Entries Tagged 'running in circles' ↓

It turns out that composing blog posts and presentations in your head while tossing and turning is, in fact, not the most effective use of one’s time and energy.

I’ll remember that in the future or maybe I’ll just try to cut out caffeine after 4 so I can take advantage of the time I do have to sleep.

Crunch time is here. I’ve got the presentation / signing on Monday, the 21st I’m doing a two hour workshop on going from blog to book for the Center for Women, that evening Aidan will receive his First Communion. I leave for New York on Monday, I’m flying out of Charlotte very early on Tuesday morning, the plan is to hole up in a hotel room for the evening and polish everything. Wednesday morning I’ll moderate a session and Wednesday afternoon I’ll present with Kelby. This means I should be able to enjoy Wednesday evening and Thursday. Friday is Aidan’s last day of school so it all has to be wrapped up by then, too. Throw in two tv promos that make my hands sweat at just the thought.

Writing that out?

Didn’t make it any better. Hold me.

Well don’t, really. I get kind of cranky when I’m stressed, it’s probably best to keep your distance.  Oh and I’m supposed to finish my article for LifeHacker.

They are coming to take me away ha ha, they are coming to take me away ho ho. . .

Lazer eyes!

Make your own at Lazerey.es

And my 100 facts.

And this one isn’t for prudes, but it’s hysterical, mostly because it’s unintentional. DYAC.com. I save that last one for bad days when I need a laugh.

God bless the bored.

The past eight days have been amazing. Last Friday I had the incredible experience of flying to New Orleans, courtesy of Zatarains and Weber Shandwick. I had the most amazing time attending Jazz Fest and getting to experience some amazing New Orleans restaurants.

You can see the photos from my trip over on my Flickr stream, but here are a few anyhow. I know the white balance is off on the last, but you get the gist.

We had such an amazing time and I wish I could focus enough to give the experience the write up it deserves.

Tuesday I flew to NYC and back. I got to see the Gramercy Park Hotel, which if memory serves (and it probably doesn’t) was the setting for at least one story in Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual. While waiting for the meeting I amused myself by working on the basic plumbing chapter of the book in their incredibly posh lobby. There’s something wonderfully ironic about sitting on a velvet couch, in front of a giant fireplace and Boterro painting and writing about plunging a toilet.

Maybe I’m just weird.

I also kicked myself repeatedly for not bringing my camera.

Is it silly to be proud of myself for learning how to hail a taxi? It’s never been a part of my world. Next time, I’ll try out the subway. I know, I’m sheltered.

I concluded my week of wonder by having my tonsils yanked out yesterday. It’s all about balance.

I’m hoping tomorrow I can back off the medicine enough to get back on track with the book. I’m more than halfway done and as soon as I can knock out these last few chapters on basic home repair I can start on my favorite topic, food.

I am finally coming around to uncoupling affiliate sales and multi-level marketing in my head. For some reason I had the two concepts linked and refused to even investigate affiliate sales.  Now that I have finally educated myself and understand the concept it makes a lot more sense and has lost the skeeve factor.

For those who have no clue what I’m talking about, multi-level marketing plans are often linked to pyramid schemes. Of course no MLMer will ever say that, they’ll skirt the issue and explain how it’s nothing like a pyramid scheme, but here’s what it comes down to. With MLM (remember Amway?) a person not only works to sell products but to recruit other sales people and in return gets a percentage of that new sales person’s cut.

A ridiculously over simplified example. Joe invents Company X and sells products 30% over their cost. Joe keeps all 30% either as profit or to reinvest in Company X. Joe meets Bob who agrees to sell the product at the same price as Joe. Bob gets 20% of each sale either as profit or to reinvest in his version of Company X; Joe gets that missing 10%. Bob of course wants to be like Joe and have people under him, so he recruits people who each get 15% and Bob gets 5 and Joe of course gets 10.  In the real world it’s much more dynamic than this and people move up and down according to how many people are under them and where on the feeding chain they currently swim. Yes, it’s nothing like a pyramid scheme, I get it, you said that already.

I am uncomfortable with this concept and feel it falls into a morally grey zone, especially when naive, new sales people are goaded into  pressuring friends and family to buy products they may have zero interest in through guilt  or a desire to help them succeed. It doesn’t matter if the products are superior or not, if I’m emotionally blackmailed into a purchase, I do not gain a favorable impression of the company.

So, that’s MLM what are affiliate sales? With affiliate sales or at least what I’ve seen so far (and anything outside of this will probably make me drop the whole idea) is I place advertising for a product on my site or newsletter. If a reader clicks through and makes a purchase, I as the referrer, get a cut of the sale. The cost of the product is the same whether they came through my ad or not. I’m ok with this, it doesn’t feel as manipulative. Now, there is always emotional manipulation in marketing, but this doesn’t seem to put anyone in an exploitive position. I could be wrong, but my highly attuned guilt radar is not sounding.

Over on Home Ec, I’m slowly adding some affiliate ads to the site. Most of these will go to old posts that receive a lot of search engine traffic that doesn’t necessarily stick around. The ads will be for products related to the search, appliances under appliance repair, fabric under crafts, kitchen gear I love, etc.

Other random things:

I’ve really gotten into listening to podcasts lately, whether playing chauffeur, doing the dishes, or folding laundry, they keep my mind occupied.

Here are a few I thoroughly enjoy:

Spycast – Run by the International Spy Museum, this podcast is endlessly fascinating focusing on espionage intelligence. I also happen to just enjoy Peter Earnest’s voice.

Stuff You Missed in History Class – I picked this one up on a recommendation by James. I never would have called myself a history buff, but these short shows pack a lot of information that would be useful the next time I play Trivial Pursuit. I’ll still fail the pop culture category.

BlogCastFM – The Up and Coming Blogger Series. I have a narcissistic interest in this one. If you’re not interested in professional blogging, skip it; it will have zero relevance to your life. As blogger / website developer it’s a good reminder of where I need to be placing my focus and sometimes the enthusiasm can help keep me plugging away. The blogging world is so weird with no real definition of what constitutes success. On one hand, I’m “living the dream” with the book deal, but on the other I still feel like a complete nobody.*

*Hush. I get to decide when I don’t feel like a nobody / noob.*

What podcasts do you listen to? Any?

Somehow, there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish everything I should be doing, but somehow I still find time to procrastinate. It’s a habit I have to break.

The first deadline is hanging over my head, so of course Tim is having to pick up shifts. I’m hiring a sitter one day a week to help ensure I have at least some uninterrupted time, but I don’t know if that’s going to be enough and I don’t know what else to do.

I’m still excited beyond my wildest dreams, but the actuality of the obligation is now looming. I feel like the ridiculous girl in any number of movies, the one that just stands there and stares -or worse screams- instead of doing anything.

I don’t regret any of this, but I’m fairly certain that the cracks in my demeanor are starting show. For that, I apologize.

Just a few quick kid pics, before I forget.

Last week I took the kids and my pal Bran up to Chimney Rock. Great day and as all family trips go, it’s not complete until someone gets hurt.

I hate running because I become bored and see no reason to continue.  I don’t watch television because there are far more interesting things to do.  There must be something to synergy because I now know I will run three miles on a treadmill, as long as I have my own tv and headphones.

I definitely want to do next year’s iFive:k and potentially the Bridge Run, but please don’t hold me to the latter.