Month: April 2016

Fitness, Random Thoughts

Pizza by the Mile

erika leigh

I get this conceptually, and I admit to having done it on several occasions; however, I can’t help but to wonder if this turns exercise into punishment.

Would you gorge on a couple slices of hot, cheesy pizza if you knew how bad it was for you? Of course you would. Past research has shown that people mostly ignore calorie counts when they’re posted on a menu. But maybe you’d think twice if you knew how much exercise it would take to…

via Here’s How Many Miles You’d Have to Run to Burn Off a Pizza — TIME

Marketing and Advertising, Random Thoughts, Uncategorized

Interesting. You may not think retweets are endorsements, but the Justice Department might.

erika leigh

GettyIn mid-February, the FBI raided Safya Yassin’s Buffalo, NY, apartment after being tipped off to the hundreds of online threats she allegedly made against members of the military and President Barack Obama. As the FBI’s investigation continued, they discovered that in addition to making threats from dozens of different Twitter accounts, she also allegedly shared…

via You may not think retweets are endorsements, but the Justice Department might — Fusion

On Writing

Ten Great Bookish Instagram Accounts

erika leigh

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week’s prompt is… Ten Bookish People to Follow on Social Media. I have a separate Instagram account (@booksthething if you’d like to follow me!) for my blog, so here are 10 bookish accounts that […]

via Ten Great Bookish Instagram Accounts — The Book’s the Thing

Random Thoughts

The Best Part of Social Media

erika leigh

36373_1479705322812_6307075_nI love learning about other cultures, so one of my favorite things about social media is getting to talk to people from around the world. I keep some pretty strict boundaries on my social media; for example, I’m not friends on Facebook with anyone I have not actually met in real life and I am not connected on LinkedIn with anyone I am not acquainted with professionally. While I’ve been fortunate to have worked and travelled internationally, those friends and connections on Facebook and LinkedIn still tend to be fairly monochromatic in the sense that my personal circles fashion around the same friends, lines of work, or school and work alumni.

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My fairly recent opening up beyond these restricted venues has broadened my exposure to some great new circles. In 2015, my friend Tess and I were invited to represent the United States in the opening ceremonies for the New York City Marathon (which, by the way, was just as awesome as it sounds). I decided to start tweeting again so I could share some of the whole marathon experience with a broader audience.

internationalWhen I ran the marathon previously, my one regret was that I felt I missed out on some of the international flavor the marathon provides by keeping my social media limited to my strict personal circles. I had so much fun interacting with other runners and meeting new people, I decided the time had come to start blogging again.

What a joy! So far in 2016, I’ve had visitors from 19 different countries, many of which have become followers who I’ve chatted with and visited their blogs. I so enjoy hearing their stories and perspectives. I’m particularly entertained by hearing how they feel about the insanity that is our current election drama.

I’ve also met more people from around the United States, which, if you’ve never visited here, is really like seven or eight or 30 different countries. The cultures of California and New York are nothing alike. Even the cultures between northern California and southern California can be individually described.

Thanks for visiting and reading and sharing your stories with me. I look forward to meeting and interacting with even more of you wonderful, fascinating people!

On Writing

When Will I Learn to Quit Looking for Clarity? :::sigh:::

erika leigh

10227382-Magnifying-Glass-with-the-words-find-the-answer-on-white-background--Stock-Photo

I’ve been struggling with a decision on one of my book projects that has pretty much had me blocked from writing on it for a while. The decision, related to point of view, needed to happen soon because continuing to write would require major revision later (and that’s just not the kind of tedious rewrite that has any fun to it at all). I decided to stop letting it drive me bats, set it aside completely, and take a few days vacation – from work, from the house, from writing – even from the puppies we decided to send off to DogVacay. I thought maybe if I just took a break, I’d be able to make the decision and move forward.

I hopped on the plane this afternoon, popped open my laptop to look at restaurants we might want to visit on our trip, and BAM. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I made the decision to stop making the decision, the answer was all of a sudden just… there. By the time the flight landed, I had written a couple pages of notes, supplemented my outline, flagged some re-write areas, and added POV detail to the character sketches.

How many times does this need to happen to me before I quit trying so hard?