The Mid-Month Roundup

It's the same old thing around theses parts--having a lot of stuff on the to-do list, and feeling like a snail trying to check it all off. And to have to do it all in unseasonably chilly weather? Please. I've had enough of you, May. You can go home now.

My plan for May was to finish the first revision of In Another Life and finally finish up that novella I put off from last fall. I still have a good chunk of the month to see these things through, but I'm no superwoman (too bad... I'd love to wear a cape like it was no big deal). There are also poetry revisions that I would like to get to, another first draft I would like to finish writing, and of course there's always submissions--I need to set aside more time for that, or I'll end up like Dickinson with ninety-nine percent of my work undiscovered until my ultimate demise.

So that's all I've been vacillating between and not getting completed. What have I actually done? Well, I've developed a huge book crush on Real Artists Have Day Jobs (And Other Awesome Things They Don't Teach You in School) by Sara Benincasa. It's filled with lots of good advice for the artists, writers, comedians and non-9-to-5-ers of my generation. But it's also funny and honest (oh, and here I go again... you can read my review to continue this love fest).

I've also been inundated with free stuff (not a bad gig, if you can get it) and I've been starting to catch up on reviews of all the neat things like mud masks, snacks, lotions and the occasional sleep aid. I've just reviewed the latest Pinch Me box I received and my Influenster Bloom Vox Box review should be up by the end of the week.

And to fill up what little time I had left, I started writing an essay on birthdays. After I start typing away, I realized I had much more material than a single essay could hold. It's turning into a series of essays. Eventually.

Are You Ready to #TryDry?

Meetings? Deadlines? Extra workouts to get that summer beach bod? Yeah, there are a lot of things in life that can make you sweat. So what do you do when you have to face each day with a new set of challenges? Finding the right antiperspirant can help you get through the day with confidence.

I received the product complimentary to test and/or review from Influenster.

I was able to dry Degree Dry Spray through the latest voxbox Influenster sent me. This antiperspirant product does a lot of things that typical solids and gels cannot do. First, it doesn't leave any white marks on clothes like solids can do (and yes, even those that claim to be invisible solids still leave marks). Degree Dry Spray also doesn't need any dry time like gel antiperspirant products. No gross gooey feeling here!

The product has MotionSense technology that actually keeps you fresh while you move with a scent of tiare and lily of the valley (great if you are a fan of floral scents). It also claims 48-hour protection. I cannot confirm or deny this. I use it every day, so if it does protect that long, all the better for consumers, right? I know that it does exactly what it is supposed to do--protect me from sweat and odor throughout the day--including after a workout.

 

Are you ready to #TryDry or have you already tried Degree Dry Spray? Let me know what you think about this product.

Snoopers

I must be paranoid about snooping. My family doesn't snoop on me, but as I look at my to-do list for this week, it all seems to be written in some strange code. It's like I don't really want anyone to know that I scheduled a block of time to write this blog post or that I want to write a certain amount of articles for the day. I know I've had snoopers in the past (an apology to anyone who's told me a secret since I started keeping a diary at the age of 11--I'm pretty sure someone knows your secret by now). I guess I'm just too private sometimes. Maybe I've just discovered why I can't get to the final stages of publishing. Letting people read your work is a hard thing to do. I just have to learn to let go. Okay... enough public self-analysis.

New Articles:
Your Invitation (movie review of Invitation starring Van Johnson and Dorothy McGuire)
On the Frontlines of Business Technology

Poetic Confessions: Still taking submissions! Read the original post

Back To Business

I'm through with whining and sulking. Since this is technically a holiday week (all of you with regular 9-5's know that you're mind probably isn't 100% into your work today through Wednesday) I'm relaxing a little on finding that elusive job outside of the home office, but I'm still actively looking at freelance gigs. I went back to my standard sources, such as Guru. The only problem with that website is that it has changed so much since the last time I accepted a freelance project there. I'm sure that I can still find a job without paying the membership fee, but with only 10 bids a month I'm going to have to be careful about what I choose to bid on.

I'm also looking for new opportunities, but I don't seem to be finding that many. The reason is that after working as a freelancer for nearly four years now, I know what I decent, wage-earning rate per article looks like. And 90% of the job offers out there are well below that rate. If I get desperate, I know I'll want to take them, but I'm not sure that is time well spent, even if it does keep food in my mouth for another week. I'm not really in the habit of encouraging these people to pay so low. That's the #1 reason these people can still get their work produced at super low rates--somebody is always willing to take them.

After all of this, I'm still working on getting down the backlog of books I have to read and writing reviews for all of them. If I got paid to write book reviews (besides being paid in free books, which I'm not complaining about!) I think I would be in heaven. Anyone know of any paying review gigs? I've also done product reviews for a variety of websites, so I'm pretty familiar with the general format. Anyway... I can only hope that kind of a project comes my way.

And of course, since I want to fill my time with as much to do as possible, I'm digging out one of the novels and diving back in. This is the one that I have been working on for about 10 years now, off and on. I got off track dozens of times with this one because of research. I get buried in facts and figures and can't tunnel my way back out. This time I'm going to just lay the story out and put the facts in later, as needed. Maybe that will get everything back on track to produce something worthwhile.

Problems with puffy eyes?

I know a lot of women out there worry about dark circles and puffy bags under their eyes. While I have never really experience dark circles, I have ended up with some puffy eyes. Generally, this happens when I don't get enough sleep or had too much fun at the bar the night before. And makeup usually doesn't help. Whenever I have suffered from puffy eyes I always get friends coming up to me and asking “Long night, huh?” Well, to avoid this situation, there are products that women can use to reduce sagging or dark circles around the eyes.

Since I'm not a person that jumps at the latest beauty trends, there is no one product I can recommend to you. But if you are interested in finding out what types of eye creams work best for your situation, check out eyecreamreview.net for eye cream reviews of the top brands of eye cream. Even if you are clueless about what eye creams do for your eyes, this website can help you with ideas about what you should be looking for in a cream. The site provides professional and user reviews, so you can get advice from those who love it and those who hate it.

Post For Review Sites is an awesome blog. You can find any kind of reviews there that you can think of: movie reviews, blog reviews, and site reviews. It really helped me to find out that this site is only reviews... you never have to wade through any other types of posts. If you want to read a review, you got. This blog also links to some great tools and sites on the internet, including affiliate links, online stores, and a FREE SEO report. How cool is that? No matter what you are looking for, whether you are just bored or you love reading reviews of sites and other things, you will want to check out this blog. It's the best source for reviews you can find.