Painting
I’m working on some paintings inspired by Southern Utah. I’ll post images in a week or so. In the meantime, here are two from last year that are still available. Kind of a set but fine by themselves.
Precious Moments
Sometimes when I’m with my children, I just can’t believe how lucky I am. I look around the room, or as is the case yesterday, the car via the rearview mirror, and I’m almost unable to breath, I feel so lucky. We were busy running to and fro and to and fro and fro again getting all the kids signed up at their respective schools, changing schedules, picking up books and doing all other manner of getting ready for school activities. There were peals of laughter, good-natured ribbing and their beautiful voices combining in song:
When you’ve got no place to go
And you feel it in your toes
Diarrhea
DiarrheaWhen you’re wearing a white dress
And you feel a lumpy mess
Diarrhea
DiarrheaWhen you’re standing in the trees
And you smell a stinky breeze
Diarrhea
DiarrheaWhen you’re right next to a pole
And it’s coming out your hole
Diarrhea
DiarrheaWhen you’re squatting in the hut
And it’s coming out your butt
Diarrhea
Diarrhea
Top Three Questions in My Inbox
Variations of #1:
I thought you were from Utah?
Are you in Missouri?
Where did you grow up?
Did your parent’s move?
Answer:
I did not go to Missouri, although there is nothing wrong with that. Some of my favorite people live in Missouri. My parents have not moved and still live in Utah, where I went to visit them. Now I am happy to be home.
Variations of #2:
What are you working on? Is it a secret?
Did you get a new job yet?
What did you decide to do with your life?
Where are you working?
Do you remember me? I wrote you last year.
Tell me what you’re doing!
Answer:
Yes! Of course I remember you! And thank you for writing me again. I haven’t told you about what I’m doing because everything is kind of ‘in the works’ and not solid yet. If I told you the part I could actually tell you, it wouldn’t be much and we’d all walk away like addicts without our fix. But, since you are so insistent, I’ll try. I’m working on some book stuff that I can’t talk about yet, except to say that I’m not alone in my working on it and some other people are involved and things are getting done way too quickly but not fast enough. And I’m finishing up some paperwork and stuff for doing some interviews that will not just be done through email.
See?? I told you. Totally unsatisfying. I’m going to go gnaw on my arm now.
Variations of #3:
You suck!
Why do you suck so bad?
Why do you delete comments I leave on your blog that tell you how much you suck?
Do you remember me? I wrote you last year.
And – you suck!
Answer:
Yes! Of course I remember you! And thank you for writing me again and again and again. In your last email you told me you wished you could be here when I read it so you could see my face. Well, that is so sweet. I wanted to show you what my face looked like, too. Because, it is so sexy Bershon.
And She Bid You Adieu for a Short Time
I think my son may be too old for the Tooth Fairy when he walks up to me, shoves the tooth in my hand and demands a dollar. Methinks the shine has worn off the ritual a bit. And shouldn’t he be giving me a dollar? I paid for his dentist bills for that sucker.
I just took off a complete set of fake nails this evening. The beautiful white and long talons that once were are no more. Now, I have only the small stubs God gave me along with the chunky residue left behind from glue.
Digital Pixie rocks. She is doing some construction on BloggerNetwork.org and things are only going to get better.
I’ll be gone for a few days. My parents have gone and done stayed together for 49 years, which means next year will be their 50th wedding anniversary. Sounds kind of like a fairy tale, doesn’t it? I’m meeting my brother, who now lives in Missouri, at my parent’s home to do some filming, photo taking, scanning and printing in anticipation of the best darn video ever shown at any 50th celebration anywhere ever.
See you next Thursday. Miss me.
xo
There Was This One Time…..
I did an interview with the amazing Amanda B of Very Zen once upon a time and while we were emailing back and forth, she promised me that at some point, she would get some music online for me to hear. And she did! And it’s here! And she’s good! And you should go listen!
Oh, Amanda! Thank you! Please, go to the recording studio or go sing at a nearby place so I can come and listen to you because I need MORE. Your voice is amazing!
Two Things
1. The Geek dinner was great. Heathervescent has done a really great job of keeping the LA geeks together every month. It was nice to see her at Bogher in San Jose, too. And Danah, too!
While at the dinner I sat by the very funny Michael and I was lucky enough to meet lots of nice and smart people including Eric whom you must never tell that he looks kinda like Marky Mark, because C’MON that gets old. So don’t do that, Leah. (Oh, wait. That’s me. Sorry, Eric.) But he was very adept at getting the spoons to do amazing things.
2. I met Tantek Celik (shown here with the lovely Heather) for about 5 seconds and wished for much more time to talk since I think he is great. He has a recent post on his blog called ’8 steps to serving better (X)HTML’ . It’s a good list. I aspire to have clean code that validates on my websites. Not there yet, but getting closer all the time. I find it gets difficult the more hands in the pot, you know? Sometimes following up after a number of coders doing the same project takes time.
Dandelife
A long time friend of Joe’s (and then luckily, friend of mine by default) has created Dandelife, a place to store your memories. Kelly Abbott calls it a Social Biography Network. He didn’t just create this as a hobby. He believes in it so much that he actually quit his job to do it full time. You could say that Dandelife is his life. (I know. Sorry.)
I tried it out a while back and realized that I could really use a place like Dandelife. It’s different than a blog in the way that you can chronologically write in the memories and stories of your life instead of what you ate for lunch yesterday. You can capture your story so you don’t forget it, and put in the details you might not want to go into on your blog but you do want somewhere. And, if you’re like me, it’s fun to see who else was doing things around the same time and where.
I asked Kelly a few questions about Dandelife and he was nice enough to answer.
LP: What was the inspiration for you to create Dandelife?
KA: Loved blogging a little too much, you could say. That’s the short version. The less-short version? Dandelife Origins – I’ve got 11 posts and counting on our blog that create some kind of picture as to why I would drop everything for Dandelife.
LP: What does Dandelife mean to you?
KA: What is it to me? It’s my baby. It’s funny, but I’ve been giving birth to this idea for many years. You can read some of those stories here. But what Dandelife means to me deeper, I suppose, than just a business. I often joke with people that it’s the culmination of my being. I love photos. I love storytelling. I love the Internet and community building online. In a way, Dandelife is the logical progression of bring all of those desires I have into one place.
LP: What kind of mark do you think Dandelife will leave on the world or with individuals?
KA: The mark that Dandelife should leave on individuals is simple: I want people who visit to be entertained by the stories people are sharing here. For the members who’ve signed up, I want their lives to be an archive of sorts. A trusted venue for housing their memories is important to do right. Which leads to the world at large. I want the community at Dandelife.com to reflect the world as it is. The stories people are sharing are quite different from the stuff you read about in your daily news. The connections being made run deeper than those you make at MySpace. What’s happening on Dandelife is very real – even if it is “virtual.”
LP: What is your favorite part of Dandelife?
KA: My favorite part hasn’t been developed yet. Users are giving me recommendations on a daily basis. That combined with the constant loop of ideas that we have going on internally, there are some pretty creative features coming. I can’t wait to tell you about them.
If you were to put my feet to the fire, then I’d have to admit that my favorite part right now is the timeline you see on the home page. It’s what our members love the most and seems to be what the blogosphere digs the most as well. People just love the idea of seeing their life – visually – at a glance. Keep hitting refresh on the home page and you’ll start to see some pretty neat stories popping up every time. I sometimes find that I’ve wasted an entire afternoon bouncing from one good story to the next. Of course, for me, that’s not an occupational hazard at all. 
For you – I hope it’s a nice diversion from the daily grind.
Thanks, Kelly.
Ramblings
Is there a statute of limitations on how long the dirty clothes can stay in the pile in the middle of the living room? If there is, I think I may be pushing the limit. That and the sacks of used grocery bags, the hundreds and hundreds of used grocery bags sitting by the front door waiting to go to Whole Foods to be recycled.
I could actually pick up the dirty clothes and take them into the garage where the washer is. OR I could ACTUALLY put them IN the washer. Just a suggestion I’m making to myself. Since, you know, I like clean underwear and I might need some someday.
The downstairs bathroom is not working. That is not that big a deal since we have two of them upstairs, but after a few days, it gets OLD running upstairs every time you need to tinkle. We tend to wait until the last possible second to make the trip which I’m sure is hell on our kidneys but looks really entertaining when the Jehovah Witnesses drop by and get to witness the Pee Dance.
So, you might ask, why haven’t we fixed it yet? Well, a little thing called money, as in, not enough of it quite yet. But soon! Soon there will be fixed bathrooms for all!
Tonight is Barcamp Geek Meetup in Santa Monica. I think we will go. I need more geeks in my life.
ps. Go see Amanda’s head in a cowgirl hat keep popping up in her header.
Thoughts About Being Positive
I’ve had thoughts just floating around and around for the past few weeks and I’ve had a really hard time getting it down in a concise and readable way for others to understand that also comes from a place of loving. But, I think the gist of it is this:
Why do people spend energy and time sending out negativity? Isn’t their life just as busy and full as mine? Don’t they have only the same limited hours in a day and juggle things around trying to fit them all in? Why would they choose to spend any of those precious moments writing hateful and venomous things about other people?
The most used argument is that everyone has the right to write about whatever they want in their blog. And I mostly agree with that. In most cases, we do. But the part I don’t get is why? What has happened in that person’s life that makes it fun to trash other people for sport? Possibly residual resentments from their upbringing? Maybe they were teased or emotionally abused (or worse) and so they unconsciously need to unload that somewhere? I think if they focused on themselves for a while and went through their own emotional stuff, they wouldn’t feel the need they do now to tear others down,
I tend to think, for the most part, that it is not just plain jealously, because of the amount of pleasure these people seem to get out of their ‘sport’ and how zealous they are about trying to tear other people down. I think it borders more on an obsessive behavior, where they are finding their self-worth in hurting others.
Another common argument is that the people ‘on the top’ that are getting hit with the negativity, should somehow not care because ‘they are famous’ and so this is what goes with the territory. Since I’m not one to get into the trash magazines about movie and music celebrities and I don’t agree that being famous is synonymous with asking the world at large to judge you for every choice you make for the rest of your life, I don’t agree with this argument, either. If someone has worked hard, been recognized for their effort and reaps the benefit of being ‘on top’, then great for them! I wish we could all support each other and say, ‘Way to go! Nice work!’ or if we don’t agree with what they say or what they’ve done, how about, ‘I don’t agree with what you said/wrote/did but I hope you get everything you hope for!’ because them getting what they hope for and work towards takes nothing away from me. There is enough ‘good stuff’ out there for everyone.
Honest debating and real discussions are great. Not agreeing is great. Diversity is what makes the world a great and wonderful place to live. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, just as I’m sure there will be those that don’t agree with what I’ve written here. But resorting to name calling and trash talking and negativity can’t be the best option. And if you have the time and energy and get the inclination to put negativity out into the world, how about putting that excess energy into something positive, like volunteering for your local candidate who might get elected because of your efforts and create some real change in the government? Or, how about looking yourself in the mirror and telling yourself that you love yourself, since that might be lacking. Be positive with yourself and let it come out of you and give it to others. You will be a truly happier person.
Two Things
Meg linked to an article that has me a little upset. I’ve been drinking soymilk for the past 3 years pretty much exclusively and I thought I was doing my body good. Now I’m not only confused, I’m a little ticked off. I can only imagine what the soya has been doing to my hormone levels in regards to my PCOS issues. The article states that their research shows that babies drinking soy formula have the equivalent of 5 birth control pills worth of estrogen running around in their blood. Because I don’t want this to be true, as two of my kids drank soy formula for about 9 months a piece, and I don’t like the taste of cows milk and I also enjoy eating edamame at least 4 times a week, I sure hope someone can shed some light on this issue and tell me the article is a bunch of bunk.
Tom Coates recently wrote about ethical weblogging and it sure has me thinking lately about having ads on my sidebar. On the one hand, I like the $80 I average a month to help pay for hosting. On the other hand, I don’t really have any idea what the ads or the people who place the ads are about. I mean, I click on the submission and make sure it’s not pornographic or anything but beyond that, I’m blind. I think if I had to support my family and blogging was my job, it would be different. It would be the way I earned my money and since it was my job, I would accept that and be grateful for it and do everything I could to make the most money as integritously as I could. And I would make sure I knew about the person/company behind my ads and that I felt good about supporting them.
But its not my job. I blog for fun and for my mental health. And while I appreciate the ads I’ve received and the subsequent money deposited into my account, I don’t know if it’s enough. And when I say ‘enough’, it looks like I would have a price that would be ‘enough’ and that makes me wonder about my own integrity. Do any of you have any thoughts about this?
County Fair
There was delicious lemonade (quite delicious at its largest size in Flickr).
There was a marble in the soda.
Why do I keep making them take photos together? I am so mean.
Today I Am Here
I’m drove Joe to work, then Alex to see friends, then back to see Joe for lunch, then back to get Alex, then back again to get Joe and go home. Here is the drive on the map.
The coffee shop has free wifi and checkers.
There is lots of this stuff between Ojai and Fillmore.
But it sure is pretty in parts.
She looks happy, no?
Did You Request a City?
Could I have your attention please?
I’ve got some cities here at the lost and found looking for their owners. The cities are not lost, the owners are. If you are an owner, please report to the lost and found and claim your city.
Thank you.
lpc
ps. your url can’t show up on the bloggernetwork.org site until you have at least one city claimed in your profile.
Also Known as Jenn
My awesome friend from San Diego, Jennifer Simpson, was at Blogher and I got to see her all of about 5 seconds. She posted an audio clip she made from a few different bloggers, me included, about why we blog. I love the idea of it because it’s like a mini-interview. (And who likes interviews??)
Does everyone hate my laugh or is it just me?
Must
Have you seen Little Miss Sunshine yet??
Badges. Get Your Badges. (and HuffPost)
Get your BloggerNetwork.org badges here. It includes instructions if you need them. If anyone feels adventurous and creative and wants to make some more badges, please do and send them to me. I’ll post them and make them available along with a link to your site if you want.
The Huffington Post is looking for submissions. If you have a story related to overcoming fear, they would love to get it for a new section of their website that is launching very soon. Email Romi for more specifics.
Hair
My daughter is sitting in the car, telling me all the things about her hair that she hates. She’s pointing out this strand and that strand, discussing color, highlights, non-existent split ends and the terrible, terrible length. Obviously something must be done. And done quick to avoid catastrophe before people see her later that night at the coolest party ever.
I suggest we drop into the local haircutting chain which rhymes with Poopercuts because they are cheap, close and cheap. You have never seen a look of such distain and disbelief in your entire life. She wailed and gnashed her teeth exclaiming that no one there would even have a real hair cutting license and that if one of them touched her hair it would never, ever look good again because they don’t know what they are doing and then she would be ugly and have no friends and it would ruin everything for ever and ever. And then she spontaneously combusted *poof* leaving only a charred mark on the passenger seat of the van. I told her we could go check the place that is more expensive and where there seems to be all manner of importantly tanned women with long, fake and shiny nails encrusted with jewels toddling around on high heels two sizes to small*, talking on their cell phones and carrying their tiny dogs in little purses. Why must this rant include small dogs? I don’t know, but it does.
After 2 hours and an unmentionable amount of money, of which she paid half because there is just no way I can justify paying that much for hair, she had the hair she had always wanted (for the past entire morning) and she gushed and looked at herself in the mirror all the way home pointing out how it was just exactly how she had always dreamed hair could look. I was pleased to have been able to facilitate this momentous occasion for her. And also, world peace.
Fast forward to the next morning when I pick her up from her friend’s house where she spent the night. She is tired from all the antics and lack of sleep. And then she asks me if I notice anything different about her. Now, I know that this is a historically bad question and the bane of the sexes in some circumstances. I’ve been asked how old I think someone looks and how much I would guess they weigh before creatively turning the conversation towards something safer like, oh I don’t know, penguins. Or Monopoly. But this is my first experience hearing it from my own daughter.
After a lengthy and uncomfortable pause, during which I’m trying to figure out how to remain calm when she tells me they snuck out last night and got matching tattoos with the words ‘Tiffany + Alex = BFF 4EVR’ across their hips, she interrupts me mid-nightmare-thought with, ‘My hair, mom! Look at my hair!’
Since I’m driving, and people that know me, love me and have my best interest at heart, Alex included, know that me just paying attention and going forward and staying within the dotted lines is sometimes as much as I can handle, she quickly follows it up with, ‘Wait. Look when we get to the light.’
The mile between that comment and reaching the light was very looooong. And when we got there, I turned slowly to look at her. And looked at her. And saw…..nothing.
She says, ‘So, after you dropped me off last night, we were getting ready and M told me that my hair was, like, totally, totally great except for that my bangs were too long and I needed some more layers right here? in the back? so she and T, who are both, like, totally into hair and going to be professional hair cut people when they get out of high school, are, and I’m not even kidding mom, genius with hair. So they gave me some more layers in the back and fixed my bangs for me. Don’t I look great?’
*The other day I was out and about and noticed a plethora of people walking around in sandals because, hello? it is hot. But more than half of all the people wearing sandals, flip-flops or other manner of toe-exposing shoes were allowing some part of their foot to touch the ground as they walked. A big toe here. A little toe there. And heels of all kinds. I think that is odd. They must go home and find that they have a mostly clean foot with only the usual wear and tear on it and then that one part, that slice, that is completely covered with black tar and sidewalk filth.
Blogger Network
UPDATE: 8/4 1:00am: Joe has been cleaning up some code and doing general awesome things all over the place. I’ve gone through the database and tried to add and correct cities to those of you that had them pending since we had to break a few things to fix a few things. Ain’t that always the way? But if you used a different email to request the city than the one you used to sign up, I can’t match you and you’ll need to log in and do it yourself. Photography and Personal are both added as a focus. We rearranged the city/states. The search feature hasn’t been added yet but at least you can read through the cities now without wanting to rip your eyes out. Seriously, thanks for all your great feedback.
UPDATE: 8/3 1:10pm: I’ve had a few suggestions for putting the city name next to the person’s name or url. For example, when you are on the main BloggerNetwork page and are viewing the entire list of the last updated sites, you would be able to tell who belonged to which city before you clicked on their url. From a design perspective, I’m not sure how that looks. If any of you that are thinking along those lines wants to come up with a design to work it in, let me know. I’m happy to see any and all idea. This is turning into quite a community effort and I THANK YOU for you feedback and help. And, yes, I’ll be changing the way the cities looks and having them listed by state option and also alphabetical order option. But probably not today.
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UPDATE: 8/3 11:30am: Some of the cities are not showing up in connection to your urls. Troubleshooting now. You should not have to add your cities again or anything. But if you click on your city on the right and your url doesn’t show, just know I’m working on it. Thanks!
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UPDATE: 8/3 10:15am: (i know, right?) Don’t forget to log back into your account and add your city to your url once I get it listed.
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UPDATE: 8/3 10am: WOW! You guys totally rock! The list of cities is getting longer and longer. At some point, I might need to have only states listed on the right with a city dropdown. But we’ll be adding a search as well, and that might help you to find your city fastest. For those of you asking, ‘Hey! Where is said BloggerNetwork badge to put on my site?’ To you I say ‘Soon.’ And thank you for asking. But you can put a text link on your site now, if you want. KristyK suggested we add an icon for Photography and Suebob suggested a Personal category. Both great ideas and will be implemented soon. Thanks, everyone!
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UPDATE: 8/2 midnight: The issue is fixed. Please, resume the adding of your blogs and let me know if you find any other errors. Your info is now safe. If you signed up earlier tonight, please login to BloggerNetwork.org and update with a new password. Thanks!
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UPDATE 8/2 7pm: Schmutzie wins as the person to find the first bug. Thanks, Schmutzie! We’ll be back in a few hours when it gets fixed. Something about your personal information being important and all that crap…..
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I hate going on a trip to a new city and not knowing whom of my blogger friends lives there. What if I went all the way there and then all the way home and THEN found out that so-and-so lived there and we could have hooked up for drinks?
I had an idea for a simple and easy to use blog listing by city. Sure, at some point it could be shaped into something with groups, networking, an ad service and whatever else was wanted but the main thing I want it for – is for me. And you, if you want.
So, add your blog. Right now, my son and myself are the only ones there and we are a little lonely. Send suggestions for improvement. Tell me you want to work on the design. (Please! The design!) Tell me anything that comes to mind. Add your city! The San Diego listing will have a ton of names in it in a few weeks because we are going to migrate all the content from here to there. But, if you are already on SDB, go ahead and sign up anyway. It will save me work, and that is totally cool. You can pick more than one city if you so desire. That is mostly for me as well, since I want to claim Los Angeles and San Diego and figured other people might be like me. (what? no?) You can also put in little, tiny (so cute!) icons by selecting up to three areas of focus and also, rss, atom and anything else you can think of to make yourself appear as geeky as possible. Again, mostly for me so I know what you’re talking about and if we can be friends. Also, if you are an anonymous blogger or prefer to use only your first name, totally fine. Just make sure your online published name is not your real, secret name. Capiche?
The whole point is so that I can come to your city and have a drink with you. What’s not to like?
PS. if you find kinks or bugs, please let me know.
