Waffling On My Blog & The Game Of Life
I’m waffling on whether or not to rename my blog. My favorite boy toy and I did some brainstorming on the weekend and came up with one really good idea, but it doesn’t quite fit the theme of my blog.
I did recently shorten the name to say only “My Life In Photos”. I removed the 365 Challenge from the title as I felt it was not really needed.
So – do any of you have any suggestions? The focus of my blog is to share my life, through stories and photos as well as to record my thoughts on living the game of life.
Did you ever play the Game Of Life? It was a popular board game at one time, manufactured by Milton Bradley. You rolled the dice, took cards, and coped as best you could with random events that could make you rich or leave you broke. The little cars had room for six pegs – i.e., people – so if you had more than four kids, the instructions told you to make do, just like you would in real life. Usually that meant laying a peg on its side and wedging it between the pegs who stood upright in the holes.
You really have little control over the game – education, family support, all the normal things that may help us have a good life are absent from this game. But it has value too. Life can feel random at times and we have to suck it up, cope and move on. I believe in God and that he has a plan for my life, but He is also not a magic wand that makes it all wonderful.
LeRoy Dean, in his blog Wordsmith’s Desk, writes profoundly about his faith. He also shares his grief about missing his wife and son, both of whom died before their time. He’s had to cope, whether he wanted to or not. Kate at Chronicles of a Country Girl writes about losing her place to live, only to land at a wonderful place where her and her husband are caretakers. At the other end, Kate at Pages from my Crazy Life, has just moved into her brand new, built from scratch home. She is over the top excited about it.
Hugmamma and her daughter recently dealt with bedbugs in her daughter’s apartment and the whole mess of resolving that. My friend Chris at My Simple Inspiration got freshly pressed a few weeks back and had 14,000 hits over that weekend on his blog (we know each other at work and had no idea either of us blogged until I poked around his blog and saw his picture). Christine at Random Thoughts From Midlife writes eloquently about her parents raising a her handicapped sister (Christine – when did you change the name of your blog???).
I follow many blogs and could go on and on with the things, good and bad, that people cope with and write about. I’m sorry if I didn’t mention you – there are so many wonderful stories out there and I do not mean to offend anyone. I’ve actually cut back my book reading because I enjoy following blogs with their real stories and real lives.
So I got a bit off the topic, but the point I’m making is that we all have a story to tell and often, that story creates value in the life of another. That is the purpose behind my blog – to create value in your life. It can happen in so many ways – you might clarify your thoughts around something, you might identify with what I wrote and realize that you’re not the only one, you might be moved to action because I showed you the way.
So – back to my question – any ideas on what I should name it or should I just leave it as it is?
As for me, I plan to spend this weekend rocking on the front of my daughter’s porch while my favorite boy toy and the pups hold down the fort at home.
Word for tomorrow – TOUGH. If you prefer to work ahead, see the list for the week under “A Word A Day”.
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dogear6 View All →
I am a backyard adventurer, philosopher and observer, recording my life in journals and photographs. Visit my blog at www.livingtheseasons.com.
Living The Seasons 
The Game of Life…oh my, that does bring back memories of my daughter’s childhood when we’d play that and other games seemingly nonstop. Other favorites of hers were Candyland and Memory. Now our family is into Bananagrams. More families should play games together…the emphasis being on the word…together.
I read in someone’s blog that numbers in a post’s title bring more readers…don’t ask me why. I’ve tried it. Can’t say I noticed a jump in hits. I forgot about that tip until now, actually. Let me brainstorm for a second…”Every picture tells a story”…”What’s in a photograph?”…”Picture stories…”…”My picturebook”…”My life in pictures”…”My picture album…my life”…”Sharing my life…in pictures”
Any good? I’m sure you’ll decide what’s best. Haven’t been inclined to put my name and photo out there per se, although I’ve done it moreso recently than I thought I would initially. Concern for safety, my own and my family’s, has always been foremost in my mind. With more than 30,000 spams caught by Akismet thus far, there’s a fear about those trolling the internet who can do harm. Ergo…my user name…and gravatar. They may change some day, but I’ve so identified with being a “hugmamma” to anyone in need of compassion, hope and positive reinforcement, that it’s difficult to discard both. But I feel Christine has a point…especially if one decides to author books. And yet, there are some who do so under pen names. So I guess…whatever works…works.
hugs for the mention…that was an unexpected birthday gift… :)
Thanks for the ideas! I'm still not too nuts about "coming out" either, although Christine has raised some good points on having to do that if you're going to be a writer. For now though, I'm hiding behind my dogear6.
Yeah, Candyland & Memory were good games too. Right now we're trying to find the Scrabble game so she can beat me. Or try to beat me.
Thanks for the shout out. I just added my name to the blog and reduced the “random thoughts” bit to a sub-title. The URL has stayed the same. Most of the advice I read for writers is to use your real name everywhere, or at least your pen name. I’m not a good person to ask, though, because my online identities are all sorts of confused.
Actually you've done a good job of straightening out the on-line identities. I hadn't been out to your real blog for a while since I read is daily via my E-mails.
You're welcome – I got so few reactions to that post that I thought I'd really messed it up. I like the topic, but want to rework it more.
Thanks for the comment – I always enjoy it when you leave a note.
We spent many a summer day playing Life with our daughter over the past few years and she noticed that the game is really rigged and has a strange subliminal message. You NEVER win if you go to college. You end up too far behind and without enough cash right at the start. Wonder if they meant to do that…
You know – I’d forgotten about that. For me, that hit a little too close to home. I was one of the few to go to college, especially among my in-laws and friends. My husband and I started out so much behind the rest of them. By the time I started working, they had nice apartments, furniture, and cars. We had all secondhand furniture and used cars. Of course, all these years later, I more than passed them up, but it was discouraging at the time.
Thanks for stopping by!