Of personal challenges and book blog tours (happenin' next week!)

When I was still a youngling in the consulting world, my manager would ask me if I thought I was comfortable enough to do a small part of the presentation or to facilitate the ice breaker exercise. It was my manager's way of teaching me and easing me into the ways of the consulting business.  Most of the time our target audiences were the managers or senior personnel of our clients. I would always say yes even though I was terrified of the thought and would rather not do any presenting or facilitating ever and at all. I'm an introvert and speaking in front of an audience is not my cup of tea, but I would always say yes to it because I saw it as a chance for me to just get it over with. It was a way of challenging myself and I didn't want to be called a scaredy cat.

Travel hacking, location rebels, and other new words I learned this week

I spent most of the week reading about people who quit their 9-5 jobs, packed their stuff and became travel hackers and location independent self-sufficient people. Really interesting and inspiring stuff. Really distracting, too. I haven't been so focused on work this week. I really should do more if I want to get more cash before payday. I mean, I gotta remember that I'm on a no work-no pay thing here. I have ongoing jobs but I haven't finished them yet and I'm nearing the deadline. GAH.

Alphabetical Advice Challenge

Aha, a repost of yesterday's 30 day writing challenge post. Yesterday's writing prompt was to make a list of alphabetical advice. After I wrote the post, I realized that most of the little tips I wrote down were things that relate to what's going on with me currently. They were tips or advice that I try to go by or would give to myself.

I waste my time on the most trivial of things

I have only just discovered about.me and its addictive appeal. Yes, apparently I live under a rock, thank you very much. So now I'm looking at these pretty pretty "look at me, look at me" pages and I want a pretty one, too. Check out some of the ones they featured. I've no idea who some of these people are, but they sure are creative.

T-Shirt Thursday!

Behold, I give you genius or crazy (fine line, my friends, fine line) in the form of tees
because T-shirt Thursday is the coolest day of all and every struggling freelance writer needs a break once in a while from furiously flushing words out of her ears.

Of 30-day challenges and inspirational people on the net

30 Day Challenges

They say 30 day challenges can help you form a habit. I'm counting on this little pearl of wisdom to help me get my crap together. I decided to focus first on getting my work schedule and writing groove in order before I try anything remotely wild (like that infamous Insanity workout). That's why I'm doing a two-part 30-day challenge for #2 and #3 of my First Five for 2012.

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Fire and Ice, Book 1)

Finally finished the book. Yayyy. Thank the heavens. Goodness, took me forever to get through that one. It was probably because I watched the HBO series first before I started on the book and I already knew what was going to happen so I guess I wasn't really feeling the suspense and excitement of not knowing the twists and turns of the story and.. and.. SPLORT!

Writing full time is hard, y'all!

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Yeah, I'm still trying to get into a nice groove with my writing work since I've decided to go full time. My biggest struggle is my schedule. Working on my own time and in a very comfortable and relaxed environment can be a little hard because there are so many distractions. I just have to drill into my head that this is my work now and I have to push myself harder so that I can finish more and earn more. HAH.

Love Ultimate

Yes, yes, it was a fun weekend, thank you.

We went white water rafting again in CDO before we went to Malaybalay. We already did the beginner's course last year so this time we went for the advanced course. It was okay. Our guide said that the recent floods and typhoon changed the river. Raging waters carried big rocks and boulders down the river and changed some of the rapids. At one point our guide pointed to a giant boulder that was sitting pretty right smack in the middle of the river and said that wasn't there before. Wild, right?

Funky Things Thursday!

Tonight, we're flying off to CDO, a.k.a. home sweet home, and then going up to Malaybalay, Bukidnon for the Love Ultimate Tournament. Woohoo. But before I do that, I leave you with cool tees and cool stuff. Woohoo.

More on this freelance writing thing

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I've decided to make it official. Yes, I've decided to do this freelance writing thing full-time. HAH. I have two main reasons for finally doing this: one, I am actually enjoying this writing thing even if it hasn't paid me much (yet!); and two, I can't imagine myself going back to the corporate world and I realized that I don't have to. I just need to make a few adjustments to my schedule and perspective to turn this little hobby into my real job.

HNY + Book Watch: The Son of Neptune (Rick Riordan)

HNY! Happy New Year! May the year of the water dragon be great for all of us! :P

To celebrate, I read a book. Hah. Yay for geeks. Yay I finished my first book for the year. See? I'm still reading, folks! Okay, granted this is a book for young teens and is really easy to read, I think it still counts as good reading. Rick Riordan makes pretty good stories.