Don't Have Too Many Accounts

One of my "resolutions" for 2014 is to clean up and simplify my digital life. You see, I have two blogs and two Twitter accounts. That may sound crazy, but I googled how to merge accounts this morning and quickly discovered that I'm not alone. I want to combine the blogs yet not lose my content. Thankfully, many similarly situated but more tech savvy folks have researched and posted about how to do this. I'm taking notes and getting ready to make my social media experience less complicated.

How did I get myself into this mess? Well, I created a blog entitled "You Need a Helmet" because I wanted to write anonymously about things that really annoy me like politics and work. (What? Me complain about work?)  I also thought a bit of anonymity might come in handy when blogging about personal family issues. It's hard to be honest without running the risk of hurting someone's feelings, something to be avoided at all costs in our clan. I created a separate Twitter account, @YouNeedaHelmet, to compliment and promote the blog.

A secret blog? Yes, you're right. That's crazy. There is no such thing. Certain people know that's your blog and soon the jig is up. So In the interest of honesty, ownership, and shameless self-promotion, I started this blog. But I missed the crankier You Need a Helmet persona and I wasn't sure if I could let it go. So I remained a two blog hog for a time. But now I think I'm ready. I barely have time to post on one blog as it is. Blogger is much easier to use than Wordpress so this blog will survive the merger. 

Now the instructions I found provide for 13 different steps and use words like export, convert and XML markup, so this could take awhile. As for the second twitter account I fear I'll just have to kill one of them. Should the helmet be beheaded? It may be a casualty in this crusade to keep things simple. Sigh. But this is the time for starting anew and breaking those bad habits like retweeting oneself. I am going to stick with it and I hope you all follow through with whatever resolutions you've made for yourselves.

Happy New Year!

Take a Photo a Day in 2014

Happy New Year!  It's time to welcome in 2014. What's on you list of resolutions? Do you still make resolutions? If you're like me, you've made and failed at a fair number of them through the years. The old standards involve losing weight and getting more exercise which are very good things to work at. Yikes! I plan to do the second annual obstacle 5k for Second Chances Foundation (http://aimeescause.org/events/) this year. Time to hit the gym. But I have an additional resolution  in mind, the 365 Day Photo Challenge.  

Yes, I am going to take a picture a day every day in 2014. Why you ask? Well, my original purpose was simply to get better at photography. The experts recommend the P.A.D. thing to folks like me who love taking pictures and want to learn and experiment with new techniques. You can't do that unless you are out and about with your camera, so the key is to get out there every day. 

The idea appealed to me so I started reading up on 365 day photo projects. I was, of course, skeptical after struggling with the 25 Days of Christmas Photo Challenge. (See my two previous posts if you missed all that fun). Interestingly, I soon I discovered that there is much more to this thing than getting good. A photo challenge gets us out doing things and meeting people. It keeps us thinking and creating. It provides an opportunity to really focus on the day to day and perhaps see our lives through different lenses. It provides a way of sharing our shots with others. Here's the link to my Pinterest 365 Day Photo Challenge board  - http://www.pinterest.com/barbararicker/365-day-photo-challenge/

I'm sharing the link because any of those reasons should be good enough to get us going. But, wait, there's even more. Where were you this time last year? When did you change your hair style? What did your dining room look like before you remodeled? What was the weather like when your cousin came from Texas? When did you transplant those peonies? When did you son get so tall? How much of 2013 do you really remember?

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take a look back at the days that made up your year? A picture a day records one of those small moments in time that make up your life. I want my very own 2014 photo journal. Don't you? 

What do you need? Just a camera and a way to save and backup your shots. It doesn't matter whether you have a fancy dSLR, a nifty purse sized point and shoot, or just your cell phone. All you need to do is keep a camera with you and use it at least once every day. How hard can that be?  If you want to share your year with us, follow my board on Pinterest and I'll send you an invite.