Whimsical.nu

Welcome to a Whimsical Blog~

Hi, I'm Angela, a girl with a blog on five different psyches:
girl, geek, reader, writer, gamer
Choose your poison ♥

Resolution finale: life in 2011

It was difficult to come up with a general, all-encompassing “life” resolution for 2011. I’m actually on the fence about the whole new year’s resolutions practice–while it is a good time to take stock of one’s life, changing for the better should be something done more often than once a year.

That said, it is fun to make lists. Lists are fabulous.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I thought of many possible life resolutions:

  1. Do something new every week.
  2. Say yes.
  3. Be brave.
  4. Challenge myself.
  5. …and so on and so forth

–but as I sat down to write about these things, I realized that these were all “pretty phrases” but I had no real way of making sure I kept to this kind of resolution, or that it was impractical to structure the resolution in order to track “progress”. Do something new every week? WHAT new thing? Can I eat ampalaya and call it my “something new” for the week? Say yes–how do I measure “yes significance”? And so on. And so I kept going back to the drawing board.

And then, I realized–I already have a good list, a list I made quite a while ago. My 30 before 30 list is the best thing to draw resolutions from. Time is running out, after all! By June 2013, I should have done 30 things. (Iknowiknowiknow, the list isn’t even complete yet. Care to suggest something? :D)

By the end of 2011, I should have crossed off 15 things from my 30 before 30 list.

Talk about hitting two birds with one stone. The things listed are all “new” things, activities that require a bit of bravery, a dash of creativity. And I’ve (just about) finished three, so that leaves me to catch up with 12 items–roughly one item per month of 2011! It’s almost as if it was made for a new year resolution list. ;)

Here’s to 2011!

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Resolution week: books in 2011

My bookshelves (click to enlarge)There was never a lack of books wherever I lived. We had plenty of books growing up, and I positively devoured them; we were fed Nancy Drew with our meals. When I moved to Singapore, I brought with me some of my books, and I’ve only recently stopped bringing even more of my books from the Philippines back here. A house without a small library of any sort is not a house, I daresay.

Of course, that pretty much means that sometimes…there were far too many books. I would see something shiny and interesting in a bookstore and oh oh oh I must have it! And thus the to-read-stack grows ever higher and longer. It’s a mix of gifts and self-buys that I haven’t been able to crack open, sometimes due to lack of time, and sometimes, admittedly, due to lack of interest.

But all of these books are beautiful in the own right! Right? For shame!

So when I was thinking of a resolution in 2011 that I could do for my book-reading, I shuffled through ideas of “read 50 books” and “read books I previously put down because I couldn’t get through it omg” which felt like any ordinary resolution. I could probably make them every year and it wouldn’t really make a difference!

And then I came across my bookshelf, my bookshelf which has one whole shelf (plus more) of books I haven’t read yet. Bingo.

Why spend more and more money buying books when I haven’t discovered all the gems that were in my own bookshelf, right this very minute? Some might not be gems after all, but they all deserve a reading. They will probably surprise me, too! They are worlds on their own and each world deserves to exist, by getting read and experienced.

*pets bookses*

And so, my booky resolution of 2011 is to read all the books on my to-read shelf before I even think of buying more books.

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Resolution week: a writing project in 2011

A pause in my workIn 2010, I set myself to start writing this story idea I had a long time ago during National Novel Writing Month. I finished–not very brilliantly, but I finished. And then, during the first week post-NaNoWriMo, I decided I wouldn’t go back to the story. Better to get out while it was early, so to speak.

Two things changed my mind:

Around the same time, I saw Amos at the office pantry and we caught up and talked about my NaNoWriMo experience. He seemed so genuinely enthused, and interested in the story, and told me stuff that I knew but needed to be reminded of, like that I just needed to have a breather and step back from the story after that mad rush. And so I told myself that I’d give myself that breather and go back to my draft.

Well, so much for that, it was December, I went back to the Philippines for a vacation, there were such a lot of things going on (including machine hiccups, like the battery bloating like a damn balloon) that I never got any writing done.

While in the Philippines though, I was browsing in Powerbooks while waiting for a couple friends when I came across this poster promoting a writer and a book: Samantha Mae Coyiuto’s Flight to the Stars and Other Stories. She was (is) 16 years old, and it was already her fourth book, having started writing since she was six.

I wasn’t very different from that girl. I started when I was seven, I also drew the illustrations for the “self-published” (read: home printer, felt paper cover = win!) short story, and I also wrote short stories. I did not have any mentors until I was well into high school, but I had the support of my family. I was happy for her at the same time that I felt a pang of regret that I let myself be sidetracked.

Because that’s what it is: I let myself be distracted by other things. Up to now, yes. It’s not anyone else’s fault but my own.

So this year, in 2011, I will pick up my NaNo novel and work with it, and get to at least a fourth draft by the end of the year. I need to stop letting distraction, and my fear of failure, to get in the way of getting this done. Is it going to be a good story? Who knows. But that’s exactly it: no one, not even me, will ever know, unless I try.

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Move forward, say yes, choose happiness.

I haven’t done a proper year-ender or new year post! (How obvious.) So I’m doing a one-week-into-the-new-year post.

My 2009 was…interesting, to say the least. I’ve been going through my journal entries starting January last year, and it’s interesting how the year has gone on, some things have been under way long before you started noticing! I’ve gone to more new places this year, re-discovered old friends and made new ones even in the unlikeliest people, and found heartache in the ones I thought I could trust. It’s a curious mix, of happiness and sadness, of boredom and stagnation and exciting new vistas. It’s bittersweet; for all the pain that’s been my share, there has always been a silver lining somewhere.

2010 is a new year, and what better way to spend it than moving forward? Things will not always fall into place, and I will get hurt, and I will cry; but this year, I will focus on moving forward, saying yes, and choosing happiness.

I will move forward: sometimes, things just don’t work out. No amount of fixing, tears, and hours spent on it works, and the only result is a lot of baggage being carried along for the longest time. I will learn from the past, and then close the book on them; I will move forward with the things that matter.

I will say yes: admittedly I saw this from a friend’s journal post, and I loved the idea. (I also realize there’s a comedy movie on this. Yes, I’ve not been watching my movies.) So many things in the past year happened only because I said yes, when it was easier and more comfortable to say no. So many good and wonderful things, I must add. So what better way to spend the new year than saying yes? (Warning: only works when the thing in question is reasonable. Lol!) I’ve started doing this consciously and it feels so liberating.

I will choose happiness: life is too short and fleeting to dwell on what hurts us.

“I find it hard to forgive.”

“What is there to forgive?” demanded Rochester. “Ignore forgive and concentrate on living. Life for you is short; far too short to allow small jealousies to infringe on the happiness which can be yours only for the briefest of times.”

(On a very random note, my room is pretty once again! Admittedly I might just be a bit attached to the new mauve bedsheet and white pillows.)

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