Camera!

I haven't found my camera that I loved for many years, it could not take a bad picture. So I went looking for a new one. The first was a Nikon Coolpix 3100. It had some cool features like five different color modes (sepia, B&W, hi color, regular, blue) and a great video feature in HD, but it didn't always figure out lighting correctly and would wash out images. I got it at Target, and they said no problem returning it if I didn't like it, so I did just that. My old camera spoiled me.
I then bought a Canon Elph 3500IS. I love it! Other than it is small and I will probably drop it several times, or that the touch screen will reluctantly drag my rear-end into the modern age (I still have my constuction grade old school flip cell phone from three years ago) the pics are (maybe) as good as my old monster digital camera. Now I can start working on my house again, since I am able to take pics. (Ha, like that was what was stopping me-)

Blogging Guidelines - 2

I am beginning to get this whole blogging thing. You wanna make money at this? Don't do what I am doing here. (obviously, this is one of those navel-gazing personal journal type blogs for my mental health)
My helpful hints:
1. Keep to one subject.
2. Don't go down paths of extreme crankiness or judgementality.
3. Have a focus to your blog so people can easily identify.
4. Use pictures.
5. Write well. And be succinct. Don't wander on and on and on in a story.
6. Be perky. Always. Be exuberant. And likeable. Don't air your dirty laundry. And... crucial... link into something others may want from you (covet) whether that be money, glamour, great marriage, cute kids, knowledge of some niche market, great house, rare autos, extreme profiency with a variety of sex toys, well-read, writer-ly mannerisms, artistic tendencies, this list can (obviously) continue.
7. Regarding that link: be humble. Whether a single parent, baker extraordinaire, GLBT southerner, or D.C. insider... vanity does not really catch the big populations within blogging.
8. Look at the 'biggies' for guidance, their blogs are easy to navigate, tastefully colored, short posts, colorful photos with a consistent positive message. ("you can do what I do... we can be friends....link to me") To find them, just see what others link to. There is pioneerwoman or dooce for starters. I don't really follow big ones because they are full of stuff I can read in magazines. Unless they do house restoration hints. Then I am all over them.
9. Reminder to blog readers: for some this is a business or a vanity piece. Even though we are all equalized in this media (anyone can comment, anyone can link) that does not mean it is a real world you are reading about. I have read such cranky posts from (mostly women) who have felt disillusioned by other bloggers. The bloggers weren't in real life like their blog presence. That would be hard. In real life you get to see the real person, not a built fantasy person which is what comes out of a 2-D blog posting. This is part of the reason I became hesistant about going to author readings. When a couple of my favorite authors turned out to be DUDS personality wise, it ruined me on their writing. They did not match my built personality for them that came out of their writing.
10. Have fun. Pick something easy for you to share with a bit of a spark.
11. Get your own domain name. (lose the blogspot or wordpress link) Watch out for the skanky domain manager companies.
12. Be patient. You are one of 126,000,000 blogs.

Results from Royal.pingdom.com
* 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
* 84% – Percent of social network sites with more women than men.
* 27.3 million – Number of tweets on Twitter per day (November, 2009)
* 57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States.
* 350 million – People on Facebook.
* 50% – Percentage of Facebook users that log in every day.
* 500,000 – The number of active Facebook applications.

Why This is an Anonymous Blog (of sorts)

Ran into some photographers. We began chatting. One of them lives on Bainbridge. We instantly rolled into commuter "ferrytalk." I told her I was writing about all the ferries. She asked if I was an author. I snorkled out of my nose. No, just blogging about it. She wanted to read the blog. I said it was not really public. Repeated. Then realized how absorippinglutely ridiculous that sounded. It is on the internet. Of course I am public. Just loosely anonymous.
This began as a venting action to keep my sanity when I moved for healthy reasons away from the father of my children and bought a farm. And left my cheer group behind. Oh, I mean peer group. Dang girls, anyway. So this was my way to share stories, get them out of my system. I am one who will tell a story about tripping over a piece of toilet paper, so not to be able to share those vital parts of my day with friends just about killed me. Like, I have to tell that toilet paper story, gotta get it out of the ol' system. So, hence, blog.
And no, I won't tell her where to find this blog. It is odd to think of someone who has met me, but does not know me, reading this. I am fine with anonymous readers, commenters, lurkers, since that is a different tier of 'knowing.' And actually it is cool to find random people out there that for whatever reason click on this blog and have something in common. It makes the big big world much smaller.
I have to remember I can't really know any of the bloggers I read, truly, no matter how personal I think they get. This is a written record of things we choose to write about. I think there is also a bit of professional cautiousness on my part about telling people about the blog. Since the co-ferry commuter knows "where I work." Yeah, yeah, I am a wuss.