Going Back

The truth is that I've gone slightly wayward and have attempted to put up two other blogs, and just ended up confusing myself. Someone close to me has suggested that instead of blogging left and right and hoping to get some internet traffic that I should just focus on writing the book I want to write.
So I'm just trying to explain why it is I have disappeared from here for a while, missing the entire August altogether to update you.

And that's why.

I've tried opening a new blog, something about a Filipina Abroad, and now barely remember the password, the email address, and the blog address, after one entry.

Not that I've stopped writing.

I write, when it's nearly the close of my day, like right now. Always around 22:00 or 23:00.

Just when the world has gone quiet, before I shut off for the night, since I need to continue my day job, at least one of several part-time jobs I currently hold just to keep my life interesting.

I write.

I have three files I add to when I can, one about dreams, one about a family saga, and one a diary for my thoughts, since sometimes it's just faster to type away at the keyboard than write everything by hand on my pretty notebook.

I write. Sometimes on the metro, to describe people, or just to write down how I feel, which is always something I've done ever since someone gave me a Hello Kitty luxurious notebook when I was 9 years old, and I haven't stopped since. There have been years when I don't write as much, but I have never stopped.

I hold Malcolm Gladwell's chapter on the 10,000 hour rule next to my heart, the last chapter I've read so far from his book Outliers: The Story of Success.  About how it takes roughly 10,000 hours, or 10 years of keeping at the same thing before you can achieve mastery, perfection, or at least get good enough that you can start producing some really good stuff.

So in effect, I've come back to acting, almost by default. The message was not about how much you can earn from something, but about doing, and doing, and doing something over and over again, until you get really, really good at it.

What else have I had at least a few hours of work on but acting?

Next comes the writing, which is a hobby for now, something which came to me as a work opportunity a few years ago which I turned down. So I will write, when I can, at the close of the day.

As for acting, well. I'm glad to have found an acting post with a little theater group, and one that I can make a living out of. I think that is important, and in an ideal world, don't we want to making a living out of what we love and enjoy doing?

I would also love to go back to broadcasting, as I had done in the last three years, as a radio announcer, as the voice of TV and radio commercials. I quite loved that.

But until then, I can't be resting on my laurels, telling everyone how I miss it, and how I wish I could be doing it again. So the work isn't there. Not in English, not in the Czech Republic, not yet, not today.

But the acting is, in some way.

I also hold some phrases close to my heart from this book I encountered called Who Moved My Cheese? - something about how you roll with change, and instead of resting on your laurels, thinking you're all special and everything, that one ought to embrace new things, no matter that they may be humbling. Doesn't something new stimulate us, make us feel younger, when we're learning something new? So this is what I'm telling myself, as I embark on a semi-new chapter in my life this week.

I've said goodbye to the bookstore I work for, because I need to do other things. I need to be spending my time acting, performing. I need to spend my time pursuing my life's passions, devoting hours to doing these. Not shuffling books around or sending emails or organizing people. I need to write, because that is another passion, another great pleasure.

I need to act, I need to perform, I need to be in front of an audience.

And so here we are.

That's all I wanted to say for now, I guess. Blogging's good too, until I have enough for a book.

It's good practice.

I am considering changing the title of my blog, without having to create a new one, or try to remember the information on the new one I tried to create a few weeks ago.

I am considering writing about food, since I love food, and can't stop photographing my cooking as well as the food I eat when I'm out. I wont be an expert, and no chef and talk about fancy cooking terms, but I do love food. That's something I am toying with. I'll send you a food story soon, try it small, and let's take it from there.