Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 111

Lance Armstrong as the loser

I have been deeply invested in this year's Tour de France. This is strange to me, because I have never really cared about televised sports before. Yes, I watch occasional figure skating but not with any devotion. And yes, I watched Michael Phelps every night in his quest for swimming gold in the Olympics. I'm a swimmer, so I guess swimming looks more interesting to me than others. But otherwise, I yawn at sports.

Yesterday when Lance Armstrong was interviewed about his attempt to take a s...

LAWKI month update #4

Sunday breakfast:
homemade gingerbread and UHT whipped cream

lunch:
veggie enchiladas with a tiny bit of cheese left

dinner:
veggie burgers, french fries, sweet potato fries and ketchup

Monday breakfast:
homemade toast
powdered milk

lunch:
sandwiches for some
fried scones and bean n bacon soup for the rest

dinner:
homemade bread and strawberry freezer jam
lima bean soup with leftover Christmas ham bits

We had a bit of a scare on Sunday when we had a guest for dinner and I didn't think we had any ketchup lef...

subconscious

So, I've been reading BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell, author of OUTLIERS. I am really interested in the subconscious and its relation to writing. I have come to believe that my subconscious is the part of me that it writing most of my stories, not my conscious mind. Or maybe I should refine that to say that my subconscious does most of the first draft work and also anything creatively new that I do in subsequent drafts. My conscious mind still has to do a lot of tinkering and fixing in later d...

triathlon race #7 Jordanelle 2006

So this was the first chance I had to go back and do the same exact course on a triathlon that I had done before the Ironman. I was rested enough, two months out, that I felt like I could go all out. And unlike the first time I had done this course, I now had my own awesome tri bike. And a wetsuit. The results I have recorded in my handscrawled workout log were:

Swim: 32:38 (including run to the transition area from water's edge, about 3/4 of a mile)
T1: :52
Bike 1:12:36
(av HR=156 peak HR=16...

mistakes

Talking to some friends at lunch yesterday. They know me entirely too well. We got onto the topic of mistakes, and letting them go. I find this very difficult to do. At least, certain categories of mistakes. My brain sorts them into "important" and "unimportant." The important mistakes are the ones that are impossible to let go of. The unimportant ones I let go of fairly easily. Only very occasionally does my brain resort mistakes from the category of important into the category unimp...

are we suffering--LAWKI month update #3

In case you think we are suffering, I don't think we really are. I have been poor before, on WIC, eating mac and cheese for lunch every day because it was cheap. So far, we are not really anywhere close to that. But I know that for the kids, it is a psychological game we are playing, watching the food diminish day by day, and other important items. And for me, too, I suppose. For 8's birthday party, we had to have homemade pizza instead of takeout, but everything else was pretty normal. ...

the rules of writing

So, my first question of the day:

Is learning the rules of writing a good thing or a bad thing?

I ask this because I think of the many writers who write their best book first, before they learn the rules of writing and the rules of the publishing world. Not all writers are this way. Some writers keep writing great stuff, or they reinvent themselves periodically (I think Lois McMaster Bujold has done this successfully, and Robin Hobb, to name a couple). But many, many writers start really well...

LAWKI month update #2

So, I had a 5 lb bag of chocolate chips when this month started. We are down to about 2.5 lbs. And I keep going into the pantry and finding the bag open and a few chocolate chips strewn on the floor. It just makes me think how real LAWKI was. The chocolate chip eating scene in the book was so very gripping. And also, I think I need about 50 lbs to be "safe." You just need more chocolate chips when you don't have your other comfort food. Not that we are really going hungry. We are not g...

not working hard enough

When I was on the high school swim team, I heard people explain my lack of success at swimming as "not working hard enough" a lot. Sometimes it makes me angry for my younger self to remember how often I heard that. Especially now that I know better. I worked really, really hard. I enjoyed working hard. I wish that someone had told me something more useful. Maybe a few people did and I just don't remember that part.

Today, watching the Tour de France I had this moment of satisfaction when...

motivation

This is an interesting video about human motivation. It made me think about why I write and why I do other things, as well. When my kids were small (not so long ago) I think I had no time for hobbies. I was more in survival mode, both emotionally and financially. But now, I take great pleasure in the autonomy, challenge, and purpose of my life. Triathlon is certainly a challenge. Not only is there no hope of me ever making a living at it, but I actually pay to do it. Same with piano. ...