Tag: unemployment

Five for Friday: New Things I Learned This Week

Of course, I’ve been stuck on a writer’s block lately despite having all the time on my hand. So, I thought writing about 5 new things I’ve learned or am learning during the week would be cool.

15 minutes a day to a clean house

Know your meme. This is from Hyperbole And A Half.

Sure, I have all the time in the world now that I’m going on the 17th month of being mostly unemployed. But cleaning is still not my favorite thing to do.  Pinterest proves to be a useful and inspiring time suck as I found a few tips to help me get on top of this whole cleaning the house business.

Instead of taking most of the day to clean everything, these tips suggest that the chores are broken into small chunks so you spend less than an hour to work on something everyday. Like this one and this one.  I set mine up like this.

  • Monday: Dusting. Bathroom counters and mirrors. Windows.
  • Tuesday: Laundry. Toilets, tubs, and sinks.
  • Wednesday: Mop. (I don’t have a lot of floor space to mop. Kitchen and 2 bathrooms are simple enough with one bucket!) Clean the piano.
  • Thursday: Vacuum floor, sofa, and fans. Spot clean carpet.
  • Friday: Clean the kitchen, dining room table, and the pantry area.

So far, so good. I have stuck with the schedule except that I forgot Wednesday altogether. LOL  Give me a little break though, it’s my first week! I’m going to catch up with that today.

Pinterest Lab Successes: Clothing and Carpet Stain Removers

Not all things on Pinterest actually work. So I have been experimenting with a few “recipe” here on my Pinterest Lab board.

First, the clothing stain remover. It’s essentially homemade Oxyclean in a liquid/gel form. Mix fresh to use 2 parts hydrogen peroxide and 1 part each baking soda and Dawn dish soap. (People swore by the original blue. I use clear so I don’t run the risk of turning anything blue.)  Rub this onto gnarly yellow arm pit stain on white clothing or the stubborn grease stain on dark clothing. Scrub with a brush if you have if. Then wash with everything else. Voila! Clean clothes!  Because this mixture bubbles up, you just have to mix per use.

Second, the carpet stain remover. I didn’t do the whole procedure. I just mix the solution in a squirt bottle, dribble a little on and rub with paper towel, then again with clean water, and blot dry. Works like a charm!

Learning to Run…kind of

For those of you who’ve known me a while, you’d also know that I’m not sporty one bit. You would also know that I have tried and failed at distant running at least once a year. Most of the time, I failed spectacularly mostly because two reasons. One, I wuss out because of my ankle injury or the weather getting too cold. Two, as a former sprinter, I ran myself out of the long race.

Let me put it this way. What I did earlier this week with “walk half a block then run half a block” method, I did it with Adele on my playlist. That’s right. Adele. I was training to slow ballad in attempt to slow my ass down when I get to my half-block of run.  I still found myself sprinting after a few steps anyway.

I walked half a block and ran half a block for 3 blocks, damn near passed out, and was pretty much out of breath all the way walking home. I’m pathetic.

Maybe long distance running isn’t for me after all. Who says I need to run for miles and miles, right? I mean, what really matters in a zombie apocalypse is that few blocks. If you’re not faster than the zombies…or the other guy…in a few blocks, you’re dead anyway.

New Favorite Wine: Erath Winery Pinot Noir

I’m a part of Thirsty Girl twitter tasting crew. They occasionally sent wine to me to taste along with many others online and review them. (Check us out on #TGTaste!) This month, I was set  Erath Winery from Oregon pinot noir and pinot gris. I’m not big on dry white wine but I adore the pinot noir. Lightly chilled, the pinot noir is absolutely lovely on hot summer days like these.

OakMonster - TGTaste - Erath

Sarah Barelles’s Gravity

Back on the piano! Seriously, I need to do this more.

This song so simple to play on the piano yet so difficult to get right. So far my neighbors haven’t  reported any “cat being murdered” noise to the police yet so I must sound alright. Either that or they’re really polite folks. I’m betting they’re really, REALLY polite folks…

What about you? What have you been up to this week?

5 Things To Do When You (Feel Like You) Suck At Everything

Have you ever have a day when you wake up and feel like a total failure of a human being?

Yep. Welcome to the land of the unemployed.

I’ve been out of a full-time employment for over a year now. While I have been freelancing steadily since August, it was never an easy transition to go back to sending out resumes, waiting by the phone, and getting rejections.  And when working on-and-off like I have been, constant fights with EDD over unemployment benefits never helps either.

After so many turn-downs and/or lack of responses, not only I start to doubt my work experiences and professionalism, but I also turn to criticize myself as a human being. My inner monologue goes from “How BAD am I as a marketing/communications professional to NOT get a job by now?” to “Holy hell, I SUCK at everything I do!”

Couldn’t get in the community laundry room to do laundry today? I suck. Didn’t wake up to send off the husband to work this morning? I suck. Singing along to the radio a little off key? Gosh, I really suck. Apartment manager couldn’t understand me over the phone (because apparently I’m that Oriental Wife of the former Marine so I must not speak English). I might as well just stop talking.

And then I’d check my email to find no job lead and the phone hasn’t rang all day. …sigh… Right. I suck.

Is that you nodding along I’m seeing? Welcome to the pity party bandwagon, guilt tripping west.

I am no psychologist but I know this wagon ain’t going nowhere good. And I’m sick and tired of being on it.

The only way to NOT suck at everything is to keep doing SOMETHING. Anything. Especially now that all I have is time.  By keeping busy, I won’t be wasting it sitting around and thinking about how sucky I am at doing what I just did.  And with all this time on my hands, there’s a lot of things I can accomplish.

I just have to get off the wagon and get dirty.

Photo credit: keanoross. @ flickr

There are many sites and articles about what unemployed folks like me should be doing like keeping the resume alive (Volunteer! Take classes!) or keeping myself sane (Treat yourself! Work out!). Since I know ME best, here is my list of what I plan to start doing on Monday to dig myself out of this funk.  This may just work for you as well.

Make a To-Do List of Chores AND Things You WANT to do

Sure, I have a list of all the projects I want to get done in my head. Now I’m going to put it all down on paper. Everything I want to accomplish from chores like reorganizing the pantry and the spice cabinets to finally learning to use Indesign (Helloooo Lynda!) and bake my first pie.

But then, writing the list down and actually working on the items on that list are two completely different things. Therefore…

Put that List on your Calendar and Stick to It

Outside of my food choices, self discipline is not really my strong suit. Ask Brandon. I need motivation and some training to keep me in line.  Some of my unemployed days were easily wasted away with me trolling around the internet half the day or feeding my television addiction another half of the day.

But if I put my mind AND my Google Calendar to it, I can stay on track. Keeping myself on a set schedule will at least get me to finish something. A sense of accomplishment is a great thing to feel these days. Every little triumph helps.

For example, my Monday is going to look like this.

  • 8:00 a.m.: Out of bed, sleepy head!
  • 9:00 a.m.: Internet time – email, do your mini side job, social media, job search.
  • 11:00 a.m.: Web work.
  • 12:30 p.m.: Lunch & TV break.
  • 2 p.m.: Check with Brandon about dinner. Do a donation round and hit grocery store if needed.
  • 3:00 p.m.: Attack the pantry and spice cabinets. If enough time, also reorganize cookware.
  • 5:00 p.m.: Snack break / Start dinner.

Now I just have to MAKE MYSELF follow this outline I set up. Then I plan the next day, and the day after that. No more idle time to think negative thoughts. I’m gonna keep myself BUSY!

Schedule in Lunch/Drinks with Friends

The belt has been tightened around the house for sure, but social interaction is crucial to not feeling like a loser. I’m quite a social butterfly. Not working means that I’ve lost a good part of my daily dose of interactions. Getting my lunches and happy hours in keeps me connected to the world. THAT is my main goal. Some people would say reconnecting with folks is the best way to network your way into a new opportunity. It’s not my main goal here, but I surely don’t mind the windfall.

The husband is also very thankful that I talk to people other than him during the day. LOL

Fill the House with Music

For me, a quiet house leaves me too much to my own thoughts during the day. And you know how idle thoughts in these difficult times can quickly turn poisonous. So, I want to keep music going around the house.  When I’m at my desk, Pandora is on. When I’m in the living room/kitchen, the cable music channel keeps me company.

As a matter of fact, I work best when I sing along to the music. Singing keeps me focused on other tasks at hand. Yes, I am weird like that.

Sure, I probably sound like a miniature pig being strangled when I sing. But as long as the neighbors haven’t called the cops or animal services on me, I’m going to keep singing. Besides, how else would you get better if you don’t practice, am I right? 😉

Write the Blog. Write a Note. Write Everything!

I’ve taken to  writing in the little journal I carry around in my purse these days. Getting all the thoughts out of my head seems to help keep my mind off of the situation. Heck, this post came out of my idle time waiting at the optometrist office the other day!  Gosh knows what else is rattling around in my head that never had a chance to come out!

I have neglected my blogs quite a bit even though my 2012 goals were to write here once a week and on Food.OakMonster once a month. This is the perfect time to get caught up.

Now that you’ve seen my list, please do share your experience. Any tips and tricks I should add?

Freeing My Creative Mind

It’s  been over 10 years since I worked in a truly creative environment. I had given up on being creative professionally.  When I got home, I didn’t do much either except for the costuming for Halloween/Renaissance Faire, food gift labels for the holidays, and the now-tradition Christmas e-card. Oh, and occasional alcohol-fueled rock star moments at the piano.

It only took three months working with and for these guys at Ignited to get me to WANT to be creative. All. The. Time.

I was tasked with reviving the company’s social media presence. So, for the next month, I read several articles on advertising and creativity daily. Some were passed along through tweets from the company’s executive creative directors Troy and Jordan and some I found sifting through our Facebook feed.

One of those articles I skimmed through pointed to a book, How To Steal Like An Artist, which I bought and read through in one afternoon.  Another book, Imagine: How Creativity Works, has been ordered and is on its way. I never thought I’d be buying and reading books on creativity. But I am doing it now.

To add more fuel to the fire, just about a month ago, Jeff Marx, the creator of “Avenue Q” came to speak to the company about finding creativity and passion in what you do. He discussed how he came to write the Tony Award winning hit.  A part of his talk was that he made a list of the 100 things he wanted to do before he dies. That extensive bucket list somehow helps him focus on what really makes him happy. It seems musical theater was it and not practicing law.

I started a list too as a part of my upcoming post. But as you can see, I haven’t posted it yet.  Well, I didn’t need a list to know what makes me happy. I have always known working in a creative environment makes me happy.

I just forgot about it for the past decade of working at jobs where the most creative thing I got to do was creating a monthly birthday flyer.

My time at Ignited both inspires and spoils me.  Now that I had worked in the creative industry, it’s hard for me to look at job descriptions that don’t involve creativity.  I want to find a job where I can let my crazy ideas fly and where people embrace my quirks instead of ridicule them. I want to work where I can grow and where I’m encouraged to learn.

Of course, you could argue that working at a non-creative place should NEVER stop me from being creative and working on my own stuff at home.  But that’s exactly what I said all those years ago too before I lost almost all of my inspiration and got my soul partly crushed.

But that was years ago. I know better now than to neglect my creative drive. Never again!

Yesterday, I went into Michael’s to get a few pieces of felt to make my new decorative little hat to top off the TARDIS corset for the Victorian/Steampunk look.  I found myself lost in the store for an hour and emerged with a whole new idea of a full scale top hat with steampunk doodads.  I spent another hour this afternoon getting the first part started.

And what an hour it was! I haven’t been this happy in quite sometime. Then again, I haven’t made anything in quite sometime.  It’s great to get to work on creative projects again.

Now I want to make more stuff. I want to play the piano. I want create more graphic arts. I want to make some videos. I want to write articles.

I want… I want… I want…

*sigh*

I’m going make the best out of this unemployment period, I tell you. Who knows, while I continue the search for the permanent professional habitat, I might end up with an Etsy storefront selling top hats made with felt and foam.

Speaking of which, I’d better check on that long dormant Cafe Press store I have…