Accountability Wednesdays: Week 47

My good people, how are you today? I have to be honest with you, I’m still trying to wake up, and there’s a reason for that, but more on that later. First I have to quickly correct a mistake. Remember the other day when I posted a bunch of random stuff that I had gotten behind on? Well I missed one. Arg! So now I’m backtracking to let you know about a little interview I did for a fellow blogger who does “NaNo Spotlight” posts every year during NaNoWriMo time. My spotlight can be found here, over at the Kelworth Files, so please check it out, and if you have the time check out some of the other spotlights as well!

Now on with all the other nonsense!

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall

Okay, so it’s been a really long time since I actually bothered to weigh myself so that I could make a proper report, so I literally just stepped on the scale for the purpose of this post. Then I had to go through my archives to remind myself of where I started, and now I can report to you that I am still approximately 40% in the wrong direction. I mentioned before that over the course of several months I actually gained ten pounds rather than lose any, and now I’ve lost about six of those pounds, which still leaves me in the wrong side of the column. The upside of that is that for whatever reason, I actually feel like I look better later. Don’t ask me what’s up with that. Maybe I’ve just gotten so lazy that I’m convincing myself to change my mind, but I honestly have been feeling pretty happy with my appearance. Whatevs.

On the health side of things, the reason I feel so tired as I’m writing this is because I’m trying out yet another new medication. The prescription I got last month has been helping, but there are still other issues that need to be resolved, and so I’m trying out a new med that my doctor thinks will be helpful, but that so far makes my mornings feel like my brain is moving through molasses. Wish me luck with that.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’ve gone a little downhill this week when it comes to the author platform side of things, because I’ve been busy with lots of life stuff, and when I do get a moment on the computer I’ve been using that time to do YouTube videos and bang off quick additions to my BzzAgent and Influenster campaigns. I’m hoping for things to even out a little next week, once my daughter’s birthday party is over and I have significantly less to worry about.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Done and done, and still not getting tired of saying it.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Oh MAN is this goal not going to happen. In fact, it’s not even going to come close! But I’m okay with that. I’ve come to terms.

Here’s the deal… Right off the bat, I spent a great portion of the year working on goal number 3, which was really important and I’m not the least bit sorry about that. But then I also had several periods throughout the year during which I did very quick, simple blog entries so that I could focus on other, more important things, so I lost a lot of words there as well. And then came NaNo. I’m really proud of the 30,000 words that I managed to handwrite in those first two weeks, but the end of the month came to a complete standstill. I had way too much (again, more important) stuff to worry about, and so as of today, with less than five days of NaNo left, I’m only up to about 33,000 words. Could I finish if I really wanted to? Probably, yes. But I’d have to lose a ton of sleep and gain a ton of stress as a result, because, again…more important stuff to do. So it is with a heavy heart (and yet, lighter shoulders) that I admit defeat to NaNo this year, for the second time in a row. But don’t worry…I plan to continue working on the manuscript and expect to have it done by the end of December, so I can start editing in the New Year.

But the 500,000 words thing? Not gonna happen. Just letting you know.

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 39

Oh man…peeps, I am so disorganized this week that I almost forgot to write this post, and then I had to look up which week I’m on. So this is going to be a quick recap of the past week. Starting….now!

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I have no idea where I am on this one this week. I haven’t weighed myself, I’ve been eating neither better nor worse, and my stomach has been fairly stoic in general. I don’t even really know what to report other than that I’m still alive and kicking, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

The social media world fell apart on me this week as I attempted to squeeze a bunch of important stuff into a short period of time. If you follow me on Twitter you may have seen a few tweets about editing and the like, but that was probably it. I’ve got two new YouTube videos that I’ve yet to format and post, and I’ve been all but invisible on other platforms. Here’s to fixing that in the following week!

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Finally, some good news to report! After struggling to get through my manuscript as quickly (and yet as thoroughly) as possible during the weekend, I finally managed to totally, 100%, for realsies this time, complete the absolute last copy of the novel file. Thank goodness I did that run-through too, because there were TONS of invisible typos. But that’s neither here nor there. What’s really important is that the file was uploaded to CreateSpace, everything checked out, and I am currently waiting on the edge of my seat for my physical proof copy to show up! As soon as I get that and confirm that everything prints fine, the book will finally be for sale! AHHHHHH!!!!!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

One of these days I’m going to catch up on this one, I swear, but it won’t be today. I can tell you for sure that I wrote about 1000 words last week, but I can’t recall if there was anything aside from those 1000. I’ll catch up on it later…what’s really important right now is the whole completed novel thing. XD

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 38

I’m home! I’m home! Oh man, it is so nice to be home!

Don’t get me wrong; I actually don’t mind my work at all. But man, is it ever nice to have little-missy-snuggles, and a shower with decent water pressure, and a bed that smells right, and reasonably-fast internet, and the company of someone who makes me coffee and makes me laugh all day long.

(I had a long shift…give me this moment to glow.)

ANYway…

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

So I finally did a weigh-in this morning, and I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I’ve lost five pounds from what was the highest weight I’ve ever reached, so that’s pretty great. On the other hand, that five pounds brings me back down to where I started at the beginning of the year, so for the purposes of this goal I technically haven’t lost anything. But, I’m in a good mood, so I choose to take this as a win. That five pounds is almost entirely attributed to cutting soft drinks out of my diet, too. I haven’t been able to find the time to exercise (especially when I’m out at work doing my 15-hour days), but I have been able to restrict soft drinks to only certain foods (come on…you can’t drink water with pizza), and it’s made a huge difference.

On the “becoming healthier” side of things, my guts have been bothering me again, so that’s no good. But, the medic out on my work site offered me something called a “stomach protector” to test out while I’m on my days off, so we’ll see how that goes. I think the biggest thing is figuring out what my triggers are, but unfortunately that’s been more difficult than it sounds, especially since a food that I have no trouble eating one day will make me sick as a dog the next. My stomach likes to screw with me.

Also, mini-rant: when I went to see a gastroenterologist about these issues, he found nothing of any real concern, and concluded that my only problem was anxiety, which I’m tell you now actually really frustrated me, because here’s the thing… I agree that anxiety is an issue – it’s definitely the one trigger that I’m certain of – but anxiety did not cause my stomach problems. Stomach problems caused my anxiety. I bring this up now because I met a new coworker this past shift who has the exact same kinds of stomach problems and got the exact same explanation from his doctor. So I’d just like to say to the gut-doctor’s of the world: having major stomach problems is a very anxious situation, so please keep that in mind before telling people that their earth-shaking cramps and intestinal distress are effectively all in their minds.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’m going to make a confession: I’m obsessed with stats. I check my blog stats about a dozen times a day, and probably once a day I check all of my social networks to see if I’ve gained or lost any followers. Doing so actually makes it difficult to really see how well you’re doing, because tend to focus on the little things, like the Twitter user that stopped following you today, or the fact that what you thought was a well-written blog post got no likes or comments. But when you force yourself to look at the big picture things become a little more clear. Since January I’ve gained about a hundred followers on this blog, which is about a 50% increase. In the past several months I’ve doubled my Twitter followers. I’ve dramatically increased my LinkedIn network over the past year and have actually been getting blog hits as a result. I’ve only had my Facebook Fan Page for a few months, but it has over 100 followers. All in all, I have to tell myself that I must be doing okay, because I’m in a much nicer spot today than I was on January 1st.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Yes, I’m still in super-excitement mode on this goal! Last week I got some final notes back from my beta-reader, and I’ve made a couple of small changes based on those thoughts. I also reformatted the manuscript to a nicer-looking font, justified everything, and took some online advice for what kinds of margins to utilize. I now have a properly formatted, nice-looking file, and all I have to do is go through it one more time to scour for hidden typos. As soon as I’m finished with that, I’ll submit the file, wait the 24 hours it takes CreateSpace to approve the file (thanks for being so quick, CS!) and officially order my proof copies! And then I’ll twiddle my thumbs for approximately 5 business days, getting ever-more-anxious to see the end result. Wish me luck!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

I haven’t been doing a very good job of reporting on this goal lately, and I’m going to continue that trend today. Rest assured that I have been keeping track, but my word-counts are scribbled on bits of paper that are tucked in a notebook that’s still packed in my carry-on suitcase, and I just don’t feel like going through all that right now. I will tell you that I wrote somewhere in the ballpark of about 3000 words toward blog posts this past week, which should bring me up around 200,000 words total. That’s not even halfway, and we’re almost in October, but as I mentioned before I have every intention of absolutely murdering NaNoWriMo this year, so hopefully that will help.

Now, with all that said, if you don’t mind I’m going to thoroughly enjoy the wondrous world that is my own house. Weeeeee!

Accountability Wednesdays: Weeks 34, 35, and 36

Can I start out this post by getting a little weepy? Don’t worry, there haven’t been any more deaths in the family or anything like that, but I have another reason to be a bit teary-eyed today. You see, as this post becomes live my daughter – my only child, by the way – is taking part in her first ever class of kindergarten. For the rest of the year, three half-days a week, she’ll be taking part in a “school” program for 4-year-olds, making new friends, learning new things, and getting used to what it means to be in school with teachers instead of home with parents. I know that she’ll do great, and I know that it will be very good for her, and I’m not worried at all about her…but I can’t help being just a little bit sad. My baby girl isn’t a baby anymore. How does that happen? And how can I stop it? *cry*

Okay, okay…I’m okay. Let’s move on to other, less teary things.

The past few weeks have been rough, and you may have noticed that as a result I missed two accountability posts in a row. So this week will be a bit of a conglomerate of the past three weeks.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I’m currently back out West again, so I can’t quote any numbers, but I can tell you that I’m currently experiencing a bit of an up-and-down period. Before the weeks that I missed, I’d been cutting out all beverages aside from water and tea, as well as trying to eat less in general, and that was going well. By the time I got home from my last shift I’d lost almost four pounds. But, as you know, the weeks that followed were busy and stressful. I had a couple of nights drinking (and eating, like, a metric ton of food) with family, followed by a shopping trip that involved a lot of poor meal choices, punctuated by a few days of flat-out refusing to do anything at all because I was so tired. As a result of all of that I’m fairly certain that I’ve gained back at least half – if not all – of what I lost. But I’m not letting that drag me down. I’m back on to the water and tea, and I’m determined to get a decent amount of sleep while I’m at work this shift. Wish me luck.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

This goal has taken a back seat recently, since I’ve been so busy and stressed out, but it’s not all bad. I’ve had a difficult time keeping up with the blogging community because that involves so much reading, but I’ve been more active on Twitter, and I’ve been continuing to post videos on YouTube (please check them out…my handle is toreshitobinable). I even recorded a new video from my camp room last night, though it’s not been posted yet. All in all, I think I’m managing pretty well considering how busy I’ve been of late. This goal could definitely use more work, but I’m satisfied that I haven’t been screwing up too much. 😛

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Awesome, awesome, awesome news on this one! I didn’t get to talk about it two weeks ago, but I completed my mini-goal of finishing the final edits on the manuscript by the end of my last shift. I then shipped off the finished manuscript to my beta-reader for a final run-through, for which I am currently awaiting word on. But the best part? While I’ve been waiting for her, I fixed up my book cover, created a rear cover with a summary, and went through almost every step to self-publish on CreateSpace. My files have all been approved and I literally just have to hit “Print!” As soon as I get word from my beta-reader I’m going to go through the manuscript one more time to check for hidden typos and the like, and then it’s off to the printers! I’m so excited! I am seriously, genuinely almost there! AHHHH!!!!!!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

You know what? I don’t even care about this goal right now because I’m so excited about my novel! AHHHH!!!!

Okay, okay, I do still care, but I can’t really report because I haven’t been keeping proper track of everything the past couple of weeks. I know that the first week I missed I had something like 7000 words, then the second week I wrote effectively nothing, and this past week I wrote probably about 3000 worth of subscription box reviews, so let’s just call it about 10,000 over the past three weeks. That puts me in around 200,000 words so far this year. That’s very far behind, but once I get the self-publishing bit out of the way I’ll have nothing left to do but write, and oh boy, have I got some stuff in my head that’s ready to get down onto paper. 😀

And on that cheery note, I’m going to dance off into the metaphorical sunset where my internal editor can live happily ever after. ❤

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 33

**Edit**
I wanted to add this quick message to thank everyone for the outpouring of support over my post this morning. Ryan and I were not close, but he was always a total sweetheart to me and I genuinely believe that the world is a little better for having had him in it. Thanks to everyone who read my post, and extra-special thanks to everyone who clicked on the video I shared at the bottom of it. Please continue to spread Ryan’s video so that others can hear his story even though he’s no longer around to tell it. I think that’s what’s important. LOVE LIFE!
**/Edit**

A little something I want to talk about before we get down to it this week. In case you hadn’t noticed, a little thing called the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” has taken the Internet by storm. The challenge involves dumping a bucket of ice water over your head to raise awareness for ALS, in addition to making a donation to the cause. The whole thing caught on in an insane way, with even the biggest of celebrities (and even some big businessmen like Bill Gates) rising to the challenge. In the past couple of days the challenge began to sweep through my own family, so two nights ago I recorded the following video:

My aunt nominated me for the challenge while I’m on shift out West, so I had to get a little creative by swiping a bin from the camp cleaners and doing the challenge in the shower to avoid a huge mess, but I managed it! (Also, still totally made a huge mess…lol) My aunt also nominated my husband, whose water was colder than mine judging by his reaction, and then my daughter decided that she wanted to do it as well…too cute!

For more information on the challenge and ALS, check out this link.

Okay, with that out of the way, here’s my weekly update:

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

As usual, while on shift, I can’t report anything concerning my weight, but I can tell you that I’ve accomplished some good things this week. For one thing, I’ve gone the entire week without drinking anything other than water and tea (with nothing in it). Literally, that’s all I’ve been drinking. The amount of pop alone that I’ve cut out should definitely be worth something. In addition to that, I’ve been so much better with the sweets and junk food, you have no idea. I’ve been letting myself have one sweet a day (a pair of cookies, or a pastry, or whatever) and that’s it. I only broke that one day, when I had two sweets.

Another thing I’ve recently begun doing is not eating supper when we get back to camp at the end of the day. My work days are 12.5-hours long, with an hour-long bus ride either way, so we’re only actually physically in the camp for 9.5 hours a day. That means that if I eat the supper there, I’m having this big heavy mean almost immediately before bed. And I was sleeping terribly. When I finally put two and two together I started to pack up my supper and take it to work the next day, allowing me to stop eating approximately 4 hours before going to bed, and I’ve been sleeping much better. It’s making a big difference.

Lastly, I’ve been very diligent about taking my gut medicine (I only screwed up one part of one day) and it’s definitely been helping. My stomach has been so much better than usual, it’s almost creepy.

Goal #2. Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

Things were a little slow this week because I was busy working on other things, but there was a bit of activity the last couple of days with the ice bucket challenge stuff. Spread the word! Actually, now that I think about it, one reason that I didn’t accomplish much on this goal this week is because I was super-distracted by checking out all the celebrity ice bucket videos. Tom Hiddleston’s was truly stupendous, and Chris Pratt is definitely the funniest one yet. Go see!

Goal #3. COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

You guys, I did so well this week. I expected to get a chapter done a day, which would mean that I’d be done by the time this shift is over. Well, I’ve still got six days of this shift left, and guess what? I’ve only got one chapter left! In fact, by the time some of you read this post I’ll probably be done! And then it’s off to the beta-reader and hopefully I’ll be getting to work on the whole publishing bit by next shift. I am PUMPED!

Goal #4. Write 500,000 words.

Remember how I said that this goal would probably dwindle because I was going to be focusing on the editing stuff? Well I couldn’t work on any of the editing during work hours, but I could scribble stuff in a notebook during breaks and lunch, which is how I somehow (I’m still not quite sure myself) managed to write 7136 words. I’m totally stoked. I actually managed to have a successful week on all four goals, and that’s while working 12.5 hour days. How awesome am I? Totally awesome.

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 32

Can I just first mention that this traveling back and forth across the country thing is for the birds? Good money, but the traveling part I could definitely do without. I’m on day 2 of the current shift and I think it’s going to be two or three more days before I recover. Anyone know of any good stimulants that aren’t rough on the guts? 😛

Okay, on to the weekly nonsense.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I don’t have much to report here, although I can tell you that I had a pretty decent go of it the last two days. I managed the entire day of travel without eating anything horrible (except for an iced cappuccino at Tim Hortons, but I’m not counting that because I needed the caffeine to survive the 5-hour bus ride). Then, at dinner with my coworkers, I announced to them all that I was not to drink any pop this shift and if anyone sees me with a can they are to slap it the hell out of my hand. So there’s some accountability for you. Also, yesterday I actually managed to restrict myself to a decent number of calories. I don’t know how long that’s going to last before I start having sugar withdrawal symptoms, but we’ll take it one day at a time.

Still trying to figure out how I can fit exercise into my day while I’m on shift but I just don’t think it’s possible without giving up some of the precious little sleep I already get.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

A bit of a lull on this one this week. No new YouTube videos because I won’t be able to record any more unboxings until I get home, but Nerd Block Jr retweeted my vid of their recent box, so that’s nice. I’ve been trying to hang out on Twitter more often but I think I’ve waned on Facebook. I can’t say it’s been a bad week, just not a particularly good one.

On a related note, if anyone has any ideas for YouTube videos that I could do in between the unboxings, let me know! I’m actually having fun and I think it’s good for me to slowly get over the anxiety of talking to a camera. 😛 Plus it would keep the channel active during the lull when none of my subscription boxes are available to me.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

I can’t say that I got a lot accomplished this past week, but I promise that a lot is going to get done this coming week. I brought my laptop out West with me this shift, all fitted up with a brand new battery that actually holds a charge, and my plan is to spend the hour-long bus ride each evening working on finishing the final edits. If I stay true to this promise every evening that will be fourteen hours of editing, and I’m almost certain that will be enough to finish the edits. I did the first day yesterday and managed to edit an entire chapter, and there’s only ten left, so there you have it. Mini-goal! I’m on it!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Continuing on with this one, I have to report a lackluster week since I’m focusing my energy on goal #3, but it wasn’t all that bad. Because of a few extra review posts and something I whipped up on a notepad during break yesterday, I can report 1924 words this week. If I continue to scribble stuff out during my breaks I may even have something half-decent to report next week, but we’ll see. Can’t focus on everything at once, right? Right.

So with that said, if anyone feels like encouraging me to eat well and keep editing, please do so. I thrive on positive reinforcement. XD

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 31

Before we get down to it this morning, I have a quick review for you.

I had long resisted the concept of the Roomba iRobot Vacuum system. Being totally honest, I thought it was ridiculous. I couldn’t see how it would possibly work well, and the price tag on them just seemed astronomical to me. My husband even asked a couple of times if I wanted to get one and I said no because I could think of hundreds of other things I’d rather spend that money on.

Recently, however, I’ve been getting very cranky about the state of my floors. We have hardwood and tile throughout the house, so everything is visible – every hair, every crumb, every tuft of cat fur. Add to that the fact that one of my biggest pet peeves is stuff sticking to my bare feet, and I was starting to get super, super, super cranky. So it was that my husband brought up the possible purchase of a Roomba again, since there was one on sale at Canadian Tire. We hadn’t actually spent any significant money on ourselves for our anniversary last month so I thought, screw it…I’ll give it a try.

Now, the model that we bought is definitely not top-of-the-line. It’s about mid-range on the Roomba scale. But let me tell you, I’ve been thoroughly impressed. It’s a lot louder than I was expecting it to be, but then again, it is a vacuum, so I can’t complain too much about that. It comes with a “virtual wall” to keep it from going down the stairs, so I can put it on any floor in the house and just let it go. And go it does. The little dude just wanders around, poking around, following walls and furniture and swirling around in the middle of the floors, and it actually gets the floor clean. Ladies and gentlemen, this is genuinely a revelation for me. I’m seriously considering buying two more so that I can have one on every floor in my house. If you have the money to be able to afford a Roomba – even one of the lower-end ones – it is totally worth it. And that’s all I have to say about that.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I have terrible, horrible news for this goal this week. I’m finally in a position to weigh myself in time for my accountability post, so I did so, and the results were extraordinarily depressing. I knew that I hadn’t been doing very well on this goal, but I figured that the worst case scenario was that I hadn’t lost anything. Oh no. It’s much worse than that. Ladies and gents, I’ve actually gained more than five pounds. I have to say that I am totally, totally disgusted with myself. I’ve had a terrible year so far when it comes to being healthy, and now I find that I’ve actually turned myself in the opposite direction. I need help. Seriously. Please, help me.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

The success of this goal this week depends on which aspect of social media you are looking at. I’ve been pretty active on YouTube (I uploaded three more unboxing videos, if you missed them), but I’ve been pretty quite everywhere else. Something that I definitely have to focus more on this week is browsing the blogosphere. I always talk about community, but I’ve been a pretty quiet neighbor of late.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

I didn’t get as much done this week as I had hoped I would, but I did go through and do a final re-read on the chapters that I had deemed “done”, and that re-read helped me pick up a few typos and word repetitions, so it was worth doing. I hope for this week to be a lot more productive too, especially since I bought a new battery for my laptop (the old one would die after five minutes of being unplugged) in anticipation of taking my laptop out West with me for a run. I hate traveling with my laptop because it’s enormous, but I think that one good shift with it out there with me and I should be able to bang out the final edits for this goal. Wish me luck!

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words

As previously discussed, this goal is going to go by the wayside for a little while as I focus my attentions on goal #3, but I still managed to squeeze in a few words this week via my unboxing video posts. The grand total was 1572 words. Not exactly thrilling, but some words are better than no words, right?

In conclusion, this week I invite anyone reading this to offer me advice on banging out some real work toward these goals, particularly #1. Motivate me, people! Please!

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 30

I take back what I said last week. This is definitely the most exhausted I’ve felt in a long time. By the time you’re reading this I’ll have (hopefully) had a good night’s rest in my own bed, but at the time of writing this I am in the process of traveling home from my fourteen-day shift and I am straight-up knackered. I want to spend some time taking the little missy to the beach during my days off, but I’m also kinda hoping that we have a few really rainy days so that maybe I can convince her to snuggle up in bed and watch movies with me.

Ouch. I just yawned so hard that my jaw cracked. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Okay, that’s enough of that. Let’s get down to it.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

If I wanted I could wait to post this until the last minute so that I could weigh myself first, but I can’t be fussed, and I’m pretty sure I know exactly what the scale would read anyway. I got real sick of apples, bananas, and grapes this week and instead found myself resorting to muffins, cookies, and the fudge that one of my coworkers keeps foisting on me. God dammit, don’t these people know that I have negative 10% willpower? So yeah, it hasn’t been a great week.

On the guts side of things, I’m still wavering on whether or not I think the meds are helping. I’m definitely having more good days that bad days lately, but I don’t really know if that’s because of the meds or because of one of about a dozen other things that could be affecting my innards. Either way, I’m definitely doing better, but I’m definitely not perfect or anything.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

Somehow, between work ours and everything else I’ve been doing, I managed to keep up with blog comments this week, which is a huge plus since it’s one less thing I have to deal with when I get home. There were also a few tweets, and a few Facebook status updates. It’s been pretty good all around.

I did also try to screw around with StumbledUpon this week, but it mostly wound up being an aneurysm-level frustration. You can’t submit a page via the iPhone app, and when I try to do it on the website (via the phone), it won’t let me choose any other category but Paranormal for some reason. After way too much effort and quite a lot of profanity I gave up and decided to wait until I get home so I can try and screw with it on an actual computer. Wish me luck.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

You all know what the deal with this one is, but there’s good news: Operation Get-Blogging-Stuff-Out-Of-The-Way-First was a huge success. I managed to get so much planned out that I only have to worry about Accountability posts from now until the end of my next shift out West. Booya. So, therefore, I can put all my energy (whatever little there is left after the little missy takes her share) into getting through this on my days off. Ideally I would like to finish the second round edits this month so I can send it off for a final beta-read before I go back out to work again, but realistically I’m aiming for that much to be done by mid-September. Then, presumably, I’ll put all my energy into turning it into a purchasable book by Halloween. That’s my ultimate goal.

Speaking of turning manuscripts into books, does anyone have a good tutorial on how to turn a Scrivener file into a Kindle e-book format? I was trying to figure it out one day and I just kept winding up with this messed up file that only showed about fifteen words per page.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

This week wasn’t as good as last week because I allowed myself to relax a little once I saw how far I’d managed to schedule ahead on the blog. Even still, I managed to push through the sleep deprivation to pound out another 7036 words. I’m behind where I should be for this time of year, but I’m catching up, and if I can get goal #3 out of the way I expect to have a truly spectacular NaNoWriMo this year.

So, to wrap it up, I’m terribly unhealthy in a great number of ways, yet strangely on top of things for a change. I’m calling that a win.

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 28

It’s another week and I’m back out West, working my 15-1/2 hour days and trying to figure out how I’m going to get anything else accomplished over the next two weeks. Fun times! Thank goodness I’m making good money, because otherwise my head may have already exploded.

On the upside of things, I did manage to record my two Nerd Block unboxing videos and get them uploaded to YouTube before returning to work. I’m not the most comfortable person in front of a camera, but I don’t think I did too badly. My only concern now is that now that my husband knows that I’m recording I’m going to have to find a way to lock him out of the room so he doesn’t torture me mid-taping. 😛

(Shut up, Jason, you know you’re going to do it.)

If you’re interested in Nerd Block, or if you just want to see how awkward I am on camera, please check out my unboxing video for the original Nerd Block for June:

…and my unboxing video for Nerd Block Jr (for Girls) for June:

And now on to the usual stuff.

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I’m just gonna go right ahead and say it: I’m failing miserably at this goal for a number of reasons (some of them good reasons, some of them bad). The upside is that my bad habits haven’t actually caused me to gain any more weight, but of course the downside is that I have effectively accomplished nothing toward this goal in over six months.

It’s a combination of things, but the major contributing factor is that this just isn’t as much of a priority to me as it should be. Blogging is very important to me. Writing (and, to a lesser extent, editing) is very important to me. Spending time with my family and taking small opportunities to relax are super important to me. Losing weight and getting healthier should be important to me, but they’re significantly less important than the other things I listed, so this goal continuously gets thrown on the back burner to slowly burn away into charcoal. I eat crappy food because cooking healthy takes time and energy that I use on other things that are important to me, and I avoid exercise for the same reason. It’s terrible, but it’s the truth.

So with that in mind, if anyone knows how I can somehow either double the hours in the day, or make it possible to function without sleep…feel free to let me know any time.

On the positive side ofthings, I’ve been using an iPhone app to remind me to take my stomach pills and thus far it seems to be helping. I actually think these meds might really help if I can continue to remember to take them properly. Further updates to come.

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my author platform.

I’m calling this one a win for the week. I wasn’t overly active on Facebook or Twitter, but I did become a member of the International Bloggers Association, and I also set up my new YouTube channel for subscription box fun. I think that counts as pretty productive as far as social media is concerned.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

Unfortunately I didn’t manage to find the time during my days off to work on this. Just as unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to print off anything to work on while out West. So this is going to be a bust for a couple more weeks. On the upside, my next days home shouldn’t be nearly as busy as the last ones were. My revised mini-goal for the next fourteen days is to get as much blogging scheduled as possible between now and then so that when I get home I can focus entirely on Goal #3. Since that means trying to blog around my 15-1/2 hour work days, please send me good luck (and lots of caffiene).

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

Unfortunately (which is becoming my most-used word), I can’t give you a real report this week because I forgot to make a copy of my spreadsheet before coming out West, so I have no idea what my numbers are. I can tell you that I believe it to be somewhere between 3000 and 4000 words. I hope to put that number to shame this following week, but again…15-1/2 hour days…so don’t hold me to it, okay? Ha ha…

As a final note before I sign off today, I’m just going to mention that to avoid diluting my weekly schedule any further, future subscription box reviews are going to be posted on the weekends as they pop up. Look forward to them! ❤

Accountability Wednesdays: Week 27

So I’m a week down in my days off and I seem to have gotten very little accomplished. How is that possible? It probably has something to do with the fact that I was so thoroughly exhausted from my first shift in Cold Lake that I’ve been spending a great deal of my time home sleeping and thinking about how much I don’t want to go back to work. 😛 But that’s blatant negativity, so let’s just pretend that I didn’t say it. >.>

In other news, I’ve been receiving a fair number of comments (thus far) on my Nerd Block and Nerd Block Jr. reviews, which were posted on Monday. This amuses me, and has rekindled my desire to do video unboxing/reviews instead of written ones. Therefore, next month I will be (hopefully) posting videos for Nerd Block, Nerd Block Jr. (for Girls), and Loot Crate, which I decided that I want to try out as well. If I get a chance over the next couple of days (remembering that I only have four days left until I have to fly out West again) I’ll do a couple of “test” videos on the two Nerd Blocks that I reviewed already. Sound like a plan? Okay then. 🙂

Goal #1: Lose ten pounds and become healthier overall.

I’m so frustrated with this goal, I can’t even tell you. For one thing (as I’ve mentioned before), my new job out West makes it pretty much impossible to work toward this goal for two weeks out of every four. There are simply not enough hours in the day out there to even think about exercising, and when it comes to diet I’m stuck with the food that the camp requires. There are healthy options, but for the most part those are simply the same fruit and vegetables every day, which gets pretty sickening pretty fast. Alternatively, when I’m home I’m rather unwilling to “waste” time exercising when I have a million other things that I want/need to get done, all around spending time with my family while I’ve got the chance.

In related news, my stomach has been an absolute monster the past few days. I’m not entirely sure why. I really have to give the meds I was prescribed a good trial, but damn can I not remember to take the friggin’ things! Three pills a day – during different times of the day – just does not seem to compute. I can remember one, maybe two, but I don’t think I’ve ever remembered all three yet. Maybe an iPhone app will help? Or a shock collar? 😛

Goal #2: Be more active on social media and work hard on my “author platform”.

It was one of those hard-to-explain weeks on this one. I was on Facebook a bit, and I think I tweeted once or twice, but I can’t really judge. I must have done something because I gained several more followers on Twitter. If I can manage to get those two “test” videos done and posted on YouTube this week I’ll consider that a maybe plus in the social media column, but until then I’ve got nothing major to report.

Goal #3: COMPLETE my zombie apocalypse novel, Nowhere to Hide.

It’s looking bad for getting anything done with this goal before I head back out West, even with my mini-goal to focus on nothing else (except blogging). It’s been a busy week, I’ve spent a lot of it outside my house, and that trend isn’t looking likely to die before I fly again. I’m considering printing out a couple of chapters so that I can maybe work on them during breaks out West and then make the changes in my Scrivener file when I get home. We’ll see. I don’t want to completely destroy myself trying to do too much at once.

Goal #4: Write 500,000 words.

As previously established, this goal is taking a back-burner to goal #3, but I will still have reports to make because I’m still going to be writing blog posts. For this week I managed to wrack up 4212 words, which isn’t too bad all things considered. Additionally, after inputting all the words from previous weeks into my spreadsheet, I find that I have a yearly total of 158,073 words. I’m way behind, but that’s still pretty awesome. 🙂

Ciao for now!