Blogging Frustration

I’m writing this because I’m frustrated and thinking if I’m the only one who’s experiencing blog problem or more importantly, if I have done something wrong!

Lately, I mean for the last 2 weeks of more, there were few blogs which I was no longer able to get connection or “operation aborted” message will pop up as soon as I try to leave comments. This happened both at home and at work.

I’m asking fellow bloggers:

- If you have the same problems?

- Are there any ways to fix this?

I’m sorry to bother you with this as my computer knowledge is fairly limit and with problems like this, I don’t really know to whom I should ask.

Any advice is much appreciated.

I Salute You, Artists!

I’m writing this as my tribute to all the artists who visit this blog. So hear me out!

I’m now in the midst of revising STOS # 1 and the first thing I picked up was the need to kill off / delete almost 3 pages writing of a character. I had no problem with that as upon completion of the draft of the story, I knew that that character was of no use to my story.

As anyone of you who use computer, you know that to delete something is pretty easy. You just hit that little square which marked "delete" on your keyboard and whatever you want to go will disappear. Now, what if you want it back? Easy, especially if you’re like me – storage paranoia, you would have saved the original on a separate file. Anytime you want it back, you just call up the file and there it is. No sweat! And there is the magical "cut and paste" function which enables us to move text and / or images around the document in seconds. So all in all, we’re cruising.

Now, pardon me for my absolute ignorance of doing any art and craft work. I’m sure there must be ways and techniques that you could cover up whatever "wrongs" an artist find in h/her artwork. But by the large, a piece of artwork (unless you go for computer art, I guess) is a one-off done by hand project. If you decide to take out something after the painting is done, you might need to start from scratch.

Just like when I learn knitting from my mother as a young girl, I missed stitches all the time. By the time when I saw the hole made by missing stitches, I would have done 10 rows of knitting. Mum would make me undone all the rows back to the missing stitches to fix it. I always protest.

"No, I’m not going to do it all over again. I’d rather have holes in my scarf!"

"As you wish." Mum would answer.

And I ended up wearing scarf with lots of holes.

Same here with artworks - imagine the time and effort to work on a painting over and over again. Ah, I can’t bear to think about it! And to avoid such situation, I presume an artist will need to be extremely careful of each brush stroke. This would create huge pressure and impact on the free flow of creativity.

I'm beginning to realize that may be my work, as a writer, in certain way, is easy. I mean, unless I dislike my story to the maximum, I never have to start from scratch after the draft is finished.

So all of you artists out there, you have my absolute admiration!

I'd love to hear from all types of artists about how you fix your project as this will make me feel good about my work! ;)

(And you're right, I'm writing this instead of rewriting STOS # 1 ... I'm procristinating ...!!!)

Thinking Spots and Special Bookcase

Every creatives require a special space for their creative projects. It could be a room, a table or your bed. Eric Maisel also promotes the idea of having a "Thinking Spot" and a "Special Book Case" installs along side the creative place.

Thinking spot is the place where, obviously, you do your thinking, reading, musing & dreaming about your creative projects. Maisel emphasizes that this is different to your actual creative space. And then you’ll also need a Special Bookcase which holds all the books or objects which support your current creative project.

When I read this, I was stunned. Not because of his ideas but of my own total "ignorance" of it. Let me explain this to you.

I write my stories mostly at home. To establish my writing space, I converted the dining room into my writing room. It was completed with 3 books cased filled with my favourite fictions and an L-shape table to hold my laptop and printer etc. But it never occurred to me that I need a place to think and a place to hold items which related to my current writing projects. I mean I was absolutely oblivious of it.

I began to wonder where I did my thinking and where did I put my books and objects fro my creative projects.

Thinking Spots:

I notice there are a few spots which prompt me to think. One is when I’m in my morning shower. With no extra effort, my current writing project would pop up in my mind and I would think about it til I step out from the shower. The other one is from my walk with Pepper, my dog. Again I don’t have to summon it, the story would just come and go in flashes. There is one odd spot I use but not very often. Sometimes I like to sit in my car (stationary), roll up the window to shut out noises and think. Otherwise, I don’t really think about my stories outside of the daily writing session. As soon as I write the last sentence of that day’s work, there seems like a curtain comes down in my mind and that’s it. The story is gone.

Special Bookcase:

It’s pretty much my night table and my bag. In between my day job and my writing projects, I mostly read around bedtime and at lunch time. I do keep a stack of reference books like dictionary, how to books etc. They are scattered on my writing table together with a few found objects related to my current writing project.

So I do have my spots, but they are spread in different places and corners. Nonetheless, I still like Maisel’s idea of having that central place to focus on thinking and dreaming. I might re-arrange my writing space for these places.

What about you? Do you have one or more thinking spots and special bookcase?

Mini Canvas

Two week’s ago I went to a local art shop to get some craft materials to prepare for the upcoming "Wreck This Journal" programme. (For details, please check here.) I saw this miniature canvas while making payment at the cashier. It brought me back to a writing tip which I learn from both Anne Lamott and Eric Maisel but only truly understood it lately.

In her book "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life", Lamott talks about the idea of short assignment. She uses the one-inch picture frame she put on her desk to explain it.

"It reminds me that all I have to do is to write down as much as I can see through a one-inch picture frame. This is all I have to bite off for the time being."

Maisel promotes a similar idea in "The Creativity Book: A Year’s Worth of Inspiration and Guidance." He calls it "chunking."

"A chunk is a manageable bit of writing …"

I always get overwhelm feelings when I begin writing a story. And one of the things which got me is the fact that I have x amount of words to get to the ending. No matter how many words I got written in a writing session, I would always say to myself: but I still have x amount to go. With such mentality, no wonder there have been so many unfinished stories in my files. My panic button is turned on 24/7. All I could see is the gigantic Mount Everest sixty million miles away and I was blind to the little route in front of me.

To have this tip worked for me, not only I needed to focus on the immediate writing task, I also needed to be totally present and forgetful the same time. The presence is the total emerging in the scene that I’m creating and to forget about what will happen next. By doing that I’m making the task small, hence manageable. And if I started to panic or worry, I just told myself that all I had to do was to finish the daily 200 words count or just finished this bit where the man was arguing with his wife. And then I could leave the story, go and enjoy a cup of Chai Latte til the next "chunk".

Fellow writers and creatives, what about you? Do you practice chunking on a mini canvas?

BTW, the mini canvas was so cute, I just have to have it! :)

Interview Meme

Can you believe this? Jamie Ridler decided to interview me and I just got the interview questions! I must be a very important blogger and talented writer.

Are you beginning to shake you head and wondering what the hell is Hybrid J up to? O.K. O.K. I’m telling you the truth. I joined an interview meme by leaving comments to Jamie’s own interview done by Michelle Ward of When I Grow Up Coach & Danielle LaPorte of White Hot Truth .

Here is the interview rule:

* leave me a comment with your email address saying: “interview me”* I will e-mail you five questions of my choice

* you can then answer the questions on your blog {with a link back to my blog}

* you should also post these rules, along with an offer to interview anyone else who emails you, wanting to be interviewed

* anyone who asks to be interviewed should be sent 5 questions to answer on their blog

* it would be nice if the questions were individualized for each blogger

Jamie’s questions for me:

What’s quality do you just love about yourself?

Resilient – Life has thrown me some real difficult challenges over the last 10 years or so. Those who knew me in person all said that if they were in my shoes, they would have given up and basically lied down to die. I had survived it all on my own without much outside help. I still don’t know how I got through.

The strongest memory I had of that period was of me standing alone somewhere, taking all the punches and waited for it to finish. Giving up or running away was never an option. It never entered my mind.

If you could meet one person this week, anyone at all, who would it be?

I’d love to meet Gerard, the protagonist of my last writing project, STOS # 2. I want to know him better so that I could do a proper rewrite of his story when it’s time to do the revision.

What did you dream of when you were a little girl?

I dream of living in the world’s largest library and have a full team of servants to care for my daily needs while I just read and read and read.

What’s currently on your night table?

What’s something you want to be sure to do in this life time?

To help all the untold stories inside of me see the light of the world.


O.K. fellow bloggers, who wants to be interviewed? Leave a comment with your email address or email me at hybridj@gmail.com. I’ll prepare you 5 questions. Come on, join the fun!

How Do You Start A Story?

I’ve started STOS # 3 last week, and it appeared, I mean literally, in front of me during the period when I was working on the ending of STOS # 2.

Before telling you exactly how it happened, I need to tell you a little bit more about me. Because of how I become easily engross in my own thinking and to conserve mental energy for creative purposes, I do a lot of daily things from habit. Such as walking Pepper, my dog, I always follow the same route. This route is the street opposite to my house.

For this particular Saturday morning about three weeks ago, I was trotting happily behind Pepper while my mind was gradually warming up to the final scene of STOS # 2. All of a sudden I came to a halt in the middle of a small parking area at the end of my street. I looked around and realized Pepper had led me across the road to the other side of street. Because it was a Saturday morning, there was no car parked in the area. I was annoyed of what had just happened and told Pepper that he was a bad boy. I was pretty sure Pepper understood me but instead of expressing his guilt by flapping his ears back, he dragged me to the direction of a huge eucalyptus tree.

I remembered this tree. It gave me a story idea which I wasn’t sure if it was suitable for STOS. However, I have included it in the series and thought I would come to it when I finish writing up all the others. “No!” I looked up to the ancient branches. “No way!” I told Pepper. He was pissing at the tree. And then I saw this long single branch lying on the pavement not far away. I looked at it and looked at it. A jolt hit my body and my mind screamed: “That’s it. That’s your STOS # 3! And you are to bring the branch home.”

Looking at the branch again, I reckoned it was almost doubled my height and the walk back home took about 30 minutes. Plus I was with Pepper, who always managed to “walk” me instead. I shook my head and walked away. But it only took me 5 steps before the branch summoned me back. A voice in my head said: “The tree wanted its story to be told.” I had no choice but to carry the branch on my shoulder and had Pepper walk me home.

The branch is now standing next to the door of my living room and I’ve been listening to its whisper ever since…

P.S. Yes, that’s “The Branch” in the photo.

The Writer's Notebook

This has become one of the must have and must write about topic for writers and possibly to all creatives as well. So I’m jumping onto the bang wagon and write a post about it.

When I was a lot younger and first started to write, no one ever told me that I would need to keep notes. During that stage, most of my writing was about what was happening in my life. It was more like journal writing, hence no notes were ever needed.

It was the time when I started uni and took up writing seriously that I was told the importance of keeping a notebook. I became obsessed about carrying one at all time and made sure I had one in each room of my house. And to make sure that I was a "real" writer, I made loads and loads of notes in all the notebooks. After awhile, I realized that I was writing down notes for the notebook’s sake as well as to satisfy my vanity. I imagined people being impressed by my writing attire. The note writing took precedent to writing stories!

After this realization, I made a careful study of my notes in relation to my writing projects. The discovery was astounding. As I was never into pre-planning a story, it only made sense that I jotted down notes while I was actually writing the story. Those "notes" in the notebook was more like a to-do-list or a reminder of what sort of research I needed to do for the writing projects. Story ideas and story writing never landed in the notebooks at all!

I know that lots of writers would grab their notebooks, go out say to a shopping mall and write down their observations. I admire greatly to writers who do this. In my case, I don’t really do that or I may have done it but not on a conscious level. I tend to soak up my surroundings and recall the experience and observation when needed.

At present, I’m still keeping a notebook in my bag out of habit and to satisfy the natural worry-er in me. (You know, the "just in case" theory.) But I found the most convenient notepad is the index card. I learn this from Anne Lamott, author of "Bird by Bird – Some Instructions on Writing and Life", which is one of my favourite books on writing. These cards are small and easy to store. Like when I walk my dog, I just get 2 or 3 of the index cards, fold them in half plus a pen, stuff them in my jean’s pocket and off I go. I also keep 2 in my purse.

All of these notes taking business also reflect the way I write my stories. Before computers became affordable to most people, I relied on paper and pen to write. But since computers have become a lot cheaper and more users friendly, I have given up the traditional way and right now could only write with my laptop. In fact I found the idea to write a story with pen and paper alien!

How about you, fellow writers (and extends to fellow creatives as well)? Do you use a notebook? And what do you put in it?

Welcome Ben

WooHoo! I'm so honour to have one of our Aussie artist, Ben, to join this little blog. He is one hell of a graphic desginer / illustrator! Do check out his blog. To my untrained eyes, his design is of simplicity, whimsical and humour. And believe it or not, I'm doing a bit of song and dance while writing this. Thank you, Ben!

Participate in Mystery

"Creativity is a mystery religion. An everyday creative person celebrates, honours and lives with mystery." Eric Maisel – The Creativity Book.

When I read the above, the hairs on my neck rose. Shiver ran through my body as if some spirits or ghosts just entered my room. As much as I’m interested in creativity and storytelling, I never imagine myself as a mystery weaver. But then when I look at my writing projects and how I experience my creativity, Maisel is right.

He is right about the human natural instinct to create, which is beyond our logical comprehension. When you observe how a child spends h/her day, you’ll see that a child is naturally creative. H/She might not have many toys around, but they could come up with games playing with a tea towel.

As we grow up into our adulthood, we might think that we lost our creativity. But if we are careful to think about our daily activities, a lot of them require a certain level of creativity for solution. We are never away from this natural born instinct. It is more about if we are aware of it or not.

Being a creative person only means that we place our creativity forefront. We are more aware of it and we use it more often.

So I’m asking everyone to take a moment and step back to observe your own creativity. And when you’re done with it, go back there and participate in this wondrous mystery of ours.

My Blogging Schedule

Somehow I felt the need to make a short post about my blogging schedule.

I just want to let everyone know that I have made a commitment to my writings by not going near the Internet on all my off days from work (Fri, Sat & Sun and any other public holidays). Because I’m that type of person if you let me go a bit loose, I go all the way.

So please know that I’ll check all your comments, make replies, visit your blogs & leave comments as soon as my writing commitments are done. And I hold you all dearly to my heart! ;)

Thank you for your understanding.

Welcome Tabitha, Holly & Barbara

Just over the weekend, we had three wonderful wise women joined this little blog.

Tabitha is a multi-talented artist whose journals always blow me away. Check out her blog for her latest creative projects of mandala & doll making. I adore her Encourage Box!

Holly, is a wise woman whose blog title "You Mother Knows but Won't Tell You", is actually telling you a lot about her. :) Her sense of spirituality has my deep respect.

Barbara, the Myth Maker. What a magnificent name for a loving creative being! Watch out of the sky photos of her banner. Wish I could nick it from her.

I’m deeply honour to have all these wonderful creatives to join this place.

Monday Project - Treasure

This is my open end story of "Poppy and Her Mother" for participation of the Monday Project.

I have included elements from all April projects to write this "episode". They are Kate’s empty bed, Sophie’s box, Mr Sketchy’s chairs and the ladybug from lovegeek’s card. See if you could spot them in this episode.

For those who are new to this story, please find I here and II here.

My usual way to write a story is to follow ideas which normally come to me through my free writing practice. So to write according to a theme and using other contributors’ projects as pre-set elements for storytelling is new to me. I find this challenging as well as refreshing. Overall, I’m taking the project as a learning opportunity.

My questions to all readers for this episode are:

- Does the story read like a draft or a polished piece?
- If the writing is lively or dull?
- If the story engages you? When you lose interest?
- Plot turn – expected? Unexpected?
- Areas for improvement.
- Any other comments?
- Or if you want to ask me any questions about this story.

You could choose to leave your comments here in my blog or you could email me your comments. Thank you in advance for your time and generosity.

Let the story begins …

III – Treasure


It took Poppy awhile to stop crying. "Ma, I’m sorry!" Though the tears were gone, Poppy’s voice was breaking my heart. I bent over and opened my arms. Poppy hesitated. "Come, sweet pea." She fell into my arms and I could feel the relief in her small body. "Did you see anyone in the room?" I looked at the locket in her hands. "No." She was trying to open it. "Come let me do it." Now that I had a better look of the locket, I realized that it was slightly bigger than the usual locket. The chain was short and it had a ladybug shaped clasp. When I turned it round trying to knock it open, it made clicking sound. "Something was inside the locket," whispered Poppy. She always did that when she was excited. It reminded me of Julian. Like father like daughter. I tried every ways to open the locket but it refused to yield us its treasure. "Sorry dear, I can’t open it. Let’s ask uncle Marc to do it when he arrives tonight." The twinkles in her eyes were gone. "But, since you found this locket, it belongs to you." Poppy jumped up and down clapping her hand. "Come, stand till and let me put it on you." The locket sat nicely on Poppy’s chest. It looked like it belonged there. Poppy looked at me again with her sparkling green eyes. I knew what she wanted. "O.K."

I sat on the bed looking at Poppy swirling in front of the mirror admiring herself and wondering what Julian would said if he was here. "Look at our treasure. Isn’t she the most precious thing in the world?" My heart ached again for the thoughts of him and my hand wandered across the empty bed searching for his body. He’s gone. My mind was screaming but my hands kept searching. "Ma," Poppy pointed at me, "what was that?" I looked down and saw that a mud covered box sitting on my lap. "What the hell is this?" I threw the box down on the floor. It broke into several pieces. "Don’t touch it!" But Poppy was too quick and she picked up one of the broken piece to look at. "It had something on it, Ma." Poppy passed it to me. There was a crudely drawn picture on it. "It looked like two people sitting back to back?" Poppy tugged at my arm. "You’re right, sweet heart." I looked at the broken pieces on the floor again and saw that there were mud stained foot prints all over the room. "Poppy, are you sure that you didn’t see anyone in the house this morning?" Poppy nodded her head as she followed my gaze at the footprints. "Someone’s in the house, Ma!" whispered Poppy. But this time she wasn’t excited. There was fear in her voice.

Noblesse Award

Paulo Coeloh has great influence on me. He once said that he was quite superstitious about the number 3. His idea is that things not only happen once or twice, it comes in three. I've been intrigued by his saying and interpreted that only by the third round the cycle is completed. And here is my 3rd award ...

The generous Laughing Wolf just bestowed me another award. (Or you could also say that I kind of force him to give me this one. You could go ask him, hahaha!) And for this award, I’m to write about what this blog has thus far achieved. Well, I believe I’ve done below:

1) Slowly growing an online creative community

2) To contribute in a small way my view on writing & creativity to both writers’ and creative communities

3) Try my best to maintain a positive attitude and practice authenticity at all time

4) Every now and then make visitors laugh

5) Keep track of my current writing project – STOS

And in honour of this award, I’m also passing it to below fellow creatives (in no particular order). I salute you for being inspirational, courageous and it has been a real treat to get to know you all! :)

Kate & Sophie
Amanda & Kate
Pamela
Sarah
Jamie
Peggy
Caroline
Cheryl
Samantha
Librarian Lee
Tabitha
Megg
Kazari

Leah

Details of Noblesse Award:

The recipient of this award is recognized for the following:

- The Blogger manifests exemplary attitude, respecting the nuances that pervade amongst different cultures and beliefs.

- Their Blog contents inspire; strives to encourage, and offers solutions

- There is a clear purpose at the Blog; one that fosters a better understanding on Social, Political, Economic, the Arts, Cultures, Sciences and Beliefs

- The Blog is refreshing and creative

- The Blogger promotes friendship and positive thinking

The Blogger who receives this award will need to perform the following:

- Create a post with a mention and link to the person who presented the Noblesse Oblige Award

- The Award Conditions must be displayed at the Post

- Write a short article about what the Blog has thus far achieved – preferably citing one or more older posts as support

- The Blogger must present the Noblesse Oblige Award in concurrence with the Award conditions

- Blogger must display the Award at any location at their Blog

Fear

In one of my earlier post, I mentioned an exercise from Eric Maisel’s book "The Creativity Book: A Year’s Worth of Inspiration and Guidance." He requires the reader to name five obstacles which prevent h/she from realizing h/her creative potential.

Here are my 5:

- That I’ll be criticized.
- That I’ll be ridiculed.
- I don’t have the talent to be a prolific creative.
- I don’t have time to do all the creative work I want.
- I end up being alone as I spend all my time working on my creative projects.

And as I’m typing them up, I’m thinking if they are valid.

1) That I’ll be criticized & That I’ll be ridiculed.

Unless I live in a hole or a deserted island, there is no way I could avoid any criticism (good or bad) to my work or even to me as a person. The way to go with it is to accept those ones which make sense and discard those which don’t.

The hardest part to deal with criticism probably is one’s ego. Just like everyone else, I want people to like my work and to like me. But it is simply impossible to please everyone. And if anyone who tries to do this, I bet the reverse happen. You lose your audience and more importantly, you lose your Self. The integrity of any creative work has always been very important to me. I’d rather read some stories which might not be that well written but contain originality and the author’s spirit, if you know what I mean.

The same applies to "being ridiculed".

2) I don’t have the talent to be a prolific creative.

Another book, A Writer’s Space – Make Room to Dream, to Work, to Write (also by Maisel) comes to rescue. I’ll copy a short paragraph from Chapter 11

Lesson 11

To be a writer you must write, but being a writer is not about writing. The next time you worry your brain about whether you can write, slap yourself hard. Everyone can write. Your worry should be whether you are brave enough to vanish into the depths of your neuronal circuitry and come back with creations. You are a diver, not a writer; an explorer, not a writer; an inventor, not a writer; a magician, not a writer.

Bravo Mr Maisel! And I’m telling you (Mr Maisel and all fellow creatives) – I’m fearless! And here I’m diving into the creative pool … oops no water, no soft landing, my arms broken. Can someone call an ambulance and drop me a bar of chocolate while I’m waiting?

3) I don’t have time to do all the creative work I want.

Time is of essence to produce work. But if I’m honest, it really comes down to master procrastination and be organized. One thing I learn from my own work place regarding time management is to be realistic. If all I could manage (timewise) is to get 200 words down on paper a day, then that’s it. No point to keep pushing myself until exhaustion. I should actually give myself a big pat on the shoulder for the fact that I stick with my word count.

4) I end up being alone as I spend all my time working on my creative projects.

Loneliness is inherent in most creative works. We lock ourselves in both our physical and mind space to do our projects. But unless I’m absolutely totally anti-social, how could I ever be lonely? By writing and sharing this with my fellow creatives, I’ve already proved to myself that I’m not alone. Stupid Hybrid!

Now it’s your turn, fellow creatives. What are your obstacles and how do you deal with them?

CED 2009 - STOS # 2 Drat 1 Completed !

Did you see the small blueberry cheese cake up there? It was my celebratory cake for completion of STOS # 2 Draft 1 on last Sunday! ;)

A couple of things I had observed during the writing process.

Things got a little bit easier this round. I was less resistance to my daily writing of 200 words. Actually I could write past the self-imposed word count a lot of the time. The mind was also less jumpy while I’m working on it and the inner editor had also become a lot more patience. (I promised that she would have her say come time for revision.)

I reckon this was all related to make writing into a daily activity, like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. The activity was integrated to the daily life to minimise the natural cycle of procrastination and fear. I’m not saying that I have it all under control. Far from it!

The most exciting yet difficult part was writing the ending as it kept changing from one paragraph to another. One minute my main character was the good guy then next he was the bad guy. After 2 days into writing the ending, I had no choice but to let him do whatever he wanted. He ended up as the baddie.

Another part about working out the ending was that I had known of it for more than a week. But I refused to acknowledge it. I was constantly worrying and struggling if the end was in line with the characters’ need or my need.

My belief in storytelling is that it is never about the author. It should always be about the Story and the characters. My role is to service them. So if the Story wants a nice quiet ending instead of a dramatic finale, I have to follow it. Let’s not forget that I was only at draft stage. There is still much work to be done later.

Oh, almost forgot! The key I mentioned earlier about # 2 was crucial to the story. (But who knows! It might change again when I start revision in 4 - 6 weeks' time.)

I’m now following my original plan to take a week’s break before starting # 3. And revision of # 1 is to start on 15/05.

Kreativ Blogger Award

This is totally insane! I’ve just got another award from the talented Sarah. I love her 7 favourites.

For this award, I need to list 7 of my favourites things and pass the award to at least 7 others.
7 Favourite Things of Mine

1) 7 is my favourite number. I have some very amazing experience with No. 7
2) Favourite reading place is my bed.
3) Favourite pass time is to pretend that I’m my dog and then complain of not having enough of snack food!
4) Favourite vehicle for transportation is my imagination. It gets me anywhere I want and no traffic jam ever.
5) Favourite person in the world is … ME!
6) Favourite metal is silver.

7) Silence is my favourite music.

And I pass this award to some wonderful old and new blogging friends.

Laughing Wolf
Peggy

Samantha

Mousey

Librarian Lee

Leah

Sarah (Yeah, you again!)

Welcome Pamela

Welcome the inspring and fellow writer, Pamela, to join this blog. Take time to visit her blog here and find out more about her and her Poetry Play Thursday. I'm all warm and fuzzy that this place is growing. Pamela, through you, I'm one step closer to building an online community with all creatives. Thank You! :)

1st Blogging Award

Hurray, I got my 1st blogging award - the FANTASTIC Honest Scrap from Laughing Wolf! I'm dancing agian ... ouch, my feet hurts ... gee wolfman, your award caused me pain! :D

O.K. Got carry away. The award was granted under these rules.

Award Rules:

1. you must brag about this award

2. you must include the name of the blogger who bestowed the award on you

3. you must choose a minimum of seven [7] blogs you find brilliant, in content or design

4. you must show their names and links and leave a comment informing them they were prized with the Honest Weblog award

5. you must list at least ten [10] honest things about yourself, then pass this on, with instructions intact

**********************************************************************

10 Honest Things About Me

1) My favourite actor is Hugh Jackman

2) My favourite actress is Cate Blanchett

3) I can't park between cars, i.e. one car in front of mine and the other behind mine

4) I'd like to be a witch for a day

5) I can't swim but

6) I can float

7) My eyes hands co-oridination is the worst in the world, believe me

8) I drive a really small car but I keep thinking I'm driving a Tank!

9) I can't walk in heels

10) I love the smell of my dog

Just like Laughing Wolf, I'm unable to choose just 7 blogs to bequeath this award to, so I'm following his pawsteps and offer this award to those who read this and dare to bare their souls in blogsphere.

Dancing Shoes

Thanks to Jamie, the dance party was a blast!

My party started around 9:00 pm after I finished dinner and some house hold chore. I first put on my silver ball room dance shoes and cha cha along Gypsy King’s Pasajero. The dance steps picked up when I changed into my Red Doc Martin to rave with Anthem music from Radio Air. The dancing bug really kicked in after I changed into a pair of Puma purple sport shoes to do a couple of aerobic jumps. Finally I made up my own dance moves in bare feet and danced til my feet hurt. And they are still hurting even now! But I loved it!

Thanks again Jamie, you worked wonders!

Eric Maisel's Blog

Since I'm into Eric Maisel's books right now, might as well mentioned his blog here. Just visited it 5 mins ago. It seemed like there's no sign of Maisel himself, however it has many contributors writing up posts on creativity. Inspiring and resourceful. Go check it out.

Winner Stands Alone - Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho's latest book "Winner Stands Alone" is on sale in Australia today! HURRAY!! I've been waiting for it forever!


It's a real bummer that I have to work today. (Normally my work days are Mon - Thu only. We got month end report to prepare etc.) Otherwise, I'll be dancing at Jamie's Virutal Party while reading "Winner Stands Alone".

And now I have to wait after work to do all of these OR maybe I could pretend sick and leave now! Oh the things you do for your favourite authors and activities. ;)