MOVING OUT

Hi.

I’m in the process of moving over to

GeekMommy.net

Please join me over there.  This site will probably go offline on Monday, Sept 8, 2008.

Thanks.

LMP

Howdy There People Drifting By from Walmart.com (and stuff)

If you’re reading this on a Saturday, there’s a relatively good chance that you’re a person who drifted over here from a link that has to do with the soon-to-be-launched WalMart Money Saving Moms project.  I say that because most of my regular readers know that I tend not to blog on the weekends.  Usually, I’m spending time with my family instead of trying to transfer thoughts to keyboard.

Right now, my darling daughter is over at the neighbors taking them mini-webkinz that she got for them at Walgreens (yep, I shop a lot of places – just like you!) and GeekDaddy is with her.  So I’m taking a moment to get this up.

Are you here for the first time? Then you’re probably a bit curious about me… and why someone calling herself “GeekMommy” is listed amongst a bunch of Frugality Blogging moms.  Guess what? I was too.

When the folks from WalMart contacted me thru Twitter.com about participating in the Eleven Moms project, I was sure they must be mistaken.  After all, I’m not a personal finance or frugality blogger – I’m just a GeekMommy who blogs about my life.  I figured they had contacted the wrong gal.  But then we got to talking and I realized that we all do what we can to cut corners and get the most out of our dollar.

Today’s economy makes everyone stop and think about ways to save more and live better – and that’s what WalMart’s current motto happens to be – Save More, Live Better.  Just like anyone reading this, I want to provide good food, nice clothes, and a comfortable home life for my family – but unless I win the lottery, I’m doing that on a budget.  I do shop at WalMart myself fairly regularly and I love a great bargain as much as the next gal… So yeah, why not me? Why not you? We’re all trying to make ends meet and make our dollars stretch further – so I realized that maybe they did get it right.

So Let’s Hit a Few FAQs, Shall We?

• Am I “doing this without getting paid?” Yes. I don’t work for WalMart.  If at some point in time there occurs a situation where WalMart enters into some sort of financial agreement with me, you can trust that I’ll be transparent about it.  That’s just how I am.  I don’t do “secret agreements.”
• Am I “doing this for free?” No. Free is a funny word.  Personally, I think if I were working for something for ‘free’ I’d be called a volunteer.  I’m not.  I am getting benefits from this.  But they’re non-monetary benefits.  I’m getting exposure to a wider audience.  I’m getting connections to new and different people I would’ve never met without participating. I’m also learning a lot from my fellow 11 Moms.  Seriously, I’ve learned so many cool things from these ladies that I wouldn’t have if this project hadn’t brought us together!  I’m also getting the  opportunity to help other folks.  That’s a big deal to me.  I like being able to help other people.  This is letting me do it on a MUCH bigger scale than I could achieve on my own.
• Do I really believe that WalMart is trying to do the right thing? Yeah, actually, I do. Look, I did my homework.  I know that WalMart’s reputation hasn’t exactly been ‘stellar’ in all areas (yes, I’m understating.)  But I believe that they are doing what they can to change and improve that.  I think that this Money Saving Moms project is designed with that in mind.  If I didn’t and I thought this was all some publicity stunt? I wouldn’t be involved.  Because this is MY reputation too.  I’m working *with* WalMart to try and reach out to internet savvy (and novice) Moms (and other shoppers) to try and make their dollars stretch a little further.  Just like I believe that the Dove Women are working to change our society’s impression of what is actually beautiful and the Disney Moms are trying to help Disney bound families have the best time they can.  Sometimes, every day individuals can achieve huge change just by being willing to try.
• “Okay, but aren’t you just being naive not making WalMart pay you for this?” Um, No. To be honest? I don’t think I would’ve done this if WalMart had come to me initially and said “hey, we’d like to pay you to represent WalMart.”  They didn’t.  They asked me if I’d like to take part in a community of Moms who were helping other moms to save money.  And I didn’t say yes right away.  I thought about. I researched it.  I weighed whether or not I thought I could contribute and whether I wanted to tie my blog and myself into this project.  You already know the answer was yes.

So, I’m going to be busy migrating my site this weekend.  This post might not be accessible during that time – but it will be on my new site.  As will more information about me.  But if you want to ask me any questions about this? Feel free to comment and I’ll email you back.

Then again, if you decide just to leave an angry, vitriolic, attacking comment, I reserve my right to laugh at you and delete it, knowing you didn’t read this whole thing.  I’m willing to talk about it with anyone – but that means talk – so as I always tell my daughter? Use your ‘princess manners’ before you hit send.

Lucretia

If It’s Thursday… This Must Be… 127.0.0.1

Okay, this is technically more of an Administrative post than anything else.

At some point, after trying something and finding that it doesn’t work for us, we give up and move on to a different way of doing things.  The question becomes “at what point?” and the answer for me is usually “when the consequences of not changing are more dire than the potential downfalls of giving up.”

Now, a month ago, I got all ambitious.  Having read several “authorities” on blogging, I decided that my lack of consistent writing was due to a lack of structure.  Why I decided this is beyond me… maybe I drank the kool-aid or something. But to be honest, lack of structure wasn’t my problem.  The ability to rationalize procrastinating was my problem.

Anyhow, I boldly asserted that I was going to start posting “by daily topic!”  I don’t recall where that idea came from, but I’m sure it was from a Blogging Guru somewhere who extolled the virtues of having a defined posting structure.  Needless to say, I came up with mnemonic categories… Money $aving Monday! Technology Tuesday… etc, etc.

Soooo… How’s that working for me? Um. Not so hot.

Actually, it’s made me loathe the very concept of blogging.  It’s gone from something I truly enjoy when I’m doing it regularly and right, to something I find every excuse to avoid and then must slog through when I can put it off no more.

Solution? Chuck that silly idea right out the window.

So yes, there are more upcoming changes… one of which is that some previous changes are going to be abandoned.  Like my dreary anti-blogging daily category idea.

But I have found a host that I’m moving this site to.  I’ve set it up. I’m just waiting until the weekend to hose everything up and migrate the site over. Mostly because I can then force GeekDaddy to help me figure out where I went wrong and fix it.  That’s always easier when he’s not at work, ya know.  Also tho, because I expect the traffic to be slower on the weekend.

Another change will be the site format.  Yeah, I know, we’re on look number 3 right now.  But I think I’ve finally found something that makes me happy, so I’ll be doing that about the same time I’m trying to figure out why nothing works on the new servers.

I’m sure you remember me mentioning the Walmart Money Saving Moms thing… Well, that’s going to start being more visible out there as of tomorrow and early next week.  So maybe I’ll even *gasp* get that first video edited and up tomorrow.  Because, you know, if you’re going to migrate a blog, it always helps if you complicate things by adding video into the mix first.

(Are you getting my wry attempt at enthusiasm for the blog move in all of this? Yeah. Woo. Heh.)

So I’m going back to being me.  I’ll post the Eleven Moms videos. I’ll post the Social Media stuff. I’ll post the technical and product reviews.  I’ll even post the kindergarten adventures and the random thoughts. Yes, even some of those dreaded politically-oriented posts… I mean, come on. It’s an American Presidential election year.

But most of all? I’ll go back to what I do best. Life-blogging.  Because in the end, that’s why I blog in the first place, ya know?

See ya tomorrow.  When I’ll be me again.  Before the long-drawn out site migration.

If the new site isn’t here by Monday? Send out the search planes!! Or maybe come see me swearing about it over on Twitter.