If I have multiple draft posts, I would write the draft outline in blogger, in the draft post itself. But sometimes I write the draft outline on a sticky note on my desktop as shown in the photo or if I wasn't on my laptop, I'll write on my phone. I would delete the draft outline after I publish the post, what's the use anymore, right? 

Blog content

When the draft outline is finalized, I would start writing the content. As English is not my forte, I use Grammarly to help my writing. After finished writing, I would preview my post to see how it will look like and read the content several times to check on the grammar, spelling and words suitability until I'm satisfied, only then I would publish the post. Then I would read the post again one last time after publishing it.

Photos used

As you can see I rarely took photos for the blog, I mostly use stock photos and edit them in PowerPoint to put the title overlapping the photo. My most favourite websites for free stock photos are pixabay and pexels. I do use my own photos sometimes though I'm the laziest person to do that. When I use my own photos, I edit them using Adobe Lightroom on my phone or Adobe Photoshop on my laptop.

The overall process of publishing a blog post could go for a day or two, depending on my eagerness to publish it. Basically, that's all that I do to write a blog post. I hope my sharing would benefit you in any way, especially for you guys who are new to the blogosphere.

So how do you guys write your blog post?

Till then,

Lya

As I've mentioned in my 'What I Learned During RMO' post, I hate cooking. But as the only daughter in the family, I'm bound to help my mom cooks. Learning all the cookings from my mom, I can say that I'm pretty good at cooking but I never cook when I live alone. But since I live with my family during this RMO, I did cook, helping my mom. People are sharing their cookings on social media during this RMO so here are some foods that we cook;

If I haven't written on a topic for so long, I tended to search for a similar post I wrote in the past for a reference. So I searched for my past book review posts, only to find out that I've written literally only one post on a book review. I thought I wrote at least 10 for the past 5 years I've been serious in blogging, I thought I was a bookworm back then. Anyway, I finally read a book, yay!

It took me about a day to finish reading We All Looked Up (WALU) written by Tommy Wallach. I remembered the feeling of wanting to buy it right away after reading the synopsis that was so intriguing;

"They said the asteroid would be here in two months. That gave us two months to leave our labels behind. Two months to become something bigger than what we'd been, something that would last even after the end. Two months to really live."

Not to mention that the synopsis didn't match well with the cover page. I meant, the synopsis sounded depressing, but the cover page looked calm and soothing. So the book got my attention.

Plot
The book started off by telling the story of each characters' life before the news on the ending of the world. Then came a day where the world discovered a star shone so brightly and beautiful up in the sky which turned to be an asteroid that was expected to hit the Earth in two months. The book told a story of what the ending of the world affected the characters' life on love, family, friends, behaviour, routine, most importantly, of chasing their dreams. The ending of the story wasn't clear if the asteroid really hit the Earth or not but it ended with every character feeling somehow happy and relieved of the new life they're living.


Characters
I loved how the author wrote each chapter represented each character but in a mannerly, smooth storyline arrangement. I didn't know that this story was about teens of 18 years old, I wouldn't buy it if I knew since I'm actually not fond of coming of age characters. But the characters turned out written so well I'm just hooked to read and know more about them.

Peter
A typical hero of every story. He's a popular, basketball player in the school who thought his life was already planned - graduating high school, get into a sport-based university, go professional for a career, get married to his girlfriend and live a happily ever after life - until he found out that his life might not be planned that way indeed. He's a kind, determined guy who would do anything for the ones he loves, even if it meant that he must sacrifice his feeling in order for them to be happy. He's also a reliable eldest son of the family who would do anything in order to keep his family safe and happy together.

Eliza
His father was all she got and he's everything to her. She got a mom that tried to talk to her but she never answered her. She loves taking photos but keep them to herself until she decided to post them on a blog to show how the world has become when the ending of the world is coming, which made her from an invisible to a famous, lovable girl. She's so expressive of her feeling and speaks her mind blatantly even if it would hurt the other person.

Andy
A kinda spoiled kid who lives alone. Always let himself be used by his drug addict friend, Bobo but sincerely love him too. He followed Bobo everywhere and almost became exactly like him (drug addict and violent) until he became friends with Anita and Eliza - towards the end, with Peter too - where he called them his karass (a group of people somehow affiliated or linked, who have the same purpose in life). Music is in his blood, he's the one that wrote all the songs in the book which made him so much attractive and cooler than his drug addict 'friends'.

Anita
A princess in a castle where her life was controlled by her parents who expected her to excel in her studies and go to a prestigious university and brings honour to the family. She worked hard for that goal set by her parents and neglected her real dream, to become a singer until she found Andy. Her life changed.

Author
Most books that I bought, I never heard of the authors, including the author of WALU, Tommy Wallach. Turned out he's a singer-songwriter. He even wrote an entire album for WALU, it's called We All Looked Up: The Album which you can find on Spotify too! I especially loved how he included the entire album's lyrics of each song at the end of the book. I listened to the album while reading the book, especially at parts where Anita and Andy practised for their performance and during the part where they performed. Listening to the album while reading the book made the imagination on the scenes easier and clearer.

Recommendation
It's a light reading actually, of how the news of the ending of the world made the teens' life changed in only two months, which made me realized, we actually can change our life if we're determined to. But maybe we just don't want to take the risk and needed a cause for us to actually try changing our life. Reading WALU made me thinking about what I'm doing with my own life, if I ever have a dream I actually want to realize but don't have the guts to. That's a question mark, really. I recommend this book if you're into a light reading, coming of age story with a bit of nerve-racking moments.

My rating: 4/5

Some favourites from the book:

"That was what life was supposed to do, right? Just keep getting better and better?" - Peter

"The best books, they don't talk about things you'd always thought about, but that you didn't think anyone else had thought about. You read them, and suddenly you're a little bit less alone in the world. You're part of this cosmic community of people who've thought about this thing, whatever it happens to be." - Mr McArthur

"Do you think it's better to fail at something worthwhile or to succeed at something meaningless?" - Mr McArthur

"Why were adults always so obsessed with the future? It was like the present wasn't even happening." - Andy

"...do you ever worry that you're wasting your life?" - Peter

"...who's dumber? The guy who does his own thing, or the girl who does someone else's thing?" - Anita

"You don't wanna go out of this world with regrets. If there's something you want to do, you do it. You take this life by the balls and you tell it that you existed..." - Golden

"...trying to stay angry at someone you loved was like trying to keep an ice cube from melting in a cup of hot chocolate: impossible." - Anita

"Seen from the right perspective, pretty much everything looks tiny." - Eliza

Did you guys read any books during this RMO?

Till then,
Lya

As an avid music listener, my Spotify account is my life saviour. There will never be a day without me listening to my Spotify playlist, especially to help me sleep at night. I have a few playlists I've made and I usually listen to them accordingly with my mood of the day. A few days ago, I was logged out from my Spotify account and I couldn't log in back, it stated that my account never existed!

I don't know if you can relate to this, but I have a total of 5 emails I use to sign up stuff; 1) official use for my works; 2) official for my studies 3) my blog; 4) social media, online shopping, etc; 5) a backup email. The bad habit of mine, I would only check on only till the 3rd email. This is because the 4th and 5th emails I receive usually weren't that important, it was about promotions, notification on someone like my photos and stuff so it's annoying to check on 'em.

I used the 4th email for my Spotify account. Apparently, I received these emails a day before I got logged out from my Spotify, but since I didn't check on the email, I accidentally allowed them to take my Spotify account.

It's day 16 of the RMO and I saw a few people, even some of my colleagues, saying that they miss their offices, their works, their messy desks, etc which I definitely can't relate to. I'm enjoying myself being lazy at home. But I do miss the fresh air of shopping malls, tehee. Anyway, 16 days have been the longest holiday I ever enjoyed and I learned a few things;

Grateful for having a good health
I'm someone who rarely got sick, I even could go a full year without getting sick, without even having a slight fever or running nose. Even if I do get sick, it's never the kind that was bad, to the point that I couldn't get up or losing my appetite. No, I never experienced such sickness. So throughout every year, I always wished that I could get sick, wanting to experience such sickness, one of the reasons was to get medical leave from work, tehee. 

But during this Coronavirus outbreak, I realized that having good health, a good antibody is a blessing I shouldn't take granted for. A blessing I should be grateful for and I should always continue to take care of my well being. I stumbled upon this quote that made me won't have the feeling of wanting to get sick, ever again; "it's better to be poor and healthy than rich but sick"

I'm okay with not spending on unnecessary things or expensive food
I tended to spend carelessly, lavishly on food and things I don't really need. I used to hang out at shopping malls after working hours almost every day and I would spend on something every time I went out too. For examples, I bought clothes, makeup though I already have 'em, ice cream or ice blended, etc. But having quarantine, having no choice but to not go out, I found that I won't die even if I don't spend on these things and surprisingly, I rarely got cravings too. I should keep this habit even after this quarantine period is over so I could save more money!

I hate cooking

I'm staying at my parents' house during this RMO. So as the only daughter in the family, I'm obliged to help my mom cook every meal, every day. We usually have 4 meals a day - breakfast, lunch, tea time and dinner - which is already a lot, but my mom loves cooking and baking, she sometimes would bake every kind of cakes, bread, etc, and I'm the one who needed to help. So yeah, I knew this already but emphasizing this in here; I hate cooking. It's troublesome, it's hot in the kitchen, and it's tiring. Growing up helping my mom, I'm proud to say that I can cook on my own but I never cook while staying alone and I think I'm gonna stick to that, tehee.

I'm a chronic procrastinator, and that's not good!
Like I didn't know already, but I'm still shocked at what a chronic procrastinator I am. It's been 16 days already but I still procrastinate. I have tons of works to do; my office works and my Masters Study assignments but everything I put on hold till I don't know when. I remembered being motivated to not procrastinate in the early days of RMO but it seems like I failed. I should start on my works soon.

Worshipping God is the most peaceful activity to do