Archive for the 'Blogging' Category
July 2, 2008
Over 30 and not married? Adelle Waldman feels your pain. In an article in More Intelligent Life, she endorses Lori Gottleib’s controversial Atlantic piece that advocated, in the absence of Mr. Right, settling for Mr. Good Enough.
If I had read her essay five years ago, I would have been scornful [says Waldman]. Now, I’m 31 and a lot more sympathetic. I’m no longer able to write her off as one of those bitter marriage-crazed women I was sure I’d never be…
The truth about turning 30 is that the question of marriage, and by extension dating, becomes much more angst-ridden… Dating, however little fun you thought it was in your 20s, becomes even more fraught. It is not just heartbreak over a particular guy or general loneliness that keeps you up at night. Those will still be there, but on top there will be a new worry, the one about winding up alone.
Waldman is speaking wisdom beyond her years, because she sounds like my 50-something single friends. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Adventures at midlife, Blogging, Personal | 3 Comments »
Tags: Loneliness, midlife
July 1, 2008
I realized that I didn’t have those two nutcases at Midlife Gals on my blog Hall of Fame. What a breath of fresh air — and you get two for the price of one! Maybe one of these days I’ll figure out how to get video clips on my blog like the rest of you clever things. One step at a time.
Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments »
Tags: blogs, midlife
June 10, 2008
To celebrate my 100th post on Ye Olde Blogge Syte — thank you, thank you, I couldn’t have done it without you — may I offer a few observations about life online?
1. SEX SELLS. Paris Hilton. Victoria and David Beckham. Madonna. Sex and the City. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Tyra Banks. Gossip Girl. There. Just by mentioning those names, I have guaranteed that this will be a record-setting post for me. My popular culture posts have been among the most viewed, and I, for a brief, giddy moment, considered changing the whole outlook of my site. But reason prevailed. I’m not fascinated by celebrity, and blogging continually about it just for readership would certainly turn me into some sort of Blog Whore. Celebrity blogs are fine, but not for me.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Blogging, Personal, The Web | 6 Comments »
Tags: Blogging
June 9, 2008
One of the delightful things about reading other peoples’ blogs is discovering the blogs that they’re reading. The very idea that WordPress, my home sweet home, is supporting millions of blogs and blogposts daily* by people from all over the world would be daunting if it weren’t for the fact that bloggers have a knack for seeking out like-minded friends. I feel like a bee flying from flower to flower, sipping a bouquet of nectars.
Jan’s Sushi Bar is the latest midlifer site to kindly include my humble offering in a list of her new-found favorites, and I have happily reciprocated. (Thanks!) Blogs are as individual as their creators’ fingerprints, and I enjoy the visual and literary feast that is always available out there, day and night.
But I am tired of being at the mercy of the available blog designs. HTML for Dummies, anyone? If you have any experience on breaking out of the box design-wise, or could direct me to some instructional sites, I’d love to hear from you. Right now, I only know enough HTML to make me dangerous!
Keep on bloggin’!
*Is is just me, or do the most popular blogsites on the WordPress list always seem to be about soccer?
Posted in Blogging, The Web | 6 Comments »
Tags: Blogging
June 1, 2008
Some genius has come up with a novel thesis: blogging may make you feel better. No kidding. According to Jessica Wapner, writing in Scientific American Online:
Scientists (and writers) have long known about the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. But besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery.
I haven’t had any surgery lately, but I do know I like putting my thoughts down on paper. I had a shrink once who called it “yellow pad therapy” in honor of the legal pads her patients used to try to pull their lives and thoughts together. I filled up a few yellow pads myself.* Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Blogging, Mental health, Personal, friends | 4 Comments »
Tags: Blogging
May 28, 2008
Someone asked me why I blog “undercover,” without using my real name and other details. (It’s apparently called anonoblogging.) One reason and one reason only: I’m afraid of getting dooced. The Rubber Chicken Factory, Inc. — where I am a senior beak inspector — is a large and very conservative organization, and would likely not look happily on some of the stuff I blog about, or maybe even the fact that I blog at all.
I generally like my job and my fellow beak inspectors, and at this stage in my life I’m not interested in looking for another job. I’ve seriously thought about branching out on my own and becoming a beak inspecting consultant, but I’m too, um, chicken. Buh-GAWK! (Sorry. I couldn’t resist that one.)
Posted in Adventures at midlife, Blogging, Humor, Personal, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Tags: Blogging, The Web
May 27, 2008
“Ninety percent of life is showing up.” — Woody Allen
For those of you looking for a goodly gathering of “modern proverbs” — like the mystifying but occasionally very apt “It is what it is” — those deep thinkers at Freakanomics have a fun list. (Don’t miss the comments.)
And if you’re in the mood for sort of a mini-meme: What’s your favorite quote?
Posted in Blogging, Humor, The Web | 2 Comments »
Tags: The Web
May 22, 2008
ByJane has a thought-provoking blog on, well, blogging. “Blogging is just another genre of writing, not inferior or superior to any other in and of itself,” says Jane, who advocates for good, well-considered blogging and against any mentality that would make blogging some kind of ugly stepchild of “real” writing.
May I commit a sort of sacrilege and paraphrase Annie Dillard, who should know about such things, in The Writing Life?
Putting a [blog] together is interesting and exhilirating. It is sufficiently difficult and complex that it engages all your intelligence. It is life at its most free. Your freedom as a writer is not freedom of expression in the sense of wild blurting; you may not let rip. It is life at its most free, if you are fortunate enough to be able to try it, because you select your materials, invent your task, and pace yourself… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Blogging, Personal, The Web | 5 Comments »
Tags: Blogging, writing
Over 30 and not married? Adelle Waldman feels your pain. In an article in More Intelligent Life, she endorses Lori Gottleib’s controversial Atlantic piece that advocated, in the absence of Mr. Right, settling for Mr. Good Enough.
