Friday, December 31, 2004 — New Year’s Eve
I did very little today. Basically just took care of a few things online, and watched Hong Kong film and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. I didn’t like Innocence much, though that’s mostly due to my love of the original characters from the manga, and the movie characters deviate very far from those in the manga. And I know that the director intended to deviate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop comparing the movie characters to the manga characters, and the movie characters […]
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Japanese is incredibly difficult to learn. The main problem is that it’s so completely alien. I took French for three years, and at least French is structured similar to English. Japanese is wildly different; the words are arranged in patterns that continue to confound me. Which means that it can’t be approached like a typical learning experience. What do I mean by that? Well, most educational programs try […]
December 27, 2004
Who was it who wrote that the secret of happiness lies not in having more but wanting less? It’s so true. I’ve been applying that principle to my daily dissatisfaction with my accomplishments. I tend to be frustrated with how little I get done despite the number of hours in my days. After thinking about this for awhile, I realized that I don’t define my goals well, and when I do define my goals, if […]
Friday, December 24, 2004 — Christmas Eve
I had intended to wake at 7:00 this morning, so that I could exercise and generally prepare well for the holiday. However, my recent troubles with my boss haunted me last night and kept me awake. When my alarm played “All the Way” at 7:00, I switched it off and slept for another three hours. Of course, my body undoubtedly needed it. So I finally drove up my parents’ driveway at about 11:30, carrying a platter mounded […]
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Heh. I wrote on Sunday about my bout of nausea, and my suspicion that I was having an allergic reaction to milk. It turns out that I was just getting sick; I spent Monday and Tuesday quite ill. I got back to work on Wednesday and had an incredibly bad day. I had a very unpleasant set of meetings with my boss, who basically wants nothing to do with me, rejecting all my attempts to connect with him. I was […]
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Today did not go according to plan. I woke up a little late, so I had to miss Sunday School and went straight to church. I heard another great sermon, which I won’t bore you with here. I got home and had some more of that amazing tart I made yesterday, along with a big glass of milk. Wonderful. I then sat down and worked on taxes for Otherspace Productions, and made more progress than […]
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Today did not go according to plan. I woke up a little late, so I had to miss Sunday School and went straight to church. I heard another great sermon, which I won’t bore you with here. I got home and had some more of that amazing tart I made yesterday, along with a big glass of milk. Wonderful. I then sat down and worked on taxes for Otherspace Productions, and made more progress than […]
Thursday, December 16, 2004
Accomplishments, in list form to encourage brevity: > Bought volume 4 of Gundam SEED, which came out this week. Can’t wait to find out what happens next. Very good show, even by Gundam standards. Had a productive day at work, though things are slowing down to the point that I have very little to do. Which means that I should find things to do. Stopped by my local Starbuck’s […]
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Today was a day in which I had many plans, all of which were thwarted by good works. I forgot that I promised a co-worker that I’d help her move a desk this evening. That was no problem; we hauled the desk into my truck, then chatted pleasantly in the truck as we moved it, and I ended up only spending less than an hour or so moving it. I got home and microwaved some […]
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Two writing groups in two days! Now if only I had some fiction to write. Honestly, I do have some fiction to write. I just need to extract some stories from my big fantasy world. And that’s hard. See, it’s not enough to have a big story idea. Stories live and die by the depth of the reader’s connection to the characters. If the reader cares about the characters, you can lead them through just […]