Of Cares and Cars

Dock

I’m in my hometown near Detroit.

The boats are on the water, kids are in bathing suits at every lake, and my family is near.

With a Ford in the driveway here, and a Chysler parked in front of my California home, there is nothing I’d like to see more than this city and state revived.

Energy policies, economic incentives. They don’t seem to matter much when you’re helping your sure-of-foot 5-year old down his first wobbly, Michigan dock.

I miss this town. I’m still proud of this town.

I am happy to be home.

Yes, I Felt It

We were in hell…I mean Chuck E Cheese when the 5.4 magnitude Chino Hills quake hit.

My friend Gidge, like many of you, checked in with me via phone, email, twitter -everything. She might have made me laugh the hardest though…

“…aren’t you glad you weren’t trapped in the rubble at the chuck e cheese? cuz like, you know SOME of the animatronics would’ve kept going…”

She’s right. They would have kept going.

I’m happy to report that despite me having to run across unsolid ground to reach my kids and their Nana, everyone and everything is fine.

Thanks for asking 😀 I feel loved.

Kicking Off BlogHer: my friends, and Katie Couric

Ok, I’m getting all geeked out. And listen, if you are not coming, drop me your phone number and we will call and pass the phone around. I’m not kidding either.

Check out Katie Couric giving a shout-out to those of us heading to San Francisco, with a special hello to my very good friends Sarah (who sang at my wedding, people) and Devra who are two of the five women making the cross country trip Katie speaks of.

Yeah, I’m getting a little misty.

Ten Things That Are Better About Canada

Aguest post on this fine Canada Day by the lovely Meg Fowler, one of my many Canadian friends whom I love, despite her hatred of my hockey team and her blasphemous words about Stevie Yzerman

Ten Things That Are Better About Canada

10. Our national bird is tastier than yours.

9.  We know the secret to feeling rich — turn all your currency into gold-coloured coins!

8.  Our national flag is a leaf and two bars — something you can find in any town we have, too.

7.  We have more trees than we have McDonalds. And more hockey rinks than Wal-Marts. And more donuts than cops.

6.  Our annual military budget is approximately the same price as Jenna Bush’s wedding.

5.  One end of us looks to Europe, the other end to the Pacific Rim. And if you go to the middle of our country, you can get both pyrogies AND sushi at the food court!

4.  Our movies have more subtitles and boobies — AND the government pays you to make them!

3.  We have a monarch, which is kind of like when your parents go away and leave your Grandma in charge.

2.  If you make fun of us, we make you a citizen. And give you a job at the CBC.

1. If we had a woman and a black man running for office, we’d all vote for the gay Guatemalan-Scottish-First Nations-Tibetan monk performance artist with the limp.

Open Thread -Video Comments

Come be a rockstar and try out Seesmic video comments on my blog.

What do you think?

Will you use it?

Am I crazy?

Ok, yes I’m crazy but am I crazy for putting them here when the rest of you don’t use them?

Some topics to inspire you:

Laura’s post on PodCamp Boston being scheduled during BlogHer.

A reminder that while we bicker on candidate’s mispeaking and mommybloggers snarking, the World Is On Fire.

Sign the petition – helping to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and, ‘stand for clean rivers and streams all across America.’

Or how about just some lighthearted fun? Cute puppy.

Fire up those cams- leave me a comment!

An Open Letter To MommyBloggers

Back in 2006, as the PR companies started circling and the world was just starting to catch on to this ‘Mommyblogging’ phenomenon, I very clumsily attempted to tell Heather Armstrong the A-listers were hurting my feelings.

Of course this was at BlogHer con, and I was tipsy, so it came out very awkward and bitchy. I had heard grumblings of the cool kids’ club. I had heard complaints that all these new Mombloggers were just copycats. I wanted to know if the community I shoved myself into was, in fact, real and supportive.

Heather was, of course, gracious and understanding. She didn’t feel that way at all, she loves this community, and so on and so forth.

I felt better.

Flash forward to 2008 and BlogHer con just around the corner. I’m watching some high profile names make some pretty hefty accusations and some new and eager bloggers scratch their heads, fight back, and even second guess this amazing community.

The good thing about us bloggers, is we talk. We comment, we discuss, we post. Communicate. Sometimes we over-communicate…but at least it’s out there.

With the rise of Mommyblogging has come growing pains, competition, traffic, ad money, the works. It’s exciting and it’s frustrating. There are no longer thousands of us, there are millions and we have influence and reach.

What we can not stand to lose, is the community.

It is what makes us. It is what drives us. It is the entire reason we are who we are. There will always be flamewars and snarking and back channel chatter about who did what to whom. Human nature. But what is new is the megaphone’s power.

I learned this the hard way. I am one of the megaphone’s biggest abusers.

Like it or not, you are now widely read and widely heard. Like it or not, it comes with responsibility. Trust me, I’m the last person to like the responsibility part of it all.

Not too long ago a few entrepreneurs I know bickered over some ventures. One thought the other was copying, the other thought he was making it his own. The analogy that came up: it was like McDonalds getting mad Burger King had come to town and set up shop across the street.

I think that is a fair analogy here. McDonalds is mad Burger King is making hamburgers. However, as we all know, no one has the monopoly on hamburgers.

No one has a monopoly on snarky parentblogging either. Or the name ‘Queen’ or even who gets to be loudest at any given moment. I may protect my ‘business’ but I certainly can’t hate that someone wants to be the Pepsi to my Coke.

What we DO have a monopoly on is community. We own this one, outright. All of us. Not one of us is more of a rockstar than the other, and we all take inspiration from each other. MORE importantly, we all RELY on each other. We all know why we are involved in this blogging/twitter/fill-in-the-blank-social-media-service-here: it’s the support, the advice, the friendship.

As I have watched other communities get into pissing matches, it strikes me how much we may be traveling down that road.

Fame and fortune bring trainwrecks I guess. I’d like to see us remain the ‘closest knit community online.’

Because in case you hadn’t noticed, the world is watching.

Seems To Go With My Mood

Canary in the Social Media Coal Mine

Something very important in the online world took place recently- and this guy, and this guy, and this guy, and this guy, and even this guy all missed it.

It had nothing to do with the election (half of you just sighed and said ‘thank gawd’) and it had nothing to do with my kids (the other half just sighed and said ‘thank gawd’). It also had nothing to do with Google or Yahoo or anyone who may even come close to ever landing on ValleyWag.

So what is this all important event that should have the web world buzzing?

Sarah started plurking.

I know, doesn’t seem like a big deal at all-does it?

Let me explain- Sarah started plurking and *I* was not the one who showed her Plurk. More importantly, Sarah saw a bit of buzz and checked it out on her own.

If you are still confused, let me break it down for you:

Sarah is a mommyblogger who once said to me ‘What the hell is Twitter and what the Fuck is an Utterz?’

Sarah is a friend, a fellow community member, who got into this whole ball of social media and tech as a hobby.

A hobby.

As in- starting writing about her kids for fun and to meet other moms.

Sarah does not code, Sarah does not care about scalability. Sarah could give a shit who any of you tech people are-unless you also have twins or want to talk about football or beer.

Sarah blogs to talk with her friends and make a few extra dollars here and there. Sarah is also going to probably kill me for using her as an example, but I shall buy her many drinks at BlogHer and it will all be ok.

Sarah is now an early adopter.

Sarah is out-plurking me.

Sarah and I are officially geeks who know very little geek stuff.

I couldn’t even install a wordpress plugin today, and Sarah needed my help locating where the graphic for her header is housed (after much searching we found it on an old Photobucket account, in case you were wondering).

Sarah now says things like: “What did I ever do before iPhones and Twitter? Oh right. I used to read.” And: “@trollbaby I’m still waiting for someone to pitch me a Kindle.”

Please note how she said ‘pitch.’

Cough.

Over 36.2 million women are writing and reading blogs on a weekly basis. The latest spin is some “believe blogging is now officially mainstream among women.

Which leads me back to Sarah, and the idea that if blogging is mainstream for her…what is off-the-beaten path? Women have already upped their video site usage. Isn’t video where everyone is wetting their pants currently?

Keep in mind Sarah is one of my ‘dragging-her-kicking-and-screaming-to-Twitter’ late-adopter community members.

I don’t know how else to say this but, batten down the hatches boys.

If the nontechy Mommybloggers and other women bloggers are early adopting the latest betas and talking Friend Feed over playdates, you might want to make room at the lunch tables.

You might also want to think twice about the booth babes for next year.

Oh, and just one more word of advice…and I know some of you have already gotten a taste from me…but please consider leaving the usual BS back in Silicon Valley as we join the party.

I might mix it up with you for fun in a nice twitter or blog fight- but these women won’t. They are much more stealth and a lot less ego-driven.

They will just organize and hit you where it hurts…no, not your nuts (that’s my job)…they go straight for the wallet. All those advertisers you love and court and get all monetize-erect over? Uh-huh, as I said batten down the hatches boys.

“Today, women make 83 percent of all consumer purchases – everything from breakfast cereal to big-ticket items like cars and personal computers – for themselves and for their families.”

Sarah is the canary in the coal mine.