Tip of the Day - Family Videos

by Liz Heather in ,

I know that I won't shut up about how important it is to backup your computer and I'm sorry. But it's so important! The only real thing I would be worried about losing are the hundreds of family videos I've taken over the years. And even though they're already backed up on my one external hard drive, I've recently taken another step into assuring that those videos are safe for the future and it's so simple.

Upload them to YouTube! You don't need to worry about anyone else seeing them as long as you upload them and store them under "private" instead of "public." And they'll be there forever! And an even better idea (thanks Adele!) is to upload them as "unlisted" as opposed to private, so you can share the link with people who you want to see it. 

It also frees up so much space instead of just keeping them on your laptop. Is this kind of a dumb idea or am I the smartest person in the world for thinking of it? Get on this!

2015 Resolutions

by Liz Heather in

It's a known fact that I love resolutions, so here are the ones I've made for the new year.

  1. Read at least two books a season.

  2. Try two things off of Pinterest a month.

    • Why? 'Cause it isn't enough to just pin something and then move on with life. Try those damn pins!

  3. Apply to work stuff at least ten times a month.

    • Must remember to write this above my desk at home. 

  4. Volunteer at least once a month.

    • So easy to do. Everyone should be doing this one.

  5. Do pilates at least five times a month.

    • Oh hell yeah, this is going to happen. I'm going to crush last year's 37%.

  6. Juice at least ten times a month.

    • This might be hard to achieve, but I've been getting more variety with the vegetables/fruits I've been using, which has made the whole process much more exciting. Beet juice is way tastier than it sounds, I swear.

  7. Stop falling into the Instagram butt trap.

    • Okay, do you know what I mean? Do you ever look at the random photos suggested for you on Instagram? Well, there are a lot of ass photos in my feed. And yeah, once in awhile, they're nice to see. But sometimes, you fall in to the ass trap and peruse these photos for way too long (anything longer than a minute is too long). I'm not a 13 year old boy, so I shouldn't be doing this. It makes me criticize myself for a little while afterward - and that feels awful since I'm a huge fan of my body. Anyway, I need to curb this habit. It helps no one.

That's the list. I highly encourage you to make one as well. They're not stupid. We all could be trying a little harder at something.

(And don't forget to get all this stuff done today, too.)

(UPDATE: To see how these resolutions went, come on over here.)

2014 Resolutions Revisited

by Liz Heather in

I'm a big fan of resolutions. New Years ones. Birthday ones. I think I just love any type of list. And it's extremely hard to keep your New Year's resolutions, yes. But I think the real problem is that we're not making the right resolutions. In order to avoid the cliched and terrible resolutions we've all heard a billion times, I think the secret of making good resolutions is to make ones that don't automatically set you up for failure. Example: Vowing to "Go to yoga more" is a lot less daunting of a resolution than promising to "Go to yoga two times a week." Does that make sense? Another tip? Don't make monthly goals, make seasonal goals. Four seasons sounds a lot roomier and more relaxed than twelve months do in my mind, but maybe that's just me. 

In any case, I try to come up with good resolutions and here are what my 2014 ones were, if you were interested.

  1. Check Facebook only once a day and take Sundays off.

    • Did this happen? Not even close. But I definitely went on it way less than in 2013. This is where I learned that I shouldn't be so restrictive since I'll be less successful in the long-run if I have ridiculous expectations.

  2. Watch at least three documentaries a month.

    • This resolution might make me sound like a loser who yearns to be cooler by being more into documentaries and that's exactly right. I did it and yet I'm not cooler than you somehow.

  3. Read at least two books a season.

    • Did it! Yeah!

  4. Try two things off Pinterest a season.

    • Did it! Gonna do it again.

  5. Apply for editor jobs at least five times a week.

    • Hahahah, didn't even remember this was on the list. Tip #2: Don't make long resolution lists.

  6. Volunteer at least once a month.

    • Did it only for the first seven months. Fuck.

  7. Do pilates at least five times a month.

    • Did this every month with the exception of stupid September. Goddam you September.

  8. Juice at least four times a week.

    • Nope! Nowhere NEAR that many times. This one was way too lofty. Gotta aim lower for next year.

  9. Never Google Kim Kardashian again.

    • COMPLETED! And this one felt good. I used to Google her a lot in 2013 to see her different outfits and pretty face and body and etc., but it was harming me more than helping me so I wanted to stop and I did.

  10. Stop reading The Frisky.

    • This was a hard one, but I accomplished it. Maybe it doesn't seem difficult to you to stop reading something, but it was. I used to go on that site maybe twice a day, every day. And then somewhere along the way it became way less about women-centered topics and interesting articles to focussing more on pregnant celebrities and top ten worst dressed lists. I had to stop.

As you can see, I wasn't entirely successful - but the things that did happen? I'm pretty proud of those. I also wrote down every day that I either went to the gym or went to pilates last year and figured out that I went 137 days out of 365. That's 37.5% of an entire year that I was at the gym. Do you know how insane that is considering I hadn't given a fuck about exercise for, oh, say 27 years? 37.5%! I think that's incredible. And obviously I'm not saying that everyone needs to go to a gym, but, like, that's insane for me and makes me crazy happy to accomplish something so (typically speaking) out of character.

I'm still thinking of some new ones for 2015, so when I do there will be a post about that in a few days. This was an especially self-indulgent post AND I'M NOT SORRY!