Tag: blogging

Weekly Wesley: Seventeen

On July 28, 2013

In Family, First year, Motherhood, pictures

Week17-WEB

Well this week was stressful. But good. And more stressful. And a little more good.

Like I mentioned last week we ended a weekend visit with my dad by having to call an ambulance for him. Frankly it sucked and was stressful and scary. He was never unstable so at no point was I afraid he was going to die immediately but it was still pretty awful. We spent hours in the ER which was actually pretty entertaining. We were in a room that was just divided by a curtain from the other room so we got to hear all the goings on of the people next door. There was a hilarious 80+ year old man with a broken hip who had a strong opinion about everything. Then there was a teenager who was airlifted in with a massive head injury from skateboarding. They finally found what they believed the problem was with my dad and admitted him.

Since we’re so far from the rest of my family out here, Wesley and I were the only ones who were able to be with my dad during the day.

wesley-dad-hospital

Normally when my dad goes in the hospital we only get out to see him once because the round trip of 3-4 hours is a lot to do in a short amount of time. This time Wesley and I got out to see him everyday of the four days he was in there.

wesley-hospital-fun

It was so neat for him to be able to bond with his grandpa a little.

As glad as I am that I was able to be there for my dad it was pretty draining for all of us.

nap-shannigans

More so for us than Wesley, apparently.

The very next day after he was released was the beginning of BlogHer 2013,

blogher-wesley-mommy

and that was the rest of our week. It will get it’s own post because this one is about Wesley but it was fun and completely exhausting.

Other milestones:

Mister Dude finally wore his first pair of shoes. Baby shoes kill me. Dead.

baby-shoes

Mirror baby is more fascinating than ever. It is Joel’s go-to when Wesley is upset and I’m not available. Works 9 out of 10 times.

mirror-baby

Wesley finally sat happily in the stroller. It was only for about ten minutes but it felt like a big deal.

stroller-happy

And finally, as promised I have video of Wesley laughing. This isn’t the first time he laughed but it’s pretty freaking adorable, if I say so myself.

Nothing better.

Get Off My Internets. Or not.

By Abigail

On January 13, 2013

In thoughts

So there’s this site that I’d never heard of until a blogger I read brought it up because nasty things were being said about them on there. Since I’m the sort who likes to test hot plates and wet paint I trotted off to see what all the ruckus was about.

And I fell down a black hole of snark, criticism and downright hate.

Now Get Off My Internets’ ad network has pulled and so the creator and editor posted that they would be shutting it down (<- not a direct link to GOMI, in case you don’t like giving them the traffic). I’ll admit my first reaction was, “Heh, least surprising thing ever.” Others’ reactions were kind of interesting to me though.

There are currently fourteen pages (and counting) of posts begging it to stay around and an impressive number of people offering to pay a subscription fee or donate. I haven’t read if there has been a hard resolution from the editor but, if the number of comments offering to throw money at the site are any indication, Get Off My Internets won’t be going anywhere.

As a online nobody the whole thing kind of fascinates me. On the one hand, people on those forums are very often incredibly nasty. They pick apart these bloggers detail by detail. In reading I have to smirk at someone going on and on about how much they can’t stand a blogger but read every post, not only on their blog but Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc etc etc. Some of the things said go way beyond annoyance or criticism and verge on stalking behavior and obsession. Much is just blatantly untrue. It’s bullying and I believe that bullying is incredibly wrong and hurtful.

On the other hand, I’ve gone back to lurk more than once in the same way I’ll thumb through a gossip magazine in the grocery aisle if a celebrity I like is on the cover. I have a rule that I’ll never post there, whether it’s in agreement or disagreement. I refuse to participate in bullying. I also know that no one is going to get their mind changed because I try and defend someone I like. So I lurk and roll my eyes and occasionally gasp or snort.

So do I hope Get Off My Internets gets shut down? Meh. It wouldn’t be a great loss to me, that’s for sure. I have actually found a few bloggers on there who are now in my Google reader. And since I did not subscribe to hate on them or snark but because I found them funny or interesting it’s arguably a win for those bloggers? I’m sure I can’t be the only one who has been directed to blogs I might never have heard of from that site. There are obviously more positive ways for me to find new blogs though. I only read there occasionally and it definitely doesn’t fill my brain with positivity, to say the least. I would not miss it very much.

However, I’m not rooting for them to get shut down. It is the internet forum version of a gossip magazine. Sure, I hate the body snark and the misinformation and ridiculous nitpicking. But I think it’s okay that those magazines (and this forum) exist. No one forces anyone to be a celebrity. No one forces anyone to write a blog. Commentary comes with the package deal of putting ones thoughts and life on the internet.

I realize this is easy for me to say as a virtually unknown blogger. No one has verbally attacked me or my family. I do understand that by writing on here I have opened myself up to that potential though. Right now I’m okay with it. If enough people say enough things that are hurtful enough I may reconsider that.

So Get Off My Internets or Stay On My Internets. I don’t have a vote either way. In the same way I’ll crane my neck at a wreck on the side of the road I’ll be following to see which happens.

Brain exercise

By Abigail

On December 13, 2010

In thoughts

I can’t believe it’s 13 December already. In thirteen days Christmas will be over. In less than three weeks 2010 will be gone.

That’s kind of insane, am I right?

What’s even crazier? I’m 18 days away from my goal of blogging every day for a year. That’s 347 blog posts so far. I don’t think I’ve stuck with anything this long. At least not every single day.

I’m the type of person who gets really excited about something and invests in it 1000% and then burn out and abandon it after awhile. I’m a hot or cold kind of person. I do nothing halfway. If I’m in I’m in. If I’m not I couldn’t be less interested. It can be a good quality.

It can also be a real pain.

When I started blogging last year on 1 January I don’t think I expected to last a year. I knew it was going to be one of my goals but I had six years. Or five I guess since I had to actually blog for a whole year before I could say I completed the goal. I tend to put things off until the last minute and I didn’t have any reason to think this goal would be any exception.

Somehow I made it a whole month of blogging daily, almost without meaning to. I even blogged from Cancun which is kind of a big deal because it wasn’t easy to find internet access.

Looking back I realized part of what helped was giving up my perfectionist tendencies and allowing myself to post about “nothing”. I used to only post big important things. Each post had to be perfect. This past year I let that go a little.

I try to make my posts as interesting as possible. Let’s face it though, interesting things don’t happen every single day of the year. Sometimes days are just dull. Or sometimes you have a million things on your mind but because you’re not anonymous you can’t write about those things honestly. Or at all.

Those days are my brain exercise.

Forcing a post out on those days can be as easy as 100 crunches. Maybe for someone who is super awesome that’s not a big deal but for me and my flabby abs it can be real work.

It’s such a satisfying feeling when I’ve completed another post though. Especially if I felt like I had nothing at all to say and somehow managed to end up with a pretty fantastic post. Or at least fantastic in my opinion. I’m kind of biased.

Some of my best, most honest posts have come from sitting down and just letting my fingers move across the keyboard. Letting my brain and heart spill onto the page can be uncomfortable. Being open and honest doesn’t come easy for me anymore. Letting the world into my soul is hard.

But when I make magic on these pages it’s worth it.

When someone responds that they know exactly what I mean because they’ve been there too it’s worth it.

Every day is a post that gets me closer to my goal and that makes me feel amazing.

The fact that I actually can set a goal and stick to it? Worth it.

Today was another brain exercise. I don’t have any writing prompts to set me up. No memes to play along with. No big events are going on in my life. I don’t have a silly video or picture to share.

It’s just another writing exercise for my brain. I’ve come way too far to give up now.

I have a feeling the next two and a half weeks are going to be tricky.

Holidays make for easy blog content. But minds that are full of work and feelings far too personal to share with the world do not.

I know I’ll continue blogging after my year of every day posts is complete. I doubt I’ll continue to post every single day though. It would be nice to have a break every once in awhile. I do want to set some sort of goal that pushes me.

Because these brain exercises are tough but they sure are rewarding.