As I spend so much time using social media I have learnt a couple of things about how to ensure it is working in your favour – and more importantly not to your detriment.

Have the appropriate accounts. And use your accounts for the appropriate things
I have four social media accounts; Facebook, Twitter, Instragram and LinkedIn and a website for my blog.

They are all used for very different things.

Facebook is totally social. I have my profile set to private because I don’t want just anyone snooping around my private life. In addition to this you just don’t know what other people may post/tag you in. It’s not worth my career.

Twitter is a mix of professional and social. My boss follows me on Twitter. NFP leaders, business professionals and people I look up to follow me on Twitter. So do some of my best friends. I always keep this diverse readership in mind when I tweet. Mostly, I post articles and photos. I use it less as a thoughtless outlet than I used to because I want to be known as a professional. It’s part of my brand.

Use #hashtags when it’s appropriate. It’s a good way to get involved in a conversation or to start one.

LinkedIn is totally professional. It used for building and nurturing my network, for learning and helping others to learn and to develop my knowledge. I am extremely careful about what I post.

I really use it to my advantage. My profile has an All Star rating, I pay for my membership (Personal Plus), I endorse people, I write recommendations, and I’m active in my groups. And it is working. One of the best things I have ever done with regards to using social media is to learn how to use LinkedIn properly. Make it about you. For one – get rid of the “people similar to Alice Newport” section on your profile. You don’t want people to be enticed away from your profile. Make them stay with you. Update and engage.

As with Twitter. It’s part of my brand.

Instagram is again a totally social platform. It’s just another way for me to create memories.

My website. Now my website mainly a professional platform. Because it holds my writing I use it as a base for building my portfolio and I have it feeding to my FB, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. This way my writing and/or blogging gets out to everyone I know and it help to build my brand.

Build your brand

Everywhere people are talking about “building your personal brand”. Listen to them. Make sure you’re known for something and run with it. Me – I’m known for providing fantastic support to Exec’s, working with NFP’s and for writing.

Find what you’re good at and what you enjoy and own it.

Connect with people who show the same values as you

So when I use LinkedIn it is rare that I connect with people who I don’t know. When I received requests from people who I don’t think I’ve met, I email them to start a conversation about why/how they came across my profile and why they want to connect.

It’s really important to make sure that I’m aligning myself with people who stand for the same things as me.

In addition to this networks are meant to be utilised and if your network is full of people who have no similar interests, values or attributes (so basically full of people who have nothing in common with you) your network will be useless to you.

Be active, interesting and relevant.

Don’t just repost articles all of the time. If someone has said something interesting in an article and you think your networks would get something from it, tell them why. You should be the hook, not what you’re giving them.

Don’t spam people

Don’t post 30 updates a day on the same subject or on any subject at all actually. Unless you’re provide social commentary on something like Q&A, The Voice or Celebrity Splash it’s really not necessary to keep posting all of the time.

Remember to post appropriate things at appropriate times on the appropriate medium.

Posting things like “today is dragging. How is it only 1pm. I just want to go home. FML” on a Wednesday while at work is not appropriate. Especially when your boss follows you on Twitter.

Be aware of your networks and who you’re reaching. I update my social media while at work but it’s mostly my LinkedIn page and they are articles related to things that I do or have a strong interest in. I also don’t repost anything that I don’t think at least five people will benefit from.

Use what is at your fingertips.

Subscribe to news feeds, to information on using social media, read LinkedIn Today, use TweetChat, join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn, read newspapers, talk to your friends, learn about the world around you, use the internet. Talk about things that you’re interested in – it will spark conversations.

image credit - http://www.athgo.org/ablog/index.php/2013/04/26/social-media-events-2013/

Plays that are written in linear time do not necessarily mean that the writer is progressing from one action to another in a sequence of organized steps.  Edgar uses Oedipus as a great example of a story that uses non-chronological order, but “covers.”  According to Edgar, “Oedipus is an example of a play that is structured in real time.  His stage action is “linear.”  History emerges in bits and pieces as Oedipus discovers his identity and crimes, and all of this is revealed in non-chronological order.  For example, the beginning of the play, Oedipus, the king of Thebes wants to know how to end the plague that has come upon Thebes.  He is looking for a cure and sends his brother-in-law, Creon to the House of Apollo for some answers.  There is light at the end of the tunnel (or so it seems)!  Once the killer of the previous king, Laius, is found, the plague will be lifted.  Oedipus is on a mission to find the murderer and banish him forever.  “ Whoever among you knows the man wit was who murdered Laius, son of Labdacus, I order him to reveal it all to me.  And if the murderer’s afraid, I tell him to avoid the danger of the major charge by speaking out against himself.”

Irony plays a huge roll here, for the murder is Oedipus himself.  So, chronologically the murder has already happened, but Sophocles creates conflict by revealing Oedipus’ identity after the audience has already been made aware that he is the assassin.

By writing non-chronologically the author reveals present information in a powerful and objective way.  When writing s linear, a story will begin at point A and follow a time-progression that will take the characters to point B.  Edgar says, “There are plays which operate in a single time but move from place to place, with only the necessary movement of characters from A to B interrupting the continuous flow.”  Some plays operate in a single time cycle and only in one place, and this enlarges Aristotle’s ruling about time and place by increasing the play’s time beyond real time.  In other words, the time is both “defined” and “confined,” as in an evening or a single day.

It was very interesting to find that Arthur Miller’s original title for his famed play Death of a Salesman was, The Inside of His Head.  Taking into account the definition of “disrupted time,” which Edgar claims, “Is most developed in cinema,” and knowing that the plays action revolves around the protagonist (Willy Loman) sorting out so many unfulfilled dreams and failed realities, makes perfect sense.

Miller has taken a cinematic device and reminted it to demonstrate how it is not the past but our memory that informs our actions in the hear-and-now.  By making his ‘flashbacks’ a dramatization of a character’s present thought processes, Miller has made his mechanism authorially invisible as it’s possible for a non-naturalistic device to be.”

It is easy to see why non-linear structural forms work so well in screenplays.  The use of flashbacks, non-linear narratives, multiple shots, backwards and forwards, etc., all break away from the chronological three-act structure.  According to Edgar, “Cinema’s appropriation of the flashback from the novel gave twentieth-century theatre a whole new structural répertoire.”  Plays (screenplays) with disrupted time, where events happen in a non-chronological order utilize effects like flashbacks and backwards and forwards.  A wonderful example of the use of flashbacks is seen in the film, Groundhog Day.

Since no one component alone builds a story, the utilization of open and closed structural elements that deal with time and space can broaden a writer’s options and bring greater depth to a story.  Edgar points out that there are some difficulties with real time.  One of those challenges is that, “You can’t avoid the naturalistic inconveniences of real life.”  By stretching time and place—“changing locations within or around a house or even a town reduces the impact of small changes in a single set, but opens up much greater opportunities for the setting to communicate meaning.”  This kind of structural format actually gets the audience to get involved.  They are able to examine the possibility of alternative plots.  “Moving some or all of the characters into a dramatically different environment and then moving them back again in the structural strategy most connected to a particular genre.”

Admit

First of all, your past won’t be ominous if you didn’t do anything, so if someone asks you what’s wrong, and you asked for help, tell EVERYTHING! Tell a good friend about it, and don’t be afraid to talk. Don’t think twice of telling everything, no matter how horrible your mistakes were, because that will set you free, and actually, there’s nothing you can do about it but to ADMIT that you did something horrendous, because as long as you keep being surreptitious with what you did, your conscience won’t set you free. Just like putting more stacks of books in your backpack when it’s already full and you can’t carry it anymore. So you’re left with no choice but to accept that you’re not that robust to carry a hefty bag, and just hoist the books out.

Learn From It

Yes, you’ve admitted it, so now it’s your cue to learn from it. Take every experiences and your mistakes as lessons, warn yourself about doing it once again. You can never hope for different things to happen if you keep doing the same thing, as well as you neither can hope for a light and free heart if you keep on doing the same mistakes, you won’t grow. But if by accident and something happened, don’t be afraid of it, instead face it, and think of the right thing to ditch it right away. Mistakes are there for us to learn, they’re like the most terror mentors we’ll ever encounter. And that’ll make us rational enough.

Look Back but Never Reside

Looking back is not illegal, there’s nothing wrong about it, because sometimes it’s good, because probably your mistakes are the reason of what you are right now. And looking back to it is one good way for you to reflect, and finally say ‘That you’ve learned and you’re not that one stupid person anymore’ look back only. Don’t RESIDE, you can’t tell yourself that you’ve finally moved on when you reside, it’s not healthy! It’ll just make you more depressed, and you won’t surpass the process of moving on and forgetting. So DON’T RESIDE!

Yes, you did all of these things, but the most important thing to do after everything, well, even during such hard times, SMILING is a very effective way to overcome things, because smiling will help you feel good even in the worst of times. Don’t forget to Laugh & Smile, enjoy the remaining good things around you, and be grateful that there’s still good things left, and you’re not bound to be with the worst things. Because God is really good, and he won’t leave your side during circumstances, so SMILE!

* Do not use white text and / or elaborate fonts on a black or other dark color background as it is way too hard on the eyes. There was one blog tonight that could have had fabulous content but I will never know because I could not stand to read more than 2 sentences on the page.

* Be sure readers can find your “follow” or sign up for e-mail notice button easily. I actually searched for minutes and never did find one on a couple blogs.

I feel bad for these bloggers. Great writing could be missed out on, due to simple readability and accessibility issues. Make it easy for us, we don’t want to miss out on your great content!

WHAT IS The Place Beyond the Pines?
WHERE IS The Place Beyond the Pines?
WHO KNOWS THE SHOCKING SECRET OF The Place Beyond the Pines?

NO ONE will be admitted after the film has begun to protect the MYSTERY OF The Place Beyond the Pines!

THRILLS!
CHILLS!
SUSPENSE!

SEE IT NOW!

Wow, not only did they know how to make movies back in the 50’s, they knew how to sell them too. William Castle would be proud.

Unfortunately, the film I saw had no mystery or suspense, other than when would it end? I am warning you upfront; the film is nearly 2 and a half hours long, which is at least 45 minutes way, way too much. It also has at least three false endings, points at which you are sure the movie is ending, praying the movie is ending, and doomed to be disappointed because the movie just plods on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… and on and on and on etc etc snooze snore.

The film stars Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendez, and Bradley Cooper. You really need to write this down- Bradley Cooper is in this film. Write it down so you won’t forget it like I did. Honesty, Bradley Cooper does not show up until about an hour into the film, right at false ending number one.

Normally, right around this point, after a couple of spoilers- like Ryan Gosling’s character dies, and Bradley Cooper is the one that kills him- I’d warn you that this review might contain spoilers and leave it up to you to continue. But not this time. If you are considering seeing The Place Beyond the Pines and you don’t see it because I have spoiled it for you, then I have done my job.

Ryan Gosling plays a circus performer named Handsome Luke (his team is The Heartthrobs) and he has way more, and way worse, tattoos than a guy named “Handsome” would reasonably be expected to have. He is covered with some of the worst ink seen on the screen since some of those racist World War Two cartoons. His eye appears to be weeping a knife.

He rides a motorcycle inside a metal globe with his team, not a stable career to be sure. One night Eva Mendes, whom the film intentionally has wear tight tops without a bra, shows up and says “Remember me?”

Gosling says “yeah.”

He then gives her a ride home without either of them saying a word.

Long story short. And I do mean long, about a year ago the two of them hooked and hope, unknown to Handsome But Not Too Sharp Luke, she had his baby. At this point I am compelled to tell you that Luke owns exactly two t-shirts. One is filthy sleeveless Metallica shirt, the other is a disgusting white t-shirt full of more holes than Luke has brain cells. Compounding the problem is that Luke insists on wearing it inside out. I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP.

Anyway, to save time, since there is A WHOLE LOT MORE to go, I am going to bullet some of the main points at this junction of the film.

• Luke wants to be a family with Eva and Baby Handsome Luke
• Eva wants no part of him
• Eva is not the name of Eva Mendes’ character but it is a lot easier for me this way
• Eva is shacking up with a new guy, who is black. I mention this only because it will become a teensy tiny plot point about sixteen hours from now.
• Handsome Luke quits his job at the circus, determined to earn money and win back his family

That last point is noble and touching and completely undermined when he says “screw this, let’s rob banks instead.”

Handsome Luke becomes the moto-bandit and robs banks, getting away on his motorcycle. It all goes pretty well until he can’t make a getaway and a police officer chases him on foot into someone’s house.

“Hey, isn’t that cop Bradley Cooper? Yeah, I was starting to think he wasn’t in this film at all.” Turns out that yes, Bradley cooper is in the film and yes, as I said before (so this is not a spoiler) he shoots and kills Handsome Luke.

End of movie

PSYCHE!

Because now the movie is about Bradley Cooper, ROOKIE HERO COP, parlaying his fame into becoming the NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL.

Yes, really. No, seriously, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!

Bullet point time.

• Unbeknownst to all but the audience, Bradley Cooper shot Handsome Luke first, not in self-defense as he claims. Don’t worry, this has ZERO to do with the rest of the film.
• He becomes involved with crooked cops.
• One of the crooked cops is played by Ray Liotta, making late career resurgence by playing a crooked cop or a gangster in three movies out or about to come out soon.
• Cooper makes a ton of enemies by turning on his fellow cops and blackmailing the DA into giving him a job. Don’t worry, this has ZERO to do with the rest of the film.
• Cooper becomes a hero and crime fighting District Attorney.

The screen fades to black.

Happy ending, good came from bad, I can get up and get out of the theater.

PSYCHE!

Because the film, which had faded to black, faded back in with “15 years later.”

DAMN!

The film is now about Bradley Cooper’s total a-hole son, who is about as stupid as your average pizza pie but less interesting to see onscreen. As you might imagine, if you are still awake in the theater, the kid hooks up with Baby Handsome Luke, now all grown up and pretty much a jerk himself.

Long (see? Told you this was a long one) story short, Baby Huey Handsome finds out who Pizza Boy’s father is and tries to kill both father and son, but doesn’t, and then buys a motorcycle and rides off into the sunset.

The end.

For real.

Want some bullet points?

Please don’t make me.

And the point of it all?

I have no idea.

And never was a single word said about pines. 

Yum!

THE RULES:

1-Thank the Super Sweet Blogger that nominated you.

2-Answer the five super sweet questions (below).

3-Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award in your blog post (above).

4-Nominate a baker’s dozen (13) other bloggers.

5-Notify your nominees on their blog.

First, as per the above listed rules, I would like to thank those who nominated me for this delish award:

Especially Made - In her own words, her blog “is a testimony of a mother’s journey in raising up a child with special needs in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Thank you, Especially Made, for sweetly sharing the joys and challenges of your life and by inspiring and encouraging.

Shaun at Looking for Reasoning to a Complicated World- You may know him as the creator of the “WordPress Family Award,” or you may know him for his posts sharing his life despite being disabled. I am sad to learn that he is taking a hiatus from blogging, but I hope he returns someday. Thank you, Shaun for the nomination and for spending part of your life on WordPress. You will be missed.

Finally, my Blogger Sibling:  Chronicles of a Public Transit User- Anyone who reads my blog must know by now how much I enjoy PTU. Seriously, give a follow. How someone can stay so sweet while having to ride the bus everyday is a mystery to me!

Now, onto the questions:  THE 5 SWEET QUESTIONS:

1-Cookies or Cake? – Cake! Cookies! Anything Gluten Free for me!

2-Chocolate or Vanilla? – Chocolate. Puh-lease. Are you serious?

3–Favorite Sweet Treat? – Chocolate. Anything chocolate.

4-When do you crave sweet things the most? Around 3 pm when I’m ready to pass out from boredom at work.

5-Sweet Nick Name? My dad used to call me “Pumpkin.” Is that sweet enough?

I now nominate my Bakers Dozen. Well, not really. I’m kind of tired and I want to get this published sometime before midnight, so I’ll do my best. The following bloggers are fairly new to me and I wanted to share them with you:

Zia- at Zia’s Site.  Zia is a super-sweet blogger from South Australia who was born with Muscular Dystrophy. She shares her writing and her life with us, including her love for her lop-eared rabbits and Eclectus Parrots, her gardening adventures, and her crush on Gordon Ramsay. After a short hiatus from blogging, she’s back. I look forward to her posts and hope she accepts this award!

Wiley Schmidt- at Wiley’s Wisdom. Wiley took me a minute or two to figure out, but Wiley is actually a four-year old terrier mutt who blogs. Geez, there’s no better definition of sweet than a picture of Wiley. Wiley’s been nominated for numerous awards, so I don’t expect him to accept, but I wanted to say “hi.”  HI WILEY!

Katie - at The D/A Dialogues. “Exploring the sometimes-fractious relationship between an author and the character in her head as they go about writing a book together.” I love that line! I’m just getting to know the sweet and talented Katie and hope you join me.

Kendra - at Sunshine from Shadows. Kendra’s site is beautiful. She’s beautiful. She wrote the cutest post about what she would do if she got rid of the husband for a weekend. Check out her sweetness!

Completely Disappear. She’s a Thai woman practicing her English by blogging. She creates sweet, beautiful photos and takes piano classes and has already been Liebstered! I hope she accepts this Super Sweet Award and continues to share her lovely view of life with us.

Michelle - at JustMeMichelleAndI. I think “Michelle” (not her real name, as she admits in her “About” page) is my Baby Blogger Sister. I am addicted to her posts about her adventures with “Jack” (I suggested she move on) and her search for love. She’s not only sweet, she’s hot. Check her out!

Rachel - at Racheve. Are you all following Racheve yet? Like Michelle (above), Rachel is my Baby Blogger Sister from across the lake.  She’s freaking out about turning 30. She has eight months to go. I try to tell her that the 30′s are AWESOME and she shouldn’t freak until she’s eight months from 40, but she’s still not convinced. She’s super sweet. Go convince her that the best is still ahead of her.  Please!

Also feel free to appreciate the sweetness of my two psuedo-sisters in real life, who also happen to blog, Nicole  and Angela. No post about sweetness is complete without them, so I hereby nominate them for the Super Sweet Blogging Award.

Okay, I am out of steam and I have yet to inform these nominees of their award. I am sorry to all you Super Sweet Bloggers out there who I missed.

Thanks for indulging my walk down the blogging red carpet!

Have a nice night!

The Good

Spending time Friday lying on the beach with PERFECT weather

Ocean front beach house out right on the boardwalk

Bachelorette Party!

The Bad

Eating too many boardwalk fries

Staying up WAY past my bedtime

Having two days of rain and cold weather and having to spend time indoors at the beach

The Ugly

Getting a “lobster” red sunburn. Ouch x 10.

Being stuck in beach traffic

How was your weekend?

Linking up with the GBU

BIP, which works in collaboration with both the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. beekeepers on average lost more than 45 percent of their “honeybee colonies” during the 2012/2013 winter season, a 78.2 percent jump in losses over the previous season.  More than 70 percent of respondents, most of whom were backyard beekeepers, experienced losses beyond the 15 percent “acceptable” threshold, illustrating a monumental problem not only for bee survival, but also for the American food supply. 

Since 2006, total bee colony losses have hovered around 30 percent, sometimes a little higher and sometimes a little lower. And the situation was believed by some to be improving when the overall percentage of  ”honeybee colonies”  have declined sharply during the 2011/2012 winter season by almost 10 percent. But now that the death toll has jumped once again beyond the 30 percent mark, many are worried that this year-after-year compounded increase will very soon make it impossible for growing enough food.

“We’re getting closer and closer to the point where we don’t have enough bees in this country to meet pollination demands,” says Dennis vanEngelstorp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland who led the survey. “If we want to grow fruits and nuts and berries, this is important. One in every three bites [of food consumed in the U.S.] is directly or indirectly pollinated by bees.”

Colony Collapse is no longer a primary cause of bee losses – bees are just dying

A phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, was believed to be the primary cause of bee losses around the world. The general consensus is that bees affected by CCD simply disappear from their hives for no apparent reason. According to the USDA, CCD-stricken hives typically still have a queen, but experience anywhere from a 30 to 90 percent loss on adult worker bees, whose bodies are never found.

The hundreds of other pesticides being found in honeybee hives, are highly problematic.  There are hundreds of other chemicals used in conventional agriculture that are responsible for poisoning bees, admit experts.

Another major factor affecting bees includes monoculture crop systems that deprive bees of the diversity of plants they need for healthy survival and foraging. Many of these monoculture systems are also planted with genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), which have been shown to damage the gastrointestinal tracts of bees and make them more prone to viruses and disease.

This is very upsetting to me. What happens when the bees are all gone and there is nothing to pollinate our food source? To read this article  in it’s entirety, click link below.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/040347_honeybees_Colony_Collapse_Disorder_pollinators.html#ixzz2Tneh74BR

Feel free to comment or share this post with your friends. Comments are always welcome.

This food intake is all organic and this supplement is, African Mango Supplement.  Why you might ask should this Mango supplement be considered?  Because women and men over 40 years have a bigger gap to fill when playing catch up with where they say they want their bodies to be.  Meaning, all those times as they were growing up, they did not take care as well as they should have.  Eating the right foods is good, but also staying physical fit with the right foods causes for a better long term success.

That is why the African Mango Supplement is selling like hot cakes (no pun intended).  The supplement is helpful for cholesterol and blood sugar control as well as weight loss, but its ability to incur this change is mostly based out of its fiber content.

Here is a video about it.

Here are some places where you can purchase this African Mango Supplement.  If you are an online shopper then you’ll be glad to know that this site, http://www.livecofriendly.com/african-mango-weight-loss-supplements/ is all about organic and using natural products.

Buy Green Coffee Extract

via Blogger http://neptuneglows.blogspot.com/2013/05/losing-weight-after-40-years-old.html

Established over 140 years ago to produce “Wine that is Wine” for the Catholic Church by Bishop Bernard McQuaid, O-Neh-Da Vineyard still produces wine for churches of all faiths, while Eagle Crest Vineyards creates wines for folks of all kinds. The vineyards offer natural, pure grape wines from locally grown fruit and are also home to New York State’s oldest bald eagle nests.

(Read more…)

Determining Your Voice

I think one of the hardest parts of social media for professional or business use is determining your “voice.” What do I mean by voice? I’m talking about the feeling you give to your readers about who you are and what you (or your business) represent. It’s your personality. Your “it” factor. It’s what makes you different that anyone else posting about the same topic.

I’ve struggled with this personally myself. I currently coordinate the UGA Career Center’s Twitter, Facebook & Pinterest accounts and figuring out my voice on those accounts versus my personal/professional Twitter & Facebook accounts has been difficult. Being in a field where teaching professionalism is your job also makes it hard. Personally, I love entertainment news and following humorous accounts on Twitter and Facebook, but is it appropriate for the Career Center? Is it appropriate for any “serious” business to delve into pop culture and try to sound that way?

I’m still on the fence. On one hand, you don’t want to step too far to where you start losing credibility. On the other, you run the risk of being to stiff or boring. The key thing you need to ask yourself is who’s listening to me and who is most likely to interact with me on social media? The answer may be different depending on the site.

The companies that I find to be most successful answer questions directed towards their accounts quickly and politely. If their focus isn’t creating conversation with consumers, you either need to be funny or informative with a dash of random. The dash of random is what humanizes  you and your business. It may sound silly, but without it you lose something. Businesses are trying so hard to figure out a way to monetize social media and by doing so they miss the point of why social media was created: to create real relationships. Many of us choose our friends because we have something in common with them and they let us in. They let us see both the good and bad aspects of their personalities.

Do I think businesses should expose the bad parts of themselves? No, not necessarily. However, if all you’re doing is posting information that can be found directly on your website or Googled, you’ve missed the point and even if you have a lot of followers, you don’t have an audience. You’re a part of the noise.

Facebook logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Give yourself a round of applause!

Yes, because of you I dumped Facebook, and feel very relieved to have done so [though my feelings aren't as extreme as the image that I used for this blog]. Why do you get the credit?

Because you people, here on WordPress, have proven to be:

Responsive

Talented

Thoughtful

Artistic . . . and a whole lot more like a social “family” than what I experienced on Facebook. There WERE people on FB that I was close to, and I sent them private e-mails as to how to keep in touch, (knowing me, I forgot someone that I wanted to include – hope not).

WordPress for me is like going to college to learn how to write, how to be a poet, how to see in a more human way, and a lot more things that I can’t put my finger on . . . hard to explain. And, no tuition!

Anyway, thanks to all of you who contribute your thoughts and wisdom, who inspire me to be better, that I follow and who follow me. I like it here . . . it feels like home

Keep Soaring,

Rising Hawk

Write about it. Describe it. Capture your beliefs, thoughts, feelings, actions, and consequences into words. How many ways can you write it, and re-write it, to describe your misery du jour?

Even if it is temporary, if you “bottle” your discomfort this way, you can capture an essence that can be far more vivid than anything you might possibly write when the air conditioner comes one.

Going into this one, I really had no idea what to expect.  On one hand, the excerpt is marvelous and the author’s blog is updated both frequently and with consistent high quality.  On the other hand, this book is a paranormal romance – a genre I usually avoid – with a name strongly reminiscent of That Series.   I was apprehensive yet hopeful when I started reading.

One tenth of the way through, things are looking good.  So far, there’s been a lot of paranormal and not a lot of romance, though I’m guessing that the romantic element will become larger as the book progresses.  The writing is strong and the worldbuilding has already drawn me in quite spectacularly.  As long as the romance component doesn’t end up eclipsing everything else, I can see myself really getting into this.

As I am still looking for a job, I thought why not try and get some income by advertising myself as a freelance photographer. So I’ve created an online portfolio of my photography, and the next step will be to print some flyers and business cards to hand out and distribute around town. If you know anyone in the Helsinki area looking for a photographer, especially if they would like a bit “different” photos, then give me a holla! The contact details are available on the ‘Yhteystiedot‘ part of the portfolio page. I have decent rates, as well!

Today I have been doing little things that will hopefully one day contribute towards the big picture in one way or another. I called the HMRC to inquire how long it would take to get the piece of paper I need to apply for the unemployment benefits in Finland. I was told another 4-6 weeks and I should receive the document. Lovely. Luckily I have an understanding sister, and motivation to try coming up with creative solutions for making money in the meantime.

I also took the front wheel of my bike to the bicycle repair shop to get the axle changed. If all goes well I should have the wheel back by the end of the week. I also visited the hardware store with the plan to buy some chain cleaner and oil, but in the end I figured it’ll be cheaper for me to buy a new chain altogether, as the chemicals would cost me more than the chain and the lock, and even if I decided to clean the chain there’s no guarantee it’s not already so rusty it’d be a bit of a pointless exercise. Besides, they had bike chains in COLOURS! Now my only problem with the chain is to decide what colour I want… Red passion, or green for love? Or maybe the next time I’ll go in they’ll also have purple and yellow in store, for opening the third eye or enhancing my creativity, respectively. Decisions, decisions!

My sister’s partner, who is a taxi driver and takes this kind of things fairly seriously, admitted that I have taken the attention to detail to a whole new level. See, I’m also contemplating what would be the best choice for the saddle: ordering a retro saddle online, like this one, or buying the simple black one in the hardware store for €5 less and pimping it up myself?

Joy is not just any old bicycle, I am planning to have a long and happy, sporty life travelling the world with it, so all of these choices and decisions have to be made with great care and consideration!

There’s another juicy job position I’ve found that I need to send an application for, that’s what I plan to do for the rest of the evening. It would be right my cup of tea, so of course I would love the job, even an interview would be great! Wish me luck!

Meanwhile, my next venture will be a yoga school teaching one hour savasana position sessions. It’s gonna be a huge success and make me incredibly rich.

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2013/05/want-to-join-us-for-ultimate-road-trip.html

I certainly hope that some of my readers are not superstitious as I would hate to lose you for a day just due to a number.

Let’s crank up the radio with an appropriate song and start our journey then:

Since our trip is based on comments and my feed back lately, let me check to see where we are going to be starting our trip.

http://hannahsterry.com/ What an appropriate stop indeed.  Everything from music to cartoons here for our morning entertainment.

Our next stop is a bit of reading material for the passengers since the driver should only do that …

http://maggiestoriesawb.wordpress.com/ lots of great reading material here.

Now that you are content with reading material we are off to a new destination:

http://kloipy.wordpress.com/  This one is such a hot site we may have to stop for refreshments while reading since this one has been featured on Freshly Pressed. You will have to see for yourself why as it is so hot…it will make my pages sizzle if I let out the secret.

One of the fun things to do is meet travelers while you are traveling.  With that said lets meet:

http://patriciaddrury.com/ She seems to do a daily travel through life.  Not giving it away…go see…

Since 13 is not supposed to be a lucky number I am going to make this a short day and stop with the next blogger who should keep you quite entertained for the rest of the day with everything that he does…

http://pouringmyartout.wordpress.com/ You really never know what you are going to find when you go into the reader in the morning and see his posts.  I will say he is versatile in his style and bold and daring.  the rest you can see for yourself.

Until tomorrow I leave you with a song, Please pardon the language as I did not say it.  I thought I would go with a younger version

For you younger readers I will give you the original song also that proves my children are right (even though this is before my time) I am older than dirt.

Tammye Honey