Category: metablogging

ghost of the pants


The pants phantasm…a pantasmic apparition.

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the start of my blog, and also a day that has personal significance for me and my pants. I feel like I should have something pithy, or at least witty, to say. I wanted to write something fun or silly or brilliant featuring pants. It’s been ages since I’ve put together a pants list. But instead of writing about pants, I wrote the word pants. In light. Which I have to say is actually fairly fun and silly. It is also luminous, which is at least a synonym of brilliant.¹

I have to keep chugging away at my research to at least maintain the illusion of progress, and there hasn’t been much time in my day or room in my head for blogging or pants. I’m being haunted by the spectre of an abstract submission deadline for a conference, which is looming only 2 weeks away. I had really hoped to have something ready to submit, but it’s looking less and less likely. But I want to keep my momentum, and hopefully I’ll be ready to submit something more substantial to another conference with a spring deadline. And there’s that tiny chance that I can still make the December 1st deadline. A little ghost of a chance.

—-

¹ I did not edit this photo at all, and I am quite pleased with myself for figuring out how to do this.

NaBloPoMoBloMe all over again

You know how I need to cut back on blogging? Yeah, well, I’ve been doing a pretty good job at that. And my work has been benefitting. But it seems I can’t resist the lure of NaBloPoMo in November. (I’ve done it three years in a row.) So, here’s the deal. I’m going to commit to putting up a post once a day for the month of November. But it’s not going to be pretty. I am going to limit the amount of time I can spend on blogging. I haven’t quite figured out what the time limit should be, but I’m thinking along the lines of 20 minutes a day, at least for most days. Maybe I’ll say that I can spend longer on a post as long as I don’t spend more than 10 hours in the month. Sound reasonable?

So, either this means I will just post a few photos, or I will ramble on in an unedited manner. Consider yourselves warned.

crunchy bits and squeezy bits and cranky bits

I started this post a week ago. I have a lot of drafts of posts lying around collecting dust. Seriously, I must have well over a hundred draft posts in various stages of completion. And seriously, I think they are dusty. Some of them even have cobwebs.

—

Life has been hectic again (when hasn’t it?) and I’m trying to fit all the bits and pieces together.

A large item that’s been on my mind is that I’m finally going to try to make a push to finish my degree. Sadly, I am really not all that close, even to being ABD. I finished my coursework ages ago. But coursework was the easy part, what with the structure and the regular, manageable assignments with regular, manageable deadlines. My other requirements are larger and more nebulous, with typically much fuzzier deadlines. I have this bad tendency to push off my own research until I’ve worked my way through my other obligations. The trouble is that my other obligations manage quite easily to fill up all of my available time.

Since May, Phoebe and Theo have been in childcare 5 days a week, an increase from the 3 or 4 days they had been going. This gives me more available time. In theory. In practice, there have been more weeks than not during which there was at least one holiday, vacation day, or sick day. Since May I have travelled to a conference in Chicago for work, visited my family in California, visited my in-laws in New York several times, had a short trip to New Hampshire, a visit to New York City for BlogHer, and then most recently another trip to Chicago for a funeral. My job has kept me busy with deadlines for conferences and papers, plus meetings and running subjects. Our house continues to kick my butt, with its demands for upkeep. My head has been full of concern for family and friends.

Each time I have gone back to my own research, I have had to regroup, and remind myself of what I was doing, what I’d done last, and what I was about to do. (I’m working on figuring out better systems for keeping myself on track and moving forward, but I will probably save that for another post.)

—

I know that I can do better than this. I feel like I’ve just been making excuses. I used to be an effective and productive person. I’m trying to get there again, and right now it feels a lot like crunching. I’m trying to squeeze everything tighter to make room for my research. Honestly, all this compression has made me cranky.

One of the few places I can find time to squeeze is my time spent online. Since I rarely get to see friends in person, I’ve been clinging to my online world, the interactions with friends I see in blogland and on Facebook. But I have to cut back. I have started cutting back. (In the last couple of months or so, I’ve had several unhappy exchanges and experiences that have soured my online world and that has helped me pull back. Though, again with the cranky.)

Since I started blogging several years ago, I have spent a lot of my time offline (such as while I’m driving or doing laundry or dealing with other largely thoughtless tasks) thinking about my life online. Often thinking about posts I’ve read, or posts I’d like to write. I somehow need to shift my focus so that I spend that time thinking about articles I’ve read and papers I should be writing.

I’m not saying I’m going to quit blogging, but I can’t participate as much I have in the past. I probably will start leaving even fewer comments, even though I intend to keep reading posts.

I still hope to post here from time to time. Maybe even a couple of times a week if I can do so in a constrained amount of time. I hope to dust off some of the drafts that have been piling up for the past several years, and maybe I’ll still manage to get out some of the ones that have been cluttering up my head.

I’ve been sticking with Project 365, taking and posting at least one picture a day, and that will probably continue to be my main creative outlet. Taking pictures is something I can do in a few minutes if I need to, or that I can do during my time spent with Phoebe and Theo.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this post, but it feels like I’ve been leaving my blog hanging.


This photo doesn’t really have anything to do with anything in this post, but I like it.

I have nothing clever to say at this time

You know, I hate it when I go a long time without really posting. I feel this sort of weird pressure that whatever I post after a lull should somehow sparkle. Be…worthwhile. So I end up thinking a lot about posts I’d like to write, things I’ve been composing in my head for ages. But by the end of the day, when I have a chance to sit down, I’m just tired. I don’t feel like I have sufficient time and energy to write something that I want to write. I might get part way through a draft of a post, and then give up and go to bed. So, once again, I’m writing something utterly dull.

disconnected thoughts

Things have been a bit crazy over the past few weeks, and it’s a little hard to know where to jump in to start blogging again. So I guess I’ll just offer my disconnected thoughts.

I see that it’s been almost 3 full weeks since I posted anything beyond Just Posts stuff.

3 weeks ago we had a full but fun weekend. Fun up to a point…

John was finally able to take a day off from work after many weeks of working long crazy hours 7 days a week. That Sunday, we spent a family day together, hitting the Boston Children’s Museum, and then dinner at a really great little restaurant in Cambridge with a play area for kids and really good food. At dinner, John and I enjoyed the food and conversation while Phoebe and Theo played happily a few feet away. Theo seemed not too interested in food, so I called him over to try to get him to eat. I pulled him on my lap and offered a bite of fruit. At which point he started throwing up.

That was the point at which the weekend stopped being fun.

We had a long drive home with a very sick Theo and a very disturbed Phoebe.

Theo was quite sick for a couple of days, and was barely able to keep anything down. I was getting worried we’d need to get medical intervention to keep him hydrated. I’m quite sure he lost a lot of weight. He was so miserable that I could barely put him down for about 48 hours. We didn’t want to leave him alone when he was sleeping because we were worried about him choking.

Phoebe got sick, too. Not quite as sick as Theo, but quite miserable, nonetheless. Especially on that Monday. Which was her 4th birthday.

It was a long week. John and I both got the virus to varying degrees. I lucked out by only having 48 hours of fever and mild nausea. (Though I guess that makes the 5th time I’ve been sick so far in 2010. The year is clearly off to a rollicking good start.)

Once everyone was more or less recovered, it was time to get the house ready for Phoebe’s birthday party. We’d been living in steadily increasing levels of chaos for the past year, and if we were going to have a party at home, we were going to need to relocate parts of the house that had long since become buried under piles of things. My mother came from California for week-long visit, and she helped a huge amount to get the house sorted out. Together, we found that we did, indeed, still have kitchen counters. They were approximately where I’d last remembered seeing them.

We had Phoebe’s party last Saturday. My mother left Tuesday. Her visit was lots of fun, but considering that we were working almost non-stop with cleaning, party prep, party, and post-party clean-up, it was pretty exhausting. She’s probably still recovering from her “vacation.”

The last couple of days I’ve just been feeling tired and pretty run down. It certainly doesn’t help that I’ve been eating leftover cupcakes and cookies daily.

I may manage to post something about the party. (Can anyone guess what theme Phoebe chose?)

—

My feed reader is overflowing, and I’m strangely at peace with that. I’ve been reading posts here and there, in a haphazard way. Even when I have read posts, I’ve been really bad about commenting. Again.

There’s part of me that knows that in order to really move forward with my degree, I need to find more time. And really the only time I have to “spare” is the couple of hours each night that I tend to spend online. So it’s probably good to start disconnecting from that time sink.

But I just can’t bear to pull the plug on my blog.

—-

In other news, Holly and I are super close to getting the Best of 2009 Just Posts up for voting. We actually have all the finalists chosen, and had hoped to put up the post tonight. (Friday night, that is. I see it’s now technically Saturday.) Hopefully the final kinks in our voting procedures will get worked out tomorrow (or today, seeing as it’s after midnight).

Best of the 2009 Just Posts: The Semifinalists

I would like to announce that finalists for the Best Just Posts of 2009 will be posted and ready for your voting by the end of January.

However, seeing as I have not yet successfully managed to manipulate the passage of time to suit my desires, I will have to settle for announcing that the finalists will be ready by a date in the near future. Our goal is for Monday, March 1st.

It may not shock you to know that this project grew larger than either Holly or I had anticipated. For one thing, we quickly realized that due to the subjective nature of responding to posts, it would be much fairer to make sure that each post was evaluated independently by more than person. Seeing as we had about 300 posts to evaluate, this meant 600 separate reviews.

We could not have even contemplated this task without vast amounts of help from friends and Just Post supporters, who read and evaluated batches of posts. Their ratings and comments have been extremely helpful to us. For their time and care, we send out sincere thanks and grateful hugs to the following beautiful people:
Amanda, Anne-Marie, antropologa, Barbara, blc, bon, bshep, Catherine, Charlotte, Chrissie, Christine, Christine, De, dee, defiantmuse, denguy, Donna, Elizabeth B, Eli, Emily, Erica, Erika , Heather, Janet, Jean, jen, Julie, KC, Kitty, laloca, Leslie, Lin, Mad, Magpie, Mary G., Meagan, Mme. Meow, Painted,
Robin, Sarah, Shokufeh, Stacie, submom, Susanne, Tabba, and wreke.

And extra big fat sloppy kisses go to De, denguy, Donna, Erika , Heather, Kitty, Leslie, Mad, Mary G., Sarah and Tabba for going above and beyond the call of duty, and coming back to help with more. (For that matter, I’m pretty sure I owe Heather my firstborn child (or at least my firstborn child’s weight in chocolate) for all of the additional reading she took on for us.)

We also greatly appreciate those of you who, while you were not able to actively participate in the project through reading and reviewing posts, expressed your interest and support in the endeavor. Thanks, friends!

In the meantime, our list of semifinalists may be of interest. These posts are those which at least one of two reviewers asserted should make our finalist list. Our final finalist list (I love writing that) will be selected from these semifinalists, based on reviews and comments and a few other considerations.

  • 250 Children Dead of Cold in Andes: Death Toll Keeps Climbing by Barbara Drake at An American in Lima
  • A Day with Fibromyalgia by Amy at Je Ne Regrette Rien
  • A House Made of Asbestos by Mary at Them’s My Sentiments
  • A mini home makeover by Quadelle at Quadelle
  • A Voice from the Back of the Queue by Mary G. at Them’s My Sentiments
  • Academic Freedom: Anti-gay Opinions vs. Anti-gay Untruths by Zack Ford at Zack Ford Blogs
  • American Me by jen at one plus two
  • And if I’m gay, what’s your point? by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • And so we wait. by Erika at  Be gay about it.
  • Antifeminist Spam by Meloukhia at This Ain’t Livin’
  • Archbishop of Cusco to Evict More Local Restaurants by Barbara Drake at An American in Lima
  • Are you “Man Enough” for the Middle Border? by Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms
  • Attention White Folks by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • B is for Backpack by Laura at Our Feet are the Same
  • Bea and Eve by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • Bird by Bird by jen at one plus two (at Blogher)
  • Blog for choice: Priorities for the new administration by Melissa at MOMocrats
  • bob marley has definitely left the building by jen at one plus two
  • Can we talk? by Country Girl at Country Girl/City Girl
  • Celebrating 5+ Years of Marriage in Massachusetts by alejna at collecting tokens
  • Charity vs. Democracy by Magpie at Magpie Musing
  • Chipped by Holly at Cold Spaghetti
  • Civil rights, but just for me by Tami at What Tami Said
  • Connecting the dots. by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • Cows for Christmas by XUP at Ex-Urban Pedestrian
  • Creative Freedoms and the Not Now Book by Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven
  • Culture Clash by jen at one plus two
  • East Coast Cats and Christopher Street Boys by Jay at Ill Doctrine
  • Education dollars at work by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • Everybody hurts., by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • Everyday Piscasso by jen at one plus two
  • Faces of Poverty by Ashley at The Dhaka Diaries
  • Faculty Responsible for Campus Climate, Too! (NYU School of Law) by Zack Ford at Zack Ford Blogs
  • finding a way to volunteer with my hands full by alejna at collecting tokens
  • forgiveness by Christine at by flutter
  • Free speech, free range by almostidealist at One Year to Change the World
  • Frozen by Meagan at A Certain Lack of Focus
  • Get It? Got It? Good. by Holly at Cold Spaghetti
  • Glamorous by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • Good on ya, Greenpeace! by Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms
  • Government extends State of Emergency; more children to die by Barbara at An American in Lima
  • Guilty Pleasure Monday: Goodnight Saigon Billy Joel by wreke at wrekehavoc
  • guilty pleasure monday: millworker (james taylor) by wreke at wrekehavoc
  • How dare you take your vagina out in public! by Angela at The Many Hats
  • How’s that Gentrification Going? by Phoebe at Rectory Entrance
  • Humanity I Love You by Catherine at Her Bad Mother
  • In Health there is Freedom, Health is the First of all Liberities by thordora at Spin Me I Pulsate
  • Inverted Reality by Fatboyfat at Make Lard History
  • Iowa: a proposal. by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • Just Posts for a Just World by Holly at Cold Spaghetti
  • Laying Down Arms by Thailand Chani at Finding My Way Home
  • Ma: Little Bigot On the Prairie by Mary at The Eleventh
  • Maine. by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • Marriott is a Disgrace by Ilina at Dirt and Noise
  • Merry Christmas to all by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • Missing the Point by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • More by Bon at cribchronicles
  • My best friend’s wedding… by BipolarLawyerCook at BipolarLawyerCook
  • My child, every child by Kyla at The Journey
  • My Once A Year Jewish Rant. by Neil at Citizen of the Month
  • My Uterus Sent Me Flowers by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • My, what a gayngled web we weave. by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • Necessary Rant by Thailand Chani at Finding My Way Home
  • No More Hall Passes by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • Oh I See, Profiling is Colorblind by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • Oh Oh, She’s Back on Her Soapbox Again by Chris at Formerly Fun
  • Oh, HELL no by City Girl at Country Girl/City Girl
  • On Social Justice and Education by Brigitte Knudson at A Liberal Education
  • One couple’s journey to adopting HIV-positive children  part 1, part 2, and part 3 by Jennifer at Conversion Diary
  • Opening doors, come what may.  by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • Oprah and the secret lives of moms by antiracist parent at antiracist parent
  • peace train by wreke at wrekehavoc
  • Pensioneering by Thordora at Spin Me I Pulsate
  • Please tell me by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • Pondering Fate by Holly at Cold Spaghetti
  • President Obama Fierce Advocate of Rousing Speeches and the Status Quo by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • Quote of the Day by Adrianne at The Bodhi Tree
  • Race Matters; or, the Judge, the Professor, and the Doctor by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • Rejecting Yertle by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • Remember by Painted Maypole at Painted Maypole
  • Remember that wishbone I was choking on? by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • Sacred Life Sunday: No Slime Zone! by Thailand Chani at Finding My Way Home
  • Safety and Self Worth: $175 by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • Samaritans in a Subaru by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • school daze by jen at one plus two
  • Shine your light, share your story …AND WIN A CONTEST!! by Erika at Be gay about it.
  • some random thoughts on giving by Em at Social Justice Soapbox
  • Some Thoughts on the Princess and the Frog by Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven
  • Stay or go by Jarret at Creature of the shade
  • Stigma//Taboo by Magpie at Magpie Musing
  • stuck in the freudian anal phase by bon at cribchronicles
  • Stuff black folks don’t do: Creating our own oppression by Tami at What Tami Said
  • Susan Boyle by Thailand Chani at Finding My Way Home
  • Tales of Health Insurance by Neil at Citizen of the Month
  • Tall and Tan, Young and Lovely by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • Ten by Painted Maypole at Painted Maypole
  • The Afghanis by Antropologa at Antropologa
  • The cost of a winter tomato by Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms
  • The Freegans by XUP at Ex-Urban Pedestrian
  • the great american melting pot (?) by Hispanic Fanatic at Hispanic Fanatic
  • The Holy Land by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • The Invisible Boy by Catherine at Her Bad Mother
  • The radical act of being ourselves by Mouse at The Mouse’s Nest
  • The Speech, Remix Edition by Kyla at The Journey
  • the un-holiest marriage by Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms
  • The Unbearable Tenderness of Boys by Hedgie at Princess Hedgehog Chronicles guestposting at Talkin’ the Teenie
  • This (Black) American Life by Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven
  • This is what a leader looks like by Emily at Wheels on the Bus
  • Today is World Water Day by prof susurro at like a whisper
  • Uncensored II by Megan at Missing in Iraq
  • untitled post by Christine at by flutter
  • Venting by Em at Social Justice Soapbox
  • War Ends, Schools Begin by Shahrazaad at Shahrazaad
  • War on Women by Chani at Finding my way back home
  • Whadaya Know Georgia. by Tash at Awful but Functioning
  • What kids need by Emily (from Wheels on the Bus) at LA Mom’s Blog
  • What’s Good for the Goose by Stacie at If you want kin, you must plant kin…
  • When allies fail – Part One and Part Two by Tami at What Tami Said
  • When is zero not really zero? When it describes your food. by Kimberly at The Gav Menagerie
  • Why does New Orleans have different moral rules of conduct? by Holly at Cold Spaghetti
  • Why the Prop 8 Decision Inhibits Equality by Zack Ford at Zack Ford Blogs
  • You don’t want to meet the new boy in town by Holly at Cold Spaghetti
  • You Think E Coli Spinach is Scary? by Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms
  • You want to know how much a colonoscopy costs? by Magpie at Magpie Musing

    • 2010: The Year of Looking Back at 2009

    Here we are, entering the last week of January. And I’m still working at getting together those “end of year” posts I had planned.

    Case in point: Holly and I are still going strong with our efforts to put together a compilation of the best Just Posts of 2009. We’re asking readers and other friends to look over lists of 10 posts, and let us know which are the best of each batch. Since we have around 300 posts, and since we’ve decided we’d like to get 2 independent reviews per post, we still need help. So, if you’re willing and able to participate in this project, let us know!

    Meanwhile, I haven’t made any further progress with my self-indulgent favorite posts of 2009 from this blog list that I had planned to post. I seem to recall that I had narrowed my list down to about 50. Clearly, my ego is healthy! Or perhaps inflated. (It could be bloating. Is ego edema a documented condition?)

    There are also many things I meant to post last year, but still haven’t gotten around to. Loads of pictures, and details on life and travels and such. (For that matter, I’ve also still been thinking about my apparent loss of a decade. I’ve been thinking back, and realizing that there were highlights for me even beyond the decade’s defining feature.)

    In keeping with looking back at last year, in any case, I thought I’d share some photos. I’ve grabbed 2 photos of Phoebe and Theo for each month. A calendar of cuteness, as it were. Behold!

    January

    February

    March

    Theo started solids (photo by John) and we travelled to Texas and California.

    April

    May

    June

    July

    August

    September

    October

    (Okay, I cheated. The second photo is from November 1st. I didn’t take all that many photos in October, it seems, and got very few with both Phoebe and Theo in the frame.)

    November

    December

    a totally private email to WordPress about “post by email”

    Dear WordPress,

    I really like your “post by email” feature. It’s so cool, in that it lets me compose emails offline in my favorite mail application. I love the ease of formatting. I’ve found that including images in a post is actually much easier. It’s really great. I use it all the time now.

    And I really like that you can send a post to the drafts folder rather than publishing it right away. I often like to do a bit of editing to a post and see a preview of it before I publish. You’ve made this so easy–I just need to include a bit of shortcode. That is teh awesomeness.

    But you know what would be even awesomer? Even more full of teh awesomeness? Having the default be to send emailed posts to the drafts folder. Because you know what I discovered? You can accidentally post an email as a blog post. Especially if you are up late at night sending out lots of emails, and not paying quite enough attention to the autofill function of the address bar of your mail application. I’m speaking totally hypothetically, of course.

    No, wait. I’m not.

    Because even though it’s swell that you can easily type the “status draft” shortcode into any post that you email, people may not consider including that text in every freakin’ email they ever compose on the off chance it might accidentally get published on the freakin’ web.

    So, please consider having some sort of “publish immediately” shortcode instead of the “status draft” shortcode, and make the default status for posts by email be “draft.” And save bleary-eyed people like me from the potential embarrassment of accidentally publishing personal emails like this one on the web.

    xoxox,

    alejna

    p.s. You looked totally HAWT the other night in that skimpy thing you were wearing.

    p.p.s. Don’t tell my husband I said that, because he’d be sooo jealous.

    I’ve said it before…

    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.
    The address field autofill on my email application is not my friend.

    Have I mentioned that the autofill on my email application is not my friend?

    Oh right. I have.

    And remember how I said I was loving the WordPress “post by email” function? Well, I’m not so much loving it now. Because I accidentally cc’d that address on an email.

    So the email became a post.

    And even though I put the post in the “trash” within a minute or so of actually posting it, and cleared it off my front page, I discovered that feedburner apparently still pulls such posts from the the “trash” unless you have also “emptied” the trash. WTF, WordPress? “Trash” means pull from the front page, but still make accessible to feedburner?

    So, if you find a rather cryptic post (or another cryptic post) in your feed from me, please ignore it.

    You know, I really hate making mistakes. And I really really hate making mistakes that get broadcast.

    I guess I should be relieved that the email I posted wasn’t personally damning.