New Design

My blog has a new design!  I was getting tired of the old one and decided to switch it up a little.  To be honest, I'm not completely happy with this new layout, but it will work for now.  I have a lot of different posts coming up in November and I wanted a layout that would be easier for people to access.  I thought the text and lines on the old layout were a little hard to follow, so this more simple layout was born.

Why I Schedule Blog Posts + How To Schedule Your Posts

Scheduling blog posts is super important for me. Remembering to blog every day is such a hassle. Ain't nobody got time to sit in front of a computer every single day! I also have days where I feel super creative and want to blog all the things, and days where I don't have a single creative thought, so it makes sense for me to blog when I feel the most creative. If I wrote my posts in real time, there would definitely be posts that would outline the ways that I hate everyone and everything and I don't really want to bring everyone down with that. I'm also very reflective, so it takes a lot of time for me to comment on a situation because I have so many emotions about everything.

Scheduling blog posts is super easy to do with Blogger. All you have to do is click on "schedule" in the "post settings" area of Blogger when writing your post. From there, you can set the date and time you want your post to appear on your blog.

I Heart Blogging

You guys! I have been blogging successfully for 15 (week) days!

When I took my impromptu blog break, I wasn't sure if I was even going to come back to writing here. I'd get all excited to post something and then I'd go on Facebook and see someone's ridiculous post and never want to write anything for the Internet ever again. Then I just started writing here and couldn't stop. One thing that sets me apart from other bloggers is that I very rarely post a ton of words. I kind of show some pictures and post a couple sentences about what's going on and that's it. The reasoning for this is that I don't really have a ton of time to devote to blogging and social media. Social media has been sort of hit or miss for me lately. I kind of forget about it. I'm happy blogging this way, though, because it's very low maintenance. I don't have to do a 'photo shoot' for my blog. I just take some pictures and post them on the Internet. No pressure.

Aaand then I posted a ton of words in a post where I said 'I very rarely post a ton of words'! You know what I mean?!

My Fancy Blog Planner

You don't have to get a fancy planner to do a blog plan.

Here's my blog plans for September. Since I publish most of my posts ahead of time, I like to keep track of what's coming up and what I need to write.

I also may or may not have fancied it up with colored pencils. #nevergrowup

Back At It

Well hello there!  

I'm back at this blogging thing yet again.  I just can't stay away?

During my hiatus, I've thought about my blog a lot.  Some days I'm ready to put myself back out there and others I want to delete every.single.thing I've ever written.  You've caught me on a good day, though, so right now I'm totes back to writing here.  I'm just going to take it one day at a time for now.

How To Suck At Blogging

How To Suck At Blogging:

1. Abandon your blog.
Post consistently for a while and then just never post anything for months.  Don't leave a goodbye message either.  Just disappear into the wind.

3. Neglect social media..
When you're not posting on your blog, don't post on social media, either.  Make people think you're off the grid somewhere while you go about your business.  Constantly check social media, though, following your new twitter followers back but not replying to their messages.

3. Come back to blogging, promise new content & then disappear.
Make this big deal about your return to blogging and how happy you are to be back, promising tons of new content "coming soon".  Then make one other post and disappear for a week.

4. Schedule erratic new content on the wrong day/time.
When you finally decide to get it together and actually post some content, do so on the wrong date and/or time.  Or, better yet, have a completed #throwbackthursday post hanging out in your drafts when all you had to do was hit "publish".

 

Look at my "artsy" picture

5. Break your phone.
When you finally do decide to return to blogging "for real this time". make sure to break the camera on your phone so you get "artsy" shots like the one above.  Make sure your phone is so messed up that the camera will only focus about 2% of the time to actually take clear pictures.  Who needs to actually see what's going on anyway?

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But really, guys.  Even though all of those things happened to me and I do, in fact, suck at blogging, my computer has been having some issues which has made posting here difficult.  And by "issues", I mean taking 30404050505050522 years to load a single picture, if it even completes doing so.  Such virus.  Such computer savvy.

The Worst Thing I’ve Ever Done As A Blogger

You want to know the worst thing I’ve ever done as a “blogger”?

I shut my old blog down.

I was going through my old posts on that blog and discovered that my page views were actually climbing and I got some comments from bigger bloggers.

Aaand then I shut it all down.

What was I thinking?

If I would have just kept that blog going I could have been an #omgblogceleb or something.

Honestly, this blog sucks.  My page views suck.  My comment section sucks.  Everything sucks.  It sucks being at the bottom again.

But, since I’m at the bottom, there’s nowhere else to go but up, right?

Online, I’m Mysterious

I have such a love/hate relationship with this blog.

As I’ve mentioned briefly before, a couple years ago I used to have another blog.  That blog was way more anonymous.  I loved being anonymous because I could basically say and do whatever I wanted.  No one knew who I was in real life and it was awesome…for a while.

This blog?  rockin2thesound? People know that.  I’ve been @rockin2thesound on twitter forever. I’ve tweeted to and met people in person because of that platform.  People that I actually know in real life follow my tweets. I’m sure sometimes they read this blog because I tweet links to my blog posts on occasion.  That’s why it’s so difficult for me to let go on here.  When I write, I’m thinking in the back of my mind that someone I know might read it.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing because being an a-hole online isn’t my jam anymore.  Even though I still want to be the child, I feel like I’ve grown up a lot and adults don’t go around being a-holes on the internet.

I love this blog because it’s more of who I am, but I hate it because, well, it’s more of who I am.  Putting myself out there is difficult.  I think that’s why I haven’t really posted a ton of stuff here.  Being real just gets too real sometimes.  I also have to remember that my page views suck, so a ton of people aren’t reading this anyway!

What I’m trying to say is that I’m going to try to blog more often and get outside my comfort zone just a little without being an a-hole on the internet!  Let’s see how that goes!

Also, you should just read this post by Nicole.  She said all of this way better than I could.

How NOT To Be A Better Blogger

You guys, I want to be a better blogger.

I want to be all up in the #lifestyle blogger genre.

I’ve been Googling “winning at blogging” & reading a ton of stuff.

But um, here’s the thing…

I get distracted…a lot.

It happens every time.

I’m hardcore focused & then I’m like “Hey, let’s see what [insert random social media site/forum] is up to!  I can control this!  I’ll just look around for a sec & get right back to studying for the big ‘better blogger’ test I just made up in my head.”

Yeah right.  Two hours & a million tabs later & I suck at blogging!

Come on, girl, FOCUS!

Hi

Hi!

So...it's been a while since I've last written.  I guess the only excuse for my absence has been that my life has been fairly boring, which is totally a good thing.  I'd settle for a boring life any day of the week! 

Here's a little recap of some of the things I've been up to since I've been away:

READING  // About a million blog posts!  Even though I haven't been writing anything for my own blog, I absolutely love reading the blogs of others!  There are so many great bloggers out there & I love to see everyone's creativity.

WATCHING  //  So many shows!  Last year was all about the movie for me.  I watched about 200 movies last year.  For some reason, I just don't seem to have the patience for movies this year, so shows have been my jam.  There are only a couple shows that I watch in "real time"; the rest I've been catching on Netflix.  I always catch Revenge, The Goldbergs & Drop Dead Diva when they're on actual TV.  Some of the new (to me) shows I've been getting into are:  Lie to Me, Haven, House of Cards & Ringer.

LISTENING // I have to say that I'm so bad about music.  I listen to the same old songs over & over! I've been jamming out to Josh Thompson's new cd, Turn It Up. I also love me some Jon Pardi.  His Write You A Song cd is awesome.  I've been wanting to listen to the new Jerrod Niemann one as well.

REAL LIFE // is boring!  I've just been going to work & coming home & hanging out on the couch!  It's finally starting to feel like spring here, so I'm probably going to be outside a lot more.  I mowed the back yard last week & have yet to mow the front!  It's been raining here nonstop for days, so my yard is currently flooded.

Well, I guess that's it!  If this hasn't cured me of my blog funk, I don't know what will!