"What Ho" -- Bertie Wooster

Where Did "Blog" Come From?

While sitting over cups of tea, and complaining about the gloomy grey weather, Lydia and I had this conversation.

Me: "I need to blog today."

Lydia: "Where did the word 'blog' come from anyway?"

Me: "I don't know!  It must have something to do with keeping a log, since it has the word in it."

(Silent puzzling followed by looking it up on the oh-so-useful internet.)

So here it is, straight from Wikipedia.  Now I know Wikipedia gets poo-pooed by the academic world, but I have always found it to be an excellent source of information.

          The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger^[9] on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog", was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May 1999.^[10][11][12] Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog", meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.^[13] 

Web log, weblog, we blog, blog, makes perfect sense!  There is an inner need in the human race to record and remember.  Museums all over the world are full of clay tablets and crumbling bits of parchment, the last remaining remnants of people now dead and buried.  One of my favorite rides in EPCOT Disneyworld is Spaceship Earth, the giant "golf ball" shaped thing.  It takes you through the history of communication.  You begin with simple cave paintings, travel through the papyrus fields of Egypt, join medieval monks as they painstakingly copy fancy manuscripts, and journey through the age of the machines where the printing press and telegraph come to life.  You end in the here and now, the "future."  The wireless era.  The blog era.      

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty...

No need to use a pillow when you have a little brother handy.  Bertie and Reggie turned 1-year old on May 9th.  Bingo turned 9-years old on April 1st.  Time is speeding by so quickly!  But time brings amazing things too.  Bingo was not thrilled with the little guys when they first arrived, and now the three of them are best buddies.  Cats are truly the best kind of pet.  In my opinion at least.  ;)

Summer Slimdown

Over the past nine months my level of physical activity plummeted to a very low level.  One of the unfortunate side effects of studenthood.  I spent the majority of my time sitting, sitting in my car, sitting in class, sitting in the library, sitting to eat, and sitting to watch a movie or read in my free time.  All that inactivity combined with holiday eating, regular eating, snacks...what can I say!  I am a foodie!... led to too much of me.  So, I have embarked on a summer slimdown challenge which I have been faithfully sticking to for the past twenty days.  They say it takes twenty-one days to break an old habit or instill a new one.  My scale has not shown a drastic decrease yet, but I have seen a big improvement from regularly exercising.  I am looking slimmer and feeling great!  Just in time for swimsuit season too!!!           

Just Live

This is a post I wrote on April 11^th, but did not have the will to actually hit “publish.” 

Today, I pulled out my old laptop.  My 2007 Vista that is literally starting to fall apart but I can’t quite bear to part with.  The thing was/is a major pain, as my fellow Vista users can understand.  It was my graduating-from-high-school-get-me-through-college laptop.  This May will mark nine years since I graduated from high school; nine years!!!  I have moved on to another more reliable laptop, and have yet to graduate from college.        

            I was in one of my dearest friend’s wedding back in February, and today she sent me a link to the pictures.  They were gorgeous, it was truly one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been to.  But, as I looked over the photos with me in them, I felt a weird sensation of not recognizing myself.  “The fancy, not-typical hairdo and dress probably has a lot to do with it,” I thought and shrugged it off.  But tonight, while perusing through my old laptop and a bunch of old picture from around four years ago, I saw the old me.  The happy me. 

            Six months ago, my mom had a stroke, and life changed.  Mom had the rare type of stroke, a wet stroke.  The 10%.  During those first few days in the hospital I passed multiple signs explaining the acronym FAST – face drooping, arms uneven, speech slurred, and time, call 911 fast.  That information doesn’t help when you don’t show any of those symptoms.  I came to hate those signs. 

Mom’s recovery has been astronomically fast.  She was home from the hospital in two weeks with no bells or whistles aside from a borrowed walker, and even that was discarded after a week.  Everyone who visits is amazed, and it is amazing.  But life is so different.  I’m so different.  I have always felt that if I just work harder, I could fix it.  Whatever the “it” may be.  But, this feels like my life was shoved in a blender and liquefied.  Things in the past have caused my life to crack and even crumble, but I could always reattach the pieces and patch the cracks.  But how do you fix what has been put through a blender?  How do you glue liquid back together? 

You don’t.

I always try to be positive on my blog and in my public life.  My private home life is where the venting happens.  But, there is a fine balance between being positive and being real.  While I don’t plan on airing all my complaints and life’s boring details here, I do think being a bit more real wouldn’t be such a bad thing.  So, being real, some days are hard, some days are frustrating, some days are great, and some days are just okay.  But, the key is to get up every day and just live.  Just live.  Live.