More unschoolers

The unschooling community is growing and growing, and this is being reflected in the blogosphere. Accordingly, I've added some links to my lists of unschooler blogs in the sidebar.

If you're using my Updated Unschooler Blogs list to find recent posts, you might have to check it a little bit more frequently, or click the Show All at the bottom to make sure you haven't missed anybody.

If you're a blogging unschooler (or an unschooling blogger) and your blog is not listed, please let me know! I am not deliberately excluding anybody. I want your blog on the list!

My new website

Thanks to some inspiration from Randi, I have created a new Web site on Google Sites.

Dragonfly Kaizen

The future direction of this site is still to be determined. But right now you can find there a hotlinked table of contents for my unschooling writings on this blog. It was pretty fun making that; I had no idea I had so much stuff!

I'm a labeler

Way down in the sidebar is a section called "Labels" which I have just updated to better reflect the labels I have used on my blog posts over the years. Labels also appear at the bottom of most of my blog posts (for example, the blognews label at the bottom of this post). Click a label to see a collection of related writings.

A note to any current or former indexers reading this: Feel free to let me know if you find a post that is missing a likely label. Thanks!

In four years' time

It's my blogoversary! Four happy years in the blogosphere.

The post that started it all:
Shaping up the ship
(posts dated earlier than that are just in storage)

Posts that were especially fun to create:
What unschooling looked like today (2/14/07) - The first in a series. I was inspired, and it was a very fun day.
My thirteen favorite movies - Big project, loved every minute of it, was really pleased with my descriptions.
Thirteen memorable movie smiles - The concept captured me. I wanted it to be a Thursday 27.
Some of our favorite Firefly quotes - Group project, fun with my girls.
My Non-Con North writeup - I was riding a non-con high and loved sorting through the photos, wallowing in the memories.

Posts that were dragged out of me (aka "growth posts"):
On free time and frivolity
Control
My thirteen best and worst memories of childhood

Posts that have been selected for publication elsewhere, with my permission:
Unschooling Meme
Profiling
Unschooling FAQ
About intelligences and learning styles
Accepted (in part)

And two that were incorporated into (longer) conference talks:
On enjoying teenagers
Unschooling in difficult times

Post with the most comments:
Thirteen wonderful memories of LIFE is Good 2008

Post with the best (okay, only) celebrity comment:
Thirteen of my favorite romance novels

Post I wish I'd never written:
(no longer available)

And finally, the post I wish the whole world could see:
Acceptance
(for my friend's poem more than my words)

New blog list

With all the new blogs on my reading list, I have been having trouble getting to everybody, so I've added a new blog list to the sidebar. It shows only the most recently updated unschooler blogs. But everybody please note that Linda's blog, being on a rival blog-hosting site, won't show up there; you have to visit it manually to see what wonderful thing she's written lately. (I *highly* recommend doing this.)

I've also added Jeff's, Crystal's, Deanne's, Hay's, Sylvia's, and the Lynch family blogs to both lists. Who else am I missing?

The hits just keep on coming

I've added a bunch of new links to my Unschooler Blogs list in the sidebar. Some of those have been on my to-do list for I-don't-want-to-think-about-how-long.

Is your blog missing? It's probably because I've never found your blog, probably through no fault of your own. Leave me a comment and I'll put you on my new to-do list. :-)

False alarm

If you use a Computer Associates anti-virus program and have been getting virus warnings after visiting my blog, never fear. Some YouTube videos, including the Spearhead one I had featured, have been triggering false positives. They are not actually infected.

I'll put the video back up in a couple of days after CA fixes the problem. It's just too scary seeing those warnings come up. :-)

Rating the blog

I tried the little blog-rating tool Mary featured on her blog. It gave me a PG rating for repeated use of the word "zombie" and one use of the word "torture."

Somehow it missed the post where I featured "fuck" and several posts where I used "shit" and a whole bunch of posts where I used "hell."

It'll be interesting to see what it thinks of my blog now. :-)

Update one minute later: Yep, that did the trick. I'm rated "R" now.

ALABBD

I hereby declare the second Friday of every month:


I'm tired of being a good little soldier. I'm tired of focusing on joy. I'm tired of being fair. I just want to be pouty and unreasonable.

And I don't think it's unreasonable to have one day a month for doing that!

So there.

Want to join in? Feel free to steal the above primitive image to use as a button on your sidebar. If you really want to get into it, link the image to this post, and leave me a comment so I know who's in the club.

Update 2/13: ALABBD is evolving. See here.

Lemme have it

Okay, I went a whole month without approval, and it's best to start slow with these things, so I've opened up the photo blog to comments. Right now, only today's photos have comment links, but I'll gradually add them to the older ones, too.

Blogoversary

I've been blogging three years today.

A year or two prior to starting this blog, I took a survey at work that included questions about blogs. One of these was along the lines of, "Do you find blogs useful or entertaining?" Since at the time I barely knew what a blog was, my answer was a rather confident "No," with my interior monologue running along the lines of, "Newfangled contraptions, who needs 'em?!"

By now, my answer to the latter question is ME!! I need them! My own blog provides me with an outlet, a hobby, a forum, and sometimes a little therapy. The blogs of my friends and family members provide me with community, information, and entertainment, in quantities and of quality that I couldn't have imagined way back when.

Thanks for reading! I'd probably still blog if you weren't here, but it's ever so much more fun that you are.

Here's to the next three years!

Visions

I've started a photo blog as a companion for this blog. Enjoy!

Visions of the Zombie Princess

The problem with sidebars

To be really interesting, sidebars have to be maintained, shuffled around, updated, and so on. I've been neglecting mine lately. However, after LIFE is Good, I did update the Unschooler Blogs section with some new links. I also removed one link and it's been bugging me that (due to the nature of sidebar link lists) I offered no explanation for that.

One of my favorite unschooling voices belongs to Anne Ohman. She has mentored me through my unschooling journey, offering some key pieces of advice at critical moments. I love her and admire her tremendously. So, of course, I had a link to her blog, which I left even when she decided to stop blogging, because, hey, old Anne posts are better than no Anne posts.

Recently, though, Anne made her blog private, which means that some people clicking the link would face disappointment. Can't have that.

But my admiration for Anne continues unabated.

NaBloPoMo "I"

I is for "If you give a girl a blog..."




Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is blog post number 500. Now there's a nice round number. Here are some other blog statistics:

My first post was on July 21, 2005.
I've been blogging for 1,025 days.
That's .488 blog posts per day.

I think this month might be pushing my average up. :-)

Curious about 500? Look here.

In an lovely little coincidence, MJ hit 100 posts today. Go see!

Movies of course

Inspired by my inspired TT for next week (yes, it's written already), I have corrected a foolish oversight and added a new label to the blog: movies. It already has quite a few posts attached to it. Next week's TT will be one more.

Awww

Zenmomma has given me this wonderful little kudo. Provide the woman with a heated toilet seat for a few days and she'll give you anything! Thanks, Mary! :-)

I definitely want to pass this award right back to her, because there's no blog I check more frequently than hers. I'm also passing it on to:

• SAM, whose blog posts are full of beauty and wit, and whose friendship has been making my days for many years now.


• Kelli, who, judging by her attitudes toward life and family and fun, must be my secret twin. (Mom, is there something you haven't told me?)


• MJ, who continually proves with her blog that just because you live with somebody doesn't mean you *really* know how wonderful they are.


• Arun, whose blog captures not only the joys of unschooling but the journey to get there.


• And Frank, for never being afraid to say the outrageous thing (see E), and for the Latin, of course, but mostly for his status as the hero in my life.

The rules:
1. Write a post with links to five blogs that make your day.
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver.
3. Display the “You Make My Day Award” logo.
4. Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs or emailing them the news.

Our blue period

Well, I took a deep breath and did it. The blog has a new template. It was scary! But maybe all this blue will soothe me. And now the blog has those handy Older and Newer links at the bottom.

Bear with me while I get the formatting kinks and color scheme worked out.

Awards and rewards

I've received a couple of blog honors in the last month that I've been too busy to "pick up." But they're picked now (see sidebar).

Thanks to Kelli for the Excellent Blog award, and thanks to Penelope Anne for adding me to the Magnificent Mamas blog roll.

It feels a little odd to receive recognition for something I do for myself. Blogging for me is pure indulgence, with a dash of therapy thrown in. But I'll take it! ;-)

And to think I once said on a survey that I couldn't see how blogging would add anything to my life. Ha!

P.S. With the Excellent award, I'm supposed to pass it on to the bloggers I read. I think all of them have already received this one, though. If you want to read some truly excellent blogs, check out the Unschooler Blogs in the list at right.

400 and counting

I passed the 400-blog-posts mark the other day. Woohoo!

BWO

Have you all noticed the little "Blogging Without Obligation" logo way down at the bottom of the sidebar at right? This is a wonderful little philosophical statement distributed by Down the Tartx Rabbit Hole. It has made all the difference in the world to my blogging.

From that site, here are my favorite reasons for writing about only what I feel like writing about, only when I feel like writing.

Because I shouldn't have to look at my blog like it's a treadmill

Because it's okay to just say what I have to say

Because sometimes less is more
(although "less" can rarely be used to describe my pontifications)

Because I will naturally keep my blog around longer if it isn't a chore
Blogging without obligation means I do a bit less family reporting and a bit more self-entertainment. It means my posts are more about me than my readers. And it means you will probably never see the words "blog neglect" on my blog again, because, well, there is no such thing! Blogging is now a Free Enterprise.