Saturday, January 9, 2016

To 2016... and Beyond!

Hey everyone, kinda late, but yea, we're in 2016! We got a lot to look forward to!

...except the elections. Boy, I can already see it will NOT be fun there. No matter who wins, we're all gonna lose. Unless Sanders gets it, then we'll be fine*.

~~

Anyway, this is not about politics. This is about me, this blog, and the future. What does it hold? I'm sure you're already away, but for those who don't, I am currently training at a new job as a customer service rep for a huge healthcare insurance company. I'm set to take calls for the first time next week (for a little while, then we're off again to learn about DHMOs for two weeks), so I'm focusing my energy at this moment on getting over those initial jitters and the learning curve that will follow.

Alongside that, I'm also doing something very big this year: I am putting my main focus on my writing. This year I am and I will create and continue a writing habit, a habit that will get me published and paid for my writing (something long overdue IMHO). I'm staring off with a flash fiction challenge and also keeping daily entries in my paper journal. Then I will also post more often here and then of course, any ongoing projects. I also plan on entering more contests and taking more chances like that with my writing. Challenge myself to do something different!

I also am expanding myself socially by going to church (more on that in a future entry) and being open to social activities at my job as well.

I am also taking huge steps to improving my health, both physical and mental. I am eating and drinking better, keeping a food journal, and will start exercising for 30 minutes twice a week starting tomorrow. I am shooting to lose about 40 pounds, but if I hit 35, I will be a happy camper there as well. I got an ugly wake-up call last year when I went to the doctor's and later when I weighed myself at my parents' place last Sunday.

As I go forward on this journey, I am thankful I have this little space on the Internet to catalog all this for myself (and whoever is interested too!). If you have big plans, or even little schemes, feel free to share them in the comments!

Here's to 2016, the year I turn 30!

...whoa, I'm going to be 30 this year.




*It's sad how he's the best of everyone, but has no chance of getting the nomination. A snowball has a better chance in surviving hell. But I would love to be wrong here!

Friday, January 8, 2016

When the Internet Has Good Ideas

From one of my favorite websites, I found this really neat idea of writing out what you're currently up to, something called a "now page"; the invention of a gentleman named Derek Sivers. So yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Didn't take me long to create it, but will I keep up with it?

Go check it out here (or click the new link on the top of the blog page)!

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Soundtrack to Dolls

So, since y'all know what I am doing going forward, I would like post the soundtrack to my current project, which is Dolls. And I don't believe I ever shared that list before. So... here we go!
  1. "Mountain of Needles" by Brian Eno & David Byrne
  2. "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie
  3. "Watching You Without Me" by Kate Bush
  4. "A Bad Dream" by Keane
  5. "A World of Madness" by Akira Yamaoka (from the Silent Hill 2 Soundtrack)*
  6. "Midnight Sun" by Lisa Miskovsky
  7. "Haunted" by Poe
  8. "Treefingers" by Radiohead
  9. "Drought" by Vienna Teng [OFFICIAL THEME]
  10. "The Dream" by Michael Stearns
  11. "Vessel" by Zola Jesus (I'm planning for the chorus to be the novel's epigraph if and when it gets published)
  12. "Black Silk" by Emily Jane White
  13. "Wildflowers" by Tom Petty
  14. "Ulaid" by E.S. Posthumus
  15. "The Red House" by David Byrne
  16. "Wrapped Around Your Finger" by The Police
  17. "Do You Know, Do You Care" by Phil Collins
  18. "One Moment More" by Mindy Smith
  19. "Future Games" by Fleetwood Mac
  20. "I Knew Love" by Nanci Griffith
  21. "To the Forest, Towards the Sea" by Chelsea Wolfe

*its inclusion is a nod to the novel's origins: in its infant form it was an unfinished Silent Hill fan fiction. Just like Spiders and my 2015 NaNo project, in fact!