Here's what you need to do to personalize yours.
]]>Here's what you need to do to personalize yours.
1) Log into BlogHer and click "My Account". You'll be on your "account settings" page. If you don't have a photo or avatar uploaded, you need to do that first. (Photos must be at least 160x160 - if you're having trouble uploading your image, open it in a graphics program and change the size so that the smallest dimension is at least 160 - save the image and then upload it again. If you're still having trouble, email denise@blogher.com and tell me what your BlogHer name is - I'll help you.)
2) Click "Public Profile". Every field on this page is optional but anything you include on this page will be visible to the public and could be found via search engine. You'll see two bio fields - they may both be empty or you may have some data in the one labeled "Bio from the Old Site". We were able to save those old bios but they aren't visible to anyone except you. If you want to use this one in your new profile, just copy and paste it into the "Bio" block.
3) Click "My BlogHer Conferences", "Tags" and "Sites" to expand new fields. You'll see that all of the data you had in the old profiles is gone - sorry, we had to start fresh in order to make this beautiful and functional tool. Fill in some of the blanks or all of the blanks - it's up to you to determine what you share about yourself and your online presence.
Some things to notice:
* The "tags" are not clickable - they're simply words or phrases (comma separated) that will help people get to know you and what you blog about. (The next phase will have tags that "do stuff" - don't ask me what they'll do, we haven't gotten that part completely ironed out yet.)
* In the "sites" area you can add the RSS feed for up to 10 of your blogs, sites, profiles, social networking affiliations. Or, you can just add the links. Or, you can add a combo. If you choose RSS for your content, only the title will be pulled in. Readers will have to click the link in order to access your content. (No scraping is happening here.)
* If you save any changes to your profile and you don't see them appear immediately, do a hard refresh of your browser. (Hold CTRL and reload the browser, hold the Apple key and reload the browser, click CTRL F5.) If you still do not see your changes, after doing a hard refresh, send me an email denise@blogher.com and I'll look into the problem.
* There is a "User Data" tab within your account area. This is the original basic profile. It won't be easily accessed via BlogHer but it is not private or hidden from view. Some of us have had our this old profile indexed in Google, so these pages might be found through search. Using BlogHer's site search by user will also return this profile page - though we are hoping to change that very quickly. Those are the only two ways someone can find the "User Data" page. - Updated: site search has been updated so the Public Profile is linked in user search results.
Go have fun with the profiles, I have to quit playing with them and get back to work.
]]>Roombas. Hah.
]]>Roombas. Hah.
]]>Almost immediately after posting, Michelle called to say she had a flat tire and was searching for a guy to change it for her. Those are brand new tires! What the heck? Rather than lecture her about needing guys to do her dirty work, I bit my tongue and told her to call me back when she had the tire changed. She called again a half hour later to tell me there was no jack in the car and the two they had tried were too small to raise the car high enough. I told her to call her brother to see if he had the jack to that car and then I searched the garage for the jack - which was not there.
She called an hour or so later, tire had been changed and her brother did not have the jack. Great. Not only were we going to have to buy another tire, we would have to buy another jack.
I sent her to Sears to see if they'd cover the tire under warranty. An hour later, she had not called back so I called her. She hadn't even left yet! Her final class for the semester was in an hour and she thought it would just take a few minutes at Sears to get a new tire and she could get to class. (haha. the innocence of youth.)
She came here instead and painted a coat of Killz on her bedroom door (song lyrics painted in red and black all over the back of it, ah the angst of youth) and we arranged for her to go to Sears first thing the next morning.
She went, they told her it was covered under warranty. Yay! An hour later, she called me back. They changed their mind. They thought someone had slashed her tire and she was going to have to pay $100 for a new tire etc... I sighed. At least I'd found the jack in the secret jack compartment in the Forester. But, much to my surprise, she called back again 10 minutes later... she convinced them that nobody slashed her tires, she hit a curb so it SHOULD be covered... and they bought it. (ahhhh the power of a cute young girl over innocent young men? whatever, it's $100 I didn't have to shell out.)
At that point, I was feeling a lot less stressed.
Thanks to my friend idyllicchick at the LYS, I discovered the Wii was not fried, it was only the power cord! Yay! $20 I can handle a lot better than possibly having to buy a new Wii.
I was feeling so cocky that my snark showed when I read my old friend "Click Michelle's" post about packing a KitchenAid.
I am at a loss how to pack my kitchen electrics. I have a 6 qt KitchenAid stand mixer and a big KitchenAid food processor too. How should I pack these? The original boxes are long gone, and I need suggestions. Do you just move them loose?
Do not suggest not moving these appliances. I use them both often, and I’d sooner gnaw off my arm than abandon my 6 qt mixer. Not really. But you know what I mean.
I should have known karma would come back and kick me for all of the things I said and thought... and last night, karma did kick me or more accurately, it attempted to wrench my left arm completely off of my body when I so cockily packed all of our "hard to pack small appliances" - the KitchenAid in particular.
You see our KitchenAid sits on top of the fridge. I grumble about having to put that machine up there every time TW uses it. She grumbles about me putting it up there every time I clean the kitchen because apparently there is a "lock" position that keeps the top thingy from swinging up and I never use the "lock" position. (Because I thought "lock" meant it locked the bowl in place. I am not a foodie, obviously.)
So last night, after packing the crockpot and the bread machine, I reached for the KitchenAid with the perfect box on the floor beside of me. I'm not sure what happened but the next thing I know, the KitchenAid is dangling from my left hand, an inch from the box and I'm in pain. Serious pain. So much pain that I could not vocalize the profanity running through my mind.
It hurt. Like a... yea, like that.
So, Click Michelle, please accept this post as my very formal apology for all of the snarky thoughts I had about your inability to pack a simple small appliance. You know me. You know what I was thinking. You also know that because I am just THAT snarky the blog entry I had planned for today was going to be full of snark about your inability to pack properly. For that, I am sorry. You were right. It's hard to pack something like a Kitchen Aid. I should never have made of fun of you or considered turning your struggles into snarky blogging, no matter how amused some of us would have been by that snark.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and grumble about how much my arm hurts.
I'll leave you with a couple of links to people who are blogging about moving. (All of these were found by sassymonkey who has mostly finished moving and is off on a vacation to PEI.
~~Denise who will never be snarky toward her friends again. OK well I'll try not to be snarky towards my friends very often. Umm, maybe.
Here's what you need to do to submit your photos:
1) You need to be a member of Flickr and have the photos you'd like to share available on Flickr with the creative commons commercial license.
]]>Here's what you need to do to submit your photos:
1) You need to be a member of Flickr and have the photos you'd like to share available on Flickr with the creative commons commercial license.
2) Click this link to join the BlogHer Header Photos Group. Go to your flickr stream and send the photos that you'd like to share to the group.
3) The photos must be vertical photos. That means they have to be taller than they are wide. We can't edit your photos, so please don't submit the ones that aren't vertical - we'll just come along and deny those.
4) Come to BlogHer every day to see if your photo is being featured in the photo banner. :-)
]]>Image Credit: Comedy Central
]]>Image Credit: Comedy Central
]]>Image Credit: NY Times
]]>I had to drive TW to the dentist at 8:30am. I dropped her off and came home to answer a few more emails and then I took Liz across town to YMCA camp. I drove back to pick up TW at the dentist.
We came back home long enough for me to answer a couple more email, grab my check book, insurance papers and my laptop. TW dropped me off at the Toyota dealer and I just kept on working as my paperwork was finalized and our new car was driven out of the showroom and into the lot for me to drive away.
When I arrived home, 70 minutes after TW dropped me off, TW's Michelle's Forester was filled with boxes and Chris (my son), Charles (the half child who used to live with us) and Sarah (Charles' sister) were standing at the road, next to their cars, plotting their strategy for moving Michelle's stuff. They oohed and aahed over our new car. TW drove it around the block. I went in the house and asked the brilliant Julie to help me troubleshoot a problem reported by the always interesting Erin Kotecki Vest and then I loaded up the Prius with more of Michelle's stuff.
At 11:50 Michelle, Sarah and I headed to the new apartment where we planned for Michelle to pick up her key and us to start unloading while the guys finished loading the other two vehicles with stuff. Unfortunately, the office was closed for lunch and we had to wait for forty minutes. Thank goodness for the iPhone because I just kept on working from the front seat of that nice new car.
Besides having to wait for the manager so we could get the key, we also had to figure out WHERE this new apartment was. When Michelle and I looked at them, we didn't actually look at the one she was moving into. We had the number and I thought I knew where it was. Apparently not since I drove around the entire complex twice and never saw it. As I was preparing to circle it again, Chris called me to tell me where it was. Thank goodness - it's an interior building and not visible from the road. I had no idea they even HAD interior buildings.
Michelle finally got the key and ran to unlock the door - smiling a huge excited smile. I slowly started to unload the car, only to find that those children besides loading a very dusty TV into the front seat of my new car had also scratched the inside door - in two places! Hmph.
The kid was so excited to be moving into her own place. I was so NOT excited to have her moving into her own place. I sniffled a few times. Sarah saw me and said "Do you see her face?!" and I fake smiled and nodded. It was... difficult.
Later, TW, Prince J, Liz and I went to the grocery store and bought enough junk food to fill her cabinets and fridge. We drove over to deliver the food and show them the apartment. TW was probably more emotional about seeing it for the first time than I was.
When I was finally finished with work and getting ready for bed, I started talking about calling her. TW had to keep reminding me that she is grown up and she needs to do this without me. "But, I could just call her to ask how her cat is handling the change!" Hah, like Michelle wouldn't see right through that. I hate her cat. I didn't call. Sniff. Sniff.
Michelle was here on Thursday, to pick up more stuff, to throw more trash away and to go shopping at Home Depot with me for more stuff for her place. She also had to wash her comforter, urinated on by her evil cat and while she was here she had to eat OUR junk food. And, last night before I could start thinking about calling her - she called me, at 9:45, because she was lonely and a little scared.
Today, she's been to work and she'll be here soon to eat dinner and do some more cleaning up in her room.
We've survived the first 48 hours of this new life. Some of it has been good. Some not so good. That's the way life is though.
I wish them all luck.
~~Denise
Flamingo House Happenings
Image Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file
Image Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles, file
Don't miss the piece written by Jory, Is "sharing the work" between parents for suckers? and the interesting comments from the community.
Image Credit: NY Times
]]>Don't miss the piece written by Jory, Is "sharing the work" between parents for suckers? and the interesting comments from the community.
Image Credit: NY Times
]]>CE Kim Pearson blogged the Blogger Boycott of the AP and CE Morra Aarons joined the discussion with a slightly different opinion, AP content is not a public good.
]]>CE Kim Pearson blogged the Blogger Boycott of the AP and CE Morra Aarons joined the discussion with a slightly different opinion, AP content is not a public good.
Image Credit: Associated Press
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