The pressure is on…

Thanks to my shameless promotion via Twitter on Monday, I had the most readers Ive had in one day ever! So thanks to those of you who click through this, even if it is just to ridicule me.

One of the other goals that I made for myself was to work this blog more into my life. I’ve started planning to take some time every day or two to write. For the first two entries, it’s been at the bar at Mike Duffy’s in Clayton. Oh well. Wherever it gets done, right?

I have been thinking about my life for the past few days: my past and my future especially, and I am constantly amazed by how much the past 3 years have changed me. A lot of things that I have changed, I like a lot. I’ve made myself more conscious of my friends and the feelings of others around me. I’ve learned to be honest with people, even if it means hurting their feelings (which I still hate doing). I’ve come to recognize habits and choices that I make that portray me as something that I am not. Something that I don’t want to be seen as.

It’s astounding the impact that your past has on you though. My entire life until 3 years ago, I was a serial dater. I was always dating someone (mostly the same person for a long period of time). However, in the time since, I’ve become relient on me and me only for my happiness.

I love this fact about me. I love that I haven found the need, as I did in my past to validate myself through others. It was a big step that I needed to take on the path to becoming an adult.

I set out in this blog initially to be professional. To do what I thought any good social media geek should do and blog. However, being honest with myself and you, dear reader, has brought some reflection to my life that has been lacking.

Sorry for the rambling. I have to finish up though. My food is up.

A new start – a big list of big to-dos

So I’ve been really concerned with my ability to complete tasks in a timely manner outside of work. I know that I work well from lists, but often I get caught up in the little tasks or the length of the lists and get away from the goals.

So here’s my attempt to get things on virtual paper: overarching and long range non-work goals. Booyah.

1. Begin work on Marketing plan for hockey team. Draft completed by Nov. 15.
2. Resume updated to include Standing internship.
3. Stop screening phone calls/return missed calls within 2 hours. I know I’m bad about this and so here’s my attempt to get better.
4. Make appointments/dates/time to hang out with friends I haven’t seen in a while. It’s time to catch up.
5. Put together a holiday list of who I am shopping for and ideas of what to get them.
6. Make and stick to a legitimate budget, now that Ill be in the house in the next week.

I think this is a realistic list, and I can accomplish a goof portion of this. What do you think? Things I should include? Remove? Revise? Quantify? I love feedback.

A New Beginning

Tomorrow morning begins the next chapter of my life/professional development/job-searching career. I start my second internship in public relations in the morning, and I could not possibly be more excited about it. I know that I am behind the curve in terms of where people are at this point in their life (I’m a full year out of college and still without a job, and only on my second internship).

I have had a lot of people explain that I’m not in a bad situation really, and I guess that is true, but in all reality, my expectations are higher than what I have achieved so far. So tomorrow, I begin to push through and create the future that I feel like I owe to myself.

Watch out for me. Starting tomorrow, I’m on my way.

How much is too much?

When does technology move from being an asset for allowing us to live more comfortable lives, do our jobs better and interact in a world not (as) limited by physical boundaries to a hindrance? Perhaps even a danger?

On Friday, I kept track of the events that took place in Mumbai, India with great concern. I watched for updates on the news, on the internet and through one service I follow on Twitter. A coordinated attack of that magnitude is very concerning; especially when it was revealed that they were targeting Americans and Britons. What I found interesting as the event went on and as the dust settled was that many officials blamed technology for the severity of the attack.

Some officials asserted that the terrorists had access to TV and the internet in the hotels they occupied and were thus privy to the updates about the policy/military’s next move.

In this situation, it was quite interesting to see that Twitter, news TV and other internet sources were used not only to share information with those across the globe, but also with those involved in the attack.

Over the past 20 years, we have been bombarded with new methods of receiving information. We now have news channels bringing us the news up to the second. Websites will email you, text you, Twitter you, Facebook you, etc.

So my question is: when does it become too much? Is there anything advantageous to this information? I know that we all have the freedom to choose how we receive our news or information. But how much is too much?

The pot calling the kettle…

…out on neglecting their blog. I got after my best friend about her blog and how she hadn’t written since September 5th. I proceeded to realize that I hadn’t blogged since the 12th, and I should probably change that.

One of the things I am really getting tired of talking about is politics. If you know me even in the slightest bit, you know that this is a very rare thing for a couple different reasons. First, I am painfully opinionated and rather well informed, and most of the time I like to flaut this fact. Secondly, I love talking about politics.

But I have found in the wake of this election that everyone has all but made up their mind. They might not have really decided who they are going to vote for, but they know how they feel about the various candidates, the issues involved and the political process in general. People have made up their minds. Nothing will change them.

It really disappoints me that I have felt so stymied by this fact, because other people’s disillusion with the political process has never really bothered me. Hopefully I snap out of it in the coming weeks.

Good Riddance, in a way.

I start the new job on Tuesday. I told Target that I was cutting down my hours to one weekend day a week. Their response borderlined on outrage. I had to explain myself to them, why this was such a great opportunity for me. I even had to explain to my boss on the phone where I was going and why I was leaving.

I felt like this was totally unfair. I offered the next few years of my life to them in June when I interviewed to be a store executive. I was ready to commit to that company and continue working in retail for the next few years and see what happened. They didn’t want me. They did not offer me that opportunity within their company. And then they upset with me when I found somewhere with better hours, more money, and a better (or any at all) opportunity to grow into adulthood.

Since this decision, people have asked me why  I would stay there at all. And really, the answer is monetary. I need the money pretty bad at this point, and the extra 55 dollars a week, which really doesn’t sound like too much when I say it like that, will really help when it comes to paying for things like gas or nights out with the boys.

All I have to say about this is that I am really excited about the chance to work in PR with such a wide-reaching company. I look forward to telling all of you about the new page in my life.

An Olympic Tradition

I sit in my basement on this beautiful Saturday evening, captivated again with the Olympics.  You know, the Summer Olympics are always interesting to watch, not because of the interest in the sports that I have, but rather based on the amazing stories of the individuals that take part in the events. I must say that I do not know enough about any one of these events, with the exception of soccer and a couple of the track events, to be able to watch for the athletic competition on its own.

However, these stories… like the relationship between Michael Phelps (who is receiving his first gold medal as I type this) and his mother or the Korean swimmer who DQ’d in the final of an event in Athens (2004 Summer Olympics) coming back to win that same event 4 years later in Beijing… these stories remind me why I cannot help but watch these events every four years.

It’s that silly triumph of the human spirit over the adversity that life throws at people. I cannot help but cheer along.

It is ironic…

…that the time that I finally break down and start writing a blog outside of xanga.com (www.xanga.com/moody014) is while watching an episode of “The Root of All Evil” where they debate blogging v. ultimate fighting.

I really don’t know where I should start in writing this. I had my first real interview on Thursday at Maritz Corporation for their PR/Corporate Communications Internship. I think it went well, but I really don’t know. I was incredibly nervous coming into the interview, but I feel like I relaxed well into the conversations that went on.  I would love to take on that position, because I feel like it was perfect for me. The location is great,  the experience that I could get from holding that position for 6 months would be priceless (especially for someone that has come out of undergrad without any experience to this point), and the company has many different fields that it works in, providing experience in working with different publics.

My cousin has been awesome with helping me get things rolling in terms of interviews or possible interviews. She has helped me with my resume and putting together writing samples. Thanks Lindsey!

Now they are making fun of Twitter, which is funny because I signed up for that on Thursday, having gotten that idea from Liz at Maritz during the interview.

I hope that I don’t end up filling this with the pointless rambling that they are poking fun at during this episode. Leave comments with ideas for future blogs so that I don’t tumble down the spiral of stupid.