Word Grrls

I ran the WordGrrls.com site from whatever to whatever. I’ll look up the dates sometime. It was a site for writers. I used to post writing exercises and ideas for writing inspiration. I’ve kept my posts from the old site but decided not to keep the domain.

There are 2,384 posts filed in Word Grrls (this is page 11 of 398).

How Do People Find you Online?

Are you sure people can find you online? What if you change your Twitter account? What if a web service you rely on shuts down? What if… ?
Amy (see images) is my example tonight because I did have to track her down from a broken Twitter link and nothing else but the Scoop.it profile I was already looking at. Google search results were not a big help because her name has changed and the domain for her current name is not the same person. So I searched Google for both names (together) and did find her new Twitter account among the search results. (Turns out I was already following her there).

If you rely on web services, like social media, for your web presence you could be leaving it up to chance.  

Not everyone wants to buy a domain and run their own site. It’s another expense, another new thing to learn and another drain your your available time too. But, consider something simple like creating a quick profile on Blogspot. Yes, it is a web service too, so it could disappear but it has been reliable for a very long time. 
All you need to do is ceate an account (or use the account you forgot you still had) and set up a blog. You don’t need to post regularly. It’s just a place to have your name, some general information and your links available.  If you can get your name, great. (Example – yourname.blogspot.com) Likely you won’t find it available. So pick something clever for your account – consider your business or niche and go from there. 
  • Use the basic template/ theme. Add colour to the header if you want but keep the content easy to read.
  • Add one post with links to your social media accounts. Include an image if you like. 
  • Use your name (or whatever you call yourself online) as the title of the post. Use the same for a category and tags with that post. 
  • Publish it and save the link in your web browser bookmarks. Any time you change a social media account use that link to update the Blogspot post. 
Next time someone goes looking for you online you have this as a base of operations. It’s not perfect but it’s simple and free. 
As an option you can buy a domain and have your Blogspot/ Blogger site on that domain instead of the blogspot.com web address. 
Of course, there are other free web hosting services. I like the history of Blogger and the fact that Google currently runs it with few limitations to how you use it. 

There is no I in Hello

Why is “Hi” the short form for “Hello”?
This is what got me thinking this morning.
It’s a small thing, but if you think about it, there is no “i” in Hello. Logically the short form would be “Ho” or “lo”.

The Most Precious Thing… Journals

In the end, we loaded our technology (computers, hard drives with all the historical pictures on them), my old Smith Corona typewriter (yes-crazy!) and we stood holding what we decided were the most precious things… our cottage journals.
We began our first journal on our first day as we moved in to this place. Our kids’ friends wrote enthusiastic missives about how beautiful everything was. Our kids wrote about their feelings, capturing with words what their hearts were beating. “Powered down. Closed up. Fits perfect.”
The words of our son as he did his first final closing at age 18.
The journals number four now and have chronicled friendships, community losses, high points, low points, activities, picnics, first fingerprints of grandchildren, celebrations, achievements, jobs, retirements, comings and goings, weddings, funerals. Our life is there.
We carried the four journals to the boat. The most precious.
We were lucky, and so many of us felt lucky as the water bombing planes extinguished the fire and summer students were planted in the forest to seek out hot spots for a week afterwards.
We felt so lucky.
And so grateful. The journals are back on the bookshelf,  fuller still after the summer of 2016.
I’ve thought about what I’d save in case of fire too. Likely everyone has at some point. I also think about my old diaries/ journals. I haven’t looked at most of them since the day I wrote the entry. At one point, moving from one place to another (again and again), I was at the point of throwing them all out. Journals are a link to our past selves. Sometimes a burden but irreplaceable too. I deleted an online journal I kept while I was going through a divorce. I don’t remember why I deleted it then. I’ve tried to get it back a couple of times but never found anything that worked. Gone forever, irreplaceable.

Getting Back to Being an Effective Blogger, Again

This site is not dead but… I do need to find it again. Keeping focus and staying true to your own voice are not easy when you look around at other sites and start comparing yourself. If you can manage to do it constructively, that’s great. I’ve gotten sucked into my own wormhole of blog envy. Not envy, but self unsatisfaction. So, I need to pull myself out of it and get back to the basics, again. The key to sustainable blogging is showing up and showing up the next day too when you’re run out of stuff to say and feel like everyone is doing it better than you are.
This list comes from Katy Rose, the Modly Chic blog. I found it in submissions for fashion blogs at dmoz. I usually take a look around at sites I’m listing. Some just get a skim for the basics, to make sure they are original and focused on topic. Ironic, eh? So often we know the answers but we haven’t been paying attention or didn’t want to remember.

Witchcraft is Faith

“In spite of the many books which have been written on the subject in recent years, most people still seem to regard witchcraft as being mainly a matter of casting spells or gaining psychic powers. They find it difficult to regard it as being a religious faith.”

-Doreen Valiente

Quote found on: Messages in the Moonlight