Monthly Archives: May 2012

May 28, 2012

Every day is new, with no mistakes in it

By Ellen Gregory

“Every day is new, with no mistakes in it.”

This is the first of two powerful life lessons I learnt long ago from the novel Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. I quote it to myself often, especially when I find myself getting frustrated about falling behind in my daily goals and not achieving all I want to.

It’s so easy to beat ourselves up over failing to perform. Not enough words/exercise/networking. Too much TV/bad food/procrastination. There are so many obstacles to surmount when we’re aiming high. Let’s face it: the path of least resistance is NEVER the path towards our dream.

The good news is that even if we find ourselves meandering through a meadow of flowers (aka doing something pleasurable other than doggedly pursuing our goal), the route resets itself the very next day. The next day is our opportunity to avoid being lured down that pleasure-path and to instead tackle that tough climb up the mountain.

I’m not suggesting that procrastination is acceptable. That mindset will have us taking the meadow-path every time, doomed to circumnavigate that mountain, gaze up at the lofty peak for eternity. The only way to climb that mountain is to put one foot in front of the other and sweat it out.

But there is no point in dwelling upon the times when distraction overcomes us. It will happen — our mission must be to ensure it happens infrequently. But when it does happen, there is nothing at all we can do about it after the event, so we must banish it from our minds and focus on what we can control, which is our path on the very next day.

Look forward. Be positive. Take control.

Every day is new, with no mistakes in it. This sentiment, so simply expressed in Anne of Green Gables, really helps keep me positive, enhances my discipline, and allows me to refocus. Somehow it puts everything in perspective.

Yes, I stuff up, frequently. But every day is an opportunity to not stuff up.

(The second life lesson I learnt from Anne of Green Gables is never to hold a grudge… Poor misunderstood and much-maligned Gilbert Blythe. But that’s another topic entirely.)

So does anyone reading this have a tendency for self-flagellation when they fail to deliver on their daily goals? What is your approach to overcoming the disappointment and moving on? I’d love to hear your thoughts…

——————————–
Addendum 30 May
I thought I’d better check the actual quote from the book, which is:
“… tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it (yet)…”
It’s from the end of chapter 21 – A new departure in flavouring.

16 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Reflection

May 22, 2012

Let there be L words

By Ellen Gregory

There’s a meme going around the blogosphere at the moment, where you’re given a letter and challenged to come up with 10 things you love, beginning with that letter. I thought, why not? This will be easy. So I commented on Tami Clayton’s post on the letter A; and she subsequently challenged me with the letter L.

To be honest, I found this much more difficult than I anticipated. I kept thinking of things I love, and they’d start with some other letter. As a result, it’s taken me two weeks to come up with a list I’m happy with.

1. Laughter

I’m a firm believer that laughter can cure a great many ills. It’s certainly far better than panicking, and there’s nothing like a spot of silliness to dispel tension. To have a sense of the ridiculous is an essential trait, I think. And it helps to be able to laugh at yourself as well. Since I’m not innately funny, I tend to surround myself with amusing people instead.

2. Lord of the Rings

While I agree the books are landmark, it’s actually the Peter Jackson movies that captured my attention more. I first saw Fellowship expecting little and was absolutely blown away by the sheer majesty of the film. I’ve watched the entire trilogy, including the extended DVD versions, more times than I can count. The dedication to that production, the amazing attention to detail when it came to armour, costumes, sets and more, were simply superb. Definitely looking forward to the Hobbit!

3. Lasagna

I’m a big pasta fan. I also love spaghetti bolognaise, gnocchi, ravioli … in fact, all pasta. But only lasagna starts with ‘L’. Lasagna is one of those things I don’t make for myself, though. Too many steps. But I love it when someone else makes it for me!

4. Latte

Technically cafe latte, or more accurately a “skinny flat white” in Melbourne-speak. But a latte will do — and I needed to have coffee on this list! Every morning in the office I drink a latte that’s delivered to our office in nowheresville. For such a depressing industrial area, the coffee is actually quite good. In the evenings, I crank up my nespresso machine with milk frother and enjoy my second latte for the day. (I could drink more, but I’m trying to limit my intake.)

5. Lindt

Another of my vices is Lindt chocolate. It doesn’t have to be Lindt, but it most often is. I’m sure if I lived in Europe I’d branch out more. I most often buy Lindt Excellence 70%, which is a dark chocolate. I try to fool myself into having only two squares (20g), but it’s hard to stop!

6. Leather

I guess this isn’t too animal friendly, but I do like garments made of leather — especially my long black leather jacket and my new boots of Spanish leather! The latter (Wonders) are a very recent purchase and the first long black boots I’ve had since I was about 10 when I used to pretend I was Wonderwoman. I’m getting such a kick out of wearing them (hehe).

7. Learning

At heart, I’m a bit of a nerd. I really like learning new things — whether it’s a short course in tapestry weaving, yoga or something theoretical. I was at university for eleven years, gained three degrees, and although I’ve vowed I’m never going back don’t be surprised if I renege on that deal. Just saying. At the moment I’ve got my eye on several training courses through work, including Adobe Photoshop.

8. Liveship Traders

I’ve been banging on about this fantasy series by Robin Hobb quite a bit recently, but that’s because I’ve just relived them via audio. Nevertheless, the trilogy remains one of my all time favourites and I’d recommend it to anyone. I just wish I could remember who I lent my paperbacks to!

Thank heavens at least one of my favourite books/series begins with L… I honestly can’t think of any others, nor favourite authors, that do!

Oh yes, I can — the Lions of Al-Rassan, by Guy Gavriel Kay. That qualifies, right?

And Lynn Flewelling…

9. London

There has to be at least one travel destination on here, and London is the grandmother of them all.  This magnificent city presents a different face every time I visit. Most recently, about 18 months ago, I visited during the snow-infested winter, and spent time in the Cabinet War Rooms, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Museum of London.

10. Lists

This might seem a bit strange, but it’s fitting really. I live by ‘to-do’ lists, both at work and at home. They keep me on track. They keep me sane. (They also sometimes can be depressing when they keep getting longer…) There’s something highly satisfying about crossing completed items off a list! Of course, top-10 lists like this one are fun too!

That completes my list of 10 L words, and I did find it very difficult. I suspect that as soon as I hit publish, about three more L words will push their way forward and I’ll regret not including them. Oh well.

What do you think of, when confronted by the letter L? If you haven’t participated in this challenge yet and you’d like me to give you a letter — or even if you have and would like a different letter — let me know in the comments. But feel free to comment without asking for a letter! I love hearing from everyone :-)

21 comments   |  tags: | posted in Favourites

May 15, 2012

How reviews influence my choice of books

By Ellen Gregory

Once upon a time it seemed as though I had hours and hours a day in which to read. I devoured books at an impressive rate. Although I’m not a particularly fast reader, I made up for it in sheer number of hours devoted to the cause.

But that was before I started writing in the evenings, watched less TV, and there was no such thing as social media, let alone a blog.

So. Since these other things do now exist, my reading time has been slashed to negligible… unless I suddenly find myself consumed by a book to the exclusion of most other things for a few days or so.

This all means choosing what to read carries rather more weight than once it did. Particularly as there is now so much more choice.

Back in the ‘olden days’ I obtained most of my reading material from the bookshop. It was my one vice as a poor university student: I never begrudged myself spending money on novels. I judged them mainly from reading the blurb on the back of the book and to a lesser extent the cover. Plus I always flicked to random sections in the text to gain an idea of the writing style.

Short of reading reviews in the paper, that was pretty much the only option available. That and word of mouth, of course. And it was hit and miss.

The internet has changed the scene considerably. Now we can google any book we like and find a hundred reviews on various bookshop sites, newspaper portals and book blogs. These days, everyone has an opinion and is willing to share it. This behaviour is even encouraged!

Moreover, we now hear about books we might never otherwise have heard of, via Amazon recommendation algorithms and social media shares. No more the somewhat limited shelves of the local bookshop. Now the options are virtually unlimited.

So how does one choose? Aside from those books that generate buzz — such as award finalists and winners, or blatant bestsellers — it can be difficult. Invariably I tend to investigate books based on recommendations I come across in the interwebs and blogosphere. Then of course there are all the books written by my writer friends, who I try to support.

Since I’m buying a lot on Kindle, I do tend to read a few of the Amazon reviews to get a general indication of whether it sounds to be my kind of book, but it’s very difficult to gauge quality. Mind you, I’m a fairly forgiving reader if the story is gripping enough. But I don’t think I set a huge store on the number of stars, because there is so much disparity of opinion and taste. Not to mention understanding of how the star-rating system works…

The inspiration for this post was the fourth of my eleven questions: Do reviews influence your choice of reads? My bottom line answer would be yes, but not for the obvious reason. The simple fact that reviews are so prevalent means that they’re bringing books to my attention and influencing my choice by providing more information about books than I would otherwise have.

Reviews have largely replaced the bookshop shelves as the source of my information — because let’s face the very sad fact that most of the bookshops seem to be closing down. And it can still be hit and miss.

For the record: I am currently reading Dragon Haven, by Robin Hobb. I was given the audiobook of this and its predecessor, Dragon Keeper, but soon downloaded both onto my Kindle so I can read and listen in tandem. It’s kind of like playing tag. Thus, in this case, reviews had zero impact on my choice, although I have read some to see what other people thought of the books. I may even feel compelled to ‘review’ them myself here when I’m done. ;-)

What about you? How do you choose books? What are you reading right now and how did you choose it?

10 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Reading

May 10, 2012

D&D chronicles: the novice

By Ellen Gregory

You may be surprised to hear that, despite my being an avid fantasy reader for the vast majority of my life, I have never much been into gaming and had never ever played the iconic role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, until last weekend.

We were a group of mixed experience, two of us novices, and, since it appears we’re now going to play monthly (because we’ve only had two skirmishes and haven’t even got into the mines yet), I think it might be fun to chronicle my D&D initiation, er, adventures.

I’m playing a bard. They made me roll the numbers to establish my abilities about 10 times, because they said I had to get at least one score of at least 16… and I when I finally did so, wrist numb from all that shaking, I was left with a low score of 4. (For the uninitiated, that’s BAD.) I somewhat foolishly assigned this 4 to strength (I’m a bard, I sing and perform some magic and talk my way out of situations, don’t you know?), meaning I can only carry 13 pounds… meaning I can’t carry a sword or armour or in fact anything useful, except a bow and quiver, which are only useful from a distance. Nor can I swim or scale walls.

Having a strength of 4 really sucks.

Nor am I particularly skilled at rolling the die. (This may come as no surprise, given my 10 attempts to roll a set of 6 numbers that included a 16 or higher.) A standard roll for me on the D20 (that’s a 20-sided die) is about 7.

I’m going to get my own dice, I’ve decided! A lucky set of polyhedral dice that will roll higher than 16 every time…

The basic scenario we are playing involves an oddball group (bard, druid, ranger, rogue) who have arrived at some godforsaken outpost, armed and prepared to fight (me with my strength of 4), in return for gold. So far we have sneaked ineffectively about town, banded together and headed off to liberate a mine that’s supposedly overrun with goblins. On the way we have miraculously survived an attack by giant badger-like things, in so-doing demonstrating our total ineptitude; but then redeemed ourselves by planning and executing a successful take-over of a goblin-infested fort. Huzzah!

By then it was 1:30am and we disbanded.

But then most of us met up again for our writing group critique meeting the next day, during which we discussed options for our next move: how could we get our druid and rogue healed of their injuries quickly? what strategies would be needed in the darkness of the mine? would the goblins come back to eat us?

And so now we live in suspense until we gather again to resume our suicidal quest…

Overall D&D is a fascinating and fun game that mixes strategy with luck. I’ve heard many authors have based novels on their D&D scenarios, and I can see how this might be tempting. The game master in particular puts a huge amount of effort into creating the scenario for the benefit of the players. Kudos to all game masters.

I spent most of that first session hanging back to see how the role-playing aspect worked. It’s not really a game for introverts, I have to say. But one thing I took away is that you need to be assertive — which I wasn’t. Plus you need to think on your feet. I’m looking forward to the next session, because I think I’ll be considerably more relaxed.

So, are there any role-playing aficionados tuning in to this post today? I’d love to hear about your experiences — tips would also be most welcome. As for fellow novices, do you think you’d ever like to play?

22 comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in D&D Chronicles, Reflection

May 1, 2012

Reading places and spaces

By Ellen Gregory

Reading is what it’s all about, isn’t it? That’s why we writers turn up to the computer, day after day, to grind out the words.

In fact, reading invariably came first. As children we devoured books; at least I did. Now I look back at those days with yearning, because I seemed to have so much time to read. Not a night would go by when I didn’t spend an hour or two in bed before the lights went out, lost in a novel.

Back then, I could sometimes get on a roll and read until 4 or 5 in the morning. There were always the tricky times during the evening to negotiate — the times when I was supposed to have turned out the lamp beside my bed, the times when I would hear my mother making her way towards my door and I would frantically reach over and turn it out so she wouldn’t see. Of course, I was sprung too many times to count, and even more often than I realised, I daresay.

But then would come the time of evening when I heard my parents retiring for the night, and I would finally relax. Because if the book was really good, there was no way I was switching out the light for another few hours yet… I’d look at the time and shrug. I’d tell myself I could easily survive on 6 hours sleep, and then 5, and then finally 4 seemed eminently possible.

Oh wow, those were the days. Sometimes I’d have to push through leaden eyes, but more often than not I was so far from sleep, it seemed impossible anyway.

(She sighs.) These days I have to carve out reading time to get any at all. There seems to be so much to do! Probably reading in bed at night is still my preferred location and time, but the more I try to jam into my evenings (as in writing and blogging and…) the later I collapse into it and the less likely I am to read.

Gone are the days when I can stay awake until 4am reading. I can barely keep my eyes open past midnight half the time.

A couple of years ago I worked in the city for a year and caught the train to and fro each day. That was a total rediscovery of reading for me. Two daily doses of blessed reading on the train. I rediscovered the habit for a year, and found the more regularly I read, the easier it was to make use of the 20 minute spaces. A bit like writing really.

Perversely, I also rather appreciate hangovers. This is because they give me an excuse to spend an entire day languishing on the couch with a good book (so long as it’s a weekend!). Such luxury. But, alas, it doesn’t happen very often.

This reflection was inspired by the third of my eleven questions: Do you read in noisy or quiet spaces? An odd question, really, because I can only assume most people would prefer quiet, when it’s easiest to concentrate.

But I can read when and where it’s noisy. Last year, when I wasn’t working, I would sometimes take myself off to a cafe with a book or my kindle. It was an excuse to get out of the house, really, and I whiled away many an hour or two with a coffee, snack and novel.

So how about you? Where and when do you prefer to read? What are you reading right now? (I’m reading For whom the bell tolls, by Ernest Hemingway.)

 

12 comments   |  tags: , | posted in Reading, Reflection

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