Jessica > Recent Status Updates

So far, reading this book feels like what the people in the Bird Box must have been seeing. I suspect that it might just be the edition I am reading, or perhaps that the order of courses at my school did not adequately prepare us for this book, or just vagueness of the, "An OS can be this or it can be the opposite" is only maddening and seemingly futile to me. XD

Finally getting closer to the end of this book. It's been harder to read for me just because it's waaaay to relevant to everything 2020 and I really had to sit and digest each bit while watching everything around me. It's scary self work that is necessary. So good, but scary!

Better explanations and examples of various metaphor and simile than I ever had in any English course I ever took. The exercises are so amazing! They shock me with the confidence I am left with after doing them.

Oh man! Usually I have to figure out where chords want to go by ear because none of my music theory training ever touched it from a songwriting standpoint. I have tried searching online many times, and I am so excited that this book explains chord progressions in a way *I* understand, and not just by ear. <3

My mind got really hung up on this chapter. Zilching and Margining are for making paper notes and made perfect sense years ago, or when I use paper. Primarily, I organize my thoughts on my computer now, which is great because of using things like Find. So, I have to convert their methods. I can't Zilch in a document. Putting something in the margin will make the document crazy looking, too. I will succeed, tho!

I am fascinated by how much of music composing can be intuitive. Like leaps, I use naturally as if it were dynamic conversation in my songs. Yet, the knowledge from this book gives music shape and form I couldn't see before, and it sometimes shows that you were feeling even more than you realized. Pretty cool!

Dang! Chapter two was a lot shorter than chapter one, but the concise lesson is impressive and has permanently altered my view of writing. Powerful examples. Once again, I have to take a second look at all of my works. XD

I feel come at. 😅 I like the versions they say are boring better, and admittedly, I compose some of my songs simplistically that way because I enjoy them more. The other versions that are supposedly more interesting are actually the very things that make me click Skip on Pandora. They feel.. contrived. That being said, I think it's a great exercise to play with these melodic ideas anyway. Much to learn! :)

Laughed pretty hard at the examples. Being able to hear them online is very helpful and fun. :)

So far, just looking at writing in general, not lyrics yet. I was intimidated; I was heavily criticized for my apparent lack of reading comprehension growing up and even more for my writing style. The first exercise surprised me. I had no idea I could be so descriptive and colorful. It was like something else took over and I saw my own world differently. That's some magical teaching right there.

Was scared it would be over my head. It isn't, but oo, I am going to have to go back and review all of my songs already. ALREADY! XD

Dang. Only one chapter in and I am already so moved and reflecting on my own perception of myself so deeply that I can't imagine what other amazing things I will learn from this book. And here I had been worried it would be redundant with "Daring Greatly." NOPE!

Whoah. Serious-face unicorn is serious.

<3 Love "The Quiet Knight." Amazing how much gets expressed in such a short story!

Never has a short story given me so much feels. Garth Nix = crying unexpectedly when five pages ago you were just fine. :} So good! AHHHH!

OMG! I had a vague understanding of attack, decay, sustain (the most obvious one, because piano), and release because one can hear the difference when you modify settings for this in a DAW or on a midi keyboard. However, this explanation is so clear and easy to understand that I really have a better grasp of how these four attributes work together for the sound envelope! <3

Still a lot of stuff in here I learned in college and is, consequently, less interesting to me. However, the writing is finally getting a little less, "HA! You think you control yourself! STUPID!" and more, "Hey, look, your brain is doing you a favor..." Less presumptive and patronizing, more interesting. Took way too long to get here, though.

OMG! So far, I love her writing and open-mindedness as well as her ability to actually quote people to back up her points. But... AHHH!! This first chapter is horrifying! It's amazing that tangible attributes such as race & sexual preference are safe-guarded from bigotry, but not personality traits. And I'm so disappointed in the psychologists who have played their role in propelling such closed-minded thinking. :(

The book is still full of things which are fairly obvious and I learned from an early age either via school or the absence of things which should be in my own body, so meh. However, I did discover a fun game where you can read almost any sentence and get a giggle by adding "for bacon" at the end.

I only have a BA in psychology, but I really disagree a lot here. When I play piano, I do it via chunking; each thing I play IS deliberately decided except mistakes. I also think we CAN tap into manipulating the brain & body to using subconscious resources for our benefit. if we couldn't, psychology would be pointless, drugs the only cure. So far, it seems he's appealing to drama masses eat up, but not real logic.

Already has more info in it than I thought it would! Excited! And, glad to know energy-efficiency is kept in mind. :)

The 1st chapter tries to summarize a lot of seemingly conflicting information. I know a lot of the research already, so it's no mind-boggle for me, but for others... I recommend withholding judgment until beyond this hodge-podge summary.

Stardust, my cat, came up and licked the cover of the book as I started to read. Either it has a flavor, or it is kitty-approved. ;)

Just finished "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves..." and really enjoyed this short story. I feel like I can relate. :)

Just finished lesson 2. Both lessons took me only 11 minutes each. Hoping to do a lesson a day going forward.

LOL! www.kissthisguy.com

This research is just further proof to me that humans are as intelligent as they believe that they are.

Good tip about the globals! I think I have a weakness to be repaired in that area. :)

As "fun" as these pages of statistics are to read, especially those which are not statistically significant, it would be much more useful to learn about the contributing factors that create the differences for the varied parts of the population. This book has a lot of nothing in it.

Dry! Will someone please teach this principle to the AEG writers for L5R? :}