Life

Creative Writing, Design, Entertainment, Life

Letting Go and Moving On.

by  •  • 6 Comments

So, a major step in my future plans happened this week: I submitted my Letter of Resignation at my current job, which happens to be the family business. I am starting 2013 anew with a new venture: my own business. *GASP* Why? How can someone just walk away from their family? Well, it’s not walking away forever, it’s not disloyalty, I will still be related to many of those with whom I’ve worked for over a decade now, but it’s time. I have spent too much time setting my own interests and needs aside to please others, and I realize it’ll never be enough and only burns a person out.

How selfish of me, right? How dare I decide I want to do something else with my life. Most people seem to be supportive, while others seem quick to judge me and everything I’ve ever done, as if they knew me all that well, as if I’ve never done anything for them or contributed anything of worth to the business. At least, that’s how I see it. (Maybe I’m wrong, but this is not the place to delve into further thoughts that benefit nobody.) I suppose it’s to be expected, people don’t think you’ll walk away from something that may very well be a lifetime commitment to them. It’s not like I am unwilling to be supportive or never plan to do anything for my family’s business again; quite on the contrary. But for me, my life is meant to be so much more than it is now, and in order to move forward, I have to let go, to free myself so I can achieve everything I have set out to do from here. They will be fine without me if they’re willing to stay the course, so I hope to see things continue into the future, for everyone’s benefit.

Read more →

Life, Social Media

To My Friends and Acquaintances Due East…

by  •  • 0 Comments

Hey, friends (and acquaintances), and all those dealing with Hurricane Sandy right now. How’s it going? Yes, I know, it’s a bit uneasy out there right now. Please be safe, and know that the rest of the world is ready to help if you need us, even if we can only offer positive thoughts right now.

I send out a giant virtual hug with comforting thoughts of kittens (or your preferred cute, cuddly animal), chocolate and rainbows!

To those of us not directly affected by Sandy, remember, chances are someone you know will be dealing with this in some way, and in a major way, at that. You can text REDCROSS to 90999 to pledge your help now (it’s applied to your phone bill). Check up on friends and loved ones, or have them do so when they can (by social media, text, or whatever is at the ready). We may need to be patient, but let’s lend a hand, because if we were in their situation, we’d appreciate the thoughts and support, too. 🙂

This is no small storm that people are going to be forgetting anytime soon, so while this may all sound cheesy and simplistic, I’m trying to get my thoughts across as best I can given the situation.

We are here for you, guys! Take care!

–With Love from the West Coast, and the Rest of the World. 

Creative Writing, Design, Life

Leaps of Faith (Whee!)

by  •  • 3 Comments

Oh hey there, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it? Well (deep subject), I’m still juggling a whole bunch of stuff at the moment: helping put on an auction (see my previous post about Gloria’s Angels), plus the big screenplay rewrite (we’re on track to be done by year’s end, with casting to begin in early 2013), and just plain working at the ol’ jobby job. Plus, I have been mulling over and finally decided to take the plunge and strike out on my own, full-time, by starting my own freelance design/copywriting business. I’ve been dabbling in design more as a hobby with little projects here and there, and using my skills on the job for many years, but I want to give it my full focus now, while continuing to follow my various creative pursuits. Never a dull moment; I can’t imagine just doing any one thing forever; I’m a free spirit who wants to embrace as much as I can while I still can. It’s requiring a lot of leaps of faith, but I am at a point where I feel I can trust my abilities and believe in myself, knowing I will land on my feet.

Read more →

Life, Social Media

Do You Have Klout?

by  •  • 1 Comment

So, I’m really hesitant to jump on all the social media bandwagons; granted, I was an early adopter of some passing fads – for example, before MySpace and Facebook, there was SixDegrees.com; remember it? Way ahead of its time, started to catch on, but ultimately fizzled, unfortunately (social media just hadn’t quite been born yet; this was in the late 90’s). Anyway, I’ve tried various ones over the years (very helpful when you’re a part of a reunion committee and trying to round up old classmates), given up on others; you can only be in so many places at once, so why not choose the meaningful ones with the most, well, “Klout?”

Fast forward (zooooooooooooooom): Last night, upon seeing a Facebook friend posting about Klout, which I’d heard of, but didn’t see any reason to jump on the bandwagon before (it’s still in Beta – but look at how long Gmail was in Beta, uh-huh), I finally decided to check it out. Basically, it links you and all your social networks, apps and services (the major ones, at least) to build up clout (how you influence people in your social circles and beyond), and it might not be for everyone, but it seems to be building up steam. I started linking up my accounts (well, the ones I still use; they have the option to link Last.fm, but I haven’t used that in YEARS, since I was still active on MySpace, around 2006-07), and hey, I’m doing better than average – as of today, a respectable score of 39! (Edit: Since they’ve updated their scoring system, it’s now a quite impressive 64!) Klout’s site says on average, people land at about 20 (100 being the highest you can reach, for super-mega influencers and celebs, such as Lady Gaga; the higher your Klout score, the harder it is to actually push that number higher). Granted, a lot of my social sharing is done strictly with friends, colleagues and acquaintances, so they can’t exactly pull out all my social dirt without asking. 😉

Anyone else reading this using the site? Why not check me out? Give me a hat tip (+K) as an expert on Mathnet while you’re at it; that seems to be my Internet Claim to Fame (although I need to work on updating that influence). It’s free, and you might be surprised how powerful, or potentially powerful you are among your friends. Hey, we’re in this life together, after all! 😀

Creative Writing, Design, Education, Life, Mathnet

Where Have You Been?

by  •  • 0 Comments

Yes, I’m sure many of you are wondering where I’ve been (okay, so maybe only a small sampling of you), why did I just leave my Website all sad, lonely and unloved for…er…6+ years or so? Has it been that long? Wow. And yes, it’s time for an overhaul…in Internet and Technology time, that’s several shiny devices that have come and gone! Let us mourn those old toys for a few moments…okay, done.

Actually, it hasn’t been that long in some aspects; I’ve been actively using my domain for file storage, occasional micro-updates of sections on the site, but most of that has gone unnoticed to the world-at-large. Well, isn’t that life, though? Get all tied up in life, work, all that fun stuff. I have been quite productive and social in that time, however;  if you know me well enough, you know where I tend to lurk and post regularly. If you don’t know me well, that means absolutely nothing. 😛

In this time, I have also been getting educated! As in, schooled! I decided to invest in myself and my creative skills (that whole “figuring out what I want to do with my life” thing) and studied subjects of interest like Playwriting, Screenwriting and Graphic Design. And in doing so, have really stretched my mind and my talents and have essentially found things that make me happy and that I’d like to spend more of my life doing. So, see, this “hiatus” has been a good thing, and good things come to those who wait, or whatever cliché you’d like to apply to that.

Anyway, without going on too long here (too late), I do promise more updates. More details on my future plans and where things on this site will be going. And yes, this includes an update, or at least a minor overhaul of sorts on what’s probably the most popular part of this domain: The Mathnet Website. Oh yes, there wasn’t much going on for many years, and I feel terrible about letting it just sit, but the need, and time, to update content wasn’t really there (plus the whole having a job and going to school business sidelined my efforts somewhat, too). I’m also a part of the efforts over at SquareOneTV.org, so it’s not like the fandom has dropped off the planet; in fact, we’ve been doing a lot of interacting with former cast members recently and are celebrating 25 years since the show debuted as of 2012. Not to mention in the time since I last overhauled, wonderful sites such as YouTube and Facebook have come along and are still going strong, making it easier than ever to share clips and gather fans in larger groups and all that fun stuff. And because of that, Sesame Workshop has been paying attention and are now taking a DVD release into consideration. So, this is the best time to be reviving those efforts! Stay tuned, I promise you won’t be disappointed. 😉 And on that note, before I let anyone leave, please take the time, if you could, to “like” the official Square One Television page on Facebook – Sesame is using this as an indicator of interest by the fans. Tell your friends! Tell their friends! If you honestly want to see the show gain a pulse in the media again, and hey, it worked for The Electric Company, this is the best way to do it!

Okay, I’m done for now. A lot to digest, but I hope y’all are still with me. Take care, and much love! -Jill 🙂

%d bloggers like this: