Life, Camera, Action by JJ Pryor

A new newsletter style

How’s everybody this week?

I had some interesting adventures myself. I finally got my bicycle fixed up—which was a challenge as I had to speak only Mandarin. But it paid off in the end—the mechanic assumed I was European.

When I asked him why he said ‘because I was too fit to be Canadian.’ (in Mandarin of course).

As someone who’s been trying to lose weight and build muscle for the last two years, you can only imagine how big my smile was after hearing this stranger say that.

And besides that, I now have a spiffy refreshed bike to roam around the outskirts of the city with. You can expect some awesome pictures of Southern Taiwan to be coming out soon.

I also wanted to play with some new styles of this newsletter, please send some feedback on what you’d like to see! (You can use the heart or comment button at the bottom of this article if you read it on Substack)

1. I’m going to include free-to-read ‘friend’ links in these articles going forward, I forgot that some people might not be members of Medium and this will let them still read the articles if interested

2. I’m listing my current hobbies (some people surprisingly asked me about them), as well as what subjects I’ll be researching and writing about in the coming weeks (Send me some feedback on what you’d like to see!)

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Popular articles I wrote lately:

Blog writing:

• 5 ways to massively improve your use of images in writing

• 100 of the most popular articles on Medium—learn from the best!

• An analysis of hidden information—how many stories are published on Medium every month?

Politics:

• A tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• 13 things you should know before the election

Weird but interesting:

• Why I just bought the most expensive healthcare plan in my life

• Some amazing ways bamboo is used in products today—even clothes!

• The 15 top-selling sports franchise video games in history

• A look at Forbes’ most powerful peoples’ fake Twitter followers

Humor:

• Why Kanye West will be the next president

• A collection of my crappy drawings from a year of learning how to draw

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Current hobbies:

• I started boxing once or twice a week this month—and had to stop after hurting my wrist like an idiot from bad form—but I’m back at it now

• Swimming—I finally got back into this hobby, I forgot how incredibly relaxing it can be, it’s almost like meditation…especially the nice hot tub soak afterward

• Biking will be (hopefully) added to this list starting this weekend, I’m looking forward to getting some sun and seeing the ocean again. Writing can be a cooped up lifestyle, I need to see some space!

• Weightlifting—I’ve been doing this regularly for the last two years, but much more serious for the last year—and based on the mechanic’s words, it’s finally starting to show off! (Losing 50 lbs of fat in the process probably helped)

Upcoming rabbit holes:

• Politics—I think I’m done with this subject after 1-2 more pieces. It’s honestly a frustrating subject to write and research about. The more I learn, the more I get depressed at the current state of the world. How did we let things come to this?

• Bamboo—If you read the article I linked above, bamboo is really starting to fascinate me—especially since Taiwan has countless bamboo forests and some beautiful wood crafters that make art out of the material. I plan on writing an extensive amount on this in the coming months.

• Personal health and fitness—I’ve been an on-and-off gym rat since I was 15, and I’ve always researched an incredible amount of material whenever I was in ‘on’ mode. The past 2 years have been no different—so I’d like to start sharing some of my learnings.

• Writing—I still don’t count myself as a writer. I always say I’m more of a collector or curator—I find legitimate information, refine it, and put it into my own voice. But if I want to be able to continue this new line of work, I definitely need to improve my writing skills (and all the marketing, etc that comes with it). So I’ll be starting a series of articles (the ‘image’ one above is the first one) on breaking down every. single. aspect. of writing online today. Hopefully, I can combine my eclectic history of business, strategy, and finance to give a fresh viewpoint on these aspects of writing.

• A book!—I’m hoping to finish my first ever book within the next month. But it’s not your usual fanfare…its an adult children’s political satire picture book. I’m working with this amazing local artist to illustrate it—and it’s chock-full of my usual dark humor.

If you like this newsletter, please click the heart symbol. They don’t result in me getting paid or anything, but it does help my newsletter get slightly more attention. And who doesn’t like feeling appreciated? I sure do.

And if you’re reading this in an email, if you click the title it will let you leave a comment.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

JJ Pryor