Three Decades Man

Whelp. Three decades have passed. Funny how things go, right?

Just ten years ago, I said I wouldn't live past twenty. And today, I sit and look back at that old me and smile.

I started to write my autobiography then, and ten years on, I'm still stuck trying to write down the stuff from when I was fourteen. Of course, there was procrastination involved---I started with a MSWord document, and then progressed to using LaTeX. All in all, roughly ten thousand words. Maybe I will write it till the chronological time reaches this very day, since from this point on, life is going to be different once more.

As always, something for myself as a reward for surviving yet another year: the GUO Grenaditte Piccolo. This is how mine looks like:

Ain't it a looker? But looks aside, the sound of the instrument is definitely more ``wooden'' than the Prelude PC711 hybrid piccolo that I was playing, and the keywork is quicker and sensitive. There's no need for very large movements, and the intonation is generally sturdy from pp to fff. The only thing that requires a little adjustment on my end is the embouchure positioning---the Grenaditte's lip plate is both lower and flatter than that of the Prelude, yet it's not quite like the way the dizi's embouchure hole is cut.

This means that I'm not quite precise in intonation on the Grenaditte yet, but I will get there.

Va bgure arjf, creuncf V znl unir sbhaq zl pbafbeg-pnaqvqngr. Guvatf ner zbivat fjvzzvatyl jryy, naq jr'yy unir gb frr ubj vg gheaf bhg. Gung vf nf zhpu nf V nz jvyyvat gb fnl ng guvf cbvag sbe gubfr jub ner unatvat bhg naq ner cynlvat nybat gb frr jung vf tbvat ba va zl yvsr.

And that's all for now. Till the next write-up.

Quick Summary

So, a quick summary of what I had written in 2014:

1. 9 poems posted here
2. 36 essays/rants posted here
3. 234 prose/story posted here
4. 1 NaNoWriMo winning entry available here

And thus the grand total here is 280 articles, up from the 27 articles in 2013.

That’s an average of 0.77 pieces of writing a day, compared to 0.074 last year. That isn't too bad, all things considered---at least it is a way of showing that I have picked up a bit of my writing. It's not a lot, for sure, and I broke my promise to write a story item a day at the beginning of the year just past. It turns out that trying to write a small piece a day isn't as easy as it sounds, and I will bear that in mind for the upcoming year.

The past year itself seemed to pass rather uneventfully, for the most part. Things that ought to remain buried have been buried, and new things and experiences that have come about, I have embraced. There are interesting signs coming in the horizon as I am about to complete the third decade of revolving around the sun. I am more comfortable in the skin I'm in, and are slowly finding the strength to face some of the demons that had caught up with me just a year-and-a-half ago. I am more than two-thirds through the KJV, and am nearly three-quarters through the 1001 Nights. I have read many books, experienced many different lives, and in many ways, have changed much more than before. Perhaps I am an improved person, but it is hard to tell.

2015 will be an interesting year. Changes are afoot, I can smell it in the air. In many ways, it is the time of consolidating the juvenile lessons that I have learnt over the past three decades and to make myself into the image of the man that I want to become. As the poet saith, 三十而立, and therefore this new-found sense of direction is not altogether unwelcome nor unexpected. Work is taking on a new character, and I cannot wait to tackle the new challenges that have been sent my way. My physical injuries have mend themselves most remarkably, and therefore it is time to retool my body once again to chisel out the man within. My psychological injuries have taken the time to heal, and the psyche itself is feeling much stronger than before. Where there was once bleakness and blight, I see small rays of light signifying hope.

With the good that come, there will be the limits that surface. As I progress through my current trajectory, old opportunities will slowly fade away as I walk farther down the path I am on, with new ones lurking on the sides if I choose to slow down to have a look. Some rays of hope may turn out to be illusive delusions; that is an eventuality that I will need to take into account. I look not at the path that I had gone---there is no sense in dwelling on the past---and look eagerly instead at the paths that lie before me.

The world's my oyster, and I will reap my pearls.