Asrai Devin's Blog, page 16

Interspiration #2182012

Ever been in love? Consider yourself a genius. http://bit.ly/zpRuNj

Attack of the doubt malingers http://bit.ly/wrJNZC

Reader shaming. http://bit.ly/yMziNP From the Smart Bitches. Why is romance so looked down upon? Any reading is good reading.

Much Ado about nothing http://bit.ly/w4ju3V

Whose life is it anyway? http://bit.ly/xhGNnh

Turn any online picture into a colour pallete with chipit app. http://bit.ly/yxIVc0

100 ways to be kind to your child. http://bit.ly/wuFdtE

Escaping into extraordinary? What fictional world do you want to live in? http://bit.ly/xZIJmk Me? Dragon Ages or Sword of Truth.

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Facebook, link mash-up, link mashup, links, mash-up, mashup, Smart Bitches, Sword of Truth, Twitter

On teenage viewing choices 1998 edition

I, being a geek, used to watch this show called Breaker High. It was a Saved by the Bell type thing. The premise was a  high school on a cruise ship and they got to visit different cultures. It was a Canadian made show, so if you've never heard of it, that's why.

One of the  main characters was played by . He was a skinny little geek, who chased after the rich snobby princess who wanted nothing to do with him. Also Tyler Labine was Ryan's sidekick and the clown of the show. The guys that weren't Ryan and Tyler were hot and in all sorts of romance drama.

The two geeks of the show are the ones who made it big, which I find curious. And now I find out Ryan Gosling is hot. It was a shock to me, I know he's done a lot of movies, none of which I've seen.

Are there any shows you watched as a teenager strictly for the eye candy?

Tagged: 1997, Asrai Devin, Breaker High, Canada, Crazy Stupid Love, Geek, People's Choice Award, Ryan Gosling, teen shows, Television, Tyler Labine, YTV, YTV television

#Row80Checkin- Writer`s block and money purposes

Writing goals: down the tube. None of the ideas I've come up with have turned out plottable. I can't find character motivation, I can't find turning points or plots that make things worse. I'm at a dead end. I didn't want to admit to  having writer's block, but I think it is.

My plan for this: freewriting (like morning pages, but not in the morning because I am not a morning person and if I do get out of bed for something like this, my son would be awake 2 minutes later), following my other creative interests, such as home decor, sewing and crocheting and to carry on blogging.

I also want to start meditating (more on this next Monday) and also maybe a spiritual practice. Been a long time since I did anything spiritual or religious. I long to be a practicing Wiccan again.

Blogging goals: I have tons of ideas for Friday Fun posts. So those are queued up from  now until June. (Not quite). My Monday Motivation are more difficult, since I'm trying to be more high concept (reaching more people then just writers).

Exercise: I've fallen off the wagon. Monkey Boy is so whiny it's hard to get 40 minutes where he isn't demanding my attention the entire time. I am a bit bored of EA interactive, so i need a change anyway. Maybe I'll go back to the exercise videos. I love me some exercise videos. The music and dancing should keep him entertained long enough to raise my heart rate and break a sweat.

Danielle La Porte's burning question for this week is: What is the purpose for your money?

And mine is ….

creation.

More fully: to support my lifestyle so I can create more. More everything. More love, more crafts, more words, more fun, more learning, more time.

Somewhere late last year, I found a blog that asked you to set a goal for the amount of money you would make, but also to allocate that to various areas of your life or to  have a plan for your money.

vehicles=26%

housing=16%

food=2%

other bills and life=27%

personal husband and I=4%

children=2%

savings=13%

gifts=1%

The housing and bills are based on my estimates of our costs. For the past 8 years we have managed to keep our housing costs far below the 30% of our income. By looking at this our vehicles would cost far more (if we paid for them outright, these numbers are based on my ideal income, not present income), but the vehicles are total cost, whereas the  housing is only a one year payment schedule, not the whole thing. Plus we also plan to spend a bunch of money doing some fixing up.

What is the purpose of your money? How did your week go?

Tagged: Asrai Devin, check-in, goal checkin, goal setting, money, motivation, row80, row80 goals, Twitter, Writer Resources, Writers Block, writing

Boost Productivity

I am a big fan of the blog I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. I haven't read his book yet, it's on my list.  Partly because I'm too busy reading his free subscriber content. This past few weeks it's been "dream job secrets."

He's a big fan of videos, which I don't usually watch, but his tips are really helpful, so I watch.

I can't recall which day of the dream job secrets it was, but it a five-minute video on boosting productivity. It promised to help readers with all sorts of things. I expected the usual tips.

I know better than to expect these from Ramit. He wrote an entire post about tactics, or rather how we jump from tactic to tactic without studying if a certain tactic is working and why they work. Ramit loves to study top performers, see what tactics they use and then systematically see if they work for others.

So how can you boost productivity?

Test tactics top performers use and see what can work for you.

Be honest about which tactics will work for you. Working against your nature is counter-productive.

Be clear about what is important to you. Make sure your actions are working toward your goals, not counter-productive.

Tagged: Asrai Devin, dreams, goal setting, I Will Teach You To Be Rich, Personal Finance, personal productivity, productivity, Psychology, Ramit, Ramit Sethi

Interspiration #2112012

Jayrod Garret accepts his versatile blogger award. http://bit.ly/yilDRc

Marcy Kennedy and Lisa Hall-Wilson got a chance to interview James Scott Bell. HOW COOL IS THAT? Ahem, fangirl over here. http://bit.ly/wjWehC

How do you want to feel about life? http://bit.ly/yOPnqp

Banned from the Babyshower tells us about her `No Poo`experience. I haven`t used shampoo in years. For a while I went to water only, but the build up got to be too much. http://bit.ly/wIejpR

Immortal Monday  with the movie Immortals. http://bit.ly/wk7qNt

Parents are rock stars. http://bit.ly/wtdEpi

9 self-defeating beliefs. http://bit.ly/xTawcW

Someone has a crush. http://bit.ly/zICIZY The image: me too. Tho I'm a serial crusher. I can never commit to one fantasy.

Are we ever going to achieve success http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2012/01/is-all-hard-work-ever-going-to-pay-off.html

How to be a prolific writer http://writetodone.com/2012/01/23/writing-secrets-of-prolific-authors/

What one author learned from Triberr and why she left. http://bit.ly/xvsLw4

Tagged: Asrai Devin, link mashup, links, mashup, No poo, Shampoo, Sodium bicarbonate

Oh the 80′s

I don't recall a lot of the 80′s I was born in  1981, so I was only in elementary school. I had a tiny electric piano that I loved to death, I don't know how much time I spent playing with it (probably less then I recall because I didn't know how to play the piano). But it had a demo song and it was "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." A year or two I stumbled upon the video for this song.

I'll embed it at the end. If you watch it know you'll lay on the floor laughing yourself to death before you read what I have to say.

That is if George Micheal's shorts don't make you gouge your eyes out or you don't go blind from the colours, the hair and the black light. And the hat. I guess George Micheal's partner Andrew Ridgley just go back from a safari and forgot to take his hat off.

I don't usually indulge in gossip (unless someone will listen) but was there actually a time when people thought George Micheal was straight?  I see a lot of similarities of his dance moves to say Ricky Martin. Plus he was very pretty.

Tagged: 1980s, 80's music, 80's music video, Asrai Devin, Electric piano, George Micheal, GeorgeMichael, Keyboard, Music, Piano, Ricky Martin

#Row80 Check in February 8, How do you want to feel

Okay the check in bits.

Goals: editing. I got good (if frustrating) feedback from my first round betas. So I am working on fixing that. After I get it sent off for a second round, then I shall go back to working on this ambitious idea I have.  Or writing smut. Or fan fiction. I haven`t decided what.

Blogging: I was doing well, until my hubby`s days off hit and we had truck running around to do. Will hop back on the horse when he goes back to work. but we do have a shiny orange truck. Hey I see my last two check-in made to draft status but was never posted. Good job me! :P

Exercising: I am getting back on track.  And I am trying to get some outside time with my son, but it got cold here and again. And windy, freaking prairies I tell ya!

Housecleaning: it`s kitchen week and since the kitchen isn`t cluttered with stuff I can get rid of, I clean off all the counters once, glare at people as they mess them up and never do much else. I need to make up a list of cleaning stuff to do during this week.

Earlier in the week I stumbled upon (not via stumble upon, just through a blog) Danielle LaPorte`s Burning Questions series and this week was about How do you want to feel?

The best one I read  was Ì want paying bills to feel like writing thank-you notes.`I want that too. This blog had some good feelings.

But anyway some of mine.

I want my day to feel like a filled up heart.

I want kissing to feel like melted chocolate.

I want my next success to feel like I touched the heart of the universe.

I want my body to feel like it just had a good stretch, massage and then soak in a hot tub.

I want smiling to feel like biting into a pineapple.

I want my friendships to feel like slipping into a tub of hot water. easy, accessible when I want.

I want my nervous system to feel like nursing a newborn baby.

I want my money-making to feel like playing with puppies and also, wearing your most comfortable pair of jeans.

I want the end of the day to feel like silk pajamas, hot chocolate and a laying on the perfect mattress.

I want my challenges to feel falling in love, a little exciting, a little scary, and I will jump in with both feet.

I want my love to feel like a warm bed.

I want my writing to feel like stretching my body.

I want my ideas to feel like reading tarot cards an unfolding mystery.

I want my house to feel like an open canvas.

I want my life to feel Unwritten.

Tagged: accountability, Asrai Devin, check-in, Danielle LaPorte, Fan fiction, goal setting, goals, good feelings, questions series, row80, Row80goals, Tarot, Unwritten, Writers Resources

Daughter's room

One of the hardest parts of moving 400 KM was leaving our nine-year-old's friends behind.

So, the promise was made, that her room would be painted and decorated first.

Before:

From 2011-09-19

We fought about colour. She wanted blue. Blue? For a girl's room. I wanted pink, like bedspread. She said it was too much pink. Finally, we agreed on:

 

From 2011-09-19

An improvement no?

Tagged: Asrai Devin, child, children's rooms, Do it yourself, History, Paint, painting, purple room, Relationships, renovations, room colour, Shopping, simple renovations

making peace with drudgery

This phrase came to my mind the other day while i pondered my life as a unpaid parenting professional. I advocate we stop calling us stay-at-home-parents or even say-at-home-MOM, like moms who don't have paid jobs are worth less to society then people who have a salary.

I want to save the title for when I get bored of being the Maven of Mischief (thanks to Kristen Lamb for the suggestion, i think that should go on my future business cards). But anyway, rambling is not the point here.

There is an importance to raising children that is lost.

I once read about a childless man complaining about his taxes going toward education. Seriously. These children will care for you in your old age, design the car you will drive in 30 years, run the country, work in the hospitals or even serve you up some fries at McDonald's (no shame in it- we all want fast food, someone has to make it for us lazy people who don't want to slaughter our own cows out back). Society depends on the young, you were young once and society paid for you to learn to read and write so you could voice your (ignorant) opinion.

I once stood in the freezing cold doing recess supervision, I watched the children be children (I worked at the best school), having fun. I watched them, nurtured them in the classroom and it hit me on the playground how important these children were, are, I just don't see them daily. I have no idea what they are going to be individually as "grown-ups" but together they are the fabric of society, the future society anyway. Everything in their lives would contribute to them becoming empathetic, caring, hard-working individuals or possible criminals in prison. By virtue of luck, they were well on their way to being the former, because of their place of residence and options for schooling.

So while, pushing cars back and forth with my son is neither stimulating for me or having a huge impact on his future, he does know that I care about him. I can impart my wisdom upon him. And I'm not out somewhere having an anxiety attack about the person I've entrusted him to.

And in researching for this article I came across some horrible opinions. Mothering is not good enough for women's intellect. (Says the women who has never had to explain a miscarriage to a 5 year old, why you can't swear in public to a 4 year old or tried to make a meal while entertaining a toddler who insists he can stir the pots on the stove).

And they are missing the point, everyone is missing the point.

No matter how you do it: PARENTING IS IMPORTANT WORK.

I need that on a bumper sticker or tatoo or big sign in the sky.

Where do you weigh in on the mommy wars?

Tagged: Asrai Devin, Family, Grandparent, Home, McDonald, mommy wars, Mother, Panic attack, Parent, stay at home mom, stay at home parent

Interspiration 242012

the art of being an introvert creative http://bit.ly/ydSQFw

Climbing the Success Ladder. http://bit.ly/wv9hCO

Cultural Covering of Breastfeeding Interesting thoughts. http://bit.ly/w8XrD4

A quick breakdown of Vampire Diaries. http://bit.ly/xAI3yo I can't pick up another show, but the actors are all nice to look at.

2 tips on becoming an insider on your industry. http://bit.ly/wPL35j

Defending Romance. http://bit.ly/wAzAGs I've never felt the need to hide my love for romance.

How you can make free work for you. http://bit.ly/Ap7vD0

30 (give or take) things challenge. http://bit.ly/wu46bi Looks like a longer version of #Row80