The EP

It could be:

- less frivolous "departure"y stuff - like my "when I was a girl I was stupid" song and my "geek girl" song... with laughs still but also "purpose" and "emotion"(a la mr. darcy)
- upbeat (drums?) more fun light-hearted stuff - more in the vein of "ironically"
- the geek girl experience?

Also we should do a cover show.

Another effing goals post: physical edition

I just got a new app called "LoseIt" which makes me very happy. From what I can tell so far, it's pretty much like the cool Weight Watchers apps that my friends all have that make me jealous.
So - here's the thing. It's easy. I set a goal. And maybe I can achieve this goal?
And if I achieve this goal - I think I should get a tattoo. Because I've wanted a tattoo for a few years, but I've been too ashamed of my body to put something on it permanently.
Yay!
(tattoo idea is: <3 centered above my shoulder blades. alternatively, a Starfleet badge - but.... I don't know where that would go.)

I should be updating this blog more. Life is good. Vegas was fun. Nate is back finishing school.

Recent developments in personal goals

"Personal" goals:

• Write and send letters
• nothing here.
• Try writing fiction
• I had a good idea for a fanfic this morning - how all of the GoT's Stark family can be happy zombies at the end of book 7. :)
• Learn how to cook
• I had a good idea for this: enchilada casserole. They have something like this at the mexican restaurant near our house.
• Throw more parties/events
• We just need to set a date for the Star Trek: TNG murder mystery - and it will totally happen!
• Plan and take travels to: Grand Canyon, Alaska, Prague
• Aubrey and I are TOTALLY going to the Grand Canyon when we go to Vegas next month! Winning!

Goals update

On my other blog at the beginning of this year, I made a list of goals. As I'm about to enter a crazy month and my money is disappearing, so I want to take a tally of how this has gone.


"Professional" goals

• Make an album with my band.
• This is the one that's farthest along. We've been recording the album in most of our spare moments for the last seven weeks, though we have been sidetracked by Song Fu, concerts and a commission project. We're trying to continue having fun, but it's hard.
• The "recording" part is a bummer, certainly. But the good stuff is: album art - for which we hired a local illustrator and a local photographer - is going well! Now we just need to write the liner notes and line stuff up and hope everything is proofed and mastered in time for the CD to be ready at the release show.
• I didn't get the new songs done that I was hoping to have done. Argh.
• Learn how to make a web application & learn enough of a language to do a sample project. Do the same with web design.
• This is... happening. Ish. I'm doing a lot of reading still. There's a PHP book I like. I had been reading a PHP book that was doing a very poor job of appealing to my "learn stuff" senses. In general, learning without structure/classes/help is hard for me. Also, time. 
• Make a documentary (with filmmaker M_ V_- one of my informational interview subjects)
• I'm failing at this one! I'd like to blame the people who haven't called me back, but I can't really. I should call them again.
• Take classes in computer programming.
• I am doing this! Thanks to my Alma Mater and a crazy-awesome professor, I'm in a "learn Java by programming games" class that is both helping me learn how to program Java and getting my head around programming in general. I really like it.
• Train and volunteer in community radio.
• I give myself an "A" here. I have already had my voice on the radio *twice* interviewing people, and I am taking occasional trainings that are awesome. The people at the community radio station are a little scary at first, but I've come to like them a lot and I think they like me too. Which is awesome. I really like radio and I am learning a lot about it.

"Personal" goals:

• Write and send letters
• Try writing fiction
• Learn how to cook
• Throw more parties/events
• Plan and take travels to: Grand Canyon, Alaska, Prague

I haven't even started on any of these. Maybe I will "when I move into my new house," I tell myself.

Things I have done that I wasn't planning on:

• Social media consulting (for multiple clients!)
• Freelance writing (I could almost make enough money on this to pay rent! Unreliably!)
• Managed a band T-shirt sale- orders, production, and shipping.
• Plan band shows in California and British Columbia
• Find a new house, apply for and get it, thus creating a lot of work for myself in sorting/packing/moving everything I own.

Alright, this post was relatively useless other than as a way to track my own progress, which is important because yesterday I watched more than three episodes of How I Met Your Mother.

Fall

SEASONS
I don't go outside very much.
But, here's the thing: in Portland, we don't really have seasons. Sure it's sunnier than usual in like, August. But that's pretty much it.
The picture at the top of this blog is from a fall day in Prague when I was, apparently, dramatically walking across a bunch of leaves. This is reminding me that I really miss fall.
And like I often do, I asked myself "what time of year is it?" - because here in Portland - and, I guess, in this "adult" life where time passes fast and seasons don't signal a change in behavior - I don't keep "what season it is" in my head. It's February, which means I missed fall - I guess because I was working. Fall just means rain in Portland, though. It doesn't mean leaves changing and falling and being crisp on the ground and raked into big piles. It means rain.
I could do more, to be fair - my friends don't do a lot of celebrating of seasons, and I  haven't really had it as a priority either - did I have a halloween costume this year? Oh yes, I made it in a day. And we didn't even have a pumpkin at our house.
This should be a thing I do. I know that celebrating seasons and holidays, and just celebrating in general, would make time seem more important, and possibly make it pass slower, which would be nice.

TODAY
Today I woke up after 11am, worked (and did a lil Twitter reading/procrastinating) until 6:30, and then went to Kinko's, a coffeeshop to sign a lease for our new house, and played a show.
The time I spent at home working was - on and off - pretty productive. I'm making videos daily for a social media management project, planning concerts/tours/convention trips and writing to a few regular deadlines.
Today I realized this: I am a freelance writer. I am doing this. I have an adult life. And sure, I slept in until 11am and I'm up at 1:23 updating my blog, but that just means I'm an adult who isn't particularly good at "work ethic" or "not procrastinating." Still a grown-up, though. That's cool.

(the dichotomy between "real world"/not real world and grown-up/not grown-up is false, but it still seems real.)