New Ideas

A few months ago I wrote about some new ideas I had, especially during November.  I’m not surprised that nothing came of them.  I have focused on schoolwork, television shows, and books for the last few months so nothing has gotten done business wise.  I now have two weeks left of school so I really should focus on my papers and tests.  Instead I’m reading up on social media tips and wanting to start a hundred different ideas at once.

Yesterday I started moving into my apartment in town and this summer I will be studying Latin for a month, accounting for a month, and public speaking during both those months.  Between school ending in May and starting again in June, I’ll have two weeks in which time I should get a part-time job since my savings is running rather low and I want to jump-start my blogs, starting with my travel blog and the various stores connected, like Cafepress. I’m also looking into starting a freelance writing business.  I joined a group that claimed I could make a few thousand dollars for one page of typing only to find out it is a specialized version of copywriting.  I’ll try it on the side for the summer.  I hope that by the end of the summer I can quit my part-time job to focus on school and my own business projects.  I get enough to cover the basics through the GI Bill but I want money on the side to pay for traveling and create a nice nest egg for after college.

Speaking of college, I think I may be focusing more on being a conservator on digs or in museums rather than a simple historian but I’ve still got a few years to decide and I’m not sure if history will be my career or if I’ll have it as my hobby while my business pays the bills.

To add to my many decisions, I want to try and restart my Etsy business in August between college semesters while I’m traveling to see my family.

So many dreams, so many ideas, and only so much time and motivation. I’ll have to see what actually gets done.  Now I need to get lunch then write a 4-5 page rough draft for English tomorrow and revise an 8-10 page paper for archeology class that is currently only 4 pages long. What fun…

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New Direction?

Wow, it’s been about a year since I last posted here.  I’m sorry about that, my life has been through so many changes in a year that I haven’t kept up.  (Translation: I’ve had a lot of excuses to procrastinate and have taken them so I haven’t touched my business in a long time.)  As the new year began I started the paperwork to get out of the Navy.  In May I put my stuff in storage and checked out of the Navy before moving in with my oldest sister in  Wisconsin.  After a month I moved into a small apartment behind her husband’s office and said I was going to focus on my blogs and crafts with fewer distractions.  I also said I’d sort through the stuff I had left at my parent’s place, which was now in storage nearby.  I had planned to go to Europe over the summer but waited until the summer to get my passport.  In the beginning of July I realized I was spending all my time with my kindle or catching up on old television shows.  I would get as little done traveling as I was getting done in my apartment only I’d have more pictures to show for it.  So I buckled down and went from my college orientation day in mid-July to Chicago to NYC to Washington DC, returning at the beginning of August.  In that time I got a few blogs up, but not the daily ones I had planned.  Lots of pictures, very little actual work done.  August was spent trying to finish my craft projects and organizing my things (translation: more reading and television with some craft work and moving much of my stuff from cardboard boxes to one or two fewer plastic boxes).  School started and my time has disappeared (translation: more television and books with homework getting done barely on time and usually late at night when I finally see the clock).

This month is National Novel Writing Month, which is basically an idea some writer came up with and built a website around where authors are encouraged to try and write 50,000 words in one month with well known writers encouraging new authors .  It’s a good idea but it means almost 1500 words a day to reach the goal.  I told myself that starting Friday I would start my fiction blog this past weekend.  I spent all Friday (after classes) doing final worldbuilding.  By the time I got to bed, I was too worn out to write and told myself I’d finish the next day and write 3000 words.  Yeah, I picked up a book and three or four books later it was late Sunday night and I had homework to do.  Not surprising, this post is my first computer written words all month.  I still plan to get my story started, it’s just intimidating therefore I’m procrastinating.

My newest English assignment is a group project.  (In case you’re interesting, I have been posting my English assignments online on Lilbsworks.com but they are a few pages long.)  We decided to write about options other high school graduates have besides going straight to college.  (It started out as a question of if everyone needs college, but we couldn’t find enough examples of people who got really rich without any degrees.)  I read about a few interesting people (such as a few places claiming the Rich Dad, Poor Dad guy doesn’t even practice what he preaches and there was no real “rich dad”, just a lot of fictional anecdotes for educational purposes).  Among the pile of articles I found was this one:  http://www.blogandrew.com/100-succeed-without-college/ .  I may be in college right now but I’m not sure I want to work in the Greek and Roman culture for the rest of my life.  I’m kind of at the point of “I’ve learned about these guys for so long, I just want something new” place in my life.  Reaching it my freshman year in college does not bode well with my future happiness.  It almost feels like I’m trying to force myself in a round peg when I’m a large oval.  The fit isn’t painful, just definitely not perfect.  So what is my perfect fit?  Where do I really want to be in ten years?  My dream is to be in an apartment overlooking a gorgeous beach where I can write, read, craft, or travel on my whim with no worries as to money.  The question is, how do I get there?  Is that my weekends while I spend 9-5 plus a day at a museum or do I have a freelance job that I can do just as easily from my sister’s couch as from a hostel in Greece or a five star hotel in Paris?  The museum job is starting to sound rather claustrophobic, especially if it is based around Greek or Roman life.  The question is: what life do I want the most and how do I get it?  How do I motivate myself when all I want to do is procrastinate and watch television or read?  Hopefully the previous website will help me figure out my life and motivate myself to something.

Well this is almost 900 words and I’ve procrastinated from homework long enough so I’ll bid you goodnight and try to keep you informed on my future.

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All Work…

Wow, this is kinda sad.  It’s been months since I’ve updated this blog or most of my other blogs.  I have managed to be slightly more active on my travel blog but not much.  Okay, I’m out of the Navy, which means I have no 8 or 9 hour a day job yet get paid for three more months (thank you, God, for terminal leave).  I have no major excuse for not doing my blogs.  Hopefully I can get at least 20 “billable” hours a week on my business.  By billable I mean that obviously I can’t bill myself, nor do I have the income to pay myself anything.  However, I will keep track of my time spent on purely business things, such as creating blog posts, creating my business plans and marketing strategies, and writing articles.  Sounds good, sounds easy, right?  Yeah, it is now 5:31 pm and I have barely 3 billable hours today.  My huge project to get done today is a travel post finishing up a day trip I took two months ago (roughly).  I’ve had it halfway ready to post for about two weeks now.  Yeah, I’m maybe halfway done and really restless.  I knew traveling alone would be hard since I don’t have many people here who would like to see me (the one person who says they want to get together with me is near impossible to pin down) but I thought it would be fun.  It is rather fun to be here but I need roots.  I’ve been traveling of sorts since the beginning of this month.  (It seems long but I’m including the stress of two moving days plus nearly a full week spent cleaning my house, packing my bags for the plane and throwing out what didn’t fit, then the poorly planed plane trip and figuring out my place and the rules of a place I only stayed for a week.)  For someone who doesn’t like uncertainty, it has been an annoying month.  Okay, I rambling and procrastinating my blog post so I need to go.  I hoped to get 8 hours of work in today (Monday) and 4 the next 2 days (Tuesday and Wednesday).  That would give me 16 hours before traveling on Thursday and settling into “my” new place Friday and Saturday.  4 hours of work over 2 days shouldn’t be too hard.  We’ll see how this works as my 8 hours of work has so far been about 3 and a half.  I need to find some way to work and play because the stress of not getting my work done means I can’t enjoy my “play”/procrastinating.  That’s all for now, I’ll see you again soon (I hope).

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New Things

Sorry it’s been so long since I updated this.   Over a month, wow.

Anyway, I haven’t done much in that month but I have in the last week.  I published a new lens on Squidoo about how I’ll adjust this year’s Halloween costume to be awesome next year and finally published my bio lens on there.

I also started a new blog tonight.  Do I need a new blog?  No, not really but it will serve as an external source of motivation to redo my Etsy store.  It’s been nearly a year and I’ve barely touched the store, let alone made any money from it.  I hope to have it ready to market ( meaning something I’m proud to show off and even willing to advertise) by the new year at latest.  It also could give me a blog to try various blog marketing ideas for while I work on my store.  I don’t plan to keep the blog up very much once my store is set up but I may add a tip a week or month, depending on my traffic.  However, the blog is a free way to keep all my thoughts and tips in one place without buying another website or notebook I may loose in my house somewhere.   It may also help other store owners get better or store owner wannabes take that final leap to their own store with confidence.   Combining Etsy business with online business is something I’m interested in and will be working in for a long time, I hope.

I also signed up for the SATs in January.  I found out that Kansas University is still accepting applications and looks like just what I need.   I may get into college next fall yet.  First I need to apply and take the SATs though.  We’ll see how that goes.

 

Speaking of the SATs, I decided to set myself some goals: 500 typed words everyday (means I get something done or started each day and teach myself to type correctly instead of with one hand), a half hour a day each of ESWAS and studying for the SAT, and 10 minutes a day of working out.  It looks like at least my old chief will try to keep me accountable for a month (the amount of time I’ll post it on my facebook page) and hopefully I’ll get things done and start checking things off my to-do list soon.  Well, I got my words typed, the work out done, and half my ESWAS studying done.  Now for more ESWAS and SATs.  “Night

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September 16, 2012

What have I done this week?  To be honest, I’ve been lazy again.  Work has been stressful since there are too many people who decide which one of us does what.  We also had a room inspection of my main space and I had to move my stuff and then help clean up after the rest of the girls who had to move as well.  By the time I got done, I was in a very lazy mood, which is no excuse for not working.  I did enjoy working with some clay this week.  I decided that while waiting to get a convection oven to bake my polymer clay that I would practice on regular children’s clay bought at my local toy store.  It’s designed to not dry out too quickly, unlike the Japanese modeling clay I’ve been using.  This way I can get more comfortable working with clay before making permanent items I’m not so proud of.  My mermaid was pretty good for a first time project in clay and acrylic paint but it would have been better if I had thought to use children’s clay to practice on first.  I created a small dragon to try out the clay with the image in my mind.  I was hoping for a perfect sculpture of a dragon about to fly.  Instead I found the clay too heavy to support that and created a cute thing with a long tail, diamond eyes cut into the face and wings barely attached.  However, it is obviously a dragon and I got ideas on how to create the basic body of a dragon for my next attempt.  I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m getting there.

I also finished my two part blog post on General Halleck, the man Lincoln called “little more than a glorified clerk.”  I was surprised that while he was a weak General-in-Chief to the Union, his time as the first Chief of Staff of the Army is credited with being a huge part of Grant’s victory.  Halleck worked as a translator between Lincoln and Grant as well as being Grant’s voice in DC while Grant was on the field.  Halleck’s ability to supply the variuos armies of the Union allowed the Union to wear down the Confederacy which couldn’t supply their troops very well as the war continued.  I also looked into my next post which will be about the riot in Baltimore in 1861 and it looks interesting.

I hope you have a delightful week and I’ll write again next weekend.  May God bless you all this week.

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September 8, 2012

I’ve had an interesting week at work.  We pulled back into home port and are preparing for the ship’s version of home renovations so I’ll be cleaning, grinding paint off metal and repainting a lot over the next few months as well as working out and trying to finish my big certification before my vacation.  I’m having trouble finding time to force myself to study now that I have no restrictions to the internet and have my time back at night.  It is amazing to have my own space again without worrying about interrupting anyone or someone calling me to fix my system or do something else work related at any hour of the day.  Now I just need to find the motivation to organize my house again after moving in and study for my certification as well as keep my blogs up to date when I have the distractions of possible craft projects as well as computer and internet usage whenever I want.  Yeah, I’m having trouble staying on track with that.  Last week I was reading a blog post that said the key to one guy’s success was priorities.  He decided each day one thing that HAD to get done that day and forced himself to get at least that one thing done.  I tried that and it worked for a few days.  Then we pulled in and I got distracted and forgot.  I think it’s time for me to remember and set my priority again.  I made one goal for work (usually studying for my certification for a set time) and one goal for work.  I need to get back to that.

I had thought about creating another business topic this week.  (I would say blog but I was going to start with socail media before starting the blog)   I had thought to start a fan page to encourage me to work out daily.  I need to pass the run in early November and need to cut minutes off my time in order to do so.  I had thought that a daily comment on what I do would help me do things daily.  If I combined it with reviews of what I’ve used, I may even make money off the endeavor.  However, it came to my attention that my motivation level is pretty low and adding a daily post or more, plus the time to write reviews would be another distraction from the blogs I already have trouble maintaining.  Therefore I will post any milestones I need to tell people about here or on one of my fan pages I already have and turn any reviews I write into articles.  No one expecting any deadlines means less stress on me and that my goal stays a hobby instead of another stressful duty.  I do look forward to turning my research into weight loss and healthy living as well as runner’s tips into articles when I have the time so stay tuned for those to be announced.

I did manage to write the first post on General Halleck today.  This post is about his resume before the Civil War when his men called him Old Brains.  He should have been an adviser rather than a General In Chief but he made an awesome Chief of Staff, which I’ll talk about next week.  History may view him as a joke of a soldier but his organization abilities allowed General Grant to be out on the field leading the men rather than dealing with politics or supply issues in Washington like the previous generals had to.

It’s getting late now and I picked up a magazine of things to do with clay.  I want to try something before I go to bed and I hope it turns out like I want.  I hope you all have a delightful week.  I’ll talk to you again soon.

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September 2, 2012

Unfortunately the internet has been down all week, or extremely restricted and will be down all weekend as well, so I don’t think I’ll be able to post anything on my blogs besides this update.  I finally finished the book I’ve been reviewing on my writing blog for the last few months.  I’m working on the last few blog posts for it and a review article for the book and hope to have something up on my writing blog next weekend.

I’m also enjoying resaerching General Halleck, a union General-In-Chief Lincoln refered to as “little better than a first-class clerk”.  He was a genius on paper but had no ability to control his subordinates.

My work certification is finally getting started.  I got five walkthroughs done this week, which leaves 11 to go before the oral board infront of ten experts on ship.  I’m glad I finally found the motivation to get started.

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August 26, 2012

This week has been rater productive, at least compared to other weeks lately.  I posted a blog post on my civil war blog about Philip Kearny, a man who loved battle and war but quickly got restless without fighting.  He died during the Civil War and his legend is that of a valiant fighter, not the restless soldier that wanted to marry a society daughter while still married but separated from a high ranking soldiers sister.  His legend is inspiring but his personality was demanding of anyone who actually knew him.

I also finished typing up the series I’m on at the moment on my blog for those starting a business online.  The current series goes through the beginning of September on how to create the foundation you need for a successful online business.  Now I have time to read a book on branding online to redo that part of my various blogs and shops.  I’ll take notes as I read and type those into my next series on Lydr’s Thoughts.

 

I finally got the names for my first fiction series decided.   I’m still working on creating the world and story lines but I put a background scene on my Li’l B’s Works blog since I have it in my head.  The series, starting on my Lydia’s Magical Kingdom blog in December, will be a “journal” of a girl and the story of her brother through a Court Season as they set about revenge on a man that ruined their lives.  I’m enjoying creating their world and their stories as well as practicing a few techniques in writing and storytelling.

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August 19, 2012

This week has been rather disappointing, professionally.  I did get a few hours in to study my ESWAS and I wound up watching a number of television episodes to keep my spirits up but all in all, I haven’t accomplished much.  I’ve done research on my next civil war blog post on the “One-Armed Devil” of the Union which I will try to post next weekend.  I apologize that my blogs are so sporadic but I have limited access to the internet this month and I need to study a lot for my qualification to get that out of the way.

Basically: I’m sorry but no news to report this week as far as my blogs.

 

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August 12, 2012

My American Civil War blog this week is about Samuel Colt who not only revolutionalized gun making in America but also revolutionized how marketing was done and helped improve the telegraph system with his invention of underwater cable.

 

My craft blog this weekend is links to 2 stores on Etsy that sell origami jewelry that I think is rather impressive.

 

 

Lydr’s Thoughts this week continued my series on how to start a business online.

 

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