serner's gift guide | blogmas day 10!

on the tenth day of blogmas, I welcome you to my world of consumerism

📍Where is coriils? Once again, here writing to you, on another day of this relentless writing challenge. A break, and the weekend, is in sight.

🎁 welcome to blogmas day 10! I have returned to my inevitable role as a consumer.

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I run my life like a project that needs to be managed. Every task for the evening lies in Todoist, every commitment lies in Google Calendar, everything I discover about myself is worth writing down.

Writing is the trail to understanding, my means of tracking change, and figuring out what the heck is going on! And to get to the act of writing, we must first have ideas.

Ideas! Where are we going to get those? Over the years, the key thing I’ve learnt about writing is that I should have an idea before I sit down. The idea that forms a metaphorical lightbulb above my head is the catalyst to tippy-tapping on the keyboard. But what if the idea is only half-baked? What if the idea is just a few words that sound nice together? That’s why we have lists. Lists to store things and thoughts and ideas, unlike this unreliable brain I have. It’s a nice brain all things considered, but I wish it had better memory. (You could argue that by delegating memory to a to-do list, my actual memory has regressed but we can’t measure that so 😙)

Behold, a peek into my Todoist! My wishlist is particularly interesting to me because you can see how my taste changes from August 2020 to now. Considering that I had just paid off my student loans in August 2020, it’s hilarious to me that I immediately shifted from student mode to working-member-of-society / consumer mode. We now have wants.

lol 230 items on my wishlist

Scrolling through, it’s a humbling reminder to myself that even if I did buy all these things, my life wouldn’t be drastically different from today. Self-control is good, and having savings is better.

Except during the holiday season. Let’s get into it, shall we?

welcome to serner’s gift guide for funsies

no categories, just silly recommendations from me to you

1. Logitech Lift Vertical Ergonomic 4000 DPI Wireless Mouse - Rose from Best Buy (also free mousepad).

The cutest mouse I’ve ever owned, and actually my most recent purchase! I cannot believe it took me this long to switch to an ergonomic mouse because my hands truly feel better while pushing pixels on Figma and Notion all day.

Bonus: Sushret Cloud Wrist Rest Keyboard, Cloud Palm Rest Set with PU Leather Memory Foam, Cute Keyboard Rest for Wrist Support and Arm Rest, Desk Cloud Wrist Pad for PC/Gaming/Hand Cushion/Computer-White from Amazon. For the record, I tried my hardest to not buy from Amazon but simply, I could not find cute wrist rests from anywhere, even Taiwan, for any price.

2. VANMAK (Vancouver-made Makgeolli!)

I had this at a dinner party earlier this year and wow this was delicious and I wanted to inhale all of it but a few sips later, it was all gone!! What a fun locally made delicious drink! Perfect for holiday pot lucks.

3. Gift sets or gift cards from Paragon Tea Room

This is, by far, the best bubble tea I’ve had in North America. Strong tea flavour, high quality, I love it so so much I wish I lived next door.

4. Any blind box hipper from the internet or a magical store that has them in stock

Sonny Angel, Mofusand, Smiski — I’ll take any. They no longer need to stand on a surface, they can now stick to a surface. And that makes them 100x cuter.

hippers!!!!!!

5. Baggu bag

Sliding scale based on your generosity. I have a large reusable baggu and small reusable baggu and they always spark compliments at the grocery store. (Maybe it’s because I have the cutest hello kitty ones and the best taste but I’m sure it’d work for you too)

6. The board game that you want to play but can’t justify buying for yourself

You don’t need Wingspan if your friends have Wingspan. Or Catan. Or mini Catan. Or Ticket To Ride.

7. Homemade cookies, special enough to be one-of-a-kind

Every year, I make icebox cookies. An easy enough recipe but takes two evenings (a significant amount of work)! Thankfully, I can think creatively in 2D so here are some janky animal cookies.

8. A magazine that they haven’t heard of that isn’t too mainstream but tailored to their interests

I’m thinking of BESIDE, Monocle, Offscreen, the like.

things from this year that money can’t buy that supersede all the above gifts:

1. Hearing that your friends are going on adventure to go snorkelling for fresh uni, witnessing them successfully gather fresh uni, then eating the largest piece of uni you’ve ever — for FREE

2. Laughing so hard every time your friend brought up the fact that we must eat the gigantic sheet cake from Costco, at breakfast, at dinner, at dessert, and repeat. I may have contributed to the purchase but the entertainment value is PRICELESS

3. I did pay 6 Euros in total for the credential (book for stamps to prove where you walked), the certificate (yay! completed!), and the tube for the certificate so it remains in pristine shape. But because I’d also completed the Kumano Kodo, the dual pilgrim certificate and the dual pilgrim pin was FREE!

4. Although I did buy the last two resell tickets seated together for the Sabrina Carpenter concert in Paris, the best part of this whole ordeal was convincing my friend to come with me over the span of maybe 48 hours. YIPEE!

5. Handwritten iPad sign written in a hurry to greet your friend who agreed to come to Hong Kong Disneyland with you! FREE TO MAKE, FREE TO DISPLAY

6. Meeting a new mutual while in Taipei then the friends putting our heads together to come up with a Chinese name that fits him and his personality. Oh, also doing this over tea with the most beautiful view in Jiu Fen. FREE ACTIVITY, FREE GIFT

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Because maybe the true gift of the year is the gift of friendship and the time we get to spend together. Oh! How sappy. See you tomorrow! 💫