Part-time Buddhist, Full-time Jerk

I kid, I kid! The opinions of some of my occasional Readers aside, I think I'm mellowing in my old age, and have made some movement towards that whole Right Action thing.

I haven't been posting, but I have been Practicing; on and off, admittedly -- meditating for fifteen minutes here and there, remembering to be Mindful now and again, reminding myself of how impermanent things are (see bottom), and it's all been helpful, especially the latter. Still, I can do a helluva lot better.

And I do feel guilty for not updating this site more often. There is, after all, so much still to cover! The rest of the Eightfold Path, the three Buddhist Boogeymen (Greed, Aversion, and Convusion), everything I've read about brainal mechanisms and happiness and . . .

Yeah, it was a little overwhelming. I think I suffered from what some researchers call Ego Depletion -- now, this may be all in my head -- but isn't everything?

Gist is, between work and fun relationship events and, um, this little piece of evil, I've been occupied. Not always productively, but occupied. Advice-giver-types say that if you want to make a shitload of changes in your life, you shouldn't try to make them all at once; e.g., if you want to quit smoking and lose weight, you'll have a lot better chance of success if you go after one, and then the other, instead of tackling both simultaneously.

So, no biggie. I may not have practiced as much as I'd like, and I may not have posted as much as I "should", but his Grumpiness has not been a stick in the mud for the last two months . . . Changes are Afoot! And this is good.

And speaking of Changes . . . there's a big one that starts in about two hours from now. His Grumpiness has decided to do NaNoWriMo: that's National Novel Writing Month, and that means 50,000 words within the next 30 days.

Hachi Machi! Given my past failure to write even half that in a month's time, given that the success rate for participants is below 20%, given I don't have a regular writing practice, given that I have a massive Aversion to sucking . . .

Well, now. I would not put much money on me to finish this.

On the other hand . . . stranger things have occurred. I wouldn't bet against me, either.**

**(Not that I want to get all . . . attached to success or failure, of course! Wouldn't be very Buddhist of me. If I finish at 30,000 words, I'm not going to beat myself up. Still, pulling this off would be one helluva coup.)