13: Take Note
1. Blogging these days tends to be a thankless job. With so many readers who never make a comment, sometimes I feel like I’m talking to the wall.
2. I’m a bit of a wallflower myself, when it comes to parties (unless there is dancing or Scrabble playing). I don’t so much resemble the inanimateness of wallpaper, but I do like a wall I can lean against and people watch from.
3. I inadvertently got the name “Soul Crusher” as a spoken word introduction bio when myf riend Tom Ryan referred to me that way in his satirical publication, The Floyd Enquirer, after reading my book The Jim and Dan Stories, which made him cry. I’m ready for a new nickname. Any suggestions?
4. The white streak I’ve had in my hair since I was 13 is spreading. My hair used to be chocolate and vanilla. Now it’s vanilla and chocolate.
5. As if that isn’t enough, a few years ago I started to streak a little color into my bangs and when that wears out it takes on a reddish tint, adding strawberry to the mix.
6. Favorite search phrase that landed someone on my blog this week: HOW DO YOU SAY LEAVE A MESSAGE AFTER THE BEEP IN CREOLE?
7. Burning question I recently asked my friend Mara Robbins: how do you feel about having a last name ending in an S, and do you do this Robbins’ or this Robbins’s?
8. As a writer, I’m a hard worker. My version of rest is to lay down with something to edit. There also must be a cup of tea.
9. I start notebooks simultaneously in the front and the back and continue to take notes until the writing meets in the middle.
10. Wanted: more blog friends to make up for the many I have lost who have stopped blogging.
11. Speaking of blog friends, Susan from Patchwork Reflections sent me THIS. You paste in a sample of your writing and it tells you who you write like.
12. Mostly it determined that I write like David Foster Wallace, who I did not know but have started researching. He seems like a very cool guy, except for the part where he committed suicide.
13. Papas Got a Brand New Bag: My husband Joe has a new business and webpage Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) HERE. He’ll be running a teen tent up at Floydfest, which starts today! (Story on that tomorrow).
More playing 13 Thursday are HERE.
July 22nd, 2010 12:05 am
A new nickname, huh? Well…if we build off of numbers 4 and 5, we could call you “Neapolitan.” *grin*
July 22nd, 2010 1:22 am
7. Burning question I recently asked my friend Mara Robbins: how do you feel about having a last name ending in an S and do you do this Robbins’ or this Robbins’s?
I think the rules are changing. In a book I read recently, I saw BOTH uses of the apostrophe on the same page! That book needed a good editor, IMHO. I now choose to go with the apostrophe-s for possessives, always:
The Jacobs family (modifier)
The Jacobses (plural)
Bonnie Jacobs’s family (possessive)
July 22nd, 2010 1:28 am
1 and 10. I hear ya.
July 22nd, 2010 6:38 am
I am just checking in………….xo
July 22nd, 2010 6:57 am
#1 – so true and I am so guilty of it also, so please accept my apologies for all those times I rush through and read your wonderful words and do not comment. On those thankless days when I receive no comments I remind myself I am doing this for ME…
#3 hope you get a new one soon!
#9 I love this, more of your creativity
#10 – yes! but someone told me that to have comments you have to leave comments which takes us back to #1…
#11-12 – at first it said I wrote like Stephen King (?) then the next few times it was David Foster Wallace – very interesting!
July 22nd, 2010 7:44 am
I started blogging as a personal journal or perhaps a way of keeping my little history. When others started reading, I sort of started writing for them. I try not to do that, and I hope I would continue blog therapy even if no one every commented. (Although I do would feel like the virtual wallflower!)
July 22nd, 2010 8:40 am
sounds like your hair is starting to change flavors. Wow white since 13 now that is early. I know what you mean about commments I try to leave them when ever I visit anywhere but seldom see any on my site either
July 22nd, 2010 8:41 am
I love that your photographs have taken on the lyric yet arrow sharp quality of your writing. I love that your blue dictionary has stains from tea cups on it. I used to have a very old and shabby dictionary and then I upgraded…I miss the used look. It takes years of love and abuse. Your blog is a way I can get a hit of Colleen even when I rarely catch a glimpse of your flashing eyes any more. I hope to track you down and maybe find time for a game under the trees at Floyd Fest.
July 22nd, 2010 9:04 am
Yes! Miss you, Rosemary. xo
Bonnie, Mara uses this: Robbins’
PS: I was wondering how you knew I had a tea cup stain on my dictionary, Rosemary. I had thought you had a good memory and noticed it once when we played Scrabble at my house, and I only just now noticed it is in today’s photo!
July 22nd, 2010 9:09 am
Thanks for the blog tip. I’ve been playing with the “who I write like”. What fun! I think I might have to blog on who I write like so I’m not going to tell you now, but I will in my next post. Thanks.
July 22nd, 2010 10:32 am
New nickname: Butterfly
July 22nd, 2010 11:18 am
I’m so with you on #2…I’m a wicked wallflower! I’m nervous about meeting Dave’s 8 brothers and sisters, his 3 kids & 3 grands and the countless nieces and nephews!
July 22nd, 2010 12:57 pm
I hear you: #1.
I’m really glad I participated in Thursday 13 or else I wouldn’t be able to visit your blog. I like.
As much as I want to be a writer, I’m too scatter brain to be one. I can’t concentrate on one single thought. Frustrated writer, yes that’s me. Envy you. XD
July 22nd, 2010 1:29 pm
hey i m here 🙂 and i m here every thursday probably! wanna befriend 🙂
making my own mantra
July 22nd, 2010 1:31 pm
Great list. You’ll always have a blog buddy in me. I took the test to find out what writer I write like and it came out, Jane Austen. Holy doodle lol
Happy T13!
July 22nd, 2010 2:09 pm
I smiled at the thought of your neopolitan hair 🙂
I am also guilty of visiting and not commenting. Sorry!
July 22nd, 2010 3:12 pm
good luck with the bag- I went natural white this summer- Summer tea- Floydfest oh i long to be there !!
July 22nd, 2010 3:26 pm
I do the same thing with my journals too.
July 22nd, 2010 3:33 pm
Hi Colleen! I went to WWC with Josh and at some point he directed me to your blog so I’ve been a too-long silent reader, and thought that I better jump up and say something to abate your sighs from #1 this week! 🙂 Thank you for sharing…if you want to know a little more about me and the fam, you can check out my blog at http://www.ameliawalton.com, but I’m a little behind right at the moment, so of course it is too…so it goes! Hope that you’re well, and thanks for sharing Josh with us, we just had a son, and I’m not going to lie, my husband Drew and I have both said that we would love for our young sir to possess a little Josh Copus in his spirit! xo
July 22nd, 2010 3:46 pm
I think your nickname should be something like “Creative Spark” It fits you.
On last names that end in s….I think it would be Robbins’ but I’m never really sure.
#9-I do that too!
I also got David Foster Wallace. Never heard of him before. Maybe I should pick up one of his books and see if I agree?
July 22nd, 2010 4:54 pm
My first thought for a nickname was “Neopolitan,” too! “Neo” for short. 🙂
July 22nd, 2010 7:19 pm
Sorry to be in the first group (#1). I am visiting everyone, but not commenting as much as usual. For some reason, my computer (or blogger) is making it hard for me to comment – and it takes a long time to do so. I’ll try to show you that I’m really here often!
July 22nd, 2010 8:22 pm
I’m fascinated by #9.
July 22nd, 2010 10:40 pm
I liked #9. I sometimes do it too, though not on purpose.
July 23rd, 2010 5:44 am
I so identify with your #1 of this TT…It is just weird—I’m still trying to figure out where everyone went. I know quite a few people aren’t blogging any more and that makes me sad. But, I’m still here Colleen, and so are you–I am happy to say. But the numbers of people who don’t blog anymore OR who just read and don;t comment…I don’t get it.
I hope you will continue, my dear….And just know that there are still some of us stalwarts. (lol)
July 24th, 2010 12:22 pm
So much for #1 – you have lots of readers and commenters! I don’t know many blogs (outside of political ones) that can garner 25 comments! Maybe it’s only been since you switched to your new format that you got a better count of how many readers you have. Blogging and keeping up with blogs does take a considerable amount of time and Facebook is so popular these days … keep on writing – we love you!
July 24th, 2010 4:26 pm
Thanks, Jeff. I do get a fair amount of comments on Thursdays, largely due to the meme nature of 13 Thursday. During the week it is sometimes pretty slow and so many bloggers who used to visit have stopped blogging. Facebooking more now for sure.
July 24th, 2010 8:51 pm
Colleen: I am guilty of reading your lovely blog and not having responded (I have never responded to any blog!). My husband & I were in Floyd last weekend hanging out, listening to music at the Country Store Friday evening, and again Saturday afternoon at the open mike, and then Sat. at the Oak Grove Pavillion. We dodged the rain storm that blew through town (at least it rained somewhere last weekend.) We had dinner one night at the Pine Tavern, and the second night at Mickey G’s (where our pizza, all on its own, slid right off of the table onto the floor–whoops! It wasn’t our fault.) When we get back to Hanover County, I am very mellow having been on Floyd time all weekend–not a bad thing! I read your poetry book last summer and enjoyed every page of it! You are a great writer. Wish I could join you sometime for a cup of tea! I bought some new tea at Harvest Moon last weekend–blueberry black tea and a lime green tea. They are both really good! Bye for now!
July 24th, 2010 10:47 pm
Lauren, Thanks for sharing that. I hope we can meet next time your in Floyd!