Tag Archives: blogging

Follow Friday: The Blog Edition

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Follow Friday is a hashtag on Twitter. Hashtags are markers that catalog tweets from any number of users into a stream of related information that you can search. So, if you tag a tweet #FF (for Follow Friday), it will show up in the list of all tweets tagged “#FF.” This is particularly interesting or informative if you’re hashtagging an event or a place, for example, because then you can quickly look and see what others have to say about the thing you’re participating in. or the place you’re visiting For instance, I enjoyed checking out the tweets during the Miss America Pageant. Follow Friday’s directions are to “Tweet the names of Twitter users you’d like others to follow and tag it with #followfriday and/or #FF.”

I never really pay attention to the #FF tweets I see, and I’m fairly certain I’ve never actually followed anyone on the recommendation of an #FF. But lately, I’ve been wowed by several bloggers and really wanted to share them with you, so I thought I’d create a Follow Friday of my own this week here on the blog!

I’ve been reading blogs for years. Really, we could go all the way back to high school when I was into being emo on LiveJournal and Xanga, but that’s not exactly what I’m talking about. The real meat of my blog reading started in college; I’m not exactly sure what triggered it, but over the years I’ve curated a collection of feeds in Google Reader. These bloggers, whether I interact with them or not, are really a part of my life. If I’m away from my Reader for too long, I start to wonder what they’re up to. Sometimes I’m overzealous and subscribe to a bunch of blogs that don’t really do it for me after awhile, so I try to be intentional about culling my list pretty frequently. Lately I’ve been in a really good blog-reading groove and have found a few new voices who are adding a great feel to the posts I read every day!

Some of my current favorites:

  • Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
    I stumbled across this blog from MoneySavingMom.com. She writes about time management and work, and is much more career oriented than most of the blogs I read. From the description I wouldn’t have thought I’d like her blog, but I find so many useful little tips and tricks and find that I really relate to many of the things she talks about. Plus, I love Vanderkam’s voice, which is almost as important to me in a blog as the actual topic! I find myself wanting to comments on her posts quite often, which is a big deal to a self-proclaimed passive consumer such as myself. Laura came and commented on this little blog once and I felt like hot stuff. ;-)
  • Jessica at Faith Permeating Life
    I think I found Jessica through 20SB, a blog network that seemed promising but was really mostly a bust for me. Jessica is young and married like me, grappling with really tough issues of how Christianity relates to modern life, and I appreciate that she does it in a non-preachy way. Her blog is not deep and theological; it’s deep and real. Plus, not EVERY post is heavy and faith-related. I love reading about her marriage and her forays into the world of exercise. I find Jessica really relatable and approachable, and I hope I get to read her blog for a long time!
  • And for good measure, and actual Twitter account: Anne Lamott
    It’s no secret that I love Anne Lamott. She doesn’t have a blog that I know of, but she’s quite active on Twitter. Y’all, just about every tweet she posts has me in stitches. I think it’s a gift that her dry sarcasm even comes through in 140 characters. She’s authentic and hilarious and her words stick with me long after I read them on Twitter. 

There you have it! My absolutely unsolicited, unorthodox Follow Friday.

Have you discovered any great new or new-to-you blogs or Twitter accounts lately? Share them in the comments!

making time

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As I’ve written before, blogging (including reading other blogs) is truly what I’d call one of my hobbies. I look forward to sitting down and flipping through my Google Reader feed, and I really miss it if I go a few days without it! That might sound some crazy to some folks, but I figure those of you reading this post can probably relate. Given all of that, visiting the blogosphere usually just naturally happens, but lately I’ve been struggling to fit it in (as you may have noticed from the lack of posts here).

I always read advice in women’s magazines and such that says you have to make time for you, even to the point of scheduling it or writing it on your to-do list. They’re usually talking about exercise, or date nights with your husband, or dinner with your girlfriends, but I think right now for me it needs to include my blog life! I’ve had a couple of abnormal weeks and weekends, so I feel like I’ve been doing well to stay on top of my domestic duties, my exercise, and my sleep, but this little corner of the Internet has ended up being neglected.

I keep a running to-do list, so I’ve added an entry that says “sort through starred Reader items-pin/do” to remind that I have posts stored away that need action. I also think Unpunctuated Life here needs some love. I updated the books page recently, but I haven’t changed much else of the static content since I launched last summer. I could use some new pictures and, who knows?!, maybe a new layout and color scheme! And of course, I need to get back in a groove of scheduling posts and keeping a list of ideas that are floating around in my head so that when I do sit down to write I don’t come up blank. (P.S. If you have any suggestions of content you’d like to see or appearance that would catch your eye I am more than open to hearing them!)

This was a pretty meta-blogging blog post, but the concept is applicable elsewhere for sure. What do you do when you find yourself in a rut? How do you make time for the things you enjoy but that aren’t necessarily necessary?

Liebster

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Hold the phone! I’ve been given another blog award! I am way late on responding to this, but my new blog friend Laura at Casa del Hansen passed this on to me last week. It’s too bad I can’t give the award back to her, because I definitely would. We are clearly destined to be kindred spirits, so much so that we even share the same name! Laura is a librarian (which I still haven’t ruled out as a potential career for myself somewhere down the road), loves to cook and craft, and is also married to a computer-y guy. ‘Nuff said. :-)

So, the award! According to the definition that’s floating around the internet, liebster means “favorite” in German. This award is designed to highlight blogs that have less than 200 followers. (Hey! That’s me!) When I pass it on five of MY favorite blogs to read, I’ll be sharing the love….er, the liebster.

However….I have to admit that I don’t read too many blogs with less then 200 followers. I’m faithful to several of the “big names” in blogging, like Marriage Confessions and Young House Love. (Plus, Laura stole a couple of my would-be five.) So here’s what I’m going to do: if you read this blog, I pretty much think you’re awesome. If you want the award, leave me a comment telling me why your blog is awesome and take it! I’ll reciprocate by reading your blog (which I most likely do anyway) and highlighting you in a later post. And if you don’t want the award, leave me a comment anyway and tell me about some of your favorite blogs to read. I can always use new friends in my Google Reader feed!

And I really do feel like these blogs are my friends. (Well, I guess I technically mean the bloggers.) When I get home from work, I usually have a mental list of at least several things I could/should do, like exercise, cook dinner, clean the bathroom, etc. But instead I am usually drawn to my computer, to read my blogs. I MISS them when I can’t check in all day! I love seeing what new projects people have done, swapping stories about frugal shopping trips, and reading about emotions that remind me I’m not alone in the life I’m trying to live. And writing my own blog has really begun to shape my life. Every project I do, every meal I cook, every deep thought I have becomes fodder for these posts. I think to myself, “I could do this the lazy way….or I could flesh it out and blog about it!” Having this outlet forces me (in a good way!) to step out of my comfort zone sometimes, and it gives me incentive for having done so.

So this award means a lot to me, to find out that someone I haven’t even met, whose blog I love to read, loves reading mine as well. I would do it even if it were just for me, but it’s nice to know I’m not blogging in vain. Thanks, Laura, for the affirmation. Now come grab your Liebster cred and pass it on!!