Oprah: Helping me make a point and teach a lesson since 1976.

I’m not a lawyer*, but I play one on the internet.

Since pretty much my whole life online is spent in a perpetual state of snarkasm, I figured it was time for me to actually read some laws about what I do.

This also proves that I’m in a perpetual state of procrastination.

And what with all of this SOPA/PIPA/LMNOP juggernaut happening around my workplace, I figured I could use my wee brain to actually learn something. I read up on the bill going before Congress, tried to understand what it would mean for the internet, and put together a list of resources for which you can learn, too. I’m a giver.

Basically what I’m pretty sure SOPA/PIPA says is that if you or your website or any of your comments include a link to or an actual something with a copyright, your internet service provider can put a blockade on your website. With just an accusation by the copyright holder of fault on your part, your ISP prevents your site from being reached. No cease & desist, no court order, no investigation. BOOM. DONE. Your site is blocked.

But Pangie, what about Fair Use? 

Friends, until this week, I had only heard a whiff of what Fair Use really is and how it affects me. Being the investigative journalist I am not, I looked it up.

I don’t think there’s a more vague addendum to a law than that of Fair Use.

Oprah doesn't understand it either.

Granted, I haven’t spent much time reading actual laws. Just like any Terms & Conditions to which I sign my name, I assume my peachy personality will get me out of being held liable for anything I say and do.

I earn my meager contribution to the family budget with my peachy personality, using images I find on the internet to enhance my hilarity.

According to Fair Use, I’m all good. It’s OK to use images and video in a satirical manner (phrases bolded to draw attention to my point).

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”

Laws are hard, Oprah.

Well well well. It looks to me like, as long as I’m using an image in parody to parody the “work,” no trouble for this girl.

But wait.

The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

So, there’s no specific rule on what exactly can be used or not used or be legal or illegal?

What the crap, U.S. Government? Where’s the examples of what’s cool and what’s not? I need pictures and illustrations, lawmakers!

Thank Baby Jeebus and Oprah for Stanford University and Google because I found a better explanation:

A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way. Judges understand that, by its nature, parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied. Unlike other forms of fair use, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to “conjure up” the original.

… a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement.

But what, pray tel, is the definition of parody?

A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way.

Ridicule while using the original work is permitted.

I play a lawyer on the internet, so I’m thinking, Pangie, you’re all good in the hood doing what you do. You CAN use images to make a comedic point, as long as I’m ridiculing the original work.

As long as I’m making fun of something to make what I post funnier, it’s legal?

HALLELUJAH!

Oprah says, "HALLELUJAH!"

My life on the interwebs is saved.

For now.

dun dun dunnnnnn…

*I’m really not a lawyer, so take everything I said here with some question in your head that I could be 99% wrong. What you read here cannot be held up in court as any sort of evidence for anything. Except if you need to prove I’m a badass, and then, and only then, can you use this information in any scientifical or lawyerly ways to prove I’m Awesome.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, copyright, fair use, oprah, pipa, sopa

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I wish it didn’t, and I know it’s a choice, but drama is entertaining to see unfold.

It’s a personal decision I have to make every day to not let the negative energy of drama enter my consciousness. I often give in and peek at the latest butthurt or check out the gossip. Yes, I even participate at times, giving my own opinion on a discussion.

I don’t think of me being a better person. I just never make personal attacks on people in public forums. Ever. I never tell someone that their idea is stupid or what they’re doing means they don’t love their baby. Calling someone out as a terrible mother or outing them as a liar is just not something I do.

Many times I think these things in my Neanderthal brain, but I keep it to myself (or gossip with close friends). Making a public spectacle of my negativity will do no one any good.

It’s more about the people who make it a point in leaving their comments to out-right disagree in a hurtful way. To say, “Lame article,” then follow up with a diatribe ending their comment by writing that the author is “blog(ing) things just to make themselves feel better…” really has no place in a forum for adult people. It is NOT OK to make the comment, “That kid is seriously NOT cute. Ugh.”

Yes, I love seeing conversation with disagreements. Not everyone is exactly the same with exactly the same opinions, which, Awesome. But it takes a mature person to be able to share their disagreement in a way that doesn’t insult the author of the article or post.

Reading the comments left on news articles and news blog posts should make you feel worse about the future of humanity.

But how does this stop? How does the perpetuation of negativity and the expectation of drama end?

The publishers of the websites end it. By letting the readers, commenters, and writers know that it’s not allowed and it won’t be tolerated. Negative comments for the sake of being negative can be deleted.

I realize it’s a slippery slope. People have the right to say what they want to say. But the publishers of websites have a right to allow the negativity to appear on their site. Many blogs and discussion boards have disclaimers that hurtful comments will be deleted, but many don’t abide by their own rules.

I would like to see more publishers disallowing blatant insults. I’d like to visit a site, read an article, and possibly participate in a discussion, knowing I was in a safe place where my voice wouldn’t be insulted.

Time.com released their list of 50 Best Websites, and at the top of their Family & Kids list is CafeMom. Described as a place for “conversation, advice, friendship and entertainment,” the site is more than just those things to me. I’ve seen more negativity from participants in the discussion forums and blog comments than I feel should be allowed by a site that is ranked so favorably by a reputable magazine like Time. The “conversation” I’ve seen is, more often than not, argumentative, negative, and mean. There are always exceptions in some of the sections of the site, but from what I’ve seen, the negative overtakes the positive.

I have several good friends who are writers for Babble.com blogs, and I’ve seen more than several times that they have comments left on their posts that are down-right cruel. This atmosphere does not allow for fostering creative writing; it fosters more pageviews.

Unfortunately, more drama means more pageviews, and more pageviews means higher advertising rates.

Let’s realize that even though we may be sitting behind a screen where we can’t be looked in the eye when we write what we write, our words impact the reader as though they are being spoken to directly.

I’d like to see more publishers realize that the allowed negativity perpetuating on their hard work, their sites, their hard-earned living, keeps more people away than are currently reading.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, butthurt, negativity, rant, soapbox

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When I see spam comments make their way through the filters, I always read them. If they’re good enough to get through the sieve of blockers, they’re good enough for my attention.

Normally, though, they’re just baiting for my clicks with promises of a longer weenis or fascinating articles on manure. I never ever never click on their links. Because once you click on the link, you’re forever sucked into a cyber world of pop-up ads and spam emails. Plus I think they can see me from space just like how the CIA can track your location from a phone call down to the millimeter. I don’t need internet spammers watching me taking naps on the couch working at home from their space cameras.

I give mad props to the jerggoff who left me this not-so-lovely spam comment with an oh-so-convenient link to some sort of online motorcycle wheel store:

The next time I learn a weblog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as significantly as this 1. I mean, I do know it was my choice to read, nevertheless I really thought youd have something attention-grabbing to say. All I hear can be a bunch of whining about something that you could fix for people who werent too busy in search of attention.

Clearly, he has pinpointed my lifelong search for attention.

Well done, sir, for pointing out the obvious.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, search for attention, spam comments

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I’m a glutton for group joining. If someone wants to have me join their group, my self esteem explodes into gooey nuggets of happy.

“OF COURSE I WANT TO JOIN IN YOUR EXCLUSIVE WHATEVER THAT MAKES ME FEEL WANTED YOU LOVE ME YOU REALLY LOVE ME!”

I like to think of myself as a purveyor of new things on the internet. I try things out, I see how they work, then most of the time, I forget all about it until either they’re bigger than Jeesus or there’s controversy about it. (See: Quora, Plurk, Triberr, Pinterest, MySpace, Instagram, etc.)

Like 99% of things on the internet, unless a new something is easily learned, is pretty, and doesn’t make you look like a spammy douchebag, it won’t catch on with the masses.

I signed up for Triberr a little while ago as something new to try. At the time, no one in my circle of followers was using Triberr to amplify their readership. Or, at least that I noticed, and that’s really the point. At the time, I didn’t notice who was using the new blogging amplification service.

What is Triberr, you’re asking? The nice people at Triberr want you to be able to amplify your readership by having you join in “tribes” of people who will auto-tweet your blog posts when you publish them.

In my explanation is the problem: I have to explain it.

The first problem of Triberr is that it’s confusing. Because I refuse to admit defeat when it comes to understanding something new on the internet, I researched what exactly was going on at this new fangled social media fun, and from watching videos to reading paragraph-long explanations, I still had to try to use the application to fully understand it. And still, the masses don’t understand it and I’m sure I don’t even get it as much as I’d like.

The second problem of Triberr is that my blog feed is being auto-tweeted at various intervals on the other people’s Twitter feeds in my “tribes” in annoying amounts it’s annoying even me. Yes, I’m getting annoyed at the number of times my own posts are being auto-tweeted. If I’m getting annoyed at my own posts’ auto-tweeting, I can imagine just how annoying it is to other people who follow the people who are in my “tribe.”

I’ve seen some of the complaints about Triberr around the Twitter, the Facebook, and on blogs. I even defended it in a recent civil (I KNOW! IT HAPPENS!) Twitter conversation. But that also got me to re-evaluate just exactly my place was in Triberr and what it was doing for me.

It’s not doing much, if anything, to increase my blog’s readership. Never mind the extra 1-2 clicks I get a day from Triberr, my quality readership is not increasing.

The third problem of Triberr is that IT CAN COST ACTUAL MONEY. Not pretend internet money, but real, hard-earned American dollars from my bank account money can buy me into more tribes that will increase the number of people who auto-tweet my posts. That should have been my first clue into not joining. I don’t believe in buying readers, whether it’s from fake internet money or from real, hard-earned American dollars. No, I didn’t give over any of my real money to Triberr, but I’m sure there are some nice people who have. And to me, I don’t really want to be a part of that nonsense.

What does all of this way-too-long rambling mean? I’m leaving Triberr, effective today. I know. This stunning announcement will be shared amongst ones of people with shock and awe.

If I’ve annoyed you with any of my Triberr tweets, this is my apology. If you’re sticking with Triberr, I won’t unfriend you or unfollow you or even think differently of you. I hope you’ll do the same for me.

Pangie loves you.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 32 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, readership, social media, triberr

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I was kind of a biatch last night on the Twitter.

My friends alimartell, Issa, Loukia, Flinger, a few others, and I were discussing how blogging today is SO not like it was in the olden days. The times before 2008 when Twitter wasn’t around, Facebook’s world superpowers were just a gleam in Zuckerberg’s eyeball, and MySpace was king. We met our online friends though blogging and commenting and linking to our favorite people. SEO was just for the professionals and we worried about writing before all else. The only people monetizing their blogs on any scale beyond a free pack of cupcakes were Dooce and Perez Hilton.

Three-plus years later, we are where we are. Social media is king, Twitter is a way of life, Facebook isn’t just for Farmville (unless you’re my mother-in-law), and MySpace is a fledgling music project. We are still blogging and writing and commenting and linking, but the discovery of new people among us is left to the social networks.

I like it now. I liked it then. Both eras of living on the internet have their strengths and both have their Achilles heels. I liked reading about people and their lives and having people read my words and learn about my life. I loved the validation of a comment, a link from a friend and meeting a new reader. I like Twitter, its immediacy and platform to share my thoughts, and being able to have public conversations. The same goes for Facebook. I haven’t looked at MySpace in months or maybe years, so I’m assuming Justin Timberlake is hard at work over there bringing its sexy back.

My point, and I have one, is that if we want to get back to the basics of blogging, we have to DO the basics of blogging. Be the change you want to happen. We have to write with meaning, read with connection, and comment with intention. Social media sites allow us to SHARE better and easier. Share what you’ve read other people blog. Let other people know what you’re reading by posting a link on your Facebook profile or clicking the “like” button on the blog. Send out a tweet telling your followers that there is something worth reading on a blog.

We become better writers when we read more, at least I know I do. Since writing the post about Tipping Your Bloggers and Bloggesses, I’ve made a concerted effort to read and comment more. Sometimes I forget that I need to read to write, and the socials get in the way. When I remind myself to read, 1/2 a second later I’m reading (thanks to the black magic of the Google Next button).

We can do it all. We can read, share, comment, write, befriend, love, promote, monetize, and whatever else gives you validation, and do it all with meaning.

I was trying to make my point exactly this on the Twitter last night, but I think I came across as a bitch. Sharing my feelings on blogging can’t be condensed into 140 characters. 

Exactly my point.

Share with me what you’re reading and writing. What have you discovered lately? Is there a favorite post or article you can’t stop thinking about? Is there a photo post you’ve published lately that you want people to see? TELL ME. If you don’t put yourself out there, no one will know you’re there.

I’m going to walk the walk, share what I’m reading, and I’m going to comment with intention. I hope you do the same.

_________________________

SHARING IS CARING IS HUMPING A LEG:

• On Curvy Girl Guide, I have an editorial on how teachers are getting the shaft.
• One of my most favorite people in the world, alimartell, wrote a follow-up letter to her 16-year-old self.
• One of my other most favoritest people in the world, shaunaglenn, asked for prayers for a life pileup.
• My OG BFF, Mishi, takes way a lot of pictures of her new puppy, Pepper.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 37 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog about blogging, Blogging, facebook, Friends, twitter

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This started off as a comment on [Meredith's, Bueno Baby], but I just kept going. Go read her post first, then come back. I trust you. Fly off and read, just promise you’ll come back and hump on my blog, please. Mkay? Now SHOO.

I’mma just say…

I was sent to your post from a friend’s link *ahem*allisonzapata*ahem* who couldn’t say enough nice things about you and your blog. She didn’t say the nice things about you until after I said I “wasn’t feeling this post” because I truly didn’t.

My gut reaction: you just slammed me and everything I’ve worked for. Of course, I don’t think you slammed me personally, but everything I do on the interwebs is to make money for my family, and making money for my family means being social.

I’ve written posts about the good in blogging and posts just like yours. I’ve received tons of *high 5s* and *ME TOOs* when I write them. I’ve felt exactly the way you felt when you wrote this post. Been there, done that, got the $3 t-shirt, and I might even be there tomorrow.

And then I get my head out of my ass, shimmy up my XL granny panties, and realize no one cares more about me than I care about me. The majority of people online and off live in the light. We are kind, generous, caring people who want the best for ourselves and others. The very small minority of people live in the negative darkness, wishing evil upon others with the reflection back at themselves. THOSE PEOPLE do not deserve the majority of my light and energy. They are their own problems, not mine.

Regarding the issue taken with numbers and statistics in social media, it’s all business. It’s new business, it’s Good Ole Boys comparing weenis sizes, and it’s stereotypical head cheerleaders giving head and padding their bras. It only matters if you make it matter. To some of us who depend on social media to make a meager living, those numbers matter to an extent. They don’t have to matter to everyone.

I hope you don’t take this as a slam on you at all. You just made an impact on my feelers that I had to express, and what I wanted to say was longer than a comment. Plus, it’s a good excuse to make something into my own post. I’m generous to myself like that.

Nice to meet you, Meredith.

Welcome to my blog.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 39 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: blog about blogging, Blogging, social media

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I’d like to start a movement, and I want you to come with me. It’s a movement that doesn’t start with b- and end with -owel, but rather starts with b- and ends with -log.

Wait. Those are kind of similar if you have a wicked, twisted mind like mine. I digress.

This movement if more of a Back to Basics in my online life. I’ve had these thoughts lately of doing bad things to Jared Leto what’s really important about being online. What it is that I’m doing here in the Interland of Nets. What it is that my purpose is focused on accomplishing. How can I use my experiences of clicking and mousing and typing to connect the way the good internet lord, Al Gore, intended.

Why did I start sharing my inner thoughts with strangers not-so way back in 2007 when this blog launched out of my nethers?

Why does it still exist today?

Because I like it. Because it’s pretty. Because I’m semi-good at what I do. Because I’d rather be doing this than folding laundry or cleaning a toilet.

Basically, you’re welcome, friends.

The feeling around the ‘tubes these days is that social media, Twitter, Facebook, etc. have taken away blogging connections. My super Awesome Pixie Pal, alimartell, wrote about this yesterday. She’s making a conscious effort to connect more with bloggers by commenting on at least 20 blog posts a day. Many of the commenters on her post are aghast at the possibility of even trying to comment on that many posts in a given day or want to know how long she plans on doing this.

It’s not like a diet. It’s a way of life, a change in thinking.

It’s taking blogging back to basics.

From here on forward, I’m making a conscious effort to comment on more blog posts. No, it’s not a perfect idea, but it’s one that got me started in blogging. When people read others’ words and give back validation that their words exist, the circle of validation perpetuates.

Giving begets giving.

The Butterfly Effect.

I don’t believe in commenting for commenting’s sake. I don’t believe in “I have a badge that says you have to comment on my post.” I certainly don’t believe in begging for readers. That’s completely not my point.

I’m definitely not saying Twitter and Facebook have ruined blogging and they need to die in a fiery pit. I LOVE me some Twitter and Facespace. Don’t take them from my cold, dead hands. I will still use social media in the same manner in which I am currently using social media.

I’m just going back to blogging basics and validating the words of others by actually TELLING them I was there and read what they put out to the world.

“I see you.”
“You exist.”
“Your words matter to me.”
“You’re friggin hilarious, and I want to hump your leg.”
“You are not alone.”

The movement away from validating others’ words with comments and sharing blogging efforts via social media needs to be reversed.

Perpetuate validation: The Butterfly Effect.

Are you with me?

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2011. | Permalink | 52 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: basics, Blogging, validation

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Gather around, kids. Mama’s got a story to tell over here by the fire.

It’s getting nipply out; a cool 72º this morning. We Floridians start our fires when we turn off our a/c. Our thin skin can’t take the cool breezes of winter.

I want to tell you a story about living a life online. Or rather, a small part of living your life on the internets.

It’s a nice, friendly place, these intertubes. You’ll find many things to entertain your wee brains while you’re avoiding other things like actual work or cleaning or screaming babies. You’ll find the people who live inside your lappytop are kind, generous, and generally supportive. (There are some mouth-breathers you need to keep up your guard around, but they can be easily cast off as losers or deginerates or republ… asshats. We’re avoiding those douchebags for the sake of today’s lesson.)

Some of those places around the onlines are sites called “blogs.” You’re actually viewing one RIGHT NOW. More specifically, this here is called a “blog post.”

Blog posts can be about anything from political rantings to happy endings to amazing photos to dancing cat videos to the story of when you lost your virginity then ended up on 16 & Pregnant.

Or if you’re a regular reader of this particular blog, you’ll know you’re likely to find pretty much anything and nothing all in the same day.

Tis the beauty of a blog.

We bloggers love what we do even if the outside world doesn’t really get the concept. And that’s OK. I’m here to help bloggers and non-bloggers alike. I’m a giver like that.

I’m not just talking to those of you who don’t know how to blog or know what a blog is. You are all here in this fire circle jerk to learn about the “Tip Jar” (for lack of a better term) of blogging.

The “Tip Jar” of blogs are usually comments left at the end of a blog post. Lately, more bloggers have added a Facebook “Like” button to their posts in addition to comments.

Comment forms and “Like” buttons are there for a reason. Just like the “Tip Jar” on the Starbucks counter or the open saxophone case on the sidewalk, the comment form and/or “Like” button is there to keep the worker (blogger) satisfied with his/her/shim’s job.

A pat on the back. A “Way to Go!” note. A couple extra coins for the piggy bank.

Encouragement to keep on keepin’ on.

We bloggers LOVE that you stopped into our home on the internet. We set out the WELCOME! mat for you to enter our domain.

And as you leave, please be kind to leave a crumb of recognition that You Were Here. A simple comment, a click of the “Like,” a sharing with your Twitter friends. It’s the right thing to do, and the tasty way to do it.

It’s how we earn our self respect.

So kids, as I pass around the marshmallows and eye-poking rusted straightened wire hangers, remember: your blog author loves you.

Please love them back.

•  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •

Thanks to my very good, very beautiful friend, Mishi, for the photo.
And that ^, my friends, is giving credit where credit is due.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 159 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, commenting, comments, writing

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Minor disclaimer:

I’m just going to come right out and say it: I love receiving “sponsored” products.

There’s rarely a person, online or off, who would say they don’t like getting things sent to them in return for writing about the products. It’s kind of one of the perks to being famous on the internet a moderately successful blogger.

Yes, there are many people who disagree with me who want to be paid actual cash money for writing a review or mentioning they received “sponsored” products, but for me, if I like something, I’m going to tell you about it whether it’s sponsored or not. <<<< long sentence alert

I used to feel obligated to tell the people of the internets all about a sponsored product I received and make sure I told the world about it in a succinct and proper professional manner. But times have changed. I’m the one in control of my blog and my online persona. I get to tell you want I want you to hear. I’m not controlled by the companies and PR firms sending me the free stuffs.

Yes, I’m a rebel.

OK, not really, but I do a good job of playing a rebel in my head. I’m also insanely rich, have a pet spider monkey, and can dance like Michael Jackson in my head, but that’s a different story.

Not everyone agrees with me, and that’s OK for me. I’m not sure if it’s OK for them, but c’est la vie. <<<< totally googled that

Above disclaimer aside, I’m in LUUURRVE with the Sorrelli jewelry I received this year to wear at BlogHer ’10. LOVE. Wanna marry. Would live in a cabin by a mountain lake for eternity with this jewelry.

Before I started blogging, I found out about Sorrelli because every gay man, woman, and rich child in my hometown was wearing it with everything from t-shirts to evening gowns. It’s stunning jewelry. When I started this whole conference-going thing and realized I could ask companies to send “sponsored” products to me in exchange for my opinion and spreading the word about the products, I twittered @sorrelli and asked if they’d want to participate in “Decorate Angie for BlogHer ’09.” Because I’m Awesome, they loved the idea, and they sent me and a few other lucky ladies some jewelry.

Jump ahead to this year’s BlogHer ’10, I asked again, and since they still love me, Sorrelli said, “Heck yeah, we wanna send you some fantastical jewelries!” or something like that.

This year, I received THE. MOST. GORGEOUS. necklace and earrings combo.

SOOOO, since that picture isn’t the best representation of the gorgousness this necklace embodies (is that even proper verbage?), here’s Sorrelli’s stock photo of the earrings/necklace combo (click on pics to see more about the jewelry on Sorrelli’s site):

Flat-out beautiful, right? If I want to be noticed (see: hair is fixed, clothes without an elastic waistband), I wear one of my Sorrelli pieces. It’s impossible NOT to receive a compliment when I wear one of my necklaces. It’s also a good way to pretend I’m important, and it distracts people from my fat belly rolls.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, blogher, jewelry, sorrelli, Sponsored

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I’ve never thought of my breaks in posting as writer’s block, because I don’t consider my brain seepage as “writing.”

It’s really just edited brain dumpage.

Listening to Howard Stern this morning, as I do every morning, Jewel was on talking about her writing process. Basically, she doesn’t edit. She doesn’t think. She doesn’t worry about the future of the words.

She doesn’t believe in writer’s block.

“Writer’s block is for people who edit themselves.”

Apparently, I need to quit editing what I write. As in, just let it out onto the paper/screen. Don’t worry about the process or the subject or who will read it.

Just let it out.

that’s what she said

Like some dumb bunny on a reality dating show, I need to not worry what other people think of me and let the stupid fly.

Maybe I should go on a reality show just to learn how to release my inhibitions.

Is there a show out there looking for an overweight, 30-something, married mother of 2? Other than Wife Swap. And The Biggest Loser. Or, wait. Maybe TBL would take me. I could totally lose weight and be humiliated all at the same time. bygones

Not that I’m asking for it, but if more exciting things happened in my life (ex. winning the Lotto, going on Oprah), I’d have more exciting things to blog about. But then I’d also have to be a good story-teller, which, I am not. I’m like the worst joke/story-teller ever. (see: this blog)

Why do you even stick around here and come back? I love love that you do, but why?

I totally need a class in how to write good. Or better. Or more interestinger.

© Angie [A Whole Lot of Nothing] for A Whole Lot of Nothing • Your Favorite Blog, 2010. | Permalink | 39 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Blogging, writing

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