I went to a performance at the WestLake in Hangzhou and it was really wonderful. There were 10 songs and there were a bunch of performers and singers on the water as well as a lightshow. The show moves between each song pretty quickly and all the performers were really good. It felt as if I was watching a halftime show for the Superbowl or something. This show was originally created for the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit, but it was so well received that they continued to have the show for the general public. If you go, you may need to dress for the weather – it was pretty chilly when I watched it.

One thing that surprised me was a machine they used to add different scents during the performance. To me, it seemed like some of the scents were random, but some of them seemed to align with the music and dancing. This machine is built by Scentrealm and it is the first time I’ve used something like this before. It’ll be cool to see if adding special scents to performances will catch on in other places as well.

In August, I participated in an exercise challenge with my coworkers and some of their friends. Basically, each challenge is meant to be done for the whole month and every few days a new challenge is added on top of the existing challenges. The challenges included activities such as doing push-ups, running, reading, journaling, intermittent fasting, skin care routine, saying what you are grateful for, and more. There were also options of swapping out previous challenge activities for new ones if the previous activities didn’t make sense in your lifestyle. The activities could be done on your own and there was a discord channel with the other members where people could post progress and talk about how they are doing.

I participated for the first few activities but ended up tampering off. I chose to do push-ups and crunches, journaling, eating whole foods, writing what I’m grateful for, cold showering, and maintaining a skincare routine. I did the push-ups, crunches, and journaling pretty much every day at the beginning. However, once the eating challenge came through, I basically gave up. I already eat relatively healthy, but so many foods are not considered “whole” foods, so I just was like “forget it, I’m not doing this”. I tried picking up some of the other challenges while maintaining the exercise and journaling, but I wasn’t as consistent as before.

In general, I thought that these activities were good and it was a constructive thing to have other people doing the challenges with me to help push us to continue. I don’t think I’m much healthier than before, but it is clear that I can make new habits if I have a small push and the dedication to keep going. I would certainly encourage others to try to make new habits to lead a healthier life, but make sure that these habits are something you are actually open to doing.

I started using a rewards app called Claim, and it has been a mixed bag. Like at the beginning, there were a bunch of places that were available for getting money back, such as Chipotle, Tatte, Blank Street Coffee, and more. But now it is not so great.

The way it works is that each week you get a “drop” in which you have a choice of 3 options. After you pick one of the options, you get money back if you visit the business and make a purchase surpassing the minimum purchase mentioned in the “drop”. The “drop” also outlines how much money you can get back. You also have the option to trade your “drop” with other app users.

I was able to redeem 2 offers so far for a total of $17 dollars. However, now I only get offers for things I’m not going to redeem, either because the minimum purchase is too expensive or because the store is too far away. I’ve only used the app for a few weeks now, so I have hope that it can improve. But the good redemption opportunities seem to have dried up.