Month: May 2016
Growing up I wanted to be Nancy Drew…instead I was Donna Parker. Both outrageously ignored repeated and dire warnings while being fiercely loyal, generous, and independent. Both wore, gasp, dungarees.
Through The Blog Storm
Through the blog storm,
we reach the shore
We give it all
but they want more
And we wait for views
With or without you
Can’t blog with
or without views
And you blog yourself all day
And you blog, and you blog
And you blog yourself away.
If this had audio you’d know I sang it just like Bono of U2, it’s like we’re twins, ok, maybe closer to the Swedish Chef from The Muppets, but it’s all good.
Blogging is a lot like cooking. Some people do it instinctively. A pinch of this. A dash of that. Somehow they know just the right blend. Others follow a precise recipe.
1. First thing you need to decide, what kind of cooking, I mean, blogging do you enjoy? Home-cooked, formal, informal, sugar-free, spicy, sweet, sour, no artificial flavours or colours, grilling, gourmet, fusion? Do you want to indulge your readers with moist, sweet chocolate brownies (my secret, melt the butter, let it cool then slowly add it to the mixture) or spicy chipolte chicken taco with guacamole (drooling)…
2. With blogging, like cooking you need an appreciative audience. Those who don’t just eat to live, but live to eat. Those who don’t just like blogs, but love them.
3. Posts can fill up our email like a meal can fill up our stomachs, but too much of a good thing can be overwhelming, sometimes a snack is the way to go.
4. Processed food, junk food, fast food, sure, they call themselves food, but really, food by any other name is not always food…same goes for blogging.
5. The blogging community is family style dining, so just dig in, reach over, around, share, like, join in, engage! Don’t just invite others to your table, sit at theirs too! Eat up! Even indulge in blog parties…
Jason – https://aopinionatedman.com/
Elena – http://blogsharelearn.com/blogsharelearn-linky-party-may-1316/
Niki – https://therichnessofasimplelife.wordpress.com/
Shawna and Shareen #LinkYourLife – http://honeyquill.com/
Danny – http://dreambigdreamoften.co/
Carolina – https://yesterdayafter.com/
Vicky – http://www.singlemotherahoy.com/
Pop Down Under – https://amommasview.wordpress.com/
Janice and all the lovely ladies that give us
Friday Blogger’s Pit Stop and Inspire Me Monday –
http://mostlyblogging.com/
6. Don’t think if people will: Like it, share it, reblog it, tweet it, agree, disagree, hate you, be a troll under your blogging bridge, or if you’ll end up looking like Mr. Bean with a turkey on your head. Just do what you want to do…that turkey looks good on you.
7. When you don’t have time to prepare a meal, aka a post, or you need some comfort food or a comfort blogging advice post…
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/04/10/im-hooked-on-a-feeling/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/08/27/message-in-a-bottle/
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/03/26/why-i-will-never-be-freshly-pressed/
8. Sometimes you slave over a hot stove aka computer, plate your hopefully tasty content, and serve it up….you wait for readers to gobble it up, but sometimes they never come to the table, even when called repeatedly. Maybe they’re busy, after all, when they open their email, it’s like a giant buffet has been served up, how much can they possibly eat? Maybe they’ve already eaten or are dining elsewhere. It happens. Try again.
9. Get out there, be a shameless social media self-promoting bloghussy (like me), most of all, enjoy!
Where I’m a complete twit: https://twitter.com/yadadarcyyada
Endlessly baffled by humanity: https://www.facebook.com/yadadarcyyada
The desert where I wander: http://www.pinterest.com/dpark2/
Where I google, not nearly as fun as it sounds: https://plus.google.com/112672588892199127381/posts
10. You can tell someone how to cook or blog, but that doesn’t mean they can do it, or do it like you. Or should. Cook what you want, blog what you want, eat what you want. Taste life.
My best advice about blogging and cooking? Don’t miss the donut by looking through the hole. Dear readers, any favourite blogging tips or recipes you can’t live with or without? Bon Appetit!
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
May dances in,
dances with dreadfully
stunning promises,
dances ribbons of hope,
twisting pretty, pure,
gurgling, whispering
about what once was,
what will be,
and never be again.
In the moonlit
rattling bones of night
I, awake pondered,
what if those
five stages of grief:
denial, anger,
bargaining, depression
and acceptance,
are a stale simplification?
Is life ever that simple
or that linear?
My 5 Stages of Belief, Relief, oh Good Grief!
1. I can’t deny I was kind of missing my old tagline, Vague Meanderings of the Broke and Obscure. Trying to decide, what do you think, dear readers, I’ve believed a lot of things…
2. Some days I feel I should scrub my eyes after reading some comments sections and news. I’m a walking paper cut as I read about people, even leaders and wannabes rage, lie, attack, hyperbole flying, anger roaring, name-calling like schoolyard bullies. People lap it up like reality cream. We might be sliding down a slobbery, slatternly nowhere-to-clutch-on-and-save-ourselves slippery slope. Mike Judge should re-release Idiocracy, exaggerated for effect, but maybe not as much as we’d like. It reminds me of RKO 281, based on Orson Welles’ struggle to make and release Citizen Trump, I mean, Kane. Why reward and encourage those who spread hate? Why feed the beast?
3. Some days even doing errands isn’t what you bargained for. I heard a woman trying to return a bathing suit she’d ironed. A dog dressed as Darth Vader (probably not by choice). Felt accosted by an overenthusiastic greeter when I just wanted to look at some books. Even the book covers were more than I bargained for – various states of half-dress; invisible force fields between people as they try to kiss; murdering someone or thinking about murdering someone; symbolism runs amok; people with words as clothes; moodiness; weird eyes; people with half faces; hot demons, aliens, wizards, vikings, pirates – all looking epic; folks gazing off into the distance looking pensive or constipated. And don’t even get me started on titles….
4. Remember my Happiness Project? I figured out fairly quickly (well, quickly for me, it’s all relative, right?) that happiness doesn’t come in a project, happiness has to come from doing, being, happiness has to flow naturally, happiness cannot be forced. But I had some fun, hope you do too.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/03/dont-worry-be-happy/
5. Not ashamed to have belted out the lyrics to cheesy 80’s Starship classic,
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now with Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins.
I accept and embrace my cheesy side, it helps me write,
helps me keep smiling, laughing, despite,
well, so much, including Fibromyalgia: https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/08/08/fibromyalgia-is-a-four-letter-word/
SNL, Trainwreck, etc., my comcrush it still growing. Still not sure about Angry Birds though, Hitchcock flashbacks and all.
Waitress is certainly a fitting, quirky little Mother’s Day film. It reminded me of many things, such as but not limited to: Nathan Fillion – Castle, One Life To Life, Halo, Buffy https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/29/buffy-the-vampire-slayer/ Firefly https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/10/24/firefly
is as adoradorkable as the movie itself.
Also, Keri Russell – The Americans, Felicity, Austenland https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/12/29/austenland/ is an under-rated actress. I’m having a craving for Quiche (that counts as pie, right?). Watching Andy Griffith I wish he’d been on The Walking Dead as like, Rick Grimes’ Grandpa – he could’ve just charmed the zombies, talked some Matlock sense into them. I’d now settle for The Christopher Walken Dead.
Life is pie (or pi, if you’re mathematically inclined). You don’t have to like every variety, you don’t even have to know every variety, in fact, new varieties are being made all the time…but some of it is so awesome, light, and flaky, it makes you want to take bite after bite, searching for hidden delights.
This Mother’s Day maybe I’ll plant a tree, even if I’ll never sit in the shade of that tree, someone, someday will.
https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/05/09/happy-mothers-day-i-just-ate-your-gift/
So if this world runs out of Mothers (noooo!), or bloggers (unlikely), we’ll still have each other, nothing’s gonna stop us, nothing’s gonna stop us now, although we might get distracted, by chocolate…or something.
yadadarcyyada 