Do It Myself Blog - Glenda Watson Hyatt

2007 was an amazing year for me in terms of blogging! Here are a few trivial stats as the year ends:

• There are currently 128 posts and 1,222 comment, contained within 10 categories.
• Akismet has protected the blog from 94,340 spam comments (if only I could find a way to generate an income from these!).
• The top ten entry pages are:
1. #1 Home Page
2. #2 Virtual Book Tour Takes Glenda to New Zealand
3. #3 Frosty Gets Caught - Go figure!
4. #4 9 Ways to Use Social Media to Campaign for Votes
5. #5 Gift Ideas for Youth with Disabilities
6. #6 What We Can Learn from Rudolph
7. #7 I’ll Do It Myself: The Book - Copies are still available!
8. #8 Viva Las Vegas!
9. #9 The Cost of Transitioning from Silent to Verbal
10. #10 5 Lessons I’ve Learned about Blogging This Year

I would like to sincerely thank the following people for contributing to this blog by adding your comments. You made this blogging year a success and very rewarding. Thank you.

• Karen Putz
• Emma
• Mary McDonald, Process Improvement Specialist
• Rick Cockrum
• Avril
• Jana
• Jerry
• Mike DeWitt
• Linette
• Marti
• Darrell
• Amy, Shaping Youth
• Chris Brogan…
• Matt Charron
• Ricardo Bueno
• Calvin Warr
• Dallas Hinton
• Karla Meachem
• Lori
• Toby
• Colin
• Norman
• Jody DeVere
• RennyBA
• Dru Perrin
• Loree
• Debbie Havusha
• Denise Lance
• isabella mori
• Tris Hussey
• ken white
• Justin Kownacki
• Zena Weist
• Kathy
• Lori-ann
• Doug McCaughan
• Tara Kachaturoff
• Tim King
• Joanna Young
• Doug McCaughan
• Jim Kukral
• Des Walsh
• jennifer gallienne
• Ange Recchia
• Laurie Leask
• Vancouver realtor
• Ayopeju Falekulo
• Kirk M
• S. Emerson
• Keith Blanchard
• Chris Heuer
• Diane
• Ruth Ellison
• Cher
• Donna Seale
• Tina Su
• Liz Strauss
• Angela
• Personal Growth
• the other Glenda Watson
• Daniele Rossi
• kait
• Mr Law of Attraction
• Azmi
• Penny Haynes
• Len Edgerly
• Disabled Dating
• Sunny
• Valeria Maltoni
• James Forliti
• Jana
• Debra Helwig
• Jacqui
• Becky Carroll

Amazingly I am only half way through creating this list, but I need to go ring in the New Year with my husband. I will post the remaining list later this week.

Wishing you all the best in 2008!

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.

Using my new toy, the Flip, from my dear husband, I am happy to share of my Christmas memories with you. Please excuse the tremors - that is life with cerebral palsy!

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.

(Photo credit: Maare Liiv)

Dear Santa,

I have tried to be a good girl this year. Sometimes, at this age, the rules can be somewhat hazy; doing right by one can be seen as wrong by others. But, I have tried my best. And, really, isn’t that all anyone can ask of me? Perhaps doing my best is more important than being good or bad, right or wrong?

Anyway, I have given much thought to what I would like to ask you for Christmas and nothing really came to mind. I already have so much. I have a loving and caring husband, a great home (if a few elves could come by during the off-season to do some painting, that’d be awesome), and wonderful friends, blog readers and supporters, for which I am thankful and grateful. What else do I need?

Although, there is one thing I really would like; something that I haven’t seen in any store or on any website despite all of the amazing advances in technology. But, I am certain that your clever, creative elves can build one: a Left Thumb 2.0 that types 50-60 words per minutes with the bonus feature of an endless supply of inspiring, motivating and insightful words. This way I can continue doing what I do, more effectively, for another year.

I would also like to ask that every boy and girl, young and old, around the world, receive the one gift they truly need on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas to you and yours! And all of the best in 2008!

With much love,
Glenda

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.

Hi and welcome to the Readers’ Café – a place to gather and to share. Come take a break from the shopping, preparing and stressing, and join us around the warm, crackling fire.

There’s eggnog, mulled wine and other yummy goodies on the table. Please help yourself. Then sit back, take a deep breath and feel your worries melt away. Join in the conversation by posting comments below. We’re a friendly bunch; no need to be shy.

Hit your internet browser’s REFRESH button to see new comments as others join in the conversation. All that I ask is that you respect others and keep it relatively family-friendly. Also, keep in mind that this is a public space, so share what you feel comfortable sharing publicly.

Feel free to share your:

• Holiday survival tip
• Favourite holiday memory
• Favourite holiday recipe

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.

From age two to ninety-two, we all know these fun lyrics:

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
you would even say it glows.

All of the other reindeer
used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph
join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
“Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

Then all the reindeer loved him
as they shouted out with glee,
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
you’ll go down in history!

But, how many of us see the valuable lesson here?

Rudolph is teased and ostracized because he is different. He is excluded from reindeer games for the sole reason that he nose glows bright red. How heartbreaking is that?

In the classic Christmas special, a dejected Rudolph and his elf friend, mocked for his dream of becoming a dentist, head out to find a place of acceptance and happen across the Island of Misfit Toys; segregation at its finest.

It takes the fog to come down for the big guy (possibly the employer) Santa to realize the value in a bright, shiny nose. And that’s the point when Rudolph is duly recognized for his unique ability, giving us the Christmas story that we know and love.

But this story leaves me thinking about the other parts of the story – the bits that didn’t make it to the song. I am left wondering how many other reindeer before Rudolph were discarded because their unique ability or talent wasn’t valued. However, I am comforted in believing that discriminating practice will not be repeated when Rudolph and his reindeer friends retire and new flying reindeer are chosen to pull the sleigh. After all, believing everyone is welcomed and accepted is part of the magic of Christmas!

Rudolph teaches children young and old about the importance of valuing diversity and inclusion. Without this reindeer’s different coloured nose, Christmas was surely doomed to be cancelled that foggy night. With him, that lesson went down in history!

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.

For my young-at-heart readers:

Right in the middle of the produce aisle, Frosty gets caught picking his nose.

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.

(Photo credit: Steve Woods)

For the past several months I have been campaigning to win the opportunity to be paid to Blog for a Year (site is down at the time of writing this). During this time I have discovered new ways of using social media and related technology to spread the word. Some ways are more effective than others.

Here are the strategies that I have tried to date, with a few lessons learned:

1. Use established networking groups to begin spreading the word. With one of my networking groups, I did a weekly mini newsletter with an accessibility tip along with current contest results and a reminder to vote. This way I was contributing something of value to a group where I was already known, liked and trusted. Several members then spread the word to their other networks or posted to their blogs.
2. Start a fan club on Facebook. This may sound a wee egotistical, unless an enthusiastic supporter begins one on your behalf. This is an effective way to send out regular messages with updates and reminders to vote. The key is to not bombard fans with messages. Also, joining the group is the only action some members take, so the group needs to relatively large to have a measurable effect.
3. Add a PS to email signature block. This is a no brainer! However, with some email messages, it is appropriate to delete the PS.
4. Add a PS to blog broadcast. For four individuals who aren’t familiar with RSS feed readers, I use AWeber to email new posts to subscribers. With every new post notification, they are reminded to vote.
5. Create a YouTube video. The video adds another medium to the campaign, enabling individuals to get a better feel for what they are supporting by seeing how I blog. It also gives other bloggers something interesting to post on their blogs.
6. Ask supporters to change their homepage to the voting page or, if using Firefox, add a new tab. This is a brilliant strategy for reminding people to vote daily. The challenge is having people actually do it.
7. Use Twitter. When I first began tweeting, I envisioned a tweet to vote being spread far and wide, and gaining several hundred, if not a few thousand, votes in a matter of hours. Obviously I was a naïve tweeter and, after several attempts, had my knuckles wrapped for being spammy. I then set up a separate Twitter account for the sole purpose of driving votes. People know that when they decide to follow @bfay. Building up a following mass takes time. Twitter isn’t the instant strategy that I thought it would be.
8. Use Facebook’s FunWall to spread the message. Again, use this sparingly so not to annoy people.
9. Use Facebook’s status line. Changing my status line regularly puts updates and reminders into my friends’ mini-feeds.

In addition to what I have tried, other enthusiastic supporters have offered a various suggestions, including befriending people on Facebook who have large number of friends and asking for their support. This strategy may work for some people, but, personally, I don’t have chutzpah to try this. Similarly, others have asked people to befriend me to support my efforts. Although I appreciate the gesture, I’m realizing this is diluting my friends’ list because these friendships are not based on a mutual interest or connection. It’d be better if these kind people offered their support by joining the fan club.

As with any campaign, the strategies used reflect upon your personal integrity and reputation. One misused strategy could mean more harm than good in the long run.

Running a successful campaign means trying various strategies and finding the right to balance to keep the campaign running smoothly…until the voting site crashes…then what do you do?

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Dec. 17th update: The Blog for a Year site is back up! Please resume voting daily until New Year’s Eve. There’s a ways to go to reach first place!

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.

Hi and welcome to the Readers’ Café – a place to gather and to share. Today I invite you into my home for a special, extended Readers’ Café so that readers in far away lands may join us.

Today we celebrate a birthday of sorts: my baby, my book I’ll Do It Myself is one year old. Exactly one year ago today, my thirty years of dreaming, planning researching and writing became reality when seven boxes of books were delivered. Opening that first box and laying my eyes and hands upon what I had created, I can only imagine that is what giving birth is like.

This past year’s journey with the book has been awesome! Copies have been mailed to readers across Canada and the United States, and to Britain, New Zealand, Australia and even Chile! Copies are also available from Celebration Christian Store and Black Bond Books, another childhood dream come true. Meeting people along the way on two successful virtual book tours, plus two book signings in Las Vegas – I am truly amazed and am sincerely grateful. Thank you.

Please help yourself to food and a beverage of your choice and make yourself comfortable. Then sit back, relax and join in the conversation by posting comments below. Feel free to ask questions about I’ll Do It Myself, share your favourite passage or to mingle with fellow readers. Don’t be shy. Hit your internet browser’s REFRESH button to see new comments as others join in the conversation.

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a coffee. Thanks kindly.