Leftover advice questions - and answers!

Alright. So last week on fiveawesomegirls we did silly advice week, and I'll admit… most of my answers were less than helpful. So today, I'm going to be answering some of the more serious questions in a more serious manner here on my blog. Annnd.. here we go!

lobi89: how do you know if a guy likes you?
I know everyone's experience is different, but I've always found it to be pretty obvious if a guy liked me in the past. If he starts complimenting you in ways he never did before (especially on things like your looks), or starts randomly doing nice things for you out of nowhere, those are generally the first tell-tale signs that he's started thinking about you differently.
Or, in my experience, if he posts a song on YouTube telling everyone he likes you; that's a pretty dead giveaway.

xfallenwarriorx: How do I find a nerdy boyfriend? It's so complicated. D:
You're going to hate this answer, but sometimes you have to wait for that nerdy boy to find you. Love usually doesn't come when you're looking for it; in fact it quite often falls out of the sky, into your lap, at the worst possible time when it was the last thing you would have expected. But that's why it's called "falling in love", not "bundling up, heading outside with a compass, and hunting love down".

penguin1124: Do you have any advice for my senior year of high school?
I was one of the few (it seems) who actually really enjoyed high school. I mean, I definitely had my share of hardships, with friend problems and identity issues, but I really felt like I had it all figured out by the time I was a senior. In my last year, I spent most of my time either in the theatre (where I was drama club president), in the journalism lab (where I was the Opinion section editor) or in the TIP lab, which was were the other computer nerds hung out.

And I'll admit, my lesson here, really, is to spend the first three years of high school working your way up to the things you know you'll love senior year, and not everyone can do that. But you don't have to be president of a club to enjoy it - just get involved. Seriously, get involved in high school and make your experience there about your extra curriculars and yours friends, because while classes are great and all, they're definitely not what made high school amazing for me.

madamesuede: what should I bring to my first and only HP-con (which will be Leakycon2011)??
Hmmm. Definitely bring a camera (video or still, whatever your thing is) because there are memories to be captured there and you don't want to miss out on that. Bring any Harry Potter related clothing you have (cloak, wand, t-shirt with Ron's face on it) because this is one of the few times you'll look like a total baller wearing it, rather than that weird kid in the corner. Bring your phone (obviously) so you can tweet about how much fun you're having every second, and bring something super hawt to wear to the ball, because generally wizard kids tend to go all out for these things.

ProfessorAliceC: What's the hardest thing you've had to give up for Harry Potter? (eg. not attend a b-day party for a HP book release) .
My family takes this annual trip to North Dakota every summer to see my grandparents and all our other relatives who live back there (it's a lot of people). I really, really enjoy going and seeing my cousins, my aunts and uncles, everyone. We live so far away from so much of our family that it's usually the one chance we have to see everyone until the next year.
I've had to miss this family trip twice now because of Harry Potter. And while I wouldn't give up the opportunities I've had to tour and go to conferences, it was pretty hard for me, knowing my family was having fun without me.

margaretdarling: @KristinaHorner How do you deal with procrastination? Perhaps not you, since you are a goddess of productivity, but maybe the other girls.
Haha. Procrastination is a real problem for me, now that my job IS blogging, making videos, and recording music. I don't have a boss looming over my shoulder, causing me to minimize my freecell game or pretend I'm working when actually I'm checking email.

I've always been a go-getter, though. The internet, while a pit of procrastination for a lot of people, has always been a golden chalice of opportunity for me. I have FUN doing things that other people might see as hard work: blogging, replying to email, building my presence online, researching things for various writing projects, etc. I don't have a schedule of deadlines given to me by other people for the most part - I operate under self-appointed goals, and before I go to bed each night I ask myself, "have I accomplished enough to feel good about how I spent my time today?" If my answer is no, then I make sure I do more tomorrow.

The short answer is, "I live out of a very meticulously organized planner with a complicated system of prioritizing and crossing things off as I finish them".

ProfessorAliceC:@KristinaHorner Where where you and what were you doing when you heard about MJ's death?
I was actually at @Mickeleh's house with Alex Day. I remember Alex was visiting and Michael had wanted to have us over for dinner, so as we were eating our chicken and salad and discussing everything under the sun, he got a text from his roommate Leslie about it. It's amazing how big events create such vivid memories of how you found out about them, because I remember so many tiny details about this night with such clarity.

loosee123: Do you have any tips for cheap travel? It is breaking my bank.
I always use kayak.com for booking flights; I believe it to be, by far, the best flight comparison site around. Beyond that, this question is kind of hard for me to answer, since I don't know exactly what kind of travel you're talking about. But if you're traveling abroad - definitely check out hostels rather than hotels. If you're traveling to see friends - try to go at off peak times in the year, and fly on days like Monday or Tuesday when it's cheaper. If you're traveling for Harry Potter conferences or shows - start a wizard rock band so you're asked to play and don't have to pay for registration. Ha.

m3lf4c3: how do you decide what personal information to share with your online community and what to omit?
You know... I share a lot of myself with the online community. Thinking back over fiveawesomegirls, I put a lot of myself out there. I keep it a little more contained on my personal channel (being more about entertainment than talking about myself) but the 5AG videos are still all out there. Twitter makes it so I can share literally any fleeting thought I have with an audience of nearly 12,000. But the real kicker here is my blog. If you read my blog (which I assume you do, as you're here reading my blog) then you know a LOT about me. You get a first hand account of probably 60% of the things I do. You read about my reactions, my emotions, my problems, my happinessess... and over time, I have needed to learn to omit things here and there, based on the past and what I know is good for me to keep private.

I try to leave out times when I am feeling really low. I try to leave out specifics about my personal relationships, romantic or other. I try not to share information about my friends if I know they wouldn't want that online, because while I enjoy "broadcasting myself", my friends and family might not be so keen on it. I also try not to mention things that are happening in the future that aren't sure things, because I don't want people to get disappointed if they don't happen.

It's all a balancing act. I am a lot more candid with my life than most people like to be, but you have to decide what you're comfortable with. Some people, like the SHAYTARDS or Dan Brown, are completely fine with putting everything online. I try to be a little bit more guarded, but still like sharing as much as I can with you guys. :)

feqwhy: You seem like you're always happy and have your life put together. How do you do that?
I know this isn't true in every instance, but you get out of life what you put into it. I approach life as if it's an adventure, and every day is a new opportunity to do great things, have fun, and hopefully touch other people's lives in some small way. I also try to find joy in the smallest aspects of life, because then you'll always be surprised by what can put a smile on your face.

I would say, having just graduated from college, I am far from having my life together. But I know that the things I am doing now are things that make me happy, and that hopefully are leading me down the path to finding the career I will love for the rest of my life. When I know I am working toward a goal like that, it's tough to not be happy.

Also, my friends rock, and there are thousands of strangers that I get to interact with every day that are some of the kindest, sweetest people I've ever had the pleasure of talking to. I wouldn't be surprised if my blog comments were a big part of why I seem so chipper every day.


Thanks for the great questions, guys! I had a lot of fun answering these, and I wouldn't mind making it a more regular segment of my blog. Have a great Monday, and let me know in the comments what you have on the agenda today. I'm just curious. :)

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