Yes, I like my job

I was asked yesterday what I like about my job. As most salespeople my first thought was "the money," but my words came out as "I enjoy working with a client to come up with a unique campaign and targeting the right audience for that campaign to be successful." Both are the truth but the latter is definitely more satisfying.

I work at a newspaper as a digital salesperson. I sell online marketing to big and little companies.

When I was in high school I wanted to work at a newspaper or a magazine. It was my dream.
At fifteen I wrote for a newspaper in Washington's youth page. They wrote a bio about me and asked where I saw myself at twenty five. I said " Working at a newspaper or magazine and living in San Francisco." 

 At twenty five I worked at a newspaper as a graphic designer about 40 miles from San Francisco. After years as a zine publisher and over a decade as a designer I made a huge switch to the digital part of the newspaper and then to the sales part. I accomplished those dreams or rather a slightly different version of a better paid dream.

I really do enjoy my job. I enjoy being on top of the constantly changing digital world.

For so long I just wanted to be a graphic designer; a creative guru I didn't think I would enjoy the dark side of selling advertising to people. I was wrong and I was broke back then. There are many other ways I use my creativity in my job. And it pays the for my wonderful hobby of singing in a band.

A quote I found a couple weeks ago from the great Maya Angelou-
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Find what you like and do it. Be direct , be a bitch with what you want and need to be happy. It's your life only you can control your destiny. 

Loot Crate Review

A couple weeks ago I signed up for LOOT Crate. It was the first crate subscription I was even remotely interested in. I'm not into the fashion boxes, craft boxes, or healthy snack boxes, but you can bet that I'll sign up for the nerdy gamer toy lover boxes.

So I got my first Loot Crate this weekend.
It was AWESOME, just look at all this stuff!! We got a Superman Pop figure, a Minecraft Mini Calendar, Nasa Patch, Star Wars pocketmodel trading card game, Melting Rubik's Cube sticker that Brian turned into a magnet and a Star Trek Badge.

The subscriptions start at $19 if you want to be able to cancel at any time, but go down if you sign up for more. Check out the site here and indulge in nerdy goodness.

Jealousy is...

Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.- Fulton J. Sheen

Having been a tom boy for most my life I never understood jealousy. As a tom boy I was used to hanging with boys who were direct, less judgmental than girls, and not so much into competition outside of sports. Most people that know me can attest to the fact that I am a person who likes to be accepted for who I am or not at all. I don't like to play games and I don't pretend to be anything I am not.

Most females are brought up looking at other females as competition, who is prettier, who is thinner, who has the best boyfriend/husband, who has the better job, who can eat a shit ton of pizza and not gain a pound, who gets more free drinks at clubs, etc. Which is really just a waste of energy and time. It's not important.

My husband always tells me not to stress over the things I cannot change, with me that stress is wasted on bills, plans, etc. Hardly ever do I waste my time on jealousy. I've tried my best to realize that instead of being jealous over someone's accomplishments I should be positive and work harder to accomplish my own goals.

Not only does this translate into my life of being a woman, but in being a musician as well. We hear of bands we don't care for being signed or getting a break. Instead of wasting time and breath on negativity towards that I welcome it, if they can do it so can I.

I think a lack of jealousy definitely shines through as strong self-confidence. If you're happy with yourself you don't waste your energy being nasty or rude to other people, especially to other females.

I am also not intimidated by other successful women, I love them. I love that they have worked hard to get to where they are and they can probably teach me something awesome.

I mentioned before that these last couple years I have been able to find a great group of other down to earth, kick ass chicks that are my friends. Real friends not nasty jealous fake friends who feel the need to put other people down to make themselves feel good or talk bad about people behind their back.

If you're surrounded by the fake type, then you might be getting sucked into a nasty vortex of jealousy and negativity. Cleanse yourself, get some distance and reevaluate that friendship.

As you get into your late twenties/early thirties I believe you realize that strong positive friendships are far more nurturing.

I can tell you from experience, it's a great thing to wake up in a few months after mourning a broken friendship to realize all it was doing was holding you down.

Don't waste any time on vapid jealousy, it will cover you in a mask of bitter nastiness and you'll come across as insecure and miserable.

Leverage

This is the time of year when I don't like to leave my house outside of going to work, band practice, and the store. 

Mostly it's cold, I don't like crowds and I received some video games for Christmas and they aren't going to play themselves.

Unfortunately our son feels the same way. He doesn't want to go outside and play or ride his bike. He wants to get grubby fingerprints all over my new tablet while playing Angry Birds Go.

Before winter break his teacher sent us an email stating that he just wasn't trying at his school work and if he kept it up his grades would suffer.

So during winter break he had to earn his video game time by writing stories, reading books, and going outside to play.

The other day he brought home his most recent progress report and he had raised all of his grades to A's and B's. So yeah, video games as leverage can be pretty awesome.