My Fall Schedule: Back to Work

Posted by Lady Mel On Monday, August 30, 2010 2 comments

Hello everyone. This week is special. This week marks my 1st anniversary revival of this blog, but we will get to that a little later this week. This week also highlights the zenith of my unemployment days. It's almost fall. Kids are going back to school. Ambitious individuals are heading back to college or starting their careers at graduate school. I, for the other hand will probably start a new industrious life in the next 3 weeks....as a part-time paying employee at a retail store. I am in between interviews and anticipated phone calls at the moment.

My long hours of YouTube viewing, Hulu-watching, WoW playing are almost over. Within the next month, I will be working long hours like the rest of you guys out there making a living. Today marks this new beginning and I want to start this fall with a fresh schedule, outlook on life and several objectives to accomplish. Here they are:

September and October Goals

1. Reconnect with Smith College Alum Clubs in NYC and NJ and attend their networking events.
2. Blog up to 2 days per week.
2. Get the interview, grab the audience, be the awesome person that you are, and win.
3. Start saving money so I can leave this house by next May (ultimate goal).
4. Network and meet new people at my new part-time job (When I get the green light).
5. Continue reading Seth Godin's book and other inspirational books.
6. Take 1-2 days out of each week to myself to leave the house and go out and explore and have fun. Life is too short.

July and August Goals 
1. Take 1-2 days out of each week to myself to leave the house and go out and explore and have fun. Life is too short.
2. Actually study for the Driver's License Test and then take the writing exam in the fall.
3. Walk more, eat healthy.
4. Find a part-time, paying job before September 1st. At this point in my career, I do not care what I get, at least as I start saving money. 
5. Be an indispensable worker in my career and as a volunteer worker.
6. Finish reading Seth Godin's "Linchpin, Are You Dispensable" book.
7. Build my portfolio and skills so that when I find my dream job down the road, I'll be ready. :)
8.  Relearn my French skills.
9. Blog at least 2 times per week. Write more engaging blog posts!

I have been slipping these last 2 months! Oh well, not the end of the world.  

What are your fall plans or plans for the rest of the year. Hows the job market for you? Looking for a new job or career path? What do you like your current position?

Picture of the Week: A Brilliant Haiku

Posted by Lady Mel On Friday, August 27, 2010 0 comments




 Give us liberty
or fall victim to self-hate
We will live the dream!

Every Movie Should Be An Inception

Posted by Lady Mel On Monday, August 23, 2010 2 comments

Over the course of this summer, I have seen these particular movies:


Sex and the City 2
Clash of the Titans
Kick-Ass
The A-Team
Dinner with Schmuck
Salt 
Iron Man 2
The Last Airblender
The Expendables
Get Him to the Greek

Some were rather funny, while others some were overrated. But nothing and I mean nothing could not compare to Christopher Nolan's masterpiece, Inception. I can go on for hours maybe days giving you reason after reason why I love Inception but it would be a waste of a good blog post and your time. So I truncated everything into two strong points: (Disclaimer: If you have not seen this movie, please read this review after you've seen the movie.) 

1. Inception is the anti-Avatar. Its been about eight months and I still have not watched Avatar. Why? Like I said. I want movies both amazing storytelling that makes you think. New York Magazine recently coined Inception as the anti-Avatar, and it is. You have a movie that is still discussed among the Twitter crowd as a trending topic. It has made over $250 million domestically, a modest profit compared to James Cameron's megablockbuster Avatar. It's a rare gem; its a movie that was able to pull in big bucks AND enabled you the moviegoer to think about your life, while being entertained by a stellar cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, and Ellen Page. I have not seen this type of avant garde film since the first Matrix film was introduced to the world in 1999. 

Avatar may have had the amazing CGI graphics, but everyone is used to the typical love story. Yes, Dicaprio's character is or was in love with his dead wife, but there is more to the story than that: Dreams, the inception of dreams in our heads, how dreams can transform people's lives, how dreams can imprison us from within the soul. A movie that digs deeps into our philosophical truths, while maintaining a certain humanity and whimsicality is golden to me. It took Christopher Nolan 10 years to complete this film and it all came down to a single idea, a dream. This is what a movie should be.
2. You are your own architect. One of the most surprising parts of the movie was the ending. All David Cobbs (Dicaprio) wanted after the death of his late wife was to be in the lives of his two small children. You think you are getting that typical fairytale ending when you see him with his father (Michael Caine) in the kitchen and the children's faces (finally!) in the backyard. Then you see the spining top on the table...
Now I have talked to a couple of people about this film since I first watched it. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and that is one of the many reasons why I love this movie because the ending is so open for interpretation. What I believe happened is that Dicaprio finally let go of this image or vision of his dead wife. Mal (Marion Cotillard) initially controlled his every movements, his ambitions. David's mind was so powerful that he intercepted his world into his minds of his fellow team members and fooled them into thinking they successfully persuaded Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) to break his father's business empire. When he first asked Ariadne (Ellen Page) to act as his architect at the beginning of the film in order to get inside Fischer's mind, I automatically knew that the fear itself was consuming and deadly. Mal represented his inability to let go of his past and I think he finally let go of it at the end of the movie. 
What did I get out of this movie? Be the architect of your own life. You, the moviegoer, the blogger, should not let anyone, even the faint memory of a loved one ruin your chances of living a healthier life. I personally am fighting that good fight on my own. I won't get into the details, but I think the most important challenge of our lifetime is to live your own life by our own terms. Live life by the horns. That is the motto of my life at the moment and for a Hollywood film to project this message is extremely rare these days when you have movies like Twilight and The Other Guys. 
I remember one day after coming to work, waiting for the bus, weeks before I saw the movie, without any notion of the movie other than the trailer and I said something along the lines of this, "everyone is talking about this movie. I guess the moral of this story is that no matter how many dreams you have, as long as there are people that get into your way of achieving your dreams, you are pretty much defenseless until you fight back. That what makes the world go around. It is the survival of the fittest and that forces people to crush other people's dreams to reach to the top." I could not be any more right. Dreams are dreams unless you execute them.


What do you think of the movie? Have you seen it yet? If not, what are you waiting for?!

Career Girls Just Want to be Linchpins

Posted by Lady Mel On Wednesday, August 11, 2010 6 comments

As I return from my one-month break, I ask myself, "Do you miss me?, What is the future of this blog?, When will I ever make my mark in the world?". My answer? In all due time.
It has been a month since I last blogged and I miss it and you guys! *Hug*. I came back right in time before the 2010 MTV VMAs! We will hear more about that later, but I have so many announcements. I am just going to shout it out:
1. I am invited to another Apple Retail Career Seminar next week! I submitted my resume on the Apple Career website again and within a week I got an email from an Apple recruiter asking if I can come. If you remember from my last Apple seminar, it did not go so well. Yet,  all my cards will work for me instead of against me this time. I know what to expect and I have an lot to offer to the company. 
2. Last month, I started the Guest Blog Giveaway and only Jessica contacted me with her article. If I do not get a response from Shannon and Nickelnm by Friday, I am going to look elsewhere. You see I think I have learned a lesson while I was on hiatus. Work smarter, not harder. If people were really interested in guest blogging for me, they would have contacted me weeks ago. I am not going to hunt them down. There was ample time for a connection. I know others who are willingly to guest blog and contact me about it. I have no time to find people.
Overall, good things are coming my way and I just know it. Most twenty-something career-orientated women just want to network and find careers that suit their confidence levels. I am not afraid of challenging traditional ideologies of business and thought.  I just want to have fun doing what I love doing best right now:  working persistently and reinventing my brand.


I think with the work I am doing with the New Jersey Medical School right now, all I want is to connect with others and master the art of productivity. As Seth Godin would say (yes I am reading his book at the moment!), today is the age of the linchpin and we must acknowledge and embrace the art and creativity inside of us all. It took me over a year of soul-searching and reexamination to understand this, but I am finally learning what it takes to work hard and to value my own art. It's growing and it should.


I think Cyndi Lauper said it best! Welcome back everyone! 


Good Will Hunting, Time for Action and Boldness

Posted by Lady Mel On Tuesday, July 13, 2010 0 comments

Dear Loyal Followers, Subscribers, and Friends:

I apologize for my sudden behavior, but I am going to take another break.
I said I was going to create up to two blog posts each week, but given my volunteer work, stress, and pressure to find a real job and source of income, I am going to need more time to straighten up my personal life.


I apologize for the short notice. I am very busy and I do not have the time or energy to write at this time. I do not know when I will come back, but it will be soon. I need to rediscover what I want out of life and why I am blogging in the first place and I can't do it without a clear mind and direction. My guest blog project will be postponed until further notice. In the meantime, enjoy your summer and have me in the back of your mind. I will return fresh and ready to take on the world. Wish me good luck on this task. Self-discovery, I say. I will keep you posted. Thx.


Love,

Christina Brown




Leave your lovely comments below please. I want to be inspired! Connect with me on Twitter (@iChristina2010). Thx.   

My Summer Plans, Picture of the Week

Posted by Lady Mel On Friday, July 9, 2010 0 comments

I've decided to group July and August together. We are in the middle of the summer and I want to take these last days of intense heat and sun to prepare for my fall plans. Here is what I will do within the next two months:


July and August Goals 


1. Take 1-2 days out of each week to myself to leave the house and go out and explore and have fun. Life is too short.
2. Actually study for the Driver's License Test and then take the writing exam in the fall.
3. Walk more, eat healthy.
4. Find a part-time, paying job before September 1st. At this point in my career, I do not care what I get, at least as I start saving money. 
5. Be an indispensable worker in my career and as a volunteer worker.
6. Finish reading Seth Godin's "Linchpin, Are You Dispensable" book.
7. Build my portfolio and skills so that when I find my dream job down the road, I'll be ready. :)
8.  Relearn my French skills.
9. Blog at least 2 times per week. Write more engaging blog posts!


Also, will Shannon and Nickelnm contact me? You showed interest in guest blogging, but have responded back to me. I need to know your plans before Monday, July 12th. Thanks.


Lets review what I accomplished last month.

                                                                    June Plan 
1. Blog up to two times a week.
2. Write interesting and engaging blog posts.
3. Celebrate my 23rd birthday the best way possible.
4. Look for a paid, part-time internship.
5. Build my resume and skills with the volunteer opportunity I already have.
6. Build my French and Japanese language skills.
7. Lose between 5 to 10 pounds.
8. Study for Driver's License Test.
9. Reconnect with my college and high school friends.


Finally, Picture of the Week! I want to wear this one day. The French know how to design!


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