Remabulous

Why can't women be angry in the media?

After searching through pages of creative commons licensed images on flickr for "angry woman," I was surprised to find that the most convicing image didn't even show the woman's face. I searched "angry man" as well, and after a few pages of neutral stuff, I found a glut of images of men that looked, well, actually angry.

Since the NYT article came out about BlogHer 08, there have been quite a few angry people getting on the mike, some in uplifting and powerful ways both as posts and comments, and others, both men and women, have been just plain snipey.

Why is it such an explosion for everyone to be angry and riled up about a women's technology conference? I think the question for me is broader: why is it so rare to see a woman get angry these days in broad daylight (or screenlight) and what does that mean for those of us who have issues we feel angry about?

image:dearbarbie via flickr

Further commentary on BlogHer 08 from Salon: Thoughts on the NYT article

Yet further grist for the mill on BlogHer 08. The New York Times article in the Styles section has exploded into a lot of critiques via blogs, like Catherine Connors' post at Mama Pop. Weighing in on the issue now is Salon.com, with a response piece to the whole controversy by Rebecca Traister.

Enjoy- I'll add my thoughts on this later today as I'm off to teach a class...

Shaking your foundation.

Today an earthquake hit Los Angeles as I was in my apartment on the phone talking to my mother. It was about a 5.6 apparently. Where I was it was enough to shake the building back and forth, but not enough to knock things off shelves and walls. Still It scared the cats.

It struck me, this image of having one's foundation shaken. It is a feeling I am familiar with lately even without earthquakes. When one starts out on an endeavor like choosing an outside-the-box career, it helps to prepare for these experiences. What is your "earthquake insurance" so to speak? WHo do you count on when you get scared or when things are truly challenging? What measures do you have in place should the whole venture crumble under the forces of nature?

If you prepapre in advance, perhaps it will be easier to enjoy the ride. Perhaps not. I emerged unscathed and only slightly shaken by the experience- earthquakes are far more frequent in SF than LA. Still, it made me wonder- what do we count on when it appears everything is about to fall.

I was walking home this evening and overheard two schoolgirls talking. one told the other how surprised she was that, when the earthquake hit, she didn't grab her computer and her ipod like she had expected. She ran and grabbed her little brother in the school.

It is stories like that that give me hope.

Having a monday, and why see-you-next-tuesday is the way to a better week.

Several years ago, Inga Muscio wrote a little book entitled Cunt. No, it's not a dirty book even though I am a bit shy of using the c word on the blog for the first time. It is a feminist book that I devoured at the age of 22 or 23, which declared that Cunt was originally a title of respect and had only in more recent times been used in a derogatory fashion.

As I sat down to write this morning, I wondered if Monday could be taken back (not that the cunt campaign has been 100% successful, with people calling out "How's it going, Cunt Caroline?" to which I feel comfortable waving and smiling back with a similar greeting) with a similar logic. What if Monday could be a great day for working, where rituals that are fun and productive could put you ahead of your game, instead of wishing for another day away from the misery of the job.

Here are my suggestions for making the switch:

Adaptation: Worth watching again for more than just the film.

I saw Adaptation orginally in the theater in 2002 when it came out. I liked it very much, and thought it was clever and funny and original. I might have watched it once more and then hadn't thought about it much since. WARNING- spoilers if you haven't yet watched it...

Michael brought it over to watch after dinner last night and I was surprised how much I loved it even having seen it before. I think there is something to the idea that movies have very different things to say at varying points in our lives and this one spoke pretty directly to everything I am muddling through at the moment...

the footprint

am retreating to lower case since i'm feeling a bit small and washed out today. the post blogher crash has been more than expected. still, there's a lot to think about that was discussed and i want to keep that conversation going.

i couldn't help but think the whole thing went much faster this year. there were so many things i wanted to be able to do that there just wasn't time for. sort of like camp, where you want to try every single activity but there aren't enough activity slots in the day.

one idea that came out in the beautiful blogging and positive posting session was the idea of the footprint. some of you may have seen these carbon footprint off-setting certificates that are available if you fly or if you commute regularly. they put funds towards planing trees or other practices to counteract the emissions created here. i loved that this was brought up by kyran pittman in the context outside just emissions. she talked about assessing the footprint of your blog. i took the photograph above, of little seedlings tacked up on a fence for all to take home in the mission in san francisco, which reminded me or krystyn heide's assertion that it is important to touch people with blogging out in the real world who might never read a blog. i would go further even than blogging, and apply the same principle to life and work...

image: caroline donahue for remabulous

A Remabulous Career Tries Not to Keep Up with the Joneses.

Yesterday I told you about a bunch of tools you can't afford not to use. Well. There is a caveat on them: add them slowly. I am sad to say that my first blog post was both terrifying to write and, for the maybe one person who read it at the time, terrible to read. I wasn't clear about what I wanted to say and often I'm still unclear on that front, but it was a big shift to start at all. If you're just getting going in your career then my advice yesterday will either help you grow or scare the crap out of you.

Here's how to sort that out:

Why Connection is the Name of the Entrepreneur's Game

I met this fabulous muse, Gwen Bell, blogger-editor-ladyabouttown, last year because I felt compelled to tell her she had rad style at the cocktail party at BlogHer 07. This moment spawned a conversation that has continued since then in order to expand both our universes. Today she dropped a little note on kirtsy letting people know about a post I had written on BlogHer 08. Cue the traffic.

Why do I share this with you? Besides a big huge thank you to Gwen for her support, it is important for those of you making a go of it in a non-traditional career to know this: technology is your friend. And, somewhat ironically, it can make you friends as well, as all of us at BlogHer 08 can attest. There shouldn't be anything extraordinary about this little story because social networking and technologies of that ilk are, quite simply, the best way to move ahead as an entrepreneur.

Read on for the applications you can't afford not to know about and use. Pronto:

image: gwenbell via flickr

BlogHer 08: Day Two, and Why I'd Make a Cruddy LiveBlogger

This was one of two convenient plugs I found at BlogHer 08 this year. This one showed up right next to the table I was sitting at for the Positive Posting and Beautiful Blogging session the morning of day 2 at BlogHer. Having had some success keeping a pretty good lock on the Introversion session the day before, I had started to fancy myself a future live blogger for next year's BlogHer. Woah. I will not toruture you with the mis-typed and frantic attempt to keep up with all the amazing thoughts and ideas that came out of this session. I will tell you that it would have been better if I had taken the lack of plugs as a sign to just sit and listen, and just read the real live blog post here. People had plenty to say I would have heard better if I wasn't frantically typing.

BlogHer 08: Day One Highlights

Sitting down to breakfast in the Westin Ballroom ready for another day of excitement. Day one was full of information, new connections, and great one-liners. My favorites:

From the DIY syndication panel: "I hate to get all SEO on you guys." -Krista Neher.

"I don't do stupid" -from the audience.

From Amy Gahran's writing session: "Avoid the [blogging] approach of 'I'm here! You can talk to me now!'" (on why blogging should be part of a larger conversation.

And my very favorite moment: the unfortunate typo that gave us a view of kirsty.com rather than kirtsy.com the "digg for ladies" if you check out kirsty.com, you'll see why this was a particularly funny moment.

I loved so much the energy that I remembered from last year of conversation after conversation with welcoming and thoughtful women who want to connect and learn about each other. I know I will have a lot of wonderful new blogs to follow in the coming year.

Plus- twitter. Wow. I can't say how much being an active participant has added to my experience. Maybe I appear to be a junkie to those outside this community, but it is amazing to be in on the parallel conversation happening on this platform. If you haven't tried it yet, try it now.

Ok- we're starting up again. On to another amazing day!