the laanba blog

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I have been getting slammed with spam comments the last few weeks so I have changed authentification for commenters.  You will have to sign in with Twitter, Facebook , Typepad or if you click the more button you will get many more options.  I hate this!  I don't like having to sign in to leave a comment but I am hoping this will stop, or at least slow, the spam.

If not then this summer I will be moving this site to SquareSpace.  That makes me sad because I've been on Typepad for about 8 years and as you well know I hate change.  But I hate these spammy comments with nothing happening on Typepad's side more. 

8

Eight years ago today I started my very first blog.  I remember fussing over design and color and blog rolls and being so worried about what I was going to post and how it was going to sound and what people would think.  I was such a dork.

These days this blog is run for a lot of the same reasons it was in the early days.  It is my personal journal.  It is my personal space on the internet. Even in the heydey of blogging I was never a big name with lots of visitors, but it was never really about that.  It was about having a place to get these thoughts that bounce around (sometimes to my detriment) out of my head and down in written form.  Having a place where I can add my voice to the collective even if I am the only one listening to my voice.

So happy blogiversary to me.  I'm so glad I was brave enough to hit publish that very first time eight years ago today. 

Blogging

I stumbled into some archives today from 2007.  What a trip down memory lane.  My blogging has changed a great deal since then.  I used to blog every day and I would have comments from actual readers and people that would post on their own blogs.  I miss those days.

I feel like I can't get my brain to focus long enough to write a blog entry.  That's a bad thing.  I briefly considered this weekend leaving this blog behind and just going for something on Tumblr where I just post links,etc. with no need to string words together but I couldn't bring myself to leave all my history here behind.  This site has a wide swath of my 30s documented on it and soon to be 40s.   I like blogging and I miss blogging.  I just have to get my brain settled down long enough to do it.

Never fear though because it is on my radar for my new year's resolutions.  More on that coming soon.

Blogging

Very proud of myself because I blogged every day this week at both this blog and my photo blog.  It's been a long time since that happened.  I doubt I can keep the every day thing up but I certainly hope I can keep the regular frequency up.

Visitors have dropped considerably at both places since I changed the name (more here than the photoblog which is picking back up), but that is to be expected.  I tried to notify my regulars and I just hope the others will find me.  It is taking me back to the days of blogging for myself because hardly anyone is reading it anyway.  The first days of blogging.  Not that I had a large readership anyway.  Both blogs are generalist type blogs and we live in an era of content specific blogs.  If I focused on one area with my photography or one area with my blog I could probably build a large readership.  But I like to be able to blather on about anything here and I like posting photos from Panama one week and Houston the next on my photoblog so they will remain as they are.

However in the back of my mind I still want to do something Houstson specific, either a blog or photoblog, but I just don't know what or how or if I'll have the time.  I think that one reason I was able to keep up with these two places this week is that it was only two places and since they are generalist and personal  I don't have to cater to a specific audience.  A Houston specific blog/photoblog would have to be more carefully crafted and I'm not sure I have the time.  But part of me still wants to do it so I am going to let it stew.  

More Change

More fallout from blog changes.  I've decided to take everything back to laanba.  I'm essentially returning to where I was 6 years ago which is amusing to me.   I left that behind in search, of who knows what.  Some grand idea of internet blogging rightness, but I have found that I was never 100% settled into that.  I am laanba and laanba is me and that is who I should be everywhere online.  To that end I've changed the URL here at the blog and am in the process of changing my photoblog over.  Most people wouldn't do such a thing because it breaks a million links and I will be breaking a million as well, but I don't have that large a readership as it is and I can live with some broken links.  My primary email address will be changing over as well.  I'm leaving photine behind.

Another thing that is nearing its end is Assignment: Houston.  I'm not saying this one 100% but the time is coming soon to close up shop over there.  I just started a photowalks group associated with it and I'm not sure if I'll continue the photowalks group or let that go away as well.  We are doing our first photowalk next weekend so that will help me decide.  Flickr participation has changed, group participation has changed (dropped) and the internet is constantly changing.  I want to keep a Houston group going somedays, but other days I don't want to be the one to have to run it.  It would be nice to be just a normal person with a camera in Houston instead of running something. Sometimes I want to spin Assignment: Houston off as its own blog, but then I'm not sure what the voice is or how to approach it.  I am very undecided about the future of that group and brand.  I've taken the website down for now.  I have assignments and photowalks scheduled through November. I feel like I need to have a voice and place for Houston photographers to assemble, but it may be something different than Assignment: Houston and it may not be on Flickr at all.  I'm not sure.

So more changes ahead. 

New Year!

I should have been in bed an hour ago.  I suck at this go to bed early thing.  Let me just get a couple things that have been rattling around my head down and then I'm off to bed.  

These last two weeks at work have slowly helped me to sort out how and when I am going to handle my renewed interest in blogging.  I realize for sure that I have to process all photos for the upcoming week during the weekend before.  I don't have to write the posts all that weekend (I've done that before) but the photos do have to be processed and exported.  I just don't have the time to do it otherwise.  If I'm smart I'll set up the post the night before so my morning is free.  I'm also going to be going back to every day posting at least for a while.  I still have a lot of photos to get through.

As for Assignment: Houston posting I haven't figured that one out yet.  I need to find a time to write over there the way that I want to.  It has already fallen into the neglected pile as soon as I started work.  Those posts take more time and research and I'm just not sure where it is going to fit into my schedule, but I must make it fit somewhere.  As for this blog I've gotten way better at just dumping everything on the page and getting it posted.  The flow feels good here.

A couple of other things for the new school year.  I'm starting up the One Week challenges again and my 52 week photo project.  For the One Week challenge I try to change one habit for one week.  I'm not too worried about whether it carries over or not.  I just want to try a week with the habit.  This week I'm cutting sugar out as much as possible.  I mean cookies, candies, cake, sweets, ice cream.  All the things I adore. This one was partially spurred on by the fact that prednisone really does a doozy on you if you are eating too much sugar.  That is one seriously wacked out medicine.  As for the 52 weeks project, I am going to take a self portrait once a week.  My particular spin on it is that they will be mirror project photos so they will be reflections and all the photos for the project will be taken with my iPhone.  I'll post those here and at Flickr.

No big school year resolutions.  Just trying to get my life back into a routine.  Happily.  I love setting up routines.  I'm just not so good at following them.

Going Back

I've gotten a lot figured out since I wrote this blog post 9 days ago.  I decided to to take over the Assignment Houston website.  I've decided to continue my photographs on Photine.  There will be occasional cross over between the two.  And the final decision I made  yesterday somewhere between Austin and Dripping Springs where I was going for a wedding.  I decided to make laanba the name that ties them all together.  

When I first chose photine as a name and in the time since  I have struggled with branding.  As I mentioned before I didn't really like the name.  It is ok but as an identity it is not my favorite.  But for some reason I felt like everything had to be matching.  So I slowly transitioned everything over mentally.  But now I hope to develop two strong brands (well strong for me) and I want them associated with me.  And I am and have always been laanba.  At least in my mind.  So I'm going back.  Assignment Houston is a website written by laanba.  Photine is a website by laanba.  Flickr photos are posted by laanba.  This personal blog is by laanba.  It feels good and it is right.  Now to get everyone used to the name.

I used this name when I first started, but in case you are new, it is the first two letters of my first name, first two letters of my middle name and first two letters of my last name.  It truly is me.

Progress

I've made some progress on the subject of my last post.  I've decided to take over the Assignment Houston website and give it a personal spin.  I liked some of the aspects of Houston Photobloggers and the Assignment Houston website, but it always felt like a chore because I couldn't be myself.  I was trying to be an official voice.  I'm really not sure what I'm going to do, but I know this is the right decision.  I still have a few things to work out for example where I'm going to post photos that I want to share on this site.  Flickr seems  a logical place, but it is more for my second string photos.  I'm not sure I want to put photos I take specifically for the website there.  Unless maybe I start another Flickr account.  But then I run into that split voice thing again.  Lots to suss through, but I'm making definite progress.

Once I got that down I need to figure out what I'm going to do about this blog.  So many times I sit down to write a post and after typing a few words I turn away.  I just don't feel like writing long form.  I think 140 characters now thanks to Twitter or simple sentences and the Like button thanks to Facebook.  I know there must be solution.  

Why Blog?

I've been thinking recently about why I keep this blog.  Don't worry, I know that sounds ominous but I'm not getting rid of my blog.  At least not now. But why do I blog?  

It has been a journal that has been with me a long time, and when it started it was the only way I had to share things going on with me.  I have to admit that Twitter and Facebook have changed the way I share my personal news.  That's a very hard admission for me to make.  People talk about the blog being dead and I hate that, but I have to admit that things change.  I do not react well to change.  It's not like I'm going to be blogging when I'm 70.  Or will I?  Why do I blog?  

All the cool kids are using Tumblr as a new more dynamic form of blog.  I'm not wild about Tumblr and probably won't move over there, but one day there might be a compelling alternative to the traditional blog and I'll have to make some decisions.  And that day I'll really have to know why I blog.

Peek a Boo

I have been falling behind on all kinds of projects including the 52 weeks reflection project, my once a week resolutions and my long time project of blogging.  Spring Break was not relaxing in the least.  Instead it was a whirlwind of activity and two late nights last week and a high stress load seems to have continued the trend.  This weekend was mostly whirlwind with a couple of hours of watching TV and feeling guilty for not being a whirlwind.  I'm not even sure I know how to relax anymore.  Sounds like I need to put it on my list of resolutions.  But first up.  My blog.  This week's one week resolution is to blog every day this week.  Even if I just put up a sentence or two or a random picture.  I need to get back into the habit.  So here we go.  Peek a Boo.  Hopefully I'll see you all this week.