Back in Full Effect

Last updated on April 4th, 2021 at 11:58 pm

Oh, man—after suffering a violent illness, I’m back on track! This really helps to remind me why I was frequently blogging in the first place:

• When you don’t do it as often, it’s harder to get back into it
• When you don’t do it as often, you have WAY more that you want to cover in a blog post, making it HARDER to get it all down
• When you don’t do it as often, people never know when to expect the next installment from you.

Guess I need to get more of that content out! So as I sit here listening to some of Hall & Oates’ live work, let me fill you in on what’s up and what’s what.

So I haven’t been up to nothing this week, that much I can promise. It’s had its ups and downs and definitely a lot of just being plain busy, but I’m working with the hope that the projects I’m on right now will get me to the point where it will make sense once more to do the 2010 20K on a closer-to-daily basis.

WEEK IN REVIEW

So first off, let me list off what’s been going down this week. (I actually had to check my BlackBerry to verify some of this, because it’s been THAT insanely busy!)

Sunday:

• Discussions with the R in Team R&C over next steps to be taken on various business ventures—information that you too will sooner than later be privy to!

Monday:

• Blogged about the rumours of a new MacBook Pro coming out, which turned out to be false for the time being, and making a parody song to go with it, on top of that. (If I already had a Mac, I’d have just made my own music with GarageBand, but no…)
• Got some extra promotion of the blog from a friend in exchange for lending her money. (Fortunately, I know that she always pays back!)

Tuesday:

• Got a new commission request from a friend down in NY—on top of another I have, I need to get my software up to date and these out of the door ASAP. Fortunately, tomorrow is Family Day in our fine province, so there’ll be the opportunity!
• Also scored my first ShopItToMe gift card—don’t hear me complaining about that! Free money is free money!

Wednesday:

• Did some pro bono web consultation for a friend of a friend (though in this case, the friend was more useful than I was—it does happen here and there!)
• Got two new resumes to edit—I love taking them in, retooling them some in order to let peoples’ real skill shine through, and then seeing them get jobs from them later—my most recent success story is getting a friend in the US out of a job that she loathed and facilitating a new job and move for her by getting her resume up to speed and far clearer at explaining what she’s all about 😊 I hope to do the same with the resumes I still have on my plate—another three.

Thursday:

Hit up some dim sum (ha ha!) for lunch with the work team for Chinese New Year, met up with Kevin shortly to lend a hand with something and had a nice dinner with Sarah and some friends for the night to start up a nice, restful long weekend. All seemed well, except for the headache and slight stomachache I was having—but as it usually goes with me, I figured I could shake it off with some sleep and get back to 100% in the morning.

Friday:

• (1:30 am) Food poisoning! What started as a lieu day suddenly became a sick day! (Yay 😕)
• (4:00 am) Round two!
• (7:00 am) Round three!
• (11:30 am) Finally wake up without beelining for the washroom, and I feel like someone went to town with a crowbar on my insides. Most of Friday was spent relaxing (or, in my case, recovering) with friends, playing board games and being tricked into watching The Time Traveller’s Wife (yes, Sarah, I said tricked!)—all in all, decent day, though I really did NOT feel well.

Saturday:

• Got a new chapter of a manuscript to edit—hope to get to that soon, as well!
• Baby Shower! For all y’all thinking that men don’t attend baby showers, let me get you up to speed—it’s 2010, baby! Let’s get modern! It was good times with my friend Mel and her friends and family—and oddly enough, I actually made a little bit of money—or, shall we say “converted”—I’m still counting it, though, because the 2010 20K is partly about the stories to be told, right? So our mother to be asked for me to go to the underground store (it was literally underground and not so much under the governmental radar) to get some matches so we could light some candles. So I did. Matches are 10 cents and when I handed the middle-aged cashier my $5 to buy them, he gave me a look of dismay as if I had just wiped by behind with it and was handing it over to him to dispose. Anyway, long story short, I got conned into buying a Cash for Life scratchcard so that he wouldn’t have to (Lord forbid) break a $5, but made the $4 it cost back in winnings. I’ll take pleasures in small victories where I can 😊
• Brokered a deal to sell some RAM I’ve had lying around—perfectly good 2 x 2 GB RAM I’d bought some time ago anticipating that I could buy a MacBook Pro and upgrade it with it, but then good ol’ Stevie had to go and make 4 GB of RAM standard in the MacBook Pros. So then I had the bright idea of updating my current computer with the RAM to tide me over until an upgrade. Only to find out that its motherboard can’t handle more than 2 x 1 GB of RAM. So I was left with RAM that was essentially useless to me. Thank goodness for other Mac users who need to get their units upgraded! I’m expecting another $60 for that.
• Dried out a Copic marker tip—kinda sucks that the chisel tip of my Grayish Lavender BV23 opened up in my bag while in transit, drying it out beyond repair—fortunately, there’s a reason why you pay extra for a Copic—I can just walk to the art store up the street from my office (I KNOW. THIS IS POTENTIALLY DEADLY TO MY WALLET. EVEN MORESO THAN WHEN I WORKED ACROSS THE STREET FROM A MAJOR MALL. WITH AN APPLE STORE. OKAY, NO MORE CAPS LOCK) and get a replacement—so it’s not all bad!

WHAT’S GOT ME PUMPED?!

I spoke with someone this week who seems to have the same kind of vision for future business that I do—looking to really develop things beyond the standard money-makers, looking to go outside the known and develop things that could truly advance the way we go about doing things right now. It’s got me a little excited, because the potential to forge new paths ALWAYS appeals to me! MORE TO COME!

IDEAS FOR EVERYONE!

Don’t worry—I didn’t forget y’all. In the midst of everything else that was going on, I still found potential new ways to get some income in while you’re in, or trying to get into, the day-to-day hustle.

• One friend hipped me to NewAd, the agency behind all those people you see in the major areas of the city handing out freebies, club promos, etc. etc. Check out their site, give it a read and if you can swallow the thought of bumping into people you know while trying to get them to try a new flavour of gum, then hey! I say give it a shot!
• My fellow Canadians—Doritos has got their contest for naming chips up and running again, with a top prize of up to $250,000! Oooh—ahhh! It runs from February 14, 2010—March 21, 2010—but remember—you’ll be competing against me! Bring it on, my friends!!!
• Now, I don’t know if I’m abnormal, but I find that I spend a lot of time organizing things. Such as:

• old files on the computer
• ideas
• scraps of paper

so if someone was organizationally inclined, I’d go as far as to say that there’s a market for getting people like me in check! I’m just saying!

Anyway, I think that’s an epic enough update for now! It’s way late, and I’m going to get some shut-eye.

But FIRST:

The 2010 20K Running Total: $132.14 (with another $60.00 pending)

There’s going to have to be some good-sized projects to make up for lost time—I’m supposed to be at $2000 or so already!

Stay tuned,