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Gurleen Deol

PB&J #36: On the 12th Day Before Christmas, I Share with Thee

Published almost 2 years ago • 3 min read

12 book/blog titles that sound wrong/funny/controversial but you know it's true

  1. Jen Kirkman: I Know What I’m Doing - and Other Lies I Tell Myself
  2. Lori Gottlieb: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
  3. Jessica Pan: Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come
  4. Malcolm Bradbury: Eating People is Wrong
  5. Andrew Warner: Stop Asking Questions
  6. Dan Ariely: The Upside of Irrationality
  7. Mark Manson: Love is Not Enough
  8. Ryan Holiday: Trust Me, I'm Lying
  9. Austin Kleon: Steal Like an Artist
  10. Robbie Abed: Fire Me I Beg You
  11. Dan Pink: The Power of Regret
  12. Tim Urban: Wait, But Why?

11 quotes with food for thought

"Don't die with your gifts still inside." (Amber Rae)
"You don't get time, you create time." (Sanhita Baruah)
"Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward." (John C Maxwell)
“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.” (Jerzy Gregorek)
"Fear erases past success and promises future failures." (Jon Acuff)
“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” (Tim Ferriss)
"I'm not a product of my circumstances. I'm a product of my decisions" (Stephen Covey)
"When you're not putting yourself out there, you're rejecting yourself by default." (Jia Jiang)
“Life’s greatest difficulties always happen right before life’s greatest breakthroughs.” (Billy Cox)
"No one can tell you what you can and can't put in your book, so be brave and just write." (Chrys Fey)
"It's not about the goal. It's about growing to become the person that can accomplish that goal." Tony Robbins

10 best shows to ever exist on Netflix

  1. DC's Legends of Tomorrow
  2. The Sparticle Mystery
  3. Designated Survivor
  4. Madam Secretary
  5. Lost in Space
  6. The Unlisted
  7. Community
  8. Travelers
  9. Manifest
  10. The 100

9 bestselling books that suck

​Here is my list as of October, 2020. Enjoy! I mean, don't enjoy these books. They're bad.

8 brands/products I can't get enough of

  1. Panera Bread - You Pick 2: Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich (warmed up), Creamy Tomato Soup, with a side of baguette, always
  2. Daiso Japan - I may have recently purchased a few too many whiteboard things there (you'll see it in sections 4 and 2 down below)
  3. U Brands - home of my original whiteboard (weekly planner) and dry-erase marker with a build-in eraser
  4. Poppin - the only brand of colorful desk organizers sitting on my desk
  5. The Container Store - do I really need to explain this? It has everything, including Poppin products!
  6. Samsung Galaxy - phone, Bixby, but really my watch has been a good investment
  7. Google Assistant - phone has it, watch has it, put Home/Nest mini speaker on my Xmas wishlist so my cousin gets a chance to buy it for me, or I will, for my birthday!
  8. Athleta - founded in the same year as Lululemon, but I had never heard of it. But now that I have, it's more my style than Lululemon, Nike, or any other popular athleisure brands

7 things I believe

  1. Pineapple belongs on pizza
  2. Pineapple belongs in fried rice
  3. Sweet potato belongs in burritos
  4. Pomegranate seeds belong in tacos
  5. Almond Joy is the best candy
  6. Android is better than Apple
  7. Guava juice belongs in milk

6 mittens on a tree

Ok, not real mittens or a real tree, but a pretty creative take on Mitten Tree Day if you ask me!

5 tortillas, as in:

There once were 5 tortillas, expired soon to be
The name of the girl was Gurleen, and she
Being Indian, just couldn't let them be
She ate two and then there were three

As in Wellerman (Sea Shanty):

There once was a ship that put to sea
The name of the ship was the Billy of Tea
The winds blew up, her bow dipped down
Oh blow, my bully boys, blow (huh)

Read, I mean, sing the rest of the tortilla song here.

4 P's handwritten by me

So yesterday I made an Instagram post and my cousin Roop asked, why do you write your p like that? Here's that post with my lowercase non-cursive p's that spell Happy. I explained my logic to her in the comments, but how come I haven't been able to find the cursive script that I learned to write? Could it be just differences in India vs US schooling, or simply too many ways to write in cursive and non-cursive? Anyway, do you write your lowercase p on 3 lines to match the uppercase one, or on 4 lines to reduce confusion?

3 confusing words in Spanish

Cebolla, caballo, cabello. Onion, horse, head hair.

Can you tell which is which?

Me neither, so I created a "20-step process" to never confuse them again!

2 gifts you didn't think your loved ones needed

  1. For the jigsaw lover, a jigsaw puzzle board that I bought my cousin for Christmas. I had no idea this was a thing, and she is never going to look at jigsaw puzzles the same again!
  2. For the writer, a whiteboard notebook that I bought for myself. I had no idea this was a thing, and I'm never buying sticky notes, memos, notepads, or other small things to write on again!

1 new client

Lastly, I got a new writing client which is exciting. We agreed on everything and then she asked to send over a contract, which is not exciting, considering I didn't have such a document. Several hours of overthinking, how-to's, and samples later, I made one and it's pretty and blue (like my website) and I guess sort of exciting. Onwards to getting that signed!

What are you excited about this holiday season?

Gurleen Deol

I read words. I write words. Sometimes I speak words. Sometimes even in other languages. Follow along for all the updates!

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