The Poem I Wear.

by tiffanyBrazilian Jiu-jitsu writings, PoetryPosted on No Comments

encouragement

Write a poem about an article of clothing or outfit that you have worn in the past week.

This is post is inspired by my writing prompt post. 

Blue and strong I put you on.
Wrapped in power
ready to fight
as I tie you tight
with white.
It is clearly shown,
the army already knows.
I am a warrior
that does not know.
Tough I may be
willing to learn it’s true,
but not yet trained.

I know that the road is long,
yet I am beautiful
and I am strong
when I am wrapped in blue
tied tight with white.
Most importantly I am ready to learn,
because I am wrapped in my blue.

 

Another DreamWard Bound

by tiffanyDreamward boundPosted on No Comments

success

Right now, it is hard for me to recap this week as far as it goes in my journey towards my dreams and life goals. Instead of going into my goals, like I did last week I will simply recap what I did this pass week.

I had Monday off from work,so I did write a little and got to chapter 2 in editing my book. Only being on chapter 2 might seem like I’ve not been doing anything with the book. As I am writing it down I am having that thought at least. I’ve been working on this book for over a year. I think it is actually closer to two years since I started writing it.I should be further along right? Well I did do a full sweep a while back and took notes on a few chapters. There is also an outline of the full series and notes on characters, races and the town. So, as you can see I have worked on it. Of course, I am also a procrastinator and that has come into play with my editing. Still, I am working on the book, it is just slow going.

On Monday I was also able to write 2 post which meant  I met my new blog goal for the week. I actually posted 3 posts last week, which I am happy about. Before the new year I would be beating myself up, feeling guilty, and not happy that I only got 3 posts, with one of them being a DreamWard Bound post. Now, I am smiling though. I got 3 posts out to the public.

On Monday I also went to my BJJ class and hung out with my friends after class. It was a full yet relaxing day off.

When Tuesday came around I had to go back to work. I drove over the hill with my friends, but listened to my podcast, which is a goal of mine to do. I also had a Bible study after work.

Wednesday was work and hanging out for dinner with a few friends.

Thursday I led my improv class after work.

Friday was my nerd night, which ran long since it was our last D&D for  a while, since our game master is living in Ireland now.

This, Saturday, morning I went to another BJJ class then had lunch at the Windmill, which is my favorite cafe. I then took a walk on the beach, did laundry and took a nap. Now I am writing this post trying to sit in a way that my soreness from the class does not affect me too much. It was a great class to say the least.

Here are the links to the two posts I wrote after the last DreamWard Bound post.

Weekly Writing Prompt

The Bagel Love Affair.

The Bagel Love Affair

by tiffanyI Am A Bagel, other updatesPosted on No Comments

bagel (2)

I am a bagel and I think I am in love. I meant him the other day in a bakery. We were both there to say good-bye to family members that were sent there to leave this world. I was too late all the little bagels that I once called kin were already bought and eaten.

It was still early in the morning and his little cousins were still on display, just waiting for their turn to leave.

You see, he is a cupcake and a sweet one too, with thick Swiss butter cream frosting for hair and a double chocolate body. I couldn’t take my eyes off his sweetness, as he said good-bye to his cousins.

He saw that I had been too late to say good-bye to my kin, so he gave me a sugary shoulder to cry on. We walked around the little down town street, sipping coffee, and talking about how being baked goods was, especially when it meant knowing so little of our kind makes it pass a day old.

We soon had to part ways. He had to get back to work and I had to work on scheduling my traveling trip. We were able to setting up another date, before my schedule departure and exchanged numbers so that we would be able to talk as I traveled the world, learning about how different cultures treated bagels and now all baked goods.

DreamWard Bound With Where I am

by tiffanyDreamward boundPosted on No Comments

success

I took some time today to figure out where I am with my goals, what I am doing, and what I can change. I know that I don’t want to push myself too much. I don’t want to burn out like I did before Christmas. I do want to keep on keeping on with them. I do want to work towards my goals, challenging myself as I do.

I realized that for now I need to have a more relaxed format and although I will be trying to do more and more as time goes on I am only going to do a little with each category of my life that I want to focus on.

With God and the Bible I have been listening to an audio Bible instead of reading it. I allow myself to relax and have even fallen asleep listening to it. I know this is not ideal, but at least I am listening and going through the Bible. Now when I try to read it I will at least have some knowledge of all the books. I am also starting to listening to two podcasts on my way to work. At least I am trying to start listening to the podcasts, but technology is fighting against me.

Next, I did have a goal about my family. I want to talk to them more. I realized though, I want stronger relationships with everyone in my life. That is why I am going to still try to contact my family members at least once a week, something that I still have not mastered, but I am also going to be intentional with the people around me. I going to try to encourage my BJJ classmates more, help my friends, and talk to people more. I am going to try to be intentionally more friendly and more open.

As far as my novel goes I am going to be focusing the most sit down alone time to that. I want to keep my deadline and to do that I have to edit 1.5 chapters a week. I am planning to spend most of this weekend with my characters and story. Hopefully I will be able to polish it up nicely and only have to go over it one or two more times. I want to be finishing up with it this time next year.

My health is next on the important scale. Since I have started Brazilian Jit Jitsu I have found a want and almost need to be healthier. I want to push myself harder to be healthy in my eating and activities. I am not going to jump right over to the super healthy side of things. If I do that I will wind up giving into the not healthy eating patterns that I fall into so often. Instead I will start gradual and listen to my body. I will be eating more salads and vegetables. I am also doing a 100 day exercise  challenge, which I mentioned in another post.  I did revise the challenge, since I did not have enough space to safely do any sort of rolls. As it is I have to reset my shrimps and hip switches at least 3 times. I am doing the challenge though. I am at day 15, so far. My fitness and health will be steps towards being in the best shape that I can be. It will be a long journey, but I am on it.

Now, there is my acting. It is on the back burner and I am not really focused on it as a career or really an actionable goal at the moment. However, that does not mean I am doing nothing with it. I am still going to my improv group almost weekly. I have had to take a few weeks off in this new year. It seemed like I was either sick or burnt out by Thursday. I am getting back in the rhythm of life it seems, though. I am even leading a group this coming week. Since, this is my only outlet for acting I will be intentional with it. I am going to focus on growing my skills, learning more about improv and hopefully leading when needed.

Finally, there is this blog thing that I am trying to do, also. I love writing and seeing people visiting what I wrote. I enjoy the feedback, even if it is mostly just likes. I am learning what people like to read and what is the most interesting to them. I am also learning what pulls them in and how what I say affects the stats of the site. This blog is a learning experience for me just as much as it is about the writing and making me focused on my writing.  Although I am learning and enjoying having this outlet, like I said last week I believe, I need to not have this be my main focus. I will be trying to do at least two posts every week, one being the DreamWard Bound posts and the other being my weekly writing prompt posts, that have been a lot less than weekly.

Those are all the thoughts I have now. I know this post is longer than my recent posts. I am sure I will go back to basically having no updates next week. It is the whole thinking about my DreamWard journey, that makes this one long.

I do hope you enjoyed this and like always, please, let me know what you think.

DreamWard Bound and such

by tiffanyDreamward bound, Life, other updatesPosted on No Comments

success

It seems like I haven’t been able to find my rhythm or motivation lately. Since, getting back from my vacation my schedule has changed or been disturbed, which caused me to write less. Writing less as I know and have known causes my passion for is to slowly dwindle, like a cup over a candle.

I kept feeling burnt out even though I was not doing as much as before vacation, so I took this weekend to rest. I napped and read instead of worrying about all the writing and editing I did not do. By Sunday night I was rested and wound up editing part of my novel, which is something that I’ve wanted to do. It just took me stepping back, giving myself the freedom to actually enjoy my passion for me to want to do it.

I’ve done a lot of goal focusing and driving towards my goals, but like every life, especially ones with a heavy dream, things change. Life changes and some times it is changing daily. I mean I will still have goals and try to meet them. It is just now I will be focusing on not stressing myself out and worrying about them.

This next weekend I do plan to sit down and figure out scheduling and what my goals are, but until then I’m not going to stress and may even not post. If I do post things I will be happy, but if I don’t then I won’t guilt myself into feeling bad.

I believe that is all I have to say tonight. I had work and BJJ class, so I’m wiped.

2014 in review

by tiffanyother updatesPosted on No Comments

I know I’m a little late for last year’s review, but I just found it. I liked looking at what this blog did last year and I hope you do too.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,500 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 42 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Five minutes more ( A Morning Poem)

by tiffanyother updates, PoetryPosted on No Comments

encouragement

Writing Prompt
How do you wake up? Do you spring out of bed, almost always fully rested or do you hit snooze? What is it like for you to wake up on a typical morning?

Five more minutes,
please just five more minutes,
well five or ten;
fifteen minutes tops.
I just need to be curled up
in my nest of blanks and pillows.
Let me relax for a little longer
I promise I will wake up
I will get up and shower.
I just need to be in bed
just a little big longer.
If I could I would
just stay in bed
with my covers over my head,
but no I promised.
I will wake,
but I need five minutes more.

 

My Challenge To Myself

by tiffanyother updates, Physically Healthy Me, random ramblingsPosted on 6 Comments

success

Yes, I usually use this picture for my DreamWard Bound posts, but I felt it fits this post. I have a challenge that I challenged myself to and I accepted that challenge. This challenge is to create an exercise routine that I can do everyday for 100 days.

I got this idea from a friend at work who is doing a 100 day challenge for herself. She has her 15 minute routine that she does every day. She found this “century” challenge first from a sword fighting challenge she heard of or did. It was basically 100 strikes for 100 days. She took the idea and made it into a workout challenge.

I am now taking that idea and making it my own.

Now I usually am on the go, so I might not get to do this all at once. However, I need to make sure I do it all.

Here is my challenge.

  • 10 Squats (and hold for 10 seconds after)
  • 10 Russian Twists
  • 10 push ups (hold in plank for 10 seconds after)
  • 10 crunches
  • 10 shrimp/ hip escapes (each side)
  • 10 hip switches
  • 10 shoulder rolls
  • 20 bicycles
  • 10 leg lifts
  • 10 Cross-body mountain Climber (That may not be the name, but I know what it means)

If you want to know more information about these exercise, please let me know. I may still expand on the exercises, but that is the list so far.

The catch with this challenge is that I will do these exercises for 100 days and if I miss a day I will reset the day count. This means if I am at day 66 and miss a day I reset the day count, so the next day I will be at day 0 or 1 depending if I actually workout.

The only exception to the set back day count is my class days. I want to be able to focus all my energy on the training and class. Plus, I will be doing more than 10 sets of most of these exercise during class.

After the 100 days I will increase the exercise numbers and do another 100 days.

I will also be keeping or trying to keep a log of my challenge. I am not sure how I will do this, but will be keeping track some where, some how. Stay tuned for the log of the challenge.

Finally, let me know if you are taking this challenge too.

My Monday Night (Sort Of A Short Story)

by tiffanyBrazilian Jiu-jitsu writings, short stories, Stand Alone Short StoriesPosted on No Comments

writing

Hello and welcome to my Monday night. It was amazing and now I feel slightly broken. I am energized even though I am exhausted. I want to sleep now that my night is over, but too excited to even think of fully ending the night. You see I was wonderfully hurt and carefully punched. I was stressed, pushed, and rolled. I learned what hurts and how to hurt, but never trying to hurt the other.

Hello and welcome to my Monday night. I got to class early and started to prepare. I did not have a pen and there was no paper. I did not sit at a desk and no books would be found. I got to class early and changed into my warrior’s clothing. I put on the pants that match the top. I tied my belt as tight as it could go and I prepared for class.

Hello and welcome to my Monday night. I ran among men and pushed myself to do what they do. I pushed myself hard as deep voices counted the numbers of the challenge. I struggled to prove myself to myself as the advanced classmates pushed on  stronger. Still I pushed on alongside them.

Hello and welcome to my Monday night. It’s a night where I introduce myself to different men, well some are boys. I introduce myself to them all the same. I give them a fist bump before the fun starts. I push when they pull or pull when they push. If I stop to think they either help and tell me what to do or the show me how stopping is the enemy. I do not know most of these partners, but still we roll and tug at each other struggling to win the round. The first round could be easy with only clothes touching clothes. The first round could be a small lesson with my partner telling me how to win. Or the first round could be personal and trusting with a face full of your partner’s sweaty  torso. Any way the first rounds start they start, I learn, they end.

Hello and welcome to my Monday night. Join me on this adventure of life and lessons. All the pain and sweat is worth it.

DreamWard Bound With A New Schedule

by tiffanyDreamward boundPosted on No Comments

success

This week’s DreamWard Bound post will be a quick one. I had a super busy and long week at work. This means that by Wednesday I ran out of time and energy to write or do anything creative. I did write one short story using a writing prompt from last week’s writing prompt post.  I also started to write a character description post that was also from that prompt post. The character description turned into a bit of a short story and I did not get a chance to finish it.

I believe this coming week will have more time in it for writing, creativity, and breathing.

Before I give you the short list of things I did this week, I do want to mention a change to when DreamWard Bound posts will be going out. Since, my main focus this year will be my novel I wanted to give my Saturdays to novel editing. That means that it would be hard to write a post before evening time. Even evening on Saturday may be a bit rushed, depending on how well the editing is going. That is why DreamWard Bound is moving to Sundays. I may finish writing this weekly update on Saturday, but for continuity sake I will publish all DreamWard Bound posts now on Sundays.

Now, here is the list.

Realization (random ramblings)

Imagine Dragons and Airplanes (A Short Story)