A life so tagged….

I’m not really sure about the effectiveness of “tags”. Every blog post I create, I dutifully tick a few tagwords and create a few more. Occasionally, they actually relate to what I’ve written about.

I presume that having them allows, somehow, my posts to become more searchable or findable… one or the other, anyway. However, if someone having a problem with menopausal symptoms, types into her search engine box “fluctuating hormones” and gets a link to my post on travel-writing, have I really added to the cause or just her headache?

What level of tagging responsibility should I be practicing?

If the purpose of tagwords is to make my posts more findable, how come very few people view my posts? I’m sure there’s lots of people out there who search for “creativity” or “writer’s block”, yet not very many of them pay me a visit or read my pearls of wisdom on the subject. I’ve had lots of writer’s block so I know what I’m talking about.

I know, I should also be optimising, leveraging and marketing, and spreading the word by commenting. I’ve done all that in a previous blogging life and while it did up the ratings, I didn’t find it satisfying enough to continue with the all the effort (fluctuating hormones can really kill the mood, don’t you know). I even spent a few months writing articles on marketing – one of the top blogging topics apparently as there’s certainly a lot of marketing drivel out there in blogging world (not your marketing posts, of course… or mine, I might add).

Tagging in Facebook is another matter. I see how tagging photos allows lots of other people to view images of you that you’d rather hadn’t been posted in the first place. It also leads people (like grandparents) to photos of you doing dumb things (like guzzling beer at a mate’s birthday bash). Not me, of course, I gave up guzzling beer years before FaceBook hit the scenes. I find FB tagging very useful when I want to check in on what my teenagers have been up to on the weekends or on holidays. They do put the silliest photos of themselves up, and if they don’t, their friends do!

I’m off now to tag this post and make up a few things that disguise the bullshit of this entire post in order to lure one or two gullible readers to my blog and improve my viewing stats.

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A life lived in excerpts

The excerpts for my blog posts are rather tenously linked to what my articles are actually about. The excerpts section is like taking a glimpse into creativity. Mine, I suppose, though that sounds a bit presumptious. My blog articles/posts are about one thing, a topic I’ve been thinking about and the excerpts are about something else that’s popped into my head as a result of writing the longer story.

That probably doesn’t make much sense… welcome to my world.

Have you every read something and then find yourself off on a train of thought that diverges away from what you were reading? Have you started writing a story, chapter, paragraph, sentance with one topic in mind only to end up somewhere else entirely? I have lots of story starters that have done exactly that. I once started writing about the observations of an elderly woman on the people in her street, and ended up writing about about a youngish family coping with growing children and changing lifestyles. It all got a bit too real for me and I stopped writing. The poor old woman now languishes somewhere on my hard-drive, her observations to remain unshared indefinitely.

Can our lives be described as living in excerpts? If we are too busy dealing with the myriad of issues that arise in our lives, then yes, they certainly can and often are. Life becomes a blur and only the short, memorable bits are truly experienced.

I run around all week chasing after children, the dog, occasionally my husband, squeezing in work around trips to doctors, training, shopping expeditions, housework, and then on a Saturday morning, life suddenly slows down and I find myself sitting in the sun watching netball and finally breathing, recognising the moment, forgetting the hundred other things I have to do that weekend. For that short period, I focus in on my daughter playing sport, the other families watching, the coffee in my hand and the sun on my face. It’s an excerpt of my week and I’ve just experienced it. The next week it will be an entirely different excerpt, but as I skip from one to the other, I wonder what happens to all the moments in between that I don’t pay enough attention to.

Back to article excerpts, these are meant to be a teaser of what the rest of the story is about, a link to theme and ideas. Mine are just a tease. You thought I was writing about something serious when I mentioned the “wholly other” and “knowing god” in my last excerpt? Most of my blog posts only hint at seriousness. I’d much rather write about nonsense and let you discover your life’s wisdom for yourself.

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SportyKids: 6 spectator tips for parents

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of my weeknights and weekends watching my kids play sport. I have three girls and all have been quite sporty at various times. My two eldest have since moved on to other interests (mainly work), but my youngest is still at it and doesn’t look like slowing down any time soon. As a result of my years of dedication and experience, I have several tips to share with other parents of sporty kids.

1. Always pack two extra bottles of water. If it’s hot, your SportyKid will go through at least two bottles. If you’re an active spectator, you’ll need one as well.

2. Take a small gear bag with towel, the water bottles from point 1, sunblock, spare socks, jacket, rain jacket, first aid kit, tissues, book, a container of safety pins, tape, snack food and spare hair ties. At some point, your SportyKid will need all of this stuff.

3. Shove more hair ties in your pocket. These are always the first things to go missing from the gear bag.

4. Always pack at least two camping chairs in your car. At outdoor sporting events the ground can be damp, hard, rocky, dusty, and generally uncomfortable.

5. Always pack at least one extra large umbrella in your car. We use golf umbrellas and have just bought the oversized versions of these. They fit three underneath and will ward off rain and sun.

6. Leave in a cooler bag in your car: more water, fruit, a sandwich, and some chewy lollies (we pack “snakes”). SportyKids are usually starving once they’ve finished being sporty.

Next: SportyKids: looking after #1 at the game – yourself!

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North and South: is the book as good as the film?

I would like to review this book, but I haven’t read it yet. You see, I was given a copy for Mother’s Day by my youngest Angel. We’ve watched the movie (or is it classified as a mini-series?) several times: there is just no getting past Richard Armitage in this one. Ooh la la! He and Daniella Denby-Ashe do such a good job of swapping hate for love that we are in danger of judging all romantic moments by their kiss at the train station! I love that instant when John Thornton realises Catherine Hale returns his love… <sigh> so romantic.

The moment...

The kiss...

But I’m getting distracted, I’m writing about the book that I have yet to start reading. You see I watched the show… and, for possibly the first time ever, I’m wondering if the book will be as good.

I am very much looking forward to several hundred pages of Richard Armitage, I mean, John Thornton, including all the scenes that didn’t make it to the film. And I do love a good period drama… I’m a big Jane Austen fan – surely it can’t be that much different. However, I’m stalling. I really don’t want to be disappointed and I don’t know anyone who has read it so I can’t ask their opinion.

I flicked through a biography on Elizabeth Gaskell. It was very long though there were several quite interesting bits. I like the Unitarian connections she had with her family and friends, and her belief in the validity and importance of truth in all things. This theme of truth being the most important thing comes across quite strongly in the film so I assume it will in the book (and probably all her others) as well

I suppose I need to stop stalling and get on with it. After all, a tall dark and handsome man in a starched collar and black coat is waiting for me….

Richard Armitage as John Thornton

Images from: http://www.richardarmitageonline.com/index.html

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