Gratitude – this month’s R.A.O.K.A. theme. Where do I even begin?!?! I have nothing but GREAT things in my life.
I am so grateful for my Awesome Wordpress Consultant friend, Kim Woodbridge, who made my blog vision of Big Photos come to life, yay!! Thank you so so much, Kim! People — if you want someone you can absolutely trust 100% to help develop your Wordpress blog, Kim is it!! She’s been tweaking my blog for over a year now. And it’s no wonder she’s now got close to 5000 Twitter followers — she adds value to lives!!
Summer Cousins On A Beach At Sunset,2008
Speaking of photos, I am grateful that when my laptop’s power recently died, I didn’t lose any files on my hard drive!! Whoo-super-hoo!! I have experienced the heart-break of lost digital photos before, but not this time.
So so grateful, People.
(All pictures in this post are ones I thought were gone forever.)
Austin & Alyssa, (niece and nephew)2008
Yes, I know in the grand scheme, losing one’s digital photos is pretty far down on the list, but still — I’m so happily grateful I recovered them. And all the new songs I’ve been writing!!
First Time Roller Skating — age 5
And lastly but very very far from leastly, I am grateful for bloggers like Happy Lotus Nadia, whose following comment to someone recently helped cement my decision to stop blogging on a set schedule.
“So often people fence themselves in by rules that they created and then forget that the boundaries can be broken at any time.” Nadia — Happy Lotus
It’s only been 3 weeks, but I already feel so stifled by my self-imposed MWF blogging schedule, an experiment to see how it might affect my Google Analytics stats. But what do I care about stats if I feel hemmed-in while blogging?! Where’s the spontaneity, joy and fun in that?!?? Duh, Jannie. As of today I’m back to posting when I’m ready to, (whoo-hoo) and stats will take care of themselves.
And if I ever get to the point where I occasionally close comments because I’ve got a lot going on in life, I guess I’ll just have to take my blogging lumps.
ALRIGHT!!!
Oh, wait — another wonderful Gratitude Thing today!! Jeanne’s in town!!! Jeanne, who’s been rambling this great country in a 30′ motor home for the last 4 months — is finally swinging our way. I’ll be meeting her in a few hours and we’ll hang out hopefully a lot until she has to leave Monday. How great is that!?! I’m even going to wash my hair after I post this and don a pair of matched socks in Jeanne’s honor!!
As to R.O.A.K.A, I am not quite sure who is still in, but check here with Sami for the gratitude posts.
And of course, I am wondering, what are you grateful for today?
Last night I admitted the following on an inspiring blogger’s post…
I AM going to spend 30 minutes a day maximizing my Twitter sphere. I AM going to learn another 7 great songs on guitar. I AM going to up my blog posting to 3x weekly.
And shortly after posting that comment on Keith’s Awesome Post, a few more I AMs hit me for my 2010 goal list…
I AM going to increase the amount of sites that link to mine from the current 276 to at least 500.
I AM going to completely organize all our closets and keep them that way.
I AM going to learn to poach eggs without breaking the yolks.
I AM going to do 222 buttock lifts daily — yes 111 on each side.
I AM going to add the Charleston to my soup aisle dance repertoire.
I AM going to expand my kelp knitting business to include maple syrup collage and spaghettini cowboy sculptures.
I AM! I AM!! I AM!!!
AND… I AM super-recommending Keith’s awesome “It’s Time To Get Real” post. He’s got some really excellent stuff in there.
So, my Friendly Reading Peep, what I AMs are on YOUR “anti-resolution” goal list?
Yesterday Blue Bunny blurted out at our Funster Inc. monthly Blog Strategy board meeting, “my jannie, you blogg is growed. i clikked you Alexxa weedgit todae and you is so bucktotts kikking!”
And he’s (she’s?) right!
In the stunning chart revelation above you will note my bumpy, yet overall somewhat steady lurch towards expanded web presence. (That tallest spike was for this post that got thousands of Stumbles.)
Whoo-hoo!
(Yes, Alexa shows this site existing prior to Sept 22nd 2008, reflecting my old comment-less blog, but that saga era is so water under the pre-Wordpress bridge for me.)
Birthday-Birthday! It’s my special day!!
And holey kadiddlehopper, my Alexa stats show that these past 3 months I’ve lured an average of 0.0004% daily internet users here. I know, I know — a real mind-bender of my sheer global reach.
And did you know I’m really getting popular in Romania among the beer and donut set, especially the bra flinging beer and donut set? Yep! I’m totally, like — the 69,417th most popular site over there! And Bulgaria – don’t EVEN get me started on Bulgaria, I’m trying to remain just a tad humble here.
But, seriously…
It’s been one AWESOME year. THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!!!
If I were to single out every one of you for kudos on the ways you’ve inspired, bolstered and generally buffeted buffered me against the storms of life in just one year, this post might never end. Suffice it to say, YOU are the reason for my blogging season. In fact, there is so much joy in my heart for all of you, I might just spontaneously explode into a combustion of glazed donuts all over this genuine refurbished Dell 8200.
And the best blogging is yet to come, of course.
Always the best of everything yet to come in life!
Anyhoo…
As I enter my second year of blogging (whoo-hoo!) I ask you three burning questions…
Any blogging advice for me?
Anything you’d like to see more (or less) of at Funstertown?
Any rhubarb recipes or rhubarb life-experiences to share?
It was this past Wednesday, about 1:30 p.m. Central Standard Time.
I had just finished yoga and a bean taco. Kelly had played and sang “Ain’t She Sweet” on piano 39 times and was settling into Spongebob as l was logging onto Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger.
Knowing full well that Melbourne 12:07 a.m. was hours ago and I’d have zero chance at being even remotely close to Darren’s first commenter, I was still looking forward to gleaning something great on blogging… when what to my wondering big eye did appear at the top of THE super-super blogging A-lister’s post – but MY NAME linked in flashing lights. I’m serious! (Well, maybe not about the flashing lights, but it sure felt like it.) Little Jannie Funster featured and linked on ProBlogger in a post called How To Improve your Blog – Learn How To Take Criticism Well.
Holy freaking cow. And calf. And a 3-legged goat or two.
It felt nice to be shouted out by ProBlogger for something I’d said in a comment the day before and probably always. Yes, upon my deathbed I shall still be basking in the glow of my ProBlogger link. “Hey Dearie, pass the prune juice and step up my morphine, will ya? And did I ever mention the Summer of ‘09 when ProBlogger linked me up, when my traffic zoomed from 300 daily uniques to over 1000 for two days in a row? Oh, I did? Sorry.”
Hey, maybe it’s just the first of more links to come if I submit something cool as a guest post to ProBlogger. Or to other bloggers. Hey, why not?! The mind’s the limit. And if I can do it, so can YOU.
Anonymous, I wish I hadn’t spammed your comment on my Blogging Addiction Survey post, else I’d email to get your physical address so I could drive or fly over Right Now to give you a big ol’ bear-hug, yep squeeze the stuffing right out of you. Sounds like you could use some hugs.
And Anonymous, you might just have jump-started my Twitter recalcitrance too. I bought “Twitter For Dummies” yesterday. Thanks! I now owe you two. Or three.
There are two noggins bobbing past the videocam near the first of this song, the second one belonging to my Jim. I hope you enjoy it. (The song and my better half’s fleeting head.)
Wow, it’s been exactly 2 months since I released my CD. Remember the illustrious May 10th date? Well, I think I’m psyched to really start promoting myself to radio stations, etc. Will y’all please be my life coaches as I venture yet again into Unknown Territory and face the fears of expanding my comfort zone? You will? Cool, thanks! I feel ‘way better now. I really do. You are The Absolute Total Best.
I’m going to choose one of those 3 little pics as the default for my non-Gravatarred commenting buds. I know. I know. You’ll miss the highly esteemed Mystery Man we chatted about in my previous post about getting your very own Gravatar and how easy (and free,) it is. Sorry. But folks, M. Man has seen his day here and we do have the technology to make this blog all that it can be: my Wordpress Consultant, Kim Woodbridge sees to stuff like that, whoo-hoo.
I’m leaning towards the wood duck. What do you think?
Here is the duck bigger (If you wish, click it to bigger it even more. Actually, click twice for maximum biggerment.) I shot him (with my camera,) along the running trail last year. He is so freaking gorgeous – looks like a painting, I do declare. Wait, is he in fact a “he?” I need to brush up on my wood ducks.
So let me know if you like 1, 2 or 3 better and I’ll go with the general concensus. Please! And thank you!
Oh, and I’ll totally post that “Blame Tara Meme” next time – look for it on Saturday morning, early. It reveals tidbits about my Mr. Spock belt buckle, my Uncle Sylvester’s 3-legged goat and my full-body girdle.
Globally Recognized Avatars — a.k.a. Gravatars, are those little square photosthat appear beside blog comments.
Maybe you’ve seen mine around?
Lately, as some of you have noted, I’ve changed up the automatically-generated comment images for the not-yet-Gravatarred of you. I was tired of the old “identicons” and upon experimenting with Wordpress’ other choices of aliens and monsters, which are too weird even for me, plus some of you were assigned sad faces and that just won’t do, I’ve settled on…
Friends, if you don’t have your own Gravatar, It’s SO EASY to get one and YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE A WORDPRESS BLOG for it to work, the latter tidbit I owe to the wonderful bloggers Karyn and Barkaly.
Here’s what Gravatar.com says…
“Signing up for a gravatar.com account is FREE, and all that’s required is your email address. Once you’ve signed up you can upload your avatar image and soon after you’ll start seeing it on gravatar enabled sites, like Jannie’s!”
Of course, I could’ve told you that myself but I have to show off that I finally figured out how to do a blockquote box!
Go Jannie, go! Kick some blockquote keister!
Hey, and once you have your Gravatar, all your past comments become magically retroactively Gravatarred. And Gravatar.com does not use your e-mail address for anything even remotely nefarious. Plus, and get this — just for signing up, Gravatar will send you and 7 friends on an all-expenses-paid first class World Cruise!!!
So, if you don’t have a Gravatar and would like one, why delay another moment! Go now — Go! To Gravatar.com.
And for those of you who already have your Gravatar, have you anything you might like to share about yours?
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