Playapixie...

I've been lying low at home for half of a week now, recovering from a flu bug. As result, I've had way more down time than I've had in a long, long time. I feel like I've been burning the candle at both ends for months now, with stresses piling up at work and at home, plus the usual busy social calendar. Sometimes it takes being sick to remind me to slow down.

Anyhow, as a result of sitting around at home getting bored out of my brain, I've been spending a lot of hours geeking out on my computer. I've been playing with new programs that I haven't had the time to learn yet (mostly Aperture), dicking around with pictures that I've taken with my new lens (Canon 10-22mm super wide angle) and my new camera (Canon SD800IS point & shoot). I've been catching up on friend's blogs. And I've been thinking about my own blogging habits, how they've developed over the years, and where I want to focus my blogging energies. So here's where I need your help!

First, a bit of history. When I started playapixie.org, blogging was only just starting to take off. While there had been bloggers out there for a few years, a lot of people still didn't know what blogs were. At that point, there were way less options for how and where you could blog. Initially Playapixie was a pretty standard blog: mostly words, mostly randomata from my daily life. Shortly after I started it, I developed an interest in digital photography and got my first digital camera, so I started adding pictures to most of my posts. Over time, my interest in photography grew, and I changed the format of my main page to more-or-less what you see now: a large photo for every entry, one entry per page, and maybe a written entry to go with the photo.

I still really like the large photo format, and I still think of Playapixie as mainly a photoblog. But what happened as a result of that change was that I almost completely stopped blogging in the traditional sense; I wasn't writing any of the silly random stuff anymore. I got picky about what photos I'd put up, and if I couldn't think of anything to say that went with the picture, I wouldn't say anything at all. Lots of times I'd have things to say, but no picture to go with it, so I just wouldn't say anything. And more often then not, I'd post nothing, because I don't really like post-processing, and getting pictures ready to post is work.

In the past year or so, a few new blogging tools have come along that have changed the way I think of blogging. First, Flickr.com made posting snapshots and sharing photos in a community-centered way much easier. Second, Tribe.net became the social networking site that a huge number of my friends and acquaintances joined, and they have a nice blogging feature. Third, some friends of mine in San Francisco launched Vox.com, yet another really lovely community-oriented blogging tool. So my blogging efforts have gotten scattered. I've been using Tribe as my main randomata, word-oriented blog (particularly when I'm thinking of my Seattle and Burning Man friends), Flickr as the place where my day-to-day snapshots land (as well as event albums), Vox as an alternate blog spot when I have my San Francisco friends in mind, and maintaining a Livejournal account for following my friends there. The result of all of this scattered energy is that Playapixe.org has been almost completely neglected.

But I still feel the most personal attachment to my Playapixie.org site. I'd like to focus more of my energy here, but I'm not quite sure what that will look like. I'm toying with leaving it as it is, but trying to post more, or adding a separate page that's more of a traditional word blog, or maybe making the front page be a spit screen, so the most recent photo entry and the most recent word entry are always on the main page, but they don't necessarily go together.

So what I'd like to know from my friends and readers is how do you use blogs? Where do you focus your energies, both as a blog reader and as a blogger? Do you follow your friend's online ramblings in multiple locations, or do you only read what they put in one particular place (their main blog, or Livejournal, or Tribe, for example.) Would you prefer it if entries in multiple locations were the same (so you only have to look one place to find it all)? Or do you like it when their various blogs say different things? I'd love any thoughts that might help me figure out where to take my blogging energies next.

If you're not playing Reality All Starz, you should be!

What, you haven't heard of Reality All Starz? It's a super fun internet game that Seattle Burner (and friend of mine) Peter Brown invented. People invent challenges for eachother to do, vote on how many points the challenge should be worth, then submit proof (preferably photo or video) of their attempt. Then you get to vote on their attempt. It's fun on a lot of levels, as it encourages people to do stuff in real life, it's highly interactive, and it's a blast to find out new things about your friends. I want all of you to go sign up and play it!

Peter just opened the game up to more than just the testers a few days ago, so get on board! 

IMG_6285.JPG

Ariel Stallings, me, & Andreas Fetz.  Ariel's costume was her "opposite self," the Goth (and while she claims that's the Anti-Ariel, I say she makes a HOT goth.)  Andreas must have been Ariel's Opposite Self's Husband, equally gothed out (but still looking cherubic...could there be any sweeter-looking goth?)  I was a Tim Burton-style ghost, although most people thought I was a dead maid.  Fine, I was a dead maid.  People kept telling me I looked cute.  Not cute, dammit, scary, creepy, spooky!!!

My photos from saturday night's Oracle Gathering "The Other Side" are up at flicr.com: http://www.flickr.com/photos/playapixie/sets/72157594352199825/

I just unsubsribed from an email group on google groups.  The unsubsribe confirmation notification was written in Pig Latin.  ROTFL.

Here it is:

Ellohay,

 We have received a request to unsubscribe you from PNW Burning Kids 'n' Teens.

 Leasepay onfirmcay histay equestray otay unsubscribeay ybay eplyingray otay 

histay emailay roay ybay oinggay otay hetay ollowingfay onfirmationcay URLAY:

 http://groups-beta.google.com/group/burningkids/unsub?u=bbv_GAgAAACpZUqGqXr52jZ0NGjDCzkR

 Ifway ouyay avehay uestionquay elatedray otay histay orway anyway otherway 

Google roupgay, leasepay isitvay hetay Help Center atway http://groups-beta.google.com/support.

 Hankstay,var:

 The Google Team

Show us a self-portrait.

Me in a mirror

In front of the Space Virgins dome at Burning Man 2006, the day we tore down camp.

On the road on our way home from Bagby Hot Springs, where Brannon, Abbey, and I
spent a lovely weekend enjoying the northwest autumn in the outdoors.
Mmmm...hotsprings, fall colors, sunshine, loyal dog, cute boy with a guitar, what
more could a girl want?

What is your earliest memory? 
Submitted by Megan.

My oldest clear memory was from the day my sister Joy was born, March 11, 1973.  I was 4 years old.  I remember standing out in front of the hospital with my brother, either just before or just after we met our new sister, practicing spelling her name by writing the letters J-O-Y in the air with our fingers. 

I also remember wanting her to be my baby.  That lasted a few weeks, until I got sick of her constant crying and insisted that mom and dad "take her to the baby pound."

Tell us about your first kiss.  Who was it with?  How old were you?

Three possible stories come to mind, and honestly I'm not sure which was the "first kiss."

When I was in the 4th grade, I had my first boyfriend, my next-door-neighbor, Brian Rassmussen.  I recall spending one summer evening holding hands with him while lying on the grass on his family's front lawn.  But  I don't remember any kissing...kissing, ew!  That relationship lasted all of one day.

My friend Jill still likes to remind me of how we would watch Days of Our Lives and practice kissing like they did on TV, but on pillows, or the backs of our hands.  I swear I don't remember this, but Jill remembers all kinds of details from our childhood, and is always keen to tell the story.

The most likely first kiss would have been with my first real "boyfriend," Todd Gordon, who I dated for maybe 6 weeks in the 7th or 8th grade (Jill would be able to say which year for sure, and probably which months...she remembers everything...it's like having my own personal historian; she remembers the names and details of my relationships better than I do!)  For sure there was kissing in that relationship, even (*gasp*) french kissing.  But I honestly don't have any memory at all of that first kiss.

However, I remember in vivid detail the first kiss with my current infatuation  :-)

Show us something that makes you nostalgic. 
Submitted by ngocaroo.

The Man