Power of Appreciation

Charles Schwab,
He was only 38 when he was chosen by Andrew Carnegie in 1921 to become the first president of the United States Steel Company, earning a salary of over a million a year. A salary of 50 a week with no income tax was considered being well off so you could only imagine his fortunate circumstance. Schwab was simply picked by Carnegie because of his “ability to deal with people.” These are quotes by Schwab, his secret that shows his character as a person and success in his business. I find them enlightening.

“I consider my ability to arouse enthusiasm among my people the greatest asset I possess, and the way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement. There is nothing else that so kills the ambitions of a person as criticisms from superiors. I never criticize anyone. I believe in giving a person incentive to work. So I am anxious to praise but loath to find fault. If I like anything, I am hearty in my approbation and lavish in my praise.”

“In my wide association in life, meeting with many and great people in various parts of the world, I have yet to find the person, however great or exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than he would ever do under a spirit of criticism.”

To further this notion, I have another story I found inspiring.

Paul Harvey, in one of his radio broadcasts, “The Rest of the Story,” told how showing sincere appreciation can change a person’s life. He reported that years ago a teacher in Detroit asked Stevie Morris to help her find a mouse that was lost in the classroom. You see, she appreciated the fact that nature had given Stevie something no one else in the room had. Nature had given Stevie a remarkable pair of ears to compensate for his blind eyes. But this was really the first time Stevie had been shown appreciation for those talented ears. Now, years later, he says that this act of appreciation was the beginning of a new life. You see, from that time on he developed his gift of hearing and went on to become, under the stage name of Stevie Wonder, one of the great pop singers and songwriters of the seventies.

- Paul Aurandt, Lynne Harvey, Dale Carnegie

But remember, flattery and appreciation are two completely different things. Don’t flatter, just be genuine in your appreciation.


I did this post on my tumblr a couple weeks back.

We found this random spot in Irvine near 85 degree celcius bakery. The water was so blue and refreshing, it was nice walking around this little area. There were backyards surrounding this lake, and I thought how nice it would be to sit in your own backyard, looking at this everyday.

Today was the perfect beach weather. Hot and breezy. Surprisingly and satisfyingly, there were not many people at the beach.

I realized something peculiar today. Last time I went to Laguna, my sister and I noticed this tan man going back and forth doing who knows what in his little area (he was digging, shuffling, or creating his own platform with the sand is what we thought) and later when we woke up from our little nap we saw him in a black thong tanning away. Whatever floats his boat. I saw him again today and I knew it had to be him, because he was doing that shuffling and moving operation and he looked like the same guy. That was that. Then two days ago I was in a parking lot and saw these two guys in olive green jumpsuits/uniforms with their guns in their gun straps walking to Chipotle. Today I saw one of them again in the same olive green uniform and gun straps! I knew this had to be the same guy, because I remember seeing them get out of a dark grey truck and today I saw him get into the dark grey truck and not many people wear olive green jumpsuits with gunstraps. I just thought it was interesting, because what are the odds I would see these two strangers again whom I was able to recognize by one's unusual demeanor and one's ensemble and car. I know I may sound like a creeper but it just happened right in front of me and I simply took notice.

      Looking at this picture brings back memories. The closest encounter to a jellyfish besides an aquarium was in Hawaii when I went snorkeling, which by the way was probably the most frightening experience of my life. I thought it would be like what you see on the national geographic or tv where everything is so pretty and wondrous, but it was quite the opposite. I remember the boat stopped at a far distance from the shore so that we could snorkel our way there, enjoying the pretty fishies and coral...all I remember looking at in the water through the magnified goggles were scary looking fishes, eels, and just the depth of the ocean with the magnification of the goggles freaked me out. There were also sea turtles the size of 5 macbooks put together swimming next to us. All I wanted to do was get to the shore as fast as I can and the minute I did I stepped on these rocks that were covered in green stuff which at that time made me believe they would help my feet grasp on when in fact they were the most slipperiest suckers ever. I fell on my butt and it hurt. Next thing I noticed was this boy with a red face, crying while his dad tried to help him. We found out a jellyfish got on his face and left a nasty sting. OH the joy of hearing that and knowing that we still had to swim back to the boat after lunch on the island. This is where I thought it was funny and even thinking back to this day brings back laughs. After lunch, everyone was dreading to swim back in fear of the jellyfish, and we were specifically told never to swim over the coral (which was really high up in the water) because if we damage them it would take years or never to regrow, but at that point everyone was pushing, shoving, and kicking swimming right over the coral to the boat. I swam over the coral (I'm so sorry) and scraped my knee. It started to bleed and sting, but I deserved that.
      One of my biggest fear is being in the middle of the ocean for whatever reason. I'm not a very good swimmer either, and there's so many odd sea creatures/species unknown to mankind I feel like they keep mutating in there with all the pollution and climate changes. But I do let my imagination get the best of me. 

One of the highlights from my trip to San Diego with two good buddies of mine was our stop at Extraordinary Desserts. Extraordinary it was.  

If a man's heart is rankling with discord and ill feeling toward you, you can't win him to your way of thinking with all the logic in Christendom. Scolding parents and domineering bosses and husbands and nagging wives ought to realize that people don't want to change their minds. They can't be forced or driven to agree with you or me. But they may possibly be led to, if we are gentle and friendly, ever so gentle and ever so friendly.

Count your blessings every day.

A little story I had to make for drawing and painting class. It's called Tod and His Balloon and is about a little boy named Tod who is king of his hot air balloon. He eats ice cream in his balloon, screams in his balloon, sleeps in his balloon, flys over Paris in his balloon, makes paper airplanes in his balloon- Tod loves his balloon. Then one day a bird flys by...

I'm going to San Diego tomorrow! I don't remember the last time I was there. Actually I kind of do, but it was a really long time ago maybe when I was in jr. high? I'm pretty excited and looking forward to visiting Extraordinary Desserts. People have been telling me they have the sweetest desserts (haha) and I forgot what San Diego looks like...but I'm sure there's a lot more to do there than here.

Bon Appétit

I call this the random sandwich, because what I put in here is all random. In between the toasted garlic focaccia there's pesto sauce, roast beef, basil, cilantro, tomato, prosciutto, ham, genoa salami, and provolone cheese (hello meat). I love making my own sandwich, because you have the freedom to put in it everything and anything you want.

Summer thrills
1 Kimchi Blue silk lace pintuck cami
2 Shirt from Korea with no brand
3 Reform Village top from Korea
4 Patterson J. Kincaid dress I recently bought and love
5 Ecote surplus jacket

     I realized that I have a summer routine. I don't plan on this beforehand, but every summer I'll make things. I'll alter my old clothes that I've become bored with to make them exciting again, or I'll just sew up something new with a design in my head. Something I'd want to wear but can't seem to find in stores or pay a large amount of money for when it's so easy to just spend a little time and make. Then when I need a break from sewing, I'll just paint or draw. I never get these urges during school, but that's probably because I have so much free time during summer I need to find something to do that is satisfying.
     I also started reading 3 different books. Each very different from the other. One is a terrifying horror story, another is a self help, and the other is an inspiring journey of wisdom. I'll read bits of each, depending on what kind of story I'm in the mood for.

I am going to paint on that blank canvas. I hope it turns out the way I imagine it in my head. So this past Saturday, my sister and I planned on spending a lovely afternoon at Laguna Beach followed by a quick trip to the mall, and we did. However, the day could not have began any worse. We got into a petty annoyance with each other over what we wanted to grab for lunch (so we could eat it by the shore) but being the most indecisive sisters that we are, we could not come to a decision. Then we argued over which freeway to take and got into another pathetic argument. The whole ride to the beach was silent, because we like to play the silent treatment when we're angry. But Jennie and I can only stay silent for so long, because as soon as I parked we talked and laughed. For lunch we ended up stopping by Whole Foods on our walk to the beach. She got a chicken pesto panini and I got a bbq chicken slaw wrap with a side of macaroni salad (I've been really into macaroni salads these weeks) and one bag of jalapeno potato chips. Her panini totally triumphed my wrap by the way. I think as an outsider you can only view this as stupid, but sisters (maybe all siblings) tend to fight over the most stupid things. But I love her.


I also saw 6 dolphins really near the shore out in front of us, going up and back in the water. I've never seen so many dolphins, so close, in their natural habitat. Ahhhhmazing.


Have you ever tried chocolate covered gummy bears? My sister and I love them. It was fun because usually stores (or the ones that I used to get them from) would coat the white gummy bears only, but the new place we went to coats all the colors of the gummy bears. We played a game. You chew the gummy bear and you guess what color gummy bear it is. I know it sounds lame, but you'll be surprised how many times you'll get it wrong.

Just some more pictures from New York that I haven't uploaded.


1 A picture of a wallpaper at a random cafe in New York I really liked.
2 One potato, two potato - I think there are well over 20 potatoes in that picture. Doesn't looking at that picture from that angle make you want to count them as potatoes? This was at the Guggenheim Museum.
3 My friend insisted that we stop by Cafe Habana because apparently their corn is amazing and I thought how good can a corn possibly be? The corn was really amazing. I think it was just some butter, cheese and spices with squirts of lime on top, but it was really something.
4 It was our last day in New York, and after eating so much American and Italian, we had to get some Korean food in our system. This was by far the most glorious dukkbokki I've ever eaten. Maybe because it was full of surprises like the cheese, meat, rice, onions, and other veggies, or because I was in New York, but it was the perfect meal to end our trip.

Moon Park, I don't know when you'll see this, but I miss you so much. Looking at these New York pictures reminded me of you since we did go together, and I can't wait until the year ends. We'll go on another trip and make even greater memories! And I think we have to go back to New York, because I really want to eat more of that rice pudding.

Par·is [Fr. pA-REE] - noun. a city in and the capital of France and capital of Ville-de-Paris Department, in the N part, on the Seine.

 The first image is a flip book my sister received as a gift some time ago, but I like to pretend it's mine and keep it with me, flipping through it occassionally when I'm bored or when I want to look at something that I know will make me happy. It's really a cool flip book - I think the coolest one I've ever seen. If there's anywhere I'd love to go before I die, it would be Santorini, Egypt, Spain, and Paris. And in Paris I would eat all of their crepes I can find, because I'm sure it tastes ten times more heavenly than my homemade versions.

I saw a television show last night about Indian food and Italian food and looking at the pasta through the screen completely set my mind on what I was going to make this afternoon. I used angel hair pasta with alfredo sauce and added in some chicken, garlic, tomato, broccoli, onion, and cilantro with a dash of salt, pepper, and tabasco. To top it all off, I turned on the tv to find a channel that was playing a previously filmed live performance in a London studio by Radiohead. So I sat, ate, watched, and listened and it felt so good.

I almost forgot the joy of cooking since school work can get pretty hefty, but thank goodness I'm on summer break because I have all the time in the world to make whatever I'm craving.

       via designyoutrust, blog I forgot, me