I'm Back!

"Boyhood" Source: www.mrmovie-review.com

I watched the Richard Linklater masterpiece "Boyhood" last night, and it inspired me, to say the least.

Lessons from a First Year of Creative Writing

I have taken some time "off" from blogging lately (that is, if I was ever really "on") to focus on creative writing.


While I am a lifetime journaler and have always been a voracious reader, at least in appetite-- my reach in the library is bigger than my read-- this is the first time I'm trying my hand at fiction writing.

The life I live while I'm busy making other plans

Forgetting everything else... Saturday on
the Ohlone trail beneath BART

The other day I had an interview that was every kind of soul-sucking. Windowless room, stone-faced panel of interviewers that couldn't be less impressed, type-written questions, no answers offered. It felt like some dark-corner remnant of days of workplace hierarchy that was still hanging on. 

In my mind, I was all sorts of moral outrage and personal entitlement. Bwa! didn't I go to b-school with the dream of creating my own business culture, which would most certainly be the opposite of this?! 


(Cue MBA sense of entitlement: Ms. MBA! She can create her own world! Watch out universe, a Masters in Entitlement!)

Photo montage of inspiration from holidays on the east coast

My Manny and Pop

Inspiration can come from anywhere. For me I love a change of place to trigger inspiration, and a long plane or bus ride is perfect for absorbing and reflecting.

I just got back from an extended trip to the east coast for the holidays. I hadn't left California for six months, so the travel-- and especially the travel home for the holidays-- really triggered my inspiration about what's really important (the things I want to focus on in life, the life projects I keep putting off that I finally want to do, the career I want to lead).

What I Write About When I Write About Writing

My lil doodle

I recently read a rant in the latest issue of this magazine or that, about authors who only come out with one book a decade. The ranter complained that this frequency renders the author replaceable and—eek!—out of touch by the time they are publishing again. He went onto say that there is no shortage of wannabe writers, so if there are authors who can’t handle the (read: measly) pressure of publishing, then maybe it’s time to step aside.

Yeesh! As a wannabe writer who wannabes “Writer” on her epitaph one day (but might never if the writing’s like this), I also considered this argument for myself. Sure I want to be a writer, but what do I really do about it?

Unemployment 101

I have basically realized that some people deal with unemployment better than others, and I am definitely not one of those people.

I cycle between Tired, Agitated, Excitable, Anxious, Totally On, Dropping Off Quickly, and Don’t Talk To Me I’m Angry. And all come with a side of Humorless. It is not a pretty sight to behold. I especially feel for my boyfriend who I moved in with for the first time six months ago. At the same time as unemployment happened to me, I happened to him.

Moneyball: What are you worth?

Brad Pitt as Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane

Moneyball opens with some classic throwback television coverage—it’s the Oakland A’s in the elimination game of the American League Divisional Series against the New York Yankees in 2001. First we are live at the game in big New York, rocking with the playoff glitz and extravaganza that a big budget can afford, and then the camera emerges from this scene out of a lonely television being watched by a security guard in one of the stark back alleys of an empty Oakland Coliseum.

What part of you is not for sale?

Last night I had the amazing experience of seeing Peter Sellars, theater director and UCLA Professor, speak during the second installment of the undergraduate UC Berkeley class Edible Education (which is open to the public every week!) It's been a while since I've been in a lecture that made me so uncomfortable.

An Idea

After taking a two-month long hiatus from blogging since graduating from b-school, I am definitely itching to get back to a little bit of writing, and here I am, finally! And writing something that isn't a wannabe marketing plan or cover letter.

It is so rare that I'm actually good enough to sit down and write, but when I do create something original and new during my day that I can feel good about (even if just in the creation of my own mind...)