Usually, during the Question of the Week, we go into fairly heavy subjects, which may have the effect of twisting the brain in knots. It is not to create any kind of enigma wrapped in a riddle nonsense, but normal means of knowledge retrieval do very little in finding out on the deepest levels.
But today, I thought it would be nice to have a different kind of question; something more personal, without the commentary I usually provide.
Truth be told, I am just curious to learn a bit more about all of you. So hopefully, we’ll get some interesting answers.
There are two questions, actually:
What are your favorite methods for relaxation?
and
Since we are approaching a new year, many people have resolutions. With that in mind, What do you wish to accomplish during the next year?
I’ll give my own answers first.
For relaxation…
I find it easy to relax anywhere, but I do have my own favorite activities.
- Walking
It doesn’t matter if I am in a crowd of thousands or all alone, there is something about the physical action of walking that puts my creative mind into over-drive. I do have to be careful, though; I can be out for hours with no sense of time passing.
If you go out for yourselves, try to keep a notebook handy. It is easy to miss great ideas.
- Bookstore Searching
Something else that can capture attention for hours. I can go into a bookstore and get lost in all that paper. I am also fond of local stationery stores. There is nothing like a new pen, or a new Moleskine.
- Music
I have been a musician for as long as I can remember. That is the language that always came naturally for me.
There are certain songs that can relax me instantly. I seem to respond better to dark tonal centers, rather than happy go lucky sounds. Chopin, Scriabin, and other composers of that era are suitable. Also, Mr. Bungle, Dream Theater, The Beatles, and Allan Holdsworth always take me to a nice place.
And plans for the new year…
Contrary to what some might believe, I do have goals that I set for myself, even though they are not nearly as important as the expression of the moment.
- A New Takuin.com
I have started to plan for a new design for this site. At the moment, I am just sketching ideas, but on most days, I try to write out at least five ideas for the new layout, content, categories, etc. I plan on rolling it out around February or March.
- Another New Site
I have plans for a new site. (It is not at all related to this site’s topic.) I won’t get into it, but it is a unique approach to a subject I am very interested in. I am now in the early stages of mapping out the design, and writing initial content.
- Read Hemingway
I plan on reading ALL of Ernest Hemingway’s writing. I found a little bookstore in Ebisu that carries nearly everything he has written. I like his style, and I want to see what he did with it throughout his life.
- Play Paganini’s “Moto Perpetuo” on Guitar
Many guitarists have done this; some very well, and some awful. Hopefully, I will be one of the “very well.” Wish me luck.
There are many other things I have planned for 2008, but I won’t bore you with further details.
And what of all of you? How do you answer these two questions?
11 Comments
To relax:
-I like to watch football (soccer for you Americans). I like the tension, the long build-up for the goal. I always feel lighter after a match, even if the team I root for lost. I used to play, but not so much now because it’s hard to find a place for me to play in the city I’m in now.
-I enjoy reading too. Like you, I could spend hours in a bookstore. There’s something wonderful about words; there are things you just can’t translate from a page into a movie.
-Having deep conversations with someone helps too. Every few weeks I’ll meet up with a close friend of mine and we’ll talk about everything, and it’s very refreshing with him because we never seem to judge each other no matter what our opinion is on topics, and we’re always supportive of each other.
-Doing nothing is one of the things I like to do every few days. I always have this urge to do something, even if it’s just mindless things, so I do this once in awhile to just stay centered. I’ll lie down for a few hours, stare at the ceiling or wall and don’t allow myself to do anything.
As for my plans for the new year:
-I’m planning to create my own income stream somehow. I’m still not sure what it is, and how I’ll do it, and I know it’ll probably bomb, but I just want to start experimenting. I’m 20 now and still depend on my parents, so I want to start be more financially independent.
-My guitar playing is a bit rusty and I plan on improving it more, and learn more technically demanding songs. One of the songs on my list is Canon Rock by JerryC. I wasn’t entirely sure if I could learn it, since all I had was an acoustic, but I met a guy who played it amazingly on an acoustic and I felt inspired to do the same. He told me it took 6 months for him to learn, so I’ll give myself a year for it, and see what happens.
Relaxing…music, and meditation. A good comedy. If I can’t sleep, I’ll pop a sleeping pill.
Plans for the new year, get off my lard ass and go back to boxing. Start a couple of new series for my blog - mental mastery and advanced emotional mastery. After I lose weight, put myself back on the market and find myself some honeys. Put the Urban back in Urban Monk, heh heh!
@ Ariff
Thanks for your participation. You know, I didn’t think of doing nothing, but I do realize the importance of doing not doing. That is more or less what I am doing when I walk around Tokyo. Nothing is happening, although perception is present.
You are right, I have noticed that conversing with another can be relaxing, but only if one knows how to really listen. Most of the time, people are only thinking of their own responses. That consumes so much energy that there is nothing left with which to listen.
Stay with your guitar playing goal. There is nothing like deciding to play something, then actually pulling it off. One of the first pieces of music I learned was for a test at Berklee College of Music. (Before then, I would just play my own stuff.) Everyone would play John Coltrane or Charlie Parker, but I wanted to be different. So I chose Chopin’s Etude #2, which translates fairly well to guitar. It is in A minor and almost entirely composed of the chromatic scale. You can check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tude_Op._10%2C_No._2_%28Chopin%29
This piece isn’t such a killer, because the fingers are never really move outside of a four fret stretch. It is nicely compact, and does some good as an exercise for finger independence. On piano, it is meant as a means of strengthening the weak fingers, and it works well for this on guitar as well.
Good luck to you. It is a great feeling to actually get a musical composition handled and under control.
@ Albert
Lard ass? If that were actually true, imagine the amount of underwear you would go through on the average day.
You know, it seems that it does take a certain amount of “mental mastery” to drop significant levels of bodyfat. It might be interesting if you were to include the process and mental hurdles you come up against, if any, in the series. I know that you sometimes include personal stories in your posts. That could be helpful for countless people, don’t you think? It is the mental process that gets in the way, after all.
Physical exercise, especially for body composition changes, is not easy. But if we see that, then let it go, the process has a better chance of succeeding. The process is hard enough without all of the thoughts on top of it telling us how hard it is.
Sometimes, in the past, Akiko and I would walk around and she’d say, “It is cold!” which may have been true. But she kept saying it. It is cold, it is cold, it is cold! I asked her, “Why do you keep saying that?” She said because it was cold. But shouldn’t the recognition be enough? I told her that she fixates on the cold by expressing it over and over again. If she let it go, she might notice that it is not as cold as her thoughts. So she immediately began saying, “Its not cold, its not cold, its not cold!”
She’s funny.
Heh heh! Luckily it doesn’t leak out or anything.
Hmm with the weight loss I don’t know. I lost 45 kilos in half a year once, but that was ages ago. I don’t know if I can do it again. To be honest I’m pretty unmotivated these days by anything physical.
Akiko sounds like a real cool girl hehe.
PS sorry for the long delay in reply I was getting into the whole GTD / productivity side of things and one of it was to cut down on checking email / reading other blogs!
Maybe you should install that subscribe to comment plugin, it’ll be very helpful, especially since you conduct a lot of cool conversations in your comments.
You read my mind, Albert. Last night, I added to my to-do list, “Find and install Subscribe to Comments plugin.”
I had it on the list last week, but it slipped through the cracks. That plugin will work brilliantly for these Questions of the Week.
Thanks, as always.
First off, what’s up Takuin? I’ve never written on your blog before. Thought that it would be a good idea to kick things off by answering your lighter questions, before replying to the heavier stuff. Just so you know, I write in a very informal way, I don’t take myself too seriously. For me it’s always between the lines. There you go, now you really know something about me.
1. taking a bath and walking outside
I always feel like a million bucks after coming out of the tub.
and… there’s something about walking outside that makes me feel connected to nature. One of the “requirements” I have, when choosing an apartment (that’s a “flat” for you non-North Americans..kidding…that was for Ariff) , is that the apartment must have a park or a lot of greenery nearby which I don’t mind paying a little extra for.
2. Music. I’m a huge fan of music. I also tend to fall for the dark side of things when it comes to music i.e. Tool, Tricky, Massive Attack; I love stufff like Mr. Bungle, Radiohead, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age; anything experimental; King Crimson… I can go on and on.
3. Plans…well, I’d like to hit the road at the end of August. I’m aiming for New Zealand, but I’d like to fit Japan in there somewhere (teach english/experience the land of the rising sun). This is at the early stages of planning.
Oh hey Stefan’s comment above made me think - do you know much about teaching English in Japan? I’ve got a mate who just completed a “how to teach english” course and he wants to go Japan, but apparently the biggest chain just went bankrupt or something. I wanted to go with him, check out the sights and the chicks, heh heh.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/
There you go
@ Stefan & Albert:
If one wants to teach English abroad, then Japan is THE place to do it. And the weather at the end of August is not as oppressive as it can be, so I would say go for it. That is a perfect time to get started.
And Albert is right. NOVA just shut its doors, more or less, for good. They had close to 1000 locations across Japan, but now it is less than 30. (A cell phone company is sponsoring those 30 or so locations, but at the moment, all of them are closed.)
I can’t say I am upset to see them go. They had very poor management practices, would not pay bonuses -or even regular pay- on time, and they were really not at all fun to work for.
There are two big ones left; GEOS and AEON. Both seem to be on the level, or at least, more on the level than NOVA. But if you really want a great experience, look into teaching at a high school or elementary school. The elementary schools are more fun, because the kids are great to be around. They won’t say anything to you in the beginning, but after they get to know you, they will love you. It is probably more rewarding to do that, as well.
But any of the smaller schools might be nice. If there is a particular area you would like to live in, try the schools there first. They can be fairly accommodating. The best time to try might be around the end of February because the work year in Japan ends in March. Most teachers will leave around that time.
I think most schools work in that system, but it doesn’t mean that you won’t get hired at other times.
If either of you come around, let me know ahead of time and I will see if I can dig up any info on the local schools (or the chicks, for Albert.).
Hehehe…thanks mate. I appreciate it! You know the funny thing is, I speak English with an Asian accent. You might think some kinda fancy pants speaker but I sound pretty funny when I speak. You might like this video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AZdn2zfpuQU
that’s more or less what I sound like!
Super!
thanks for all the info.
I’ll keep you posted when I know more myself.