Not gonna lie… it’s been the worst month. 🥲
Car hijacking and mom’s health
A month ago, my car was broken into and hotwired. The thieves realized we had a tracker but couldn’t find it and just left the car there and escaped.
I was parked at the gym, and they got in by putting a bag over the security guard’s head and holding a gun to his head, saying they’ll shoot him if he makes a noise. They dropped him off in a field 20 minutes away. Luckily he made it back to the gym on foot safely, but I can imagine the stress he went through.
My car was not stolen but it was impossible to drive with the cut wires. It was towed and is still in repairs a month later since some car parts are taking long to arrive.
The car still isn’t back after a month because the parts from Toyota haven’t arrived yet. What a hassle!
Quick update on my mom’s cancer
My mom’s stage 4 cancer has spread into her bones and pelvis. The doctor said she has only a few months left and might not make it to Christmas. We are taking it one day at a time, trying to make the most of what really is a long goodbye.
Stolen phone, money & identity theft
On the 25th, my phone was pickpocketed from me at the mall. The thieves managed to unlock my passcode and access my PayPal and Singaporean bank account. They stole a total of $6000 from me.
To make matters worse, it didn’t stop there; they decided to hack my Instagram. As you might see, @lindiebotes no longer exists on IG. They started deleting posts one by one and eventually shut down the whole account. I can’t imagine what evil goes through someone’s mind to do this to someone else. I only expected my phone to be stolen, wiped and maybe sold, but did not expect my Facebook, Instagram and Hotmail to be hacked and completely deleted off the face of the internet. As in, my email address literally does not exist anymore and all the sites I used to log in with it don’t work.
I am still waiting for Meta to investigate so I can get my accounts back, but my hope is low. Prayers will be appreciated for getting the accounts and the $6K back. My backup IG account is @lindie.design if you want to follow me there.
Moving away from Ko-Fi to a new platform
With all this drama, PayPal blocked my account and I lost access to all my online income apart from Superpeer and YouTube. As you may know, I am a freelancer and rely on donations and coaching for my income as I’m taking care of my mom at home and not working a fulltime design job.
Previously, I hosted my language club and posted behind the scenes content on Ko-Fi. Ko-fi only supports PayPal and with all my hacking drama, PayPal blocked my account. I can no longer receive any donations or memberships or shop sales on this page.
If you feel so inclined, you can now support me and join my language clubs on Buy Me A Coffee here at Buy Me A Coffee.
Korean studies are progressing
I’m reading 니 마음대로 사세요 in Korean this month. It’s a fantastic book about questions like “why do people want expensive things?” “Are the thoughts in my head me or my brain?” “The bridge between heaven and hell is the way you think about situations” etc.
I’ll make a blog post soon about how I’m intensively reading this and learning new vocabulary at the same time, as well as how long it takes me to work through a chapter, if anyone is interested.
For now, here’s a quick video explaining my process.
Share your thoughts!