Blogger v. WordPress

So, I started this blog on Blogger recently. Eons ago (well, months, actually, but eons sounds way more scientific and cool) I had a totally different blog on WordPress. The following sums up my feelings at the time on WP:

Ooh nifty, look at all the sleek shiny buttons! Hey that’s cool, I can easily follow and comment on other blogs! Just look at all the analytics about my readership! 

Oh, but this dashboard is so confusing…how do I do xyz again? I can’t even find the gosh darn delete button!! Argleblargle this dashboard is a headache!!!

So, yeahhhh. I loved how handy WP was in terms of networking with other bloggers and easily following other blogs, but golly jeepers that dashboard was confusing! (And I do programming for a living, mind you, so gooey sites like this should theoretically not be that hard to use.)

When I decided to end that particular blog for good, it honestly took me a good two or three Google searches to even figure out how to delete a WordPress blog. That, IMHO, is cray.

Hence, when I decided to start a brand spanking new totally different and way more awesome blog recently, I opted for Blogspot/Blogger, since I had heard it was super user friendly. And it is!! I’ve gotta say, I really love how intuitive the entire set up is, from visual customization to posting and editing.

But, but, liking, following, and commenting on other blogs (I.E., the bread and butter of being a good neighborly blogger) isn’t so easy with Blogger. I feel like every time I try to like or comment on a blog I find, I get prompted to sign into WP.

**sigh**

Can’t I just have the best of both worlds? I guess maybe if I get savvy enough at blogging I can. But until then, I’ll stake claim in the same domain on WP and decide which one to use permanently.

Now on tumblr :-)

Huzzah! I have now staked my claim in the epic land of tumblr!! 

The tumblr URL girlygeekgirl was already taken -- grr -- though I should probably follow her, since we likely have a bit in common! So I tacked the word blog onto the end of my URL.

There are, like, four whole posts on my tumblr right now. Impressive, I know. But surriously, check it out if you so desire!

Good to be home

Sitting down to dinner at an airport cafe last night, I reflected on how much I love travelling, how lucky I am to be able to do it so much, and how much I love coming home even more.

This particular trip was short but good. I was fortunate to get to spend some quality time with the business partners I normally work with from afar, and to re-visit a city I haven't been to in years.

I woke up early yesterday morning and watched the sun rise over this new city. I hit up a local gym for my run, picked up a copy of the local newspaper, and strolled the crisp autumn streets in the hunt for coffee. These are the everyday things I love to do as a tourist, I think because they're the everyday things I love so much about my life at home. Sunrises shining off of skyscrapers, early morning runs, and, lest we forget, coffee. 

As much as it was a pleasure to eat out every meal at a new (to me) local restaurant, to jet set around the country, to soak in the local culture somewhere different, I sure did love coming home.

The older I get, the more value I place on the concept of home. I think this is because, as a child, the concept of home was a given, a default, something I took for granted. I live in a house with a mom and a dad in a city with lots of family, and so shall it always be. But, for most people, myself included, this doesn't hold true our whole lives. I live in a new city now, my mom and much other family have passed away, and the concept of home is more transient. 

Sometimes an acquaintance will ask me if I'm going home for Christmas, and I'll give them a quizzical look, thinking, "what does that mean?" Not to get too profound here, but it does make me ask myself, what is home? Logically I am aware that when folks ask me that, they are referring to the city in which I was born and raised, where my dad still lives. But I don't really think of that place as home any more, and I'm only sort of starting to think of my new city as home, since I don't have family here. It's a very bizarre feeling, being in transition between homes like that. 

So, it actually comforted me greatly when on this latest trip I got a little homesick for my current city. Longing to be home isn't necessarily a pleasant sensation, but the fact that I instinctively thought of this place as home made me happy. 

I've been on many trips, vacations and otherwise, since moving to my current city, and this was the first trip where I actually felt like I was coming home when I flew back. And that, my friends, is a good feeling.

Random early morning musings

So, I'm up at the crack of dawn (got up at 3:30, to be precise) because I have to catch an early flight for a business trip. So here I am, shockingly feeling wide awake, taking a few minutes to eat my breakfast and blog before I finish packing.

My alarm initially went off at 3 o'clock, but I hit snooze until 3:30, when I finally made myself go on a super early (or is that still middle of the night?) run since the rest of my day will be packed doing businessy business things. 

It honestly wasn't that I was just so sleepy that I needed another half hour of sleep. It wasn't that I wasn't excited to go on my run. It wasn't that I didn't have a number of other things to do, fun or otherwise. I just felt like doing nothing.

And, I often have to remind myself, that's perfectly OK sometimes! I'm guilty of trying to be Super Woman a lot of the time, trying to do everything. So I do admit that sometimes we have to just let ourselves sit there and do nothing.

But I think there's a big difference between doing nothing as a means of mental/physical recuperation, and doing nothing because we're afraid to take that first step to achieve goals we have in life. (Because what if we fail, or what if it's hard?!)

And I think I have been guilty of that second kind of inactivity lately, when it comes to writing. I'm really diligent about other important things in my life, like running and work and relationships, but when it comes to writing, I think I'm just so scared of failure that I find excuses not to do it.

Of course, the fact that I'm sitting here spending time writing this blog about not writing is a bit ironic, don't you agree? But anyway, I've told myself that I shall bring my favorite composition notebook with me on the business trip so that I can make myself actually do some writing on the plane. 

Because, just think of what could have been written in that half hour of non-needed nothingness this morning. Just think of the life that new characters could be gaining in the time that I waste playing Words With Friends on my phone. Just think of the possibilities!

This fake Candy Crush movie clip is everything

Despite the number of obnoxious Facebook requests that pour in every day, I've never played Candy Crush. 

Nevertheless, this fake Candy Crush movie clip from Stephen Colbert and Liam Neeson is flippin' hilarious!