Josephine and some other friends came back so I was busy meeting up with friends again once more. Then came the KL trip, where I was out practically every day trying to

Today, I paid $25 (RM102) to have all four of my wisdom teeth removed under local anesthesia at Sarawak General Hospital. With an X-ray AND 5 different types of medications too. Take that, American dentists who charge $2500! Of course, I had the benefit of parents-in-law making the appointment for me in the first place, and even though there was a scheduling fluke on the dentist's side, I happened to know his son personally, and his son did it for me because I wasn't keen on going there again the next day. It's really  who you know, not what you know that will get things done. Side note: It's a weird feeling having someone you grew up with in Youth Group working on your teeth. =P I guess it's that season in life where all our peers are young professionals and we don't have to consult uncles and aunties as much anymore because our own friends are in those fields. All things considered, I was really blessed to have a super quick and complication-free extracti

Sorry for the lack of updates on Kuching. I have priorities, like debating with my dad on every possible topic under the sun and steadily working through my "To-eat" list. In the mere three days that I've been home, I've checked char-kueh, yong tau fu, tau fu fah, satay, assam fish, pak lo duck and yam kueh and char siew pau off that list, and I'm not even halfway done yet. My super productive and efficient family members have also helped me check off many errands, like renewing my driver's licence, getting new specs and getting a dental checkup, among other things. In other words, it's been fun. =P I'm surprised at how easily I'm getting used to Malaysian weather. I can still sleep without turning on the AC, and a fan is really enough for those stiflingly humid afternoons. All this just goes to say that I definitely run cold instead of hot. Yay for a reprieve from the dry, chilly weather in Durham! Ironically, I also realized that I've f

In two days, I'll be on my way back home. I'm pretty much packed already, but there are always things to pack/do that you can't until the very last minute, like skincare products and recharging your powerbank. Being me, I mentally check my to-do list and schedule every few hours just to be sure that I'm not missing anything. And then I mentally check myself - after all, my flight home is only going to take around 24 hours, so whatever discomfort I'm attempting to avoid by being prepared for all sorts of emergencies isn't going to last any more than a day. Gotta keep things in perspective, yannoe. =P Other than that, I'm pretty excited about flying home. It's going to be a great time of avoiding the cold, dry weather here, family reunions, good food and running errands. In that order. Oh, and wisdom teeth removal, although that definitely doesn't fall into the category of having a "great time". Ok, can't stay too long, gotta cr

The other day, JW and I were talking about teenage angst, and I mentioned that I couldn't understand how teenagers felt like life was meaningless and dark and there were days they felt like they couldn't get up. Like seriously, how hard can teenage life be? I know it sounds insensitive of me to say so, but that was what I truly felt as a teenager. JW, however, said that I was the exception, not the rule. Apparently, he had gone through similar feelings and angst as a teen (that certainly explains his love for Avril Lavigne songs). That got us into a deep discussion about the roots of angst. Now, this is by no means a verbatim summary of what was said. The gist of the discussion was that as a teen, there's the need to fit in, there are questions about your purpose and existence, not to mention hormonal changes which make you wonder if you're attractive to the opposite sex. We also dissected how and why I managed to sidestep all those pitfalls of angst. And then I

It's so much warmer today! You can tell that I've thawed by the fact that I'm writing in longer sentences as opposed to short, choppy ones. =P The weather outside is perfect at the moment. I can't help but hope that it'll stay like this for the rest of October, November , and December...if I really had my way I'd go all the way up to February and skip winter altogether. A girl can dream. =P Anyway! Today's post will be about a recurring nightmare of mine, and I find it very telling about my greatest fears. What would be my greatest fear, you ask? According to my recurring nightmare, at least, it's the fear of missing a flight. Or, to be more precise, failing to finish packing before a flight, and missing the flight as a result. It's odd and not so odd at the same time. The odd thing is, I've never actually missed a flight in my life . Having flown so often in college, I was always on top of things and had a very clear idea of my flight sche

Brrr. Hurricane Matthew ushered in a cold spell, and I've been bundled up like nobody's business for the past few days. Even Jasmine spends most of the day hibernating, so it's not just me and my whiny self. A part of me is crying blue murder since I can't believe summer's ended. I even checked the weather forecast for the next 10 days, hoping desperately that it's going to get warmer. You can't blame me - hurricanes don't happen every day and this colder weather might just be a temporary thing. =P This week's not going to get much better, but I see a few spots of sunshine (read: >70 degrees Fahrenheit weather) next week. The last remnants of summer! I just bought some nice summer outfits on sale, so I'm still hoping for a chance to debut them. Speaking of which, end-of-season sales are the best time to shop for summer outfits. Summer clothes are really the only outfits that I should buy at this point, given that we're planning to go b

I've never understood the older generation's obsession with physical attributes. If you're Asian, you probably remember growing up surrounded by relatives who commented on your body shape/appearance. That was also the case for me. I am short, and also happen to have large hips and a large butt. To add to my ever-growing list of physical shortcomings, I also had acne-prone skin as a teen which led to huge pores and tiny scars on my face, which I still bear up to this very day. And year after year, at every family gathering, someone was bound to make a comment about one or all of those features. It wasn't just at every family gathering either. My own mother also constantly bewailed my huge hips and blamed my short genes on my grandmother on my dad's side. Even as a child, I saw through the absurdity of it all. It made no sense to me to comment on something I could not change by sheer will or effort, and was absolutely amoral. If I had been failing at school and

Getting paid for work done feels GOOD. All things considered, I mentally assent that I'm not a liability. I run the household, I provide companionship, I basically improve the quality of JW's life. But when I'm just draining monetary resources without putting anything back into the money pot, it's hard not to feel like I have to scrimp ALL the time so that I'm LESS of a liability than I already am. So after I got my first big pay, I felt really happy. Since I recently got a new phone, it also didn't hurt that I could cover the cost without dipping into our savings. It's so freeing to have your own money! Well, as long as you can think of it as YOUR own money. My very active guilt complex forces me to see it as OUR money and that I'm just doing my due diligence by contributing to household expenses. Bummer. Also, when you spend a week working just for $100, you tend appreciate every dollar you make to the fullest and spending becomes a little m

So, smartphones. My HuaWei Honor 3C started acting up a few days ago, and now I can't use the camera or play videos on my phone. The apps crash all the time, too. Doing a factory reset didn't help, so I guess we'll have to conclude that it's a hardware issue. Which means getting a new phone, of course. My phones have always had a history of being durable (aka lasting way more than 3 years), so I was disappointed that my HuaWei only lasted a little more than 2 years. Great timing too, because that's just long enough for the warranty to be invalid. Not that I could claim it anyhow, being several continents away. I guess I'm also peeved because it was a purchase made after careful research and consideration of specs, and I had expected it to last me at least 5 years (by which the tech and specs would probably be outdated and then I could switch it out for a better phone in good conscience =P). Granted, like JW said, if you pack excellent specs and high per

I recently got a job being a content writer for a web developer. It's an on-going project and I'm on my 9865589799th iteration right now, so I thought I'd take a break to clear my head before going back out there. As much as I love writing, I have to admit that it's very time-consuming. I steered clear of my blog for days because I just couldn't write anymore after spending hours writing every day. (In case you were wondering, the only reason I'm here now is because it's that in-between, awkward phase of time before dinner/JW comes back home and I need to time my cooking perfectly so that the food isn't cold by the time it's served. So I'm killing ten minutes before I start cooking.) Content-writing is so different from planning lesson plans. With lesson plans, I can stop at "good enough" because I know that things are bound to change and there's no possible way I can plan out every single second of the lesson. With content-w

I can't work legally in the States because of my visa status. A few months ago, though, I decided to try my hand at online freelancing, and I managed to get myself a few odd jobs here and there. Honestly, they don't pay much for the amount of time I put in, but it's a nice feeling to be contributing to a real project that is worth money to a client. It makes me feel like my skills are actually marketable, yannoe? By the way, I'm talking about copy-editing and proofreading jobs. Back when I was a student, I used to proofread assignments pro bono for my friends. =P And I really enjoyed it. I wonder why I never considered making a career out of this "hobby" of mine. Perhaps it was because I didn't know there was such a career option, given that it doesn't fall under the regular categories of 'doctor/lawyer/engineer/teacher'. I know, I grew up really sheltered. =P Getting steady paychecks was also a huge consideration in my career selection, so

Ok, so not many of you know that I like Pokemon. That's fine, considering that I usually stay away from video games of all types, mainly because I don't like getting addicted committed to things. It's no biggie, just another facet of my control issues. =P However, I really like Pokemon and this started way back when I was a kid and Pokemon was showing on TV right after piano lessons. I recently started playing Pokemon FireRed because everyone was playing Pokemon GO and it made me miss Pokemon battling. Yesterday, I managed to beat the Elite Four and Gary on my first try without even - in JW's words - "training seriously", so I have to conclude that I just have an eye for for picking a great attacking team. I guess I have innate talent when it comes to Pokemon training, if nothing else. =P And yes, I go for fast, overpowered, kill-in-one-strike kind of Pokemon. Defensive moves aren't for me, because oftentimes whoever strikes first makes or breaks the ba

Those of you who've read my blog long enough know that one of the things that send me straight into my happy zone is getting a great bargain. Those of you who live with me (this means you, Jia Wern) know that I can talk about it for hours afterwards and shamelessly ask for compliments on what a savvy buyer I am.  Good thing not many of you live with me. =P It's not so much the money saved that makes me happy - it's more the thought that I've successfully optimized my resources and traded minimum input for maximum output. So I still diligently answer Kroger feedback surveys because the reward points add up to a few dollars in fuel discounts. It's not like answering the survey takes more than 5 minutes anyway, and guess who has a lot of free time? =P The trouble is, when we still get hit by unexpected expenditures after all that effort to coupon, research for best value items and buy mostly stuff on sale, I tend to feel hopeless. Basically, I feel like, why

Recently, I learnt about this thing called "Language ego" from my Coursera TESOL course, and it's something I've always been subconsciously aware of, but didn't know had a name to it. "Language ego" is the idea that your identity is tied to the language you speak, and that means when second language learners speak a different language, their identity shifts a little. To illustrate this idea, here are two examples: #1, I've always resented the fact that I'm not nearly as witty or sharp when I speak Mandarin or BM as when I am when I speak English. #2, I become meeker when I have to speak a second or third language because my lack of language mastery makes me slightly less confident.  As a result, I sometimes feel that people I communicate to in a different language don't know the real me. And this is a feeling that has followed me my entire life - the feeling that I never truly belonged in all the communities that I've been a part of

A lot has happened since I last blogged. Jia Wern was away at a conference for four days, my toothache has finally stopped, and it is SO HOT nowadays. All I'm doing right now is sitting on the futon and blogging, and I'm sweating. Perhaps it has something to do with being on the second floor, closer to the sun and all. =P On the upside, I'm hoping we also stay warmer during the winter. I can handle the heat, but not the cold. The past few days have been pretty eventful even though JW was gone most of the time. I'm so thankful for friendships. Check out my schedule for the past few days: Wednesday : Dropped JW off at RDU Airport, movie night at small group. Thursday:  GoMentor with my mentee, dinner at Alice's with two other friends. Friday night: Completed my weekly Coursera homework, made pineapple tarts. Saturday: Went shopping at the Tanger outlets with Alice and Guan Wen, hung out with Jane and her husband later that evening. Sunday:  Went to the Brier

Before I came over to the States, I virtually never had any problems with my teeth. Then I came over, turned 25, and my wisdom teeth started acting up. I now understand why teething babies can be so cranky. It's PAINFUL. It aches so much that sometimes I fantasize about extracting it, blood and gore and everything, and that would still be preferable to that ache that just throbs on and on. Someone give me a pacifier please. The worst part is that it recurs. It doesn't just happen once for all - depending on how long your tooth takes to erupt, it can go on for months (off and on, fortunately, or that'll be the death of me from starvation). So far it hasn't affected my eating habits yet, but I can see how it COULD if it gets any worse. I even took an ibuprofen for it last night, and it didn't help. Not kidding. Morphine, anyone? And then hor, my two upper wisdom teeth don't want to behave and come out straight. So what I have are wisdom teeth jutting out

We have moved! Well, 95% at least. Since we haven't fully cleaned out the other apartment and sold off the stuff we don't need, I don't consider us FULLY moved as of yet. There are rags, cleaning supplies, trash bags and some random empty boxes still lying around, and I don't really like it when a task is half completed, but it's also nice to take our time and move in stages. After all, we ARE paying another 2 weeks' lease, so we might as well make full use of it. =P Praise God for friends! On moving day, Soe offered her husband, Thomas, to help with the heavy items so I didn't have to move them. What a blessing! Also, I'm thankful that JW didn't throw his back again from lifting the heavy stuff. Nevertheless, moving is no tiny endeavor. Even with the help we got, three days later, I'm still feeling the side effects of moving which include (but are not limited to)general lethargy and apathy. =P Planning, packing, unpacking, rearranging, putti

In every marriage, there are responsibilities and expectations. Many a time, these are unconscious ideas that we get from observing our own parents and upbringing, and we don't think about them until we get married and realize that our spouse has very different ideas based on his/her own upbringing. To examine your own set of ideas about roles, you can ask yourself the following questions: 1. Who should take care of paying the bills and filing taxes? 2. Who takes care of car maintenance? 3. Who does most of the grocery shopping and/or budgeting? 4. Who's in charge of banking, investments or deciding on insurance policies? 5. How should household chores be divided? 20/80? 50/50? Should they even be divided? 6. Who should drive when both spouses are in the car? If you have a somewhat traditional idea of marriage, the wife generally monopolizes the kitchen and home duties while the husband works longer hours at work to provide for the family (i.e. is the main breadwinner)

Dear husband, Today's your 26th birthday. I know you don't like being in the center of attention, so I won't post on your Facebook wall. =P But I still do want to give you a proper birthday note, so here it is. After more than 8 years of dating, one tends to run out of birthday ideas. So it's nice to know that the both of us aren't big on birthdays - fewer expectations there, phew. I thank the Lord for bringing (and keeping) us together through all those years, and while I'm not the kind of person to say that you are DEFINITELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT the best person for me (because we both know you might die first and I might still remarry), I'm pretty sure you're among the best. =P Thank you for loving me when I'm unlovable, for being patient with my whims and fancies, for enduring my cold wars and crankiness, for being the better, more generous half of us. I am ever grateful that you always strive to model Christ's love for the church in our rel

As some of you may know, I went to Maine recently for my brother-in-law's graduation. Well, not quite, since we skipped the graduation - I'd say it was more of a family reunion thing. Maine was really pretty and charming with bodies of water almost everywhere. The part that we ended up staying in, however, was rather rural with the nearest supermarket a half hour away. Perhaps that's a prerequisite for beauty - unspoiled nature can hardly be found in bustling cities. =P Overall, the vacation was a pretty chill one with one outing per day on average, and most of our time was spent bonding in the Airbnb house with home-cooked meals. Towards the end of the trip, Jia Wern and I went down to Boston since we were flying off from Boston Logan Airport and wanted to see the city a little. I mean, Maine's lovely and all, but almost every international friend I told about Maine didn't know it was a state, what more to say Portland or Mount Desert Island. Boston? Everyone'

So if you haven't heard, I turned 25 on the 25th! Golden birthday celebration whee! Not that we did anything big. =P Between Jia Wern coming home from work early to spend the day with me, getting a buyer on eBay, a BBQ dinner at Bullocks and cookies from Jenna at small group, it was a really nice day. I actually had a really nice week leading up to it as well with so many surprises from God, but that's a story for another day. I've always wanted to be 25. Maybe it's because my birthday falls on the 25th, so I especially like that number. Mathematically speaking, 25 is a nice, square number that has a square root. It also somehow implies (to me, at least) that someone is grown up and in the prime of their life. Yes, as a kid, my wish was to be an adult because I felt that was when others would take me seriously. I was a serious kid, as you may have inferred. =P I love how my birthday marks the beginning of a series of celebrations. May 25th is my birthday, May 31st

After more than a year of sitting on my butt, I really want to start earning money and contribute to household expenses. It's not so much about the money as it is about filling time with productive activities. But to some extent, it's also about the money, because I can volunteer all day long but petrol costs money. So technically, I'm paying to volunteer. Which doesn't seem fair. It's illegal for me to work here, just so you know. But I've been trying my luck anyway. In the past few hours, I created a profile on a freelance work website hoping to get some petty cash. Not only did I seriously underestimate the number of people who are also broke and desperate for work, I also didn't account for how rigid employers can be. It's funny how I never run out of friends who need free help with editing and proofreading, but when it comes to paying jobs, people demand cover letters and proposals and bids and qualifications. It really doesn't help that I

It's been an eventful few days. Just as I was groaning about going into another week with nothing to do, we got a (rude) surprise on Tuesday when a notice of eviction lease termination appeared on our doorknob. Apparently, the apartment management wants to renovate our unit so we'll have to move out by mid-July, which is when our lease ends. Meh. And here I thought we could stay put in our nice roomy apartment (846 sq ft is so lovely) until Jia Wern finished up his PhD. Hey, I even decorated the place and all! Me being me, I jumped straight into tackling the apartment issue. This time, however, I paused to pray about the whole matter before I did anything about it. I think it's really important to get centered on the fact that God will provide and that we can cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. I don't want to do things in my own will, by my own strength and worrying the whole time. Like what Psalm 127:1 says, and I quote, Unless the LORD builds the

One of the running jokes that Jia Wern and I share is about how poor we are. We aren't POOR poor, but we definitely can't eat out a lot or buy expensive items. Ask any graduate student surviving on a stipend and they'll tell you it's definitely not a way to get rich quick. To be honest, though, I must say I lead a pretty comfortable life here. It's devoid of luxuries like leather couches, sophisticated artwork (paper flowers, anyone?) and name brand clothing, but being able to survive on one (low) salary at my age? Not something Malaysians can usually do in town areas without some serious penny pinching, I think. Lately, though, I've been focusing more on what I want that we don't have yet. When I start thinking of the number of things I would like to get, I feel a little despondent that I'm not bringing any money to the table, which in turn makes me discontent. Then I start researching all the stuff I would like to get for the best prices, which gives

I had yet another free day today (way too many of those nowadays), so I decided to, on a whim, learn how to make tissue paper flowers! My whims aren't very random. I was inspired by the fact that I had some tissue paper from Victoria's Secret that I didn't want to waste or throw away. Purchases wrapped in tissue paper always give me the impression of luxury, so I'm inclined to think it's a marketing trick. =P It also leaves me with tissue paper I have no idea what to do with, since Christmas is still 7-8 months away (and I have no friends to exchange presents with anyway =P). So today, I had this brilliant idea to learn how to make paper flowers. I never learnt how to do that before this, simply because I have no good reason to buy tissue/crepe paper, being the severely art-challenged person that I am. While other people take joy in creating beauty, I take joy in optimizing the usage of everything I have, oftentimes at the expense of beauty. With free tissue pap

I don't do very well when I have to wait. This includes waiting for people to drop by the house, waiting to pick someone up, waiting for mail...just waiting for life to happen, basically.  I have this personal principle about never making others wait for me, hence I tend to time things perfectly to the minute. This also extends to opening the door at the first knock (for expected guests, that is), so whenever people are supposed to drop by, I hover within earshot of the door anticipating their arrival. As you can expect, my tendencies make me a very antsy person. I can't fall asleep if I'm expecting someone within the next hour; I don't even go to the bathroom if the ETA is within 5 minutes. Just so that I can answer the door on the first knock and be the most perfect host in the world. I pride myself on never inconveniencing others, but that also means that when others inconvenience me, it's like a Super. Big. Pet. Peeve.  Putting. It. Mildly. Of late, t

I've been keeping to myself lately, mainly because I just don't feel up to hanging out or scheduling playdates with friends. I'll probably just blame this mood on PMS and hope that it goes away soon. I guess I've been feeling a little .... sien , for lack of a better word to describe it. "Depressed" would be an exaggeration, "sad" doesn't quite meet the mark, and I'm definitely not "bored". Even when I'm home alone, there's always a whole list of chores to be done and sometimes, research and meal planning can take up an entire afternoon. =P I'm perpetually occupied, which is a good thing for my choleric dark side. What nags at me sometimes is whether I'm trying hard enough to reach out to others and maintain a healthy social network. The catch is that there are times I'd rather be alone. Don't get me wrong, I love having meaningful relationships and connecting with others. Too much isolation drives me cra

Jasmine's bout of diarrhoea started yesterday at noon. As the day went on, her diarrhoea became progressively worse and she even vomited once (good thing I saw that coming and caught the bile before it got onto the carpet). Since her behaviour was otherwise normal, we decided to observe her to see if it would last more than 24 hours or eventually resolve itself. My guess is that her diarrhoea was caused by ingesting some of the cotton balls from the trash that I used to put on facial toner with because my toner smells like raw bacon. Just a hypothesis based on the mysterious appearance of semi-eaten cotton balls on the floor. =P A dog with diarrhoea can be mildly amusing. Jasmine usually doesn't indicate that she needs to go out, and instead depends on us to regularly let her out on walks and potty breaks, unlike other dogs who may whine at the door or ring a bell to alert their owners to their needs. However, yesterday she was noticeably antsy and restless. We were all nappi

I haven't written a serious post in a while, and that's mainly because most of my serious thoughts occur at inappropriate times or when I'm not in the mood to blog. The serious side of me is a very real one that exists, though, and it is time to show the world my dark(er) side. =P One piece of relationship advice that I adhere to is to never expect my spouse to change. If you're marrying/dating someone to change them into a better person, good luck with that. I think women more than men are prone to 'fixing' their spouse like some home improvement project, and I am inclined to as well, I'll admit that. It's my default mode when I forget to remind myself that a)men want to be accepted the way they are, and b) I'm attracted to him because he complements me. This line of thought has its pitfalls, though. It was the reason I thought we should break up when I realized he wasn't romantic the way I wanted him to be, or when I had a need that he simp

So many things to blog about, so little time! I think I overcompensated for the cabin fever I suffered during the flu by overloading on activities since then. In between walking Jasmine twice a day (yay for warmer weather!), spring cleaning, meeting up with friends and doing an Old Testament Survey online, the past few weeks have been very fulfilling and productive for me. I'm especially proud of my spring cleaning efforts. We  finally cleaned the car! Well, the interior of the car, at least. Jia Wern has never taken the car to a car wash, so you can imagine 3 years' worth of dirt, dust and dead leaves (don't ask me how they got in there) in the car. Having no access to an outdoor socket, we couldn't just plug in our corded vacuum cleaner for that purpose. We actually did try to use his handheld cordless vacuum cleaner to do some cleaning last year, but that can only vacuum for 30 seconds at a time before running out of juice. We promptly gave up and didn't thin

About a month ago, I finally snipped off my tresses and got a long bob instead on Amy's recommendation. It has been such a refreshing change! I don't shed as much hair anymore, I look different, and Jia Wern thinks it's cute. Yay for short hair! I really like the change, but I must say this is one of the higher maintenance haircuts I've gotten. (In case you're wondering why there aren't many pictures on Facebook, it's because of the flu. No one likes to take pictures when they're looking like the walking dead.) Anyway, back to the haircut. I have to blow dry my hair to maintain the round bob shape every time I wash my hair, which is quite a hassle. It's a good thing I got the haircut now during a time of no responsibilities/career/baby. This might be the only feasible time in my life to maintain a stylish haircut. =P Enough about hair, on to the weather. Right now it's almost the end of winter/beginning of spring, and the robins are all ou

I enjoy learning about stuff. So when I have new things in my life, like a dog, I tend to read up and learn as much as I can. I've borrowed and read a few books on dog training in the past few months, and while they're very informative and interesting, I find that what's considered good dog training is a little too intense for my liking. I think my preferences are also influenced by my own philosophy of life. =P Anyway, one thing dog trainers keep emphasizing is that treats come after achieving something, not for just looking cute. While that's a good way to motivate a dog to perform, I feel like that's a little too much for me. After all, if my parents only rewarded me after achieving something, I'd feel like I was only loved for my achievements. Also, if I only rewarded Jasmine when she manages to perform a trick, she wouldn't get any treats at all because I'm not big on teaching her tricks. I also don't believe in rewarding her for good manner