With it being the ever-fun, ever-crazy holiday season, I’ve decided to reduce a small bit of the demands on my time by putting this little cluster of websites on hiatus through the holidays.

Please go forth and have a wonderful holiday, regardless of what you celebrate. Take time to be with the people you care about and to reach out to those you can’t be with.

Happy holidays! See you in January!

Posted by Rebecca as Site News at 10:29 AM EST

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I’ve read a number of blog posts recently written by people who are feeling the strain of information overload. They’re talking about the freedom that’s come with dropping feeds out of their aggregator.

I feel a bit guilty, but I kind of laugh at that. We each decide what blog feeds we’re going to subscribe to, what newsletters we’re going to invite into our inboxes. We also have the ability to disinvite both at any time.

Personally, every couple of months, I like to throw a bunch of feeds I think I’m not reading or that I’m not getting anything new or useful from into a folder that I mark as “read” at the beginning of every time I sit down with my aggregator. If I find myself missing a blog, I look in the folder. (It hasn’t happened that often.) At the end of the month, I delete every feed in the folder.

So far, I’ve rid myself of nearly 100 feeds I wasn’t reading, keeping only one that I wasn’t quite done with yet. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything because in many cases, the blogs either covered a topic I was no longer following or the good posts are referenced by far smarter bloggers than me (and I happen to follow those far smarter bloggers).

The nice thing about the way the internet currently works is that we can control what information comes to us when. It’s a series of personal choices, and we have to do what we can to keep it relevant and useful to us.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 10:23 AM EST

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This is something that’s been on my mind a lot over the past few months. I can write a post on a topic. I can explain why I link to something. I’m told I’m thoughtful in my posts, but I’m not sure people are hearing me in my posts.

That’s not to say I’m not a thoughtful person, but my friends can tell you often I sit there with my foot in my mouth because I’ve said something completely innocent that came out not so innocently. I’m an intelligent person, who spends her fair share of time rewinding and trying to say something again because she either flips the words around, or she realizes she just explained something backwards. (My students find this fairly amusing.)

I’ve been told I’m a fairly funny person. The problem is that most of my humor comes out in a sarcastic wit. Did you know I have a sarcastic wit? Probably not, because nearly every post I’ve written anywhere in the past nearly six years (even in my personal blogs) has had a dry sense of someone who forgot to leave the academic behind when she left school several years ago.

I’m not sure how I’m going to approach this problem, to try to inject more of myself into my writing. I’m willing to try, though.

Please be patient with me. This could get a lot worse before it gets better. (I have that habit.)

Posted by Rebecca as Personal development at 8:16 AM EST

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I don’t actually recall what led to my finally deciding it might be fun to try Twitter, and I’ve had a devil of a time trying to remind myself to update it periodically. Thankfully, I have the IM bot set up, and I’m doing much better at thinking, “Hey, this would probably be a good Twitter post.” (Somehow, I just can’t make myself call these posts “tweets”.)

A couple of weeks ago, I read some newbie guides to Twitter and realized I could actually have some fun with it. While I definitely drop random thoughts and complaints into my Twitter stream (Is that actually a word?), I’m also realizing I can use it for so much more.

I can leave a note to myself. I can take note of what I’ve done and what I’ve learned. I can share my current status on a project. I can let people know what class projects are coming up and if class has been canceled. I’ve even shared when I’ve posted a new article to eHow.

I’m thinking I can use it to show off what books I’ve just read, when I add jewelry to my Etsy shop or new designs to my CafePress shops. The possibilities are almost endless.

Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:45 AM EST

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