blogging
You are viewing stuff tagged with blogging.
You are viewing stuff tagged with blogging.
There is so much I have experienced but haven’t written down since I last posted here. Let’s get to it.
Ess had four shots (one in each limb) and we confirmed at her regularly scheduled doctor visit that she is a healthy young lady.
She took her first step on September 12, but still prefers crawling. She loves the letter “B” and when we change her she finds the two big “B”s on the wall of her room (they spell BABY) and says “buh.” She finds our belly buttons. She honks my nose and I say “hoooonk” like a fog horn. Then she honks her own. She knows “moon” and says “mooOOon” with the ‘n’ on the end dropped to near silence. She’s getting so much better at sitting in her high chair at meals and eating with us. She saw the beginning of the very rare super moon total solar eclipse! The next one will be when she is 19 years old. 19! I can’t even imagine. Ess still loves planes: she never misses the chance to search for and point at one when she hears it in the sky. As such, when she and Mykala came to visit me over lunch at Eagan today, she marveled at the veritable stream of airplanes lifting off from MSP into the air over our blanket in the park. She dances. She hugs the cat and rests her head on him, delighted to catch him before he trots off.
I don’t have really many screenshots, mock-ups, etc. at all of what this website has looked like through the years. I do have a 9-year-old desktop computer that probably still contains those things; perhaps I will compile them sometime. Anyhow, this lack of documentation is somewhat ironic, because I run tumbledry to write about my life. Apparently, writing about myself is enough navel gazing for one place; adding another layer by contemplating the tool I’ve written for contemplation would be quite narcissistic, wouldn’t it? All that said, here’s a screenshot of how tumbledry looked not too long ago:
It’s been a long time since I posted something on Facebook that wasn’t conceived and composed to produce a particular effect in the audience reading it. I no longer feel free enough to celebrate something (anything), express disgust, or just be myself in words and pictures. I’m constantly measuring and guessing about how my thoughts will be received. As a result, I’m more concerned with the reaction to my message and how people will judge me than I am with the actual message. That’s a bad sign: I can no longer be myself.
I last wrote about Derek Miller almost 4 years ago, remarking on his engaging writing and courageousness in facing stage 4 cancer. Yesterday, he died. Suddenly, that is his last post, put online by his family, in stark black and white.
The longest tennis match IN HISTORY is currently tied, 59 games all. Some comments from the Hacker News thread on the topic highlighted the hilarious commentary from the liveblog at the BBC, covering the match:
When John Gruber linked my piece on unscientific laptop repair numbers just before Thanksgiving, traffic at tumbledry jumped significantly. It was fun to finally, truly test my homebrew website code (when Gruber links a site, the traffic tends to crash the site of interest) — I’m happy that the code I wrote can survive a decently large torrent of traffic. How large? Year over year on November 24, traffic here was up 30,000%.
The return of Dean Allen’s blog, Textism, has been heralded by some folks as a big deal. I loved the clean aesthetic on my first visit to his newly reopened site, but it took a little while for the quality of his writing to sink in. Case in point: one of the items from a recent list-styled entry entitled “My father is visiting,” reads:
I’ve always approached blogging from a rather pragmatic stance, complete with low expectations, no thoughts of a cult-like following, and no deluded visions of grandeur. For these reasons, I don’t usually link my blog, I’ve pulled it out of as many search engines as possible, it’s not listed on my Facebook profile, and I seldom bring it up in conversation. The whole idea is one of website as a hidden gem. I’d like the people who visit to only do so because (however limited in scope), they find a small nugget of value in reading my rantings/ravings. The reality is harsh, but generally goes thus: nobody cares what I had for lunch, they probably don’t think I’m funny, they aren’t interested in the things I link, and my photographs don’t speak to them. On the contrary, those who have a modicum of interest in what I’m doing here, I welcome you with open arms and an appreciation for every speck of feedback and comments you offer.
It is difficult to describe to you the awesomeness that is encompassed by a series of posts over at The Sneeze blog: the intrepid author goes on a hilarious journey of his father’s artistic endeavors. From the introduction, you know it’s going to be good:
Welcome to Dooce, everything I wish tumbledry to be - Her most recent post:
The only thing missing was a Google map of our house and a red pin sticking straight up out of Jon’s skull to signal HERE, HERE, HERE …
Derek K. Miller and cancer - Stunningly honest and straightforward blogging from Derek Miller, a 38 year old family man with stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer. When I read his writing, it puts my life, with it’s myriad “problems” and “difficulties” in sharp perspective. Thinking about what he’s going through, it makes me feel very sad.
The stereotypical derisive criticism of a blog is that it is a place where the author simply posts pictures of their cat and rambles about meaningless things. Given my propensity to do the latter, combined with the fact that I do not own an animal, I still think I could pay homage to this stereotype by posting a picture of Mykala’s (possibly hypnotized) cat, and Mykala herself.
One of the best blog posts of all time - It starts like a made up story, but continues with all the humor and twists only real life can provide.
Love Can Take It - The lovely Mykala blogs about her college life. You’ll come for the humor and stay for the snappy writing that powers it.
Plus, she’s my girlfriend so … enjoy the website already!