Category Archives: witch-ways

(Re)Finding My Voice

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Thanks to #WSC2018Conf for the push.

1370 days ago, I wrote my last post on this blog.

A lot can happen in 1370 days. Some things that didn’t:

I haven’t moved yet. My timeline to get out is shorter now that the building is conditionally sold, but as of today I’ve officially lived in the same place for 21 years. It’s very unlikely we’ll make 22.

I am still working for the same organization. I started at CCVO in September 2014, just a little over a month before I stopped blogging. I am, however, in a completely different position from the one I was hired to do.

I’m still a Witch. 26 years and counting. Maybe doing a little less ritual these days, but still have a dedicated space to light a candle.

So what changed? 1369 days ago, my Grams passed away. I wouldn’t say that was the impetus for why I stopped blogging it does, in hindsight, represent what I would call my loss period (if I were a famous Canadian painter).

Some of the loss was positive. I dropped a lot of weight which led to a renewed love of swimming and a new love of running. I paid off a lot of debt and started an emergency fund. I sold some stuff, donated some stuff to charity, and made plans to purge more. (FYI I’m selling a lot this month at the sale. Come buy my things and help fund my upcoming move!)

Some was less so. I took bold steps toward building possible futures and none of them worked out. Some people died. I stopped talking to some people and some stopped talking to me. There was a lot of turnover at my workplace. I quit boards and helped close the carshare.

So why did I stop blogging? Really, there was no one specific reason. But if its absence is the perfect reflection for this period of my life, may its return herald a change for the better. #blessedbe

Happy Birthday!

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Three Generations - Just a little surprised

It’s my Dad’s 70th Birthday today. Yesterday we surprised him with a birthday party of family and friends – he TOTALLY didn’t know it was happening until the elevator arrived at the “wrong floor” – and I made sure to grab a quick photo before everything got crazy.

Three Generations - Awesome tiara, Dad.

My Dad was the person to get me into computers – back when I was 8 years old. I remember him playing on a TRS-80 at Eaton’s (geez, this sounds so dated!). Not only did he purchase one for our house, and push for them in our school, but he then helped organize computer  classes for adults in the evening for our community. My sister and I also went to computer classes (Basic and Logo) during the summer at a local Radio Shack, and I was lucky enough to accompany him on a few meetings of the computer user group that he has joined. That wasn’t all he did, of course. Beyond the “usual” dad stuff like coaching teams and making sure I got my homework in (mostly) on time, he:

  • Made me practice (over and over and over) until I mastered parallel parking, a skill that’s come in handy more times than I can count.
  • Drove 14+ hours to take me on a campus tour of Augustana and then, when I decided that was where I wanted to be, drove back and forth several times over the next few years to bring me home on holidays.
  • Taught me that “measure twice, cut once” works for everyone else, but maybe I would be better off letting someone else measure instead. (Three times, three different numbers, a lot of laughter.)
  • Told me that I could do it, and then cheered when I did. (Well, except for that measuring thing, but I guess he also showed me that sometimes getting help is a good thing.)

Happy Birthday Dad! Thanks for being the most awesome you that you could be. (Oh, and I’m probably still using your computer to upload things to Dropbox, so thanks for that too.)

31 Days to a Brand New Blog: Day 14

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(or “I never was one for doing things in order)

Website Update: My posts are now showing up on Facebook again.

Yes, I’m behind, but I m working to catch up. Expect a bunch of posts this weekend! Day 14’s challenge is to Add (or Remove) Widgets to Your Blog’s Sidebar. So, here’s what I removed:

  • Moon Phase Widget
  • “Helping Hands” (websites on which I gave advice or got through a challenge)
  • “Original Site Designs” (websites I used to work on – only one was really current)
  • “Previous Site Designs” (why do I want to remind myself of things best forgotten?) 
  •  Digg Widget (I never was a fan of mafias anyway)
  • LibraryThing Widget (tag clouds aren’t my thing today)

Wow, that’s a lot of space on my sidebar now – space that I can use to promote my writing instead. After all, shouldn’t the blog be about what I’m doing?

31 Days to a Brand New Blog: Day 3

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(or “just who are you, anyway?”)

Ongoing Blog Woes: While I may have migrated this blog to its original domain, I broke my email. Blogger, GoDaddy and Telus are now competing for my soul  working to resolve the issue. 

***


Today’s assignment: Tweak the About Page for Your Blog. While I don’t have an About Page at this point, I do have the little piece at the top. Look up, way up – wait, no, I’ll share it here:

Welcome! If you’re new to the witch-ways experience, don’t worry. All you need to know is that I’ve been online and involved with technology, website development and training in the nonprofit world since 1994.* (I also work with women in small businesses to give them a “helping hand”.)

I’ve got a lot of projects on the go, and most are listed on the sidebar. Contact info’s also on the sidebar aussi.

I’m not into posting rates, but if you’re interested in learning more about technology and nonprofits, drop me a line. I’d love to work with you!

Well, that certainly could use some tweaking – especially as I’m not doing the nonprofit/website thing so much anymore. (Being a Masters student is taking up all of that time now.) Or I could start with my Twitter bio:

Radical Feminist Witch, Geeker Girl, Single Mom, NonProfit Director/Consultant, Board Member (Calgary Carshare, Project Ploughshares), Masters Student and more!

I actually had someone tell me that she had to follow me after reading that, so it can’t be all bad, right? 


**


I started this post on Day 3, and now it’s Day 7 and I’m still stalled. I’ve searched around the net and found examples of what I like in an “About Me” page, like this page on Sera Gamble’s site, that have made me think I need to develop more of a “whole page” piece then just a couple of paragraphs. So, in the interest of continuing the series, I’m going to post this and keep working behind the scenes on my page. Expect to see it before the end of the month!





31 Days to a Brand New Blog: Day 1

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(or, “why ignoring your email always comes back to haunt you”)

Happy August! And Happy 2010! Yes, I haven’t been blogging in over a year now. Instead I’ve been putting my time into other things, like:

  • starting my Masters’ Degree (MAIS) at Athabasca – two courses down, ten to go.
  • single parenting – how did my kid get so big?
  • politics – hey, there’s always an election just around the corner!
  • and Twitter, my new source of all things new and notable.

But when I ran across the 31 Days to a Brand New Blog challenge on Twitter, I thought it was time to get back to blogging. So, here I am with today’s challenge: Analyze Your Blog’s Traffic by installing Google Analytics.

But first, I had to deal with the ignored emails – specifically, the ignored emails that told me Blogger was discontinuing their FTP program. After a bit of work, I’ve think I’ve got the blog publishing again (we’ll see for sure once I hit “Publish Post”) with the code for Google Analytics in place. Cross your fingers!

OK, so it’s been a while…

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… but at least I still remembered my password!

Yes, life got busy for a while. Anyone who knows me knows what’s been happening. The rest of you can make something up – use your imaginations!

My jonesing for website development is currently being satisfied at www.bowcliffseniors.org, where I’ve been the Executive Director since last October. I’ve also become addicted to Facebook along with half of my former high school. (Mostly they find me through my sister, who was way more social than I was during that period in our lives.)

I’m starting my next-to-last class at MRC tonight, which should take up even more of my time, which has become even more constrained since the single-mom thing started in March.

Oh, and I’m in the news today:

Anders’ absence angers seniors

This ‘Bart’ never punished

And to think moving from the violence against women sector to the seniors sector would be less political!