So I decided on a whim to do VEDA this month, and since I was going to do that already I figured why not throw BEDA in the mix as well. Obviously I didn't do so well at some of my past months, but those are in the past, and this month will be different. I plan to send live the old posts I have. I'll do some backlog on my Dungeons and Dragons journal, but everything else will just be a clean start from here on out.
Luckily for my even if I was to stick to my old schedule today is still plain blogging day. I'm not sure I have that much to discuss despite the fact I haven't written anything here in almost a month. I'm finally going to be moving into a three bedroom apartment. My fourth roomie arrives tomorrow night. Ascendio happened, it was awesome, and I'm proud. I floundered for awhile but have now got plenty of new projects to work on.
I got recruited for the Harry Potter Alliane (thehpalliance.org) and I'm excited to be working on projects for them. I'm sure there will be much more to share on that front in the near future. For now it's safe to say I'm working on a fascinating campaign and I'm very excited to see where this takes me. I was incredibly flattered to be asked to be a part of staff and even more flattered with what was said to entice me. Sometimes it's just nice to know people appreciate the effort you put into things. The group I'm working with is creative and inventive and I'm already have a ton of fun. It's going to keep me busy, and everyone knows I love nothing more than being busy.
I'm also starting to write a web series with my friend Ginger. I don't want to give too much away because I'm afraid I'll jinx the project if I talk about it. Let's just say it's an idea that has my creativity flowing like mad and I can't wait to see what becomes of it. Keep and eye out, big things are coming.
Really that's all that's changed in my life. I'm still working, I'm still interneting, I'm still not sleeping even half as much as I should. I'm considering doing more fiction writing, in fact if I can get gmail to work I'll look at the figment prompt and round this post out with some micro fiction. I lied, gmail won't load. We've been fighting the past couple of days, gmail is currently winning. Mostly because when gmail refuses to open there is nothing I can do except accept defeat. It will be fixed though, I have faith.
Until tomorrow.
Showing posts with label Basic Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Basic Blogging. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
July 4th
Today is the Fourth of July! It's funny to realize that, because it hasn't exactly felt like the Fourth of July. For most of my life the Fourth of July has been a huge pillar of my summer, the event to look forward to, the time when family comes to visit, a day full of friends, fun, and funnel cakes.
Until tomorrow.
Ever since I moved to Iowa the Fourth of July has actually begun just after dark on July third. My family, and whatever cousins or friends were visiting, would pile into the truck (and other vehicles as needed) and head out to a neighbor's farm. There we would begin the very Midwestern ritual of frog hunting. For those of you who don't come from a small farming town, frog hunting is exactly what it sounds like. We go in groups out to the local ponds, armed with flashlights, nets, and five gallon buckets, to catch ourselves some good jumping frogs. The art of frog hunting is 99% holding patiently still and 1% lightening fast frog grabbing action. The time tested procedure is a three man operation, and for us it was always the same. Man one is the catcher, this is the person with quick hands and steady legs. It's their job to wade into the water and wait for the frogs to surface. Man two is the lighting expert, this person needs to have steady hands and good eye sight. It's their job to spot the frogs and then shine the flashlight into the frogs eyes. This blinds the frogs temporarily, allowing the catcher a better chance of retrieving them. Man three is the bucket guard, this person needs to be strong and watchful. It's their job to carry the bucket full of pond water and frogs around the pond, open it for the catcher to deposit their frogs, and keep the already caught frogs from escaping. By the end of the night, which usually falls shortly after midnight so that we have ample time to wish everyone a "Happy Fourth of July!", we would have a bucket filled with frogs that we prayed would jump as well in the morning as they did when we tried to catch them that night.
Despite the late night out, the Fourth of July always began bright and early. The pancake breakfast started at 6am, but we usually didn't roll in until 7:30 or 8. Then it was off to register for the Firecracker Frog Jump, the reason for our night time escapades. The Frog Jump was always one of my favorite activities, and it was something wonderfully small town Iowa that I loved to share with visiting relatives. It involves place the frog you recently caught into a hula hoop in the center of the ring. Then, without touching the frog, you have to get it to jump twice. The judge then measures the distance from the center of the hoop to where your frog landed, and whichever frog jumped the farthest in each age category is declared the winner. Sounds simple enough, but I assure you that there is an art to it. You have to know which frog to pick, where to set them, and how to encourage them to make life risking long jumps. I won a few times over the years, but my family had a reputation for always bringing a winning outsider. It's often said that those who can't do teach, and I was apparently one hell of a teacher.
After the Frog Jump the day really began. The Quilt Show and Flower Show open, with their lovely displays, then it's time for the car, tractor, and engine show. Then there's the big wheels race and a Haystack Money Hunt for the younger kids (which is exactly what it sounds like, kids digging through haystacks for money). Then there's lunch at the Presbyterian church, which is always homemade and delicious. Once you've had your fill of delicious food it's time to find a spot on the sidewalk to watch the parade! Our parade always had a theme, and floats and cars and people came from all over Iowa to participate and see our parade. When I was little the parade meant crowding on the sidewalk and catching all the candy, or perhaps building a float or a costume to try and win one of the parade categories. For the last five years or so though, it has meant setting up a speaker system, collecting out of order cards, and announcing the parade. It's always a lot of work announcing the parade, but it's fun to be part of something like that.
Once the parade is over it's time to head over to the park. That's where they have carnival games, a petting zoo, carnival rides, carnival food, and of course plenty of places to buy glowsticks and poppers and all other manner of celebration paraphernalia. After you've had a good run around dinner is served at the school, complete with homemade pie and ice cream (which beats store bought by miles). Once you feel full to bursting the best part of the evening begins. Everyone grabs a lawn chair or a blanket and sets it out in the football field by the school. There's a DJ playing music, you buy buttons or tickets for raffle prizes, they give out the prizes which range from gas cards to a brand new outdoor grille, then just before dusk the skydivers jump down carrying the American Flag. But the true magic, the reason that people have gathered in my tiny town from all across the neighboring area, begins shortly after dark. That's when the little town I grew up in sets off the largest fireworks display in SE Iowa. Nothing compares to being just a few hundred feet away from where the fireworks are launched. Lying in the grass and looking straight up as they burst will always be one of my favorite things about summer.
Eventually the fireworks end, usually with a truly fantastic finale, and when the last spark goes out the night ends as well. The crowd swells with applause and then, almost as one, everyone stands, gathers their things, finds their cars, and goes home. It's funny that the day can build up so much and then just end like that. Knowing what my Fourth of July is usually like, you can see that one spent seeing a couple of movies and working at Universal may seem a little dull. I feel like I didn't actually celebrate the holiday, but I was thinking of my friends and family back home enjoying the small town celebration that I'm only just now realizing is a big deal. Happy Independence Day!
Until tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
June 13th
So, it's Wednesday, the day I discuss actual life. Of course that doesn't mean that this post will actually contain real content, cause that's just a silly idea. If you've been with me for any length of time you are well aware that I value quantity over quality in these posts. It's about getting my words out there.
This week was my first non training week at Guest Services. I've only worked two days, but so far so good. I ask a lot of questions, but I think that's a good thing. So far it seems like my comments are meeting with approval from the powers that be. Had my first encounter with an IT issue today, which lead to the writing of much more comments, so that was fun. I'm sort of finding my groove with keeping the lines short and getting my comments done, which is good. It took me WAY less time to bank out today than it did on Sunday, and I think that's a sign I'm improving. Everyone I work with has been amazingly helpful and even when I ask what turns out to be a stupid question, they're willing to lend me a hand. All in all work is going along quite well, and I'm excited to go back tomorrow. I do miss Mummy (read the people at Mummy) a bit, but I think I might pick up a shift there next week, so I can get my fix.
Life with the married couple has actually been quite lovely. Our apartment is slowly turning from the "wedding war zone" back into a mildly habitable environment. I actually came home from work today to find Chris cleaning and then he went on to clean the dishes as well. It made me incredibly happy. The permanent addition of Chris has also brought other lovely things to our home; movies, shelves, regularly cooked meals, and a cardboard Boba Fett. I love our Boba Fett. He rests in the corner of the living room and I'll admit that he startles and scares me at least once a day. It usually goes something like this...
Mallory wanders into the living room, casually. She glances around that room and SEES A TALL SHADOWY FIGURE STANDING IN THE CORNER WHOISTHATIAMTERRFIEDAHHHHHHHHH! Mallory gasps, or on some occasions yelps, and then realizes that it's only Boba Fett. It's only Boba Fett. We have a freaking Boba Fett! We're SO cool!
Lather, rinse repeat.
We're also working on (perhaps) moving into a three bedroom. Nothing is set in stone, or even scribbled on paper, but I'm keeping my hopes up. I honestly don't care much at this point if we move apartments or just switch rooms, but Sara would like to move. We do have the issue of not having apartmate number four anymore, so we're going to have to do interviews for one. The way I imagine these interviews going in my head is probably hugely inaccurate, but until they happen in real life I'll stick with the awesome fantasy. We know that all potentials need to like Harry Potter and be alright with cats. The rest of the criteria is a little more flexible, but we've agreed that we all need to approve of them. I think this will make us happier in the end. Due to this vague possibility that my habitat will change, I've been trying a super clean of my room. You'll remember that I started this in May, but now I'm really getting to it. Today I went through my closet and made a HUGE pile of stuff to take to Salvation Army. I realized that I've lived here for almost a year, and if I haven't touched that stuff in that time, it's probably not going to change. I'll be continuing this tend, going from drawer to drawer, until I feel that I've lightened my possessions enough to pack things for a move.
I've been making good on my vow to keep up with YouTube despite the insane number of channels I'm subscribed to. Sometimes I think that I watch too much, but then I realize that everyone has their vices, and mine could be gambling, or cocaine, so I think a little daily YouTube watching it totally alright. I've also been reading a bit too much fanfiction, but I did finish a book (that I technically started in May) and I have another book ready to go. Meg got me a choose your own adventure zombie apocalypse book, and I already know it's gonna be awesome. Seems like something I might need, what with that man in Miami who ate another guys face. The zombies are coming, are you prepared?
Until tomorrow.
This week was my first non training week at Guest Services. I've only worked two days, but so far so good. I ask a lot of questions, but I think that's a good thing. So far it seems like my comments are meeting with approval from the powers that be. Had my first encounter with an IT issue today, which lead to the writing of much more comments, so that was fun. I'm sort of finding my groove with keeping the lines short and getting my comments done, which is good. It took me WAY less time to bank out today than it did on Sunday, and I think that's a sign I'm improving. Everyone I work with has been amazingly helpful and even when I ask what turns out to be a stupid question, they're willing to lend me a hand. All in all work is going along quite well, and I'm excited to go back tomorrow. I do miss Mummy (read the people at Mummy) a bit, but I think I might pick up a shift there next week, so I can get my fix.
Life with the married couple has actually been quite lovely. Our apartment is slowly turning from the "wedding war zone" back into a mildly habitable environment. I actually came home from work today to find Chris cleaning and then he went on to clean the dishes as well. It made me incredibly happy. The permanent addition of Chris has also brought other lovely things to our home; movies, shelves, regularly cooked meals, and a cardboard Boba Fett. I love our Boba Fett. He rests in the corner of the living room and I'll admit that he startles and scares me at least once a day. It usually goes something like this...
Mallory wanders into the living room, casually. She glances around that room and SEES A TALL SHADOWY FIGURE STANDING IN THE CORNER WHOISTHATIAMTERRFIEDAHHHHHHHHH! Mallory gasps, or on some occasions yelps, and then realizes that it's only Boba Fett. It's only Boba Fett. We have a freaking Boba Fett! We're SO cool!
Lather, rinse repeat.
We're also working on (perhaps) moving into a three bedroom. Nothing is set in stone, or even scribbled on paper, but I'm keeping my hopes up. I honestly don't care much at this point if we move apartments or just switch rooms, but Sara would like to move. We do have the issue of not having apartmate number four anymore, so we're going to have to do interviews for one. The way I imagine these interviews going in my head is probably hugely inaccurate, but until they happen in real life I'll stick with the awesome fantasy. We know that all potentials need to like Harry Potter and be alright with cats. The rest of the criteria is a little more flexible, but we've agreed that we all need to approve of them. I think this will make us happier in the end. Due to this vague possibility that my habitat will change, I've been trying a super clean of my room. You'll remember that I started this in May, but now I'm really getting to it. Today I went through my closet and made a HUGE pile of stuff to take to Salvation Army. I realized that I've lived here for almost a year, and if I haven't touched that stuff in that time, it's probably not going to change. I'll be continuing this tend, going from drawer to drawer, until I feel that I've lightened my possessions enough to pack things for a move.
I've been making good on my vow to keep up with YouTube despite the insane number of channels I'm subscribed to. Sometimes I think that I watch too much, but then I realize that everyone has their vices, and mine could be gambling, or cocaine, so I think a little daily YouTube watching it totally alright. I've also been reading a bit too much fanfiction, but I did finish a book (that I technically started in May) and I have another book ready to go. Meg got me a choose your own adventure zombie apocalypse book, and I already know it's gonna be awesome. Seems like something I might need, what with that man in Miami who ate another guys face. The zombies are coming, are you prepared?
Until tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
June 6th
I feel like I should have something to blog
about, but honestly my life has been nothing but work and sleep with a
little YouTube and Hulu thrown into the mix. I love my new position at
Guest Services, tomorrow is my last day of training, and I'm incredibly
excited to be out on my own. I already adore what I'm doing, and I find
that it's a much better fit than my attractions job. Of course I still
miss the people I used to work with at Mummy, but I'll still visit them,
and I'll make new friends at guest services.
Aside from work, and the wedding which I already discussed at length, I haven't done much with my life. Those two things have taken enough time that I've pretty much just been writing 750 words and sleeping aside from that. I still haven't made my June goals despite the fact that I'm six days into the month. However, I know that I'll get there. In fact let's make a goal right now. My goal is to spend most of Saturday catching up on work that has fallen to the wayside. I need to catch up on Ascendio emails, make June goals, edit my Star Wars weekend video, make a Ravenclaw & Weasley video, and probably tons of other things that I'm just not thinking of right now.
I got to spend some time with Meg and we've been planning a surprise for the newly wedded couple (which I feel like I can discuss here because no one actually reads this blog). We've come up with this idea of a "fantasy honeymoon" that involves traveling around our apartment while actually visiting The Shire, Forks Washington, Hogwarts, Cat in the Hat, and a cliche Honeymoon Suite. We've come up with really simple decorations and some sort of gift or food for each different world. I'm hoping that we can manage to pull it off and that Sara and Chris enjoy it. I think they will appreciate the idea if nothing else. Plus it will be a lot of fun, and Meg is out of school so timing isn't really much of an issue.
I'm also planning to return to Star Wars weekends this Friday, and I think I'll probably film more video while I'm there. Then I'll have WAY too much footage that I can pare down to a thoughts from places. I have this crazy idea of doing a song to the Star Wars main theme about everything I saw. It has potential to be either funny and awesome or completely out of tune and cringe inducing. I suppose I'll have to let the viewers make that decision. Not that I have many more viewers than I do readers of this vlog, but I like to pretend. Sometimes I wonder if I would like to have a blog that people actually read and commented on. Then I remember that having an audience means that I would have to produce content that was actually worthy of a readership, and I just have no interest in that. I would much rather continue to write filler words and grammatically incorrect sentences about completely uninteresting topics. It makes me happy.
I still have about 200 words to write, and they aren't flowing like they do when I write my Dungeons and Dragons journals. I love getting into Riley's head, she's different than the characters I usually play. Plus there's the fact that the campaign itself is proving to be interesting enough to provide plenty of subject matter for my 750 words a day. It's funny because the people I play D&D with are fascinated and a little amazed that I write 750 words a day, while I simply enjoy it and think it's not that difficult. I read a blog today on Nerd Fitness that talked about building habits. They were mostly concerned with fitness habits, but I realized it works the same for anything. The reason I find my 750 words so easy is because I made it a habit, and something I enjoy instead of a chore. I know that I could (and likely should) do the same with exercise and eating better, but I don't have the same motivation.
Which reminds me of something I heard on the radio today. They were discussing lies that people tell themselves, things like "I'm going to start exercising". We tell ourselves these things even though we know they aren't true. They wanted to know what everyone's biggest (or most common) lie is. I thought about it for awhile, and I do tell myself a lot of lies about eating healthy or not spending money or exercising, but I realized that none of those were my biggest/most common lie. The lie I tell myself most often is "I'm going to go to bed early tonight." Every morning when I struggle to get out of bed I tell myself that I'm going to go to sleep earlier to make up for it. I told myself that lie this morning, and here it is 11pm and I'm decidedly not in my bed asleep.
Until tomorrow.
Aside from work, and the wedding which I already discussed at length, I haven't done much with my life. Those two things have taken enough time that I've pretty much just been writing 750 words and sleeping aside from that. I still haven't made my June goals despite the fact that I'm six days into the month. However, I know that I'll get there. In fact let's make a goal right now. My goal is to spend most of Saturday catching up on work that has fallen to the wayside. I need to catch up on Ascendio emails, make June goals, edit my Star Wars weekend video, make a Ravenclaw & Weasley video, and probably tons of other things that I'm just not thinking of right now.
I got to spend some time with Meg and we've been planning a surprise for the newly wedded couple (which I feel like I can discuss here because no one actually reads this blog). We've come up with this idea of a "fantasy honeymoon" that involves traveling around our apartment while actually visiting The Shire, Forks Washington, Hogwarts, Cat in the Hat, and a cliche Honeymoon Suite. We've come up with really simple decorations and some sort of gift or food for each different world. I'm hoping that we can manage to pull it off and that Sara and Chris enjoy it. I think they will appreciate the idea if nothing else. Plus it will be a lot of fun, and Meg is out of school so timing isn't really much of an issue.
I'm also planning to return to Star Wars weekends this Friday, and I think I'll probably film more video while I'm there. Then I'll have WAY too much footage that I can pare down to a thoughts from places. I have this crazy idea of doing a song to the Star Wars main theme about everything I saw. It has potential to be either funny and awesome or completely out of tune and cringe inducing. I suppose I'll have to let the viewers make that decision. Not that I have many more viewers than I do readers of this vlog, but I like to pretend. Sometimes I wonder if I would like to have a blog that people actually read and commented on. Then I remember that having an audience means that I would have to produce content that was actually worthy of a readership, and I just have no interest in that. I would much rather continue to write filler words and grammatically incorrect sentences about completely uninteresting topics. It makes me happy.
I still have about 200 words to write, and they aren't flowing like they do when I write my Dungeons and Dragons journals. I love getting into Riley's head, she's different than the characters I usually play. Plus there's the fact that the campaign itself is proving to be interesting enough to provide plenty of subject matter for my 750 words a day. It's funny because the people I play D&D with are fascinated and a little amazed that I write 750 words a day, while I simply enjoy it and think it's not that difficult. I read a blog today on Nerd Fitness that talked about building habits. They were mostly concerned with fitness habits, but I realized it works the same for anything. The reason I find my 750 words so easy is because I made it a habit, and something I enjoy instead of a chore. I know that I could (and likely should) do the same with exercise and eating better, but I don't have the same motivation.
Which reminds me of something I heard on the radio today. They were discussing lies that people tell themselves, things like "I'm going to start exercising". We tell ourselves these things even though we know they aren't true. They wanted to know what everyone's biggest (or most common) lie is. I thought about it for awhile, and I do tell myself a lot of lies about eating healthy or not spending money or exercising, but I realized that none of those were my biggest/most common lie. The lie I tell myself most often is "I'm going to go to bed early tonight." Every morning when I struggle to get out of bed I tell myself that I'm going to go to sleep earlier to make up for it. I told myself that lie this morning, and here it is 11pm and I'm decidedly not in my bed asleep.
Until tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
May 30th
Today is Meg's birthday! That's pretty much the only worthwhile thing I can discuss. I guess I could mention that I had another day of work, and I'm still in training at Guest Services, but really that all pales in comparison to Meg's birthday. It's her day, I should really talk about her.
When I got off work today, I snatched up Meg and we went to hang at Universal. We briefly considered running errands or doing something productive, but it was Meg's birthday, so in the end we forgot all responsibility and just had a ton of fun. We kicked it off by wandering around the parks. Step one; snag Meg a Happy Birthday button. Then it was off to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to ride Dragon Challenge (twice), race through the castle and ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and of course drink our fill of Butterbeer. We managed to get next to each other in the single rider's line on Spiderman (I think the grouper saw Meg's birthday button and took pity on us). I was actually pleased with the way they revamped Spiderman. It's a little more CG movie than animated cartoon show, but I decided that I'm alright with that. Of course we had to ride Cat in the Hat, just to see Sara and Chris. Sara was at unload and even wished Meg a happy birthday over their comm system.
Once we'd had Sara fix we had to run over to Universal Studios and partake in our favorite rides. We used the power of Meg's birthday button to get three rides on Revenge of the Mummy. We screamed, spoke along with the dialogue, and then laughed hysterically during all of them. By then we were fully riding our Butterbeer sugar high, which meant it was time for some Men in Black action. We managed to sneak three rides on that as well, thanks to some very awesome attractions attendants. I beat Meg every time, even her birthday couldn't convince me to go easy on her. The tourists in the car with us were pretty impressed by our scores, the attendant who helped us ride again was less impressed.
Once we had our fill of theme park rides and theme park food we ventured out into City Walk. We made a decision to play mini golf. Meg and I are fantastic at mini golf, assuming that mini golf works like all other sports and the goal is to get the highest score. We're also assuming that knocking your ball into the bushes surrounding the track is much more important than hitting it into that tiny little hole on the green. Keeping all those rules in mind, Meg and I are the best at mini golf. We ended up playing the alien course and laughed ourselves silly taking pictures and climbing on things. We started counting the number of times we went off course (gotta get those bonus points you know). After stunning everyone at the course with our incredible mini golf skills, it was time to move on to Meg's house for the real festivities.
At Meg's we were met by balloons, Chris, Sara, a pile of cards and presents, and cheesecake. We giggled, laughed, and made funny faces while Jill took pictures. We chatted entirely too much, and by the time that Jill was able to wrangle us up and get us to the table for presents and cheesecake it was already quite late. Meg opened her presents, and quite enjoyed them. She got a card that has cats meowing the Happy Birthday Song, and it entertained us to no end. I probably opened the card to play the song fifteen times over the course of the evening, and it never got old. At least, it never got old for me, you'd have to ask the others about their personal opinions. Then we ate some cheesecake, which is not my favorite, but I tried to enjoy it for Meg's sake.
After her birthday celebration ended I came home and realized that despite the late hour I should probably go ahead and write these 750 words. Of course I still have fifty words to go and I've pretty much exhausted my discussion of Meg's birthday. I haven't done much else with my life lately. May ends in a few days, so I'll have to start making those June goals. Maybe on Monday I'll update you on how May goals went and what my June goals are.
Until tomorrow.
When I got off work today, I snatched up Meg and we went to hang at Universal. We briefly considered running errands or doing something productive, but it was Meg's birthday, so in the end we forgot all responsibility and just had a ton of fun. We kicked it off by wandering around the parks. Step one; snag Meg a Happy Birthday button. Then it was off to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to ride Dragon Challenge (twice), race through the castle and ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and of course drink our fill of Butterbeer. We managed to get next to each other in the single rider's line on Spiderman (I think the grouper saw Meg's birthday button and took pity on us). I was actually pleased with the way they revamped Spiderman. It's a little more CG movie than animated cartoon show, but I decided that I'm alright with that. Of course we had to ride Cat in the Hat, just to see Sara and Chris. Sara was at unload and even wished Meg a happy birthday over their comm system.
Once we'd had Sara fix we had to run over to Universal Studios and partake in our favorite rides. We used the power of Meg's birthday button to get three rides on Revenge of the Mummy. We screamed, spoke along with the dialogue, and then laughed hysterically during all of them. By then we were fully riding our Butterbeer sugar high, which meant it was time for some Men in Black action. We managed to sneak three rides on that as well, thanks to some very awesome attractions attendants. I beat Meg every time, even her birthday couldn't convince me to go easy on her. The tourists in the car with us were pretty impressed by our scores, the attendant who helped us ride again was less impressed.
Once we had our fill of theme park rides and theme park food we ventured out into City Walk. We made a decision to play mini golf. Meg and I are fantastic at mini golf, assuming that mini golf works like all other sports and the goal is to get the highest score. We're also assuming that knocking your ball into the bushes surrounding the track is much more important than hitting it into that tiny little hole on the green. Keeping all those rules in mind, Meg and I are the best at mini golf. We ended up playing the alien course and laughed ourselves silly taking pictures and climbing on things. We started counting the number of times we went off course (gotta get those bonus points you know). After stunning everyone at the course with our incredible mini golf skills, it was time to move on to Meg's house for the real festivities.
At Meg's we were met by balloons, Chris, Sara, a pile of cards and presents, and cheesecake. We giggled, laughed, and made funny faces while Jill took pictures. We chatted entirely too much, and by the time that Jill was able to wrangle us up and get us to the table for presents and cheesecake it was already quite late. Meg opened her presents, and quite enjoyed them. She got a card that has cats meowing the Happy Birthday Song, and it entertained us to no end. I probably opened the card to play the song fifteen times over the course of the evening, and it never got old. At least, it never got old for me, you'd have to ask the others about their personal opinions. Then we ate some cheesecake, which is not my favorite, but I tried to enjoy it for Meg's sake.
After her birthday celebration ended I came home and realized that despite the late hour I should probably go ahead and write these 750 words. Of course I still have fifty words to go and I've pretty much exhausted my discussion of Meg's birthday. I haven't done much else with my life lately. May ends in a few days, so I'll have to start making those June goals. Maybe on Monday I'll update you on how May goals went and what my June goals are.
Until tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
May 23rd
I could go on and on about my training at guest services. I've had a completely incredible two days. The trainers are awesome, the training is interesting, the coworkers are nice, the job is perfect for me, and EVERYONE has spoken about advancement. It's basically everything I wanted from a job. Time has flown by and I feel that I've learned an intense amount of information in just two days. I can't wait to continue training and actually start working. I know that there is a ton still to learn, and I can't wait to memorize it all. Of course if I did continue to wax poetic about all the amazingness (Firefox doesn't think that's a word, but I do) I've been experiencing I'd be walking the fine line that is the UO blogging policy. Instead, I guess I'll have to wax poetic about other subjects.
TV shows are winding down for the season, which is both a happy and sad occurrence. It gives me a chance to breathe, to do other things, and it wraps up stories while still keeping me interested. Of course it also means that I have to wait months for the next chapter, or in some cases I'll never see the rest at all because the show got canned. For the ones that are coming back, I'm incredibly excited. For the ones that are cancelled, I'm sad, but most were expected. The few serious bummers are the ones that KNEW they would be cancelled and still insisted on ending the show with a cliff hanger of some sort. Especially the ones that wouldn't have even required a re-shoot, merely a cutting of the last few seconds. Missing fits into this category.
Of course with TV winding down it does give me a chance to enjoy more YouTube videos, and that has been a blessing. I'm keeping up to date and working my way slowly through my backlog of must watch videos. Being current on YouTube is once again making me more excited to create videos. I've made 2 (both Star Wars themed) already this month. I already have plans to make a collab channel video tomorrow, and this weekend when I go to Star Wars Weekends at Disney I'll make another for my main channel (making May all about Star Wars apparently). Then next month I can spend some time making video responses and borrowing inspiration from the amazing YouTubers that I watch.
I've also been working on that "reading a book" goal. The problem is that I'm also addicted to a Harry Potter fanfiction written by one of my friends. It's 363 pages, and yet another thing I could wax poetic on forever, but I'll save that till I finish it. The issue is that it has interrupted the reading of the most recent Vampire Diaries book (I don't care if you judge me). However, with the fanfiction being 363 pages, it's basically a book, so I feel that it should count towards the goal. I guess I can let you weigh in on that (not that you will seeing as I'm pretty sure that no one reads this). So, should a 363 page fanfiction count as a book for my read a book goal?
Reading that fanfiction has reminded how much I used to enjoy writing fanfiction. I might actually try my hand at some of that on flash fiction day. When I write fanfiction I usually stick to Harry Potter (although I used to write Star Wars), and I like to watch what I call "missing moment" stories. These are stories that add to cannon texts without changing the story line that's written. Perhaps they change your view on certain characters but they don't alter events that have already occurred. An example of this is a flash piece I wrote about the death of Emmeline Vance. In the HP books it's mentioned that she died, but not much else is known about it. I wrote a scene where Dumbledore tells her that she has to basically sacrifice herself because Snape needs information to pass to the Death Eaters because his loyalty is seriously being questioned. I'm actually really proud of that story. I also like to write stories that occur in the Wizarding World, but separate from Harry Potter, whether it's long after his time or during the same time somewhere totally different.
Of course there's a singular exception to my "no changes" rule, and that is the story of Sylvia Black. Sylvia came into being shortly after I started reading Harry Potter back in 1998. I often create myself a character in books I read or movies I see because I prefer that to thinking of myself as one of the characters that already exist. Yet, none of those are as well developed or as dear to my heart as Sylvia. When I first created her I knew nothing about what would become of Sirius Black, but I liked the name of the character and the fact that he had a flying motorcycle. Plus there's the fact that he seemed to be a friend of Hagrid's meaning he could have a child Harry's age. Of course I orphaned her as well, putting her father on the run and her mother dead until I learned the truth about Sirius. She knew Harry before Hogwarts, growing up with him in the muggle world. Still with her I try to make sure she doesn't alter the story TOO much, allowing the stories to continue the way they were written with her adding a bit here and there. She's super developed and while it isn't all written down she spends many a night running around my head having adventures. Someday she will see the light of day, but not yet. Until tomorrow.
TV shows are winding down for the season, which is both a happy and sad occurrence. It gives me a chance to breathe, to do other things, and it wraps up stories while still keeping me interested. Of course it also means that I have to wait months for the next chapter, or in some cases I'll never see the rest at all because the show got canned. For the ones that are coming back, I'm incredibly excited. For the ones that are cancelled, I'm sad, but most were expected. The few serious bummers are the ones that KNEW they would be cancelled and still insisted on ending the show with a cliff hanger of some sort. Especially the ones that wouldn't have even required a re-shoot, merely a cutting of the last few seconds. Missing fits into this category.
Of course with TV winding down it does give me a chance to enjoy more YouTube videos, and that has been a blessing. I'm keeping up to date and working my way slowly through my backlog of must watch videos. Being current on YouTube is once again making me more excited to create videos. I've made 2 (both Star Wars themed) already this month. I already have plans to make a collab channel video tomorrow, and this weekend when I go to Star Wars Weekends at Disney I'll make another for my main channel (making May all about Star Wars apparently). Then next month I can spend some time making video responses and borrowing inspiration from the amazing YouTubers that I watch.
I've also been working on that "reading a book" goal. The problem is that I'm also addicted to a Harry Potter fanfiction written by one of my friends. It's 363 pages, and yet another thing I could wax poetic on forever, but I'll save that till I finish it. The issue is that it has interrupted the reading of the most recent Vampire Diaries book (I don't care if you judge me). However, with the fanfiction being 363 pages, it's basically a book, so I feel that it should count towards the goal. I guess I can let you weigh in on that (not that you will seeing as I'm pretty sure that no one reads this). So, should a 363 page fanfiction count as a book for my read a book goal?
Reading that fanfiction has reminded how much I used to enjoy writing fanfiction. I might actually try my hand at some of that on flash fiction day. When I write fanfiction I usually stick to Harry Potter (although I used to write Star Wars), and I like to watch what I call "missing moment" stories. These are stories that add to cannon texts without changing the story line that's written. Perhaps they change your view on certain characters but they don't alter events that have already occurred. An example of this is a flash piece I wrote about the death of Emmeline Vance. In the HP books it's mentioned that she died, but not much else is known about it. I wrote a scene where Dumbledore tells her that she has to basically sacrifice herself because Snape needs information to pass to the Death Eaters because his loyalty is seriously being questioned. I'm actually really proud of that story. I also like to write stories that occur in the Wizarding World, but separate from Harry Potter, whether it's long after his time or during the same time somewhere totally different.
Of course there's a singular exception to my "no changes" rule, and that is the story of Sylvia Black. Sylvia came into being shortly after I started reading Harry Potter back in 1998. I often create myself a character in books I read or movies I see because I prefer that to thinking of myself as one of the characters that already exist. Yet, none of those are as well developed or as dear to my heart as Sylvia. When I first created her I knew nothing about what would become of Sirius Black, but I liked the name of the character and the fact that he had a flying motorcycle. Plus there's the fact that he seemed to be a friend of Hagrid's meaning he could have a child Harry's age. Of course I orphaned her as well, putting her father on the run and her mother dead until I learned the truth about Sirius. She knew Harry before Hogwarts, growing up with him in the muggle world. Still with her I try to make sure she doesn't alter the story TOO much, allowing the stories to continue the way they were written with her adding a bit here and there. She's super developed and while it isn't all written down she spends many a night running around my head having adventures. Someday she will see the light of day, but not yet. Until tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
May 16th
Today I worked all morning. It went pretty quickly and the days to starting my new job are quickly counting down. My last official day at Revenge of the Mummy is Sunday, although I'll likely pick up shifts for awhile to supplement the hours I get at guest services. I'm really going to miss the people I work with at Mummy so it will be nice to spend a day a week or so there visiting. Plus I think that working outside of attractions will mean I'll want to play in the park a bit more after/before my shifts. I'll have to wait and see.
After work I went to Magic Kingdom (one of the parks in Disney World), and had a blast just playing around. I played some Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom, which is a fantastic interactive card game that Disney created. It involves getting a key card and 5 spell cards and then walking around to different stations throughout the park and activating these screens. Once you activate the screen with your key card you hold up spell cards when prompted, they are read by cameras, and then the spell transfers to the screen. You duel Disney villains as you try to keep them from collecting the crystals of the Magic Kingdom for Hades, who wants to gain control of the park. Every day you can take your key card back to the recruitment center and get a pack of 5 more spell cards. There are 70 spell cards in the first set (10 of which are almost impossible to get). The game is brilliantly executed, fun for all ages, and completely free. It's got strategy at higher levels and it encourages people to interact so they can trade cards. I'm incredibly impressed with what Disney has created with this game.
I also managed to ride a few rides while I was at the park, and then something really neat happened. As I was leaving the park I noticed the girl in front of me was holding a box painted like the TARDIS. Since I'm the type of person who likes to talk to strangers (not recommend to younger readers), I asked her what the box was. She explained that she made it to carry egg babies for a class project. I told her that I thought that was cool, but what I really like was that it was a TARDIS. That's when things got awesome. She and the group of friends she was with hadn't ever met another Whovian and they got very excited! Turned out that the egg babies were dressed up like Eleven, Amy, and Rory. We discussed excitement for the new season, our favorite Doctor, the best episodes, and Chameleon Circuit (a Trock band), which lead us to briefly talking about YouTubers we like. When we finally got back to the parking lot I took a picture with the girls before we split ways. It was just a ton of fun to meet them and it made the end of my day incredibly pleasant. It just goes to show that sometimes all you have to do to meet amazing people is ask a stranger a question.
After leaving the park I came home, made some dinner, watched Bones, and now I'm watching some YouTube as I write this. Tomorrow I plan to get up early and made a video before I have to go to work. I also need to work on some of my other goals because I'm halfway through the month now, and I'm not halfway through my goals. Which reminds me, I should probably do an update here.
1) Write 750 words a day (so far so good, I'm sure I'll make this one)
2) Make 2 videos for channel (one is done and I'm making one tomorrow)
3) Read a book (working on it, slowly)
4) Save $200 (the new job should help with this)
5) Write Wrockbox Show (that's what next week's days off are for)
6) Finalize ALL Ascendio scheduling (I'm only a Wrock lineup away)
7) Make shot list for 3 music videos (I'll get on this, it's been on hold for a bit)
8) Read or cancel all Magazine subscriptions (working on it)
9) Spend less than $300 on credit card (FAILED. Stuff adds up)
10) Clean out living space (have cleaned up a lot, still working on it)
Looks like I could manage nine of my goals this month, which means more rewards. Until tomorrow.
After work I went to Magic Kingdom (one of the parks in Disney World), and had a blast just playing around. I played some Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom, which is a fantastic interactive card game that Disney created. It involves getting a key card and 5 spell cards and then walking around to different stations throughout the park and activating these screens. Once you activate the screen with your key card you hold up spell cards when prompted, they are read by cameras, and then the spell transfers to the screen. You duel Disney villains as you try to keep them from collecting the crystals of the Magic Kingdom for Hades, who wants to gain control of the park. Every day you can take your key card back to the recruitment center and get a pack of 5 more spell cards. There are 70 spell cards in the first set (10 of which are almost impossible to get). The game is brilliantly executed, fun for all ages, and completely free. It's got strategy at higher levels and it encourages people to interact so they can trade cards. I'm incredibly impressed with what Disney has created with this game.
I also managed to ride a few rides while I was at the park, and then something really neat happened. As I was leaving the park I noticed the girl in front of me was holding a box painted like the TARDIS. Since I'm the type of person who likes to talk to strangers (not recommend to younger readers), I asked her what the box was. She explained that she made it to carry egg babies for a class project. I told her that I thought that was cool, but what I really like was that it was a TARDIS. That's when things got awesome. She and the group of friends she was with hadn't ever met another Whovian and they got very excited! Turned out that the egg babies were dressed up like Eleven, Amy, and Rory. We discussed excitement for the new season, our favorite Doctor, the best episodes, and Chameleon Circuit (a Trock band), which lead us to briefly talking about YouTubers we like. When we finally got back to the parking lot I took a picture with the girls before we split ways. It was just a ton of fun to meet them and it made the end of my day incredibly pleasant. It just goes to show that sometimes all you have to do to meet amazing people is ask a stranger a question.
After leaving the park I came home, made some dinner, watched Bones, and now I'm watching some YouTube as I write this. Tomorrow I plan to get up early and made a video before I have to go to work. I also need to work on some of my other goals because I'm halfway through the month now, and I'm not halfway through my goals. Which reminds me, I should probably do an update here.
1) Write 750 words a day (so far so good, I'm sure I'll make this one)
2) Make 2 videos for channel (one is done and I'm making one tomorrow)
3) Read a book (working on it, slowly)
4) Save $200 (the new job should help with this)
5) Write Wrockbox Show (that's what next week's days off are for)
6) Finalize ALL Ascendio scheduling (I'm only a Wrock lineup away)
7) Make shot list for 3 music videos (I'll get on this, it's been on hold for a bit)
8) Read or cancel all Magazine subscriptions (working on it)
9) Spend less than $300 on credit card (FAILED. Stuff adds up)
10) Clean out living space (have cleaned up a lot, still working on it)
Looks like I could manage nine of my goals this month, which means more rewards. Until tomorrow.
Monday, May 14, 2012
May 14th
Today I did the laundry, vacuumed my room, my bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen, did the dishes, cleaned the stove top, washed the kitchen counters, took out the trash, and worked on Ascendio. All in all a very productive day off from work. Now it's time for me to write 750 words and Monday is supposed to be current events.
Of course I know basically nothing about current events, cause I'm too busy doing things like laundry. So instead of discussing what Republican candidates have dropped out of the race or which campaign groups are currently bashing each other or Syrian soldiers dying in Lebanon or the drama on Dancing with the Stars or the downfall of Yahoo or SpaceX launching their Dragon capsule up to the ISS. Not that those aren't all fascinating topics, I'm just not really in the mood to discuss any of them because I feel that I don't have fully formed thoughts to offer.
So instead I would like to actually just spend a bit of time just writing whatever pops into my head. Like traveling back in time to April where this blog was rambling and unedited (not that it's terribly edited now). I was speaking to my friend Alissa today about why I do this. She's an artist (of the making super amazing drawings variety) and was telling me that she tries to draw something every day because in order to keep improving she needs to practice. Personally I think that her art is already incredible and there isn't much farther to go, but I understand the principal of the idea. That's why I'm writing the 750 words a day, to practice. Obviously this type of thoughts on paper writing is different than what I might want to do with my life, but practice is practice, and letting go of my inner editor so that I can actually compose something is a skill I can learn with any subject matter.
The other thing I've been thinking about is how much fun I had writing that short scene yesterday. I've discovered that I'm quite inspired by the character art I find on the internet, and I want to continue to write from those pictures. Pinterest has actually become a wonderful tool for me to store up the pictures I find inspiring so that I can pull them out easily to write. AND it saves the location of the art so that if I write something I'm especially proud of I can send it to the artist and share my creativity. Plus, if I come up with a character that I love, I can hunt down some of those artists to illustrate them for me. It has the potential to help me build a pretty incredible community.
The apartment issue is also still weighing heavily on my mind is deciding where I will be living in July. We no longer have a fourth decided roommate, which means that we might not move. That is actually an outcome I'm completely fine with. I'll probably end up switching rooms so that I'm no longer in the master bedroom, which is enough of a move to give me a chance to start fresh. The bummer is that now Sara seems pretty set on moving to a different apartment but we don't have anyone to move with. I'm not sure I want to look for anyone else anymore. I'm happy with who I live with, my rent will go down, and I don't mind switching rooms because it will give me a chance to clean out my room and get rid of the stuff that I brought with me for whatever reason but haven't paid any attention to since. I actually enjoy spring cleaning, reorganizing my living space. Moving on the other hand I find a bit more stressful. Not the physical movement of my stuff but all the address change that goes along with it. Still, I'm open to most anything and if Sara finds someone she wants to live with then I'm willing to take the leap.
I've also had some time to think about the way my life is and what I want to change about it. I think that I need to write out some rules about eating and exercise and creative pursuits and see if I can get into a schedule that will keep me on top of everything with out burning me out. I think that switching jobs will help with that because the increase in pay will mean that the less hours working won't be as stressful and I'll have more time to pursue other things. Now I just have to make an executive decision on what those other things will be.
Of course I know basically nothing about current events, cause I'm too busy doing things like laundry. So instead of discussing what Republican candidates have dropped out of the race or which campaign groups are currently bashing each other or Syrian soldiers dying in Lebanon or the drama on Dancing with the Stars or the downfall of Yahoo or SpaceX launching their Dragon capsule up to the ISS. Not that those aren't all fascinating topics, I'm just not really in the mood to discuss any of them because I feel that I don't have fully formed thoughts to offer.
So instead I would like to actually just spend a bit of time just writing whatever pops into my head. Like traveling back in time to April where this blog was rambling and unedited (not that it's terribly edited now). I was speaking to my friend Alissa today about why I do this. She's an artist (of the making super amazing drawings variety) and was telling me that she tries to draw something every day because in order to keep improving she needs to practice. Personally I think that her art is already incredible and there isn't much farther to go, but I understand the principal of the idea. That's why I'm writing the 750 words a day, to practice. Obviously this type of thoughts on paper writing is different than what I might want to do with my life, but practice is practice, and letting go of my inner editor so that I can actually compose something is a skill I can learn with any subject matter.
The other thing I've been thinking about is how much fun I had writing that short scene yesterday. I've discovered that I'm quite inspired by the character art I find on the internet, and I want to continue to write from those pictures. Pinterest has actually become a wonderful tool for me to store up the pictures I find inspiring so that I can pull them out easily to write. AND it saves the location of the art so that if I write something I'm especially proud of I can send it to the artist and share my creativity. Plus, if I come up with a character that I love, I can hunt down some of those artists to illustrate them for me. It has the potential to help me build a pretty incredible community.
The apartment issue is also still weighing heavily on my mind is deciding where I will be living in July. We no longer have a fourth decided roommate, which means that we might not move. That is actually an outcome I'm completely fine with. I'll probably end up switching rooms so that I'm no longer in the master bedroom, which is enough of a move to give me a chance to start fresh. The bummer is that now Sara seems pretty set on moving to a different apartment but we don't have anyone to move with. I'm not sure I want to look for anyone else anymore. I'm happy with who I live with, my rent will go down, and I don't mind switching rooms because it will give me a chance to clean out my room and get rid of the stuff that I brought with me for whatever reason but haven't paid any attention to since. I actually enjoy spring cleaning, reorganizing my living space. Moving on the other hand I find a bit more stressful. Not the physical movement of my stuff but all the address change that goes along with it. Still, I'm open to most anything and if Sara finds someone she wants to live with then I'm willing to take the leap.
I've also had some time to think about the way my life is and what I want to change about it. I think that I need to write out some rules about eating and exercise and creative pursuits and see if I can get into a schedule that will keep me on top of everything with out burning me out. I think that switching jobs will help with that because the increase in pay will mean that the less hours working won't be as stressful and I'll have more time to pursue other things. Now I just have to make an executive decision on what those other things will be.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
May 9th
I'm once again blogging late at night, but not because I worked late, because I actually went out. If you've spent any time around me since I moved to Florida you'd probably be shocked by this. Not that I was ever the "go out" type, but I used to at least go to movies, or bowling, or dancing every couple of weeks. Since I moved to Florida my life has basically become work, sleep, work, eat, work, internet, work, D&D, work, Disney, work. I think I've seen six movies since I moved ten months ago and two of those I saw when my dad visited. I used to go see at least one movie every week when I was up at college. I miss movies.
Tonight, though, I decided to break the streak. I went to City Walk with a bunch of people that I work with. We played mini golf at this incredible new golf course that Universal built. It's got a total of 36 holes (two 18 hole courses), and it's intense. One of the courses is alien invasion themed and the other is haunted house themed. They're pretty elaborate. Our group decided to play the alien invasion course, where there are things like crop circles, cows being abducted, a battle in area 51, and a wormhole at the 18th hole that means the hole itself actually spins. I don't mini golf often so my strategy was set the ball down randomly and swing hard. Naturally, I scored the most points, which means I win right? At least that's the way it works in every other sport I ever played.
After golf we went out dancing at some of the clubs. I had a complete blast. I love dancing and going with a bunch of friends makes it even more fun. And the best part is that no one mentioned that I dance like a serious nerd. I'm not kidding about this. You know how the nerds in movies always sorta just shift their weight, snap, sway, and move their arms? We'll I've turned those moves into an art form. I'm also known for tossing my hair and jumping up and down like I'm at a rave. It was good exercise and it was a ton of fun. There's actually a karaoke bar at City Walk as well, but we didn't make it over there before I decided that my I'd probably danced off enough weight for one evening.
Before all the late night craziness all I did was work. I had a really good day at work though. I was Scarab, which is basically a sort of gopher for the leads. It was my job to give bathroom breaks, or bump people that the supervisors needed to speak to, or update the wait time, or clean the queue, or walk up the VIP guests, or whatever else the lead needed done but didn't have time to get to. I love the fact that the role is a lot of rushing around doing varied and crazy things. It's a lot of "go, go, go" and I love that. That feeling is why I do insane things like an online musical or become chair of informal programming for a conference, I love the rush of having to run around doing 100 things at once. Of course going back to normal rotation tomorrow where I repeat the same routine for 15-45 minutes before I switch positions and do a different routine for 15-45 minutes will be kind of a let down.
On the exciting side I got a release date to move to guest services! Hopefully when the schedule comes out tomorrow I will be scheduled training at guest services! I found out that I'm actually going to be making quite a bit more money, about a 33% increase. It doesn't seem like a lot more in the grand scheme of things (only actually a couple of dollars), but when I think about how much more that adds up to at the end of the day or the end of the week or the end of the month, I get really excited. I've learned to live on what I make decently well, but having that extra income will be nice for rainy days or when car insurance is due.
From 9 hours at work where I got to run around and help everyone, to getting a release date to go to guest services, to scoring the most points at mini golf, to dancing till exhaustion with a bunch of friends; today was a pretty darn fantastic day!
Tonight, though, I decided to break the streak. I went to City Walk with a bunch of people that I work with. We played mini golf at this incredible new golf course that Universal built. It's got a total of 36 holes (two 18 hole courses), and it's intense. One of the courses is alien invasion themed and the other is haunted house themed. They're pretty elaborate. Our group decided to play the alien invasion course, where there are things like crop circles, cows being abducted, a battle in area 51, and a wormhole at the 18th hole that means the hole itself actually spins. I don't mini golf often so my strategy was set the ball down randomly and swing hard. Naturally, I scored the most points, which means I win right? At least that's the way it works in every other sport I ever played.
After golf we went out dancing at some of the clubs. I had a complete blast. I love dancing and going with a bunch of friends makes it even more fun. And the best part is that no one mentioned that I dance like a serious nerd. I'm not kidding about this. You know how the nerds in movies always sorta just shift their weight, snap, sway, and move their arms? We'll I've turned those moves into an art form. I'm also known for tossing my hair and jumping up and down like I'm at a rave. It was good exercise and it was a ton of fun. There's actually a karaoke bar at City Walk as well, but we didn't make it over there before I decided that my I'd probably danced off enough weight for one evening.
Before all the late night craziness all I did was work. I had a really good day at work though. I was Scarab, which is basically a sort of gopher for the leads. It was my job to give bathroom breaks, or bump people that the supervisors needed to speak to, or update the wait time, or clean the queue, or walk up the VIP guests, or whatever else the lead needed done but didn't have time to get to. I love the fact that the role is a lot of rushing around doing varied and crazy things. It's a lot of "go, go, go" and I love that. That feeling is why I do insane things like an online musical or become chair of informal programming for a conference, I love the rush of having to run around doing 100 things at once. Of course going back to normal rotation tomorrow where I repeat the same routine for 15-45 minutes before I switch positions and do a different routine for 15-45 minutes will be kind of a let down.
On the exciting side I got a release date to move to guest services! Hopefully when the schedule comes out tomorrow I will be scheduled training at guest services! I found out that I'm actually going to be making quite a bit more money, about a 33% increase. It doesn't seem like a lot more in the grand scheme of things (only actually a couple of dollars), but when I think about how much more that adds up to at the end of the day or the end of the week or the end of the month, I get really excited. I've learned to live on what I make decently well, but having that extra income will be nice for rainy days or when car insurance is due.
From 9 hours at work where I got to run around and help everyone, to getting a release date to go to guest services, to scoring the most points at mini golf, to dancing till exhaustion with a bunch of friends; today was a pretty darn fantastic day!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
May 2nd
I didn't make that video I planned to make today. Instead I spent most of the day dealing with mounds of stuff that is happening at Ascendio this summer. I'm crazy excited for this conference, but there is a LOT that is going into it. Remind me to never do this again alright? I know I'm going to want to. I know after the conference I'll be riding high on a perfect weekend and I'll want to experience all of that again. When that time comes I expect you to remind me of today. Of the day when everything was flipped on it's head, and I had to scramble to pick up the pieces. Of my day off that ended up being more work than many of my actual days at work.
On the plus side I did manage to write up my May goals and now is as good a time as any to lay them out for you.
1) Write 750 words a day (shocking I know)
2) Make 2 videos for main channel (stepping it up from last month)
3) Read a book (down from April, but it will be a long book)
4) Save $200 (consistency is a good thing)
5) Write Wrockbox Show (there was bound to be a carryover)
6) Finish ALL Ascendio scheduling (halfway there will miles left to cover)
7) Write shot list for 3 music videos (excited for this one)
8) Read or cancel ALL magazine subscriptions (if I don't read it, I don't need it)
9) Spend less than $300 on credit card (lofty goal, we'll see how it goes)
10) Clean out my living space (get rid of stuff I don't use/need)
Along with those goals I also decided to make a sort of schedule for my 750 words a day. This way I have some general topic to discuss every day. Of course I'm likely to stray from these occasionally if I have something pressing to discuss, but I figured it was a good idea for now. So here is the weekly schedule.
Sunday- Flash Fiction (a story of some sort that is short and complete)
Monday- Current happenings (this could be news or something I saw on YouTube, etc)
Tuesday- Dungeons and Dragons Journal (campaign notes from Riley's PoV)
Wednesday- Simple Blogging (my day, my life, whatever I want)
Thursday- Finish stories or dreams (write something I started or flesh out a dream)
Friday- Reviews (Movies, books, TV shows, YouTube channels, whatever I want)
Saturday- Rants (It's the end of the week, I'll blow off some steam)
Basically that's what you have to look forward to from here on out. Hopefully this schedule will me it more enjoyable for you and me. The plan is that with all of these ideas planned out, I'll at least have a place to start every single day.
Other than Ascendio work I went to see a movie (which I'll discuss on Friday) and I watched some Supernatural (a TV show I really like). The newest episode featured Felicia Day, and if you'll allow me, I'd like to wax poetic about her from a moment. Felicia Day is a huge nerd to beat all nerds and I love basically everything she's ever done. She's just a little awkward, really smart, and very genuine about everything she does. I first found out about her when she stared in Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog, and have been hooked on her acting ever since. She stars in (and creates) a webseries about people who play World of Warcraft and her YouTube channel (Geek and Sundry) features a lot of witty, nerdy, funny videos. I feel like she's a very real person and that if we met in real life, we'd probably get along. I love that she's always so excited about her projects and not afraid to share that excitement. I enjoy watching her so much because she seems to be always enjoying herself. If you happen to be looking for something funny and carefree, check out youtube.com/geekandsundy
I'm almost finished with my 750 words, which is a wonderful thing since I'm starting to get super tired and I should really be sleeping instead of writing, but I'm also gchatting about Ascendio stuff so I really wouldn't be sleeping even if this blog was finished. Which it almost is. Look forward to a story tomorrow, and I can't wait to see what the rest of May bring for me. Life is really looking up.
On the plus side I did manage to write up my May goals and now is as good a time as any to lay them out for you.
1) Write 750 words a day (shocking I know)
2) Make 2 videos for main channel (stepping it up from last month)
3) Read a book (down from April, but it will be a long book)
4) Save $200 (consistency is a good thing)
5) Write Wrockbox Show (there was bound to be a carryover)
6) Finish ALL Ascendio scheduling (halfway there will miles left to cover)
7) Write shot list for 3 music videos (excited for this one)
8) Read or cancel ALL magazine subscriptions (if I don't read it, I don't need it)
9) Spend less than $300 on credit card (lofty goal, we'll see how it goes)
10) Clean out my living space (get rid of stuff I don't use/need)
Along with those goals I also decided to make a sort of schedule for my 750 words a day. This way I have some general topic to discuss every day. Of course I'm likely to stray from these occasionally if I have something pressing to discuss, but I figured it was a good idea for now. So here is the weekly schedule.
Sunday- Flash Fiction (a story of some sort that is short and complete)
Monday- Current happenings (this could be news or something I saw on YouTube, etc)
Tuesday- Dungeons and Dragons Journal (campaign notes from Riley's PoV)
Wednesday- Simple Blogging (my day, my life, whatever I want)
Thursday- Finish stories or dreams (write something I started or flesh out a dream)
Friday- Reviews (Movies, books, TV shows, YouTube channels, whatever I want)
Saturday- Rants (It's the end of the week, I'll blow off some steam)
Basically that's what you have to look forward to from here on out. Hopefully this schedule will me it more enjoyable for you and me. The plan is that with all of these ideas planned out, I'll at least have a place to start every single day.
Other than Ascendio work I went to see a movie (which I'll discuss on Friday) and I watched some Supernatural (a TV show I really like). The newest episode featured Felicia Day, and if you'll allow me, I'd like to wax poetic about her from a moment. Felicia Day is a huge nerd to beat all nerds and I love basically everything she's ever done. She's just a little awkward, really smart, and very genuine about everything she does. I first found out about her when she stared in Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog, and have been hooked on her acting ever since. She stars in (and creates) a webseries about people who play World of Warcraft and her YouTube channel (Geek and Sundry) features a lot of witty, nerdy, funny videos. I feel like she's a very real person and that if we met in real life, we'd probably get along. I love that she's always so excited about her projects and not afraid to share that excitement. I enjoy watching her so much because she seems to be always enjoying herself. If you happen to be looking for something funny and carefree, check out youtube.com/geekandsundy
I'm almost finished with my 750 words, which is a wonderful thing since I'm starting to get super tired and I should really be sleeping instead of writing, but I'm also gchatting about Ascendio stuff so I really wouldn't be sleeping even if this blog was finished. Which it almost is. Look forward to a story tomorrow, and I can't wait to see what the rest of May bring for me. Life is really looking up.
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