Buy some time It takes time to form a habit. Research shows that it takes 66 days to form a habit. Life is filled with ups and downs, twists and turns. How do we manage to keep a habit? I promise to keep a journal, but it's so hard! Sometimes I need to travel, and sometimes my daughter is sick, how can I buy some time to keep a journal before I am too worn out?

Job Handover Due to the personnel change, I got moved to an administrative position. However, the transitioning was not smooth at all. When I got the notice of transitioning, I went to the workplace immediately. But the previous employee was still trying to meet the deadline, and thus she told me to wait. I had been waiting, getting bored for two hours. But at the end the whole transfer took only half an hour. She didn't pass on any handover checklist, and I was still totally lost in the middle of nowhere. All I got were three post-its on which blurry handwritings trying to explain what I'm going to do in the following year. How upsetting it was! I really hope I can survive...

A letter for my daughter Dear Ning-Ning, You learned a lesson worth learning yesterday. You were learning the Rubik's cube through Youtube and had lots of fun. I saw you keep rewinding the video and spent almost one and a half hour on your Rubik's cube. But when you were almost done, the two pieces left made you frustrated and impatient. You switched those two pieces, trying to lie to yourself and make yourself feel better. But then you found out that since you tried to pretend your success, you actually changed the rule of Rubik's cube. At the end, you had to take the whole Rubik's cube apart, trying to set it right, but failed. You ended up having to buy a new Rubik's cube because you broke the original one. Seeing the frustration and tears in your eyes, I actually thought it's a good opportunity for you to learn a lesson. I'd rather you face your failure honestly and ask for help than embrace the victory dishonestly and deal with the aftermath later. Success takes time, effort and most important of all, mistakes. You need to make enough mistakes to learn the knack of success. And when you finally succeed, you can then feel truly joyful. It took you some bucks to buy a new Rubik's cube, but I think you learned a lesson that you'll never forget. For that, I congratulate you. And I hope you keep this in mind: Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. I hope I can see you wear a big smile when you solve your new Rubik's cube. Love, Mom

How to make learning a language with a tutor effective? Sometimes I find learning a language with a tutor difficult. It's hard for me to come up with discussion topics to talk about. But if I leave the tutor to guide the whole class, sometimes I don't know what direction we're going. What are some tips to really make learning a language with a tutor effective? I did a google research, and the below tips are what I found: 1. Talk with the tutor about the conversations that you'd like to dive into. For example, in the hospital, how to comfort people whose pets just passed away. 2. Picture describing. Try to pick a picture or several pictures from the magazine and talk about the pictures. In that way, you can learn some words that you're not familiar with and possible conversations that might take place under the circumstances. 3. Pick a textbook with the tutor, and go along with the different topics in the textbook. The above are several suggestions from google, do you have more advices? Thanks for your corrections and comments in advance.

Why "until" is unacceptable in this case? It became the celebration that leads up to Shrove Tuesday. During the celebration, people enjoy themselves one last time __before__ the fasting begins. Why __until__ is unacceptable in this case? Thanks a lot for your reply!

What does this sentence mean? I'm reading a phonics reader to my kids. I find the following sentence a bit confusing. Could someone kindly help me with it? "Pete the Cat is bananas for bananas." Does it mean Pete just likes bananas? Also, a phrase from the transcript of "Friends" A line is a bit confusing. "Monica: Wait! We're talking about someone I'm going out with?" "Rachel: That pimento trick!" "Chandler:I'll never look at an olive the same way again." I don't quite get where these sentences are coming from. Could you also help me with them? Thanks a lot!

Which one is correct? Dear all, which one of the following two sentences is correct? Or both are correct? "I believe this can give them clearer ideas of what their next step should be." "I believe this can give them clearer ideas of what their next steps should be." Thanks a lot!

American Sit-Com I've reviewed a famous American sit-com "Friends" recently. Every episode is half an hour long. The first time I saw the episode, I understood about 75% of the show. Then I read the transcript, looked up the slangs or expressions which I didn't understand on the internet, and went back to see the show for the second time and the third time. Sometimes maybe four or five times. The whole process was time-consuming. However, I find it enjoyable. The conversations in the sit-com are nothing like those I learned from the textbooks. Hopefully, I can fully understand why laughters appear after certain lines one day!

A Bad Day! I had a bad day today! I sprained my ankle when I took my boy to the daycare center. The pain was originally tolerable, but then it became so excruciating that I needed to see a doctor. It was so inconvenient with one foot not being able to function. I am worried how I'm going to cook later when all the kids come back from school and daycare later. Maybe I should just get some food-to-go from some restaurants and really let my foot rest a bit.