What Not To Blog

Sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel. ~Author Unknown

Warning: mild rant ahead.

I follow a lot of blogs for various reasons. Many are author blogs, some are friends, some are country living or cooking blogs, some are just fun blogs I've stumbled across. But they are numerous.

I'm fairly patient and relatively tolerant about what people post. I'm well aware not everyone shares my opinions (even though I'm right *G*) and that they're absolutely free to talk about whatever they want on their blogs. Just as it's my right to follow and read or NOT follow. For the most part, if I typically enjoy a blog, a jaunt in a direction I don't particularly care for won't put me off permanently.

However...

Recently, I stopped following a blog of a person who I very much like, but who has -- in the past two weeks -- posted long-winded rants about a large religious organization who she believes is utterly corrupt, and a political rant that got ... extremely unkind and personal.

Here's the thing: I'm not a member of that religious organization, and feel much the same as she does about it, but her post was vicious and rabid. Ditto the political post. What really distressed me, though, is that she's a published author who is (I assume) trying to use her blog to promote her writing. And she's lost me and probably others from her list of followers because of her virulent rants.

Those of you who know me well know I have strong opinions on a variety of subjects. And I'm sure that some of it must leak through here now and then. BUT... this blog isn't for the discussion of religion or politics. I'm not in the least bit interested in starting debates about any of that (I'll reserve that for my IRL conversations). I find the lengthy, passionate discussion of such things off-putting ... even when I may agree with the heart of the post.

I stopped following one of my favorite authors of all time when she began getting extremely political on her blog. If I want to read a blog on politics, I'll read a political blog (and I DO have several blogs on politics in my Google Reader). I just don't expect a romance author's blog to cover politics day in and day out.

I miss her. But I haven't been back in over two years -- even though, odds are she's not still posting about politics every day (she might be, though -- who knows?). She put me off that much. Interestingly enough, I've also stopped buying her books, though it wasn't really an intentional decision (and only just occurred to me as I wrote this).

What about you? What will cause you to stop reading a blog? What do you like about blogs that you read, and what do you find off-putting?

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You Are an English Garden

You are creative and vibrant. You are inspired by everything around you, and you don't have any one style. You like a mix of old and new. And you always have something unique to add to the equation as well. You are informal, open-minded, and flexible. You love to play around with art and design. You tend to change things up a lot. Whether it's your own clothes or your home, you can't stay with one look for long!

What Kind of Garden Are You?

Um... 50/50.

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Monday Morning Meme and More

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. ~Benjamin Franklin



(As a sidenote, Karen is also participating in the Buy a Friend a Book Week promo -- and is giving away a book of your choice -- up to $15 -- to one lucky person who comments on her post, so click on the picture and comment!)

September 29th Questions:

1. How do you define happiness?

That depends on the day... and sometimes even the moment. Keep in mind, I strongly believe "happiness" and "joy" are two completely different animals. I think happiness largely relies on external stimuli, while joy comes from within.

And that was way too deep for a Monday morning.

2. What did you have for breakfast? (If not this morning, tell us what you had the last time you had breakfast).

I've only had coffee so far, and breakfast yesterday was a long time ago... um... scratches head and thinks... I believe I had apple waffles with homemade strawberry syrup?

3. On a scale of one to ten, how sick are you of the presidential campaign? Do you talk about politics on your blog? What about in real life? Why or why not?

I'm TOTALLY sick of it!! I wish the vote was today so it could just BE OVER. This has to be one of the loudest, most annoying campaigns I've had to live through -- and it's not so much the actual contenders that are on my nerves (though that does happen from time to time), but PEOPLE. I am sick to death of the mudslinging and the name-calling. Why (WHY WHY WHY) can't people talk about the positive reasons they are voting FOR a candidate, instead of all the reasons the rest of us SHOULDN'T vote for the other one?? Hmmm???? Is anyone really voting FOR anyone? Or is it more voting against?

And what you just read is as political as I get, despite the fact that I am VERY, VERY politically active and have some extremely strong opinions. This blog is not the place for them.

4. What about your life today would surprise your teen-aged self?

That I'm living in New Hampshire. Otherwise, not much, really.

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So... this weekend. Rain, rain, rain and more rain. This meant DH was stuck INSIDE all day, every day.

It's amazing we all made it out alive.

Friday, he rebuilt a computer for a cousin and then delivered it (and they live an hour away, and he got gabby so he was gone for quite some time).

Saturday, he rebuilt his old desktop for DD to use because it was a better machine than MY old desktop which she was currently using. And (THANK EVERYTHING HOLY), he was able to pull the automatic database backup off the old system and put it on the new one, so I didn't have to manually transfer scores.

My neighbor brought her black lab by to play with Dakota, and asked how DH was doing with all the rain keeping him in (see... she's fairly new on the block and ALREADY knows how nuts he gets). I said he was rebuilding a computer, and she as amazed at his handiness. Thus far, she's seen him: install hardwood, repair various vehicles, winterize and repair his boat, and now rebuilding computers.

Why do you think I keep him around? *G*

Saturday night, I was awakened from a nice, deep sleep by thumping noises. I was far too dopey to get up, so just dropped back off into dreamland. The next morning, I came downstairs, under orders from Judy to watch "Eureka" because she wanted to talk about it. I didn't bother turning the lights on, just flopped down into the recliner...

...and landed on my butt on the floor. Seems the thumping was DH rearranging the furniture.

Sunday was more of the same. Puttering. He did some minor cleaning of the chimney, then had to mop (for a guy who can rebuild computers, I laughed at how long it took him to figure out how to attach the Swiffer pad to the handle...lol). And since he was mopping, he opted to move more furniture.

Thankfully it cleared up for a couple of hours, so he mowed. And puttered outside, but the rain did drive him back in.

Today was supposed to be sunny and warm (thankfully... Dakota is bouncing off the walls), but there's an awful lot of liquid sunshine out there right now.

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I spent the many moments prior to falling asleep last night thinking about my two possible stories for the Samhain call-out. I figured out a logical conflict for my cowboy story, but I need to figure out how to work around it. The problem with it is that the hero will be out of town. A lot. And, that makes it hard to build their relationship.

For my shifter one, I know the hero has something the bad guys want... I just don't know what the something IS. And all the moodling I did last night didn't help.

Oh well, the cowboy story deadline is first, so I suppose if I have to have one of them further along, that's the one it should be anyway.

The only odd thing? It's the sequel to "A Change of Heart". Is it weird to submit it to a different publisher?

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Monday Morning Meme

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. ~Carl Zwanzig

I think that guy was trying to be funny, but I heartily believe in duct tape. I love the stuff... Hey, even MacGyver worshipped at the altar of duct tape, right?

I'm exhausted. It's been a busy, busy, busy (not to mention VERY long) weekend and I'm thrilled it's Monday. No, really, I am!

I did get a bit of writing done, but mostly Judy and I worked on planning and executing our HUGE first anniversary bash for The Long and the Short of It. Yep... next month will have been ONE WHOLE YEAR that we've had the website up and running, and what a fun and crazy and interesting year it's been.

In any case, I'm a bit pooped, so, without further ado, I give you:

1. What is your blog about? How long have you been blogging? Why did you begin blogging? Is it the same reason that you continue to blog today? How has your blog changed over the time you’ve had it? In six words, sum up your blog.

I started blogging to promote my writing. When I started, I hadn't even been published yet. In fact, I don't think I'd even submitted anything for publication -- but, hey. I'm forward thinking, what can I say?

Since then, it's morphed a bit. Do I talk about my writing? Sure... but I also gab about anything that strikes me as, well, something to gab about! And, best of all, I've made some great online friends (::waves::).

Six words? Um, um, um... Writer, reader, butterfly raiser & vole catcher. (I didn't count the &, lol...)

I don't know. What six words would YOU use to describe this blog?

2. When you go for a haircut, do you do something drastic? Or are you more of a ‘just a trim’ sort of person? Do you color your hair? If so, how often? Tell us about your best, and worst, hairstyle. What sort of hairstyle do you think looks good on you now?

Drastic or a trim? Depends. Most recently, drastic -- 10" off. But usually, it's just a trim.

Color? Yep... I'm gonna wash that gray right outta my hair... and I do it whenever my DD mentions my gray is showing again.

Best and worst? Honestly I have no idea. I've never really had a horrible haircut, and I've mostly worn my hair (with the exception of the current short cut) long and not much different my entire life (except with I was desperate to have "feathers" in junior high, damn that Farrah Fawcett).

3. Tell us about your 4th of July celebration. Show us some pictures (if you have them). What did your family do? Did you go and see a big fireworks display? Or did you stay home and have a (semi) quiet family fireworks celebration? On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), how patriotic would you say you are? Do you routinely talk about our country’s issues within your family unit? Do you and your significant other see eye-to-eye on political issues? International friends: tell us how you celebrate your country’s birthday/new year/significant annual event.

The dog and I stayed home. It was wonderful. DD and DH took the boat out with my SILs and swam and ate bad food and watched fireworks. I don't like boating, I try to stay out of the sun as much as possible, and I can't stay up late... so their day sounded like pure torture to me.

Patriotic? Quite. Discussing politics? Regularly. It's actually something I'm quite passionate about -- but I don't discuss it here on the blog. It's forbidden (and BOY is it hard to bite my tongue sometimes, but so far, I've managed). My DH and I are pretty well aligned politically, so that's good.

4. If you only had enough time each day to read one section of the newspaper, which section would you read? Why this particular section?

Comics? LOL... either that or the editorials. Because they both make me laugh.

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We hatched another butterfly yesterday. This one fell, too (stupid things!), but I happened to be there about two seconds after he hatched (and, yes, thus far they've ALL been males... how do you tell the difference? Go here to see.) and scooped him up. DD held him, dangling from her finger, for about 45 minuntes and then put him out on the echinacea. He flew off about an hour later. Phew. This butterfly wrangling is hard work!

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