Writing ADD #23

Well, I definitely didn't meet my goals from last week, but I'm trying to be positive about it. My goals were reasonable if I had a good week. I did not have a good week. Therefore I'm content with what I did accomplish and I'm moving the unaccomplished goals forward to this week!


Week's Total:
Book Reviews: 6
TV Review: 1
Movie Review: 1
Dalia's Story: In progress
Total Words: 3515

The one goal I did meet for last week was I managed to get 6 book reviews written! Woohoo! I still have a pile left, but hey, that's the way it tends to go around here. Especially when I've been living in migraine city and thus spending lots and lots of time reading.

TV Review and Movie Review: I haven't gotten either of these posted yet. I was a bad blogger last week. (I think I only posted one blog other than my Writing ADD post). I had planned on writing either of these last week, it just happened. So they kinda took place of what I was planning. Oopsie. Wait, is that really an oopsie? It's still writing after all!

Dalia's Story: I really need to get cracking and write more on this story or I'm going to miss the dead-line. BUT I didn't give myself a word goal for it last week so, since I did get some done on it, this is another goal achieved!

The two goals I didn't meet were to finish the "A Disturbing Group" piece and write another "Striking Thoughts" piece. So guess what's on my list for this week?

Goals:
~ Book Reviews
~ Dalia's Story
~ Finish "A Disturbing Group"
~ Write another "Striking Thoughts" piece.

Gee - this list looks rather familiar...

Striking Thoughts - Part 1

Did you know that Bruce Lee, the famous Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do Master, was also a philosopher? I didn’t except in the most general sense. I know quite a bit about martial arts for someone who’s never practiced them (although I’ve always wanted to) and one thing I know is that most forms of martial arts have accompanying philosophies. Sometimes they can be vastly different, but some concepts, like Honor, tend to be a part of all of them. Knowing this, I could have easily guessed that Bruce Lee had been something of a philosopher, but what I didn’t know is that he actually studied as a Philosophy Major at the University of Washington (my home state!).

One thing that makes Bruce Lee’s view on philosophy different is that he studied many different cultures and their ways of thought. He sought to find the truth with an open mind, and as a result, his words are a conglomerate of concepts from all over the world, but I’ll get more into that later.

“Why,” you may ask, “are you sharing all this with us?” Well, like said, I’ve always had an interest in martial arts. I didn’t get involved in them when I was younger initially because of health problems, and then because I was too busy, and then the health problems got really bad again. However, my former roommate is a black belt, and she shared a lot of her knowledge (not fighting techniques, but the philosophy they were taught) with me. My youngest brother has also always been interested in martial arts (and knows some) and he’s taught me a few things about protecting myself. He’s also the one who was telling me about a book he had just read, “Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living.” It caught my interest, and next thing I knew I was borrowing it from him!

As I write this I’ve only read a small portion of the book so far. Two introductions that talked a lot about Bruce Lee’s life as both a martial artist and philosopher, and then a little bit of the first section, “Part One, On First Principles: Life.” I’ve studied some philosophy, theology, and comparative religions so I’m finding this fascinating. I’ve always loved examining different ways of thought, and as I’m reading it I find myself taking it bit by bit and processing it. My parents taught me at an early age to think through the meanings of things and not just to accept them at face value. So that’s why I’m doing with this book. I’m evaluating what he says against what I believe to be true, and I’m also simply absorbing information about other cultural points of view.

I’ll be writing more as I read more of this book. I’d like to share with you, my readers, some of my thoughts as I go through it. My plan is to share the occasional snippet of Bruce Lee’s philosophy, and then my thoughts and reflections on it. Hopefully this will give you things to think about as well! 

Writing ADD #20

I've gotten an amazing amount of writing done this week! The only thing I can say is ... drugs can be good sometimes :P Seriously, I've been having to be drugged up almost constantly for my migraines, which I hate, but I've been able to think pretty clearly so I've gotten a lot done anyway!

Week's Total:
Book Reviews: 3
Striking Thoughts: In progress
Cooking Adventures: Posted
Letter's Home: Posted
Dalia's Story: In progress
Total Words: 4381

"Striking Thoughts" is a book about the philosophy of Bruce Lee. I'm writing some of my own thoughts and reactions in response to what I read. I have two posts worth written up right now and I plan on posting one a week from now until....whenever :P

Cooking Adventures and Letter's Home 4 are both posted so I won't talk about them here - just suggest you go read them if you haven't already! I also started a blog yesterday for Aria's Quest so that it'll all be in one place instead of spread out across this blog. So go check it out and if you missed the beginning now's your chance to start! 

Dalia's Story is one that I've had floating around in my head for awhile now. I plan on doing a series of stories themed around the various elements and this one is based on the element of Water. It's going pretty good so far, although I think it's going to be too long to post on the blog. So I'll probably post a short "snapshot" of the story on here when ever it's done and then e-mail it out to people.

What's on the agenda for this week? More book reviews, movie and tv reviews, Striking Thoughts, more with Illia and with Dalia, and who knows what else!