Toiling Tuesdays: Something wise this way comes

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Incident-Free work place
 
Companies that offer incentives for remaining incident free confound me. At the low end of the spectrum are edible rewards whilst at the high end are monetary. One is too low and one is too high. Incentives that are too high keep employees from reporting incidents (at least at first unless they turn out to be large problems) and incentives that are too low do not motivate anyone. How about rewards for exhibiting safe behavior in the first place? Shouldn’t that be what is rewarded. Don’t accidents happen, even under the best circumstances, so it is not appropriate to reward the perfect outcome. What should be rewarded is the near-perfect environment.

Author Thursdays: Maplevalleywriters.org

by in Author Thursdays, Maple Valley Writers

I just purchased the domain for maple valley writers and will begin setting up the website in the next week, at least in time for the Maple Valley Farmer’s Market and my booth for the MVW!

Things are moving along! Where are you in your writing project?

“Write with the writers, author with the authors”

facebook.com/maplevalley.writers

Toiling Tuesdays: Two Thoughts

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Someone once told me that to rise to the top you had to be promoted. To be promoted, it is faster to take promotions from other companies because your own company cannot always view your potential. But if you are always changing companies, wouldn’t you theoretically start at the bottom?

            Why is it that employees who have been with a company longer get more vacation time but are more integral to the company and therefore can’t take time away as easy or even at all (a la phone available during vacation) whilst new employees who aren’t that important get no vacation time at all? If I work longer and harder at a company I’m rewarded with something that I can’t fully take advantage of? Why aren’t I given the option to sign a contract with the employee stating terms on my end as well as theirs, such as I’ll commit to a year and they immediately commit to benefits and insurance, yadda yadda yadda…

Miscellaneous Mondays: Butt-dialing

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You know what grinds my gears? The fact that all phones can dial one number, even if they are screen locked. Hey phone companies, do you know why we lock our phones? So that we don’t butt-dial anyone! Now the only people we can butt dial are 911.

Said one engineer-inventor to another, “You know what this phone needs? The ability to emergency dial under any circumstance. Like, what if you had stolen a phone but it was pass-code protected and suddenly you were in an emergency situation. You should be able to dial 911 from that phone!”

“That is the best idea ever! There is no possible way that could go wrong!” Said the other engineer-inventor.

Then they all added inane and unnecessary things to phones and were happy.

Foodie Fridays: Thai Tea

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One of my favorite drinks is Thai Tea. It’s creamy and has that solid tea taste while being a creamsicle orange. I decided to buy my own brew and save myself some dollhairs by making it myself. Alas I got a splitting headache every time I drank it. There are very few ingredients in the Thai tea mix (pictured in the Ziploc bag) and I have a feeling that it is the coloring (horror!) that is giving me such a negative reaction. The headache is so bad that I will never drink this stuff again. Additionally, I am against coloring. It is unnecessary in food production and harmful to the body.

Anybody know of a good Thai tea mix without food coloring??

Authur Thursdays: Maple Valley Farmer’s Market

by in Author Thursdays, Maple Valley Writers
See you Saturday (and Sunday and Tuesday)


As you dear readers know I started a local writer’s group a couple months ago and have been getting it off the ground ever since. I created a facebook page (facebook.com/maplevalley.writers), an e-mail address (maplevalleywriters@outlook.com) business cards, flyers, and am working on a website. I wrote a short blurb in the Voice of the Valley to gather interest for the first meeting and posted all over the web for the event. I even made flyers and put them up around town. 
I have learned that it is not the amount of effort you put into the endeavor that counts but the timing and type of effort. Maple Valley Writers needs more members and I know there are writers/authors out there in the area who could use a writing group. I just have to find them. 
So get ready Maple Valley! The Maple Valley Writers are coming to you! Three Saturdays in July, August, and September respectively I will host a booth at the Maple Valley Farmer’s Market. There will be information, books to read, and a raffle to win several informative books on writing and publishing. 
At this point I have spent more money on this writer’s group than on myself as an author! Please don’t let me down Maple Valley, I know it takes time to build up a relationship and find the closet-writers but I am determined and have faith in the project. 

Toiling Tuesdays: New Job Woes

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What I have noticed since getting a new job

To clarify: I have never had a full-time job, have never had a desk job, have never had this type of job before.

I thought it would be a struggle to change my sleep-wake habits to get up before 9:30 AM but I have found that I am so tired after working eight hours at the one job and doing other necessary things afterwards that I am so tired by 10:30 PM that I go to bed before midnight.

My body must sense something I do not because I hardly ever wake to my alarm but instead wake up 30 minutes – one hour before it goes off. Perhaps I don’t need as much sleep as I used to or I’m getting better, deeper sleep. Or I am so paranoid of being late that my body senses this anxiety and wakes me up in rather plenty of time to get ready.

I have already known this but I am less groggy in the morning when I have a purpose (such as getting to work by 8:30).

My eating habits are starting to suffer. Don’t tell my parents, but I ate a bagel and ice cream for dinner last night…. This should be easy to get a handle on because all I have to do is be prepared for making food, such as curbing myself from snacking right before eating and ruining my appetite.

Ego Depletion. Staying focused at work takes almost all of my concentration and depletes my ego entirely so that when I get home all I want to do is garden and watch movies. Unless I have something important pending, like taking care of business, phone calls, or job #2 I don’t have the heart to do anything for the rest of the night. The real loser in this situation is my writing. I don’t feel like it. Perhaps it is because writing is a never-ending project and I prefer to work on something I can complete, like a lesson in my web development class, a poster for farmer’s market, or that engineering project I can do.

Am I an adult now?

When can I retire?

Miscellaneous Mondays: SoCNoC wrapup

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Southern Cross Novel Challenge
 
 
Invariably life intercedes and I chose to de-hectify my life and not worry about meeting the challenge. I resolved, about one week in, to write as much as possible, whenever possible and to make opportunities for myself to write. Those opportunities banked off sharply when I added on a 40-hour work week to my usual schedule. Overall I think I accomplished quite a bit with my novel and it stands at almost 50k words total, a complete first draft. Now on to edits. I also have yet to finish sending out my children’s picture book to all possible publishers from the list I have been working on.
 
Week one tally?
    3 queries sent
    10,998  words written
Week two tally?
    5 queries sent
    6, 889 words written
Week three tally?
    1 query sent
    4,628  words written
Week four tally?
    2 queries sent
    5,300 words written
 

Final tally:
   11 Queries sent
   27,815 words written
 
 
Till NaNoWriMo!

Foodie Fridays: A Few of My Favorite Things

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Safeway Pizza Sticks

The nostalgia accompanies the crispy croissant-esque deliciousness. These were popular before those itsy bitsy pizza rolls. I am very disappointed if they are out of them or are done cooking them for the day. Pizza sticks and half-size shopping carts fill my memories, along with airport quality Chinese food and fruit leather. Relive your childhood (or mine) with these wonderful $0.99 treats.