A Move

Much like the recent move of The Red Dress Club to something bigger better and a little less inhibiting, I'm moving my site (all posts included) to a slightly different set up at makeofmyself.blogspot.com.

 This blog was wonderful as I spent last semester pushing myself to expand my creative pursuits. The only problem became that my creative pursuits expanded enough that working on just a writing blog didn't really fill the purpose I needed. I've started collecting a lot of crafting DIY sites and, while I'm a little restricted in Hong Kong, I'm interested in pursuing what I can in the way of crafting, design and art. I found it became more and more frustrating not being able to post on the blog, so I started to seek a new direction.

The seasons have turned once again and with that transition, I go too. Even though this site will still exist,  all of the posts and comments are coming with me to the new site.

So here's what I'm Making of Myself.

Book Challenge Update

So it's been a while since I've done this and while I have not been reading books, I have been listening to them. I think this is a completely valid way of consuming books for my book challenge this year. :)

Over the summer I listened to the entire Harry Potter Series on my ipod, so 7 books up!

16) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
17) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (yes, I even listened to my least favorite of them all)
18) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
19) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
20) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
21) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
22) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

There's nothing like doing a series to help get you through your book challenge. I tend to listen to these while driving or cooking dinner. It's a nice way to take in a book while doing something else that I find relaxing.

On another note, I've updated San Serif with a rant on teaching and exploring as a learning technique (or how I'm not really getting to do that second bit, at any rate) here.

Also, I've been posting a bit on wordpress at Make of Myself. Today's post over there is about Pinterest and the little bit of creative work I tried to do this week.

Do you have any audiobooks you love to listen to?

Autumn Aura

I was recently reading a post by NatureGirl who describes her love and passion for the summer. It made me think of all that hot stickiness that she describes (and that I'm still feeling here in Hong Kong even though it's getting on mid-September) and I couldn't help but shake my head 'No.'

No. Summer is wonderful, but not my time. Autumn is my time. So much so that even through the continuous heat waves of Hong Kong, I have been getting flashes of that feeling you get as fall sets in - the cool breeze, the smell of the leaves as they prepared to come off the trees and, for myself, that feeling that all is right in the world.

As I start to wonder if I am hallucinating - for these little bits of imagery, olfactory and tactileness seem oh so very real - I find comfort in the fact that even halfway across the world from my home, I can still feel and experience some glimpses of that favorite season of mine.

I'm that kind of person, I guess. I have certain things which signal the change in year, which brings along with it the change in my mood and how I relate to the world. As a wonderful scholar recently pointed out in a lecture, we humans are beings of cycle. It is one of those things that we do in beautiful synchronization with the Earth around us. Let's not become so distracted by our constructed notions of progress to forget that. The Earth around us, too, progresses, just not at the speed we're used to.

Here's to the oncoming of my favorite season.

Do you have a favorite season or time of year that changes your whole outlook on the world?

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A note to those (if anyone) reading these posts - I have been considering a move to Wordpress, but currently am maintaining both blogs now. I'm posting here what I've decided to post there. The  blog is called Make of Myself . It's a place for more than just my writing creativity. I tend to cycle from writing to design and back, so I might be hanging some artwork to hang there. If I do I'll try to link up here.

Another week gone by

I planned it out - it was perfect. I was going to write last week and get it done before I had to start worrying over this week's assignment and next week's test. But the life happened. I've gotten so out of the habit - of both writing and taking classes - that I'm a damn mess. The difficulty of the class isn't what's getting to me. Oh no - that's not the problem. Sure, it's a lot of reading and when I do the work, I like to make sure it's what I consider good work. This means my notes are too detailed and my answers are too researched for my TA to appropriately respond. I guess that's where I'm feeling the struggle. I feel that the response I'm being given is either highly authoritarian or too narrow.

On top of all of that, I got my husband's hope up that I would work on the writing project that he and I are working on together now and so I've neglected another story for a community that I write in for another week. I'm hoping to get a chapter out (for the first time in much much longer than I'd like to admit) for that community after I get my assignment done today. I'll give myself a day's break from studying to get that done. Then it's back to the grindstone and studying for the first test (which I'm positive will be much easier than the one I'm preparing for in my head).

Oh the stress. I need to remember how to let it go.

What's keeping you from doing the writing you want to be doing?