RAOK - #2

Random Act of Kindness - #2

Continuing my pledge to complete 28 random acts of kindness for Newtown victims, I  completed act # 2 yesterday.

I participated in a "Secret Santa" activity with my co-workers, but when I drove into work I forgot my Secret Santa gift at home.  So I went to Wal-Mart and purchased another gift (flash drive ... I work with IT geeks ... it was a big hit). :)

But then I had my original Secret Santa gift at home.  It was Coconut body butter from the Body Shop (my department is 50% women ... Go Estrogen!).   I thought about keeping the Body Butter, but then I realized I could regift it to someone who could use a pick-me-up.

I gave it to our receptionist Amy who is always cheerful and helpful.  I even signed "28 Random Acts of Kindess for Newtown" at the bottom this time (although left my name off of it) so I could spread the word.

Now to think of item #3 ...

28 Random Acts of Kindness

I read about Ann Curry's challenge to perform some random acts of kindness as a way of honouring the lives lost in Newton last week and I thought it was an amazing idea.   Of course, we shouldn't need a tragedy to remind us to be nice to one another on Planet Earth ... it is common sense after all.  But it seems like every once in awhile you need to be reminded to focus on it.

I'm going to try to document my random acts in my blog ... emphasis on 'try'.  I'm also going to try to ensure my random acts don't cost me $$.  Not because I'm averse to paying for things .... but I think it's far more interesting to try to do it without just plunking down money.   Of course, if you want your random act to involve paying for something for me, I am all good.

Random Act #1 - I wrote a thank you note to a co-worker who organized a Christmas toy drive.  I also made it anonymous so he wouldn't know it's me who wrote it.

Now to think of the next random act ...

Top 5 Most Anticipated TV Shows




The short-lived Smith.  Jonny Lee Miller
AND Simon Baker?  I can see why
that wouldn't work ... groan ..





I'm a huge TV fan, and September is always my favourite time of the year.  New shows!!  New shows that will probably be cancelled in a few weeks .. but new shows!

I actually stopped watching TV the last few years since the networks were so quick to cancel them.  I didn't want to get too invested only to have my hopes for greatness dashed (Smith, anyone???).  Unfortunately, by not watching  new shows, all it did was make me rewatch past favourites in order to get my fix.  So this year I bought a DVR and have decided to give a lot of new shows a chance. 




He's like the Channing Tatum
of crime-fighters ... and those scars\

are all kinds of sexy ...





Although it's still a little early to figure out which ones are going to be great, and which ones are going to be this year's "Whitney" ... I'm at least excited about them!  I missed that ...

#5  The Last Resort

Scott Speedman is a fave, but a show on a submarine/island seems like a tough sell.  Word on the street is the first episode is of Lost-like quality though, so I'll give this one a chance.  But he'd better be shirtless in a vampire coven at some point ...

#4 The Mindy Project

Is it wrong to fantasize about his socks?
My crush is getting Creepytown isn't it ...

I'm so-so on Mindy Kaling, but love the Bridget Jones' Diary in America kind of concept.  First episode was okay ... loved her drunk on a bike yelling "I'm Sandra Bullock" ... but I'll wait to see how it pans out.  I remember I didn't like the first episode of New Girl, and look how that turned out ...

#3 Arrow

Just started watching the Vampire Diaries last year and kicked myself for missing it when it originally aired. Do you know how many months I was unaware of The Damon?  Too many ... Not going to make that mistake with the CW this time.  And this guy has serious Damon potential.

#2 Ben and Kate

I had no desire to see this show until I saw the trailer last week, and then was hooked!!   And Dakota Johnson (Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson's daughter) can actually act!!  It's one of those shows you're either going to love or you're going to hate .. and I loved it! 

#1 Elementary

Jonny Lee Miller.  That's all I need to say.  I don't care if this is the worst show on TV ... I'm in no matter what.  But please don't let it suck.

What new shows are you  planning on watching this year?



Friday Check In

Well, I said I would check-in regularly and this week was pretty disappointing ... but now that I have to own it publicly hopefully that will make next week a little more productive.  I only wrote Tuesday night and only 357 words.  That's not awesome.

But onto next week!

Building a Habit ... The Redux

Hopping back on the bandwagon ... but will
resist asking Amanda Bynes for any
driving tips.

Okay, so about a month ago I said I was building a new habit.  And then managed it for about 7 days and then stopped reporting on it altogether.

What happened?

I could blame it on the new television schedule but since I've got my new, shiny DVR taping all my soon-to-be favourite shows, this would be an all-out lie (side note - have decided Elementary will be my favourite new show - Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes??  Drooling as I type this ...)

The truth?  I stopped spending time on the habit ... and even worse ... started to hide away when I realized I wasn't keeping on track.    If I don't report on my failures then they can't be failures, right???

As someone who's a Project Manager in real life, I can tell you that the absolute worst thing you can do when stuff is falling off the track is stop reporting on it.  Once you stop keeping track of how you're doing, it's very easy to ignore the problem indefinitely.   Even if you have to report fail after fail after fail, it's better than not showing up at all ... and as I've seen on most of my projects, once the failures start adding up it often spurs you into action!

So, I 'm jumping back into it and will vow to report on my progress ... no matter how terrible.  No one said this writing stuff would be easy ....

Building a New Habit: Day 7 .... Kind of

RIP Phyllis Diller. 
No one rocked the rainbow feather dress better!
[Photo by Allan warren]

I bet you thought I forgot all about this little habit-building journey I was on, didn't you?  Well, I didn't -- I just ended up taking a little break.

My day-job sent me across the country last week, and even though I had all good intentions to write while I was away, the job kept me going from early morning until late at night.  I did manage to haul my butt off to a Denny's at 5:30am the first day I was there and wrote for 45 minutes (yay!) ... but after that I tanked.  No writing at all!  And taking the red-eye back home didn't help me over the weekend.

But I'm back to it ... and this morning I got up early to write.  Got derailed by laundry and then drove to the day-job telling myself I would make sure I wrote before I started the day-job.

And I did!  I worked on my query letter for forty-five minutes today (much, much harder than it looks when you read other people's letters, isn't it??).

So writing successful at least for today.  Now off to Day 8 ....

Building a New Habit: Day 6

Schmidt and CeCe from New Girl
celebrating my successful week!
Holla!

Woohoo!! I hit 965 words in the last session.  I'm very, very happy with that and I got through the hard part - the kiss!  Now I just need to tie this scene up, clean up the rough edges, and send it onto my crit partners.  Yay!!

My new habit is designed for weekdays only.  I alwasys feel a lot of pressure to write every day, but I also know I need some breaks, so I've decided to give myself weekends off.  And since I was pretty good at writing this week - not great, but good - I'm going to count this week as a success!!

Thanks for all the 'pump-me-up' messages.  Looking forward to enjoying my wine tonight!  See you Monday!