I started blogging because people kept telling me I should. All my friends. My husband. My family. I’ve always been a writer, professionally and personally. I’d been sick a lot and for a very long time. A decade of being on the edge of dying is a lot of dying time and I was finally beginning to be a person again. The siege was lifting.
Facebook never did it for me. I never liked the format, the scattershot nature of posting. I have so many connections that aren’t friends, just people with whom I played various games. Even my circle of “friends” wasn’t a natural audience.
I had been following a WordPress blog for some months, ATMTX PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG. Every time I wanted to comment, I had to go through an annoying identification process unless I registered. One day, I registered. I picked a name for a mythical blog I might want to write. I chose Serendipitybecause I’m a serendipitous kind of gal. I had absolutely no intention of doing anything with it, but it made following other peoples’ blogs and commenting easier.
That was January 2012. In February, I put up an “About Me” page and posted a photograph because as an enthusiastic amateur, I have a great many pictures. Thousands, though many are not good enough to post anywhere but a family album. Still, there were some I thought someone besides my husband might enjoy. It was more than a month before I posted anything else. In March, I posted once, maybe twice. In April, not at all. In May, I found myself posting a couple of times a week. It was like writing letters. I wrote about whatever was on my mind or had caught my interest in the news. The presidential campaign was heating up, though it wasn’t red-hot yet.
Summer was slow. Vacation kept me away a lot. I posted, but it wasn’t particularly interesting or exciting material and my numbers reflected the ho-hum quality of the work.
And then, it rolled into August. Political hell broke loose. America became engulfed in a civil war of words on the Internet. I jumped in too. My numbers soared overnight. When Sandy, the Monster Storm, hit in September, it gave me plenty to write about. October was all-out class warfare. November. Election and aftermath. A tsunami of opinion, violence. Craziness everywhere. It was my biggest month, bringing in numbers I haven’t matched yet.
By then, I was posting daily, more than once a day. I was reblogging other people’s work. I had found friends and colleagues on the Internet. We used each other as sounding boards and still do. The sense of community was not theoretical. I was part of it and I loved it.
The months have rolled on. I still have no goals. The question keeps coming up and I really think about it, but no matter how long and hard I ponder the question, I can’t find a reason better than my original non-goals. I love to write. I have a lot of opinions. And blogging gives me my own space to post photographs where people other than my immediate family can see them.
I’ve achieved much more than I ever imagined because I never imagined anything at all. I’ve gotten close to 73,000 hits and although I’ve never been Freshly Pressed, apparently there are people who think I’m interesting enough to follow. I’ve made a difference to a few lives.
To know I’ve actually made a difference is a great feeling. Addictive.
I have a focus for my time, a way to use the words roiling around in my head. In my working years, I always wrote for a defined goal and was paid for it. Now, at last, I can write about anything. I have no boss, no word limit, no corporate guidelines. Sadly, I don’t get the paycheck, but I have freedom. That’s worth a lot. And I’ve got a reason gear up, grab my cameras and go take pictures.
I’ve gotten much more than I ever imagined or expected.
Goals? What more could I need or want? Oh, I know. Send money? Please?
A good idea is like a dream. Perhaps it is a dream, in waking form. It comes misty and bright, beautiful, floating in your mind. Catch it before it flies away because it may fade to a vague memory in mere minutes.
I don’t mean you need to fully realize every concept the moment it flashes across your consciousness. But do write it down immediately. Jot it on a piece of paper, as a note in your telephone or computer. Write it somewhere, at least the outline and a few words about your vision. Ideas, flashes and thoughts are ephemeral. They fly away as life intrudes on your consciousness, as reality steals your focus and memories.
The idea you were sure you couldn’t forget can vanish as fast as morning mist. Catch it before it gets away!
No matter how many ways you slice and dice it, there is always some compromise between blogging for oneself and designing posts to attract a bigger audience. There’s little reason to blog if no one else is enjoying your work. I’m suspicious of people who say they don’t care whether or not anyone visits their site. If that were true, why bother? Why not keep a diary? Much of the joy of blogging is being part of a community, of forming relationships all over the world.
The compromise? I try not to get blinded by my own enthusiasms and remain mindful that some things I love aren’t interesting to most other people. My passion for medieval history and religious philosophy is not everybody’s cup of tea. Even my most ardent fan — my husband — will glaze over when I stay over long in one of these areas. So, when I post this material, I don’t expect to draw a huge audience. I’ve been occasionally surprised when such a post is well-received. Then again, I’m often not so pleasantly surprised when a post I think will have great appeal goes uncommented and unnoticed.
There’s no logical explanation why one post hits big and another does not find an audience. I have run the same posts multiple times and gotten very different results each time though I haven’t changed anything. Luck and timing count too. That’s the wild card.
For the most part, I do what pleases me. I know writing on “hot” topics can produce bigger numbers, but I will only get involved in current trends if it genuinely interests me. Overall, my strategic lack of strategy has worked out pretty well. I get decent numbers, have a loyal following, have formed good relationships with other bloggers and as a reward, genuinely enjoy what I’m doing. If I only wrote to get “the popular vote,” it would be like having an unpaid job. On the other hand, knowing that there are people out there who really like my stuff is satisfying and makes the effort worth it. Without the satisfaction of sometimes making a difference, I’d quit.
It is a balancing act. I won’t ignore the topic or event that appears to be on everyone’s mind, but I will not automatically write about the current hot topic just because it’s hot. I try to avoid mindless partisanship and to keep an open mind. Easier said than done. I could be more popular if I worked at it, but the place I am is good. I believe it will get better. I’m not tied to a boss or an editorial policy.
This is my fifth Versatile Blogger award. It definitely grants me “award-winning site” status and actually, as one of the awards that is highly appropriate to my site — I’m nothing if not versatile — makes me feel appreciated. Special even. I realize I will never be everyone’s favorite cuppa tea, but there are a few deranged people out there that do seem to like me. Perhaps because they are equally deranged?
I think one has to be a bit mad to persist at the whole blogging thing. We don’t make money and whatever fame and glory we garner is fleeting and limited to a community of other crazy people who do the same thing. I could say we each do it for our own reasons, but that’s not entirely true. We do what we do in our way, each of us focused on what most interests us … or, as do Mike and I, focus on whatever has grabbed our attention now.
But that’s what we do, not why we do it. It certainly doesn’t explain why we continue to work at it when we are sick, tired and would just as soon go shopping. What drives all of us is a kind of internal prod. It makes us return to the keyboard, the camera, both, or whatever. We do what we do because we need to do it. Despite rumors to the contrary, ambition isn’t a big prod in the blogging world. Big numbers are a bit of validation and may indicate you’ve become a moderately well-known blogger … but really, we are equal in this world.
Whether we have 10 followers or thousands, our fame — notoriety? — whatever you want to call it, is ephemeral. If we stop publishing, we will be swallowed up by the cyberworld with the speed of a high-speed connection. Maybe some particularly close friends will remember us but as for the rest of the world? We will be no more remembered by the bigger world than is a pebble thrown into a pond once the ripples have disappeared. It’s a big world and ripples don’t remain long to trouble the surface of the pool.
If you have never visited Mike site, I urge you to visit. Despite the title of his site, it’s not all about movies. He talks about movies and does excellent reviews, but he also talks as much about books, life, and the meaning of everything. Setting titles aside, he is passionately eclectic, something to which I fully relate.
These awards are a great way to learn about new blogs and their writers. Each award is set up to allow the reader to learn more about the guy or gal who posts and, serves to drive “traffic” to that site. It helps turn a bunch of miscellaneous writers, photographers, movie lovers, pundits and Sunday philosophers into something like a cyber community. It makes a difference. Many of us count on our internet community for feedback and a hook to a larger world that we can access on our own.
Award rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Include a link to their blog.
3. Name the bloggers to whom you would like to pass the award and send them a link to tell them you’ve selected them.
4. Finally, tell the person who nominated you seven things about yourself.
Number’s one and two have been accomplished. I cross-reference Mike’s site on a daily basis. You can always find him in my blog roll, recent “likes” list, and frequent reblogs of his fine postings.
Nominees:
Now, for a few some nominees: Sharla at Catnip of Life. Sharla, I love you. I don’t expect you do deal with this until your life is a little less fraught. Just wanted to remind you that you are very far from forgotten! Sharla is the epitome of eclectic and versatile, manages to be an upbeat and wonderfully supportive friend to so many people. If you need a pep talk, drop by her site. There’s always something positive and encouraging.
My Beautiful Things, a woman who find beauty everywhere and in everything. In a world where so many people seem to be grumpy and discontented all the time, it’s a real pleasure to know someone who is exactly the opposite! Go and visit … and be inspired!
Vastly Curious is the perfect versatile blogger. She writes about every that interests her and her interests are many and varied. Her photography is top drawer and she writes beautiful. If you have been to visit, please do. Whatever interests you, she’s got it on her site!
I have gifted pretty much everyone else with at least one award recently, so I’m, going to quit while I’m ahead. I’ve got a lot of awards in my back pocket. If I accidentally missed you, if you let me know, I will instantly rectify the problem. I’m not sure how many awards I can heap on friends before I start being the (virtually) annoying friend who keeps dropping in around dinner time.
I can gift anyone with almost anything at any time, so beware! I’ve got YOU in my crosshairs!
And About Me:
I have a collection of hard plastic and composition dolls of the 1930 through 1950s. Although I’ve stopped adding more dolls, I still have a few hundred of them and their eyes follow me where I do.
ONE:
I used to collect very antique Chinese porcelain. I have a Tang horse (real, not reproduction), a Han pot, and many vases.
TWO:
Despite their antiquity, they look great with daffodils or roses. The Chinese really knew a thing or two about pottery and glazes.
THREE:
We have too many books, but we’ve read all of them.
FOUR:
We have too many movies, but we’ve seen all of them (and can do dialogue with most of them).
FIVE:
We have too many dogs, but we adore them and couldn’t live without them.
SIX:
My hair turned white over night when I was ill, just like in bad novels.
SEVEN:
The only time I’m not reading, writing, processing photographs or editing text, I’m at the doctor, eating, cooking or sleeping. It seems I don’t have a very eclectic life, just taste
I've been very kindly nominated for the 'epically awesome award of epic awesomness' by Kim over at Tranquil Dreams, so a big thank you to her :D check out her blog if you haven't already, you won't regret it :D Also a nomination from Meera Darji, who also has a brilliant blog that you should definitely have a look at :D…
I've been many things, but Epically Awesome is BIG and well, AWESOME :-) I promise to respond in full soon as possible. My other half and I have not been feeling well and we've been very low energy ... which for me makes it difficult to be prolifically creative. As soon as I perk up even a little bit, I shall put my energy into saying a proper thank you to Natasha and the other folks who have honored me. Meanwhile, an itsy-bitsy reblog seems appropriate. Thank you Natasha. You are young, but you are wise, Grasshopper.
Metaphorically strolling through the recent entries on the Freshly Pressed page, I noticed a disturbing trend. Some of these recent winners of that coveted page placement aren't responding to their comments. They are responding to a few, but not many.
When I got Freshly Pressed last year, I tried my damnedest to answer every single person who commented. I would have continued doing so if I hadn't had a…
I try hard to answer every comment, at least to acknowledge that I've received it. It's courtesy and it's also the only way to have a dialogue with ones readers and get to know them (and vice versa). I think it matters. Others obviously don't agree. Because I know that the response rate to my comments is no better than 50% across the board.
A huge thank you goes toMike at Mikes Film Talk, who thinks more of me than I think of me. By giving me this award, he has honored me while simultaneously depriving me of someone on whom I would have liked to bestow this award. Mike certainly deserves it. He has a great site that is only partly film-centric. Mike is a lot more than a film critic. He is a literary omnivore, writing everything from personal history and fiction, to book and movie reviews. And such excellent writing it is. Please make sure to visit him. You’ll be glad you did.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the folks over at Moment Matters for originating this unique award. They’ve also created a fine logo for recipients to display on their walls. There are words and music to accompany it. I’m sorry I don’t have the music, but following are the words and they’re lovely:
Awarding the people who live in the moment, The noble who write and capture the best in life, The bold who reminded us what really mattered - Savoring the experience of quality time.
Pretty nice! As with most awards in the WordPress Blogging community, there are a few rules. Simple guidelines. Not onerous, but specific. Since this is my first encounter with this award, here they are. They are simple:
Rules:
You can reuse this post, altered to reflect your nominees and including your acceptance speech. You can reuse as much of this post as makes sense for you.
Your can write your speech or put it on video.
Winners have the privilege of awarding The Best Moment Award to chosen recipients. Your post should contain theindividuals and blogsyou are nominating.
There is no specific requirement for number of new recipients.
Inform your winners you’ve chosen them.
As a courtesy, please link back to whoever gave you the award.
Resources:
I’ve included these since they are a legacy from Mike’s post and provides guidelines if you need help:
What makes a good acceptance speech?
Gratitude. Thank the people who helped you along the way
I’m genuinely touched by this award. Touched and grateful. Receiving appreciation from ones peers is a special kind of recognition. It means more than I can easily express.
Living in the moment has become a way of life. After finally admitting I have no control over the future, I relaxed, stopped trying to push the river, and began to enjoy whatever came, even stuff I would have considered “bad news” in my misspent youth. I’m a lot happier since I stopped trying to force life to go my way. Living in the moment and going with the flow takes a whole lot less effort than fighting the current. Whatever chills and thrills come with the ride, I’m ready. Remarkably, I keep discovering it’s fun. Live and learn. I wish I’d learned a little earlier!
This moment — this exact moment in time — IS your life! This is the day you’ve been waiting for. It will never come again. Enjoy it.
I am delighted to accept The Best Moment Award originated by MomentMatters.com … another site definitely worth checking out.
I never stop being awestruck when I realize I have influenced someone in a positive way, maybe even made a difference in one or more lives in this mad, mad world. Again, thank you Mike!
Blogging has become very important to me. I have always been a writer, but until I started blogging, I never wrote about personal things. As a professional, I wrote what I was paid to write. Now, I write from my head and my heart. It has been life changing. Everything inspires me. Other bloggers — especially Mike — have influenced me in more ways than I can list. But in the end, all of life is inspiration.
To all of my friends and followers, thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to share mine. The blogging community has given me a sense of purpose, participation, comradeship and a much broader life-view than I ever had before. There’s a lot of ugly stuff going on everywhere. Scary stuff, unfair, wrong, dangerous, evil. We haven’t the power fix everything, but we have some influence as individuals and collectively. We can help each other through difficult times, rejoice with each other over triumphs (they are few enough), and maybe give something back to our human community.
Everything we share has value. Knowledge, memories, pictures that express beauty or expose evil. Stories we write, books we read and recommend. Movies we see and share. Humor that banishes sadness. It’s not just big ideas that matter. Small things resonate and change lives too. Never think the ordinary parts of life are not worth exploring. They may be the most important of all.
Anything we do to make someone feel good, help them think in a different direction, see the world in a new way, is a deed well done. By giving of ourselves, we continue to grow the chain of good will around the world. If blogging has any ultimate purpose, that’s it.
I have saved every “like” I’ve ever gotten and will continue to do so until my email explodes. I am so glad you like me . What a miracle this virtual community is to me. You touch me. I love reading your comments, love answering them. Love writing them, too because I want you to know I appreciate your work. That people follow me makes me glow in the dark. No really, it does. It saves a lot of electricity!
For all of you who I follow, each of you enriches me. Your views about the world, your pictures of it, your understanding and your humor brighten my days, keep my mind alive and make my world exciting.
Like Mike, I have felt the wings of the dark angel brush me. Life is infinitely precious with all of its perils and problems.
Thank you all for making my world a better place to live, and thank you Mike for appreciating the best of me.
The winners for the Best Moment Award are:
I have had to think hard about this one because I can’t give it back to Mike, who I would have given it to. Like Mike, I’m going to limit this to people who really actually truly have influenced me and changed me way of thinking, writing, looking at reality or unreality, as you would have it.
For Sharla at Catnip of Life – She’s having a rough patch and I know she’s not really online right now, but eventually when her life is less fraught, she’ll be back and this award, so well-deserved, will be waiting for her. With all the wretched difficulties going on in her world, she is endlessly kind, caring, and good. Deep to the bone, a good person. You don’t meet so many of them!
For Rarasaur who has a name, but I can never find it when I need it. She shares my somewhat addled and bizarre view of life, has overcome much and has much to overcome. With sense of humor intact and flags flying, she’s challenged me to match concept and vision in new ways. and I’ve been having a great deal of fun with her various blogging challenges that force me to put pictures and concepts together and make them coherent. Better yet, she makes me laugh.
To Hot Rod Cowgirl whose photo essays make me yearn for a life I’ve never had and has become something of an icon and a living hope for me … to be in the mountains surrounded by nature and horses and sunsets is a dream and it makes me glad that someone is really living it.
To Tyson at Head In a Vice. It’s not about movies, though he writes great reviews — mostly about movies I’m unlikely to watch. It’s how he brings people together. Starting with a fondness for horror movies, he has created a community of inclusion, involving all kinds of people in his projects and always having something kind to say about everyone, no matter how strange their choices or taste. He has worked hard and deserves recognition.
To everyone else, I know you and appreciate you. I’m trying to follow the leader in making this award specific to people who, as they live in their moment and in sharing them, have made their moments mine.
I apologise in advance to anyone who may feel slighted. Most of you have gotten awards from me in the past and will again in the future. This one is specific; I hope I’ve chosen well. There are a few of you to whom I don’t give awards because you don’t want them. But I appreciate you anyhow! I have many wonderful followers and I don’t like having to choose. But sometimes — and this is one of those time — that’s the way it is.
My awardees are a varied bunch, but each is great in his/her own way.
The last part of this Award process is the instruction to share this with your followers and to tweet your “success” with the hash tagged #MomentMatters. And as soon as I figure out how to do that, I will!
Congratulations to all my winners and I want you to know that you have touched me.
It is a pleasure and an honor to receive this award and I am grateful to be found worthy. Dorothy creates images and matches them with words that catch the essence of things, like starlight in a bottle. Some remarkable imagery that I urge you to explore. She is special and has a unique perspective. If you need an example, the following picture of a piece of the Sydney Opera House is a fine example of the beauty she sees.
Recognition is always gratifying and it’s lovely when an award and a milestone coincide. This one seems especially appropriate and timely. When members of the blogging community recognize one as having some sort of genuine talent, it makes up for a lot.
If prophets have no honor in their home town, bloggers don’t get no respect from family and friends. They may love us, but they know no matter how wise and witty we seem to be online, we are really the same jerks they’ve known since we were kids and probably even jerkier. Fortunately, blogging gives us a fresh start, letting us show our best face to the world. Our new friends don’t have to know about the other stuff, things we barely remember ourselves because after so many tequila shots, who remembers? It’s good to have a wider world ’cause the folks who had to haul your unconscious butt home in the back of a VW beetle will never give you an award for being versatile, inspiring, or anything else.
The Versatile Blogger Award is a favorite award because it seems more “me” than other blogging awards. I’ve never aimed to be a particular kind of blogger, never focussed on one area to the exclusion of others. Versatile and mutable would be good descriptors for me as a blogger and a person. I respond to the feelings of others as if they were my own. I react to events rather than marching to a particular drum or along a specific path. When I was younger, I could be enlisted in particular causes, but as I’ve gotten older, I try to use my energy efficiently and let life and the universe direct where my efforts will be best used. For the astrologically inclined, it’s a Pisces thing. We are tidally related to our world. As the waters ebb and flow, so do we. We do not march nor follow dogma, but can create quite a strong current when we direct our flow to a purpose.
I don’t know from day-to-day what will catch my fancy, what event, dream or thought will set my fingers flying over the keys. The relative importance of my memories and how I feel about them isn’t fixed. I feel very differently about almost everything now than I did a few years ago and will continue to change as life twists me into new shapes. I doubt 16-year-old me would recognize 66-year-old me. I’m not even sure they would like each other.
Now to the business of accepting this award. There are some rules that go with it. I bend these rules as I bend all rules. You’ll just have to deal with it. If this were the Oscars, I’d make a long, boring speech. I would thank everyone I’ve ever known until someone gave me the hook and dragged me bodily from the stage, but this isn’t the Academy Awards and I’ve always thought those speeches were stupid. I’ll just say “Thank you” and get on with it to good parts.
These are the traditional rules for The Versatile Blogger Award:
Thank the person who gave you this award.
Include a link to their blog.
Next, name the bloggers to whom you would like to pass the award and send them a link to tell them you’ve selected them.
Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself,
Since I’m not traditional, I do things a little differently. I feel I’ve told everybody just about everything they could possible want to know about me, so I tell you about my world in pictures. I so not limit myself to naming a specific number of blogs or bloggers as nominees. Not everyone wants or accepts awards and sometimes, you’ve given awards to just about everyone you know and it’s time to give it a rest for a while. Fortunately (or not?) for my community, I have a little list so after you have viewed my gallery of selected images, you may find your name listed. Some are people to whom I always give awards because I always think they deserve them. Others are recent members of my community.
Catnip/Awakenings I have intentionally omitted because she is fighting other battles right now. Sharla, I love you, and you are not forgotten. Take care of Jim and be strong. I’ll give you a dozen or so awards when you are ready to deal with them.
Friends
Love! Photo: Debbie Stone
She laughs at me!
Now the fun part. Here are the blogs I nominate for The Versatile Blogger Award. I hope when you have a moment you’ll take an opportunity to pay them a visit. These blogs have moved and inspired me each in their own way, and while I’m not always able to visit as regularly as I would like, I do appreciate you and you matter to me more than you might imagine.
Thanks to all of you and I encourage everyone who stops by here to check out these wonderful bloggers. They are creative, original voices that will make you smile, make you think and maybe, inspire you to try new things and go new places.
To anyone I left out, I am sorry. Some of you I know don’t want awards, others I’ve awarded very recently. No one is really forgotten. I’ll catch you on the next round!
With camera in hand, exploring European lands, cultures, food, and drink...mostly with a plan, but sometimes enjoying the adventure of just getting lost.
