Tuesday, October 23, 2007

 

Follow the Flags - We're Redirecting

Man, when I decide something, I decide it quickly. I've set up a new blog on WordPress. I found a name I liked and you can read all about it on . . . drum roll, please! . . .

The Woo Woo Teacup Journal!

I've got a bit of work to do, transferring my links and the like, and maybe changing the picture, so bear with me. If you follow me using a feed reader or news aggregator, please link up to the new site, if you so desire. You don't have to dump this one right away. I may post a few more straggling things, plus I'm not going to delete this. Too much work went into it over the past year. I'll link to Filter & Splice on my new blog.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 9:50 PM |

Monday, October 22, 2007

 

What's in a Name?

Now that I'm thinking of moving my blog to Word Press, I can't stop thinking about it. More specifically, I can't stop trying to think of a name for it. While I could use Filter & Splice, I discovered that both words are so common online that the site name really doesn't stand out. (And I thought I was being so cute. At least it comes out on top of a Google search when you type in "Filter & Splice.") I've considered using my name for a blog, but the trouble is that there are rafters full of Mary Warners out there, so the name is taken. I could take a pseudonym, something creative and distinctive, but that's not me. I don't want to add the complication. Besides, I like my name.

The internet practically begs for made up words or interesting combinations of words. Joanne, who readers will remember from the Poppy Seed Heart blog, has recently started a blog called Bebellyboo. Very cute. And unique. I need to come up with a name like that, but not like that. One that shows my personality. Ideally, the name will be whimsical, but easy to spell and easy to remember. It's a tall order, which is why I'm racking my brain.

Random starting points for the name - something bird-related, something that uses my initials, a name that uses other letters in my name, something related to Dave Matthews Band (I know, that's lame), something writing-related, something related to creativity, something curvy. I'm also quite fond of the "quite contrary" part of "Mary, Mary, quite contrary." This used to be recited at me when I was a kid, especially by my seventh grade English teacher, which I never minded. Probably because I rather like be contrary, but not always.

I've tried out the following possibilities using my initials by Googling them and checking the number of hits:

mewbird - lots of hits, already taken by some jazz dude
trarybird - no hits
mewzba - no hits
mewsba - no hits (I keep wanting to type the "s" rather than the "z," though I like the "z" better)
zamew - this hit on a Polish guy who makes gantries
snickmew - like the sound of snick
mewzla - one hit
maelwa - 3 hits
melwa - 2860 hits

Suggestions, anyone? This is making me crazy.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 2:16 PM |

Sunday, October 21, 2007

 

Google Analytics

So, then, I'm thinking of switching my blog over to Word Press. While there are certain features of this here Blogger Google blog I like (the easy ability to upload photos and change the template), I don't like that I can't get statistics on the readership. Word Press has the reader stats built into the blogger dashboard. There is a way to get the stats on this Blogger blog, but to do so I'd have to sign up for Google Analytics. It's a free service for blogs that get less than 5 million page views per month and I know I fall well within that category, so that isn't the problem. The problem is that, according to the Terms of Service, Google can change the terms of service at any time, which means it can start charging for the service, but the kicker is that Google doesn't have to notify anyone of the change in the Terms of Service. The onus for doing this is placed with the user, not the company. I don't know about you, but rushing off to check the latest Terms of Service for Google Analytics hardly tops my list of things to do while on the internet. You know, whenever credit card companies or banks change their terms of service, they are legally bound to contact their customers and allow them to opt out. Why is Google not taking the lead on this in the online realm? Why is it not notifying users when its Terms of Service change? Google sure as heck asks for our email addresses often enough. It know where to find us.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 5:25 PM |

Sunday, October 07, 2007

 

Digust

I found an interesting link on Kevin Donovan's "Bumblin' Along" blog. I always find good links there. Kevin really gets around on the internet.

Anyway, this link is to an online test in the Science & Nature section of the BBC. The test, which is easy to take - and, to be honest, pretty fun - is to discover what makes us feel disgusted. You run through a series of pictures and rate your level of disgust from high to low. When the test is over, each picture is explained in relation to how most people feel in terms of disgust. The point is that humans should naturally feel disgusted over things that are potentially disease-producing. When my husband and I went through it, we strangely were not as disgusted as the average person over most of the pictures. I can attribute this to a couple of things. We have three children and have seen pretty much every illness-related disgusting event you can see - poop, snot, gushing blood, etc., etc. - and as a parent, you just have to get over the disgust and deal. Also, we are adventurous eaters, being willing to try most any kind of new food. (It helps to watch Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern.) Hubby is more adventurous than I am with food, but I, at one time, considered becoming a naturopath and have long been fascinated with medicine, so I must have a stomach that can take the gross.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 11:04 AM |
 

Google Alerts

A person recently met introduced me to Google Alerts. I couldn't figure out how certain people rarely named in this blog somehow had discovered practically instantaneously how they'd been named and had dropped by to leave comments. Spooky, let me tell you. Google Alerts was the answer. It allows you to type in search terms to keep track of and spits back mentions of those search terms via email. You need to have a Google account to manage your alerts. You can choose where you want Google to search (blogs, news, comprehensive search) and how often you want to get alerts (as they happen, daily, weekly). I've found several good articles on the Dave Matthews Band this way. Also, in a move that looks like high vanity, I have a Google Alert on my name. What generally appears in my alert is my blog posts, but this morning I found a newspaper article by another writer named Mary Warner.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 10:48 AM |

Friday, October 05, 2007

 

Stephen Fry on Fame

Actor Stephen Fry has started a blog. Neil Gaiman pointed out Stephen's post on fame, which is long, but quite marvelous. It makes our reactions to famous people seem quite ridiculous, albeit I'm not quite sure how we shut off our feelings for those we admire.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 9:41 PM |

Monday, October 01, 2007

 

False Familiarity

Last night my husband and I had a grand opportunity. We met several people from a chat forum my husband participates in. Because I don’t participate in this chat, other than to read over my husband’s shoulder periodically, or listen as he mentions bits of the conversation, I had no preconceived notions of what people would be like based upon their screen names or what they wrote.

Turns out my husband knew two of the posters, one whom he attended Boy Scout camp with as a kid; the other whose daughter lives in our neighborhood. Small world, as someone said last night.

“Red,” the gal who got this gathering together, lived in Minnesota at one time and now lives out-of-state. She wanted to return to Minnesota for a visit and, while here, meet some of the posters. She has had contact with some of the posters before and carefully picked who she wanted to meet, primarily concentrating on those with a liberal bent, but throwing in a few conservatives for good measure. The chat forum often revolves around political issues, so the differences in the political persuasions of posters are pretty apparent over time.

The key here is “over time.” Without physical contact, it is only by following a poster’s writing over time that allows the reader to make judgments about character. And we do make judgments, sometimes too quickly. When we are online with someone, we tend to think we know him/her. A false familiarity builds up. We may make a joke, thinking the person on the other end will know it’s a joke, but the person takes the joke as an insult instead, being unable to read our tone or posture.

Red gave us the perfect example of this phenomenon last night. She discussed a poster who portrays himself as the opposite of what he is in order to get a rise out of others. My husband was suspicious of his comments, thinking maybe the poster was doing this, but he wasn’t sure, so decided not to engage him.

Meeting chat posters last night brought humanity – a physical humanity – to those present. It’s not about words on a screen (sometimes very angry words); it’s about feeling the fullness of a person behind the words, which tempers the emotions.

One man, who was born in South Africa and conscripted into the South African military, where he served on border patrol, has an interesting take on immigration. He feels that it should happen in a slow and individual fashion, rather than en masse. He is now a U.S. citizen, so he understands immigration on a personal level. With insight into his history, those who read his chat posts on immigration will weigh his thoughts more carefully.

Like most people, I am apt to create fictions about others in my mind when I get a brief or one-sided view of them. (As a fiction writer, maybe I’m even more likely to do so.) That’s what made last night’s gathering so great. Reality can certainly be a disappointment, but, as I’ve often found, it can be way better than fiction. So it was last night. Cheers to the chatters!

For those of you who regularly comment on my blog, know that I’d eventually like to meet you in the flesh.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 1:11 PM |

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

 

FtTP - Feist + Mika

Rianna has saved the day by sending me a blog post idea. Sometimes I just can't get into the mood to post something here - last night was just such a night - and it helps when I get a suggestion. I would have posted this Frankensteining the Talent Pool combo last night, but wanted to get Rianna's permission to do so first. So, here goes:

FtTP: Feist + Mika

I've discussed Mika here before. Lovely, upbeat music, he's got. I heard Feist through a commercial first and wondered who was performing. My husband looked it up and told me the name, which I promptly forgot. Then Rianna reminded me through her email last night. Feist, which sounds like it could be the name of a group, appears to be the name of a female performer. She has an ethereal sound, happy with a smidge of melancholy. Check out her 1, 2, 3, 4 on YouTube. This is the song from the commercial. I'll tell you, she and Mika could certainly have a fashion-sharing party. They both appear to enjoy dancing, too.

Thanks, Rianna!

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# posted by Anonymous @ 5:31 PM |

Friday, September 14, 2007

 

We Interrupt This Broadcast

We interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast of the Atlanta tourism station to bring you the following announcement:

Mary's sister is getting married tomorrow. Mary is leaving today for her sister's house and won't be back for a couple of days. Blog posting suspended until then.

Have a great weekend! :)

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# posted by Anonymous @ 12:03 PM |

Sunday, September 09, 2007

 

We're Back!

We have returned from Atlanta. I see that yesterday was the 1-year anniversary of this here li'l ol' blog. Happy Blogday! More to follow from Atlanta.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 8:15 PM |

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

 

More Random Thoughts

It's getting late, almost bedtime. Eldest Son just headed off to Sleepy Land. Daughter and Youngest Son will soon follow, as will I and Hubby because it's just that time of day. My head is a blank for blogging tonight. It happens sometimes, but if I start writing, things usually come. Checking the blogs I read through Bloglines also helps. Check out this post from Witty Writer Gal on her blog Not Available on MySpace. Aptly, it's about having blog block.

Kevin, of Copyrightings fame, has started a blog called Bumblin' Along. He's posted a great poem by Shel Silverstein that's definitely worth a read.

I'm calling it a day. Goodnight, all.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 10:26 PM |

Saturday, July 28, 2007

 

Sitting Zazen on a Motorcycle

Hubby and I went for a motorcycle ride today. The ride was a benefit for a nonprofit organization. Benefit rides are quite popular among motorcyclists, with so many being scheduled during pleasant weather that you could go on one every single weekend through the summer if you like. When hubby and I first starting riding motorcycle, I felt so European on the back of the bike. Now that we've been riding for several years, it feels like I'm sitting zazen. When I'm on the back of a bike, I can't get out of the position I've willingly put myself in. I can barely move and my muscles cramp up. I stretch as much as I can, but mostly I have to just live with the discomfort. (Ever get an itchy ear when wearing a full face helmet?) Couple the usual physical discomfort with today's stickety-stinkin' heat and you've got the makings of a great zazen practice.

The mind rolls with the miles . . . look at the cows . . . watch out for the road kill . . . someone piled rocks from their farm field in a long pile by some trees . . . just like in Shawshank Redemption . . . ice cream . . . if I could create a Ben & Jerry's flavor, what would it be . . . Mary, Mary, quite contrary . . . Mary, Mary, Quite Raspberry . . . Crocodile Hunter . . . not the young one, Steve Irwin, the other one, Crocodile Dundee . . . didn't he marry his co-star after the movies . . . oh, we just crossed a river . . . check out the sunflowers . . . what am I going to blog about . . . Ben & Jerry's . . . sitting zazen on a motorcycle . . . God, my shoulders ache . . . .

By the end of the ride, the mind empties and you can't think of anything anymore. The wind just keeps rushing by.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 7:25 PM |

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

 

PC World's Top 100 Blogs

PC World published their top 100 blogs list yesterday. Officially, it's called "100 Blogs We Love." There are many of the usual suspects on the list - BoingBoing, Slashdot, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Wonkette, Seth Godin's blog, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, 43 Folders, etc. etc. I almost hate to list them because they get so much attention. For you early bloggers out there, the reality sets in quickly that blog ranking seems to be pretty fixed. Unless you do some serious marketing, your blog is not going to reach Technorati's top 100, or anyone else's, because people are creatures of habit. Most of them will go to the big blogs, the ones with millions or thousands of readers and they're going to stay there for quite some time. Those big blogs don't ever seem to lose rank, unless they're just jockeying around on the list a few spots. The earliest bloggers had an open field and thus could cement their rankings as long as their writing was decent. Well, there are quite a number of well-written lesser known blogs, and I'd like to see them get some recognition. I'm going to try to create my own top 100 list of blogs. I have a few already on my list, which I'll post later. In the meantime, feel free to suggest blogs that you read that don't get much airplay.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 9:10 PM |
 

The Illustrious Maddy Gaiman

Ms. Maddy Gaiman, daughter of author Neil Gaiman, is guest hosting her father's journal/blog. She's simply delightful, articulate and all-out charming. There's no telling how long she'll be filling in, so I'm recommending that you bop on over and check out her world view before she turns the whole thing back over to her dad.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 8:59 PM |

Monday, June 11, 2007

 

The Band IS a Startup

I read a blog post the other day by Darren Herman. It's called "The Startup as a Band" and Darren uses the post to draw analogies between a business startup and the Dave Matthews Band. He assigns each of the members of DMB to typical board roles of a startup, i.e. Dave is CEO/President, Carter is Sales Guru, Stefan is Technology Guru, Boyd is Marketing Guru, and LeRoi is Financial Wizard. Been mulling this over, being a bit bothered by it in an odd sort of way - people can make whatever analogies they like; it's no skin off my nose - but here's my revelation - A band is already a business, so while each band member can be assigned particular business "roles," in actuality there is no analogy to be made because band members are already serving as the board of directors for their organizations.

Being an artist and writer, I know how often people expect creative people (including musicians) to give away their talents - to become starving artists. So many bands struggle for beer money we forget that those who make it big, like DMB, are fronting massive organizations comprised of managers, roadies, producers, sound technicians, set designers, costume and makeup people, artists, photographers, caterers, marketers, bus drivers, pilots, etc. etc. Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but my dictionary says that an analogy is "a resemblance in some particulars between things otherwise unlike." A band IS a startup, thus the comparison is between apples and apples, thus no analogy.

It's difficult to be this crass about bands, especially those whose music we personally connect to, but there it is. The arts are big business. Minnesota Citizens for the Arts has released two studies about the economic impact of the arts in Minnesota. One, called "Artists Count!", polled individual artists and found that their economic impact as far as spending goes is $295 million. The other study, "The Arts: A Driving Force in Minnesota's Economy," shows that nonprofit arts and cultural organizations contribute $838.5 million to the state's economy and employ 22,000 people. Minnesota tends to be #3 (after New York and California) on arts spending, a haven of sorts for the creatively gifted. We, musicians, writers, artists, actors, etc., have a lot to offer society, and not just in the peace, love, beauty, quality of life categories. We're talking cold hard cash, baby. And DMB has leveraged it well as leaders of their corporation.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 12:57 PM |

Thursday, May 31, 2007

 

The Dreaded Writer's Bio

Have you ever been asked to write a short biography? Maybe an artist's bio, or a writer's bio, to go with some event or publication or presentation you're making? This drives me nuts on so many levels. First of all, who cares? Who cares who I am and what I've done in the past? Can't my work just speak for itself?

My writers' group had a public reading in May and I was asked to write the Dreaded Writer's Bio. I refused. Yes, it was snotty of me, and completely not kind to the MC. She took it well and introduced me as someone who didn't want a big introduction. Part of my squeamishness about being introduced with a bio is that I'm always introducing myself during presentations at work. I'll just say my name and my title and launch into my topic and people can judge for themselves whether I know what I'm talking about. My other problem with writing a bio is that each audience is different and I can't divine what each wants to know about me. Do they care about my education, my accomplishments, my interests, my family? It's complicated and a four to five sentence bio doesn't do anyone's life justice, so why bother?

On the other hand - and there's always another hand, isn't there? - I enjoy reading author and artist bios. Even if they are only a few sentences. The bio, along with the work itself, always lead me to more questions about the artist or writer, which I think is a good thing. It means I'm interested.

Maybe it's just that I have difficulty with self-promotion. It seems so self-serving. (Well, duh, that's what it's supposed to be!) But, as a kid I was taught not to be boastful, and writing a bio feels a hair's breadth away from boasting.

So, then, Dear Readers, have you ever been in the position of writing a bio? What do you think of the experience? How do you get through it? What do you want to know about your favorite artists and writers?



P.S. And, yes, I did write the bio for this blog, but I felt the way I've just described while doing it.

P.P.S. I suggested to the writers in my group that next year we trade names and we'll write each other's biographies, rather than do it ourselves.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 7:36 PM |

Thursday, May 17, 2007

 

Ooh, Goody! I've Been Tagged!

Kim, over at the Knit Whimsies blog, has tagged me. It's my first meme ever. The theme of the meme (how's that for a rhyme?) is to list 8 random things about me. Then I'm supposed to tag 8 more people. That last bit may be hard, but here goes with the

8 Random Things About Me . . .

1. I love birds, but free birds, not captive ones, so I won't ever own a bird as a pet.
2. I once gave myself an acupunture treatment - at the direction of a naturopath - to liven up the dead area around my C-section scar. It worked.
3. It is my greatest desire to be musical in some way and my goal is to eventually write a song.
4. When I was in middle school, I had a friend who was the oldest girl among three siblings. Her middle sibling was a boy and her youngest sibling was a girl. I thought that was the best arrangement for children because each was in a special place - oldest girl - middle only boy - youngest girl. I wished for that arrangement of children and I got it - only in the boy, girl, boy version.
5. I was taught not to talk back to anyone and, consequently, openly and verbally disagreeing with someone is something I have great trouble doing.
6. That whole free bird thing? That's the reason I like cats instead of dogs. I don't want to control animals and dogs won't listen to me anyway.
7. Almost every work day for lunch I eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Mostly because they travel well.
8. I've kept a daily calendar journal since 1996 and hope they will be useful when I go down in history. (Is "going down in history" a euphemism for dying? If so, eek! Not to worry. I'm not dying until I'm at least 97.)

As for that tagging part, I don't know too many people who read this blog who also have their own blogs, so I'm going to tag

Rianna - who can answer in the comments section.

I'm also tagging

Kevin at Copyrightings
and
Erich at Dangerous Intersection

although I can't be sure that they check in here. The two people I would tag, Kim and Joanne, have already been tagged, so it'd be kind of silly for me to tag them again.

I'm dreadful at tagging because I read a bunch of giganto blogs that don't take comments. Sheesh! I do enjoy the memes, though.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 8:20 PM |

Monday, April 30, 2007

 

Great Writing

I got a comment from Borax on my post about Minnesota's Basic Skills Tests that raises a very good question. Seems Borax doesn't have a lot of faith in the literary quality displayed by popular writers. Borax writes,

"They're famous because of their accessability, readability, flow, and entertainment, not because of their talent as writers. The average person doesn't know jack about good writing, which is why there's little correlation between great writing and popularity."

I rather think that readability, flow, and entertainment are among the qualities of good writing, although they certainly aren't the only ones. How would you define good or great writing? What attracts you to someone's literary efforts?

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# posted by Anonymous @ 3:06 PM |

Friday, April 27, 2007

 

Perverse Pleasure

Most people who know me would say I'm nice. I'm not tooting my horn here; that's what they'd say because, for the most part, I don't try to ruffle feathers. However, I've got a mean streak. My weaving teacher in college recognized it once. The assignment that led to his recognition was to combine two pigments together on two notecards. On one, we were to identify the two colors we had used. The other was handed to someone else in class and they had to try to remix the color. My teacher saw the color I had made, a dark purply splotch, and what I had mixed to arrive at it, something odd, like green and blue, and he looked at me and said, "I didn't know you had it in you."

That sums up my mean streak. It's not a big thing, but it comes out once in a while in weird ways. For example, I've taken a perverse pleasure in doing blog searches on Dave Matthews Band and reading the negative comments people make. One blog writer used to like DMB, but quit listening after coming to Christianity. The reason? DMB's music wasn't holy enough because it glorified partying. Someone else - well, a lot of someone elses - think DMB's music simply sucks. Of course, I disagree, but I still like reading this trash talk. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe it's because I like to think of myself as a discerning individual and, if everyone under the sun likes the same thing I do, well, I'm no longer discerning, am I? I'm just one of the herd. And I don't like being part of the herd.

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# posted by Anonymous @ 4:56 PM |

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

 

Getting the Message

Before going on and on wondering what the term "business model" meant, I should have done my homework. I found the term defined on Wikipedia. Turns out that, even though the term was coined in the 1950s, it didn't see widespread use until the 1990s, so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on myself for not knowing it. It refers to all the how-tos and where-fors and why-ofs and what-ifs of business, not the general notion of selling products and services for a profit. By dropping that post, which, despite its length, I wrote in about fifteen minutes, I did learn one thing: Economists don't read this blog!

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# posted by Anonymous @ 8:13 PM |

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