KirstenL4W

Do you ever find that life gets in the way of blogging?  What am I talking about, of course you do!  We all have real lives out there that we need to be in.  But during the course of a normal day, my thoughts often turn towards blogging.  I don’t blog from work like I have been able to in past jobs, so my post quantity has gone down.  I do think about it, and I think of all the kinds of posts I could write and all the things I can do to find inspiration for awesome posts.  Then, this is the kicker.  I get home from work, eat dinner, and head upstairs to the computer to catch up on the interwebs while Mister plays his silly little game.  And that’s where I draw a complete blank.  I either spend so much time catching up on stuff and seeking out new things to read and keep me occupied, or I just sit down in front of the computer and watch my mind go bye-bye.

I do want to blog, and I keep thinking that when I’m inspired I’ll write a bunch of posts and future-date them, but that never happens.  Actually, there’s a lot of things I want to do - clean up my desk, create a filing system to merge the files that Mister and I have, organize my bookmarks, organize my photos, finish unpacking this house, etc, etc, etc.  I’m just too brain dead at the end of the day to do any of that.  I need to find motivation.  Where do I find that, especially after waking up at 5am after about 5hrs sleep (I need 8), working at least 8 hours, then fighting my way through the blast furnace like heat to come home?  I don’t know, but what I do know is that Mister and I will be leaving the house very shortly to go to our regular Thursday night outing, so I won’t be too motivated to do anything else tonight.

I was reading the news while on my lunch hour at work a few weeks ago and came across this article.  It discusses the therapeutic benefits of blogging.  Since my very first post, I have felt a certain comfort in putting my thoughts online.  If I’m looking for feedback, someone who doesn’t know me from a hole in the wall could well be able to offer a fresh perspective versus someone who does know me.  Heck, just getting it out there helps.  I have noticed that if I write something down in my journal, it helps but only to a point.  I’ve long used journaling as a way to articulate my thoughts, to help turn them from abstract figments of thoughts into something more concrete so that I can continue on with whatever has been on my mine.

But blogging is different.  It helps communicate those thoughts.  Even though my audience is largely made up of people who don’t know me, whom I don’t communicate with except in blog comments, that anonymity is freeing.  People read my blog because they’re interested.  Because I’ve said something that they can relate to.  I find that in real life, I am quieter and not as open with all my thoughts because I feel that most people don’t understand.  Whether they say they do or not, it’s difficult for me to convey my feelings in spoken form and get the desired effect.  I just don’t think on my feet like that.  The method of communication that works best for me is writing, and when you’re face to face with someone, well, it’s hard.

Though blogging is thought of as a form of communication,  some people don’t get that.  I mean, I write down everything I’m thinking, and a blog post is 100% my thoughts.  But the communication comes in comments.  It comes in reading other people’s blogs.  While others won’t put out posts meant to say something directly to me as a response to my posts, their thoughts will touch me and speak to my much in the same way that mine do for others.

It’s a great big wide interwebs out there.  Those that don’t live an online life or who use the internet as an information resource with the occasional email to keep in touch don’t get the power of blogging.  Not blogging for money or having a niche blog.  Personal blogging.  It’s fun, as a hobby should be.  It’s absorbing, as a good television series ought to be.  And it’s therapeutic, as journaling is.   For those of us who blog, it’s as necessary as a nice long chat with a close friend is.

I was invited by Mimi to join the BlogBlast for Peace. I eagerly signed up, but then wasn’t sure what to write. I know I’m supposed to write about peace, but world peace, like my peace globe, seems to be such an abstract, untouchable thought. It’s too big.

Instead, I want to talk about that old saying about peace starting at home. Think globally, act locally. It sounds hokey, but it’s true. How can we expect entire countries and cultures to get along if we can’t get along with our next door neighbors, or our sisters, brothers, spouses, etc? In the grand scheme of things, is it really worth getting all out of sorts because someone cut you off in traffic? It’s hard on most days, but if we make an effort to not let the little things get to us and try being nicer to people in our daily lives, if we start small and affect people by being pleasant rather than pissy, we can do our small part to make the world a nicer place. Not the world at large, but our immediate world.

I keep thinking of the movie What About Bob? Bob is a psychiatric patient who goes through shrinks the way most people go through under. His latest doc, Dr. Leo Marvin, has just published a book called Baby Steps. The premise of the book is that anyone can cure their ills with baby steps. Bob takes this book as gospel and baby steps his way to cure is many neuroses. “Baby steps on the bus, baby steps on the bus.” It’s an essential part to the hilarious plot in this movie, but there’s a lot of validity to it. It’s the little things we do that make the world a better place.

A couple posts back, I put forth the question Am I A Good Blogger? So many blogs about blogging make it sound like those of us who have personal blogs are doing everything wrong, according to the Bible of Blogging. We’re can’t possibly be serious about blogging if we don’t have a niche. We’re told that our blogs are boring, that no one wants to read about our personal lives. We’re told that blogging is a business, not a hobby for us little people.

My post brought lots of thought-provoking comments. Devilish Southern Belle referred to her site as a “vanity site.” I like that. After all, aren’t most blogs about vanity? I haven’t found too many altruistic blogs out there. It seems like everyone blogging is either talking about themselves, talking about how much money they make blogging, or talking about what an expert they are on being a way too cool super popular blogger.

Diesel has a rather funny personal blog, and had some interesting observations about StumbleUpon. He takes the best of the “good blogger” advice and makes it work for him.

Snoskred did an entire post based on mine. She brought up some good points. Getting my own domain has been at the back of my mind for a while, and eventually I would like to build a bigger website. I like what Jordon’s done with his site, so something along those lines would be good - not a hugely in depth site, but a few extra pages to show who he is and what his interests are is pretty much the kind of thing I was thinking about. Of course, I would need to learn a lot more about different platforms and how to actually run a whole website. That will come with time - having the time! But back to the issue at hand…

I read a couple of blog posts that made me feel better about my blog and where it’s at. The first one is from SuperBlogging and is titled, “Your Blog Can Be Whatever You Want It To Be“. All I have to say to that is Amen, brother. And this morning I read (thanks to Snoskred) this article entitled, “How Do You Measure Your Success As A Blogger?” Look at the very first bullet point. “…is it by personal satisfaction, knowing that your needs are met? That your sense of community has been satisfied?” It’s extremely rare that a blogger will write a post about blogging that actually considers the needs of the individual blogger. And yes, this is exactly why I blog.

I started this blog as a personal journal and quickly branched out into all things about me (hence the title of my blog). This blog is me, through and through. It’s not about lining my pockets, and it’s not about making the rest of you feel like you need to scramble to keep up with how great I am. It’s just me, and now that I’ve been at it awhile it’s about the friends I’ve made too. I’ve kept in touch with friends and family, gotten re-acquainted with old friends, and made new friends along the way. Knowing that there are real people on the other end of the internet makes it worthwhile, and even if no one is reading, just getting things out in the open is worth it, too.

I spent a decent amount of time today reading various blogging tips blogs. I’m always interested in what I can do to make my blog better, but it’s also got to work for me. I’m not an A-list blogger and never will be. I’m not an expert on anything and don’t claim to be. I only have one niche - ME, as evidenced by my blog’s title.

I’ve played with my blog’s template and gotten it to where I’m satisfied with it. I have a lot of ideas that I’d like to try, design-wise, but lack both the time to try them out and the expertise to figure it out.

My pagerank isn’t where it could be. I don’t have time to dedicate to heavy social networking, like Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, del.icio.us, etc. If I did I’m sure I’d have more readers than I do now. As it is, I don’t even track my stats, so I have no idea how many readers I get. I do have counters and such, but I don’t have time to pay attention to them.

The biggest mistake I make, according to all the pros out there, is that I don’t have my own domain. I can’t be a serious blogger if I don’t, right? Sure, I’m here on Blogger, and I am serious about my blog. I’m just not serious about making this my full time job (full time hobby would be nice, though). I’ve checked out other blog services. I have a LiveJournal that I rarely post on but visit at least 3-4 times a week to see my friend’s blogs. I like Blogger in that it’s the only free service (that I know of) that allows full customization of the html and css code. Free is good for me. Now, I can get my own domain name and continue hosting it on Blogger. I can also get a domain, have a bigger website, and link to the blogger blog. That’s still a thought. But I like Blogger, it’s been good to me, and I have no intention on leaving it just yet. Besides, the work to move everything is just too much for me, and I’ve already established that time does not grow on trees.

What do I do? As far as publicizing my blog goes, I make sure I let my friends and family know it’s the best way to keep up with my goings on. This past year I put labels in all my holiday cards to advertise my blog. Also, as of 5 minutes ago, my blog address is in my email signature. I’ll also check out the message boards I visit frequently and make sure it’s in my signature there also. I’m not looking for a huge audience, but the people who are interested in me, like friends, family, and internet friends will likely want to know if I have a blog and where to find it.

Link-Love and Comments - sure, I practice this. If I like your blog, I’ll link to it. I don’t expect reciprocal links, though blog etiquette says this is the thing to do. Comments are also nice. I try to comment as time allows, but I don’t feel compelled to comment on every single post you have. If I have something to say, I’ll say it, but even in person, I’ve never been one to talk just for the sake of talking. I’m also trying to reply to comments more. I enjoy this kind of dialogue.

Now, for the feedback. What do you all think of my blog? Is there anything that doesn’t work for you? Does it load ok? Let me know, and if it’s a load issue, let me know about what OS, browser, and all that technical stuff that you have so I can pretend to know what to do about it.

78%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
It’s just a hobby. Really.

Hey all, just a quick update - My mommy finally got a blog!!!  I encourage all of you to visit and say hi.  Here’s her (edited for privacy) email that I got announcing it.  Go here to visit her.  (I’m emailing this, so if the link doesn’t work, go to www.bubba9399.blogspot.com - she was so excited she put .blog instead of .com in her email).

Mommy wrote:

Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:54:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mommy
Subject: Blog me
To: Kirsten

bubba9399.blogspot.blog   Maybe you can tell me how to improve my “looks” on the blog.

(Whenever you have time)

Love,

Mommy

There’s a bit of a scandal going on in the blogosphere. It concerns Bobby from The Bestest Blog of All Time. When the site was started, it was supposed to be a simple link exchange - exchange links with him and you have a one-stop shop for finding all sorts of new links. Great idea, and I exchanged links with him, and got a decent amount of traffic for my little blog. But then Bobby started getting full of himself. He redesigned the site to make it harder to navigate, harder to read, and recently, hasn’t even been updating with new links, which was the main purpose of his blog in the first place. Sure, he still has little about nothing worthwhile scattered in between his PPP posts, but on his site, I really don’t care about the posts. I just wanted an easy source for new links. I haven’t yet decided on whether or not I’ll take down the link. I need to sit on that for a bit and see what develops.

Since Bobby has been seriously slacking, I’ve been finding new blogs to read elsewhere. I go thru all the links on the blogs that I link to, and chase links again from there. Chasing links is much more fun than expecting them to come to me, and I’m almost assured that I won’t come across any crap. (Hello, this is my furst blog post and i am an eggspert on how to make moneey bloging). No, chasing links is a much better way to find blogs that offer quality content, even if that content doesn’t interest me at all. If I like you and want to read you on a regular basis, I will link to you, simple as that. I like it when people link to me, but I’m not going to be a link hound. If you like me, link to me. That’s the way it should be.

One more thing that bugs me. I understand that certain people want to keep certain blogs private. That’s not an issue. But what bugs me is when people make their profiles private. Now, when I see you left an interesting comment on my blog or someone else’s blog and I want to check you out a bit more, I can’t even see what blogs you have because I can’t read your profile. It’s not that I want to stalk you or anything. I just want to find and read interesting blogs. And privacy concerns? Well, this is the internets, but you’re not required to put your name, dob, SSN and other major identifying details on your profile. You just have to have a name, and it doesn’t have to be real. So why can’t I read your profile to find out more about witty commenters?

Here’s my advice: If you’re going to start a blog, have some real content on there that people actually want to read. Make your profile public, even if your blog isn’t. You can always put a note in there on why the blog is private. And if you do start something and can’t continue, either pass the buck or have a compelling reason on why you’re discontinuing.

I read some really great posts today. I love it when reading blogs makes me laugh out loud.

First, I was greeted by a comment from Mist1 regarding the post below this one. She always makes me laugh. I read one of her posts to my mom on the phone one day and an amazing thing happened. My mom actually stopped talking long enough to listen to what I was saying. Then she started talking again, but she did say that Mist1 should have a newspaper column or something, a la Dave Barry. I think my mom should spend more time reading cool blogs instead of the newspaper.

Mr. Fabulous has this post and this post in which he answers a lot of mysteries of the universe. Once I stopped laughing I realized that I had a huge smile on my face because of this newfound knowledge. Thanks for setting the record straight, Mr. Fabulous.

PARLANCHEQ is always finding bizarre stuff online and posting it on her blog. Today I was greeted with jewelry made out of dismembered Barbie dolls. It was so unique that I was able to put away the fact that the concept is revolting. And of course I thought of some of my friends, like Crowjoy, who loves unique artsy stuff and sometimes uses a headless Barbie doll as her avatar, and Dr. Hula, who recently told me that she wants to have a kid just so she can have a Vegas Showgirl themed baby shower. The Barbie chest necklace that PARLANCHEQ featured in her post, with pasties on every dismembered torso, made me think of Dr. Hula. And of course, I smiled because I always smile when I think of cool friends.

Now on to Memoirs of a Gouda. Allie, all I can say is you will soon be owing me a new keyboard. I love your blog, but it forces me to spew whatever I happen to be eating or drinking from my nose directly onto that invaluable piece of hardware that I use to input text directly into my blog.

I have many more wonderful blogging and RL friends whose blogs I look forward to reading daily, and they are all listed in my sidebar. Today, the humor stuck out and really made my day. Thanks to everyone in the blogosphere who makes reading and writing blogs so enjoyable.

I finally got that mix CD made for the exchange I’m participating in. Here’s the list of songs I came up with:

1. A song from the year you were born - Free Man in Paris by Joni Mitchell
2. A song having to do with your favorite color - Turn Back Time by Aqua
3. A song that mentions a place name - Gulf of Mexico by Cameron Dezen
4. Up in the air and beyond (sun, sky, atmosphere, moon, planets, outer space, etc.) - Blue Sky by Patty Griffin
5. A food or mealtime song - Pizza Cutter by Letters to Cleo
6. A cowboy song - A Common Disaster by Cowboy Junkies
7. It’s about time - See #2
8. A song about music - Mix Tape by the Original Broadway Cast of Avenue Q
9. A song about the weather - Listening for the Weather by Bic Runga
10. Pick a name, any name - Susan by Aimee Mann
11. It’s getting dark - Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest
12. Something imaginary - Imaginary by Evanescence
13. A song by a singer/band from a continent you don’t live on - Going Home by Sophie Zelmani
14. A pretty ugly song - Beautiful by Joydrop
15. Don’t just sit there, get moving! (a song about some sort of action/physical activity) - Push and Pull by Nikka Costa
16. Money – either you got it or you don’t - Dealer by Chantal Kreviazuk
17. Seasonal songs – a song either mentioning a season or having to with certain seasons - Season of the Witch by Donovan
18. Hello/Goodbye - Big Exit by PJ Harvey
19. The animal kingdom - Smelly Cat by Chrissie Hynde and Phoebe Bouffay (found this one by accident on a music search of a different flavor - I don’t think there’s an official release of it.)
20. Wildcard – put on a song just because you want to include it - ‘Cuz I Can by P!nk

That’s ready to mail out to Saturnine, i just have to go to the post office tomorrow and do that. I like the mix exchanges, they’re fun to do and even more fun to get the CDs with new music on the. On my iTunes player, I created a playlist called “Mix CD Repository” where I dump all the music from these things on there. It’s great to put it on shuffle and just have it playing while I go about my chores.

I also managed to vacuum my apartment yesterday and get the piles of laundry done. I feel so much better now with those things out of the way.

In other news, lately I’ve not been feeling too inspired to post. I feel like my postings have been a bit trite, simply reporting on my daily happenings and such. I need to get my inspiration back. Dr. A has been going through a blog block lately, and seems to have resolved it with a video post. You aren’t going to get that lucky here, as I hate being on camera, especially video. So, I’ll need to find some other way to resolve my blog block.

I suppose I should get going now. I need to eat something and get back to bed (I slept all day). Tomorrow is another day, and I do have to go to work.

But I’m not complaining, really I’m not. I worked a full day today, and after work I went to hang with one of my friends at his office, since it’s like 2 blocks from my office. He’s always busy at work, and the shit is constantly hitting the fan there, so I helped out with some filing and such and then around 10pm we finally left to get some dinner. Now, I did tell myself I was going to do laundry tonite, and - OH POOPY!!! - the church powerpoint, which I will do in a few minutes, but no, instead I was feeling like not going home to do boring household stuff. Yeah.

Tomorrow (today?) I have to work at the office since we’re off on Friday, but rumor has it that it won’t be a full day, which is nice since it will allow me to get some laundry done in the afternoon, assuming I can come home and actually get it done. I have plans to go to a party tomorrow night, so it’s looking like my only chance to get myself some clean clothes. Sunday is church and for a change of pace, I’ll be having an early Thanksgiving dinner at my new boss’s house instead of going to work. So it’s looking like Thanksgiving day will be a real day off, and if I can get home and get my butt to bed on Wednesday night sometime, then I might actually have a day off to myself, which would be really nice since it will be the first real day off to myself I’ll have had since I got back from my trip.

I talked to my sister today and got an update on Mia. She’s stepped down (in hospital terms, step down is a good thing) and she is no longer in the NICU. She’s now in the Progressive Care Nursery and is doing really awesome. And, she finally had her poop. My sister warned the nurses to just leave well enough alone and not give Mia the suppositories to help her poop, but they didn’t listen. My niece’s butt totally exploded all over the incubator. Gross, I know, but this proves that she really is related to me. Blowouts aside, Mia is doing terrific and Sis is really hopeful that she will be home by Christmas.

So, since I was out too late being social and then stayed up too late to read blogs and write in my own blog, finally remembering that I absolutely must get the powerpoint done for church, I’m going to do that before I hit the hay and risk oversleeping yet again.

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

Thanks to Gem for this, who found it via another blog.

BTW, I am more than just a life blogger. I am a blogaholic. And I have no intention of stopping.

One thing’s for sure - a blogaholic will definitely ignore any self-imposed blogging curfew. It’s nearly midnight. I mean, I did have to work this evening at Job#2 and stayed a half hour late. We have tons and tons of price changes, more stuff to clearance, more clearance stuff marked down even further, and (AJ, get your running shoes on) an absolutely ginormous list of stock that was supposed to arrive today but did not. Since I did price changes tonite, I guess I’ll be working stock tomorrow since from the looks of it, no customers will actually fit in the store once this shipment arrives. Joy.

So back to blogging, yes, I am up late again. I enjoy blogging way too much, but unlike other things I may or may not enjoy, once I acutally hit the hay I fall right asleep, so blogging doesn’t get me all wound up so that I can’t sleep. My notebook is getting thicker and thicker with notes of things to check out (sites and stuff that I may or may not want to sign up for) so I’ll need to block out some time this weekend to take care of that.

And more news from the homefront - my mom announced to me today that the offer they put on a new house was accepted. It’s still gonna be weird having my mom live in a new place. Your parents aren’t supposed to move to towns that you can’t find on a map (and for a map geek like myself, that’s saying a lot). But it’s a cute house, at least it looks that way in the listing. One story, 3+ acres of land for my lawn geek stepfather to have fun playing on, and much closer to my Grandma so Mom can visit and help take care of her more often without taking so much time out of her daily life to do that.

I also got a bit homesick today. See, when I left for work this morning there were some nasty looking dark clouds in the sky and I found myself actually having fun anticipating the rain. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s great never having to check the weather report before I get dressed in the morning, but seriously, bright and sunny every frickin day is so boring! I’m from New England, where we have a saying about the weather. If you don’t like it, wait a minute. Seriously, we’ve actually had days in New England that had nearly every type of weather imaginable over the course of 1 day. Now that’s exciting. On the plus side, I did get to use my brand new wiper blades today. I really don’t think I used the set I got last year at all.

It’s time for bed now. As the night wears on, my thoughts get less and less coherent and I don’t want to put my readers to sleep.

Just when I thought I would be posting about my usual mundane Tuesday, I stumbled across this blog. Dr. A is a blogaholic, like me, a kindred spirit in the blogosphere. He posted the following meme, but tagged himself, if that’s possible, so I’m stealing it and posting it here.

1) Are you happy/satisfied with your blog’s content and look?
I am now, since I finally found a template I like. Good free blogger templates are hard to come by.

2) Does your family know about your blog?
More or less. My sister knows about it, but lacks internet access. I think my dad knows but not being technically inclined, has no idea what I’m talking about. My mom reads it, though I don’t know how regularly. And as for my extended family, not quite sure if they know about it and/or read it or not.

3) Do you feel embarrassed to let your friends know about your blog? Do you consider it a private thing?
My friends IRL? I think most of them know. I even have a couple IRL friends who have blogs - one is the reason why I decided to get a blog, and another is blogging most likely because of me. As far as privacy, I am hard at keeping secrets, so I’m not too worried about that. But there is one big thing I want to tell one person in particular, but I’m waiting for certain other events, which are currently in motion, to pass.

4) Did blogging cause positive changes in your thoughts?
I wouldn’t necessarily call them positive changes, but I look at everything I do now as a blog entry. I think that means I need some sort of blogging intervention or something, but I won’t let them get away with it.

5) Do you only open the blogs of those who comment on your blog or do you love to go and discover more by yourself?
The few comments I have, I check out who they came from. I also like hitting the “Next Blog” button, which is how I cam across the Bestest Blog of All-Time, which is an incredible link exhchange. I check that out daily for new stuff, and through blogging I have found quite a few other link exhchages which I still need to check out.

6) What does a visitor counter mean to you? Do you like having one on your blog?
Yes I do have a counter. I was up over 1200 posts but then my sitemeter counter disappeared for some odd reasons, and I had to go get a new counter. That’s why my count is currently so low. But the new one I have allows me to block out particular IP addresses (mine, at home and work) so the twenty thousand times a day I check it won’t artificially inflate my count.

7) Did you try to imagine your fellow bloggers and give them real pictures?
No, I learned long before blogging was even around not to do that sort of thing, because my imagination is seriously warped.

Admit it. Do you think there is any real benefit in blogging?
Would I be here if I didn’t think so? I really enjoy blogging. For one thing, I can hone my writing skills, and I’ve learned more about html and css than I ever thought I would. In fact, I never even heard of css before blogging. I am discovering that I am quite the tech geek, for a girl. Not sure if that is a benefit though.

9) Do you think that blogger’s society is isolated from the real world or interaction with events?
There would be no blogsophere without the real world. I don’t consider myself isolated despite the many hours I dedicate to blogging. In fact, I think I am more connected than ever.

10) Does criticism annoy you or do you feel it’s a normal thing?
Criticism is a normal thing, but it does annoy the shit out of me. I don’t take it as well as I should.

11) Do you fear some political blogs and avoid them?
I don’t fear political blogs; I detest them. I hate politics with a passion. It’s hard enough to read it in the paper or get it from the 6:00 news, but having to read someone’s overly opinionated blog on politics is just torture.

12) Were you shocked by the arrest of some bloggers?
Bloggers were arrested? I hope it wasn’t for blogging!

13) What do you think will happen to your blog after you die?
I dunno, but I’d better make provisions for it in my will.

14) What song do you like to hear? What song would you like to link to on your blog?
I don’t want music automatically played on my blog, that’s kinda annoying, especially if I’m already listening to something. I probably won’t link to any particular song either, unless it’s something I’m absolutely gushing over, which is extremely rare.

15) The next “victims”?
Any of my fellow blogaholics who happen to read my blog and feel an insatiable need to fill this damn thing out.

First of all, something weird is happening. I signed up for a WordPress account, and they have this neat feature that allows you to import another blog, so I decided to try it. Now I see that all my previous posts have absolutely no paragraph separation. The only way to fix it that I know of is to go in and edit the html of each and every post. This is my 102nd post, and I really don’t need yet another project. If anyone has any other ideas, let me know. (ETA: I figured it out. My publishing settings got changed, I had to change it back to convert the line breaks. Phew!)

I do have a few blogs, 2 are inactive, 1 is kind of active (I go on mostly to check out what my friends are doing), the WordPress one is too new to know how active it will be, and of course this one. My Blogger blog is my baby. It was the first one I had, and I have the most control over the page design and content. The others you have to pay for to get that kind of control, and I’m all set with that. I don’t pay for anything online, except to actually have access at home. I see that Blogger is upgrading things, which they currently have in beta at the moment. Personally, I like things the way they are, but I’d just like to see a few things added. More templates would be awesome, along with the ability to change your template without having to go back and edit every darned thing in your sidebar (WP has this ability). I’d also like to see tags directly on this site, simply to keep my own stuff organized without having to go through a 3rd party (no offense, Technorati). And photo albums - it would be great if every picture was placed in an album on our blogs, with a link to it in the sidebar, and when someone is browsing through the album, if they click on the picture it will bring you to the post it’s in. Just a thought.

I’m hesitant to try beta because it’s just that - beta. A lot of people consider me to be web-savvy, but I don’t always think so. And I never want to be among the first people to use a new release of something. I’d much rather wait until the bugs get worked out by the brave people. And Blogger Beta doesn’t allow html formatting in the template. I like the idea of making it user friendly for the uninitiated, but let those of us who do know a thing or 2 about html mess around with our code. I’ll most likely wait until the final release, when I’m required to change over.

I also signed up at Technorati today, because I have discovered the joy and genius of tags. So that’s another project, to tag all my posts. Like I don’t spend enough time online as it is. And you can all see the results of me going nuts over buttons, as of this writing I have 9 in my sidebar. Trust me, more will be going up as time goes on.

In other news, I went out and ran some errands, but I don’t know where my mind was. My main goal today was to get my car smogged and get an oil change. Didn’t happen, so now I need to try and find time this week to get it done. I did get some grocery shopping done, and did laundry (which I just finished moments ago). I also managed to clean my kitchen, with the exception of the floor. That will be done at a later date - a much later date if I can ever pull myself away from the computer.

And it looks like the apartment complex is painting the buildings. They are currently a dingy beige with dark brown accents, and terra cotta tile roofs. The new colors have terra cotta colored accents. I hope they change the dingy beige to a brighter cream color, that would really brighten things up around here. No idea when my building will get done.

Time to go now. It’s after 10 and I still need to eat dinner, which I haven’t done yet because I’ve been spending so much damn time on these internets!!!!!

Yeah, right. Who am I kidding?

I worked with AJ at the Job#2 tonite. We are such blog geek enablers. She has a list of things to do in her pocket (all computer related) and as we chatted about blogging and other computer related activities, I created a list too. I even told her how when I was at the airport waiting to board my flight in Boston, I was going through all my receipts and writing down my spending for my vacation. When I was done I ended it with an html tag < / vaca spending >

Yeah, I’m a geek. And I have no plans on quitting.

I need to get a few more things done online, in addition to eating my 4th meal, before I go to bed way too late again. ‘Til next time….

Wow, 4 posts in one day. I am addicted!

I found the receipts and tags I was looking for, so I decided to run right out and get those returns done, since my schedule the rest of this week really is crazy. So here’s a rundown:

$2.14 gained at the crap store
$14 gained at the souvenir store. This return brings my vacation fund up to $270.91.

Then I had to get some ice cream, since I was so seriously craving some. I stopped at the grocery store and found my 2 favorite guys, Ben and Jerry, on sale at 2/$5. So I picked up 2 pints and went to the self checkout, scanned my store card and the ice cream when suddenly one of those coupons popped out of the printer. It was for 75 cents off 2 pints of B&J’s, so I ripped it off the printer and scanned it. Score! I paid $4.25 for 2 pints of ice cream. Joy!

I mentioned earlier that I’m addicted to blogging. I’m also finding more and more blogs to read. Usually I just go to Blogger’s main page and watch the recently updated blogs float by, and click on ones that seem interesting. It’s a crapshoot, basically. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, and you definitely can’t judge a blog by its title. Many of them are brand new blogs with the obligatory “This is My First Post!” post, and even more of them are spam blogs. Then there are the ones with really clever titles, and when I click on them they end up being in a foreign language, so I can’t read them. Here’s a tip - if you’re going to write your blog in a foreign language, put the title in the same language! Common sense people!

Once in awhile I’ll stumble across something interesting. Last night I came across The Bestest Blog of All-Time. It’s basically a link exchange for blogs, and a lot of the blogs on there are quite interesting to read. And so far, no spam blogs or foreign language blogs. I’ve linked to it on the right, and the owner of the blog linked to me. Maybe more people will read about my super boring mundane existence now.

Ok, so I don’t post here every day, it’s more like 1-2 times per week. Boy do I ever enjoy it though. But today, I couldn’t resist. I had to sign up for LiveJournal, just to see what it was all about. Don’t worry, I won’t be abandoning you, my faithful reader. Right now I’m still at the playing around stage on LJ, just to see what it can do. I’m pretty used to Blogger and what it can do, and I’ve got things the way I like them. Blogs aren’t created overnight, unless you have a serious caffeine addiction, whichI do not. So who knows. I still plan on keeping this one. To me changing blogs is like changing email addresses - people get so used to using one that it confuses them and annoys them when you change. I’ll still play on LJ, and we’ll see what happens with that one, but Blogger will still be my home blog.