Posts Tagged ‘writing’

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Tidbits

January 6th, 2011 by Manda | 8 Comments | Filed in Life, Online

I have a little less than a week left of vacation before my spring semester starts and I’m quite enjoying all this free time on my hands. I’ve gotten very accustomed to sleeping in and moving at a nice, leisurely pace – all of which I am savoring because I will not be able to enjoy these luxuries when I return to Beijing!

I’ve been reading a ton, most of which I can attribute to my Kindle and free time. I’ve also debated taking up writing again, although I don’t have any of my working drafts (“working” is used loosely here; I haven’t written anything creatively since the summer of 2009) on hand. One of my friends gave me an idea about a book I could write, though. (Rather, he looked at me point-blank and said, “You should write a book and this is what it will be about. Then, when it’s complete, I get the first copy to read.” While I was taken aback by this as we hadn’t been talking about books or writing, such directness was refreshing.) I’ve been toying with starting that up with some kind of short story or prologue that I could use in the future to expand upon, but I’m hesitant to start writing anything because I won’t have time to even think about writing once the semester starts. Reading and writing tie in quite nicely with the resolutions I’ve made for 2011, though, so I’m pleased with that.

Speaking of resolutions, I’ve added on two more. One is to keep an account of my finances, because it’s about time I keep track of my cash flow (particularly as in China, everything is handled in cash, not plastic). It doesn’t matter how cheap things are in China or Hong Kong; I still need to know what I’m spending my money on! Like the pair of knockoff Uggs I got for $99HKD yesterday. Not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things (particularly when you compare that price to a pair of real Uggs), but it’s still money nonetheless.

The other is to maintain a daily happiness journal, inspired by Krissy. I’ve set up a Tumblr for this project, which can be found here: 每天开心 (Mei Tian Kai Xin). The name translates to “every day happy,” which I think is very fitting. Everyone needs a little bit of happiness each day.

My new Tumblr project hasn’t been the only thing I’ve been busy with online. I’ve been trying to figure out why my WP to Twitter plugin doesn’t work as it should. Every time I publish a post, it only tweets the title of my entry, not the title and URL. Anyone have a plugin to recommend that actually works? Or one that won’t start working and then randomly stop including the URL in tweets, as this plugin did?

Oh, and in celebration of this blog’s 2nd birthday, I’ve put up a new layout.

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Journaling Again

May 26th, 2010 by Manda | 3 Comments | Filed in Life, Question of the Week

Yesterday, I took out my journal and began to write again. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve journaled the way I used to in high school. When I was a senior in high school, I wrote in a paper journal every day. I slacked off my first semester of college, but I picked it up again second semester and the summer between my first and second year of college. Once I began sophomore year, though, I didn’t journal at all.

Actually, that’s a bit of a lie. I wrote one journal entry for the entirety of the year. I wrote it after a relationship exploded in my face, and I remember thinking that writing it out would help me put the situation in perspective. And it did, as writing always does. But what really irks me about that entry is that out of all the numerous events of the year I chose to document in my journal, I chose that one. Of all my successes and failures, I wrote about someone I no longer care for in the slightest and don’t even speak to anymore. I mean, really? The guy flat-out used me and that pretty much says all there is to say about the entire situation.

Anyway. Seeing as that I have some breathing space this summer, unlike my crazy schedule last semester, I figured it’s about time to put pen to paper once again. There’s a lot I need to get through, but it’s better to catch up now than later!

In the years to come, when I look back on my teen and college years, I’ll have various digital and online journals to reflect on, like this blog and my LiveJournal. But I know I’ll want something more personal to read, which is why I’m keeping a paper journal. It’s where I write about all of the ups and downs, the good and the ugly. It’s uncensored, unedited and written without an audience in mind. My paper journals are essentially me in paper form, and that’s something that will only become more valuable and more precious to me as I get older.

Question of the Week: Do you keep a journal? Is your journal in paper, digital and/or online form?

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Goals for 2010

January 4th, 2010 by Manda | 14 Comments | Filed in Entertainment, Life, School, Travel

I’m not really a resolutions type of girl, because I either forget about/have failed them by the second week of January. Instead, I’m going to try and set some goals for myself this year1.

  • Read more (fictional) books
    I have always adored reading but my life just got so crazy in 2009 that when I did have free time, I wanted to spend it either sleeping or doing mindless stuff like watching TV. I definitely want to read more this year cause I miss it!
  • Complete Project 365
    I did Embodiment successfully for the first half of 2008, and then I just petered out due to lack of time. I still want to document my year, so I’m going to try using photography instead of writing. I created a Flickr account for this, and my most recent photo is featured in this blog’s sidebar.
  • Get into a year-long study abroad program of my choice for next academic year
    I have my heart set on getting into a year-long study abroad program for the 2010-2011 academic year in Beijing, China. If Beijing falls through, I’m looking at other places as my overall goal is to go abroad for all of next year no matter what the place.
  • Maintain good grades and get on Dean’s List for spring 2010 and fall 2010 semesters
    I’ve been on Dean’s List for all of my semesters in college. This is something I want to continue and hopefully it will be pretty achievable.
  • Finish first draft of my novel THE MOST HAPPY
    Last summer, I began writing the first draft of my novel THE MOST HAPPY. I was aiming to finish it sometime last semester if I found the time, but that never happened. I want the first draft completed this year or else I’ll never finish it.
  • Comment on more blogs/comment more often
    I very rarely had time to comment on any blogs in the last half of 2009, and when I did, a lot of my favorite bloggers were on hiatus/disappeared. Assuming real life doesn’t get too insanely busy, I want to comment on blogs more often as well as discover new blogs to comment on.
  • Focus more on the “now” rather than the future
    This has always been a problem for me as I never see any point in following through something if I know it won’t pan out in the end. While that makes sense logically, it means I miss out on a lot of the little things, especially when it comes to friendships and relationships and being a teenager/college student in general. I’m aiming to be more relaxed and carefree when it comes to allowing myself to enjoy things now rather than discarding the opportunity altogether because it won’t work out in the long-run. Maybe that means I’ll be a little wilder and more reckless but hey, this is my last year as a teenager so I have to make it count! ;)
  1. Or maybe I just like the term “goal” better than “resolution”, cause they pretty much amount to the same thing. [↩]

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