Surviving NJ

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Last night I went to see District 9, and the night before GI Joe. They were both entertaining movies in their own right…

District 9 – I love how it was done in a sort of documentary type styling…and GI Joe was a fun summer, action packed shoot em up show.

When it comes to TV, I’ve fallen in love with watching older shows and playing catch up. I can watch a full season, no commercials in record time..and i LOVE that I don’t have to wait each week to see what happens.

I’m totally loving Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives, and my favorite show right now is Saving Grace. I am caught up on Grace though, so I have to wait for new ones. I wait and watch 3 episodes back to back – no commercials! It’s awesome…I can really get into it that way.

I just wrapped up season 1 of Ugly Betty and I’m moving on to Season 2 this week!

I decided to watch shows my husband isn’t interested in…and I’m sure this is going to stick, because I’m having a blast seeing shows I want to see! We sit side by side…he’s watching his stuff, and I’m hooked into my iPod watching mine! I like that we can still hang out and be together, but doing our own thing. Sure we have another TV in the other room, but I’d rather be there with him.

Sometimes it feels as if my personality has been sucked out of me when I write something. It hasn’t…but I realized I wasn’t enjoying writing like I once was. I remember when I first started a blog, I was so thrilled to have an outlet to write. I’ve always loved writing, and here was a blank slate for me to talk about whatever I wanted.

Just a short while later, I started getting paid to write stuff, and while it was cool to make some extra cash, over the course of time, it started to suck the personality and life out of what I was writing. It wasn’t the same as just writing for the enjoyment of it.

I started taking on more and more sites to make more money, and next thing you know – what was left was an — oh crap, I need to jot something down over here or over there…

blah…that sucks for both me and you

These days I still make money online, but I do it a little differently today. It doesn’t force me to write on 10 different sites a day on topics of no interest to me. I write what I want now, but I’m only starting to find my enjoyment again. It’s nice to write because I want to…not because I have a blank slate to fill by a certain time on a certain topic.

I hope you’ll explore with me again as I’m digging in to find my personality that seemed lost for quite a bit.

I can’t promise it will be a daily or weekly thing, but when I have something to say, I’ll say it and not because I have to, or because it’s the “topic” of the day, but because I want to. This is me again…because I want it to be.

…on that note…it’s nice to be back.

I had so much fun shopping this weekend.  It’s funny, but I don’t actually go out by myself too often anymore.  Sunday, I took the afternoon and browsed a few stores, and just went for a drive with the windows down.  It was delightful, and I went at my own pace. 

I picked up a couple of business books at Borders, along with a few odds and ends at Kohl’s.  Unfortunately, the reason I went out by myself was that my husband has been under the weather.  He’s feeling better now though, so I’m happy about that.

We’re hoping to go see the movie UP this week.  If we have time and Hangover looks like it could be fun as well.  I think my son wants to see Land of the Lost.  So we’ll squeeze that in also, we tend to do a lot more movies during the warmer months, because that’s when all the big releases come out – until the holidays in the winter. 

Otherwise, back to work and the daily grind. Until next time…Deb

Have allergies? Maybe you’re diabetic? Have a child that is prone to seizures? There’s a great solution for kids on a class trip, or out at the zoo or amusement park…and maybe you aren’t with them. Did they go with a friend’s family, or on a youth group trip?

EyedentityLabel.com offers temporary tattoo style identification. You can place not only your child’s name and an emergency contact number, but also information like: Allergic to Peanuts or Allergic to Bees, or Seizures or Asthma, or whatever you need to let someone know in an emergency.

This is something worth checking out if you or your child need emergency ID. It’s a simple solution that’s visible, or easily hidden….but something emergency responders will be able to find. Perfect for daycamps, a day out at the park with friends, a friend’s birthday party when you can’t be there…

They are waterproof and last for a couple days…currently the pricing is $25 for a pack of 18.

It’s been a full week for me when it comes to entertainment. We took off last week and headed to the shore. It was part work, mostly play for us. During the week, I was able to catch up on some movies, books and TV. Don’t worry….NO spoilers….

Here’s what I enjoyed:

Water for Elephants – what a great book! I actually listened to the audio version, and LOVED the narrator.

The Soloist – loved it, and could tell I would. It’s been one of the few movie trailers that brought tears to my eyes. Excellent story and character study…sad, based on a true story

Star Trek – It was an entertaining movie. I can’t jump up and down and go, wow, that was GREAT…because honestly, it just wasn’t my type of movie. It was good, but jumped around too much. It seemed to want to do too much in a short period of time. Either way, I enjoyed it, and my guys said it WAS great.

I’m about to start a new book, with it’s sequel…can’t wait to get started. I even have a 7 book series on deck for my July trip! I love finally having time to fit these in.

May is Arthritis Awareness month. Did you know that Juvenile Arthritis affects over 300,000 children in the United States?

Kelly Rouba was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis at the age of 2. Kelly decided to write a book on arthritis that kid would read, and features teens with arthritis. The book includes resources, and gives perspective from multiple individuals who are faced with the disease.

You can visit Kelly’s blog here: http://kellyrouba.blogspot.com/
You can find Kelly’s book here: http://www.amazon.com/Juvenile-Arthritis-Kelly-Rouba/dp/0810860554

Meet Kelly and other people featured in her book:
Arthritis Walk on Sunday May 3rd at the Princeton Forrestal Village.

You can help out be participating in the annual Arthritis Walk across New Jersey:
http://www.arthritis.org/chapters/new-jersey/arthritis-walk.php

There will be walks all through out the garden state during the month of May. Full details for your area can be found on the above website.

We went over to Whole Foods yesterday in Quakerbridge. It takes us an hour to get there, so we don’t go often…also while they have a neat selection- they do tend to be a little pricey.

Anyway, we’re shopping at the store, and I have to use the ladies room. I go into the little stall and close the door. Advertising on the back of the door was pinned up right at my eye level!

Now, on the toilet, rather reading graffiti you’d see at some places, I see a well placed advertisement for an all natural shampoo brand. It’s smack in front of my face– of course I’m reading it.

Now THAT is clever advertising….

…I’m going to stop. I’m like an addict and keep adding more….more what? More work that is! I am inching up close to 80 websites now, and I think I’ve finally decided I’ll cap myself at 100. It’s a nice rounded number. I think I’ve got my fill, but many will be set and forget sites. Once they are built and content is added, they are mostly complete. I only have to then go in and maintain them once every few months.

On the other hand, during this set up phase, I seem to keep taking on more projects. What the heck is wrong with me? Don’t I know I’m all ready overflowing with content and ideas? Why do I possibly need to add just a few more? It’s like some sickness where I can’t stop!

Okay, I have a five year plan working, and I figure if I push harder now, many of these sites will continue to work for me down the road.

I guess time will tell. About once every 6 months, I’ll evaluation the group of them, and decide what to keep, what to sell, and where I think it’s heading. The thing with many sites is that they really take time. Sure you can create a post and get traffic now, but as they mature, the dance in the search engines isn’t as drastic, and you’ll see more of a steady stream. When it comes to this stuff, so many people get out when they don’t see quick results…..this isn’t a quick game…time is on your side, and if you have the patience to wait it out, along with continuing to build, you can win….I plan on winning.

I went to an arcade with my son last night. There’s a place right outside of Flemington that sells arcade machines. Every Friday night they open up and have a play all night for $10 event.  My son goes for the arcade machines, and I go for the pinball. Last time I was there, they had 3 pinball machines in the front. I was thrilled to see they’d added 4 more machines in the back. I had 7 different pinball machines to play with.

What was really cool was the age range they were. Hot Line is a 1966 pinball machine, and the bumper points were worth a tiny 10 points. There was even a small bumper worth 1 point! Newer machines went electronic, and the latest machines go microchip. It was really neat to see the transition in things like artwork on the machines, the point values of bumpers and such. On Hot Line and a Bowling pinball machine from 1973, you were lucky to score a few thousand. Heck on Hotline– I’d get maybe 6,000 points, while on the bowling one I’d see closer to 60,000. On the newer machines like Dracula, I was scoring 10 million point bonuses! See how point ranges keep going up too?

If you’re in the area, you need to check out RichieKnucklez.com

I’m going to be adding them to my Hunterdon County site this week, so be sure to check that out too.

My mammogram and ultrasound were today. Crossing my fingers….they can’t really say much, but it would seem that my problem from the last few years hasn’t changed size, so hopefully this year it’s labeled a cyst and I get the come back in 6 months to a year letter.

As I’m walking out the door, my husband says…”have fun”…not even really aware of what he’s saying. I think to myself, oh yeah– we’re having a party with the mammogram machine. Wish you could be there…blah