{"id":1816,"date":"2019-06-30T10:07:53","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T15:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2019-06-30T10:19:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T15:19:00","slug":"july-2019-updates-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/july-2019-updates-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"July 2019 Updates, Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It may be summer break for most people, but I\u2019ve never felt so close to my school days as I have during the past few weeks, preparing for my upcoming Latin seminar. There are several readings from Ovid, Cicero, etc. that will be discussed, so I\u2019ve had to spend hours each day on those, because I\u2019m still at a stage where I\u2019m looking up tons of words and frowning over each sentence to decode its meaning. It doesn\u2019t help that Latin allows you to arrange the words in a sentence in whatever order you like, or that Cicero was the Latin equivalent of Yoda in this regard. (The liberties of the Republic, preserve you must!<\/em>) English translations are only sometimes available for these things! I think it\u2019ll be quite some time yet before I\u2019m reading non-textbook Latin with ease, let alone speaking it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did I mention I need to speak Latin for six days straight?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While part of me is excited, of course<\/em> part of me is freaked out. Traveling alone, not knowing the place I\u2019m going or anyone who\u2019ll be there, having an unknown roommate, and having to rely on weak skills in a language that doesn\u2019t even natively have words like \u201ccoffee\u201d or \u201ccar.\u201d (Multiple people have made up words for modern things; I\u2019m not sure yet whose are more generally accepted.) It\u2019s times like these that I have to Feel the Fear \u2026 And Do It Anyway,<\/em> like the Susan Jeffers\u2019 book of the same name. While not all of her suggestions may work for you or for me (like repeating affirmations in front of a mirror), overall I recommend reading it if your anxiety has ever hindered you from leaving your comfort zone and becoming a better person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writing Updates<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had some success this month playing with new ideas and implications that should make for a more interesting last-third-or-so of Book 3. I had to go back and do some rewriting to facilitate those changes, which my word count doesn\u2019t reflect, but I\u2019ve ended up with some stronger scenes as a result. As I won\u2019t be writing during the seminar, that should give me more time to chew on ideas, if only in my subconscious. The Book 3 draft is up to 14 chapters, 66K words; I\u2019d like to finish around 90-100K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well-rounded Latin practice.<\/strong> LMAO Latin has been t\u014dta v\u012bta mea<\/em> lately. Can we talk about something else? ;)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a good Stoic.<\/strong> I\u2019ve been breaking out all of my anxiety-reduction tricks lately. I do lots of planning, contingency planning, and familiarization with where I\u2019m going (looking at places in Google Maps, for instance) in hopes of making travel less scary. Any time my imagination fires up on the side of evil\u2014\u201cHey, what if this [super horrible and unlikely thing] happens?!\u201d\u2014I try to switch it back to the side of good by brainstorming about my writing, or thinking about Skyrim<\/em>, or something like that. Just yesterday, I found this wonderful example<\/a> of someone else turning their imagination around from foe to friend. This changing of perspective, being in control of how we view and respond to a given situation, is a key component of Stoicism!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening to German. <\/strong>When I don\u2019t have so much Latin on my plate, my husband and I will begin watching a German sci-fi series called Dark.<\/em> We\u2019ll have the German audio on with English subtitles. I look forward to spending more time with my strongest foreign language!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travel?<\/strong> After the seminar, I\u2019ll devote some time to figuring out whatever our next adventure should be. I like the idea of traveling near my birthday, since February is an off-season in so many places. We\u2019ll see!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope summer is treating you well! Stay cool and best wishes!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may be summer break for most people, but I\u2019ve never felt so close to my school days as I have during the past few weeks, preparing for my upcoming Latin seminar. There are several readings from Ovid, Cicero, etc. that will be discussed, so I\u2019ve had to spend hours each day on those, because I\u2019m still at a stage where I\u2019m looking up tons of words and frowning over each sentence to decode its meaning. It doesn\u2019t help that…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-ellis","category-sword-and-starship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1816"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellismorning.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}