Dana, I just read Apocalypse, and I'm sorry for your loss...

Nilly,

We're doing fine, thanks. As for my pixels, I have been churning out a lot of them lately since I'm doing NaNoWriMo, though I doubt it will be anything that people will ever see. Carla told me that there is a theory that you first have to write a million bad words before you reach the good ones, so I am just trying to work my way past them at the moment.

Dana, my condolences.

Sue, that's fantastic! Wanna come do my stairs?

So I'd planned on doing the leaves this morning. Yeah, that didn't happen. When I finally went out to go to the pool...the leaves were done! Neighbor Anna did them this morning! I guess doing hers a couple weeks back got me that. Tree still isn't done, so I guess next weekend, I'll do them. Meant I did have time to run out looking for a dress. Nothing found.

Neighbor kid came by for his school fundraiser, which is kinda a cool one. Instead of buying crap, you buy a charity gift. You can pick which programs. They've got local ones (meals for kids, Bea Gaddy, etc) and international ones (clean water, vitamins, etc.) [link] Anyway, I asked him to tell me which was his favorite and why. He was positively evangelical about mosquito nets for malaria because " stops bug bites that KILL KIDS!" He was really appalled by this. So of course, I had to do one of those.

ita, I am owltlet on tumblr, if that helps. I haven't figured out a way to reblog without following.

I have been working like crazy, integrating my various web presences into kind of a consortium. I have my new tumblr up (owltlet.tumblr.com) and I'm redesigning a new wordpress page (it's NOT finished yet, but it's owltlet.wordpress.com, FYI) and syncing my Twitter with both.

I'm keeping LJ for personal and more private blogging, and not connecting ANYTHING to FB.

I'm trying to set my new blog up to be something I can use to (1)focus on writing (creative and non-fiction), book and movie reviews, and issues running the gamut from feminism to pedagogy to unemployment, so that I will not only be able to entertain myself with it, but have a good sample of my Wordpress and social media skills, and a base for any articles I might want to try to sell.

If anyone has any good sites that seem to do this, or good teaching sites on making oneself a social media guru, please let me know. Several jobs out there I almost applied for, but I need a little more hands-on info on SEO and analytics and such.

Replies here, or at email addy are fine.

I got through school well enough with an alternative first name. It can be done.

Oh of course. It's not that the name isn't mainstream--it's that specific name. I was thinking more about the temptation kids might have to repeat everything she says or say, "Hey, is there an echo in here?" when she walks into the room. Honestly, though, it's no big thing. I was just surprised when I saw the name.

I know a family with kids that are named Kobe and Echo. They unschool so there isn't a lot of issues with kids making fun of their names. But Liv has an Isis and a River in her class.

Sara has a Lulu in her class, and her older sister's name is Coco, both of which are pretty cute, I think.

Dillo has a Dhanaijah (Duh-NAY-sia, rhymes with Asia) and a Deyanira (Day-uh-NARE-uh), as well as a boy named Tekit which is pronounced Tuh-KEYE-it. Echo at least is reasonably pronounceable...

I know a Lulu (5) and a Coco (4) as well. And I grew up babysitting for kids named Bear and Wolf (somehow their sister got away with being named Sonia).

Totally different world from me, growing up with the second or third most popular girl's name in the country. This board is the closest I've ever come to being the only Jessica in the room.

I know a Bear, too, and a family with kids named Griffin and Phoenix. Actually, my old job meant meeting lots and lots of kids with unusual names. None of them ever got mocked for it that I saw, it being a fancy super-liberal private school.