Monthly Archives: September 2011

October 30-Day Challenge

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Over at the Impossible League, we’re starting 30-Day Challenges, and the first one begins tomorrow! The idea is to tackle some of your impossible challenges in the 30 days of the month you’re in, and check in on your progress weekly. You still have time to get in on this if you want! Head on over to the Impossible League. This month (October), we’re tackling an endurance challenge, an adventure challenge, and a giving back challenge. I’ll be updating you on my progress each Monday.

Here are mine, and wow, I really had to think hard and look at the calendar for this one. October is BUSY!

ENDURANCE

Find at least 30 minutes a day to work on either my current book or plot the book I’ll be writing in November for NaNoWriMo. This is going to mean my lunch break this month on most days, since I’m in a musical at the end of the month and it’s crunch time on evening rehearsals.

ADVENTURE

Sing a tiny solo. Like, for real, in a musical production, in front of people. I’m in a musical revue of some Gilbert & Sullivan operettas and I have a teensie little two-measure solo in one of the Iolanthe pieces (I’m a fairy) and it will be my first solo since I sang in an a cappella group in college. Nervous! But excited. I get two chances to get it right because there are two shows. Hoping I’ll go 2 for 2. ;) (If you live near Raleigh and want to come see it, please do!)

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Wedding Video Woes

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This weekend is mine and Robbie’s 7-year wedding anniversary… and I’m finally just now getting around to editing our wedding video. Yeah, I’m slow.

I was hoping to make it all funny and sweet, and maybe a little bit touching. But I’m running into problems:

  • There’s no B-roll footage. Well, ok, very little. And I like B-roll footage in wedding videos because otherwise they’re kinda boring.
  • The very little B-roll footage I mentioned is mostly of our videographer asking Robbie what he’s most excited about on the morn of our wedding, and the poetic, loving words that come out of my future husband’s mouth are, “We’re going on a cruise tomorrow! WOOOOO!” I’m touched. Really.
  • The sound quality is not good. Therefore, most of the ceremony is pretty much unusable. But that’s ok, because it’s boring anyway.
  • The stuff I really want in there is the music (performed by my sister and two great friends) but the shooting angle blocks my sister’s head while she’s singing the first song and, as mentioned, there is little B-roll footage to put over top.
  • I want to use a song at the end that was not recorded at the time of our wedding. I know, it’s my wedding video and I can do what I want, but it seems incongruous.

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Give It Away

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One of the goals on my Impossible List is to give away 10% of my income. Why 10%? I guess I just grew up thinking that was the number to shoot for. In church, you tithe. So it always seemed like the right thing to do to me, even though my 10% isn’t going to a church anymore.

I made a spreadsheet today for all of my 2011 earnings so far (gross income from my regular job and my writing gig) and what I’ve already donated. I was expecting an abysmally low number for what percentage I’ve given away. I haven’t written a big check to charity or anything. But I was surprised to find that when I added it all up, I’ve given about 5.8% already. That ain’t half bad!

I’ve got a ways to go, but I’ll be thinking on ways to meet my goals in the next few months. Might not make it for 2011 (as they say, “Prior planning prevents poor performance,” and I didn’t do my prior planning this year), but I’ll at least have some good habits started for 2012.

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