enabling reply emails to comments: please do this!

to all my readers and commenters:

first i'd like to say THANK YOU for reading my blog and leaving comments. especially leaving comments. because of course part of me is an attention whore (yes i can admit it) and i just love the comments. (the other part of me is doing this for awareness purposes and also as a way to connect to other survivors out there, not attention-whorish.)

anyway. i love responding to your comments, although i'm not always good at this. the thing is that i like responding to comments via email...rather than posting on my blog. when i get your comments in my inbox, and i hit "reply," much of the time i get a "noreply-comment@blogger.com" and i can't send you an email. :( this makes me very sad! so will you all please do me a favor?

go into your blogger account and set it up to enable reply emails. here's how you do it:

Go to your Dashboard

Go to "Edit Profile"

Where is says "Share My Profile", check that box

Where it says "Show My Email Adress", check that box

checking this box does NOT display your email on your blog, only in your profile. if you have this box checked but not "share my profile" checked, then you still cannot be found. this will put your profile on your blog. if you don't want this shown on your blog, go under your profile and clear the field that says "about me." then only your name, avatar, and link to your profile will show.

if you want responses to your comments but don't want to use your personal email, just set up another email account specifically for comments. here's how to do it:

Go back to "Edit Your Profile" in "Dashboard"

Scroll down to "Identity"

Where it says "Email Address", enter the email box you want the mail to go to.

(or if you don't have a blog, you'll find this feature on your google account page.)

if you don't have a blog, you can create your profile in your google account (or whatever program you use). make sure and put your email address here.

so there you go. please, please, please do this...it makes things so much easier for me and every other person whose blog you comment on!

i'm back!

so my little break is over, and i feel rejuvenated and hopeful. it's kind of a weird feeling, this optimism and hope. i'm almost afraid to be feeling this way, i'm afraid it's not real, that it won't last. but i am holding on to every shred of happiness i can right now. and i am so happy to be back with my family.

thank you all for your comments while i was gone! i was SHOCKED and just THRILLED to come back to find 61 new emails! 61! holy cow! i've never been so popular. i should go away more often.....(okay, not really.)

also, please forgive me for not catching up on all of your blog posts over the last week. i opened my reader and saw that i had 316 unread items. there was my second holy cow, only not a thrilled one. (haha!) so i did just hit the "mark all as read" button. i will be back to reading your blogs as you post them. there is no way i can go back and read everything i've missed.

i hope that you are all doing well and have had a good week. thanks again for all of your comments. :)

happy election day

a few random tidbits for your reading and, of course, responding pleasure:

found this through a friend today: voting with gum! brilliant. apparently it's a guerrilla project and i thought it was hilarious.

this time tomorrow we'll have a new president. (at least we'd better.) does that scare/excite anyone besides me?

what do you think of the new prop 8 commercial attacking the church? i would vote no on 8 (you already know that) but i completely disagree with this ad. it is ridiculous--so much hate, so much disrespect. on BOTH sides. how pathetic, that we all can't be adults, can't be respectful of differing opinions.

i copied this really cute little sign and "thankful turkey" that rarely home mom posted on her blog. i have literally no thanksgiving decorations, and i'm a nut for decorating. i have no money...does anyone have any cute ideas for decorations that i can make with things i already have?

very interesting editorial i saw perusing the news world today, about blogging--and how to stay safe while doing it. especially for people who post personal info and family pictures online. (as you can tell i try very hard to stay away from that--although i do have a private blog with pictures and stuff on it. it was eye opening, to say the least.) i would highly recommend taking a look at it.

it's getting closer to christmas! i'm trying (not really succeeding) to be un-annoying and stay away from christmas music. although i have succumbed a few times. i'm looking for some good music i can download. what are your favorite christmas arrangements? i wish we had more thanksgiving music....i think adam sandler's thanksgiving song is about it, though, outside of the two or three hymns we've got.

joining the land of the public blogs

i've been blogging privately for a few months now, and i love it. but in the discovery of the blogging community, i have decided it is possible to blog and still maintain my anonymity--if certain precautions are taken. so here goes, i'm giving it a shot! i hope that this blog will enable me to make friends with so many of the women i have come to admire in the past few weeks, and to be able to use my life experiences to help and entertain others.

in the process of deciding to create this blog, i thought a lot about what i should call it, and what the content of it should be. then a quote i read awhile ago came to mind:

A Rothko painting "is not a picture of an experience, it is an experience." (Anonymous Rothko Admirer).

i am a nut for all things art and art history. and in thinking about what this person said, it really resonated with me. not only because i COMPLETELY agree (i absolutely adore mark rothko), but also because i can use this blog as a picture of my experience.

my life has been a roller coaster of ups and downs. and as a relatively newly married woman and a young mother, i may not have the same perspective as many. but please feel free to leave your comments (i love comments!) however, if you know me personally, know who i am or who my family members are, please, please please, do not use our names or give any specifics (such as where we live) that could jeopardize our anonymity.

thank you, and happy reading!