In case you don’t read squirrelers (and you should), and were wondering how we came about, here’s excerpts from the transcript of our birth.
…
Nicole:
I feel grumpy and irritable
I have so much crap to do
…
Maggie: hahahahaha I was reading GRS comments without looking at the names– and I saw one and thought, “That really sounds like nicole! I wonder if she wrote it?” and I scrolled up and you did. Haha.
Nicole: I’m a grumpy gus
a negative nelly
….
Maggie: oh dear. Now I just got angry and posted a tart comment on someone’s blog.
Everyone has a blog. My adviser’s son has a blog about cooking.
Nicole: gasp!
I didn’t know you posted to blogs
which one which one?
I don’t have a blog
Maggie: we should start a blog called nicole & maggie
Nicole: ha!
yes
it can be totally grumpy
but you know
that would like take time and effort
Maggie: I even know how to make blogs now, thanks to a project…
Nicole: bah to effort
oooh
can you monetize them?
‘cuz I do like money
we can have it be the grumpy rumblings of the untenured
“Grumpy rumblings by Maggie and Nicole”
Maggie: I’m not sure about monetizing; but how hard can it be?
Nicole: we can complain about other people being stupid
people will have flame wars in our comments sections and totally dis us
but so long as there’s money…
Maggie: hehe
I think the title of the blog should be “Nicole & Maggie” and the tag line should be “Grumpy rumblings of the untenured”
Nicole: excellent
I can complain about people who complain about things and don’t do anything to fix them
Maggie: I can complain about EVERYTHING
we can of course have an extensive blogroll on the side
Nicole: and I can complain about mothers who think that anybody who does anything different than they did is destroying their child
and oh, the complaints about students
Maggie: yes
Nicole: and heat
Maggie: YES
…
And thus our little blog was born.
How was your blog born, if you have one?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
November 24, 2010 at 2:05 am
Well, I’m glad you came to be. I do enjoy reading your blog a lot. You may even be rubbing off on me as I have a things that annoyed me this week post I’m working on. It’s pretty ranty so I haven’t posted it yet.
Ha ha about the comments flame wars…I’ve never seen them like I did in simple dollar. In fact, I may have even participated in a few…I specifically remember the $2 bathing suit story that made me totally ballistic, especially for a tall person like me who has to pay extra for clothes.
November 24, 2010 at 6:43 am
I’d already been blocked from commenting on TSD at that point so I stopped reading it. I have no idea why he blocked me. JD at GRS has a really fantastic post on his personal blog about how to avert flame wars (and tame trolls) and it seems like Trent purposefully does the opposite.
Thanks for the compliment! We love your blog too! And as for your future ranting… mwahahahahaa.
November 24, 2010 at 7:16 am
Trent BLOCKED YOU FROM COMMENTING at tsd??? what?? isn’t that, like, against the code of blogging? (i mean, the whole “it’s a conversation” thing).
TSD was the first finance blog I ever came across, and sad to say it’s becoming my least favorite.
November 24, 2010 at 7:28 am
Yeah, apparently he does it to a lot of people. There was a big conversation about it on GRS. Trent claims overactive spam filter, but the comments in GRS suggest otherwise.
http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/09/07/book-review-the-simple-dollar/ (in the comments)
November 24, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Wow. I thought it was only me. It’s definitely a bummer when you put thought and effort into a comment and it goes into never never land.
November 24, 2010 at 3:24 pm
I hate the Simple Dollar as he also blocked me. Plus, I wasn’t getting anything from his posts at all. I loved the long commentary on GRS. It was funny because nobody cared about Trent’s book, everyone just wanted to rip on Trent!
My blog was intentional. I knew I wasn’t going to be working much longer, so I was trying to think of what would keep my mind busy. I always wanted to try writing, so I bought a domain name and waited. It took 6 months, but I finally started writing.
November 24, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Man, TSD blocks all the good people.
We’re glad you decided to do a blog!
May 2, 2012 at 5:58 am
I’m not sure if I was blocked, but a suspicious number of my comments ended up in moderation (and never came out, despite me emailing Trent), so I gave up on that blog entirely. There was a little bit of good stuff and a whole lot of crap on there. The comments made it fun until I couldn’t comment anymore.
May 2, 2012 at 6:00 am
I think it’s a large club of people who cannot comment on TSD. Also the last time I looked (when they linked to us the other week), comments that where there the first time I looked had been deleted. Apparently mentioning GRS in the comments gets you banned? I couldn’t really find a rhyme or reason to it. Or maybe that person had tried to comment a second time and both were deleted? Who knows…
November 24, 2010 at 5:23 am
It’s funny that Sandy mentions comment wars on The Simple Dollar because I have participated in one or two there too. Anyway, I’m so glad that your blog came to be as well. You guys do a lot of entertaining and informing. My wife and I sometimes discuss your posts and a lot of your comments! Cheers, N&M, you have your admirers now!
November 24, 2010 at 6:45 am
Woo! Causing discussion and provoking thoughts… it’s like we’re professors or something. :)
Your blog causes us to think too. It’s all good.
November 24, 2010 at 6:23 am
My blog was born out of a looong spell of slooow days at work, and a lot of free time to day dream. I used to hate blogs, but once I realized they are a form of entertainment like television, I started to get it.
November 24, 2010 at 6:45 am
hee! Blogging as a tv substitute. When reality shows aren’t updated frequently enough. :)
November 24, 2010 at 7:41 am
One thing to be grateful about tomorrow is your blog and the way it makes me giggle LOL My first original blog was born because I was bored at work one day. But my current blog was born because I had too much crap in my head that needed pouring out.
November 24, 2010 at 7:46 am
Awww thanks! Tomorrow our post is kind of sappy. :)
It’s been a while since your blog has updated… does that mean the crap is all out now? Blogs as catharsis!
November 24, 2010 at 7:30 pm
I started mine for quite a stupid reason. I was trying to figure out where I had to be to retire. I couldn’t find any retirement blogs that gave me hard NUMBERS. Well except ERE and well… that’s not my idea of living, much less retiring.
I couldn’t find anything where was somebody talking about where I wanted to be and the kind of life I wanted to have – semi-retirement. Sometimes juggling work that they really enjoyed (not being a walmart greeter – not that there’s anything wrong with that) and a “normal” life, but also taking time off, traveling (and I don’t mean a 2 week vacation), and sort of trying to “have it all”. So because I didn’t have any examples I decided to BE one.
And I definitely didn’t see any single parents out there writing about this kind of thing. There are so many “how to” blogs out there… be frugal, make more money, yada yada… But I don’t go to blogs for that kind of information – one good book will do it for you. Why on earth would I listen to someone like TSD on networking when I can phone up 30 friends who seem to have made it further than he did faster through networking? Doesn’t make sense.
I also see a lot of “how’s” to save money or make more. What I don’t see is enough emphasis on the WHY. Get your “why” down and the how’s will take care of themselves.
November 24, 2010 at 8:35 pm
That is really awesome.
November 25, 2010 at 10:20 am
I was blocked about a year ago over at Simple Dollar! I never could figure out why….
I started blogging because my friends were getting tired of hearing my ‘stories’ over and over again. It’s become my story vessel. It’s great because now when I run into an old friend they say,’Oh I read your blog’ I respond, ‘Great, you’re caught up on me lets talk about you.’
November 25, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Heh. Awesome blog use!
Man, maybe TSD just blocks everybody who comments more than once.
November 25, 2010 at 11:57 am
I didn’t actually set out to start blogging, but me and a friend (www.beatingtheindex.com) were talking a lot about various things, and I encouraged him to start a blog to write down all his thoughts. At the same time I thought “Why not start one myself?”, and haven’t looked back since. :)
November 25, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Good decision!
November 25, 2010 at 3:24 pm
You claim you love words, and then you go and use “monetize”!?!?!?!? OUTRAGE!111!!1!!!111!elebnty!~~“~!!1!
November 25, 2010 at 4:31 pm
We love all sorts of words. You must be some kind of new word hater.
November 26, 2010 at 9:29 am
Funny path!
I got slammed when I used the word Monetize for the first time around my wife! She gave me one of those “What are you smoking” like of looks… But she is (or was) an accountant…
November 26, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Thanks for the recommendation of my blog! As I’m entertained by the story of your blog’s beginnings….
You know the Squirrelers story, from my post.
Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving.
November 27, 2010 at 5:17 am
[…] Grumpy Rumblings of the Untenured shared how their website was born. My blog was stirring in the back of my head for about 6 months before I took the leap. What about you? […]
November 27, 2010 at 5:48 pm
[…] Our birth (Nicole and Maggie) […]
November 28, 2010 at 12:56 am
[…] Runblings of the Untenured: Our birth Nicole and Maggie has a very uniquely named blog! I always guessed where it came from, but in […]
November 29, 2010 at 9:12 am
I was grumpy about two things. I had been reading a couple of blogs on science-y and science career topics. It was a no brainer after that….
November 29, 2010 at 11:06 am
Hooray for grumpiness forming blogs!
November 30, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Yup, another grump here. Blog birth shortly after moving to my postdoc and discovering that I was in a horrifying new world. I’m less grumpy now, of course- in fact, I’m delightful. But it was the grump that got me over the blogging hump.
July 14, 2011 at 1:33 am
[…] year ago we started this blog. A little less than a year ago we wondered what our blog should be. We seem to have settled […]
May 2, 2012 at 1:17 am
[…] We started the blog on a whim. Apparently one of us wanted money, though that has not happened (or not yet happened). Money takes effort. And possibly some dirtying of the soul. […]
May 2, 2012 at 6:04 am
I started my blog in college because I wanted some attention. I’d been reading blogs for a few years, and I wanted a piece of the action. But I really had no idea how to go about building an audience. By the time I figured that out, I didn’t care about regular blogging so much.
Really, my blog is a place to talk about what I’ve been doing for family, friends, and apparently some random internet folks (every once in awhile, I get comments or emails from people who read my blog, and I have no idea who they are). I know a number of people I know are reading. I studied abroad a little bit after I studied my blog, and that’s when I had lots of visits from people wanting to know what I was up to. I wrote a lot about travel in the early years, because I was traveling a lot.
Now, I’m quite behind. I still like to blog, and I mean to, but I haven’t set aside the proper time for blogging in quite awhile. Maybe soon, I always tell myself.