http://www.blueyonbelly.com An Overnight Internet Sensation Sun, 05 Sep 2010 02:44:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Remember what it was like to be a self-conscious teenager? How you cared about appearances? How you cared even more about what other people thought about you? I have a theory on why we grow out of this. Sure, there's the emotional maturity that's borne of age. But then there's ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=546 Thanks to a Twitter exchange yesterday, I got to thinking about the transmogrification of the blogosphere from personal blogs to lifestyle blogs, a change that is due in no small part to the massive upsurge in corporate sponsorship. This shift has taken place in tandem with my own personal shift ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=525 ...In the last few years. What's nice about having a blog or a journal is that you can see how much you've grown. Although ageing is full of unpleasant surprises, most of them involving the dissolving elasticity of your skin*, I'm finding it's also full of pleasant surprises. The pleasant ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=521 There's a moment, in the mornings, that I just love, although I'm not sure why. I'm generally miserable in the mornings — tired, cranky, completely out of sorts, needing my own space — and the crowded commuter trains, with everyone jammed up into everyone else's space and the smells and ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=511 So! [claps hands] Moving on! I mentioned in January wanting to find a rewarding new volunteer opportunity, preferably something to do with puppies, as part of my New Year's resolution to have fun. Well, guess what! Enter PADS, an organization that trains assistance dogs: service dogs for people with disabilities, hearing ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=497 You guys! Hi! It's June! And do you want to know what's great?!? I have come a long way from January. I mean, we all have, naturally. We've all come precisely five months away from January, but this girl here, the one talking to you all perky and happy like, ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=481 I've been taking a beginner's ballet class for adults. This is, in fact, something I've dabbled in off and on for a few years now, which you would think would result in some notable improvement or progress towards grace, but no. Ballet is, I suspect, akin to learning a new ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=459 It has been years, you guys. Years and years and years of failing at laundry. Years of looming piles of stale clothes. Years of a bumper crop of dirty clothes languishing in the laundry baskets that are meant for clean laundry. One big stinky Festival of Fail after another. So ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=397 My beloved Jen, The Trephinist's, ingenious meme. (Our friendship was born out of a meme, so of course I had to take her up on it.) WHEN SOMEONE I LOVE DIES God, I don't know. One foot in front of the other until one day you'll find you've walked far enough that ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=371 So the general consensus seems to be that 2009 kind of sucked. I'm guessing that this has to do with many members of the general consensus losing their jobs. So, indeed, point taken. We mostly managed to survive The Year of the Layoff, although we weren't entirely unscathed. (Long story ... http://www.blueyonbelly.com/?p=365