another 7 quick takes

Check out the collection of other 7 Quick Takes Friday posts, hosted at Jennifer Fulwiler’s blog, Conversion Diary

–1–

So many things have happened this past week that I had to sit down and just breathe deeply and go, “Wow, Momma Mary, you’ve been busy untying some knots. Thank you.” Some of it is deeply personal, and much of it is just about good things coming together for the family…and while I’m not going to go into details, mostly because they aren’t my stories to tell, I can say that my visit to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament today is going to be a lovely chat full of gratitude. Amen.

–2–

I’m getting excited about the CNMC this year in Dallas/Fort Worth! Are you going? Are you a blogger and want to present? Check this out!

–3–

I am doing a total consecration to Jesus through Mary on the Feast of the Annunciation. Would y’all pray for me? And I will pray for you, though I do that already 🙂

–4–

I’m toying with the idea of joining Pinterest. If I hide that revelation in here, maybe no one will notice I said it.

–5–

The pollen is not my friend. Usually, it affects my eyes and and sinuses, but this year it has messed big time with my lungs and my ears. I feel like a giant vice is crushing my chest when I go outside, and inexplicably, my ears itch — bad enough for me to want to stick a skewer in them. Yeah. How’s that for an image?

–6–

Do you keep a journal? I’ve kept one on and off throughout my life, starting, I think, in the fourth grade. That was a little locked diary…today it’s whatever I happen to like when I need one. Sometimes it means using a discarded composition notebook, and other times it’s pretty journals given as gifts. When I buy one, it’s usually this style on the top, with a rubber band so I can keep prayer cards and mementos stuffed in it. I don’t fill it with Mentos, though.

–7–

I joined the Son Rise Morning Show brackets for March madness. The only bracket that looks like it ought to look. I won’t show you the mess I made of everything else, but I didn’t delete my failed Missouri pick ;-P

Micro-blogging, social networks, and slackers

Here’s a question for you folks who micro-blog on the likes of Twitter and Plurk, etc., and also have your own blogs. I’m not asking the chicken and egg question–I don’t care if the micro-blogging came first. I am curious to know if the manner in which you approach blogging has changed since you started using the other utilities. Bonnie Gillespie posted a pretty comprehensive observation about her experience that got me thinking. I’ll be delivering a workshop on blogging, micro-blogging, and social utilities in a couple of weeks, and so I am actually posing this as a serious work-related question.

It has not escaped me that work and play are overlapping. I’m curious about how that affects you as well.

I’ve noticed that my own blog, from the original one to this revamped one, has undergone several style changes. At first, it was totally reflective and observational, but I’ve noticed a shift in self-awareness as I have gained (and lost) readers and the content that I now post. There’s no question that I’ve seen some changes.

How have you been affected in your writing?

“Why I Moved” by Bego

Wency, of Slaho fame, asked me the following question:

Hey Bego, any reason why you decided to move? Just curious, you know?

Ok, Wency, here’s my answer: Because.

There’s more, of course, but the overwhelming reason is because I wanted to do it. When I started blogging a few years ago, I had already been reading several forums and blogs and had seen a lot of nice clean blogs and an equal share of really messy, really confusing blogs that had so many widgets and stuff that it was distracting. And then when I starting reading those blogs from Bloglines, the reader took out all that stuff and gave me the kind of clean lines I appreciated. Anyway, from a purely aesthetic and streamlined point of view, I liked the stuff that let me find the content easier.

When I finally decided to take the plunge and start my own blog, I knew my audience was family and friends–I just wanted a place to post my random thoughts and observations, and also keep my parents and siblings caught up on stuff in my life. It became a forum for posting the silly pictures of stuff going on in my life, and I wanted to keep it as simple as possible, mostly so that my parents could use it without having to register for things like MySpace or Facebook.

I tried out a few blogs, such as Xanga and LiveJournal, but they were loaded with all the stuff that I wanted to avoid. Blogger seemed to have the easiest format, not only for the reader, but for me, too. I settled on the design that I liked the most out of what was available at the time, almost on a whim. I liked it well enough and it served my needs.

I was doing some other stuff on blogs at the time. Like you, I was posting at Ink ‘n Doodles, and in fact, the Friday Ruminations eventually turned into my blog–something that agitated Rob a little (sorry dude, but all this is your fault to begin with!) because I pretty much disappeared from posting over there. But hey, it gave me the courage to take the dive. For too long I wrote and jammed it under my bed instead of sharing it. I was also writing on a group blog at Rosary Army, where I eventually started posting on Mondays under the title of Monday Musings. That has grown into a regular feature at Rosary Army, along with some other really good bloggers like Mickey Addison, Fr. Bill Kessler, Greg Willits, and lately, a podcast called Catholic Magazine that features Mickey, me, and Fr. Jay Finelli, the iPadre (check out his podcast, too!). I also help write for That Catholic Show, which, if I say so myself, is a great fun way to look at Catholicism in 5-mute bursts of catechesis.

So, it turns out that I’m not just writing on my blog, but I’m scattered in a bunch of different places, and while the readership of this blog is still family and close friends, I’ve also added some very cool and interesting people who drop in every once in a while, either out of curiosity or because I’ve linked to here for something that I think they would like.

In writing for those other endeavors, I’ve been exposed to different bloghosts, and found that WordPress has a cleaner design–exactly what I was looking for! The bottom line is this: if I had known then what I know now, I would have built my blog like this three years ago. But I didn’t.

It’s kind of like buying a house. Unless you are one of those freaky people who knows exactly what to get, and has the foresight and money to get it on the first go round, you end up buying the house you can, and learn from that experience so you can get a bigger and better house the next time.

That’s it. I moved because I wanted to and I could. And I was tired of green.

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