by mayberry on August 19, 2010
At our small blog session at BlogHer, someone (wish I knew who!) made this lovely comment:
I think maybe if you have a small blog you have a tendency to think it’s because you’re lazy but maybe it’s quite the opposite. Maybe your blog is small because you’re living. You’re throwing parties for your kids and not so your blogging community is impressed by it. You’re living the life other people are just trying to document.
To that end, here’s what I’ve been doing instead of blogging … posts to come soon, I hope.
- My little sister got married and it was beautiful. Worth every minute of the 22 hours it took to travel from Mayberry to northern California.
- We went to Disneyland and spent approximately one million dollars. Also worth it.
- We went to Legoland California and spent a couple hundred bucks so my son could play with a big bucket of Duplos. Just like the ones he has at home.
- We came home and landed amid the circus that is “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” filming right here in Mayberry.
- Somehow our little one became old enough for kindergarten. Who allowed that?
P.S.: I dragged my family to Pinkberry twice in California to make up for not going there in NYC. However, I’ve since learned that Yogurtland may be better. Opinions, Californians?
by mayberry on August 10, 2010
Let’s revisit the to-do list and see how I did.
1. Present session: Check! And, WOW. This was really wonderful. My co-presenters, Celeste and Nora, were a dream to work with. We had a good crowd and the questions and comments really made the session both informative and empowering, if I do say so myself. See for yourself at the liveblog or at one of the recaps/discussions I’ve come across: Alma from Marketing Mommy, Megan from Acorn Dreaming, Rita at Surrender, Dorothy, and Emily Rosenbaum (read the comments too!).
2. Cheer for the Tutus for Tanner runners. OK, so I did this virtually instead of in person at 6 in the morning.
3. Take a yoga class in Bryant Park. Check! This was so fun. I’ll post about it separately.
4. Play “Blowfish” with Monica and Olivia. (And follow their rules of swag: Take only what is truly useful and portable.): Not really to part A (how did I forget to show you two the iPad?), but yes to part B. I didn’t get very far in the expo halls. I was too busy going to sessions and chatting.
5. Avoid emergency rooms and hospitals: Check! Not so much as a blister or hangnail!
6. Blithely ignore any drama: Check. I think there was less of it this year, and whatever there was, I remained blissfully unaware of it. The whole conference felt more positive and friendly than ever.
7. Have some Pinkberry yogurt. NO. Sadly.
8. See some old friends: Check!
9. Meet some friends for the first time: Check!
10.Make some new friends: Check!
11. Miss some friends who won’t be there: Sad-faced check.
12. Find some time for non-blogging NYC friends and family too: Check!
by mayberry on July 20, 2010
My contribution to the annual influx of BlogHer conference posts! I made a tentative schedule for myself the other day and … wow. There’s a lot. But here are my musts.
by mayberry on March 29, 2010
I am so pleased to announce that the BlogHer Room of Your Own session that I proposed, with help from Nora of Nonlinear Girl, has been accepted! (See “Little Fish in a Big Pond,” the second session in the Personal Identity track.) It’ll be my fifth BlogHer and my first time speaking. Many, many, MANY thanks to those of you who voted and commented and tweeted and were just generally very kind and supportive.
I’ve already been collecting posts and questions on this topic, but if you have any wisdom to impart or burning questions to pose, please do pass them along–whether or not you’ll be in New York on August 7.
by mayberry on January 25, 2010
Actually, vote for you. For us.
A few months ago I cryptically asked anyone who was reading, who considered their blog “small,” to raise a hand. I had an idea for a BlogHer’10 session on small blogs. Now is your chance to help me bring that session to BlogHer. Whether you plan to be there or not, please vote for my Room of Your Own session! To vote, you must be a member of BlogHer and be logged in; then you’ll see links at the top saying “I would be interested in presenting on this topic” and “I would attend this session.” Click on one or both and you’ve voted. Comments are optional but appreciated.
You can see the whole list of Room of Your Own ideas here. I’m thrilled that mine is one of the top 4 right now. I would love your help to keep it up there. Thanks!
by mayberry on August 17, 2009
I saw Julie & Julia last night. I wish I could have seen it with someone who blogs, but my local friend C. is something of a foodie, so that helped. And what can I say about a movie that combined blogging, droolicious food, Paris, Julia Child, and Meryl Streep? I loved it.
Afterward, my friend and I attempted to get a glass of wine and something to eat that involved either cheese or chocolate. Guess what: In Mayberry, on a Sunday night? NO CAN DO. Disappointing. Having a drink at home by myself didn’t really seem worth the calories.
Like everyone else, I wish I could think of some amazing blog-to-book-to-movie concept. Not even for the money. I just think it would be a cool challenge. But so far, I haven’t come up with anything that’s quite right. I’ve considered, then discarded the following:
- My One Houseplant: How Long Can I Keep It Alive?
- The 365-Day Shred
- Potty Training Tip of the Day
- Finding My Inner Martha Stewart
- One Mom’s Quest to Become a Champion Sturgeon Spearer
- Super-Size Mom: What Happens If I Eat a Dozen Doughnuts a Day?
- That’s Doctor Spiderwoman to You: Pursuing My PhD in Entomology
- Tattoo-a-Day Diary
- The Cathy/Katharine Project (I remake all of Hepburn’s movies, starring myself)
Any suggestions? I’m open. We could make it a group project.
by mayberry on August 7, 2009
BlogHer. Saturday. Sessions!
The a.m. keynote featured Tina Brown of the Daily Beast, Donna Byrd of TheRoot.com and Ilene Chaiken, creator of the TV series “The L Word.” As Fourth Breakfast tweeted during the event, it was a sobering reminder that print is a dying medium. (Pause to note how much I used Twitter during the conference, to garner sound bites from sessions I missed and to make plans to meet friends. During this a.m. session, I retweeted Fourth Breakfast—who was sitting right next to me—and saw a twitpic of Tina Brown which had originated from someone else at my table, and then been retweeted by someone I follow. Small Twitterverse!)
For the first session, I surprised myself by wandering into the TravelBloggers as Boundary-Breaking Evangelists session. I’m not a travel blogger (although, dude! I just checked my travel category and it has 42 posts in it), but I do love to travel. Well, under certain circumstances I love to travel. This list of amazing places is one of my favorite posts ever. So I enjoyed hearing about how four very different bloggers approach the idea of writing about travel. Their strongest collective suggestion was that if you’d like to be a travel writer, being an expert in your hometown or region is an ideal way to start.
Also meeting at this same time were the session for/about the men of BlogHer and the session on women of color and marketing, which featured four seriously amazing women; I heard many many positive reports on that one and I’m sorry I missed it.
After lunch, I attended the session driven by the wonderful writers of Mamapop: Women Writing in the Age of Britney. Like the Mamapop site, this was a session that deftly juggled the funny and the philosophical (and the fascinating). Unfortunately, attending this session meant I didn’t go to the session featuring the BlogHer International Activist Scholarship winners. I heard from several in the audience that this was a real highlight.
On a totally different plane, the session I attended also conflicted with Sponsored Vs. Unsponsored: Blogging for $$$. As a professional writer, I am interested in things like pay scales for professional bloggers (insanely low, IMO) but this session was much more about reviews, giveaways, and the FTC. (And my position on that is that as long as I am honest and transparent in my reviews, I am pretty safe from any G-men who want to come after me.)
On to session three! Another set of tough choices. As you would’ve guessed from the roster of speakers, the crowd in the Dying Is Easy, ROTFLMAO Comedy Is Hard session overflowed the inexplicably tiny room. I got there waaaay too late to even try to listen in. Instead, I wandered into Enough About You … Who’s Reading You? which in the end, turned out to be much like the mommyblogging “tribes” session from the previous day. It dealt with similar issues of balancing what you write about and who you are with what your readers want … or what you think your readers want. In retrospect–no knock against that session–I should’ve checked out Blogging as Storytelling with Neil Kramer and Amy Turn Sharp.
And then there was the closing keynote and the closing cocktail party which featured lots of really meaty appetizers (and copies of Time magazine?) so Ladies M and O and I went to a gourmet grocery store and I had veggie sushi with brown rice like I used to always get for lunch in NYC.
The end.
by mayberry on July 15, 2009
I am feeling a little stumped for blog fodder right now, not to mention pressed for time. It didn’t help that I had some kind of one-day guinea pig flu (not as bad as swine flu, but crappy nonetheless) on Sunday, accompanied by a nauseating migraine.
Anyway, sorry, I hate posts about why I haven’t been posting. So I’m cruising through my reader today and come to a post on The Blog Herald which is a “wow, this is great” item about someone else’s post describing his writing routine. It’s basically: start with an idea, put calls out to sources, do research while waiting for sources to reply, talk to sources, write.
Really? This is news??? Marshall, I am sure you are very talented and all and your blog probably has about 500,000 more readers than mine, but … wow. There are lots of things I don’t blog about because I think, “Everyone already knows that.” Clearly I need to rethink this position.
Next week, look for posts on how to pour a glass of water (I will reveal my stance on the all important question: ice or no ice?) and the best ways to put on socks.
by mayberry on May 25, 2009
Didja see these two cuties? Nonlinear Nora had twins, a boy and a girl, last Friday, and Mo-Wo is throwing a babies’ shower. (So what if the babies are already here. We like to flout convention here in the blogosphere.) Our gift to Nora: a list of picture books for her growing family and its growing library.
I love to give books as baby presents. No worries about size or decor or duplication; if they have it already it’s easy to regift or donate. If the baby in question has an older sibling, get a board book and a big-kid picture book and everyone’s happy. My must-gives include Where the Sidewalk Ends, the Little Pea/Little Hoot combo by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and anything and everything by Peggy Rathmann (Gloria is a dead ringer for our own dog).
For Nora’s new little pair, today I offer the talented author/illustrator duo of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, starting with The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child. The rhymes and illustrations work together brilliantly in these two very funny books about a clever mouse who outwits a much bigger adversary. Another title by these two that I adore is Room on the Broom, in which a temporarily wandless witch is saved from an unpleasant end by a motley pack of companion animals.
As Mo-Wo says, Nora, “our hearts are filled with gladness for you all”–gruffaloes, mice, babies and all.
(P.S. Speaking of mice, I trust you already have a copy of Noisy Nora, one of the best sibling jealousy books ever?)
by mayberry on March 1, 2009
As an editor, I had to attend my share of stultifying meetings. Anything with the word “analysis” or “budget” or “strategic” in the title would usually fall into that category. But we had fun meetings too. The whole editorial staff would gather, ostensibly to generate ideas for articles and columns for the magazine/website. Really, we would spend a couple of hours complaining about our kids/husbands/friends/hair/thighs. The ideas were simply a byproduct of the bitch session.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all get together and have a blog ideas meeting? At my fitness site, I have a list of ideas a mile long, because I have a particular topic to target. Here, the wide-open space overwhelms me.
Back when I had to come up with a batch of ideas to present at a meeting, I’d start by thinking I had nothing. But then I’d force myself to sit down and brainstorm and sooner or later I’d have something written down, enough to get me in the door of the meeting.
I don’t like to think of this blog as a job. It’s not (and in fact I am so tired of reading about marketing yourself, the business of blogging, blahdeblahblah–even though I know that I really need to do all that on my fitness site if I am ever to earn a living wage from it). But I still think I might have to summon myself to an offsite ideas meeting to liven up this place a bit. I might even treat myself to doughnuts to make sure I arrive on time.
P.S. The other good meetings were coverline meetings. You know, where we came up with new, creative ways to promise to solve problems with 5 steps or 11 tips or 49 steals and deals. Numbers sell, baby!
P.P.S. Most of the blog-as-brand posts have been very good. They just always give me a case of the (self-imposed) “shoulds.”
At our small blog session at BlogHer, someone (wish I knew who!) made this lovely comment:
