Make a list of subjects I'm interested in pursuing

It’s been a while since I last wrote anything here, but I came across another subject I wouldn’t mind pursuing in my spare time: geology. Better yet, it’s also a common interest of my dad’s.

I’m coming to the tail end of my Honours year (and decided that despite what I wrote in a previous entry, I’m really not interested in mental illness in speculative fiction. Or at least not anymore), so this list may come in handy in the near future.

I also came to the conclusion that unless I have someone to practice with sign language is going to be a difficult subject to pursue.

I think I’ve got enough there to keep me busy for the time being, especially since I am going back to university next year. I’ve been needing to clear some mental space. It’s nice to know that I have these written down and that I can add to them and come back to them whenever I’m ready.

I’ve started taking sign language classes through my work. I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and I think I’d like to be able to continue.

I think I can add astronomy and ornithology to the list. I wouldn’t mind learning more about the local botany either. It would be nice to have some kind of knowledge about the place in which I live.

I watched a documentary this afternoon on the making of Australian band Silverchair’s album Diorama. It made me remember again how much I love to hear artists discussing their creative processes. I love to read books on writing, even if I don’t agree with their approaches. These things make me remember my own creative goals and get me inspired. Yes, inspired, that’s it. In this particular case it’s not about learning but about being inspired.

Not five minutes after I made my last post I thought of a few more things I’m interested in.

• Gary Scwartz’s research on parapsychology. Although a quick google for him leaves me wondering whether that might be particularly thorny territory.

• Albert Einstien. I’m not really a science orientated person, but I’m not interested in the work so much as the man.

• A chance link on 43T lead me to The Happiness Project I’m interested in seeing how this works on a practical level for me. In fact happiness in general could be an interesting topic to pursue.

I’ve been thinking a bit about this goal lately. Plenty of subjects keep popping up, yet I never remember to write them down. So I’m going to make a start here of some of the ones I remember.

• Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. The idea of archetypes and the collective unconscious interests me. Joseph Campbell is well known for the phrase “follow your bliss” and I’d really like to find his original work on that (I don’t think it was in The Hero With A Thousand Faces). I’m also interested in finding Jung’s work on synchronicity, although I suspect it’s going to be hard to find.

• Divination. I’m not entirely sure why I have such a fascination with this subject, but I suspect it has something to do with the idea of synchronicity. Jung was infamous for his infatuation with the I Ching and I’d like to see how he ties it all together. I recently picked up a book that relates Jung’s work to divination; a Jungain analysis of Tarot’s Major Arcana.

• Writing. What could fascinate a writer more than another writer writing about writing? I take it all with a large grain of salt, remembering what might work for someone else might not work for me. Still, it is interesting to read about different approaches.

• The role of mental illness in works of speculative fiction. Specific, I know. It was an idea I had for an Honours thesis, should I decide to go back (which I’d really like to, but it depends on finances). The more ideas and examples I can collect now, the easier it will be to write when I get to it.

That’s about all I can think of for now, but there’s bound to be more that shows up. It’s just a matter of making a note of it.

I’m a big fan of the plan. And I figure if I’m truly going to challenge my intellect I’m going to need a direction. There’s no use charging in willy-nilly and running aimlessly around. That’s a certain way towards being bored silly and not acomplishing anything.

Besides, I’m under no obligation to challenge my intellect (of which this is a sub-goal), so if I’m going to do this I want to go in a direction I’m interested in. This first step will hopefully show me how many directions I’m interested in and which one calls to me the most.