dam

We have some foam letters that Phoebe plays with at bath time. We’ll often talk about and name letters, and sometimes spell a few words on the tub walls.

A couple of nights ago, Phoebe picked up a D.

“What words start with a D,” John asked.

“Dog,” says Phoebe, quite quickly. We are impressed, and feel quite pleased with our parenting.

“Right! What else?”

Phoebe thought a bit. “Um…”

“Door,” I suggest.

“Dandelion,” says John.

“Daddy,” I say.

“Damn!” Phoebe suggests. John and I pause. Crap, we do swear too much in front of her.

“Oh…dam! Right! Like the dam where we go for walks sometimes!” I say, gladly remembering the dam where we go for walks sometimes.

“And dammit!” Phoebe says proudly.

Phoebe on the dam where we go for walks sometimes.
Phoebe on the dam where we go for walks sometimes.

Photo by John.

April Just Posts

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The April Just Posts roundtable is here, and Holly and I are pleased to serve up another round of posts on topics of social justice from around the blogosphere. Come join us ’round the table!

This month, I’d like to raise a glass to recent progress in the US towards marriage equality rights. In April, Iowa and Vermont joined Connecticut and Massachusetts in passing legislature allowing marriage rights to same-sex couples. Just a few days ago, Maine followed suit. There’s also news of progress in New Hampshire and New York.

While this doesn’t serve to wash away the bitterness of California’s Proposition 8, it shows that more and more people across the country are becoming more accepting of marriage equality.

Of course, there’s still lots of work to be done, with a vocal portion of the population speaking out “in defense of marriage” in its less inclusive definitions. In response, I offer up “Defenders of Marriage” by Roy Zimmerman:


Mr. Zimmerman scores bonus points for this line:

Let’s get the government out of our lives and into our pants

And now, the April Just Posts:

THANK YOU to April Just Post Readers:

Thanks for reading! Please also pay a visit to Holly at Cold Spaghetti, and see what she has set on the table.

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If you have a post above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
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mmmm-hmm?

The trouble with blithely promising to put out a month-long in-depth series of blog posts is that my life doesn’t always prioritize time for blogging in quite the same as my head. So, my Merry Merry Month of Metablogging series now clocks in at one post in 10 days. At this rate, I should manage to pull off a staggering 3 posts in the series by the end of the month.

Anyhow, life has been busy. Nothing too dramatic. More of the same. Work. Parenting. Chaotic house.¹

We also went down to the in-laws this weekend, for the first time since December. It’s not that big of a trip, but it still takes a lot of energy. Between time in the car, time spent dealing with little ones, and time spent socializing with the people we made the trip down for, I end up with pretty close to zero time for online activities. We got home at around 2:30 last night (or this morning, if you want to get technical), and I find myself feeling jetlagged, even though it was a car trip.

Now that the wee ones are sleeping, I have a bit of time to blog.² And there is a backlog of things to write. Again. I really want to do the Monday Mission for this week, which just sounds too tempting, so I’ll probably do that before doing things I actually should be doing.

Anyway, that’s where I am.

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¹ There’s been some ongoing stuff relating to home repairs that has sucked up an inordinate amount of time and energy, too. I don’t even want to get into it here, because then it would be allotted more time and energy, and I’d rather have fun blogging than get riled up. I get riled up even thinking about how riled up I would get if I started blogging about it.

² Especially if I ignore the mess in the kitchen, the laundry, the remaining unpacking, the bills, the letters I owe, and the work I need to do for my job.

not quite Sesame Street

We don’t watch a lot of TV in our family, but sometimes we do let Phoebe and Theo watch some short videos. They like shows best that have colorful costumed characters and musical numbers with lots of rhymes:

This episode was brought to you by the letter T.

mmmm: on the blogroll

mmmmWhen I come across a blog that is new to me, one of the first things I do is look for a blogroll. It gives me some insight into the person behind the blog: tastes, humor, worldview and whatnot. It’s fun to see if I recognize any blogs on the list, and to see if we share common interests. It reminds me a bit of my tendency to go right to the references section of an article I’m reading when I’m in research mode.

Why I have a blogroll

I see the blogroll as a courtesy feature of a blog. Potential visitors can get insight into who I am by way of who I know. It’s a courtesy to the bloggers on the list, as I am potentially sending them traffic, whether directly through people who like to explore blogrolls, or by adding to their rankings for search engines or Technorati. Foremost, my blogroll acknowledges that I read and enjoy those blogs (and/or that those people read and enjoy my blog). Like a references section in a journal article, it lists the bloggers whose voices have influenced and inspired my own writing.

Who is on my blogroll?

If I list a blog in my blogroll, it means that I regularly read that blog. I may miss a post here and there when my life gets hectic, or may skim over a long post on a topic that is alien to me (such as about a TV show I don’t watch). But if a blog is up there, that means I am a loyal reader.

I admit that there are blogs in my feed reader that I have not put on my blogroll. Usually it’s because I haven’t established a rapport with those bloggers. Sometimes I’ve just forgotten to add a blog.

Some of the blogs there are fairly dormant. This applies especially to a few of my near and dear real life friends who started blogs, but didn’t keep them going for long. (But they should have!)

I’m considering paring down the list, and removing blogs that have not been updated in, say, 6 months. (So post something if this applies to you!)

Removing blogs from the blogroll

It makes me sad to remove blogs from my blogroll, and I’ve done so only a few times. Mostly this has been when a blogger has deleted the blog or made it private. In at least one case I took a blog down after faithfully reading a blog and leaving comments for an extended time, and never getting back any sign of a visit back from that blogger. Another time I noticed that my own blog was removed from a blogroll, so I responded by removing that blog from my own.

Adding to the blogroll

I usually will add to my blogroll if I find my blog on a blogroll, and/or if I get regular comments from the blog author. I used to be fairly stubborn about not adding blogs without these happenings. Now I’m quicker to add if I find a blog I like (and if I happen to be in the mood to add links).

I’ve been rather hesitant to add big, high profile blogs to my blogroll, but I have started to do that more. There are now several big blogs in my sidebar whose authors don’t read my blog, though they have at some point been courteous enough to come by for a visit and leave a comment (or otherwise acknowledge my existence).

to blogroll or not to blogroll

I’m not quite sure why some people don’t have them. (Well, laziness I understand, if that’s the reason.) Some prefer instead to share favorites from their feeds, some prefer to link to blogs in posts. I think these ways of expressing appreciation for other bloggers are great, but for me don’t supplant the blogroll.

It seems that some people find blogrolls quaint and outdated. Well, call me quaint and outdated. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

Still others prefer to keep their reading lists to themselves.

Where I stick it

My blogroll has gotten a bit unwieldy, but I still like having it on my front page. In fact, I like having a theme that keeps the sidebar showing for all pages. Some people think a gigantic blogroll clutters the page, and detracts. But I like giving it the extra exposure. Call me cluttered. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

Blogrolling by numbers
And to demonstrate my compulsive tendencies, I actually counted up the blogs currently on my blogroll, and tallied up how many had blogrolls. I made a spreadsheet. Call me a dork. (It wouldn’t be the first time.)

    blogs on my blogroll: 78
    blogs on my blogroll with blogrolls: 58
    blogs on my blogroll with blogrolls with my blog: 47

Blogroll me, baby!
In case you haven’t guessed it, I like being listed on blogrolls. It feels like support and validation. Also that acknowledgment of existence, which I seem so partial to.

So, what are your thought on blogrolls?

This was the first post of the metablogging series I threatened to write as part of my self-declared Merry Merry Month of Metablogging.

we can dance (if we want to)

Today is May Day¹, a holiday which many celebrate by dancing around the maypole. I don’t have a maypole, but I may dance around the living room with Phoebe. Perhaps while listening to Safety Dance³.

As Painted Maypole pointed out last year, the video for Safety Dance features a maypole. (Also Morris Dancing. I probably won’t attempt to Morris dance with Phoebe.)


(You can see slightly better quality video at the MTV site here).

Painted Maypole, who has adopted May Day as her blog’s official holiday, offers a whole host of other May Day activities and photos of her own festivities.
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She also entreated us to compose a May Day poem or song for this week’s Monday Mission. I struggled with this assignment, but
inspiration finally struck, and happily without causing serious injury.⁴ Here is my May Day tanka⁵:

    the maypole beckons
    revelers frolicking ’round
    bright ribbons entwined
    you can dance if you want to
    you can leave your friends behind
Dancing 'round the maypole in the video for Safety Dance by Men Without Pants. I mean Hats.
Dancing 'round the maypole in the video for Safety Dance by Men Without Pants. I mean Hats.

¹ Today is also No Pants Day, an event I can’t really get behind with all of its dangerously anti-pants propaganda.²

² We can (wear) pants if we want to!

³ Safety Dance is one of Phoebe’s favorite songs, and will sometimes ask to hear it over and over again. She requested it at the wedding we went to in March, and cried when she learned we’d only get to hear it the one time.

⁴ I wasn’t sure where to fit this in, but I learned that May Day, as a distress call, is actually based on m’aider from the French phrase venez m’aider, meaning “come rescue my sorry ass.”

⁵ I was introduced to the Tanka form by girlgriot, who stunningly wrote a tanka a day for the entire month of April.

mmmm…blogging

I am declaring May to be the Merry Merry Month of Metablogging.

Over the past few months, I’ve seen a change coming over the blogosphere. Bloggers are dropping out, frittering away. (Or perhaps just twittering away.) For many, the excitement over blogging has died down.
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But I still really love blogging. For a couch potato with many interests like me, it’s the ultimate hobby. It’s been more than a hobby, though. It’s been a way of making connections with people, continuing conversations and expanding my horizons.

I know some people find blogging to be the most boring topic for blogging that there is. I’m not one of them. I’ve been quite fascinated by just about all topics bloggy. I like the blogging about the blogging. (I also like to use the word blogging.)

Whereas I know I really need to buckle down and get cracking with my work, I really want to get this out of my system. There have been loads of posts that I’ve wanted to write, but haven’t had the time. (Or when I find the time, I lack the focus and energy.) But the metablogging topics have continued to weigh on my mind.

For instance, I’ve wanted to share my take on, and my experiences with, these aspects of blogging:

  • blogroll and linking
  • commenting and discussion
  • identity and image
  • design and themes
  • categories and tags
  • traffic and readership
  • memes and group projects
  • popularity and rankings
  • personal disclosure

Here are some of the questions I’ve also been thinking about:

  • Why did you get started in blogging?
  • What do you get out of blogging, and what do you want to get out of it?
  • What advice would you give to a new blogger?
  • What will be the future of pants posts?

Anyhow, my plan is to cover each of these topics (as many as I can get to) in a series of posts this month.

I’d really love it if other people would like to join in the conversation. If you have posts on blogging that you’d like to share (whether new or from your archives), let me know, and I’ll link them up.

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In other news, the April Just Posts are coming up. If you’ve read or written posts on a topic pertaining to social justice, please send your nominations to me or Holly. Want to learn more? Check out the Just Posts info page.

socks fiend

Yes, it’s true. I’ve been thinking about socks all the time. I even have friends feeding my socks addiction.

I’m turning into a real socks fiend.

Even more shockingly, I left a number of important sock-related things of last week’s sock-themed ThThTh list:

  • Let’s Talk About Socks: a George Michael song
  • I Want Your Socks: another George Michael song. That dude was seriously into socks.
  • Socks and Candy: A Marcy Playground song. Oh, man…what’s that smell?
  • The Socks Pistols: an early British punk band known for such hits as “Knitting in the U.K.”
  • Socks in the City: a TV show about some single socks looking for their mates. (Note: contains explicit laundry scenes.)
  • Socks, Lies and Videotape: security tapes reviewed after a series of thefts at the laundromat
  • The Opposite of Socks: A movie in which Christina Ricci comes of age and explores footwear alternatives
  • Socks on the Beach: an unpleasant footwear decision leading to much sand being collected between the toes. Also a fairly obscure and unpopular cocktail.
  • A Midsummer Night’s Socks Comedy: a movie about people who wear socks with their sandals
  • socks education: high school classes in which kids learn about foot anatomy and the consequences of socks. (Don’t forget the importance of safe socks!)
  • socks maniac: one who just can’t get enough socks
  • the fairer socks: should be washed separately from the darker socks
  • casual socks: shouldn’t be worn to a formal occasion
  • socks scandal: what may happen if you choose the wrong socks for the occasion
  • The Second Socks: Simone de Beauvoir’s less famous oeuvre on her collection of mismatched footwear
  • The Joy of Socks: the definitive volume on the pleasures of socks