I did it. There’s still a lot I’d like to customize but hahaha I don’t know what I’m doing.
Help change is scary help help.
Archives for : blogging
So, this blog is in pretty desperate need of a redesign. I’ve had this awesome template for seven years. SEVEN YEARS YOU GUYS. Do you know how I know that? Because Vicki finished it right before Sam was born. Do you know what THAT means? SAM IS TURNING SEVEN THIS MONTH.
*panic*
So anyway, I want a tidier, simpler template. I would LOVE to pay somebody to design one for me but that’s just out of the question, so I’m looking at free WordPress themes and wondering if I can figure out how to customize one of them.
(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)
*panic*
I’m thinking of maybe using Spartan. If I can even remember how to FTP shit. Oh man.
I am over my head already.
*panic*
Anyway. Ahem. Any thoughts? Suggestions (for themes or ways to keep from panicking)?
In less than two months, I’ll have been blogging for TEN YEARS. I love this blog: this blog is me.
I let my hosting expire this month due to severe lack of funds, and I felt SO LOST when this site was suspended. I wandered around in a fog, trying to come around to the idea of a free blog and not able to. Finally my mommy took pity on me and paid the bill.
I will never give up this blog, but I discovered something during that week of playing around on wordpress.com: starting over has its appeal.
So I’ve started a new blog. Not to replace this one, but to take care of a different need. This is my brain dump, my creative outlet, myself presented to you in internet form. The new blog is a place to chronicle the home schooling journey I am taking with Sam and Grace. Sam is officially school aged now, and it seems like the right time to do this.
Plus, I can give the link to the new one to my grandparents. I won’t say FUCK there.
So here it is: Little Frog School. Enjoy. (I’m still working out a few kinks in the template. It’s been a while since I’ve worked with a prefab design!)
You are soooo talented in writing. God is really utilizing you in tremendous ways. You are doing a great job! This was an incredible blog!
I don’t care what they’re selling, but they obviously have excellent taste.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled Art posts for some rambling. I’ve edited this a gazillion times because I’m having trouble making my point. I hope I succeeded.
I had a little bit of a hissy fit on Twitter yesterday. It started off with what I meant as an offhand joke–something to the effect of, “My invitation for Blogger Prom got lost in the mail AGAIN!” It’s true, last year I was really offended that I wasn’t invited. Last year I was also pregnant, so I assumed my response was hormonal. Actually, it wasn’t the lack of an invitation that offended me so much as the fact that they invited their friends and then said that anyone who hadn’t received an invite should ask for one.
Guys? You’re doing it wrong. Making people ask to be part of a popularity contest? Gross. It is my opinion that either a) EVERYONE should have had to ask for an invite–not just people who were not in the inner circle–or b) it should have been truly invite-only, or c) it should have been totally open.
Still, people that I knew attended and had fun, and it really did sound like a good event. But I had a bad taste in my mouth.
This year, they announced another prom and did not suggest requesting an invite. I ignored it–figuring I’d either get one or not–until my silly tweet. At least people weren’t expected to ask for an invite this year.
My friend Nina replied, suggesting in not as many words that I lose the sour grapes and ask for an invitation next time. She was totally right, sort of. Yes, I would have loved to attend. But it was barely on my radar. And I was not at all on the Prom Committee’s radar.
Look. I spent years putting myself out there (though not with any particular motivation). If I am not known as a local blogger by now there’s nothing I can do about it. Honestly, it is not worth trying. I wrote for Metblogs for two years and I’ve had this blog since I moved here eight years ago. I have commented on and linked to blogs both popular and not, I’ve gone to events. (I still do most of this, but less so because it conflicts with being a hermit.) You know what I’ve learned? Online–just like everywhere else–some people are popular and some people are not, and nothing you do will change which one you are.
I am TOO BUSY with my actual LIFE to worry about whether I am popular. Do I wish I was? Not exactly, though I think it’s fucking retarded that I’m not. I AM AWESOME! But I am certainly not going to beg for it. What would be the point? I’d much rather enjoy the genuine friendships I’ve made through blogging.
After my exchange with Nina, I got an invitation to Blogger Prom, because the committee had seen my rantings. So I had to decide whether I would rather go on short notice or continue living my life without Prom.
Did I mention that it is TOMORROW? And it’s 1940s themed, which means I’d need a new dress? Yeah. I am broke, my babysitter has plans tomorrow, and it’s just not happening. I know I’d have fun if I attended, but only if I had more than 48 hours to prepare. So I’m not going. Besides, if I went I’d have to deal with worrying about whether someone had taken pity on me.
It’s too bad, because–as you might guess from the URL of my website–I’m pretty into the 40s.
I do hope I get an invitation next year, but I kind of don’t expect to. I really do think, though, that they should ditch the invites and make people buy tickets. Like, you know, Prom-prom.
I would probably buy one. Prom was fun.
This just in from spambot “Sheila King,” who recognizes my professional blog writing skill:
It seems like you have a professional blog writing skill. Your topic selection is interesting and content is well organized. I also like your selection word and sentence structure, which helps to get a clear idea of the topic.
The rest of you are going to have to step it up with the observation and compliments if you hope to see more of my sentence structure.
…but while I was out yesterday, the boys decorated for Halloween. So I am too busy admiring my abode (and eating candy corn) to say anything even remotely interesting.
I will leave you with this tease: Sam has gone on his first pony ride. He begged for it as soon as he saw it. I think all these oaters we’ve been watching have gotten to him. (His favorites are Tex Ritter and The Lone Ranger.)
Gotta run, this candy corn is not going to eat itself. At least, I don’t think it will. I’d better keep an eye on it just in case it tries.
Just a quick note to let you know that if my blog disappears it means I haven’t renewed my domain name. I received a few very kind donations to help with costs but irresponsibly spent the money on groceries. Sigh. Anyway, don’t panic. With any luck I’ll have it sorted out by the end of the week. Edit, 9/29 — obviously this has been sorted out now. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE WITHOUT YOU, BLOG!
So, the comments on my last post were all pretty awesome. You guys are okay by me. It did make me wonder, though: do I come across as knowing what I am doing most of the time? Because I feel like I do. At the risk of sounding egotistical, I think I’m a great parent. But because I know there are a lot of people reading this, I tend to play up my inadequacy sometimes. Because it is funny. But sometimes I think people are not reading it as humor but as total lack of confidence. So I feel the need to say, “Don’t worry! I am plenty confident.” And of course, the fact that I feel like I have to say that just proves that I AM NOT CONFIDENT.
Welcome to my brain.
So anyway. Did I tell you all that when we were swimming every day at Cassie’s, Sam would get out of the pool and go to the restroom when he needed to pee? I think he is the only child in the history of swimming pools to do that without prompting of any kind. (Frankly, I don’t care if he pees in the pool.) (Oh, that reminds me–we are all set now for diapers but we’re going to need a small swim diaper. Somebody make sure I buy one before next summer.)
Here’s a good story: The other day Will and Sam were having a Jedi fight. Not a light saber fight, but a force fight. Will suddenly extended his Wolverine claws and Sam, not missing a beat, put his hand up to his temple and blasted Will with his Cyclops eye beams. No wonder Sam doesn’t talk a lot–he is way too busy thinking up awesome ways to knock his mom out with his own awesomeness (no, my double use of “awesome” was NOT redundant).
And in other news, Los Angeles is burning. Again. There are four major fires in four different directions basically surrounding the city. We are perfectly safe except for all the ash in the air, but at least one of the fires is like 0% contained so I am pretty worried for the people who live closer than we do.
I’ve always wanted to enter something like this, but I’m not sure any of my 2009 posts are good enough to send in. I haven’t been so much with the storytelling this year–more the quickie anecdote. Which is my favorite kind of blogging, but not so good for an anthology.
Here are a few I’m considering:
Unfair — in which the boot guy laments a kiss.
In Which I Suck At My Job — in which I suck at my job.
Cloth Diaper Redux — this one may not qualify as it is not really a narrative.
I meant to write about DST kicking my ass. — parenting is challenging; Sam is amazing.
OH HELLS YES — in which I found my journal from 1996 and shared some bad poetry.
Splainy — learning how to negotiate with a three-year-old terrorist.
Memo to the President — a letter to Obama offering him the tactical use of my screaming banshee in order to end the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and anywhere else that the enemy has eardrums.
A Drawer of One’s Own — a post about going from being a girlfriend without a drawer to being a family where everyone has a drawer. I am terribly proud of this post title, in particular.
Any thoughts? I’m really not sure any of these are good enough to submit, so I definitely want input. And feel free to suggest posts not listed here, if you like. Just keep in mind that I am fairly certain any photographs or links would not be included in the anthology so a post that relies on imagery or clicks won’t work. This post, for instance, is one of my favorites, but I’m not sure it works as a stand-alone. Help!
You can also nominate posts yourself (not just mine–yours or someone else’s) here.
