Plans for the New Year

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot..."

Another year and already my social media timelines are littered with the usual resolutions and commitments to the loss of weight, spiritual renewal, and desire to live. "This is the year I do ..." almost every person has them. Resolutions, goals, aspirations: one friend even went so far to say that any resolution that she did not like she could give up as Lent in February.
In any case, New Year's resolutions had been given a bad rep due to the expectation of failure. However, almost every successful person (and professor in my business class) advocates the utilization of goal setting. Goal setting allows for benchmarks of success. Yet, what good are goals that we feel easily can be abandoned at whim?

I have several goals this year some more cemented than others. Theres the usual weight loss and exercise which has already been delayed due this horrible flu that I am still battling. Graduation is due this spring, preparation for the GMAT and subsequently grad school. Travel, read, write, travel, read write and along the way take lots of photos.

After the work I completed this past November for National Novel Writing Month, I am more determined than ever that this be the year that I truly dedicate more time and energy to the craft of writing. One element of this goal is to become more connected to other writers and tuned into the writing community. Another aspect of this goal is to begin soft marketing to ensure that any published work will have a initial fan based.

Yes, I am a business student after all.

Despite being sick I have made a few small steps in ensuring that I can reach these goals. One step is by connecting with others on the literary social site known as Goodreads. Created in October of 2010, my Goodreads account sat with very little activity and only one friend. Today, I have included books from my bookshelf and requested friends from my twitter account.

A few weeks ago, I finally created an author fan page on Facebook. Not much activity there due to the same illness that has me out for most of these days but it is a start (PREPARE FOR SHAMELESS PLUG)feel free to like me here.

As for Twitter, so far I think my handle there will stay the same.(Follow MsPhoebeJane)

All in a all not a bad start for 2012. My benchmarks are in place and I am ready to tackle my literary goals head on despite the social expectation of failure.

Happy 2012!

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Self Marketing

Another year is coming to a close and I must admit that I am proud of some of the ways I have moved forward this year. There are opportunities that I took a chance on (starting my own business) and other areas of my life where I have refocused my attention.

2011 was the year that saw me return to school full time and I must admit this has been a challenge. After almost five years away from the CSUDH campus I returned to the task of balancing homework and papers, group projects (which I despise) and overall having this institution become such a focal point in my life.

Soon that will be coming to an end.

This past November I participated in the National Novel Writing Month. My writing was cut short by that aforementioned institution but I was really proud of the progress made on Hidden Behind the Shadows So much so that I will be finishing this novel while continuing my short story collection.

Which brings me to the purpose of this entry. In preparing for the forthcoming marketing blitz, I have created a Facebook page dedicated to my writing. Feel free to like me at www.facebook.com/AuthorPhoebeJane.

Soon you should see the links advertising my stories and novels for sale.

Thanks for your support.

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iOS5 & BlogPress

After updating my iPad to the new iOS5, everything has been running pretty smoothly (after the initial crash)

Until today.

After working on a blog entry with a review of Knotts Scary Farm, I tried to publish my post.

The Blog Press App crashed.

Every time I tried to open the app it would crash.

I researched the app and learned Info Thinker, Inc (who sells the app) has acknowledged that the app is unstable when running on the iOS5 operating system. They claim to have an update that is being reviewed by Apple. Very informative but that does not help me much right now.

Here's hoping my blog entry will be saved as a draft once the update is available. Otherwise I will have to re-write the entry.

I am not a happy camper.

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Update to My Update

My iPad has Japanese characters.

I guess I should just be happy it turns on now.

...more to come...

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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 4S

This is Not Good

All day I have been trying to update my iPad. Even at work, I set up my laptop, turned on my wifi, and plugged in the iPad. With out my internet charger, my update attempts were thwarted when the battery on my personal hotspot died.

I tried again at the boyfriend's house before we left for Disney. Plugged in the Internet, plugged in the laptop and connected the iPad. When I returned from Disney (5 hours later) it was apparent that the computer froze.

So I started again. Twice now I have received messages that inform me "everything on this iPad will be deleted." The first time I saw this message I hit cancel with a quickness. When I encountered the message again I pressed ok and hoped for the best.

My iPad now looks like this:





The problem with this is that the iPad is plugged into iTunes.

This does not look good....

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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 4S

Nostalgia

I woke up this morning missing my friends from my "old job." There was a time when my job was crushing but my friends were there to help me cling to my sanity. We would commiserate about work and talk about life and always made time to laugh at our situation when we really wanted to cry.

I have not worked there in over 2 years but I do stay in touch with some of these friends especially the remnant at that job.

However, sometimes I wish I could spend the day with them like I did at that time.

If any of you are reading this, know that you are missed.

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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 4S

Drats! Drafts!

I tried to go back to a blog that I had started earlier in the day and I found the draft folder filled with several blog entries that I had begun and never finished. Over 40 drafts begun and later abandoned. At some point I felt each of these entries were warranted, otherwise they would not exist. This bothered me to a certain extent. All these entries that never saw the light of day.

...until now.

I have decided that I will try to complete these drafts and post them to my blog. Prior to each entry I will give the date the entry was started and any introductory information that may be needed.

Here's hoping each of you will enjoy my entries of yesterday.

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- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 4S