A Ghost of a Feeling
Posted by Qrystal on November 2, 2010 at 12:45.
Category: Life. Tags: myself, nanowrimo, thesis, writing.
What I’m about to share may seem strange, but it really happened, and it was really just before Halloween, which may make it even more spooky.
I was alone in my home office, writing Chapter 83 of The Girl Who Writes Her Thesis (where Chapters 1-30 are what I call [...] Continue Reading…
A Shivanaut’s Maiden Voyage
Posted by Qrystal on October 22, 2010 at 11:22.
Category: Tools. Tags: exercise, myself, patterns, shiva nata.
“Pull tab to open,” suggests the label on the padded envelope containing the Shiva Nata DVD I’ve been so eagerly awaiting. I’m so ready to crank this practice up, and lose myself in blessed befuddledness that is meant to challenge my mind into untangling itself.
So why have I not [...] Continue Reading…
Level Zero Shivanaut
Posted by Qrystal on October 12, 2010 at 10:23.
Category: Tools. Tags: diary, exercise, shiva nata, thesis.
As described in my last post, I am starting to learn Shiva Nata, a mental exercise performed with physical motion. Since the introductory material suggested that journalling my progress might help me better appreciate it, I figure I may as well share my thoughts on it publically in case [...] Continue Reading…
Starting a New Dance
Posted by Qrystal on October 1, 2010 at 16:33.
Category: Tools. Tags: exercise, productivity, shiva nata.
I’m a little bit nervous about a lot of what I am about to write, even though I have written many times about self-analysis and transformation attempts and steps to help me get moving in the direction I want to go. I’ve just never thought of it as a dance, [...] Continue Reading…
About Physicists
Posted by Qrystal on August 30, 2010 at 9:18.
Category: Concepts. Tags: nature, physicists, physics.
Physicists spend a large part of their lives in a state of confusion. It’s an occupational hazard. To excel in physics is to embrace doubt while walking the winding road to clarity. The tantalizing discomfort of perplexity is what inspires otherwise ordinary men and women to extraordinary feats of [...] Continue Reading…
Passive Voice versus ‘We’ in my thesis
Posted by Qrystal on August 3, 2010 at 18:46.
Category: Concepts. Tags: grammar, thesis.
I was contemplating the problem of the “royal we” versus the use of passive voice in my thesis, and it sparked the following ideastorm on twitter:
RT @timtfj:
Passive [voice] makes the facts harder to absorb. Disengages the reader.
Harder than in normal non-scientific writing, I mean.
I wonder if anyone’s done the [...] Continue Reading…
Classic Blunders of Western Civilization
Posted by Qrystal on March 18, 2010 at 17:42.
Category: Miscellany. Tags: .
Getting involved in a land war in Asia.
Going against a Sicilian when death is on the line.
Holding an important meeting the day after St. Patrick’s Day.
via meetingboy
:)
Winter Tanka
Posted by Qrystal on January 5, 2010 at 18:02.
Category: Poetry. Tags: poetry, tanka, winter.
| Ambient white light
| reflects from snow-crusted ground;
| such brightness, outdoors,
| contrasts the darkness indoors,
| requires drawn shades to see.
- by Qrystal
Resolving to Overcome My Stuckness
Posted by Qrystal on January 4, 2010 at 17:35.
Category: Life. Tags: determination, myself, procrastination, thesis.
A new year is beginning. It’s a time that inspires people (myself included) to change some things about their lives. In the past, I had always gotten stuck on coming up with something specific enough to be measurable, and so it was never actually attainable; in fact, the exact [...] Continue Reading…
Challenge level versus skill level
Posted by Qrystal on November 24, 2009 at 13:00.
Category: Concepts. Tags: .
This is a diagram of mental states, as developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, showing how challenge level and skill level contribute to various mental states. I found it when looking up Anxiety, something I am trying to understand in myself.