Six Word Saturday #422

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STARTING TODAY: Six Word Saturday is now being hosted by the lovely Debbie at Travel With Intent. If you aren't already following Debbie, please visit her blog for Six Word Saturday and her beautiful photos.

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Visit Travel With Intent for 6WS

also:

Spring has sprung and it's glorious!

Six Word Saturday #420

enjoying the raindrops on the roof

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Six Word Saturday #421 (April 1 - next week) will be the last here at Show My Face. Beginning April 8, the weekly fun will be moving over to Travel With Intent. Debbie's been a frequent long-time 6WS contributor (and has a beautiful blog!) and she's graciously agreed to step up and take over for me. If you aren't already following Debbie, please follow her blog.

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Want to play along? All that's necessary to participate is to describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does with their entries.

Please visit the person ahead of you on the list (or visit everyone if you like!). That way everyone receives at least one visit!

If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.

Please be sure to link either to your main page or (preferably) directly to the 6WS post. Links to blogs that do not contain a 6WS entry will be removed (sorry, just the button in the sidebar doesn't count as participating).

Announcement About 6WS

Six Word Saturdays have been a lot of fun over the years. However, I will be discontinuing it on this blog in a few weeks. The last post will be April 1.

If anyone is interested in taking it over, please let me know.

I'm on Fire!

But don't call 911 (or prescribe an antibiotic cream) - it's the GOOD kind of fire!

I haven't been blogging hardly at all the past few weeks other than Six Word Saturday. In fact, last week's six words were:

failing at blogging but winning elsewhere

So, what have I been up to lately?

In short - much awesomeness.

More specifically? (In no particular order)

• researching and outlining my novel
• working an editing contract
• rocking that contract SO HARD that they not only want me back but have hired me on-going
• making my nephew's birthday gift which he adored
• niece also adored it - so I've been making her one to stop the fighting
• enjoying the outdoors
• fighting off the alien invasion (aka BIL and family at Easter)
• brainstorming and putting into action a plan to self-publish some books you all might enjoy (more info coming soon)

Anyone who has doubted my plan for world domination? Read it and weep. I'm well on my way and fired up to keep going. I'm also fired up to blog a bit more regularly. I'm hoping to have some exciting things coming up. In the meantime, tomorrow is Six Word Saturday, as always, and I'll be back with more regular posts next week!

New Posting Schedule

Yesterday officially began my new year and it wasn't a bad start. I didn't get everything on my list done because some things took longer than others. And that's okay. What I'm hoping is that the list will become the normal - I didn't expect it to necessarily happen on the first day. It takes awhile to find that new routine, especially when you're busy playing catch-up.

One of the things I'm carving out specific time (one hour) for each day is blogging. It's hard to keep up with multiple blogs and even though I gave myself permission not to post every day, there was no set schedule and so every day I was still feeling that anxiety about whether or not I should post something. Now, I have a nice schedule I'll be trying out - this blog is scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday, and of course (Six Word) Saturday. I've set similar schedules for my other blogs.

I've also dedicated a certain amount of time to other priorities - freelancing/professional activities, reading, writing. Exercise I tackled a bit differently - a minimum amount of time per week. The latest suggestions are at least 30 minutes a day so my weekly goal is no less than 210 minutes (excepting legit interruptions like sickness or travel). More is obviously better but I feel good about that as a minimum requirement.

There are other things I'm trying to incorporate into my routine as well. Quick daily activities that keep the house from raging out of control. Tasks that keep me organized. All of it with the goal of moving towards goals this year instead of just treading water.

Not every post is going to be rocket science but within a few weeks, I hope they will at least be appearing regularly and the goodness will come with time. I like writing and storytelling - and I want this blog to get back to that.

I hope 2012 is behaving for everyone so far!

Blogging Elsewhere About Blogging

Today, I'm featured over at Brenda Youngerman's blog for her Tuesday Spotlight. I enjoyed answering her questions about blogging and she even managed to ask a question nobody has asked before - where I came up with the name "Show My Face."

In other not really news, my parents have come and gone. Tonya is at the vet's office right now for her dental cleaning. I have several posts to share from the weekend but I haven't written them yet because I'm playing catch-up on a million other things. I'm hoping to be back to "normal" starting tomorrow.

But in the meantime, hop over to Brenda's to see me blog about blogging. Thanks, Brenda, for the opportunity!

Great Week

Last week, I had a really great week. My husband was away at a conference, also having a really great week, while I stayed home and focused on reading, writing, and recharging.

I'm pleased with what I accomplished. I (mostly) turned off the tv, shut down twitter, and neglected my email. I finished reading four books, making my goal of 30 for the year, and started two more. I'll finish one of those today or tomorrow. I also painted and made major progress on my book idea. There was also some exercise, meditating, and blogging.

What's this mean? It means, among other things, that I'm going to repeat my little digital vacation from time to time. It also means I'm going to be more in-tune with creating what I want, when I want. As far as what that means for this blog, I'm not sure. It might end up meaning I blog more. It might mean less. It might mean twice on Monday and nothing for the rest of the week. (Six Word Saturdays will remain unchanged.) I might start blogging crazy (-ier than usual) stuff. Or more serious stuff.

I have no idea. The intent for the week wasn't to come out of it with a schedule. It was to really focus on the things I wanted to do, which I did, and which I plan to keep doing.

Spam Sampler

Yesterday I realized that one of my blogs was not only receiving a lot of spam comments but also publishing them. Awesome. So I spent awhile cleaning them up and then installing an anti-spam plug-in. Some of them were interesting though and so I'm sharing them with you.

• great way to start the day out (Aww, so sweet!)
• You could be the most significant dummies on the internet. (No, I think YOU are the most significant dummies.)
• Congratulations are in order. You’re a huge stupid man. (At least this one makes grammatical sense.)
• I am afraid of major pink things. (I'm afraid of minor green things.)
• I appreiate nothing at all (And nothing at all appreciates you.)
• Never put up anymore of these things. (Wow, really? I thought I was a decent writer!)
• Thank you for not a thing. (You're welcome for not a thing!)
• Comprehensive Rubbish. (Hey, at least I'm thorough.)
• Congratulations. You’re a big mindless gentleman. (Seriously, I'm a chick!)
• In light of that episode of 60 Minutes I'll be sure Lance Armstrong is caught. (Oooh, what did Lance do?)
• There’s no doubt that this will be one of the best things to happen of the recent years. Felicitations to the happy newlyweds and any one that doesn’t agree is a republican.  (Eww, not a republican! That IS horrible!)
• I don’t agree with it, thanks to whoever thought of it and for showing the initiative to write it down (Yeah, I'm just full of initiative.)
• There’s no doubt that this wedding will be one of the best things to happen of the decade. Congratulations to the happy newlyweds and any one that doesn’t agree is a stick in the mud. (Republican is a bigger insult)
• I am over the moon about it and I think that this will be one of the greatest things to happen of the recent years. Congratulations to the happy couple and any body that doesn’t agree is a republican.  (Over the moon?  AND a republican reference? I think some republicans are FROM the moon, if that's what you're saying.)
• Given the 60 Minutes Program I be sure Armstrong is doing the perp walk soon. (Whoa, perp walk? Must've been bad!)
• Ever since that episode of 60 Minutes I would conclude Lance is done for. (And now he's 'done for'?  Is that a threat?)
• Since watching the 60 Mins show I think Lance Armstrong is going down. (Lance may want to alert his  security guys.)
• wtf you speaking about ? (If I had any idea wtf I was speaking about, I wouldn't be here.)
• Nearly all of the remarks on this weblog don?t make sense. (No kidding.)

I hope you enjoyed your spam sampler. Next time, I'll add cheese and crackers.

P.S. I've switched my blog feed to feedburner. You shouldn't need to do anything. In the past, feedburner didn't play nice so if you notice any issues, please let me know. If it seems to be working okay, I'll look into making it more prominent. Thanks!

Testing Feedburner - Again

Just a quick post. I'm testing Feedburner, once again. You don't need to do anything at this point.

Quality vs Quantity

Hopefully...

Folks, I'm burned out. I don't know if that's as painfully obvious to any of you as it is to me, but it's the truth.

I'm more and more losing my time and inspiration for much of anything creative. I thought if I kept pushing myself to post every day, it would keep me open to being attacked inspired but it's just not working out that way.

So, I'm giving me permission and just letting you all know that I'm going to be posting 2-3 times a week (plus 6WS) instead of posting every day like I have been. Don't think I've disappeared or run off with the circus because I miss a day. I'm probably just busy with my classes. Or huddling under my desk, humming "Love Shack" and gnawing on my thumb.

Thanks.

This time, I mean it!

I think I tried once before to establish Sunday as my "day of rest" from posting. And failed.

Time to give it another try, I think. Things have been busy and I don't see that changing in the near future.

So if I post anything next Sunday, I would ask that you please stage some sort of intervention.

Also, Happy Valentine's Day. For those of you without others (significant or otherwise) or who do not celebrate, I will think of you fondly today just the same. You really can't stop me so you might as well learn to deal with it.

Loose Ends

This is going to be one of those "here's a few random bits" kind of posts.

1. Regarding my Six Word Saturday entry, the kitty in question is Rusty. He has some kind of allergic or stress condition where he decides to chew all the fur off a part of his body. Then he obsessively licks at it until it's raw and won't grow back. He's like an emo little cutter. Joe took him to the vet on Friday and they gave him a steroid shot to make him big and strong stop the itching so it can heal.

2. Yesterday's coworker - I finally sent her an email with a couple of time options that were open and made her choose between them. Then I smashed my head into the desk repeatedly and wept for humanity.

3. I'm having a giveaway on Seven Days Seven Answers this week so check it out. And please play. I like to think it's fun (I'm a bit biased but whatever) and I'd love to see more responses.

4. Rumor has it I'm being featured in an interview over at Jenn's (You know... that Blog?) today.

Six Word Saturday

Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does each week with their entries.

One year of Six Word Saturdays

Yeah, that's right. I started Six Word Saturdays a year ago, never dreaming so many of you would join in but it's been an absolute blast! I really appreciate each and every one of you who play along.

All that's necessary to participate is to post your own six words. You can post an explanation if you wish but it's certainly not required. If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below if you like!) but I'm not going to delete your entry or punch you in the face if you don't. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.

<a href="http://www.showmyface.com/search/label/6WS"><img src="http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/showmyface/guts/6wsButton.jpg" /></a>

Note: Please be careful to make sure you've linked to the right post. I've had a lot of links to non-Six Word Saturday blogs lately. Just trying to cut down on the confusion. Also, if you want to link directly to the 6WS post, that's super-helpful as well. Thanks!

Six Word Saturday (Important Update)

Describe your life (or something) in a phrase using just six words. For more information, try clicking here. Feel free to explain or not explain. Add an image, a video, a song, nothing. I love seeing what everyone does each week with their entries.

Giving myself permission to slow down

Let's have a quick chat about what this means. I love reading all of your Six Word Saturday entries. I just never imagined there would be so many of them! So rather than fly through them, barely even reading them or beating myself up because I didn't spend the whole weekend making the rounds, I need to change how I visit.


I'll still be visiting all entries. But in order to keep myself from a complete mental breakdown, I'm going to visit them throughout the week. Hopefully sooner rather than later. This way, I can actually take a few minutes to enjoy and leave a comment.


Thank you all for spreading this little idea and making it so much fun.

All that's necessary to participate is to post your own six words. You can post an explanation if you wish but it's certainly not required. If you play along in your blog, please add a link to the Mr. Linky. I appreciate a link back (shiny code below if you like!) but I'm not going to delete your entry or punch you in the face if you don't. Otherwise, you're welcome to leave your six words in this post as a comment.

<a href="http://www.showmyface.com/search/label/6WS"><img src="http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp35/showmyface/guts/6wsButton.jpg" /></a>

New Project/Blog Announcement

I've been working on a couple of new blog projects lately, one of which is for all of you. It's called Seven Days Seven Answers. It's a bit of a creative cue game. Each day there's a prompt of sorts to answer and then there will be a winner (and a corresponding button for you!). Win on each of the seven days, you get all the cat hair you can eat win something better than a punch in the face (though I'm not 100% sure what yet).

Anyways, you can check it out at http://7days7answers.blogspot.com. Come play. I'm just hoping it can be a bit of silly fun. And since people love buttons, it can be fun with buttons!

And if you're not interested in any of this, feel free to enjoy the YouTube video below.

Eat it!

Remember when I had a blog about food called FeastMyFace? And then remember when I saw something shiny and got fed up after about five minutes and destroyed it?

Well, it's back. I don't know how regularly I'll post there but I have had lots of thoughts about food, drink, recipes, fresh produce, and other related topics over the past few months so I've missed it a bit.

Anyways, if you're interested, FeastMyFace is public again with a brand new post about Amish Friendship Bread.

If you're not interested, you may continue to just come here for my daily spew of whateverness. But you are not free to quit coming here because that would make me cry. Do you really want to make me cry?

P.S. I think you all know what happens it you make me cry.
P.P.S. The answer is no, you do not want to make me cry.

300 times, at band camp...

Hey remember that time I posted about why pandas suck? Or maybe the time I posted about the <3 cakes?

Today is post #300 on this blog. And to apologize for celebrate all of the stuff I've posted, I want to compile a sort of "greatest hits" page to link from my Twitter profile. I saw the idea on SITS a week or so ago and thought it made sense. But I need your help. What posts have stood out for you? Some of you have been following me for awhile now. (Again, I feel like I should apologize.)

You guys make it all worth it. Whether I'm being silly, whining about stupid stuff, sharing an actual legit concern, or mumbling about celery, y'all have got my back. And I've got yours with a swift punch to the face for anyone that messes with my people.

There are going to be a few changes coming soon but I'll explain as they happen. Nothing too major so you can definitely live in fear of count on another 300 posts!

Honesty is its own reward

I'm not a huge poster of awards and such but since I'm currently running amok out of town and trying to schedule ahead of time, here we are.

I received the Honest Scrap award twice (once from Moxie at Creative Explosion and once from Rochelle at slacker-chick.

I don't quite play by the rules when it comes to being tagged with awards but this one involves posting ten facts about yourself that noone else knows. Considering how often I TUI (twitter under the influence), I can't guarantee the noone-ness of these but here we go.

1. I am morally offended by black pepper. The taste, the way it mucks up the appearance of my potatoes, the sneezing. Ugh, just don't do it.

2. My favorite color is purple. Except when it is green. Or blue. And really, I'm more about color combinations. I want it all.

3. My will includes reference to a document specifying certain aspects of my funeral (because my parents are freaks and Joe shouldn't have to deal with them), including the outlawing of any carnations. I hate carnations. Daisies too.

4. I currently have ten posts in draft for this blog, ranging from pregnancy to electric usage to single drunk girl karaoke.

5. One of my wishes is to have a birthday cake with something really crazy screen-printed and written on it (like an ugly sofa and it says LASERS!!! maybe). Half the fun will be imagining what the cake people thought when they saw the order. Normal cakes are so unimaginative.

6. Sometimes I wonder how tired celebs become of repeating their trademarks. Like Roger Ebert - did he ever want to shove his thumb up someone's @$# because he just didn't feel like a thumbs up that day? And does Sting get totally tired of "Don't Stand So Close To Me"? I bet they do.

7. I once altered a picture of Rusty online to protect his anonymity.

8. I've been banned from my hometown Sears.

9. My first piano solo was How Great Thou Art and I was so embarrassed afterwards that I hid in the bathroom and cried.

10. As a child, I was teased for being tall. Now I'm teased for being short

Oh yeah, a few of those might be lies. Feel free to amuse yourselves with guessing which and I'll post the results on Monday.

I also received the Best Blog Award. Probably that one can and should be revoked but booyah anyways! Oh, and I got an award from mzbehavin but it had a dirty word in it so I'm all "thank you" but decided not to post it..

What I really want is that Zombie Chicken award. Or maybe I'll create my own Robot Armadillo award. Awesome, right? You know you want one. And it will have LASERS!!!

New blogging philosophy

After much soul searching and many sleepless nights, I've reached a decision about the future of this blog.

I'm ceasing operations immediately.

bwahahahaha

Step away from that ledge; it was a lie. All of it. A damn dirty lie.

No, but what I am going to start doing is replying to your fantasticeriffic comments via email. Because I really appreciate your responses to my profound words of wisdom sometimes partially intelligible babbles.

However, this means is that some of you need to do me an itty bitty favor. When your comments are emailed to me, some of you don't have your email addresses included. I type out a brilliant, funny, world-changing response only to realize it's being sent to noreply-comment@blogger.com. This makes Cate cry. And you know what happens when you make Cate cry, right? If you don't know, ask around. It's not pretty.

I'm not going to bother writing out the "how to fix it" myself because I'm lazy other people have already done a much better job according to my BFF Google. Go see the lovely tutorial at GoodNCrazy. There are other how-tos there that I'll check out soon. Maybe you should too. Or not. Up to you.

But please do consider updating your profile. From now on, if you comment on this blog and don't at least receive a quick "hi" in return, assume it's you, not me. And if you don't for some reason wish to enable your email address even though I've promised not to stalk you at least not anymore, I'll try not to take it personally. While I'm rocking back and forth in the corner chewing on 8-tracks and humming the theme to MacGyver.

Sorry to those of you who are already complying and making me a happy girl. No punches in the face for you. Instead Tonya has agreed to reward you with all the cat hair you can eat!

It's your lucky day. For reals.

Feedburner can bite me and so can Monday

It's Monday and I've got nothing.

Which is just as well because apparently my posts aren't showing up in your feeds anyways. Even though I haven't changed anything. It's like Feedburner hates me so much it's now eating my feeds even though I don't use them anymore.

For those of you NOT receiving my feeds who actually wish to receive them, could you make sure you're subscribed to http://www.showmyface.com/feeds/posts/default (good!) and not http://feeds2.feedburner.com/showmyface (bad!)? Or maybe resubscribe and that will take care of it?

I have no idea. All I know is that Feedburner is a punk. And beyond that, I have nothing to say this morning.