Creed for optimists

As most of you will know I spent the summer of 2007 in America in the beautiful place that is New Hampshire. I worked at a summer camp and my first week was spent training and being taught how to be a “Professional Role model”  within all this training the staff there embedded some really inspirational thoughts and ideas into my head that have stuck with me the three years since. One of those things is the Creed for Optimists. We were given this in one of the work booklets we were given as a group. I took this little Gem and ever since it has been stuck in my notebook. I recently dug it out and I’ve stuck it on my wall to keep me going through some tough times right now! So here it is….

CREED for OPTIMISTS – by Christan D. Larsen

Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.
Make all your friends feel there is something in them.
Look at the sunny side of everything.
Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best.
Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
Learn from the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
Give everyone a smile.
Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others.
Be too big for worry and too noble for anger.

Currently

Currently:
Watching: The Big Bang Theory, Survivors!, Glee (Yes again haha)

Listening to: The Weepies, Alphabeat (New Album), Augustana, The Spill Canvas.

Reading: The second Sookie stackhouse book, Marshmallows for Breakfast, Light on snow.

Wanting to go see: The New Tim Burton Version of Alice in Wonderland!! It was one of my favourite books growing up scary as it was…..so I am looking forward to Tim Burton making this movie properly, non of  this namby pamby Disney stuff (I love Disney I swear) it’s going to be done as it should be.!

Impulse Buying…..

So does anyone do that evil thing where you buy things…and never actually use them? Ok I don’t on a general basis but I realised lately I have been doing but with books, now ok I will read these eventually but I need to STOP buying books while I still have so many to read!
But my issue is I’ll see a book on sale and think “Oh well I’ll get it now because when I get around to reading it it might not be on sale/half price/that good a price”
Which brings me to realise how many books I have on my shelf I haven’t read yet….you want the list? Are you read?

The Host – Stephanie Meyer
A brothers journey – Richard Pelzer
Mr Toppit  - Charles Elton (First 20 pages read!)
P.S I love you – Cecelia Ahern
The Big fat Bitch book for girls – Kate Figes
The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd
Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Folden
Nineteen Eighty Four –  George Orwell (Half read)
The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks  (started it)
About a Boy – Nick Hornby (Read a bit of it)
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
The Devil Wears Prada – Lauren Weisberger (started)
Atonement – Ian McEwan
The Shack  - Young (Part read)
The shadow of the wind – Carols Ruiz Zafon (Started)
The Lord of the rings (All three books) – JRR Tolkien (Started book one)
Goodnight Beautiful – Dorothy Koomson
Stories we could tell – Tony Parsons
Angels Passing -Graham Hurley
The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Foqlwe
Not Married Not Bothered – Carol Clewlow
Before I wake – R.J.Wiersema
Marshmallows for breakfast – Dorothy Koomson (Half way through)
Somebody Elses Kids – Torey Hayden – (Half way through)
Emma – Jane Austen (Part way through)
Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris (Nearly finished)
Club Dead – Charlaine Harris
Dead to the world – Charlaine Harris
Dead as a doornail – Charlaine Harris
Definately dead – Charlaine Harris
All together dead – Charlaine Harris
From dead to worse – Charlaine Harris
(The last lot of Charlaine Harris books were a Christmas present)

Then today I added the following books to my t0 read list…….
Light On Snow – Anita Shreve
One For my baby – Tony Parsons
Man and Boy – Tony Parsons
The other hand – Chris Cleave

Now what I am going to do about it…..I swear by the end of the year I will have read most of these books…..Now 40 books on this list (Actually counting them shocked me into how much I do this!) means that I would need to read around 3-4 books a month….which is quite a lot for me as I’m a slow reader…..but I’m pretty determined.

So what’s your worst thing to impulse buy? I have a friend who hers is dresses…she buys dresses and then struggles to find times to wear them.

Things to be thankful for…..

I just thought I’d share something, since lately I’ve been feeling really down I took it upon myself to make a thankful book. Basically I have to write in it everyday 5 things I’m thankful for…I can’t repeat anything over a few days it has to be completely different. It can be something big or something small, something important or something silly.
Just so long as even on a crappy day I appreciate the good things. I’ve also starting throwing in good quotes and GMHs.
It’s working so far, I’m only a day in but it’s seeming to help so I thought I’d share some of my current thankfuls…..

• Discovering a side to a person you didn’t know was there, a good side!
• Hugs from people when you really need them, without even having to ask. (A few people recently)
• People who even if I’ve been out of touch with them for a while, they’ll still help you out and do all they can for you, even without you asking. (A Guiding friend who I haven’t spoken to in a while)
• People whose excitement and happiness is infectious, even from a distance (www.jillandkate.wordpress.com -These girls!)
• Talking your worlds worries out with your best friend and them talking out theirs too you and somehow it all feels better!
• Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream – It solves all problems….it’s a known fact haha

So if you’re feeling down I really suggest you start one of these books. I’m going to try and read it back every few months or so just to show there is good stuff in my life to myself.

So…..

Well I haven’t been blogging a lot mainly because I fear the result will just be lots of very depressed blogging the end of 2009 is not treating me or my family well *sighs* I’m hoping for a better 2010 so I’m just looking forward to that really.

I’m still job hunting and failing miserably at getting a job. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I am going to have to do office work since getting work in anything in the entertainment industry is pretty much impossible (Anyone out there in anything to do with music, tv, radio, photography, media in general wants to hire me for management related areas….even as a lacky! right now I’d do anything just to be doing something in the area I love *sighs*)

On a lighter note I haven’t blogged about my new baby nephew…..Thomas James, named after my Grandad and he was also born on what was my Grandad’s birthday, weird huh?
Here he is with his big sister my Niece Olivia….who adores him and tells us off when we call him TJ “No! It’s Thomas!” hehe

Here he is with his big brother Connor….he’s not taken to Thomas as well as Livvy has yet but we’re getting there. My sisters camera is really not so good so apologies for the dark pictures…

Here he is on his own in his awesome superman outfit haha

It’s very clear though that he’s not really one for his Aunty Jen haha he really doesn’t seem to like me. Connor when we was a baby would sit with me happy for hours, fall asleep on me, cuddle up everything and is still really close with me but Thomas is taking the same approach as his sister did….just cries when I hold him and is hell to settle when it’s me holding him eeeeep! lol But Livvy grew outta it and loves me now so I know he’ll be the same.

As for livvy and connor here is a recent picture of them they are both sooooooo adorable and growing up waaaay too fast it’s insane! Oh and Livvy isn’t stupid about this whole christmas thing….any present that comes into the house is of course for her…and when you tell her it’s for someone else she totally knows you’re bluffing and says so! When I was a kid I just accepted the “It’s for xyz next door” and thought it was true!!

Recession = SUCKS!

So I haven’t blogged in a while mainly since I’ve been majorly depressed….oh the joy just wanna hear when you’ve stumbled across my blog and have just started reading.
Those who don’t know I graduated in July and I’m one of the many University Graduates who can’t find a job! I’ve applied for loads of jobs and most not even in the area I want to work in, more basic work like office work or retail just because the market is so hard!
So far out of a ridiculous amount of applications I have had 2 rejections 1 interview and far too many not get back to me at all! RUDE!

But today I got 1 rejection and another interview!! The interview has boosted my confidence a little since it’s actually quite an ideal job so I am going to have to really really impress them on monday! It’s just across the way from where I live, it’s a good enough wage to get me by and it’s an admin job which is perfectly fine with me.

Enough of that though, the real reason for this blog; well I was talking to a friend in NY just yesterday who also graduated in June/July….she can’t find a full time job either, she has one until Dec but then is stuck again! We ended up in a big long convo about how basically we just feel like the system has failed us.
Let me explain…the system puts you into nursery, primary school, high school and then pushes you to go onto college and potentially university…they promote this pretty much as being the ideal thing to do, the best thing that will make things better. What they don’t account for is a flippin recession! So now the system is basically like “Hey there is a recession so guess what now we’re kinda stuck so we can’t help you much at all” So after doing everything right by our governments standards and being good citizens……there are now no jobs and no opportunities. So we become the complete opposite of what we wanted to be due to no fault of our own. That’s just depressing!

Just my thought for the day.

Look what I found!

So today I finally decided to clear all my email accounts (Well I say all I still have my university email to clear properly! That one is going to be a killer.) I cleared 1300 from an email account I barely use anymore and then I cleared around 200 from my main account……and well I found an email I got sent from someone at one of my previous temp jobs, it’s a bunch of ponderizms and I just thought I’d share the best ones!

“How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?” – So true! when take my guides on camp I always have to make the fire and it amazes me that it takes so much work! Seriously people do this by accident and cause huge disasters!

“In the 60’s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.”

“Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?”

“Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him on a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?”

“Life is sexually transmitted”

“Never take life too seriously, no one gets out alive!”

Also to add…..

I finished Breaking Dawn, The Lovely Bones and The memory keepers daughter!
Breaking Dawn = Love! So good right up until the end! If you haven’t read the twilight series do it now!
The Lovely bones = I couldn’t help feeling a little dissapointed at the ending yes it was good but seemed a little like a short cut off to the end it was odd but the book is amazing!
THe memory keepers daughter = Purely amazing I was just hooked on this book it’s so well written and it spans over a long time in the characters lives but you can just imagine them perfectly and relate to them and it’s just so good! I recommend this book to anyone just read it!

Whats new?!

Well I have finally got my grades and I got a 2:2 which isn’t exactly what I was hoping for but non the less I have a degree and it’s not that bad a grade (Pretty much a C grade) So I will officially be a bachelor of the arts come tuesday when I graduate eeeeeep!
Speaking of graduating my parents bought me my graduation present, so most people get a holiday or a new something or other….what did I ask for recently and got? Two pet rats!
Meet Dell and Rodney

Of course named after the legends from only fools and horses haha.
Dell is the slightly lighter one and is very michievious and gets into everything! Rodney is a little more cautious and doesn’t jump right into things.

Unfortunately for me they like to roam around on my big double bed, which means I am going to have to either a.wash my bedding a lot or b.get them those ball things they can go in to run around so they can go run in other places.

Also got some gorgeous flowers (pictures to follow) from my grandad and aunty Jean (not my real aunty my grandad’s girlfriend lol) he sent them to my work and they were such a nice surprise! Since he lives in scotland now I won’t see him for a little bit so it was really nice of him to do that it really made my day!

Aside from this I’m now on the ultimate job hunt! Right now I’m doing temp work so I’m in the same office my dad works in. But I’ve been sending out job applications here there and everywhere! I’ve been rejected from one so far which was for the BBC, sad times. I’ve applied to ITV and a few other BBC jobs too….ideally I’d love to go work on a tour doing anything right now but *le sigh* it doesn’t seem to want to happen!
So if anyone reads this and wants to give me a job or knows where I can apply that are hiring…pass the details forward! Seriously……email JL88@live.co.uk !!! so desperate grrrr at this recession!

Thats all for now, really shouldn’t be blogging while in work…oh and the Book events people are in the office today….I wanna get some new books! lol

later. x

Currently..

Currently:
Watching:The 4400 Season 4! Loves it but so sad it’s nearly over I hate watching a TV show late and knowing how many seasons there are of it!

Listening to:Backstreet Boys, Oh yeah old school! I keep listening to their greatest hits.

Reading: The very last chapter of Breaking dawn!, The Memory Keepers Daughter and The Lovely Bones – Which has already made me cry!

Wanting to go see: At the cinema I really want to see My sister’s keeper, The book was AMAZING so I’m hoping they can do the book justice! The Proposal – Sandra Bullock never seems to age, is it just me that thinks this?! The New Transformers movie! Although I want to go with the Guys who I went to see the first movie with, the guys from America, Camp Coniston where I was working..I was the only girl to go see transformers, everyone thought I was a tad insane…well apart from the guys who thought it was cool I wanted to see it!