What I Write in NYC

Aside from sitting in one of the many beautiful outdoor spaces in the city, one my favorite places to sit is on my windowsill. There’s something so peaceful and meditative about just taking it all in.

I keep my window open and am calmed by the life just outside. Muffled bus announcements, random echos of laughter every now and then, cars whizzing by, screeching brakes coming to a slow halt as each traffic light turns bright red, an occasional seagull squawking in the distance, even faint horns being blown. And there are always some moments of silence.

Inside, I feel warmth of the golden sun and my eyes often drift to the two square spotlights it showcases on my wood floor. I look down to a sidewalk peppered with people. All shapes, ages, races. In all kinds of clothes. Quickly walking towards places I will never know.

If I lean out, I can see the Empire State Building to the left and the Hudson to the right. And across the street, especially at night, rows and rows of windows are full of life.

But I also love to be outside. 

…there’s that day when you find yourself really trapped in the darkest places on the Internet. Scrolling through Facebook. Watching Vine shorts of people you don’t even know. Watching all of Kourtney Kardashian’s keek shorts. Watching Tavi Gevinson interviews. Why?!

Reel me in. Please. 

Lots of people love the new Dove Sketch campaign. Others hate it and think it’s just another brainwashing scheme from Dove and Ogilvy. I like it.

Of course we will never know exactly what happened behind the scenes, but I think the message is certainly something worth taking away: you see yourself one way; others see you in different ways.

Though easier said than done, we should all stop being so hard on ourselves. 

This is one reason I love to compliment both men and women. Not because I want to hook up with them or because I’m kissing their asses.

It’s purely because I think that people like to be reminded of the positive in life. And sometimes just one little compliment can really make someone’s day or shift their perception. 

Try it out. Next time you like someone’s nails, makeup, purse, tie, hair, skin, sunglasses, smile, facial structure, etc., tell them. :)

Sometimes I pressure myself into blogging because I feel like I should do it regularly. Other times I feel like there’s no need for wasted words. 

As a writer, I’m forever trying to better myself at my craft. And by no means am I an “expert.” What is an expert anyway? Who defines that?

But my advice is to write from the heart. And if nothing comes to you on a particular day, so be it. 

Though I’ve only been alive for 29 years, I believe the English language began to downward spiral around 50 years ago. If you read books and watch films from before that time, there is a sort of magic in the language, both written and spoken.

I made a joke on my Facebook page stating that perhaps it had something to do with the hippie movement. Could be true I suppose. After all, they were totally against the norm.

As a fan of evolution, I’m not exactly complaining. I mean, some may see magic in today’s language. People actually say, “BOOM!” at the ends of their statements. Some verbally exclaim, “O-M-G!” Others prefer, “YOLO!” I’ve also been hearing, “…like a boss,” a lot lately. Some inject “like” between every few words. And some use “was like” in lieu of “said.” Guilty of that one!

At least “as if” and “my bad” aren’t as popular as they were a few years back. Not a fan.

Being the old soul that I am, I tend to cling to outdated words for dear life. Words like perhaps, tootles, whilst and amidst. Words that aren’t used in American English too much nowadays. 

If you’ve played around with Ngram, you’ve probably typed in your favorite words just to see how they rank in book usage. I have! 

But, no matter which words you prefer to use, why is that some people feel the need to completely butcher the language?

In the past few days I’ve heard people say:
“Do we got carbon dioxide test kits?”
“I goed there after?”
“I telled him.”
“I just waked up.”

…hmmm…

I don’t really know what to make of it or what the point of writing this is, but I just felt it’d be blog worthy.  

Maybe some people just don’t care. And that could actually be a good thing I guess. I mean, it’s just language. As long as we get the gist of what you’re poorly attempting to say, we should shut up, right?!

“…the NutriBullet makes supercharged superfood NutriBlast,” says the enthusiastic man in the 25-minute NutriBullet video. This made me chuckle but I still really want one. 

Why are infomercials so funny?! No one has ever made a serious infomercial. Because even the ones that are probably intended to be taken seriously end up hilarious.

I watched a documentary on As Seen On TV products and it was stated that the success rate is pretty low. I guess there are just too many people inventing weird, useless things. Who would’ve thought? I also would guess that too many people spend more time on the Internet than at the ol’ TV set. But what do I know?!

Back to my point…the marketing that goes into these crazy products. I love the writing and acting in so many of them. They always make the most simple tasks look extremely difficult. The testimonials are clearly fake. And no matter how much the product is supposed to help the actor/model in the video, they just end up looking like idiots.

As much As Seen On TV crap I’ve seen throughout my lifetime, I do have some favorites. I also admit that when I was a kid I used to spend hours captivated by the poorly written ads and comical portrayals of everyday tasks. Hell, I even truly wanted those Micro Crisp bags that I think went off the market.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorites:

Forever Lazy - “Just zip it, and get lazy!”

Shake Weight - Like many other people, I first thought this had to be a joke. Nope. It was real.

No! No! Hair Removal - “I don’t have to worry about my mustache coming through…or my sideburn…and that’s all because of No! No!” -female customer

Pasta Pro - Because cooking pasta is so hard!

Potty Putter - “Just think…all that extra practice every time you visit the John…when you’re bored in the bathroom, you rush; and that’s unhealthy…”

GLH - Great. Looking. Hair. …enough said.

Juiceman - My favorite infomercial, and my favorite eyebrows ever.

Much of the time I forget that Twitter exists. I go for days without a peep—er, tweet—and then suddenly decide I should probably write something to maintain some sort of social presence.

As I sit here reading my Twitter feed, I’m overwhelmed. There are a lot of interesting links and some humorous, informative and/or inspiring nuggets of information, but I simply don’t have the desire to read through every single thing. Each time I begin to scroll down and feel like I’m slowly catching up, a new tweet pops up. It’s endless. And a bit maddening.

Information overload! 

People are hired at companies as full-time tweeters, right? So I think I shall leave the tweeting and Twitter monitoring to them. I simply can’t rationalize dedicating anymore time to Twitter than I already do.

How do you keep up with your LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.? Is it really that important for all of us? Perhaps.

Perhaps you’ve already abandoned Google Reader or you never used it in the first place, but for any fellow Reader fans, you’ve probably heard by now that the lovely little aggregator will commit suicide in July.

That means you’ll need to find a new source for streaming all that inspirational/comedic/business-oriented/newsworthy/useless blog content you look forward to reading each day.

After much research and playing around, I’m happy to admit that I’m now in a committed relationship with Netvibes. Just sign up for the free service, customize your home page (I deleted all the annoying widgets), select your display preference and create tabs to organize content. 

It took me a little while to figure it out but it’s not rocket science. Give it a whirl if you’re still on the market for a Reader replacer.

Working for yourself, it can be hard to get away. There’s just always stuff to do. But, to me, it’s very important to create some level of disconnect every now and then. By disconnect I mean getting away from whatever it is that ties you to your work. And for me it’s my laptop.

I spend so much time with my husband, MacBcook Pro, because I need him to survive. Aside from phone calls, meetings or brainstorming sessions (on paper), I’m always listening to him sing to me throughout my work day and even in my leisure time, watching movies through him, reading him like a book, using him to write, etc. But this past weekend I made myself leave him behind while I flew to Puerto Rico.

As a nature lover, I admit that I enjoyed being away from the computer screen. But I’m also happy to be back at work…with my husband. Absence certainly does make the heart grow fonder.

Some tips to manage your workaholic habits while on vacation:

• First, be sure to tie up loose ends before you leave—tell your clients you will be away, set up an away email if necessary, finish any work to be done before your vacation
• Leave the computer behind
• Limit the amount of times you check your email
• Do things you normally can’t do while you’re working (e.g., if you work in an office, get outside!)
• Live in the moment as you take it all in
• Realize that your entire business will not crumble if you step away from it for a couple days
• Have fun!

I’m not a huge fan of Talent Zoo but I still remain subscribed to their newsletter. I find most of the articles to be boring generalizations or common sense but occasionally there’s one I enjoy. Today’s was one I just disagree with: 5 Tendencies of Solopreneurs… 

All of the people I meet who work for themselves do not spend all day on Facebook. In fact they spend way more time actually working than the people I know with office jobs who tend to get downtime when they’re waiting on other people to finish things so they can start.

I also don’t think the people I know believe any entrepreneurs just breeze through their days. We all understand it takes hard work.

But, hey, this is just one man’s perspective, and he certainly has the right to have an opinion.

Since this is my blog, I shall rewrite 5 Tendencies of Solopreneurs:

1. Spend too much time working. (Ask around for time management tips, hire an intern or employee, or give yourself a break.)

2. Self-criticize during times of famine. (Understand that everyone experience lulls in life and just take the downtime to come up with creative ways to network and get more clients.)

3. Risk of feeling isolated. (Try a coworking space.)

4. Trying to do too much/loss of focus. (I’m guilty! I agree with the Talent Zoo guy here about getting a coach/mentor of some sort.)

5. Not having a budget for marketing. (Be creative. There are plenty of website design platforms for non-coding folks. And you can ask fellow solopreneurs about things like social media marketing, Internet advertising or print ads to see if you could somehow fit them into your budget.)

I’m certainly no expert and I’m definitely still learning but to say we spend all day playing on Facebook or thinking other people have it easy is a bit of a stretch. C’mon!