Doing up my new apartment and speaking to contractors gave me insights into the effort and love put into constructing homes. When I see a home now, I see a summary of effort by a group of people who put thought and consideration into each facet (lighting, switches, design of blocks etc), and each invention that made our modern lives more convenient (fridge, television, water filter).
I imagined that in the past, there wasn’t air conditioning or any electronics, and how people lived in low density buildings. The advancement of technology has enabled us to build higher buildings with designer amenities. It’s a crazy jump from how our grand parents lived in the past (villages with wooden houses and townships with two storey buildings), to the modern high rise apartments we have now with nearby air conditioned shopping malls.
What a jump of technological advancement in a short span of 50 years! I wonder what would be the type of buildings and communities we will live in 50 years from now. If given an option to shape the future, I would like to see the advancement of drones shipping our parcels and groceries directly to our living rooms. I would like two seater drone vehicle that I could fly out from my balcony to another building balcony so there is no traffic congestion in the skies. I would also like to see more people working from home, with SOHO home offices as the norm to cut down carbon emissions, and a reduction in car ownership and increase in share ride services such as UBER and flexi express bus systems.
Most jobs would be automated by artificial intelligence by then and most people would be working in jobs that automate processes. Robots would do our house work (such as robot vacuum cleaners now, and in future, personal cleaner robots that do laundry and cooking).
In the past week I had been fascinated by the world of Game of Thrones. I did some cross referencing with historical events that happened, and the fictional events that mirrored those.
The Unsullied are basically inspired by the soldiers of Sparta, but in a more extreme way – they are eunuch warriors. In ancient China, eunuchs traditionally served the imperial court but they do not fight as warriors. Similarly to the unsullied, boys were sold to the imperial court and castrated at age six.
Instead of burning their organs, they are kept in a box and they can buy it back when they had made it in the court as a prominent influential eunuch, so that they can be buried together with their box upon their death. It’s a superstition that one has to be buried as a whole to be reborn as a whole.
The author did use references from Sparta and Ancient China to merge the details and invent a new race of warrior eunuchs who served a master till their death, with the inability to feel pain (Sparta warriors), and being immune to worldly desires (eunuchs).
I personally like Varys. He is a slave turned eunuch turned advisor to the King. He is the key to the events that unfold in the world of Game of Thrones. I have been following him very closely, and it seems that his plans are well executed and he is on his A game while the rest are stumbling around him.
His desire is to serve the realm, which is the best for everyone including himself. He hates magic as it lead to his castration. I believe as long Varys is in the storyline, and not killed, he will be able to influence the events in the world of Game of Thrones and eventually make Daenerys Targaryen sit on the Iron Thorne.
I had been visualizing transforming my home into a refuge for orphans. Watching hours of documentaries and reading newspaper articles on them had moved me. It makes all my complaints and worries seem like first world problems. Like, where to go on a Friday Night seems so insignificant compared to: are these orphans going to be adopted soon?
I used to think when I am older I would become a woman who keeps cats and sends them for grooming competitions. It sounds quite ridiculous when I type this now, did I even think of that before? Now, my view has shifted towards fostering orphans and providing them the love of a family.
I used to think that money was the solution to solving world’s problems. Now, I realised, it isn’t. The issue is policies that are implemented are causing the suffering of those who do not have a voice. China’s one child policy lead to the abandonment of millions of female babies. Policies implemented by the government can fundamentally shift the mindset of the population. Gay marriage rights is fundamentally shifting the perception of the LGBT community to gain widespread acceptance in their families for their choice of partners.
I believe the suffering will end once we take responsibility for the change we want to see in this world by starting with small daily actions, that in turn, influences the community and eventually the policies of the world.
I attended the Landmark Advanced Course over this weekend and I must say, it has exceeded all the expectations I had written down before my enrollment. I wanted the ability to influence the people around me. For the longest period of time, I did not know how. I watched people suffer, I watched my friends cry, I watched my family needing help and I did not know what to say, and when I wanted to say something, I hold back and run away and hide in a little corner to read books or surf Facebook.
I let the world go by without knowing what I can do. I blamed it on my age, that I was too young, I can’t tell older people what to do, they won’t listen to me. I blamed it on my circumstances, that I am female, asian and expected to do all these traditional chinese roles of what a daughter is expected and respect the elders. I blamed it on many things, on my country, my school, my who and who and who. But I didn’t realised, it wasn’t about blaming. It was about taking responsibility for what I want to be. Full 100% responsibility for what I want to see in this world.
When I start to tell others what to do so they would finally stop suffering, they would tell me I don’t know any better. That they are in dire circumstances. My friend is in debt for failure of his business. Some of my family members don’t talk to one another because of something that happened. Some of my friends are expecting harsh breakups, or just simply not doing well at work. I felt helpless to do anything but watch. Like a television show, I watched the world go by around me without the ability to be part of it. I ignored the problems and just focused on working, and writing my books, hoping by writing out my pain, the suffering will stop for myself and others.
This was the me before I did the Landmark Forum Advanced Course.
What is real only occurs in language. The power of language is that we have the ability to distinguish what happened, our stories and the meaning we attached to it. We have the power to reinvent the possibility of creating an entire new reality. It all starts with the words we use not only to describe ourselves, but others.
On Monday, I gained access to the power of language by issuing requests to my family and friends to stop suffering and take action. This I know, is unreasonable. I should just watch them suffer like a sadist. But no. Honestly. I am sick of watching people suffer. It makes me sick, it makes me hide and it impacts me negatively so much I don’t even watch the news. I refuse to know what is happening so I don’t have to deal with it. But by doing that, I am making myself smaller and smaller, like a helpless being. Like a slave to the universe. I am no slave. I am a master. A master of reality.
A writer is the master of reality itself.
I started to write my life by changing the language I use on others to redesign my reality.
As of today, four days after the seminar, my results are:
I got my parents to explore the possibility of an extraordinary relationship for their retirement years
I reestablished my friendship with my worst enemy and best friend after 1 1/2 years of fighting, through a ten minute conversation
I got my friend who is experiencing a break up to tear his name card so I can give him a hug, and he can reach out to others
I got another friend to pour all his thoughts into a glass and pour it all out into the abyss, so he can finally be freed from his suffering. He messaged me and told me he passed his driving test after failing seven times.
I got half the group in the seminar of 83 people to stand up to commit to creating change and possibilities for others in their lives to end suffering
I empowered my group to do the same of what I am doing, in their lives by directly being accountable for my words with full integrity
I rediscovered my assistant in a totally new way that I admire and respect her greatly as a person of high integrity
I started to issue requests without attaching the meaning to failure, and let go of the fear of failure itself. Rejection means nothing to me now
I gained a new access to the power of language. New realities are invented as I speak.
There are so much undiscovered possibilities that my actions make in the sea of possibilities, I can be free of any attachment or disappointment as long I keep doing what I want to do and see for this world, which is to end suffering.
and much more undiscovered possibilities now present to me.
The Landmark Forum is truly profound. I had signed up for the Leadership Course and committed another six months to mastering my identity, language and reality.
Do not believe anything written about the Landmark Forum, including what I just wrote. This is my journey and each person journey is unique. You have to experience this for yourself.
This course exceeds the experience of Space Travel.
I would put the Advanced Course as the number one adventure I had experienced in my lifetime (ahead of my backpacking trip in Greece).
My possibilities are your possibilities, enroll yourself in the Landmark Forum and go past the next frontier of performance for yourself and others.
You may be the next cause of change in this world.
This is a very insightful read to the real Geishas, or chinese courtesans who entertained and dined with powerful men of their time. High class courtesans in ancient China were fallen scholar officials daughters whose family fell into dire circumstances and were forced to give up their daughters.
Reading this book is like reading a book written by my mum. Initially, I did not understand what my mum means when I acted like a tomboy during my teenage years and she said it bought disgrace to my “scholar official ancestors”. This book gave me insights into ancient chinese culture and what was expected of scholar official daughters, how they behaved and how they viewed others in the society.
Although the language is chunky, when translated to mandarin it makes perfect sense and resonated with classical chinese shows and books I had read when I was younger. The story reads like a classical book more than a contemporary novel. It is quite lengthy and the heroine takes her own internal quest to find her closure on each issue, before her departure from China. Books written in english accurately about pre-communist China is rare, and I highly recommend this book as it is written by an overseas Chinese. The knowledge of the classical arts is lost on mainland China under the rule of communism.
I like reading Mingmei Yip books as an alternative to Japanese fiction which are dominating the charts in Asian literature, when in fact, ancient chinese culture was the source of japanese culture. Her writings are very insightful into pre-communist China, well researched and accurate. I look forward to reading her books and I am glad she is releasing books annually.
WIL is my childhood friend. We are sworn best friends forever or BFF. He wanted to make music while I wanted to write novels. When we were teenagers, he asked me if he should pursue singing, I asked, “Why not?” The seeds were planted in that moment.
I believe that the synergistic push and pull effect of encouraging and supporting each other had lead to us pursuing our dreams to go against the mold. When I felt like almost giving up on publishing my first book, WIL had been instrumental in pushing me on, “It is possible, you can do it!”
Flash forward after graduating from Monash University, he had released a few singles while I had published my first book, Red Hourglass. His music is available at wilentertain.com
What are we waiting for? We are not waiting for anything, it all happens in the now. We decide what we want to do today, for the impact we want others to experience. His latest song inspires me to create more and not stop! To be unstoppable! I really love the remix by Sean Finn and it’s a great song to unwind.
When I look at two girls kiss, or two men kissing, I am filled with wonder. I am inspired by their love. I want to see them happy. I really want to see their love blossom in this world and be accepted openly. When I see the girl on the tracks, wanting to commit suicide, I want to run over and tell her it’s okay. She is beautiful now. I want these positive messages to spread in the world, to be beautiful now. To dance, create and imagine the possibilities and see wonder of the world as it is.
Watching this movie with my family has a special significance on my interpretation of the story. The premise of the movie is about valuing ones family and community over all egoistical interests. Even with fame, wealth and prestige, it does not gain any respect from others.
Ip man is portrayed as being a humble master who refuses to be acknowledged as the number one martial arts master in Hong Kong. He offers the center seat to an elderly master from another martial arts school but the elderly master declines the seat out of respect for Ip man.
Ip man does not use his martial arts abilities for his own personal glory but more so in helping the community around him by offering to guard a school which was being targeted by thugs who wanted the principal to sell the school which was located on prime land. The principal refuses their offer and is beaten up. The thugs proceed to kidnap the kids from the school to force the principal to sell the land.
Ip man comes to the rescue as his own son was amongst those kids who were kidnapped. At his son’s hostage point, Ip man is mocked at by the thug boss to kneel and bow before him, which Ip man humbly does so.
This movie teaches about how to make a stand for the society, and not cave in to external pressures no matter the impossibility. The conflict is that the prime land the school is on is so valuable that the head police chief has been bribed to close an eye on keeping out the thugs.
Despite the external pressures and entering combat alone, Ip man faces a few hundred thugs in a one man show down. To know the outcome, you have to watch this movie that also features Mike Tyson.
Highly recommended for an inside view into Chinese culture and confucianism / buddhism / martial arts philosophy.
I will be publishing these shorter works on Amazon during the next few months, targeting at one per month.
Finished Projects
The Goddess – 5000 words short story
The Chase – five poems love story
The Torment – dark love poetry
The Little Black Book – ten poems morbid poetry
Rope Bondage Compilation – short pieces about bondage
Uncompleted Projects
Brother and I – controversial
Butterfly – controversial
First, I have to admit that I love control. I could spend an entire day planning and scheduling. It fits my occupation as a novelist. For a moment, we can suspend time and in the novel’s universe we are GOD! YES! That’s right, writing gives the ULTIMATE sense of control as I can kill off any characters and make them liked or disliked. I can control the scenes. Practically all the characters become my puppets and I am the puppet master muahahaha! I realised that I needed a new project management software for the purposes of writing a few novel projects and delivering them on time (like a business). I have to track my income and expenditure and ensure I am on track with my delivery. I decided to test out a new cutting edge space age design software at thrivesolo.com .
Honestly, these new software tools makes our jobs much easier. For example, Scrivener changed my writing life by allowing me to outline my book without having to write anything on paper. I had been much more productive after using Scrivener as compared to a normal words document. The reason is, software enables creators to think in a big picture and retrieve files and research and scenes more efficiency. I would even attribute Scrivener as a life saver to increasing my serious writing output. I wouldn’t have completed a 80 000 words novel without that software.
Hence the search for the ULTIMATE control started by looking for the ONE software that will enable me to concurrently manage my writing projects and deliver my final drafts on time.
Current Process
I currently manage my life using Google Calendar, Google Keep, Google Task, Google Documents and Spreadsheets. But it seems that everything is all over the place. I needed one central database that I can log in and know what I have to do for the day. I would also require a software that has a time tracker so I know how much time I am spending per project and if I am exceeding my allocated time. If I am exceeding time, that means I have to change my writing process (by changing locations, fixing my outline). Having a time management system in place allows me to study my progress and allocate the best times of the day for writing and nothing else. I currently use Google Spreadsheets to track my writing output and hours (eg: 2 hours from 2pm – 4pm, 2000 words). But I would like a software to generate information on that (how cool if there are graphs that will show compare my weekly writing output).
Novel Projects and Deadlines
What I like about the interface is that it shows the project deadline and if you have exceeded your allocated budget. I had currently allocated $20 000 to The Ocra. I had given myself an hourly rate of $10. So it means if I exceed writing the book for 2000 hours, I am over my “budget”. But I estimate I would spend about 1000 hours writing and the remaining budget would be to cover the cost of publishing (editors, cover design, marketing etc). Honestly, most novelists never make $20 000 to recover their initial time and investment in writing a full length book. It’s purely out of passion that most writers are writing what they write. I would like to recover my investment of time and effort in monetary terms, but I would not use it as a gauge of my success or impact.
Time Tracker on Thrive Solo
Anyway, thrivesolo is not THAT advanced, but the time tracking part is okay. The time tracker allows categorization of tasks. For my illustration, the main three activities of a novelist is: writing, outlining, research. I could see how much time I spent on each activity. But there is no weekly comparison chart time chart (yet). It seems I still have to use Google Spreadsheets for this function.
Milestones and Tasks on Thrive Solo
It’s quite inspiring to look at the interface design of this software in regards to setting milestones and tasks. Milestones are accomplished once all the tasks under it is completed. I feel kind of motivated when I look at this list. And the deadline. It fills me up with urgency! I love it! I used to put my milestones and tasks on Google Calendar and sometimes I will let it slip as there is no “deadline”. But this software now forces me to acknowledge I have to complete these deliverables by a specific date. This is probably the favourite part of the software that I like.
Thrive Solo Price and Conclusion
For $150 a year, it’s quite steep as there are many free options out there like Google Apps. I would recommend using this software if you simply have too many projects and too little time. For example, I have to focus on delivering content on my YouTube channel and novels and it is hard to keep track of both. Also, I would highly recommend this software to freelancers or those who are operating solo and would like to track their hours and invoice their customers. But an accountancy software like Quickbooks is still needed for tax filing as this is a project management software. I will probably use this software for a few months and see how it goes and I will update again if I am more productive using this and if I do deliver my novels on time!
