06 | November | 2012 | AnnieRie Unplugged

The Envelope Please

Posted on November 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

So, I have been nominated again for a blogger award. The last time floored me, and I didn’t know what to do about it. This time, I actually have a plan. I realized I shouldn’t go and get all analytical and worry about having to name other blogs. Since I was so scatterbrained last time, I didn’t do what the award “chain” wanted, and the sky didn’t fall.

This time, I am going to have fun with it. Thank you A Table in the Sun for nominating me for the Beautiful Blogger award.

Because of her chain back to The Great Dorset Vegetable Experiment, who nominated her, I found an interesting blog to read from one of my favorite places on earth. Dorset. And, I found other great blogs to read, to find inspiration and just to entertain me.

I love reading blogs. I found a new one the other day thanks to wordbones blog, Tales of Two Cities. UKDesperateHousewifeUSA

So, for this blog award, you need to tell seven things about yourself and nominate 15 bloggers. Oh, and then tell them you nominated them by linking to this post in a comment on their blogs.

The seven things:

I am ambidexterous becuase the nuns beat me when I put a pen in my left hand in second grade. First grade I learned to print with my left hand.

When I traveled all the time for work, we lived on Stouffer’s. How’s that for the past of a confirmed locavore and hardcore foodie?

The only fast food that still calls me back to being bad, Krispy Kreme hot donuts. Thankfully, they are pretty much out of business around here but there were times when that sign pulled me into Dobbin Road right after leaving my dentist.

I was born and raised in Baltimore City. Right across the street from Mt. St. Joe.

I have lived in Howard County 38 years come January 1st.

We have a brick bought eons ago just down from the People Tree. Friends send us pictures of it when they find it.

In my original job out of college, I taught high school mathematics.

There, that’s seven useless pieces of information that haven’t been discussed in my blog. Not earth shattering but fun. Oh, and a bonus, today included I have voted every Presidential election, never missing one, from 1972 until the present. Twice it was an absentee ballot as I was in Alaska in 1984 and Florida in 1988. Both times, work related. I take that privilege seriously.

As for the 15 blogs to nominate, obviously nine of them are my food challenge compatriots. I read these blogs all the time, not just for challenges, but because I love hearing what my fellow locavores are doing.

Backyard Grocery Northern VA
Bumble Lush Garden near DC
Eat. Drink. Nourish. South Carolina
Eating Appalachia Blue Ridge VA
Eating Floyd Southwest VA
Family Foodie Survival Guide Northern VA
Sincerely, Emily Texas
The Soffritto right up the road in Woodstock
Windy City Vegan North Carolina

Liz, at Family Foodie Survival Guide, nominated me for a blog award a while back and I got caught up in other things and never followed through. I wish I did, now.

Number ten is an awesome lady, who set up our CSA link party. Heather at In Her Chucks. She kept commenting and commenting to set up that link page, and I use it all the time to see how to use those strange veggies in my CSA box.

Number Eleven is one of the guys over at hocoblogs. I hope he takes the nomination in the spirit intended, as he is one beautiful person when it comes to helping others. Whether it was the fund raising for the security deposits for the group homes, or his recent “fill up the Subaru” for his wife to drive to Jersey and help hurricane victims, hocorising is something special.

The Foodie Farmer is number 12, and Soulsby Farm number 13. I read both these farm blogs. Foodie Farmer is on the Eastern shore of MD and Soulsby is a tiny farm in Ohio. I love reading what they are doing.

Number 14 would have been Tammy, at Agrigirl but I see A Table in the Sun nominated her along with me. Tammy comments all the time around here. I love her perspective. So, in her place I nominate another desert country blog I read regularly. Fresh Veggies in the Desert, from Nevada instead of Arizona. Another frequent commenter and co-poster at In Her Chucks.

And, last but not least, the newly discovered UKdesperatehousewifeUSA. I love reading her comments about Howard County. I love that she found my neighborhood only a few months after moving here. There are people in Columbia who couldn’t find the Crossroads Pub if their life depended on it. Nor would they willingly travel the back roads out here. And, I love her comments about life around here. A great new blog, adding fresh air to Howard County blogs.

My blogging compatriots. Know that I nominated you because I read you all the time. I find you entertaining, enlightening, kindred spirits. If you aren’t into doing the blog chain thing, I get it. It freaked me out a little the first time someone nominated my blog.

But, at the end of the day, if someone comes and reads your blog and subscribes, and I sent them there, it is all good. We just like to see others appreciate what we write.

Cheers! Now, off to tell all the bloggers I nominated them.

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What Goes Around Comes Around

Posted on November 6, 2012 by AnnieRie

I have to admit, learning the new shorthand used in tweeting and in texting, as well as some of the acronyms around here has been interesting at best, and downright confusing at times.

It used to be that we, the govvies in the area, i.e., government employees, were the best at making entire conversations using acronyms designed to confound our non-govvy friends and family.

“I work at NHTSA on IVBSS and I will be at UMTRI next week”. “I work at NSWC on the MK 116 ASW FCS”. Our pasts. The DH and me.

What’s a DH, you say? Same as an OM. Dear Husband. Old man. One picked up on web forums years ago, the other an amateur radio standard. It is why my gmail account has xyl in the address. I am the wife, aka x-young lady, of a ham.

Now, my blogging friends here in the area are working to get uniform hashtags that we use when we tweet. Whenever I put up a post I sent it off to twitterland using #hoco. These days #hoco is overrun by colleges and homecoming, and we are getting lost in the noise about whose dress is best, and who can get more drunk. It seems to be time for us to find a new place to “hang out”, and we have graduated to using #hocomd more.

Jessie over at Jessie X, who also cofounded and administers hocoblogs where about 300 of us are more or less active about blogging in the County, or about the County, is working to get us to use more specific hashtags.

I feel like I am back at work, learning new acronyms after changing jobs. What used to be the geekiness of our govvy lives is now the new normal of social media. Like, learning a whole new language.

Add to that, in our world, where we have been active in amateur radio, a “shack on a belt”, or HT (handy talkie), once a sign of real nerdiness, with the hands free headphone really stood out. Now, you can lose yourself in the midst of the bluetooth crowd. What was once cause for comments, and a little ridicule, is now mainstream.

As I said, what goes around comes around. The entire world has become geeky. What the heck. If you can’t beat them, join them.

So, Jessie asked me to become the queen of #hocolocavore and #hoconature on the spreadsheet being assembled for county tweets. I promise to try and remember to use them. At least I do remember to use my hocoblog hashtags appropriately, like the one at the end of this post.

So, when I post about local foods and farmers, I will be using #hocolocavore.