Archives for July 2009

My Support System

July 31, 2009 by 6 Comments

my-parents

I did not make life easy for my parents.

During my toddler years, they worried over my introversion. During my junior high/high school years, they worried over my fiery temper. During my college years, they worried throughout the course of an abusive relationship I couldn’t bring myself to leave, and then worried some more when I fell into a deep depression and dropped out of college. (I eventually went back to [a different] school and earned my degree.) Post-college, they passed me onto a possibly masochistic husband with a sigh of relief, but still couldn’t help but worry over all my ups, downs, and interminable plateaus.

Throughout the duration, they’ve (for some wild reason) continued to support me in everything I do.

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Filed Under: community, finances/income, motivation, networking Tagged With: ,

Link Love: July 31

July 31, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Hey there guys. I have a slew of new posts coming atcha next week but, for now, here’s this week’s link love:

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Filed Under: link love Tagged With: , , , , ,

Product Placement: The Lapsac

July 28, 2009 by Leave a Comment

lapsac-brown

The other week, my husband bought me a laptop, which was just about the most exciting thing ever in the world. (He’s so good with gifts; last year, he got me a GPS for my car and, the year before that, my Nikon D40X.)

It meant that I could be mobile…if only I had something to carry it in.

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Filed Under: products Tagged With: , , , , ,

Link Love: July 24

July 24, 2009 by 1 Comment

Can I get away with just saying TGIF?

Seriously, guys, it’s been a week, and my Optimum Triple Play failure was not the half of it. I’m gonna go watch some DVRd So You Think You Can Dance while you read through the links below:

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Filed Under: link love Tagged With: , ,

What To Do When You’re Disconnected

July 23, 2009 by 2 Comments

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Yesterday, at around 4 p.m., the Internet went down. When connectivity hadn’t returned an hour later, I picked up the phone to call my parents and see if I could work over there, and discovered that the phone lines were down as well. When I returned home about an hour later, my husband pointed out that the cable TV was down, too.

Triple poop.

Our lines were down for over 20 hours in all.

What I did when I was disconnected:

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Filed Under: productivity Tagged With: , , ,

Motivational Trick: Fear (of Letting Others Down)

July 22, 2009 by Leave a Comment

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The other month, I joined Freelance Success, at the urging of just about every freelance writer I know. An amazing resource for professional, nonfiction writers, the forums alone made me glad I’d finally sucked it up and paid the subscription fee.

Then Susan of The Urban Muse suggested I hop in on FLX’s Summer Query Challenge, wherein FLXers form teams and earn points for every query they send out (1 point) and every assignment they receive (3 points).

Since joining the challenge, my output has increased exponentially, merely because I so desperately want to pull my weight.

You guys: Fear is an excellent motivator.

So who can you be held accountable to?

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Filed Under: motivation Tagged With: ,

Product Placement: The Tripod

July 21, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I’ve raved about my Nikon D40X in the past. About how — even for non-photographers — having a good camera can be invaluable when it comes to blogging, marketing materials, and more.

Now that I’ve unearthed my husband’s dust-covered tripod and used it to shoot some photos for an upcoming blog post over at Nerve, I’d like to rave about that as well.

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Step Up or Stand Down?

July 20, 2009 by 7 Comments

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I left publishing because I needed a creative outlet. I missed writing and, due to my full-time job — plus my long commute — I never seemed to have the energy at the end of the day to brainstorm and send out pitches, or even string together words coherently.

But that’s not the only reason I left.

I was also worn down by verbally abusive authors: those who thought they were my only responsibility, and who consistently treated me both rudely and unprofessionally. [Read more…]

Filed Under: correspondence Tagged With: , ,

Link Love: July 18

July 18, 2009 by Leave a Comment

What’s notable this week? Well, I gots myself a laptop (early birthday gift from my husband) and I also dove in to Freelance Success‘s Summer Query Challenge, which is acting as a great motivator for non-blog-related activities. Of course, all blog-related activities have suffered.

Truce?

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Product Placement: Laptop Sets Me Free

July 14, 2009 by 2 Comments

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I’ll admit it.

I only wanted my husband to get his laptop fixed so that I would never have to leave the cozy safety of my bed ever again.

I loved propping up several pillows behind my back, setting up the small breakfast-in-bed tray, and writing, tweeting, and surfing Etsy to my heart’s content. It was relaxing, and appealed to my inherent laziness.

So it drove me crazy that he was taking his sweet old time replacing his laptop’s defunct power cable.

Then he presented me with an early birthday gift, and suddenly the possibility afforded by mobility seemed limitless!

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Filed Under: products Tagged With: , , , ,
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