Bonding in a Digital World

I’ve spent the last month hoping that some big idea for a blog post would pop into my head.  Last year I was able to average three or four a month.  They were nothing great, but I figured that the more I blogged, the better I’d get at it.  December was a whirlwind and then in January I figured that I was still recovering from December, but now February is almost gone, and I have to admit that the only way I am going to get out of this rut and back into a more productive rut is to just post something.

It would appear that part of my problem is time management.  I work full time, and when I am not at work I am on the computer hanging out with my family and friends on social media.   It is amazing how much time I’m spending with some of my family online and learning things I am sure I’d not learn otherwise.  I am learning a whole new way to be with my kids too.  So far, they have been pretty tolerant of me chiming in on select conversations and even starting up a few that are tailor-made for my participation.  For example this comment and photo posted on Facebook by my eldest:




Mommy and me!

I tried to out-fierce the drag queen.

I failed miserably.

 Of course, Drag Queen Bingo might not be a typical mother/daughter event, but it was a riot and we are going back.  I can’t decide if I am trying to find new ways to stay connected with my daughter and friends, stay relevant in a changing world, or I am doing the things I was too self-conscious to do when I was younger. 

I show up on my younger daughter’s Facebook status too: 

  

Watching Comic Book Men with my momma = We’ll always have Kevin Smith

Salvo hopping with momma.  We’ve watched enough episodes of Intervention to where I can safely call her the enabler to my book addiction. = Who doesn’t love the 5 for $1.00 book bin at Salvation Army Thrift Store? 

Question: “What are you looking at?” Answer: “Your pictures. Then I’m going to spit in your ear.” Reaction: Chris Fecteau; World’s Best Mom. = Sometimes I just say dumb things to see if I can get a reaction.  It worked this time.

While this is amazing and fun, another bonus I really hadn’t counted on were all my new friends found through my SockMonkeysAndBacon fan page.  That will have to wait until another time.  Woo hoo!  I may be back on track AND I have an idea for another blog.  Life doesn’t get much better than that in my world.

The Butcher

Still not so hilarious

For someone who has a hard time shutting up in real life, sitting here trying to come up with something to say has been amazingly difficult.  It absolutely does not help that as I find other bloggers and look at what they have accomplished, I realize that I may have a fundamental problem.  Instead of going online and learning all of these tools in an effort to focus on career development, I have been opened up to all sorts of possibilities that I hadn’t expected and are totally distracting me from my original goal. 

This isn’t a new thing for me.  I can pinball from one project or task while never actually finishing anything.  I am always busy, but seldom do I complete anything. I had been making some headway on this.  I did finish my hand knit Zombie Sock Monkey (without a pattern, thank you very much), but that was something I started prior to this blog / Facebook / Etsy / Twitter / LinkedIn project.  Now, I find myself following a great blog Carmenandginger that feeds into my love of all things second hand.  Not only do I spend way too much time reading her blog, it also makes me want to run off to the nearest flea marker.  Unfortunately, my love for old stuff got me to the place where I needed to start an Etsy store (SockMonkeysAndBacon) to get rid of my stash.  Can you see my problem here? 

I have found that there is a whole world of food bloggers out there who are just waiting to give me one more chocolate cupcake recipe. To that end, might I suggest Evilshenanigans and the Chocolate Italian Wedding Cupcakes with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting?  I just made them yesterday to rave reviews.  Of course both batches of Quick Sour Cream Cinnamon Rolls that I made from this blog were a hit with the whole family too.  I can usually satisfy myself by dumping online recipes into my ever-growing stash, but this blog actually gets me to move into the kitchen and bake.  That is double distraction and frankly I’d be better off learning how to grow vegetables or make salads, if you catch my drift. 

On the plus side, I am hearing things from my kids (age 19 and 23) that I never expected to hear.  My one daughter told me via facebook about my twitter posts that “I never thought I'd have to tell you this, but you use hash-tags too much.” and a recent status posted by my other daughter on facebook about a recent text to her, "'If you were following me on twitter, you'd have found out sooner.' My mother is getting OUT OF CONTROL."  Hey, I have heard worse constructive criticism. Either one is better than being told that you have sprouted some new facial hair or that you are using way too much self tanner.

I guess that for now, I will be grateful for the new ways that I am learning to connect, and I will probably allow myself a little more time to play, but ultimately I will need to either focus on my original goals, or reassess the whole purpose of blogging. 

If you have any ideas, or if you want to tell me about your adventures, I’d love to hear them.

The Butcher

Two weeks in…

This is only my third post in two weeks and obviously this is not going smoothly.  You can just thank me now for all the pompous crap I’ve deleted.  In no particular order, this is what I’ve learned so far.

1. Blogging is hard.  I feel like I now have a perpetual yet undefined homework assignment hanging over my head. 
2. Twitter is really, really fun and useful.  For now I am using it to keep track of random thoughts and observations in much the same way I might use a sketch pad or notebook.  Please feel free to follow me @ChristineAtWFOH
3. A good way to get people to your Facebook fan page is to feature something of theirs and tell them.  Sometimes they bring friends and those friends bring a new dynamic.  SockMonkeysAndBacon on Facebook
4. FAQs are your best friend, and full of good tips.  Unfortunately I still don’t use them enough.
5. It is trickier to get people to find you and follow you than it might seem.  Even if something works, you can’t stop trying to find other strategies and communities.

I still haven’t gotten the energy to fully tackle LinkedIn.  My resume is in better shape and I’ve looked up a few folks, but I need to make some time for that.  Don’t even ask about the web page.  It seemed like a good idea, and I have some stuff filed on it, but that may stay more of a collaborative space for the three of us. 

I am still waiting for more comments on this blog, so if you have anything to say – even just hello – please do so. Thanks to those who have bothered to join and/or comment.  It is way more fun with you on board.

PS The last post about graphics could have used an introduction.  It was a reference to some of the frustrations common to my last job in a graphics office.  I guess good structure will help in the future.  Thanks for your patience.

The Butcher

Why a blog?

I really don’t have a good answer for this question.  I don’t need another project that is for damn sure.  I work full time in a job that pays well and that I like well enough.  I really have no complaints, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel that things in general are slipping through my fingers.  I’ve talked this over with a lot of people, especially those over 40, and we are all at the same point in our lives; we are pretty sure that we will have to find another job in our life, and that social media will play a big part in that search, and that none of us really know how to use it.  What’s more, we are all busy with work, kids, hobbies, school, spouses, and parents so learning another “thing” seems exhausting. 

Of course, we all suspect that NOT learning how to use social media is not an option either.  On top of that, for every benefit you gain from social media, there are a seemingly endless number of pitfalls to not using it carefully or wisely.  To that end, myself and two good friends have decided to start a blog, start to use twitter, clean up our LinkedIn profiles and try to figure some of this out before a crisis hits.  There may be other forums (I have a Facebook fan page for my Etsy site, for example - SockMonkeysAndBacon), but we are trying to see where this takes us organically.

Please do not be surprised at links that go nowhere or lots of links to odd places.  Just ask some of my family on Facebook how truly awful I am.    As for the name, well the short answer is that I used to work with a great group of people and we formed the kind of team that most people only dream of.  We worked hard, and the thread that held us all together was a creative, funny sensibility, coupled with extreme competence and stellar work ethics.  We found ourselves hilarious then, and even though our team has been dismantled still We Find Ourselves Hilarious.

The Butcher