awed, inspired...and a little hungover

Thanks to our Fairy Blogmother Holly for a truly illuminating discussion of the world of blogging last night. (Ooh, am I sounding too formal...too OLD MEDIA? Clearly, I need to let goooo of my neeeed for punctuation and grammatical order... I knead to gitwitit... Must admit, it is hard to do with haunting memories of Prof. Martha Dunsky still present... She put me on probation at Medill School of Journalism in '97 for my ineptness in her Syntax course and I've still not recovered... Actually, the history goes farther back: There's my third grade teacher Mrs. Anderson who nearly held me back a year and put me in the LOWEST READING GROUP at Ballard Elementary because I didn't "use the dictionary enough." See? THIS is why I feel like a cat being dragged into a swimming pool with this whole blogging bit. My inclination has always been to LET GO but nooo, the confining powers that be would not allow it and thus I was warped... I digress. Oh, did I digress? Maybe that's a SIGN that I'm gitinwitit. Seems there is hope after all for me in this world of New Media...) Ah-hem. But back to last night. I am just amazed, Holly, at all you've accomplished in six months... So impressive. And the possibilities of self publishing! (I'd think more about the possibilities but the glare of their shiny newness makes my head hurt after one stupid Mike's Hard Lemonade... Am pounding Diet Cokes to counteract its effect. Or is it affect? Martha would know. I will let gooo and ignore my impulse to grab my AP style guide and just push "post" now... " Thanks, H...and K. and L. and J. for the intrigue last night... I'll look forward to seeing you all at Liza's in July...

WITNM (part gazillion posted today): Web community and what that means...

I just clicked over to Megan's site, The Velveteen Mind because there is a link (below) that I wanted to include as a reference and this is what she has posted today. It shows the community that is being built one blog at a time and the interaction that it creates. LOVE IT.

So the link that I went over there she references as one of her most popular:
MommyBloggers: The reference

And
How to be a Popular Mommyblogger

These are amazing resources if any of you would like to join the mommy blogging realm.

If you are interested in trying it out, I would glad to be of assistance.

OK, I promise that is the last post for today. I am going to play RockBand now...goodbye.

WITNM (next part, I can't keep up): Starting to pull things together...

Ron Davison again appears in our discussion after writing this yesterday:

A New Kind of Conversation: A New Kind of Democracy

(Hi Ron...how is it you keep popping up in my WOMEN in the new media series?)

I would love to get your ideas on this on Tuesday...

Another thing we will be discussing is how I know Ron will see this...

That will include tons of the information about how traffic flows on the internet, how I know if anyone mentions me, my name, my blog, my blog address and how anyone can become a "Big Brother" of sorts. It is information that just may change how you navigate the www.

WITNM (part next): How this topic got started...

This is a Nightline show segment that will introduce you toHeather Armstrong. Heather writes Dooce. She is one of a few (very few) MEGA mommy bloggers...she is BIG. VERY BIG.



This appearance of Heather Armstrong earlier this month on the Today show was the catalyst for my topic this month:



One of the topics we will discuss on Tuesday is how much information is too much. I have a very different perspective on this then I did 6 months ago when blogless. I will be interested to hear what you have to say.

WITNM (part next): Published authors who blog...

"If you are just about to publish a book or have just published a book, you need a blog."--wise woman who helps authors publish books

A blog is a way to get the word out. A way to make connections with others. A way to create buzz. A way to get grassroots support.

I really was clueless about all of this until I was contacted by someone who regularly read my blog who was also a friend of Jenny Gardiner. She wrote that Jenny had just written the book, "Sleeping with Ward Cleaver" whose title reminded her of my June Cleaver Nirvana title. She put the two of us in touch.

Jenny suggested that we could do a book give away on my blog for her new book. I read the book. Fell in love. Said yes. And it was done.

In the process, I started really liking Jenny. She is funny and has a bunch of kids. So I started stalking following her writing. She posts weekly on two blogs and does guest spots on others. The main one is The Debutante Ball which is a blog for women authors. It is a fun read.

We email back and forth on a regular basis. I have made a friend that I never would have met otherwise. We are trying to figure out how to convince her publisher into a Texas book signing...

WINM (part four): Writers who blog...

As I was introduced to more and more blogs I began noticing that many of my favorite bloggers were amazing writers. Blogging is an obvious outlet for writing. It is a forum for brain storming, testing the waters and receiving instant feedback from readers. I feel priveleged to be on the frontline of reading these women's initial thoughts, drafts and storylines. Sometimes they will repost the same story later from a different viewpoint or with more detail. Sometimes they mention projects they are working on. Sometimes they write to encourage others. Sometimes they write in need of the encouragement.

I am more reader then writer. I hope to be support. I hope to someday be first in line at one of their book signings.

I have linked to specific posts of three amazing writers who blog. Just browsing their websites is a treat:
Angela at Reality Testing
Jennifer at Thursday Drive and
CCE at MadMarriage

WITNM (part three): Random fun...

I have placed my GoogleReader share widget in the sidebar to the right in the pink box. Don't you love how I can sound all technical? Let me break that down into normal speak...

GoogleReader: I read a lot of blogs. To keep track of them all in one place I use a reader. There are several ones out there to chose from, but I use my Google account's reader function. All the blogs I read have a "feed" that sends whatever is written in the body of that blog to one page. This allows me to read a ton of stuff without clicking on each site.

Share: In my reader I can click on a "share" button if I find something I really like.

Widget: This is a gadget that will send information from another source to a cute little box. The pink one now displays all my "shared" posts from the reader.

If you want a laugh today (or anyday) just click on one of the titles in the pink box and it will take you to something funny. I have one of these widgets on my blog too.

One of the easiest ways to get into social networking is to Twitter. Twitter is a way to instant message the world by simply answering the question, "what are you doing?". The instant messages of an ever widening group surrounding you can create some interesting conversation or just give you a peek into the lives of others.

I have placed a Twitter widget (see, you already know what that is now) on the sidebar as well so you can follow my ever-evolving solution to world peace. Actually you are more likely to hear how my laundry turned out...details, details.