Blogging aspirations
The Democrat & Chronicle put out a call for Rochester bloggers last week and I responded, one among many hopefuls apparently.
One of my missions this year is to do more local blogging and write about more than just, well, Duncan, really. So I was browsing the community suburbs blogs and the Chili one cracks me up.
On The Tiger Beat blog that I contribute to, I’ve written about finding your voice and Michelle Child definitely has her own voice. There’s a whole lot of personality that comes through in her posts.
Me, I apparently come through as “cold.” (Hehehe. I’ve now started calling Duncan “the child” all of the time. And then covering him in kisses and making him giggle.)
So fingers crossed that the folks at the D&C think I’m wonderful and fabulous and should become their new Rochester blogger. 
Mission (semi-)accomplished
Well, the blog is moved. The theme is updated. The Adsense ads are back. Am I done? Of course not.
Am I done for today? Yeah. (Which could well mean I’m done for a while, but who knows.)
I decided not to keep most of my Rochester blogs links because, in all honesty, they’re not blogs I actually go and read all that much. I’ll add some of them back after I’ve checked them out to make sure they’re still current. Plus there are other ways to find local blogs now (when I went about finding as many Rochester blogs as I could, there wasn’t a simple way to find them otherwise).
Duncan is a fountain of snot this weekend and a fuss-pot to boot. He absolutely doesn’t want to nap this afternoon, even though he needs it. So we’re going to finish watching a movie and cuddle some more.
Moving the blog and two new teeth
Important things first — we have 2 new teeth. Rather, Duncan has. The two top teeth are (finally) coming through.
I say finally only because it’s been a 2-month “break” since the bottom two teeth emerged. But it hasn’t been a break at all. We got maybe a couple of weeks of no teething and then it started up again in fits and spurts but with nothing to show for it.
So now Duncan has teeth P, O, E and F. (Thanks, Jen, for the tooth chart.)
Moving the blog
I’ve been considering moving to a different blogging software for a while. As much as I love the ease of Blogger (and I’ve been with Blogger since the beginning so I have some feelings of loyalty too), it doesn’t let you do a bunch of stuff that I’d like to do. Like categorize posts. Or edit my template offline and use more CSS. (I guess it would let me do that if I set it up, but that’s too much of a pain right now.)
I’ve been talking and thinking on and off about doing more with this blog — like writing product reviews, having more AdSense links, writing about writing and my new PR business (site is still being worked on). And for a while I thought I’d have 2 blogs. But, really, who has time? And half of what I’m “selling” is me – the me you know (and love! 
from this blog.
The cool thing about this blog and silandara.com site is that it’s evolved over time as I’ve changed and taken my life in new directions. Back in 1996 when I uploaded my first site, it was a whole lot different than it is now. From there, it evolved — from photos to poetry to music to ramblings about Duncan and life as a mum.
So. I think I’m going to move it over to a WordPress blog installation on my server. I probably won’t keep all of the archives online. How much of my past 4 years do we really need to keep public and searchable anyway? (My first post was sometime in March 2002.)
The OTHER blog
I did it. It took me a few days to finally get it up and running, but I did it.
A professional blog. A serious blog. A blog where I’ll have important things to say. Ha. Sure. Something like that.
Only a few people will get it’s name, Deliberate creation. But it makes me happy. I am deliberately creating my future, after all. And I’ve had a few questions about the domain, aradnalis.com and my business, Aradnalis Productions. Think Oprah and Harpo Productions.
So. That’s the new blog update.
In Duncan news, he’s 4 months old today. He polished off almost a whole jar of organic applesauce and sweet potatoes at dinner. He’s actually enjoying tummy time now. He remains a wonderful, sweet and intelligent baby boy. And I feel so blessed to have him. We stared at each other for quite a while during his bath tonight. It was a wonderful moment or two of connecting with him.
I managed to rearrange the dining room a bit today, as well as finish up another MPI lesson. Four more to go and I’m done with that part. Then there’s some essay writing and testing and other stuff to do, but at least no more lessons.
And now I’m going to bed.
Writing wherever life takes me
I think I’m going to start another blog. This occurred to me last night.
I’ll keep posting to this blog – you know, the stuff I want to share with friends and family. But it’s been taken over completely by baby-itis and I don’t know when or if or how it’ll ever find a cure. Or even that it should.
I read stuff about blogging, about the Web, about podcasting, trends, technology, writing, politics, whatever, that I want to comment on. But this doesn’t seem like the appropriate place. One day a post about the state of … I don’t know, something profound. The next day an update about Duncan finishing his first jar of applesauce. I think it might be a bit too incongruous.
I am a mother and a tech head, that’s true. And I blend the worlds as much as I can, as I don’t think I can happily live without either. But I think they might be mutually exclusive worlds in the blogosphere.
So. I don’t know what the blog will be called. I don’t know where I’m going to host it. I don’t even know what domain name I’ll put it under. And I’m still mulling over what, exactly, I’ll write about. Writing? Marketing? Blogging? Actual ways you can make money online? Any and all of my side projects? I don’t know. All of the above, perhaps.
I didn’t know what I was going to write about on this blog. That’s why it’s called “musings” and whatever else of a writer and folk-rock musician (or something like that). I used to write about…what did I write about? Dyeing my hair and playing gigs? Now it’s all baby this and baby that. It’s wherever life takes me. Maybe I should change its name to that…
Confession
OK, so the real reason I didn’t blog about my gigs and how they really went was because I was vying for a record deal and wanted to sound as big and as successful as possible. Didn’t want any record execs coming on here and reading about the $12 I made in tips, the weird old guys that hit on me or lugging my PA system back to my car in below zero weather.
Had to create the hype, right? Not that there were any record execs. Not that there was any reason to worry. And maybe a bit more bluntness would have helped, anyway.
So that’s me, always trying to make a good impression and get people to think everythings just fine and going smoothly. Surprising I’ve been so honest with all this baby stuff, really. But it feels right to come clean and just be who I am.
Man, this whole reproducing a new human being changes things. Gives you a whole new perspective.