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‘This Modern Life’ Category

  1. The Painful Realization

    01.10.2010 by Shannon

    Oh! You mean “working full time” means I have to work a full week AND return again the next Monday?!

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | 2 Comments

  2. Phew

    01.09.2010 by Shannon

    One week down, a lifetime to go.

    (thank you A., W., M., & F. For the magic, baklava and inspiration of today. You gave me faith I can have it all.)

    Tripitaka,
    Amen.

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Date Tonight with Mr. W. Whitman

    01.08.2010 by Shannon

    (my new crush)

    Just because I took a vow of celibacy / flirting haitus / bizarre interpersonal experiment that I’m starting to question– doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to spend some quality time alone with a man I love: so, tonight I had me a reading date with Walt Whitman

    (shhh. Don’t tell anyone, but Virgina Woolf watched)

    Here’s a little excerpt from our rendezvous, for good voyaristic measure:

    “There was never any more inception than there is now,
    Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
    And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
    Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

    Urge and urge and urge,
    Always the procreant urge of the world.

    Out of the dimness opposite equals advance, always substance and
    increase, always sex,
    Always a knit of identity, always distinction, always a breed of life.
    To elaborate is no avail, learn’d and unlearn’d feel that it is so.

    Sure as the most certain sure, plumb in the uprights, well
    entretied, braced in the beams,
    Stout as a horse, affectionate, haughty, electrical,
    I and this mystery here we stand. “
    - WW, Leaves of Grass [Song of Myself]

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | 1 Comment

  4. Tell it Like it is.

    01.07.2010 by Shannon

    This is a post.

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Corporate Bliss

    01.06.2010 by Shannon

    This morning at work I finally got set up with a laptop — a PC, as is were.

    This calls for a sad emoticon :-(

    Aside from my Mac snobbery, though, I was quite excited, as it makes me feel like I’m an “actual employee” now. An email address and three projects later, and I was on my way to cold, hard, corporate productivity.

    I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | No Comments

  6. Two Days Too Long

    01.05.2010 by Shannon

    2 days of work, 2 hours of yoga, and 48 hours into my vow, and I’ll tell you what: I’m exhausted.

    [internal voice:]
    “Ooh–he’s cute. Wa-ait. Pause. Watch the knee-jerk attraction and objectification of that guy as a sexual being of the opposite sex. Now, how can you, instead, re-orient yourself to relate to this tall, dark and handsome man not as defined by his cuteness, but as just a fellow member of the human race, another manifestation of the divine in human form, as a soul searching inevitably for what we are all after: peace, fulfillment, joy, love. He is your peer; he is your brother.”

    This is when I can tell I’ve lived in Northern California for faaar too long.

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: , | No Comments

  7. One Post A Day

    01.03.2010 by Shannon

    And here it is! All settled in, start my new job tomorrow. Horoscope this morning said this was my year (doesn’t it always say that the first week of January?)

    Anyway… Hello 2010: here we go!

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | No Comments

  8. Wish Me Luck (Vow of Celibacy)

    01.02.2010 by Shannon

    Today I decided that I’m taking a vow of “celibacy” for January.

    Perhaps 30 days doesn’t seem like much (or perhaps, for some, this seems rather daunting!) but I want to use it as an excuse to, if only for a short stint, turn some energy inward rather than out.

    Maybe you’ve noticed I put quote around “celibate.” While it’s true I will be literally refraining from any and all sexual activity (not seemingly all that different from my current state of affairs post break-up…) I’ll also be, as gently as I can, refraining from sexual and romantic intention: approaching all people and activities in an (intented) platonic, neutral, non-preferential way.

    This isn’t at all about repression (as one friend accused…) but quite the opposite: this is about mindfulness. I will certainly let any and all thoughts and desires arise; I’ll just try not to act on them.

    Instead of letting said impulses motivate behavior (“why, hello Hottie McHoterson standing in front of me in Peet’s… If I flip my hair just right, will you think I’m cute?”) I’ll just watch: watch the desire to be desired itch, and not do a damn thing to scratch it.

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | 2 Comments

  9. Thus Stated

    01.01.2010 by Shannon

    2010 Intention: Ultimate service.
    2010 Resolution: One post a day.
    2010 Mantra: Take no prisoners, not even yourself.

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | 1 Comment

  10. Red Flags

    12.12.2009 by Shannon

    Signs that you are now, officially, an Adult:

    1)  You read leaflets titled “Paid Family Leave Insurance Program” while sitting on the toilet…

    2)  …and find them so interesting you don’t want to get up.

    3)  You regularly differentiate between “calendar year 2010″ and “fiscal year 2010.”

    4)  You develop a crush on anyone who uses the words “Retirement,” “Maximum” and “Contribution” all in the same sentence.

    5)  You have wet dreams about your Health Benefits.

    6)  You have a credit card…

    7)  … and look forward to how many Gold Rewards Points you have accrued this month.

    8)  You’ve replaced  “crash” with “turn in” when referring to going to sleep.

    9) You know what the acronym “HIPAA” stands for…

    10)  …and use it in daily conversation.

    11)  Instead of going online to check Facebook, more and more you go online to research annual percentage rates.

    12)  You have replaced your Cosmo and US Weekly magazines with subscriptions to Money, Fortune and The Economist…

    13)  …and you are actually interested in reading them rather than using them as coffee table decor.

    14) You find yourself thinking that one day, you, too, would like to be a member of AARP.

    One clear sign you are, however, still very much a kid:

    1. You still make lists of all the ways in which you are an “Adult.”

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: ,,, | 2 Comments

  11. NaNoSuckMo

    11.10.2009 by Shannon

    Ok. I am SO sorry. There is no way I am going to get this year’s NaNo done. I’ve come down with that circulating cold, and shamelessly using it as an excuse to fail on this whole project. I’m quite disappointed in myself.

    But I’m doing my best to put _something_ down so as not to completely embarrass myself… although, I’m beginning to worry that that is precisely what I’m doing by putting words down on paper.

    At this point I’m just freewriting this whole story as it comes. No spellcheck, no plot, not even stopping to look behind me. Take it for what it’s worth:

    PICASSO, THE STORY, installment #2: (more…)

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: , | No Comments

  12. Our Newest Addiction

    10.01.2009 by Shannon

    Perhaps because “effects of modern life on mental health” is a central theme of my show BURST; perhaps because I am a newly-hatched iPhone (ab)user; or perhaps because I am both terrified and titillated by the inevitable momentum of this world into one more virtual — either way, when I read this ( “Internet Addiction Center Opens in U.S.” – NPR.org ) and watched this ( a Sony Vaio spot ) and found the stage website about Social Media Addiction (genius marketing, Sony), I couldn’t help but feel… well, intrigued. Vindicated. Stimulated. Angry. Old. Inspired. Lonely. Fearful. Sad…

    Nauseous.

    [Time Lapse: 120 minutes]

    I’d finish this post, but I seriously just got sidetracked watching YouTube videos and reading NPR articles on social media as it relates to mental health. God save me us all.

    Category Brands/Trends, In the News, This Modern Life | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  13. Hail #GmailFail!

    09.02.2009 by Shannon

    My sentiments exactly.

    Category Brands/Trends, This Modern Life | Tags: | No Comments

  14. The (DPT) Trial – Kafkaesque Bureaucracies in Full Effect

    07.29.2009 by Shannon

    Written to the DPT of SF in response to received parking ticket in SF Public Library parking lot:

    29 July 2009

    To Whom it May Concern:

    I pay this ticket with extreme disappointment. (more…)

    Category San Francisco glory, This Modern Life | Tags: ,,,,,,, | 2 Comments

  15. A Simple, True Update

    07.21.2009 by Shannon

    I’ve been dragging my feet on posting, mainly because so much change is going on, I don’t exactly know where to start. That, and my ebbing/flowing anxiety about writing something somewhat entertaining/interesting/readable prevents me from posting until I have an “angle” (thank you CCSF Journalism 10A class).

    Aborting that, I will simply write something mediocre/simple/true. (more…)

    Category Announcements, This Modern Life | Tags: | 1 Comment

  16. Monday To Do List (True Story)

    07.13.2009 by Shannon

    • Find childhood diary for Mortified this Fri/Sat
    • Finish one-woman-show script by Wednesday
    • Make up story re: “what I’ve been up to” for 10-year reunion to avoid actually having to talk about myself
    • Find New Mexico sublet for August
    • Call Robin Williams

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: | 3 Comments

  17. The Joy of Being Square

    02.12.2009 by Shannon

    Hello, Hanoi
    (Part 7 of Many)

    The week leading up to Têt, I was invited by my friends Bắc and Hà to help make banh trung chay, or “square cakes” at their pagoda. These are cakes made out of mung beans and rice, traditionally eaten during the lunar new year. The pagoda where they attend is the only one in Hà Nội that follows the philosophy of Thích Nhat Hành. Of course, I was honored and excited.

    (more…)

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: ,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  18. LAUNCHED: Year of No Fear

    01.18.2009 by Shannon

    “Uncertainty means stepping into the unknown… Without uncertainty and the unknown, life is just the stale repetition of outworn memories…Relinquish your attachment to the known, step into the unknown, and you will step into the field of all possibilities…” -Deepak Chopra

    My cousin had the above quote posted on her Facebook page (wow. You know you’re a child of the internet  when you blog about a FB posting… sigh).

    (more…)

    Category PROJECTS, This Modern Life | Tags: ,, | No Comments

  19. Year in Review: 2008

    01.01.2009 by Shannon

    As is custom…


    Happy New Year!

    Category This Modern Life | Tags: ,, | 10 Comments

  20. Hitting a Nervous System

    12.29.2008 by Shannon

    “Calling noise a nuisance is like calling smog an inconvenience. Noise must be considered a hazard to the health of people everywhere.”
    — Dr. William H. Stewart, former Surgeon General of the United States

    * * *

    Outside, the air was cold and swirling.

    “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the waaaa-aayy!” A car full people, laughing and yelling, the car idling, the stereo booming. Bright lights, banner ads, and music streams out of storefronts, festivities flaking across Union Square. There is a moment every winter where I stop loving Christmas and cannot wait for January 2. This moment is about to happen.

    (more…)

    Category Narrative, This Modern Life | Tags: ,,,, | No Comments

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