Journal

Work, Friends

The Fast And The Furious

I’m sure I made mention of this several times already, but I’m sort of approaching the final lap of things for the first draft, so I’ve essentially stepped it up a gear and that has seen the (planned) return of the 80-hour work week. I’m close. I know I am. I’m getting a very clear idea of how this will all end as I go along, and I also have a target length in mind (based on a feeling of how long it ought to be). Everything I do now I do with the intention of contributing to the completion of the project. I don’t want it to expand. I don’t want it to stray. And that, I think, is what the target length is good for.

It’s been a bit taxing, but with the end in sight, it’s not all that bad. I get the feeling that I’m at some tipping point. I can smell completion. The images I’ve been getting have been affirming this gut feeling, and now I want to latch on before it slips away, capitalise on this. It’s a bit like chasing after a football title, when it’s only the middle of the season and you don’t have a substantial lead but your momentum is good and your team looks sharp and you can catch a whiff of the title already. Full speed ahead, full speed ahead.

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that goes, One must hold onto the antlers of the Qilin having scaled its scales. It means that you have to take advantage of the curve the moment you’re on top of it.

Okay, I made that up.

Counterfeit

I have a friend who of late fears neglecting her friends, so she made it a point to put together some package for a bunch of them and had it delivered, recognising that it was a selfish thing to make herself feel better. Funny, I had that feeling about her long ago, that most of my interactions with her seemed to be based significantly in that self-assurance factor. I suppose we all fool ourselves in some ways. Still, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Oh, I imagine it’ll be sorted out. Somehow. Eventually. We live, we learn, we poke around and figure things out. That’s the way it goes.

On The Other Hand

Can I just say that Wednesday was a lovely day for friends? I heard from Li Yue, Gao Jie, Shi Jia and Tammy (in that order), and it is quite great to see that they’re all doing well. I realised too that I don’t have many friends as unrepentantly chatty as I am, but Shi Jia is one of them and now that I know that I can bug her with no sense of shame.

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© 2009 a modest odyssey.