Category: Blogroll

right from the start

I have given in to the urge to put together a sort of 2008 blog recap. Following in the footsteps of Mad, Magpie, Bea and Holly, I present to you the opening sentence of each first post of the month. (Or in some cases, a sentence fragment. Because I like sentence fragments.) (And I’ve also put the post title.)(In parentheses.)(Because I like parentheses.)

What this excercise has demonstrated to me is that my posts tend to lack interesting beginnings. I’d like to say that I’ll work on getting more interesting “hooks” for my posts. However, if I were to agonize about the beginnings of my posts, I would likely collapse in a heap of debilitating self-awareness.

On the other hand, I could try starting with the right opening sentences, and then work my way from there. What my openers above clearly lack, aside from elements that might intrigue a reader, is pants.

I offer to you an alternate universe list of post openers:


    January: The moment I walked in the room, I realized that I had worn entirely the wrong pair of pants.

    February: Hell hath no fury like a woman pantsed.

    March: You would not believe the number of people who have been trying to get into my pants this week.

    April: Today I invented a novel way of wearing pants.

    May: You can tell a lot about people from their body language, or from going through the contents of their pants pockets.

    June: I can’t remember where I left my pants last night.

    July: Shakespeare knew a thing or two about writing, but from what I’ve heard, he was a bit lacking in the pants department.

    August: My love of pants may finally have gotten me in trouble with the law.

    September: Last night I found a mysterious message, a poetic missive written in an elegant hand, stuck to the seat of my pants.

    October: On beautiful Fall days like this, I sometimes gaze out the window at the leaves falling gracefully from the trees and the pants falling clumsily from the waistlines of the passersby.

    November: I’ve signed on for NaPaWriMo (National Pants Writing Month) this year, which means that every day for this whole month, I’ll be joining the ranks of those who can’t help but write about pants.

    December: Today turned out to be an unfortunate day to go outside without my pants.

NaBloPoMoPoMo

A certified spoon-free post! (Well, except for that use of the word spoon. Oh, and that last one, too. Ah, to hell with it. Spoon, spoon, spooooooooons!)

I made it through my second NaBloPoMo, having posted 30 times in the month of November. This here is my National Blog Posting Month Post Mortem. You know, the NaBloPoMoPoMo.

Last year vs. this year:
I have to say that it wasn’t a very satisfying experience this time around.

Last year, I followed Magpie over, and dove in enthusiastically. I really took advantage of the social networking aspects of the NaBloPoMo Ning website. I joined several groups, and created a few of my own. I’m most proud of the Ministry of Silly Blogs, for which I even started a new blog. There are a good dozen or so bloggers who I met last year through NaBloPoMo, and whose blogs I still read regularly, many of whom I now consider friends (see appendix).

This year, I didn’t manage to engage in the social networking. I had meant to revive the Ministry of Silly Blogs (I still hope to at some point), and to start a couple other groups. But alas, I didn’t have the time.

Really, my time is not my own at this point in my life. With a new baby, a toddler, as well as my job/school commitments, any time I find for blogging is actually borrowed time.

Last night I ended up posting a super-lame placeholder (or a placemat?) of a post, after a long day with my hands otherwise occupied. It seems quite fitting to end with a sputter, considering how things went this month. (I confess that I even had one other uber-lame post where I backdated the time by about 3 seconds. It was still before midnight on my laptop when I hit “publish,” but, well…)

I did at least accomplish the goal of 30 posts in those 30 days. At least some of which were worth posting.

What I posted:
I did 4 ThThTh lists, including a couple that had been rattling around in my head for ages. (Oddly enough, I had the utensils list in mind back when I started my themed lists.)

I enjoyed running away with themes and having more thematic connections between posts. (I had 3 posts relating to cans, 3 with dragons and an another on a Monster, 2 with reflections, and then a staggering 4 posts filled with utensils. Would you believe that I even have a 5th utensil one drafted? Yeah, I guess you’d believe that. But don’t worry, spoons won’t replace pants in my heart.)

I had grandiose plans to offer up a word each day, inspired by my appreciation of the word omphaloskepsis. I kept that up for maybe 5 posts.

I posted quite a few photo posts, some of which I’d been wanting to share but hadn’t gotten around to, and some of which I shared on a whim.

I managed to keep most of my posts brief, which is something I’ve tried to work on. (I’m always amused when people apologize for short posts. I like to read short posts! I need to apologize for this one, which is waaaaay too long…)

The highlights:
I’m going to take up an invitation from Heather of finding atman to list 5 posts I was glad I wrote during this past chaotic month.

  1. 80s pants party! pants-themed 80s songs complete with album cover art with my own pants font. (A Monday Mission.)
  2. Making history: in which I express my excitement on the eve of the US presidential election.
  3. You may have already won! A politically-oriented post in the style of a “congratulations” letter. (Also for a Monday Mission.)
  4. Feeding the Monster: about camping trips and can-collecting with my grandmother.
  5. anatomy lessons: in which I introduce the word penis to my 2-year-old daughter

I also wrote a post called The bittersweetness of pants, in which I talk about my dear friend who died last year. I’m not actually happy with the post, as I can’t really read it, but I needed to write it.

Appendix: NaBloBloggers

Blog(ger)s I met through last year’s NaBloPoMo, and still read regularly:

  1. a daily dose of zen sarcasm
  2. adventures in randomness
  3. Arbitrary Ruminations
  4. Art of Darkness
  5. ashley awesome
  6. BipolarLawyerCook
  7. blogapotamus rex
  8. Citizen of the Month
  9. country girl / city girl
  10. eye heart internet
  11. Fairstar the Funship
  12. Fretting the Small Stuff
  13. greeblemonkey
  14. laboratory tested
  15. riddlebiddle
  16. The Gav Menagerie
  17. wreke havoc

Blog(ger)s I met this NaBloPoMo season:

  1. On the Curb
  2. Donna Likes Orange
  3. Organize to Revitalize

And just to round things out, here are my blogger friends who have been partaking of this year’s NaBloMadness (some of whom also did it last year):

  1. Cold Spaghetti
  2. Mimi on the Breach
  3. finding atman
  4. If you want kin, you must plant kin
  5. The Journey
  6. Life as I Live It
  7. laboratory tested
  8. ashley awesome
  9. wreke havoc
  10. country girl / city girl
  11. a daily dose of zen sarcasm

(If I left you off my list, let me know, and I’ll add you.)

reflections

Mirrors outside a frame shop in Bath, England.
Mirrors outside a frame shop in Bath, England.

This is a photo I took during my 2005 trip to London. We went on an excursion to Bath, and while roaming the streets, I was struck by this shopfront of a frame and mirror store. (Don’t worry, it didn’t hurt me.) A car happened to pass by into the frame (or frames) just as I took the picture.

I’m quite fond of reflected elements in photos and other visual art, so when I saw over at Webs of Significance that this week’s PhotoHunt theme was “reflections,” I felled compelled to investigate further.

So, I’ve decide to give PhotoHunt a try, having seen YTSL (and occasional others) particpate many a time. I saw that you no longer need to post their blogroll, so it seems less cumbersome to participate. In case you haven’t come across it before, PhotoHunt is weekly blogging even hosted by tnchick.com where people are invited to participate by posting a photo once a week on a given theme.

Of course, now that the theme of reflection has come up, I have a few more reflections I’d like to post. I’ll save them for another day. And maybe even a list.

photohunters2mo1

Silly Men Walking

Rejoice! There is now a Monty Python channel on YouTube (warning: a video will start playing when you click that link), where you can find a host of Python clips. Okay, so you could find the clips on YouTube before, but they were all unauthorized:

For 3 years you YouTubers have been ripping us off, taking tens of thousands of our videos and putting them on YouTube. Now the tables are turned. It’s time for us to take matters into our own hands.

So now you can watch The Ministry of Silly Walks as Python intended:

In related news, today I also learned of this terribly Silly Short Movie involving Men Walking at The Skwib. Steve Sullivan’s brilliant “A Heap of Trouble” features men walking down the road singing: “…nine naked men just walking down the road…”

Intrigued? You can watch it yourself: “A Heap of Trouble.’

As Mark so eloquently warns:
“Warning: Not Safe for Work if your co-workers are uncomfortable with brief shots of sausage and/or Welsh singing.”

To read more about this short (where most of the men aren’t even wearing shorts), go visit The Skwib.

sixth of one, a half dozen of the other

I’ve been tagged to do the 6th of the 6th photo meme. Twice, even. By kyla and Mary G. For this, we are supposed to post the 6th photo in our 6th photo folder, along with details. Of course, these instructions are somewhat open to interpretation. Painted Maypole went to her old computer in order to get something less recent. I considered doing this, too, seeing as it would be more interesting to dig up something old, but laziness prevailed. (Also the fact that my old computer is right next to Phoebe’s room, and is really loud for the startup.) Mimi used the 6th event from her iPhoto library. After exploring various interpretations, I’m picking the 6th photo from the 6th “album” in my iPhoto library.

This is Phoebe looking out the window at the airport at the start of our big trip to Europe in August of 2007. She was about 18 months old.

Phoebe at Logan Airport at about 18 months old.
Phoebe at Logan Airport at about 18 months old.

Kyla also tagged me for the random things meme, with the instructions to list 7 random things about myself or my kid. Seeing as I’ve already listed plenty of things about myself, I’ll go with listing things about Phoebe. The instructions said 7 things, but I’m going to stick with 6, just because it goes better with my post title.

6 random facts about Phoebe:

  1. She is not especially partial to pink, which many seem to believe not possible for a young girl. (She doesn’t yet seem to have favorite color, and has even shown some affinity for black.)
  2. She loves tofu.
  3. She likes to eat frozen vegetables. As in not thawed. Like little green bean popsicles.
  4. She is named after John’s maternal grandmother (first name) and my maternal grandmother (middle name).
  5. She is a night owl, like her parents. She will even sleep in, when given the opportunity.
  6. She loves to travel. She is not even 3 years old yet, and has already been on 5 major trips by air (3 times to California, once to Texas, and once to France and Germany), as well as many, many car trips down to New York.

I crack myself up

I crack myself up sometimes. Really. I have fun writing silly things. And it’s quite gratifying to learn that sometimes I entertain other people. (I’d like to think that they are laughing with me, not at me. But whatever.)

Oct '08 ROFLAnd I’m psyched to say that the fabulous Mad Hatter of Under the Mad Hat has awarded me with an ROFL award for my post covering the election in the Democratic Republic of Pants. Thank you, kind Mad.

Not since Jon Stewart awarded me the Golden Pants Award in my imagination have I been so honored. The award ceremony is today over at Chicky Chicky Baby’s and Oh, The Joys, so I must scramble to find an evening gown appropriate for the occasion. Or maybe clown pants would be more appropriate.

So, please pull up your pants, and join me for the full award ceremony and see what cracks other people up.

This post was brought to you by the word pants, with support from the word crack.

——
In somewhat related news (seeing as they probably all wear pants) jen, Mad and Su will be posting the Just Posts for October in a few days. If you have read or written deserving posts that address topics of social justice and activism, you can still send in your nominations by the end of the day today (Friday, November 7th). (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can check out the Septemeber Just Posts. Jen has some info on how to submit your nominations in this post. After the bit about wine. Or you can ask me what the hell I am talking about. Don’t worry. I’m used to it.)

NaBloPoMoMe

I’ve signed on to NaBloPoMo once mo’, which means I’ll be posting daily for the next 30 days. Because I’m deranged.

And like last year, when I founded The Ministry of Silly Blogs, I am sorely tempted to start another group. Or several.

Really, what I should be doing more of is working on my degree requirements. Not more blogging. What I could do is make myself blog about my progress. Perhaps the specter of public shaming will motivate me.

Who else is diving in this time? I know ashley, wreke, and City Girl have signed on. And heather is contemplating it. Anyone else?

pants blogger slacks off

I haven’t really been slacking off, but I really wanted to use that title.

Anyhow, it’s been a busy week. We had our Halloween party last night, and I spent a lot of time the past few days cleaning, organizing, running errands and generally running around like a chicken with its head cut off. (That was not my costume by the way.) Maybe I’ll have a chance to write about the party (and our real costumes) a bit later. Right now we are running out the door to Ikea, resuming our quest to get Phoebe a big girl bed.

Like Magpie, there are a lot of posts that I have been working on. Some are drafts, some are still lurking around in my head. I’ll filch¹ Magpie’s idea to post a list of posts I have been thinking about this past week:

  1. I have several ThThTh posts in progress, but couldn’t find the time to shine one up enough to post. (Those things take a long time to do when I use images.) You almost got to see my ass post on Thursday. Well, you almost got to see a list of donkeys…
  2. Phoebe has entered the “why” stage. It sort of sneaked up on us.
  3. All this talk about Palin “dropping her Gs” makes me want to write a phonetics/sociophonetics post. (I had great plans to write on for this past Tuesday’s “Talk Like Sarah Palin Day” business.)
  4. I can’t stop thinking/reading/talking about the election.
  5. I am feeling really exicted about the election and the (dare I say it?) likelihood that Obama will win.
  6. Did I mention that I am thinking a lot about the election? And I am feeling some powerful optimism. My Republican best friend and I can talk about politics without fighting for the first time in our 20-year friendship. Today John sent me this link to a very short post this morning and I got choked up. And then this line from Magpie’s post gave me chills:

    My Republican father – who told me the other day that he thought Obama had the chance to be one of the best presidents ever.

———————-
¹ The word filch is also something that I filched from Magpie…²
² I am declaring today to be International Filch From Magpie Day.³
³ Which reminds me, I should update on the last idea I filched from Magpie, for Blog Action Day. I owe Unicef some money…

gone crazy with the nominations

buttonsept2008The Just Posts went up today, offering up their sumptuous display of tasty activism-oriented morsels. Go pay a visit to Su, jen or Mad, and see what tastiness they have to offer.

In case you haven’t encountered it (them?) before, the Just Posts is (are?)¹ a monthly roundtable of posts from around the blogosphere on topics of social justice and activism. They are posted on the 10th of each month, and anyone can send in nominations to jen, Mad or Su.

I usually take it upon myself to nominate posts that I’ve come across each month. And since there’s no limit on how many one may contribute, and since I read so many great blogs, I like to nominate a generous-sized serving. I’m a bit lazy (and maybe even a bit timid) when it come to letting people know about the nominations. However, this month, I’ll put them out here in the open. (And spread a little more link love.)

For September, I nominated posts by leslie of adventures in randomness, den of Work + Play ≠ Dull Boy, magpie of Magpie Musing, Emily of Wheels on the Bus, girlgriot of if you want kin…, Rebecca of Flying Tomato Farms, Holly of Cold Spaghetti, and of course, by my heroes jen and Mad. (And, as I’ve confessed before, I also submitted one of my own posts.) Go have a look and see which posts I nominated! Just click any of the buttons below.²

Posts about topics of social value benefits writer and reader alike, and the Just Posts are a great way to spread awareness and share ideas and ideals. I really encourage any of you out there to participate, either by writing and nominating posts of your own, or by nominating posts by others who have inspired you and made you think. And certainly I encourage you to go read! (Go. Now. What are you waiting for?)

buttonsept2008 buttonsept2008 buttonsept2008

——
¹ Number agreement can be such a tricky beast…

² For the August round-up, I nominated posts by wreke of Wreke Havoc , Holly of Cold Spaghetti, YTSL of Webs of Significance, girlgriot of if you want kin… and Neil of Citizen of the Month.