What's That You Say, Mrs. Robinson?

I've been had!

It was too good to be true! My post from a couple of days ago about powering your iPod with an onion is BAD INFO!

A big thanks to Inoculatedmind for the heads up.

Call me crazy...

I'm doing it again!

No, not THAT!

THIS:

I've done this before and it was a really great way to get me writing again after struggling for a bit. LIKE I HAVE LATELY! So I'm going to do it again. For those of you who don't recognize this, it is NaBloPoMo which stands for "National Blog Post Month 2007." The idea is to commit to writing a blog post every day, each day, in the month of November. It is a spin-off of sorts from NaNoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month. That is the more aggressive commitment to write a 50,000 novel in a month.

Yeah. 'Cause, like, I could do THAT. Actually I would love to do it someday, just not now.

So here I go. This is my first post of the month. It will get tricky as we go through Thanksgiving and as I prepare for our big holiday party which is on December 1st this year. Look at me, making excuses already!

So now I'm looking for inspiration. So I'm looking here, and here and here.

Only now I have to run off to pick my son up from basketball practice. At 9 o'clock at night. Sheesh.

The way of the 2.0 world

Thanks to Preppydude @sodamcharming for this...

DonorsChoose Blogger's Challenge - Support our teens

Note: Donors Choose is an organization that has received funding by the company that I work for, Omidyar Network.

OK, ladies and gentlemen (because I know there are at least 2 or 3 guys that read my blog), I've got a challenge for you. We all know that our public schools need help. We have underfunded schools, especially in low income neighborhoods, teachers that are severely underpaid and yet still buy classroom supplies out of their own pocket, and kids that are falling behind every day in their learning. And these are the very kids that we expect to run our businesses and government in the future.

Yeah, yeah. We've all heard that before. But what does one DO about it?

   

If you're like me, you have volunteered for various school related activities, and often written checks for fund raisers. But what if you could send money to a specific teacher for a specific project? What if you could actually CHOOSE which teacher, at which school, and for what project?

That's what grabs me about this FAB organization, DonorsChoose.org. They have developed an on-line platform by which teachers can post their ideas about what they need in their classrooms and then donors can search by geography, subject, grade level, etc. to find a teacher's project that speaks to them somehow, AND THEN FUND IT! You can give as little as $10 if you want, or as much as...well, as much as you want. You can fund an entire project, or just a part of it.

So here's the challenge. I have chosen 4 projects in "high needs" (read: largely low-income families) schools that are focused and reading and literature (because that is my soft spot) and are for high-school aged kids (because that is also my soft spot). I'm am shooting for $1,000 from you, my blogging community, to fund these projects for these teachers. The name of my challenge is "Support our Teens."

I also challenge all of my fellow bloggers to do the same. You can go to the DonorsChoose web site and create your own challenge. There are even prizes for the top performing challenges!

To participate in my challenge, simply click on the "donate to my challenge" button below. You can also track my progress by watching the image below display what I (and WE) have achieved so far.

So, what do you say?

   

Sharing the beauty

   
  Originally uploaded by 2Things@Once.

One of my favorite photographers/bloggers posted this photo and I thought it was so stunning that it must be shared. I would LOVE to be able to take photos like this. Can you imagine being in this field of sunflowers?

Enough already?

Just realized that my last several posts have been all about my trip to Hawaii. But they were all fluff and photos, no real substance.

I'm feeling the need to do some writing with meat, some meaning. I've also been chewing on starting another blog that is more focused on its topic. Maybe a blog about the world of Human Resources? I know, ho hum for many of you. But a professional blog sounds really interesting to me, and I have not found very many  HR blogs at all, let alone interesting ones. There are a few exceptions, but on only a few.

As many of you know I did a bunch of posts about weight loss and health, but doing a whole blog on that doesn't seem right. There are already MANY good ones out there.

So, what then? If anything?

Or maybe I re-name this blog and re-invent it. Hmm......I've thought about doing this before but never did.

Can you say, "Crossroads?"

Am I nuts?

I've read some posts from some girlfriend/bloggers lately that have just made me want to crawl through my computer, throw my arms around them, have a shot of tequila with them and just be a better friend.

So, my dear friends (bloggers and non-bloggers alike), am I crazy? Don't I have enough to worry about and deal with in my current circle of friends/issues/life-events without putting myself out there for more?

I don't think so.

I am part of a humanity that is bigger than who I am in the here and now. That's what makes me who I am, damn it.

Bring it on.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Skinny Pants

The blogosphere has once again demonstrated it's kindness and usefulness to me. While I have been chronicling my recent weight loss you have all been so supportive in so many different ways. One of my Woolfcamp comrades, Debra Roby, has also shed some pounds in the recent months and has skinnied out of her size 12 jeans (pictured here).

Now, this is wonderful enough, mind you. However miss Debra has taken it one step further. SHE SENT ME HER PANTS! I arrived home from work one day last week to a wonderful package in my mailbox (don't you love when you get something other than bills and junk?). It was the traveling skinny pants.

Not only are these pants in the size that is next on my way down to a slimmer me, but they comply with my "no more Mom jeans" rule. They are a nice low-rise variety and they also have some stretch in them. PERFECT. I could feel the good karma that came with them as soon as I put them on....

So here I am (sorry the lighting isn't the best) in the skinny pants. A size 12...the size I haven't seen in about 6 years. I love them, and I will take good care of them until it is time to send them on to one of you. I hope to soon be holding out the waistband on these puppies just Debra is doing in the first photo.

In the mean time...I was on the treadmill EVERY day this week. I got my ass out of bed early and spent 30-45 minutes walking every day. It felt soooo good and I will be making this party of my daily routine...for life. I took Saturday off (however I did walk to my son's baseball game instead of driving), and today I'm going to fit in a good hour (I like to do the 5k program as a stretch day, something to push me hard).

I also hope to be posting our menu for the week later on today...so stay tuned. Busy busy day!

Change, it doesn't matter who you are!

It's all the same...CHANGE!

I have this John Waite song stuck in my head as I have been seriously contemplating a name change for my blog.

Problem is that I don't feel like I have a creative bone in my body right now and I won't change the name until I find something that makes me say THAT'S IT!

And then once I do that, I'm thinking of going over to Designs by Izzy to commission a new look.

Now if only weight loss were that easy.

Getting Paid

One of the many definitions of "professional" is: "Performed by persons receiving pay." In that sense, I am now a professional blogger!

That's right, you see those little ads to the right under the "Blogher Ad Network" language? Every time one of you views my blog with one of those ads on it, I get a smidgen of cash. Over time, that ads up and yesterday I received my first ever check from Blogher! They don't pay you until you have accumulated more than $25 and yesterday I got a check for $27 and some change. It covered the time period between October and December of 2006.

Thanks to all of you for contributing to my payday!

It may not be enough to quit my day job, but at this point it just about pays for my TypePad account. Not bad, huh? (She pats herself on the back).

Stop Lurking!

It's national de-lurking week, so if you are reading and not commenting STOP IT (for this week at least). We bloggers like to KNOW that we are loved, we need to feel it sometimes without having to look up our visitor stats! So no more lurking...comment, damn it :0)

I'm commenting on all of the blogs I'm visiting this week. Thanks to Liz for the heads up on this one. I almost missed it. And thanks to Paper Napkin for the button!

Who You'd Be Today Video

I was poking around the Internet and came across the YouTube video of a song that I used in a post a few weeks ago. The post was about a boy in our community who passed away almost 3 years ago named Tim. The song was Kenny Chesney's "Who You'd Be Today." While the words are beautiful, I thought I would post the YouTube video here so that you could actually hear it. Because that is what song is all about.

That  post was an important one for me. Totally unexpectedly, Tim's parents read the post (I haven't seen them since just after Tim passed) and his father left the most touching comment I have ever received on my blog. I do hope that they know that I think about them often, hoping that they have found a way to live with their loss. I don't know how you do that. I very strongly believe that it does in fact take a village to raise a child, and so when a child is lost, the entire village looses. Anyway, here is the video:

Who Me? STILL Blogging?

It is the two year anniversary of my first ever Blog post.

My very first comment was from Liz Ditz of I Speak of Dreams. My second was from Grace Davis of State of Grace (formerly known as I'm Dr. Laura's Worst Nightmare). Pretty damn good company, don't you think?

Little did I know then how much time I would be spending over the next couple of years. How many new, beautiful, valuable friends I would meet. How many times I would say "Oh, I'm SO blogging this" as I went about my daily life. How many face lifts my blog design would endure. How many times I would say with pride, "I'm a blogger."

I have participated in a couple of blogging "events" since then. My first was Woolfcamp and most recently, I went to BlogHer. I have met several people in person that I would not have otherwise met including Liz, and another Liz, Kristie, Chris, Mary, and many others. I've also been able to share my blogging with people I already knew, like Christine, Twinga, Melanie ,Thomas and Becky.

When I started my blog, the only person who I knew in my "real" world that was reading my blog was Grace Davis. Since then, my readers have grown to include my husband, my mom, some of my very best and dearest friends, and occasionally, my kids. Now those of you who blog know how adding people like that to your readership can alter the way you think about your audience, and can most certainly effect how you write and what you write about. I've tried very hard to stay true to who I am and what I'm saying. Being genuine is important to me, and although I think about who is reading my posts, I try not to "pull any punches."

It has been an interesting journey that has given me an outlet for writing, learning new technologies, and other creative hobbies I love (like being able to share my photos via my blog and my flickr account).

Who knows what I will be blogging about two years from now. Probably about my oldest son getting ready for college and my youngest learning how to drive. Hopefully I'll be talking about the war in Iraq using the past-tense. My 4 year blogging anniversary will be just a few days after our next Presidential election. I hope and pray that I will be PROUD to call our next President MY President.

And I hope that we will all be talking about what great strides we have made in just a few short years to combat global warming. In 2 more years, I'll be 41. Officially not a thirty-something anymore. In 2 more years I will be the mother of a 15 and 17 year old. I will have read about 24 more books and will most likely still have a ton more sitting on my shelf waiting for my attention.

Thank you to all of you who have commented and visited faithfully over these past two years. I celebrate today with all of you in my heart.

Desperation Post

Trying desperately to keep up with NaBloPoMo, I'm here at 10:10 pm posting about nothing in particular.

The day started with trying to deal with day one of a new hair do. You know, how do I blow dry it to get it to do what I want, what if it comes out totally wrong etc.....so It wasn't perfect, could have been worse, could have been better.

Almost forgot to give kid 2 his meds, and kid 1 woke up with a sore throat and light headed and "icky tummy." Got to work to realize that video conference #1 of 2 was about to not happen for some reason but couldn't stick around long enough to learn why. Rushed downstairs, almost late to huge important meeting that was supposed to go from 9am to 5pm. Realized at about 9:30 am that I forgot to call school of kid #1 to tell them that he stayed home sick. Desperation call to hubby to see if he could call school to tell them that kid #1 was out sick. Thanks, dear.

Sat in the all day meeting, feeling WAY disconnected from everything. Witnessed breakdown of co-worker #1 and spent the rest of the day wondering how to deal with it (I'm HR). Rushed home from end of meeting remembering that half way through the day I realized that we did not take out  chicken for dinner tonight ( so it would be WAY frozen). Got home in time to realize that kid #2 was at basketball try-outs and kid #1 was still sick in bed, hubby just waiting to go to his meeting.

Took temperature of kid #1, gave him some meds, changed clothes and sat down to relax for a moment. Time to pick up kid #2 from try-outs, kid #1 emerges asking if he can drive me to pick up kid #2. He's restless and eager to get out of the house. Pick up kid #2, had a good try-out, can't decide if his confidence is founded or not...kid #1 does an exceptional job at driving. First time I've been in the car with him and not been nervous.

Fix dinner (a quick little job, not on the menu, nothing fancy). Hubby leaves for meeting, kid #2 eats, studies for quiz, finishes homework, eats, showers. Kid #1 wants to watch the Country Music Awards. Mom decides that sounds GREAT and sits down on couch next to Kid #1 to enjoy some time. Both of us see ad for Prop 85 (the California abortion, teen-must-notify-their-parents proposition). Mom spends 20 minutes talking to Kid #1 about abortion and choices and "I hope that if you ever get someone pregnant and she can't talk to her parents that you, and maybe she feel comfortable coming to us because we won't be angry, maybe stunned, but not angry, and we will try with all of our heart and soul to help you and she to make an informed decision."

There are a few more steps to the evening, but isn't that enough? It is now almost 10:30 and I'm not done yet. Kid #2 just asked some election questions...are you kidding me? No, I will not vote for Arnold. No, I will not vote for Dem. candidate what's his name...yes, it's very sad, yes I will still vote, it is my responsibility to do so. It is my right to do so. It is what people fight and die for. No matter what.

Tomorrow morning, uber important meeting at 9:00 am and all the things that I should have been doing today, to do ASAP. Christmas party invites to get out,

OMG...get me to bed please.

New Tool! Quaman

New to me, anyway! Got the idea from The Human Capitalist. It is a blog editing tool called Quaman that can be used on or off line, and can link to all of your blogs. It imports your already established categories etc. This is the first post that I'm trying using the new tool.

Anything to help me blog more/better!

Tags: quaman, blog tools, blogging

Powered by Qumana

Check me out...I'm podcasting

Here is a test message I recorded while at the BlogHer session on podcasting. I finally figured out how to up-load the file to TypePad. Oh, the possibilities!

Download Krobinson.mp3 (234.0K)

Too much blogher...not enough time

How in the world am I going to get all of my thoughts and notes and ideas from BlogHer in writing. I've got to pack for myself and possibly my kids, clean, and generally prep to be gone for a week. Then, I don't think I really want to blog about anything but my trip while I'm on my trip.

By the time I get back it will all be a fog...

Oh the horor, the horor.

Starting a new blogging community

Attending a session about starting a blog community...I have been thinking about starting a blog for people parenting kids with ADHD. This is an interesting session getting us to think about how to start, what kinds of questions to ask yourself about what the purpose of the blog, what do you want out of it, what will the community want? What is the invitation and why is it valuable to the community?

This is an idea that I'm committing to. Don't know what it will turn into. Any ideas out there?

TAGS: BlogHer, communityblogs, ADHD

Live from BlogHer

Here, I am, live from BlogHer 2006 in San Jose. Drove down this morning with Left Coast Mom and a latte. Got some great shwag already...t-shirt, lotion, stickers, pens, water...you name it. I see some familiar faces. Met Jennifer from Not Calm (dot com). I see Jo Spanglemonkey and Mary Tsao is here too!

More to come...

TAGS: BlogHer

BlogMe for BlogHer

I'm so excited to be going to BlogHer this year. Although I can only go for day 1 as I will be on my way to Hawaii on day 2, I'm looking forward to connecting and re-connecting with some of my favorite bloggers. SoCal Mom has tagged me to participate in a sort of virtual meet-up/get-to-know-you kind of exercise called BlogMe, so here goes:

1. When did you start blogging and why? Or Talk about your blog. What can I learn about you in under 5 minutes?
I started blogging in November of 2004 because a co-worker of mine ('yall might know her, it is the one and only Grace Davis of State of Grace) had a great blog and my desire to write about anything and everything took over. If you visit my blog you will see that I'm totally into my family, taking photos, and keeping up with current events (either news worthy or pop culture kinds of things).

2. Who do you read every day, rain or shine?
Well, of course I read State of Grace everyday...here are some others...
Becky's Bizzaro
Socal Mom
Snidget
Elkit in Wonderland
Twinga
And most recently I've started to read Left Coast Mom regularly

3. How would you describe your writing style?
Casual, unrefined, but clear and to the point. Occasionally I try to get a little fancy.

4. What don’t you write about? Anything considered a no-no in your book?
I don't slam anyone I know, and try not to slam people in general, but some people make that very difficult. I hate negative energy and try to stay away from it whenever possible.

5. So soon we’re going to meet each other at BlogHer.  Important question.  How do you party?
I went to Chico State, so I party very well, thank you! :0)

6. What is your favorite thing that you wrote? What got a strong reaction from readers? Links please?
I'd have to say that letters to my kids and posts about their major life events have been my favorite things to write. I seem to have more passion in these posts than others. This letter to Darren was one of my favorites as was this brag session about Payton. As far as strong reactions from readers...hmmm...This post about Ann Coulter earned me my first flame, however with the negative energy thing going, I decided to delete the flame and my response to it.

7. Have you written anything controversial? Is blogging controversial?
Yes, and it makes me nervous. I'm not one for sticking my neck out normally, but blogging has given me a place to test those waters.

8. Are you and your blogging persona the same person?
What you see is what you get.

9. If you had a super power, what would it be?
An unstoppable metabolism!

blogher