This period of my life is highly reminiscent of the last years of my
Ph.D. program during which I was setting up to make major changes in my
professional and personal life. Almost a year ago, Laura and I got
married, already bringing about major personal changes. On the
professional side, as I have previously alluded to in Back to blogging, many, many things are also changing.

When confronted with change-inducing circumstances, I fluctuate between
clinging steadfastly to the status quo to dreaming of a utopian life
revolution. Since I currently feel optimistic about the future, I am
taking some good time right now to fundamentallly re-examine and
redirect my work. Times such as this also call me back to books that
have been my past companions and guides. I pulled Carol Lloyd's Creating a Life Worth Living
off my shelf a couple of weeks ago, carried it around with me, and
finally started re-reading it in earnest several days ago. I've already
become re-acquainted with very helpful notions, including the ""daily action", which Lloyd describes in this way:

The daily action is
fifteen minutes of a focused activity performed every day at the same
time of day. Choose an activity that creates an empty, space where your
creativity can reassert itself. Let the action be solitary, and process
oriented. You are giving yourself fifteen minutes of emptiness within
the blur of living. Some examples of daily actions are dancing alone in
your living room, meditating, walking, writing in a journal, drawing
without purpose, singing improvisational melodies, doing yoga and
gardening.

I have experienced how such seemingly small disciplines as the daily
action can set one free to be creative. (Isn't the intertwining of
discipline and freedom paradoxically fascinating?)

This morning, I lingered over Chapter 4, in which Lloyd presents a
typology of creative modes or profiles that she splits between
"collaborative" and "individualistic" (p. 65):

• Collaborative creativity

• Leader

• Teacher

• Realizer

• Healer

• Interpreter

• Individual creativity

• Generator

• Inventor

• Maker

• Mystic

• Thinker

This chapter reminds me to honor the particular creative predilections
that I do have, whether or not they are held in esteem in various
contexts in which I participate. For instance, I am much more of a
generator than a maker. I need to find a place where I can generate
ideas and be valued for doing so. Those places might be rare, but this
is the time to look for them.

Yesterday evening, I learned about Find It:

People of all ages will enjoy the
hunt for the hidden objects buried within the layer of recycled
plastic pellets. Alone or with friends, everyone will enjoy
spinning it, shaking it, and twisting it until all the objects
are found. Can you find the hidden penny…?

Here are some of my pictures of the game:

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Some books that I've been looking at. 

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I attended the first Bay Area memorial celebration for Czeslaw Milosz,
held today at the San Francisco Main Public Library. I took pictures (Milosz Memorial Celebration - a photoset on Flickr) and plenty of notes on the poems that were read. Between listening to the Michael Krasny's program on Czeslaw Milosz
last week, revisiting some of my own favorite Milosz poems, learning
about many other poems to savor (out of a massive lifetime of work),
I'm thoroughly and happily re-immersed in the poetry of Milosz.

countdown -- the book

Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

Count Down : Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition.

I'm attracted to books such as this since I did ok but not super at math competitions such as the Mathematical Olympiad.

Bach and Ozu: the books

Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

Writing Silences on Sunday prompted me to look more deeply again at Bach and Ozu. From my bookshelf, I took down My Only Comfort: Death, Deliverance, and Discipleship in the Music of Bach, Bach , and Ozu.

shrink wrap car

Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

It was only a matter of time that we would get shrink wrap cars.