Here We Go, Again…

Goal: To blog every day this week (yes, I know it’s a holiday), starting with this Monday morning freewrite.

I got out of bed and had a million things running through my head: my review today, the work I need to get done, the laundry I didn’t fold. Then I took the dog for a walk. Ideas there, too… I even thought of a brilliant title for the blog I was going to write.

I get inside, give the dog a treat and open the computer. I remember that I need to check something for work. So I do… and get totally sidetracked. I’ve forgotten all the stuff I thought of first thing this morning and the witty blog title is gone. I guess this means I really should write FIRST THING in the morning. Like, before doing anything else.

Oh, and now I remember. The blog I was going to write was all about fear. It’s a recurring theme, but for some reason it’s not in my tag cloud. Maybe later.

I’ve also been thinking about different ways we can use the Web 2.0 technologies. Everyone is assuming we need to build everything into OUR site. Would it be so bad if we were simply a feature of another site? What if we developed a facebook app? Or simply a group? What if we used Ning to create our own social network instead of building it from the ground up? Could we use Yelp to get members to rate conference sessions? Journal articles?

I’m making it my personal duty to research these and make some reccomendations. I’m a user, after all… not a developer.

15 mins are up…

Did anyone notice…

that last weeks edition of The Soup had a bit about Groomer Has It?  I wrote about it a couple weeks ago.  I new it was only a matter of time before Joel McHale and Co. figured out how ridiculous that show is.  I really should write for that show. 

I’m smart. That’s all!

For Reals

We’ve established that I’m horrible at blogging. In an effort to get better, here are some random happenings:

• Some bratty kid kicked my dog at the pet store the other day.  Just walked right up and kicked her.  Then the parents SORTA said “sorry” before picking up the kid, hugging her and telling her it was okay.  Um, no… it’s NOT OK!  As my friend said: “that’s how serial killers start.”
• I’m thinking about getting a bike.  There’s a local bike co-op. I think I’ll go tomorrow and see about getting a bike.  I want to bike for a number of reasons:  exercise, transportation, saving the environment.  Those are good enough reasons, dontcha think?
• We’re learning to write for the web at work.  I’m trying to use the tools to start an intra-staff blog. We’ll see what happens.  It’s amazing how little people know about this crazy new internet thing.  Even the developers.  Weird.
• I’m hating that WordPress took away the “insert image” link.  Now I have to add it as “media”?  WTF?  I liked it better when I could just steal from someone else.  I guess that’s the point, huh?
• I finished a book this month.   Which doesn’t sound like it should be THAT big of an accomplishment, but I’m still reading On the Road from May.  Just can’t get into it. I really want to like it.  It’s got sex.  It’s got drugs.  It’s got counter-culture.  But I’m just not as into it as I want to be. 
• I’m also reading a book about Web 2.0 (or Web Twenty as the cool kids are calling it).  Very interesting.  I’ll post a review when I’m done.

If a Tree Falls in the Blogosphere…

Does anyone hear it?? I’ve completely neglected this blog. Not because nothing interesting has happened. In fact, TONS of interesting stuff has happened in the last couple of weeks. But in a bad way.

No, I’ve been absent for a number of other reasons a) i’ve been dealing with other stuff that I’m not sure I want to share with the world, however anonymously b) it appears people are only coming to the blog for photos and c) I just haven’t felt the need to write.

When I decided to start this blog, I thought it would be a fun way to write about stuff I didn’t feel comfortable sharing on my mySpace blog. For that reason, I didn’t promote it to my friends and family, I don’t have pictures or links to the “real” me… I guess I (vainly) thought blogging was like Field of Dreams; If you blog it, they will come.

But I realize now that having a successful blog takes commitment… daily writing, interesting posts, promotion. I guess I could do that. If nothing else, I need to get back to posting every day. But do I really want to go through the work to promote my blog? Especially since I don’t know what I’m writing about? Or why?

The other challenge is how much personal stuff to share… 99% of the things I want to write about have to do with friends/family/coworkers…. but I don’t want to give too much away.

Anyway, this is a long meandering post. . . with very little resolution. Maybe I’ll figure it out one day.
~Peace

Fit/Fat Camp: Day 1

To add some spice to my workout routine I joined FitCamps4Chicks with a friend of mine. Today was the first session and it went something like this:

1. Fill out paper work

2. Roll call/introductions

3. Warm up– running in place/high knees

4. Fitness assessments:

• Crunches– do as many crunches as you can in 60 seconds with ball over your head. Shoulder blades must come off the ground and ball must hit knees. My best: 38 crunches; near the bottom of the pack
• Wall sit– sit on wall (or, in our case a tree or fence) for as long as you can with your knees in a 90 degree angle above your feet. My best: 3:02; second highest in the group (first highest went to a girl who has done ALL the fit camps, so I’m pretty proud of myself!
• Running test– run around a fence and then up the big hill at Centennial Park. My best: 39 seconds; fifth highest in the group… a little above average. But, I think the best time was, like, 30 seconds so I did pretty well, considering how much I SUCK at running!

As you can see, I’m pretty competitive and I’m bound and determined to do better on these next time. The camp meets 3x/week for 4 weeks. I’m excited for the next session!

One More Time

Okay, I’ll try this again… I’ve been slacking on my freewriting lately and apparently I haven’t posted in almost a week. Ooops!

What have I been up to, you ask?  Well, I took a few days off of work.  I’d call them “mental health days” but that’s lame.  Basically I had a migraine that probably could have been managed with meds, but I decided to use it as an excuse to be lazy.

And lazy I was.  Tues and Weds I laid around A LOT.  Went back to work Thurs just in time to have people over for the Lost finale.  I actually tried posting my Lost comments here, but something happened and I gave up.  Sad thing is, I haven’t even had a chance to read the rest of the theories.  Maybe today.

Friday was crazy… Work was work. Then I had to babysit for a couple hours. And my friends came over to pre-dring/get ready for Bunco. And then there were storms.   Crazy storms.  People calling about the storms.  People calling about Bunco.   Chaos.

Saturday…  Oh, yeah.  Mowed the lawn.  Got sweaty.  Went to my friend’s pool.  Went to a wedding reception.  It was a LONG, LONG, LONG day.

Yesterday I went to the pool again and laid around A LOT.  I’m a sleeping fool.  Oh, and I went to Lowe’s to get some “supplies”  I’ve decided against getting professional landscaping done, but figured I should at least buy some flowers to spruce up the place.   I had no luck.  I’ll go again this week.  I also want to stain my fence, so I got some info. on that.   I wish I would have had more time/energy earlier in the weekend so some of this would be done.

Here’s my list of home-improvement projects (well, just the outside ones)

• Buy/Plant flowers
• Cut back bushes
• Outdoor furniture
• Power wash porch
• Wash windows
• Stain fence
• Get garage painted

Man, my life is boring, huh?