Tangible Tidbits 2010 #37: Fifteen Minutes of Fame

First off, I want to thank those who reached out to me after reading last week's message. I didn't intend for it to come across so morose...but I guess in the state of mind I was in, it was inevitable. Actually, I thought the tone was pretty middle-of-the-road, but I guess my perception was off. :o Anyway, I apologize for that. I've been feeling much better since the moon left Pisces...Pisces is a water sign and the moon was in Pisces when I was born, so I can be overly sensitive and sentimental at times. :\ I'm basically fine as long as I'm keeping busy and focusing on what I'm doing at the moment. It's the quiet times that I can get into trouble, because I get stuck inside my head, and I often hear negative stuff when that happens. Most of us do. So, I guess I'm better off just keeping busy for now, and I'll have to hope I can keep my stamina up without relying on quiet time to help me recharge. :p

I got home in time from my MSU casting class (we're learning to make wax casts for metal pieces -- I have a second degree burn blister on the middle finger of my right hand already!) on Monday night to watch Alex O'Loughlin's new "Hawaii Five-0" series premiere on CBS. I liked it a lot! It came across as a big budget mini action movie, IMHO. I liked the chemistry between the characters...and seeing Alex without a shirt never hurts, either! LOL

My Virtual Garage Sale auction is taking up a lot of time, but it will hopefully be worth it when all is said and done. An LFN fan friend told me about an opportunity for it to reach a wider audience via a mention on Lisa Steven's radio program for "Moonlight" fans. Lisa is one of my Facebook friends, but I didn't even know she had a radio show! LOL

On the business side of things, we posted the new Focal Piece of the Month this week, and the updates to the Virtual Mall are almost finished for this month. ;)

I've also been increasing the company publicity efforts by posting my 1978 Maplewood Arts Center workshops on three local website calendars: the Maplewood Patch online newspaper, Maplewood Navigator (affiliated with the local weekly newspaper The News-Record of Maplewood & South Orange), and Maplewood Online. The announcement ran in the print edition of The News-Record this week, but there was a minor snafu. They made it appear as though I am the contact person for ALL of the classes and workshops at 1978. I found out about the article when the president of the 1978 board copied me on an email to the paper regarding the error. Mom had already read and recycled the paper, and she missed it on page 3! Luckily, the recycling hadn't been picked up yet, so I salvaged the paper and cut the article out. ;)

In addition, I submitted Something Tangible to be included on Artbeads.com's Friends, Fans & Followers page, as well as created a profile for myself on Art Jewelry magazine's website. I've also been expanding my reach via various social media sites. :)

Both personally and professionally, it looks like my fifteen minutes of fame has begun! ;)

Have a great week and Happy Autumn all! ;)

Tangible Tidbits 2010 #18: Hanging In There

Hey, all! Not much business news to report this week. I kind of took a "time out" much of this week to recover from a few major blows. My colleague's wake and funeral were Wednesday and Thursday. Very emotional for me. :( And then on Friday, we were hit with layoffs in my department, including my immediate supervisor and another friend. Talk about a week I never want to repeat! :p

Ironically, I found myself doing something I hadn't done in eight years...I took solace in watching movies this weekend to escape reality. That was something I'd done for the majority of my life, even going so far as to work in the local movie theater during graduate school. I always enjoyed "disappearing" into the world on the screen for a couple of hours, and not thinking about real life and/or the problems associated with it. After my father died in 2002, I stopped doing a lot of the things I "had always done" because they were too painful. All music reminded me of him, as he was a drummer and liked all kinds of music. So, I stopped listening to it until a year or so ago. It took that long for it not to push negative buttons in me. I'd stopped watching television because everything on TV seemed trivial after 9-11, and reality TV really turns me off. I stopped watching movies because everything I did try to watch had a traumatic element to it, even if it was not publicized as a dramatic film. I had enough drama in my life...I didn't need to watch movies to get even more depressed! :\ I had replaced one screen for another, opting to spend most of my time online instead. For whatever reason, however, I found myself turning to movies again for solace. The idea of spending time on the computer holds less appeal right now than it did most of this past decade. I ended up watching "The DaVinci Code" with Tom Hanks on Friday night, and the special features disk on Saturday afternoon. I had read the book years ago and enjoyed it...I'd been wanting to watch the movie for a while. Then, I saw "The Back Up Plan" with Jennifer Lopez and Alex O'Loughlin on Saturday night. Very cute movie! Of course, I am partial to anything with Alex in it, since I was a fan of his short-lived "Moonlight" vampire series. He really carried off his leading role in "The Back Up Plan" well! Looked good doing it, too! ;) Then today, I watched "Romancing the Stone" and "Jewel of the Nile" -- both with Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito. I loved those movies back in the mid-1980s, and I'd recently found the Special Edition DVDs for a good price at Columbia House. I also watched the special features for both movies...I've always loved that behind-the-scenes stuff. :)

Two more weeks to go at my current job. It should be an interesting experience, since there will be so many people missing and the rest of us will have to pick up the slack. I am a team player and I don't mind pitching in, but my primary responsibility will be to train my permanent replacement. He or she is being transferred in from another department, and training starts tomorrow.

Hopefully, my "weekend off" will help me get my head back in the game, as I do have a couple of projects I'd like to complete for colleagues before I leave. If not, I will still be going to the gym next door to the office for at least a few months -- until my personal trainer contract runs out. Don't you know, I had just signed up for 36 sessions before I made the decision to leave?! :o

So, now you're up to speed on my personal life. I will try to have "something tangible" to report next week. ;)

Take care and stay safe!