Blog Design Fatigue

I have learned a tremendous amount about coding, CSS, design styles, blogger, graphic tools etc., but it still feels like I've only just begun.

I have also had an up close look at my own project management weaknesses - traits that get in my way during any big project.

* I want everything to be perfect before I proceed
* Nothing is ever perfect
* I get distracted and jump from one thing to another without fully realizing any of them.
* I get discouraged when things don't turn out just right and and flooded with "I can't do this" feelings.
* I can't commit to a color scheme, a font, a graphic because there's always something else I like.
* I lose my own vision in looking at all the other brilliant people out there.
* I wonder if it's all so hard because I'm not really suited to it.

Learning to recognize, deal with and overcome these flaws is my next challenge in Adventures in Blogland.
I wonder if other people feel many of the same things - is perseverance the one big answer?

Back from Blogger Bootcamp

After a few (or a few plus a few) years away from the website building and blog-life, I've decided it's time to get back in and join the online party.

I opened up my old friend blogger - figured I'd jump in there and do a little design, put up a few graphics, build the navigation and start introducing myself to the blogosphere again.

Well, that's not how it actually worked.
And that's how I ended up in my own one-person, disorganized, disoriented, clueless, obsessive, 12-hours-a-day blogging bootcamp.

A girl can only tolerate the rigors of bootcamp for so long, i.e., no food in the house, garbage piling up at the door, laundry walking itself to the washer... Today I'm reporting for duty.

The little bitchy-pants in my head woke me up this morning chanting about how I'll never be good at all this, I'm too long out of the game, it's too hard, might as well give up, pillows feel so good.... But I shoved her aside on my way to make coffee. I can't let the no-you-can't thoughts make 7 days of bootcamp a waste of time!

My natural inclination is to put off starting until everything is perfect, but that's never really going to happen, is it?

So, with this post, I'd like to introduce myself.
Hello there blogosphere - can I come to play with y'all?

Pointing your URL to your blog

I spent an hour or more this morning working on making my blogger blog be the recipient of the information from the Domain Name Registrar (DNS) Server...

Already sounds like gibberish, but I persevered to attempting to make changes to my CNAME information, etc., etc., and I won't bore you with the rest of the silliness.

Finally, finally, I broke down at 2pm and got a glass of wine, plugged in the charger for my computer and my phone, put in my headphones and steeled myself for Tech support at Godaddy.

When I'm wrong - well - I'm really, really, very wrong.

Fun with Artificial Intelligence

You may have had all the AI you can stand if you use that spunky little Siri, but if not, go ask CleverBot some questions and have some fun. They are now offering phone apps for both apple and android.

Oh, Those Costco Hotdogs!

Honestly, the cheapest lunch in the world, and truly, one of the most satisfying. The Costco Hotdog. $1.50 for hotdog and a drink. The onions, sauerkraut, relish and just added win.

Feminism isn't dead, it's just misunderstood

 While making my son's usual eggs and hashbrowns and toast this morning, we somehow found our way onto the topic of Feminism.

If you want to know what 14 year old girls think about feminism, you don't have to look past social media. A great many of them make a point of disavowing any belief or need of feminism - they see Feminists as Dykey lesbians, as combative demonstrators for a cause they don't think they need. These girls haven't been taught anything in school about feminism, and they have no idea what it is they are railing against.

My son said that girls at his school think that feminism is about not letting a man (or boy person) hold open the door for you. They think that whatever feminists are talking about, they don't need it. It's all old school, ancient history. Totally uncool.

I told my son a few facts about north american women in the 20th century - like the fact that we weren't allowed to vote until 1918, and even then, not all women, aboriginal women did not have the right to vote until the 1960s. Until 1909, it was perfectly legal to abduct a woman. Women weren't allowed to serve on juries until the 1950s, and lots of similar facts. I also included the fact that when I got married in 1990, the marriage form that I was supposed to sign designated me as a 'spinster.'

I told him the story of post WWII America, and the massive propaganda machine that worked to take women out of those war jobs, and back into the home so that returning soldiers could go to work. I told him about the suburbanization of the American woman. He was looking pretty skeptical when I told him about the media machine 'resocializing' women to be content with cooking, cleaning, and being home for their husbands, so I found some ads from back in the day. The images pretty much made the point.

It is unbelievable to me that they don't teach any of this in High School. Shame.