Welcome To Keeping Track

I have discovered that it becomes difficult to keep track of all the things that need to get done in a day, week, month and year. Ovcasionally it's not so much that I forget, but just didn't read the fine print, lost the due by date, or just procrastinated on purpose because I just didn't want to do it (this one usually leads to me forgetting to do whatever it is I put off). So here are a few things that I have started doing (or should be doing but haven't started yet - if ever).

1) Make a list of everything that needs to be done and keep it in a location that you will always notice. I usually have one hanging above my computer at the office.

2) Set an alarm. This one is usually good for the reoccurring weekly and monthly items on your list. Be careful it's still just as easy to hit the snooze button.

3) Have all bills in one location. This way you won't forget to pay one.

4) Ask someone to help you remember. I typically reserve this one for despritely times, however it is also flawed. If it's not at the forefront of their mind, it still might not get done.

Bonus: 5) Tie a string around your figure. This ridiculous old school method does indeed work, because you are usually constantly aware that you have a stupid looking string tied around your fungure.

Just remember that everyone is forgetful, after all we are only human. Most things we forget are easily corrected. When you can't fix a mistake, you move on and continue focusing on the future.

If you enjoyed this post or it really pissed you off, please comment or share it with friends, family or your worst enemy. I love hearing from my readers and I certainly apriciate the fact you guys seem to think I'm interesting enough to read. Thank you!

Until next week.

Welcome To Emails

You need to know how todo this properly!

I turn 23 soon. I don't feel any different. I did find a song to be my theme this year. "What's my age again" by Blink 182. Trust it works.

One of the most stressful parts of my job is one I do all the time, it's writing emails. People, especially young tech savvy people, might not realize how important it is to write a proper email. It is very difficult to convey tone through an email and it can be very easy to offend someone when you don't mean to. My boss tries to help me whenever he can to improve this skill because believe it or not it's not a skill learned in school.

Some tips for writing emails:

1) Don't use text speak. You should make sure everything is spelled and grammatically correct.

2) Check to make sure you are sending it to the right person or persons. I've already sent several emails to the wrong people. It is highly embarrassing and can get you into real deep trouble.

3) Never put anything negative in an email. My boss is constantly telling me this one and he is absolutely correct. If it's in writing and in cyberspace anyone might spot it and report it. That is my warning. Don't do it!

4) tone is difficult to convey - except when you type in caps. When someone types in caps it makes the reader think the writer is shorting at them. Ergo don't write in caps unless you want to piss someone off.

5) Reread the email before sending it. Make sure the email is clear and the person receiving it will understand what you are talking about. Otherwise this might cause more problems than solve.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please comment or share it with friends, family or your worst enemy. Though I will not tolerate cyberbullying. I'd also like to thank all my readers for the 1000 hits on my blog. Thank you all.

Welcome To The Laws Of The Jungle

The Odds Are Not In Your Favor...

This week was an emotional roller coaster for me. My cable company decided they were giving me too many channels for the price I was paying and took away about two thirds of them. I will miss TNT, TBS, Travel Channel, BBC America, and ABC Family, but it seems the cable company in question has me in a chock hold over how much the internet is worth. 

Now before I start getting an earful about what an entitled little millennial I am, I would like to point out that I am a) just starting out on a tight budget, b) my cable bill is almost always higher than my utilities bill combined (not counting January, February and March of this year with all the freezing weather), and finally c) the internet is required for me to do my job if I ever have to work from home. Believe it or not, sometimes I have to work from because of personal issues, complications with the internet at work (yeah this happened too), or I climate weather. Now I could go to the public library or coffee shop for internet service when I have to work from home, except when snow hits everything closes and I am still expected to work. Here lies my problem. 

Now there are a lot of self help website out there explaining how to "get the most out of your cable company", these morsels of advice only work if there is competition in your area. Since my apartment management apparently has an exclusive contract with one cable company, I have no means of competition to work with. I am stuck in a localized monopoly that seems top league the majority of the nation. Is this fair? No, but this is the way of life. 

I guess I was lulled into the fallacy that I live in a "free market capitalist society" where competition keeps prices low and consumers have choices. I guess I was wrong. There are very few things I can do to change these circumstances, though I am looking at my options carefully (writing the local politicians and national senators seems like a good yet useless endeavor). 

I think what I am most displeased with is my lack of choices. I like having many options that I can choose from and still keep a level of security. If life has taught me anything since leaving college, it's that the world is an expensive place to live in and that it's just not fair. People and companies lie (no a corporation  is not a person no matter how many loop holes they have to make it appear otherwise). I also have learned that I like having choices and get very cranky when these choices are taken away from me. 

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please leave a comment or share it with your friends, family or worst enemy. I kindly ask that you do not leave mean and spiteful messages as this will be seen as cyberbullying and I will be blocking, reporting and committing your name to memory (I will leave you to your imagination with that).

I would also like to take this moment to thank my readers. I am almost to 1000 hits on my blog in less than a year. I feel amazed and am grateful to all my loyal readers. Perhaps without all those channels I will finally buckle down and write those novels. 

Until next week.

Welcome To Weddings

Before I begin tonight's post, I would like to take a second to let everyone know that I received a very nasty message on Facebook today about my blog. Now this message did somewhat hurt, however, this troll actually took the time to read my blog before messaging me. This tells me that a)this person who trolled me has no real life and b) I must be doing something right if someone out there took the time to try to Cyberbully me. So I am going to keep writing and if anyone else decides for whatever reason to send nasty messages they shall be reported, blocked and ignored. I find trolls dull. They need more hugs in their lives. So moral of this cyberbullying is bad.

Anyway, on to the subject of weddings.

I have a friend from college and a coworker who are both getting married this summer. This is both wonderful and terrifying. It's wonderful to see how happy my friends are, but it's terrifying to think that this is the stage that my life is at. I've been to weddings in the past, but this is the first that it is a college friend getting married. I feel much older because of that fact.

Wedding educate is also a lot different now that I'm older. Before I didn't have to worry about the gifts or how to act and dress. My mom just told me what to do and I did it. I was always on my best behavior. It just feels different than from when I was a little kid.

I admit to fantasizing about getting married and living my life with my significant other. However I also admit that I personally have no idea what I want in life. I am currently content to keep seeing what happens right now. I have always lived by planning my next step. Right now i like not knowing the future.

I will just have to make double sure I remember the wedding present this time. I left part of the wedding shower gift behind. Oops.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) share it with friends, family or your worst enemies. I love hearing from my readers, though less so the trolls and cyberbullies (that is why to be famous you need such a thick skin). Please let me know your thoughts or if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes.

Welcome To Electricity And Lack Thereof...

Another week and another blog. I watched Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog tonight. If you haven't seen it, you should. Love Neil Patrick Harris, he's amazing in it. It's also Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family. I think I've hit a new HP overload. However, I have realized that I tend to forget that to watch all of these things I need electricity.

Well guess what, on Wednesday I woke up to no electricity. Yep that's right. I had no heat (yeah sure the calendar says it's Spring, I'll believe it when the weather starts acting like it). I had no mans of cooking breakfast. I also had a very hard time moving around in the bathroom.

Luckily I had some food I didn't need a microwave or hot water maker for and was able to eat that. I managed to put on make via cell phone and flashlight light. These things were still harder to pull off without overhead lights, but I at least looked decent. The coffee situation, though, had to wait until I got to my office. Three cups of coffee later and I was finally awake enough to realize my situation could have been worse.

The first thing I did, after noticing that my bedside light wouldn't go on, was to call my maintenance people. I left a message and quickly called BGE. BGE (the electric and gas company near me) informed me they already knew about the situation and were working to fix it. The estimated time for power to return 9:30, well after I was planning on leaving for work. I also have probably mentioned this, but the maintenance guys kind of know who I am. So they were nice enough to give me a call (fairly soon after the BGE call) and told me it had been a blown transformer or transfuse box (something along those lines). I got a little chuckle with the blown transformer idea (well my car is called Silverstreak).

I got to work almost an hour earlier than usual and finally got my coffee. I am fairly certain I looked like a hot mess all day, but not many people were in. Still all of this made me reflect on how important electricity is in my life. It is so ingrained that I hardly think about turning on a light or making coffee. I know I'm a bit crazy about my electrical consumption (to the point I unplug all devices in my kitchen when I'm not using them), but not having the option to turn on a light is scary and annoying. I do have candles, but you got to be careful to light anything (or anyone) on fire.

However, given the choice, I would still take no electricity over no water. I can at least survive without electricity, but water is vital to life (not to mention hygiene). If I lost power for the long term, I would be annoyed, but could survive. If I lost water for an indefinite period, I would flip out. I know have a new appreciation for having clean water I can use. With everything in he news recently about contaminated water in PA and WV, I am thankful for every glass full.

If you liked this post (or it really pissed you off) please leave a comment or share with your friends, family and/or your worst enemy. I love hearing from my readers and hope you enjoyed this week's post. Until next week!

Welcome To A Nice Break

Hello again loyal readers and followers (I know you exist). You guys probably noticed that I didn't post last week. Oops. Well I have a good reason for not posting last week. I was in Disney World! It was wonderful! It was warm and sunny and I got to wear shorts for the first time in a really long time. Of course when I touched down at BWI there was about six inches of snow on the ground. Good feelings gone.

To tell you the truth I really needed the break. This winter has almost killed me. It has been cold and gross. I have not enjoyed it, especially since I hadn't had real snow in four years. This is not what I like in a winter. I need Spring! Technically the equinox was on Thursday, technically they're calling for snow on Tuesday and I feel like I've been sucked into the Twilight Zone. This is why I needed a break with sun and no snow.

I was a kid in the candy store when I went. I hit all four parks in three days. I'd like to thank my cousin for the wonderful time and hope to see her again (most likely in the dead of winter when I need a vitemin D boost). I definatly did not act like an adult, though I did have an excellent Margarita at Mexico in Epcot. My cousins friends also sort of assumed I was a very tall twelve year old.

When I got back to the office I felt like I was out of whatever funk I had fallen into before leaving. I felt revitalized and really happy. I felt amazing and was ready to go back to work. So I feel I have a good reason for skipping last week's post.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off) please so ment or share with your friend a, family or worst enemy. I love hearing from my readers. Until next week!

Welcome To The Learning Curve

Careful It Can Change Without Warning...

I like to think that I know a lot of things. I understand that I am young and still have a lot to learn, but I tend to be under the illusion that I know how to do normal adult things. Key word in that sentence: illusion. Sure I know how to cook food and drive a car, but there are so many additional components that add on to the "cook" and "drive" action. For instance I do not always know how to fix broken components on my car, but I do know when I need to seek professional experience (or most of the time I do). I also am perfectly capable to cook an egg, but might lack the knowledge that if you put a lid over the cooking egg it might explode. Did you know it might explode? I didn't either until yesterday, but it wasn't that traumatizing.

Some things I have learned since starting out:

1. Things will break because they are old, not just because you did something stupid. In this case I call the apartment maintenance people. If you have any questions about why I suggest this, see any of my post about my toilet situation.
2. There is very little you can do about electrical and gas prices, but you can always find ways of cutting back on usage. When I was at school and in my parent's house, I didn't worry about silly things like heating bills and would hardly notice when people would change the thermostat. I happen to like my world a little on the cold side (though with this winter I'm looking forward to swim suite season more and more). I didn't always remember to turn it back up when I had people over and they would end up shivering.
3. A lot of things are expensive. It's not just the gas and electric bills that can be high. Everything is paid for by yours truly now. I have to budget and keep track of my spending. It's tough, but so far I've been successful with it. If I really want something I have to make sure it either fits into the budget or I have to save for it. Maybe I'll do a "How to save in the first year of starting out" for those who are curious as to my method.
4. Making friends is hard especially people your own age. I'm not kidding, unless you are moving to a place where you already know people or there is a great social life just waiting for you (read any major city in America), you might have a hard time figuring out how to make friends in your area and aren't at work. I finally found an Anime club to join and have been going to church. My area isn't exactly hopping with activities for people just out of school and I'm a bit shy about meeting lots of new people right away.
5. You will continue to find out about things you never knew you didn't know about. Hand washing, how to fix the circuit breaker in you apartment, anything bad that can happen to your car, all of these things I never would have thought about before leaving home. I had other people to do these things for me (wow does that make me sound like a spoiled brat). Anyway, now I'm learning all of these things for myself. Some of them are hard to manage (finding a dentist I trust for one). Others make me feel real accomplished for learning how to master (hand washing).

Some of these things are hard to learn (and I'm notorious for learning things the hard way ). But with some patients, a little trial and error and a whole lot of luck, they can be learned and put into practice. I enjoy learning new things and this list doesn't even count the things I'm learning from the work environment. So the next time someone asks a question you feel they should already know, please stop and take a second to consider where they are in life and then help them to understand why its important they learn these things because I'm pretty sure I blew off a few of these lessons in my school days. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this post (or it really pissed you off), please leave a comment or share it with your friends, family or worst enemy. I enjoy hearing back from my readers and I hope you enjoy my posts. Until next week.