Today at work we made Kadomatsu for the New Year. Everything was cut from the Japanese Friendship Garden of Phoenix. We didn’t spend a dollar! My coworker and I had a great time. Because the bamboo is really strong, we asked one of our gardeners to help us. He cut the long stocks from the back of the garden, trimmed them and sanded off the knots.

Then we collected different kinds of pine, some Australian bottle brush and Nandina for decorations. We arranged them when we got back to the office. My boss had mizuhiki from Japan that she made for the front good luck knot. My coworker even brought her calligraphy brushes for the greeting.

The last step of production was adding the mizuhiki. The knot is fairly complicated. We didn’t have glue, so I’ll have to add pictures of it tomorrow.

It was really fun to work with my coworker and boss on this project! It’s my first real cultural event like this.

That’s all for now ~

It’s happened. I’m doing something socially. As in not related to work. Hanging with people outside my family. Shocking? Yes. But probably good. A friend is back home from the military, so we’re going to see a movie.

I helped make my love’s face glow yesterday. He wanted some gaming headphones, so I helped him buy them for Christmas. Yay! Best month ever~

That’s it for now!

Here we are again. Happy Christmas/holidays to anyone reading. I hope your year has been productive and filled with happiness. I’ve been (mostly) happy, but not productive at all. This year’s word count of 13,152 is at least 40,000 words less than I wrote last year. The 2011 writing file is woefully thing compared to the last couple years. Obviously I’ve suffered from a lack of discipline and motivation. Between my family life and work I’ve had a lot on my plate. Still, those feel like excuses. Every time I’ve been down, I turned to writing, but after I recovered I didn’t keep with it. I just faded back into an ‘average’ life. I ate, I worked, I slept. It wasn’t very fulfilling at all. So this next year is going to be different. I know, I always say that. But this time I’m recommitting to discipline. So it will get done.

I’m just not sure what I’ll do yet. I’m currently doing a series of exercises where each day I write at lease 500 words of anything except me rambling (see this blog post). So maybe I’ll keep that going. Time will tell.

But that’s all for now. I hope you have a happy holiday season and stay safe~

It’s been a while again since I’ve posted. For that matter, since I’ve written anything, but that’s a another matter. Work is starting up again in a couple days and school started a couple weeks ago. It’s difficult for my brain to shift from complete idleness to being very organized and busy. But hey, what’s life without a little challenge?

I feel like I’m cheating on my novel. I’ve been neglecting it for sure and that’s never good for any relationship, but I’ll get back to it. I don’t doubt that I’ll get it finished. It’s just not going to happen this year like I’d planned. Unless something amazing happens. Anything is possible. Until then, I’ve got a couple neat ideas for short stories. I can’t talk about them yet, but I’m going to start writing. I’m so much happier and well-adjusted (if a bit more air-headed, haha) when I’m writing. Hopefully that’ll help me shake off the blues I’ve been dipping into.

Well, there’s the update. I’m not dead, just reclusive

Laylian

I decided to finally take the plunge into upgrading my OS. I got tired of my computer spazzing out while I was typing and neglecting to record what I’d been trying to say. When it freezes in Microsoft Word you know there’re problems.

So I begin the laborious process of reinstalling everything I use. I went for a completely new install over a normal upgrade. I was afraid that whatever slowed me down last time and kept my .net framework from upgrading would follow me over to this new OS. That wouldn’t be fun at all.

This might be something I should have done last month before Camp NaNo. Whether or not it impacts my wordcount remains to be seen. I’m currently ahead of where I need to be. Let’s hope it stays that way!

I’m going to load some more programs.
Ta~

I haven’t done much so far. I’m blocked, actually. I lost my favorite writing book (no excuse, but its important to me). If I just push past the feeling that everything I write is bad, things will work out.

Life has been a little difficult recently. I’m waiting to hear if my grandmother’s cancer has spread. It’s still in that ‘this doesn’t feel real’ phase, so I haven’t been stressing out. Only I suppose I have, because everything else seems pointless. Ah, life.

I have a couple writing exercises I still need to post. I’ll try to get those up soon.