Admin Update

~ Jenny

You may have noticed you’re getting e-mail notifications again. The only thing we’re changing is that we’re turfing about a hundred people who signed up but never open the e-mails. If that’s you and you still want to get them, I think you just sign up again.

And as long as we’re here, let’s do a quick review of what you want from here. Right now you’re getting Working Wednesday, This is a Good Book Thursday, and the Sunday Happiness posts, plus the occasional Argh Author and Questionable, and then whatever random thought crosses my mind. Everything else about the blog has been around forever, so the place could probably use an update. So what other things would you like to see? Did we do something in the past you’d like to see again? Are we doing something now that’s annoying you? Speak up.

Like I had to say that last one with you guys.

59 thoughts on “Admin Update”

  1. I’m fine with the way things are working right now. I’m thinking about stuff like this, because I’m building my web presence in anticipation of several books about to hit Kindle, so the reminder of what you’re doing helps.

  3. I actually really like having specific question days. It focuses the attention and gives permission to comment on something that on some other day might have felt…wrong, somehow. Or unseemly. Or like you’re changing somebody else’s subject.

    Here are some thoughts that come to mind:

    1. USEFUL WEBSITES: People sometimes mention learning something or laughing at something they read about or saw in a website or blog or newsletter that I’d never heard of. It might be nice to have an occasional day (say, the first or last of any given month?) to suggest places you know about that others might like to go online.

    2. CRANKY DAY: Yes, I know this could turn political or just depressing, but it could also be nice to read others venting about something that’s been bugging you as well. And we may already have one day a week when we trumpet our sources of happiness, but what about the things that have bothered us on any of the other six days that week?

    3. ANIMAL NEWS/PLANT NEWS: Things like this come up on Happiness Sundays, especially from the BornAgainIndoorFarmers (who could I possibly mean by that?). But sometimes that grumpy “meow” from Mr. Fluffypants has no place to share except at the kitchen table, and this group seems to be quite attuned to nature.

    4. QUESTION TIME: I’m not exactly sure I know what I mean by this, but at least once a month I would like to query people on this blog about something they know a lot about. What exactly does JaneB do about bindweed? What was that technique for doing boldface headings? What was that tiny soldier on Liz Cheney’s desk? What does kohlrabi taste like? How many aliases does Jayne Ann Krentz (or whoever) write under? It’d be nice to have an occasional day to ask questions that bear no relationship to happiness, good books, or work products.

    5. WELCOME LURKERS: I know there are lurkers out there — I used to be one myself — maybe if there was a day once in a while when any and all lurkers could be asked to post a brief statement about what brought them to Argh Ink to lurk there. No harm, no foul. They can go right back to lurking if they prefer that.

    1. Kohlrabi tasts very fine imho but it’s rather hard to explain how exactly
      😉
      Nice suggestions btw

        1. It’s amazing how much sweeter the stems are than the flowers. I had a dog who had to have broccoli every day. But only the stems.

        2. But, like broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables can produce gas. Which is why my BIL calls them vociferous vegetables.

    2. I dig it out. Carefully, since it breaks extremely easily, and regrows from the smallest fragment left behind. Which means it can never be dug out completely (the roots can go down a couple of yards or more). I find it satisfying: a kind of reverse jigsaw puzzle. The only other option is to rub glyphosate into young shoots. But my allotment neighbour sprays – I believe with glyphosate – and has to do it every year. I’d rather not use poison, especially since it seems not much more effective than digging.

  4. We don’t need them all the time because I know you have other stuff to do, but I love it when you do blog posts analyzing TV shows/ movies you love. It’s a) super helpful from a storytelling perspective and b) has turned me on to some of my favorite TV shows.

      1. I’m still salty that Leverage Redemption isn’t available in Australia. It might be the thing that pushes me to the dark side if they don’t fix that soon.

  5. You’re back! I’m glad my suggestion worked.

    I’m fine with things as they are–you need to be writing, not blogging constantly. If we were to add anything, maybe a “Random Thoughts Saturday” where people could do all the things Jinx mentioned above: Kvetch about stuff, brag about stuff, ask question of you or each other, etc.

  6. I liked a lot of Jinx’s suggestions. The idea of set topics such as you have on Happiness Sunday, Working Wednesday, etc. limits the time you have to spend to come up with a topic and gives us something to riff on without taking you away from your other stuff. (And I am really sure everyone would love to hear how Dmitri sprawls upside down on the bed giving little murfs to get my attention and Lindy then comes over and demands that Dmitri lick his face instead of being an attention hog. See, riveting. – Although I do find them incredibly adorable).

    1. Yes, we would love to hear that. (I work with dogs and cats all days, and then I go and talk about them to everyone I know; there are never enough cat and dog stories in the world.) And I am now adopting the word “murfs” which spell checker appears to accept.

  7. I love it all, but I’m always happy to see random posts about stuff that comes into your mind. They are like bonuses.

  8. I agree with Nicole and LN that things are fine as-is. As one of “the BornAgainIndoorFarmers,” I’ve always felt free to cram in a farm report or whatever if I thought it wasn’t too divergent from whatever the day was. After all, it’s what I “work” on for Wednesdays, it’s what makes me happy on Sundays, and a lot of what I read is about that hobby. Too much, in fact. Yesterday was a good example of that, and then I digressed to electrical distribution.

    A Random Thoughts or Movie Review day needn’t be pegged to the calendar. Just share ’em if you got ’em.

    My $0.02 USD.

    1. The comments’ ability to go down whatever rabbit hole we find is what makes this place so interesting.

  9. 1) I don’t need the email — I see it, smile, delete it, and head for arghink.com.

    2) I like the ideas others have given. Depending on how much more time you want to spend on the blog than you already do — you might add occasional “random thoughts” posts as Deb suggests or add more categories of posts as Jinx suggests.

    This is a fantastic place to talk with fascinating people.

  10. We sure do know how to speak up, Lol.

    Craft-y things have moved to Working Wednesdays. So post more of your knitting, or art process like the Pink Pig there.

    I think a Popcorn monologue post about film and TV might be nice. Review and/or analysis of a show, like you did for Arrow. Can be once a week, or once a fortnight.

    And a ReFab style post on a similar schedule – once a week or every second week. Just talk about personal growth like ReFab.

    Otherwise, I like it here.

    1. The kitchen remodel! The starry night and pig luggage! The wedding cake (though I understand how it has bad associations now). I’m an HGTV junkie so yes more HOW in Making things would be great–this is a general request to all Arghers.

      I started lurking after the Rehab era. Is that retrievable?

      1. I think it still exists, but it’s not accessible. I think. It was just reinventingfabulous.com

        I think my favorite post from there was the meditation-in-the-bathtub one.

        ETA: The Wayback Machine has it:
        https://web.archive.org/web/20120207173856/http://reinventingfabulous.com/?paged=2

        Haven’t gone through it all, but at least the last posts are there.

        I think it still exists, but it’s not accessible. I think. It was just reinventingfabulous.com

        I think my favorite post from there was the meditation-in-the-bathtub one.

        ETA: The Wayback Machine has it:
        https://web.archive.org/web/20120207173856/http://reinventingfabulous.com/?paged=2

        Haven’t gone through it all, but at least the last posts are there.

        ETA: It doesn’t go back that far.

        The Starry Night suitcase post was on here:
        https://arghink.com/2007/08/starry-starry-suitcase-smelly-smelly-dogs/

        And the Pig posts are here:
        https://arghink.com/2009/02/fix-the-pig-first-day/
        https://arghink.com/2009/06/fix-the-pig-second-day/
        https://arghink.com/2009/06/fix-the-pig-third-day/
        https://arghink.com/2009/06/fix-the-pig-fourth-day/

        And there were bats:
        https://arghink.com/2010/05/bat-country/

        I think I’ll put this in a post. It’ll look like I’m productive. Or something.

  11. I’ve always thought the specified days were more guidelines than a rule per se – so if someone wants to post something that has absolutely nothing to do with the daily topic then they’re free to do so 🙂

    I don’t think I’d particularly like a topic for every day of the week (plus it would surely be a lot more work) – I like it as it is. If you desperately want to add something fresh’n’new, my vote would be an occasional ‘Random Day’ – everything not specifically covered by a ‘Day’ could fall into that. I like the general mix of posts – if it became too topic-specific I would zone out after the umpteenth ABC-topic-update in a row (much as I may love ABC-topic, but my brain would OD, ya know?)

    1. Yeah, we don’t police the answers (except for no personal attacks) so you can pretty much talk about anything whenever you want to.

  12. I’m fine leaving it as it is; an occasional extra post on whatever topic you want is also fine. I enjoy coming here and seeing what everyone has to say, even if I don’t always post a reply myself.

  13. This blog is always a part of my week. I really appreciate this community. I have found new authors, new podcasts and been given wise advice. Thank you Jenny for hosting us, and for the many blog posts that have made me laugh. As long as we can continue to follow you and Bob’s journey as you write Lavender Blue, and the lovely Argh community ( you have created ) can continue to communicate with each other, I am good with any format of the blog that works for you.

  15. I like Jinx’s suggestions, but it does sound like a lot more work for you. Which is why I think Deb’s suggestion of Random Thoughts Saturday might be the way to go.

    1. Every day is Random Thoughts Saturday here.
      Which I like.

      I will consider all of this tomorrow. I just shaved two dogs who weren’t happy about it and I’m exhausted. OTOH, they have no more snarls in their coats and they don’t seem to be unhappy now that the razor is gone. You wouldn’t think that two small animals could be so exhausting. Although come to think of it evicting the raccoons from the kitchen was no picnic, either.

        1. They’re raccoons.
          Like nature, they always find a way.
          But so far, so good. Knocking on wood, not taking anything for granted, no hubris here.

  16. I’m happy with things are now and would be happy with whatever you feel like doing. It’s a very special place and I’m grateful it exists.

    I don’t post often, but it’s such a warm community and helps me a lot when times are tough.

    1. I agree. I read WAY more often than I post, but I love this community. Every morning I boot up the laptop and launch tabs for (in this order) my bank, Argh Ink, my email, and MSN.

  17. I must say, I like the “Random Thoughts” day idea. In fact, I have already learned many fascinating facts from you people about Kohlrabi, plus I feel emboldened to say anything here at any time! (Well, emboldERed… I’ll still feel odd breaking in about Weed Wars in my garden on a Thursday or complaining about Excel spreadsheet glitches on a Sunday.)

    Oh, and hello Lurkers!! I love it when you guys post.

    1. I’m going to jump into this with a random thought that happened to me today. At breakfast with the grandchildren I just threw out the question “do they still make maple sugar candy the kind shaped into maple leaves?”. No one knew. Forgot about it till later during the day when there was an e-mail from The Vermont Country Store. And for the heck of it I made a query on the website and found it to discontinued. Could be too costly to process. Another random thought, more serious, were the mail boxes ever returned to the rural areas of the country? Remember that all started with the 2020 election. Inquiring minds and all that.

      1. Mailboxes? Rural areas? I’m in a rural area and I know nothing of this. (I have some vague memory of arguments over absentee ballot collection boxes, but not mailboxes.)

    3. ” I’ll still feel odd breaking in about Weed Wars in my garden”

      Are you growing basil and dill and thyme too? Regional names for kudzu, I tell you!

  18. I like everything.

    There was a start of the month poetry thing for a while that I’d be happy to see return, and I feel that every day is ‘X topic and random thoughts’ but that’s how my brain works anyway, so I don’t wait for permission for random!

    Sorry if I sparked this with the ‘ha ha it’ s a book promo post’ comment, I was joking!

    2. I’m trying to remember. I think I might have done them all at one and then set them to post.
      What I can’t remember is the poems.

      I’ve been talking about “Anecdote of the Jar” a lot lately. “I Knew a Woman” is lovely. “Two Tramps at Mudtime” is always good. My poetry chops are not as honed as my fiction chops. There’s one poem I’ve been searching for and cannot find. It’s by Lyn Lifshin and the last line is “And then I knew I’d have to be famous instead.” I must be getting the line wrong because I can’t find it.

  19. Another vote for the status quo – it works for me. Plus I don’t want to distract you from writing more books for me to enjoy.

    1. That’s Bob’s part of the partnership.
      Although I did tell him he’d have to use a certain method in the next book.
      He, of course, is ignoring me.

  21. I enjoy hearing about what you are doing in writing and everything else. I miss you, my longtime friend. Our children are older than we were when we saw each other all the time. Where have the years gone? I am so happy for you finishing the first draft of a new book!

    1. Hey, you.
      I know. Our kids are old. We, however, will be young forever. Give my best to the family!

  22. I’m pretty keen on the status quo too, or at least on not losing anything from the current set. I love hearing about people’s creative work and what makes everyone happy. And I love, love, love good book Thursday. Soooooo many books I would never have discovered without that.

    Having the odd random day sounds like fun. I bet this group could go very fun places with those. (I still remember the empty blog post from the she-wrote-he-wrote days. That was fun!)

  23. Happy with the status quo. I am happy to hear from you and all the commenters but I don’t want to be a distraction.

    Are there ways we could be more supportive?

  24. A small technical request, if it’s possible: Have a “next post” link at the end of the comments, rather than just at the end of the post.

    Otherwise, echoing the love from above.

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