'FESS UP FRIDAY | Progress

I actually managed to bang out a few words this week. There is some forward motion on the story. I'm finally getting to the bit of the story where we meet Charlie's sister—the reason why Charlie and her father are no longer on speaking terms.

I didn't know quite how to handle the story behind Charlie's sister. The sister is a late addition to the story. At one point I thought she would be alive. Later I decided she would be dead but influencing the characters as a ghost (I have a gothic sensibility). I changed my mind once more – decided I wanted to try something more realistic. So now she's just dead. Her story will be told through Charlie's memory. This means flashbacks.

For a last minute addition, this character has quite a few changes.

Does anyone wonder how characters really come about? Do we write them, or have they actually been sitting in the dark recesses of our imagination for a long time – until the day we finally set words on the page, and they manifest themselves?

I haven't planned on creating Charlie's sister—but now her coming into the story adds a new theme of family.

I've been re-reading parts of Laurie R. King's With Child, to study how she weaved the intermittent flashbacks so seamlessly into her narrative. It is a joy anyway to re-read any Laurie R. King novels.

It's also amazing how you have been reading novels for so many years of your life, but it isn't until you sit down to try to write one—that you really start paying attention to how things are structured.

I wrote a fair amount of personal "essays" this week. But re-reading them, they feel more suited as journal entries. This is the real reason I write - not because I want to be published, but because putting things down in words sometimes help me sort out my thoughts.

Still reading Bird by Bird slowly.

Practiced yoga 3 times this week. I attended two Hotflow classes and practiced a bit of the Shadow Yoga poses in the morning, with some core-work.

I am so out of shape.

A Quick Post Because I Can't Sleep

I have to be out of the office the whole day today. It's for the new company project. Everyone is barely able to cope with the new project on top of our usual workload. We are not totally happy with how things are right now.

Sometimes you just wonder about the mental capacity of upper management. They make decisions that affects everybody - yet they do not listen.

It's 3am right now and I can't sleep. So, just a quick post on the proofs and review copies I picked up from work yesterday.

1. The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works.

   I know who to blame for this one. :)

   Emerson in bite-size. Okay, sounds comfortable.

2. The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism, by Geoff Nicholson

   Again, I know who are the two people to blame for this one.

3. Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, by Guy Delisle

   It's a graphic novel. It's not new. My boss has it at his desk for ages. He finally realises he's never going to read it anyway, so he passed it on.

Perhaps after I finish reading them, I shall set them free.

It's never good to hoard gifts.

Still Trying

First, a big thank you to everyone who wished me luck on the interview yesterday. It's done - and I think it went well. They will decide if I am the person they want for the job.

So now we wait.

There is a good chance I might not accept the offer, unless they offer better terms. It is comforting to be in the position to choose our jobs. Many people don't have that choice.

In case anyone has noticed, I haven't been as active with my comments on everyone's blogs lately. I'm still reading your blogs, but lurking more. A new company project suddenly landed on our lap and the workload just multiplied. This - and some pretty lousy directions - is stressing me a little. And our boss assured us it's going to get worse.

So, apologies in advance if I don't reply to your comments as fast as I used to.

I'm still:

1. Trying to wake up at 5am.
2. Trying to get to bed by 10pm.
3. Trying to meditate twice a day (morning and night)
4. Missing the night meditations, because I'm usually tired from having to wake up at 5am
5. Trying to come back to a regular yoga practice.
6. Trying to write something for Novel-In-Progress.
7. Trying to read everyday.

Most of all, trying to keep sane under all the pressure. It's manageable. Imagine that. A few years ago I would probably be throwing things around the office.

The stress management was done while listening to a lot of Sleater-Kinney.

Didn't Manage to Finish Quest the Second for OUT II

Where did the time go? I started pretty well with the Once Upon a Time II challenge and finished Quest the First. I decided to jump in and try for Quest the Second instead.

Turns out I was side-tracked and there's only 10 more days to the end of the challenge and I know I'm not going to make it.

Still, I did finally manage to finish The Prydain Chronicles after all these years. And I discovered Terri Windling and Patricia A. McKillip.

I'm going to throw in the towel and say I didn't manage to finish Quest the Second.

I think I'm done for challenges this year. I obviously suck at keeping to any schedule.

From Scientific American, research has shown a link between writing (and by extension blogging) and improved memory, better sleep, bettero immune cell activity and even faster healing after surgery (damn, I should have been writing instead of reading so much) [via Yogamum ]

Flaherty, who studies conditions such as hypergraphia (an uncontrollable urge to write) and writer’s block, also looks to disease models to explain the drive behind this mode of communication. For example, people with mania often talk too much. “We believe something in the brain’s limbic system is boosting their desire to communicate,” Flaherty explains. Located mainly in the midbrain, the limbic system controls our drives, whether they are related to food, sex, appetite, or problem solving. “You know that drives are involved [in blogging] because a lot of people do it compulsively,” Flaherty notes. Also, blogging might trigger dopamine release, similar to stimulants like music, running and looking at art.

Perspective

Recall that time when I mentioned writing a resume? Well, the dice have been casted: The interview is scheduled for tomorrow.

I'm oddly nonchalant about it. I just think if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. My whole life has been spent chasing after things - and losing them because I wanted them too much.

Let's learn to take a step back and try to retain some perspective.

Check It Out

Jeanette Winterson's website has a new look.

Playing On the iPod this Weekend?

"It's insulting to call Sleater-Kinney the best female rock band in the world when they're one of the best rock bands, period." ~ The New Yorker

When you can't watch them "live", Youtube is an alternative - albeit a poor substitute. It must really be something else to watch them in concert. I would have loved to watch Carrie Brownstein rocking the stage like a Guitar God.

[The Crystal Ballroom. Sleater-Kinney's final concert, performing "One More Hour"]

[Sleater-Kinney performing "Jumpers" on The Henry Rollins Show]

[MTV for "Entertain"]

Just found: Tiny Suns Infused With Sour: All the latest news about the ex-members of Sleater-Kinney...

Joined I Miss Sleater-Kinney on Facebook

Heh. It was meant to be:

You Know Yer Indie. Let's Sub-Categorize.

You're a Riot Grrl. You love the rockin' sound of loud women, and rightfully so. You're probably an activist of some sort. And yes, you're right, not all Riot Grrls are lesbians. Just most.
Take this quiz!



Quizilla | Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Five In the Morning

I've just set my alarm clock to ring at 5:00 am.

Three years ago I started waking up at five in the morning. My day would start with fifteen minutes of sitting meditation, sixty minutes of yoga, preparing lunch to pack to work, shower, a bit of reading if time allows. Starting the day this way forces me to keep awake by the time I get to work. The most positive side of it was the sense of structure to my previous trainwreck existence. Often I find myself with less free time, but it felt like a great trade-off. Maintaining the morning schedule was difficult though. There were morning when I just slept in until seven.

Last year I was going through a terrible period of insomnia. I could only fall asleep at four or five in the morning. Waking up at 5 am was no longer an option, since I still went to work as usual with barely two hours of sleep the night before.

The insomnia lasted several months - it only improved earlier this year. But there are still nights when I just could not fall asleep.

These days I rarely pack lunch to work. I wake up at seven. I stopped practicing and meditiating in the morning. I sleep late.

It feels like my life has lost its previous focus. It feels like I have fallen behind on my own life.

So, let's start again, shall we? From where I am right now.

LAMOTT | "The act of writing turns out to be its own reward"

But I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all that it is cracked up to be. But writing is. Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises. That thing you had to force yourself to do—the actual act of writing—turns out to be the best part. It's like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.

~ Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Sounds like yoga to me.

'FESSED UP FRIDAY | Don't Break the Chain

Recently, I crawled out of the rock where I live and stumbled on Lifehacker.

Since I discover it, I have been going back for more tips on how to organise my computer and maybe even my life. But one of the most interesting and relevant tip I found this week is the little friendly advice Jerry Seinfeld offered on how to motivate yourself to write everyday. He used the technique on himself, and it seems to work for him, so I'm going to post it here:

He revealed a unique calendar system he uses to pressure himself to write. Here's how it works.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

It works because it isn't the one-shot pushes that get us where we want to go, it is the consistent daily action that builds extraordinary outcomes. You may have heard "inch by inch anything's a cinch." Inch by inch does work if you can move an inch every day.

Daily action builds habits. It gives you practice and will make you an expert in a short time. If you don't break the chain, you'll start to spot opportunities you otherwise wouldn't. Small improvements accumulate into large improvements rapidly because daily action provides "compounding interest."

Skipping one day makes it easier to skip the next.

I've often said I'd rather have someone who will take action—even if small—every day as opposed to someone who swings hard once or twice a week. Seinfeld understands that daily action yields greater benefits than sitting down and trying to knock out 1000 jokes in one day. [ Source ]

This is a technique that actually works. I realise I have been using this method to track my yoga practice.

I have a moleskine diary that I use to keep track of my appointments. I also record the details of my yoga classes inside, so if I went for class today, I will note down, for example: 7pm, Power I, Michelle.

Since I open the diary everyday, at a glance I can see how frequently I practice every week. This has helped me maintain a 5~6 times a week practice for the past year.

It works.

______________________________________________________________

Report on things done last week:

1. Finished reading Comfort Me With Apples. I love how Ruth Reichl can relate food and life experiences so seamlessly. One of the best thing she wrote in the book was that writing about food alone is boring - it is everything else around that makes it interesting.
2. Followed someone's advice and started reading Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird.

______________________________________________________________

The Literate Kitten's link to all 'Fess Up Friday-ers. Or FUFers.

Meme of Fives

The rules:

1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read the player’s blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What were you doing five years ago?

I think that was when I knew I was serious about yoga. I quitted my gym and went looking for a place that teaches yoga exclusively and properly. Other than that, I was pretty much learning how to pick up after myself. Much like what I am still doing today.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?

1. Must write something for my novel-in-progress.
2. Must iron work-clothes.
3. Must buy the magazines reserved for me.
4. Must start researching for New York trip
5. Cook and pack lunch for work

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Berries: Blueberries. Raspberries.
2. Danish butter cookies
3. Goat cheese on crackers.
4. Nuts. All sort: Almonds, Walnuts, Hazelnuts.
5. Cherries. Or any other small fruits that you can pop into your mouth.

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?

1. Buy a house and stock it with beautiful bookshelves for all my books.
2. Finally adopt a doggie and love it lots lots
3. Quit my job. Read and practice yoga full-time.
4. Open a cafe where my friends can hang out, and I can kick out asshole customers when they disrespect my staff.
5. Vagabond around the world until the day I decide to stop. That's when I will settle down and open that cafe

What are five of your bad habits?

1. Swearing. Alot.
2. Surfing the net obsessively
3. Procrasinating. Alot.
4. Narrow-mindedness. Yes, it's a habit. And like all bad habits you can kick it if you make an effort.
5. Bad temper

What are five places where you have lived?

I've lived in the same place my whole life.

What are five jobs you’ve had?

1. Cashier
2. Secretary (okay, I was a glorified clerk) in a French Bistro. I actually liked this job. Too bad the restaurant closed down
3. Relief Teacher (Hated this job.)
4. Buyer for a bookstore
5. Full-time student of the world

Sorry. Not going to tag anyone. Feel free to pick this up if you wish.

Travelers without visas will soon register before U.S. trip

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States said Tuesday that it will require visitors who are allowed to enter the country without visas to register biographical details online at least three days before they travel.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who announced the changes, said they will help the United States boost the security of its visa-free travel program by allowing the government to screen visitors before they travel. Currently, visitors fill out paper forms en route and are screened by U.S. customs agents upon arrival.

The U.S. will begin implementing the changes in August, Chertoff said. Online registration will be mandatory for all visa-free travel by Jan. 12.

[Full story here ]

As far as I know, there is supposed to be a visa reciprocity agreement between the different countries. There are currently 27 countries whose citizens are not required to obtain visas for U.S. entry, including those in most of western Europe as well as Andorra, Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. Eight other countries — among them the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Korea — are expected to be admitted to the visa waiver program.

I understand the security concerns here, and registering online would definitely be a lot more convenient than having to queue at the embassy for a visa. But what makes this new policy "safer"? What is to stop potential terrorists from registering false personal information? And say, you forget to register 3 days before you fly into the US? What then?

Why is this interesting to me?

I hope to make a short trip to New York later this year. I just hope I don't get myself screwed over by sudden changes in visa policies.

Say, anyone has recommendations for places (not too expensive please) to check out when I'm in New York? Quirky bookstores or vegetarian-friendly restaurants that I must visit?

Battlestar Galactica Season 1-3 Recap

A hilarious 8 minutes recap for everyone who asks: What the frak is Battlestar Galactica?

[Thanks: Galactica Sitrep]

Yet Another Post Where I Give My Opinion About Something that Matters Only to Myself

The results on the 2008 Afterellen Hot 100 poll have been announced. The Afterellen poll is a response to the various "Hottest Women" listing by magazines, such as Maxim and FHM. The criteria for these Hottest Women as chosen by the gentlemen often seem to ignore important traits like intelligence, charisma, talents or class. The results in these magazines often baffles the women themselves.

So, the women at Afterellen has decided to do their own poll, voted for by their readers - not necessary bisexual or lesbian - though a lot of them are. As they call it: "The sexiest women, according to women."

I am glad to see Tina Fey as #1 for 2008. She is the embodiment of smart, funny and classy in the right package. Tina Fey would never make it to the Maxim Hottest Women listing of course, but I'm glad the sisters see things differently.

Lena Headey, Ellen Page and of course the awesome Lucy Lawless made it to Top 20 (Yay!). But I'm also glad to see two of my new favourite actresses make it to this year's Top 100: #47. Marnie Alton (on the left in the picture below) and #80. Michelle Paradise (right, seated, in the picture below) - from Exes & Ohs.

I am thrilled Marnie Alton made it to Top 50. She is an incredibly endearing actress (and she has great muscle tone. Really. It's muscle tone that can play Wonder Woman.) It's women like her that makes me want to move to Canada.

Now this is the part where I am outraged:

ONLY #80? Michelle Paradise wrote, starred in and produced her own TV series. How many people can claim to have done that? She is smart, funny in a warm, unassuming manner, speaks French (a very sexy language) and has a Masters in Comparative Literature. She also used to run marathons, she's learning to play the drums and she's Capricorn (I'm not sure how that's relevant, but I know this about her.)

If Tina Fey deserves to be #1, Michelle Paradise at least deserves a Top 50 ranking.

Why Read Herodotus, Why Travel?

Herodotus, however, besides being the first reporter, was also the first “globalist.” Fully aware of how many cultures there were on Earth, he was eager to become acquainted with all of them. Why? He believed that the best way to learn about your own culture is by familiarizing yourself with others. For your culture will best reveal its depth, value and sense only when you see how it is reflected by other cultures, which can shed the best, most penetrating light on your own, and thereby help you understand it best by yourself.

What did he accomplish with his comparative method of confrontation and reflection? Well, Herodotus taught his countrymen modesty, tempered their self-conceit and hubris, their belief in their superiority and arrogance toward non-Greeks, towards all others. He told them, “You think that the Greeks created gods? No. As a matter of fact, you've appropriated them from the Egyptians. You say your structures are magnificent? Yes, but the Persians have a far better system of communication and transportation.”

Thus Herodotus tried by means of his reportage to consolidate the most important message of Greek ethics: restraint, a sense of proportion and moderation.

~ Ryszard Kapuscinski, Herodotus and the Art of Noticing

Asparagus Love

But what delighted me were the asparagus, steeped in ultramarine, and pink, whose tips, delicately, painted, with little strokes of mauve and azure, shade off imperceptibly down to their feet--still soiled though they are from the dirt of their garden bed--with an iridescence that is not of this earth. It seemed to me that these celestial hues revealed the delicious creatures who had merrily metamorphosed themselves into vegetables and who, through the disguise of their firm, edible flesh, disclosed in these early tints of dawn, in these beginnings of rainbows, in this extinction of blue evenings, the precious essence that I recognized again when, all night long following a dinner at which i had eaten them, they played, in farces as crude and poetic as a fairy play by Shakespeare, at changing my chamber pot into a jar of perfume.

~ Marcel Proust, Swann's Way [translated by Lydia Davis]

Asparagus inspires gentle thoughts.

~ Charles Lamb

Upcoming on Battlestar Galactica

Promo clip for Battlestar Galactica episode, "The Hub". They finally unboxed D'Anna.

I bow at the awesome badass-ness that is Lucy Lawless.

Link

"She celebrates the everyday by making it seem momentous"

"She can make you taste things just by writing about them, but that's not the point. She actually makes you pay attention to your next meal, feel more alive because you're doing that. When you read her you understand that you need to respect yourself enough to focus on the little things of life. She celebrates the everyday by making it seem momentous."

~ Ruth Reichl talking about M.F.K. Fisher [Comfort Me With Apples]

Books & Reading for May 2008

For the past month I've been meddling with the items on my sidebar. I've shifted some items onto my Wordpress blog, which has been renamed Dark Orpheus’ Reading of Notes. (What is it with me and pretentious blog names?)

I have decided to keep a closer eye on my reading habits by keeping a monthly records - on the number of library titles I check out, how many I actually get around to reading/completing, how many books I buy each month.

Why do we do things like this? Keep track of our books and readings?

Who knows?

My Books & Reading Records for May 2008:

Library Books Borrowed:

1. Tender at the Bone • Ruth Reichl


2. Amber and Ashes (The Dark Disciple Volume 1) • Margaret Weis


3. Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape of the American West • Rebecca Solnit


4. We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction • Joan Didion


5. The Making of a Chef • Michael Ruhlman


6. The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen • Jacques Pépin


7. White Slave: The Autobiography • Marco Pierre White


8. Library at Night • Alberto Manguel


9. Twenty-eight Artists and Two Saints: Essays • Joan Acocella


10. Last Rituals • Yrsa Sigurdardóttir


11. The Reach of a Chef • Michael Ruhlman


12. The Art of Eating • M.F.K. Fisher


13. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone • Deborah Madison


14. Comfort Me With Apples: Love, Adventure and a Passion for Cooking • Ruth Reichl


15. The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn • Solomon Volkov [Translated by Antonina W. Bouis]


16. Other Colors: Essays and a Story • Orhan Pamuk [Translated by Maureen Freely]

Books Started:

• Tender at the Bone • Ruth Reichl
  [09/05/2008 ~


• Amber and Ashes (The Dark Disciple Volume 1) • Margaret Weis
  [09/05/2008 ~


• Red Bird • Mary Oliver
  [23/05/2008 ~


• Kitchen Confidential • Anthony Bourdian
  [27/05/2008 ~


• The Making of a Chef • Michael Ruhlman
  [27/05/2008 ~


• Last Rituals • Yrsa Sigurdardóttir
  [29/05/2008 ~


• Library at Night • Alberto Manguel
  [30/05/2008 ~


• Comfort Me With Apples: Love, Adventure and a Passion for Cooking • Ruth Reichl
  [31/05/2008 ~

Books In Progress:

• The Surgeon's Mate • Patrick O'Brian
  [18/04/2008 ~
  bookmarked at p268


• Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics • Rebecca Solnit
  [26/04/2008 ~


• The Prisoner and the Fugitive • Marcel Proust
  [translated by Carol Clark & Peter Collier]
  [08/05/2008 ~

Books Completed:

• Tender at the Bone • Ruth Reichl
  [09/05/2008 ~ 26/05/2008]


• Checkmate: Fall of the Wall • Greg Rucka, Joe Bennett & Chris Samnee
  [18/05/2008 ~ 18/05/2008]


• B.P.R.D. Killing Ground • Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis
  [18/05/2008 ~ 18/05/2008]

Books Bought:

1. Alice Water and Chez Panisee • Thomas McNamee


2. Gardening at the Dragon's Gate • Wendy Johnson


3. Red Bird • Mary Oliver


4. Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller • Judith Thurman


5. The Landmark Thucydides • Edited by Robert B. Strassler


6. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You • Brian K. Vaugh, Georges Jeanty & Joss Whedon


7. B.P.R.D. Killing Ground • Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis


8. Checkmate: Fall of the Wall • Greg Rucka, Joe Bennett & Chris Samnee


9. Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit • Robert Macfarlane