Blogging Frenzy, or Blogging Bliss?

I started following Nirvana Mamma a short while ago because I found she had some great ideas about building a better blog.  And when I read yesterday that she was teaming up with Uniquehorn Designs to offer a free blog makeover with buttons and everything, I was definitely going in!  All of you who are still using the standard templates proposed by google (like me) will know what I'm talking about.

If you've been reading for awhile, you'll know that I was insecure about my blog and asking for some tips to make it better.  And if you read my most recent post, you might think that I'm really on the brink of a meltdown - that either blogging or life are somewhat off-kilter for me.  Or perhaps both.  (I'm doing just fine).  Well I learned from all your comments that the main thing I need to do to spruce up my blog is to bribe people to come visit me.  I'm currently working on some giveaway ideas, and at the moment am hung up with Customs about getting non-pasteurized cheese shipped by post.  I'll let you know how that works out.

The other advice that came through loud and clear is to have a smashing blog with all the latest ways to accost the world and inform them of your existence so they can't help but worship and adore you (and follow you) - twitter, facebook, "subscribe to" buttons, blogging forums, etc.  So this is why I literally leapt at the chance to win that blog design giveaway.

I started following all the requirements.  Now here you're supposed to comment each time after you do something.  First, subscribe to Unicorn Beauty in my google reader.  Okay, done.  It just meant I had to click on that button thingie you get when you follow the link.  But once it's in google reader, I'm not sure I'll ever see it again.  I just get updates on posts of people I follow in my dashboard.  I don't even know how to find the reader.  Okay do the same thing for Nirvana Mama.  Done.

And then I'm supposed to like them on facebook.  But the problem is, I only have a personal page, which needs to stay personal as Mr. Welcome is rigid about privacy.  So I thought - perfect time to create a facebook page for my blog!  Okay, they don't accept Miss Welcome as a name, which means .... oh I get it, I need to create a community page.  Okay, no problem ... now how do I like somebody on that page?  I can't unless I use my personal page.  Can't I do it with my blog page since I'm the owner?  You know, one blog to another?

I'm starting to feel really stressed out.  Okay, follow both blogs on Twitter.  Need to blow the dust off that account.  I request password (and username) and realize I have a really pathetic ... tweet ... saying I don't know what to do with the darn account.  But I still follow them on Twitter - that was pretty easy.  But then I'm supposed to tweet about the giveaway.  I don't know why I froze on that one.  Everyone else has such complicated abbreviated updates going on from their iphone.  I still text in complete sentences.  Alright, let's put that aside for now.

Back to facebook.  Let me at least put a facebook fan page link on my blog.  There.  Copy the code, and ..... it looks like I have .... thousands of followers?  Because somehow that code linked the box, not to my page, but to those who like low-fat milk?  What?

By now my eyes are darting as frantically as my fingers are typing.  And I have to leave a comment after each one on Nirvana Mama's website!  When the attempt to join the BlogFrog community page through facebook crashed and burned, my comment went something like this:  MAYDAY! MAYDAY! ABORT! ABORT!  And I am only now getting around to writing a blog post promoting both Nirvana Mama and Uniquehorn Designs, telling them why I desperately need to win.  Don't take this as a jab at them or the difficulty of their contest.  It's a breeze for all of the tech-saavy.  (But shouldn't it be the non-tech saavy one that needs to win?)

In any case, do click on their link and tell them how wonderful they are and how much Miss Welcome needs help on her design.  Just kidding.  I'll be glad if you one of you gets to win who was referred by me, and I encourage you to try your best to win.  At the very least it will get you to create twitter and facebook pages. (Or have you reaching for your blood pressure medication).

But it brought me to what my only problem is with blogging.  You can always do more.  You can always comment on everyone who comments on you, follow everyone who follows you, comment on every post of your blog friends, join communities like Blogher or Lady's Blogger Society and feel that as a responsible citizen you need to read other people's blogs on those sites and comment on them too.  And send e-mails and check out all the blogs on someone's sidebar, all the blogs that win something .... it becomes a bit of a blog frenzy for me that is not entirely pleasant.

Last night as I was trying to recover from stretching myself into techie positions I wasn't used to, I commented to Mr. Welcome (I always comment on his) that in the olden days there were small fulfilling projects to tackle.  You weren't worried about trying to do more than was right in front of you.  After lunch, a lady might take out her needlework and if a friend came over with hers to have a little chat, all the better!  You'd stop for tea and exclaim over the finished project your friend had been working on for some weeks.  You had just started yours and looked forward to the day it would be completed.  It surely would be - you had the time.  When your friend left, you'd get started on dinner.  No distractions of commenting on five blog posts while the meat is cooking.  You just did something constructive, like polishing the silver.  Life was simpler.

Instead, it's more like a sinkhole ... no - a black hole where you can always take it one step further!  Mr. Welcome calls out to some pale creature just coming out of the hole, "hey have you seen my wife down there?"  He thinks for a minute, "yeah.  I think I saw her with some of the bottom feeders - she's reading some blog about the habits of amphibians in Papua New Guinea."  Nirvana Mama managed to follow her bliss.  What about me?

Today is a nice day.  The kids are sweet, the sun is warm but not too hot.  We ate tomatoes from our garden for lunch.  The leaves create a pretty pattern in the sun on our wood floors.  I have nothing important to do, and when I'm done with this blog post, I'll try to close the computer for awhile and play with my kids.  Yesterday's stress reminded me of the proverb, "Like a city with no walls, so is the man who lacks self control."  I think I'm going to build some walls around myself today to keep me from getting sucked into the blog abyss, never to return.

Maybe Uniquehorn Designs and Nirvana Mama will decorate those walls for me.