Words, words, words

I'm having a fun time editing book manuscripts, although I must confess, cleaning copy can be tedious when there are so many pages of errors! How can people write so carelessly, I'll never understand. I guess sometimes there's inspiration, and sometimes there just, well, ISN'T.

Anyway, I've got some magazine article assignments as well, and I'm waiting to conduct a phone interview right now. Been waiting for half an hour already. Sigh. So I'm updating my blog while I'm waiting, haha :) Anyway, hopefully it'll be a good chat, so I can write up the story right away.

Tomorrow I have to go into the book publisher's office to put final touches to the book manuscript. Yay, hopefully this is the LAST of it! I've been at this particular project for the entire month and I'd REALLY like to put this baby to bed.

Oops, here comes my phoner. Gotta run. Chat later!

Learning A New Language -- Using My Hands!

I'm halfway through my Basic Sign Language course at the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf). I'm enjoying the process of "language acquisition" all over again -- it's like going back to basic ENGLISH school, what with past tense, past participles, nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc. WHOA...

But what I'm really enjoying most is actually piecing proper sentences and phrases together. So far, it's been really good. I'm so glad I took it up. For once in my life, I'm getting a glimpse of another world that is so remote to me. I only regret that I hadn't done it sooner -- because then I might have been able to better communicate with my cousin Mel earlier!

Anyway, I'm slowly picking stuff up, but the truth is, language doesn't "stick" so naturally. That is, with any language, you simply have to Practice, Practice, Practice in order to Successfully Retain. I really hope I can remember my signs, because I REALLY want to learn how to communicate with deaf people in real life.

And you know what's the worst part -- my fingers are just sooooo S-T-I-F-F... argh! I don't know how my cousins Mel and Kev fingerspell so fast -- I can seldom "read" what they had spelt, even though they had been kind enough to slow down for me. As for me, I literally "stumble" over my own fingers, alphabetising with what seems to be athritis-ridden hands that keep getting crossed!!!

Anyway, that said, I'm getting there, hopefully (albeit slowly). We have a signing test in three weeks. Yikes. Involves reading five fingerspelled words, five signs, and fully piecing together 10 sentences consisting 75 words! My problem is in Receptivity -- as in, understanding what the other person is signing -- and I'm a bit concerned about that. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed -- oops, no pun intended! :))

Career Change

Sorry for the long lapse of silence. If you actually follow this blog, man, apologies! But then again, my life was going through major upheaval. Actually, what's happened in the last three months would have provided tons of fodder for this blog. But you see, I was too busy actually living my life and trying to survive the upheaval, so I hope you understand why I had to abandon ship (or rather, abandon blog) here for a while. Sorry to all my fans out there (haha, if any, that is!).

Anyway, so now that my life has officially been "kicked up in the air" and the jigsaw picture shattered into a million pieces, I am feeling exactly like that -- "shattered" and my life feels like "a million pieces in the air"!

I have NO IDEA what my future holds. It's frightening for a Type A personality like me. I need a plan. A blueprint. A goal. Rather, goals. One short-term, and one long-term -- AT LEAST.

Maybe this season is to teach me to let go. Trust in God. Try living without A Plan. (Yikes!)

Well, for now, let's just say I'm getting used to working from home. Freelancing kinda grows on ya. I'm enjoying doing freelance writing, magazine copy editing and book editing. But being a E (Extraverted) type, I am a little afraid that I might sink into a depression if I don't have enough external interaction/stimulation from the rest of the world. (I think the I (Introverted) people probably have NO IDEA what I'm talking about!)

Anyway, for all the frightening elements that inevitably come with CHANGE, I guess I am thankful that God has provided me with at least enough freelance projects to:

a. Keep my active mind occupied (so that I won't go crazy while at home!)
b. Basic $$ to cover my expenses (so that I won't actually starve or find my phone line cut off!)
c. Still have enough time to rest from five years of intense frenzy

I'm still getting used to "being free" -- must confess, being "Nuah" (teochew for "lazing around") does NOT come naturally for me. But I am starting to enjoy actually NOT having to wake up before 9 am, and experiencing the new sensations that come with being anti-Type A -- for a CHANGE.

Well, sometimes I think I'm in the process of rediscovering myself.

My cousin and I joke about this strange phenomena of the "Nuah Type A", or alternatively, the "Tidak Apa Perfectionist". Haha!

Having been at least 31 years of Perfectionist Type A in the making, I have a feeling Nuah-ness and Tidak-Apa-ness aren't going to be so quick in developing... that is, uh, unless we follow the Five Year Plan To Nuahness...???

LOL.