Category — Microblog Mondays

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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We watch Doctor Who every Saturday night, and Sunday morning, I go on the blogs and see what other people thought of the episode.  I tend to read other people who love the show as much as I do.

Last week, I ventured into the comments on a post, which was a mistake.  The people were tearing apart the episode, pointing out what they thought were unrealistic aspects of the plot.  (Uh… do these people realize that Time Lords don’t exist?  And the Tardis isn’t real?  Fiiiiiiiiiiiction.)

I don’t want to pick Doctor Who apart.  For me, the show is successful simply because it makes me happy.  Doctor Who makes me happy for a full hour.  To me, that is the mark of success: did you change one person’s mood for the better?  Yes?  Then your creation is a success.

So rather than complain about something, tell me what makes you happy?

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

This week’s list is closed.  But come back next Monday for a new list:

I recently downloaded an app that gives me 17 options for wave sounds.  I can listen to water slapping against stones or waves crashing on the sand.  I prefer one called “waves and froth” partially because it’s the most relaxing, beach-y sound and partially because of the commentary Josh makes about froth.

So, I’ve been playing this app sometimes to help me fall asleep.  It definitely works.  The nights I use it, I fall asleep within a half hour or so.  On nights I don’t use it, I can be up for hours.

Still, I don’t use it every night.

You may question the intelligence in that last statement.  I mean, I found something that works.  Why don’t I use it all the time?  And I guess I’m trying to not form a habit and use the waves like a crutch, because I could see myself inadvertently training myself to not be able to sleep sans waves.  And that just isn’t an option — there are too many times I’m sharing a hotel room or camping with other people or not in the privacy of my room.  And I want to be able to sleep during those times, and I fear that I will set myself up to not be able to sleep without white noise and make myself miserable on those occasions.

So I never let myself go three days in a row listening to the waves because I’ve read in multiple places that three times creates a habit.

On the other hand, tomorrow marks the third #MicroblogMonday, and for some people who have done it twice, this third time will hopefully cement a habit.  A weekly Monday appointment for yourself where you kick off the week by giving us a tiny glimpse into your world.  Even if you don’t accomplish another post this week, you at least know that you got up one.  And you did it before the week really began.

This is likely the final reminder you’ll get for the project (three times is a charm?) so go make an appointment on your calendar and set it to run weekly.  Or make a mysterious little “P” every Monday on your wall calendar and leave people guessing as to whether you’re reminding yourself to write a post or noting that you have your period all.the.time.

So, tomorrow is  #MicroblogMonday. At some point between Monday morning and Tuesday morning, post a brief update. It can be as short as 1 word (“blech!”) or as long as 8 sentences.

Actually don’t get hung up on the length. Micro just means small. Anything you’d post on Twitter or Facebook, or an image you’d post on Instagram… that’s all this is.

So… see you tomorrow with your mini post.  And in the meantime, think of other things you want to start and go do them three times.

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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I was walking with a woman I barely know when she said, “Did you know that your hair is two colours?”  I nodded.  She continued, “One colour is brown.  And the other is grey.”

“Yes,” I responded.

“Did you know that there is dye that can make all your hair brown?”

“Yes,” I said.  “I know about dye.”

She nodded.  “Some people have two colours in their hair.  Brown and blonde.  But that is not you.  You have brown and grey.”

We don’t really need to debate the rudeness of this exchange.  I’m more commenting on it because I think about the colour of my hair a lot.  There is not one molecule in my body interested in dyeing my hair.  Yet at the same time, every single molecule in my body wants my hair to be back to brown.  My molecules fight a lot.

I would never think like this if it wasn’t conveyed to women my age that we should dye our hair, that is makes us look old or different from our peers if we don’t.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

This week’s list is closed.  But come back next Monday for a new list:

I’m not going to write a post like this every Sunday, but it seemed fitting while trying to start a routine to post something one day ahead of time.  So this is your reminder.  Tomorrow is another #MicroblogMonday.  At some point between Monday morning and Tuesday morning, post a brief update.  It can be as short as 1 word (“blech!”) or as long as 8 sentences.

Actually don’t get hung up on the length.  Micro just means small.  Anything you’d post on Twitter or Facebook, or an image you’d post on Instagram… that’s all this is.

The post serves as a tiny glimpse into your world as the week starts.  Which is all status updates do: just tell us what is happening in your life or how you see the world or something you found amusing.  Hopefully this tiny post will give you momentum to write again later in the week knowing that you’ve already posted once.  Or maybe not.  Maybe all you need is to do the little check in once per week on your blog.  Whatever you want to do.

And then post a link to your post in the open thread.  Please remember to do that.  I ended up finding a bunch of posts this week that weren’t added just because they were in my rss reader.  But if you’re going to send your thoughts out there, you might as well add yourself to the thread.  Others finding you, and all of that.

So 26 people participated in the first one, which (1) came without warning — I mean, I posted the intro post and the open thread on the same day, and (2) fell on a holiday weekend in the US.  Hopefully even more will show up tomorrow with a post because they have this 24-hour reminder or because they see it on a friend’s blog or because of word-of-mouth or because they made themselves a repeating calender reminder to microblog for five minutes right before they leave for work Monday mornings.

I’ll admit that my idea to do this came from a selfish space.  I miss a lot of bloggers.  I miss the bloggers who still post irregularly but spend a lot of time on other social media sites.  I like Twitter and Facebook, but I don’t connect with people over there as I do on blogs.  As I told Mali recently, it often feels as if I’m shouting out words as I run past whenever I comment on anything over on those social media sites.  The status updates come and go quickly.  I can’t keep up.

Here’s the other thing: I’ll glimpse an update and not really understand the context, so I don’t comment for fear of saying the wrong thing because I don’t know the scope of the person’s words.  For instance, they’ll say, “problems at work.”  Is the proper response, “Again?  I’m so sorry.”  Or is it, “Oh no!  What happened?”  On a blog, I would likely know if the person had been having on-going problems.  On Twitter, not so much unless I caught all their other tweets on the topic.  And I don’t.  I can’t.  But on a blog, I can scroll back for a moment and refresh my brain.  I can jump into a new story and read some background.  I can read the words when I have time to sit down and concentrate.

Plus, I discovered that little posts pack an emotional punch.  I think we’re so accustomed to seeing long posts (like this one!) on a blog, that we forget how much we can do with a few words.  And I like the idea of thoughts that would otherwise be lost because they don’t warrant a long unpacking seeing the light of day because they’re a perfect nugget for a microblog.

So… That’s why I started this.  It was emotional to see some old bloggers peek out of their blogs again.  If this brings a handful of people back to their blogging space once a week, I’ll see it as a huge success.  I’m not asking for anyone to let go of any of those other social media sites.  Just please make a brief status update from your own home on the Web.

Thank you in advance to everyone who participates tomorrow.  And if you didn’t get a chance to see last week’s open thread, peruse the participants below:

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is?  Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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Back on May 12th, I made myself a note that reads: “Ishiguro for chickens.”

That’s it.

Ishiguro for chickens.

I have no clue what this means now, though it’s intriguing.  Was I considering a situation for chickens where they were treated well just to be slaughtered?  Do I want Ishiguro to write books specifically for chickens?  Or about chickens?  Sometimes I wish I could remember what I was thinking when I wrote down these cryptic notes, but sometimes it’s more interesting to find them and not understand.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. For this first time, the list will be open until Wednesday morning. (Normally, it will close on Tuesdays.)  Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means?  Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list.  I will remove any posts that are connected to businesses or are sponsored posts.

This week’s list is closed.  But come back on Monday for a new list: