Wow, I had no idea that I hadn't posted here since last August. While I still have a few blogs that I read regularly, these days most of the time when I'm online I am on Twitter, or posting over on Tumblr.
I am finally putting some more time into learning how to take really good pictures, and I hope to have a few things to post here soon that I am proud of. Posting pictures is easy, though, so I need to try to also find some motivation to write too.
The key for me I think is content. I think when I was posting more frequently, when I first started, content came pretty easily. Now when something strikes me as an idea for a post I either just tweet something quick, or throw it up on Tumblr. So I have to figure out what that leaves for this space, which hopefully I will in the near future.
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Best Twitpic of 2009
I have been trying to find the time to post at least one more time in 2009 (to add to the measly quantity of posts I've had all year), and since I don't have the energy to do a full-length "Best of 2009..." post, I was looking through some pictures from 2009, specifically ones I've shared on Twitter via Twitpic.
I thought I'd used Twitpic more than I did, so this was the best I could come up with. It's from our trip to Martha's Vineyard in July. This place serves the best fried clams. One order is enough to fill you up all day. We did read that it is allegedly one of Bill Clinton's favorite places to eat on the island, so we had to check it out.
I thought I'd used Twitpic more than I did, so this was the best I could come up with. It's from our trip to Martha's Vineyard in July. This place serves the best fried clams. One order is enough to fill you up all day. We did read that it is allegedly one of Bill Clinton's favorite places to eat on the island, so we had to check it out.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Best of Twitter
In one of my rare comments, Bone of "If You Only Read ONE BLOG This Year..." was kind enough to point out a typo I had in my sidebar preventing people from getting to my Twitter profile. How he figured out what the typo was specifically I don't know, but I'm glad he did. (And if you've never read his blog, you definitely should check it out, it never disappoints. Do not let the fact that he is a Cowboys fan deter you. If I could get past it, so can you.)
My first thought after fixing the error was to wonder how many witty, interesting things which I had tweeted had people missed out on? Surely there were many. Turns out after reviewing my history, not so much. Now I've only got 195 updates, not nearly as many as others, but still I was a bit disappointed in myself.
The brief, very edited highlights of my tweeting which you may have missed:
@kwerb Think we are finally done hearing about how we booed McNabb at the draft? Me neither.
"Experts say that although every spin is random, over time, the casino is the winner" Gee, really?
Based on the behavior of the bunnies in my neighborhood, it's clear that they've focused on quantity over quality.
Summer concerts, part 2: Wilco, in Portland, in July. With hens.
If it takes 7 consecutive tweets to make your point, please just make it a blog post instead. Thank you.
Ahh, yoga. I've missed you. Wii Fit just can't match the real thing.
Saw probably the worst movie ever made the other day: Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Stars Frampton & the Bee Gees. Just awful.
AP Headline: "Hugh Jackman visit to Mexico City canceled on swine flu concerns." This is big news?
Me to 10 yr old & friend: No, you may not run through the sprinkler, it's April. Yes, you may wash my car wearing your bathing suits.
Your, You're. They are two different words, people. I don't care if you only have 140 characters.
When you need a scarf, gloves, and a blanket, it's too cold for baseball. Minor league baseball, anyway.
Shopping list: margarita mix, limes, and butter. Only a few more hours until the lobster arrives.
Can't get this song out of my head today. Jenny Lewis & Elvis http://tinyurl.com/6998dm
Is April Fool's over yet? Enough already.
You'll never win the NCAA pool you pick with your heart. Pitt, you've done it to me again.
Not exactly "springing" forward. More like crawling.
Recovering from hooping class, where you are not allowed to say "I can't."
Trying to fix the oven. Making a 3rd dog out of the amount of dog hair that was under the stove.
It's a good thing I learned to drive in Pittsburgh. People here don't have a clue what real winter driving is like.
That's my "Best of" for Twitter. Go on, click over and follow me. It'll get better, I swear.
My first thought after fixing the error was to wonder how many witty, interesting things which I had tweeted had people missed out on? Surely there were many. Turns out after reviewing my history, not so much. Now I've only got 195 updates, not nearly as many as others, but still I was a bit disappointed in myself.
The brief, very edited highlights of my tweeting which you may have missed:
@kwerb Think we are finally done hearing about how we booed McNabb at the draft? Me neither.
"Experts say that although every spin is random, over time, the casino is the winner" Gee, really?
Based on the behavior of the bunnies in my neighborhood, it's clear that they've focused on quantity over quality.
Summer concerts, part 2: Wilco, in Portland, in July. With hens.
If it takes 7 consecutive tweets to make your point, please just make it a blog post instead. Thank you.
Ahh, yoga. I've missed you. Wii Fit just can't match the real thing.
Saw probably the worst movie ever made the other day: Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Stars Frampton & the Bee Gees. Just awful.
AP Headline: "Hugh Jackman visit to Mexico City canceled on swine flu concerns." This is big news?
Me to 10 yr old & friend: No, you may not run through the sprinkler, it's April. Yes, you may wash my car wearing your bathing suits.
Your, You're. They are two different words, people. I don't care if you only have 140 characters.
When you need a scarf, gloves, and a blanket, it's too cold for baseball. Minor league baseball, anyway.
Shopping list: margarita mix, limes, and butter. Only a few more hours until the lobster arrives.
Can't get this song out of my head today. Jenny Lewis & Elvis http://tinyurl.com/6998dm
Is April Fool's over yet? Enough already.
You'll never win the NCAA pool you pick with your heart. Pitt, you've done it to me again.
Not exactly "springing" forward. More like crawling.
Recovering from hooping class, where you are not allowed to say "I can't."
Trying to fix the oven. Making a 3rd dog out of the amount of dog hair that was under the stove.
It's a good thing I learned to drive in Pittsburgh. People here don't have a clue what real winter driving is like.
That's my "Best of" for Twitter. Go on, click over and follow me. It'll get better, I swear.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Twitter and Photocanvas: Part 1
I'm not sure exactly how long I've been on Twitter, but it hasn't been too long. I've only got 50 followers. I think the highest number of followers that anyone I follow has is 486,094. That's Al Gore. For someone with so many followers you'd think he put a little more effort into it. I mean, if you're going to say you are on Twitter and you are famous, at least make an effort. Plus he only follows 7 people, which I'm sure must be one of the biggest discrepancies between followers and followees you'll find.
I'm not sure how most of the people who follow me found me, but clearly they started following me just so I'd follow them. I 'm pretty sure they are the same people who tell you it's rude to not follow people if they follow you. I want to be a polite user of social media, so I dutifully follow them. Some I'm glad I follow, others not so much. A few I have unfollowed because their constant tweets were clogging things up for me. Maybe if my number of followers grows dramatically I'll decide to screw the politeness and only follow people I really want to follow.
This post isn't really supposed to be about Twitter, but the way it came about was because of Twitter. Somehow @photocanvas started following me, so I politely followed him back. Well, a while ago he tweeted:
Attention Bloggers new deal free 8x10 canvas for blog roll link and blog post about the canvas once you receive it first 20 to @ me
So I quickly replied. Something for free, plus a subject for a blog post? Perfect. Plus it's a pretty generic request, just asking for a blog post about something. I've probably already fulfilled the agreement by just what I've already written about it, so I could technically stop here I think.
I would feel pretty guilty about stopping here, though, so I will do a full review. That will be part 2 of this post, since I've had the start of this in my drafts for a few weeks already at this point, plus it's already way long and more about Twitter than the photo canvas. Stay tuned--part 2 coming soon. (My definition of "soon" being a completely subjective and undefined length of time.)
I'm not sure how most of the people who follow me found me, but clearly they started following me just so I'd follow them. I 'm pretty sure they are the same people who tell you it's rude to not follow people if they follow you. I want to be a polite user of social media, so I dutifully follow them. Some I'm glad I follow, others not so much. A few I have unfollowed because their constant tweets were clogging things up for me. Maybe if my number of followers grows dramatically I'll decide to screw the politeness and only follow people I really want to follow.
This post isn't really supposed to be about Twitter, but the way it came about was because of Twitter. Somehow @photocanvas started following me, so I politely followed him back. Well, a while ago he tweeted:
Attention Bloggers new deal free 8x10 canvas for blog roll link and blog post about the canvas once you receive it first 20 to @ me
So I quickly replied. Something for free, plus a subject for a blog post? Perfect. Plus it's a pretty generic request, just asking for a blog post about something. I've probably already fulfilled the agreement by just what I've already written about it, so I could technically stop here I think.
I would feel pretty guilty about stopping here, though, so I will do a full review. That will be part 2 of this post, since I've had the start of this in my drafts for a few weeks already at this point, plus it's already way long and more about Twitter than the photo canvas. Stay tuned--part 2 coming soon. (My definition of "soon" being a completely subjective and undefined length of time.)
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
I Never Win Anything
Do you know anyone who always seems to win things? Someone who whenever there is a random drawing at an event, they always seem to have their ticket drawn? The person who knows nothing about sports yet just happens to win the Super Bowl pool? I think everyone knows one of those people. I am definitely NOT one of them. I usually don't even bother to stick around for drawings at the end of things, because I know I won't win. Just doesn't happen for me. I'm OK with that, I'm used to it. So I'm not really sure why I'm bothering to take a chance with this contest. Maybe it's because I didn't post anything about 9/11, and this is sort of my chance to do that. Or it could be because I have writer's block and have nothing else to post. If you click over and decide to enter because you saw it here, take pity on me and split your prize with me.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Baby Steps
I admire the way that some of my favorite bloggers really put themselves out there with some of their posts. From sharing a diary, to details about a colonoscopy, to intimate thoughts and experiences, it is amazing how open and honest they can be. While I'm perfectly comfortable writing about sports, my garden, my dogs, or Nintendo, I can't imagine being able to write about really personal thoughts and experiences like that.
I didn't even really want to post a picture of myself, until I was Simpsonized.
Baby steps.
I didn't even really want to post a picture of myself, until I was Simpsonized.
Baby steps.
Monday, July 21, 2008
I Don't Like My Wordle
The latest craze seems to be the Wordle. By "latest craze" I mean a few of my favorite bloggers have done it. Since JD did it I don't really have to, but I did anyway. Here's what I got for my blog:
I don't like it because it seems boring to me. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but I think the fact that the biggest word is "know" basically says it all. Borrrring.
I thought maybe if I took my resume and made a Wordle I'd like it better. Not so much:
Don't judge a blog by its Wordles. I'm going to keep checking, and maybe eventually I'll get a kick-ass Wordle.
I don't like it because it seems boring to me. I'm not really sure what I was expecting, but I think the fact that the biggest word is "know" basically says it all. Borrrring.
I thought maybe if I took my resume and made a Wordle I'd like it better. Not so much:
Don't judge a blog by its Wordles. I'm going to keep checking, and maybe eventually I'll get a kick-ass Wordle.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
iPod Meme
I saw this meme and thought it was interesting. Lately everything I write just ends up as an unfinished draft, and I can't quite get a complete post about any single thing done. So I thought this might be interesting, and would motivate me to get my iPod over to the computer for some much needed updating.
I followed these rules, but I did delete some of the questions. (Just the ones that pertained to dating and generally being single.)
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.
To make it more interesting, I also did a google image search on the song titles, and used an image from the first page for each one, without using any album covers or pictures of the artists.
Q: What does next year have in store for you?
Seven Seas of Rhye--Queen
(On the Greatest Hits album, I decided to look it up. The Wikipedia description of it is pretty interesting.)
Q: What do you say when life gets hard?
Those Bold City Girls--The Shins
Q: Song that reminds you of good times?
Afternoon--Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Q: What do you think when you get up in the morning?
The Ballad of the Little Man--World Party
Q: Song that reminds you of your first kiss?
Bob Dylan's 49th beard--WILCO
Q: Your favourite saying?
Only the Stones Remain--Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Q: Favourite place?
Men Just Leave--Glen Phillips
Q: Most Missed Memory?
Is Anything--The Judybats
Q: What song describes your best friend?
F-Hole--Squeeze
Q: Where would you go on a first date?
Madonna of the Wasps--Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
(My shuffle seems to always go heavy on Robyn. If you don't know him, go here, and about halfway through he tells what this song is about. That's pretty much Robyn in a nutshell.)
Q: Drug of choice?
Nothing Left to Borrow--The Jayhawks
Q: What song describes yourself?
Train Going Backwards--Dramarama
Q: What is the thing you like doing most?
Cruel To Be Kind--Nick Lowe
Q: The song that best describes the president?
The Everyday Story of Smalltown--XTC
Q: Where will you be in 10 years?
Anna Begins--Counting Crows
Q: What is your state of mind like at the moment?
My Old School--Steely Dan
Q: How will you die?
Motor of Love--Paul McCartney
I followed these rules, but I did delete some of the questions. (Just the ones that pertained to dating and generally being single.)
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question.
To make it more interesting, I also did a google image search on the song titles, and used an image from the first page for each one, without using any album covers or pictures of the artists.
Q: What does next year have in store for you?
Seven Seas of Rhye--Queen
(On the Greatest Hits album, I decided to look it up. The Wikipedia description of it is pretty interesting.)
Q: What do you say when life gets hard?
Those Bold City Girls--The Shins
Q: Song that reminds you of good times?
Afternoon--Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers
Q: What do you think when you get up in the morning?
The Ballad of the Little Man--World Party
Q: Song that reminds you of your first kiss?
Bob Dylan's 49th beard--WILCO
Q: Your favourite saying?
Only the Stones Remain--Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Q: Favourite place?
Men Just Leave--Glen Phillips
Q: Most Missed Memory?
Is Anything--The Judybats
Q: What song describes your best friend?
F-Hole--Squeeze
Q: Where would you go on a first date?
Madonna of the Wasps--Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
(My shuffle seems to always go heavy on Robyn. If you don't know him, go here, and about halfway through he tells what this song is about. That's pretty much Robyn in a nutshell.)
Q: Drug of choice?
Nothing Left to Borrow--The Jayhawks
Q: What song describes yourself?
Train Going Backwards--Dramarama
Q: What is the thing you like doing most?
Cruel To Be Kind--Nick Lowe
Q: The song that best describes the president?
The Everyday Story of Smalltown--XTC
Q: Where will you be in 10 years?
Anna Begins--Counting Crows
Q: What is your state of mind like at the moment?
My Old School--Steely Dan
Q: How will you die?
Motor of Love--Paul McCartney
Sunday, June 8, 2008
2/3 of a Meme
A few weeks ago I decided to try to start using Google Reader to keep up with my favorite blogs. It seemed to be going fine, until today when I realized that for some reason it wasn't updating all of the feeds. I was kinda starting to get worried about Corrina of My Random Blog, since according to my Reader she hadn't posted since May 28. (Did Vanilla Ice turn into a stalker and hurt her? Maybe she met someone for a cell phone trade-up and things went bad. Has she been nursing a REALLY bad hangover all week and is unable to write?) For some reason, today I decided to check her blog the old fashioned way, and thankfully, she's alive and well. And she tagged me last week for a meme. Yay! My first ever!
The rules:
Link the person(s) who tagged you.
Mention the rules on your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.
I've never really thought this hard about my quirks, but I'll give it a shot:
1. I always wake up before my alarm goes off, but I never get up before it does. Instead I just try really hard to fall back asleep, even if it's just for 15 minutes.
2. I love Tony Orlando. Loved him as a little girl growing up in the 70's. Loved his weekly TV variety show. Loved him when my Dad took me to see him in concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Love it when I have my iPod on shuffle and Tony comes on. Even loved him when he was 103 pounds heavier.
3. I like to hold my fingers on my throat and feel my pulse. Like when you are thinking and you rest your chin on your fist? Well instead of that I prefer to hold 2 fingers just under my chin and feel the beat. People at work noticed it recently and mocked me for it, so now I have become self-conscious about it. I'm not sure why, though. It relaxes me.
4. I drink liquids really fast. I mean fast. Came in handy at fraternity parties in college. But it also applies to coffee, tea, water, whatever. Sometimes at restaurants the waitress will just leave the pitcher after she's refilled my water 3 times before the meal has even arrived.
Ok, so I can only come up with 4 right now. All week as I've been doing things I find myself thinking "Is that quirky? Does everyone (fill in the blank) like this?" and I'm starting to drive myself crazy. If I eventually come up with 2 more, I guess I'll have to post them.
I don't really know who to tag. Seems like I've seen memes very similar to this on most of the blogs I read regularly. So I don't think I can even come up with 6 to tag. Maybe I'll continue my not-quite-all theme here and just tag 4:
That Night
The Burgh Baby
View From The Cloud
I Do Things So You Don't Have To
The rules:
Link the person(s) who tagged you.
Mention the rules on your blog.
Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.
Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them.
Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.
I've never really thought this hard about my quirks, but I'll give it a shot:
1. I always wake up before my alarm goes off, but I never get up before it does. Instead I just try really hard to fall back asleep, even if it's just for 15 minutes.
2. I love Tony Orlando. Loved him as a little girl growing up in the 70's. Loved his weekly TV variety show. Loved him when my Dad took me to see him in concert at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. Love it when I have my iPod on shuffle and Tony comes on. Even loved him when he was 103 pounds heavier. 3. I like to hold my fingers on my throat and feel my pulse. Like when you are thinking and you rest your chin on your fist? Well instead of that I prefer to hold 2 fingers just under my chin and feel the beat. People at work noticed it recently and mocked me for it, so now I have become self-conscious about it. I'm not sure why, though. It relaxes me.
4. I drink liquids really fast. I mean fast. Came in handy at fraternity parties in college. But it also applies to coffee, tea, water, whatever. Sometimes at restaurants the waitress will just leave the pitcher after she's refilled my water 3 times before the meal has even arrived.
Ok, so I can only come up with 4 right now. All week as I've been doing things I find myself thinking "Is that quirky? Does everyone (fill in the blank) like this?" and I'm starting to drive myself crazy. If I eventually come up with 2 more, I guess I'll have to post them.
I don't really know who to tag. Seems like I've seen memes very similar to this on most of the blogs I read regularly. So I don't think I can even come up with 6 to tag. Maybe I'll continue my not-quite-all theme here and just tag 4:
That Night
The Burgh Baby
View From The Cloud
I Do Things So You Don't Have To
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Lament Of A Working Mom
While I enjoy reading other people's blogs that include rants about various things that annoy them, as of yet I haven't written any posts that would fall into that category. (The closest to a rant would probably be complaining about my dogs destroying Christmas trees or stealing muffins.)
As any working parents know, juggling work and family schedules can be challenging. My daughter is now 9, and for some reason things seem to be getting tougher.
When I came back to work after a 3 month maternity leave, I was determined to handle it all. I continued nursing exclusively, refusing to give up and rely on formula. I had milk pumping and storage down to a science. I never gave my kid a single drop of formula. She slept straight through the night. I was excelling at my job. This working mom thing isn't so tough, I thought.
I still think I'm doing OK with balancing things as far as "getting it all done" goes. Not great, but at least keeping my head above water. But lately I've been running into situations that really are just impossible for working parents.
It's just little things.
Like the cast party for the play that someone was thoughtful enough to schedule at 3:30. The tennis lessons that would be really fun, but start at 4:00pm. The awesome horseback riding camp that is 9:00am--Noon Monday--Friday. I don't need my child to be completely over scheduled, with an activity happening nearly every night of the week. I just want to be able to say yes more than I have to say no when she asks about getting involved in something. Instead, I always have to say "We'll see, let me look into it" and then hope that whatever it is happens after 5:30pm or on a weekend.
Lately I've just been feeling like the only Mom that acually has to be at work from 8 to 5 every day. Well, maybe not the only one, but certainly feeling like I'm in the minority.
So even though no one that could matter will ever read this, I'm going to pretend for a moment that they will. Planning summer activities for children? Well, in addition to the "Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00am--11:00am" option, why not throw in a 6:00pm--7:00pm option? Does the swim team need to practice exclusively weekday mornings in the outdoor pool? What's wrong with an evening or Saturday morning in the indoor pool instead? And most importantly--if it's a one-time event for something my kid is already involved in, DO NOT schedule the ending celebration at 3:30pm on a Wednesday. Is that so much to ask?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Logical Absurdity
With a post on the infamous Lehigh Valley Ramblings dedicated to this humble blog, maybe one or two people might stumble over here today. So I figured I would use this opportunity to briefly get back on the grammar soapbox and vent about the mistake that is probably my biggest pet peeve--I'm not sure how I left it off of my first post about grammar: irregardless.
Although you will find it if you look in the dictionary, I think this note from Dictionary.com says it best:
Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.
"Logical absurdity"--I like that. Maybe the next time I hear someone use irregardless I will point out the logical absurdity of it.
Although you will find it if you look in the dictionary, I think this note from Dictionary.com says it best:
Irregardless is a word that many mistakenly believe to be correct usage in formal style, when in fact it is used chiefly in nonstandard speech or casual writing. Coined in the United States in the early 20th century, it has met with a blizzard of condemnation for being an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. Although one might reasonably argue that it is no different from words with redundant affixes like debone and unravel, it has been considered a blunder for decades and will probably continue to be so.
"Logical absurdity"--I like that. Maybe the next time I hear someone use irregardless I will point out the logical absurdity of it.
Friday, February 1, 2008
This is hard!
Good bloggers make this look so easy! When I started this I felt like I had a lot of good ideas to write about stored up. I got going pretty well, things were flowing, it was fun. Now I feel like I've hit a dry spell, and it's become a chore.
Part of the problem, of course, is time. I never seem to have enough of it. I usually try to limit my weeknight meetings to no more than 2 a week, but lately that has been stretched a bit.
Coming up with good topics is the other challenge. I read a few blogs that have pretty specific niches--politics, complaining about things, food, etc.--but I don't feel strongly enough about any single topic to devote every post to it. Maybe I do, actually, but I just haven't found it yet.
It doesn't even matter that no one reads what I write. That's not why I decided to start this. I wanted to do it for myself, for that part of me that way back in the day actually was a journalism major for a very brief time. I won't give up yet.
Part of the problem, of course, is time. I never seem to have enough of it. I usually try to limit my weeknight meetings to no more than 2 a week, but lately that has been stretched a bit.
Coming up with good topics is the other challenge. I read a few blogs that have pretty specific niches--politics, complaining about things, food, etc.--but I don't feel strongly enough about any single topic to devote every post to it. Maybe I do, actually, but I just haven't found it yet.
It doesn't even matter that no one reads what I write. That's not why I decided to start this. I wanted to do it for myself, for that part of me that way back in the day actually was a journalism major for a very brief time. I won't give up yet.
Friday, November 30, 2007
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