Posts tagged ‘life questions’

November 4th, 2009

Questions from the Junk Folder That You May Have Never Asked Yourself

by Tarable

I saw a disturbing trend forming in my junk folder. And in it…glimpses of humor and the glimmer of a post.

It’s common knowledge that no one actually looks at the contents of their email junk folder so the spammers have to be more clever than ever to get our attention. They must have heard about the importance of subject lines because I’m now receiving many junk emails asking me questions.

munch a bunch?

I was looking for pictures of junk when I remembered this gem.

Since there were so many of these junk emails, I thought it only right to pick the ten best and share them. Because what else is a junk folder good for, if not content creation.

Separated? Considering Divorce? Been Served Divorce Papers??

Um. No. No. And no.

Do you have what it takes to be a CSI??

Probably. But this email is coming from the CSI Forensics School, which sounds like an un-accredited institution that doesn’t really exist. Kinda like Trial Lawyer School. Or Heart Surgeon School.

Considering a Nursing Degree??

God. Doesn’t my mother wish? No seriously. How many times did my mom ask me this very same question growing up?

Looking for a Handy Reference Guide to the Remote Monitoring Industry??

Christmas is right around the corner.

How good is Microsoft Dynamics ERP, really??

I ask myself that everyday.

Going “Paperless”…Buzz Word or Reality??

Don’t even get me started on this one. I get all riled up.

Can you donate an item to our auction??

I’m sorry. You must have mistaken me for someone who owns anything of value.

Suffering from chronic back and neck pain??

Who isn’t?

Wanna Hookup??

No, Amber, I don’t.

Wanna hookup for this weekend??

Well, since you put it that way…and this comes from the BeNaughty Team, we’re not ruling it out just yet. Plus, we all know what a team player I am.

Big thanks to Hotmail, for actually being good for something. Your email junk  folder has provided me with the opportunity to think about different careers and new ways of living my life.

And in case little Stacey Ferguson is reading this, that’s what I’m doing with all that junk.

CategoryAwesomesauce | CommentComments

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October 25th, 2009

Shots on Goal

by Tarable

Oh hai list of goals that I wanted to accomplish for this year. Long time, no see.

Enter snowy day and the perfect time to sit down and revisit said list. After blowing dust off the blog post, I spent some time thinking about what I’ve accomplished. 1

With the hopes of keeping myself accountable, here’s how I’ve been progressing:

#2. run another marathon.

timberline

This was one of those goals that got slightly amended. I did not have time to train for a marathon, but I did have time to run a different half-marathon in a new state. So that’s what I did instead. (Perhaps before I’m 40 I’ll get another notch in my marathon belt.)

#3. elope.

Done. And done well.

elopement

#4. work on improving my green thumb by growing beans and helping with the community garden.

With the help of my ever-loving  and most patient husband, our garden was bountiful and prosperous.

#5. pay down credit card debt.

Two cards down, a few more to go.

#6. write more letters.

Do thank-you notes count? 2

#10. play another season of Ultimate Frisbee.

It wasn’t a championship season like last year, but we had a lot of spirit. 3

#11. do more push-ups.

The ladies of the Lijit office do (almost) daily push-ups together. Nothing beats a little muscle pump in the afternoon.

#14. roller derby!

rollerderby

Saw my first bout last month and although I’m still undecided on whether or not I should try out, I’m a big fan.

#16. get scuba certified.

Thanks to Weaver’s Dive Center, I’m all set. Belize, here I come!

#24. throw a kickass wedding party.

How about not one, but two kickass wedding parties?

#29. put money in my savings account every month.

So far, so good. 4

The results are a little rough, dear readers.  I’m almost two-thirds of the way through the year and I an only done with one-third of my list.

However, to make myself feel better, I will rationalize that a full third of the list are all goals that are in progress, which means that they will be crossed off at some point:

#1. more yoga.

#8. incorporate strength training into my workout routine.

#9. reach out to my old friends.

#13. give more bodywork

#17. blog more. 5

#20. get rid of unnecessary stuff.

#21. say yes more.

#22. reach outside of my comfort zone.

#23. swim.

#27. be sure my loved ones know how I feel about them.

#28. dance more.

#30. acknowledge gratitude daily.

So, what about that pesky last third of the list? For one reason or another, these goals are the ones that will probably need some adjusting 6 in order to accomplish.

These represent the worst kind of to-do’s–easy to type but much too broad and vague to actually do:

#31.  practice compassion.

#32. forgive and forget.

And then some goals are difficult to achieve because of the money involved:

#19. buy more vintage clothing.

#26. get the tattoo on my ankle redone.

Not to mention, there are the things left that I keep meaning to do…

#7. perform stand-up at least once a month.

#12. explore new parts of Colorado.

#15. experiment with video

#18. learn basics of Photoshop.

#25. volunteer my time with a cause close to my heart.

#33. learn how to juggle.

but that take up more time or energy than I had realized when first creating this list. But I’m figuring it out as I go…and my progress reflects that fact.

It’s just a shame that rocking the footnote plugin wasn’t on the list. 7


  1. Don’t worry. It’s not much. ↩
  2. If you’re reading this and you haven’t received your thank-you note yet, it’s because we’re planning something extra special for you. ↩
  3. That means we wrote good cheers, brought baked goods to games and only one won game. ↩
  4. Of course, in addition to going in, it also comes out some months. ↩
  5. Hey, I’m trying… ↩
  6. Massaging, tweaking, shifting ↩
  7. Because once I start, I just can’t stop… ↩

CategoryAwesomesauce, Blogging, Goals, Life Lessons, Love & Rainbows, Running | CommentComments

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April 25th, 2009

Am I keeping Tara Anderson?

by Tarable

Ever since I got married, it’s the question I get asked the most. Am I going to change my name?

I never have a good answer to that one.

yournamehere1

photo credit: duncan

I’ve been married before and I’ve changed my name before. It wasn’t an easy process or one I enjoyed. Same goes for switching back to my maiden name after the divorce.  (He politely asked me to not keep his name and I was more than happy to oblige.) In case you lost count, that’s already two times that I’ve changed my name. Oh, twenties, how much you taught me.

However, this time it’s different. The last time I changed my name, I wasn’t doing much of anything online and I definitely wasn’t working in the tech industry. I didn’t have a profile set up under my name on tons of services or any idea that “Google juice” actually existed. A digital footprint wasn’t something I thought about.

Which leads me to the Marriage 2.0 question…do I change my name this time around?

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m nothing close to a page rank queen because I’m defintely not the only Tara Anderson around. There is an amazingly talented crafter (who beat me to the username on Flickr and takes wonderful photos), an OB/GYN doctor in Illinois, a public radio producer in New York City and a few profiles on MySpace.

Let’s not forget the struggling actress and the  list-maker, both of whom besides sharing my name, also share similar passions with me. Don’t even get me started on the hot swimsuit entrepreneur currently living in Romania.

But the thing is…I like my name.

After a little online research into the subject, another point surfaced. There are no other Tara Calihmans out there. If I took my husband’s last name, I could own the space. I go from an Anderson to a Calihman, keeping myself still in the first half of the alphabet and with the same number of letters, but I become the only Tara Calihman.

Even more online research brings me to one of my favorite women. Turns out Penelope Trunk has changed her name four times, which makes my two name changes seem like child’s play.

yournamehere2

photo by: slavin fpo

But this possible increase in the search results comes at what cost? Having to change my name on not just all of my physical accounts but also on all of my viral ones, getting the word out to people I know and building my Google cred from the bottom. Oy. Just the thought of it makes my head hurt with visions of form after form, lost pieces of mail and a weird kind of online anonymity that might end up hurting the chances of someone looking for me. (On a related geeky note, do I have to retag everything?)

Like so many other things about the beginning of a new life, this question is just the tip of the iceberg.  If I don’t change my  name, what happens when we have kids? Do we become that annoying couple with a hyphenated last name that becomes too long to fit on forms? Does my husband change his name or do we decide to buck tradition and pick a new last name together? Does my name have anything to do with my identity beyond the realm of Google? What is a name anyway?

And of course, why is this something I’m even worrying about? You don’t see guys writing posts like these.

Help me out and shine some light on this one, oh smart ladies of the internet. What do you think, or better yet–what have you done about changing your name after marriage?

CategoryLove & Rainbows, The Ladies | CommentComments

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