A Few Changes and "Would You Rather?"

December 17, 2008

Yesterday I spent some time updating and adding new things to my blog. I wanted my blog to have a more polished look and to introduce something new.

I added some links under my header: About, Contact Me, Blog Archive, and "Would You Rather?" I think the first three are pretty self-explanatory. I do encourage everyone to email me through my contact link if you have questions about my blog, see something a miss with the layout and/or pages not loading quickly, or if you want to suggest an idea.

Adding "Would You Rather?" to my blog is something that was inspired by a good friend of mine. We were out shopping last week and as we were driving up and down the aisles looking for a parking spot she said, "Wow that lady has short legs." I looked and sure enough she did. "Would you rather have short legs or a long torso?" I asked and the idea to put Would You Rather on my blog was born. "Would You Rather...?" was created by Zobmondo!! and since I get such a kick out of the questions I wanted to share them with my readers.

Every few days I will be changing the question. I invite you to stop by often to see the new "Would You Rather" question and share your decision. Some of the choices will be funny, some will be serious, and some will be bizarre, but they will all be fun.

Finding your hidden Superhero

Last night I picked up the September issue of Oprah's magazine that my friend gave to me after she was finished with it and came across an article entitled "Are you on the right course?" The article follows a life-coach who takes three ordinary women and helps them see the Superhero inside.

It was the second woman that I identified most with. The life-coach called her a "Clever Critic." This person has numerous ideas, but always finds a good reason that they cannot happen. I am constantly writing in my head, but never actually put those thoughts, ideas, or stories to paper because I think to myself that there are TONS, literally tons, of authors out there, and even more bloggers, so I ask myself "Why would anyone want to read my stuff? I'm a nobody and besides my writing isn't that great." And then all my creativity, my desire to write, and to express myself ceases in that moment. I switch my mind to something easier and less reveling of myself and ultimately never write.

The solution to my problem is a simple one, in theory. Write. Never stop writing no matter how silly I think it sounds or how many other people out there have blogged about it, or written a story similar to it. I have realized that by asking myself "Why would anyone want to read my stuff?" and telling myself I am not worthy of sharing my writing with others that I have crippled my ego and lessened my self worth in my own eyes. I have become the worst critic; I stifle creativity before it has a chance to live. So, I must take off my critic glasses and write just to write. They always say write your first draft with your heart. I spend far too much time critiquing my first draft that it never makes it to the final draft.

I don't know that being an author or writer or even a blogger is my hidden Superhero, but it sure is a good start.

Whew

Now that I have tweaked, changed, and manipulated my blog I think it's time to let the world know I am out here writing a blog. I never knew how intent I would be on changing the look and overall style of my blog. I went from a very simple template and turned it into something I like and proud to say "I made that." I never imagined that I would be lurking around the HTML code of this web page or adding things to it such as subscribe buttons and the like. I had to do quite a bit of searching to figure out how to add a second column to my blog, but I got it done. I wanted the freedom of adding more widgets (A component of a graphical user interface with which a user interacts - Wikipedia. Or in lame-man's terms: A cool little interactive thing you put on your blog.). I luckily found information on how to do this and am very happy with how it came out. Even though I am satisfied with my blog as it stands now, trust me when I say that I will be adding new features and tweaking it even more down the road.


Now that I have spent the entire day combing the internet for ways to make my blog my own, and now that my eyes feel like they will never blink again I think I shall go and play some online poker. I can see already that this blog is going to be addictive. People like me who absolutely love to customize things (i.e. my Blackberry) can spend hours and hours on the internet looking for the newest item to add.

My Very First Post

Okay, so I have been deathly terrified of posting anything on my blog. Hell I've had this blog for months now and haven't done a damn thing with it. I downloaded Viigo for the third time to my Blackberry. I uninstalled it twice because it is a memory hog and it slowed down my Blackberry. The makers of Viigo said after the latest update they have corrected some of the memory hog issues. We shall see. So this prompted me to search for RSS feeds and/or blogs to add to my Viigo so I would have something to read on my Blackberry. I ended up coming across three really awesome blogs that, I guess you could say, have inspired me to post something on my own blog.

So a big thank you to Daily Blog Tips, Daily Writing Tips, and Daily Bits for making me get over my fears and actually post something!!!