Friday, October 15, 2010

Friday Fragments, Episode #116


My fragments this week, to the disappointment of スタービーチ, will not be in a foreign language.
They will, however, be full of randomness.
Let's frag, shall we?!
[For more information about Friday Fragments, click the tab above.]

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Dear スタービーチ,
In spite of the fact that I appear worldly, sophisticated, and highly intelligent, I do not speak Chinese (or whatever that language is.) If you'd like me to stop marking your comments as spam, try English.

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Jeanie, of Living Consciously, wrote a very helpful fragment last week:

Sometimes, when I read an interesting comment on a blog, I want to go to the commenter's blog and see what else they have to say. That usually works out fine, but when I get to a profile and see that the person has three or four different blogs I get a little confused. (Well, first I wonder how they are able to keep up with so many blogs, and then I get confused.) How do I know which one is their "main" blog, or is there a "main" blog? Sometimes, I just read the one with the most recent post, but more often I just back out and move on because I don't like to be confused. Any Advice?

My advice to everyone with a Blogger profile:: Check it and pare your blog list down to the one you want people to come to most. When readers get to that one, you can have links to the others.  To fix this little problem, go to your Blogger Dashboard, then click on Edit Profile, and finally, Select Blogs to Display. You should be able to take it from there :) Thanks, Jeanie!
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For those interested in the subject of autism in adulthood, this is a very interesting article:  No More Pity: The First Openly Autistic White House Appointee Speaks Out

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Unknown Mami was at her fragmenting best last week when she posted this gem:

On Wednesday, Put Pie and I joined a friend and her daughter at the S.F. Zoo. It was a wonderful day, especially since admission was free. The only problem is that my friend got mugged in plain sight and no one did a thing about it, except Put Pie. Put Pie admonished the mugger and yelled, “No! No! No!”, while wagging a finger at him. Don’t worry, the assailant wasn’t armed, unless you count a beak as a deadly weapon.
 
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Rebecca Belle, of Knit by God's Hands became my Favorite Friday Fragmenter last week when she posted this shot of her adorable nieces and a friend:


Rebecca, this week's award goes to you! Congratulations :)


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"Mom, this is soooo scary!" exclaimed Kendall when accelerating to 45 mph during our first driving lesson since she got her "temps."  (Let's hope she keeps that respect for driving for the rest of her life.)

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I discovered a parenting "error of omission" that we made with Kendall--Up until this week, she's had zero experience driving anything other than bumper cars at Bay Beach! No 4-wheelin', no boat driving, no golf-cart cruising, nothing. Hence, she is completely green when it comes to gas/break pedals and steering wheels. It never occurred to me that such experience would have been helpful. Oh well; she'll survive. Still, I thought I'd mention it to those of you with younger kids.

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For what it's worth, I post Friday Fragments on Thursday nights; to get the most visitors to your FF post, it's best to link up on Thursday night or early Friday. Also, I just want to give a shout-out to fragmenters who often go out of their way to visit other fragmenters, especially the new ones. Thanks for being FF ambassadors! :)

Now it's your turn to share your FRIDAY FRAGMENTS. Link up your FRIDAY FRAGMENTS post (all others will be deleted) and pay a visit to a few new/old friends to say hi!  Have a great weekend :)

28 comments:

  1. Love that your daughter thinks 45 mph is fast - but I am sure she will revise her thinking soon enough :-)

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  2. I am fragment-less this week, but I still had to come by and get some random goodness from y'all!

    I loved that picture from Rebecca-so so so cute!!

    I have had the same thought as Jeanie when I see a blogger profile with five or six blogs. Drives me crazy! Hopefully your advice will be headed.

    I'm simultaneously thinking that we should check out 4-wheelers and that I have 9 more years and want to prolong inevitable as long as possible after reading your parenting tip. Hmmmmm. Decisions Decisions.

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  3. error of omission - I think that situation is very common nowadays. Go-karts probably help a little. Boating doesn't relate very well to cars. As you must know, no brakes on a boat and reversing the engine helps but can be tricky.
    I will always remember getting "checked-out" on a wave runner rental once. Another very young customer (had to have a license) was also being checked out. After the brief instructions he asked, "where's the brakes?"
    I just looked and made sure to avoid him on the water!

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  4. I read the autism article - very interesting. I clicked through to the full interview too, Ne'eman seems a pretty impressive guy, I hope lots of good comes of his appointment.

    I am really not looking forward to the teaching the kids to drive stage and neither is my oldest son! He's been known to ask if he HAS to learn to drive. I suspect he'll put it off as long as possible so my biggest challenge will be getting him behind the wheel at all. (That's the anxiety issues showing, anything new is terrifying.)

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  5. Oh man, I shudder at the thought of starting over with a new driver. Those were tough times!

    You know, there's a way to mark your main blog as such in the profile. Not that many people do it though.

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  6. Useful tip re: profile, thank you! And thanks for the tip on linking earlier! I have an FF badge on all my old fragments now too so moving forward on the right track! Thank you for your support Mrs 4444!!!!!

    rue x

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  7. Regarding the profile problem, I have all three of mine listed because they are all different. My advice to those confused by this is to just pick one, or pick them all and visit to see what they are about. I have a book blog that avid readers would enjoy, a blog about my dad and the book I wrote in his memory and my main personal blog that is all over the place. So please, just take your pick and visit any one of them or all.

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  8. Karen, I think your titles are pretty self-explanatory. It's the ambiguous ones that are confusing. I just don't like having to figure it out! (lazy, of course) Well, maybe that, and I'm just BUSY! :)

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  9. I remember being SO afraid to get on the highway in driver's ed. Sometimes I wish I was still afraid, or that others around me were afraid, so that they might pay more attention to the road and be more aware of their surroundings.

    Definitely a good parenting tip! Just don't go too far in the opposite direction - my dad used to let me sit in his lap and steer when he drove to gramma's (on the other side of the neighborhood). Probably not such a great idea.

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  10. We're regretting not having let Lydia drive something, too, before she started driver's ed. I was on the phone with Keith the first time he took her driving. All I heard was, "WHOA!!!" and he ended the call. After they came home, Lydia told her brothers, "It turns out that you don't have to push the gas pedal all the way to the floor."

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  11. I remember well how scary it was to learn to drive. Good luck top you both.

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  12. First, I just wanted to say that the panoramic shot in your header is gorgeous. :)

    My mother taught me how to drive on a stick shift. She told me that if I could do that I didn't need to worry about driving an automatic. Smart lady. Now I can drive both.

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  13. Ahhh . thanks for the shout out!!! I sent it to my brother so the twins can see that... they love to see their pictures up, so they'll get a big kick out of it! :)

    Have a great Friday!!!!

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  14. I remember how I was when I first started driving. I don't even want to think about my kids going near a car. There are 4 and 8 now so I have time but...

    This is my first time here. I heard about FF from Gina at My Own Brand of Crazy!

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  15. I think you need to expand your horizons and put your blog in different languages. Think of all the other followers you could have! Haha.

    I didn't think about it, but I had practice driving a boat and mowing our lawn with a ride on mower before I got "behind the wheel". Let's hope she likes driving 45 for a long time!

    Have a great weekend!

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  16. I always look forward to your place on Fridays! These are great. Drivin' and Kendall Hon, don't hold your breath. It reminded me of a time when my car wanted to overheat and Geek son was sixteen. He and one of his buds were out here on the farm and needed to go back to town for some event.

    I handed G-son the keys and said, "Remember to drive fast..(he knew if he didn't the care would overheat.) Friend looking quite astonished said, "Cool, sure wish my Mom would say that to me!" Ya'll knew I was twisted didn't ya??? Heeehehehe!

    You have a marvelous 'fall' weekend sweetie!!!

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  17. I had the same problem when my girls started learning to drive. They were completely green!

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  18. I get confused when I go to a blog and they have these buttons and ads and links everywhere, I don't even read those blogs.

    Your header is fabulous, love it!!!

    Have a great week mrs!

    :)

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  19. I can remember when I first started my blog, and I was using word verification. You suggested that I eliminate it because in all the time you were blogging, you had never been spammed. So, I took it off. I would say that a good 8 months or so went by without any spam. Then, I started getting it little by little. However, I don't get it often enough to consider going back to word verification. Especially when I hate having to use it on someone else'sblog.

    I remember those posts by Mami & Jeannie. Like everyone else, I first thought Mami was talking about a real mugging until it become apparent it was an aerial assault. And with Jeannie's concern, I understand, and told her that if I check someone out and find that they have multiple blogs, I just pick the one I think is the main one and go from there.

    Good luck with Kendall. I've now taught four new drivers and they have all passed with flying colors. The parallel parking can be tricky, but there is a trick to teaching it that makes it easy for the kids.

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  20. Good luck with the whole teaching your daughter to drive thing! My youngest turns 16 next Monday and has his drivin test Tuesday. I still don't think he's ready.

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  21. Great advice about multiple blogs on Blogger. I always end up just picking the one at the top of the list because time is money, baby.

    Hope you have a great weekend.

    P.S. Maybe you should take a Chinese class, since you have such a large Chinese-speaking readership.

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  22. Spammers are fun, huh?! NOT!

    That bugs me about the multiple blogs too. Especially when they've got a LIST of them and not just a couple.

    LOL @ the purse stealer! Priceless!

    Love Rebecca and her nieces!

    Haha!! Poor Kendall! I totally remember the first time getting behind the wheel with my mom. I was afraid to go 25mph!

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  23. Sweet picture!
    Good question on the blog list, I have run into that a few times.
    Good luck with the driving lessons! I am not looking forward to that.

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  24. I loved your frags about Kendall learning to driving.
    I had very little experience before driving a car as well. Except that one time on the golf cart! I mentioned it in my FFrag this week.
    Tee hee... Would love to have that on video!
    It is nice to know there are still young people respectful of the speed limit. I see far too much of the opposite on the road these days!

    Xie Xie! (Thank You in chinese!)
    ~Jenny

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  25. I very clearly remember the day I drove 45 MPH for the first time. I was so scared, because I thought I was going soooooo fast.

    Fortunately, I'd had plenty of experience driving - when I was about 7, my dad would let me sit on his lap and steer while he did the gas and brake pedals...you know, on the busy city streets of Phoenix. YIKES!

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  26. Oh how I remember the driving fun! How is it possible I have a 15 year old grand daughter? My nerves!

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  27. Gotta love those foreign language spammers :)

    And the 45mph thing? If I remember my driving school experience, that phase lasts but a short time. Sorry. And yes, that's why I will NOT be teaching the wee ones to drive. Ever.

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  28. I used to be a contributor to another blog, so I started (and continue) to write my name at the end of the comment I post with my blog name. So there is no mistaking what blog I'm representing.

    Now I only have one blog listed :)

    I laughed a big hearty laugh at UM's post last week. It was great.

    Kristin - The Goat

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