vespera | Recent Entries

Site Work

+ Started building up my twitter account for the new site. Following people in my area who might be interested, and tweeting at people etc. Also listed in Twellow.com now.

+ Installed a bunch of SEO stuff, and have analytics running so I will be able to watch traffic.

+ Started working on content for the website. Takes a bit longer than I thought! But I guess I can just get bare bones stuff up and start filling it out as I go.

Life

+ Blew up on the apartment people, twice. They still have not fixed our dryer and we are all out of clean clothes. They have a (short) list of people with AC's broken...which goes first, but a week? Really? Is your phone broken? Wanna try some customer service skills? She told us that they will NOT be giving us money to dry our items at the laundromat...but she has NO idea when we will have a dryer again? For real? Do I get a discount or something on my rent? (Not likely)

+ Jen told me that we actually signed a 15 month lease so it's not impossible to think about going somewhere better when that time gets closer.

+ Took the kids swimming today, yay!

+ Buch of crap at work is stressing me out and making me really angry.

Tommorrow

+ Gotta work on cleaning my room a bit

+ Thinking about working on a wasabi deviled eggs recipe.

+ Waiting in vain for a dryer that will never get fixed.

+ UPS guy is coming with one of my Spanish things for school.

+ COX might come? No idea.

+ Finish my second info barrel article.

+ Maybe create a site plan for allvegasmusic???

+ Call my man. Play m.a.s.h. like a 13 year old school girl.

Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/37654.html

Not gonna lie, wasted some time on the internet reading gossip columns - lol.

Set up a twitter account for my niche site:
https://twitter.com/AllVegasMusic

Also started playing with theme ideas...but have a temp splash page up right now.

My infobarrell article was returned, and needed another 75 words or so. This was great because I improved the article, and learned more about the process. Hopefully my first article will be approved tomorrow. I need to brainstorm more article ideas. Some people are earning over $100 a month writing for this site. I think they all maximize keywords and such. I think i will start out writing stuff I am really familiar with and maybe try to maximize keywords once I get the hang of it.

Stayed up too late but got some stuff done with my sis. She's going to pay to get cable internet installed at our house. This will be WAY cheaper for me for like...4-5 months or so. Then the bill goes up and is five bucks less than what I pay now. I have to pay to get out of my contract but I have some money coming next month that can help. This will also make my bill more flexible because it's not automatically deducted from my account. Happy me!

...Just remembered my student orientation starts in three hours. FUCK!

Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/37564.html

New adventure!

I've decided to experiment with a keyword savvy domain name, in homes of turning in a small income from my internet endeavors. A lot of people are able to do this well, and I don't see why I can't either?

Basically you create a niche website and monetize it. If you do this well it can generate a small monthly income, through adwords, affiliate marketing, and the like. If you don't do it well...it's a small investment. I essentially just need to earn $10 to earn my money back, and if I don't do this I can just drop the domain in a year.

I purchased allvegasmusic.com (It's still propagating and nothing is there yet.)

I am going to aim the website at Las Vegas based musicians and rock music fans. Places to gig at, tips for marketing, where to get gear, local band music to try, etc. It doesn't have to be a highly active blog if the site is set up well. While I am competing for Vegas keywords, I can create a site that is useful for non locals or include regular music fans as well if I am savvy. The idea is to get high in google so you can generate enough traffic for an income.

Have to work out my angle some more.

If this does really well I could also branch out and try doing some of the things I really love to do, like interviews and other press stuff.

Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/37223.html

Keep wondering if I am doing the right thing.

Is a culinary degree really for me? I mean, like, I know I love to cook - but am I passionate about food? Am I as passionate about food as I was - Askew?

I keep thinking to myself, man - I really want to do Corvid. So bad. I'd rather be stressed out and running around in music pits than much of anything else. I don't think I feel that way about food. I don't feel the same love towards developing a recipe as I do developing an interview.

Who knows aughhhhh

Either way, gotta do it. Even if I decide to take the plunge again - I have to have a backup plan this time. (Or a better job, lol.)

Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/36108.html

Mr.Bat posted a video to youtube. My username on there is w0nderturk3y. Anyway hes like spinning in his old military uniform and then changes into a wonder woman shirt and wears a turkey hat. He blows me a kiss its so cute :3 Geeks in love.

Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/35995.html

Trying to figure out how to handle my book situation in school. Financial aid might take a while, I think it's almost better just to get book rentals going so I know I have what I need. I want to try Chegg, and I am sending in some old Japanese textbooks. Hopefully I can get a credit towards this semesters books. That would be nice :3

I was hoping to at least keep the Spanish but..outside of actual classes textbooks just gather dust in my house. I can always buy some more Spanish books if I find ones that I like. I have SO MANY Japanese books, because I devoured them all. I feel a lot pickier with the Spanish, I dunno...it seems like a lot of the books are old. Maybe not so many people are interested in learning it. I would love to sell all my Japanese books on Ebay, but several of them have been written in...and honestly it's such a pain to sell stuff online.

Not sure how early I will manage to get up tomorrow, lol. Need to mail off my books soon. Kind of wanted to go to the comic book store and pick up the free Batman but who knows. After work I'll be seeing the dark knight. Yay!

Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/35542.html

I've been thinking about the ways that I divide my time, because lately it seems like all I have the time to do is work and sleep!

When I was in H.S. I had time for friends, shopping, cleaning, beauty stuff, pretty much everyone? Maybe not enough sleep, but you know how it goes. I spent a lot of time working on my website, but I led a pretty full life I suppose.

So while I seem to actually feel a lot better lately...I feel like I am still stuck in a rut.

There's too many fun distractions online, pinterest...tumblr...facebook. Too much getting sucked into the internet on stuff that doesn't really matter.

I can easily waste hours just reading things I didn't care about five minutes ago and would likely never care for again!

So I'm not sure what to do here but it does give me some hope to think about all this. See...there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to work, do school, and have time for my fam. I just need to start hacking out the internet like the dandelion that it is.

Something about social networking is really starting to irritate me. Does nobody talk anymore? Do we create?

Used to be, that if you were online you would have to create your own website. It wasn't a form you filled out that looked like every page every one else had. Sure there were templates, but you had to think of what to include. A lot of people I knew were on LJ back then. We created actual journals...not these silly play-by-play updates. We wrote, and when we weren't on the internet we were not tethered to it in any way.

I'm guilty of this of course, but I'm starting to look at it like a horrible addiction. You do not need to know what I had for breakfast, see what flower I saw by lunch, or know every random thought in my head. But more importantly, I do not need to be suckered into updating it either. I think facebook is like one of those science experiments where you train the mouse to push the button for cheese. Pushing the button more doesn't actually enrich my life. It just makes me fat and miserable.

So I dunno. Maybe I need to really rethink what I am investing time into when I am online, and how much time I am really willing to give up for it. I need to spend more of my day doing things that enrich my actual reality, and break the bad habit of zoning out in front of my computer the way some people zone out in front of a TV.

Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/35163.html

I found out through a coworker that the store manager for a neighboring store, who barely knows me - feels the need to make comments about my tattoo's.

This person is usually pretty rude when they come to my store, but has talked to me a little before as they purchased their coffee.

My coworker went to the store, as their employees are rather friendly with us. The manager decided to tell my coworker that she thinks that my tattoo is extremely offensive, and that she doesn't want to shop in my store anymore. I saw her employee later and she related that it wasn't just me, she's horrified that my employer recently hired another man with tattoo's and piercings. As a Christian, she was closed minded and felt like she didn't want to be subjected to such things.

Now, maybe I am sheltered a bit because I've been rather...alternative for the entirety of my adulthood. I surround myself with artistic types and open minded people from all walks of life. My boyfriend and I have had people literally pull their kids in other directions because of the way we were dressed. (Not even offensively, just dark I guess?) I understand that doing things like having tattoo's and dressing weird are going to attract attention, but I am at a phase where it's so rare. When it happens it really kind of takes me back.

I have no offensive tattoo's. I have a star, a heart with my boyfriend's name, a pair of chef knives, the letter D, and a cross. Yes, a cross was my first tattoo BTW...and the rest of it is related to life experiences that God was so kind as to bless me with.

The chef knives really seem to drive people batty. I think it's because they are so big. Apparently customers, and I imagine coworkers, feel the need to tell my coworker that they think my tattoo is stupid or ugly or not to their standard in some way. Other coworkers never talk to me directly of course, because this is mean spirited and cowardly behavior at it's finest. Guests comment all the time. One guy asked me if I liked to kill people.

My body is my own.

I do not have naked demon babies or anything remotely offensive pictured on my body. I have chef knives. I am a culinary student, but more importantly I am passionate about food. (I plan on making my sleeve almost entirely food related.) If I did decide to tattoo naked demon babies or something offensive I imagine it still wouldn't be anyone's business. It's not like I crawled through anyone's window at night and tattoo'd naked demon babies on them while they were sleeping.

I am a Christian, and I think it's pretty judgey for another Christian to get all offended about something that has nothing to do with them and then talk maliciously about you. I imagine this kind of stuff doesn't amuse God that much. I seem to remember something about loving your neighbor and not throwing rocks or whatever.

I don't know what else to say really, besides that I probably need to pray for this person. I probably also need to ask God to continually grant me patience and help me be a better example than the grumpy one I usually am.

I'd like to come up with some kind of set phrase I can use when faced with rude or inappropriate comments about my body. I'd like for it not to be rude, but to be clear that I am not open to that sort of thing at all. Something I need to ponder.

Anyway...updates to my main blog:

Being True. Thoughts on being extremely open on the internet.

God is not a genie. Reflecting on where I am now, vrs. where I was when I became a Christian again.

Current Music: Toshinori Kondo - Sun is Shining
Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/35026.html

Aaaah, so long since I've been on Dreamwidth!

I keep getting sucked back into LJ, likely because it's still more populated, lol.

So I want to try to update on here more...

I've been feeling kind of blah about my various projects lately. I don't know if I really want to do a personal blog thing on my main website. Common wisdom and pinterest glory generally dictates that to run a successful public blog...you have to provide useful service. I think writing recipe's is rather boring, and I don't really have a lot of time to research for writing self-help articles at the moment. lol.

I guess things could be better focused once I start school because I wanted to write about my experiences doing the culinary program...but ahhh. I have no brand. I think it's my Sagg nature holding me back here. I have too many interests puling me in too many different directions.

I also have a hard time working on this stuff when I come home and there's so much house stuff to do and I am just getting beat up at work right now.

Lately I have been enjoying Kevin Smith's new Fat Man on Batman podcast. Brilliant. Listening to Paul Dini get all teary eyed when he talked about the emotional moments in cartoon show episodes he wrote like 20 years ago is superbly touching. Amazing talent, and truly personable dude. When an episode starts the song says, "Batman, who art in Gotham, cowl be thy name..." and it cracks me up every time.

"Food is the new rock," is also an amazing show. Honestly I wish I thought of it myself, it would have been an amazing blog! They interview bands about food, and chef's about music. Genius.

Now, if you'll excuse me I will be nose first into a nutrition book.

Current Location: home
Crossposts: http://unknownsea.livejournal.com/34789.html

Lately I have had my nose in the book "Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House."

This is an amazing book full of all the little secrets homemakers past took for granted, and obvious nuance that someone who did not grow up in a well kept home - would completely miss.

So far I am putting my apartment on a daily cleaning schedule. It's going to take a few weeks to get everything caught up but that's what happens when things are not kept regularly!

Turned in my keys for the old apartment today. Was kind of nice to leave there knowing that I would not be back.

I am still working on closing my BofA account. I just ordered checks with my new bank that have my new address. :)

Read a good part of the Batman book I am in. Love the character of Damien, and it's so nice to see his more human side as well. I do love that Alfred seems to really get the kid in a way, must remind him a lot of Bruce!

Mr. B called me this evening and we talked for a very long time! I even took a bath while we were on the phone and I nearly shorted the entire thing! Woops!

Today my depression was really bad! Not sure why, but I think a lot of it just has to do with the uncertainty of a lot of the things in my life which was aggravated by a couple of really regretful (and costly) lapses of memory. Apparently I threw away nearly $50 in rebates and phone credit. Why am I like this? lol I think with my depression my health habits become a lot worse. I am considering trying to find an anti-depressant.

I finally got 1Q84 from the library and will be starting that shortly. The book is much longer than I expected...

Saluton!

Kind of sad that Mr. B didn't call me for Christmas. :(

Had fun with my family though and we ate a lot!

This entry is very short but it's late and my journal is so empty >_< lol