Happy Blogiversary

Three years ago, this exact day, this exact minute, I posted my first post to Science Fiction Mommy.  Three years.  Wow.  It's hard to believe it's been that long, but also hard to believe it hasn't been longer.  (Actually, it's hard to believe Zaxxon is so old now!  He was smaller than Kal'El is now when I started!)

I'd wax eloquent on the topic, but in actuality it's very late and I'm scheduling this post for tomorrow (the best way to get it on the precise minute required.)  So I'm tired, and off to bed.

Happy Blogiversary to Me!  And thank you for sticking it out with me!

Spam, spam, spam, spam (hums Monty Python)

Wow.  A little while back, I took the word verification off my blog to make it a little easier to make comments, based on advice I'd read somewhere on the internet.  The premise was that people are a little more likely to comment if they have fewer hoops to jump through.  The same person said spam comments aren't much of an issue unless your blog is huge, and if you get one, just delete it.  "Sure," I thought.  "Why not?"

Well, thank goodness Blogger has a spam filter.  I don't look to see whether comments need moderating very often (I don't require moderation unless the post is older, and that's just to make sure I know it's there) so I didn't notice that my spam folder was filling up.  In just under a month, I got 15 spam comments in my spam folder.  I can only assume they began after I took off the word verification (I don't remember what day that was.)

It's pretty amazing that my blog is big enough to generate spam.  I don't get all that many visitors.  But at least the filters seem to be holding for now.  Whether or not I'll keep the word verification off remains to be seen, based on whether the spam becomes a nuisance.

Do you ever get spam on your blog?

Happy Blogiversary

Two years ago today, I launched Science Fiction Mommy.  I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, to be honest.  A small part of me hoped that I would quickly garner a large following and, with Google AdSense and Amazon Associates, I'd start making some income off of it.  Well, that didn't happen so I'm glad I didn't have too many hopes pinned on that eventuality.  But my real goal had been to connect with other writers and hold myself accountable when it came to my writing.  The first of those I've done, though on a small scale.  I always want to network more, but it tends to be toward the bottom of my priority list.  The second is where Science Fiction Mommy has helped me the most.  Thanks in part to the blog, I've been writing daily for more than a year now, and keeping up with submissions.  The community I've discovered has also helped me remain motivated.  Thank you everyone!

It's been an interesting two years, and life will continue to amaze me.

I guess I'm not that kind of blogger

I learned some interesting things last week during the Ultimate Blog Party, both about myself and the world of blogging.  One of the most interesting to me is the fact that some people hoard followers like many people I've encountered hoard Facebook friends.

It seems like there's a big competition to get as many followers as possible, regardless of whether said followers actually read your blog.  I got quite a few comments from people who were blog hopping saying nothing but "hi from the UBP, I'm your newest follower, I'd appreciate a follow back."  Some of these people aren't even following (or if they are, they did it in some way that's invisible to me--is there a way to know if someone subscribed to one of your feeds in a way other than Google Friend Connect?)  One person really did follow but removed herself a day later after I made a return trip to her blog but didn't follow her.  Well, I have a confession to make:  Google Friend Connect means nothing to me.  I used it a little at the beginning, but I didn't really like the layout.  Now if I build up a rapport with other writer-bloggers (meaning we both make several visits to each other) I'll eventually add them to my "Fellow Writers" blogroll, which best helps me keep track of when they post something new.  The other blogs I check regularly I just have bookmarks to.  If I start reading a larger number of non-writing-related blogs I might eventually have to start using some sort of feed burner, but I haven't felt the need so far.  I joined some blogs just for giveaways a while back, and to be honest, I don't even know what I'm supposedly "following" anymore.  Which, I suppose, means I could follow people just as a favor, but mostly I don't see a point.  This isn't to say I don't like connecting with people, and if people joined my blog out of a genuine interest they are MORE than welcome here.  But I just find it interesting how followers and following blogs seems to be a status symbol for many out in the blogging community.

Now, I guess some people with really commercial blogs might want those followers for something to do with sponsors and money, but that's also not me.  Don't get me wrong, I would love for this blog to start earning me revenue--I did sign up for Google AdSense, after all, not that anybody ever clicks on my ads.  At the rate I'm going, I'll get a $100 check once every 6 years or so.  (Yowza, I'm rich!)  I also signed up for Amazon Associates at the beginning and that probably had a better shot of earning me income considering that 1) my blog is book related and 2) I have plenty of friends and family who would have gotten to Amazon through me when they needed to buy stuff.  However, Colorado passed some weird tax law not long after I signed up, causing Amazon to drop all Colorado Associates.  Since that time I've decided that while it would be nice to make money from my blog, I'm not going to put the time and effort required into getting it to that point, because frankly, I'd rather be writing.

This has mainly made me stop and think about what I'm blogging for.  And the biggest benefit I've received from blogging is that it helps me hold myself accountable with my writing.  Scroll back up to the top of the page, if you would, and take a look at the very first item in my right sidebar.  The blue number with the pale green background.  Yup, that's the number of consecutive days that I've spent writing fiction in some form or another.  Some days I've written thousands of words, many others it was all I could do to write 150 or 200 sleep-deprived words before dragging myself off to bed; some days it's just editing and rewriting, and yet other times it's research, but it's always directly related to a piece of fiction.

I long wanted to get into the habit of writing every day, but years went by without my pulling together the self-discipline to do so.  But then something happened last year around about September:  I was really enthused about the novel I was working on and I wanted to work on it every day.  After I hit 30 consecutive days, I thought it would be fun to put a counter on my blog to keep track of how long I could go without stopping, kind of like the "Days Without Accident" counters at construction sites.  And as more time went by, I found I really didn't want that thing to reset to zero.  And I still don't.  Telling the world (even this tiny corner of it) what kind of progress I'm making has been a great motivator for me, and has really helped me become a more disciplined--and therefore more productive and better--writer.  Some days are better than others, of course, but I've managed not to stop.  And that has been a tremendous accomplishment.

Connecting with people has been a great benefit as well.  It's nice to get encouragement from others, whether it's a "congratulations" when I accomplish something or a "you can do it" when I express frustration.  And I don't blog exclusively about writing.  It goes back and forth, but I try to maintain about a 50/50 ratio between writing-related posts and posts about my wonderful son (or life in general.)  I enjoy posting about things my son has done and the projects we do together.  Being a stay-at-home-parent can be isolating (especially in my neighborhood, which we unfortunately failed to move out of) so I like being able to show my son off, share both proud and frustrating parenting moments, and connect with others on that score.

Since I've noticed that I'm different from most of the bloggers at the UBP, will I do it again next year?  Probably.  But I'll likely limit myself to looking for other writers and returning the visits of those who came to visit me.  Although in another year or two, I hope to have a prize to give away that would interest other parents (the blog hosting the party is called 5 Minutes for MOM, after all):  I'm hoping that soon hubby and I can get our children's Christmas book published, and a children's book would be something that would draw parental interest.  (Only one person answered my question and said in her comment that she would like to win a scifi anthology, and that person also happens to be a real-world friend of mine.)

In conclusion, if you became a follower from the Ultimate Blog Party, please don't think I don't appreciate you.  If you're actually reading this it means you came back for another look, something I suspect the follower-hoarders don't do.  I will be trying to keep up with many of the people I connected with through the party, though I will likely be sporatic because, as I said before, writing takes priority in my limited free time.  But please don't get offended if I don't follow your blog--that's just not the way I read blogs.

"Days Without Not Writing" New Counter

Once again, I'm pretending I know how to write code.

Apparently there aren't many Count Up Timers available online, at least if you only want to diplay days (as opposed to counting by the second or millisecond.)  Therefore, I thought I would provide a link and details about the one I found and am using for my new "Days Without Not Writing" Counter.

http://www.hashemian.com/tools/javascript-countdown.htm


JavaScript Countdown/Count-up Timer/Clock/Ticker for Web Pages

Cost-free and advertising-free. But a link to his page is appreciated (by him, duh.)
Note: This service comes with NO GUARANTEES. No liability is assumed.
(Science Fiction Mommy assumes no liability either)

• A free and simple JavaScript countdown/Count-up timer/clock/ticker to/from the target date and time of your choice. Just copy and paste to your Web pages. You can also customize the display format, foreground and background colors of the countdown timer.
• You can omit most parameters. Default values will be used in that case. CountActive is used to enable to disable counting. If you only want to show a fixed static time-remaining message, set it to false. It'll save on browser resources.
• DisplayFormat allows you to format the countdown/Count-up display to your liking. For example, instead of the default English, you can use terms from your own language, or make any other desired adjustments, like omitting the Seconds segment.
• Use FinishMessage to display a desired message (or nothing, i.e. ""), when countdown reaches zero. Obviously never displayed when counting up.
• CountStepper specifies the step value or period (in seconds) for the counter. Use positive number for counting up, negative number for counting down. Value is rounded up to next integer. When specifying positive (count up), be sure to specify past TargetDate, otherwise only the finish message is displayed.
• Single digits are displayed with leading zeros, unless LeadingZero is set to false.
• Here's the simple JavaScript countdown/count-up code (copy and paste to your Web page):

Note from Eileen:  you'll need to change the [ to < and the ] to > every time they appear--keeping the code as code just added the timer to this post

[script language="JavaScript"]

TargetDate = "12/31/2020 5:00 AM";
BackColor = "palegreen";
ForeColor = "navy";
CountActive = true;
CountStepper = -1;
LeadingZero = true;
DisplayFormat = "%%D%% Days, %%H%% Hours, %%M%% Minutes, %%S%% Seconds.";
FinishMessage = "It is finally here!";
[/script]
[script language="JavaScript" src=http://scripts.hashemian.com/js/countdown.js][/script]

See the top right of my blog for what this looks like with days only, Verdana font size 30
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• Countdown FAQ
• Please consider putting the script on your own site and save him (me too!) from high usage warnings.
• Since this countdown/count-up runs on the client browser, it's best to append to the target date the appropriate UTC (Universal Time Coordinates) offset for the location of your event.
• For example, if the sample code above is for US Eastern Standard Time, you'd specify TargetDate as:
• "12/31/2020 5:00 AM UTC-0500". This way an accurate countdown is displayed for all users regardless of their geographic location. Thanks to Justin Carter for the tip.
• Mun Rashid has modified the JavaScript code by using object wrapping to allow for multiple countdowns on one page. Download Mun's JavaScript code here. Download the sample HTML here.
• Tilesh Khatri has written a simplified script based on the countdown code that displays multiple clocks on one page. Download the HTML.
• (Go to the page I got this from for the above two links)
• To reset the clock and count up with every page visit set TargetDate to "new Date();" and CountStepper to "1". This will effectively show visit duration. Leave out the double-quotes.