Blogging

Nine Years Ago This Week I Started My First Blog

/ Ally Bean / 21 Comments

YES, it is true.

I’m probably more amazed by this fact than you are.  Who’d have thought that I’d stick with blogging, more or less consistently, in one way or another, for this long?

My immediate answer to that question is: not me.  But that’s a bit too flippant.  In reality, I think that the reason I have continued to blog is that it’s a quiet way to make your mark on the world.  To question and learn.  To reflect and inspire.  To laugh and enjoy.  To connect with people in a casual, easy way.

At least, those would be the reasons why I keep a blog at this point.  Any dreams I might have had of making money or of getting noticed by a publisher are long gone.  Now I write about what happens in my life because I can– and because I want to.  Very simple.

– • –

In honor of this auspicious occasion I’ll do something that I rarely do.  Today I’ll point you in the direction of a few of my previous posts about blogging.  I’ve learned a few things.  I’ve experienced a few things.  And naturally, I’ve talked about them all.

To Comment Or Not To Comment

Blogging: Then And Now [Subtitled: In Which I Explain How I Came To Be A Blogger] [Sub-Subtitled: Blame It On The Dirt]

My 5 Suggestions For Writing Better Blog Posts

An Explanation Regarding The “Absurdities Of My Week” Post That Is No Longer Here– Absurdly

An Inconvenient Blogging Truth

– • –

So what does the future hold for me and blogging?  If I am entirely honest I have to answer: I haven’t a clue.

Throughout the course of my illustrious blogging career I have never felt the need to have an overarching plan with a mission statement, monthly objectives and weekly goals.  Instead I have always done whatever makes sense to me in the moment.

And right now it makes sense to me is to say thank you to all my gentle readers.  I appreciate that you make the effort to visit here on a regular basis.  Your comments make my day and keep me on my toes.  You’re the best.

THANKS for stopping by.

Stuck At Home On A Winter’s Day: Observations, Musings & Long Sentences

/ Ally Bean / 19 Comments

My world is covered in ice this morning.  Trees. Bushes. Sidewalk. Driveway. Deck. Mailbox.  They are all a mess.  The sky is gray with no sign that the sun even exists, so there’s no sparkle going on with this layer of ice.  Pity that.  Shimmering light refracted from icy tree branches is beautiful to look at.

However, that’s not what we have going on here.  Nope, what we have here is a gloomy, slippery mess.  Ick.

This is one of those days when staying at home seems like the sane thing to do.  I’m lucky that my lifestyle is flexible enough to allow me to do just that.  So home for the day, it is– even though I had some other things planned.

However, plans change, don’t they?  Often, in fact.

I’ve been putting off some boring cleaning projects.  Closets. Cupboards. Cabinets.  Not all of them, but some of them, could use a once over.  So, I suppose, that today would be the day to start on these projects.  The problem is that I dislike beginning things.  I’m good at maintaining things after I get a something going and I’m good at concluding things when I must.

However, starting something new makes me a bit crazy and discombobulated.  Always has.

That being as it may, I think that I’ve dawdled here for about as long as I can.  What is a blog for if not to share your life with the world and to take stock of who you are?  Granted, one hopes when one starts blogging that one’s life is so interesting and compelling that sharing it with the world becomes a moral imperative;  but one learns early on that when one faces up to the dull realities of one’s life, one is left with two options.  Either one must say nothing, or one can say whatever she likes using long sentences.

However, even long sentences can become tedious to write.  So off I go to do something more productive.  Probably.

The Tale Of The Lonely Beet

/ Ally Bean / 22 Comments

DSCN3608Once upon a time the Lady of the House went to the grocery where she purchased some beets.  She was going to roast them and serve them as a side dish with some ham for dinner.

:: The Lady of the House had good intentions.

However, when the Lady of the House came home from the grocery, she put the beets in a stainless steel bowl which she put in the frig.  Then, she forgot about their existence.

Because the beets were well-mannered, they did not call attention to themselves in the frig.  No, they just sat in the bowl and slowly allowed mold to cover them.  Perhaps they were cold and considered the mold to be like a sweater.  Perhaps they were content and enjoyed connecting with the mold.

:: We will never know for sure.

All we know is that the next time the Lady of the House looked at the beets she saw six moldy, dried out vegetables that were way past their prime.  Upon seeing what had happened, the Lady of the House said a few words that will not be repeated on these pages.

But the Lady of the House had another idea for the beets.  You see, the Lady of the House’s mother had a saying which she said to the Lady of the House when the Lady of the House was a girl.

:: And this saying was: waste not, want not.

Remembering what her mother had told her to do, the Lady of the House decided to toss the beets into the wooded ravine behind her house.  The Lady of the House thought that some of the deer or raccoons that live back there might like to feast on said beets.

:: However, she was wrong about this assumption.

A few days later when the Lady of the House chanced to look outside upon her backyard realm, she noticed that all the beets were still there.  And that one beet in particular, that had the misfortune of landing on top of a concrete wall instead of on the ground, was positioned in such a way as to create a perfect photo-op.

So, the Lady of the House, who also happened to be a blogger extraordinaire, grabbed her camera.  Then she went outside and took one of the best artsy-farsty photos she has ever taken.  Not wanting to let this photo go to waste, the Lady of the House figured she could put this photo on her blog, tell her readers how this beet came to be so alone, and call it a blog post.

:: And that is exactly what she did.  The end.

Sure, You Can Do That

/ Ally Bean / 19 Comments

“In vino veritas est.” ~ Pliny the Elder

“God bless the honest, for they shall make my days more entertaining.” ~ Ally Bean

~ • ~

As I have mentioned here before I am a good listener.  I am also the “go to” person in my social group for how to start a blog.  And, as you have probably already figured out, I get tickled by the darnedest things.  To wit, the following real life vignette.

An acquaintance, who I see about once every 3 years or so, asked me about how to start a blog.  We were at a fancy reception and there was much wine being served.

I told her my standard response* to her question.  She seemed intrigued and started asking a bunch more questions about blogging.  In the flow of the conversation I told her that I thought that she’d be good at blogging because she is smart and articulate.  [Which all bloggers are, right?]

Of course, I wanted to know what she thought that she might be blogging about, so I asked her.  Knowing a little bit about her I figured that she’d say something like: my kids, my love of interior design, tips on antiquing, tips on cooking, my conservative political opinions.  Subjects that I know she cares about.

But what I did not expect her to say is the most unanticipated, yet delightful, reason for blogging that anyone has told me to date.  She told me that she didn’t care what subject she wrote about.  That didn’t matter to her at all.  No, what she wanted to do in her blog was to: Tell people what to do.  Her way.  So that they wouldn’t bug her with their stupidness any more.

Now this is an approach to blogging and a point of view, which you have to admit, is both authentic and could be fun to read about, subjects be damned.  Plus, I suspect, that in our heart of hearts there isn’t one blogger [or person] out there who hasn’t thought the same thing, but just never had the amount of wine necessary the gumption to say it.  So clearly.  And so loudly.

~ • ~

*  When you start a blog you need to consider three basic questions.

  1. Do you have something to say?  Can you say it in a way that other people will understand? Hmm?
  2. Where will you put your blog?  That is, when you decide on your platform will you pay money for it or will it be free?
  3. Will you commit to showing up to your blog on a regular basis?  If not, you’ll tick off your friends and readers. And you don’t want that, do you?