Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The State of the Blog Address, Part Deux

My prayers go out to all the families affected by the tornado in Oklahoma yesterday. So, so sad. :'(
Zach Sobiech (from last week's video) passed away yesterday as well. What an amazing kid to touch so many lives, and I'm glad we talked about what we did, even if it was difficult. Now on to this week's lighter, fluffier topic! (That sounds a lot like chocolate mousse! Yum! See, things are better already!)

Two years! Can you believe it? Honestly, I can't! I was really worried that I'd start this blog and then lose steam after a week or two and never get back to it. I have so much faith in myself, don't I? But here we are, 170 posts and 1300 comments later! THANKS Y'ALL! The success of this blog is due to you guys and your patience, endurance, support and forgiveness. That sounds like the definition of a saint, and it's all too true: I hereby promote each of you to SAINT status. That means you can pick your own day where we celebrate YOU!

I'm so proud that I've never had an offensive comment left on my blog, nor has anyone ever attacked me or any other commenter. I know that's really rare and again, it's all due to my amazing readers. Sadly, I may have offended my commenters a time or two in my pathetic attempts to be funny and/or promote sibling rivalry. I need to be more saintly like the rest of you guys. I will not be awarded my own day of commemoration anytime soon.

The internet says that blogging is even more dead than it was last year when I asked the all important question: IS BLOGGING DEAD? But guess what? I don't care what the internet says! As long as I enjoy blogging, I will continue to do so, even if it's no longer the hot spot of social media. How about you guys? Will you continue to blog? Read blogs? Or have you found that spend you less time with Blogger and more time on other social media sites?

What Blogaway topics were your favorites this past year? What would you like to see more of? Anyone feeling an itch to do a guest post? :)


And ... summer is upon us. Yay! I LOVE summer, and I know we all want to be outside and away from our laptops so ... Blogaway is going on hiatus for the summer. WHAT? Just kidding. I wanted to see if that gave anyone a panic attack. But, I do want to move to an every-other week format for the summer. Rather than taking weeks off when it's convenient for me and possibly not for you, I thought this might be a better option. This way if you are on vacation for a week when there is a post, you can still come back the next week and catch up. I'll still do a prize giveaway once a month; every time you see the second post for the month, you will know to check back on Thursday to see who won that month. And you'll only have to comment two times a month to be qualified. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! Since next week is a holiday week, we'll start by taking that week off.  I'll try and post a calendar somewhere on the blog so you know when to watch for posts and we will move back to the normal format in September. That sound fair to everyone? (BTW, if you are reading The Mae Project, I will still post weekly until I'm out of things to teach about, which might be in a few weeks or it might be never. You just never know with me, do you?)

I think there's about 200 questions for you in this blog, so you better get busy answering them. Once you tell me about your blogging preferences and suggest some fun topics and such, you do have to  answer this: since you are now a saint, what day of the year do you pick to celebrate YOU? And once you have your day scheduled on the calendar: what do you want the general population to do to celebrate your sainthood? Will there be a parade? Will there be a gift exchange? A feast? A nap? It's your holiday! Make it fun for us!

Since I'm not a saint yet, I don't get to give you an example of what St. Lori's day would be like, but I will say that when I learn to be like you guys and therefore do get to sainthood, I would like my day to be laundry free, have all pets banned to the great outdoors, and children would not fight: no, not even once! Plus, an endless chocolate fountain for everyone! Sounds like a good day to me. :)

And here's a big hug from me to you! Thanks Blogaway friends!



6 comments:

Nicole Jessop said...

I prefer to use our blog to update as opposed to Facebook. I feel like it's a little more private and then I'm not pushing everything in people's faces, they can go to the blog if they choose and keep updated with our happenings.
And if I'm a saint, they should celebrate on my birthday of course. And they should all celebrate by all things coconut! Pina Colada smoothies, everyone wear coconut oil lotion so they all smell good and end the day with coconut cake! Mmm....
And, I liked the post where we got to decide what to do with the different amounts of money, for us and for someone else :)

Jennifer Lovell said...

My favorite posts from you let us talk about our favorite books and our favorite pranks. I just love favorite stuff. (Duh)

I'm with Nicole--I would have to choose my birthday for my saint day, because I can't think of a better day of the year than May 18th. It just has such a nice ring to it :). On my special day, everyone would take a nap so that we could handle celebrating all the way until midnight. It would be a guilt-free day of zero chores, zero diets, and lots of time for lazy board games and a few outdoor silly relays, and picnics in the park. At the end of the day the grownups get to have their own campfire with marshmallows while the kids get to have fun contained in tents with sleeping bags (unless they're out snype hunting).

I still love blogs. I don't blog about my family as much as I used to lately, but that's just because I don't take that many pictures...oh, and probably because I was using my writing blog so much recently. I think I'll get busy with a new family post soon though. I do the family blog for family stuff, and facebook mostly when I feel like I'm craving personal attention ;).

Congrats on making it to two years :)!

Lori Folkman said...

Nicole: I'm all for the coconut party! I love coconut. I recently had a sample of popcorn cooked with coconut oil instead of butter--yummo! Will we have to wear coconut shell bras though? I can't imagine that being very comfortable. Whoever thought of that anyway? They must have had a coconut hit them on the head- and hard!

Jenna: I want to build a firepit in our backyard this summer, so that will be perfect to celebrate the next St. Jenna's Day! Although it is sad that we are of the age that we DO have to take a nap if we want to stay up til midnight. :) How long have you been blogging? I think you should win an award for maintaining the most blogs! I love how you have different ones for the different aspects of your life. Facebook can't categorize like that! Hey look: your little smiley guy has a lopsided goatee!

Devree said...

I really liked the blog where we talked about scars cuz I'm a creeper like that and every scar has a decently cool story. (bruises, on the other hand, do not. I have this monstrous one that takes up half of my forearm and all I did was fall. LAME!)

I like facebooking because it's easier to see about others' lives as you talk about yourself. Plus I feel lame if I write a blog that doesn't have pictures and I don't have my camera that often. If I had an iPhone that was always with me, that'd be a different story.

I don't want St. Devree's day to be on my birthday because that's July 3rd and I'd just be overshadowed by the 4th. I want THE WHOLE WEEK to be about me. Like Trina's birthweek! Anyway, I think I'd want it in september or something. I dunno. But there's be NO HOMEWORK the WHOLE week and NO research papers the whole semester because I hate nothing more than research papers. Also, we'd celebrate with Mother-load chocolate cake (you know, like the one at Claim Jumper's?) and Christmas hams! Ooh and my daddy's fruit salad! (Sorry, I didn'[t eat a fulfilling lunch so I'm kinda hungry.) We'd also all wear capes and crazy knee socks! And the jonas brothers would have a concert just for me! :D Okay, I'll be done.

That would be the best day of the year! Now I have to get back to my research paper that's due tomorrow and I havn't started because I hate it more than enything. HATE IT! :) Have a good day!

Team C said...

I missed the deadline for the book post. So mad, but I've moved on, and I think we should talk about what you would eat if you died tomorrow. No, that's no good. What would you want to be buried in, no that's weird. Um.. I really don't know of any good topics, that's why I'm the blog reader, and not the blog writer. I really love the chocolate fountain idea. Could there be brownie bites, and bananas, and bits of coconut?mmmmmm I would celebrate St. Lori day, but for my day it would be a day that I could read all day with a bowl full of chocolate covered nuts, and caramel, and brownies, and chocolate fountains in a big comfy chair overlooking the lake. Fun for me, but probably not for everyone else. Any who..Thanx for a phenomenal 2 years. Or "The Best Two Years" ever!!

Lori Folkman said...

Devree: You just need to come up with different stories for your bruises. Can you tell people you do roller derby? Or base jumping? I absolutely love the capes and crazy socks idea! I want a St. Devree's Day and pronto! I'm sorry you are stuck writing research papers, but just think: you are so much smarter than the rest of us!

Team C: Yes, yes, yes! Let's talk about what you would eat for your last meal! We'll do that one soon! What would YOU wear to be buried in? We all know Devree will wear a cape and crazy socks. Personally, I believe that you should leave this world the same way you came in--buck naked--so I won't be wearing anything at all. Holy cow, I have no idea where that came from. Sorry for the horrible image that is now stuck in your mind. (Chocolate fountain, think chocolate fountain, chocolate fountain.) (BTW, I think The Best Two Years is a trademark title. You need to be careful not to get sued for using that.) :)