Hello, dear blog readers. I’ve been in and out of town, away from the blog off and on… did you notice? I hope not, because my lovely other half did yeoman work in keeping the blog running. Now we are back at full force (two!) and ready to blog for your amusement and ours.
Let’s talk about blogging. The internets keep saying it is over, but apparently everyone I know is as behind the times as we are, because everyone’s doing it. Over the holidays, I found out that my sister has a secret blog with 2 of her friends. (Hey chica, if you’re reading this, holla at us.) They’ve had it for over a year — don’t tell the rest of the fam. (#2: I hope my sister never knows, though I’m pretty sure I accidentally left the dashboard open when she checked her email on my laptop over Christmas. If you’re reading this, hermanita, feel ashamed!) It is an accountability blog where they all help each other reach goals, and it’s been really successful for them. A work colleague of mine also started a blog recently, again to provide herself accountability in various life domains and goals. She has it under her real name; she has tenure. And I found out things about her hobbies that I never knew before, which is cool. (#2: I found out things about her fertility patterns… but apparently that was already public information for #1)
Maybe my mom should start a blog to help her accountability/ procrastination in her freelance work. Wouldn’t that be hilarious. (#2 says: can it be a secret blog? Maybe she already has one!)
Also, over the holidays my partner got a Kindle and I was able to play with it. I was not that impressed. My favorite part is the pictures you get when you turn it off. (#2: Mine too!) The flash whenever you turn a page really bothered me, even after giving it a whole book’s worth of reading to get myself used to it. I never did. (#2: This bothers me with some books more than others… haven’t figured out what the difference is though.)
And about that book! Man it was bad. That’s ok, because I just downloaded a free one in order to play with the Kindle and that’s what I get for downloading something free that was written in the last decade. The worst thing about the book was that I knew what the sequel was going to be. Before the book ended, the sequel sprung fully-formed into my mind. I mean, I know whose POV it’s going to be from, which events will occur, which characters there will be, what the climax is and how it will resolve, all of it! I don’t even know if there is a sequel but there must be, because it is obvious. I won’t read it, of course, since I have it written already in my head. (#2: You should have gotten that Mary Roberts Reinhart I recommended instead– it was TOTALLY HILARIOUS)
What’ve you all been up to?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
January 9, 2011 at 4:44 am
I personally think the era of the blog is just beginning. Until recently, it required much more skill and computer know how to make a nice looking blog. I remember in the 1990’s one of my computer geek friends helped me make a website and it was almost 100% coding.
Now with wordpress, plugins, and all the free tutorials out there, any knucklehead can figure out how to make a page for themselves.
I do still think people should be careful about how much they share about themselves and their families. I still find it a little creepy when people post lots of pictures of their kids and stuff in the public domain. I mean anybody can have access to that stuff. All I’m thinking is that some pedophile could be out there jacking off to them.. We’ve already heard stories over people being fired over their facebook or blog comments. I think the only blog I would make public is something that’s 100% professional in nature, like something that could be used as resume material.
January 9, 2011 at 12:16 pm
Yeah, I actually have other webpages that I made a long time ago entirely by typing HTML code. Most of that code is deprecated now, but I have a basic idea of how to do the most basic stuff (for instance, I never did learn to use CSS). WordPress is shiny.
January 10, 2011 at 7:04 am
I have a teenage relative whose parents took away her computer privileges after she was telling complete strangers on the internet personal info. Then I have another relative who met her future husband the same way. I’m obviously a geezer now, because that seems just as scary to me.
January 9, 2011 at 4:56 am
I’m specifically thinking of this woman who posted a big controversial article on crossdressing her son as daphne on her blog…Yeah, it got lots of hits and comments that were both gushingly positive and toxic. It also gave her 5 minutes of fame BUT
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2010/11/08/mom-defends-boys-daphne-halloween-costume/
I don’t have an issue with her allowing her son to dress as daphne, or even writing about it, but I do have an issue with her posting his picture up. I don’t know if her son will appreciate this notoriety 10 years later when his image is all over the internet. I think people should respect their children’s privacy until they are old enough to make their own decisions about what images to share with the world. Sorry, I went off on a tangent, but I do think there are a lot of dumb things getting posted that will come back to bite people.
January 9, 2011 at 7:02 am
YES. I am very protective of my child. Some of those mother blogs are just AWFUL (not any of our readers’ blogs, of course). I had to stop reading the NYTimes parenting blog because occasionally she would feature these total nutcases who created drama in their lives just so they could blog about it. AND under their own names, making it very easy to figure out who the children were. There’s a lot of crazy people out there who do not protect their kids.
January 9, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I haven’t even posted a picture of my cat! Also we kind of have a no-drama thing. (See the About page)
January 9, 2011 at 7:12 am
What have I been up to? Absolutely nothing. That is awful! Kids went back to school this week (should I post pictures? :) and I didn’t get much done as I wasn’t feeling well and a project blew up at my real job. I did play some racquetball, clipped coupons, and went to bed at 8:40 one night.
This is a new week though, starting today. It is going to be much better!
Welcome back!
January 9, 2011 at 11:38 am
Woo! Yay for each week being a new start. ‘Cuz I gotta say, I sure could use one.
January 9, 2011 at 8:07 am
Anything I write about my kids, I run past them first before I post it. Because sometimes it could be something that’s embarrassing to them and I have to respect that. But then I embarrass myself too so our bar is probably low for this stuff.
The youngest wishes I would write more about him, he thinks he’s “famous” if he’s on the interwebz. My oldest son even wrote a “guest post” on my blog once. ;-)
I think I have 2 pictures of my youngest kid up on my blog, in both of them you can’t see his face. But I think that some blogs with lots of pictures (thinking The Pioneer Woman here) are very tastefully done.
I’ve never read any parenting blogs and only maybe 2 books on parenting. I imagine that lack of knowledge shows… :-)
But I also think that most parenting advice today is kind of retarded. All these paranoid people that do stuff like organize a “take your kid to the park that’s 2 blocks away day and let them (gasp!) play alone” – and they’re 12 years old. Hmm. I should finish that post on the high cost of a helicopter parenting style…
Why keep reading a bad book though? Ugh, nothing worse than finishing something you know from the first chapter is bad. My kobo e-reader is great, the only problem I have with it is the flipping pages, I can’t seem to get the timing right.
January 9, 2011 at 8:33 am
*Sigh* I wish we could just borrow a well-behaved neighborhood preschool kid for a couple of hours to keep ours entertained without having to spend time on the parents too. Like when we were kids. But alas. My colleagues tell me that unsupervised (by both sets of parents… still supervised by one set) playdates can begin around age 7.
Also no roaming bands of mixed aged neighborhood kids. The neighborhood kids seem to sadly play alone in their backyard playsets or on their own cul-de-sacs instead of together.
January 9, 2011 at 10:20 am
Once your little one is in regular school, I’d encourage him to have kids over after school if you can. When my oldest was around 7, I worked from home so I kind of babysat his best friend every day after school for free just to have a playmate for him.
Oh, a couple of links for you (if you haven’t got them already):
http://www.stephanietolan.com/is_it_a_cheetah.htm – love that essay…
http://www.giftedservices.com.au/
January 9, 2011 at 12:39 pm
nifty!
January 9, 2011 at 10:17 am
Holla!
Just avoiding some work over here, as per usual.
By the by, I have totally suggested to our mama dear that a secret blog would be a good way to go. She could pursue her secret writer-ly ambitions, all, you know, secretly.
January 9, 2011 at 12:19 pm
That is so totally awesome.
January 9, 2011 at 11:34 am
I am flabbergasted by the trend of people living their private lives as completely open books on the Internet. What the f***e is the motivation for doing that? But then again, I am flabbergasted at the popularity of magazines and teevee shows about the private lives of dumshitte “celebrities”, and cannot comprehend how grown adults with their own lives could possibly give a flying f***e whether Holly is still dating Chad, or is now with Daniel.
January 9, 2011 at 12:21 pm
This is what I get for moving away from my partner and his subscription to Entertainment Weekly: I have NO IDEA what is going on in popular culture like this. It’s kind of an improvement.
January 10, 2011 at 6:41 am
I set my sister up on her own blog over Christmas. I’ve been trying to get my Dad to start one (even if it was set on private). He’s always researching the most interesting ideas.
I don’t tell people my last name but I’m sure if someone tried hard enough they could figure out who I am. I post pics. with my family and write about them. I don’t take insult that you’re not OK with that- we live in a free country where everyone can have their own opinion. In fact, it’s boring if we all just agreed.
I don’t tell a lot of stories about my kids (they really funny ones might not be that funny in 10 years to them). My husband and I have had multiply conversations about how much is too much. My husband recently set up both kids with their own public blogs. We monitor them and as of yet have had no problem. Both blogs are fictional stories the kids write. Controversial, yes…..but as it was proven to me last night at my book club, I’m typically the parent on the fringe and use to other parents believing I’m a bit off my rocker.
My husband got a Kindle-like thing for Christmas. We have it set up in the kitchen with all of our recipes on it (the recipes are kept on ‘endnotes’). He made this really cool stand for it. I can’t imagine reading a book on it though!
January 10, 2011 at 7:11 am
I like the Kindle, at least abstractly. I haven’t used one yet, but I think I would approve of having all my books in one and being able to buy and instantly read new ones.
I’ve been cooking, which leads to eating, which leads to not stepping on the scale. I’ve also been writing (which leads to sitting…) It turns out that writing a paper, and then trying to figure out where to send it is harder than I thought…now I’m re-generating results to make it more targeted so that hopefully it will get accepted. Whew, sometimes the fast-moving, glamorous lifestyle of academia is overwhelming.
January 10, 2011 at 11:48 am
The Wise Squirrel has been busy working but finding time to enjoy a birthday. Getting old is not so bad, I’m finding. Especially since you can’t control the chronological part of it. Might as well embrace it, rather than go kicking and screaming into a fight you won’t win:)
To the blog discussion here….I had a family member ask me if I would help them with getting a blog set up. It’s funny being seen as a true blogging resource, like I’m a pro, when I’ve been at this for less than a year! But with so many new blogs out there, once you past a year you’re probably a blog veteran anyway.
January 10, 2011 at 12:58 pm
You are a pro!
I wonder if we’ll be famous on the internet after a year…
January 10, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Writing anonymously or under a pen name is hardly anything new so it’s not surprising to find the big numbers on the internet that do that. I like it, but I find it tricky. I like including photos in the blog. You’ll find most of the images in my blog are not mine. The ones that are mine haven’t featured my face. I’m pretty sure if you really want to dig, you might find one. I do put photos of the kids but I think I have managed to avoid potentially embarassing shots. I wish more people I personally knew would blog– anonymously or otherwise. It gives a different perspective.
January 11, 2011 at 12:44 pm
I could totally tell you were gone.
Just kidding, you fooled us all, you and your sneaky scheduled posts.
Speaking of books, I’ve been looking for a good fiction to read. Do you have any suggestions? I asked Twitter and Facebook and they came up with nuthin’.
January 11, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Have you ever read anything by Georgette Heyer?
There’s a new Terry Pratchett out that is wonderful…
January 12, 2011 at 5:52 am
Nope, I’ll go check both of these authors out. Thanks!