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It's been two weeks since I last checked in about my progress with the Artist's Way. The first week it was because I had little to report... I'd been a little overwhelmed at work and in other ways, and had only managed to write my morning pages a few times. I did do something resembling an Artist's Date that weekend: I bought some paint ("Dark Autumn Leaves") and began painting my bedroom, and more generally reimagining my living space... although I left the paint job about 75% complete and won't be able to finish it until October.

On Wednesday I posted five imaginary life paths -- alternative paths I might have taken if I'd had five extra lives to live. (Coincidentally, this week I also listened to an episode of The Moth podcast, about a woman bailing on one version of her life and plunging wholeheartedly into another version. It's kind of fantastic.) My first five alternative lives were film director, teacher/professor, runner/triathlete, poker pro, and research scientist.

One of my exercises this week for the Artist's Way was to list twenty things that I love to do and how long it has been since I've done each, and then to pick two of those activities and do them this week. I was kind of stunned to find myself getting stuck, pretty seriously, at #13... I honestly felt like I'd exhausted my hobbies, past and present, and I couldn't think of anything else. Then as soon as I thought of one more, the rest came flowing out, and I was done! Here's my list:

This week I started working through "The Artist's Way," Julia Cameron's book and 12 week program for awakening creativity. I'm trying not to put pressure on myself by committing to the full 12 weeks straight out of the gates, but I've succeeded in writing three pages every morning so far, and I've really enjoyed the process. I'll be keeping my "morning pages" to myself, but I'm going to see how it feels to post some of the more focused exercises here.

A few weeks ago, I changed my "Religion" setting on Facebook to "TED.com."

This was not entirely tongue-in-cheek. If you're not familiar with TED ("Technology, Education & Design"), it's a series of talks with the tagline "Ideas Worth Spreading." Featuring world leaders, artistic leaders, thought leaders, and occasionally an average Joe, the talks tackle a huge range of topics and, more often than not, reveal radical, impassioned, and potentially world-changing ideas. I'm not overselling, either -- it's really amazing stuff.