So Long! Don't Forget to Write!

Hey, Everyone!

I think the time has come to put this Blog, at least mostly, to rest.

It's time for me to stop writing about my life and actually start living it!

Not that I'm going to stop writing entirely. Of course not! I'm a writer! I'll still be making weekly (every Wednesday) updates over at http://littlezotz.com  I'll also still be writing for clients.  :)  If you like my writing style, there's going to be plenty of places for you to get your "fix."

Me writing. (Fortunately, my computer in real life is much better!)

I may write on here occasionally, but it probably won't be for a long time from now.  I definitely won't be making weekly updates anymore.  (Sorry, Amy!--I know you like to lurk...).  

 

Writing updates about my life is a fun, admittedly self-indulgent, activity--and it certainly made it easier for long-distance friends (which is, well, ALL of my friends) to keep up with me!--but I've become incredibly busy as of late and it became clear that I had to prioritize.  I need to put my clients first.

Don't be sad.  As I said, I'll still write on here "occasionally."  And, of course, if you really, really want to know what I'm up to, you can always write to me at littlezotz@gmail.com!

So, goodbye for now!  Ramiro, Robert, and I are off to live happy, wonderful lives!  :D  And don't forget to support my work (leave comments!!) over at http://littlezotz.com!

Until next time...
--Lauren*

!!!REVIEW HAT!!!...and the Oktoberfest

Hello, Everyone!

The time has finally come for me to announce the "secret" project I've been working on!  Check THIS out:

ReviewHat

http://reviewhat.com

Please click on either of those two links (or the picture itself) to be magically transported to ReviewHat--a site for reviews.  It's a joint project between Ramiro, our friend Ray, and myself.  You can read more about it in the site's "About" section.  I hope you find our reviews useful (and maybe a little funny).

So that's my big announcement that you've waited two weeks to hear!

In other news, I was in the hospital on Friday. (What a way to end September!).  I passed another kidney stone.  I won't go into details...  Unless you want me to.  If you ask me, I will regale you with all the bloody (literally) details and you will cringe in horror and awe.

On the bright side, I got to see a rainbow on our way to the hospital...

The next morning, Ramiro, Ray, and I got in the car and headed a few towns over to the Montrose Oktoberfest.  I'd promised 2 months in advance that I would be there to help film my dojo's demonstration.  Plus, I love the martial arts demo!  I wouldn't miss it just because I was in pain and on anti-biotics!  So I suited up in long-sleeves, pants, a hat, and plenty of sunscreen (I wasn't supposed to go out in the sun thanks to the anti-biotics the doc gave me) in 90+ degree heat and filmed the demo! 

Everyone performed really well!  While I was filming the action with a video camera, Ray was behind me taking still pictures with my digital camera.  Here's a couple:

About to begin.  That's Master Armen Heroian in the red jacket.

Ryan up in the air with his bo-staff!

 I taught most of those kids! I'm so proud.  :3

Master Dannon doing his thing.

Look out! Those kicks are coming right at you!

Everyone lined up to take a bow.

It was a great demonstration.  I wished I could have been up there with them.  I used to really enjoy being a part of the Oktoberfest demos.  :)

Despite my precautions, I was feeling pretty woozy by the end of the demo so the guys and I went home immediately after it was over.

I spent Sunday resting and putting the final touches on ReviewHat.

And, today, I'm back to work!  One day of recovery is more than enough for a tough gal like I am!  (I hope...)

Oh, and be sure to tune into my pro Blog on Wednesday for another thrilling "People I Know" interview!  It's slightly Halloween-themed, so you know it's gonna be good!  ;)

See you next Monday!

--Lauren*

http://littlezotz.com

PS: If any of you Glendale Villari people want more pics from the Oktoberfest demo, feel free to e-mail me at littlezotz@gmail.com  Ray took about 40 pics!

Microchips, Hard Drives, and a Great Breakfast

Hey, Everyone!

This is my 130th personal Blog entry!  Whew!!

By this time next week, if all goes well, I'll be announcing my new project (the one I alluded to in my last entry).  Exciting!

Robert got microchipped last week!  FixNation was kind enough to take him in (they no longer have microchip clinics and they currently only microchip tame cats who are also in for a spay/neuter; but they made an exception for us because we're awesome).  So now Robert's a cyborg:

 Drawing Ramiro did on our whiteboard in honor of the occasion.

It was a pretty hectic day.  We got up at around 6:00am that morning and loaded Robert in his carrier.  Which he was really great about!...until Ramiro turned on the car.  Robert then pooped himself BIG TIME!  And with his long hair, you can imagine what a mess THAT was.  Yuck!! 

As soon as we got him back home, I had to bathe him.  I have some new scars now...  He always puts up SUCH a fuss!!  But as soon as he's out of the water, he LOVES being clean!  He becomes more affectionate that ever and really struts his stuff.  Sigh.  Oh, that Robert.

Robert airing out his underside after his bath.

I'm sorry for yet another late entry.  As you might have guessed, I've been incredibly busy lately!  In fact, I finally had to get myself an external hard drive today to save all the writing I've been doing.  Flash drives just weren't cutting it anymore!  I now have 500GB of space to back up my files...  I have a feeling I'm going to fill it up in no time.

Last, for those of you who haven't already seen it (Mom & Amy, I'm talking to you!), here's the awesome breakfast Ramiro made for me this morning to cure my "I can't believe it's Monday again already!!" blues:

He's the best.  <3

Be sure to tune in next Monday!!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.com

Mii Family Photo

Hey, Everyone!

I don't really have anything to report this week.  More of "the usual."

I went skating with my parents on Saturday.  Showed them my 3DS and they each took a picture of themselves which was converted into a Mii.  Here's the result:

That's about it!

This week's entry on my Pro Blog is a bit of a wacky one, so be sure to check that out this Wednesday.  Hopefully I'll have more to talk about next week!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.com

A Weekend in Pictures

Hey, Everyone!

Last week I launched my first e-book, The Newbie Writer's Guide, on my website and a bunch of other places (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, WP Pro Business, etc.).  Other than that, my week was filled with endless work.  But, since I can't really talk about the writing I was doing for that "endless work" (and you probably don't want to hear the details anyway), let's skip to what I did over the weekend!

All in pictures!

We walked around the local mall and talked with a cool guy at the comic book store:

My first "Street Pass!"

I played a couple hours of a fantastic puzzle game:

Are you catching on that I got myself a new toy recently? (That I have no time to play with...)

I invested in protecting my new phone from the elements (and my own klutziness):

The prettiest armor a cell phone could ask for. I've never had a nice phone before!

We ate delicious sandwiches:

A very serious sandwich. (Don't you just love his shirt??)

 Corned beef & pickles with mayonnaise

We had a marathon viewing of probably the most amazing anime I've ever seen:

We watched all 37 episodes almost in one sitting!

And Robert played with his new best friend (I won a teddy bear out of a crane machine at the skating rink on the 13th--Robert immediately claimed it as his own when I came home):

That's Death Note in the background

He loves that bear so much. 

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd...that's it.  The weekend went by much too fast!  Ah, well.  It's the work days that get me the pay days, if you know what I mean.  ;)  Got another busy week of writing ahead of me!

See you next Monday!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.com

Texts!

Hey, Everyone!

All right, I can hear you all now...  "What horrible thing happened to you this time, Lauren?"  To which I say "har har."  I know a lot of terrible things have been happening to me, but jeez.  Also...I got bit by a spider and my index finger swelled to twice its normal size.  But I can tell that you don't want to hear about that.

You want to know about this!

 My exact facial expression all week.

That's right.  I got a new phone.  Jealous?

All right, I know that I'm years late on jumping on the smart phone bandwagon, but I finally switched over.  And it's wonderful.  It's really cut down on my stress (I don't have to panic wondering if any clients have written to me--and I don't have to keep dragging out my laptop to find out!).  In fact, it's so great, that I'm planning to write a Blog post about it on my professional Blog.  It's only been a couple of days, but I already feel that everyone in my line of work should have one of these babies!

Mostly, I was just super excited that I get to text people again!  It had been too long.

Other than that, I went skating on Saturday, wrote a ton of posts for my Pro Blog, and I cleaned Robert's litter box.  In fact, I cleaned it so well that he got confused and thought it was a bed:

You protest, but I know you love the cat pics.  Don't lie.

Oh yeah.  And this Wednesday (8/17/11) is going to be my one year anniversary of being a professional writer!  I'm going to have an extra special Blog post on my website to celebrate!  Here's a sneak peek at the accompanying art:

As you can see, it's not coloured in.  You'll have to visit my website on the 17th to see the final version! ;)

This weekend marked my first days off since July 30th.  And, yes, I spent most of my days off writing.  PROOF that I love what I do.  Hah!

That's all I've got for now.  Be sure to head over to my Official Website on August 17th for the launch of The Newbie Writer's Guide!  I can't wait!

Also, many thanks to everyone who checked in on me when my mouth was in such terrible pain.  The gross part is finally over and the pain part has diminished greatly.  If all continues to go well, I'll be back up to snuff by my next entry!  <3

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.com

Summer Cold

Hey, Everyone!

I was going to have all sorts of fun updates to share with you, but, instead, I ended up catching a summer cold and spent all of last week (and last weekend) sick.  I had to cancel all of my fun plans.  I spent the week working and looking really gross.  But, instead of showing you a picture of me all "eww" with the sick (like my English there?), here's a picture of Robert trying to become best friends with my box of Kleenex:

Everybody say "D'awwwww."

My cold inspired me to write this week's Pro Blog post about whether or not freelancers are allowed to take sick days.  So be sure to look for that this upcoming Wednesday!

Also, Ramiro has been doing some amazing art work lately!  This one's my favourite so far:

I'm so proud of him.  I can't wait to see what he does next!

More next week! (Hopfully!)

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.com

McNuggets and Mid-July

Hey, Everyone!

I had chicken McNuggets for lunch today. We ran out of food to have for lunch and my paycheck hasn't come yet, so we thought to ourselves "What's something SUPER CHEAP that we could eat..." As it turned out, McNuggets were a "safe" fast food option. I was excited. I hadn't had a McNugget since A Bug's Life was in theaters! (Don't ask me how I remember that). Not exactly a "healthy" choice (especially since I'm trying to lose weight!), but it was cheap and it did the trick.

Anyway, moving past what I had for lunch today...

I interviewed Paul Grimshaw of House of Secrets and Art of Fiction fame(?) last Friday. Here's a blooper pic from our interview session:

Paul started cracking up when Amy (HoS worker) wouldn't stop taking pictures of us

Paul's going to be my "Mr. September" for my "People I Know" interview series on my Official Website. For those of you who don't know, the "People I Know" series is a collection of mini-interviews (5 questions each!) with various amazing writers, freelancers, and entrepreneurs I've met over the years. I post these interviews on the first Wednesday of every month. So be sure to keep an eye out for those!

I've also been very busy with my job at WebTalk Radio. And I'm still writing dog-related articles for Sarasota Dog, Bradenton Dog, and New York City Dog. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd... I've been working on a couple writing projects of my own. One of which should be ready to show off/sell by the middle of next month. I'll keep you posted!

That's all for now!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.com

LittleZotz.com (This is Going to Be a Long One!)

Hey, Everyone!!

First of all, I would like to direct your attention to...

LittleZotz.com!!!!

That's right! For at least the next three years (and hopefully forever after), I am the proud owner of littlezotz.com. And I built the website myself! I know that it looks very plain right now, but I'm learning--with the help of books & a few savvy friends--how to make it look better. Be patient.

My Pro Blog shall be updating from that address from now on as well, so please update your bookmarks. (It still updates Wednesdays as usual).

I had a fantastic weekend! My friend Steff came over for a visit:
I hardly ever get to see Steff anymore since she moved, so I always get really excited when she comes up for a visit. :) Even though I talk to her every day, it's still a treat to see her in person.

She gifted Ramiro & me with a digital camera! Which we immediately used to take cat pics:

Robert standing guard over his two favourite things: Toys & Food

Ramiro and I then went to Descanso Gardens, intending to bring along our new camera, but, of course, we were already on the road and halfway there when we realized we forgot to bring it. And, OF COURSE, we ended up seeing all sorts of amazing things. (Isn't that just the way of the world?). Here's a crappy cell phone pic I took of some geese we saw:

We also saw beautiful dragonflies, gigantic spiderwebs, and spectacular views.

Ramiro and I conquered three mountains and were about to take on a fourth when I felt a "pinch" on my right thigh. When I looked down, I was bleeding through my jeans. Remember how I was in the ER for puncture wound last October? All the exercise we were doing split open my scar.

Olive View, being the worst hospital ever, did a really shoddy job on my leg... They told me it needed stitches, but this was before my freelance writing career really took off and so I couldn't afford to pay. When they heard that I wasn't a paying customer, they decided to chintz out and give me "butterfly" stitches instead. So basically they put a couple strips of tape on it, gave me some ointment & pain pills, and sent me home. Ramiro and I had a devil of a time trying to take care of it on our own. It never healed properly; but, until yesterday, I thought it had healed "good enough."

Then, when we got home, we noticed that a HUGE bruise had appeared. We traced it, just in case. If the bruise grew any larger (if it went outside our outline), it would mean I was bleeding internally and I'd have to go to the hospital. Fortunately, that didn't happen. The bruise is big and gross-looking and my leg's a bit swollen and painful, but, other than that, I'm fine.

I don't want to gross anyone out with a picture of my leg (plus bruises never photograph very well), so here's a picture of the sunburn I got instead:

I had to put a picture of SOMETHING there. Too much text...

Anyway, this has put a damper on my exercise routines for the time being. (I had been doing daily walks & going rollerblading on Saturdays). Sort of ironic considering my next Pro Blog update was about just that subject. :\

I'll have to think of something else I can do to get fit in the meantime.

All things considered, this was still the BEST weekend I've had in a long time!! :D

I also got to work on a lot of my own writing and I played a lot of my fave PC games:

Bookworm Adventures

And I even teamed up with Ramiro and played some Portal 2. Hilarious results.

And, of course, I became the proud owner of...

LittleZotz.com!!!

So happy.

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.com

Happy Fourth of July, Americans!

Hey, Everyone!

I went rollerblading at the Moonlight Rollerway with my parents on Saturday night.

The rest of the week (and weekend -- including today!) has been spent working.

WebTalk Radio, Sarasota Dog, and my own projects. Here's a sneak preview of one of the illustrations for an upcoming post on my Pro Blog:

Only slightly exaggerated...

Writing -----> Sit-down job -----> 10 inches on my waistline since this time last year.

Speaking of which, I've gotta go take my daily walk (I've started exercising again!) and then get back to writing articles for clients.

Also, don't forget to tune in Wednesday (July 6th) to my Pro Blog to read a great interview I did with Roxy "Balboa" Richardson!

--Lauren*

http://littlezotz.webs.com

Been a While Since We Last Had Cat Pics...

Hey, Everyone!

I had another week where I was insanely busy, but, when it comes down to it, there's not much to talk about. "Work, work, work, and more work" just about sums it up. I had a very busy week with my job at WebTalk Radio and I wrote a few more articles for Sarasota Dog.

We got Robert a Scratching post:
Which Ringo used to his advantage to have a go at the pile of other toys they own (which Robert is normally very possessive over):
That's about it for now.

As usual, I've got a few things in the works, but nothing I can talk about yet.

See you next Monday!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Ready for Summer

Hey, Everyone!

Well, I got a nosebleed today. It's officially summer in my opinion. (It came a day early!)

Anyway, check out what Ramiro made us for dinner:Lamb steak, potato wedges, plain yogurt, and brown rice. Delicious.

We're actually total weirdos and take pictures of our food all the time. But this one looked so nice I wanted to share. :)

Plus I didn't really have any pictures to share with you guys this week.

I didn't have any work this weekend (for the first time in the past three months!). Ramiro and I visited my parents (it was their 28th wedding anniversary) on Saturday. Then, most of Sunday was spent watching movies and trying to get rid of a virus on my new laptop. Ugh. I was trying to look up something for Ramiro about L.A. Noire and a really nasty virus got me (my new computer didn't have any protection installed). Fortunately, Ramiro knew how to deal with it and everything is fine now (and I've got virus protection, adware, spyware, all those wares...).

Anyway, talking about L.A. Noire got us wondering about the Hollywood sign. We couldn't remember how/why the "land" at the end (it was originally "Hollywoodland") got removed. And then I was like "Remember when they had that girl from Coolworld sitting on the sign??" And Ramiro was like "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat are you talking about?"

I thought my brain was lying to me! And then I got really weirded out because why would my brain lie to me about that? I was 7 when that movie came out, but I have a really good memory.

Fortunately, the Internet came to my rescue:

A 75-foot-tall Holli Would

Yep. That happened.

Terrible.

That's all for now!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

My First New Computer

Hello, Everyone!

I got a new laptop:Yes, I'm aware that my desktop wallpaper is awesome. (Ramiro and I recently got into watching Doctor Who -- 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctors).

Super 3D Glasses

My laptop from Steff finally broke down last week. It was around 6 years old and held together with rubberbands...It wasn't exactly a surprise. It ("Kurt") served its purpose though and it was a gift that ended up changing my life (if she hadn't given me that laptop, I might still be working at Del Taco!).

Fortunately, my laptop broke on the day after I received my first WTR paycheck in the mail! Good timing.

Unfortunately, when we went to Best Buy to buy my new computer, my bank card kept getting declined. As it turned out, Bank of America refused to believe it was me! "Why," you may ask? Because I'm super cheap and never spend that much money at once! Anyway, I was on the phone with BofA for a little over 2 hours and they STILL wouldn't let me use my card. "Lauren Tharp never spends this much money." Arrrrgh!! I was like "Well, I am TODAY!" haha. It was terrible. Eventually I sat down and thought about it and came up with the solution of "Well, if the problem is me spending too big of an amount at once...what if I buy the laptop in small 'Lauren appropriate' increments?" So, in the end, the cashier had to run my card through a BUNCH of times with baby $50 payments.

So, in the end, it all worked out. (Obviously! Look at my new laptop!!)

This is the first NEW computer I've ever owed! All of my previous computers were hand-me-downs that were already old when I received them. I'm super excited.

Then, on the weekend, Ray came over for a visit. He and Ramiro spent most of the time playing video games. Including L.A. Noire.

We were all pleasantly surprised when my friend Dan Roebuck turned up in the game!

I won't give any spoilers, but suffice to say he's a bad guy and you're going to have to do a lot of running to catch him.

The boys were also very excited when they saw that this was posted on Netflix streaming:They insisted that we watch it. I was very...confused.

"Let's get sticky!"

I had never watched The Power Rangers before. I didn't watch much of any TV in the 1990s. It often makes it very hard for me to relate to my peers. So while the boys were having nostalgia flashbacks all over the floor, I was left going "huh?"

I'm told that scantily clad women didn't usually show up on the show

And since I wasn't viewing the movie through magic nostalgia goggles, there was a lot of "Wait...why are they doing that...?" on my end.

I'm told that the television show was "much better!" than the movie. *shrugs*

The bulk of my weekend was spent writing. Either for clients or for myself. For myself, I wrote a few more posts for my Pro Blog (gotta get another buffer going!) and drew up the accompanying illustrations. Here's one of my drawings (before I coloured it in):

Sneak preview!

That's all for now. It's almost time for me to "go" to work! :)

See you next Monday!

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Busy Busy!!

Hey, Everyone!

Short post today. Too busy!

In the meantime, check out this e-book:

FACEBOOK FAN PAGES FOR BUSINESS AND PROFIT

It's from WP Pro Business (that company I write articles for sometimes) and it's actually surprisingly good! Well, not "surprisingly"--they're a good company, so we should expect good things from them--but you know how e-books can sometimes be uninformative and/or a bit sleazy? Not so for this book.

If you're interested in making a business/fan page on Facebook and have no idea where to begin, then I highly recommend this book! :)

More next Monday! (And be sure to check out my Pro Blog on Wednesday!)

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com

Electric Weekend

Hey, Everyone!!

MANY APOLOGIES FOR THE LATE UPDATE!! I'm sorry if I worried any of you. (Paris...)

I got a bit mixed up because of the holiday weekend. I worked through it (so it kind of felt like work days) but then there were also parties going on for all three days (which felt like the weekend). I don't know. It was weird. ~_~

Anyway, here's what I did:

I worked on stuff for WebTalk Radio and Sarasota Dog...
We celebrated my mom's 57th birthday...
Saw Dorian...

My mom tamed that squirrel...it's very friendly!

And Robert tried to kill us...

But he looks so peaceful... O_o

Wait. What?!

It was an accident. (We think... *suspicious*) Robert decided he wanted to sit by the window, got his collar caught in the blinds, started strangling, panicked, knocked over a bottle of water, broke a lamp, and electrocuted the floor! JEEZ!! Anyway, his breakaway collar broke (just like it's supposed to!--Yay!!) and he got out of there just in the nick of time; but it LITERALLY scared the crap out of him. He let out the fart of a lifetime and then ran for his box. It was intense. And smelly. The whole living room smelled like...burning...and cat fart. Whew! We managed to get everything cleaned up without dying. Thank goodness.

And here we always thought Ziggy would be the one to try and murder us...

Shown here with dynamite (ah, how we miss her...)

We also took Robert to the vet. He's gotten into the habit of crying when he uses his box. BUT...only when Ramiro is out of the room! Well, we know that Robert is very neurotic and insanely attached to Ramiro, but that was taking it a bit too far. So, we did what any good pet owner would do: We took him to the vet to check for a UTI.

We were originally going to take Robert to the vet next week (after my first paycheck) to get his shots updated, but if your cat is crying in its litterbox you ALWAYS need to get them to the vet ASAP! So there ya go. Anyway, his lab results came back today: Everything was negative. Sooooooooooooooooo... Robert's just crazy. And Ramiro has to watch/talk to him while he pees or he cries. lol. Silly cat.

At least he got his shots updated while he was there.

In other news, I interviewed Ramiro on my Professional Blog. Be sure to check that out.

PEOPLE I KNOW: RAMIRO ROMAN, JR.

I've started up a new section on my Blog called "People I Know." Check HERE for upcoming guests/interviews!

Again, I apologize for the late update. Hopefully it was worth the wait!

See you next Monday! (For sure this time!)

--Lauren*
http://littlezotz.webs.com Ramiro updated my Official Webpage -- Check the Contact and Links pages for new stuff!