Extra-Curricular Activities, and Economics

So this last week I picked up a transcribing job.  It's from someone I've previously worked with (yay for returning clients!) and her audio's are always pretty good quality.  Though, I gotta say, typing conversations that last just over 6 hours can be quite intensive.

Still, they're paying for my car payment this month, so there's that :).  Also... the car is new (well, to me, anyway)!  I'm not sure how I forgot to mention that, previously.  I bought it back in January.  It's a cute little car, though I'm not particularly big on it being silver.  I don't have anything against the color - it's normally one of my favorites - but soon after buying it, I went to a parking lot, where every other car is silver, black, or some variation on those two.  A little silver car fades right into the background.  I've recently seen some bright pink cars, and I bet those don't get lost as easily.

It's technically used, though only with 6000 miles on it.  I really wonder what the story is behind it being available for me to buy it.  Who sells a car that's practically brand new?  (Although, perhaps my viewpoint is a bit skewed, as my last car had 180,000 miles on it.)

It's also given me my first official loan in my life.  Which is... kind of wild.  I'm not a big fan of having loans, but it's such a necessity - an absurd one, in my opinion, but apparently, unless you've shown that you previously couldn't afford something, you'll have a very hard time purchasing something else you can't afford.  Which really, really, really sounds weird.  And ridiculous.

(This is (part of) why I'm not an economist.)

In my case, I'm using a car loan that's fairly easy to pay off so I can (hopefully) purchase a house in the future.  Someday. :)

Catch-up

SO.  BEEN AWHILE.

I saw that somewhere on the internet some time ago, and just knew I had to use it myself someday.  In all serious, though, it has been awhile.  Since, like, September?

Here's a brief summary for the catch-up: went on hiatus with the writing/editing/summarizing/transcribing, continued to keep trying with the acting, had a couple of auditions (professional, I mean) in December, got a call back in January, signed up with a calling service (Virgo Talent, cause they're reasonably priced (about the only one out there that I could find) and do commercials), and ended my hiatus.

I've also started learning ice skating and archery, as well as becoming very acquainted with various muscles in my legs and upper back.  Learning ice skating is going much faster than the archery, since I can just walk into any rink during their public sessions (of which there are a lot), rent skates, and go at it for as long as I want.  I did get one lesson before I went out on my own, just to get some of the basics.  So far (it's been about 3 weeks) I've only fallen once, and I didn't hurt myself - key component here.  With my knees, if I land on them, I'll be done walking for at least a week.

Oddly enough, even with my bad knees, skating doesn't hurt at all.  My leg muscles have gotten a lot stronger, which I'm hoping in the long run will strengthen my knees.  I'll just have to wait and see.  My theory on the my knees is that skating, as opposed to walking, doesn't cause impact on my knees.  Either way, I love the skating and recently bought a pair of skates (save on renting, and have cool white skates!).

As for archery, I can only go when they're doing lessons.  I've gone to two ranges, and the closer one is a bit better for returning archers (though not so great for beginners; I'm glad I went to the further one first for that).  Both of them use recurve bows, which are the best for beginners.  The price for good equipment is about $400, so I'm going to wait until I'm much better before seriously considering it (and anyway, as a starving artist/actress, I can't afford that).  At a minimum, though, I'm thinking about getting myself some decent leather gloves.  It really stretches the back muscle in-between the shoulders (one I'd never really thought about it) and though the bow isn't heavy, it feels heavy when you're aiming it and pulling back an arrow.  Lifting small hand weights really needs to go on my schedule.

Hopefully my next post won't be X months late.  :)

Facebook Business Page

Naturally, of course, I didn't get half of what I was hoping to get done this summer. But I did get some. Part of it shows in my latest side-badge (gadget, whatever those are called). I've got a Facebook page!

It's for my 'administrative'-type part of WoolRanch (my business name) - transcribing, editing, and writing. Incidentally, the profile picture for that page is my general business logo - it's on my fiverr, etsy, and all of my other craft sites. If you've seen it somewhere else on the web other than here, let me know!

Anyway, about my FB page. It's still very very new - at the time I'm posting this I've only got 15 fans, very few posts, and the only interaction with my fans is with family members (not that that's not great, but it'd be cool to have someone that I didn't know beforehand on there too). I'm also not entirely sure of what to post where, but I'm figuring it out. If you've got tips and suggestions handy, I'd be happy to hear 'em.

...And this post was totally a plug for my FB page. But I'm so happy to have one!!

Shop Stuff

Shop stuff - mostly Etsy, actually. I know it's been a little while (i.e., way to long) but, hey there!

I mentioned this on my twitter a little while ago, (callistasteele.twitter.com), but since I haven't here, I'll go on ahead and give the long version. Etsy's closed down their Alchemy section for an unknown period of time ;(. Seeing as that's where I've gotten every one of my sales from, that's hit me pretty hard - it's been a few months since I've sold anything there. Internet marketing - marketing in general - is still a bit foreign to me, but I've thrown up my stuff on sites like bonanza, www.bonanza.com/booths/WoolRanch and Zibbet, zibbet.com/WoolRanch. Also, when I'm selling stuff on E-Bay, no matter what it is, I throw in a bookmark with my name and etsy site stamped on it.

Etsy also introduced 'Coupon Codes' awhile ago, and I've come up with some slow ideas since then. I had a sale on Cyber Monday weekend (no one came!) I've also found this neat site where you can put up a coupon for your etsy store, and here it is:
http://www.etsysaver.com/discount/woolranch-use-coupon-code-5percentwoolranch

For those of you who don't want to go to the actual site, here's the code 5PERCENTWOOLRANCH. Like the name implies, it's for 5% off at my Etsy store - so WoolRanch.etsy.com only. One discount per buyer only, please!

Another thing I'm trying out is using my bookmarks to promote in physical places, and not necessarily to a particular buyer - so today, at school, I'm leaving one with a coupon code on the back at the study table I'm currently at. Who knows what that might lead to!

Alright, I seriously need to get back to my transcribing (five jobs to be done this week) for fiverr, but I'm going to try and get back to posting twice a week.