jmgoyder

wings and things

Sep 7

Blanxiety

by jmgoyder

Every now and then I blog about blogging. I do this when I am blanxious – that’s a word that means ‘anxious about blogging’.

I know for sure that I am not the only blanxious person in the world and that, if I were, I would contact the Guiness Book of Records and make a lot of money.

Instead, I have decided to contact the English Dictionary people to tell them I have invented a new word to describe blog-blipping bona fides (‘bona fide’ comes from the Latin and, roughly translated, means ‘in good faith’.)

Blanxiety is a condition that may (or may not) include the following symptoms:

  • inability to keep up with reading all of the blogs you subscribe to, then unsubscribe to, then resubscribe to;
  • inability to respond to all of the comments even though you are usually very polite;
  • inability to figure out a lot of blogging widgetty stuff you should have figured out when you first started your blog;
  • inability to overcome the guilt of deleting, ignoring, saving, forgetting the words of blog friends who you care about; and
  • inability to eat breakfast before you check your blogdom.

This blanxiety condition has several more symptoms but it is beyond the scope of this post to outline all of them so ….

I guess this is my way of apologizing for … I’m not sure what!

Note to non-bloggers: keep your innocence!

blogging Friendship

52 Comments »
Sep 6

Bulldog

by jmgoyder

One of my blog friends has the interesting nickname of ‘bulldog’. You can find his blog here:

http://visitstothepark.wordpress.com/

Recently, he sent me a special photograph and I am now sharing it here because it reminds me of how an argument can clear the air.

Thanks bulldog!

blogging Friendship Wings

24 Comments »
Aug 15

This and that

by jmgoyder

Yesterday the ute (truck) died and today it had to be towed into town to a place where they specialize in vehicle resuscitation.

Before Ming had his spinal operation he liked dancing on the roof. He is not allowed to do this anymore.

Today’s photo journey with Ants may not happen until late, maybe even tomorrow, because we have to wait to hear from the vehicle resuscitation people first. I spoke to Anthony on the phone and he was okay about this except for a new melancholic voice thing he has recently acquired.

I have acquired a new pragmatic voice thing and told him to stuff it up his jumper (it’s okay, we both laughed).

The pest control people are coming tomorrow morning to inspect our white ant (termite) problem and eradicate it and then charge us a small fortune that I will pay happily but begrudgingly. I did ask them if they could do it for free but they said no.

We now have more wild rabbits here that I have even seen – whole families of rabbits EVERYWHERE. Yes, they are cute, but they are also digging up the foundations of all of the buildings and I have noticed that the house is tilting a bit (kidding!) I am once again considering the gun option.

Thanks to Tootlepedal’s blog, I have become more interested in flowers and am planning my sunflower garden. I figure if I plant zillions then the birds can have some and we can have some. I am very excited about this idea but haven’t put it into action yet.

Ming has begun volunteering one morning a week at Djidi djidi Aboriginal school and he loves it. http://www.deewr.gov.au/Indigenous/Schooling/Documents/CaseStudyDjidiDjidiAboriginalSchool.pdf

I am going to buy some hedgeclippers tomorrow to prune the roses before my gardening friend comes over on Friday because I want to impress her.

The new chooks are laying copious amounts of eggs and so is Tapper, our female duck, so I am trying new egg recipes (in my mind I mean – I haven’t done them yet).

Ming has written two beautiful songs for his Certificate 4 in music. He is also trying to grow a beard.

The beautiful people at the university’s computer department have put all of my writings onto a thumb drive for me and tomorrow I get my final pay check.

There seems to be some reluctance from the nursing lodge to employ me and I am still waiting for this verdict.

I found four beautiful things to post to Nia who gave me the beautiful cushion/pillow cushions.

Ming wants to be a dairy farmer like Anthony and I am thrilled. He works for our neighbours on a part-time basis and loves it!

The little girl who has had nearly two years of battling cancer is home again, thank God.

Our friend who was in the car accident three weeks ago is gradually recovering, thank God.

I am learning, via the blogs I read, that every single moment is a gift.

Family Friendship

37 Comments »
Jul 5

Blogantics!

by jmgoyder

The notification of other people’s blog posts is still not working (I only know this because I am subscribed to my own so I usually get a notification when I write a post and this isn’t happening). Having unsubscribed from all blogs has given me a bit of much-needed perspective in terms of time management, so that’s good. I thought, for the time being, I would simply suss out latest posts from those people with whom there is a mutual support thing going on. This will keep me out of mischief!

blogging Friendship

21 Comments »
May 19

Wrong way. Go back.

by jmgoyder

In Western Australia we have big signs wherever roadworks are being done in case people go the wrong way. This can be useful, but it can also be a bit confusing.

It’s a little bit like that with blogging because you get really curious to go down a certain blog path, you like what you are reading/seeing, but you are also uncertain of where exactly you are and sometimes the historical context of where you are, in that person’s blog, takes quite a bit of time, quite a bit of deciphering.

With my own blog, Wings and things, it’s obviously the same experience for new readers or followers because, of course, the latest post is always the most recent and, unless people  have time to go back, they might not ‘get it’ that there are two different-but-same stories running parallel. The Love story is about the past but everything else is about the present.

As many of you already know, my husband has chronic Parkinson’s disease and terminal prostate cancer and is now in a nursing lodge close by. Our 18-year-old son recently had major spinal surgery. And me – I love birds!

I can’t keep up with the many blogs I am interested in, no matter how hard I try, but one thing I like to do is to go back and read the very beginnings of those blogs which is what I hope people will do with mine. It’s not that there is a wrong or a right way necessarily, but going back can be fantastic!

Oh yeah, and if you go back, you will find that I don’t usually do 4 posts in the day. I cheated today with the pics – hehe!

blogging Family Friendship LOVE STORY Wings

14 Comments »
May 10

An ode to blogging

by jmgoyder

Unsubscribing from so many blogs

Was more than just a little slog

But it got me out of a substantial bog

Thank God

And now I look at an empty inbox

That flickers with the eyes of a fox

That mocks me like a jack-in-the-box

Odd socks

What to do with all this time?

I had no idea I was in such a bind

I must have been completely blind

In kind

Caring has its penalties

It sometimes obscures the beautiful trees

And all those blogs – they spoke to me

To me

So now I start all over again

Subscribing to a chosen ten

And visiting all the rest of them

There’s always a when

It got too hard, this bloggingdom

It started to be a large kingdom

But a place where I always found wingdom

And wisdom

So I decided to taper it off

Begin again and save the cost

Of too many minutes of my time lost

Become my own boss

I will visit  my blogroll friends when I can

Instead of losing who I am

Instead of being this little lamb

Who doesn’t know he can’t

Do everything

blogging Friendship

50 Comments »
May 9

Blogomania!

by jmgoyder

I have now unsubscribed from all blogs, including non-wordpress blogs, to give myself a break, because I was spending more time reading than writing (a common blogging dilemma). So then, I began to copy/paste your urls into a blogroll which can now be seen on the right hand side of my posts. I haven’t done everyone’s because I had to be a bit ruthless in unsubscribing from relatively inactive blogs, some gardening blogs and some photography blogs (the latter because I am hopeless at gardening and my photographic abilities are so-far pretty limited).

I have also decided to break my own rule of one post per day if I feel like it (as in this second post for the day). Like Jane said, write when you feel like it, so I will and I certainly don’t want to write another blog post about blogging – it seems too much like a dog chasing its tail!

The blogroll I’ve begun is a thrill because not only can you guys see other fantastic blogs, but I can delve in whenever I please instead of gettingall the emails. Oh dear, I hope I have done the right thing!

blogging

34 Comments »
May 9

Starting again!

by jmgoyder

I have always been a bit recklessly all-or-nothing so, in response to the many wonderful  advisory comments on my last floundery post about not being able to keep up with other people’s blogs, I have decided to unsubscribe from all 170ish and begin again.

This seems like a terrible thing to do, and very selfish, but this way I will claim the two or more hours per day I was spending on reading and commenting on others’ blogs, but I will still be able to access those blogs when I can because I have all of the links recorded. I will keep writing a daily post but I anticipate a drop in followers and fair enough.

Ah, my migraine has miraculously disappeared!

blogging

41 Comments »
Mar 21

WordPressing problems

by jmgoyder

I don’t really want to a blog about blogging, when I want to blog about other stuff, however there are certain things about the way WordPress works which may need attention. I’m not complaining, just responding to the problems I feel need to be ‘fixed’. I will try to outline my suggestions as entertainingly as possible.

  • A relative just emailed me, distressed because she thought one of the posts I reblogged (and I don’t do this often) was me talking, not the original blogger, so she thought I was going to get a divorce! This misunderstanding is because the reblogger’s comment (mine) came at the end, rather than at the beginning, of the reblogged post (the brilliant writer who is not me!)
  • Along the same lines, everything is backwards in time; i.e you have to read your comments backwards and your ‘followers’ have to read your posts backwards. So, every time you subscribe to a blog, or vice versa, it’s a bit difficult to get to the beginning first and read through subsequent posts in an orderly fashion (you know, February to March, rather than March to February).
  • I find the term ‘follower’ a little strange because, for me (yes it’s just me and probably everyone will disagree) connotes with either  ‘disciple’ or ‘stalker’.
  • Also, when someone ‘likes’ my post, I am also told by WordPress that they think it is “awesome” (and again, vice versa). Okay, I quite like my cute little nose but I don’t think it’s awesome.

I hope this doesn’t sound too cynical or rebellious; WordPress is awesome!

I’m ducking for cover now – hehe!

blogging Uncategorized

30 Comments »
Mar 12

‘blogetiquette’

by jmgoyder

Blogging about blogging is, yes, a little strange perhaps, however, as a relative newcomer to this form of communication and writing, I have decided to coin the term ‘blogetiquette’ because I think it needs to be one word – a neologism if you like! (I’m hoping that the annual dictionary re-writers will pick this up and make me famous!)

So, the blogetiquette rules I’ve decided on for myself include:

  • have respect for the parents of the blog (in my case, wordpress.com)
  • only subscribe to other blogs if you are genuinely interested (not because you want them to subscribe to yours)
  • read all of the posts written by your fellow bloggers before publishing your own
  • reply, or at least, acknowledge all comments made to you on your blog – again, before you publish your own
  • get permission before you reblog someone else’s post (this is only because reblogging has recently become fraught)
  • limit yourself to less than 5 posts per day or you might annoy people with the email build-up (the most I do is 4 and that’s not often because I’ve had some negative feedback about overposting!)
  • be grateful for any awards or nominations you receive (whether you accept them or not)
  • respect your readers and subscribers
  • never hit the ‘like’ button unless you really do like the post
  • always be honest in your own posts
  • never criticise other people’s posts

I’m sure I could think of more but those are the ones I usually adhere to now that I have made the transition from novice to fledgling.

Speaking of fledglings, these two peacocks have nearly grown their ‘King’ feathers …

… whereas poor old King is still mourning the loss of his own (don’t worry, he’ll grow them back soon!)

Of all the birds who live here, it is the peacocks and peahens who have the best etiquette skills in terms of their respect for each other and for us too. When they take bread from my hand, instead of nearly swallowing my arm (as the geese do), they make a soft clicky noise as if they are saying ‘thank you’.

They have birdetiquette down to a much finer art than we will ever get blogetiquette!

If you have any blogetiquette tips, please share them….

Politely yours

Julie

Animal Family Wings

46 Comments »
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