starting to write with a new publisher!

I've started to write short articles with a new publisher. This publisher seems to be very organized, very methodical, and very specific regarding how they want the articles to be written. To begin, I've picked 3 titles and will write 3 "how to" articles according to a template laid down for the layout. I wrote the first one, "how to interpret your auto policy" and submitted it for review. I'm supposed to wait until the first one has been reviewed and edited so that I will have a better idea of what they want, before I start on the next one. We'll see how well I did on this first one. I rewrote it at least 3 dozen times. Took me hours to get it right, I'm anxious to see if they think it's right.

selling on Ebay

Today I posted 3 separate items on Ebay for sale. Here's a handcarved chess set I posted:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190527448170&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

My plan is to try to photograph and post 3 or 4 items every week. I hope that they sell! We've got to get rid of all this stuff!  If they don't sell, I'll go to plan B.

Hump Day

Today is Wednesday. Some people say that this is the best day to go grocery shopping. Apparently most people go shopping later in the week, or on the weekend, or on Monday, so stores are the least crowded on Wednesday. And most stores begin their new sales on Wednesday, so supposedly the store will be fully stocked on this day with lots of bargains.

Personally, I hate Wednesdays. First off, the weekend is too far away to think that the week is practically over.  Most weekends, I plan a lot of projects to work on so I usually get started on Monday. Which means that by Wednesday, I should be half way done (probably not going to happen) or I will have run into some form of roadblock that will keep me from finishing the task or tasks. 

oh well. Today is almost over. Tomorrow is Thursday and that's practically the weekend!

Getting rid of stuff

It all started when my husband complained that we have too much stuff crammed into our little house. We do, it's true. We've traveled all over the world, and I have to bring back mementos. I am a very sentimental person and I love old things, handmade things, pretty things, lots of things. He hates clutter. He would prefer to have a minimalist type of decor, you know, like you see in the movies of the single guy in a loft in New York. Chrome and leather couch and chair and coffee table in the living room. Bed and maybe a nightstand in the bedroom. That's it. No photos, no gewgaws, no heirlooms, nothing personal, no dustcatchers.

We have a lot of dustcatchers. And I am allergic to dust. I decided all the clutter had to go.

But it's so hard to part with my stuff! I don't want to dump it all in one of those donation boxes. The fragile things might break! I decided to try to sell a few things on ebay. I started watching similar items and they sold for pennies! Couldn't do it.

Next I decided to take some of my stuff that I've bought in 3rd world countries --handcarved or handcrafted things-- to a store that I saw in a local mall. They had lots of similar stuff. Maybe they would buy some!  I boxed up 2 small boxes of samples. Lugged them over to the store. Trotted them out for show, he loved all of them, but only landed on 5 little carved animals, made from a type of large nut that when carved, looks like ivory. But isn't. Sold the 5 for $7.50. Wish I could have sold the lot to him rather than lugging it all home again!

I may try Ebay again. If that fails, I guess we are back to the donation box again! Or maybe I could give the stuff away as Christmas and Birthday presents?

Good news and bad news

The good news is that when I took my daughter's laptop to get looked at, miraculously, it worked! Either I didn't have the power cord plugged in correct and it drained the battery or else the shaking up in the car drive to the shop was a fixer. Yay! Laptop is good to go.

The bad news is that I went to the big box computer store where they had taken my own laptop to be sent off to Sony for repair. I had left my external harddrive with them to download all my stuff off the laptop onto the drive. Saturday, the guy called me and said that the drive was ready, come pick it up. When I proffered my receipt to the counter person, he left to find the small box with the drive, now holding (I assumed) all my precious pictures, articles, resumes, you name it. I gotta have that stuff! He couldn't find it. Asked some other dude to help, he couldn't find it anywhere.

They finally asked a young lady, who tried her best to find it, no go. The other 2 guys gave up and wandered off to do "other stuff". She called the tech at home (who did the transfer on Saturday, and called me to say it's ready), he said "it's right there where I left it Saturday night". Yet it has disappeared. Gone. She looks everywhere, no finding it.  Sends me home. Says that maybe, when they packaged my computer up to send to Sony, they packaged the separate drive along with the laptop, although I can't figure out why anyone in their right mind would do this since it's not a Sony and furthermore, was in working order when I left it with the tech. Yikes! So I ask them to please find the laptop and get all the stuff on the laptop's drive loaded onto SOMETHING before they take it apart.

So-So news: The laptop is still in the warehouse. I left it at the big box computer store on Friday, they packaged it to ship on Saturday, but TOO LATE for pickup, so it hadn't left yet on Monday around 2:30. Am beginning to realize just why the last time they fixed the thing it took 4 weeks and then they just gave me a new one anyway.

Moral of the story: Don't drop the computer. Takes too much out of a person to go through all this just to get it fixed.

it all started when I dropped my laptop...a few months ago....

I dropped my laptop a few months ago. It was laying on the kitchen table, with the power cord snaked over to the electrical socket on the wall above the counter next to the table. I knew that if I wasn't careful, I would probably trip over the cord... well you get the picture. So I did trip over the cord and the laptop fell to the floor. Hubby and son watching TV yelled, "what happened"?  Of course, I yelled back, NOTHING!!! then quickly picked it up, opened it and turned it on. Whew. It worked. Closed a little funny, the casing on the left corner was missing a piece of plastic, but no worries! It worked. A month or so later, the mouse started to not follow directions. Uh Oh.  I finally took it in to the big box store where I bought it last week.  Of course I had purchased the accident warranty (because I know I'm a clutz) and they cheerfully accepted it and said, 2 to 3 weeks. What???? am I going to do.

My daughter happens to have a laptop that I purchased for her about 2 years ago. I bought it for her with the caveat that she would be required to load all of my 35mm slides from the 1970's onto the hard drive and then to a disk, which would be much easier to access and view than their current residence, an old circular slide projector carousel. So far she has done about 2 slides. So, I feel like I can ask her to loan it to me for a few weeks while my laptop is in the shop. She does have another laptop, a company one, and a blackberry so she can easily read emails and FB and post and stuff without the laptop. I am not the owner of a BB. Hate them.. The numbers and words are way to small for me to see and push. Makes me write gibberish.

Got my daughter's laptop on Friday. All good all weekend. Closed it up and put it on the counter on Sunday evening. Monday morning, opened it up, pushed the little tiny "on" button. Nothing. Tried it again. Nothing again. Left it alone, thinking maybe it needed time, tried it again. Nothing. OMG what should I tell my daughter? I did NOT drop it! Actually did nothing at all but close it! So, today, I am going back to the laptop repair place and asking them nicely for a rush job....hoping they will/can. I'm out of town next week, enrolling employees with their annual renewal enrollments at a school near Ft Worth, staying in a hotel with WiFi. I NEED a laptop so I can write, read, research etc.and stay in touch with everybody.

Oh how I have become so dependent on technology! I can't function without a daily dose. How did this happen?

First post!

I am an unemployed (technically) middle aged female who is actually working a variety of different jobs in this new economy. It all started when I decided last year that I no longer wanted to work as a corporate animal. So, to keep up my shopping and traveling habits, I must needs do some sort of compensated work.

1)  I hold a life and health insurance license. I have, at times, worked for an insurance company (twice), an insurance agency, a third party administrator (twice) and have even formed, built up a clientele and then sold my own small agency. I do love insurance, especially employee benefits. However, after ObamaCare, there's not much to do out there for a health insurance agent, not much commission to be had, and I refuse to go to work for an insurance carrier ever again. THAT is another blog post. So, I hire myself out as an "enroller" helping carriers, TPA's and agencies enroll employees in their employee benefits annual enrollment.  I love this part of the business, the one on one contact with a real person with real needs. I can help this person while they are trying to make the decision of what plans to buy, what coverages they need. And when the enrollments end or the contract is done, I go home and forget about it.

2)  I write "content" for a textbook publisher, usually one contract a month, about 20,000 words. They give me an outline with a title for each bullet.  Each of these bullets need anywhere from about 200 to 800 words. Mostly they assign me stuff to write about insurance but not always. Most of the "articles" do require some research, to be correct, and plagiarism is NOT allowed. I have found that writing on my newish laptop is rather easy, and I can just let the words flow. The computer counts my words, it corrects my spelling and even alerts me when my grammar is wacky.

3)  I worked for a national tax preparation company this spring and I loved it. I took the 10 week tax preparation course last fall and since I passed the test with a 95, they chose to hire me as a "first year" tax pro. The tax code really makes no sense to a rational person, but there are rule books and limits and maximums and percentages and stuff that is how it is.  I like that. I plan to take every course available during this off season and will join up with them again next January.

4) When I sold my agency book of business in 09, I had already agreed to a 2 year non-compete limitation, that would kick in whenever I left the agency. That means that I may not try to go back to any of my old clients who had business with the agency when I left for 2 years. That 2 years will be up in October 11. Not sure what I will do at that time, I may be happy doing jobs 1) 2) & 3). But it will open up a new option. I have already had the opportunity to sell a bit of insurance to people and businesses who were not clients of that agency, so we'll see.

5) Since I love to travel, I am researching a way to travel and do something that will pay for the travel. Import small foreign objects to sell, write a travel article or two, maybe even arrange other peoples' travel. Not sure yet what I might be best at here, but it is right up there at the top of my list, because I live to travel. Itchy feet. Maybe I was a Bedouin in a former life or maybe my ancestors were nomads.

I am working, total hours, probably more hours per week than i ever worked in a "real" job, but I am the master of my fate, the captain of my ship, and I am grateful that I have the skills to be able to do what I prefer at this stage in my life.