Boxing Day and Other Randomness
Once again, WordPress, I do not want to learn about your new editor, and you can’t make me. Not until you take away the old one, like when the librarians took away the physical card catalog and I had to use the computer one.
Yes, there were physical card catalogs, shut up.
So I sort of missed telling anyone about what to buy for Christmas, and I’m super sorry because I know you were all bereft without my helpful shopping lists. I like the word “bereft”. I also missed Christmas day, but then I have had other Christmas specials if you want to check them out. Come on, you have nothing better to do but work and I know you’re on WordPress right now.
You could have bought this great gift from my list! Girls go crazy for the Swiffer!
My best gift this Christmas was Tramadol. I contracted another sinus infection (I can get them from pure air I think) and my head was going to explode and I told the doctor that regular Tylenol and Ibuprofen had not helped so could he give me a shot of the good pain stuff? The doctor asked why I didn’t just take regular pain meds? Yeah, he did. Then he looked at ME like I was your average druggie. I am not average, you jerk. He gave me the shot. I felt so much better. Thanks, Tramadol!
I even missed Boxing Day! It’s a real holiday for the UK and Canada and I’m not sure who else. Maybe UPS. I was just thinking about boxing day because my highly cultured 14-year-old brought it up, since she is in debate and thus reads way too much about politics, other cultures, and critical thinking skills. She once wore a shirt with a UK flag to a 4th of July celebration, and no one noticed. Question: Do you guys celebrate independence from us Yanks?
I’m getting this out early to all you Brits out there!
Also I found a snotty article in the New York Times about what Boxing Day is in America – hint: she’s snotty about how dumb we Americans are. I mean sure, we are, but like I need this chick to say it. I’m pretty sure she’s not British cause I didn’t see any extra “u’s in there or anything. She said in the UK you guys give out canned goods and stuff to people right after Christmas (like how much charity to you NEED, sheesh), but that we Americans just stare glassy-eyed at our empty Christmas-present boxes. My family did NOT, Ms. New York Times, we stared at our our still full Christmas bags. They are festive and much easier than all that wrapping crap that my aunt insists on continuing to do, with ribbon so tight you have to saw it off with a knife.
The bags are still full because we haven’t figured out where to put the stuff away yet. I know, first world problems right? Where to put that pregnant mermaid ornament (an earlier gift from the same aunt)? As far as cardboard boxes, I do have a lot of those because I shopped from Amazon this Christmas. It is my hope that my small contribution will help them take over the world of merchandise, if Disney does not get there first. I should also point out I shopped too much from the Disney store so . . . healthy competition, guys.
You don’t even have to wrap them!
I did get a new computer since the one I’ve had for many years, which was a gift from a friend who had it for years before that, was conserving its last breaths of life by repeatedly turning itself off at random times. My husband bought my new-to-me (refurbished!) computer with money from his extra job guarding the media gate (with his mere presence!) during the first half of the fall football games. I think I’ll keep him, especially since in two days we will have been married for twenty years. It seems just yesterday I was the 22-year-old clueless, glassy-eyed newlywed staring into the camera with no idea what I was doing. I mean, I still don’t, but I’ve gotten better at hiding it.
Anyway, a new computer meant that I had to remember my old passwords which are usually saved on my computer because I can’t remember them. I kept mashing the same words in, since I really thought I knew them this time, only to realize that I was trying to get into wordpress.org instead of wordpress.com. I didn’t know there was a difference. Once I got on the right one, wallah, I did get into my own blog and there I found a list of blogs to read, and one of those was anupturned soul’s, and guess what she was talking about? Boxing day! And she’s like certified British!
I think we may be Time Life books connected sisters, anupturned soul (can I call you soul? Up? Got a nickname?) because I also like Dr. Who, or I did before this latest one and I totally got your reference to Amy Pond. I think she is one of the best companions and I felt very sad when her baby melted. For those who don’t watch, you had to be there. Thank you for your childhood definition of Boxing Day “. . . a day when everyone put on boxing gloves and punched each other openly, freely, without legal repercussions.” I can get behind this holiday. Like the Purge, only friendlier and not quite as bloody.
Ready for Boxing Day?
I do still plan on finishing my review of Mary Poppins. I am currently reading her second book, Mary Poppins Returns (also a new movie go watch now says Disney counting their money bwahahaha!) and the kids are still going on adventures and Mary Poppins is still being a jerk, so business as usual. I haven’t seen Mary Poppins Returns yet, but I did watch Saving Mr. Banks, a movie about the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers, and Walt Disney, who tried to get the rights to those blasted books for about as long as I’ve been married. Also I saw Before the Mouse, a movie about Walt Disney’s early years and struggles to get started with animation. Say what you will about him, but Walt Disney was freaking determined. He also made his fortune without a “small loan of a million (or 600 million give or take) dollars”.
So now that you’re all caught up with me, what’s up with you guys? Guys?
~Alice
You Suck :D or Smileys Change Everything.
Good job! 😀
Communicating online is tough. You just can’t get inflection across very easily. Sometimes people think you’re being sarcastic when you’re not. This is not usually the case with me, since most of the time yes I am being sarcastic. But every once in a while, I might say something nice. In this case, I need to let you know I mean it. Since there is no sarcasm or serious font, the next best thing is our buddy, the smiley. 😀
Smileys are fabulous for getting intent across. I can literally say pretty much anything and as long as I add a smiley at the end, it’s all okay. For instance, I could say “You suck. :D.” and it’s just like saying, “You suck – just kiddin’!” People love it when you say that. A smiley is so much more efficient than having to write out “just kiddin'”, though.
Likewise, frownies also have their place. Like if your friend says a house fell on her mother, and you don’t know how to console her, you can just make a frowny. :(. Sadface, my friend. Or you can offer online hugs. ((hugs)). These are even safer than those side hugs that ultra conservative Christians do.
But really, nothing takes the place of a good smiley. Especially if said person hates emoticons. Here’s a quick example:
Darren: Hi! 😀
Sabrina: I hate smileys.
Darren: Sorry 😦
Sabrina: Actually I hate all emoticons. They are so irritating. Why do people use those? I mean, gawd . . .
Darren: 🙂
Sabrina: Now you’re just being a jerk.
Darren: You suck, Sabrina. 😀
See? Darren gets his point across to Sabrina, but he softens the blow with a smiley.
But things have changed recently in WordPress land, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed. Our smileys have gone rogue. I used to get this cute little smiley and now I’ve got Buckwheat here. :D. I don’t get it. Why does WordPress have to change stuff? You suck, WordPress, you and your smileys. 😀
Still, whatever form your smiley comes in, it is a useful part of our new vocabulary. Do you guys use smileys? Do they annoy you? Did this post annoy you? If so, I’m totes sorry. :D. I do have to ask, though, how do you make one of those puking faces like you use when instant messaging? This could help me out when I’m reviewing awful television shows like on TLC. A terrified smiley would also come in handy. Anyone with computer skillz that knows how to translate this on WordPress, please let me know. I will reward you handsomely. :D. No really, I will. 😀
Alice :D.
2013: A Year of living Alicely
Last year I did my own overview, complete with link drops to my own posts. Because no matter the year, I am still narcissistic. I vow to be more so in the new year. Blogging is also an interesting insight into what was going on in my life during 2013. Clearly not much, because I posted a lot, like enough times to fill more of those opera houses.
Note: I am so lazy, I didn’t even Link Drop.
Anyway, here we go:
January
I started off the year in the middle of covering Fifty Shades Freed, the final (for the love of God) book in the 50 Shades series. Only I called it Fifty Shades Flunked, because the one part of teaching I kind of liked was giving people Fs, and I got to do that a lot with E.L. James. I also had an online classroom of students, many of whom did not realize they were enrolled. So they mostly didn’t notice when I quit teaching partly through the book.
That stick man falling into the black hole was a pretty good description of our class.
Next came the Freshly Pressed nod, which happened right after my washing machine exploded. I can’t express how happy I am that the one post that was pressed was one that featured the word “crap” in the title, and was about, of all things, my quest to get healthier. I joined a gym, and if you’ve ever seen Sport Goofy, you get the idea of how successful this was.
Pro: Gym has equipment
Con: Gym has people
February
50 Shades coverage continues. To counteract the nausea, I try exercise and like all things, I do this in moderation. I review almost every exercise video out there, even the whacked out 80s ones and the frightening Jillian Godzilla Michaels.
Get thee behind me!!!
Still overwhelmed, I took a blog break and went on Carnival Cruise lines for a three-hour-tour. Not really, but it made a good post. A stormtrooper visited Wonderland and shot up the place. The Things and I made up a TV show with a mutated creature named “Mutey and Friends”.
This is going to be picked up by PBS any day now!
March
50 Shades coverage IS STILL GOING. I decide exercise is too much work and try yoga. Writing posts is also work, so I write my first one word post and get more comments on this than most of my actual posts. I goof up both the origin of both Easter and St Patrick’s Day. I decide to quit Facebook no really I mean it this time.
Not that I’m desperate but . . . BE MY FRIEND!!!!!
April
I first notice my Dragon Tales blog stalkers. I am called a “farthead” by one. I get obsessed with yoga and frightened by a panting girl on a video. I finally FINALLY finished 50 Shades and could only utter “Mmmbop.”
You’re welcome.
May
50 Shades is gone and I have nothing to write about, but this doesn’t stop me. I remind people of my birthday coming up and await all the celebratory blog posts. The Fruitcake Award is created and passed around several blogs cause no one wants that thing. More yoga posts. My collection of yoga bling adds up.
Look, Ma, I made it myself!
June
I meet my Wonder Twin, merbear, and we discover a love of making fun of stupid retro ads. Also the sound of our own voices. We riff on ads about magical brushes and laxatives. The Things turn nine and thirteen. We have a lockdown at work because the stupidest crooks of all time pretend to rob a Subway. A squirrel and a depressed pony get Facebook accounts. I find out yoga is of the devil.
Just . . . wow.
July
I get sick a lot (surprise!). Crazed “Christians” swarm my college campus. I declare that I am my own cool table. I start reviewing songs, starting with the “Chipper Cheatin’ Songs”. I tell people what not to name their baby, figuring I’ll tick some people off – instead it’s one of my most viewed posts. Merbear and I find out new uses for Lysol. The anti-awards arrive. I continue my parody of 50 Shades with our heroine Bambi.
These are still available for those people on your list. Take one today!
August
Merbear and I start the Wonder Twins retro blog. Merbear does a lot of the work because yet another of my alternate identities, Mary Alice, apparently falls down a bottle. I talk about murdering virtual people – it is another of my most popular posts, you sickos. Boppo the death clown is born and continues to die horrible deaths in the Sims. Sparky the Wonder Blogger arrives to terrorize us all and my followers become sparkleponys. List of X tells us way too much about Miley Cyrus and twerking.
Sparky the Won-der Blog-ger
September
The Things and I glob glitter on a My Little Pony and actually get people to compete for it in a Sparklepony contest! People had to be as obnoxious in their posts as possible – no surprise this is not a problem for my followers. Evil Squirrel “wins” the monstrosity pony and she travels to his home and falls in love with his Rainbow Donkey (knitted by a blogger) and has babies: (knitted by another blogger). Yes, we are all adults.
A contest based on this.
October
I suffer the Sadz and a small nervous breakdown, but continue to write anyway. Halloween is dissected, another birth story is told, and I describe the game of Life – turns out all of these are of the devil.
Reports about me have been greatly exaggerated. I thought Alice was a pillow.
November
I start reviewing fairy tales – I mean to get back to this in the New Year with the Little Mermaid, that fishy brat. Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and that freak Peter Pan have already gotten the Alice treatment. My Thanksgiving post is a Black Friday Thursday post, because that’s what the real holiday is, right? Yay!
Realism in fairy tales.
December
I spend the entire month griping about Christmas. I discuss the scariness of Santa, write a love letter to George Michael, and discover from Fox News that Santa and Jesus are white. Holiday Paul is offered as a Santa substitute. I get obsessed with a virtual farm. What happened to that exercise and yoga stuff? Hang on, I gotta milk my pretend cows!
No, kids, really – Santa is totally white.
So that’s my year. Did you guys have a good 2013? Are you glad it’s over? Got any News Years resolutions you plan to immediately break? Let me know. And thanks for reading.
Alice
New Year’s Eve or the Post Everyone Else is Doing
I was trying to think of a kick ass readable post for New Year’s Eve. I thought of absolutely
How many times did I use this picture in 2013? Lots!
Then I saw everyone else posting their reviews and was like, oh free post. Everyone will be incredibly interested in my stats. I must say, they are not nearly as fascinating as last year, when my top search word was crack whore. This year it was Dragon Tales. This was also my most popular post, even edging out my Freshly Pressed post. I think this scares me more than having crack whore as a search term.
You can check out my top posts and top commenters (thankfully they didn’t list how many times I had commented on my own blog.) Is commenter not a word? For some reason, commenters is underlined, while commenter is not. So it’s an illegal plural? Where was I?
Oh, right, so here’s where you can see all that fascinating crap like how all my views could fill several opera houses with spambots. If you’re bored and like watching computer generated fireworks, have a look. Stay tuned New Year’s Day for a look back on a year in Alice.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 38,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 14 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Click here to see the complete report.
Thanks for a great year, you guyz,
Alice
Alice’s Plan for World Domination (and some contest winners!)
Hi, it’s me, Alice!
That’s right. I’m totally Alice. And um, this is like my blog and all of you are followers of ME, yes ME Spar . . . um, Alice!
Anyway, I am super excited about all of you who agreed to become my minions er I mean that entered Alice’s uh my contest to win the Sparkly Poneh of Wonder! But you will get so much more just by entering! You see we will not stop at sparkly ponehs. No, there are more sparkly doo-dads to be found, my friends. You know those blog awards your peeps have but you don’t? Well, they are all, ALL going to be ours – all the riches for us – yes, yes, even all the Freshly Pressed badges will all belong to me my precioussssssssssss! I mean us! How will we do it? By taking over WordPress, of course!
You say it can’t be done? Yes it can! We just have to storm WordPress’s headquarters. Well, you do, I’m going to sit on my lightbulb butt er my fair fanny. I’m thinking we can send that dj guy in first. He’ll distract all the editors with his suck uppiness while the rest of you guys can take over the site! There may be casualties, but it’s for a greater cause. Me.
Okay, once we’ve got the Death Star secure, we just have to work on the rest of the blogosphere. WordPress is totally the leading blog site, so all we have to do is get everyone to come here by informing them that Blogger, Tumblr, Linked-In (does anyone actually use that) and everything else sucks monkey brains. They will appreciate us so much for freeing them from crappy blogging platforms that they will obey our every command!
Then from there it’s easy peasy to take over the entire earth. ALL the Xboxes on the planet will be ours to play with, you guyz. Are you confused? Don’t worry, I have this handy chart here . . . somewhere . . .
Wait a second . . .
That’s not my evil domination chart! That’s a xeroxed copy of Squirrel’s butt! Hey!
Gotcha.
That’s it, you little rat, give me back my plans!
You mean the plans he just ate? Wait a day or so and you’ll get them back.
What? What??? My secret plans! Are you ready for a fight, Pony?
Fight me and I’ll sit on you.
Oh. Oh, uh, no, don’t do that. You wouldn’t do that to Alice your old pal, would you?
You aren’t Alice! Your clever disguise does not fool me you are Sparky and you won’t win cause we will defeat you with the power of goodness and Xerox machines and Oreo cookies so watch out! Sad Pony, take off the wig and dress!
It is Sparky. What a surprise.
You meddling animals! You haven’t seen the last of me!!!
Hello, real Alice here now. Wow, that was close. Thank goodness my little furry friends were there for me. It shows they really care.
We hate you marginally less than Sparky.
Close enough. For those of you taken in by Sparky’s plot, as I was, do not feel bad. It happens to all of us. Still, I’d like to congratulate our winner, of the coveted Sparkleponeh and a raccoon sticker from Goldfish’s shop, EvilSquirrel! He was chosen using a complex system created by the Things consisting of checking off Sparky attributes (he had the most, maybe?). He also received bonus points for stealing a picture from my blog to make his own award and for his awesome Bond-ish squirrel drawing. Of course all our contestants did an outstanding job and it was still really hard to choose. Thanks so much for entering, my awesome peeps!
THIS. He gets . . . THIS! And a sticker!
But it seems like there should be something more . . . a second prize, which in keeping with Wonderland tradition will be greater than the first prize. And here it is . . . stickers of my two blog defenders, Sad Pony and Squirrel! These fab pictures of my dynamic duo were created by Goldfish, whose store I will once again promote – she has Halloween stuff there now, guys! Cute freaking ghosties!
Sad Pony and Squirrel!
The second place winner is djmatticus, narrowly edging out the others based on bonus points for sheer unadulterated enthusiasm. Congrats! If the winners will email me their addresses, I will send out their prizes ASAP! Thanks again all of you for playing along and for being awesome and very unsparkiesh followers.
The Real Alice (accept no substitutes)
Wait, this is the prize? What kind of a contest IS this?
Spam!
I have learned a lot posing as a squirrel on Facebook. Yes, I’m still there. Or rather, Squirrel is still there. Possessed by a sugar rush, one day Squirrel went around “friending” all sorts of weird stuff. Like the company that makes Spam. So we get posts from them. Lots of posts. It’s far out. One thing I can say – these people are really passionate about their work. They even made a museum for Spam.
No I’m not kidding. Even worse, they have a mascot. I can prove it. (Click to Enlarge Pictures)
the horror . . . the horror
I just have to ask – why? Why do we need a Spam museum? What could they possibly have there? Please say they do not have historical pieces of Spam on display. That could get pretty nasty. Maybe there’s towers of spam containers. It’d be like shopping at Costco, except the only product would be . . . Spam. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Or even . . . mouthwatering?
I totally have to go to Minnesota now, you guyz.
But wait, there’s more. On World Photography Day (yeah that’s a thing too) Spam asked people to share pictures of their Spam.
Aw, look, a Spam!
Sooo like people take pictures of their Spam? Do they pose the Spam certain ways? Do they keep photo albums filled with only Spam photos? If you have dumped out the photos of your children and replaced them with photos of Spam, you might have a problem. Seek help immediately.
Would you like to show everybody you are a freaked out maniac Spam enthusiast? Do you have no fashion sense? Well, Spam has just the thing for you! Check it out. Spam Hats.
I can see so many uses for this.
To keep things hip and interesting, Spam offers contests to win – you guessed it -more Spam and Spam products! In this one, you just had to email your favorite Spam memory to the folks at Spam Central or wherever for a chance to win this lovely gift basket o’ Spam. You’ll notice Squirrel offered up his own memory. Sadly, it was not a winning one. Ah, well.
I have to wonder – what is the grater for? Do we grate spam now? On the grill?
So I get these sorts of Spam posts all the time on Facebook. But that’s not all. I get Spam other places as well, like say this blog. Okay, it’s not the sort of Spam you eat, or at least I wouldn’t advise it. You really don’t know where this spam has been. I’ve noticed lately that the usually excellent spam filter on WordPress has not been working as well. Stuff is slipping through the old grater. Either that or our spammers have gotten more clever. Check out some of the comments that made it through to my blog.
Written by the cleverly disguised blogger “Site”: I am really glad to read this weblog posts which includes tons of valuable facts, thanks for providing such data.”
Quite the compliment, Site, but I’m a wee bit suspicious considering you got these valuable facts from one of my 50 Shades of Grey reviews.
Next up is “Raspberry Ketones Ultra” (how do they come up with these totally realistic blogger names? I dunno!):
“My relatives every time say that I am wasting my time here at web, but I know I am getting familiarity every day by reading thes pleasant content.”
Yeah, sorry, but I’m afraid your relatives might be right.
And finally . . . “accountant bendigo” has this to say: “Hi there, I want to subscribe for this webpage to take hottest updates,
therefore where can i do it please assist.”
This comment was in response to a post I wrote with Merbear entitled “Alice and Merbear’s State of the Hoo-Ha Address.” I think accountant bendigo is a pervert. I might have to invite him over sometime.
Okay, well, that’s more than enough spam for one day. Let’s see what’s for dinner . . . oh, man.
Spam DONUTS? Why? Just – whyyyyy?
The Sparky Plot!
Sad Pony, Sad Pony, Sad Pony, Sad Ponehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
What.
It’s that Sparky guy, Sad Pony! He’s eeeeeeeevil and he’s trying to take over Alice’s blog I heard him plotting Zomg what do we dooooo?
He was plotting out loud.
Yesss, all the evil villains plot out loud Sad Pony!
Only the stupid ones. Okay, Sparky counts.
I also found some of his plans on a dry erase board in Thing Two’s bedroom! Look Sad Pony, look, will you look it’s terribleeee!!!!!
Sparky’s Evil Plot Chart
He made a chart. He’s an idiot.
But Sad Pony, Sad Pony if he succeeds then he might want to date Miss Four Eyessss!!!!!
. . . . .
This means war.
Alice is having that contest and getting other bloggers to act like him Sad Pony and then he will take over the blogosphere of Sparkys! Alice is playing right into his hands what do we doooo????
I will have to think on his destruction.
But Sad Poneh Alice is giving the bloggers sparklepony! How we gonna compete with a Sparkly poneh like that oh how, how, how?
We could offer my manure as a prize and it’d be better than that monstrosity.
We’re gonna give them poops? Oh, boy, I have lots of those to give this will be awesome!
No, idiot, not poop. I will think of something. Sparky is going down.
Oooooh!
Hey, I see you guys. You will never defeat me. I is de shiz.
I sense a bit of unrest on my blog . . . to be continued.
– Alice
Blogging with Sparky!
Today I’d like to introduce you guys to Sparky. Say “Hello,” Sparky.
Yo, Homies, what be happenin’ down in de hood? Word!
Thank you. Now Sparky is a blogger who is way more famous than you are. He’s so famous, in fact, that no one has ever heard of him. But now he’s come out of hiding and has lots of tips for people just starting out. Take it away, Sparky.
Link Drop!
If you wanna get read, you gotta let people see what you’ve written. So be sure to put at least three links back to your own stuff in every post you write. Here’s one Alice wrote, for example. Also, you can link to other bloggers, but only really famous bloggers like the Bloggess. “Yo, Bloggess, Wazzup?” is something I often say while we are hanging out.
Leave Comments!
You gotta leave a bunch of comments on the posts of other bloggers if you want comments on yours. Don’t bother reading their posts, you don’t have that kind of time. Just say it was great, and then just happen to slip in a link back to one of your posts. This works especially well on blogs like, oh I don’t know, the Bloggess. Don’t worry if the link has nothing to do with the post. You didn’t read it anyway, right? How could they expect you to know? Here’s an example:
Cool post! Oh hey I wrote http://www.sparkywonderblogger.wordpress.com/coffeeenemas. Whoops, where’d that link come from?
Worship certain bloggers.
Everyone’s gotta have a hero, right? Be sure and let your bloggy hero know how much he or she is appreciated. Leave multiple novel length comments on every one of their posts praising them as the god or goddess they are. Write hundreds of posts dedicated to said blogger. Try to friend the blogger on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Tumblr, etc. Find out where he lives. Send her long descriptive emails, or at least an e-card, several times a day. You won’t fail to make a great impression on them. You’ll be besties in no time!
Send out lots of those chainmail awards.
Who doesn’t like bling? Especially bling that comes with a lot of freaking work involved! Be sure and send a LOT of these awards out. It doesn’t matter if someone actually gave you the award to begin with. Just rip one off of someone else’s blog. It’s called copy / paste. Then send it to dozens of your blog pals, along with a list of demands. They must answer all the questions, and ask new questions, do the hokey pokey, and then link to a dozen other bloggers like the best pyramid scheme ever. If you’re super creative, you can make up your own award. Like this one Alice made up.
I’ve been awarded this one several times! Go figure, huh?
Inflate your blog.
So you have 2 followers, and one is you, and the other is your dog. No problems. Just get on Facebook and Twitter and randomly friend as many people as possible. It counts in the stats! Then display your follower number for all to see. You might also want a few dozen awards displayed in your side bar. An impressive one is that blue “Freshly Pressed” symbol. Haven’t been pressed yet? No problems. Remember the old copy / paste. Bam, you are an instant success. People will be begging to follow you now.
Declare yourself Ruler of the Blogosphere.
Now that you know what to do, you have to act like you are the best blogger ever. Be as conceited as possible. Form admiration societies for yourself. Remember, your poops are like freshly pressed cinnamon rolls.
Okay, well, that’s all Sparky has for today. What do you think of his tips? Have you tried them? Any questions for Sparky, the wonder blogger?
A Table of My Own
I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately. And not just because I went to one of those gyms with the walls covered in mirrors. I read a post on Lucy’s Football called “On Wednesdays We Wear Pink.” This is in reference to the movie “Mean Girls”, in case you didn’t know. Last night, I watched the movie again. Ah, the good old days, before Lindsey Lohan’s life went off the deep end – along with her career.
Anyway, I think most people can identify with that movie, because a lot of people hated high school – unless they were one of the Plastics. “Plastics” is the term given to the popular people in the movie. At my school, we called them the Snobs. I went to the same public school from preschool through the 12th grade. The social hierarchy was set early on, and it was nearly impossible to move your way up. A few kids would move in and somehow fit into the cool group. But usually, you stayed right where you were.
I was far from the top of that pyramid, but I don’t think you could classify me any certain way. I wasn’t a goth, or a preppy (everyone at that school was a preppy as I realized later), or a nerd, or anything really. No one could classify me because no one really knew me. It’s hard to pin down someone who is invisible.
Once I hated the ones on top. They hadn’t really done anything to me, but I hated them anyway. And that’s the thing. The farther up you climb the ladder, the more fans you get. You also get more enemies. This hierarchy never really ends, though. It extends into all things: work, social life, and even blogging.
Back in September of 2012 I wrote a post for Canvas of the Minds called “The Cool Table.” In it, I reflected on my struggles in school, and how I had finally been invited in with the “cool” bloggers. I got to sit at their table! I was part of the group. It was a great feeling. But I didn’t realize that just like in high school, you can get ousted from these cool tables just as easily as you can join them.
I’m not blaming anyone here, except perhaps myself. You see, I was the one who put these people on the pedestals. I was the one who tried to gather blog bling, and followers, and likes, and comments anyway I knew how. You have to put yourself out there in order to gain a following. I did, once, and when I got a good response, I did so more and more. But after a while, blogging became as much about the awards (freshly press meeee, meeee!) and the teensy slice of “fame” than it did about the writing. It became about social capital. And after a while, I stepped back and realized I didn’t recognize myself.
Who wouldn’t want to be in with these guys?
There are hierarchies in the blogosphere. Some bloggers have thousands of followers. Some have even made it really big, appearing on national television or in recognized magazines or in their own books. Others are somewhere in the middle, not quite so famous, but with good followings. And then there are the newbies, desperate to fit in, but not sure how the culture works yet. They’ll learn, as I did.
I spent a lot of my life feeling like a victim, like everything just happened to me. Poor Alice. But I wasn’t only the victim. I could be a bully too. And I have a bad tendency to hop right into the middle of stuff that is frankly none of my business. Train wrecks are fun – unless you’re involved in the middle of it. I’ve seen feuds between bloggers. And I’ve had my part in feuds. Sometimes you see fights on blog posts. Other times it takes place on other platforms – email, Facebook, twitter, phone calls. There is backstabbing and nastiness out there, if you scratch the surface.
And then you realize you’re part of one big episode of Bachelor Pad.
Yet it’s not all bad. You see, people are people, though they may look like a fish or a squirrel or a bad driver’s license photo in their avatars. Some bloggers may have more followers, but they are still just regular people. They go potty just like the rest of us. So while you should try not to put people down, neither should you raise them up too high. It can be uncomfortable and lonely up on that pedestal, or so I hear. And it’s a long way down at the end.
I am not a victim. And I’m going to try hard not to be an aggressor either. I just want to write a freaking blog. So I’ve created my own table. It’s not that cool, but it’s mine. If someone wants to join me, that’s great. There are puddin’ pops for everyone. If not, that’s also fine. There are many, many tables out there. You don’t have to fit yourself into one group. You don’t have to suck up just to be liked. Just make your own group. And for goodness sakes, just write.
Come join me for tea. New cup, move down.
The Anti-Awards
We all love getting awards. And giving them. Especially if it is an award like the Fruitcake award. You want that one gone as fast as possible.
But sometimes there comes along a person who, well, deserves a special sort of award. This is the kind of person who, say, is told to back off and leave someone alone, repeatedly, but just keeps coming back because he or she is some sort of love god, right? Yeah, no means no, even on the Internetz. Stop being a creeper.
Or maybe it’s just someone who is plain obnoxious. Yes, I realize I sometimes fall in this category. But these people have really outdone themselves. They constantly show up in the comments and act rude and horrible to other posters. It’s especially fun for them to show up and rant about a very sensitive topic. Because they, my friends, are douchecanoes.
Before anyone starts wondering – am I a douchecanoe? Or a creeper? I’ll say that as far as I know, no one following my blog fits that description. Except possibly the Dragon Tales guy. Hi, Dragon Tales guy! Anyway, here are two new awards created by yours truly, to be used as needed for cleanup on WordPress.
And for the creepers? Don’t worry, I didn’t forget you.
I look forward to the day when these awards are no longer necessary. When WP installs something like a block on Facebook, or finds some way to keep someone from following a blogger. Until then, we really aren’t totally safe. Stalking can occur anywhere, and while I’m having some fun here, it is a serious matter.
I hope WordPress comes up with a solution to this problem, because I hate to see friends bothered by a few jerks, some enough that they consider shutting down their blogs. It has happened before. Don’t let it happen again.
aliceatwonderland 