Good Monday morning to you! Maybe you didn’t even notice, maybe you missed me. Whatever. I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks and I haven’t done much blogging. Then this weekend, I was really going to buckle down and do some writing. That didn’t happen either. What happened was, my attention was diverted much like the mouse by the cookie.

I signed on to blog, and realized that I hadn’t updated WordPress in a while. I thought I was up to version 2.9 when I realized that I was still on 2.6! Well I figured, it should be easy enough to click that button that says update all my blogs, right? Right. It was easy alright. Done in a minute!

Except that when I went to a couple of my blogs I realized that some things have gone terribly wrong. This blog, for instance, was not showing any posts at all! On the backend, some menu options have either disappeared or not working at all. It turns out, some of my themes were not quite compatible with the new WP. So I got down to tweaking and hacking.

So I tweaked one thing, which led to another, to another, and so on… you know the drill. Before I knew it, the whole weekend had just about gone and I hadn’t written a thing on the blogs. The good thing is, I got all of them upgraded and they are now all working again!

Once I fixed all the bugs, I was able to appreciate more the brand spanking new Wordpress 3.1 and all its added features. I’m loving it! I love that plugins can now be added on without having to download files and upload them again to your server. You can do it all right here! Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, yea, I know it’s been out a while and you’ve probably been on it since it came out. For me, it’s all new. I afterall just came from the bowels of 2.6 to 3.1.

Another good thing about being forced to do some of this backend maintenance, it keeps this idle brain of mine going. I had forgotten how to do some of the simplest stuff and was at a lost for a while at all the new coding, but I muddled through. I felt quite accomplished for having figured some things out without having to call tech support!

On one of my blogs, I even managed to revamp the theme and added one on those cool image sliders on top! I’ve been wanting one of those for the longest time and I finally managed to get it done thanks to free WP theme designers who incorporated it into their design and pretty much made everything automated. I’ll be implementing this on my food blog soon. It’s in desperate need of a makeover but I have been to afraid to tinker with it.

So to celebrate this accomplishment, the girls and I treated ourselves to some good eats at the Asian Market. It was a good weekend!

Do you blog about food and travel? You may be interested in the email that I received regarding this awesome opportunity for a blogger to travel across five Asian countries and be paid $10,000! I wish I could apply. How about you, would you go for it? 

ULTIMATE BLOGGER OPPORTUNITY:
PEI WEI LAUNCHES SEARCH FOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT
One blogger will be selected to travel and blog across five Asian countries for $10,000
 
WHAT:   Pei Wei Asian Diner is searching for an international correspondent to accompany Executive Chef Eric Justice as he travels to Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan and Korea in search of culinary inspiration for Pei Wei’s next dish.  Via blogs, photo posts and video uploads, the correspondent will document the journey and share the international experience along the way. The selected blogger will eat everything from street food to five-star cuisine, trek from remote villages to world-renowned cities, and meet everyone from rural farmers to cutting-edge chefs.
 
In addition to the experience of a lifetime, the blogger will receive $10,000 for his or her time and skills.
 
WHEN:          Applications Accepted: Now – December 20, 2010
                       Winner Announced: Week of January 17
                       Culinary Tour: Late February – early March, 2011
 
WHERE:       Entry Page: www.PeiWei.com/BlogAsia
                      Website: www.PeiWei.com
                      Facebook Fan Page: www.Facebook.com/PeiWei
                                              
WHY:   Pei Wei’s menu is influenced by the cuisine of five Asian countries and Chef Eric’s foreign travels help bring the exotic flavors of Thailand, Vietnam, China, Japan and Korean into the restaurants. The Pei Wei blogger will play a pivotal role in uncovering new dish ideas and sharing the discovery process with a worldwide audience.
 
WHO:    So what does it take to be the Pei Wei blogger? A talent for writing, a boundless appetite, a willingness to experiment with the unknown, an eye for the unforgettable image and the ability to capture it, comfort both on-camera and behind the lens, a spontaneous spirit but a grounded work ethic, and a passion for Asian cuisine.
 
About Pei Wei
Pei Wei Asian Diner, owned and operated by P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, offers a menu of fresh, high-quality Asian cuisine. The restaurant provides a comfortable, quick and casual dine-in experience as well as the flexibility, speed and convenience of take-away service.  From the exotic aromas rising from the sizzling 600-degree woks, to relaxing environment and hip décor, Pei Wei Asian Diner serves freshly prepared & made-to-order dishes from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam in a modern diner environment.  Pei Wei currently operates 168 restaurants in 22 states.  For more information please visit www.peiwei.com.

There was a time when many of us had never heard of blogs. We had no idea what blogging was all about. But through word-of-mouth or however we happened to stumble on to blogging, many of us found something satisfying and rewarding about getting our thoughts down and publishing it out there for all to see. Blogging gave people who only dreamed of getting published a venue where random strangers can run across their creation and maybe pause long enough to read a paragraph or two. That is all what most of us could hope for.

Some of us secretly hoped no one would ever come across our writing and peek into our souls. But at the same time, we all had that small niggle within where we hoped someone would notice and actually validate that maybe our writing is worth reading after all. Then a comment or two started filtering in and we were like teenagers whose crush is reading their slam book. Butterflies flutter in our belly as we wonder, ‘Does he get it?” “Does he see the real me now?” “Does he like what he sees?” And we write more, we bare more of ourselves, hoping they will come back and maybe even learn to love us. Blogging is addicting like that.

Then the blogging explosion happened. We heard of bloggers who are now earning lots of money. Some bloggers have turned pro, where this became their full time jobs. We heard of bloggers who gained fame and are now hobnobbing with the rich and famous. We heard of bloggers who became ‘real’ authors because of their blog. We see them now on the book circuits talking about their success from blogging to books. At least one that I know of had their blog made into a movie.

Fame and fortune from blogging. Who can resist? I admit, I have blogging envy. I want to make lots of money too! I want to be famous. I want Oprah to invite me to her show and talk about what a terrific blogger I am. I want to walk the red carpet at least once.

I am not alone in my envy. There are, apparently a lot of us out there. The difference is, I am still where I am when I started. Largely blogging for myself, churning out my own convoluted content and still welcoming every compliment that comes in the comments and still crying over mean criticisms then deleting them. Yeah, that’s still me. I haven’t gone out of my way to reach for more than just having the venue to spout off about me. So no, I’m not rich from blogging yet nor am I famous.

What I am rich in though, and famous with, are the friends that I have made from blogging. I made some good friends that I have never met through blogging. And for anyone who claims that friendships made on the blogosphere are shallow, superficial and will never amount to nothing, they are wrong. The people that I have made friends with are precious and they are as loyal and as loving as the friends we have outside of cyberspace. These friends will be there when you need them… whether it’s a shoulder to cry on or a posse to watch your back, they are there for you. So I guess, you can say, yeah, I’ve got it made as a blogger. I have riches and facebook fame. What more could I ask for, right?

This is just me again, talking to myself. Hope you enjoyed eavesdropping.

I love blogging! And now I’m loving facebook too and of course the network or all blogger networks, BlogHer. But lately, I haven’t been blogging much. I have been inconsistent about visiting BlogHer and only on Facebook do I carry on a semi regular schedule. The motivation to blog or rather to just write hasn’t been around in a while. I have been wondering if maybe I have taken on too much on my plate that’s why the motivation has waned. That could be partially it, but the more I read other bloggers, I see now what or where our ‘slacking off’ is coming from.

This article on BlogHer about being “intimidated to write on my own blog” caught my attention today because it said everything that I had been feeling and thinking. I do remember the early days of blogging when we just wrote about what came to mind or what we happened to step on that morning. No one cared about grammar or spelling much less image and brand. We didn’t even know what those were. We just wanted to document the mundane happenings in our life that only we would probably care about. We didn’t think about attracting anyone much less an audience. And we certainly didn’t think we could make money writing about poop and laundry.

But it happened. The mommy bloggers were born and so was blog monetization. Everyone realized there is money to be had in blogging and we all jumped on the wagon. We spruced up our blogs, bought our own domains and started hosting our own blogs rather be on the free platforms. All so we can make money. And we did. Everyone made money; some more than others, but we all made money and we wanted to make more. I wanted to be like the super bloggers who quit their day jobs to just stay home and blog. Now wouldn’t that have been heaven?

As much as I need the extra money though, I just never found the motivation to spend as much time as they did to write copy, promote my blogs and all the other things they tell you to do so you can make more money. Worst of all, I started feeling intimidated to write in my own blog too! I started second guessing myself whether what I’m writing about is worthy of being on my blog. I was now pandering to sponsors and advertisers and I didn’t like the way it made me feel.

So maybe that’s why I haven’t had the heart to blog too much lately. Maybe it’s not that I’m inundated with work and my daughters suck up the rest of my free time with their activities. So maybe it’s not just sheer exhaustion and laziness that if keeping me from updating my blogs. Maybe it’s because I just didn’t think my life is worth writing about anymore. Now if that was the case, that would be truly pathetic because I do love my life and I do love to write.

The solution? I have been thinking about this even before I read the article on BlogHer. Actually, I had already started down the road before I read the article. The road is the one that leads back to the early days of blogging when I simply blogged for my own pleasure. When I blogged to unload some of the junk taking space in my head. When I blogged just to relax and not to work for money. When I blogged for myself and no one else. And if I am too lazy to update or decide to go on vacation for a while, I don’t have to excuse myself or apologize for being absent. I know where I’m going and that’s all that matters. I’m going back.