Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 1435 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Cue Mike Douglas

May 16, 2012 at 9:35 am by Claudia

First of all, I need to point out that BlogHer is doing an ad campaign for Drumsticks, with quotes from bloggers. Hello??? I have written extensively on this blog about my love for Drumsticks. Who better to talk about them than me? I am an authority on Drumsticks. I can talk about them for hours. I can wax rhapsodic about their perfection. Harumph!

I’m out of town, as you know. Since my mom has been in the nursing home, my dad and I usually talk on the phone at least once a day, sometimes more. He’s getting frailer and more overwhelmed by his situation. Sometimes our talks are fairly calm, at other times, Dad is upset or crying or saying he wants to die. The other night, after a long day of rehearsal, we were having a conversation of the latter sort. I spent quite a while talking to my dad, offering sympathy, trying to buck him up, trying to get a word in edgewise in the midst of his rising distress. When my dad gets like that, I have to ‘talk him down.’ It’s always been that way. It was an upsetting conversation. I felt depressed.

No sooner had I hung up when the phone immediately rang again. It was my husband. Shouting. One might even say screaming. “How do you turn off the alarm, how do you turn off the alarm????” He was in a panic. He had been cooking and a pan started smoking and the smoke alarm went off, thereby setting off the alarm system for our house. He was shouting so much that I had to top him vocally to get him to hear me. I tried shouting the code to him while he let out a string of curse words. Meanwhile, he told me the alarm company had called and they were sending out the fire department. He tried to get them to cancel the call, but he didn’t know if it was going to work. The alarm was still going off. I shouted instructions to him. He said he’d try the code and get back to me. If it had been a movie, I would have shaken him and slapped him across the face to stop the hysteria.

He called back, still cursing, and said that he could hear the sound of the fire truck in the distance. Our little volunteer fire department, no doubt having to leave a peaceful dinner with their families in order to respond to the alarm. “They’re coming! I can hear them! They just went by! Now they’re coming back! They’re here!” Again, I had to shout. “Well, go out there! Go talk to them!” He hung up.

Eventually, husband called back and told me that the captain had been very understanding. Don had apologized profusely. The alarm had stopped. Don was calmer. God knows what the dogs were thinking.

I remarked that in the space of approximately 10 minutes I had been forced to deal with two men who had temporarily lost their minds. The two men closest to me had become unhinged. If they had been in the room with me, I would have to do some non-face-slapping-face-slapping, if you know what I mean. Then I remembered that old song (which I detested) that Mike Douglas sang, The Men in My Little Girl’s Life. I made up new lyrics:

The men in my little girl’s life, the nutso men in my little girl’s life…

Don chimed in.

The men in my little girl’s life, the insane men in my little girl’s life…

The men in my little girl’s life, the crazy, demanding men in my little girl’s life….

There were more versions. You get the picture. If you don’t know this song, google it. I bet it’s out there somewhere, just waiting for you to give it a listen. It’s dreadful. But it made us laugh. I can even get my Dad to laugh sometimes. That makes me happy because laughter is indeed the best medicine.

Do I need to add that I can be just as nuts at times? Of course not.

As to my dad, we are all doing everything we can for him. He’s hanging in there. My sense of humor is what keeps me sane in the midst of all of this. If I didn’t look at things through a humorous prism, I’d be a goner.

Have a good Wednesday.

Blogging: What’s Changed in the Last Four Years?

May 15, 2012 at 10:46 am by Claudia

The other day I wrote a little bit about cleaning up the blog. I feel the need for these periodic cleanings. Just like I want to keep my house fairly neat and tidy, I do the same with the blog. In the course of that post, I mentioned blog buttons. And I raised a question: are blog buttons even necessary any longer?

That got me wondering about just what has changed in blogging since I started this blog over 4 years ago:

1. Templates available for bloggers. There’s so much more available now than there was 4 years ago. Back then, the template on Blogger was just that. One template. And it was limiting. Very soon after that, Minima Stretch appeared and then a host of other templates followed. I think there were only a few fonts available, as well. I imagine the same thing is true of WordPress. With these newer templates, there is much more potential for flexibility in your design. You can take the reins. That’s empowering.

2. Tools and Widgets available for bloggers. Now you can add Popular Posts, a Search Engine, links to all sorts of things, Social Media Icons, labels. Back in the day, which was actually only 4 years ago, you could add an archive of your posts, a link list to other blogs, photos, Google Friend Connect and that was about it.

3. What’s In, What’s Out:

Advertising of any kind was frowned upon. Unless you had a blatantly commercial blog, you didn’t advertise. I’m sorry to say that I was one of those bloggers that believed that including advertising changed the whole feeling behind a blog in a negative way. I didn’t like it. Somehow, over the course of these 4 years, it became acceptable. And for many, including myself, a necessity. The economy tanked. Bloggers began to seek out advertisers, whether through BlogHer or AdSense or through other small business owners. Now, more often than not, I see ads on the blogs I read. We all put a lot of time and effort into our blogs. Why not be compensated?

Buttons. A few years back, every blogger had a button made (usually by a blog designer) and added the button and the corresponding code to the blog’s sidebar. We exchanged buttons and displayed them on our sidebars. I remember having a whole bunch of them. Gradually, as my blog evolved, I moved them to a separate page and, eventually, phased them out entirely. Hence my question of last week. Should I even bother to include my new blog button? I’m thinking no.

Awards. Awards were very popular. I distinctly remember my pleasure at receiving my first award from another blogger. The routine was to pass the award on to a certain number of bloggers. Sometimes you had to answer a question. Sometimes you didn’t. In the beginning, I followed the rules, but I soon decided that I didn’t feel comfortable singling out only a few bloggers. So I would pass it on to everyone reading. Or I would mention the award and thank the blogger for sending it to me and not pass it on. As with the buttons, we would add the awards to the sidebar. Eventually, I got tired of the clutter and moved them to a separate page. And as the blog evolved, I no longer included them in a visible link. (They’re still here, but just for me.) Have awards gone the way of the dinosaur?

Parties are still going strong. Weekly memes are still going strong. I used to take part in them. I found that, for me, they were limiting. Since I post every day, I almost always write about what is in my head on that day, at that moment. If I have to also worry about a meme, I lose my spontaneity. But I know many of you participate in these. They are a wonderful way to meet other bloggers and expand your blogging horizons.

4. The sheer amount of blogs out there. There are so many more blogs out there now than there were four years ago. Some bloggers have been at it for much longer than 4 years – imagine how the landscape has changed for them!

5. Photo Editing Sites – Was Picnik even around when I first started? I don’t think so. Photoshop was available, but that was about it. I never edited my photos in the beginning. Maybe I cropped them but that was about it. Now, though we’ve said goodbye to Picnik, there are a host of other sites out there. I’ve written about many of them and they are all including in the Blogging Tips link below my header. We can be much more creative with our photos now, as well as our headers and blog design. I learn more and more every day because there are so many more options available.

6. There’s a lot more information available for bloggers now. I mentioned in another post that I often tweak my html. I’ve found that there is a tutorial or answer out there for just about every question I might have. 4 years ago, I was fairly cautious about tweaking my blog and I certainly wouldn’t have dreamed of messing with my html. But Blogger has made that easier and the generosity of other bloggers has provided a wealth of information.

7. More and more bloggers are moving to WordPress, which was a rarity four years ago. As bloggers become more and more confident, they want even more control over their blogs – and who can blame them? They aren’t overwhelmed by coding and are feeling empowered enough to make the leap.

I’m sure I’m leaving out some changes. What have you seen come and go since you’ve been blogging? How has blogging changed for you?

The Park and a Carousel (Plus a Question)

May 14, 2012 at 8:44 am by Claudia

The show is going well. Audiences are enthusiastic and are giving it a standing ovation every performance, though I think a standing ovation doesn’t mean what it used to. I often see audiences stand up as if it was expected. On this show, however, I can sense that the ovation is spontaneous and genuine. My job now is to watch every performance, or almost every performance, and take notes that I later pass on to the actors. If you live in the area, you should see The Tempest. It’s well acted, visually stunning and a real treat.

I took a walk in the park yesterday after the matinee. It was a beautiful day here in the northeast.

Looks like some sort of meeting, doesn’t it? I’m not one of those people who disparage pigeons. I like pigeons. And all other birds. And adorable squirrels.

Bushnell Park has a carousel. I’ve walked by the building before. It’s old and beautiful and recently was re-opened for the spring and summer.

All sorts of people were taking a ride. Adults and children alike. I was entranced.

One dollar for a ride. I was just about to pony up when they announced they were closed for the day.

I’ve decided I need to ride that carousel. I told Don about it and his response was to remind me of the scene in Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, where a carousel speeds up and runs amok, terrifying everyone onboard. Thanks, Don. By the way, have you ever seen Strangers on a Train? It’s one of my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movies.

Don’s ominous response will not deter me. Some day this week I am taking a ride on that carousel.

It’s Monday. I get to do laundry and have dinner with my friend, Mary, who is the stage manager on this production. I’m really ready to go home. Really ready.

By the way, though I didn’t do an official tally, I can say that the responses to Over or Under? were resoundingly, overwhelmingly in favor of Over. A few commenters mentioned that under was better to keep cats and children from pulling lots of paper off the roll. A few commenters didn’t care either way. But most of us, I’ve found, are just a wee bit anal about it and must have the roll in the Over position. Thanks for all your responses.

I changed the banner just a tad. The last bird is facing toward the lamb. Hmmm. Not sure which one I like better. Any thoughts?

Have a good Monday.

Cue Mike Douglas

Blogging: What’s Changed in the Last Four Years?

The Park and a Carousel (Plus a Question)

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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