NaNoWriMo

At the start of this month, I set aside to take on a challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel throughout November and I was doing great till the 7th day, I think. I wrote about 6377 words before I let myself fail. 

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It was most definitely my own failure, my lack of attention to the goal, and me trying to please other people on other areas of my life that led to this and I'm disappointed in myself a bit, but at least I tried. I wrote 6000 words, which is more than I have ever written a fiction. I'm glad I took on the challenge, and Insha Allah I will do next year and the year after that. I have made a couple good pen pals through Nano and I have managed to introduce Nano to so many people, I feel proud of that. Also, I get to cut down one goal from my life list. Next year, I shall add "Win NaNoWriMo" to my life list. 

What did I learn from this? Here are a couple things. 

People care This is a major lesson. I was going to quietly do my Nano just because i didn't have enough confidence that I could win, but then I realized that it's not about winning, it's about setting with a goal in mind. I told a couple of my friends and facebook friends about it, and I was surprised by how many people wanted to help. So many people, people I'm not even very close friends with volunteered to read and give me advice and so many people called me or said hi and asked about my Nano. It was truly overwhelming to know that people were cheering for me. It was wonderful and I'm so thankful to everyone. 

Prioritize The one thing I am terrible at. I always tend to think of people before thinking about me, and while this is nice in general, it often leads into disappointment and things going wrong on my end. I really need to learn to say NO when needed and focus on myself first. I sometimes get really carried away in trying to please people, and this is a habit I need to control. Focus on things more important at the moment than dealing with other people's drama that I have absolutely nothing to do with. 

Plan and stick to it The golden rule is to have a goal. But that's not enough, because I had this goal for ages but I didn't have a plan. I didn't write a chapter outline, or had any idea for an ending which led to so many nano freak out that some of my close friends had to deal with which believe me was not pretty. I should have made very precise plans, had an ending in mind and generally have been more prepared for it. 

Don't be lazy This is of course a given. I can be lazy so many times. I really need to cut down on my screen time and generally plan my day better so I can be more productive. Also I try to find loopholes within my rules so I can justify to myself why I am doing what I do. This gets a bit unhealthy with time. 

Anyway, I'm glad I took part in it and that it made some good changes in my life. Some great things that happened include finding great friends, learning to trust people with my ideas, standing up for my ideas, learning to take negative comments and not let it ruin things, sending my first ever post card, and even licking a stamp (ick!). It was a great ride and I'm happy I did it this time. 

On Nice-ness

I consider myself a generally nice person. Not because I have an obligation to be nice, but I like being nice, it's become so much habit than anything else at this point. Of course, I have my moments, where I am not at all nice, everyone has a tipping point, a point where they just feel so frustrated and hence, nice is the last thing that they are. 

It's all part of this being human thing. I tell myself that I don't expect people to be nice to me just because I am to them, but in reality I do, because if I didn't, today wouldn't be so sad. So, something horrible happened and now I'm rethinking on my choices (I know, I am so vague here. I don't want to emphasis on what happened, but more on my reaction and I sort of need to write this down because it is bugging me a lot). So many times I have been let down by so many people I love. 

My friends, ah friends. I have some of the best people but so often even when I am with them, I feel so alone. Like I don't belong. I don't think I even belong in this century, haha. So many times I've been so disappointed, I almost get to that tipping point, but never have I ever created any drama. So many times I am in dark, and I've come to accept that maybe that's just the way things are, and that if I continue being me, being nice things will get better. 

Other people. People disappoint. They do so many terrible things. They don't understand. But people are also good. Man is kind, nice and great. Most of the time, it's not even their fault. Situations happen and there really isn't much they can do. I forgive, I try not to forget (but because i have terrible memory I often forget) and honestly, I'm just really disappointed. 

But I'm not going to let that affect me much. I think I have a little bit of an idea why people turn to the dark now. I will continue to be me, and this is just a little down that I have to get up from. I just wish that people were there for me without me asking them to be. I guess that is too much to ask for. 

Have a good day readers, and I hope that things are better at your end. I'm sorry if this post doesn't make any sense or if it's too sad. Sometimes the clouds cover the sun and everything seems grey for a moment. This is one of those times. 

Currently - November

Sometimes I tend to watch way too much series and completely forget to read. I have yet to master a healthy balance of reading and watching. This month is a mix of a lot of very different things. 

Personal Taste This is a Korean series that I cannot stop loving. I am a huge K-drama fan and these are definitely my guilty pleasures. Another thing I love is how Koreans always tend to look really well kept, and their houses are just, WOW. Especially the girl's house in this series, it has this very nicely done architecture, and I totally want my house to look like that complete with the sliding doors and all. 

The Lying Game Started watching this a couple months back and lost track. I don't much care for Emma or Sutton but Laurel is my girl. Since I started watching it, I thought I should finish it. 

Animal Farm This is a wonderful little animated movie and I definitely want to read the book. Being a business major, I have a tendency to love things that show leadership, conflict of power and such so this is a fantastic movie. I haven't watched till the ending yet. I really have to stop keeping movies half watched. 

How to Disappear Completely - David Bowick Started reading this yesterday in a very crowded ferry on my phone and I did like the beginning. Not sure if I follow completely yet, but I am very interested to find out what the title means and how the author is going to continue with this. 

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen Started reading it at the start of the month mostly because it's a much hyped nano novel and I thought it would give me inspiration to write nano. Sometimes it is very very interesting and other times, it falls flat. I am not sure if I can relate with Jacob. I can relate with his younger self at circus in some way, but his older self seems very vain. 

Wrecking Ball - Miley Cyrus I know, I know. I do love this girl a lot and her voice is just golden. I also like the lyrics and it has this sense of mystery and melancholy to it that is just the right amount for me.  

Suggest me some good songs because I have been listening to the same songs lately. Also, what are you watching, reading and listening to?

DYMag October Issue

Last month's DYMag was one of the hardest, but also the one we got a lot of help in. It was the one with the most content so far. We covered two young footballers and the cover shoots were terribly fun. One day it was blazing sun and we didn't have a good place to shoot so when the cricket team was taking five minute breaks, we would rush and snap snap snap and then again wait for them to take a break. The other day it was rainign cats andn dogs and we had to work through muddy pools of water trying to get the shots. It was definitely hard work. 

Abo, our critique extraordinaire, got the chance to go see a preview of a Korean movie, thanks to Bridge Club Maldives and he reviewed it brilliantly in his own fashion. The highlight was of course, Abo's music review of Tay's album "Red" which is one of my personal favourites as well. The fashion shoot was based on Kurtas with great photography by Toby, styling by Shuma and as always amazing modelling by Sam. 

The cover interviews were done by Sifr, Hassan and Ahusam and I think they brilliantly asked some very interesting questions to our talented cover people. Wonder Woman Bags by Mary's article is just a ray of inspiration for all girls and women out there that you can follow your passion at any age, any time if you really have a drive. We love her creativity and her motivation to keep going forward. 

Eyes of a Child by Jin is a light article that takes us back in time to the nostalgic tales of childhood, making us feel silly and good at the same time. Luna's article about patriotism talks about having a love for country bigger than yourself and we salute her for her love. No magazine is complete without some serious talk, and what's more serious than electoral corruption and violence? Zainal explains all this in laymen's terms making it so clear for all of us. 

The Fame Monster by Moony is the highlight article of this issue which is written with such raw passion that it makes us question ourselves, makes us second guess things and want to change how we view the world and the way we live. Thihnan, our health gal is always on the track, bringing us information about the serious stuff, this time it's about strokes and keeping out teeth hygiene perfect.Girl in Toque is always bringing us yummy recipes and I really want to try the blueberry whipped cake. Also Mahid's science article is the first of its kind in DYMag and most definitely so well written. 

Bloodwritings features yet another enchanting poem which just makes us read it twice, it is that good. You are an Insignificant Speck by Munzir give weight to your place in the universe, such a good read. What is Love by Shiyaz makes us feel giddy and sweet and the last poem, Girlfriend makes us cherish our sisters and girl pals so much more!

All in all, another fun issue done and so much hard work but seeing the comments, it makes it all worthwhile. We've just finished the content for November issue and it will hopefully be out very soon! Fingers crossed.

Read it HERE. Let me know what you think.  

Who run the world? Girls!

Hello! I have been super duper busy since November started it's crazy. So many things, so much to do, so little time. AHH. 

I've started writing my Nano and being already about 10,000 words behind schedule (I shall blog about this more in a separate post), and my day job has been super busy with lots of exiting things. DYMag is also taking quite a lot of my time, but side projects are always the best eh and DYMag is the best side project ever. I also have couple other projects that I'm working on at the moment including a fashion related one and a gym! Both of which take quite a lot of my days and nights and so my schedule is jam packed. 

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This weekend, I am taking a break from social media to focus on myself and to just have nice chilly weekend (don't you just love all the rain? I know I do!) watching my favourite series and eating lots of yummy food. I did however login to instagram last night because I was locked out of my house in a weird incident and I was upstairs at my aunt's apartment using up her wi-fi and I forgot and commented on a few pics. Gah! Don't you just hate when that happens?

So far the weekend is great. I put my phone on silent, put in on my bed and didn't even look at it, except to do my daily Lumosity challenges (always good to give exercise to brain, :D) and I haven't even checked my mail or anything. It's fantastic! Seriously, one of these weekends, I am going to take a break from technology and just spend some time gazing at the nature! I really need a break from all this distractions. 

I've just finished catching up on Doctor Who and cannot wait for the 23rd of this month! Apart from that, I've sent a couple post cards to some new pen-pals, had great conversations with good friends, had good food and just amazing company all week long and today's been brilliant spending a lot of time with cousins and just being great.

What have you guys been up to lately? Do let me know in the comments below!