Dagger's Progress as a Nomad

[Dagger]

9 hours ago, J3NN said:

Have you tried the AllTrails app? We've discovered some new favorites through it ..

Never heard of it before. I just started downloading it, I'll check for trails later. Thanks!

 

6 hours ago, J3NN said:

Also, maybe this is something to think about when considering your new living locations since you're moving around so often. Keep in mind how close they are to nature so that even if you can't fix it in London, you'll use it to have better opportunities in the future!

Yeah, I usually do check how close a park seems to be to a location. I'll definitely take that into consideration!

[Vibrantella]

13 hours ago, Severine said:

Epicurean is often used in modern contexts to mean hedonistic but that's extremely misleading)

Yes, I was rather surprised when I first read a bit about it!  I must say that I found the teachings of Epicurus quite liberating, if not exactly comforting!  

[Dagger]

2017-09-08

• Overall: Writing, 0/18
• Body: Movement, 5/20 — Walking around Camden market for ca four hours plus
• Body: Fasting, 0/3
• Mind: Transcribing, 4/15
• Mind: Japanese, 0/18
• Spirit: NY 2.0/self care, 5/21 — Reading when I needed it both mentally and my legs needed rest after the walking/standing
• Spirit: Exploration, 1/6 (planned for first week: hanging out with parents and Kew gardens?)

Short report. This is what happened today: wake up, breakfast, shower, meeting up with parents and spending six hours with them, get home, get dinner delivered, read all evening. I could potentially call reading self care today, actually, I will...

[SymphonicDan]

On 9/7/2017 at 11:16 PM, Dagger said:

Also the hiking sounds good. Hiking... I haven't done that in a while. Any hiking for 2-3 hours (preferably a loop trail) not that far from London? Something I could do go to after lunch and come home for a late dinner?

 

Not really, unfortunately... Most of the south of England is rather unspectacular in terms of scenery and terrain (except the southwast coastlines). Your best bet about an hour away from London is around Dorking, but I don't know of any specific areas or routes!

[Dagger]

9 hours ago, SymphonicDan said:

Not really, unfortunately... Most of the south of England is rather unspectacular in terms of scenery and terrain (except the southwast coastlines). Your best bet about an hour away from London is around Dorking, but I don't know of any specific areas or routes!

Thanks.

[Dagger]

2017-09-09

• Overall: Writing, 0/18
• Body: Movement, 5/20
• Body: Fasting, 0/3
• Mind: Transcribing, 5/15
• Mind: Japanese, 0/18
• Spirit: NY 2.0/self care, 6/21 — Watching a Kate video and doing an unexpected ritual
• Spirit: Exploration, 1/6 (planned for first week: hanging out with parents and Kew gardens?)

I can officially say that the cloud that settled over me after I looked too deeply into the pool of mortality have lifted. Today I tackled those questions Kate gave me on Wednesday night (tarot card drawing time in my time zone). It seems I'd let them work a little in the background but today I sat down to seriously look at them and realized I'd already contemplated a lot of what the questions pointed me too and I'd released a lot of that.

 

One of her questions where: what if you loved your mortality? And a part of me then said: "Make good art" (with Neil Gaiman's voice in my head. For anyone who has not seen his commencement speech on youtube, go do it). If I loved my mortality, if I loved the fact that I would cease to exist eventually, then I want to make good art and share it. I want to write stories and share them and hope that at least one person spends a few enjoyable hours reading it. I want to take lessons in singing and piano so I can share my love of music; it is very much a hobby for me, nothing I even want to pursue professionally. I just want to be able to sing songs I love and play the beautiful instrument which is a piano. I want build a functional body so I can go on adventures. Not death defying ones, why risk death that much, but exciting ones where I get to approach nature in more ways than just walking through tame woods. I want to share that love of moving and being one with my body; not as a teacher or professional, perhaps an unofficial coach or I'll just share it with friends while we are out there on adventures (aka doing, not talking); who knows, I might become a yoga teacher or at least take a couple of yoga teacher trainings, I don't know. That is also making good art.

 

The only part that kinda confounded me was love of Japanese and Japanese traditional culture. I don't want to be a preacher or a teacher in these things. I'd love to share them with people if they are interested, but I don't feel drawn to becoming some kind of source for it, if you get what I mean. I think learning Japanese and its culture is one of the few things I want to do just for me, because it is something that peaks my interested. The added benefit is that I can share my art with people who speak Japanese and none of my other two languages if I learn it. That is worthwhile. And then I want to learn Spanish and Russian, not necessarily in that order. Spanish because of the amount of people I could talk to and make art with and Russian because... It is a language I've always wanted to known for no reason I can really explain.

 

How the above came to happen is how I know the cloud have lifted. For the first time in probably two weeks I could talk to the spirit/energy/whatever that I find comfort in and it felt like it answered and I wasn't so alone. It is an aspect of mother earth, mother fire, mother air, and mother water. It is the universe as a living spirit. It is a soul. My higher self and more baked into it. It is made up of star stuff, just like all of us are. Without stars the elements to make life would not exist. We are all star stuff. What I believe is a five pointed star. Void/soul/universe is one point, and the four elements are the other four points and its purpose is love, acceptance, non-judgement, fierceness, willful, joyous, strength, gentleness; above all it is love.

 

That is what I knew today. And that is how I know the cloud have lifted. I also did my last transcription session for the week and managed to do it without boredom or tedium and even was happy to be reminded of the things I'd noted down.

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

Still catching up on posts from my week away from civilization, but I always love reading your thoughtful posts. 

 

Just wanted to also add that I read Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. Oh my what an amazing book (books I guess, since it was the 3 parts in 1 publication). Though part 2 raised some strong emotions (frustration, sadness, etc) there are some amazing thought-provoking parts in there about hardship and what can be learned/gained from it.

 

Thank you very much for the recommendation

[Dagger]

9 hours ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

Still catching up on posts from my week away from civilization, but I always love reading your thoughtful posts. 

 

Just wanted to also add that I read Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon. Oh my what an amazing book (books I guess, since it was the 3 parts in 1 publication). Though part 2 raised some strong emotions (frustration, sadness, etc) there are some amazing thought-provoking parts in there about hardship and what can be learned/gained from it.

 

Thank you very much for the recommendation

It is so cool that book. And yeah, some really strong emotions at times. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I've been trying to get people to read it ever since I did because it is such a treasure!

[Vibrantella]

BTW, regarding hiking, would some urban exploring do?  https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/7-of-the-best-walks-in-london

 

Or you can do a search on the Ramblers page: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/find-a-walk-or-route.aspx?layer=routes,walks&placename=London, Greater London&lat=51.508530&lng=-0.125740

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

17 hours ago, Dagger said:

It is so cool that book. And yeah, some really strong emotions at times. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I've been trying to get people to read it ever since I did because it is such a treasure!

 

Yeah there was definitely a section where I couldn't decide whether to cry or curse (so i did both). Continuing to read made it better but oh man was that a rough patch of - very powerful - words. Looks like Moon has continued the series so I'm excited to read more books about that universe. 

[Dagger]

16 hours ago, Vibrantella said:

BTW, regarding hiking, would some urban exploring do?  https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/7-of-the-best-walks-in-london

 

Or you can do a search on the Ramblers page: http://www.ramblers.org.uk/go-walking/find-a-walk-or-route.aspx?layer=routes,walks&placename=London, Greater London&lat=51.508530&lng=-0.125740

Thanks for the links! I'll definitely look closely at some/all of the seven routes. It gives me something to explore.

[Dagger]

7 hours ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

 

Yeah there was definitely a section where I couldn't decide whether to cry or curse (so i did both). Continuing to read made it better but oh man was that a rough patch of - very powerful - words. Looks like Moon has continued the series so I'm excited to read more books about that universe. 

Would this be (hiding in spoiler):

Spoiler

After she was captures and then they tried to take the evil/darkness out of her mind and she went wandering, harassed the whole way more or less? That would be the part I'd assume you meant anyway.

 

I haven't read any of the other books. I might in the future. Paks isn't really in the later books which is the main reason I haven't continued reading. Although I like the Duke and the Prince so I might continue reading to see how it goes for them (I don't remember their names right now).

[Dagger]

2017-09-10

• Overall: Writing, 0/18
• Body: Movement, 5.5/20 — Very short walk for groceries, but I walked slightly farther than I had to
• Body: Fasting, 0/3
• Mind: Transcribing, 5/15
• Mind: Japanese, 0/18
• Spirit: NY 2.0/self care, 6/21
• Spirit: Exploration, 2/6 — I'm counting my evening with a show earlier in the week since I also did some exploration

Yesterday nothing much happened. I can't even tell you what I did most of the day. I ordered shoes from Amazon. I booked a show for today (Monday). I also think I might have done something more from the to do list, but I don't remember what. I also looked into booking ticket to two more shows, but one didn't have online booking for the next two weeks (it was closed) so I couldn't. The other one was another Disney show and considering how disappointed I was that the Lion King was just too close to the original movie, I decided to not pursue that one. I might go by Leicester square to see if I can get tickets to the other show I wanted to see, but who knows?

 

Oh the last to do list item was finishing one print book I'm traveling with and giving it to Roam. Now I need to pick the next one and try to finish it in two weeks.

 

So planned things for "week 2":

• Monday: 42nd Street musical show
• Tuesday: Dinner with A
• Thursday: Unsettled call about Barcelona and coaching call with Kate
• Friday: Visiting a park with Vibrantella (hopefully!)

So 1-3 potential exploration points. I guess show and dinner, despite separate by days could definitely count as one.

 

Self care list:

• Coaching call with Kate  
• NY intentions
• NY definition
• NY call plus exercise
• NY week 3 stuff that I haven't gotten email about yet #1
• NY week 3 stuff that I haven't gotten email about yet #2 (I'm assuming it is two things)

Writing/publishing related:

• One more round of fixing on the cover assignment I did a week ago or so
• Potentially reformat and upload a short story of mine
• Finally send a short story to a copyeditor
• Submit a short story
• Get back into writing

I think that was all the things kinda picking on my mind right now. I just wanted to get them out of my head and on paper.

 

Today (Monday) I want to focus on writing, transcribe, a few emails I have to answer, cover assignment, copyeditor email, and submitting. Might sound like a lot, but the cover stuff should take less than 20 minutes. Copyeditor email less than that too. Submitting about 20 minutes. Emails shouldn't need to take more than 20 minutes all together and writing and transcribing can get as much time as I want. Oh and self care of course, which is around 30 minutes or less I think.

[Dagger]

4 hours ago, Dagger said:

Today (Monday) I want to focus on writing, transcribe, a few emails I have to answer, cover assignment, copyeditor email, and submitting. Might sound like a lot, but the cover stuff should take less than 20 minutes. Copyeditor email less than that too. Submitting about 20 minutes. Emails shouldn't need to take more than 20 minutes all together and writing and transcribing can get as much time as I want. Oh and self care of course, which is around 30 minutes or less I think.

A too ambitious plan since I'd forgotten that I'm going to a show today. I have about 30 minutes before I'll eat an early dinner, then I'm off and won't be back until around 22:30-23:00...

[fleaball]

Flea is nosy. What shows?

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

7 hours ago, Dagger said:

Would this be (hiding in spoiler):

  Hide contents

After she was captures and then they tried to take the evil/darkness out of her mind and she went wandering, harassed the whole way more or less? That would be the part I'd assume you meant anyway.

 

I haven't read any of the other books. I might in the future. Paks isn't really in the later books which is the main reason I haven't continued reading. Although I like the Duke and the Prince so I might continue reading to see how it goes for them (I don't remember their names right now).

 

Yep that's pretty much the part. Well...

Starting from when she was captured, to her "darkness" and the careful treatment of her, then to her being healed. Though Paks gave a speech right before consenting to the attempted healing that was very touching and moving and gave lots of tears. Then her stumbling around. 

 

The start of real healing, and Paks realizations for what the time spent afraid of everything gave her (basically an understanding of those she wants to protect) soothed the feelings but man will that part of the book stick with me for a while.

 

I've just started reading through the first book. I'm interested to see whether / how Moon's writing style has changed in the years since she wrote Paks' story. 

[Dagger]

4 hours ago, fleaball said:

Flea is nosy. What shows?

Which I discarded? I was thinking about Wicked. Gave up on Aladdin after my experience with the Lion King. Saw 42nd Street tonight. Saw Matilda a few weeks back. I hope to try and perhaps catch a ticket to Phantom of the Opera at Leicester square, but I'm not positive I'll make the effort.

[Dagger]

3 hours ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

 

Yep that's pretty much the part. Well...

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Starting from when she was captured, to her "darkness" and the careful treatment of her, then to her being healed. Though Paks gave a speech right before consenting to the attempted healing that was very touching and moving and gave lots of tears. Then her stumbling around. 

 

 

The start of real healing, and Paks realizations for what the time spent afraid of everything gave her (basically an understanding of those she wants to protect) soothed the feelings but man will that part of the book stick with me for a while.

 

 

 

I've just started reading through the first book. I'm interested to see whether / how Moon's writing style has changed in the years since she wrote Paks' story. 

Oh yeah, I totally get you. That part stays with me very much too. Actually so many things about the book is so interested and deep. She really doesn't shy away from going dark without it feeling just explicit, you know?

 

Spoiler

Also, the true healing, yes! With the kuaknom (or however you spelled it), love that guy. But I've always loved the gruff men with marshmellow hearts. Although I'm not sure I'd enjoy them as much in real life. I guess that comes from my dad, haha.

 

[Dagger]

2017-09-11

• Overall: Writing, 0/18
• Body: Movement, 6/20 — Short walk for groceries and walking to the theater and back, barely worth mentioning, so half a point
• Body: Fasting, 0/3
• Mind: Transcribing, 5/15
• Mind: Japanese, 0/18
• Spirit: NY 2.0/self care, 6/21
• Spirit: Exploration, 2.5/6 — 42nd Street musical show

Today, I forgot that having a sleep schedule of 2 am to 10 am and then taking a slow morning means that suddenly it is 3 pm and I need to eat lunch and dinner before leaving for my show at 6:30 pm latest. Oops... I got through some email stuff. I poked at self care, but didn't do anything. I've been mostly reading today and taking a shower.

[Rebel Pilot Gar]

Enjoy your show! 

[Dagger]

9 hours ago, Rebel Pilot Gar said:

Enjoy your show! 

I enjoyed it!

 

The story was somewhat non-sensical. The musical really wasn't focused on the story. It was all in the numbers (singing, dancing, costumes, music) and those numbers were great!

 

On 1/1/2017 at 2:31 PM, Dagger said:

8 9/12 new-to-me movies or performances of some kind (gymnastics, music concerts, circus, ice skating, dance, play, etc.)

[Dagger]

On 1/1/2017 at 2:31 PM, Dagger said:

4 5/12 submissions

1 2/4 WotF submissions

Another submitted story. Yay!

 

However, the person who had shoes I could borrow have been sick and I need them tonight and I haven't been able to get a hold of her... I need to go check if I can get her phone number now...

[Dagger]

I has the borrowed shoes! I will be able to go to Sky Garden without worrying about not being allowed in!

[Dagger]

2017-09-12

• Overall: Writing, 0/18
• Body: Movement, 6/20 — nope, not counting this today because walking to and from the tube really doesn't count most days lol
• Body: Fasting, 0/3
• Mind: Transcribing, 6/15
• Mind: Japanese, 0/18
• Spirit: NY 2.0/self care, 7/21
• Spirit: Exploration, 3/6 — second half point today, having dinner at Sky Garden with a friend (the building is also called the walkie talkie apparently)

I had a pretty good day today actually. Did a few to dos which I will go strike out after I finish this post. I also transcribed, something like 10 pages of notes. I felt like everything was kinda going smoothly today. It helped that I'd gone to bed an hour earlier than usual (1 am) and therefore got up 30 minutes earlier than usual. It meant I was ready to tackle work tasks earlier and I was looking forward to it. I hope to ease into writing this week, because I really feel like that can happen. :3

[Dagger]

On 9/11/2017 at 0:21 PM, Dagger said:

So planned things for "week 2":

• Monday: 42nd Street musical show
• Tuesday: Dinner with A
• Thursday: Unsettled call about Barcelona and coaching call with Kate
• Friday: Visiting a park with Vibrantella (Confirmed!)

 

Self care list:

• Coaching call with Kate  
• NY intentions
• NY definition
• NY call plus exercise
• NY week 3 stuff that I haven't gotten email about yet #1
• NY week 3 stuff that I haven't gotten email about yet #2 (I'm assuming it is two things)

Writing/publishing related:

• One more round of fixing on the cover assignment I did a week ago or so
• Potentially reformat and upload a short story of mine — Started, also I don't need to finish this this week or even next week
• Finally send a short story to a copyeditor — Partially done
• Submit a short story
• Get back into writing

I wanted to quote this to see how far I'd gotten. I've done a fair bit for Monday and Tuesday. Also yesterday when I looked at my to-dos on my goals post, I rearranged them so the not-done things were at the bottom, it was getting quite crowded with strikeouts all over.

 

• So I'll aim for definition today, and probably the call, I'll see about the exercise it depends on if I feel fired to do it. (I should get the NY week 3 tasks tomorrow).
• I need to do another follow up with the copyeditor and I can prepare the short story today.
• Transcribing of course
• I need to get to the grocery store
• Try the last Amazon item that arrives today
• The above are the most important. I'd like to do something related to writing and movement. Not sure what, but I'll keep it open for now. Perhaps a walk after lunch could be nice. Maybe ending with grocery shopping or starting with grocery shopping and then more walking... Hmmm....