Yes, it’s potato on your skin! Do that if you want:

• a lighter skin tone
• a clearer complexion (reduces blemishes and other marks)
• to remove unwanted tan
• to lighten dark circles under eyes

Why potato?

Potato contained one of the highest bleaching agent; so actually, potato naturally bleached your skin (when you apply it externally; I’m not sure if consuming potato would have the same bleaching effect — but, to be honest, I doubt that it would)

A very dark skin tone CANNOT be bleached to a totally fair skin tone; however, there will be a noticeable change.

[FYI, there are many other natural goodness out there that contain bleaching properties. But, I only put "products" that I have tried myself and have seen the effects/results on my blog --- and that is POTATO! ^^]

How to naturally bleach your skin with potato?

It’s actually pretty simple!

1. Soak raw potato slices in cold water for 10 minutes. Rub these slices over face, neck and hands;
2. Extract potato juice and make a paste out of it;
3. Grate your potatoes and use it as face mask;

OR…

if you are too lazy to do all those things…

There you go!

Just slice the potatoes and put it on your face right away! (remember to WASH it)

That’s what I do

I always do this in the morning, so I’m too lazy to do all those preparations.

[But, to tell you the truth, those other three ways listed above would actually give BETTER results - I haven't tried any, but I'm pretty sure it would, because it is a more proper way.]

Let it stay for long; but no longer that 2 hours.

(some people use it overnight, but I haven’t tried it)

Then, remember to wash your face as well just like after you used other face masks.

Easy, don’t you think?

Some precaution and notes:

I do NOT guarantee that this will suit ALL skin types

so it will be safer if you don’t put it on your face for too long if it is your first time.

The potato juice will slightly hurt your eyes if it gets inside, so it will be better to put a potato with not-too-much juices for the area around your eyes.

If you want to see BETTER results, follow this with a healthy diet

That’s it then!

Have fun with it!

I personally see noticeable results in less that a week. (four or five days, if I’m not mistaken. But one thing for sure is that it is less than a week.)

I hope this GREAT natural skin bleach will work its magic on your skin as well!

P.S. This is just a BRIEF information about skin bleaching with potato; NOT an in-depth and detailed information. For further information, feel free to ask.

Prag und Indien sind der Plan, mein Wunsch und werden in die Tat umgesetzt. Erste Vorkehrungen sind bereits getroffen und ich sauge momentan jegliche Bilder über die eine Stadt und das eine Land auf.

Anbei meine heutigen Favoriten. Bunt. Vielfalt. Indien.

Hochauf strebte mein Geist, aber die Liebe zog
Bald ihn nieder; Das Leid beugt ihn gewaltiger;
So durchlauf’ ich des Lebens
Bogen und kehre, woher ich kam.

Hölderlin.

“Communication is key.” This is phrase we hear a lot of times. We focus so much on the things we feel we need to say, and most of the time we get it right. However, there is a major aspect that we forget to address – tone.

In music, composers and [smart] producers use timbre and orchestration to set a mood or tone to whatever message they’re communicating in their music.  Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t – personal taste – but I assume that the writer knew what he was trying to say and how he wanted to say it: What Makes Good Writing?

Timbre is what helps us tell the difference between a piano and violin or any combination of intsruments. The tonal colour is unique for each instrument. Regardless of whether they are playing the same note or not. Similarly, the colour of the voice [tone] helps us distinguish the difference between mommy’s anger or love.

Some people are very sensitive to tone and timbre. You can spew out the nastiest words to someone in a well-coloured tone and your words may not have as much of an impact as they would if you had said something kind in an dark tone.

I don’t think the things we say matter as much as how we say them. What do you think?

“Yes, we can!”, ist mir beim anhören immer wieder durch den Sinn gewandert. Rufus Becks Stimme ist bereits für mich ein Genuss für den Gehörsinn. Nun kommt diese Stimme mit einer Geschichte, einem Tatsachendokument in Einklang das es mehr wie lohnenswert ist zu vernehmen.

Die Entstehung von Greenpeace. Wie aus einer Idee, einem Küchentisch und einer handvoll junger Menschen diese weltbewegende Organisation entstanden ist.

Die Erzählung gibt Mut und Antrieb, ein jeder kann etwas bewegen wenn er denn möchte!

<a href="“>Link zum kostenlosen Download.

Greenpeace hat in den vergangenen fünfundzwanzig Jahren gezeigt, manchmal auch über jegliche Grenzen hinaus, das Engagment und Einsatz etwas bewegen kann.

These are reaaallllyyy old – about 4 years! But I like them.

Photosounder is a one-of-a-kind image-sound editing program. It is unique in that it opens images and sounds indiscriminately, treats and processes them as images, and synthesizes them as sounds. Sounds, once turned into images, can be powerfully modified to achieve effects and results that couldn’t be obtained in any other way, while images of all sorts reveal the infinite kinds of otherworldly sounds they contain. Ultimately, knowing how sounds look and how images sound, you’ll be able to create images that sound like what you want to hear, or like what you couldn’t imagine to hear.

Jut, das Ding macht aus Bildern Töne – wie genau das von statten geht muss man aber auch nicht verstehen.

Download und mehr Infos auf Photosounder.com
via urlesque

There’s a fallacy out that many people including us fitness pro’s believe and will tell you. That during your workouts you’re burning more fat. When the opposite actually holds true. Well, this post comes in handy simply because of this upcoming holiday season. And we all know there’s many people who are either looking to prevent the unwanted weight gain and then there’s those who will just flat out gain 5-10lbs this holiday season. What let me to think about all this, last Friday I just had a Thanksgiving lunch at my daughter’s daycare. They had the Turkey, the stuffing, greenbeans, deviled eggs, but that was about it. The rest of the remaining 3 or 4 tables were, cakes, pastries, pies, and sodas. And I know for many of you, you may just skip past everything or “leave room” for all the junk.

Anyway, if you’re wondering just how you can prevent the dreaded weight gain over the holidays, or looking for greater fat loss while getting the most out of your workouts, you probably need to know what’s really happening in the workouts. The main goal of an effective fat burning workout is not to burn fat, but to burn the most amount of sugar during your workouts.

The more sugar you can burn inside your workouts, the better off your are in burning more fat post exercise (fat that is burned in the hours and days between your workouts). Think about it this way- if you reduce your body’s sugar tank, it’s forced to make up this fuel deficit by looking for either dietary fat and/or stored body fat. And if you eat and exercise to generate the appropriate caloric deficit then you eat up any dietary fat in your system and immediately start melting off that ugly, unwanted body fat.

Maximal muscle glycogen depletion (the sugar stores in your skeletal muscle) happens in bouts of maximum effort lasting for 30-60 seconds. The 45-second work period is an awesome middle-ground to eat up as much of your muscle’s sugar stores as possible with just enough rest to allow you to be able to get ready for the next exercise/station. The selection I chose below was 50-10

When you combine the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) protocol with an alternating set sequence that engages your total body (upper body, lower body, core) to skyrocket your maximal body fat burning. It’s just like you’re getting best of both worlds: maximum intensity during each work set due to a 1-5 minute recovery period before you repeat the same movement based on your exercise order plus maximal density (total work completed per unit of time).

This training program combined with a diet high in lean proteins, natural fats, and fibrous carbohydrates and low in refined sugars and starches leads to dramatic losses in body fat and gains in lean body mass all while taking your conditioning to the next level. Get ready to melt!

So below is a simple 5 exercise bodyweight mini circuit that you can do anywhere. 5 exercises for 50 sec 10 sec rest and that equals 1 round. Repeat this same sequence for a total of 4 rounds. Give it a shot today and you can burn fat all the way up to Thanksgiving Day.

Lunge variation (Diagonal lunge)
Push Up variation (Gator Push up with legs tucked)
Pillar variation (static side pillar elevated)
Hip Extension variation (dynamic elevated 1 leg)
front pillar variation (Stability ball ocillation)

See the video below.
*Key Note*
There are multiple variations of these exercises, these are the one’s I selected to do. My intensity increased with the additional 30lbs thanks to my daughter Olivia.

1) T.N Dickinson’s Witch hazel is a great inexpensive all natural astringent for the skin and can be found at your local drugstore.

2) Ever forget your blot powder or need to tone the shine down? Try a light dusting of baby powder.

3) To get a nice pout of the lips, after lipstick & gloss is applied use  concealer  and apply around the lips blending with brush.

4) To achieve an instant brow lift, apply a sheer layer of brow highlight above the brow.

5) To give lips a fuller appearance, add gold or silver to the center of the bottom lip. This technique can be applied to any lipstick or gloss. Remember to slightly blend.

6) Baking soda mixed with water gives a paste consistency that makes the perfect exfoliant.

shopping & Styling for eyeglasses:

1) consider frames size, shape, and color when choosing Frames. Gold metallic frames are best on individuals with warm or golden skin tones. Individuals with cool or olive skin tones look best in silver or pewter-colored metallic frames.

2) Dark frames make the face look smaller.

3) Thinner, more delicate frames flatters a small face.

©Muhammad Fitri

A short walk with my family without my mom at KLCC around 2.30pm till 4.00pm. I am just following my father to send my little brother, Amirul to the Selangor Glof Club. Then my father suggested me to just bring the dslr, maybe we can stopped by at the mosque near KLCC. After we arrived there, we get into the buliding and headed to Cold Storage to buy some food because the things sell at there is quite cheap. After that, we went to the mosque, and on the way to the mosque, I managed to capture some candid picture. But it’s hard to capture candid moment near the subject. They woud realised it. The lesson is, buy the telephoto zoom lens as soon as possible . It is very long time we didn’t go outing there. I don’t know why. Something like cursing us, DONT GO THERE. Ahaha. I preffered to go KLCC to find candid than Bukit Bintang. Anything, it is a fun evening with my family. Exam is finished. Like I said previously, next month, I’ ll be going to Tanjung Tuan for 3 days, maybe Terengganu for 5 days if rain stop and Kak long’s wedding.
Okay. Goodbye.

©Muhammad Fitri

gallery: www.flickr.com/eosfitri
website: www.mypsace.com/fitri96
facebook: search Adek Fitri

It occurs to me, based on suggestions and comments from the readers here, that I failed to include some important points in the last post. They are as follows:

DO:

• Lean up against poles inside the train, keeping other riders from using them for their intended purpose.
• Sing along with your music. We want to hear exactly how tone-deaf you are
• Part of the Sudoku puzzle in the WaPo Express. We’re too lazy to do the first half and we need our newspaper half used.
• Sit on an outside seat when an inner seat is not occupied. You should be taking up all the space you possibly can without sitting next to another rider. Also, if someone asks if they can please sit in the inner seat, give them a dirty look and grudgingly move so that they can sit next to you. Alternatively, just tell them they can’t sit there at all. That’s actually preferred.
• Cut in front of people when getting off the train and going up or down an escalator. Do this at every possible opportunity, otherwise you’ll be left behind that person with a stroller and a kid blocking your path upstairs (or downstairs) to your next train.
• Keep your backback/large purse on if you are standing, obstructing other riders’ movement. It allows other riders to have a makeshift armrest or pillow and keeps them from having access to extra space, which no one EVER wants on Metro.
• Awkwardly hold on to one of the poles between other peoples’ hands when there is little room to do so.  It’s as close as you can get to holding hands with them. Bonus points if they move their hand while awkwardly looking away.
• Stare at other riders. They love it when you do that, especially without reason to do so. You might want to even go the extra mile and stare them down entirely while sneering. This intimidating technique is especially useful for getting a spot in the seat they’ll probably flee trying to get away from you.

DON’T:

• Use your inside voice. We’re all deaf and can’t hear you; speak up especially when talking about your boring day, annoying co-workers, that jerk ex-boyfriend of yours, etc.
• Say excuse me
• Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough
• Move out of the way near the doors when riders need to enter or exit. You’ll lose your spot and might have to move!
• Mind your own business – it is your job to know what that girl next to you is giggling about that’s on her BlackBerry, what book the man standing next to you is reading, and what article the intern sitting in front of you printed out.

I’m sure there are more suggestions – I’m open to them, and will post them as they are submitted.

You missed last week’s show?? I will let it slide just this once but make sure you tune in every Friday from 10-12pm 91.3 WCUW in beautiful Worcester, Ma or stream online @ wcuw.org My brother Yohon actually recorded the show for your listening pleasure so check it out! At Selective Hearing we not only bring you the best in hip hop, but also that REAL TALK!

I have updated the Effects Explanation pages with descriptions of what flanging and pitch shifting (or harmonisers) actually are. Let me know what you think about these new articles.

This afternoon I heard my newest student, the 4th of this school year, play the sweetest tones on his trumpet! Trouble is, he cannot yet read music fluently. He’s sort of stuck at that stage where he still has to think about the name of each note and then recall the fingering. But when he finally blows, his attack is clean and his tone is big, solid, full, round and fat! It’s so natural to him.

He’s been thrown into a 6th grade band class, handed a band book, and told to go learn to play Exercise __ or Song __ on pages __ with little or no guidance or instruction about the horn and technique. It’s forced “do it yourself” learning. Well, with this teaching approach, what results does the band director at this north Seattle elementary school expect?! Struggles, frustration, and a probable band drop-out someday.

It is my pleasure to help this gentle boy overcome these obstacles. Let’s give the kid some successes! and who knows? maybe we’ll be listening to him play in the jazz, concert and marching bands soon…maybe in the symphony or opera orchestras someday…maybe on some CDs or in the movies when he’s that good. Let him dream! Help him dream! Help him achieve his potential. Or maybe he’ll simply enjoy playing in the school band with his friends for a few years and never take it any further…that’s fine, too. You find good people in bands. Good memories accumulate with the many events, and lifetime friendships often form–even marriages!

Thanks to his Mom for giving me the opportunity to help him come to love music and the trumpet. Let’s motivate him to practice more. Let’s have fun while we work hard. Let’s see what he can do, if he really wants to.

As being a fitness coach I speak with so many individuals about their goals and when they ask how to lose weight or what can they do to shed some unwanted fat or lbs, I often hear the same things over and over.

I mean some people just don’t get it. They don’t want to hear check the diet first, yet they want the fat burning workout or the program that’s going to sizzle the fat right off the body. On top of that, they really believe the workouts that they’re doing will do the trick.

And to be honest, some people can’t stand or accept some advice I give to them. This in particular is in relation to asking people questions and simply telling them they should probably elect to avoid certain foods that they may be attached/emotionally/phyically to. No, sorry I take that back, these foods that they’ve become flat out ADDICTED to.

Sugar is a powerful and addictive drug. We’ve talked about it the consumption and addictions before, but these addictions and daily intake have an impact on your belly and your health too. You don’t believe me

So today I want to let give you an inside look at how much sugar there is hidden in ‘everyday’ items that you probably put in your grocery cart every time you visit the store? Take a peep below I’m sure you’ll be shocked.

Hey some of those foods or liquid calories you may or may not be taking in, some of them you may not take in, but give to your kids (because they’re just kids), but the truth is, this stimulant does crazy things to the body. Moods and body functions change faster than you’d ever believe and you seriously risk putting your health at an extreme danger. Examine what it is you’re taking in on a daily/weekly basis and how you can look to get rid of some of the extra toxic things in your diet.

If any of the above sounds like you, we have a program that we use in our Atlanta fitness boot camp that will tell you exactly what to do about sugar in order to look, feel and perform better than you have in years. Just click here and claim your FREE Trial Now
http://tinyurl.com/pputtq

Get for it!

P.S – This post had pictures of fruit on there and No I’m not telling you NOT to eat fruit. In fact, both of the nutritional programs we use encourage fruit. Just be aware that if you’re eating a lot fruit you’re still consuming a lot of sugar in the form of fructose. That may be one of the reasons why are not able to lose the fat as rapid as you’d like or make the serious health changes that I know you want.

You chose ‘(F) Chuckle Openly.’

(And if you have no idea what is going on, this is the second part of a series started here, where you get to choose your own ending. Basically, I’m asking everyone to risk some Michael Jackson (is it too soon?) and take some trips back to their childhood to remember those ‘Choose Your Own Ending’ books. You know, the ones that were really popular 20 years ago right alongside the ‘When you hear the chimes, turn the page’ ones. So for our purposes here, when you hear the anti-solo, turn the page.)

So, as the worship leader turns bright red and continues to fumble through his words trying to recover into the next song after his accidental blasphemy, you just stand in the background, chuckling openly, and throwing in a few delay-laden volume swells over the finger-picking the worship leader is doing as he continues to pray. The worship leader has many times asked you not to play during the prayers as he ad-libs some finger-picking, but you know it’s for the greater good. His finger-picking is just terrible. It really needs to be rescued by your definitely-not-yet-cliche volume swells…and of course every few notes by your volume swell/note bend ‘whale call.’

Finally the worship leader finishes his prayer, and turns back to you, as you are supposed to start the next song. You sigh. How many times do you have to tell him that this song cannot be started with your Les Paul? The tonal nuances are such that it requires the Telecaster. This would be common knowledge to anyone who would actually listen to the original recording of the song, but hey…it’s the worship leader. He plays his Taylor on every single song, even though he has a perfectly good backup Martin sitting right there. Something about switching guitars during the set causing awkward silence? Come on. That’s just dramatic effect!

Nonetheless, he’s the worship leader, so you give him grace. You give the ‘I gotcha’ look as you take off your Les Paul and turn towards your Telecaster. Meanwhile, he’s giving you the death stare of ‘I thought this was why we decided beforehand for me to pray between these two songs, so that you could switch guitars.’ (I know prayer more than likely wasn’t originally intended to be a worship service transitional tool by which to switch guitars, capo’s, and sheet music undetected, but you know it’s true.) His stare however, is lost on you as you bend down to change the settings on your Lovepedal COT50 to be more Telecaster-friendly. You don’t use fuzz on this song, but just in case. Besides, you know that you couldn’t possibly have switched guitars during the prayer, because you were compelled by your own musical genius to play the afore-mentioned volume swells the worship leader asked you not to do. Quick as the buffered relay of a Line 6 amp modeler (which means not very fast……wow, I’m sorry, that was just mean-spirited), the worship leader turns around and tells the congregation to take a minute to just let the world fade away and quiet their hearts before their Creator (also a great tool for transitions), and you finish setting your pedals, grab your Telecaster, kick on your must-sound-like-Hillsong dual delays (a DD20 and an Analogman ARDX20…with tap tempo mod, of course) and oh-so-smoothly launch into the intro of the next song.

And you’re feeling it. The tone is oozing out of your Hayseed 30 with upgraded EF86 preamp option, and you watch as the sound waves just move the congregation into throngs of passionate worship. (You can’t actually see the throngs of passionate worship because the expressions on their faces haven’t changed, nor have they stood up, lifted their hands, started clapping, or shed tears. But you know they’re being driven to worship. I mean, how could they not with a Hayseed 30 with upgraded EF86 preamp option? It’s just that the sheep are too scared and lazy to fully give themselves over to worship. That’s the only explanation.

The first passage is done…played flawlessly by your time-tested hands. (You don’t believe that tone is in the hands, but still…it’s nice to admit that it might be, after completing a passage as well as you just completed that one.) The drums start to tap in on the ride cymbal as you launch into the next passage. The bass subtly enters with a low, sustaining tone of harmonically anchoring loveliness. The keyboard fades in with a sweetly ringing, background synth pad…oh wait, he’s been playing that the whole time…hold on! There’s a keyboardist on stage? Who is that guy? (Sorry keyboardists…it’s the most unfortunate thing in the world, but sadly true.) Your concentration is just momentarily lifted as you marvel at the distant and wondrous sound coming from the stranger you’ve never noticed playing that odd-looking instrument with what seems to be something like ‘Korg’ or ‘Korj’ scrawled across it. But you don’t falter. No. Your Barber Liverpool hitting the front end of your amp sounds much to good for you to even dream about faltering. The music picks up (worship build time), the bass plays his second of the three notes he’s been given, and you start to take off into the introductory anti-solo……

And then it happens. You’ve hit a D. Now the congregation looks up. And with pained looks on their faces. Let it be known that D is a wonderful note. But the song is in the key of Ab. And it’s not Tommy Walker or Norma Jean. Your confidence begins to fade. What’s the next note? How am I going to recover from this? Why won’t that blasted D note stop ringing out? Curse my perfectly compressed sustain! You see the congregation starting to shake their heads. The sheep are restless. What can be done. Quickly you decide that worship needs a hero. And that hero is you. Only a guitarist as talented and toneful as you can save the church from the unholy dissonance that you unleashed on them! With the effortless tone, grace, and class of a 1960’s 12-string Rickenbacker, you…

A) Make a weird face and go over and check the tubes on your amp. (One of them has obviously gone harmonic.)

B) Continue playing the D…along with a bunch of other random notes, throw one hand up in the air, and pretend the sour notes are just the Spirit-filled result of being completely overcome by worship.

C) Take your unused capo out and chuck it at the worship leader to remind him never to play in capo 1 again.

D) Allow the D note to bring you to an E note, and then into the key of A, and keep playing as if it was a modulation the rest of the band missed.

E) Shake your head in disgust and glare at the other guitarist. And if he’s still in the middle of switching to his Telecaster too, and it would be quite obvious even to the drummer that he couldn’t have played the wrong note, then glare at the bassist. You could glare at the keyboardist, but everybody knows the keyboards aren’t in the mains. (Again, my apologies keyboardists…you know I love you, and if you come over to my church, I’ll make sure you drown everybody else out! But at other churches…well…I’m sure you’ve been there…)

F) Play off the D like it’s a diminished 5th jazz scale. Won’t help the worship mood any, but you’ll definitely get props with the rest of the musicians.

G) Turn to the other guitarist and laugh out loud, pointing to your guitar and making train wreck sounds and motions with your mouth and hands. (I used to play worship with a guy who would do this every time he would make a mistake. I tried to explain to him that these actions caused everyone to notice his one mistake, but they would never notice my ten mistakes, simply because I didn’t point them out with mimic’d train wreck sounds. But he was much too carefree and humble to care. I actually learned a lot from this guy.)

H) Fiddle with your massive pedalboard. (Seriously, everyone always believes this one.)

I) Just own it and rely on your superior knowledge of music theory to be able to explain away any mistakes afterwards in the green room.

J) Frantically turn off your 5 delay pedals trying to get the blasted tritone to stop ringing out any longer! Ah! Stupid delay pedals with spillover capabilities!

K) Just make D a part of the scale now, and come back and hit it at least 9 more times during the course of the song, until you’ve successfully pounded it into people’s heads so many times that they can’t help but just recognize it as part of the song. (I’ve tried this one. It never seems to work like you think it will.)

L) Smile, shake your head, and thank God profusely that even though He chooses to use us, and even though we should probably do our best to stay away from playing a D while in the key of Ab, He’ll probably still find a way to get glory in spite of us. I know it’s hard to imagine…I mean, we’re the ‘worship leaders’…’the battle cryers of the church’ ( )…pretty important people with amazing tone. (Okay, at least self-important people with expensive gear.) But I think just maybe He’s got it covered.

So, choose your own ending. And of course, you can’t choose ‘L’!

And I know it sounds trite, but we do realize that the God who could do a much better job bringing glory to Himself by Himself, chooses to use us by letting us jam out music to Him every week, right? I know, I know that completely sounds like the cheeseball church thing to quote out of the latest ‘Worship is a Verb’ book; but it’s true, and I for one, forget it all too often.

Sorry for the Disney ending. Delay, tubes, Dumble, germanium, Arcade Fire, Mullard, decayed note artifacts, tone. Is that better? hehe

Splendid.
Karl.

As a newbie to the blogosphere, I have been reading about blogging voraciously.  In all my blog surfing and clicking, I have had the fortune to run into Jenny Blake.

Jenny writes a blog called Life After College.  It’s a good read, but I suspect that part of what makes Jenny’s blog so popular is Jenny herself.  She bubbles with excitement.  Her energy is contagious, and her blog posts leave me uplifted and ready to tackle whatever comes my way.   What’s more, she is not one of those shallow, smile-and-everything-will-be-okay types.  She recognizes that life is a roller coaster and that the struggles in life are a natural part of the growth process.

So, why am I writing about Jenny, and what does she have to do with this blog?  Well, she inspired this post, because she maintains a consistent tone in her writing–one of enthusiasm for life–and that consistency of voice reminds me of an important point:

Mental preparedness is crucial to the writing process and becomes more crucial as you gain a greater number of writing deadlines.

In other words, the daily stressors of your life will affect your writing, and the more writing you have to do, the less time you have to wait until you are in the right frame of mind to write.  Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re waiting in line at Starbucks and really have to pee.  You order your non-fat double latte and go to the bathroom while they prep your drink.  You open the door, and oh gross.  Someone didn’t flush, but…  what the hell.  Balancing on one foot, you flush with the other.  That’s when you see what was lurking in the brown and murky depths of the bowl.  It’s rising to the top and pouring over the porcelain edge.  flood.  You run to tell the Barista who can hopefully do something about it before it flows into the hallway and makes everyone puke their Frappuccinos, but she only glares at you.

“Why did you use it when it’s out of order?”

I didn’t know.

“Didn’t you read the sign?”

What sign?

“The one taped to the door???”

And then you see it.  A piece of paper lies face down on the floor (the “out of order” sign that’s lost its sticky).  Meanwhile, 10 people in line have overheard your conversation with the woman who now hates you and they all know to blame you when they toss their coffees at the smell of a bad flush.*

You came to the coffee shop to write.  Your assignment?  Italian Love Sonnet.  It’s the last thing you want to write about when feeling embarrassed and nauseous, but it’s due and you’ve got to do it.  This is where mental preparation comes in.  If you hunker down to write this poem without getting mentally prepared, certain unwanted emotions are going to leak into your writing and affect the tone and voice of your work in ways you may not want.

Mental preparation is the most important, yet most often overlooked, part of the writing process.  Here is the method I use to change my writing frame of mind.

(1)  Let it Out — release the unwanted or inappropriate emotions through 5 to 10 minutes of journaling.  Say what you need to say and get it off your chest.

(2)  Free write — 5 to 10 minutes.  ”Free writing (also stream-of-consciousness writing) is a writing technique in which a person writes continuously for a set period of time without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. It produces raw, often unusable material, but helps writers overcome blocks of apathy and self-criticism” ~ from Wikipedia

(3) Visualize — picture what it is you want to share with others through this writing assignment and begin imagining the story you have to tell.  Visualizing can help put you in the mood state that is appropriate to the specific piece you are working on.

I don’t know what Jenny Blake’s writing process is, but whatever it is, it’s working for her.  I have put off writing so many times because “I’m just not in the right mood,”  but since pursuing this writing career full force, I find I’m never in the right mood.  I have to get myself there, and that takes a little time, patience and practice.

* true story

Phillip Annand, the founder of the Award Tour has been interviewed by TONE.
They sat down to talk about The Madbury Club, and his thoughts on the future of blogging.

Info: Phillip Annand