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Caring Too Much + Being a Hater = Multiple Blog Topics

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multiple idea light bulbs

Once somebody whom we shall call “Frenemy” said to me, “You can’t POSSIBLY have such strong feelings on ALL these topics!”

 

Frenemy was wrong. I do, indeed, have strong feelings on “ALL these topics.” It’s both a blessing and a curse.

 

  1. BE TALKY-TALKY.

keep calm and talk a lot tee shirt

If you can’t go on-n-on about the GOOD topics, you certainly won’t be able to talk up dirt and shit. Be that person who will NEVER. SHUT. UP.

 

See, here’s how it works. Everything fascinates me. Everything. I have an opinion on even the most mundane of subjects. Even dirt. Don’t believe me?

 

Here are my thoughts on dirt:

It’s not as bad and grody as you think it is. There are even studies which show that dirt is actually responsible for some really great things, such as vaccinating microbes as well as children’s socialization. End of story — without explaining why (an entire blog topic all its own, and perhaps one I will pursue someday), let it be known that we should all celebrate mud pies. And also? You are an asshat if you don’t let your kids make them. The end.

 

See? I have feelings about DIRT. Someone who gives a shit about DIRT most certainly can be counted on to have concerns about other topics ranging from boring to essential. So yeah. I care a whole lot, about a whole lot of topics.

 

This creates all sorts of chapters in my life.

 

Chapter 1 — On caring too much about shit that doesn’t matter.

 

Chapter 2 — On why everything, even shit, matters.

 

Chapter 3 — On why people suck for not realizing how much shit matters.

 

Chapter 4 — On why it is depressing to be the only one who realizes how much shit matters.

 

Chapter 5 — On being angry at people for not caring about shit.

 

Chapter 6 — On wishing I didn’t care so much about shit.

 

Chapter 7 — On defending my shitty feelings to people who don’t get shit.

 

Chapter 8 — On finally accepting that shit is shit and people are people.

 

Chapter 9 — On learning to love shit and people.

 

Chapter 10 — On pursuing shit in spite of people who don’t give a shit.

 

Ten chapters! That’s like a whole book and whatnot. So, Frenemy? You can go to hell for not believing me. And also? I fucking told you so. I care about a fuck-ton of shit. AND HOW!

 

  1. BE CRAY-CRAY.

chocolate never thinks I'm crazy mug

Only someone who is slightly bent can care so much about dirt and shit.

 

Caring greatly about a large variety of shit provides me with a lot of venom and enthusiasm for a large variety of topics. Being wordy allows me to go on-n-on about shit forever-n-ever, amen. I can open my ten-chapter book of the thought process regarding tons of shit to any random page and talk about it like it’s important. That’s because, to me, it *IS* important. All of it. It all matters.

 

  1. BE HONEST.

Only those who embrace a bent state of mind can pursue subjects like dirt and shit as though they matter.

 

People will call you out on shit. They will remember what you said better than you will. So don’t lie. And if it’s clear that you changed your mind on a topic, come clean. Call it growth, which is awesome stuff because it means you aren’t a static bore.

 

  1. BE FUNNY.

You must have a sense of humor. Dirt and shit are not funny, okay? Not unless you (not unlike Captain Picard) “Make it so.” And even then, it’s questionable at best.

 

And if you aren’t funny, just pretend you are. Many people think I am the opposite of funny. That’s fine by me. When I re-read some of the crap I’ve written, I laugh so hard it makes me throw my head back and snort. I think I’m funny, and that’s good enough for me. Here are the total number of fucks I give as to whether or not others think I’m funny:

 

zero

 

ZERO.

 

  1. PLAN AHEAD.

plan ahead poster

Be forward-thinking. Don’t depend upon your own pea brain. It will fail you, particularly when you need it most.

 

Another thing to keep in mind about regularly spitting out topics is that you aren’t expected to think one up daily. As Avalon Jaedra points out, a great writing tip is to “Keep an Ideas List”:

 

“An ideas list is a simple and helpful tool

that can be used for various aspects of your writing career.

I tend to keep two runnings lists:

one for blog post ideas

and one for WIP ideas.

The format, how often you use it,

and how often you refer back to it is up to you,

but the only rule is this:

Don’t censor yourself.

You see, the ideas list is a sort of never-ending brainstorming sheet.”

 

  1. BE GENEROUS.

Don’t take credit for shit that ain’t your own. And even if you thought of it on your own, if it’s a popular idea, give credit elsewhere. It’s the nice thing to do, and makes you come off as slightly less bitchy.

 

Readers contributed suggestions in the comments section, all of which are handy. Write in a journal kept next to your bed for those night-time epiphanies. Call yourself and leave a voicemail.

 

Or follow my example — jot ideas in the notepad section of your iPod (or whatever smart device you carry around with you at all times). Currently there are only like four ideas saved there, but that’s because my ipod is only my secondary method, for use when I’m not at home, or when I’m too lazy to walk over to my laptop.

 

My prime method of recording blog or writing ideas is to open a new Word doc, title it with the topic on my mind, and jot down any relevant thoughts. I save it to my desktop so it’s available for quick access to add links as I read related material (like Ava’s blog post cited herein).

 

  1. BE FORGIVING.

Not everyone gets it. Most people don’t. People like Frenemy won’t believe that you really are just cray-cray. You will be accused of number-mongering, of pursuing controversy for the sake of gaining followers, of being overly negative, of being an attention whore. The people in this crowd are to be pitied, because they obviously lack the cray-cray gene which allows you to be the awesome way you are.

 

There is something to be said for being awesome. I don’t know what that something is, but I’m sure it’s profound.

 

PS. I love you, Frenemy. I hope you take this in the spirit with which it was written. Which is to say, tongue stuck firmly in cheek, no hard feelings, etc. I think you’re really nice. And before you can call me out, lemme say it here first:

 

Yes — I am, indeed, a bitch. xoxo

April Challenges – Blogging from A to Z – ROW80 – 750 Words

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Timeline: There’s an app for that.

Today’s post was going to be all about FaceBook’s new timeline layout. As you must surely know, it’s rolling out today as mandatory for all users. I was going to say, “There’s an app for that,” for all the haters out there. I was going to send you to to Lifehacker, wherein is described a Chrome extension you can use to avoid looking at timeline.

 

While I’m not thrilled with FaceBook as a whole, I do happen to be excited about my FaceBook page’s new appearance, and I think it’s a pretty nifty change. But lots of people don’t like change. And I get that. Change means keeping up, thereby adding work to an already overloaded schedule. Sometimes, it’s the little things that cause you to blow. You want to be able to rely on your toys of leisure for comfort. FaceBook is like sitting down in a recliner after a long day at work. You don’t want to endure one more moment of stress — you just wanna lean back and relax. And then those dang administrators force change on you. Those bastards!

 

[Update: This was originally written in April. Now it's July. I fucking hate TimeLine. That is all. Carry on about your business.]

 

Forget FaceBook

But that’s not what I’m going to write about. Forget it. Something else has demanded my attention. And if I’m honest with myself, it’s way more cool. I mean, who isn’t blogging about FaceBook’s timeline layout today? Duh. Boring. Gosh, Andi-Roo, get with the program. Sometimes I can be such a sheeple. Hate it when that happens.

 

What I am going to write about is my plan for April. Which is terrifying. Because it popped up out of nowhere and grabbed my wrist and pulled me along down a dark alley. When I was in high school I had this cool friend who did that kind of thing. And sometimes the dark alley led to a party at the playground where everyone was hanging out and having *le good times*, which was a positive outcome of peer pressure. But other times the dark alley was just a dark alley, leading not to a party, but to a bad situation better left undescribed. <<< *shudder* >>>

 

Like a BAU5 — someone not me.

I innocently decided to sign up a writing challenge to beef up my errant story writing ways. I have very little self-discipline and thus seem to require a boss. Not a real boss, because I am the queen of me and no one shall tell me what to do. A virtual boss. A pretend finger pointing at me, behind which resides a pretend mouth bellowing things like, “Have you done your words today, Andi-Roo?” or, “You can’t take a break till you reach your goal, quitter!” or, “What the hell have you done all day, slacker?” Yeah, I need that bossy tone, if not the bossy person behind the voice. I need assignments. A checklist off which I can mark completed items.

 

My hubz kind of fills this roll for blogging, because he’s the one who posts my shizzle online. I don’t do those sorts of things. I write it out and pass it on. Technical SEO-type items aren’t on my list of joy. I’m a copy-n-paste kind of gal. Once I asked him why I couldn’t just copy-n-paste my blog entry out of the Word document from which it’s saved, and he just looked at me like I’m stupid. Probably I was. Whatever. Fuck coding and whatnot. So when I’m behind, I have a boss-type person asking me to please get off my ass and be productive. He walks a fine line.

 

A Round of Words in 80 DaysA Round of Words in 80 Days 

I’m very excited about this challenge. I’d already half-heartedly told myself to write everyday.

 

“Self,” I said, “You will poop out 750 per day, which is only like three pages (if that), and you will not complain because this only takes like forty-five minutes.”

 

I meekly complied, but only sometimes. So I cranked up the persuasion to the next level: heckling.

 

“Self,” I said, “You’re a stay-at-home mom now. You don’t work outside the house. You have no excuse. Now sit your ass down in that chair, and do the work.”

 

This only caused me to rise up against the tyrant, bellowing belligerently,

“Who the hell do you think you are? You’re not the boss of me!”

 

Which is kind of funny. Because, yeah. I am.

 

So obviously I needed either a bigger bully, or an objective third party. I went for the latter. It seemed the smarter route. I chose A Round of Words in 80 Days, which is an 80-day writing challenge in which you set your own goals. Since I utilize 750 Words  for all my fiction writing, this appeared an ideal pairing for my purposes. I’m supposed to poop 750 words per day, and now I have to report in twice a week somewhere else to show I’m staying on track. And I have to blog about it. So now you are my boss, too. Please don’t hurt me.

 

[ UPDATE: The current challenge period began Monday, July 2, and runs through the third week of September. Be sure to use #ROW80 when discussing in Twitter, and follow its creator @kaitnolan .]

 

 

A to Z ChallengeBlogging From A to Z

I’m still not sure how this happened. I was just strolling along down Twitter Street, minding my own business (by which I mean, I was tweeting madly with my new pals, ecstatic to be part of a conversation, over-the-moon thrilled to be included by more long-term bloggers).

 

All of a sudden a wild suggestion appeared out of nowhere.

 

“Come do the A to Z challenge with us,” my new friends invited.

“It’s sexy. You’ll love it. Just do it.”

 

WTF is A to Z? I’m new here in town, remember? So one of the gals sent me a link and suddenly I was signing up and grabbing the logo-button-badge-banner thing and losing oxygen at a very fast pace. Panic-panic-panic. Cannot breathe.

 

So now I’m taking part in two writing challenges at the same time. <<< *gulp* >>>

 

But Blogging From A to Z  is geared specifically toward blogging, not fictional endeavors. I can’t decide if this is a good thing for me or not. I’m mostly leaning toward yes, it is quite good that this challenge’s purpose does not overlap the aforementioned. This challenge is also different in that it does not require a specific word count goal (beyond the order to “keep it short!”). Nor is it tied down to any one particular topic. The goal is to focus that day’s blog entry to a topic of your choosing beginning with the letter-of-the-day.

 

[UPDATE: This challenge begins again next year in April. Be sure to use #atozchallenge when discussing in Twitter, and follow the challenge updates, @AprilA2Z .]

 

So there it is, pooples! Two challenges for the month of April.

Any plans to dive in with me?
Amazon Prime Membership link

 

10 Things I learned from the A to Z Challenge

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I absolutely loved the April Blogging From A to Z Challenge. It taught me an awful lot about blogging in general, & *my* blogging in particular. Nothing like coming in right at the beginning of a good lesson! Here are the ten lessons I learned from participating in this challenge.

 

1. Post Daily.A to Z Reflection

Since I’m a very new blogger, the A to Z Challenge was an effective exercise to get me in the habit of writing every day. I may have neglected adding words to my story, & I may have completely stopped writing my daily journaling or “morning papers” altogether, but at least I was sitting down & putting in the work once every 24 hours. This alone would suffice to bring me back next year, but there are several other reasons I enjoyed it & plan to return.

 

2. Use a Word Beginning With the Appropriate Letter.

In addition to the act of daily writing, the A to Z Challenge gave me a jumping-off point, somewhere to start. Even though it was only a letter, not a word or even a theme, it served as a prompt to get my brain moving. Sometimes I work better with even the smallest hint of what should come next — like a writing assignment. Sometimes my innovation runs dry, & needs a lube job which the alphabet definitely provided.

 

Survived the A to Z Challenge3. Be Yourself.

Through the A to Z Challenge, I was able to find my “voice”, so to speak. I thought I wanted to be serious some days, silly on others, & pondiferous [yes, spell checker, it's a word, cuz even if it's not, I just coined that bitch] the rest of the week. This is absolutely untrue. In writing every day, I learned about half-way in that my best & most enjoyable writing was channeled during my sarcastic, rant-ish, or jokey posts. These were also the posts that garnered the most comments, so I know I’m on to something when I say that being serious just isn’t my bag. Which isn’t to say that I will avoid real-life topics. I just know that I need to put my own spicy flavoring to whatever I’m writing so that it tastes like *me* sauce. heh.

 

4. Discover New Blogs.blogs

Visiting the A to Z Challenge sign-up page, I was able to find some very interesting blogs — ones which have been added to my list & which I even now still try to visit daily. I am definitely one who enjoys reading blogs of various design — heck, that’s what got me started on my own — but I am always eager to add more. Not enough days left to read everything I want, but I’m darn sure gonna give it my best! Thanks to the challenge, I have more blogs to choose from than ever before.

 

friends5. Make Friends.

The A to Z Challenge also allowed me to make new online friends — some who live close by, & whom I hope to meet up with at some point, & others quite far away whom I will likely never meet unless we happen to attend a conference or training session or something awesome-wicked-cool along those lines. Regardless of whether I know them “in real life” or not, they have already proven invaluable in providing advice for bettering my blog, encouragement when I thought my writing wasn’t up to snuff, & a shoulder to cry on when my entire blog exploded. They offered their time & help without a second thought — “Let me know if I can do anything” — this single phrase was repeated so many times it still warms my heart even now to know such selfless, generous people.

 

6. Have Self-Confidence.A to Z Challenge

Ah, confidence. Something I’ve always lacked in stating my opinion. Now, thanks in large part to the A to Z Challenge, I know I can pick a stance & state it loud & proud without fear of getting knocked down. Sure there will be haters. No doubt. But haters just prove that I’ve said something worth thinking about. And haters also prove that the delete button belongs to me, that I have the power to control a conversation. Which also means I can leave it up, if I so choose — which thus far, I have. Knowing I can moderate a discussion gives me the confidence to speak out in the first place. More than that, when someone — even one lone individual — voices agreement, I find comfort in the knowledge that I’m not alone.

 

7. Plan Ahead.

One thing I do think I’ll do differently during the A to Z Challenge next year: This time around, being my very first attempt, I did not go with an overriding theme. Next year I will definitely keep to some organized category. Even a loose one would be better than winging it, I think. Maybe I’m wrong. Something tells me that every year will be a new experiment — which is how writing should be anyway!

 

8. Be Prepared.

Also… next year I intend to be MUCH better prepared. I didn’t even know about the A to Z Challenge until a few days before it began, so I’m not upset at myself or anything. But in addition to having a theme, I will also have my word choices assigned from the very start. I did pretty well, I think, & was even able to write several ahead — but next time around, I want them all DONE & scheduled, so that I can just sit back & enjoy reading everyone else’s work. I didn’t get to comment as much as I would have liked, & based on how much I enjoyed the feedback from others, I know this is something I definitely need to improve.

 

gym9. Conquer & Overcome.

My biggest hurdle — & really this my biggest hurdle in LIFE, not just with the A to Z Challenge, so it’s more a “me” thing than anything else — is myself. “DO THE WORK.” This is the most difficult jump for me. I know I can write. I love to write. So why don’t I write??? It’s kind of like going to a book club meeting for me — I know I’m good at analyzing books. I love to discuss books. So why don’t I go to the meeting??? And I did this with the gym, too, when I was a member. I know I can put in a kick-ass workout. I love the way I feel after a workout. So why don’t I go to the gym??? The simple answer to all these questions is that I’m lazy. But it’s more than that — I’m not merely physically lazy — I’ve allowed myself to become MENTALLY lazy, & that is a much more difficult muscle to stretch. It’s almost like I have hated abusive authority figures for so long now, I even detest the idea of bossing my own self around. I know that makes zero sense. I resent my own inner voice? Say whu? But it’s true! Once I can get that wrinkle ironed out, I think I’ll be in good shape. I have to remember another of my favorite mottoes: “JUST SHOW UP.”

 

10. I’ll Be Back.I'll be back

I am very grateful to have participated in this years A to Z Challenge, & can’t wait to do it again! As a matter of fact, I’m somewhat at a loss this week, & was quite happy to find another challenge (even if it’s only for one day!).

 

*Le Gasp*… whatever will do I once I’m on my own again? And what is everyone else off to now? Can’t wait to read what lessons *YOU* took away from the A to Z Challenge!