I really didn't plan to be gone from my blog for 6+ months when I wrote my last post on New Year's Day.
I've thought about coming back to it almost weekly, but with wedding planning, and work being crazy busy - including me writing some blog posts for work - and some really time-consuming things in our "normal" lives, I just kept putting it off.
Well, for some reasons I may (or may not) explain as the next few months progress, I've decided it's time to come back.
I'm going to give myself a bit of a head start by pulling in a few posts I wrote for work, to sprinkle in, first. They focus on editing and writing, so some of you will have to forgive me for that tack. I'm hoping to write on that topic at least once per week (-ish) in the future.
Those of you who got inundated by my "I'm online!" posts along the way... I promise there will be new posts between each of those so you won't feel like you're only getting repeats.
Who knows? I may even update the look of the blog at some point to represent the changes that have been going on... We'll see.
For now, welcome back! I really have missed you.
Showing posts with label new blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new blog. Show all posts
Friday, July 22, 2016
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
A Day By Any Other Name...
With all due respect to Shakespeare (or whoever wrote the stuff attributed to him), for my blog, it seems like a day by any other name is almost always the day that I'm supposed to be writing on.
I try to post every second day, but since most of my life deals with days of the week - not dates in the month - I don't always know which day I last wrote.
Tonight, for instance, my blog was telling me that I last wrote "one day ago" - but also that I last posted on 11/22.
I didn't remember posting last night, though, so I checked the calendar and - you guessed it - found that today is actually 11/24. That means that my last post was two calendar days ago.
The blog, however, is very literal, and simply goes by 24-hour periods, not calendar days. So, since it has been less than 48 hours since my last post, it feels that I wrote just a day ago.
Usually, of course, this isn't a really big problem. Lately, however, I seem to be all sorts of off my game when it comes to knowing what day/date it is.
With that in mind, I apologize in advance for the number of erratic posts that might happen in the next few weeks during the chaos of the Holidays.
Though, who knows . . . maybe the busier schedule will actually keep me more on task. We'll just have to wait and see.
I try to post every second day, but since most of my life deals with days of the week - not dates in the month - I don't always know which day I last wrote.
Tonight, for instance, my blog was telling me that I last wrote "one day ago" - but also that I last posted on 11/22.
I didn't remember posting last night, though, so I checked the calendar and - you guessed it - found that today is actually 11/24. That means that my last post was two calendar days ago.
The blog, however, is very literal, and simply goes by 24-hour periods, not calendar days. So, since it has been less than 48 hours since my last post, it feels that I wrote just a day ago.
Usually, of course, this isn't a really big problem. Lately, however, I seem to be all sorts of off my game when it comes to knowing what day/date it is.
With that in mind, I apologize in advance for the number of erratic posts that might happen in the next few weeks during the chaos of the Holidays.
Though, who knows . . . maybe the busier schedule will actually keep me more on task. We'll just have to wait and see.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
8/28 Cooking Challenge - Jiffy Cooking
With today's blog, we start the "8/28 Cooking Challenge" which I mentioned a few posts ago. This is where I pull a cookbook off the shelf, turn to the Index, and choose a random recipe to cook using one of the following procedures: 1) Go to the 8th Index page, find the 2nd column, and count down 8 recipes; or, 2) (for books with smaller indices) Go to the 8th Index column, and count down 28 recipes.
I was trying to figure out what cookbook to start with. After all, I'm trying to randomize this to some degree, so I didn't want to simply pull my most-used cookbook off the shelf and go from there. So I looked around and decided to go with the cookbook that has been in my collection the longest. This is not the oldest cookbook in the collection (which would be the 1950 Betty Crocker cookbook), but the one that has travelled with me from home to home and is still in the collection. And, as near as I can figure that is Jiffy Cooking from the Better Homes and Gardens collection.
Now, I feel a pang of guilt, here, because I know that I had cookbooks that were given to me prior to this, such as the Pooh Cook Book, but I don't have that with me. (Note to self: Bring that back from my parents' house the next time I go home.) But when I opened Jiffy Cooking, I was greeted by an inscription from my brother-in-law's parents - written by my brother-in-law's mom (I recognize the handwriting) - dated May 29, 1977 (so, before he was actually even my brother-in-law). Yep. I've had the cookbook for over 36 years. (Which is odd, since I'm sure I'm only 25, now...)
Thumbing through the book, the one recipe that actually jumped out at me as something I definitely had made in the past was "Stuffed Burger Bundles" - packaged stuffing mix surrounded by hamburger, browned, and then served in a "pepped up canned soup" gravy. Kinda like a Juicy Lucy, but stuffed with stuffing instead of cheese.
The book is amazing. Along with sections of basic themes (dessert, main dish, etc.), it has recipes set out in "servable" sections like "family dinner," "company brunch," and "teen-age party." For the purposes of the 8/28 Cooking Challenge, my finger landed on "Turkey Amandine on Toast" - which happens to be in the "Luncheon" section. This is the recipe (and, yes, it's supposed to be served at Luncheon with the Cranberry Relish Squares, French-style Green Beans, Celery Sticks, Coffee or Tea, and EITHER Lazy Day Grasshopper Pie OR Easy Apricot Souffle - no choosing two desserts, please):
So... I printed out the recipe and headed for the grocery store because... although you may be surprised... we don't often have cans of chicken gravy or pimentos on hand. We also don't have leftover chicken or turkey (we cook for two - that usually means... well... cooking for two), nor do we have sour cream, slivered almonds, or poultry seasoning on hand. I did have bread, so I was good to go on the toast points. (phew)
In case you're wondering, this is what a jar of diced pimientos (which I did not realize had an "i" in it) looks like. Sort of the color of maraschino cherries, but with the texture of over-cooked roasted red peppers - which might have made a good 21st-century swap.
After some last-minute prepping this morning, I set about to make my luncheon. (Okay. I admit it: I didn't have much faith in this, so one of my errands was to pick up a quick snack/lunch from Wendy's for Christopher and me before coming home. Just in case this was a total flop.)
Since it's Jiffy cooking, there aren't really a lot of steps to show you. Here are the ingredients and the cookbook (on the left-hand page is a picture of "Deviled Ham Pie" with asparagus spears on top):
Yeah... I didn't take any pictures of me throwing it all in a pan and waiting for it to heat through. Nor did I take any pictures of the bread toasting. (I'm learning about this food blogging thing as I go.)
Since I don't have poultry seasoning in the house, I went with even parts oregano, rosemary, and tarragon, then added some garlic powder and red pepper flakes because... well... the only other spice in this was going to be the "flavored with sage and black pepper" gravy. Which, as with most Campbell's products, smelled amazing, but was blander than I could ever hope to describe.
After getting a slight eye-roll from Christopher as I explained that this needed to be served on some china, I plated it up. It came out looking like this:
The pimientos added basically no flavor, but they did make it look nice.
Now, Jiffy Cooking is kind of like an early "semi-homemade" thing. Lots of canned ingredients. Lots of quick-and-easy cooking for people who are either beginning (as I was at age 10... err... negative-10?), or were dealing with trying to plan and execute meals in a hurry. After all, this was the late-70s, when fewer moms were stay-at-home, so there wasn't time to cook for 8 hours for dinner.
I'm guessing that the same meal, today, would take at least twice as long to prepare. We'd be roasting our own red peppers. Toasting the almonds. Growing the parsley and free-range chickens, and making our own gluten-free whole-grain ethically yeasty bread.
But I have to admit that I kind of liked the results. In fact, I think I'm going to make some rice and take it to work for lunch this week. It would probably also make a good starter base for something like a pot pie or a "chicken and dumplings" recipe.
Tune in next time, when the recipe is going to come from the cookbook I was given most recently - which does *not* mean it's a recent cookbook. This promises to be interesting... (Christopher - you may want to order pizza for the next one. We'll see.)
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Bringing This Into Focus
I'm very happy to say that it seems that the new layout of the blog is meeting favorable reviews. I've had 3 or 4 people contact me to say that they like it. And even Christopher approved. So I think it'll stay around for a while.
I've also had one person ask me whether I changed it so that some of the readers who are getting a bit older would have less trouble reading it. I'd love to say that I was thinking of other people when I did the re-design. But I'd be lying.
You see, I did the re-design for me. I simply decided that I needed something different to look at every day. And I thought this new style was kind of fun. (And I'm still contemplating changing out the top photo, if I'm being honest.)
But, okay, here's the thing. When I first chose the template, the main post text was supposed to be white on a black background (as it is in the right-hand margin). And I find that to be really annoying and difficult to read when you have to read a lot of it. I used to work in computer systems that were white on black (or orange on black, or green on black), and I just don't really ever want to do that, again. So I swapped it out for black on white, leaving the right-hand columns in the reverse for contrast.
And then I looked at the main text and thought "but in italics... or when I put in a small caption... that's going to be really small." At which point I bumped the font up a size, at least for the main text.
So... yeah... I guess I did change the font, in part, for the reader who is getting older and finding some of the text harder to read. It's just that the reader in question was me.
I've also had one person ask me whether I changed it so that some of the readers who are getting a bit older would have less trouble reading it. I'd love to say that I was thinking of other people when I did the re-design. But I'd be lying.
You see, I did the re-design for me. I simply decided that I needed something different to look at every day. And I thought this new style was kind of fun. (And I'm still contemplating changing out the top photo, if I'm being honest.)
But, okay, here's the thing. When I first chose the template, the main post text was supposed to be white on a black background (as it is in the right-hand margin). And I find that to be really annoying and difficult to read when you have to read a lot of it. I used to work in computer systems that were white on black (or orange on black, or green on black), and I just don't really ever want to do that, again. So I swapped it out for black on white, leaving the right-hand columns in the reverse for contrast.
And then I looked at the main text and thought "but in italics... or when I put in a small caption... that's going to be really small." At which point I bumped the font up a size, at least for the main text.
So... yeah... I guess I did change the font, in part, for the reader who is getting older and finding some of the text harder to read. It's just that the reader in question was me.
Sunday, June 9, 2013
1,001 - A Fresh Coat of Paint
Christopher defined it best, yesterday, when he said that I was putting a "fresh coat of paint" on my blog, so I give him credit for the title of this post.
There's something kind of exciting about starting out, again, with a new background and new fonts and new color-schemes - and even some new text in those weird margin boxes. It's kind of like getting a new desk at work - the job stays the same, but it's amazing how much good a new view can do.
With that said, while there are a lot of old habits which I don't expect to go away any time soon (not all of which I apologize for), here are two things I plan (and really *hope*) to do in the near future:
- The 8/28 Cooking Challenge. Using the 8/28 as a jumping-off point, I'm planning to try to grab a cookbook off the shelf, turn to the 8th page of the index, go to the 2nd column, and count down to the 8th item. And then cook it. (And - fingers crossed - take pictures to post with it.) If the book is small, and doesn't have 8 pages of index, I may do something like go to the 8th column of the index and count down 28 items. I dunno. It's in flux at this point. And I totally reserve the right to go one slot up or down in the index list if the item I land on is just awful. My hope is to do this at least twice each month.
- The Bad Quote Quotient. I've been known to share, in other forums, some of the bad writing that I have to work on. I think you might enjoy some of that, so I plan to share them here, too. (With identifying characteristics removed to protect the not-so-innocent violators of the English language.)
I also hope to post more photos when appropriate. And to try not to navel-gaze too much. And to strike that fine balance that keeps us all (yes, me included) interested in this blog from week to week.
So, as one of my favorite lines in cinema asks: "Are you ready? Here we go!"*
*Points to you if you know what that's from. Granted, the points aren't worth anything, but I'll give them to you, just the same.
There's something kind of exciting about starting out, again, with a new background and new fonts and new color-schemes - and even some new text in those weird margin boxes. It's kind of like getting a new desk at work - the job stays the same, but it's amazing how much good a new view can do.
With that said, while there are a lot of old habits which I don't expect to go away any time soon (not all of which I apologize for), here are two things I plan (and really *hope*) to do in the near future:
- The 8/28 Cooking Challenge. Using the 8/28 as a jumping-off point, I'm planning to try to grab a cookbook off the shelf, turn to the 8th page of the index, go to the 2nd column, and count down to the 8th item. And then cook it. (And - fingers crossed - take pictures to post with it.) If the book is small, and doesn't have 8 pages of index, I may do something like go to the 8th column of the index and count down 28 items. I dunno. It's in flux at this point. And I totally reserve the right to go one slot up or down in the index list if the item I land on is just awful. My hope is to do this at least twice each month.
- The Bad Quote Quotient. I've been known to share, in other forums, some of the bad writing that I have to work on. I think you might enjoy some of that, so I plan to share them here, too. (With identifying characteristics removed to protect the not-so-innocent violators of the English language.)
I also hope to post more photos when appropriate. And to try not to navel-gaze too much. And to strike that fine balance that keeps us all (yes, me included) interested in this blog from week to week.
So, as one of my favorite lines in cinema asks: "Are you ready? Here we go!"*
*Points to you if you know what that's from. Granted, the points aren't worth anything, but I'll give them to you, just the same.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Milestone Monday
(Big apologies - Just found this post in my "Drafts" folder. Sorry for the delay in posting! My actual Wednesday post follows this one.)
Truth be told, the milestone in question was reached last week Thursday. That is when I posted my 900th (!) blog entry.
Today, then, is my 902nd blog entry, which is its own milestone, really, because I've also never written a 902nd blog entry.
My first entry, posted on August 25, 2008, was pretty short, but otherwise it was a lot like every other post I put up here. Focused on me, assuming someone was reading, but not sure what to write. (It's here, if you want to go back and look. I'll wait.)
My second entry, posted the next day, was all about the dilemma of going to a group interview for a possible job. I honestly didn't even remember what the interview was until I was reading through that post. I have to admit - hindsight is a wonderful thing - that I'm kind of glad that I blew that interview. And, to this day, I know exactly what I did to blow it.
The job was for a retail company, and I had to role-play helping a customer who had "two rambunctious kids who were playing on the shelving." And, well, if you know me you know that: a) I think role-playing in an interview is dorky; b) I think that people should wrangle their own kids when shopping and not rely on the already-overworked staff; and, c) when put in front of a crowd, I tend to work the room - which doesn't necessarily mean pandering to the interviewer's expectations. Let's just say that, four years later, I still remember my fellow interviewees laughing as I went through the spiel, and the interviewer looking at his clipboard and making notes. Oh, well.
So... Yeah... I couldn't have picked one of my posts from Europe, or Florida, or Canada to talk about. No discussions of John Barrowman or Angela Lansbury in New York. Not even any talk about getting published. No Friday Food, no Movie Monday, no Travel Tuesday. Not even a Tiz List. Instead, I had to pull up a blog post about a job interview. At least it was relatively memorable, once I thought about it.
Which, I guess, is kind of what I've hoped this whole blog would be.
Thanks to those of you who have been along for the entire ride. Welcome to those of you who are new. Glad those of you who came in in the middle have stuck around.
I don't know if this will continue for another 902 entries over another 4+ years, but I guess only time will tell.
Truth be told, the milestone in question was reached last week Thursday. That is when I posted my 900th (!) blog entry.
Today, then, is my 902nd blog entry, which is its own milestone, really, because I've also never written a 902nd blog entry.
My first entry, posted on August 25, 2008, was pretty short, but otherwise it was a lot like every other post I put up here. Focused on me, assuming someone was reading, but not sure what to write. (It's here, if you want to go back and look. I'll wait.)
My second entry, posted the next day, was all about the dilemma of going to a group interview for a possible job. I honestly didn't even remember what the interview was until I was reading through that post. I have to admit - hindsight is a wonderful thing - that I'm kind of glad that I blew that interview. And, to this day, I know exactly what I did to blow it.
The job was for a retail company, and I had to role-play helping a customer who had "two rambunctious kids who were playing on the shelving." And, well, if you know me you know that: a) I think role-playing in an interview is dorky; b) I think that people should wrangle their own kids when shopping and not rely on the already-overworked staff; and, c) when put in front of a crowd, I tend to work the room - which doesn't necessarily mean pandering to the interviewer's expectations. Let's just say that, four years later, I still remember my fellow interviewees laughing as I went through the spiel, and the interviewer looking at his clipboard and making notes. Oh, well.
So... Yeah... I couldn't have picked one of my posts from Europe, or Florida, or Canada to talk about. No discussions of John Barrowman or Angela Lansbury in New York. Not even any talk about getting published. No Friday Food, no Movie Monday, no Travel Tuesday. Not even a Tiz List. Instead, I had to pull up a blog post about a job interview. At least it was relatively memorable, once I thought about it.
Which, I guess, is kind of what I've hoped this whole blog would be.
Thanks to those of you who have been along for the entire ride. Welcome to those of you who are new. Glad those of you who came in in the middle have stuck around.
I don't know if this will continue for another 902 entries over another 4+ years, but I guess only time will tell.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
10,000!!!
Ten Thousand. Ten. Thousand. TEN Thousand. Ten THOUSAND.
As of yesterday, this little blog of mine has had it's 10,000th "hit." Can you believe it? I'm not sure I can.
Now, I know that this does not mean that 10,000 different individuals have looked at the blog. It simply means that, over the course of the life of the blog various people have landed on this blog - or clicked through a link on it - ten thousand times.
That's not a whole lot of clicks in the blogosphere. I mean, there are blogs that get that much traffic in a week, and websites that get that much in less than a day. But for my little blog, which only - according to the left-hand panel - has 10 people who "follow" it on a daily basis... Wow. That's a lot.
And, even better, the 10,000th person was someone I know. She sent me a message after it happened to say that the counter at the bottom of the page had registered 10,000 when she was on it, reading "Valentinostalgia."
I may have to bake her some pink-frosted cookies, just for that.
I think our next milepost will be 11,111. If you happen to see that you click through as visitor 11,111, let me know. You might just get some cookies, too.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Welcome Tiz and Kit!
I feel like, since I welcomed follower #4, earlier, I should also welcome blog followers #5 and #6 - Tiz (of the blog "Tiz and Ass") and Kit.
Oh, and also followers #2 ("Najmania" of the eponymous blog) and #3 (Sstriking), of course!
And, if you've been paying attention, I also admit that putting the names of the latest two to declare their "followship" in the headline might get me a spike of readers from some faraway lands in the next little while. You never know.
Speaking of such things, in case you haven't looked at it, lately, here is my relatively-current listing of visitors by country: (I'll meet you down below...)
Now, I'm not surprised that most of my hits have been from the US, UK, and Canada. After all, I know people in each of those places. (And, by the way, those of you in the UK and Canada really need to check in more often!)
But what's with the hits in all of those other places? How cool is it that -- at least once -- someone has read my blog from Trinidad and (or?) Tobago? and Greece? and even three hits from Australia? It's kind of humbling -- and inspiring -- to think that people have at least stumbled across my blog half-way 'round the world!
So I'll keep putting pen to paper -- or at least pixels to screen -- and hope that you keep coming back.
Here's to adding followers #7, #13, and #265!
Oh, and also followers #2 ("Najmania" of the eponymous blog) and #3 (Sstriking), of course!
And, if you've been paying attention, I also admit that putting the names of the latest two to declare their "followship" in the headline might get me a spike of readers from some faraway lands in the next little while. You never know.
Speaking of such things, in case you haven't looked at it, lately, here is my relatively-current listing of visitors by country: (I'll meet you down below...)
| United States (US) - 1,447 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| United Kingdom (GB) - 53 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Canada (CA) - 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| New Zealand (NZ) - 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Russian Federation (RU) - 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Germany (DE) - 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| India (IN) - 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| France (FR) - 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Australia (AU) - 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Italy (IT) - 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sweden (SE) - 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spain (ES) - 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Ukraine (UA) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Europe (EU) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Ireland (IE) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Finland (FI) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Korea, Republic of (KR) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Indonesia (ID) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Brazil (BR) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Argentina (AR) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Trinidad and Tobago (TT) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vietnam (VN) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Japan (JP) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Saudi Arabia (SA) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Philippines (PH) - 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Greece (GR) - 1 |
Now, I'm not surprised that most of my hits have been from the US, UK, and Canada. After all, I know people in each of those places. (And, by the way, those of you in the UK and Canada really need to check in more often!)
But what's with the hits in all of those other places? How cool is it that -- at least once -- someone has read my blog from Trinidad and (or?) Tobago? and Greece? and even three hits from Australia? It's kind of humbling -- and inspiring -- to think that people have at least stumbled across my blog half-way 'round the world!
So I'll keep putting pen to paper -- or at least pixels to screen -- and hope that you keep coming back.
Here's to adding followers #7, #13, and #265!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Welcome, Judy!
I feel a bit remiss in not saying this sooner. You see, as of a week or so ago, I have a new person in that "following" section on the left side of my blog!
The connections that happen on blogs are kind of amazing. I was sitting with the proprietors of the "Tiz and Ass" and "Blake Hayes's Blog" blogs in Manhattan last weekend, and we were talking about how strange it is to know that people all over the world are reading things that we're writing.
Now, I must admit that I found out during the discussion that, in some languages, apparently "Tiz" is a bad word -- and not simply a nickname for the author. No surprise, in the parts of the world where that language is spoken, she has quite the following. Or, at least, a lot of one-time hits on her blog -- there's no way to know whether they come back when they find out it's not a soft-porn blog. Even so, though, her "where they're from" map is crazy-covered with dots from all over the world.
On the other hand, Blake's blog doesn't have a map on it yet (but we're working on talking him into it), but each time he posts an update about the hate crime he was involved in last fall in New York, he gets comments from all over the world. Can you imagine anyone hearing about that attack half-way around the world back in the pre-internet days? Or can you imagine a pre-internet world somehow opening up dialogue with people around the globe?
Of course, for most of the first year of my blog, I knew pretty much everyone who was reading it. Sure. I drop John Barrowman's name into the header from time to time and get huge spikes in my readership. And I sometimes send out my info to other people via networking sites resulting in jumps in readership numbers for a day or two. But even after almost 18 months, I know that I'm never going to have a readership as big as "Tiz and Ass" or "NajMania" or any of the food blogs I salivate over pretty much daily.
And, yet, in the past few weeks I've had a semi-anonymous comment or two left on here. And I even have a new "follower" named Judy (her photo is down on the left side), who showed up recently.
So, everyone, please join me in welcoming Judy to my/our world. I hope you enjoy your stay. Feel free to fill out a comment card (or the comment box, at least), and I may or may not respond. But, well, if you've been reading me for any length of time, you probably know that, already.
**And, if you like to read this blog, and want to show me that you enjoy it, why not set up your own little "following" tag so you can be in that column, too? That way you don't have to comment, but I'll still know you're there. Thanks!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Back to the Present in the Future
So, here's the thing I've learned through blogging for the past year: sometimes it is the most random and seemingly unimportant moment that takes on the most meaning.
There is a scene in Thornton Wilder's Our Town where Emily, who has died, asks to go back to relive a day. She is cautioned to not choose a very special day, because everything becomes so much more special when it's gone. She chooses a birthday -- one she feels is relatively insignificant -- but only makes it through part of the day before she decides that she has to leave. The beauty in all of the small moments is too much for her to bear.
There is a little of that in the movie The Time Traveler's Wife, which Kelly and I saw this week. (ha! You'd thought I'd forgotten it was Movie Monday, hadn't you!?) It's a movie with an obvious gimmick (the dude time travels and... eventually... gets married... all with really good hair), but what makes it powerful are the small moments that connect the people. The movie, really, isn't about time travel. Or even about the time traveler. It's about the relationships and the shared moments that the time traveler shares with the people in his life -- for better or worse.
I went into the movie with pretty low expectations. I wanted it to be good, but I wasn't sure it was going to be able to pull it out. But it did. And I found myself pulling for the characters and the day-to-dayness that they longed for.
Somehow, this is the same day-to-day life that Our Town's Emily seems to want as she searches her past in Grover's Corners. And... in some very small way... I think it's what I've spent the past year looking for in this blog.
I love writing about the big events -- the travel, the food, the movies, the parties -- but I enjoy re-reading the stories of the smaller happenings. I like prattling on about the mundane things in life and, hopefully, making them less mundane by doing so.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to do the Proustian thing and spend chapter upon chapter writing about a biscuit, but I'm going to keep stumbling along. Hopefully bumping into a good topic or two along the way, all while finding more movies and more food and maybe even more friends (I've actually made friends via this blog this year -- How cool is that?!). I'm sure there will be tales of gardening and technology and weather and -- hopefully -- even a John Barrowman sighting or two.
Please come along. (And feel free to comment!) I love the company.
Oh. And I give Time Traveler's Wife an A-. I got a lot more than I expected out of it, but there were a few loose ends that even weaving through time didn't tie up.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Flashing Back
As I mentioned yesterday, I plan to spend the next few days looking at the past year's blog entries. I figure it makes sense to look at my first blog entry. Here it is:
Robert's First Blog Entry
Having contemplated whether or not to write a blog for some time, I finally decided to put pen to paper (as it were) and launch myself into the blogosphere.
I promise to do my best to keep this updated and interesting (both of which may prove to be difficult at times, I fully admit).
Here's to trying something new!
I read on and found out that my second and third entries both dealt with a really bad retail customer service group interview situation (I haven't read through enough, yet, to see how many of my posts talk about unemployment and job searching). In that first week I also posted my first movie review. Eventually, in post number six, I found my first reference to John Barrowman (although, oddly enough, I didn't post any pictures of him until January 13th).
And, well, instead of listing everything off, here's the "Label" list that you can also see in the right-hand column:
Labels
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
It's My... Wait... What IS It?
Today, August 25th, 2009, marks one full year of me blogging. Which means it's my...
Blogiversary...?
Or maybe it's my Anniblogsery...?
My First Blogthday...?
Yeah. Really. No clue what to call it. Not that it really needs a name. After all, it just means that, for the past 365 days, I've been prattling on about things going on in my life -- and you folks have been nice enough to check in and read it.
Heck. A few of you have even been nice enough to take the time to comment.
Over the next few days, I plan to share some of my top moments from the past 12 blonths. (hmmm... that's just not a pretty word, is it?) I'm going to revisit some of the things I've written about, comment on some of your comments, and see if I can make sense of any of it. All while working my newly-full-time job and trying to have a non-web-based life. We'll see how I do...
In the meantime, as kind of a starter, I thought you might like to see one of my favorite statistical finds of the past year. You know how there's that map in the left-hand column? Well... I only added that a couple of months ago. When I first started my blog, I put the counter on it (you can see that down at the bottom of the page).
Over the past 245 postings (wow... that's more than I thought!), I've had over 3,000 visitors. Now, granted, those are simply each time someone stops by, so it's not over 3,000 different people, but I still think it's kind of cool.
And, even more fun, here is the generalized breakdown of where people were located when they logged in (no, I'm not sure why this only adds up to about 2,200):
| United States | 1848 (83.66%) |  | |
| Unknown | 316 (14.31%) | | |
| United Kingdom | 11 (0.50%) | | |
| Canada | 8 (0.36%) | | |
| Australia | 7 (0.32%) | | |
| France | 4 (0.18%) | | |
| India | 3 (0.14%) | | |
| Ireland | 2 (0.09%) | | |
| Japan | 2 (0.09%) | | |
| Bulgaria | 2 (0.09%) | | |
| New Zealand | 2 (0.09%) | | |
| Viet Nam | 1 (0.05%) | | |
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1 (0.05%) | | |
| Thailand | 1 (0.05%) | ||
| Russian Federation | 1 (0.05%) |
Like I said, it's nowhere near record-breaking, but I think it's cool that people from Ireland, Thailand, and Australia have stumbled across my randomness. (Now if I could only get them to return -- and comment!)
And now I have to go read through almost 250 posts to figure out what else to say over the next few days. After all, how do you celebrate the start of a second year?
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Trying to Standardize the Blog
I've been contemplating this for a while: the idea of having a semi-specific and relatively-focused topic for my blog. If you've checked out any of the blogs I have listed in the lefthand column, you'll see that they all very nicely focus on one thing. And aside from focusing on my life, mine really doesn't have a focus.
Now there really isn't anything I can think of which I want to write about every single day. Although I like to cook and bake, I don't do it on a daily basis in such a manner that I could write a unique post each time. While I enjoy the Arts, I don't have the money to attend enough events to review something each day. And I'm way too much of a Gemini to be able to stay focused on any one thing for far too--Whoa. Wait. What's that shiny thing over there? What was I saying? Oh, yeah. All of which are reasons why I named this blog what I did when I started.
But I've kind of come up with an idea: Breaking my posts out by day, writing on focused topics depending on the day of the week. This is in the speculative phase right now, but I'm considering the following topics:
Food (ie Cooking and Baking)
The Lively Arts (ie Art-related events for which I need to leave the house)
Restaurants
Travel (local or long distance--from a trip to Montreal to a trip to the grocery store)
Television
Potpourri (ie whatever comes to mind. I don't plan to write regular posts on the smelly stuff people put around their homes in open bowls. Well... Unless it needs to be written about.)
I figure I'll assign one topic to each day, and then write (at least obliquely) on that topic once each week. Yes. I know that there are only 6 topics listed, and there are 7 days in a week, but I figure this will give me one day to either relax or simply write... well... the kind of stuff I've been writing so far.
What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? I'll try to roll this out in the next few days, but I'd love your input in the meantime (and as we go along, of course).
Monday, August 25, 2008
Robert's First Blog Entry
Having contemplated whether or not to write a blog for some time, I finally decided to put pen to paper (as it were) and launch myself into the blogosphere.
I promise to do my best to keep this updated and interesting (both of which may prove to be difficult at times, I fully admit).
Here's to trying something new!
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