7 More Things About Me

VaBookworm tagged me with 7 Things About Me.

The rules are as follows:

A) Link to your original tagger. Post the rules.

B) The rules are Zen-like in their simplicity. Share 7 things about yourself.

For any who might be sweating at this point about being tagged - worry not. I'm leaving this one open to all players.

*rubbing hands together*

Okay - let's get started, shall we?


1 - I'm currently deep in obsession mode with the Absolution CD by Muse. I go on these on a regular basis. I sit down at the computer, put my headphones on, put the CD in and jam to the music while I write. It's the only way.




2 - I am a serious Russophile. Huh? A what-o-phile? A Russophile - someone in love with Russia and Russians.

I always have been, as far back as I can remember. There's no Russian connection in my family history. We're 13th-generation Canadians of French descent - Acadians.

I grew up in Nova Scotia, a serious chip off the Aulde Scotia block. Not much of a Russian emigre community here. But still, I can never get enough of all things Russian.

So I can't wait to watch this DVD Brad brought home for us this weekend. 1612 tells the story of the rise of Andrei, a servant in Boris Godunov's court, who rises to heroic status during the wars between the Russians and Poles. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!




3 - I'm currently reading Year of Wonders - A Novel of The Plague by Geraldine Brooks.



























4 - Whatever happens during the week, I know I'll get to have lunch with my best friend on Thursdays. Sigh. Like yesterday. She's my oasis of sanity in the madhouse.


5 - Because this has been my week at work.







6 - My garden beckons...

Soon, dear one!








7 - I'm gaga for these Real Fruit Gummies. The yogurty ones and the tropical ones. Yummy.



Nikki says Nice. Thanks for sharing!

Susan Helene Gottfried says Ooh, I hope you love Year of Wonders as much as I did.

Deeptesh says Wonderful.

2009 Blog Improvement Project - 7 - Making Your Blog More Comment-able and the Keeping it Real Tag

Here's what's up for April's part of the year-long challenge:

"April is going to be focused on comments. The interaction between bloggers and readers via comments is, to me, one of the best things about blogging, so I think this month will be fun.

Week #7 is going to be all about making your blog more comment friendly. I think it’s vital that once you get a new reader at your blog, it’s easy for them to engage with you by commenting on your posts.

Take an inventory of your blog comments. Write down how many comments you have as of today, then track how many comments you get per day over the next two weeks.

Pick 3-4 of the techniques from the articles (on ways to improve commenting at your blog) to implement over the next two weeks.

Spend these weeks trying to make your posts more comment friendly."

- Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

Here are several of the article ideas I'll be exploring in the coming weeks:

"Only 1 out of every 100 readers comment on your blog. Jakob Nielsen’s study finds that 90% of online community users are lurkers (read or observe without contributing) with only 9% of users contributing ‘a little’ and 1% actively contributing. The vast majority of readers leave a blog without leaving a comment or contributing to it in any way.

I find that when I include questions in my headings that it is a particularly effective way of getting a response from readers as you set a question in their mind from the first moments of your post. If someone leaves a comment interact with them. This gets harder as your blog grows but it’s particularly important in the early days of your blog as it shows your readers that their comments are valued."
- Darren Rowse, Problogger

"Berkeley Economist Brad DeLong was one of the first to use the term hoisting to describe highlighting user comments. His hoisted comments often inspire users to comment even more, and hoisting comments is another strong community building technique. Kent Fischer, education blogger for The Dallas Morning news, hoists comments to the level of their own posts. He looks for comments that deserve more attention, then makes a separate post for those strong comments that users can comment on, furthering the discussion."
- Patrick Thornton, BeatBlogging.org

In looking back at my two years of blogging, here are my highest-comments posts:

* the first time I received comments that went above 10 was my 3rd Thursday Thirteen post

* 30 comments for 13 Things For Which I Am Grateful

* 32 comments for 13 Favorite Things About Halifax

* 32 comments for 13 Reasons to Read Julianne MacLean

* 32 comments for 13 of My Favorite Peace Globes From Last Week's Blogblast For Peace

* 33 comments for 13 Works by Nova Scotia Artist Holly Carr

* 33 comments for 13 Ways to Enjoy Gerard Butler in Honor of His Birthday, Nov. 13th

* 36 comments for 13 Ways to Celebrate My Grandmother's 93rd Birthday

* 37 comments for 13 of Heath Ledger's Films

* 40 comments for 13 Paintings By My Sister-in-Law, Anna Baccin

* 42 comments for Introducing 13 of My Ancestors

* 43 comments for My Very First Contest

* 47 comments for 13 of My Mom's Paintings

* 56 comments for Rhian's Blogiversary

* 83 comments for My Second Contest

What can I see straight away?

2 of the highest amounts of comments came from contests.

1 came from a party, which generated a lot of back-and-forth conversation.

2 came from posts featuring actors - Gerard Butler and Heath Ledger.

4 came from art shows.

9 came from posts where the subject matter was very personal to me.

Nearly all of the highest-comment posts were Thursday Thirteen posts. The power of the popular meme!

All good to know. I have made it a basic part of my blogging routine to return the visit to everyone who comments here, and leave my own comment there. Recently I've begun responding to comments in my own comments section, which has been recommended for the April assignment.

Something new I'm going to do is the comment hoist. Claudia from On a Limb With Claudia does this regularly. Also, I'm going to try asking questions to stimulate discussion. This is what I love about the Blog Improvement Project - the constant pushing past my comfort levels.

And now - onto the Tag! You're it!

VaBookworm from Confessions of a Bookworm nabbed me for this one earlier in the week. Ever the honourable blogger, I answered her challenge - and had my husband immediately take my picture as-is, as soon as I read the tag.

Keepin' it Real

Here are the rules:

Take a picture of yourself right now.
No primping or preparing.
Just snap a picture.
Load the picture onto your blog.
Tag some people to play.
NO CHEATING!

Okay. Here's my picture, taken a few days ago after work, in my comfies ready for blogging.














And now, a-tagging I will go, a-tagging I will go...

Dorothy
Dorte H
Ryan Ashley
Sheila
Shelley

Ladies...I throw down the glove.

Leah Braemel is trying to read the titles on the spines of those books. *squinting*

Travis says before I started my own blog, I lurked quite a bit.

Ryan Ashley Scott is amazed at the 1 in 100 visitors percentage.

Akelamalu says if I comment on someone's blog a few times and get no response I stop visiting that blog as I feel I am just wasting my time. Definitely with you on that one.

Dorothy and Dorte H took up the challenge!

Welcome! Welcome to Julia's Fantastical and Phenomenal Awards Spectacular

Gather round, come in! Come in! I know it's starting to warm up and the birds are starting to sing, but we've got an awards show to get to. Let's stop for a second and let the paparazzi get their shots - better the red carpet ones than the up-the-nose ones through the windows of the limosine. Don't you hate those?













Let's go in, let's go in. Okay - let's check our tickets. Main orchestra, center. Ooo - great seats! Oh, I'm a little bit nervous. I know, I know, I don't look it. But I just need to take a deep breath. I really don't like getting up in front of people and speaking. Blogging - yes! Public speaking - *knees knocking*











The lights are going down to a quarter. We'd better get to our seats. Okay. The curtains open. Akelamalu strides onstage.

She's handing out the You Stand Out From the Crowd Award.

















"Our concern must be to live while we're alive. To release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade."

- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

"This award is free to go to anyone whom the award recipient chooses," says Akelamalu. "For any reason!"

Oh, boy - time to head up onstage. Thank you, Akelamalu! ((hug)) I'm so pleased to receive this. You know, I've never been one to be shy about my individual nature. So this award means a lot to me. I'll be passing this along to other uncommonly distictive bloggers at the end of the ceremony.

Coming from you - whose blog Everything and Nothing always delivers on the first and completely lacks in the second - makes this award even more delightful. Though you don't think of yourself as a writer of anything other than your blog, your Friday Flash Fiction never ceases to blow me away. And your Saturday Wordzzles always take readers on a twisty journey of compact and accomplished writing. An average of 30 daily commenters can't be wrong!

Let's welcome Louise now, who's presenting the Let's Be Friends Award.










"She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."

- Toni Morrison

Louise invites VaBookworm from Confessions of a Bookworm to join her at the podium.

"This award goes to blogs which are exceedingly charming," Louise says. "VaBookworm, you're a perfect example. Your blog aims to find and be friends with other bloggers. And it's where Julia gets her fix of sword-swinging by watching your avatar."

"Louise," VaBookworm says, laughing. "You're a perfect example of a blogger not interested in self-aggrandizement. This award hopes that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Think of who you've already met through the Blog Improvement Project."

"Stop it," Louise says. "Julia - get up here already!"

((hugging Louise and VaBookworm)) Louise! Thank you so much. Your Lous_Pages is a place to lose oneself in your Egyptology feature, your abundant book reviews and your intriguing Wordless Wednesday posts. I also love your Weekly Geeks participation (a theme-inspired prompt) and Tuesday Teasers which gives us a peek at what you're reading.

And VaBookworm, your frank confessions of weirdness only endear you to all your readers. Because we spazz, too - over all the same stuff. At least you have an actual British longbow that you can shoot in your backyard while listening to Robin Hood or Braveheart soundtracks. I just write about sword swingers. I don't have a sword of my own...Yet.










"Help one another, is part of the religion of sisterhood."

- Louisa May Alcott

Dorte H now takes the stage. "I'm here to present the Sisterhood Award. I met Julia through my fellow Danish blogger, Louise. I feel we share the same sort of attitude and gratitude about the world. So come on up, Julia."

Here's a ((hug)) for Dorte H. One of the first things I remarked upon when I visited DJs Krimiblog were her beautiful tins which she used as a header for her Bait in the Box feature. 'Hidden' in the tins are excerpt clues from crime fiction, which she uses to encourage readers to guess the books they come from. I shared my collection of tins with her which she's now using for Bait in the Box, along with other submissions from sister bloggers. The beauty of our blogging sisterhood is the closeness we can share, even when one of us is in Denmark and the other in Canada.

VaBookworm takes the stage one more time.











"It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions."

- Charles F. Kettering

"The Uber Amazing Blog Award goes to bloggers who inspire you, make you smile and laugh, give amazing information, are a great read, has an amazing design, and any other reason you can think of that makes them uber amazing. Julia - come back out so I can give you this enormous pink bow award!"

One more ((hug)) to you, VaBookworm. Oh, my. I'm really touched - really. I enjoy blogging so much because of the creative outlet it gives me, because it's a way to share ideas with other bloggers and with readers who don't blog but who stop by and read. But most of all, I enjoy blogging because I've met so many wonderful, marvellous blogging friends. Thank you - all of you - for making this blog one of the happiest parts of my day.

Now, because this is a multi-awards presentation, I won't keep to the suggested amounts for passing them along. Most of them request 5 or 7 recipients. For this event, however, I'll keep all awards to 2 nominations each, except for the Let's Be Friends Award, since I received it twice - I'll pass along 4 of those.

The You Stand Out From the Crowd Award goes to:

Apprentice Writer
Travis

The Let's Be Friends Award goes to:

Bobbi
Heather
Nikita
Robin

The Sisterhood Award goes to:

The women at Romance Bandits
My fellow bloggers at Popculturedivas

The Uber Amazing Blog Award goes to:

Daily Mish Mash
Kim