261–270 of 438 posts
Quit smoking cold turkey (was a 1 pack smoker for over 7 years). I am 3 days nicotine free and that sounds very interesting to me. Roadblocks: they keep selling them... If someone else is planning the same, the tips at whyquit.com helped me.
To write a novel. Bottleneck: Lack of discipline, perhaps also lack of life experience to make it truly meaningful and classic and maybe also lack of other softer skills such as how to convey in writing different accents or manners of speaking of different people.
Have you heard of Nanowrimo? http://www.nanowrimo.org/ People get together and write an entire novel over November (50,000 words). I have actually done it twice.
You're probably thinking of saying something like "how can you ever write a good novel in just a month?" The point of Nanowrimo, though, is to get you to ignore your internal critic.
The reason that everyone wants to write a novel, but people rarely get too far (and I can see this in your comment) is because people are too concerned with writing the best possible novel they can write, and let down when it doesn't come out that way. This is why people run into writer's block: they endlessly self-criticize, and they can't sneak out a word past their highly critical self.
Do Nanowrimo. Write the worst novel in the world, if that's what it takes. But you need to get rid of your internal critic. Or at least silence him until the editing stage. Then he can come out and go on a rampage. But he is useless when you are trying to brainstorm. You'll never get anywhere if you set out to make a meaningful, classic book.
Roadblock: probably not a scientifically viable proposition, given space debris and lack of ability to build something that large/durable. Solution: write a sci-fi short story with this as a plot element, and call it good.
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Huh. My answer (as a father of 3) to how much time they'll consume would, only slightly facetiously, be "all of it." Your math about sleep cycles is way wrong, and the idea that you'll still have half the free time you used to is laughable. Assuming a more or less 'normal' work schedule, most of the time they're sleeping, this guy will either be at work or will be sleeping himself. My advice is to assume that for a f…
As a father of 4, the only downtime I have today is being taken up by writing this comment. Gotta run! P.S. never let them outnumber you
I would like to get my black belt in Taekwondo by the age of 30 (turning 23 in August) and fight at a Canadian national or Ontario provincial competition. I am currently a yellow belt (started about a year ago) but have won a gold and a silver at two recent invitational competitions. I had an excellent teacher in Thunder Bay, but just moved to Toronto a month ago to be in a more tech savvy town (I'm a developer) and…
I've considered joining Taekwondo for some time but worry that the lower belts will be to caught up in teaching very basic moves and the traditional aspects of the sport. I understand the need to learn the basics just wondering if you found this time a drag at all or it was all interesting and I'd have nothing to worry about?
You tell them apart by their attitude toward training (patient, calm, focused) and their mastery of the basics (accurate targeting, completely relaxed body, powerful delivery).
One thing I've enjoyed in martial arts training is that taste grows faster than ability - which means that subjectively you get worse the more you practice. To compensate, training teaches you to be more patient with yourself - when we screw something up, we just do it again, there's no need to say anything or get annoyed.
Attitude is the biggest thing to focus on in the early grades (the technical stuff can only be learnt by repetition, so it's not that hard - just repeat). I don't think it's a drag at all.
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I visited Vietnam three times over a 3 year period. Is it your first time? Since my last visit, laws have changed that require you to wear a helmet while on a moped. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the freedom in riding a moped around a huge crowded city for hours, not knowing where I was going, or where I'd end up. It's somewhat ruined now with the helmet law. Nearly 100 degree weather wearing a helmet isn'…
I had a close friend die from a crash on a moped due to him not wearing a helmet. I suggest you suck it up and wear one regardless of the heat if you either: use your head for a living, or just value your life.
Sorry about your friend.
To write a novel. Bottleneck: Lack of discipline, perhaps also lack of life experience to make it truly meaningful and classic and maybe also lack of other softer skills such as how to convey in writing different accents or manners of speaking of different people.
Just recommended NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in another thread.: http://nanowrimo.org It's a world-wide one-month novel writing sprint, meant to solve the "one day" novel problem ("One day, I'll write a novel"). The in-person write-ins, online community available for short word-count sprints, and other community-momentum / encouragement benefits can be a huge help to anyone who "wants" to find the time t…
When I was a kid I thought of owning all toy robots out there in the market and then observing how they react with each other. I still think it will be a cool goal.
Some really inspiring stuff in here. My short-term track/running/fitness goals: Break 4 minutes for 1500m, 2:00 for 800m. Currently at 4:06 and 2:00.1 (the latter is so heartbreaking!). Squat 250lbs (currently at 185, weighing 138). Educational goals: 4 publications in the next two years, complete PhD (CS). Get a solid grasp on differential calculus. Truly understand relativity and quantum mechanics. Any advice from…
Have you read "Once a Runnner" by John L. Parker? It just got reprinted in paperback.