Attachments to Person or Work

Before I went to bed last night, I read a few love essays from the New York Times column Modern Love. This has led me to think how little some people value love compared to their careers. I know of some guys who have no problem moving somewhere else and breaking up with their current girlfriends. Others are not even looking due to either their perception that career should be first or just shyness. Skipping the shyness reason which is an issue of its own, the other reason of just not caring as much isn't something I agree with.

Should your desire of achievements be considered more important than your feelings? Perhaps that's the wrong question. Rather, how deeply do you have feelings for someone else and are those more intense your feelings towards your work? If your current relationship's level of emotional attachment is less than that of your work or other things, you should let your romantic partner so she won't take it too hard when you leave. Of course, by giving too much truth, she may leave you just because she knows this.

The answer truly depends on where your heart really lies. Some people are married to other people; others are married to their professional interests or hobbies.

Self-Improvement: Forming Habits

I have formed a habit of playing the piano everyday but not yet for writing fiction. How I formed the piano-playing habit is forcing myself to play at least 15 minutes every morning right after I wake up. 15 minutes is not a long time and I haven't yet started any other activity which would occupy my mind with urgency. After I formed the piano-playing habit, I feel urges to play piano regardless of the time though it's usually still shortly after I wake up.

I can apply the same strategy to writing fiction. I can just write for 15 minutes every morning before doing other things. By repeating this at least daily, I'll form a habit where I'll be compelled to do so without much resistance. I'm spending some time writing a science fiction story in my notebook regularly over the last few weeks. Writing on paper is actually faster for me than typing it on the computer. When I'm typing I often want to edit grammatically or stylistically while I'm writing on paper I don't worry about that. Instead, I get the content down and I'll worry about the details later.

Enjoying Cooking

I'd like to cook my experimental tomato soup. It'll have tomatoes and potatoes and carrots. I'll also like to buy some bread so I can make eggs-in-a-hole. This dish is quite simple and I learned it from my Texan friend Stefan. You take a piece of bread and fry it on a pan. Hollow out a circle in the middle and put an egg inside. This way, the egg will be fried and confined within the bread and it will join together with the toast.

Cooking is fun when I see it as a game where I can try different things to make different dishes. When I'm the only one eating food, there doesn't seem to be much motivation. Tomato soup requires a combination of corn flour and water to give it the thick feel. In other words, a combination of corn flour and water increases the viscosity of the fluid. You first put in tiny chopped pieces of tomato in the pot along with small pieces of garlic and cook at a low heat with water.  Add in small pieces of cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and other vegetables such as onions, cucumbers and scallions (spring onions). Put the top on and boil at low heat for 20 minutes. Add in the eggs when the tomatoes are no longer solid. At the end, if the broth is not thick enough, add in corn flour and water.

My Rocket Journey

My journey towards my dreams is like a multistage rocket heading out to space. First, I set my coordinates and then the path to get there. I made sure that my dream was higher up than many so that my trajectory would be more inclined towards the vertical than the horizontal. I would like my rocket to spend most of its journey heading up instead of horizontally.

Unfortunately, over the last years, I have uncovered that one of my rocket engines on the second stage are failing. A failed second stage prevents the third stage or any stage after that from firing. The spectators believe this is since I haven't fired my engines with full thrust. Since they are not the chief engineer in charge of the rocket design, they don't know that one of my engines is misfiring in the opposite direction of flight. Tired of trying to explain and not seeing continued results, I informed the spectators that I'll be taking a break from test launching rockets.

Instead, I retreated to my machine shop and thoroughly examined the malfunctioning engine. Previously, quick fixes were applied to satisfy the launch dates set by spectators. Now, I decided to work on my own schedule and repair the engine as much as possible before continuing. In the coming months, I hope to recover it well enough that I can once again launch.

Literature: Reading Taste

I just spent some time reading some short stories by Mulk Raj Anand, a famous 20th century Indian writer. There are many accomplished writers from other cultures that I do not read much. These authors, though appreciated by the literary critics and those who studied liberal arts, are under-appreciated by the public at large, even by those who read a lot. Nowadays, if I read fiction, I find myself mostly absorbed in science fiction or fantasy. They're typically very entertaining but not very deep or intellectually fulfilling. It's like eating ice cream or candy compared to eating rice or meat.

When I was younger, I delighted in reading kid's magazines such as Highlights, Boy's Life, and Cricket. I especially liked Cricket since it was a kid's literary magazine with stories, cartoons, and assorted articles. As I grew older though, my taste changed and the magazines I read shifted towards more worldly concerns such as the Economist and Times. However subtly, I relinquished my zeal of reading well-written meaningful literature and opted instead for news, politics, business, and science fiction.