Life Under Construction

Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

I spent the day reading blogs.  Actually reading them, because lately I’ve been skimming most of them.

Sorry guys.  Don’t hate me?

I realized that part of the reason I feel so disconnected lately is because I haven’t been reading.

I also unsubscribed from a few blogs, because the number of new blog posts that appear in my reader daily is daunting and sort of turns me off reading any blogs at all.

I wanted to share with you guys, the handful of readers that have stuck with me (I love you guys), some of the best blogs I’ve read this week.  And I’m going to promise to put more effort into my blogs, because you’re all probably rolling your eyes at the sight of my blog in your reader, knowing that lately I’ve just been posting drivel and rubbish.  So I promise to post things worth reading.  I really appreciate you guys, and you deserve better and I’m going to give it to you.

I know the stuff I’ve been posting is crap, because I don’t even enjoy writing it – and if I don’t like writing it how will anyone enjoy reading it?

I probably won’t be posting every day anymore, I’ve stopped doing that already, but when I post I’ll make it good.  At least good enough for me.

Just please don’t give up on me!

Anyhow, you should read these blogs because they’re awesome:

A Beautiful Mess
Balls, I tell you. Balls.
How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You

And lastly… Are You Living Life To The Fullest? where I earned Comment of the week for the following comment…

“I’m usually earlier than anyone else I have plans with (which is sad because I’m chronically late [I'm my father's daughter]). Waiting for anyone really does a number on my anxiety, let me tell you! I expect to be going out for a night of fun and end up not enjoying myself and requiring tranquilizers to get to sleep.

Are they even coming?
What did I do wrong?
Do they hate me?
Did I miss a phone call? An email?
Is this some kind of sick joke?
Are they going to laugh at me?
Am I going to find out tomorrow that I got played for a fool and everyone was in on it?
Is everyone in on it?
Are they watching me from somewhere I can’t see to see how long I’ll wait here like an idiot?
Are people staring?
Have I been here too long?
What’s an acceptable time to wait here before I leave?
Should I look dejected or indifferent?
Which is less embarrassing?
Do I look weird waiting here?
Can people tell I’m freaking out?
Where are they?!!!!!!!!
What if he/she is hurt?!
What if they’re dying and I’m sitting here thinking the worst about them?
Am I a bad friend?
Is it OK to be worried and angry?
Do I have the right to be angry?
Am I at the right place?

And then when whomever it is I am waiting for finally shows I’m a mess and a wreck and I have to fake it the entire time because even though the relief that they showed and I wasn’t the point of a joke is overwhelming, the damage has already been done and nothing less than Xanax will make it go away. Good luck getting me out of the house for the next few days. It’s so hard being me.”

Have a great week, everyone.  Don’t forget to check out the blogs I shared with you, and would you please leave me a comment just saying ‘hi’?  It has occurred to me many times over the least year that I don’t know many of you.  My question for everyone today, whether you’re a regular commenter or a lurker, is…

What is your favorite color?

Mine is pink.  And green.  I have a hard time picking a favorite anything.  ^^

(pee ess – I enjoyed writing this blog)

Forgive me, please.

I’m feeling very pitiful, and I guess it is for days like this that I have a ‘Feeling Emo’ category for my blogs.

I read some of my old blog posts earlier, and they made me sad.  Not because I was a sad person writing about miserable happenings or anything, because I wasn’t, but I could see just how drastically my writing has changed over the course of the last three years.  The quality of my writing has gotten better (as in my grammar and such), but the content of my blogs is very different and not at all where I saw myself being three years down the road.  My current blogging style has become uninteresting to me, and that is what makes me sad.

After reading some of these old posts that I saved on my computer I am amazed at how good some of them are, even with the spelling mistakes.  I enjoy reading my old posts because they were personal and silly and very me.  I do not enjoy reading my current blogs as much as my old ones, not in the same way at least.  I feel like the things I wrote then were an entire lifetime ago – like I was a completely different human being – and it makes me feel a bit sad inside that I can’t seem to find the person in me that I used to be.

I kind of feel, I suppose, like my writing has become superficial and insubstantial.  I used to enjoy blogging a lot more – which is evident, I think, with my two, three or sometimes even four blog posts a day.  I mean I was excited about it.  All the time!

Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow.  Or maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to find that person I’m looking for deep down inside of me and bring her out again.

The beautiful Andhari gave me the TYFBA’09 yesterday.  ♥  She said:

15. Life Under Construction - She calls herself a big nerd, I call her a sexy nerd. Jaime’s posts always make me happy. Especially her I Love…Fridays.

Sexy nerd?  I can get behind that!  She’s so sweet!

Thank you Andhari.  :D

I think the Thank You For Blogging Award is like a great big thank you to all of my blogging friends.  You know, those very same people who repeatedly read all the  rubbish drivel New York Times Best Seller material I post here on a semi-daily basis.  Because you know what?  I love you guys.  And I am thankful for you.  You care more about my life than most of my family and RL friends.  So I want all of you to consider yourselves recipients of this award.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving.

The Rules:
1.  Each recipient receiving a TYFBA bust give away at least 4 TYFBA’s.
2.  Each recipient must describe, in at least three words why they are giving that person the award.

Now you can all have this award, but since I am tired and tired (what?) I am just going to name four people, because I could literally list you all and I would never get to sleep tonight and I’m already having trouble keeping my eyes open because it is hours past my bedtime.  All the blogs I read and all the people who comment on the things I write are important to me, but since I don’t have the time or the energy to name you all (and I would have to stay up all night trying, believe me!) I’m just naming the following bloggers that I’m thankful for.

Maven (A Fabulously Good Life) – She’s so inspiring to me, and she makes me laugh and feel good about life.  I can’t say enough good things about this woman.  She really is Just.That.Fabulous.

Shauna Glenn (ShaunaGlenn.com) – Shauna probably doesn’t even know who I am and doesn’t read my blog, but I’m giving this award to her anyway.  She is awesome sauce.  She’s hilarious and her blogs always put a smile on my face.

Ashley (Writing to Reach You) – I love reading Ashley’s blogs.  A lot of the time she writes things I can relate to, and she’s so sincere.  She’s the best thing 20SB ever put in my Google reader, and I have a lot of 20SB’ers in my reader!

Bethany (Bethany’s World) – Bethany isn’t afraid to share her opinions or write about the controversial topics.  She’s a great writer, and while I might not always agree with her, I do always enjoy reading whatever it is she has to say.

So there you have it.  Now go forth!  Spread the thankfulness all over the blogosphere!  And thank you again to Andhari.  She’s such a sweetheart!

I really hate comment approval on blogs.  Like… seriously hate it.  As much as I hate Blogger.

I like MYSPACE as a blogging platform more than Blogger.  And I don’t even log into Myspace anymore.

If you’re using Blogger there’s only a very small chance I’ll comment on your blog.  Read it?  Yes.  Comment?  Not so much (unless you’re Maven, in which case I always comment because I willingly wade in the world of Blogger Hell every day just to read what she has to say).  And I certainly don’t check back to see if you’ve replied to my comment unless I get email notification that you did.  Which, if you’re using Blogger, doesn’t happen.

But back to comment moderation:  If you don’t like someone’s comment, you can just delete it.  And if you already have a captcha gadget installed, you don’t really need to moderate do you?  There’s something satisfying about commenting on someone’s blog and seeing instant results.  Poof, there it is!  It’s much the same as using the ‘publish’ button on your blog and seeing your own work in print for everyone else to read.

If I can’t see my comment after I post it, I get annoyed with your blog.  I will still read it, but I won’t comment as often (or ever).  And if I don’t get email notification of your reply when and if you post a reply to my comment, I don’t care about your reply.  It’s that simple.  It may sound smug and self-important of me, but it’s not.  If you’re putting yourself out there to be read, you should make it easy for the people who are interested.  Not make it harder.

I’m a big fan of reader participation.  If you’ve commented on my blog in the past, you know I respond to it every time.  I don’t see how anyone can expect all their readers to comment when they don’t comment back or show any interest in what they have to say.

I’d just like to throw out there that WordPress comes with awesome options for spam tracking and identifying so that you don’t HAVE to moderate your comments.  It moderates for you.  And if you’re REALLY paranoid about comments?  WordPress ALSO has this option where the first time a person comments on your blog requires authorization, and after that they can comment whenever without moderation.

I just don’t understand why, with a better option out there, anyone would pick Blogger over WordPress.

Or comment moderation.

That’s all for today.

pee ess  -  I don’t even get paid for my love of WordPress.  I should.

pee pee ess  -  If you’re working with a WordPress platform, you should have WP Thread Comment installed and enabled.  That is, if you care whether or not your readers know you replied to their comment.  If not, why bother?  There are better things I can do with my time than sit and press F5 a million times a day just to see if you’ve deigned to reply when you don’t even care enough to let me know you’ve responded.

I don’t understand ‘getting paid to blog’.  How does that work?’

Kat over at Tough Girl 101 posted a blog yesterday about how she gets paid to blog, called Can You Make It As A Paid Blogger? I answered that I didn’t quite understand the mechanics of it, but I wanted to make a blog out of my response anyway to see what you all think about it.

I’m not against getting paid to blog.  On the contrary, I would love to get paid for it.  But at the same time, I think it would lose it’s attraction if I felt I was obligated to do it.  Blogging is something I simply love to do.  But if I were to feel obligated to do it, it occurs to me that I might not want to do it anymore.  That maybe getting paid for it won’t be as fun as just doing it for me?

I mean… who pays you?  How do you claim that on your taxes?  Do you consider yourself to be self-employed?  And what do you blog about to get money?  Do you have to blog about specific things?  I’m sure I can’t get paid to blog about how I sit at my computer every morning before work and debate over whether or not I have time to play WoW, or about the enormous amount of ice cream I ingest on a weekly basis while I watch TV shows with my sister.  I’m just sayin’.  I think there’s only so much out there to get paid for blogging about, isn’t there?  I don’t know a whole lot about any one specific topic (except for Star Wars), not enough to blog about anyway (except for Star Wars lol).

So can someone explain to me how it works, this blogging for dollars thing?  And what do you think about it?