I’m on another 5 days of the z pack antibiotics.

Maybe we need a good freeze to get rid of all the germs out there.

More View From My Room, Sick Again originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Project 365, Week 7 originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

My yearly editorial calendar view.

As part of my goals this year, I wanted to create an editorial calendar for 2012 so I would always know what to post. I searched online for a template where I could just fill-in-the-blanks and be done. I did find some, but nothing that was real simple, yet creative and fun. I liked the basics of this editorial calendar by Alan Peterson of Internet Marketing Nirvana, but it was for 2010, so I created a new editorial calendar.

Editorial-Calendar-Template (download link)

Editorial Calendar Yearly Format

The editorial calendar is for 2012 and color coded by month. The colors match my tabs in my binder where I keep all my information for my business each month. I also like the way the colors look. It is easy for me to see where each month is and I can look at the year in terms of weeks or months.

Above is a closer view and you can see that I have Post Topic and Month Topic. The Post Topic are my weekly posts. I have a loose system of writing certain types of posts on certain days like this:

• Sunday – Scrapbook Layouts
• Monday – Write about websites, software and/or apps
• Tuesday – Tech Tuesday
• Wednesday – Wordless Wednesday, Quotes
• Thursday – List Day & Book Reviews
• Friday – Friday Fun & Goals updates
• Saturday – Project 365 Updates

Month Topics are for my Project Balance monthly topics and look like this;

• January – Organization
• February – Relationships
• March – Healthy Lifestyle
• April – Career
• May – Spiritual
• June – Recreation
•  July – Finances
• August – Me Time
• September – Education
• October – Hobbies
• November – Family
• December – Balancing It All

If you don’t have weekly or monthly post topics, you can remove those from the editorial calendar.

Editorial Calendar Monthly Format

The Excel Workbook has 2 spreadsheets. One is a view of the entire year on one page as seen above. The second spreadsheet shows one month per page as seen below.

I created the second version because I wanted more room to write in my blog posts. The full year on one page is great for me to see what the different topics are each month and as an overview.

My monthly editorial calendar.

Now, you have the editorial calendar, here are a few posts about how to set it up and why you need one.

• #SITS31DBBB: What Did a Calendar Ever Do For You?
• How to Develop Your Editorial Calendar by Heidi Cohen
• Timing is Everything: Why You Need an Editorial Calendar by Heidi Cohen
• 5 Ideas for Filling Your Editorial Calendar by Michele McGraw (ME) at BlogWorld Expo Blog
• 5 Benefits of An Editorial Calendar
• Why You Need An Editorial Calendar For Your Blog by Outspoken Media

Editorial Calendar Download

Editorial-Calendar-Template (download link)

Let’s Talk About Your Editorial Calendar!

Do you have an editorial calendar? Do you stick to the calendar or is it just a loose guide?

Create An Editorial Calendar For Your Blog; Free Template Download originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Wordless Wednesday; From My Valentine originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

The Story

Being that today is Valentine’s Day this would be a great movie to watch with your Valentine. It is a story of love and romance and takes place in the Paris Opera House. The Phantom lives in the opera house and terrorizes everyone in it. They refer to him as the Phantom of the Opera. He hides away because he is ashamed of his disfigured face. The Phantom falls in love with the young Christine Daae (who has fallen in love with her childhood friend) when he becomes her singing tutor.

25th Anniversary Live Edition

This cast was put together especially for the 25th Anniversary edition of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall. This was the first ever live performance of a musical. It was broadcast across the globe and filmed as it happened.

The singing was spectacular. I have been a huge fan of the music from The Phantom of the Opera for some time. This live version just took me right back to when I saw the musical in person as a teen. At one point when I was watching it, my daughters came in to ask me a question and they both stayed until the end and then asked me to start it over. Now they want me to take them to New York to see it in person.

At the end of the live musical, Andrew Lloyd Weber comes out and introduces some of the original cast (including Michael Crawford & Sarah Brightman) from the first run of The Phantom of the Opera. There is a performance with Sarah Brightman and 5 Phantoms.

The Phantom of the Opera Clips

There really are not words to describe how beautiful this musical is. Here is a quick clip with Christine and Raul singing, “All I Ask Of You”

This clip is from the Masquerade scene which includes many of the cast and the costumes are gorgeous.

This last clip is the Phantom singing “The Music of the Night” to Christine.

Blu-Ray Extras

The Blu-Ray also includes a clip from the “Love Never Dies” follow-up musical which was released on Blu-Ray & DVD on February 7, 2012. There is a really interesting “Making of” video showing how the cast and crew prepared for The Phantom of the Opera live show. There was a lot of work that went into putting on such a spectacular show.

Let’s Talk About The Phantom of the Opera!

Have you seen The Phantom of the Opera? What is your favorite musical?

Disclosure: I received a copy of the Blu-Ray version of The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall in exchange for the posts and the party. All opinions are 100% my own. Affiliate links within the post.

Related articles

• ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ Celebrates 10,000th Performance Saturday (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• The phantom of the Opera (integrated4.wordpress.com)
• Andrew Lloyd Webber: Some “Phantom” fans “crazy” (cbsnews.com)

The Phantom of The Opera at the Royal Albert Hall Review originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

How do geeks celebrate Valentine’s Day? With a technology photo shoot of course! I always say, “Digital over Diamonds and Gadgets over Gold!” However, if you have a gold, diamond encrusted digital gadget, that would be the ultimate. Oh, sorry…back to reality!

Windows did an awesome photo shoot for Valentine’s using some gorgeous red and pink laptops. Someday, I want to do a photo shoot with lots of orange and pink technology.

Valentine’s Tips For Techies!

Tip #1: Use Windows Live Messenger (Window’s free video chat service) to say ‘I Love You’ to your loved one’s

Tip #2: Share your latest photos with friends and family via Windows Live Photo Gallery and SkyDrive

Tip #3: Use Microsoft Paint to create and send a virtual love note, like the one we created below—all free services for you!

#Win7Tech Twitter Chat

Don’t forget every Tuesday at 12:00 pm PT, the Windows Champions gather for the #Win7Tech chat. The topic changes every week and always has lots of great tips, experts and sometimes a giveaway.

See some behind the scenes pictures from the Windows shoot on the Windows’s Facebook Page.

You could win a Sony VAIO on the Windows blog (ends at 11:59 pm PT on 2/14/12)

Windows Photo Shoot

A few more pictures from this gorgeous shoot:

Beautiful picture!

That must have been so hard to put the beautiful technology on the snow.

Awww! His & Hers computers!

Now that is love! My hubby & I met online on AOL, so I would love a shot of us like this!

Let’s Talk About Technology & Valentine’s Day!

Do you like to get technology for Valentine’s Day? What is the best Valentine’s Day tech gift you have given or received?

(Sorry, couldn’t resist the colored text today!)

Disclosure: As a member of the Windows Champion team, I received a Sony VAIO laptop to use for one year. All opinions are 100% my own.

How Do Geeks Celebrate Valentine’s Day? #Win7Tech Chat Tuesdays originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Overview

The show is about 3 friends who are roommates and finding their way through the dating world. Lucy starts getting texts from herself (in the future) and she is giving her younger self dating advice. S

he is also completely addicted to her iPhone and uses Siri quite a bit. She works for a company called, finger games (seriously.) It seems she creates an app in the future which allows her to send the texts.

I love this show and I wish it was longer than 10 minutes for each webisode. There are currently 9 webisodes and well worth a watch! The show is sponsored by several companies. I’m not showing this to you as part of a campaign. I found this one all by myself.

Dating Rules From My Future Self

This fits perfectly with February’s Project Balance theme of Relationships. The 3 friends learn a lot about themselves, friendship and dating in this series.

Follow Dating Rules From My Future Self on Facebook & Twitter.

Let’s Talk About Dating Rules From My Future Self!

What did you think about the show? Love it? Hate it? Don’t care?

Related articles

• ‘Dating Rules from My Future Self’: Watch the trailer here! – EXCLUSIVE VIDEO (insidetv.ew.com)
• Eat Like A Star: Dating Rules From My Future Self’s Shiri Appleby (self.com)
• Dating Rules From My Future Self: High Concept Comes To Web Series (reelseo.com)
• Taylor Kinney: ‘Dating Rules’ Talk with Shiri Appleby! (justjared.buzznet.com)
• Shiri Appleby DATING RULES FROM MY FUTURE SELF Interview (collider.com)

Dating Rules From My Future Self Webisodes originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Today is International Madly In Love With ME Day started by the Queen of Self-Love, Christine Arylo.

Self-Love Video

In this video, Christine explains more about Madly In Love With ME Day.

Choosing Me Before We

I am currently reading Christine’s book, Choosing ME Before WE and it is an interesting read. It is geared more towards women who are looking for love and need to love themselves first. I am very happily married, but that doesn’t mean I can’t benefit from loving myself more. This is something I struggle with every day and I am working on in February.

Be sure to follow the Madly in Love with ME revolution on Facebook & Twitter. Sign up for the newsletter and receive a Self-Love kit.

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book, Choosing ME before WE in exchange for a review (yet to come.) Promoting Self-Love Day is because it’s something I believe in.

Let’s Talk About Self-Love!

Have you every heard of International Madly In Love With ME Day? How are you celebrating?

Self-Love; Madly In Love With Me Day is February 13 originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

I have not had a chance to make the brownies yet, but since I thought they would make a great Valentine’s Day treat, I wanted to post the recipe before tomorrow.

Pringles Brownies

INGREDIENTS

• 6 ounces baking chocolate, unsweetened
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1-6.41 ounce can Original PRINGLES, regular or reduced fat
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
• Powdered sugar for dusting  (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1.       Preheat oven to 350°F

2.       Line 13×9-inch baking pan with foil, and spray foil with cooking spray.

3.       In a glass bowl, microwave chocolate and butter on high for 2 minutes.  Stir until chocolate melts.

4.       In a stainless steel bowl, mix sugar, eggs, and vanilla until well mixed.

5.       Pour in butter chocolate mixture and mix well.

6.       Empty PRINGLES and flour into a food processor, and puree until very fine.

7.       Empty flour mixture into chocolate mixture and mix well; add nuts to distribute.

8.       Bake for 30 minutes, and cool.

Don’t those look yummy! Let me know if you try the Pringles Brownies.

Disclosure: I received 2 cans of Pringles, however, I would have posted this Pringles Brownies recipe and tried it even if I hadn’t received the 2 cans because we love Pringles & brownies!

Pringles Brownies; Most Interesting Ingredient I’ve Ever Seen! originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.

Project 365; Week 6 originally posted at Scraps of My Geek Life.