Comments (43)

By kilax, January 4, 2010 5:19 am

Ha. I had two posts written for today. The first one was a rant on some article I read yesterday and it made me sound crazy. I decided not to use that one and wrote another semi-rant that made me sound bitchy.

Pause.

I must have been in a weird mood yesterday morning. I decided to table those for another day when I have more time to think and am not writing in the “heat of the moment.”

Do you write your posts ahead of time? Or are you more likely to write and immediately hit “publish”? What’s your blogging style? When do you blog?

I generally write all of my posts ahead of time (except for the random “spur of the moment” posts) and schedule them to be published in the morning. I even work on my Sunday training recap post throughout the week so I can publish it after my last workout on Sunday.

During the week, I write posts in the morning or evening train ride. Sometimes I write 2 or 3 at a time. Sometimes I just write them the night before. On the weekends, it’s more sporadic.

And I usually DON’T censor myself! But I have a hard enough time communicating as it is, and if I go back and read something and it doesn’t make sense… then it is not ready to publish! We’ll have to see if I ever use those!

We figured out what to do with the leftover Vegan “Meatloaf” – Vegan “Meatloaf” tacos! I kept joking to Steven that we should make them, but he kept saying no. Then he was too sick to argue so I made them and he LOVED them. Ha!

Comments (29)

By kilax, December 8, 2009 12:32 pm

My apologies for the double post. I just want to ask a quick question.

For a few years, I responded individually to each and every comment on the comment’s post. I appreciate your comments and want you to know I love your feedback!

But it is very time-consuming, as you all know. And it stressed me out. So I’ve stopped doing that, and reply to many comments via email. Lately, I have also been replying to just a few comments, within the comment, in bold (confused yet?).

My question is what do you prefer? Do you even come back to read comments or do you prefer email? Please let me know in the poll below.

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Side note: I tried to install a plugin to reply to specific comments, but it did not work.

Comments (17)

By kilax, December 8, 2009 5:32 am

Do you ever get it in your mind that you ABSOLUTELY have to do something, and that is all you can think about, obsessively, until you’ve done it?

This is not necessarily a good thing. It’s compulsive.

com-pul-sion: Psychology. a strong, usually irresistible impulse to perform an act, esp. one that is irrational or contrary to one’s will.

If my photo were next to a definition in the dictionary, I fear it would be that one. I sometimes think compulsion is the cause of many of my actions. A few examples:

• When I found out Foer was speaking in Chicago, it was all I could think about for hours while I figured out the logistics. I was stressed out about it at work, when I should have been focused.
• I missed 1.5 miles of my Thursday run and thought obsessively about fitting it in last Friday, when really, I needed to rest my legs*. I didn’t run the 1.5 miles, thankfully.
• This post. I wrote it on my exercise sheet while I was doing my strength routine last Friday. It was all I could think about. Even when writing it (last night on the airplane) I closed the lid of my computer for take-off, but thought of something to write and had to open it back up.
• I had it in my mind that I was going to make certain dishes for my family when they visited. Apparently my mother had a few dishes in mind too? (Hence the Similarities and Differences post – I think we are both like this.)
• I couldn’t get it out of my mind that I had to get our holiday tree last weekend before “all the good ones were gone.” Luckily, Steven humored me on this one and we picked out our tree on Saturday (free delivery to the house on Sunday!).
• I won’t even go into how this affects my relationship with food!

What is all of this about? Why do I obsessively think and plan things? I sometimes think it is because I am afraid of missing out on events and afraid of forgetting thoughts I have. AND, I just get so excited and pumped about things, I want to get them out there while they are fresh!

But it makes it hard for me to focus. I have all of these thoughts swirling around in my brain. I feel like I have to get certain things done right away. I am agitated if I don’t.

Part of me enjoys the rush that I create for myself. The realistic part of me knows it’s a problem.

I’m hoping someone can relate? It’s one of those things where I feel like “Boo-hoo, I’m the only one” but I can’t be… right?

(Note, while I was finishing writing this, I got another blog idea in my head and had to open a new tab to start typing that out).

*Related, have you read the article titled “Your Better Half” in the January 2010 issue of Runner’s World? Great article. It’s about turning your inner critic into your biggest fan. I paid close attention to the little part about taking a day off when you don’t want to.

Comments (14)

By kilax, November 24, 2009 5:00 am

If you don’t already read the Well blog on the New York Times, I highly recommend you do. The blog is focused on health and wellness topics and updates a few times a day. I always find the articles interesting.

Yesterday, the author linked to an interesting article called “Food, Kin and Tension at Thanksgiving.” I recommend reading it. You’ll either find it amusing, or that it hits too close to home and makes you dread the upcoming holiday meals.

The article is about all of the family drama that happens during holiday meal times – people commenting on you eating too little, people commenting on you eating too much, people sneaking stuff into your food*, people telling you to quit eating so fast, etc. The article gives specific examples, some of which I find ridiculous, like this story:

A Long Island woman, who like others interviewed for this column didn’t want to be named, said she and her family traveled 12 hours by train for a summer vacation gathering with her husband’s family. When her husband asked for seconds, the sister-in-law said there wasn’t any more food.

“There was all this food around, but she had cut us off,” the woman said. “We were just really shocked we were being told you can’t eat any more after coming all this way. We found out later she really controlled food in the household.”

Whoa! Kind of unbelievable, but then again, kind of NOT! People get weird about food, especially around the holidays! I know I felt territorial in my kitchen this past weekend (even though I love love LOVED that my grandma made breakfast).

Food is just so personal, but then again, it isn’t. Everyone pays attention to what other people are eating (makes me crazy) and a lot of people love to comment on it. That’s just the society we live in!

So, do you have any crazy family food drama like in the article?

I bet most of my family finds my vegan ways ridiculous! But, that is why we are hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas, suckas!** I have had people watch what I eat and tell me to eat more. Or eat meat. Or slow down. Or not to use margarine. Or hey, that is the wrong kind of baking powder! Don’t use that salt! What?! You eat SOY?!

Ha ha. The article has a pretty humorous solution at the very end. My solution? Grin and bear it then bitch to my husband later!

*Well, I added that one, but it’s happened to me!
**Just joking here.

Comments (19)

By kilax, November 11, 2009 8:10 am

This weekend, I was introduced as a blogger to some new people and they asked me, “What is your blog about?”

Um, uh… um…

I’ve actually been borrowing Nilsa’s idea and calling this a “life blog,” at least, over to the right in my intro*. And duh, she even mentioned in point #2 of that post to be prepared to talk about your blog! But I sure wasn’t.

I said I talk about exercise, a little bit about food, a lot of rants… I explained that I started this blog the summer before I went to Rome to keep in touch and that it has kind of expanded off of that…

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………..

Sometimes, it’s just really hard to define who you are. That reminded me of when I had to come up with three interesting facts about myself for a class I took back in May. It also made me realize that I am more likely to be the one asking questions when I meet new people. I usually don’t do much talking myself. I do more probing. Ha ha.

So… I think I should work on that – being able to talk about me, intelligently, that is.

Do you ever get the question, “What is your blog about?” How do you answer? Or if you don’t blog, are you prepared to answer when people ask you what your hobbies are?

*As a side note, I think it’s REALLY important to have an intro or “About” page on your blog. That’s the first thing I look for when I am checking out a new blog!

Comments (4)

By kilax, November 8, 2009 8:44 am

I am having major Akismet issues on this blog. It stopped working because it cannot connect to a firewall, or is blocked by a server or something. My webhost has not been able to help, and as a result, I am getting HUNDREDS of spam comments.

I deactivated Akismet and installed WP-SpamFree. Has anyone had this issue on a wordpress blog before? Any insight?

These are the types of things that make me so frustrated, I consider shutting down my blog. This shouldn’t be so difficult to figure out.

Comments (24)

By kilax, May 8, 2009 5:36 am

What is your response in classes/seminars when you are asked to tell “three interesting things about yourself” during introductions?

I was surprised on Monday morning when our instructor asked us to reveal “three interesting things abut ourselves” to our table-mates, then later to the class. I couldn’t remember the last time an instructor asked me to do that. Sure, tell where you are from, what your degree is, blah blah blah, I’ve done all that, but three interesting facts?

The first three things that came to my mind were:

1. I am vegetarian
2. I am a runner
3. I write a blog

I think those are some of the more interesting facts about me. Or at least, somewhat unique facts about me.

But what I said was:

1. I am a runner
2. I like to travel
3. I like to read

Lame-o, cop-out responses! I didn’t want anyone asking me about why I am a vegetarian, and I didn’t want anyone asking me what a blog is, what I blog about, or what my blog address is, so… I was totally vague*.

Which turned out to be a good thing, because I did get a lot of questions, at least at my table, about my running. Which makes me think they would have asked about the other two things. Which means they are polite people, but… I just don’t like talking about my vegetarianism to people. I am so tired of hearing the same questions over and over, and the same excuses for why they eat meat, or why they couldn’t give up meat. It’s rude for me to say this, but I don’t care. Some people automatically assume they have to justify their diet to me, when I really DON’T CARE. Why people are so interested in what I eat continues to fathom me.

Hmm. Wasn’t expecting all of that to come out. Sorry.

So I guess my real question is: If you had to share “three interesting things” about yourself, would you share the first three that come to your mind, or think about it for awhile and maybe come up with something else? What would those three (or up to six) things be?

Yeah. And just ignore all the crazy writing above.

*I think the fact that I did this says something about my personality… but I am not sure what. I am usually very open, but maybe there are just certain things I am guarded about? Who knows. I’m tired.

Comments (17)

By kilax, April 8, 2009 6:37 am

I don’t understand me lately. I feel like my emotions and thoughts are out of my control or something. I don’t feel like they are bad, just that they move forward without me. Like my brain won’t shut off.

I’ve been writing, passionately. I have all of these post sitting in my queue, just waiting to be posted.

But I am going to take a “quiet day.”

I think I need to start reviewing before I hit “publish.” I am letting myself get overwhelmed and too caught up in things.

If I keep “going going going” like this, I am going to end up crashing and getting sick again.

Comments (18)

By kilax, January 23, 2009 4:53 pm

When you are reading someone else’s blog, do you read ALL of the comments that were left before you got to it? Or do you just skip to the end to leave your comment?

Guilty as charged. I have a hard enough time finding time to read blogs, that I sometimes do skip to the end of the comments if there are a TON of them. If there are only a few, I usually read them. But most of the blogs I read get a lot of comments, so if any comment left by me seems similar to what someone else said, that’s probably why.

It’s a bad habit. And I know I am missing out on a lot of the conversation, by skipping to the end, but I just… keep doing it. Unless it’s a really juicy post. Then I usually read them all. Ha!

Now, please tell me I am not the only one who does this!