Happy Halloween!

Halloween is always kind of sad now. I have to work, so that's no fun. Plus, kids don't go out anymore. So for the little time that I am home for dinner, I don't get to see any trick or treaters. I feel bad for all the kids. We used to go all over getting candy. We'd come home with our bags full. Our parents had absolutely no idea where we were the entire night, but we always came back safe. Now parents are scared someone's going to run off with the kids, so they take them to the mall and that's it. Where's the fun in that?? Someone needs to bring back Halloween!

eek!

I decided I was too old for pimples, so I bought a prescription-strength face cleanser. I really didn't think it'd be that much stronger than the other non-prescription stuff I've used. I was wrong! I should've realized that anything that warns it'll make you vulnerable to sunburn was strong. I'm glad I tried it at night. It burned!! And my face was a little red. Luckily all was normal in the morning. But I think I'll only be using it at night and definitely not everyday.

sing me to sleep

The biggest problem with writing a book (at least for me) is that I love sleep. I cannot write a book while sleeping. Even if I have really great ideas as I'm drifting off to sleep, I don't remember them clearly enough by the time I have an opportunity to write it all down. I tried creating a schedule that said I should write every week. It looks great on the little MS schedule program, but it never ends up happening. I prefer to sleep. Or read, which I try to say is "research." My book will never get written.

Jewels doesn't like the soap!

Bath and Body Works had a sale so I bought some soap. It smells absolutely delicious, in my opinion. This one is Midnight Pomegranant. But something about the smell drives the cat crazy. She immediately attacked my hands after I washed them. I hope she gets used to it because the soap is going to be around for a while!

can't resist the new addiction

I went to the open house hosted by the place I got my laser hair removal done. I thought it was going to have a lot more to it than it did. The flyer said gifts and special promotions. Some people did get free facials after their number was drawn, but of course, mine wasn't. As for the promotions, I now have 25% off some other laser hair removals. So that's good, just not quite as good as I'd hoped for. Oh well. I did get a glass of wine and some yummy desserts.

dance, dance

I decided I wanted to take dance lessons, but it is proving to be impossible! They simply aren't offered at a time of day that works for someone who works nights. I know most adults get off work by 5 or 6pm, so it makes sense for all these places to offer night classes only. But that completely sucks for me! I already have to cut my work hours short in order to attend my grad school classes. I can't cut even more hours for dance. My one hope is that one of the colleges around here will offer dance classes at a good time for me next semester.

what's your carbon footprint?

There are a number of carbon footprint calculators. Do a Google search. But if you're lazy, here's one: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.html

Want to know one way to reduce your carbon footprint right now? Stop drinking bottled water! Most of it is just filtered tap water anyway. So buy your own water filter. It's cheaper and better for the environment. According to a 2001 USA Today article (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2001-05-02-bottled-water.htm), bottled water plants use 1.5 million tons of plastic each year. So buy one container that you use repeatedly (be sure you clean it too!) and fill it with water from the tap.

germs attack!

So many commercials about germs lately. They're all a little ridiculous, but I especially love the ones about toilet germs. Honestly, I only care about germs on the seat and the handle. I never stick my hand in the bowl. I definitely don't get anywhere close to the pipe all the waste goes down. So what do I care if there are germs there? The scare tactics of these commercials shouldn't work on any rationale person. I guess the products are intended for all the germ freaks out there. But people should realize that we actually weaken our immune system when we aren't exposed to low levels of germs, bacteria, etc.

boring town

I'm so disappointed in Spokane (and for reasons other than the conservatives, high rents, pot holes, and bad weather this time!). Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living magazine’s 4th Annual Best of Spokane readers survey puts Azteca as the number one Mexican restaurant. Now I can't say that I've had any great Mexican food in Spokane, but certainly something must be better than Azteca. If not, I suppose it's another great reason to move away from here fast!

http://www.spokanecda.com/article.php?type=ci_features&id=14

will do

Regardless of what all the conservative crazies in this town think, we do need to do something to protect our environment after spending decades destroying it. And by the way, what the hell happened to the recycle bins my apartment complex used to have?? At least there are apartments with recycle bins on either side of us. I just have to carry it across the street now.

who knew?

I'm searching for books on online journalism, convergence, etc. to use for my 501 research paper (which will hopefully turn into my 680 thesis). Poynter has a list of books (though some are too old really) and on that list is a book published by a company in Spokane. I had no idea there were any publishers here. I found the website and they've actually put out quite a few books. The guy who owns it is a prof. at WSU so he probably has fairly good connections to academics who need to meet their publishing requirements for tenure. I think I'm going to hit this guy up for publishing!

another thing wrong?

I did quite a bit of searching and it appears that the people who ghost write those series books are professional writers not grad students. I do think it's entirely possible that people without much writing experience are getting the opportunity to write some of the books, but at this point it doesn't seem to be something that I'm going to get to do. Maybe in the future if I can get my act together and publish more things, but I don't think I'll be ghostwriting any books any time soon!

quit my day job anyway

Even though I know the Packaging Girlhood authors got some things wrong, I'm wondering if they didn't get one thing right. They said that some kid and teen book series are actually written by "starving grad students" as they called them. I know Gossip Girl was originally written by the woman listed as the "creator" but now isn't (and you can definitely tell which was the last book written by her!). So who does write them? I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't aspiring authors. If that's the case, how do I get that job?