I was doing surprisingly well, though, considering my situation and everything I’d just been thru. Sometimes I am amazed at my own resiliency.

My exlandlord’s felony court date is in January 2010. The civil case is dragging. I have still not recovered anything, and I recently came across the small duffel bag I’d packed that week S. and I left for his work trip. I can’t believe how much I’ve rebuilt, mostly on my own and without family support (they should have been there for me, they weren’t, many dysfunctions obvious).

I’ve quit that job I had. It served its purpose, helped me get thru life at the time, and I learned many things. I’m back to happily freelancing again and glad that some previously forgotten investments are paying off.

I’ve decided to leave this site mostly the same, complete with all previous posts, rather than reinventing this part of my life from scratch as well. I’ve decided to try to pick up where I left off last year, ReachingMyDreams and writing as I muddle thru life doing the best I can.

I need to update my portfolio, and make some other changes…

Stay tuned as I get back to myself…

~~ ReachingMyDreams ~~

Technorati Tags: about me, blog, illegal eviction, writing

Picking up the pieces of my life, after all that hell and a terribly dysfunctional relationship, hasn’t been easy. It’s amazing that I’ve not ended up living back with my mother, because I’ve been crazy enough to seriously consider her offer to let me come back home

I want the life I had last year back!

This time, last year, I was in graduate school and my biggest problem was being completely bored to tears in Springfield Missouri after having lived in NYC and San Francisco.

I like the new direction in marketing that my new career is taking, and the crux of my “career crisis” is:

1. Do I continue along this career, and if so, what is the next step?
2. Do I go back to graduate school, and if so, for what?

I’m trying to figure those things out, as I muddle thru this fog and reclaim my life. I am thinking of going to graduate school for grief counseling; I’ve experienced death and dying, and even took an undergrad course on it. From doing internet marketing, I have an under-explored taste for statistics that could be piqued even more by doing research on dating and the internet (for more of a couple’s counseling specialty)…. or I could just keep going in the direction I’ve accidentally fallen into, but what is the next step?

Atleast I’m finally starting to think more than two weeks into the future.

The civil and criminal courts are dragging. I don’t know why it’s not a simple criminal matter, atleast I can understand that the civil process of suing someone can take a very long time…

Technorati Tags: career crisis, counseling, personal

It’s interesting that being written about should inspire me to write after having total blog apathy for weeks.

I’m not even passionate about any belief in ghosts. The object isn’t important to me (for that matter, I believe in Faeries, God, Buddha, and that Elvis is still alive). It’s the act of believing in something other than in the physical world, which I believe is ingrained in humans so deep that it is probably biological (I think there is conclusive research to that effect, anyway). It’s fun to believe. Can I prove that experience with the “ghost” I had when I was 7? No, but I can’t disprove it either.

Reality is subjective, even in the old allegory of the cave, people experience shadows and light falls on those within the cave differently. I will never be one to say that someone is wrong, only that I respectfully disagree with them (stemming from the subjective and biased basis on which MY perceptions are created). To her credit, Ziztur changed the topic to a skeptical argument which has more science backing and less emotional attachment, homeopathy.

The comments following her posts presented solid arguments against the belief and experience in “supernatural”, but I guess I just wonder why subjective experiences of others are prompts for others to “correct”/argue/disagree with? It’s not like we were coming to this woman to ask for an explanation,  nor asking her to change her beliefs.

Even if she perceived that we were coming to her for a non-mystical explanation, it is very difficult to prove that things do NOT exist… unicorns could be real, for all I know (have we done an exhaustive search of all the land in this world, and even then it would only prove that unicorns do not exist right now, and there would be the slight possibility that one escaped notice)… Let believers in things be happy, even if you’re convinced that Sasquatch never existed and feel in your heart that God is dead.

Technorati Tags: aethism, belief, buddha, ghosts, god, religion, science, skepticism, spirituality, unicorns

We based it on the comprehensive example put forth by Jaffe Associates, but customized it to fit the lingo of retail rather than legal professionals.

An interesting note, is that this organization could be considered to have religious affiliations, because we sell many items with religious meaning. This probably invites more potential controversy than say, a retailer of kitchen appliances, and makes popular clauses about participating in conversations about religion moot.

It will be interesting to see how social media marketing evolves for a retailer selling religious supplies, but also aiming for broader mainstream markets. I think it’s easy for such businesses to appear too fringe, and thus why one seldom sees Muslims in Christian book stores, eventhough I’m sure such stores sell more broadly appealing books and gifts too.

My prediction is that the blog, discussions, and social media marketing for this business will end up being roughly 50% mainstream/moderate, 25% religious, and 25% spiritual but non-religion affiliated. Maybe shave 10% off the mainstream for other niches.

A big strength is that the founder of this company has done a great job at creating an exceptionally balanced image offline. Atleast at first our company blog and other communications will be moderated by the owner, which is great, and I’m sure I’ll be learning alot as to how he thinks and creates such a good company image.  It’ll be a fun challenge to grow with this company and help lead them into having a strong online presence (and hopefully also help them become a multimillion dollar company, they have such potential to be).

Technorati Tags: marketing, marketing religion, marketing spirituality, religion, religious retailer, social media policy, social media policy for religious organizations, spirituality

My new boss mentioned my enthusiasm. Great! I’m a promotional marketer as well as an internet geek, when means I get super excited about super silly things, like taking pictures of hundreds of similar-but-different products. I explained why I would rather use my 15megapixel Sony Alpha DSLR rather than a 5 megapixel camera for product shots. Putting it simply, it’s in case I screw up and the shot needs to be cropped … or if by chance anyone would really love a 46.79 x 34.67 inches poster of something (thanks to the pixels to inches converter).

There’s some mundane work that needs to be done first, but the fun stuff should soon follow. As a first step with the internet marketing, I’m researching how to create a social media policy. So far, I’ve come up with the following resources, which I intend on coming back to:

• Social Media Policy Musts – on Mashable, the first place I looked for social marketing information
• How to Create Your Social Media Policy – looks like some great links and resources!
• Corporate Social Media Guidelines – on Social Media Today, another site I need to look at more
• Disclosure Best Practices Tool Kit – this looks like a step-by-step checklist and guide for creating a social media policy, by the Blog Council

With social media guidelines in place and approved of by my boss, I should then have the framework to do my marketing job and further promote this company via Youtube, podcasts, FaceBook, Twitter, Myspace and other mediums.

I really hope to also represent this company at conventions and other “in person” events. In the past few months, I’ve discovered that I really like the person-to-person marketing equally as much as the internet. I also do great at creating practical, pragmatic, structure when given a “bigger picture” vision.

I told my new boss that I was there to make him alot of money so that he would give me alot of raises.

We’re going to get along

Technorati Tags: Internet Marketing, promotional marketing, social marketing, social media strategy, st louis internet marketing, st louis promotional marketing, st louis promotional model, st louis social marketing

Needless to say, and very obviously, I’m excited to start tomorrow.

It isn’t quite full time, so I will still have time (and make time) for doing my promotional marketing and pursuing other business ideas and gigs.

I’m still pulling myself out of this melencholic depression caused by the ex-landlord theft, but having a job that I’m thrilled about totally brings me pretty much back to my normal, gregarious, convivial, self. Thanks to everyone who has sent me clothes and gifts to replace what was stolen. It’s been much appreciated

With the stability of a “regular job” established, I can begin thinking about re-entering graduate school and more into the future of my career. I’m probably not going pursue instructional learning technology, but thinking more along the lines of adult learning, informational procurement professional, or relationship education/counseling.

Anyway- big relief and boost to have a new job I’m excited about!

This week, someone gave me a mess of an office to get organized, and only general instructions.

Not knowing them or their business too well, I dug in the best I could.

I totally love being in the flow of work.

I created a structure, and made up files. Within about 3 days a whole conference desk full of papers was successfully organized into about 10 general categories, alphabetized and then ordered by date. My pile of “? don’t know how to file?” was only about an inch tall.

My latest project has been packing up an office of a business that’s closing. Again, another disorganized disaster. I started with the biggest things first, then the most square easily packable things, and then finally all the office miscellany of staple removers and tape scissors. Labeled in numbered boxes corresponding to an inventory in Excel – so things can be sorted alphabetically and also by box#.

I am learning that organizing an office is really no too different from organizing a class, devising a care-plan, or creating a marketing strategy. Knowing how to break down big ideas, and knowing how to reassemble things together in a new order, is a skill set that is different and unique from being a subject matter expert/office manager/caregiver.

I got these gigs from a Craigslist ad I posted. I also love writing text ads, and Craigslist has been my “playground” for ideas.

Technorati Tags: ad writing, craigslist, office organizer, organizing, personal assistant, personal assistant service, st louis office help, st louis organizer, st louis temp service, st. louis personal assistant service, structure

I’ve decided to bury myself in work, and with that focus, I’m doing a great job! Other times after I’ve relocated to new cities, picking up promotions gigs have helped me to make new friends and earn extra money. In a larger metro like St. Louis, there are MANY promotional modeling and brand ambassador opportunities.

I also lucked into a good temp position, independently. It’s cheaper to hire me than a temp agency, and I earn more than a temp agency would pay. It’s great getting paid well for basic general office work, and really enjoy rote tasks like filing and data entry when I’m stressed and have thoughts that I want to escape from. Even non-stressed, I love being in the flow.

I’m slowly recovering from the recent emotional blows. I am just trying to be happy in the moment and not miss my stuff too much. I’ve been trying to be extra nice to myself, eating what feels good, and not stressing about diet or exercise. I’ve tried telling myself to breathe, but when I’m anxious it just makes me feel faint or nauseated. Progressive muscle relaxation, feeling the the soles of my feet, and concentrating on increasing the temperature in my fingertips are relaxation techniques which I’m finding a little more success with.

Other than that, I’ve been trying to pick up the pieces of my life and decide what to do next. I’m glad to be burying myself in work (and want more work to bury myself in!), and really grateful for some of the cool and unexpected connections I’ve made in the past few weeks.

Technorati Tags: biofeedback, brand ambassador, deep breathing doesn't help, destressing techniques, emotional healing, landlord, landlord issues, legal issues, marketing, positive thinking, product marketing, progressive muscle relaxation, promotional marketing, promotional modeling, promotions gig, promotions modeling, recovering from illegal eviction, relaxation techniques, stress relief

I’ve posted the following on MySpace and will do so on ModelMayhem and OMP:

On March 28, my ex-landlord broke into my home and took all my belongings, including the furs and birdcages. I’ve tried to no avail to get them back from him, and currently pursuing legal action both criminally and civilly. June 2 he told the detective that he’d either sold or thrown out all my belongings.
Until I either recover my equipment and props, or buy things anew, I am no longer pursuing photography. This man left me with no summer clothes, no ID (to get a new job), and left me only with what I had taken with me on vacation. I need new clothes and new everything else before I can resume practicing my photography. I am personally, financially, and emotionally devastated.

Sometimes it is all that I can do to get out of bed, much less even think of doing photography without my birdcage and furs. My family has been amazingly forgiving for “losing” grandma’s old ermine, 20s dress, and sewing machine.

I am filling out the criminal deposition tonight, and just trying to move on.

As I’ve been left with nothing, only the few clothes I took for a week long trip. Any help is much appreciated, although I almost hate to get new things because it reminds me of the reality of the surreality that’s happened.

It will take a few weeks to get a social security card and new identification made. I’ve been crushed that employers won’t accept the high quality scans I had on my laptop. Promotions companies will, so I’ve been doing as many as I can find… and also trying to market more of my website design skills to individuals and people who don’t ask for ID. It will take a few weeks to get a new social security card.

I feel like I should have gotten on this much sooner, but until last week, I honestly believed our exlandlord word that he was going to give us our stuff back… and it couldn’t fit in the hotel room I lived in for over a month anyway.

I hate to even post about this, mainly because I want to stay in stupid denial in an empty apartment.

I’m starting to move on. It is painful.

Turning in the criminal deposition Monday. The retard emailed the detective pictures of my belongings (including the furs), so hopefully the prosecuting attorney takes the case up… and hopefully he was lying about having sold everything. It will go better for him if he returns my belongings.

I’ve run out of words.

A discussion, with a more detailed outline of what has happened, is on lawyers.com here: http://community.lawyers.com/forums/t/80942.aspx

Technorati Tags: about me, crazyness, illegal eviction, landlord issues, missouri illegal eviction, theft

The whole thing on so many levels is so wrong.

I’ve been keeping busy with a temp job and some freelance work. Haven’t been in the mood to write. Sort of depressed. I miss my clothing, my furs, my photography supplies, my multimedia computer… and everything that was in my home that my exlandlord took.

I’ve just been trying to work out of being depressed by working as much as possible… and it usually works… but I’ve had writers block lately ….

I have no problem posting 20 or 30 ads once a week… hey, that’s how I got OzarksAdult started! About one ad per city and most of the larger US and world cities; or in a smaller region, two ads per city per week.

… but 20 or 30 ads (or more) a DAY?

That is just SPAM.

There is software out there for that, some of which I use. There are also freelancers in other countries, where the US dollar goes farther.

In categories that require phone authorization (I wouldn’t be surprised for all of CL to turn to requiring that), I am not going to risk my personal line and Craigslist account for a few hundred dollars (offer me a few thousand, but you’d be foolish). One could buy those lists of phone activated accounts, but that is risky and right now I don’t have the money to afford it (and haven’t done much more than cursory research).

Even using the software, to post 100 ads on Craigslist it breaks roughly down as:

1. Time spent creating new email addresses – 2 minutes per email address, 20 email addresses minimum = 40 minutes
2. Time spent creating new Craigslist accounts (signing up, activating) – 2 minutes, 20 accounts = 40 minutes
3. Time spent posting and filling in the CAPTCHA (using this software) – 1 minute per ad= 100 minutes
4. IF setting up responses to forward to another email address, another 2 minutes per email =40 minutes

So, as you can see, it easily takes 3 hours to post 100 ads using the software. That is IF my IP doesn’t get banned, in which add another 30 minutes (minimal) to finding an anonymizer that passes the proxy tests. This is a half day’s project.

Posting ads online is a pain in the butt.

If you are a business, you are better off paying the 50-100 bucks for the Craigslist posting software and having your secretary or intern post. If you’re an individual, better to buy the software for roughly the same price as my Craigslist posting services cost.

With borderline unethical situations like bulk posting on Craigslist, I believe that it’s best for companies to keep it internal or individuals to take their own responsibility… or compensate me much more than any other foreign competitor- freelancer.

Technorati Tags: ad posting, ad posting service, ad writing, ad writing tips, craiglist, craiglist posting services, craigslist ads, craigslist issues, craigslist posting, craigslist tips

When it comes to business, I am … well… all business! Not to slight my friends, but on business calls I keep distractions to a minimal. This can be very difficult with a cockatoo in the house, so often I will go to my car or make calls when I’m coming back to my car.

I keep a pen and paper in my car, which is probably my favorite place to take and make business related calls from. My car is free from other distractions besides Boo, too. No television, computer, cooking, roommate…

Assuming that my neighbors can hear Boo screaming, they probably atleast don’t  think I’m too crazy or wonder why I am escaping to a more quiet place!

I am a nut about taking notes as I’m on a call. If I don’t write it down, my mind doesn’t hold information very long. Typing, eventhough faster, just doesn’t do it. Pen on paper, tactical and nonrepetitive.

So, unless I know someone as a personal friend, when I’m on the phone, my attention is as close to 100% as it can get.

Technorati Tags: attention span, ettiquette, manners, phone