Typhoon Kompasu and Other Things
Typhoon Kompasu
At around 4am, I can hear a lot rattling coming from the windows.
Typhoon Kompasu has arrived. The name is based on the Japanese pronunciation of compass.
News from all the major networks had things to say and what to do in this situation.
This wasn’t a typical typhoon. Most of these typhoons hit Japan and Seoul would be struck with a lot of rain. This typhoon went right across the center of Korean penninsula and the wind was simply massive.
I really thought the windows were going to shatter and was looking to take care of my family’s safety.
Yes, there was rain, but the winds were up there.
I saw the windows shake out in the veranda and saw the screen door slide side to side as if some supernatural being or force of nature wanted to play with them.
I saw trees shake and saw pieces of debris falling from the top of the apartments. It was quite incredible.
In my seven years of living in Korea, I’ve never seen this before. News reports say this was the first powerful typhoon to hit Seoul in 15 years. No wonder I’ve never seen this of typhoon before.
At around 8am, things started to lighten up and the weather more or less cleared.
There was some carnage though as you can see in these photos. Signs were ripped from the buildings, lamp posts were snapped like toothpicks. There’s leaves, glass and other debris strewd all over the streets. It rained in the morning, but it already disappeared.
In the afternoon, the sun came out. Typhoon Kompasu has moved on to the east coast.
Under Pressure (And it’s About Time)
Well it’s time to start posting up the fruit of my labour. I’m not sure how good it looks, but I can’t wait around forever. It’s time to get going and make adjustments as I go. The fear keeps poking me into stopping in my tracks, but I know I have to get through this.
Visualizations – Day 7
One week passed and I’ve lost a lot of steam and momentum. I seriously need to re-evaluate my goals now since I’m more pre-occupied with other things. I know that a set time must be made at all costs. During that period of time, I need to see what I’m trying to accomplish and take the steps of putting things into action.
More importantly, I need to be a lot more clear on my objectives. I’ll be posting up those new goals and objectives in the goals page. I’ll be writing these goals on a piece of paper and reading them at the alloted time I’ve decided. Hopefully this will put me back on track and I can achieve what I want this month in Septemer.
Into September
September Begins
So ends summer. I’m glad that August has finally passed. It felt like molasses; there were parts where I had to deal with sticky situations and get myself unstuck only to be stuck again later on. To get over this month has been a lesson of pain and suffering. Much of it was at a personal level with some of it being professional. I guess that’s all part of dealing with the changes in life.
On this first day of September, it’s time to move on and face new challenges. It’s also time to let go of the resentment I have inside and feel good about the days to come. I’m sure I’ll look back and be thankful for the things I learned. For now, I don’t want to bother looking back.
Still Recovering
The weather’s been playing havoc on my sinuses and I had to deal with allergies. Plus the fact that I had two late nights made my days full of fatigue and soreness. I’m looking forward to sleeping in a few hours…. 
Visualizations – Day 6
It didn’t go as planned. While I did spend time here and there making the ideal images in mind during the day, I still couldn’t get myself to do it before falling asleep. I think I may have spent about 12~15 minutes throughout the day picturing these movies in my mind. I want to spend 20 minutes or more. I sound like a broken record and want to remedy my inconsistency. Hopefully I can do so tonight.
Today I wasn’t too drawn to the goals and dreams I’ve been picturing. I’m wondering if these are what I truly want. Could it be due to the lack of a set time? Or maybe it’s because I’m still tired? I’m not sure what it could be. I will continue to do this and persist. 
Ramblings of a Tired Fool
A Scene from 300
“This is madness!”
“Madness? This is SPARTA!”
<Cue King Leonidas kicking the guy in the stomach and falling into the pit and crazy mayhem ensues>
I have days where I wished I could kick some people’s butt like that. Of course I don’t act on all of my desires and wishes. That would truly be madness with a capital “M”.
Presentation Day
There was a late night meeting and some preparation until the wee hours in the morning. When I got back home, I slept for about another 4 hours. I knew what was ahead of me: a presentation at 1pm and talking about the virtues of vocabulary. Like I mentioned before, the presentation that was part of the new English program. While the textbook itself was quite ordinary, the multimedia was pretty slick. It still needs a little polish from me, but I was impressed. It will let me use some tools and facilities that were available to me before, but I have never used. Now I have no choice. I’m excited to try them out on the students.
The presentation went well according to what the managers told me. The representative made up his notes to take it back to headquarters. After the presentation, we went for some spicy noodles. It was very nice and I’m thankful.
Visualizations – Day 5
By writing my experiences on visualizations in Cyper, it has “forced” me to think and reflect about this experiment and to practice them whenever I have the chance. I still haven’t fallen into a routine yet, but with my schedule lightening up, I’ll be able to get back to the swing of things. I admit I’ve taken a step back since I haven’t practiced visualizing my goals today. I’ll be doing that before I head off to bed.
Brain Dumping Once More
Talk about taking a major mental dump. I was at a frenzy writing out my thoughts of the past several days. I’ve actually written some of them a few days ago, but couldn’t get around to editing and publishing them. Now I’ve evened out once more and hope I won’t fall prey of falling behind. Time to take a nap…
Waking Up
I can feel myself waking up from the nap I took a few minutes ago. My first class is minutes away and I thought I would be wishing for bed. Instead, I desire to be lighter. The extra weight is clouding my mind. Well, it’s showtime.
Meetings and Presentations
TWANG!
As like all Mondays, they feel short and quick. It didn’t help that I slept rather late and had about four hours of sleep. I pretty much spent the rest of the morning sleeping in. Then, off to work I go for the weekly meetings.
I’m finding I’m having less and less time to get things done. I have more classes in my schedule and the recent inconsistent sleep schedule isn’t helping any. I wish I could find the time I had before, but I’m going to be pretty busy for the next few weeks. It’s all part of adjusting to the situation at hand.
I was hoping to work on my projects today, but that got shot by another meeting and presentation for Tuesday. It’s the first time for me to do this little “show and tell” and I look forward to trying this new English program. If I could only find a few hours more to do things I care about…
Visualizations – Day 4
The routine has fallen apart. In place of that are pockets of time spent on thinking about my goals and dreams. I’m starting to see the ideal images of where I want to be and feel good about the path I’m taking.
I heard someone say when you’re really tired, your creativity comes out more since your brain is too tired to fight. I personally don’t like being in this fatigued stage, but there’s a rationale to this argument. Despite my current state, I sketch and draw bits and pieces at a time. It’s not much, but I’m buying into the plan of doing the things I want to do every day since it’s important to me. Whether if it’s only 10 minutes to about an hour, I believe it’s time well spent.
I want to get back to the routine of setting a time to visualize my goals. It would feel more productive I think. Sleep would nice as well…
Sunday’s Downpour
Pouring Down
Wow. It was raining like crazy in the morning. I had to be extra careful driving around. I wish I could of taken photos of high rising waters. Instead, I took a video of the rain coming down on the roof of my car. I just have to find the time to post it up sometime.
Other than the fantastic rainfall, it wasn’t too bad of a day. I took my family to Pizza Hut for a pan supreme pizza and a few trips to the salad bar. Afterwards, I hanged out with the in-laws and rested.
Visualizations – Day 3
I think I am becoming more and more aware of my goals and dreams from doing this. It’s still a little hard to do; I ended up doing them in the morning again instead of before bed. I find it’s a relaxing way to sleep, so I feel it’s a win-win situation where I sort of do it twice.
The images are still vague, so I decided to think of the images before hand before starting them. I hope to continue to be drawn to them and move forward regardless of what may happen. Each day so far, I feel a little more certain and on Monday I wonder if I will act upon my convictions and finally move forward on things I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I’ll see that soon enough.
Dance like no one is seeing you.
Write like no one is seeing you.
Draw like no one is seeing you.
I need to be compelled, excited and full of enthusiasm to accomplish what I want. Life is to be lived and to the fullest.
Visualizations – Day 2
Getting Clearer
The visualization exercises were still a little disorganized and I actually fell asleep before I got there! When I Counted from 20 to 1, I basically conked out since I was already quite tired and sleepy from the day.
I ended up doing the visualizations in the morning. The images were not as clear as I want them to be, but I feel like I’m going in the right direction. There’s still a lot of days left. I’m hoping I will continue to persist and be more excited with the process as I get a clear ideal movie in my mind.
Write like a Maniac
It’s a free report I downloaded from an email. I get a lot of these reports, but barely read them. I actually read this one twice. It’s not very long and gets to the point. I’ve enjoyed it and thought it’s something I should do not only with writing, but with my drawings as well. Too much thought gets in the way when I try to be creative. When the decisions are all made of what needs to be done, it is then a matter of execution without any hesitation. I particularly like the concept of “bursts” where you go at a task at a fast and furious pace with reckless abandon for a short period of time. It was something I was already doing, but reading this report confirm my thoughts about writing.
I found a link where you can download the report for free. I was a little surprised that people are even selling this report! Anyhow this report is downloadable. If you have trouble with it, please feel free to comment and tell me that. I’ll be happy to send to you somehow!
Visualizations – Day One
Schedule Changes, No Excuses
A sudden shift in the schedule made me underestimate the amount of time I had. Still, I really have no excuses since I had time this morning to do the things I need to get done. I still have to deal with the time I have and make most of it.
The First Day of Visualizations
I had set up a timer on my iPhone for 20 minutes to keep track of the visualization time. I went through the steps of relaxing each part of my body. I had a hard time counting from 20 to 1! I guess I had a hard time with that since I was pretty relaxed at that point.
For me to visualize the changes and goals in my life was challenging. The visualizations themselves were like watching a movie that what totally out of focus. I can see blobs of images coming in and out the movie and I can barely make out the movements and actions. The sounds and sensations were vague and barely familar.
Other than that, I felt quite refreshed and relaxed. I had a good night’s sleep and managed to wake up a little earlier. I also decided to avoid the late night snacking I did these past few days and that helped the entire process.
Now, let’s see it goes for the next 29 days…
A Heavy Load
Wow. That was a little more than I expected. The number of classes I’m teaching has increased. I’m actually busier now than I was during summer vacation! I think that’s a first for me. My schedule is really twisted. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like this before. I’m still feeling pretty good though. It’ll keep my mind sharp.
A Lesson in Writing and Visualization
Free Writes
The way I write at times is quite orderly. Other times are rather chaotic. If I have a definite idea of what I’m going to say for today, I can usually write out my title, entry, tags and other stuff in a snap.
Then, how about situations where nothing comes to mind? As a writing teacher, this is what I teach them: I tell them to sit down, take out a piece of paper and pencil and write freely for ten minutes. I tell them to write whatever comes to mind. If there’s absolutely nothing coming out, they still have to keep their hands moving, so I them to write, “My mind is blank. My mind is blank.” until they have a flow of ideas coming back.
Today I had one of those days where I don’t have anything I want to particularly write. I should of been more organized and build a list of topics that would be related to the things I write in the blog. It’s something I should do, but I must admit I’m very slow on the go.
This entry and the one I written yesterday is an example of a free write. I am just putting down words that are coming out of my mind and not worrying about whether I’m writing something good or not. I’m not too worried about the grammar or spelling either since I’m pushing to be creative.
Tim Ferriss on People that Don’t Like You
I keep telling myself to check this out, but never seem to make time for it. I saw bits of Tim Ferriss on how to deal with haters. I really wanted to see this video because it’s an interesting topic. Unfortunately at 30 minutes, it takes time for me to view and it’s a little difficult to make that much time in one sitting. I like to see things from beginning to end. Maybe it’s something I should change like breaking things down to smaller pieces.
An Exercise on Visualization
I’ve decided to try an exercise to find my passions and making goals. I also read up on how to visualize and build the ideal situation. I’d like to share one given to me from Michael Lee.
1. Get in a comfortable and quiet spot to rest.
2. Relax your body. Tell each part of your body from the feet to your head it’s starting to relax.
3. Count back from 20 to 1. With each number counted, relax deeper and deeper. When you get to 1, you’re completely relaxed.
4. Affirm and visualize your deepest desires. Make them the perfect situation. See it like you’re watching a IMAX movie of yourself doing things as perfectly as possible.
5. Continue these movies of the mind for like 10 to 20 minutes.
6. Then, count back up from 1 to 20. As you count, be aware of your surroundings and becoming more conscious. At 20, feel refreshed and alive from this exercise.
7. Do this everyday.
This brings me to my point. I’m going to do this every day for 30 days.This will be my experiment to see how it goes. I’ll be doing this tonight before I go to bed and report how this is going in this blog each day. I won’t pass judgement on this technique until the 30 days are done. I’ll just post my observations and how it’s going.
Under the Gun
I’m finding myself being sloppy on the release of my posts. They have been inconsistent and I’ve had enough. I’ve timestamped this post to come out at 9:00pm. This post is admittingly raw and has mistakes all over the place. I may be fixing and correcting things as you are reading this. However, I need to discipline myself to release things as I scheduled to. This is my way to push myself to become better prepared and think of ways to improve my the quality of this blog.
This goes against what I’ve read about making a good blog posts, but !%)^*!6 that! I have to find and build my own path. Advice is good, but I need to change things up.
Reflections on Synchronicity
I am a Prisoner
The pain is gone from the back of my neck, but I know something is wrong. I know there’s freedom for me to gain and I am now in some sort of prison.
The trap I’m in is where I am. I try to make time to find the way to get out, only to be easily distracted by small forms or pleasure or pain.
I realize that when I go free, no one will understand my freedom. I could explain time and time again and it would be ignored or misinterpreted by others. Some may even be angry for my ridiculous talk.
I am Full of Myself 1
I feel my opinions count and that it has value. I want to share it with others.
I am Full of Myself 2
I also believe the opinions of others whether big or small, white or coloured, rich or poor has merit to my eyes and ears. If they are talking to me, they deserve my full attention.
I am Fearful
I feel fear of creating something that could be ridiculed, laughed at or worse ignored. Because I don’t know the results, they scare me.
I am fearful of indifference. I’m afraid my creativity may mean nothing to anyone.
I am Angry
I know that people may look the other way, and not care. It is best for me to move on, but I have an anger that burns in me.
I Regret
Perhaps I didn’t make the best decisions and live the life to the fullest. With that said, I still have life to live and make each decision count. It could be that one small decision that could change the course of my life to change forever. Who am I to judge whether this choice or another one is important? It is good to gauge, but it’s only my opinion.
What was That All About?!
Today’s entry was a reflection of Mike’s Entry which I thought was well written with good references. Please go check it out!
Pain – An Ultimate Motivator
There are many things that drive us, push us to go to different places and do many things. One of the greatest contributors to the development of mankind is pain.
No one likes feeling pain. Some will go great lengths to avoid it like it’s something hideous or disgusting. Nonetheless, it’s important to feel this to know that you’re actually alive and breathing.
I’ve had my issues with pain this whole summer. On bad days, I’ve used it to whine and feel utterly miserable. On good days though, it made me focus and push myself in ways I never thought was possible.
These days, I’ve had this throbbing sensation in my neck that refused to go away even while I’m resting. I took this day to air out my frustrations and found it wasn’t very helpful.
I thought about music. Didn’t someone say music soothes the soul? Well, I found some music from Collective Soul in my music catalogue and listened.
Uncanny. The pain actually began to subside! Why didn’t I do this in the first place? That’s a very good question.
The Source of my Pain
I know where my pain’s coming from: it’s from not doing the things I wanted to get done. I know the solution; get those things done! Music is only a temporary measure. It’s time to get down to the root. I have some drawings to complete and articles to write for a project. I cutting them down.
