Blogs and Stories

Here I upload my writing, be it (ir)regular blog posts, creative writing, flash fiction, or informative content. All of the thumbnail photos are pictures that I’ve taken.

Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On Taking it Easier and Letting Possessions Go

It’s nearly midnight (23:55), I’ve been moving things around all day and sorting through hundreds of books. As much as I want to continue the challenge in earnest and write out a full-length article, I also need to know when to take a break. This is one of those times when sleep and rest will take priority over getting the writing challenge completed properly. I’m still writing!

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On Not Enough Time and Routine
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On Not Enough Time and Routine

In recent years, I’ve often found myself thinking that there really isn’t enough time in the day to get everything I wanted done. I still think this. Especially now, as I find myself right in the middle of a move and paperwork. To get a task done correctly you have to focus on it, and to focus on it you need time. Each task needs its own chunk, even if multitasking.

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On Pause and Play Friends, and Changes
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On Pause and Play Friends, and Changes

I went to get my visa in Geneva today. One step closer to Japan. How thrilling! I found a lovely café in Geneva to study in and spent the morning and afternoon in a surprisingly productive studying session. I am always pleasantly blown away by how consistently I can study when I head out to a café somewhere.

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Short Sunday Blog 18.02.2024
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

Short Sunday Blog 18.02.2024

It’s officially my last week in my apartment. Over the course of the next week, I’ll be moving my things out and deep-cleaning everything to make sure that it’s in order for the next tenant. It still hasn’t really sunk in yet. This is my first apartment after moving out from my parents’ place. I’ve lived here since the end of 2020, for over three years. How time absolutely flies by.

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Short Saturday Blog 17.02.2024
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

Short Saturday Blog 17.02.2024

Consistency is key, but I think that it would be important to my general schedule if I set myself a minimum of only about one or two hundred words on the weekends for the writing challenge. Either way, I’m in the middle of a move! Or so I keep telling myself—I haven’t been doing too much about it just quite yet, since it took so long to confirm anything.

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On Slow Days and Breaking Cycles
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On Slow Days and Breaking Cycles

Today (Friday) has been a particularly slow day for me. I had and have plenty to do and a long list of things that I should have been getting to, but it just wasn’t the day for productivity. It took much longer than usual to get out of bed, and sitting at my desk and studying was suddenly a massive chore compared to how it usually goes. I could only concentrate in small bursts over the course of about 90 minutes.

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On the Internet, Access, and Knowledge
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On the Internet, Access, and Knowledge

There are innumerable posts out there critiquing the internet and its influence, and rightfully so. There are plenty of reasons that the internet is not the greatest of places to be, nor the healthiest. However, we are wont to forget the many, many positives that the internet also brings.

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On Music, Ritual, and Moderation
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On Music, Ritual, and Moderation

Music has played an integral role in my life, for all of my life. I grew up listening to my parents’ CDs during long drives that we did several times a year; the most common route being between seven and nine hours long. I had a portable cassette tape/CD player boombox that I would listen to for hours on end at home. I still remember the first CDs that weren’t my parents, but were mine*. I would often fall asleep to CDs**. Even still, music is incredibly important to me.

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On Hitting a Target, Exercise, and Stream of Consciousness
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On Hitting a Target, Exercise, and Stream of Consciousness

Note to readers from future Nick - this turned out to be a rough stream of consciousness blog post, but I’m happy with it, so I’m posting it without any edits or changes. Day three of the challenge completed, woo! A meta post that goes into exercise and my main reason for procrastination, as well as my tactics and reasons in combatting it.

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On Passion in Studies
Personal, Blog Nick ZH Personal, Blog Nick ZH

On Passion in Studies

I am currently preparing for a significant change in my life. In about a month, I will be moving to Japan and start one year of prep school. After that year, I’ll be applying to universities in Japan to pursue a further education there. Honestly, it still hasn’t sunk in that I’ll be moving halfway around the globe in a handful of weeks.

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The Itch to Write
Creative Writing, Personal Nick ZH Creative Writing, Personal Nick ZH

The Itch to Write

I find myself inevitably facing the itch to write. And yet I often find myself, equally inevitably, facing another problem: not being able to start. Needing the ‘perfect setting’ to write and not being willing to take the time and set aside a moment for myself to put my thoughts into words. It’s a problem I face with many things, though I’ve fortunately been slowly easing myself out of these habits for things like studying and exercise.

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The Best Superpower you can Develop: Adaptability
Studies, Work Nick ZH Studies, Work Nick ZH

The Best Superpower you can Develop: Adaptability

One of the greatest things that you can do for yourself is to develop your skill of adapting to new situations. There will always be some sort of curveballs life throws your way on all fronts, and being able to adapt to each one is a skill that, as the title suggests, can become a bona fide superpower. Throughout my five years experience as a freelancer, and as someone who dropped out of high school then came back and finished it five years later, I’ve learned that this becoming ‘adaptable’ is arguably the most important thing you can do for yourself, short-term and long-term.

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Short Story - “Tea with Milk”
Creative Writing Nick ZH Creative Writing Nick ZH

Short Story - “Tea with Milk”

It’s Autumn. Time has passed. It always seems to. Right as you just start to get the hang of the concept of time and your place in it, the rug’s pulled from under your feet and you have to start from scratch figuring out where you find yourself in the big, temporal scheme of things.

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「柳の木」
Creative Writing Nick ZH Creative Writing Nick ZH

「柳の木」

私の子どもの頃に、家の近くにあった川の土手で立派な柳の木が生えていた。学校の帰りによくその柳を眺めに行っていた。長い長い間その静かでいつも泣き出しそうな枝葉を、側から見ていた。

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The Willow Tree
Creative Writing Nick ZH Creative Writing Nick ZH

The Willow Tree

When I was a little girl, there was a magnificent willow tree growing on a riverbank by my house.

On the way home from school, I often went to the willow. I would spend ages looking at it. Its leaves always seemed as if they were about to cry. I always felt a certain pity for that willow tree, its leaves hanging down wistfully.

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