Online Reads: December 31, 2011

So obviously, we all love books here at Happy Kat Reads. And by we, I mean me. And you, and all the other readers in the readosphere! (I'm hoping there's some additional readers in this readosphere... otherwise, I'd feel silly writing this. But if no one's reading this, then there's no one to be embarrassed in front of - right? It's one of those "tree falls in a forest but no one is there" kinds of things. I think.) But there's also a ton of great reads available on the Internet: articles, stories, blog posts, etc. I tweet a lot of my favorite reads @onehappykat, but I also say it's worth writing about here! So here's some of the great online reads I've found this week:

Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls Excerpt
Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series is one of my favorites. You've got some awesome teen ladies at SPY SCHOOL! I mean, come on, how awesome is that? (I want to be a spy. Too bad my inability to learn other languages will forever keep me from doing so.) Her 5th book in the series, Out of Sight, Out of Time is due to be published March 13th, 2012, which means you have three months to read the first four books (if you haven't already). This darling little excerpt should tide you over in the meantime.

Portion Control Cheat Sheet
This little PDF file from Prevention.com is perfect for hanging off the refrigerator. It gives you handy visual hints to help you watch your portion sizes.

Forget Time Management, Energy Management is What Matters
A lovely little article about managing your energy in a hectic workplace. I'm a big advocate of strategic, scheduled breaks, so this article speaks to me. I love her stuff - she's got a great website at Cordelia Calls It Quits. I highly recommend checking it out if you get the chance - or if you need a little break of your own! She blogs about, and this is a direct quote from her About page, "To living on autopilot. To structuring my world around other people’s schedules and other people’s expectations. To resigning myself to a 9-5, bottom-line, lather/rinse/repeat life. And especially to the notion that that’s “just the way things are.”

10 Signs You're On the Right Track
It's another Cordelia Calls It Quits post, but this post is so good. It's just a checklist of things that show if you're on the right track. It really resonates with me because I'm an actor. If you've ever gone into the "business," everyone else tells you "don't go into it unless you really love it and can't imagine doing anything else and have a deep burning NEED to do it." Which sounds a bit too melodramatic for my occasionally-logical brain. But when it comes to this list, I answer every single thing on it with an affirmative. Maybe I am doing and thing right! So good, I even printed it out and put it on my whiteboard.