Tag Archives: internet

Have Blog, Can it be Better?

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Today I shall not focus, mention, whine, or elude to an all consuming issue I promised I wouldn’t type about again. Surely this is proof of the admirable will power I’ve gathered over the grace of time. But I am thinking about changing the title of my blog to “Pill Poppers Unite” and compare notes with others who have suffered misery under the guise of teeth maintenance.

Ignore that whole last paragraph.

blogToday, I decided I wanted to focus on helping other bloggers. When I changed blogs a few months back to seize and conquer my own domain space, I was pretty clueless and floundered through trial and error. Blogging for me, up until this point is pretty much like how I take pictures with my basic Nikon digital camera. I point (write), I shoot (publish), and hope for the best.

Many people have asked me questions, seeking direction and advice for their blogs lately. Things like, how to host your own blog, to how in the world do I continue to post daily entries. Honestly, I don’t have the best answers for those questions, remember, point and shoot,  but I’ve started to follow a couple of blogs that have helped me along and I wanted to share them today. This lady can learn new tricks!

The first blog I highly recommend is called One Cool Site. Timethief is the Author of this blog and on her About Page she writes ” Blog description: Tips and Tutorials on How to Become a Better Blogger, How to Build a Better Blog and where to find free Blogging Tools and Resources” I think that describes her fantastic blog perfectly. I’ve gone through many, many of her entries and achieves and discovered valuable blogging information that frankly after 5 years of blogging, I was clueless about. Go visit her site, explore, and look at your own blog through a new light.

The other blog I’d like to point out today is Wright Creativity, authored by Kirsten. Click through her categories~This blog focuses on writing content and social networking. She provides tips on the many social networking sites available and often pens entries that inspire new writing topics and ways to improve your blog experience and interaction on your own blog. If you find yourself in a writing rut or trying to figure out how to mingle with the crowd, go visit and get back on the highway.

I also recommend joining the social network site Blog Catalog. It’s the mack daddy collection of blog sites on the Internet. For me, it’s like being a little kid in the biggest candy store ever built. Blogs, blogs, blogs galore and no end in sight to the potential discoveries. At the bottom of this page you can also click on my blogcatalog widget. That’s the easy way to find one another in the candy store~  

Between those two blogs alone and joining the blog network site, I believe anyone could get down the basics without frustrating trial and errors. I know blogging is personal and everyone does it for their own reasons, but it never hurts to improve things around us. So, go forth, learn new tricks and above all, keep writing……….

The Internet Connection……

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Connection

Connection

This weekend I had the privilege of meeting someone that technically came from the “Internet”. When I think of a meeting that stemmed from computer origins, it’s like someone found the magical potion to mysteriously crawl from their screen and poof, they are real, alive, in full color and in 3-D outline.

I can’t claim I was part of the planning and co-ordinating of this meeting. I can’t even claim to have known this person prior to our first handshake. Husband gets the credit for sifting @AprilBraswell out of the basket of twitter.

It went a bit like this, “Hey, wife, Friday night can we meet April from twitter?”

Me, eyebrows pinched, “Ahhh ok, do I know this April? Hell, do you even know her?”

Hubby, “Oh sure, we tweet, she’s an incredible relationship specialist.”

Me, eye’s wide, “Is there something I should know, is this an ambush? I swear I only whined a little bit about you tossing Provocation into the pit of fire!”

Hubby, chuckling, “No hun, I didn’t hire her, she’ll be in town for the weekend, for a class, and thought it would be fun to meet up for dinner. Promise.”

Once I was positive it wasn’t some sort of intervention, I agreed.

I’m so glad I did! We laughed, we talked, we ate, we went back to her hotel lobby and sat by the fireplace eating cookies and drinking coffee till late in the night. April was smart, humorous, always smiling and the time went by in a flash. I had a fantastic time and can’t wait to meet up with her again in the future. I made a new friend and that’s something I hadn’t put on the agenda for the weekend.

Beyond having a beautiful time, I learned something from April I admit previously wasn’t even on my radar. She explained why she enjoys meeting up with people from the Internet whenever she travels. Something I’ve never attempted to do. Not once in all my travels…….I realized I’ve been missing out on the potential to bridge the space between this computer screen and all the wonderful people I connect with via written words. I’ve been ignoring the basic principles of meeting someone face to face, shaking their hand…..boisterous laughter and in-depth conversations. I don’t even have a pat reason why I’ve neglected the possibility and opportunities all these years.

But I aim to change that. So, who wants to do coffee and which State do I need to put in my travel plans? (grin)

Honestly, I do think I’ve been missing the connection boat. In a way I think meeting people from the Internet carried an air of taboo around it, back in the days……..but has that changed? Has the dynamics evolved into something less spooky without my knowledge? To further satisfy my curiosity, how many of you that are still reading this have met someone from the ‘Internet’ ? How did it go? ….Or, if you haven’t at this point in time, would you be brave enough to test those choppy waters? Go out on a limb? Throw caution to the wind? Shake a real live hand……..

Inquiring mind (s) wants to know~~

15 Hours of Terrifying Provocation Blackness

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Let me just say, NO I DID NOT PUSH THE DAMN BUTTON.

However.

At approximately 8:45 p.m, on April 22nd, 2009, I lost Provocation of Mine (d) into a soul sucking, gut punching black abyss of Internet Hell. I shall now call this infamous      15 hour time frame:

“When The Husband HIT some goddamn f**king button.”

Now I understand some of you may not have realized that the Earth had stopped spinning. That life as we know it had been altered between the hours of 8:45 p.m. last night until 12:20 p.m. today. Unless you had tried to visit Provocation between those hours you would not have been aware of the subtle air changes and the dramatic seek & rescue that was being enacted. I hope you enjoyed your peaceful bliss. Really I do. Sleep well?

Some of you did try to come by and was greeted with that oppressing Error 404–Not Found. Some of you emailed. Some of you twittered me. I thank you. I found great sympathy and comfort in those emails and power packed 140 messages. This is what went down………..

8:32 p.m: I had achieved official blog perfection. Beautiful Heather had sent the instructions for removal of ugly gray bar bullets on my blog, the only wart I had left to zap and I did it. I was exhilarated and at 8:36, I sent Heather an email stating we both rocked. I was on top of the website world. No more bullets and I had made that picture video for my blog. (2 bucks is in the mail by the way Heather)

 8:45 p.m. I clicked on my website to admire my bullet handy work. BUT instead of perfection, I get this ::Error 404-Not Found:: The shock was instant. Brain ramming into brick wall– splat.  

 Me: “Oh My GOD WHERE IS MY WEBSITE” as my eye’s sliced across the office to my husband who was logged onto our server host merrily deleting things  from his computer. “What DID YOU DOOOOOOOOOO???”

Husband:” What, nothing, I’m just cleaning up our files like I was told to do by that tech lady.”

Me: “It’s gone! GONE! My site is gone! Get it back. Get it back right this second. DO SOMETHING. Call tech support, backspace, undo, I don’t care but YOU get my website back up right this minute and if one hair, one single letter or line is out of place you will pay!!!”

Husband starts clicking things. “Ok, calm down, I’m sure it’s not GONE gone, Let me call tech support again, I’m sure it’s not a big deal. OH my God, all my websites are gone too! Oh shit!” (delayed panic surrounding his own sites was not a good move btw)  

Me, hyperventilating, “You should know, you’re life, existence as you know it,  is hanging by a thread right now.”

Calling Tech support from the States at 9 o’clock at night is not enjoyable. I applaud the abilities of those working in India, really I do. However 3 word sentences when one needs comforted and assured doesn’t do a lot for the soul. Things like “we work it” “we email you” “we understand” “hopefully find you” “24-48 hours you email” does not tie a pretty bow around all out anxiety attack.

This morning I woke up wayyyyy before my alarm clock. I guess I was hoping my Provocation would be like the resurrection of Jesus. I would get online, click on the link, and she would be smiling down on me with margins open wide and a new glowing halo atop her header. Instead I got the devils smile stretched across error–404.

So I prayed a lot, to the technology gods. Things like, “If you bring back Provocation, I’ll write everyday in a row for 60 days…..I’m sorry I claimed I was a technology Goddess when I posted that video I made…if you give Provocation back to me, I’ll back up, I promise!…If you let me have Provocation back oh powerful Techno Gods, I’ll never cuss at you again”

And then my mind turned to murder. Because HE pushed the damn button that murdered my precious website.  Murderous thoughts grew rampant as the morning wore on. I thought about it. I would bet if I had my lawyer get a jury full of bloggers, I could get off based on sympathy alone. They would understand the irrational panic and temporary insanity of losing their blogs. They would shed a tear for me~

I managed to make it through the morning without committing any felonies. Barely. At noon today, the husband was back on tech support begging for (marriage) mercy and finally, he and them, did something so the world was spinning again. Provocation came back to life.  (He’s acting pretty proud of that fact now. Strutting around like a peacock. I think he sees himself as a hero for pushing the buttons to bring Provocation back, personally I see him as damn lucky)

All I can say after such an experiece is this: Go home, hug your blog. Give it love, and a few hugs. Kiss the screen it walks across. Honor a comment I got just last week, Pauls haunting words that would not stop chanting in my ear for 15 hours, “Backup, backup, backup.” No blogger should ever have to go through the gut busting terror I’ve just suffered. No One.

Really? No, really? Blogs to Books…

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Blog To Book

Blog To Book

I have a daily ritual of slinking around the The New York Times online. This habit gets my head out of Idaho and wrapped around the realities of the rest of the world. It also satisfies my shameless pleasures/needs of reading about Arts, Literature, People and Style. In case you weren’t aware of it, Idaho is extremely sheltered. Bio-dome sheltered. I think they still do background checks at the borders in case an out of stater tries to sneak in and pollute the innocence.

During my rounds this morning I came across this article. Public provides the Giggles; Bloggers get the book deal  …..so of course, being the quote ‘blogger’ that I am, I had to read that one. Honestly, I think the cultural I.Q. points I had just built up by reading about William Yeats dropped to a deficit after reading it’s message.

Basically, the short version, if you come up with an idea that is undeniably silly and basic, and people high-5  it, you can become a sensation. This article talks about the popularity and now book deal, of sending one blogger pictures of your dignity stripped pets dressed up in costumes. Name of the blog- Pets Who Want To Kill Themselves……..Another, by the same theory is —This is why you are fat. (Now, I’ve never, not once in 5 years, slanted negative about another blog on the Internet, and I’m not doing that now. I swear. Huge Kudos’s to the authors of those blogs for achieving the elusive sensation known as Internet phenomenon. I imagine I’d laugh and smile if I visited those sites. However, this entry is about blogs to books)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think animals dressed up like Tinker bell are funny to look at. I enjoy the pictures where cats use bad spelling and grammer captioned with snarky humor. They make me smile, laugh and I’m not saying they don’t do wonders for the mood of the Internet. I’m down with the funny, I swear.

But, honestly. Is this what people are looking for in their books? This is what tickles the fancy of a fickle public and has agents clamoring for more? Publishing houses are actively seeking this sort of  ‘off the cuff’ and entirely irrelevant material to offer up for book consumption? Really? After I read the article my heart swelled a bit and my mind raced to all the amazing writers of blogs out there….the ones that have also wrote potential books via blood, sweat and tears. Those people, who send queries and partials out, week after week, just praying for one person to take an interest. Those writers/bloggers have been officially trumped by a bacon wrapped Twinkie. There’s something wrong with that picture.

I understand some people may think I’m comparing apples to oranges here. Humor picture books do have their merit. And I suppose there is always room next to the toilet for that sort of  literature book. Maybe I’m a book snob and didn’t even realize it because next to my toilet you’ll find Shakespeare, e.e. cummings and a suduko book. (Sneaky way of introducing the daughters to good reads) The way I see it, one can broaden their mind just about anywhere~~

Maybe what I’m saddened about, is the fact I run across so many incrediable blogs out there. Blogs written, with words, that could easily make the leap from blog to book and sadly they aren’t on the radar. I think when I’m done with this, I need to go do some research. Surely there are blogs that have moved to book based purely on the writing content and I’m just out of the loop. Does anyone know of any? If there are, I’d happily toss good money to the cause.

#BlogFind: Want Humor? With Words?  Nydia is a witty, entertaining writer, I already knew that, but holy hell, her entry about “When Trains Go Bad” had my sides hurting I was laughing so hard. So if you visit, that entry is a MUST read!! Caution: Don’t drink anything while reading about her brush with death~Polymer Clay Snails