I' m going on a bit of a rant here because there are some things that are really starting to bug me on Facebook. This is not an anti-Facebook post. I like Facebook. It has enabled me to connect with long-lost family members and old school chums I might not otherwise have found. I keep up with my friends and relatives on Facebook. I think Facebook is great.
My problem lies more with the misuse of Facebook. It was inevitable when FB started sky-rocketing in popularity, that sooner or later business entities would sit up and take notice. It was even, perhaps, inevitable that you would then start figuring out how to sell us stuff on there. I'm an ardent capitalist and have no problem with that. I just don't like how you're doing it.
Here are a few of my grievances:
1. A Facebook fan page does not replace an actual web site. I don't want to have to go to Facebook and pull up your notes page for every piece of product information, if it can even be found there. I don't want to have to wade through hundreds or thousands of user comments to find the offer you've posted.
2. If you absolutely insist on posting everything on Facebook, make sure the link you're emailing or tweeting goes to your actual content, not the FB home page. It's really annoying to have to find your page and then find the content you were trying to get me to see. Most of the time, if the link goes to the home page, I close it and go on about my business.
3. I don't want to be forced to "Like" you in order to try your product for the first time. I can't count the number of offers I've seen lately that require one to "Like" a new product in order to receive a coupon to try it. If your product is any good, let me try it and then we'll see if I "Like" it.
4. I'm tired of businesses (including no small number of bloggers) trying to boost their numbers by requiring that I join their fan page or "Friend" them in order to enter any drawing or giveaway.
I know these things are not earth-shattering, but here is my problem. When I "Like" or "Friend" or otherwise connect with you on Facebook, that affiliation is then announced to all my friends. For anyone who values my opinion, that is an endorsement of your blog, company or product. But I don't know you. We don't have a relationship yet.
If I haven't read enough on your blog to know if I want to follow or subscribe, why would I want to tell all my friends to go read it? Why would I want to recommend a product I haven't tried yet? Why would I want to advertise for a company I have no history with?
I would love to familiarize myself with your company or test your product or read your blog, but I hate being asked to put my reputation and good name on the line for someone or something I don't even know. So, please, let me get to know you a little before you demand my loyalty and endorsement. Those things should be earned.
So, am I alone in this? What do you think about these tactics? Okay or no way?
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Stories from an Unconventional Childhood, Week Five
Over at Mommy's Piggy Tales there's a cool project going on about family history. There is a challenge to blog for 15 weeks about our growing up years, with a different time period covered each week. Spitfire talked me into joining in because she's hoping for some wild stories from my childhood.
When I think back to the fourth grade, the thing that jumps out at me most is animals. You see, we had settled in a bit, there in our cozy tent on the hill. I was really getting accustomed to our odd way of living. Mostly.
The one major problem I had was the wildlife. For some reason, our tent attracted Daddy Long-Legs spiders. Lots of them. The corners of the tent would fill up with them, a mass of legs and bouncing bodies. It was seriously creepy to wake up and see that every morning.
My other encounter in the tent was even less pleasant. One evening, as I was getting into bed, I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. I cried out and jumped back. My dad searched my bed and uncovered a nasty little visitor...a scorpion. He quickly dispatched the scorpion, while my mom treated the sting. I was fine a few days later.
Other wildlife included field mice, which were kept in check by our two cats. We also had rattlesnakes in abundance. In addition, we had king snakes and coral snakes, and learned quickly how to tell them apart, especially when I encountered one stretched across the road as I walked home from school. It was a coral snake and I threw rocks at it until it moved.
In addition to our cats, we had a Bassett hound named Tony. Tony's one great love was chasing armadillos, something else we had in abundance. The only problem is that he would get so involved with chasing them, he lost track of where he was. The armadillo would disappear into a hole and Tony would be left, standing and baying until someone came and found him and took him home.
Eventually, we added several rabbits, two Nubian goats named Billy and Blue, some turkeys and some chickens. I gathered eggs every day and really loved the Ameraucana chickens because they laid colorful eggs, with various tints of pale blue and green. Of course, we also had some Rhode Island Reds and some Leghorns as well.
An incident that is etched in my mind happened on the school bus one morning. After I was picked up we went a couple of miles down the road to pick up an older girl and then a few minutes later, three brothers who lived on a farm there. This particular morning the boys were full of mischief and acting squirrelly. They sat down behind me and we continued down the road.
Suddenly I felt something in my hair. Imagine my horror when I reached up and felt something moving on top of my head. I began to shake my head and frantically try to get it out, when a tarantula the size of my palm dropped out of my hair, accompanied by the shrieking laughter of those boys. They have no idea how close to death they were at that moment.
The bus driver stopped the bus, pitched the spider off the side of the road, asked me if I was hurt and then scolded the boys, who didn't look one bit repentant. At least they didn't until the older girl told them they were either really brave or really stupid. When they asked why, she turned to me and winked and then turned back to them and said, "She's German and they have tempers like rattlesnakes. They don't get mad but they do get even when you least expect it. I'd watch my back if I were you." They looked at me wide-eyed and gave me a pretty wide berth after that.
Later that year, we moved down the hill into a small structure my dad built, because a different sort of animal, the two-legged kind, ransacked our place while we were visiting relatives, and stole what they deemed as valuable, destroying the rest by throwing it out onto the ground for the weather and animals to have their way with. Most of our books, my dad's paintings, and all our pictures and keepsakes were destroyed. We came home to waterlogged things strewn everywhere amidst the broken ceramics and dishes. Our mattresses had been dragged out as well. It was a mess and it all seemed so senseless.
I never felt really secure out on the property after that. It seems funny that I felt perfectly safe in the midst of scorpions and rattlesnakes, by one or more human animals shattered my peace.
When I think back to the fourth grade, the thing that jumps out at me most is animals. You see, we had settled in a bit, there in our cozy tent on the hill. I was really getting accustomed to our odd way of living. Mostly.
The one major problem I had was the wildlife. For some reason, our tent attracted Daddy Long-Legs spiders. Lots of them. The corners of the tent would fill up with them, a mass of legs and bouncing bodies. It was seriously creepy to wake up and see that every morning.
My other encounter in the tent was even less pleasant. One evening, as I was getting into bed, I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. I cried out and jumped back. My dad searched my bed and uncovered a nasty little visitor...a scorpion. He quickly dispatched the scorpion, while my mom treated the sting. I was fine a few days later.
Other wildlife included field mice, which were kept in check by our two cats. We also had rattlesnakes in abundance. In addition, we had king snakes and coral snakes, and learned quickly how to tell them apart, especially when I encountered one stretched across the road as I walked home from school. It was a coral snake and I threw rocks at it until it moved.
In addition to our cats, we had a Bassett hound named Tony. Tony's one great love was chasing armadillos, something else we had in abundance. The only problem is that he would get so involved with chasing them, he lost track of where he was. The armadillo would disappear into a hole and Tony would be left, standing and baying until someone came and found him and took him home.
Eventually, we added several rabbits, two Nubian goats named Billy and Blue, some turkeys and some chickens. I gathered eggs every day and really loved the Ameraucana chickens because they laid colorful eggs, with various tints of pale blue and green. Of course, we also had some Rhode Island Reds and some Leghorns as well.
An incident that is etched in my mind happened on the school bus one morning. After I was picked up we went a couple of miles down the road to pick up an older girl and then a few minutes later, three brothers who lived on a farm there. This particular morning the boys were full of mischief and acting squirrelly. They sat down behind me and we continued down the road.
Suddenly I felt something in my hair. Imagine my horror when I reached up and felt something moving on top of my head. I began to shake my head and frantically try to get it out, when a tarantula the size of my palm dropped out of my hair, accompanied by the shrieking laughter of those boys. They have no idea how close to death they were at that moment.
The bus driver stopped the bus, pitched the spider off the side of the road, asked me if I was hurt and then scolded the boys, who didn't look one bit repentant. At least they didn't until the older girl told them they were either really brave or really stupid. When they asked why, she turned to me and winked and then turned back to them and said, "She's German and they have tempers like rattlesnakes. They don't get mad but they do get even when you least expect it. I'd watch my back if I were you." They looked at me wide-eyed and gave me a pretty wide berth after that.
Later that year, we moved down the hill into a small structure my dad built, because a different sort of animal, the two-legged kind, ransacked our place while we were visiting relatives, and stole what they deemed as valuable, destroying the rest by throwing it out onto the ground for the weather and animals to have their way with. Most of our books, my dad's paintings, and all our pictures and keepsakes were destroyed. We came home to waterlogged things strewn everywhere amidst the broken ceramics and dishes. Our mattresses had been dragged out as well. It was a mess and it all seemed so senseless.
I never felt really secure out on the property after that. It seems funny that I felt perfectly safe in the midst of scorpions and rattlesnakes, by one or more human animals shattered my peace.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Stories from an Unconventional Childhood, Week Five
I started third grade with a settled feeling. My teacher from the second grade moved up to teach third grade. I had been selected for a special program that met a couple times a week and did interesting projects. I had a waver in the school library that allowed me to check out books from any area (our school library had a rule that you could only check out books from your grade level or below, but my teacher fought for a waver because I had read all of them and my reading level was several years beyond my grade level). I was in Brownies with my mom as troop co-leader. Life was good.
My parents were still attending college. I had gotten accustomed to being a latchkey kid and had a pretty set afternoon routine. We were still living in our old rent house and had been able to replace our truck. My dad had purchased an army squad tent from a military surplus store and set it up in our backyard as his art studio. We'd been in the same place for over 2 years and I was beginning to feel a sense of permanence. Little did I know what was on the horizon.
One day I came home to an envelope taped to the door. I carefully took it down and set it inside and impatiently waited for my parents to get home to find out what it was. When my mom opened the envelope she drew in her breath and shaking her head passed it to my dad, who read it and frowned. Meanwhile I waited for someone to tell me what was going on. It seems our landlord had received an offer to buy his house and he accepted. The letter said we had until the end of the month to move out. I shouted, "No! How can he do that?" "My mom shrugged and said, "It's his house."
We began looking for a place to move but nothing was available in our price range, so my parents hit upon a wild idea. They were in the process of buying a piece of property out in the country and had plans to build a house there. There wasn't enough time for that of course, but they figured out a temporary measure. The next thing I knew we were packing everything and moving it onto the property, which was 7 miles outside a different town, almost an hour away.
I was devastated. I had to leave my friends and my school behind. Because of where the property was located, we weren't in the school district of the town we were right outside. I had to ride the bus to yet another town, 20 miles from our new home. I was scrambling in school because in my old school, we were just about to learn cursive, but in my new school, they had learned it the end of the previous year. All the notes written on the board were in cursive, which I could neither read nor write.
Remember that army squad tent?
It was now our new home. It was unloaded and set up in a clearing atop a hill, with a plywood platform floor about a foot off the ground, built by my dad. We had an old-fashioned, pot-bellied, wood-burning stove for heat. We had no electricity or gas or running water. We hauled water from town in big plastic garbage cans. It was like slightly upgraded camping out. When it was warm, we showered in an area outside with an enclosure around a tree with a large juice can with holes punched in it that warm water could be poured into. The first pouring got you wet. Then you soaped up and poured another batch to rinse off. In colder weather, a metal washtub was set up by the stove and filled with water. After a month or so of cooking on an open fire outside, we added a wood-fired cook stove to the tent.
My head was reeling from all the changes, but I loved living out in the country. There was always somewhere to explore and discover and I had managed to make a few friends that lived out there too. Our property was covered in big oak trees hanging with Spanish moss, wild persimmon trees, and mesquite. Large prickly pear cactus dotted the landscape. I never knew if the rustling in the bushes was going to be an armadillo or a jackrabbit.
My parents were commuting almost an hour each way to college. I was dropped off at my bus stop at the crossroads early in the morning before the sun came up. Eventually, other kids catching the bus to the school in town would arrive, as well as the little boy who rode my bus. I felt safer then, because there were kids and parents I knew there. I was about 20 miles from school, but my bus picked up all the kids that were in the outlying areas, and I was the first one picked up, so it took over an hour to get to school.
As the year progressed, I made new friends at school, learned to decipher cursive and copy it pretty well, and grow accustomed to life in the tent. I was settling in, but constantly wondered what new adventures were lurking around the corner.
My parents were still attending college. I had gotten accustomed to being a latchkey kid and had a pretty set afternoon routine. We were still living in our old rent house and had been able to replace our truck. My dad had purchased an army squad tent from a military surplus store and set it up in our backyard as his art studio. We'd been in the same place for over 2 years and I was beginning to feel a sense of permanence. Little did I know what was on the horizon.
One day I came home to an envelope taped to the door. I carefully took it down and set it inside and impatiently waited for my parents to get home to find out what it was. When my mom opened the envelope she drew in her breath and shaking her head passed it to my dad, who read it and frowned. Meanwhile I waited for someone to tell me what was going on. It seems our landlord had received an offer to buy his house and he accepted. The letter said we had until the end of the month to move out. I shouted, "No! How can he do that?" "My mom shrugged and said, "It's his house."
We began looking for a place to move but nothing was available in our price range, so my parents hit upon a wild idea. They were in the process of buying a piece of property out in the country and had plans to build a house there. There wasn't enough time for that of course, but they figured out a temporary measure. The next thing I knew we were packing everything and moving it onto the property, which was 7 miles outside a different town, almost an hour away.
Remember that army squad tent?
It was now our new home. It was unloaded and set up in a clearing atop a hill, with a plywood platform floor about a foot off the ground, built by my dad. We had an old-fashioned, pot-bellied, wood-burning stove for heat. We had no electricity or gas or running water. We hauled water from town in big plastic garbage cans. It was like slightly upgraded camping out. When it was warm, we showered in an area outside with an enclosure around a tree with a large juice can with holes punched in it that warm water could be poured into. The first pouring got you wet. Then you soaped up and poured another batch to rinse off. In colder weather, a metal washtub was set up by the stove and filled with water. After a month or so of cooking on an open fire outside, we added a wood-fired cook stove to the tent.
My head was reeling from all the changes, but I loved living out in the country. There was always somewhere to explore and discover and I had managed to make a few friends that lived out there too. Our property was covered in big oak trees hanging with Spanish moss, wild persimmon trees, and mesquite. Large prickly pear cactus dotted the landscape. I never knew if the rustling in the bushes was going to be an armadillo or a jackrabbit.
My parents were commuting almost an hour each way to college. I was dropped off at my bus stop at the crossroads early in the morning before the sun came up. Eventually, other kids catching the bus to the school in town would arrive, as well as the little boy who rode my bus. I felt safer then, because there were kids and parents I knew there. I was about 20 miles from school, but my bus picked up all the kids that were in the outlying areas, and I was the first one picked up, so it took over an hour to get to school.
As the year progressed, I made new friends at school, learned to decipher cursive and copy it pretty well, and grow accustomed to life in the tent. I was settling in, but constantly wondered what new adventures were lurking around the corner.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Top Ten {Tuesday}: Ten Beautiful Blogs (Eye Candy!)
A thing of beauty is a joy forever--John Keats
I love to read and look at design blogs. While my own house is decorated with an eye toward kid-proof and easy care, I find it refreshing to look at houses that are a delight to behold. Anything from way-out-of-my-price-range mansions to easy DIY will do. Here are ten of my favorites, in no particular order.
This Australian site has amazing photos of exotic locales. Be sure to catch the vacation spot in the Maldives (the blue water, the glass floor, sigh) along with lovely pictures of hotels, resorts and beautiful homes. It's also interesting to see what the styles are like on the other side of the world.
The blog of an interior designer just starting out. It's fun to watch the development of her career and interesting to have someone treading that middle ground between the amateur decorator and the all-knowing professional. Sprinkled with DIY projects, before-and-afters, and insights on color and style.
According to the About page, "French Kissed is a design philosophy for people with big ideas and small budgets". It's a wonderful place to train the eye to see the possibilities. Don't miss the photo tours in the sidebar. Gorgeousness all around!
A professional interior designer in Phoenix, AZ, Laura Ingalls Gunn, wants to share beauty with the world. Be sure and check out her ideas for lightening your decor for the summer months and her Oprah audition. I'm inspired by her creative space outfitted for only $15. Wow!
Part of the Decor by Color blogs. Explore all the different ways the different shades of turquoise can be used in your decor. Not a fan of turquoise? Scroll down and look at the right sidebar to find the blog featuring the color of your choice. How about purple or black and white?
This is probably the one that I have been reading the longest. It's all about making a smaller home beautiful. Genevieve lived in and decorated an 1800 square foot home with her husband and two sons for more than 15 years, so she knows whereof she speaks.
This is what happens when an interior designer living in Houston has French decor in her heart. Joni Webb also writes for The Skirted Roundtable, along with Megan of Beach Bungalow 8 and Linda of ::Surroundings. (Did you see how I just managed to sneak in those extra links?) In accordance with its Texas roots, Cote de Texas encourages thinking big. Good thing, because I'm now trying to figure out how to raise $24, 500,000. Just kidding... sort of.
Melissa is a design consultant, mom of 3 and a pastor's wife (wonder what she does in her free time?). The mission statement of this beautiful blog is "to inspire women to create an authentic home they LOVE and for their home to inspire their life." I love it!
If you like inspiring pictures of things you could actually do, this is the place. Metamorphosis Monday and Tablescape Thursdays will keep you busy with so many ideas you won't know what to do. There aren't enough hours in the week for me to keep up with all the linked posts on those days, but it sure is fun to try! And then there's awesome content on the days in between. Maybe I could give up sleep.
10. 320 Sycamore
Named for the old Granville house in It's a Wonderful Life
, Melissa's blog is about seeing the charm in your house and bringing it out. This SAHM has lots of great and easily accomplished ideas. Be sure to check out the "under $10, under 1 hour" projects and "little makeovers".
, Melissa's blog is about seeing the charm in your house and bringing it out. This SAHM has lots of great and easily accomplished ideas. Be sure to check out the "under $10, under 1 hour" projects and "little makeovers".I had a really hard time limiting this to only 10 (and failed as you can see from #7. There are so many beautiful and inspiring blogs out there. To find many more, look at the blogs the above blogs follow and link to. Happy viewing!
For more terrific top 10 lists, visit Oh Amanda.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
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