Going Home

This blog serves little purpose. In the beginning it was a lot of fun. I dumped all sorts of random stuff here and my life is better for it. I might be all dumped out. Time to go home.

Cross Post: Summing Up My NaNoWriMo Experience ... again

You can read all about it on my other blog, the one where I write mostly about the creative process and the stuff I make.

This year, the process was more time and resource consuming because my goal was to reach 50,000 before Thanksgiving. I was hoping for an earlier "win." Say, around the 15th of the month, because that would give me a better chance of finishing the story by the end of the month. I have trouble with motivation in months that don't involve NaNoWriMo.

Maybe in December I'll go back to my usually bi-weekly updates. It's not like I don't have anything to write about or show you. My impulses have been satisfied with a daily word count goal of 2000. (Previously 2800.) Not sure what that means, if anything. Wonder what life would be like if I wrote 2000 words every day?

The Best Free Game No One Plays: Hidden Shadows

"Surgeon's Stable" scene from the
"Doctored Death" episode.

Zynga's Hidden Shadows game on Facebook is a hidden picture adventure with everything: beautiful art, crime stories arranged like episodic TV, interstitial graphic novel panels, achievable goals, a moderately increasing difficulty level, intuitive interface, and (most important for me) the capability to play without "neighbors" or a whole bunch of friends.

You also get a good run for your basic supplies of energy and easily earn the materials you need to speed up investigations or make more energy. Not a whole lot of materials, of course. Zynga still wants you to buy stuff and energy. And there are two annoying screens to click through asking you to invite friends. However, there is enough to keep going at a critical juncture or if you just can't wait 12 hours for lab results.

The mild disadvantages are that Badges needed to move forward can take a long time to earn and if you choose to investigate the wrong evidence (when you have a choice of two) you'll find yourself spending a lot of time earning Badges. These take progressively more energy to earn and max out at five per scene. New scenes are opened up from analyzed evidence.

Even though this game has "everything" none of my friends play it. For a short time, in order to win extra stuff for Farmville 2, a couple of friends played it. They got the booty and quit. I can't stop.

The items you search for are varied (although they have a thing for hats) and usually in plain sight. As you level up the items blend in more, are hidden in shadow, and sometimes are only partially shown. If you can't find the item or wonder what a generic word like "bat" means, you can hover over the word and see the image. This distinguishes between the animal and the wooden variety. You also get a hint from seeing the image because you see exactly what the item looks like in the scene. I can tell from the size and angle approximately where in the picture the item is hidden.

Hints are quickly available. In the screen snap above, in the lower left corner is the Hint counting up. In a matter of seconds you have a Hint available. One is all I've ever needed. Hints are available for purchase (of course) and you can make them from the raw materials generated by successful completion of scenes.

Achievable objectives and earnable materials, yet no one plays this game. I have one friend who  plays a couple times a week and that's it. I don't get it. Why would no one enjoy the pleasant passing of time with a pretty, moderately challenging game?

Opening screen. Pretty or what?

Notification to complete more scenes to analyze
the evidence you find in a scene.
Badges are earned by completing scenes.

Make Speed-Ups and Energy (but not Badges)
from materials gathered (automatically) in scenes.
As you can see, I have a lot of materials.

Season One - completed.

Season Two - in progress.

Human heart or graphic heart? Prevent errors.
Hover over the word and find out!

Documentaries for Breakfast

A 13th Century map of England from
Ian Mortimer's book, "The Time
Traveler's Guide to Medieval England."
There are no dragons or troglodytes here.
They're on another map.

What's really happening is not so much laying fallow as collecting material or storing up images and sensations. Documentaries about ancient Africa, Alexandria, and eastern religions (particularly Yoga, Hinduism, and Buddhism) are what interest me. And a book: "The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century" by Ian Mortimer.

This interest emerged years ago when I read most of the books in the Sister Fidelma series; as accurate a depiction of the Celtic world as Perry Ellis (aka Peter Tremayne) can make. He's a serious scholar and authority on the period of the Celts. I still think of how his heroine traveled and lived in those fictions. Because, although the stories are fiction, the way she and her contemporaries lived is based on as much fact as can be garnered from history.

So, I can't say it's all about history because I'm not obsessed with dates and politics. I'm obsessed with how people lived and what they thought and believed. And how those thoughts and beliefs evolved.

One of the most telling chapters of "The Time Travelers Guide to Medieval England" is the one on Health and Hygiene. Medical practices were an amalgamation of astrology, superstition, and badly transmitted ancient knowledge. There's a lot of blood letting. A fun segment of a Saturday Night Live episode (Season 3, Episode 18 - April 22, 1978) shows what a pastiche of concoctions such treatments were. Steve Martin, as doctor, suggests treatments which patients are lucky to survive. Ian Mortimer presents the same case in his book; that you are healthier without a doctor in the middle ages.

A time of collection is a known part of the creative process as explained by Julia Cameron in her book "The Artist's Way." Although I had lived through this phase previously, I hadn't isolated it as part of a process before doing the 12 week self-directed workshop using her book. If I had, momentarily, acknowledged my laying fallow it was with a lot of guilt about "doing nothing." Which might be why I'm doing so much knitting and crocheting. Keeping my hands busy and feeling productive while letting my mind wander. Collecting.

My collecting process is more like stocking
an antique/junk shop than filing things
away neatly.

The Elaine Report: Feb 6, 2013

From Richard III to Beutel-Ei Nr. 1 in 8 steps.

• Reconstructing Richard III's Face So glad they did this! The portraits existent are so flat and characterless. There's a good description of digital facial construction and its limitations.
• Indian women robbed of their uteruses by money grubbing doctors ... and the government does nothing. Many women now convinced they cannot recover from illness without a hysterectomy. 
• New York city negotiating with Air BnB to keep visitors off the street. I was an Air BnB host for about a year. I met some intriguing, kind travelers who appreciated my local expertise. And helped pay my bills.
• Turns out being miles underground is the best way to study dark matter and get real peace and quiet.
• Microscopic nutrients from the Sahara rain on the Amazon. We are all one ecosystem, ya'll! Not a lot of other facts or explanations in this brief article with a Nikon-sponsored video of lovely shots of the Sahara.
• 21 Things You Should Never Buy at a Garage Sale. Full of ooky bugs and germs! Would have been better to tell us what we should buy.
• Internet to be replaced by esoteric time stream. Note the napkin sketch at the end of the article. Doesn't really help. Tumbled it.
• Technology aging backwards? I don't get it. Read about three paragraphs and became overcome by dark matter.
• Seamless beautiful backpack made of wool. The artist named it an Egg Bag. It is sort of egg shaped. Looks more like a Lady Bug to me. Pinned it.

One Mystical Boat

In her book, The Wisdom of No Escape, Pema Chodron writes about sticking with one boat, going deep along one path instead of shopping religions every time you come up against pain. During one of my recent stays at Yogaville, I had a consultation with Mataji (Swami Gurucharanananda) who advised me that “sampling here and there is not a path.”

My first path was Catholic. I had nothing to do with that. I was born Catholic and followed that path for 18 years until one day I looked at the genuflecting congregation and saw that they were just following a routine. There was no spirituality involved.* They had this memorized routine for mass: words they said, sitting, standing, kneeling. None of it was spiritual. I could see right through them. That was when I decided to go on a spiritual quest.

I began my quest by partying because I was a freshman in college and that’s what freshman do. After a couple of deathly experiences, I began investigating the Mormon church because my best friend and everyone we knew were doing that. So, I “investigated” and “prayed about it” and “received a testimony” that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was the one true church.

I transferred to Brigham Young University. I met a man and got married in the temple and brought my children up in the convenant. I was a Mormon for 18 years. And then one day it hit me that there was no spirituality in my path and I left that church.

For years I wandered with no path until I met a group who had decided to make up their own religion. So I did, too. I created my own goddess. From there I began investigating the basic and ancient religions, and acquiring gods and goddesses. After 12 years of snatching the best bits from other religions, I finally wanted to know what I really believed. I took the famous Belief-O-Matic quiz and learned that I was first of all Neo-Pagan, second New Age, third a Liberal Quaker, and fourth Unitarian Universalist (UU).

I had heard murmurings of Neo-Paganism in the various online discussion groups over the years but figured that real pagans were hard to find——what with the Inquisition and all. I felt I had a grasp on New Age and wasn’t interested in Liberal Quakers because sitting around not talking didn’t seem like a good way to investigate spirituality.** There was a UU church I drove by frequently and that seemed a convenient place to start.

In the Sunday services I found the first spiritual lectures I could relate to. The minister spoke from experience with facts and research. It was a thoughtful approach with nuggets of wisdom that catalyzed my quest. I joined the local UU congregation and plunged into a plethora of small groups investigating various spiritual paths i.e., Taoism, Buddhism, Humanism, and Yoga.

This led me into the wider community where I joined a local Buddhist group, a local pagan church, and a Shamanistic journeying group. This has been my path for five years: investigating and living various paths in an earnest effort to walk my own personal path. Which is what led me to Pema Chodron and Sri Swami Satchidananda. UU reorganized and focused my spiritual quest.

I am in one boat. A boat of my own device. A boat that lets me investigate creeks and rivers, canals and oceans. With it I’ve discovered there is only one path: the path to my own true nature. This is what Buddha, Jesus, Patanjali, Guru Nanak, and Mohammed were all talking about. True spirituality is the path to one’s true nature. The one and only boat. Or in Yogaville parlance: Many Paths. One Truth.

---

*As part of my investigations through my UU membership, I have reclaimed the parts of Catholicism that are good and precious to me.

**It’s ironic about my aversion to Quaker silence because that’s a big part of my practice now: meditation. Sitting around quietly, breathing and noticing. Also, the Richmond Quakers sponsor the Dances of Universal Peace. Shows what prejudice will keep you from.

Path 101 Test - What industry matches your personality?

I like this test. I like seeing what doesn't match, actually. My "love of thinking" is a sore thumb in the process. Apparently it doesn't fit with my other traits in the top four suggested industry matches. But that's ok. I'm used to that. In another test I'm Artistic/Investigative and they don't match either. Sometimes my rationally pragmatic side takes over and that throws any test for a loop.

I've often wondered why I can't hang with Artists all the time (not neurotic enough) or why I didn't end up in Theatre (not agreeable enough). I like photography and I suppose if I pursued it I would find a way to add the thinking piece, maybe by writing about it or changing the thrust of my photos by doing thinking pieces. Come to think of it, the artwork I make is sort of thinking pieces. So, there you are!

My Path 101 Personality Quiz Traits

Highest Scoring Traits

Openness

Idealism

Love of Thinking

Lowest Scoring Traits

Agreeableness

Extroversion

Initiative

Like-minded people work in:
Photography  Graphic Design and Illustration  Web Design  Publishing  Environmental Studies and Protection  

See Elaine's full assessment and get your own.

What can a person of high intelligence do?

What can a person of high intelligence do? Just about anything they feel like doing. Unhindered by social norms or conventions these people train as nurses, work for 15 years and then become successful auto sellers in a matter of months. They live frugal hermitic lives at the bottom of the social ladder one step above homelessness and they live at the top, with a highly developed network that nets them more than they need with little effort. They create dynamic personal partnerships that rely only on commitment instead of a legal promise and proximity. They create optimal conventional partnerships and become society leaders. They live in island paradises and inner cities. They write poetry and develop complex mathematic algorithms. They set their own hours, rising at 2 a.m. to run an international electronics repair service with 3,000 domain names or live off the proceeds of stock investments based on their own esoteric systems. Enchanted by the unknown, they easily forge ahead by teaching themselves necessary skills. They quietly innovate and make huge public splashes on Jeopardy.

Whatever they do, they do fully, completely and devotedly, becoming priests, pastors, nuns, and CEOs. A people of extremes, they end up in jails and sit as district court judges. With highly-focused persistent attention spans, they often pursue an interest exclusively and far beyond ordinary limits. It is not uncommon for a person of high intelligence to have deep knowledge about a rare, complex subculture and little about local issues.

Quickly absorbing, analyzing and mastering whatever comes their way, their biggest problems are boredom and vocational boundaries. Their unifying passions are learning and sharing what they have learned. As a people, they are far ahead of the curve, often leading the rest of society into new, uncharted modes of adaptation purely by example.

Shakespeare Wallah

I have played many great dramatic roles in my time.
— Manjula

I've watched at least 256 movies. That's how many I've rated at Blockbuster Online. All along I've been following the actors and actress. I've followed Meryl Streep, Orlando Bloom, Hugh Grant, Hugh Jackson, Renee Zellweger, John Wayne, Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, and lately Viggo Mortensen, to name a few.

This year for Mother's Day one of my sons gave me the complete DVD animated collection of "Aeon Flux" (because he a smart guy). I watched everything and discovered Peter Chung, the genius behind Aeon Flux. Peter not only did the art he also created the stories. Over the summer I watched "Venus." It was an interesting story and struck me in much the same way that "Slaves of New York" had. All three movies have a sort of eeriness or wildness about them which led me to focus on story.

Once I started focusing on story I found other movies by the script writer who had written "Venus." They seemed a bit more over the edge than I was comfortable with. So I turned to my most favorite movie of all time, "Slaves of New York", and focused on direction.

The director, James Ivory, was a hit. I've got a list of movies in my Blockbuster Queue that he directed. Shakespeare Wallah is the last one I watched.

James Ivory (and Ismail Merchant) makes movies about unusual people living ordinary lives. "Slaves of New York" is about artists making a living. "Shakespeare Wallah" is about actors making a living. They're both sympathetic and honest tales. Another of his movies, "Five Forty-Eight," has the same quiet, matter-of-fact tone showing ordinary people doing mildly insane things as if they were everyday occurrences.

I'm not really sure how the tone is conveyed. Maybe it's the eye level camera or the straight on angles or the inclusion of everyday details in the frame. There's also something in the low-key delivery of the actors and actresses. As if James were making a documentary.

Actors do bring a lot to a part, especially talented, well-trained and experienced actresses/actors. I can't say who brings how much. Earlier today I was playing around with Director=75% Actress/Actor=25%. Well, there has to be a part for the writer, of course. Actually, I think there has to be a troop, a regular bunch of people who come together to produce similar stories.

It's all about knowing what to watch. I'm still having a hard time at the video rental store. Perhaps after watching a few more Ivory Merchant Productions I'll have an easier time of it. Just pulling out movies that are similar, like "Blade Runner" (my second favorite movie or is it "Defending Your Life" which I have watched more times than any other movie?) and "Memories" doesn't work. And never tell me, "You'll like this. It's much better than X."

I know. It's a stupid problem but it's my problem and I'm going to keep working on it.