Welcome to School Days Long Gone

Next Monday is Labor Day, that means that school will officially be back in session for students everywhere in the USA. Some schools started already, while others are starting this week or next Tuesday at latest. Most college students have already gone back (with varying degrees of embarrassment because their parents are processing the emotions of their child leaving them). I, however, will be going back to my day job and this week's blog post (like many at the end of August) will focus on me not going back to school.

This is your reminder that winter comes after fall and that it does snow in Southern VA.

My first year after I graduate was weird. Back then, I was used to working all summer and then heading back to school in the middle of August. Instead of heading back, though, I helped my little sibling move into their Freshmen dorm.

It's not as weird now, even with the back to school commercials. No, what I am now confronted with is the fact that my friends and relatives are starting to send their kids to school. I know that some of my friends have gotten married and had children, but I still feel far too immature to have my own little ones at the moment, let alone be married.

I honestly don't think I feel that much different from when I was 15 or 16. It probably doesn't help that I'm still often mistaken as a high school student. No I'm not kidding. Maybe, I've matured a bit (which is important) and am focused on different things than my 16 year old self ever focused on.

My transition from full time student to full time member of the work force, has been a challenging one. Sure I'm still learning and working on projects, but I'm so grateful to no longer have to take tests. Now I just have annual reviews, which I think are as stressful as tests, but happen a lot less frequently. My vacation time is also a lot shorter, but I can go places in the off season.

For 12-16 years, school occupied most of my life and during that time, I couldn't wait to be an adult. I could make my own choices about where to go and what to have for dinner. I could stay up super late and watch anything I wanted to on TV. Back then, I didn't really think about a job, paying bills, or responsibilities part of growing up.

The 30 minute sitcoms that are popular always seemed to show the main characters when they weren't at work. Yeah they would occasionally mention their jobs or have the odd episode that featured their place of work, but most of the time the half hour was focused on their family or social lives. As a kid, I thought that life outside of work was what being a grown up was. I didn't realize how different from an episode of Friends or How I Met Your Mother my life would be.

For the past few years my career has been at the forefront of my thoughts (with a few side trips into relationships, exploring my interests, and plotting to take over the world - patent pending). I think it's a bit natural to feel weird or extremely nostalgic at this time of year. Something that was a huge part of your life is over. Sure going back to school is always an option and I'm sure if I ever did, I'd have another emotional roller coaster ride to go through.

But I'm not going back to school. I'm also not 16 (as I kindly point out to the people who actually think I am - this has happened recently and more than once). I have friends who have gotten married and a few who now have kids. I pay bills, lots and lots of bills. I've even started saving for retirement (which is a really long way away).

I want to wish everyone who is going back to school this year the best of luck. I hope you guys do well and are able to have some fun in between all those tests and studying. Maybe someday I'll get my Masters in [insert subject here], but I have a lot to do before then.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week!

Welcome to Car Trouble & Other Uncontrollable Problems

If I were to be honest with myself, I would have to admit that I like to be in control. Maybe it's because of my independent streak or my need for planning things out, but I like feeling in control of my life. I'm sure many of my readers feel the same way. So when something that I don't plan on happening happens, I tend to start overthinking things.

For example, my car has been having problems shifting gears. This isn't an unusual issue for the kind of car I drive. In fact the warranty has been extended for this issue for a few extra years. However, this is something that can take a while to fix if the parts aren't in.

My car is my primary mode of transportation. There are alternatives I can use (I live right across the street from the train station), but they are not the most convenient to get to work and I hate unconvincing anyone to ask for help (that doesn't mean I won't, I just feel bad about it). When I don't have my car I tend to get antsy.

Before taking my car into the dealership, I did some research as to which place I should go to (there are a couple close by) and what the Internet had to say about them. Now the Internet tends to be on the extremes when it comes to reviews, people either love something or they hate it. Then there are the fake reviews that can either be a smear campaign or a means of boosting up a rating. Looking in the Internet did not decrease my anxiety at all.

But the car needed to be looked at, so to the nearest dealership I went. I took a deep breath and I packed a bag full of snacks, books, notebooks and my knitting. I was set to wait at the dealership all day, which didn't end up happening because after they found out what was wrong and made sure they had all the parts to fix it, they took me home with the promise to come get me later that day when it was fixed.

This didn't stop me from worrying while I didn't have my car. What if they found something else wrong with he car. What if it wasn't covers under the warranty? What if a giant fell out of the sky and landed on my car squashing it for good ( as unplausable as that last one is I once saw a car combust in the parking lot at work, so my imagination went a little out there).

Today I feel a little silly for being so worried. Even though everything turned out alright for me, not having a car can be a real problem when there aren't many options for backup transportation. John Oliver went into detail about it this past week on his YouTube channel. If you haven't seen it yet, it's on pre-approved auto loans and it's a good watch.

Having a plan is a good idea if the worst should ever happen, but the worst that can happen isn't something that can always be planned on. I never thought an earthquake would hit Virginia and yet it did five years ago when I was just arriving at school.

It would be nice if I could control everything in my life, but then nothing unexpected would happen. And the unexpected can lead to some pretty awesome experiences, as well as some of the strangest.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from my readers. Until next week.

Welcome To Perseverance

Happy middle of August everyone! It's hot as all get out where I am, but that didn't stop one side of my family from coming out to our 84th Family Reunion. It was very hot, but we had around 30 people there. 84 years is a long time and we're hoping we make it to our 100th reunion.

Anything (be it an event, a business, or life expectancy, etc.) that lasts to 100 years is impressive. It requires dedication, hard work, a pinch of fun, and a lot of perseverance mixed with persistence (yep these are two different words with very similar meanings). I also think it's fun to think that so much has changed in that 100 years.

I have wanted to be a writer for a long time. I started a "family newspaper" when I was about 10 or 11 years old. There were three or so issues and I'm pretty sure one of my aunts has a copy somewhere in their house. I unfortunately didn't keep up with it (though thinking back that's probably a good thing). In high school, I took my school's journalism class and two creative writing classes. I also wrote my "first" novel around that time (it's in quotes because though there might be a paper version hiding somewhere out there, but for the most part it's lost to technology advancement).

I figure, if I keep at it long enough, I'll eventually polish up one of my other novels I'm working on, and send it out for publication (whether on an independent or traditional track is up in the air). For now, I keep working on my blogs (click here to see my second one that involves food - shameless plug, this is), my webcomic (see below - the title also shows up if you type it into Google), and experimenting with my writing style with fanfiction (sorry no links provided, but I'm working in the horror genre).

Mortimer's advice for marketing a webcomic...

I've made some progress since posting my first works. I have small followings (and a couple of fans who get annoyed when I disappear for a few months), but nothing major. I'm certainly no Anne Rice or Steven King (or that lady who wrote 50 Shades of Grey - seriously it was originally a Twilight Fanfiction). However my writing career is still more of a pass time hobby, then the driving force of my existence. It could change, but I have a lot more work to do before then.

This past week, I got to see Matthew Santoro at a book signing. He makes educational videos on YouTube, which are entertaining and great to listen to. The book is a "fun facts" type of book, with tons of weird and hilarious fact, much like his YouTube channel. Before he signed all of the books (over 100 people were at the event), he spoke to us for about an hour, allowing his fans to ask him questions. A lot of the questions he answered were about starting his YouTube Channel. He started uploading videos in 2011, but didn't start getting big until late 2013. There were many times he wanted to give up, but he kept on doing what he loved. He also said not to try to make it big with anything controversial. Not only will it fizzle and die out quickly, but you'll likely make a lot of enemies.

That is a great success story. His persistence and perseverance paid off and now he has turned his hobby into something that he loves. He's also not alone. On the website that I upload my webcomic to, there have been a few people who have made an announcement that they have been hired by one of the big comic book publishers. They now get to make comic for a living. The president of my current company is another good example.

Don't get me wrong, it does take some luck to turn a passion into a career. However, it also takes a lot of hard work, and perseverance. J. K. Rowling loves to talk about how many times the first Harry Potter book was rejected and look at how successful it has turned out (I bet all the people who rejected her initially have been kicking themselves ever since). Fred Astaire, one of Hollywood's biggest stars back in the day, was once told that he "couldn't act, couldn't sing, could dance a little." I guess he didn't take that criticism to heart.

I'm sure a lot of people want to be noticed right away (the media certainly seems to think so anyway). They want to go viral, they want to have a following, they want to matter to people. It just doesn't happen instantaneously. Most success stories talk about the first few years struggles and how many times the person or group almost quit. Then there are the failed stories that we never get to hear about (and it might have been for any number of reasons, not because they didn't work hard enough).

I write because it's what I love to do. Would I love to have 100 hits with each post or become a house hold name (well maybe not the latter - I like being in the shadows too much)? Yes, I'd love that kind of recognition. But I'm also happy when one person clicks on any of my work (sure it might be a spam bot, but it was a hit none the less and I will be excited about it).

I still need to balance my writing passion with my day job. I won't lie, I kind of like keeping the two separate right now.

But if you have a passion or a drive to do something, please keep at it! You never know what might happen. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me.

Until next week.

Welcome To Chopped

I'm sensing a theme in my latest blog posts. Last week, I had just watched Star Trek Beyond. This week I am basing my title (and theme) off of the fact that I've been watching a lot of Chopped on Netflix. I'm actually watching Chopped as I type up this post (seated in my kitchen).

If you aren't familiar with the show, it's basically four chefs compete in three course rounds where at the end of each round, one person is "chopped" (does not advance to the next round). On top of that, they are given four mystery ingredients that they have to use for that round and only a limited amount of time to create their dishes. There have been many ingredients that popped up that I have no idea what they are.

It's amazing what these competitors can do.

It's so much fun to watch and I get a lot of great ideas to make my own dishes. Between Chopped and my local farmer's market, I've been introduced to a lot of new things to eat. Not just the types of food, but also the colors and shapes the food I'm used to can take.

Orange cauliflower anyone?

I think it takes a lot of guts to work with anything (be it food, technology, or crafting items) that someone might not be familiar with. It might work out, but at least the effort was made and a new experience learned.

Back in January (right before I started my current job), I started a food blog. I did this in an effort to get out of my comfort zone, learn to cook new things, and continue to practice writing (along with this blog, my webcomic, fanfiction, and my own original fiction - yes this is a lot of writing).

For the most part, I've had a lot of success with my cooking experiments (I don't always follow a recipe). However, I have had a few things blow up in my face. When that happens, I sometimes have to make changes to my lunch/dinner plans. (S/N pan frying is a lot harder than it looks).

I can't always plan for when one of my cooking experiments blows up in my face (that only happened once by the way). Experimenting allows me to find out what works and what I definitely will not do ever again. It's fun and keeps me on my toes.

Leftover BBQ Pork Rice Bowl

I doubt I'd ever compete on Chopped (I don't really like the idea of being on camera), but I do respect the people who do compete. Experimenting is key to innovation and it can be a surprise as to what works and what doesn't.

Now, I'm going to try making chocolate covered potato chips. It can't bee too hard right?

If you enjoyed this post (or if really pissed you off) please like, share, and/or leave a comment. I love hearing from my readers and I hope you guys like hearing from me. Until next week!