As y'all know, I work for a call center for a major healthcare company. To go into further detail, I specialize in the dental benefits. I thank this job for several things, like a further awareness for the health of my mouth and also the tragedy that is little kids getting root canals. So obviously, I take calls. Quite a few in fact! I speak to a variety of people from rushed providers' offices to disgruntled members to chipper third-party agents. But lemme tell you about the week where I took maybe only twenty calls overall. Why? Read on below!
Showing posts with label spot the hidden music joke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spot the hidden music joke. Show all posts
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
A Note on Recent Political Events
Since it's looking VERY likely that Hillary will be the Dem nominee and there has been a push for Bernie supporters to join her side and defeat Trump in the general election, I feel the need to make something very clear.
While I am not a Bernie or Bust gal, I am definitely not voting for Hillary.
I have stated in my FAQ why I have no intention of voting for her. I do not like a lot of her policies; the only one I honestly feel aligned with is anything regarding women's rights and sadly, that is not enough.
I’m sure some will feel compelled to "scare" me into voting for Hillary so we don't get a President Trump. First off, Hillary is doing fine without my vote, so she'll do without mine in the GE. Second, throwing the privilege card in my face may not work. I am aware of (and working so hard against) the catastrophic heaviness of what a Trump presidency could do for everyone. Also, I would be impacted since I am a woman, a young person, and certainly not wealthy nor middle-class.
Hillary has done nothing to earn my vote. Her track record in the Middle East, here in the States, her history of overshadowing the voices and efforts of many activists of color (especially with those involved with #BlackLivesMatter), and also her hawkish tendencies are some of the many things that deeply bother me.
Yes, it is historical that we have a female presidential nominee. Yes, I hope more young girls are inspired to run for office. I just feel that we're having to take what we can get and be grateful for it (or else).
Or, in other words... Death Cab for Cutie said it best: "bah-baaaah, bah-baaaah, this is the sound of settling..."
Yet, this doesn't mean I am not voting come November 8th. I am still voting in local elections. As for the presidential pick, it will be either Jill Stein or a write-in for Bernie.
It hurts that Bernie didn't win, but it hurts even more that we're settling for someone that I believe is mediocre and won't do 3/4 of what she's promising on the campaign trail. And the droning of "accept it or else".
One more thing before I go: I would love to be wrong about Hillary. That once she gets elected, she just blows us all out of the water with her progressive politics; she gets us out of the Middle East, champions for women's health, breaks up Wall Street, and does something amazing to stop all the police brutality.
But her track record says otherwise.
Then again, I tend to give people a chance.
Due to the possibility of all sides clashing, I will do something rare here and close comments on this post.
While I am not a Bernie or Bust gal, I am definitely not voting for Hillary.
I have stated in my FAQ why I have no intention of voting for her. I do not like a lot of her policies; the only one I honestly feel aligned with is anything regarding women's rights and sadly, that is not enough.
I’m sure some will feel compelled to "scare" me into voting for Hillary so we don't get a President Trump. First off, Hillary is doing fine without my vote, so she'll do without mine in the GE. Second, throwing the privilege card in my face may not work. I am aware of (and working so hard against) the catastrophic heaviness of what a Trump presidency could do for everyone. Also, I would be impacted since I am a woman, a young person, and certainly not wealthy nor middle-class.
Hillary has done nothing to earn my vote. Her track record in the Middle East, here in the States, her history of overshadowing the voices and efforts of many activists of color (especially with those involved with #BlackLivesMatter), and also her hawkish tendencies are some of the many things that deeply bother me.
Yes, it is historical that we have a female presidential nominee. Yes, I hope more young girls are inspired to run for office. I just feel that we're having to take what we can get and be grateful for it (or else).
Or, in other words... Death Cab for Cutie said it best: "bah-baaaah, bah-baaaah, this is the sound of settling..."
Yet, this doesn't mean I am not voting come November 8th. I am still voting in local elections. As for the presidential pick, it will be either Jill Stein or a write-in for Bernie.
It hurts that Bernie didn't win, but it hurts even more that we're settling for someone that I believe is mediocre and won't do 3/4 of what she's promising on the campaign trail. And the droning of "accept it or else".
~~
One more thing before I go: I would love to be wrong about Hillary. That once she gets elected, she just blows us all out of the water with her progressive politics; she gets us out of the Middle East, champions for women's health, breaks up Wall Street, and does something amazing to stop all the police brutality.
But her track record says otherwise.
Then again, I tend to give people a chance.
~~
Due to the possibility of all sides clashing, I will do something rare here and close comments on this post.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
NaNoWriMo 2015: I Didn't Think I Would Make It...
Hey, uh... wow, I just decided not to post a damn thing at all? Not even on my 29th birthday, which was three days ago. Wow, me. Way to go.
Well, I ran into a HUGE road bump about Week 2 of writing my novel. I was feeling really off, like I was coming down with something. I know that I ended my tenure with the banking call center, but there was something else. Yep, it was mold allergies. I was knocked flat off my feet for a while. I lost my drive for a long while.
Around the first week of my new job, between any moment I could, I started to write more scenes. My hand cramped so bad after those intense sessions. I wrote about an average of a thousand words per notebook session.
After that, I got a fire lit under me when my mother told me that she knew that I could come from behind and finish in time. Driven by that, plus that feeling of "I can't fail this, I got so far", I decided to go full steam ahead.
So yeah, I finally pulled a comeback that would make LL Cool J want to write a song about it. But none of my mom telling me to knock a man out.
So here's to finishing what I started and here's to a revision/continuation* for that project!
Well, I ran into a HUGE road bump about Week 2 of writing my novel. I was feeling really off, like I was coming down with something. I know that I ended my tenure with the banking call center, but there was something else. Yep, it was mold allergies. I was knocked flat off my feet for a while. I lost my drive for a long while.
Around the first week of my new job, between any moment I could, I started to write more scenes. My hand cramped so bad after those intense sessions. I wrote about an average of a thousand words per notebook session.
After that, I got a fire lit under me when my mother told me that she knew that I could come from behind and finish in time. Driven by that, plus that feeling of "I can't fail this, I got so far", I decided to go full steam ahead.
So yeah, I finally pulled a comeback that would make LL Cool J want to write a song about it. But none of my mom telling me to knock a man out.
So here's to finishing what I started and here's to a revision/continuation* for that project!
*the novel is not finished, but I chose to stop at 50K+ so I can put it aside and finish some other projects, while I have this fire going.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Okay, just to show I'm still here...
I've gotten over the cold that smacked me most of the first week of March, thank God. In the meantime, I've been working at my job trying to improve my performance so I can see what else the place has to offer (I'll be at the six-month mark in April, so hopefully there could be some great things!).
I also finished a short story that, while I wanted to write it, am not sure what to do with it. It's about a young woman having a final showdown with a serial killer that had been stalking her for part of her life. I can already hear the criticism from people asking me why writing about something like this is necessary. Hell, my mom would probably ask the same question. I wonder if Joyce Carol Oates gets that question a lot. (My bet is yes. Yes she does,)
But you know what bugs me the most about the short story? I hate the title. It is made of concentrated "make 'em say ugh".
Fun fact: I wrote about 3K of this while waiting for calls at my job. Hell yeah.
Otherwise...
that I actually got something done.
Now to give it a better name, edit it, and maybe publish it? Okay, not sure on the last one.
I also finished a short story that, while I wanted to write it, am not sure what to do with it. It's about a young woman having a final showdown with a serial killer that had been stalking her for part of her life. I can already hear the criticism from people asking me why writing about something like this is necessary. Hell, my mom would probably ask the same question. I wonder if Joyce Carol Oates gets that question a lot. (My bet is yes. Yes she does,)
But you know what bugs me the most about the short story? I hate the title. It is made of concentrated "make 'em say ugh".
Fun fact: I wrote about 3K of this while waiting for calls at my job. Hell yeah.
Otherwise...
that I actually got something done.
Now to give it a better name, edit it, and maybe publish it? Okay, not sure on the last one.
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Skynet Writes My Books: What I Use to Make Words on the Computer
As you know, I do a ton of my writing on the computer. This accounts for about 75% of all the writing I do in a day. 15% is journaling and 10% is in notebooks count for the physical handwriting portion. Okay, enough with numbers, I ain't no Math major, but my dad is sorta... he has a Bachelor's in Engineering. It counts! >:-(
The big thing I use is Scrivener*, the word processor that some writers adore to pieces (like me!)... and some writers hate with a passion. I forgot who, but a writer I follow on Twitter talked about his dislike for it. Hey, no hard feelings, writer friend. You work with what works for ya!
Ahem, either way, Scrivener is my main tool. I love the notecard feature, how each chapter/scene/whatever you wanna call it is organized like that. A giant corkboard! It's aesthetically pleasing. You can customize the colors of the pins, the labels you stamp on the cards (I have custom ones like "Incomplete" and "Kill it with Fire"), and folders upon folders for random-ass crap like character files and pics (I use a lot of stock photos to help me visualize them), pictures with a few descriptive paragraphs on certain locations (like real places or even fictional towns, like the one in Spiders), and a special folder of parts I've written but haven't found their places in the story yet.
[I talked about how I won a 50% coupon from winning NaNoWriMo in 2011. That's the "easy" way to get some savings off of the software if you already know you want it OMG. But there are free trials, so best to give it a test run before you throw money at it. But if you already want it for sure, the best way to save money is to do NaNoWriMo this year and write 50,000 words. You get the satisfaction of doing something great and fun, and you can get some awesome software on the cheap(er)!]
While I like writing on Scrivener's word processor portion, I love the sound of manual typewriters, so I often use Writer: the Internet Typewriter. Holy Moses, whoever created this, you are a saint unto humanity and should have a church built in your honor. You can customize it to make the sounds of a manual or electric typewriter, font size and style, even the background and text colors! I use white text against a blue background as a throwback to my early days messing around with WordPerfect for DOS on my grandfather's Tandy computer.
But converting text from the Internet Typewriter to Scrivener can cause some headache-making issues with formatting, so I open up Microsoft Word to fix the spacing, paragraph indents (more so on Scrivener), change straight quotes and apostrophes to smart ones, and of course check for spelling and grammar. I used to do a ton of my writing on Word, but I've all but abandoned it for my creative projects. I still use it for other things like making lists and job-hunting related work (e.g. resumes and cover letters).
I do all my writing on my laptop with an external keyboard that is solar-powered (not cheap, but it was awesome. Oddest impulse purchase I ever made, for sure!). I used to write a lot on my bed and using only the keyboard built into the laptop, but the screen hinge cracked earlier this year and I can barely move it around, let alone close it. That, besides the Vista software I still have (I know, I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me...) are the reasons I'm looking into getting a new laptop very soon. I've had this thing for over five years. That's above average for me. I usually replace things within two-three years. That's what working part-time and paying important bills will do to ya: make use of what you got. Until it breaks. See: my car, which is not only used but also turned 10 years old this year and is a model that doesn't even exist anymore.
So, writing peeps, what do you use to create words on computer screens? Do you go all out and have folders upon folders of writing with character files and pics of random buildings, or do you prefer the simpler WordPad just to get the damn thing down? Let me know in the comments!
*I use the Windows version, which is not as fully-stocked with awesomeness as the Mac version, but frequent updates are fixing this!
The big thing I use is Scrivener*, the word processor that some writers adore to pieces (like me!)... and some writers hate with a passion. I forgot who, but a writer I follow on Twitter talked about his dislike for it. Hey, no hard feelings, writer friend. You work with what works for ya!
Ahem, either way, Scrivener is my main tool. I love the notecard feature, how each chapter/scene/whatever you wanna call it is organized like that. A giant corkboard! It's aesthetically pleasing. You can customize the colors of the pins, the labels you stamp on the cards (I have custom ones like "Incomplete" and "Kill it with Fire"), and folders upon folders for random-ass crap like character files and pics (I use a lot of stock photos to help me visualize them), pictures with a few descriptive paragraphs on certain locations (like real places or even fictional towns, like the one in Spiders), and a special folder of parts I've written but haven't found their places in the story yet.
[I talked about how I won a 50% coupon from winning NaNoWriMo in 2011. That's the "easy" way to get some savings off of the software if you already know you want it OMG. But there are free trials, so best to give it a test run before you throw money at it. But if you already want it for sure, the best way to save money is to do NaNoWriMo this year and write 50,000 words. You get the satisfaction of doing something great and fun, and you can get some awesome software on the cheap(er)!]
While I like writing on Scrivener's word processor portion, I love the sound of manual typewriters, so I often use Writer: the Internet Typewriter. Holy Moses, whoever created this, you are a saint unto humanity and should have a church built in your honor. You can customize it to make the sounds of a manual or electric typewriter, font size and style, even the background and text colors! I use white text against a blue background as a throwback to my early days messing around with WordPerfect for DOS on my grandfather's Tandy computer.
But converting text from the Internet Typewriter to Scrivener can cause some headache-making issues with formatting, so I open up Microsoft Word to fix the spacing, paragraph indents (more so on Scrivener), change straight quotes and apostrophes to smart ones, and of course check for spelling and grammar. I used to do a ton of my writing on Word, but I've all but abandoned it for my creative projects. I still use it for other things like making lists and job-hunting related work (e.g. resumes and cover letters).
I do all my writing on my laptop with an external keyboard that is solar-powered (not cheap, but it was awesome. Oddest impulse purchase I ever made, for sure!). I used to write a lot on my bed and using only the keyboard built into the laptop, but the screen hinge cracked earlier this year and I can barely move it around, let alone close it. That, besides the Vista software I still have (I know, I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me...) are the reasons I'm looking into getting a new laptop very soon. I've had this thing for over five years. That's above average for me. I usually replace things within two-three years. That's what working part-time and paying important bills will do to ya: make use of what you got. Until it breaks. See: my car, which is not only used but also turned 10 years old this year and is a model that doesn't even exist anymore.
So, writing peeps, what do you use to create words on computer screens? Do you go all out and have folders upon folders of writing with character files and pics of random buildings, or do you prefer the simpler WordPad just to get the damn thing down? Let me know in the comments!
*I use the Windows version, which is not as fully-stocked with awesomeness as the Mac version, but frequent updates are fixing this!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Sorry for the long silence, I had a good reason...
I was busy applying for jobs. Mostly writing/editing ones. They sounded very promising, good pay and exciting environments. A chance to stretch my skills out and share them with others, doing something more than working on my stuff. We're talking big-leagues here. This ain't no indie publisher, this ain't no (insert whatever)...
And... nope.
I redid my resume (a tip from the alumni career counselor I visited a week ago), wrote nice cover letters that weren't canned, and honestly fit an eff-ton of the requirements. Perhaps I can do better (which is the case for a lot of things, really), but I'm kinda thunderstruck. Right now it's a matter of licking my wounds and pressing on. There are other chances. Perhaps I should stretch out beyond writing/editing. After all, many writers didn't work in publishing, some were far from that in fact. May not need that route, just accept what is offered to me and go for it.
I think I have to go outside the box for this one, y'all.
Wish me luck. And may the same good luck go for us all.
*meme does not belong to me*
And... nope.
I redid my resume (a tip from the alumni career counselor I visited a week ago), wrote nice cover letters that weren't canned, and honestly fit an eff-ton of the requirements. Perhaps I can do better (which is the case for a lot of things, really), but I'm kinda thunderstruck. Right now it's a matter of licking my wounds and pressing on. There are other chances. Perhaps I should stretch out beyond writing/editing. After all, many writers didn't work in publishing, some were far from that in fact. May not need that route, just accept what is offered to me and go for it.
I think I have to go outside the box for this one, y'all.
Wish me luck. And may the same good luck go for us all.
*meme does not belong to me*
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Wow...
This meme actually relates to me. Believe it or not, that was how I got my job at the nonprofit.
Too bad it isn't last very long. And that's just the way it is...
Too bad it isn't last very long. And that's just the way it is...
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Just finished reading...
the second book of the Angelology series (Angelopolis) and whoo... dat ending.
Dis gonna be good.
This will be my reaction when the final book of the series comes out. I can't wait. I want to know how it will end!
This stupid post was brought to you by the post's theme song:
Mr. Petty, can you be that fun Southern uncle I never had?
*meme does not belong to me*
Dis gonna be good.
This will be my reaction when the final book of the series comes out. I can't wait. I want to know how it will end!
This stupid post was brought to you by the post's theme song:
Mr. Petty, can you be that fun Southern uncle I never had?
*meme does not belong to me*
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Some Random Thoughts on Depression
I've been reading quite a few DIY, minimalist, and life coaching blogs these days. Mostly to get a grasp on how to figure out life and what to do in a myriad of situations.
I've had depression since I was 19 and OCD since I was 13, so I've lived with these two ornery gits for a long time, almost half my life (at least, in the case of OCD). So I'm having to learn how to live with them in my life, but taking on a different role. A backseat one, if you will. One where I have more control of my emotions, how I react to things, and so forth. Prior to that, my emotions could be all over the place and even out of control at times (at the worst possible times too, like at work and even with loved ones). It was ugly, no wonder I really hated myself. I wasn't that pleasant to be around.
Besides doing a lot of psychological healing, I have to do a lot of physical (both bodily and outside myself) work too. I've mentioned about having so much stuff because I bought things whenever I was emotional or in need of something to fill the hole up that depression drilled into me. I've been selling and getting rid of a lot of stuff. I find myself not wanting as much stuff anymore, but save enough money to live off of feasibly. In terms of my body, I've been eating better and drinking more water. I save sodas and alcohol as treats but I rarely have it anyway. I enjoy treats like cookies and cake more when I have it less often. It makes me appreciate it all even more. Plus, I also put on weight when I was depressed (about twenty pounds actually).
I've been incorporating exercise (Pilates and running via treadmill and Zombies, Run!) into my life, keeping a journal both here and on paper IRL, looking for another job that utilizes my skills and keeps me on a good health plan so I can continue to be mentally and physically healthy, making plans for tomorrow and further into the future, and all this blog-reading has helped me save money and even budget better.
It is a long road of recovery, probably one I'll be on for the rest of my life. I'll stumble, have to pull into the breakdown lane (insert reference to Jerry Harrison/Casual Gods song here), and I may even have another episode. Who knows? But at least I'm more sure of how to handle it and even work through it if it gets to that point.
Yes, depression is not fun to live with. Yes, you will have to deal with it for the rest of your life. But it is better than the other option (speaking of death here). Just trust me on this one, my friends, from someone who's been on the brink more than once.
I've had depression since I was 19 and OCD since I was 13, so I've lived with these two ornery gits for a long time, almost half my life (at least, in the case of OCD). So I'm having to learn how to live with them in my life, but taking on a different role. A backseat one, if you will. One where I have more control of my emotions, how I react to things, and so forth. Prior to that, my emotions could be all over the place and even out of control at times (at the worst possible times too, like at work and even with loved ones). It was ugly, no wonder I really hated myself. I wasn't that pleasant to be around.
Besides doing a lot of psychological healing, I have to do a lot of physical (both bodily and outside myself) work too. I've mentioned about having so much stuff because I bought things whenever I was emotional or in need of something to fill the hole up that depression drilled into me. I've been selling and getting rid of a lot of stuff. I find myself not wanting as much stuff anymore, but save enough money to live off of feasibly. In terms of my body, I've been eating better and drinking more water. I save sodas and alcohol as treats but I rarely have it anyway. I enjoy treats like cookies and cake more when I have it less often. It makes me appreciate it all even more. Plus, I also put on weight when I was depressed (about twenty pounds actually).
I've been incorporating exercise (Pilates and running via treadmill and Zombies, Run!) into my life, keeping a journal both here and on paper IRL, looking for another job that utilizes my skills and keeps me on a good health plan so I can continue to be mentally and physically healthy, making plans for tomorrow and further into the future, and all this blog-reading has helped me save money and even budget better.
It is a long road of recovery, probably one I'll be on for the rest of my life. I'll stumble, have to pull into the breakdown lane (insert reference to Jerry Harrison/Casual Gods song here), and I may even have another episode. Who knows? But at least I'm more sure of how to handle it and even work through it if it gets to that point.
Yes, depression is not fun to live with. Yes, you will have to deal with it for the rest of your life. But it is better than the other option (speaking of death here). Just trust me on this one, my friends, from someone who's been on the brink more than once.
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