Plans for the tomorrow that is already today

Here I am dragging my weary, stressed self around. On a lighter note, I did just finish uprooting and transplanting various parts of my blog and added three gluten free posts--along with the pages that I wanted to create that the recipes will link from. That was… interesting, for sure. Learned a lot, which is good; most of it had to do with HTML vs. Compose conflicts. This definitely reminds me that I am no HTML guru, that’s for sure.

     -edit edit edit-           

            *preview*         

                      .....          

Where. The. *?$%.       

                 Did the         

   BACKGROUND       

        GO -curses-          

Other than that I have all kinds of ideas for new bits to add to Sticking With My Story (mostly about how goddamn hard it is) and Figuring Out Freelancing. I am still unsure if I am going to wind up adding images to those pages or just leave them as big arse chunks of my babbling text. It may be one of those things that I add to slowly--just like everything, I guess. I’ve been trying to procure employment and took a trip to Kelowna in among all of the other madness that has gone down this week, and I am at that point where I feel like I am one pin drop away from snapping and tearing out the door and screaming down the street until I fall over from exhaustion. Too bad that does not help, or else I would not be writing this right now. More than anything it is the financial end of it all (it always is I swear) that has be biting my nails down to the quick. I am almost out of time to get a job before my last pay comes in--which means I will be deep in the red before I get my first cheque even if I do get a job the day after. Scary. Even now I am doing that wait-for-just-before-the-date-because-that-is-when-I-get-paid dance, and I am struggling with the disheartening fact that no matter how much I write or do online like I have been doing I will not be raking in the coin anytime soon. I have been funnelling all of my energy into this blog, which is damn fun and I did make it my priority to work on but I keep thinking that I may be wasting my time. If only I could just type like I used to then this would not be a problem, but I have to delegate around the ever-present issue and I swear I am going to go coyote and chew these things right the hell off one of these days. -Restrains self-
...Yuck. That was some ‘lighter note.’
Nice silver lining Nicole, try not to cut yourself on it.

On a ‘less heavy’ note, this has given me the opportunity to get back into my art again. It sure is not the pieces I used to do on paper, but this touch screen phone of mine has opened up doors for me that I plan on walking through. Bedratted thing is costing me half a hundred dollars a bloody month, it had better move the earth and sky for me.
Tomorrow is going to be filled with more employment hunting. Besides that, I am thinking I shall throw myself against the wall of another site tomorrow (for an hour or so at least) and create the good copy of my next examiner article and submit the darn thing. It will make me feel like I have accomplished something before I come sneaking back over here to talk again. Until then, g’nig--eh, good morning--or good whatever portion of this date that you have to further endure.

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Writing About Wheatless Meals

It’s been a productive couple of days--mostly in this thing called reality, but it’s been whining for attention a lot lately. 

This article writing on a singular idea is putting my collaboration skills to the test; it is difficult to put a ‘local’ spin on something that is not ‘local’ to you. It involves a fair bit of back research just to choose the topic and get the truth about said subjects, mostly because I am looking to post pieces that are of interest if not important to Vancouverites. (My spell check is okay with that word. My mind was blown by this earlier.) 

I created an article today about a subject that is rare and not *really* a big deal until it happens, but I had it researched and written (rough draft) all this afternoon so I am quite proud of myself. This is good because I feel like I am damn near at the end of my rope, but I always feel that way nowadays. This post is not only testament to me pushing through and doing this blog thing that I have already come to enjoy, but to let you know that I am currently creating the first few posts in my gluten-free category. 

This is actually--even though I have them all just planned and not written yet--shaping up to be more like a cooking chronicle than anything else, but we’ll see. I’ve got a few ideas that have me wondering how I am going to make this user friendly because I realized that not much of my content is. I tend to take my reader by the hand and dash like a squirrel as we run circles and sing “all around the mulberry bush” while hurdling over my explanations on a subject. It’s occasionally effective, but rather unorthodox. I am going to attempt to keep the madness to a minimum--but just like the gluten-free recipes I am going to sauté and share with you, I am an acquired taste. ^.^

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Beside The Lake

To what I was originally going to post. I am forcing myself to get to the point (after this sentence, damn it) and say what I originally set out to say, which is really not something to say at all--more like I took a bunch of pictures when I stopped on my drive with the intent of posting them for you because I feel like I need more pictorial content, and I want it to be original. That sentence was as long as a quarter mile in snowshoes, and now I have made another sentence instead of getting to the reason of this post and I still have more to say--curses. The die is cast. We’ve come too far. My spell check wanted ’pictorial’ to be ‘pectoral.’ Mmm, pectoral. -Blink- Oh yeah.
Content--that is why I took pictures when I was out for a drive. I walked down to the lake with my phone (which will not play music and take pictures at the same time, it pauses the music the second I activate the camera) and took some pictures of the lake and the surrounding mountains. I grew up out here, and even though I know there are other lovely places out there I do appreciate this type of natural beauty. So without further adieu, here are the pictures that I took for you:

Down lakeside, staring straight into the water--which is still extremely cold, may I add--what with the snow remaining and all.

Always liked that mountain that you see covered in snow in the background; it looks like the side view of a woman's face to me (and the members of my family who have seen it) and it's a landmark that lets me know that I am narrows bound when I'm boating. Not that the lake is hard to navigate--if  you can't drive down a mostly straight waterway, then you should not be boating. Put down the beer, at this rate you'll hit copper island. This give me the idea to perhaps dig up those pictures of mine and post them at some point. For those of you that do not know and for the fact that I do not have a picture of the island handy, Copper Island is basically a mountain in the middle of Shuswap lake. 

Yes that is part of a wheelbarrow. Don't ask, because I really don't know.

Looking back in the direction of my current residence. This is a little ways down the side of the lake by car, mind you.

Fun with reflections! Just off to the right of the first picture I took. I dig this one; I was lucky that it was such a nice day and not snowing again. Cheers, post three, in just a handful of minutes before midnight! ...Must stop typing. Must post.

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Notes and Nonsense

What the hell, two posts in one day? What’s going on here, soon I’ll be saying ten posts a day is low or something crazy! This is the spiral of insanity, I tell you. …Where was I? Oh yes, I wasn’t yet.
Anyway.

Thinking about content so much has reminded me of one of the many notes I have on my laptop screen. No I don’t actually have sticky notes on my computer screen like someone who was not blessed in the intelligence department, it’s a gadget that came stock with my laptop that allows me to create notes that reside on my screen until I want them to go away. They are easy to create, edit, and I can choose between six different colours which is handy for differentiation. (Yes I just used that word.) I currently have one colour for bands that I want to look more into (a pale, usual sticky note yellow), one for a ‘when I get the money’ shopping list (pink because it‘s obnoxious and reminds me that I need to procure money in order to obtain the items that list contains), one for a daily to-do list (white, like an open page for me to make something from nothing each day), one for ‘notes to self’ (which is what they all are so I should call this one ‘epiphanies’ or something--these are periwinkle blue) and one that is filled with ideas for articles or just subjects to write about in general (purple, because I like that colour). The latter is the most plentiful--I have multiples of them even though I could just make just one very long one due to the fact that they magically grow scroll bars when you fill up the initial box--but the one that I was remembering came from the first entry in my should-be-called-epiphanies category. Here, let me copy what I said for word:

“NOTES TO SELF:

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

-TAKE NOTES. Everything you look into is research that can be made into an outline that will save you TIME if you ever need to get another article written tout suite. Like Martin said, "Don't waste your time". ”

...‘Tout suite.’ That made me pop online and see that there is actually a bit of a discussion around whether that is correct en francais or not. See what I mean about everything is research? Anyway, Martin was one of my physiotherapists if you were wondering, and yes he was French and had a very heavy accent but was very intelligent and has an excellent command of both languages. He was referring to doing exercises without using your core muscles at the time, but for some reason it really rang true with me and I have been applying it to many things in my life since. I am a firm believer that you should pay attention in every interaction because I am paranoid enough to think that they will say something that could save my life and if I miss it I will die.

I am a freak. This is not news to me. Thanks, though.

The second I went to my desktop to select the start of that note I thought that I should post the whole thing. So, here goes. The squeamish, navigate away; it’s sappy and full of self-encouragement.

"- DO NOT sell yourself short--this is going to be one hell of an uphill battle but if you don't start the trek you will never get to where you want to be. It's worth it--even though those thirty cents are going to seem like the most trivial horned feces in the world to you at first, it takes pennies to make a dollar. 

- TAKE YOUR phone/a notepad with you everywhere. If an idea strikes you in the middle of the night, get up and write about it. Let this take you over and consume your life--you're not doing anything with it, and this is who I am, after all."

-Rereads.- …Oh, wait. This has a curse word in it. -Edit.- There. 

Then I took a break to dash to the sandbox (with minimal movement so as to not upset my cat the self-proclaimed duchess of the loveseat) and I thought about what I had written. So let me get this straight, my sappy encouragement contained a ‘bad’ word? Sounds right. Messed up, but very much me. Another thing that is very much me is me now realizing that I have been chatting about these things and the notes on my desktop instead of the thing I meant to. So you know what that means? Three posts, bi--… -Edit.- Three posts, chomping at the bit chez de moi. That makes absolutely no sense, but it is amusing as hell to me right now …Never has it been so evident that I am Canadian. You know, sans the ‘eh’. …I just used ‘sans‘ in a sentence. Again. No, I haven’t used it on my blog but I had the occasion to use it once before on this very day. Not like it’s my catch phrase or anything, but seriously? Damn cereal boxes!

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The Long Road

Content is the key, and I keep reminding myself of this. This does not mean that I have actually settled on a topic yet, that’s for sure. Perhaps the freedom of this blog is infecting my mind and making me start to forget that almost everything I have read stresses that specialization is the key to every blog. Is it just me (not an avid blogger and only in the last while even started reading anyone’s blog, sad to say) that would rather have more than one type of content on a page? …I see it now. I am a one of those hoarders, but with topics! There are worse things. Right? -Crickets-

Never mind that, then. One of the things that has been bothering me that I recall reading was that one can expect to make upwards of ten blog posts a day at first to draw people back with the promise of new things to look at daily.

Okay, I understand this, but doesn’t that seem high? Maybe it’s just because most of the blogs that I visit don’t have new content, they seem to be these pillars of greatness that people turn to because search engines favour them (what SEOrcery is this?!) or perhaps it is that ‘followers’ phenomenon. Besides, it can take a good two hours to read all of the content on some blogs. Some of them are an investment in time that far exceeds that as well--this could attribute to their success, I’m sure. This had me thinking all day (and all of last night) about what I am going to choose to be my ‘specialty’. I know I should be building my hub page--I have taken it under advisement from an online source that I trust that hub pages is the best place to make your serious portfolio--but I really don’t have too much to say of yet. Like I mentioned already in my first blog post, I have no experience per say that is going to endear me to an employer. Sure, I have huge amounts of poetry, a progressing novel, hand drawn art and I’ve done alright at crafts, but I may as well say I am a basket weaver on my resume for all the good that does.

I know it is going to make my road uphill and boulder-strewn, but I just will not write something low quality to sell it quickly and make a buck now. Tempting--so tempting. Things aren’t roses lately, that’s for sure--but so far I just cannot bring myself to do it. I do not want to live with the regrets. For one thing I am trying to build a decent name for myself (says the girl thinking about inserting a hand-drawn picture of a chirping cricket at the beginning of this post and actually draws one and does it) and not one that is synonymous with getting work in on time but of an inferior quality. Why would it be inferior quality? Because I refuse to lose my words, and that would be the only way that I could ever live with myself for signing away the rights to what I have made. Not making it easy for myself, that’s for sure.

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I, Blogger.

Just a heads up, I started writing the following posts what is now yesterday; so all of my happy talk of multiple posts is indeed awesome but should not therefore theoretically include anything else besides them that I may post today as posts-in-a-day. But who cares? I am still up, to hell with time. Me blogster.

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What I've Done

For all of my life I have been writing about the things I have done, seen, or thought about. Currently I am working on my book (aren't all of us 'aspiring authors', I know) and facing a life situation that has really forced me to turn around and stare face to face with what has always been there for me--my writing. All of that aside, I will let you know of the experience that I do have: fantasy stories, poetry, song lyrics, and some fiction along with informative articles are most common styles that I have written for myself, as well as numerous essays and reports for school--none of which are published. When I was in grade five, I wrote a few short articles for the monthly school newspaper--other than that, I took about two weeks of journalism before I was transferred out of that class in favour of 'Comparative Civilizations'. Yes, I know; but in all honesty, I chose that course because it was self-instructed. Why was that important? It was worth it because I had plenty of time to write, and write I did. Still do, in fact.

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