Tag Archives: top blogs

13 things I wish I knew before I started a blog.

Posted on January 14, 2012 | 19 Comments

1. That I would be so visible in all of the world wherever there is internet. For some reason I thought I was still speaking to my immediate friends.

Have a blessed day.

Have a blessed day.

2. That people could laugh at me if they wanted. Sometimes they do but I mostly get compliments, thank goodness.

3. That everyone uses their blogs however they want in different ways to represent their own style. Some blogs have comments, some have books, some have lists, some have videos. Each person can make their blog completely personalized.

4. That the blogger community is extremely supportive. If you need help with anything there are endless forums to help you answer your questions. Or, you can post a new one. I did and got tons of quick answers.

5. That words are important. And can save lives. Take for example:

Let’s eat Grandma! versus Let’s eat, Grandma!

Believe it or not, a lot of people find my blog by typing those words into google.

6. That some people make money with their blogs,

Smile. You're beautiful.

7. That it takes more time and dedication that I thought. But like most projects the more you put into it the more you get out of it.

8. That I ♥ blogging.

9. That 97 percent of people want to write a book.

10. What’s a widget. I thought a widget was that wooden triangle piece you slip under a door to hold it open. Boy was a surprised. I have since discovered that widgets are the spice of life. You can see all my widgets on my right column. They are things like being able to see your categories, most popular posts and facebook links.

Bike today. Yes please.

11. What’s a theme? Believe it or not, you get FREE themes. Themes are the overall looks of your site and you can choose whichever one suits you, just like a jacket.

You can even change as often as you want. I like mine for now but you never know. People love new looks. And it’s free.

12. That blogging would bring me increased confidence just like overcoming a fear.

14. That you would be reading this.

and just for fun, I’ll add another one. What would you add? What’s your number 14?

14. I wish I knew what social media was and how incredibly far reaching it is. I had seriously only heard the term social media at a garage sale buying a book.  Things you should look into are twitter, facebook and now pinterest.

I’m seriously in awe of the amount of times I see people in real life who have read my latest posts.

What about you? What are your favorite widgets? Why do you blog? Why don’t you blog? What are your favorite blogs and why?

As always, thanks for visiting and commenting. Nice to see you.

  1. Write down my goal in very specific terms.
  2. Practise visualisations daily.
  3. Stay positive and have an attitude of gratitude.
  4. Tell people about my goal repeatedly and publicly.
  5. Act as if I had already achieved it.
  6. Take massive action to make it happen.

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Posted in Inspiration, lists, writing

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9 killer blog buzz words that add extra value to your writing. It’s chill.

Posted on November 16, 2011 | 16 Comments

I remember one day sitting at a trade show booth in Las Vegas with my awesomely successful and lovely sister. Clients would come up to us and ask if we had any number of objects from Velco to copies, to faxes to signs.

We’d look at each other with a knowing smile, pretend to bend down and change hats.

One hat said Designer, one said Electrician, on said Copy Girl. Today my hat says Blog Writer.

i shall be calm in this moment. ♡

i shall be calm in this moment. ♡

I think that flexibility in skills in today’s marketplace is absolutely key to being successful.

If you are wondering what any of that story has to do with the nine blogging buzz words is that I think using cool words can add value to whatever you are writing.

That is why I’m giving you nine FREE words that you can use with certainty to spice up your blog titles or just have some fun. Can you think of any?

By the way, the above example is ONLY a story. We didn’t actually change our hats.

Here are 9 rockstar blog words for dummies smart people.

1) Barbra Streisand She’s amazing. She’s everywhere. If you don’t quite get it, neither do I. I am almost sure it’s just playing around. I love people just like to say it. If you know why they do, please tell me. :)

2) Life Hacks I’ve noticed a lot of the seriously smart blogging blogs are using Life Hacks in a positive way. Life Hacks offer simple solutions to every day problems.

3) Wicked As old as this seems I’m still coming across Wicked in in well written headlines. It’s still works. At least on East Coast it was big when I was a wee tot. On the west coast we used a little bit more surf slang. You tell me, do people still use this? I try to use words that I say. I’d never say killer buzz words. It sure looks good in a title though, doesn’t it?

So I heard you been jammin’ down some gnarly tunes on your guitar?

That is just so wrong on so many levels. This gem was offered up last summer at a barbeque.

Be a free thinker.

4) Zen Whether it’s Zen Motorcycles or Zen Journey or Zen Habits people love anything that will make their lives more zen like. It’s an art. It conjurs up images of peace. Oaahhhhhmmmmmmm.

5) Simplicity I like any website that promises a simpler better life. I remember reading one day less is more. Or was it every day one thing less? My goal in my life is to get everything put away before I die. One thing less. Simple Life, Simple Pleasures, Simple simpleness. Simplify your life. It’s simple.

6) Social Media I don’t truly love this term. I bought a book at a garage sale in Pacific Palisades, California from a nice lady. I wanted to keep in touch with her so I asked her if she was on facebook. She said, no I don’t like social media. It was the first time I heard the word. Now it seems to be everywhere and growing. I still can’t use it in a sentence though.

Take the road less travelled.

7) Non Conformity If we are living parallel lives as avatars in another planet, I think we’d all be driving Prius’s and living in solar powered houses. The idea of non conformity offers you the possibility of changing your life for the better by choosing to do what you love.

Be a non conformist. Be a free thinker. Turn off the news. Get informed. Read. Stay informed. Make up your own mind.

~8)  Trending It seems like people say Trending and then whatever new thing is out. I don’t know because I’m not trending anything!

*9) Boomz Thanks to one of my super cool blog writer friends like Tiny Island who shares with us some Singaporean coolness from their beauty girl Ris Low. I love they they just have fun and play with language. I used to do this when I was a little girl. I wonder why I no longer do. That’s just Boomz {hands out}.

It’s time for reader input ~ what are your thoughts?

What do you think? I think these words are on their way out: Dude, Alternative, Rad, Stoked, Factoid, Gnarly, Social Media and SEO. Those are lame in my opinion.

I think these words are up and coming: Blog, Boomz, Fluffy, My Bad, Hiney, Smile and Nod, Shiny, happiness, writing and Talk to the Hand.

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Posted in happiness, Inspiration, lists, writing

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A Blogger Blogging about her Blog {and such.}

Posted on November 7, 2011 | 12 Comments

Hello friends. Good to see you. New visitors welcome.

It’s another beautiful day. There is a smell of fresh brewed coffee. The kids are playing and the sun is shining. I live out in the country surrounded by fields of vegetables and orchards.

Because of what is called the lowlands, in the morning there is a nice white fog that extends the distance. It looks as if God painted a huge moving glorious postcard.

Sometimes while I’m driving to work, I see this white fog after a snow fall. It’s quite magical actually. It reminds me of the scene in Narnia when Lucy enters into the magical forrest.

I’d have to say it’s my favorite time of the day when you are between two places, home and work, just looking at the countryside, watching the birds take off. I see the same man jogging rain or shine.

Figure it out, figure it out, if you don't know how to do it, figure it out.

I notice the colors of the old withering farmhouses. I try to think of words that describe the soft colors of Italy.

The best words that I can come up with are soft butter, avocado and peach. Most of the old buildings are crumbling. I dream that I rebuild the home into a villa. Then I think, no, why would I do that? It’s so beautiful just the way it is.

The anticipation for spring is so strong, your hearts and minds start to see flowers. It’s a thrilling moment when the same snow covered field one day blooms. As we drive past fields of flowers, our family likes to say the colors, pink, pink, yellow, red, white, look, there’s purple.

Foggy mornings turning into sunshine days. Yeah!

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. Emmerson

It is nice to have you here with me. When I was just a little girl hum Doris Day, I wanted to be a published writer. I bought the beautiful empty diaries with angel covers. The first entry on the first page was always exciting with the anticipation of what I would write.

Life presents us with the solutions we are looking for.

As I write, I think of the people who have come across my words. Is writing crazy? Is it the same as talking to yourself in the mirror? If so, or, if not, even if people comment, the actual ACT of writing is me talking to me, right? Or is is you? See the confusion? I do. It’s ok though.

Be awesome. Be authentic.  Be inspirational.

Zero to Blog the film, the movie, the ebook

My ebook, Zero to Blog has been a journey of it’s own. I feel like the book wrote itself because it is information presented in a clear way to help people get their blogs on line.

I painted these for my sister. I see them when we Skype.

As a blog writer you have to figure it all out. I like that though. As my Uncle says, Figure it out, figure it out, if you don’t know how to do it, figure it out.

I suppose I watched too much TV and thought there was an actual book launch party. Maybe there are. In my real life, it didn’t quite go that way. The book launch party idea was to have a giveaway and a book signing. Well, it’s a digital book.

No bookstore. No signing. Or, digital bookstore online books signing party!

Beautiful just the way it is.

Now it’s your turn. I would like to know what you are working on. What is your favorite time of day? What images make you happy? What are ways can you describe color? What does your commute to work look like?

How do you sell your work. What has worked for you?

Thanks for stopping by, your comments are welcome.

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Posted in art gallery - if you're new start here, Italy, journal, motivation, relationships, teaching, travel, writing

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To put the past in the past, completely, now and forever.

Posted on May 5, 2010 | 4 Comments
Thanks LousBoosandshoes.

Sometimes ♡ You have to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world to truly understand your own.

I deleted my last post because I thought it was totally insane. I learned that you should never write anything in the middle of the night because we think we are lucid but IN REALITY we aren’t. I reread my post this morning, lowered my head in shame and hit delete faster than you can say Hey Mom, what did they put in her Jello?

I went on over to facebook and tried to let my friends know what in the world I was thinking because I had some pretty funny comments in my in box.

It’s one of those days where I think each key on my keyboard should be labeled delete. That way I might stop embarrassing myself with my lama rama ramblings as my friend Pam so aptly calls them.

Back to reality.

It’s spring out here in Italy and the flowers are blooming. Being from So Cal it’s crazy beautiful. It’s the moment that I wish was all year long. I feel like writing.

You da bomb

Well if that wasn’t a bomb of a last class I don’t know what was. I had three hours of teaching today and if you aren’t a teacher you MIGHT not get this but I had a bunch of kids complaining about their grades.

What the mind can conceive the body can achieve.

It got to me because I think of myself a generous teacher so I don’t take to critcism well. One girl wrote the following sentence in English and she wondered why I didn’t give her a good grade.

She had put the following words in order:
discover / will / life / on / No, / they / scientists / won’t / Mars.

She came up with
 Will discover mars life of scientists, no me won’t.

I’m chalking it up to being the last hour of the week and we all were tired.

Counter Point

My other two hours were AWESOME. We laughed and smiled. We spent about an hour translating motivational sentences like like Take 100% Responsibility for your Lives, Stop being a victim, Accept and Love your Body, Dream, etc. I think they liked it because they listen, smile and their eyes look alive.

Another cup of delicious fresh brewed blog copy.

I’ve been actively participating in blog discussions. One of my favorites so far is Barbara’s blog called bloggingwithoutablog. She has set her site up to be an active classroom. It’s fun. I love the people in there. One guy just cracks me up with his post called North Dakota Doesn’t Exist.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I knew it was a myth.

I also follow regularly the blogs you see to the right on the sidebar called Reccomended Reads.

Man On Road – Italian Translation Cracks Me Up

I was driving on the freeway a couple of days ago and there was an overhead sign in GIGANTIC orange flashing lights that said Man On Road. I just had to laugh. What in the world does that mean? I think they meant Men at Work. I don’t think there was a man on the road because I saw the same sign at least three times.

Thank you for sharing my blog journey with me friends.

Care to share?

1. When do you find it is the best time to write? Morning, noon, late evening, or when you are inspired.

2. What’s your favorite season and why?

3. Have you ever written an article in the middle, published it, then went back and not understood parts of it?

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Posted in happiness, Inspiration, Italy, journal

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Tom Cruise ♥ Julie Angelos ♥ George Clooney ~ Just hangin’ with da boyz.

Posted on March 9, 2010 | 9 Comments

Love my Oscars.

Me working with Tom Cruise - 1980

Look really close because that’s me walking in the background.

Ever since I moved to Italy and couldn’t see the Oscars live, my friends have been recording them and sending me a copy via a regular VCR cassette tape.

Now with the Internet, you get pretty much everything as it happens. On top of that, surprise, we saw the Oscars here in Italy on Sunday, March 8th – same day. :)

We all liked Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. We thought the show was still too long. ~ for example some of the dancing bits. We loved seeing all of our favorite movie stars all dolled up. I swooned over George Clooney, Matt Damon, Meryll Streep and Helen Mirren.

Demi Moore is getting younger. We need her secret. It was hysterical on TV the following day here in Italy. They Italian news coverage said the Americans chose mostly American stylists and it showed.

They basically said the clothes sucked. My opinion was that they ALL look lovely, compared to me. I’m just a mom and a jr. high school teacher.

Sure, I’ll throw on a lipstick and brush my hair, but the I can’t remember the last time I got all dolled up with a long dress.

♥Tom Cruise told me this was his big break ~ his friend got sick, so they called him last minute.♥

Oh yes, actually I can. My dear friend Greg took me to a Christmas dinner party when I still lived in US about 16 years ago and I wore a long sleeveless velvety brown dress I got from the gap with black boots.

Contradictions. Love them.

My husband is so impressed by the fact that I worked with Tom Cruise in a film in 1980 BEFORE Tom made Taps, when he was STILL UNKNOWN. I met Tom when he told me with his OWN words,

This is my first film and my big break, because my friend got sick. Working with Tom Cruise, 1980

NOT only did my husband ask me to buy the dvd, he took out all of the connector cables from the garage so he could watch me up close on our wide screen TV. Even my two kids were pointing: Look there’s mom.

My girlfriends in high school can attest to all of this. I’m going to get the video up of it so you can see it and laugh with me and if you’d like. I will take a picture of my diary I wrote on the day we met by request only.

Tom and I worked five days together. There’s a lot more to the story but ONLY Tom and I will know what really happened those five days on set. :)

Love my readers.

I might just tell my sister the whole story too ~ as if she hasn’t heard it before. Usually, when I tell my Tom Cruise story people stop in their tracks.

Now unfortunately, the kids in school like other actors.
 although I’m convinced Tom Cruise has a fan or two out there still.

There’s no doubt in my small mind however that Tom is incredibly talented. If you caught him in Steal Magnolia’s I think you just might agree.

I can see Gigi, Michelle, Suzanne, Michele and Lisa right now thinking, Oh, no she’s not going there is she? No, I’m not. I’m going to leave you all in suspense.

In fact, you can read all about blogging in my downloadable ebook Zero to Blog available here for $14.97 and at Lulu.com for a little bit more. Try to convince me to have a promotion because anyone who knows me knows I’m a push over.

Mom, can I watch TV? Yes, ok.
Mom, can I play outside? OK.
Hey mom, is it okay if my friends come over? Sure

I draw the line on eating on the couch or upstairs. I’d say I’m on the lenient side. I DO assign homework every class. Usually, I allow the kids some class time to get started though.

My blog is starting to really feel like a conversation around the coffee machine, so I’m going to get back to work. Have a great day.

As always, please leave a comment. It’s how us wee blog writers get paid.;)

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19 reasons teaching is entertaining and inspirational.

Posted on February 20, 2010 | 12 Comments

Hey guys, welcome back. New visitors, welcome.

I started my blog three months ago. I have had over 3.000 visitors, made a video, published an eBook and made some great new friends.

teachers? angels?

I can’t tell if I’m talking to my sister, to myself or to the world. I’ll use my friend’s wisdom to concentrate on speaking to a small group of people.

My blog stats tell me there are about 60 people a day clicking over here.

Good to see you.

I suppose I could raise the bar and pretend I’m speaking at a big arena in front of 1000s of visitors but my ego isn’t big enough.

Hey! Hi Cynthia, Lisa, Barbara and Michelle. Have you met Jeff, Chris and Dr. B.? There are also a couple of new kids here, one from Sweden, Annika, and another American in Italy, Rebecca.

True Story

Yesterday I had the honor of being asked to substitute teach a class of twelve year olds. If any of you recall, substitute teaching sucks can be entertaining. Usually, it’s pretty hard to keep the students contained and a lot of the times they like to take advantage of the situation.

Not with me. I’ve been teaching now for 15 years and I’ve learned some great ways of getting attention, holding it and mezmerizing my students into using their imaginations and smiles.

Here’s something that works:

Just sit there and don’t talk.

books and flowers

I can do this for about two minutes.

I decided yesterday with this new group to just have a talk about what it’s like to be an American living in Italy.

First period 8 a.m., sleepy and happy.

I walk into class of 19 completely new faces. I introduce myself and tell the class I am happily married, have two kids, come from a good family and write a blog. I talk about what I feel is most important these days: being a good person, helping other people and flossing.

You see guys, kids these days have an entire new set of self discovery tools. A lot of the times, they don’t know how to make friends. A lot of them are shy, a lot of them are hysterically funny.

When they asked if my kids were bilingual, which they are, I found out that this small group of 19 kids came from all over the world including France, Sweden, Africa, Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria and Spain. Who would have known? I mistakenly thought they were all Italians.

Welcome.

I asked them if they had any questions.

Prof. In America, how do people get around?
I told them it depends on if you live in a big city or in the country. I told them how in New York city people take taxis, walk, bike or take the metro.

I told them in Los Angeles most people use their cars. I told them about how vast Los Angeles is, sprawling. I told them it takes two hours at least to drive from one side to the other.

How about you? Where you live how do you get around? I use a car although a lot of people take the bus. My neighbors all get around with bikes, God bless them.

Any more questions?

Prof, what is your favorite food?
That is a question that makes me love teaching. You see, kids are so cute and sweet and sincere that to them any question is a good one. I told them if I were to find myself on a desert island without any food, the one thing I would wish for more than anything would be a nice pizza. They all smiled.

They asked me if in America people ate Italian food.

I told them that America is made up of people from all over the world. Thanks to these influences Americans are given fantastic choices of foods such as Chinese, Mexican, Japanese, or Indian to start.

We talked about sports and identifying with famous people. You see these kids are just out of their little kid bodies wearing big people bodies. They look grown but they are just kids. When they write me essays about what they think, you can read anything and everything under the sun.

The class told me how one kid spends at least eight hours a day playing video games. He was over weight and sort of shy. It worried me. I told him I hope he finds a better balance in his life that includes learning, sports and some social activities. I’m not one to dish out the advice. I KNOW NOTHING. I just listen.

I told the kind bright kids I’m more than happy to have a discussion just as long as it’s in an orderly manner. They seemed to like that.

When the bell rang, I was approached by at least six of the students who told be about their various projects, magic vegetables, friends visiting from abroad who didn’t speak the language. They were so cute, beautiful actually, fresh and smiling.

I left the class smiling thanking God for the new experiences He presents me.

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Posted in Inspiration, journal, learning, motivation, relationships, teaching, travel, writing

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Swim AWAY from the Cake – updated motivational technique.

Posted on December 23, 2009 | 7 Comments

I am putting every ounce of myself to becoming a better blogger, writer and communicator. More importantly is that I am trying to make a positive change in life. Thank for visiting if this is your first time here. Welcome back visitors, feel free to leave comments.

What motivates you?

My best friend Anne Marie kicks my bum in tennis and probably anyone else’s. When we were playing at university we were great partners. We spent our time between matches actually doing cartwheels on the court. We were paired up with a couple of Chinese guys who were so serious about tennis. One day our coach pulls us aside and assigns us new partners. ‘Not the Chinese, Not the Chinese’ we chanted – they’d kill us at tennis. Sure enough, Anne Marie and I found fantastic new partners.

I’m building bridges here.

Stay with me folks. There IS a reason I’m telling you this.

The reason is this. When I am in the class room in front of my students I ask them ‘What motivates you most?’ Is it someone who comes over, puts your hand on your shoulder, smiles, and says good job, or is the person who gets behind you and yells ‘DO IT!’?

When I was on swim team in high school, my sister was my best motivator. She’d follow me back and forth across the lanes and scream ‘Go Julie!’ Her coaching strategy was swim toward the chocolate cake and away from the shark.

Just pretend

Be a kid and pretend you are the best. Walk across the room at this moment as if you have a cape on your back, I don’t care if anyone’s watching – all the better. Our mind will literally follow suit.

When Anne Marie and I were back playing singles tennis, she’d say ‘Julie – You’re going down’ with such conviction, I had no other choice then to let her win. Ha ha ha, Anne Marie, who’s getting the last laugh now?

Point is, get out there, do your best. That’s all we can ask, isn’t it?

Have a nice day and thank you for visiting.

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Posted in family, holidays, Inspiration, journal, motivation, teaching, travel, writing

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8 days ’til Christmas. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Posted on December 17, 2009 | 3 Comments

How I love the holidays. I grew up in Southern California so when it snows for Christmas it’s a true joy. When we were growing up, it only snowed once and I remember putting snowballs in the freezer. I remember Californians complaining because it never quite felt like Christmas because it was hot outside. In southern California at Christmas time you can actually see candy apple red convertibles with a Christmas tree in the back seat driving along the coast with the sand and waves in the background. You can also get married in Las Vegas in a drive thru by someone dressed up as Elvis but that has nothing to do with Christmas in Italy.

Where was I? Italy. Oh yeah, I forgot. All this snow must have went right to my brain and I’m not even blonde. That’s a joke for you sis.

Christmas in Italy

Nine days left and counting. If you read my about Julie page above you would have seen that I’m a special aids AND English teacher. I teach English at one middle school and am a special aid’s teacher at another. When I’m in the classroom, I have two roles, I’m either teaching or helping. When I’m teaching I’m pretty easy going. I like to tease my students and tell them I’m 70. They don’t know. They tell me I look great for being 70. Then when I tell them my real age they still look a little quizzed because I think anything over 15 to a 12 year old is considered old. 20-40-70, who really cares. I don’t. It’s how we feel inside, right?

Playing with the Kids

I also like to tell them that there is a quiz today. They never seem to get that joke but I like it. Today I was not the teacher but I was the helper and I think I like that role best. It’s sort of hard to understand your position in the class because as you sit and listen to the lecture you start to think you are a student too. My math teacher friend teaches an 85 year old woman.

I highlight my student’s books and take notes for them. Then, I have to try to explain what I’ve learned to the kids. I’ll make them copies or whatever it takes to get them prepared for their ‘interrogation’.

Interrogation is a common practice in Italy. What it means is that instead of having a written exam the teacher asks each kid orally what was supposed to be learned. For example in Geography the teacher might as an open ended question about China saying Talk to me about China. That’s a BIG subject but basically it can be broken down into it’s physical characteristics, the climate, the government, the resources, the people, the culture and traditions.

When you work with special kids you have to make it simple if you can.

Around the holidays a lot of teachers just do normal lessons. I like to organize Christmas parties. I grew up with a Christmas party and I think it is good that the kids have one too. My five year old had his party today and I got to have a peek at the magic that lies behind the walls of a kindergarten.

Christmas Magic

Close your eyes and imagine this beautiful story book scene. It’s snowing outside, you park in front of the school. The kids are bundled up like Eskimos. Watch them as they put their little feet in the snow for the first time. They have to touch it. You worry that they are going to have wet shoes. The teacher has written everyone a note the day before that the kids should all wear red or white tops and dark bottoms for the Christmas party because Santa is coming.

I dropped off my five year old today and I stopped for a second that I wished was a lifetime to see about 20 little angels going about their angel making projects that included little fairies with sparkles and glue. Then cookies. And then I have to go.

I go to work that I love. Second period I sub and we make paper snowflakes. They look great on the window with the snow falling. In English we sing the song by Black Eyed Peas in English called I Got a Feeling. I’m happy to translate the lyrics. I help the new girl follow along. She’s sweet.

I finish teaching and I go to the teacher’s lounge where the math teacher has his guitar out and is playing beautiful music. Life is good. Life is certainly good.

Thank you for visiting. I’m overwhelmed that I’ve had so many visitors. Thank you.

Have a great day and feel free to leave a comment. I’d like to know what your schools or jobs are doing for the holidays. I see some of your pictures on facebook but I like the stories.

Julie

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Posted in Inspiration, Italy, journal, learning, motivation, teaching

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It’s my 38th day blogging and I’m up to 622 hits. Thanks.

Posted on December 7, 2009 | 2 Comments

My husband said 'that's enough flowers'.I have to admit today I’m having a challenging time getting a word on the page. I walk, work out and think about what I want to communicate with you guys and I have a million ideas. I sat down to write a few of them and then deleted them. I wrote an article on the Differences Between US and Italy, then I tried one called How to Make Money on the Internet, and finally one called Inspiration. All three have been deleted. You’re welcome.

As you might have noticed I’m big on making this site grow. I don’t know why. Oh yeah I do, it’s because I read somewhere that it’s good to have a big audience.  I know what is stopping me from writing these days. Reader’s comments. I’m not saying I don’t want your comments I suppose it is just insecurity. I’m truly trying to live in love and not in fear.

As you can see to your right this blog is supposed to be about the topics I like such as writing, travel and motivation. Then I think about my coach’s comments saying “Julie, where are you going with this blog? What are you trying to get out of it?” You see when you write you either write to yourself, a friend or you pretend you are writing to a real audience, that people will actually read this and respond. I choose the third option, I’m writing to you now. 

Real people who will read this and respond.

There are so many things to consider. My readers include my my mom and dad because I call them and tell them I’ve written a new post. Then slowly I repeat slowly as they type in the white box above where it you see the word http:// jangelos dot wordpress dot com. I like to hear them laugh and say wow, that’s my daughter. Mom and dad are sort of shoe ins. Then other readers include people who are on your facebook page. Mostly because I keep unindating them with requests to visit my blog. I’m sort of insistent. I wrote on one comment “I think we are so alike but have you read my blog yet?” Sorry Tami.

More reader’s comments.

I walked into my school and went into the administrator’s office. I left my blog address with the nicest funniest school employee you could hope for and he asks me if I’m making any money. I got a real kick out of this question because you have to wonder how or why I am doing this? Because I love writing? Because I want to teach? Because I want to share? Because I want to sell you something? I don’t know. I play with the thought of selling something but that would require actual work and I don’t have the time to go to the post office. Don’t forget I’m a mom and wife first, teacher second and the rest is play. 

I had an idea to write an article of products I endorse. I suppose I could contact the companies I endorse and ask them for sponsorship. I thought if this was my last day on earth I’d like every one of you to know I’m a loyal customer to the following brands: Mac computers, Mac lipstick, McDonald’s fries, Nike shoes, Disney, Levi’s and Calphalon cookware. Those WERE NOT paid endorsements. They are truly brands I’ve come to know and love. I could write an article on each one of them but I’m not going to. You’re welcome again. It’s called editing.

More reader’s comments

Why is it the one negative comment just keeps coming back to me? I was called blog spam by some loser and it is haunting me. He wrote, ‘I’m movin on’. Positive thinking Julie, positive thinking, find the good, find the good. Breathe in, breathe out. Laugh out Loud. Laugh my Friggen’ A Off. I keep writing because of the positive comments. My coach who said good job, my new blogger friends who are becoming my friends, my best friend who inspires me endlessly, my kids who are too adorable for words. 

Oh yes, and Tony Robbins. And David Letterman. Big fan. Oh, and Lakers too. Big fan. The thing is that I started listening to Tony Robbins about five years ago when my children were babies and I needed help FAST. I needed motivation so I typed motivation into google and Tony came up first. One of his sayings that resounds in my head that Tony said was to set yourself up to play a winning game, not to set yourself up for failure. When I wrote in my last post I was dedicating myself to be the best writer and communicator I could be, I knew I was blowing smoke. I can only be myself and that’s what I’m trying to do here and now. Yet raising my standards and expecting more is a good thing. It brings us to the next level.

When you set your goals make sure you write them down give them a deadline date and a reason. Here’s an example: Today I’m going to publish this webpost within an hour because I want to share. Done! Easy. 

What about you? What are your goals? How do you get over writer’s block? Thanks for visiting. Feel free to leave a comment.

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