HitchHike The Universe What happens when you follow the ebbs and flows of the Universe?

12May/10

The Elephant and the Twig

Just a short post.

In a newsletter I subscribe to from Iain Abernethy, there was a link to a book written by Geoff Thompson. Mr. Thompson is giving the book away for free, all you have to do is sign up for his newsletter (which I highly recommend doing anyway).

I downloaded the book and have been reading it the last couple of days. It's titled: The Elephant and the Twig. It follows a lot of the formula of other works such as Think and Grow Rich and The Secret. But it has some funny cartoons interlaced. The book seems to be mostly about the author's own experiences and how he came to where he's at now.

I'm not saying the book is a cookie cutter work by any means. I do find it funny/reassuring that so many successful people seem to have the same story to tell. An interesting tid-bit that I came across yesterday was the importance of taking a break from life. It's something I've known (as I think all people instinctively know), but he presented it in such a way that I really see the importance of it and what it can do for me. He also pointed out that even if you truly can't take a break, you can still go somewhere with "good air" and it will help you gain a fresh perspective on things.

I hope there are some of you who will discover something good while reading the book and the newsletters he puts out. As well he also puts out podcasts to go with a number of his articles.

Here's the link: http://www.geoffthompson.com/newsletter/Joinnewsletter.asp

Everyone make it a great one!

15Nov/09

100 Day Challenge: Day 28

Another delayed reply, sorry.

Actually I should really apologize, I've been having difficulties wanting to write an update everyday lately. There are some days I don't see things on a day to day basis, but I have seen things happen over a couple of days.

I can't point to things over the last couple of days that I've been learning (I know they're there, just can't recall them exactly). I did have a big win the other day.

I have a couple of new roommates: Glacius and Cobra Commander. They're only about 9 weeks old and they're brothers.

They've been a lot of fun to have in the apartment over the last couple of days, they're both very sweet and have lots of energy.

Lets see, oh yeah, I got my whiteboard up next to my desk finally! It involved using a drill and hammering in sheet-rock load sleeves (or whatever you want to call them). Is it sad that's one of the highlights of my week? Meh, I'm glad it's up so now I have an easy place to write notes and ideas down :-) (or things like lessons learned).

So I've been thinking that this site is great, I really like writing about my 100 Day Challenge progress. But I'm finding it difficult to come up with topics beyond that right now and it's getting a bit boring writing only about that for about a month now. So I'm going to start writing some other articles about things. I've mentioned video games before, I'll probably start with some older ones that have a lot of nostalgia value for me (Finally Fantasy III/VI, Chrono Trigger, Mega Man, etc).

As well I'm also thinking I'm going to put my experiences during this process and prior to into an e-book. I'm not sure what will really make it different from a lot of "self-help" books out there, other than it will be written by me. Of course I am seeing that the majority of my life improvement involves Martial Arts so I may approach them from that angle. As well I have some other ideas to mix in there.

Now that I think about it, I keep seeing the idea of specific purpose coming up in my life. Perhaps it's because I still feel like I'm floating and just waiting for something to happen. Part of me has no idea where to begin with trying to figure that out. I keep coming back to writing video games. But I don't know if I want to program them or design them. I really should start a project and work on some short ones to see what I like I guess. Things I do know: I love story, good back story that make characters and places more vivid. Maybe I should star there.

Then again, not to sound like a cop-out, I'm probably going to leave a majority of this to my upcoming break. I have over a month off and I intend to use it. I'm going to try scheduling my free time though. So it'll be more fulfilling rather than just "end up" watching YouTube for a month. Really I think that realization in and of itself is a good one (needing to set a schedule for myself). Hmmm maybe that's something I'll have to try this week with my time. I'll see how much it helps to have a clear schedule of what needs to be done.

Something else that I would like to do is to write more interesting articles. These journal entries are fine to get my thoughts down, but I don't do much in the way of a writing process. Just sort of type things up as they come to mind. I'll proofread a little bit and call it good. But I think I want to try writing some actual articles on things. I guess now I need to come up with some subjects to write about. One thing at a time :-)

Everyone make it a great one!