Archive for the ‘Viva la Vida’ Category

Thanks a lot, new WordPress Surprise Me…

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

So there I was, innocently posting on my other WordPress blog [different purpose, and no I'm not showing anyone], when I clicked the mystical “This post is super-awesome” box as it is now a habit with said blog [thanks for helping my OCD, WordPess].

I’m not posting at a reasonable hour, because I couldn’t sleep. This means the roommates are asleep. I’m also posting from someone’s desktop, because someone’s [that would be me] laptop is still busted.

So what do I get for innocently adding to my other piddly little blog?

Well, WordPress, wouldn’t you like to know.

A video clip popped up, as it sometimes does with this new feature, of Tiger Woods and the crowd in some kind of rejoicing moment. Normal, right?

Well not when I was already into the next tab as I had forgotten all about this little video possibility. And it wasn’t a normal sound that suddenly exploded through the stereo sustem speakers hooked up to this desktop which doubles as a tv/entertainment system, it was white noise with what might be screaming.

Worst yet – it took me a good couple minutes to jump 3 feet in the air, fumble for the mute button, and wait in silence for angry military members. Because it is not my desktop.

I thought our house was haunted, WordPress, I’ll have you know. I thought I was being attacked at 1 AM by whatever it was in the movie “White Noise.” I don’t think I’ve ever had such an episode of mini-terror.

Thanksss.

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Negativity in the Workplace

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Live Vote – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17349102/ns/business-careers/
Why do you hate your job?   * 14414 responses
Long hours
4.3%
Commute
4.1%
Boss
11%
Co-workers
5.9%
Stress
14%
Pay
15%
All of the above
24%
Are you kidding? I love my job!
21
%
Not a scientific survey. Click to learn more. Results may not total 100% due to rounding.

Okay, so the majority of people today don’t like their jobs. I get that. But there are a fraction of us who actually like what we do.

And you know what? Negativity, you unsatisfied people, is not welcomed.

Who the hell wants to be in an office where the majority of people are complaining about their jobs? Not I, said the smart one.

Even if your boss is a complete idiot – they often are – and you work hard for what seems like nothing, you should still have a positive attitude about what you do, or chances are, you’re not going to make it very far at it, or at anything. Most of the time, life is what you make it. So if you make it great, it IS great. Even as a waitress, I was the best and happiest damn waitress out there, especially when I got a job as a writer.

I’m fairly certain that everyone has a negative nancy at their office or workplace for the most part. Be it in male or female form, this negative nancy always seems to have some story about why the man is a moron, the system is faulty, and the future is bleak.

Why spread that kind of aura?

I forgot my headphones today, much to my demise. So as I’m plugging along, my poor, positive and happy ears couldn’t help but be filled with negative nancy’s drama and negativity. So what did I do? I left.

He can talk all the smack he wants to about me being lazy and leaving if it gives him something to word vomit about, but I earn that privilege from the life decisions I’ve made, and by god I’m going to use them. Especially when someone is polluting my place of solace and creative writing.

In the end, I truly believe that neg. nancy will lose a lot of the friends that they once had, and all the respect they’ve earned by working hard. They may even be fired. Because let’s face it – no one wants to hear that crap.

So please – all you negative nancies out there: find a silver lining, and leave us content people the hell alone.

Live Vote
Why do you hate your job?   * 14414 responses
Long hours
4.3%
Commute
4.1%
Boss
11%
Co-workers
5.9%
Stress
14%
Pay
15%
All of the above
24%
Are you kidding? I love my job!
21%
Not a scientific survey. Click to learn more. Results may not total 100% due to rounding.
1

Found what could be my dream home…

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Doesn't do it justice, trust me...

So with our rent of collectively $1900, my roomie and other roomie slash girlfriend decided to venture out in the ways of home buying. They of course want to flip a house, like so many others, but for better reasons than most – we’re dumping a mortgage-worth of money into rent yearly, and we’re going to be in the area for possibly another decade.

I, of course, don’t want anything to do with this venture, as I’m 21 and I don’t have any vision of permanency at this point past long-term renting and pet owning.

But for them, I’m completely supportive in anything they [well she, mostly] wants to do. Naturally. So there we were, happily browsing through the cheap and gorgeous homes of today’s market, when we came upon this scary looking house.

So what do we impulsive gals do? Well we drive out there, of course! Since it’s uninhabited and also after midnight, we deem it safe and intriguing and off we go in the stang.

Arriving there, I thought – Yes. This is incredibly creepy. The house itself was built in 1920, and that’s pretty evident, even after dark.

But, and here’s why it’s a dream home, it’s got more space than you can imagine for a yard, it’s surrounded by a couple acres and beyond that – rich, new homes [its not as great as rolling hills, mountains or forests, but it beats south side suburban dc], it’s also got a kennel, 2 [could fit 4 comfortably] car garage, some forest! area, and the perfect beginnings of a garden.

Now, don’t take that fact lightly, because I’ve been dreaming about making and owning a garden ever since I saw “the Secret Garden” as a kid. It’s one of those bucket-list-and-dreaming-of-it-whenever-possible-probably-would-pay-big-money-for-it-am-drooling-at-the-thought-of-it…things. So to possibly have the opportunity to do this, is so very. Very. Big.

So what do I do? Some preliminary eye shopping, that’s what!

I’m a huge fan of green, lush gardens with some grassy sanctuary areas. there’s just something about having your own land that looks somewhat like what it should look like, a small taste of what nature would do if it had free reign again, only prettier, neater, and in organized designs.

There’s always something about being in nature that resets everything – from the stresses of life to the feeling of being in a crowded city. Just watching nature or seeing a beautiful garden seems to give back to the soul and make you that much more whole again.

It feels like pressing a reset button.

So I’ve already got what I want in my head – a lush garden of twists, turns, colors and green sanctuaries perfect for picnics or just for sitting.

And while I calculate how I could sacrifice new clothes, bday and Christmas presents, a new dog, and ANYthing I’ve been spending my 30k on, I did so willingly and happily.

Only to find that we may just get a loan for some general – and hopefully not much needed – fixing upping.

So, I could probably get a pond along with all of the rest of the landscaping materials I’d need without sacrificing every dollar I make other than what I need for rent and maybe food every now and again?

This must be a dream, and that makes this a dream home.

Though it’s not mine, I just know what I could do with those two ledges, the front yard, and in the forest. I imagine a lush garden complete with pond, green areas, and so much peace. Even further, I see a few ducklings, koi, maybe a waterfall or two, some frogs and some small rabbits.

Now that, that would most certainly be heaven.

Who knows? Maybe we’ll have enough to go crazy and do something you only see in magazines!

Either way, I’m already drooling.

I’ll post more as we revisit the dream home.

1

No longer still writing, not yet creating…

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Starting a career at age 21

- – - – - – - – - -

The old grounds to be stomped on...

Go Bobcats! (Photo courtesy www.economics.gcsu.edu)

While most people were off at college, I was…well “off at college.”

The smell of the newly laid granite and concrete will forever stay with me. Sadly, I can’t say the same for the subject matter of the classes I rarely attended.

I can chock it up to partying and whatnot, or relationship drama, but the fact is – I just wanted to live.

I had been imprisoned as I felt it for my entire life with responsibilities to raise my younger siblings and to keep the peace in a tumultuous home. It’s not that I didn’t have fun – I had a great life for the most part. But I always felt those obligations and issues were huge walls around me. Walls that friends took years to get through, and relationships never broke through.

So when I got to college, I felt so incredibly free. I was a creative writing major, and loved it. For anyone who hasn’t taken any creative writing classes – TAKE ONE. You write so freely on one-word subjects like “home” or “window.” People write mini murder mysteries, some write anecdotes from fond or foul memories, or some write some eye-opening realizations. Everyone takes the subject into a different direction.

I felt so free in spirit, duties, and in writing – my most favorite thing.

So long story short, you apparently can fail for a lack of attendance. C’est la vie.

Fast forward to three years later, and I’ve got a career.

I’m 21, and like most Washingtonians, I’ve landed a salary gig with benefits.

Aint DC purty?

The Cherry Blossom Festival. DC can be a lovely place to look at. (Photo courtesy http://playingintraffic. wordpress.com/)

It blows my mind every day as to how I got here, and in the way of our parents – sans a degree.

It’s a reincarnation of my dream job – a novelist. I’m currently a writer on a weekly newspaper. What’s those?

Part of my fascination of my current paycheck-rendering pretense [just kidding, it's a tough job] lies in part in the fact that I…am a Plathist.

That means that I’ve got an acute form of…PLATHISM. Gasp!

READ IT NAO

The best book ever written, of course. (Photo courtesy http://jonotjoe. wordpress.com)

If you don’t know who Ms. Sylvia Plath is, you’re missing out. In any case, she destroyed a good bit of her work for a multitude of reasons – relationship issues [bastard husband], mental crises, rejection as a writer to name a few.

I’ve written hundreds of things thus far – the beginnings of novels, plays, poetry…all scrapped and shredded. Sometimes burned in true Plath fashion.

Now the best advice anyone can give you as a writer is to not think, but to write. Damn them. I write, and write, and write…til I’m about 60 pages in, and then…I destroy it. Not immediately, but eventually, it happens.

I’ve got an idea that I’ve been kicking around for a epic novel, but really – what does it matter? There are millions – billions? of writers just as I am, writing better probably, who have not only written, but have CREATED – that’s really what good writing is. JK Rowling is a perfect example. A whole new world she created based on an old idea of wizardry and witchcraft. Kim Harrison did the same, and her books are phenomenal. What is there left to create?

That idea, that everything’s already been done, and done better, is what keeps me to my destroying habit. It’s a good thing, I have to believe, and one day [maybe soon?] I’ll be attributed for not only writing, but for creating.

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