Tag: ‘blogging’
November 2, 2012 at 9:21 pm
Photo by Leo Reynolds / by BY-NC-SA 2.0
Whew! I made it! Thirty-one days and thirty-one posts composed of over 14,000 words. They account for 27% of all the entries on JenFul so far. It was a lot of work. I stared at many blank Word documents. I spent a lot of time going through my big list of blog ideas thinking, No. Nope. Not that either. That one will take too long. I don’t want to spend time thinking that one through. I have no idea what that one even means. When I did pick a topic I would type and then hammer the backspace key into oblivion. Writing is hard, even when you know what you want to say, even harder when you don’t. I often wanted to abandon an entry, but would finish it off because I had to meet that damn daily deadline.
Despite all that, or maybe because of it, the experience left me feeling really fulfilled. After I’ve been writing for a few hours, I get a happy, feel-good buzz in [...]
October 22, 2012 at 7:35 am
Photo by Nathan Harper / by NC-ND 2.0 CC
I’ve gotten thousands of nice comments on my blog entries over the years, but it’s the mean comments that I remember best. Fortunately I don’t get many nasty comments, but when I do they get stuck to my memory with super glue, whereas the nice comments are attached like Post-It notes, easy to peel off and forget. I tend to be a positive person who focuses on the good things in life, so I’ve often wondered why the negative thoughts are the ones that get imprinted so deeply. I’d prefer to erase them like an Etch-a-Sketch, but shaking my head back and forth like that only gives me whiplash.
I’ve got a hunch about why this happens. It has less to do with my attitude and more to do with biochemistry. Research has shown that you make more vivid memories when you are emotionally aroused, and reading an unexpectedly mean comment definitely arouses my emotions. The only time a good comment has created that same passionate response in [...]
June 14, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Photo by Lady Madonna / by NCND 2.0 CC
For my Design 101 session at FitBloggin’ last month I explained how to find images for your blog posts without stealing. This is important to prevent your ass from being sued for copyright infringement. Granted, most people who steal images don’t get sued, but it’s always a possibility. I’d recommend that you respect copyright laws unless you rent server space in Sweden or like to live life on the edge in a sort of dorky way. Sure, stealing is convenient, free and easy, but finding images that are legal to use can be convenient, free and easy too.
I like to include images in my posts because they draw readers in and break up otherwise intimidating blocks of text in really long posts. The best place to find images is on Flickr, a popular file sharing service that allows people to post their photos under Creative Commons licenses. According to the Creative Commons site:
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure [...]
May 21, 2011 at 7:00 am
So, I was up far too late at FitBloggin’ last night (this morning?) with Shauna, and in a bit of madness I coded something in two hours. It was like how Facebook began in that movie The Social Network, only we won’t be getting rich and this project won’t tear our friendship apart (I hope).
Behold, the Weight-Loss Blog Title Generator!
(No, we weren’t drunk. Yes, I swear.)
