disalarming

Well, “better than ever” is probably a little too ambitious, but I can always hope, right?

I’m back from my short hiatus! I did a lot of thinking about the formatting of this blog and I’ve decided on a few things:

• I’m changing the format of my reviews. The current format of summary, initial reaction, final reaction, and overall rating isn’t doing it for me anymore. Frankly, there are far better and comprehensive reviews of popular movies and TV shows out there, and they weren’t fun to write anymore. Instead, I’m going to have a short summary, five adjectives I would use to describe my reaction, most and least impressive (no more than a sentence or two), and then overall rating. It’ll be shorter, far more concise, and most likely spoiler-free.
• Interviews will be put on an indefinite hiatus. I have loved conducting all of the interviews that have been posted, but lately, my heart just hasn’t been into coming up with questions for each interviewee. I figure that for now, I’ll put interviews on hold. In the future, if I am interested in doing interviews again, I will contact the remaining people who have expressed interest in being interviewed but have yet to receive questions. If there is still interest in the interviews then, I will start them up again. For now, though, there aren’t going to be any interviews anytime soon.
• Wednesdays will now be used to talk about all things related to my personal ventures into arts and crafts. Since the opening of my Etsy shop, I’ve been spending most of my free time either making crafts or looking into new crafting ideas I can try my hand at. I’ll essentially be using Wednesdays to promote my Etsy shop and getting the word out about its existence, as well as showcasing individual crafting projects I’m working on, both personal projects and those related to the shop.

Things will go back to normal around here with these new changes starting tomorrow!

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

These interviews started with the intention of getting to know my online friends better, and exposing a side of them that might not necessarily be apparent online. Each interviewee was asked ten questions, five of which were generic, and five of which directly applied to the specific individual. If you are interested in being interviewed, please leave a comment on this post.

Interview with Carmen of carmabelle.com:

• Do your friends and family know you have a blog? If so, do they read it?
  My parents – definitely not. Friends and other family have stumbled upon it because I’ve linked it on my Facebook profile, but I’m not sure if they’re regular readers.
• When did you first start becoming involved in the “internet world”?
  When I was about fourteen or fifteen. My friend Leona got me onto blend challenges – mine were really, really bad to start with, as you might imagine. I was hosted by Leona for a while, before I opened my first site, stupidloveletters.com, and I’ve beeen on-and-off ever since!

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

These interviews started with the intention of getting to know my online friends better, and exposing a side of them that might not necessarily be apparent online. Each interviewee was asked ten questions, five of which were generic, and five of which directly applied to the specific individual. If you are interested in being interviewed, please leave a comment on this post.

Interview with Olga of gloryfades.org:

• Do your friends and family know you have a blog? If so, do they read it?
  In short, yes. While there’s a part of me that desires anonymity on the Internet, I’ve never been one to hide my blog from those who ask. In fact, I briefly had the link up on my Facebook, but took it down recently. I’m not ready for all of my old friends to read it. My sister, Sister Friend for those who read my blog, reads it fairly often. She usually brings up what I write into conversation so I get the feeling it’s a daily check for her. And my mother (51)? Well, it’s in her Firefox address bar. Hi, mom!

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

These interviews started with the intention of getting to know my online friends better, and exposing a side of them that might not necessarily be apparent online. Each interviewee was asked ten questions, five of which were generic, and five of which directly applied to the specific individual. If you are interested in being interviewed, please leave a comment on this post.

Interview with Melody of bittersky.org:

• Do your friends and family know you have a blog? If so, do they read it?
  My friends do… I think. I understand the blog is public and that anyone can view it, therefore I don’t discuss overly personal issues or name names. Although my URL is not something I’d put down on my resume, I am fairly open about it. It is listed on my Facebook, so anyone who has the slightest interest would notice. However, I keep no track of who visits it and who doesn’t. My boyfriend reads it regularly and makes the occasional comment on the site – he almost comments directly to me on every entry though. A close friend has asked me to keep writing because she enjoyed reading it – before I had no idea that she would visit.

  Back when I started blogging, I asked my dad to pay for my hosting/domain and I promised him it was a writing exercise so he definitely knows. He would still read my blog from time to time, but because he has realised there is no intimate personal stuff going on he has pretty much lost interest. As for my mum and my brother, they recognize it is just another hobby of mine and couldn’t care any less.

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

These interviews started with the intention of getting to know my online friends better, and exposing a side of them that might not necessarily be apparent online. Each interviewee was asked ten questions, five of which were generic, and five of which directly applied to the specific individual. If you are interested in being interviewed, please leave a comment on this post.

Interview with Alice of onlyanne.com:

• Do your friends and family know you have a blog? If so, do they read it?
  Only my best friend, and I highly doubt she does.
• When did you first start becoming involved in the “internet world”?
  When I was about 15, almost 16. It was at the time I was on study leave for my GCSE’s, I had all this free time at home on my own and discovered the internet to cure my boredom. I went on the net occasionally before that, for an hour on a Saturday to play Neopets but it was never an addiction then.

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.

These interviews started with the intention of getting to know my online friends better, and exposing a side of them that might not necessarily be apparent online. Each interviewee was asked ten questions, five of which were generic, and five of which directly applied to the specific individual. If you are interested in being interviewed, please leave a comment on this post.

Interview with Amanda of jing-wen.com:

• Do your friends and family know you have a blog? If so, do they read it?
  Off the top of my head, I’d say that about a dozen RL friends know about my blog – about five read regularly, but only one ever comments (any time you see a comment from a Rebekah, that’s her!). None of them would ever speak to me in person about my blog though. Surprisingly few friends know about it – I don’t try to hide the fact that I have a blog, but then again, I’m not the type of person who will come out and randomly talk about it unless a RL conversation is about new media technologies and digital communication…which it rarely is! Basically, unless it’s relevant to the discussion at hand, I don’t talk about my blog, and thus there’s no reason for my friends to know about it!

  As for my family, I know my brother knows about my blog, though I also know that he doesn’t care enough to read it. My parents I think have a vague idea – I told them roughly two years ago and their only response was “You don’t have anything interesting enough to write about, would anyone even read it?”. Little do they know! I never worry about them reading the blog however as: 1) my dad uses the internet regularly, but only to browse Chinese websites. He can’t read English, so he’d never read my blog; 2) my mum is technologically spastic and doesn’t know how to use the Internet, though she can read English. I only have to worry when they join forces and work together to get to my blog!

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Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.