What happened to blogging?: Part II

I admire folks like Laurie Kendrick…and Mike over at Aye Wonder.

Keeping up a blog isn’t easy. I think I just created too many and got overwhelmed. Then I guess I just forgot about them. I don’t think it was an overnight thing…just slowly but surely I just stopped.

I’m never at a loss for words. But I’m finding it odd that something I went after for about three years could just stop being a part of my weekly process. Somewhere in there work got in the way I’m sure, but it doesn’t take a lot to post something here, does it?

I look at the blog I used to have here and it makes me a little teary. I met so many interesting people. I laughed, sympathized, made a few friends, cried…became inspired. Now I’m left wondering whether or not to close this one up and start anew. Although since I have dropped off on writing, I don’t think I have many readers left anyway.

I’m thinking about Tumblr and Posterous. Maybe those are more my speed for now. In that span of three  years I’ve gone through illness, job descriptions changes and spiritual awakenings. A lot of which I’ve shared here. I don’t really know now where I’m headed, with this blog or in general. But 2010 has me inspired again and I want to continue writing. One place or another…

What happened to blogging?

Is it just me or did blogging fall by the wayside after Twitter and Facebook blew up in a big way? As I type my current Facebook status reads: Jenice…is wondering the way of blogging. Do people read them anymore? Is Twitter the “new” way to tell what’s on your mind or just a supplement? What will next year’s outlet be? Seriously, what are your thoughts on blogs. Embarrassingly I have way too many that I don’t update nearly enough.

See, I chose to first ask this question on Facebook. Not on my blog. There was a time when the blog comments here were very engaging. I was mostly on myspace at the time as my other social media outlet and hated using it. Pretty much felt like a big high school hallway so I limited it to just for my photography business.

I moved on to Facebook surprisingly because of my job. We were on the brink of integrating how we used social media in our work.  Then one person found me, then another, then somehow friends of friends of friends wanted to add me and I’ve ended up with nearly 700 “friends.” The quotes around friends is not meant  to be snide, it just happens that I probably am really good friends with a handful of the people I’ve befriended on Facebook. However SEVERAL of them have helped me in one way or another or vice versa. Very useful thing, Facebook…

But I remember the geekish thrill and excitement I had when I was ready to post my next blog entry. Then one day it stopped. Why is that? Boredom? Or just a progression of all social media…on to the next thing. I’m torn between several blogs that need updating. This was my very first blog so I’m quite partial to it. But I wonder if my readers are out there anymore anyway…as humans we naturally just, well…move on.

Twitter replacing my blogging…?

I don’t think I can shut this blog down. Though I know my readers have probably left me long ago. I just don’t have the focus for it now that I’m on Twitter. Is that pathetic? Who knows for how long this trend will last. But I’m micro-blogging everyday on my page @Jenice78. I have a lot to say and sometimes nothing at all. But in this world of get it now, short and sweet, blogging can become pretty difficult. How about you? Are you finding the same problem?

I will surely come back here again very soon and talk to you some more…if anyone is even left! But until then, you can read my ramblings on my Twitter page. And I still continue to update my photo blog at artsbyjphotography.com.

Who else is still out there, WordPress writers?

Resolutions: Pointless yet expected

Last year I posted my resolutions. I even went as far as making a page on here about them. I can pretty much say if sticking to resolutions were a class I probably made a C- or maybe a D? You can read them all here. But I’m going to recap.

1. Never watch Beaches again. Reminds me too much of a friend I miss dearly. (Check. And that friend and I are in the same zip code now.)

2. Stop yelling every time something doesn’t go my way. (I did pretty well with this one…)

3. Here’s the most common of all: Lose a total of 30 pounds by next year. (Well this didn’t happen. But you can read why here. All I have to say is I have an Oprah excuse.)

4. Keep up calorie-counting. (Um yeah…that got old.)

5. Get over the things I can’t change. That’s a big one. (Bombed.)

6. Make myself more available when it comes to sparking new relationships. It’s time I’ve found grown up events and places (i.e. not bars) to frequent to nab me a man…(First part. Yes. Second part…um yea.)

7. MAKE MORE MONEY. (This did happen. And my photography helped a little as well.)

8. Travel. No excuses of money, time or if I can get people to join me.  (My three-month stint at “love” took me to Vegas.)

9. Get my dream lens…at all costs. A new camera won’t hurt either.  (Check and check. But now I have another dream lens I want.)

10. Complain less. That’s a hard one so I have one caveat: Complain less to people in person and get it all out on my blog.  (I did pretty damn good with this one, considering where I had to start. Only I wish that I blogged more.)

So I’m ready to get going on this year’s set of resolutions that I am going to work like hell to actually complete. This is a new year that I have been waiting for all last year. Last year was a real challenge.

Read my 2009 list after the jump…

All I want for Christmas is a disease

Your body speaks to you. And if you listen very carefully it can tell you when something is wrong. It seems to be the most basic thing to know and be aware of, but sometimes we DON’T listen when we should. This year has been a very trying one for me. One of constant illness and I’ve written about it here along the way. It turns out that some of my problems are closely related to a diagnosis I just received last week.

My life-long friend has been telling me for a long time now to see her doctor. He is an endocrinologist and knows a heck of a lot about the thyroid. I have had bouts of tiredness, strange moods and just all around scatter-brain behavior. I jokingly chocked some of that up to undiagnosed adult ADD.  I just can’t seem to get my thoughts together sometimes and lose focus. With all of this combined along with crazy hormones and the fact that I haven’t dropped a pound after I hired a trainer a few months ago, I finally took my friend’s advice.

I have had my thyroid checked before so I thought nothing was wrong. However, my antibodies were never checked and it turns out that I have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease which basically means the body attacks itself. My thyroid is pretty much not working properly which explains the weight issues and all of the hormonal changes.  The doctor is a Dutchman and isn’t a big fan of American practices. He asked all the questions none of my previous doctors have asked. He even tested my reflexes. And he felt around my neck and found that I have a goiter. None of these things were done before and he took the time….now I finally know why I’ve felt like crap.

I’ve started on Synthroid. It is supposed to get my thyroid in order. And through all of this my dear friend is giving me advice and sending links to stories I should read to further understand this whole thing. All this time she kept bugging me about it. If only I had listened sooner. So all I got for Christmas so far is a diagnosis, a disease and meds. But at least I know now before the new year begins. Hopefully it will be a better one. I plan to keep updating here to chronicle this thing…and maybe I can finally countdown OFFICIALLY to an even hotter 31.

Celebrity stalker….

Have I become one? This week it was Will Smith. A few weeks ago John Popper. Who will it be next?! All I know is, it really is a rush meeting talented, but down-to-earth people.

Please don’t make fun of my face/hair. A) It was windy. B) I have a hard time hiding those fat cheeks when I’m cheesing so hard…

He’s so pointing at me…

Don’t mess with my trash…

It was bound to happen.

A few weeks ago I forgot to set my trash bin out the night before pickup and decided, stupidly, to leave it out the rest of the weekend as to not forget for today’s run. Not a habit I plan to develop because I think it is very tacky to keep that thing out. It makes the neighborhood look bad.

Anywho, I still had a few bags left the next morning and trotted out in my nightgown (also tacky) and got ready to dump the rest of my stuff when behold! There were several black bags of trash (filled to the brim, mind you) that I knew darn well were not mine. On top of that, they were filled with yard waste which you all know is a no-no. It wasn’t even bulk week! I was reminded of that King of the Hill episode…the same thing happened to Hank, though I was only a tad tempted to dig through the bags of trash to ID my bin-stuffer.

Mad as Cain (or McCain for that matter), I looked around and tried to see who the culprit was…yes. In my nightgown. All I did was kind of look for evidence of who might have cut some branches down recently. And of course I could not figure it out.

What would you have done? I’m sure this won’t be the last time this happens and even if I put my trash out the same day, who is to say someone won’t add last minute junk to my bin?
I need advice as a new homeowner, missing her old apartment dumpster.

I know my quest for advice is a little late, because once I got dressed that morning, I went to my computer and got to work. I typed these words:

KEEP YOUR TRASH TO YOURSELF

THIS IS A FRIENDLY REMINDER

TO THROW YOUR TRASH IN YOUR OWN BINS.

IF YOURS IS FULL, DON’T WAIT TO THE

LAST MINUTE NEXT TIME…

I posted this note on every bin on my alley. Think the neighbors hate me yet?

The John Popper experience

OK. So I’ve always been a fan of Blues Traveler. But I have to admit, I’ve never been to a show.  So when I saw John Popper at Frankie’s in Uptown on election night, I was star struck but didn’t really know much about Blues Traveler’s latest album. However, after chatting for a little while, Popper said “Write your name down” so I could get into their show at House of Blues the next night.

I grabbed a matchbook and wrote it down. And because I’m way too curious, I decided I would head out to HOB last night to really see if my name was on the list…and sure enough it was. Along with backstage stickers!

But like I said, fan — but not really aware of the new stuff. I’ve always heard BT puts on a great show and last night was no different. He played the old standard, “Run Around” of course but some of the new songs were cool too. I’m definitely going to get the CD.

After the show, and a few harmonica tosses later that I managed to never catch but one guy got knocked in the head with, we got to head to the Green Room. I wasn’t even in the door when he yelled, “Jenice! I was looking at that book of matches today and hoped you would come!” and then he kissed my hand.So because I didn’t get the photo on Tuesday, I got my picture taken with him where he proceeded to kiss me on the cheek. Look folks, I’m not a groupie but that was kind of cute. He even signed my reporter’s notebook and asked, “Did I spell your name right?”

When we left I got his artist manager’s card and they seemed interested in photos…or maybe they were just being polite. Either way, who cares! It’s not everyday you get a kiss on the cheek from a Grammy winner.

Must have been shock…

I saw Jesse Jackson cry tonight. And so did you. But that emotion didn’t overwhelm me until I got home from a night of election watching (and for the record, I’m not a Jackson fan and let’s only HOPE that his emotion was sincere and not the fact that it wasn’t HIM on that stage giving an acceptance speech). You see, most of my friends are white. Not that they are not aware of this monumental moment in history, but they can’t or even don’t try to imagine what it feels like to be black and have the first black president in the White House. There I said it. And it was hard too. If you follow my blog you know I have a VERY hard time making race an issue for much of anything. I think it’s an enabling thing to do when we lean too much on such a frivolous notion. And don’t get me wrong. I didn’t vote for race. I just voted. And mainly my points of why I voted for Obama are lost on a few people. I was a McCain follower at first, then Obama, then McCain…you get the idea. I was torn for all of 2008. I was unsure. I was not certain that any vote I could cast would be the right one.

Yet, I still just can’t shake the sheer emotion I felt when words have been continuously spoken: “You will remember when…” And I will. Even in the noisiest of bars tonight. I felt something changed. Even in the slur of celebratory, and in my friends’ case, sorrowful shots (!) I will always remember when, and the shock has yet to wear off.

Yes, I’m finding it hard, even through all my arguments here about race not being issue, to just say, “So what? He’s just a black man…”

Vote for the fairy…

Or go ahead and vote for Obama or McCain. I don’t mind. Just vote.