A Tale of Procrastination

In an epic act of procrastination, I was going to provide you with a photo of me climbing out of a sarcophagus.

And in an even epic-er act of procrastination, I just spent 20 minutes tearing the apartment apart, looking for the envelope of photos from my trip to Turkey that I may procure my sarcophagus photograph and retell the epic story of how I climbed into the tomb, got really freaked out, climbed out of a tomb, and then thought my camera had been cursed by evil spirits--or the awakened dead.

Stephen King would have been proud. As would Stephanie Meyer.

But alas! The photograph has been misplaced, meaning one thing:

Though I tried to avoid a New Year Resolution List that included "tidiness" and "organization", I have been bested.

New Year Resolution #14 - sort through, weed out, and pitch all of my crap (while simultaneously finding homes for the few items that are less like crap and more worth keeping).

In the meantime, here is a photo of the ancient clock tower in Antalya whose nearby trash can was bombed by terrorists during my first week there!

When Counting Blessings Doesn't Pay Off

Today has seen no fewer than five* torrential downpours. And, because Fort Wayne was a rice field in a former life, the entire city flooded. Within seconds.

My drive to work consisted of 1) me fearing that the 1990 Honda Civic wouldn't make it through the 6-9 inch pools of water, and 2) people getting wet.

As I braced myself upon entering yet another flood zone, I noticed a poor soul on a bicycle. Covered with a green rain poncho, the man was doing all he could to keep his hood up and the bike on the sidewalk.

Until the truck in front of me tore through one of the flood zones, dumping gallons of water on the unsuspecting bicyclist. GALLONS. You have no idea. It was like splash mountain.

I really felt sorry for the guy. His shoes must have been soaked. His face definitely was soaked. And his poncho was suddenly very unnecessary.

How lucky I was to have a car! How fortunate I was to not be splashed upon or given an unwanted bath! How blessed!!!

The next thing I knew, an oncoming truck tore through another giant puddle.

The water shot through my open window and splashed my face to the point where I could no longer see through my glasses.

Somewhere, a heavenly Being was laughing.

*during the writing of this post, the number had to be changed from 'four' to 'five'.


August 16
Words: 721
Total: 7,409

6,688 Words Is Eight Percent of a Novel

Halfway through 30 Days of {blank}, and while my numbers really aren't all that impressive, I must remind you that my real battle has always been with simple discipline.

Let's see if I can hit 12000 words when all is said and done. Because that would be like 15 percent of a novel. Then, I'd only have to do this 6 more times before I have a finished product....hmmm....come to think of it, that's quite a bit...maybe I should rethink this whole thing...

August 15
Words: 594
Total: 6,688

Ukraine's Got [way more] Talent

I simply had to share this video with you. Promise me you'll watch it. I guarantee it's better than poking around on Facebook or getting tomorrow's weather.

Kseniya won Ukraine's Got Talent recently. This is one of her performances. She's depicting Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII:



Now if THAT isn't one of the most beautiful things you've seen in a long time, then I want to know why you haven't headed out to see the eye doctor.

(Is it just me or is Oksana Baiul the judge who's crying?)



August 14
Words: 278
Total: 6,094

Why I am the worst Ironman in the world.

It wasn't because my shirt came out more wrinkled than before I pressed and finagled it.

It wasn't the fact that I ignored my iron's beeps, thinking it was my cell phone (which wasn't even in the room because I had left it at work).

It wasn't the extreme amount of time it took me on two garments (1 hour).

It wasn't the water droplets that kept falling out onto my garments because I kept accidentally nudging the spray button.

It wasn't even my inability to prevent the ironing board from rocking and almost knocking my piping hot iron to the ground.

No. It wasn't any of those things.

It was the fact that when I was done and went to unplug the iron, there the cord sat, a foot away from the socket. Come to find out, the beeping I had been hearing twenty minutes before calling it a day was actually the iron telling me that it was shutting down. It had euthanized itself, pulling the cord out of anguish.

August 12
Words: o
Total: 5,511

August 13
Words: 305
Total: 5,816

Word Count: Day 11

August 11
Words: 732
Total: 5,511

My Light, my Salvation, my Alarm Clock

Jesus woke me up this morning.

And while I wish I could report that He had something earth-shattering to say, He left me with one simple question:

"What time is it?"

"Time?" I rolled over, closing my eyes.

"I'm serious, human. What time is it?"

My hand flopped to the side of the bed and grabbed my phone. I brought it inches from my sleep-swollen face and pressed a key.

Nothing.

I pressed it again.

Nothing.

I pressed a zillion keys in a row.

Nothing.

My phone, which doubles as my alarm clock, had died during the night. Jesus woke me up to let me know.

So, just in case you were wondering, yes, Jesus DOES want you to get to work on time.

(This is not an isolated event, as both myself and college roommate Ashlee experienced this phenomenon multiple times in our college career. Multiple times.)


August 10
Words: 409
Total: 4,779

Dad Pitt - Photos of Brad Pitt | Parade.com

Okay, before I put up my real post for the day, I'd like to leave you with this:

Brad Pitt looks like a dad of the car-selling, insurance-pushing, 8 to 5 sort.

Also, Tad should get a haircut similar to the one in the linked photos....after all, his hair naturally sweeps to the side (as shown in the photos)

Yes or no?

Photos: Brad Pitt - Exclusive Photos of Brad Pitt | Parade.com

Shared via AddThis

August 9
Words: 517
Total: 4,370

Sunday Musings: My Job in Social Media

For all of you who think that I spend my day surfing the web and reading blogs and commenting on message boards and watching the latest YouTube hit, have I got something for you!

Finally, a finished project that is not only tangible, but will hopefully put to rest all of those comments, like:

"So how are the blogs?"

and

"I wish I could spend my day surfing the web."

It's not that these comments are a bother, because seriously, while the average person may know about Twitter and Facebook (and blogging and YouTube and podcasting, etc), they may NOT fully realize how following and tracking and understanding all of that stuff could actually be someone's job.

So, when I took a job in social media and was slapped with the title of Social Media Coordinator and told to conduct market research and strive to understand the target audience while using technical jargon as opposed to common slang . . . well, what I did suddenly wasn't so clear.

So, I ended up letting people think what they want. Even if they ended up thinking that I sat around reading celebrity websites and watching Scarlet Takes a Tumble.

But not anymore!

Now, when someone asks me what I do, I'll say: "Go here."

And if they're a bit more confused, I'll say: "I helped develop that site, and provided most of the content." Then, I'll push my glasses up my nose and say: "It was based highly off of my research, of course."

And then I'll smile proudly, intead of cowering behind terms like Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics and WOM, because now even I have a handle on what I do.

August 8
Words: 134
Total: 3,853

Word Count: Day 7

August 7
Words: 1,032
Total: 3,719

But You Didn't Tell Me That You Have to Put a Roof Over Your Sim's House and Now a Bunch of Snow is in My Man Room!

After talking each other out of throwing together some items to sell at the Kern Valley neighborhood garage sale (Tad didn't want to spend his Friday looking through his toys, and I didn't want to spend my evening looking through clothes . . . only to wake up at the butt crack of dawn and sit in a lawn chair . . . ), Tad and I decided we're going to be garage salers tomorrow.

On my list? A small computer desk and books.

On Tad's list? Probably things he'll just end up re-selling at NEXT year's sale. I'm not even joking. He has quite the knack for brief hobbies.

Which, I'm totally enjoying right now, because suddenly he's been on a Sims 2 kick, which means that instead of talking about team stats and ousting terrorists, he's talking about expanding onto his house and how he turned down a job offer so that his "dude" could fulfill his lifetime aspiration of being a top chef!

This excites me very much.

August 6
Words: 609
Total: 2,687

Word Count: Day 5

August 5
Words: 273
Total: 2,078

Word Count: Day 4

It's only been going 4 days, and I already had an evening where I simply did not want to write. Thankfully, I still managed 171 words (much better than Day 1's 74).

But still. Grrrrrr.

August 4
Words: 171
Total: 1,805

Word Count

August 3
Words: 933
Total: 1,634

Word Count

August 2

Words: 627
Total: 701

Word Count

August 1
Words: 74
Total: 74

Well, this is a disappointing start.

30 Days of {Blank}

In my daily perusal of all things mommy blogger, I stumbled upon this 30 Days of {Blank} idea at Room 704. It excited me.

Since college, I've taken a more front-seat approach at becoming who I want to be. Over the past three years, this has involved 'adopting' two girls (I sponsor a little girl from India and a little girl from Nicaragua), getting my health under control, fighting for what I want in a career, and so on and so on.

The result of this new mindset has completely changed who I am. I'm much more responsible, less forgetful, more structured, less spontaneous, more fulfilled, less scattered. While I miss some of my old traits, I believe wholeheartedly that this is who I need to be for now. And, when the time is right, they'll return (fingers crossed for the spontaneity).

While there are still many areas of my life that need tweaking, the one that has proved to be my arch nemesis--my Lex Luther, my Inspector Javert--has been finishing a novel. Not even the novel. Just a novel. Any novel.

I couldn't do it when I was 'promised' publication. I couldn't do it when there was a chance I needed it to graduate. And, I haven't been able to do it now that I'm on actual speaking terms with an agent.

So, my commitment for the next 30 days is to write every night. Any number of words. Any length of time. Just.Write.

I'll keep a running tally of words written here on the blog (probably published during my lunch break).

Hopefully, this is what I need to get this area of my life under control.


What about you? Anyone else willing to commit to 30 Days of {Blank}?