Headphones ruin memories, an Opinion with no research at all.
Posted: January 21, 2012 Filed under: Lifestyle choices, My attempts at humor, My take on pop culture and me. Leave a comment »I’m 34 going on 84 with this entry. I have not used my blog to simply say my opinions, and I’ll try to start with this one. The topic at hand is Ipods, or the fact that everyone walking around wears headphones listening to their own little soundtrack. Right now I have headphones and I’m listening to Pandora as I type while my roommate watches television in the same room. But I do not walk around with headphones on in public!
Safety first. To me when I’m walking through NYC I like that I can hear cars at intersections, or if someone is walking around me. I know that NYC is supposedly safer than Disney World these days, but being aware of one surroundings is important. If there is a danger, or a collision about to be made, having the sense of hearing can give one a heads up. I used to run on the streets with headphones, so that is all I will say about safety.
My main beef with headphones is that people think it gives them the right not to be bothered, and not to be approached. A few years ago in Forest Hills, a more well to do part of Queens, I saw a sight that pissed me off. This kind of attractive women in her twenties took off her headphones, got ugly, and said to an elderly immigrant woman, ‘Do you not see that I have headphones on? That means I’m don’t want to talk to anyone, *(&^%.” I realized that this elderly woman was simply asking for directions. I thought the younger woman really reacted like a spoiled child, and anyone lost should be able to ask directions. Wearing headphones does not simply erase being decent to other people. The street map in Queens and the city can be confusing, and I’m glad that when I ask directions, people respond with an answer. The people I’ve asked for directions might give me the directions, think they know and give wrong directions, or say they don’t know. But I’ve very rarely been chewed out for asking directions. And I’m not a meek old lady with an accent. So headphones or no headphones, that woman was out of line.
But I think a lot of people in this city wear headphones for that exact reason, so they can avoid conversations with strangers. It’s kind of weird concept. That on your commute to your job, or from point A to B, you can close off encounters and background noise by just having your own soundtrack. I’m a fan of music, but either at home on my computer, or in a bar where the musical experience is shared with the people in the establishment. I like that I can be aware on my commutes. If someone asks me directions, and I can point them toward the right way, I feel good, not pressed upon.
Lastly, I’m not the first to point this off in the skate world. But if you’re skating with people I think it’s rude to wear headphones, it’s nulls the shared experience. On a larger scale of that, I think wearing headphones in any group situation or around people is rude. I think memorable events for everyone involves a group of characters. To tell a good personal story, you need to remember what other people said, what the surroundings were, and the string of events. If people have their headphones on all the time, they are cutting of several perceptual senses, and therefore have less interesting things happen to them. That’s a stretch, but is an idea. I think to be part of something you need to be there, and not in a personal soundtrack la la land.
Improving, not simply setting goals!
Posted: October 25, 2011 Filed under: Lifestyle choices, My good days. Diary/log, My life Leave a comment »
Life has been good, even with sporadic internet over the last month or so. I realized not having a regular connection means less blogging, but maybe more of a focus for writing. My last blog entry of over a week ago I stated how I finished a short story, the first completed fiction work by me in years. One week, every night I simply wrote it out by hand. In the following weeks I typed it up, shared it with family, and revised it some. Next week it will be work-shopped with a good group of people in my writing class at Gotham Writers. I feel invigorated by taking writing seriously and studying the craft. Now that my internet is fixed and seems to working regularly, I will pick up the blogging. But I want to keep up the fiction flow, so I’m not sure yet how frequently I’ll blog. Twice a week proved a difficult pace. And I found when I write out the story, that working on it everyday helped me get through the first draft.
I feel invigorated from writing more, and physically I feel better. With the gym after trial and error, I came up with the goal of going 3 times a week. For the aerobic part, it will always be running on the treadmill. At first I was trying to go as fast as I could for 20 minutes. In a conversation with my mother, she suggested to take it easy if I feel too exhausted from it. Before I would steadily increase the pace until I was around an 8 minute per mile pace. I remember from my running days that this was a nice and steady pace. But in contemporary times in my mid thirties it is a challenge to run at that pace. I’d have shortness of breadth, and be sweating a lot. Worse, on my skate days I felt I was too sore and uncomfortable while skating. So my mom told me to take it easy and work up the speed later. So I’m starting at like a 12 minute pace and only working up only to a 9:30 mile pace. I always finish, I feel it’s effective, but I don’t feel exhausted. For weights I’m using a similar philosophy, just to get the workout in. I think exercise is a lifetime pursuit, and consistency is more beneficial than going all out in spurts. I’m starting to make it a routine, part of my life, but keeping the focus on skating at this point. When the ice and winter comes, and I can’t skate as much, then I can step it up at the gym.
Skating has been great. After a summer that was too hot, I am comfortable skating for long periods on my days off. I’ve been going to Flushing Meadows with a few friends, and I’m really starting to like that park. My short story takes place at this skate park. The skate park is world class, and if it’s too crowded you can go wondering to other parts of very large Flushing Meadows Park. Near the unisphere, my friend and I found a little bank to ledge to goof around on, then a empty square fountain the size of a football field. Once the water is turned off for the season, the Unisphere, is a world famous spot that no one minds if you skate in. I enjoy skating at the skate park and then to cruise around this park. There are a lot of families playing soccer, and having their day in the park. Overall it gives off a positive vibe that represents the borough of Queens. This park where the Mets play and the U.S. Open for tennis is played every year, is a unique park that anyone could a make a day out of. It also is a paradise for skateboarding. As far as I’m concerned the skate season lasts until January or when winter definitely sets in. I’m only able to skate on weekends, but I’m thankful for that. I think I appreciate it more and look forward to it all week.
Overall I’m doing well. And I think I’m actually working toward several improvements. Instead of thinking up lofty and questionable goals, I’m actually making progess!
A fortnight, an IMac, and some skating
Posted: September 27, 2011 Filed under: Imacs, Lifestyle choices, My good days. Diary/log, My life Leave a comment »
One fortnight, or two weeks has passed since I last blogged. My mind was occupied with computer woes, as my computer of 6 years had to go. So, this is my first blog post on a Mac, and I can tell this may affect my blog, and will definitely affect my use of the computer.
Before I dwell down into my decisions of computer purchasing I’ll briefly recap my life of the past two weeks. I’m sorry if going from two posts a week to nothing left family, friends, and fans out of the loop, but I was without the Internet during that time. Most of my out of work updates has to do with skating. With September the weather has been more reasonable and every weekend I skated. A mutual friend introduced me to someone local that wanted to get back into skating. So I have someone that lives really close by to skate with, and I managed to meet up with a few of my other skate friends in the past two weeks. In the summer I skated mostly Forest Park out of convenience, but it’s good to skate other places and with old dudes like myself.
Yesterday I skated flushing meadows with my friend Julian. Near the unisphere there are all these empty fountain squares, which is a great place to skate flat away from the crowds of people. Most of the day we stayed there. We had a great game of s.k.a.t.e that I lost on a backside kickflip he did on his first try. I think we are both progressing which is cool. After a few hours we went to the Flushing Meadows Skate Park, and I eyed the ledge over the grate gap. In a few tries I got a nose slide over the distance of the grate, and that made my day. It felt great and it is good. Maybe it’s the first step to overcoming my fear of ledges. Yesterday I sweated a lot, but I’m excited about the upcoming fall weather.
Other than skating, I’ve been socializing with my library colleagues that live in the Rego Park area, and my new skate friend. I think now it’s easy to get caught up in cyber worlds or other isolated endeavors, so I enjoy that I can meet with a few friends regularly, and solve the problems of the world. I think that I need to call some other people up and try to hang out with them before everyone hibernates for the winter.
Okay, my computer woes started when the Internet didn’t work, then it would take forever to load when it started. Everything was in slow motion with my old computer. My cable was busted way before the Internet went caput and I made an appointment for the cable company to look at both. The guy was nice and replaced the cable box so it worked. For the computer he opened up my memory or something that showed I was over the capacity allowed for the computer. The cable guy recommended Macs. My skate friend Julian recommended Macs, my sister heartily recommends them, and a plethora of other people told me they are good.
Last night my sister went with me to the Mac store, and I was impressed. My sister is very patient and good-natured to spend time with me at that store. I think I got a good product, and liked the customer service compared to other major retailers. After hooking it up last night I realized there are some differences between Mac and PC’s. I think in a few weeks I’m going to like it more. For this blog I’m testing myself. I’m taking two pictures from flushing meadows from my email I took a few weeks ago. One is of Julian ollieing a cone, and the other of the fountain. And I took a picture from my Mac computer. If I can post those to my blog, I’ve already mastered a few blog skills I’ll need on a Mac.
Stop sleeping too late and mornings are for the gym!
Posted: August 26, 2011 Filed under: Lifestyle choices, My attempts at humor, My goals for self improvement | Tags: morning workouts, waking up earlier Leave a comment »Getting plenty of sleep and drinking enough water are the two main reasons I keep a youthful appearance well into my thirties. I am sure of it, that sleep is good, but one can always wonder the possibilities to get things done with less snoozing time. This blog entry will be about how sleeping is a determent to reaching my potential.
Over my vacation I planned out this whole new workout schedule for me to try. Before work on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I would go to the gym. On some points that would mean waking up before 7:00 in the morning. On my first week back in NYC I did not even attempt this, and as usual set my final alarm ringing for about twenty minutes before I left for my commute each morning.
If only I can do this workout schedule it would be beneficial in so many ways. Being consistent and going four days a week I’d be in great shape. My weekend evenings would be free to skateboard, write, blog, read, or any other activity. My weekends, weather permitting, I could skate as much as I wanted. I stopped going to the gym in April or May, and I need to go back. But with summer and fall weather it’s a bummer to go after work. The morning would be ten times better.
However every morning I have war with my alarm clock. I set the alarm about an hour before I have to get up. When it goes off it is a shock to me, then I reset it for an hour, and the second time it goes off I’m also shocked by it. Depending on when I need to get up I’ll press snooze a couple of times. Usually I don’t feel awake until I’m showered and dressed and I don’t really feel comfortable until I have coffee. Left to my own natural devices I would sleep until noon everyday.
On my vacation, some relatives I haven’t seen in awhile were amazed that I could sleep past noon everyday. I don’t know what it is, but I feel so comfortable in bed that sometimes I don’t want to leave it. Probably a favorite part of each night or even my existence is when I wake up in darkness and I realize I can continue to sleep. I do think for whatever reason I get my deep sleep in the morning. Perhaps I go to sleep too late, or I am sleep deprived during the week, but I’m super drowsy in the morning.
Early risers do have a lot of benefits, and perhaps a more structured day is better. Now I wake up, go to work, and come home and do a variety of things. Maybe a schedule of wake up, go to gym, go to work, and come home to a planned out activity whether it’s reading, writing, or maybe even a class.
Breaking the cycle of lazy man sleeping is important for me. I’ve had jobs before that I had to report to work at 6 am. I get up early when I travel. It is humanly possible to wake up early regularly. So Monday is D-day for me and I think if I’m able to make a new routine in a couple of months I’ll be happier and in better shape.
Karaoke, Skating Bliss, and Field Art Trip to the Bronx
Posted: July 11, 2011 Filed under: Lifestyle choices, My good days. Diary/log, My life | Tags: Astoria Skate Park, Monument 2 Monument, River Ave Skate Park, Van Cortland Park 2 Comments »
Studies show with crunching my statistics that when I recap my daily life on my blog, I get less views than when I write about actual topics. I think if I was famous people would love my open book approach about what I’m doing with my life. I will attempt less of this type of writing, but I really did have a good weekend and I’d like to share why it was so awesome.
Friday I was invited to dinner and drinks in Maspeth with colleagues. For months now I’ve mostly been going out to places that I can walk to, so this was a good change of pace. I’m still toying with sobriety versus moderation, but I have not been super drunk in a long time. At the first stop on Friday we had a group of about ten people which is a lot. I had shrimp stuffed with crab meet and a few drafts. It was great food and I enjoyed my company. Our second stop was a far walk, but as soon as we got there someone ordered shots of vodka. That was the tipping point and I think I should avoid hard liquor, it goes against moderation. That vodka was disgusting, but with very little time I did karaoke. Over the next several hours I did four songs: Roadhouse Blues, Maggie May, Angie, and I did a duet of American Pie with a friend. Late in the night I took a short cab ride home. I had a really fun time but I’m concerned that I drank that much. I think in my life I need to find a sober replacement that I can let loose with. I don’t think I want to live years with constantly altering between being a teetotaler and a raging lush.
Saturday I was hung over, and I’m glad a few of my skate friends agreed to meet me later in the day. At 3:30 we met at Hoyt Park in Astoria. It is a paved playground that people don’t care if you skate. It’s right off the N train on the way to Astoria skate park. Usually we skate Astoria skate park first and when that is too crowded we go to Hoyt park. That two combination of spots makes for perfect skate days in my opinion. When I got there at 3:30 it was very hot and I still had a hangover.
This is why my weekend was great, being outside all day both Saturday and Sunday. For over two hours we skated great at Hoyt park. We set up bricks, and practiced all sorts of flip tricks. My friend really got into skating the bricks. We set up one upright so it was about 8 inches high and then laid that other brick flat so it was a small ollie. It took me awhile to frontside 180 the high brink and then switch ollie the low brick. By the end of the day I got a switch frontside 180 and a switch ollie over the higher brick. That felt good to get some pop on my switch ollies. My friend skated really well on the brick session. He kickflipped the high bricks which I was unable to do. I’ve been skating with him since 2007 and it’s good to see him progress, and he is several years older than me. So there is no reason to think I’m too old for this. My other friend is progressing too when he had to take 6 weeks off in spring because of an injury.
After the epic session at Hoyt Park we went to Astoria Skate Park. They had a street fair in the parking lot, so we walked through a carnival with Farris wheels and all to get to the skate park. When we got there I took a break and had a Dr Pepper. I’m trying to abstain from sodas, and I’ve been doing well, but that one tasted so good. I skated some, but I was exhausted. I thought of even taking a nap on the grass, but I decided not to. It was later than I’m usually there, and at some point I’m going to watch a sunset at Astoria park. I think it would be a good one, to have a sunset over the river with the view of the Manhattan skyline. After skating we went to Belief skate shop. I got discounted skate shoes a few weeks ago that I was convinced made my big toe on my right foot hurt like hell. So I got a another new pair of shoes, this summer I’ve bought so many pairs of shoes that I think I might be developing an obsession with them.
Saturday night after I showered I was so hungry but did not want to go to a bar. I decided to try an Indian place within walking distance. It was after 9 and I was one of the only people in there which was weird. The samosas were okay, the crab curry was good, and the garlic nan was subpar. I also ordered a Mango Juice but got a Mango Lassy. I ate it all, and the total was 30 bucks plus tip. I don’t think I’ll go there again, because a few neighborhoods away in Jackson Heights one can get some of the best Indian food in the city. After I got home I went to sleep very quickly.
Now on to Sunday. Transit made me late to see my sister. We had a nice brunch at a popular place near Columbia University. Everywhere I go with my sister people really respond to my nephew Kamil, I think it’s because my sister looks and is so happy with the little guy. After brunch we took the 1 train all the way to the end to Van Cortland Park.
We got there and walked awhile. A few blog entries ago I talked about the Monument 2 Monument project that my sister is part of. There were two parts to this project. One is in Riverside Park from 60th street to 70th street and contains 7 sculptures by different Art Student’s League Artists, Beth being one of them. The second part of Monument 2 Monument is a collaborate sculpture with the same 7 league artists.
Beth said that originally the mask was laid flat down, but kids, teenagers, and perhaps adults had the inclination to climb on top of it. So the park put up a poll so it is high in the air. Beth joked that now someone could get hurt trying to climb it. I have to say you come from one side were you are on the top of maybe forty steps looking down, and you see this massive mask structure. I’ve seen on facebook pictures of Asia where people go for hours through a jungle and then out of nowhere they come to a clearing with a massive object to look at. This is a great visual for this park. Then we walked down the steps and it stands maybe fifteen feet high. There are benches around it so people potentially could stare up at it for hours. I think putting it up on a poll made the other side not as appealing. But other than that it is a great addition to Van Cortland Park and my sister Beth is on a roll. Walking back to the subway we took a different route. People in that park are serious about their bbq’s and cookouts. I enjoyed that quick walk to see so many families and people enjoying their day.
I took the 1 train with my sister until 157 street which is back in Manhattan. I got off there and then took a quick bus east to west back into the Bronx. Since it opened last year I wanted to check out this skate park. It is called the River Avenue Skate Park and it is 3 blocks from Yankee stadium. I skated there for a solid two hours and it is such a good park. It has mellow transition and street stuff. One quarter is so low and mellow that I did frontside 50-50’s on it. This is a leap of progression for me, I’ve never been able to do frontside 50-50’s on mini’s or quarters. But I think since I have the general motion of the trick I can take it on to other ramps. On Wednesday night I’m hoping to bust one on the 3 foot mini at Forest Park.
My new shoes are good, but now my little toes on my left foot feel irritated, so you can’t win. I think if I was able to go to the Bronx park regularly I’d improve, it has stuff there to practice the basics. It was also good to see a bunch of kids and teens just starting out with skating. I think I witnessed a kid drop in on a quarter for the first time. Also when I go to skate parks in Queens a lot of times I run into skaters I know, at the Bronx park I knew no one, and it was a full park. City wide there are probably a ton of skaters and I’m glad of that. In my large public school I went to for one year in Baltimore County there were not many skaters, and in the private school in Toledo I went to I was the only skater. Now I think skating is large enough that kids interested always have someone to skate with.
There it is, about 1,500 words to describe my weekend. I promise for my mid week blog I will take on some type of topic, but twice a week is a lot of entries to always write something topical.
Hug the Library, skating, drinking, and meandering through central park
Posted: June 5, 2011 Filed under: Library world, Lifestyle choices, My good days. Diary/log, Skateboarding Leave a comment »
I’ve been looking forward to today for awhile, because it was the ‘hug the library’ day. The event was planed to form a circle around the famous New York Public Library and to hold it for 5 minutes.
My day started around 7:30 when with after several snooze button presses from the alarm I woke up. On meetup.com I set up a morning session for the NYC skateboarding group at the Tribeca skatepark. I thought that this morning might be the only time I would be able to skate over the weekend.
I was twenty minutes late to my own meetup, but the one guy that joined me didn’t mind. This park is a little on the small side, and I feel each time I go there it’s so crowded that I’m unable to skate it. Today however, due the time and perhaps that it’s the Maloof Money Cup weekend here in NYC it was empty at 9:30. So I got to skate and get more comfortable on the obstacles there. I even did a simple run of ollieing over the euro gap, then nose sliding the slanted ledge, then rolling down to ollie the A frame, and finishing with a kickflip to fakie on a very mellow bank. That’s a very simple line but when it is crowded I would not be able to do that. By 11 more skaters started to fell up the park, and I met a few old dudes that ripped. On a scary note trying a simple 180 over the euro gap my board slipped out fast and I almost smacked my face on the pavement, I was within inches. My wrists hurt from bracing that fall.
After a quick lunch and transit ride I got to the Library Hug over an hour early. I sat and waited a little bit in Bryant Park. At around 1:15 I went to the entrance to meet up with the ULU group. They were very active with the table and trying to organize the event. I took a pile of leaflets for the event, and tried to talk to people in Bryant Park about it. Most people didn’t seem to care, and I can’t say I blame them, they wanted their day in the park. I will say I’m happy no one chewed me out, and people politely declined. When you approach people with anything you’re taking a gamble on how they will react.
At 1:40 I was given a staff shirt, and a duty. I was to make sure the hug line, would not block the entrance to three points of a café connected to the library in Bryant Park. At a little before 2:00 the line started to move around the building. There were a lot of people, but it did not reach to the back of the library. So I did not need to watch over those entry ways, and I joined the hug line we had. The people had an energy to them, and I think it was a positive thing. After 5 or 10 minutes people went back to the front of the library. Christian Zabriskie from ULU gave thanks and the councilman Jimmy Van Bramer gave a nice speech. I think it was a positive event and CNN’s website put up an article about it quickly.
My good friends were there, I’ll call them E.H. and C.T. Both of them wanted to go to a bar quickly. I went with them even though I wanted to linger around and say good byes to so many familiar faces I saw at this event. And drinking at 2:30 in the afternoon is generally not my thing. So we saw a bar down the street, and went into it. 20 minutes later most of the ULU crew came into the same bar. It was a nice celebration and talking to them I know they put a lot of work into this. They pulled it off, and now the focus is for next week’s 24 hour read in.
After a couple of hours of hard drinking me, E.H., and C.T. left the bar. I thought we were going to go back to Queens, but E.H. suggested we go to central park. I thought, I’ve been to Central Park plenty of times so I reluctantly agreed to go. It ended up being a lot of fun. We saw ducks, I bombed some hills on my skateboard, and it was a good ending to a great day.
Tomorrow I’m going to the Maloof Money Cup pro skateboard contest. So there will be yet another blog tomorrow night. Keep busy people.
Statement on why I should not drink
Posted: February 21, 2011 Filed under: Lifestyle choices, My life 2 Comments »In July of last year I wrote a blog entry about why I should not drink, and I deleted it the next day. I saw that that entry got over 60 views that day which is by far the most of any of my blog entries. Several family members recommended I delete it, and I got a few emails of concern from friends. So I deleted that entry quickly, but now I think writing about it in a different way will be therapeutic and hopefully people will understand and respect my reasons for being sober.
First of all my situation is different from alcoholics. I am not an alcoholic, and I’ve never woken up in the morning needing to drink. I’m unique because I’ve been on a maintenance dose of a medication ever since I had a break down when I was seventeen. I had a total of 3 breakdowns and the last one being at age 20. Since I had more than one break down I’ll most likely be on this medication for life. For a long time I thought I wouldn’t write about my mental health experiences on this blog, but I’ve been inspired by a former bookstore coworker who is writing her memoirs on a blog about what she went through. I think writing about my mental health experiences on my blog will add depth and honesty to my writing. I do have a lot of thoughts on the subject of mental health.
As an adult I’ve gone through times of binge drinking in an attempt at a social life, and periods of sobriety. I’ve always associated a night out in bars as what people do, how people interact. If you want to know people you need to go out to bars. Drinking never caused a breakdown in me, but I’ve always had a restraint from that possibility. I’ve never gone on a bender, or drank for multiple days in a row. Also I showed restraint with drugs from what I went through. If I never got sick in my early adult years I probably would have gotten more involved with partying. So I’m sure that my sickness made me stronger and more responsible in a lot of ways. I’ve accomplished a lot and in general I’m a good person. But I don’t think I’ve reached my potential yet.
To reach my potential, I need to break the mold of associating fun with drinking. If every doctor I talk to suggests I never drink, I should believe the reasons are serious enough. The major reason would be that I never want to experience a breakdown again, but also a medication ‘cocktail’ with alcohol might be doing serious damage to my body. Also in April 2009 I passed out while standing up and hit my head from drinking. After doing that I was completely sober for more than a year. That year from April 2009 to about May 2010 I progressed professionally at work, with skating, and other parts of my life improved. So for me from that recent period of not drinking it’s an easy decision to stop now.
People that do not take medication are different from me. Because of this condition I am different from the majority of people my age. I need to start to accept my differences and act as an individual instead of trying to fit in.
Writing and lifestyle update
Posted: February 5, 2011 Filed under: Lifestyle choices, Novel attempt/updates Leave a comment »
Wow, I can’t decide if in the past two weeks I lost my focus or if I simply redirected my focus. Early last week I had a sore throat, that thankfully was nothing serious, but it sidelined my gym routine. My exercise came to a halt, next week I’ll force myself to get back to it. I’ve been going out more frequently and I wrote quite a bit in my novel attempt. So I lost my exercising, put in time writing, and socialized with varying degrees of excess.
Winter was a big change and it continues to be cold. I can forget about skating outside, and from being sick last week I have not made an effort to go to indoor parks. I think being inside too much makes me a little stir crazy and I need to go out some. But I think all writers need to experience things, and I decided I’m not going to be hard on myself anymore. I can have both, a social life, and work on my personal goals as well. It is all about time management. My roommate told me a teacher once said to him you have 8 hours of work a day, 8 hours of sleep, and how you spend the rest of the 8 hours a day is up to you. Thankfully my work is a standard work day and week of 40 hours. I never have to put in long days or crazy shifts. I am single without a family or major obligations. That means I’m free to do as I want for my off time. Since I have ambitions for writing and skating better it matters how I spend my spare time.
Take this week for example. After work on both Monday and Tuesday nights I wrote for about an hour an a half. On Wednesday I went out by myself, and had an okay time. On Thursday I wrote for over two hours. On Friday night I had a great dinner and a kind of crazy night with good friends. That was a full week, and I was able to write quite a bit. Today, after I finish this blog entry, and relax for a little bit I plan to write for three hours. If I’m able to do that I would have wrote 3 chapters this week. Last week I wrote 3 chapters a week. If I’m able to keep up this pace I will finish the draft by mid April. I’m planning 33 chapters, and writing 3 a week might be 10 or so weeks for the whole thing. Tomorrow I’ll watch the Super Bowl. This was a full week and I was able to concentrate on writing while being able to take a few breaks to get out.
Next week returning to the gym will be a time management challenge. I’m hoping that going to the gym after work will give me energy to stay up writing. I notice that I’m writing quickly this draft quickly. Since I can not edit pen and paper I’m taking the approach just to jot it down as quick as I can. I try not to second guess myself, but just write. I think with this approach the second draft of typing it out might be agonizing and a real challenge. But I’ll tackle that when the time comes. Another thing about this speed writing is that I’m still writing the parts that I already wrote on my first attempt. When I get past chapter 10 or where I stopped last time, I wonder if I’ll slow down, because I’ll have to create instead of rehashing from memory. On a positive note I think since I toyed with this concept for so long, I know the story, and I think I’ll finish the first draft by my April deadline.
Getting back to the time management challenge, I think going out needs to be limited to 2 nights a week or less. The gym and writing take time. I think once I get in a routine this will be good. Writing and the gym are solitary endeavors making it necessary to socialize a little bit. I have family that I can talk to on the phone and email about writing. But a one on one conversation about writing with my friends that I respect is beneficial. When I was a kid I never imagined that I’d socialize with people interested in literature and writing. Now thanks to being a librarian I regularly meet aspiring writers. I’ll try not to take my book friends for granted anymore and I need to hang out instead of being reclusive about my writing.
In other news two more months to April, there will be an end to this winter.
