Adventure

Adventure of the Week: No More Adventures

This title is misleading. It’s not that I will no longer be having adventures, but that I’m retiring the Adventure of the Week column. It was fun for a while, but I’ve found that all my best adventures were completely unplanned. And when they were planned, they were huge adventures, like going to London, England back in March or going to Montreal earlier this April.

The spirit of Adventure of the Week was to inspire us to live outside our comfort zone through weekly challenges. I started it during time in my life when everything was stagnant, and I’ve done it for so long that pushing my personal limits has become automatic. It no longer feels authentic to put so much effort into it.

Further, my big adventures are not the kinds of things that I can say (with a straight face) that we should all do. This isn’t one of those publications with an editorial voice that assumes you’re constantly jet setting everywhere. A.Y. Daring (.com) is for the people who are jet setters at heart, and concerned with seeing and understanding the world, even if you’re not immediately able to drop everything to go party in Ibiza.

Perhaps I’ll reincarnate AotW sometime in the future, with a different tone or a different focus. For now though, I hope ya’ll enjoyed it as it was, sporadic and well-intentioned.

So long, farewell, to you and you and you,

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April 22nd, 2013
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Adventure of the Week: Fruits and Veggies Edition

Source: pin4fun6006.blogspot.com via Maddison on Pinterest

 

I am allergic to a lot of things.

I have “unusually severe” (doctor’s words, not mine) oral allergy syndrome. I’m more or less allergic to all produce that’s native to North America.

That is possibly a slight exaggeration.

I’m actually only allergic to birchwood, ragweed and grass pollen. The reason I have so many food allergies is because a lot of produce grown in Canada comes from the birchwood, ragweed and grass families, or they get covered in the pollen from growing outside, as produce is wont to do. I subsist on a diet of mostly meat, dairy and carbohydrates. I eat like a cranky 4 year old, except I’m 21 so it’s sad and unhealthy. The task of modifying my diet feels gargantuan and I’ve been dragging my feet about it since the day I moved out of my parent’s home. So,

This week, I’m challenging myself to have two servings of fruits or vegetables with every meal.

I don’t like to be told what to do unless there’s some very good reasoning behind the instruction. I’m not just going to start (or stop for that matter) doing something unless I know what research has been done to support the claim. And it has to be good research. So my first question in all this was,

What exactly is one serving of a fruit or vegetable, and why is it that particular amount?

From what I can tell from the research I’ve done, a serving of produce is either 80g, or a fist-sized fruit, whichever comes first. The source of why servings are what they are seems to be the World Health Organisation, from many different studies published before I was born, that are difficult to find on the internet. The food guides published by most world governments reference WHO research at one point or another, particularly the CINDI recommendation:

WHO [World Health Organisation] recommends an intake of at least 400 g vegetables (in addition to potatoes) and fruits perday. …Epidemiological studies published during the 1980s and 1990s confirm that the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, certain cancers and most micronutrient deficiencies is lower where vegetable and fruit intake is at this level or higher. -World Health Organisation, Regional Committee for Europe, Countrywide Integrated Noncommunicable Disease Intervention (CINDI) Dietary Guide

I’ve linked to the document so you can read it yourself. (It’ll open as a PDF.)

The resulting serving size recommendations that came out of that were based on about how much of something a person would typically eat, the nutritional content of that serving, and yes, how much of it you’d need to get to your 400g/day minimum. That works out to be about 80g, or something that fits comfortable in the palm of an adult hand.

For example, the Canadian Food Guide recommends that a 35 year old woman should eat, in one day:

  • 7-8 servings of vegetables and fruit
  • 6-7 servings of grain products
  • 2 servings of milk and alternatives
  • 2 servings of meat and alternatives
  • 30 – 45 mL (2 to 3 Tbsp) of unsaturated oils and fats

Now, here’s the problem: it seems like eating more fruits and vegetables than any other food group doesn’t actually do much for your chances of getting cancer. If you strive to eat a nutrient-rich diet, it certainly doesn’t increase your chances of getting cancer (I think…), but cancer prevention is more complex than just having an apple every day. The claims about those micronutrient deficiencies and cardiovascular illnesses that CINDI warns against still stand, too.

The thing is, I think eating well is about more than just trying to live forever, or avoiding getting sick. Food is also about flavour, and texture, and colour, and aroma. I’m missing out on all those things when breakfast is just bacon and eggs with toast.

Source: allposters.de via Iss dich schlank – bleib schlank on Pinterest

What makes this challenge, well, challenging?

I’m allergic to many things that simply taste better when eaten fresh and raw. I spent most of today hungry because I simple couldn’t decide what to cook. Eating usually means cooking for yours truly. I do not snack on fresh produce. To give you an idea of what I’m up against, here’s a list of some of the foods that cross-react with my pollen allergies:

  • melons
  • berries
  • bananas
  • citrus fruits
  • grapes (and raisins)
  • apricots
  • plums
  • pears
  • prunes
  • bell peppers
  • pineapples
  • apples
  • celery
  • avocados
  • cherries
  • kiwis
  • peaches

And the list goes on and on. Some things I react to more than others. Apples make it difficult to breathe, while I can eat a stick of celery and I’ll only have an annoying itch in my mouth for 20 minutes. Luckily, the proteins that cause my allergy break down when heated. But how many recipes do you know for cooking fruits that don’t add so much sugar it negates the health benefits? And let’s be honest, there is a real joy in the satisfying crunch of a fresh carrot that steamed carrots just don’t give.

Nevertheless, I have made a commitment, and I plan to stick to it and make it delicious! I’ve got quite the Epicurean week ahead of me, don’t I?

Wish me luck,

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February 18th, 2013
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Adventure Of The Week: Bread Edition

I have a lot to say. I’m in one of those moods. I need to collect my thoughts and say them tomorrow, because I’ve been trying to say them today, and they’ve been getting jumbled and now I’m frustrated. What’s set me off is this:

IMG_0013This is the bread I made. And it was delicious. And it was the first time I’ve ever made bread all by myself. And it has not got me thinking and re-thinking the way I eat, from the bottom up. Since I made this bread, I have made yet another loaf and two different kinds of sourdough starter, and committed to never again buying bread from a grocery store.

I don’t talk about it on this blog because I don’t have the photography skills to run a food blog, but I am passionate about making food from scratch. Partly because I am poor and it’s sometimes a matter of necessity. It is also partly because I’m narcissistic and like the food I make over that of most others. But mostly, it is because when given the choice between being connected to the story of the food I am eating and being handed a paper bag of processed food with a big corporate logo and a fake smile, I choose to know what I’m putting into my body.

So, I’ve been cooking and baking and thinking and it distracted me from last week’s adventure. I will take some time to think some more, cook some more and eat some more, and then I’ll get back to you.

Happy Monday,

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February 12th, 2013
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Adventure of the Week (Feb. 03/’13)

Source: stylecaster.com via Megan on Pinterest

So I started reading through my blog archives, and I stumbled upon a little project from way back in the day called ADVENTURE OF THE WEEK!

From my blog back then:

For those of you who are new around this neck of the woods, Adventure of the Week is a personal challenge where you make the choice to do something big and scary (to you) before the end of the week for the purpose of deliberately chipping away at your comfort zone and ensuring constant positive growth.

Oh my gosh you guys! How brilliant was 18 year old A.Y. Daring, save the grammatical gaffe of “for the purpose of”? She was seriously dedicated to learning courage and getting rid of her comfort zone. How stupid is 21 year old A.Y. Daring for forgetting all the cool things her younger self wanted to do and become? I did Adventure of the Week for several months and I experience so much conscious growth in such a short period of time that I think I freaked myself out. Let’s bring it back, I don’t want to be afraid of my potential anymore. You should join me. I used to start a new adventure every Monday. Today is Wednesday. That’s OK. This week, I am doing a 4 day adventure.

This week, I am learning how to code.

Actually, I already know how to code. I built websites for pocket money back in high school, and I was pretty good. But I haven’t written a single line of code since 2009 and that’s changing this week.

I did a little bit of research (i.e. spent 20 minutes on Google) to find the best low cost curriculum for learning computer programming. I eventually (i.e. very quickly) decided upon Codeacademy because they were very highly rated (i.e. my Facebook friends liked it, and the program is free). The quick and dirty on them, from their website: “Codecademy is a team of hackers working hard to build a better way for anyone to teach, and learn, how to code.” Essentially, it’s a really fun and interactive platform for learning how to code, and neither TechCrunch nor The New York Times can seem to stop talking about how great it is.

They have 7 basic learning units.

I’m going to do them all in 4 days.

The fun part is that I have absolutely no clue how long each unit is designed to take.

This is a big and scary world for me, because it’s been 4 years since I last dedicated myself to learning code. For those who aren’t familiar with the conversion formula, four Earth years is actually 1,500 Internet years. I am basically starting all over again and I have no idea what to expect with the new internet. What I do know is that the new internet is significantly meaner and hostile towards women than it was back in 2009, particularly towards women who are new to the tech world. Men who just started learning code are generally regarded as learning a great skill. Women who just started learning code are generally regarded as nerd poseurs who are only doing it to find a husband that works at Google.

It almost makes me hesitate to even learn more highly technical skills, because skill building sans supportive community is difficult and none of my friends are particularly technical. That’s why this new endeavour is so far outside my comfort zone. This is the world I’m venturing into:

“ MEN invented the Internet. And not just any men. Men with pocket protectors. Men who idolized Mr. Spock and cried when Steve Jobs died. Nerds. Geeks. Give them their due. Without men, we would never know what our friends were doing five minutes ago.”

This was the first paragraph of an op-ed piece in the New York Times in response to how bad sexism is in the tech industry. Yes, you understood that correctly. This response to sexism is that men created everything, so the sexism makes perfect sense. Boing Boing had the best commentary on the whole thing.

For the record, when I was in the 7th grade, I told my entire class during a “getting to know you” exercise that my favourite shows were Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon and Beyblade. Every single person laughed at me and I cried into my deck of Yu-Gi-Oh cards about it later on while InuYasha played in the background. I was the nerd girl. I still am the nerd girl. I built the computer I’m typing this on. I sure didn’t get any positive attention from it back then and I still don’t get any now. Nor should I feel the need to prove my nerd credibility to the internet, but that’s the kind of world we live in.

I’d better get to work, eh?

Happy Wednesday,

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February 6th, 2013
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Weekly Adventure: Decluttering Edition

Hola Beautiful People!

Last week’s sleepy adventure was a dream come true. All puns intended. Each and every single night,  I treated myself to the 8 hours I so desperately crave all the time. The best nights were the ones where I didn’t get to bed till around midnight, and then I guiltlessly let myself sleep till 10am the next morning. I’d take  oversleeping instead of undersleeping any day!

I  originally set off on a sleeping adventure because of struggles I’ve been having for the past 8 months with calming my mind down each night to let sleep happen. But  you know what? I’ve been so busy, all day, every day, that I’d collapse into bed exhausted each night. But you know what else? Waking up rested every morning to the sight of the pig sty that is my bedroom really harshed my mellow!

I’ve been thinking for a while about  the sheer volume of stuff I have in my life, and the  more I think about it, the more it stresses me out. Don’t get me wrong, my stuff is cool. My stuff is meaningful  and beautiful  and it makes me smile. Still though, all of it at the end of the day is still stuff. I’ve proven over and over again to myself that I will continually accumulate stuff. It is in my best interest to begin to edit down my collection of stuff so I’m not  faced with piles of stressful crap to deal with everyday.

So my personal adventure for next week: get rid of 3 things a  day. I would get rid of just one thing a day, but GO BIG OR GO HOME! I  have  this vision of a home  filled with a  carefully curated collection of  treasures. My current collection of stuff I’m afraid to let go of looks  nothing like that vision. If last week’s  adventure taught me anything, I function best when I’m not tripping over things at 6am. I don’t know if I’ll ever be one of those smug zen people who develop ironic obsessions with not having stuff as  a way to stop obsessing over having stuff. That would be a  rather hilarious turn of events, wouldn’t it? At the very least though, I do know that I want to be able  to find the things I want, when I want them, instead of rifling through bags and boxes to track things down.

My  plan is that if I have an item I’m particularly reluctant to let go of, I’m going to take a picture of it  so that I at least still have the memory,  because ultimately, that’s what I’m trying to preserve by  keeping crap. The memories that went with them  are what I cherish the most.

So tell me, do you have an issue with keeping stuff too? And if not, why? And don’t tell me you just don’t care about things, because I know you have some things that are meaningful to you. The question is, how do you discriminate those from all the rest?

Om shanti zen,

A.Y. Daring

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January 30th, 2011
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Weekly Adventure: 2011 Week 4, Sleepy Edition

How did you do with your adventure last week! Mine didn’t turn out anything the way I planned. I originally thought I wanted to ask someone to hangout on a date-type thingy. Instead, I found two tomatoes and an epiphany. You read that right. But first, my adventure this week: Sleep! Eight hours a night, every night.

Image Credit: Ditte Isager

I struggle with quieting my mind enough to let rest happen what I want it to. Normally, I write and write till I’m too tired to write anymore, then collapse into my pillows and sleep till my alarm clock goes off the next morning. I want to begin to change that pattern. I want to replace it with the creation of a loving and safe space under my comforter where I can easily get all the sleep I need each night and face the next day energized and refreshed. Last week’s adventure taught me that I am at my best when I nourish myself with not just good company and bright thoughts, but also fresh food and deep sleep!

How?

I’m thinking something along the lines of cleaning my room each night, guided mediations and herbal tea. We’ll see though.

So, the story of last week’s adventures, involving tomatoes and epiphanies!

On Sunday, after the Chris Guillebeau book signing in Toronto, I got a sudden and overwhelming urge for raw tomatoes during the car ride home. It was absurd, especially since I don’t actually like raw tomatoes. But sometimes, the things we need to do in order to succeed come to us in strange and difficult-to-ignore impulses from the universe, and I knew that if I did indeed randomly find tomatoes that week, it would be a sign that my heart was in the right place and that the things my head dreams about are the same things my heart needs.

I did indeed find my raw tomatoes, but not in anyplace I looked for them. My roommates when on a collective massive grocery shopping trip. Did they buy tomatoes? Nope. I thought I saw one, but it was just a fat, round apple. On Wednesday night, I went to the grocery store to see if tomatoes were on sale. As it turned out, I got there 5 minutes before closing time, and in my frantic search for my precious tomatoes, I didn’t find any. I resigned myself to a sense of clam and decided that the tomatoes would arrive when they were ready. And boy did they ever!

I took a bus on Friday to go see my mother. It dropped me off at a terminal that’s just a 10 minute walk to her house, but Friday greeted us with minus 30 degree Celsius weather. My mom offered to take time off work to come get me, but something told me to decline and tough out the walk. With two, 20Lb bags…

And did I mention the dangerously cold weather?

Like I said, the universe works in strange and mysterious ways. I walked.

In order to brace myself against the wind, I retreated into a state of clam, and decided to focus on keeping warm instead of how painful the wind chill was. I adjusted my hood to better stave off the wind and as I did so, something red caught my eye. It was two red things actually. In the front lawn of the house 6 doors down from my mother, they had built an enormous snowman. Guess what they used for the eyes. Did you guess two fresh tomatoes? Because if you did, you would have correctly guessed why I had such a wonderful weekend!

So my lesson from last week was clear, simple and delicious, like a ripe tomatoe: focus on making sure you have what you need, and everything else will come to you as it’s ready to. I don’t think the lesson is to stop looking for whatever it is you want. Has anyone ever told you that you would find love as soon as you stopped looking for it? I think they’re on the right track, but not quite accurate in their assessment. You’ll find love not when you stop deliberately looking, but begin deliberately trusting that you’ll find it.

Every time I went searching for my tomatoe, it was because I didn’t really believe or trust that I’d be awake enough to find it, or the universe was clever enough to make sure I would receive it. Neither of those things are true- you are aware enough for your desires, and the universe is plenty aware of where you are and what you need. It’s when you let go of the idea that you might not find it, that you find it. That’s because the space that was formerly cluttered by self doubt and worry is now free to be filled with love and trust and total faith that you’re just freakin awesome, and a tidal wave of wonderful is rushing towards you to bring smiles you face. Nice.

Happy manifesting,

A.Y. Daring

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January 23rd, 2011
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Adventure of the Week! Romantic Edition

THE Kiss
Hi Beautiful People!

Remember back in October when I talked about having an adventure of the week? It was mad fun, and I loved every moment of the pursuit. I don’t know why I let Adventure of the Week die, but I’m bringing it back with the new year!

For those of you who are new around this neck of the woods, Adventure of the Week is a personal challenge where you make the choice to do something big and scary (to you) before the end of the week for the purpose of deliberately chipping away at your comfort zone and ensuring constant positive growth.

One of the things on my life list is to randomly tell an attractive stranger that I find them attractive. In a non-creepy way of course. We constantly compliment each other’s shoes, purses, scarves, etc. but it’s much more infrequently that we (or at least, I) call out attractive faces as I see them. Why? Why this focus on the objects adorning the person, to the exclusion on the person adorning the objects? This is nonsense. One of the tenets of service is acknowledging the beauty of others. My adventure this week is to not only do this, but to also actively seek out the people that I find both physically attractive, and am emotionally drawn to. In other words, ask someone out on a date, just to hang out.

It occurred to me recently that I’ve never asked someone out on a date. Never. Ever, ever, ever. Not because I’m nervous about it, I think dating is fun. I’ve just never approach someone with a deliberate, goal-in-mind, romantic attitude. Why?  I couldn’t tell you. Perhaps I’ve been more self-involved over the years than I originally thought?

Right now, I’m nervous and expecting to get rejected. That’s ok though. The point isn’t to end up with a date, the point is to put in a good faith effort into trying. Whether I fail or succeed at this task is irrelevant. t’s what I do with the outcome is what really matters. Love is everywhere. In fact, life itself is one infinite, uninterrupted act of love. Chew over that notion for a while! For a long time, I thought that I would find love if I looked hard enough for it, as though it was something I misplaced a while ago, along with childhood innocence and my favourite blue cocktail ring.

So, I turned to my heart for answers. Your heart is where your true answers lie. We’re all born knowing what we want you see, but somewhere between learning how to speak the language everyone else speaks, and live in the world everyone else lives in, we develop a tendency towards what everyone else is doing, whether or not it points towards our True North. What I discovered within myself was that I didn’t have to go out to find love. I simply had to remember what was already there in my heart. And voila- single status sadness evaporated!

The motivation behind this week’s adventure is to exercise this newfangled inner love on the world around me. (Which truthfully is neither new, nor fangled, as it’s been within me since the dawn of the ages. It’s been me since the dawn of the ages. I am love. You are love. Yo’ momma is love! Errbody be love, as Chingy would say.)

One of my favourite strategies for manifesting my desires is making vision boards. Using my new favourite interweb tool, Pinterest, I made myself a vision board of what the fairy tale in my heart looks like.

Common themes I found in my vision of love as it exists within my heart:

kisses, business casual clothing, soft lighting, intimate moments, plush bedding, rainbows, dark haired/light eyed men, girls with unnatural hair colours and crooked smiles, ponies in enchanted forests looking very valiant steed-like, androgynous people in pinstripe suits, fluffy dresses, rainy days, rainbows and more kisses. Right now, you can only link to your board, as opposed to show it off. NDB, here’s the permalink.

[Side note: I would encourage you to request a Pinterest code if you've been wanting to get into making vision boards, but feel a bit daunted by all that cutting and pasting, like I did. Doing it digitally makes compiling your vision so much more straightforward, and you can spend more creative energy manifesting, instead of worrying that you're making your vision board correctly. It took about a while for me to get my activation code. In the end, I got so impatient with waiting that I finally ping'd them on Twitter and grovelled for an account. It was well worth the wait. I made 8 boards within 3 days, all of which are filling up fast. I love figuring out what the details of my fabulous life look like outside my head. Pinterest gets the Official Daring Club Stamp of Approval for making visualisation and goal realisation a million times faster and significantly more interactive!]

So there you have it, the Who, What, When, Where, How and Why of my personal adventure this week. By no means do you have to embark on the same adventure I do. I would however encourage you to go on some sort of adventure. Maybe this week you’ll learn a new recipe, or go to a new museum, or go on an epic quest to get to another city to meet your favourite writer (oh wait, that was me!), or something even better!

Give it a roll over in your mind, and if pushing out your comfort zone over the next 7 days seems appealing to you, holla at your girl and the rest of the community! What adventure do you want to go on, and what’s pulling you in that direction? But most critically, what kinds of strategies are you thinking of using to get you to your goal?

Much love from within,

A.Y. Daring

P.S. Image credit: home & heart, via flickr

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January 16th, 2011
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Thoughts on Old Age From a Whippersnapper

Day 191: Dandelions

By Amancay Maahs

I’m in my final year of being a teenager. I’m excited. I’m panicking. I’m looking forward to my birthday cake, but not to the idea that one day, I will no longer be able to eat lots of cake with zero waistline-related consequences.

I never realised I would make it this far. That sound ridiculous, right? Especially since I essentially have my life planned out till age 30 and beyond. Why would it not occur to me that over time, I would get closer and closer to my dreams?

I guess because it just seemed so far away. By age 20 I’d have done such and such, and by 21, I’d have done this and that. Now all of a sudden, age 20 is just 12 months away. Where is my 3 carat fancy yellow diamond, emerald cut, 3-stone set into a titanium band!?

A few days ago, I was freaking the heck out. Now? I feel significantly more chilled out. Really, what am I going to do to slow the hands of time other than embrace what I’ve got to work with right now? I’ve got scars galore from bold attempts at life, and I expect to accrue many more over the years. Bring. It. On.

Adulthood seems like a long time away when you’re 12 and all you can do is dream. Then one day, you look in the mirror. You’re about to turn 19, you can buy booze, sign your own loan agreements and you actually have the ability to do more than dream. Oof! That thud you just heard was the popping of my safety bubble. (And it hurt man, let me tell you!)

I don’t think I’ll ever do that thing where you live your life in preparation for your own death (too much fear-based motivation for my liking!) but awareness/acceptance of my own mortality is humbling to the point of kicking my butt and making me move. I’m a grown up, bitches!

One day, I will cease to have birthdays, and there is nothing I can do about it. So, I’ve decided to release that fear to the universe. I’m letting it go. Even Gandhi died eventually, and my own death won’t be a failure either. As I look back on the childhood that is effectively over, there are 43 things I hope I will never stop doing, no matter what the date on the calendar says.

I Will Forever…

  1. Believe in magic.
  2. Eat chocolate cake for breakfast every once in a while.
  3. Play in swing sets and build sandcastles with my friends.
  4. Get flattered by love notes and thrilled to write them back.
  5. Believe in myself, with no need for external justifications as to why.
  6. Enjoy the presence of animals, pick flowers and spend lots of time outdoors.
  7. Appreciate small presents.
  8. Fill colouring books with purple zebras and suns that wear sunglasses, i.e. artistic approximations of reality.
  9. Love getting my picture taken.
  10. Wear cute bathing suits with neither guilt nor shame.
  11. Smile equally big for pictures and people.
  12. Be. In the moment.
  13. Care more about my feelings and the friends I already have than the opinions of the mean kids who don’t want to play anyway.
  14. Finger paint and draw with crayons and have entire afternoons dedicated to crafts.
  15. Be unafraid of making a mess.
  16. Have crushes.
  17. Get excited by kisses.
  18. Colour outside the lines, literally and figuratively.
  19. Wear lots of different bright colours all at once.
  20. Cry freely.
  21. Glue sparkles onto everything. (Everything!)
  22. Be unafraid of making new friends.
  23. Wave at people while I walk down the street.
  24. Act with zero guilt.
  25. Get really, really excited for shiny things.
  26. Give everyone a fair turn.
  27. Invite the new kid to come play with everyone else.
  28. Have nap time when I get cranky.
  29. Enjoy the clicky sound that Mary Janes make when I walk.
  30. Make art entirely detached from the outcome.
  31. Throw caution to the wind and just jump.
  32. Eat dessert first.
  33. Wake up on Saturday morning just to watch cartoons.
  34. Speak up when someone makes fun of someone else, no matter who it is. Bullying will never, ever be OK.
  35. Eat peanut butter straight from the jar, and add that extra spoon of sugar.
  36. Write with flourish.
  37. Change my handwriting every so often just to keep life fresh.
  38. Read books with small words and big ideas.
  39. Skip straight to the comics section.
  40. Take small bites and eat slowly.
  41. Eat only when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full.
  42. Cuddle.
  43. Sprinkle glitter on my head while I imagine being my own fairy godmother. (Did you ever do that?)

One day, I was celebrating my 16th birthday and now all of a sudden, I’m going to networking groups, preparing to finish my first university degree a full year early(!), and whipping together lists of my marketable skills. It’s all happened so fast and all I can do is hope magic keeps happening, and then doing my part to ensure my own happiness.

Deep breath.

Mug of coffee in one hand.

Pink sparkly wand in the other.

Namaste and aloha,

A.Y. Daring

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January 12th, 2011
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Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae  is the first track from Swedish pop artist Robyn’s self-titled album.  It’s $9.99 on iTunes and worth every penny. It goes like this (you’ll need to read at least a little bit of it to get this post):

You can’t stop it You can’t escape it You can’t turn it off
So I’d appreciate your kind consideration in this matter
Sir or Ma’am would you please turn it the fuck up
Do it

I present to you,
Unleashed in the east
Best dressed in the west
Sorted in the north
Without a doubt in the south
The queen of queenbees
Lioness of Juda
Phoenix from the ashes risen
Undefeated undisputed featherweight champion
on all five continents
World record holder with a high score of two gazillion in Tetris
Two-time recipient of the Nobel prize for super foxiest female ever
and war time consigliere to the Cosa Nostra
She split the atom, invented the x-ray, the cure for AIDS, and the surprise blindfold greeting
She performed and choreographed the fights for Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon,
Game of death and still does stunt doubles for Jackie Chan on the weekends
She suckerpunched Einstein, outsmarted Ali, and even outsuperfreaked Rick James
She’s the founder and CEO of Konichiwa Records
The most decorated professional field operative in the industry
and in the streets
With a perfect track record since kindergarden where she used to
whoop schoolboy ass
She’s listed in section 202 of the United Nations Security Act of 1979
as being too hot to wear tight sweaters on international airspace
In this world of tension pressure and pain
she is known by men and women of all origin and faith
for her wisdom, compassion, and relentless
determination in the quest to get paid

Hot, right? It’s complete bull, but I think we could all learn a little from Robyn’s CV. I mean, who wouldn’t want to live a life so damn fabulous?

Why not decide that your life is going to inspire 5 Oscar winning biopics?

Why not be the first person to go to Mars twice?

Why not have your teenage dreams inspire a worldwide circus act for beautiful people?

Why not become a billionaire who bathes in baths of bills?

What’s wrong with being big pimpin and all that?

The point isn’t for your imaginary CV to be true, or even possible. The point if for it to bring a smile to your face while simultaneously making you want to buckle down to work. Blah, blah, blah, shoot for the moon blah blah blah land among the stars. Know what I mean? A little (or a lot) of (semi) serious aspiration never hurt anyone. If it makes you focus in on what it is you want, why not latch onto it? I really love letting myself dream, because it’s in the space between wanting and having that I really hone in what my dreams mean. Like how I used to think I would never retire. Then I started working and I realised that I want to build a big company and then retire to live off of stock income forever.

A little while ago, I sat down and wrote the resume I want to have by age 30. It  included things like “Sold a multi-billion dollar corporation to Berkshire  Hathaway” and “Dated Brad and Angelina at the same time, and then dumped them both for someone hotter”.  I don’t actually expect to sell companies to Warren Buffet or have a section for “raging home wrecker accomplishments” on my resume. But imagining a stupidly gilded life makes me both smile and laugh and I can’t help but get excited and make things. Check it:

Get Excited and Make Things

This quote on a coffee mug? Yes please! Caffeine is my crack!

It recharges my discipline when I contemplate the awesome consequences of hard work.
Anyway, I’m going back to my other writing. I have an Oprah’s Book Club best seller to crank out.

Hot damn,

A.Y. Daring

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Publish date:
December 2nd, 2010
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Adventure
Motivation
Productivity
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You Have To Create Your Own Readiness

I moved out of my parent’s house at the beginning of this summer, after a huge fight. We’re talking again, and things are currently good, but it was a solid 8 months before we got  to where we are now. I was thinking the other day that when I moved out, I wasn’t ready to do so. Everyone was right. I really, truly wasn’t ready for that level of independence the day I left. But I was willing and I’ve so far proven myself able and in that willingness and ability, I’ve created my own readiness. You really have to, as you go  through life, create your own readiness just by being willing to face the world and fail. You can’t just sit there and wait for readiness to come to you. You don’t just wake up one morning and say,”Ok I’m ready for my life to start!” You have to go out there and say, “I’m not ready at all,” and that’s the beauty of it. You get to figure it out as you go along, because all the people who expect you to be perfect are just projecting their fear of failure onto you. And under no circumstances are you obligated to indulge another person’s insecurities, especially when they hold you back. I’m afraid of failing, but I’ve never been afraid to at least try. And so far, despite all the awful, scary things that have happened, at the end of the day the sun still sets in the west and rises in the east and I’ve always made it work. Cause that’s what you do when you decide to not accept defeat. So keep calm, have a cupcake. You are as ready as you decide to be.

That’s What’s  Up,

A.Y. Daring

Image credits:1. Keep Calm and Have A Cupcake, 2. That’s me following my own advice!, 3. Lovely Cupcakes by Dri Kobata, 4. Henry Leo’s 1st Birthday Cupcakes

Author name:
Publish date:
November 25th, 2010
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Adventure
Inspiration
Yours Truly
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