Browsing tag: blogging

Spring has sprung (for those of us in the southern hemisphere)!

Winter gets harder every year, I swear. With the the advent of brighter, longer days, I’ve come to realise just how damp this house is and how much mould there is to clean up. Let’s get on with this warmer homes thing, NZ.

In other listy updates:

• The winner of the RelayRides credit is Michael – I’ve passed your info on to the company to get that $50 credit underway.

• Two Woody Allen films are enough to convince me to never watch another Woody Allen film again. Hateful people, dysfunctional relationships, his irritating, nasal voice.

• I am completely mystified by the American degree system. Bachelor of Science in journalism? Bachelor of Arts in management? Where is the logic? *head explodes*

• I feel like I’ve accomplished absolutely nothing outside of work lately. I haven’t been cooking or baking anything interesting. I haven’t been reading. I haven’t been running. I haven’t been taking pictures. I haven’t even been watching TV – New Girl, Game of Thrones, Glee and Desperate Housewives are all over, and while I enjoyed the pilot of The Newsroom as a not wholly inaccurate glimpse into a real newsroom, it wasn’t enough to convince me to keep paying for SoHo.

• This makes me happy. Go New Zealand – champion of human rights.

• I don’t know if LinkedIn has rolled out its new ‘endorsement’ feature to the rest of the world yet, but I’m a little sceptical about it. My feed is clogged with people endorsing one another for various skills – from web design to copywriting – and while I think it’s a nice way to get some kind of kudos from others that’s not as much effort as writing out a full recommendation, that’s also precisely why I have my doubts as to just how valuable it will be and how seriously people will take it.

• I was briefly at Project Revolution this week and now have the business cards of Alec Ross and Emily Banks. Craziness.

• Lately I’ve been frustrated at the lack of knowledge demonstrated by uni-level students in regard to certain techy basics. Fair enough that terms like data visualisation and micro tasking are beyond, but surely in this day and age familiarity with basic blogging platforms or major sites like Mashable and TechCrunch are de rigeur even if you’re not a tech head? Or am I expecting too much? Times have changed since my day (yes, I did just type that, and a tiny corner of my heart blackened and withered), when we still used Bebo and Twitter was an unknown – but then again, in fairness, I imagine factors like not having a smartphone and barely having enough time to do assignments, work to earn a crust and sneak in enough sleep to function haven’t.

• Just in the nick of time, cover has been arranged for my holiday – so hopefully I won’t have to work at all while I’m away. Then again, technical hitches do have the meddlesome habit of rearing their head when least welcome.

A short and sweet roundup of reads today:

Be wholly, unapologetically you, always. From Amber Rae

You should definitely read this post on life changing advice from First Gen American

Oil and Garlic on why she stopped reading personal finance blogs

Alexis Grant puts paid to 10 common grammar mistakes at Copyblogger

Everyday Minimalist ponders exactly what it means to be an ethical consumer

And 27 and Frugal has the ultimate guide to making perfect chocolate chip cookies.

There are certain types of news stories that always do well. Stories about celebs. Stories about Lotto. Stories about the truly awful things, the rarer the better: explosions, baby deaths, tourists being robbed blind. Stories about ridiculous social/scientific studies. Stories about stupid criminals. And of course, provocative op-eds.

With blogging, it’s usually harder to tell what will take off. Often posts we expect to do well get overlooked. Sometimes posts we bash out in a minute take on a life of their own. By now, I have a feel for what gets read, but I’m never really sure – it’s never a guarantee.

My post on authenticity was one that blew up, and while I suspected it might, I also thought it might make some people uncomfortable (the ones erring on the side of douchetastic, that is. That said, I’m pretty sure my readers are not of that ilk). That post had been boiling for a little while and was finally prompted by a blogger who (very politely) threatened to unfollow me if I didn’t start to follow back on Twitter. Said blogger also extended an offer of assistance with internet marketing services. Mate, if this is an indication of how you do business, I want no part of it now or ever. Well-meaning I’m sure, but a totally different world.

My take on ye evergreen topic of passion and career was apparently suitably provocative (one reader said they cried while reading it, which I take as a compliment). I’m still not entirely satisfied with it, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be adequately able to articulate the full depth and breadth of my feelings on it, but for now, it’s a close enough approximation.

One of my favourite posts of all time is this one: My first love was a practice run. I know a lot of people liked it, but didn’t comment – and this is something I find with some of the blogs I read. I often have little to say in response to a piece of great writing, so usually I resort to simply sharing the post online.

While my thoughts on being a first generation immigrant got some traction, my riffing on class differences or cultural differences (both based off books) weren’t so big. Soul-baring is all very well, but when it comes down to it, I’ve never met anyone who remotely shares my general life experience, though plenty can identify with certain elements of it – being personal is one thing, being relatable is another.

Meanwhile, my rant on overdone personal finance topics went off and garnered lots of inbound links. I bashed that out in a couple of minutes, not unlike this post on being an introvert, which got Stumbled. And one of my top posts remains my Friday Five confessions post, which somehow (lord only knows) brings in a lot of search traffic.

So, it’s been a funny little journey. Four years and along the way, I’ve worked a summer job that I didn’t make the most of, been burgled many times, proposed to twice, graduated, moved many times, got engaged – (and received congratulations from most of you before many of my IRL friends knew – as well as emails from those worried about me during the Christchurch quakes, bless), bought two cars, side hustled, changed jobs, and countless other small threads that make up the fabric of human life.

I promised I’d write about the thrilling things I got up to in Queenstown, but for now you’ll have to content yourselves with my last post- I may be writing those travel pieces for publication first.

In the meantime, enjoy this week’s link love…

Jess Lively eloped to Paris. It was beautiful

The Asian Pear rounds up some most excellent music video parodies. I will add to that this Call Me Maybe spoof, which plays on this week’s hot topic – legitimate rape, etc

On that note, Confessions of a Love Addict bravely opens up about her own experience of rape

A Practical Wedding (good god I love that site) tackles the tricky topic of inequal career success dynamics in a relationship

My Pretty Pennies’ tips for successful dinner party hosting

We 20-somethings may have difficulty retiring at 65, says Krystal

At Make a Living Writing, why you need to be a sellout in order to write what you want to write. This was definitely reinforced for me last week upon chatting to a couple of long-term freelancers – economic reality is that you don’t always get to write about what you love, just as no job is 100 percent perfect

Ever been charged a politeness tax? Via Get Rich Slowly

Lastly, Ask A Manager asks how your parents’ level of professional achievement influences you. I found the comments on this thread fascinating. After all, we largely follow in the steps of our parents. Mine are white collar all the way, and while they are immigrants, are well versed on navigating the working world. Observing people I know from the blue collar or welfare class, it’s clear that they’ll have no easy avenue of help for things like resume writing, interview prep, and even get totally incorrect impressions about the workplace, like the fact that companies care about the rising cost of living, and that that’s a legitimate thing to bring to your boss. And yes, you can seek all that out yourself, but it’s definitely a disadvantage. Also, Limbo is a fascinating book on this topic.

Favourite comment: When I entered the work force, I noticed a few coworkers mention a person was “rough around the edges.” What makes someone “rough around the edges”? I honestly think it has a lot to do with their environment growing up. Growing up in a professional family, I intuitively know how to behave and what is appropriate to say. I think the “rough around the edges” label is something they may have to live with for a long time, and it will hold them back. They might not even be able to overcome it, and it may be their children who do.

For some reason or another, I’ve been seeing quite a few links pop up (mostly on Twitter) to stories on how to pitch to bloggers. These drive me absolutely batshit crazy.

IMO, pitching bloggers is really no different than pitching any other media channel.

The number one rule – and really the only one that matters – is this.

MAKE IT RELEVANT.

It doesn’t matter if you’re reaching out to a TV network, a community paper, a website. Make it personal. If you haven’t done your research and don’t know anything about your target outlet, why on earth would you expect your recipient to give your pitch a second of their precious time?!

Tailor your pitch to the recipient. I don’t blog about Excel worksheets, so to the person who pitched me about a tool for converting Excel files, you are never getting a response from me. Know what they cover, how they cover it, and what their rules are. Does the blogger ever run sponsored posts? Run giveaways? Accept product to review? Read About pages, Media/PR/Sponsorship pages, and for goodness sake at least peruse a few of their recent posts.

Seriously. It’s not rocket science, guys – it’s common sense. And it’s not just a media thing. It’s basic human psychology. This applies to anyone you might ever want anything from. Sure, you can go ahead and ask your mechanic neighbour Dave for a favour. But you can exponentially up the odds of him helping you out – he’s way more likely to say yes if there’s something in it for him. Make it worth his while. Explain clearly what he gets out of it. Make it easy for him to agree. Don’t make it easy to delete or ignore your longwinded, confused request

I recently got a pitch at work that was short (tick!), but the one paragraph was completely incomprehensible. Every other word was an acronym or some other piece of jargon. Now, I know New Zealand is bursting with niche publications, and there may well be one out there in this particular esoteric space, but that is most definitely not us. The only words I understood in those sentences were ‘launch’ and ‘market’ (I think ‘trading’ may also have been thrown in there). I literally did not have any clue what the fuddle they were trying to pitch, nor did I care. I am willing to bet a month’s pay that the PR person didn’t know what she was shilling, either.

Even more annoyingly, said PR person followed up with a call (in which she made no further attempt to explain WHAT she was talking about or what the company actually did), and when I turned her down, sent another email that was more or less identical to the original, “just in case” I might reconsider. Way to waste my time.

Which leads me to a related point. A nice secondary consideration is to make it easy. (However, this is no use if you haven’t achieved the golden rule of relevancy.)

Keep your pitch short and sweet – a few key points in a few lines – and within one email (masses of attachments are a major turn-off). That said, be sure to include everything your intended reader would reasonably expect to know. Expand on the details further down in case the recipient is, in fact, interested enough by your dazzling opening to read on. But remember: Leaving out important info is not intriguing – it’s irritating. Make it as easy as possible for the person on the other end, or they won’t bother.

If it all sounds like too much work, I’ll remind you that this is your job. Like anything else in life, you get out what you put in. If you really want ANYONE to pay attention to your pitch, do the legwork. Otherwise, reset your expectations very, very low.

We’re now into the home stretch of winter, and spring is in sight. The mornings are lighter and the rain offering ever-longer windows between downpours.

Yet the last few days have been bitterly cold, which doesn’t exactly have me looking forward to our wintry road trip down south next month. Give me strength!

Luckily, a pretty sweet opportunity came up for me to visit Queenstown later this week, so I’ll be getting a taste of what’s to come. Expect plenty of photos…

This week’s links

MONEY/WORK

Jess Lively’s pyramid of blogging is most excellent

Budgets Are Sexy wonders why there’s no insurance for bloggers

Nicole and Maggie ask if living frugally should equal settling for a smaller salary

Ask A Manager gives this reader  – who doesn’t want a boss – a reality check

Eight handy tools for professional freelancers, at The Urban Muse

And thanks to My Personal Finance Journey for hosting the latest Carnival of Personal Finance, including my tips on what to do if you’ve been burgled, plus how to be prepared

FOOD

Iowa Girl Eats rounds up four excellent cinnamon roll recipes

Super simple coconut chicken, via Stonesoup

Donut french toast! This from a new-to-me blog, Fuss Free Cooking

LIFE

Leslie gives us the downlow on finding an apartment in NYC (I especially liked the line “Does the apartment come with _____?” “No.” How very Auckland.)

Waiting is one of the hardest things in the world. Sydney explains how to cope

Rachel Hills on why she hates the phrase ‘let’s catch up!’

Nicole is Better talks energy management and the power of unfollowing people

Serendipity gets some perspective

A lovely post on the meaning of partnership, at A Practical Wedding

Bridget on finding pieces of our old selves, and realising that we’re on the right track

About those ancient posts that may have popped up in your Reader last night?

Yeah … sorry about that.

In short: I’m doing a bit of housekeeping around here. Deleting posts. Password protecting posts. Editing posts. And apparently spamming my RSS feed in the process.

Here’s the deal. I do plan on going self-hosted at some point. To do that, I need to:

• a) clean up my early archives, which reflect the embarrassing and immature ramblings of an oh-so-hard-done-by university student

• b) figure out my blog title

In regard to the former, I will finish up the blogkeeping one night this week, and I’ll do it all in one hit to minimise the interruption. I imagine that means once more, you will wake up to dozens of old posts, but please just hit ‘read all’.

In regard to the latter, this is where you come in, if you like. I started my blog on a total whim and picked my username out of the air, which is also used on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and probably a couple other places. I think eemusings.com is available (or so WordPress keeps telling me). But I don’t really want to be eemusings.com. A couple of people have suggested just abstractaucklander.com, which is a a possibility. Or maybe I just need an entirely new name.

Whatever. I’m terrible at this stuff, and painfully indecisive to boot.

So if you have any thoughts on blog names, etc, please let me know. If you can’t comment (and WordPress’ commenting system is definitely one of the reasons I might finally get around to going self-hosted) then feel free to tweet me (@eemusings) or email me (eemusings AT gmail).

Peace out.

Following on from my last-musically inspired post, I’m putting it out there: the Beatles are overrated.

I’m not trying to downplay their impact on pop culture. I’m not saying they were not groundbreaking. I’m not detracting from their talent.

I’m just saying they’re not for me. I like a few songs but overall, the Beatles are not a group that tickles my musical fancy. Yet it has taken me a lifetime to find ONE other person on this earth who shares my view. I find it baffling that the Beatles are so universally dug, to be honest.

To the links!

James Robinson (a Kiwi in the US) offers his take on guns in the land of the free

Mutant Supermodel reminds us that better does not equal easier. Truer words were never spoken

Steve Buttry has a great post on dealing with being fired

Kyla offers some vegetarian-friendly advice on beating the workday energy slump

Quote of the week: “Sometimes I desperately want to sit in the center of Barnes and Nobles and cut the word “sorry” out of every single dictionary in stock. Because it is a word I’ve misunderstood. It is a five letter word that I have used, time & time again, as a strike against me.” From Hannah at As Simple As That.

And my read of the week: a fascinating yet incredibly disturbing Reddit thread (not for the faint) offering insights into the minds of rapists and sexual abusers. One of the saddest is a post from a person whose brother was a child abuser, and now had kids of their own and is afraid to let him be around them.

A while ago, a 40th birthday was celebrated at my company. The birthday belonged to a man. There was hoopla, and a huge birthday card, with plenty of jokes scribbled inside joking about him now being ‘past it’ and so forth.

You would NEVER see the same happen for a woman. Age is never celebrated in the same way, if at all, when you’re female.

Speaking of which, the big news this week was Marissa Mayer becoming CEO of Yahoo, spawning an interesting Penelope Trunk take in defense of stay home parents arguing that this proves women cannot have it all

Elsewhere…

Blog Zombie makes the case for arrogance (within reason)

Shannon’s post on keeping up with the Joneses of Pinterest cracked me up

Caroline compiles a list of resources for beginner photographers

A Yes and Yes true story on going from self-employed to 9-5er

Just back from a holiday? Erika shares some tips for dealing with the come-down blues

Gmail hacks to keep your head from exploding, via Alexis Grant

Finally, thanks to The Ultimate Juggle for hosting the latest Yakezie carnival, featuring my post about QR codes on vending machines

It’s late on Friday night as I write this. I’ve been frantically powering through to catch up on work; good thing I really like what I do, or the resentment factor would be through the roof. I’ve been back from Sydney for two days and I haven’t had a day off since the weekend before last, so quite frankly, I’m drained.

I still have at least one Sydney recap post in me … I’m just not too sure when I’ll get around to it. This weekend will involve catching up on sleep, housework, and most likely a good few hours of mega transcription for a feature I’m writing. The insurance branches aren’t open on the weekends, so that’ll have to wait til Monday. I do have receipts for almost everything (past experience has taught me to keep documentation, serial numbers etc) and photos of most of the others, so insurance should cover it minus the excess (which I think is $750).

Linky time

Here’s a Vietnamese chicken curry from Eats by Anna

At Make a Living Writing, some persuasive reasons to take Google Plus seriously

The Singleton Files offers some insight into management and why karma’s a bitch

Be likeable, on time and do great work. Sense to Dollars analyses how she has, or hasn’t, applied all these principles on the job

On ambition and being what you do – my favourite guest post on Yes and Yes in a while

Financial Samurai finds some empathy for the unemployed

This post is about a month old, but I only saw it this week via Gawker (headlined I’m a Gay Mormon Who’s Been Happily Married for 10 Years) – a fascinating read that’ll get you thinking about your notions of love and sexuality.

It ain’t my country, but I really think this sums up the US healthcare debate.

Poor Girl Eats Well opens up about living with chronic pain

A most excellent list of tips for moving house at Adulting, my favourite being taping the remote control to your TV

How personal finance blogs became a cliche. At My Broken Coin

A rousing post from Nicole Is Better on calling bullshit and doing the impossible

My Alternate Life asks: how do you handle a busy schedule?

And on that note, The Happy Homeowner’s 10 step guide to getting back on track to a happier, healthier you

Happy weekends, all!

Welcome to the ninth edition of the Lifestyle Carnival! Submit to the next edition using this carnival submission form.

I’ve spent the last hour scoping out Sydney sights and eating spots for my trip later this week. The thing about researching new cities is that you really have no idea where anything is in relation to anything else. Sydney central seems to have no shortage of different neighbourhoods, and I’m not sure whether the city is really spread out, or whether each small area just likes to have its own identity.

Sadly, there were no travel posts in this week’s carnival, so we’ll move straight onto my next favourite topic: food!

Good eats

Melissa @ Mom’s Plans: Our Organic Meat CSA – Delivery 2 – “This month, we got another nice selection of meat. (You can see what we got in the first delivery here.) I am really starting to enjoy this CSA; we’ll decide in the next few months whether it is something we will subscribe to for just 6 months at a time or for the whole year.”

Melissa @ Bargaineering: Tips to Organize Your Freezer and Pantry to Avoid Food Waste – “You are not saving any money if your food goes bad or expires before you can eat it. If you have a stocked pantry and/or freezer, here are some ways to organize your stockpile.”

Penny Thots @ Penny Thots: Indoor Gardening – “Gardening can be done anywhere. You can pick up a ‘green’ light at the local hardware store or get it delivered from The Tree Center and set up an area for yourself somewhere in the home. It’s not really conducive to growing traditionally huge plants like cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash, but there are several advantages to growing your own microgreens, mushrooms, and herbs.”

Lifestyle

Jessica @ Budget for Health: Prioritize Your Life – “If I’m not careful, the order of my priorities tend to get reversed when I let urgent things trump important things in life.”

Daisy @ Add Vodka: Informal Learning Through Blogs – “I am a huge advocate for lifelong learning. I think it’s important to continuously develop oneself, learn new things, and gain new skills.”

L Bee @ L Bee and the Money Tree: What my father taught me about customer service. – “I was busy yesterday celebrating father’s day! We met my brother for lunch and then went shopping at the outlet center and I did not get home until 6:30 or so and had to finish up the article due on my first freelance assignment.”

Aloysa @ My Broken Coin: Battling Shopping Addiction: Making Behavioral Changes – “Do you have a Shopping Addiction? Battling Shopping Addiction by making behavioral changes.”

Peter @ Bible Money Matters: Ten Short Years of Marriage: Things I’ve Learned, Why I’m Thankful for My Wife on Our Tenth Anniversary – “Now fast forward ten short years, and here we are celebrating our 10th anniversary! How did the years go so fast? Today I decided to share some things that I’ve learned in those 10 years, and talk about some things I’m thankful for about my wonderful wife Maria.”

Miss T. @ Prairie Eco Thrifter: Managing the Third Shift: Are You Making Time for Yourself? – “For most women, managing the third shift—time for them when they can truly unwind in a guilt-free manner—is the toughest role of all. The caveat? Successful management of the third shift can mean the difference between feeling like you’re constantly spinning your wheels and feeling like you’re living your life in balance.”

Mariah G. Carrillo: Living In Delight – “A post about being yourself and making life beautiful.”

Wealth and Retirement

Crystal @ Budgeting in the Fun Stuff: Mr. BFS Grabbed a New Hobby Job – “The decrease in business has left us with some unexpected free time. Mr. BFS and I started looking into ways of monetizing that time.”

MR @ Money Reasons: Victory With REITs? – “This is the victory that I’ve been having with REITs over these past 3 or 4 years. It’s been an exciting time!”

PITR @ Passive Income To Retire: Funding New Business Ideas – “Find out how I plan to fund new business ideas and why a small cash flow gives me the advantage.”

Jester @ The Ultimate Juggle: Ways to Start a Business – “Find out some of the many ways you can create your own business that don’t require taking out loans.”

Grand Per Month @ Grand Per Month: Knowing When to Walk Away from a Business – “We all have different reasons for wanting to make an extra grand a month. Whether you want to make more money to pay for your kids’ college or to save for your own retirement or to pay off debt, it is important to recognize that your first idea for making a grand per month may not work out, and that is okay. Recognizing when to walk away from a business venture is important.”

Roger the Amateur Financier: Book Review – The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Making Money in Freelancing – “A review of a book that seeks to give you insight into how you can make it as a freelancer. It shares advice on everything from settling up your business to promoting it as far as possible.”

Vanessa @ Vanessa’s Money: So You Want to Start Investing: Mutual Funds – “A simple, albeit long, explanation of how mutual funds work and how to pick the one that’s right for you!”

I’m a huge fan of personal finance blogs, but it’d be great to see fewer financial posts and more lifestyle posts next time around! Let’s get cracking.