Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Mar 1, 2010 General
I signed up for MyLikes and I am already making money with tweets. I like this system. They do not force you to advertise anything. You accept a campaign you like, duh, MyLikes! It is one tweet per day and per click. I’ve made $6 so far with two campaigns.
MyLikes also offers paid blog posts, per click, but I have yet to try those out. I’ll give them a go sometime next week.
MyLikes has a payout of $2 and payments are sent every Friday. Full disclosure comes with every tweet link. Looks honest, promising and good pay. I’ll check them out more and publish a review at Associated Content.
Feb 24, 2010 General
Where did I go? I am still here, just really busy with writing projects. I was accepted into Associated Content’s Featured Contributor program. The program is very new.
Interested writers had to submit applications for each category. We had to provide information such as education and work experience. We also had to have previous work published at AC that related to our categories of choice, and a few other requirements.
I am now Associated Content’s Featured Technology, Beauty and Pets Contributor! It is an honor to be accepted in these three categories. I have so much more to publish. Can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to be considered good enough for FC. So… back to work!
Jan 21, 2010 General
I miss sleeping. I function better after 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep. I blame Conan O’Brien, because I’ve been staying up late to watch the NBC debacle. We have a DVR, but I’d hate to wake up in the morning and feel out of loop. Catching zings as they happen is far more entertaining. I’m with COCO!
I haven’t been sleeping well for several reasons. I cannot blame Conan for everything. Life is good but always busy. Taxes are right around the corner. I have a few more deductions to go through and all my 1099s to collect. Freelancing and self-employment cracks me up around tax time. My poor accountant has to sift through several 1099s and schedules. I should have at least 7 different forms to file. So glad my accountant does not charge per form!
Freelancers freak out around tax time. Remember to breathe and go through your write-offs meticulously. You have the right to a lot of deductions, including the use of your home for business purposes.
My husband went back to work. He’s responded well to physical therapy. Standing all day causes some swelling and pain, but it is slowly getting better. I’m looking forward to February. It should be an exciting month for us. Financially we are well on our way and meeting goals. We have a few things happening in our personal life (no babies), so it should be a good month. So much to live and hope for, so much more to achieve together. I’m loving life, even on a bad day.
Jan 16, 2010 General
I cannot tell you how amazing this month has been. I have accomplished a lot after months and months of hard work. I will be posting updates soon with some amazing news. I am still trying to wrap my thoughts around everything.
I also need to update my progress bar. Unfortunately, I may fall short of my 300-article goal. That is fine for January, but I will make sure to accomplish it in February. I have covered interesting topics and learned a lot in the past few weeks. I love my job. The ability to learn something new every day is what attracts me the most to freelance writing.
January 2010 is my biggest month at Demand Studios. I love writing for DS, especially in the technology/computer categories. I write about what I know and love every minute of it.
I have several projects planned for Associated Content. I’ll leave you with an intimate piece about a very difficult time in my life. This article needed to be written. I am glad my friends encouraged me to publish it. I am proud that my work contributed to the relief efforts in Haiti.
Associated Content: Why I Feel Compassion for the Children of Haiti
Jan 14, 2010 General
Abby, my mother-in-law’s Daschund. She’s an old gal. Abby loves wrapping paper and opening up gifts. Abby was busy opening up her Christmas present, which contained animal crackers.
Jan 6, 2010 General
The New Year is slowly improving for us. My husband’s health is better and he’s started physical therapy sessions. Hopefully he will be on light duty in a month. His employer wants him back, even if it’s just to stand around and do nothing. I know he’s bored to death and would love to go do something, just to get out of the house. We have several follow up appointments scheduled with his specialist, to keep an eye on ligament damage in his leg and also see the progress he’s made during recovery. So far so good.
My work is going well. It is actually excellent. I’m sticking to my 2010 goals and working hard to publish 300 new articles every month. I’ve installed a Progress Bar plugin (on the right sidebar) to keep track. I have to manually change the current articles value, so you may not see it in real-time. Actually, I promise you won’t see real-time progress tracking because I’m keeping my behind busy.
I’m also trying to be optimistic. I know things will be better and everything always has a way of working out for the best. I just have to stay focused and do what needs to be done. So 300 new articles… here I come!
Jan 1, 2010 General
What a crappy year. It started getting better for a while (2008 was a total disaster) but now it’s back to the same old. My husband’s severe ankle sprain will cause him to be off work for at least two months. He’s looking at aggressive physical therapy, three times a week, with the hopes that gets him walking in three weeks. His work may or may not give him paid short term disability. While at least his job is safe, he may not receive anything financially. Even if that is the case, it would be better than losing all of our health insurance benefits. So many ifs and not knowing, for at least another week until the HR department hashes it all out.
I should be more optimistic, but right now I just wish we had a better start on 2010. Everything was going so well. We had so much to look forward. I’m slightly disappointed but more worried about my husband’s long-term health. His ankle may never be the same, considering the severe damage done to ligaments and nerves.
2010 New Year Resolutions
I have the usual resolutions for 2010 – health and happiness of my family. They are my main priority and taking care of them is what matters most.
Having a little more optimism. Less complaining and more taking care of business. Financially things may be rough the first few months but we will get through it. So to help, I plan on working as much as possible every single day.
I have made a goal of writing 300 new articles every single month. I’ll concentrate on Associated Content, Bukisa and Demand Studios for now. Other projects I can consider as they come along. I’m in a good place where I can say no anytime I want, but I’ll never let a good opportunity pass me by.
Three hundred new articles every single month may sound outrageous but it is completely doable. Just a lot of focus and time management.
So 2010, feel free to bring it. I’m ready for whatever you have to throw our way.
Dec 22, 2009 General
The past few days have been insane. I woke up this morning feeling as if a fleet of buses ran over me. With my husband’s sprain ankle to deal with, I’ve had to pick up all household and parenting duties. He can do a few things off the couch, like change the TV channels. Other than that, he’s constantly miserable and in pain. At his doctor’s appointment today, more fractures (or chips) were found. The emergency room scan found only one, but the techs never bothered to scan his entire foot. They only scanned the ankle part, and he has at least two additional fractures below what we thought was the only one. So now he has to have an MRI done this week before any definite prognosis can be made. It does not help that it’s right around Christmas and every doctor’s office is short on staff.
He’s obviously unable to work and has no sick or paid vacation days. So now we are stuck with one income for several weeks or at least until his vacation kicks in. At least we are the type of people who manage money carefully and save up. We’ll be okay and I’m not hitting the panic button just yet. Maybe I have my finger on it but I’m not ready to scream. Life happens at the strangest moments and when you least want something terrible to occur. The timing could not be worse. I feel bad for him but I still feel like kicking him for being a dumbass. And I certainly do not need more work. I have 10 articles, 6 blog posts and a website to finish up. All in a matter of days, and I also have to research light oak furniture. So no play time or days off for me, there are bills to be paid.
Dec 20, 2009 General
Kody’s second birthday party was a small but fun affair. We kept it simple by inviting family and closest friends. A few invited guests could not attend due to snow forecast and bad weather fears. I wish we had more kids to invite, but understandably parents can’t drag kids to parties if they are feeling sick or bad weather is coming. We still had a good time and Kody was all smiles.
I started preparing for the party days ahead but ended up shopping last minute for a few items. Everyone complimented my food and that certainly made me happy. I put a lot of work into my little boy’s party. We had fresh and homemade salmon cakes, beef barbecue, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets (for picky eaters) and potato salad. There was a table with homemade ranch dip, fresh baked cookies and cake. Even though we had a lot of food, I managed to not go overboard. I did spend hours making homemade Italian meatballs but they were just not up to par. I’m not known for cooking mediocre food so I kept them for us. Kody did eat half a cookie sheet of meatballs that were cooling off. I was so busy with everything else that I did not see him sneaking his little fingers on the counter and eating half of the tray behind my back.
I had also intended on rotating all of his new toys. I thought we could introduce new toys every few weeks, just to keep things interesting and keep the chaos down. Well that did not work out because he had to open every single present. Being the only grandchild, Kody somehow gets away with anything. This includes demanding to open up all of his toys immediately. He did have a great time and that is all that matters. Our child is loved by so many wonderful people. Even if they all came empty handed, Kody would have appreciated their love and support. I know my husband and I love the fact that our kid is growing up surrounded by amazing people that love him more than words can describe.
We are not parents of a two year old boy. He’s smart, amazing and well-behaved. His vocabulary is impressive and he’s well advanced for his age. We tackled birthday and our house is in complete shambles thanks to new toys. Now we have to survive Christmas and we’ll be set for adventures that the New Year will bring.
Dec 20, 2009 General
First flurries started late last night around 11PM. We were existing the emergency room as the first snow fall started. You heard that right though. We made a late night ER trip, because my husband felt the need to practice his basketball skills during our son’s birthday party. It was an innocent mistake that resulted in a very bad ankle sprain (small fracture) and he’ll be on the couch for several days. His next doctor’s appointment is on Monday. We’ll find out how long his recovery will be and how many days or weeks he’ll take off work. His work is too demanding, there is no way for him to be on a job site even with a working boot on.
So now the East Coast is drowning in snow and I’m making friends with the snow shovel. We had a local business clean up most of it around our house but it just keeps pouring. I’d take a picture, but I’ll honestly scream if I see another snowflake. Living in Pennsylvania today is nothing like it was 15 years ago. We are not used to snow storms like this one. Snow fall may come, but it usually melts the same day. This is unusual for our area and I’m not too happy about my new snow shoveling activity. I keep resisting the urge to hit my husband over the head with the shovel and bury him in one of the snow piles.
According to weather reports that just came in, more snow is on the way. We may spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day buried neck deep in snow. So not fun…
