I know some of you are sick of me blogging about Blogher. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not. Attend next year and then you too can bore people to death or annoy the heck out of them afterwards. I think this is my last "real" Blogher post. I’ll have some others, later, about concepts and ideas brought up during and after Blogher – but they’ll be "different"… Onward!
This year’s Bloghercon theme was "How are your blogs changing your world?" so I’m going to spin my real recap to show you how Bloghercon changed my world – or reminded me of things in my world that I don’t really want to change.
1) We’re a weird family and weirdness creeps into our everday life in weird ways. "Sweetney" is one of those words/people/things that I think is going to live on in our world, all because of Bloghercon. TW is a little clueless, cute but clueless and she likes shoes. She talked to a lot of women she did not know, about their shoes. She spotted a woman with cool shoes, so she approached her and said "cool shoes, I think my 16 year old would love those." The shoes, they had skull and crossbones on them. She had no idea that was Sweetney – til later. No wonder the woman looked at her oddly. She, being Sweetney, probably expected some gushing "I love your blog!" and she got nothing but shoe commentary. Yesterday, I took Michelle to the mall to get a bandana (actually I sat in the car and read my book while she ran in) – she got in the car, I looked up and yelled "Sweetney!!" – she had no idea what that meant, but I bet you know what pattern her bandana had on it, don’t you? I’m pretty sure from now til the end of time, when we see skull & crossbones, someone will yell Sweetney!
2) I’m not an identity blogger and I don’t want to be one. I’m also not an outreach blogger and I know I made the right decision about that. There have been times that I just wasn’t sure. After Bloghercon, I’m sure.
3) Mommybloggers rock and I’m proud to call myself a mommyblogger. This was not always the case.
4) Edubloggers, also rock. In my BoF none of them looked at me oddly when I talked about edublogging at the elementary, middle and highschool levels. None of them rolled their eyes. They were all interesting and interested. It’s good to have that type of validation, when there are people (as one person in the live chat) who don’t have much respect for homeschool mommyblogs.
5) Conference food stinks and I’m ok with that. I should come more prepared next time, and I will, thanks to this little Bloghercon reminder.
6) I like swag, not as much as TW, but it’s good. All of it. Heteronormative or not. You can learn things from swag, it can cause you to think about topics or ideas that you might not generally think about in your life. Also, the throwing away of swag simply because it isn’t your thing, bugs me and I’m going to work to make sure people don’t do that. If that bib wasn’t appropriate for you, or the corkscrew or the lotion then why didn’t you find someone who would have appreciated it? Or why didn’t you leave a nice note for those women who were cleaning your room each day and leave it for them. I guarantee you that they would have appreciated the gesture. (pst, check out the swag Poppy Z Brite received recently – was that heternormative?)
7) I don’t drink. I was reminded of that again on Saturday night (and Sunday and Monday and into Tuesday). It’s good to have those reminders and reinforcements.
8) I don’t need a lesbian blogging panel to make me feel like I’m part of the blogosphere. In fact, I prefer to not attend those types of panels. I prefer to attend panels that show me new things or teach me more about a topic I’m interested in. I don’t think a lesbian panel would have met those criteria for me.
9) I need to chill out and relax a little. Watching Grace, constantly moving and hooking people up, reminded me that I’m a lot like that and it’s tiring – for me and for people around me. And that constant movement, constant helping, can make it hard to have a real conversation with people. Good reminder to me – thanks Bloghercon and Grace.
10) I cannot say iVillage without cringing a little – ok a lot. I sort of thought that was behind me, it isn’t – no offense to the nice iV employee who was there. It’s my issue and I need to deal with that.
11) The smokers really are some of the most interesting people at an event. They’re also some of the nicest and friendliest. I thought it was my imagination, or I was using that as an excuse. Nope, they are.
12) I’m too old for the red-eye. I used to really like the red-eye. No more. I’m only slightly functioning 2 days latter. No more red-eyes for any reason.
13) Birds are noisy and messy. RJ wants a bird, I was all set to get them for her. Bloghercon has caused me to rethink this. (Sorry RJ – let’s talk about it some more.)
14) My crush on Badger – it lives on. Blogcrushes are good. Meeting blogcrushes in real life, also good.
15) I still want to marry Nancy White. I thought maybe that would change after Blogher. Nope, it didn’t.
16) Canadians are nice. I sometimes forget that now. They forgive you for hugging them when you aren’t suppose to. They offer to help your daughter fine tune her skills. They give you chocolate (who gave me a Canadian candybar? I’ve forgotten)
17) My daughter, she could grow up to be like Danah Boyd. How amazing would that be? I mean really. Wow.
18) I’ve never had an issue with Arianna Huffington. After Bloghercon, still no issue – and while I found her Michael Jackson joke in bad taste, I can live with that because I have made more than one joke in bad taste, haven’t I?
19) Prince J is just like every other 12 year old boy. I knew that already but it was nice to talk to Patrick Scoble and have that reaffirmed.
20) My idea about visual blogrolling, not a bad idea. Not a great one but it has potential.
21) More people read my blog than I initially thought. Also some people who I thought read my blog, don’t. Both of these tidbits are good to know.
22) Men, they can really sabotage a group made up primarily of women- or more to the point, women sit by quietly and let them do it. It isn’t always intentional, I’m not man-bashing. It happened and it felt weird, sort of amusing because I find unconfortable moments amusing at times, but really very weird.
23) I know a lot about tagging, about building traffic, and a lot about blogging. As a lesser known blogger running in well-known blogger circles, that kind of validation is good.
24) Monetization, it’s not that important to me. I’ve played a lot with ads and such but just half-heartedly to see how it works. I will probably keep playing around with it, as new things happen, but it’s really not my thing – right now.
25) On the spot voice interviews – interesting stuff. Thank you Amy Gahran and George Kelly. Amy and her mic and then George whipped out his – that was a beautiful moment. Has anyone blogged that? Because really, regardless of whether either of you do anything with those recordings, I enjoyed it and it made me think a lot about the power of these kinds of tools for "real people."
Bloghercon did change my world – I learned a lot about myself and other people. Bloghercon also reminded me that there are a lot of things in my world that I don’t want, or need, to change.
aww, shucks!
umm, i mean ARRGH! I’M A PIRATE!
heh.
“Watching Grace, constantly moving and hooking people up,reminded me that I’m a lot like that and it’s tiring – for me and for people around me. And that constant movement, constant helping, can make it hard to have a real conversation with people.”
Ahhhh, my dear Denise. I’m so sorry if my vortex of activities exhausted you and certainly others. However, I’m drafting a post about this running around business and as I itemize the stuff I had to do for BlogHer, especially the childcare center and then on Day Two, making sure Molly and my sister were doing okay – well, it got a little nuts. But I wanted to connect with as many BlogHers as I could, in brief but hopefully sweet encounters. It was either a quickie or nothing, and I’ll always take the quickie, as unsatisfying as it can sometimes be.
In the meantime, please know how much it meant to me to meet you and TW. It was a great honor and pleasure.
xoxox
ACK!!! After I got back to my hotel room following the Friday night party, I realized that earlier I’d actually left the lock off my digital voice recorder and filled it to capacity with room noise and miscellaneous conversation. So when I tried to record George, nothing got recorded. How embarrasing!
– Amy Gahran
Grace dear, I wasn’t dissing you – I was dissing me and dissecting myself. I know all of the things that you had to do and why you had to do them. I’m cool, chickie, very cool. Just take some time off next time, and relax. 🙂
Heh @ the good pirate sweetney.
ROFL Amy – that’s even better. Another lesson learned, something else to think about. But really, the very act of pulling that out, without planning and prep – that was just AWESOME. Seriously.
I can’t remember where in my swirl of mash notes I said that meeting you was a highlight of BlogHer so, in case I put it in my world and not yours, let me say it again.
I think this is probably the single best post-BlogHer post I’ve read, since your last one. You’ve inspired me to think about my experience in a whole new way.
Thank you.
nice list denise…the east coast location is a real plus on the making me want to go list for next year…as are posts like this and some of the others I’ve read…too bad blogging wasn’t around after the festivals years ago, I imagine the on-line conversations post-event would have been very similiar…with the exception of the men issues 😉
I don’t know either, Maria but I did see that you said that and it made me smile. I’m also glad you liked that post – I thought it was a pretty good idea, if I say so myself. (And I am good at saying so myself heh)
Good point, Lee. You should volunteer for the lesbo blogging panel next year, that Blogher will obviously need to add in order to keep the hounds at bay. Someone will have to record it though ’cause I’ll probably skip it. I’m a bad dyke, as you well know.
no, I don’t wanna be on the lesbo panel…I’ve paid my dues there 😉
Ugh, red eye flights. I’m with you. I had to take a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles, then from L.A. to Philly, then from Philly to Orlando. I’m about to turn 40 next month. That red-eye crap just don’t fly any more.
Ha we went from San Jose to Phoenix and the red-eye from Phoenix to Charlotte and then to Jax. I’m almost 43, no it doesn’t fly anymore.
Orlando, eh? Cool.
So, if none of us want to go to the lesbian panel, who does? Just that one lesbian who complained?
Were Sweetney’s shoes the cool Rocket Dog sneaks Leigh-Ann and I saw on Tuesday when we went shopping? http://tinyurl.com/ej2ag
P.S. I like the BlogHer posts.
What’s this corkscrew everybody keeps talking about? Is it possible that I somehow missed out on a valuable piece of schwag? I agree that there’s no point is tossing out gift bag items. I don’t have kids, but I took the bib to my office and gave it to a pregnant co-worker. On the other hand, the Elexa shirt is going to Goodwill. I don’t know anybody that tiny.
I broke my corkscrew in Santa Cruz! I couldn’t figure out how it worked…I left it in my room thinking maybe someone else could. ; )
Great post, Denise. I am so overwhelmed – in a good way, though – with everyone’s thoughts on this wonderful event. Sorry I didn’t get to meet you. Hopefully next year!
Hey! I gave you chocolate bars AND let you hug me. My god. Where’s the love.
You gave me chocolate? As in a Canadian candybar? No way? I thought it was some bubbley blonde mommyblogger who I didn’t know. Gosh Canadians are nice, I said that already. Do you need me to marry you or something? Heh.
OMG Laurie, I saw you out of the corner of my eye, at one point. When I stopped talking, to whoever I was talking to, you were gone!
Next year, for sure!
Well I don’t do money, but I’m happy to talk status. Status, self-confidence – they’re related.
Corkscrew is yellow plastic, looks sort of like a bullet (we thought it was a sex toy at first). It’s an odd little thing. I’ll take a picture of one and put it up here later this morning.
I don’t know flippy. Actually I would like to know who the lesbian is that needed to go home after the first night. I’d like to hear from her, talk to her, because I can’t wrap my head around what happened or what her expectations were. The panels were advertised for months. She should have known what she was attending, shouldn’t she?
Maybe they can get some really nice straight folk to speak for us. That would work.
You know, I probably would have figured out the corkscrew if it didn’t have “ménage à trois” written on it. THAT’s what threw me…
“Maybe they can get some really nice straight folk to speak for us. That would work.”
You are so NOT allowed to volunteer me for that one.
great idea….sassy can be the lesbo friendly blogger rep…I’m glad she thought of it 😉
Nope. I’m the token straight friend remember? You need me to hang out with you to keep things in balance. Since none of you would actually be at the session it would throw the balance of our little universe totally out of whack.