On the up: Good writing
On the down: Half-arsed writers

Okay, I have a new very secret, highly advanced tantric practice. If I manage to attain this practice, I WILL BE ENLIGHTENED and get a lotus all to myself.

And that is? Dealing with really half-arsed, lazy writers who seem far more passionate about picking their noses than about their writing.

It is an incessant, non-stop, tiresome, exhausting uphill struggle trying to get them to write properly.

I'm not talking about eloquent, stunning thesis to change the course of writing forever! I'm talking about just writing like you care about the subject you're writing about and you care about your poor dear reader who has to read your badly written article that's full of grammatical and spelling errors.

I'm also not talking about a cheap ass blog, where it doesn't matter if anyone reads it or not. This is Dharma writing, which brings spirituality out to people and could potentially inspire them onwards to find their own spiritual path, and HAPPINESS!

In the long run, you're meddling with people's happiness! And they still don't care enough to do a spell check or write as if they were actually at the event.

I've run writing workshops.
Sharon and I have edited their writing down to the minutest detail and sent it back to them to study.
We've sat down with them and gone through their work to point out what they need to improve or change.

And yet?

Still the same old drivel coming through.

Then leh, people are telling me, "Eh you know ar, your writeups need to have more Dharma explanations in it. And it should be more personal you know. Tell your writers lah!"

At which point, I just look at them and *blink blink*

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

On the up: Being active
On the down: How time flies!

Really, it's ridiculous how time flies!

Sorry for not writing in ages. I've entered a sort of weird time lapse where it all feels like one very long day when it fact a whole week has passed.

The whole has been spent on coming up with branding strategies. Like, what the hell do any of us know about branding?!?! But when you have to do it, you will do it, and somehow you'll wrangle the knowledge out of someone, somewhere, somehow.

We nicked everything off a branding presentation from very prestigious brand of spirits.

And ta da! Came up with our own.

Odd, perhaps, to be "branding" a Buddha / Tibetan Lama but when you have over 12 departments and many, many people running around talking to the world, you sure sure sure better make sure your communication goes out the same, and everyone talks the same "brand."

If not, someone say Rinpoche is American
Another says Rinpoche is Taiwanese

Then some clever person says he's an old man
Another one says he's super young

Somebody else says he's blonde
And his friend says he's actually German.

Then how?

Sounds silly, but it does happen.... so we've idiotproofed it for ourselves.

Then, there is also trying to finish my never ending book. This time really no more excuses since the sponsors are asking, "OI WHERE IS IT ALREADY?!" meh! Another 79 pages to proofread, and I swear every time I read it, there's another million changes.

Then, there is trying to find a designer to design the book... and nobody quite understands what we want yet. Oh dear.

I am, in the midst of all the busy-ness, trying a return to proper food and proper eating. This means no running out to MacDonalds (no matter how hungry I am!) and eating proper meals (what? no random biscuit/milkshake / chocolate runs in the middle of the day?!)

And man, this is the toughest part of the week. The no-snack thing is enough to kill a girl, yo! I've been sooooo YSG that I've even resorted to eating oats again and drinking copious amounts of good old water... which means I am running to the toilet every half an hour - not terribly good for productivity.

But well. it makes my skin nice and it shall hopefully flush out all the nasty toxins floating about my insides.

After many many months of resisting from succumbing into that generation of very corporate N series Nokia phones, I've also finally traded in my very tired phone for a proper grown up one. The only rubbish thing about it is its crazppy alarm "snooze time" which means now I only get an extra 5 minutes of snooze instead of 10. Other than that, I can finally type an SMS without having an anxiety attack that it will die on me halfway through - and that sure is worth sacrificing 5 minutes of sleep for.

I realise I'm also way way way behind on posting up photos - I just remember I haven't even put up the wedding photos yet!!! arg! I'm going to have to steal them off Joy's facebook and post them up soooooon.

Lots of things to do then...
which requires energy....
which requires sleep....
so bye bye then
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

On the up: Weekends
On the down: Not being able to tell the difference between weekdays and weekends

I'm wondering if anyone is still reading dollyblog.....

The weekends and weekdays have turned into a giant blur because there's so much going on all the time. And I'm such a bloody control freak that I end up having a part in everything, which means I'm at almost every event, ever planned.

This morning, was a mad combination between finding food for Rinpoche (because he is now, apparently eating only cup noodles?!), fine tuning a communications strategy, setting up for an event at KH and trying to get refreshments for the event.

Thank god for money, I tell ya - all is possible with little shiny paper money.

Seriously, this is so snob, I know, but I just COULDN'T BE POOR!

I'm also incredibly, terribly, ridiculous excited about the fact that I have internet at home again so I don't have to squat in KMP at all sorts of weird hours just to send out an email. It's not even wireless so I'm chained to my desk but that's FINE! AT LEAST I HAVE IT!

And on Monday, I get a fridge, which provides yet another big rush of excitement, to be followed by a whole week of feeling incredibly happy.

This means I can finally keep proper food at home instead of just drinking water and eating individually foil-wrapped chocolates (to keep away the ants). Maybe it's not too late for me to remind myself of what fruit actually is.

On the up: Prostration retreats
On the down: Exhaustion

Eventually, I *will* complete 100,000 prostrations. For now, I'm just trying to get through 100 without feeling like my heart is about to implode.

What with David monkey doing 200 every day at KMP, I felt all inspired! energetic! raring to go!

(It's also terribly unfair that he only did them for a week and already he's thinner - I hate boys' ability to slim down so quick)

So today, I even bought my mat to work and just finished 50... and now feel like my heart is about to splatter all over my laptop! Evidently, I have a very long way to go before I am as fit as the eel-like pilgrims of Tibet who slide up and down their prostration boards like they're made of taffy.

Also, okay, okay, I confess that my motivation isn't entirely about gaining Bodhicitta and Enlightenment and emptiness. It is also a form of exercise because
a) I'm fed up being a blob
b) I saw all the cellulite on my thighs yesterday and had a fright
c) it can't be healthy sitting all day in the office without moving
d) there isn't time to drive back and forth to the gym

So. Hopefully there shall be some physical benefit and lots of spiritual gain. And soon I shall look fit and beautiful and spiritual enough to prance about a podium like good old naked red Vajrayogini.

On the up: Being in the present
On the down: Monkey minds

Oh dear, another long day of irresponsible towards my blog.

(This is only funny when said like Julie - here - which throws up many disturbed discussions about the phenomenon of masking and zentai and all manner of weird things... but okay, for now, Julie is KMP's new mascot and I've been going around all day, every day saying, "Oh dear!" because it just doesn't stop being funny).

Finally, the madness abates, somewhat, and there is time to just sit and work and write. Right now, I'm dreading looking at the list of things to be done. If I choose to live in blissful ignorance, then the list is manageable enough so we shall keep it that way. Somehow, some way, I manage to get things done, and that's all that's important.

AND OH! Dolly made it onto television on NTV 7's breakfast show wheeeeee! Video shall go up shortly when we get it sorted out into a nice and easy, clickable format (right now it's on an old beat up VHS tape)

Right now, am writing an art article that I know absolutely nothing about - all about the techniques of painting and all that, which I know about as much of as a monkey would about post-modern theories. Luckily for me, I have thumbs though, so I can type something vaguely coherent and make it look like I know something about something.

Usually, that works too - recently people have been sending me nice SMSes to tell me how "well I wrote" an art article about some exhibition or other going on in their galleries. I feel like asking them if they actually understand what I wrote, because I sure as hell don't.

But well, we shan't complain. It brings in money and there are Tsongkhapas to pay for and butterlamps to sponsor - so for the sake of ALLLL sentient beings throughout space and all 10 directions, I shall continue pretending I am intellectual, an excellent writer and extremely well-versed in the arts. (no, stop it! it's not lying!)

On the up: KMP KMP KMP KMP
On the down: Not having enough people (and it's difficult to emanate)

KMP made its very own special lovely video!!!

Then after we had all pranced about trying to look bootiful and sound intelligent, poor YinYin had to edit it all down into 6 minutes. Clever Clever Yin Yin.

With the exception of poor JJ, who looks exceptionally tired (in all the ways) in the video

So... lookie lookie!!!! (Then please go to YouTube and tell everyone how much you love us. Love love love!)

On the up: Book parties!
On the down: Bad speeches

I'm still so excited about the HUGE SUCCESSSSSSSS of our two parties (and those of you who didn't want an invite, TOO BAD!)

It was fabulous, glamourous, celebrity-filled and attended by all my most favourite people in the world. And I did my first ever important Talking In Public. The first time, it went wonderfully; the second, I wanted the world to just open, bite me in and swallow.

And it was all about Enlightenment too so we got good merit and happy karma for partying it up!

Details later. It's been a non stop week of 5am bedtimes, 9am wake-up times and last-minute running, screaming, heart-palpitating nerves.

Finally. I can go to bed now.