I had 28 respondents. I had 207 subscribers in Google Reader, so that is a 13% response rate. Pretty typical of a survey?

Do you like filling surveys out? 

I actually do, and always fill them out at work, and most of the ones emailed to me (except for that stupid Runner’s World one about energy efficient cars).

Anyway. Here are the results to the mandatory questions. 

Do you read ilaxSTUDIO through an rss feed aggregator or organically?

Well, since 9 respondents don’t use rss, that means my poll percentage rating just went down even more. Ha ha.

Which of the topics below do you find the most interesting for me to post on?

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

What is really interesting is that most people voted that they like Health + Fitness the most, which is the category I try to post in the least! I figure the blogosphere is so over saturated with health blogs – what more do I have to add?

Tell me, do you prefer for me to post my commentary on Health + Fitness related news, or do you want to hear about my personal health (weight loss, body image, etc.)?

I was surprised to see Recipes + Food in #2. I was not surprised to see Running + Training in last! That is not really interesting to anyone other than me. 

Which of the topics below do you find the least interesting for me to post on?

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

Fashion + Beauty got the most votes, followed by Memes (no surprise – they are fun to fill out but boring to read/hard to comment on, case in point, the 11 Things Meme that is still making its rounds) and Recipes + Food. I was surprised Recipes + Food got a high rating followed by a low rating. I do think reading recipes is boring. 

Which is more boring for you guys – the recipes, or talking about food products and restaurants?

I was surprised Running + Training did not get more votes here! I definitely agree that Memes can be boring to read, so I will continue to limit those. 

Should I continue to ask the Friday Question?

Do you like having a weekly summary of my training posts, or would you prefer to see them more spread out (throughout the week)? 

20 people said continue a weekly summary and 8 people said make them more spread out. I am not sure if I will do a post for each workout – I am not that creative of a writer. But maybe I will mention my workouts more. 

Should I continue to do giveaways?

How do you feel about the amount of photos on the blog?

How often do you like me to post?

One a day got 17 votes, more than once a day, 3, and a few times a week 8. So almost 30% of you think I am posting too often? I have a feeling it will slow down soon, as a result of my work-related stress. Ironically, this is my second post of the day…

Do you care what time of day I post?

2 people preferred morning, everyone else didn’t care. I will continue to post when I get up for work (between 4:00 am and 4:30) everyday if I can.

As for the non-required, form comments, I did get a few answers there too!

What topics would you like me to write about more (include anything I don’t write about now that you would like me to write about in the future)?

• My history. Running. 
• Posts like the one about how people present themselves on the internet. 
• All the movies I watch, including a movie rating system.
• Why I became vegan, what I eat to fill the “protein void.” (quotes mine, not theirs, ha ha)
• How Steven and I met, favorite places in Chicago.
• More Data.

Would you guys be interested in reading about my opinion on movies? Be honest!

Which topics would you like me to write about less?

• Food
• Running/Training/Health/Fashion
• Running

Most people who responded had a disclaimer that said they just skip the posts they are not interested in. I do that too. So no worries.

Any other thoughts you’d like to share?

This section was filled with blog love and compliments. Thanks, you guys!!!

After reading all of these results, I kind of wish I would have asked about blog post length. Do super long blog posts (like this one, ha ha) turn you off? Do you read them all? They sure turn me off!

Alright, here is a summary of all my follow-up questions for you guys. Thanks for participating!!!

1. Do you like filling surveys out?
2. Tell me, do you prefer for me to post my commentary on Health + Fitness related news, or do you want to hear about my personal health (weight loss, body image, etc.)?
3. Which is more boring for you guys – the recipes, or talking about food products and restaurants?
4. Would you guys be interested in reading about my opinion on movies? Be honest!
5. Do super long blog posts turn you off? Do you read them all?

Facebook photos generally depict smiling, cheerful people having good times, conveying a sense of happiness. Of course everyone likes to smile for the camera, so that good cheer may be inflated or false. As others view the photos, they may believe this conveyed sense of  intense happiness is real, making them think that their friends are much happier than they are.

The study, which was published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, also found that people who spent less time socializing with friends in cyberspace and more time socializing with them in real life were less likely to report they were  unhappy.

• I stopped writing the blog post I mentioned in the first bullet, because as I was searching my archives, I realized that I was almost completely rewriting a post from the past. Has that happened to anyone else? You start writing something, think “Gee, this seems familiar…” to have it turn out that you have almost written the same thing earlier?
• I mentioned the other day that I have a really good memory for things that people have said to me. That’s true. But I seem to have no capacity for retaining actual useful information (things I learned in school, trivia, facts, blog posts I have already written, you get the idea). Are you better at remembering factual data, or people-related information?  (<– for lack of a better definition)
• Kelly was kind enough the other day to explain Pinterest to me. I was really not getting it. You all talk about how cool it is, and you could waste days on there, and I am the QUEEN of wasting time on the internet, but I just couldn’t figure it out. I guess I will give it another try. Who else is digging Pinterest? 
• I find it ironic that an announcement about my work position was made back in December and there has been no update about it. Ironic because I am so pushy, anxious and an instant gratification sort of gal – so making an announcement to someone before I know anything about it would be totally something I would do. A taste of my own medicine, I suppose.
• Thanks to everyone who is filling out the blog survey! There is a lot of great feedback on there. I kind of wish I could see who is saying what. I would like to know who wrote that the read my blog “Because I think Kim is super hot.” Ha ha. Do you guys want me to do a post talking about the results?

The winner of the RelaxReflect Giveaway is #18, Leah. Leah, please email me your mailing address (kilax@ilaxstudio.com) along with your choice of skull cap (material, style and color) and I will get the order in for you!

Thanks for participating!

It made me think that I have been blogging for many years and don’t ask for much feedback. So, I decided to give it a try! Of course, I must tell you… I am not sure how much the feedback will influence what I write about. I am just so random and stream of consciousness about what I write. But! I would love to read what you think of ilaxSTUDIO.

So please fill out the form below! And please speak (well, type) freely! It’s anonymous!

Feel free to ask “WTF is up with your fill-in-the-blank posts?!”

Thanks to Stephany for the idea and some of the questions!

If you cannot access the form through my blog, click here to access it. 

I’ve been alluding that I’ve been working on an online identities post for awhile. Erin first asked that I write about it when I mentioned FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in this post. FOMO happens when you go online and read about people doing all these fun things – and it makes you feel like you are missing out. This is similar to the social comparison theory – that we evaluate our own circumstances by comparing them to others. Research says that a lot of people feel depressed during the holidays because of this. They see everyone sharing their celebrations (online or in person), and can’t help but think they are better than their own. Well, that can get especially tricky when you are comparing yourself to someone’s Facebook status, which may only highlight the good**.

So, we know we compare ourselves to what we see online. I bet we all do, a little bit, in some shape or form. In this post, I talked about how I cannot read food journal blogs, because I compare myself. And some people mentioned that that does not affect them, but that they can’t read training blogs. Seeing people having fun does not make me feel left out, but I can see how it would! We’re all different. 

Yikes! I feel like I need to back up. I am already all over the place with this post. And I have a lot to say!

Since Erin mentioned that she thought a post on online identities would be interesting, I have been picking up a lot on people casually alluding to their online identities. One blogger said they have to filter everything they write on their blog because one of their siblings reads their blog. Have you ever filtered what you say on your blog because family is reading? You can believe I have. 

Another blogger said that they doubted what some food bloggers show on their blog is really all they are eating. It just seemed like so little, like the food blogger was only putting on a show for an audience. 

And another blogger wrote that they make sure they don’t write too many “down” posts in a row on their blog, because then their readers start to worry about them! And they don’t want that. But hey, that blogger probably also wants an outlet for the crappy things in life, so what can they do?

It seems to me like these are all minor levels of altering our identities. Not telling a story because family will interpret it weirdly, lying about how much ice cream you ate (or that you ate it at all), making sure the post you write isn’t too much of a downer… we can do all of these things but still be somewhat true to our identity. Don’t get me wrong, it does begin to alter people’s view of us, but it wouldn’t be such a big deal if you met a blogger in real life, then realized, “wow, you eat a lot more ice cream than I thought” (such a silly example, but you get it).

But what about completely altered online identities? People who lie about their sex or age on their blog, in forums, on dating sites. People who pretend they are someone else… even using someone else’s picture. People who completely lie and make up “facts” about what they are talking about. I have heard rumors of a Chicagoland blogger who completely lies about her race times – she says she finished a marathon in under 4 hours but it really took her 6, or something like that. 

I think it’s true that we are all going to alter our identity a bit, but how much? Are we just leaving out little upsetting facts that we don’t want people to know about us? Or are we lying about where we’re from, what we do, how much we make at work? The internet gives us infinite opportunities to define who we are. We get to choose how true that is. And in the beginning it only affects us*** – but as we start to build online relationships based on online identities, it can affect other people as well. 

In true Kim style, I couldn’t write this post without doing a little bit (very little) online research, so I can give you some bullets, and I found this cool online book called The Psychology of Cyberspace. Even better, I found this short article, which gives an overview and some interesting tidbits of the book. Credit for this info to John Suler, who wrote the online book.

• Level of Dissociation and Identity - We balance multiple roles in real life – spouse, mother, neighbor, employee, etc. Our lives are successful when we efficiently “juggle” our different roles.  Our online identities give us a chance to dissociate how much of these roles we reveal. It also gives us the opportunity to focus on one of these roles, and really develop it, when we might not have the opportunity to in real live.
• Positive and Negative Valence - We may choose to highlight our most positive or negative qualities online, as a sub-conscious way of working through them.  ”An insecure, passive-aggressive person gets stuck in an endless stream of online arguments. Others may use cyberspace as a opportunity to exercise their positive characteristics, or to develop new ones in a process of ‘self-actualization.’”
• Level of Fantasy or Reality - In some instances we are expected to be truthful to who we really are, say for example, on LinkedIn. But in a fantasy online community, you are encouraged to make up your character, or avatar. So at what level are we representing ourselves? And the author brings up this interesting question: 

What is one’s TRUE identity? We usually assume it must be the self that you present to others and consciously experience in your day-to-day living. But is that the true self? Many people walk around in their f2f [face-to-face] lives wearing “masks” that are quite different than how they think and feel internally. All the time people are discovering things about their personality that they never realized before. Our daydreams and fantasies often reveal hidden aspects of what we need or wish to be. If people drop the usual f2f persona and bring to life online those hidden or fantasied identities, might not that be in some ways MORE true or “real”?

• Level of Conscious Awareness and Control - We may be selecting a way to represent ourselves online subconsciously. We may do things that appeal to us, without even realizing the deeper meaning of the choice we are making. 
• The Media Chosen – whether it’s a blog, twitter, Facebook, chat, video chat, email – these tools all allow different levels of communication. The media we choose to use will affect our “degree of identity integration and dissociation.”

Online identities – it’s like I have opened up a can of worms. What’s your thought on all this?

Just writing this put a lot of thoughts in my head for future blog topics… so stay tuned! (if you’re interested, ha ha)

*And even writing this, I am thinking, who we are in real life changes depending on who we are around!
**Not to say there aren’t people on Facebook who only highlight the bad. Ha ha. 
***I bet it’s very easy to get lost in an online identity. 

A close friend of mine commented to me (twice!) about how frequently I have been posting lately. And it’s true! My blogging frequency has increased. I tried to explain to her that my blogging frequency is directly related to my happiness level, so the more I blog, the more happy I am. But I did not explain it very well to her. 

Essentially, when I am feeling very upbeat, open, outgoing, excited, enthusiastic and overall happy, I post a lot. I tend to crave interaction when I am feeling that good, and blogging is a very good way for me to satisfy that craving. I’m feeling creative, and I am feeling like sharing my ideas, not matter how silly they are. You see lots of me. 

If I am feeling down in the dumps, discouraged, upset and overall unhappy, I will blog much less. I will withdrawal online, and somewhat in real life too. I will probably mention that things are dumpy, but probably only go in to a minimal amount of detail. It will then take awhile for the blogging frequency to get back up. I’ll probably still comment on other people’s blogs, but I won’t feel like writing here. You’ll sense that something is up. 

And…that is the pattern of blogging I have figured out about myself. I am not sure if it is common or unusual, but I know it to be true. I can go back in my archives, and remember the sh*tty stuff that was going on in my life, and see my absence. And I can recognize the good times too!

The funny thing is, I sometimes try to blog myself out of a slump, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. It feels artificial.

Anyway, I have asked all of these questions before, but I always find the answers interesting!

Does your mood affect the frequency of your blogging?

Do you blog on any sort of set schedule? What is your style?

I almost always blog my Sunday training recap! The Friday Question is less frequent. And it is sporadic the rest of the week. I try to have posts ready at 5:23 am, when I board the train, but sometimes I don’t get to them until later in the day. Ideally, I would have them all ready the night before, but sometimes inspiration strikes at an inconvenient (or rather, unscheduled) time! 

For years I have been saying to my family “I don’t expect you to read my blog to keep up with my life.” And I thought that was true, but I realize this weekend that I was not acting out what I was saying. I was thinking things like “Well, I don’t need to tell them about how we cut down our own tree this year, because they probably saw it on my blog,” and “I bet they already know all about our November trip to NYC.” I found myself not saying things, because I assumed they already knew, from seeing it on my blog. 

This is so stupid. 

First of all, some of my family does not read my blog at all, so why was I acting this way around them? And secondly, for the people who do read my blog, shouldn’t I want to give them the full account of whatever it is I was writing about? I mentioned it casually on this blog post, but our online identities are not always 100% true to who we are! I try to be as honest and open as I can, but of course, I filter out really private stuff that would be inappropriate to discuss here. Anyway, I hope to get more in to that in another post! Back on track…

It’s funny to me to be thinking this, because I started this blog when I was moving to Rome with the sole intention of keeping in touch with people while overseas. But, I’m in the states now. I can call, email, and Skype with people. I do email and chat with my sister online, and call my mom every now and then, and sometimes my Grandma, but I really need to get better at this. I make such an effort to stay in touch with my good friends, why don’t I do it as much with family?

And I am not just saying stay in touch about what is going on with me, I am mostly thinking what is going on with them! Most of my family still lives in our hometown area and they see each other quite often, and more or less know what is going on in each other’s lives. Being out in Chicagoland, I think there is a tendency to forget to keep me in the loop (which is totally understandable), and I need to make an effort to stay involved. 

So, I am going to try to call home more. Skype. Email. Whatever works. 

So family – just leave a comment letting me know if you want me to contact you more often. 

Just kidding!

Have you ever thought of your blog as a tool for keeping in touch with family and friends? Are there people you solely keep in touch with, besides other bloggers, via your blog?

The funny thing is, I drafted this post up Sunday morning, before I even left Iowa (and my family). So on Sunday morning when we were hanging out, I made sure not to pass on sharing something* that I had already shared on my blog. But then I found that I had to tell myself not to ask if they saw pictures on my blog, saw it on my blog, etc. Ha ha. That will be a hard habit to break!

*I am such an oversharer – you would think that would never be a problem. 

This makes no sense to me. 

I don’t know how to fix this. 

So if you see less of me, you’ll know why! Sometimes I can get on, sometimes I can’t. It’s probably the same for you. 

If you have any ideas, let me know (kilax@ilaxstudio.com). Otherwise, thanks for reading.

Basically, in the old version of Google Reader, you could click on an article to share it with people who signed up to follow you. Then you could comment back and forth with them, all within Reader. When they shared something new, it popped up as an unread item. Now, Google want us to use Google+ to share things. It’s easy enough to hit “share” at the top of the screen to put items on Google+, and within certain “circles” but I no longer get a feed of the things my friends are sharing. I have to go to Google+ and look for it. It was better when it was all in one location.

Image from here

Basically… I had a lot of fun sharing things with my friends on Reader, and now they’ve just made it more difficult. I don’t want to use Google+. It’s not intuitive to me, and gee, I already use Facebook. For awhile Steven and I have been talking about how they should incorporate circles in to Reader, so you can only share with certain groups in Reader. We got it the other way around. Maybe I will get used to it. Or maybe enough people will sign the petition to bring it back that Google will! Doubtful.

This is funny. Just yesterday I was thinking about how much I love gmail, and gcal and gdocs… then they do this stupid crap. Oh well. If this doesn’t make sense, or you don’t care, I am happy you don’t waste as much time on the internet as I do!

Kim: Ok – it seems it might be working now
Tech Support: Great!
Tech Support: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Kim: Well, just wondering – do you know why the site sometimes goes down like that?
Tech Support: I have run a tool in your account and resolved the issue.
Kim: So is there anything I can do to prevent it in the future?
Tech Support: Kim, you will not experience the issue again.
Kim: What caused it? Was something wrong with a database? I notice a lot of down server time and I want to make sure I am not doing something wrong.
Tech Support: No, Kim. There was no issue with the database.
Kim: So what did you have to fix?
Tech Support: I have run a tool in your account and resolved the issue.
Kim: Can you not tell me what the tool does or what the issue was?
Tech Support: It was a tool to fix the issue with the permissions.
Kim: So those sometimes get off set on their own?
Tech Support: I appreciate your patience. I am researching on the issue but I will return in 3-4 minutes with some more information.
Kim: Thanks!
Tech Support: Thank you for holding.
Tech Support: There was permissions issue in the account. Hence, you had experienced the issue. I have run a tool and resolved the issue. You will not experience the issue again.
Kim: So you don’t know how the permissions settings got off?
Tech Support: It was due to a technical glitch.
Kim: So this tool prevents the glitch from ever happening again? Cool.
Tech Support: Yes.
Kim: Great.

Ugh. So. Worthless. They won’t tell me ANYTHING. All* of my conversations go like this.

But it is good to know I will not experience the issue again. Phew. No more glitches for me!

If you are self-hosted, which webhost do you use? Do you like their service?

I’ve been using powweb since summer of 2006. I have had a lot of little issues, but not too much website down time overall (so maybe it’s not that big of a deal). I like having tech support chat as an option, but they kind of suck. But at least it usually gets the problem fixed.

*I am not exaggerating. They are all this bad.

Lauren @ Lauren Runs and RunningLaur! Please send me your mailing addresses, ladies, and I will put these in the mail.

Yesterday we spent the day in Long Island checking out a few towns on the water and seeing where Gina and Steve grew up. We’re having so much fun! I don’t want to go home! At least I know we will be back in November.