Kaizen

"You can achieve incomparable levels of skill through incomparable spirit and commitment." ~ Michael Jordan

Yesterday, on a conference call with my ScreenwritingU fellows, I learned about various philosophies that are to help me as a writer. And this is when I (re-)learned of this fabulous Japanese philosophy: Kaizen (改善).

It was a breakthrough. The concept is simple--try to improve yourself (or in my case my writing) every day, by just 1%. And by the end of the year, you'll have improved by 365%!

So I've decided to follow the Kaizen way and find a way to improve my writing, every day. Be it conceptualizing, improving my grammar, my descriptions, my dialogues, my characters--anything! But this way, one day, I too will achieve incomparable levels of skill!

Goal #1: Wake up 1 hour early every day and actually get some writing done!

PS: If you're interested in listening to more philosophies that help a screenwriter achieve success, ScreenwritingU will be hosting a class starting January 31, 2011, for free, on facebook and twitter!

Unfinished Waltz

One.
A single step—yet a hard one to undertake—
Propelled me beyond the ocean blue; across lake,
Mountain and valley, on to the edge of the world.
Alone and lost, in the land of dreams was I hurled.

Two.
The years slipped by, quicker than water through a sieve…
Has anything changed? Such goals had I to achieve!
Yet I’m no different from the little girl of yore
My lifelong wishes so far, my future unsure.

Three.
I’ve found the key to my passions and desires
It’s lit in my heart and soul voracious fires
That always want more; no longer to be confined.
Yet my heart still longs for what I have left behind.

One.
I work and toil and my dreams seem to draw nearer
My fingers graze their ethereal veil with fervor
I’m scared to go back now, to stray a few inches
For surely once I do, it will turn to ashes

Two.
Another impasse. Should I keep going or not?
Endless questions spring forth in a bloody onslaught
Doubts assail me and drag me to aphotic depths
Where awaits me the yoke of a thousand one deaths.

Three.
I search in vain for the support I once received
But it’s gone; from my family have I been cleaved,
And I must now fly on my own; forge my own way
And hope to find haven elsewhere somehow, some day.

One.
The world is so vast, the horizon infinite.
My frail wings are tired; my quest I wish to forfeit
I seek to land, but push myself ever onward
Till in blissful Hesperides I am harbored.

Alessa Ellefson
November 2010

Living to a Wizarding Old Age...

After a month of dilly-dallying, I’ve finally managed to finish chapter 10 of my novel. And in it I touch on a topic I’ve always found fascinating: the old (and when I mean old, I mean old) age of people past.

The first time I was exposed to these life spans of vampiric proportion, was when reading the Bible (a children’s version, with awesome pictures), then have found that fact sprout or be wielded before me from time to time since. My question is then this: can we live to be as old as Methuselah?

So of course, I put on my cap, took out my pipe and magnifying glass, and googled it up. It’s amazing the theories that abound on the topic. Some of them are also very mathematically inclined (no, I have not verified it, I will leave that to other, more number-oriented people to do).

Some of the interpretations out there, though, seem to be strangely related (and I’m sure they are in some nth, overarching theory), which I feel is interesting to mention here:

Earth used to be different before “the Flood” (whatever that flood may be, or whenever it may have happened). It used to have a stronger magnetic field and/or some kind of water vapor veil all around (mention is made that the Bible states that before the Flood, it never rained—not being a Bible scholar, having lots of other things to do, and being inherently lazy, I haven’t verified this fact) that protected the earth from “evil rays” or whatnot (a side question: do you think a stronger magnetic field around the earth would help this water vapor sheet around the world from being created and maintained?).

Then what? Well, it would mean that earth was then much more of a paradise than it is now: lush vegetation (fossils tell of an era when the earth was sub-tropical all around), more oxygen (proof found in the bubbles of ancient trees—tree wrecks?) which thereby allows for healthier lives and maybe even longer lives (green food = healthy food + oxygen, when the atmospheric pressure’s increased, helps us heal faster.

And as for the electromagnetic field, well, I’ve already touched on it, but I also found this one passage that discussed how some experiments were made on fruit flies whereby they were kept in a chamber with double (or more?) the electromagnetic influence we’re currently being subjected to on earth, and found that their life spans were increased from 1 week to 60 days, and that they doubled their size.

Of course, this all requires more research (on my part for double-checking these facts, on scientists’ part if this is real), but what if it were all true? Then what we’d need to do is find a way to recreate those conditions, and maybe then we’d be able to recreate paradise!

--Yours, ever open-minded.

PS: I know I don't mention wizards, but aren't they supposed to live reaaaaaaaaaally long lives too?