Kender’s New Toy

For a year or two now, kender and I have been discussing the option of him getting his motorcycle license. Last Tuesday, this dream came true when he passed his license test with flying colors. Then he began the long process of finding his bike… which took a lot less time than I expected. He bought a brand new Kawasaki ER-6n (the n stands for nekid) in a beautiful blue shade.

He spent all last weekend riding it around the neighborhood and city streets. After the first ride on Sunday, he announced that he was ready for me to hop on the bike. So a very nervous jaymi tossed on her 20-year old leather biker jacket, jeans, and kender’s old autocross helmet and fitted herself on the back of the bike for a short loop around the neighborhood. I wasn’t sure about how I’d feel but after a week’s worth of rides, I can say that I’m loving it.

Systems and Dealing with Overwhelm

Since I returned home from the Readers Studio last Monday, I’ve had so much to write about. Namely, my experiences at the convention. In between writing those posts, comes all the other stuff that wants my attention. And while I “should be working” on those things, what’s caught my attention right now, is this post on how I deal with “overwhelm” and how I knock things off my list.

TL;DR version: I’m not sure if what I write below is a system, but I do have a daily order to getting things done. Breathing helps, so does focusing the attention on where the passion lies and then working on one thing at a time.

Remember Scholastic?

MikeOfAllPeople posted this picture on reddit today and it brought back a flood of memories for me today. Autumn always reminds me of these fliers and of school learning. I LOVED getting the Scholastic book forms. I recall spending hours carefully reading and re-reading them; figuring out which juicy fiction books to circle or place stars next to so I could get my parents to fill out the form and give me a check for the new books.

The day the books arrived were always a treat. Unceremoniously wrapped in rubber bands, with my form peering out from the small stack with my name on it. It became a status symbol for kids in my classroom… waiting to see which books arrived and who had the biggest counts. Occasionally, this was not me. I have often wondered if Scholastic was still promoting reading and titles this way and now I have my answers. Thanks for the memories, MikeOfAllPeople and to Scholastic for turning me into a book junkie.

Summertime Fun Updates

So crazy month came and went and I’ve been spending the final weeks of August completing various projects. I got my level one certification with Katrina, started working on BATS items and Fall Equinox, and completed writing and sending in more reviews for Witches & Pagans magazine. Also been hard at work in trying to get my tarot business up and running. So far things are slow but steady.

The big news? Well, I learned how to crochet a few months ago. There was a particular thing I wanted to learn how to make so two of my fiber friends muddled through and taught me how to do it. And the amazing thing is that it’s stuck. I’m making thing after thing after thing and actually enjoying it. So, go figure.

In the midst of the crazy

This month’s been crazy hectic for me. Everything just seemed to want to happen this month and I feel like I’m being marshalled through everything. Most if it is fun stuff but it’s the planning and coordinating and packing and making sure everything gets done in an orderly time that’s the stressful crazy bit. So, what IS going on, you might ask? Well…

Interview in MuseCraft Museletter

I got interviewed in the June 2010 MuseCraft Museletter (the monthly eNewsletter of my friend and creativity coach, Kim Switzer). Anna asked me all sorts of thoughtful questions about writing, fire spinning, and having creative passions across the board. Click here to view the PDF of the full interview.

A Blast from the Past

During my college years (back in the 90′s), I was big into zines. You know, those hand-made, hand distributed, mostly photocopied magazines that focused around a singular topic. I had two of my own. Mirror Imyaj, a personal zine that I filled with musings of my mind and daily life. The name was suggested by my friend Sanjay and from there I made maybe 4 issues. (Imyaj is my name spelled backwards… clever isn’t it?) Eventually it became the digital name of my online journal here at Shades of Maybe.

The other one, Twisted Realities, was a fiction zine. I scoured the internets and my college for short (flash) fiction, poemtry, and essays with an edge. I was huge into postmodern fiction and wanted to create an outlet for my voice, and to publish others who had similar ideas about weird writing to mine. Twisted Realities had a two-issue run, mostly because it was hard to scrape up stories from others. But I was fortunate enough to have works by friends, as well as Lance Olsen, in the collections.

Midnight Musings

Songs and movies affect me in weird ways. We just finished watching Jackson’s version of The Lovely Bones. It was hauntingly beautiful and weirdly done. Towards the end of it, an all too familiar song (Song to the Siren by This Mortal Coil) begins to play.

Images of my past scroll in my mind as they intertwine with the pictures dancing across the tv screen. Tears flow down my face as I wonder when my prose and the vivid worlds they create will touch the imaginations of others in this way.

Big Site Updates

I performed several site updates today. I upgraded the photo gallery software to the latest and greatest. Added a nifty booking widget courtesy of Setster to the tarot site, so now clients can go there and book appointments. I also installed JournalPress, which allows all my posts here to export to my accounts at LiveJournal and at Dreamwidth. So welcome to any new readers.

In the process, my Twitter plugin died, so I just completed installing WP to Twitter and have tested that. It now works and here’s hoping I don’t have to make any more drastic mods for awhile. I have many other word-related and design projects that need my attention.

Attending PantheaCon

At the end of this week, I’ll be driving down to San Jose to attend PantheaCon. More specifically, I’ll be promoting my work in Women’s Voices in Magic and the writing/editing I do with Immanion Press/Megalithica. This is my first time attending this convention and I’m looking forward to meeting people and promoting my spirituality. If you’re attending PantheaCon, look me up. I’d love to chat and get together.

Click the Read More button to view the date/time/locations of the two panels I’m on.