If you keep score, the score keeps you.
category: Announcements
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Slinky’s on! Easy Bay style.

Get your creative mojo going.

Bring a poem, a doodle, a song, a performance, needlepoint, a watercolor, found art, an idea. Anything that inspires.

Saturday, March 20th
Noon:30-5ish
Lake Merritt, Oakland
.

For an “official” invite, comment here or email me.

(Want to learn more about Slinky?)

category: This Modern Life
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I know this guy who was dating this girl named pandora. But he broke up with her because eveyone told him not to go near her box.

category: This Modern Life
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Happy birthday, Elizabeth.

category: Daily1
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It’s funny how two blogs are just too much for one girl.

I started a “creative blog” with a few other friends — the idea to get ourselves to do one simple, creative thing a day. The funny thing is, I had already promised myself to post on NKS everyday… and we see how well that’s going (I give myself a B+)

I wonder, though, what one’s Recommended Daily Dose of creativity is. Can one overdose on too much art? Bet it’s happened before. Especially with that living-savant-garde*-performance-art shit.

The thing is, the more creative things I do in a day — be it writing, taking pictures, or even trying something funky with the outfit — just makes my life… better. Happier. More… like art. Art imitating life. Life imitating art.

My goal is to get to the point where you can’t tell the difference.

* “savant-garde” meaning: brilliantly innovative art… or, “don’t do experimental art stupidly”

The Power of the Brand as Verb in the NY Times, for your naming pleasure.

category: This Modern Life
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…Another busy Monday, another uneventful post.

category: Over in Oakland
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Still here.

category: This Modern Life
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Valentine’s weekend: check. Next up: slinky, St. Paddies, and turning 29.

category: Over in Oakland
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Foggy morning. Jasmine tea. Reading chair. Freewrites at Peet’s. Brazilian dance. Fog clears. iPodding. Hummos lunch. Alone time. Panda brings an orchid. Panda time. Walk around the lake. Saxophone. Cherry blossoms. Ambling couple. She: “How come you didn’t pick me no flowers?” Jumping into action: “Oh, here man, I gotcha covered.” He: “You saved my ass! Thank you.” Laughs. Kisses. Get dressed up for a dive. Head-sized burrito. X-mas lights. Fake flowers. Corona toasts. “To Germany!” (And to Chris). Take a movie in. Cucumber water. Cozy. Best friend.

Now that’s what I call a perfect Valentine’s.

categories: Celibacy Vow, Over in Oakland
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I knew this February 14 would be spent un-romantically: I don’t have a boyfriend, husband, or even lover. And that darn vow!

But Valentine’s Day, especially over the past couple of years, has never been strongly associated with romance, Hallmark, and candy hearts for me; rather, the 14th day of our second month is strongly tied to  loss and memory, to spirituality and hope. Valentine’s  is both my brother’s birthday and a very special weekend I spent meditating alone in the northern mountains of Sa Pa, Vietnam.

But, as Valentine’s Day nears, I see that it will be exactly perfect: I will be traveling with my ex-boyfriend, to my parents’, to visit my brother’s bench.

I sat zazen this evening and realized that — no — not the most romantic day, but a day certainly full of love on all fronts.

category: Over in Oakland
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patience, belief, discipline, softness, desire, peace, completion, contentment, solitude, self-respect, change, and will. Oh, and gratitude.

category: Over in Oakland
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Wake, Inhale, Cook, Dress, Drive, Work, Write, Eat, Type, Talk, Love, Smile, Laugh, Shock, Pioneer, Withdraw, Gaze, Think, Send, Pen, Read, Step, Open, Gasp, Chew, Jog, Lift, Close, Drink, Race, Say, Download, Eat, Undress, Shower, Exhale, Sleep.

categories: Celibacy Vow, Over in Oakland
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Evoking (and invoking) Socrates, all I have to offer for tonight’s post are more questions:

  • Can “crush” (generation 2)  actually mean “learning to love anew”?
  • Are some types of love more dangerous than others?
  • Doesn’t all love carry with it some inherent danger?
  • Is it “dangerous” to be vulnerable?
  • Isn’t love, really, the safest bet of all?
  • When is love “not worth it”? When is it worth everything?
  • Does love have a quantifiable value? If so, would you pay it?
  • If it’s probable to re-love an old love, is it equally probable to un-love a new love?
  • What if that new love and old love are the same love?
  • Is love is love is love? Was all love created equal?
  • Since when does having a crush mean breaking a vow of celibacy?
  • Can one have sex and still honor the original intention of abstinence?
  • How is it that I don’t care about any of these questions, and that I already know the answer?

 ”Substract love from love and the remainder is love” – Upanishads

category: Over in Oakland
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Is it normal to develop a new crush on an old boyfriend?

categories: Over in Oakland, Writing & Language
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I wonder how I got to where I am and how I will get to where I’m going. Then, and now, I realize luck has nothing to do with it; however — faith: everything.

We absolutely, positively, hands-down create our lives. That purple elephant standing behind you? Entirely possible, only of your creation. read more »

category: Celibacy Vow
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(oops)

category: Over in Oakland
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I just found out that a friend of mine, recently back in my life, once had to create a User ID and password for a CAL account, our alma mater. Apparently, under the influence of our friendship and a Grey Goose martini, she jokingly made “that shan is hot” her password. Well, ever since then — in order to have consistency across her accounts — she has used “that shan is hot” for the password to every single one of her accounts established since college.

Even though we’ve barely spoken in 3 few years, nevertheless, every time she’s logged into Facebook, Twitter, or her email, she’s been reminded of me.

When I heard this, I laughed my head off. I have to say: it’s nice to know someone out there is thinking of you, even when there’s silence.

category: Celibacy Vow
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Wow wow wow wow wow wow, wow.


Ooh. Those great foam rollers everyone loves. The ones you crawl around on to stretch out the muscles. The perfect self-massage. I do a solid 30 minutes before bed. Ah, now I’ll really be able to sleep. read more »


As yesterday was the Official Last Day of my “vow of celibacy“  [I'm officially re-naming this project after having received much confusion and outrage over its apparent misleading moniker. Name TBD], I have to admit to being a little sad.

read more »