Outta here
We’re about to head out on our annual Twins road trip (and meet Artemisia!), and hopefully, we’ll manage to experience the elusive weather phenomenon known as “warmer than 70 degrees.” Work is cooperating for both of us by being “stupid, dumb and super-duper busy.”
I did manage to finally update the About Us and Contact Us pages, though. (This new template is not as user-friendly as the last one, so don’t ask me why the date on the Contact Us page is from 2006. I’m begging you.) Enjoy!
Question time: How did you come up with the name for your blog? Was it something that’s been an inside joke for years, or was the name the result of frantic searching to find something that wasn’t already taken? And is your blog a secret, or do people you know in real life read it? Back stories, please!
I’ve been meaning to post this on my own blog for a long time, because I think people think I’m an anti-feminist freak. But the story is…
I had a class in college that was small (maybe 8 students)and partly graded on participation, and being a science/math nerd I hated classes like that. It didn’t help that I rarely did the reading before class.
I was explaining to a friend of mine that I always just tried to answer the first question the professor asked, because it was usually the easiest. But most of the time instead of replying with a coherent answer I would just ramble and be met with stunned silence. And instead of reassuring me that I probably didn’t sound stupid, my friend just said “Yeah, and you know everyone is thinking ‘Oh, great. The dumb chick is talking again.’”
So the phrase just stuck, and when I was registering a domain name that is what came to me. The end.
Comment by Ami — May 14, 2008 @ 12:01 pm
Well, the name of my blog is stupid and boring. And I’m sure I will live to regret it if we one day move out of Texas (PLEASE GOD). Still, the Don’t Mess With Texas thing is sort of a big joke in our families since it is plastered EVERYWHERE here and it’s so, so, silly.
I bet at least half of us would pick something different if we could do it over.
I love the story behind your blog title, btw. I don’t even have to reread the About Me thing to remember Jason “sailing with the Captain”. Ha!
Comment by Tessie — May 14, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
Blog name was taken from my daughter’s nickname. But now that we are having another baby, I considering changing it. Is it weird (unfair, whatever?) to have a blog named after one child and not the other?
Comment by My Buddy Mimi — May 14, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
How I came up with the name for my blog: About the time I started the blog, one of my nieces was getting married, and I started thinking about having four girls and the expenses that was going to rack up, particularly when it came to weddings, and that one of us would have to die to collect the life insurance to be able to pay for it all. Thus Four Weddings and a Funeral was born. There also being a movie by that name was a bonus. There wasn’t much searching for a url, since the only other option for the url was to spell out the number four, but that one was taken. I still spell it out in the title of my blog because otherwise it wouldn’t still be the same as the name of the movie.
My blog is only SOMEWHAT SECRET, in that most friends and relatives don’t know about it, but some do. (Hence my need for that lovely apartment.) I don’t broadcast its existence.
Comment by JMC — May 14, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
Have a FANTASTIC trip! I am so jealous that you get to meet Artemisia!
Also, as I think you know, the name of my blog is Wolof for “she doesn’t say that.” I picked it pretty much randomly. And yes, essentially everyone I know knows that I have a blog.
Comment by Jess — May 14, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
When I started my blog (not all that long ago) it was because I had an obscene amount of free time available to me at work with which to surf the web, read other blogs and generally waste time. I started to realize I wanted a place to record all of the cool stuff I was coming across during all of that computer time. When trying to come up with a name I thought about my reason for the blog and thought it’s to gather up all of those pieces of information into one place. Then some how I got to itty bitty pieces.
At first I kept the blog private only inviting in a few friends but then my curiosity about making it public got the better of me. I’ve told my dad and step-mom about the blog but I don’t think they read it. I’m not inclined to tell the rest of my family about it though because it’s turned into kind of a ranting spot for me at times and I’d rather keep those things between me, my friends and the rest of the internet.
Shauna I shall miss you while you are away and can’t wait to hear the stories of your trip when you get back. Especially what kinds of adventures Thing got into this time. Have a GREAT time!
Comment by Emily — May 14, 2008 @ 12:19 pm
Have a great trip!
I wish I had chosen a different title for my blog. The truth is, I didn’t spend more than 2 seconds on it. I’ve always been self-deprecating in my parenting skills, so often tell a story and end with, “so yeah, I’m not going to be mother of the year or anything.”
Mine started out as a secret, but my husband discovered it one day. After that, I told my 4 closest friends, but no one else in real life knows about it.
Comment by LoriD — May 14, 2008 @ 12:21 pm
I have two. I have a livejournal that’s restricted to friends only and only my real life friends read it.
Then I have a public blog that I’ve never told anyone about. It’s where I post my deepest, darkest secrets under the mask of anonymity. I don’t seem to have any regular readers but that’s okay, it’s really just for me. The word I wanted to use as the title was taken so I used the German word for it.
Comment by deni — May 14, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
For a long time before we took the plunge and actually started blogs, my husband and I talked about what we would name each of our blogs if we had one. I thought I’d come up with lots of different ones over time but the same idea kept popping up for each of us over and over again. So I guess I always knew my blog would be a place to laugh about all the things that happen (especially as a parent) that honestly feel like a joke. Hence “Where is the Laugh Track?” just kinda fell into place as a the only way to articulate that feeling that somehow my life must be scripted by the powers that be to serve as entertainment. My husband fell in love with a quote from the movie “I, Robot” that summed up his thoughts very well. He, too, always knew his opinions blog would be titled “The Last Sane Man.” It’s kinda embarrassing to admit. I guess we thought a little TOO much about our titles considering that they’re not THAT great!
Comment by Gretchen — May 14, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
Oh yah, and I’m pretty sure about 10 of my readers (out of the about 12 total people who read my blog) are people I know in real life.
Comment by Gretchen — May 14, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
man, i’m sure boring. “alice’s wonderland!” so original! sort of like my email address, which is virtually the same thing. and my IM name, back when i had AIM. AM GOOD WITH TEH CREATIVITY.
my parents know i HAVE a blog, but don’t read it. my sister does. about 1/2 my real life friends read as well. and ex boyfriends, unfortunately
Comment by Alice — May 14, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
The name of my blog represents my frustration with the “mom stereotype”. Or something like that. Anyway, if I had it to do over I would probably try to come up with something more creative. But I suppose that would be a misrepresentation as I am sadly not a very creative person.
My family knows about my blog (but read it only on occasion), I’m not sure if my husband’s family does. Either way, I am careful to not ever write about my mother-in-law even though there are LOTS of good stories there. Most of my regular readers are people I know in real life, high school friends and such.
Sounds like a fun trip! Have a good time!
Comment by nonsoccermom — May 14, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
I spent about 10 minutes trying to think of something that spoke to where I was at the time. I don’t love it – It doesn’t really make any sense, and it is too long. It’s sort of a secret, my husband and one friend knows about it, but no others that I know of.
I love your about us page – funny as always!
Comment by banana — May 14, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
Wait, reading your new About Me page (which is awesome, BTW), I notice a conspicuous absence of the “sailing with the captain” thing! Did I HALLUCINATE that? So embarassing.
Comment by Tessie — May 14, 2008 @ 3:15 pm
Tessie, nope, it used to be there (GREAT memory, by the way), but I took it off since Jason hasn’t drank in nearly 2 years.
Comment by Shauna — May 14, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
I named my blog when I thought it was something I’d be interested in doing for like 5 minutes. It’s a dumb name. SLynnRo was my IM name during law school. Some real life people know, some don’t. I pick and choose because some people I know will just not get the whole blogging phenomenon.
Comment by slynnro — May 14, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
I thought about having a blog long before I ever actually starting writing one. That gave me a lot of time to consider what I would name it. “Ready…Row” is the command a coxswain gives when they want the rowers to start rowing. It’s not unlike a race where the starter will say “Ready…Set…Go”. The ready command to let the rowers get set and “Row” so al start at the same time.Since my hobby is rowing, it seemed like an apt title with the composition of the entry being like the “Ready” command and the publishing the “Row” part. At least that’s how it works in my head.
My blog isn’t secret and my family knows about my blog, but only Daughter#1 and my brother are regular readers. I haven’t told people (other than family) I know in real life about it and as far as I know no one has stumbled upon it.
Comment by Frank — May 15, 2008 @ 9:02 am
Well, I named my blog Notthedaddy because my hubby is a stay at home dad and I work, so the kids usually run to him for everything. So it’s a running joke that I’m “Not the Daddy”.
And it’s secretish. No one in my real life knows that I write a blog. I told my hubby when I started it, but he didn’t seem very interested, and I didn’t tell him a whole lot of details, and I’ve really never mentioned it since. Which is weird, because we are not a secret keeping couple. I would say that I have no other secrets from him. It feels weird not to tell him about it, and I kind of want to, and I probably will, I just don’t want him to freak out. I’ve been really tempted to tell my college best friend about my blog, but I haven’t yet. I don’t think there’s but one post that will scandalize her, and I will probably take it down if I tell her about my blog. Just to avoid the “You did WHAT?” phone call.
Comment by Shelly — May 15, 2008 @ 9:56 am
What is the name of my site again? …oh right, the assanine FTEP. It was a mistake, it was supposed to be TFEP but I got all dyslexic when I write out the web address. It originated when I was pregnant and it was meant to be “The Family Expansion Project” for obvious reasons. Now it’s totally random and weird, and I should fix it but I’m lazy and stuff.
Have fun on the road trip! I think you’re coming down here. I hope you have a good time in our city!
Comment by Penny — May 15, 2008 @ 10:19 am
Our blog name comes from a joke around our house, but is actually a phrase from South Park – the episodes with Al Gore where he kept saying “totally serial” instead of “totally serious” (man-bear-pig, anyone??). It still makes me laugh because we say it all the time at home. Because we are awesome like that.
PS. My fiance (I’m so over that word, btw) would be totally jealous of a Twins road trip. He LOVES the Twins. Although obviously not as much as you guys, since he doesn’t go on a road trip.
HAVE FUN!!
Comment by Becky — May 15, 2008 @ 10:54 am
Oh, and our blog is known by most of my family and all of our friends. Only a couple members of Ryan’s family read, though.
Comment by Becky — May 15, 2008 @ 10:54 am
Have fun on your road trip!
The name of my blog was chosen very quickly and randomly, as I thought I would blog for a few weeks and then get bored and shut it down. But basically it’s tongue in cheek- the whole term “housewife” just seems so antiquated and stereotype-conjuring and hilarious. But I didn’t want to totally copy the name of the show, either, lest someone think I actually LIKED it or something. Thus, Semi-Desperate Housewife was born.
Comment by Sarah — May 15, 2008 @ 11:22 am
My blog comes from a jealousy over my husband’s blog and screennames, parksalot. It’s derived from a last name that is a verb. I think Parkingathome is better. BETTER!
Comment by parkingathome — May 15, 2008 @ 12:22 pm
My blog name comes from Fletch. It doesn’t really mean anything, but the domain was available, so what the hell.
Comment by diesel — May 17, 2008 @ 11:41 pm
You know, it’s funny that you ask about my blog name, because at the time I thought it was SO clever, and now I just think to myself, what was I thinking? I can’t do better than the OBVIOUS? Oh well, too late now. And my friends and family do know about my blog, or at least most of them. And they actually read it, I think, so sometimes I have to edit.
Comment by amber — May 19, 2008 @ 1:56 pm
because “are you f’ing KIDDING ME!?!?” would probably be too long.
Comment by stephanie — May 24, 2008 @ 9:36 am