Apologies to anyone who received 24 RSS updates to the same post yesterday. Technical difficulties.
And if you received updates to any old posts today, apologies again. I am freaked out by Mamazilla’s report that some random creep had favorited photos of Paloma, so I’m taking a cue from other bloggers. I deleted a bunch of pictures of the twins from past posts and left just a few innocuous ones.
This is disappointing — I’m sure more for me than anyone else — as part of this blog is for the kids. (You know, the ones where I don’t curse out strangers and such. …Okay, okay — it’s more for me so I can vent.) Luckily, we document Bean and Buddy-centric stories in private online locations that don’t have my ka-ka all over them because, you know, it’s all about them anyway.
I opened a private flickr account so that I can still post pictures for family and friends. We have been coveting Sarah’s Nikon so we finally went out and got one. I have a long way to go before I am anywhere near Sarah’s caliber. (Okay, a long, long way.) But this camera is amazing. If anyone wants a flickr invite, send me your email address and I’ll send you one. But I have to know you. And when I say I have to know you, I mean I’ve probably never met you before in person, but I know where your blog lives and I probably know what you did last summer too.
Speaking of Sarah, we saw her and Ted and gorgeous Cadence at Koreanfest last weekend. As she said, the food was meh. But it was fun watching the kids chase each other around. (Btw Sarah, thank you for the grocery store rec. I took the kids for lunch the other day and it was fabulous and SO CHEAP!)
::::
All of this blog privacy talk has made me wonder a lot. More so than my brain can handle, because I have conversations with myself in my head until I am confused. I’m going through a bit of blog-xistentialism. I haven’t been this confused about existence since I had to examine L’Étranger in a high school French class and I haphazardly scribbled the word l’existentialism in my blue book throughout my scrambled analysis. (I was proud that I spelled it correctly though.)
I’m reconsidering adding the ads, because while I was thinking about it, I started focusing on stats and numbers and page views, and then I realized what I was doing and who the hell should care about what I have to write, except myself? (See how profound I am getting here?) I’m not a writer; I just play one on the Internet. I don’t have aspirations to be one professionally — I’ll leave that to the real writers, while I treasure the freedom of having a mediocre blog through which I’ve met some amazing people. Plus, I can’t keep up with those pop blogs. It gives me a headache to think about even trying. And trying defeats the purpose of this blog for me.
Plus, I’m not crajee about the thousands of sidebar badges and stuff that seem to come with them. They are blog bumper stickers to me. And I’m not sure, but are they supposed to raise your traffic? Because if so, I would presumably defeat any marketing strategies by not adding them.
Clearly, I judge no one who does have ads and admire anyone who can make money off it. (Actually, it’s admiration-veiled jealousy.) But I myself was taking a dip in the wrong direction. I am weak like that. Like if I lived on Middle-earth, I would so be killing Frodo for that ring right now.
Plus, have I ever mentioned how lazy I am?
Maybe if I get to a point where I just don’t care as much about it and can control my Gollum-like tendencies, I’ll revisit it. For now, it’s on the back burner.
However, I will be moving this site in the future. And I may still be J.Lo-ing and BlogWhoring it up in other areas (i.e. professional areas). But for now, I’ll be leaving halfmama alone.
Random thought: my life would be much simpler if people didn’t link to things in their posts anymore. If they do, they should all lead to this: The End of the Internet. That would just help me and my productivity so.
:::
In other news, I got that freelance job. Woot woot! I’m psyched about the project. On top of that, we found a wonderful, affordable school for the kids; one that will also preserve some of my sanity. I am really excited about this school and am hoping that the kids love it.
My glass today is half-full. Our MA house is still sitting, but life is good. I am feeling really really lucky right now. I’ve had a great week traipsing the kids around the city and taking a zillion blurry pictures of them with this camera that I don’t know how to use.
On top of that, I think I just managed to indirectly associate myself with Albert Camus. Sweet.
Have a great weekend, peeps.
10 Comments
So sorry you had a creep picking your pictures. Wonder if it was a fluke? But I totally understand. Maybe you could password protect them, so that they are only available to the select few?
I understand the rationale for not putting up pictures. That said, I think kids are in more real danger from the people in their lives (teachers, people at church, etc.) than from random strangers on the Internet. My worry is that seeing all those pictures of myself will turn my daughter into a diva.
I hear you on the ads, too. After I put up ads, I went through a brief period of worrying about stats, and then I thought, “Screw it.” So I probably won’t make any money, but even a little is more than I have now. For something I would do anyway. I don’t like the buttons either. It makes everything look too cluttered.
Oops, meant “herself”.
Congrats on the job and on finding a good school for your “babies”.
I put some Amazon links on my page, but I haven’t checked the account in a long time. Hmmm. . .wonder if I made any money.
mmmm hm.
(damn, I was going to leave it at that, but I’m too yappy)
does that mean that I can’t call you a blog whore any more?
I have a private site for max too…and yes please I’d like to be able to see b squared.
congrats on the freelance gig. way cool.
i was going to bed a few weeks back with thoughts of privacy vs. public blog swirling in my head. seriously, creepy people suck.
killing Frodo made me laugh.
since you’re so lucky, ya gotta enter my contest, halfmama!
however, i am VERY jealous that you got a new fancy camera and a spankin’ new job.
not bad for someone who “plays” a writer on the internet… *cough* ringer *cough* 
and where the heck was koreanfest?! how could i miss that?!
Isn’t so sad that the creeps ruin it for everyone, I’ll miss the photos of Bean and Buddy, they are so adorable.
Congratulations on the job and the school for the kids, the planets are aligning, I’ll send good thoughts that your house sells.
aargh. i couldn’t find the momzilla(?) post but am now sufficiently freaked and really getting motivated to go private. thing is, without pics of my agpie, my blog would be BORING. so. maybe i should retire and the bean in my belly will never know fame.
and i want access. cuz those kids are so cute.
Hi HM –
I hear ya, sister. I often wonder why I post such personal shit on my blog, as well as pictures of my daughter - when gawd only knows who’s reading/lurking. Your post almost inspires me to take down my flickr badge, but damn - I had just put it up again after a brief hiatus (from a fit of paranoia!). The Internet is like the wild west… totally unpredictable and a little bit scary.
Twizzle
P.S. Thank you for your kind words on my last blog post.