TheMommyBlog
Me, Me, Me, Other people who write, Bad Mood Dude, BlogHer, Giveaways, NewsThe Momversation blog had a post that really hit home with me today, partially because although I’ve dropped off the BlogHer and Other Major Social Groups RADAR in the last few years due to overwhelm, I’m constantly inundated with PR requests, and partially because I am really starting to get irritated with the state of things.
Too many people are getting into blogging as if it were some sort of Amway. It’s not something to jump into while it’s hot so you can collect freebies and get paid to parrot. Blogging is something else entirely. What some people are doing now is the online equivalent of infomercials, hundreds of thousands of mini-Roncos. If all those products truly worked miracles, don’t you think we’d be able to get them at Target? The source becomes distrusted, worthless. And the rest of us are dragged down by association.
I’m thrilled about the Blog With Integrity movement and was on it in a hot second, but in truth I’m a little sad that we need it. I hate that people ask what I rake in (nearly nothing) and what PR folks send to me (you just would not believe it) and wonder how they can get in on it. I want to say, “Plastics” and go refill my drink.
Here’s the gist of the post and my response:
The “mommy blogger” backlash hit the front page of CNN.com today, as the PR Blackout Challenge and Blog With Integrity campaigns hit the mainstream media. If you’re not aware, some mommy bloggers are under fire for taking money and/or free merchandise for recommending products and services. It’s causing some people to question the ethics and truthfulness of the moms who are blogging today. But according to the CNN article, some mom bloggers might just be overwhelmed with offers…
I just love how they slapped a screenshot of my site on the front page. Just hope people associate me with the Integrity group, not the Gimme group. I’ve worked too hard for too long to let anything external affect the moral stand I take on reviews. I will not take money, period, and if you send me something, there is no guarantee I will get past the note in the box. It’s so much work just looking at it, and the small percentage of items I do mention only make it here if those things have become part of my daily life.
In fairness, when there is something really cool offered as a giveaway, I’m on it. I don’t endorse anything, just report and reward. I have some great gift cards on my desk I’ve got to give away, and even that is making me hesitate because of all the hoopla. I’m not compromising integrity when I give things away, but it is still doing something I wouldn’t have spontaneously done on my own, and that is the crux of the biscuit. It’s my acid test. Even the legit stuff makes me jumpy. Too many people are doing things for the wrong reason (and calling their sites every possible variation on “The Mommy Blog” but that is a whole other rant). We’re all being spattered with the mud. It’s not a nice feeling.
Anyway. My comment:
I totally didn’t connect the blackout with all the PR requests in my inbox, that’s how scattered and overwhelmed I am. Nice! Now I’m just glad there’s a reason I can ignore them for a week.
I have literally stacks of things, mostly books, next to my desk that have been sent to me, and they are jamming up my life like you wouldn’t believe. Have to state a bit more strongly that I do not guarantee anything in the least, and the only stuff that gets mentioned is the stuff that thrills me and then only in the context of my life, writing as I normally do.
I’m sorry we’ve become saturated with gimme bloggers, and I get too many requests for help “getting started” or “succeeding” to hope that it will die down soon. Those of us who have been doing this forever with no anticipation of readership much less free stuff sort of feel like the guys who made it to Cooperstown before everyone started using steroids. The measurements are all off and the wacky surges have made the old numbers meaningless.
Then again I could be full of shit.
That last bit is what we should all keep in mind—that there is the distinct possibility that we are talking out of our nether regions. But at least I will be totally up front about it.
This post from The Social Path is timely — fifteen hundred women (and a few gutsy men) will descend upon the BlogHer Conference in Chicago July 23-25. PR companies are highly focused and determined to reach this audience, and at the same time, scared shitless about screwing it up. As usual, I left a lengthy comment and cross-posted it here to get your reactions.
This is the week blogger outreach goes on trial.
In just a few days, an estimated 1,500 women will gather in Chicago for BlogHer, the mega-conference for women of the Web. And while there are sure to be countless topics for discussion, you can expect one to eclipse all others:
How should bloggers — most notably mom bloggers — be compensated by marketers?
This is a topic that has sparked heated debate for months (if not years), but it’s sure to come to a head this week as some of the largest brands and most influential Web personalities meet at the social media Mecca that is BlogHer. (Not to mention pending government regulations on how bloggers and marketers can work together.)
…In an Advertising Age video posted today, BlogHer Co-Founder Elisa Camahort Page outlines her blog network’s rules on disclosure and separating your “real blog” from your “review blog” — guidelines that some high-profile writers have criticized as being onerous and micromanaged.
You can expect some of these policies — along with a litany of other real-world dilemmas — to be hot-button issues throughout many of the BlogHer panels.
Oh, now I REALLY wish I were going to BlogHer, if only for this reason. I can’t afford to go, alas, because I am not paid to blog. Sound familiar?
I’ve been around a long time — started in 2002 (and was there stuffing binders in Elisa’s apartment for the very first BlogHer conference) — and am often approached for giveaways, reviews, and mentions, though I don’t really have a “review” blog. Generally, if it is something I do use, would use, have discovered I love using, or think my readers would love, I’ll talk about it in the context of my own family life. Or I’ll mention it in the Site of the Day section.
I know that PR companies go to a lot of trouble and expense to reach out to us, and that it is not always rewarding. It’s tough to contact hundreds of bloggers and get the name right in each personalized email (I’m being serious), tough to strike the right tone, tough to decide whether to inform the blogger of your product’s existence with an offer to sample it, or to ask for action on the blogger’s part.
If I receive the “info” type of email, I’ll look at the product and feature it if I think it’s awesome. If it’s not something I’d use or is a little outside my demographic, I may just delete the email. Or, I might flag the email with good intentions but never quite get around to doing something about it.
Some companies just send me things ranging from a press kit or a panty liner (that was yesterday) to an HD Flip cam or custom bicycle. Sometimes I don’t even know who sent it or why (flip cam two days ago). Sometimes I really don’t know what to do with something (a metal lunchbox from The Pork Board).
Occasionally, I am genuinely astonished at the request. One company asked me to take shipment of an appliance, test it, send results to a lab to demonstrate efficacy, blog about it in detail, and then SHIP IT BACK when I was done. I called up the contact person and asked if that was really the pitch. Who on earth would take an appliance, do a whole lot of scientific analysis, ship the thing back, and be grateful for the opportunity? The contact broke up laughing, saying that personally she was with me, but that her company won’t authorize a giveaway of that size, and understood when I declined to put that much effort into unpaid work. We parted on good terms, and I hope she let the client know that their strategy was of the kind that we bloggers tell each other about when swapping stories, and they do NOT want to be on the “Can-you-believe-this-BS?” circuit.
Many things sit in the Pile of Goods next to my desk, which sits next to the Pile of Books sent to me for review or mention (that backlog is about fifty. When am I going to read and talk about fifty books?) I don’t get paid for all that time, and since blogging is a labor of love, I have to spend my time at my paying job, because like many bloggers, I have a family to feed. In my case, I’m a single mom of three, which makes me a great PR target, but also guarantees that my time is at a premium. The irony.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you should curb your outreach; when the product is something a friend might use, I’ll give it away and let that person’s word of mouth campaign suffice. They are usually so excited to receive something useful for free that they tell everyone they run into, and that is fantastic real life buzz and promotion that simply can’t be bought.
Believe me, I stress out about it. Notice that I’m typing this at 3:48 a.m.? I feel bad for the unanswered contacts. I feel bad for the products that come that have no chance whatsoever of a mention. I hope that folks understand, and say so on my contact page so that everyone knows ahead of time that I’m crazed and busy, but open to new ideas and products. By the way, that’s your target demographic in a nutshell. Whee!
There are times when I do the math and wish that some of the cash that went into the effort could have come to me, but then again I have a policy of not taking money for reviews. Advertisers who purchase space in my sidebars can say what they like, and I will continue doing my thing in the body. There is a definite demarcation between the two, and they do not mix. The Site of the Day is a compromise but still subject to my personal preference.
I’ll offer advice if you like, and will happily vet any outreach strategy, and will happily accept a consulting fee but not be part of the outreach. That seems to be the stance with the most ethical integrity. I can help craft it or I can review it, but not both. And there’s a very good chance that many excellent PR efforts will fail at my doorstep simply because I have no idea what to do with the product, or simply do not have the time to devote to pro bono advertising for businesses.
I’m interested in hearing others’ opinions on this, and on the video suggesting setting up a “review” blog apart from the original. Going over to view it now, but I think I can safely say that I would not be inclined to do that. A blog is enough work; why double it when you can just accept advertising in the sidebars that doesn’t influence content? I just don’t see the ROI there. What am I missing? What would you do?
I just checked in with my (way too) many profile pages, and on LinkedIn, I had a message that July 2 was the last day to register for BlogHer. That would have been great information to have YESTERDAY.
This is the first BlogHer conference I’ll have missed, and that’s sad. I was there at the beginning, stuffing binders and helping to fill in when audio failed during the keynote.
Even worse, it’s in my area this year, an hour up the Peninsula in San Francisco. Phil’s stomping grounds. Jesus H. Barnacle Christ in a potato sack.
I wouldn’t have been able to go anyway, especially as the collection call from the hospital this morning claimed the last remaining funds in my bank account.
If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be going now. Not to BlogHer, of course, but just over there, on the couch. I’m finding Julie Kenner’s Play.Win.Survive trilogy to be quite the escape these days.
(Seriously, I thought the Demon Hunter series was great, but this is something else altogether! Think DaVinci Code meets Devil Wear Prada meets The Matrix. Fashion, assassins, sex, and cryptology. What’s not to love?)
While not being able to sleep because my daughter invaded my bed and pressed her heat-seeking missile body ever closer until I fell off the edge, I began to read up on some of the links I mentioned a couple of posts back. 
No surprise, Jenn Satterwhite of Mommy Needs Coffee had a totally spot-on take of the genre of Mommy Bloggers. I usually stay out of the fray, either because I’ve said it all before somewhere in last six years or because I know that the title of my blog has become more of an impediment than a novelty. Yes, I’m cranky. My daughter was radiating heat like a… heat radiator thing.
Read these excerpts from Jenn’s post, and then my comment, which should have been a post here in the first place (and now is).
While we are on the topic of respect, I have to mention a great conversation that took place today. The question was asked:
“Tell me, is ‘Mommyblogger’ still a negative term in the Social Media space? Has it changed? Do you still look down? Be truthful.”
The response was quick and thorough.
Momologue responded with: “Just last week I got a ‘oh your one of those, an MB.’ Complete with a wave of hand. Dismissed.
But was quick to also add: “But I do love the online community we create. It’s the best — and it’s about diapers and changing the world.
Banannie put in her two cents with: “I always felt the mommy-blogger label was too confining, and I shook it completely a year ago when I started a new blog… much of that was because of reaction from others that made mommy-blogging feel second tier- looking back I should have ignored.”
For many of us, we remember the time when the very term or idea of mommybloggers was dismissed, shunned and looked down upon. The very first BlogHer conference had a session on mommyblogging that was a “room of our own” and was expected to bring in few people. It was standing room only. Back then, one of the main focuses of the discussion was whether or not the term mommyblogger was derogatory. Today, as I followed the discussion on Twitter, I saw many responses that were along these lines:
Shelisrael shared: “I never knew that mommy bloggers were looked down upon. Not ever. Why do you perceive otherwise?”
From Karoli: “Maybe b/c I’m older or whatever, but I never saw it as a derogatory term. Still don’t quite understand why it’s seen that way.”
And my personal favorite by Dave Taylor: “I never thought “mommyblogger” was other than a statement of heroic survival ability!”
Not everyone was loving the term or category. Lone Sophist stated:“I think that women who are mothers and blog are more than mommybloggers, that’s why I don’t like that ‘category.’”
The point is this. Just a few years ago we were in a small room and felt like second tier bloggers. Today, we are much sought after by marketers, talk shows and magazines. We’ve come a long way, baby.
I responded: “Try having a blog called THE MOMMY BLOG. Judged right out of the gate, anyone? Named yourself the Kleenex of the blogosphere? You’re such a dork. Now I’m going to get a lot of “sure thing, Al Gore, you and the Internet” crap for this, but the only reason I have that name is because I had to pick one when I opened up my Typepad account in 2002. I was stumped. Uh, blog, blog, who the fuck am I, I’m the mommy, so that will have to do until I figure out how all of this works. And then you realize it’s now fixed as part of your URL and you’re stuck with it.
Further proof of dorkitude? I created a blog for my mom at the same time called The Grandma Blog. Towering genius. But it never caught on.
So there you have it. I coined “The Mommy Blog.” Doesn’t it count if you come up with it with no outside influence? Oh yeah, there WAS no influence back then. And now my blog name is a descriptor that has become so commonplace and emotionally charged that it’s practically meaningless. Brilliant. Good luck with that.
Now I am surrounded by dozens of blogs calling themselves The Mommy Blog, Mommy Confidential, and even variations on Wonderbelly. I can’t service mark the whole dictionary, can I, so what am I complaining about? Well, I don’t want to be confused with a pro-swinger blog, or one that consists almost exclusively of blinking meme banners, or, and this really feels good, someone who does it a whole lot better than I do and makes total bank doing it.
It’s like I need a do-over, but I have six years of recognition and branding associated with the title of my blog. I called it first! Wait - can I change it?”
BlogHerWomen Are Half of All Bloggers - But Media Aren’t Noticing
By Jennifer L. Pozner
The Women’s Media CenterWednesday 01 August 2007
If you get your news from, well, the news media, you can be forgiven if you didn’t know that nearly 800 women gathered in Chicago last weekend for the third annual convention of BlogHer, an online community of more than 13,000 blogging women diverse in age, ethnicity and political persuasion. According to a search of the Nexis news database, only three Chicago newspapers covered the conference, as if this national assemblage of women writers and videographers were simply a local story. Not one national network or cable news broadcast deigned to mention it.Compare that to the glut of coverage bestowed on YearlyKos, a conference for left-leaning bloggers made popular by the blustering A-list boys of the “netroots.” In the month leading up to Kos’s gathering this coming weekend, also in Chicago, the conference’s perceived political power has been discussed in print and broadcast outlets from regional newspapers such as the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Austin American Statesman to major dailies such as the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle, and debated on MSNBC, ABC, Fox News, PBS and, for the satirically inclined, The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.
Despite Pew research reporting that women are actually 50% of all people who blog, corporate journalists and independent bloggers alike often prefer to fall back on the hand-wringing question, “Where are the women bloggers?” They’d know the answer if they took the time to seek us out as news sources, read our commentaries or cover events such as BlogHer.
If many believe that blogging is a primarily male sport, it is partially because old-school gender disparities in resource allocation, power and popularity long entrenched in traditional news media are replicating themselves online. In the blogosphere, young men - mostly white and mostly economically comfortable - link to, write about, promote and fund their buddies’ blogs; and corporate media play star-makers, quoting, profiling and featuring the punditry of this New Boys Network. As is hardly surprising to those of us who monitor media representations of women, women who blog (especially those who write about feminist issues) are off the radar.
By the way, attendance was more like fifteen hundred. But then again we’re used to being counted at about half the going rate.
UPDATE: Jennifer, the author of the article, has commented to let me know that she got her number from the Blogher organizers and did her due dilligence. Thank you for correcting me, and please accept my apologies for not doing my own research. I just spent twenty minutes trying to get the answer online, and came to the conclusion that I’d have to ask them myself to get an answer! As usual, I’m pulling stuff out of my… ear, which is why people should get their info from the press and not from an unemployed, frazzled mom of three who doesn’t know where next month’s mortgage is coming from. Honestly, though, I thought there were 700 at the 2006 conference, and it seemed impossible that there weren’t more this year!
I know how it feels to be challenged on information, and I’m sorry to have done that to you thoughtlessly.
Mea culpa. Pax tecum?
Here we are, at the tail end of the BlogHer conference, and what a long, strange trip it’s been.
It’s been a little odd yet completely refreshing to have absolutely no work obligations at the conference, and to be free to come and go as I please, stopping only to shower key people with business cards, giving a wink and a smile that conveyed, “I DESPERATELY NEED WORK.” I think it should yield some interesting results.
One of the finest was a friendship struck up with Dr. Val Jones, Senior Medical Editor at Revolution Health. My stepfather has known her professionally for several years and thought that we’d get along very nicely. Phil says he just wanted to put us in a room together and see who got a word in edgewise. She is my long-lost twin. Only, more educated. And smarter. And employed. And a lot of fun to be with. She, Phil and I just came back from a lovely dinner at Coco Pazzi with her, and we are struggling to keep our eyes open after duck and Tartufo. Yummm-mmy.
It was a bit different from last night, which consisted of dinner with my brother and sister-in-law, my uncle, and the two of us at Gibson’s where they served Phil a mortifyingly huge thirty-ounce prime rib. Who eats thirty ounces of ANYTHING? We were aghast. But I’m sure everyone had the presence of mind to tuck that story away to be dragged out at family gatherings for the next dozen or so years.
After that, we met my best friend and another old friend from grammar school at the bar across the street, which was fine, but then we decided to push it with a visit to The Underground Wonder Bar, where Debbie knew the owner, who was also the musical entertainment. Sure, she sang a bit but there was a swerving interlude featuring Quincy Bones, “The Bones Man,” who proceeded to dance wildly while playing percussion on bones. Real bones. I think one of them still had his ex-wife’s wedding ring on it.
It actually would have been fun, and was, right up to the moment when Debbie claimed that I was having a birthday and I was forced to sit in a chair at the stage and have shots poured down my throat along with a dollop of whipped cream. Yes, thank you. You’re welcome. *shudder*
You could never pay me enough to post most of the pics from last night, but I do have a few, and then I need to get to sleep. We’re going to see Debbie and her little girl tomorrow, and hang out at Oak Street Beach.
See, the fun thing about being in marketing at a cool startup that helps you make plans with friends, I get to suggest all sorts of immediately useful things. For instance, we’ve been busily tagging places of interest for the BlogHer Conference at Navy Pier in Chicago, July 27-29!
You can now find all sorts of places in Chicago near Navy Pier, where the confernce will be held, and also near the hotels where people will be staying: restaurants, cafes, coffee houses, big places that can take a large group on short notice, family friendly places, all kinds of stuff. Best of all, we’ve given special attention to the knitting bloggers and listed shops and other places of interest to the knitting crowd. ; )
Please have a look - go to Renkoo.com and sign up, (all they ask for is your email address). From there you can find the whole BlogHer Conference venue list by going to the tag search page and entering the tag “BlogHer2007.” From there it’s easy to make plans and invite others. Or, you could go directly to the BlogHer tag page and check out the maps and other information while you figure out where and when to meet all those great people you read but have never actually seen.
Can’t wait to see you there, and to get back to my hometown…
Here’s the video on CBS.com from last month’s press conference on the set of “The New Adventures of Old Christine.” There will be an interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus on BlogHer.org tonight after the show, which airs at 8:30 PDT.
Title: The New Adventures of Old Christine
Episode: Behind the Scenes with Real Moms
Description: “Mommy bloggers” from across the country meet with the show’s cast and executive producer during an exclusive visit to the set
via BlogHer.org:
Gearing up for the return of the comedy series The New Adventures of Old Christine to the primetime television line-up, Emmy award-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus and series creator and executive producer Kari Lizer will participate in an exclusive virtual press conference with BlogHer Monday, March 19, at 7pm PST/10pm EST.
BlogHer Co-Founder Lisa Stone will emcee the press conference, bringing your questions to Julia and Kari in a 30-minute live interview webcast.
You can access the The live webcast here on BlogHer.org, or on CBS.com - immediately following the east coast broadcast of The New Adventures of Old Christine. Following the live feed, the webcast will also be available for download on CBS.com.
To access the Virtual Press Conference on March 19, CLICK HERE.
After the 19th, we’ll post a video link to the press conference here.
Want to tune in to “Christine” regularly? The series returns Monday, March 12. That night will feature a double-header of new episodes, from 8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT. The following week, Monday, March 19, the night of the virtual press conference, the series will move into its regular new time slot, 8:30 PM, ET/PT.
If you can’t make the press conference, or if you’re shy, leave your question below for Julie or Kari, and Lisa will ask it during the live event.
Others have begun posting this, so I’m going to spill, too, and leave it up ‘til Monday! Because, um, I’m really busy. But you can look at some photos and see the video.
So! As I have mentioned before, twelve lucky bloggers were invited to Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank to interview the cast of The New Adventures of Old Christine. It was an awesome experience, and we all learned some very interesting (read: funny and/or inappropriate) things about one another. Each blogger was sent a slew of photos from the visit, as well as individually produced segments for us to post. They did this for each and every one of us, so they will all be different. Except maybe for the first two seconds of the coffee klatch, in which I am pretty sure everyone has that flash of footage in which I am gesticulating wildly at L.A. Daddy and laughing that Big Mindy Laugh. It’s a curse.
Here are the photos, and the video too. Also, the press release is after the jump.
The show, for which Julia Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy, is like nothing you’ve seen before in a family sit com. Stereotypes are blessedly absent, and they depict, poke fun at, and celebrate life in a divorced/blended/extended family. It’s not just about the parents and the children: it takes so much more. There are friends and brothers and new girlfriends and boyfriends and grandparents and co-workers who all pitch in and row to keep the family afloat.
There are also the Meanie Moms we have all encountered at school whose utter dedication to the Stepford Way of Life leaves the rest of us feeling small, out of touch, and mediocre as a parent. I’d like to hate them, but in real life they have the same issues we have, are hysterically funny, and sat and dished with the best of us, which, incidentally, is all caught on my tape. *cough*
The show returns this season to a new time slot, Monday nights at 8:30 PST. This Monday the 12th, there will be back-to back episodes, and on the following Monday the 19th, there will be a Blogher webcast on March 19 will take place at 7pm PT. In addition, CBS.com will be airing the entire press conference.
Over at Motherpie, Hattie Page has been busy researching and interviewing and weaving ideas together for her article on The Commercialization of the Female Blogs, Mom Blogging: Issues of Identity, Relations and Play.
Had I been paying closer attention, I’d have noticed it sooner. It’s fascinating. This article is the fifth in a series of the MotherPie Blog Study, following:
Introduction
Mom Bloggers: Intensively Engaged in the Blogosphere
Theories of Engaging, Immersing, Linking & Networking…
Blogging Motivations
In studying the content of blogs, several bloggers have begun to enter the commercial arena. One of the earliest and most commercially successful mom blogs is Dooce.com (though not included in this study because of a lack of interactivity on the site with visitors unable to comment) and her blog is part of the Federated Media network that harnesses blogs for marketing/advertising purposes. Also a member of Federated Media network is The Mommy Blog produced by Melinda Roberts who has been blogging since 2003 and is ranked by Technorati 26,112 among all blogs tracked by the service (as of November 22, 2006). The Silicon Valley mother of three just published a book in October 2006, Mommy Confidential: Adventures from the Wonderbelly of Motherhood. She is moving into the commercial realm by becoming involved in consolidated and cooperative networks that will become leveraged in order to capture the advertising dollars. Roberts was involved in starting MothersClick, “The MommyBlog Club” with a prominent link on her site on November 23, 2006. The site requires registration and is ©2006 - MothersClick is a registered trademark of ParentsClick Network, Inc. The site describes itself thus: “MothersClick is about unique social networking, exclusively for moms and those expecting. We’re about group-building, knowledge-sharing and creating meaningful value for your online experience. MothersClick provides the tools for new and existing mothers groups to gather, communicate, and better manage their activities and information-sharing online. There are 1,000 mothers… using the site to connect with others online and face-to-face, said Andra Davidson, MothersClick co-founder and president. “The focus is on building private groups for moms,” she said. “You can search for groups by Zip Code to find one in your area.””
BlogHerI always either lose the bits and pieces of information and business cards and new product launch information I collect at conferences, or forget about them, so here’s the BlogHer Brain Dump. (On a macro level, this entire blog is a brain dump; it was a place to stash the things I could never remember with a chronic case of children-induced short-term memory loss.)
First, let me start with all of my online accounts and password.
You really thought I’d do that, didn’t you? Thanks a lot.
- Johnson’s. Everyone heard about this one, and it will be very interesting to see what the blog directory will look like. “It’s about amplifying the voices of moms online.” Whoa, Betsy, are you sure you want to do that? (I keed.)
- Blog Business Summit. “publish and prosper.” How can you argue with that? Why would you try? You wouldn’t. You’d be crazy.
- Vox. A new, private, encapsulated blog tool from Six Apart, who gave us Typepad and Movable Type. From what I understand, you can invite the people you want to read in, and no one else can find it without an invitation. Perfect for private bloggers. It’s still invitation only, but Mena at Six Apart can hook you up, or you can leave your email and ask to be notified when it’s launched.
- MSN Spaces. I’m leery of anything called “Spaces” these days (that’s an interesting thought, for those of you trying to come up with names. Stay away from “Spaces.” I picked up a complimentary copy of “Share Your Story.” Which I love, because my motto is “Tell your stories.” (It’s in my book. Don’t steal it.)
- Kaboodle. What I love about this is that it is the sort of uber-organizer I fantasized about and tried to create for myself about five years ago. They do it just a tad better. (Well, you didn’t see my product there, did you?)
I know there are more, but that’s what I poured out of my bag last night. I’ll look more later.
But now? I have to get ready for my interview with the CA Adjudication Center to see if I will be awarded unemployment. I’m so excited. It will cover exactly half of my mortgage.
Categories: blogher
BlogHerSee? We’re such a community of helpers. BlogHim? Would have booed the stage or left in droves to make phone calls while the malfunction was repaired. BlogHer? The audience stepped right in with appropriate theme music.
BlogHerAnd tell me I did not just begin a post with that clunky sentence.
Well, we’re here at the conference, the kids and me, and Phil. It was just going to be us because there was only one bed, but when we walked in and saw the sign that said “Maximum Occupancy: 100” we figured there was room for him on the daybed. I’m not kidding. We have a conference table big enough for the board of Nakatomi Corp., a dry erase board, a bar big enough for even Norm and Claven to spread out, and a separate room with a king sized bed and separate day bed, practically in an alcove.
Um, don’t tell anyone at BlogHer, or they’ll want to… whoops.
I can’t even go into the shenanigans checking in and trying to go swimming entails, but let’s just say it involved a trip back home to get swimsuits in rush hour. Fifteen miles, no biggie. But I still wanted to cry.
In other news, Dylan lost a tooth yesterday. When I asked how it happened, he said, “Well, Logan punched me in the mouth, and after that it was easy.”
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