The Happy Feminist

SIGNS YOU'VE BEEN BLOGGING TOO MUCH

OK.  This is disturbing.  My husband has now started calling me "Happy."  Which, incidentally, is not actually my first name in real life.

BLOGVERTISING AND ANTICIPATED BLOGROLL ADDITIONS -- UPDATED

Thank you all so very very much for all of your helpful information on blog advertising!  I have concluded that I am going to experiment with using this blog to generate a little bit of income.  After all, certainly nothing bad can come of it.  Worst case scenario, it turns out to be too much of a hassle or it wrecks the character of the blog in which case I will stop without having lost anything and with perhaps a few extra bucks in the bank.  No matter what, however, this blog will always be first and foremost about self-expression, having fun, and making connections with all of you. 

Thinking about this issue inspired my last post.  However, my last post is not meant to be a justification for putting ads on this site; it's more of a stream-of-consciousness ramble about money in general. 

As a somewhat unrelated side note, I am feeling very guilty about not updating my blogroll- for some reason my least favorite blog task despite my love of discovering and reading great new blogs.  Some of the links in my current blogroll are no longer good and there are so many wonderful blogs out there that I want to bring to your attention -- like Say Something Sister, Lucy's blog, which focuses very intelligently on body issues, Shawna R.B. Atteberry's site (great writing from a Christian feminist perspective), and The Mean Feminist.  (Mean Feminist or Mean Feminist readers, if you're out there, could you send me a link or leave a link in the comments.  I have enjoyed the blog so much but somehow can't seem to find it right now.)

UPDATE:  Thank you to Mythicpoert for providing the link to the Mean Feminist site.  I had the proper name of the site wrong.  It's URL is http://meanfeminism.blogspot.com/ and the proper title of the blog is "Because Sometimes Feminists aren't Nice."  I have really enjoyed it in the past and have been tearing my hair out trying to find it again. Go check it out!

PRACTICAL QUERY -- ADVERTISING ON BLOGS

I recently read a statement by a blogger that he had earned tens of thousands of dollars in by placing advertisements on his blog.  I am not sure if it was a tongue-on-cheek statement or not, but I have to say that statement made my ears perk up.

After all, while I regularly characterize myself as "privileged," my husband and I are paying off mongo educational debts and we need every spare penny for the house we are building next year.  And it seems to me that since I spend a chunk of time away from my family (i.e. husband and dog) horsing around on-line, I should make it pay for them by bringing in an income from it. 

Does anyone have a sense of how much income can actually be generated from advertising -- on a smallish or middling sized blog?  Is there a benefit to going with google ads versus blog ads versus some other option?  Or should one sign on to multiple options?  Are there perils and pitfalls to watch out for?  Please, well-informed blog readers, do advise!

MY SLOW RESPONSE TO EMAILS: MORE EVIDENCE OF MY NEUROSIS

Sometimes I am quite slow in responding to emails from blog-readers.  My slowness is partly due to the fact that I do not check my blog email that often.  But I am also especially slow about responding to nice or complimentary emails.  For that I sincerely apologize.  After all, if you are taking time out of your day to compliment my blog, it seems the least I can do is tell you how much I appreciate it. (And I do appreciate it!  It really makes my day or my week to hear that people are reading and enjoying this blog!)

   But I have noticed something very odd and I haven't quite sussed out what it means about me or my neurotic little psyche.  As soon as I see something really nice something has written to me in an email, or something really nice something has written about me on another site, my first instinct is to immediately exit the screen.  I get extremely self-conscious even though I am just sitting in a room alone looking at a computer screen.  Then it takes me a while (sometimes a few days) to gear up to reading the complimentary words someone has written -- and often I just skim it the first time and then even later I gear up to read the whole thing more carefully.

   It's weird because I actually love compliments and awards and all forms of external validation. (Perhaps too much.)  Maybe I feel a little guilty about it -- I don't know.  But anyway my delay in responding is the equivalent of me looking down at the ground, blushing furiously, and saying, "Aw shucks." 

 

   

HOW TO START YOUR DAY OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT - UPDATED

Posting has been a little slow lately here at the Happy Feminist.  I actually have a quite bit to say and had hoped to set aside some blogging time during my lunch break.

But instead I started off my day by spilling my Diet Dr. Pepper (yes, I drink it for breakfast) all over my keyboard at work.  And I mean I drowned my keyboard. 

This wouldn't necessarily be so bad because after all I work at a big law firm.  Fixing this problem is just a matter of calling our IT department and having them bring me a new keyboard from storage pronto. 

The reason I know this is that this is the second time in two months  that I've drowned my keyboard in Diet Dr. Pepper at work.  And therein lies the dilemma.  It seems not only embarrassing but sort of expensive and problematic to request a new keyboard twice in two months. 

I didn't deal with the problem today because I was running around in meetings all day anyway.  But part of me is very tempted to spend some time tomorrow buying a new keyboard.  On the other hand maybe that's silly.  I work my ass for this firm and they can afford to buy me a new keyboard, I don't work for the IT people anyway so it's not a huge deal if they think I'm an idiot, and so maybe I should just admit that I'm a clumsy fool and have them help me.  It's not a big deal.  They'll forget about it anyway, right?  It's not like this goes down on my permanent record, right?

But I'm totally neurotic so I'm probably going to spend two hours and $100 tomorrow morning going to Staples to buy a new keyboard anyway. (*Bangs head on desk*)

UPDATE:  I swallowed my embarrassment, called IT, and got a new keyboard in a jiffy.  The person from IT was just lovely about it.  However, this time I called a different person than the one who replaced my keyboard last time --- and I did not disclose that this was not an isolated event for me.  With any luck, they don't compare notes down there and they are not monitoring this blog at the moment.  (Note to my IT friends in the firm:  If you are monitoring my blogging, just know that I love you and am grateful for all you do.  And my soda and french vanilla cappucino are now placed way on the far side of my desk. And I am going to get the plastic keyboard cover recommended by chem fem.) 

LINDA HIRSHMAN'S BLOG

Linda Hirshman has a website with some cool features.  She has a new discussion board up.  She also has a blog, "Opinions, Musings, Judgmental Commentary from Linda Hirshman!"

It will certainly be on my list of regular reads!

OFF FOR SUN, SURF, AND SAND

Tomorrow I am off at the crack of dawn to drive four hours to a beach house my oldest friend has rented.  And then after having my fill of sun, surf, and sand, I must drag my tired and likely sunburned self four hours home again on Sunday evening.

But first is the harrowing task of shopping this evening for a bathing suit. 

See you Monday and be good while I am gone!

SUPERBUSY -- UPDATED

Gaaaaaah -- barely keeping head above water.

Will be back online this weekend. Come back then (or stay here and hang out if you like). 

UPDATE:  Survived hellacious week in which I wrote two motions for summary judgment and one supreme court brief, performed in a mock trial for a client seminar, and took three depositions in various locales.  Time for a much needed margarita with the gang.   

SIDEBAR

I am past due to update my blogroll.  Some of the blogs in my blogroll have moved and I have some cool new ones to add -- but I am not only a happy feminist, but a lazy one too, and I just haven't gotten around to fixing things.

But meanwhile, do head over to visit Moi at Sidebar.  She is changing the focus of her blog from just life as an associate in a law firm to a feminist blog regarding issues faced by professional women.  She is an engaging writer so do pop over and welcome her to the feminist blogosphere!

MIXING IT UP AT SALON

I love Salon's Broadsheet.  I have noticed, however, that the vast majority of the reader comments seem hostile to the ideas expressed at Broadsheet and to feminism in general.  As another commenter over there today observed, a lot of the letters have a somewhat misogynist tone.

I have never commented there before, but today I left a couple comments regarding their post about a British police department's jokey campaign to get women to stop binge drinking in public.

Salon has an enormous readership (at least judging from the huge number of hits I got when they linked me once!) so I think it's not a bad idea for us feminists who comment a lot on blogs to counter some of the anti-feminist sentiments in the Broadsheet comments section.