As I’m sure I’ve told you on multiple occasions, music is really important to me. There’s not a single day that goes by that I don’t listen to music.

While there are long-time favourites, I’m always on the lookout for new tunes to spin. Do you have any suggestions for me? I listen to every single genre out there. (Good music is good music, so I could never just stick to liking one genre.)

When I was in high school, I was moved the most by super-happy songs…haha, like annoying bubblegum and gumdrops…so sticky sweet and fake that they gave your ears cavities. That kind.

However, when I got older, I found that I was moved the most by melancholic songs that make me want to listen to them on a rainy evening with a glass of wine. There’s something about what I call ‘poetic wounds’ that is endearing on a deeper level.

In today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post, I’ll share with you some YouTube clips for a few songs that I’ve been obsessed with lately.

Let me know what songs you’ve been digging recently!

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A lot of the Smorgasbord Sundays posts are about me, knitting projects, some of my crushes, and even bald men!

But I wanted to turn the tables around and focus on my amazing readers.

Not only do you continue to inspire me, but the feedback you provide me with adds fuel for me to continue blogging.

Thank you for accompanying me on this journey! 🙂 I feel like I’ve learned a lot with you and from you.

Do you have a blog or a YouTube channel? Now’s your chance to put it in the spotlight right here on Swatch And Learn, and give it more exposure!

I’ll try my best to check them all out because I’d like to see what you’ve been up to! 🙂

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Are you or were you ever a nail biter?

When I was in elementary school, I used to bite my nails like something fierce. It wasn’t due to anxiety. Looking back now, I think that I picked up the bad habit from observational learning.

My older brother bit his nails all the time, and growing up, I watched him and then one day just played copycat. Before I knew it, chewing on my nails came as naturally to me as breathing.

My mother would always tell me to stop because there are bacteria and germs under your nails, so it’s very unhealthy (not to mention gross)! Sometimes she’d even literally slap my hands out of my mouth…and because I wouldn’t expect that, sometimes my jagged nails would cut my gums when she did that! Lesson learned.

In today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post, I’ll share my experiences on nail biting and also tell you how I was able to nix nail biting by the time I entered high school.

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This post was supposed to be very short and sweet, but then I ended up writing more than expected.

Today, I would like to share 3 random things that made me smile recently.

And I’d like to hear from you. What are 3 things that made you smile?

They don’t have to be physical objects like what I’m going to show in this post. It could be anything at all, such as how you kicked butt and took names on a test at school or how you got your first job.

I think it would be nice to share the small or big things that recently made us smile because they serve as a great reminder that even when times get tough, there’s always something (and someone!) to cheer us up!

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If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll know that yesterday, I celebrated my nephew’s 2nd birthday!

Yup, Berkeley is a ‘big boy’ now. 😉 (Well, his birthday’s actually on September 10, but we celebrated it a bit early.)

It was pretty cool to also see my niece, who’s a little over 3 months old. She’s so sweet and well-behaved!

My brother and sister-in-law got Berkeley a special cake – it had a Winnie-the-Pooh theme, and the cake was comprised of several cupcakes! (When I was a kid, I never had such a lavish cake, so Berkeley is really getting the red carpet rolled out for him.)

In today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post, I’ll share some photos of his cake (because geez, it’s like a work of art – talk about attention to detail!), and I’ll also briefly share some fond memories I had of my own childhood birthday celebrations.

P.S. I took all these photos with my new (and first) iPhone, so I still have a lot to learn. I’ll need to play with its camera more to improve the picture quality. But, for now, I think these are decent.

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Wow, it’s already the second day of September! Where has the time gone? *Looks under cushions* Oh, there it is. It was just playing Hide and Seek. 😉

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy Labour Day weekend. Hope that you’re having a great long weekend so far.

And it’s also that time of year – soon many students will be heading back to school! I wish you (both students and teachers) a challenging and insightful year. Hope that you learn many useful things in your classes.

I’m not going back to school. I graduated with my Psychology Honours B.A. in 2005 and began working full-time immediately after graduation.

Yet even to this day, so many people who meet me for the first time and want to get to know me better ask, “Are you a student?” or “Are you in school?”

I guess my innocent face makes me look younger. (My hair conceals those little devilish horns sticking out from the top of my head.) 😉 And they’re always surprised when I tell them that it’s been some time since I graduated from university…

In today’s Smorgasbord Sundays post, I reminisce about my university days and a ‘fight’ with a psychology professor.

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