Deplorable News

My dear followers, I want to assure you that the reason for my silence is not my death.  I am obligated to take a two-week cessation of blogging.  I may be able to participate in some internet activity, but as for my own blog, I will be unable to post again until my natal day, about a fortnight from hence.

When I return, I hope to post more consistently and more purposefully.  This dear lady has been so kind as to give me good advice for blogging, and during my absence I hope to arrive upon a decided "message" for my blog.  Indeed, it is about writing, but we shall see if it develops a stronger voice.  Perhaps it shall.

Until we meet again, I bid you adieu.  

  

Another Giveaway

Even though it creates more competition to tell y'all about this giveaway, I love you so much that I'm doing it anyway!  Take a peek!

Yankee Paparazzi

What would you do with your 15 minutes?

 Being a "person of interest" is not as cool as it sounds.....They finally caught up with me................................. .

Paparazzi: Mr. Yankee, Mr. Yankee……….click, click, click

Why did you leave the North?

Me: "Well, I never did leave the North mentally, it stays with me to the dismay of some of my southern friends.....But I love it here. I came down in the early 90's and stayed - Damn Yankee !-Can you please step off of my lawn" ...(eyeing the water hose) 

Paparazzi: Mr. Yankee, Mr. Yankee ………..Click

Tell me about the grits, the grits!!

Me: "I did not eat grits for the first few years I was down South. It was something I told myself I wasn't going to do. Me eat grits? Ewe! I would stick to my regional fare of cream of wheat. I eventually gave in, I eat them, but have been accused of southern blasphemy because I put Sweet N' Low on them..go figure? - No death threats tho!" 

Paparazzi: Mr. Yankee, Mr. Yankee..click, click..click..click

Tell us about your “Worm Grunting Experience” ??

Me: "You have not lived until you have experienced the worm gruntin' festival held annually in Sopchoppy Florida. When I first heard about this festival I had mental images of locals on stage with a microphone grunting like a worm, (does a worm grunt?) not unlike the pig calling contests I have seen on the news. Far from it! My wife had to tell me it's worm gruntin' "honey", NOT worm grunting! I did Google search "Worm Grunting" 84 times on the computer to get a better understanding, although my wife said she did the searches, on my computer, in my room, using my password and  while she was at work"

Paparazzi: Mr. Yankee, Mr. Yankee....tell us about your very first pick-up truck..

Me: "Well, I went ahead and purchased a 1977 Ford F100 pickup truck. It does qualify as an antique. This will be the first time in my life I have owned one. Every other vehicle down here is a truck of some sort, so now I feel like I truly belong. Driving a pick up truck with my northern flair for the dramatics - is not a good mix down here…. It's a different driving culture in the south.Up north we yell, swear and get all red faced. Here it's simple, it's what is not said that is important. oh, and I put my umbrella in the gun rack! I did run over 5 squirrels  one day or was it 6?, the truck did smell of dead animals." 

Paparazzi. Mr. Yankee, Mr.Yankee, Mr. Yankee..click..

What do you think of Casey Anthony?

Me: "I don’t really know, is she the sister of Mark? I don't remember hearing anything about Casey. I can tell you that I had a small problem with Marks relationship with Cleopatra. While I understand the distribution of nations among Cleopatra's children was hardly a conciliatory gesture, it did not pose an immediate threat to Octavian's political position.  Far more dangerous was the acknowledgment of Caesarion as legitimate and heir to Caesar's name." 

Paparazzi:(Click here to hear paparazzi reaction to last answer) 

Paparazzi: Mr. Yankee, Mr. Yankee..click, click..click..click


What can you say about Roosters? 


Me: "Corfu Rooster
Serving size depends on the bird
1 rooster, cut into pieces
7 garlic cloves, smashed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoon olive oil or lard
1 tablespoon tomato paste (or use some tomatoes)
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar (or cider vinegar)
2 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced
3 ½ cups water
½ cup dry white wine (or vermouth or other booze)
1 teaspoon sugar

1 Role of duct tape"

I want it to be known that I have not hidden from the paparazzi, I don't have a team of handlers that look out for my every move. A photo of me (if I was in hiding ) would net approximately  $1.36 and that includes postage and handling. 


I had to tell all of my paparazzi pals that I have a busy schedule and must catch my ride that is waiting for me...

Where am I going? Got to keep you guessing, I have a brand to exploit !

A little tune to leave you with.....

Giveaway

I love giveaways!  Don't you?  Elana Johnson is selecting one lucky person to get a free book called The Future of Us.  It sounds pretty cool.  Here is her blog if you want to check it out.   

Shhh, it's a secret.

My writing is top secret.  When I am generating a story, I don't want a soul to know what the story is about.  I don't even want them to know that I'm writing at all, for land sakes.  If people knew, then they'd ask me about it.  And for me to say, "It's a fairytale retelling," or "It's about a girl," is too revealing for my taste.

Sound weird to you?  Or maybe you're like, "Yep, that's me."

I know writers who want to tell me their whole plot, brainstorm ideas, and share their manuscript as they work on it.  Maybe this works really well.  If you gain insight and ideas along the way, perhaps you don't have to do as much revision.  Perhaps it helps you make deadlines if other people know.  I don't know, because I've never really tried writing that way.

Personally, I have to own my story, at least until the first draft is finished.  Somehow it helps me "suspend disbelief."  If I were writing a novel, and people asked me, "How's the story going?" or "Where are your characters now?"  I would probably feel a light sense of panic and crawl in a cave to finish writing.  (Well, maybe that's a little extreme.)

What is your writing style--public or private?  What are some of the pros and cons of doing it that way?  I'd love to find out!

Encouragement

I only have a few words for you tonight:

Just keep going.

Writing is hard, but don't be dragged down by the difficulties--lack of confidence in your story or yourself, rejections, torture...I mean...revising.  Just push through even if it's not good.  Then go back do it again.

Confession No.2: I'm hard to pick as a control freak

When I told two of the people who know me best about my last blog post, they independently said exactly the same thing, “But you’re not a control freak.”

All right, I was exaggerating for comic effect. And admittedly, I was misrepresenting my own most characteristic tactics. When I feel the need for control, I’m more likely to withdraw than to try to make other people do what I want – not a move that normally invites the label “control freak” (though maybe it should).

I’m happy to take responsibility for myself, but wielding influence over other people is something that makes me nervous. In the past, I have tended to think of this in all or nothing terms – either I exert no significant influence on others, and attract no responsibility for their decisions, or I get involved and attract a scary level of responsibility if anything goes wrong. It’s taken me quite a while to see that responsibility can truly be shared and experienced as something that connects me to others in a positive or forgiving way, rather than as something which always tends to isolate the individual – either exalting the ego or crushing it.

While the story behind my relationship to responsibility no doubt has aspects peculiar to me, I think this way of interpreting responsibility is not uncommon. It relates to the dominance of the concept of “the person” in modern Western ways of understanding all kinds of responsibility. As I've pointed out before, even in situations that are clearly collective, like wars or climate change, in the West we think predominantly in terms of personal rather than collective responsibility.

The dominance of the concept of personal responsibility goes some way to explaining why otherwise sociable, reasonable people often react to calls for responsibility by behaving like “control freaks,” whether of the visible or invisible, withdrawing kind. And maybe the reverse is true, too: because we are living in a time during which the rate of change is unprecedented, and at the same time technological progress has increased our expectations of being able to control our environment, it’s easy to feel that things are getting out of control. One way of dealing with this is to impose the concept of personal responsibility to create a comforting illusion of control and moral order. But this sense of security comes at a high price, since in the process individuals are likely to be scapegoated or to flee responsibility for fear of being singled out and blamed when things go wrong. (John Locke was the first philosopher to define personal identity. He described “person” as a forensic term...)

It’s a vicious circle: overuse of the concept of personal responsibility feeds anxiety about individual control, and anxiety about individual control leads to overuse (or abuse) of the concept of personal responsibility.

How to think and feel differently?

Recently I came across a quote from Yeats' poem 'The Second Coming':

“Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold…

The best lack all conviction, while the worst 

Are full of passionate intensity.”

These memorable lines suggest that in situations of crisis, when things are falling apart, and individuals feel they must do what they can to maintain some sense of control, the wise tend to abandon ship, while the foolish desperately attempt to take charge.

In more settled times, convictions can be held without fanaticism, and intensity of commitment or social involvement need not be driven by blind passion, but by enlightened vision. But even when society – or one’s own life - is in upheaval, surely there are alternatives to self-protective withdrawal, or violent attempts to take control. I’d like to think it is possible to weather the storms of change and live with insecurity by keeping our convictions flexible enough not to break, and cultivating a dispassionate intensity. By this, I mean an ability to stay awake to the intensity of the times, to the people around us and to our own experience, without letting it sweep us into the turmoil of destructive passions.

Open-minded conviction, dispassionate intensity. I’m hoping that these paradoxes will help me navigate the challenges of spending three months in a Buddhist monastery, an environment which will strip me of many of the props that usually give me a sense of mastery over my life. This is another correction to the flippancy of my last post. It’s not because I’m out of control that I’ve decided to go to the monastery, but rather because I feel ready to relinquish some personal control and see what happens.

One of the props to go will be this weekly blog, but I expect I’ll be back in mid to late October to let you know a little of what has happened to me by then.

In the meantime, my mother has a painting exhibition on in August, so if you’re in Sydney, please go along and feel free to post your responses to her art works as comments on this blog (go on, she’d love it).

Click on this image for a clearer view

Extreme Writing

You don't have to do extreme sports to get that same adrenaline rush, you know. There are plenty of other ways to get your blood flowing.  For instance, you could act in a play that lots of people will be watching.  You could stand in the middle of downtown and start singing at the top of your lungs.  Or you could write a novel and send out query letters to agents.

Yesterday I sent out my first query email ever.  It was fun.  One hour and 49 minutes later I got my first rejection ever.  That was not as fun, but still fun.  I mean, it's nothing personal for an agent to reject my story, and I'd rather get the big R right away than wait 8 weeks for it.  That was not the only query I sent out, but I probably do get to wait for the other rejections.  I mean...offers.

I've been working on editing Pansytale for quite some time, and when the time came for me to query, I didn't really feel like it was the time.  Know what I mean?  Like maybe I should edit some more.  Like maybe I suddenly realize that agents are going to be reading my query letter and now it doesn't sound so clever.

Whatever happens, I decided that I must--MUST--make this Sunday a day of rest.  I've been married to my manuscript.  I have so much work I could still be doing today.  Sometimes I feel like I could just keep going and going (like the Energizer bunny).  BUT I need to take a break.  At some point I'll get burned out and have to take an even longer break.  Besides, it's good to get perspective by taking a step back.  

Today I'm blogging and reading books and other blogs.  What do you do on your day off?     

Talking About My Generation

You may want to play the below tune (The who - My Generation) While viewing this blog post.

Some things just transcend geographical areas. One area of the US may be a little more ahead in technology, but in time everybody has an opportunity, regardless of location to follow basically the same drum beat as the rest of the country in terms of advancement…

I feel old blogging about this topic today, but it’s something that has been on my mind for awhile. I was  born in the baby boomer generation.........

A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom. The United States Census Bureau considers a baby boomer to be someone born during the demographic birth boom between 1946 and 1964, including 1964.

Many things have changed drastically since my birth. I go in and out of the work ethic discussion. One day thinking that today's generation do not  have the same work ethic as us baby boomers did growing up...I am a manager and I get to hire and fire people, I don't like to fire people, but have done so in the course of my career. 100% of the time it was for a bad work ethic, continually late or absent or just plain lazy and  not at all interested at the job at hand.....

But then I see some glimmer of hope in this current generation of our work force and it puts me at ease for a little while.

What exactly do they call this current generation anyway??

Yup, Generation Y.

Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation (or Millennials),Generation Next,Net Generation, Echo Boomers,  describes the demographic cohort following Generation X. As there are no precise dates for when the Millennial generation starts and ends, commentators have used birth dates ranging somewhere from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s.Members of this generation are called Echo Boomers, due to the significant increase in birth rates through the 1980s and into the 1990s, and because many of them are children of baby boomers. The 20th century trend toward smaller families in developed countries continued,however, so the relative impact of the "baby boom echo" was generally less pronounced than the original boom.

Characteristics of the generation vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions. However, it is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. In most parts of the world its upbringing was marked by an increase in a neoliberal approach to politics and economics.The effects of this environment are disputed.

The affects of this technological environment are indeed disputed. Growing up in my generation, technology was this...

We had to be home to use them, we had no communication ability outside of the home while on the road  unless we came across one of these....

Today?......................... 

.............With these, you can communicate anywhere, to anyone, take a photo or video to document it, let people know exactly where you are at all times and what you are doing 24/7. They can even name that tune in 3 seconds!

Now, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with this advanced technology, Heck, I am using it now to post this blog and to tweet the post when I am done. Like anything else, in moderation these tools can be very helpful....But put these in the hands of our younger generation and you have them distracted to no end. A.D.D. gone wild......

.............. and they have to work too!!!?? Sneaking access to a social media site (s)  at work becomes an art form...............

  

It did not take me long to figure out why Sally or Johnie wanted to put 7 file cabinets, barb wire and a moat as obstacles to overcome if I wanted to look at their computer screen. 

When my company banned twitter and Facebook access on all computers, there was an upswing in younger employees bringing their handhelds to work.....  Now, making the following comparison, I do not want to seem like the quintessential dad type that would say to these young-ins the following.. "Heck, when I went to school, I had to walk 56 miles, in  the snow, in bare feet with a broken leg and carrying a refrigerator"..BUT...........

The only hand held I had on my first job was this...

You know, delivering papers at 4:am, barefooted, while studying for a math test, towing my dads Chevy ..all uphill. 

How about the conversion that this new generation is also called the "Entitlement" Generation? I don't know about that at this writing, I will need to look for further evidence here. But what I do know, this is my number one pet peeve....in any generation...

I guess an older generation has the advantage of being on this earth a little longer and seeing many changes as we advance. It may be that we are just getting older and remember the "good old days" and reflect how much better they were. When in fact, this current generation will do the same exact thing when they get older. Who knows what is in-store for us? I sometimes think that when you take all the advancements we have made away, we are all the same regardless of generation. Well, most of us anyway.

I wanted to be fair and also post a newer "My Generation" Music Video for my Y generation readers....... Enjoy.....

Why i Should select Ubuntu as my operating system??Working with ubuntu!

What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is an entirely open source operating system built around the Linux kernel. The Ubuntu community is built around the ideals enshrined in the Ubuntu Philosophy: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities,and that people should have the freedom to customize and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. For those reasons:

*Ubuntu will always be free of charge, and there is no extra fee for the "enterprise edition"

*Ubuntu includes the very best in translations and accessibility infrastructure that the free softwarecommunity has to offer, to make Ubuntu usable for as many people as possible.

* Ubuntu is released regularly and predictably; a new release is made every six months. You can use the current stable release or the current development release. Each release is supported for at least 18 months.

*Ubuntu is entirely committed to the principles of open source software development.You can improve it and
pass it on.

What is Linux?

The Linux kernel is the heart of the Ubuntu operating system. A kernel is an important part of any operating system, providing the communication bridge between hardware and software.Linux was brought to life in 1991 by a Finnish student named Linus Torvalds. At the time, it would run only on i386 systems,
and was essentially an independently-created clone of the UNIXkernel, intended to take advantage of the then-new i386 architecture.

Nowadays, thanks to a substantial amount of developmenteffort by people all around the world, Linux runs on virtuallyevery modern computer architecture.

The Linux kernel has gained an ideological importance as well as a technical one.There is an entire community of people who believe in the ideals of free software and spend their time helping to make open source technology as good as it can be.
People in this community gave rise to initiatives such asUbuntu, standards committees that shape the development of the Internet, organizations like the Mozilla Foundation, responsible for creating Mozilla Firefox, and countless other software projects from which you've almost certainly benefited in the past.
The spirit of open source, commonly attributed to Linux, is influencing software developers and users everywhere to drive communities with common goals.

Free Software

The Ubuntu project is entirely committed to the principles of free software development; people are encouraged to use free software.

"Free software" doesn't mean that you shouldn't have to pay for it (although Ubuntu is committed to being free of charge as well). It means that you should be able to use the software in any way you wish: the code that makes up free software is available for anyone to download, change, fix, and use in any way. Alongside ideological benefits, this freedom also has technical advantages: when programs are developed, the hard work of others can be used and built upon. With non-free software, this cannot happen and when programs are developed, they have to start from scratch. For this reason the development of free software is fast, efficient and exciting!

The Difference

There are many different operating systems based on Linux: Debian, SuSE, Gentoo, Red Hat, and Mandriva are examples.Ubuntu is yet another contender in whatis already a highly competitive world. So what makesUbuntu different?
Based on Debian, one of the most widely acclaimed,technologically advanced, and well-supported distributions, Ubuntuaims to create a distribution that provides an up-to-date and coherent Linux system for desktop andserver computing. Ubuntu includes a number of carefullyselected packages from the Debian distribution and retains its powerful package management system which
allows easy installation and clean removal of programs. Unlike mostdistributions that ship with a large amount of software that may or may not be of use, Ubuntu's list of packagesis reduced to a number of important applications of high quality.

By focusing on quality, Ubuntu produces a robust and feature-rich computing environment that is suitable foruse in both home and commerciale nvironments. The project takes the time required to focus on finer details and is able to release a version featuring the latest and greatest of today's software once every 6 months. Ubuntu is available in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, and will run on most modern computers. It is also available for the Sun UltraSPARC and Amazon EC2 architectures.

Backing and Support

Ubuntu is maintained by a quickly growing community. The project is sponsored by Canonical Ltd., a holding company founded by Mark Shuttleworth. Canonicalemploys the core Ubuntu developers and offers support and consulting services for Ubuntu.Canonical Ltd. also sponsors a number of other Open Source software projects, about which more information can be found on the Canonical website.

Can i run Windows applications on Ubuntu??

Yes,you can Run any EXE file on Ubuntu by using "Wine" software.
How I install Wine to Ubuntu?
Go to Applications>Ubuntu Software center>

Find "wine"> click  "Install".

Now any Windows Applications works with your Ubuntu Operating System.

Find out more or Download at the Ubuntu website.

It works with your favourite apps:

• 
 
• 
 
• 
 
• 

A Yankee Primer

Anna, a blogger/writer/interviewer wanted to get into my head....

Good luck! 

Interview Questions from @ruanna3 (Anna) 

From Anna's blog.................

3 Question View - Gordon McCleary
Writer, Humorist and Blogger, A Yankee's Southern Exposure -yankeeexposure.blogspot.com ; Twitter: @asouthernyankee 

This post is the sixth of a new series, highlighting talented people whose work I admire.

I call it '3 Question View' because it's limited to three questions (Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three) and it's a rather truncated inter-view, designed to elicit three compelling answers from each artistic mind.

Anna:
The writings on your blog, "A Yankee's Southern Exposure", focuses on the humorous side of the culture clash between North and South (Dunkin Donuts vs. Krispy Kreme, NY Jets vs. NASCAR, Philly Cheesesteak vs. Fried Green Tomatoes). What brought you to the South? What do you love best about your adopted homeland? What do you miss most about the North?
See the complete interview here:
http://yearningforwonderland.blogspot.com/2011/07/3-question-view-gordon-mccleary.html#more

Pic3D Films can Turn Any Liquid Crystal Display(LCD) into a 3D Screen!!!Special for iphones!!

Hey friends,This is a cool News From new technology World."Global Wave" a Japanese company has developed a special film that can make 2D(meaning of 2D:Something with two dimensions, e.g. length and width) screen into 3D preview.(Your iphone's screen is 2D screen)

This is the first time that can convert LCD to 3D mode.This is specially design for 12.1-inch laptops,23-inch monitors , iPhone 4 and iPads.

The technology behind the Pic3D is a lenticular lens system(this is an array of magnifying lenses, designed so that when viewed from slightly different angles, different images are magnified Eg: lenticular printing).

This technology can uses array of magnifying lenses to display images at different angles.This is not a first time that we use lenticular lens system. To design Toshiba's Glasses-Free 3D TV and a Fujifilm 3D-Printer also Use this technology early.The company plans to relies this on August. IPhones at $26 and 23_inch screens at $185.

Better to have loved and lost...

...than never to have loved at all.

I kind of disagree.  I mean, loving and then losing hurts.  Up until the age of 10, I moved all around the States with my family.  We didn't stay in any place long enough for me to make that many friends, but leaving a home I loved was hard.  I could never play in that back yard again, never ride my bike down that street again, never have the same view from my bedroom.

We finally settled down in New Hampshire, but the losing hadn't ended, of course.  I made friends that were so close that we were practically siblings.  Then they moved away, or decided to drift apart, or changed drastically.  It's less painful just to stifle those memories--stifle, stifle, stifle.  Don't think about all those people and animals and places I had to leave at some point in my life.  Shove them away, back into the recesses of my mind.  If I don't think about the ones I deeply loved, I won't cry.

Better to never love at all than to love and lose, right?

Well, no.  Pain has made me a more empathetic person.  Empathetic people understand other people better.  And here comes the clincher: story characters are people!  So through loss we can understand our characters better--make them more believable.  

I think we all know this in some form or another: pain leads to art, expression, feeling.  If I walked through life as a happy-go-lucky leprechaun, I'd miss out!  (Nothing against leprechauns, btw.)

Anyway, I was not trying to write a sappy post.  I don't want to sound like I'm preaching about love or something.  (Nothing against that either, but that wasn't my goal.)  I guess I'm just trying to find the beauty in the pain, and transfer that transcendence to my writing.  Kind of makes me think of this passage of Hebrew prophecy from Isaiah 61:

He has sent me...to comfort all who mourn, 

and provide for those who grieve in Zion— 

to bestow on them a crown of beauty 

instead of ashes, 

the oil of joy 

instead of mourning, 

and a garment of praise 

instead of a spirit of despair. 

So, better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?  I guess I agree...
How does your life transfer to writing?  Do you try to keep the two somewhat separate or do your experiences sharply color your stories?


    

How To be COOL on FACEBOOK-From my experience-Learn to be cool

Upside down letters on your status. Click here 
 To get cool symbols Click here.

Confession of a control freak

I remember once causing a boyfriend of mine a moment of astonishment by describing myself as a bit of a control freak. “You’re aware of that?” he said.

This was years ago. My awareness of my tendency to try to control things, including situations that are not even slightly my responsibility to control, or amenable to control by anyone, has not, strange to say, reduced the tendency - or not noticeably. Maybe this is because I haven’t fully allowed myself to notice how much anguish I cause myself, or how much annoyance I cause to other people, by trying to take charge in situations that patently do not call for my direction. When I notice it, I even find this tendency of mine quite amusing (clearly reform is still some way off).

Recently I caught myself maneuvering to become a leading light and determining authority in relation to a group project that a friend is involved in, a project that he has not invited me to join or even influence in any substantial way. The observation gave me a good laugh. I could see that my behavior was verging on the ridiculous, largely futile, and counter-productive in terms of establishing a harmonious relationship with the person in question, which is something I would very much like to do. 

And yet this impulse to impose my will is not something that I can honestly say I wish to renounce. Maybe that’s why I like Nietzsche so much. He proposed that all of life can be analysed in terms of will to power. For him, will to power is not something you can renounce. At most you can mask it.

The thing that really made me laugh when I admitted to myself what I had been up to, was how pious and earnest a mask I had used to achieve my limited success (if a project so perverse can be said to involve success). I had spoken of loving-kindness, compassion, understanding, commitment to peace. So eloquent did I wax that I temporarily blinded myself to the little jabs I was making, through the use of these very words, at my target’s authority. He, however, soon showed signs of feeling these pin-pricks and stopped responding to my advancing plans to rework the project. At this point, I contented myself with discussing my fantastical schemes with a few third parties. The creativity involved in this last bit was enjoyable, and may yet lead to something productive, but on reflection, the whole episode provides clear evidence of a fairly urgent need to take myself in hand. It is fairly obvious that my desire to control things that are not mine to control is linked to the fact that I am out of control.

I am a control freak and I am out of control. It’s not a good combination. So serious has this situation become that I have lately been feeling a desire for incarceration. I’m not joking. I yearn for severe constraints, austere conditions and a regular timetable. So, since my will to power has not yet taken criminal form, I have booked myself into a Buddhist monastery for a three month retreat, starting in about ten days time.

What will happen in there? I’m hoping that in this restricted environment, I will be presented with such limited opportunities to control other people that my frustrated need for control will turn inwards. I’ll bring all my will to power to bear on the task of directing myself. Pretty soon, instead of other people getting annoyed with me, I expect I’ll be the one telling myself to kindly piss off. And then maybe I’ll get so sick of my control freak antics that I'll stop finding them amusing, and actually change.

Of course the other possibility is that in three months time, my spiritual progress will be no further advanced, but I will have made a bid to oust the Abbot from power and (I know this is ambitious) install myself as the first lay Abbess of a Buddhist monastery.