Tuesday Tech

So, once again I am late. I'll get on a scheduling system sooner or later. Of course, then again, the relevancy of the articles I read will be a little out of date.

Anyway...

I found an article with the most employable careers 2015 (Link goes out to MSN).

A piece of advice I have for people pursuing a degree, look at what jobs you want, not what topic interests you. If you like creativity and social media, look for jobs in those areas. Often, a specific degree is required, and a bunch of knowledge you need to have to do that job.

Then, major in the field that will get you the jobs you want. I linked to the employable careers as a starting point, but really get to know what kind of job you're interested in. It can be broad, like design or utilities. Then look at the related jobs and their descriptions, it interests you, then look at the qualifications.

If you want to be a writer, then look for jobs where you can write. It may not be creative writing, but writing something in general (and the editing practice that goes with it) is important. But, like so many people suggest, don't forgo the day job so you can write (unless you have the means to do so. Even then I still recommend a part time job).

1) You need an income. Living (and dying) isn't free. So, make money doing something else you enjoy, or at least can sharpen your writing skills.

2) You need to live life. I'm not saying that people who just write or don't have a job don't live life, but for so many people, work is a big part of their lives. At work you can listen to other people's experiences and learn about other cultures so easily. This can provide inspiration for characters or stories.

The other part to the "living life" is that it often costs money to go places. Sometimes, companies will send you places for work (San Diego Comic Con anyone?) It's a good opportunity to get some other perspectives.

3) You need a break from writing. This is more for me and people like me. I need a balance in my life. I need to do some technical and analytical thinking or my brain starts feeling like mush. When that happens, my creativity goes on the fritz. It's not pretty. But, working, though it's been taking time away from writing, has been helpful for me. It gives me distance from my MS, it gives me other experiences, and I can work with a bunch of interesting people.

So, the keyword of the day is "jobs". I just wanted to throw this out there. Unemployment isn't fun (believe me, I was there for a long time), but it can give you the time and space you need to discover things you love (like writing).

Well, that's my two cents, soapbox, pamphlet advice.

Monday Musings

So, this post is late for a whole variety of reasons.

1) I fail to schedule posts.
2) Life is starting to calm down again
3)My keyboard was utterly disgusting (and it has been that way for 9 months).

Just look at it:

It was disgusting. In the left hand side you can see I had cleaned a little of it.

Now, I am not saying I am perfect and all my keyboards are dust and grime free, but this was not me. It had been bugging me for these past 9 months and I finally decided to do something about it.

Needless to say, 2.5 hours later, not only was my keyboard clean(er) my whole desk was as well. Nothing like a good spring cleaning sometimes.

Of course, the entire time I was cleaning the keyboard I pondered why companies provide disgusting keyboards? I know other people left them that way (and my desk is near a vent that seems to spit a fresh coating of dust every night). But it's gross. I would hope companies would have a little vac or something to suck out the dust and stuff.

Do all companies give keyboards like this? I really hope not. This is the third time I've received a keyboard for a job and 2 out of the 3 times it was dirty (and I don't remember the other time).

I know I'm not the only one who "procrastinates" by cleaning their work space. Someone mentioned it to me once, and it's like they seared the idea into my brain. Now, if my workspace is messy, I can't work.

Sorry for the complaints. I'm actually really proud of the work I did. I even got other work done while I was cleaning the keyboard. Too bad it wasn't writing/novel related.

Friday Fun

Is it Friday already? Goodness, where did the time go?

Well, today I'm talking about time savers or you know, life hacks. They aren't necessarily crafts, though it does take some pretty crafty people to discover the tricks.

I read a really good one on Pinterest a while ago, but I can't seem to find it. There's no loss though, because there are many other sites and lists of life hacks.

Here is a pretty good one of 16 Life Hacks (note, it goes out to buzzfeed.com).

The one I really needed was using a post-it to clean between the keys on a keyboard. When you start a job somewhere, they often give you a keyboard that is utterly disgusting and full of dust and crumbs. You can clean the top of the keys as much as you'd like, but unless you have a mini vacuum, the in betweens will stay dusty.

I also like the one about using a dustpan to fill a bucket that doesn't fit under the faucet.

Anyway, some of the life hacks there are pretty good. They don't list some of the easier/interesting ones.

Like:

You know the tab on a loaf of bread? The color of the twist tie/bread clip indicates the day of the week it was made.

They then said you can use that bread clip to fix a flip flop that has pulled through it's base (useful for Summer, eh?)

Another one, from when I was younger: when figuring out the difference between right and left, bend you middle, ring, and pinky finger, leaving your thumb and forefinger pointing. The one that makes an "L" properly is your Left hand, and the backwards "L" your right.

For you Downtan Abbey fans (and fancy luncheon goers) you can then use this to remember which fork is yours at a fancy dinner. Your fork (with four letters) goes on the left hand side (left also has four letters). Your knife (five letters) goes on your right hand side (right also has five letters).

Does anyone else have any good life hacks? I could use all the help I can get.

Thursday Travels

A photo of an animal that is said to be closely related to rabbits and hares (lagomorphs) has been floating around.

The Ili pika:



It's adorable and looks like a cross between a rabbit and a mouse. One reporter even called it an Ewok.

Unfortunately, for us and them, they only seem to reside on a specific mountain in China. Plus, they are extremely endangered.

The reason the critter is so spectacular, besides being cute, its because it hasn't been seen for 20 years. The photograph is actually from early 2014, but only recently has become a big deal in the media.

Personally, I love it. I adore rabbits and I want to hug one of these. If my plot bunnies looked like this, I would welcome them with open arms.

Now, I'm going to return to my cave and get some work done. Enjoy the cuteness!

Writing Wednesdays

So I've never been a master of vocabulary. Memorizing the definitions of words has always proved difficult. I'm more of an application kind of person. Show me how it's used, and I should be able to use it correctly in the future (if my brain remembers it).

I am often on Google or Dictionary.com, searching or checking the definitions of words. Most of the time my brain surprises me and it uses words, I rarely use, correctly.

The words and phrases I spend most of my time looking up now are genre definitions (high fantasy, epic fantasy, space opera) and other industry terms (query, shopping, submission).

I finally looked up one of my favorite terms, plot bunny (or plot bunnies as the case may be). I think it sounded cute, but apparently they can be nasty boogers. If you are unfamiliar with the term, plot bunny is essentially a plot that gets into your head and it won't leave you alone until you write it.

If you haven't guessed, this isn't a post about remembering vocab words, it's a post about plot bunnies. :)

For me, like any bunny, these plot bunnies multiply, quickly. It gets to the point that I am inundated with these bunnies to the point I can't write anything.

To battle this, I knocked out a few queries so that these plot bunnies can relax and let me focus on the WIP at hand (52,000 words and I reached the climax...whoops).

This is helpful in several ways, if I do come back to one of those bunnies, I can (hopefully) recall the plot ideas, AND I have a rough draft of a query - a query that didn't have to be whittled down from the many thousands of words MS.

This leads to the advice I read: write your query and synopsis BEFORE your manuscript, and you will be happy. Believe me, I am. This WIP is going better than I thought (though Round 1 of edits is going to be "rewrite/reorganize/edit).

Unlike Raj (from The Big Bang Theory), I like rabbits, I know how to own plot bunnies, and I won't eat the world's supply of lettuce in front of them.

Tuesday Trade

I changed the name for Tuesdays. It's a (fun) business day and isn't necessarily technology related, though it is most of the time.

Actually, I'm changing the topic for today. I was going to post about an Entrepreneur article about how creative people are (often) undervalued and underemployed. But, while I was looking for the link to the article, I found 10 Motivating Quotes to Help You Spring Into Action. I'm really in need of motivation at the moment. I've got 8 days of extreme stress left, the kind where you just have to wait it out. It drives me nuts not being able to do much. It's also very disheartening.

I didn't really post about the start of Spring. Instead, I encouraged the creation of Nutella stuffed cookies. So, to make up for it, let's discuss moving into action.

Spring cleaning is something I have been doing for the past month or so. This is the first thorough cleaning I've done. Of course, a lot of this cleaning has been cleaning up after the tornado that is my week.

But what's more, people are coming out of hibernation and starting to do things again. While New Year's resolutions are probably, mostly, broken, here is another new beginning to start a new habit.

My favorite quote from the article is number 6:

Being defeated is only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent. -- Marilyn von Savant

 The publishing industry, and life in general, throws a lot of rejection our way. It's only those who don't keep fighting are the ones who are truly defeated. So keep going! Keep writing, jogging, painting, studying, what-have-you.

I'm still moving. It might be at a snail's pace right now, but it's still movement. Besides, a snail's pace is normal for a snail.

The motivational quotes article didn't have my favorite, so I thought I'd share it:

To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality. -- Anita Roddick

It goes back to my insistence that persistence and determination really make the difference in life. So keep working toward your goal(s) and I'll work toward mine.

Does anyone else have good motivational quotes that weren't in the article?

Monday Musings

What a weekend! I achieved nothing that I needed to do, but I did a little what I wanted to do, except read.

I did watch TV though. Season/mid-season finales always put characters' lives on the line, hoping to entice you to watch on. Sometimes, they go so far as to kill off a beloved character.

That character? Well, they're usually my favorite character. It says a lot about the show if it can kill off my favorite character and I come back to watch anyway (bitter about the loss, but still holding on).

This always leads me to think about favorite characters, how fandoms mourn them, and why it's always my favorite character that is offed.

I call it a curse. Be it books, movies, or TV shows, as soon as I mark someone as my favorite character, it's a death sentence for them. Even in a video game, after going back and forth about my opinions about the character, I decided I liked him, quite a bit. Not a second after I finished the thought that an assassin took aim and fired, killing him.

Every. Time.

The same happened in a TV show. I think "oh, I like this character," and in the next scene, they're killed. Oh look, a movie, boy the older brother is a good character, well, he was.

It's a curse really. Either that or like people have noted on The Walking Dead, the "moral compass" is the one that gets killed first, and I tend to like characters with a moral compass, which still leads me to believe it's a curse.

Only once, in my memory, did my favorite character defy all odds and made it to the end of the book (well, play). Way to go, Horatio, for defying the odds of being my favorite character in a Shakespeare tragedy. *throws confetti*
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Anyway, the way people mourn over the death of characters makes me wonder, does it affect us the same way as the death of a loved one? (You know, someone we actually know in real life). I'm sure the attachment has some sort of emotional toll. There are still character deaths I get a little teary-eyed over a while after they are gone. Mostly though, I'm just bitter, especially towards the writers who thought it was ok to kill off the character.

But, life moves on. More stories, games, movies, and shows are created and I set my heart up for more pain when I see a new character I like.

Does this happen to other people? Or am I just an odd duckling? (I guess both options are possible, but in this scenario). What favorite characters are people still upset about? (I just realized this post could have been the mother of all spoilers for all things entertainment, but it wasn't. Except for your Hamlet readers, I'm sorry to tell you, but Horatio did live.)