The Jackie Blog

Folks, I’m 1/3 of the way there.

Today marks my celebration of completing 33% of the postaday2011 challenge.  And though I already did an Ode to 90 Days post, I’m pretty excited that the good chums at WordPress have encouraged us to use today’s post to link our three favorite posts from the challenge so far.  Because hey – I’m all about celebrating small victories.  And I’m all about having more time to run around Chicago like a crazy fool.  So here I give you: my three favorite posts from the challenge so far.

3) Emergency Underwear Day: This post make the top three because it embodies a lot of things I love about blogging.  I didn’t go out of my way to think of a topic or stress about whether it was entertaining.  I just sat down and wrote whatever came to mind first, and it’s great when it turns out all right.  But my favorite part about this is the comments you all left for me.  I absolutely adore that I can blog about anything from untameable underarm sweat to underwear wedgies at work and you will all unashamedly chime in that the same happens to you.  Thanks for that.

2) The Underwear Made Me Do It:  I just like this guy because I think it’s well-written.  When you have to blog every day, it’s tough to take the time to focus on each and every post.  Sometimes you just have to accept that you have things going on and you’ve done your best with the time and effort you could dedicate that day.   So some of the posts I enjoy the most are the ones that are the most effortless and this is certainly one of them.  I don’t know why I blog about underwear so much.  Apparently it presents a lot of challenges for me.  

1) My Pole Name Is Jasper Highland: This gets top spot, without a doubt.  This blog post is the best Lollipop Tuesday event yet.  I would have absolutely never, ever wandered into a pole-dancing class if I didn’t have a blog to maintain.  And  I’m so proud that I did it because it is without a doubt the most terrifying thing I’ve done so far.  And as an added bonus, it made for a pretty decent post.  This is certainly the post earning top-most marks this far into the game.

So I’m 1/3 of the way finished.  That’s pretty cool… but what can I possibly write about for the next two thirds of this journey?  

Meh – I gave up on worrying about that a long time ago.  Here’s to the next 2o0-something posts.

Thanks for coming along for the ride. ♣

Tags: 365 Project, blogging, Humor, life, musings, postaday2011

All right, folks.  It’s poll time.

Last night I went out to face the biggest of my Lollipop Tuesday adventures yet: singing in public.  I ventured out to an open mic session that Dave frequents (Dave’s a musician, for those of you who are just tuning in) after psyching myself up all evening.    It features a small but loyal crowd of about 40 folks on a good night and would serve me well as my locale of choice for absolute suckage.

Unfortunately, I failed to realize that the Penguins game was on and it was a home game.  And it’s finals week.   And since I live in Pittsburgh, home to the Penguins and several colleges and universities, the open mic was absolutely dead.   There were ten people in the crowd and I knew 3 of them were good friends.  And one was Dave.

It wasn’t exactly the pee-myself-scared experience I was looking for.

Now don’t get me wrong – I was scared.  I was nervous enough to not have any breath when I went to open my mouth at the microphone – but I wasn’t nervous enough to feel like I wanted to run away crying.  

And if I don’t fight the urge to run away crying, what kind of Lollipop Tuesday is it anyway?

So I’m taking a poll.  I want to know if my singing in public counts or if it was unworthy of the Lollipop Tuesday series.  Whatever you say goes.  I can do a redo on a night with a full bar, I can nix the idea altogether, or I can call it a day with last night’s performance.   So please do chime in: I want to know if I have to shake in my boots until the next open mic or if I’ve shaken in them enough. ♣

Tags: 365 Project, blogging, Humor, life, musings, postaday2011

I’m going to move like a mad woman now.

You know, if I had my way, I would just put up a post without a picture.  But absolutely everything I read says people want pictures.  People are more likely to check out your page if you include a picture.

It makes sense.  I agree.  I mean, it’s like like I’m J.D. Salinger over here.  Words alone will not suffice.

But I can’t help but fight against it because it just takes so darn long to find one.  At least, it used to.    I’ve been spending all this time crawling the web for images that are easily credited, community property, and somehow relevant to my posts.  Even if I have an awesome writing day and it takes me 20 minutes to whip up a post, I usually double the amount of time just in the search for appropriate images.   You know, because you people want pictures and things and I try to sometimes care about your needs.

That’s right: I do it for you.

But my problems are finally coming to an end.    So don’t worry – you don’t need to feel like I’m the one putting all the work into our relationship anymore.

Yesterday I decided to wander back to a comment I left on a WordPress postaday2011 blog post about how the most time-consuming part of blog writing is the picture finding part.    It seems I left this comment and never really intended to wander back…because I never even thought about it until yesterday when I found myself in the same dilemma.  As it turns out, people had lots of awesome suggestions.  There’s a whole slew of image search engines out there with an option to only search for baggage-free images.

Well I’ll be.

So get ready folks, because I’m super equipped now.  I’ve got all the tools I need.  No longer will I write posts about Puppy Amusement Parks and spend half an hour just looking for a picture of a bunch of dogs leaping through the air.  No longer will I write about pole-dancing and spend my time weeding through dirty, gross pictures just to find something to help ya’ll with your need for visual stimulation.

You know, if I was really a people-pleaser, I would write some scandalous title and put pictures of hot chicks on every post too.  Because lemme tell ya – those posts are totally hits.  You all like boobs.  And dirty words.

I’m just stating facts, people. ♣

Photo by "Malingering" Click the boobs to get to their Flickr.

Tags: 365 Project, blogging, Humor, life, musings, postaday2011

I can’t believe I’ve written a post every single day this year.  I mean, I know I made a big deal about it and everything, but I’m not so sure I ever believed I would accomplish it.  And I haven’t yet.  But I’m almost past the first quarter and I’m going to have to reflect on these small victories if I’m going to keep moving along.

I started this blog thanks to inspiration from a friend who took a picture every day for 365 days.  The whole 365 project is really catching on these days, but back when she was working through her 365 album, it was new to me.

Once I put up the blog, I told her I felt an incredible weight on me.  365 posts is a lot of posts.  How will I have that much material? What if I write something *gasp* boring?!

She said I couldn’t think like that.  She said that the 365 project is about dedicating yourself to that one thing just once a day.  Just once every single day.  Not 365 days in a row.

It’s a small, but significant distinction.

And so here I am halfway through March and still chugging along.  I’ve had good posts and not-so-good posts.  But I’ve done it every single day.

I’ll admit that I’ve thought from time to time that I’ve daydreamed about what it would have been like to try a post a week instead.   Just imagine! I’d have an entire week to whip out just one good piece.    A week! Do you realize how LONG THAT IS?

I’ve also fantasized about the other things I could be doing with the time I spend on blogging.  Of course, before I had a blog I didn’t do anything at all during this time.   But now that I’ve seriously committed myself to one thing a day, I’ve been spending a lot of time plugging hypothetical replacements in this time zone and fantasizing about the results.  They’ve included

Exercise: holy cow man.  If I worked out for an hour a day every SINGLE day without excuse, I’d be a lean, sexy beast.  Rawr.

Cooking: I’m not too shabby in the kitchen, but who can’t benefit from a lesson or two in proper cutting methods?  And I’ve yet to attempt a pie.  Ever.  They scare me.  But after a some focus and good old time investment, I reckon I could be quite the kitchen sensation.

Starting my own business: I have a few really excellent ideas for this but most consume both time and money.    At least, that’s what my excuse has been in the past.  So far I’ve proven I have at least 77 hours of time that could be mustered up if I really wanted them.  And my t-shirt raffle proves that I’ll happily invest in something I enjoy, even without promise of return.

Becoming a fierce fiddler. I’ve always wanted to have some crazy awesome hidden talent.  Though I’d be totally fine with ripping it up on guitar or being a classical pianist, there is something I find simultaneously amusing and super cool about the prospect of being a ground-stompin’, down-home country fiddler.

Bein’ a Hottie. My typical self-maintenance program involves a shower, clothes (thank goodness), and a little makeup.  But if I spent the hour I blog everyday blowdrying my hair and doing some serious construction, I could walk the streets a super hottie.  Imagine the power.

But alas, I’ve dedicated myself to being a blogger extraordinaire.   And that’s pretty darn cool too.  And so press on, I shall! Just 287 more to go.

I mean one.

Just one more.  Tomorrow and then the day after, and so on. ♣

Tags: 365 Project, blogging, Humor, life, musings, postaday2011

Holy cow it’s 4pm on Saturday and I’m just now posting.

My avid subscribers are aware that I typically post at 9am every day.  Fun fact: I actually write posts the night before and aut0 schedule them for the following day at 9am.   But last night, I found myself on a long drive home to central Pennsylvania after using my Friday evening to explore my next Lollipop Tuesday event.

Dave was driving for a good portion of it, but there’s only so long a mere human being can go with no sleep before involuntarily passing out.  And since he was up at 7, worked his day job, and then went to his night job until midnight – things can get real sleepy real fast.  And that’s when I stepped in.

Of course, I’m almost always sleepy.  I can pretty much sleep anywhere, any time, and in virtually any position.  I don’t know why – I’m just special that way.  In fact, at one point my parents were so concerned about my constant tired state that they had me submitted to a sleep test center.  You can read about the beauty of my experience here, in a post from long, long ago when I was just a wee lass.   So it’s usually a crap shoot to have me drive.  I might start out bright eyed and bushy-tailed, but there’s no way of knowing how long it will be before I’m droopy, weary, and ready to cash in.

About halfway through my shift, I began to rotate through the myriad of tricks I’ve developed over the years.  They include

• Blaring rock music
• Playing music I can sing to (and singing in an awful and hilarious manner for my own entertainment)
• Rolling down the window so that my face is stung with the cold winter air
• Drumming on the steering wheel
• Talking to myself
• Writing a to-do list inside my head
• Playing out hypothetical situations with myself
• Waking Dave up to make him talk to me about silly subjects (last resort)

To further complicate the process, we were out of windshield wiper fluid and it was a particularly dirty, wet night.    I was playing an intricate passing lane game with a truck that was constantly splooging its dirt water all over the windshield, which then required me to pull over and send Dave to get snow from the bushes.

He threw snowballs at the car and I clicked the wipers.  It was a fun, sad game.

But we made it.  Slowly but surely we crawled sleepily across Pennsylvania and pulled into our resting place at 1:30am, where we promptly passed out.  Without writing a blog post.

And so here I am, paying for my neglect on a bright, beautiful Saturday afternoon.  But hey- it’s my first truly late post (but still easily meets my midnight deadline) in my 2.5 months of postaday2011.

And that ain’t so bad. ♣

Tags: 365 Project, blogging, Humor, life, musings, postaday2011

I’m only two months into this thing and I’m really starting to worry.

You know… about what I’m capable of.

By forcing myself out of my own self-made cocoon of hermit splendor, I’ve put myself in a position where I have to go have life experiences in order to have something to write about.   So to work up the gusto to go do things that I normally would not consider, I’ve begun to use this blog as a shield.

An all-encompassing, no-apologies shield.

I went pole-dancing because I “had to for the blog.”  Think about that. That’s powerful stuff.  When you consider that only a few short months ago, I was huddled in my living room eating pizza and ice cream with StumbleUpon as my only window to the outside world, it’s enormous that I’m armed with something to blame my new social nature on.

Today at work, someone who I don’t know accidently messaged me on Office Messenger, which is linked to all the contacts in the entire network of the company.   The random message appeared on my screen telling me that this person was going out for a couple beers later and did I want to come with him and some dude named James.  I knew it was a mistake and went to close the window so as to not embarrass the poor person any more than he already was.

But then I thought it might make good blog fodder so I told him okay.

I had visions of me just showing up on the town at whatever place this person mentioned because he would be too embarrassed to withdraw the invitation.  I would just go with the flow, pretending to know these people and buying them drinks.  I’d learn everything I could about them like some kind of investigative reporter. 

As it turned out, the fella nipped the situation in the bud and excused himself for having messaged the wrong person and he wished me a good weekend.

But think – I altered my actions solely because of this blog.  That means it’s taking over me.   I might actually be changing into a different kind of person simply because I have to spit out 500 or so public words a day.   I’m deliberately starting trouble to see if I can shake any adventure out of it.  And I still have 10 months to go.

I could turn into a monster in that amount of time.  ♣

Tags: 365 Project, blogging, Humor, life, musings, postaday2011