Less Hustle More Coffee

Payroll is over for the week, now to stuff 3 days into 2. Busy week and quarter end as well. My month end is complete already. I just have a few states that I pay monthly and some quarterly but the QE process begins now where I do quarterly tax returns, quarterly unemployment returns and payments, if any. And I do a reconciliation spreadsheet, showing we have “trued up” to all for the quarter. So things are moving along fairly smoothly. So far. And it’s only July 1.

So, my Social Media experiment is over. Honestly I didn’t miss it so much. I think I had already kinda weened myself away from it. I only used it during pockets of the day for the most part. It used to bring me joy to check in with my friends, many of them new, at one point. We shared our lives, our food, our kids, our pets. We shared our excitements and our upsets, and what we were doing nearly every hour of the day. It was fun to watch and see how others “did their day” and made on with their lives. It connected us bloggers to get to know each other even better.

Somehow over the course of the last – I’m going to say 5 years, it’s changed. I enjoy Instagram Stories and got a kick out of that sometimes. But then once all the advertising kicks in and takes hold- even that got old. Everyone is selling something. Including me at one point.

So how did I fare with no Social Media (no Twitter, No Instragram, No Facebook or Messenger?) Pretty darn well actually. I only missed it at lunch time. There were a couple of times I wanted to post a pic or ask a question for others opinions and quickly the moment fleeted.

I will admit to feeling more lonely or disconnected. I had always said with Facebook and my iphone, I know I have my friends in my pocket. And well, I knew they were still there, but I didn’t get to actually see any of them. And most of my favorite folks on there rarely post anyway. Everyone is strangely quiet it seems unless they are selling something, have an opinion they want everyone to uphold or brace, or political and of late, racial. And if you post your opinion you are eaten alive because you yourself are not supposed to have one unless it meets the approval of all of your said friends, lol. And your thoughts cannot be your own, unless your sentiment agrees with the likes of those reading. (Insert huge eyeball eye roll so big you can’t even see anything but the whites of your eyes).

So yeah, overall it has been a great week. I have spent more time in God’s word, cleaned out my emails, watched my YouTube shows, cleaned more, read more. I was able to bring my thoughts closer in. They were not scattered among several hundred friends views or issues. My concern was really about those around me. Sometimes it is overwhelming to be concerned with 555 friends on line (of those commenting) and all the people in around you too. So my world got a little smaller and less to keep up with.

So overall it was a good thing and a thing to be repeated. I think when life gets overwhelming, stressful, sad, annoying or ___________________fill in the blank at the many reasons, one can simply just pull back, take a week or two off and set a date for when to come back. I like to announce it b/c I don’t want people to think I’m ignoring them. But I’ll be back on it today!

You can see at the bottom right corner, I only missed 4 IM’s on Messenger. And 187 Facebook notifications. Honestly I think it stopped there as it has been that for a few days. Or maybe everyone else that I get notifications on decided to get off too. lol

I have so much other stuff I keep myself occupied with that it truly wasn’t missed much at all. But I am looking forward to getting back on and seeing what I missed. I am believing that mainly I will be going back to a bunch of garbage as I’m not interested in seeing the news, opinions, and articles on there. I want to see people and their lives – their families, their pets, what they ate for dinner, and how they are doing. I want to see their new appliances and gadgets and what they are excited about or sad about. I don’t want to hear about political or racism or violence. I know it will still be there and I will delete it all out or scroll on past.

I’m coming along on the video. Spent some time on it the last couple of nights looking for the right song for a certain area of it. Finally found it last night just as George called “dinner”. So I’m anxious to get back to work on it. I have about 30 to 45 min a day to work on it. Maybe a bit longer if I work on it in the mornings too but I’m usually blogging then.

I found some things I like with the Canva app for Backgrounds – I was thinking of it for the videos – using the colors I use in b/w shots or to put text on. But I am finding I also like them as background apps on my phone. You can also make your own backgrounds by taking photos of anything you see with textures – like bricks, wood, etc. If you see colors and textures you like, snap it. Use it as a phone background. I doubt you do iMovies much but they will work great for that too.

I love the Canva app. I’m about this close (picture my fingers pushed close together, lol) to paying for the – I think it’s about $15 month. I’m trying to hold off, but I sure would love to use that feature to auto remove the background. Much like graphics if you have an image (what we called a tube) without a background, it can be layered in an iMovie as well. That way it blends into the picture. I can see investing in Canva down the road as I can use it here and in the videos. But I think I have to look at what all I’m spending on my monthly apps and programs. I mean I’m doing itunes, audible, WordPress premium, Epidemic Sound (royalty free music), and there may be others I’m not thinking of. But I need to do a review of these things or it will be like someone going to Starbucks every day spending $300 a month and not even knowing it. But I can rationalize that Canva would be well worth it. All the photos I want are premium and it’s aggravating to use the free version as you long for the ones you can’t have. They know that. lol Something to consider. But if I do, I will probably discontinue Audible for a year. I am enjoying iTunes tremendously paying the fee each month for unlimited songs. And I love the mixes they do for you.

George fixed a meatloaf in the clay pot last night. It was great!

Oh and we began watching Bloodline on Netflix (not to be confused with another show called Bloodlines which I think may be about vampires or something). I guess it is filmed in the Keys. Or at least they have pics of the keys and the movie is set to be there. It’s really good. We are enjoying it. It has Sissy Spacek in it as their mother. The parents run an inn on the beach.

It kinda reminds me of the show Dallas in a way, with all the Sibling rivalry. Some of us know what that is like, lol.

Anyway its fun being in a beach setting. And it’s always a good show and cliff hanging. Could easily binge watch this one.

Oh and during the commercials:

Look at all these people in a bar in Spain- no masks, no social distancing:

And I’m not sure what this guy was doing in his office in Japan:

Maybe he is like me and has a stuffed animal version of his long lost pet and just needs to see it every now and then. Or perhaps they are a toy company, lol. Or maybe he bought it at lunch for his grandchild. Who knows.

So, off to get ready and go to work. Not sure when I’ll have time to check out Social Media, lol. Maybe at lunch.

See ya later! That’s all I have for now and it’s time to go and I need more coffee!