Confessions of a Blogger

Ah dear friends, readers and fellow bloggers, come on in and sit down.  I'll pour you a good stiff drink.  You're going to need it, because I am about to say things to you that bloggers aren't allowed to admit to, but are nonetheless true.  Things that you are never supposed to say in polite company, like telling about the random urge you had to trip the nun on crutches at the mall.  We all think these things, but I am about to say them out loud.  Well, type them anyway.

Bless me readers, for I am about to bloggy sin;

Numbers Matter ~ We all say how unimportant our amount of daily hits are to our blogs, but that's a lie.  I live and die on my hit count and check my stats constantly.  The truth is that I don't want YOU to care about my numbers, but I totally care about about my numbers.  A day with a good hit count and the cat is less likely to get kicked.  I wouldn't kick my dog because at 140 lbs, she could eat me.  If you really don't care about the number of site hits you get daily, then you have resigned yourself to being defeated in the blogosphere. I however am all about blog domination.

Comments are Crack ~ OHMYGOSH, I love comments.  Love them more than chocolate and diamonds combined.  A really good comment is better than a pedicure.  I hate checking my email and finding no comments or getting excited because I found lots of comments that all say, 'nice post. You should check out my link!'  Poor kitty cat.  Lack of comments can rain on my day.  However, comments from my regulars or an unexpected comment from someone I really admire will put me on cloud nine.  They like me, they really, really like me.  Total ego boost.

Come Follow Me ~ Yeah, we aren't supposed to get excited the number of followers we have or how many people have subscribed to the RSS feed.  Let me say that I check those numbers daily and when I lose even 1, I feel like a loser.  I am crushed and wonder why.  When I gain one, I feel like I just scored the winning goal.  When those numbers stagnate, I stagnate with a 1/2 gallon of ice cream on the couch.  You should all fight to keep WeaselMomma somewhat thin.

You Never Have Enough ~ When I first started blogging, I would jump for joy if I got 1 or 2 comments and 5 hits.  When I got used to higher numbers, God forbid if they went down even for one single day!  When they go up, I LOVE it, when they deflate, so do I.  I could get 100 comments a day for two months straight and is they went down to 80 a day, I would kick the cat be bummed.  Most of us, including I, would dance on a pole cut off a toe for 80 comments a day, but it will never be enough.  I'll always will want more.

It's All About Ego ~ When I attend blogging events and someone I don't know actually knows me, I feel like a rock star and I love it!  When no one else in the room has ever heard of me I feel like the kid who picks their nose and always sat alone in the cafeteria.

I Get Jealous ~ When a fellow blogger gets a great event invitation or gig with a brand or website, I am happy for them, but am also jealous and think, what am I chopped liver?  In reality, yes I am chopped liver sometimes.   I love when I get even small opportunities, but never feel as successful as I thought I would.  I would love the opportunity to make money on this blog and am not ashamed to admit it, as long as it would have zero influence on my words.

The biggest reality of these confessions, is that we are all human.  We are all insecure in own silent ways that are never to be spoken of.  We crave approval and attention from outside sources to keep us going.

I am a small fish in the open ocean.

I am a blogger and these are my confessions.

*Feel free to make my day an awesome one by commenting, subscribing to RSS feed, following me, tweeting this link, stumbling it or any other form of temporary ego boost you can throw my way.

Politically Incorrect

So I have come across some reading material lately that seriously disappointed me.  Everyone has become so seemingly progressive and passive in their thinking, that they fail to take into account any amount of common sense.

I read of a middle school child who was both physically and emotionally bullied for three years.  His parents addressed this on many occasions with the school and nothing was ever done about it, much to the parents dismay.  The child never defended himself, nor did the parents want him too.  The parents taught their son never to hit and were proud that he remained non violent.  After three years of their son enduring daily bullying and the schools lack of action to put a stop to it, the parents hired a lawyer, in part, because of a fear that their son would commit suicide before the bullying stopped.  They never wanted to be seen as those parents, causing trouble and calling lawyers.

Bullying is wrong.  Schools should not tolerate it on their grounds.  This child should have had trusted adults to ensure his safety while at school.  I completely agree.  I am not a violent person, however that child should have been defending himself and should have been encouraged by his parents to do so.  IT IS NEVER WRONG TO DEFEND YOURSELF!  It's called self defense.  The parents relied on the school and the district to protect their son and when they failed their son, it still took the parents three years of the poor kid tolerating this, to the point of parents fearing for his life, before they decided to look to the law to defend him?  Seriously?

I personally would have insisted that my child defend them self and in fact I have done so in the past.  I do not advocate violence, but I do advocate self defense.  I teach my children to always defend themselves and anyone smaller or weaker than themselves.  Bullies like easy targets, because bullies are in fact cowards.  Standing up for yourself, win or lose, sends a message that you will not be an easy target.  Also, you walk away with your self-esteem in tact knowing that you stood up instead of just having it beat out of you.

As a mother, I would have not waited three years to take some sort of action when the school/district wouldn't.  I would not care about other peoples impressions of me or possible labels when it came to the protection of one of my children.

What's going to happen to that poor kid when he runs into a violent situation in real life, when he doesn't have a lawyer, a teacher, or a mommy holding his hand?

The 1st and only person to ever try to mug me wound up with his arm broken at the shoulder.  My parents taught me to defend myself.  I was 17.

The other disappointing read was a hubub about bloggers and high fructose corn syrup or rather how some community of bloggers or another were given gift cards or something in exchange for writing about high fructose corn syrup not being the anti-Christ.  These writers were called names and accused of being sell-outs, blah, blah, blah.

I had absolutely nothing to do with this campaign what-so-ever.  I don't even know any of the players, but I say, seriously?

Everybody has their own own opinions about what they want their family ingesting.  Some people choose organic.  Some people choose to 'green'.  Some only want all natural arsenic is a natural substance or no msg. Some families have to contend with food allergies. Everyone is allowed to have their opinion and to use their shopping dollar in any way that they choose is best for their family.  I think that's great and encourage it.

I personally don't think that high fructose corn syrup is evil.  There is no moral conundrum about the issue. It's not made of soylent green or anything. Sure, I think that straight sugar tastes better, but I have no issue with the substance and my family ingests it.  I don't find it to be harmful to them in any way.  My family also ingests real butter (we dislike the taste of margarine), red meat, fried chicken, white bread and all sorts of things that may have been banned from other homes.

 We are also all happy any healthy.

If someone wants to send me money or gift cards because I stated my opinion on this, contact me via email it would not make me a sell out.  It would make me a few bucks wealthier than I am currently.  It would not change my words on my blog.  If someone writes their opinions about local organic vegetables is the only way that their family rolls and got paid to do it, they wouldn't be selling out either.

Maybe I am not being politically correct here, but I am being real and honest.  I think that's why most of you come here to read anyway.