11 goals for 2011

Some people make open new years resolutions (I will smoke LESS; I will exercise MORE) that are hard to keep and hard to keep track of whether they have actually succeeded. Last year, I personally tried 365 days in 30 ways, a project that involved making 30 goals to conquer over the next year. Deciding that 30 goals were too many for me too manage I have instead decided on 11 goals for 2011. So here is my list:

1. Make an effort to drink water instead of sugary drinks

2. Try to cut out late night snacking (does not include unavoidable late meals)

3. Eat more raw fruits and veggies

4. Upload my 300^th video onto Youtube

5. Get my 200^th Youtube subscriber

6. Make a larger variety of videos

7. Maintain my blog a vlog; twitter and Facebook fan page

8. Find a charity I’m passionate about and donate time to it

9. Attend a convention or camp where I am not working

10. Finish colouring an entire colouring book

11. Have my first legal Canadian drink

Update of January 10th's 365 days in 30 ways goals!

To watch the vlog for this blog look here:

The whole idea behind this was based on a challenge from Blade376 on Youtube to make specific goals that should be able to be completed over the next year. Below is some more information about most of the successes and failures on my goals list....

1)Buy a world map and color code pin it for where I've been and where I want to go.
FAIL.... Still something I am interested in, but just not something that happened.

2)Clean up my Facebook page.
SUCCESS.... I spent about 4 hours deleting people I didn't know, organizing my friends into categories, setting privacy setting and removing applications I don't use anymore.

3) Do something positive I never would have dreamed of.
SUCCESS... One day at a rez party I ended up taking care of a drunk guy who had come with a group celebrating a birthday (his friends seemed to be preoccupied with other things). We have since become actually good friends!

4)Make a box of letters for people to open if/when I die.
FAIL.... This became really important to me when a vehicle I was supposed to be in was hit by a drunk driver when I was 15 years old, and killed three of my close friends. Knowing that none of them had gotten the chance to say goodbye to their families or friends, I have always wanted to write letters just in case. This not being something I wanted to rush, it just didn't happen this year.

5)Have my first legal Canadian drink.
FAIL.... As explained in the video, this goal was badly made and was impossible to succeed at.

6)Dye my hair a random colour.
SUCCESS... My hair has been pink, purple, red, blue, a normaler red, brown and black. I think that this one was pretty covered.

7)Get a tattoo or piercing beyond my basic ear.
FAIL.... Instead I bought a bass guitar and put money towards text books.

8)Get a manicure.
SUCCESS... This was completed for my high school graduation.

9) Wear flip-flops for a whole day during the winter.
SUCCESS.... At my university, residence is attached to most classes by a tunnel system and therefore you don't always have to go outside.

10)Learn to play chords on the guitar.
SUCCESS.... This is something that I've been working on since October and have nearly figured out the basics.

11) Sing in public without taking myself too seriously.
SUCCESS.... YAH KARAOKE!

12) Buy or download an entire Wizard Rock CD.
SUCCESS.... I downloaded the entire discography of Harry and the Potters and the Parselmouths! (Check them both out, they are fantastic!)

13)Film an official dance video an upload it onto Youtube.
SUCCESS... This was completed twice and the videos can be found linked on the corresponding vlog.

14)Write a song I am proud of and perform it somewhere.
FAIL... Just hasn't happened yet.

15)Graduate from high school.
SUCCESS!

16)Recertify in CPR.
FAIL!

17)Captain a Relay for Life team.
FAIL.... As I was out of town, it didn't work out this year

18)Start a Prayer Journal.
FAIL.... At the time this was an idea I was really interested in, and it just so turns out that now I am not...

19) Eat by candlelight.
SUCCESS.... Candles made a simple meal with my grad escort a romantic evening, which lead to things going too quickly and our close friendship breaking up.... as I mentioned in the video, not something I want to talk about.

20) Colour an entire colouring book.
FAIL... Started but not completed

21) Throw a really random theme party.
FAIL... Just hasn't happened

22)Get Professional photos of myself taken.
SUCCESS... I did this for graduation and had a lot of fun. I had the owner of the company take my photos, and she seemed to think that I was adorable and all sorts of random... then I fell off the stool :P

23)Leave an anonymous post-it note in a borrowed book or school book.
SUCCESS.... Senior Chemistry text book

24)Get 50 Youtube subscribers.
SUCCESS... I actually got 120!

25)Post over 100 videos on Youtube.
SUCCESS... This video was number 125!

26) Visit somewhere new.
SUCCESS... I visited Philly, Halifax and a couple small local towns I'd never been too before

27)Take all my characters and write them a story.
FAIL... After looking back at the characters I realized that they didn't really fit in the same story and were really not good enough to base a story on... this is not something I'm ever planning on completing with those particular characters.

28) Go Iceskating.
FAIL.... Whether it was because of weather, friends not owning ice skates or basic laziness, this just didn't happen though I still want it too.

29) Learn to cook something.
SUCCESS.... While cooking is still not my forte, I have managed to learn how to make couscous and squash as well as a few other things (Like Bryce's Cup Cake!)

30) Write Something in French that isn't for school.
FAIL.... Just hasn't come up I guess

SO I succeeded at 57% of my goals.... though many of the uncompleted goals I would not make today... Check back tomorrow for the goals I have made for the year 2011.

Lotsa Love
Debbie

Social Networking: Another name for stalking in every way you can

The vlog to this blog can be found at:
Social Networking, some people swear by it and others turn away from it feeling like it is the evils of society, but it is something you pretty much have to make a conscious choice for or against. While I realize different people like "stalking" in different ways, I have had to make a conscious cap on social networking sites I use on a regular basis.... at around four or five. Whether this is too many or too few for other people, I only have so much time in my day. SO here my list goes.... links below to add me, follow me, subscribe to me, friend me or basically stalk me.

Youtube: As may be obvious, I am an (almost) daily vlogger on Youtube and I enjoy using it for meeting people, watching videos and networking. My youtube account is: www.youtube.com/user/debscute

Blogspot: As should be obvious, I also have a blog... which you are reading and therefore should need no more explanation.

Facebook: I have an account I use for friends and family members as well as those I've really gotten to know online. My status feed is used similar to a personal Twitter feed updated throughout any given day. I also have a facebook fan page for Youtube found at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Debbie-debscute/184078818276775

Twitter: I am a lot newer to Twitter than many other people are and because of my previously mentioned usage of Facebook I don't Tweet nearly as often as many people do. I am trying to Tweet more often and relevant things for my Youtube viewers, so go ahead and add me on Twitter at: twitter.com/debscute

Skype: While this may not really be a social networking site, you can still add me and talk to me by sending me a friend request at debscute with the message "I am (put your username here) from Youtube."

Now that I'm thinking about it, I have previously used: Photobucket, Flixster, Myspace and several other Social Networking websites, all of which have sort of fallen to the wayside either because I got bored of them or felt that they had gone obsolete. I won't leave you those links because they would all be useless to you as those accounts are now out of use...

So that is pretty much that for this edition of blog a vlog
See You soon
Debbie

My first LUSH bath cocktail- Vanilla Candy Delight

The Vlog for this blog can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK7FrCEGeiY

After having a busy and kind of crappy day, I decided that instead of filming a vlog about how badly my day sucked I was just going to take a LUSH bath.

I call this cocktail Vanilla Candy Delight and it includes:
1/2 Vanilla Fountain BBomb (Bath Bomb or Bath Ballistic)
1/5 Comforter BBar (Bubble Bar or Bubble Bar Slice)
1/8 Floating Island BM (Bath Melt)
1/6 Happy Blooming BM

Review:
Bubbles: The bubbles were incredibly soft and "floofy" though disappeared quite quickly (about 15-20 minutes) after tossing in the other products. The reason behind this is that all of the oils included to make the water soft and milky also break up the bubbles (which is a choice I make to be able to mix scents and cocktail).

Exciting (i.e. Mess!) Factor: Little to none- The only thing left to float around in the tub is the little stick from the top of the Vanilla Fountain. This is easily removed and leaves no difficult clean-up. None of these products have glitter and if used properly there should be no sediment.

Smooth Factor: The water was very soft and silky although as the bath progressed and the product began to settle, it almost felt like a little bit too much product.

Scent: It smelled very sweet and although the Comforter and Vanilla Fountain scents combined well with the Happy Blooming adding a fruity scent to the sweet bunch, the Floating Island sort of tipped the sweetness scale a little bit overboard.

Colour: The colour was not a major focus of this bath but ended up being a light peachy orange colour.

The Bottom Line: I would repurchase all of these products and will likely combine the Vanilla Fountain and Comforter products again without the Floating Island Bath Melt. Happy Blooming is one of my favourite melts that LUSH sells and will continue to be mixed with many sweet and fruity scents.

Cost Breakdown: This bath is a little more expensive than a single large bath bomb, but removing one of the melts or using a smaller chunk of bath bomb are both ways of making this a little more cost effective while maintaining the same effect. Also, if you do not enjoy lots of bubbles you can definitely be more stingy with the BBar than I was (for 1/5 I got a huge amount of bubbles).
Canada Bath Total: $6.94
1/2 Vanilla Fountain BBomb: $ 3.00
1/5 Comforter BBar: $1.79
1/6 Happy Blooming BM: $1.16
1/8 Floating Island BM: $0.99

UK Bath Total: 3.39
1/2 Vanilla Fountain BBomb: 1.52
1/5 Comforter BBar: 0.80
1/6 Happy Blooming BM: 0.62
1/8 Floating Island BM: 0.45

Blogging a Vlog?

Months ago, a lot earlier on in my vlogging experience, someone brought to my attention the whole idea of blogging a vlog. I was very confused and lost as the whole idea to me seemed to be based on redundancy. What was the point of typing about filming what you were doing? After looking at many vlogs from different Youtubers and vloggers though, I saw that the idea could be about more.

A vlog is somewhere where you can post pictures about things you discuss, more information on a subject, and a place to make updates when you maybe don't have time to make a video.

It is also a chance to type out ideas and get feedback before making a video especially if you are unsure if it will be interesting or on the other hand offensive to someone who isn't you.

SO, while I am still not sure about this, I have decided to start blogging my vlogs.... so I hope you enjoy this.

Debbie