blogging

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Have a Blogger blog that you want to move to WordPress? I can help you with that too.

I’ve been doing blog design for myself, family and friends for awhile now. But I finally decided to go public.

I just finished up a design and a move from Blogger to WordPress for This Military Mama, my first official customer.

Come check out Affordable WordPress Design, and see if there’s anything I can help you out with.

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OK, so I signed up to participate in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge over at the SITS Girls, and I’ve been so busy with some other projects that I’m now five days behind.

Let’s see if I can get caught up this weekend.

The Day 1 Challenge is to write an elevator pitch. An elevator pitch is a a short explanation of what your blog is about. Short enough that you could share it in the time it takes for a quick elevator ride.

My elevator pitch is already on my About page.

Here at Mommie Daze I write about the good, bad and funny moments that all add up to what I like to call The Fog of Motherhood. I hope Mommie  Daze encourages you by putting a smile on your face, and you find some comfort in knowing you’re Not the Only One.

I think that pretty well describes Mommie Daze.

31DBBB suggests that you could use part of your elevator pitch as your tag line. My tag line right now is Is It’s Nap Time Somewhere. It’s a play on It’s Five 0′clock Somewhere, because I know that most of us who have small children look forward every day to nap time when we can get some peace and quiet. It’s just me trying to be funny.

The Fog of Motherhood used to be my tag line, but I was afraid it might sound too negative to people who didn’t read my About page, and didn’t know what I was talking about. I don’t want people to think that I see motherhood in a bad light.

So, I don’t know. Which tag line do you like better?

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If you visit here regularly you were probably starting to wonder if I was AAD, because every time you came by my design looked different.

Really I’m just indecisive, and addicted to Photoshop. It also gives me a little thrill every time I change a line of code, and it works. “Oooh, look! I told it to change to pink, and it did!”

I’m easily entertained.

You’ll be glad to know that I think I’m finally done tweaking things.

At least on here.

I’m going to go rearrange the furniture now.

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An old Vic-20. The first computer I ever used.

As a kid I always wondered what the @ on my parent’s now antiquated typewriter was for.

It didn’t seem to have much of a use back then. Was it there just to fill the space above the number 2?

We call it the “at sign”, but it doesn’t really have an official name. In fact, no one even agrees on it’s origin.

Some historians claim it stood for at the rate of. Mercantile owners used it to denote how much something cost, like 12 cookies @ $2. There is also evidence that it was used as an abbreviation for the word at by Medieval monks making handwritten copies of manuscripts.

Perhaps it was the @’s obscurity that lead to its present notoriety. Most other symbols on the keyboard had a purpose, a name, an agreed upon meaning. Was the @ chosen to become the facilitator of modern communication, because it seemed to have no other use?

The @ has certainly come up in the world during the last two decades.

I use that once strange symbol on a daily, even hourly basis now. I would be hard pressed to communicate without it.

Of course, the @ sign first entered the limelight as a part of the email address. It tells the sever what domain the email is supposed to go to.

Now the @ sign is an important component of online communication, used to note when a message is directed to or refers to a specific user name. For example, the @replies in Twitter.

Some threaded blog comment formats have started to use the @ symbol when readers respond to each other in comment section discussions.

If you use the @ symbol before you start to type someone’s name on Facebook, it brings up a drop down list of all your friends, then links the selected name to their profile.

Why does this fascinate me so?  Because it coincides with how much the way we communicate has changed.

For thousands of years we could communicate over distance only by written word sent via some sort of carrier.

Then there was the telegraph, and the telephone. The next change didn’t take millenniums, but it was still decades before the advent of the personal computer. Not long after came email and the Internet. Now in just a few years it’s exploded with cell phones, smart phones, laptops, Ipads, and untold numbers of applications for all.

For what purpose?

To achieve instant and real time global communication.

This communication, email and social media, is as a stay-at-home-mom an answer to isolation, a lifeline when the kids make me want to pull out my hair, and a vehicle to write even though I don’t have a career.

I used a computer for the first time in 1983 in elementary school. It was a Vic-20 from the Commodore company. In 3rd grade we practiced math problems, and spelling lessons on it.

The Vic used a tape cassette, instead of  floppy disk. It didn’t have gigabytes or megabytes. It had only 5 kilobytes of memory. There was no mouse. Just a keyboard with arrow keys.

And an @ sign.

That meant nothing to me then.

It means so much now.

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Gleek Retreat was like going to a really amazing sleep-away camp.

For adults.

Who blog.

The Bloggers

Just like sleep-away camp I didn’t know anyone else, but by the time it was over I had a bunch of new friends.

I told you last week I hate going places where I don’t know anyone. It just doesn’t jive with my shy personality. I stepped way out of my comfort zone, and forced myself to mingle last weekend. It was hard, but I’m so glad I did.

The absolute best part about Gleek Retreat was the people. There’s just something about being around a bunch of other people who share your passion. Everyone was so kind. So open. We talked, we laughed. We shared information. I left wishing I had more time to spend getting to know everyone.

Oh, and no one even asked me why I wasn’t drinking when they broke out the wine. If they assumed that I am an ultra-conservative teetotaler who can’t even buy white wine vinegar without thoughts of eternal damnation, they would be right.

The Location

We stayed at Into the Woods Retreat in West Olive, MI, a beautiful house in a pretty wooded setting. The accommodations were so comfy. The food was delicious. We all had roommates, which was really the only part about the accommodations that was like sleep-away camp. Because no sleep-away camp I ever went to left chocolate on your pillow, and provided you with a down comforter and WIFI.

OK. When I was still going to sleep-away camp WIFI hadn’t been invented yet.

Or the car.

Or dirt.

The Sessions

I learned quite a bit. I took lots of notes, and I haven’t even begun to process all the information yet. The speakers covered everything from monetizing your blog to building you niche to using social media to make connections. I paid particular attention to the photography session in hopes that it would help me figure out how to use my new camera. I did learn some new tricks. But I don’t think I’ll ever figure out that camera.

I was supposed to speak on Blogging and Balance. Everyone went to the session about Getting and Keeping Readers instead. I can’t blame them. There isn’t anything to balance if you don’t have anyone reading.

I think three people came to my session which made six counting the other two speakers. So it ended up being just a casual chat. But that’s O.K. Like I said, talking with everyone really was the highlight of the weekend.

I will have to wait for another day to make my big speaking debut.

I was only disappointed that I didn’t get to share my Ten Signs You Need to Take a Social Media Break.

So here it is. (Come on. Just let me have this.)

1. You only eat at restaurants that have free WiFi.

2. You can’t remember your children’s real names and call them DS1, DS2 and DD1. In real life.

3. You get misty-eyed at the thought of a new Twitter app for the iPhone.

4. Every time you sign your name you put an @ symbol in front of it.

5. The only news you get is from your friend’s Facebook updates. “Tom is tired,” isn’t really news.

6. When your mother calls and asks how you are, you tell her to watch your YouTube channel.

7. Your kids leave comments on your blog like, “Feed me. I’m hungry.” And, “I ran out of clean underwear last week.”

8. The first thing you do in the morning is check your email, your blog, your feed reader, Twitter, FriendFeed, Linked In, Whrrl, Facebook, Flickr, Google Buzz and the 23 Ning networks you belong to. It’s noon already? Where did the time go?

9. Your self-esteem takes a hit every time you lose a subscriber or a follower.

10. The most intimate thing you’ve said to your spouse in weeks is, “DM me.”

In Conclusion

Well, I didn’t tweet much while I was there, and I didn’t take many pictures. I had my hands full socializing, and trying to take it all in.

Gleek Retreat was a wonderful experience. I’m already looking forward to next year.

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I’m back!

Did you miss me?

Probably not, huh?

Well, we had a fun time in Chicago. I’m working on a post about our trip. I know you’re all on pins and needles waiting for it.

Probably not, huh?

Right now it’s way too long, and would totally put you in a coma. So I need do a little editing or split it up or something.

Festival Dé Stouts is officially over. No more birthday celebrations in this house for a quite awhile now. Thanks goodness! That’s exhausting.

I’m thinking of volunteering to move my birthday to another month just to make things easier. Of course Wade is only a year old. We could tell him his birthday in August, and he’d never know the difference until he finds his birth certificate someday.

Which won’t happen because after an entire year I have yet to order the official copy from the county clerk.

I know. Bad Mommie.

Hmmm…I wonder if he’s even really ours then?

Probably is, huh?

Better get that piece of paper.

Dave had a couple weeks off, but he’s back in summer classes now. He was going to take the summer off, but decided to cram in another semester’s worth of classes so he can graduate sooner.

Life will resume it’s usual uneventful pace after this weekend. Saturday and Sunday I’ll be at Gleek Retreat, a blogging conference right here in West Michigan.

Honestly I have to tell you I don’t quite get the name either. I thought Gleeks were fans of Glee. But I’m pretty sure Gleek Retreat doesn’t have anything to do with Mr. Shu and the Lima Loosers. And by the way while the Lima, OH on the show is fictional, there is a real Lima, OH. I lived there until I was eight.

Is that cool or what?

Probably not, huh?

Anyhow, I’m even speaking on a panel at Gleek Retreat. A job I really am honored to have, but pretty much completely unqualified for.

I’m excited, but getting nervous.

Oh, not about the speaking on a panel part. I can handle that. Public speaking, when I’m prepared, is easy for me.

It’s the being in a group of complete strangers that I’m worried about. I have a big mouth on my blog, but in real life I’m shy and reserved. Especially around people I don’t know.

I’m horrible at making small talk. I usually just stand there and smile and nod. People either think I’m just kind of dumb or I’m aloof. When really I’m trying really hard to think of anything — anything at all — to talk about besides the weather. And coming up with nothing.

It usually ends with me putting both feet in my mouth.

Maybe I should wear a T-shirt that says:

Hi. I’m Colleen.

I’m socially awkward.

But if you can get through, like, the first three months,

which is how long it will take me to feel comfortable around you,

I’m actually kind of a fun person.

What do you think?

Probably not, huh?

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