Days 8-9 Great American Road Trip - Yellowstone

During the next two days at Yellowstone, we saw some of the more familiar sites - geyers, fumeroles, mudpots, sulphur springs and other volcanic activity:

Very pretty and interesting, but not as good as the flora and fauna that make up the rest of the park.  We did see Old Faithful, but it wasn't as impressive as good old Fountain Hills.  The highlight of that particular experience was gathering with the rest of the crowd on the edge of the "boardwalk".  Kent took some video of Old Faithful erupting, but all you could hear was the female park ranger screaming at the lone man who wouldn't get back on the boardwalk:

The kids think Kent should remix the video to a rap beat so it will go viral on YouTube.  We don't know how to do that, but our 10 and 12 year olds could easily figure it out.

We're about a week into the trip now and living in a RV together 24/7 is beginning to make tempers fray.  This was heightened by the lack of internet connection - no Minecraft or Instagram!  Mom and Dad weren't so cheerful either without cell service or Facebook.  The general complaint was about the poor WiFi at the KOA.  We did manage to muddle through without hurting each other too much, but some days are better than others.  Here's to another day in Paradise!

cindy

Social Media!?#%!

One of my blog resolutions for 2013 was to increase my use of different kinds of social media.  Just in case you don't read the right column on this blog (c'mon, you know I'm talking to you), I'll tell you all my social media outlets:

• Etsy - Pretty Pretty Cindy 
• Facebook - Straddling the Gap
• Twitter - straddlinggap (notice the shortened name)
• Instagram - straddlingthegap
• Pinterest - ccisme
• Flickr - straddlingthegap
• I'm also on Hellocotton, Blog Frog and Bloglovin
• Google +

I've added a place to subscribe by email or RSS feed (I actually had someone complain that I didn't offer that!).  I try to keep up with each of these by following a lot of people, adding pithy comments to each one, visiting other blog advice blogs (Really, there are blogs to give advice on writing a blog.)  I'm excited to say I'm going to Bloggy Bootcamp in April to learn how to monetize a blog (uh huh).  Did I mention I work full time and am raising two tweens who seem to always have someplace to go every evening?  Did I mention I have a husband?

I'm exhausted.  I love blogging and I am interested in being better at it, so I want to do all of these things.  Problem is, every time I think I get a tiny grasp of one social media tool, another one comes up!  It's like playing Whack a Mole.  The new one is Twitter's "Vine", but I hear it has pornography problems so I think I may have a reprieve from that one for a while.  I tried Tumblr but ultimately gave up.  I'm still new to Flickr (but I am enjoying it for photo storage).

Photo attribute Momastery

What's a girl to do?  

I know one thing - it won't make any difference if I master the tricks of social media to promote my blog or Pretty Pretty Cindy on Etsy if I don't have enough time to write the blog or make the stuff for the store.  I'm going to keep chipping away at it, so if anyone out there has any suggestions for how to conquer this, let me know.

I have an idea - maybe I should develop a new social media tool (including a smartphone app) to manage all my social media accounts!  It could keep me actively engaged in all media, including writing little pithy comments, reading others' blogs and pithy comments and following and including others in my circles.  Now that would be something.

In the meantime, come visit/follow/pin/tweet/subscribe/like/favorite/circle me.  I promise to do it back to you.

cindy

My Baby Has Discovered Social Media

As parents, we love to celebrate the milestones of each of our children.  First steps, first day of kindergarten, learning how to ride a bicycle are all scrapbook events.  But for this current generation of kids, technology is the norm and milestones as techies are more common.

My son discovered his newest obsession - Minecraft.  He would play it 18 hours a day if you let him.  If you don't know what Minecraft is, it's a building game where the player can create homes and villages and more, with detailed features like vaulted ceilings, hot tubes and treasure chests.  The weird thing is that the graphics are very crude - all blocks with few pixels.  You can play the game in creative mode or survival mode.  Survival mode includes evil characters, but more importantly, interactive play on the internet.  Enter social media.  He has "met" other players online with very little real interaction, but he looks for his "friends."  He also has his real live friends join him remotely.  Minecraft is not my favorite activity, mostly because of the YouTube videos where older players have live screen shots but commentary that may not be appropriate for children and tweens.  However, if you can avoid YouTube and monitor Minecraft, it's not a bad activity.

When I bought my new cell phone, I had an extra one that my daughter immediately appropriated.  Although it doesn't have phone service (like she wanted), it does have Wi-fi.  Enter Instagram.  Wow - who knew that a 9 year old with a private account could have such a good time!  All her friends have Instagram accounts and they exchange some crazy pictures.  Here's one special one:

I'm relieved to see that all her friends have private accounts too.  It seems as if they can't take enough pictures, even the most mundane:

She does take some good pictures:

But best of all, she has discovered the art of using Instagram to tell the world what she's having for dinner:

I'm so proud of my children's accomplishments - they've discovered social media - in a safe and age appropriate way.

cindy

Blog Resolution

Yesterday I talked about how most New Year's resolutions die very quickly and I offered a SMART method for setting goals and sticking to them.  Now it's time to apply it to myself.  I have some blog resolutions.

Obviously, I have the same resolution of most bloggers - to get more traffic, write more interesting content, develop a following and maybe monetize.  Great resolutions, but are they SMART?  More traffic - is that attainable?  How do you gauge that and more importantly, how do you control it?  That's just an example of why these broad open ended resolutions won't work.

OK, let's turn to my resolutions.  Well, they are exactly SMART just yet.  In fact, I haven't passed the S yet.  So here are my non-specific blog resolutions:

1.  Get myself on a regular blogging schedule and plan ahead.
2.  Increase my traffic by 25% over the year.
3.  Get involved in a community - see this great article about that from the SITS Girls
4.  Improve my social media skills generally.

I will readily admit these are not yet SMART goals.  However, here's what I will do.  I will spend the month of January researching each of these general resolutions and come up with a SMART goal with a plan.  Hopefully, I can transform each of these into a SMART goal and blog about it once every week beginning next week.

Yikes - this is scary stuff.  Now that I've put it out there, I have to at least carry through to February - or maybe through next Tuesday.  Baby steps . . .

cindy

I'm Naked -Where's My Phone?

The last week has been scary. I've been disoriented and disconbobulated.  I've been without a phone!

More accurately, I've been teased with a phone only to have it snatched away.  It started about a two weeks ago when my HTC Rhyme started to get hot - really hot.  After the guy at the Verizon Store burned his finger on the SD portal, he suggested we send it back for a replacement.  Two days later I had a "like new" Rhyme.  I meticulously reloaded all of my lost apps and thought the unpleasant experience was over.

No. Two days later my "like new" phone wouldn't turn on and it was hot.  I called Verizon and they agreed to send me a new type of phone.  After an endless holiday weekend, it finally came - another Rhyme?!?  I had to change SD card because the phone practically burns up with the old card.  It's still hot with the newer card, but not as bad.  I'm trying to deal with it.  Who knew this would be so traumatic?

My daughter thinks I grew up with cans strung on twine, but I can say as a kid I was excited when we got a phone on the wall with a long cord.  It was awesome because I actually talked on the phone with my friends.  The best game we "played" on the phone was the one where we pranked the lady down the street by asking her if her refriverator was running.  I remember being amazed in the 80s when I saw Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" walking on a beach with a shoe phone.  So rich!  So futuristic!  Now I can't go 5 days without a phone, and I don't even talk on it.

Definitely the worst part about being without my phone was my recent jump into all things social media.  I just started with Instagram and haven't been able to take a single picture because I didn't have my phone (15 years ago people would have looked at you funny if you said you couldn't take pictures without your phone).

I'm recovering nicely from my traumatic adventure, thank you.  I'm getting reacquainted with my "new" phone.  Hopefully this one won't leave me in the cold (wait, the problem was with heat so we should be OK).

It's a love affair I tell you. (Just don't tell my husband)

cindy

Social Media Maven?

Hardly.  But I have spent a good deal of time recently getting plugged into all things social media.  It started with the SITS Girls Spring Fling, in which the amazing ladies of blogging showed us how to spruce up our blogs and become social media mavens in just two weeks.  I didn't keep up, but I did get connected with a bunch of social media.  Here's my list.  I would love if you would "like" "share" "Tweet" "pin" "join" "become a fan" "include me in your circle" or "follow my blog" (or two or three of them!)

1.  Facebook - My favorite and best (other than my blog).  Now, I'm not only me, I'm "Straddling the Gap"  This is the easiest one and I'm having a good time with it.  Click and like me.



2.  Twitter - I'm just starting to get this after my initial confusion.  I have a few friends who actually talk respond to my tweets.  I'm starting to build some followers.  I irritated some atheists the other day and I wasn't even trying.  (See below)  If you would like to be one of my followers, I'm straddlinggap or you can just click this link and follow me too.





3. Pinterest - No one had to tell me to do this.  I've been a Pinterest fan for a long time.  If you are one of the 5 people who hasn't joined yet, let me know and I'll send you an invite.  Or you can check out my pins by clicking below:



4.  Instagram - I have yet to take a picture because I have a little cell phone issue (I'll get to that tomorrow), but I do have an account and I'm really looking forward to using it.  I should have some pictures later this week.  In the meantime, I am straddlingthegap (notice a pattern here?)



5.  Google +  I signed up, but I don't really understand this quite yet.  I'm trying to click on the plus button when I like a page, but I'm not sure what else to do with it.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

6.  Klout - I'm in, but this one feels like watching the stock market.  My score is up, my score is down.  Heck, Klout thinks I'm an influencer on Atheism because I made one comment on Twitter and was spammed by 10 atheists.

7.  Tumblr - Again, something I have, but I'm still not sure what to do with it.  I think the tool is for following blogs, but maybe there's more.  I use Bloglovin and like it very much,

So, that's my resume for a social media maven.  I doubt it will be a profitable career, but I'm giving it the old college try.  I'm sure I will stick with some of these, especially the mainstream ones, but who has enough time in the day to work with these and write a blog too?

Just my 2 cents.

cindy