Have you heard of Operation Beautiful?  It’s random acts of kindness based where you leave a note for any stranger just saying something positive. Especially geared to making women feel good about themselves. You can join the Facebook group, or better yet write out some notes and leave them to be found around wherever you will be today.

Fancy Nancy Paper Chain Dolls has a pattern with a ruffled skirt.

Kiddley is making paper doll chains and decorating them.

Mumsgather has ballerina and boy paper chain dolls.

Stampington & Company has a chain doll pattern with braids.

Sketch & Jones has a really nice design that would be hard to cut out.

The Origami Resource Center has patterns for making a variety of paper dolls including one in a circle.

Sue has very fancy chain paper dolls photographed on Flickr.

Kraken Crafts made a paper gnome chain.

Mad Gardener has a curly haired paper doll chain.

Creative Muse has a chain with winged dolls.

In making my own this afternoon I found it crucial to have the hands a bit larger than you would choose so that the connection between each doll is strong enough to survive the unfolding. If you make any yourself please post pictures and add the link in comments here. My own pattern turned out kind of nice. :)

It’s not an easy thing to claim to be a writer. Brady, in his blog Hunting the Muse, did a great job of writing about this feeling. The ever inadequate feeling of being someone who writes versus a writer.

When I was still a kid, a young teenaged human versus a young goat (just in case the thought occured to you), my Uncle told me no one under the age of 40 could be a real writer. Anyone under 40 hasn’t experienced enough life to write about it. This really discouraged me for years. I think it still does even though I will be 45 this December. I understand his feelings yet he really was so very wrong. Life happens from the time you are in the womb until the time you leave the planet. No point in the path should be glossed over as not important or worth writing about.

Anyway, I still find it hard to believe in myself as a writer. I love to write. I love the words. I love hearing the sound of myself writing. At times I even talk out loud when I read my words back to myself. I like the audience of one however. I can laugh at my own words, find the humour in them cause I know it will be there right where I left it. Someone else might laugh at the wrong parts.

Writing was easier when I was doing more of it. That much I have learned from my experience. If you learn anything today, learn that from me. When you are in the world of writing (even if it’s not for greater publications) you are involved, you are active and your brain is in gear. You feel the words in your mind and they flow much faster and simpler. There is more confidence in your ability when you are using it.

Anyway, if I could arrange my life the way I would like it (like playing a simulation game on the computer) I would be writing a weekly column for newspapers, syndicated all over the places. I like writing short pieces. I can find a beginning, a middle and an end for them. Longer work has too much middle. I get lost in there and don’t know if I really can write my way to the end of it all. I’m going to try though. I’ve come up with a plan and they say that is how it starts.

Do you feel you are a writer? Do you feel sure about yourself if you tell someone else you are a writer? If not, what would it take for you to feel you are a writer? What kind of success do you need? How can you get there? Maybe you can try something today, take some steps to walk into that bigger picture.

This blog, through Lockergnome, is one I began awhile ago and then lost to the mothballs for awhile. I’ve been thinking that I should get back to writing for an online network again. I used to write for BackWash but that is gone now. I wrote for Suite101 but the rules seem to change so often there and I’m just not that organized to keep track. Long before that I wrote for HerPlanet.com and BellaOnline and WZard.com too. (If you know HerPlanet and Dottie or any of the other women who were in that network leave me a note - I’d really like to hear from you!).

Anyway, here I am back at Lockergnome. I will stick to a weekly or bi-weekly update. Not sure which at this moment. I update Word Grrls daily and it can be a gruelling schedule to stick to. So this will be a bit lighter while I decide where I’m going with it. Not that I have no plan at all. I wouldn’t have started typing this if I didn’t have some ideas and some goals.

Stay tuned for more!

A blog post looking for advice or answers is a great time to get noticed. If you know of a resource, have an opinion, or experience that would help leave that in comments. Give a link to the resource if it is online, even if it is your own site. However, if it is your own site make that clear. That way the blog owner and readers will know you aren’t just spamming your URL, it’s posted for a valid reason.

On the other side of giving information, ask a question yourself. What would you like to know more about? What detail or information might have been left out of the post? Think of a real question, not fluff just to leave a comment.

Be supportive and uplifting and sincere. Everyone is glad to have a comment that spreads good cheer and brightens their day. You can’t smile at others through your comment but you can send a smile in text. If you can’t be uplifting don’t be a wet blanket and do not be obnoxious. That should not even need to be said.

Write with personality, passion and humour. Don’t leave a bland comment that could have been written by half a million other bloggers. Come up with something uniquely you. Maybe a different turn of phrase. How about a funny anecdote. Maybe part of a quote relevant to the post if you really just don’t have a personality of your own. (But I know you do!)

Don’t post a comment at all if you really have nothing to say or if you are posting just to create controversy. A flame war may get you traffic and it will get you noticed but is that really how you want to be known? Besides, that kind of attention is short lived. No one really wants to watch a flame war except the two people in the middle who can’t seem to let go.

Last of all, proofread your comments before you click to post them. Spelling errors are one thing but typos just look clutzy. You can try to avoid them or just not bother and give the impression that you don’t care. Also, don’t leave a comment that is a solid block of text. It is easier to read a long comment if it is broken up into individual throughts/ ideas.

Happy commenting. Let me know if you have other great commenting ideas.

Meanwhile consider using CoComment. Your comments from other blogs are posted to your own blog in a widget. Nice way to show that you actually do make comments and give links to the blogs you read. Although it is too late for the 31 Day Comment Challenge which utilizes CoComment too.

You can join up IComLeavWe for July, join before the 21st.

Claire and I began Doodle Week this year. I think I came up with the plan but I know it would not have gotten as far as it did without Claire. She doodles too.

I draw my stick figure grrls in pen and ink. I use a small photo scanner to turn them digital. Then I use software to turn them the right way around, resize them and erase smudges and little lines I regret. Claire uses software to create her doodles. Her doodles are very different from mine in appearance. You can also draw your doodle or use some other art skills such as collage and take a digital photo of your creation. I’ve learned to make sure I don’t get my own shadow or any other in the way when I take the digital photo. Also, if you scan your drawing, place a sheet of unblemished white paper behind it. Makes it come out sharper.

Claire and I have different styles for creating our digital images but the really odd thing is how we both have some kind of queen/ diva of the world feeling. I think drawing something for your blog does that. When are you taking more of a risk than drawing something for your blog, to publish out there in the big, wide, digital world? Typing a journal entry is not the same. Your letters are perfectly formed and spaced. It’s only when your hand is unsupported by your keyboard that you realize just how imperfect and down right skillful you really are. Let’s just say each one is very original.

There are some resources and groups for bloggers who want to get into this more creative aspect with their own blogs. I wrote a post to the EntreCard blog about this and will carry over the links from that post. (I’m lazy that way).

Journal Junk

Drawing Journal

Visual Journals

Drawing Diary

Hand Drawn Type

Handwritten Blogs

Doodlegang

Join us for Doodle Week, July 14th - 20th.

Some of the sites offering freebies are also making a buck by using your blog to spam another site. Watch for it. You can remove that part of the code or just choose not to use the script, find something else.

Why does it matter? Well, not a big deal, but do you really want someone else using your blog to make money for themselves? Whether your blog is completely spam/ ad free or not, do you want people getting away with piggy backing on your work?

Wink is a way to keep all your social communities in one list. You can also find others through Wink. Mainly I like it cause I don’t have to remember what I have joined and where I stuck the link. It is all right on the front page of my blog. I can go from there to MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, Yahoo, and so on. Take a look.

Feedjit is a tracker. I don’t have a huge interest in what browser people are using. It’s interesting to see how they came to my site. But, the real reason I like Feedjit is cause I can see where they came from, which country. Most people are fellow Canadians and Americans. But, I enjoy seeing the odd international flag just as much as seeing what area of North America people are from. It’s great to see how far flung my blog is reaching out.

So, now that I’ve bored you… lets talk about avatars. I found two sites which have really cute avatars. It’s a girl thing. Not many guys seem to create them. Though I don’t know why. Maybe there just aren’t enough guy type avatar things around. Anyway, try them out for yourself: Bless this Chick.com and Tiz Me.net.

Avatars are not meant to be a recreation of yourself. Few of them aren’t Barbie clones. Yet it doesn’t matter. Think of it as the you you could be if… Or, think of it as just something fun you can stick on your blog. On science fiction shows an avatar isn’t meant to look like whoever it represents, it’s just a representation. When you create an avatar how seriously do you stick to who you really are? Why? Get rid of compulsions to be honest and just play with it. Give it green hair and fangs. Give it geeky hair and glasses. Go play with your avatar. It’s not being judged, just admired.

It’s dragging along. I look at the popular job search sites. I look at local sites with job listings. Sometimes I read them and just disqualify myself. Some I read and just think they sound so pompous asking for university education to man a call centre phone. Then there are those which I think I’d be great for. I send off my resume, tailored to fit. I write a nice cover letter and wait… still waiting, yet not really rushing to check email each morning any more.

It’s enough to make you dislike those people with their charmed lives. Those charmed people who get raises just cause they asked for one. Those people who have their dream jobs each time they get hired, and they always get hired after just a few interviews. It almost makes you want to give up, if you really had a choice about the whole employment thing. But, someone has to ask if you want fries with that… might as well be me.

[tags]job search, job hunt, employment[/tags]

No wonder there are people making a living as organizers. We have so much stuff. Stuff is just the right anonymous word for it all too. I have thrown out and donated and recycled a lot yet it still surrounds me like a nagging flock of seagulls in some Alfred Hitchcock movie. I hope it will all be done, well no, that’s not realistic. I hope we can live in this new house in this new town soon. I’d like to at least walk through the house and not feel I’m in a maze, bumping into untamed furniture.

I will try to get back posting here for the end of this month. Everything is out of whack and really behind now. I was sad to see that my personal blog went from the A List to the B List. I’m not so famous as I thought I was in my own mind.

[tags]moving, organization, organizing[/tags]

I found out something new when I phoned my ISP to complain about an $11 charge added to my bill for broadband use. I don’t download music. I avoid huge video files like YouTube. I do upload photos to Flickr and my blogs. I do window shop for open source and freeware programs. Until the last three months I was not paying extra for the broadband I used. That changed.

I am not uploading more photos than before. I’m not downloading more programs. What has changed are the flood of videos in blogs and most of all, the flood of ads using heavier files which take a long time to load even with my new PC and DSL connection. I am paying to see these files. I don’t want to see them and I very much don’t want to pay for them.

Why is it that each time we make the Internet faster we also make it slower? I wouldn’t say my connection running on DSL is really a lot faster than my old dial up connection ten years ago. In theory it should be much faster, light speed in comparison. It doesn’t seem to be that way. First, it was those HTML emails that slowed it down. Then the pop up ads which had to stop everything while they forced a new window open. Flash ads which often opened a new window and crashed your PC cause they couldn’t suck up bandwidth fast enough. Now, sites are running video ads which make you wait for them to load whether you like it or not. They slow your computer right down so you can’t even get it to move to another site or another page until the video has loaded.

Next month my broadband overflow is higher than $11, I asked when I changed my account. If I pay an extra $5 a month I have more broadband for the ads that want to suck it up. I’m still being screwed over. But, maybe it will cost me just a bit less each month. Thanks, yeah… thanks a lot!
[tags]spam, ads, ISP, cost, pay per view, video, YouTube[/tags]

I am thinking of tossing Windows Vista for my old Windows ME. For one thing it did not nag at me constantly. Vista is like having a dog humping your leg, no matter how many times you swat at it the damned thing just keeps coming back. I don’t know why they did this. How does this seem useful to the PC user? It’s just hugely annoying. Took me years to stop getting annoyed each time old Windows asked me if I really wanted to delete that file. Now the new one is paranoid and asks me if I even want to open that file. Too much!

Question of the week… Why is Windows Vista a LOT slower than Windows ME was when ME was running on a much older PC and Vista is on a brand new PC just out of the store one week? It’s a mystery. It’s the main reason I am thinking ME could be making a comeback for me.

[tags]Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, install, OS, open source, newbie[/tags]

A blog should not expect reader feedback or rely on it. People read, lurk and leave. That’s how it goes. If you want interaction with your readers/ sales prospects look at message boards. You only need to make a short post, maybe just a quick question, then let the readers post their opinions, ideas and questions. It is interactive and relies less on your own input than on the people you want to inform about your skills, services and/ or products. It is a good idea to make sure you have recent posts so be prepared to make at least one each week, more when your message board is just starting up. Have family and friends help out until your readership has grown enough to support the board with real traffic. Always go in to moderate your boards for spam, discussions that get out of hand or someone who has asked a question about your business. Message boards are a great way to inform the public. Instead of a blog which cycles posts a board has all it’s content sorted and displayed on the front page. Readers hit the section they want and follow the thread, like a train of thought. It is a great format for site owners who don’t really want to spend time learning how to write and publish.

Another option is the email list. A blog is static, it does not move from where you put it on the web. An email list goes right to the people who subscribe. They will see it in their inbox and read it at their convenience. You don’t rely on bringing them to your site. Though, have a site with more information for them to come to once the email has drawn them in. Post a list montly, weekly or some other time period that suits you. It does not have to be stuffed with articles. There is a lot you can do, depending on what you are selling. Use it just to notify them about a contest you are running, a sale, something new that has just come in. Or give them tips and advice and keep all them all in an archive on your site which they can refer to. Add a link to your site and the archive at the end of each email. It is important to have unsubscribe instructions too, make them clear and visible.

[tags]ezine, email, publish, write, promote, market, business, sales[/tags]

You will get a bloated email full of spammy goodness but that won’t be a problem since mostly everyone has gone out for HTML email. Only a few have kept it to text only. (Mainly because I am still opposed to bloated HTML emails that make me sit and wait for them to spam me). I think some of the blogs coming to your email will have scripts to make them scroll once they are opened. That way they have more chance of snagging your attention before you delete them. Surely they can sell you on something before you hit delete.

I’m writing this cause I would love to see the spammers find some other tool and leave blogs alone. Email spam used to be the biggest problem (and maybe still is for some people) I find splogs to be the worst thing online. They steal content, pollute the blogosphere and they are leaking into what would otherwise be personal blogs worth reading. Get paid to post sites are popping up all over and they are getting clever about their scams too. One offers to pay $20 and up for you to review a commercial website in your blog. Very clever that one. But, do you see that money? Does it just roll right in? I doubt it. All it really does is lose your reader’s attention and bring your blog down to their level of splogginess. Think before you pollute.

PS- I think of any blog with more focus and space given to selling something than original written, drawn or otherwise creative content as spamming. If I didn’t come to your blog to be sold condoms, pills, software, etc then I don’t want to have them stuck in front of my face. If I want ads I can turn on the TV or pick up a magazine. Blogs need a shot of zine spirit when they really were free press and indie publishing. I resent a commercially focused blogger who tries to sneak and trick their way into the free spirited writing atmosphere which blogs used to be.
[tags]spam, splog, junk, mail, email, monetize[/tags]

I just received part of my income tax return and I am going to spend it on a new PC. My current PC is an IBM NetVista, about fix (five or six, at this point it doesn’t matter it’s just OLD) years old. I have my beady little eye on the HP Pavilion I’ve been drooling over at a few computer shops. But, I am limited to spending about $700 including taxes and that’s Canadian bucks. I actually think I can do it. I’ve been looking at the flyers and there is hope.

But, it has been awhile since I’ve been computer shopping. I used to think the most essential thing was to get double whatever they offered in RAM. Now I think I also want to get the dual core processor puppy. It sounds good. Does anyone have advice?

I know I want to go with a PC, Macs are more expensive (must be that ad campaign costing them a bundle and I’m not helping them pay for their PC bashing). I would like to partition the hard drive and add Ubuntu as my main OS and yet keep Windows for other programs I have gotten used to having around. So whatever PC I buy will have to be adaptable to my mad science experiments. Also, a yearly reformatting of the hard drive, much like the geese flying south, it’s just something I have to do.

[tags]computer shopping, PC buying[/tags]

The thing about friends was what started me writing this blabber today. Everyone on that network seems to assume that any contact at all is worthy of instant friendship. That bugs me. I am choosy about who I bookmark and who I mark as a site I like. I don’t like feeling I have to add every blogger who clicks my blog. It is expected there. People post to your profile and say something nice and request to be made a friend. They don’t even know my name. In a few cases I noticed that they had not even bothered to actually go to my site. They didn’t care, they just wanted to pimp their splogs. It’s aggravating and that’s why I joined BlogCatalog and BlogWoods, cause I hoped they would be different.

The other annoying thing which is the same for all three of those sites is clickage. If you see someone has visited your blog and want to return the visit it takes a minimum of four clicks to actually get to their blog. It’s not that my finger is wearing out, just that I don’t see the need for it. I guess it gives extra hits to their Adsense meters. But, it just gives me that waiting for an elevator or a bus feeling, you know what I mean. It’s great to have the journey but some journeys just make you wish Scotty could beam you up already and get on with it.

Anyway, as a social thing I like these networks. However, MyBlogLog is too much of a splogfest. I’m more interested in BlogWoods and BlogCatalog now. Though they are clones at least Yahoo didn’t buy them so they have hope of not being clogged by junk, at least not right away. It all depends on the people who use it really. So, sploggers, stick with the Yahoo bunch and leave us the little networks to be social and friendly, in a real, sincere way, not because we feel we have to.
[tags]friend, friendship, social networks, communities, community[/tags]

The first thing I like about it is setting it to open a new window when I want to search Google for something. It really bugs me if I have to backtrack or remember to open a window first each time. I like to keep the site I was on. I want to look at all the links before I lose that window. Groowe, just as the Google toolbar before it, does that very well.

The second thing I like about Groowe is the reason I am no longer using the Google toolbar. Groowe works with my older operating system which runs my older computer. I know it’s illegal to run a PC which hasn’t been taken over by Windows XP at the very least but… some of us are just rebels at heart. We keep the old PC and it’s working friends until we can splurge on a new one. Even if it takes years. So, when Google’s toolbar outdated itself right out of my system I went looking for something else. I found it with Groowe. I also like Groowe cause it lets me add searches other than Google. It’s like seeing old friends I had forgotten about for awhile. I do remember looking at Altavista, Excite and Yahoo long before Google was a word.

[tags]Firefox, add ons, browser, tools[/tags]

Cleaning your computer is more than just dusting it off, weeding out garbage files and backing up your data. It’s detangling all those wires, cables and plugs and getting rid of old discs too. Check an electronics store if you want to spend some money on a cable reel. Or, just pull your desk out from the wall an extra inch and organize them behind it. Bundle up long cords rather than leaving them hanging and crawling over the floor. If you have hardware like a printer, scanner or anything else bulky get a small, sturdy table to set it on nearby. Keep your desk top as clear as you can. That includes coffee cups, hairclips, vitamins, pens and all the other clutter that builds up quickly if you spend a lot of time sitting in front of that screen. Don’t forget to dust off the back of your tower too. If you have a lot of gunk in the air, like pet hair, consider cleaning inside the tower too.

For ergonomics, I always have my monitor raised higher than the desk surface. If the bottom of the screen is at my chin level I’m ok. Anything too high or low will make the back of my neck go numb and give me headaches. They say it’s good to sit with your feet raised but I haven’t done that. Sometimes my feet do get a bit swollen if I am putting in hours and not taking a long break between.

There are no really great recycling options when it’s time for your computer to die. Face it, few people are interested in a computer three or more years of age. Software stops working on them as new operating systems come out. Older computers can not function with the software coming out now. I know from personal experience trying to run a 5 year old PC running on Windows Me. You might try Linux. See how much that can add to your mileage but that brings up the problem of what to do with all your old software which can’t be adapted to run on a Linux OS.

Look online for some options about recycling your tech trash. Nothing will be totally great as you can’t compost plastic. But, there are some options, better than adding all that hardware to the landfills. Don’t burn your computer, please. It’s a bad idea.
[tags]technology, recycle, reduce, reuse, clean, organize, ergonomics, home office[/tags]

Something new I’ve been hearing about is a green, environmentally thoughtful, wedding. I like the idea. When I planned my own wedding the environment was on my mind. I read about bird seed versus rice or flower petals. Which do you think has the least impact on the environment? It’s complicated. The birdseed might seem the best option but, it causes wild grass and such to grow in the area it is tossed. That will cause the use of more lawn chemicals. I forget why rice wasn’t a good option. Flower petals weren’t favoured either. In the end the article I was reading suggested the best alternative were soap bubbles. Though, I’m sure there is an argument against them too. How safe is soap afterall? How important are the small things like throwing rice and wedding favours?

If you look there are services offering green weddings and advice for keeping all the parts of your wedding ecologically polite/ sound. I found one which lets you used recycled gold to create your own wedding bands. I found another which offers to arrange the whole ceremony for you. But, there is more than the day itself to consider. It’s adding a lot to the bride’s to-do list. You might consider how important it is to be environmentally good one day which is already stress packed, instead you could put more effort into every day and give yourself a break on the one day you set aside to get married.

I’m adding this quote cause it’s just so sweet! It came from a furniture site.
“I dreamed of a wedding of elaborate elegance,
A church filled with family and friends.
I asked what kind of wedding he wished for,
He said one that would make me his wife.”
– Author Unknown

[tags]wedding, green, environment, ecology, eco[/tags]