So Close

The Official G&D Blog Roll

 

Apparently it is some kind of holiday in America today. Well, instead of vegging in front of the TV, how about some lovely new blogs to read? Broaden your horizons, stretch your mind etc.

 

Check out the incredibly gorgeous, unbelievably divine bloggers on this list. (new ones added!)

 

And if you are a hot, sexy, G&D blogger who STILL isn’t on the G&D list, please let me know. I got bombarded with emails, and then I got drunk and then everything fell apart.  So I might have missed a few of you. Be patient. I am old and slightly inebriated. Oh, and please check your details.  If your link accidentally links to some soft porn site, let me know.  I’ll rectify it when I feel like it immediately. 

 

And another thing. Just because your blog is not kid related, or has little in common with mine, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on the list.  Heaven forbid all we did was read mommy blogs or blogs like mine!! Give us some fresh perspective here! 

 

I’ll shut up now. I am going to bed.  Please carry on responding to the ‘What would you do’ post.  Your responses are very useful and very interesting.

 

‘Night.

 

The official G&D Blog roll

 

Ok, ok, for all you useless types who can’t be assed to think of the 5 key words thing, just add your blog name and URL and I will add you to The Official G&D Blog Roll. If you can summon up the energy to do so, one or two words describing the subject matter of your blog would be useful. So that people know what to expect when they click on your link. For example, you could say: So Close, www.tertia.org, motherhood / infertility / porn / naked cooters etc. Or if that is too exhausting and you do want to be on the G&D blog roll, just leave your details in the comments section and I will add you to the blog roll. Lazy little fuckers! You are even lazier than I am! And yes, I am speaking about YOU! ;-)

 

So, if I haven’t already added you and you would like to be added, please respond below with whatever details you would like included.  A URL would be useful. Unless you want people to SMELL where to find you.  

 

And please support our fellow G&D assholes by regularly reading the bloggers on this blog roll.  Don’t make me come and find you and hurt you.

 

For those who have emailed me in the last few days to add your blog, I am going to do that now.  Please check in a few mins and see whether I have done it. If not, you are welcome to hurl obscenities at me.  May I suggest ‘pretentious jerk’ as a start?  

 

It is Friday night, 8:30pm, and I am in my bathrobe and at my computer.  What an exciting life I have. Last of the great party animals.  Thank god for the wine. Speaking of which, got to run, I have an empty glass to replenish.

 

 

It’s a Girl!

 

I have told you all before how much I enjoy any literary project that Andi Buchanan is involved in.  She is an excellent writer, and she absolutely has her finger on the pulse of the issues that we modern women face.

 

It’s a Girl! is the follow on from It’s a Boy! I thoroughly enjoyed It’s a Boy and I enjoyed this collection of stories just as much.

 

 

It is fascinating how; in spite of our conscious efforts not to focus on gender stereotypes, there just are these subtle differences between our daughters and our sons. Whether these differences are due to personality or to dna or even socialized behaviour is almost irrelevant, the fact of the matter is that girls are just different to boys. However, even more interesting is how we, as mothers, relate differently to our daughters and our sons. This is explored in both books in such an interesting way.

 

Do yourself a favour and get this book, not only because as women I feel very strongly we should support and encourage the writing of other women, but because there are some truly excellent pieces of work in the book.

 

I leave you with a few lines from a piece I really enjoyed:

 

Having a daughter has been both a challenge and a source of unexpected tenderness, of affection I did not always think I deserved.  Recently, Charlotte announced that she wanted to marry me. When I asked her why, she said “Remember you told me two women could get married?”  I nodded, and my daughter continued: “You’re the perfect woman for me”.

 

Read more about the book here.

 

Purchase the book here. 

(South African's please support Loot by purchasing the book here)

See the banner on the left sidebar

 

You. An interesting lot.

 

Soooo, an fascinating bunch of readers you are.

 

Firstly, let me say that effing Bravenet, host of the polls, is a big fat ‘hole.  They give you the option of offering multiple selection polls using radio buttons, but they don’t calculate the percentages properly.

 

What I was hoping was that I would get a feel for what percentage of the total number of voters each option represented.  Instead what the poll does is compare the results for each option against the total number of options cast, instead of VOTERS.  Anyway, ignore those percentages.

 

Instead, focus on my lovely excel spreadsheet and accompanying chart. Isn’t it beautiful. Sigh. Such perfection. I *heart* excel. Almost as much as bullet points. 

 

Anyway, back to YOU.

 

V v interesting results indeed.

 

Firstly, because the poll buggered me around with the total number of votes thing, I decided to do some creative accounting and work on the assumption that 95% (1755) of you are female.  So I worked on the total number of respondents being: ‘Female’ + 5% = 1843. Got that? Never mind. Let’s focus on the actual numbers.

 

 

 

· 83% or 1534 of you are married or in a long term relationship. 

 

· 38%, or 707 of you are/were infertile.  That’s a lot! I guess that is because of where I come from. 

 

· 28% or 525 have also suffered pregnancy loss or neonatal death.  Yes, I should have split that up I suppose.

 

· 62% or 1145 of you are mothers.  A lot of us. When next I ask a babe question I expect a lot more replies, there are a whole lot of you experts out there!

 

· 54% or 1003 of you have young kids or babies.  So, not much sleep going around this joint.

 

· 8% or 144 of us have twins or multiples. Imagine if we all met up. 

 

· 35% or 641 of you blog. Why aren’t you all on my blog roll!

 

· 3% or 59 of you are fellow South Africans. I had no idea I had so many South African’s reading. Waar is julle almal vandaan en hoe het julle my gevind? Want to meet for coffee / lunch /wine (all of the above)?

 

· 69% or 1278 are also G&D assholes. WHAT? So few of you??  Was it the ‘assholes’ thing that put you off?  Because you DO know you are all G&D? Right?  Of course you are.

 

V v interesting. It is nice to know more about you. That is why I was prepared to pay to have the poll thing on my blog.  I LOVE learning more about you and what you think.  I find it fascinating.

 

You are a not a bad bunch of ‘holes.  Think I will keep you around for a bit longer.

 

PS Thank you. Thanks for reading, thanks for participating.  Thanks for always being so good to me.  Smooches to all of you.

 

 

You are messing with my chart!

 

I keep wanting to talk about the poll results but every time I do my nice little excel spreadsheet to calculate percentages and make lovely piecharts more people have voted and rendered my lovely results outdated.  So, stop messing with my analness and vote now, or forever hold your peace.  

 

I’m giving you until tomorrow.

 

Go NOW! Vote. Or else.

 

(or else I will do yet another long-winded post about myself!!  Thought that would scare you into action)

 

I’m not the only asshole around here!!!

The stupid poll isn’t working as I thought it would.  Instead of taking the results for each option as a percentage of the total number of people who voted, it is taking it as a percentage of the total number of options checked.  Grrr. So please ignore the percentages. We will just look the numbers.  Stupid asshole poll.

Loving the results though.  v v interesting.  Will discuss further once everyone has voted.

Why I am an asshole – Reason #27

 

There are many, many reasons why I am an asshole.  Here is Reason #27:

 

After two years of having a poll on my blog I’ve only just now discovered I can do check boxes.  How annoying. I’ve wanted to ask you a whole bunch of things for ages.

 

Anyway, moving swiftly on. I’ve done a poll that I am going to leave up for a while.  Been dying to know more about YOU. What we have in common, or not. So, please do the poll and select as many options as are applicable.

 

Smooches.

 

A must read site

I am not sure whether you have heard about PostSecret.  PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. 

 

The results are incredibly poignant. The few simple words on the homemade postcard speak volumes; about pain, about longing, about simple truths that we all carry around inside of us.

 

I’ve subscribed for a while; I read the entries over and over again.  I’ve wanted to tell you about this site for a while, but each time the response it generates is so visceral that I need to digest it on my own for a while. Chilling, moving, powerful stuff. They have a few on mothers today.  Go have a read, unbelievably poignant.

 

Thank goodness there are some clever people out there

The very clever ShutterJane came to my rescue.  I think the Bloggity Goodness blogroll is fixed now.  Please have a look at your links again and see whether it is working.  I still have a few to add, so please come back in a day or two to discover some new blogs.

 

GRRRRRRRRRRR

 

I’ve done something wrong with the blog ads post.  Somehow or other a funny linky url thingy has crept in and make some of the links bad.  It has put my blog’s url in front of some of the urls of the blogs.  I have no idea how to fix it.

 

I need to count to a thousand to calm down.  

 

If anyone can help me with this, pls shout.  Before I bash my head against my screen. Will try and fix it later. 

 

Sigh. Apologies. I hate being stupid.