English Entries in Late June

6.29
A small crab

As usual, I went jogging along the river near my apartment this evening around dusk.

Many people were fishing by the river. I like stopping to see their catches.

One of them, an old man, had just caught a crab. He needed to lift the string, remove the string from the crab’s leg, and hold the crab at the same time. But as you know, he only had two hands, so it was a little bit of a struggle for him to do it.

I went up and helped him hold the small crab. He quickly removed the fishing string, and then I threw the crab into his bucket.

Can you hold a crab with one hand?

I can, because I have liked crabs very much since I was a kid.

6.28
Little Joys in Life

I have a WeChat official account, where I share my travels with people through words and photos, sometimes videos.

I initially wrote because I had so many feelings and photos after traveling and hiking that I would not be content to share them only with close friends.

Then I found that I really enjoyed writing. It made me feel like traveling to those places again. And every time I finished an article, I felt energized. Maybe it was because I had found a way to make my feelings and photos worthy.

Some people communicated with me under those articles.

I’m happy to help others to better know or remember about those places I have been to.

6.25
To support or not

If your friend told you a business plan and asked for your opinion, would you support him even though you think it won’t succeed?

I’m a little hesitant.

If this project were from my client, I would have many matrixes to show how it might happen in the future. It’s my job to be cautious; there are other teams to be ambitious.

But my friend doesn’t have a fully functional organization, and he also takes my opinion seriously.

It’s said that pessimists are often right and optimists are often successful. What if the plan does work?

6.22
Self-reproach

I’ve been in self-reproach since yesterday when I found a mistake I had made last week.

I have a small online store on Taobao, a famous e-commerce platform in China.

Last week I was so busy that I didn’t double-check the orders from this online store. Then an order was missed, and that customer was angry.

The platform helped the customer get a refund and gave me a penalty.

I blame myself for two things.

First, I let the customer down by giving her a bad shopping experience. Maybe she became unhappy for days. Second, I put the store in a dangerous situation. It will be hard to gain customers’ trust again because of the penalty.

However, blaming myself can’t change the past, so I decided to review my SOP and daily routine this weekend.

6.21
The plum rain season

In Shanghai, the plum rain season started three days ago and will last 22 more days.

I’ve NEVER liked this rainy season.

It’s humid and rains almost every day, which causes the hateful mildew.

I bought several tomatoes the day before yesterday. They were fresh and in good condition. As usual, I put them on my table to wait for them to become riper because I like softer tomatoes.

Then this morning, I found most of my tomatoes were covered with mildew, and I had to throw 2/3 of them away!

I’m not fond of this plum rain season.